With wide Cerberean mouths full loud, and rung
A hideous peal; yet, when they list, would creep,
If aught disturb'd their noise, into her womb,
And kennel there; yet there still bark'd and howl'd
Within unseen. Far less abhorr'd than these
Vex'd Scylla, bathing in the sea that parts
Calabria from the hoarse Trinacrian shore :
Nor uglier follow the night-hag, when, call'd
In secret, riding through the air she comes,
Lured with the smell of infant blood, to dance
With Lapland witches, while the laboring moon
Eclipses at their charms. The other shape,
If shape it might be call'd, that shape had none
Distinguishable in member, joint, or limb;
Or substance might be call'd, that shadow seem'd,
For each seem'd either; black it stood as Night,
Fierce as ten Furies, terrible as Hell,

And shook a dreadful dart: what seem'd his head
The likeness of a kingly crown had on.
Satan was now at hand; and from his seat
The monster, moving onward, came as fast
With horrid strides: Hell trembled as he strode.
The' undaunted Fiend what this might be admired,
Admired, not fear'd; God and his Son except,
Created thing nought valued he, nor shunn'd;
And with disdainful look thus first began:

"Whence and what art thou, execrable shape!
That darest, though grim and terrible, advance
Thy miscreated front athwart my way
To yonder gates? through them I mean to pass,
That be assured, without leave asked of thee.
Retire, or taste thy folly', and learn by proof,
Hell-born, not to contend with Spirits of Heaven."
To whom the goblin full of wrath replied:

"Art thou that traitor-Angel, art thou He, Who first broke peace in heaven, and faith, till then Unbroken; and in proud rebellious arms

Drew after him the third part of heaven's sons
Conjured against the Highest: for which both thou
And they, outcast from God, are here condemn'd
To waste eternal days in woe and pain?

And reckon'st thou thyself with Spirits of heaven,
Hell-doom'd,and breathest defiance here and scorn,
Where I reign king; and, to enrage thee more,
Thy king and lord? Back to thy punishment,
False fugitive, and to thy speed add wings,
Lest with a whip of scorpions I pursue
Thy lingering, or with one stroke of this dart
Strange horror seize thee, and pangs unfelt before."
So spake the grisly Terror, and in shape,
So speaking and so threatening, grew ten-fold
More dreadful and deform. On the' other side,
Incensed with indignation, Satan stood
Unterrified; and like a comet burn'd,
That fires the length of Ophiuchus huge
In the' arctic sky, and from his horrid hair
Shakes pestilence and war. Each at the head
Levell'd his deadly aim: their fatal hands
No second stroke intend; and such a frown
Each cast at the' other, as when two black clouds,
With heaven's artillery fraught, come rattling on
Over the Caspian; then stand front to front,
Hovering a space, till winds the signal blow
To join their dark encounter in mid air.
So frown'd the mighty combatants, that hell
Grew darker at their frown: so match'd they stood:
For never but once more was either like

To meet so great a foe: and now great deeds

VOL. I.

Had been achieved, whereof all hell had rung,
Had not the snaky sorceress, that sat
Fast by hell-gate and kept the fatal key,
Risen, and with hideous outcry rush'd between.
“O Father, what intends thy hand," she cried,
"Against thy only Son? What fury', O Son,
Possesses thee to bend that mortal dart
Against thy Father's head? and know'st for whom ;
For him who sits above and laughs the while
At thee ordain'd his drudge, to execute
Whate'er his wrath, which he calls justice, bids;
His wrath, which one day will destroy ye both."
She spake, and at her words the hellish Pest
Forbore; then these to her Satan return'd:
"So strange thy outcry, and thy words so strange
Thou interposest, that my sudden hand,
Prevented, spares to tell thee yet by deeds
What it intends; till first I know of thee,
What thing thou art, thus double-form'd; and why,
In this infernal vale first met, thou call'st
Me father, and that phantasm call'st my son.
I know thee not, nor ever saw till now
Sight more detestable than him and thee."
To'whom thus the Portress of hell-gate replied:
"Hast thou forgot me then, and do I seem
Now in thine eye so foul? once deem'd so fair
In heaven, when at the' assembly, and in sight
Of all the Seraphim with thee combined
In bold conspiracy against Heaven's King,
All on a sudden miserable pain

Surprised thee, dim thine eyes, and dizzy swam
In darkness, while thy head flames thick and fast
Threw forth; till, on the left side opening wide,
Likest to thee in shape and countenance bright,

Then shining heavenly fair, a goddess arm'd,
Out of thy head I sprang: amazement seized
All the' host of heaven; back they recoil'd afraid
At first, and call'd me SIN, and for a sign
Portentous held me: but, familiar grown,
I pleased, and with attractive graces won
The most averse; thee chiefly, who full oft
Thyself in me thy perfect image viewing
Becamest enamour'd; and, such joy thou took'st
With me in secret, that my womb conceived
A growing burden. Mean while war arose,
And fields were fought in Heaven; wherein re-
main'd

(For what could else?) to our Almighty Foe
Clear victory; to our part loss, and rout
Through all the empyréan. Down they fell
Driven headlong from the pitch of Heaven, down
Into this deep; and, in the general fall,
I also: at which time, this powerful key
Into my hand was given, with charge to keep
These gates for ever shut, which none can pass
Without my opening. Pensive here I sat
Alone; but long I sat not, till my womb,
Pregnant by thee and now excessive grown,
Prodigious motion felt, and rueful throes.
At last this odious offspring whom thou seest,
Thine own begotten, breaking violent way,
Tore through my entrails, that, with fear and pain
Distorted, all my nether shape thus grew
Transform'd: but he, my inbred enemy,
Forth issued, brandishing his fatal dart
Made to destroy! I fled, and cried out, DEATH!
Hell trembled at the hideous name, and sigh'd
From all her caves, and back resounded, DEATH!

I fled; but he pursued, (though more, it seems,
Inflamed with lust than rage,) and, swifter far,
Me overtook, his mother, all dismay'd,
And in embraces forcible and foul
Ingendering with me, of that rape begot
These yelling monsters, that with ceaseless cry
Surround me, as thou saw'st; hourly conceived
And hourly born, with sorrow infinite

To me; for, when they list, into the womb
That bred them they return, and howl and gnaw
My bowels, their repast: then, bursting forth
Afresh, with conscious terrors vex me round;
That rest or intermission none I find.
Before mine eyes in opposition sits

Grim Death, my son and foe, who sets them on;
And me his parent would full soon devour
For want of other prey, but that he knows
His end with mine involved; and knows that I
Should prove a bitter morsel, and his bane,
Whenever that shall be; so Fate pronounced.
But thou, O Father! I forewarn thee, shun
His deadly arrow; neither vainly hope
To be invulnerable in those bright arms,
Though temper'd heavenly; for, that mortal dint,
Save he who reigns above, none can resist.”

She finish'd; and the subtle Fiend his lore Soon learn'd,now milder,and thus answer'd smooth: Dear Daughter, since thou claim'st me for thy sire, And my fair son here show'st me, the dear pledge Of dalliance had with thee in Heaven, and joys Then sweet, now sad to mention, through dire change

Befallen us, unforeseen, unthought of; know,
I come no enemy, but to set free