Their course through thickest constellations held, Spreading their bane; the blasted stars looked wan, And planets, planet-strook, real eclipse
Then suffered. The other way Satan went down The causey to Hell-gate; on either side Disparted Chaos overbuilt exclaimed,
And with rebounding surge the bars assailed, That scorned his indignation. Through the gate, Wide open and unguarded, Satan passed, And all about found desolate; for those Appointed to sit there had left their charge, Flown to the upper World; the rest were all Far to the inland retired, about the walls Of Pandemonium, city and proud seat
Of Lucifer, so by allusion called
Of that bright star to Satan paragoned.
There kept their watch the legions, while the Grand In council sat, solicitous what chance
Might intercept their Emperor sent; so he Departing gave command, and they observed. As when the Tartar from his Russian foe, By Astracan, over the snowy plains, Retires, or Bactrian Sophi, from the horns Of Turkish crescent, leaves all waste beyond The realm of Aladule, in his retreat
To Tauris or Casbeen; so these, the late Heaven-banished host, left desert utmost Hell Many a dark league, reduced in careful watch Round their Metropolis, and now expecting Each hour their great Adventurer from the search Of foreign worlds. He through the midst unmarked, In shew plebeian Angel militant
Of lowest order, passed, and, from the door
Of that Plutonian hall, invisible
Ascended his high Throne, which, under state Of richest texture spread, at the upper end Was placed in regal lustre. Down a while He sat, and round about him saw, unseen. At last, as from a cloud, his fulgent head And shape star-bright appeared, or brighter, clad
With what permissive glory since his fall Was left him, or false glitter. All amazed At that so sudden blaze, the Stygian throng Bent their aspect, and whom they wished beheld, Their mighty Chief returned: loud was the acclaim. Forth rushed in haste the great consulting Peers, Raised from their dark Divan, and with like joy Congratulant approached him, who with hand Silence, and with these words attention, won:— "Thrones, Dominations, Princedoms, Virtues, Powers!-
For in possession such, not only of right, I call ye, and declare ye now, returned, Successful beyond hope, to lead ye forth Triumphant out of this infernal Pit Abominable, accursed, the house of woe, And dungeon of our tyrant! Now possess, As lords, a spacious World, to our native Heaven Little inferior, by my adventure hard
With peril great achieved. Long were to tell What I have done, what suffered, with what pain Voyaged the unreal, vast, unbounded Deep Of horrible confusion-over which
By Sin and Death a broad way now is paved, To expedite your glorious march; but I Toiled out my uncouth passage, forced to ride The untractable Abyss, plunged in the womb Of unoriginal Night and Chaos wild,
That, jealous of their secrets, fiercely opposed My journey strange, with clamorous uproar Protesting Fate supreme; thence how I found The new-created World, which fame in Heaven Long had foretold, a fabric wonderful,
Of absolute perfection; therein Man Placed in a Paradise, by our exile
Made happy. Him by fraud I have seduced From his Creator, and, the more to increase Your wonder, with an apple! He, thereat Offended-worth your laughter!-hath given up Both his beloved Man and all his World
To Sin and Death a prey, and so to us, Without our hazard, labour, or alarm, To range in, and to dwell, and over Man To rule, as over all he should have ruled. True is, me also he hath judged; or rather Me not, but the brute Serpent, in whose shape Man I deceived. That which to me belongs Is enmity, which he will put between
Me and Mankind: I am to bruise his heel; His seed-when is not set-shall bruise my head! A world who would not purchase with a bruise, Or much more grievous pain? Ye have the account Of my performance; what remains, ye Gods, But up and enter now into full bliss?"
So having said, a while he stood, expecting Their universal shout and high applause To fill his ear; when, contrary, he hears, On all sides, from innumerable tongues A dismal universal hiss, the sound Of public scorn. He wondered, but not long Had leisure, wondering at himself now more. His visage drawn he felt to sharp and spare, His arms clung to his ribs, his legs entwining Each other, till, supplanted, down he fell, A monstrous serpent on his belly prone, Reluctant, but in vain; a greater power Now ruled him, punished in the shape he sinned, According to his doom. He would have spoke, But hiss for hiss returned with forkèd tongue To forked tongue; for now were all transformed Alike, to serpents all, as accessories
To his bold riot. Dreadful was the din
Of hissing through the hall, thick-swarming now With complicated monsters, head and tail- Scorpion, and Asp, and Amphisbæna dire, Cerastes horned, Hydrus, and Ellops drear, And Dipsas (not so thick swarmed once the soil Bedropt with blood of Gordon, or the isle Ophiusa); but still greatest the midst,
Now Dragon grown, larger than whom the Sun
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