For each seemed either - black it stood as night, 670
Fierce as ten furies, terrible as hell,
And shook a dreadful dart: what seemed 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 feared (God and his Son except,
Created thing naught valued he, nor shunned);
And with disdainful look thus first began :

680
“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,

689 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 condemned

To waste eternal days in woe and pain?
And reckonest thou thyself with spirits of heaven,
Hell-doomed, 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, 700
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 tenfold
More dreadful and deform. On the other side,
Incensed with indignation, Satan stood
Unterrified, and like a comet burned,
That fires the length of Ophiuchuso huge
In the arctic sky, and from his horrid hair

710
Shakes pestilence and war. Each at the head
Leveled 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 frowned the mighty combatants that hell

a

Grew darker at their frown; so matched they stood; 720
For never but once more was either like
To meet so great a foe. And now great deeds
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 rushed between.

“O father! what intends thy hand," she cried,
Against thy only son ?o What fury, 0 son,
Possesses thee to bend that mortal dart
Against thy father's head ? and knowest for whom ! 730
For him who sits above, and laughs the while
At thee ordained 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 returned :

“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-formed, and why, In this infernal vale first met, thou callest Me father, and that phantasm callest my son. I know thee not, nor ever saw till now

740

Sight more detestable than him and thee.”

To whom thus the portresso of hell-gate replied :“ Hast thou forgot me, then, and do I seem Now in thine eye so foul ? once deemed so fair In heaven, when at the assembly, and in sight Of all the seraphim with thee combined

753 In bold conspiracy against heaven's King, All on a sudden miserable pain Surprised thee, dim thine eyes, and dizzy swum In darkness, while thy head flames thick and fast Threw forth, till on the left sideo opening wide, Likest to thee in shape and countenance bright, Then shining heavenly fair, a goddess armed, Out of thy head I sprung. Amazement seized All the host of heaven; back they recoiled,o afraid At first, and called me Sin, and for a sign

760 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 enamored ... Meanwhile war arose, And fields were fought in heaven; wherein remained (For what could else!) to our almighty Foe Clear victory; to our part, loss and rout

770 Through all the Empyrean. 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 keyo
Into my hand was given, with charge to keep
These gates forever shut, which none can pass
Without my opening. Pensive here I sat

I
Alone; ... but he, my inbred enemy,

785 Forth issued, brandishing his fatal dart, Made to destroy. I fled,' and cried out Death! Hell trembled at the hideous name, and sighed From all her caves, and back resounded Death! I fled, but he pursued; ... and, swifter far, 791 Me overtook, his mother, all dismayed. ... These yelling monsters,' that with ceaseless cry 795 Surround me, as thou sawest, hourly conceived And hourly born with sorrow infinite To

me, . . . with conscious terrors vex me round, 801
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 should be; so Fate pronounced.