Page:Paradise lost by Milton, John.djvu/145

To his proud fair, best quitted with disdain.770
These lulled by nightingales, embracing, slept,
And on their naked limbs the flowery roof,
Showered roses, which the morn repaired. Sleep on
Blest pair! and oh, yet happiest! if ye seek
No happier state, and know to know no more.
Now had night measured with her shadowy cone
Half-way up-hill this vast sublunar vault
And from their ivory port the Cherubim
Forth issuing, at the accustomed hour, stood armed
To their night-watches in warlike parade;780
When Gabriel to his next in power thus spake
"Uzziel, have these draw off, and coast the south
With strictest watch; these other wheel the north;
Our circuit meets full west."—As flame they part,
Half wheeling to the shield, half to the spear.
From these, two strong and subtle Spirits he called
That near him stood, and gave them thus in charge:
"Ithuriël and Zephon, with winged speed
Search through this garden, leave unsearched no nook:
But chiefly where those two fair creatures lodge,790
Now laid perhaps asleep, secure of harm.
This evening from the sun's decline arrived
Who tells of some infernal Spirit seen
Hitherward bent—who could have thought?—escaped