Page:Paradise lost by Milton, John.djvu/152

And practised distances, to cringe, not fight."
To whom the warrior Angel soon replied:
"To say and straight unsay, pretending first
Wise to fly pain, professing next the spy,
Argues no leader but a liar traced,
Satan! and couldst thou faithful add? O name,950
O sacred name of faithfulness profaned!
Faithful to whom? to thy rebellious crew?—
Army of fiends! fit body to fit head,
Was this your discipline and faith engaged,
Your military obedience, to dissolve
Allegiance to the acknowledged Power supreme?
And thou, sly hypocrite, who now wouldst seem
Patron of liberty, who more than thou
Once fawned, and cringed, and servilely adored
Heaven's awful Monarch? wherefore but in hope960
To dispossess him, and thyself to reign?
But mark what I areed thee now: Avaunt!
Fly thither whence thou fleddest! If, from this hour,
Within these hallowed limits thou appear,
Back to the infernal pit I drag thee chained,
And seal thee so, as henceforth not to scorn
The facile gates of Hell, too slightly barred."
So threatened he; but Satan to no threats
Gave heed, but waxing more in rage replied: