Page:Paradise lost by Milton, John.djvu/203

Of thy rebellion! How hast thou instilled
Thy malice into thousands, once upright270
And faithful, now proved false! But think not here
To trouble holy rest. Heaven casts thee out
From all her confines; Heaven, the seat of bliss,
Brooks not the works of violence and war.
Hence then, and evil go with thee along,
Thy offspring, to the place of evil, Hell,
Thou and thy wicked crew—there mingle broils—
Ere this avenging sword begin thy doom,
Or some more sudden vengeance, winged from God
Precipitate thee with augmented pain.'280
"So spake the prince of Angels; to whom thus
The Adversary:—'Nor think thou with wind
Of aery threats to awe whom yet with deeds
Thou canst not. Hast thou turned the least of these
To flight, or if to fall, but that they rise
Unvanquished, easier to transact with me
That thou shouldst hope, imperious, and with threats
To chase me hence? Err not, that so shall end
The strife which thou callest evil, but we style
The strife of glory; which we mean to win,290
Or turn this Heaven itself into the Hell
Thou fablest; here however to dwell free,
If not to reign. Meanwhile thy utmost force,