Page:Paradise lost by Milton, John.djvu/81

Hung o'er my realm, linked in a golden chain
To that side Heaven from whence your legions fell.
If that way be your walk, you have not far;
So much the nearer danger. Go and speed!
Havoc, and spoil, and ruin are my gain."
He ceased, and Satan stayed not to reply,1010
But, glad that now his sea should find a shore,
With fresh alacrity and force renewed,
Springs upward, like a pyramid of fire,
Into the wild expanse, and through the shock
Of fighting elements, on all sides round
Environed, wins his way; harder beset
And more endangered, than when Argo passed
Through Bosporus, betwixt the justling Rocks;
Or when Ulysses on the larboard shunned
Charybdis, and by the other Whirlpool steered.1020
So he with difficulty and labour hard
Moved on: with difficulty and labour he;
But, he once past, soon after when Man fell—
Strange alteration!—Sin and Death amain
Following his track, such was the will of Heaven,
Paved after him a broad and beaten way
Over the dark Abyss, whose boiling gulf
Tamely endured a bridge of wondrous length.
From Hell continued, reaching the utmost orb