BOOK FOURTH
��To which the Fiend thus answered, frown- ing stern : " Not that I less endure, or shrink from
pain,
Insulting Angel ! well thou know'st I stood Thy fiercest, when in battle to thy aid The blasting volleyed thunder made all
speed
And seconded thy else not dreaded spear. But still thy words at random, as before, 930 Argue thy inexperience what behoves, From hard assays and ill successes past, A faithful leader not to hazard all Through ways of danger by himself un- tried.
I, therefore, I alone, first undertook To wing the desolate Abyss, and spy This new-created World, whereof in Hell Fame is not silent, here in hope to find Better abode, and my afflicted Powers To settle here on Earth, or in mid Air; 940 Though for possession put to try once more What thou and thy gay legions dare against; Whose easier business were to serve their
Lord High up in Heaven, with songs to hymn his
throne, And practised distances to cringe, not
fight."
To whom the Warrior-Angel soon re- plied : " 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 ingaged, Your military obedience, to dissolve Allegiance to the acknowledged Power Su- preme ? 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 hope 960
To dispossess him, and thyself to reign ? But mark what I areed thee now: A vaunt ! Fly thither whence thou fledd'st. 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, re- plied:
" Then, when I am thy captive, talk of chains, 970
Proud limitary Cherub ! but ere then Far heavier load thyself expect to feel From my prevailing arm, though Heaven's
King
Ride on thy wings, and thou with thy Com- peers, Used to the yoke, draw'st his triumphant
wheels In progress through the road of Heaven
star-paved."
While thus he spake, the angelic squad- ron bright Turned fiery red, sharpening in mooned
horns
Their phalanx, and began to hem him round With ported spears, as thick as when a field 980
Of Ceres ripe for harvest waving bends Her bearded grove of ears which way the
wind
Sways them; the careful ploughman doubt- ing stands Lest on the threshing-floor his hopeful
sheaves Prove chaff. On the other side, Satan,
alarmed,
Collecting all his might, dilated stood, Like Teneriff or Atlas, unremoved: His stature reached the sky, and on his
crest Sat Horror plumed; nor wanted in his
grasp
What seemed both spear and shield. Now dreadful deeds 990
Might have ensued ; nor only Paradise, In this commotion, but the starry cope Of Heaven perhaps, or all the Elements At least, had gone to wrack, disturbed and
torn
With violence of this conflict, had not soon The Eternal, to prevent such horrid fray, Hung forth in Heaven his golden scales,
yet seen
Betwixt Astrsea and the Scorpion sign, Wherein all things created first he weighed,
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