Then suffer'd. The other way Satan went down
The cause-way to Hell-gate: on either side
Disparted Chaos over-built, exclaim'd,
And with rebounding surge the bars assail'd,
That scorn'd his indignation: through the gate,
Wide open and unguarded, Satan pass'd,
And all about found desolate; for those
Appointed to sit there, had left their charge,
Flown to the upper world; the rest were all
Far to the inland retired, about the walls
Of Pandemonium, city and proud seat
Of Lucifer, so by allusion called,
Of that bright star to Satan paragon'd:
There kept their watch the legions, while the grand
In council sat, solicitous what chance
Might intercept their emperor sent; so he
Departing, gave command, and they observ'd.
As when the Tartar from his Russian foe,
By Astracan, over the snowy plains,
Retires, or Bactrian Sophi, from the horns
Of Turkish crescent, leaves all waste beyond
The realm of Aladule, in his retreat

To Taurus or Casbin: so these, the late
Heaven-banish'd host, left desert utmost Hell,
Many a dark league, reduced in careful watch,
Round their metropolis, and now, expecting
Each hour their great adventurer, from the search
Of foreign worlds: he, through the midst, unmark'd,
In show plebeian angel militant,

Of lowest order, pass'd; and from the door
Of that Plutonian hall, invisible,

Ascended his high throne, which, under state
Of richest texture spread, at the upper end
Was placed in regal lustre. Down a while
He sat, and round about him saw, unseen;
At last, as from a cloud, his fulgent head
And shape, star-bright, appear'd, or brighter, clad
With what permissive glory, since his fall
Was left him, or false glitter. All amazed,
At that so sudden blaze, the Stygian throng
Bent their aspect, and whom they wish'd, beheld,
Their mighty chief return'd. Loud was the acclaim:
Forth rush'd in haste the great consulting peers,
Raised from the dark divan, and with like joy,
Congratulant, approach'd him; who, with hand
Silence, and with these words, attention won.

"Thrones, dominations, princedoms, virtues, powers,

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For in possession such, not only of right,
I call ye, and declare ye now, return'd
Successful, beyond hope, to lead ye forth,
Triumphant, out of this infernal pit,
Abominable, accursed, the house of woe
And dungeon of our Tyrant: now possess,
As lords, a spacious world, to our native Heaven
Little inferior, by my adventure hard,
With peril great achieved. Long were to tell
What I have done, what suffer'd; with what pain
Voyag'd the unreal, vast, unbounded deep
Of horrible confusion; over which,
By Sin and Death, a broad way now is paved,
To expedite your glorious march; but I
Toil'd out my uncouth passage, forc'd to ride
The untractable abyss, plung'd in the womb
Of unoriginal Night and Chaos wild,
That, jealous of their secrets, fiercely oppos'd
My journey strange, with clamorous uproar,
Protesting Fate supreme; thence, how I found
The new-created world, which fame in Heaven
Long had foretold, a fabric wonderful,
Of absolute perfection, therein Man
Placed in a Paradise, by our exile
Made happy him, by fraud, I have seduced
From his Creator, and, the more to increase
Your wonder, with an apple. He, thereat
Offended, worth your laughter, hath given up
Both his beloved man, and all his world,
To Sin and Death a prey; and so to us,
Without our hazard, labour, or alarm,
To range in, and to dwell, and over man
To rule, as over all he should have ruled.
True is, me also he hath judged; or rather
Me not, but the brute serpent, in whose shape
Man I deceived: that which to me belongs
Is enmity, which he will put between
Me and mankind; I am to bruise his heel;
His seed, when is not set, shall bruise my head:
A world, who would not purchase with a bruise,
Or much more grievous pain? Ye have the account
Of my performance: what remains, ye gods,
But up, and enter now into full bliss?"

So having said, a while he stood, expecting
Their universal shout, and high applause
To fill his ear; when contrary, he hears
On all sides, from innumerable tongues,

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A dismal universal hiss, the sound

Of public scorn; he wondered, but not long
Had leisure, wondering at himself now more:
His visage drawn, he felt, to sharp and spare,
His arms clung to his ribs, his legs entwining
Each other, till supplanted, down he fell,
A monstrous serpent on his belly prone,
Reluctant, but in vain; a greater Power
Now ruled him punish'd in the shape he sinn'd,
According to his doom. He would have spoke,
But hiss for hiss return'd, with forked tongue
To forked tongue; for now were all transform'd
Alike, to serpents; all, as accessories
To his bold riot. Dreadful was the din
Of hissing through the hall, thick swarming now
With complicated monsters, head and tail,
Scorpion and Asp, and Amphisbæna dire,
Cerastes horn'd, Hydrus, and Elops, drear,
And Dipsas (not so thick swarm'd once the soil
Bedropt with blood of Gorgon, or the isle
Ophiusa): but still greatest he the midst,
Now dragon grown, larger than whom the sun
Engender'd in the Pythian vale, on slime,
Huge Python, and his power no less he seem'd
Above the rest, still to retain; they all
Him follow'd, issuing forth to the open field,
Where all yet left of that revolted rout,
Heav'n-fall'n, in station stood, or just array,
Sublime with expectation, when to see,
In triumph issuing forth, their glorious chief;
They saw, but other sight instead, a crowd
Of ugly serpents; horror on them fell,
And horrid sympathy; for what they saw,

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They felt themselves now changing; down their arms

Down fell both spear & shield, down they as fast,

And the dire hiss renew'd, and the dire form

Catch'd by contagion; like in punishment,

As in their crime. Thus was th' applause they meant
Turn'd to exploding hiss, triumph to shame,

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Cast on themselves from their own mouths. There stood

A grove hard by, sprung up with this their change,
His will who reigns above, to aggravate
Their penance, laden with fruit, like that
Which grew in Paradise, the bait of Eve
Used by the tempter. On that prospect strange
Their earnest eyes they fix'd, imagining
For one forbidden tree, a multitude

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Now risen, to work them further woe or shame;
Yet parch'd with scalding thirst, and hunger fierce,
Though to delude them sent, could not abstain;
But on they roll'd in heaps, and up the trees
Climbing, sat thicker than the snaky locks
That curl'd Megara; greedily they pluck'd
The fruitage fair to sight; like that which grew
Near that bituminous lake where Sodom flam'd;
This more delusive, not the touch, but taste
Deceived; they, fondly thinking to allay
Their appetite with gust, instead of fruit,
Chew'd bitter ashes, which, the offended taste
With spattering noise, rejected: oft they assay'd,
Hunger and thirst constraining, drugg'd as oft,
With hatefullest disrelish writh'd their jaws
With soot and cinders fill'd; so oft they fell
Into the same illusion; not as Man

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Whom they triumph'd once laps'd. Thus were they plagued,

And worn with famine, long and ceaseless hiss,

Till their lost shape, permitted, they resumed,
Yearly enjoin'd, some say to undergo
This annual humbling, certain number'd days,
To dash their pride and joy, for man seduced.
However, some tradition they dispersed
Among the Heathen, of their purchase got;
And fabled how the Serpent, whom they call'd
Ophion, with Eurynome, the wide
Encroaching Eve perhaps, had first the rule
Of high Olympus, thence by Saturn driven.
And Ops, ere yet Dictaan Jove was born.

Meanwhile, in Paradise the hellish pair
Too soon arrived, Sin there in power before,-
Once actual, now in body, and to dwell
Habitual habitant; behind her Death,
Close following pace for pace, not mounted yet

On his pale horse; to whom Sin thus began.

"Second of Satan sprung, all conquering Death,

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What think'st thou of our empire now, though earn'd
With travail difficult; not better far

Than still at Hell's dark threshold to have sat watch,

Unnamed, undreaded, and thyself half-starved?"

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Whom thus the Sin-born Monster answered soon.

"To me, who with eternal famine pine,
Alike is Hell, or Paradise, or Heaven;
There best, where most with ravine I may meet;
Which here, though plenteous, all too little seems
To stuff this maw, this vast unhide-bound corps."

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To whom the incestuous mother thus replied.
"Thou therefore on these herbs, & fruits, & flowers
Feed first, on each beast next, and fish and fowl,
No homely morsels; and whatever thing
The scythe of Time mows down, devour unspared;
Till I, in man residing, through the race,
His thoughts, his looks, words, actions, all infect,
And season him, thy last and sweetest prey."
This said, they both betook them several ways,
Both to destroy, or un-immortal make
All kinds, and for destruction to mature,
Sooner or later: which the Almighty seeing,
From his transcendant seat, the saints among,
To those bright orders utter'd thus his voice.

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"See, with what heat these dogs of Hell advance,
To waste and havoc yonder world, which I
So fair and good created; and had still
Kept in that state, had not the folly of Man
Let in these wasteful furies, who impute
Folly to me, so doth the prince of Hell,
And his adherents, that, with so much ease,
I suffer them to enter, and possess
A place so heavenly, & conniving seem,
To gratify my scornful enemies,

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That laugh, as if transported with some fit
Of passion, I to them had quitted all,
At random yielded up to their misrule

And know not, that I call'd & drew them thither,

My hell-hounds, to lick up the draff and filth,

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Which man's polluting sin with taint hath shed

On what was pure; till cramm'd & gorged, nigh burst, With suck'd and glutted offal, at one sling

Of thy victorious arm, well-pleasing Son,

Both Sin, and Death, and yawning Grave at last,

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Through Chaos hurl'd, obstruct the mouth of Hell
For ever, and seal up his ravenous jaws.

Then Heaven & Earth, renew'd, shall be made pure

To sanctity, that shall receive no stain:

Till then, the curse pronounced on both precedes."
He ended; and the heavenly audience loud
Sung Hallelujah, as the sound of seas,

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Through multitude that sung: "Just are thy ways,

Righteous are thy decrees on all thy works;

Who can extenuate thee?" Next, to the Son, "Destined Restorer of Mankind, by whom New Heaven & Earth shall to the ages rise,

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Or down from Heaven descend." Such was their song;