164
��PARADISE LOST
��Who is our equal. Then thou shalt behold Whether by supplication we intend Address, and to begirt the Almighty
Throne
Beseeching or besieging. This report, These tidings, carry to the Anointed King; And fly, ere evil intercept thy flight.' 87 1 " He said; and, as the sound of waters
deep,
Hoarse murmur echoed to his words ap- plause
Through the infinite Host. Nor less for that The flaming Seraph, fearless, though alone, Encompassed round with foes, thus an- swered bold:
" ' O alienate from God, O Spirit ac- cursed,
Forsaken of all good ! I see thy fall Determined, and thy hapless crew involved In this perfidious fraud, contagion spread Both of thy crime and punishment. Hence- forth 881 No more be troubled how to quit the yoke Of God's Messiah. Those indulgent laws Will not be now voutsafed; other decrees Against thee are gone forth without recall ; That golden sceptre which thou didst re- ject
��Is now an iron rod to bruise and break Thy disobedience. Well thou didst ad- vise;
Yet not for thy advice or threats I fly These wicked tents devoted, lest the wrauth Impendent, raging into sudden flame, 891 Distinguish not: for soon expect to feel His thunder on thy head, devouring fire. Then who created thee lamenting learn When who can uncreate thee thou shalt
know.' "So spake the Seraph Abdiel, faithful
found;
Among the faithless faithful only he; Among innumerable false unmoved, Unshaken, unseduced, unterrified, His loyalty he kept, his love, his zeal; 900 I Nor number nor example with him wrought To swerve from truth, or change his con- stant mind, I Though single. From amidst them forth
he passed, Long way through hostile scorn, which he
sustained
Superior, nor of violence feared aught; And with retorted scorn his back he turned On those proud towers, to swift destruction doomed."
��BOOK VI
THE ARGUMENT
Raphael continues to relate how Michael and Gabriel were sent forth to battle against Satan and his Angels. The first fight described : Satan and his Powers retire under night. He calls a council ; invents devilish en- gines, which, in the second day's fight, put Michael and his Angels to some disorder ; but they at length, pulling up mountains, overwhelmed both the force and machines of Satan. Yet, the tumult not so ending, God, on the third day, sends Messiah his Son, for whom he had reserved the glory of that victory. He, in the power of his Father, coming to the place, and causing all his legions to stand still on either side, with his chariot and thunder driving into the midst of his ene- mies, pursues them, unable to resist, towards the wall of Heaven ; which opening, they leap down with horror and confusion into the place of punishment prepared for them in the Deep. Messiah returns with triumph to his Father.
" ALL night the dreadless Angel, unpur-
sued, Through Heaven's wide champaign held
his way, till Morn, Waked by the circling Hours, with rosy
hand Unbarred the gates of Light. There is a
cave
��Within the Mount of God, fast by his
Throne, Where Light and Darkness in perpetual
round Lodge and dislodge by turns which makes
through Heaven
Grateful vicissitude, like day and night; Light issues forth, and at the other door Obsequious Darkness enters, till her hour To veil the heaven, though darkness there
might well n
Seem twilight here. And now went forth
the Morn
Such as in highest heaven, arrayed in gold Empyreal; from before her vanished Night, Shot through with orient beams; when all
the plain Covered with thick embattled squadrons
bright, Chariots, and flaming arms, and fiery
steeds, Reflecting blaze on blaze, first met his
view. War he perceived, war in procinct, and
found
�� �
