BOOK TENTH
��213
��Meanwhile, ere thus was sinned and
judged on Earth, Within the gates of Hell sat Sin and
Death, 230
In counterview within the gates, that now Stood open wide, belching outrageous flame Far into Chaos, since the Fiend passed
through,
Sin opening; who thus now to Death be- gan: " O Son, why sit we here, each other
viewing
Idly, while Satan, our great author, thrives In other worlds, and happier seat provides For us, his offspring dear ? It cannot be But that success attends him; if mishap, Ere this he had returned, with fury driven By his Avengers, since no place like this Can fit his punishment, or their revenge. Methinks I feel new strength within me
rise, 243
Wings growing, and dominion given me
large Beyond this Deep whatever draws me
on,
Or sympathy, or some connatural force, Powerful at greatest distance to unite With secret amity things of like kind By secretest conveyance. Thou, my shade Inseparable, must with me along; 250
For Death from Sin no power can sepa- rate.
But, lest the difficulty of passing back Stay his return perhaps over this gulf Impassable, impervious, let us try (Adventrous work, yet to thy power and
mine
Not unagreeable !) to found a path Over this Main from Hell to that new
World
Where Satan now prevails a monument Of merit high to all the infernal Host, 259 Easing their passage hence, for intercourse Or transmigration, as their lot shall lead. Nor can I miss the way, so strongly drawn By this new-felt attraction and instinct." Whom thus the meagre Shadow answered
soon :
" Go whither fate and inclination strong Leads thee; I shall not lag behind, nor
err
The way, thou leading: such a scent I draw Of carnage, prey innumerable, and taste The savour of death from all things there
that live.
��Nor shall I to the work thou enterprisest Be wanting, but afford thee equal aid." 271 So saying, with delight he snuffed the
smell Of mortal change on Earth. As when a
flock Of ravenous fowl, though many a league
remote,
Against the day of battle, to a field Where armies lie encamped come flying,
lured
With scent of living carcases designed For death the following day in bloody
fight;
So scented the grim Feature, and upturned His nostril wide into the murky air, 280 Sagacious of his quarry from so far. Then both, from out Hell-gates, into the
waste
Wide anarchy of Chaos, damp and dark, Flew diverse, and, with power (their power
was great)
Hovering upon the waters, what they met Solid or slimy, as in raging sea Tossed up and down, together crowded
drove, From each side shoaling, towards the mouth
of Hell;
As when two polar winds, blowing adverse Upon the Crouian sea, together drive 290 Mountains of ice, that stop the imagined
way
Beyond Petsora eastward to the rich Cathaian coast. The aggregated soil Death with his mace petrific, cold and dry, As with a trident smote, and fixed as firm As Delos, floating once; the rest his look Bound with Gorgonian rigour not to move, And with asphaltic slime ; broad as the gate, Deep to the roots of Hell the gathered
beach They fastened, and the mole immense
wraught on 300
Over the foaming Deep high-arched, a
bridge
Of length prodigious, joining to the wall Immovable of this now fenceless World, Forfeit to Death from hence a passage
broad,
Smooth, easy, inoffensive, down to Hell. So, if great things to small may be com- pared,
Xerxes, the liberty of Greece to yoke, From Susa, his Memnonian palace high, Came to the sea, and, over Hellespont
�� �
