Jehovah? Who coped with Ithuriel and the thunders of the Almighty Who, when stunned and confused ye lay on the burning lake, who first awoke, and collected your scattered powers? Lastly, who led you across the unfathomable abyss to this delightful world, and established that reign here which now totters to its base? How, therefore, dares yon treacherous fiend to cast a stain on Satan's bravery? he who preys only on the defenceless-who sucks the blood of infants, and delights only in acts of ignoble cruelty and unequal contention! Away with the boaster who never joins in action, but, like a cormorant, hovers over the field, to feed upon the wounded, and overwhelm the dying. True bravery is as remote from rashness as from hesitation: let us counsel coolly, but let us execute our counselled purposes determinately. In power ́we have learned, by that experiment which lost us Heaven, that we are inferior to the Thunder-bearer: -In subtlety-in subtlety alone we are his equals. Open war is impossible. Thus we shall pierce our conqueror, through the Of falling unrevenged. The stirring call Far in the silence of Chaldea's groves, Was worshipped, god of Fire with charms untold XXII. Senseless and stunned I lay; till, casting round My half unconscious gaze, I saw the foe Borne on a car of roses to the ground, By volant angels; and as sailing slow He sunk, the hoary battlement below, While on the tall spire slept the slant sunbeam, Sweet on the enamour'd zephyr was the flow Of heavenly instruments. Such strains oft seem, On starlight hill, to soothe the Syrian shepherd's dream. XXIII. I saw, blaspheming. Hate renew'd my strength; I smote the ether with my iron wing, And left the' accursed scene.-Arrived at length In these drear halls, to ye, my peers! I bring The tidings of defeat. Hell's haughty king Thrice vanquish'd, baffled, smitten, and dismay'd! O shame! Is this the hero who could fling Defiance at his Maker, while array'd, High o'er the walls of light, rebellion's banners play'd! XXIV. Yet shall not Heaven's bland minions triumph long; I see wild Agony's lean finger write Stand the hot tears,-immantled in the night, XXV. Thus spake the chieftain; and as if he view'd The scene he pictured, with his foot advanced And chest inflated, motionless he stood, While under his uplifted shield he glanced, With straining eye-ball fix'd like one entranced, On viewless air;-thither the dark platoon Gazed wondering, nothing seen, save when there danced The northern flash, or fiend late fled from noon, Darken'd the disk of the descending moon. XXVI. Silence crept stilly through the ranks-the breeze Spake most distinctly. As the sailor stands, When all the midnight gasping from the seas Break boding sobs, and to his sight expands High on the shrouds the spirit that commands The ocean-farer's life,-so stiff-so sear Stood each dark power;-while through their numerous bands Beat not one heart; and mingling hope and fear Now told them all was lost, now bade revenge appear. XXVII. One there was there, whose loud defying tongue Nor hope nor fear had silenced, but the swell Of over-boiling malice. Utterance long His passion mock'd, and long he strove to tell His labouring ire; still syllable none fell From his pale quivering lip, but died away For very fury; from each hollow cell Half sprang his eyes, that cast a flamy ray, 'This comes,' at length burst from the furious chief, "This comes of distant counsels! Here behold The fruits of wily cunning! the relief Which coward policy would fain unfold, To sooth the powers that warred with heaven of O wise! O potent! O sagacious snare! [old! And lo! our prince-the mighty and the bold, There stands he, spell-struck, gaping at the air, While heaven subverts his reign, and plants her standard there.' XXIX. Here, as recover'd, Satan fix'd his eye Full on the speaker; dark it was and stern: He wrapped his black vest round him gloomily, And stood like one whom weightiest thoughts concern. Him Moloch mark'd, and strove again to turn His soul to rage. Behold, behold,' he cried, The lord of Hell, who bade these legions spurn Almighty rule-behold he lays aside The spear of just revenge, and shrinks, by man defied.' XXX. Thus ended Moloch, and his [burning] tongue Hung quivering, as if [mad] to quench its heat In slaughter. So, his native wilds among, The famish'd tiger pants, when, near his seat, Press'd on the sands, he marks the traveller's feet. Instant low murmurs rose, and many a sword Had from its scabbard sprung; but toward the Of the arch-fiend all turn'd with one accord, [seat As loud he thus harangued the sanguinary horde. Ye powers of Hell, I am no coward. I proved this of old: Who led your forces against the armies of Jehovah? Who coped with Ithuriel and the thunders of the Almighty Who, when stunned and confused ye lay on the burning lake, who first awoke, and collected your scattered powers? Lastly, who led you across the unfathomable abyss to this delightful world, and established that reign here which now totters to its base? How, therefore, dares yon treacherous fiend to cast a stain on Satan's bravery? he who preys only on the defenceless-who sucks the blood of infants, and delights only in acts of ignoble cruelty and unequal contention! Away with the boaster who never joins in action, but, like a cormorant, hovers over the field, to feed upon the wounded, and overwhelm the dying. True bravery is as remote from rashness as from hesitation: let us counsel coolly, but let us execute our counselled purposes determinately. In power ́we have learned, by that experiment which lost us Heaven, that we are inferior to the Thunder-bearer: -In subtlety-in subtlety alone we are his equals. Open war is impossible. Thus we shall pierce our conqueror, through the Which as himself he loves; thus if we fall, [race We fall not with the anguish, the disgrace Of falling unrevenged. The stirring call Of vengeance rings within me! Warriors all, The word is vengeance, and the spur despair. [pall Away with coward wiles!-Death's coal-black Be now our standard!-Be our torch the glare Of cities fired! our fifes, the shrieks that fill the air! Him answering rose Mecashphim, who of old, Far in the silence of Chaldea's groves, Was worshipped, god of Fire with charms untold |