He ceasd; and Satan staid not to reply, [ 1010 ]

But glad that now his Sea should find a shore,

With fresh alacritie and force renewd

Springs upward like a Pyramid of fire

Into the wilde expanse, and through the shock

Of fighting Elements, on all sides round [ 1015 ]

Environd wins his way; harder beset

And more endangerd, then when Argo passd

Through Bosporus betwixt the justling Rocks:

Or when Ulysses on the Larbord shunnd

Charybdis, and by th other whirlpool steard. [ 1020 ]

So he with difficulty and labour hard

Movd on, with difficulty and labour hee;

But hee once past, soon after when man fell,

Strange alteration! Sin and Death amain

Following his track, such was the will of Heavn, [ 1025 ]

Pavd after him a broad and beatn way

Over the dark Abyss, whose boiling Gulf

Tamely endurd a Bridge of wondrous length

From Hell continud reaching th utmost Orbe

Of this frail World; by which the Spirits perverse [ 1030 ]

With easie intercourse pass to and fro

To tempt or punish mortals, except whom

God and good Angels guard by special grace.

But now at last the sacred influence

Of light appears, and from the walls of Heavn [ 1035 ]

Shoots farr into the bosom of dim Night

A glimmering dawn; here Nature first begins

Her fardest verge, and Chaos to retire

As from her outmost works a brokn foe

With tumult less and with less hostile din, [ 1040 ]

That Satan with less toil, and now with ease

Wafts on the calmer wave by dubious light

And like a weather-beaten Vessel holds

Gladly the Port, though Shrouds and Tackle torn;

Or in the emptier waste, resembling Air, [ 1045 ]

Weighs his spread wings, at leasure to behold

Farr off th Empyreal Heavn, extended wide

In circuit, undetermind square or round,

With Opal Towrs and Battlements adornd

Of living Saphire, once his native Seat; [ 1050 ]

And fast by hanging in a golden Chain

This pendant world, in bigness as a Starr

Of smallest Magnitude close by the Moon.

Thither full fraught with mischievous revenge,

Accurst, and in a cursed hour he hies. [ 1055 ]

The End of the Second Book.