Uriel, no wonder if thy perfect sight, Amid the Suns bright circle where thou sits, See far and wide: in at this Gate none pass The vigilance here placed, but such as come Well known from Heaven; and since Meridian hour No Creature thence: if Spirit of other sort, So minded, have over leapt these earthy bounds On purpose, hard thou know it to exclude Spiritual substance with corporeal barr. But if within the circuit of these walks, In whatsoever shape he lurk, of whom Thou tells, by morrow dawning I shall know. Uzziel, half these draw off, and coast the South With strictest watch; these other wheel the North, Our circuit meets full West. Ithuriel and Zephon, with winged speed Search through this Garden, leave unsearched no nook, But chiefly where those two fair Creatures Lodge, Now laid perhaps asleep secure of harm. This Evening from the Sun's decline arrived Who tells of some infernal Spirit seen Hitherward bent (who could have thought?) escaped The bars of Hell, on errand bad no doubt: Such where ye find, seize fast, and hither bring. O friends, I hear the tread of nimble feet Hasting this way, and now by glimpse discern Ithuriel and Zephon through the shade, And with them comes a third of Regal port, But faded splendour wan; who by his gate And fierce demeanour seems the Prince of Hell, Not likely to part hence without contest; Stand firm, for in his look defiance lours. Why has thou, Satan broke the bounds prescribed To thy transgressions, and disturbed the charge Of others, who approve not to transgress By thy example, but have power and right To question thy bold entrance on this place; Employed it seems to violate sleep, and those Whose dwelling God hath planted here in bliss? O loss of one in Heaven to judge of wise, Since Satan fell, whom folly overthrew, And now returns him from his prison escaped, Gravely in doubt whether to hold them wise Or not, who ask what boldness brought him hither Unlicensed from his bounds in Hell prescribed; So wise he judges it to fly from pain However, and to escape his punishment. So judge thou still, presumptuous, till the wrath, Which thou incurs by flying, meet thy flight seven fold, and scourge that wisdom back to Hell, Which taught thee yet no better, that no pain Can equal anger infinite provoked. But wherefore thou alone? wherefore with thee Came not all Hell broke loose? is pain to them Less pain, less to be fled, or thou then they Less hardy to endure? courageous Chief, The first in flight from pain, had thou alleged To thy deserted host this cause of flight, Thou surely had not come sole fugitive. To say and strait unsay, pretending first Wise to fly pain, professing next the Spy, Argues no Leader but a liar traced, Satan, and could thou faithful add? O name, O sacred name of faithfulness profaned! Faithful to whom? to thy rebellious crew? Army of Fiends, fit body to fit head; Was this your discipline and faith engaged, Your military obedience, to dissolve Allegiance to the acknowldged Power supreme? And thou sly hypocrite, who now would seem Patron of liberty, who more then thou Once fawned, and cringed, and servilly adored Heavens awful Monarch? wherefore but in hope To dispossess him, and thy self to reign? But mark what I arreede thee now, avaunt; Fly thither whence thou fled: if from this hour Within these hallowed limits thou appear, Back to the infernal pit I drag thee chained, And Seal thee so, as henceforth not to scorn The facile gates of hell too slightly barred. Satan, I know thy strength, and thou know mine, Neither our own but given; what folly then To boast what Arms can doe, since thine no more Then Heaven permits, nor mine, though doubled now To trample thee as mire: for proof look up, And read thy Lot in yon celestial Sign Where thou art weighed, and shown how light, how weak, If thou resist.