Page:Paradise Lost (1667).djvu/71

---

Abominable, inutterable, and worſe
Then Fables yet have feign’d, or fear conceiv’d,
Gorgons and Hydra’s, and Chimera’s dire.
  Mean while the Adverſary of God and Man,
630Satan with thoughts inflam’d of higheſt deſign,
Puts on ſwift wings, and toward the Gates of Hell
Explores his ſolitary flight; ſom times
He ſcours the right hand coaſt, ſom times the left,
Now ſhaves with level wing the Deep, then ſoares
Up to the fiery concave touring high.
As when farr off at Sea a Fleet deſcri’d
Hangs in the Clouds, by Æquinoctial Winds
Cloſe ſailing from Bengala, or the Iles
Of Ternate and Tidore, whence Merchants bring
640Thir ſpicie Drugs: they on the trading Flood
Through the wide Ethiopian to the Cape
Ply ſtemming nightly toward the Pole. So ſeem’d
Farr off the flying Fiend: at last appeer
Hell bounds high reaching to the horrid Roof,
And thrice threefold the Gates; three folds were Braſs,
Three Iron, three of Adamantine Rock,
Impenitrable, impal’d with circling fire,
Yet unconſum’d. Before the Gates there ſat
On either ſide a formidable ſhape;
650The one ſeem’d Woman to the waſte, and fair,
But ended foul in many a ſcaly fould,
Voluminous and vaſt, a Serpent arm’d
With mortal ſting: about her middle round
A cry of Hell Hounds never ceaſing bark’d
With wide Cerberean mouths full loud, and rung
A hideous Peal: yet, when they liſt, would creep,
If aught diſturb’d thir noyſe, into her woomb,