Page:Paradise lost by Milton, John.djvu/348

Whom they triumphed once lapsed. Thus were they plagued;
And, worn with famine, long and ceaseless hiss,
Till their lost shape, permitted, they resumed;
Yearly enjoyed, some say, to undergo
This annual humbling, certain numbered days,
To dash their pride and joy for man seduced.
However, some tradition they dispersed
Among the Heathen of their purchase got,
And fabled how the Serpent, whom they called580
Ophion with Eurynomè—the wide
Encroaching Eve perhaps—had first the rule
Of high Olympus, thence by Saturn driven
And Ops, ere yet Dictæan Jove was born.
Meanwhile in Paradise the hellish pair
Too soon arrived; Sin, there in power before,
Once actual, now in body, and to dwell
Habitual habitant; behind her Death,
Close following pace for pace, not mounted yet
On his pale horse; to whom Sin thus began:590
"Second of Satan sprung, all-conquering Death!
What thinkest thou of our empire now, though earned
With travail difficult? Not better far
Than still at Hell's dark threshold to have sat watch
Unnamed, undreaded, and thyself half-starved?"