Chapter 3 2
The Sun was sunk, and after him the Starr
Of Hesperus, whose Office is to bring
Twilight upon the Earth, short Arbiter [ 50 ]
Twixt Day and Night, and now from end to end
Nights Hemisphere had veiled the Horizon round:
When Satan who late fled before the threats
Of Gabriel out of Eden, now improvd
In meditated fraud and malice, bent [ 55 ]
On mans destruction, maugre what might hap
Of heavier on himself, fearless return.
By Night he fled, and at Midnight return.
From compassing the Earth, cautious of day,
Since Uriel Regent of the Sun descrid [ 60 ]
His entrance, and forewarnd the Cherubim
That kept thir watch; thence full of anguish drivn,
The space of seven continud Nights he rode
With darkness, thrice the Equinoctial Line
He circld, four times crossd the Carr of Night [ 65 ]
From Pole to Pole, traversing each Colure;
On the eighth return, and on the Coast averse
From entrance or Cherubic Watch, by stealth
Found unsuspected way. There was a place,
Now not, though Sin, not Time, first wraught the change, [ 70 ]
Where Tigris at the foot of Paradise
Into a Gulf shot under ground, till part
Rose up a Fountain by the Tree of Life;
In with the River sunk, and with it rose
Satan involved in rising Mist, then sought [ 75 ]
Where to lie hid; Sea he had searcht and Land
From Eden over Pontus, and the Poole
Maotis, up beyond the River Ob;
Downward as farr Antartic; and in length
West from Orontes to the Ocean barrd [ 80 ]
At Darien, thence to the Land where flows
Ganges and Indus: thus the Orb he roamed
With narrow search; and with inspection deep
Consider every Creature, which of all
Most opportunity might serve his Wiles, and found [ 85 ]
The Serpent suttlest Beast of all the Field.