"Michael!" replied the Prince of Air, "even here Before the gate of Him thou servest, must I claim my subject: and will make appear That as he was my worshipper in dust, So shall he be in spirit, although dear To thee and thine, because nor wine nor l.u.s.t Were of his weaknesses; yet on the throne He reigned o"er millions to serve me alone.
XL.
"Look to _our_ earth, or rather _mine_; it was, _Once, more_ thy master"s: but I triumph not In this poor planet"s conquest; nor, alas!
Need he thou servest envy me my lot: With all the myriads of bright worlds which pa.s.s In worship round him, he may have forgot Yon weak creation of such paltry things: I think few worth d.a.m.nation save their kings,
XLI.
"And these but as a kind of quit-rent, to a.s.sert my right as Lord: and even had I such an inclination,"twere (as you Well know) superfluous; they are grown so bad, That h.e.l.l has nothing better left to do Than leave them to themselves: so much more mad And evil by their own internal curse, Heaven cannot make them better, nor I worse.
XLII.
"Look to the earth, I said, and say again: When this old, blind, mad, helpless, weak, poor worm Began in youth"s first bloom and flush to reign, The world and he both wore a different form, And much of earth and all the watery plain Of Ocean called him king: through many a storm His isles had floated on the abyss of Time; For the rough virtues chose them for their clime.[521]
XLIII.
"He came to his sceptre young; he leaves it old: Look to the state in which he found his realm, And left it; and his annals too behold, How to a minion first he gave the helm;[522]
How grew upon his heart a thirst for gold, The beggar"s vice, which can but overwhelm The meanest hearts; and for the rest, but glance Thine eye along America and France.
XLIV.
""Tis true, he was a tool from first to last (I have the workmen safe); but as a tool So let him be consumed. From out the past Of ages, since mankind have known the rule Of monarchs--from the b.l.o.o.d.y rolls ama.s.sed Of Sin and Slaughter--from the Caesars" school, Take the worst pupil; and produce a reign More drenched with gore, more c.u.mbered with the slain.
XLV.
"He ever warred with freedom and the free: Nations as men, home subjects, foreign foes, So that they uttered the word "Liberty!"
Found George the Third their first opponent. Whose History was ever stained as his will be With national and individual woes?[gt]
I grant his household abstinence; I grant His neutral virtues, which most monarchs want;
XLVI.
"I know he was a constant consort; own He was a decent sire, and middling lord.
All this is much, and most upon a throne; As temperance, if at Apicius" board, Is more than at an anchorite"s supper shown.
I grant him all the kindest can accord; And this was well for him, but not for those Millions who found him what Oppression chose.
XLVII.
"The New World shook him off; the Old yet groans Beneath what he and his prepared, if not Completed: he leaves heirs on many thrones To all his vices, without what begot Compa.s.sion for him--his tame virtues; drones Who sleep, or despots who have now forgot A lesson which shall be re-taught them, wake Upon the thrones of earth; but let them quake!
XLVIII.
"Five millions of the primitive, who hold The faith which makes ye great on earth, implored A _part_ of that vast _all_ they held of old,--[gu]
Freedom to worship--not alone your Lord, Michael, but you, and you, Saint Peter! Cold Must be your souls, if you have not abhorred The foe to Catholic partic.i.p.ation[523]
In all the license of a Christian nation.
XLIX.
"True! he allowed them to pray G.o.d; but as A consequence of prayer, refused the law Which would have placed them upon the same base With those who did not hold the Saints in awe."
But here Saint Peter started from his place And cried, "You may the prisoner withdraw: Ere Heaven shall ope her portals to this Guelph, While I am guard, may I be d.a.m.ned myself!
L.
"Sooner will I with Cerberus exchange My office (and _his_ is no sinecure) Than see this royal Bedlam-bigot range[gv]
The azure fields of Heaven, of that be sure!"
"Saint!" replied Satan, "you do well to avenge The wrongs he made your satellites endure; And if to this exchange you should be given, I"ll try to coax _our_ Cerberus up to Heaven!"
LI.
Here Michael interposed: "Good Saint! and Devil!
Pray, not so fast; you both outrun discretion.
Saint Peter! you were wont to be more civil: Satan! excuse this warmth of his expression, And condescension to the vulgar"s level:[gw]
Even Saints sometimes forget themselves in session.
Have you got more to say?"--"No."--"If you please, I"ll trouble you to call your witnesses."
LII.
Then Satan turned and waved his swarthy hand, Which stirred with its electric qualities Clouds farther off than we can understand, Although we find him sometimes in our skies; Infernal thunder shook both sea and land In all the planets--and h.e.l.l"s batteries Let off the artillery, which Milton mentions As one of Satan"s most sublime inventions.[524]
LIII.
This was a signal unto such d.a.m.ned souls As have the privilege of their d.a.m.nation Extended far beyond the mere controls Of worlds past, present, or to come; no station Is theirs particularly in the rolls Of h.e.l.l a.s.signed; but where their inclination Or business carries them in search of game, They may range freely--being d.a.m.ned the same.
LIV.
They are proud of this--as very well they may, It being a sort of knighthood, or gilt key Stuck in their loins;[525] or like to an "entre"[gx]
Up the back stairs, or such free-masonry.
I borrow my comparisons from clay, Being clay myself. Let not those spirits be Offended with such base low likenesses; We know their posts are n.o.bler far than these.[gy]
LV.
When the great signal ran from Heaven to h.e.l.l-- About ten million times the distance reckoned From our sun to its earth, as we can tell How much time it takes up, even to a second, For every ray that travels to dispel The fogs of London, through which, dimly beaconed, The weatherc.o.c.ks are gilt some thrice a year, If that the _summer_ is not too severe:[526]
LVI.
I say that I can tell--"twas half a minute; I know the solar beams take up more time Ere, packed up for their journey, they begin it;[gz]
But then their Telegraph is less sublime,[527]
And if they ran a race, they would not win it "Gainst Satan"s couriers bound for their own clime.
The sun takes up some years for every ray To reach its goal--the Devil not half a day.
LVII.
Upon the verge of s.p.a.ce, about the size Of half-a-crown, a little speck appeared (I"ve seen a something like it in the skies In the aegean, ere a squall); it neared, And, growing bigger, took another guise; Like an aerial ship it tacked, and steered,[528]
Or _was_ steered (I am doubtful of the grammar Of the last phrase, which makes the stanza stammer;
LVIII.
But take your choice): and then it grew a cloud; And so it was--a cloud of witnesses.
But such a cloud! No land ere saw a crowd Of locusts numerous as the heavens saw these;[ha]
They shadowed with their myriads s.p.a.ce; their loud And varied cries were like those of wild geese,[hb]