Festus

doubled every blessing infinite
Wherewith he had enriched His Only One
From first, rose from his glorious throne, and stepped
Into His sun-bright car, calling aloud
His angels to attend Him while He went
To judge the earth, as fore-ordained of old:
That Heaven and earth might view the majesty
And mercy of the God of all. We came,
Selectest spirits, countless⁠—crowded bright
As the great stream of stars which flows through Heaven
Fast by the foot of God, each wave a world⁠—
Eager to the eye this act of glory long
Talked of in Heaven, and now to be achieved.
Forth from the starry towers, and world-wide walls,
Of Heaven, we set in high and silent joy,
And journeyed half our way through Heaven, when lo!
A sight which checked the foremost flaming ranks,
That halted frontwise, working doubt at first,
But triumph after. Shielded and drawn up close,
Behind a broken and decaying world,
From which the light had vanished like the light
Out of a death-shrunk eye, sat Lucifer⁠—
Midst in the powers of darkness, and the hosts
Of hell, enthroned sublime; and all were still
As ambushed silence round the Foe of God.
But oh! how changed from him we knew in Heaven,
Whose brightness nothing made might match nor mar;
Who rose, and it was morn;⁠—who stretched his wing,
And stepped from star to star;⁠—so changed he showed
Most like a shadowy meteor, thorough which
The stars dim glint⁠—woe-wasted, pined with pain.
And by his side there sat or shrank a shape
We angels knew not, but the Son of God
Knew him, and called him Death; whom, when he saw,
Arousing, after, out of sleep intense,
That unrealmed tyrant drew his mortal dart,
And drave it through himself⁠—a shade, shade-quelled.
Then to that chief of mischief and his fiends,
Who, thick as burning stones that from the throat
Of some volcano foul the benighted sky,
Shot up triumphant into air as they
Beheld our ranks move on, thus spake our Lord⁠—
Not wrathfully, but sternly pitying:
Hell’s wretched remnant! wherefore crouch ye here?
Is it to sue destruction, or to bar
My passage? If it be, in both ye err.
And will ye trust yourselves again to war
With me Almighty? Have I not overcome
Ye separately, both? Speak, brutal Death!
Fit follower and fellow to all woes⁠—
Wherefore this instantaneous haste from hell,
And both from Hadeän bondage, thus again
So soon to compass mightiest wickedness,
And tempt extremest wrath? Speak, head of hell!
To Him thus Lucifer: Almighty Son!
Thy power I defy not; but in peace
I war with fate. My life is to destroy.
Evil hath more activity, if good
More strength: and one must wear the other out.
The more august the sin, so much the more
Is my necessity. Yon earth hath been
The battle-plain of Heaven and hell. From Thee,
Who knowest all things, it were vain to hide
My purpose, which for a thousand years, the years
Of bondage, hath grown in me and lived on,
Toad-like within a rock⁠—vital where all
Beside was death⁠—to seize the nascent souls
Of men a they rerose from death to life,
And sweep them off in midst of all these hosts,
Assembled for that cause here as Thou seest,
To hell;⁠—the universal race of man.
But if ordained that not on them, but Thee
And Thine, old hate shall satisfy itself,
Approach no nearer; for we live by death;⁠—
Or turn the tide of fate, Thou sole who canst!
Ceasing thereat, his host upraised a shout
Which shook the stars, and made them ring again.
Our Lord to him then spake thus, mild as Spring,
Addressing earth when smiling she lets fall
All flowerets from her lips⁠—’Tis well there is a God!
Lo! to what base extremes infernal pride
Can push a princely spirit once in Heaven.
Thee we will not destroy now, for thine hour
Hath yet to come⁠—when least thou thinkest it.
God’s wrath thou hast endured in punishment.
Not yet His power. Away! I warn ye hence
Ere wrath ride forth again. To Him the Fiend
Answered: God rules not us the unordered damned,
Nor recks of hell. For ages past belief,
Unless by those who like ourselves denied
Thine own eternity⁠—by creature mind,
However lofty, hardly compassed⁠—we
Have borne our pain without remorse, or sign
Of pity from our Maker. Shall we now
Believe, while thus confronting Him again,
He means us better? Never worse than now.
Therefore I say to ye, on! mightiest fiends,
On! Let us reap companions for our woes,
Or earn annihilation! At the word,
His fiery phalanx rushed to bar the way
Of Him whose ways are over all His works.
A million spears blazed forth their answer bright,
As of as many tongues. Serene our ranks
Stood as the stars o’er thunder. God the Son
Sat in His orbèd car, and breathed on them;
And they were rolled up like the desert sands
Before the burning wind⁠—throne wrecked on throne,
All ruined and fordone. Pursue! He cried,
Nor let them near the earth I go to judge.
And we pursued, as many as He chose,
And chased from sphere to sphere that wretched wreck
Of falsest fiends:⁠—and I, it seems, am first
Of all my victor brethren to declare
The triumph past and coming, and to cheer
Tour hearts with tidings of our Lord, to whom
Be glory for His universal deeds,
And to him, only God! Saint

Behold where comes
Another warrior-angel from on high;
Like angels, always singly or in hosts.

Angel

It is the most dread Azrael, unto whom
The sword of Death is given as a boon.

Saint

What sayst thou, heavenly one?

Azrael

To the extreme bound
Of Light’s domain we chased the flying foe,
Who on the confines of the lower air
Once rallied at their leader’s stern command,
Whom more they fear, or seem to fear, than God.
They halted, formed, and faced us. I and mine,
As on we came in order, full career,
Exalted by success, hoped ardently
One more convincing contest; but in spite
Of future woe or the tempestuous threats
Of the great Fiend who marshalled them, each eyed
His neighbor pale; their trembling shook all air;
And each one lift his arm, but no one struck.
Awhile in dead throe-like suspense they stood,
Or like the irresolution of the sea
At turn of tide⁠—then wheeled and fled amain,
And in one mass immense broke down from Heaven,
Cliff-like;⁠—there let them lie! such fate have fiends.
And we returned, hoping to meet, as charge
To all was given, the Lord our glory here.

Archangel

Let all the dead rejoice! their Saviour comes.

XXXV

Scene⁠—The judgment of Earth.

The Son of