Page:Comus and other poems - Milton (1906).djvu/29

 And tell me it is safe, as bid me hope Danger will wink on Opportunity, And let a single helpless maiden pass Uninjur'd in this wilde surrounding wast. Of night, or lonelines it recks me not, I fear the dred events that dog them both, Lest som ill greeting touch attempt the person Of our unowned sister.
 * Eld. Bro.I do not brother,

Inferr, as if I thought my sisters state Secure without all doubt, or controversie: Yet where an equall poise of hope and fear Does arbitrate th' event, my nature is That I encline to hope, rather then fear, And gladly banish squint suspicion. My sister is not so defenceless left As you imagine, she has a hidden strength Which you remember not.
 * 2 Bro.What hidden strength,

Unless the strength of Heav'n, if you mean that?
 * Eld. Bro.I mean that too, but yet a hidden strength

Which if Heav'n gave it, may be term'd her own: 'Tis chastity, my brother, chastity: She that has that, is clad in compleat steel, And like a quiver'd Nymph with Arrows keen May trace huge Forests, and unharbour'd Heaths, Infamous Hills, and sandy perilous wildes, Where through the sacred rayes of Chastity, No savage fierce, Bandite, or mountaneer Will dare to soyl her Virgin purity, Yea there, where very desolation dwels By grots, and caverns shag'd with horrid shades, She may pass on with unblench't majesty, Be it not don in pride, or in presumption. Som say no evil thing that walks by night In fog, or fire, by lake, or moorish fen, Rh