Page:Paradise lost by Milton, John.djvu/138

132 Returned on that bright beam, whose point now raised Bore him slope downward to the sun now fallen Beneath the Azorès; whether the prime orb, Incredible how swift, had hither rolled Diurnal, or this less volubil earth, By shorter flight to the east, had left him there, Arraying with reflected purple and gold The clouds that on his western throne attend.
 * Now came still Evening on, and Twilight grey

Had in her sober livery all things clad; Silence accompanied; for beast and bird, They to their grassy couch, these to their nests Were slunk, all but the wakeful nightingale; She all night long her amorous descant sung. Silence was placed; now glowed the firmament With living sapphire; Hesperus, that led The starry host, rode brightest, till the moon, Rising in clouded majesty, at length Apparent queen unveiled her peerless light, And o'er the dark her silver mantle threw; When Adam thus to Eve:—"Fair Consort, the hour Of night and all things now retired to rest Mind us of like repose, since God hath set Labor and rest, as day and night, to men Successive; and the timely dew of sleep,