Page:Paradise lost by Milton, John.djvu/346

340 Alike to serpents, all as accessories To his bold riot. Dreadful was the din Of hissing through the hall, thick swarming now With complicated monsters, head and tail, Scorpion, and Asp, and Amphisbæna dire, Cerastes horned, Hydrus and Ellops drear And Dipsas—not so thick swarmed once the soil Bedropt with blood of Gorgon, or the isle Ophiusa—but still greatest he the midst, Now Dragon grown, larger than whom the Sun Ingendered in the Pythian vale on slime, Huge Python; and his power no less he seemed Above the rest still to retain. They all Him followed, issuing forth to the open field, Where all yet left of that revolted rout, Heaven-fallen, in station stood or just array, Sublime with expectation when to see In triumph issuing forth their glorious Chief; They saw, but other sight instead! a crowd Of ugly serpents. Horror on them fell, And horrid sympathy; for what they saw They felt themselves now changing. Down their arms, Down fell both spear and shield, down they as fast, And the dire hiss renewed, and the dire form Catched by contagion, like in punishment, As in their crime. Thus was the applause they meant