Page:Paradise lost by Milton, John.djvu/411

Rh With glory and spoil, back to their promised land. But first the lawless tyrant, who denies To know their God, or message to regard, Must be compelled by signs and judgements dire. To blood unshed the rivers must be turned; Frogs, lice, and flies must all his palace fill With loathed intrusion, and fill all the land; His cattle must of rot and murrian die; Blotches and blains must all his flesh emboss, And all his people; thunder mixed with hail, Hail mixed with fire, must rend the Egyptian sky, And wheel on the earth, devouring where it rolls; What it devours not, herb, or fruit, or grain, A darksome cloud of locusts swarming down Must eat, and on the ground leave nothing green; Darkness must overshadow all his bounds, Palpable darkness, and blot out three days; Last, with one midnight-stroke, all the first-born Of Egypt must lie dead. Thus with ten wounds The river-dragon tamed at length submits To let his sojourners depart, and oft Humbles his stubborn heart, but still, as ice, More hardened after thaw; till, in his rage, Pursuing whom he late dismissed, the sea Swallows him with his host; but them lets past, As on dry land, between two crystal walls, Awed by the rod of Moses so to stand Divided, till his rescued gained their shore: