Page:Redemption, a Poem.djvu/97

 REDEMPTION. 91

Or gold, gemboss'd with various rays, brighter Than when the bow of promise copes the skies. Th' horizon gleams with their unwonted fires, Which night defer, and new prolong the day. The demons see, and know the presage giv'n Adverse to them, nor further sign await, But in disgraceful rout draw off, and flee Impetuous ; with rage ferine, seek safe Retreat in dens fuliginous and wild, Where darkness glum, and doleful horror reign, Leaving Esdrela's fructuous vales and fields, Fair Nazareth's frescades, and cool retreats, Where e'er their trail fatiferous deploy'd, Parch'd, arid, dry, lesions of dev'lish spite ; For ne'er where demons tread, or glance an eye, Doth aught of fruitful herb, or beauteous flower, The glebous mead indue ; unless that plant, Plant infamous, in Persia which abounds, By Khorassan and Lar, and thence which fumes Audacious o'er the plains of Toorkistan, By Oxus, on one hand; and on th' other, Vents its foul stench across Beloochistan, Through Candabar, where Afghans bide, eastward Thence to the vale of Indus in Astore, Fills all the vexed air with odor vile ; Fit excrement the Devil leaves behind, Where e'er his bestial feet impress the soil.

Th' archangel Gabriel paused not on the way, Nor halted for repose, but, with fleet wing, Around the Queen of angels drew his bands, And thus his seconds, right and left, enjoin'd :

" Ariel, lion of God, be it thy care,

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