Page:The Complete Poetical Works of John Milton.djvu/394

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��LATIN POEMS

��Tartareoque leves difflentur pulvere in

auras

Et rex et pariter satrapse, scelerata propago; Et quotquot fidei caluere cupidine verse Consilii socios adhibete, operisque minis-

tros." Finierat: rigid! cupide paruere gemelli.

Interea longo flectens curvamine cselos Despicit setherea Dominus qui fulgurat

arce,

Vanaque perversse ridet conamina turbse, Atque sui causam populi volet ipse tueri. Esse feruut spatium, qua distat ab Aside

terra 170

Fertilis Europe, et spectat Mareotidas un-

das; Hie turris posita est Titanidos ardua

Famae,

JErea, lata, sonans, rutilis vicinior astris Quam superimpositum vel Athos vel Pelion

��Mille fores aditusque patent, totidemque

fenestrse, Amplaque per tenues translucent atria

muros. Excitat hie varios plebs agglomerata susur-

ros; Qualiter instrepitant circum mulctralia

bombis Agmina muscarum, aut texto per ovilia

junco, Dum Canis sestivum cseli petit ardua cul-

men. 180

Ipsa quidem summa sedet ultrix matris in

arce: Auribus innumeris cinctum caput eminet

olli, Queis sonitum exiguum trahit, atque levis-

siniji captat Murmura, ab extremis patuli confmibus

orbis ;

Nee tot, Aristoride, servator iuique juvencse Isidos, immiti volvebas lumina vultu, Lumina non unquam tacito nutantia somno, Lumina subjectas late spectantia terras. Istis ilia solet loca luce carentia ssepe Perlustrare, etiam radianti impervia soli; Millenisque loquax auditaque visaque lin-

guis 191

Cuilibet effundit temeraria; veraque men-

dax Nunc minuit, mod6 confictis sermonibus

auget. Sed tamen a nostro meruisti carmine

laudes,

��quickly. As many men as you find burning with desire of the true faith, take them to you as helpers and associates ; then, with gunpowder blow the king and his chiefs, vile race that they are, into thin air." He ended, and the harsh twins [Murder and Treachery] obeyed him eagerly.

Meantime the Lord, who moveth the heavens in a wide circle and lighteneth from the ethereal citadel, looks down, and smiles at the vain plottings of perverse men, and will himself safeguard his people's cause.

Men tell of a place, midway between fertile Europe and the Asian laud, looking toward the waters of Lake Maeotis. Here is placed the tower of Rumor, daughter of the Titan Earth. Of brass is the great tower, broad and resonant, nearer the ruddy stars than Athos, or Pelion piled on Ossa. A thousand doors stand open, and a thou- sand windows. Through the thin beaten walls gleam the ample courts within. Here crowds of people make a various whispering, like the buzzing of swarms of flies about the milk -pails or through the wattles of the sheep-cotes, when the Dog-star climbs to the summit of the summer sky. Throned on high sits Rumor herself ; about her head grow innumerable ears, by whose aid she gathers in the slightest sound, the lightest murmur, from the ends of the earth. More eyes she has than thou, Argus, unjust keeper of the cow lo, eyes that never close in sleep, but continually look abroad over the lands beneath ; with them she is wont to search through places void of light, impervious even to the sun's rays. With a thousand tongues she pours out in unconsidering speech to any chance comer all that she sees or hears, now making less the truth, now swelling it with imagined fabrications.

But, for all that, O Rumor, thou hast merited well at our hands, by reason of one

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