mount guard, for he has often heard their voices at midnight. Then the
pair enter the bower selected for their abode by the sovereign
planter, where the loveliest flowers bloom in profusion, and where no
bird, beast, insect, or worm dares venture.

In the course of their search, the angels Ithuriel and Zephon reach
this place in time to behold a toad crouching by the ear of Eve,
trying by devilish arts to reach the organs of her fancy. Touched by
Ithuriel's spear,--which has the power of compelling all substances to
assume their real form,--this vile creature instantly assumes a demon
shape. On recognizing a fiend, Ithuriel demands how he escaped and why
he is here. Whereupon Satan haughtily rejoins that the time was when
none would have dared treat him so unceremoniously, nor have needed to
ask his name, seeing all would instantly have known him. It is only
then that Zephon recognizes their former superior, Lucifer, and
contemptuously informs him his glory is so dimmed by sin, it is no
wonder they could not place him. Both angels now escort their captive
to Gabriel, who, recognizing the prisoner from afar, also comments on
his faded splendor. Then, addressing Satan, Gabriel demands why he
broke his prescribed bonds? Satan defiantly retorts that prisoners
invariably try to escape, that no one courts torture, and that, if God
meant to keep the fiends forever in durance vile, he should have
barred the gates more securely. But, even by escaping from Tartarus,
Satan cannot evade his punishment, and Gabriel warns him he has
probably increased his penalty sevenfold by his disobedience. Then he
tauntingly inquires whether pain is less intolerable to the
archfiend's subordinates than to himself, and whether he has already
deserted his followers. Wrathfully Satan boasts that, fiercest in
battle, he alone had courage enough to undertake this journey to
ascertain whether it were possible to secure a pleasanter place of