“O Eve, some further change awaits us nigh, Which Heaven by these mute signs in Nature shows, Forerunners of his purpose, or to warn Us, haply too secure of our discharge From penalty because from death released Some days; how long, and what till then our life, Who knows? or more than this, that we are dust, And thither must return, and be no more? Why else this double object in our sight, Of flight pursued in the air and o’er the ground One way the self-same hour? Why in the east Darkness ere day’s mid-course, and morning-light More orient in yon western cloud, that draws O’er the blue firmament a radiant white, And slow descends, with something Heavenly fraught?”
He erred not; for, by this, the Heavenly bands Down from a sky of jasper lighted now In Paradise, and on a hill made halt; A glorious apparition, had not doubt And carnal fear that day dimmed Adam’s eye. Not that more glorious, when the Angels met Jacob in Mahanaim, where he saw The field pavilioned with his guardians bright; Nor that which on the flaming mount appeared In Dothan, covered with a camp of fire, Against the Syrian king, who to surprise One man, assassin-like, had levied war, War unproclaimed. The princely Hierarch In their bright stand there left his Powers to seize Possession of the garden; he alone, To find where Adam sheltered, took his way, Not unperceived of Adam; who to Eve, While the great visitant approached, thus spake:
“Eve, now expect great tidings, which perhaps Of us will soon determine, or impose New laws to be observed; for I descry, From yonder blazing cloud that veils the hill, One of the Heavenly host, and, by his gait, None of the meanest—some great Potentate Or of the Thrones above, such majesty Invests him coming; yet not terrible, That I should fear, nor sociably mild, As Raphael, that I should much confide; But solemn and sublime; whom, not to offend, With reverence I must meet, and thou retire.”
He ended; and the Archangel soon drew nigh, Not in his shape celestial, but as man Clad to meet man. Over his lucid arms A military vest of