So spake the grisly Terror, and in shape, So speaking and so threatening, grew tenfold More dreadful and deform. On the other side, Incensed with indignation, Satan stood Unterrified, and like a comet burned, That fires the length of Ophiuchus huge In the arctic sky, and from his horrid hair Shakes pestilence and war. Each at the head Levelled his deadly aim; their fatal hands No second stroke intend; and such a frown Each cast at the other, as when two black clouds, With Heaven’s artillery fraught, come rattling on Over the Caspian, then stand front to front Hovering a space, till winds the signal blow To join their dark encounter in mid-air: So frowned the mighty combatants, that Hell Grew darker at their frown; so matched they stood; For never but once more was either like To meet so great a foe. And now great deeds Had been achieved, whereof all Hell had rung. Had not the snaky Sorceress, that sat Fast by Hell-gate, and kept the fatal key, Risen, and with hideous outcry rushed between.