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
abode. Because in the course of his reply he contradicts himself, the
angel terms him a liar and hypocrite, and bids him depart, vowing,
should he ever be found lurking near Paradise again, he will be
dragged back to the infernal pit and chained fast so he cannot escape!
This threat arouses Satan's scorn and makes him so insolent, that the
angels, turning fiery red, close around him, threatening him with
their spears! Glancing upward and perceiving by the position of the
heavenly scales that the issue of a combat would not be in his favor,
Satan wrathfully flees with the vanishing shades of night.

_Book V._ Morning having dawned, Adam awakens refreshed, only to
notice the flushed cheeks and discomposed tresses of his companion,
from whom, when he awakens her, he learns of a dream wherein a voice
urged her to go forth and walk in the garden. Eve goes on to describe
how, gliding beneath the trees, she came to the one bearing the
forbidden fruit, and descried among its branches a winged shape, which
bade her taste of the apples and not despise the boon of knowledge.
Although chilled with horror at the mere suggestion, Eve admits that
she yielded, because the voice assured her one taste would enable her
to flutter through the air like the angels and perchance visit God!
Her desire to enjoy such a privilege became so intense that when the
fruit was pressed to her lips she tasted it, and had no sooner done so
than she soared upward, only to sink down and awaken at Adam's touch!

Comforting his distressed consort, Adam leads her into the garden to
prune over-luxuriant branches and to train vines from tree to tree.
While they are thus occupied, the Almighty summons Raphael, and, after
informing him Satan has escaped from hell and has found his way to
Paradise to disturb the felicity of man, bids the archangel hasten
down to earth, and, conversing "as friend with friend" with Adam, warn
him that he had the power to retain or forfeit his happy state, and
caution him against the wiles of the fiend, lest, after wilfully
transgressing, man should claim he had not been fo