(ll. 51-64) Then answered the foul fiends, black and sinful, chained in torment: "Thou with thy lies didst teach us not to serve the Saviour! To thee alone it seemed that thou hadst power of all things in heaven and earth, that thou wert Holy God, even the Creator. Now thou art bound, thou wretched fiend, with bonds of flame. In thy splendour thou didst think the world was thine, and power of all things, and we, the angels, with thee. Loathsome is thy face! Sorely have we suffered for thy lies! Thou saidest that thy son was Lord of men. Now is thy woe the greater."
(ll. 65-74) So with bitter words and moaning voices the sinful spirits spake unto their lord. Christ had cast them out, and banished them from joy. They had lost the radiant light of God in heaven through overweening pride. For all their joy they had the floors of hell and burning pain. Pale, their beauty marred, the fallen angels, miserable wretches, wandered through that loathsome pit, because of the presumptuous deeds which formerly they wrought.
II
(ll. 75-80) Then once more spake the leader of the fiends; he was chastened anew, and racked with pangs of torment. Black with fire and poison, he began to speak; no pleasant joy was this as he poured forth his words in pain:
(ll. 81-92) "I was once a holy angel, dear unto God in heaven, and knew great joy before the face of the Lord God, likewise this multitude. But I resolved in my heart to overthrow the Lord of glory, the Son of God, and have myself the power to rule the world, and all this wretched host which I have led unto a home in hell. Bethink ye of the token and the curse, that I was banished, deep below the earth, in the bottomless abyss. I have led you all from out your native home unto a house of bondage.
(ll. 92-105) "Here is no glory of the blessed, neither wine-halls of the proud, nor worldly joys nor angel throngs, nor may we have possession of high heaven. This loathsome dwelling burns with fire. I am God's foe. Dragons dwell ever at the gates of hell, inflamed and furious; they may not help us! This woeful house is filled with torment. In this deep darkness there is yet no place to shelter us, that we may hide therein. Here is the adder's hiss; here serpents dwell. Firmly the bonds of torment are fastened upon us. Fierce are the fiends, swarthy and black. Here never gleameth day in the gloom of hell-shadows, nor the radiant light of God.
(ll. 106-124) "Once I had power and glory, before I earned God's judgment on my sin in this loathsome realm, upon the floor of hell. Now I have come, and brought a host of fiends, unto this home of darkness. But, flying forth from hell from time to time, I needs must visit every land, and others of you also, who had part in our presumptuous deeds. We need not hope the King of glory will ever grant us a home and dwelling, as He did of old, and everlasting power. For the Son of God hath power of all things, of glory and affliction. Wherefore, downcast and wretched, I must wander far, an exile journey, stripped of glory, shorn of virtue, bereft of joy in heaven among the angels, because I said of old that I was King of glory and Lord of all."
III
(ll. 125-128) But a worse fate befell him! So the accursed spirit, doomed to woe, lamented his afflictions. (And through the foul abyss a flame of fire raged, with venom mingled):
(ll. 129-141) "I am so large of limb there is no place in this wide hall to hide me, sore wounded with my sins. Both heat and cold by turns are mingled here. At times I hear the hell-slaves howling, mourning these realms of pain beneath the earth; at times men naked strive with serpents. All this windy hall is filled with horror! Never shall I know a happier home, nor any town or mansion; nor ever shall mine eyes behold the shining world again.