Passing through Chaos, they pushed the heavy elements
this way and that, cementing them with Death's mace until they constructed
of them a bridge from the gates of Hell to the point on earth at which
Satan had first alighted, and here met him, just returning, flushed with
success, to Hell.
All the followers of Satan were gathered in Pandemonium to hear the news
of his success, which he related, overjoyed at having wrought the ruin of
mankind and revenged himself on God by so small a thing as the eating of
an apple. As he concluded and stood waiting their applause, he heard a
universal hiss, and saw himself surrounded by serpents, and himself
changing into an enormous dragon. The great hall was filled with the
monsters, scorpions, asps, hydras, and those who stood waiting without
with applause for their leader were likewise changed into loathsome
reptiles. Without the hall a grove sprang up, loaded with tempting fruit,
but when, tortured with thirst, they tried to eat, it turned in their
mouths to bitter ashes. After a time they were permitted to take again
their own shapes, but were compelled to resume this serpent-form for a
certain number of days each year, to crush their pride.
When God saw the entrance of Sin and Death into the world, he proclaimed
to his Saints that their seeming victory was but temporary, and that
eventually his Son would defeat Sin, Death, and the Grave, and seal up the
mouth of Hell.
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