74 The Poets and Natiire. 



" Soon to a yawning rift Chance turn'd my way, 

 A den it prov'd where a huge serpent lay ; 

 Flame ey'd he lay : he rages now for food, 

 Meets my first glance, and meditates my blood. 

 His bulk, in many a gather'd orb uproll'd, 

 Rears spire on spire. His scales bedropt with gold 

 Shine burnish'd in the sun. Such height they gain 

 They dart green lustre on the distant main. 

 Now wreath'd in dreadful slope, he stoops his crest, 

 Furious to fix on my unshielded breast ! 

 Just as he springs my sabre smites the foe ; 

 Headless he falls beneath the unerring blow. 

 Wrath yet remains, though strength his fabric leaves, 

 And the meant hiss the gaping mouth deceives ; 

 The length'ning trunk slow loosens ev'ry fold, 

 Lingers in life, then stretches stiff and cold." Savage. 



But, as characteristic of human anxiety never to leave triumph 

 wholly with the reptile that was "devoted to defeat" in 

 Eden, the following quotations (from Drayton and the 

 " Reliques ") showing how innocence can vanquish, even 

 though unarmed, are well worth notice : 



" Him by strength into a dungeon thrust, 

 In whose black bottom, long two serpents had remain'd 

 (Bred in the common sewer that all the city drain'd), 

 Empoisoning with their smell ; which seized him for their prey ; 

 With whom in struggling long (besmeared with blood and clay) 

 He rent their squalid chaps, and from the prison "scaped." 



The following is even more to the point : 



" And adders, snakes, and toads therein, 



As afterwards was known, 

 Long in this loathsome vault had bin, 

 And were to monsters grown." 



Into this foul and fearful place the fair one, innocent, was 

 cast. 



" The door being open'd straight they found 



The virgin stretch'd along ; 

 Two dreadful snakes had wrapt her round, 

 Which her to death had stung. 



