me.' And when Hades heard this he said to him, 'I adjure thee by
thy powers and mine, bring him not to me. For when I heard the power of
his word I trembled for fear, and all my officers were struck with
amazement.' And while they were thus disputing, suddenly there was a
voice as of thunder, and a shouting as of a multitude of spirits, saying,
'Lift up your gates, O ye princes, and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting
gates, and the King of Glory shall come in.' Then Hades, hearing this,
said to Satan, 'Depart from me, and get thee out of my realm; if thou art
a powerful warrior, fight against the King of Glory.' And he cast him
forth from his habitations.

And while David and Isaiah were speaking, recalling the words of their
prophecy, there came to Hell, in the form of a man, the Lord of Majesty,
and lighted up the eternal darkness, and burst asunder the indissoluble
chains, and seizing Satan delivered him over to the power of Hades, but
Adam he drew with him to his brightness.

Then Hades receiving Satan reviled him vehemently and said, 'O Prince of
perdition, and author of extermination, derision of angels and scorn of
the just, why didst thou do this thing? All thy riches which thou hast
acquired by the tree of transgression and the loss of Paradise, thou hast
now lost by the tree of the cross, and all thy joy has perished.'

But the Lord, holding Adam by the hand, delivered him to Michael the
Archangel, and all the saints followed Michael the Archangel, and he led
them into Paradise, filled with mercy and glory."

Milton would hardly have entertained for a moment the idea of a subject
taken from one of the apocryphal gospels. And even if he had felt no
scruples on this point, the theme of the Harrying of Hell would hardly
have commended itself to him in his later years, least of all its
triumphant close. His interest was now centred rather in the sayings of
the wise than in the deeds of the mighty. The "crude apple that diverted
Eve" was indeed a simple theme compared with the profound topics that are
treated in _Samson Agonistes_. The dark tangle of human life; the
inscrutable course of Divine providence; the punishment so unwittingly
and lightly incurred, yet lying on a whole nation "heavy as frost, and
deep almost as life"; the temptation presenting itself in the guise
neither of pleasure, nor of ambition, but of despair; and, through all,
the recurring assertion of unyielding trust and unflinching acquiescence