Asm. Thus far we have prevailed; if that be gain, Which is but change of place, not change of pain.  Now summon we the rest.

Lucif. Dominions, Powers, ye chiefs of heaven’s bright host,
(Of heaven, once your’s; but now in battle lost)
Wake from your slumber!  Are your beds of down? 
Sleep you so easy there?  Or fear the frown
Of him who threw you hence, and joys to see
Your abject state confess his victory? 
Rise, rise, ere from his battlements he view
Your prostrate postures, and his bolts renew,
To strike you deeper down.

Asm. They wake, they hear, Shake off their slumber first, and next their fear; And only for the appointed signal stay.

Lucif. Rise from the flood, and hither wing your way.

Mol. [From the Lake.]
Thine to command; our part is to obey.
                      [The rest of the Devils rise up, and fly to the
                       Land.

Lucif. So, now we are ourselves again an host,
Fit to tempt fate, once more, for what we lost;
To o’erleap the etherial fence, or if so high
We cannot climb, to undermine his sky,
And blow him up, who justly rules us now,
Because more strong:  Should he be forced to bow. 
The right were ours again:  ’Tis just to win
The highest place; to attempt, and fail, is sin.

Mol. Changed as we are, we’re yet from homage free;
We have, by hell, at least gained liberty: 
That’s worth our fall; thus low though we are driven,
Better to rule in hell, than serve in heaven.

Lucif. There spoke the better half of Lucifer!

Asm. ’Tis fit in frequent senate we confer,
And then determine how to steer our course;
To wage new war by fraud, or open force. 
The doom’s now past; submission were in vain.

Mol. And were it not, such baseness I disdain;
I would not stoop, to purchase all above,
And should contemn a power, whom prayer could move,
As one unworthy to have conquered me.

Beelzebub. Moloch, in that all are resolved, like thee. 
The means are unproposed; but ’tis not fit
Our dark divan in public view should sit;
Or what we plot against the Thunderer,
The ignoble crowd of vulgar devils hear.

Luci. A golden palace let be raised on high;
To imitate?  No, to outshine the sky! 
All mines are ours, and gold above the rest: 
Let this be done; and quick as ’twas exprest.

  A Palace rises, where sit, as in council, LUCIFER, ASMODAY,
  MOLOCH, BELIAL, BEELZEBUB, and SATAN.

Most high and mighty lords, who better fell
From heaven, to rise states-general of hell,
Nor yet repent, though ruined and undone,
Our upper provinces already won,
Such pride there is in souls created free,
Such hate of universal monarchy;
Speak, for we therefore meet: 
If peace you chuse, your suffrages declare;
Or means propound, to carry on the war.