But take your choice): and then it grew a cloud;

And so it was—a cloud of witnesses.

But such a cloud! No land ere saw a crowd

Of locusts numerous as the heavens saw these;[ha]

They shadowed with their myriads Space; their loud

And varied cries were like those of wild geese,[hb]

(If nations may be likened to a goose),

And realised the phrase of "Hell broke loose."[529]