That traitor, who sees only with one eye, And holds the land, which some one here with me Then will do so, that to Focara's wind They will not stand in need of vow or prayer." And I to him: "Show to me and declare, If thou wouldst have me bear up news of thee, Of one of his companions, and his mouth With tongue asunder in his windpipe slit, The stumps uplifting through the murky air, Who said, alas! A thing done has an end!' Which was an ill seed for the Tuscan people" "And death unto thy race," thereto I added ; Whence he, accumulating woe on woe, Departed, like a person sad and crazed. But I remained to look upon the crowd; And saw a thing which I should be afraid, That good companion which emboldens man I truly saw, and still I seem to see it, A trunk without a head walk in like manner As walked the others of the mournful herd. And by the hair it held the head dissevered, Hung from the hand in fashion of a lantern, And they were two in one, and one in two; When it was come close to the bridge's foot, Which were: "Behold now the sore penalty, Thou, who dost breathing go the dead beholding; And so that thou may carry news of me, Know that Bertram de Born am I, the same I made the father and the son rebellious; Achitophel not more with Absalom Parted do I now bear my brain, alas! 130 135 140 CANTO XXIX. THE many people and the divers wounds These eyes of mine had so inebriated, That they were wishful to stand still and weep; Consider, if to count them thou believest, Henceforth the time allotted us is brief, "Attended to the cause for which I looked, And superadding: "In that cavern where I held mine eyes with such attention fixed, I think a spirit of my blood laments The sin which down below there costs so much." Then said the Master: "Be no longer broken Thy thought from this time forward upon him; For him I saw below the little bridge, Pointing at thee, and threatening with his finger So wholly at that time wast thou impeded By him who formerly held Altaforte, Which is not yet avenged for him," I said, Upon the crag, which the next valley shows Which with compassion had their arrows barbed, What pain would be, if from the hospitals 30 35 45 Of Valdichiana, 'twixt July and September, All the diseases in one moat were gathered, Such was it here, and such a stench came from it 50 We had descended on the furthest bank From the long crag, upon the left hand still, And then more vivid was my power of sight Down tow'rds the bottom, where the ministress Of the high Lord, Justice infallible, Punishes forgers, which she here records. I do not think a sadder sight to see Was in Ægina the whole people sick, The animals, down to the little worm, All fell, and afterwards the ancient people, Were from the seed of ants restored again,) Than was it to behold through that dark valley This on the belly, that upon the back One of the other lay, and others crawling Shifted themselves along the dismal road. We step by step went onward without speech, Gazing upon and listening to the sick Who had not strength enough to lift their bodies. I saw two sitting leaned against each other, As leans in heating platter against platter, By stable-boy for whom his master waits, As every one was plying fast the bite Of nails upon himself, for the great rage Of itching which no other succour had. ; And the nails downward with them dragged the scab, In fashion as a knife the scales of bream, "O thou, that with thy fingers dost dismail thee," "And makest of them pincers now and then, Tell me if any Latian is with those Who are herein; so may thy nails suffice thee "Latians are we, whom thou so wasted seest, Both of us here," one weeping made reply; And trembling each one turned himself to me, Saying: "Say unto them whate'er thou wishest." In the first world from out the minds of men, Let not your foul and loathsome punishment "I of Arezzo was," one made reply, "And Albert of Siena had me burned; That I could rise by flight into the air, But unto the last Bolgia of the ten, For alchemy, which in the world I practised, Minos, who cannot err, has me condemned." And to the Poet said I: "Now was ever So vain a people as the Sienese? Not for a certainty the French by far." Replied unto my speech: "Taking out Stricca, And Niccolò, who the luxurious use Of cloves discovered earliest of all Within that garden where such seed takes root; Thou must remember, if I well descry thee, CANTO XXX. 'TWAS at the time when Juno was enraged, That, seeing his own wife with children twain Seizing the first, who had the name Learchus, And whirled him round, and dashed him on a rock ; And she, with the other burthen, drowned herself ;And at the time when fortune downward hurled The Trojan's arrogance, that all things dared, When lifeless she beheld Polyxena, |