A little farther on the Centaur stopped

Above a folk, who far down as the throat Seemed from that boiling stream to issue forth.

A shade he showed us on one side alone,

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Saying "He cleft asunder in God's bosom. The heart that still upon the Thames is honored." Then people saw I, who from out the river

Lifted their heads and also all the chest ; And many among these I recognized. Thus ever more and more grew shallower

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That blood, so that the feet alone it covered; 125 And there across the moat our passage was. "Even as thou here upon this side beholdest The boiling stream, that aye diminishes," The Centaur said, "I wish thee to believe That on this other more and more declines Its bed, until it reunites itself

Where it behoveth tyranny to groan.

Justice divine, upon this side, is goading
That Attila, who was a scourge on earth,
And Pyrrhus, and Sextus; and forever milks
The tears which with the boiling it unseals

In Rinier da Corneto and Rinier Pazzo,
Who made upon the highways so much war.”
Then back he turned, and passed again the ford.

3*

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CANTO XIII.

OT yet had Nessus reached the other side,

NOT

When we had put ourselves within a wood, That was not marked by any path whatever. Not foliage green, but of a dusky color, [tangled, Not branches smooth, but gnarled and interNot apple-trees were there, but thorns with poison. Such tangled thickets have not, nor so dense,

7

ΤΟ

Those savage wild-beasts, that in hatred hold 'Twixt Cecina and Corneto the tilled places. There do the hideous Harpies make their nests, Who chased the Trojans from the Strophades, With sad announcement of impending doom; Broad wings have they, and necks and faces human, And feet with claws, and their great bellies fledged; They make laments upon the wondrous trees. 15 And the good Master: "Ere thou enter farther, Know that thou art within the second round," Thus he began to say, "and shalt be, till Thou comest upon the horrible sand-waste;

Therefore look well around, and thou shalt see 20 Things that will credence give unto my speech." I heard on all sides lamentations uttered,

And person none beheld I who might make them, Whence, utterly bewildered, I stood still.

I think he thought that I perhaps might think
So many voices issued through those trunks

From people who concealed themselves for us;
Therefore the Master said: "If thou break off

Some little spray from any of these trees,

The thoughts thou hast will wholl. ; —ade vain." Then stretched ≥ 1orth my hand a little forward, «1

And plucked a branchlet off from a great thorn;
And the trunk cried, "Why dost thou mangle me?"
After it had become embrowned with blood,

It recommenced its cry: "Why dost thou rend
Hast thou no spirit of pity whatsoever? [me? 35
Men once we were, and now are changed to trees;
Indeed, thy hand should be more pitiful,
Even if the souls of serpents we had been."
As out of a green brand, that is on fire

At one of the ends, and from the other drips
And hisses with the wind that is escaping;
So from that splinter issued forth together
Both words and blood; whereat I let the tip
Fall, and stood like a man who is afraid.
"Had he been able sooner to believe,"

My Sage made answer, "O thou wounded soul,
What only in my verses he has seen,

Not upon thee had he stretched forth his hand;
Whereas the thing incredible has caused me
To put him to an act which grieveth me.
But tell him who thou wast, so that by way
Of some amends thy fame he may refresh
Up in the world, to which he can return."

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25

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And the trunk said: "So thy sweet words allure me,
I cannot silent be; and you be vexed not,
That I a little to discourse am tempted.
I am the one who both keys had in keeping

Of Frederick's heart, and turned them to and fro
So softlyking and in locking,

That from his secrets most men I withheld;

Fidelity I bore the glorious office

So great, I lost thereby my sleep and pulses. The courtesan who never from the dwelling

Of Cæsar turned aside her harlot eyes, Death universal and the vice of courts, Inflamed against me all the other minds,

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65

And they, inflamed, did so inflame Augustus, That my glad honors turned to dismal mournings. My spirit, in disdainful exultation,

Thinking by dying to escape disdain, Made me unjust against myself, the just. I, by the roots unwonted of this wood,

Do swear to you that never broke I faith Unto my lord, who was so worthy of honor; And to the world if one of you return,

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Let him my memory comfort, which is lying Still prostrate from the blow that envy dealt it." Waited awhile, and then: "Since he is silent," The Poet said to me, “lose not the time, But speak, and question him, if more may please Whence I to him: "Do thou again inquire [thee." Concerning what thou think'st will satisfy me; For so great pity 's in my heart I cannot."

Therefore he recommenced : So may the man
Do for thee freely what thy speech implores,
Spirit incarcerate, again be pleased

To tell us in what way the soul is bound

Within these knots; and tell us, if thou canst,
If from such members e'er is freed."
any
Then blew the trunk amain, and afterward

The wind was into such a voice converted:
"With brevity shall be replied to you.
When the exasperated soul abandons
The body whence it rent itself away,
Minos consigns it to the seventh abyss.

It falls into the forest, and no part

Is chosen for it; but where Fortune hurls it,
There like a grain of spelt it germinates.
It springs a sapling, and a forest tree;

The Harpies, feeding then upon its leaves,
Do pain create, and for the pain an outlet.
Like others for our spoils shall we return;

But not that any one may them revest,
For 't is not just to have what one casts off.
Here we shall drag them, and along the dismal
Forest our bodies shall suspended be,

Each to the thorn of his molested shade."
We were attentive still unto the trunk,

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Thinking that more it yet might wish to tell us, 110 When by a tumult we were overtaken,

In the same way as he is who perceives

The boar and chase approaching to his stand,

Who hears the crashing of the beasts and branches;