Within a space I saw so martyrised

This fellow by the muddy nations all,

That God the more I still have thanked and prized. 60 To Philip Argenti, 'gan each to bawl,

And the uncouth spirit Florentine full sore Did with his teeth upon his own flesh fall. We left him there, I speak of him no more;

Then smote a tone of woe upon mine ear,

At which I strain mine eye to look before.

"Now son," my gracious master said, "draws near The city, which of Dis receives the name;

And hosts of laden citizens are here.”

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Master," said I, "full surely of the same

Yon mosks within the valley I discern, Vermilion, as if out of fire they came." Then he replied to me, "The fires eterne,

Which inwardly consume them, show them red

As here in nether hell thine

eye may learn."

And thus into the deep-hewn moats we sped,

That gird the unsolaced land on every side; The wall it seemed was quite of iron made.

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Not without making first a compass wide,

We came upon a place, where, with lou "Come out, you enter here," the boatman I saw a thousand strong, the gates beneath

Rained out of heaven, and haughtily the "What man is this who comes, exempt fro Across the realm and people of the dead?"

Then showed my wary master he would Hold parley with them singly in my stead: They bated something of their high disdain

And said, "Come only thou, let him beg Who with such daring entered our domain. Let him go back on his fool's path alone,

And prove his wit, for thou shalt sojourn That hast the darksome country to him sho O reader, as the accursed words I hear,

Imagine if I was discomfited,

For never to return again I fear.

"O dear my guide, who seven times," I said "And more, hast freed me, and my rescu From perils, wherewith I was compassed,

Leave me not now so horribly undone;
And if to go on further be denied,
Back let us both upon our footsteps run."
Thereat my liege, who led me there, replied,
"Be not dismayed, our passage none can bind,
For such is he, by whom 'tis certified.

But stay meantime, and thy forwearied mind
Feed with good cheer and hope; for never I
Will leave thee in the nether world behind."
So said he, and so leaveth me thereby,

My gentle sire, and I remain in doubt,
For in my head contended no and aye.

I could not hear what he to them held out,

But with them he remained not long in place,

When each one to the rescue turned about.

Our foes they shut the gate upon his face;

My master stayed without by their despite,
And turned again to me with tardy pace;

His eyes were on the ground, his face was quite
Shorn of good courage, and he said with sighs,

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105

110

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"Who shuts the baleful houses from my sight? 120

For all my wrath," he said, "be thou no wise
Afraid, for I'll within that wall subdue
The proof and muster of our enemies.
That surquedry in them is nothing new,

But was at gate less hidden showed before,
On which the scroll of death has met thy view;
It stays without a fastening evermore,

And this side of it now descends the slope, Passing without a guard the circles o'er,

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Even such a one as shall the passage ope.

130

CANTO IX.

My guide perceiving to return anew

The craven color, which my face had stained,

Represt the sooner his own altered hue;

Intent as one that hearkens he remained,

For little further could the eye survey, By the dun air and gathered fogs detained. "It shall behove us yet to win the day,"

Said he; "if not, such help was offered us— O how I long for one to pass our way."

I saw full plainly that he covered thus

His opening words by those that came behind,
Which with his prelude were incongruous;

But yet the speech woke terror in my mind,
By which perhaps a worse intent was thrown

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Into the broken phrase than he designed.

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