My guide a sudden hand upon me laid,

As when a mother, wakened by the rout,
Beholds the flames her neighborhood invade,
She taketh up her child, and rusheth out,
Nor tarries, paying him far more regard
Than self, to don a single shift or clout;
And from the summit of that causeway hard
His back adown the pendent rock he cast,
By which a side of the next chasm is barred.
Through conduit water never yet so fast

To turn the wheel of inland mill has run,
Though close above the ladles having past,
As down that rocky slope my master won
his bosom sped,

His way, and me upon

No longer like a comrade, but a son.

His feet had scarcely touched the valley's bed,

When I beheld them all upon the hill
Right over us, but in him was no dread.
Because the same high providence, whose will
Them for the vassals of the fifth moat meant,
Of thence departing took from them all skill.

There underneath a painted nation went

Around, around, with steps exceeding slow, Weeping, with aspect wearied and outspent. Mantles they had, with capes that hung down low Before their eyes, of just the pattern seen,

If at Cologne among the monks you go.

All gold they were without of dazzling sheen,

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But inward massy lead, in whose compare Our Frederic's pressers would like straw have been ; O tedious mantle for eternal wear!

We turning towards the left again our face

With them, to their sad wailings gave our care.
But from the burthens this forwearied race
Came on so tardily, that we had new
Companionship in lifting every pace.
I said, "O master, find among them who

Is known by eminence of name or deed,
And round thee gazing thus, thy way pursue."
Then one, who to my Tuscan speech gave heed,
Called to us from behind, "Your feet refrain,
Ye who the dun air traverse with such speed;

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Thy wish from me thou haply mayst obtain."

Thereat my master toward them turning, "Stay,"

Said he, "and then at their pace move again."

I halted, and saw two in face display

Great eagerness of heart to reach my side, But them the weight withheld, and narrow way. When they came up, full crookedly they spied

My person, ere a single word they spoke, Then turned to one another round and cried, "This nearer one seems living yet by stroke

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Of lungs, and were they dead, what favor here Could leave them lightened of the crushing cloak? 90 O Tuscan, that of hypocrites austere

Hast reached the college," unto me they said, What man thou art, begrudge us not to hear." "In that great city I was born and bred,”

Said I," that stands on Arno's goodly river,

And in the flesh I had of old I tread."

'But what are you, adown whose cheeks for ever

I see such sorrowful distilment flow,

And of this glint what anguish is the giver?"

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These cowls," he answered me, "of orange glow 100

Are charged with lead, whereby the balances

by the weights on them set creaking so. us, we were boon friars, and Bolognese, He Loderingo called, I Catalane,

h whom thy city took to guard her peace, first a solitary man was ta'en,

nd even such we proved ourselves to be, cokens i'th' Gardingo still remain."

friars," I began, "your misery

ut said no more, for on my view there burst 110

crucified on ground with rivets three,

writhed all over when he saw us first,

uttering with sighs his beard which seeing, said

friar Catalane, "That spirit pierced

-hom thou gazest, by his counsels led

for the people on a private head.

stript and strained athwart the general way

thou beholdest, must he prove and try

est, before each passes, what they weigh.

Like pains must his wife's father too abye

Elsewhere, and all who in that conclave blent, Which sowed the Jews a seed of misery."

Then saw I Virgil wonderingly bent

Over this man, that on his cross was bound So basely for eternal banishment.

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Then he the friar addressed in suchlike sound
As this: "Be pleased, if you are free, to tell,
Can any pass upon the right be found,
Through which we may go hence, and not compel

The black-hued angels there to intervene,
And lift us from the bottom of this dell."

He answered, “Nearer than thou mightest ween

A crag, that from the outer wall is thrown, Extendeth, vaulting every curst ravine,

But breaks and forms no cover here alone;

There may you mount the ruin, which is shed
Slant down the side and 'cross the bottom strown."

My guide he stood awhile with downcast head;
"Ill have we been instructed otherwise
By one that yonder sinners hooks," he said.

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