Lucia, of all unkindness enemy,

Arose, and found me sitting in my place,

In antique Rachel her society.

She said, "O Beatris, God's very praise,

Why dost not succour him who loved thee so,

Who quitted for thy sake the vulgar ways?

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Dost thou not hear the wailing of his woe?

Nor see the death by which he is bestead Upon the floods that nought to Neptune owe?" No man on earth so quickly ever sped

To seek his gain, or shun his injury,

As I then hasted, when these words were said.
Down came I from my blessed throne for thee,

Relying on thy verses' gallant flow,
Which gives thee and thy hearers dignity.'
When all her reasoning she had ended so,

She weeping turned away her shining eyes,
And winged my heart with eagerness to go.
I came to thee, fulfilling her emprise;

I took thee from yon beast that kept impairing
Thy progress up the beauteous mount to rise.

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Then why, O why, remainest thou despairing?
Why lodges in thy bosom still the craven?

Why hast thou not more frankness and more daring?
When thou art cared-for in the court of heaven

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By yon three blessed ladies, and dost hold Such good assurance thro' my promise given? As tender flowers, that by the dark and cold Were bowed and shut, feeling the sunbeams white, Rise on the stalk together and unfold,

Thus I became in my forwearied sprite,

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And such good courage to my bosom ran, That I made answer, like a franker wight. "O ruthful she, my rescue that began,

And thou that didst so readily obey

The sound of her true words, high hearted man! 135
Thou dost my soul with inclination sway

So to this quest by thy persuasive strain,
That I return unto my former way.
Now go there's but a will between us twain;

Be thou my guide and master, and my lord."
So answered I, and, when he moved again,

The deep and salvage passage we explored.

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CANTO III.

"THROUGH me you pass into the city of woe;
Through me you pass eternal woes to prove ;
Through me among the blasted race you go.
'Twas Justice did my most high Author move,

And I have been the work of power divine,

Of supreme wisdom, and of primal love.
No creature has an elder date than mine,

Unless eternal, and I have no end ;

;

O you that enter me, all hope resign."
These words I saw in darksome colour penned
Above a gate, and, "Master mine,” I said,
"Their sense is harsh for me to apprehend."
He, like a man alert, this answer made:
"Here all suspicion must be left behind,
All cowardice henceforward must be dead.

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We have arrived the place where thou wilt find,
As I have told thee, that tormented band
That have the intellectual good resigned."
And then he placed his hand within my hand,
And gave me heart with his assured mien,
And set me thus within the secret land.

There sighs, laments, and shouts of woe between,
Rang through the air that feels no starry force,
At which I wept ere I'd a moment been.
Tongues diverse, strains of horrible discourse,
And dolorous words, and accents of despite,
And clashing hands, and voices loud and hoarse,
A tumult made, which circles through the night

Of that untemporal and clouded air,

Like sand, that breath of whirlwind sets on flight. 30 And I, whose head was girt with horror there,

Said, "Master mine, what may this turmoil be; What race is this, so vanquished with despair?" And he replied, "This form of misery

Involves the wretched souls who did pursue

No life deserving praise nor infamy.

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Commingled are they with the caitiff crew
Of angels, who nor openly rebelled,

Nor stood for God, and kept but self in view;

Whom, not to grow less fair, the heavens expelled, 40 And hell receives not in its bottom low,

Lest by the bad some triumph might be held."

Master," I said, "what is that heavy woe

That makes them to lament with such loud breath?"

And he replied, "Thou shalt in few words know: 45 These are unvisited by hope of death,

And each accounts his darkling life so base,

That every lot besides he envieth.

Of their renown the world admits no trace;
Mercy and Justice them alike despise ;
Of such we talk not, look on them and pass."
And as I gazed, a banner met mine eyes,

That circling with a rapidity moved along,
That all repose appeareth to misprise.

And in its rear there came a troop so long
Of people, that I could not have believed
Death ever had disfeatured such a throng.

C

509

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