Knowest thou any sprung of Latin land
Under the tar?" "I parted," he replied,

"But now from one, who sojourn'd not far thence;
So were I under shelter now with him,

Nor hook nor talon then should scare me more."
"Too long we suffer," Libicocco cried;

Then, darting forth a prong, seized on his arm,
And mangled bore away the sinewy part.
Him Draghinazzo by his thighs beneath

Would next have caught; whence angrily their chief,
Turning on all sides round, with threatening brow
Restrain'd them. When their strife a little ceased,
Of him, who yet was gazing on his wound,
My teacher thus without delay inquired:
"Who was the spirit, from whom by evil hap
Parting, as thou hast told, thou camest to shore?"
"It was the friar Gomita," he rejoin'd,

"He of Gallura, vessel of all guile,

Who had his master's enemies in hand,

And used them so that they commend him well.
Money he took, and them at large dismiss'd;
So he reports; and in each other charge
Committed to his keeping play'd the part

Of barterer to the height. With him doth herd
The chief of Logodoro, Michel Zanche.
Sardinia is a theme whereof their tongue

Is never weary. Out! alas! behold

That other, how he grins. More would I say,
But tremble lest he mean to maul me sore."
Their captain then to Farfarello turning,
Who roll'd his moony eyes in act to strike,
Rebuked him thus: Off, cursed bird! avaunt!"
"If ye desire to see or hear," he thus

Quaking with dread resumed, "or Tuscan spirits
Or Lombard, I will cause them to appear.
Meantime let these ill talons bate their fury,

"The friar Gomita." He was intrusted by Nino de' Visconti_with_the government of Gallura, one of the four jurisdictions into which Sardinia was divided. Having his master's enemies in his power he took a bribe from them, and allowed them to escape. Mention

of Nino will recur in the notes to Canto
xxxiii, and in the Purgatory, Canto viii.
5" Michel Zanche." The President of
Logodoro, another of the four Sardinian
jurisdictions. See Canto xxxiii.
to v. 136.

Note

So that no vengeance they may fear from them,
And I, remaining in this self-same place,
Will, for myself but one, make seven appear,
When my shrill whistle shall be heard; for so
Our custom is to call each other up."

Cagnazzo at that word deriding grinn'd,

Then wagg'd the head and spake: "Hear his device, Mischievous as he is, to plunge him down."

Whereto he thus, who fail'd not in rich store

Of nice-wove toils: "Mischief, forsooth, extreme!
Meant only to procure myself more woe.'

No longer Alichino then refrain'd, But thus, the rest gainsaying, him bespake: "If thou do cast thee down, I not on foot

Will chase thee, but above the pitch will beat

My plumes. Quit we the vantage ground, and let
The bank be as a shield; that we may see,

If singly thou prevail against us all."

Now, reader, of new sport expect to hear.

They each one turn'd his eyes to the other shore, He first, who was the hardest to persuade. The spirit of Navarre chose well his time, Planted his feet on land, and at one leap Escaping, disappointed their resolve.

Them quick resentment stung, but him the most Who was the cause of failure: in pursuit

He therefore sped, exclaiming, "Thou art caught."
But little it avail'd; terror outstripp'd

His following flight; the other plunged beneath,
And he with upward pinion raised his breast:
E'en thus the water-fowl, when she perceives
The falcon near, dives instant down, while he
Enraged and spent retires. That mockery
In Calcabrina fury stirr'd, who flew
After him, with desire of strife inflamed;
And, for the barterer had 'scaped, so turn'd
His talons on his comrade. O'er the dyke
In grapple close they join'd; but the other proved
A goshawk able to rend well his foe;

And in the boiling lake both fell. The heat

Was umpire soon between them; but in vain.
To lift themselves they strove, so fast were glued
Their pennons. Barbariccia, as the rest,

That chance lamenting, four in flight despatch'd
From the other coast, with all their weapons arm'd.
They, to their post on each side speedily
Descending, stretch'd their hooks toward the fiends,
Who flounder'd, inly burning from their scars:
And we departing left them to that broil.

CANTO XXIII

ARGUMENT.-The enraged Demons pursue Dante, but he is preserved from them by Virgil. On reaching the sixth gulf, he beholds the punishment of the hypocrites; which is, to pace continually round the gulf under the pressure of caps and hoods, that are gilt on the outside, but leaden within. He is addressed by two of these, Catalano and Loderingo, Knights of St. Mary, otherwise called Joyous Friars of Bologna. Caïaphas is seen fixed to a cross on the ground, and lies so stretched along the way, that all tread on him in passing.

'N silence and in solitude we went,

IN

One first, the other following his steps,

As minor friars journeying on their road.

The present fray had turn'd my thoughts to muse

Upon old Æsop's fable,1 where he told

What fate unto the mouse and frog befell;

For language hath not sounds more like in sense,

Than are these chances, if the origin

And end of each be heedfully compared.

And as one thought bursts from another forth,
So afterward from that another sprang,

Which added doubly to my former fear.

For thus I reason'd: "These through us have been
So foil'd, with loss and mockery so complete,
As needs must sting them sore. If anger then
Be to their evil will conjoin'd, more fell

1" Esop's fable." The fable of the frog, who offered to carry the mouse across a ditch, with the intention of drowning him, when both were carried

off by a kite. It is not among those Greek fables which go under the name of Esop.

They shall pursue us, than the savage hound
Snatches the leveret panting 'twixt his jaws."
Already I perceived my hair stand all

On end with terror, and look'd eager back.

66

Teacher," I thus began, "if speedily

Thyself and me thou hide not, much I dread
Those evil talons. Even now behind

They urge us: quick imagination works

So forcibly, that I already feel them."

He answer'd: "Were I form'd of leaded glass,

I should not sooner draw unto myself

Thy outward image, than I now imprint.

That from within. This moment came thy thoughts
Presented before mine, with similar act

And countenance similar, so that from both
I one design have framed. If the right coast
Incline so much, that we may thence descend
Into the other chasm, we shall escape
Secure from this imagined pursuit."

He had not spoke his purpose to the end,
When I from far beheld them with spread wings
Suddenly my guide

Approach to take us.
Caught me, even as a

mother that from sleep

Is by the noise aroused, and near her sees

The climbing fires, who snatches up her babe
And flies ne'er pausing, careful more of him
Than of herself, that but a single vest

Clings round her limbs. Down from the jutting beach
Supine he cast him to that pendent rock,

Which closes on one part the other chasm.

Never ran water with such hurrying pace
Adown the tube to turn a land-mill's wheel,
When nearest it approaches to the spokes,
As then along that edge my master ran,
Carrying me in his bosom, as a child,
Not a companion. Scarcely had his feet
Reach'd to the lowest of the bed beneath,
When over us the steep they reach'd: but fear
In him was none; for that high Providence,
Which placed them ministers of the fifth foss,

Power of departing thence took from them all.
There in the depth we saw a painted tribe,
Who paced with tardy steps around, and wept,
Faint in appearance and o'ercome with toil.
Caps had they on, with hoods, that fell low down
Before their eyes, in fashion like to those
Worn by the monks in Cologne.2 Their outside
Was overlaid with gold, dazzling to view,
But leaden all within, and of such weight,
That Frederick's compared to these were straw.
Oh, everlasting wearisome attire!

We yet once more with them together turn'd

To leftward, on their dismal moan intent.
But by the weight opprest, so slowly came
The fainting people, that our company

Was changed, at every movement of the step.

Whence I my guide address'd: "See that thou find Some spirit, whose name may by his deeds be known; And to that end look round thee as thou go'st."

Then one, who understood the Tuscan voice,
Cried after us aloud: "Hold in your feet,
Ye who so swiftly speed through the dusk air.
Perchance from me thou shalt obtain thy wish."
Whereat my leader, turning, me bespake:
Pause, and then onward at their pace proceed."
I staid, and saw two spirits in whose look
Impatient eagerness of mind was mark'd
To overtake me; but the load they bare
And narrow path retarded their approach.
Soon as arrived, they with an eye askance
Perused me, but spake not: then turning, each
To other thus conferring said: "This one
Seems, by the action of his throat, alive;
And, be they dead, what privilege allows
They walk unmantled by the cumbrous stole?"
Then thus to me: 'Tuscan, who visitest
The college of the mourning hypocrites,

66

2" Monks in Cologne." They wore their cowls unusually large.

"Frederick's." The Emperor Frederick II is said to have punished those

who were guilty of high treason by wrapping them up in lead and casting them into a furnace