Then taketh well his time the Navarrese,

Sets fast his feet on ground, and with a spring Shoots off, and from their scope his person frees. Then each one of his error felt the sting,

But chiefly he that led the rest astray,

Who flew and said, "I've caught thee," triumphing

To small effect; for wings could not convey

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So swift as terror; down the other went,

And he still flying tacked his front away.

So dives the duck beneath his element,

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When toward him swoops the hawk, who turns about From the pursuit, embittered and outspent.

But Calcabrine, indignant at the flout,

Chased after him, in the successful flight Rejoiced, that he might pick a quarrel out. And since the embezzler now was out of sight,

He turned his claws against his comrade's brow, And grappled with him o'er the moat in fight. But the other proved a good goshawk enow

To claw him thoroughly, and so the twain

Fell in the midmost of the scalding slough.

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Full soon the heat dissevered them again,

But power in them was none to rise up thence, The pitch such hold upon their wings had ta'en. But Barbacresp and all by these events

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Much grieved, made four to fly from yonder coast, Their forks in hand, who with all diligence,

One here, one there, descending to his post,

Their hooks unto the limèd fiends supplied, Of whom the scum already had made a roast, And in the task we left them occupied.

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CANTO XXIII.

ALL silent, unattended, and alone,

We journeyed, one in front and one behind, As two Franciscan brethren might have gone. On one of Æsop's fables had my mind

Been turned, by reason of the present fray, Where mention of a mouse and frog we find, For not so much alike are aye and yea,

As that event to this, if you collate

Original and end, with still survey :

And even as thought from thought may pullulate, 10
There sprang out of my first another thus,
Which made my former terrors doubly great.

I thought to this effect, "These fiends for us

Are flouted, with such scathe and scorn to bear

As vexes them no doubt in overplus.

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If wrath accrues, and evil will is there,

They'll be pursuing us with more despite Than hound, already snapping after hare." Then felt I all my flesh to creep from fright, And said, intently gazing towards the rear, "O master, if thou take not out of sight Thyself and me full soon, I sorely fear

Those Evilarms, we have them on our wake, I fancy them so keenly that I hear." "If I were leaded glass, I should not take,”

Said he, "so suddenly thine outward frame,

As I enmarble now thy fancy's make.
Thy very thoughts among my own just came,

All uniform in 'havior and in face,
Whence I have made one counsel of the same.
If we can reach the further chasm, in case

The right hand bank affordeth some descent,

We shall escape the imaginable chase."

He scarce had given advice to such intent,

When I beheld them come with wings displayed,

Not far behind, upon our seizure bent.

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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.

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