Their lids above them were suspended duly,

And from them did such piteous wailings rise,
As seemed to come from painéd wretches truly.
"Master," said I, "what people in this guise,
Ensepulchred in every vaulted ark,

Make themselves heard with miserable sighs?
He answered, "Here is each heresiarch,

And all his sect of followers, who load

125

The graves much more than you would think to mark. Here like with like is fixed in one abode ;

The sepulchres are heated more and less."

He ceased, and to the right we took the road,
Betwixt the torments and high buttresses.

130

Now wend we by a secret path confined
Betwixt the city walls and penal fires,

My master in the front, and I behind.
"O supreme puissance, through the guil
Who leadest and turnest me after thy
Speak now, and satisfy my heart's desire
This people, lying in the monuments,

Could they be seen? the lids are now From all, and none are set for their defe "They shall be all shut fast," was his re "When from Jehoshaphat they come Taking the bodies which they left on hig On this side is the cemetery, whither

With Epicurus all his sect are sent,

Who make the soul and body die togethe

But further, thou shalt soon have thy content
As to the question which thou utterest,

And that on which thou art in silence bent."
"Dear guide,” I answered, "I have not supprest

My thought, unless from many words to abstain, 20 Which hath been, now and erewhile, thy behest." "Ho, Tuscan, talking in such courtly strain,

Who treadest alive the fiery city, be Content awhile at this place to remain. Thy language clearly manifesteth thee

A native of that noble land, which may

Perchance have suffered too much wrong by me."
This voice all on a sudden made its way

From one among the arks, at which I drew

To my guide somewhat nearer in dismay. "Turn round again," he said, "what wilt thou do?

Look! Farinata standeth there upright;

Down to the girdle he appears in view."

Already had I fixed on him my sight,

And he stood working up his chest and head, As 'twere a man that scorneth hell outright.

F

25

30

35

35

My guide, with hands alert and spirited, Betwixt the sepulchres impelling me, Said, "Let thy converse there be limited As I arrived before his tomb's foot, he

Looked on me for awhile, then 'gan to With some disdain, "What was thy anc And I, being desirous to obey,

Kept nothing back, but showed him all At which he raised his brows a little way And said, "They were fierce foes of all

And of myself, and all who took our p For which I scattered them once and aga

Both once and afterwards," said I; "1 On your side mastered not so well the ar And hereat with discovered face I see

A shade beside the former rise chin-hi I judge that he was resting on his knee; Who all around me looked, as to descry

If he could some companion with me f But when his doubts were utterly gone b

He weeping said, "If thou into this blind
Prison-house by loftiness of soul art brought,
Where is my son? why is not he combined?"
"Not my own power," said I, "my passage wrought;

By him that waiteth yonder I am led,

Whom, it may be, your Guido held at nought."

His words and mode of punishment had read

His name to me by this time, wherefore I Could answer him as fully as I've said.

Eftsoons he rose up with a bitter cry,

"What meanest thou by held? lives he no more? Does the sweet light no longer meet his eye?" Then finding I made some delay before

I answered him, right back I saw him fall ;
Nor once to reappear above he bore.
But that high-minded comrade, at whose call

I there had halted, neither bowed his head,
Nor bent his flank, nor countenance changed at all.
Continuing our words, "And if," he said,

"They learnt the art but ill, this being so

Doth more afflict me than my fiery bed;

60

65

70

76