Scouring thy plains, Arezzo! have I seen, And clashing tournaments, and tilting jousts, Now with the sound of trumpets, now of bells, Tabors, or signals made from castled heights, And with inventions multiform, our own, Or introduc'd from foreign land; but ne'er To such a strange recorder I beheld,
In evolution moving, horse nor foot,
Nor ship, that tack'd by sign from land or star. With the ten demons on our way we went;
Ah fearful company! but in the church
With saints, with gluttons at the tavern's mess. Still earnest on the pitch I gaz'd, to mark
All things whate'er the chasm contain'd, and those Who burn'd within. As dolphins, that, in sign To mariners, heave high their arched backs, That thence forewarn'd they may advise to save Their threaten'd vessel; so, at intervals, To ease the pain his back some sinner show'd, Then hid more nimbly than the lightning glance. E'en as the frogs, that of a wat'ry moat Stand at the brink, with the jaws only out, Their feet and of the trunk all else concealed, Thus on each part the sinners stood, but soon As Barbariccia was at hand, so they Drew back under the wave. I saw, and yet My heart doth stagger, one, that waited thus, As it befalls that oft one frog remains, While the next springs away: and Graffiacan, Who of the fiends was nearest, grappling seiz'd
His clotted locks, and dragg'd him sprawling up, That he appear'd to me an otter. Each Already by their names I knew, so well
When they were chosen, I observ'd, and mark'd How one the other call'd. "O Rubicant! See that his hide thou with thy talons flay,"
Shouted together all the cursed crew.
Then I "Inform thee, master! if thou may,
What wretched soul is this, on whom their hands His foes have laid." My leader to his side
Approach'd, and whence he came inquir'd, to whom Was answer'd thus: "Born in Navarre's domain My mother plac'd me in a lord's retinue, For she had borne me to a losel vile, A spendthrift of his substance and himself. The good king Thibault after that I serv'd, To peculating here my thoughts were turn'd, Whereof I give account in this dire heat."
Straight Ciriatto, from whose mouth a tusk Issued on either side, as from a boar, Ript him with one of these. "Twixt evil claws The mouse had fall'n: but Barbariccia cried, Seizing him with both arms: "Stand thou apart, While I do fix him on my prong transpierc'd." Then added, turning to my guide his face, "Inquire of him, if more thou wish to learn, Ere he again be rent." My leader thus: "Then tell us of the partners in thy guilt; Knowest thou any sprung of Latian 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, seiz'd 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 threat'ning brow Restrain'd them. When their strife a little ceas'd, Of him, who yet was gazing on his wound, My teacher thus without delay inquir'd: "Who was the spirit, from whom by evil hap Parting, as thou has told, thou cam❜st 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 us'd 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
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,
Rebuk'd him thus: "Off! cursed bird! avaunt!"- 95 "If ye desire to see or hear," he thus
Quaking with dread resum'd, or Tuscan spirits Or Lombard, I will cause them to appear. Meantime let these ill talons bate their fury,
So that no vengeance they may fear from them,
And I, remaining in this self-same place, Will for myself but one, make sev'n 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 plung'd beneath, And he with upward pinion rais'd his breast: E'en thus the water-fowl, when she perceives The falcon near, dives instant down, while he Enrag'd and spent retires. That mockery In Calcabrina fury stirr'd, who flew After him, with desire of strife inflam'd; And, for the barterer had 'scap'd, so turn'd
His talons on his comrade. O'er the dyke
In grapple close they join'd; but the' other prov'd
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 dispatch'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.
IN silence and in solitude we went,
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, 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 compar'd.
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 mock'ry so complete, As needs must sting them sore. If anger then Be to their evil will conjoin'd, more fell They shall pursue us, than the savage hound Snatches the leveret, panting 'twixt his jaws." Already I perceiv'd my hair stand all' On end with terror, and look'd cager back. "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 count'nance similar, so that from both
I one design have fram'd. 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 Approach to take us. Suddenly my guide Caught me, ev'n as a mother that from sleep Is by the noise arous'd, 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,
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