Onward we went with footsteps slow and scarce, Where thou didst lay thy sacred burden down." Thereafterward I heard: "O good Fabricius, Virtue with poverty didst thou prefer To the possession of great wealth with vice." So pleasurable were these words to me 16 20 25 That I drew farther onward to have knowledge Touching that spirit whence they seemed to come. He furthermore was speaking of the largess Which Nicholas unto the maidens gave, In order to conduct their youth to honor. "O soul that dost so excellently speak, 31 Tell me who wast thou," said I, "and why only Thou dost renew these praises well deserved? 36 Not without recompense shall be thy word, If I return to finish the short journey I was the root of that malignant plant Which overshadows all the Christian world, 40 So that good fruit is seldom gathered from it; 45 But if Douay and Ghent and Lille and Bruges Had power, soon vengeance would be taken on it; And this I pray of Him who judges all. Hugh Capet was I called upon the earth; From me were born the Louises and Philips, 50 By whom in later days hath France been governed. I was the son of a Parisian butcher, What time the ancient kings had perished all, I found me grasping in my hands the rein Of the realm's government, and so great power Of new acquest, and so with friends abounding, That to the widowed diadem promoted 55 The head of mine own offspring was, from whom The consecrated bones of these began. So long as the great dowry of Provence Out of my blood took not the sense of shame, A victim made of Conradin, and then A time I see, not very distant now, 60 65 70 Which draweth forth another Charles from France, The better to make known both him and his. Unarmed he goes, and only with the lance That Judas jousted with; and that he thrusts So that he makes the paunch of Florence burst. VOL. II. 5 G He thence not land, but sin and infamy, Shall gain, so much more grievous to himself As the more light such damage he accounts. The other, now gone forth, ta'en in his ship, See I his daughter sell, and chaffer for her As corsairs do with other female slaves. What more, O Avarice, canst thou do to us, Since thou my blood so to thyself hast drawn, It careth not for its own proper flesh? That less may seem the future ill and past, I see the flower-de-luce Alagna enter, And Christ in his own Vicar captive made. I see him yet another time derided; I see renewed the vinegar and gall, And between living thieves I see him slain. I see the modern Pilate so relentless, This doth not sate him, but without decretal He to the temple bears his sordid sails! When, O my Lord! shall I be joyful made 76 80 85 90 By looking on the vengeance which, concealed, 95 Makes sweet thine anger in thy secrecy? What I was saying of that only bride Of the Holy Ghost, and which occasioned thee To turn towards me for some commentary, So long has been ordained to all our prayers As the day lasts; but when the night comes on, At that time we repeat Pygmalion, 105 And the misery of avaricious Midas, That followed his inordinate demand, At which forevermore one needs must laugh. The foolish Achan each one then records, And how he stole the spoils; so that the wrath 110 Of Joshua still appears to sting him here. Then we accuse Sapphira with her husband, We laud the hoof-beats Heliodorus had, And the whole mount in infamy encircles Polymnestor who murdered Polydorus. 115 Here finally is cried: 'O Crassus, tell us, According to desire of speech, that spurs us And made endeavor to o'ercome the road 120 125 As much as was permitted to our power, When I perceived, like something that is falling, The mountain tremble, whence a chill seized on me, As seizes him who to his death is going. Certes so violently shook not Delos, Before Latona made her nest therein To give birth to the two eyes of the heaven. Then 130 135 "Gloria in excelsis Deo," all Were saying, from what near I comprehended, Where it was possible to hear the cry. We paused immovable and in suspense, Even as the shepherds who first heard that song, 140 Until the trembling ceased, and it was finished. Then we resumed again our holy path, 145 Watching the shades that lay upon the ground, Already turned to their accustomed plaint. No ignorance ever with so great a strife Had rendered me importunate to know, If erreth not in this my memory, As meditating then I seemed to have; Neither from haste to question did I dare, Nor of myself I there could aught perceive; 150 So I went onward timorous and thoughtful. CANTO XXI. HE natural thirst, that ne'er is satisfied THE Excepting with the water for whose grace The woman of Samaria besought, Put me in travail, and haste goaded me Along the encumbered path behind my Leader, s And I was pitying that righteous vengeance. And lo! in the same manner as Luke writeth That Christ appeared to two upon the way From the sepulchral cave already risen, |