And if as King had after him remained

The stripling who in rear of him is sitting,
Well had the valor passed from vase to vase,
Which cannot of the other heirs be said.

Frederick and Jacomo possess the realms,
But none the better heritage possesses.
Not oftentimes upriseth through the branches
The probity of man; and this He wills
Who gives it, so that we may ask of Him.
Eke to the large-nosed reach my words, no less

Than to the other, Pier, who with him sings;
Whence Provence and Apulia grieve already.

The plant is as inferior to its seed,

As more than Beatrice and Margaret
Costanza boasteth of her husband still.

Behold the monarch of the simple life,

Harry of England, sitting there alone;
He in his branches has a better issue.

He who the lowest on the ground among them

Sits looking upward, is the Marquis William, For whose sake Alessandria and her war Make Monferrat and Canavese weep."

CANTO VIII.

'TWAS now the hour that turneth back desire

In those who sail the sea, and melts the heart,

The day they've said to their sweet friends farewell,

And the new pilgrim penetrates with love,

If he doth hear from far away a bell

That seemeth to deplore the dying day,
When I began to make of no avail

My hearing, and to watch one of the souls
Uprisen, that begged attention with its hand.

It joined and lifted upward both its palms,

Fixing its eyes upon the orient,

As if it said to God, "Naught else I care for."

"Te lucis ante" so devoutly issued

Forth from its mouth, and with such dulcet notes,

It made me issue forth from my own mind.
And then the others, sweetly and devoutly,

Accompanied it through all the hymn entire,
Having their eyes on the supernal wheels.

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Here, Reader, fix thine eyes well on the truth,

For now indeed so subtile is the veil,

Surely to penetrate within is easy. I saw that army of the gentle-born

Thereafterward in silence upward gaze,

As if in expectation, pale and humble;
And from on high come forth and down descend
I saw two Angels with two flaming swords,
Truncated and deprived of their points.

Green as the little leaflets just now born

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Their garments were, which, by their verdant pinions
Beaten and blown abroad, they trailed behind.

One just above us came to take his station,

And one descended to the opposite bank,

So that the people were contained between them.

Clearly in them discerned I the blond head;

But in their faces was the eye bewildered,

As faculty confounded by excess.

"From Mary's bosom both of them have come,” Sordello said, "as guardians of the valley

Against the serpent, that will come anon."

Whereupon I, who knew not by what road,

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Turned round about, and closely drew myself,
Utterly frozen, to the faithful shoulders.

And once again Sordello: "Now descend we

'Mid the grand shades, and we will speak to them; Right pleasant will it be for them to see you."

Only three steps I think that I descended,

And was below, and saw one who was looking
Only at me, as if he fain would know me.

Already now the air was growing dark,

But not so that between his eyes and mine

It did not show what it before locked up. Tow'rds me he moved, and I tow'rds him did move;

Noble Judge Nino! how it me delighted,

When I beheld thee not among the damned!

No greeting fair was left unsaid between us;

Then asked he: "How long is it since thou camest
O'er the far waters to the mountain's foot?"

"Oh!" said I to him, "through the dismal places
I came this morn; and am in the first life,
Albeit the other, going thus, I gain."

And on the instant my reply was heard,

He and Sordello both shrank back from me,

Like people who are suddenly bewildered.

One to Virgilius, and the other turned

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To one who sat there, crying, "Up, Currado!

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Come and behold what God in grace has willed!"

Then, turned to me: "By that especial grace

Thou owest unto Him, who so conceals
His own first wherefore, that it has no ford,
When thou shalt be beyond the waters wide,
for me,

Tell my Giovanna that she pray

Where answer to the innocent is made. I do not think her mother loves me more,

Since she has laid aside her wimple white,
Which she, unhappy, needs must wish again.
Through her full easily is comprehended

How long in woman lasts the fire of love,
If eye or touch do not relight it often.
So fair a hatchment will not make for her

The Viper marshalling the Milanese

A-field, as would have made Gallura's Cock.” In this wise spake he, with the stamp impressed Upon his aspect of that righteous zeal

Which measurably burneth in the heart.

My greedy eyes still wandered up to heaven,
Still to that point where slowest are the stars,

And

Even as a wheel the nearest to its axle.

my Conductor: "Son, what dost thou

gaze at

Up there?" And I to him: "At those three torches
With which this hither pole is all on fire."

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