And he who was in every need my succour Said: Turn thee hitherward; see two of them Those shades, that they no longer could be seen, Whence others many and diverse were born; CANTO XIX. It was the hour when the diurnal heat No more can warm the coldness of the moon, Vanquished by earth, or peradventure Saturn, When geomancers their Fortuna Major See in the orient before the dawn Rise by a path that long remains not dim, There came to me in dreams a stammering woman, Squint in her eyes, and in her feet distorted, With hands dissevered, and of sallow hue. I looked at her; and as the sun restores The frigid members, which the night benumbs, Her tongue, and made her all erect thereafter I drew Ulysses from his wandering way Her mouth was not yet closed again, before Close at my side to put her to confusion. "Virgilius, O Virgilius! who is this?" Sternly she said; and he was drawing near With eyes still fixed upon that modest one. She seized the other and in front laid open, Rending her garments, and her belly showed me ; "At least thrice have I called thee; rise and come; I rose; and full already of high day Were all the circles of the Sacred Mountain, And with the new sun at our back we went. Following behind him, I my forehead bore 66 Like unto one who has it laden with thought, Upward he turned us who thus spake to us, For they shall have their souls with comfort filled. A vision new, which bends me to itself, So that I cannot from the thought withdraw me." "Didst thou behold," he said, "that old enchantress, Who sole above us henceforth is lamented? Suffice it thee, and smite earth with thy heels, Even as the hawk, that first his feet surveys, Then turns him to the call and stretches forward, Such I became, and such, as far as cleaves The rock to give a way to him who mounts, On the fifth circle when I had come forth, People I saw upon it who were weeping, Stretched prone upon the ground, all downward turned, "dhæsit pavimento anima mea," I heard them say with sighings so profound, That hardly could the words be understood. "O ye elect of God, whose sufferings Justice and Hope both render less severe, By them somewhat in front of us; whence I Whence he assented with a cheerful sign Above that creature did I draw myself, Whose words before had caused me to take note, Saying: "O Spirit, in whom weeping ripens That without which to God we cannot turn, Who wast thou, and why are your backs turned upwards, And he to me: "Wherefore our backs the heaven' Between Siestri and Chiaveri descends A river beautiful, and of its name The title of my blood its summit makes. A month and little more essayed I how Weighs the great cloak on him from mire who keeps it; Tardy, ah woe is me! was my conversion ; I saw that there the heart was not at rest, From God was I, and wholly avaricious; What avarice does is here made manifest In the purgation of these souls converted, And no more bitter pain the Mountain has. Even as our eye did not uplift itself Aloft, being fastened upon earthly things, For every good, whereby was action lost, Only by listening, of my reverence, "What cause," he said, "has downward bent thee thus ?" And I to him: "For your own dignity, Standing, my conscience stung me with remorse.' "Straighten thy legs, and upward raise thee, brother," He answered: "Err not, fellow-servant am I If e'er that holy, evangelic sound, Which sayeth neque nubent, thou hast heard, Well canst thou see why in this wise I speak. Now go; no longer will I have thee linger, Because thy stay doth incommode my weeping, With which I ripen that which thou hast said. On earth I have a grandchild named Alagia, Good in herself, unless indeed our house, Malevolent may make her by example, And she alone remains to me on earth." CANTO XX. ILL strives the will against a better will; On the other side too near the verge approach., Accursed mayst thou be, thou old she-wolf, That more than all the other beasts hast prey, O heaven, in whose gyrations some appear To think conditions here below are changed, Where thou didst lay thy sacred burden down." To the possession of great wealth with vice." So pleasurable were these words to me That I drew farther onward to have knowledge He furthermore was speaking of the largess Which Nicholas unto the maidens gave, "O soul that dost so excellently speak, Tell me who wast thou," said I, "and why only Which overshadows all the Christian world, Had power, soon vengeance would be taken on it ; Hugh Capet was I called upon the earth; From me were born the Louises and Philips, I was the son of a Parisian butcher, What time the ancient kings had perished all, |