That traitor, who sees only with one eye, And holds the land, which some one here with me They will not stand in need of vow or prayer." If thou wouldst have me bear up news of thee, Of one of his companions, and his mouth With tongue asunder in his windpipe slit, The stumps uplifting through the murky air, So that the blood made horrible his face, Cried out: "Thou shalt remember Mosca also, Who said, alas! A thing done has an end!' Which was an ill seed for the Tuscan people · "And death unto thy race," thereto I added ; Whence he, accumulating woe on woe, Departed, like a person sad and crazed. But I remained to look upon the crowd; And saw a thing which I should be afraid, That good companion which emboldens man I truly saw, and still I seem to see it, A trunk without a head walk in like manner As walked the others of the mournful herd. And by the hair it held the head dissevered, Hung from the hand in fashion of a lantern, And they were two in one, and one in two; When it was come close to the bridge's foot, It lifted high its arm with all the head, Which were: "Behold now the sore penalty, Thou, who dost breathing go the dead beholding; And so that thou may carry news of me, Know that Bertram de Born am I, the same I made the father and the son rebellious; Achitophel not more with Absalom Parted do I now bear my brain, alas! 130 135 140 CANTO XXIX. at? THE many people and the divers wounds Consider, if to count them thou believest, Henceforth the time allotted us is brief, "If thou hadst," I made answer thereupon, "Attended to the cause for which I looked, And superadding: "In that cavern where I think a spirit of my blood laments The sin which down below there costs so much." Then said the Master: "Be no longer broken Thy thought from this time forward upon him; For him I saw below the little bridge, Pointing at thee, and threatening with his finger So wholly at that time wast thou impeded Which is not yet avenged for him,” I said, Upon the crag, which the next valley shows What pain would be, if from the hospitals Of Valdichiana, 'twixt July and September, All the diseases in one moat were gathered, Such was it here, and such a stench came from it We had descended on the furthest bank From the long crag, upon the left hand still, And then more vivid was my power of sight Down tow'rds the bottom, where the ministress Of the high Lord, Justice infallible, Punishes forgers, which she here records. I do not think a sadder sight to see Was in Ægina the whole people sick, (When was the air so full of pestilence, The animals, down to the little worm, All fell, and afterwards the ancient people, Than was it to behold through that dark valley This on the belly, that upon the back One of the other lay, and others crawling Shifted themselves along the dismal road. We step by step went onward without speech, Gazing upon and listening to the sick Who had not strength enough to lift their bodies. I saw two sitting leaned against each other, By stable-boy for whom his master waits, As every one was plying fast the bite Of nails upon himself, for the great rage And the nails downward with them dragged the scab, In fashion as a knife the scales of bream, "O thou, that with thy fingers dost dismail thee," "And makest of them pincers now and then, Tell me if any Latian is with those Who are herein; so may thy nails suffice thee "Latians are we, whom thou so wasted seest, Both of us here," one weeping made reply; And trembling each one turned himself to me, Saying "Say unto them whate'er thou wishest." "So may your memory not steal away In the first world from out the minds of men, Let not your foul and loathsome punishment "I of Arezzo was," one made reply, "And Albert of Siena had me burned; But what I died for does not bring me here. 'Tis true I said to him, speaking in jest, That I could rise by flight into the air, But unto the last Bolgia of the ten, For alchemy, which in the world I practised, Minos, who cannot err, has me condemned." And to the Poet said I: "Now was ever So vain a people as the Sienese? Not for a certainty the French by far." Replied unto my speech: "Taking out Stricca, And Niccolò, who the luxurious use Of cloves discovered earliest of all Thou must remember, if I well descry thee, 120 125 130 135 CANTO XXX. 'Twas at the time when Juno was enraged, So reft of reason Athamas became, That, seeing his own wife with children twain And whirled him round, and dashed him on a rock ; The Trojan's arrogance, that all things dared, When lifeless she beheld Polyxena, |