| |
| IT hath been heretofore my chance to see | |
| Horsemen with martial order shifting camp, | |
| To onset sallying, or in muster ranged, | |
| Or in retreat sometimes outstretch’d for flight: | |
| Light-armed squadrons and fleet foragers | 5 |
| Scouring thy plains, Arezzo! have I seen, | |
| And clashing tournaments, and titling jousts, | |
| Now with the sound of trumpets, now of bells, | |
| Tabors, or signals made from castled heights, | |
| And with inventions multiform, our own, | 10 |
| Or introduced from foreign land; but ne’er | |
| To such a strange recorder I beheld, | |
| In evolution moving, horse nor foot, | |
| Nor ship, the tack’d by sign from land or star. | |
| With the ten Demons on our way we went; | 15 |
| Ah, fearful company! but in the church | |
| With saints, with gluttons at the tavern’s mess. | |
| Still earnest on the pitch I gazed, to mark | |
| All things whate’er the chasm contain’d, and those | |
| Who burn’d within. As dolphins that, in sign | 20 |
| 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. | 25 |
| E’en as the frogs, that of a watery moat | |
| Stand at the brink, with the jaws only out, | |
| Their feet and of the trunk all else conceal’d, | |
| Thus on each part the sinners stood; but soon | |
| As Barbariccia was at hand, so they | 30 |
| Drew back under the wave. I saw, and yet | |
| My heart doth stragger, 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 seized | 35 |
| 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 observed, and mark’d | |
| How one the other call’d. “O Rubicant! | 40 |
| 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 | 45 |
| Approach’d, and whence he came inquired; to whom | |
| Was answer’d thus: “Born in Navarre’s domain, 1 | |
| My mother placed me in a lord’s retinue: | |
| For she had borne me to a losel vile, | |
| A spendthrift of his substance and himself. | 50 |
| The good King Thibault 2 after that I served: | |
| 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, | 55 |
| Ripp’d him with one of these. ’Twixt evil claws | |
| The mouse had fallen: but Barbariccia cried, | |
| Seizing him with both arms: “Stand thou apart | |
| While I do fix him on my prong transpierced.” | |
| Then added, turning to my guide his face, | 60 |
| “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 Latin land | |
| Under the tar?” “I parted,” he replied, | 65 |
| “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, seized on his arm, | 70 |
| 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 threatening brow | |
| Restrain’d them. When their strife a little ceased, | 75 |
| Of him, who yet was gazing on his wound, | |
| My teacher thus without delay inquired: | |
| “Who was the spirit, from whom by evil hap | |
| Parting, as thou hast told, thou camest to shore?” | |
| “It was the friar Gomita,” 3 he rejoin’d, | 80 |
| “He of Gallura, vessel of all guile, | |
| Who had his master’s enemies in hand, | |
| And used them so that they commend him well. | |
| Money he took, and them at large dismiss’d; | |
| So he reports; and in each other charge | 85 |
| Committed to his keeping play’d the part | |
| Of barterer to the height. With him doth herd | |
| The chief of Logodoro, Michel Zanche. 4 | |
| Sardinia is a theme whereof their tongue | |
| Is never weary. Out! alas! behold | 90 |
| 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, | |
| Rebuked him thus: “Off, cursed bird! avaunt!” | 95 |
| “If ye desire to see or hear,” he thus | |
| Quaking with dread resumed, “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, | 100 |
| And I, remaining in this self-same place, | |
| Will, for myself but one, make seven 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, | 105 |
| 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.” | 110 |
| 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 | 115 |
| 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. | 120 |
| 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 | 125 |
| He therefore sped, exclaiming, “Thou art caught.” | |
| But little it avail’d; terror outstripp’d | |
| His following flight; the other plunged beneath, | |
| And he with upward pinion raised his breast: | |
| E’en thus the water-fowl, when she perceives | 130 |
| The falcon near, dives instant down, while he | |
| Enraged and spent retires. That mockery | |
| In Calcabrina fury stirr’d, who flew | |
| After him, with desire of strife inflamed; | |
| And, for the barterer had ’scaped, so turn’d | 135 |
| His talons on his comrade. O’er the dyke | |
| In grapple close they join’d; but the other proved | |
| 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 | 140 |
| To lift themselves they strove, so fast were glued | |
| Their pennons. Barbariccia, as the rest, | |
| That chance lamenting, four in flight despatch’d | |
| From the other coast, with all their weapons arm’d. | |
| They, to their post on each side speedily | 145 |
| Descending, stretch’d their hooks toward the fiends, | |
| Who flounder’d, inly burning from their scars: | |
| And we departing left them to that broil. | |
