Page:Divine Comedy (Longfellow 1867) v1.djvu/108



OW bears us onward one of the hard margins,

And so the brooklet's mist o'ershadows it,

From fire it saves the water and the dikes.

Even as the Flemings, 'twixt Cadsand and Bruges,

Fearing the flood that tow'rds them hurls itself,

Their bulwarks build to put the sea to flight;

And as the Paduans along the Brenta,

To guard their villas and their villages,

Or ever Chiarentana feel the heat;

In such similitude had those been made,

Albeit not so lofty nor so thick,

Whoever he might be, the master made them.

Now were we from the forest so remote,

I could not have discovered where it was,

Even if backward I had turned myself,

When we a company of souls encountered,

Who came beside the dike, and every one

Gazed at us, as at evening we are wont