Page:Divine Comedy (Longfellow 1867) v1.djvu/118

98 I followed him, and little had we gone,

Before the sound of water was so near us,

That speaking we should hardly have been heard.

Even as that stream which holdeth its own course

The first from Monte Veso tow'rds the East,

Upon the left-hand slope of Apennine,

Which is above called Acquacheta, ere

It down descendeth into its low bed,

And at Forlì is vacant of that name,

Reverberates there above San Benedetto

From Alps, by falling at a single leap,

Where for a thousand there were room enough;

Thus downward from a bank precipitate,

We found resounding that dark-tinted water,

So that it soon the ear would have offended.

I had a cord around about me girt,

And therewithal I whilom had designed

To take the panther with the painted skin.

After I this had all from me unloosed,

As my Conductor had commanded me,

I reached it to him, gathered up and coiled,

Whereat he turned himself to the right side,

And at a little distance from the verge,

He cast it down into that deep abyss.