Page:Divine Comedy (Longfellow 1867) v1.djvu/135

Rh If who I am thou carest so much to know,

That thou on that account hast crossed the bank,

Know that I vested was with the great mantle;

And truly was I son of the She-bear,

So eager to advance the cubs, that wealth

Above, and here myself, I pocketed.

Beneath my head the others are dragged down

Who have preceded me in simony,

Flattened along the fissure of the rock.

Below there I shall likewise fall, whenever

That one shall come who I believed thou wast,

What time the sudden question I proposed.

But longer I my feet already toast,

And here have been in this way upside down,

Than he will planted stay with reddened feet;

For after him shall come of fouler deed

From tow'rds the west a Pastor without law,

Such as befits to cover him and me.

New Jason will he be, of whom we read

In Maccabees; and as his king was pliant,

So he who governs France shall be to this one."

I do not know if I were here too bold,

That him I answered only in this metre:

"I pray thee tell me now how great a treasure