Page:Divine Comedy (Longfellow 1867) v1.djvu/146

126 He hurled him down, and over the hard crag

Turned round, and never was a mastiff loosened

In so much hurry to pursue a thief.

The other sank, and rose again face downward;

But the demons, under cover of the bridge,

Cried: "Here the Santo Volto has no place!

Here swims one otherwise than in the Serchio;

Therefore, if for our gaffs thou wishest not,

Do not uplift thyself above the pitch."

They seized him then with more than a hundred rakes;

They said: "It here behoves thee to dance covered,

That, if thou canst, thou secretly mayest pilfer."

Not otherwise the cooks their scullions make

Immerse into the middle of the caldron

The meat with hooks, so that it may not float.

Said the good Master to me: "That it be not

Apparent thou art here, crouch thyself down

Behind a jag, that thou mayest have some screen;

And for no outrage that is done to me

Be thou afraid, because these things I know,

For once before was I in such a scuffle."

Then he passed on beyond the bridge's head,

And as upon the sixth bank he arrived,

Need was for him to have a steadfast front.