Page:Divine Comedy (Longfellow 1867) v1.djvu/150



HAVE erewhile seen horsemen moving camp,

Begin the storming, and their muster make,

And sometimes starting off for their escape;

Vaunt-couriers have I seen upon your land,

O Aretines, and foragers go forth,

Tournaments stricken, and the joustings run,

Sometimes with trumpets and sometimes with bells,

With kettle-drums, and signals of the castles,

And with our own, and with outlandish things,

But never yet with bagpipe so uncouth

Did I see horsemen move, nor infantry,

Nor ship by any sign of land or star.

We went upon our way with the ten demons;

Ah, savage company! but in the church

With saints, and in the tavern with the gluttons!

Ever upon the pitch was my intent,

To see the whole condition of that Bolgia,

And of the people who therein were burned.