Page:Divine Comedy (Longfellow 1867) v1.djvu/162

142 Said to me: "This transfixed one, whom thou seest,

Counselled the Pharisees that it was meet

To put one man to torture for the people.

Crosswise and naked is he on the path,

As thou perceivest; and he needs must feel,

Whoever passes, first how much he weighs;

And in like mode his father-in-law is punished

Within this moat, and the others of the council,

Which for the Jews was a malignant seed."

And thereupon I saw Virgilius marvel

O'er him who was extended on the cross

So vilely in eternal banishment.

Then he directed to the Friar this voice:

"Be not displeased, if granted thee, to tell us

If to the right hand any pass slope down

By which we two may issue forth from here,

Without constraining some of the black angels

To come and extricate us from this deep."

Then he made answer: "Nearer than thou hopest

There is a rock, that forth from the great circle

Proceeds, and crosses all the cruel valleys,

Save that at this 't is broken, and does not bridge it;

You will be able to mount up the ruin,

That sidelong slopes and at the bottom rises."