Page:Divine Comedy (Longfellow 1867) v1.djvu/165

Rh For as we came unto the ruined bridge,

The Leader turned to me with that sweet look

Which at the mountain's foot I first beheld.

His arms he opened, after some advisement

Within himself elected, looking first

Well at the ruin, and laid hold of me.

And even as he who acts and meditates,

For aye it seems that he provides beforehand,

So upward lifting me towards the summit

Of a huge rock, he scanned another crag,

Saying: "To that one grapple afterwards,

But try first if 't is such that it will hold thee."

This was no way for one clothed with a cloak;

For hardly we, he light, and I pushed upward,

Were able to ascend from jag to jag.

And had it not been, that upon that precinct

Shorter was the ascent than on the other,

He I know not, but I had been dead beat.

But because Malebolge tow'rds the mouth

Of the profoundest well is all inclining,

The structure of each valley doth import

That one bank rises and the other sinks.

Still we arrived at length upon the point

Wherefrom the last stone breaks itself asunder.