Page:Divine Comedy (Longfellow 1867) v1.djvu/180

160 I stood upon the bridge uprisen to see,

So that, if I had seized not on a rock,

Down had I fallen without being pushed.

And the Leader, who beheld me so attent,

Exclaimed: "Within the fires the spirits are;

Each swathes himself with that wherewith he burns."

"My Master," I replied, "by hearing thee

I am more sure; but I surmised already

It might be so, and already wished to ask thee

Who is within that fire, which comes so cleft

At top, it seems uprising from the pyre

Where was Eteocles with his brother placed."

He answered me: "Within there are tormented

Ulysses and Diomed, and thus together

They unto vengeance run as unto wrath.

And there within their flame do they lament

The ambush of the horse, which made the door

Whence issued forth the Romans' gentle seed;

Therein is wept the craft, for which being dead

Deidamia still deplores Achilles,

And pain for the Palladium there is borne."

"If they within those sparks possess the power

To speak," I said, "thee, Master, much I pray,

And re-pray, that the prayer be worth a thousand,