Page:Divine Comedy (Longfellow 1867) v1.djvu/191



HO ever could, e'en with untrammelled words,

Tell of the blood and of the wounds in full

Which now I saw, by many times narrating?

Each tongue would for a certainty fall short

By reason of our speech and memory,

That have small room to comprehend so much.

If were again assembled all the people

Which formerly upon the fateful land

Of Puglia were lamenting for their blood

Shed by the Romans and the lingering war

That of the rings made such illustrious spoils,

As Livy has recorded, who errs not,

With those who felt the agony of blows

By making counterstand to Robert Guiscard,

And all the rest, whose bones are gathered still

At Ceperano, where a renegade

Was each Apulian, and at Tagliacozzo,

Where without arms the old Alardo conquered,