Page:Divine Comedy (Longfellow 1867) v1.djvu/193

Rh But who art thou, that musest on the crag,

Perchance to postpone going to the pain

That is adjudged upon thine accusations?"

"Nor death hath reached him yet, nor guilt doth bring him,"

My Master made reply, "to be tormented;

But to procure him full experience,

Me, who am dead, behoves it to conduct him

Down here through Hell, from circle unto circle;

And this is true as that I speak to thee."

More than a hundred were there when they heard him,

Who in the moat stood still to look at me,

Through wonderment oblivious of their torture.

"Now say to Fra Dolcino, then, to arm him,

Thou, who perhaps wilt shortly see the sun,

If soon he wish not here to follow me,

So with provisions, that no stress of snow

May give the victory to the Novarese,

Which otherwise to gain would not be easy."

After one foot to go away he lifted,

This word did Mahomet say unto me,

Then to depart upon the ground he stretched it.

Another one, who had his throat pierced through,

And nose cut off close underneath the brows,

And had no longer but a single ear,