Page:Divine Comedy (Longfellow 1867) v1.djvu/234

214 And the other, who so stalwart seems, is Cassius.

But night is reascending, and 't is time

That we depart, for we have seen the whole."

As seemed him good, I clasped him round the neck,

And he the vantage seized of time and place,

And when the wings were opened wide apart,

He laid fast hold upon the shaggy sides;

From fell to fell descended downward then

Between the thick hair and the frozen crust.

When we were come to where the thigh revolves

Exactly on the thickness of the haunch,

The Guide, with labor and with hard-drawn breath,

Turned round his head where he had had his legs,

And grappled to the hair, as one who mounts,

So that to Hell I thought we were returning.

"Keep fast thy hold, for by such stairs as these,"

The Master said, panting as one fatigued,

"Must we perforce depart from so much evil."

Then through the opening of a rock he issued,

And down upon the margin seated me;

Then tow'rds me he outstretched his wary step.

I lifted up mine eyes and thought to see

Lucifer in the same way I had left him;

And I beheld him upward hold his legs.