Page:Divine Comedy (Longfellow 1867) v1.djvu/69

Rh Let him return alone by his mad road;

Try, if he can; for thou shalt here remain,

Who hast escorted him through such dark regions."

Think, Reader, if I was discomforted

At utterance of the accursed words;

For never to return here I believed.

"O my dear Guide, who more than seven times

Hast rendered me security, and drawn me

From imminent peril that before me stood,

Do not desert me," said I, "thus undone;

And if the going farther be denied us,

Let us retrace our steps together swiftly."

And that Lord, who had led me thitherward,

Said unto me: "Fear not; because our passage

None can take from us, it by Such is given.

But here await me, and thy weary spirit

Comfort and nourish with a better hope;

For in this nether world I will not leave thee."

So onward goes and there abandons me

My Father sweet, and I remain in doubt,

For No and Yes within my head contend.

I could not hear what he proposed to them;

But with them there he did not linger long,

Ere each within in rivalry ran back.