Page:Undivine Comedy - Zygmunt Krasiński, tr. Martha Walker Cook.djvu/156

150 they have upon earth? Like them, let us be happy on earth before we die!"

At this moment, the man with the dagger and the cup, leading the consecrated giants, penetrated into the midst of the howlers. The crowd saluted him with furious acclamations, crying: "When wilt thou lead us hence?" He replied: "For the present be patient; in a little while your hour cometh!" And the giants stretched forth to him their hands; their bones cracked, and the blood spurted from their fresh wounds, and their lips trembled with the oath: "With you to conquer, or with you to die!" And following their chief, they went where the long rows of gibbets, illuminated by blazing torches, glared through the gloom!

Groups of boys knelt under every scaffold, and jurists and scribes, versed in the Scriptures, were seated near them, and taught them in what way they ought to curse their fathers. The children repeated the maledictions in chorus, and if one, weaker than the rest, hesitated or wept with repugnance, the teachers fell upon him with raised lash, and the child, shielding himself with his little hands, recommenced to recite his task. The Shade of Dante, like a dark column, took a place in the midst of those kneeling rows, and seemed to listen. He suddenly uttered a loud cry, and the lesson was interrupted. The scribes and jurists grew pale, and asked: "Who spoke?" and the Shadow replied: "One of those against whom you thunder forth your imprecations. Liars and hypocrites! You are lower than the vilest reptile, for you assume a robe of moral grandeur, and you try to imitate the language of science! Look into my dead eyes, and endure if you can my glance of scorn! Ah! you are utterly ignorant of what constitutes the liberty of the spirit! Woe! woe! you understand nothing but the well-being of the body!"

Then he called the children to him, and stretching his hands above those who surrounded him and in the direction of those who were more distant, he blessed them all and said: "Do not believe the falsehoods you have been taught! It is you who are to-day slaves! The fathers of your fathers were free in the simplicity of their own