Page:Undivine Comedy - Zygmunt Krasiński, tr. Martha Walker Cook.djvu/157

Rh hearts. Faith in God was their buckler against the oppression of men. Their souls were as fresh as the young verdure of the spring. In the cabin of the valley, or the chateau on the hill, they were everywhere true to themselves; their love was really love, and their worship was a true combat! In this vast world of to-day, love is no longer to be found; in this vast world of to-day, there is no true combat!"

It seemed to the Young Man that one of the jurists rose and advanced towards Dante, grasping in his hands the double barrel of his gun, and he was blind in one eye, and he cried: "Equality! murder!"

His hat was placed awry upon his head, and the word was embroidered in great letters upon it. He stumbled as he walked, and when he stopped he cocked his gun and began to harangue. His one eye rolled in its socket, and the froth flowed from his lips. But the pale shade interrupted his discourse: "Thy fury exhales in vain sounds, in which there are no thoughts. Not words, but acts; not blood, but the concord of the citizens must form and maintain a Republic! The brute alone lives in thee; the spirit is dead! Before ten years shall have passed away, thou wilt have betrayed the People!"

The eye of the speech-maker became blood-shot, and, seized by a secret terror, he lowered the barrel of his gun. The Shade said to the Young Man: "Such souls merit contempt. The wave that flings itself most violently against the sands makes the most noise:—human bosoms are the waves of this world!"

The ground now began to descend; the light from the gibbets still shone, but ever more and more feebly. Behold! afar off appeared numberless little livid stars, like the night-lamps in a hospital. Each star was fixed above a mat of reeds, on which lay a woman: a whole People of women lay here, and groaned, sighed, and wept, and ever and anon broke forth a last cry of pain, a shriek of mortal anguish; and as they died away, again commenced low sobs and sighs and wails, and they prolonged themselves ever farther in the distance, and ever lower in the depths of the subterranean vaults!

At the sight of Dante, one of the women rose, un-