THE Poets proceed, accompanied by the Demons, who with their hooks haul up Ciampolo, one of the barterers. His clever device to escape. Battle in consequence between two of the Demons.

OFT squadrons have I seen their station change,
Rush to the charge, or suddenly retreat,
And swift advancing o'er the country range:

Thy plains, Arezzo, oft have I survey'd

Hastily swept by light-arm'd horsemen fleet;

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Oft been, where tilts and tournaments were play'd;— (Now bells, now trumpets sounding forth alarms,

Now drums and signals with tremendous din,
Native or foreign, summoning to arms ;)

But ne'er to such strange instrument of war
Or horse or foot advancing have I seen;
Or vessel tack by sign from land or star.

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'With the ten demons now our way we sped;

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Ah! fell companions! but, "With saints at church,
With gluttons at the tavern," it is said.

Still on the pitch I gazed, that I might know

The secrets of the gulf by closer search,

And mark the souls amid the fire below.

As dolphins heave their backs above the wave,
Prognosticating angry tempests black-

Signal to mariners their ship to save;

So, to alleviate the excessive pain,

From time to time each sinner raised his back,
But swift as lightning 'twas conceal'd again.
As, in a trench, frogs at the water's side

Sit squatting-with their noses raised on high,
The while their feet and all their bulk they hide;
Thus

upon either hand the sinners stood:

But Barbariccia now approaching nigh,

Quick they withdrew beneath the boiling flood.
I saw-and still my heart is thrill'd with fear-
One spirit linger,-as beside a ditch

One frog remains, the others disappear ;-
And Graffiacan, who nearest chanced to be,
With grapple seized his hair all stiff with pitch:

Thus pendant, like an otter eke was he.

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(I knew the names of all the demons now,

For I had mark'd them when they chosen were,
And at their muster call had listen'd how.)

"O Rubicant, look well, and see you place

Your hooks aright, that they his back may tear," Cried all at once the inexorable race. "Master," I said, "persuade them to disclose,

If so thou canst, who is that ill-starr'd shade

Thus fall'n within the clutches of his foes." Thereat my leader, drawing to his side,

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Enquiry of his birth and country made.

"Born in Navarre was I," he straight replied:

"My mother placed me servant to a lord;

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(For she had borne me to a wicked man,

Who spent his goods, then closed his life abhorr'd.) Thibault the good I served in aftertime;

And in his court to barter I began,

Which now I pay for in this scalding slime."
Ciriatto, whose fell mouth, e'en like a boar,

A savage tusk on either side display'd,
Soon let him feel how cleverly they tore.
To wicked cats the mouse had fall'n a prey ;-
But Barbariccia caught him up, and said,
"While I transfix him, stand ye all away."

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Then to my master turning, he exclaim'd:

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"More would'st thou know? Then ask what pleaseth

Ere by another fiend his form be maim'd."

"Amid the other sinners," quoth my guide,

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Say, know'st thou any one from Italy
Beneath the pitch?" "But lately," he replied,
"I quitted one who lived that country near:
Could I rejoin him in yon sheltering flood,
Nor piercing hook nor talon should I fear."
Quoth Libicocco: "not so much delay :"

An arm then seizing in his pincers rude,

[thee,

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He maul'd it, till he rent a part away. And Draghignazzo would have lent a hook,

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And torn his leg; but lo! their chief turn'd round,
And check'd his malice with a threatening look.
When somewhat was their vehemence allay'd ;-
Of him who still was looking at his wound,
My guide without delay enquiry made:
"Who was that other spirit, from whose side
Hither thou lately cam'st in evil hour?"
"The Friar Gomita was it," he replied,-

"He of Gallura, vessel of all fraud,

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power,

Who, when his master's foes were in his
So treated them, that all his name applaud :

Gold he received, and let his prisoners free;
In each employ where he could use deceit
The very prince of barterers was he.
With him too Michael Zanche doth reside;
For them Sardinia is a subject sweet,

With which their tongues are never satisfied.
Ah me!-lo, how that other fiend doth grin!

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More would I say; but fear my tongue hath bound,

Lest he to claw me with his hooks begin.

'3

To Farfarello turn'd their savage lord,

Who roll'd, in act to strike, his eyes around,

And said: "Go, get thee gone, ill bird abhorr'd.” "Tuscans or Lombards would'st thou wish to see," 97

Again resumed the spirit thrill'd with fear,

"Tell me, and I will bid them come to thee: But let the demons for awhile retreat,

That so the timorous souls may reappear,—
And I, remaining in this very seat,
One as I am, will draw forth seven, whene'er
I give a whistle, as our custom is,

To show our comrades that the coast is clear."
Turn'd up his snout Cagnazzo, and exclaim'd,
Shaking his head: "A cunning scheme is this,
Which, to escape below, the knave hath framed."

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