Thus Beatrice to me even as I write it;
Then all desireful turned herself again

To that part where the world is most alive.
Her silence and her change of countenance
Silence imposed upon my eager mind,
That had already in advance new questions;
And as an arrow that upon the mark

Strikes ere the bowstring quiet hath become,
So did we speed into the second realm.

My Lady there so joyful I beheld,

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As into the brightness of that heaven she en

tered,

More luminous thereat the planet grew;
And if the star itself was changed and smiled,
What became I, who by my nature am
Exceeding mutable in every guise!
As, in a fish-pond which is pure and tranquil,

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The fishes draw to that which from without Comes in such fashion that their food they deem

it;

So I beheld more than a thousand splendors
Drawing towards us, and in each was heard:
"Lo, this is she who shall increase our love." 105
And as each one was coming unto us,

Full of beatitude the shade was seen,

By the effulgence clear that issued from it. Think, Reader, if what here is just beginning No farther should proceed, how thou wouldst have

An agonizing need of knowing more;

And of thyself thou 'lt see how I from these
Was in desire of hearing their conditions,
As they unto mine eyes were manifest.

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"O thou well-born, unto whom Grace concedes 115 To see the thrones of the eternal triumph,

Or ever yet the warfare be abandoned,

With light that through the whole of heaven is spread

Kindled are we, and hence if thou desirest

To know of us, at thine own pleasure sate thee." Thus by some one among those holy spirits

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Was spoken, and by Beatrice: "Speak, speak Securely, and believe them even as Gods." "Well I perceive how thou dost nest thyself In thine own light, and drawest it from thine

eyes,

Because they coruscate when thou dost smile, But know not who thou art, nor why thou hast, Spirit august, thy station in the sphere

That veils itself to men in alien rays."

This said I in direction of the light

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Which first had spoken to me; whence it became By far more lucent than it was before.

Even as the sun, that doth conceal himself

By too much light, when heat has worn away The tempering influence of the vapors dense, 135 By greater rapture thus concealed itself

In its own radiance the figure saintly,
And thus close, close enfolded answered me
In fashion as the following Canto sings.

CANTO VI.

"After that Constantine the eagle turned Against the course of heaven, which it had fol

lowed

Behind the ancient who Lavinia took,
Two hundred years and more the bird of God
In the extreme of Europe held itself,

Near to the mountains whence it issued first; And under shadow of the sacred plumes

It governed there the world from hand to hand, And, changing thus, upon mine own alighted. Cæsar I was, and am Justinian,

Who, by the will of primal Love I feel,

Took from the laws the useless and redundant;

And ere unto the work I was attent,

One nature to exist in Christ, not more,

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Believed, and with such faith was I contented. 15 But blessed Agapetus, he who was

The supreme pastor, to the faith sincere Pointed me out the way by words of his. Him I believed, and what was his assertion I now see clearly, even as thou seest Each contradiction to be false and true.

As soon as with the Church I moved my feet, God in his grace it pleased with this high task To inspire me, and I gave me wholly to it,

And to my Belisarius I commended

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The arms, to which was Heaven's right hand so joined

It was a signal that I should repose.
Now here to the first question terminates
My answer; but the character thereof
Constrains me to continue with a sequel,
In order that thou see with how great reason
Men move against the standard sacrosanct,
Both who appropriate and who oppose it.
Behold how great a power has made it worthy

Of reverence, beginning from the hour When Pallas died to give it sovereignty. Thou knowest it made in Alba its abode

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Three hundred years and upward, till at last The three to three fought for it yet again. Thou knowest what it achieved from Sabine wrong Down to Lucretia's sorrow, in seven kings O'ercoming round about the neighboring nations;

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Thou knowest what it achieved, borne by the Ro

mans

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Illustrious against Brennus, against Pyrrhus, Against the other princes and confederates. Torquatus thence and Quinctius, who from locks Unkempt was named, Decii and Fabii, Received the fame I willingly embalm; It struck to earth the pride of the Arabians, Who, following Hannibal, had passed across The Alpine ridges, Po, from which thou glidest; Beneath it triumphed while they yet were young Pompey and Scipio, and to the hill

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Beneath which thou wast born it bitter seemed; Then, near unto the time when heaven had willed 55 To bring the whole world to its mood serene, Did Cæsar by the will of Rome assume it. What it achieved from Var unto the Rhine, Isère beheld and Saône, beheld the Seine, And every valley whence the Rhone is filled; ∞ What it achieved when it had left Ravenna, And leaped the Rubicon, was such a flight That neither tongue nor pen could follow it. Round towards Spain it wheeled its legions; then Towards Durazzo, and Pharsalia smote

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That to the calid Nile was felt the pain. Antandros and the Simois, whence it started, It saw again, and there where Hector lies, And ill for Ptolemy then roused itself. Thence came it like a thunder-bolt on Juba; Then wheeled itself again into your West,

Where the Pompeian clarion it heard.

From what it wrought with the next standardbearer

Brutus and Cassius howl in Hell together,

And Modena and Perugia dolent were ; Still doth the mournful Cleopatra weep

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Because thereof, who, fleeing from before it, Took from the adder sudden and black death. With him it ran even to the Red Sea shore ; With him it placed the world in so great peace, That unto Janus was his temple closed. But what the standard that has made me speak Achieved before, and after should achieve Throughout the mortal realm that lies beneath it, Becometh in appearance mean and dim,

If in the hand of the third Cæsar seen
With eye unclouded and affection pure,
Because the living Justice that inspires me

Granted it, in the hand of him I speak of,
The glory of doing vengeance for its wrath.

Now here attend to what I answer thee;
Later it ran with Titus to do vengeance
Upon the vengeance of the ancient sin.
And when the tooth of Lombardy had bitten
The Holy Church, then underneath its wings
Did Charlemagne victorious succor her.

Line 70. From thence it came like lightning upon Juba;

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