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CANTO XXII.

ARGUMENT.

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

Orr squadrons have I seen their station change,
Rush to the charge, then suddenly retreat,
Or swift advancing o'er the country range:
Thy plains, Arezzo, often have I seen

Hastily swept by light-armed horsemen fleet;
At tilts and tournaments have often been;-
(Now bells, now trumpets sending forth alarms,
With drums and signals loud from castle tower,
Native or foreign, summoning to arms;)
But ne'er to such strange instrument of war
Beheld I horse or foot the country scour,
Or vessel tack by sign from land or star.
With the ten demons now our way we sped;

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 some sinner raised his back,
But swift as lightning drew it in again.

As, in a ditch 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:

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1. Dante sarcastically continues his description of the Demons' march. 4. Dante was present in the memorable battle of Campaldino, fought between the Florentines and the Aretines in 1289, where the latter were signally defeated. Dante was there, he says, "no child in arms, and had much dread, and in the end great joy, through the various chances of the battle." His letter, Aretino. Vita di Dante.

But Barbarriccia now approaching nigh,
Quick they withdrew beneath the boiling flood.
I saw-and still my heart is thrilled with fear-
One sinner 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 now could tell by name the demons all,

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For I had marked them chosen from the pack, And listened to them at their muster call. "O Rubicant, look well, and see you place

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

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If so thou canst, who is that ill-starred shade
Thus fallen within the clutches of his foes."

Thereat my leader, drawing to his side,

Inquiry of his birth and country made.

"My birthplace was Navarre," he straight replied:

"My mother placed me servant to a lord;
(For she had borne me to a reckless man,

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Who spent his goods, then closed his life abhorred.)

A servant I became in after time

To good king Thibault, and I there began
The tricks I pay for in this scalding slime."
Ciriatto, whose fell mouth, e'en like a boar,

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

Then to my master turning, he exclaimed:

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"More wouldest thou know? Then be thy wish revealed, Ere by some other demon he be maimed."

"Tell me if any one," inquired my guide,

"Is from Italia's land, of those concealed

Beneath the pitch ?" "But lately," he replied,

48. The name of this barterer was Ciampolo, in the service of Thi bault, King of Navarro