He thus departs.-Abandon'd by my friend,
Alone I stand in sorrowful suspense,

While no and yes within my heart contend:
Nor could I aught distinguish what he said;
But scarce had he begun a conference,
When back within the walls they quickly sped.
Against my master's breast our enemy

The portals closed :-shut out-he came away,
With tardy footsteps turning back to me.
Downward his eyes were bent, and from his brow

All boldness gone; in sighs he seem'd to say, "Who hath denied me these abodes of woe?" He then address'd me: "Be not thou afraid

At this my wrath; our way shall still be won,
Whate'er resistance may within be made:

Not we the first their insolence to prove ;

For erst at a less secret gate 'twas shown,
Which, now unbarr'd, thou hast beheld above:
Its deadly words engraved thou didst descry.

Already passing through the circles vast,
One cometh unescorted from on high,

By whose assistance shall the gate be past."

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INFERNO.

CANTO IX.

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ARGUMENT.

DANTE, alarmed at some doubts expressed by Virgil as to their success in forcing an entrance into the city of Dis, is comforted by the assurance of his guide, that he has been the road before, and knows it well. Appearance of the furies. An angel sent from heaven opens the gate of the city. The poets enter, and find it full of tombs intensely heated by fire, in which are punished the Arch-heretics.

INFERN O.

CANTO IX.

THAT hue, which coward fear spread o'er my face

When I beheld my master backward turn,
Caused him his own emotion to repress.

As one who listens, he attentive stood;

For with his eye he could not far discern

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Through the black air, and through the heavy cloud. He then began : "To triumph in this fight

Behoves us still unless... such mighty aid...
Oh! would that he already were in sight!"
Full well I saw his closing words convey'd

A sense at variance with what first he said,
And fain would cloak the doubts he had betray'd:

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Nathless, his speech much fear within me wrought, 13

For haply from his broken words I drew
Worse meaning than they really did import.
"Down from that circle of the dread abyss
Where loss of hope alone the spirits rue,
Doth any e'er descend so low as this?"
I made inquiry; and he answer'd thus:
"It rarely happens that the road I go
Hath e'er been ventured on by one of us.
'Tis true, aforetime I have been this track,

By fell Erichtho conjured down below,
Who to their bodies call'd the spirits back.

Short space had I
had I put

put off my mortal clay,

When, to the circle which base Judas holds,

She sent me down, to bear a soul away:

That is the lowest place and most obscure,

And farthest from the heaven which all enfolds :
I know the road-feel therefore thou secure.
This marsh, whence vapours rise so foul and rife,

Surrounds that mournful city, which denies
All entrance, save with bitterness and strife."
And more he said than memory can recite;
With such deep fix'd attention were mine eyes
Drawn to the castle of the flaming light :-

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