Page:The Harvard Classics Vol. 20.djvu/215

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CANTO xiv PURGATORY 203

True proof of what ye were. O Hugolin, 28 Thou sprung of Fantolini's line! thy name Is safe; since none is look'd for after thee To cloud its lustre, warping from thy stock. But, Tuscan! go thy ways; for now I take Far more delight in weeping, than in words. Such pity for your sakes hath wrung my heart."

We knew those gentle spirits, at parting, heard Our steps. Their silence therefore, of our way, Assured us. Soon as we had quitted them, Advancing onward, lo! a voice, that seem'd Like volley'd lightning, when it rives the air, Met us, and shouted, "Whosoever finds Will slay me"; then fled from us, as the bolt Lanced sudden from a downward-rushing cloud. When it had given short truce unto our hearing, Behold the other with a crash as loud As the quick-following thunder: "Mark in me Aglauros, turn'd to rock." I, at the sound Retreating, drew more closely to my guide.

Now in mute stilness rested all the air; And thus he spake: "There was the galling bit, Which should keep man within his boundary. But your old enemy so baits the hook, He drags you eager to him. Hence nor curb Avails you, nor reclaiming call. Heaven calls, And, round about you wheeling, courts your gaze With everlasting beauties. Yet your eye Turns with fond doting still upon the earth. Therefore He smites you who discerneth all."

28 "Hugolin." Ugolino Ubaldini, a on account of his age probably, was not noble and virtuous person in Faenza, who, likely to leave any offspring behind him.

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