Canto XXVIII
 
 
 Argument
 
 
      They arrive in the ninth gulf, where the sowers of scandal, schismatics,
 and heretics, are seen with their limbs maimed or divided in different ways.
 Among these the Poet finds Mohammed, Piero da Medicina, Curio, Mosca, and
 Bertrand de Born.
 
 
 Who, e'en in words unfetter'd, might at full
 Tell of the wounds and blood that now I saw,
 Though he repeated oft the tale? No tongue
 So vast a theme could equal, speech and thought
 Both impotent alike. If in one band
 Collected, stood the people all, who e'er
 Pour'd on Apulia's happy soil their blood,
 Slain by the Trojans, and in that long war,[1]
 When of the rings the measured booty made
 A pile so high, as Rome's historian writes
 Who errs not; with the multitude, that felt
 The griding force of Guiscard's Norman steel,[2]
 
 
 [1: The war of Hannibal in Italy.]
 
 
 [2: Robert Guiscard, conqueror of Naples, died 1110. See Paradise,
 Canto xviii.]
 
 
 And those the rest,[3] whose bones are gather'd yet
 At Ceperano, there where treachery
 Branded the Apulian name, or where beyond
 Thy walls, O Tagliacozzo,[4] without arms
 The old Alardo conquer'd; and his limbs
 One were to show transpierced, another his
 Clean lopt away; a spectacle like this
 Were but a thing of naught, to the hideous sight
 Of the ninth chasm. A rundlet, that hath lost
 Its middle or side stave, gapes not so wide
 As one I mark'd, torn from the chin throughout
 Down to the hinder passage: 'twixt the legs
 Dangling his entrails hung, the midriff lay
 Open to view, and wretched ventricle,
 That turns the englutted aliment to dross.
 
 
 [3: The army of Manfredi, which, through the treachery of the Apulian
 troops, was overcome by Charles of Anjou in 1265. See the Purgatory, Canto
 iii.]
 
 
 [4: "O Tagliacozzo." He alludes to the victory which Charles gained
 over Conradino, by the sage advice of the Sieur de Valeri, in 1268.]
 
 
 Whilst eagerly I fix on him my gaze,
 He eyed me, with his hands laid his breast bare,
 And cried, "Now mark how I do rip me: lo!
 How is Mohammed mangled: before me
 Walks Ali[5] weeping, from the chin his face
 Cleft to the forelock; and the others all,
 Whom here thou seest, while they lived, did sow
 Scandal and schism, and therefore thus are rent.
 A fiend is here behind, who with his sword
 Hacks us thus cruelly, slivering again
 Each of this ream, when we have compast round
 The dismal way; for first our gashes close
 Ere we repass before him. But, say who
 Art thou, that standest musing on the rock,
 Haply so lingering to delay the pain
 Sentenced upon thy crimes." "Him death not yet,"
 My guide rejoin'd, "hath overta'en, nor sin
 Conducts to torment; but, that he may make
 Full trial of your state, I who am dead
 Must through the depths of Hell, from orb to orb
 Conduct him. Trust my words; for they are true."
 
 
 
 
 [5: The disciple of Mohammed.]
 
 
 More than a hundred spirits, when that they heard,
 Stood in the foss to mark me through amaze
 Forgetful of their pangs. "Thou, who perchance
 Shalt shortly view the sun, this warning thou
 Bear to Dolcino:[6] bid him, if he wish not
 Here soon to follow me, that with good store
 Of food he arm him, lest imprisoning snows
 Yield him a victim to Novara's power;
 No easy conquest else": with foot upraised
 For stepping, spake Mohammed, on the ground
 Then fix'd it to depart. Another shade,
 Pierced in the throat, his nostrils mutilate
 E'en from beneath the eyebrows, and one ear
 Lopt off, who, with the rest, through wonder stood
 Gazing, before the rest advanced, and bared
 His wind - pipe, that without was all o'ersmear'd
 With crimson stain. "O thou!" said he, "whom sin
 Condemns not, and whom erst (unless too near
 Resemblance do deceive me) I aloft
 Have seen on Latian ground, call thou to mind
 Piero of Medicina,[7] if again
 Returning, thou behold'st the pleasant land[8]
 That from Vercelli slopes to Marcabo;
 And there instruct the twain,[9] whom Fano boasts
 Her worthiest sons, Guido and Angelo,
 
 
 
 
 [6: "Dolcino." In 1305, a friar, called Dolcino, who belonged to no
 regular order, contrived to raise in Novara, in Lombardy, a large company of
 the meaner sort of people, declaring himself to be a true apostle of Christ
 and promulgating a community of property and of wives, with many other such
 heretical doctrines. He blamed the Pope, cardinals, and other prelates of the
 holy Church, for not observing their duty, nor leading the angelic life, and
 affirmed that he ought to be pope. He was followed by more than three thousand
 men and women, who lived promiscuously on the mountains together, like beasts,
 and, when they wanted provisions, supplied themselves by depredation and
 rapine. After two years, many were struck with compunction at the dissolute
 life they led, and his sect was much diminished; and, through failure of food
 and the severity of the snows, he was taken by the people of Novara, and
 burnt, with Margarita, his companion, and many others, whom he had seduced.]
 
 
 [7: "Medicina." A place in the territory of Bologna. Piero fomented
 dissensions among the inhabitants of that city, and among the leaders of the
 neighboring states.]
 
 
 [8: Lombardy.]
 
 
 [9: "The twain." Guido del Cassero and Angiolello da Cagnano, two of
 the worthiest and most distinguished citizens of Fano, were invited by
 Malatestino da Rimini to an entertainment, on pretence that he had some
 important business to transact with them; and, according to instructions given
 by him, they were drowned in their passage near Cattolica, between Rimini and
 Fano.]
 
 
 That if 'tis given us here to scan aright
 The future, they out of life's tenement
 Shall be cast forth, and whelm'd under the waves
 Near to Cattolica, through perfidy
 Of a fell tyrant. 'Twixt the Cyprian isle
 And Balearic, ne'er hath Neptune seen
 An injury so foul, by pirates done,
 Or Argive crew of old. That one - eyed traitor
 (Whose realm there is a spirit here were fain
 His eye had still lack'd sight of) them shall bring
 To conference with him, then so shape his end
 That they shall need not 'gainst Focara's wind[10]
 Offer up vow nor prayer." I answering thus:
 "Declare, as thou dost wish that I above
 May carry tidings of thee, who is he,
 In whom that sight doth wake such sad remembrance."
 
 
 [10: "Focara's wind." Focara is a mountain, from which a wind blows
 that is peculiarly dangerous to the navigators of that coast.]
 
 
 Forthwith he laid his hand on the cheek - bone
 Of one, his fellow - spirit, and his jaws
 Expanding, cried: "Lo! this is he I wot of:
 He speaks not for himself: the outcast this,
 Who overwhelm'd the doubt in Caesar's mind,[11]
 Affirming that delay to men prepared
 Was ever harmful." Oh! how terrified
 Methought was Curio, from whose throat was cut
 The tongue, which spake that hardy word. Then one,
 Maim'd of each hand, uplifted in the gloom
 The bleeding stumps, that they with gory spots
 Sullied his face, and cried: "Remember thee
 Of Mosca[12] too; I who, alas! exclaim'd,
 
 
 [11: "The doubt in Caesar's mind." Curio, whose speech (according to
 Lucan) determined Julius Caesar to proceed when he had arrived at Rimini (the
 ancient Ariminum), and doubted whether he should prosecute the civil war.]
 
 
 [12: "Mosca." Buondelmonte was engaged to marry a lady of the Amidei
 family, but broke his promise, and united himself to one of the Donati. This
 was so much resented by the former, that a meeting of themselves and their
 kinsmen was held, to consider of the best means of revenging the insult. Mosca
 degli Uberti, or de' Lamberti, persuaded them to resolve on the assassination
 of Buondelmonte, exclaiming to them, "the thing once done, there is an end."
 This counsel and its effects were the source of many terrible calamities to
 the State of Florence. "This murder," says G. Villani, lib. v. cap. xxxviii,
 "was the cause and beginning of the accursed Guelf and Ghibelline parties in
 Florence." It happened in 1215. See the Paradise, Canto xvi. 139.]
 
 
 'The deed once done, there is an end,' that proved
 A seed of sorrow to the Tuscan race."
 
 
 I added: "Ay, and death to thine own tribe."
 
 
 Whence, heaping woe on woe, he hurried off,
 As one grief - stung to madness. But I there
 Still linger'd to behold the troop, and saw
 Thing, such as I may fear without more proof
 To tell of, but that conscience makes me firm,
 The boon companion, who her strong breastplate
 Buckles on him, that feels no guilt within,
 And bids him on and fear not. Without doubt
 I saw, and yet it seems to pass before me,
 A headless trunk, that even as the rest
 Of the sad flock paced onward. By the hair
 It bore the sever'd member, lantern - wise
 Pendent in hand, which look'd at us, and said,
 "Woe's me!" The spirit lighted thus himself;
 And two there were in one, and one in two.
 How that may be, he knows who ordereth so.
 
 
 
 
 When at the bridge's foot direct he stood,
 His arm aloft he rear'd, thrusting the head
 Full in our view, that nearer we might hear
 The words, which thus it utter'd: "Now behold
 This grievous torment, thou, who breathing go'st
 To spy the dead: behold, if any else
 Be terrible as this. And, that on earth
 Thou mayst bear tidings of me, know that I
 Am Bertrand,[13] he of Born, who gave King John
 The counsel mischievous. Father and son
 I set at mutual war. For Absalom
 And David more did not Ahitophel,
 Spurring them on maliciously to strife.
 For parting those so closely knit, my brain
 Parted, alas! I carry from its source,
 That in this trunk inhabits. Thus the law
 Of retribution fiercely works in me."
 
 
 [13: "Bertrand." Bertrand de Born, Vicomte de Hautefort, near
 Perigueux in Guienne, who incited John to rebel against his father, Henry II
 of England. Bertrand holds a distinguished place among the Provencal poets.]