“And there instruct the twain, whom Fano boasts
Her worthiest sons, Guido and Angelo,
That if ’t is giv’n 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-ey’d traitor
(Whose realm there is a spirit here were fain
His eye had still lack’d sight of) them shall bring
To conf’rence with him, then so shape his end,
That they shall need not ’gainst Focara’s wind
Offer up vow nor pray’r.”  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?”

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,
Affirming that delay to men prepar’d
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, too, I who, alas! exclaim’d,
‘The deed once done there is an end,’ that prov’d
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
Things, such as I may fear without more proof
To tell of, but that conscience makes me firm,
The boon companion, who her strong breast-plate
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 pac’d 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, 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.”