anxious to accost him.  It was Piccarda, the sister of his friend Forese Donati, whom he had met in the sixth region of Purgatory.  He did not know her, by reason of her wonderful increase in beauty.  She and her associates were such as had been Vowed to a Life of Chastity and Religion, but had been Compelled by Others to Break their Vows.  This had been done, in Piccarda’s instance, by her brother Corso.[2] On

Dante’s asking if they did not long for a higher state of bliss, she and her sister-spirits gently smiled; and then answered, with faces as happy as first love,[3] that they willed only what it pleased God to give them, and therefore were truly blest.  The poet found by this answer, that every place in Heaven was Paradise, though the bliss might be of different degrees.  Piccarda then shewed him the spirit at her side, lustrous with all the glory of the region, Costanza, daughter of the king of Sicily, who had been forced out of the cloister to become the wife of the Emperor Henry.  Having given him this information, she began singing Ave Maria; and, while singing, disappeared with the rest, as substances disappear in water.[4]

A loving will transported the two companions, as before, to the next circle of Heaven, where they found themselves in the planet Mercury, the residence of those who had acted rather out of Desire of Fame than Love of God.  The spirits here, as in the former Heaven, crowded towards them, as fish in a clear pond crowd to the hand that offers them food.  Their eyes sparkled with celestial joy; and the more they thought of their joy, the brighter they grew; till one of them who addressed the poet became indistinguishable for excess of splendour.  It was the soul of the Emperor Justinian.  Justinian told him the whole story of the Roman empire up to his time; and then gave an account of one of his associates in bliss, Romeo, who had been minister to Raymond Beranger, Count of Provence.  Four daughters had been born to Raymond Beranger, and every one became a queen; and all this had been brought about by Romeo, a poor stranger from another country.  The courtiers, envying Romeo, incited Raymond to demand of him an account of his stewardship, though he had brought his master’s treasury twelve-fold for every ten it disbursed.  Romeo quitted the court, poor and old; “and if the world,” said Justinian, “could know the heart such a man must have had, begging his bread as he went, crust by crust—­praise him as it does, it would praise him a great deal more."[5]

  “Hosanna, Holy God of Sabaoth,
  Superillumining with light of light
  The happy fires of these thy Malahoth!"[6]

Thus began singing the soul of the Emperor Justinian; and then, turning as he sang, vanished with those about him, like sparks of fire.

Dante now found himself, before he was aware, in the third Heaven, or planet Venus, the abode of the Amorous.[7] He only knew it by the increased loveliness in the face of his companion.