After leaving Buonconte, Dante and Vergil make their way upward and finally come across the spirit of Sordello, the famous troubadour, a native of Mantua and thus a fellow citizen of Vergil. The cordiality with which they greet each other gives Dante an opportunity to vent his indignation at the discord existing in Italy: "Ah, slavish Italy! thou inn of grief! Vessel without a pilot in loud storm! Lady no longer of fair provinces, But brothel-house impure! this gentle spirit, Even from the pleasant sound of his dear land Was prompt to greet a fellow citizen With such glad cheer: while now thy living ones In thee abide not without war; and one Malicious gnaws another; aye, of those Whom the same wall and the same moat contains. Seek, wretched one! around thy seacoasts wide; Then homeward to thy bosom turn; and mark, If any part of thee sweet peace enjoy. What boots it, that thy reins Justinian's hand Refitted, if thy saddle be unprest? Nought doth he now but aggravate thy shame. Ah, people! thou obedient still shouldst live, And in the saddle let thy Cæsar sit, If well thou marked'st that which God commands." As night is now coming on, during which upward progress cannot be made, Sordello conducts Dante and Vergil to a pleasant valley: "Betwixt the steep and plain, a crooked path Led us traverse into the ridge's side, Where more than half the sloping edge expires. Refulgent gold, and silver thrice refined, And scarlet grain and ceruse, Indian wood Of lucid dye serene, fresh emeralds But newly broken, by the herbs and flowers Placed in that fair recess, in color all Had been surpassed, as great surpasses less. Nor nature only there lavish'd her hues. But of the sweetness of a thousand smells A rare and undistinguished fragrance made. "'Salve Regina,' on the grass and flowers, Here chanting, I beheld those spirits sit, Who not beyond the valley could be seen." Here Sordello points out the souls of mighty princes who left deep traces in the history of the times, among them the Emperor Rudolph of Germany, Peter of Aragon, Philip III. of France, and "The king of simple life and plain," Henry III. of England. The scene that follows is one of the most celebrated, as well as beautiful in the Divine Comedy: