I gazed, but moved not; and I wept not: so Like stone was I within, that I could not. They wept, though, and my little Anselm cried, 'Thou look'st so! Father, what's the matter, what?' But still I wept not, nor a word replied, All that long day, nor all the following night, Till earth beheld the sun's returning ray; And soon as one faint gleam of morning light Stole to the dismal dungeon where we lay, And soon as those four visages I saw Imaging back the horror of my own, Both hands through anguish I began to gnaw; And they, believing want of food alone Compelled me, started up, and cried, 'Far less, Dear father, it will torture us if thou Shouldst feed on us! Thou gavest us this dress Of wretched flesh--'tis thine, and take it now.' So to relieve their little hearts, at last I calmed myself, and, all in silence, thus That and the next day motionless we past. Ah thou hard earth! why didst not ope for us? On the fourth morning, Gaddo at my feet Cast himself prostrate, murmuring, 'Father! why Dost thou not help me? Give me food to eat." With that he died: and even so saw I, As thou seest me now, three more, one by one, Betwixt the fifth day and the sixth day fall; By which time, sightless grown, o'er each dear son I groped, and two days on the dead did call: But, what grief could not do, hunger did then. This said, he rolled his eyes askance, and fell To gnaw the skull with greedy teeth again, Strong as a dog upon the bony shell. Ah Pisa! shame of all in that fair land Where _si_ is uttered, since thy neighbors round Take vengeance on thee with a tardy hand, Broke be Capraja's and Gorgona's bound! Let them dam Arno's mouth up, till the wave Whelm every soul of thine in its o'erflow! What though _'twas said_ Count Ugolino gave, Through treachery, thy strongholds to the foe? Thou needst not have tormented so his sons, Thou modern Thebes!--their youth saved them from blame-- Brigata, Hugh, and those two innocent ones Whom, just above, the canto calls by name." [Transcriber's note: Rendering 2; the dash at the end of each line is probably a typesetting artifact; all the poetic lines are run together.]