And _then_ I heard the door bolted [Footnote 102] below-- in the horrible tower: whereat I looked-- into the face of my children without saying a word.-- I was not weeping, so was I petrified (_impietrai_) within:-- they were weeping; and my little Anselm-- said: Thou lookest so! Father, what aileth thee?-- Yet I shed no tear, nor answered I-- all that day, nor the following night,-- until another sun arose over the world.-- As soon as a little gleam of light (_un poco di raggio_) began to creep-- into the doleful prison, and I saw in four faces my own very image, both my hands through pain I bit;-- and they, thinking that I did it for wish of food, instantly arose,-- and said: Father, far less painful will it be to us-- if thou eatest of us; thou didst dress-- [us with] this miserable flesh, do thou take it off.-- I then calmed myself, not to make them more wretched.-- That day and the next we all lay silent:-- alas! cruel earth, why didn'tst thou open?-- After we had reached the fourth day-- Gaddo threw himself prostrate at my feet,-- saying: Father mine, why dost thou not help me?-- There he died; and, as thou seest me,-- did I see the three fall one by one,-- betwixt the fifth day and the sixth, whereat I began,-- already blind, to grope over each:-- and three days I called them after they were dead.-- Then more than the grief did the fasting overwhelm me.-- When he had said this, with eyes distorted-- he resumed the loathsome skull between his teeth,-- which, like a dog's, stuck to the bone.-- Ah Pisa! disgrace to the people-- of the fair land where the _si_ sounds;--[Footnote 103] as thy neighbors are slow to punish thee,-- let Capraja and Gorgona [Footnote 104] arise,-- and build a dam on Arno's mouth-- that may drown every mother's child in thee.-- For if Count Ugolino had the name-- of having defrauded thee of thy castles,-- thou shouldst not have put the children to such torture.-- Innocent were by their youthful age,-- Modern Thebes! Uguccione and Brigata,-- and the other two whom my song has mentioned." [Footnote 95: _Ti mangi_, "thou selfishly holdest for thy dainty food." This is one of those idioms expressed by the reciprocal pronoun "ti," almost impossible to translate. Its meaning is felt only by the native Italian.] [Footnote 96: _Fiero_, here as the carcass on which a beast of prey will feed, from _fiera_, savage beast.] [Footnote 97: _Tal vicino_, a neighbor so barbarously distressing another.] [Footnote 98: _Inteso Udire_, hear by chance; _ascoltare_, to listen, _intendere_, to understand what you hear, or are told.] [Footnote 99: _Muda_, the place where the republic's eagles were kept during moulting-time. _Mudare_, to moult.]