[Sidenote: And Sordello the finally-determined,] Out of his whiteness; thoughts rushed, fancies rushed; He pressed his hand upon his head and signed Both should forbear him. "Nay, the best's behind!" Taurello laughed--not quite with the same laugh: "The truth is, thus we scatter, ay, like chaff These Guelfs, a despicable monk recoils From: nor expect a fickle Kaiser spoils Our triumph!--Friedrich? Think you, I intend Friedrich shall reap the fruits of blood I spend And brain I waste? Think you, the people clap Their hands at my out-hewing this wild gap For any Friedrich to fill up? 'Tis mine-- That's yours: I tell you, towards some such design Have I worked blindly, yes, and idly, yes, And for another, yes--but worked no less With instinct at my heart; I else had swerved, While now--look round! My cunning has preserved Samminiato--that's a central place Secures us Florence, boy,--in Pisa's case, By land as she by sea; with Pisa ours, And Florence, and Pistoia, one devours The land at leisure! Gloriously dispersed-- Brescia, observe, Milan, Piacenza first That flanked us (ah, you know not!) in the March; On these we pile, as keystone of our arch, Romagna and Bologna, whose first span Covered the Trentine and the Valsugan; Sofia's Egna by Bolgiano's sure!" ... So he proceeded: half of all this, pure [Sidenote: The devil putting forth his potency:] Delusion, doubtless, nor the rest too true, But what was undone he felt sure to do, As ring by ring he wrung off, flung away The pauldron-rings to give his sword-arm play-- Need of the sword now! That would soon adjust Aught wrong at present; to the sword intrust Sordello's whiteness, undersize: 'twas plain He hardly rendered right to his own brain-- Like a brave hound, men educate to pride Himself on speed or scent nor aught beside, As though he could not, gift by gift, match men! [Sidenote: Since Sordello, who began by rhyming,] Palma had listened patiently: but when 'Twas time expostulate, attempt withdraw Taurello from his child, she, without awe Took off his iron arms from, one by one, Sordello's shrinking shoulders, and, that done, Made him avert his visage and relieve Sordello (you might see his corselet heave The while) who, loose, rose--tried to speak, then sank: They left him in the chamber. All was blank. And even reeling down the narrow stair Taurello kept up, as though unaware Palma was by to guide him, the old device --Something of Milan--"how we muster thrice The Torriani's strength there; all along Our own Visconti cowed them"--thus the song Continued even while she bade him stoop, Thrid somehow, by some glimpse of arrow-loop, The turnings to the gallery below, Where he stopped short as Palma let him go.