'_Vexilla_[858] _Regis prodeunt Inferni_ Towards where we are; seek then with vision keen,' My Master bade, 'if trace of him thou spy.' As, when the exhalations dense have been, Or when our hemisphere grows dark with night, A windmill from afar is sometimes seen, I seemed to catch of such a structure sight; And then to 'scape the blast did backward draw Behind my Guide--sole shelter in my plight. Now was I where[859] (I versify with awe) 10 The shades were wholly covered, and did show Visible as in glass are bits of straw. Some stood[860] upright and some were lying low, Some with head topmost, others with their feet; And some with face to feet bent like a bow. But we kept going on till it seemed meet Unto my Master that I should behold The creature once[861] of countenance so sweet. He stepped aside and stopped me as he told: 'Lo, Dis! And lo, we are arrived at last 20 Where thou must nerve thee and must make thee bold,' How I hereon stood shivering and aghast, Demand not, Reader; this I cannot write; So much the fact all reach of words surpassed. I was not dead, yet living was not quite: Think for thyself, if gifted with the power, What, life and death denied me, was my plight. Of that tormented realm the Emperor Out of the ice stood free to middle breast; And me a giant less would overtower 30 Than would his arm a giant. By such test Judge then what bulk the whole of him must show,[862] Of true proportion with such limb possessed. If he was fair of old as hideous now, And yet his brows against his Maker raised, Meetly from him doth all affliction flow. O how it made me horribly amazed When on his head I saw three faces[863] grew! The one vermilion which straight forward gazed; And joining on to it were other two, 40 One rising up from either shoulder-bone, Till to a junction on the crest they drew. 'Twixt white and yellow seemed the right-hand one; The left resembled them whose country lies Where valleywards the floods of Nile flow down. Beneath each face two mighty wings did rise, Such as this bird tremendous might demand: Sails of sea-ships ne'er saw I of such size. Not feathered were they, but in style were planned Like a bat's wing:[864] by them a threefold breeze-- 50 For still he flapped them--evermore was fanned, And through its depths Cocytus caused to freeze. Down three chins tears for ever made descent From his six eyes; and red foam mixed with these. In every mouth there was a sinner rent By teeth that shred him as a heckle[865] would; Thus three at once compelled he to lament. To the one in front 'twas little to be chewed Compared with being clawed and clawed again,