The moon, belated[1] almost to midnight, shaped[2] like a bucket that is all ablaze, was making the stars appear fewer to us, and was running counter to the heavens[3] along those paths which the sun inflames, when the man of Rome sees it between Sardinia and Corsica at its setting;[4] and that gentle shade, for whom Pietola[5] is more famed than the Mantuan city, had laid down the burden of my loading:[6] wherefore I, who had harvested his open and plain discourse upon my questions, was standing like a man who, drowsy, rambles. But this drowsiness was taken from me suddenly by folk, who, behind our backs, had now come round to us. And such as was the rage and throng, which of old Ismenus and Asopus saw at night along their banks, in case the Thebans were in need of Bacchus, so, according to what I saw of them as they came, those who by good will and right love are ridden curve their steps along that circle. Soon they were upon us; because, running, all that great crowd was moving on; and two in front, weeping, were crying out, “Mary ran with haste unto the mountain[7] and Caesar, to subdue Ilerda, thrust at Marseilles, and then ran on to Spain.”[8] “Swift, swift, that time be not lost by little love,” cried the others following, “for zeal in doing well may refreshen grace.” “O people, in whom keen fervor now perhaps redeems your negligence and delay, through lukewarmness, in well-doing, this one who is alive (and surely I lie not to you) wishes to go up, soon as the sun may shine again for us; therefore tell us where is the opening near.” These words were of my Guide; and one of those spirits said: “Come thou behind us, and thou shalt find the gap. We are so filled with desire to move on that we cannot stay; therefore pardon, if thou holdest our obligation for churlishness. I was Abbot[9] of San Zeno at Verona, under the empire of the good Barbarossa, of whom Milan, still grieving, doth discourse. And he has one foot already in the grave,[10] who soon will lament on account of that monastery, and will be sorry for having had power there; because in place of its true shepherd he has put his son, ill in his whole body and worse in mind, and who was evil-born.” I know not if more he said, or if he were silent, so far beyond us he had already run by; but this I heard, and to retain it pleased me. [1] In its rising. [2] Gibbous, like certain buckets still in use in Italy. [3] “These words describe the daily backing of the moon through the signs from west to east.”—Moore. [4] These islands are invisible from Rome, but the line that runs from Rome between them is a little south of east. [5] The modern name of Andes, the birthplace of Virgil, and therefore more famous than Mautua itself. [6] With which I had laden him. [7] Luke, i. 36. [8] Examples of zeal. [9] Unknown, save for this mention of him.