Déal-ye', O Gods, to the Greeks! an' if I call justly upon you.-- 530 But thou; what fortune hitherward, in turn prithy tell me, Sent-thee alive, whether erring upon the bewildering Ocean, Or high-prompted of heav'n, or by Fate wearily hunted, That to the sunless abodes and dusky demesnes thou approachest?' Ev'n as awhile they thus converse it is already mid-day Unperceiv'd, but aloft earth's star had turn'd to declining. And haply' Æneas his time in parley had outgone, Had not then the Sibyl with word of warning avized him. 'Night hieth, Æneas; in tears our journey delayeth. See our road, that it here in twain disparteth asunder; 540 This to the right, skirting by th' high city-fortresses of Dis, Endeth in Elysium, our path; but that to the leftward Only receives their feet who wend to eternal affliction.' Deiphobus then again, 'Speak not, great priestess, in anger; I will away to refill my number among th' unfortun'd. Thou, my champyon, adieu! Go where thy glory awaits thee!' When these words he 'had spok'n, he-turn'd and hastily was fled. Æneas then look'd where leftward, under a mountain, Outspread a wide city lay, threefold with fortresses engirt, Lickt by a Tartarean river of live fire, the torrent[^ia]l 550 Red Phlegethon, and huge boulders his roundy bubbles be: Right i' the front stareth the columnar gate adamantine, Such that no battering warfare of mén or immortals E'er might shake; blank-faced to the cloud its bastion upstands. Tisiphone thereby in a bloodspotty robe sitteth alway Night and day guarding sleeplessly the desperat entrance, Wherefrom an awestirring groan-cry and fierce clamour outburst, Sharp lashes, insane yells, dragg'd chains and clanking of iron. Æneas drew back, his heart by' his hearing affrighted: 'What manner of criminals, my guide, now tell-me,' he-question'd, 560 'Or what their penalties? what this great wail that ariseth?' Answering him the divine priestess, 'Brave hero of Il[îû]m, O'er that guilty threshold no breath of purity may come: But Hecate, who gave-me to rule i' the groves of Avernus, Herself led me around, & taught heav'n's high retribution. Here Cretan Rhadamanthus in unblest empery reigneth, Secret crime to punish,--full surely he-wringeth avowal Even of all that on earth, by vain impunity harden'd, Men sinning have put away from thought till[v]impenitent death. On those convicted tremblers then leapeth avenging 570 Tisiphone with keen flesh-whips and vipery scourges, And of her implacable sisters inviteth attendance.' --Now sudden on screeching hinges that portal accursèd Flung wide its barriers.--'In what dire custody, mark thou, Is the threshold! guarded by how grim sentry the doorway! More terrible than they the ravin'd insatiable Hydra