Arrived at the precipitous extreme,[253] In shrieks and lamentations they complain, And even the Power Divine itself blaspheme. I understood[254] that to this mode of pain Are doomed the sinners of the carnal kind, Who o'er their reason let their impulse reign. As starlings in the winter-time combined 40 Float on the wing in crowded phalanx wide, So these bad spirits, driven by that wind, Float up and down and veer from side to side; Nor for their comfort any hope they spy Of rest, or even of suffering mollified. And as the cranes[255] in long-drawn company Pursue their flight while uttering their song, So I beheld approach with wailing cry Shades lifted onward by that whirlwind strong. 'Master, what folk are these,'[256] I therefore said, 50 'Who by the murky air are whipped along?' 'She, first of them,' his answer thus was made, 'Of whom thou wouldst a wider knowledge win, O'er many tongues and peoples, empire swayed. So ruined was she by licentious sin That she decreed lust should be uncontrolled, To ease the shame that she herself was in. She is Semiramis, of whom 'tis told She followed Ninus, and his wife had been. Hers were the realms now by the Sultan ruled. 60 The next[257] is she who, amorous and self-slain, Unto Sichæus' dust did faithless show: Then lustful Cleopatra.' Next was seen Helen, for whom so many years in woe Ran out; and I the great Achilles knew, Who at the last[258] encountered love for foe. Paris I saw and Tristram.[259] In review A thousand shades and more, he one by one Pointed and named, whom love from life withdrew. And after I had heard my Teacher run 70 O'er many a dame of yore and many a knight, I, lost in pity, was wellnigh undone. Then I: 'O Poet, if I only might Speak with the two that as companions hie, And on the wind appear to be so light!'[260] And he to me: 'When they shall come more nigh Them shalt thou mark, and by the love shalt pray Which leads them onward, and they will comply.' Soon as the wind bends them to where we stay I lift my voice: 'O wearied souls and worn! 80 Come speak with us if none[261] the boon gainsay.' Then even as doves,[262] urged by desire, return On outspread wings and firm to their sweet nest As through the air by mere volition borne, From Dido's[263] band those spirits issuing pressed Towards where we were, athwart the air malign; My passionate prayer such influence possessed. 'O living creature,[264] gracious and benign, Us visiting in this obscurèd air, Who did the earth with blood incarnadine; 90 If in the favour of the King we were Who rules the world, we for thy peace[265] would pray, Since our misfortunes thy compassion stir.