And Sordello again, “Now let us go down into the valley among the great shades, and we will speak to them; well pleasing will it be to them to see you.” Only three steps I think I had descended and I was below; and I saw one who was gazing only at me as if he wished to know me. It was now the time when the air was darkening, but not so that between his eyes and mine it did not reveal that which it locked up before.[1] Towards me he moved, and I moved towards him. Gentle Judge Nino,[2] how much it pleased me when I saw that thou wast not among the damned! No fair salutation was silent between us; then he asked, “How long is it since thou camest to the foot of the mountain across the far waters?” [1] It was not yet so dark that recognition of one near at hand was difficult, though at a distance it had been impossible. [2] Nino (Ugolino) de’ Visconti of Pisa was the grandson of Count Ugolino, and as the leader of the Pisan Guelphs became his bitter opponent. Sardinia was under the dominion of Pisa, and was divided into four districts, each of which was governed by one of the Pisan nobles, under the title of Judge. Nino had held the judicature of Gallura, where Frate Gomita (see Hell, Canto XXII.) had been his vicar. Nino died in 1296. “Oh,” said I to him, “from within the dismal places I came this morning, and I am in the first life, albeit in going thus, I may gain the other.” And when my answer was heard, Sordello[1] and he drew themselves back like folk suddenly bewildered, the one to Virgil, and the other turned to one who was seated there, crying, “Up, Corrado,[2] come to see what God through grace hath willed.” Then, turning to me, “By that singular gratitude thou owest unto Him who so hides His own first wherefore[3] that there is no ford to it, when thou shalt be beyond the wide waves, say to my Joan, that for me she cry there where answer is given to the innocent. I do not think her mother[4] loves me longer, since she changed her white wimples,[5] which she, wretched, needs must desire again. Through her easily enough is comprehended how long the fire of love lasts in woman, if eye or touch does not often rekindle it. The viper[6] which leads afield the Milanese will not make for her so fair a sepulture as the cock of Gallura would have done.” Thus he said, marked in his aspect with the stamp of that upright zeal which in due measure glows in the heart. [1] The sun was already hidden behind the mountain when Virgil and Dante came upon Sordello. Sordello had not therefore seen that Dante cast a shadow, and being absorbed in discourse with Virgil had not observed that Dante breathed as a living man. [2] Corrado, of the great Guelph family of the Malaspina, lords of the Lunigiana, a wide district between Genoa and Pisa. [3] The reason of that which He wills. [4] Her mother was Beatrice d’ Este, who, in 1300, married Galeazzo de’ Visconti of Milan.