"If I have rightly understood thy speech," replied that shade of
the magnanimous one, "thy soul is hurt by cowardice, which
oftentimes encumbereth a man so that it turns him back from
honorable enterprise, as false seeing does a beast when it is
startled. In order that thou loose thee from this fear I will
tell thee wherefore I have come, and what I heard at the first
moment that I grieved for thee. I was among those who are
suspended,[1] and a Lady called me, so blessed and beautiful that
I besought her to command. Her eyes were more lucent than the
star, and she began to speak to me sweet and low, with angelic
voice, in her own tongue: 'O courteous Mantuan soul, of whom the
fame yet lasteth in the world, and shall last so long as the
world endureth! a friend of mine and not of fortune upon the
desert hillside is so hindered on his road that he has turned for
fear, and I am afraid, through that which I have heard of him in
heaven, lest already he be so astray that I may have risen late
to his succor. Now do thou move, and with thy speech ornate, and
with whatever is needful for his deliverance, assist him so that
I may be consoled for him. I am Beatrice who make thee go. I come
from a place whither I desire to return. Love moved me, and makes
me speak. When I shall be before my Lord, I will commend thee
often unto Him.' Then she was silent, and thereon I began: 'O
Lady of Virtue, thou alone through whom the human race surpasseth
all contained within that heaven which hath the smallest circles!
[2] so pleasing unto me is thy command that to obey it, were it
already done, were slow to me. Thou hast no need further to
open unto me thy will; but tell me the cause why thou guardest
not thyself from descending down here into this centre, from the
ample place whither thou burnest to return.' 'Since thou wishest