had been gluttonous in their
lifetime were perpetually torn into pieces by a three-headed dog called
Cerberus. And after many awful scenes that Dante could hardly bear to
witness, he saw in front of him the towers of the dreadful city of Dis,
or Satan, in which the spirits of the damned underwent punishments that
were worse than any he had witnessed thus far.

Guarding the walls were the three Furies of the Greek legends. When
they beheld Dante they howled for the Gorgon, Medusa, with the snaky
locks to come quickly and turn him into stone--a fate that must befall
all men that gazed upon her face. But Vergil bade Dante hide his eyes,
and to be sure that he might be saved he covered them with his own
hand.

They entered the city--and there and from that time on the punishments
became so fearful that we shall not describe them here.

In their journey they had constantly to be on their guard against the
monsters of Hell that strove to arrest their progress. And in passing
by a lake of burning pitch, in which tortured souls were burning, the
demons that guarded them rushed at Dante and pursued him, eager to hurl
him into the lake to lose his life and the hope of Heaven at one and
the same time.

Lower and lower they descended, passing from one horror to another
still more terrible, until they came to the nethermost pit of all,
where Vergil told Dante that now he would need all his courage to
sustain him, for he had come at last to the abode of Satan. This was a
region of eternal ice and a bitter wind blew on them, so cold and
dreadful that Dante was half dead from it and it seemed that his numbed
senses could not support life any longer. The wind, he saw, was caused
by the bat-like wings of Satan himself--a gigantic and hairy monster,
with only the upper half of his body protruding from the icy pit in
which he stood. He had three heads, one red, one green and one white
and yellow; and in his three mouths he munched the three greatest
traitors of all time--Judas Iscariot, Brutus and Cassius.

When Dante was about to swoon from the terrible sight, Vergil watched
his opportunity, and as the great wings of Satan rose he sprang beneath
them, with Dante following him. Grasping the hairy side of the monster,
they commenced to descend still lower. And soon, to Dante's amazement,
their downward path became an upward one, for Satan's waist was at the
center of the earth and after they had passed it they must climb
instead of d