h I had been born and nourished even to the summit of my life, and
in which, at good peace with them, I desire with all my heart to repose
my weary soul, and to end the time which is allotted to me), through
almost all the regions to which our tongue extends I have gone a
pilgrim, almost a beggar, displaying against my will the wound of
fortune, which is wont often to be imputed unjustly to [the discredit
of] him who is wounded. Truly I have been a bark without sail and
without rudder, borne to divers ports and bays and shores by that dry
wind which grievous poverty breathes forth, and I have appeared mean in
the eyes of many who perchance, through some report, had imagined me in
other form; and not only has my person been lowered in their sight, but
every work of mine, whether done or to be done, has been held in less
esteem."

Once more, and for the last time, during these wanderings he heard the
voice of Florence addressed to him, and still in anger. A decree was
issued[5] on the 6th of November, 1315, renewing the condemnation and
banishment of numerous citizens, denounced as Ghibellines and rebels,
including among them Dante Aldighieri and his sons. The persons named in
this decree are charged with contumacy, and with the commission of ill
deeds against the good state of the Commune of Florence and the Guelf
party; and it is ordered that "if any of them shall fall into the power
of the Commune he shall be taken to the place of Justice and there be
beheaded." The motive is unknown which led to the inclusion in this
decree of the sons of Dante, of whom there were two, now youths
respectively a little more or a little less than twenty years old.[6]

It is probable that the last years of Dante's life were passed in
Ravenna, under the protection of Guido da Polenta, lord of the city. It
was here that he died, on September 14th, 1321. His two sons were with
him, and probably also his daughter Beatrice. He was in his
fifty-seventh year when he went from suffering and from exile to peace
('Paradiso,' x. 128).

Such are the few absolute facts known concerning the external events of
Dante's life. A multitude of statements, often with much circumstantial
detail, concerning other incidents, have been made by his biographers; a
few rest upon a foundation of probability, but the mass are guess-work.
There is no need to report them; for small as the sum of our actual
knowledge is, it is enough for defining the field within whic