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,[12] 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 lasts in the
world, and shall last so long as the world endures, a friend of mine and
not of fortune is upon the desert hillside, 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 he already 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 to him.' Then
she was silent, and thereon I began:--'O Lady of Virtue, thou alone
through whom the human race surpasses all contained within that heaven
which has the smallest circles![13] 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 to
know so inwardly, I will tell thee briefly,' she replied to me,
'wherefore I am not afraid to come here within. One ought to be afraid
of those things only that have power to do another harm; of other things
not, for they are not fearful. I am made by God, thanks be to him, such
that your misery touches me not, nor does the flame of this burning
assail me. A gentle Lady is in heaven who hath pity for this hindrance
whereto I send thee, so that stern judgment there above she breaks. She
summoned Lucia in her request, and said, "Thy faithful one now hath need
of thee, and unto thee I commend him." Lucia,[14] the foe of every cruel
one, rose and came to the place where I was, seated with the ancient
Rachael. She said:--"Beatrice, true praise of God, why dost thou not
succor him who so loved thee that for thee he came forth from the vulgar
throng? Dost thou not hear the pity of his plaint? Dost thou not see the
death that