precious perfumes. At the advice of the necromancer I
again demanded to be reunited with Angelica. The sorcerer turned to me
and said, "Hear you what they have replied--that in the space of one
month you will be where she is?" Then once more he prayed me to stand
firm by him, because the legions were a thousandfold more than he had
summoned, and were the most dangerous of all the denizens of hell; and
now that they had settled what I asked, it behoved us to be civil to
them and dismiss them gently. On the other side, the boy, who was
beneath the pentacle, shrieked out in terror that a million of the
fiercest men were swarming round and threatening us. He said moreover
that four huge giants had appeared, who were striving to force their
way inside the circle. Meanwhile the necromancer, trembling with fear,
kept doing his best with mild and soft persuasions to dismiss them.
Vincenzio Romoli, who quaked like an aspen-leaf, looked after the
perfumes. Though I was quite as frightened as the rest of them, I
tried to show it less, and inspired them all with marvelous courage;
but the truth is that I had given myself up for dead when I saw the
terror of the necromancer. The boy had stuck his head between his
knees, exclaiming, "This is how I will meet death, for we are
certainly dead men." Again I said to him, "These creatures are all
inferior to us, and what you see is only smoke and shadow; so then
raise your eyes." When he had raised them he cried out, "The whole
Coliseum is in flames, and the fire is advancing on us;" then covering
his face with his hands, he groaned again that he was dead, and that
he could not endure the sight longer. The necromancer appealed for my
support, entreating me to stand firm by him, and to have asafetida
flung upon the coals; so I turned to Vincenzio Romoli, and told him to
make the fumigation at once. While uttering these words I looked at
Agnolino Gaddi, whose eyes were starting from their sockets in his
terror, and who was more than half dead, and said to him, "Agnolo, in
time and place like this we must not yield to fright, but do the
utmost to bestir ourselves; therefore up at once, and fling a handful
of that asafetida upon the fire."... The boy, roused by that great
stench and noise, lifted his face a little, and hearing me laugh, he
plucked up courage, and said the devils were taking to flight
tempestuously. So we abode thus until the matin bells began to sound.
Then the boy told us agai