asin,
while the other bore a kind of golden quiver that was stuffed full, not
indeed of arrows, but of quills of the gray goose. When this little
company of pages had come anigh to Messer Simone, who seemed to greet
their approach with great satisfaction, the pages that carried the book
stood before their master, and Simone, stooping to the charger,
unclasped the great book and flung it open and showed that its leaves
were white and fair. The book-bearers supported the book so open, on the
charger, making themselves into a living desk, and he that carried the
ink and sand and he that carried the quills came alongside of them, and
stood quietly, waiting for their work to begin.

Then Messer Simone struck with his open palm upon the smooth, fair
parchment, and cried aloud that in time to come this book would prove to
be one of the city's most precious possessions, for it was to be the
abiding record of those noble-souled patriots who had enrolled their
names upon the roll-call of the Company of Death. And he said again that
such a book would be, indeed, a catalogue of heroes; and after much more
talk to this purpose, he called upon all those present that had high
hearts and loved their mother-city to come forward and inscribe their
names, to their own eternal honor, upon the pages of the there presented
volume.

Now at this there came a great shout of applause from many that listened
to Messer Simone, and because men in such an assemblage, at such an
hour, in such a mood of merry-making, are little likely to prove
thoughtful critics of what may be said by a big voice using big words,
it seemed to many of those there standing that Messer Simone's scheme
of the Company of Death was the best that had ever been schemed for the
salvation of the city, and that to write one's name on the pages of
Messer Simone's book was the noblest duty and proudest privilege of a
true citizen.

There was a great hurrying and scurrying on the part of those that stood
around to get to the book and borrow quill and ink from the attendant
pages, and be among the earliest to deserve the honorable immortality
that Messer Simone promised. There were certain restrictions, so Messer
Simone explained, attendant upon the formation of the Company of Death.
Its members must be young men of no less than eighteen and no more than
thirty years of age. You will bear in mind that Messer Dante was but
just turned eighteen, and that Messer Guido was in his
ei