oved by so
eloquent a plea, Cato directs Virgil to wash all traces of tears and
of infernal mirk from Dante's face, girdle him with a reed in token
of humility, and then ascend the Mount of Purgatory,--formed of the
earthy core ejected from Hades,--which he points out in the middle of
a lake with reedy shores.

Leading his charge in the early dawn across a meadow, Virgil draws his
hands first through the dewy grass and then over Dante's face, and,
having thus removed all visible traces of the passage through Hades,
takes him down to the shore to girdle him with a pliant reed, the
emblem of humility.

_Canto II._ Against the whitening east they now behold a ghostly
vessel advancing toward them, and when it approaches near enough they
descry an angel standing at its prow, his outspread wings serving as
sails. While Dante again sinks upon his knees, he hears, faintly at
first, the passengers in the boat singing the psalm "When Israel went
out of Egypt."

Making a sign of the cross upon each passenger's brow, the angel
allows his charges to land, and vanishes at sunrise, just as the
new-comers, turning to Virgil, humbly inquire the way to the mountain.
Virgil rejoins that he too is a recent arrival, although he and his
companion travelled a far harder road than theirs. His words making
them aware of the fact that Dante is a living man, the spirits crowd
around him, eager to touch him. Among them he recognizes the musician
Casella, his friend. Unable to embrace a spirit,--although he tries to
do so,--Dante, after explaining his own presence here, begs Casella to
comfort all present by singing of love. Just as this strain ends, Cato
reappears, urging them to hasten to the mountain and there cast aside
the scales which conceal God from their eyes. At these words all the
souls present scatter like a covey of pigeons, and begin ascending the
mountain, whither Virgil and Dante slowly follow them.

"As a wild flock of pigeons, to their food
Collected, blade or tares, without their pride
Accustom'd, and in still and quiet sort,
If aught alarm them, suddenly desert
Their meal, assail'd by more important care;
So I that new-come troop beheld, the song
Deserting, hasten to the mountain's side,
As one who goes, yet, where he tends, knows not."

_Canto III._ While painfully ascending the steep slope, Dante, seeing
only his own shadow lengthening out before him, fears his guide has
abandoned him, and is relie