Sinks with her charge beluted in the loam?’[[68]]
‘Thou reasonest well,’ I said, ‘O Marco mine,
And I perceive now why the sacred tome
The sons of Levi bars from heritage.
But who is that Gherardo who, thou say’st,
Remaineth in rebuke of this rough age
From those who formerly the realm possessed?’
‘Either thy tongue misleads me or thou show’st
A wish to try me,’ he to me replied,
‘That, using Tuscan speech, thou nothing know’st