CANTO XXIII.
SILENT, alone, and without company
We went, the one in front, the other after,
As go the Minor Friars along their way.
Upon the fable of Æsop was directed
My thought, by reason of the present quarrel, 5
Where he has spoken of the frog and mouse;
For mo and issa are not more alike
Than this one is to that, if well we couple
End and beginning with a steadfast mind.
And even as one thought from another springs, 10
So afterward from that was born another,
Which the first fear within me double made.
Thus did I ponder: "These on our account
Are laughed to scorn, with injury and scoff
So great, that much I think it must annoy them. 15
If anger be engrafted on ill-will,
They will come after us more merciless
Than dog upon the leveret which he seizes,"
