XXXIII.
“Fierce Ezelin, that most inhuman lord,
“Who shall be deemed by men a child of hell,
“And work such evil, thinning with the sword
“Who in Ausonia’s wasted cities dwell;
“Rome shall no more her Anthony record,
“Her Marius, Sylla, Nero, Cajus fell.
“And this fifth Azo shall to scathe and shame
“Put Frederick, second Cæsar of the name[1].
XXXIV.
“He, with his better sceptre well contented,
“Shall rule the city, seated by the streams[18],
“Where Phœbus to his plaintive lyre lamented
“The son, ill-trusted with the father’s beams;
“Where Cygnus spread his pinions, and the scented
“Amber was wept, as fabling poet dreams.
“To him such honour shall the church decree;
“Fit guerdon of his works, and valour’s fee.
XXXV.
“But does no laurel for his brother twine[19],
“Aldobrandino, who will carry cheer
“To Rome (when Otho, with the Ghibelline,
“Into the troubled capital strikes fear),
“And make the Umbri and Piceni sign
“Their shame, and sack the cities far and near;
“Then hopeless to relieve the sacred hold,
“Sue to the neighbouring Florentine for gold:
- ↑ The Emperor Frederick the Second.
