lake. One of these victims, questioned by Virgil, acknowledges he once
held office in Navarre, but, rather than suffer at the hands of the
demon tormentors, this peculator voluntarily plunges back into the
pitch. Seeing this, the baffled demons fight each other, until two
actually fall into the lake, whence they are fished in sorry plight by
fellow-fiends.

_Canto XXIII._ By a passage-way so narrow they are obliged to proceed
single file, Dante and Virgil reach the next division, the author of
this poem continually gazing behind him for fear lest the demons
pursue him. His fears are only too justified, and Virgil, seeing his
peril, catches him up in his arms and runs with him to the next gulf,
knowing demons never pass beyond their beat.

"Never ran water with such hurrying pace
Adown the tube to turn a land-mill's wheel,
When nearest it approaches to the spokes,
As then along that edge my master ran,
Carrying me in his bosom, as a child,
Not a companion."

In the sixth division where they now arrive, they behold a procession
of victims, weighed down by gilded leaden cowls, creeping along so
slowly that Dante and Virgil pass all along their line although they
are not walking fast. Hearing one of these bowed figures address him,
Dante learns that, because he and his companions were hypocrites on
earth, they are doomed to travel constantly around this circle of the
Inferno, fainting beneath heavy loads.

A moment later Dante notices that the narrow path ahead of them is