8 “Cling fast hold, for by such stairs,” said the Master, panting like one weary, 84 “must we depart from so great evil.” Then he came forth through the cleft of a rock, and placed me upon its edge to sit; 87 then stretched toward me his cautious step. I raised my eyes, and thought to see Lucifer as I had left him, 90 and I saw him holding his legs upward; and if I then became perplexed, let the dull folk suppose it, who see not 93 what that point is which I had passed. “Rise up on foot,” said the Master; “the way is long and the road is difficult, 96 and already the sun returns to mid-tierce.” It was no hallway of a palace where we were, but a natural dungeon 99 which had a bad floor, and lack of light. “Before I tear myself from the Abyss, my Master,” said I when I had risen up, 102 “to draw me out of error talk a little with me. Where is the ice? and this one, how is he fixed thus upside down? and how in such short while 105 has the sun made transit from evening to morning?” And he to me: “Thou imaginest that thou still art on the other side of the centre, where I laid hold 108 on the hair of the wicked Worm that pierces the world.
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