olve me round
Outside thereof, as in my life it did,
Since the good sighs I to the end postponed,
Unless e'er that some prayer may bring me aid
Which rises from a heart that lives in grace."
(IV, 120.)

Unless assisted by the prayer of the sinless faithful upon earth,
Balaqua and his class must stay in Outer-Purgatory, each for a term
equal to the period of his natural life. The third and the fourth
classes in Outer-Purgatory, viz., those who died of violence, deferring
their repentance to the last hour, and kings and princes who because of
temporal concerns of state put off their conversion to the last--all
those also must remain in Outer-Purgatory for a period equal to that of
their lives upon earth, unless the time be shortened by intercessory
prayer. It is to be noted that the souls of the violently slain press so
closely and so insistently about Dante in their eagerness to obtain his
good offices in favor of prayerful intercession for them by their
friends upon earth that he has great difficulty in getting away from
these souls. He succeeds by making promises to execute their
desires--comparing his difficulty of advancing to the trouble a winner
at dice experiences when bystanders crowd about him in obstructive
congratulations and make his way impracticable until he gives some of
his winnings to this one, and some to that one.

"When from their game of dice men separate
He who hath lost remains in sadness fix'd,
Revolving in his mind what luckless throws
He cast; but meanwhile all the company
Go with the other; one before him runs,
And one behind his mantle twitches, one
Fast by his side bids him remember him,
He stops not, and each one to whom his hand
Is stretch'd, well knows he bids him stand aside,
And thus he from the crowd defends himself.
E'en such was I in that close-crowding throng;
And turning so my face around to all,
And promising, I 'scaped from it with pains."
(VI, 1.)

Higher up the mountain occurs a touching instance of love of country.
Virgil draws near a spirit "praying that it would show us the best
ascent"; and that spirit answered not his demand but of our country and
of our life did ask us. And the sweet Leader (Virgil) began "Mantua ..."
And the shade all rapt in self leaped toward him saying, "O Mantuan, I
am Sordello of thy city. And one embraced the other" (VI, 67). This
episode gives to Dante the opportunity to contrast on the on