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 one hand the
love of those two fellow citizens drawn together by no other bond than
affection for their native place and on the other hand hatred with which
living contemporaries rend one another.
"Ah Italy, thou slave, that gentle spirit was thus quick, merely at the
sweet name of his city, to give greeting there to his fellow citizen and
now in thee thy living abide not without war and one doth rend the other
of those that one wall and one foss shuts in" (VI, 79).
As night approaches Sordello leads the poets to the angelically
protected Flowery Valley wherein are found the souls of those rulers who
were negligent of the spiritual life. Many of them were once old enemies
but now they not only sing together but live in harmony, united also in
paying tributes to the worth of some reigning monarchs or in expressing
denunciation at the degeneracy of others.
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