FIRST CANON. Luis, you have not considered
what you ask of me; you know
Nothing of the infernal torments
You must bear: to undergo
These your strength is insufficient.
Many are there, more the woe!
Who go in, but few, alas!
Who return.
LUIS. Your threats forebode
Much; but still they fright not me;
For I do protest, I go
But to purge away my sins,
Which if numbered are much more
Than the atoms of the sun
And the sands upon the shore.
I will ever have my hope
Firmly fixed upon the Lord,
At whose holy name even hell
Is subdued.
FIRST CANON. The fervid glow
Of your words compels me now
To unlock the awful doors.
Luis, you behold the cave:
See!
[He opens the mouth of the cave.
LUIS. Oh, save me, gracious God!
FIRST CANON. What! dismayed?
LUIS. No, not dismayed;
Still it scared me to behold.
FIRST CANON. I admonish you again,
For no lesser cause to go,
Than a firm belief that there
For your sins you may atone.
LUIS. Father, I am in the cave:
Listen to my voice once more,
Men and wild beasts, skies and mountains,
Day and night, and sun and moon,
To you all I here protest,
Ay, a thousand times make known,
That I enter here to suffer
Torments for my sins untold;
For so great, so dread a penance
Is but little to atone
For such sins as mine, believing
That the cave salvation holds.
FIRST CANON.
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