It will be remembered that St. Francis, the founder of the Cordeliers (the wearers of the cord), used to call his body asino , or ass, and to subdue it with the capestro , or halter. Thus the cord is made to symbolize the subjugation of the animal nature. This renders Lombardi’s interpretation the most intelligible and satisfactory, though Virgil seems to have thrown the cord into the abyss simply because he had nothing else to throw, and not with the design of deceiving. ↩

As a man does naturally in the act of throwing. ↩