Day 23: The dark hands closing in fast

Canto 23 begins like a horror movie, the action moving our protagonist and his guide in a breathless escape from the evil that encloses them. The Malebranche, aka the demons that control the fifth ditch, are getting restless.  Dante's spidey sense leads him to feel as if the very world surrounding him was collapsing in.  There are unseen claws grasping at him, moving closer and closer to capturing him and Virigl for an eternity in this truly terrifying part of Inferno.  Dante voices his fear about the increasing malice to Virgil.  Virgil tells Dante that they are of like mind.  Immediately Virgil snatches up Dante and they burst away in a mad dash from the demons.
It turns out they weren't in a any true danger.  Once they left the fifth ditch, the demons could advance no further, as per dictated by the alimighty (or as Dante calls him/her/it, the High Providence).  Where they descended towards was a scene much sadder, but obviously filled Dante and Virgil with some sort of relief.  They were confronted with a scene filled with sinners "with painted face, who moved about with lagging steps, in circles, weeping, with features tired and defeated." Dante wishes to find someone he might be familiar with here, and as he speaks, one of the souls recognizes his "tuscan speech".  It is Catalano and Loderingo, who shared the title of political chief during the Guelf Ghebbeline war that Dante engaged in. They ask who is this living man that has come to this place of sad hypocrites. Dante responds with the  poetic line "Where the lovely Arno flows, there I was born and raised, in the great city." He asks of them.  They say that they are weighed down by cloaks of lead and were once jovial friars. Dante then recognizes one of them from his crucifiction. He explains that the reason for his death was that he counseled the Pharisees that is was prudent to let one man-and not one nation-suffer. They ask how to get out of the land of hypocrites and are given directions to a ridge that crosses the savage valleys. The canto ends with one of the jovial friars saying "i once heard about the dveils many vices-they said he was a liar and a father of lies." A forboding stating, knowing full well that our travelers are inching closer and closer to the ruler of this inferno, the father of lies.