The Malebranche escort proceeds along the ditch-bank. Dante watches the pitch: whales surfacing; dolphins arching; occasional souls poking their backsides up like frogs in a ditch. One soul surfaces too long and is hooked by Graffiacane. The demons tear at him. Virgil asks: do you know anyone else in the pitch? The soul is Ciampolo of Navarre — a minor official who sold royal favors. He names Fra Gomita of Sardinia (who had let prisoners escape for bribes, a master fraud) and Michele Zanche, governor of Logodoro.
Ciampolo proposes a trick: if the demons back off, he can call up others from the pitch. They back off. He plunges back in. Alichino dives in after him; Calcabrina dives at Alichino in fury at being tricked; they both end up floundering in the pitch together, unable to fly free of it. The other demons rush to help with their hooks. Dante and Virgil slip away during the confusion — Virgil grabs Dante and slides down a cliff like a mother rescuing a child from a burning house, running along the sixth bank. The comedy is full and Aristophanic: Hell's bureaucratic order has dissolved into slapstick.