"The Exiles" by Honoré de Balzac is a short story published in 1831. Set in early fourteenth-century Paris, it follows two mysterious strangers who lodge in a sergeant's dark house near Notre-Dame. The elder guest is none other than the exiled poet Dante Alighieri, while his young companion harbors a dangerous secret. Through mystical theology and philosophical reflections on intelligence and angels, their fates intertwine in unexpected ways as Dante faces the possibility of returning home to Florence. (This is an automatically generated summary.)