Commentary Inf XVI 88-89

When this group hurries off to rejoin their fellows (as did Brunetto his), the poet describes their flight as taking no more time than it takes to say 'Amen.' The detail also probably implies, as it were, an illicit prayer for them on Dante's part, as though the protagonist, in response to their kind words, accepted their prayer for his return to the world, and would like to offer one for them in return. In a sense, the poet's positive treatment of them in this canto is the fulfillment of that wish.