Down from the fist, yea, lantern-like hung down; Staring at us it murmured: 'Wretched me!' A lamp he made of head-piece once his own; And he was two in one and one in two; But how, to Him who thus ordains is known. Arrived beneath the bridge and full in view, With outstretched arm his head he lifted high To bring his words well to us. These I knew: 'Consider well my grievous penalty, 130 Thou who, though still alive, art visiting The people dead; what pain with this can vie? In order that to earth thou news mayst bring Of me, that I'm Bertrand de Born[732] know well, Who gave bad counsel to the Younger King. I son and sire made each 'gainst each rebel: David and Absalom were fooled not more By counsels of the false Ahithophel. Kinsmen so close since I asunder tore, Severed, alas! I carry now my brain 140 From what[733] it grew from in this trunk of yore: And so I prove the law of pain for pain.'[734] FOOTNOTES: [715] _That now I saw_: In the Ninth Bolgia, on which he is looking down, and in which are punished the sowers of discord in church and state. [716] _Apulia_: The south-eastern district of Italy, owing to its situation a frequent battle-field in ancient and modern times. [717] _Rome_: 'Trojans' in most MSS.; and then the Romans are described as descended from Trojans. The reference may be to the defeat of the Apulians with considerable slaughter by P. Decius Mus, or to their losses in general in the course of the Samnite war. [718] _War procrastinate_: The second Punic war lasted fully fifteen years, and in the course of it the battle of Cannæ was gained by Hannibal, where so many Roman knights fell that the spoil of rings amounted to a peck. [719] _Guiscard_: One of the Norman conquerors of the regions which up to our own time constituted the kingdom of Naples. In Apulia he did much fighting against Lombards, Saracens, and Greeks. He is found by Dante in Paradise among those who fought for the faith (_Par._ xviii. 48). His death happened in Cephalonia in 1085, at the age of seventy, when he was engaged on an expedition against Constantinople. [720] _Ceperan_: In the swift and decisive campaign undertaken by Charles of Anjou against Manfred, King of Sicily and Naples, the first victory was obtained at Ceperano; but it was won owing to the treachery of Manfred's lieutenant, and not by the sword. The true battle was fought at Benevento (_Purg._ iii. 128). Ceperano may be named by Dante as the field where the defeat of Manfred was virtually begun, and where the Apulians first failed in loyalty to their gallant king. Dante was a year old at the time of Manfred's overthrow (1266).