Dante thus discovers among them the leaders of strife between sundry
Italian states, and shudders when Bertrand de Born, a fellow minstrel,
appears bearing his own head instead of a lantern, in punishment for
persuading the son of Henry II, of England, to rebel.

_Canto XXIX._ Gazing in a dazed way at the awful sights of this
circle, Dante learns it is twenty-one miles in circumference, ere he
passes on to the next bridge, where lamentations such as assail one's
ears in a hospital constantly arise. In the depths of the tenth pit,
into which he now peers, Dante distinguishes victims of all manners of
diseases, and learns these are the alchemists and forgers undergoing
the penalty of their sins. Among them Dante perceives a man who was
buried alive on earth for offering to teach mortals to fly! So
preposterous did such a claim appear to Minos--judge of the dead--that
he ruthlessly condemned its originator to undergo the punishment
awarded to magicians, alchemists, and other pretenders.

_Canto XXX._ Virgil now points out to Dante sundry impostors,
perpetrators of fraud, and false-coiners, among whom we note the woman
who falsely accused Joseph, and Sinon, who persuaded the Trojans to
convey the wooden horse into their city. Not content with the tortures
inflicted upon them, these criminals further increase each others'
sufferings by cruel taunts, and Dante, fascinated by what he sees,
lingers beside this pit, until Virgil cuttingly intimates "to hear
such wrangling is a joy for vulgar minds."

_Canto XXXI._ Touched by the remorseful shame which Dante now shows,
Virgil draws him on until they are almost deafened by a louder blast
than was uttered by Roland's horn at Roncevaux. Peering in the
direction of the sound, Dante descries what he takes for lofty towers,