ch comes upon a people about to be enslaved commonly
makes them the agents of their own undoing. The time had now come for
the destruction of the last vestiges of liberty in Mantua, and the
Mantuans, in their assembly of the Four Hundred and Ninety, voted full
power into the hands of the destroyer. That Pinamonte Bonacolsi whom
Dante mentions in the twentieth canto of the "Inferno," had been
elected captain of the republic, and, feigning to fear aggression from
the Marquis of Ferrara, he demanded of the people the right to banish
all enemies of the state. This reasonable demand was granted, and
the captain banished, as is well known, all enemies of Pinamonte
Bonacolsi. After that, having things his own way, he began to favor
public tranquillity, abolished family feuds and the ancient amusement
of street-battles, and led his enslaved country in the paths of
material prosperity; for which he was no doubt lauded in his day
by those who thought the Mantuans were not prepared for freedom.
He resolved to make the captaincy of the republic hereditary in the
Bonacolsi family; and when he died, in 1293, his power descended to
his son Bordellone. This Bordellone seems to have been a generous and
merciful captain enough, but he loved ease and pleasure; and a rough
nephew of his, Guido Botticella, conspired against him to that degree
that Bordellone thought best, for peace and quietness' sake, to
abdicate in his favor. Guido had the customary war with the Marquis of
Ferrara, and then died, and was succeeded by his brother Passerino, a
very bad person, whose son at last brought his whole family to grief.
The Emperor made him vicar of Modena; and he used the Modenese very
cruelly, and shut up Francesco Pico and his sons in a tower, where he
starved them, as the Pisans did Ugolino. In those days, also, the Pope
was living at Avignon, and people used to send him money and other
comforts there out of Italy. An officer of Passerino's, being of
Ghibelline politics, attacked one of these richly laden emissaries,
and took his spoils, dividing them with Passerino. For this the Pope
naturally excommunicated the captain of Mantua, and thereupon his
neighbors made a great deal of pious war upon him. But he beat the
Bolognese, the most pious of his foes, near Montevoglio, and with his
Modenese took from them that famous bucket, about which Tassoni
made his great Bernesque epic, "The Rape of the Bucket" (_La Secchia
Rapita_), and which still hangs