The madness which 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 in the tower of the Duomo at Modena.  Meantime, while Passerino had done everything to settle himself comfortably and permanently in the tyranny of Mantua, his worthless son Francesco fell in love with the wife of Filippino Gonzaga.