The astrological superstitions and the religious unbelief
of many of the tyrants gave, in the minds of their contemporaries, a peculiar
color to this awful and God-forsaken existence. When the last Carrara could no
longer defend the walls and gates of the plague-stricken Padua, hemmed in on
all sides by the Venetians (1405), the soldiers of the guard heard him cry to
the devil 'to come and kill him.'
* * *
The most complete and instructive type of the tyranny of
the fourteenth century is to be found unquestionably among the Visconti of
Milan, from the death of the Archbishop Giovanni onwards (1354). The family
likeness which shows itself between Bernabo and the worst of the Roman Emperors
is unmistakable; the most important public object was the prince's
boar-hunting; whoever interfered with it was put to death with torture, the
terrified people were forced to maintain 5,000 boar hounds, with strict
responsibility for their health and safety. The taxes were extorted by every
conceivable sort of compulsion; seven daughters of the prince received a dowry
of 100,000 gold florins apiece; and an enormous treasure was collected. On the
death of his wife (1384) an order was issued 'to the subjects' to share his
grief, as once they had shared his joy, and to wear mourning for a year. The coup
de main (1385) by which his nephew Giangaleazzo got him into his powerone
of those brilliant plots which make the heart of even late historians beat more
quickly was strikingly characteristic of the man .
