Modena. Duke Passerino foils a first conspiracy hatched by Tommasino da Gorzano. The repression is brutal: the leaders are beheaded, and the remaining conspirators are pincered (that is, their flesh is torn with red-hot irons) and then hanged from the battlements of Porta Redecocca. But Passerino’s days are numbered: Guelph military pressure increases, as does popular discontent, tired of years of inconclusive warfare and, what’s more, with the bubonic plague wreaking havoc. Passerino is forced to flee Modena, and on June 5th, the remaining Ghibelline garrison is forced to withdraw.
