otiation in a fair train, than
Napoleon, abandoning for the moment the details of its management to
inferior diplomatists, hastened to retrace his steps, and pour the full
storm of his wrath on the Venetians. The Doge and the Senate, whose only
hopes had rested on the successes of Austria on the Adige, heard with
utter despair that the Archduke had shared the fate of Beaulieu, of
Wurmser, and of Alvinzi, and that the preliminaries of peace were
actually signed. The rapidity of Buonaparte's return gave them no
breathing-time. They hastened to send offers of submission, and their
messengers were received with anger and contempt. "French blood has been
treacherously shed," said Napoleon; "if you could offer me the treasures
of Peru, if you could cover your whole dominion with gold--the atonement
would be insufficient--the lion of St. Mark[17] must lick the dust."
These tidings came like a sentence of death upon the devoted Senate.
Their deliberations were unceasing; their schemes innumerable; their
hearts divided and unnerved. Those secret chambers, from which that
haughty oligarchy had for so many ages excluded every eye and every
voice but their own, were invaded with impunity by strange-faced men,
who boldly criticised their measures, and heaped new terrors on their
heads, by announcing that the mass of the people had ceased to consider
the endurance of their sway as synonymous with the prosperity of Venice.
Popular tumults filled the streets and canals; universal confusion
prevailed. The commanders of their troops and fleets received
contradictory orders, and the city which

"--had held the gorgeous East in fee,"

seemed ready to yield everything to a ruthless and implacable enemy,
without even striking a blow in defence.

Buonaparte appeared, while the confusion was at its height, on the
opposite coast of the Lagoon. Some of his troops were already in the
heart of the city, when (31st May) a hasty message reached him,
announcing that the Senate submitted wholly. He exacted severe revenge.
The leaders who had aided the Lombard insurgents were delivered to him.
The oligarchy ceased to rule, and a democratical government was formed,
provisionally, on the model of France. Venice consented to surrender to
the victor large territories on the mainland of Italy; five ships of
war; 3,000,000 francs in gold, and as many more in naval stores; twenty
of the best pictures, and 500 manuscripts. Lastly, the troops of the
conq