David:- ; the ** young lion and the dragon shalt thou tread under thy "feet!" "It is not to you, it is to St. Peter!" murmured the indignant Prince, and the reply cost him a yet further humiliation; Alexander trod a second time more firmly upon his neck, exclaiming, "It is both to me and to St. Peter !" XII. Rome of the Ocean! thou thy Carthage foe So great was the consternation of the Venetians at the destruction of their fleet by Pietro Doria, and at the storming and taking of Chiozza, before their eyes, that a blank sheet of paper was instantly forwarded to Carrara, the Genoese captain-in-chief of the army, to which, whatever terms were proscribed, the Doge, Contarini, promised submission. Carrara hesitated; but Doria coveted a far deeper vengeance, and, fearful that the ancient rival of his country might elude his grasp, he anticipated the answer of his ally, and replied for both. The ambassadors, seeking to propitiate him, had brought with them some Genoese prisoners, ransomless : "Take back your captives," said he, " Ere many hours I "shall deliver them and all their comrades. By God above, 66 ye Signors of Venice! you must expect no peace either "from the Lord of Padua or from our Republic, till we "ourselves have bridled the Horses of your St. Mark. Place "but the reins once in our hands, and we shall know how to 66 keep them quiet for the future." It was this answer which drove the Venetians to that despair whose energies, in many similar instances, have so often prevailed. All Venice turned into the Arsenal, and all demanded, with one voice, the liberation of the noble Pisani, who had been confined by "the Ten," jealous of his too great popularity. "Would to Heaven," said he before them, "that I could bear to the holy task to which you invite me, and which I embrace with my whole soul, a vigour and "an intellect proportioned to my desires! Those, at least, are not likely to be wanting to Venice!" Amid the shouts of the whole city of-" Pisani, viva Pisani!"-" Stop, stop, 66 66 my friends," he said, gently reproving them, "the cry of a true Venetian is, " Viva San Marco !"-What an answer, and at what a time! Well might Hallam observe of this noble Venetian, "He was equal in magnanimity and simple 66 republican patriotism to the noblest characters of anti"quity." The result of his operation, in alliance with Carlo Zeno, were the retaking of the Chiozza, and the final annihilation of the whole Genoese fleet and army. From that hour Genoa declined, never to rise again; "and even her "own historian confesses, that God would not suffer so noble "a city as Venice to become the spoil of a conqueror." XIII. What deeds of heroism shone confessed: Never, in the History of the World, had been exhibited more splendid instances of individual sacrifice and self-devotion, than those made by the Patriot Venetians. Where age or infirmity rendered personal service impossible, entire fortunes were surrendered to the state: plate, jewels, and treasure, were heaped into the public coffers: the Doge mortgaged his Revenues; the Ecclesiastics bore arms. One of the most touching offers was made by Faseolo, a citizen of Chiozza, whose loss had reduced him to beggary. "If my "estate," said he, " were such as I once possessed, all of it should be contributed to the public exigencies; but life "is now the only property which is left to me, and to these. "Dispose of it as you think best. Employ us either by land "or sea, and gladden us by a consciousness that, what little "we still retain, is devoted to our Country." XIV. Cyprus, Lepanto, Troy-like Candia! Fame, For a detailed account of the famous siege of Famogosta by the Turks, the sufferings of the besieged, the heroic bravery and horrible martyrdom of Bragadino, the reader is referred to that excellent work, Sketches of Venetian History; a work which must surely take its place among the standard works for the rising generation. The History of Venice has been called a Romance; it should, I conceive, be rather termed an Epic Poem, but where there is nothing over-strained, nothing theatrical or unnatural; it is a picture of active human life, affording, in every leaf, the loftiest practical examples of heroism and of virtue. The conduct of the Venetians and their allies immediately before the battle of "Lepanto," as recorded by an eye-witness, is surely an interesting leaf from the History of Man. "A general shout ran through the armament; and each "man invoked for himself the Eternal Trinity and the blessed "Mother of God; while the Priests and many of the cap"tives hastened from stem to stern, bearing crucifixes in their "hands, and exhorting the crew to look to Him who had de"scended visibly from heaven to combat the enemies of his Moved and inflamed by ghostly zeal, this great "armament assumed, as it were, one body, one spirit, and "one will; careless of death, and retaining no other thought "name. 66 except that of fighting for their Saviour: so that you "might perceive on a sudden a strange mystery and a sin"gular miracle of the supreme power of God; when, in one "instant, all feuds and dissensions, all hatred and malice, "however inveterate, and arising from whatever bitter in"juries which hitherto neither the mediation of friends nor "the terror of authority could allay, were, at once, extinguished. Those who had mutually inflicted or suffered 66 wrong embraced as brethren, and poured out tears of affec"tion while they clasped each other in their arms! "O blessed and merciful omnipotence of God, how mar"vellous art thou in thy operations upon the faithful !" * Contarini. Troy-like Candia. When the Venetian garrison marched out from the walls which had cost the lives of thirty thousand Christians, and four times that number of Infidels, its general condition may be estimated from that of a single corps. "The regiment of "Negron, which I commanded," says Philibert de Jarry,* "numbered, at the beginning of the siege, two thousand five "hundred men, and I had received, during its course, four "hundred recruits. We quitted the city, officers and soldiers "together, but seventy men in all, of whom forty were " cripples!" Perhaps no The keys of Candia were presented to the Vizier Kiuperegli on the 27th of September, 1669. clearer image can be conveyed of the profound impression stamped upon the Venetian mind by the remembrance of the terrors of this desperate struggle, than by stating, that even to this hour, after the lapse of more than a century and a half, if a Venetian wishes to imply a "War to the Knife," he proverbially terms it— UNA GUERRA DI CANDIA ! So from her zenith did she sink : Since that eventful day which announced to Venice the storming of the Chiozza, no disaster had befallen her which struck grief so profound into her citizens, or awakened in them so justified a terror, as the battle of Agnadello, a. D. 1509, lost by their generals D'Alviano and Petigliano against * Histoire de Siège de Candie, cited by Daru. |