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the united armament of the Genoese and Francesco da Carrara, Signor of Padua, the Venetians were reduced to the utmost despair. An embassy was sent to the conquerors with a blank sheet of paper, praying them to prescribe what terms they pleased, and leave to Venice only her independence. The Prince of Padua was inclined to listen to these proposals, but the Genoese, who, after the victory at Pola, had shouted, "to Venice, to Venice, and long live St. George, determined to annihilate their rival, and Peter Doria, their commander in chief. returned this answer to the suppliants: "On God's faith, gentlemen of Venice, ye shall have no peace from the Signor of Padua, nor from our commune of Genoa, until we have first put a rein upon these unbridled horses of yours, that are upon the porch of your evangelist St. Mark. When we have bridled them, we shall keep you quiet. And this is the pleasure of us and of our commune. As for these my brothers of Genoa, that you have brought with you to give up to us, I will not have them: take them back; for, in a few days hence, I shall come and let them out of prison myself, both these and all the others 1). In fact, the Genoese did advance as far as Malamocco, within five miles of the capital; but their own danger and the pride of their enemies gave courage to the Venetians, who made prodigious efforts, and many individual sacrifices, all of them carefully recorded by their historians. Vettor Pisani was put at the head of thirty-four galleys. The Genoese broke up from Malamocco, and retired to Chioza in October; but they again

1) "Alla fe di Dio, Signori Veneziani, non haverete mai

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Signore di Padoua, ne dal nostro commune di Genova, se pri mieramente non mettemo le briglie a quelli vostri cavalli sfrena ti, che sono su la Reza del Vostro Evangelista S. Marco. Imbrenati che gli havremo, vi faremo stare in buona pace. E questa e la intenzione nostra, e del nostro commune. Questi miei fratelli Genovesi che havete menati con voi per donarci, non li voglio; rimanetegli in dietro perche io intendo de qui a pochi giorni venirgli a riscuoter dalle vostre prigioni, e loroe gli altri..

threatened Venice, which was reduced to extremi ties. At this time, the 1st of January, 1380, arrived Carlo Zeno, who had been cruising on the Genoese coast with fourteen galleys. The Venetians were now strong enough to besiege the GeDoria was killed on the 22d of January by a stone bullet 195 pounds weight, discharged from a bombard called the Trevisan. Chioza was then closely invested: 5000 auxiliaries, amongst whom were some English Condottieri, commanded by one Captain Ceccho, joined the Venetians. The Genoese, in their turn, prayed for conditions, but none were granted, until, at last,, they surren dered at discretion; and, on the 24th of June, 1380, the Doge Contanini made his triumphal entry into Chioza. Four thousand prisoners, nineteen galleys, many smaller vessels and barks, with all the ammunition and arms, and outfit of the expedition, fell into the hands of the conque rors, who, had it not been for the inexorable answer of Doria, would have gladly reduced their dominion to the city of Venice. An account of these transactions is found in a work called the War of Chioza, Written by Daniel Chinazzo, who was in Venice at the time).

9.

The "Planter of the Lion.

Stanza xiv. line 3.

Plant the Lion- that is, the Lion of St. Mark, the standard of the republic, which is the origin of the word Pantaloon - Piantaleone, Pantaleon, Pantaloon.

10.

Thin streets, and foreign aspects, such as must
Too oft remind her who and what enthrals.

Stanza xv. lines 7 and 8.

The population of Venice at the end of the se venteenth century amounted to nearly two hundred

1) Chronaca della guerra di Chioza, etc. Script. Rer. Italic. tom. xv. pp. 699. to 804.

thousand souls. At the last census, taken two years ago, it was no more than about one hundred and three thousand, and it diminishes daily. The commerce and the official employments, which were to be the unexhausted source of Venetian grandeur, have both expired 1). Most of the pa trician mansions are deserted, and would gradually disappear. had not the government, alarmed by the demolition of seventy-two, during the last two years, expressly forbidden this sad resource of poverty. Many remnants of the Venetian nobility are now scattered and confounded with the weal thier Jews upon the banks of the Brenta, whose palladian palaces have sunk, or are sinking, in the general decay, Of the gentiluomo Veneto,» the name is still known, and that is all. He is but the shadow of his former self, but he is polite and kind. It surely may be pardoned to him if he is querulous. Whatever may have been the vices of the republic, and although the natural term of its existence may be thought by foreigners to have arrived in the due course of mortality, only one sentiment can be expected from the Ve netians themselves. At no time were the subjects of the republic so unanimous in their resolution. to rally round the standard of St. Mark, as when it was for the last time unfurled; and the cowar dice and the treachery of the few patricians who recommended the fatal neutrality were confined to the persons of the traitors themselves. The present race cannot be thought to regret the loss of their aristocratical forms, and too despotic govern. ment; they think only on their vanished independence. They pine away at the remembrance, and on this subject suspend for a moment their gay good humour. Venice may be said. in the words of the scripture, "to die daily; and so general and so apparent is the decline, as to become pain.

1

"Nonnullorum e nobilitate immensae sunt opes, adeo ut vix
aestimari possint: id quod tribus e rebus oritur, parsimonia,
commercio, atque iis emolumentis, quae e Repub. percipiunt,
quae hane ob causam diuturna fore creditur.
Principatibus Italiae, Tractatus, edit. 1631.

See de

ful to a stranger, not reconciled to the sight of a whole nation expiring as it were before his eyes. So artificial a creation, having lost that principle which called it into life and supported its existence, must fall to pieces at once, and sink more rapidly than it rose. The abhorrence of slavery which drove the Venetians to the sea, has, since their disaster, forced them to the land, where they may be at least overlooked amongst the crowd of de pendents, and not present the humiliating spectacle of a whole nation loaded with recent chains. Their liveliness, their affability, and that happy indifference which constitution alone can give, for philosophy aspires to it in vain, have not sunk under circumstances; but many peculiarities of costume and manner have by degrees been lost, and the nobles, with a pride common to all Ita lians who have been masters, have not been per suaded to parade their insignificance. That splen. dour which was a proof and a portion of their power, they would not degrade into the trappings of their subjection. They retired from the space which they had occupied in the eyes of their fellowcitizens; their continuance in which would have been a symptom of acquiescence, and an insult to those who suffered by the common misfortune. Those who remained in the degraded capital might be said rather to haunt the scenes of their departed power, than to live in them. The reflection, "who and what enthrals, will hardly bear a comment from one who is, nationally, the friend and the ally of the conqueror. It may, however, be al lowed to say thus much, that to those who wish to recover their independence, any masters must be an object of detestation; and it may be safely foretold that this unprofitable aversion will not have been corrected before Venice shall have sunk into the slime of her choked canals.

11.

Redemption rose up in the Attic Muse.

Stanza xvi. line 3.

The story is told in Plutarch's life of Nicias.

12.

And Otway, Radcliffe, Schiller, Shakspeare's art. Stanza xviii. line 5.

Venice preserved; Mysteries of Udolpho; the Ghost-seer, or Armenian; the Merchant of Venice; Othello.

13.

But from their nature will the tannen grow Loftiest on loftiest and least shelter'd rocks. Stanza xx. lines 1 and 2.

Tannen is the plural of tanne, a species of fir peculiar to the Alps, which only thrives in very rocky parts, where scarcely soil sufficient for its nourishment can be found. On these spots it grows to a greater height than any other moun

tain tree.

14.

A single star is at her side, and reigns
With her o'er half the lovely heaven.

Stanza xxviii. lines 1 and 2.

The above description may seem fantastical or exaggerated to those who have never seen an Oriental or an Italian sky, yet it is but a literal and hardly sufficient delineation of an August evening (the eighteenth) as contemplated in one of many rides along the banks of the Brenta near La Mira.

15.

Watering the tree which bears his lady's name With the melodious tears, he gave himself to fame. Stanza xxx. lines 8 and 9.

Thanks to the critical acumen of a Scotchman, we now know as little of Laura as ever 1). The

1) See An Historical and Critical Essay on the Life and Character of Petrarch; and a Dissertation on an Historical Hy pothesis of the Abbé de Sade: the first appeared about the year 1784; the other is inserted in the fourth volume of the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinbourgh, and both have been incorporated into a work, published, under the first title, by Ballantyne in 1810.

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