falling country, they hastily gave their suffrages and departed.

The people who surrounded the palace, seeing a signal displayed at the windows, which announced to them the termination of the debate, expressed their feelings on the occasion in loud and contradictory vociferations. While some uttered exclamations in favour of the French, others were as eager in their lamentations over the fall of their ancient constitution; but all united in contributing to the confusion of the moment, by abandoning themselves to pillage or licence. The night approached, and still these disorders remained unrepressed, till, about two hours after midnight, a small detachment of soldiers assembled on the Rialto, and some cannon being posted there, the mob was dispersed. In the morning a proclamation was issued, prohibiting, under pain of death, any opposition to the decree which had been passed.

On the 16th of May, 1797, three thousand French troops disembarked on the Place Saint Mark, in the midst of the wild shouts of one part of the population, and the mournful tears and lamentations of the other. The demolition of the prisons of the inquisition was the first act of the new government; the burning of the book of gold, consecrated to the enrolment of the nobility, was the next; while the Lion of Saint Mark, instead of the inscription which designated his sacred character, was now made to bear the motto of "THE RIGHTS OF MAN."

Before St. Mark still glow his steeds of brass,
Their gilded collars glittering in the sun;

But is not Doria's menace come to pass?
Are they not bridled?-Venice, lost and won,
Her thirteen hundred years of freedom done,
Sinks, like a sea-weed, into whence she rose!
Better be whelm'd beneath the waves, and shun,
Even in destruction's depth, her foreign foes,
From whom submission wrings an infamous repose.

But Venice was not yet reduced to its lowest stage of degradation. It had fallen beneath a conqueror, but it had never yet been made an object of barter between one master and another. To this, however, it was now reduced. By the treaty of Campo Formio, Venice was ceded to Austria, whose forces entered the city on January 18, 1798. The state inquisition was re-established, and Pesaro, who had made such a display of his patriotism in the scenes which preceded the final humiliation of his country, actually reappeared in the character of an Austrian commissary. It was before him that the humbled patricians had to take the oaths of allegiance to their new master; and the ex-doge, who, though too weak and undecided for the situation he held, had the love of his country deep at heart, fell, as he pronounced the words of the oath, senseless on the ground. Thus sunk the free and queenly Venice, and true in every line are these words of her epitaph :

The spouseless Adriatic mourns her lord,
And, annual marriage now no more renew'd,
The Bucentaur lies rotting unrestored—
Neglected garment of her widowhood!
St. Mark yet sees his lion where he stood
Stand, but in mockery of his wither'd power,
Over the proud Place where an emperor sued,
And monarchs gazed and envied in the hour
When Venice was a queen with an unequall'd dower

C

The Suabian sued, and now the Austrian reigns-
An emperor tramples where an emperor knelt;
Kingdoms are shrunk to provinces, and chains
Clank over sceptred cities; nations melt
From power's high pinnacle, when they have felt
The sunshine for a while, and downward go,
Like lauwine loosen'd from the mountain's belt;
Oh, for one hour of blind old Dandolo !

Th' octogenarian chief, Byzantium's conquering foe.