Mason's club without first acquainting her with his intention, she had the Lodge surrounded by guards; and, on the officer who commanded them demanding, in her Majesty's name, the immediate dispersion of the meeting, Francis, presenting himself, said, "Return to the Empress, your mistress, and inform her that, wherever her husband is one of the number, she may rest assured that nothing of a treasonable nature will ever be plotted against her, or against the state."

CHAPTER XXI.

VENICE.

Further Reflections on the Overthrow of the Venetian Republic ......Its happy Condition between the Years 1780 and 1793 ......Francisco Pesaro appointed Austrian CommissaryGeneral......His Cruelty......And Death......Anecdotes of the Venetian Gondolieri......Anecdote of the President Montesquieu when at Venicee.......The Canal Orfano.......The Sbirraglia......Duganas......Smuggling.

To return to the affairs of the Venetians, at the period of the overthrow of the Republic. The salvation of all Italy, as well as the preservation of her own rank in the scale of nations,

required that Venice should continue an independent state; as it had been during the many wars in the south of Europe, between the contending powers of France, Spain, and Austria. The armies of either of those powers, on entering the Venetian territories, were immediately met by an armed force, and conducted by it to the frontiers. But then the Republic had in constant activity from thirty to forty thousand troops-a number which was more than sufficient to keep either party in awe; besides fourand-twenty ships of war, ready to be launched, in case of an aggression on the part of any one of the said powers.

The wisdom of such a step on the part of the Government was obvious, since it effectually protected its subjects from molestation. The advantages resulting from such a line of conduct may be guessed at from the fact, that the Republic never once compromised its neutrality with any of the belligerent powers, but always maintained a rigid impartiality, and thereby caused itself to be alike respected and feared.

From the year 1780 to the year 1793 or 1794, the Republic was the richest, the most flourishing, and the most popular power in all Italy. It had not been engaged in war, whether internal or external, for many, many years. The

population, throughout the whole Venetian territory, was exasperated beyond measure against the sanguinary Masnadieri, who had butchered the King and Queen of France. All that they wanted was a leader; and, if an able one had stepped forward, the horde that was then spreading devastation and ruin over all Italy would have been exterminated root and branch. Nothing was wanted but the countenance and encouragement of the government; and, in vindication of that government from the foul charges which have been brought against it, I am bound to declare, that their folly in rejecting the wise proposition for keeping up an armed force, ready to check the violence of the French invader, was the chief cause of their ruin, and of his aggrandizement.

It was Pesaro-the base, the imbecile, the treacherons Pesaro--who bullied the Senate into a departure from their former system of an armed neutrality. The spirit of vigorous resistance which actuated the Dandolos, the Zens, the Trons, the Barbarigos, and that pater patria Francesco Foscari, had long since fled, and those great men buried in the general ruin. The consideration is a truly awful one. The bare idea of seeing from ten to fifteen thousand individuals, of all descriptions, on one

day in a state of comfort and even of affluence, and on the next thrown upon the very pavé, is enough to rouse the most sluggish of mortals into activity, "be his brains as barren as the banks of Libya." And such must ever be the case, during the interregnum between the downfall of one government and the organization of a new one.

When Francesco Pesaro first came to Venice, as the Austrian Commissary-General, furnished with full powers to inflict on his countrymen that persecution, imprisonment, and banishment, which he himself so richly merited at their hands, for having first betrayed and then deserted the government, a grand fête was given at the Filarmonica to this modern Sylla, at which Madame Grassini was engaged to sing. When I entered the saloon, the concert had already commenced; and a gentleman, one of the chers amis of the above singer, whose name was Giuseppe Ferro, a corn-factor, obligingly gave up his own seat for my accommodation. Of course, I entered into that kind of conversation with him which his civility demanded.

On the other side of the saloon was seated the great Francesco Pesaro. As soon as the first act of the concert was over, my husband, being

an old acquaintance of the mighty man, went across the room to congratulate him on his return to his country; and, pointing to the spot where I was sitting, he said, "Yonder is my

better half; but she is so near-sighted, that I am sure she cannot distinguish your Excellency at this distance."-"What," replied Pesaro, "the lady who is conversing with the gentleman by the side of her? I must go and have a little chat with her." Accordingly, Pesaro crossed the saloon, and very politely seated himself by me, and asked who the person was who had so much engaged my attention, as to prevent me from recognizing him. Unluckily for the poor man, I replied, "It is M. Ferro, to whose politeness I am indebted for my seat." -"What!" exclaimed Pesaro, "that birbone, who was a member of the municipality ?""The same," said I;" and who, at the time of the downfall of the government, deserved so much from his country, by preventing the city from falling a prey to the plunder of the Schiavoni."

On that very night, poor Ferro was arrested by the agents of Pesaro; dragged from his relatives, who entirely depended on him for their subsistence, without any accusation being adduced against him, without being heard in his