The Doge opened the sitting, pale and overcome. Painfully, and in his Venetian dialect, he recapitulated the acts of the Consulta of Savi and others, who had taken charge of affairs on the thirtieth of April. His miserable speech was followed by the reading of the report of Donà and Battagia, Haller’s letter, and other documents. The Secretary, Valentin Marin, then read the measure which was brought before the Council. The Bill had the old sanctimonious tone. ‘The principal purpose of preserving religion,’ etc., were the first words; the measure was, that the Great Council should accept ‘the proposed provisional representative government.’ The Secretary had finished reading the Bill, and was just beginning his comments on it, when the sound of a discharge of musketry rang sharply through the ancient hall. The patricians rushed to the doors. One voice called them back. ‘Divide! Divide!’ it cried, above the din. To the last gasp formality bound them. Hastily, but not informally, they went through the form of voting. The Bill to accept the democratic government was passed by 512 yeas to 30 nays and 5 blanks. Then, in the twinkling of an eye, the [Sidenote: _1797, May twelfth._] hall was silent and empty. [Illustration: SAILS] XVIII CONCLUSION The discharge of musketry which had frightened the Great Council out of its senses had been only the parting salute of the Slavonic soldiers as they [Sidenote: _Tassini, under ‘San Bartolomeo.’_] sailed out of the harbour. It was the last mark of respect the Venetians of Venice received, and it was by a dramatic coincidence that it was offered at the very instant when the Republic ended. Every one has read how the Doge went back to his own room and [Illustration: A GATEWAY] handed his ducal bonnet to his servant, saying that he should not need it again. What has been less noticed by historians is that General Salimbeni, who knew that the crowd was waiting to know what had taken place, put his head out of a window and shouted ‘Viva la Libertà’; and that when no one broke the silence that followed, he took breath again and shouted ‘Viva San Marco,’ whereupon the multitude took up the cry and cheered till they were hoarse, and the old flag of Saint Mark was hoisted everywhere, and the populace took it into its head to burn down the houses of Donà and Battagia and the grocer Zorzi, and though they were hindered, they did plunder and burn the dwellings of a number of burgher families that had played a double game and had helped to bring on the final catastrophe. In the midst of this confusion well-armed republican gangs appeared in all directions, and during the night between the twelfth and the thirteenth of May there was a hideous tumult. The last time that Venetian cannon was fired by Venetian orders, it was pointed at Venetians. On the fifteenth, the French occupied the city as conquerors. On the sixteenth, two notices were put up in the Square of Saint Mark’s. The