[Illustration] VII THE TRIUMPHANT CITY When Philippe de Commines came to Venice in 1495 as ambassador of Charles VIII. he wrote: ‘This is the most triumphant city that ever I saw.’ He meant what he said figuratively, no doubt, for in that day there was something overwhelming about the wealth and splendour, and the vast success of the Republic. But he meant it literally too, for no state or city of the world celebrated its own victories with such pomp and magnificence as Venice. The Venetians had never been altogether at peace with the Turks, in spite of the treaty which had been made soon after the fall of Constantinople; [Sidenote: _Daru; Rom._] but when Venice herself was threatened by all the European powers together, it was with the highest satisfaction that she saw the Moslems attack her old enemies the Hungarians. Yet her joy was of short duration, for the Emperor soon made peace with the Sultan. It will be remembered that the Imperial throne had then already been hereditary in the Hapsburg family for many years. The character of Turkish warfare in the Mediterranean was always piratical, of the very sort most certain to harass and injure a maritime commercial nation like Venice, and the latter began to lose ground steadily in the Greek archipelago, and now found herself obliged to defend the coasts of the Adriatic against the Turks as she had formerly defended them against the pirates of Narenta. From time to time a Turkish vessel was captured, and hundreds of Christian slaves were found chained to the oar. There were also other robbers along the Dalmatian coast, who exercised their depredations against Turks [Sidenote: _Niccolò da Ponte triumphs over the Usocchi; Tintoretto, Hall of the Great Council._] and Christians alike, with admirable equity. These were the so-called ‘Usocchi,’ a name derived from a Slav root meaning to ‘leap out’--hence, those who had escaped and fled their country and were outlaws. About this time the island of Cyprus had fallen in part under Turkish domination. The Turks had [Sidenote: _Cicogna, Iscr. Ven. iii. 134._] made a piratical descent upon Nicosia, and had carried off all the women who were still young enough for the Eastern market. But one of these, a heroine whose name is lost, fired the ship’s powder-magazine and saved herself and her companions from outrage by causing the instant death of every soul on board. This was in the latter half of the sixteenth century.