In 1602 the inhabitants of the island of Lagosta revolted against Ragusan authority, because they complained that their ancient liberties guaranteed to them in the act of submission had been violated. The Ragusan count was driven out, and the islanders raised the banner of St. Mark and asked to be placed under Venetian protection. This was accorded, and a Venetian garrison landed on the island. Long negotiations ensued, and at last Lagosta was given back to Ragusa, but on very onerous conditions.[474] In 1617-18 Ragusa was involved in the quarrels between Venice and Spain, which culminated in the famous Spanish conspiracy. The Venetians had been carrying on operations against the Uskoks since the end of the sixteenth century. The Provveditore Tiepolo took and destroyed Scrissa (on the site of the modern Carlopago) and hanged all the garrison. On his death he was succeeded in the command by Bembo, who, with a fleet of fifteen galleys and thirty long barques, manned by 800 soldiers, blockaded Trieste and Fiume, so as to bring pressure to bear on the Archduke of Austria. He also shut up 700 Uskoks in the harbour of Rogoznica. But on a stormy night they managed to escape, and Bembo, weary and disgusted, resigned his commission. His successor, Giustiniani, did some damage to the freebooters, and negotiations between Venice and Austria were commenced with a view to putting an end to their depredations. But nothing came of the discussions, and the Uskoks’ sack of Trebinje nearly involved Venice as well as Ragusa in a new Turkish war. In 1614 the Uskoks waylaid the Venetian Cristoforo Venier on his ship at Pago, murdered the officers and crew, and carried Venier himself to Segna, where they cut off his head and banqueted with it on the table, dipping their bread in his blood. Austria did nothing, and the pirates made fresh raids into Istria and the Venetian islands. The Venetians bombarded and captured Novi, and war broke out with Austria, which lasted until the Peace of Madrid in 1617. By this treaty Venice, Austria, and Spain bound themselves to remove the Uskoks to the interior of Croatia. A Venetian squadron sailed down the Adriatic, and with the pretext of capturing the Uskok galleys, anchored in the harbour of Gravosa, and blockaded Ragusa itself, which was defended by Marino Vodopić with a small body of Hungarian mercenaries. The Duke of Ossuna, the Spanish Viceroy of Naples, undertook the protection of Spain’s old ally, and sent a squadron up the Adriatic with the object of attacking Venice and co-operating in the Bedmar conspiracy. The plot was discovered and the fleet failed in its main object, but it succeeded in forcing the Venetians to abandon Gravosa. This, however, caused the Turks to accuse the Ragusans of having allied themselves with Spain to the detriment of the Ottoman Empire. At the same time certain persons whispered accusations of double-dealing against the Ragusans in the Spanish court itself. Venice nursed a resentment