there was a suspension of hostilities, and the nobles tried to induce Lauriston to surrender, which he refused to do. On the 28th Admiral Siniavin summoned him to capitulate without success; the bombardment recommenced, but without much vigour, and the siege became a blockade. Suddenly on July 6 a body of French troops appeared before the Porta Ploce, and soon after Molitor himself arrived, drove off the Russians, and entered the town. When the news of the defeat at Bergato reached Zara he had quickly collected 2000 men and advanced on Ragusa. He sent a message to Lauriston which was designed to fall into the hands of the Russians, announcing his arrival at the head of 10,000 men; he also made a small body of troops march several times past a spot near Ombla whence they could be seen by the enemy. The Russians, thus deceived as to the strength of the French, abandoned Monte Sergio, and together with the Montenegrins fled to the coast and embarked on board ship. The French were received at Ragusa with much show of enthusiasm, for although a large part of the population had no sympathy with them, they rejoiced that the siege was at an end, and the fear of a sack of the town by the Montenegrins removed. Molitor returned to Zara, Lauriston remaining behind to organise the French protectorate at Ragusa. He discovered that the Senate had sent an agent to Constantinople with a report bitterly reviling the French, another to Vienna and St. Petersburg asking for intervention in favour of Ragusa, and a third to Paris with a humble letter to Napoleon, and instructions to ask the Turkish ambassador to protest against the occupation of a State tributary to the Porte. He also learned that the Republic had deposited 700,000 florins in Schuller’s bank at Vienna, of which a part had been withdrawn in March and June. The French Commissary thereupon declared that henceforth all affairs dealt with by the Senate and the Minor Council should be first communicated to him, and that no payments were to be made without his authority. Although Lauriston in his proclamation of May 29, 1806, had promised that Ragusa would be evacuated when peace was declared, the French had no intention of doing so, and on July 21 Napoleon wrote to Eugène Beauharnais: “You will make General Lauriston observe that if I have said in the treaty (the peace of Oubril, which the Tsar afterwards refused to ratify) that I recognise the independence of Ragusa, that does not mean that I shall evacuate it; on the contrary, when the Montenegrins have gone home, I intend to organise the country, and then abandon it if necessary, retaining only Stagno.” The Ragusans did not know of this, and believed that they would soon be free, but their hopes were dashed to the ground when, on August 24, war broke out again.