In the following May the British determined to occupy the other Ragusan islands. On February 18 an attack was made on Mezzo, but repulsed. The island was then blockaded; part of the garrison deserted, and the rest under Lieutenant Tock retired to the Forte della Montagna. A British force landed, seized the Forte Santa Maria, and placed a battery on a hill commanding Tock’s position. Unable to hold out any longer, he surrendered to Blake with the honours of war. Giuppana was also captured, and then Calamotta, and the Ragusan Count Natali was appointed Governor of the Archipelago under British protection. An attack on Ragusavecchia was repulsed by a Croatian battalion on October 11; but two days later that same battalion deserted from the French to the English side, and Count Biagio Bernardo Caboga was appointed Governor of the town. The same day another Croatian detachment abandoned the island of Daksa at the entrance of the harbour of Gravosa, and a British force occupied Stagno. Thus Ragusa was blockaded from the sea on all sides. On November 11, 1813, Hoste attacked the island of Lesina, and captured it without difficulty. In this same year an Austrian army invaded Dalmatia and co-operated with the British fleet; the population being tired of French exaction rose in arms in favour of the Austrians. The French, attacked on all sides, were forced to abandon many towns and fortresses. For a time the British under Cadogan, the Austrians under General Tomasić, and the Dalmatian insurgents under Danese all worked together for the expulsion of the invaders. But in the operations round Ragusa and Cattaro a certain amount of friction arose between the British and the Austrians. The French forces too, however, were not homogeneous, and the number of desertions from the Italian and Croatian regiments, whose hearts were not in the fight, was very large. The Allies were assisted by an anti-French movement in Ragusa itself; but while the nobles and the peasantry desired the restoration of the Republic, the bourgeoisie still evinced French tendencies. The other Dalmatians wished to be under Austrian dominion. The British fleet, as I have said, had occupied the Ragusan islands, where a provisional Government was set up under Ragusan nobles, and the old Ragusan laws were revived. With the capture of Stagno the whole country west of the Ombla rose in favour of the Anglo-Austrians, and Captain Lowen issued a proclamation to the Ragusans from Mezzo, declaring that “the English and Austrian forces were advancing towards this country to give it back its liberty.... Remember that you bear a glorious name, and fight as the Spaniards and the Russians have fought to restore your independence.” The Austrian proclamation issued by General Hiller contained no mention of the word independence. [Illustration: TERRACE OF THE VILLA BRAVAČIĆ, NEAR RAGUSA]