Venice was filled with consternation and surprise when this dreadful news was known. Her only fleet was destroyed; the enemy was approaching the lagoons, and {149} Carlo Zeno was far away. A terrible cry was raised against Pisani; his enemies could now make him pay for his popularity and greatness and for some of his outbursts of temper from which they had suffered, and they demanded the extreme penally. He was brought to Venice in fetters, and was not permitted to speak a word in self-defence. In July it was moved in the Senate that he be beheaded between the Columns; but with a shudder, this motion was denied, and he was sentenced to prison for six months and to exclusion from all offices for five years. [Illustration: Molo of San Marco; Columns of Execution.] In August the Genoese fleet appeared before Venice, under the command of Pietro Doria. Happily, some preparations had been made, and the ports of Lido and Malamocco were blocked with sunken vessels, chains, and palisades, but that of Brondolo was still open, and there the enemy entered. Genoa was now allied with Hungary, Naples, Padua, Aquileia, Austria, and Ancona against Venice. Twenty-four thousand men were landed, and siege laid to the citadel of Chioggia. The Venetians who held the place under Pietro Emo were not more than thirty-five hundred; for six days these brave men held out against such fearful odds, and even then were defeated by accident. Hazlitt gives a picturesque description of the event:-- "On the 16th an alarm was suddenly spread among the troops of the Podestà that the bridge behind them was in flames. It was a fireship, of which the combustion in the canal of Santa Caterina had diffused the erroneous impression. The Genoese caught and echoed the cry, and renewed their flagging exertions with fresh ardor. They are mowed down by the guns as they advance; the carnage is terrific. Still, like demons in whose breast the thirst for vengeance and the lust of spoil has extinguished the fear of death, they continue to come up. The Venetians begin to lose ground and to fall back upon the bridge. {150} They recede a little and a little more. It is in vain that Emo and fifty chosen men-at-arms dispute the front with desperate tenacity and transcendent heroism, foot to foot and hand to hand. The position is slowly forced. The allies are upon the bridge. The Venetians quicken their retrograde pace. In their haste they omit to destroy the communication; and they enter the gates pell-mell with their pursuers. Thus Chioggia fell." The allies and Venetians had each lost many men, and nearly four thousand Venetians were prisoners. The town was pillaged, but the women were protected from harm. Some of the Venetians paid enormous ransoms,--Emo three thousand ducats; and others probably as much, so that the gain to the allies was large.