An examination into the affairs of the Ten and the Inquisitors resulted in their triumph; but there was a revolutionary spirit in Venice which was rapidly growing. An order was issued closing cafés and wine-shops at dark, and forbidding political discussions. The following reply to this was posted up: "The company of night thieves thanks the Ten for giving them the opportunity of winning their supper at a reasonable hour." The chief mouthpiece of the liberal party was Giorgio Pisani, and he was bold in the declaration of his opinions; but the Three were too powerful as yet to permit the theories of the Republicans to be thus freely expressed, and Pisani was deported to Verona in 1780. In that year the Doge Paolo Renier said: "If there be any State in the world which absolutely requires concord at home, it is ours. We have no forces, either on land or on sea. We have no alliances. We live by luck, by accident, and solely dependent upon the conception of Venetian prudence which others entertain about us." {292} "How are the mighty fallen!" What would Sebastiano Ziani, Enrico Dandolo, Pietro Gradenigo, and many another Doge have thought of such a fate as this for the Venice of their love and pride? The time was soon to come when another Doge, deposed by a resolution of the Great Council, should give the beretta to his servant,--we may believe with a sense of relief,--and say, "Take it away; we shall not use it any more." Napoleon had come to relieve him of his cares; and we cannot doubt that he was half welcome to those who were so weary of the rule of the Ten and the Three, the party who believed in revolution. The efforts made to keep the Republic alive were so feeble as to seem ridiculous. But what could be done without an army, without a navy, and without money? A deputation was sent to Napoleon, and his reply was sufficiently clear and comprehensive: "I have eighty thousand men and twenty gunboats. I will have no more Inquisitors, no more Senate. I will be an Attila for Venice." On May 3, 1797, Bonaparte issued his proclamation: "The Commander-in-Chief requires the French minister to leave Venice; orders the several agents of the Republic of Venice to leave Lombardy and the Venetian Terra Firma within twenty-four hours! He orders the different generals of divisions to treat the Venetian troops as enemies, and to destroy the Lion of Saint Mark in all the towns of the Terra Firma."