Then began the preparations for defence. The condition of the troops was discouraging. There were less {297} than thirty thousand men, and but two hundred and fifty in the engineer corps. The soldiers had suffered for want of proper food, clothing, and shelter all through the winter, and there was much sickness at the forts in the low, malarial places. But her position gave the inhabitants of Venice great courage. At one point alone, the newly completed railway bridge, could she be reached from the land. Much, too, depended on the defence of the fortifications of Brondolo, which overlooked the passage of the Brenta. To prevent a successful attack at these two points, and a blockade by sea, would make Venice impregnable, protected as she was by sand-bars, marshes, pools, and canals. The Austrians seemed in no haste; and throughout April the Venetians were busy in fortifying Marghera and in various defensive preparations. They also tried by every argument and offer in their power to persuade England and France to come to their aid. But on May 4 the attack on Venice began in earnest. As earnest was its defence; and the experience of the next three months and more is one that merits a far more detailed and careful history than can be given here,--such an one as may be found in "The Dawn of Italian Independence." During those months the heroism, the patriotism, and the devotion of the Venetians were such as has not been surpassed. They knew that without aid from some outside power they must at last succumb, not to the Austrians, but to famine and disease. The aid never came. Both French and English men-of-war lay in sight of Venice, beyond the line of danger, watching the bombardment as they might watch a harmless parade. They saw the corpse-laden boats passing and repassing to San Michele. In one week fifteen hundred died of cholera; but when the Venetian director of hospitals asked the French naval commander for medicine, he replied, "That would be {298} contrary to the Law of Nations, since it is natural that the besieger seeks to do as much injury as possible to the besieged "! Through all that summer Manin was the soul of Venice. On him devolved all responsibility, and he bore his trust with absolute fidelity. At length, when food was exhausted, the wells dried, and the city was being rapidly depopulated by famine, he capitulated. On the 30th of August Radetzky found that he had triumphed over a pest-ridden, starving, dying city. Forty Venetians had been condemned to banishment. Manin was of the number; and early on the 28th, followed by the prayers and blessings of the people, he sailed away, never to see Venice again. But as he looked back upon her beloved towers, as she faded from his sight forever, no foreign flag floated above her. The kindly exile saved him from the actual sight of her dismemberment by the Hapsburg bird of prey.