Buonaparte and his posts in Italy. 
_ For this purpose forty thousand of 
the Venetian peasantry were armed, 
and embodied with ten regiments 
of Sclavonians. They were posted 
on all the roads, and the couriers 
‘and convoys to the French army 
_ were stopped every where. 
In the mean time, the hatred of 
the Venetians burst forth in the 
_ most outrageous manner. Those 
among them, who had behaved 
~ kindly to the French, were tteated 
_ as enemies to the state, and put 
_ under arrest ; and none but their de- 
_ clared adversaries entrusted with 
_ any authority. In all places of pub- 
lic resort, the French were insulted 
and reviled in the grossest terms. 
They were expelled from the city 
of Venice, and at Padua, Vicenza, 
and Verona, the inhabitants were 
ordered to take up arms against 
_.them. The officers of the Venetian 
_ military openly boasted, that the 
tion of St. Mark would verify the 
proverb, that Italy was the tomb of 
the French. The clergy inveighed 
against them in the pulpit, and the 
press teemed with publications to 
defame them. What brought these 
proceedings home to the govern- 
ment was, the notoriety that neither 
priests nor printers in Venice dared 
to preach or publish any thing not 
strictly conformable to the will and 
_ pleasure of the senate. 
But these were only preludes to 
the outrages that followed. On the 
_ roads, from Mantua to Legnano, 
and from Cassano to Verona, up- 
wards of two hundred French were 
_ assassinated. ‘Two battalions, on 
_, their march to join the army under 
* Buonaparte, were opposed by the 
_ Venetian troops, throngh whom 
| they were obliged to fight their 
§ y 8 & 
: ay There were two other en- 
Wahu 
, 
REISE 
ORR int 
J 
ee 
HISTORY OF.EU ROPE. 
[4] 
counters of the like nature. , At 
Verona a plot was laid to murder 
all the Frenchin that city. It was 
carried into execution on the Tues- 
day after Easter. . None were 
spared, not even those that lay sick 
in the hospitals. More than four 
hundred Frenchmen perished on 
this occasion. Those who garrisoned 
the three castles of that ‘city were 
besieged by the Venetian army 
till they were liberated by a body 
of their countrymen, who routed 
the . Venetians, and made three 
thousand of them prisoners, among 
whom were several of their generals. 
At sea, the Venetians took openly 
the Austrian vessels under their pro- 
tection, and. fired at the French 
ships in pursuit of them. At Ve- 
nice itself a republican vessel was 
sunk, by express order of the se- 
nate, and the commander and crew 
slauchtered, 
Such were the accounts published 
by the French. They were made 
the subject of a manifesto, issued 
by Buonaparte, on the third of 
May.. Herein he directed the 
French resident at Venice to quit 
that city, and ordered the agents of 
the Venetian republic in Lombardy, 
and in its provinces on the main 
land, to. leave them in twenty-four 
hours. He commanded his officers 
and troops to treat those of Venice 
as enemies, and to pull down, in 
every town, the Licn of St. Mark, 
the arms of the Venetian republic. 
In consequence of this mani- 
festo, the French troops over-ras 
and subjugated, in a few days, all 
the Venetian dominions. Tie Ve- 
ronese, whose behaviour to the 
French had been remarkably atre- 
cious, were condemned to an ex- 
emplary punishment. Some thou- 
sands of the peasants, who at- 
tempted 
