Then came Napoleon's Italian campaign and his defeat of Lombardy. Venice
resisted; but such resistance was merely a matter of time: the force was
all-conquering. Two events precipitated her fate. One was the massacre
of the French colony in Verona after that city had been vanquished;
another was the attack on a French vessel cruising in Venetian waters
on the watch for Austrian men-of-war. The Lido fort fired on her and
killed her commander, Langier. It was then that Napoleon declared his
intention of being a second Attila to the city of the sea. He followed
up his threat with a fleet; but very little force was needed, for Doge
Manin gave way almost instantly. The capitulation was indeed more than
complete; the Venetians not only gave in but grovelled. The words "Pax
tibi, Marce, Evangelista meus" on the lion's book on S. Mark façade were
changed to "Rights of Man and of Citizenship," and Napoleon was thanked
in a profuse epistle for providing Venice with glorious liberty. Various
riots of course accompanied this renunciation of centuries of noble
tradition, and under the Tree of Liberty in the Piazza the Ducal
insignia and the Libro d'Oro were burned. The tricolour flew from the
three flagstaffs, and the two columns in the Piazzetta were covered with
inscriptions praising the French. This was in May, 1797.

So much for Venice under Manin, Lodovico. The way is now paved for
Manin, Daniele, who was no relation, but a poor Jewish boy to whom a
Manin had stood as godfather. Daniele was born in 1804. In 1805 the
Peace of Pressburg was signed, and Venice, which had passed to Austria
in 1798, was taken from Austria and united to Napoleon's Italian
kingdom, with Eugène Beauharnais, the Emperor's brother-in-law, as ruler
under the title Prince of Venice. In 1807 Napoleon visited the city and
at once decreed a number of improvements on his own practical sensible
lines. He laid out the Giardini Pubblici; he examined the ports and
improved them; he revised the laws. But not even Napoleon could be