ever the confessions may have been matters little. The Venetians were trying him for patent misconduct during his whole service, and were now resolved to close their account with an impracticable servant. Holy Week and the festivities of Easter came to interrupt the trial, and Carmagnola, tortured in body and despairing in heart, languished in prison while the city turned to its amusements. These came

to an end on the 23rd of April, and the proceedings against the count were resumed. The committee sat day and night until the bill of attainder was ready to present to the court. On the 5th of May it was brought up to the council and read. Then, in accordance with the custom which governed the proceedings of the Ten, the vote to "proceed moved in these terms, "that after what we have heard and read we do now proceed against Count Francesco Carmagnola, once our captain-general, on the charge of injury wrought by him to our affairs. and against the honour and well-being of our state." The votes fell: ayes, 25; noes, I; for further consideration, 9. On the announcement of the majority, sentence was moved as follows:-" That the Count Francesco Carmagnola, public traitor to our state, shall to-day, in the evening at the usual hour, be led with a gag in his mouth, and his hands tied behind. his back, as is customary, to the ordinary place of execution between the two columns on the piazza of Saint Mark, and there his head shall be struck off with a sword so that he die." The doge proved faithful to Carmagnola to the very last, and endeavoured to save his life by moving an amendment

to substitute imprisonment for the capital sentence. Foscari's motion found only eight supporters, while for the original motion there were nineteen. The sentence of death was at once carried to the count. That same evening, about the hour of vespers, Carmagnola's guards led him to the piazza. He was dressed with great care and splendour in crimson velvet and a velvet cap alla Carmagnola. There, between the two square columns at the south-west corner of Saint Mark's, his head was severed from his body at the third blow. He was buried with considerable pomp in the Church of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari; but shortly afterwards his body is supposed to have been removed to San Francesco in Milan.*

In less than six weeks Venice had taken a full revenge for more than six years of disappointment. The republic had opened the war against Milan with a distinct object in view, and a belief that she had found the man to carry it out. She made a mistake in relying upon the continuance of Carmagnola's first rage against the duke. She was baulked of her

* This church was destroyed in 1798 to make way for barracks; it is probable that the body of Carmagnola disappeared then. There was a tradition that the count's head was placed in an urn above the door leading to the cloisters of the Frari. In February, 1874, this urn was opened, and not only a head, but a whole body was found; but the vertebræ of the neck had not been severed, so that it could not be the body of Carmagnola. I am indebted for the above information to the courtesy of Sig. Guiseppe Rondani, secretary to the municipality of Carmagnola, who most kindly placed at my disposal the correspondence of that town with various societies in Milan and Venice, relating to their search for the remains of the count.

desire and placed in a dilemma, the inevitable result of employing mercenary arms. She freed herself by the only course open to her. Carmagnola, on the other hand, acted as a true captain of adventure, thinking chiefly of his own interests, holding his employers and their desires in small account; not openly and positively a traitor to them, but traitorous in so far that he cared but little for their success. He had the misfortune to be stupid and to have Venice for a mistress. He hardly knew his peril. between the republic and the duke of Milan, who pursued and accomplished his ruin with a success that did not always wait upon his dark designs. Carmagnola, in short, took the chances of the perilous game of adventure. He came very near to winning the highest prize, but he forgot the one chance against him, the power and the solvency of Venice. For his mistake he paid the price with his head.

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THE STATE ARCHIVES AND THE CONSTITUTION OF THE VENE

TIAN REPUBLIC.*

IN recent years a new tendency has been given to historical studies by the avidity with which scholars have investigated the masses of state documents accumulated almost untouched, through centuries, in the Record Offices of various nations. This tendency has been in the direction of minuteness and accuracy of detail. The finer shades of policy, the subtler turns in the game of nations, have been revealed by this intimate study of the documents which record them. Among the archives of Europe there is none superior, in historical value and richness of minutiæ, to the archives of the Venetian republic, preserved now in the convent of the Frari at Venice. The importance of these archives is due to three causes: the position of the republic in the history of Europe,

* In this essay I am much indebted to the following, among other works:-Baschet, “Les Archives de Venise" (Paris: 1870), and "Souvenirs d'une Mission" (Paris: 1857); "Il regio Archivio Generale di Venezia (Venice 1875); "Calendar of State Papers: Venice," vol. i.; Sir T. Duffus Hardy's Report on the Archives; Giannotti, "Della Rep. de Viniziani" (Firenze: 1850); St. Disdier, “ La Ville et Rep. de Venise" (Paris: 1680); Amelot della Houssaye, "Histoire du Gouvernement de Venise" (Paris: 1667).

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the fullness of the archives themselves, and the remarkable preservation and order which distinguishes them, in spite of the many dangers and vicissitudes through which they have passed.

Venice enjoyed a position, unique among the states of Europe, for two reasons. Until the discovery of the passage round the Cape of Good Hope, she was the mart of Europe in all commercial dealings with the East-a position secured to her by her supremacy in the Levant, and by the strength of her fleet; and, in the second place, the republic was the bulwark of Europe against the Turk. These are the two dominant features of Venice in general history; and under both aspects she came into perpetual contact with every European power. The universal importance of her position is faithfully reflected in the diplomatic documents contained in her archives. The republic maintained ambassadors and residents at every court. These men were among the most subtle and accomplished diplomatists of their time, and the government they served was exacting and critical to the highest degree. The result is that the despatches, news-letters, and reports of the Venetian diplomatic agents, form the most varied, brilliant, and singular gallery of portraits, whether of persons or of peoples, that exists. There is hardly a nation in Europe that will not find its history illustrated by the papers which belong to the Venetian department for foreign affairs. Nor are the papers which relate to the home government of the republic less copious and valuable. Each magistracy has its own series of documents, the daily record of its proceedings: in these we find the