formed this plan; but Heaven decreed otherwise.

As to the most serene republic of Venice, whose doge was Agostino
Barbarigo, she had attained, at the time we have reached, to her highest
degree of power and splendour. From Cadiz to the Palus Maeotis, there
was no port that was not open to her thousand ships; she possessed in
Italy, beyond the coastline of the canals and the ancient duchy of
Venice, the provinces of Bergamo, Brescia, Crema, Verona, Vicenza, and
Padua; she owned the marches of Treviso, which comprehend the districts
of Feltre, Belluno, Cadore, Polesella of Rovigo, and the principality of
Ravenna; she also owned the Friuli, except Aquileia; Istria, except
Trieste; she owned, on the east side of the Gulf, Zara, Spalatra, and the
shore of Albania; in the Ionian Sea, the islands of Zante and Corfu; in
Greece, Lepanto and Patras; in the Morea, Morone, Corone, Neapolis, and
Argos; lastly, in the Archipelago, besides several little towns and
stations on the coast, she owned Candia and the kingdom of Cyprus.

Thus from the mouth of the Po to the eastern extremity of the
Mediterranean, the most serene republic was mistress of the whole
coastline, and Italy and Greece seemed to be mere suburbs of Venice.

In the intervals of space left free between Naples, Milan, Florence, and
Venice, petty tyrants had arisen who exercised an absolute sovereignty
over their territories: thus the Colonnas were at Ostia and at Nettuna,
the Montefeltri at Urbino, the Manfredi at Faenza, the Bentivogli at
Bologna, the Malatesta family at Rimini, the Vitelli at Citta di
Castello, the Baglioni at Perugia, the Orsini at Vicovaro, and the
princes of Este at Ferrara.

Finally, in the centre of this immense circle, composed of great Powers,