The priests headed the assassins, and more than four hundred Frenchmen were thus sacrificed.

The forts held out against the Venetians, though they attacked them with fury; but repossession of the town was not obtained until after ten days.

On the very day of the insurrection of Verona some Frenchmen were assassinated between that city and Vicenza, through which I passed on the day before without danger; and scarcely had I passed through Padua, when I learned that others had been massacred there.

Thus the assassinations travelled as rapidly as the post.
I shall say a few words respecting the revolt of the Venetian States, which, in consequence of the difference of political opinions, has been viewed in very contradictory lights.
The last days of Venice were approaching, and a storm had been brewing for more than a year.

About the beginning of April 1797 the threatening symptoms of a general insurrection appeared.