Venice. Bonaparte peremptorily ordered the government to dissolve itself and hand over power to a democratic junta, protected by French arms. The Doge urged them to accept his will. At the last meeting of the Great Council, it hastily voted for its own extinction. 4,000 soldiers entered St. Mark’s Square and methodically plundered the city: the Mint, the Arsenal, the fleet, the archives, and the art treasures. Finally, Napoleon handed Venice over to Austria with the Treaty of Campo Formio on October 17th.
