INDEPENDENT OF HUNGARY 287
absolute refusal. He informed them that the Emperor had expressely recommended the said Republic to him, and enjoined him to protect it and guard it in the same manner as the cities of his own kingdom of Naples. . . . Upon these words the Venetians abandoned their project ; but it is believed that our country may suffer much, and that this war will not end without many tribulations.” On April 8 he added : “ The Emperor’s ambassador in Rome has been informed from Venice that the Senate has determined to place a garrison in Ragusa, so that the Turks may not occupy the city; and that if the Republic refuses to admit it, they have decided to seize it by force, which means that they wish to capture the town with the excuse of preventing the Turks from doing so, in order that Christendom may not be shocked (‘ perchè la Christianità non strilli ’).” The Spanish and Imperial ambassadors took the side of the Ragusans, and the Pope also favoured them, the Venetian representative alone declaring that “ it was right that the League should not only burn the city of Ragusa, but raze it to the ground and destroy its people, so that their seed should not be found anywhere.”
   On June 27 he wrote as follows :—
   “ I have been to His Holiness, who had requested that your Lordships should provide him not with one ship, as Cardinal Rusticucci had said, but with many, so that he may transport his troops on them. I replied that on the previous evening Cardinal Rusticucci had spoken to me in his name, and added that I had written to your Lordships . . . and that you hoped that as His Holiness had liberated you from so many troubles in the