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CHAP. XLIII. THE VENETIAN CONQUEST AND LOSS. 1684-1796.

Again there was a time of deliverance for Greece. The Turks had had a
great defeat before Vienna, and in their weak state the Venetians made
another attack on them, and appointed Francis Morosini commander of the
fleet and army. He took the little Ionian isle of Sta Maura, and two
Albanian towns; and many brave young men, who had read of the glories of
ancient Greece in the course of their studies, came from all parts of
Europe to fight for her. The governor, or Seraskin, was obliged to
retreat, and the Mainots, as the Greeks of the Morea were called, rose
and joined him. Corinth, which was as valuable as ever as the door of
the peninsula, was taken, and nothing in the Morea remained Turkish but
the city of Malvasia. Morosini threw his men into Lepanto, Patras, and
pushed on to Athens; but there they had six days' fighting, during which
more harm was done to the beautiful old buildings and sculptures than had
befallen them in nearly two thousand years of decay. The Turks had shut
themselves up in the Acropolis, and made a powder magazine of the
Parthenon. A shell from Morosini's batteries fell into it, and blew up
the roof, which had remained perfect all these years, and much more
damage was done; but the city was won at last, and the Venetians were so
much delighted that they chose Morosini Doge, and bestowed on him the
surname of Peloponesiacus in honour of his victory. He sent home a great
many precious spoils, in the way of old sculptures, to Venice--in
especial two enormous marble lions which used to guard the gate of the
Piraeus, but which now stand on either side of the Arsenal at Venice.

Then he laid siege to Negropont, the chief city of the old isle of
Euboea; but the plague broke out in his camp, and weakened his troops so
much that they were defeated and forced to give up the attempt. Illness,
too, hindered him from taking Malvasia; his health was broken, and he
died soon after his return to Venice. Four great and bloody sea-fights
took place during the next few years, and in one the Turks had the
victory, in the others it was doubtful; but when peace was made, in the
year 1699, the Morea was yielded to the Venetians, and they put a line of
forts across the Isthmus to secure it, as in old times. But the Venetian
Republic had lost a great deal of strength and spirit, and when, in a few
years, the Sul