tan began to prepare to take back what he had lost, the
Doge and Senate paid little attention to his doings; so that, when
100,000 Turks, with the Grand Vizier, sailed against the Morea, besides a
fleet of 100 ships, the Venetian commander there had only 8000 men and 19
ships. The Venetians were hopeless, and yielded Corinth after only four
days' siege; and though safety had been promised to the inhabitants, they
were cruelly massacred, and the same happened in place after place till
the whole Morea was conquered, and the Venetians took ship and left the
unhappy Greeks to their fate, which was worse than ever, since they were
now treated as rebels.

[Picture: Temple of Minerva, on the Promontory of Sunium]

Several of the Ionian islands on the west side of Greece were seized by
the Turks; but Corfu, the old Corcyra, held out most bravely, the
priests, women, and all fighting most desperately as the Turks stormed
the walls of their city; stones, iron crosses, everything that came to
hand, were hurled down on the heads of the enemy; but the ramparts had
been won, and thirty standards planted on the walls, when the Saxon
general Schulenberg, who was commanding the Venetians, sallied out with
800 men, and charged the Turks in their rear, so that those on the walls
hurried back to defend their camp. At night a great storm swept away the
tents, and in the morning a Spanish fleet came to the aid of the island.
The Turks were so much disheartened that they embarked as quietly as
possible in the night; and when the besieged garrison looked forth in the
morning, in surprise at everything being so still and quiet, they found
the whole place deserted--stores of powder and food, cannon, wounded men,
and all. Corfu has thus never fallen under Turkish power, for in the
next year, 1717, a peace was made, in which, though Venice gave up all
claim to the Morea, she kept the seven Ionian islands, and they continued
under her power as long as she remained a free and independent city--that
is to say, till 1796, when she was conquered by the French, and given for
a time to Austria.

[Picture: Ancyra, Galatia]

The state of poor Greece was dreadful. The nobles lived in fortresses
upon the rocks, and the monks in their fastnesses; but the villages,
towns, and coasts were worse off than ever, for the Turks treated them as
rebels, and savagely oppressed and misused them. Nor were they united
among themselv