able to hold his position
in front of the whole Genoese force, and he had succeeded in his main
object. While the fighting had been going on on shore, a party of
sailors had managed to moor a great ship, laden with stones, across the
channel. As soon as the Genoese had driven the Venetians to their
boats, they took possession of this vessel, and, finding that she was
aground, they set her on fire, thus unconsciously aiding Pisani's
object, for when she had burned to the water's edge she sank.

Barberigo, with his light galleys, now arrived upon the spot, and
emptied their loads of stone into the passage around the wreck. The
Genoese kept up a heavy fire with their artillery, many of the galleys
were sunk, and numbers of the Venetians drowned, or killed by the shot.

Nevertheless, they worked on unflinchingly. As soon as the pile of
stones had risen sufficiently for the men to stand upon them, waist
deep, they took their places upon it, and packed in order the stones
that their comrades handed them, and fixed heavy chains binding the
whole together.

The work was terribly severe. The cold was bitter. The men were badly
fed, and most of them altogether unaccustomed to hardships. In addition
to the fire from the enemy's guns, they were exposed to a rain of
arrows, and at the end of two days and nights they were utterly worn
out and exhausted, and protested that they could do no more. Pisani,
who had himself laboured among them in the thickest of the danger,
strove to keep up their spirits by pointing out the importance of their
work, and requested the doge to swear on his sword that, old as he was,
he would never return to Venice unless Chioggia was conquered.

The doge took the oath, and for the moment the murmuring ceased; and,
on the night of the 24th, the channel of Chioggia was entirely choked
from shore to shore. On that day, Corbaro succeeded in sinking two
hulks in the passage of Brondolo. Doria, who had hitherto believed that
the Venetians would attempt nothing serious, now perceived for the
first time the object of Pisani, and despatched fourteen great galleys
to crush Corbaro, who had with him but four vessels. Pisani at once
sailed to his assistance, with ten more ships, and the passage was now
so narrow that the Genoese did not venture to attack, and Corbaro
completed the operation of blocking up the Brondolo passage. The next
day the Canal of Lombardy was similarly blocked; and thus, on the
fourth day af