occurrence, which perhaps accounts for the ease and composure with which it was accomplished. This, however, was but a part of what had to be done. The citadel, which was high above on the crown of the hill which overlooks the city, was entirely uninfluenced by this sudden change of hands. Perhaps the Venetian trumpets and clang of the soldiery scarcely reached the airy ramparts above, or passed for some sudden broil, some encounter of enemies in the streets, such as were of nightly occurrence. The town was large, and rich, and populous upon the slopes underneath, surrounded with great walls descending to the plains – walls "thicker than they were high," with fortifications at every gate; and was divided into the old and new city, the first of these only being in Carmagnola's hands. It seems a doubtful advantage to have thus penetrated into the streets of a town while its surrounding fortifications and the citadel above were still in other hands; but the warfare of those times had other laws than those with which we are acquainted. The little use of the fortifications is devoutly explained by Bigli as a proof that God was against them, – "because they were erected with almost unbearable expense and toil," "the very blood of the Brescians constrained by their former conqueror to accomplish this work, which was marvellous, no man at that time having seen the like." The Brescians themselves, he tells us, were always eager for change, and on the outlook for every kind of novelty, so that there was nothing remarkable in their quiet acceptance of, and even satisfaction in, the new sway. The "noble deed," however, was still almost all to do by which Carmagnola meant to begin the war. Leaving his namesake, Francesco Gonzaga, to keep the city, he himself bestowed all his care and thought upon the reduction of the fortifications. The means he employed are a little difficult to follow, at least for a lay reader. He seems to have surrounded the castle with an elaborate double work of trenches and palisades, with wooden towers at intervals; and by the blockade in the first place, and assault in the second, reduced the citadel – a great feat of arms, to which not his genius alone, but also, as happens so constantly, the errors and weaknesses of his adversaries much assisted. While the siege thus went on there were marchings and countermarchings of the army, and many efforts made to draw Carmagnola's attention from his undertaking. In the middle of it he fell ill, – "too much watching and fatigue of body having weakened his nerves," so that he was obliged to withdraw to the baths of Abano to recruit his strength. But finally his "noble deed" was accomplished, and the citadel and works of Brescia, along with all the strength of the city, fell into the hands of the Venetians, a great prize worthy the trouble and time which had been spent upon it – seven months after the first night attack, which was so easy.
This grave achievement accomplished, Carmagnola secured with little trouble the Brescian territory, most of the villages and castles in the neighbourhood, as far as the Lago di Garda, giving themselves up to the conqueror without waiting for any assault of arms. The tide of ill fortune seems to have been too much for Philip; and by the good offices of the Pope's legate, a temporary peace was made – at the cost, to the Duke, of Brescia, with all its territory, the Valle Carnonica, and all that part of
