The conspirators had believed that their marching would be the signal for a rising of the people; but they were disappointed, and each advancing step proved that they had no sympathy from the masses.
Quirini reached the Piazza first; and as he entered the square, the soldiers charged on him with the cry of "Traitors! kill them, kill them!" Quirini and his two sons were cut down at once, it is said by the hand of Giustiniani himself, and seeing their leader killed, his followers fled wildly. When Bajamonte reached the Piazza, he was received in like manner; his standard, inscribed LIBERTÀ, was struck to the ground, the bearer being killed by a heavy flower-pot thrown from a window above him by a woman. This was the signal for a panic; and Bajamonte, with his men, turned to fly. Here and there they made a stand, and a fight ensued; they burned the customs offices, and at length reached the Rialto. This wooden bridge was cut down behind them; and they shut themselves within the house of Quirini, which was a fortress and defensible.
Meantime the followers of Quirini who escaped from the Piazza were attacked by soldiers in the Campo San Luca, and cut to pieces. The only hope remaining to the insurgents was that Badoer might arrive from Padua with the aid he had been sent to ask; but he was cut off by the Chioggians, and Bajamonte had no reliance save himself, his few followers, and the strength of his position.
The Doge soon sent envoys to him, offering amnesty and even pardon, should the rebels submit; but Bajamonte steadily refused. Gradenigo knew that Tiepolo could not be taken in his present quarters without a great loss of men and property; he also reflected that if he captured the leader he must either permit a traitor to go free, or execute the most popular man in all Venice. For these reasons he determined to use all possible means to bring about a satisfactory negotiation; but everything proved ineffectual until an old man, and one much respected, Filippo Belegno, after many arguments and long persuasion, prevailed on Bajamonte to relent and accept the terms of the Doge, which he had at first believed to be but a snare for him and his followers.
By these terms Bajamonte and all the insurgents who had a right to a seat in the Council were banished to Dalmatia for four years; those of lower rank were pardoned on swearing allegiance to the Doge and the Constitution, and returning all the goods that had been taken from private dwellings or government stores. The lives of any of the exiles detected in breaking their parole would be forfeited, and to harbor them or correspond with them was made treasonable. Their wives and families were expelled from the Dogado, and the houses of Bajamonte and of the Quirini were demolished; on the site of the first a Column of Infamy was raised, and the armorial bearings of both houses were changed.
One cannot avoid a feeling of sympathy for Badoer and others who, being taken fighting, were beheaded, nor a sentiment of scorn for the traitor Donato, whose treachery was rewarded by a seat in the Council without election, while his family were made noble forever. Even Giustina Rosso was not forgotten, and for dashing down that flower-pot which came so near being fatal to Bajamonte, she was permitted to hold her residence in the Merceria for fifteen ducats annually, and to unfurl a standard from the so-called "mortar casement" on every festival day, and in 1341 her bust was placed near the Sotto Portico del Capello.
The 15th of June, being the day of San Vito, was made a festival, and one of the great Venetian anniversaries, when the Doge went in grand and solemn state to the very small and ancient church of that saint to give thanks for the deliverance from this most important of the Venetian insurrections.
Bajamonte Tiepolo lived a stormy and unhappy life. In 1311 he was a conspirator at Padua, and somewhat later was hunted out of Treviso; in 1322 the Ten offered a reward for his capture; in 1328 the Doge was ordered to secure him if possible: but death fortunately released him from all his tortures. He had ever longed for the lagoons, the Piazza, his old contrada, and all the ways of his beloved Venice; but he refused all the proposals made to him for his return,—he could not trust the dreaded Ten.
However, so long as Gradenigo lived, he was haunted by fear of Tiepolo, and of what he might do; indeed, one historian goes so far as to say that he died of this revolt and its consequences. For a time the Venetians were constantly suspecting an ambush in the streets, and went to their beds in dread of the night and of the morrow. It was believed that only the most stringent measures could prevent a repetition of this insurrection, and that even worse things might happen. This tendency of the public mind found expression in a petition for a Committee of Inquiry, which proved to be the origin of the famous Council of Ten.
This Council was organized for a few months only, and for the special purpose of making a searching inquiry into all the ramifications of the late conspiracy. But on the following Michaelmas Day the Doge made one of his rare visits to the Great Council, for the purpose of saying that as the day had come on which the authority of the Ten expired, he recommended its extension for two months, as the need of it still existed in order to root out sedition and treason. The amendment was passed and the time extended to November 30, and again to January 30, 1311. At that time it was thought best to establish it for five years; and at last, in 1335, it was made permanent, and became the tyrant and terror of Venice. In his "Venetian Studies" Brown says:—