Meanwhile troops seized the Palace, the Segreteria, and the custom house, on which seals were affixed. That night the burghers of Ragusa gave a ball to celebrate the end of the oligarchy! But though resistance might now seem indeed hopeless, the Senate continued to intrigue for a little while longer. Napoleon then ordered Marmont to arrest ten of the chief agitators and send them to Venice as hostages, and to threaten to shoot all who were found to be in correspondence with foreign Governments. The nobles ceased to agitate openly, but they did not yet renounce all hope of regaining their independence.
In March, 1808, Marmont was created Duke of Ragusa, a title of which, according to Pisani, he was not very proud, for in his memoirs he mentions it as having been conferred on him in 1807, perhaps because he did not like to be reminded of the fact that it was a reward for his services in the suppression of a free Republic.
Napoleon had appointed the Venetian Dandolo Provveditore of Dalmatia, while General Marmont retained the supreme military command. But Ragusa and Cattaro were given a separate administration under G. D. Garagnin, who was independent of Dandolo, and responsible only to Marmont. The territory of the Republic was divided into three districts: Ragusa, Stagno, and the Islands. Ragusa was given a council of eighteen members (six nobles, six burghers, and six plebeians), with Count Sorgo as mayor, and four adjoints. The State’s finances proved to be still in good condition in spite of all the troubles and the requisitions, and large sums were invested in foreign banks.
After the departure of the Russian fleet the British squadron appeared in the Adriatic and began to prey upon French and Dalmatian shipping. During the next three years fighting continued in Croatia between the Austrians and the French, and trouble was threatened in the Bocche by the native Orthodox Christians supported by the Montenegrins. The French General Pacthod visited Cattaro, made some arrests, shot three of the agitators, and calmed the rest of the population. But the British fleet ceaselessly cruised up and down, and prevented the French from maintaining secure communications between Italy and Dalmatia. The British crews had one great advantage over the French—they were all Englishmen, and veterans; whereas the French ships were manned by scratch crews, consisting of Italians and Slaves, as well as of Frenchmen. In 1810 Lissa was made the port of call for British ships, but not fortified. In October a Franco-Italian squadron under Captain Dubordieu, in the absence of British men-of-war, seized the island and captured a few merchantmen; but he abandoned it again on the return of the fleet, and the British now decided to occupy it permanently. Dubordieu received orders to try to recapture it, and on March 11, 1811, he set sail from Ancona with nine warships, 271 guns, and 2655 men. On the 13th he encountered a British squadron under Captain Hoste, consisting of four ships with 188 guns and 985 men. In spite of this great disparity of forces Hoste gave battle, and was completely victorious; most of the enemies’ ships were sunk or captured. The British were equally successful in subsequent engagements, and Lissa was strongly fortified and formally taken possession of in 1812. The island prospered enormously under British rule, and the population rose from 4000 to 11,000. In January Sir Duncan Robertson, commanding at Lissa, occupied Curzola, which was given a government like that of Lissa under Lowen, and became equally prosperous. The Ragusan island of Lagosta was occupied at the same time.
In the following May the British determined to occupy the other Ragusan islands. On February 18 an attack was made on Mezzo, but repulsed. The island was then blockaded; part of the garrison deserted, and the rest under Lieutenant Tock retired to the Forte della Montagna. A British force landed, seized the Forte Santa Maria, and placed a battery on a hill commanding Tock’s position. Unable to hold out any longer, he surrendered to Blake with the honours of war. Giuppana was also captured, and then Calamotta, and the Ragusan Count Natali was appointed Governor of the Archipelago under British protection. An attack on Ragusavecchia was repulsed by a Croatian battalion on October 11; but two days later that same battalion deserted from the French to the English side, and Count Biagio Bernardo Caboga was appointed Governor of the town. The same day another Croatian detachment abandoned the island of Daksa at the entrance of the harbour of Gravosa, and a British force occupied Stagno. Thus Ragusa was blockaded from the sea on all sides. On November 11, 1813, Hoste attacked the island of Lesina, and captured it without difficulty.
In this same year an Austrian army invaded Dalmatia and co-operated with the British fleet; the population being tired of French exaction rose in arms in favour of the Austrians. The French, attacked on all sides, were forced to abandon many towns and fortresses. For a time the British under Cadogan, the Austrians under General Tomasić, and the Dalmatian insurgents under Danese all worked together for the expulsion of the invaders. But in the operations round Ragusa and Cattaro a certain amount of friction arose between the British and the Austrians. The French forces too, however, were not homogeneous, and the number of desertions from the Italian and Croatian regiments, whose hearts were not in the fight, was very large. The Allies were assisted by an anti-French movement in Ragusa itself; but while the nobles and the peasantry desired the restoration of the Republic, the bourgeoisie still evinced French tendencies. The other Dalmatians wished to be under Austrian dominion.
The British fleet, as I have said, had occupied the Ragusan islands, where a provisional Government was set up under Ragusan nobles, and the old Ragusan laws were revived. With the capture of Stagno the whole country west of the Ombla rose in favour of the Anglo-Austrians, and Captain Lowen issued a proclamation to the Ragusans from Mezzo, declaring that “the English and Austrian forces were advancing towards this country to give it back its liberty.... Remember that you bear a glorious name, and fight as the Spaniards and the Russians have fought to restore your independence.” The Austrian proclamation issued by General Hiller contained no mention of the word independence.
TERRACE OF THE VILLA BRAVAČIĆ, NEAR RAGUSA
In the meanwhile the Ragusans Count Caboga and Marchese Bona raised a force of 3000 Canalesi; as this was not sufficient to recapture Ragusa, it became necessary to apply for British assistance. But no one wished to be the first to ask for it, as it was feared that if the British did seize Ragusa they might end by retaining it; while if they failed, the French would show no mercy on the rebels. At last it was agreed to send a popular deputation of twenty-five peasants to Captain Hoste, who was in command of the squadron at Cattaro, asking for help from the Allies to re-establish the Republic. According to Bona, Hoste and Lowen gave them a safe-conduct, declaring that the Canalesi, under the protection of the Allies, were to act for the common cause, and promised to send an English force to Canali. The Canalesi rose in revolt, and drove the French gendarmes and patrols out of the country. As no English force arrived, a second deputation went to Hoste, who sent Lowen to Ragusavecchia, but no men to Canali. Caboga then proclaimed the general revolution, but was forced to fly from the French police. On October 28 a small British detachment under Lieutenant Macdonald landed at Ragusavecchia, raised the British flag, and declared that the ancient laws of Ragusa were revived in the place of the French ones, and Count Caboga was made commandant of the town pro tempore. The raising of the British flag and the appointment of Caboga displeased the Ragusan nobles, who regarded these acts as infringements of their own rights. They met in council, and proposed to send an agent to Constantinople to notify the restoration of the Republic to the Sultan and place it once more under his suzerainty. Caboga spoke against the proposal as constituting a slight to the English, whereupon he was at once accused of having sold himself to them. Lowen was then asked for permission to raise the Ragusan standard, but he said that he had no authority, and that application must be made to Admiral Fremantle, who held the chief command in the Adriatic. But when Hoste arrived at Ragusavecchia on November 15, he at once had the standard of St. Blaize hoisted, saluted it with twenty-one guns from his frigate, and proclaimed the independence of the Republic.