152 THE HISTORY OF THE ORDER OF [book iv.

prisoners. “ Although some Venetian historiansdoubt, I believe it to be the exact truth, on theauthority of Graveson, a most veracious andlearned writer.” 1 Then allowing all that to becertain fact, and that it was the proximate cause,it equally follows that the cause in reality may befound far deeper and further off. War between Tur-key and Venice was always ready to break out, andthe smallest occasional whim was sufficient, parti-cularly as to the Mahometans, who always becamethe more suspicious the more their commercekept on decreasing; and decreased it had alwayssince the passage by the Cape of Good Hope,which was injurious to Venice likewise. But theVenetians knew better how to husband theirwealth; so that they never displayed more forti-tude than at the league of Cambray, long aftertheir mortal wound. But without entering intothe details of that course of heroism—whether thechief secretary of the Council of Ten was de-spatched by the Doge Erizzo to Malta, to guideand foment that fervour, 2 —it will be sufficient totake a view of its twenty-seven last months—supreme continuous siege of the city of Khania,during which there was not one single spot in it

1 Tcntori: Istor. Yen., x. 12.5

2 Pozzo : 119.