the episode at Castel Vecchio, he could believe no one, not even the two representatives. After this useless attempt at mediation, Contarini and Giovannelli organized the people, who shouted "we want war" and were prepared to defend the town to the bitter end, as shown by a proclamation in which they affirmed that "through removing confusion and disorder, fatal to the good of all, the faithful people of Verona remain committed to withdrew into their respective Contrade [districts]. There they will assign leaders, obedient to you, and be united in one body and the same leaders will obey the cariche's orders and always give themselves towards the common good". Battle thus continued, in particular at Castel Vecchio, where the cannon had been given over to the inexpert hands of the Veronese citizens and so were not doing any more major damage. Meanwhile, from the colle San Leonardo, the bombardment of the strongholds continued, and the strongholds had turned to bombarding the city, causing several fires and adding to the damage already caused by the French raids: in one short sortie they had started fires in the surrounding palaces of the town's noble families, destroying several works of art. During another sortie, from Castel Vecchio, the French succeeded in setting light to palazzo Liorsi and palazzo Perez, though on their return all but five of the French soldiers were killed by the rioters. Near the lazzaretto di Sanmicheli, occupied by a French hospital, a column of armed peasants headed towards the city heard a few rifle shots coming from inside the hospital - enraged, the peasants beat down its doors and massacred the six French soldiers they found inside. In the afternoon Neipperg and his soldiers left Verona, given that the truce between France and Austria was only due to last a week. In compensation he warned the population that if they resisted him while the truce was still in force he would return to help them. Meanwhile, a French scouting party approached porta San Zeno, which withdrew immediately when fired on by cannon mounted on the city walls. In the same instant, however, they met the column of soldiers under Maffei which was guarding the Chievo line at Santa Lucia. In this line were positioned around 6,000 men under Chabran, while the men under Victor and Miollis were still marching for Verona. 20 and 21 April 22 and 23 April