Upon entering Ragusan territory without permission and approaching the capital, the French General Jacques Lauriston demanded that his troops be allowed to rest and be provided with food and drink in the city before continuing on to take possession of their holdings in the Bay of Kotor.

[3] In 1808 Marshal Marmont issued a proclamation abolishing the Republic of Ragusa and amalgamating its territory into the French Empire's client state, the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy.

[6] Captain William Hoste with his ship HMS Bacchante (38 guns) had already captured the mountain fortress of Kotor with the help of Montenegrin forces in early January.

Seducing one of the temporary governors of the Republic, Biagio Bernardo Caboga, with promises of power and influence (which were later cut short and who died in ignominy, branded as a traitor by his people), they managed to convince him that the gate to the east was to be kept closed to the Ragusan forces and to let the Austrian forces enter the City from the west, without any Ragusan soldiers, once the French garrison of 500 troops under General Joseph de Montrichard had surrendered.

[11] On the morning of the 22nd Hoste immediately went into action and four mortars and two guns were landed and opened fire on San Lorenzo fort and the defences of the town.

This was agreed and by the end of the day, and despite some losses, the Croats were on top of Srđ forcing the seventy French gunners either to surrender or flee; this yielded twenty one guns.

Then on the 2nd day being the 26th the Royal navy ships opened up a bombardment from the sea concentrating their fire on the ports St. John Fortress.

It was then that one of the temporary governors of the Ragusan Republic, Biagio Bernardo Caboga, openly sided with the Austrians, dismissing the part of the rebel army which was from Konavle.

There were reinforcements of British troops of the 35th regiment of foot from HMS Elizabeth which had arrived with Edward Leveson-Gower on the 29th, but he declined to take part in the negotiations seeing that Hoste had everything under control.

Subsequent events proved that Austria took every possible opportunity to take over the entire coast of the eastern Adriatic, from Venice to Kotor.

The Ragusa representative, Miho Bona, was denied participation in the Congress, while the Austrian General Milutinović, prior to the final agreement of the allies, assumed complete control of the city.

After the surrender Bachannte took a detachment of the 35th foot to Trieste and, on 22 March, she went to the town of Parga on the coast of Greece after the inhabitants had requested assistance against the French garrison of 170 men commanded by a colonel.