the memories of casanova 145

the memories of casanova 145

It is probable that just as my overwhelmed soul gave signs of its

failing strength by the loss of the thinking faculty, so my body

distilled a great part of those fluids which by their continual

circulation set the thinking faculty in motion. Thus a sudden shock

might cause instantaneous death, and send one to Paradise by a cut much

too short.

 

In course of time the captain of the men-at-arms came to tell me that he

was under orders to take me under the Leads. Without a word I followed

him. We went by gondola, and after a thousand turnings among the small

canals we got into the Grand Canal, and landed at the prison quay. After

climbing several flights of stairs we crossed a closed bridge which

forms the communication between the prisons and the Doge's palace,

crossing the canal called Rio di Palazzo. On the other side of this

bridge there is a gallery which we traversed. We then crossed one room,

and entered another, where sat an individual in the dress of a noble,

who, after looking fixedly at me, said, "E quello, mettetelo in

deposito:"

 

This man was the secretary of the Inquisitors, the prudent Dominic

Cavalli, who was apparently ashamed to speak Venetian in my presence as

he pronounced my doom in the Tuscan language.

 

Messer-Grande then made me over to the warden of The Leads, who stood by

with an enormous bunch of keys, and accompanied by two guards, made me

climb two short flights of stairs, at the top of which followed a

passage and then another gallery, at the end of which he opened a door,

and I found myself in a dirty garret, thirty-six feet long by twelve

broad, badly lighted by a window high up in the roof. I thought this

garret was my prison, but I was mistaken; for, taking an enormous key,

the gaoler opened a thick door lined with iron, three and a half feet

high, with a round hole in the middle, eight inches in diameter, just as

I was looking intently at an iron machine. This machine was like a horse

shoe, an inch thick and about five inches across from one end to the

other. I was thinking what could be the use to which this horrible

instrument was put, when the gaoler said, with a smile,

 

"I see, sir, that you wish to know what that is for, and as it happens I

can satisfy your curiosity. When their excellencies give orders that

anyone is to be strangled, he is made to sit down on a stool, the back

turned to this collar, and his head is so placed that the collar goes

round one half of the neck. A silk band, which goes round the other

half, passes through this hole, and the two ends are connected with the

axle of a wheel which is turned by someone until the prisoner gives up

the ghost, for the confessor, God be thanked! never leaves him till he

is dead."

 

"All this sounds very ingenious, and I should think that it is you who

have the honour of turning the wheel."

 

He made no answer, and signing to me to enter, which I did by bending

double, he shut me up, and afterwards asked me through the grated hole

what I would like to eat.

 

"I haven't thought anything about it yet," I answered. And he went away,

locking all the doors carefully behind him.

 

Stunned with grief, I leant my elbows on the top of the grating. It was

crossed, by six iron bars an inch thick, which formed sixteen square

holes. This opening would have lighted my cell, if a square beam

supporting the roof which joined the wall below the window had not

intercepted what little light came into that horrid garret. After making

the tour of my sad abode, my head lowered, as the cell was not more than

five and a half feet high, I found by groping along that it formed

three-quarters of a square of twelve feet. The fourth quarter was a kind

of recess, which would have held a bed; but there was neither bed, nor

table, nor chair, nor any furniture whatever, except a bucket--the use

of which may be guessed, and a bench fixed in the wall a foot wide and

four feet from the ground. On it I placed my cloak, my fine suit, and my

hat trimmed with Spanish paint and adorned with a beautiful white

feather. The heat was great, and my instinct made me go mechanically to

the grating, the only place where I could lean on my elbows. I could not

see the window, but I saw the light in the garret, and rats of a fearful

size, which walked unconcernedly about it; these horrible creatures

coming close under my grating without shewing the slightest fear. At the

sight of these I hastened to close up the round hole in the middle of

the door with an inside shutter, for a visit from one of the rats would

have frozen my blood. I passed eight hours in silence and without

stirring, my arms all the time crossed on the top of the grating.

 

At last the clock roused me from my reverie, and I began to feel

restless that no one came to give me anything to eat or to bring me a

bed whereon to sleep. I thought they might at least let me have a chair

and some bread and water. I had no appetite, certainly; but were my

gaolers to guess as much? And never in my life had I been so thirsty. I

was quite sure, however, that somebody would come before the close of

the day; but when I heard eight o'clock strike I became furious,

knocking at the door, stamping my feet, fretting and fuming, and

accompanying this useless hubbub with loud cries. After more than an

hour of this wild exercise, seeing no one, without the slightest reason

to think I could be heard, and shrouded in darkness, I shut the grating

for fear of the rats, and threw myself at full length upon the floor. So

cruel a desertion seemed to me unnatural, and I came to the conclusion

that the Inquisitors had sworn my death. My investigation as to what I

had done to deserve such a fate was not a long one, for in the most

scrupulous examination of my conduct I could find no crimes. I was, it

is true, a profligate, a gambler, a bold talker, a man who thought of

little besides enjoying this present life, but in all that there was no

offence against the state. Nevertheless, finding myself treated as a

criminal, rage and despair made me express myself against the horrible

despotism which oppressed me in a manner which I will leave my readers

to guess, but which I will not repeat here. But notwithstanding my brief

and anxiety, the hunger which began to make itself felt, and the thirst

which tormented me, and the hardness of the boards on which I lay, did

not prevent exhausted nature from reasserting her rights; I fell asleep.

 

My strong constitution was in need of sleep; and in a young and healthy

subject this imperious necessity silences all others, and in this way

above all is sleep rightly termed the benefactor of man.

 

The clock striking midnight awoke me. How sad is the awaking when it

makes one regret one's empty dreams. I could scarcely believe that I had

spent three painless hours. As I lay on my left side, I stretched out my

right hand to get my handkerchief, which I remembered putting on that

side. I felt about for it, when--heavens! what was my surprise to feel

another hand as cold as ice. The fright sent an electric shock through

me, and my hair began to stand on end.

 

Never had I been so alarmed, nor should I have previously thought myself

capable of experiencing such terror. I passed three or four minutes in a

kind of swoon, not only motionless but incapable of thinking. As I got

back my senses by degrees, I tried to make myself believe that the hand

I fancied I had touched was a mere creature of my disordered

imagination; and with this idea I stretched out my hand again, and again

with the same result. Benumbed with fright, I uttered a piercing cry,

and, dropping the hand I held, I drew back my arm, trembling all over:

 

Soon, as I got a little calmer and more capable of reasoning, I

concluded that a corpse had been placed beside me whilst I slept, for I

was certain it was not there when I lay down.

 

"This," said I, "is the body of some strangled wretch, and they would

thus warn me of the fate which is in store for me."

 

The thought maddened me; and my fear giving place to rage, for the third

time I stretched my arm towards the icy hand, seizing it to make certain

of the fact in all its atrocity, and wishing to get up, I rose upon my

left elbow, and found that I had got hold of my other hand. Deadened by

the weight of my body and the hardness of the boards, it had lost

warmth, motion, and all sensation.

 

In spite of the humorous features in this incident, it did not cheer me

up, but, on the contrary, inspired me with the darkest fancies. I saw

that I was in a place where, if the false appeared true, the truth might

appear false, where understanding was bereaved of half its prerogatives,

where the imagination becoming affected would either make the reason a

victim to empty hopes or to dark despair. I resolved to be on my guard;

and for the first time in my life, at the age of thirty, I called

philosophy to my assistance. I had within me all the seeds of

philosophy, but so far I had had no need for it.

 

I am convinced that most men die without ever having thought, in the

proper sense of the word, not so much for want of wit or of good sense,

but rather because the shock necessary to the reasoning faculty in its

inception has never occurred to them to lift them out of their daily

habits.

 

After what I had experienced, I could think of sleep no more, and to get

up would have been useless as I could not stand upright, so I took the

only sensible course and remained seated. I sat thus till four o'clock

in the morning, the sun would rise at five, and I longed to see the day,

for a presentiment which I held infallible told me that it would set me

again at liberty. I was consumed with a desire for revenge, nor did I

conceal it from myself. I saw myself at the head of the people, about to

exterminate the Government which had oppressed me; I massacred all the

aristocrats without pity; all must be shattered and brought to the dust.

I was delirious; I knew the authors of my misfortune, and in my fancy I

destroyed them. I restored the natural right common to all men of being

obedient only to the law, and of being tried only by their peers and by

laws to which they have agreed-in short, I built castles in Spain. Such

is man when he has become the prey of a devouring passion. He does not

suspect that the principle which moves him is not reason but wrath, its

greatest enemy.

 

I waited for a less time than I had expected, and thus I became a little

more quiet. At half-past four the deadly silence of the place--this hell

of the living--was broken by the shriek of bolts being shot back in the

passages leading to my cell.

 

"Have you had time yet to think about what you will take to eat?" said

the harsh voice of my gaoler from the wicket.

 

One is lucky when the insolence of a wretch like this only shews itself

in the guise of jesting. I answered that I should like some rice soup, a

piece of boiled beef, a roast, bread, wine, and water. I saw that the

lout was astonished not to hear the lamentations he expected. He went

away and came back again in a quarter of an hour to say that he was

astonished I did not require a bed and the necessary pieces of

furniture, "for" said he, "if you flatter yourself that you are only

here for a night, you are very much mistaken."

 

"Then bring me whatever you think necessary."

 

"Where shall I go for it? Here is a pencil and paper; write it down."

 

I skewed him by writing where to go for my shirts, stockings, and

clothes of all sorts, a bed, table, chair, the books which Messer-Grande

had confiscated, paper, pens, and so forth. On my reading out the list

to him (the lout did not know how to read) he cried, "Scratch out," said

he, "scratch out books, paper, pens, looking-glass and razors, for all

that is forbidden fruit here, and then give me some money to get your

dinner." I had three sequins so I gave him one, and he went off. He

spent an hour in the passages engaged, as I learnt afterwards, in

attending on seven other prisoners who were imprisoned in cells placed

far apart from each other to prevent all communication.

 

About noon the gaoler reappeared followed by five guards, whose duty it

was to serve the state prisoners. He opened: the cell door to bring in

my dinner and the furniture I had asked for. The bed was placed in the

recess; my dinner was laid out on a small table, and I had to eat with

an ivory spoon he had procured out of the money I had given him; all forks, knives, and edged tools being forbidden.

the memories of casanova 144

the memories of casanova 144

He had also paid my room a visit. She told me that she must have some

reparation made her, and thinking she was in the right I promised to

speak to M. de Bragadin on the matter the same day. Needing rest above

all things, I lay down, but my nervous excitement, which I attributed to

my heavy losses at play, made me rise after three or four hours, and I

went to see M. de Bragadin, to whom I told the whole story begging him

to press for some signal amends. I made a lively representation to him

of all the grounds on which my landlady required proportionate amends to

be made, since the laws guaranteed the peace of all law-abiding people.

 

I saw that the three friends were greatly saddened by what I said, and

the wise old man, quietly but sadly, told me that I should have my

answer after dinner.

 

De la Haye dined with us, but all through the meal, which was a

melancholy one, he spoke not a word. His silence should have told me

all, if I had not been under the influence of some malevolent genii who

would not allow me to exercise my common sense: as to the sorrow of my

three friends, I put that down to their friendship for me. My connection

with these worthy men had always been the talk of the town, and as all

were agreed that it could not be explained on natural grounds, it was

deemed to be the effect of some sorcery exercised by me. These three men

were thoroughly religious and virtuous citizens; I was nothing if not

irreligious, and Venice did not contain a greater libertine. Virtue, it

was said, may have compassion on vice, but cannot become its friend.

 

After dinner M. de Bragadin took me into his closet with his two

friends, from whom he had no secrets. He told me with wonderful calmness

that instead of meditating vengeance on Messer-Grande I should be

thinking of putting myself in a place of safety. "The portmanteau," said

he, "was a mere pretext; it was you they wanted and thought to find.

Since your good genius has made them miss you, look out for yourself;

perhaps by to-morrow it may be too late. I have been a State Inquisitor

for eight months, and I know the way in which the arrests ordered by the

court are carried out. They would not break open a door to look for a

box of salt. Indeed, it is possible that they knew you were out, and

sought to warn you to escape in this manner. Take my advice, my dear

son, and set out directly for Fusina, and thence as quickly as you can

make your way to Florence, where you can remain till I write to you that

you may return with safety. If you have no money I will give you a

hundred sequins for present expenses. Believe me that prudence bids you

go."

 

Blinded by my folly, I answered him that being guilty of nothing I had

nothing to fear, and that consequently, although I knew his advice was

good, I could not follow it.

 

"The high court," said he, "may deem you guilty of crimes real or

imaginary; but in any case it will give you no account of the

accusations against you. Ask your oracle if you shall follow my advice

or not." I refused because I knew the folly of such a proceeding, but by

way of excuse I said that I only consulted it when I was in doubt.

Finally, I reasoned that if I fled I should be shewing fear, and thus

confessing my guilt, for an innocent man, feeling no remorse, cannot

reasonably be afraid of anything.

 

"If secrecy," said I, "is of the essence of the Court, you cannot

possibly judge, after my escape, whether I have done so rightly or

wrongly. The same reasons, which, according to your excellence, bid me

go, would forbid my return. Must I then say good-bye for ever to my

country, and all that is dear to me?" As a last resource he tried to

persuade me to pass the following day and night, at least, at the

palace. I am still ashamed of having refused the worthy old man to whom

I owed so much this favour; for the palace of a noble is sacred to the

police who dare not cross its threshold without a special order from the

Tribunal, which is practically never given; by yielding to his request I

should have avoided a grievous misfortune, and spared the worthy old man

some acute grief.

 

I was moved to see M. de Bragadin weeping, and perhaps I might have

granted to his tears that which I had obstinately refused to his

arguments and entreaties. "For Heaven's sake!" said I, "spare me the

harrowing sight of your tears." In an instant he summoned all his

strength to his assistance, made some indifferent remarks, and then,

with a smile full of good nature, he embraced me, saying, "Perhaps I may

be fated never to see you again, but 'Fata viam invenient'."

 

I embraced him affectionately, and went away, but his prediction was

verified, for I never saw him again; he died eleven years afterwards. I

found myself in the street without feeling the slightest fear, but I was

in a good deal of trouble about my debts. I had not the heart to go to

Muran to take away from M. M. her last five hundred sequins, which sum I

owed to the man who won it from me in the night; I preferred asking him

to wait eight days, and I did so. After performing this unpleasant piece

of business I returned home, and, having consoled my landlady to the

utmost of my power, I kissed the daughter, and lay down to sleep. The

date was July 25th, 1755.

 

Next morning at day-break who should enter my room but the awful Messer-

Grande. To awake, to see him, and to hear him asking if I were Jacques

Casanova, was the work of a moment. At my "yes, I am Casanova," he told

me to rise, to put on my clothes, to give him all the papers and

manuscripts in my possession, and to follow him.

 

"On whose authority do you order me to do this?"

 

"By the authority of the Tribunal."

 

 

 

 

 

EPISODE 10 -- UNDER THE LEADS

 

 

 

CHAPTER XXVI

 

 

Under The Leads--The Earthquake

 

What a strange and unexplained power certain words exercise upon the

soul! I, who the evening before so bravely fortified myself with my

innocence and courage, by the word tribunal was turned to a stone, with

merely the faculty of passive obedience left to me.

 

My desk was open, and all my papers were on a table where I was

accustomed to write.

 

"Take them," said I, to the agent of the dreadful Tribunal, pointing to

the papers which covered the table. He filled a bag with them, and gave

it to one of the sbirri, and then told me that I must also give up the

bound manuscripts which I had in my possession. I shewed him where they

were, and this incident opened my eyes. I saw now, clearly enough, that

I had been betrayed by the wretch Manuzzi. The books were, "The Key of

Solomon the King," "The Zecorben," a "Picatrix," a book of "Instructions

on the Planetary Hours," and the necessary incantations for conversing

with demons of all sorts. Those who were aware that I possessed these

books took me for an expert magician, and I was not sorry to have such a

reputation.

 

Messer-Grande took also the books on the table by my bed, such as

Petrarch, Ariosto, Horace. "The Military' Philosopher" (a manuscript

which Mathilde had given me), "The Porter of Chartreux," and "The

Aretin," which Manuzzi had also denounced, for Messer-Grande asked me

for it by name. This spy, Manuzzi, had all the appearance of an honest

man--a very necessary qualification for his profession. His son made his

fortune in Poland by marrying a lady named Opeska, whom, as they say, he

killed, though I have never had any positive proof on the matter, and am

willing to stretch Christian charity to the extent of believing he was

innocent, although he was quite capable of such a crime.

 

While Messer-Grande was thus rummaging among my manuscripts, books and

letters, I was dressing myself in an absent-minded manner, neither

hurrying myself nor the reverse. I made my toilette, shaved myself, and

combed my hair; putting on mechanically a laced shirt and my holiday

suit without saying a word, and without Messer-Grande--who did not let

me escape his sight for an instant--complaining that I was dressing

myself as if I were going to a wedding.

 

As I went out I was surprised to see a band of forty men-at-arms in the

ante-room. They had done me the honour of thinking all these men

necessary for my arrest, though, according to the axiom 'Ne Hercules

quidem contra duos', two would have been enough. It is curious that in

London, where everyone is brave, only one man is needed to arrest

another, whereas in my dear native land, where cowardice prevails,

thirty are required. The reason is, perhaps, that the coward on the

offensive is more afraid than the coward on the defensive, and thus a

man usually cowardly is transformed for the moment into a man of

courage. It is certain that at Venice one often sees a man defending

himself against twenty sbirri, and finally escaping after beating them

soundly. I remember once helping a friend of mine at Paris to escape

from the hands of forty bum-bailiffs, and we put the whole vile rout of

them to flight.

 

Messer-Grande made me get into a gondola, and sat down near me with an

escort of four men. When we came to our destination he offered me

coffee, which I refused; and he then shut me up in a room. I passed

these four hours in sleep, waking up every quarter of an hour to pass

water--an extraordinary occurrence, as I was not at all subject to

stranguary; the heat was great, and I had not supped the evening before.

I have noticed at other times that surprise at a deed of oppression acts

on me as a powerful narcotic, but I found out at the time I speak of

that great surprise is also a diuretic. I make this discovery over to

the doctors, it is possible that some learned man may make use of it to

solace the ills of humanity. I remember laughing very heartily at Prague

six years ago, on learning that some thin-skinned ladies, on reading my

flight from The Leads, which was published at that date, took great

offence at the above account, which they thought I should have done well

to leave out. I should have left it out, perhaps, in speaking to a lady,

but the public is not a pretty woman whom I am intent on cajoling, my

only aim is to be instructive. Indeed, I see no impropriety in the

circumstance I have narrated, which is as common to men and women as

eating and drinking; and if there is anything in it to shock too

sensitive nerves, it is that we resemble in this respect the cows and pigs.

the memories of casanova 143

the memories of casanova 143

You will remember, dear reader, about a romance by the Abbe Chiari, a

satirical romance which Mr. Murray had given me, and in which I fared

badly enough at the author's hands I had small reason to be pleased with

him, and I let him know my opinion in such wise that the abbe who

dreaded a caning, kept upon his guard. About the same time I received an

anonymous letter, the writer of which told me that I should be better

occupied in taking care of myself than in thoughts of chastising the

abbe, for I was threatened by an imminent danger. Anonymous letter-

writers should be held in contempt, but one ought to know how, on

occasion, to make the best of advice given in that way. I did nothing,

and made a great mistake.

 

About the same time a man named Manuzzi, a stone setter for his first

trade, and also a spy, a vile agent of the State Inquisitors--a man of

whom I knew nothing--found a way to make my acquaintance by offering to

let me have diamonds on credit, and by this means he got the entry of my

house. As he was looking at some books scattered here and there about

the room, he stopped short at the manuscripts which were on magic.

Enjoying foolishly enough, his look of astonishment, I shewed him the

books which teach one how to summon the elementary spirits. My readers

will, I hope, do me the favour to believe that I put no faith in these

conjuring books, but I had them by me and used to amuse myself with them

as one does amuse one's self with the multitudinous follies which

proceed from the heads of visionaries. A few days after, the traitor

came to see me and told me that a collector, whose name he might not

tell me, was ready to give me a thousand sequins for my five books, but

that he would like to examine them first to see if they were genuine. As

he promised to let me have them back in twenty-four hours, and not

thinking much about the matter, I let him have them. He did not fail to

bring them back the next day, telling me that the collector thought them

forgeries. I found out, some years after, that he had taken them to the

State Inquisitors, who thus discovered that I was a notable magician.

 

Everything that happened throughout this fatal month tended to my ruin,

for Madame Memmo, mother of Andre, Bernard, and Laurent Memmo, had taken

it into her head that I had inclined her sons to atheistic opinions, and

took counsel with the old knight Antony Mocenigo, M. de Bragadin's

uncle, who was angry with me, because, as he said, I had conspired to

seduce his nephew. The matter was a serious one, and an auto-da-fe was

very possible, as it came under the jurisdiction of the Holy Office--a

kind of wild beast, with which it is not good to quarrel. Nevertheless,

as there would be some difficulty in shutting me up in the

ecclesiastical prisons of the Holy Office, it was determined to carry my

case before the State Inquisitors, who took upon themselves the

provisional duty of putting a watch upon my manner of living.

 

M. Antony Condulmer, who as a friend of Abbe Chiari's was an enemy of

mine, was then an Inquisitor of State, and he took the opportunity of

looking upon me in the light of a disturber of the peace of the

commonwealth. A secretary of an embassy, whom I knew some years after,

told me that a paid informer, with two other witnesses, also, doubtless,

in the pay of this grand tribunal, had declared that I was guilty of

only believing in the devil, as if this absurd belief, if it were

possible, did not necessarily connote a belief in God! These three

honest fellows testified with an oath that when I lost money at play, on

which occasion all the faithful are wont to blaspheme, I was never heard

to curse the devil. I was further accused of eating meat all the year

round, of only going to hear fine masses, and I was vehemently suspected

of being a Freemason. It was added that I frequented the society of

foreign ministers, and that living as I did with three noblemen, it was

certain that I revealed, for the large sums which I was seen to lose, as

many state secrets as I could worm out of them.

 

All these accusations, none of which had any foundation in fact, served

the Tribunal as a pretext to treat me as an enemy of the commonwealth

and as a prime conspirator. For several weeks I was counselled by

persons whom I might have trusted to go abroad whilst the Tribunal was

engaged on my case. This should have been enough, for the only people

who can live in peace at Venice are those whose existence the Tribunal

is ignorant of, but I obstinately despised all these hints. If I had

listened to the indirect advice which was given me, I should have become

anxious, and I was the sworn foe of all anxiety. I kept saying to

myself, "I feel remorse for nothing and I am therefore guilty of

nothing, and the innocent have nothing to fear." I was a fool, for I

argued as if I had been a free man in a free country. I must also

confess that what to a great extent kept me from thinking of possible

misfortune was the actual misfortune which oppressed me from morning to

night. I lost every day, I owed money everywhere, I had pawned all my

jewels, and even my portrait cases, taking the precaution, however, of

removing the portraits, which with my important papers and my amorous

letters I had placed in the hands of Madame Manzoni. I found myself

avoided in society. An old senator told me, one day, that it was known

that the young Countess Bonafede had become mad in consequence of the

love philtres I had given her. She was still at the asylum, and in her

moments of delirium she did nothing but utter my name with curses. I

must let my readers into the secret of this small history.

 

This young Countess Bonafede, to whom I had given some sequins a few

days after my return to Venice, thought herself capable of making me

continue my visits, from which she had profited largely. Worried by her

letters I went to see her several times, and always left her a few

sequins, but with the exception of my first visit I was never polite

enough to give her any proofs of my affection. My coldness had baulked

all her endeavours for a year, when she played a criminal part, of

which, though I was never able absolutely to convict her, I had every

reason to believe her guilty.

 

She wrote me a letter, in which she importuned me to come and see her at

a certain hour on important business.

 

My curiosity, as well as a desire to be of service to her, took me there

at the appointed time; but as soon as she saw me she flung her arms

round my neck, and told me that the important business was love. This

made me laugh heartily, and I was pleased to find her looking neater

than usual, which, doubtless, made me find her looking prettier. She

reminded me of St. Andre, and succeeded so well in her efforts that I

was on the point of satisfying her desires. I took off my cloak, and

asked her if her father were in. She told me he had gone out. Being

obliged to go out for a minute, in coming back I mistook the door, and I

found myself in the next room, where I was much astonished to see the

count and two villainous-looking fellows with him.

 

"My dear count," I said, "your daughter has just told me that you were

out."

 

"I myself told her to do so, as I have some business with these

gentlemen, which, however, can wait for another day."

 

I would have gone, but he stopped me, and having dismissed the two men

he told me that he was delighted to see me, and forthwith began the tale

of his troubles, which were of more than one kind. The State Inquisitors

had stopped his slender pension, and he was on the eve of seeing himself

driven out with his family into the streets to beg his bread. He said

that he had not been able to pay his landlord anything for three years,

but if he could pay only a quarter's rent, he would obtain a respite, or

if he persisted in turning him out, he could make a night-flitting of

it, and take up his abode somewhere else. As he only wanted twenty

ducats, I took out six sequins and gave them to him. He embraced me, and

shed tears of joy; then, taking his poor cloak, he called his daughter,

told her to keep me company, and went out.

 

Alone with the countess, I examined the door of communication between

the two rooms and found it slightly open.

 

"Your father," I said, "would have surprised me, and it is easy to guess

what he would have done with the two sbirri who were with him. The plot

is clear, and I have only escaped from it by the happiest of chances."

 

She denied, wept, called God to witness, threw herself on her knees; but

I turned my head away, and taking my cloak went away without a word. She

kept on writing to me, but her letters remained unanswered, and I saw

her no more.

 

It was summer-time, and between the heat, her passions, hunger, and

wretchedness, her head was turned, and she became so mad that she went

out of the house stark naked, and ran up and down St. Peter's Place,

asking those who stopped her to take her to my house. This sad story

went all over the town and caused me a great deal of annoyance. The poor

wretch was sent to an asylum, and did not recover her reason for five

years. When she came out she found herself reduced to beg her bread in

the streets, like all her brothers, except one, whom I found a cadet in

the guards of the King of Spain twelve years afterwards.

 

At the time of which I am speaking all this had happened a year ago, but

the story was dug up against me, and dressed out in the attire of

fiction, and thus formed part of those clouds which were to discharge

their thunder upon me to my destruction.

 

In the July of 1755 the hateful court gave Messer-Grande instructions to

secure me, alive or dead. In this furious style all orders for arrests

proceeding from the Three were issued, for the least of their commands

carried with it the penalty of death.

 

Three or four days before the Feast of St. James, my patron saint, M----

M---- made me a present of several ells of silver lace to trim a

sarcenet dress which I was going to wear on the eve of the feast. I went

to see her, dressed in my fine suit, and I told her that I should come

again on the day following to ask her to lend me some money, as I did

not know where to turn to find some. She was still in possession of the

five hundred sequins which she had put aside when I had sold her

diamonds.

 

As I was sure of getting the money in the morning I passed the night at

play, and I lost the five hundred sequins in advance. At day-break,

being in need of a little quiet, I went to the Erberia, a space of

ground on the quay of the Grand Canal. Here is held the herb, fruit, and

flower market.

 

People in good society who come to walk in the Erberia at a rather early

hour usually say that they come to see the hundreds of boats laden with

vegetables, fruit and flowers, which hail from the numerous islands near

the town; but everyone knows that they are men and women who have been

spending the night in the excesses of Venus or Bacchus, or who have lost

all hope at the gaming-table, and come here to breath a purer air and to

calm their minds. The fashion of walking in this place shews how the

character of a nation changes. The Venetians of old time who made as

great a mystery of love as of state affairs, have been replaced by the

modern Venetians, whose most prominent characteristic is to make a

mystery of nothing. Those who come to the Erberia with women wish to

excite the envy of their friends by thus publishing their good fortune.

Those who come alone are on the watch for discoveries, or on the look-

out for materials to make wives or husbands jealous, the women only come

to be seen, glad to let everybody know that they are without any

restraint upon their actions. There was certainly no question of

smartness there, considering the disordered style of dress worn. The

women seemed to have agreed to shew all the signs of disorder

imaginable, to give those who saw them something to talk about. As for

the men, on whose arms they leaned, their careless and lounging airs

were intended to give the idea of a surfeit of pleasure, and to make one

think that the disordered appearance of their companions was a sure

triumph they had enjoyed. In short it was the correct thing to look

tired out, and as if one stood in need of sleep.

 

This veracious description, reader, will not give you a very high

opinion of the morals of my dear fellow citizens; but what object should

I have at my age for deceiving? Venice is not at the world's end, but is

well enough known to those whose curiosity brings them into Italy; and

everyone can see for himself if my pictures are overdrawn.

 

After walking up and down for half an hour, I came away, and thinking

the whole house still a-bed I drew my key out to open the door, but what

was my astonishment to find it useless, as the door was open, and what

is more, the lock burst off. I ran upstairs, and found them all up, and

my landlady uttering bitter lamentations.

 

"Messer-Grande," she told me, "has entered my house forcibly,

accompanied by a band of sbirri. He turned everything upside down, on

the pretext that he was in search of a portmanteau full of salt--a

highly contraband article. He said he knew that a portmanteau had been

landed there the evening before, which was quite true; but it belonged

to Count S----, and only contained linen and clothes. Messer-Grande,

after inspecting it, went out without saying a word."