the memories of casanova 108

the memories of casanova 108

"I intend to buy six thousand florins worth of silk goods from the looms

of Vicenza, and to give in payment to the merchants these letters of

exchange. I am certain of selling those goods rapidly with a profit of

ten per cent. Come with us to Vicenza; I will give you some of my goods

to the amount of two hundred sequins, and thus you will find yourself

covered for the guarantee which you have been kind enough to give to the

jeweller for the ring. We shall complete the transaction within twenty-

four hours."

 

I did not feel much inclination for the trip, but I allowed myself to be

blinded by the wish to cover the amount which I had guaranteed, and

which I had no doubt I would be called upon to pay some day or other.

 

"If I do not go with him," I said to myself "he will sell the goods at a

loss of twenty-five per cent., and I shall get nothing."

 

I promised to accompany him. He shewed me several letters of

recommendation for the best houses in Vicenza, and our departure was

fixed for early the next morning. I was at the "Star Hotel" by daybreak.

A carriage and four was ready; the hotel-keeper came up with his bill,

and P---- C---- begged me to pay it. The bill amounted to five sequins;

four of which had been advanced in cash by the landlord to pay the

driver who had brought them from Fusina. I saw that it was a put-up

thing, yet I paid with pretty good grace, for I guessed that the

scoundrel had left Venice without a penny. We reached Vicenza in three

hours, and we put up at the "Cappello," where P---- C---- ordered a good

dinner before leaving me with the lady to call upon the manufacturers.

 

When the beauty found herself alone with me, she began by addressing

friendly reproaches to me.

 

"I have loved you," she said, "for eighteen years; the first time that I

saw you we were in Padua, and we were then only nine years old."

 

I certainly had no recollection of it. She was the daughter of the

antiquarian friend of M. Grimani, who had placed me as a boarder with

the accursed Sclavonian woman. I could not help smiling, for I

recollected that her mother had loved me.

 

Shop-boys soon began to make their appearance, bringing pieces of goods,

and the face of Madame C---- brightened up. In less than two hours the

room was filled with them, and P---- C---- came back with two merchants,

whom he had invited to dinner. Madame allured them by her pretty

manners; we dined, and exquisite wines were drunk in profusion. In the

afternoon fresh goods were brought in; P---- C---- made a list of them

with the prices; but he wanted more, and the merchants promised to send

them the next day, although it was Sunday. Towards the evening several

counts arrived, for in Vicenza every nobleman is a count. P---- C----

had left his letters of recommendation at their houses. We had a Count

Velo, a Count Sesso, a Count Trento--all very amiable companions. They

invited us to accompany them to the casino, where Madame C---- shone by

her charms and her coquettish manners. After we had spent two hours in

that place, P---- C---- invited all his new friends to supper, and it

was a scene of gaiety and profusion. The whole affair annoyed me

greatly, and therefore I was not amiable; the consequence was that no

one spoke to me. I rose from my seat and went to bed, leaving the joyous

company still round the festive board. In the morning I came downstairs,

had my breakfast, and looked about me. The room was so full of goods

that I did not see how P---- C---- could possibly pay for all with his

six thousand florins. He told me, however, that his business would be

completed on the morrow, and that we were invited to a ball where all

the nobility would be present. The merchants with whom he had dealt came

to dine with us, and the dinner was remarkable for its extreme

profusion.

 

We went to the ball; but I soon got very weary of it, for every body was

speaking to Madame C---- and to P---- C----, who never uttered a word

with any meaning, but whenever I opened my lips people would pretend not

to hear me. I invited a lady to dance a minuet; she accepted, but she

looked constantly to the right or to the left, and seemed to consider me

as a mere dancing machine. A quadrille was formed, but the thing was

contrived in such a manner as to leave me out of it, and the very lady

who had refused me as a partner danced with another gentleman. Had I

been in good spirits I should certainly have resented such conduct, but

I preferred to leave the ball-room. I went to bed, unable to understand

why the nobility of Vicenza treated me in such a way. Perhaps they

neglected me because I was not named in the letters of introduction

given to P---- C----, but I thought that they might have known the laws

of common politeness. I bore the evil patiently, however, as we were to

leave the city the next day.

 

On Monday, the worthy pair being tired, they slept until noon, and after

dinner P---- C---- went out to pay for the goods.

 

We were to go away early on the Tuesday, and I instinctively longed for

that moment. The counts whom P---- C---- had invited were delighted with

his mistress, and they came to supper; but I avoided meeting them.

 

On the Tuesday morning I was duly informed that breakfast was ready, but

as I did not answer the summons quickly enough the servant came up

again, and told me that my wife requested me to make haste. Scarcely had

the word "wife" escaped his lips than I visited the cheek of the poor

fellow with a tremendous smack, and in my rage kicked him downstairs,

the bottom of which he reached in four springs, to the imminent risk of

his neck. Maddened with rage I entered the breakfast-room, and

addressing myself to P---- C----, I asked him who was the scoundrel who

had announced me in the hotel as the husband of Madame C----. He

answered that he did not know; but at the same moment the landlord came

into the room with a big knife in his hand, and asked me why I had

kicked his servant down the stairs. I quickly drew a pistol, and

threatening him with it I demanded imperatively from him the name of the

person who had represented me as the husband of that woman.

 

"Captain P---- C----," answered the landlord, "gave the names,

profession, etc., of your party."

 

At this I seized the impudent villain by the throat, and pinning him

against the wall with a strong hand I would have broken his head with

the butt of my pistol, if the landlord had not prevented me. Madame had

pretended to swoon, for those women can always command tears or fainting

fits, and the cowardly P---- C---- kept on saying,

 

"It is not true, it is not true!"

 

The landlord ran out to get the hotel register, and he angrily thrust it

under the nose of the coward, daring him to deny his having dictated:

Captain P---- C----, with M. and Madame Casanova. The scoundrel answered

that his words had certainly not been heard rightly, and the incensed

landlord slapped the book in his face with such force that he sent him

rolling, almost stunned, against the wall.

 

When I saw that the wretched poltroon was receiving such degrading

treatment without remembering that he had a sword hanging by his side, I

left the room, and asked the landlord to order me a carriage to take me

to Padua.

 

Beside myself with rage, blushing for very shame, seeing but too late

the fault I had committed by accepting the society of a scoundrel, I

went up to my room, and hurriedly packed up my carpet-bag. I was just

going out when Madame C---- presented herself before me.

 

"Begone, madam," I said to her, "or, in my rage, I might forget the

respect due to your sex."

 

She threw herself, crying bitterly, on a chair, entreated me to forgive

her, assuring me that she was innocent, and that she was not present

when the knave had given the names. The landlady, coming in at that

moment, vouched for the truth of her assertion. My anger began to abate,

and as I passed near the window I saw the carriage I had ordered waiting

for me with a pair of good horses. I called for the landlord in order to

pay whatever my share of the expense might come to, but he told me that

as I had ordered nothing myself I had nothing to pay. Just at that

juncture Count Velo came in.

 

"I daresay, count," I said, "that you believe this woman to be my wife."

 

"That is a fact known to everybody in the city."

 

"Damnation! And you have believed such a thing, knowing that I occupy

this room alone, and seeing me leave the ball-room and the supper-table

yesterday alone, leaving her with you all!"

 

"Some husbands are blessed with such easy dispositions!"

 

"I do not think I look like one of that species, and you are not a judge

of men of honour, let us go out, and I undertake to prove it to you."

 

The count rushed down the stairs and out of the hotel. The miserable C--

-- was choking, and I could not help pitying her; for a woman has in her

tears a weapon which through my life I have never known to resist. I

considered that if I left the hotel without paying anything, people

might laugh at my anger and suppose that I had a share in the swindle; I

requested the landlord to bring me the account, intending to pay half of

it. He went for it, but another scene awaited me. Madame C----, bathed

in tears, fell on her knees, and told me that if I abandoned her she was

lost, for she had no money and nothing to leave as security for her

hotel bill.

 

"What, madam! Have you not letters of exchange to the amount of six

thousand florins, or the goods bought with them?"

 

"The goods are no longer here; they have all been taken away, because

the letters of exchange, which you saw, and which we considered as good

as cash, only made the merchants laugh; they have sent for everything.

Oh! who could have supposed it?"

 

"The scoundrel! He knew it well enough, and that is why he was so

anxious to bring me here. Well, it is right that I should pay the

penalty of my own folly."

 

The bill brought by the landlord amounted to forty sequins, a very high

figure for three days; but a large portion of that sum was cash advanced

by the landlord, I immediately felt that my honour demanded that I

should pay the bill in full; and I paid without any hesitation, taking

care to get a receipt given in the presence of two witnesses. I then

made a present of two sequins to the nephew of the landlord to console

him for the thrashing he had received, and I refused the same sum to the

wretched C----, who had sent the landlady to beg it for her.

 

Thus ended that unpleasant adventure, which taught me a lesson, and a

lesson which I ought not to have required. Two or three weeks later, I

heard that Count Trento had given those two miserable beings some money

to enable them to leave the city; as far as I was concerned, I would not

have anything to do with them. A month afterwards P---- C---- was again

arrested for debt, the man who had been security for him having become a

bankrupt. He had the audacity to write a long letter to me, entreating

me to go and see him, but I did not answer him. I was quite as

inflexible towards Madame C----, whom I always refused to see. She was

reduced to great poverty.

 

I returned to Padua, where I stopped only long enough to take my ring

and to dine with M. de Bragadin, who went back to Venice a few days

afterwards.

 

The messenger from the convent brought me a letter very early in the

morning; I devoured its contents; it was very loving, but gave no news.

In my answer I gave my dear C---- C---- the particulars of the infamous

trick played upon me by her villainous brother, and mentioned the ring, with the secret of which I acquainted her.