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+*The Project Gutenberg Etext of Childhood, by Jacques Casanova*
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+Title: Childhood
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+Author: Jacques Casanova
+
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+
+MEMOIRS OF JACQUES CASANOVA de SEINGALT 1725-1798
+VENETIAN YEARS, Volume 1a--CHILDHOOD
+
+THE RARE UNABRIDGED LONDON EDITION OF 1894 TRANSLATED BY ARTHUR MACHEN
+TO WHICH HAS BEEN ADDED THE CHAPTERS DISCOVERED BY ARTHUR SYMONS.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS:
+
+     CASANOVA AT DUX
+     TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE
+     AUTHOR'S PREFACE
+     CHILDHOOD AND ADOLESCENCE
+
+
+
+CASANOVA AT DUX
+
+An Unpublished Chapter of History, By Arthur Symons
+
+
+I
+
+The Memoirs of Casanova, though they have enjoyed the popularity of a
+bad reputation, have never had justice done to them by serious
+students of literature, of life, and of history.  One English writer,
+indeed, Mr. Havelock Ellis, has realised that 'there are few more
+delightful books in the world,' and he has analysed them in an essay
+on Casanova, published in Affirmations, with extreme care and
+remarkable subtlety.  But this essay stands alone, at all events in
+English, as an attempt to take Casanova seriously, to show him in his
+relation to his time, and in his relation to human problems.  And yet
+these Memoirs are perhaps the most valuable document which we possess
+on the society of the eighteenth century; they are the history of a
+unique life, a unique personality, one of the greatest of
+autobiographies; as a record of adventures, they are more
+entertaining than Gil Blas, or Monte Cristo, or any of the imaginary
+travels, and escapes, and masquerades in life, which have been
+written in imitation of them.  They tell the story of a man who loved
+life passionately for its own sake: one to whom woman was, indeed,
+the most important thing in the world, but to whom nothing in the
+world was indifferent.  The bust which gives us the most lively
+notion of him shows us a great, vivid, intellectual face, full of
+fiery energy and calm resource, the face of a thinker and a fighter
+in one.  A scholar, an adventurer, perhaps a Cabalist, a busy stirrer
+in politics, a gamester, one 'born for the fairer sex,' as he tells
+us, and born also to be a vagabond; this man, who is remembered now
+for his written account of his own life, was that rarest kind of
+autobiographer, one who did not live to write, but wrote because he
+had lived, and when he could live no longer.
+
+And his Memoirs take one all over Europe, giving sidelights, all the
+more valuable in being almost accidental, upon many of the affairs
+and people most interesting to us during two-thirds of the eighteenth
+century.  Giacomo Casanova was born in Venice, of Spanish and Italian
+parentage, on April 2, 1725; he died at the Chateau of Dux, in
+Bohemia, on June 4, 1798.  In that lifetime of seventy-three years he
+travelled, as his Memoirs show us, in Italy, France, Germany,
+Austria, England, Switzerland, Belgium, Russia, Poland, Spain,
+Holland, Turkey; he met Voltaire at Ferney, Rousseau at Montmorency,
+Fontenelle, d'Alembert and Crebillon at Paris, George III. in London,
+Louis XV. at Fontainebleau, Catherine the Great at St. Petersburg,
+Benedict XII. at Rome, Joseph II. at Vienna, Frederick the Great at
+Sans-Souci.  Imprisoned by the Inquisitors of State in the Piombi at
+Venice, he made, in 1755, the most famous escape in history.  His
+Memoirs, as we have them, break off abruptly at the moment when he is
+expecting a safe conduct, and the permission to return to Venice
+after twenty years' wanderings.  He did return, as we know from
+documents in the Venetian archives; he returned as secret agent of
+the Inquisitors, and remained in their service from 1774 until 1782.
+At the end of 1782 he left Venice; and next year we find him in
+Paris, where, in 1784, he met Count Waldstein at the Venetian
+Ambassador's, and was invited by him to become his librarian at Dux.
+He accepted, and for the fourteen remaining years of his life lived
+at Dux, where he wrote his Memoirs.
+
+Casanova died in 1798, but nothing was heard of the Memoirs (which
+the Prince de Ligne, in his own Memoirs, tells us that Casanova had
+read to him, and in which he found 'du dyamatique, de la rapidite, du
+comique, de la philosophie, des choses neuves, sublimes, inimitables
+meme') until the year 1820, when a certain Carlo Angiolini brought to
+the publishing house of Brockhaus, in Leipzig, a manuscript entitled
+Histoire de ma vie jusqua Pan 1797, in the handwriting of Casanova.
+This manuscript, which I have examined at Leipzig, is written on
+foolscap paper, rather rough and yellow; it is written on both sides
+of the page, and in sheets or quires; here and there the paging shows
+that some pages have been omitted, and in their place are smaller
+sheets of thinner and whiter paper, all in Casanova's handsome,
+unmistakable handwriting.  The manuscript is done up in twelve
+bundles, corresponding with the twelve volumes of the original
+edition; and only in one place is there a gap.  The fourth and fifth
+chapters of the twelfth volume are missing, as the editor of the
+original edition points out, adding: 'It is not probable that these
+two chapters have been withdrawn from the manuscript of Casanova by a
+strange hand; everything leads us to believe that the author himself
+suppressed them, in the intention, no doubt, of re-writing them, but
+without having found time to do so.' The manuscript ends abruptly
+with the year 1774, and not with the year 1797, as the title would
+lead us to suppose.
+
+This manuscript, in its original state, has never been printed.  Herr
+Brockhaus, on obtaining possession of the manuscript, had it
+translated into German by Wilhelm Schutz, but with many omissions and
+alterations, and published this translation, volume by volume, from
+1822 to 1828, under the title, 'Aus den Memoiren des Venetianers
+Jacob Casanova de Seingalt.'  While the German edition was in course
+of publication, Herr Brockhaus employed a certain Jean Laforgue, a
+professor of the French language at Dresden, to revise the original
+manuscript, correcting Casanova's vigorous, but at times incorrect,
+and often somewhat Italian, French according to his own notions of
+elegant writing, suppressing passages which seemed too free-spoken
+from the point of view of morals and of politics, and altering the
+names of some of the persons referred to, or replacing those names by
+initials.  This revised text was published in twelve volumes, the
+first two in 1826, the third and fourth in 1828, the fifth to the
+eighth in 1832, and the ninth to the twelfth in 1837; the first four
+bearing the imprint of Brockhaus at Leipzig and Ponthieu et Cie at
+Paris; the next four the imprint of Heideloff et Campe at Paris; and
+the last four nothing but 'A Bruxelles.'  The volumes are all
+uniform, and were all really printed for the firm of Brockhaus.
+This, however far from representing the real text, is the only
+authoritative edition, and my references throughout this article will
+always be to this edition.
+
+In turning over the manuscript at Leipzig, I read some of the
+suppressed passages, and regretted their suppression; but Herr
+Brockhaus, the present head of the firm, assured me that they are not
+really very considerable in number.  The damage, however, to the
+vivacity of the whole narrative, by the persistent alterations of M.
+Laforgue, is incalculable.  I compared many passages, and found
+scarcely three consecutive sentences untouched.  Herr Brockhaus
+(whose courtesy I cannot sufficiently acknowledge) was kind enough to
+have a passage copied out for me, which I afterwards read over, and
+checked word by word.  In this passage Casanova says, for instance:
+'Elle venoit presque tous les jours lui faire une belle visite.'
+This is altered into: 'Cependant chaque jour Therese venait lui faire
+une visite.'  Casanova says that some one 'avoit, comme de raison,
+forme le projet d'allier Dieu avec le diable.'  This is made to read:
+'Qui, comme de raison, avait saintement forme le projet d'allier les
+interets du ciel aux oeuvres de ce monde.'  Casanova tells us that
+Therese would not commit a mortal sin 'pour devenir reine du monde;'
+pour une couronne,' corrects the indefatigable Laforgue.  'Il ne
+savoit que lui dire' becomes 'Dans cet etat de perplexite;' and so
+forth.  It must, therefore, be realized that the Memoirs, as we have
+them, are only a kind of pale tracing of the vivid colours of the
+original.
+
+When Casanova's Memoirs were first published, doubts were expressed
+as to their authenticity, first by Ugo Foscolo (in the Westminster
+Review, 1827), then by Querard, supposed to be an authority in regard
+to anonymous and pseudonymous writings, finally by Paul Lacroix, 'le
+bibliophile Jacob', who suggested, or rather expressed his
+'certainty,' that the real author of the Memoirs was Stendhal, whose
+'mind, character, ideas and style' he seemed to recognise on every
+page.  This theory, as foolish and as unsupported as the Baconian
+theory of Shakespeare, has been carelessly accepted, or at all events
+accepted as possible, by many good scholars who have never taken the
+trouble to look into the matter for themselves.  It was finally
+disproved by a series of articles of Armand Baschet, entitled
+'Preuves curieuses de l'authenticite des Memoires de Jacques Casanova
+de Seingalt,' in 'Le Livre,' January, February, April and May,
+1881; and these proofs were further corroborated by two articles of
+Alessandro d'Ancona, entitled 'Un Avventuriere del Secolo XVIII., in
+the 'Nuovo Antologia,' February 1 and August 1, 1882.  Baschet had
+never himself seen the manuscript of the Memoirs, but he had learnt
+all the facts about it from Messrs. Brockhaus, and he had himself
+examined the numerous papers relating to Casanova in the Venetian
+archives.  A similar examination was made at the Frari at about the
+same time by the Abbe Fulin; and I myself, in 1894, not knowing at
+the time that the discovery had been already made, made it over again
+for myself.  There the arrest of Casanova, his imprisonment in the
+Piombi, the exact date of his escape, the name of the monk who
+accompanied him, are all authenticated by documents contained in the
+'riferte' of the Inquisition of State; there are the bills for the
+repairs of the roof and walls of the cell from which he escaped;
+there are the reports of the spies on whose information he was
+arrested, for his too dangerous free-spokenness in matters of
+religion and morality.  The same archives contain forty-eight letters
+of Casanova to the Inquisitors of State, dating from 1763 to 1782,
+among the Riferte dei Confidenti, or reports of secret agents; the
+earliest asking permission to return to Venice, the rest giving
+information in regard to the immoralities of the city, after his
+return there; all in the same handwriting as the Memoirs.  Further
+proof could scarcely be needed, but Baschet has done more than prove
+the authenticity, he has proved the extraordinary veracity, of the
+Memoirs.   F. W. Barthold, in 'Die Geschichtlichen Personlichkeiten
+in J. Casanova's Memoiren,' 2 vols., 1846, had already examined about
+a hundred of Casanova's allusions to well known people, showing the
+perfect exactitude of all but six or seven, and out of these six or
+seven inexactitudes ascribing only a single one to the author's
+intention.  Baschet and d'Ancona both carry on what Barthold had
+begun; other investigators, in France, Italy and Germany, have
+followed them; and two things are now certain, first, that Casanova
+himself wrote the Memoirs published under his name, though not
+textually in the precise form in which we have them; and, second,
+that as their veracity becomes more and more evident as they are
+confronted with more and more independent witnesses, it is only fair
+to suppose that they are equally truthful where the facts are such as
+could only have been known to Casanova himself.
+
+
+II
+
+For more than two-thirds of a century it has been known that Casanova
+spent the last fourteen years of his life at Dux, that he wrote his
+Memoirs there, and that he died there.  During all this time people
+have been discussing the authenticity and the truthfulness of the
+Memoirs, they have been searching for information about Casanova in
+various directions, and yet hardly any one has ever taken the
+trouble, or obtained the permission, to make a careful examination in
+precisely the one place where information was most likely to be
+found.  The very existence of the manuscripts at Dux was known only
+to a few, and to most of these only on hearsay; and thus the singular
+good fortune was reserved for me, on my visit to Count Waldstein in
+September 1899, to be the first to discover the most interesting
+things contained in these manuscripts.  M. Octave Uzanne, though he
+had not himself visited Dux, had indeed procured copies of some of
+the manuscripts, a few of which were published by him in Le Livre, in
+1887 and 1889.  But with the death of Le Livre in 1889 the 'Casanova
+inedit' came to an end, and has never, so far as I know, been
+continued elsewhere.  Beyond the publication of these fragments,
+nothing has been done with the manuscripts at Dux, nor has an account
+of them ever been given by any one who has been allowed to examine
+them.
+
+For five years, ever since I had discovered the documents in the
+Venetian archives, I had wanted to go to Dux; and in 1899, when I was
+staying with Count Lutzow at Zampach, in Bohemia, I found the way
+kindly opened for me.  Count Waldstein, the present head of the
+family, with extreme courtesy, put all his manuscripts at my
+disposal, and invited me to stay with him.  Unluckily, he was called
+away on the morning of the day that I reached Dux.  He had left
+everything ready for me, and I was shown over the castle by a friend
+of his, Dr. Kittel, whose courtesy I should like also to acknowledge.
+After a hurried visit to the castle we started on the long drive to
+Oberleutensdorf, a smaller Schloss near Komotau, where the Waldstein
+family was then staying.  The air was sharp and bracing; the two
+Russian horses flew like the wind; I was whirled along in an
+unfamiliar darkness, through a strange country, black with coal
+mines, through dark pine woods, where a wild peasantry dwelt in
+little mining towns.  Here and there, a few men and women passed us
+on the road, in their Sunday finery; then a long space of silence,
+and we were in the open country, galloping between broad fields; and
+always in a haze of lovely hills, which I saw more distinctly as we
+drove back next morning.
+
+The return to Dux was like a triumphal entry, as we dashed through
+the market-place filled with people come for the Monday market, pots
+and pans and vegetables strewn in heaps all over the ground, on the
+rough paving stones, up to the great gateway of the castle, leaving
+but just room for us to drive through their midst.  I had the
+sensation of an enormous building: all Bohemian castles are big, but
+this one was like a royal palace.  Set there in the midst of the
+town, after the Bohemian fashion, it opens at the back upon great
+gardens, as if it were in the midst of the country.  I walked through
+room after room, along corridor after corridor; everywhere there were
+pictures, everywhere portraits of Wallenstein, and battle-scenes in
+which he led on his troops.  The library, which was formed, or at
+least arranged, by Casanova, and which remains as he left it,
+contains some 25,000 volumes, some of them of considerable value; one
+of the most famous books in Bohemian literature, Skala's History of
+the Church, exists in manuscript at Dux, and it is from this
+manuscript that the two published volumes of it were printed.  The
+library forms part of the Museum, which occupies a ground-floor wing
+of the castle.  The first room is an armoury, in which all kinds of
+arms are arranged, in a decorative way, covering the ceiling and the
+walls with strange patterns.  The second room contains pottery,
+collected by Casanova's Waldstein on his Eastern travels.  The third
+room is full of curious mechanical toys, and cabinets, and carvings
+in ivory.  Finally, we come to the library, contained in the two
+innermost rooms.  The book-shelves are painted white, and reach to
+the low-vaulted ceilings, which are whitewashed.  At the end of a
+bookcase, in the corner of one of the windows, hangs a fine engraved
+portrait of Casanova.
+
+After I had been all over the castle, so long Casanova's home, I was
+taken to Count Waldstein's study, and left there with the
+manuscripts.  I found six huge cardboard cases, large enough to
+contain foolscap paper, lettered on the back: 'Grafl. Waldstein-
+Wartenberg'sches Real Fideicommiss.  Dux-Oberleutensdorf:
+Handschriftlicher Nachlass Casanova.'  The cases were arranged so as
+to stand like books; they opened at the side; and on opening them,
+one after another, I found series after series of manuscripts roughly
+thrown together, after some pretence at arrangement, and lettered
+with a very generalised description of contents.  The greater part of
+the manuscripts were in Casanova's handwriting, which I could see
+gradually beginning to get shaky with years.  Most were written in
+French, a certain number in Italian.  The beginning of a catalogue in
+the library, though said to be by him, was not in his handwriting.
+Perhaps it was taken down at his dictation.  There were also some
+copies of Italian and Latin poems not written by him.  Then there
+were many big bundles of letters addressed to him, dating over more
+than thirty years.  Almost all the rest was in his own handwriting.
+
+I came first upon the smaller manuscripts, among which I, found,
+jumbled  together on the same and on separate scraps of paper,
+washing-bills, accounts, hotel bills, lists of letters written, first
+drafts of letters with many erasures, notes on books, theological and
+mathematical notes, sums, Latin quotations, French and Italian
+verses, with variants, a long list of classical names which have and
+have not been 'francises,' with reasons for and against; 'what I must
+wear at Dresden'; headings without anything to follow, such as:
+'Reflexions on respiration, on the true cause of youth-the crows'; a
+new method of winning the lottery at Rome; recipes, among which is a
+long printed list of perfumes sold at Spa; a newspaper cutting, dated
+Prague, 25th October 1790, on the thirty-seventh balloon ascent of
+Blanchard; thanks to some 'noble donor' for the gift of a dog called
+'Finette'; a passport for 'Monsieur de Casanova, Venitien, allant
+d'ici en Hollande, October 13, 1758 (Ce Passeport bon pour quinze
+jours)', together with an order for post-horses, gratis, from Paris
+to Bordeaux and Bayonne.'
+
+Occasionally, one gets a glimpse into his daily life at Dux, as in
+this note, scribbled on a fragment of paper (here and always I
+translate the French literally): 'I beg you to tell my servant what
+the biscuits are that I like to eat; dipped in wine, to fortify my
+stomach.  I believe that they can all be found at Roman's.'  Usually,
+however, these notes, though often suggested by something closely
+personal, branch off into more general considerations; or else begin
+with general considerations, and end with a case in point.  Thus, for
+instance, a fragment of three pages begins: 'A compliment which is
+only made to gild the pill is a positive impertinence, and Monsieur
+Bailli is nothing but a charlatan; the monarch ought to have spit in
+his face, but the monarch trembled with fear.'  A manuscript entitled
+'Essai d'Egoisme,' dated, 'Dux, this 27th June, 1769,' contains, in
+the midst of various reflections, an offer to let his 'appartement'
+in return for enough money to 'tranquillise for six months two Jew
+creditors at Prague.'  Another manuscript is headed 'Pride and
+Folly,' and begins with a long series of antitheses, such as: 'All
+fools are not proud, and all proud men are fools.  Many fools are
+happy, all proud men are unhappy.'  On the same sheet follows this
+instance or application:
+
+Whether it is possible to compose a Latin distich of the greatest
+beauty without knowing either the Latin language or prosody.  We must
+examine the possibility and the impossibility, and afterwards see who
+is the man who says he is the author of the distich, for there are
+extraordinary people in the world.  My brother, in short, ought to
+have composed the distich, because he says so, and because he
+confided it to me tete-'a-tete.  I had, it is true, difficulty in
+believing him; but what is one to do!  Either one must believe, or
+suppose him capable of telling a lie which could only be told by a
+fool; and that is impossible, for all Europe knows that my brother is
+not a fool.
+
+Here, as so often in these manuscripts, we seem to see Casanova
+thinking on paper.  He uses scraps of paper (sometimes the blank page
+of a letter, on the other side of which we see the address) as a kind
+of informal diary; and it is characteristic of him, of the man of
+infinitely curious mind, which this adventurer really was, that there
+are so few merely personal notes among these casual jottings.  Often,
+they are purely abstract; at times, metaphysical 'jeux d'esprit,'
+like the sheet of fourteen 'Different Wagers,' which begins:
+
+I wager that it is not true that a man who weighs a hundred pounds
+will weigh more if you kill him.  I wager that if there is any
+difference, he will weigh less.  I wager that diamond powder has not
+sufficient force to kill a man.
+
+Side by side with these fanciful excursions into science, come more
+serious ones, as in the note on Algebra, which traces its progress
+since the year 1494, before which 'it had only arrived at the
+solution of problems of the second degree, inclusive.'  A scrap of
+paper tells us that Casanova 'did not like regular towns.'  'I like,'
+he says, 'Venice, Rome, Florence, Milan, Constantinople, Genoa.'
+Then he becomes abstract and inquisitive again, and writes two pages,
+full of curious, out-of-the-way learning, on the name of Paradise:
+
+The name of Paradise is a name in Genesis which indicates a place of
+pleasure (lieu voluptueux): this term is Persian.  This place of
+pleasure was made by God before he had created man.
+
+It may be remembered that Casanova quarrelled with Voltaire, because
+Voltaire had told him frankly that his translation of L'Ecossaise was
+a bad translation.  It is piquant to read another note written in
+this style of righteous indignation:
+
+Voltaire, the hardy Voltaire, whose pen is without bit or bridle;
+Voltaire, who devoured the Bible, and ridiculed our dogmas, doubts,
+and after having made proselytes to impiety, is not ashamed, being
+reduced to the extremity of life, to ask for the sacraments, and to
+cover his body with more relics than St. Louis had at Amboise.
+
+Here is an argument more in keeping with the tone of the Memoirs:
+
+A girl who is pretty and good, and as virtuous as you please, ought
+not to take it ill that a man, carried away by her charms, should set
+himself to the task of making their conquest.  If this man cannot
+please her by any means, even if his passion be criminal, she ought
+never to take offence at it, nor treat him unkindly; she ought to be
+gentle, and pity him, if she does not love him, and think it enough
+to keep invincibly hold upon her own duty.
+
+Occasionally he touches upon aesthetical matters, as in a fragment
+which begins with this liberal definition of beauty:
+
+Harmony makes beauty, says M. de S. P. (Bernardin de St. Pierre), but
+the definition is too short, if he thinks he has said everything.
+Here is mine.  Remember that the subject is metaphysical.  An object
+really beautiful ought to seem beautiful to all whose eyes fall upon
+it.  That is all; there is nothing more to be said.
+
+At times we have an anecdote and its commentary, perhaps jotted down
+for use in that latter part of the Memoirs which was never written,
+or which has been lost.  Here is a single sheet, dated 'this 2nd
+September, 1791,' and headed Souvenir:
+
+The Prince de Rosenberg said to me, as we went down stairs, that
+Madame de Rosenberg was dead, and asked me if the Comte de Waldstein
+had in the library the illustration of the Villa d'Altichiero, which
+the Emperor had asked for in vain at the city library of Prague, and
+when I answered 'yes,' he gave an equivocal laugh.  A moment
+afterwards, he asked me if he might tell the Emperor.  'Why not,
+monseigneur?  It is not a secret, 'Is His Majesty coming to Dux?'
+'If he goes to Oberlaitensdorf (sic) he will go to Dux, too; and he
+may ask you for it, for there is a monument there which relates to
+him when he was Grand Duke.'  'In that case, His Majesty can also see
+my critical remarks on the Egyptian prints.'
+
+The Emperor asked me this morning, 6th October, how I employed my
+time at Dux, and I told him that I was making an Italian anthology.
+'You have all the Italians, then?'  'All, sire.'  See what a lie
+leads to.  If I had not lied in saying that I was making an
+anthology, I should not have found myself obliged to lie again in
+saying that we have all the Italian poets.  If the Emperor comes to
+Dux, I shall kill myself.
+
+'They say that this Dux is a delightful spot,' says Casanova in one
+of the most personal of his notes, 'and I see that it might be for
+many; but not for me, for what delights me in my old age is
+independent of the place which I inhabit.  When I do not sleep I
+dream, and when I am tired of dreaming I blacken paper, then I read,
+and most often reject all that my pen has vomited.'  Here we see him
+blackening paper, on every occasion, and for every purpose.  In one
+bundle I found an unfinished story about Roland, and some adventure
+with women in a cave; then a 'Meditation on arising from sleep, 19th
+May 1789'; then a 'Short Reflection of a Philosopher who finds
+himself thinking of procuring his own death.  At Dux, on getting out
+of bed on 13th October 1793, day dedicated to St. Lucy, memorable in
+my too long life.'  A big budget, containing cryptograms, is headed
+'Grammatical Lottery'; and there is the title-page of a treatise on
+The Duplication of the Hexahedron, demonstrated geometrically to all
+the Universities and all the Academies of Europe.' [See Charles
+Henry, Les Connaissances Mathimatiques de Casanova.  Rome, 1883.]
+There are innumerable verses, French and Italian, in all stages,
+occasionally attaining the finality of these lines, which appear in
+half a dozen tentative forms:
+
+    'Sans mystere point de plaisirs,
+     Sans silence point de mystere.
+     Charme divin de mes loisirs,
+     Solitude! que tu mes chere!
+
+Then there are a number of more or less complete manuscripts of some
+extent.  There is the manuscript of the translation of Homer's
+'Iliad, in ottava rima (published in Venice, 1775-8); of the
+'Histoire de Venise,' of the 'Icosameron,' a curious book published
+in 1787, purporting to be 'translated from English,' but really an
+original work of Casanova; 'Philocalies sur les Sottises des
+Mortels,' a long manuscript never published; the sketch and beginning
+of 'Le Pollmarque, ou la Calomnie demasquee par la presence d'esprit.
+Tragicomedie en trois actes, composed a Dux dans le mois de Juin de
+l'Annee, 1791,' which recurs again under the form of the
+'Polemoscope: La Lorgnette menteuse ou la Calomnie demasquge,' acted
+before the Princess de Ligne, at her chateau at Teplitz, 1791.  There
+is a treatise in Italian, 'Delle Passioni'; there are long dialogues,
+such as 'Le Philosophe et le Theologien', and 'Reve': 'Dieu-Moi';
+there is the 'Songe d'un Quart d'Heure', divided into minutes; there
+is the very lengthy criticism of 'Bernardin de Saint-Pierre'; there
+is the 'Confutation d'une Censure indiscrate qu'on lit dans la
+Gazette de Iena, 19 Juin 1789'; with another large manuscript,
+unfortunately imperfect, first called 'L'Insulte', and then 'Placet
+au Public', dated 'Dux, this 2nd March, 1790,' referring to the same
+criticism on the 'Icosameron' and the 'Fuite des Prisons.  L'Histoire
+de ma Fuite des Prisons de la Republique de Venise, qu'on appelle les
+Plombs', which is the first draft of the most famous part of the
+Memoirs, was published at Leipzig in 1788; and, having read it in the
+Marcian Library at Venice, I am not surprised to learn from this
+indignant document that it was printed 'under the care of a young
+Swiss, who had the talent to commit a hundred faults of orthography.'
+
+
+III
+
+We come now to the documents directly relating to the Memoirs, and
+among these are several attempts at a preface, in which we see the
+actual preface coming gradually into form.  One is entitled 'Casanova
+au Lecteur', another 'Histoire de mon Existence', and a third
+Preface.  There is also a brief and characteristic 'Precis de ma
+vie', dated November 17, 1797.  Some of these have been printed in Le
+Livre, 1887.  But by far the most important manuscript that I
+discovered, one which, apparently, I am the first to discover, is a
+manuscript entitled 'Extrait du Chapitre 4 et 5.  It is written on
+paper similar to that on which the Memoirs are written; the pages are
+numbered 104-148; and though it is described as Extrait, it seems to
+contain, at all events, the greater part of the missing chapters to
+which I have already referred, Chapters IV. and V.  of the last
+volume of the Memoirs.  In this manuscript we find Armeliine and
+Scolastica, whose story is interrupted by the abrupt ending of
+Chapter III.; we find Mariuccia of Vol. VII, Chapter IX., who married
+a hairdresser; and we find also Jaconine, whom Casanova recognises as
+his daughter, 'much prettier than Sophia, the daughter of Therese
+Pompeati, whom I had left at London.'   It is curious that this very
+important manuscript, which supplies the one missing link in the
+Memoirs, should never have been discovered by any of the few people
+who have had the opportunity of looking over the Dux manuscripts.  I
+am inclined to explain it by the fact that the case in which I found
+this manuscript contains some papers not relating to Casanova.
+Probably, those who looked into this case looked no further.  I have
+told Herr Brockhaus of my discovery, and I hope to see Chapters IV.
+and V.  in their places when the long-looked-for edition of the
+complete text is at length given to the world.
+
+Another manuscript which I found tells with great piquancy the whole
+story of the Abbe de Brosses' ointment, the curing of the Princess de
+Conti's pimples, and the birth of the Duc de Montpensier, which is
+told very briefly, and with much less point, in the Memoirs (vol.
+iii., p. 327).  Readers of the Memoirs will remember the duel at
+Warsaw with Count Branicki in 1766 (vol. X., pp. 274-320), an affair
+which attracted a good deal of attention at the time, and of which
+there is an account in a letter from the Abbe Taruffi to the
+dramatist, Francesco Albergati, dated Warsaw, March 19, 1766, quoted
+in Ernesto Masi's Life of Albergati, Bologna, 1878.  A manuscript at
+Dux in Casanova's handwriting gives an account of this duel in the
+third person; it is entitled, 'Description de l'affaire arrivee a
+Varsovie le 5 Mars, 1766'.  D'Ancona, in the Nuova Antologia (vol.
+lxvii., p.  412), referring to the Abbe Taruffi's account, mentions
+what he considers to be a slight discrepancy: that Taruffi refers to
+the danseuse, about whom the duel was fought, as La Casacci, while
+Casanova refers to her as La Catai.  In this manuscript Casanova
+always refers to her as La Casacci; La Catai is evidently one of M.
+Laforgue's arbitrary alterations of the text.
+
+In turning over another manuscript, I was caught by the name
+Charpillon, which every reader of the Memoirs will remember as the
+name of the harpy by whom Casanova suffered so much in London, in
+1763-4.  This manuscript begins by saying: 'I have been in London for
+six months and have been to see them (that is, the mother and
+daughter) in their own house,' where he finds nothing but 'swindlers,
+who cause all who go there to lose their money in gambling.'  This
+manuscript adds some details to the story told in the ninth and tenth
+volumes of the Memoirs, and refers to the meeting with the
+Charpillons four and a half years before, described in Volume V.,
+pages 428-485.  It is written in a tone of great indignation.
+Elsewhere, I found a letter written by Casanova, but not signed,
+referring to an anonymous letter which he had received in reference
+to the Charpillons, and ending: 'My handwriting is known.'  It was
+not until the last that I came upon great bundles of letters
+addressed to Casanova, and so carefully preserved that little scraps
+of paper, on which postscripts are written, are still in their
+places.  One still sees the seals on the backs of many of the
+letters, on paper which has slightly yellowed with age, leaving the
+ink, however, almost always fresh.  They come from Venice, Paris,
+Rome, Prague, Bayreuth, The Hague, Genoa, Fiume, Trieste, etc., and
+are addressed to as many places, often poste restante.  Many are
+letters from women, some in beautiful handwriting, on thick paper;
+others on scraps of paper, in painful hands, ill-spelt.  A Countess
+writes pitifully, imploring help; one protests her love, in spite of
+the 'many chagrins' he has caused her; another asks 'how they are to
+live together'; another laments that a report has gone about that she
+is secretly living with him, which may harm his reputation.  Some are
+in French, more in Italian.  'Mon cher Giacometto', writes one woman,
+in French; 'Carissimo a Amatissimo', writes another, in Italian.
+These letters from women are in some confusion, and are in need of a
+good deal of sorting over and rearranging before their full extent
+can be realised.  Thus I found letters in the same handwriting
+separated by letters in other handwritings; many are unsigned, or
+signed only by a single initial; many are undated, or dated only with
+the day of the week or month.  There are a great many letters, dating
+from 1779 to 1786, signed 'Francesca Buschini,' a name which I cannot
+identify; they are written in Italian, and one of them begins: 'Unico
+Mio vero Amico' ('my only true friend').  Others are signed 'Virginia
+B.'; one of these is dated, 'Forli, October 15, 1773.'  There is also
+a 'Theresa B.,' who writes from Genoa.  I was at first unable to
+identify the writer of a whole series of letters in French, very
+affectionate and intimate letters, usually unsigned, occasionally
+signed 'B.'  She calls herself votre petite amie; or she ends with a
+half-smiling, half-reproachful 'goodnight, and sleep better than I'
+In one letter, sent from Paris in 1759, she writes: 'Never believe
+me, but when I tell you that I love you, and that I shall love you
+always: In another letter, ill-spelt, as her letters often are, she
+writes: 'Be assured that evil tongues, vapours, calumny, nothing can
+change my heart, which is yours entirely, and has no will to change
+its master.'  Now, it seems to me that these letters must be from
+Manon Baletti, and that they are the letters referred to in the sixth
+volume of the Memoirs.  We read there (page 60) how on Christmas Day,
+1759, Casanova receives a letter from Manon in Paris, announcing her
+marriage with 'M. Blondel, architect to the King, and member of his
+Academy'; she returns him his letters, and begs him to return hers,
+or burn them.  Instead of doing so he allows Esther to read them,
+intending to burn them afterwards.  Esther begs to be allowed to keep
+the letters, promising to 'preserve them religiously all her life.'
+'These letters,' he says, 'numbered more than two hundred, and the
+shortest were of four pages: Certainly there are not two hundred of
+them at Dux, but it seems to me highly probable that Casanova made a
+final selection from Manon's letters, and that it is these which I
+have found.
+
+But, however this may be, I was fortunate enough to find the set of
+letters which I was most anxious to find the letters from Henriette,
+whose loss every writer on Casanova has lamented.  Henriette, it will
+be remembered, makes her first appearance at Cesena, in the year
+1748; after their meeting at Geneva, she reappears, romantically 'a
+propos', twenty-two years later, at Aix in Provence; and she writes
+to Casanova proposing 'un commerce epistolaire', asking him what he
+has done since his escape from prison, and promising to do her best
+to tell him all that has happened to her during the long interval.
+After quoting her letter, he adds: 'I replied to her, accepting the
+correspondence that she offered me, and telling her briefly all my
+vicissitudes.  She related to me in turn, in some forty letters, all
+the history of her life.  If she dies before me, I shall add these
+letters to these Memoirs; but to-day she is still alive, and always
+happy, though now old.'  It has never been known what became of these
+letters, and why they were not added to the Memoirs.  I have found a
+great quantity of them, some signed with her married name in full,
+'Henriette de Schnetzmann,' and I am inclined to think that she
+survived Casanova, for one of the letters is dated Bayreuth, 1798,
+the year of Casanova's death.  They are remarkably charming, written
+with a mixture of piquancy and distinction; and I will quote the
+characteristic beginning and end of the last letter I was able to
+find.  It begins: 'No, it is impossible to be sulky with you!' and
+ends: 'If I become vicious, it is you, my Mentor, who make me so, and
+I cast my sins upon you.  Even if I were damned I should still be
+your most devoted friend, Henriette de Schnetzmann.'  Casanova was
+twenty-three when he met Henriette; now, herself an old woman, she
+writes to him when he is seventy-three, as if the fifty years that
+had passed were blotted out in the faithful affection of her memory.
+How many more discreet and less changing lovers have had the quality
+of constancy in change, to which this life-long correspondence bears
+witness?  Does it not suggest a view of Casanova not quite the view
+of all the world?  To me it shows the real man, who perhaps of all
+others best understood what Shelley meant when he said:
+
+          True love in this differs from gold or clay
+          That to divide is not to take away.
+
+But, though the letters from women naturally interested me the most,
+they were only a certain proportion of the great mass of
+correspondence which I turned over.  There were letters from Carlo
+Angiolini, who was afterwards to bring the manuscript of the Memoirs
+to Brockhaus; from Balbi, the monk with whom Casanova escaped from
+the Piombi; from the Marquis Albergati, playwright, actor, and
+eccentric, of whom there is some account in the Memoirs; from the
+Marquis Mosca, 'a distinguished man of letters whom I was anxious to
+see,' Casanova tells us in the same volume in which he describes his
+visit to the Moscas at Pesaro; from Zulian, brother of the Duchess of
+Fiano; from Richard Lorrain, 'bel homme, ayant de l'esprit, le ton et
+le gout de la bonne societe', who came to settle at Gorizia in 1773,
+while Casanova was there; from the Procurator Morosini, whom he
+speaks of in the Memoirs as his 'protector,' and as one of those
+through whom he obtained permission to return to Venice.  His other
+'protector,' the 'avogador' Zaguri, had, says Casanova, 'since the
+affair of the Marquis Albergati, carried on a most interesting
+correspondence with me'; and in fact I found a bundle of no less than
+a hundred and thirty-eight letters from him, dating from 1784 to
+1798.  Another bundle contains one hundred and seventy-two letters
+from Count Lamberg.  In the Memoirs Casanova says, referring to his
+visit to Augsburg at the end of 1761:
+
+I used to spend my evenings in a very agreeable manner at the house
+of Count Max de Lamberg, who resided at the court of the
+Prince-Bishop with the title of Grand Marshal.  What particularly
+attached me to Count Lamberg was his literary talent.  A first-rate
+scholar, learned to a degree, he has published several much esteemed
+works.  I carried on an exchange of letters with him which ended only
+with his death four years ago in 1792.
+
+Casanova tells us that, at his second visit to Augsburg in the early
+part of 1767, he 'supped with Count Lamberg two or three times a
+week,' during the four months he was there.  It is with this year
+that the letters I have found begin: they end with the year of his
+death, 1792.  In his 'Memorial d'un Mondain' Lamberg refers to
+Casanova as 'a man known in literature, a man of profound knowledge.'
+In the first edition of 1774, he laments that 'a man such as M. de S.
+Galt' should not yet have been taken back into favour by the Venetian
+government, and in the second edition, 1775, rejoices over Casanova's
+return to Venice.  Then there are letters from Da Ponte, who tells
+the story of Casanova's curious relations with Mme. d'Urfe, in his
+'Memorie scritte da esso', 1829; from Pittoni, Bono, and others
+mentioned in different parts of the Memoirs, and from some dozen
+others who are not mentioned in them.  The only letters in the whole
+collection that have been published are those from the Prince de
+Ligne and from Count Koenig.
+
+
+IV
+
+Casanova tells us in his Memoirs that, during his later years at Dux,
+he had only been able to 'hinder black melancholy from devouring his
+poor existence, or sending him out of his mind,' by writing ten or
+twelve hours a day.  The copious manuscripts at Dux show us how
+persistently he was at work on a singular variety of subjects, in
+addition to the Memoirs, and to the various books which he published
+during those years.  We see him jotting down everything that comes
+into his head, for his own amusement, and certainly without any
+thought of publication; engaging in learned controversies, writing
+treatises on abstruse mathematical problems, composing comedies to be
+acted before Count Waldstein's neighbours, practising verse-writing
+in two languages, indeed with more patience than success, writing
+philosophical dialogues in which God and himself are the speakers,
+and keeping up an extensive correspondence, both with distinguished
+men and with delightful women.  His mental activity, up to the age of
+seventy-three, is as prodigious as the activity which he had expended
+in living a multiform and incalculable life.  As in life everything
+living had interested him so in his retirement from life every idea
+makes its separate appeal to him; and he welcomes ideas with the same
+impartiality with which he had welcomed adventures.  Passion has
+intellectualised itself, and remains not less passionate.  He wishes
+to do everything, to compete with every one; and it is only after
+having spent seven years in heaping up miscellaneous learning, and
+exercising his faculties in many directions, that he turns to look
+back over his own past life, and to live it over again in memory, as
+he writes down the narrative of what had interested him most in it.
+'I write in the hope that my history will never see the broad day
+light of publication,' he tells us, scarcely meaning it, we may be
+sure, even in the moment of hesitancy which may naturally come to
+him.  But if ever a book was written for the pleasure of writing it,
+it was this one; and an autobiography written for oneself is not
+likely to be anything but frank.
+
+'Truth is the only God I have ever adored,' he tells us: and we now
+know how truthful he was in saying so.  I have only summarised in
+this article the most important confirmations of his exact accuracy
+in facts and dates; the number could be extended indefinitely.  In
+the manuscripts we find innumerable further confirmations; and their
+chief value as testimony is that they tell us nothing which we should
+not have already known, if we had merely taken Casanova at his word.
+But it is not always easy to take people at their own word, when they
+are writing about themselves; and the world has been very loth to
+believe in Casanova as he represents himself.  It has been specially
+loth to believe that he is telling the truth when he tells us about
+his adventures with women.  But the letters contained among these
+manuscripts shows us the women of Casanova writing to him with all
+the fervour and all the fidelity which he attributes to them; and
+they show him to us in the character of as fervid and faithful a
+lover.  In every fact, every detail, and in the whole mental
+impression which they convey, these manuscripts bring before us the
+Casanova of the Memoirs.  As I seemed to come upon Casanova at home,
+it was as if I came upon old friend, already perfectly known to me,
+before I had made my pilgrimage to Dux.
+
+1902
+
+
+
+
+TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE
+
+A series of adventures wilder and more fantastic than the wildest of
+romances, written down with the exactitude of a business diary; a
+view of men and cities from Naples to Berlin, from Madrid and London
+to Constantinople and St. Petersburg; the 'vie intime' of the
+eighteenth century depicted by a man, who to-day sat with cardinals
+and saluted crowned heads, and to morrow lurked in dens of profligacy
+and crime; a book  of confessions penned without reticence and
+without penitence; a record of forty years of "occult" charlatanism;
+a collection of tales of successful imposture, of 'bonnes fortunes',
+of marvellous escapes, of transcendent audacity, told with the humour
+of Smollett and the delicate wit of Voltaire.  Who is there
+interested in men and letters, and in the life of the past, who would
+not cry, "Where can such a book as this be found?"
+
+Yet the above catalogue is but a brief outline, a bare and meagre
+summary, of the book known as "THE MEMOIRS OF CASANOVA"; a work
+absolutely unique in literature.  He who opens these wonderful pages
+is as one who sits in a theatre and looks across the gloom, not on a
+stage-play, but on another and a vanished world.  The curtain draws
+up, and suddenly a hundred and fifty years are rolled away, and in
+bright light stands out before us the whole life of the past; the gay
+dresses, the polished wit, the careless morals, and all the revel and
+dancing of those merry years before the mighty deluge of the
+Revolution.  The palaces and marble stairs of old Venice are no
+longer desolate, but thronged with scarlet-robed senators, prisoners
+with the doom of the Ten upon their heads cross the Bridge of Sighs,
+at dead of night the nun slips out of the convent gate to the dark
+canal where a gondola is waiting, we assist at the 'parties fines' of
+cardinals, and we see the bank made at faro.  Venice gives place to
+the assembly rooms of Mrs. Cornely and the fast taverns of the London
+of 1760; we pass from Versailles to the Winter Palace of St.
+Petersburg in the days of Catherine, from the policy of the Great
+Frederick to the lewd mirth of strolling-players, and the presence-
+chamber of the Vatican is succeeded by an intrigue in a garret.  It
+is indeed a new experience to read this history of a man who,
+refraining from nothing, has concealed nothing; of one who stood in
+the courts of Louis the Magnificent before Madame de Pompadour and
+the nobles of the Ancien Regime, and had an affair with an
+adventuress of Denmark Street, Soho; who was bound over to keep the
+peace by Fielding, and knew Cagliostro.  The friend of popes and
+kings and noblemen, and of all the male and female ruffians and
+vagabonds of Europe, abbe, soldier, charlatan, gamester, financier,
+diplomatist, viveur, philosopher, virtuoso, "chemist, fiddler, and
+buffoon," each of these, and all of these was Giacomo Casanova,
+Chevalier de Seingalt, Knight of the Golden Spur.
+
+And not only are the Memoirs a literary curiosity; they are almost
+equally curious from a bibliographical point of view.  The manuscript
+was written in French and came into the possession of the publisher
+Brockhaus, of Leipzig, who had it translated into German, and
+printed.  From this German edition, M. Aubert de Vitry re-translated
+the work into French, but omitted about a fourth of the matter, and
+this mutilated and worthless version is frequently purchased by
+unwary bibliophiles.  In the year 1826, however, Brockhaus, in order
+presumably to protect his property, printed the entire text of the
+original MS. in French, for the first time, and in this complete
+form, containing a large number of anecdotes and incidents not to be
+found in the spurious version, the work was not acceptable to the
+authorities, and was consequently rigorously suppressed.  Only a few
+copies sent out for presentation or for review are known to have
+escaped, and from one of these rare copies the present translation
+has been made and soley for private circulation.
+
+In conclusion, both translator and 'editeur' have done their utmost
+to present the English Casanova in a dress worthy of the wonderful
+and witty original.
+
+
+
+
+
+AUTHOR'S PREFACE
+
+I will begin with this confession: whatever I have done in the course
+of my life, whether it be good or evil, has been done freely; I am a
+free agent.
+
+The doctrine of the Stoics or of any other sect as to the force of
+Destiny is a bubble engendered by the imagination of man, and is near
+akin to Atheism.  I not only believe in one God, but my faith as a
+Christian is also grafted upon that tree of philosophy which has
+never spoiled anything.
+
+I believe in the existence of an immaterial God, the Author and
+Master of all beings and all things, and I feel that I never had any
+doubt of His existence, from the fact that I have always relied upon
+His providence, prayed to Him in my distress, and that He has always
+granted my prayers.  Despair brings death, but prayer does away with
+despair; and when a man has prayed he feels himself supported by new
+confidence and endowed with power to act.  As to the means employed
+by the Sovereign Master of human beings to avert impending dangers
+from those who beseech His assistance, I confess that the knowledge
+of them is above the intelligence of man, who can but wonder and
+adore.  Our ignorance becomes our only resource, and happy, truly
+happy; are those who cherish their ignorance!  Therefore must we pray
+to God, and believe that He has granted the favour we have been
+praying for, even when in appearance it seems the reverse.  As to the
+position which our body ought to assume when we address ourselves to
+the Creator, a line of Petrarch settles it:
+
+          'Con le ginocchia della mente inchine.'
+
+Man is free, but his freedom ceases when he has no faith in it; and
+the greater power he ascribes to faith, the more he deprives himself
+of that power which God has given to him when He endowed him with the
+gift of reason.  Reason is a particle of the Creator's divinity.
+When we use it with a spirit of humility and justice we are certain
+to please the Giver of that precious gift.  God ceases to be God only
+for those who can admit the possibility of His non-existence, and
+that conception is in itself the most severe punishment they can
+suffer.
+
+Man is free; yet we must not suppose that he is at liberty to do
+everything he pleases, for he becomes a slave the moment he allows
+his actions to be ruled by passion.  The man who has sufficient power
+over himself to wait until his nature has recovered its even balance
+is the truly wise man, but such beings are seldom met with.
+
+The reader of these Memoirs will discover that I never had any fixed
+aim before my eyes, and that my system, if it can be called a system,
+has been to glide away unconcernedly on the stream of life, trusting
+to the wind wherever it led.  How many changes arise from such an
+independent mode of life!  My success and my misfortunes, the bright
+and the dark days I have gone through, everything has proved to me
+that in this world, either physical or moral, good comes out of evil
+just as well as evil comes out of good.  My errors will point to
+thinking men the various roads, and will teach them the great art of
+treading on the brink of the precipice without falling into it.  It
+is only necessary to have courage, for strength without self-
+confidence is useless.  I have often met with happiness after some
+imprudent step which ought to have brought ruin upon me, and although
+passing a vote of censure upon myself I would thank God for his
+mercy.  But, by way of compensation, dire misfortune has befallen me
+in consequence of actions prompted by the most cautious wisdom.  This
+would humble me; yet conscious that I had acted rightly I would
+easily derive comfort from that conviction.
+
+In spite of a good foundation of sound morals, the natural offspring
+of the Divine principles which had been early rooted in my heart, I
+have been throughout my life the victim of my senses; I have found
+delight in losing the right path, I have constantly lived in the
+midst of error, with no consolation but the consciousness of my being
+mistaken.  Therefore, dear reader, I trust that, far from attaching
+to my history the character of impudent boasting, you will find in my
+Memoirs only the characteristic proper to a general confession, and
+that my narratory style will be the manner neither of a repenting
+sinner, nor of a man ashamed to acknowledge his frolics.  They are
+the follies inherent to youth; I make sport of them, and, if you are
+kind, you will not yourself refuse them a good-natured smile.  You
+will be amused when you see that I have more than once deceived
+without the slightest qualm of conscience, both knaves and fools.  As
+to the deceit perpetrated upon women, let it pass, for, when love is
+in the way, men and women as a general rule dupe each other.  But on
+the score of fools it is a very different matter.  I always feel the
+greatest bliss when I recollect those I have caught in my snares, for
+they generally are insolent, and so self-conceited that they
+challenge wit.  We avenge intellect when we dupe a fool, and it is a
+victory not to be despised for a fool is covered with steel and it is
+often very hard to find his vulnerable part. In fact, to gull a fool
+seems to me an exploit worthy of a witty man. I have felt in my very
+blood, ever since I was born, a most unconquerable hatred towards the
+whole tribe of fools, and it arises from the fact that I feel myself
+a blockhead whenever I am in their company.  I am very far from
+placing them in the same class with those men whom we call stupid,
+for the latter are stupid only from deficient education, and I rather
+like them.  I have met with some of them--very honest fellows, who,
+with all their stupidity, had a kind of intelligence and an upright
+good sense, which cannot be the characteristics of fools. They are
+like eyes veiled with the cataract, which, if the disease could be
+removed, would be very beautiful.
+
+Dear reader, examine the spirit of this preface, and you will at once
+guess at my purpose. I have written a preface because I wish you to
+know me thoroughly before you begin the reading of my Memoirs.  It is
+only in a coffee-room or at a table d'hote that we like to converse
+with strangers.
+
+I have written the history of my life, and I have a perfect right to
+do so; but am I wise in throwing it before a public of which I know
+nothing but evil?  No, I am aware it is sheer folly, but I want to be
+busy, I want to laugh, and why should I deny myself this
+gratification?
+
+     'Expulit elleboro morbum bilemque mero.'
+
+An ancient author tells us somewhere, with the tone of a pedagogue,
+if you have not done anything worthy of being recorded, at least
+write something worthy of being read.  It is a precept as beautiful
+as a diamond of the first water cut in England, but it cannot be
+applied to me, because I have not written either a novel, or the life
+of an illustrious character.  Worthy or not, my life is my subject,
+and my subject is my life.  I have lived without dreaming that I
+should ever take a fancy to write the history of my life, and, for
+that very reason, my Memoirs may claim from the reader an interest
+and a sympathy which they would not have obtained, had I always
+entertained the design to write them in my old age, and, still more,
+to publish them.
+
+I have reached, in 1797, the age of three-score years and twelve; I
+can not say, Vixi, and I could not procure a more agreeable pastime
+than to relate my own adventures, and to cause pleasant laughter
+amongst the good company listening to me, from which I have received
+so many tokens of friendship, and in the midst of which I have ever
+lived.  To enable me to write well, I have only to think that my
+readers will belong to that polite society:
+
+     'Quoecunque dixi, si placuerint, dictavit auditor.'
+
+Should there be a few intruders whom I can not prevent from perusing
+my Memoirs, I must find comfort in the idea that my history was not
+written for them.
+
+By recollecting the pleasures I have had formerly, I renew them, I
+enjoy them a second time, while I laugh at the remembrance of
+troubles now past, and which I no longer feel.  A member of this
+great universe, I speak to the air, and I fancy myself rendering an
+account of my administration, as a steward is wont to do before
+leaving his situation.  For my future I have no concern, and as a
+true philosopher, I never would have any, for I know not what it may
+be: as a Christian, on the other hand, faith must believe without
+discussion, and the stronger it is, the more it keeps silent. I know
+that I have lived because I have felt, and, feeling giving me the
+knowledge of my existence, I know likewise that I shall exist no more
+when I shall have ceased to feel.
+
+Should I perchance still feel after my death, I would no longer have
+any doubt, but I would most certainly give the lie to anyone
+asserting before me that I was dead.
+
+The history of my life must begin by the earliest circumstance which
+my memory can evoke; it will therefore commence when I had attained
+the age of eight years and four months.  Before that time, if to
+think is  to live be a true axiom, I did not live, I could only lay
+claim to a state of vegetation.  The mind of a human being is formed
+only of comparisons made in order to examine analogies, and therefore
+cannot precede the existence of memory.  The mnemonic organ was
+developed in my head only eight years and four months after my birth;
+it is then that my soul began to be susceptible of receiving
+impressions.  How is it possible for an immaterial substance, which
+can neither touch nor be touched to receive impressions?  It is a
+mystery which man cannot unravel.
+
+A certain philosophy, full of consolation, and in perfect accord with
+religion, pretends that the state of dependence in which the soul
+stands in relation to the senses and to the organs, is only
+incidental and transient, and that it will reach a condition of
+freedom and happiness when the death of the body shall have delivered
+it from that state of tyrannic subjection.  This is very fine, but,
+apart from religion, where is the proof of it all?  Therefore, as I
+cannot, from my own information, have a perfect certainty of my being
+immortal until the dissolution of my body has actually taken place,
+people must kindly bear with me, if I am in no hurry to obtain that
+certain knowledge, for, in my estimation, a knowledge to be gained at
+the cost of life is a rather expensive piece of information.  In the
+mean time I worship God, laying every wrong action under an interdict
+which I endeavour to respect, and I loathe the wicked without doing
+them any injury.  I only abstain from doing them any good, in the
+full belief that we ought not to cherish serpents.
+
+As I must likewise say a few words respecting my nature and my
+temperament, I premise that the most indulgent of my readers is not
+likely to be the most dishonest or the least gifted with
+intelligence.
+
+I have had in turn every temperament; phlegmatic in my infancy;
+sanguine in my youth; later on, bilious; and now I have a disposition
+which engenders melancholy, and most likely will never change.  I
+always made my food congenial to my constitution, and my health was
+always excellent.  I learned very early that our health is always
+impaired by some excess either of food or abstinence, and I never had
+any physician except myself.  I am bound to add that the excess in
+too little has ever proved in me more dangerous than the excess in
+too much; the last may cause indigestion, but the first causes death.
+
+Now, old as I am, and although enjoying good digestive organs, I must
+have only one meal every day; but I find a set-off to that privation
+in my delightful sleep, and in the ease which I experience in writing
+down my thoughts without having recourse to paradox or sophism, which
+would be calculated to deceive myself even more than my readers, for
+I never could make up my mind to palm counterfeit coin upon them if I
+knew it to be such.
+
+The sanguine temperament rendered me very sensible to the attractions
+of voluptuousness: I was always cheerful and ever ready to pass from
+one enjoyment to another, and I was at the same time very skillful in
+inventing new pleasures.  Thence, I suppose, my natural disposition
+to make fresh acquaintances, and to break with them so readily,
+although always for a good reason, and never through mere fickleness.
+The errors caused by temperament are not to be corrected, because our
+temperament is perfectly independent of our strength: it is not the
+case with our character.  Heart and head are the constituent parts of
+character; temperament has almost nothing to do with it, and,
+therefore, character is dependent upon education, and is susceptible
+of being corrected and improved.
+
+I leave to others the decision as to the good or evil tendencies of
+my character, but such as it is it shines upon my countenance, and
+there it can easily be detected by any physiognomist.  It is only on
+the fact that character can be read; there it lies exposed to the
+view.  It is worthy of remark that men who have no peculiar cast of
+countenance, and there are a great many such men, are likewise
+totally deficient in peculiar characteristics, and we may establish
+the rule that the varieties in physiognomy are equal to the
+differences in character.  I am aware that throughout my life my
+actions have received their impulse more from the force of feeling
+than from the wisdom of reason, and this has led me to acknowledge
+that my conduct has been dependent upon my nature more than upon my
+mind; both are generally at war, and in the midst of their continual
+collisions I have never found in me sufficient mind to balance my
+nature, or enough strength in my nature to counteract the power of my
+mind.  But enough of this, for there is truth in the old saying: 'Si
+brevis esse volo, obscurus fio', and I believe that, without
+offending against modesty, I can apply to myself the following words
+of my dear Virgil:
+
+    'Nec sum adeo informis: nuper me in littore vidi
+     Cum placidum ventis staret mare.'
+
+The chief business of my life has always been to indulge my senses; I
+never knew anything of greater importance.  I felt myself born for
+the fair sex, I have ever loved it dearly, and I have been loved by
+it as often and as much as I could.  I have likewise always had a
+great weakness for good living, and I ever felt passionately fond of
+every object which excited my curiosity.
+
+I have had friends who have acted kindly towards me, and it has been
+my good fortune to have it in my power to give them substantial
+proofs of my gratitude.  I have had also bitter enemies who have
+persecuted me, and whom I have not crushed simply because I could not
+do it.  I never would have forgiven them, had I not lost the memory
+of all the injuries they had heaped upon me.  The man who forgets
+does not forgive, he only loses the remembrance of the harm inflicted
+on him; forgiveness is the offspring of a feeling of heroism, of a
+noble heart, of a generous mind, whilst forgetfulness is only the
+result of a weak memory, or of an easy carelessness, and still
+oftener of a natural desire for calm and quietness.  Hatred, in the
+course of time, kills the unhappy wretch who delights in nursing it
+in his bosom.
+
+Should anyone bring against me an accusation of sensuality he would
+be wrong, for all the fierceness of my senses never caused me to
+neglect any of my duties.  For the same excellent reason, the
+accusation of drunkenness ought not to have been brought against
+Homer:
+
+     'Laudibus arguitur vini vinosus Homerus.'
+
+I have always been fond of highly-seasoned, rich dishes, such as
+macaroni prepared by a skilful Neapolitan cook, the olla-podrida of
+the Spaniards, the glutinous codfish from Newfoundland, game with a
+strong flavour, and cheese the perfect state of which is attained
+when the tiny animaculae formed from its very essence begin to shew
+signs of life.  As for women, I have always found the odour of my
+beloved ones exceeding pleasant.
+
+What depraved tastes! some people will exclaim.  Are you not ashamed
+to confess such inclinations without blushing!  Dear critics, you
+make me laugh heartily.  Thanks to my coarse tastes, I believe myself
+happier than other men, because I am convinced that they enhance my
+enjoyment.  Happy are those who know how to obtain pleasures without
+injury to anyone; insane are those who fancy that the Almighty can
+enjoy the sufferings, the pains, the fasts and abstinences which they
+offer to Him as a sacrifice, and that His love is granted only to
+those who tax themselves so foolishly.  God can only demand from His
+creatures the practice of virtues the seed of which He has sown in
+their soul, and all He has given unto us has been intended for our
+happiness; self-love, thirst for praise, emulation, strength,
+courage, and a power of which nothing can deprive us--the power of
+self-destruction, if, after due calculation, whether false or just,
+we unfortunately reckon death to be advantageous.  This is the
+strongest proof of our moral freedom so much attacked by sophists.
+Yet this power of self-destruction is repugnant to nature, and has
+been rightly opposed by every religion.
+
+A so-called free-thinker told me at one time that I could not
+consider myself a philosopher if I placed any faith in revelation.
+But when we accept it readily in physics, why should we reject it in
+religious matters?  The form alone is the point in question.  The
+spirit speaks to the spirit, and not to the ears.  The principles of
+everything we are acquainted with must necessarily have been revealed
+to those from whom we have received them by the great, supreme
+principle, which contains them all.  The bee erecting its hive, the
+swallow building its nest, the ant constructing its cave, and the
+spider warping its web, would never have done anything but for a
+previous and everlasting revelation.  We must either believe that it
+is so, or admit that matter is endowed with thought.  But as we dare
+not pay such a compliment to matter, let us stand by revelation.
+
+The great philosopher, who having deeply studied nature, thought he
+had found the truth because he acknowledged nature as God, died too
+soon.  Had he lived a little while longer, he would have gone much
+farther, and yet his journey would have been but a short one, for
+finding himself in his Author, he could not have denied Him: In Him
+we move and have our being.  He would have found Him inscrutable, and
+thus would have ended his journey.
+
+God, great principle of all minor principles, God, who is Himself
+without a principle, could not conceive Himself, if, in order to do
+it, He required to know His own principle.
+
+Oh, blissful ignorance!  Spinosa, the virtuous Spinosa, died before
+he could possess it.  He would have died a learned man and with a
+right to the reward his virtue deserved, if he had only supposed his
+soul to be immortal!
+
+It is not true that a wish for reward is unworthy of real virtue, and
+throws a blemish upon its purity.  Such a pretension, on the
+contrary, helps to sustain virtue, man being himself too weak to
+consent to be virtuous only for his own 'gratification.  I hold as a
+myth that Amphiaraus who preferred to be good than to seem good.  In
+fact, I do not believe there is an honest man alive without some
+pretension, and here is mine.
+
+I pretend to the friendship, to the esteem, to the gratitude of my
+readers.  I claim their gratitude, if my Memoirs can give them
+instruction and pleasure; I claim their esteem if, rendering me
+justice, they find more good qualities in me than faults, and I claim
+their friendship as soon as they deem me worthy of it by the candour
+and the good faith with which I abandon myself to their judgment,
+without disguise and exactly as I am in reality.  They will find that
+I have always had such sincere love for truth, that I have often
+begun by telling stories for the purpose of getting truth to enter
+the heads of those who could not appreciate its charms.  They will
+not form a wrong opinion of me when they see one emptying the purse
+of my friends to satisfy my fancies, for those friends entertained
+idle schemes, and by giving them the hope of success I trusted to
+disappointment to cure them.  I would deceive them to make them
+wiser, and I did not consider myself guilty, for I applied to my own
+enjoyment sums of money which would have been lost in the vain
+pursuit of possessions denied by nature; therefore I was not actuated
+by any avaricious rapacity.  I might think myself guilty if I were
+rich now, but I have nothing.  I have squandered everything; it is my
+comfort and my justification.  The money was intended for extravagant
+follies, and by applying it to my own frolics I did not turn it into
+a very different, channel.
+
+If I were deceived in my hope to please, I candidly confess I would
+regret it, but not sufficiently so to repent having written my
+Memoirs, for, after all, writing them has given me pleasure.  Oh,
+cruel ennui!  It must be by mistake that those who have invented the
+torments of hell have forgotten to ascribe thee the first place among
+them.  Yet I am bound to own that I entertain a great fear of hisses;
+it is too natural a fear for me to boast of being insensible to them,
+and I cannot find any solace in the idea that, when these Memoirs are
+published, I shall be no more.  I cannot think without a shudder of
+contracting any obligation towards death: I hate death; for, happy or
+miserable, life is the only blessing which man possesses, and those
+who do not love it are unworthy of it.  If we prefer honour to life,
+it is because life is blighted by infamy; and if, in the alternative,
+man sometimes throws away his life, philosophy must remain silent.
+
+Oh, death, cruel death!  Fatal law which nature necessarily rejects
+because thy very office is to destroy nature!  Cicero says that death
+frees us from all pains and sorrows, but this great philosopher books
+all the expense without taking the receipts into account.  I do not
+recollect if, when he wrote his 'Tusculan Disputations', his own
+Tullia was dead.  Death is a monster which turns away from the great
+theatre an attentive hearer before the end of the play which deeply
+interests him, and this is reason enough to hate it.
+
+All my adventures are not to be found in these Memoirs; I have left
+out those which might have offended the persons who have played a
+sorry part therein.  In spite of this reserve, my readers will
+perhaps often think me indiscreet, and I am sorry for it.  Should I
+perchance become wiser before I give up the ghost, I might burn every
+one of these sheets, but now I have not courage enough to do it.
+
+It may be that certain love scenes will be considered too explicit,
+but let no one blame me, unless it be for lack of skill, for I ought
+not to be scolded because, in my old age, I can find no other
+enjoyment but that which recollections of the past afford to me.
+After all, virtuous and prudish readers are at liberty to skip over
+any offensive pictures, and I think it my duty to give them this
+piece of advice; so much the worse for those who may not read my
+preface; it is no fault of mine if they do not, for everyone ought to
+know that a preface is to a book what the play-bill is to a comedy;
+both must be read.
+
+My Memoirs are not written for young persons who, in order to avoid
+false steps and slippery roads, ought to spend their youth in
+blissful ignorance, but for those who, having thorough experience of
+life, are no longer exposed to temptation, and who, having but too
+often gone through the fire, are like salamanders, and can be
+scorched by it no more.  True virtue is but a habit, and I have no
+hesitation in saying that the really virtuous are those persons who
+can practice virtue without the slightest trouble; such persons are
+always full of toleration, and it is to them that my Memoirs are
+addressed.
+
+I have written in French, and not in Italian, because the French
+language is more universal than mine, and the purists, who may
+criticise in my style some Italian turns will be quite right, but
+only in case it should prevent them from understanding me clearly.
+The Greeks admired Theophrastus in spite of his Eresian style, and
+the Romans delighted in their Livy in spite of his Patavinity.
+Provided I amuse my readers, it seems to me that I can claim the same
+indulgence.  After all, every Italian reads Algarotti with pleasure,
+although his works are full of French idioms.
+
+There is one thing worthy of notice: of all the living languages
+belonging to the republic of letters, the French tongue is the only
+one which has been condemned by its masters never to borrow in order
+to become richer, whilst all other languages, although richer in
+words than the French, plunder from it words and constructions of
+sentences, whenever they find that by such robbery they add something
+to their own beauty.  Yet those who borrow the most from the French,
+are the most forward in trumpeting the poverty of that language, very
+likely thinking that such an accusation justifies their depredations.
+It is said that the French language has attained the apogee of its
+beauty, and that the smallest foreign loan would spoil it, but I make
+bold to assert that this is prejudice, for, although it certainly is
+the most clear, the most logical of all languages, it would be great
+temerity to affirm that it can never go farther or higher than it has
+gone.  We all recollect that, in the days of Lulli, there was but one
+opinion of his music, yet Rameau came and everything was changed.
+The new impulse given to the French nation may open new and
+unexpected horizons, and new beauties, fresh perfections, may spring
+up from new combinations and from new wants.
+
+The motto I have adopted justifies my digressions, and all the
+commentaries, perhaps too numerous, in which I indulge upon my
+various exploits: 'Nequidquam sapit qui sibi non sapit'.  For the
+same reason I have always felt a great desire to receive praise and
+applause from polite society:
+
+    'Excitat auditor stadium, laudataque virtus
+     Crescit, et immensum gloria calcar habet.
+
+I would willingly have displayed here the proud axiom: 'Nemo laeditur
+nisi a se ipso', had I not feared to offend the immense number of
+persons who, whenever anything goes wrong with them, are wont to
+exclaim, "It is no fault of mine!"  I cannot deprive them of that
+small particle of comfort, for, were it not for it, they would soon
+feel hatred for themselves, and self-hatred often leads to the fatal
+idea of self-destruction.
+
+As for myself I always willingly acknowledge my own self as the
+principal cause of every good or of every evil which may befall me;
+therefore I have always found myself capable of being my own pupil,
+and ready to love my teacher.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                         THE MEMOIRS OF
+                        JACQUES CASANOVA
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+My Family Pedigree--My Childhood
+
+
+Don Jacob Casanova, the illegitimate son of Don Francisco Casanova,
+was a native of Saragosa, the capital of Aragon, and in the year of
+1428 he carried off Dona Anna Palofax from her convent, on the day
+after she had taken the veil.  He was secretary to King Alfonso.  He
+ran away with her to Rome, where, after one year of imprisonment, the
+pope, Martin III., released Anna from her vows, and gave them the
+nuptial blessing at the instance of Don Juan Casanova, majordomo of
+the Vatican, and uncle of Don Jacob.  All the children born from that
+marriage died in their infancy, with the exception of Don Juan, who,
+in 1475, married Donna Eleonora Albini, by whom he had a son, Marco
+Antonio.
+
+In 1481, Don Juan, having killed an officer of the king of Naples,
+was compelled to leave Rome, and escaped to Como with his wife and
+his son; but having left that city to seek his fortune, he died while
+traveling with Christopher Columbus in the year 1493.
+
+Marco Antonio became a noted poet of the school of Martial, and was
+secretary to Cardinal Pompeo Colonna.
+
+The satire against Giulio de Medicis, which we find in his works,
+having made it necessary for him to leave Rome, he returned to Como,
+where he married Abondia Rezzonica.  The same Giulio de Medicis,
+having become pope under the name of Clement VII, pardoned him and
+called him back to Rome with his wife.  The city having been taken
+and ransacked by the Imperialists in 1526, Marco Antonio died there
+from an attack of the plague; otherwise he would have died of misery,
+the soldiers of Charles V. having taken all he possessed.  Pierre
+Valerien speaks of him in his work 'de infelicitate litteratorum'.
+
+Three months after his death, his wife gave birth to Jacques
+Casanova, who died in France at a great age, colonel in the army
+commanded by Farnese against Henri, king of Navarre, afterwards king
+of France.  He had left in the city of Parma a son who married
+Theresa Conti, from whom he had Jacques, who, in the year 1681,
+married Anna Roli.  Jacques had two sons, Jean-Baptiste and Gaetan-
+Joseph-Jacques.  The eldest left Parma in 1712, and was never heard
+of; the other also went away in 1715, being only nineteen years old.
+
+This is all I have found in my father's diary: from my mother's lips
+I have heard the following particulars:
+
+Gaetan-Joseph-Jacques left his family, madly in love with an actress
+named Fragoletta, who performed the chambermaids.  In his poverty, he
+determined to earn a living by making the most of his own person.  At
+first he gave himself up to dancing, and five years afterwards became
+an actor, making himself conspicuous by his conduct still more than
+by his talent.
+
+Whether from fickleness or from jealousy, he abandoned the
+Fragoletta, and joined in Venice a troop of comedians then giving
+performances at the Saint-Samuel Theatre.  Opposite the house in
+which he had taken his lodging resided a shoemaker, by name Jerome
+Farusi, with his wife Marzia, and Zanetta, their only daughter--a
+perfect beauty sixteen years of age.  The young actor fell in love
+with this girl, succeeded in gaining her affection, and in obtaining
+her consent to a runaway match.  It was the only way to win her, for,
+being an actor, he never could have had Marzia's consent, still less
+Jerome's, as in their eyes a player was a most awful individual.  The
+young lovers, provided with the necessary certificates and
+accompanied by two witnesses, presented themselves before the
+Patriarch of Venice, who performed over them the marriage ceremony.
+Marzia, Zanetta's mother, indulged in a good deal of exclamation, and
+the father died broken-hearted.
+
+I was born nine months afterwards, on the 2nd of April, 1725.
+
+The following April my mother left me under the care of her own
+mother, who had forgiven her as soon as she had heard that my father
+had promised never to compel her to appear on the stage.  This is a
+promise which all actors make to the young girls they marry, and
+which they never fulfil, simply because their wives never care much
+about claiming from them the performance of it.  Moreover, it turned
+out a very fortunate thing for my mother that she had studied for the
+stage, for nine years later, having been left a widow with six
+children, she could not have brought them up if it had not been for
+the resources she found in that profession.
+
+I was only one year old when my father left me to go to London, where
+he had an engagement.  It was in that great city that my mother made
+her first appearance on the stage, and in that city likewise that she
+gave birth to my brother Francois, a celebrated painter of battles,
+now residing in Vienna, where he has followed his profession since
+1783.
+
+Towards the end of the year 1728 my mother returned to Venice with
+her husband, and as she had become an actress she continued her
+artistic life.  In 1730 she was delivered of my brother Jean, who
+became Director of the Academy of painting at Dresden, and died there
+in 1795; and during the three following years she became the mother
+of two daughters, one of whom died at an early age, while the other
+married in Dresden, where she still lived in 1798.  I had also a
+posthumous brother, who became a priest; he died in Rome fifteen
+years ago.
+
+Let us now come to the dawn of my existence in the character of a
+thinking being.
+
+The organ of memory began to develop itself in me at the beginning of
+August, 1733.  I had at that time reached the age of eight years and
+four months.  Of what may have happened to me before that period I
+have not the faintest recollection.  This is the circumstance.
+
+I was standing in the corner of a room bending towards the wall,
+supporting my head, and my eyes fixed upon a stream of blood flowing
+from my nose to the ground.  My grandmother, Marzia, whose pet I was,
+came to me, bathed my face with cold water, and, unknown to everyone
+in the house, took me with her in a gondola as far as Muran, a
+thickly-populated island only half a league distant from Venice.
+
+Alighting from the gondola, we enter a wretched hole, where we find
+an old woman sitting on a rickety bed, holding a black cat in her
+arms, with five or six more purring around her.  The two old cronies
+held together a long discourse of which, most likely, I was the
+subject.  At the end of the dialogue, which was carried on in the
+patois of Forli, the witch having received a silver ducat from my
+grandmother, opened a box, took me in her arms, placed me in the box
+and locked me in it, telling me not to be frightened--a piece of
+advice which would certainly have had the contrary effect, if I had
+had any wits about me, but I was stupefied.  I kept myself quiet in a
+corner of the box, holding a handkerchief to my nose because it was
+still bleeding, and otherwise very indifferent to the uproar going on
+outside.  I could hear in turn, laughter, weeping, singing, screams,
+shrieks, and knocking against the box, but for all that I cared
+nought.  At last I am taken out of the box; the blood stops flowing.
+The wonderful old witch, after lavishing caresses upon me, takes off
+my clothes, lays me on the bed, burns some drugs, gathers the smoke
+in a sheet which she wraps around me, pronounces incantations, takes
+the sheet off me, and gives me five sugar-plums of a very agreeable
+taste.  Then she immediately rubs my temples and the nape of my neck
+with an ointment exhaling a delightful perfume, and puts my clothes
+on me again.  She told me that my haemorrhage would little by little
+leave me, provided I should never disclose to any one what she had
+done to cure me, and she threatened me, on the other hand, with the
+loss of all my blood and with death, should I ever breathe a word
+concerning those mysteries.  After having thus taught me my lesson,
+she informed me that a beautiful lady would pay me a visit during the
+following night, and that she would make me happy, on condition that
+I should have sufficient control over myself never to mention to
+anyone my having received such a visit.  Upon this we left and
+returned home.
+
+I fell asleep almost as soon as I was in bed, without giving a
+thought to the beautiful visitor I was to receive; but, waking up a
+few hours afterwards, I saw, or fancied I saw, coming down the
+chimney, a dazzling woman, with immense hoops, splendidly attired,
+and wearing on her head a crown set with precious stones, which
+seemed to me sparkling with fire.  With slow steps, but with a
+majestic and sweet countenance, she came forward and sat on my bed;
+then taking several small boxes from her pocket, she emptied their
+contents over my head, softly whispering a few words, and after
+giving utterance to a long speech, not a single word of which I
+understood, she kissed me and disappeared the same way she had come.
+I soon went again to sleep.
+
+The next morning, my grandmother came to dress me, and the moment she
+was near my bed, she cautioned me to be silent, threatening me with
+death if I dared to say anything respecting my night's adventures.
+This command, laid upon me by the only woman who had complete
+authority over me, and whose orders I was accustomed to obey blindly,
+caused me to remember the vision, and to store it, with the seal of
+secrecy, in the inmost corner of my dawning memory.  I had not,
+however, the slightest inclination to mention the circumstances to
+anyone; in the first place, because I did not suppose it would
+interest anybody, and in the second because I would not have known
+whom to make a confidant of.  My disease had rendered me dull and
+retired; everybody pitied me and left me to myself; my life was
+considered likely to be but a short one, and as to my parents, they
+never spoke to me.
+
+After the journey to Muran, and the nocturnal visit of the fairy, I
+continued to have bleeding at the nose, but less from day to day, and
+my memory slowly developed itself.  I learned to read in less than a
+month.
+
+It would be ridiculous, of course, to attribute this cure to such
+follies, but at the same time I think it would be wrong to assert
+that they did not in any way contribute to it.  As far as the
+apparition of the beautiful queen is concerned, I have always deemed
+it to be a dream, unless it should have been some masquerade got up
+for the occasion, but it is not always in the druggist's shop that
+are found the best remedies for severe diseases.  Our ignorance is
+every day proved by some wonderful phenomenon, and I believe this to
+be the reason why it is so difficult to meet with a learned man
+entirely untainted with superstition.  We know, as a matter of
+course, that there never have been any sorcerers in this world, yet
+it is true that their power has always existed in the estimation of
+those to whom crafty knaves have passed themselves off as such.
+'Somnio nocturnos lemures portentaque Thessalia vides'.
+
+Many things become real which, at first, had no existence but in our
+imagination, and, as a natural consequence, many facts which have
+been attributed to Faith may not always have been miraculous,
+although they are true miracles for those who lend to Faith a
+boundless power.
+
+The next circumstance of any importance to myself which I recollect
+happened three months after my trip to Muran, and six weeks before my
+father's death.  I give it to my readers only to convey some idea of
+the manner in which my nature was expanding.
+
+One day, about the middle of November, I was with my brother
+Francois, two years younger than I, in my father's room, watching him
+attentively as he was working at optics.  A large lump of crystal,
+round and cut into facets, attracted my attention.  I took it up, and
+having brought it near my eyes I was delighted to see that it
+multiplied objects.  The wish to possess myself of it at once got
+hold of me, and seeing myself unobserved I took my opportunity and
+hid it in my pocket.
+
+A few minutes after this my father looked about for his crystal, and
+unable to find it, he concluded that one of us must have taken it.
+My brother asserted that he had not touched it, and I, although
+guilty, said the same; but my father, satisfied that he could not be
+mistaken, threatened to search us and to thrash the one who had told
+him a story.  I pretended to look for the crystal in every corner of
+the room, and, watching my opportunity I slyly slipped it in the
+pocket of my brother's jacket.  At first I was sorry for what I had
+done, for I might as well have feigned to find the crystal somewhere
+about the room; but the evil deed was past recall.  My father, seeing
+that we were looking in vain, lost patience, searched us, found the
+unlucky ball of crystal in the pocket of the innocent boy, and
+inflicted upon him the promised thrashing.  Three or four years later
+I was foolish enough to boast before my brother of the trick I had
+then played on him; he never forgave me, and has never failed to take
+his revenge whenever the opportunity offered.
+
+However, having at a later period gone to confession, and accused
+myself to the priest of the sin with every circumstance surrounding
+it, I gained some knowledge which afforded me great satisfaction.  My
+confessor, who was a Jesuit, told me that by that deed I had verified
+the meaning of my first name, Jacques, which, he said, meant, in
+Hebrew, "supplanter," and that God had changed for that reason the
+name of the ancient patriarch into that of Israel, which meant
+"knowing."  He had deceived his brother Esau.
+
+Six weeks after the above adventure my father was attacked with an
+abscess in the head which carried him off in a week.  Dr. Zambelli
+first gave him oppilative remedies, and, seeing his mistake, he tried
+to mend it by administering castoreum, which sent his patient into
+convulsions and killed him.  The abscess broke out through the ear
+one minute after his death, taking its leave after killing him, as if
+it had no longer any business with him.  My father departed this life
+in the very prime of his manhood.  He was only thirty-six years of
+age, but he was followed to his grave by the regrets of the public,
+and more particularly of all the patricians amongst whom he was held
+as above his profession, not less on account of his gentlemanly
+behaviour than on account of his extensive knowledge in mechanics.
+
+Two days before his death, feeling that his end was at hand, my
+father expressed a wish to see us all around his bed, in the presence
+of his wife and of the Messieurs Grimani, three Venetian noblemen
+whose protection he wished to entreat in our favour.  After giving us
+his blessing, he requested our mother, who was drowned in tears, to
+give her sacred promise that she would not educate any of us for the
+stage, on which he never would have appeared himself had he not been
+led to it by an unfortunate attachment.  My mother gave her promise,
+and the three noblemen said that they would see to its being
+faithfully kept.  Circumstances helped our mother to fulfill her
+word.
+
+At that time my mother had been pregnant for six months, and she was
+allowed to remain away from the stage until after Easter.  Beautiful
+and young as she was, she declined all the offers of marriage which
+were made to her, and, placing her trust in Providence, she
+courageously devoted herself to the task of bringing up her young
+family.
+
+She considered it a duty to think of me before the others, not so
+much from a feeling of preference as in consequence of my disease,
+which had such an effect upon me that it was difficult to know what
+to do with me.  I was very weak, without any appetite, unable to
+apply myself to anything, and I had all the appearance of an idiot.
+Physicians disagreed as to the cause of the disease.  He loses, they
+would say, two pounds of blood every week; yet there cannot be more
+than sixteen or eighteen pounds in his body.  What, then, can cause
+so abundant a bleeding?  One asserted that in me all the chyle turned
+into blood; another was of opinion that the air I was breathing must,
+at each inhalation, increase the quantity of blood in my lungs, and
+contended that this was the reason for which I always kept my mouth
+open.  I heard of it all six years afterward from M. Baffo, a great
+friend of my late father.
+
+This M.  Baffo consulted the celebrated Doctor Macop, of Padua, who
+sent him his opinion by writing.  This consultation, which I have
+still in my possession, says that our blood is an elastic fluid which
+is liable to diminish or to increase in thickness, but never in
+quantity, and that my haemorrhage could only proceed from the
+thickness of the mass of my blood, which relieved itself in a natural
+way in order to facilitate circulation.  The doctor added that I
+would have died long before, had not nature, in its wish for life,
+assisted itself, and he concluded by stating that the cause of the
+thickness of my blood could only be ascribed to the air I was
+breathing and that consequently I must have a change of air, or every
+hope of cure be abandoned.  He thought likewise, that the stupidity
+so apparent on my countenance was caused by nothing else but the
+thickness of my blood.
+
+M. Baffo, a man of sublime genius, a most lascivious, yet a great and
+original poet, was therefore instrumental in bringing about the
+decision which was then taken to send me to Padua, and to him I am
+indebted for my life.  He died twenty years after, the last of his
+ancient patrician family, but his poems, although obscene, will give
+everlasting fame to his name.  The state-inquisitors of Venice have
+contributed to his celebrity by their mistaken strictness.  Their
+persecutions caused his manuscript works to become precious.  They
+ought to have been aware that despised things are forgotten.
+
+As soon as the verdict given by Professor Macop had been approved of,
+the Abbe Grimani undertook to find a good boarding-house in Padua for
+me, through a chemist of his acquaintance who resided in that city.
+His name was Ottaviani, and he was also an antiquarian of some
+repute.  In a few days the boarding-house was found, and on the 2nd
+day of April, 1734, on the very day I had accomplished my ninth year,
+I was taken to Padua in a 'burchiello', along the Brenta Canal.  We
+embarked at ten o'clock in the evening, immediately after supper.
+
+The 'burchiello' may be considered a small floating house.  There is
+a large saloon with a smaller cabin at  each end, and rooms for
+servants fore and aft.  It is a long square with a roof, and cut on
+each side by glazed  windows with shutters.  The voyage takes eight
+hours.  M. Grimani, M. Baffo, and my mother accompanied me. I slept
+with her in the saloon, and the two friends passed the night in one
+of the cabins.  My mother rose at day break, opened one of the
+windows facing the bed, and the rays of the rising sun, falling on my
+eyes, caused me to open them.  The bed was too low for me to see the
+land; I could see through the window only the tops of the trees along
+the river.  The boat was sailing with such an even movement that I
+could not realize the fact of our moving, so that the trees, which,
+one after the other, were rapidly disappearing from my sight, caused
+me an extreme surprise.  "Ah, dear mother!" I exclaimed, "what is
+this?  the trees are walking!  "At that very moment the two noblemen
+came in, and reading astonishment on my countenance, they asked me
+what my thoughts were so busy about.  "How is it," I answered, "that
+the trees are walking."
+
+They all laughed, but my mother, heaving a great sigh, told me, in a
+tone of deep pity, "The boat is moving, the trees are not.  Now dress
+yourself."
+
+I understood at once the reason of the phenomenon.  "Then it may be,"
+said I, "that the sun does not move, and that we, on the contrary,
+are revolving from west to east."  At these words my good mother
+fairly screamed.  M. Grimani pitied my foolishness, and I remained
+dismayed, grieved, and ready to cry.  M.  Baffo brought me life
+again.  He rushed to me, embraced me tenderly, and said, "Thou are
+right, my child.  The sun does not move; take courage, give heed to
+your reasoning powers and let others laugh."
+
+My mother, greatly surprised, asked him whether he had taken leave of
+his senses to give me such lessons; but the philosopher, not even
+condescending to answer her, went on sketching a theory in harmony
+with my young and simple intelligence.  This was the first real
+pleasure I enjoyed in my life.  Had it not been for M. Baffo, this
+circumstance might have been enough to degrade my understanding; the
+weakness of credulity would have become part of my mind.  The
+ignorance of the two others would certainly have blunted in me the
+edge of a faculty which, perhaps, has not carried me very far in my
+after life, but to which alone I feel that I am indebted for every
+particle of happiness I enjoy when I look into myself.
+
+We reached Padua at an early hour and went to Ottaviani's house; his
+wife loaded me with caresses.  I found there five or six children,
+amongst them a girl of eight years, named Marie, and another of
+seven, Rose, beautiful as a seraph.  Ten years later Marie became the
+wife of the broker Colonda, and Rose, a few years afterwards, married
+a nobleman, Pierre Marcello, and had one son and two daughters, one
+of whom was wedded to M. Pierre Moncenigo, and the other to a
+nobleman of the Carrero family.  This last marriage was afterwards
+nullified.  I shall have, in the course of events, to speak of all
+these persons, and that is my reason for mentioning their names here.
+
+Ottaviani took us at once to the house where I was to board.  It was
+only a few yards from his own residence, at Sainte-Marie d'Advance,
+in the parish of Saint-Michel, in the house of an old Sclavonian
+woman, who let the first floor to Signora Mida, wife of a Sclavonian
+colonel.  My small trunk was laid open before the old woman, to whom
+was handed an inventory of all its contents, together with six
+sequins for six months paid in advance.  For this small sum she
+undertook to feed me, to keep me clean, and to send me to a day-
+school.  Protesting that it was not enough, she accepted these terms.
+I was kissed and strongly commanded to be always obedient and docile,
+and I was left with her.
+
+In this way did my family get rid of me.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+My Grandmother Comes to Padua, and Takes Me to Dr. Gozzi's School
+--My First Love Affair
+
+
+As soon as I was left alone with the Sclavonian woman, she took me up
+to the garret, where she pointed out my bed in a row with four
+others, three of which belonged to three young boys of my age, who at
+that moment were at school, and the fourth to a servant girl whose
+province it was to watch us and to prevent the many peccadilloes in
+which school-boys are wont to indulge.  After this visit we came
+downstairs, and I was taken to the garden with permission to walk
+about until dinner-time.
+
+I felt neither happy nor unhappy; I had nothing to say.  I had
+neither fear nor hope, nor even a feeling of curiosity; I was neither
+cheerful nor sad.  The only thing which grated upon me was the face
+of the mistress of the house.  Although I had not the faintest idea
+either of beauty or of ugliness, her face, her countenance, her tone
+of voice, her language, everything in that woman was repulsive to me.
+Her masculine features repelled me every time I lifted my eyes
+towards her face to listen to what she said to me.  She was tall and
+coarse like a trooper; her complexion was yellow, her hair black, her
+eyebrows long and thick, and her chin gloried in a respectable
+bristly beard: to complete the picture, her hideous, half-naked bosom
+was hanging half-way down her long chest; she may have been about
+fifty.  The servant was a stout country girl, who did all the work of
+the house; the garden was a square of some thirty feet, which had no
+other beauty than its green appearance.
+
+Towards noon my three companions came back from school, and they at
+once spoke to me as if we had been old acquaintances, naturally
+giving me credit for such intelligence as belonged to my age, but
+which I did not possess.  I did not answer them, but they were not
+baffled, and they at last prevailed upon me to share their innocent
+pleasures.  I had to run, to carry and be carried, to turn head over
+heels, and I allowed myself to be initiated into those arts with a
+pretty good grace until we were summoned to dinner.  I sat down to
+the table; but seeing before me a wooden spoon, I pushed it back,
+asking for my silver spoon and fork to which I was much attached,
+because they were a gift from my good old granny.  The servant
+answered that the mistress wished to maintain equality between the
+boys, and I had to submit, much to my disgust.  Having thus learned
+that equality in everything was the rule of the house, I went to work
+like the others and began to eat the soup out of the common dish, and
+if I did not complain of the rapidity with which my companions made
+it disappear, I could not help wondering at such inequality being
+allowed.  To follow this very poor soup, we had a small portion of
+dried cod and one apple each, and dinner was over: it was in Lent.
+We had neither glasses nor cups, and we all helped ourselves out of
+the same earthen pitcher to a miserable drink called graspia, which
+is made by boiling in water the stems of grapes stripped of their
+fruit.  From the following day I drank nothing but water.  This way
+of living surprised me, for I did not know whether I had a right to
+complain of it.  After dinner the servant took me to the school, kept
+by a young priest, Doctor Gozzi, with whom the Sclavonian woman had
+bargained for my schooling at the rate of forty sous a month, or the
+eleventh part of a sequin.
+
+The first thing to do was to teach me writing, and I was placed
+amongst children of five and six years, who did not fail to turn me
+into ridicule on account of my age.
+
+On my return to the boarding-house I had my supper, which, as a
+matter of course, was worse than the dinner, and I could not make out
+why the right of complaint should be denied me.  I was then put to
+bed, but there three well-known species of vermin kept me awake all
+night, besides the rats, which, running all over the garret, jumped
+on my bed and fairly made my blood run cold with fright.  This is the
+way in which I began to feel misery, and to learn how to suffer it
+patiently.  The vermin, which feasted upon me, lessened my fear of
+the rats, and by a very lucky system of compensation, the dread of
+the rats made me less sensitive to the bites of the vermin.  My mind
+was reaping benefit from the very struggle fought between the evils
+which surrounded me.  The servant was perfectly deaf to my screaming.
+
+As soon as it was daylight I ran out of the wretched garret, and,
+after complaining to the girl of all I had endured during the night,
+I asked her to give me a Clean shirt, the one I had on being
+disgusting to look at, but she answered that I could only change my
+linen on a Sunday, and laughed at me when I threatened to complain to
+the mistress.  For the first time in my life I shed tears of sorrow
+and of anger, when I heard my companions scoffing at me.  The poor
+wretches shared my unhappy condition, but they were used to it, and
+that makes all the difference.
+
+Sorely depressed, I went to school, but only to sleep soundly through
+the morning.  One of my comrades, in the hope of turning the affair
+into ridicule at my expense, told the doctor the reason of my being
+so sleepy.  The good priest, however, to whom without doubt
+Providence had guided me, called me into his private room, listened
+to all I had to say, saw with his own eyes the proofs of my misery,
+and moved by the sight of the blisters which disfigured my innocent
+skin, he took up his cloak, went with me to my boarding-house, and
+shewed the woman the state I was in.  She put on a look of great
+astonishment, and threw all the blame upon the servant.  The doctor
+being curious to see my bed, I was, as much as he was, surprised at
+the filthy state of the sheets in which I had passed the night.  The
+accursed woman went on blaming the servant, and said that she would
+discharge her; but the girl, happening to be close by, and not
+relishing the accusation, told her boldly that the fault was her own,
+and she then threw open the beds of my companions to shew us that
+they did not experience any better treatment.  The mistress, raving,
+slapped her on the face, and the servant, to be even with her,
+returned the compliment and ran away.  The doctor left me there,
+saying that I could not enter his school unless I was sent to him as
+clean as the other boys.  The result for me was a very sharp rebuke,
+with the threat, as a finishing stroke, that if I ever caused such a
+broil again, I would be ignominiously turned out of the house.
+
+I could not make it out; I had just entered life, and I had no
+knowledge of any other place but the house in which I had been born,
+in which I had been brought up, and in which I had always seen
+cleanliness and honest comfort.  Here I found myself ill-treated,
+scolded, although it did not seem possible that any blame could be
+attached to me.  At last the old shrew tossed a shirt in my face, and
+an hour later I saw a new servant changing the sheets, after which we
+had our dinner.
+
+My schoolmaster took particular care in instructing me.  He gave me a
+seat at his own desk, and in order to shew my proper appreciation of
+such a favour, I gave myself up to my studies; at the end of the
+first month I could write so well that I was promoted to the grammar
+class.
+
+The new life I was leading, the half-starvation system to which I was
+condemned, and most likely more than everything else, the air of
+Padua, brought me health such as I had never enjoyed before, but that
+very state of blooming health made it still more difficult for me to
+bear the hunger which I was compelled to endure; it became
+unbearable.  I was growing rapidly; I enjoyed nine hours of deep
+sleep, unbroken by any dreams, save that I always fancied myself
+sitting at a well-spread table, and gratifying my cruel appetite, but
+every morning I could realize in full the vanity and the unpleasant
+disappointment of flattering dreams!  This ravenous appetite would at
+last have weakened me to death, had I not made up my mind to pounce
+upon, and to swallow, every kind of eatables I could find, whenever I
+was certain of not being seen.
+
+Necessity begets ingenuity.  I had spied in a cupboard of the kitchen
+some fifty red herrings; I devoured them all one after the other, as
+well as all the sausages which were hanging in the chimney to be
+smoked; and in order to accomplish those feats without being
+detected, I was in the habit of getting up at night and of
+undertaking my foraging expeditions under the friendly veil of
+darkness.  Every new-laid egg I could discover in the poultry-yard,
+quite warm and scarcely dropped by the hen, was a most delicious
+treat.  I would even go as far as the kitchen of the schoolmaster in
+the hope of pilfering something to eat.
+
+The Sclavonian woman, in despair at being unable to catch the
+thieves, turned away servant after servant.  But, in spite of all my
+expeditions, as I could not always find something to steal, I was as
+thin as a walking skeleton.
+
+My progress at school was so rapid during four or five months that
+the master promoted me to the rank of dux.  My province was to
+examine the lessons of my thirty school-fellows, to correct their
+mistakes and report to the master with whatever note of blame or of
+approval I thought they deserved; but my strictness did not last
+long, for idle boys soon found out the way to enlist my sympathy.
+When their Latin lesson was full of mistakes, they would buy me off
+with cutlets and roast chickens; they even gave me money.  These
+proceedings excited my covetousness, or, rather, my gluttony, and,
+not satisfied with levying a tax upon the ignorant, I became a
+tyrant, and I refused well-merited approbation to all those who
+declined paying the contribution I demanded.  At last, unable to bear
+my injustice any longer, the boys accused me, and the master, seeing
+me convicted of extortion, removed me from my exalted position.  I
+would very likely have fared badly after my dismissal, had not Fate
+decided to put an end to my cruel apprenticeship.
+
+Doctor Gozzi, who was attached to me, called me privately one day
+into his study, and asked me whether I would feel disposed to carry
+out the advice he would give me in order to bring about my removal
+from the house of the Sclavonian woman, and my admission in his own
+family.  Finding me delighted at such an offer, he caused me to copy
+three letters which I sent, one to the Abbe Grimani, another to my
+friend Baffo, and the last to my excellent grandam.  The half-year
+was nearly out, and my mother not being in Venice at that period
+there was no time to lose.
+
+In my letters I gave a description of all my sufferings, and I
+prognosticated my death were I not immediately removed from my
+boarding-house and placed under the care of my school-master, who was
+disposed to receive me; but he wanted two sequins a month.
+
+M. Grimani did not answer me, and commissioned his friend Ottaviani
+to scold me for allowing myself to be ensnared by the doctor; but M.
+Baffo went to consult with my grandmother, who could not write, and
+in a letter which he addressed to me he informed me that I would soon
+find myself in a happier situation.  And, truly, within a week the
+excellent old woman, who loved me until her death, made her
+appearance as I was sitting down to my dinner.  She came in with the
+mistress of the house, and the moment I saw her I threw my arms
+around her neck, crying bitterly, in which luxury the old lady soon
+joined me.  She sat down and took me on her knees; my courage rose
+again.  In the presence of the Sclavonian woman I enumerated all my
+grievances, and after calling her attention to the food, fit only for
+beggars, which I was compelled to swallow, I took her upstairs to
+shew her my bed.  I begged her to take me out and give me a good
+dinner after six months of such starvation.  The boarding-house
+keeper boldly asserted that she could not afford better for the
+amount she had received, and there was truth in that, but she had no
+business to keep house and to become the tormentor of poor children
+who were thrown on her hands by stinginess, and who required to be
+properly fed.
+
+My grandmother very quietly intimated her intention to take me away
+forthwith, and asked her to put all my things in my trunk.  I cannot
+express my joy during these preparations.  For the first time I felt
+that kind of happiness which makes forgiveness compulsory upon the
+being who enjoys it, and causes him to forget all previous
+unpleasantness.  My grandmother took me to the inn, and dinner was
+served, but she could hardly eat anything in her astonishment at the
+voracity with which I was swallowing my food.  In the meantime Doctor
+Gozzi, to whom she had sent notice of her arrival, came in, and his
+appearance soon prepossessed her in his favour.  He was then a fine-
+looking priest, twenty-six years of age, chubby, modest, and
+respectful.  In less than a quarter of an hour everything was
+satisfactorily arranged between them.  The good old lady counted out
+twenty-four sequins for one year of my schooling, and took a receipt
+for the same, but she kept me with her for three days in order to
+have me clothed like a priest, and to get me a wig, as the filthy
+state of my hair made it necessary to have it all cut off.
+
+At the end of the three days she took me to the doctor's house, so as
+to see herself to my installation and to recommend me to the doctor's
+mother, who desired her to send or to buy in Padua a bedstead and
+bedding; but the doctor having remarked that, his own bed being very
+wide, I might sleep with him, my grandmother expressed her gratitude
+for all his kindness, and we accompanied her as far as the burchiello
+she had engaged to return to Venice.
+
+The family of Doctor Gozzi was composed of his mother, who had great
+reverence for him, because, a peasant by birth, she did not think
+herself worthy of having a son who was a priest, and still more a
+doctor in divinity; she was plain, old, and cross; and of his father,
+a shoemaker by trade, working all day long and never addressing a
+word to anyone, not even during the meals.  He only became a sociable
+being on holidays, on which occasions he would spend his time with
+his friends in some tavern, coming home at midnight as drunk as a
+lord and singing verses from Tasso.  When in this blissful state the
+good man could not make up his mind to go to bed, and became violent
+if anyone attempted to compel him to lie down.  Wine alone gave him
+sense and spirit, for when sober he was incapable of attending to the
+simplest family matter, and his wife often said that he never would
+have married her had not his friends taken care to give him a good
+breakfast before he went to the church.
+
+But Doctor Gozzi had also a sister, called Bettina, who at the age of
+thirteen was pretty, lively, and a great reader of romances.  Her
+father and mother scolded her constantly because she was too often
+looking out of the window, and the doctor did the same on account of
+her love for reading.  This girl took at once my fancy without my
+knowing why, and little by little she kindled in my heart the first
+spark of a passion which, afterwards became in me the ruling one.
+
+Six months after I had been an inmate in the house, the doctor found
+himself without scholars; they all went away because I had become the
+sole object of his affection.  He then determined to establish a
+college, and to receive young boys as boarders; but two years passed
+before he met with any success.  During that period he taught me
+everything he knew; true, it was not much; yet it was enough to open
+to me the high road to all sciences.  He likewise taught me the
+violin, an accomplishment which proved very useful to me in a
+peculiar circumstance, the particulars of which I will give in good
+time.  The excellent doctor, who was in no way a philosopher, made me
+study the logic of the Peripatetics, and the cosmography of the
+ancient system of Ptolemy, at which I would laugh, teasing the poor
+doctor with theorems to which he could find no answer.  His habits,
+moreover, were irreproachable, and in all things connected with
+religion, although no bigot, he was of the greatest strictness, and,
+admitting everything as an article of faith, nothing appeared
+difficult to his conception.  He believed the deluge to have been
+universal, and he thought that, before that great cataclysm, men
+lived a thousand years and conversed with God, that Noah took one
+hundred years to build the ark, and that the earth, suspended in the
+air, is firmly held in the very centre of the universe which God had
+created from nothing.  When I would say and prove that it was absurd
+to believe in the existence of nothingness, he would stop me short
+and call me a fool.
+
+He could enjoy a good bed, a glass of wine, and cheerfulness at home.
+He did not admire fine wits, good jests or criticism, because it
+easily turns to slander, and he would laugh at the folly of men
+reading newspapers which, in his opinion, always lied and constantly
+repeated the same things.  He asserted that nothing was more
+troublesome than incertitude, and therefore he condemned thought
+because it gives birth to doubt.
+
+His ruling passion was preaching, for which his face and his voice
+qualified him; his congregation was almost entirely composed of women
+of whom, however, he was the sworn enemy; so much so, that he would
+not look them in the face even when he spoke to them.  Weakness of
+the flesh and fornication appeared to him the most monstrous of sins,
+and he would be very angry if I dared to assert that, in my
+estimation, they were the most venial of faults.  His sermons were
+crammed with passages from the Greek authors, which he translated
+into Latin.  One day I ventured to remark that those passages ought
+to be translated into Italian because women did not understand Latin
+any more than Greek, but he took offence, and I never had afterwards
+the courage to allude any more to the matter.  Moreover he praised me
+to his friends as a wonder, because I had learned to read Greek
+alone, without any assistance but a grammar.
+
+During Lent, in the year 1736, my mother, wrote to the doctor; and,
+as she was on the point of her departure for St. Petersburg, she
+wished to see me, and requested him to accompany me to Venice for
+three or four days.  This invitation set him thinking, for he had
+never seen Venice, never frequented good company, and yet he did not
+wish to appear a novice in anything.  We were soon ready to leave
+Padua, and all the family escorted us to the 'burchiello'.
+
+My mother received the doctor with a most friendly welcome; but she
+was strikingly beautiful, and my poor master felt very uncomfortable,
+not daring to look her in the face, and yet called upon to converse
+with her.  She saw the dilemma he was in, and thought she would have
+some amusing sport about it should opportunity present itself.  I, in
+the meantime, drew the attention of everyone in her circle; everybody
+had known me as a fool, and was amazed at my improvement in the short
+space of two years.  The doctor was overjoyed, because he saw that
+the full credit of my transformation was given to him.
+
+The first thing which struck my mother unpleasantly was my light-
+coloured wig, which was not in harmony with my dark complexion, and
+contrasted most woefully with my black eyes and eyebrows.  She
+inquired from the doctor why I did not wear my own hair, and he
+answered that, with a wig, it was easier for his sister to keep me
+clean.  Everyone smiled at the simplicity of the answer, but the
+merriment increased when, to the question made by my mother whether
+his sister was married, I took the answer upon myself, and said that
+Bettina was the prettiest girl of Padua, and was only fourteen years
+of age.  My mother promised the doctor a splendid present for his
+sister on condition that she would let me wear my own hair, and he
+promised that her wishes would be complied with.  The peruke-maker
+was then called, and I had a wig which matched my complexion.
+
+Soon afterwards all the guests began to play cards, with the
+exception of my master, and I went to see my brothers in my
+grandmother's room.  Francois shewed me some architectural designs
+which I pretended to admire; Jean had nothing to skew me, and I
+thought him a rather insignificant boy.  The others were still very
+young.
+
+At the supper-table, the doctor, seated next to my mother, was very
+awkward.  He would very likely not have said one word, had not an
+Englishman, a writer of talent, addressed him in Latin; but the
+doctor, being unable to make him out, modestly answered that he did
+not understand English, which caused much hilarity.  M. Baffo,
+however, explained the puzzle by telling us that Englishmen read and
+pronounced Latin in the same way that they read and spoke their own
+language, and I remarked that Englishmen were wrong as much as we
+would be, if we pretended to read and to pronounce their language
+according to Latin rules.  The Englishman, pleased with my reasoning,
+wrote down the following old couplet, and gave it to me to read:
+
+     'Dicite, grammatici, cur mascula nomina cunnus,
+      Et cur femineum mentula nomen habet.'
+
+After reading it aloud, I exclaimed, "This is Latin indeed."
+
+"We know that," said my mother, "but can you explain it,"
+
+"To explain it is not enough," I answered; "it is a question which is
+worthy of an answer."  And after considering for a moment, I wrote
+the following pentameter
+
+     'Disce quod a domino nomina servus habet.'
+
+This was my first literary exploit, and I may say that in that very
+instant the seed of my love for literary fame was sown in my breast,
+for the applause lavished upon me exalted me to the very pinnacle of
+happiness.  The Englishman, quite amazed at my answer, said that no
+boy of eleven years had ever accomplished such a feat, embraced me
+repeatedly, and presented me with his watch.  My mother, inquisitive
+like a woman, asked M.  Grimani to tell her the meaning of the lines,
+but as the abbe was not any wiser than she was M. Baffo translated it
+in a whisper.  Surprised at my knowledge, she rose from her chair to
+get a valuable gold watch and presented to my master, who, not
+knowing how to express his deep gratitude, treated us to the most
+comic scene.  My mother, in order to save him from the difficulty of
+paying her a compliment, offered him her cheek.  He had only to give
+her a couple of kisses, the easiest and the most innocent thing in
+good company; but the poor man was on burning coals, and so
+completely out of countenance that he would, I truly believe, rather
+have died than give the kisses.  He drew back with his head down, and
+he was allowed to remain in peace until we retired for the night.
+
+When we found ourselves alone in our room, he poured out his heart,
+and exclaimed that it was a pity he could not publish in Padua the
+distich and my answer.
+
+"And why not?" I said.
+
+"Because both are obscene."
+
+"But they are sublime."
+
+"Let us go to bed and speak no more on the subject.  Your answer was
+wonderful, because you cannot possibly know anything of the subject
+in question, or of the manner in which verses ought to be written."
+
+As far as the subject was concerned, I knew it by theory; for,
+unknown to the doctor, and because he had forbidden it, I had read
+Meursius, but it was natural that he should be amazed at my being
+able to write verses, when he, who had taught me prosody, never could
+compose a single line.  'Nemo dat quod non habet' is a false axiom
+when applied to mental acquirements.
+
+Four days afterwards, as we were preparing for our departure, my
+mother gave me a parcel for Bettina, and M. Grimani presented me with
+four sequins to buy books.  A week later my mother left for St.
+Petersburg.
+
+After our return to Padua, my good master for three or four months
+never ceased to speak of my mother, and Bettina, having found in the
+parcel five yards of black silk and twelve pairs of gloves, became
+singularly attached to me, and took such good care of my hair that
+in less than six months I was able to give up wearing the wig.  She
+used to comb my hair every morning, often before I was out of bed,
+saying that she had not time to wait until I was dressed.  She washed
+my face, my neck, my chest; lavished on me childish caresses which I
+thought innocent, but which caused me to, be angry with myself,
+because I felt that they excited me.  Three years younger than she
+was, it seemed to me that she could not love me with any idea of
+mischief, and the consciousness of my own vicious excitement put me
+out of temper with myself.  When, seated on my bed, she would say
+that I was getting stouter, and would have the proof of it with her
+own hands, she caused me the most intense emotion; but I said
+nothing, for fear she would remark my sensitiveness, and when she
+would go on saying that my skin was soft, the tickling sensation made
+me draw back, angry with myself that I did not dare to do the same to
+her, but delighted at her not guessing how I longed to do it.  When I
+was dressed, she often gave me the sweetest kisses, calling me her
+darling child, but whatever wish I had to follow her example, I was
+not yet bold enough.  After some time, however, Bettina laughing at
+my timidity, I became more daring and returned her kisses with
+interest, but I always gave way the moment I felt a wish to go
+further; I then would turn my head, pretending to look for something,
+and she would go away.  She was scarcely out of the room before I was
+in despair at not having followed the inclination of my nature, and,
+astonished at the fact that Bettina could do to me all she was in the
+habit of doing without feeling any excitement from it, while I could
+hardly refrain from pushing my attacks further, I would every day
+determine to change my way of acting.
+
+In the early part of autumn, the doctor received three new boarders;
+and one of them, who was fifteen years old, appeared to me in less
+than a month on very friendly terms with Bettina.
+
+This circumstance caused me a feeling of which until then I had no
+idea, and which I only analyzed a few years afterwards.  It was
+neither jealousy nor indignation, but a noble contempt which I
+thought ought not to be repressed, because Cordiani, an ignorant,
+coarse boy, without talent or polite education, the son of a simple
+farmer, and incapable of competing with me in anything, having over
+me but the advantage of dawning manhood, did not appear to me a fit
+person to be preferred to me; my young self-esteem whispered that I
+was above him.  I began to nurse a feeling of pride mixed with
+contempt which told against Bettina, whom I loved unknown to myself.
+She soon guessed it from the way I would receive her caresses, when
+she came to comb my hair while I was in bed; I would repulse her
+hands, and no longer return her kisses.  One day, vexed at my
+answering her question as to the reason of my change towards her by
+stating that I had no cause for it, she, told me in a tone of
+commiseration that I was jealous of Cordiani.  This reproach sounded
+to me like a debasing slander.  I answered that Cordiani was, in my
+estimation, as worthy of her as she was worthy of him.  She went away
+smiling, but, revolving in her mind the only way by which she could
+be revenged, she thought herself bound to render me jealous.
+However, as she could not attain such an end without making me fall
+in love with her, this is the policy she adopted.
+
+One morning she came to me as I was in bed and brought me a pair of
+white stockings of her own knitting.  After dressing my hair, she
+asked my permission to try the stockings on herself, in order to
+correct any deficiency in the other pairs she intended to knit for
+me.  The doctor had gone out to say his mass.  As she was putting on
+the stocking, she remarked that my legs were not clean, and without
+any more ado she immediately began to wash them.  I would have been
+ashamed to let her see my bashfulness; I let her do as she liked, not
+foreseeing what would happen.  Bettina, seated on my bed, carried too
+far her love for cleanliness, and her curiosity caused me such
+intense voluptuousness that the feeling did not stop until it could
+be carried no further.  Having recovered my calm, I bethought myself
+that I was guilty and begged her forgiveness.  She did not expect
+this, and, after considering for a few moments, she told me kindly
+that the fault was entirely her own, but that she never would again
+be guilty of it.  And she went out of the room, leaving me to my own
+thoughts.
+
+They were of a cruel character.  It seemed to me that I had brought
+dishonour upon Bettina, that I had betrayed the confidence of her
+family, offended against the sacred laws of hospitality, that I was
+guilty of a most wicked crime, which I could only atone for by
+marrying her, in case Bettina could make up her mind to accept for
+her husband a wretch unworthy of her.
+
+These thoughts led to a deep melancholy which went on increasing from
+day to day, Bettina having entirely ceased her morning visits by my
+bedside.  During the first week, I could easily account for the
+girl's reserve, and my sadness would soon have taken the character of
+the warmest love, had not her manner towards Cordiani inoculated in
+my veins the poison of jealousy, although I never dreamed of accusing
+her of the same crime towards him that she had committed upon me.
+
+I felt convinced, after due consideration, that the act she had been
+guilty of with me had been deliberately done, and that her feelings
+of repentance kept her away from me.  This conviction was rather
+flattering to my vanity, as it gave me the hope of being loved, and
+the end of all my communings was that I made up my mind to write to
+her, and thus to give her courage.
+
+I composed a letter, short but calculated to restore peace to her
+mind, whether she thought herself guilty, or suspected me of feelings
+contrary to those which her dignity might expect from me.  My letter
+was, in my own estimation, a perfect masterpiece, and just the kind
+of epistle by which I was certain to conquer her very adoration, and
+to sink for ever the sun of Cordiani, whom I could not accept as the
+sort of being likely to make her hesitate for one instant in her
+choice between him and me.  Half-an-hour after the receipt of my
+letter, she told me herself that the next morning she would pay me
+her usual visit, but I waited in vain.  This conduct provoked me
+almost to madness, but my surprise was indeed great when, at the
+breakfast table, she asked me whether I would let her dress me up as
+a girl to accompany her five or six days later to a ball for which a
+neighbour of ours, Doctor Olivo, had sent letters of invitation.
+Everybody having seconded the motion, I gave my consent.  I thought
+this arrangement would afford a favourable opportunity for an
+explanation, for mutual vindication, and would open a door for the
+most complete reconciliation, without fear of any surprise arising
+from the proverbial weakness of the flesh.  But a most unexpected
+circumstance prevented our attending the ball, and brought forth a
+comedy with a truly tragic turn.
+
+Doctor Gozzi's godfather, a man advanced in age, and in easy
+circumstances, residing in the country, thought himself, after a
+severe illness, very near his end, and sent to the doctor a carriage
+with a request to come to him at once with his father, as he wished
+them to be present at his death, and to pray for his departing soul.
+The old shoemaker drained a bottle, donned his Sunday clothes, and
+went off with his son.
+
+I thought this a favourable opportunity and determined to improve it,
+considering that the night of the ball was too remote to suit my
+impatience.  I therefore managed to tell Bettina that I would leave
+ajar the door of my room, and that I would wait for her as soon as
+everyone in the house had gone to bed.  She promised to come.  She
+slept on the ground floor in a small closet divided only by a
+partition from her father's chamber; the doctor being away, I was
+alone in the large room.  The three boarders had their apartment in a
+different part of the house, and I had therefore no mishap to fear.
+I was delighted at the idea that I had at last reached the moment so
+ardently desired.
+
+The instant I was in my room I bolted my door and opened the one
+leading to the passage, so that Bettina should have only to push it
+in order to come in; I then put my light out, but did not undress.
+When we read of such situations in a romance we think they are
+exaggerated; they are not so, and the passage in which Ariosto
+represents Roger waiting for Alcine is a beautiful picture painted
+from nature.
+
+Until midnight I waited without feeling much anxiety; but I heard the
+clock strike two, three, four o'clock in the morning without seeing
+Bettina; my blood began to boil, and I was soon in a state of furious
+rage.  It was snowing hard, but I shook from passion more than from
+cold.  One hour before day-break, unable to master any longer my
+impatience, I made up my mind to go downstairs with bare feet, so as
+not to wake the dog, and to place myself at the bottom of the stairs
+within a yard of Bettina's door, which ought to have been opened if
+she had gone out of her room.  I reached the door; it was closed, and
+as it could be locked only from inside I imagined that Bettina had
+fallen asleep.  I was on the point of knocking at the door, but was
+prevented by fear of rousing the dog, as from that door to that of
+her closet there was a distance of three or four yards.  Overwhelmed
+with grief, and unable to take a decision, I sat down on the last
+step of the stairs; but at day-break, chilled, benumbed, shivering
+with cold, afraid that the servant would see me and would think I was
+mad, I determined to go back to my room.  I arise, but at that very
+moment I hear some noise in Bettina's room.  Certain that I am going
+to see her, and hope lending me new strength, I draw nearer to the
+door.  It opens; but instead of Bettina coming out I see Cordiani,
+who gives me such a furious kick in the stomach that I am thrown at a
+distance deep in the snow.  Without stopping a single instant
+Cordiani is off, and locks himself up in the room which he shared
+with the brothers Feltrini.
+
+I pick myself up quickly with the intention of taking my revenge upon
+Bettina, whom nothing could have saved from the effects of my rage at
+that moment.  But I find her door locked; I kick vigorously against
+it, the dog starts a loud barking, and I make a hurried retreat to my
+room, in which I lock myself up, throwing myself in bed to compose
+and heal up my mind and body, for I was half dead.
+
+Deceived, humbled, ill-treated, an object of contempt to the happy
+and triumphant Cordiani, I spent three hours ruminating the darkest
+schemes of revenge.  To poison them both seemed to me but a trifle in
+that terrible moment of bitter misery.  This project gave way to
+another as extravagant, as cowardly-namely, to go at once to her
+brother and disclose everything to him.  I was twelve years of age,
+and my mind had not yet acquired sufficient coolness to mature
+schemes of heroic revenge, which are produced by false feelings of
+honour; this was only my apprenticeship in such adventures.
+
+I was in that state of mind when suddenly I heard outside of my door
+the gruff voice of Bettina's mother, who begged me to come down,
+adding that her daughter was dying.  As I would have been very sorry
+if she had departed this life before she could feel the effects of my
+revenge, I got up hurriedly and went downstairs.  I found Bettina
+lying in her father's bed writhing with fearful convulsions, and
+surrounded by the whole family.  Half dressed, nearly bent in two,
+she was throwing her body now to the right, now to the left, striking
+at random with her feet and with her fists, and extricating herself
+by violent shaking from the hands of those who endeavoured to keep
+her down.
+
+With this sight before me, and the night's adventure still in my
+mind, I hardly knew what to think.  I had no knowledge of human
+nature, no knowledge of artifice and tricks, and I could not
+understand how I found myself coolly witnessing such a scene, and
+composedly calm in the presence of two beings, one of whom I intended
+to kill and the other to dishonour.  At the end of an hour Bettina
+fell asleep.
+
+A nurse and Doctor Olivo came soon after.  The first said that the
+convulsions were caused by hysterics, but the doctor said no, and
+prescribed rest and cold baths.  I said nothing, but I could not
+refrain from laughing at them, for I knew, or rather guessed, that
+Bettina's sickness was the result of her nocturnal employment, or of
+the fright which she must have felt at my meeting with Cordiani.  At
+all events, I determined to postpone my revenge until the return of
+her brother, although I had not the slightest suspicion that her
+illness was all sham, for I did not give her credit for so much
+cleverness.
+
+To return to my room I had to pass through Bettina's closet, and
+seeing her dress handy on the bed I took it into my head to search
+her pockets.  I found a small note, and recognizing Cordiani's
+handwriting, I took possession of it to read it in my room.  I
+marvelled at the girl's imprudence, for her mother might have
+discovered it, and being unable to read would very likely have given
+it to the doctor, her son.  I thought she must have taken leave of
+her senses, but my feelings may be appreciated when I read the
+following words: "As your father is away it is not necessary to leave
+your door ajar as usual.  When we leave the supper-table I will go to
+your closet; you will find me there."
+
+When I recovered from my stupor I gave way to an irresistible fit of
+laughter, and seeing how completely I had been duped I thought I was
+cured of my love.  Cordiani appeared to me deserving of forgiveness,
+and Bettina of contempt.  I congratulated myself upon having received
+a lesson of such importance for the remainder of my life.  I even
+went so far as to acknowledge to myself that Bettina had been quite
+right in giving the preference to Cordiani, who was fifteen years
+old, while I was only a child.  Yet, in spite of my good disposition
+to forgiveness, the kick administered by Cordiani was still heavy
+upon my memory, and I could not help keeping a grudge against him.
+
+At noon, as we were at dinner in the kitchen, where we took our meals
+on account of the cold weather, Bettina began again to raise piercing
+screams.  Everybody rushed to her room, but I quietly kept my seat
+and finished my dinner, after which I went to my studies.  In the
+evening when I came down to supper I found that Bettina's bed had
+been brought to the kitchen close by her mother's; but it was no
+concern of mine, and I remained likewise perfectly indifferent to the
+noise made during the night, and to the confusion which took place in
+the morning, when she had a fresh fit of convulsions.
+
+Doctor Gozzi and his father returned in the evening.  Cordiani, who
+felt uneasy, came to inquire from me what my intentions were, but I
+rushed towards him with an open penknife in my hand, and he beat a
+hasty retreat.  I had entirely abandoned the idea of relating the
+night's scandalous adventure to the doctor, for such a project I
+could only entertain in a moment of excitement and rage.  The next
+day the mother came in while we were at our lesson, and told the
+doctor, after a lengthened preamble, that she had discovered the
+character of her daughter's illness; that it was caused by a spell
+thrown over her by a witch, and that she knew the witch well.
+
+"It may be, my dear mother, but we must be careful not to make a
+mistake.  Who is the witch?"
+
+"Our old servant, and I have just had a proof of it."
+
+"How so?"
+
+"I have barred the door of my room with two broomsticks placed in the
+shape of a cross, which she must have undone to go in; but when she
+saw them she drew back, and she went round by the other door.  It is
+evident that, were she not a witch, she would not be afraid of
+touching them."
+
+"It is not complete evidence, dear mother; send the woman to me."
+
+The servant made her appearance.
+
+"Why," said the doctor, "did you not enter my mother's room this
+morning through the usual door?"
+
+"I do not know what you mean."
+
+"Did you not see the St. Andrew's cross on the door?"
+
+"What cross is that?"
+
+"It is useless to plead ignorance," said the mother; "where did you
+sleep last Thursday night?"
+
+"At my niece's, who had just been confined."
+
+"Nothing of the sort.  You were at the witches' Sabbath; you are a
+witch, and have bewitched my daughter."
+
+The poor woman, indignant at such an accusation, spits at her
+mistress's face; the mistress, enraged, gets hold of a stick to give
+the servant a drubbing; the doctor endeavours to keep his mother
+back, but he is compelled to let her loose and to run after the
+servant, who was hurrying down the stairs, screaming and howling in
+order to rouse the neighbours; he catches her, and finally succeeds
+in pacifying her with some money.
+
+After this comical but rather scandalous exhibition, the doctor
+donned his vestments for the purpose of exorcising his sister and of
+ascertaining whether she was truly possessed of an unclean spirit.
+The novelty of this mystery attracted the whole of my attention.  All
+the inmates of the house appeared to me either mad or stupid, for I
+could not, for the life of me, imagine that diabolical spirits were
+dwelling in Bettina's body.  When we drew near her bed, her breathing
+had, to all appearance, stopped, and the exorcisms of her brother did
+not restore it.  Doctor Olivo happened to come in at that moment, and
+inquired whether he would be in the way; he was answered in the
+negative, provided he had faith.
+
+Upon which he left, saying that he had no faith in any miracles
+except in those of the Gospel.
+
+Soon after Doctor Gozzi went to his room, and finding myself alone
+with Bettina I bent down over her bed and whispered in her ear.
+
+"Take courage, get well again, and rely upon my discretion."
+
+She turned her head towards the wall and did not answer me, but the
+day passed off without any more convulsions.  I thought I had cured
+her, but on the following day the frenzy went up to the brain, and in
+her delirium she pronounced at random Greek and Latin words without
+any meaning, and then no doubt whatever was entertained of her being
+possessed of the evil spirit.  Her mother went out and returned soon,
+accompanied by the most renowned exorcist of Padua, a very ill-
+featured Capuchin, called Friar Prospero da Bovolenta.
+
+The moment Bettina saw the exorcist, she burst into loud laughter,
+and addressed to him the most offensive insults, which fairly
+delighted everybody, as the devil alone could be bold enough to
+address a Capuchin in such a manner; but the holy man, hearing
+himself called an obtrusive ignoramus and a stinkard, went on
+striking Bettina with a heavy crucifix, saying that he was beating
+the devil.  He stopped only when he saw her on the point of hurling
+at him the chamber utensil which she had just seized.  "If it is the
+devil who has offended thee with his words," she said, "resent the
+insult with words likewise, jackass that thou art, but if I have
+offended thee myself, learn, stupid booby, that thou must respect me,
+and be off at once."
+
+I could see poor Doctor Gozzi blushing; the friar, however, held his
+ground, and, armed at all points, began to read a terrible exorcism,
+at the end of which he commanded the devil to state his name.
+
+"My name is Bettina."
+
+"It cannot be, for it is the name of a baptized girl."
+
+"Then thou art of opinion that a devil must rejoice in a masculine
+name?  Learn, ignorant friar, that a devil is a spirit, and does not
+belong to either sex.  But as thou believest that a devil is speaking
+to thee through my lips, promise to answer me with truth, and I will
+engage to give way before thy incantations."
+
+"Very well, I agree to this."
+
+"Tell me, then, art thou thinking that thy knowledge is greater than
+mine?"
+
+"No, but I believe myself more powerful in the name of the holy
+Trinity, and by my sacred character."
+
+"If thou art more powerful than I, then prevent me from telling thee
+unpalatable truths.  Thou art very vain of thy beard, thou art
+combing and dressing it ten times a day, and thou would'st not shave
+half of it to get me out of this body.  Cut off thy beard, and I
+promise to come out."
+
+"Father of lies, I will increase thy punishment a hundred fold."
+
+"I dare thee to do it."
+
+After saying these words, Bettina broke into such a loud peal of
+laughter, that I could not refrain from joining in it.  The Capuchin,
+turning towards Doctor Gozzi, told him that I was wanting in faith,
+and that I ought to leave the room; which I did, remarking that he
+had guessed rightly.  I was not yet out of the room when the friar
+offered his hand to Bettina for her to kiss, and I had the pleasure
+of seeing her spit upon it.
+
+This strange girl, full of extraordinary talent, made rare sport of
+the friar, without causing any surprise to anyone, as all her answers
+were attributed to the devil.  I could not conceive what her purpose
+was in playing such a part.
+
+The Capuchin dined with us, and during the meal he uttered a good
+deal of nonsense.  After dinner, he returned to Bettina's chamber,
+with the intention of blessing her, but as soon as she caught sight
+of him, she took up a glass full of some black mixture sent from the
+apothecary, and threw it at his head.  Cordiani, being close by the
+friar, came in for a good share of the liquid-an accident which
+afforded me the greatest delight.  Bettina was quite right to improve
+her opportunity, as everything she did was, of course, put to the
+account of the unfortunate devil.  Not overmuch pleased, Friar
+Prospero, as he left the house, told the doctor that there was no
+doubt of the girl being possessed, but that another exorcist must be
+sent for, since he had not, himself, obtained God's grace to eject
+the evil spirit.
+
+After he had gone, Bettina kept very calm for six hours, and in the
+evening, to our great surprise, she joined us at the supper table.
+She told her parents that she felt quite well, spoke to her brother,
+and then, addressing me, she remarked that, the ball taking place on
+the morrow, she would come to my room in the morning to dress my hair
+like a girl's.  I thanked her, and said that, as she had been so ill,
+she ought to nurse herself.  She soon retired to bed, and we remained
+at the table, talking of her.
+
+When I was undressing for the night, I took up my night-cap, and
+found in it a small note with these words: "You must accompany me to
+the ball, disguised as a girl, or I will give you a sight which will
+cause you to weep."
+
+I waited until the doctor was asleep, and I wrote the following
+answer: "I cannot go to the ball, because I have fully made up my
+mind to avoid every opportunity of being alone with you.  As for the
+painful sight with which you threaten to entertain me, I believe you
+capable of keeping your word, but I entreat you to spare my heart,
+for I love you as if you were my sister.  I have forgiven you, dear
+Bettina, and I wish to forget everything.  I enclose a note which you
+must be delighted to have again in your possession.  You see what
+risk you were running when you left it in your pocket.  This
+restitution must convince you of my friendship."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+Bettina Is Supposed to Go Mad--Father Mancia--The Small-pox--
+I Leave Padua
+
+
+Bettina must have been in despair, not knowing into whose hands her
+letter had fallen; to return it to her and thus to allay her anxiety,
+was therefore a great proof of friendship; but my generosity, at the
+same time that it freed her from a keen sorrow, must have caused her
+another quite as dreadful, for she knew that I was master of her
+secret.  Cordiani's letter was perfectly explicit; it gave the
+strongest evidence that she was in the habit of receiving him every
+night, and therefore the story she had prepared to deceive me was
+useless.  I felt it was so, and, being disposed to calm her anxiety
+as far as I could, I went to her bedside in the morning, and I placed
+in her hands Cordiani's note and my answer to her letter.
+
+The girl's spirit and talent had won my esteem; I could no longer
+despise her; I saw in her only a poor creature seduced by her natural
+temperament.  She loved man, and was to be pitied only on account of
+the consequences.  Believing that the view I took of the situation
+was a right one, I had resigned myself like a reasonable being, and
+not like a disappointed lover.  The shame was for her and not for me.
+I had only one wish, namely, to find out whether the two brothers
+Feltrini, Cordiani's companions, had likewise shared Bettina's
+favours.
+
+Bettina put on throughout the day a cheerful and happy look.  In the
+evening she dressed herself for the ball; but suddenly an attack of
+sickness, whether feigned or real I did not know, compelled her to go
+to bed, and frightened everybody in the house.  As for myself,
+knowing the whole affair, I was prepared for new scenes, and indeed
+for sad ones, for I felt that I had obtained over her a power
+repugnant to her vanity and self-love.  I must, however, confess
+that, in spite of the excellent school in which I found myself before
+I had attained manhood, and which ought to have given me experience
+as a shield for the future, I have through the whole of my life been
+the dupe of women.  Twelve years ago, if it had not been for my
+guardian angel, I would have foolishly married a young, thoughtless
+girl, with whom I had fallen in love: Now that I am seventy-two years
+old I believe myself no longer susceptible of such follies; but,
+alas! that is the very thing which causes me to be miserable.
+
+The next day the whole family was deeply grieved because the devil of
+whom Bettina was possessed had made himself master of her reason.
+Doctor Gozzi told me that there could not be the shadow of a doubt
+that his unfortunate sister was possessed, as, if she had only been
+mad, she never would have so cruelly ill-treated the Capuchin,
+Prospero, and he determined to place her under the care of Father
+Mancia.
+
+This Mancia was a celebrated Jacobin (or Dominican) exorcist, who
+enjoyed the reputation of never having failed to cure a girl
+possessed of the demon.
+
+Sunday had come; Bettina had made a good dinner, but she had been
+frantic all through the day.  Towards midnight her father came home,
+singing Tasso as usual, and so drunk that he could not stand.  He
+went up to Bettina's bed, and after kissing her affectionately he
+said to her: "Thou art not mad, my girl."
+
+Her answer was that he was not drunk.
+
+"Thou art possessed of the devil, my dear child."
+
+"Yes, father, and you alone can cure me."
+
+"Well, I am ready."
+
+Upon this our shoemaker begins a theological discourse, expatiating
+upon the power of faith and upon the virtue of the paternal blessing.
+He throws off his cloak, takes a crucifix with one hand, places the
+other over the head of his daughter, and addresses the devil in such
+an amusing way that even his wife, always a stupid, dull, cross-
+grained old woman, had to laugh till the tears came down her cheeks.
+The two performers in the comedy alone were not laughing, and their
+serious countenance added to the fun of the performance.  I marvelled
+at Bettina (who was always ready to enjoy a good laugh) having
+sufficient control over herself to remain calm and grave.  Doctor
+Gozzi had also given way to merriment; but begged that the farce
+should come to an end, for he deemed that his father's eccentricities
+were as many profanations against the sacredness of exorcism.  At
+last the exorcist, doubtless tired out, went to bed saying that he
+was certain that the devil would not disturb his daughter during the
+night.
+
+On the morrow, just as we had finished our breakfast, Father Mancia
+made his appearance.  Doctor Gozzi, followed by the whole family,
+escorted him to his sister's bedside.  As for me, I was entirely
+taken up by the face of the monk.  Here is his portrait.  His figure
+was tall and majestic, his age about thirty; he had light hair and
+blue eyes; his features were those of Apollo, but without his pride
+and assuming haughtiness; his complexion, dazzling white, was pale,
+but that paleness seemed to have been given for the very purpose of
+showing off the red coral of his lips, through which could be seen,
+when they opened, two rows of pearls.  He was neither thin nor stout,
+and the habitual sadness of his countenance enhanced its sweetness.
+His gait was slow, his air timid, an indication of the great modesty
+of his mind.
+
+When we entered the room Bettina was asleep, or pretended to be so.
+Father Mancia took a sprinkler and threw over her a few drops of holy
+water; she opened her eyes, looked at the monk, and closed them
+immediately; a little while after she opened them again, had a better
+look at him, laid herself on her back, let her arms droop down
+gently, and with her head prettily bent on one side she fell into the
+sweetest of slumbers.
+
+The exorcist, standing by the bed, took out his pocket ritual and the
+stole which he put round his neck, then a reliquary, which he placed
+on the bosom of the sleeping girl, and with the air of a saint he
+begged all of us to fall on our knees and to pray, so that God should
+let him know whether the patient was possessed or only labouring
+under a natural disease.  He kept us kneeling for half an hour,
+reading all the time in a low tone of voice.  Bettina did not stir.
+
+Tired, I suppose, of the performance, he desired to speak privately
+with Doctor Gozzi.  They passed into the next room, out of which they
+emerged after a quarter of an hour, brought back by a loud peal of
+laughter from the mad girl, who, when she saw them, turned her back
+on them.  Father Mancia smiled, dipped the sprinkler over and over in
+the holy water, gave us all a generous shower, and took his leave.
+
+Doctor Gozzi told us that the exorcist would come again on the
+morrow, and that he had promised to deliver Bettina within three
+hours if she were truly possessed of the demon, but that he made no
+promise if it should turn out to be a case of madness.  The mother
+exclaimed that he would surely deliver her, and she poured out her
+thanks to God for having allowed her the grace of beholding a saint
+before her death.
+
+The following day Bettina was in a fine frenzy.  She began to utter
+the most extravagant speeches that a poet could imagine, and did not
+stop when the charming exorcist came into her room; he seemed to
+enjoy her foolish talk for a few minutes, after which, having armed
+himself 'cap-a-pie', he begged us to withdraw.  His order was obeyed
+instantly; we left the chamber, and the door remained open.  But what
+did it matter?  Who would have been bold enough to go in?
+
+During three long hours we heard nothing; the stillness was unbroken.
+At noon the monk called us in.  Bettina was there sad and very quiet
+while the exorcist packed up his things.  He took his departure,
+saying he had very good hopes of the case, and requesting that the
+doctor would send him news of the patient.  Bettina partook of dinner
+in her bed, got up for supper, and the next day behaved herself
+rationally; but the following circumstance strengthened my opinion
+that she had been neither insane nor possessed.
+
+It was two days before the Purification of the Holy Virgin.  Doctor
+Gozzi was in the habit of giving us the sacrament in his own church,
+but he always sent us for our confession to the church of Saint-
+Augustin, in which the Jacobins of Padua officiated.  At the supper
+table, he told us to prepare ourselves for the next day, and his
+mother, addressing us, said: "You ought, all of you, to confess to
+Father Mancia, so as to obtain absolution from that holy man.  I
+intend to go to him myself."  Cordiani and the two Feltrini agreed to
+the proposal; I remained silent, but as the idea was unpleasant to
+me, I concealed the feeling, with a full determination to prevent the
+execution of the project.
+
+I had entire confidence in the secrecy of confession, and I was
+incapable of making a false one, but knowing that I had a right to
+choose my confessor, I most certainly never would have been so simple
+as to confess to Father Mancia what had taken place between me and a
+girl, because he would have easily guessed that the girl could be no
+other but Bettina.  Besides, I was satisfied that Cordiani would
+confess everything to the monk, and I was deeply sorry.
+
+Early the next morning, Bettina brought me a band for my neck, and
+gave me the following letter: "Spurn me, but respect my honour and
+the shadow of peace to which I aspire.  No one from this house must
+confess to Father Mancia; you alone can prevent the execution of
+that project, and I need not suggest the way to succeed.  It will
+prove whether you have some friendship for me."
+
+I could not express the pity I felt for the poor girl, as I read that
+note.  In spite of that feeling, this is what I answered: "I can well
+understand that, notwithstanding the inviolability of confession,
+your mother's proposal should cause you great anxiety; but I cannot
+see why, in order to prevent its execution, you should depend upon me
+rather than upon Cordiani who has expressed his acceptance of it.
+All I can promise you is that I will not be one of those who may go
+to Father Mancia; but I have no influence over your lover; you alone
+can speak to him."
+
+She replied: "I have never addressed a word to Cordiani since the
+fatal night which has sealed my misery, and I never will speak to him
+again, even if I could by so doing recover my lost happiness.  To you
+alone I wish to be indebted for my life and for my honour."
+
+This girl appeared to me more wonderful than all the heroines of whom
+I had read in novels.  It seemed to me that she was making sport of
+me with the most barefaced effrontery.  I thought she was trying to
+fetter me again with her chains; and although I had no inclination
+for them, I made up my mind to render her the service she claimed at
+my hands, and which she believed I alone could compass.  She felt
+certain of her success, but in what school had she obtained her
+experience of the human heart?  Was it in reading novels?  Most
+likely the reading of a certain class of novels causes the ruin of a
+great many young girls, but I am of opinion that from good romances
+they acquire graceful manners and a knowledge of society.
+
+Having made up my mind to shew her every kindness in my power, I took
+an opportunity, as we were undressing for the night, of telling
+Doctor Gozzi that, for conscientious motives, I could not confess to
+Father Mancia, and yet that I did not wish to be an exception in that
+matter.  He kindly answered that he understood my reasons, and that
+he would take us all to the church of Saint-Antoine.  I kissed his
+hand in token of my gratitude.
+
+On the following day, everything having gone according to her wishes,
+I saw Bettina sit down to the table with a face beaming with
+satisfaction.  In the afternoon I had to go to bed in consequence of
+a wound in my foot; the doctor accompanied his pupils to church; and
+Bettina being alone, availed herself of the opportunity, came to my
+room and sat down on my bed.  I had expected her visit, and I
+received it with pleasure, as it heralded an explanation for which I
+was positively longing.
+
+She began by expressing a hope that I would not be angry with her for
+seizing the first opportunity she had of some conversation with me.
+
+"No," I answered, "for you thus afford me an occasion of assuring you
+that, my feelings towards you being those of a friend only, you need
+not have any fear of my causing you any anxiety or displeasure.
+Therefore Bettina, you may do whatever suits you; my love is no more.
+You have at one blow given the death-stroke to the intense passion
+which was blossoming in my heart.  When I reached my room, after the
+ill-treatment I had experienced at Cordiani's hands, I felt for you
+nothing but hatred; that feeling soon merged into utter contempt, but
+that sensation itself was in time, when my mind recovered its
+balance, changed for a feeling of the deepest indifference, which
+again has given way when I saw what power there is in your mind.  I
+have now become your friend; I have conceived the greatest esteem for
+your cleverness.  I have been the dupe of it, but no matter; that
+talent of yours does exist, it is wonderful, divine, I admire it, I
+love it, and the highest homage I can render to it is, in my
+estimation, to foster for the possessor of it the purest feelings of
+friendship.  Reciprocate that friendship, be true, sincere, and plain
+dealing.  Give up all nonsense, for you have already obtained from me
+all I can give you.  The very thought of love is repugnant to me; I
+can bestow my love only where I feel certain of being the only one
+loved.  You are at liberty to lay my foolish delicacy to the account
+of my youthful age, but I feel so, and I cannot help it.  You have
+written to me that you never speak to Cordiani; if I am the cause of
+that rupture between you, I regret it, and I think that, in the
+interest of your honour, you would do well to make it up with him;
+for the future I must be careful never to give him any grounds for
+umbrage or suspicion.  Recollect also that, if you have tempted him
+by the same manoeuvres which you have employed towards me, you are
+doubly wrong, for it may be that, if he truly loves you, you have
+caused him to be miserable."
+
+"All you have just said to me," answered Bettina, "is grounded upon
+false impressions and deceptive appearances.  I do not love Cordiani,
+and I never had any love for him; on the contrary, I have felt, and I
+do feel, for him a hatred which he has richly deserved, and I hope to
+convince you, in spite of every appearance which seems to convict me.
+As to the reproach of seduction, I entreat you to spare me such an
+accusation.  On our side, consider that, if you had not yourself
+thrown temptation in my way, I never would have committed towards you
+an action of which I have deeply repented, for reasons which you do
+not know, but which you must learn from me.  The fault I have been
+guilty of is a serious one only because I did not foresee the injury
+it would do me in the inexperienced mind of the ingrate who dares to
+reproach me with it."
+
+Bettina was shedding tears: all she had said was not unlikely and
+rather complimentary to my vanity, but I had seen too much.  Besides,
+I knew the extent of her cleverness, and it was very natural to lend
+her a wish to deceive me; how could I help thinking that her visit to
+me was prompted only by her self-love being too deeply wounded to let
+me enjoy a victory so humiliating to herself?  Therefore, unshaken in
+my preconceived opinion, I told her that I placed implicit confidence
+in all she had just said respecting the state of her heart previous
+to the playful nonsense which had been the origin of my love for her,
+and that I promised never in the future to allude again to my
+accusation of seduction.  "But," I continued, "confess that the fire
+at that time burning in your bosom was only of short duration, and
+that the slightest breath of wind had been enough to extinguish it.
+Your virtue, which went astray for only one instant, and which has so
+suddenly recovered its mastery over your senses, deserves some
+praise.  You, with all your deep adoring love for me, became all at
+once blind to my sorrow, whatever care I took to make it clear to
+your sight.  It remains for me to learn how that virtue could be so
+very dear to you, at the very time that Cordiani took care to wreck
+it every night."
+
+Bettina eyed me with the air of triumph which perfect confidence in
+victory gives to a person, and said: "You have just reached the point
+where I wished you to be.  You shall now be made aware of things
+which I could not explain before, owing to your refusing the
+appointment which I then gave you for no other purpose than to tell
+you all the truth.  Cordiani declared his love for me a week after he
+became an inmate in our house; he begged my consent to a marriage, if
+his father made the demand of my hand as soon as he should have
+completed his studies.  My answer was that I did not know him
+sufficiently, that I could form no idea on the subject, and I
+requested him not to allude to it any more.  He appeared to have
+quietly given up the matter, but soon after, I found out that it was
+not the case; he begged me one day to come to his room now and then
+to dress his hair; I told him I had no time to spare, and he remarked
+that you were more fortunate.  I laughed at this reproach, as
+everyone here knew that I had the care of you.  It was a fortnight
+after my refusal to Cordiani, that I unfortunately spent an hour with
+you in that loving nonsense which has naturally given you ideas until
+then unknown to your senses.  That hour made me very happy: I loved
+you, and having given way to very natural desires, I revelled in my
+enjoyment without the slightest remorse of conscience.  I was longing
+to be again with you the next morning, but after supper, misfortune
+laid for the first time its hand upon me.  Cordiani slipped in my
+hands this note and this letter which I have since hidden in a hole
+in the wall, with the intention of shewing them to you at the first
+opportunity."
+
+Saying this, Bettina handed me the note and the letter; the first ran
+as follows: "Admit me this evening in your closet, the door of which,
+leading to the yard, can be left ajar, or prepare yourself to make
+the best of it with the doctor, to whom I intend to deliver, if you
+should refuse my request, the letter of which I enclose a copy."
+
+The letter contained the statement of a cowardly and enraged
+informer, and would certainly have caused the most unpleasant
+results.  In that letter Cordiani informed the doctor that his sister
+spent her mornings with me in criminal connection while he was saying
+his mass, and he pledged himself to enter into particulars which
+would leave him no doubt.
+
+"After giving to the case the consideration it required," continued
+Bettina, "I made up my mind to hear that monster; but my
+determination being fixed, I put in my pocket my father's stilletto,
+and holding my door ajar I waited for him there, unwilling to let him
+come in, as my closet is divided only by a thin partition from the
+room of my father, whom the slightest noise might have roused up.  My
+first question to Cordiani was in reference to the slander contained
+in the letter he threatened to deliver to my brother: he answered
+that it was no slander, for he had been a witness to everything that
+had taken place in the morning through a hole he had bored in the
+garret just above your bed, and to which he would apply his eye the
+moment he knew that I was in your room.  He wound up by threatening
+to discover everything to my brother and to my mother, unless I
+granted him the same favours I had bestowed upon you.  In my just
+indignation I loaded him with the most bitter insults, I called him a
+cowardly spy and slanderer, for he could not have seen anything but
+childish playfulness, and I declared to him that he need not flatter
+himself that any threat would compel me to give the slightest
+compliance to his wishes.  He then begged and begged my pardon a
+thousand times, and went on assuring me that I must lay to my rigour
+the odium of the step he had taken, the only excuse for it being in
+the fervent love I had kindled in his heart, and which made him
+miserable.  He acknowledged that his letter might be a slander, that
+he had acted treacherously, and he pledged his honour never to
+attempt obtaining from me by violence favours which he desired to
+merit only by the constancy of his love.  I then thought myself to
+some extent compelled to say that I might love him at some future
+time, and to promise that I would not again come near your bed during
+the absence of my brother.  In this way I dismissed him satisfied,
+without his daring to beg for so much as a kiss, but with the promise
+that we might now and then have some conversation in the same place.
+As soon as he left me I went to bed, deeply grieved that I could no
+longer see you in the absence of my brother, and that I was unable,
+for fear of consequences, to let you know the reason of my change.
+Three weeks passed off in that position, and I cannot express what
+have been my sufferings, for you, of course, urged me to come, and I
+was always under the painful necessity of disappointing you.  I even
+feared to find myself alone with you, for I felt certain that I could
+not have refrained from telling you the cause of the change in my
+conduct.  To crown my misery, add that I found myself compelled, at
+least once a week, to receive the vile Cordiani outside of my room,
+and to speak to him, in order to check his impatience with a few
+words.  At last, unable to bear up any longer under such misery,
+threatened likewise by you, I determined to end my agony.  I wished
+to disclose to you all this intrigue, leaving to you the care of
+bringing a change for the better, and for that purpose I proposed
+that you should accompany me to the ball disguised as a girl,
+although I knew it would enrage Cordiani; but my mind was made up.
+You know how my scheme fell to the ground.  The unexpected departure
+of my brother with my father suggested to both of you the same idea,
+and it was before receiving Cordiani's letter that I promised to come
+to you.  Cordiani did not ask for an appointment; he only stated that
+he would be waiting for me in my closet, and I had no opportunity of
+telling him that I could not allow him to come, any more than I could
+find time to let you know that I would be with you only after
+midnight, as I intended to do, for I reckoned that after an hour's
+talk I would dismiss the wretch to his room.  But my reckoning was
+wrong; Cordiani had conceived a scheme, and I could not help
+listening to all he had to say about it.  His whining and exaggerated
+complaints had no end.  He upbraided me for refusing to further the
+plan he had concocted, and which he thought I would accept with
+rapture if I loved him.  The scheme was for me to elope with him
+during holy week, and to run away to Ferrara, where he had an uncle
+who would have given us a kind welcome, and would soon have brought
+his father to forgive him and to insure our happiness for life.  The
+objections I made, his answers, the details to be entered into, the
+explanations and the ways and means to be examined to obviate the
+difficulties of the project, took up the whole night.  My heart was
+bleeding as I thought of you; but my conscience is at rest, and I did
+nothing that could render me unworthy of your esteem.  You cannot
+refuse it to me, unless you believe that the confession I have just
+made is untrue; but you would be both mistaken and  unjust.  Had I
+made up my mind to sacrifice myself and to grant favours which love
+alone ought to obtain, I might have got rid of the treacherous wretch
+within one hour, but death seemed preferable to such a dreadful
+expedient.  Could I in any way suppose that you were outside of my
+door, exposed to the wind and to the  snow?  Both of us were
+deserving of pity, but my misery  was still greater than yours.  All
+these fearful circumstances were written in the book of fate, to make
+me lose my reason, which now returns only at intervals, and I am in
+constant dread of a fresh attack of those awful convulsions.  They
+say I am bewitched, and possessed of the demon; I do not know
+anything about it, but if it should be true I am the most miserable
+creature in  existence."  Bettina ceased speaking, and burst into a
+violent storm of tears, sobs, and groans.  I was deeply moved,
+although I felt that all she had said might be true, and yet was
+scarcely worthy of belief:
+
+     'Forse era ver, ma non pero credibile
+      A chi del senso suo fosse signor.'
+
+But she was weeping, and her tears, which at all events were not
+deceptive, took away from me the faculty of doubt.  Yet I put her
+tears to the account of her wounded self-love; to give way entirely I
+needed a thorough conviction, and to obtain it evidence was
+necessary, probability was not enough.  I could not admit either
+Cordiani's moderation or Bettina's patience, or the fact of seven
+hours employed in innocent conversation.  In spite of all these
+considerations, I felt a sort of pleasure in accepting for ready cash
+all the counterfeit coins that she had spread out before me.
+
+After drying her tears, Bettina fixed her beautiful eyes upon mine,
+thinking that she could discern in them evident signs of her victory;
+but I surprised her much by alluding to one point which, with all her
+cunning, she had neglected to mention in her defence.  Rhetoric makes
+use of nature's secrets in the same way as painters who try to
+imitate it: their most beautiful work is false.  This young girl,
+whose mind had not been refined by study, aimed at being considered
+innocent and artless, and she did her best to succeed, but I had seen
+too good a specimen of her cleverness.
+
+"Well, my dear Bettina," I said, "your story has affected me; but how
+do you think I am going to accept your convulsions as natural, and to
+believe in the demoniac symptoms which came on so seasonably during
+the exorcisms, although you very properly expressed your doubts on
+the matter?"
+
+Hearing this, Bettina stared at me, remaining silent for a few
+minutes, then casting her eyes down she gave way to fresh tears,
+exclaiming now and then: "Poor me! oh, poor me!"  This situation,
+however, becoming most painful to me, I asked what I could do for
+her.  She answered in a sad tone that if my heart did not suggest to
+me what to do, she did not herself see what she could demand of me.
+
+"I thought," said she, "that I would reconquer my lost influence over
+your heart, but, I see it too plainly, you no longer feel an interest
+in me.  Go on treating me harshly; go on taking for mere fictions
+sufferings which are but too real, which you have caused, and which
+you will now increase.  Some day, but too late, you will be sorry,
+and your repentance will be bitter indeed."
+
+As she pronounced these words she rose to take her leave; but judging
+her capable of anything I felt afraid, and I detained her to say that
+the only way to regain my affection was to remain one month without
+convulsions and without handsome Father Mancia's presence being
+required.
+
+"I cannot help being convulsed," she answered, "but what do you mean
+by applying to the Jacobin that epithet of handsome?  Could you
+suppose--?"
+
+"Not at all, not at all--I suppose nothing; to do so would be
+necessary for me to be jealous.  But I cannot help saying that the
+preference given by your devils to the exorcism of that handsome monk
+over the incantations of the ugly Capuchin is likely to give birth to
+remarks rather detrimental to your honour.  Moreover, you are free to
+do whatever pleases you."
+
+Thereupon she left my room, and a few minutes later everybody came
+home.
+
+After supper the servant, without any question on my part, informed
+me that Bettina had gone to bed with violent feverish chills, having
+previously had her bed carried into the kitchen beside her mother's.
+This attack of fever might be real, but I had my doubts.  I felt
+certain that she would never make up her mind to be well, for her
+good health would have supplied me with too strong an argument
+against her pretended innocence, even in the case of Cordiani; I
+likewise considered her idea of having her bed placed near her
+mother's nothing but artful contrivance.
+
+The next day Doctor Olivo found her very feverish, and told her
+brother that she would most likely be excited and delirious, but that
+it would be the effect of the fever and not the work of the devil.
+And truly, Bettina was raving all day, but Dr. Gozzi, placing
+implicit confidence in the physician, would not listen to his mother,
+and did not send for the Jacobin friar.  The fever increased in
+violence, and on the fourth day the small-pox broke out.  Cordiani
+and the two brothers Feitrini, who had so far escaped that disease,
+were immediately sent away, but as I had had it before I remained at
+home.
+
+The poor girl was so fearfully covered with the loathsome eruption,
+that on the sixth day her skin could not be seen on any part of her
+body.  Her eyes closed, and her life was despaired of, when it was
+found that her mouth and throat were obstructed to such a degree that
+she could swallow nothing but a few drops of honey.  She was
+perfectly motionless; she breathed and that was all.  Her mother
+never left her bedside, and I was thought a saint when I carried my
+table and my books into the patient's room.  The unfortunate girl had
+become a fearful sight to look upon; her head was dreadfully swollen,
+the nose could no longer be seen, and much fear was entertained for
+her eyes, in case her life should be spared.  The odour of her
+perspiration was most offensive, but I persisted in keeping my watch
+by her.
+
+On the ninth day, the vicar gave her absolution, and after
+administering extreme unction, he left her, as he said, in the hands
+of God.  In the midst of so much sadness, the conversation of the
+mother with her son, would, in spite of myself, cause me some amount
+of merriment.  The good woman wanted to know whether the demon who
+was dwelling in her child could still influence her to perform
+extravagant follies, and what would become of the demon in the case
+of her daughter's death, for, as she expressed it, she could not
+think of his being so stupid as to remain in so loathsome a body.
+She particularly wanted to ascertain whether the demon had power to
+carry off the soul of her child.  Doctor Gozzi, who was an
+ubiquitarian, made to all those questions answers which had not even
+the shadow of good sense, and which of course had no other effect
+than to increase a hundred-fold the perplexity of his poor mother.
+
+During the tenth and eleventh days, Bettina was so bad that we
+thought every moment likely to be her last.  The disease had reached
+its worst period; the smell was unbearable; I alone would not leave
+her, so sorely did I pity her.  The heart of man is indeed an
+unfathomable abyss, for, however incredible it may appear, it was
+while in that fearful state that Bettina inspired me with the
+fondness which I showed her after her recovery.
+
+On the thirteenth day the fever abated, but the patient began to
+experience great irritation, owing to a dreadful itching, which no
+remedy could have allayed as effectually as these powerful words
+which I kept constantly pouring into her ear: "Bettina, you are
+getting better; but if you dare to scratch yourself, you will become
+such a fright that nobody will ever love you." All the physicians in
+the universe might be challenged to prescribe a more potent remedy
+against itching for a girl who, aware that she has been pretty, finds
+herself exposed to the loss of her beauty through her own fault, if
+she scratches herself.
+
+At last her fine eyes opened again to the light of heaven; she was
+moved to her own room, but she had to keep her bed until Easter.  She
+inoculated me with a few pocks, three of which have left upon my face
+everlasting marks; but in her eyes they gave me credit for great
+devotedness, for they were a proof of my constant care, and she felt
+that I indeed deserved her whole love.  And she truly loved me, and I
+returned her love, although I never plucked a flower which fate and
+prejudice kept in store for a husband.  But what a contemptible
+husband!
+
+Two years later she married a shoemaker, by name Pigozzo--a base,
+arrant knave who beggared and ill-treated her to such an extent that
+her brother had to take her home and to provide for her.  Fifteen
+years afterwards, having been appointed arch-priest at Saint-George
+de la Vallee, he took her there with him, and when I went to pay him
+a visit eighteen years ago, I found Bettina old, ill, and dying.  She
+breathed her last in my arms in 1776, twenty-four hours after my
+arrival.  I will speak of her death in good time.
+
+About that period, my mother returned from St. Petersburg, where the
+Empress Anne Iwanowa had not approved of the Italian comedy.  The
+whole of the troop had already returned to Italy, and my mother had
+travelled with Carlin Bertinazzi, the harlequin, who died in Paris in
+the year 1783.  As soon as she had reached Padua, she informed Doctor
+Gozzi of her arrival, and he lost no time in accompanying me to the
+inn where she had put up.  We dined with her, and before bidding us
+adieu, she presented the doctor with a splendid fur, and gave me the
+skin of a lynx for Bettina.  Six months afterwards she summoned me to
+Venice, as she wished to see me before leaving for Dresden, where she
+had contracted an engagement for life in the service of the Elector
+of Saxony, Augustus III., King of Poland.  She took with her my
+brother Jean, then eight years old, who was weeping bitterly when he
+left; I thought him very foolish, for there was nothing very tragic
+in that departure.  He is the only one in the family who was wholly
+indebted to our mother for his fortune, although he was not her
+favourite child.
+
+I spent another year in Padua, studying law in which I took the
+degree of Doctor in my sixteenth year, the subject of my thesis being
+in the civil law, 'de testamentis', and in the canon law, 'utrum
+Hebraei possint construere novas synagogas'.
+
+My vocation was to study medicine, and to practice it, for I felt a
+great inclination for that profession, but no heed was given to my
+wishes, and I was compelled to apply myself to the study of the law,
+for which I had an invincible repugnance.  My friends were of opinion
+that I could not make my fortune in any profession but that of an
+advocate, and, what is still worse, of an ecclesiastical advocate.
+If they had given the matter proper consideration, they would have
+given me leave to follow my own inclinations, and I would have been a
+physician--a profession in which quackery is of still greater avail
+than in the legal business.  I never became either a physician or an
+advocate, and I never would apply to a lawyer, when I had any legal
+business, nor call in a physician when I happened to be ill.
+Lawsuits and pettifoggery may support a good many families, but a
+greater proportion is ruined by them, and those who perish in the
+hands, of physicians are more numerous by far than those who get
+cured strong evidence in my opinion, that mankind would be much less
+miserable without either lawyers or doctors.
+
+To attend the lectures of the professors, I had to go to the
+university called the Bo, and it became necessary for me to go out
+alone.  This was a matter of great wonder to me, for until then I had
+never considered myself a free man; and in my wish to enjoy fully the
+liberty I thought I had just conquered, it was not long before I had
+made the very worst acquaintances amongst the most renowned students.
+As a matter of course, the most renowned were the most worthless,
+dissolute fellows, gamblers, frequenters of disorderly houses, hard
+drinkers, debauchees, tormentors and suborners of honest girls,
+liars, and wholly incapable of any good or virtuous feeling.  In the
+company of such men did I begin my apprenticeship of the world,
+learning my lesson from the book of experience.
+
+The theory of morals and its usefulness through the life of man can
+be compared to the advantage derived by running over the index of a
+book before reading it when we have perused that index we know
+nothing but the subject of the work.  This is like the school for
+morals offered by the sermons, the precepts, and the tales which our
+instructors recite for our especial benefit.  We lend our whole
+attention to those lessons, but when an opportunity offers of
+profiting by the advice thus bestowed upon us, we feel inclined to
+ascertain for ourselves whether the result will turn out as
+predicted; we give way to that very natural inclination, and
+punishment speedily follows with concomitant repentance.  Our only
+consolation lies in the fact that in such moments we are conscious of
+our own knowledge, and consider ourselves as having earned the right
+to instruct others; but those to whom we wish to impart our
+experience act exactly as we have acted before them, and, as a matter
+of course, the world remains in statu quo, or grows worse and worse.
+
+When Doctor Gozzi granted me the privilege of going out alone, he
+gave me an opportunity for the discovery of several truths which,
+until then, were not only unknown to me, but the very existence of
+which I had never suspected.  On my first appearance, the boldest
+scholars got hold of me and sounded my depth.  Finding that I was a
+thorough freshman, they undertook my education, and with that worthy
+purpose in view they allowed me to fall blindly into every trap.
+They taught me gambling, won the little I possessed, and then they
+made me play upon trust, and put me up to dishonest practices in
+order to procure the means of paying my gambling debts; but I
+acquired at the same time the sad experience of sorrow!  Yet these
+hard lessons proved useful, for they taught me to mistrust the
+impudent sycophants who openly flatter their dupes, and never to rely
+upon the offers made by fawning flatterers.  They taught me likewise
+how to behave in the company of quarrelsome duellists, the society of
+whom ought to be avoided, unless we make up our mind to be constantly
+in the very teeth of danger.  I was not caught in the snares of
+professional lewd women, because not one of them was in my eyes as
+pretty as Bettina, but I did not resist so well the desire for that
+species of vain glory which is the reward of holding life at a cheap
+price.
+
+In those days the students in Padua enjoyed very great privileges,
+which were in reality abuses made legal through prescription, the
+primitive characteristic of privileges, which differ essentially from
+prerogatives.  In fact, in order to maintain the legality of their
+privileges, the students often committed crimes.  The guilty were
+dealt with tenderly, because the interest of the city demanded that
+severity should not diminish the great influx of scholars who flocked
+to that renowned university from every part of Europe.  The practice
+of the Venetian government was to secure at a high salary the most
+celebrated professors, and to grant the utmost freedom to the young
+men attending their lessons.  The students acknowledged no authority
+but that of a chief, chosen among themselves, and called syndic.  He
+was usually a foreign nobleman, who could keep a large establishment,
+and who was responsible to the government for the behaviour of the
+scholars.  It was his duty to give them up to justice when they
+transgressed the laws, and the students never disputed his sentence,
+because he always defended them to the utmost, when they had the
+slightest shadow of right on their side.
+
+The students, amongst other privileges, would not suffer their trunks
+to be searched by customhouse authorities, and no ordinary policeman
+would have dared to arrest one of them.  They carried about them
+forbidden weapons, seduced helpless girls, and often disturbed the
+public peace by their nocturnal broils and impudent practical jokes;
+in one word, they were a body of young fellows, whom nothing could
+restrain, who would gratify every whim, and enjoy their sport without
+regard or consideration for any human being.
+
+It was about that time that a policeman entered a coffee-room, in
+which were seated two students.  One of them ordered him out, but the
+man taking no notice of it, the student fired a pistol at him, and
+missed his aim.  The policeman returned the fire, wounded the
+aggressor, and ran away.  The students immediately mustered together
+at the Bo, divided into bands, and went over the city, hunting the
+policemen to murder them, and avenge the insult they had received.
+In one of the encounters two of the students were killed, and all the
+others, assembling in one troop, swore never to lay their arms down
+as long as there should be one policeman alive in Padua.  The
+authorities had to interfere, and the syndic of the students
+undertook to put a stop to hostilities provided proper satisfaction
+was given, as the police were in the wrong.  The man who had shot the
+student in the coffee-room was hanged, and peace was restored; but
+during the eight days of agitation, as I was anxious not to appear
+less brave than my comrades who were patrolling the city, I followed
+them in spite of Doctor Gozzi's remonstrances.  Armed with a carbine
+and a pair of pistols, I ran about the town with the others, in quest
+of the enemy, and I recollect how disappointed I was because the
+troop to which I belonged did not meet one policeman.  When the war
+was over, the doctor laughed at me, but Bettina admired my valour.
+Unfortunately, I indulged in expenses far above my means, owing to my
+unwillingness to seem poorer than my new friends.  I sold or pledged
+everything I possessed, and I contracted debts which I could not
+possibly pay.  This state of things caused my first sorrows, and they
+are the most poignant sorrows under which a young man can smart.  Not
+knowing which way to turn, I wrote to my excellent grandmother,
+begging her assistance, but instead of sending me some money, she
+came to Padua on the 1st of October, 1739, and, after thanking the
+doctor and Bettina for all their affectionate care, she bought me
+back to Venice.  As he took leave of me, the doctor, who was shedding
+tears, gave me what he prized most on earth; a relic of some saint,
+which perhaps I might have kept to this very day, had not the setting
+been of gold.  It performed only one miracle, that of being of
+service to me in a moment of great need.  Whenever I visited Padua,
+to complete my study of the law, I stayed at the house of the kind
+doctor, but I was always grieved at seeing near Bettina the brute to
+whom she was engaged, and who did not appear to me deserving of such
+a wife.  I have always regretted that a prejudice, of which I soon
+got rid, should have made me preserve for that man a flower which I
+could have plucked so easily.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+I receive the minor orders from the patriarch of Venice--I get
+acquainted with Senator Malipiero, with Therese Imer, with the niece
+of the Curate, with Madame Orio, with Nanette and Marton, and with
+the Cavamacchia--I become a preacher--my adventure with Lucie at
+Pasean A rendezvous on the third story.
+
+
+"He comes from Padua, where he has completed his studies."  Such were
+the words by which I was everywhere introduced, and which, the moment
+they were uttered, called upon me the silent observation of every
+young man of my age and condition, the compliments of all fathers,
+and the caresses of old women, as well as the kisses of a few who,
+although not old, were not sorry to be considered so for the sake of
+embracing a young man without impropriety.  The curate of Saint-
+Samuel, the Abbe Josello, presented me to Monsignor Correre,
+Patriarch of Venice, who gave me the tonsure, and who, four months
+afterwards, by special favour, admitted me to the four minor orders.
+No words could express the joy and the pride of my grandmother.
+Excellent masters were given to me to continue my studies, and M.
+Baffo chose the Abbe Schiavo to teach me a pure Italian style,
+especially poetry, for which I had a decided talent.  I was very
+comfortably lodged with my brother Francois, who was studying
+theatrical architecture.  My sister and my youngest brother were
+living with our grandam in a house of her own, in which it was her
+wish to die, because her husband had there breathed his last.  The
+house in which I dwelt was the same in which my father had died, and
+the rent of which my mother continued to pay.  It was large and well
+furnished.
+
+Although Abbe Grimani was my chief protector, I seldom saw him, and I
+particularly attached myself to M. de Malipiero, to whom I had been
+presented by the Curate Josello.  M. de Malipiero was a senator, who
+was unwilling at seventy years of age to attend any more to State
+affairs, and enjoyed a happy, sumptuous life in his mansion,
+surrounded every evening by a well-chosen party of ladies who had all
+known how to make the best of their younger days, and of gentlemen
+who were always acquainted with the news of the town.  He was a
+bachelor and wealthy, but, unfortunately, he had three or four times
+every year severe attacks of gout, which always left him crippled in
+some part or other of his body, so that all his person was disabled.
+His head, his lungs, and his stomach had alone escaped this cruel
+havoc.  He was still a fine man, a great epicure, and a good judge of
+wine; his wit was keen, his knowledge of the world extensive, his
+eloquence worthy of a son of Venice, and he had that wisdom which
+must naturally belong to a senator who for forty years has had the
+management of public affairs, and to a man who has bid farewell to
+women after having possessed twenty mistresses, and only when he felt
+himself compelled to acknowledge that he could no longer be accepted
+by any woman.  Although almost entirely crippled, he did not appear
+to be so when he was seated, when he talked, or when he was at table.
+He had only one meal a day, and always took it alone because, being
+toothless and unable to eat otherwise than very slowly, he did not
+wish to hurry himself out of compliment to his guests, and would have
+been sorry to see them waiting for him.  This feeling deprived him of
+the pleasure he would have enjoyed in entertaining at his board
+friendly and agreeable guests, and caused great sorrow to his
+excellent cook.
+
+The first time I had the honour of being introduced to him by the
+curate, I opposed earnestly the reason which made him eat his meals
+in solitude, and I said that his excellency had only to invite guests
+whose appetite was good enough to enable them to eat a double share.
+
+"But where can I find such table companions?" he asked.
+
+"It is rather a delicate matter," I answered; "but you must take your
+guests on trial, and after they have been found such as you wish them
+to be, the only difficulty will be to keep them as your guests
+without their being aware of the real cause of your preference, for
+no respectable man could acknowledge that he enjoys the honour of
+sitting at your excellency's table only because he eats twice as much
+as any other man."
+
+The senator understood the truth of my argument, and asked the curate
+to bring me to dinner on the following day.  He found my practice
+even better than my theory, and I became his daily guest.
+
+This man, who had given up everything in life except his own self,
+fostered an amorous inclination, in spite of his age and of his gout.
+He loved a young girl named Therese Imer, the daughter of an actor
+residing near his mansion, her bedroom window being opposite to his
+own.  This young girl, then in her seventeenth year, was pretty,
+whimsical, and a regular coquette.  She was practising music with a
+view to entering the theatrical profession, and by showing herself
+constantly at the window she had intoxicated the old senator, and was
+playing with him cruelly.  She paid him a daily visit, but always
+escorted by her mother, a former actress, who had retired from the
+stage in order to work out her salvation, and who, as a matter of
+course, had made up her mind to combine the interests of heaven with
+the works of this world.  She took her daughter to mass every day and
+compelled her to go to confession every week; but every afternoon she
+accompanied her in a visit to the amorous old man, the rage of whom
+frightened me when she refused him a kiss under the plea that she had
+performed her devotions in the morning, and that she could not
+reconcile herself to the idea of offending the God who was still
+dwelling in her.
+
+What a sight for a young man of fifteen like me, whom the old man
+admitted as the only and silent witness of these erotic scenes!  The
+miserable mother applauded her daughter's reserve, and went so far as
+to lecture the elderly lover, who, in his turn, dared not refute her
+maxims, which savoured either too much or too little of Christianity,
+and resisted a very strong inclination to hurl at her head any object
+he had at hand.  Anger would then take the place of lewd desires, and
+after they had retired he would comfort himself by exchanging with me
+philosophical considerations.
+
+Compelled to answer him, and not knowing well what to say, I ventured
+one day upon advising a marriage.  He struck me with amazement when
+he answered that she refused to marry him from fear of drawing upon
+herself the hatred of his relatives.
+
+"Then make her the offer of a large sum of money, or a position."
+
+"She says that she would not, even for a crown, commit a deadly sin."
+
+"In that case, you must either take her by storm, or banish her for
+ever from your presence."
+
+"I can do neither one nor the other; physical as well as moral
+strength is deficient in me."
+
+"Kill her, then."
+
+"That will very likely be the case unless I die first."
+
+"Indeed I pity your excellency."
+
+"Do you sometimes visit her?"
+
+"No, for I might fall in love with her, and I would be miserable."
+
+"You are right."
+
+Witnessing many such scenes, and taking part in many similar
+conversations, I became an especial favourite with the old nobleman.
+I was invited to his evening assemblies which were, as I have stated
+before, frequented by superannuated women and witty men.  He told me
+that in this circle I would learn a science of greater import than
+Gassendi's philosophy, which I was then studying by his advice
+instead of Aristotle's, which he turned into ridicule.  He laid down
+some precepts for my conduct in those assemblies, explaining the
+necessity of my observing them, as there would be some wonder at a
+young man of my age being received at such parties.  He ordered me
+never to open my lips except to answer direct questions, and
+particularly enjoined me never to pass an opinion on any subject,
+because at my age I could not be allowed to have any opinions.
+
+I faithfully followed his precepts, and obeyed his orders so well,
+that in a few days I had gained his esteem, and become the child of
+the house, as well as the favourite of all the ladies who visited
+him.  In my character of a young and innocent ecclesiastic, they
+would ask me to accompany them in their visits to the convents where
+their daughters or their nieces were educated; I was at all hours
+received at their houses without even being announced; I was scolded
+if a week elapsed without my calling upon them, and when I went to
+the apartments reserved for the young ladies, they would run away,
+but the moment they saw that the intruder was only I, they would
+return at once, and their confidence was very charming to me.
+
+Before dinner, M. de Malipiero would often inquire from me what
+advantages were accruing to me from the welcome I received at the
+hands of the respectable ladies I had become acquainted with at his
+house, taking care to tell me, before I could have time to answer,
+that they were all endowed with the greatest virtue, and that I would
+give everybody a bad opinion of myself, if I ever breathed one word
+of disparagement to the high reputation they all enjoyed.  In this
+way he would inculcate in me the wise precept of reserve and
+discretion.
+
+It was at the senator's house that I made the acquaintance of Madame
+Manzoni, the wife of a notary public, of whom I shall have to speak
+very often.  This worthy lady inspired me with the deepest
+attachment, and she gave me the wisest advice.  Had I followed it,
+and profited by it, my life would not have been exposed to so many
+storms; it is true that in that case, my life would not be worth
+writing.
+
+All these fine acquaintances amongst women who enjoyed the reputation
+of being high-bred ladies, gave me a very natural desire to shine by
+my good looks and by the elegance of my dress; but my father
+confessor, as well as my grandmother, objected very strongly to this
+feeling of vanity.  On one occasion, taking me apart, the curate told
+me, with honeyed words, that in the profession to which I had devoted
+myself my thoughts ought to dwell upon the best means of being
+agreeable to God, and not on pleasing the world by my fine
+appearance.  He condemned my elaborate curls, and the exquisite
+perfume of my pomatum.  He said that the devil had got hold of me by
+the hair, that I would be excommunicated if I continued to take such
+care of it, and concluded by quoting for my benefit these words from
+an oecumenical council: 'clericus qui nutrit coman, anathema sit'.
+I answered him with the names of several fashionable perfumed abbots,
+who were not threatened with excommunication, who were not interfered
+with, although they wore four times as much powder as I did--for I
+only used a slight sprinkling--who perfumed their hair with a certain
+amber-scented pomatum which brought women to the very point of
+fainting, while mine, a jessamine pomade, called forth the compliment
+of every circle in which I was received.  I added that I could not,
+much to my regret, obey him, and that if I had meant to live in
+slovenliness, I would have become a Capuchin and not an abbe.
+
+My answer made him so angry that, three or four days afterwards, he
+contrived to obtain leave from my grandmother to enter my chamber
+early in the morning, before I was awake, and, approaching my bed on
+tiptoe with a sharp pair of scissors, he cut off unmercifully all my
+front hair, from one ear to the other.  My brother Francois was in
+the adjoining room and saw him, but he did not interfere as he was
+delighted at my misfortune.  He wore a wig, and was very jealous of
+my beautiful head of hair.  Francois was envious through the whole of
+his life; yet he combined this feeling of envy with friendship; I
+never could understand him; but this vice of his, like my own vices,
+must by this time have died of old age.
+
+After his great operation, the abbe left my room quietly, but when I
+woke up shortly afterwards, and realized all the horror of this
+unheard-of execution, my rage and indignation were indeed wrought to
+the highest pitch.
+
+What wild schemes of revenge my brain engendered while, with a
+looking-glass in my hand, I was groaning over the shameful havoc
+performed by this audacious priest!  At the noise I made my
+grandmother hastened to my room, and amidst my brother's laughter the
+kind old woman assured me that the priest would never have been
+allowed to enter my room if she could have foreseen his intention,
+and she managed to soothe my passion to some extent by confessing
+that he had over-stepped the limits of his right to administer a
+reproof.
+
+But I was determined upon revenge, and I went on dressing myself and
+revolving in my mind the darkest plots.  It seemed to me that I was
+entitled to the most cruel revenge, without having anything to dread
+from the terrors of the law.  The theatres being open at that time I
+put on a mask to go out, and I, went to the advocate Carrare, with
+whom I had become acquainted at the senator's house, to inquire from
+him whether I could bring a suit against the priest.  He told me
+that, but a short time since, a family had been ruined for having
+sheared the moustache of a Sclavonian--a crime not nearly so
+atrocious as the shearing of all my front locks, and that I had only
+to give him my instructions to begin a criminal suit against the
+abbe, which would make him tremble.  I gave my consent, and begged
+that he would tell M. de Malipiero in the evening the reason for
+which I could not go to his house, for I did not feel any inclination
+to show myself anywhere until my hair had grown again.
+
+I went home and partook with my brother of a repast which appeared
+rather scanty in comparison to the dinners I had with the old
+senator.  The privation of the delicate and plentiful fare to which
+his excellency had accustomed me was most painful, besides all the
+enjoyments from which I was excluded through the atrocious conduct of
+the virulent priest, who was my godfather.  I wept from sheer
+vexation; and my rage was increased by the consciousness that there
+was in this insult a certain dash of comical fun which threw over me
+a ridicule more disgraceful in my estimation than the greatest crime.
+
+I went to bed early, and, refreshed by ten hours of profound slumber,
+I felt in the morning somewhat less angry, but quite as determined to
+summon the priest before a court.  I dressed myself with the
+intention of calling upon my advocate, when I received the visit of a
+skilful hair-dresser whom I had seen at Madame Cantarini's house.  He
+told me that he was sent by M. de Malipiero to arrange my hair so
+that I could go out, as the senator wished me to dine with him on
+that very day.  He examined the damage done to my head, and said,
+with a smile, that if I would trust to his art, he would undertake to
+send me out with an appearance of even greater elegance than I could
+boast of before; and truly, when he had done, I found myself so good-
+looking that I considered my thirst for revenge entirely satisfied.
+
+Having thus forgotten the injury, I called upon the lawyer to tell
+him to stay all proceedings, and I hastened to M. de Malipiero's
+palace, where, as chance would have it, I met the abbe.
+Notwithstanding all my joy, I could not help casting upon him rather
+unfriendly looks, but not a word was said about what had taken place.
+The senator noticed everything, and the priest took his leave, most
+likely with feelings of mortified repentance, for this time I most
+verily deserved excommunication by the extreme studied elegance of my
+curling hair.
+
+When my cruel godfather had left us, I did not dissemble with M. de
+Malipiero; I candidly told him that I would look out for another
+church, and that nothing would induce me to remain under a priest
+who, in his wrath, could go the length of such proceedings.  The wise
+old man agreed with me, and said that I was quite right: it was the
+best way to make me do ultimately whatever he liked.  In the evening
+everyone in our circle, being well aware of what had happened,
+complimented me, and assured me that nothing could be handsomer than
+my new head-dress.  I was delighted, and was still more gratified
+when, after a fortnight had elapsed, I found that M. de Malipiero did
+not broach the subject of my returning to my godfather's church.  My
+grandmother alone constantly urged me to return.  But this calm was
+the harbinger of a storm.  When my mind was thoroughly at rest on
+that subject, M. de Malipiero threw me into the greatest astonishment
+by suddenly telling me that an excellent opportunity offered itself
+for me to reappear in the church and to secure ample satisfaction
+from the abbe.
+
+"It is my province," added the senator, "as president of the
+Confraternity of the Holy Sacrament, to choose the preacher who is to
+deliver the sermon on the fourth Sunday of this month, which happens
+to be the second Christmas holiday.  I mean to appoint you, and I am
+certain that the abbe will not dare to reject my choice.  What say
+you to such a triumphant reappearance?  Does it satisfy you?"
+
+This offer caused me the greatest surprise, for I had never dreamt of
+becoming a preacher, and I had never been vain enough to suppose that
+I could write a sermon and deliver it in the church.  I told M. de
+Malipiero that he must surely be enjoying a joke at my expense, but
+he answered that he had spoken in earnest, and he soon contrived to
+persuade me and to make me believe that I was born to become the most
+renowned preacher of our age as soon as I should have grown fat--a
+quality which I certainly could not boast of, for at that time I was
+extremely thin.  I had not the shadow of a fear as to my voice or to
+my elocution, and for the matter of composing my sermon I felt myself
+equal to the production of a masterpiece.
+
+I told M. de Malipiero that I was ready, and anxious to be at home in
+order to go to work; that, although no theologian, I was acquainted
+with my subject, and would compose a sermon which would take everyone
+by surprise on account of its novelty.
+
+On the following day, when I called upon him, he informed me that the
+abbe had expressed unqualified delight at the choice made by him, and
+at my readiness in accepting the appointment; but he likewise desired
+that I should submit my sermon to him as soon as it was written,
+because the subject belonging to the most sublime theology he could
+not allow me to enter the pulpit without being satisfied that I would
+not utter any heresies.  I agreed to this demand, and during the week
+I gave birth to my masterpiece.  I have now that first sermon in my
+possession, and I cannot help saying that, considering my tender
+years, I think it a very good one.
+
+I could not give an idea of my grandmother's joy; she wept tears of
+happiness at having a grandson who had become an apostle.  She
+insisted upon my reading my sermon to her, listened to it with her
+beads in her hands, and pronounced it very beautiful.  M. de
+Malipiero, who had no rosary when I read it to him, was of opinion
+that it would not prove acceptable to the parson.  My text was from
+Horace: 'Ploravere suis non respondere favorem sperdtum meritis'; and
+I deplored the wickedness and ingratitude of men, through which had
+failed the design adopted by Divine wisdom for the redemption of
+humankind.  But M. de Malipiero was sorry that I had taken my text
+from any heretical poet, although he was pleased that my sermon was
+not interlarded with Latin quotations.
+
+I called upon the priest to read my production; but as he was out I
+had to wait for his return, and during that time I fell in love with
+his niece, Angela.  She was busy upon some tambour work; I sat down
+close by her, and telling me that she had long desired to make my
+acquaintance, she begged me to relate the history of the locks of
+hair sheared by her venerable uncle.
+
+My love for Angela proved fatal to me, because from it sprang two
+other love affairs which, in their turn, gave birth to a great many
+others, and caused me finally to renounce the Church as a profession.
+But let us proceed quietly, and not encroach upon future events.
+
+On his return home the abbe found me with his niece, who was about my
+age, and he did not appear to be angry.  I gave him my sermon: he
+read it over, and told me that it was a beautiful academical
+dissertation, but unfit for a sermon from the pulpit, and he added,
+
+"I will give you a sermon written by myself, which I have never
+delivered; you will commit it to memory, and I promise to let
+everybody suppose that it is of your own composition."
+
+"I thank you, very reverend father, but I will preach my own sermon,
+or none at all."
+
+"At all events, you shall not preach such a sermon as this in my
+church."
+
+"You can talk the matter over with M. de Malipiero.  In the meantime
+I will take my work to the censorship, and to His Eminence the
+Patriarch, and if it is not accepted I shall have it printed."
+
+"All very well, young man.  The patriarch will coincide with me."
+
+In the evening I related my discussion with the parson before all the
+guests of M. de Malipiero.  The reading of my sermon was called for,
+and it was praised by all.  They lauded me for having with proper
+modesty refrained from quoting the holy fathers of the Church, whom
+at my age I could not be supposed to have sufficiently studied, and
+the ladies particularly admired me because there was no Latin in it
+but the Text from Horace, who, although a great libertine himself,
+has written very good things.  A niece of the patriarch, who was
+present that evening, promised to prepare her uncle in my favour, as
+I had expressed my intention to appeal to him; but M. de Malipiero
+desired me not to take any steps in the matter until I had seen him
+on the following day, and I submissively bowed to his wishes.
+
+When I called at his mansion the next day he sent for the priest, who
+soon made his appearance.  As he knew well what he had been sent for,
+he immediately launched out into a very long discourse, which I did
+not interrupt, but the moment he had concluded his list of objections
+I told him that there could not be two ways to decide the question;
+that the patriarch would either approve or disapprove my sermon.
+
+"In the first case," I added, "I can pronounce it in your church, and
+no responsibility can possibly fall upon your shoulders; in the
+second, I must, of course, give way."
+
+The abbe was struck by my determination and he said,
+
+"Do not go to the patriarch; I accept your sermon; I only request you
+to change your text.  Horace was a villain."
+
+"Why do you quote Seneca, Tertullian, Origen, and Boethius?  They
+were all heretics, and must, consequently, be considered by you as
+worse wretches than Horace, who, after all, never had the chance of
+becoming a Christian!"
+
+However, as I saw it would please M. de Malipiero, I finally
+consented to accept, as a substitute for mine, a text offered by the
+abbe, although it did not suit in any way the spirit of my
+production; and in order to get an opportunity for a visit to his
+niece, I gave him my manuscript, saying that I would call for it the
+next day.  My vanity prompted me to send a copy to Doctor Gozzi, but
+the good man caused me much amusement by returning it and writing
+that I must have gone mad, and that if I were allowed to deliver such
+a sermon from the pulpit I would bring dishonour upon myself as well
+as upon the man who had educated me.
+
+I cared but little for his opinion, and on the appointed day I
+delivered my sermon in the Church of the Holy Sacrament in the
+presence of the best society of Venice.  I received much applause,
+and every one predicted that I would certainly become the first
+preacher of our century, as no young ecclesiastic of fifteen had ever
+been known to preach as well as I had done.  It is customary for the
+faithful to deposit their offerings for the preacher in a purse which
+is handed to them for that purpose.
+
+The sexton who emptied it of its contents found in it more than fifty
+sequins, and several billets-doux, to the great scandal of the weaker
+brethren.  An anonymous note amongst them, the writer of which I
+thought I had guessed, let me into a mistake which I think better not
+to relate.  This rich harvest, in my great penury, caused me to
+entertain serious thoughts of becoming a preacher, and I confided my
+intention to the parson, requesting his assistance to carry it into
+execution.  This gave me the privilege of visiting at his house every
+day, and I improved the opportunity of conversing with Angela, for
+whom my love was daily increasing.  But Angela was virtuous.  She did
+not object to my love, but she wished me to renounce the Church and
+to marry her.  In spite of my infatuation for her, I could not make
+up my mind to such a step, and I went on seeing her and courting her
+in the hope that she would alter her decision.
+
+The priest, who had at last confessed his admiration for my first
+sermon, asked me, some time afterwards, to prepare another for St.
+Joseph's Day, with an invitation to deliver it on the 19th of March,
+1741.  I composed it, and the abbe spoke of it with enthusiasm, but
+fate had decided that I should never preach but once in my life.  It
+is a sad tale, unfortunately for me very true, which some persons are
+cruel enough to consider very amusing.
+
+Young and rather self-conceited, I fancied that it was not necessary
+for me to spend much time in committing my sermon to memory.  Being
+the author, I had all the ideas contained in my work classified in my
+mind, and it did not seem to me within the range of possibilities
+that I could forget what I had written.  Perhaps I might not remember
+the exact words of a sentence, but I was at liberty to replace them
+by other expressions as good, and as I never happened to be at a
+loss, or to be struck dumb, when I spoke in society, it was not
+likely that such an untoward accident would befall me before an
+audience amongst whom I did not know anyone who could intimidate me
+and cause me suddenly to lose the faculty of reason or of speech.  I
+therefore took my pleasure as usual, being satisfied with reading my
+sermon morning and evening, in order to impress it upon my memory
+which until then had never betrayed me.
+
+The 19th of March came, and on that eventful day at four o'clock in
+the afternoon I was to ascend the pulpit; but, believing myself quite
+secure and thoroughly master of my subject, I had not the moral
+courage to deny myself the pleasure of dining with Count Mont-Real,
+who was then residing with me, and who had invited the patrician
+Barozzi, engaged to be married to his daughter after the Easter
+holidays.
+
+I was still enjoying myself with my fine company, when the sexton of
+the church came in to tell me that they were waiting for me in the
+vestry.  With a full stomach and my head rather heated, I took my
+leave, ran to the church, and entered the pulpit.  I went through the
+exordium with credit to myself, and I took breathing time; but
+scarcely had I pronounced the first sentences of the narration,
+before I forgot what I was saying, what I had to say, and in my
+endeavours to proceed, I fairly wandered from my subject and I lost
+myself entirely.  I was still more discomforted by a half-repressed
+murmur of the audience, as my deficiency appeared evident.  Several
+persons left the church, others began to smile, I lost all presence
+of mind and every hope of getting out of the scrape.
+
+I could not say whether I feigned a fainting fit, or whether I truly
+swooned; all I know is that I fell down on the floor of the pulpit,
+striking my head against the wall, with an inward prayer for
+annihilation.
+
+Two of the parish clerks carried me to the vestry, and after a few
+moments, without addressing a word to anyone, I took my cloak and my
+hat, and went home to lock myself in my room.  I immediately dressed
+myself in a short coat, after the fashion of travelling priests, I
+packed a few things in a trunk, obtained some money from my
+grandmother, and took my departure for Padua, where I intended to
+pass my third examination.  I reached Padua at midnight, and went to
+Doctor Gozzi's house, but I did not feel the slightest temptation to
+mention to him my unlucky adventure.
+
+I remained in Padua long enough to prepare myself for the doctor's
+degree, which I intended to take the following year, and after Easter
+I returned to Venice, where my misfortune was already forgotten; but
+preaching was out of the question, and when any attempt was made to
+induce me to renew my efforts, I manfully kept to my determination
+never to ascend the pulpit again.
+
+On the eve of Ascension Day M. Manzoni introduced me to a young
+courtesan, who was at that time in great repute at Venice, and was
+nick-named Cavamacchia, because her father had been a scourer.  This
+named vexed her a great deal, she wished to be called Preati, which
+was her family name, but it was all in vain, and the only concession
+her friends would make was to call her by her Christian name of
+Juliette.  She had been introduced to fashionable notice by the
+Marquis de Sanvitali, a nobleman from Parma, who had given her one
+hundred thousand ducats for her favours.  Her beauty was then the
+talk of everybody in Venice, and it was fashionable to call upon her.
+To converse with her, and especially to be admitted into her circle,
+was considered a great boon.
+
+As I shall have to mention her several times in the course of my
+history, my readers will, I trust, allow me to enter into some
+particulars about her previous life.
+
+Juliette was only fourteen years of age when her father sent her one
+day to the house of a Venetian nobleman, Marco Muazzo, with a coat
+which he had cleaned for him.  He thought her very beautiful in spite
+of the dirty rags in which she was dressed, and he called to see her
+at her father's shop, with a friend of his, the celebrated advocate,
+Bastien Uccelli, who; struck by the romantic and cheerful nature of
+Juliette still more than by her beauty and fine figure, gave her an
+apartment, made her study music, and kept her as his mistress.  At
+the time of the fair, Bastien took her with him to various public
+places of resort; everywhere she attracted general attention, and
+secured the admiration of every lover of the sex.  She made rapid
+progress in music, and at the end of six months she felt sufficient
+confidence in herself to sign an engagement with a theatrical manager
+who took her to Vienna to give her a 'castrato' part in one of
+Metastasio's operas.
+
+The advocate had previously ceded her to a wealthy Jew who, after
+giving her splendid diamonds, left her also.
+
+In Vienna, Juliette appeared on the stage, and her beauty gained for
+her an admiration which she would never have conquered by her very
+inferior talent.  But the constant crowd of adorers who went to
+worship the goddess, having sounded her exploits rather too loudly,
+the august Maria-Theresa objected to this new creed being sanctioned
+in her capital, and the beautfiul actress received an order to quit
+Vienna forthwith.
+
+Count Spada offered her his protection, and brought her back to
+Venice, but she soon left for Padua where she had an engagement.  In
+that city she kindled the fire of love in the breast of Marquis
+Sanvitali, but the marchioness having caught her once in her own box,
+and Juliette having acted disrespectfully to her, she slapped her
+face, and the affair having caused a good deal of noise, Juliette
+gave up the stage altogether.  She came back to Venice, where, made
+conspicuous by her banishment from Vienna, she could not fail to make
+her fortune.  Expulsion from Vienna, for this class of women, had
+become a title to fashionable favour, and when there was a wish to
+depreciate a singer or a dancer, it was said of her that she had not
+been sufficiently prized to be expelled from Vienna.
+
+After her return, her first lover was Steffano Querini de Papozzes,
+but in the spring of 1740, the Marquis de Sanvitali came to Venice
+and soon carried her off.  It was indeed difficult to resist this
+delightful marquis!  His first present to the fair lady was a sum of
+one hundred thousand ducats, and, to prevent his being accused of
+weakness or of lavish prodigality, he loudly proclaimed that the
+present could scarcely make up for the insult Juliette had received
+from his wife--an insult, however, which the courtesan never
+admitted, as she felt that there would be humiliation in such an
+acknowledgment, and she always professed to admire with gratitude her
+lover's generosity.  She was right; the admission of the blow
+received would have left a stain upon her charms, and how much more
+to her taste to allow those charms to be prized at such a high
+figure!
+
+It was in the year 1741 that M.  Manzoni introduced me to this new
+Phryne as a young ecclesiastic who was beginning to make a
+reputation.  I found her surrounded by seven or eight well-seasoned
+admirers, who were burning at her feet the incense of their flattery.
+She was carelessly reclining on a sofa near Querini.  I was much
+struck with her appearance.  She eyed me from head to foot, as if I
+had been exposed for sale, and telling me, with the air of a
+princess, that she was not sorry to make my acquaintance, she invited
+me to take a seat. I began then, in my turn, to examine her closely
+and deliberately, and it was an easy matter, as the room, although
+small, was lighted with at least twenty wax candles.
+
+Juliette was then in her eighteenth year; the freshness of her
+complexion was dazzling, but the carnation tint of her cheeks, the
+vermilion of her lips, and the dark, very narrow curve of her
+eyebrows, impressed me as being produced by art rather than nature.
+Her teeth--two rows of magnificent pearls--made one overlook the fact
+that her mouth was somewhat too large, and whether from habit, or
+because she could not help it, she seemed to be ever smiling.  Her
+bosom, hid under a light gauze, invited the desires of love; yet I
+did not surrender to her charms. Her bracelets and the rings which
+covered her fingers did not prevent me from noticing that her hand
+was too large and too fleshy, and in spite of her carefully hiding
+her feet, I judged, by a telltale slipper lying close by her dress,
+that they were well proportioned to the height of her figure--a
+proportion which is unpleasant not only to the Chinese and Spaniards,
+but likewise to every man of refined taste.  We want a tall women to
+have a small foot, and certainly it is not a modern taste, for
+Holofernes of old was of the same opinion; otherwise he would not
+have thought Judith so charming: 'et sandalid ejus rapuerunt oculos
+ejus'.  Altogether I found her beautiful, but when I compared her
+beauty and the price of one hundred thousand ducats paid for it, I
+marvelled at my remaining so cold, and at my not being tempted to
+give even one sequin for the privilege of making from nature a study
+of the charms which her dress concealed from my eyes.
+
+I had scarcely been there a quarter of an hour when the noise made by
+the oars of a gondola striking the water heralded the prodigal
+marquis.  We all rose from our seats, and M. Querini hastened,
+somewhat blushing, to quit his place on the sofa.  M. de Sanvitali,
+a man of middle age, who had travelled much, took a seat near
+Juliette, but not on the sofa, so she was compelled to turn round.
+It gave me the opportunity of seeing her full front, while I had
+before only a side view of her face.
+
+After my introduction to Juliette, I paid her four or five visits,
+and I thought myself justified, by the care I had given to the
+examination of her beauty, in saying in M. de Malipiero's draw-room,
+one evening, when my opinion about her was asked, that she could
+please only a glutton with depraved tastes; that she had neither the
+fascination of simple nature nor any knowledge of society, that she
+was deficient in well-bred, easy manners as well as in striking
+talents and that those were the qualities which a thorough gentleman
+liked to find in a woman.  This opinion met the general approbation
+of his friends, but M. de Malipiero kindly whispered to me that
+Juliette would certainly be informed of the portrait I had drawn of
+her, and that she would become my sworn enemy.  He had guessed
+rightly.
+
+I thought Juliette very singular, for she seldom spoke to me, and
+whenever she looked at me she made use of an eye-glass, or she
+contracted her eye-lids, as if she wished to deny me the honour of
+seeing her eyes, which were beyond all dispute very beautiful.  They
+were blue, wondrously large and full, and tinted with that
+unfathomable variegated iris which nature only gives to youth, and
+which generally disappears, after having worked miracles, when the
+owner reaches the shady side of forty.  Frederick the Great preserved
+it until his death.
+
+Juliette was informed of the portrait I had given of her to M. de
+Malipiero's friends by the indiscreet pensioner, Xavier Cortantini.
+One evening I called upon her with M. Manzoni, and she told him that
+a wonderful judge of beauty had found flaws in hers, but she took
+good care not to specify them.  It was not difficult to make out that
+she was indirectly firing at me, and I prepared myself for the
+ostracism which I was expecting, but which, however, she kept in
+abeyance fully for an hour.  At last, our conversation falling upon a
+concert given a few days before by Imer, the actor, and in which his
+daughter, Therese, had taken a brilliant part, Juliette turned round
+to me and inquired what M. de Malipiero did for Therese.  I said that
+he was educating her.  "He can well do it," she answered, "for he is
+a man of talent; but I should like to know what he can do with you?"
+
+"Whatever he can."
+
+"I am told that he thinks you rather stupid."
+
+As a matter of course, she had the laugh on her side, and I,
+confused, uncomfortable and not knowing what to say, took leave after
+having cut a very sorry figure, and determined never again to darken
+her door.  The next day at dinner the account of my adventure caused
+much amusement to the old senator.
+
+Throughout the summer, I carried on a course of Platonic love with my
+charming Angela at the house of her teacher of embroidery, but her
+extreme reserve excited me, and my love had almost become a torment
+to myself.  With my ardent nature, I required a mistress like
+Bettina, who knew how to satisfy my love without wearing it out.  I
+still retained some feelings of purity, and I entertained the deepest
+veneration for Angela.  She was in my eyes the very palladium of
+Cecrops.  Still very innocent, I felt some disinclination towards
+women, and I was simple enough to be jealous of even their husbands.
+
+Angela would not grant me the slightest favour, yet she was no flirt;
+but the fire beginning in me parched and withered me.  The pathetic
+entreaties which I poured out of my heart had less effect upon her
+than upon two young sisters, her companions and friends: had I not
+concentrated every look of mine upon the heartless girl, I might have
+discovered that her friends excelled her in beauty and in feeling,
+but my prejudiced eyes saw no one but Angela.  To every outpouring of
+my love she answered that she was quite ready to become my wife, and
+that such was to be the limit of my wishes; when she condescended to
+add that she suffered as much as I did myself, she thought she had
+bestowed upon me the greatest of favours.
+
+Such was the state of my mind, when, in the first days of autumn, I
+received a letter from the Countess de Mont-Real with an invitation
+to spend some time at her beautiful estate at Pasean.  She expected
+many guests, and among them her own daughter, who had married a
+Venetian nobleman, and who had a great reputation for wit and beauty,
+although she had but one eye; but it was so beautiful that it made up
+for the loss of the other.  I accepted the invitation, and Pasean
+offering me a constant round of pleasures, it was easy enough for me
+to enjoy myself, and to forget for the time the rigours of the cruel
+Angela.
+
+I was given a pretty room on the ground floor, opening upon the
+gardens of Pasean, and I enjoyed its comforts without caring to know
+who my neighbours were.
+
+The morning after my arrival, at the very moment I awoke, my eyes
+were delighted with the sight of the charming creature who brought me
+my coffee.  She was a very young girl, but as well formed as a young
+person of seventeen; yet she had scarcely completed her fourteenth
+year.  The snow of her complexion, her hair as dark as the raven's
+wing, her black eyes beaming with fire and innocence, her dress
+composed only of a chemise and a short petticoat which exposed a
+well-turned leg and the prettiest tiny foot, every detail I gathered
+in one instant presented to my looks the most original and the most
+perfect beauty I had ever beheld.  I looked at her with the greatest
+pleasure, and her eyes rested upon me as if we had been old
+acquaintances.
+
+"How did you find your bed?" she asked.
+
+"Very comfortable; I am sure you made it.  Pray, who are you?"
+
+"I am Lucie, the daughter of the gate-keeper: I have neither brothers
+nor sisters, and I am fourteen years old.  I am very glad you have no
+servant with you; I will be your little maid, and I am sure you will
+be pleased with me."
+
+Delighted at this beginning, I sat up in my bed and she helped me to
+put on my dressing-gown, saying a hundred things which I did not
+understand.  I began to drink my coffee, quite amazed at her easy
+freedom, and struck with her beauty, to which it would have been
+impossible to remain indifferent.  She had seated herself on my bed,
+giving no other apology for that liberty than the most delightful
+smile.
+
+I was still sipping my coffee, when Lucie's parents came into my
+room.  She did not move from her place on the bed, but she looked at
+them, appearing very proud of such a seat.  The good people kindly
+scolded her, begged my forgiveness in her favour, and Lucie left the
+room to attend to her other duties.  The moment she had gone her
+father and mother began to praise their daughter.
+
+"She is," they said, "our only child, our darling pet, the hope of
+our old age.  She loves and obeys us, and fears God; she is as clean
+as a new pin, and has but one fault."
+
+"What is that?"
+
+"She is too young."
+
+"That is a charming fault which time will mend"
+
+I was not long in ascertaining that they were living specimens of
+honesty, of truth, of homely virtues, and of real happiness.  I was
+delighted at this discovery, when Lucie returned as gay as a lark,
+prettily dressed, her hair done in a peculiar way of her own, and
+with well-fitting shoes.  She dropped a simple courtesy before me,
+gave a couple of hearty kisses to both her parents, and jumped on her
+father knees.  I asked her to come and sit on my bed, but she
+answered that she could not take such a liberty now that she was
+dressed, The simplicity, artlessness, and innocence of the answer
+seemed to me very enchanting, and brought a smile on my lips.  I
+examined her to see whether she was prettier in her new dress or in
+the morning's negligee, and I decided in favour of the latter.  To
+speak the truth, Lucie was, I thought, superior in everything, not
+only to Angela, but even to Bettina.
+
+The hair-dresser made his appearance, and the honest family left my
+room.  When I was dressed I went to meet the countess and her amiable
+daughter.  The day passed off very pleasantly, as is generally the
+case in the country, when you are amongst agreeable people.
+
+In the morning, the moment my eyes were opened,
+
+I rang the bell, and pretty Lucie came in, simple and natural as
+before, with her easy manners and wonderful remarks.  Her candour,
+her innocence shone brilliantly all over her person.  I could not
+conceive how, with her goodness, her virtue and her intelligence, she
+could run the risk of exciting me by coming into my room alone, and
+with so much familiarity.  I fancied that she would not attach much
+importance to certain slight liberties, and would not prove over-
+scrupulous, and with that idea I made up my mind to shew her that I
+fully understood her.  I felt no remorse of conscience on the score
+of her parents, who, in my estimation, were as careless as herself;
+I had no dread of being the first to give the alarm to her innocence,
+or to enlighten her mind with the gloomy light of malice, but,
+unwilling either to be the dupe of feeling or to act against it, I
+resolved to reconnoitre the ground.  I extend a daring hand towards
+her person, and by an involuntary movement she withdraws, blushes,
+her cheerfulness disappears, and, turning her head aside as if she
+were in search of something, she waits until her agitation has
+subsided.  The whole affair had not lasted one minute.  She came
+back, abashed at the idea that she had proved herself rather knowing,
+and at the dread of having perhaps given a wrong interpretation to an
+action which might have been, on my part, perfectly innocent, or the
+result of politeness.  Her natural laugh soon returned, and, having
+rapidly read in her mind all I have just described, I lost no time in
+restoring her confidence, and, judging that I would venture too much
+by active operations, I resolved to employ the following morning in a
+friendly chat during which I could make her out better.
+
+In pursuance of that plan, the next morning, as we were talking, I
+told her that it was cold, but that she would not feel it if she
+would lie down near me.
+
+"Shall I disturb you?" she said.
+
+"No; but I am thinking that if your mother happened to come in, she
+would be angry."
+
+"Mother would not think of any harm."
+
+"Come, then.  But Lucie, do you know what danger you are exposing
+yourself to?"
+
+"Certainly I do; but you are good, and, what is more, you are a
+priest."
+
+"Come; only lock the door."
+
+"No, no, for people might think....  I do not know what." She laid
+down close by me, and kept on her chatting, although I did not
+understand a word of what she said, for in that singular position,
+and unwilling to give way to my ardent desires, I remained as still
+as a log.
+
+Her confidence in her safety, confidence which was certainly not
+feigned, worked upon my feelings to such an extent that I would have
+been ashamed to take any advantage of it.  At last she told me that
+nine o'clock had struck, and that if old Count Antonio found us as we
+were, he would tease her with his jokes.  "When I see that man," she
+said, "I am afraid and I run away." Saying these words, she rose from
+the bed and left the room.
+
+I remained motionless for a long while, stupefied, benumbed, and
+mastered by the agitation of my excited senses as well as by my
+thoughts.  The next morning, as I wished to keep calm, I only let her
+sit down on my bed, and the conversation I had with her proved
+without the shadow of a doubt that her parents had every reason to
+idolize her, and that the easy freedom of her mind as well as of her
+behaviour with me was entirely owing to her innocence and to her
+purity.  Her artlessness, her vivacity, her eager curiosity, and the
+bashful blushes which spread over her face whenever her innocent or
+jesting remarks caused me to laugh, everything, in fact, convinced me
+that she was an angel destined to become the victim of the first
+libertine who would undertake to seduce her.  I felt sufficient
+control over my own feelings to resist any attempt against her virtue
+which my conscience might afterwards reproach me with.  The mere
+thought of taking advantage of her innocence made me shudder, and my
+self-esteem was a guarantee to her parents, who abandoned her to me
+on the strength of the good opinion they entertained of me, that
+Lucie's honour was safe in my hands.  I thought I would have despised
+myself if I had betrayed the trust they reposed in me.  I therefore
+determined to conquer my feelings, and, with perfect confidence in
+the victory, I made up my mind to wage war against myself, and to be
+satisfied with her presence as the only reward of my heroic efforts.
+I was not yet acquainted with the axiom that "as long as the fighting
+lasts, victory remains uncertain."
+
+As I enjoyed her conversation much, a natural instinct prompted me to
+tell her that she would afford me great pleasure if she could come
+earlier in the morning, and even wake me up if I happened to be
+asleep, adding, in order to give more weight to my request, that the
+less I slept the better I felt in health.  In this manner I contrived
+to spend three hours instead of two in her society, although this
+cunning contrivance of mine did not prevent the hours flying, at
+least in my opinion, as swift as lightning.
+
+Her mother would often come in as we were talking, and when the good
+woman found her sitting on my bed she would say nothing, only
+wondering at my kindness.  Lucie would then cover her with kisses,
+and the kind old soul would entreat me to give her child lessons of
+goodness, and to cultivate her mind; but when she had left us Lucie
+did not think herself more unrestrained, and whether in or out of her
+mother's presence, she was always the same without the slightest
+change.
+
+If the society of this angelic child afforded me the sweetest
+delight, it also caused me the most cruel suffering.  Often, very
+often, when her face was close to my lips, I felt the most ardent
+temptation to smother her with kisses, and my blood was at fever heat
+when she wished that she had been a sister of mine.  But I kept
+sufficient command over myself to avoid the slightest contact, for I
+was conscious that even one kiss would have been the spark which
+would have blown up all the edifice of my reserve.  Every time she
+left me I remained astounded at my own victory, but, always eager to
+win fresh laurels, I longed for the following morning, panting for a
+renewal of this sweet yet very dangerous contest.
+
+At the end of ten or twelve days, I felt that there was no
+alternative but to put a stop to this state of things, or to become a
+monster in my own eyes; and I decided for the moral side of the
+question all the more easily that nothing insured me success, if I
+chose the second alternative.  The moment I placed her under the
+obligation to defend herself Lucie would become a heroine, and the
+door of my room being open, I might have been exposed to shame and to
+a very useless repentance.  This rather frightened me.  Yet, to put
+an end to my torture, I did not know what to decide.  I could no
+longer resist the effect made upon my senses by this beautiful girl,
+who, at the break of day and scarcely dressed, ran gaily into my
+room, came to my bed enquiring how I had slept, bent familiarly her
+head towards me, and, so to speak, dropped her words on my lips.  In
+those dangerous moments I would turn my head aside; but in her
+innocence she would reproach me for being afraid when she felt
+herself so safe, and if I answered that I could not possibly fear a
+child, she would reply that a difference of two years was of no
+account.
+
+Standing at bay, exhausted, conscious that every instant increased
+the ardour which was devouring me, I resolved to entreat from herself
+the discontinuance of her visits, and this resolution appeared to me
+sublime and infallible; but having postponed its execution until the
+following morning, I passed a dreadful night, tortured by the image
+of Lucie, and by the idea that I would see her in the morning for the
+last time.  I fancied that Lucie would not only grant my prayer, but
+that she would conceive for me the highest esteem.  In the morning,
+it was barely day-light, Lucie beaming, radiant with beauty, a happy
+smile brightening her pretty mouth, and her splendid hair in the most
+fascinating disorder, bursts into my room, and rushes with open arms
+towards my bed; but when she sees my pale, dejected, and unhappy
+countenance, she stops short, and her beautiful face taking an
+expression of sadness and anxiety:
+
+"What ails you?" she asks, with deep sympathy.
+
+"I have had no sleep through the night:"
+
+"And why?"
+
+"Because I have made up my mind to impart to you a project which,
+although fraught with misery to myself, will at least secure me your
+esteem."
+
+"But if your project is to insure my esteem it ought to make you very
+cheerful.  Only tell me, reverend sir, why, after calling me 'thou'
+yesterday, you treat me today respectfully, like a lady?  What have I
+done?  I will get your coffee, and you must tell me everything after
+you have drunk it; I long to hear you"
+
+She goes and returns, I drink the coffee, and seeing that my
+countenance remains grave she tries to enliven me, contrives to make
+me smile, and claps her hands for joy.  After putting everything in
+order, she closes the door because the wind is high, and in her
+anxiety not to lose one word of what I have to say, she entreats
+artlessly a little place near me.  I cannot refuse her, for I feel
+almost lifeless.
+
+I then begin a faithful recital of the fearful state in which her
+beauty has thrown me, and a vivid picture of all the suffering I have
+experienced in trying to master my ardent wish to give her some proof
+of my love; I explain to her that, unable to endure such torture any
+longer, I see no other safety but in entreating her not to see me any
+more.  The importance of the subject, the truth of my love, my wish
+to present my expedient in the light of the heroic effort of a deep
+and virtuous passion, lend me a peculiar eloquence.  I endeavour
+above all to make her realize the fearful consequences which might
+follow a course different to the one I was proposing, and how
+miserable we might be.
+
+At the close of my long discourse Lucie, seeing my eyes wet with
+tears, throws off the bed-clothes to wipe them, without thinking that
+in so doing she uncovers two globes, the beauty of which might have
+caused the wreck of the most experienced pilot.  After a short
+silence, the charming child tells me that my tears make her very
+unhappy, and that she had never supposed that she could cause them.
+
+"All you have just told me," she added, "proves the sincerity of your
+great love for me, but I cannot imagine why you should be in such
+dread of a feeling which affords me the most intense pleasure.  You
+wish to banish me from your presence because you stand in fear of
+your love, but what would you do if you hated me?  Am I guilty
+because I have pleased you?  If it is a crime to have won your
+affection, I can assure you that I did not think I was committing a
+criminal action, and therefore you cannot conscientiously punish me.
+Yet I cannot conceal the truth; I am very happy to be loved by you.
+As for the danger we run, when we love, danger which I can
+understand, we can set it at defiance, if we choose, and I wonder at
+my not fearing it, ignorant as I am, while you, a learned man, think
+it so terrible.  I am astonished that love, which is not a disease,
+should have made you ill, and that it should have exactly the
+opposite effect upon me.  Is it possible that I am mistaken, and that
+my feeling towards you should not be love?  You saw me very cheerful
+when I came in this morning; it is because I have been dreaming all
+night, but my dreams did not keep me awake; only several times I woke
+up to ascertain whether my dream was true, for I thought I was near
+you; and every time, finding that it was not so, I quickly went to
+sleep again in the hope of continuing my happy dream, and every time
+I succeeded.  After such a night, was it not natural for me to be
+cheerful this morning?  My dear abbe, if love is a torment for you I
+am very sorry, but would it be possible for you to live without love?
+I will do anything you order me to do, but, even if your cure
+depended upon it, I would not cease to love you, for that would be
+impossible.  Yet if to heal your sufferings it should be necessary
+for you to love me no more, you must do your utmost to succeed, for I
+would much rather see you alive without love, than dead for having
+loved too much.  Only try to find some other plan, for the one you
+have proposed makes me very miserable.  Think of it, there may be
+some other way which will be less painful.  Suggest one more
+practicable, and depend upon Lucie's obedience."
+
+These words, so true, so artless, so innocent, made me realize the
+immense superiority of nature's eloquence over that of philosophical
+intellect.  For the first time I folded this angelic being in my
+arms, exclaiming, "Yes, dearest Lucie, yes, thou hast it in thy power
+to afford the sweetest relief to my devouring pain; abandon to my
+ardent kisses thy divine lips which have just assured me of thy
+love."
+
+An hour passed in the most delightful silence, which nothing
+interrupted except these words murmured now and then by Lucie, "Oh,
+God! is it true?  is it not a dream?" Yet I respected her innocence,
+and the more readily that she abandoned herself entirely and without
+the slightest resistance.  At last, extricating herself gently from
+my arms, she said, with some uneasiness, "My heart begins to speak, I
+must go;" and she instantly rose.  Having somewhat rearranged her
+dress she sat down, and her mother, coming in at that moment,
+complimented me upon my good looks and my bright countenance, and
+told Lucie to dress herself to attend mass.  Lucie came back an hour
+later, and expressed her joy and her pride at the wonderful cure she
+thought she had performed upon me, for the healthy appearance I was
+then shewing convinced her of my love much better than the pitiful
+state in which she had found me in the morning.  "If your complete
+happiness," she said, "rests in my power, be happy; there is nothing
+that I can refuse you."
+
+The moment she left me, still wavering between happiness and fear, I
+understood that I was standing on the very brink of the abyss, and
+that nothing but a most extraordinary determination could prevent me
+from falling headlong into it.
+
+I remained at Pasean until the end of September, and the last eleven
+nights of my stay were passed in the undisturbed possession of Lucie,
+who, secure in her mother's profound sleep, came to my room to enjoy
+in my arms the most delicious hours.  The burning ardour of my love
+was increased by the abstinence to which I condemned myself, although
+Lucie did everything in her power to make me break through my
+determination.  She could not fully enjoy the sweetness of the
+forbidden fruit unless I plucked it without reserve, and the effect
+produced by our constantly lying in each other's arms was too strong
+for a young girl to resist.  She tried everything she could to
+deceive me, and to make me believe that I had already, and in
+reality, gathered the whole flower, but Bettina's lessons had been
+too efficient to allow me to go on a wrong scent, and I reached the
+end of my stay without yielding entirely to the temptation she so
+fondly threw in my way.  I promised her to return in the spring; our
+farewell was tender and very sad, and I left her in a state of mind
+and of body which must have been the cause of her misfortunes, which,
+twenty years after, I had occasion to reproach myself with in
+Holland, and which will ever remain upon my conscience.
+
+A few days after my return to Venice, I had fallen back into all my
+old habits, and resumed my courtship of Angela in the hope that I
+would obtain from her, at least, as much as Lucie had granted to me.
+A certain dread which to-day I can no longer trace in my nature, a
+sort of terror of the consequences which might have a blighting
+influence upon my future, prevented me from giving myself up to
+complete enjoyment.  I do not know whether I have ever been a truly
+honest man, but I am fully aware that the feelings I fostered in my
+youth were by far more upright than those I have, as I lived on,
+forced myself to accept.  A wicked philosophy throws down too many of
+these barriers which we call prejudices.
+
+The two sisters who were sharing Angela's embroidery lessons were her
+intimate friends and the confidantes of all her secrets.  I made
+their acquaintance, and found that they disapproved of her extreme
+reserve towards me.  As I usually saw them with Angela and knew their
+intimacy with her, I would, when I happened to meet them alone, tell
+them all my sorrows, and, thinking only of my cruel sweetheart, I
+never was conceited enough to propose that these young girls might
+fall in love with me; but I often ventured to speak to them with all
+the blazing inspiration which was burning in me--a liberty I would
+not have dared to take in the presence of her whom I loved.  True
+love always begets reserve; we fear to be accused of exaggeration if
+we should give utterance to feelings inspired, by passion, and the
+modest lover, in his dread of saying too much, very often says too
+little.
+
+The teacher of embroidery, an old bigot, who at first appeared not to
+mind the attachment I skewed for Angela, got tired at last of my too
+frequent visits, and mentioned them to the abbe, the uncle of my fair
+lady.  He told me kindly one day that I ought not to call at that
+house so often, as my constant visits might be wrongly construed, and
+prove detrimental to the reputation of his niece.  His words fell
+upon me like a thunder-bolt, but I mastered my feelings sufficiently
+to leave him without incurring any suspicion, and I promised to
+follow his good advice.
+
+Three or four days afterwards, I paid a visit to the teacher of
+embroidery, and, to make her believe that my visit was only intended
+for her, I did not stop one instant near the young girls; yet I
+contrived to slip in the hand of the eldest of the two sisters a note
+enclosing another for my dear Angela, in which I explained why I had
+been compelled to discontinue my visits, entreating her to devise
+some means by which I could enjoy the happiness of seeing her and of
+conversing with her.  In my note to Nanette, I only begged her to
+give my letter to her friend, adding that I would see them again the
+day after the morrow, and that I trusted to her to find an
+opportunity for delivering me the answer.  She managed it all very
+cleverly, and, when I renewed my visit two days afterwards, she gave
+me a letter without attracting the attention of anyone.
+Nanette's letter enclosed a very short note from Angela, who,
+disliking letter-writing, merely advised me to follow, if I could,
+the plan proposed by her friend.  Here is the copy of the letter
+written by Nanette, which I have always kept, as well as all other
+letters which I give in these Memoirs:
+
+"There is nothing in the world, reverend sir, that I would not
+readily do for my friend.  She visits at our house every holiday, has
+supper with us, and sleeps under our roof.  I will suggest the best
+way for you to make the acquaintance of Madame Orio, our aunt; but,
+if you obtain an introduction to her, you must be very careful not to
+let her suspect your preference for Angela, for our aunt would
+certainly object to her house being made a place of rendezvous to
+facilitate your interviews with a stranger to her family.  Now for
+the plan I propose, and in the execution of which I will give you
+every assistance in my power.  Madame Orio, although a woman of good
+station in life, is not wealthy, and she wishes to have her name
+entered on the list of noble widows who receive the bounties bestowed
+by the Confraternity of the Holy Sacrament, of which M. de Malipiero
+is president.  Last Sunday, Angela mentioned that you are in the good
+graces of that nobleman, and that the best way to obtain his
+patronage would be to ask you to entreat it in her behalf.  The
+foolish girl added that you were smitten with me, that all your
+visits to our mistress of embroidery were made for my special benefit
+and for the sake of entertaining me, and that I would find it a very
+easy task to interest you in her favour.  My aunt answered that, as
+you are a priest, there was no fear of any harm, and she told me to
+write to you with an invitation to call on her; I refused.  The
+procurator Rosa, who is a great favourite of my aunt's, was present;
+he approved of my refusal, saying that the letter ought to be written
+by her and not by me, that it was for my aunt to beg the honour of
+your visit on business of real importance, and that, if there was any
+truth in the report of your love for me, you would not fail to come.
+My aunt, by his advice, has therefore written the letter which you
+will find at your house.  If you wish to meet Angela, postpone your
+visit to us until next Sunday.  Should you succeed in obtaining M.
+de Malipiero's good will in favour of my aunt, you will become the
+pet of the household, but you must forgive me if I appear to treat
+you with coolness, for I have said that I do not like you.  I would
+advise you to make love to my aunt, who is sixty years of age;
+M. Rosa will not be jealous, and you will become dear to everyone.
+For my part, I will manage for you an opportunity for some private
+conversation with Angela, and I will do anything to convince you of
+my friendship.  Adieu."
+
+This plan appeared to me very well conceived, and, having the same
+evening received Madame Orio's letter, I called upon her on the
+following day, Sunday.  I was welcomed in a very friendly manner, and
+the lady, entreating me to exert in her behalf my influence with M.
+de Malipiero, entrusted me with all the papers which I might require
+to succeed.  I undertook to do my utmost, and I took care to address
+only a few words to Angela, but I directed all my gallant attentions
+to Nanette, who treated me as coolly as could be.  Finally, I won the
+friendship of the old procurator Rosa, who, in after years, was of
+some service to me.
+
+I had so much at stake in the success of Madame Orio's petition, that
+I thought of nothing else, and knowing all the power of the beautiful
+Therese Imer over our amorous senator, who would be but too happy to
+please her in anything, I determined to call upon her the next day,
+and I went straight to her room without being announced.  I found her
+alone with the physician Doro, who, feigning to be on a professional
+visit, wrote a prescription, felt her pulse, and went off.  This Doro
+was suspected of being in love with Therese; M. de Malipiero, who was
+jealous, had forbidden Therese to receive his visits, and she had
+promised to obey him.  She knew that I was acquainted with those
+circumstances, and my presence was evidently unpleasant to her, for
+she had certainly no wish that the old man should hear how she kept
+her promise.  I thought that no better opportunity could be found of
+obtaining from her everything I wished.
+
+I told her in a few words the object of my visit, and I took care to
+add that she could rely upon my discretion, and that I would not for
+the world do her any injury.  Therese, grateful for this assurance,
+answered that she rejoiced at finding an occasion to oblige me, and,
+asking me to give her the papers of my protege, she shewed me the
+certificates and testimonials of another lady in favour of whom she
+had undertaken to speak, and whom, she said, she would sacrifice to
+the person in whose behalf I felt interested.  She kept her word, for
+the very next day she placed in my hands the brevet, signed by his
+excellency as president of the confraternity.  For the present, and
+with the expectation of further favours, Madame Orio's name was put
+down to share the bounties which were distributed twice a year.
+
+Nanette and her sister Marton were the orphan daughters of a sister
+of Madame Orio.  All the fortune of the good lady consisted in the
+house which was her dwelling, the first floor being let, and in a
+pension given to her by her brother, member of the council of ten.
+She lived alone with her two charming nieces, the eldest sixteen, and
+the youngest fifteen years of age.  She kept no servant, and only
+employed an old woman, who, for one crown a month, fetched water, and
+did the rough work.  Her only friend was the procurator Rosa; he had,
+like her, reached his sixtieth year, and expected to marry her as
+soon as he should become a widower.
+
+The two sisters slept together on the third floor in a large bed,
+which was likewise shared by Angela every Sunday.
+
+As soon as I found myself in possession of the deed for Madame Orio,
+I hastened to pay a visit to the mistress of embroidery, in order to
+find an opportunity of acquainting Nanette with my success, and in a
+short note which I prepared, I informed her that in two days I would
+call to give the brevet to Madame Orio, and I begged her earnestly
+not to forget her promise to contrive a private interview with my
+dear Angela.
+
+When I arrived, on the appointed day, at Madame Orio's house,
+Nanette, who had watched for my coming, dexterously conveyed to my
+hand a billet, requesting me to find a moment to read it before
+leaving the house.  I found Madame Orio, Angela, the old procurator,
+and Marton in the room.  Longing to read the note, I refused the seat
+offered to me, and presenting to Madame Orio the deed she had so long
+desired, I asked, as my only reward, the pleasure of kissing her
+hand, giving her to understand that I wanted to leave the room
+immediately.
+
+"Oh, my dear abbe!" said the lady, "you shall have a kiss, but not on
+my hand, and no one can object to it, as I am thirty years older than
+you."
+
+She might have said forty-five without going much astray.  I gave her
+two kisses, which evidently satisfied her, for she desired me to
+perform the same ceremony with her nieces, but they both ran away,
+and Angela alone stood the brunt of my hardihood.  After this the
+widow asked me to sit down.
+
+"I cannot, Madame."
+
+"Why, I beg?"
+
+"I have--."
+
+"I understand.  Nanette, shew the way."
+
+"Dear aunt, excuse me."
+
+"Well, then, Marton."
+
+"Oh! dear aunt, why do you not insist upon my sister obeying your
+orders?"
+
+"Alas! madame, these young ladies are quite right.  Allow me to
+retire."
+
+"No, my dear abbe, my nieces are very foolish; M. Rosa, I am sure,
+will kindly."
+
+The good procurator takes me affectionately by the hand, and leads me
+to the third story, where he leaves me.  The moment I am alone I open
+my letter, and I read the following:
+
+"My aunt will invite you to supper; do not accept.  Go away as soon
+as we sit down to table, and Marton will escort you as far as the
+street door, but do not leave the house.  When the street door is
+closed again, everyone thinking you are gone, go upstairs in the dark
+as far as the third floor, where you must wait for us.  We will come
+up the moment M.  Rosa has left the house, and our aunt has gone to
+bed.  Angela will be at liberty to grant you throughout the night a
+tete-a-tete which, I trust, will prove a happy one."
+
+Oh! what joy-what gratitude for the lucky chance which allowed me to
+read this letter on the very spot where I was to expect the dear
+abject of my love! Certain of finding my way without the slightest
+difficulty, I returned to Madame Orio's sitting-room, overwhelmed
+with happiness.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+An Unlucky Night I Fall in Love with the Two Sisters, and Forget
+Angela--A Ball at My House--Juliette's Humiliation--My Return to
+Pasian--Lucie's Misfortune--A Propitious Storm
+
+
+On my reappearance, Madame Orio told me, with many heart-felt thanks,
+that I must for the future consider myself as a privileged and
+welcome friend, and the evening passed off very pleasantly.  As the
+hour for supper drew near, I excused myself so well that Madame Orio
+could not insist upon my accepting her invitation to stay.  Marton
+rose to light me out of the room, but her aunt, believing Nanette to
+be my favourite, gave her such an imperative order to accompany me
+that she was compelled to obey.  She went down the stairs rapidly,
+opened and closed the street door very noisily, and putting her light
+out, she reentered the sitting room, leaving me in darkness.  I went
+upstairs softly: when I reached the third landing I found the chamber
+of the two sisters, and, throwing myself upon a sofa, I waited
+patiently for the rising of the star of my happiness.  An hour passed
+amidst the sweetest dreams of my imagination; at last I hear the
+noise of the street door opening and closing, and, a few minutes
+after, the two sisters come in with my Angela.  I draw her towards
+me, and caring for nobody else, I keep up for two full hours my
+conversation with her.  The clock strikes midnight; I am pitied for
+having gone so late supperless, but I am shocked at such an idea; I
+answer that, with such happiness as I am enjoying, I can suffer from
+no human want.  I am told that I am a prisoner, that the key of the
+house door is under the aunt's pillow, and that it is opened only by
+herself as she goes in the morning to the first mass.  I wonder at my
+young friends imagining that such news can be anything but delightful
+to me.  I express all my joy at the certainty of passing the next
+five hours with the beloved mistress of my heart.  Another hour is
+spent, when suddenly Nanette begins to laugh, Angela wants to know
+the reason, and Marton whispering a few words to her, they both laugh
+likewise.  This puzzles me.  In my turn, I want to know what causes
+this general laughter, and at last Nanette, putting on an air of
+anxiety, tells me that they have no more candle, and that in a few
+minutes we shall be in the dark.  This is a piece of news
+particularly agreeable to me, but I do not let my satisfaction appear
+on my countenance, and saying how truly I am sorry for their sake, I
+propose that they should go to bed and sleep quietly under my
+respectful guardianship.  My proposal increases their merriment.
+
+"What can we do in the dark?"
+
+"We can talk."
+
+We were four; for the last three hours we had been talking, and I was
+the hero of the romance.  Love is a great poet, its resources are
+inexhaustible, but if the end it has in view is not obtained, it
+feels weary and remains silent.  My Angela listened willingly, but
+little disposed to talk herself, she seldom answered, and she
+displayed good sense rather than wit.  To weaken the force of my
+arguments, she was often satisfied with hurling at me a proverb,
+somewhat in the fashion of the Romans throwing the catapult.  Every
+time that my poor hands came to the assistance of love, she drew
+herself back or repulsed me.  Yet, in spite of all, I went on talking
+and using my hands without losing courage, but I gave myself up to
+despair when I found that my rather artful arguing astounded her
+without bringing conviction to her heart, which was only disquieted,
+never softened.  On the other hand, I could see with astonishment
+upon their countenances the impression made upon the two sisters by
+the ardent speeches I poured out to Angela.  This metaphysical curve
+struck me as unnatural, it ought to have been an angle; I was then,
+unhappily for myself, studying geometry.  I was in such a state that,
+notwithstanding the cold, I was perspiring profusely.  At last the
+light was nearly out, and Nanette took it away.
+
+The moment we were in the dark, I very naturally extended my arms to
+seize her whom I loved; but I only met with empty space, and I could
+not help laughing at the rapidity with which Angela had availed
+herself of the opportunity of escaping me.  For one full hour I
+poured out all the tender, cheerful words that love inspired me with,
+to persuade her to come back to me; I could only suppose that it was
+a joke to tease me.  But I became impatient.
+
+"The joke," I said, "has lasted long enough; it is foolish, as I
+could not run after you, and I am surprised to hear you laugh, for
+your strange conduct leads me to suppose that you are making fun of
+me.  Come and take your seat near me, and if I must speak to you
+without seeing you let my hands assure me that I am not addressing my
+words to the empty air.  To continue this game would be an insult to
+me, and my love does not deserve such a return."
+
+"Well, be calm.  I will listen to every word you may say, but you
+must feel that it would not be decent for me to place myself near you
+in this dark room."
+
+"Do you want me to stand where I am until morning?"
+
+"Lie down on the bed, and go to sleep."
+
+"In wonder, indeed, at your thinking me capable of doing so in the
+state I am in.  Well, I suppose we must play at blind man's buff."
+
+Thereupon, I began to feel right and left, everywhere, but in vain.
+Whenever I caught anyone it always turned out to be Nanette or
+Marton, who at once discovered themselves, and I, stupid Don Quixote,
+instantly would let them go!  Love and prejudice blinded me, I could
+not see how ridiculous I was with my respectful reserve.  I had not
+yet read the anecdotes of Louis XIII, king of France, but I had read
+Boccacio.  I kept on seeking in vain, reproaching her with her
+cruelty, and entreating her to let me catch her; but she would only
+answer that the difficulty of meeting each other was mutual.  The
+room was not large, and I was enraged at my want of success.
+
+Tired and still more vexed, I sat down, and for the next hour I told
+the history of Roger, when Angelica disappears through the power of
+the magic ring which the loving knight had so imprudently given her:
+
+     'Cosi dicendo, intorno a la fortuna
+     Brancolando n'andava come cieco.
+     O quante volte abbraccio l'aria vana
+     Speyando la donzella abbracciar seco'.
+
+Angela had not read Ariosto, but Nanette had done so several times.
+She undertook the defence of Angelica, and blamed the simplicity of
+Roger, who, if he had been wise, would never have trusted the ring to
+a coquette.  I was delighted with Nanette, but I was yet too much of
+a novice to apply her remarks to myself.
+
+Only one more hour remained, and I was to leave before the break of
+day, for Madame Orio would have died rather than give way to the
+temptation of missing the early mass.  During that hour I spoke to
+Angela, trying to convince her that she ought to come and sit by me.
+My soul went through every gradation of hope and despair, and the
+reader cannot possibly realize it unless he has been placed in a
+similar position.  I exhausted the most convincing arguments; then I
+had recourse to prayers, and even to tears; but, seeing all was
+useless, I gave way to that feeling of noble indignation which lends
+dignity to anger.  Had I not been in the dark, I might, I truly
+believe, have struck the proud monster, the cruel girl, who had thus
+for five hours condemned me to the most distressing suffering.  I
+poured out all the abuse, all the insulting words that despised love
+can suggest to an infuriated mind; I loaded her with the deepest
+curses; I swore that my love had entirely turned into hatred, and, as
+a finale, I advised her to be careful, as I would kill her the moment
+I would set my eyes on her.
+
+My invectives came to an end with the darkness.  At the first break
+of day, and as soon as I heard the noise made by the bolt and the key
+of the street door, which Madame Orio was opening to let herself out,
+that she might seek in the church the repose of which her pious soul
+was in need, I got myself ready and looked for my cloak and for my
+hat.  But how can I ever portray the consternation in which I was
+thrown when, casting a sly glance upon the young friends, I found the
+three bathed in tears!  In my shame and despair I thought of
+committing suicide, and sitting down again, I recollected my brutal
+speeches, and upbraided myself for having wantonly caused them to
+weep.  I could not say one word; I felt choking; at last tears came
+to my assistance, and I gave way to a fit of crying which relieved
+me.  Nanette then remarked that her aunt would soon return home; I
+dried my eyes, and, not venturing another look at Angela or at her
+friends, I ran away without uttering a word, and threw myself on my
+bed, where sleep would not visit my troubled mind.
+
+At noon, M. de Malipiero, noticing the change in my countenance,
+enquired what ailed me, and longing to unburden my heart, I told him
+all that had happened.  The wise old man did not laugh at my sorrow,
+but by his sensible advice he managed to console me and to give me
+courage.  He was in the same predicament with the beautiful Therese.
+Yet he could not help giving way to his merriment when at dinner he
+saw me, in spite of my grief, eat with increased appetite; I had gone
+without my supper the night before; he complimented me upon my happy
+constitution.
+
+I was determined never to visit Madame Orio's house, and on that very
+day I held an argument in metaphysics, in which I contended that any
+being of whom we had only an abstract idea, could only exist
+abstractedly, and I was right; but it was a very easy task to give to
+my thesis an irreligious turn, and I was obliged to recant.  A few
+days afterwards I went to Padua, where I took my degree of doctor
+'utroque jure'.
+
+When I returned to Venice, I received a note from M. Rosa, who
+entreated me to call upon Madame Orio; she wished to see me, and,
+feeling certain of not meeting Angela, I paid her a visit the same
+evening.  The two graceful sisters were so kind, so pleasant, that
+they scattered to the winds the shame I felt at seeing them after the
+fearful night I had passed in their room two months before.  The
+labours of writing my thesis and passing my examination were of
+course sufficient excuses for Madame Orio, who only wanted to
+reproach me for having remained so long away from her house.
+
+As I left, Nanette gave me a letter containing a note from Angela,
+the contents of which ran as follows:
+
+"If you are not afraid of passing another night with me you shall
+have no reason to complain of me, for I love you, and I wish to hear
+from your own lips whether you would still have loved me if I had
+consented to become contemptible in your eyes."
+
+This is the letter of Nanette, who alone had her wits about her:
+
+"M. Rosa having undertaken to bring you back to our house, I prepare
+these few lines to let you know that Angela is in despair at having
+lost you.  I confess that the night you spent with us was a cruel
+one, but I do not think that you did rightly in giving up your visits
+to Madame Orio.  If you still feel any love for Angela, I advise you
+to take your chances once more.  Accept a rendezvous for another
+night; she may vindicate herself, and you will be happy.  Believe me;
+come.  Farewell!"
+
+Those two letters afforded me much gratification, for I had it in my
+power to enjoy my revenge by shewing to Angela the coldest contempt.
+Therefore, on the following Sunday I went to Madame Orio's house,
+having provided myself with a smoked tongue and a couple of bottles
+of Cyprus wine; but to my great surprise my cruel mistress was not
+there.  Nanette told me that she had met her at church in the
+morning, and that she would not be able to come before supper-time.
+Trusting to that promise I declined Madam Orio's invitation, and
+before the family sat down to supper I left the room as I had done on
+the former occasion, and slipped upstairs.  I longed to represent the
+character I had prepared myself for, and feeling assured that Angela,
+even if she should prove less cruel, would only grant me
+insignificant favours, I despised them in anticipation, and resolved
+to be avenged.
+
+After waiting three quarters of an hour the street door was locked,
+and a moment later Nanette and Marton entered the room.
+
+"Where is Angela?" I enquired.
+
+"She must have been unable to come, or to send a message.  Yet she
+knows you are here."
+
+"She thinks she has made a fool of me; but I suspected she would act
+in this way.  You know her now.  She is trifling with me, and very
+likely she is now revelling in her triumph.  She has made use of you
+to allure me in the snare, and it is all the better for her; had she
+come, I meant to have had my turn, and to have laughed at her."
+
+"Ah!  you must allow me to have my doubts as to that."
+
+"Doubt me not, beautiful Nanette; the pleasant night we are going to
+spend without her must convince you."
+
+"That is to say that, as a man of sense, you can accept us as a
+makeshift; but you can sleep here, and my sister can lie with me on
+the sofa in the next room."
+
+"I cannot hinder you, but it would be great unkindness on your part.
+At all events, I do not intend to go to bed."
+
+"What! you would have the courage to spend seven hours alone with us?
+Why, I am certain that in a short time you will be at a loss what to
+say, and you will fall asleep."
+
+"Well, we shall see.  In the mean-time here are provisions.  You will
+not be so cruel as to let me eat alone?  Can you get any bread?"
+
+"Yes, and to please you we must have a second supper."
+
+"I ought to be in love with you.  Tell me, beautiful Nanette, if I
+were as much attached to you as I was to Angela, would you follow her
+example and make me unhappy?"
+
+"How can you ask such a question?  It is worthy of a conceited man.
+All I can answer is, that I do not know what I would do."
+
+They laid the cloth, brought some bread, some Parmesan cheese and
+water, laughing all the while, and then we went to work.  The wine,
+to which they were not accustomed, went to their heads, and their
+gaiety was soon delightful.  I wondered, as I looked at them, at my
+having been blind enough not to see their merit.
+
+After our supper, which was delicious, I sat between them, holding
+their hands, which I pressed to my lips, asking them whether they
+were truly my friends, and whether they approved of Angela's conduct
+towards me.  They both answered that it had made them shed many
+tears.  "Then let me," I said, "have for you the tender feelings of a
+brother, and share those feelings yourselves as if you were my
+sisters; let us exchange, in all innocence, proofs of our mutual
+affection, and swear to each other an eternal fidelity."
+
+The first kiss I gave them was prompted by entirely harmless motives,
+and they returned the kiss, as they assured me a few days afterwards
+only to prove to me that they reciprocated my brotherly feelings; but
+those innocent kisses, as we repeated them, very soon became ardent
+ones, and kindled a flame which certainly took us by surprise, for we
+stopped, as by common consent, after a short time, looking at each
+other very much astonished and rather serious.  They both left me
+without affectation, and I remained alone with my thoughts.  Indeed,
+it was natural that the burning kisses I had given and received
+should have sent through me the fire of passion, and that I should
+suddenly have fallen madly in love with the two amiable sisters.
+Both were handsomer than Angela, and they were superior to her--
+Nanette by her charming wit, Marton by her sweet and simple nature; I
+could not understand how I had been so long in rendering them the
+justice they deserved, but they were the innocent daughters of a
+noble family, and the lucky chance which had thrown them in my way
+ought not to prove a calamity for them.  I was not vain enough to
+suppose that they loved me, but I could well enough admit that my
+kisses had influenced them in the same manner that their kisses had
+influenced me, and, believing this to be the case, it was evident
+that, with a little cunning on my part, and of sly practices of which
+they were ignorant, I could easily, during the long night I was going
+to spend with them, obtain favours, the consequences of which might
+be very positive.  The very thought made me shudder, and I firmly
+resolved to respect their virtue, never dreaming that circumstances
+might prove too strong for me.
+
+When they returned, I read upon their countenances perfect security
+and satisfaction, and I quickly put on the same appearance, with a
+full determination not to expose myself again to the danger of their
+kisses.
+
+For one hour we spoke of Angela, and I expressed my determination
+never to see her again, as I had every proof that she did not care
+for me.  "She loves you," said the artless Marton; "I know she does,
+but if you do not mean to marry her, you will do well to give up all
+intercourse with her, for she is quite determined not to grant you
+even a kiss as long as you are not her acknowledged suitor.  You must
+therefore either give up the acquaintance altogether, or make up your
+mind that she will refuse you everything."
+
+"You argue very well, but how do you know that she loves me?"
+
+"I am quite sure of it, and as you have promised to be our brother, I
+can tell you why I have that conviction.  When Angela is in bed with
+me, she embraces me lovingly and calls me her dear abbe."
+
+The words were scarcely spoken when Nanette, laughing heartily,
+placed her hand on her sister's lips, but the innocent confession had
+such an effect upon me that I could hardly control myself.
+
+Marton told Nanette that I could not possibly be ignorant of what
+takes place between young girls sleeping together.
+
+"There is no doubt," I said, "that everybody knows those trifles, and
+I do not think, dear Nanette, that you ought to reproach your sister
+with indiscretion for her friendly confidence."
+
+"It cannot be helped now, but such things ought not to be mentioned.
+If Angela knew it!"
+
+"She would be vexed, of course; but Marton has given me a mark of her
+friendship which I never can forget.  But it is all over; I hate
+Angela, and I do not mean to speak to her any more! she is false, and
+she wishes my ruin."
+
+"Yet, loving you, is she wrong to think of having you for her
+husband?"
+
+"Granted that she is not; but she thinks only of her own self, for
+she knows what I suffer, and her conduct would be very different if
+she loved me.  In the mean time, thanks to her imagination, she finds
+the means of satisfying her senses with the charming Marton who
+kindly performs the part of her husband."
+
+Nanette laughed louder, but I kept very serious, and I went on
+talking to her sister, and praising her sincerity.  I said that very
+likely, and to reciprocate her kindness, Angela must likewise have
+been her husband, but she answered, with a smile, that Angela played
+husband only to Nanette, and Nanette could not deny it.
+
+"But," said I, "what name did Nanette, in her rapture, give to her
+husband?"
+
+"Nobody knows."
+
+"Do you love anyone, Nanette?"
+
+"I do; but my secret is my own."
+
+This reserve gave me the suspicion that I had something to do with
+her secret, and that Nanette was the rival of Angela.  Such a
+delightful conversation caused me to lose the wish of passing an idle
+night with two girls so well made for love.
+
+"It is very lucky," I exclaimed, "that I have for you only feelings
+of friendship; otherwise it would be very hard to pass the night
+without giving way to the temptation of bestowing upon you proofs of
+my affection, for you are both so lovely, so bewitching, that you
+would turn the brains of any man."
+
+As I went on talking, I pretended to be somewhat sleepy; Nanette
+being the first to notice it, said, "Go to bed without any ceremony,
+we will lie down on the sofa in the adjoining room."
+
+"I would be a very poor-spirited fellow indeed, if I agreed to this;
+let us talk; my sleepiness will soon pass off, but I am anxious about
+you.  Go to bed yourselves, my charming friends, and I will go into
+the next room.  If you are afraid of me, lock the door, but you would
+do me an injustice, for I feel only a brother's yearnings towards
+you."
+
+"We cannot accept such an arrangement," said Nanette, "but let me
+persuade you; take this bed."
+
+"I cannot sleep with my clothes on."
+
+"Undress yourself; we will not look at you."
+
+"I have no fear of it, but how could I find the heart to sleep, while
+on my account you are compelled to sit up?"
+
+"Well," said Marton, "we can lie down, too, without undressing."
+
+"If you shew me such distrust, you will offend me.  Tell me, Nanette,
+do you think I am an honest man?"
+
+"Most certainly."
+
+"Well, then, give me a proof of your good opinion; lie down near me
+in the bed, undressed, and rely on my word of honour that I will not
+even lay a finger upon you.  Besides, you are two against one, what
+can you fear?  Will you not be free to get out of the bed in case I
+should not keep quiet?  In short, unless you consent to give me this
+mark of your confidence in me, at least when I have fallen asleep, I
+cannot go to bed."
+
+I said no more, and pretended to be very sleepy.  They exchanged a
+few words, whispering to each other, and Marton told me to go to bed,
+that they would follow me as soon as I was asleep.  Nanette made me
+the same promise, I turned my back to them, undressed myself quickly,
+and wishing them good night, I went to bed.  I immediately pretended
+to fall asleep, but soon I dozed in good earnest, and only woke when
+they came to bed.  Then, turning round as if I wished to resume my
+slumbers, I remained very quiet until I could suppose them fast
+asleep; at all events, if they did not sleep, they were at liberty to
+pretend to do so.  Their backs were towards me, and the light was
+out; therefore I could only act at random, and I paid my first
+compliments to the one who was lying on my right, not knowing whether
+she was Nanette or Marton.  I find her bent in two, and wrapped up in
+the only garment she had kept on.  Taking my time, and sparing her
+modesty, I compel her by degrees to acknowledge her defeat, and
+convince her that it is better to feign sleep and to let me proceed.
+Her natural instincts soon working in concert with mine, I reach the
+goal; and my efforts, crowned with the most complete success, leave
+me not the shadow of a doubt that I have gathered those first-fruits
+to which our prejudice makes us attach so great an importance.
+Enraptured at having enjoyed my manhood completely and for the first
+time, I quietly leave my beauty in order to do homage to the other
+sister.  I find her motionless, lying on her back like a person
+wrapped in profound and undisturbed slumber.  Carefully managing my
+advance, as if I were afraid of waking her up, I begin by gently
+gratifying her senses, and I ascertain the delightful fact that, like
+her sister, she is still in possession of her maidenhood.  As soon as
+a natural movement proves to me that love accepts the offering, I
+take my measures to consummate the sacrifice.  At that moment, giving
+way suddenly to the violence of her feelings, and tired of her
+assumed dissimulation, she warmly locks me in her arms at the very
+instant of the voluptuous crisis, smothers me with kisses, shares my
+raptures, and love blends our souls in the most ecstatic enjoyment.
+
+Guessing her to be Nanette, I whisper her name.
+
+"Yes, I am Nanette," she answers; "and I declare myself happy, as
+well as my sister, if you prove yourself true and faithful."
+
+"Until death, my beloved ones, and as everything we have done is the
+work of love, do not let us ever mention the name of Angela."
+
+After this, I begged that she would give us a light; but Marton,
+always kind and obliging, got out of bed leaving us alone.  When I
+saw Nanette in my arms, beaming with love, and Marton near the bed,
+holding a candle, with her eyes reproaching us with ingratitude
+because we did not speak to her, who, by accepting my first caresses,
+had encouraged her sister to follow her example, I realized all my
+happiness.
+
+"Let us get up, my darlings," said I, "and swear to each other
+eternal affection."
+
+When we had risen we performed, all three together, ablutions which
+made them laugh a good deal, and which gave a new impetus to the
+ardour of our feelings.  Sitting up in the simple costume of nature,
+we ate the remains of our supper, exchanging those thousand trifling
+words which love alone can understand, and we again retired to our
+bed, where we spent a most delightful night giving each other mutual
+and oft-repeated proofs of our passionate ardour.  Nanette was the
+recipient of my last bounties, for Madame Orio having left the house
+to go to church, I had to hasten my departure, after assuring the two
+lovely sisters that they had effectually extinguished whatever flame
+might still have flickered in my heart for Angela.  I went home and
+slept soundly until dinner-time.
+
+M. de Malipiero passed a remark upon my cheerful looks and the dark
+circles around my eyes, but I kept my own counsel, and I allowed him
+to think whatever he pleased.  On the following day I paid a visit to
+Madame Orio, and Angela not being of the party, I remained to supper
+and retired with M. Rosa.  During the evening Nanette contrived to
+give me a letter and a small parcel.  The parcel contained a small
+lump of wax with the stamp of a key, and the letter told me to have a
+key made, and to use it to enter the house whenever I wished to spend
+the night with them.  She informed me at the same time that Angela
+had slept with them the night following our adventures, and that,
+thanks to their mutual and usual practices, she had guessed the real
+state of things, that they had not denied it, adding that it was all
+her fault, and that Angela, after abusing them most vehemently, had
+sworn never again to darken their doors; but they did not care a jot.
+
+A few days afterwards our good fortune delivered us from Angela; she
+was taken to Vicenza by her father, who had removed there for a
+couple of years, having been engaged to paint frescoes in some houses
+in that city.  Thanks to her absence, I found myself undisturbed
+possessor of the two charming sisters, with whom I spent at least two
+nights every week, finding no difficulty in entering the house with
+the key which I had speedily procured.
+
+Carnival was nearly over, when M.  Manzoni informed me one day that
+the celebrated Juliette wished to see me, and regretted much that I
+had ceased to visit her.  I felt curious as to what she had to say to
+me, and accompanied him to her house.  She received me very politely,
+and remarking that she had heard of a large hall I had in my house,
+she said she would like to give a ball there, if I would give her the
+use of it.  I readily consented, and she handed me twenty-four
+sequins for the supper and for the band, undertaking to send people
+to place chandeliers in the hall and in my other rooms.
+
+M. de Sanvitali had left Venice, and the Parmesan government had
+placed his estates in chancery in consequence of his extravagant
+expenditure.  I met him at Versailles ten years afterwards.  He wore
+the insignia of the king's order of knighthood, and was grand equerry
+to the eldest daughter of Louis XV., Duchess of Parma, who, like all
+the French princesses, could not be reconciled to the climate of
+Italy.
+
+The ball took place, and went off splendidly.  All the guests
+belonged to Juliette's set, with the exception of Madame Orio, her
+nieces, and the procurator Rosa, who sat together in the room
+adjoining the hall, and whom I had been permitted to introduce as
+persons of no consequence whatever.
+
+While the after-supper minuets were being danced Juliette took me
+apart, and said, "Take me to your bedroom; I have just got an amusing
+idea."
+
+My room was on the third story; I shewed her the way.  The moment we
+entered she bolted the door, much to my surprise.  "I wish you," she
+said, "to dress me up in your ecclesiastical clothes, and I will
+disguise you as a woman with my own things.  We will go down and
+dance together.  Come, let us first dress our hair."
+
+Feeling sure of something pleasant to come, and delighted with such
+an unusual adventure, I lose no time in arranging her hair, and I let
+her afterwards dress mine.  She applies rouge and a few beauty spots
+to my face; I humour her in everything, and to prove her
+satisfaction, she gives me with the best of grace a very loving kiss,
+on condition that I do not ask for anything else.
+
+"As you please, beautiful Juliette, but I give you due notice that I
+adore you!"
+
+I place upon my bed a shirt, an abbe's neckband, a pair of drawers,
+black silk stockings--in fact, a complete fit-out.  Coming near the
+bed, Juliette drops her skirt, and cleverly gets into the drawers,
+which were not a bad fit, but when she comes to the breeches there is
+some difficulty; the waistband is too narrow, and the only remedy is
+to rip it behind or to cut it, if necessary.  I undertake to make
+everything right, and, as I sit on the foot of my bed, she places
+herself in front of me, with her back towards me.  I begin my work,
+but she thinks that I want to see too much, that I am not skilful
+enough, and that my fingers wander in unnecessary places; she gets
+fidgety, leaves me, tears the breeches, and manages in her own way.
+Then I help her to put her shoes on, and I pass the shirt over her
+head, but as I am disposing the ruffle and the neck-band, she
+complains of my hands being too curious; and in truth, her bosom was
+rather scanty.  She calls me a knave and rascal, but I take no notice
+of her.  I was not going to be duped, and I thought that a woman who
+had been paid one hundred thousand ducats was well worth some study.
+At last, her toilet being completed, my turn comes.  In spite of her
+objections I quickly get rid of my breeches, and she must put on me
+the chemise, then a skirt, in a word she has to dress me up.  But all
+at once, playing the coquette, she gets angry because I do not
+conceal from her looks the very apparent proof that her charms have
+some effect on a particular part of my being, and she refuses to
+grant me the favour which would soon afford both relief and calm.  I
+try to kiss her, and she repulses me, whereupon I lose patience, and
+in spite of herself she has to witness the last stage of my
+excitement.  At the sight of this, she pours out every insulting word
+she can think of; I endeavour to prove that she is to blame, but it
+is all in vain.
+
+However, she is compelled to complete my disguise.  There is no doubt
+that an honest woman would not have exposed herself to such an
+adventure, unless she had intended to prove her tender feelings, and
+that she would not have drawn back at the very moment she saw them
+shared by her companion; but women like Juliette are often guided by
+a spirit of contradiction which causes them to act against their own
+interests.  Besides, she felt disappointed when she found out that I
+was not timid, and my want of restraint appeared to her a want of
+respect.  She would not have objected to my stealing a few light
+favours which she would have allowed me to take, as being of no
+importance, but, by doing that, I should have flattered her vanity
+too highly.
+
+Our disguise being complete, we went together to the dancing-hall,
+where the enthusiastic applause of the guests soon restored our good
+temper.  Everybody gave me credit for a piece of fortune which I had
+not enjoyed, but I was not ill-pleased with the rumour, and went on
+dancing with the false abbe, who was only too charming.  Juliette
+treated me so well during the night that I construed her manners
+towards me into some sort of repentance, and I almost regretted what
+had taken place between us; it was a momentary weakness for which I
+was sorely punished.
+
+At the end of the quadrille all the men thought they had a right to
+take liberties with the abbe, and I became myself rather free with
+the young girls, who would have been afraid of exposing themselves to
+ridicule had they offered any opposition to my caresses.
+
+M. Querini was foolish enough to enquire from me whether I had kept
+on my breeches, and as I answered that I had been compelled to lend
+them to Juliette, he looked very unhappy, sat down in a corner of the
+room, and refused to dance.
+
+Every one of the guests soon remarked that I had on a woman's
+chemise, and nobody entertained a doubt of the sacrifice having been
+consummated, with the exception of Nanette and Marton, who could not
+imagine the possibility of my being unfaithful to them.  Juliette
+perceived that she had been guilty of great imprudence, but it was
+too late to remedy the evil.
+
+When we returned to my chamber upstairs, thinking that she had
+repented of her previous behaviour, and feeling some desire to
+possess her, I thought I would kiss her, and I took hold of her hand,
+saying I was disposed to give her every satisfaction, but she quickly
+slapped my face in so violent a manner that, in my indignation, I was
+very near returning the compliment.  I undressed myself rapidly
+without looking at her, she did the same, and we came downstairs;
+but, in spite of the cold water I had applied to my cheek, everyone
+could easily see the stamp of the large hand which had come in
+contact with my face.
+
+Before leaving the house, Juliette took me apart, and told me, in the
+most decided and impressive manner, that if I had any fancy for being
+thrown out of the window, I could enjoy that pleasure whenever I
+liked to enter her dwelling, and that she would have me murdered if
+this night's adventure ever became publicly known.  I took care not
+to give her any cause for the execution of either of her threats, but
+I could not prevent the fact of our having exchanged shirts being
+rather notorious.  As I was not seen at her house, it was generally
+supposed that she had been compelled by M. Querini to keep me at a
+distance.  The reader will see how, six years later, this
+extraordinary woman thought proper to feign entire forgetfulness of
+this adventure.
+
+I passed Lent, partly in the company of my loved ones, partly in the
+study of experimental physics at the Convent of the Salutation.  My
+evenings were always given to M. de Malipiero's assemblies.  At
+Easter, in order to keep the promise I had made to the Countess of
+Mont-Real, and longing to see again my beautiful Lucie, I went to
+Pasean.  I found the guests entirely different to the set I had met
+the previous autumn.  Count Daniel, the eldest of the family, had
+married a Countess Gozzi, and a young and wealthy government
+official, who had married a god-daughter of the old countess, was
+there with his wife and his sister-in-law.  I thought the supper very
+long.  The same room had been given to me, and I was burning to see
+Lucie, whom I did not intend to treat any more like a child.  I did
+not see her before going to bed, but I expected her early the next
+morning, when lo! instead of her pretty face brightening my eyes, I
+see standing before me a fat, ugly servant-girl!  I enquire after the
+gatekeeper's family, but her answer is given in the peculiar dialect
+of the place, and is, of course, unintelligible to me.
+
+I wonder what has become of Lucie; I fancy that our intimacy has been
+found out, I fancy that she is ill--dead, perhaps.  I dress myself
+with the intention of looking for her.  If she has been forbidden to
+see me, I think to myself, I will be even with them all, for somehow
+or other I will contrive the means of speaking to her, and out of
+spite I will do with her that which honour prevented love from
+accomplishing.  As I was revolving such thoughts, the gate-keeper
+comes in with a sorrowful countenance.  I enquire after his wife's
+health, and after his daughter, but at the name of Lucie his eyes are
+filled with tears.
+
+"What! is she dead?"
+
+"Would to God she were!"
+
+"What has she done?"
+
+"She has run away with Count Daniel's courier, and we have been
+unable to trace her anywhere."
+
+His wife comes in at the moment he replies, and at these words, which
+renewed her grief, the poor woman faints away.  The keeper, seeing
+how sincerely I felt for his misery, tells me that this great
+misfortune befell them only a week before my arrival.
+
+"I know that man l'Aigle," I say; "he is a scoundrel.  Did he ask to
+marry Lucie?"
+
+"No; he knew well enough that our consent would have been refused!"
+
+"I wonder at Lucie acting in such a way."
+
+"He seduced her, and her running away made us suspect the truth, for
+she had become very stout."
+
+"Had he known her long?"
+
+"About a month after your last visit she saw him for the first time.
+He must have thrown a spell over her, for our Lucie was as pure as a
+dove, and you can, I believe, bear testimony to her goodness."
+
+"And no one knows where they are?"
+
+"No one.  God alone knows what this villain will do with her."
+
+I grieved as much as the unfortunate parents; I went out and took a
+long ramble in the woods to give way to my sad feelings.  During two
+hours I cogitated over considerations, some true, some false, which
+were all prefaced by an if.  If I had paid this visit, as I might
+have done, a week sooner, loving Lucie would have confided in me, and
+I would have prevented that self-murder.  If I had acted with her as
+with Nanette and Marton, she would not have been left by me in that
+state of ardent excitement which must have proved the principal cause
+of her fault, and she would not have fallen a prey to that scoundrel.
+If she had not known me before meeting the courier, her innocent soul
+would never have listened to such a man.  I was in despair, for in my
+conscience I acknowledged myself the primary agent of this infamous
+seduction; I had prepared the way for the villain.
+
+Had I known where to find Lucie, I would certainly have gone forth on
+the instant to seek for her, but no trace whatever of her whereabouts
+had been discovered.
+
+Before I had been made acquainted with Lucie's misfortune I felt
+great pride at having had sufficient power over myself to respect her
+innocence; but after hearing what had happened I was ashamed of my
+own reserve, and I promised myself that for the future I would on
+that score act more wisely.  I felt truly miserable when my
+imagination painted the probability of the unfortunate girl being
+left to poverty and shame, cursing the remembrance of me, and hating
+me as the first cause of her misery.  This fatal event caused me to
+adopt a new system, which in after years I carried sometimes rather
+too far.
+
+I joined the cheerful guests of the countess in the gardens, and
+received such a welcome that I was soon again in my usual spirits,
+and at dinner I delighted everyone.
+
+My sorrow was so great that it was necessary either to drive it away
+at once or to leave Pasean.  But a new life crept into my being as I
+examined the face and the disposition of the newly-married lady.  Her
+sister was prettier, but I was beginning to feel afraid of a novice;
+I thought the work too great.
+
+This newly-married lady, who was between nineteen and twenty years of
+age, drew upon herself everybody's attention by her over-strained and
+unnatural manners. A great talker, with a memory crammed with maxims
+and precepts often without sense, but of which she loved to make a
+show, very devout, and so jealous of her husband that she did not
+conceal her vexation when he expressed his satisfaction at being
+seated at table opposite her sister, she laid herself open to much
+ridicule.  Her husband was a giddy young fellow, who perhaps felt
+very deep affection for his wife, but who imagined that, through good
+breeding, he ought to appear very indifferent, and whose vanity found
+pleasure in giving her constant causes for jealousy.  She, in her
+turn, had a great dread of passing for an idiot if she did not shew
+her appreciation of, and her resentment for, his conduct.  She felt
+uneasy in the midst of good company, precisely because she wished to
+appear thoroughly at home.  If I prattled away with some of my
+trilling nonsense, she would stare at me, and in her anxiety not to
+be thought stupid, she would laugh out of season.  Her oddity, her
+awkwardness, and her self-conceit gave me the desire to know her
+better, and I began to dance attendance upon her.
+
+My attentions, important and unimportant, my constant care, ever my
+fopperies, let everybody know that I meditated conquest.  The husband
+was duly warned, but, with a great show of intrepidity, he answered
+with a joke every time he was told that I was a formidable rival.  On
+my side I assumed a modest, and even sometimes a careless appearance,
+when, to shew his freedom from jealousy, he excited me to make love
+to his wife, who, on her part, understood but little how to perform
+the part of fancy free.
+
+I had been paying my address to her for five or six days with great
+constancy, when, taking a walk with her in the garden, she
+imprudently confided to me the reason of her anxiety respecting her
+husband, and how wrong he was to give her any cause for jealousy.  I
+told her, speaking as an old friend, that the best way to punish him
+would be to take no apparent notice of her, husband's preference for
+her sister, and to feign to be herself in love with me.  In order to
+entice her more easily to follow my advice, I added that I was well
+aware of my plan being a very difficult one to carry out, and that to
+play successfully such a character a woman must be particularly
+witty.  I had touched her weak point, and she exclaimed that she
+would play the part to perfection; but in spite of her self-
+confidence she acquitted herself so badly that everybody understood
+that the plan was of my own scheming.
+
+If I happened to be alone with her in the dark paths of the garden,
+and tried to make her play her part in real earnest, she would take
+the dangerous step of running away, and rejoining the other guests;
+the result being that, on my reappearance, I was called a bad
+sportsman who frightened the bird away.  I would not fail at the
+first opportunity to reproach her for her flight, and to represent
+the triumph she had thus prepared for her spouse.  I praised her
+mind, but lamented over the shortcomings of her education; I said
+that the tone, the manners I adopted towards her, were those of good
+society, and proved the great esteem I entertained for her
+intelligence, but in the middle of all my fine speeches, towards the
+eleventh or twelfth day of my courtship, she suddenly put me out of
+all conceit by telling me that, being a priest, I ought to know that
+every amorous connection was a deadly sin, that God could see every
+action of His creatures, and that she would neither damn her soul nor
+place herself under the necessity of saying to her confessor that she
+had so far forgotten herself as to commit such a sin with a priest.
+I objected that I was not yet a priest, but she foiled me by
+enquiring point-blank whether or not the act I had in view was to be
+numbered amongst the cardinal sins, for, not feeling the courage to
+deny it, I felt that I must give up the argument and put an end to
+the adventure.
+
+A little consideration having considerably calmed my feelings,
+everybody remarked my new countenance during dinner; and the old
+count, who was very fond of a joke, expressed loudly his opinion that
+such quiet demeanour on my part announced the complete success of my
+campaign.  Considering such a remark to be favourable to me, I took
+care to spew my cruel devotee that such was the way the world would
+judge, but all this was lost labour.  Luck, however, stood me in good
+stead, and my efforts were crowned with success in the following
+manner.
+
+On Ascension Day, we all went to pay a visit to Madame Bergali, a
+celebrated Italian poetess.  On my return to Pasean the same evening,
+my pretty mistress wished to get into a carriage for four persons in
+which her husband and sister were already seated, while I was alone
+in a two-wheeled chaise.  I exclaimed at this, saying that such a
+mark of distrust was indeed too pointed, and everybody remonstrated
+with her, saying that she ought not to insult me so cruelly.  She was
+compelled to come with me, and having told the postillion that I
+wanted to go by the nearest road, he left the other carriages, and
+took the way through the forest of Cequini.  The sky was clear and
+cloudless when we left, but in less than half-an-hour we were visited
+by one of those storms so frequent in the south, which appear likely
+to overthrow heaven and earth, and which end rapidly, leaving behind
+them a bright sky and a cool atmosphere, so that they do more good
+than harm.
+
+"Oh, heavens!" exclaimed my companion, "we shall have a storm."
+
+"Yes," I say, "and although the chaise is covered, the rain will
+spoil your pretty dress.  I am very sorry."
+
+"I do not mind the dress; but the thunder frightens me so!"
+
+"Close your ears."
+
+"And the lightning?"
+
+"Postillion, let us go somewhere for shelter."
+
+"There is not a house, sir, for a league, and before we come to it,
+the storm will have passed off."
+
+He quietly keeps on his way, and the lightning flashes, the thunder
+sends forth its mighty voice, and the lady shudders with fright.  The
+rain comes down in torrents, I take off my cloak to shelter us in
+front, at the same moment we are blinded by a flash of lightning, and
+the electric fluid strikes the earth within one hundred yards of us.
+The horses plunge and prance with fear, and my companion falls in
+spasmodic convulsions.  She throws herself upon me, and folds me in
+her arms.  The cloak had gone down, I stoop to place it around us,
+and improving my opportunity I take up her clothes.  She tries to
+pull them down, but another clap of thunder deprives her of every
+particle of strength.  Covering her with the cloak, I draw her
+towards me, and the motion of the chaise coming to my assistance, she
+falls over me in the most favourable position.  I lose no time, and
+under pretence of arranging my watch in my fob, I prepare myself for
+the assault.  On her side, conscious that, unless she stops me at
+once, all is lost, she makes a great effort; but I hold her tightly,
+saying that if she does not feign a fainting fit, the post-boy will
+turn round and see everything; I let her enjoy the pleasure of
+calling me an infidel, a monster, anything she likes, but my victory
+is the most complete that ever a champion achieved.
+
+The rain, however, was falling, the wind, which was very high, blew
+in our faces, and, compelled to stay where she was, she said I would
+ruin her reputation, as the postillion could see everything.
+
+"I keep my eye upon him," I answered, "he is not thinking of us, and
+even if he should turn his head, the cloak shelters us from him.  Be
+quiet, and pretend to have fainted, for I will not let you go."
+
+She seems resigned, and asks how I can thus set the storm at
+defiance.
+
+"The storm, dear one, is my best friend to-day."
+
+She almost seems to believe me, her fear vanishes, and feeling my
+rapture, she enquires whether I have done.  I smile and answer in the
+negative, stating that I cannot let her go till the storm is over.
+"Consent to everything, or I let the cloak drop," I say to her.
+
+"Well, you dreadful man, are you satisfied, now that you have insured
+my misery for the remainder of my life?"
+
+"No, not yet."
+
+"What more do you want?"
+
+"A shower of kisses."
+
+"How unhappy I am!  Well! here they are."
+
+"Tell me you forgive me, and confess that you have shared all my
+pleasure."
+
+"You know I did.  Yes, I forgive you."
+
+Then I give her her liberty, and treating her to some very pleasant
+caresses, I ask her to have the same kindness for me, and she goes to
+work with a smile on her pretty lips.
+
+"Tell me you love me," I say to her.
+
+"No, I do not, for you are an atheist, and hell awaits you."
+
+The weather was fine again, and the elements calm; I kissed her hands
+and told her that the postillion had certainly not seen anything, and
+that I was sure I had cured her of her dread of thunder, but that she
+was not likely to reveal the secret of my remedy.  She answered that
+one thing at least was certain, namely that no other woman had ever
+been cured by the same prescription.
+
+"Why," I said, "the same remedy has very likely been applied a
+million of times within the last thousand years.  To tell you the
+truth, I had somewhat depended upon it, when we entered the chaise
+together, for I did not know any other way of obtaining the happiness
+of possessing you.  But console yourself with the belief that, placed
+in the same position, no frightened woman could have resisted."
+
+"I believe you; but for the future I will travel only with my
+husband."
+
+"You would be wrong, for your husband would not have been clever
+enough to cure your fright in the way I have done."
+
+"True, again.  One learns some curious things in your company; but we
+shall not travel tete-d-tete again."
+
+We reached Pasean an hour before our friends.  We get out of the
+chaise, and my fair mistress ran off to her chamber, while I was
+looking for a crown for the postillion.  I saw that he was grinning.
+
+"What are you laughing at?"
+
+"Oh! you know."
+
+"Here, take this ducat and keep a quiet tongue in your head."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+My Grandmother's Death and Its Consequences I Lose M. de Malipiero's
+Friendship--I Have No Longer a Home--La Tintoretta--I Am Sent to a
+Clerical Seminary--I Am Expelled From It, and Confined in a Fortress
+
+
+During supper the conversation turned altogether upon the storm, and
+the official, who knew the weakness of his wife, told me that he was
+quite certain I would never travel with her again.  "Nor I with him,"
+his wife remarked, "for, in his fearful impiety, he exorcised the
+lightning with jokes."
+
+Henceforth she avoided me so skilfully that I never could contrive
+another interview with her.
+
+When I returned to Venice I found my grandmother ill, and I had to
+change all my habits, for I loved her too dearly not to surround her
+with every care and attention; I never left her until she had
+breathed her last.  She was unable to leave me anything, for during
+her life she had given me all she could, and her death compelled me
+to adopt an entirely different mode of life.
+
+A month after her death, I received a letter from my mother informing
+me that, as there was no probability of her return to Venice, she had
+determined to give up the house, the rent of which she was still
+paying, that she had communicated her intention to the Abbe Grimani,
+and that I was to be guided entirely by his advice.
+
+He was instructed to sell the furniture, and to place me, as well as
+my brothers and my sister, in a good boarding-house.  I called upon
+Grimani to assure him of my perfect disposition to obey his commands.
+
+The rent of the house had been paid until the end of the year; but,
+as I was aware that the furniture would be sold on the expiration of
+the term, I placed my wants under no restraint.  I had already sold
+some linen, most of the china, and several tapestries; I now began to
+dispose of the mirrors, beds, etc.  I had no doubt that my conduct
+would be severely blamed, but I knew likewise that it was my father's
+inheritance, to which my mother had no claim whatever, and, as to my
+brothers, there was plenty of time before any explanation could take
+place between us.
+
+Four months afterwards I had a second letter from my mother, dated
+from Warsaw, and enclosing another.  Here is the translation of my
+mother's letter
+
+"My dear son, I have made here the acquaintance of a learned Minim
+friar, a Calabrian by birth, whose great qualities have made me think
+of you every time he has honoured me with a visit.  A year ago I told
+him that I had a son who was preparing himself for the Church, but
+that I had not the means of keeping him during his studies, and he
+promised that my son would become his own child, if I could obtain
+for him from the queen a bishopric in his native country, and he
+added that it would be very easy to succeed if I could induce the
+sovereign to recommend him to her daughter, the queen of Naples.
+
+"Full of trust in the Almighty, I threw myself at the feet of her
+majesty, who granted me her gracious protection.  She wrote to her
+daughter, and the worthy friar has been appointed by the Pope to the
+bishopric of Monterano.  Faithful to his promise, the good bishop
+will take you with him about the middle of next year, as he passes
+through Venice to reach Calabria.  He informs you himself of his
+intentions in the enclosed letter.  Answer him immediately, my dear
+son, and forward your letter to me; I will deliver it to the bishop.
+He will pave your way to the highest dignities of the Church, and you
+may imagine my consolation if, in some twenty or thirty years, I had
+the happiness of seeing you a bishop, at least!  Until his arrival,
+M. Grimani will take care of you.  I give you my blessing, and I am,
+my dear child, etc., etc."
+
+The bishop's letter was written in Latin, and was only a repetition
+of my mother's.  It was full of unction, and informed me that he
+would tarry but three days in Venice.
+
+I answered according to my mother's wishes, but those two letters had
+turned my brain.  I looked upon my fortune as made.  I longed to
+enter the road which was to lead me to it, and I congratulated myself
+that I could leave my country without any regret.  Farewell, Venice,
+I exclaimed; the days for vanity are gone by, and in the future I
+will only think of a great, of a substantial career!  M.  Grimani
+congratulated me warmly on my good luck, and promised all his
+friendly care to secure a good boarding-house, to which I would go at
+the beginning of the year, and where I would wait for the bishop's
+arrival.
+
+M. de Malipiero, who in his own way had great wisdom, and who saw
+that in Venice I was plunging headlong into pleasures and
+dissipation, and was only wasting a precious time, was delighted to
+see me on the eve of going somewhere else to fulfil my destiny, and
+much pleased with my ready acceptance of those new circumstances in
+my life.  He read me a lesson which I have never forgotten.  "The
+famous precept of the Stoic philosophers," he said to me, "'Sequere
+Deum', can be perfectly explained by these words: 'Give yourself up
+to whatever fate offers to you, provided you do not feel an
+invincible repugnance to accept it.'"  He added that it was the
+genius of Socrates, 'saepe revocans, raro impellens'; and that it was
+the origin of the 'fata viam inveniunt' of the same philosophers.
+
+M. de Malipiero's science was embodied in that very lesson, for he
+had obtained his knowledge by the study of only one book--the book of
+man.  However, as if it were to give me the proof that perfection
+does not exist, and that there is a bad side as well as a good one to
+everything, a certain adventure happened to me a month afterwards
+which, although I was following his own maxims, cost me the loss of
+his friendship, and which certainly did not teach me anything.
+
+The senator fancied that he could trace upon the physiognomy of young
+people certain signs which marked them out as the special favourites
+of fortune.  When he imagined that he had discovered those signs upon
+any individual, he would take him in hand and instruct him how to
+assist fortune by good and wise principles; and he used to say, with
+a great deal of truth, that a good remedy would turn into poison in
+the hands of a fool, but that poison is a good remedy when
+administered by a learned man.  He had, in my time, three favourites
+in whose education he took great pains.  They were, besides myself,
+Therese Imer, with whom the reader has a slight acquaintance already,
+and the third was the daughter of the boatman Gardela, a girl three
+years younger than I, who had the prettiest and most fascinating
+countenance.  The speculative old man, in order to assist fortune in
+her particular case, made her learn dancing, for, he would say, the
+ball cannot reach the pocket unless someone pushes it.  This girl
+made a great reputation at Stuttgard under the name of Augusta.  She
+was the favourite mistress of the Duke of Wurtemburg in 1757.  She
+was a most charming woman.  The last time I saw her she was in
+Venice, and she died two years afterwards.  Her husband, Michel de
+l'Agata, poisoned himself a short time after her death.
+
+One day we had all three dined with him, and after dinner the senator
+left us, as was his wont, to enjoy his siesta; the little Gardela,
+having a dancing lesson to take, went away soon after him, and I
+found myself alone with Therese, whom I rather admired, although I
+had never made love to her.  We were sitting down at a table very
+near each other, with our backs to the door of the room in which we
+thought our patron fast asleep, and somehow or other we took a fancy
+to examine into the difference of conformation between a girl and a
+boy; but at the most interesting part of our study a violent blow on
+my shoulders from a stick, followed by another, and which would have
+been itself followed by many more if I had not ran away, compelled us
+to abandon our interesting investigation unfinished.  I got off
+without hat or cloak, and went home; but in less than a quarter of an
+hour the old housekeeper of the senator brought my clothes with a
+letter which contained a command never to present myself again at the
+mansion of his excellency.  I immediately wrote him an answer in the
+following terms: "You have struck me while you were the slave of your
+anger; you cannot therefore boast of having given me a lesson, and I
+have not learned anything.  To forgive you I must forget that you are
+a man of great wisdom, and I can never forget it."
+
+This nobleman was perhaps quite right not to be pleased with the
+sight we gave him; yet, with all his prudence, he proved himself very
+unwise, for all the servants were acquainted with the cause of my
+exile, and, of course, the adventure was soon known through the city,
+and was received with great merriment.  He dared not address any
+reproaches to Therese, as I heard from her soon after, but she could
+not venture to entreat him to pardon me.
+
+The time to leave my father's house was drawing near, and one fine
+morning I received the visit of a man about forty years old, with a
+black wig, a scarlet cloak, and a very swarthy complexion, who handed
+me a letter from M. Grimani, ordering me to consign to the bearer all
+the furniture of the house according to the inventory, a copy of
+which was in my possession.  Taking the inventory in my hand, I
+pointed out every article marked down, except when the said article,
+having through my instrumentality taken an airing out of the house,
+happened to be missing, and whenever any article was absent I said
+that I had not the slightest idea where it might be.  But the uncouth
+fellow, taking a very high tone, said loudly that he must know what I
+had done with the furniture.  His manner being very disagreeable to
+me, I answered that I had nothing to do with him, and as he still
+raised his voice I advised him to take himself off as quickly as
+possible, and I gave him that piece of advice in such a way as to
+prove to him that, at home, I knew I was the more powerful of the
+two.
+
+Feeling it my duty to give information to M. Grimani of what had
+just taken place, I called upon him as soon as he was up, but I found
+that my man was already there, and that he had given his own account
+of the affair.  The abbe, after a very severe lecture to which I had
+to listen in silence, ordered me to render an account of all the
+missing articles.  I answered that I had found myself under the
+necessity of selling them to avoid running into debt.  This
+confession threw him in a violent passion; he called me a rascal,
+said that those things did not belong to me, that he knew what he had
+to do, and he commanded me to leave his house on the very instant.
+
+Mad with rage, I ran for a Jew, to whom I wanted to sell what
+remained of the furniture, but when I returned to my house I found a
+bailiff waiting at the door, and he handed me a summons.  I looked
+over it and perceived that it was issued at the instance of Antonio
+Razetta.  It was the name of the fellow with the swarthy countenance.
+The seals were already affixed on all the doors, and I was not even
+allowed to go to my room, for a keeper had been left there by the
+bailiff.  I lost no time, and called upon M. Rosa, to whom I related
+all the circumstances.  After reading the summons he said,
+
+"The seals shall be removed to-morrow morning, and in the meantime I
+shall summon Razetta before the avogador.  But to-night, my dear
+friend," he added, "you must beg the hospitality of some one of your
+acquaintances.  It has been a violent proceeding, but you shall be
+paid handsomely for it; the man is evidently acting under
+M.  Grimani's orders."
+
+"Well, that is their business."
+
+I spent the night with Nanette and Marton, and on the following
+morning, the seals having been taken off, I took possession of my
+dwelling.  Razetta did not appear before the 'avogador', and M. Rosa
+summoned him in my name before the criminal court, and obtained
+against him a writ of 'capias' in case he should not obey the second
+summons.  On the third day M. Grimani wrote to me, commanding me to
+call upon him.  I went immediately.  As soon as I was in his presence
+he enquired abruptly what my intentions were.
+
+"I intend to shield myself from your violent proceedings under the
+protection of the law, and to defend myself against a man with whom I
+ought never to have had any connection, and who has compelled me to
+pass the night in a disreputable place."
+
+"In a disreputable place?"
+
+"Of course.  Why was I, against all right and justice, prevented from
+entering my own dwelling?"
+
+"You have possession of it now.  But you must go to your lawyer and
+tell him to suspend all proceedings against Razetta, who has done
+nothing but under my instructions.  I suspected that your intention
+was to sell the rest of the furniture; I have prevented it.  There is
+a room at your disposal at St. Hrysostom's, in a house of mine, the
+first floor of which is occupied by La Tintoretta, our first opera
+dancer.  Send all your things there, and come and dine with me every
+day.  Your sister and your brothers have been provided with a
+comfortable home; therefore, everything is now arranged for the
+best."
+
+I called at once upon M. Rosa, to whom I explained all that had taken
+place, and his advice being to give way to M. Grimani's wishes, I
+determined to follow it.  Besides, the arrangement offered the best
+satisfaction I could obtain, as to be a guest at his dinner table was
+an honour for me.  I was likewise full of curiosity respecting my new
+lodging under the same roof with La Tintoretta, who was much talked
+of, owing to a certain Prince of Waldeck who was extravagantly
+generous with her.
+
+The bishop was expected in the course of the summer; I had,
+therefore, only six months more to wait in Venice before taking the
+road which would lead me, perhaps, to the throne of Saint Peter:
+everything in the future assumed in my eyes the brightest hue, and my
+imagination revelled amongst the most radiant beams of sunshine; my
+castles in the air were indeed most beautiful.
+
+I dined the same day with M. Grimani, and I found myself seated next
+to Razetta--an unpleasant neighbour, but I took no notice of him.
+When the meal was over, I paid a last visit to my beautiful house in
+Saint-Samuel's parish, and sent all I possessed in a gondola to my
+new lodging.
+
+I did not know Signora Tintoretta, but I was well acquainted with her
+reputation, character and manners.  She was but a poor dancer,
+neither handsome nor plain, but a woman of wit and intellect.  Prince
+Waldeck spent a great deal for her, and yet he did not prevent her
+from retaining the titulary protection of a noble Venetian of the Lin
+family, now extinct, a man about sixty years of age, who was her
+visitor at every hour of the day.  This nobleman, who knew me, came
+to my room towards the evening, with the compliments of the lady,
+who, he added, was delighted to have me in her house, and would be
+pleased to receive me in her intimate circle.
+
+To excuse myself for not having been the first to pay my respects to
+the signora, I told M. Lin that I did not know she was my neighbour,
+that M. Grimani had not mentioned the circumstance, otherwise I would
+have paid my duties to her before taking possession of my lodging.
+After this apology I followed the ambassador, he presented me to his
+mistress, and the acquaintance was made.
+
+She received me like a princess, took off her glove before giving me
+her hand to kiss, mentioned my name before five or six strangers who
+were present, and whose names she gave me, and invited me to take a
+seat near her.  As she was a native of Venice, I thought it was
+absurd for her to speak French to me, and I told her that I was not
+acquainted with that language, and would feel grateful if she would
+converse in Italian.  She was surprised at my not speaking French,
+and said I would cut but a poor figure in her drawing-room, as they
+seldom spoke any other language there, because she received a great
+many foreigners.  I promised to learn French.  Prince Waldeck came in
+during the evening; I was introduced to him, and he gave me a very
+friendly welcome.  He could speak Italian very well, and during the
+carnival he chewed me great kindness.  He presented me with a gold
+snuffbox as a reward for a very poor sonnet which I had written for
+his dear Grizellini.  This was her family name; she was called
+Tintoretta because her father had been a dyer.
+
+The Tintoretta had greater claims than Juliette to the admiration of
+sensible men.  She loved poetry, and if it had not been that I was
+expecting the bishop, I would have fallen in love with her.  She was
+herself smitten with a young physician of great merit, named
+Righelini, who died in the prime of life, and whom I still regret.  I
+shall have to mention him in another part of my Memoirs.
+
+Towards the end of the carnival, my mother wrote to M. Grimani that
+it would be a great shame if the bishop found me under the roof of an
+opera dancer, and he made up his mind to lodge me in a respectable
+and decent place.  He took the Abbe Tosello into consultation, and
+the two gentlemen thought that the best thing they could do for me
+would be to send me to a clerical seminary.  They arranged everything
+unknown to me, and the abbe undertook to inform me of their plan and
+to obtain from me a gracious consent.  But when I heard him speak
+with beautiful flowers of rhetoric for the purpose of gilding the
+bitter pill, I could not help bursting into a joyous laughter, and I
+astounded his reverence when I expressed my readiness to go anywhere
+he might think right to send me.
+
+The plan of the two worthy gentlemen was absurd, for at the age of
+seventeen, and with a nature like mine, the idea of placing me in a
+seminary ought never to have been entertained, but ever a faithful
+disciple of Socrates, feeling no unconquerable reluctance, and the
+plan, on the contrary, appearing to me rather a good joke, I not only
+gave a ready consent, but I even longed to enter the seminary.  I
+told M. Grimani I was prepared to accept anything, provided Razetta
+had nothing to do with it.  He gave me his promise, but he did not
+keep it when I left the seminary.  I have never been able to decide
+whether this Grimani was kind because he was a fool, or whether his
+stupidity was the result of his kindness, but all his brothers were
+the same.  The worst trick that Dame Fortune can play upon an
+intelligent young man is to place him under the dependence of a fool.
+A few days afterwards, having been dressed as a pupil of a clerical
+seminary by the care of the abbe, I was taken to Saint-Cyprian de
+Muran and introduced to the rector.
+
+The patriarchal church of Saint-Cyprian is served by an order of the
+monks, founded by the blessed Jerome Miani, a nobleman of Venice.
+The rector received me with tender affection and great kindness.  But
+in his address (which was full of unction) I thought I could perceive
+a suspicion on his part that my being sent to the seminary was a
+punishment, or at least a way to put a stop to an irregular life,
+and, feeling hurt in my dignity, I told him at once, "Reverend
+father, I do not think that any one has the right of punishing me."
+
+"No, no, my son," he answered, "I only meant that you would be very
+happy with us."
+
+We were then shewn three halls, in which we found at least one
+hundred and fifty seminarists, ten or twelve schoolrooms, the
+refectory, the dormitory, the gardens for play hours, and every pain
+was taken to make me imagine life in such a place the happiest that
+could fall to the lot of a young man, and to make me suppose that I
+would even regret the arrival of the bishop.  Yet they all tried to
+cheer me up by saying that I would only remain there five or six
+months.  Their eloquence amused me greatly.
+
+I entered the seminary at the beginning of March, and prepared myself
+for my new life by passing the night between my two young friends,
+Nanette and Marton, who bathed their pillows with tears; they could
+not understand, and this was likewise the feeling of their aunt and
+of the good M. Rosa, how a young man like myself could shew such
+obedience.
+
+The day before going to the seminary, I had taken care to entrust all
+my papers to Madame Manzoni.  They made a large parcel, and I left it
+in her hands for fifteen years.  The worthy old lady is still alive,
+and with her ninety years she enjoys good health and a cheerful
+temper.  She received me with a smile, and told me that I would not
+remain one month in the seminary.
+
+"I beg your pardon, madam, but I am very glad to go there, and intend
+to remain until the arrival of the bishop."
+
+"You do not know your own nature, and you do not know your bishop,
+with whom you will not remain very long either."
+
+The abbe accompanied me to the seminary in a gondola, but at Saint-
+Michel he had to stop in consequence of a violent attack of vomiting
+which seized me suddenly; the apothecary cured me with some mint-
+water.
+
+I was indebted for this attack to the too frequent sacrifices which I
+had been offering on the altar of love.  Any lover who knows what his
+feelings were when he found himself with the woman he adored and with
+the fear that it was for the last time, will easily imagine my
+feelings during the last hours that I expected ever to spend with my
+two charming mistresses.  I could not be induced to let the last
+offering be the last, and I went on offering until there was no more
+incense left.
+
+The priest committed me to the care of the rector, and my luggage was
+carried to the dormitory, where I went myself to deposit my cloak and
+my hat.  I was not placed amongst the adults, because,
+notwithstanding my size, I was not old enough.  Besides, I would not
+shave myself, through vanity, because I thought that the down on my
+face left no doubt of my youth.  It was ridiculous, of course; but
+when does man cease to be so?  We get rid of our vices more easily
+than of our follies.  Tyranny has not had sufficient power over me to
+compel me to shave myself; it is only in that respect that I have
+found tyranny to be tolerant.
+
+"To which school do you wish to belong?" asked the rector.
+
+"To the dogmatic, reverend father; I wish to study the history of the
+Church."
+
+"I will introduce you to the father examiner."
+
+"I am doctor in divinity, most reverend father, and do not want to be
+examined."
+
+"It is necessary, my dear son; come with me."
+
+This necessity appeared to me an insult, and I felt very angry; but a
+spirit of revenge quickly whispered to me the best way to mystify
+them, and the idea made me very joyful.  I answered so badly all the
+questions propounded in Latin by the examiner, I made so many
+solecisms, that he felt it his duty to send me to an inferior class
+of grammar, in which, to my great delight, I found myself the
+companion of some twenty young urchins of about ten years, who,
+hearing that I was doctor in divinity, kept on saying: 'Accipiamus
+pecuniam, et mittamus asinum in patriam suam'.
+
+Our play hours afforded me great amusement; my companions of the
+dormitory, who were all in the class of philosophy at least, looked
+down upon me with great contempt, and when they spoke of their own
+sublime discourses, they laughed if I appeared to be listening
+attentively to their discussions which, as they thought, must have
+been perfect enigmas to me.  I did not intend to betray myself, but
+an accident, which I could not avoid, forced me to throw off the
+mask.
+
+Father Barbarigo, belonging to the Convent of the Salutation at
+Venice, whose pupil I had been in physics, came to pay a visit to the
+rector, and seeing me as we were coming from mass paid me his
+friendly compliments.  His first question was to enquire what science
+I was studying, and he thought I was joking when I answered that I
+was learning the grammar.  The rector having joined us, I left them
+together, and went to my class.  An our later, the rector sent for
+me.
+
+"Why did you feign such ignorance at the examination?" he asked.
+
+"Why," I answered, "were you unjust enough to compel me to the
+degradation of an examination?"
+
+He looked annoyed, and escorted me to the dogmatic school, where my
+comrades of the dormitory received me with great astonishment, and in
+the afternoon, at play time, they gathered around me and made me very
+happy with their professions of friendship.
+
+One of them, about fifteen years old, and who at the present time
+must, if still alive, be a bishop, attracted my notice by his
+features as much as by his talents.  He inspired me with a very warm
+friendship, and during recess, instead of playing skittles with the
+others, we always walked together.  We conversed upon poetry, and we
+both delighted in the beautiful odes of Horace.  We liked Ariosto
+better than Tasso, and Petrarch had our whole admiration, while
+Tassoni and Muratori, who had been his critics, were the special
+objects of our contempt.  We were such fast friends, after four days
+of acquaintance, that we were actually jealous of each other, and to
+such an extent that if either of us walked about with any seminarist,
+the other would be angry and sulk like a disappointed lover.
+
+The dormitory was placed under the supervision of a lay friar, and it
+was his province to keep us in good order.  After supper, accompanied
+by this lay friar, who had the title of prefect, we all proceeded to
+the dormitory.  There, everyone had to go to his own bed, and to
+undress quietly after having said his prayers in a low voice.  When
+all the pupils were in bed, the prefect would go to his own.  A large
+lantern lighted up the dormitory, which had the shape of a
+parallelogram eighty yards by ten.  The beds were placed at equal
+distances, and to each bed there were a fold-stool, a chair, and room
+for the trunk of the Seminarist.  At one end was the washing place,
+and at the other the bed of the prefect.  The bed of my friend was
+opposite mine, and the lantern was between us.
+
+The principal duty of the prefect was to take care that no pupil
+should go and sleep with one of his comrades, for such a visit was
+never supposed an innocent one.  It was a cardinal sin, and, bed
+being accounted the place for sleep and not for conversation, it was
+admitted that a pupil who slept out of his own bed, did so only for
+immoral purposes.  So long as he stopped in his own bed, he could do
+what he liked; so much the worse for him if he gave himself up to bad
+practices.  It has been remarked in Germany that it is precisely in
+those institutions for young men in which the directors have taken
+most pains to prevent onanism that this vice is most prevalent.
+
+Those who had framed the regulations in our seminary were stupid
+fools, who had not the slightest knowledge of either morals or human
+nature.  Nature has wants which must be administered to, and Tissot
+is right only as far as the abuse of nature is concerned, but this
+abuse would very seldom occur if the directors exercised proper
+wisdom and prudence, and if they did not make a point of forbidding
+it in a special and peculiar manner; young people give way to
+dangerous excesses from a sheer delight in disobedience,--
+a disposition very natural to humankind, since it began with Adam and
+Eve.
+
+I had been in the seminary for nine or ten days, when one night I
+felt someone stealing very quietly in my bed; my hand was at once
+clutched, and my name whispered.  I could hardly restrain my
+laughter.  It was my friend, who, having chanced to wake up and
+finding that the lantern was out, had taken a sudden fancy to pay me
+a visit.  I very soon begged him to go away for fear the prefect
+should be awake, for in such a case we should have found ourselves in
+a very unpleasant dilemma, and most likely would have been accused of
+some abominable offence.  As I was giving him that good advice we
+heard someone moving, and my friend made his escape; but immediately
+after he had left me I heard the fall of some person, and at the same
+time the hoarse voice of the prefect exclaiming:
+
+"Ah, villain!  wait until to-morrow--until to-morrow!"
+
+After which threat he lighted the lantern and retired to his couch.
+
+The next morning, before the ringing of the bell for rising, the
+rector, followed by the prefect, entered the dormitory, and said to
+us:
+
+"Listen to me, all of you.  You are aware of what has taken place
+this last night.  Two amongst you must be guilty; but I wish to
+forgive them, and to save their honour I promise that their names
+shall not be made public.  I expect every one of you to come to me
+for confession before recess."
+
+He left the dormitory, and we dressed ourselves.  In the afternoon,
+in obedience to his orders, we all went to him and confessed, after
+which ceremony we repaired to the garden, where my friend told me
+that, having unfortunately met the prefect after he left me, he had
+thought that the best way was to knock him down, in order to get time
+to reach his own bed without being known.
+
+"And now," I said, "you are certain of being forgiven, for, of
+course, you have wisely confessed your error?"
+
+"You are joking," answered my friend; "why, the good rector would not
+have known any more than he knows at present, even if my visit to you
+had been paid with a criminal intent."
+
+"Then you must have made a false confession: you are at all events
+guilty of disobedience?"
+
+"That may be, but the rector is responsible for the guilt, as he used
+compulsion."
+
+"My dear friend, you argue in a very forcible way, and the very
+reverend rector must by this time be satisfied that the inmates of
+our dormitory are more learned than he is himself."
+
+No more would have been said about the adventure if, a few nights
+after, I had not in my turn taken a fancy to return the visit paid by
+my friend.  Towards midnight, having had occasion to get out of bed,
+and hearing the loud snoring of the prefect, I quickly put out the
+lantern and went to lie beside my friend.  He knew me at once, and
+gladly received me; but we both listened attentively to the snoring
+of our keeper, and when it ceased, understanding our danger, I got up
+and reached my own bed without losing a second, but the moment I got
+to it I had a double surprise.  In the first place I felt somebody
+lying in my bed, and in the second I saw the prefect, with a candle
+in his hand, coming along slowly and taking a survey of all the beds
+right and left.  I could understand the prefect suddenly lighting a
+candle, but how could I realize what I saw--namely, one of my
+comrades sleeping soundly in my bed, with his back turned to me?  I
+immediately made up my mind to feign sleep.  After two or three
+shakings given by the prefect, I pretended to wake up, and my bed-
+companion woke up in earnest.  Astonished at finding himself in my
+bed, he offered me an apology:
+
+"I have made a mistake," he said, "as I returned from a certain place
+in the dark, I found your bed empty, and mistook it for mine."
+
+"Very likely," I answered; "I had to get up, too."
+
+"Yes," remarked the prefect; "but how does it happen that you went to
+bed without making any remark when, on your return, you found your
+bed already tenanted?  And how is it that, being in the dark, you did
+not suppose that you were mistaken yourself?"
+
+"I could not be mistaken, for I felt the pedestal of this crucifix of
+mine, and I knew I was right; as to my companion here, I did not feel
+him."
+
+"It is all very unlikely," answered our Argus; and he went to the
+lantern, the wick of which he found crushed down.
+
+"The wick has been forced into the oil, gentlemen; it has not gone
+out of itself; it has been the handiwork of one of you, but it will
+be seen to in the morning."
+
+My stupid companion went to his own bed, the prefect lighted the lamp
+and retired to his rest, and after this scene, which had broken the
+repose of every pupil, I quietly slept until the appearance of the
+rector, who, at the dawn of day, came in great fury, escorted by his
+satellite, the prefect.
+
+The rector, after examining the localities and submitting to a
+lengthy interrogatory first my accomplice, who very naturally was
+considered as the most guilty, and then myself, whom nothing could
+convict of the offence, ordered us to get up and go to church to
+attend mass.  As soon as we were dressed, he came back, and
+addressing us both, he said, kindly:
+
+"You stand both convicted of a scandalous connivance, and it is
+proved by the fact of the lantern having been wilfully extinguished.
+I am disposed to believe that the cause of all this disorder is, if
+not entirely innocent, at least due only to extreme thoughtlessness;
+but the scandal given to all your comrades, the outrage offered to
+the discipline and to the established rules of the seminary, call
+loudly for punishment.  Leave the room."
+
+We obeyed; but hardly were we between the double doors of the
+dormitory than we were seized by four servants, who tied our hands
+behind us, and led us to the class room, where they compelled us to
+kneel down before the great crucifix.  The rector told them to
+execute his orders, and, as we were in that position, the wretches
+administered to each of us seven or eight blows with a stick, or with
+a rope, which I received, as well as my companion, without a murmur.
+But the moment my hands were free, I asked the rector whether I could
+write two lines at the very foot of the cross.  He gave orders to
+bring ink and paper, and I traced the following words:
+
+"I solemnly swear by this God that I have never spoken to the
+seminarist who was found in my bed.  As an innocent person I must
+protest against this shameful violence.  I shall appeal to the
+justice of his lordship the patriarch."
+
+My comrade in misery signed this protest with me; after which,
+addressing myself to all the pupils, I read it aloud, calling upon
+them to speak the truth if any one could say the contrary of what I
+had written.  They, with one voice, immediately declared that we had
+never been seen conversing together, and that no one knew who had put
+the lamp out.  The rector left the room in the midst of hisses and
+curses, but he sent us to prison all the same at the top of the house
+and in separate cells.  An hour afterwards, I had my bed, my trunk
+and all my things, and my meals were brought to me every day.  On the
+fourth day, the Abbe Tosello came for me with instructions to bring
+me to Venice.  I asked him whether he had sifted this unpleasant
+affair; he told me that he had enquired into it, that he had seen the
+other seminarist, and that he believed we were both innocent; but the
+rector would not confess himself in the wrong, and he did not see
+what could be done.
+
+I threw off my seminarist's habit, and dressed myself in the clothes
+I used to wear in Venice, and, while my luggage was carried to a
+boat, I accompanied the abbe to M. Grimani's gondola in which he had
+come, and we took our departure.  On our way, the abbe ordered the
+boatman to leave my things at the Palace Grimani, adding that he was
+instructed by M. Grimani to tell me that, if I had the audacity to
+present myself at his mansion, his servants had received orders to
+turn me away.
+
+He landed me near the convent of the Jesuits, without any money, and
+with nothing but what I had on my back.
+
+I went to beg a dinner from Madame Manzoni, who laughed heartily at
+the realization of her prediction.  After dinner I called upon M.
+Rosa to see whether the law could protect me against the tyranny of
+my enemies, and after he had been made acquainted with the
+circumstances of the case, he promised to bring me the same evening,
+at Madame Orio's house, an extra-judicial act.  I repaired to the
+place of appointment to wait for him, and to enjoy the pleasure of my
+two charming friends at my sudden reappearance.  It was indeed very
+great, and the recital of my adventures did not astonish them less
+than my unexpected presence.  M. Rosa came and made me read the act
+which he had prepared; he had not had time to have it engrossed by
+the notary, but he undertook to have it ready the next day.
+
+I left Madame Orio to take supper with my brother Francois, who
+resided with a painter called Guardi; he was, like me, much oppressed
+by the tyranny of Grimani, and I promised to deliver him.  Towards
+midnight I returned to the two amiable sisters who were expecting me
+with their usual loving impatience, but, I am bound to confess it
+with all humility, my sorrows were prejudicial to love in spite of
+the fortnight of absence and of abstinence.  They were themselves
+deeply affected to see me so unhappy, and pitied me with all their
+hearts.  I endeavoured to console them, and assured them that all my
+misery would soon come to an end, and that we would make up for lost
+time.
+
+In the morning, having no money, and not knowing where to go, I went
+to St. Mark's Library, where I remained until noon.  I left it with
+the intention of dining with Madame Manzoni, but I was suddenly
+accosted by a soldier who informed me that someone wanted to speak to
+me in a gondola to which he pointed.  I answered that the person
+might as well come out, but he quietly remarked that he had a friend
+at hand to conduct me forcibly to the gondola, if necessary, and
+without any more hesitation I went towards it.  I had a great dislike
+to noise or to anything like a public exhibition.  I might have
+resisted, for the soldiers were unarmed, and I would not have been
+taken up, this sort of arrest not being legal in Venice, but I did
+not think of it.  The 'sequere deum' was playing its part; I felt no
+reluctance.  Besides, there are moments in which a courageous man has
+no courage, or disdains to shew it.
+
+I enter the gondola, the curtain is drawn aside, and I see my evil
+genius, Razetta, with an officer.  The two soldiers sit down at the
+prow; I recognize M. Grimani's own gondola, it leaves the landing and
+takes the direction of the Lido.  No one spoke to me, and I remained
+silent.  After half-an-hour's sailing, the gondola stopped before the
+small entrance of the Fortress St. Andre, at the mouth of the
+Adriatic, on the very spot where the Bucentaur stands, when, on
+Ascension Day, the doge comes to espouse the sea.
+
+The sentinel calls the corporal; we alight, the officer who
+accompanied me introduces me to the major, and presents a letter to
+him.  The major, after reading its contents, gives orders to M. Zen,
+his adjutant, to consign me to the guard-house.  In another quarter
+of an hour my conductors take their departure, and M. Zen brings me
+three livres and a half, stating that I would receive the same amount
+every week.  It was exactly the pay of a private.
+
+I did not give way to any burst of passion, but I felt the most
+intense indignation.  Late in the evening I expressed a wish to have
+some food bought, for I could not starve; then, stretching myself
+upon a hard camp bed, I passed the night amongst the soldiers without
+closing my eyes, for these Sclavonians were singing, eating garlic,
+smoking a bad tobacco which was most noxious, and drinking a wine of
+their own country, as black as ink, which nobody else could swallow.
+
+Early next morning Major Pelodoro (the governor of the fortress)
+called me up to his room, and told me that, in compelling me to spend
+the night in the guard-house, he had only obeyed the orders he had
+received from Venice from the secretary of war.  "Now, reverend sir,"
+he added, "my further orders are only to keep you a prisoner in the
+fort, and I am responsible for your remaining here.  I give you the
+whole of the fortress for your prison.  You shall have a good room in
+which you will find your bed and all your luggage.  Walk anywhere you
+please; but recollect that, if you should escape, you would cause my
+ruin.  I am sorry that my instructions are to give you only ten sous
+a day, but if you have any friends in Venice able to send you some
+money, write to them, and trust to me for the security of your
+letters.  Now you may go to bed, if you need rest."
+
+I was taken to my room; it was large and on the first story, with two
+windows from which I had a very fine view.  I found my bed, and I
+ascertained with great satisfaction that my trunk, of which I had the
+keys, had not been forced open.  The major had kindly supplied my
+table with all the implements necessary for writing.  A Sclavonian
+soldier informed me very politely that he would attend upon me, and
+that I would pay him for his services whenever I could, for everyone
+knew that I had only ten sous a day.  I began by ordering some soup,
+and, when I had dispatched it, I went to bed and slept for nine
+hours.  When I woke, I received an invitation to supper from the
+major, and I began to imagine that things, after all, would not be so
+very bad.
+
+I went to the honest governor, whom I found in numerous company.  He
+presented me to his wife and to every person present.  I met there
+several officers, the chaplain of the fortress, a certain Paoli Vida,
+one of the singers of St. Mark's Church, and his wife, a pretty
+woman, sister-in-law of the major, whom the husband chose to confine
+in the fort because he was very jealous (jealous men are not
+comfortable at Venice), together with several other ladies, not very
+young, but whom I thought very agreeable, owing to their kind
+welcome.
+
+Cheerful as I was by nature, those pleasant guests easily managed to
+put me in the best of humours.  Everyone expressed a wish to know the
+reasons which could have induced M. Grimani to send me to the
+fortress, so I gave a faithful account of all my adventures since my
+grandmother's death.  I spoke for three hours without any bitterness,
+and even in a pleasant tone, upon things which, said in a different
+manner, might have displeased my audience; all expressed their
+satisfaction, and shewed so much sympathy that, as we parted for the
+night, I received from all an assurance of friendship and the offer
+of their services.  This is a piece of good fortune which has never
+failed me whenever I have been the victim of oppression, until I
+reached the age of fifty.  Whenever I met with honest persons
+expressing a curiosity to know the history of the misfortune under
+which I was labouring, and whenever I satisfied their curiosity, I
+have inspired them with friendship, and with that sympathy which was
+necessary to render them favourable and useful to me.
+
+That success was owing to a very simple artifice; it was only to tell
+my story in a quiet and truthful manner, without even avoiding the
+facts which told against me.  It is simple secret that many men do
+not know, because the larger portion of humankind is composed of
+cowards; a man who always tells the truth must be possessed of great
+moral courage.  Experience has taught me that truth is a talisman,
+the charm of which never fails in its effect, provided it is not
+wasted upon unworthy people, and I believe that a guilty man, who
+candidly speaks the truth to his judge, has a better chance of being
+acquitted, than the innocent man who hesitates and evades true
+statements.  Of course the speaker must be young, or at least in the
+prime of manhood; for an old man finds the whole of nature combined
+against him.
+
+The major had his joke respecting the visit paid and returned to the
+seminarist's bed, but the chaplain and the ladies scolded him.  The
+major advised me to write out my story and send it to the secretary
+of war, undertaking that he should receive it, and he assured me that
+he would become my protector.  All the ladies tried to induce me to
+follow the major's advice.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+My Short Stay in Fort St. Andre--My First Repentance in Love Affairs
+I Enjoy the Sweets of Revenge, and Prove a Clever Alibi--Arrest of
+Count Bonafede--My Release--Arrival of the Bishop--Farewell to Venice
+
+
+The fort, in which the Republic usually kept only a garrison of one
+hundred half-pay Sclavonians, happened to contain at that time two
+thousand Albanian soldiers, who were called Cimariotes.
+
+The secretary of war, who was generally known under the title of
+'sage a l'ecriture', had summoned these men from the East in
+consequence of some impending promotion, as he wanted the officers to
+be on the spot in order to prove their merits before being rewarded.
+They all came from the part of Epirus called Albania, which belongs
+to the Republic of Venice, and they had distinguished themselves in
+the last war against the Turks.  It was for me a new and
+extraordinary sight to examine some eighteen or twenty officers, all
+of an advanced age, yet strong and healthy, shewing the scars which
+covered their face and their chest, the last naked and entirely
+exposed through military pride.  The lieutenant-colonel was
+particularly conspicuous by his wounds, for, without exaggeration, he
+had lost one-fourth of his head.  He had but one eye, but one ear,
+and no jaw to speak of.  Yet he could eat very well, speak without
+difficulty, and was very cheerful.  He had with him all his family,
+composed of two pretty daughters, who looked all the prettier in
+their national costume, and of seven sons, every one of them a
+soldier.  This lieutenant-colonel stood six feet high, and his figure
+was magnificent, but his scars so completely deformed his features
+that his face was truly horrid to look at.  Yet I found so much
+attraction in him that I liked him the moment I saw him, and I would
+have been much pleased to converse with him if his breath had not
+sent forth such a strong smell of garlic.  All the Albanians had
+their pockets full of it, and they enjoyed a piece of garlic with as
+much relish as we do a sugar-plum.  After this none can maintain it
+to be a poison, though the only medicinal virtue it possesses is to
+excite the appetite, because it acts like a tonic upon a weak
+stomach.
+
+The lieutenant-colonel could not read, but he was not ashamed of his
+ignorance, because not one amongst his men, except the priest and the
+surgeon, could boast greater learning.  Every man, officer or
+private, had his purse full of gold; half of them, at least, were
+married, and we had in the fortress a colony of five or six hundred
+women, with God knows how many children!  I felt greatly interested
+in them all.  Happy idleness!  I often regret thee because thou hast
+often offered me new sights, and for the same reason I hate old age
+which never offers but what I know already, unless I should take up a
+gazette, but I cared nothing for them in my young days.
+
+Alone in my room I made an inventory of my trunk, and having put
+aside everything of an ecclesiastical character, I sent for a Jew,
+and sold the whole parcel unmercifully.  Then I wrote to M. Rosa,
+enclosing all the tickets of the articles I had pledged, requesting
+him to have them sold without any exception, and to forward me the
+surplus raised by the sale.  Thanks to that double operation, I was
+enabled to give my Sclavonian servant the ten sous allowed to me
+every day.  Another soldier, who had been a hair-dresser, took care
+of my hair which I had been compelled to neglect, in consequence of
+the rules of the seminary.  I spent my time in walking about the fort
+and through the barracks, and my two places of resort were the
+major's apartment for some intellectual enjoyment, and the rooms of
+the Albanian lieutenant-colonel for a sprinkling of love.  The
+Albanian feeling certain that his colonel would be appointed
+brigadier, solicited the command of the regiment, but he had a rival
+and he feared his success.  I wrote him a petition, short, but so
+well composed that the secretary of war, having enquired the name of
+the author, gave the Albanian his colonelcy.  On his return to the
+fort, the brave fellow, overjoyed at his success, hugged me in his
+arms, saying that he owed it all to me; he invited me to a family
+dinner, in which my very soul was parched by his garlic, and he
+presented me with twelve botargoes and two pounds of excellent
+Turkish tobacco.
+
+The result of my petition made all the other officers think that they
+could not succeed without the assistance of my pen, and I willingly
+gave it to everybody; this entailed many quarrels upon me, for I
+served all interests, but, finding myself the lucky possessor of some
+forty sequins, I was no longer in dread of poverty, and laughed at
+everything.  However, I met with an accident which made me pass six
+weeks in a very unpleasant condition.
+
+On the 2nd of April, the fatal anniversary of my first appearance in
+this world, as I was getting up in the morning, I received in my room
+the visit of a very handsome Greek woman, who told me that her
+husband, then ensign in the regiment, had every right to claim the
+rank of lieutenant, and that he would certainly be appointed, if it
+were not for the opposition of his captain who was against him,
+because she had refused him certain favours which she could bestow
+only upon her husband.  She handed me some certificates, and begged
+me to write a petition which she would present herself to the
+secretary of war, adding that she could only offer me her heart in
+payment.  I answered that her heart ought not to go alone; I acted as
+I had spoken, and I met with no other resistance than the objection
+which a pretty woman is always sure to feign for the sake of
+appearance.  After that, I told her to come back at noon, and that
+the petition would be ready.  She was exact to the appointment, and
+very kindly rewarded me a second time; and in the evening, under
+pretence of some alterations to be made in the petition, she afforded
+an excellent opportunity of reaping a third recompense.
+
+But, alas! the path of pleasure is not strewn only with roses!  On
+the third day, I found out, much to my dismay, that a serpent had
+been hid under the flowers.  Six weeks of care and of rigid diet re-
+established my health.
+
+When I met the handsome Greek again, I was foolish enough to reproach
+her for the present she had bestowed upon me, but she baffled me by
+laughing, and saying that she had only offered me what she possessed,
+and that it was my own fault if I had not been sufficiently careful.
+The reader cannot imagine how much this first misfortune grieved me,
+and what deep shame I felt.  I looked upon myself as a dishonoured
+man, and while I am on that subject I may as well relate an incident
+which will give some idea of my thoughtlessness.
+
+Madame Vida, the major's sister-in-law, being alone with me one
+morning, confided in me in a moment of unreserved confidence what she
+had to suffer from the jealous disposition of her husband, and his
+cruelty in having allowed her to sleep alone for the last four years,
+when she was in the very flower of her age.
+
+"I trust to God," she added, "that my husband will not find out that
+you have spent an hour alone with me, for I should never hear the end
+of it."
+
+Feeling deeply for her grief, and confidence begetting confidence, I
+was stupid enough to tell her the sad state to which I had been
+reduced by the cruel Greek woman, assuring her that I felt my misery
+all the more deeply, because I should have been delighted to console
+her, and to give her the opportunity of a revenge for her jealous
+husband's coldness.  At this speech, in which my simplicity and good
+faith could easily be traced, she rose from her chair, and upbraided
+me with every insult which an outraged honest woman might hurl at the
+head of a bold libertine who has presumed too far.  Astounded, but
+understanding perfectly well the nature of my crime, I bowed myself
+out of her room; but as I was leaving it she told me in the same
+angry tone that my visits would not be welcome for the future, as I
+was a conceited puppy, unworthy of the society of good and
+respectable women.  I took care to answer that a respectable woman
+would have been rather more reserved than she had been in her
+confidences.  On reflection I felt pretty sure that, if I had been in
+good health, or had said nothing about my mishap, she would have been
+but too happy to receive my consolations.
+
+A few days after that incident I had a much greater cause to regret
+my acquaintance with the Greek woman.  On Ascension Day, as the
+ceremony of the Bucentaur was celebrated near the fort, M. Rosa
+brought Madame Orio and her two nieces to witness it, and I had the
+pleasure of treating them all to a good dinner in my room.  I found
+myself, during the day, alone with my young friends in one of the
+casements, and they both loaded me with the most loving caresses and
+kisses.  I felt that they expected some substantial proof of my love;
+but, to conceal the real state, of things, I pretended to be afraid
+of being surprised, and they had to be satisfied with my shallow
+excuse.
+
+I had informed my mother by letter of all I had suffered from
+Grimani's treatment; she answered that she had written to him on the
+subject, that she had no doubt he would immediately set me at
+liberty, and that an arrangement had been entered into by which M.
+Grimani would devote the money raised by Razetta from the sale of the
+furniture to the settlement of a small patrimony on my youngest
+brother.  But in this matter Grimani did not act honestly, for the
+patrimony was only settled thirteen years afterwards, and even then
+only in a fictitious manner.  I shall have an opportunity later on of
+mentioning this unfortunate brother, who died very poor in Rome
+twenty years ago.
+
+Towards the middle of June the Cimariotes were sent back to the East,
+and after their departure the garrison of the fort was reduced to its
+usual number.  I began to feel weary in this comparative solitude,
+and I gave way to terrible fits of passion.
+
+The heat was intense, and so disagreeable to me that I wrote to M.
+Grimani, asking for two summer suits of clothes, and telling him
+where they would be found, if Razetta had not sold them.  A week
+afterwards I was in the major's apartment when I saw the wretch
+Razetta come in, accompanied by a man whom he introduced as Petrillo,
+the celebrated favourite of the Empress of Russia, just arrived from
+St. Petersburg.  He ought to have said infamous instead of
+celebrated, and clown instead of favourite.
+
+The major invited them to take a seat, and Razetta, receiving a
+parcel from Grimani's gondolier, handed it to me, saying,
+
+"I have brought you your rags; take them."
+
+I answered:
+
+"Some day I will bring you a 'rigano':"
+
+At these words the scoundrel dared to raise his cane, but the
+indignant major compelled him to lower his tone by asking him whether
+he had any wish to pass the night in the guard-house.  Petrillo, who
+had not yet opened his lips, told me then that he was sorry not to
+have found me in Venice, as I might have shewn him round certain
+places which must be well known to me.
+
+"Very likely we should have met your wife in such places,"
+I answered.
+
+"I am a good judge of faces," he said, "and I can see that you are a
+true gallows-bird."
+
+I was trembling with rage, and the major, who shared my utter
+disgust, told them that he had business to transact, and they took
+their leave.  The major assured me that on the following day he would
+go to the war office to complain of Razetta, and that he would have
+him punished for his insolence.
+
+I remained alone, a prey to feelings of the deepest indignation, and
+to a most ardent thirst for revenge.
+
+The fortress was entirely surrounded by water, and my windows were
+not overlooked by any of the sentinels.  A boat coming under my
+windows could therefore easily take me to Venice during the night and
+bring me back to the fortress before day-break.  All that was
+necessary was to find a boatman who, for a certain amount, would risk
+the galleys in case of discovery.  Amongst several who brought
+provisions to the fort, I chose a boatman whose countenance pleased
+me, and I offered him one sequin; he promised to let me know his
+decision on the following day.  He was true to his time, and declared
+himself ready to take me.  He informed me that, before deciding to
+serve me, he had wished to know whether I was kept in the fort for
+any great crime, but as the wife of the major had told him that my
+imprisonment had been caused by very trifling frolics, I could rely
+upon him.  We arranged that he should be under my window at the
+beginning of the night, and that his boat should be provided with a
+mast long enough to enable me to slide along it from the window to
+the boat.
+
+The appointed hour came, and everything being ready I got safely into
+the boat, landed at the Sclavonian quay, ordered the boatman to wait
+for me, and wrapped up in a mariner's cloak I took my way straight to
+the gate of Saint-Sauveur, and engaged the waiter of a coffee-room to
+take me to Razetta's house.
+
+Being quite certain that he would not be at home at that time, I rang
+the bell, and I heard my sister's voice telling me that if I wanted
+to see him I must call in the morning.  Satisfied with this, I went
+to the foot of the bridge and sat down, waiting there to see which
+way he would come, and a few minutes before midnight I saw him
+advancing from the square of Saint-Paul.  It was all I wanted to
+know; I went back to my boat and returned to the fort without any
+difficulty.  At five o'clock in the morning everyone in the garrison
+could see me enjoying my walk on the platform.
+
+Taking all the time necessary to mature my plans, I made the
+following arrangements to secure my revenge with perfect safety, and
+to prove an alibi in case I should kill my rascally enemy, as it was
+my intention to do.  The day preceding the night fixed for my
+expedition, I walked about with the son of the Adjutant Zen, who was
+only twelve years old, but who amused me much by his shrewdness.  The
+reader will meet him again in the year 1771.  As I was walking with
+him, I jumped down from one of the bastions, and feigned to sprain my
+ankle.  Two soldiers carried me to my room, and the surgeon of the
+fort, thinking that I was suffering from a luxation, ordered me to
+keep to bed, and wrapped up the ankle in towels saturated with
+camphorated spirits of wine.  Everybody came to see me, and I
+requested the soldier who served me to remain and to sleep in my
+room.  I knew that a glass of brandy was enough to stupefy the man,
+and to make him sleep soundly.  As soon as I saw him fast asleep, I
+begged the surgeon and the chaplain, who had his room over mine, to
+leave me, and at half-past ten I lowered myself in the boat.
+
+As soon as I reached Venice, I bought a stout cudgel, and I sat
+myself down on a door-step, at the corner of the street near Saint-
+Paul's Square.  A narrow canal at the end of the street, was, I
+thought, the very place to throw my enemy in.  That canal has now
+disappeared.
+
+At a quarter before twelve I see Razetta, walking along leisurely.  I
+come out of the street with rapid strides, keeping near the wall to
+compel him to make room for me, and I strike a first blow on the
+head, and a second on his arm; the third blow sends him tumbling in
+the canal, howling and screaming my name.  At the same instant a
+Forlan, or citizen of Forli, comes out of a house on my left side
+with a lantern in his hand.  A blow from my cudgel knocks the lantern
+out of his grasp, and the man, frightened out of his wits, takes to
+his heels.  I throw away my stick, I run at full speed through the
+square and over the bridge, and while people are hastening towards
+the spot where the disturbance had taken place, I jump into the boat,
+and, thanks to a strong breeze swelling our sail, I get back to the
+fortress.  Twelve o'clock was striking as I re-entered my room
+through the window.  I quickly undress myself, and the moment I am in
+my bed I wake up the soldier by my loud screams, telling him to go
+for the surgeon, as I am dying of the colic.
+
+The chaplain, roused by my screaming, comes down and finds me in
+convulsions.  In the hope that some diascordium would relieve me, the
+good old man runs to his room and brings it, but while he has gone
+for some water I hide the medicine.  After half an hour of wry faces,
+I say that I feel much better, and thanking all my friends, I beg
+them to retire, which everyone does, wishing me a quiet sleep.
+
+The next morning I could not get up in consequence of my sprained
+ankle, although I had slept very well; the major was kind enough to
+call upon me before going to Venice, and he said that very likely my
+colic had been caused by the melon I had eaten for my dinner the day
+before.
+
+The major returned at one o'clock in the afternoon.  "I have good
+news to give you," he said to me, with a joyful laugh.  "Razetta was
+soundly cudgelled last night and thrown into a canal."
+
+"Has he been killed?"
+
+"No; but I am glad of it for your sake, for his death would make your
+position much more serious.  You are accused of having done it."
+
+"I am very glad people think me guilty; it is something of a revenge,
+but it will be rather difficult to bring it home to me."
+
+"Very difficult!  All the same, Razetta swears he recognized you, and
+the same declaration is made by the Forlan who says that you struck
+his hand to make him drop his lantern.  Razetta's nose is broken,
+three of his teeth are gone, and his right arm is severely hurt.  You
+have been accused before the avogador, and M. Grimani has written to
+the war office to complain of your release from the fortress without
+his knowledge.  I arrived at the office just in time.  The secretary
+was reading Grimani's letter, and I assured his excellency that it
+was a false report, for I left you in bed this morning, suffering
+from a sprained ankle.  I told him likewise that at twelve o'clock
+last night you were very near death from a severe attack of colic."
+
+"Was it at midnight that Razetta was so well treated?"
+
+"So says the official report.  The war secretary wrote at once to M.
+Grimani and informed him that you have not left the fort, and that
+you are even now detained in it, and that the plaintiff is at
+liberty, if he chooses, to send commissaries to ascertain the fact.
+Therefore, my dear abbe, you must prepare yourself for an
+interrogatory."
+
+"I expect it, and I will answer that I am very sorry to be innocent."
+
+Three days afterwards, a commissary came to the fort with a clerk of
+the court, and the proceedings were soon over.  Everybody knew that I
+had sprained my ankle; the chaplain, the surgeon, my body-servant,
+and several others swore that at midnight I was in bed suffering from
+colic.  My alibi being thoroughly proved, the avogador sentenced
+Razetta and the Forlan to pay all expenses without prejudice to my
+rights of action.
+
+After this judgment, the major advised me to address to the secretary
+of war a petition which he undertook to deliver himself, and to claim
+my release from the fort.  I gave notice of my proceedings to M.
+Grimani, and a week afterwards the major told me that I was free, and
+that he would himself take me to the abbe.  It was at dinnertime, and
+in the middle of some amusing conversation, that he imparted that
+piece of information.  Not supposing him to be in earnest, and in
+order to keep up the joke, I told him very politely that I preferred
+his house to Venice, and that, to prove it, I would be happy to
+remain a week longer, if he would grant me permission to do so.  I
+was taken at my word, and everybody seemed very pleased.  But when,
+two hours later, the news was confirmed, and I could no longer doubt
+the truth of my release, I repented the week which I had so foolishly
+thrown away as a present to the major; yet I had not the courage to
+break my word, for everybody, and particularly his wife, had shown
+such unaffected pleasure, it would have been contemptible of me to
+change my mind.  The good woman knew that I owed her every kindness
+which I had enjoyed, and she might have thought me ungrateful.
+
+But I met in the fort with a last adventure, which I must not forget
+to relate.
+
+On the following day, an officer dressed in the national uniform
+called upon the major, accompanied by an elderly man of about sixty
+years of age, wearing a sword, and, presenting to the major a
+dispatch with the seal of the war office, he waited for an answer,
+and went away as soon as he had received one from the governor.
+
+After the officer had taken leave, the major, addressing himself to
+the elderly gentleman, to whom he gave the title of count, told him
+that his orders were to keep him a prisoner, and that he gave him the
+whole of the fort for his prison.  The count offered him his sword,
+but the major nobly refused to take it, and escorted him to the room
+he was to occupy.  Soon after, a servant in livery brought a bed and
+a trunk, and the next morning the same servant, knocking at my door,
+told me that his master begged the honour of my company to breakfast.
+I accepted the invitation, and he received me with these words:
+
+"Dear sir, there has been so much talk in Venice about the skill with
+which you proved your incredible alibi, that I could not help asking
+for the honour of your acquaintance."
+
+"But, count, the alibi being a true one, there can be no skill
+required to prove it.  Allow me to say that those who doubt its truth
+are paying me a very poor compliment, for--"
+
+"Never mind; do not let us talk any more of that, and forgive me.
+But as we happen to be companions in misfortune, I trust you will not
+refuse me your friendship.  Now for breakfast."
+
+After our meal, the count, who had heard from me some portion of my
+history, thought that my confidence called for a return on his part,
+and he began: "I am the Count de Bonafede.  In my early days I served
+under Prince Eugene, but I gave up the army, and entered on a civil
+career in Austria.  I had to fly from Austria and take refuge in
+Bavaria in consequence of an unfortunate duel.  In Munich I made the
+acquaintance of a young lady belonging to a noble family; I eloped
+with her and brought her to Venice, where we were married.  I have
+now been twenty years in Venice.  I have six children, and everybody
+knows me.  About a week ago I sent my servant to the postoffice for
+my letters, but they were refused him because he had not any money to
+pay the postage.  I went myself, but the clerk would not deliver me
+my letters, although I assured him that I would pay for them the next
+time.  This made me angry, and I called upon the Baron de Taxis, the
+postmaster, and complained of the clerk, but he answered very rudely
+that the clerk had simply obeyed his orders, and that my letters
+would only be delivered on payment of the postage.  I felt very
+indignant, but as I was in his house I controlled my anger, went
+home, and wrote a note to him asking him to give me satisfaction for
+his rudeness, telling him that I would never go out without my sword,
+and that I would force him to fight whenever and wherever I should
+meet him.  I never came across him, but yesterday I was accosted by
+the secretary of the inquisitors, who told me that I must forget the
+baron's rude conduct, and go under the guidance of an officer whom he
+pointed out to me, to imprison myself for a week in this fortress.  I
+shall thus have the pleasure of spending that time with you."
+
+I told him that I had been free for the last twenty-four hours, but
+that to shew my gratitude for his friendly confidence I would feel
+honoured if he would allow me to keep him company.  As I had already
+engaged myself with the major, this was only a polite falsehood.
+
+In the afternoon I happened to be with him on the tower of the fort,
+and pointed out a gondola advancing towards the lower gate; he took
+his spy-glass and told me that it was his wife and daughter coming to
+see him.  We went to meet the ladies, one of whom might once have
+been worth the trouble of an elopement; the other, a young person
+between fourteen and sixteen, struck me as a beauty of a new style.
+Her hair was of a beautiful light auburn, her eyes were blue and very
+fine, her nose a Roman, and her pretty mouth, half-open and laughing,
+exposed a set of teeth as white as her complexion, although a
+beautiful rosy tint somewhat veiled the whiteness of the last.  Her
+figure was so slight that it seemed out of nature, but her perfectly-
+formed breast appeared an altar on which the god of love would have
+delighted to breathe the sweetest incense.  This splendid chest was,
+however, not yet well furnished, but in my imagination I gave her all
+the embonpoint which might have been desired, and I was so pleased
+that I could not take my looks from her.  I met her eyes, and her
+laughing countenance seemed to say to me: "Only wait for two years,
+at the utmost, and all that your imagination is now creating will
+then exist in reality."
+
+She was elegantly dressed in the prevalent fashion, with large hoops,
+and like the daughters of the nobility who have not yet attained the
+age of puberty, although the young countess was marriageable.  I had
+never dared to stare so openly at the bosom of a young lady of
+quality, but I thought there was no harm in fixing my eyes on a spot
+where there was nothing yet but in expectation.
+
+The count, after having exchanged a few words in German with his
+wife, presented me in the most flattering manner, and I was received
+with great politeness.  The major joined us, deeming it his duty to
+escort the countess all over the fortress, and I improved the
+excellent opportunity thrown in my way by the inferiority of my
+position; I offered my arm to the young lady, and the count left us
+to go to his room.
+
+I was still an adept in the old Venetian fashion of attending upon
+ladies, and the young countess thought me rather awkward, though I
+believed myself very fashionable when I placed my hand under her arm,
+but she drew it back in high merriment.  Her mother turned round to
+enquire what she was laughing at, and I was terribly confused when I
+heard her answer that I had tickled her.
+
+"This is the way to offer your arm to a lady," she said, and she
+passed her hand through my arm, which I rounded in the most clumsy
+manner, feeling it a very difficult task to resume a dignified
+countenance.  Thinking me a novice of the most innocent species, she
+very likely determined to make sport of me.  She began by remarking
+that by rounding my arm as I had done I placed it too far from her
+waist, and that I was consequently out of drawing.  I told her I did
+not know how to draw, and inquired whether it was one of her
+accomplishments.
+
+"I am learning," she answered, "and when you call upon us I will shew
+you Adam and Eve, after the Chevalier Liberi; I have made a copy
+which has been found very fine by some professors, although they did
+not know it was my work."
+
+"Why did you not tell them?"
+
+"Because those two figures are too naked."
+
+"I am not curious to see your Adam, but I will look at your Eve with
+pleasure, and keep your secret."
+
+This answer made her laugh again, and again her mother turned round.
+I put on the look of a simpleton, for, seeing the advantage I could
+derive from her opinion of me, I had formed my plan at the very
+moment she tried to teach me how to offer my arm to a lady.
+
+She was so convinced of my simplicity that she ventured to say that
+she considered her Adam by far more beautiful than her Eve, because
+in her drawing of the man she had omitted nothing, every muscle being
+visible, while there was none conspicuous in Eve.  "It is," she
+added, "a figure with nothing in it."
+
+"Yet it is the one which I shall like best."
+
+"No; believe me, Adam will please you most."
+
+This conversation had greatly excited me.  I had on a pair of linen
+breeches, the weather being very warm....  I was afraid of the major
+and the countess, who were a few yards in front of us, turning round
+.... I was on thorns.  To make matters worse, the young lady
+stumbled, one of her shoes slipped off, and presenting me her pretty
+foot she asked me to put the shoe right.  I knelt on the ground, and,
+very likely without thinking, she lifted up her skirt....  she had
+very wide hoops and no petticoat.... what I saw was enough to strike
+me dead on the spot.... When I rose, she asked if anything was the
+matter with me.
+
+A moment after, coming out of one of the casemates, her head-dress
+got slightly out of order, and she begged that I would remedy the
+accident, but, having to bend her head down, the state in which I was
+could no longer remain a secret for her.  In order to avoid greater
+confusion to both of us, she enquired who had made my watch ribbon; I
+told her it was a present from my sister, and she desired to examine
+it, but when I answered her that it was fastened to the fob-pocket,
+and found that she disbelieved me, I added that she could see for
+herself.  She put her hand to it, and a natural but involuntary
+excitement caused me to be very indiscreet.  She must have felt
+vexed, for she saw that she had made a mistake in her estimate of my
+character; she became more timid, she would not laugh any more, and
+we joined her mother and the major who was shewing her, in a sentry-
+box, the body of Marshal de Schulenburg which had been deposited
+there until the mausoleum erected for him was completed.  As for
+myself, I felt deeply ashamed.  I thought myself the first man who
+had alarmed her innocence, and I felt ready to do anything to atone
+for the insult.
+
+Such was my delicacy of feeling in those days.  I used to credit
+people with exalted sentiments, which often existed only in my
+imagination.  I must confess that time has entirely destroyed that
+delicacy; yet I do not believe myself worse than other men, my equals
+in age and inexperience.
+
+We returned to the count's apartment, and the day passed off rather
+gloomily.  Towards evening the ladies went away, but the countess
+gave me a pressing invitation to call upon them in Venice.
+
+The young lady, whom I thought I had insulted, had made such a deep
+impression upon me that the seven following days seemed very long;
+yet I was impatient to see her again only that I might entreat her
+forgiveness, and convince her of my repentance.
+
+The following day the count was visited by his son; he was plain-
+featured, but a thorough gentleman, and modest withal.  Twenty-five
+years afterwards I met him in Spain, a cadet in the king's body-
+guard.  He had served as a private twenty years before obtaining this
+poor promotion.  The reader will hear of him in good time; I will
+only mention here that when I met him in Spain, he stood me out that
+I had never known him; his self-love prompted this very contemptible
+lie.
+
+Early on the eighth day the count left the fortress, and I took my
+departure the same evening, having made an appointment at a coffee-
+house in St. Mark's Square with the major who was to accompany me to
+M. Grimani's house.  I took leave of his wife, whose memory will
+always be dear to me, and she said, "I thank you for your skill in
+proving your alibi, but you have also to thank me for having
+understood you so well.  My husband never heard anything about it
+until it was all over."
+
+As soon as I reached Venice, I went to pay a visit to Madame Orio,
+where I was made welcome.  I remained to supper, and my two charming
+sweethearts who were praying for the death of the bishop, gave me the
+most delightful hospitality for the night.
+
+At noon the next day I met the major according to our appointment,
+and we called upon the Abbe Grimani.  He received me with the air of
+a guilty man begging for mercy, and I was astounded at his stupidity
+when he entreated me to forgive Razetta and his companion.  He told
+me that the bishop was expected very soon, and that he had ordered a
+room to be ready for me, and that I could take my meals with him.
+Then he introduced me to M. Valavero, a man of talent, who had just
+left the ministry of war, his term of office having lasted the usual
+six months.  I paid my duty to him, and we kept up a kind of
+desultory conversation until the departure of the major.  When he had
+left us M. Valavero entreated me to confess that I had been the
+guilty party in the attack upon Razetta.  I candidly told him that
+the thrashing had been my handiwork, and I gave him all the
+particulars, which amused him immensely.  He remarked that, as I had
+perpetrated the affair before midnight, the fools had made a mistake
+in their accusation; but that, after all, the mistake had not
+materially helped me in proving the alibi, because my sprained ankle,
+which everybody had supposed a real accident, would of itself have
+been sufficient.
+
+But I trust that my kind reader has not forgotten that I had a very
+heavy weight upon my conscience, of which I longed to get rid.  I had
+to see the goddess of my fancy, to obtain my pardon, or die at her
+feet.
+
+I found the house without difficulty; the count was not at home.  The
+countess received me very kindly, but her appearance caused me so
+great a surprise that I did not know what to say to her.  I had
+fancied that I was going to visit an angel, that I would find her in
+a lovely paradise, and I found myself in a large sitting-room
+furnished with four rickety chairs and a dirty old table.  There was
+hardly any light in the room because the shutters were nearly closed.
+It might have been a precaution against the heat, but I judged that
+it was more probably for the purpose of concealing the windows, the
+glass of which was all broken.  But this visible darkness did not
+prevent me from remarking that the countess was wrapped up in an old
+tattered gown, and that her chemise did not shine by its cleanliness.
+Seeing that I was ill at ease, she left the room, saying that she
+would send her daughter, who, a few minutes afterwards, came in with
+an easy and noble appearance, and told me that she had expected me
+with great impatience, but that I had surprised her at a time at
+which she was not in the habit of receiving any visits.
+
+I did not know what to answer, for she did not seem to me to be the
+same person.  Her miserable dishabille made her look almost ugly, and
+I wondered at the impression she had produced upon me at the
+fortress.  She saw my surprise, and partly guessed my thoughts, for
+she put on a look, not of vexation, but of sorrow which called forth
+all my pity.  If she had been a philosopher she might have rightly
+despised me as a man whose sympathy was enlisted only by her fine
+dress, her nobility, or her apparent wealth; but she endeavoured to
+bring me round by her sincerity.  She felt that if she could call a
+little sentiment into play, it would certainly plead in her favour.
+
+"I see that you are astonished, reverend sir, and I know the reason
+of your surprise.  You expected to see great splendour here, and you
+find only misery.  The government allows my father but a small
+salary, and there are nine of us.  As we must attend church on
+Sundays and holidays in a style proper to our condition, we are often
+compelled to go without our dinner, in order to get out of pledge the
+clothes which urgent need too often obliges us to part with, and
+which we pledge anew on the following day.  If we did not attend
+mass, the curate would strike our names off the list of those who
+share the alms of the Confraternity of the Poor, and those alms alone
+keep us afloat."
+
+What a sad tale!  She had guessed rightly.  I was touched, but rather
+with shame than true emotion.  I was not rich myself, and, as I was
+no longer in love, I only heaved a deep sigh, and remained as cold as
+ice.  Nevertheless, her position was painful, and I answered
+politely, speaking with kindness and assuring her of my sympathy.
+"Were I wealthy," I said, "I would soon shew you that your tale of
+woe has not fallen on unfeeling ears; but I am poor, and, being at
+the eve of my departure from Venice, even my friendship would be
+useless to you."  Then, after some desultory talk, I expressed a hope
+that her beauty would yet win happiness for her.  She seemed to
+consider for a few minutes, and said, "That may happen some day,
+provided that the man who feels the power of my charms understands
+that they can be bestowed only with my heart, and is willing to
+render me the justice I deserve; I am only looking for a lawful
+marriage, without dreaming of rank or fortune; I no longer believe in
+the first, and I know how to live without the second; for I have been
+accustomed to poverty, and even to abject need; but you cannot
+realize that.  Come and see my drawings."
+
+"You are very good, mademoiselle."
+
+Alas!  I was not thinking of her drawings, and I could no longer feel
+interested in her Eve, but I followed her.
+
+We came to a chamber in which I saw a table, a chair, a small toilet-
+glass and a bed with the straw palliasse turned over, very likely for
+the purpose of allowing the looker-on to suppose that there were
+sheets underneath, but I was particularly disgusted by a certain
+smell, the cause of which was recent; I was thunderstruck, and if I
+had been still in love, this antidote would have been sufficiently
+powerful to cure me instanter.  I wished for nothing but to make my
+escape, never to return, and I regretted that I could not throw on
+the table a handful of ducats, which I should have considered the
+price of my ransom.
+
+The poor girl shewed me.  her drawings; they were fine, and I praised
+them, without alluding particularly to Eve, and without venturing a
+joke upon Adam.  I asked her, for the sake of saying something, why
+she did not try to render her talent remunerative by learning pastel
+drawing.
+
+"I wish I could," she answered, "but the box of chalks alone costs
+two sequins."
+
+"Will you forgive me if I am bold enough to offer you six?"
+
+"Alas!  I accept them gratefully, and to be indebted to you for such
+a service makes me truly happy."
+
+Unable to keep back her tears, she turned her head round to conceal
+them from me, and I took that opportunity of laying the money on the
+table, and out of politeness, wishing to spare her every unnecessary
+humiliation, I saluted her lips with a kiss which she was at liberty
+to consider a loving one, as I wanted her to ascribe my reserve to
+the respect I felt for her.  I then left her with a promise to call
+another day to see her father.  I never kept my promise.  The reader
+will see how I met her again after ten years.
+
+How many thoughts crowded upon my mind as I left that house!  What a
+lesson!  I compared reality with the imagination, and I had to give
+the preference to the last, as reality is always dependent on it.  I
+then began to forsee a truth which has been clearly proved to me in
+my after life, namely, that love is only a feeling of curiosity more
+or less intense, grafted upon the inclination placed in us by nature
+that the species may be preserved.  And truly, woman is like a book,
+which, good or bad, must at first please us by the frontispiece.  If
+this is not interesting, we do not feel any wish to read the book,
+and our wish is in direct proportion to the interest we feel.  The
+frontispiece of woman runs from top to bottom like that of a book,
+and her feet, which are most important to every man who shares my
+taste, offer the same interest as the edition of the work.  If it is
+true that most amateurs bestow little or no attention upon the feet
+of a woman, it is likewise a fact that most readers care little or
+nothing whether a book is of the first edition or the tenth.  At all
+events, women are quite right to take the greatest care of their
+face, of their dress, of their general appearance; for it is only by
+that part of the frontispiece that they can call forth a wish to read
+them in those men who have not been endowed by nature with the
+privilege of blindness.  And just in the same manner that men, who
+have read a great many books, are certain to feel at last a desire
+for perusing new works even if they are bad, a man who has known many
+women, and all handsome women, feels at last a curiosity for ugly
+specimens when he meets with entirely new ones.  It is all very well
+for his eye to discover the paint which conceals the reality, but his
+passion has become a vice, and suggests some argument in favour of
+the lying frontispiece.  It is possible, at least he thinks so, that
+the work may prove better than the title-page, and the reality more
+acceptable than the paint which hides it.  He then tries to peruse
+the book, but the leaves have not been opened; he meets with some
+resistance, the living book must be read according to established
+rules, and the book-worm falls a victim to a coquetry, the monster
+which persecutes all those who make a business of love.  As for thee,
+intelligent man, who hast read the few preceding lines, let me tell
+thee that, if they do not assist in opening thy eyes, thou art lost;
+I mean that thou art certain of being a victim to the fair sex to the
+very last moment of thy life.  If my candour does not displease thee,
+accept my congratulations.  In the evening I called upon Madame Orio,
+as I wanted to inform her charming nieces that, being an inmate of
+Grimani's house, I could not sleep out for the first night.  I found
+there the faithful Rosa, who told me that the affair of the alibi was
+in every mouth, and  that, as such celebrity was evidently caused by
+a very decided belief in the untruth of the alibi itself, I ought to
+fear a retaliation of the same sort on the part of Razetta, and to
+keep on my guard, particularly at night. I felt all the importance of
+this advice, and I took care never to go out in the evening otherwise
+than in a gondola, or accompanied by some friends.  Madame Manzoni
+told me that I was acting wisely, because, although the judges could
+not do otherwise than acquit me, everybody knew the real truth of the
+matter, and Razetta could not fail to be my deadly foe.
+
+Three or four days afterwards M.  Grimani announced the arrival of
+the bishop, who had put up at the convent of his order, at Saint-
+Francois de Paul.  He presented me himself to the prelate as a jewel
+highly prized by himself, and as if he had been the only person
+worthy of descanting upon its beauty.
+
+I saw a fine monk wearing his pectoral cross.  He would have reminded
+me of Father Mancia if he had not looked stouter and less reserved.
+He was about thirty-four, and had been made a bishop by the grace of
+God, the Holy See, and my mother.  After pronouncing over me a
+blessing, which I received kneeling, and giving me his hand to kiss,
+he embraced me warmly, calling me his dear son in the Latin language,
+in which he continued to address me.  I thought that, being a
+Calabrian, he might feel ashamed of his Italian, but he undeceived me
+by speaking in that language to M. Grimani.  He told me that, as he
+could not take me with him from Venice, I should have to proceed to
+Rome, where Grimani would take care to send me, and that I would
+procure his address at Ancona from one of his friends, called Lazari,
+a Minim monk, who would likewise supply me with the means of
+continuing my journey.
+
+"When we meet in Rome," he added, "we can go together to Martorano by
+way of Naples.  Call upon me to-morrow morning, and have your
+breakfast with me.  I intend to leave the day after."
+
+As we were on our way back to his house, M.  Grimani treated me to a
+long lecture on morals, which nearly caused me to burst into loud
+laughter.  Amongst other things, he informed me that I ought not to
+study too hard, because the air in Calabria was very heavy, and I
+might become consumptive from too close application to my books.
+
+The next morning at day-break I went to the bishop.  After saying his
+mass, we took some chocolate, and for three hours he laid me under
+examination.  I saw clearly that he was not pleased with me, but I
+was well enough pleased with him.  He seemed to me a worthy man, and
+as he was to lead me along the great highway of the Church, I felt
+attracted towards him, for, at the time, although I entertained a
+good opinion of my personal appearance, I had no confidence whatever
+in my talents.
+
+After the departure of the good bishop, M.  Grimani gave me a letter
+left by him, which I was to deliver to Father Lazari, at the Convent
+of the Minims, in Ancona.  M. Grimani informed me that he would send
+me to that city with the ambassador from Venice, who was on the point
+of sailing.  I had therefore to keep myself in readiness, and, as I
+was anxious to be out of his hands, I approved all his arrangements.
+As soon as I had notice of the day on which the suite of the
+ambassador would embark, I went to pay my last farewell to all my
+acquaintances.  I left my brother Francois in the school of M. Joli,
+a celebrated decorative painter.  As the peotta in which I was to
+sail would not leave before daybreak, I spent the short night in the
+arms of the two sisters, who, this time, entertained no hope of ever
+seeing me again.  On my side I could not forsee what would happen,
+for I was abandoning myself to fate, and I thought it would be
+useless to think of the future.  The night was therefore spent
+between joy and sadness, between pleasures and tears.  As I bade them
+adieu, I returned the key which had opened so often for me the road
+to happiness.
+
+This, my first love affair, did not give me any experience of the
+world, for our intercourse was always a happy one, and was never
+disturbed by any quarrel or stained by any interested motive.  We
+often felt, all three of us, as if we must raise our souls towards
+the eternal Providence of God, to thank Him for having, by His
+particular protection, kept from us all the accidents which might
+have disturbed the sweet peace we were enjoying.
+
+I left in the hands of Madame Manzoni all my papers, and all the
+forbidden books I possessed.  The good woman, who was twenty years
+older than I, and who, believing in an immutable destiny, took
+pleasure in turning the leaves of the great book of fate, told me
+that she was certain of restoring to me all I left with her, before
+the end of the following year, at the latest.  Her prediction caused
+me both surprise and pleasure, and feeling deep reverence for her, I
+thought myself bound to assist the realization of her foresight.
+After all, if she predicted the future, it was not through
+superstition, or in consequence of some vain foreboding which reason
+must condemn, but through her knowledge of the world, and of the
+nature of the person she was addressing.  She used to laugh because
+she never made a mistake.
+
+I embarked from St: Mark's landing.  M. Grimani had given me ten
+sequins, which he thought would keep me during my stay in the
+lazzaretto of Ancona for the necessary quarantine, after which it was
+not to be supposed that I could want any money.  I shared Grimani's
+certainty on the subject, and with my natural thoughtlessness I cared
+nothing about it.  Yet I must say that, unknown to everybody, I had
+in my purse forty bright sequins, which powerfully contributed to
+increase my cheerfulness, and I left Venice full of joy and without
+one regret.
+
+
+
+
+End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of MEMOIRES OF JACQUES CASANOVA
+VENETION YEARS, Vol. 1a, CHILDHOOD  by Jacques Casanova de Seingalt
+
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+The Project Gutenberg Etext of Childhood, by Jacques Casanova
+#1 in our series by Jacques Casanova de Seingalt
+
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+Title: Childhood, Casanova, v1
+
+Author: Jacques Casanova de Seingalt
+
+Release Date: December, 2001 [Etext #2951]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[Most recently updated: December 10, 2001]
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+The Project Gutenberg Etext of Childhood, by Jacques Casanova
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+
+MEMOIRS OF JACQUES CASANOVA de SEINGALT 1725-1798
+VENETIAN YEARS, Volume 1a--CHILDHOOD
+
+
+THE RARE UNABRIDGED LONDON EDITION OF 1894 TRANSLATED BY ARTHUR MACHEN
+TO WHICH HAS BEEN ADDED THE CHAPTERS DISCOVERED BY ARTHUR SYMONS.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS:
+     CASANOVA AT DUX
+     TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE
+     AUTHOR'S PREFACE
+     CHILDHOOD AND ADOLESCENCE
+
+
+
+
+CASANOVA AT DUX
+
+An Unpublished Chapter of History, By Arthur Symons
+
+
+I
+
+The Memoirs of Casanova, though they have enjoyed the popularity of a
+bad reputation, have never had justice done to them by serious
+students of literature, of life, and of history.  One English writer,
+indeed, Mr. Havelock Ellis, has realised that 'there are few more
+delightful books in the world,' and he has analysed them in an essay
+on Casanova, published in Affirmations, with extreme care and
+remarkable subtlety.  But this essay stands alone, at all events in
+English, as an attempt to take Casanova seriously, to show him in his
+relation to his time, and in his relation to human problems.  And yet
+these Memoirs are perhaps the most valuable document which we possess
+on the society of the eighteenth century; they are the history of a
+unique life, a unique personality, one of the greatest of
+autobiographies; as a record of adventures, they are more
+entertaining than Gil Blas, or Monte Cristo, or any of the imaginary
+travels, and escapes, and masquerades in life, which have been
+written in imitation of them.  They tell the story of a man who loved
+life passionately for its own sake: one to whom woman was, indeed,
+the most important thing in the world, but to whom nothing in the
+world was indifferent.  The bust which gives us the most lively
+notion of him shows us a great, vivid, intellectual face, full of
+fiery energy and calm resource, the face of a thinker and a fighter
+in one.  A scholar, an adventurer, perhaps a Cabalist, a busy stirrer
+in politics, a gamester, one 'born for the fairer sex,' as he tells
+us, and born also to be a vagabond; this man, who is remembered now
+for his written account of his own life, was that rarest kind of
+autobiographer, one who did not live to write, but wrote because he
+had lived, and when he could live no longer.
+
+And his Memoirs take one all over Europe, giving sidelights, all the
+more valuable in being almost accidental, upon many of the affairs
+and people most interesting to us during two-thirds of the eighteenth
+century.  Giacomo Casanova was born in Venice, of Spanish and Italian
+parentage, on April 2, 1725; he died at the Chateau of Dux, in
+Bohemia, on June 4, 1798.  In that lifetime of seventy-three years he
+travelled, as his Memoirs show us, in Italy, France, Germany,
+Austria, England, Switzerland, Belgium, Russia, Poland, Spain,
+Holland, Turkey; he met Voltaire at Ferney, Rousseau at Montmorency,
+Fontenelle, d'Alembert and Crebillon at Paris, George III. in London,
+Louis XV. at Fontainebleau, Catherine the Great at St. Petersburg,
+Benedict XII. at Rome, Joseph II. at Vienna, Frederick the Great at
+Sans-Souci.  Imprisoned by the Inquisitors of State in the Piombi at
+Venice, he made, in 1755, the most famous escape in history.  His
+Memoirs, as we have them, break off abruptly at the moment when he is
+expecting a safe conduct, and the permission to return to Venice
+after twenty years' wanderings.  He did return, as we know from
+documents in the Venetian archives; he returned as secret agent of
+the Inquisitors, and remained in their service from 1774 until 1782.
+At the end of 1782 he left Venice; and next year we find him in
+Paris, where, in 1784, he met Count Waldstein at the Venetian
+Ambassador's, and was invited by him to become his librarian at Dux.
+He accepted, and for the fourteen remaining years of his life lived
+at Dux, where he wrote his Memoirs.
+
+Casanova died in 1798, but nothing was heard of the Memoirs (which
+the Prince de Ligne, in his own Memoirs, tells us that Casanova had
+read to him, and in which he found 'du dyamatique, de la rapidite, du
+comique, de la philosophie, des choses neuves, sublimes, inimitables
+meme') until the year 1820, when a certain Carlo Angiolini brought to
+the publishing house of Brockhaus, in Leipzig, a manuscript entitled
+Histoire de ma vie jusqu' a l'an 1797, in the handwriting of Casanova.
+This manuscript, which I have examined at Leipzig, is written on
+foolscap paper, rather rough and yellow; it is written on both sides
+of the page, and in sheets or quires; here and there the paging shows
+that some pages have been omitted, and in their place are smaller
+sheets of thinner and whiter paper, all in Casanova's handsome,
+unmistakable handwriting.  The manuscript is done up in twelve
+bundles, corresponding with the twelve volumes of the original
+edition; and only in one place is there a gap.  The fourth and fifth
+chapters of the twelfth volume are missing, as the editor of the
+original edition points out, adding: 'It is not probable that these
+two chapters have been withdrawn from the manuscript of Casanova by a
+strange hand; everything leads us to believe that the author himself
+suppressed them, in the intention, no doubt, of re-writing them, but
+without having found time to do so.' The manuscript ends abruptly
+with the year 1774, and not with the year 1797, as the title would
+lead us to suppose.
+
+This manuscript, in its original state, has never been printed.  Herr
+Brockhaus, on obtaining possession of the manuscript, had it
+translated into German by Wilhelm Schutz, but with many omissions and
+alterations, and published this translation, volume by volume, from
+1822 to 1828, under the title, 'Aus den Memoiren des Venetianers
+Jacob Casanova de Seingalt.'  While the German edition was in course
+of publication, Herr Brockhaus employed a certain Jean Laforgue, a
+professor of the French language at Dresden, to revise the original
+manuscript, correcting Casanova's vigorous, but at times incorrect,
+and often somewhat Italian, French according to his own notions of
+elegant writing, suppressing passages which seemed too free-spoken
+from the point of view of morals and of politics, and altering the
+names of some of the persons referred to, or replacing those names by
+initials.  This revised text was published in twelve volumes, the
+first two in 1826, the third and fourth in 1828, the fifth to the
+eighth in 1832, and the ninth to the twelfth in 1837; the first four
+bearing the imprint of Brockhaus at Leipzig and Ponthieu et Cie at
+Paris; the next four the imprint of Heideloff et Campe at Paris; and
+the last four nothing but 'A Bruxelles.'  The volumes are all
+uniform, and were all really printed for the firm of Brockhaus.
+This, however far from representing the real text, is the only
+authoritative edition, and my references throughout this article will
+always be to this edition.
+
+In turning over the manuscript at Leipzig, I read some of the
+suppressed passages, and regretted their suppression; but Herr
+Brockhaus, the present head of the firm, assured me that they are not
+really very considerable in number.  The damage, however, to the
+vivacity of the whole narrative, by the persistent alterations of M.
+Laforgue, is incalculable.  I compared many passages, and found
+scarcely three consecutive sentences untouched.  Herr Brockhaus
+(whose courtesy I cannot sufficiently acknowledge) was kind enough to
+have a passage copied out for me, which I afterwards read over, and
+checked word by word.  In this passage Casanova says, for instance:
+'Elle venoit presque tous les jours lui faire une belle visite.'
+This is altered into: 'Cependant chaque jour Therese venait lui faire
+une visite.'  Casanova says that some one 'avoit, comme de raison,
+forme le projet d'allier Dieu avec le diable.'  This is made to read:
+'Qui, comme de raison, avait saintement forme le projet d'allier les
+interets du ciel aux oeuvres de ce monde.'  Casanova tells us that
+Therese would not commit a mortal sin 'pour devenir reine du monde;'
+pour une couronne,' corrects the indefatigable Laforgue.  'Il ne
+savoit que lui dire' becomes 'Dans cet etat de perplexite;' and so
+forth.  It must, therefore, be realized that the Memoirs, as we have
+them, are only a kind of pale tracing of the vivid colours of the
+original.
+
+When Casanova's Memoirs were first published, doubts were expressed
+as to their authenticity, first by Ugo Foscolo (in the Westminster
+Review, 1827), then by Querard, supposed to be an authority in regard
+to anonymous and pseudonymous writings, finally by Paul Lacroix, 'le
+bibliophile Jacob', who suggested, or rather expressed his
+'certainty,' that the real author of the Memoirs was Stendhal, whose
+'mind, character, ideas and style' he seemed to recognise on every
+page.  This theory, as foolish and as unsupported as the Baconian
+theory of Shakespeare, has been carelessly accepted, or at all events
+accepted as possible, by many good scholars who have never taken the
+trouble to look into the matter for themselves.  It was finally
+disproved by a series of articles of Armand Baschet, entitled
+'Preuves curieuses de l'authenticite des Memoires de Jacques Casanova
+de Seingalt,' in 'Le Livre,' January, February, April and May,
+1881; and these proofs were further corroborated by two articles of
+Alessandro d'Ancona, entitled 'Un Avventuriere del Secolo XVIII., in
+the 'Nuovo Antologia,' February 1 and August 1, 1882.  Baschet had
+never himself seen the manuscript of the Memoirs, but he had learnt
+all the facts about it from Messrs. Brockhaus, and he had himself
+examined the numerous papers relating to Casanova in the Venetian
+archives.  A similar examination was made at the Frari at about the
+same time by the Abbe Fulin; and I myself, in 1894, not knowing at
+the time that the discovery had been already made, made it over again
+for myself.  There the arrest of Casanova, his imprisonment in the
+Piombi, the exact date of his escape, the name of the monk who
+accompanied him, are all authenticated by documents contained in the
+'riferte' of the Inquisition of State; there are the bills for the
+repairs of the roof and walls of the cell from which he escaped;
+there are the reports of the spies on whose information he was
+arrested, for his too dangerous free-spokenness in matters of
+religion and morality.  The same archives contain forty-eight letters
+of Casanova to the Inquisitors of State, dating from 1763 to 1782,
+among the Riferte dei Confidenti, or reports of secret agents; the
+earliest asking permission to return to Venice, the rest giving
+information in regard to the immoralities of the city, after his
+return there; all in the same handwriting as the Memoirs.  Further
+proof could scarcely be needed, but Baschet has done more than prove
+the authenticity, he has proved the extraordinary veracity, of the
+Memoirs.   F. W. Barthold, in 'Die Geschichtlichen Personlichkeiten
+in J. Casanova's Memoiren,' 2 vols., 1846, had already examined about
+a hundred of Casanova's allusions to well known people, showing the
+perfect exactitude of all but six or seven, and out of these six or
+seven inexactitudes ascribing only a single one to the author's
+intention.  Baschet and d'Ancona both carry on what Barthold had
+begun; other investigators, in France, Italy and Germany, have
+followed them; and two things are now certain, first, that Casanova
+himself wrote the Memoirs published under his name, though not
+textually in the precise form in which we have them; and, second,
+that as their veracity becomes more and more evident as they are
+confronted with more and more independent witnesses, it is only fair
+to suppose that they are equally truthful where the facts are such as
+could only have been known to Casanova himself.
+
+
+II
+
+For more than two-thirds of a century it has been known that Casanova
+spent the last fourteen years of his life at Dux, that he wrote his
+Memoirs there, and that he died there.  During all this time people
+have been discussing the authenticity and the truthfulness of the
+Memoirs, they have been searching for information about Casanova in
+various directions, and yet hardly any one has ever taken the
+trouble, or obtained the permission, to make a careful examination in
+precisely the one place where information was most likely to be
+found.  The very existence of the manuscripts at Dux was known only
+to a few, and to most of these only on hearsay; and thus the singular
+good fortune was reserved for me, on my visit to Count Waldstein in
+September 1899, to be the first to discover the most interesting
+things contained in these manuscripts.  M. Octave Uzanne, though he
+had not himself visited Dux, had indeed procured copies of some of
+the manuscripts, a few of which were published by him in Le Livre, in
+1887 and 1889.  But with the death of Le Livre in 1889 the 'Casanova
+inedit' came to an end, and has never, so far as I know, been
+continued elsewhere.  Beyond the publication of these fragments,
+nothing has been done with the manuscripts at Dux, nor has an account
+of them ever been given by any one who has been allowed to examine
+them.
+
+For five years, ever since I had discovered the documents in the
+Venetian archives, I had wanted to go to Dux; and in 1899, when I was
+staying with Count Lutzow at Zampach, in Bohemia, I found the way
+kindly opened for me.  Count Waldstein, the present head of the
+family, with extreme courtesy, put all his manuscripts at my
+disposal, and invited me to stay with him.  Unluckily, he was called
+away on the morning of the day that I reached Dux.  He had left
+everything ready for me, and I was shown over the castle by a friend
+of his, Dr. Kittel, whose courtesy I should like also to acknowledge.
+After a hurried visit to the castle we started on the long drive to
+Oberleutensdorf, a smaller Schloss near Komotau, where the Waldstein
+family was then staying.  The air was sharp and bracing; the two
+Russian horses flew like the wind; I was whirled along in an
+unfamiliar darkness, through a strange country, black with coal
+mines, through dark pine woods, where a wild peasantry dwelt in
+little mining towns.  Here and there, a few men and women passed us
+on the road, in their Sunday finery; then a long space of silence,
+and we were in the open country, galloping between broad fields; and
+always in a haze of lovely hills, which I saw more distinctly as we
+drove back next morning.
+
+The return to Dux was like a triumphal entry, as we dashed through
+the market-place filled with people come for the Monday market, pots
+and pans and vegetables strewn in heaps all over the ground, on the
+rough paving stones, up to the great gateway of the castle, leaving
+but just room for us to drive through their midst.  I had the
+sensation of an enormous building: all Bohemian castles are big, but
+this one was like a royal palace.  Set there in the midst of the
+town, after the Bohemian fashion, it opens at the back upon great
+gardens, as if it were in the midst of the country.  I walked through
+room after room, along corridor after corridor; everywhere there were
+pictures, everywhere portraits of Wallenstein, and battle-scenes in
+which he led on his troops.  The library, which was formed, or at
+least arranged, by Casanova, and which remains as he left it,
+contains some 25,000 volumes, some of them of considerable value; one
+of the most famous books in Bohemian literature, Skala's History of
+the Church, exists in manuscript at Dux, and it is from this
+manuscript that the two published volumes of it were printed.  The
+library forms part of the Museum, which occupies a ground-floor wing
+of the castle.  The first room is an armoury, in which all kinds of
+arms are arranged, in a decorative way, covering the ceiling and the
+walls with strange patterns.  The second room contains pottery,
+collected by Casanova's Waldstein on his Eastern travels.  The third
+room is full of curious mechanical toys, and cabinets, and carvings
+in ivory.  Finally, we come to the library, contained in the two
+innermost rooms.  The book-shelves are painted white, and reach to
+the low-vaulted ceilings, which are whitewashed.  At the end of a
+bookcase, in the corner of one of the windows, hangs a fine engraved
+portrait of Casanova.
+
+After I had been all over the castle, so long Casanova's home, I was
+taken to Count Waldstein's study, and left there with the
+manuscripts.  I found six huge cardboard cases, large enough to
+contain foolscap paper, lettered on the back: 'Grafl. Waldstein-
+Wartenberg'sches Real Fideicommiss.  Dux-Oberleutensdorf:
+Handschriftlicher Nachlass Casanova.'  The cases were arranged so as
+to stand like books; they opened at the side; and on opening them,
+one after another, I found series after series of manuscripts roughly
+thrown together, after some pretence at arrangement, and lettered
+with a very generalised description of contents.  The greater part of
+the manuscripts were in Casanova's handwriting, which I could see
+gradually beginning to get shaky with years.  Most were written in
+French, a certain number in Italian.  The beginning of a catalogue in
+the library, though said to be by him, was not in his handwriting.
+Perhaps it was taken down at his dictation.  There were also some
+copies of Italian and Latin poems not written by him.  Then there
+were many big bundles of letters addressed to him, dating over more
+than thirty years.  Almost all the rest was in his own handwriting.
+
+I came first upon the smaller manuscripts, among which I, found,
+jumbled  together on the same and on separate scraps of paper,
+washing-bills, accounts, hotel bills, lists of letters written, first
+drafts of letters with many erasures, notes on books, theological and
+mathematical notes, sums, Latin quotations, French and Italian
+verses, with variants, a long list of classical names which have and
+have not been 'francises,' with reasons for and against; 'what I must
+wear at Dresden'; headings without anything to follow, such as:
+'Reflexions on respiration, on the true cause of youth-the crows'; a
+new method of winning the lottery at Rome; recipes, among which is a
+long printed list of perfumes sold at Spa; a newspaper cutting, dated
+Prague, 25th October 1790, on the thirty-seventh balloon ascent of
+Blanchard; thanks to some 'noble donor' for the gift of a dog called
+'Finette'; a passport for 'Monsieur de Casanova, Venitien, allant
+d'ici en Hollande, October 13, 1758 (Ce Passeport bon pour quinze
+jours)', together with an order for post-horses, gratis, from Paris
+to Bordeaux and Bayonne.'
+
+Occasionally, one gets a glimpse into his daily life at Dux, as in
+this note, scribbled on a fragment of paper (here and always I
+translate the French literally): 'I beg you to tell my servant what
+the biscuits are that I like to eat; dipped in wine, to fortify my
+stomach.  I believe that they can all be found at Roman's.'  Usually,
+however, these notes, though often suggested by something closely
+personal, branch off into more general considerations; or else begin
+with general considerations, and end with a case in point.  Thus, for
+instance, a fragment of three pages begins: 'A compliment which is
+only made to gild the pill is a positive impertinence, and Monsieur
+Bailli is nothing but a charlatan; the monarch ought to have spit in
+his face, but the monarch trembled with fear.'  A manuscript entitled
+'Essai d'Egoisme,' dated, 'Dux, this 27th June, 1769,' contains, in
+the midst of various reflections, an offer to let his 'appartement'
+in return for enough money to 'tranquillise for six months two Jew
+creditors at Prague.'  Another manuscript is headed 'Pride and
+Folly,' and begins with a long series of antitheses, such as: 'All
+fools are not proud, and all proud men are fools.  Many fools are
+happy, all proud men are unhappy.'  On the same sheet follows this
+instance or application:
+
+Whether it is possible to compose a Latin distich of the greatest
+beauty without knowing either the Latin language or prosody.  We must
+examine the possibility and the impossibility, and afterwards see who
+is the man who says he is the author of the distich, for there are
+extraordinary people in the world.  My brother, in short, ought to
+have composed the distich, because he says so, and because he
+confided it to me tete-'a-tete.  I had, it is true, difficulty in
+believing him; but what is one to do!  Either one must believe, or
+suppose him capable of telling a lie which could only be told by a
+fool; and that is impossible, for all Europe knows that my brother is
+not a fool.
+
+Here, as so often in these manuscripts, we seem to see Casanova
+thinking on paper.  He uses scraps of paper (sometimes the blank page
+of a letter, on the other side of which we see the address) as a kind
+of informal diary; and it is characteristic of him, of the man of
+infinitely curious mind, which this adventurer really was, that there
+are so few merely personal notes among these casual jottings.  Often,
+they are purely abstract; at times, metaphysical 'jeux d'esprit,'
+like the sheet of fourteen 'Different Wagers,' which begins:
+
+I wager that it is not true that a man who weighs a hundred pounds
+will weigh more if you kill him.  I wager that if there is any
+difference, he will weigh less.  I wager that diamond powder has not
+sufficient force to kill a man.
+
+Side by side with these fanciful excursions into science, come more
+serious ones, as in the note on Algebra, which traces its progress
+since the year 1494, before which 'it had only arrived at the
+solution of problems of the second degree, inclusive.'  A scrap of
+paper tells us that Casanova 'did not like regular towns.'  'I like,'
+he says, 'Venice, Rome, Florence, Milan, Constantinople, Genoa.'
+Then he becomes abstract and inquisitive again, and writes two pages,
+full of curious, out-of-the-way learning, on the name of Paradise:
+
+The name of Paradise is a name in Genesis which indicates a place of
+pleasure (lieu voluptueux): this term is Persian.  This place of
+pleasure was made by God before he had created man.
+
+It may be remembered that Casanova quarrelled with Voltaire, because
+Voltaire had told him frankly that his translation of L'Ecossaise was
+a bad translation.  It is piquant to read another note written in
+this style of righteous indignation:
+
+Voltaire, the hardy Voltaire, whose pen is without bit or bridle;
+Voltaire, who devoured the Bible, and ridiculed our dogmas, doubts,
+and after having made proselytes to impiety, is not ashamed, being
+reduced to the extremity of life, to ask for the sacraments, and to
+cover his body with more relics than St. Louis had at Amboise.
+
+Here is an argument more in keeping with the tone of the Memoirs:
+
+A girl who is pretty and good, and as virtuous as you please, ought
+not to take it ill that a man, carried away by her charms, should set
+himself to the task of making their conquest.  If this man cannot
+please her by any means, even if his passion be criminal, she ought
+never to take offence at it, nor treat him unkindly; she ought to be
+gentle, and pity him, if she does not love him, and think it enough
+to keep invincibly hold upon her own duty.
+
+Occasionally he touches upon aesthetical matters, as in a fragment
+which begins with this liberal definition of beauty:
+
+Harmony makes beauty, says M. de S. P. (Bernardin de St. Pierre), but
+the definition is too short, if he thinks he has said everything.
+Here is mine.  Remember that the subject is metaphysical.  An object
+really beautiful ought to seem beautiful to all whose eyes fall upon
+it.  That is all; there is nothing more to be said.
+
+At times we have an anecdote and its commentary, perhaps jotted down
+for use in that latter part of the Memoirs which was never written,
+or which has been lost.  Here is a single sheet, dated 'this 2nd
+September, 1791,' and headed Souvenir:
+
+The Prince de Rosenberg said to me, as we went down stairs, that
+Madame de Rosenberg was dead, and asked me if the Comte de Waldstein
+had in the library the illustration of the Villa d'Altichiero, which
+the Emperor had asked for in vain at the city library of Prague, and
+when I answered 'yes,' he gave an equivocal laugh.  A moment
+afterwards, he asked me if he might tell the Emperor.  'Why not,
+monseigneur?  It is not a secret, 'Is His Majesty coming to Dux?'
+'If he goes to Oberlaitensdorf (sic) he will go to Dux, too; and he
+may ask you for it, for there is a monument there which relates to
+him when he was Grand Duke.'  'In that case, His Majesty can also see
+my critical remarks on the Egyptian prints.'
+
+The Emperor asked me this morning, 6th October, how I employed my
+time at Dux, and I told him that I was making an Italian anthology.
+'You have all the Italians, then?'  'All, sire.'  See what a lie
+leads to.  If I had not lied in saying that I was making an
+anthology, I should not have found myself obliged to lie again in
+saying that we have all the Italian poets.  If the Emperor comes to
+Dux, I shall kill myself.
+
+'They say that this Dux is a delightful spot,' says Casanova in one
+of the most personal of his notes, 'and I see that it might be for
+many; but not for me, for what delights me in my old age is
+independent of the place which I inhabit.  When I do not sleep I
+dream, and when I am tired of dreaming I blacken paper, then I read,
+and most often reject all that my pen has vomited.'  Here we see him
+blackening paper, on every occasion, and for every purpose.  In one
+bundle I found an unfinished story about Roland, and some adventure
+with women in a cave; then a 'Meditation on arising from sleep, 19th
+May 1789'; then a 'Short Reflection of a Philosopher who finds
+himself thinking of procuring his own death.  At Dux, on getting out
+of bed on 13th October 1793, day dedicated to St. Lucy, memorable in
+my too long life.'  A big budget, containing cryptograms, is headed
+'Grammatical Lottery'; and there is the title-page of a treatise on
+The Duplication of the Hexahedron, demonstrated geometrically to all
+the Universities and all the Academies of Europe.' [See Charles
+Henry, Les Connaissances Mathimatiques de Casanova.  Rome, 1883.]
+There are innumerable verses, French and Italian, in all stages,
+occasionally attaining the finality of these lines, which appear in
+half a dozen tentative forms:
+
+    'Sans mystere point de plaisirs,
+     Sans silence point de mystere.
+     Charme divin de mes loisirs,
+     Solitude! que tu mes chere!
+
+Then there are a number of more or less complete manuscripts of some
+extent.  There is the manuscript of the translation of Homer's
+'Iliad, in ottava rima (published in Venice, 1775-8); of the
+'Histoire de Venise,' of the 'Icosameron,' a curious book published
+in 1787, purporting to be 'translated from English,' but really an
+original work of Casanova; 'Philocalies sur les Sottises des
+Mortels,' a long manuscript never published; the sketch and beginning
+of 'Le Pollmarque, ou la Calomnie demasquee par la presence d'esprit.
+Tragicomedie en trois actes, composed a Dux dans le mois de Juin de
+l'Annee, 1791,' which recurs again under the form of the
+'Polemoscope: La Lorgnette menteuse ou la Calomnie demasquge,' acted
+before the Princess de Ligne, at her chateau at Teplitz, 1791.  There
+is a treatise in Italian, 'Delle Passioni'; there are long dialogues,
+such as 'Le Philosophe et le Theologien', and 'Reve': 'Dieu-Moi';
+there is the 'Songe d'un Quart d'Heure', divided into minutes; there
+is the very lengthy criticism of 'Bernardin de Saint-Pierre'; there
+is the 'Confutation d'une Censure indiscrate qu'on lit dans la
+Gazette de Iena, 19 Juin 1789'; with another large manuscript,
+unfortunately imperfect, first called 'L'Insulte', and then 'Placet
+au Public', dated 'Dux, this 2nd March, 1790,' referring to the same
+criticism on the 'Icosameron' and the 'Fuite des Prisons.  L'Histoire
+de ma Fuite des Prisons de la Republique de Venise, qu'on appelle les
+Plombs', which is the first draft of the most famous part of the
+Memoirs, was published at Leipzig in 1788; and, having read it in the
+Marcian Library at Venice, I am not surprised to learn from this
+indignant document that it was printed 'under the care of a young
+Swiss, who had the talent to commit a hundred faults of orthography.'
+
+
+III
+
+We come now to the documents directly relating to the Memoirs, and
+among these are several attempts at a preface, in which we see the
+actual preface coming gradually into form.  One is entitled 'Casanova
+au Lecteur', another 'Histoire de mon Existence', and a third
+Preface.  There is also a brief and characteristic 'Precis de ma
+vie', dated November 17, 1797.  Some of these have been printed in Le
+Livre, 1887.  But by far the most important manuscript that I
+discovered, one which, apparently, I am the first to discover, is a
+manuscript entitled 'Extrait du Chapitre 4 et 5.  It is written on
+paper similar to that on which the Memoirs are written; the pages are
+numbered 104-148; and though it is described as Extrait, it seems to
+contain, at all events, the greater part of the missing chapters to
+which I have already referred, Chapters IV. and V.  of the last
+volume of the Memoirs.  In this manuscript we find Armeliine and
+Scolastica, whose story is interrupted by the abrupt ending of
+Chapter III.; we find Mariuccia of Vol. VII, Chapter IX., who married
+a hairdresser; and we find also Jaconine, whom Casanova recognises as
+his daughter, 'much prettier than Sophia, the daughter of Therese
+Pompeati, whom I had left at London.'   It is curious that this very
+important manuscript, which supplies the one missing link in the
+Memoirs, should never have been discovered by any of the few people
+who have had the opportunity of looking over the Dux manuscripts.  I
+am inclined to explain it by the fact that the case in which I found
+this manuscript contains some papers not relating to Casanova.
+Probably, those who looked into this case looked no further.  I have
+told Herr Brockhaus of my discovery, and I hope to see Chapters IV.
+and V.  in their places when the long-looked-for edition of the
+complete text is at length given to the world.
+
+Another manuscript which I found tells with great piquancy the whole
+story of the Abbe de Brosses' ointment, the curing of the Princess de
+Conti's pimples, and the birth of the Duc de Montpensier, which is
+told very briefly, and with much less point, in the Memoirs (vol.
+iii., p. 327).  Readers of the Memoirs will remember the duel at
+Warsaw with Count Branicki in 1766 (vol. X., pp. 274-320), an affair
+which attracted a good deal of attention at the time, and of which
+there is an account in a letter from the Abbe Taruffi to the
+dramatist, Francesco Albergati, dated Warsaw, March 19, 1766, quoted
+in Ernesto Masi's Life of Albergati, Bologna, 1878.  A manuscript at
+Dux in Casanova's handwriting gives an account of this duel in the
+third person; it is entitled, 'Description de l'affaire arrivee a
+Varsovie le 5 Mars, 1766'.  D'Ancona, in the Nuova Antologia (vol.
+lxvii., p.  412), referring to the Abbe Taruffi's account, mentions
+what he considers to be a slight discrepancy: that Taruffi refers to
+the danseuse, about whom the duel was fought, as La Casacci, while
+Casanova refers to her as La Catai.  In this manuscript Casanova
+always refers to her as La Casacci; La Catai is evidently one of M.
+Laforgue's arbitrary alterations of the text.
+
+In turning over another manuscript, I was caught by the name
+Charpillon, which every reader of the Memoirs will remember as the
+name of the harpy by whom Casanova suffered so much in London, in
+1763-4.  This manuscript begins by saying: 'I have been in London for
+six months and have been to see them (that is, the mother and
+daughter) in their own house,' where he finds nothing but 'swindlers,
+who cause all who go there to lose their money in gambling.'  This
+manuscript adds some details to the story told in the ninth and tenth
+volumes of the Memoirs, and refers to the meeting with the
+Charpillons four and a half years before, described in Volume V.,
+pages 428-485.  It is written in a tone of great indignation.
+Elsewhere, I found a letter written by Casanova, but not signed,
+referring to an anonymous letter which he had received in reference
+to the Charpillons, and ending: 'My handwriting is known.'  It was
+not until the last that I came upon great bundles of letters
+addressed to Casanova, and so carefully preserved that little scraps
+of paper, on which postscripts are written, are still in their
+places.  One still sees the seals on the backs of many of the
+letters, on paper which has slightly yellowed with age, leaving the
+ink, however, almost always fresh.  They come from Venice, Paris,
+Rome, Prague, Bayreuth, The Hague, Genoa, Fiume, Trieste, etc., and
+are addressed to as many places, often poste restante.  Many are
+letters from women, some in beautiful handwriting, on thick paper;
+others on scraps of paper, in painful hands, ill-spelt.  A Countess
+writes pitifully, imploring help; one protests her love, in spite of
+the 'many chagrins' he has caused her; another asks 'how they are to
+live together'; another laments that a report has gone about that she
+is secretly living with him, which may harm his reputation.  Some are
+in French, more in Italian.  'Mon cher Giacometto', writes one woman,
+in French; 'Carissimo a Amatissimo', writes another, in Italian.
+These letters from women are in some confusion, and are in need of a
+good deal of sorting over and rearranging before their full extent
+can be realised.  Thus I found letters in the same handwriting
+separated by letters in other handwritings; many are unsigned, or
+signed only by a single initial; many are undated, or dated only with
+the day of the week or month.  There are a great many letters, dating
+from 1779 to 1786, signed 'Francesca Buschini,' a name which I cannot
+identify; they are written in Italian, and one of them begins: 'Unico
+Mio vero Amico' ('my only true friend').  Others are signed 'Virginia
+B.'; one of these is dated, 'Forli, October 15, 1773.'  There is also
+a 'Theresa B.,' who writes from Genoa.  I was at first unable to
+identify the writer of a whole series of letters in French, very
+affectionate and intimate letters, usually unsigned, occasionally
+signed 'B.'  She calls herself votre petite amie; or she ends with a
+half-smiling, half-reproachful 'goodnight, and sleep better than I'
+In one letter, sent from Paris in 1759, she writes: 'Never believe
+me, but when I tell you that I love you, and that I shall love you
+always: In another letter, ill-spelt, as her letters often are, she
+writes: 'Be assured that evil tongues, vapours, calumny, nothing can
+change my heart, which is yours entirely, and has no will to change
+its master.'  Now, it seems to me that these letters must be from
+Manon Baletti, and that they are the letters referred to in the sixth
+volume of the Memoirs.  We read there (page 60) how on Christmas Day,
+1759, Casanova receives a letter from Manon in Paris, announcing her
+marriage with 'M. Blondel, architect to the King, and member of his
+Academy'; she returns him his letters, and begs him to return hers,
+or burn them.  Instead of doing so he allows Esther to read them,
+intending to burn them afterwards.  Esther begs to be allowed to keep
+the letters, promising to 'preserve them religiously all her life.'
+'These letters,' he says, 'numbered more than two hundred, and the
+shortest were of four pages: Certainly there are not two hundred of
+them at Dux, but it seems to me highly probable that Casanova made a
+final selection from Manon's letters, and that it is these which I
+have found.
+
+But, however this may be, I was fortunate enough to find the set of
+letters which I was most anxious to find the letters from Henriette,
+whose loss every writer on Casanova has lamented.  Henriette, it will
+be remembered, makes her first appearance at Cesena, in the year
+1748; after their meeting at Geneva, she reappears, romantically 'a
+propos', twenty-two years later, at Aix in Provence; and she writes
+to Casanova proposing 'un commerce epistolaire', asking him what he
+has done since his escape from prison, and promising to do her best
+to tell him all that has happened to her during the long interval.
+After quoting her letter, he adds: 'I replied to her, accepting the
+correspondence that she offered me, and telling her briefly all my
+vicissitudes.  She related to me in turn, in some forty letters, all
+the history of her life.  If she dies before me, I shall add these
+letters to these Memoirs; but to-day she is still alive, and always
+happy, though now old.'  It has never been known what became of these
+letters, and why they were not added to the Memoirs.  I have found a
+great quantity of them, some signed with her married name in full,
+'Henriette de Schnetzmann,' and I am inclined to think that she
+survived Casanova, for one of the letters is dated Bayreuth, 1798,
+the year of Casanova's death.  They are remarkably charming, written
+with a mixture of piquancy and distinction; and I will quote the
+characteristic beginning and end of the last letter I was able to
+find.  It begins: 'No, it is impossible to be sulky with you!' and
+ends: 'If I become vicious, it is you, my Mentor, who make me so, and
+I cast my sins upon you.  Even if I were damned I should still be
+your most devoted friend, Henriette de Schnetzmann.'  Casanova was
+twenty-three when he met Henriette; now, herself an old woman, she
+writes to him when he is seventy-three, as if the fifty years that
+had passed were blotted out in the faithful affection of her memory.
+How many more discreet and less changing lovers have had the quality
+of constancy in change, to which this life-long correspondence bears
+witness?  Does it not suggest a view of Casanova not quite the view
+of all the world?  To me it shows the real man, who perhaps of all
+others best understood what Shelley meant when he said:
+
+          True love in this differs from gold or clay
+          That to divide is not to take away.
+
+But, though the letters from women naturally interested me the most,
+they were only a certain proportion of the great mass of
+correspondence which I turned over.  There were letters from Carlo
+Angiolini, who was afterwards to bring the manuscript of the Memoirs
+to Brockhaus; from Balbi, the monk with whom Casanova escaped from
+the Piombi; from the Marquis Albergati, playwright, actor, and
+eccentric, of whom there is some account in the Memoirs; from the
+Marquis Mosca, 'a distinguished man of letters whom I was anxious to
+see,' Casanova tells us in the same volume in which he describes his
+visit to the Moscas at Pesaro; from Zulian, brother of the Duchess of
+Fiano; from Richard Lorrain, 'bel homme, ayant de l'esprit, le ton et
+le gout de la bonne societe', who came to settle at Gorizia in 1773,
+while Casanova was there; from the Procurator Morosini, whom he
+speaks of in the Memoirs as his 'protector,' and as one of those
+through whom he obtained permission to return to Venice.  His other
+'protector,' the 'avogador' Zaguri, had, says Casanova, 'since the
+affair of the Marquis Albergati, carried on a most interesting
+correspondence with me'; and in fact I found a bundle of no less than
+a hundred and thirty-eight letters from him, dating from 1784 to
+1798.  Another bundle contains one hundred and seventy-two letters
+from Count Lamberg.  In the Memoirs Casanova says, referring to his
+visit to Augsburg at the end of 1761:
+
+I used to spend my evenings in a very agreeable manner at the house
+of Count Max de Lamberg, who resided at the court of the
+Prince-Bishop with the title of Grand Marshal.  What particularly
+attached me to Count Lamberg was his literary talent.  A first-rate
+scholar, learned to a degree, he has published several much esteemed
+works.  I carried on an exchange of letters with him which ended only
+with his death four years ago in 1792.
+
+Casanova tells us that, at his second visit to Augsburg in the early
+part of 1767, he 'supped with Count Lamberg two or three times a
+week,' during the four months he was there.  It is with this year
+that the letters I have found begin: they end with the year of his
+death, 1792.  In his 'Memorial d'un Mondain' Lamberg refers to
+Casanova as 'a man known in literature, a man of profound knowledge.'
+In the first edition of 1774, he laments that 'a man such as M. de S.
+Galt' should not yet have been taken back into favour by the Venetian
+government, and in the second edition, 1775, rejoices over Casanova's
+return to Venice.  Then there are letters from Da Ponte, who tells
+the story of Casanova's curious relations with Mme. d'Urfe, in his
+'Memorie scritte da esso', 1829; from Pittoni, Bono, and others
+mentioned in different parts of the Memoirs, and from some dozen
+others who are not mentioned in them.  The only letters in the whole
+collection that have been published are those from the Prince de
+Ligne and from Count Koenig.
+
+
+IV
+
+Casanova tells us in his Memoirs that, during his later years at Dux,
+he had only been able to 'hinder black melancholy from devouring his
+poor existence, or sending him out of his mind,' by writing ten or
+twelve hours a day.  The copious manuscripts at Dux show us how
+persistently he was at work on a singular variety of subjects, in
+addition to the Memoirs, and to the various books which he published
+during those years.  We see him jotting down everything that comes
+into his head, for his own amusement, and certainly without any
+thought of publication; engaging in learned controversies, writing
+treatises on abstruse mathematical problems, composing comedies to be
+acted before Count Waldstein's neighbours, practising verse-writing
+in two languages, indeed with more patience than success, writing
+philosophical dialogues in which God and himself are the speakers,
+and keeping up an extensive correspondence, both with distinguished
+men and with delightful women.  His mental activity, up to the age of
+seventy-three, is as prodigious as the activity which he had expended
+in living a multiform and incalculable life.  As in life everything
+living had interested him so in his retirement from life every idea
+makes its separate appeal to him; and he welcomes ideas with the same
+impartiality with which he had welcomed adventures.  Passion has
+intellectualised itself, and remains not less passionate.  He wishes
+to do everything, to compete with every one; and it is only after
+having spent seven years in heaping up miscellaneous learning, and
+exercising his faculties in many directions, that he turns to look
+back over his own past life, and to live it over again in memory, as
+he writes down the narrative of what had interested him most in it.
+'I write in the hope that my history will never see the broad day
+light of publication,' he tells us, scarcely meaning it, we may be
+sure, even in the moment of hesitancy which may naturally come to
+him.  But if ever a book was written for the pleasure of writing it,
+it was this one; and an autobiography written for oneself is not
+likely to be anything but frank.
+
+'Truth is the only God I have ever adored,' he tells us: and we now
+know how truthful he was in saying so.  I have only summarised in
+this article the most important confirmations of his exact accuracy
+in facts and dates; the number could be extended indefinitely.  In
+the manuscripts we find innumerable further confirmations; and their
+chief value as testimony is that they tell us nothing which we should
+not have already known, if we had merely taken Casanova at his word.
+But it is not always easy to take people at their own word, when they
+are writing about themselves; and the world has been very loth to
+believe in Casanova as he represents himself.  It has been specially
+loth to believe that he is telling the truth when he tells us about
+his adventures with women.  But the letters contained among these
+manuscripts shows us the women of Casanova writing to him with all
+the fervour and all the fidelity which he attributes to them; and
+they show him to us in the character of as fervid and faithful a
+lover.  In every fact, every detail, and in the whole mental
+impression which they convey, these manuscripts bring before us the
+Casanova of the Memoirs.  As I seemed to come upon Casanova at home,
+it was as if I came upon old friend, already perfectly known to me,
+before I had made my pilgrimage to Dux.
+
+1902
+
+
+
+
+TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE
+
+A series of adventures wilder and more fantastic than the wildest of
+romances, written down with the exactitude of a business diary; a
+view of men and cities from Naples to Berlin, from Madrid and London
+to Constantinople and St. Petersburg; the 'vie intime' of the
+eighteenth century depicted by a man, who to-day sat with cardinals
+and saluted crowned heads, and to morrow lurked in dens of profligacy
+and crime; a book  of confessions penned without reticence and
+without penitence; a record of forty years of "occult" charlatanism;
+a collection of tales of successful imposture, of 'bonnes fortunes',
+of marvellous escapes, of transcendent audacity, told with the humour
+of Smollett and the delicate wit of Voltaire.  Who is there
+interested in men and letters, and in the life of the past, who would
+not cry, "Where can such a book as this be found?"
+
+Yet the above catalogue is but a brief outline, a bare and meagre
+summary, of the book known as "THE MEMOIRS OF CASANOVA"; a work
+absolutely unique in literature.  He who opens these wonderful pages
+is as one who sits in a theatre and looks across the gloom, not on a
+stage-play, but on another and a vanished world.  The curtain draws
+up, and suddenly a hundred and fifty years are rolled away, and in
+bright light stands out before us the whole life of the past; the gay
+dresses, the polished wit, the careless morals, and all the revel and
+dancing of those merry years before the mighty deluge of the
+Revolution.  The palaces and marble stairs of old Venice are no
+longer desolate, but thronged with scarlet-robed senators, prisoners
+with the doom of the Ten upon their heads cross the Bridge of Sighs,
+at dead of night the nun slips out of the convent gate to the dark
+canal where a gondola is waiting, we assist at the 'parties fines' of
+cardinals, and we see the bank made at faro.  Venice gives place to
+the assembly rooms of Mrs. Cornely and the fast taverns of the London
+of 1760; we pass from Versailles to the Winter Palace of St.
+Petersburg in the days of Catherine, from the policy of the Great
+Frederick to the lewd mirth of strolling-players, and the presence-
+chamber of the Vatican is succeeded by an intrigue in a garret.  It
+is indeed a new experience to read this history of a man who,
+refraining from nothing, has concealed nothing; of one who stood in
+the courts of Louis the Magnificent before Madame de Pompadour and
+the nobles of the Ancien Regime, and had an affair with an
+adventuress of Denmark Street, Soho; who was bound over to keep the
+peace by Fielding, and knew Cagliostro.  The friend of popes and
+kings and noblemen, and of all the male and female ruffians and
+vagabonds of Europe, abbe, soldier, charlatan, gamester, financier,
+diplomatist, viveur, philosopher, virtuoso, "chemist, fiddler, and
+buffoon," each of these, and all of these was Giacomo Casanova,
+Chevalier de Seingalt, Knight of the Golden Spur.
+
+And not only are the Memoirs a literary curiosity; they are almost
+equally curious from a bibliographical point of view.  The manuscript
+was written in French and came into the possession of the publisher
+Brockhaus, of Leipzig, who had it translated into German, and
+printed.  From this German edition, M. Aubert de Vitry re-translated
+the work into French, but omitted about a fourth of the matter, and
+this mutilated and worthless version is frequently purchased by
+unwary bibliophiles.  In the year 1826, however, Brockhaus, in order
+presumably to protect his property, printed the entire text of the
+original MS. in French, for the first time, and in this complete
+form, containing a large number of anecdotes and incidents not to be
+found in the spurious version, the work was not acceptable to the
+authorities, and was consequently rigorously suppressed.  Only a few
+copies sent out for presentation or for review are known to have
+escaped, and from one of these rare copies the present translation
+has been made and soley for private circulation.
+
+In conclusion, both translator and 'editeur' have done their utmost
+to present the English Casanova in a dress worthy of the wonderful
+and witty original.
+
+
+
+
+
+AUTHOR'S PREFACE
+
+I will begin with this confession: whatever I have done in the course
+of my life, whether it be good or evil, has been done freely; I am a
+free agent.
+
+The doctrine of the Stoics or of any other sect as to the force of
+Destiny is a bubble engendered by the imagination of man, and is near
+akin to Atheism.  I not only believe in one God, but my faith as a
+Christian is also grafted upon that tree of philosophy which has
+never spoiled anything.
+
+I believe in the existence of an immaterial God, the Author and
+Master of all beings and all things, and I feel that I never had any
+doubt of His existence, from the fact that I have always relied upon
+His providence, prayed to Him in my distress, and that He has always
+granted my prayers.  Despair brings death, but prayer does away with
+despair; and when a man has prayed he feels himself supported by new
+confidence and endowed with power to act.  As to the means employed
+by the Sovereign Master of human beings to avert impending dangers
+from those who beseech His assistance, I confess that the knowledge
+of them is above the intelligence of man, who can but wonder and
+adore.  Our ignorance becomes our only resource, and happy, truly
+happy; are those who cherish their ignorance!  Therefore must we pray
+to God, and believe that He has granted the favour we have been
+praying for, even when in appearance it seems the reverse.  As to the
+position which our body ought to assume when we address ourselves to
+the Creator, a line of Petrarch settles it:
+
+          'Con le ginocchia della mente inchine.'
+
+Man is free, but his freedom ceases when he has no faith in it; and
+the greater power he ascribes to faith, the more he deprives himself
+of that power which God has given to him when He endowed him with the
+gift of reason.  Reason is a particle of the Creator's divinity.
+When we use it with a spirit of humility and justice we are certain
+to please the Giver of that precious gift.  God ceases to be God only
+for those who can admit the possibility of His non-existence, and
+that conception is in itself the most severe punishment they can
+suffer.
+
+Man is free; yet we must not suppose that he is at liberty to do
+everything he pleases, for he becomes a slave the moment he allows
+his actions to be ruled by passion.  The man who has sufficient power
+over himself to wait until his nature has recovered its even balance
+is the truly wise man, but such beings are seldom met with.
+
+The reader of these Memoirs will discover that I never had any fixed
+aim before my eyes, and that my system, if it can be called a system,
+has been to glide away unconcernedly on the stream of life, trusting
+to the wind wherever it led.  How many changes arise from such an
+independent mode of life!  My success and my misfortunes, the bright
+and the dark days I have gone through, everything has proved to me
+that in this world, either physical or moral, good comes out of evil
+just as well as evil comes out of good.  My errors will point to
+thinking men the various roads, and will teach them the great art of
+treading on the brink of the precipice without falling into it.  It
+is only necessary to have courage, for strength without self-
+confidence is useless.  I have often met with happiness after some
+imprudent step which ought to have brought ruin upon me, and although
+passing a vote of censure upon myself I would thank God for his
+mercy.  But, by way of compensation, dire misfortune has befallen me
+in consequence of actions prompted by the most cautious wisdom.  This
+would humble me; yet conscious that I had acted rightly I would
+easily derive comfort from that conviction.
+
+In spite of a good foundation of sound morals, the natural offspring
+of the Divine principles which had been early rooted in my heart, I
+have been throughout my life the victim of my senses; I have found
+delight in losing the right path, I have constantly lived in the
+midst of error, with no consolation but the consciousness of my being
+mistaken.  Therefore, dear reader, I trust that, far from attaching
+to my history the character of impudent boasting, you will find in my
+Memoirs only the characteristic proper to a general confession, and
+that my narratory style will be the manner neither of a repenting
+sinner, nor of a man ashamed to acknowledge his frolics.  They are
+the follies inherent to youth; I make sport of them, and, if you are
+kind, you will not yourself refuse them a good-natured smile.  You
+will be amused when you see that I have more than once deceived
+without the slightest qualm of conscience, both knaves and fools.  As
+to the deceit perpetrated upon women, let it pass, for, when love is
+in the way, men and women as a general rule dupe each other.  But on
+the score of fools it is a very different matter.  I always feel the
+greatest bliss when I recollect those I have caught in my snares, for
+they generally are insolent, and so self-conceited that they
+challenge wit.  We avenge intellect when we dupe a fool, and it is a
+victory not to be despised for a fool is covered with steel and it is
+often very hard to find his vulnerable part. In fact, to gull a fool
+seems to me an exploit worthy of a witty man. I have felt in my very
+blood, ever since I was born, a most unconquerable hatred towards the
+whole tribe of fools, and it arises from the fact that I feel myself
+a blockhead whenever I am in their company.  I am very far from
+placing them in the same class with those men whom we call stupid,
+for the latter are stupid only from deficient education, and I rather
+like them.  I have met with some of them--very honest fellows, who,
+with all their stupidity, had a kind of intelligence and an upright
+good sense, which cannot be the characteristics of fools. They are
+like eyes veiled with the cataract, which, if the disease could be
+removed, would be very beautiful.
+
+Dear reader, examine the spirit of this preface, and you will at once
+guess at my purpose. I have written a preface because I wish you to
+know me thoroughly before you begin the reading of my Memoirs.  It is
+only in a coffee-room or at a table d'hote that we like to converse
+with strangers.
+
+I have written the history of my life, and I have a perfect right to
+do so; but am I wise in throwing it before a public of which I know
+nothing but evil?  No, I am aware it is sheer folly, but I want to be
+busy, I want to laugh, and why should I deny myself this
+gratification?
+
+     'Expulit elleboro morbum bilemque mero.'
+
+An ancient author tells us somewhere, with the tone of a pedagogue,
+if you have not done anything worthy of being recorded, at least
+write something worthy of being read.  It is a precept as beautiful
+as a diamond of the first water cut in England, but it cannot be
+applied to me, because I have not written either a novel, or the life
+of an illustrious character.  Worthy or not, my life is my subject,
+and my subject is my life.  I have lived without dreaming that I
+should ever take a fancy to write the history of my life, and, for
+that very reason, my Memoirs may claim from the reader an interest
+and a sympathy which they would not have obtained, had I always
+entertained the design to write them in my old age, and, still more,
+to publish them.
+
+I have reached, in 1797, the age of three-score years and twelve; I
+can not say, Vixi, and I could not procure a more agreeable pastime
+than to relate my own adventures, and to cause pleasant laughter
+amongst the good company listening to me, from which I have received
+so many tokens of friendship, and in the midst of which I have ever
+lived.  To enable me to write well, I have only to think that my
+readers will belong to that polite society:
+
+     'Quoecunque dixi, si placuerint, dictavit auditor.'
+
+Should there be a few intruders whom I can not prevent from perusing
+my Memoirs, I must find comfort in the idea that my history was not
+written for them.
+
+By recollecting the pleasures I have had formerly, I renew them, I
+enjoy them a second time, while I laugh at the remembrance of
+troubles now past, and which I no longer feel.  A member of this
+great universe, I speak to the air, and I fancy myself rendering an
+account of my administration, as a steward is wont to do before
+leaving his situation.  For my future I have no concern, and as a
+true philosopher, I never would have any, for I know not what it may
+be: as a Christian, on the other hand, faith must believe without
+discussion, and the stronger it is, the more it keeps silent. I know
+that I have lived because I have felt, and, feeling giving me the
+knowledge of my existence, I know likewise that I shall exist no more
+when I shall have ceased to feel.
+
+Should I perchance still feel after my death, I would no longer have
+any doubt, but I would most certainly give the lie to anyone
+asserting before me that I was dead.
+
+The history of my life must begin by the earliest circumstance which
+my memory can evoke; it will therefore commence when I had attained
+the age of eight years and four months.  Before that time, if to
+think is  to live be a true axiom, I did not live, I could only lay
+claim to a state of vegetation.  The mind of a human being is formed
+only of comparisons made in order to examine analogies, and therefore
+cannot precede the existence of memory.  The mnemonic organ was
+developed in my head only eight years and four months after my birth;
+it is then that my soul began to be susceptible of receiving
+impressions.  How is it possible for an immaterial substance, which
+can neither touch nor be touched to receive impressions?  It is a
+mystery which man cannot unravel.
+
+A certain philosophy, full of consolation, and in perfect accord with
+religion, pretends that the state of dependence in which the soul
+stands in relation to the senses and to the organs, is only
+incidental and transient, and that it will reach a condition of
+freedom and happiness when the death of the body shall have delivered
+it from that state of tyrannic subjection.  This is very fine, but,
+apart from religion, where is the proof of it all?  Therefore, as I
+cannot, from my own information, have a perfect certainty of my being
+immortal until the dissolution of my body has actually taken place,
+people must kindly bear with me, if I am in no hurry to obtain that
+certain knowledge, for, in my estimation, a knowledge to be gained at
+the cost of life is a rather expensive piece of information.  In the
+mean time I worship God, laying every wrong action under an interdict
+which I endeavour to respect, and I loathe the wicked without doing
+them any injury.  I only abstain from doing them any good, in the
+full belief that we ought not to cherish serpents.
+
+As I must likewise say a few words respecting my nature and my
+temperament, I premise that the most indulgent of my readers is not
+likely to be the most dishonest or the least gifted with
+intelligence.
+
+I have had in turn every temperament; phlegmatic in my infancy;
+sanguine in my youth; later on, bilious; and now I have a disposition
+which engenders melancholy, and most likely will never change.  I
+always made my food congenial to my constitution, and my health was
+always excellent.  I learned very early that our health is always
+impaired by some excess either of food or abstinence, and I never had
+any physician except myself.  I am bound to add that the excess in
+too little has ever proved in me more dangerous than the excess in
+too much; the last may cause indigestion, but the first causes death.
+
+Now, old as I am, and although enjoying good digestive organs, I must
+have only one meal every day; but I find a set-off to that privation
+in my delightful sleep, and in the ease which I experience in writing
+down my thoughts without having recourse to paradox or sophism, which
+would be calculated to deceive myself even more than my readers, for
+I never could make up my mind to palm counterfeit coin upon them if I
+knew it to be such.
+
+The sanguine temperament rendered me very sensible to the attractions
+of voluptuousness: I was always cheerful and ever ready to pass from
+one enjoyment to another, and I was at the same time very skillful in
+inventing new pleasures.  Thence, I suppose, my natural disposition
+to make fresh acquaintances, and to break with them so readily,
+although always for a good reason, and never through mere fickleness.
+The errors caused by temperament are not to be corrected, because our
+temperament is perfectly independent of our strength: it is not the
+case with our character.  Heart and head are the constituent parts of
+character; temperament has almost nothing to do with it, and,
+therefore, character is dependent upon education, and is susceptible
+of being corrected and improved.
+
+I leave to others the decision as to the good or evil tendencies of
+my character, but such as it is it shines upon my countenance, and
+there it can easily be detected by any physiognomist.  It is only on
+the fact that character can be read; there it lies exposed to the
+view.  It is worthy of remark that men who have no peculiar cast of
+countenance, and there are a great many such men, are likewise
+totally deficient in peculiar characteristics, and we may establish
+the rule that the varieties in physiognomy are equal to the
+differences in character.  I am aware that throughout my life my
+actions have received their impulse more from the force of feeling
+than from the wisdom of reason, and this has led me to acknowledge
+that my conduct has been dependent upon my nature more than upon my
+mind; both are generally at war, and in the midst of their continual
+collisions I have never found in me sufficient mind to balance my
+nature, or enough strength in my nature to counteract the power of my
+mind.  But enough of this, for there is truth in the old saying: 'Si
+brevis esse volo, obscurus fio', and I believe that, without
+offending against modesty, I can apply to myself the following words
+of my dear Virgil:
+
+    'Nec sum adeo informis: nuper me in littore vidi
+     Cum placidum ventis staret mare.'
+
+The chief business of my life has always been to indulge my senses; I
+never knew anything of greater importance.  I felt myself born for
+the fair sex, I have ever loved it dearly, and I have been loved by
+it as often and as much as I could.  I have likewise always had a
+great weakness for good living, and I ever felt passionately fond of
+every object which excited my curiosity.
+
+I have had friends who have acted kindly towards me, and it has been
+my good fortune to have it in my power to give them substantial
+proofs of my gratitude.  I have had also bitter enemies who have
+persecuted me, and whom I have not crushed simply because I could not
+do it.  I never would have forgiven them, had I not lost the memory
+of all the injuries they had heaped upon me.  The man who forgets
+does not forgive, he only loses the remembrance of the harm inflicted
+on him; forgiveness is the offspring of a feeling of heroism, of a
+noble heart, of a generous mind, whilst forgetfulness is only the
+result of a weak memory, or of an easy carelessness, and still
+oftener of a natural desire for calm and quietness.  Hatred, in the
+course of time, kills the unhappy wretch who delights in nursing it
+in his bosom.
+
+Should anyone bring against me an accusation of sensuality he would
+be wrong, for all the fierceness of my senses never caused me to
+neglect any of my duties.  For the same excellent reason, the
+accusation of drunkenness ought not to have been brought against
+Homer:
+
+     'Laudibus arguitur vini vinosus Homerus.'
+
+I have always been fond of highly-seasoned, rich dishes, such as
+macaroni prepared by a skilful Neapolitan cook, the olla-podrida of
+the Spaniards, the glutinous codfish from Newfoundland, game with a
+strong flavour, and cheese the perfect state of which is attained
+when the tiny animaculae formed from its very essence begin to shew
+signs of life.  As for women, I have always found the odour of my
+beloved ones exceeding pleasant.
+
+What depraved tastes! some people will exclaim.  Are you not ashamed
+to confess such inclinations without blushing!  Dear critics, you
+make me laugh heartily.  Thanks to my coarse tastes, I believe myself
+happier than other men, because I am convinced that they enhance my
+enjoyment.  Happy are those who know how to obtain pleasures without
+injury to anyone; insane are those who fancy that the Almighty can
+enjoy the sufferings, the pains, the fasts and abstinences which they
+offer to Him as a sacrifice, and that His love is granted only to
+those who tax themselves so foolishly.  God can only demand from His
+creatures the practice of virtues the seed of which He has sown in
+their soul, and all He has given unto us has been intended for our
+happiness; self-love, thirst for praise, emulation, strength,
+courage, and a power of which nothing can deprive us--the power of
+self-destruction, if, after due calculation, whether false or just,
+we unfortunately reckon death to be advantageous.  This is the
+strongest proof of our moral freedom so much attacked by sophists.
+Yet this power of self-destruction is repugnant to nature, and has
+been rightly opposed by every religion.
+
+A so-called free-thinker told me at one time that I could not
+consider myself a philosopher if I placed any faith in revelation.
+But when we accept it readily in physics, why should we reject it in
+religious matters?  The form alone is the point in question.  The
+spirit speaks to the spirit, and not to the ears.  The principles of
+everything we are acquainted with must necessarily have been revealed
+to those from whom we have received them by the great, supreme
+principle, which contains them all.  The bee erecting its hive, the
+swallow building its nest, the ant constructing its cave, and the
+spider warping its web, would never have done anything but for a
+previous and everlasting revelation.  We must either believe that it
+is so, or admit that matter is endowed with thought.  But as we dare
+not pay such a compliment to matter, let us stand by revelation.
+
+The great philosopher, who having deeply studied nature, thought he
+had found the truth because he acknowledged nature as God, died too
+soon.  Had he lived a little while longer, he would have gone much
+farther, and yet his journey would have been but a short one, for
+finding himself in his Author, he could not have denied Him: In Him
+we move and have our being.  He would have found Him inscrutable, and
+thus would have ended his journey.
+
+God, great principle of all minor principles, God, who is Himself
+without a principle, could not conceive Himself, if, in order to do
+it, He required to know His own principle.
+
+Oh, blissful ignorance!  Spinosa, the virtuous Spinosa, died before
+he could possess it.  He would have died a learned man and with a
+right to the reward his virtue deserved, if he had only supposed his
+soul to be immortal!
+
+It is not true that a wish for reward is unworthy of real virtue, and
+throws a blemish upon its purity.  Such a pretension, on the
+contrary, helps to sustain virtue, man being himself too weak to
+consent to be virtuous only for his own 'gratification.  I hold as a
+myth that Amphiaraus who preferred to be good than to seem good.  In
+fact, I do not believe there is an honest man alive without some
+pretension, and here is mine.
+
+I pretend to the friendship, to the esteem, to the gratitude of my
+readers.  I claim their gratitude, if my Memoirs can give them
+instruction and pleasure; I claim their esteem if, rendering me
+justice, they find more good qualities in me than faults, and I claim
+their friendship as soon as they deem me worthy of it by the candour
+and the good faith with which I abandon myself to their judgment,
+without disguise and exactly as I am in reality.  They will find that
+I have always had such sincere love for truth, that I have often
+begun by telling stories for the purpose of getting truth to enter
+the heads of those who could not appreciate its charms.  They will
+not form a wrong opinion of me when they see one emptying the purse
+of my friends to satisfy my fancies, for those friends entertained
+idle schemes, and by giving them the hope of success I trusted to
+disappointment to cure them.  I would deceive them to make them
+wiser, and I did not consider myself guilty, for I applied to my own
+enjoyment sums of money which would have been lost in the vain
+pursuit of possessions denied by nature; therefore I was not actuated
+by any avaricious rapacity.  I might think myself guilty if I were
+rich now, but I have nothing.  I have squandered everything; it is my
+comfort and my justification.  The money was intended for extravagant
+follies, and by applying it to my own frolics I did not turn it into
+a very different, channel.
+
+If I were deceived in my hope to please, I candidly confess I would
+regret it, but not sufficiently so to repent having written my
+Memoirs, for, after all, writing them has given me pleasure.  Oh,
+cruel ennui!  It must be by mistake that those who have invented the
+torments of hell have forgotten to ascribe thee the first place among
+them.  Yet I am bound to own that I entertain a great fear of hisses;
+it is too natural a fear for me to boast of being insensible to them,
+and I cannot find any solace in the idea that, when these Memoirs are
+published, I shall be no more.  I cannot think without a shudder of
+contracting any obligation towards death: I hate death; for, happy or
+miserable, life is the only blessing which man possesses, and those
+who do not love it are unworthy of it.  If we prefer honour to life,
+it is because life is blighted by infamy; and if, in the alternative,
+man sometimes throws away his life, philosophy must remain silent.
+
+Oh, death, cruel death!  Fatal law which nature necessarily rejects
+because thy very office is to destroy nature!  Cicero says that death
+frees us from all pains and sorrows, but this great philosopher books
+all the expense without taking the receipts into account.  I do not
+recollect if, when he wrote his 'Tusculan Disputations', his own
+Tullia was dead.  Death is a monster which turns away from the great
+theatre an attentive hearer before the end of the play which deeply
+interests him, and this is reason enough to hate it.
+
+All my adventures are not to be found in these Memoirs; I have left
+out those which might have offended the persons who have played a
+sorry part therein.  In spite of this reserve, my readers will
+perhaps often think me indiscreet, and I am sorry for it.  Should I
+perchance become wiser before I give up the ghost, I might burn every
+one of these sheets, but now I have not courage enough to do it.
+
+It may be that certain love scenes will be considered too explicit,
+but let no one blame me, unless it be for lack of skill, for I ought
+not to be scolded because, in my old age, I can find no other
+enjoyment but that which recollections of the past afford to me.
+After all, virtuous and prudish readers are at liberty to skip over
+any offensive pictures, and I think it my duty to give them this
+piece of advice; so much the worse for those who may not read my
+preface; it is no fault of mine if they do not, for everyone ought to
+know that a preface is to a book what the play-bill is to a comedy;
+both must be read.
+
+My Memoirs are not written for young persons who, in order to avoid
+false steps and slippery roads, ought to spend their youth in
+blissful ignorance, but for those who, having thorough experience of
+life, are no longer exposed to temptation, and who, having but too
+often gone through the fire, are like salamanders, and can be
+scorched by it no more.  True virtue is but a habit, and I have no
+hesitation in saying that the really virtuous are those persons who
+can practice virtue without the slightest trouble; such persons are
+always full of toleration, and it is to them that my Memoirs are
+addressed.
+
+I have written in French, and not in Italian, because the French
+language is more universal than mine, and the purists, who may
+criticise in my style some Italian turns will be quite right, but
+only in case it should prevent them from understanding me clearly.
+The Greeks admired Theophrastus in spite of his Eresian style, and
+the Romans delighted in their Livy in spite of his Patavinity.
+Provided I amuse my readers, it seems to me that I can claim the same
+indulgence.  After all, every Italian reads Algarotti with pleasure,
+although his works are full of French idioms.
+
+There is one thing worthy of notice: of all the living languages
+belonging to the republic of letters, the French tongue is the only
+one which has been condemned by its masters never to borrow in order
+to become richer, whilst all other languages, although richer in
+words than the French, plunder from it words and constructions of
+sentences, whenever they find that by such robbery they add something
+to their own beauty.  Yet those who borrow the most from the French,
+are the most forward in trumpeting the poverty of that language, very
+likely thinking that such an accusation justifies their depredations.
+It is said that the French language has attained the apogee of its
+beauty, and that the smallest foreign loan would spoil it, but I make
+bold to assert that this is prejudice, for, although it certainly is
+the most clear, the most logical of all languages, it would be great
+temerity to affirm that it can never go farther or higher than it has
+gone.  We all recollect that, in the days of Lulli, there was but one
+opinion of his music, yet Rameau came and everything was changed.
+The new impulse given to the French nation may open new and
+unexpected horizons, and new beauties, fresh perfections, may spring
+up from new combinations and from new wants.
+
+The motto I have adopted justifies my digressions, and all the
+commentaries, perhaps too numerous, in which I indulge upon my
+various exploits: 'Nequidquam sapit qui sibi non sapit'.  For the
+same reason I have always felt a great desire to receive praise and
+applause from polite society:
+
+    'Excitat auditor stadium, laudataque virtus
+     Crescit, et immensum gloria calcar habet.
+
+I would willingly have displayed here the proud axiom: 'Nemo laeditur
+nisi a se ipso', had I not feared to offend the immense number of
+persons who, whenever anything goes wrong with them, are wont to
+exclaim, "It is no fault of mine!"  I cannot deprive them of that
+small particle of comfort, for, were it not for it, they would soon
+feel hatred for themselves, and self-hatred often leads to the fatal
+idea of self-destruction.
+
+As for myself I always willingly acknowledge my own self as the
+principal cause of every good or of every evil which may befall me;
+therefore I have always found myself capable of being my own pupil,
+and ready to love my teacher.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                         THE MEMOIRS OF
+                        JACQUES CASANOVA
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+My Family Pedigree--My Childhood
+
+
+Don Jacob Casanova, the illegitimate son of Don Francisco Casanova,
+was a native of Saragosa, the capital of Aragon, and in the year of
+1428 he carried off Dona Anna Palofax from her convent, on the day
+after she had taken the veil.  He was secretary to King Alfonso.  He
+ran away with her to Rome, where, after one year of imprisonment, the
+pope, Martin III., released Anna from her vows, and gave them the
+nuptial blessing at the instance of Don Juan Casanova, majordomo of
+the Vatican, and uncle of Don Jacob.  All the children born from that
+marriage died in their infancy, with the exception of Don Juan, who,
+in 1475, married Donna Eleonora Albini, by whom he had a son, Marco
+Antonio.
+
+In 1481, Don Juan, having killed an officer of the king of Naples,
+was compelled to leave Rome, and escaped to Como with his wife and
+his son; but having left that city to seek his fortune, he died while
+traveling with Christopher Columbus in the year 1493.
+
+Marco Antonio became a noted poet of the school of Martial, and was
+secretary to Cardinal Pompeo Colonna.
+
+The satire against Giulio de Medicis, which we find in his works,
+having made it necessary for him to leave Rome, he returned to Como,
+where he married Abondia Rezzonica.  The same Giulio de Medicis,
+having become pope under the name of Clement VII, pardoned him and
+called him back to Rome with his wife.  The city having been taken
+and ransacked by the Imperialists in 1526, Marco Antonio died there
+from an attack of the plague; otherwise he would have died of misery,
+the soldiers of Charles V. having taken all he possessed.  Pierre
+Valerien speaks of him in his work 'de infelicitate litteratorum'.
+
+Three months after his death, his wife gave birth to Jacques
+Casanova, who died in France at a great age, colonel in the army
+commanded by Farnese against Henri, king of Navarre, afterwards king
+of France.  He had left in the city of Parma a son who married
+Theresa Conti, from whom he had Jacques, who, in the year 1681,
+married Anna Roli.  Jacques had two sons, Jean-Baptiste and Gaetan-
+Joseph-Jacques.  The eldest left Parma in 1712, and was never heard
+of; the other also went away in 1715, being only nineteen years old.
+
+This is all I have found in my father's diary: from my mother's lips
+I have heard the following particulars:
+
+Gaetan-Joseph-Jacques left his family, madly in love with an actress
+named Fragoletta, who performed the chambermaids.  In his poverty, he
+determined to earn a living by making the most of his own person.  At
+first he gave himself up to dancing, and five years afterwards became
+an actor, making himself conspicuous by his conduct still more than
+by his talent.
+
+Whether from fickleness or from jealousy, he abandoned the
+Fragoletta, and joined in Venice a troop of comedians then giving
+performances at the Saint-Samuel Theatre.  Opposite the house in
+which he had taken his lodging resided a shoemaker, by name Jerome
+Farusi, with his wife Marzia, and Zanetta, their only daughter--a
+perfect beauty sixteen years of age.  The young actor fell in love
+with this girl, succeeded in gaining her affection, and in obtaining
+her consent to a runaway match.  It was the only way to win her, for,
+being an actor, he never could have had Marzia's consent, still less
+Jerome's, as in their eyes a player was a most awful individual.  The
+young lovers, provided with the necessary certificates and
+accompanied by two witnesses, presented themselves before the
+Patriarch of Venice, who performed over them the marriage ceremony.
+Marzia, Zanetta's mother, indulged in a good deal of exclamation, and
+the father died broken-hearted.
+
+I was born nine months afterwards, on the 2nd of April, 1725.
+
+The following April my mother left me under the care of her own
+mother, who had forgiven her as soon as she had heard that my father
+had promised never to compel her to appear on the stage.  This is a
+promise which all actors make to the young girls they marry, and
+which they never fulfil, simply because their wives never care much
+about claiming from them the performance of it.  Moreover, it turned
+out a very fortunate thing for my mother that she had studied for the
+stage, for nine years later, having been left a widow with six
+children, she could not have brought them up if it had not been for
+the resources she found in that profession.
+
+I was only one year old when my father left me to go to London, where
+he had an engagement.  It was in that great city that my mother made
+her first appearance on the stage, and in that city likewise that she
+gave birth to my brother Francois, a celebrated painter of battles,
+now residing in Vienna, where he has followed his profession since
+1783.
+
+Towards the end of the year 1728 my mother returned to Venice with
+her husband, and as she had become an actress she continued her
+artistic life.  In 1730 she was delivered of my brother Jean, who
+became Director of the Academy of painting at Dresden, and died there
+in 1795; and during the three following years she became the mother
+of two daughters, one of whom died at an early age, while the other
+married in Dresden, where she still lived in 1798.  I had also a
+posthumous brother, who became a priest; he died in Rome fifteen
+years ago.
+
+Let us now come to the dawn of my existence in the character of a
+thinking being.
+
+The organ of memory began to develop itself in me at the beginning of
+August, 1733.  I had at that time reached the age of eight years and
+four months.  Of what may have happened to me before that period I
+have not the faintest recollection.  This is the circumstance.
+
+I was standing in the corner of a room bending towards the wall,
+supporting my head, and my eyes fixed upon a stream of blood flowing
+from my nose to the ground.  My grandmother, Marzia, whose pet I was,
+came to me, bathed my face with cold water, and, unknown to everyone
+in the house, took me with her in a gondola as far as Muran, a
+thickly-populated island only half a league distant from Venice.
+
+Alighting from the gondola, we enter a wretched hole, where we find
+an old woman sitting on a rickety bed, holding a black cat in her
+arms, with five or six more purring around her.  The two old cronies
+held together a long discourse of which, most likely, I was the
+subject.  At the end of the dialogue, which was carried on in the
+patois of Forli, the witch having received a silver ducat from my
+grandmother, opened a box, took me in her arms, placed me in the box
+and locked me in it, telling me not to be frightened--a piece of
+advice which would certainly have had the contrary effect, if I had
+had any wits about me, but I was stupefied.  I kept myself quiet in a
+corner of the box, holding a handkerchief to my nose because it was
+still bleeding, and otherwise very indifferent to the uproar going on
+outside.  I could hear in turn, laughter, weeping, singing, screams,
+shrieks, and knocking against the box, but for all that I cared
+nought.  At last I am taken out of the box; the blood stops flowing.
+The wonderful old witch, after lavishing caresses upon me, takes off
+my clothes, lays me on the bed, burns some drugs, gathers the smoke
+in a sheet which she wraps around me, pronounces incantations, takes
+the sheet off me, and gives me five sugar-plums of a very agreeable
+taste.  Then she immediately rubs my temples and the nape of my neck
+with an ointment exhaling a delightful perfume, and puts my clothes
+on me again.  She told me that my haemorrhage would little by little
+leave me, provided I should never disclose to any one what she had
+done to cure me, and she threatened me, on the other hand, with the
+loss of all my blood and with death, should I ever breathe a word
+concerning those mysteries.  After having thus taught me my lesson,
+she informed me that a beautiful lady would pay me a visit during the
+following night, and that she would make me happy, on condition that
+I should have sufficient control over myself never to mention to
+anyone my having received such a visit.  Upon this we left and
+returned home.
+
+I fell asleep almost as soon as I was in bed, without giving a
+thought to the beautiful visitor I was to receive; but, waking up a
+few hours afterwards, I saw, or fancied I saw, coming down the
+chimney, a dazzling woman, with immense hoops, splendidly attired,
+and wearing on her head a crown set with precious stones, which
+seemed to me sparkling with fire.  With slow steps, but with a
+majestic and sweet countenance, she came forward and sat on my bed;
+then taking several small boxes from her pocket, she emptied their
+contents over my head, softly whispering a few words, and after
+giving utterance to a long speech, not a single word of which I
+understood, she kissed me and disappeared the same way she had come.
+I soon went again to sleep.
+
+The next morning, my grandmother came to dress me, and the moment she
+was near my bed, she cautioned me to be silent, threatening me with
+death if I dared to say anything respecting my night's adventures.
+This command, laid upon me by the only woman who had complete
+authority over me, and whose orders I was accustomed to obey blindly,
+caused me to remember the vision, and to store it, with the seal of
+secrecy, in the inmost corner of my dawning memory.  I had not,
+however, the slightest inclination to mention the circumstances to
+anyone; in the first place, because I did not suppose it would
+interest anybody, and in the second because I would not have known
+whom to make a confidant of.  My disease had rendered me dull and
+retired; everybody pitied me and left me to myself; my life was
+considered likely to be but a short one, and as to my parents, they
+never spoke to me.
+
+After the journey to Muran, and the nocturnal visit of the fairy, I
+continued to have bleeding at the nose, but less from day to day, and
+my memory slowly developed itself.  I learned to read in less than a
+month.
+
+It would be ridiculous, of course, to attribute this cure to such
+follies, but at the same time I think it would be wrong to assert
+that they did not in any way contribute to it.  As far as the
+apparition of the beautiful queen is concerned, I have always deemed
+it to be a dream, unless it should have been some masquerade got up
+for the occasion, but it is not always in the druggist's shop that
+are found the best remedies for severe diseases.  Our ignorance is
+every day proved by some wonderful phenomenon, and I believe this to
+be the reason why it is so difficult to meet with a learned man
+entirely untainted with superstition.  We know, as a matter of
+course, that there never have been any sorcerers in this world, yet
+it is true that their power has always existed in the estimation of
+those to whom crafty knaves have passed themselves off as such.
+'Somnio nocturnos lemures portentaque Thessalia vides'.
+
+Many things become real which, at first, had no existence but in our
+imagination, and, as a natural consequence, many facts which have
+been attributed to Faith may not always have been miraculous,
+although they are true miracles for those who lend to Faith a
+boundless power.
+
+The next circumstance of any importance to myself which I recollect
+happened three months after my trip to Muran, and six weeks before my
+father's death.  I give it to my readers only to convey some idea of
+the manner in which my nature was expanding.
+
+One day, about the middle of November, I was with my brother
+Francois, two years younger than I, in my father's room, watching him
+attentively as he was working at optics.  A large lump of crystal,
+round and cut into facets, attracted my attention.  I took it up, and
+having brought it near my eyes I was delighted to see that it
+multiplied objects.  The wish to possess myself of it at once got
+hold of me, and seeing myself unobserved I took my opportunity and
+hid it in my pocket.
+
+A few minutes after this my father looked about for his crystal, and
+unable to find it, he concluded that one of us must have taken it.
+My brother asserted that he had not touched it, and I, although
+guilty, said the same; but my father, satisfied that he could not be
+mistaken, threatened to search us and to thrash the one who had told
+him a story.  I pretended to look for the crystal in every corner of
+the room, and, watching my opportunity I slyly slipped it in the
+pocket of my brother's jacket.  At first I was sorry for what I had
+done, for I might as well have feigned to find the crystal somewhere
+about the room; but the evil deed was past recall.  My father, seeing
+that we were looking in vain, lost patience, searched us, found the
+unlucky ball of crystal in the pocket of the innocent boy, and
+inflicted upon him the promised thrashing.  Three or four years later
+I was foolish enough to boast before my brother of the trick I had
+then played on him; he never forgave me, and has never failed to take
+his revenge whenever the opportunity offered.
+
+However, having at a later period gone to confession, and accused
+myself to the priest of the sin with every circumstance surrounding
+it, I gained some knowledge which afforded me great satisfaction.  My
+confessor, who was a Jesuit, told me that by that deed I had verified
+the meaning of my first name, Jacques, which, he said, meant, in
+Hebrew, "supplanter," and that God had changed for that reason the
+name of the ancient patriarch into that of Israel, which meant
+"knowing."  He had deceived his brother Esau.
+
+Six weeks after the above adventure my father was attacked with an
+abscess in the head which carried him off in a week.  Dr. Zambelli
+first gave him oppilative remedies, and, seeing his mistake, he tried
+to mend it by administering castoreum, which sent his patient into
+convulsions and killed him.  The abscess broke out through the ear
+one minute after his death, taking its leave after killing him, as if
+it had no longer any business with him.  My father departed this life
+in the very prime of his manhood.  He was only thirty-six years of
+age, but he was followed to his grave by the regrets of the public,
+and more particularly of all the patricians amongst whom he was held
+as above his profession, not less on account of his gentlemanly
+behaviour than on account of his extensive knowledge in mechanics.
+
+Two days before his death, feeling that his end was at hand, my
+father expressed a wish to see us all around his bed, in the presence
+of his wife and of the Messieurs Grimani, three Venetian noblemen
+whose protection he wished to entreat in our favour.  After giving us
+his blessing, he requested our mother, who was drowned in tears, to
+give her sacred promise that she would not educate any of us for the
+stage, on which he never would have appeared himself had he not been
+led to it by an unfortunate attachment.  My mother gave her promise,
+and the three noblemen said that they would see to its being
+faithfully kept.  Circumstances helped our mother to fulfill her
+word.
+
+At that time my mother had been pregnant for six months, and she was
+allowed to remain away from the stage until after Easter.  Beautiful
+and young as she was, she declined all the offers of marriage which
+were made to her, and, placing her trust in Providence, she
+courageously devoted herself to the task of bringing up her young
+family.
+
+She considered it a duty to think of me before the others, not so
+much from a feeling of preference as in consequence of my disease,
+which had such an effect upon me that it was difficult to know what
+to do with me.  I was very weak, without any appetite, unable to
+apply myself to anything, and I had all the appearance of an idiot.
+Physicians disagreed as to the cause of the disease.  He loses, they
+would say, two pounds of blood every week; yet there cannot be more
+than sixteen or eighteen pounds in his body.  What, then, can cause
+so abundant a bleeding?  One asserted that in me all the chyle turned
+into blood; another was of opinion that the air I was breathing must,
+at each inhalation, increase the quantity of blood in my lungs, and
+contended that this was the reason for which I always kept my mouth
+open.  I heard of it all six years afterward from M. Baffo, a great
+friend of my late father.
+
+This M.  Baffo consulted the celebrated Doctor Macop, of Padua, who
+sent him his opinion by writing.  This consultation, which I have
+still in my possession, says that our blood is an elastic fluid which
+is liable to diminish or to increase in thickness, but never in
+quantity, and that my haemorrhage could only proceed from the
+thickness of the mass of my blood, which relieved itself in a natural
+way in order to facilitate circulation.  The doctor added that I
+would have died long before, had not nature, in its wish for life,
+assisted itself, and he concluded by stating that the cause of the
+thickness of my blood could only be ascribed to the air I was
+breathing and that consequently I must have a change of air, or every
+hope of cure be abandoned.  He thought likewise, that the stupidity
+so apparent on my countenance was caused by nothing else but the
+thickness of my blood.
+
+M. Baffo, a man of sublime genius, a most lascivious, yet a great and
+original poet, was therefore instrumental in bringing about the
+decision which was then taken to send me to Padua, and to him I am
+indebted for my life.  He died twenty years after, the last of his
+ancient patrician family, but his poems, although obscene, will give
+everlasting fame to his name.  The state-inquisitors of Venice have
+contributed to his celebrity by their mistaken strictness.  Their
+persecutions caused his manuscript works to become precious.  They
+ought to have been aware that despised things are forgotten.
+
+As soon as the verdict given by Professor Macop had been approved of,
+the Abbe Grimani undertook to find a good boarding-house in Padua for
+me, through a chemist of his acquaintance who resided in that city.
+His name was Ottaviani, and he was also an antiquarian of some
+repute.  In a few days the boarding-house was found, and on the 2nd
+day of April, 1734, on the very day I had accomplished my ninth year,
+I was taken to Padua in a 'burchiello', along the Brenta Canal.  We
+embarked at ten o'clock in the evening, immediately after supper.
+
+The 'burchiello' may be considered a small floating house.  There is
+a large saloon with a smaller cabin at  each end, and rooms for
+servants fore and aft.  It is a long square with a roof, and cut on
+each side by glazed  windows with shutters.  The voyage takes eight
+hours.  M. Grimani, M. Baffo, and my mother accompanied me. I slept
+with her in the saloon, and the two friends passed the night in one
+of the cabins.  My mother rose at day break, opened one of the
+windows facing the bed, and the rays of the rising sun, falling on my
+eyes, caused me to open them.  The bed was too low for me to see the
+land; I could see through the window only the tops of the trees along
+the river.  The boat was sailing with such an even movement that I
+could not realize the fact of our moving, so that the trees, which,
+one after the other, were rapidly disappearing from my sight, caused
+me an extreme surprise.  "Ah, dear mother!" I exclaimed, "what is
+this?  the trees are walking!"  At that very moment the two noblemen
+came in, and reading astonishment on my countenance, they asked me
+what my thoughts were so busy about.  "How is it," I answered, "that
+the trees are walking."
+
+They all laughed, but my mother, heaving a great sigh, told me, in a
+tone of deep pity, "The boat is moving, the trees are not.  Now dress
+yourself."
+
+I understood at once the reason of the phenomenon.  "Then it may be,"
+said I, "that the sun does not move, and that we, on the contrary,
+are revolving from west to east."  At these words my good mother
+fairly screamed.  M. Grimani pitied my foolishness, and I remained
+dismayed, grieved, and ready to cry.  M.  Baffo brought me life
+again.  He rushed to me, embraced me tenderly, and said, "Thou are
+right, my child.  The sun does not move; take courage, give heed to
+your reasoning powers and let others laugh."
+
+My mother, greatly surprised, asked him whether he had taken leave of
+his senses to give me such lessons; but the philosopher, not even
+condescending to answer her, went on sketching a theory in harmony
+with my young and simple intelligence.  This was the first real
+pleasure I enjoyed in my life.  Had it not been for M. Baffo, this
+circumstance might have been enough to degrade my understanding; the
+weakness of credulity would have become part of my mind.  The
+ignorance of the two others would certainly have blunted in me the
+edge of a faculty which, perhaps, has not carried me very far in my
+after life, but to which alone I feel that I am indebted for every
+particle of happiness I enjoy when I look into myself.
+
+We reached Padua at an early hour and went to Ottaviani's house; his
+wife loaded me with caresses.  I found there five or six children,
+amongst them a girl of eight years, named Marie, and another of
+seven, Rose, beautiful as a seraph.  Ten years later Marie became the
+wife of the broker Colonda, and Rose, a few years afterwards, married
+a nobleman, Pierre Marcello, and had one son and two daughters, one
+of whom was wedded to M. Pierre Moncenigo, and the other to a
+nobleman of the Carrero family.  This last marriage was afterwards
+nullified.  I shall have, in the course of events, to speak of all
+these persons, and that is my reason for mentioning their names here.
+
+Ottaviani took us at once to the house where I was to board.  It was
+only a few yards from his own residence, at Sainte-Marie d'Advance,
+in the parish of Saint-Michel, in the house of an old Sclavonian
+woman, who let the first floor to Signora Mida, wife of a Sclavonian
+colonel.  My small trunk was laid open before the old woman, to whom
+was handed an inventory of all its contents, together with six
+sequins for six months paid in advance.  For this small sum she
+undertook to feed me, to keep me clean, and to send me to a day-
+school.  Protesting that it was not enough, she accepted these terms.
+I was kissed and strongly commanded to be always obedient and docile,
+and I was left with her.
+
+In this way did my family get rid of me.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+My Grandmother Comes to Padua, and Takes Me to Dr. Gozzi's School
+--My First Love Affair
+
+
+As soon as I was left alone with the Sclavonian woman, she took me up
+to the garret, where she pointed out my bed in a row with four
+others, three of which belonged to three young boys of my age, who at
+that moment were at school, and the fourth to a servant girl whose
+province it was to watch us and to prevent the many peccadilloes in
+which school-boys are wont to indulge.  After this visit we came
+downstairs, and I was taken to the garden with permission to walk
+about until dinner-time.
+
+I felt neither happy nor unhappy; I had nothing to say.  I had
+neither fear nor hope, nor even a feeling of curiosity; I was neither
+cheerful nor sad.  The only thing which grated upon me was the face
+of the mistress of the house.  Although I had not the faintest idea
+either of beauty or of ugliness, her face, her countenance, her tone
+of voice, her language, everything in that woman was repulsive to me.
+Her masculine features repelled me every time I lifted my eyes
+towards her face to listen to what she said to me.  She was tall and
+coarse like a trooper; her complexion was yellow, her hair black, her
+eyebrows long and thick, and her chin gloried in a respectable
+bristly beard: to complete the picture, her hideous, half-naked bosom
+was hanging half-way down her long chest; she may have been about
+fifty.  The servant was a stout country girl, who did all the work of
+the house; the garden was a square of some thirty feet, which had no
+other beauty than its green appearance.
+
+Towards noon my three companions came back from school, and they at
+once spoke to me as if we had been old acquaintances, naturally
+giving me credit for such intelligence as belonged to my age, but
+which I did not possess.  I did not answer them, but they were not
+baffled, and they at last prevailed upon me to share their innocent
+pleasures.  I had to run, to carry and be carried, to turn head over
+heels, and I allowed myself to be initiated into those arts with a
+pretty good grace until we were summoned to dinner.  I sat down to
+the table; but seeing before me a wooden spoon, I pushed it back,
+asking for my silver spoon and fork to which I was much attached,
+because they were a gift from my good old granny.  The servant
+answered that the mistress wished to maintain equality between the
+boys, and I had to submit, much to my disgust.  Having thus learned
+that equality in everything was the rule of the house, I went to work
+like the others and began to eat the soup out of the common dish, and
+if I did not complain of the rapidity with which my companions made
+it disappear, I could not help wondering at such inequality being
+allowed.  To follow this very poor soup, we had a small portion of
+dried cod and one apple each, and dinner was over: it was in Lent.
+We had neither glasses nor cups, and we all helped ourselves out of
+the same earthen pitcher to a miserable drink called graspia, which
+is made by boiling in water the stems of grapes stripped of their
+fruit.  From the following day I drank nothing but water.  This way
+of living surprised me, for I did not know whether I had a right to
+complain of it.  After dinner the servant took me to the school, kept
+by a young priest, Doctor Gozzi, with whom the Sclavonian woman had
+bargained for my schooling at the rate of forty sous a month, or the
+eleventh part of a sequin.
+
+The first thing to do was to teach me writing, and I was placed
+amongst children of five and six years, who did not fail to turn me
+into ridicule on account of my age.
+
+On my return to the boarding-house I had my supper, which, as a
+matter of course, was worse than the dinner, and I could not make out
+why the right of complaint should be denied me.  I was then put to
+bed, but there three well-known species of vermin kept me awake all
+night, besides the rats, which, running all over the garret, jumped
+on my bed and fairly made my blood run cold with fright.  This is the
+way in which I began to feel misery, and to learn how to suffer it
+patiently.  The vermin, which feasted upon me, lessened my fear of
+the rats, and by a very lucky system of compensation, the dread of
+the rats made me less sensitive to the bites of the vermin.  My mind
+was reaping benefit from the very struggle fought between the evils
+which surrounded me.  The servant was perfectly deaf to my screaming.
+
+As soon as it was daylight I ran out of the wretched garret, and,
+after complaining to the girl of all I had endured during the night,
+I asked her to give me a Clean shirt, the one I had on being
+disgusting to look at, but she answered that I could only change my
+linen on a Sunday, and laughed at me when I threatened to complain to
+the mistress.  For the first time in my life I shed tears of sorrow
+and of anger, when I heard my companions scoffing at me.  The poor
+wretches shared my unhappy condition, but they were used to it, and
+that makes all the difference.
+
+Sorely depressed, I went to school, but only to sleep soundly through
+the morning.  One of my comrades, in the hope of turning the affair
+into ridicule at my expense, told the doctor the reason of my being
+so sleepy.  The good priest, however, to whom without doubt
+Providence had guided me, called me into his private room, listened
+to all I had to say, saw with his own eyes the proofs of my misery,
+and moved by the sight of the blisters which disfigured my innocent
+skin, he took up his cloak, went with me to my boarding-house, and
+shewed the woman the state I was in.  She put on a look of great
+astonishment, and threw all the blame upon the servant.  The doctor
+being curious to see my bed, I was, as much as he was, surprised at
+the filthy state of the sheets in which I had passed the night.  The
+accursed woman went on blaming the servant, and said that she would
+discharge her; but the girl, happening to be close by, and not
+relishing the accusation, told her boldly that the fault was her own,
+and she then threw open the beds of my companions to shew us that
+they did not experience any better treatment.  The mistress, raving,
+slapped her on the face, and the servant, to be even with her,
+returned the compliment and ran away.  The doctor left me there,
+saying that I could not enter his school unless I was sent to him as
+clean as the other boys.  The result for me was a very sharp rebuke,
+with the threat, as a finishing stroke, that if I ever caused such a
+broil again, I would be ignominiously turned out of the house.
+
+I could not make it out; I had just entered life, and I had no
+knowledge of any other place but the house in which I had been born,
+in which I had been brought up, and in which I had always seen
+cleanliness and honest comfort.  Here I found myself ill-treated,
+scolded, although it did not seem possible that any blame could be
+attached to me.  At last the old shrew tossed a shirt in my face, and
+an hour later I saw a new servant changing the sheets, after which we
+had our dinner.
+
+My schoolmaster took particular care in instructing me.  He gave me a
+seat at his own desk, and in order to shew my proper appreciation of
+such a favour, I gave myself up to my studies; at the end of the
+first month I could write so well that I was promoted to the grammar
+class.
+
+The new life I was leading, the half-starvation system to which I was
+condemned, and most likely more than everything else, the air of
+Padua, brought me health such as I had never enjoyed before, but that
+very state of blooming health made it still more difficult for me to
+bear the hunger which I was compelled to endure; it became
+unbearable.  I was growing rapidly; I enjoyed nine hours of deep
+sleep, unbroken by any dreams, save that I always fancied myself
+sitting at a well-spread table, and gratifying my cruel appetite, but
+every morning I could realize in full the vanity and the unpleasant
+disappointment of flattering dreams!  This ravenous appetite would at
+last have weakened me to death, had I not made up my mind to pounce
+upon, and to swallow, every kind of eatables I could find, whenever I
+was certain of not being seen.
+
+Necessity begets ingenuity.  I had spied in a cupboard of the kitchen
+some fifty red herrings; I devoured them all one after the other, as
+well as all the sausages which were hanging in the chimney to be
+smoked; and in order to accomplish those feats without being
+detected, I was in the habit of getting up at night and of
+undertaking my foraging expeditions under the friendly veil of
+darkness.  Every new-laid egg I could discover in the poultry-yard,
+quite warm and scarcely dropped by the hen, was a most delicious
+treat.  I would even go as far as the kitchen of the schoolmaster in
+the hope of pilfering something to eat.
+
+The Sclavonian woman, in despair at being unable to catch the
+thieves, turned away servant after servant.  But, in spite of all my
+expeditions, as I could not always find something to steal, I was as
+thin as a walking skeleton.
+
+My progress at school was so rapid during four or five months that
+the master promoted me to the rank of dux.  My province was to
+examine the lessons of my thirty school-fellows, to correct their
+mistakes and report to the master with whatever note of blame or of
+approval I thought they deserved; but my strictness did not last
+long, for idle boys soon found out the way to enlist my sympathy.
+When their Latin lesson was full of mistakes, they would buy me off
+with cutlets and roast chickens; they even gave me money.  These
+proceedings excited my covetousness, or, rather, my gluttony, and,
+not satisfied with levying a tax upon the ignorant, I became a
+tyrant, and I refused well-merited approbation to all those who
+declined paying the contribution I demanded.  At last, unable to bear
+my injustice any longer, the boys accused me, and the master, seeing
+me convicted of extortion, removed me from my exalted position.  I
+would very likely have fared badly after my dismissal, had not Fate
+decided to put an end to my cruel apprenticeship.
+
+Doctor Gozzi, who was attached to me, called me privately one day
+into his study, and asked me whether I would feel disposed to carry
+out the advice he would give me in order to bring about my removal
+from the house of the Sclavonian woman, and my admission in his own
+family.  Finding me delighted at such an offer, he caused me to copy
+three letters which I sent, one to the Abbe Grimani, another to my
+friend Baffo, and the last to my excellent grandam.  The half-year
+was nearly out, and my mother not being in Venice at that period
+there was no time to lose.
+
+In my letters I gave a description of all my sufferings, and I
+prognosticated my death were I not immediately removed from my
+boarding-house and placed under the care of my school-master, who was
+disposed to receive me; but he wanted two sequins a month.
+
+M. Grimani did not answer me, and commissioned his friend Ottaviani
+to scold me for allowing myself to be ensnared by the doctor; but M.
+Baffo went to consult with my grandmother, who could not write, and
+in a letter which he addressed to me he informed me that I would soon
+find myself in a happier situation.  And, truly, within a week the
+excellent old woman, who loved me until her death, made her
+appearance as I was sitting down to my dinner.  She came in with the
+mistress of the house, and the moment I saw her I threw my arms
+around her neck, crying bitterly, in which luxury the old lady soon
+joined me.  She sat down and took me on her knees; my courage rose
+again.  In the presence of the Sclavonian woman I enumerated all my
+grievances, and after calling her attention to the food, fit only for
+beggars, which I was compelled to swallow, I took her upstairs to
+shew her my bed.  I begged her to take me out and give me a good
+dinner after six months of such starvation.  The boarding-house
+keeper boldly asserted that she could not afford better for the
+amount she had received, and there was truth in that, but she had no
+business to keep house and to become the tormentor of poor children
+who were thrown on her hands by stinginess, and who required to be
+properly fed.
+
+My grandmother very quietly intimated her intention to take me away
+forthwith, and asked her to put all my things in my trunk.  I cannot
+express my joy during these preparations.  For the first time I felt
+that kind of happiness which makes forgiveness compulsory upon the
+being who enjoys it, and causes him to forget all previous
+unpleasantness.  My grandmother took me to the inn, and dinner was
+served, but she could hardly eat anything in her astonishment at the
+voracity with which I was swallowing my food.  In the meantime Doctor
+Gozzi, to whom she had sent notice of her arrival, came in, and his
+appearance soon prepossessed her in his favour.  He was then a fine-
+looking priest, twenty-six years of age, chubby, modest, and
+respectful.  In less than a quarter of an hour everything was
+satisfactorily arranged between them.  The good old lady counted out
+twenty-four sequins for one year of my schooling, and took a receipt
+for the same, but she kept me with her for three days in order to
+have me clothed like a priest, and to get me a wig, as the filthy
+state of my hair made it necessary to have it all cut off.
+
+At the end of the three days she took me to the doctor's house, so as
+to see herself to my installation and to recommend me to the doctor's
+mother, who desired her to send or to buy in Padua a bedstead and
+bedding; but the doctor having remarked that, his own bed being very
+wide, I might sleep with him, my grandmother expressed her gratitude
+for all his kindness, and we accompanied her as far as the burchiello
+she had engaged to return to Venice.
+
+The family of Doctor Gozzi was composed of his mother, who had great
+reverence for him, because, a peasant by birth, she did not think
+herself worthy of having a son who was a priest, and still more a
+doctor in divinity; she was plain, old, and cross; and of his father,
+a shoemaker by trade, working all day long and never addressing a
+word to anyone, not even during the meals.  He only became a sociable
+being on holidays, on which occasions he would spend his time with
+his friends in some tavern, coming home at midnight as drunk as a
+lord and singing verses from Tasso.  When in this blissful state the
+good man could not make up his mind to go to bed, and became violent
+if anyone attempted to compel him to lie down.  Wine alone gave him
+sense and spirit, for when sober he was incapable of attending to the
+simplest family matter, and his wife often said that he never would
+have married her had not his friends taken care to give him a good
+breakfast before he went to the church.
+
+But Doctor Gozzi had also a sister, called Bettina, who at the age of
+thirteen was pretty, lively, and a great reader of romances.  Her
+father and mother scolded her constantly because she was too often
+looking out of the window, and the doctor did the same on account of
+her love for reading.  This girl took at once my fancy without my
+knowing why, and little by little she kindled in my heart the first
+spark of a passion which, afterwards became in me the ruling one.
+
+Six months after I had been an inmate in the house, the doctor found
+himself without scholars; they all went away because I had become the
+sole object of his affection.  He then determined to establish a
+college, and to receive young boys as boarders; but two years passed
+before he met with any success.  During that period he taught me
+everything he knew; true, it was not much; yet it was enough to open
+to me the high road to all sciences.  He likewise taught me the
+violin, an accomplishment which proved very useful to me in a
+peculiar circumstance, the particulars of which I will give in good
+time.  The excellent doctor, who was in no way a philosopher, made me
+study the logic of the Peripatetics, and the cosmography of the
+ancient system of Ptolemy, at which I would laugh, teasing the poor
+doctor with theorems to which he could find no answer.  His habits,
+moreover, were irreproachable, and in all things connected with
+religion, although no bigot, he was of the greatest strictness, and,
+admitting everything as an article of faith, nothing appeared
+difficult to his conception.  He believed the deluge to have been
+universal, and he thought that, before that great cataclysm, men
+lived a thousand years and conversed with God, that Noah took one
+hundred years to build the ark, and that the earth, suspended in the
+air, is firmly held in the very centre of the universe which God had
+created from nothing.  When I would say and prove that it was absurd
+to believe in the existence of nothingness, he would stop me short
+and call me a fool.
+
+He could enjoy a good bed, a glass of wine, and cheerfulness at home.
+He did not admire fine wits, good jests or criticism, because it
+easily turns to slander, and he would laugh at the folly of men
+reading newspapers which, in his opinion, always lied and constantly
+repeated the same things.  He asserted that nothing was more
+troublesome than incertitude, and therefore he condemned thought
+because it gives birth to doubt.
+
+His ruling passion was preaching, for which his face and his voice
+qualified him; his congregation was almost entirely composed of women
+of whom, however, he was the sworn enemy; so much so, that he would
+not look them in the face even when he spoke to them.  Weakness of
+the flesh and fornication appeared to him the most monstrous of sins,
+and he would be very angry if I dared to assert that, in my
+estimation, they were the most venial of faults.  His sermons were
+crammed with passages from the Greek authors, which he translated
+into Latin.  One day I ventured to remark that those passages ought
+to be translated into Italian because women did not understand Latin
+any more than Greek, but he took offence, and I never had afterwards
+the courage to allude any more to the matter.  Moreover he praised me
+to his friends as a wonder, because I had learned to read Greek
+alone, without any assistance but a grammar.
+
+During Lent, in the year 1736, my mother, wrote to the doctor; and,
+as she was on the point of her departure for St. Petersburg, she
+wished to see me, and requested him to accompany me to Venice for
+three or four days.  This invitation set him thinking, for he had
+never seen Venice, never frequented good company, and yet he did not
+wish to appear a novice in anything.  We were soon ready to leave
+Padua, and all the family escorted us to the 'burchiello'.
+
+My mother received the doctor with a most friendly welcome; but she
+was strikingly beautiful, and my poor master felt very uncomfortable,
+not daring to look her in the face, and yet called upon to converse
+with her.  She saw the dilemma he was in, and thought she would have
+some amusing sport about it should opportunity present itself.  I, in
+the meantime, drew the attention of everyone in her circle; everybody
+had known me as a fool, and was amazed at my improvement in the short
+space of two years.  The doctor was overjoyed, because he saw that
+the full credit of my transformation was given to him.
+
+The first thing which struck my mother unpleasantly was my light-
+coloured wig, which was not in harmony with my dark complexion, and
+contrasted most woefully with my black eyes and eyebrows.  She
+inquired from the doctor why I did not wear my own hair, and he
+answered that, with a wig, it was easier for his sister to keep me
+clean.  Everyone smiled at the simplicity of the answer, but the
+merriment increased when, to the question made by my mother whether
+his sister was married, I took the answer upon myself, and said that
+Bettina was the prettiest girl of Padua, and was only fourteen years
+of age.  My mother promised the doctor a splendid present for his
+sister on condition that she would let me wear my own hair, and he
+promised that her wishes would be complied with.  The peruke-maker
+was then called, and I had a wig which matched my complexion.
+
+Soon afterwards all the guests began to play cards, with the
+exception of my master, and I went to see my brothers in my
+grandmother's room.  Francois shewed me some architectural designs
+which I pretended to admire; Jean had nothing to skew me, and I
+thought him a rather insignificant boy.  The others were still very
+young.
+
+At the supper-table, the doctor, seated next to my mother, was very
+awkward.  He would very likely not have said one word, had not an
+Englishman, a writer of talent, addressed him in Latin; but the
+doctor, being unable to make him out, modestly answered that he did
+not understand English, which caused much hilarity.  M. Baffo,
+however, explained the puzzle by telling us that Englishmen read and
+pronounced Latin in the same way that they read and spoke their own
+language, and I remarked that Englishmen were wrong as much as we
+would be, if we pretended to read and to pronounce their language
+according to Latin rules.  The Englishman, pleased with my reasoning,
+wrote down the following old couplet, and gave it to me to read:
+
+     'Dicite, grammatici, cur mascula nomina cunnus,
+      Et cur femineum mentula nomen habet.'
+
+After reading it aloud, I exclaimed, "This is Latin indeed."
+
+"We know that," said my mother, "but can you explain it,"
+
+"To explain it is not enough," I answered; "it is a question which is
+worthy of an answer."  And after considering for a moment, I wrote
+the following pentameter
+
+     'Disce quod a domino nomina servus habet.'
+
+This was my first literary exploit, and I may say that in that very
+instant the seed of my love for literary fame was sown in my breast,
+for the applause lavished upon me exalted me to the very pinnacle of
+happiness.  The Englishman, quite amazed at my answer, said that no
+boy of eleven years had ever accomplished such a feat, embraced me
+repeatedly, and presented me with his watch.  My mother, inquisitive
+like a woman, asked M.  Grimani to tell her the meaning of the lines,
+but as the abbe was not any wiser than she was M. Baffo translated it
+in a whisper.  Surprised at my knowledge, she rose from her chair to
+get a valuable gold watch and presented to my master, who, not
+knowing how to express his deep gratitude, treated us to the most
+comic scene.  My mother, in order to save him from the difficulty of
+paying her a compliment, offered him her cheek.  He had only to give
+her a couple of kisses, the easiest and the most innocent thing in
+good company; but the poor man was on burning coals, and so
+completely out of countenance that he would, I truly believe, rather
+have died than give the kisses.  He drew back with his head down, and
+he was allowed to remain in peace until we retired for the night.
+
+When we found ourselves alone in our room, he poured out his heart,
+and exclaimed that it was a pity he could not publish in Padua the
+distich and my answer.
+
+"And why not?" I said.
+
+"Because both are obscene."
+
+"But they are sublime."
+
+"Let us go to bed and speak no more on the subject.  Your answer was
+wonderful, because you cannot possibly know anything of the subject
+in question, or of the manner in which verses ought to be written."
+
+As far as the subject was concerned, I knew it by theory; for,
+unknown to the doctor, and because he had forbidden it, I had read
+Meursius, but it was natural that he should be amazed at my being
+able to write verses, when he, who had taught me prosody, never could
+compose a single line.  'Nemo dat quod non habet' is a false axiom
+when applied to mental acquirements.
+
+Four days afterwards, as we were preparing for our departure, my
+mother gave me a parcel for Bettina, and M. Grimani presented me with
+four sequins to buy books.  A week later my mother left for St.
+Petersburg.
+
+After our return to Padua, my good master for three or four months
+never ceased to speak of my mother, and Bettina, having found in the
+parcel five yards of black silk and twelve pairs of gloves, became
+singularly attached to me, and took such good care of my hair that
+in less than six months I was able to give up wearing the wig.  She
+used to comb my hair every morning, often before I was out of bed,
+saying that she had not time to wait until I was dressed.  She washed
+my face, my neck, my chest; lavished on me childish caresses which I
+thought innocent, but which caused me to, be angry with myself,
+because I felt that they excited me.  Three years younger than she
+was, it seemed to me that she could not love me with any idea of
+mischief, and the consciousness of my own vicious excitement put me
+out of temper with myself.  When, seated on my bed, she would say
+that I was getting stouter, and would have the proof of it with her
+own hands, she caused me the most intense emotion; but I said
+nothing, for fear she would remark my sensitiveness, and when she
+would go on saying that my skin was soft, the tickling sensation made
+me draw back, angry with myself that I did not dare to do the same to
+her, but delighted at her not guessing how I longed to do it.  When I
+was dressed, she often gave me the sweetest kisses, calling me her
+darling child, but whatever wish I had to follow her example, I was
+not yet bold enough.  After some time, however, Bettina laughing at
+my timidity, I became more daring and returned her kisses with
+interest, but I always gave way the moment I felt a wish to go
+further; I then would turn my head, pretending to look for something,
+and she would go away.  She was scarcely out of the room before I was
+in despair at not having followed the inclination of my nature, and,
+astonished at the fact that Bettina could do to me all she was in the
+habit of doing without feeling any excitement from it, while I could
+hardly refrain from pushing my attacks further, I would every day
+determine to change my way of acting.
+
+In the early part of autumn, the doctor received three new boarders;
+and one of them, who was fifteen years old, appeared to me in less
+than a month on very friendly terms with Bettina.
+
+This circumstance caused me a feeling of which until then I had no
+idea, and which I only analyzed a few years afterwards.  It was
+neither jealousy nor indignation, but a noble contempt which I
+thought ought not to be repressed, because Cordiani, an ignorant,
+coarse boy, without talent or polite education, the son of a simple
+farmer, and incapable of competing with me in anything, having over
+me but the advantage of dawning manhood, did not appear to me a fit
+person to be preferred to me; my young self-esteem whispered that I
+was above him.  I began to nurse a feeling of pride mixed with
+contempt which told against Bettina, whom I loved unknown to myself.
+She soon guessed it from the way I would receive her caresses, when
+she came to comb my hair while I was in bed; I would repulse her
+hands, and no longer return her kisses.  One day, vexed at my
+answering her question as to the reason of my change towards her by
+stating that I had no cause for it, she, told me in a tone of
+commiseration that I was jealous of Cordiani.  This reproach sounded
+to me like a debasing slander.  I answered that Cordiani was, in my
+estimation, as worthy of her as she was worthy of him.  She went away
+smiling, but, revolving in her mind the only way by which she could
+be revenged, she thought herself bound to render me jealous.
+However, as she could not attain such an end without making me fall
+in love with her, this is the policy she adopted.
+
+One morning she came to me as I was in bed and brought me a pair of
+white stockings of her own knitting.  After dressing my hair, she
+asked my permission to try the stockings on herself, in order to
+correct any deficiency in the other pairs she intended to knit for
+me.  The doctor had gone out to say his mass.  As she was putting on
+the stocking, she remarked that my legs were not clean, and without
+any more ado she immediately began to wash them.  I would have been
+ashamed to let her see my bashfulness; I let her do as she liked, not
+foreseeing what would happen.  Bettina, seated on my bed, carried too
+far her love for cleanliness, and her curiosity caused me such
+intense voluptuousness that the feeling did not stop until it could
+be carried no further.  Having recovered my calm, I bethought myself
+that I was guilty and begged her forgiveness.  She did not expect
+this, and, after considering for a few moments, she told me kindly
+that the fault was entirely her own, but that she never would again
+be guilty of it.  And she went out of the room, leaving me to my own
+thoughts.
+
+They were of a cruel character.  It seemed to me that I had brought
+dishonour upon Bettina, that I had betrayed the confidence of her
+family, offended against the sacred laws of hospitality, that I was
+guilty of a most wicked crime, which I could only atone for by
+marrying her, in case Bettina could make up her mind to accept for
+her husband a wretch unworthy of her.
+
+These thoughts led to a deep melancholy which went on increasing from
+day to day, Bettina having entirely ceased her morning visits by my
+bedside.  During the first week, I could easily account for the
+girl's reserve, and my sadness would soon have taken the character of
+the warmest love, had not her manner towards Cordiani inoculated in
+my veins the poison of jealousy, although I never dreamed of accusing
+her of the same crime towards him that she had committed upon me.
+
+I felt convinced, after due consideration, that the act she had been
+guilty of with me had been deliberately done, and that her feelings
+of repentance kept her away from me.  This conviction was rather
+flattering to my vanity, as it gave me the hope of being loved, and
+the end of all my communings was that I made up my mind to write to
+her, and thus to give her courage.
+
+I composed a letter, short but calculated to restore peace to her
+mind, whether she thought herself guilty, or suspected me of feelings
+contrary to those which her dignity might expect from me.  My letter
+was, in my own estimation, a perfect masterpiece, and just the kind
+of epistle by which I was certain to conquer her very adoration, and
+to sink for ever the sun of Cordiani, whom I could not accept as the
+sort of being likely to make her hesitate for one instant in her
+choice between him and me.  Half-an-hour after the receipt of my
+letter, she told me herself that the next morning she would pay me
+her usual visit, but I waited in vain.  This conduct provoked me
+almost to madness, but my surprise was indeed great when, at the
+breakfast table, she asked me whether I would let her dress me up as
+a girl to accompany her five or six days later to a ball for which a
+neighbour of ours, Doctor Olivo, had sent letters of invitation.
+Everybody having seconded the motion, I gave my consent.  I thought
+this arrangement would afford a favourable opportunity for an
+explanation, for mutual vindication, and would open a door for the
+most complete reconciliation, without fear of any surprise arising
+from the proverbial weakness of the flesh.  But a most unexpected
+circumstance prevented our attending the ball, and brought forth a
+comedy with a truly tragic turn.
+
+Doctor Gozzi's godfather, a man advanced in age, and in easy
+circumstances, residing in the country, thought himself, after a
+severe illness, very near his end, and sent to the doctor a carriage
+with a request to come to him at once with his father, as he wished
+them to be present at his death, and to pray for his departing soul.
+The old shoemaker drained a bottle, donned his Sunday clothes, and
+went off with his son.
+
+I thought this a favourable opportunity and determined to improve it,
+considering that the night of the ball was too remote to suit my
+impatience.  I therefore managed to tell Bettina that I would leave
+ajar the door of my room, and that I would wait for her as soon as
+everyone in the house had gone to bed.  She promised to come.  She
+slept on the ground floor in a small closet divided only by a
+partition from her father's chamber; the doctor being away, I was
+alone in the large room.  The three boarders had their apartment in a
+different part of the house, and I had therefore no mishap to fear.
+I was delighted at the idea that I had at last reached the moment so
+ardently desired.
+
+The instant I was in my room I bolted my door and opened the one
+leading to the passage, so that Bettina should have only to push it
+in order to come in; I then put my light out, but did not undress.
+When we read of such situations in a romance we think they are
+exaggerated; they are not so, and the passage in which Ariosto
+represents Roger waiting for Alcine is a beautiful picture painted
+from nature.
+
+Until midnight I waited without feeling much anxiety; but I heard the
+clock strike two, three, four o'clock in the morning without seeing
+Bettina; my blood began to boil, and I was soon in a state of furious
+rage.  It was snowing hard, but I shook from passion more than from
+cold.  One hour before day-break, unable to master any longer my
+impatience, I made up my mind to go downstairs with bare feet, so as
+not to wake the dog, and to place myself at the bottom of the stairs
+within a yard of Bettina's door, which ought to have been opened if
+she had gone out of her room.  I reached the door; it was closed, and
+as it could be locked only from inside I imagined that Bettina had
+fallen asleep.  I was on the point of knocking at the door, but was
+prevented by fear of rousing the dog, as from that door to that of
+her closet there was a distance of three or four yards.  Overwhelmed
+with grief, and unable to take a decision, I sat down on the last
+step of the stairs; but at day-break, chilled, benumbed, shivering
+with cold, afraid that the servant would see me and would think I was
+mad, I determined to go back to my room.  I arise, but at that very
+moment I hear some noise in Bettina's room.  Certain that I am going
+to see her, and hope lending me new strength, I draw nearer to the
+door.  It opens; but instead of Bettina coming out I see Cordiani,
+who gives me such a furious kick in the stomach that I am thrown at a
+distance deep in the snow.  Without stopping a single instant
+Cordiani is off, and locks himself up in the room which he shared
+with the brothers Feltrini.
+
+I pick myself up quickly with the intention of taking my revenge upon
+Bettina, whom nothing could have saved from the effects of my rage at
+that moment.  But I find her door locked; I kick vigorously against
+it, the dog starts a loud barking, and I make a hurried retreat to my
+room, in which I lock myself up, throwing myself in bed to compose
+and heal up my mind and body, for I was half dead.
+
+Deceived, humbled, ill-treated, an object of contempt to the happy
+and triumphant Cordiani, I spent three hours ruminating the darkest
+schemes of revenge.  To poison them both seemed to me but a trifle in
+that terrible moment of bitter misery.  This project gave way to
+another as extravagant, as cowardly-namely, to go at once to her
+brother and disclose everything to him.  I was twelve years of age,
+and my mind had not yet acquired sufficient coolness to mature
+schemes of heroic revenge, which are produced by false feelings of
+honour; this was only my apprenticeship in such adventures.
+
+I was in that state of mind when suddenly I heard outside of my door
+the gruff voice of Bettina's mother, who begged me to come down,
+adding that her daughter was dying.  As I would have been very sorry
+if she had departed this life before she could feel the effects of my
+revenge, I got up hurriedly and went downstairs.  I found Bettina
+lying in her father's bed writhing with fearful convulsions, and
+surrounded by the whole family.  Half dressed, nearly bent in two,
+she was throwing her body now to the right, now to the left, striking
+at random with her feet and with her fists, and extricating herself
+by violent shaking from the hands of those who endeavoured to keep
+her down.
+
+With this sight before me, and the night's adventure still in my
+mind, I hardly knew what to think.  I had no knowledge of human
+nature, no knowledge of artifice and tricks, and I could not
+understand how I found myself coolly witnessing such a scene, and
+composedly calm in the presence of two beings, one of whom I intended
+to kill and the other to dishonour.  At the end of an hour Bettina
+fell asleep.
+
+A nurse and Doctor Olivo came soon after.  The first said that the
+convulsions were caused by hysterics, but the doctor said no, and
+prescribed rest and cold baths.  I said nothing, but I could not
+refrain from laughing at them, for I knew, or rather guessed, that
+Bettina's sickness was the result of her nocturnal employment, or of
+the fright which she must have felt at my meeting with Cordiani.  At
+all events, I determined to postpone my revenge until the return of
+her brother, although I had not the slightest suspicion that her
+illness was all sham, for I did not give her credit for so much
+cleverness.
+
+To return to my room I had to pass through Bettina's closet, and
+seeing her dress handy on the bed I took it into my head to search
+her pockets.  I found a small note, and recognizing Cordiani's
+handwriting, I took possession of it to read it in my room.  I
+marvelled at the girl's imprudence, for her mother might have
+discovered it, and being unable to read would very likely have given
+it to the doctor, her son.  I thought she must have taken leave of
+her senses, but my feelings may be appreciated when I read the
+following words: "As your father is away it is not necessary to leave
+your door ajar as usual.  When we leave the supper-table I will go to
+your closet; you will find me there."
+
+When I recovered from my stupor I gave way to an irresistible fit of
+laughter, and seeing how completely I had been duped I thought I was
+cured of my love.  Cordiani appeared to me deserving of forgiveness,
+and Bettina of contempt.  I congratulated myself upon having received
+a lesson of such importance for the remainder of my life.  I even
+went so far as to acknowledge to myself that Bettina had been quite
+right in giving the preference to Cordiani, who was fifteen years
+old, while I was only a child.  Yet, in spite of my good disposition
+to forgiveness, the kick administered by Cordiani was still heavy
+upon my memory, and I could not help keeping a grudge against him.
+
+At noon, as we were at dinner in the kitchen, where we took our meals
+on account of the cold weather, Bettina began again to raise piercing
+screams.  Everybody rushed to her room, but I quietly kept my seat
+and finished my dinner, after which I went to my studies.  In the
+evening when I came down to supper I found that Bettina's bed had
+been brought to the kitchen close by her mother's; but it was no
+concern of mine, and I remained likewise perfectly indifferent to the
+noise made during the night, and to the confusion which took place in
+the morning, when she had a fresh fit of convulsions.
+
+Doctor Gozzi and his father returned in the evening.  Cordiani, who
+felt uneasy, came to inquire from me what my intentions were, but I
+rushed towards him with an open penknife in my hand, and he beat a
+hasty retreat.  I had entirely abandoned the idea of relating the
+night's scandalous adventure to the doctor, for such a project I
+could only entertain in a moment of excitement and rage.  The next
+day the mother came in while we were at our lesson, and told the
+doctor, after a lengthened preamble, that she had discovered the
+character of her daughter's illness; that it was caused by a spell
+thrown over her by a witch, and that she knew the witch well.
+
+"It may be, my dear mother, but we must be careful not to make a
+mistake.  Who is the witch?"
+
+"Our old servant, and I have just had a proof of it."
+
+"How so?"
+
+"I have barred the door of my room with two broomsticks placed in the
+shape of a cross, which she must have undone to go in; but when she
+saw them she drew back, and she went round by the other door.  It is
+evident that, were she not a witch, she would not be afraid of
+touching them."
+
+"It is not complete evidence, dear mother; send the woman to me."
+
+The servant made her appearance.
+
+"Why," said the doctor, "did you not enter my mother's room this
+morning through the usual door?"
+
+"I do not know what you mean."
+
+"Did you not see the St. Andrew's cross on the door?"
+
+"What cross is that?"
+
+"It is useless to plead ignorance," said the mother; "where did you
+sleep last Thursday night?"
+
+"At my niece's, who had just been confined."
+
+"Nothing of the sort.  You were at the witches' Sabbath; you are a
+witch, and have bewitched my daughter."
+
+The poor woman, indignant at such an accusation, spits at her
+mistress's face; the mistress, enraged, gets hold of a stick to give
+the servant a drubbing; the doctor endeavours to keep his mother
+back, but he is compelled to let her loose and to run after the
+servant, who was hurrying down the stairs, screaming and howling in
+order to rouse the neighbours; he catches her, and finally succeeds
+in pacifying her with some money.
+
+After this comical but rather scandalous exhibition, the doctor
+donned his vestments for the purpose of exorcising his sister and of
+ascertaining whether she was truly possessed of an unclean spirit.
+The novelty of this mystery attracted the whole of my attention.  All
+the inmates of the house appeared to me either mad or stupid, for I
+could not, for the life of me, imagine that diabolical spirits were
+dwelling in Bettina's body.  When we drew near her bed, her breathing
+had, to all appearance, stopped, and the exorcisms of her brother did
+not restore it.  Doctor Olivo happened to come in at that moment, and
+inquired whether he would be in the way; he was answered in the
+negative, provided he had faith.
+
+Upon which he left, saying that he had no faith in any miracles
+except in those of the Gospel.
+
+Soon after Doctor Gozzi went to his room, and finding myself alone
+with Bettina I bent down over her bed and whispered in her ear.
+
+"Take courage, get well again, and rely upon my discretion."
+
+She turned her head towards the wall and did not answer me, but the
+day passed off without any more convulsions.  I thought I had cured
+her, but on the following day the frenzy went up to the brain, and in
+her delirium she pronounced at random Greek and Latin words without
+any meaning, and then no doubt whatever was entertained of her being
+possessed of the evil spirit.  Her mother went out and returned soon,
+accompanied by the most renowned exorcist of Padua, a very ill-
+featured Capuchin, called Friar Prospero da Bovolenta.
+
+The moment Bettina saw the exorcist, she burst into loud laughter,
+and addressed to him the most offensive insults, which fairly
+delighted everybody, as the devil alone could be bold enough to
+address a Capuchin in such a manner; but the holy man, hearing
+himself called an obtrusive ignoramus and a stinkard, went on
+striking Bettina with a heavy crucifix, saying that he was beating
+the devil.  He stopped only when he saw her on the point of hurling
+at him the chamber utensil which she had just seized.  "If it is the
+devil who has offended thee with his words," she said, "resent the
+insult with words likewise, jackass that thou art, but if I have
+offended thee myself, learn, stupid booby, that thou must respect me,
+and be off at once."
+
+I could see poor Doctor Gozzi blushing; the friar, however, held his
+ground, and, armed at all points, began to read a terrible exorcism,
+at the end of which he commanded the devil to state his name.
+
+"My name is Bettina."
+
+"It cannot be, for it is the name of a baptized girl."
+
+"Then thou art of opinion that a devil must rejoice in a masculine
+name?  Learn, ignorant friar, that a devil is a spirit, and does not
+belong to either sex.  But as thou believest that a devil is speaking
+to thee through my lips, promise to answer me with truth, and I will
+engage to give way before thy incantations."
+
+"Very well, I agree to this."
+
+"Tell me, then, art thou thinking that thy knowledge is greater than
+mine?"
+
+"No, but I believe myself more powerful in the name of the holy
+Trinity, and by my sacred character."
+
+"If thou art more powerful than I, then prevent me from telling thee
+unpalatable truths.  Thou art very vain of thy beard, thou art
+combing and dressing it ten times a day, and thou would'st not shave
+half of it to get me out of this body.  Cut off thy beard, and I
+promise to come out."
+
+"Father of lies, I will increase thy punishment a hundred fold."
+
+"I dare thee to do it."
+
+After saying these words, Bettina broke into such a loud peal of
+laughter, that I could not refrain from joining in it.  The Capuchin,
+turning towards Doctor Gozzi, told him that I was wanting in faith,
+and that I ought to leave the room; which I did, remarking that he
+had guessed rightly.  I was not yet out of the room when the friar
+offered his hand to Bettina for her to kiss, and I had the pleasure
+of seeing her spit upon it.
+
+This strange girl, full of extraordinary talent, made rare sport of
+the friar, without causing any surprise to anyone, as all her answers
+were attributed to the devil.  I could not conceive what her purpose
+was in playing such a part.
+
+The Capuchin dined with us, and during the meal he uttered a good
+deal of nonsense.  After dinner, he returned to Bettina's chamber,
+with the intention of blessing her, but as soon as she caught sight
+of him, she took up a glass full of some black mixture sent from the
+apothecary, and threw it at his head.  Cordiani, being close by the
+friar, came in for a good share of the liquid-an accident which
+afforded me the greatest delight.  Bettina was quite right to improve
+her opportunity, as everything she did was, of course, put to the
+account of the unfortunate devil.  Not overmuch pleased, Friar
+Prospero, as he left the house, told the doctor that there was no
+doubt of the girl being possessed, but that another exorcist must be
+sent for, since he had not, himself, obtained God's grace to eject
+the evil spirit.
+
+After he had gone, Bettina kept very calm for six hours, and in the
+evening, to our great surprise, she joined us at the supper table.
+She told her parents that she felt quite well, spoke to her brother,
+and then, addressing me, she remarked that, the ball taking place on
+the morrow, she would come to my room in the morning to dress my hair
+like a girl's.  I thanked her, and said that, as she had been so ill,
+she ought to nurse herself.  She soon retired to bed, and we remained
+at the table, talking of her.
+
+When I was undressing for the night, I took up my night-cap, and
+found in it a small note with these words: "You must accompany me to
+the ball, disguised as a girl, or I will give you a sight which will
+cause you to weep."
+
+I waited until the doctor was asleep, and I wrote the following
+answer: "I cannot go to the ball, because I have fully made up my
+mind to avoid every opportunity of being alone with you.  As for the
+painful sight with which you threaten to entertain me, I believe you
+capable of keeping your word, but I entreat you to spare my heart,
+for I love you as if you were my sister.  I have forgiven you, dear
+Bettina, and I wish to forget everything.  I enclose a note which you
+must be delighted to have again in your possession.  You see what
+risk you were running when you left it in your pocket.  This
+restitution must convince you of my friendship."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+Bettina Is Supposed to Go Mad--Father Mancia--The Small-pox--
+I Leave Padua
+
+
+Bettina must have been in despair, not knowing into whose hands her
+letter had fallen; to return it to her and thus to allay her anxiety,
+was therefore a great proof of friendship; but my generosity, at the
+same time that it freed her from a keen sorrow, must have caused her
+another quite as dreadful, for she knew that I was master of her
+secret.  Cordiani's letter was perfectly explicit; it gave the
+strongest evidence that she was in the habit of receiving him every
+night, and therefore the story she had prepared to deceive me was
+useless.  I felt it was so, and, being disposed to calm her anxiety
+as far as I could, I went to her bedside in the morning, and I placed
+in her hands Cordiani's note and my answer to her letter.
+
+The girl's spirit and talent had won my esteem; I could no longer
+despise her; I saw in her only a poor creature seduced by her natural
+temperament.  She loved man, and was to be pitied only on account of
+the consequences.  Believing that the view I took of the situation
+was a right one, I had resigned myself like a reasonable being, and
+not like a disappointed lover.  The shame was for her and not for me.
+I had only one wish, namely, to find out whether the two brothers
+Feltrini, Cordiani's companions, had likewise shared Bettina's
+favours.
+
+Bettina put on throughout the day a cheerful and happy look.  In the
+evening she dressed herself for the ball; but suddenly an attack of
+sickness, whether feigned or real I did not know, compelled her to go
+to bed, and frightened everybody in the house.  As for myself,
+knowing the whole affair, I was prepared for new scenes, and indeed
+for sad ones, for I felt that I had obtained over her a power
+repugnant to her vanity and self-love.  I must, however, confess
+that, in spite of the excellent school in which I found myself before
+I had attained manhood, and which ought to have given me experience
+as a shield for the future, I have through the whole of my life been
+the dupe of women.  Twelve years ago, if it had not been for my
+guardian angel, I would have foolishly married a young, thoughtless
+girl, with whom I had fallen in love: Now that I am seventy-two years
+old I believe myself no longer susceptible of such follies; but,
+alas! that is the very thing which causes me to be miserable.
+
+The next day the whole family was deeply grieved because the devil of
+whom Bettina was possessed had made himself master of her reason.
+Doctor Gozzi told me that there could not be the shadow of a doubt
+that his unfortunate sister was possessed, as, if she had only been
+mad, she never would have so cruelly ill-treated the Capuchin,
+Prospero, and he determined to place her under the care of Father
+Mancia.
+
+This Mancia was a celebrated Jacobin (or Dominican) exorcist, who
+enjoyed the reputation of never having failed to cure a girl
+possessed of the demon.
+
+Sunday had come; Bettina had made a good dinner, but she had been
+frantic all through the day.  Towards midnight her father came home,
+singing Tasso as usual, and so drunk that he could not stand.  He
+went up to Bettina's bed, and after kissing her affectionately he
+said to her: "Thou art not mad, my girl."
+
+Her answer was that he was not drunk.
+
+"Thou art possessed of the devil, my dear child."
+
+"Yes, father, and you alone can cure me."
+
+"Well, I am ready."
+
+Upon this our shoemaker begins a theological discourse, expatiating
+upon the power of faith and upon the virtue of the paternal blessing.
+He throws off his cloak, takes a crucifix with one hand, places the
+other over the head of his daughter, and addresses the devil in such
+an amusing way that even his wife, always a stupid, dull, cross-
+grained old woman, had to laugh till the tears came down her cheeks.
+The two performers in the comedy alone were not laughing, and their
+serious countenance added to the fun of the performance.  I marvelled
+at Bettina (who was always ready to enjoy a good laugh) having
+sufficient control over herself to remain calm and grave.  Doctor
+Gozzi had also given way to merriment; but begged that the farce
+should come to an end, for he deemed that his father's eccentricities
+were as many profanations against the sacredness of exorcism.  At
+last the exorcist, doubtless tired out, went to bed saying that he
+was certain that the devil would not disturb his daughter during the
+night.
+
+On the morrow, just as we had finished our breakfast, Father Mancia
+made his appearance.  Doctor Gozzi, followed by the whole family,
+escorted him to his sister's bedside.  As for me, I was entirely
+taken up by the face of the monk.  Here is his portrait.  His figure
+was tall and majestic, his age about thirty; he had light hair and
+blue eyes; his features were those of Apollo, but without his pride
+and assuming haughtiness; his complexion, dazzling white, was pale,
+but that paleness seemed to have been given for the very purpose of
+showing off the red coral of his lips, through which could be seen,
+when they opened, two rows of pearls.  He was neither thin nor stout,
+and the habitual sadness of his countenance enhanced its sweetness.
+His gait was slow, his air timid, an indication of the great modesty
+of his mind.
+
+When we entered the room Bettina was asleep, or pretended to be so.
+Father Mancia took a sprinkler and threw over her a few drops of holy
+water; she opened her eyes, looked at the monk, and closed them
+immediately; a little while after she opened them again, had a better
+look at him, laid herself on her back, let her arms droop down
+gently, and with her head prettily bent on one side she fell into the
+sweetest of slumbers.
+
+The exorcist, standing by the bed, took out his pocket ritual and the
+stole which he put round his neck, then a reliquary, which he placed
+on the bosom of the sleeping girl, and with the air of a saint he
+begged all of us to fall on our knees and to pray, so that God should
+let him know whether the patient was possessed or only labouring
+under a natural disease.  He kept us kneeling for half an hour,
+reading all the time in a low tone of voice.  Bettina did not stir.
+
+Tired, I suppose, of the performance, he desired to speak privately
+with Doctor Gozzi.  They passed into the next room, out of which they
+emerged after a quarter of an hour, brought back by a loud peal of
+laughter from the mad girl, who, when she saw them, turned her back
+on them.  Father Mancia smiled, dipped the sprinkler over and over in
+the holy water, gave us all a generous shower, and took his leave.
+
+Doctor Gozzi told us that the exorcist would come again on the
+morrow, and that he had promised to deliver Bettina within three
+hours if she were truly possessed of the demon, but that he made no
+promise if it should turn out to be a case of madness.  The mother
+exclaimed that he would surely deliver her, and she poured out her
+thanks to God for having allowed her the grace of beholding a saint
+before her death.
+
+The following day Bettina was in a fine frenzy.  She began to utter
+the most extravagant speeches that a poet could imagine, and did not
+stop when the charming exorcist came into her room; he seemed to
+enjoy her foolish talk for a few minutes, after which, having armed
+himself 'cap-a-pie', he begged us to withdraw.  His order was obeyed
+instantly; we left the chamber, and the door remained open.  But what
+did it matter?  Who would have been bold enough to go in?
+
+During three long hours we heard nothing; the stillness was unbroken.
+At noon the monk called us in.  Bettina was there sad and very quiet
+while the exorcist packed up his things.  He took his departure,
+saying he had very good hopes of the case, and requesting that the
+doctor would send him news of the patient.  Bettina partook of dinner
+in her bed, got up for supper, and the next day behaved herself
+rationally; but the following circumstance strengthened my opinion
+that she had been neither insane nor possessed.
+
+It was two days before the Purification of the Holy Virgin.  Doctor
+Gozzi was in the habit of giving us the sacrament in his own church,
+but he always sent us for our confession to the church of Saint-
+Augustin, in which the Jacobins of Padua officiated.  At the supper
+table, he told us to prepare ourselves for the next day, and his
+mother, addressing us, said: "You ought, all of you, to confess to
+Father Mancia, so as to obtain absolution from that holy man.  I
+intend to go to him myself."  Cordiani and the two Feltrini agreed to
+the proposal; I remained silent, but as the idea was unpleasant to
+me, I concealed the feeling, with a full determination to prevent the
+execution of the project.
+
+I had entire confidence in the secrecy of confession, and I was
+incapable of making a false one, but knowing that I had a right to
+choose my confessor, I most certainly never would have been so simple
+as to confess to Father Mancia what had taken place between me and a
+girl, because he would have easily guessed that the girl could be no
+other but Bettina.  Besides, I was satisfied that Cordiani would
+confess everything to the monk, and I was deeply sorry.
+
+Early the next morning, Bettina brought me a band for my neck, and
+gave me the following letter: "Spurn me, but respect my honour and
+the shadow of peace to which I aspire.  No one from this house must
+confess to Father Mancia; you alone can prevent the execution of
+that project, and I need not suggest the way to succeed.  It will
+prove whether you have some friendship for me."
+
+I could not express the pity I felt for the poor girl, as I read that
+note.  In spite of that feeling, this is what I answered: "I can well
+understand that, notwithstanding the inviolability of confession,
+your mother's proposal should cause you great anxiety; but I cannot
+see why, in order to prevent its execution, you should depend upon me
+rather than upon Cordiani who has expressed his acceptance of it.
+All I can promise you is that I will not be one of those who may go
+to Father Mancia; but I have no influence over your lover; you alone
+can speak to him."
+
+She replied: "I have never addressed a word to Cordiani since the
+fatal night which has sealed my misery, and I never will speak to him
+again, even if I could by so doing recover my lost happiness.  To you
+alone I wish to be indebted for my life and for my honour."
+
+This girl appeared to me more wonderful than all the heroines of whom
+I had read in novels.  It seemed to me that she was making sport of
+me with the most barefaced effrontery.  I thought she was trying to
+fetter me again with her chains; and although I had no inclination
+for them, I made up my mind to render her the service she claimed at
+my hands, and which she believed I alone could compass.  She felt
+certain of her success, but in what school had she obtained her
+experience of the human heart?  Was it in reading novels?  Most
+likely the reading of a certain class of novels causes the ruin of a
+great many young girls, but I am of opinion that from good romances
+they acquire graceful manners and a knowledge of society.
+
+Having made up my mind to shew her every kindness in my power, I took
+an opportunity, as we were undressing for the night, of telling
+Doctor Gozzi that, for conscientious motives, I could not confess to
+Father Mancia, and yet that I did not wish to be an exception in that
+matter.  He kindly answered that he understood my reasons, and that
+he would take us all to the church of Saint-Antoine.  I kissed his
+hand in token of my gratitude.
+
+On the following day, everything having gone according to her wishes,
+I saw Bettina sit down to the table with a face beaming with
+satisfaction.  In the afternoon I had to go to bed in consequence of
+a wound in my foot; the doctor accompanied his pupils to church; and
+Bettina being alone, availed herself of the opportunity, came to my
+room and sat down on my bed.  I had expected her visit, and I
+received it with pleasure, as it heralded an explanation for which I
+was positively longing.
+
+She began by expressing a hope that I would not be angry with her for
+seizing the first opportunity she had of some conversation with me.
+
+"No," I answered, "for you thus afford me an occasion of assuring you
+that, my feelings towards you being those of a friend only, you need
+not have any fear of my causing you any anxiety or displeasure.
+Therefore Bettina, you may do whatever suits you; my love is no more.
+You have at one blow given the death-stroke to the intense passion
+which was blossoming in my heart.  When I reached my room, after the
+ill-treatment I had experienced at Cordiani's hands, I felt for you
+nothing but hatred; that feeling soon merged into utter contempt, but
+that sensation itself was in time, when my mind recovered its
+balance, changed for a feeling of the deepest indifference, which
+again has given way when I saw what power there is in your mind.  I
+have now become your friend; I have conceived the greatest esteem for
+your cleverness.  I have been the dupe of it, but no matter; that
+talent of yours does exist, it is wonderful, divine, I admire it, I
+love it, and the highest homage I can render to it is, in my
+estimation, to foster for the possessor of it the purest feelings of
+friendship.  Reciprocate that friendship, be true, sincere, and plain
+dealing.  Give up all nonsense, for you have already obtained from me
+all I can give you.  The very thought of love is repugnant to me; I
+can bestow my love only where I feel certain of being the only one
+loved.  You are at liberty to lay my foolish delicacy to the account
+of my youthful age, but I feel so, and I cannot help it.  You have
+written to me that you never speak to Cordiani; if I am the cause of
+that rupture between you, I regret it, and I think that, in the
+interest of your honour, you would do well to make it up with him;
+for the future I must be careful never to give him any grounds for
+umbrage or suspicion.  Recollect also that, if you have tempted him
+by the same manoeuvres which you have employed towards me, you are
+doubly wrong, for it may be that, if he truly loves you, you have
+caused him to be miserable."
+
+"All you have just said to me," answered Bettina, "is grounded upon
+false impressions and deceptive appearances.  I do not love Cordiani,
+and I never had any love for him; on the contrary, I have felt, and I
+do feel, for him a hatred which he has richly deserved, and I hope to
+convince you, in spite of every appearance which seems to convict me.
+As to the reproach of seduction, I entreat you to spare me such an
+accusation.  On our side, consider that, if you had not yourself
+thrown temptation in my way, I never would have committed towards you
+an action of which I have deeply repented, for reasons which you do
+not know, but which you must learn from me.  The fault I have been
+guilty of is a serious one only because I did not foresee the injury
+it would do me in the inexperienced mind of the ingrate who dares to
+reproach me with it."
+
+Bettina was shedding tears: all she had said was not unlikely and
+rather complimentary to my vanity, but I had seen too much.  Besides,
+I knew the extent of her cleverness, and it was very natural to lend
+her a wish to deceive me; how could I help thinking that her visit to
+me was prompted only by her self-love being too deeply wounded to let
+me enjoy a victory so humiliating to herself?  Therefore, unshaken in
+my preconceived opinion, I told her that I placed implicit confidence
+in all she had just said respecting the state of her heart previous
+to the playful nonsense which had been the origin of my love for her,
+and that I promised never in the future to allude again to my
+accusation of seduction.  "But," I continued, "confess that the fire
+at that time burning in your bosom was only of short duration, and
+that the slightest breath of wind had been enough to extinguish it.
+Your virtue, which went astray for only one instant, and which has so
+suddenly recovered its mastery over your senses, deserves some
+praise.  You, with all your deep adoring love for me, became all at
+once blind to my sorrow, whatever care I took to make it clear to
+your sight.  It remains for me to learn how that virtue could be so
+very dear to you, at the very time that Cordiani took care to wreck
+it every night."
+
+Bettina eyed me with the air of triumph which perfect confidence in
+victory gives to a person, and said: "You have just reached the point
+where I wished you to be.  You shall now be made aware of things
+which I could not explain before, owing to your refusing the
+appointment which I then gave you for no other purpose than to tell
+you all the truth.  Cordiani declared his love for me a week after he
+became an inmate in our house; he begged my consent to a marriage, if
+his father made the demand of my hand as soon as he should have
+completed his studies.  My answer was that I did not know him
+sufficiently, that I could form no idea on the subject, and I
+requested him not to allude to it any more.  He appeared to have
+quietly given up the matter, but soon after, I found out that it was
+not the case; he begged me one day to come to his room now and then
+to dress his hair; I told him I had no time to spare, and he remarked
+that you were more fortunate.  I laughed at this reproach, as
+everyone here knew that I had the care of you.  It was a fortnight
+after my refusal to Cordiani, that I unfortunately spent an hour with
+you in that loving nonsense which has naturally given you ideas until
+then unknown to your senses.  That hour made me very happy: I loved
+you, and having given way to very natural desires, I revelled in my
+enjoyment without the slightest remorse of conscience.  I was longing
+to be again with you the next morning, but after supper, misfortune
+laid for the first time its hand upon me.  Cordiani slipped in my
+hands this note and this letter which I have since hidden in a hole
+in the wall, with the intention of shewing them to you at the first
+opportunity."
+
+Saying this, Bettina handed me the note and the letter; the first ran
+as follows: "Admit me this evening in your closet, the door of which,
+leading to the yard, can be left ajar, or prepare yourself to make
+the best of it with the doctor, to whom I intend to deliver, if you
+should refuse my request, the letter of which I enclose a copy."
+
+The letter contained the statement of a cowardly and enraged
+informer, and would certainly have caused the most unpleasant
+results.  In that letter Cordiani informed the doctor that his sister
+spent her mornings with me in criminal connection while he was saying
+his mass, and he pledged himself to enter into particulars which
+would leave him no doubt.
+
+"After giving to the case the consideration it required," continued
+Bettina, "I made up my mind to hear that monster; but my
+determination being fixed, I put in my pocket my father's stilletto,
+and holding my door ajar I waited for him there, unwilling to let him
+come in, as my closet is divided only by a thin partition from the
+room of my father, whom the slightest noise might have roused up.  My
+first question to Cordiani was in reference to the slander contained
+in the letter he threatened to deliver to my brother: he answered
+that it was no slander, for he had been a witness to everything that
+had taken place in the morning through a hole he had bored in the
+garret just above your bed, and to which he would apply his eye the
+moment he knew that I was in your room.  He wound up by threatening
+to discover everything to my brother and to my mother, unless I
+granted him the same favours I had bestowed upon you.  In my just
+indignation I loaded him with the most bitter insults, I called him a
+cowardly spy and slanderer, for he could not have seen anything but
+childish playfulness, and I declared to him that he need not flatter
+himself that any threat would compel me to give the slightest
+compliance to his wishes.  He then begged and begged my pardon a
+thousand times, and went on assuring me that I must lay to my rigour
+the odium of the step he had taken, the only excuse for it being in
+the fervent love I had kindled in his heart, and which made him
+miserable.  He acknowledged that his letter might be a slander, that
+he had acted treacherously, and he pledged his honour never to
+attempt obtaining from me by violence favours which he desired to
+merit only by the constancy of his love.  I then thought myself to
+some extent compelled to say that I might love him at some future
+time, and to promise that I would not again come near your bed during
+the absence of my brother.  In this way I dismissed him satisfied,
+without his daring to beg for so much as a kiss, but with the promise
+that we might now and then have some conversation in the same place.
+As soon as he left me I went to bed, deeply grieved that I could no
+longer see you in the absence of my brother, and that I was unable,
+for fear of consequences, to let you know the reason of my change.
+Three weeks passed off in that position, and I cannot express what
+have been my sufferings, for you, of course, urged me to come, and I
+was always under the painful necessity of disappointing you.  I even
+feared to find myself alone with you, for I felt certain that I could
+not have refrained from telling you the cause of the change in my
+conduct.  To crown my misery, add that I found myself compelled, at
+least once a week, to receive the vile Cordiani outside of my room,
+and to speak to him, in order to check his impatience with a few
+words.  At last, unable to bear up any longer under such misery,
+threatened likewise by you, I determined to end my agony.  I wished
+to disclose to you all this intrigue, leaving to you the care of
+bringing a change for the better, and for that purpose I proposed
+that you should accompany me to the ball disguised as a girl,
+although I knew it would enrage Cordiani; but my mind was made up.
+You know how my scheme fell to the ground.  The unexpected departure
+of my brother with my father suggested to both of you the same idea,
+and it was before receiving Cordiani's letter that I promised to come
+to you.  Cordiani did not ask for an appointment; he only stated that
+he would be waiting for me in my closet, and I had no opportunity of
+telling him that I could not allow him to come, any more than I could
+find time to let you know that I would be with you only after
+midnight, as I intended to do, for I reckoned that after an hour's
+talk I would dismiss the wretch to his room.  But my reckoning was
+wrong; Cordiani had conceived a scheme, and I could not help
+listening to all he had to say about it.  His whining and exaggerated
+complaints had no end.  He upbraided me for refusing to further the
+plan he had concocted, and which he thought I would accept with
+rapture if I loved him.  The scheme was for me to elope with him
+during holy week, and to run away to Ferrara, where he had an uncle
+who would have given us a kind welcome, and would soon have brought
+his father to forgive him and to insure our happiness for life.  The
+objections I made, his answers, the details to be entered into, the
+explanations and the ways and means to be examined to obviate the
+difficulties of the project, took up the whole night.  My heart was
+bleeding as I thought of you; but my conscience is at rest, and I did
+nothing that could render me unworthy of your esteem.  You cannot
+refuse it to me, unless you believe that the confession I have just
+made is untrue; but you would be both mistaken and  unjust.  Had I
+made up my mind to sacrifice myself and to grant favours which love
+alone ought to obtain, I might have got rid of the treacherous wretch
+within one hour, but death seemed preferable to such a dreadful
+expedient.  Could I in any way suppose that you were outside of my
+door, exposed to the wind and to the  snow?  Both of us were
+deserving of pity, but my misery  was still greater than yours.  All
+these fearful circumstances were written in the book of fate, to make
+me lose my reason, which now returns only at intervals, and I am in
+constant dread of a fresh attack of those awful convulsions.  They
+say I am bewitched, and possessed of the demon; I do not know
+anything about it, but if it should be true I am the most miserable
+creature in  existence."  Bettina ceased speaking, and burst into a
+violent storm of tears, sobs, and groans.  I was deeply moved,
+although I felt that all she had said might be true, and yet was
+scarcely worthy of belief:
+
+     'Forse era ver, ma non pero credibile
+      A chi del senso suo fosse signor.'
+
+But she was weeping, and her tears, which at all events were not
+deceptive, took away from me the faculty of doubt.  Yet I put her
+tears to the account of her wounded self-love; to give way entirely I
+needed a thorough conviction, and to obtain it evidence was
+necessary, probability was not enough.  I could not admit either
+Cordiani's moderation or Bettina's patience, or the fact of seven
+hours employed in innocent conversation.  In spite of all these
+considerations, I felt a sort of pleasure in accepting for ready cash
+all the counterfeit coins that she had spread out before me.
+
+After drying her tears, Bettina fixed her beautiful eyes upon mine,
+thinking that she could discern in them evident signs of her victory;
+but I surprised her much by alluding to one point which, with all her
+cunning, she had neglected to mention in her defence.  Rhetoric makes
+use of nature's secrets in the same way as painters who try to
+imitate it: their most beautiful work is false.  This young girl,
+whose mind had not been refined by study, aimed at being considered
+innocent and artless, and she did her best to succeed, but I had seen
+too good a specimen of her cleverness.
+
+"Well, my dear Bettina," I said, "your story has affected me; but how
+do you think I am going to accept your convulsions as natural, and to
+believe in the demoniac symptoms which came on so seasonably during
+the exorcisms, although you very properly expressed your doubts on
+the matter?"
+
+Hearing this, Bettina stared at me, remaining silent for a few
+minutes, then casting her eyes down she gave way to fresh tears,
+exclaiming now and then: "Poor me! oh, poor me!"  This situation,
+however, becoming most painful to me, I asked what I could do for
+her.  She answered in a sad tone that if my heart did not suggest to
+me what to do, she did not herself see what she could demand of me.
+
+"I thought," said she, "that I would reconquer my lost influence over
+your heart, but, I see it too plainly, you no longer feel an interest
+in me.  Go on treating me harshly; go on taking for mere fictions
+sufferings which are but too real, which you have caused, and which
+you will now increase.  Some day, but too late, you will be sorry,
+and your repentance will be bitter indeed."
+
+As she pronounced these words she rose to take her leave; but judging
+her capable of anything I felt afraid, and I detained her to say that
+the only way to regain my affection was to remain one month without
+convulsions and without handsome Father Mancia's presence being
+required.
+
+"I cannot help being convulsed," she answered, "but what do you mean
+by applying to the Jacobin that epithet of handsome?  Could you
+suppose--?"
+
+"Not at all, not at all--I suppose nothing; to do so would be
+necessary for me to be jealous.  But I cannot help saying that the
+preference given by your devils to the exorcism of that handsome monk
+over the incantations of the ugly Capuchin is likely to give birth to
+remarks rather detrimental to your honour.  Moreover, you are free to
+do whatever pleases you."
+
+Thereupon she left my room, and a few minutes later everybody came
+home.
+
+After supper the servant, without any question on my part, informed
+me that Bettina had gone to bed with violent feverish chills, having
+previously had her bed carried into the kitchen beside her mother's.
+This attack of fever might be real, but I had my doubts.  I felt
+certain that she would never make up her mind to be well, for her
+good health would have supplied me with too strong an argument
+against her pretended innocence, even in the case of Cordiani; I
+likewise considered her idea of having her bed placed near her
+mother's nothing but artful contrivance.
+
+The next day Doctor Olivo found her very feverish, and told her
+brother that she would most likely be excited and delirious, but that
+it would be the effect of the fever and not the work of the devil.
+And truly, Bettina was raving all day, but Dr. Gozzi, placing
+implicit confidence in the physician, would not listen to his mother,
+and did not send for the Jacobin friar.  The fever increased in
+violence, and on the fourth day the small-pox broke out.  Cordiani
+and the two brothers Feitrini, who had so far escaped that disease,
+were immediately sent away, but as I had had it before I remained at
+home.
+
+The poor girl was so fearfully covered with the loathsome eruption,
+that on the sixth day her skin could not be seen on any part of her
+body.  Her eyes closed, and her life was despaired of, when it was
+found that her mouth and throat were obstructed to such a degree that
+she could swallow nothing but a few drops of honey.  She was
+perfectly motionless; she breathed and that was all.  Her mother
+never left her bedside, and I was thought a saint when I carried my
+table and my books into the patient's room.  The unfortunate girl had
+become a fearful sight to look upon; her head was dreadfully swollen,
+the nose could no longer be seen, and much fear was entertained for
+her eyes, in case her life should be spared.  The odour of her
+perspiration was most offensive, but I persisted in keeping my watch
+by her.
+
+On the ninth day, the vicar gave her absolution, and after
+administering extreme unction, he left her, as he said, in the hands
+of God.  In the midst of so much sadness, the conversation of the
+mother with her son, would, in spite of myself, cause me some amount
+of merriment.  The good woman wanted to know whether the demon who
+was dwelling in her child could still influence her to perform
+extravagant follies, and what would become of the demon in the case
+of her daughter's death, for, as she expressed it, she could not
+think of his being so stupid as to remain in so loathsome a body.
+She particularly wanted to ascertain whether the demon had power to
+carry off the soul of her child.  Doctor Gozzi, who was an
+ubiquitarian, made to all those questions answers which had not even
+the shadow of good sense, and which of course had no other effect
+than to increase a hundred-fold the perplexity of his poor mother.
+
+During the tenth and eleventh days, Bettina was so bad that we
+thought every moment likely to be her last.  The disease had reached
+its worst period; the smell was unbearable; I alone would not leave
+her, so sorely did I pity her.  The heart of man is indeed an
+unfathomable abyss, for, however incredible it may appear, it was
+while in that fearful state that Bettina inspired me with the
+fondness which I showed her after her recovery.
+
+On the thirteenth day the fever abated, but the patient began to
+experience great irritation, owing to a dreadful itching, which no
+remedy could have allayed as effectually as these powerful words
+which I kept constantly pouring into her ear: "Bettina, you are
+getting better; but if you dare to scratch yourself, you will become
+such a fright that nobody will ever love you." All the physicians in
+the universe might be challenged to prescribe a more potent remedy
+against itching for a girl who, aware that she has been pretty, finds
+herself exposed to the loss of her beauty through her own fault, if
+she scratches herself.
+
+At last her fine eyes opened again to the light of heaven; she was
+moved to her own room, but she had to keep her bed until Easter.  She
+inoculated me with a few pocks, three of which have left upon my face
+everlasting marks; but in her eyes they gave me credit for great
+devotedness, for they were a proof of my constant care, and she felt
+that I indeed deserved her whole love.  And she truly loved me, and I
+returned her love, although I never plucked a flower which fate and
+prejudice kept in store for a husband.  But what a contemptible
+husband!
+
+Two years later she married a shoemaker, by name Pigozzo--a base,
+arrant knave who beggared and ill-treated her to such an extent that
+her brother had to take her home and to provide for her.  Fifteen
+years afterwards, having been appointed arch-priest at Saint-George
+de la Vallee, he took her there with him, and when I went to pay him
+a visit eighteen years ago, I found Bettina old, ill, and dying.  She
+breathed her last in my arms in 1776, twenty-four hours after my
+arrival.  I will speak of her death in good time.
+
+About that period, my mother returned from St. Petersburg, where the
+Empress Anne Iwanowa had not approved of the Italian comedy.  The
+whole of the troop had already returned to Italy, and my mother had
+travelled with Carlin Bertinazzi, the harlequin, who died in Paris in
+the year 1783.  As soon as she had reached Padua, she informed Doctor
+Gozzi of her arrival, and he lost no time in accompanying me to the
+inn where she had put up.  We dined with her, and before bidding us
+adieu, she presented the doctor with a splendid fur, and gave me the
+skin of a lynx for Bettina.  Six months afterwards she summoned me to
+Venice, as she wished to see me before leaving for Dresden, where she
+had contracted an engagement for life in the service of the Elector
+of Saxony, Augustus III., King of Poland.  She took with her my
+brother Jean, then eight years old, who was weeping bitterly when he
+left; I thought him very foolish, for there was nothing very tragic
+in that departure.  He is the only one in the family who was wholly
+indebted to our mother for his fortune, although he was not her
+favourite child.
+
+I spent another year in Padua, studying law in which I took the
+degree of Doctor in my sixteenth year, the subject of my thesis being
+in the civil law, 'de testamentis', and in the canon law, 'utrum
+Hebraei possint construere novas synagogas'.
+
+My vocation was to study medicine, and to practice it, for I felt a
+great inclination for that profession, but no heed was given to my
+wishes, and I was compelled to apply myself to the study of the law,
+for which I had an invincible repugnance.  My friends were of opinion
+that I could not make my fortune in any profession but that of an
+advocate, and, what is still worse, of an ecclesiastical advocate.
+If they had given the matter proper consideration, they would have
+given me leave to follow my own inclinations, and I would have been a
+physician--a profession in which quackery is of still greater avail
+than in the legal business.  I never became either a physician or an
+advocate, and I never would apply to a lawyer, when I had any legal
+business, nor call in a physician when I happened to be ill.
+Lawsuits and pettifoggery may support a good many families, but a
+greater proportion is ruined by them, and those who perish in the
+hands, of physicians are more numerous by far than those who get
+cured strong evidence in my opinion, that mankind would be much less
+miserable without either lawyers or doctors.
+
+To attend the lectures of the professors, I had to go to the
+university called the Bo, and it became necessary for me to go out
+alone.  This was a matter of great wonder to me, for until then I had
+never considered myself a free man; and in my wish to enjoy fully the
+liberty I thought I had just conquered, it was not long before I had
+made the very worst acquaintances amongst the most renowned students.
+As a matter of course, the most renowned were the most worthless,
+dissolute fellows, gamblers, frequenters of disorderly houses, hard
+drinkers, debauchees, tormentors and suborners of honest girls,
+liars, and wholly incapable of any good or virtuous feeling.  In the
+company of such men did I begin my apprenticeship of the world,
+learning my lesson from the book of experience.
+
+The theory of morals and its usefulness through the life of man can
+be compared to the advantage derived by running over the index of a
+book before reading it when we have perused that index we know
+nothing but the subject of the work.  This is like the school for
+morals offered by the sermons, the precepts, and the tales which our
+instructors recite for our especial benefit.  We lend our whole
+attention to those lessons, but when an opportunity offers of
+profiting by the advice thus bestowed upon us, we feel inclined to
+ascertain for ourselves whether the result will turn out as
+predicted; we give way to that very natural inclination, and
+punishment speedily follows with concomitant repentance.  Our only
+consolation lies in the fact that in such moments we are conscious of
+our own knowledge, and consider ourselves as having earned the right
+to instruct others; but those to whom we wish to impart our
+experience act exactly as we have acted before them, and, as a matter
+of course, the world remains in statu quo, or grows worse and worse.
+
+When Doctor Gozzi granted me the privilege of going out alone, he
+gave me an opportunity for the discovery of several truths which,
+until then, were not only unknown to me, but the very existence of
+which I had never suspected.  On my first appearance, the boldest
+scholars got hold of me and sounded my depth.  Finding that I was a
+thorough freshman, they undertook my education, and with that worthy
+purpose in view they allowed me to fall blindly into every trap.
+They taught me gambling, won the little I possessed, and then they
+made me play upon trust, and put me up to dishonest practices in
+order to procure the means of paying my gambling debts; but I
+acquired at the same time the sad experience of sorrow!  Yet these
+hard lessons proved useful, for they taught me to mistrust the
+impudent sycophants who openly flatter their dupes, and never to rely
+upon the offers made by fawning flatterers.  They taught me likewise
+how to behave in the company of quarrelsome duellists, the society of
+whom ought to be avoided, unless we make up our mind to be constantly
+in the very teeth of danger.  I was not caught in the snares of
+professional lewd women, because not one of them was in my eyes as
+pretty as Bettina, but I did not resist so well the desire for that
+species of vain glory which is the reward of holding life at a cheap
+price.
+
+In those days the students in Padua enjoyed very great privileges,
+which were in reality abuses made legal through prescription, the
+primitive characteristic of privileges, which differ essentially from
+prerogatives.  In fact, in order to maintain the legality of their
+privileges, the students often committed crimes.  The guilty were
+dealt with tenderly, because the interest of the city demanded that
+severity should not diminish the great influx of scholars who flocked
+to that renowned university from every part of Europe.  The practice
+of the Venetian government was to secure at a high salary the most
+celebrated professors, and to grant the utmost freedom to the young
+men attending their lessons.  The students acknowledged no authority
+but that of a chief, chosen among themselves, and called syndic.  He
+was usually a foreign nobleman, who could keep a large establishment,
+and who was responsible to the government for the behaviour of the
+scholars.  It was his duty to give them up to justice when they
+transgressed the laws, and the students never disputed his sentence,
+because he always defended them to the utmost, when they had the
+slightest shadow of right on their side.
+
+The students, amongst other privileges, would not suffer their trunks
+to be searched by customhouse authorities, and no ordinary policeman
+would have dared to arrest one of them.  They carried about them
+forbidden weapons, seduced helpless girls, and often disturbed the
+public peace by their nocturnal broils and impudent practical jokes;
+in one word, they were a body of young fellows, whom nothing could
+restrain, who would gratify every whim, and enjoy their sport without
+regard or consideration for any human being.
+
+It was about that time that a policeman entered a coffee-room, in
+which were seated two students.  One of them ordered him out, but the
+man taking no notice of it, the student fired a pistol at him, and
+missed his aim.  The policeman returned the fire, wounded the
+aggressor, and ran away.  The students immediately mustered together
+at the Bo, divided into bands, and went over the city, hunting the
+policemen to murder them, and avenge the insult they had received.
+In one of the encounters two of the students were killed, and all the
+others, assembling in one troop, swore never to lay their arms down
+as long as there should be one policeman alive in Padua.  The
+authorities had to interfere, and the syndic of the students
+undertook to put a stop to hostilities provided proper satisfaction
+was given, as the police were in the wrong.  The man who had shot the
+student in the coffee-room was hanged, and peace was restored; but
+during the eight days of agitation, as I was anxious not to appear
+less brave than my comrades who were patrolling the city, I followed
+them in spite of Doctor Gozzi's remonstrances.  Armed with a carbine
+and a pair of pistols, I ran about the town with the others, in quest
+of the enemy, and I recollect how disappointed I was because the
+troop to which I belonged did not meet one policeman.  When the war
+was over, the doctor laughed at me, but Bettina admired my valour.
+Unfortunately, I indulged in expenses far above my means, owing to my
+unwillingness to seem poorer than my new friends.  I sold or pledged
+everything I possessed, and I contracted debts which I could not
+possibly pay.  This state of things caused my first sorrows, and they
+are the most poignant sorrows under which a young man can smart.  Not
+knowing which way to turn, I wrote to my excellent grandmother,
+begging her assistance, but instead of sending me some money, she
+came to Padua on the 1st of October, 1739, and, after thanking the
+doctor and Bettina for all their affectionate care, she bought me
+back to Venice.  As he took leave of me, the doctor, who was shedding
+tears, gave me what he prized most on earth; a relic of some saint,
+which perhaps I might have kept to this very day, had not the setting
+been of gold.  It performed only one miracle, that of being of
+service to me in a moment of great need.  Whenever I visited Padua,
+to complete my study of the law, I stayed at the house of the kind
+doctor, but I was always grieved at seeing near Bettina the brute to
+whom she was engaged, and who did not appear to me deserving of such
+a wife.  I have always regretted that a prejudice, of which I soon
+got rid, should have made me preserve for that man a flower which I
+could have plucked so easily.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+I receive the minor orders from the patriarch of Venice--I get
+acquainted with Senator Malipiero, with Therese Imer, with the niece
+of the Curate, with Madame Orio, with Nanette and Marton, and with
+the Cavamacchia--I become a preacher--my adventure with Lucie at
+Pasean A rendezvous on the third story.
+
+
+"He comes from Padua, where he has completed his studies."  Such were
+the words by which I was everywhere introduced, and which, the moment
+they were uttered, called upon me the silent observation of every
+young man of my age and condition, the compliments of all fathers,
+and the caresses of old women, as well as the kisses of a few who,
+although not old, were not sorry to be considered so for the sake of
+embracing a young man without impropriety.  The curate of Saint-
+Samuel, the Abbe Josello, presented me to Monsignor Correre,
+Patriarch of Venice, who gave me the tonsure, and who, four months
+afterwards, by special favour, admitted me to the four minor orders.
+No words could express the joy and the pride of my grandmother.
+Excellent masters were given to me to continue my studies, and M.
+Baffo chose the Abbe Schiavo to teach me a pure Italian style,
+especially poetry, for which I had a decided talent.  I was very
+comfortably lodged with my brother Francois, who was studying
+theatrical architecture.  My sister and my youngest brother were
+living with our grandam in a house of her own, in which it was her
+wish to die, because her husband had there breathed his last.  The
+house in which I dwelt was the same in which my father had died, and
+the rent of which my mother continued to pay.  It was large and well
+furnished.
+
+Although Abbe Grimani was my chief protector, I seldom saw him, and I
+particularly attached myself to M. de Malipiero, to whom I had been
+presented by the Curate Josello.  M. de Malipiero was a senator, who
+was unwilling at seventy years of age to attend any more to State
+affairs, and enjoyed a happy, sumptuous life in his mansion,
+surrounded every evening by a well-chosen party of ladies who had all
+known how to make the best of their younger days, and of gentlemen
+who were always acquainted with the news of the town.  He was a
+bachelor and wealthy, but, unfortunately, he had three or four times
+every year severe attacks of gout, which always left him crippled in
+some part or other of his body, so that all his person was disabled.
+His head, his lungs, and his stomach had alone escaped this cruel
+havoc.  He was still a fine man, a great epicure, and a good judge of
+wine; his wit was keen, his knowledge of the world extensive, his
+eloquence worthy of a son of Venice, and he had that wisdom which
+must naturally belong to a senator who for forty years has had the
+management of public affairs, and to a man who has bid farewell to
+women after having possessed twenty mistresses, and only when he felt
+himself compelled to acknowledge that he could no longer be accepted
+by any woman.  Although almost entirely crippled, he did not appear
+to be so when he was seated, when he talked, or when he was at table.
+He had only one meal a day, and always took it alone because, being
+toothless and unable to eat otherwise than very slowly, he did not
+wish to hurry himself out of compliment to his guests, and would have
+been sorry to see them waiting for him.  This feeling deprived him of
+the pleasure he would have enjoyed in entertaining at his board
+friendly and agreeable guests, and caused great sorrow to his
+excellent cook.
+
+The first time I had the honour of being introduced to him by the
+curate, I opposed earnestly the reason which made him eat his meals
+in solitude, and I said that his excellency had only to invite guests
+whose appetite was good enough to enable them to eat a double share.
+
+"But where can I find such table companions?" he asked.
+
+"It is rather a delicate matter," I answered; "but you must take your
+guests on trial, and after they have been found such as you wish them
+to be, the only difficulty will be to keep them as your guests
+without their being aware of the real cause of your preference, for
+no respectable man could acknowledge that he enjoys the honour of
+sitting at your excellency's table only because he eats twice as much
+as any other man."
+
+The senator understood the truth of my argument, and asked the curate
+to bring me to dinner on the following day.  He found my practice
+even better than my theory, and I became his daily guest.
+
+This man, who had given up everything in life except his own self,
+fostered an amorous inclination, in spite of his age and of his gout.
+He loved a young girl named Therese Imer, the daughter of an actor
+residing near his mansion, her bedroom window being opposite to his
+own.  This young girl, then in her seventeenth year, was pretty,
+whimsical, and a regular coquette.  She was practising music with a
+view to entering the theatrical profession, and by showing herself
+constantly at the window she had intoxicated the old senator, and was
+playing with him cruelly.  She paid him a daily visit, but always
+escorted by her mother, a former actress, who had retired from the
+stage in order to work out her salvation, and who, as a matter of
+course, had made up her mind to combine the interests of heaven with
+the works of this world.  She took her daughter to mass every day and
+compelled her to go to confession every week; but every afternoon she
+accompanied her in a visit to the amorous old man, the rage of whom
+frightened me when she refused him a kiss under the plea that she had
+performed her devotions in the morning, and that she could not
+reconcile herself to the idea of offending the God who was still
+dwelling in her.
+
+What a sight for a young man of fifteen like me, whom the old man
+admitted as the only and silent witness of these erotic scenes!  The
+miserable mother applauded her daughter's reserve, and went so far as
+to lecture the elderly lover, who, in his turn, dared not refute her
+maxims, which savoured either too much or too little of Christianity,
+and resisted a very strong inclination to hurl at her head any object
+he had at hand.  Anger would then take the place of lewd desires, and
+after they had retired he would comfort himself by exchanging with me
+philosophical considerations.
+
+Compelled to answer him, and not knowing well what to say, I ventured
+one day upon advising a marriage.  He struck me with amazement when
+he answered that she refused to marry him from fear of drawing upon
+herself the hatred of his relatives.
+
+"Then make her the offer of a large sum of money, or a position."
+
+"She says that she would not, even for a crown, commit a deadly sin."
+
+"In that case, you must either take her by storm, or banish her for
+ever from your presence."
+
+"I can do neither one nor the other; physical as well as moral
+strength is deficient in me."
+
+"Kill her, then."
+
+"That will very likely be the case unless I die first."
+
+"Indeed I pity your excellency."
+
+"Do you sometimes visit her?"
+
+"No, for I might fall in love with her, and I would be miserable."
+
+"You are right."
+
+Witnessing many such scenes, and taking part in many similar
+conversations, I became an especial favourite with the old nobleman.
+I was invited to his evening assemblies which were, as I have stated
+before, frequented by superannuated women and witty men.  He told me
+that in this circle I would learn a science of greater import than
+Gassendi's philosophy, which I was then studying by his advice
+instead of Aristotle's, which he turned into ridicule.  He laid down
+some precepts for my conduct in those assemblies, explaining the
+necessity of my observing them, as there would be some wonder at a
+young man of my age being received at such parties.  He ordered me
+never to open my lips except to answer direct questions, and
+particularly enjoined me never to pass an opinion on any subject,
+because at my age I could not be allowed to have any opinions.
+
+I faithfully followed his precepts, and obeyed his orders so well,
+that in a few days I had gained his esteem, and become the child of
+the house, as well as the favourite of all the ladies who visited
+him.  In my character of a young and innocent ecclesiastic, they
+would ask me to accompany them in their visits to the convents where
+their daughters or their nieces were educated; I was at all hours
+received at their houses without even being announced; I was scolded
+if a week elapsed without my calling upon them, and when I went to
+the apartments reserved for the young ladies, they would run away,
+but the moment they saw that the intruder was only I, they would
+return at once, and their confidence was very charming to me.
+
+Before dinner, M. de Malipiero would often inquire from me what
+advantages were accruing to me from the welcome I received at the
+hands of the respectable ladies I had become acquainted with at his
+house, taking care to tell me, before I could have time to answer,
+that they were all endowed with the greatest virtue, and that I would
+give everybody a bad opinion of myself, if I ever breathed one word
+of disparagement to the high reputation they all enjoyed.  In this
+way he would inculcate in me the wise precept of reserve and
+discretion.
+
+It was at the senator's house that I made the acquaintance of Madame
+Manzoni, the wife of a notary public, of whom I shall have to speak
+very often.  This worthy lady inspired me with the deepest
+attachment, and she gave me the wisest advice.  Had I followed it,
+and profited by it, my life would not have been exposed to so many
+storms; it is true that in that case, my life would not be worth
+writing.
+
+All these fine acquaintances amongst women who enjoyed the reputation
+of being high-bred ladies, gave me a very natural desire to shine by
+my good looks and by the elegance of my dress; but my father
+confessor, as well as my grandmother, objected very strongly to this
+feeling of vanity.  On one occasion, taking me apart, the curate told
+me, with honeyed words, that in the profession to which I had devoted
+myself my thoughts ought to dwell upon the best means of being
+agreeable to God, and not on pleasing the world by my fine
+appearance.  He condemned my elaborate curls, and the exquisite
+perfume of my pomatum.  He said that the devil had got hold of me by
+the hair, that I would be excommunicated if I continued to take such
+care of it, and concluded by quoting for my benefit these words from
+an oecumenical council: 'clericus qui nutrit coman, anathema sit'.
+I answered him with the names of several fashionable perfumed abbots,
+who were not threatened with excommunication, who were not interfered
+with, although they wore four times as much powder as I did--for I
+only used a slight sprinkling--who perfumed their hair with a certain
+amber-scented pomatum which brought women to the very point of
+fainting, while mine, a jessamine pomade, called forth the compliment
+of every circle in which I was received.  I added that I could not,
+much to my regret, obey him, and that if I had meant to live in
+slovenliness, I would have become a Capuchin and not an abbe.
+
+My answer made him so angry that, three or four days afterwards, he
+contrived to obtain leave from my grandmother to enter my chamber
+early in the morning, before I was awake, and, approaching my bed on
+tiptoe with a sharp pair of scissors, he cut off unmercifully all my
+front hair, from one ear to the other.  My brother Francois was in
+the adjoining room and saw him, but he did not interfere as he was
+delighted at my misfortune.  He wore a wig, and was very jealous of
+my beautiful head of hair.  Francois was envious through the whole of
+his life; yet he combined this feeling of envy with friendship; I
+never could understand him; but this vice of his, like my own vices,
+must by this time have died of old age.
+
+After his great operation, the abbe left my room quietly, but when I
+woke up shortly afterwards, and realized all the horror of this
+unheard-of execution, my rage and indignation were indeed wrought to
+the highest pitch.
+
+What wild schemes of revenge my brain engendered while, with a
+looking-glass in my hand, I was groaning over the shameful havoc
+performed by this audacious priest!  At the noise I made my
+grandmother hastened to my room, and amidst my brother's laughter the
+kind old woman assured me that the priest would never have been
+allowed to enter my room if she could have foreseen his intention,
+and she managed to soothe my passion to some extent by confessing
+that he had over-stepped the limits of his right to administer a
+reproof.
+
+But I was determined upon revenge, and I went on dressing myself and
+revolving in my mind the darkest plots.  It seemed to me that I was
+entitled to the most cruel revenge, without having anything to dread
+from the terrors of the law.  The theatres being open at that time I
+put on a mask to go out, and I, went to the advocate Carrare, with
+whom I had become acquainted at the senator's house, to inquire from
+him whether I could bring a suit against the priest.  He told me
+that, but a short time since, a family had been ruined for having
+sheared the moustache of a Sclavonian--a crime not nearly so
+atrocious as the shearing of all my front locks, and that I had only
+to give him my instructions to begin a criminal suit against the
+abbe, which would make him tremble.  I gave my consent, and begged
+that he would tell M. de Malipiero in the evening the reason for
+which I could not go to his house, for I did not feel any inclination
+to show myself anywhere until my hair had grown again.
+
+I went home and partook with my brother of a repast which appeared
+rather scanty in comparison to the dinners I had with the old
+senator.  The privation of the delicate and plentiful fare to which
+his excellency had accustomed me was most painful, besides all the
+enjoyments from which I was excluded through the atrocious conduct of
+the virulent priest, who was my godfather.  I wept from sheer
+vexation; and my rage was increased by the consciousness that there
+was in this insult a certain dash of comical fun which threw over me
+a ridicule more disgraceful in my estimation than the greatest crime.
+
+I went to bed early, and, refreshed by ten hours of profound slumber,
+I felt in the morning somewhat less angry, but quite as determined to
+summon the priest before a court.  I dressed myself with the
+intention of calling upon my advocate, when I received the visit of a
+skilful hair-dresser whom I had seen at Madame Cantarini's house.  He
+told me that he was sent by M. de Malipiero to arrange my hair so
+that I could go out, as the senator wished me to dine with him on
+that very day.  He examined the damage done to my head, and said,
+with a smile, that if I would trust to his art, he would undertake to
+send me out with an appearance of even greater elegance than I could
+boast of before; and truly, when he had done, I found myself so good-
+looking that I considered my thirst for revenge entirely satisfied.
+
+Having thus forgotten the injury, I called upon the lawyer to tell
+him to stay all proceedings, and I hastened to M. de Malipiero's
+palace, where, as chance would have it, I met the abbe.
+Notwithstanding all my joy, I could not help casting upon him rather
+unfriendly looks, but not a word was said about what had taken place.
+The senator noticed everything, and the priest took his leave, most
+likely with feelings of mortified repentance, for this time I most
+verily deserved excommunication by the extreme studied elegance of my
+curling hair.
+
+When my cruel godfather had left us, I did not dissemble with M. de
+Malipiero; I candidly told him that I would look out for another
+church, and that nothing would induce me to remain under a priest
+who, in his wrath, could go the length of such proceedings.  The wise
+old man agreed with me, and said that I was quite right: it was the
+best way to make me do ultimately whatever he liked.  In the evening
+everyone in our circle, being well aware of what had happened,
+complimented me, and assured me that nothing could be handsomer than
+my new head-dress.  I was delighted, and was still more gratified
+when, after a fortnight had elapsed, I found that M. de Malipiero did
+not broach the subject of my returning to my godfather's church.  My
+grandmother alone constantly urged me to return.  But this calm was
+the harbinger of a storm.  When my mind was thoroughly at rest on
+that subject, M. de Malipiero threw me into the greatest astonishment
+by suddenly telling me that an excellent opportunity offered itself
+for me to reappear in the church and to secure ample satisfaction
+from the abbe.
+
+"It is my province," added the senator, "as president of the
+Confraternity of the Holy Sacrament, to choose the preacher who is to
+deliver the sermon on the fourth Sunday of this month, which happens
+to be the second Christmas holiday.  I mean to appoint you, and I am
+certain that the abbe will not dare to reject my choice.  What say
+you to such a triumphant reappearance?  Does it satisfy you?"
+
+This offer caused me the greatest surprise, for I had never dreamt of
+becoming a preacher, and I had never been vain enough to suppose that
+I could write a sermon and deliver it in the church.  I told M. de
+Malipiero that he must surely be enjoying a joke at my expense, but
+he answered that he had spoken in earnest, and he soon contrived to
+persuade me and to make me believe that I was born to become the most
+renowned preacher of our age as soon as I should have grown fat--a
+quality which I certainly could not boast of, for at that time I was
+extremely thin.  I had not the shadow of a fear as to my voice or to
+my elocution, and for the matter of composing my sermon I felt myself
+equal to the production of a masterpiece.
+
+I told M. de Malipiero that I was ready, and anxious to be at home in
+order to go to work; that, although no theologian, I was acquainted
+with my subject, and would compose a sermon which would take everyone
+by surprise on account of its novelty.
+
+On the following day, when I called upon him, he informed me that the
+abbe had expressed unqualified delight at the choice made by him, and
+at my readiness in accepting the appointment; but he likewise desired
+that I should submit my sermon to him as soon as it was written,
+because the subject belonging to the most sublime theology he could
+not allow me to enter the pulpit without being satisfied that I would
+not utter any heresies.  I agreed to this demand, and during the week
+I gave birth to my masterpiece.  I have now that first sermon in my
+possession, and I cannot help saying that, considering my tender
+years, I think it a very good one.
+
+I could not give an idea of my grandmother's joy; she wept tears of
+happiness at having a grandson who had become an apostle.  She
+insisted upon my reading my sermon to her, listened to it with her
+beads in her hands, and pronounced it very beautiful.  M. de
+Malipiero, who had no rosary when I read it to him, was of opinion
+that it would not prove acceptable to the parson.  My text was from
+Horace: 'Ploravere suis non respondere favorem sperdtum meritis'; and
+I deplored the wickedness and ingratitude of men, through which had
+failed the design adopted by Divine wisdom for the redemption of
+humankind.  But M. de Malipiero was sorry that I had taken my text
+from any heretical poet, although he was pleased that my sermon was
+not interlarded with Latin quotations.
+
+I called upon the priest to read my production; but as he was out I
+had to wait for his return, and during that time I fell in love with
+his niece, Angela.  She was busy upon some tambour work; I sat down
+close by her, and telling me that she had long desired to make my
+acquaintance, she begged me to relate the history of the locks of
+hair sheared by her venerable uncle.
+
+My love for Angela proved fatal to me, because from it sprang two
+other love affairs which, in their turn, gave birth to a great many
+others, and caused me finally to renounce the Church as a profession.
+But let us proceed quietly, and not encroach upon future events.
+
+On his return home the abbe found me with his niece, who was about my
+age, and he did not appear to be angry.  I gave him my sermon: he
+read it over, and told me that it was a beautiful academical
+dissertation, but unfit for a sermon from the pulpit, and he added,
+
+"I will give you a sermon written by myself, which I have never
+delivered; you will commit it to memory, and I promise to let
+everybody suppose that it is of your own composition."
+
+"I thank you, very reverend father, but I will preach my own sermon,
+or none at all."
+
+"At all events, you shall not preach such a sermon as this in my
+church."
+
+"You can talk the matter over with M. de Malipiero.  In the meantime
+I will take my work to the censorship, and to His Eminence the
+Patriarch, and if it is not accepted I shall have it printed."
+
+"All very well, young man.  The patriarch will coincide with me."
+
+In the evening I related my discussion with the parson before all the
+guests of M. de Malipiero.  The reading of my sermon was called for,
+and it was praised by all.  They lauded me for having with proper
+modesty refrained from quoting the holy fathers of the Church, whom
+at my age I could not be supposed to have sufficiently studied, and
+the ladies particularly admired me because there was no Latin in it
+but the Text from Horace, who, although a great libertine himself,
+has written very good things.  A niece of the patriarch, who was
+present that evening, promised to prepare her uncle in my favour, as
+I had expressed my intention to appeal to him; but M. de Malipiero
+desired me not to take any steps in the matter until I had seen him
+on the following day, and I submissively bowed to his wishes.
+
+When I called at his mansion the next day he sent for the priest, who
+soon made his appearance.  As he knew well what he had been sent for,
+he immediately launched out into a very long discourse, which I did
+not interrupt, but the moment he had concluded his list of objections
+I told him that there could not be two ways to decide the question;
+that the patriarch would either approve or disapprove my sermon.
+
+"In the first case," I added, "I can pronounce it in your church, and
+no responsibility can possibly fall upon your shoulders; in the
+second, I must, of course, give way."
+
+The abbe was struck by my determination and he said,
+
+"Do not go to the patriarch; I accept your sermon; I only request you
+to change your text.  Horace was a villain."
+
+"Why do you quote Seneca, Tertullian, Origen, and Boethius?  They
+were all heretics, and must, consequently, be considered by you as
+worse wretches than Horace, who, after all, never had the chance of
+becoming a Christian!"
+
+However, as I saw it would please M. de Malipiero, I finally
+consented to accept, as a substitute for mine, a text offered by the
+abbe, although it did not suit in any way the spirit of my
+production; and in order to get an opportunity for a visit to his
+niece, I gave him my manuscript, saying that I would call for it the
+next day.  My vanity prompted me to send a copy to Doctor Gozzi, but
+the good man caused me much amusement by returning it and writing
+that I must have gone mad, and that if I were allowed to deliver such
+a sermon from the pulpit I would bring dishonour upon myself as well
+as upon the man who had educated me.
+
+I cared but little for his opinion, and on the appointed day I
+delivered my sermon in the Church of the Holy Sacrament in the
+presence of the best society of Venice.  I received much applause,
+and every one predicted that I would certainly become the first
+preacher of our century, as no young ecclesiastic of fifteen had ever
+been known to preach as well as I had done.  It is customary for the
+faithful to deposit their offerings for the preacher in a purse which
+is handed to them for that purpose.
+
+The sexton who emptied it of its contents found in it more than fifty
+sequins, and several billets-doux, to the great scandal of the weaker
+brethren.  An anonymous note amongst them, the writer of which I
+thought I had guessed, let me into a mistake which I think better not
+to relate.  This rich harvest, in my great penury, caused me to
+entertain serious thoughts of becoming a preacher, and I confided my
+intention to the parson, requesting his assistance to carry it into
+execution.  This gave me the privilege of visiting at his house every
+day, and I improved the opportunity of conversing with Angela, for
+whom my love was daily increasing.  But Angela was virtuous.  She did
+not object to my love, but she wished me to renounce the Church and
+to marry her.  In spite of my infatuation for her, I could not make
+up my mind to such a step, and I went on seeing her and courting her
+in the hope that she would alter her decision.
+
+The priest, who had at last confessed his admiration for my first
+sermon, asked me, some time afterwards, to prepare another for St.
+Joseph's Day, with an invitation to deliver it on the 19th of March,
+1741.  I composed it, and the abbe spoke of it with enthusiasm, but
+fate had decided that I should never preach but once in my life.  It
+is a sad tale, unfortunately for me very true, which some persons are
+cruel enough to consider very amusing.
+
+Young and rather self-conceited, I fancied that it was not necessary
+for me to spend much time in committing my sermon to memory.  Being
+the author, I had all the ideas contained in my work classified in my
+mind, and it did not seem to me within the range of possibilities
+that I could forget what I had written.  Perhaps I might not remember
+the exact words of a sentence, but I was at liberty to replace them
+by other expressions as good, and as I never happened to be at a
+loss, or to be struck dumb, when I spoke in society, it was not
+likely that such an untoward accident would befall me before an
+audience amongst whom I did not know anyone who could intimidate me
+and cause me suddenly to lose the faculty of reason or of speech.  I
+therefore took my pleasure as usual, being satisfied with reading my
+sermon morning and evening, in order to impress it upon my memory
+which until then had never betrayed me.
+
+The 19th of March came, and on that eventful day at four o'clock in
+the afternoon I was to ascend the pulpit; but, believing myself quite
+secure and thoroughly master of my subject, I had not the moral
+courage to deny myself the pleasure of dining with Count Mont-Real,
+who was then residing with me, and who had invited the patrician
+Barozzi, engaged to be married to his daughter after the Easter
+holidays.
+
+I was still enjoying myself with my fine company, when the sexton of
+the church came in to tell me that they were waiting for me in the
+vestry.  With a full stomach and my head rather heated, I took my
+leave, ran to the church, and entered the pulpit.  I went through the
+exordium with credit to myself, and I took breathing time; but
+scarcely had I pronounced the first sentences of the narration,
+before I forgot what I was saying, what I had to say, and in my
+endeavours to proceed, I fairly wandered from my subject and I lost
+myself entirely.  I was still more discomforted by a half-repressed
+murmur of the audience, as my deficiency appeared evident.  Several
+persons left the church, others began to smile, I lost all presence
+of mind and every hope of getting out of the scrape.
+
+I could not say whether I feigned a fainting fit, or whether I truly
+swooned; all I know is that I fell down on the floor of the pulpit,
+striking my head against the wall, with an inward prayer for
+annihilation.
+
+Two of the parish clerks carried me to the vestry, and after a few
+moments, without addressing a word to anyone, I took my cloak and my
+hat, and went home to lock myself in my room.  I immediately dressed
+myself in a short coat, after the fashion of travelling priests, I
+packed a few things in a trunk, obtained some money from my
+grandmother, and took my departure for Padua, where I intended to
+pass my third examination.  I reached Padua at midnight, and went to
+Doctor Gozzi's house, but I did not feel the slightest temptation to
+mention to him my unlucky adventure.
+
+I remained in Padua long enough to prepare myself for the doctor's
+degree, which I intended to take the following year, and after Easter
+I returned to Venice, where my misfortune was already forgotten; but
+preaching was out of the question, and when any attempt was made to
+induce me to renew my efforts, I manfully kept to my determination
+never to ascend the pulpit again.
+
+On the eve of Ascension Day M. Manzoni introduced me to a young
+courtesan, who was at that time in great repute at Venice, and was
+nick-named Cavamacchia, because her father had been a scourer.  This
+named vexed her a great deal, she wished to be called Preati, which
+was her family name, but it was all in vain, and the only concession
+her friends would make was to call her by her Christian name of
+Juliette.  She had been introduced to fashionable notice by the
+Marquis de Sanvitali, a nobleman from Parma, who had given her one
+hundred thousand ducats for her favours.  Her beauty was then the
+talk of everybody in Venice, and it was fashionable to call upon her.
+To converse with her, and especially to be admitted into her circle,
+was considered a great boon.
+
+As I shall have to mention her several times in the course of my
+history, my readers will, I trust, allow me to enter into some
+particulars about her previous life.
+
+Juliette was only fourteen years of age when her father sent her one
+day to the house of a Venetian nobleman, Marco Muazzo, with a coat
+which he had cleaned for him.  He thought her very beautiful in spite
+of the dirty rags in which she was dressed, and he called to see her
+at her father's shop, with a friend of his, the celebrated advocate,
+Bastien Uccelli, who; struck by the romantic and cheerful nature of
+Juliette still more than by her beauty and fine figure, gave her an
+apartment, made her study music, and kept her as his mistress.  At
+the time of the fair, Bastien took her with him to various public
+places of resort; everywhere she attracted general attention, and
+secured the admiration of every lover of the sex.  She made rapid
+progress in music, and at the end of six months she felt sufficient
+confidence in herself to sign an engagement with a theatrical manager
+who took her to Vienna to give her a 'castrato' part in one of
+Metastasio's operas.
+
+The advocate had previously ceded her to a wealthy Jew who, after
+giving her splendid diamonds, left her also.
+
+In Vienna, Juliette appeared on the stage, and her beauty gained for
+her an admiration which she would never have conquered by her very
+inferior talent.  But the constant crowd of adorers who went to
+worship the goddess, having sounded her exploits rather too loudly,
+the august Maria-Theresa objected to this new creed being sanctioned
+in her capital, and the beautfiul actress received an order to quit
+Vienna forthwith.
+
+Count Spada offered her his protection, and brought her back to
+Venice, but she soon left for Padua where she had an engagement.  In
+that city she kindled the fire of love in the breast of Marquis
+Sanvitali, but the marchioness having caught her once in her own box,
+and Juliette having acted disrespectfully to her, she slapped her
+face, and the affair having caused a good deal of noise, Juliette
+gave up the stage altogether.  She came back to Venice, where, made
+conspicuous by her banishment from Vienna, she could not fail to make
+her fortune.  Expulsion from Vienna, for this class of women, had
+become a title to fashionable favour, and when there was a wish to
+depreciate a singer or a dancer, it was said of her that she had not
+been sufficiently prized to be expelled from Vienna.
+
+After her return, her first lover was Steffano Querini de Papozzes,
+but in the spring of 1740, the Marquis de Sanvitali came to Venice
+and soon carried her off.  It was indeed difficult to resist this
+delightful marquis!  His first present to the fair lady was a sum of
+one hundred thousand ducats, and, to prevent his being accused of
+weakness or of lavish prodigality, he loudly proclaimed that the
+present could scarcely make up for the insult Juliette had received
+from his wife--an insult, however, which the courtesan never
+admitted, as she felt that there would be humiliation in such an
+acknowledgment, and she always professed to admire with gratitude her
+lover's generosity.  She was right; the admission of the blow
+received would have left a stain upon her charms, and how much more
+to her taste to allow those charms to be prized at such a high
+figure!
+
+It was in the year 1741 that M.  Manzoni introduced me to this new
+Phryne as a young ecclesiastic who was beginning to make a
+reputation.  I found her surrounded by seven or eight well-seasoned
+admirers, who were burning at her feet the incense of their flattery.
+She was carelessly reclining on a sofa near Querini.  I was much
+struck with her appearance.  She eyed me from head to foot, as if I
+had been exposed for sale, and telling me, with the air of a
+princess, that she was not sorry to make my acquaintance, she invited
+me to take a seat. I began then, in my turn, to examine her closely
+and deliberately, and it was an easy matter, as the room, although
+small, was lighted with at least twenty wax candles.
+
+Juliette was then in her eighteenth year; the freshness of her
+complexion was dazzling, but the carnation tint of her cheeks, the
+vermilion of her lips, and the dark, very narrow curve of her
+eyebrows, impressed me as being produced by art rather than nature.
+Her teeth--two rows of magnificent pearls--made one overlook the fact
+that her mouth was somewhat too large, and whether from habit, or
+because she could not help it, she seemed to be ever smiling.  Her
+bosom, hid under a light gauze, invited the desires of love; yet I
+did not surrender to her charms. Her bracelets and the rings which
+covered her fingers did not prevent me from noticing that her hand
+was too large and too fleshy, and in spite of her carefully hiding
+her feet, I judged, by a telltale slipper lying close by her dress,
+that they were well proportioned to the height of her figure--a
+proportion which is unpleasant not only to the Chinese and Spaniards,
+but likewise to every man of refined taste.  We want a tall women to
+have a small foot, and certainly it is not a modern taste, for
+Holofernes of old was of the same opinion; otherwise he would not
+have thought Judith so charming: 'et sandalid ejus rapuerunt oculos
+ejus'.  Altogether I found her beautiful, but when I compared her
+beauty and the price of one hundred thousand ducats paid for it, I
+marvelled at my remaining so cold, and at my not being tempted to
+give even one sequin for the privilege of making from nature a study
+of the charms which her dress concealed from my eyes.
+
+I had scarcely been there a quarter of an hour when the noise made by
+the oars of a gondola striking the water heralded the prodigal
+marquis.  We all rose from our seats, and M. Querini hastened,
+somewhat blushing, to quit his place on the sofa.  M. de Sanvitali,
+a man of middle age, who had travelled much, took a seat near
+Juliette, but not on the sofa, so she was compelled to turn round.
+It gave me the opportunity of seeing her full front, while I had
+before only a side view of her face.
+
+After my introduction to Juliette, I paid her four or five visits,
+and I thought myself justified, by the care I had given to the
+examination of her beauty, in saying in M. de Malipiero's draw-room,
+one evening, when my opinion about her was asked, that she could
+please only a glutton with depraved tastes; that she had neither the
+fascination of simple nature nor any knowledge of society, that she
+was deficient in well-bred, easy manners as well as in striking
+talents and that those were the qualities which a thorough gentleman
+liked to find in a woman.  This opinion met the general approbation
+of his friends, but M. de Malipiero kindly whispered to me that
+Juliette would certainly be informed of the portrait I had drawn of
+her, and that she would become my sworn enemy.  He had guessed
+rightly.
+
+I thought Juliette very singular, for she seldom spoke to me, and
+whenever she looked at me she made use of an eye-glass, or she
+contracted her eye-lids, as if she wished to deny me the honour of
+seeing her eyes, which were beyond all dispute very beautiful.  They
+were blue, wondrously large and full, and tinted with that
+unfathomable variegated iris which nature only gives to youth, and
+which generally disappears, after having worked miracles, when the
+owner reaches the shady side of forty.  Frederick the Great preserved
+it until his death.
+
+Juliette was informed of the portrait I had given of her to M. de
+Malipiero's friends by the indiscreet pensioner, Xavier Cortantini.
+One evening I called upon her with M. Manzoni, and she told him that
+a wonderful judge of beauty had found flaws in hers, but she took
+good care not to specify them.  It was not difficult to make out that
+she was indirectly firing at me, and I prepared myself for the
+ostracism which I was expecting, but which, however, she kept in
+abeyance fully for an hour.  At last, our conversation falling upon a
+concert given a few days before by Imer, the actor, and in which his
+daughter, Therese, had taken a brilliant part, Juliette turned round
+to me and inquired what M. de Malipiero did for Therese.  I said that
+he was educating her.  "He can well do it," she answered, "for he is
+a man of talent; but I should like to know what he can do with you?"
+
+"Whatever he can."
+
+"I am told that he thinks you rather stupid."
+
+As a matter of course, she had the laugh on her side, and I,
+confused, uncomfortable and not knowing what to say, took leave after
+having cut a very sorry figure, and determined never again to darken
+her door.  The next day at dinner the account of my adventure caused
+much amusement to the old senator.
+
+Throughout the summer, I carried on a course of Platonic love with my
+charming Angela at the house of her teacher of embroidery, but her
+extreme reserve excited me, and my love had almost become a torment
+to myself.  With my ardent nature, I required a mistress like
+Bettina, who knew how to satisfy my love without wearing it out.  I
+still retained some feelings of purity, and I entertained the deepest
+veneration for Angela.  She was in my eyes the very palladium of
+Cecrops.  Still very innocent, I felt some disinclination towards
+women, and I was simple enough to be jealous of even their husbands.
+
+Angela would not grant me the slightest favour, yet she was no flirt;
+but the fire beginning in me parched and withered me.  The pathetic
+entreaties which I poured out of my heart had less effect upon her
+than upon two young sisters, her companions and friends: had I not
+concentrated every look of mine upon the heartless girl, I might have
+discovered that her friends excelled her in beauty and in feeling,
+but my prejudiced eyes saw no one but Angela.  To every outpouring of
+my love she answered that she was quite ready to become my wife, and
+that such was to be the limit of my wishes; when she condescended to
+add that she suffered as much as I did myself, she thought she had
+bestowed upon me the greatest of favours.
+
+Such was the state of my mind, when, in the first days of autumn, I
+received a letter from the Countess de Mont-Real with an invitation
+to spend some time at her beautiful estate at Pasean.  She expected
+many guests, and among them her own daughter, who had married a
+Venetian nobleman, and who had a great reputation for wit and beauty,
+although she had but one eye; but it was so beautiful that it made up
+for the loss of the other.  I accepted the invitation, and Pasean
+offering me a constant round of pleasures, it was easy enough for me
+to enjoy myself, and to forget for the time the rigours of the cruel
+Angela.
+
+I was given a pretty room on the ground floor, opening upon the
+gardens of Pasean, and I enjoyed its comforts without caring to know
+who my neighbours were.
+
+The morning after my arrival, at the very moment I awoke, my eyes
+were delighted with the sight of the charming creature who brought me
+my coffee.  She was a very young girl, but as well formed as a young
+person of seventeen; yet she had scarcely completed her fourteenth
+year.  The snow of her complexion, her hair as dark as the raven's
+wing, her black eyes beaming with fire and innocence, her dress
+composed only of a chemise and a short petticoat which exposed a
+well-turned leg and the prettiest tiny foot, every detail I gathered
+in one instant presented to my looks the most original and the most
+perfect beauty I had ever beheld.  I looked at her with the greatest
+pleasure, and her eyes rested upon me as if we had been old
+acquaintances.
+
+"How did you find your bed?" she asked.
+
+"Very comfortable; I am sure you made it.  Pray, who are you?"
+
+"I am Lucie, the daughter of the gate-keeper: I have neither brothers
+nor sisters, and I am fourteen years old.  I am very glad you have no
+servant with you; I will be your little maid, and I am sure you will
+be pleased with me."
+
+Delighted at this beginning, I sat up in my bed and she helped me to
+put on my dressing-gown, saying a hundred things which I did not
+understand.  I began to drink my coffee, quite amazed at her easy
+freedom, and struck with her beauty, to which it would have been
+impossible to remain indifferent.  She had seated herself on my bed,
+giving no other apology for that liberty than the most delightful
+smile.
+
+I was still sipping my coffee, when Lucie's parents came into my
+room.  She did not move from her place on the bed, but she looked at
+them, appearing very proud of such a seat.  The good people kindly
+scolded her, begged my forgiveness in her favour, and Lucie left the
+room to attend to her other duties.  The moment she had gone her
+father and mother began to praise their daughter.
+
+"She is," they said, "our only child, our darling pet, the hope of
+our old age.  She loves and obeys us, and fears God; she is as clean
+as a new pin, and has but one fault."
+
+"What is that?"
+
+"She is too young."
+
+"That is a charming fault which time will mend"
+
+I was not long in ascertaining that they were living specimens of
+honesty, of truth, of homely virtues, and of real happiness.  I was
+delighted at this discovery, when Lucie returned as gay as a lark,
+prettily dressed, her hair done in a peculiar way of her own, and
+with well-fitting shoes.  She dropped a simple courtesy before me,
+gave a couple of hearty kisses to both her parents, and jumped on her
+father knees.  I asked her to come and sit on my bed, but she
+answered that she could not take such a liberty now that she was
+dressed, The simplicity, artlessness, and innocence of the answer
+seemed to me very enchanting, and brought a smile on my lips.  I
+examined her to see whether she was prettier in her new dress or in
+the morning's negligee, and I decided in favour of the latter.  To
+speak the truth, Lucie was, I thought, superior in everything, not
+only to Angela, but even to Bettina.
+
+The hair-dresser made his appearance, and the honest family left my
+room.  When I was dressed I went to meet the countess and her amiable
+daughter.  The day passed off very pleasantly, as is generally the
+case in the country, when you are amongst agreeable people.
+
+In the morning, the moment my eyes were opened,
+
+I rang the bell, and pretty Lucie came in, simple and natural as
+before, with her easy manners and wonderful remarks.  Her candour,
+her innocence shone brilliantly all over her person.  I could not
+conceive how, with her goodness, her virtue and her intelligence, she
+could run the risk of exciting me by coming into my room alone, and
+with so much familiarity.  I fancied that she would not attach much
+importance to certain slight liberties, and would not prove over-
+scrupulous, and with that idea I made up my mind to shew her that I
+fully understood her.  I felt no remorse of conscience on the score
+of her parents, who, in my estimation, were as careless as herself;
+I had no dread of being the first to give the alarm to her innocence,
+or to enlighten her mind with the gloomy light of malice, but,
+unwilling either to be the dupe of feeling or to act against it, I
+resolved to reconnoitre the ground.  I extend a daring hand towards
+her person, and by an involuntary movement she withdraws, blushes,
+her cheerfulness disappears, and, turning her head aside as if she
+were in search of something, she waits until her agitation has
+subsided.  The whole affair had not lasted one minute.  She came
+back, abashed at the idea that she had proved herself rather knowing,
+and at the dread of having perhaps given a wrong interpretation to an
+action which might have been, on my part, perfectly innocent, or the
+result of politeness.  Her natural laugh soon returned, and, having
+rapidly read in her mind all I have just described, I lost no time in
+restoring her confidence, and, judging that I would venture too much
+by active operations, I resolved to employ the following morning in a
+friendly chat during which I could make her out better.
+
+In pursuance of that plan, the next morning, as we were talking, I
+told her that it was cold, but that she would not feel it if she
+would lie down near me.
+
+"Shall I disturb you?" she said.
+
+"No; but I am thinking that if your mother happened to come in, she
+would be angry."
+
+"Mother would not think of any harm."
+
+"Come, then.  But Lucie, do you know what danger you are exposing
+yourself to?"
+
+"Certainly I do; but you are good, and, what is more, you are a
+priest."
+
+"Come; only lock the door."
+
+"No, no, for people might think....  I do not know what." She laid
+down close by me, and kept on her chatting, although I did not
+understand a word of what she said, for in that singular position,
+and unwilling to give way to my ardent desires, I remained as still
+as a log.
+
+Her confidence in her safety, confidence which was certainly not
+feigned, worked upon my feelings to such an extent that I would have
+been ashamed to take any advantage of it.  At last she told me that
+nine o'clock had struck, and that if old Count Antonio found us as we
+were, he would tease her with his jokes.  "When I see that man," she
+said, "I am afraid and I run away." Saying these words, she rose from
+the bed and left the room.
+
+I remained motionless for a long while, stupefied, benumbed, and
+mastered by the agitation of my excited senses as well as by my
+thoughts.  The next morning, as I wished to keep calm, I only let her
+sit down on my bed, and the conversation I had with her proved
+without the shadow of a doubt that her parents had every reason to
+idolize her, and that the easy freedom of her mind as well as of her
+behaviour with me was entirely owing to her innocence and to her
+purity.  Her artlessness, her vivacity, her eager curiosity, and the
+bashful blushes which spread over her face whenever her innocent or
+jesting remarks caused me to laugh, everything, in fact, convinced me
+that she was an angel destined to become the victim of the first
+libertine who would undertake to seduce her.  I felt sufficient
+control over my own feelings to resist any attempt against her virtue
+which my conscience might afterwards reproach me with.  The mere
+thought of taking advantage of her innocence made me shudder, and my
+self-esteem was a guarantee to her parents, who abandoned her to me
+on the strength of the good opinion they entertained of me, that
+Lucie's honour was safe in my hands.  I thought I would have despised
+myself if I had betrayed the trust they reposed in me.  I therefore
+determined to conquer my feelings, and, with perfect confidence in
+the victory, I made up my mind to wage war against myself, and to be
+satisfied with her presence as the only reward of my heroic efforts.
+I was not yet acquainted with the axiom that "as long as the fighting
+lasts, victory remains uncertain."
+
+As I enjoyed her conversation much, a natural instinct prompted me to
+tell her that she would afford me great pleasure if she could come
+earlier in the morning, and even wake me up if I happened to be
+asleep, adding, in order to give more weight to my request, that the
+less I slept the better I felt in health.  In this manner I contrived
+to spend three hours instead of two in her society, although this
+cunning contrivance of mine did not prevent the hours flying, at
+least in my opinion, as swift as lightning.
+
+Her mother would often come in as we were talking, and when the good
+woman found her sitting on my bed she would say nothing, only
+wondering at my kindness.  Lucie would then cover her with kisses,
+and the kind old soul would entreat me to give her child lessons of
+goodness, and to cultivate her mind; but when she had left us Lucie
+did not think herself more unrestrained, and whether in or out of her
+mother's presence, she was always the same without the slightest
+change.
+
+If the society of this angelic child afforded me the sweetest
+delight, it also caused me the most cruel suffering.  Often, very
+often, when her face was close to my lips, I felt the most ardent
+temptation to smother her with kisses, and my blood was at fever heat
+when she wished that she had been a sister of mine.  But I kept
+sufficient command over myself to avoid the slightest contact, for I
+was conscious that even one kiss would have been the spark which
+would have blown up all the edifice of my reserve.  Every time she
+left me I remained astounded at my own victory, but, always eager to
+win fresh laurels, I longed for the following morning, panting for a
+renewal of this sweet yet very dangerous contest.
+
+At the end of ten or twelve days, I felt that there was no
+alternative but to put a stop to this state of things, or to become a
+monster in my own eyes; and I decided for the moral side of the
+question all the more easily that nothing insured me success, if I
+chose the second alternative.  The moment I placed her under the
+obligation to defend herself Lucie would become a heroine, and the
+door of my room being open, I might have been exposed to shame and to
+a very useless repentance.  This rather frightened me.  Yet, to put
+an end to my torture, I did not know what to decide.  I could no
+longer resist the effect made upon my senses by this beautiful girl,
+who, at the break of day and scarcely dressed, ran gaily into my
+room, came to my bed enquiring how I had slept, bent familiarly her
+head towards me, and, so to speak, dropped her words on my lips.  In
+those dangerous moments I would turn my head aside; but in her
+innocence she would reproach me for being afraid when she felt
+herself so safe, and if I answered that I could not possibly fear a
+child, she would reply that a difference of two years was of no
+account.
+
+Standing at bay, exhausted, conscious that every instant increased
+the ardour which was devouring me, I resolved to entreat from herself
+the discontinuance of her visits, and this resolution appeared to me
+sublime and infallible; but having postponed its execution until the
+following morning, I passed a dreadful night, tortured by the image
+of Lucie, and by the idea that I would see her in the morning for the
+last time.  I fancied that Lucie would not only grant my prayer, but
+that she would conceive for me the highest esteem.  In the morning,
+it was barely day-light, Lucie beaming, radiant with beauty, a happy
+smile brightening her pretty mouth, and her splendid hair in the most
+fascinating disorder, bursts into my room, and rushes with open arms
+towards my bed; but when she sees my pale, dejected, and unhappy
+countenance, she stops short, and her beautiful face taking an
+expression of sadness and anxiety:
+
+"What ails you?" she asks, with deep sympathy.
+
+"I have had no sleep through the night:"
+
+"And why?"
+
+"Because I have made up my mind to impart to you a project which,
+although fraught with misery to myself, will at least secure me your
+esteem."
+
+"But if your project is to insure my esteem it ought to make you very
+cheerful.  Only tell me, reverend sir, why, after calling me 'thou'
+yesterday, you treat me today respectfully, like a lady?  What have I
+done?  I will get your coffee, and you must tell me everything after
+you have drunk it; I long to hear you"
+
+She goes and returns, I drink the coffee, and seeing that my
+countenance remains grave she tries to enliven me, contrives to make
+me smile, and claps her hands for joy.  After putting everything in
+order, she closes the door because the wind is high, and in her
+anxiety not to lose one word of what I have to say, she entreats
+artlessly a little place near me.  I cannot refuse her, for I feel
+almost lifeless.
+
+I then begin a faithful recital of the fearful state in which her
+beauty has thrown me, and a vivid picture of all the suffering I have
+experienced in trying to master my ardent wish to give her some proof
+of my love; I explain to her that, unable to endure such torture any
+longer, I see no other safety but in entreating her not to see me any
+more.  The importance of the subject, the truth of my love, my wish
+to present my expedient in the light of the heroic effort of a deep
+and virtuous passion, lend me a peculiar eloquence.  I endeavour
+above all to make her realize the fearful consequences which might
+follow a course different to the one I was proposing, and how
+miserable we might be.
+
+At the close of my long discourse Lucie, seeing my eyes wet with
+tears, throws off the bed-clothes to wipe them, without thinking that
+in so doing she uncovers two globes, the beauty of which might have
+caused the wreck of the most experienced pilot.  After a short
+silence, the charming child tells me that my tears make her very
+unhappy, and that she had never supposed that she could cause them.
+
+"All you have just told me," she added, "proves the sincerity of your
+great love for me, but I cannot imagine why you should be in such
+dread of a feeling which affords me the most intense pleasure.  You
+wish to banish me from your presence because you stand in fear of
+your love, but what would you do if you hated me?  Am I guilty
+because I have pleased you?  If it is a crime to have won your
+affection, I can assure you that I did not think I was committing a
+criminal action, and therefore you cannot conscientiously punish me.
+Yet I cannot conceal the truth; I am very happy to be loved by you.
+As for the danger we run, when we love, danger which I can
+understand, we can set it at defiance, if we choose, and I wonder at
+my not fearing it, ignorant as I am, while you, a learned man, think
+it so terrible.  I am astonished that love, which is not a disease,
+should have made you ill, and that it should have exactly the
+opposite effect upon me.  Is it possible that I am mistaken, and that
+my feeling towards you should not be love?  You saw me very cheerful
+when I came in this morning; it is because I have been dreaming all
+night, but my dreams did not keep me awake; only several times I woke
+up to ascertain whether my dream was true, for I thought I was near
+you; and every time, finding that it was not so, I quickly went to
+sleep again in the hope of continuing my happy dream, and every time
+I succeeded.  After such a night, was it not natural for me to be
+cheerful this morning?  My dear abbe, if love is a torment for you I
+am very sorry, but would it be possible for you to live without love?
+I will do anything you order me to do, but, even if your cure
+depended upon it, I would not cease to love you, for that would be
+impossible.  Yet if to heal your sufferings it should be necessary
+for you to love me no more, you must do your utmost to succeed, for I
+would much rather see you alive without love, than dead for having
+loved too much.  Only try to find some other plan, for the one you
+have proposed makes me very miserable.  Think of it, there may be
+some other way which will be less painful.  Suggest one more
+practicable, and depend upon Lucie's obedience."
+
+These words, so true, so artless, so innocent, made me realize the
+immense superiority of nature's eloquence over that of philosophical
+intellect.  For the first time I folded this angelic being in my
+arms, exclaiming, "Yes, dearest Lucie, yes, thou hast it in thy power
+to afford the sweetest relief to my devouring pain; abandon to my
+ardent kisses thy divine lips which have just assured me of thy
+love."
+
+An hour passed in the most delightful silence, which nothing
+interrupted except these words murmured now and then by Lucie, "Oh,
+God! is it true?  is it not a dream?" Yet I respected her innocence,
+and the more readily that she abandoned herself entirely and without
+the slightest resistance.  At last, extricating herself gently from
+my arms, she said, with some uneasiness, "My heart begins to speak, I
+must go;" and she instantly rose.  Having somewhat rearranged her
+dress she sat down, and her mother, coming in at that moment,
+complimented me upon my good looks and my bright countenance, and
+told Lucie to dress herself to attend mass.  Lucie came back an hour
+later, and expressed her joy and her pride at the wonderful cure she
+thought she had performed upon me, for the healthy appearance I was
+then shewing convinced her of my love much better than the pitiful
+state in which she had found me in the morning.  "If your complete
+happiness," she said, "rests in my power, be happy; there is nothing
+that I can refuse you."
+
+The moment she left me, still wavering between happiness and fear, I
+understood that I was standing on the very brink of the abyss, and
+that nothing but a most extraordinary determination could prevent me
+from falling headlong into it.
+
+I remained at Pasean until the end of September, and the last eleven
+nights of my stay were passed in the undisturbed possession of Lucie,
+who, secure in her mother's profound sleep, came to my room to enjoy
+in my arms the most delicious hours.  The burning ardour of my love
+was increased by the abstinence to which I condemned myself, although
+Lucie did everything in her power to make me break through my
+determination.  She could not fully enjoy the sweetness of the
+forbidden fruit unless I plucked it without reserve, and the effect
+produced by our constantly lying in each other's arms was too strong
+for a young girl to resist.  She tried everything she could to
+deceive me, and to make me believe that I had already, and in
+reality, gathered the whole flower, but Bettina's lessons had been
+too efficient to allow me to go on a wrong scent, and I reached the
+end of my stay without yielding entirely to the temptation she so
+fondly threw in my way.  I promised her to return in the spring; our
+farewell was tender and very sad, and I left her in a state of mind
+and of body which must have been the cause of her misfortunes, which,
+twenty years after, I had occasion to reproach myself with in
+Holland, and which will ever remain upon my conscience.
+
+A few days after my return to Venice, I had fallen back into all my
+old habits, and resumed my courtship of Angela in the hope that I
+would obtain from her, at least, as much as Lucie had granted to me.
+A certain dread which to-day I can no longer trace in my nature, a
+sort of terror of the consequences which might have a blighting
+influence upon my future, prevented me from giving myself up to
+complete enjoyment.  I do not know whether I have ever been a truly
+honest man, but I am fully aware that the feelings I fostered in my
+youth were by far more upright than those I have, as I lived on,
+forced myself to accept.  A wicked philosophy throws down too many of
+these barriers which we call prejudices.
+
+The two sisters who were sharing Angela's embroidery lessons were her
+intimate friends and the confidantes of all her secrets.  I made
+their acquaintance, and found that they disapproved of her extreme
+reserve towards me.  As I usually saw them with Angela and knew their
+intimacy with her, I would, when I happened to meet them alone, tell
+them all my sorrows, and, thinking only of my cruel sweetheart, I
+never was conceited enough to propose that these young girls might
+fall in love with me; but I often ventured to speak to them with all
+the blazing inspiration which was burning in me--a liberty I would
+not have dared to take in the presence of her whom I loved.  True
+love always begets reserve; we fear to be accused of exaggeration if
+we should give utterance to feelings inspired, by passion, and the
+modest lover, in his dread of saying too much, very often says too
+little.
+
+The teacher of embroidery, an old bigot, who at first appeared not to
+mind the attachment I skewed for Angela, got tired at last of my too
+frequent visits, and mentioned them to the abbe, the uncle of my fair
+lady.  He told me kindly one day that I ought not to call at that
+house so often, as my constant visits might be wrongly construed, and
+prove detrimental to the reputation of his niece.  His words fell
+upon me like a thunder-bolt, but I mastered my feelings sufficiently
+to leave him without incurring any suspicion, and I promised to
+follow his good advice.
+
+Three or four days afterwards, I paid a visit to the teacher of
+embroidery, and, to make her believe that my visit was only intended
+for her, I did not stop one instant near the young girls; yet I
+contrived to slip in the hand of the eldest of the two sisters a note
+enclosing another for my dear Angela, in which I explained why I had
+been compelled to discontinue my visits, entreating her to devise
+some means by which I could enjoy the happiness of seeing her and of
+conversing with her.  In my note to Nanette, I only begged her to
+give my letter to her friend, adding that I would see them again the
+day after the morrow, and that I trusted to her to find an
+opportunity for delivering me the answer.  She managed it all very
+cleverly, and, when I renewed my visit two days afterwards, she gave
+me a letter without attracting the attention of anyone.
+Nanette's letter enclosed a very short note from Angela, who,
+disliking letter-writing, merely advised me to follow, if I could,
+the plan proposed by her friend.  Here is the copy of the letter
+written by Nanette, which I have always kept, as well as all other
+letters which I give in these Memoirs:
+
+"There is nothing in the world, reverend sir, that I would not
+readily do for my friend.  She visits at our house every holiday, has
+supper with us, and sleeps under our roof.  I will suggest the best
+way for you to make the acquaintance of Madame Orio, our aunt; but,
+if you obtain an introduction to her, you must be very careful not to
+let her suspect your preference for Angela, for our aunt would
+certainly object to her house being made a place of rendezvous to
+facilitate your interviews with a stranger to her family.  Now for
+the plan I propose, and in the execution of which I will give you
+every assistance in my power.  Madame Orio, although a woman of good
+station in life, is not wealthy, and she wishes to have her name
+entered on the list of noble widows who receive the bounties bestowed
+by the Confraternity of the Holy Sacrament, of which M. de Malipiero
+is president.  Last Sunday, Angela mentioned that you are in the good
+graces of that nobleman, and that the best way to obtain his
+patronage would be to ask you to entreat it in her behalf.  The
+foolish girl added that you were smitten with me, that all your
+visits to our mistress of embroidery were made for my special benefit
+and for the sake of entertaining me, and that I would find it a very
+easy task to interest you in her favour.  My aunt answered that, as
+you are a priest, there was no fear of any harm, and she told me to
+write to you with an invitation to call on her; I refused.  The
+procurator Rosa, who is a great favourite of my aunt's, was present;
+he approved of my refusal, saying that the letter ought to be written
+by her and not by me, that it was for my aunt to beg the honour of
+your visit on business of real importance, and that, if there was any
+truth in the report of your love for me, you would not fail to come.
+My aunt, by his advice, has therefore written the letter which you
+will find at your house.  If you wish to meet Angela, postpone your
+visit to us until next Sunday.  Should you succeed in obtaining M.
+de Malipiero's good will in favour of my aunt, you will become the
+pet of the household, but you must forgive me if I appear to treat
+you with coolness, for I have said that I do not like you.  I would
+advise you to make love to my aunt, who is sixty years of age;
+M. Rosa will not be jealous, and you will become dear to everyone.
+For my part, I will manage for you an opportunity for some private
+conversation with Angela, and I will do anything to convince you of
+my friendship.  Adieu."
+
+This plan appeared to me very well conceived, and, having the same
+evening received Madame Orio's letter, I called upon her on the
+following day, Sunday.  I was welcomed in a very friendly manner, and
+the lady, entreating me to exert in her behalf my influence with M.
+de Malipiero, entrusted me with all the papers which I might require
+to succeed.  I undertook to do my utmost, and I took care to address
+only a few words to Angela, but I directed all my gallant attentions
+to Nanette, who treated me as coolly as could be.  Finally, I won the
+friendship of the old procurator Rosa, who, in after years, was of
+some service to me.
+
+I had so much at stake in the success of Madame Orio's petition, that
+I thought of nothing else, and knowing all the power of the beautiful
+Therese Imer over our amorous senator, who would be but too happy to
+please her in anything, I determined to call upon her the next day,
+and I went straight to her room without being announced.  I found her
+alone with the physician Doro, who, feigning to be on a professional
+visit, wrote a prescription, felt her pulse, and went off.  This Doro
+was suspected of being in love with Therese; M. de Malipiero, who was
+jealous, had forbidden Therese to receive his visits, and she had
+promised to obey him.  She knew that I was acquainted with those
+circumstances, and my presence was evidently unpleasant to her, for
+she had certainly no wish that the old man should hear how she kept
+her promise.  I thought that no better opportunity could be found of
+obtaining from her everything I wished.
+
+I told her in a few words the object of my visit, and I took care to
+add that she could rely upon my discretion, and that I would not for
+the world do her any injury.  Therese, grateful for this assurance,
+answered that she rejoiced at finding an occasion to oblige me, and,
+asking me to give her the papers of my protege, she shewed me the
+certificates and testimonials of another lady in favour of whom she
+had undertaken to speak, and whom, she said, she would sacrifice to
+the person in whose behalf I felt interested.  She kept her word, for
+the very next day she placed in my hands the brevet, signed by his
+excellency as president of the confraternity.  For the present, and
+with the expectation of further favours, Madame Orio's name was put
+down to share the bounties which were distributed twice a year.
+
+Nanette and her sister Marton were the orphan daughters of a sister
+of Madame Orio.  All the fortune of the good lady consisted in the
+house which was her dwelling, the first floor being let, and in a
+pension given to her by her brother, member of the council of ten.
+She lived alone with her two charming nieces, the eldest sixteen, and
+the youngest fifteen years of age.  She kept no servant, and only
+employed an old woman, who, for one crown a month, fetched water, and
+did the rough work.  Her only friend was the procurator Rosa; he had,
+like her, reached his sixtieth year, and expected to marry her as
+soon as he should become a widower.
+
+The two sisters slept together on the third floor in a large bed,
+which was likewise shared by Angela every Sunday.
+
+As soon as I found myself in possession of the deed for Madame Orio,
+I hastened to pay a visit to the mistress of embroidery, in order to
+find an opportunity of acquainting Nanette with my success, and in a
+short note which I prepared, I informed her that in two days I would
+call to give the brevet to Madame Orio, and I begged her earnestly
+not to forget her promise to contrive a private interview with my
+dear Angela.
+
+When I arrived, on the appointed day, at Madame Orio's house,
+Nanette, who had watched for my coming, dexterously conveyed to my
+hand a billet, requesting me to find a moment to read it before
+leaving the house.  I found Madame Orio, Angela, the old procurator,
+and Marton in the room.  Longing to read the note, I refused the seat
+offered to me, and presenting to Madame Orio the deed she had so long
+desired, I asked, as my only reward, the pleasure of kissing her
+hand, giving her to understand that I wanted to leave the room
+immediately.
+
+"Oh, my dear abbe!" said the lady, "you shall have a kiss, but not on
+my hand, and no one can object to it, as I am thirty years older than
+you."
+
+She might have said forty-five without going much astray.  I gave her
+two kisses, which evidently satisfied her, for she desired me to
+perform the same ceremony with her nieces, but they both ran away,
+and Angela alone stood the brunt of my hardihood.  After this the
+widow asked me to sit down.
+
+"I cannot, Madame."
+
+"Why, I beg?"
+
+"I have--."
+
+"I understand.  Nanette, shew the way."
+
+"Dear aunt, excuse me."
+
+"Well, then, Marton."
+
+"Oh! dear aunt, why do you not insist upon my sister obeying your
+orders?"
+
+"Alas! madame, these young ladies are quite right.  Allow me to
+retire."
+
+"No, my dear abbe, my nieces are very foolish; M. Rosa, I am sure,
+will kindly."
+
+The good procurator takes me affectionately by the hand, and leads me
+to the third story, where he leaves me.  The moment I am alone I open
+my letter, and I read the following:
+
+"My aunt will invite you to supper; do not accept.  Go away as soon
+as we sit down to table, and Marton will escort you as far as the
+street door, but do not leave the house.  When the street door is
+closed again, everyone thinking you are gone, go upstairs in the dark
+as far as the third floor, where you must wait for us.  We will come
+up the moment M.  Rosa has left the house, and our aunt has gone to
+bed.  Angela will be at liberty to grant you throughout the night a
+tete-a-tete which, I trust, will prove a happy one."
+
+Oh! what joy-what gratitude for the lucky chance which allowed me to
+read this letter on the very spot where I was to expect the dear
+abject of my love! Certain of finding my way without the slightest
+difficulty, I returned to Madame Orio's sitting-room, overwhelmed
+with happiness.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+An Unlucky Night I Fall in Love with the Two Sisters, and Forget
+Angela--A Ball at My House--Juliette's Humiliation--My Return to
+Pasian--Lucie's Misfortune--A Propitious Storm
+
+
+On my reappearance, Madame Orio told me, with many heart-felt thanks,
+that I must for the future consider myself as a privileged and
+welcome friend, and the evening passed off very pleasantly.  As the
+hour for supper drew near, I excused myself so well that Madame Orio
+could not insist upon my accepting her invitation to stay.  Marton
+rose to light me out of the room, but her aunt, believing Nanette to
+be my favourite, gave her such an imperative order to accompany me
+that she was compelled to obey.  She went down the stairs rapidly,
+opened and closed the street door very noisily, and putting her light
+out, she reentered the sitting room, leaving me in darkness.  I went
+upstairs softly: when I reached the third landing I found the chamber
+of the two sisters, and, throwing myself upon a sofa, I waited
+patiently for the rising of the star of my happiness.  An hour passed
+amidst the sweetest dreams of my imagination; at last I hear the
+noise of the street door opening and closing, and, a few minutes
+after, the two sisters come in with my Angela.  I draw her towards
+me, and caring for nobody else, I keep up for two full hours my
+conversation with her.  The clock strikes midnight; I am pitied for
+having gone so late supperless, but I am shocked at such an idea; I
+answer that, with such happiness as I am enjoying, I can suffer from
+no human want.  I am told that I am a prisoner, that the key of the
+house door is under the aunt's pillow, and that it is opened only by
+herself as she goes in the morning to the first mass.  I wonder at my
+young friends imagining that such news can be anything but delightful
+to me.  I express all my joy at the certainty of passing the next
+five hours with the beloved mistress of my heart.  Another hour is
+spent, when suddenly Nanette begins to laugh, Angela wants to know
+the reason, and Marton whispering a few words to her, they both laugh
+likewise.  This puzzles me.  In my turn, I want to know what causes
+this general laughter, and at last Nanette, putting on an air of
+anxiety, tells me that they have no more candle, and that in a few
+minutes we shall be in the dark.  This is a piece of news
+particularly agreeable to me, but I do not let my satisfaction appear
+on my countenance, and saying how truly I am sorry for their sake, I
+propose that they should go to bed and sleep quietly under my
+respectful guardianship.  My proposal increases their merriment.
+
+"What can we do in the dark?"
+
+"We can talk."
+
+We were four; for the last three hours we had been talking, and I was
+the hero of the romance.  Love is a great poet, its resources are
+inexhaustible, but if the end it has in view is not obtained, it
+feels weary and remains silent.  My Angela listened willingly, but
+little disposed to talk herself, she seldom answered, and she
+displayed good sense rather than wit.  To weaken the force of my
+arguments, she was often satisfied with hurling at me a proverb,
+somewhat in the fashion of the Romans throwing the catapult.  Every
+time that my poor hands came to the assistance of love, she drew
+herself back or repulsed me.  Yet, in spite of all, I went on talking
+and using my hands without losing courage, but I gave myself up to
+despair when I found that my rather artful arguing astounded her
+without bringing conviction to her heart, which was only disquieted,
+never softened.  On the other hand, I could see with astonishment
+upon their countenances the impression made upon the two sisters by
+the ardent speeches I poured out to Angela.  This metaphysical curve
+struck me as unnatural, it ought to have been an angle; I was then,
+unhappily for myself, studying geometry.  I was in such a state that,
+notwithstanding the cold, I was perspiring profusely.  At last the
+light was nearly out, and Nanette took it away.
+
+The moment we were in the dark, I very naturally extended my arms to
+seize her whom I loved; but I only met with empty space, and I could
+not help laughing at the rapidity with which Angela had availed
+herself of the opportunity of escaping me.  For one full hour I
+poured out all the tender, cheerful words that love inspired me with,
+to persuade her to come back to me; I could only suppose that it was
+a joke to tease me.  But I became impatient.
+
+"The joke," I said, "has lasted long enough; it is foolish, as I
+could not run after you, and I am surprised to hear you laugh, for
+your strange conduct leads me to suppose that you are making fun of
+me.  Come and take your seat near me, and if I must speak to you
+without seeing you let my hands assure me that I am not addressing my
+words to the empty air.  To continue this game would be an insult to
+me, and my love does not deserve such a return."
+
+"Well, be calm.  I will listen to every word you may say, but you
+must feel that it would not be decent for me to place myself near you
+in this dark room."
+
+"Do you want me to stand where I am until morning?"
+
+"Lie down on the bed, and go to sleep."
+
+"In wonder, indeed, at your thinking me capable of doing so in the
+state I am in.  Well, I suppose we must play at blind man's buff."
+
+Thereupon, I began to feel right and left, everywhere, but in vain.
+Whenever I caught anyone it always turned out to be Nanette or
+Marton, who at once discovered themselves, and I, stupid Don Quixote,
+instantly would let them go!  Love and prejudice blinded me, I could
+not see how ridiculous I was with my respectful reserve.  I had not
+yet read the anecdotes of Louis XIII, king of France, but I had read
+Boccacio.  I kept on seeking in vain, reproaching her with her
+cruelty, and entreating her to let me catch her; but she would only
+answer that the difficulty of meeting each other was mutual.  The
+room was not large, and I was enraged at my want of success.
+
+Tired and still more vexed, I sat down, and for the next hour I told
+the history of Roger, when Angelica disappears through the power of
+the magic ring which the loving knight had so imprudently given her:
+
+     'Cosi dicendo, intorno a la fortuna
+     Brancolando n'andava come cieco.
+     O quante volte abbraccio l'aria vana
+     Speyando la donzella abbracciar seco'.
+
+Angela had not read Ariosto, but Nanette had done so several times.
+She undertook the defence of Angelica, and blamed the simplicity of
+Roger, who, if he had been wise, would never have trusted the ring to
+a coquette.  I was delighted with Nanette, but I was yet too much of
+a novice to apply her remarks to myself.
+
+Only one more hour remained, and I was to leave before the break of
+day, for Madame Orio would have died rather than give way to the
+temptation of missing the early mass.  During that hour I spoke to
+Angela, trying to convince her that she ought to come and sit by me.
+My soul went through every gradation of hope and despair, and the
+reader cannot possibly realize it unless he has been placed in a
+similar position.  I exhausted the most convincing arguments; then I
+had recourse to prayers, and even to tears; but, seeing all was
+useless, I gave way to that feeling of noble indignation which lends
+dignity to anger.  Had I not been in the dark, I might, I truly
+believe, have struck the proud monster, the cruel girl, who had thus
+for five hours condemned me to the most distressing suffering.  I
+poured out all the abuse, all the insulting words that despised love
+can suggest to an infuriated mind; I loaded her with the deepest
+curses; I swore that my love had entirely turned into hatred, and, as
+a finale, I advised her to be careful, as I would kill her the moment
+I would set my eyes on her.
+
+My invectives came to an end with the darkness.  At the first break
+of day, and as soon as I heard the noise made by the bolt and the key
+of the street door, which Madame Orio was opening to let herself out,
+that she might seek in the church the repose of which her pious soul
+was in need, I got myself ready and looked for my cloak and for my
+hat.  But how can I ever portray the consternation in which I was
+thrown when, casting a sly glance upon the young friends, I found the
+three bathed in tears!  In my shame and despair I thought of
+committing suicide, and sitting down again, I recollected my brutal
+speeches, and upbraided myself for having wantonly caused them to
+weep.  I could not say one word; I felt choking; at last tears came
+to my assistance, and I gave way to a fit of crying which relieved
+me.  Nanette then remarked that her aunt would soon return home; I
+dried my eyes, and, not venturing another look at Angela or at her
+friends, I ran away without uttering a word, and threw myself on my
+bed, where sleep would not visit my troubled mind.
+
+At noon, M. de Malipiero, noticing the change in my countenance,
+enquired what ailed me, and longing to unburden my heart, I told him
+all that had happened.  The wise old man did not laugh at my sorrow,
+but by his sensible advice he managed to console me and to give me
+courage.  He was in the same predicament with the beautiful Therese.
+Yet he could not help giving way to his merriment when at dinner he
+saw me, in spite of my grief, eat with increased appetite; I had gone
+without my supper the night before; he complimented me upon my happy
+constitution.
+
+I was determined never to visit Madame Orio's house, and on that very
+day I held an argument in metaphysics, in which I contended that any
+being of whom we had only an abstract idea, could only exist
+abstractedly, and I was right; but it was a very easy task to give to
+my thesis an irreligious turn, and I was obliged to recant.  A few
+days afterwards I went to Padua, where I took my degree of doctor
+'utroque jure'.
+
+When I returned to Venice, I received a note from M. Rosa, who
+entreated me to call upon Madame Orio; she wished to see me, and,
+feeling certain of not meeting Angela, I paid her a visit the same
+evening.  The two graceful sisters were so kind, so pleasant, that
+they scattered to the winds the shame I felt at seeing them after the
+fearful night I had passed in their room two months before.  The
+labours of writing my thesis and passing my examination were of
+course sufficient excuses for Madame Orio, who only wanted to
+reproach me for having remained so long away from her house.
+
+As I left, Nanette gave me a letter containing a note from Angela,
+the contents of which ran as follows:
+
+"If you are not afraid of passing another night with me you shall
+have no reason to complain of me, for I love you, and I wish to hear
+from your own lips whether you would still have loved me if I had
+consented to become contemptible in your eyes."
+
+This is the letter of Nanette, who alone had her wits about her:
+
+"M. Rosa having undertaken to bring you back to our house, I prepare
+these few lines to let you know that Angela is in despair at having
+lost you.  I confess that the night you spent with us was a cruel
+one, but I do not think that you did rightly in giving up your visits
+to Madame Orio.  If you still feel any love for Angela, I advise you
+to take your chances once more.  Accept a rendezvous for another
+night; she may vindicate herself, and you will be happy.  Believe me;
+come.  Farewell!"
+
+Those two letters afforded me much gratification, for I had it in my
+power to enjoy my revenge by shewing to Angela the coldest contempt.
+Therefore, on the following Sunday I went to Madame Orio's house,
+having provided myself with a smoked tongue and a couple of bottles
+of Cyprus wine; but to my great surprise my cruel mistress was not
+there.  Nanette told me that she had met her at church in the
+morning, and that she would not be able to come before supper-time.
+Trusting to that promise I declined Madam Orio's invitation, and
+before the family sat down to supper I left the room as I had done on
+the former occasion, and slipped upstairs.  I longed to represent the
+character I had prepared myself for, and feeling assured that Angela,
+even if she should prove less cruel, would only grant me
+insignificant favours, I despised them in anticipation, and resolved
+to be avenged.
+
+After waiting three quarters of an hour the street door was locked,
+and a moment later Nanette and Marton entered the room.
+
+"Where is Angela?" I enquired.
+
+"She must have been unable to come, or to send a message.  Yet she
+knows you are here."
+
+"She thinks she has made a fool of me; but I suspected she would act
+in this way.  You know her now.  She is trifling with me, and very
+likely she is now revelling in her triumph.  She has made use of you
+to allure me in the snare, and it is all the better for her; had she
+come, I meant to have had my turn, and to have laughed at her."
+
+"Ah!  you must allow me to have my doubts as to that."
+
+"Doubt me not, beautiful Nanette; the pleasant night we are going to
+spend without her must convince you."
+
+"That is to say that, as a man of sense, you can accept us as a
+makeshift; but you can sleep here, and my sister can lie with me on
+the sofa in the next room."
+
+"I cannot hinder you, but it would be great unkindness on your part.
+At all events, I do not intend to go to bed."
+
+"What! you would have the courage to spend seven hours alone with us?
+Why, I am certain that in a short time you will be at a loss what to
+say, and you will fall asleep."
+
+"Well, we shall see.  In the mean-time here are provisions.  You will
+not be so cruel as to let me eat alone?  Can you get any bread?"
+
+"Yes, and to please you we must have a second supper."
+
+"I ought to be in love with you.  Tell me, beautiful Nanette, if I
+were as much attached to you as I was to Angela, would you follow her
+example and make me unhappy?"
+
+"How can you ask such a question?  It is worthy of a conceited man.
+All I can answer is, that I do not know what I would do."
+
+They laid the cloth, brought some bread, some Parmesan cheese and
+water, laughing all the while, and then we went to work.  The wine,
+to which they were not accustomed, went to their heads, and their
+gaiety was soon delightful.  I wondered, as I looked at them, at my
+having been blind enough not to see their merit.
+
+After our supper, which was delicious, I sat between them, holding
+their hands, which I pressed to my lips, asking them whether they
+were truly my friends, and whether they approved of Angela's conduct
+towards me.  They both answered that it had made them shed many
+tears.  "Then let me," I said, "have for you the tender feelings of a
+brother, and share those feelings yourselves as if you were my
+sisters; let us exchange, in all innocence, proofs of our mutual
+affection, and swear to each other an eternal fidelity."
+
+The first kiss I gave them was prompted by entirely harmless motives,
+and they returned the kiss, as they assured me a few days afterwards
+only to prove to me that they reciprocated my brotherly feelings; but
+those innocent kisses, as we repeated them, very soon became ardent
+ones, and kindled a flame which certainly took us by surprise, for we
+stopped, as by common consent, after a short time, looking at each
+other very much astonished and rather serious.  They both left me
+without affectation, and I remained alone with my thoughts.  Indeed,
+it was natural that the burning kisses I had given and received
+should have sent through me the fire of passion, and that I should
+suddenly have fallen madly in love with the two amiable sisters.
+Both were handsomer than Angela, and they were superior to her--
+Nanette by her charming wit, Marton by her sweet and simple nature; I
+could not understand how I had been so long in rendering them the
+justice they deserved, but they were the innocent daughters of a
+noble family, and the lucky chance which had thrown them in my way
+ought not to prove a calamity for them.  I was not vain enough to
+suppose that they loved me, but I could well enough admit that my
+kisses had influenced them in the same manner that their kisses had
+influenced me, and, believing this to be the case, it was evident
+that, with a little cunning on my part, and of sly practices of which
+they were ignorant, I could easily, during the long night I was going
+to spend with them, obtain favours, the consequences of which might
+be very positive.  The very thought made me shudder, and I firmly
+resolved to respect their virtue, never dreaming that circumstances
+might prove too strong for me.
+
+When they returned, I read upon their countenances perfect security
+and satisfaction, and I quickly put on the same appearance, with a
+full determination not to expose myself again to the danger of their
+kisses.
+
+For one hour we spoke of Angela, and I expressed my determination
+never to see her again, as I had every proof that she did not care
+for me.  "She loves you," said the artless Marton; "I know she does,
+but if you do not mean to marry her, you will do well to give up all
+intercourse with her, for she is quite determined not to grant you
+even a kiss as long as you are not her acknowledged suitor.  You must
+therefore either give up the acquaintance altogether, or make up your
+mind that she will refuse you everything."
+
+"You argue very well, but how do you know that she loves me?"
+
+"I am quite sure of it, and as you have promised to be our brother, I
+can tell you why I have that conviction.  When Angela is in bed with
+me, she embraces me lovingly and calls me her dear abbe."
+
+The words were scarcely spoken when Nanette, laughing heartily,
+placed her hand on her sister's lips, but the innocent confession had
+such an effect upon me that I could hardly control myself.
+
+Marton told Nanette that I could not possibly be ignorant of what
+takes place between young girls sleeping together.
+
+"There is no doubt," I said, "that everybody knows those trifles, and
+I do not think, dear Nanette, that you ought to reproach your sister
+with indiscretion for her friendly confidence."
+
+"It cannot be helped now, but such things ought not to be mentioned.
+If Angela knew it!"
+
+"She would be vexed, of course; but Marton has given me a mark of her
+friendship which I never can forget.  But it is all over; I hate
+Angela, and I do not mean to speak to her any more! she is false, and
+she wishes my ruin."
+
+"Yet, loving you, is she wrong to think of having you for her
+husband?"
+
+"Granted that she is not; but she thinks only of her own self, for
+she knows what I suffer, and her conduct would be very different if
+she loved me.  In the mean time, thanks to her imagination, she finds
+the means of satisfying her senses with the charming Marton who
+kindly performs the part of her husband."
+
+Nanette laughed louder, but I kept very serious, and I went on
+talking to her sister, and praising her sincerity.  I said that very
+likely, and to reciprocate her kindness, Angela must likewise have
+been her husband, but she answered, with a smile, that Angela played
+husband only to Nanette, and Nanette could not deny it.
+
+"But," said I, "what name did Nanette, in her rapture, give to her
+husband?"
+
+"Nobody knows."
+
+"Do you love anyone, Nanette?"
+
+"I do; but my secret is my own."
+
+This reserve gave me the suspicion that I had something to do with
+her secret, and that Nanette was the rival of Angela.  Such a
+delightful conversation caused me to lose the wish of passing an idle
+night with two girls so well made for love.
+
+"It is very lucky," I exclaimed, "that I have for you only feelings
+of friendship; otherwise it would be very hard to pass the night
+without giving way to the temptation of bestowing upon you proofs of
+my affection, for you are both so lovely, so bewitching, that you
+would turn the brains of any man."
+
+As I went on talking, I pretended to be somewhat sleepy; Nanette
+being the first to notice it, said, "Go to bed without any ceremony,
+we will lie down on the sofa in the adjoining room."
+
+"I would be a very poor-spirited fellow indeed, if I agreed to this;
+let us talk; my sleepiness will soon pass off, but I am anxious about
+you.  Go to bed yourselves, my charming friends, and I will go into
+the next room.  If you are afraid of me, lock the door, but you would
+do me an injustice, for I feel only a brother's yearnings towards
+you."
+
+"We cannot accept such an arrangement," said Nanette, "but let me
+persuade you; take this bed."
+
+"I cannot sleep with my clothes on."
+
+"Undress yourself; we will not look at you."
+
+"I have no fear of it, but how could I find the heart to sleep, while
+on my account you are compelled to sit up?"
+
+"Well," said Marton, "we can lie down, too, without undressing."
+
+"If you shew me such distrust, you will offend me.  Tell me, Nanette,
+do you think I am an honest man?"
+
+"Most certainly."
+
+"Well, then, give me a proof of your good opinion; lie down near me
+in the bed, undressed, and rely on my word of honour that I will not
+even lay a finger upon you.  Besides, you are two against one, what
+can you fear?  Will you not be free to get out of the bed in case I
+should not keep quiet?  In short, unless you consent to give me this
+mark of your confidence in me, at least when I have fallen asleep, I
+cannot go to bed."
+
+I said no more, and pretended to be very sleepy.  They exchanged a
+few words, whispering to each other, and Marton told me to go to bed,
+that they would follow me as soon as I was asleep.  Nanette made me
+the same promise, I turned my back to them, undressed myself quickly,
+and wishing them good night, I went to bed.  I immediately pretended
+to fall asleep, but soon I dozed in good earnest, and only woke when
+they came to bed.  Then, turning round as if I wished to resume my
+slumbers, I remained very quiet until I could suppose them fast
+asleep; at all events, if they did not sleep, they were at liberty to
+pretend to do so.  Their backs were towards me, and the light was
+out; therefore I could only act at random, and I paid my first
+compliments to the one who was lying on my right, not knowing whether
+she was Nanette or Marton.  I find her bent in two, and wrapped up in
+the only garment she had kept on.  Taking my time, and sparing her
+modesty, I compel her by degrees to acknowledge her defeat, and
+convince her that it is better to feign sleep and to let me proceed.
+Her natural instincts soon working in concert with mine, I reach the
+goal; and my efforts, crowned with the most complete success, leave
+me not the shadow of a doubt that I have gathered those first-fruits
+to which our prejudice makes us attach so great an importance.
+Enraptured at having enjoyed my manhood completely and for the first
+time, I quietly leave my beauty in order to do homage to the other
+sister.  I find her motionless, lying on her back like a person
+wrapped in profound and undisturbed slumber.  Carefully managing my
+advance, as if I were afraid of waking her up, I begin by gently
+gratifying her senses, and I ascertain the delightful fact that, like
+her sister, she is still in possession of her maidenhood.  As soon as
+a natural movement proves to me that love accepts the offering, I
+take my measures to consummate the sacrifice.  At that moment, giving
+way suddenly to the violence of her feelings, and tired of her
+assumed dissimulation, she warmly locks me in her arms at the very
+instant of the voluptuous crisis, smothers me with kisses, shares my
+raptures, and love blends our souls in the most ecstatic enjoyment.
+
+Guessing her to be Nanette, I whisper her name.
+
+"Yes, I am Nanette," she answers; "and I declare myself happy, as
+well as my sister, if you prove yourself true and faithful."
+
+"Until death, my beloved ones, and as everything we have done is the
+work of love, do not let us ever mention the name of Angela."
+
+After this, I begged that she would give us a light; but Marton,
+always kind and obliging, got out of bed leaving us alone.  When I
+saw Nanette in my arms, beaming with love, and Marton near the bed,
+holding a candle, with her eyes reproaching us with ingratitude
+because we did not speak to her, who, by accepting my first caresses,
+had encouraged her sister to follow her example, I realized all my
+happiness.
+
+"Let us get up, my darlings," said I, "and swear to each other
+eternal affection."
+
+When we had risen we performed, all three together, ablutions which
+made them laugh a good deal, and which gave a new impetus to the
+ardour of our feelings.  Sitting up in the simple costume of nature,
+we ate the remains of our supper, exchanging those thousand trifling
+words which love alone can understand, and we again retired to our
+bed, where we spent a most delightful night giving each other mutual
+and oft-repeated proofs of our passionate ardour.  Nanette was the
+recipient of my last bounties, for Madame Orio having left the house
+to go to church, I had to hasten my departure, after assuring the two
+lovely sisters that they had effectually extinguished whatever flame
+might still have flickered in my heart for Angela.  I went home and
+slept soundly until dinner-time.
+
+M. de Malipiero passed a remark upon my cheerful looks and the dark
+circles around my eyes, but I kept my own counsel, and I allowed him
+to think whatever he pleased.  On the following day I paid a visit to
+Madame Orio, and Angela not being of the party, I remained to supper
+and retired with M. Rosa.  During the evening Nanette contrived to
+give me a letter and a small parcel.  The parcel contained a small
+lump of wax with the stamp of a key, and the letter told me to have a
+key made, and to use it to enter the house whenever I wished to spend
+the night with them.  She informed me at the same time that Angela
+had slept with them the night following our adventures, and that,
+thanks to their mutual and usual practices, she had guessed the real
+state of things, that they had not denied it, adding that it was all
+her fault, and that Angela, after abusing them most vehemently, had
+sworn never again to darken their doors; but they did not care a jot.
+
+A few days afterwards our good fortune delivered us from Angela; she
+was taken to Vicenza by her father, who had removed there for a
+couple of years, having been engaged to paint frescoes in some houses
+in that city.  Thanks to her absence, I found myself undisturbed
+possessor of the two charming sisters, with whom I spent at least two
+nights every week, finding no difficulty in entering the house with
+the key which I had speedily procured.
+
+Carnival was nearly over, when M.  Manzoni informed me one day that
+the celebrated Juliette wished to see me, and regretted much that I
+had ceased to visit her.  I felt curious as to what she had to say to
+me, and accompanied him to her house.  She received me very politely,
+and remarking that she had heard of a large hall I had in my house,
+she said she would like to give a ball there, if I would give her the
+use of it.  I readily consented, and she handed me twenty-four
+sequins for the supper and for the band, undertaking to send people
+to place chandeliers in the hall and in my other rooms.
+
+M. de Sanvitali had left Venice, and the Parmesan government had
+placed his estates in chancery in consequence of his extravagant
+expenditure.  I met him at Versailles ten years afterwards.  He wore
+the insignia of the king's order of knighthood, and was grand equerry
+to the eldest daughter of Louis XV., Duchess of Parma, who, like all
+the French princesses, could not be reconciled to the climate of
+Italy.
+
+The ball took place, and went off splendidly.  All the guests
+belonged to Juliette's set, with the exception of Madame Orio, her
+nieces, and the procurator Rosa, who sat together in the room
+adjoining the hall, and whom I had been permitted to introduce as
+persons of no consequence whatever.
+
+While the after-supper minuets were being danced Juliette took me
+apart, and said, "Take me to your bedroom; I have just got an amusing
+idea."
+
+My room was on the third story; I shewed her the way.  The moment we
+entered she bolted the door, much to my surprise.  "I wish you," she
+said, "to dress me up in your ecclesiastical clothes, and I will
+disguise you as a woman with my own things.  We will go down and
+dance together.  Come, let us first dress our hair."
+
+Feeling sure of something pleasant to come, and delighted with such
+an unusual adventure, I lose no time in arranging her hair, and I let
+her afterwards dress mine.  She applies rouge and a few beauty spots
+to my face; I humour her in everything, and to prove her
+satisfaction, she gives me with the best of grace a very loving kiss,
+on condition that I do not ask for anything else.
+
+"As you please, beautiful Juliette, but I give you due notice that I
+adore you!"
+
+I place upon my bed a shirt, an abbe's neckband, a pair of drawers,
+black silk stockings--in fact, a complete fit-out.  Coming near the
+bed, Juliette drops her skirt, and cleverly gets into the drawers,
+which were not a bad fit, but when she comes to the breeches there is
+some difficulty; the waistband is too narrow, and the only remedy is
+to rip it behind or to cut it, if necessary.  I undertake to make
+everything right, and, as I sit on the foot of my bed, she places
+herself in front of me, with her back towards me.  I begin my work,
+but she thinks that I want to see too much, that I am not skilful
+enough, and that my fingers wander in unnecessary places; she gets
+fidgety, leaves me, tears the breeches, and manages in her own way.
+Then I help her to put her shoes on, and I pass the shirt over her
+head, but as I am disposing the ruffle and the neck-band, she
+complains of my hands being too curious; and in truth, her bosom was
+rather scanty.  She calls me a knave and rascal, but I take no notice
+of her.  I was not going to be duped, and I thought that a woman who
+had been paid one hundred thousand ducats was well worth some study.
+At last, her toilet being completed, my turn comes.  In spite of her
+objections I quickly get rid of my breeches, and she must put on me
+the chemise, then a skirt, in a word she has to dress me up.  But all
+at once, playing the coquette, she gets angry because I do not
+conceal from her looks the very apparent proof that her charms have
+some effect on a particular part of my being, and she refuses to
+grant me the favour which would soon afford both relief and calm.  I
+try to kiss her, and she repulses me, whereupon I lose patience, and
+in spite of herself she has to witness the last stage of my
+excitement.  At the sight of this, she pours out every insulting word
+she can think of; I endeavour to prove that she is to blame, but it
+is all in vain.
+
+However, she is compelled to complete my disguise.  There is no doubt
+that an honest woman would not have exposed herself to such an
+adventure, unless she had intended to prove her tender feelings, and
+that she would not have drawn back at the very moment she saw them
+shared by her companion; but women like Juliette are often guided by
+a spirit of contradiction which causes them to act against their own
+interests.  Besides, she felt disappointed when she found out that I
+was not timid, and my want of restraint appeared to her a want of
+respect.  She would not have objected to my stealing a few light
+favours which she would have allowed me to take, as being of no
+importance, but, by doing that, I should have flattered her vanity
+too highly.
+
+Our disguise being complete, we went together to the dancing-hall,
+where the enthusiastic applause of the guests soon restored our good
+temper.  Everybody gave me credit for a piece of fortune which I had
+not enjoyed, but I was not ill-pleased with the rumour, and went on
+dancing with the false abbe, who was only too charming.  Juliette
+treated me so well during the night that I construed her manners
+towards me into some sort of repentance, and I almost regretted what
+had taken place between us; it was a momentary weakness for which I
+was sorely punished.
+
+At the end of the quadrille all the men thought they had a right to
+take liberties with the abbe, and I became myself rather free with
+the young girls, who would have been afraid of exposing themselves to
+ridicule had they offered any opposition to my caresses.
+
+M. Querini was foolish enough to enquire from me whether I had kept
+on my breeches, and as I answered that I had been compelled to lend
+them to Juliette, he looked very unhappy, sat down in a corner of the
+room, and refused to dance.
+
+Every one of the guests soon remarked that I had on a woman's
+chemise, and nobody entertained a doubt of the sacrifice having been
+consummated, with the exception of Nanette and Marton, who could not
+imagine the possibility of my being unfaithful to them.  Juliette
+perceived that she had been guilty of great imprudence, but it was
+too late to remedy the evil.
+
+When we returned to my chamber upstairs, thinking that she had
+repented of her previous behaviour, and feeling some desire to
+possess her, I thought I would kiss her, and I took hold of her hand,
+saying I was disposed to give her every satisfaction, but she quickly
+slapped my face in so violent a manner that, in my indignation, I was
+very near returning the compliment.  I undressed myself rapidly
+without looking at her, she did the same, and we came downstairs;
+but, in spite of the cold water I had applied to my cheek, everyone
+could easily see the stamp of the large hand which had come in
+contact with my face.
+
+Before leaving the house, Juliette took me apart, and told me, in the
+most decided and impressive manner, that if I had any fancy for being
+thrown out of the window, I could enjoy that pleasure whenever I
+liked to enter her dwelling, and that she would have me murdered if
+this night's adventure ever became publicly known.  I took care not
+to give her any cause for the execution of either of her threats, but
+I could not prevent the fact of our having exchanged shirts being
+rather notorious.  As I was not seen at her house, it was generally
+supposed that she had been compelled by M. Querini to keep me at a
+distance.  The reader will see how, six years later, this
+extraordinary woman thought proper to feign entire forgetfulness of
+this adventure.
+
+I passed Lent, partly in the company of my loved ones, partly in the
+study of experimental physics at the Convent of the Salutation.  My
+evenings were always given to M. de Malipiero's assemblies.  At
+Easter, in order to keep the promise I had made to the Countess of
+Mont-Real, and longing to see again my beautiful Lucie, I went to
+Pasean.  I found the guests entirely different to the set I had met
+the previous autumn.  Count Daniel, the eldest of the family, had
+married a Countess Gozzi, and a young and wealthy government
+official, who had married a god-daughter of the old countess, was
+there with his wife and his sister-in-law.  I thought the supper very
+long.  The same room had been given to me, and I was burning to see
+Lucie, whom I did not intend to treat any more like a child.  I did
+not see her before going to bed, but I expected her early the next
+morning, when lo! instead of her pretty face brightening my eyes, I
+see standing before me a fat, ugly servant-girl!  I enquire after the
+gatekeeper's family, but her answer is given in the peculiar dialect
+of the place, and is, of course, unintelligible to me.
+
+I wonder what has become of Lucie; I fancy that our intimacy has been
+found out, I fancy that she is ill--dead, perhaps.  I dress myself
+with the intention of looking for her.  If she has been forbidden to
+see me, I think to myself, I will be even with them all, for somehow
+or other I will contrive the means of speaking to her, and out of
+spite I will do with her that which honour prevented love from
+accomplishing.  As I was revolving such thoughts, the gate-keeper
+comes in with a sorrowful countenance.  I enquire after his wife's
+health, and after his daughter, but at the name of Lucie his eyes are
+filled with tears.
+
+"What! is she dead?"
+
+"Would to God she were!"
+
+"What has she done?"
+
+"She has run away with Count Daniel's courier, and we have been
+unable to trace her anywhere."
+
+His wife comes in at the moment he replies, and at these words, which
+renewed her grief, the poor woman faints away.  The keeper, seeing
+how sincerely I felt for his misery, tells me that this great
+misfortune befell them only a week before my arrival.
+
+"I know that man l'Aigle," I say; "he is a scoundrel.  Did he ask to
+marry Lucie?"
+
+"No; he knew well enough that our consent would have been refused!"
+
+"I wonder at Lucie acting in such a way."
+
+"He seduced her, and her running away made us suspect the truth, for
+she had become very stout."
+
+"Had he known her long?"
+
+"About a month after your last visit she saw him for the first time.
+He must have thrown a spell over her, for our Lucie was as pure as a
+dove, and you can, I believe, bear testimony to her goodness."
+
+"And no one knows where they are?"
+
+"No one.  God alone knows what this villain will do with her."
+
+I grieved as much as the unfortunate parents; I went out and took a
+long ramble in the woods to give way to my sad feelings.  During two
+hours I cogitated over considerations, some true, some false, which
+were all prefaced by an if.  If I had paid this visit, as I might
+have done, a week sooner, loving Lucie would have confided in me, and
+I would have prevented that self-murder.  If I had acted with her as
+with Nanette and Marton, she would not have been left by me in that
+state of ardent excitement which must have proved the principal cause
+of her fault, and she would not have fallen a prey to that scoundrel.
+If she had not known me before meeting the courier, her innocent soul
+would never have listened to such a man.  I was in despair, for in my
+conscience I acknowledged myself the primary agent of this infamous
+seduction; I had prepared the way for the villain.
+
+Had I known where to find Lucie, I would certainly have gone forth on
+the instant to seek for her, but no trace whatever of her whereabouts
+had been discovered.
+
+Before I had been made acquainted with Lucie's misfortune I felt
+great pride at having had sufficient power over myself to respect her
+innocence; but after hearing what had happened I was ashamed of my
+own reserve, and I promised myself that for the future I would on
+that score act more wisely.  I felt truly miserable when my
+imagination painted the probability of the unfortunate girl being
+left to poverty and shame, cursing the remembrance of me, and hating
+me as the first cause of her misery.  This fatal event caused me to
+adopt a new system, which in after years I carried sometimes rather
+too far.
+
+I joined the cheerful guests of the countess in the gardens, and
+received such a welcome that I was soon again in my usual spirits,
+and at dinner I delighted everyone.
+
+My sorrow was so great that it was necessary either to drive it away
+at once or to leave Pasean.  But a new life crept into my being as I
+examined the face and the disposition of the newly-married lady.  Her
+sister was prettier, but I was beginning to feel afraid of a novice;
+I thought the work too great.
+
+This newly-married lady, who was between nineteen and twenty years of
+age, drew upon herself everybody's attention by her over-strained and
+unnatural manners. A great talker, with a memory crammed with maxims
+and precepts often without sense, but of which she loved to make a
+show, very devout, and so jealous of her husband that she did not
+conceal her vexation when he expressed his satisfaction at being
+seated at table opposite her sister, she laid herself open to much
+ridicule.  Her husband was a giddy young fellow, who perhaps felt
+very deep affection for his wife, but who imagined that, through good
+breeding, he ought to appear very indifferent, and whose vanity found
+pleasure in giving her constant causes for jealousy.  She, in her
+turn, had a great dread of passing for an idiot if she did not shew
+her appreciation of, and her resentment for, his conduct.  She felt
+uneasy in the midst of good company, precisely because she wished to
+appear thoroughly at home.  If I prattled away with some of my
+trilling nonsense, she would stare at me, and in her anxiety not to
+be thought stupid, she would laugh out of season.  Her oddity, her
+awkwardness, and her self-conceit gave me the desire to know her
+better, and I began to dance attendance upon her.
+
+My attentions, important and unimportant, my constant care, ever my
+fopperies, let everybody know that I meditated conquest.  The husband
+was duly warned, but, with a great show of intrepidity, he answered
+with a joke every time he was told that I was a formidable rival.  On
+my side I assumed a modest, and even sometimes a careless appearance,
+when, to shew his freedom from jealousy, he excited me to make love
+to his wife, who, on her part, understood but little how to perform
+the part of fancy free.
+
+I had been paying my address to her for five or six days with great
+constancy, when, taking a walk with her in the garden, she
+imprudently confided to me the reason of her anxiety respecting her
+husband, and how wrong he was to give her any cause for jealousy.  I
+told her, speaking as an old friend, that the best way to punish him
+would be to take no apparent notice of her, husband's preference for
+her sister, and to feign to be herself in love with me.  In order to
+entice her more easily to follow my advice, I added that I was well
+aware of my plan being a very difficult one to carry out, and that to
+play successfully such a character a woman must be particularly
+witty.  I had touched her weak point, and she exclaimed that she
+would play the part to perfection; but in spite of her self-
+confidence she acquitted herself so badly that everybody understood
+that the plan was of my own scheming.
+
+If I happened to be alone with her in the dark paths of the garden,
+and tried to make her play her part in real earnest, she would take
+the dangerous step of running away, and rejoining the other guests;
+the result being that, on my reappearance, I was called a bad
+sportsman who frightened the bird away.  I would not fail at the
+first opportunity to reproach her for her flight, and to represent
+the triumph she had thus prepared for her spouse.  I praised her
+mind, but lamented over the shortcomings of her education; I said
+that the tone, the manners I adopted towards her, were those of good
+society, and proved the great esteem I entertained for her
+intelligence, but in the middle of all my fine speeches, towards the
+eleventh or twelfth day of my courtship, she suddenly put me out of
+all conceit by telling me that, being a priest, I ought to know that
+every amorous connection was a deadly sin, that God could see every
+action of His creatures, and that she would neither damn her soul nor
+place herself under the necessity of saying to her confessor that she
+had so far forgotten herself as to commit such a sin with a priest.
+I objected that I was not yet a priest, but she foiled me by
+enquiring point-blank whether or not the act I had in view was to be
+numbered amongst the cardinal sins, for, not feeling the courage to
+deny it, I felt that I must give up the argument and put an end to
+the adventure.
+
+A little consideration having considerably calmed my feelings,
+everybody remarked my new countenance during dinner; and the old
+count, who was very fond of a joke, expressed loudly his opinion that
+such quiet demeanour on my part announced the complete success of my
+campaign.  Considering such a remark to be favourable to me, I took
+care to spew my cruel devotee that such was the way the world would
+judge, but all this was lost labour.  Luck, however, stood me in good
+stead, and my efforts were crowned with success in the following
+manner.
+
+On Ascension Day, we all went to pay a visit to Madame Bergali, a
+celebrated Italian poetess.  On my return to Pasean the same evening,
+my pretty mistress wished to get into a carriage for four persons in
+which her husband and sister were already seated, while I was alone
+in a two-wheeled chaise.  I exclaimed at this, saying that such a
+mark of distrust was indeed too pointed, and everybody remonstrated
+with her, saying that she ought not to insult me so cruelly.  She was
+compelled to come with me, and having told the postillion that I
+wanted to go by the nearest road, he left the other carriages, and
+took the way through the forest of Cequini.  The sky was clear and
+cloudless when we left, but in less than half-an-hour we were visited
+by one of those storms so frequent in the south, which appear likely
+to overthrow heaven and earth, and which end rapidly, leaving behind
+them a bright sky and a cool atmosphere, so that they do more good
+than harm.
+
+"Oh, heavens!" exclaimed my companion, "we shall have a storm."
+
+"Yes," I say, "and although the chaise is covered, the rain will
+spoil your pretty dress.  I am very sorry."
+
+"I do not mind the dress; but the thunder frightens me so!"
+
+"Close your ears."
+
+"And the lightning?"
+
+"Postillion, let us go somewhere for shelter."
+
+"There is not a house, sir, for a league, and before we come to it,
+the storm will have passed off."
+
+He quietly keeps on his way, and the lightning flashes, the thunder
+sends forth its mighty voice, and the lady shudders with fright.  The
+rain comes down in torrents, I take off my cloak to shelter us in
+front, at the same moment we are blinded by a flash of lightning, and
+the electric fluid strikes the earth within one hundred yards of us.
+The horses plunge and prance with fear, and my companion falls in
+spasmodic convulsions.  She throws herself upon me, and folds me in
+her arms.  The cloak had gone down, I stoop to place it around us,
+and improving my opportunity I take up her clothes.  She tries to
+pull them down, but another clap of thunder deprives her of every
+particle of strength.  Covering her with the cloak, I draw her
+towards me, and the motion of the chaise coming to my assistance, she
+falls over me in the most favourable position.  I lose no time, and
+under pretence of arranging my watch in my fob, I prepare myself for
+the assault.  On her side, conscious that, unless she stops me at
+once, all is lost, she makes a great effort; but I hold her tightly,
+saying that if she does not feign a fainting fit, the post-boy will
+turn round and see everything; I let her enjoy the pleasure of
+calling me an infidel, a monster, anything she likes, but my victory
+is the most complete that ever a champion achieved.
+
+The rain, however, was falling, the wind, which was very high, blew
+in our faces, and, compelled to stay where she was, she said I would
+ruin her reputation, as the postillion could see everything.
+
+"I keep my eye upon him," I answered, "he is not thinking of us, and
+even if he should turn his head, the cloak shelters us from him.  Be
+quiet, and pretend to have fainted, for I will not let you go."
+
+She seems resigned, and asks how I can thus set the storm at
+defiance.
+
+"The storm, dear one, is my best friend to-day."
+
+She almost seems to believe me, her fear vanishes, and feeling my
+rapture, she enquires whether I have done.  I smile and answer in the
+negative, stating that I cannot let her go till the storm is over.
+"Consent to everything, or I let the cloak drop," I say to her.
+
+"Well, you dreadful man, are you satisfied, now that you have insured
+my misery for the remainder of my life?"
+
+"No, not yet."
+
+"What more do you want?"
+
+"A shower of kisses."
+
+"How unhappy I am!  Well! here they are."
+
+"Tell me you forgive me, and confess that you have shared all my
+pleasure."
+
+"You know I did.  Yes, I forgive you."
+
+Then I give her her liberty, and treating her to some very pleasant
+caresses, I ask her to have the same kindness for me, and she goes to
+work with a smile on her pretty lips.
+
+"Tell me you love me," I say to her.
+
+"No, I do not, for you are an atheist, and hell awaits you."
+
+The weather was fine again, and the elements calm; I kissed her hands
+and told her that the postillion had certainly not seen anything, and
+that I was sure I had cured her of her dread of thunder, but that she
+was not likely to reveal the secret of my remedy.  She answered that
+one thing at least was certain, namely that no other woman had ever
+been cured by the same prescription.
+
+"Why," I said, "the same remedy has very likely been applied a
+million of times within the last thousand years.  To tell you the
+truth, I had somewhat depended upon it, when we entered the chaise
+together, for I did not know any other way of obtaining the happiness
+of possessing you.  But console yourself with the belief that, placed
+in the same position, no frightened woman could have resisted."
+
+"I believe you; but for the future I will travel only with my
+husband."
+
+"You would be wrong, for your husband would not have been clever
+enough to cure your fright in the way I have done."
+
+"True, again.  One learns some curious things in your company; but we
+shall not travel tete-d-tete again."
+
+We reached Pasean an hour before our friends.  We get out of the
+chaise, and my fair mistress ran off to her chamber, while I was
+looking for a crown for the postillion.  I saw that he was grinning.
+
+"What are you laughing at?"
+
+"Oh! you know."
+
+"Here, take this ducat and keep a quiet tongue in your head."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+My Grandmother's Death and Its Consequences I Lose M. de Malipiero's
+Friendship--I Have No Longer a Home--La Tintoretta--I Am Sent to a
+Clerical Seminary--I Am Expelled From It, and Confined in a Fortress
+
+
+During supper the conversation turned altogether upon the storm, and
+the official, who knew the weakness of his wife, told me that he was
+quite certain I would never travel with her again.  "Nor I with him,"
+his wife remarked, "for, in his fearful impiety, he exorcised the
+lightning with jokes."
+
+Henceforth she avoided me so skilfully that I never could contrive
+another interview with her.
+
+When I returned to Venice I found my grandmother ill, and I had to
+change all my habits, for I loved her too dearly not to surround her
+with every care and attention; I never left her until she had
+breathed her last.  She was unable to leave me anything, for during
+her life she had given me all she could, and her death compelled me
+to adopt an entirely different mode of life.
+
+A month after her death, I received a letter from my mother informing
+me that, as there was no probability of her return to Venice, she had
+determined to give up the house, the rent of which she was still
+paying, that she had communicated her intention to the Abbe Grimani,
+and that I was to be guided entirely by his advice.
+
+He was instructed to sell the furniture, and to place me, as well as
+my brothers and my sister, in a good boarding-house.  I called upon
+Grimani to assure him of my perfect disposition to obey his commands.
+
+The rent of the house had been paid until the end of the year; but,
+as I was aware that the furniture would be sold on the expiration of
+the term, I placed my wants under no restraint.  I had already sold
+some linen, most of the china, and several tapestries; I now began to
+dispose of the mirrors, beds, etc.  I had no doubt that my conduct
+would be severely blamed, but I knew likewise that it was my father's
+inheritance, to which my mother had no claim whatever, and, as to my
+brothers, there was plenty of time before any explanation could take
+place between us.
+
+Four months afterwards I had a second letter from my mother, dated
+from Warsaw, and enclosing another.  Here is the translation of my
+mother's letter
+
+"My dear son, I have made here the acquaintance of a learned Minim
+friar, a Calabrian by birth, whose great qualities have made me think
+of you every time he has honoured me with a visit.  A year ago I told
+him that I had a son who was preparing himself for the Church, but
+that I had not the means of keeping him during his studies, and he
+promised that my son would become his own child, if I could obtain
+for him from the queen a bishopric in his native country, and he
+added that it would be very easy to succeed if I could induce the
+sovereign to recommend him to her daughter, the queen of Naples.
+
+"Full of trust in the Almighty, I threw myself at the feet of her
+majesty, who granted me her gracious protection.  She wrote to her
+daughter, and the worthy friar has been appointed by the Pope to the
+bishopric of Monterano.  Faithful to his promise, the good bishop
+will take you with him about the middle of next year, as he passes
+through Venice to reach Calabria.  He informs you himself of his
+intentions in the enclosed letter.  Answer him immediately, my dear
+son, and forward your letter to me; I will deliver it to the bishop.
+He will pave your way to the highest dignities of the Church, and you
+may imagine my consolation if, in some twenty or thirty years, I had
+the happiness of seeing you a bishop, at least!  Until his arrival,
+M. Grimani will take care of you.  I give you my blessing, and I am,
+my dear child, etc., etc."
+
+The bishop's letter was written in Latin, and was only a repetition
+of my mother's.  It was full of unction, and informed me that he
+would tarry but three days in Venice.
+
+I answered according to my mother's wishes, but those two letters had
+turned my brain.  I looked upon my fortune as made.  I longed to
+enter the road which was to lead me to it, and I congratulated myself
+that I could leave my country without any regret.  Farewell, Venice,
+I exclaimed; the days for vanity are gone by, and in the future I
+will only think of a great, of a substantial career!  M.  Grimani
+congratulated me warmly on my good luck, and promised all his
+friendly care to secure a good boarding-house, to which I would go at
+the beginning of the year, and where I would wait for the bishop's
+arrival.
+
+M. de Malipiero, who in his own way had great wisdom, and who saw
+that in Venice I was plunging headlong into pleasures and
+dissipation, and was only wasting a precious time, was delighted to
+see me on the eve of going somewhere else to fulfil my destiny, and
+much pleased with my ready acceptance of those new circumstances in
+my life.  He read me a lesson which I have never forgotten.  "The
+famous precept of the Stoic philosophers," he said to me, "'Sequere
+Deum', can he perfectly explained by these words: 'Give yourself up
+to whatever fate offers to you, provided you do not feel an
+invincible repugnance to accept it.'"  He added that it was the
+genius of Socrates, 'saepe revocans, raro impellens'; and that it was
+the origin of the 'fata viam inveniunt' of the same philosophers.
+
+M. de Malipiero's science was embodied in that very lesson, for he
+had obtained his knowledge by the study of only one book--the book of
+man.  However, as if it were to give me the proof that perfection
+does not exist, and that there is a bad side as well as a good one to
+everything, a certain adventure happened to me a month afterwards
+which, although I was following his own maxims, cost me the loss of
+his friendship, and which certainly did not teach me anything.
+
+The senator fancied that he could trace upon the physiognomy of young
+people certain signs which marked them out as the special favourites
+of fortune.  When he imagined that he had discovered those signs upon
+any individual, he would take him in hand and instruct him how to
+assist fortune by good and wise principles; and he used to say, with
+a great deal of truth, that a good remedy would turn into poison in
+the hands of a fool, but that poison is a good remedy when
+administered by a learned man.  He had, in my time, three favourites
+in whose education he took great pains.  They were, besides myself,
+Therese Imer, with whom the reader has a slight acquaintance already,
+and the third was the daughter of the boatman Gardela, a girl three
+years younger than I, who had the prettiest and most fascinating
+countenance.  The speculative old man, in order to assist fortune in
+her particular case, made her learn dancing, for, he would say, the
+ball cannot reach the pocket unless someone pushes it.  This girl
+made a great reputation at Stuttgard under the name of Augusta.  She
+was the favourite mistress of the Duke of Wurtemburg in 1757.  She
+was a most charming woman.  The last time I saw her she was in
+Venice, and she died two years afterwards.  Her husband, Michel de
+l'Agata, poisoned himself a short time after her death.
+
+One day we had all three dined with him, and after dinner the senator
+left us, as was his wont, to enjoy his siesta; the little Gardela,
+having a dancing lesson to take, went away soon after him, and I
+found myself alone with Therese, whom I rather admired, although I
+had never made love to her.  We were sitting down at a table very
+near each other, with our backs to the door of the room in which we
+thought our patron fast asleep, and somehow or other we took a fancy
+to examine into the difference of conformation between a girl and a
+boy; but at the most interesting part of our study a violent blow on
+my shoulders from a stick, followed by another, and which would have
+been itself followed by many more if I had not ran away, compelled us
+to abandon our interesting investigation unfinished.  I got off
+without hat or cloak, and went home; but in less than a quarter of an
+hour the old housekeeper of the senator brought my clothes with a
+letter which contained a command never to present myself again at the
+mansion of his excellency.  I immediately wrote him an answer in the
+following terms: "You have struck me while you were the slave of your
+anger; you cannot therefore boast of having given me a lesson, and I
+have not learned anything.  To forgive you I must forget that you are
+a man of great wisdom, and I can never forget it."
+
+This nobleman was perhaps quite right not to be pleased with the
+sight we gave him; yet, with all his prudence, he proved himself very
+unwise, for all the servants were acquainted with the cause of my
+exile, and, of course, the adventure was soon known through the city,
+and was received with great merriment.  He dared not address any
+reproaches to Therese, as I heard from her soon after, but she could
+not venture to entreat him to pardon me.
+
+The time to leave my father's house was drawing near, and one fine
+morning I received the visit of a man about forty years old, with a
+black wig, a scarlet cloak, and a very swarthy complexion, who handed
+me a letter from M. Grimani, ordering me to consign to the bearer all
+the furniture of the house according to the inventory, a copy of
+which was in my possession.  Taking the inventory in my hand, I
+pointed out every article marked down, except when the said article,
+having through my instrumentality taken an airing out of the house,
+happened to be missing, and whenever any article was absent I said
+that I had not the slightest idea where it might be.  But the uncouth
+fellow, taking a very high tone, said loudly that he must know what I
+had done with the furniture.  His manner being very disagreeable to
+me, I answered that I had nothing to do with him, and as he still
+raised his voice I advised him to take himself off as quickly as
+possible, and I gave him that piece of advice in such a way as to
+prove to him that, at home, I knew I was the more powerful of the
+two.
+
+Feeling it my duty to give information to M. Grimani of what had
+just taken place, I called upon him as soon as he was up, but I found
+that my man was already there, and that he had given his own account
+of the affair.  The abbe, after a very severe lecture to which I had
+to listen in silence, ordered me to render an account of all the
+missing articles.  I answered that I had found myself under the
+necessity of selling them to avoid running into debt.  This
+confession threw him in a violent passion; he called me a rascal,
+said that those things did not belong to me, that he knew what he had
+to do, and he commanded me to leave his house on the very instant.
+
+Mad with rage, I ran for a Jew, to whom I wanted to sell what
+remained of the furniture, but when I returned to my house I found a
+bailiff waiting at the door, and he handed me a summons.  I looked
+over it and perceived that it was issued at the instance of Antonio
+Razetta.  It was the name of the fellow with the swarthy countenance.
+The seals were already affixed on all the doors, and I was not even
+allowed to go to my room, for a keeper had been left there by the
+bailiff.  I lost no time, and called upon M. Rosa, to whom I related
+all the circumstances.  After reading the summons he said,
+
+"The seals shall be removed to-morrow morning, and in the meantime I
+shall summon Razetta before the avogador.  But to-night, my dear
+friend," he added, "you must beg the hospitality of some one of your
+acquaintances.  It has been a violent proceeding, but you shall be
+paid handsomely for it; the man is evidently acting under
+M.  Grimani's orders."
+
+"Well, that is their business."
+
+I spent the night with Nanette and Marton, and on the following
+morning, the seals having been taken off, I took possession of my
+dwelling.  Razetta did not appear before the 'avogador', and M. Rosa
+summoned him in my name before the criminal court, and obtained
+against him a writ of 'capias' in case he should not obey the second
+summons.  On the third day M. Grimani wrote to me, commanding me to
+call upon him.  I went immediately.  As soon as I was in his presence
+he enquired abruptly what my intentions were.
+
+"I intend to shield myself from your violent proceedings under the
+protection of the law, and to defend myself against a man with whom I
+ought never to have had any connection, and who has compelled me to
+pass the night in a disreputable place."
+
+"In a disreputable place?"
+
+"Of course.  Why was I, against all right and justice, prevented from
+entering my own dwelling?"
+
+"You have possession of it now.  But you must go to your lawyer and
+tell him to suspend all proceedings against Razetta, who has done
+nothing but under my instructions.  I suspected that your intention
+was to sell the rest of the furniture; I have prevented it.  There is
+a room at your disposal at St. Chrysostom's, in a house of mine, the
+first floor of which is occupied by La Tintoretta, our first opera
+dancer.  Send all your things there, and come and dine with me every
+day.  Your sister and your brothers have been provided with a
+comfortable home; therefore, everything is now arranged for the
+best."
+
+I called at once upon M. Rosa, to whom I explained all that had taken
+place, and his advice being to give way to M. Grimani's wishes, I
+determined to follow it.  Besides, the arrangement offered the best
+satisfaction I could obtain, as to be a guest at his dinner table was
+an honour for me.  I was likewise full of curiosity respecting my new
+lodging under the same roof with La Tintoretta, who was much talked
+of, owing to a certain Prince of Waldeck who was extravagantly
+generous with her.
+
+The bishop was expected in the course of the summer; I had,
+therefore, only six months more to wait in Venice before taking the
+road which would lead me, perhaps, to the throne of Saint Peter:
+everything in the future assumed in my eyes the brightest hue, and my
+imagination revelled amongst the most radiant beams of sunshine; my
+castles in the air were indeed most beautiful.
+
+I dined the same day with M. Grimani, and I found myself seated next
+to Razetta--an unpleasant neighbour, but I took no notice of him.
+When the meal was over, I paid a last visit to my beautiful house in
+Saint-Samuel's parish, and sent all I possessed in a gondola to my
+new lodging.
+
+I did not know Signora Tintoretta, but I was well acquainted with her
+reputation, character and manners.  She was but a poor dancer,
+neither handsome nor plain, but a woman of wit and intellect.  Prince
+Waldeck spent a great deal for her, and yet he did not prevent her
+from retaining the titulary protection of a noble Venetian of the Lin
+family, now extinct, a man about sixty years of age, who was her
+visitor at every hour of the day.  This nobleman, who knew me, came
+to my room towards the evening, with the compliments of the lady,
+who, he added, was delighted to have me in her house, and would be
+pleased to receive me in her intimate circle.
+
+To excuse myself for not having been the first to pay my respects to
+the signora, I told M. Lin that I did not know she was my neighbour,
+that M. Grimani had not mentioned the circumstance, otherwise I would
+have paid my duties to her before taking possession of my lodging.
+After this apology I followed the ambassador, he presented me to his
+mistress, and the acquaintance was made.
+
+She received me like a princess, took off her glove before giving me
+her hand to kiss, mentioned my name before five or six strangers who
+were present, and whose names she gave me, and invited me to take a
+seat near her.  As she was a native of Venice, I thought it was
+absurd for her to speak French to me, and I told her that I was not
+acquainted with that language, and would feel grateful if she would
+converse in Italian.  She was surprised at my not speaking French,
+and said I would cut but a poor figure in her drawing-room, as they
+seldom spoke any other language there, because she received a great
+many foreigners.  I promised to learn French.  Prince Waldeck came in
+during the evening; I was introduced to him, and he gave me a very
+friendly welcome.  He could speak Italian very well, and during the
+carnival he chewed me great kindness.  He presented me with a gold
+snuffbox as a reward for a very poor sonnet which I had written for
+his dear Grizellini.  This was her family name; she was called
+Tintoretta because her father had been a dyer.
+
+The Tintoretta had greater claims than Juliette to the admiration of
+sensible men.  She loved poetry, and if it had not been that I was
+expecting the bishop, I would have fallen in love with her.  She was
+herself smitten with a young physician of great merit, named
+Righelini, who died in the prime of life, and whom I still regret.  I
+shall have to mention him in another part of my Memoirs.
+
+Towards the end of the carnival, my mother wrote to M. Grimani that
+it would be a great shame if the bishop found me under the roof of an
+opera dancer, and he made up his mind to lodge me in a respectable
+and decent place.  He took the Abbe Tosello into consultation, and
+the two gentlemen thought that the best thing they could do for me
+would be to send me to a clerical seminary.  They arranged everything
+unknown to me, and the abbe undertook to inform me of their plan and
+to obtain from me a gracious consent.  But when I heard him speak
+with beautiful flowers of rhetoric for the purpose of gilding the
+bitter pill, I could not help bursting into a joyous laughter, and I
+astounded his reverence when I expressed my readiness to go anywhere
+he might think right to send me.
+
+The plan of the two worthy gentlemen was absurd, for at the age of
+seventeen, and with a nature like mine, the idea of placing me in a
+seminary ought never to have been entertained, but ever a faithful
+disciple of Socrates, feeling no unconquerable reluctance, and the
+plan, on the contrary, appearing to me rather a good joke, I not only
+gave a ready consent, but I even longed to enter the seminary.  I
+told M. Grimani I was prepared to accept anything, provided Razetta
+had nothing to do with it.  He gave me his promise, but he did not
+keep it when I left the seminary.  I have never been able to decide
+whether this Grimani was kind because he was a fool, or whether his
+stupidity was the result of his kindness, but all his brothers were
+the same.  The worst trick that Dame Fortune can play upon an
+intelligent young man is to place him under the dependence of a fool.
+A few days afterwards, having been dressed as a pupil of a clerical
+seminary by the care of the abbe, I was taken to Saint-Cyprian de
+Muran and introduced to the rector.
+
+The patriarchal church of Saint-Cyprian is served by an order of the
+monks, founded by the blessed Jerome Miani, a nobleman of Venice.
+The rector received me with tender affection and great kindness.  But
+in his address (which was full of unction) I thought I could perceive
+a suspicion on his part that my being sent to the seminary was a
+punishment, or at least a way to put a stop to an irregular life,
+and, feeling hurt in my dignity, I told him at once, "Reverend
+father, I do not think that any one has the right of punishing me."
+
+"No, no, my son," he answered, "I only meant that you would be very
+happy with us."
+
+We were then shewn three halls, in which we found at least one
+hundred and fifty seminarists, ten or twelve schoolrooms, the
+refectory, the dormitory, the gardens for play hours, and every pain
+was taken to make me imagine life in such a place the happiest that
+could fall to the lot of a young man, and to make me suppose that I
+would even regret the arrival of the bishop.  Yet they all tried to
+cheer me up by saying that I would only remain there five or six
+months.  Their eloquence amused me greatly.
+
+I entered the seminary at the beginning of March, and prepared myself
+for my new life by passing the night between my two young friends,
+Nanette and Marton, who bathed their pillows with tears; they could
+not understand, and this was likewise the feeling of their aunt and
+of the good M. Rosa, how a young man like myself could shew such
+obedience.
+
+The day before going to the seminary, I had taken care to entrust all
+my papers to Madame Manzoni.  They made a large parcel, and I left it
+in her hands for fifteen years.  The worthy old lady is still alive,
+and with her ninety years she enjoys good health and a cheerful
+temper.  She received me with a smile, and told me that I would not
+remain one month in the seminary.
+
+"I beg your pardon, madam, but I am very glad to go there, and intend
+to remain until the arrival of the bishop."
+
+"You do not know your own nature, and you do not know your bishop,
+with whom you will not remain very long either."
+
+The abbe accompanied me to the seminary in a gondola, but at Saint-
+Michel he had to stop in consequence of a violent attack of vomiting
+which seized me suddenly; the apothecary cured me with some mint-
+water.
+
+I was indebted for this attack to the too frequent sacrifices which I
+had been offering on the altar of love.  Any lover who knows what his
+feelings were when he found himself with the woman he adored and with
+the fear that it was for the last time, will easily imagine my
+feelings during the last hours that I expected ever to spend with my
+two charming mistresses.  I could not be induced to let the last
+offering be the last, and I went on offering until there was no more
+incense left.
+
+The priest committed me to the care of the rector, and my luggage was
+carried to the dormitory, where I went myself to deposit my cloak and
+my hat.  I was not placed amongst the adults, because,
+notwithstanding my size, I was not old enough.  Besides, I would not
+shave myself, through vanity, because I thought that the down on my
+face left no doubt of my youth.  It was ridiculous, of course; but
+when does man cease to be so?  We get rid of our vices more easily
+than of our follies.  Tyranny has not had sufficient power over me to
+compel me to shave myself; it is only in that respect that I have
+found tyranny to be tolerant.
+
+"To which school do you wish to belong?" asked the rector.
+
+"To the dogmatic, reverend father; I wish to study the history of the
+Church."
+
+"I will introduce you to the father examiner."
+
+"I am doctor in divinity, most reverend father, and do not want to be
+examined."
+
+"It is necessary, my dear son; come with me."
+
+This necessity appeared to me an insult, and I felt very angry; but a
+spirit of revenge quickly whispered to me the best way to mystify
+them, and the idea made me very joyful.  I answered so badly all the
+questions propounded in Latin by the examiner, I made so many
+solecisms, that he felt it his duty to send me to an inferior class
+of grammar, in which, to my great delight, I found myself the
+companion of some twenty young urchins of about ten years, who,
+hearing that I was doctor in divinity, kept on saying: 'Accipiamus
+pecuniam, et mittamus asinum in patriam suam'.
+
+Our play hours afforded me great amusement; my companions of the
+dormitory, who were all in the class of philosophy at least, looked
+down upon me with great contempt, and when they spoke of their own
+sublime discourses, they laughed if I appeared to be listening
+attentively to their discussions which, as they thought, must have
+been perfect enigmas to me.  I did not intend to betray myself, but
+an accident, which I could not avoid, forced me to throw off the
+mask.
+
+Father Barbarigo, belonging to the Convent of the Salutation at
+Venice, whose pupil I had been in physics, came to pay a visit to the
+rector, and seeing me as we were coming from mass paid me his
+friendly compliments.  His first question was to enquire what science
+I was studying, and he thought I was joking when I answered that I
+was learning the grammar.  The rector having joined us, I left them
+together, and went to my class.  An our later, the rector sent for
+me.
+
+"Why did you feign such ignorance at the examination?" he asked.
+
+"Why," I answered, "were you unjust enough to compel me to the
+degradation of an examination?"
+
+He looked annoyed, and escorted me to the dogmatic school, where my
+comrades of the dormitory received me with great astonishment, and in
+the afternoon, at play time, they gathered around me and made me very
+happy with their professions of friendship.
+
+One of them, about fifteen years old, and who at the present time
+must, if still alive, be a bishop, attracted my notice by his
+features as much as by his talents.  He inspired me with a very warm
+friendship, and during recess, instead of playing skittles with the
+others, we always walked together.  We conversed upon poetry, and we
+both delighted in the beautiful odes of Horace.  We liked Ariosto
+better than Tasso, and Petrarch had our whole admiration, while
+Tassoni and Muratori, who had been his critics, were the special
+objects of our contempt.  We were such fast friends, after four days
+of acquaintance, that we were actually jealous of each other, and to
+such an extent that if either of us walked about with any seminarist,
+the other would be angry and sulk like a disappointed lover.
+
+The dormitory was placed under the supervision of a lay friar, and it
+was his province to keep us in good order.  After supper, accompanied
+by this lay friar, who had the title of prefect, we all proceeded to
+the dormitory.  There, everyone had to go to his own bed, and to
+undress quietly after having said his prayers in a low voice.  When
+all the pupils were in bed, the prefect would go to his own.  A large
+lantern lighted up the dormitory, which had the shape of a
+parallelogram eighty yards by ten.  The beds were placed at equal
+distances, and to each bed there were a fold-stool, a chair, and room
+for the trunk of the Seminarist.  At one end was the washing place,
+and at the other the bed of the prefect.  The bed of my friend was
+opposite mine, and the lantern was between us.
+
+The principal duty of the prefect was to take care that no pupil
+should go and sleep with one of his comrades, for such a visit was
+never supposed an innocent one.  It was a cardinal sin, and, bed
+being accounted the place for sleep and not for conversation, it was
+admitted that a pupil who slept out of his own bed, did so only for
+immoral purposes.  So long as he stopped in his own bed, he could do
+what he liked; so much the worse for him if he gave himself up to bad
+practices.  It has been remarked in Germany that it is precisely in
+those institutions for young men in which the directors have taken
+most pains to prevent onanism that this vice is most prevalent.
+
+Those who had framed the regulations in our seminary were stupid
+fools, who had not the slightest knowledge of either morals or human
+nature.  Nature has wants which must be administered to, and Tissot
+is right only as far as the abuse of nature is concerned, but this
+abuse would very seldom occur if the directors exercised proper
+wisdom and prudence, and if they did not make a point of forbidding
+it in a special and peculiar manner; young people give way to
+dangerous excesses from a sheer delight in disobedience,--
+a disposition very natural to humankind, since it began with Adam and
+Eve.
+
+I had been in the seminary for nine or ten days, when one night I
+felt someone stealing very quietly in my bed; my hand was at once
+clutched, and my name whispered.  I could hardly restrain my
+laughter.  It was my friend, who, having chanced to wake up and
+finding that the lantern was out, had taken a sudden fancy to pay me
+a visit.  I very soon begged him to go away for fear the prefect
+should be awake, for in such a case we should have found ourselves in
+a very unpleasant dilemma, and most likely would have been accused of
+some abominable offence.  As I was giving him that good advice we
+heard someone moving, and my friend made his escape; but immediately
+after he had left me I heard the fall of some person, and at the same
+time the hoarse voice of the prefect exclaiming:
+
+"Ah, villain!  wait until to-morrow--until to-morrow!"
+
+After which threat he lighted the lantern and retired to his couch.
+
+The next morning, before the ringing of the bell for rising, the
+rector, followed by the prefect, entered the dormitory, and said to
+us:
+
+"Listen to me, all of you.  You are aware of what has taken place
+this last night.  Two amongst you must be guilty; but I wish to
+forgive them, and to save their honour I promise that their names
+shall not be made public.  I expect every one of you to come to me
+for confession before recess."
+
+He left the dormitory, and we dressed ourselves.  In the afternoon,
+in obedience to his orders, we all went to him and confessed, after
+which ceremony we repaired to the garden, where my friend told me
+that, having unfortunately met the prefect after he left me, he had
+thought that the best way was to knock him down, in order to get time
+to reach his own bed without being known.
+
+"And now," I said, "you are certain of being forgiven, for, of
+course, you have wisely confessed your error?"
+
+"You are joking," answered my friend; "why, the good rector would not
+have known any more than he knows at present, even if my visit to you
+had been paid with a criminal intent."
+
+"Then you must have made a false confession: you are at all events
+guilty of disobedience?"
+
+"That may be, but the rector is responsible for the guilt, as he used
+compulsion."
+
+"My dear friend, you argue in a very forcible way, and the very
+reverend rector must by this time be satisfied that the inmates of
+our dormitory are more learned than he is himself."
+
+No more would have been said about the adventure if, a few nights
+after, I had not in my turn taken a fancy to return the visit paid by
+my friend.  Towards midnight, having had occasion to get out of bed,
+and hearing the loud snoring of the prefect, I quickly put out the
+lantern and went to lie beside my friend.  He knew me at once, and
+gladly received me; but we both listened attentively to the snoring
+of our keeper, and when it ceased, understanding our danger, I got up
+and reached my own bed without losing a second, but the moment I got
+to it I had a double surprise.  In the first place I felt somebody
+lying in my bed, and in the second I saw the prefect, with a candle
+in his hand, coming along slowly and taking a survey of all the beds
+right and left.  I could understand the prefect suddenly lighting a
+candle, but how could I realize what I saw--namely, one of my
+comrades sleeping soundly in my bed, with his back turned to me?  I
+immediately made up my mind to feign sleep.  After two or three
+shakings given by the prefect, I pretended to wake up, and my bed-
+companion woke up in earnest.  Astonished at finding himself in my
+bed, he offered me an apology:
+
+"I have made a mistake," he said, "as I returned from a certain place
+in the dark, I found your bed empty, and mistook it for mine."
+
+"Very likely," I answered; "I had to get up, too."
+
+"Yes," remarked the prefect; "but how does it happen that you went to
+bed without making any remark when, on your return, you found your
+bed already tenanted?  And how is it that, being in the dark, you did
+not suppose that you were mistaken yourself?"
+
+"I could not be mistaken, for I felt the pedestal of this crucifix of
+mine, and I knew I was right; as to my companion here, I did not feel
+him."
+
+"It is all very unlikely," answered our Argus; and he went to the
+lantern, the wick of which he found crushed down.
+
+"The wick has been forced into the oil, gentlemen; it has not gone
+out of itself; it has been the handiwork of one of you, but it will
+be seen to in the morning."
+
+My stupid companion went to his own bed, the prefect lighted the lamp
+and retired to his rest, and after this scene, which had broken the
+repose of every pupil, I quietly slept until the appearance of the
+rector, who, at the dawn of day, came in great fury, escorted by his
+satellite, the prefect.
+
+The rector, after examining the localities and submitting to a
+lengthy interrogatory first my accomplice, who very naturally was
+considered as the most guilty, and then myself, whom nothing could
+convict of the offence, ordered us to get up and go to church to
+attend mass.  As soon as we were dressed, he came back, and
+addressing us both, he said, kindly:
+
+"You stand both convicted of a scandalous connivance, and it is
+proved by the fact of the lantern having been wilfully extinguished.
+I am disposed to believe that the cause of all this disorder is, if
+not entirely innocent, at least due only to extreme thoughtlessness;
+but the scandal given to all your comrades, the outrage offered to
+the discipline and to the established rules of the seminary, call
+loudly for punishment.  Leave the room."
+
+We obeyed; but hardly were we between the double doors of the
+dormitory than we were seized by four servants, who tied our hands
+behind us, and led us to the class room, where they compelled us to
+kneel down before the great crucifix.  The rector told them to
+execute his orders, and, as we were in that position, the wretches
+administered to each of us seven or eight blows with a stick, or with
+a rope, which I received, as well as my companion, without a murmur.
+But the moment my hands were free, I asked the rector whether I could
+write two lines at the very foot of the cross.  He gave orders to
+bring ink and paper, and I traced the following words:
+
+"I solemnly swear by this God that I have never spoken to the
+seminarist who was found in my bed.  As an innocent person I must
+protest against this shameful violence.  I shall appeal to the
+justice of his lordship the patriarch."
+
+My comrade in misery signed this protest with me; after which,
+addressing myself to all the pupils, I read it aloud, calling upon
+them to speak the truth if any one could say the contrary of what I
+had written.  They, with one voice, immediately declared that we had
+never been seen conversing together, and that no one knew who had put
+the lamp out.  The rector left the room in the midst of hisses and
+curses, but he sent us to prison all the same at the top of the house
+and in separate cells.  An hour afterwards, I had my bed, my trunk
+and all my things, and my meals were brought to me every day.  On the
+fourth day, the Abbe Tosello came for me with instructions to bring
+me to Venice.  I asked him whether he had sifted this unpleasant
+affair; he told me that he had enquired into it, that he had seen the
+other seminarist, and that he believed we were both innocent; but the
+rector would not confess himself in the wrong, and he did not see
+what could be done.
+
+I threw off my seminarist's habit, and dressed myself in the clothes
+I used to wear in Venice, and, while my luggage was carried to a
+boat, I accompanied the abbe to M. Grimani's gondola in which he had
+come, and we took our departure.  On our way, the abbe ordered the
+boatman to leave my things at the Palace Grimani, adding that he was
+instructed by M. Grimani to tell me that, if I had the audacity to
+present myself at his mansion, his servants had received orders to
+turn me away.
+
+He landed me near the convent of the Jesuits, without any money, and
+with nothing but what I had on my back.
+
+I went to beg a dinner from Madame Manzoni, who laughed heartily at
+the realization of her prediction.  After dinner I called upon M.
+Rosa to see whether the law could protect me against the tyranny of
+my enemies, and after he had been made acquainted with the
+circumstances of the case, he promised to bring me the same evening,
+at Madame Orio's house, an extra-judicial act.  I repaired to the
+place of appointment to wait for him, and to enjoy the pleasure of my
+two charming friends at my sudden reappearance.  It was indeed very
+great, and the recital of my adventures did not astonish them less
+than my unexpected presence.  M. Rosa came and made me read the act
+which he had prepared; he had not had time to have it engrossed by
+the notary, but he undertook to have it ready the next day.
+
+I left Madame Orio to take supper with my brother Francois, who
+resided with a painter called Guardi; he was, like me, much oppressed
+by the tyranny of Grimani, and I promised to deliver him.  Towards
+midnight I returned to the two amiable sisters who were expecting me
+with their usual loving impatience, but, I am bound to confess it
+with all humility, my sorrows were prejudicial to love in spite of
+the fortnight of absence and of abstinence.  They were themselves
+deeply affected to see me so unhappy, and pitied me with all their
+hearts.  I endeavoured to console them, and assured them that all my
+misery would soon come to an end, and that we would make up for lost
+time.
+
+In the morning, having no money, and not knowing where to go, I went
+to St. Mark's Library, where I remained until noon.  I left it with
+the intention of dining with Madame Manzoni, but I was suddenly
+accosted by a soldier who informed me that someone wanted to speak to
+me in a gondola to which he pointed.  I answered that the person
+might as well come out, but he quietly remarked that he had a friend
+at hand to conduct me forcibly to the gondola, if necessary, and
+without any more hesitation I went towards it.  I had a great dislike
+to noise or to anything like a public exhibition.  I might have
+resisted, for the soldiers were unarmed, and I would not have been
+taken up, this sort of arrest not being legal in Venice, but I did
+not think of it.  The 'sequere deum' was playing its part; I felt no
+reluctance.  Besides, there are moments in which a courageous man has
+no courage, or disdains to shew it.
+
+I enter the gondola, the curtain is drawn aside, and I see my evil
+genius, Razetta, with an officer.  The two soldiers sit down at the
+prow; I recognize M. Grimani's own gondola, it leaves the landing and
+takes the direction of the Lido.  No one spoke to me, and I remained
+silent.  After half-an-hour's sailing, the gondola stopped before the
+small entrance of the Fortress St. Andre, at the mouth of the
+Adriatic, on the very spot where the Bucentaur stands, when, on
+Ascension Day, the doge comes to espouse the sea.
+
+The sentinel calls the corporal; we alight, the officer who
+accompanied me introduces me to the major, and presents a letter to
+him.  The major, after reading its contents, gives orders to M. Zen,
+his adjutant, to consign me to the guard-house.  In another quarter
+of an hour my conductors take their departure, and M. Zen brings me
+three livres and a half, stating that I would receive the same amount
+every week.  It was exactly the pay of a private.
+
+I did not give way to any burst of passion, but I felt the most
+intense indignation.  Late in the evening I expressed a wish to have
+some food bought, for I could not starve; then, stretching myself
+upon a hard camp bed, I passed the night amongst the soldiers without
+closing my eyes, for these Sclavonians were singing, eating garlic,
+smoking a bad tobacco which was most noxious, and drinking a wine of
+their own country, as black as ink, which nobody else could swallow.
+
+Early next morning Major Pelodoro (the governor of the fortress)
+called me up to his room, and told me that, in compelling me to spend
+the night in the guard-house, he had only obeyed the orders he had
+received from Venice from the secretary of war.  "Now, reverend sir,"
+he added, "my further orders are only to keep you a prisoner in the
+fort, and I am responsible for your remaining here.  I give you the
+whole of the fortress for your prison.  You shall have a good room in
+which you will find your bed and all your luggage.  Walk anywhere you
+please; but recollect that, if you should escape, you would cause my
+ruin.  I am sorry that my instructions are to give you only ten sous
+a day, but if you have any friends in Venice able to send you some
+money, write to them, and trust to me for the security of your
+letters.  Now you may go to bed, if you need rest."
+
+I was taken to my room; it was large and on the first story, with two
+windows from which I had a very fine view.  I found my bed, and I
+ascertained with great satisfaction that my trunk, of which I had the
+keys, had not been forced open.  The major had kindly supplied my
+table with all the implements necessary for writing.  A Sclavonian
+soldier informed me very politely that he would attend upon me, and
+that I would pay him for his services whenever I could, for everyone
+knew that I had only ten sous a day.  I began by ordering some soup,
+and, when I had dispatched it, I went to bed and slept for nine
+hours.  When I woke, I received an invitation to supper from the
+major, and I began to imagine that things, after all, would not be so
+very bad.
+
+I went to the honest governor, whom I found in numerous company.  He
+presented me to his wife and to every person present.  I met there
+several officers, the chaplain of the fortress, a certain Paoli Vida,
+one of the singers of St. Mark's Church, and his wife, a pretty
+woman, sister-in-law of the major, whom the husband chose to confine
+in the fort because he was very jealous (jealous men are not
+comfortable at Venice), together with several other ladies, not very
+young, but whom I thought very agreeable, owing to their kind
+welcome.
+
+Cheerful as I was by nature, those pleasant guests easily managed to
+put me in the best of humours.  Everyone expressed a wish to know the
+reasons which could have induced M. Grimani to send me to the
+fortress, so I gave a faithful account of all my adventures since my
+grandmother's death.  I spoke for three hours without any bitterness,
+and even in a pleasant tone, upon things which, said in a different
+manner, might have displeased my audience; all expressed their
+satisfaction, and shewed so much sympathy that, as we parted for the
+night, I received from all an assurance of friendship and the offer
+of their services.  This is a piece of good fortune which has never
+failed me whenever I have been the victim of oppression, until I
+reached the age of fifty.  Whenever I met with honest persons
+expressing a curiosity to know the history of the misfortune under
+which I was labouring, and whenever I satisfied their curiosity, I
+have inspired them with friendship, and with that sympathy which was
+necessary to render them favourable and useful to me.
+
+That success was owing to a very simple artifice; it was only to tell
+my story in a quiet and truthful manner, without even avoiding the
+facts which told against me.  It is simple secret that many men do
+not know, because the larger portion of humankind is composed of
+cowards; a man who always tells the truth must be possessed of great
+moral courage.  Experience has taught me that truth is a talisman,
+the charm of which never fails in its effect, provided it is not
+wasted upon unworthy people, and I believe that a guilty man, who
+candidly speaks the truth to his judge, has a better chance of being
+acquitted, than the innocent man who hesitates and evades true
+statements.  Of course the speaker must be young, or at least in the
+prime of manhood; for an old man finds the whole of nature combined
+against him.
+
+The major had his joke respecting the visit paid and returned to the
+seminarist's bed, but the chaplain and the ladies scolded him.  The
+major advised me to write out my story and send it to the secretary
+of war, undertaking that he should receive it, and he assured me that
+he would become my protector.  All the ladies tried to induce me to
+follow the major's advice.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+My Short Stay in Fort St. Andre--My First Repentance in Love Affairs
+I Enjoy the Sweets of Revenge, and Prove a Clever Alibi--Arrest of
+Count Bonafede--My Release--Arrival of the Bishop--Farewell to Venice
+
+
+The fort, in which the Republic usually kept only a garrison of one
+hundred half-pay Sclavonians, happened to contain at that time two
+thousand Albanian soldiers, who were called Cimariotes.
+
+The secretary of war, who was generally known under the title of
+'sage a l'ecriture', had summoned these men from the East in
+consequence of some impending promotion, as he wanted the officers to
+be on the spot in order to prove their merits before being rewarded.
+They all came from the part of Epirus called Albania, which belongs
+to the Republic of Venice, and they had distinguished themselves in
+the last war against the Turks.  It was for me a new and
+extraordinary sight to examine some eighteen or twenty officers, all
+of an advanced age, yet strong and healthy, shewing the scars which
+covered their face and their chest, the last naked and entirely
+exposed through military pride.  The lieutenant-colonel was
+particularly conspicuous by his wounds, for, without exaggeration, he
+had lost one-fourth of his head.  He had but one eye, but one ear,
+and no jaw to speak of.  Yet he could eat very well, speak without
+difficulty, and was very cheerful.  He had with him all his family,
+composed of two pretty daughters, who looked all the prettier in
+their national costume, and of seven sons, every one of them a
+soldier.  This lieutenant-colonel stood six feet high, and his figure
+was magnificent, but his scars so completely deformed his features
+that his face was truly horrid to look at.  Yet I found so much
+attraction in him that I liked him the moment I saw him, and I would
+have been much pleased to converse with him if his breath had not
+sent forth such a strong smell of garlic.  All the Albanians had
+their pockets full of it, and they enjoyed a piece of garlic with as
+much relish as we do a sugar-plum.  After this none can maintain it
+to be a poison, though the only medicinal virtue it possesses is to
+excite the appetite, because it acts like a tonic upon a weak
+stomach.
+
+The lieutenant-colonel could not read, but he was not ashamed of his
+ignorance, because not one amongst his men, except the priest and the
+surgeon, could boast greater learning.  Every man, officer or
+private, had his purse full of gold; half of them, at least, were
+married, and we had in the fortress a colony of five or six hundred
+women, with God knows how many children!  I felt greatly interested
+in them all.  Happy idleness!  I often regret thee because thou hast
+often offered me new sights, and for the same reason I hate old age
+which never offers but what I know already, unless I should take up a
+gazette, but I cared nothing for them in my young days.
+
+Alone in my room I made an inventory of my trunk, and having put
+aside everything of an ecclesiastical character, I sent for a Jew,
+and sold the whole parcel unmercifully.  Then I wrote to M. Rosa,
+enclosing all the tickets of the articles I had pledged, requesting
+him to have them sold without any exception, and to forward me the
+surplus raised by the sale.  Thanks to that double operation, I was
+enabled to give my Sclavonian servant the ten sous allowed to me
+every day.  Another soldier, who had been a hair-dresser, took care
+of my hair which I had been compelled to neglect, in consequence of
+the rules of the seminary.  I spent my time in walking about the fort
+and through the barracks, and my two places of resort were the
+major's apartment for some intellectual enjoyment, and the rooms of
+the Albanian lieutenant-colonel for a sprinkling of love.  The
+Albanian feeling certain that his colonel would be appointed
+brigadier, solicited the command of the regiment, but he had a rival
+and he feared his success.  I wrote him a petition, short, but so
+well composed that the secretary of war, having enquired the name of
+the author, gave the Albanian his colonelcy.  On his return to the
+fort, the brave fellow, overjoyed at his success, hugged me in his
+arms, saying that he owed it all to me; he invited me to a family
+dinner, in which my very soul was parched by his garlic, and he
+presented me with twelve botargoes and two pounds of excellent
+Turkish tobacco.
+
+The result of my petition made all the other officers think that they
+could not succeed without the assistance of my pen, and I willingly
+gave it to everybody; this entailed many quarrels upon me, for I
+served all interests, but, finding myself the lucky possessor of some
+forty sequins, I was no longer in dread of poverty, and laughed at
+everything.  However, I met with an accident which made me pass six
+weeks in a very unpleasant condition.
+
+On the 2nd of April, the fatal anniversary of my first appearance in
+this world, as I was getting up in the morning, I received in my room
+the visit of a very handsome Greek woman, who told me that her
+husband, then ensign in the regiment, had every right to claim the
+rank of lieutenant, and that he would certainly be appointed, if it
+were not for the opposition of his captain who was against him,
+because she had refused him certain favours which she could bestow
+only upon her husband.  She handed me some certificates, and begged
+me to write a petition which she would present herself to the
+secretary of war, adding that she could only offer me her heart in
+payment.  I answered that her heart ought not to go alone; I acted as
+I had spoken, and I met with no other resistance than the objection
+which a pretty woman is always sure to feign for the sake of
+appearance.  After that, I told her to come back at noon, and that
+the petition would be ready.  She was exact to the appointment, and
+very kindly rewarded me a second time; and in the evening, under
+pretence of some alterations to be made in the petition, she afforded
+an excellent opportunity of reaping a third recompense.
+
+But, alas! the path of pleasure is not strewn only with roses!  On
+the third day, I found out, much to my dismay, that a serpent had
+been hid under the flowers.  Six weeks of care and of rigid diet re-
+established my health.
+
+When I met the handsome Greek again, I was foolish enough to reproach
+her for the present she had bestowed upon me, but she baffled me by
+laughing, and saying that she had only offered me what she possessed,
+and that it was my own fault if I had not been sufficiently careful.
+The reader cannot imagine how much this first misfortune grieved me,
+and what deep shame I felt.  I looked upon myself as a dishonoured
+man, and while I am on that subject I may as well relate an incident
+which will give some idea of my thoughtlessness.
+
+Madame Vida, the major's sister-in-law, being alone with me one
+morning, confided in me in a moment of unreserved confidence what she
+had to suffer from the jealous disposition of her husband, and his
+cruelty in having allowed her to sleep alone for the last four years,
+when she was in the very flower of her age.
+
+"I trust to God," she added, "that my husband will not find out that
+you have spent an hour alone with me, for I should never hear the end
+of it."
+
+Feeling deeply for her grief, and confidence begetting confidence, I
+was stupid enough to tell her the sad state to which I had been
+reduced by the cruel Greek woman, assuring her that I felt my misery
+all the more deeply, because I should have been delighted to console
+her, and to give her the opportunity of a revenge for her jealous
+husband's coldness.  At this speech, in which my simplicity and good
+faith could easily be traced, she rose from her chair, and upbraided
+me with every insult which an outraged honest woman might hurl at the
+head of a bold libertine who has presumed too far.  Astounded, but
+understanding perfectly well the nature of my crime, I bowed myself
+out of her room; but as I was leaving it she told me in the same
+angry tone that my visits would not be welcome for the future, as I
+was a conceited puppy, unworthy of the society of good and
+respectable women.  I took care to answer that a respectable woman
+would have been rather more reserved than she had been in her
+confidences.  On reflection I felt pretty sure that, if I had been in
+good health, or had said nothing about my mishap, she would have been
+but too happy to receive my consolations.
+
+A few days after that incident I had a much greater cause to regret
+my acquaintance with the Greek woman.  On Ascension Day, as the
+ceremony of the Bucentaur was celebrated near the fort, M. Rosa
+brought Madame Orio and her two nieces to witness it, and I had the
+pleasure of treating them all to a good dinner in my room.  I found
+myself, during the day, alone with my young friends in one of the
+casements, and they both loaded me with the most loving caresses and
+kisses.  I felt that they expected some substantial proof of my love;
+but, to conceal the real state, of things, I pretended to be afraid
+of being surprised, and they had to be satisfied with my shallow
+excuse.
+
+I had informed my mother by letter of all I had suffered from
+Grimani's treatment; she answered that she had written to him on the
+subject, that she had no doubt he would immediately set me at
+liberty, and that an arrangement had been entered into by which M.
+Grimani would devote the money raised by Razetta from the sale of the
+furniture to the settlement of a small patrimony on my youngest
+brother.  But in this matter Grimani did not act honestly, for the
+patrimony was only settled thirteen years afterwards, and even then
+only in a fictitious manner.  I shall have an opportunity later on of
+mentioning this unfortunate brother, who died very poor in Rome
+twenty years ago.
+
+Towards the middle of June the Cimariotes were sent back to the East,
+and after their departure the garrison of the fort was reduced to its
+usual number.  I began to feel weary in this comparative solitude,
+and I gave way to terrible fits of passion.
+
+The heat was intense, and so disagreeable to me that I wrote to M.
+Grimani, asking for two summer suits of clothes, and telling him
+where they would be found, if Razetta had not sold them.  A week
+afterwards I was in the major's apartment when I saw the wretch
+Razetta come in, accompanied by a man whom he introduced as Petrillo,
+the celebrated favourite of the Empress of Russia, just arrived from
+St. Petersburg.  He ought to have said infamous instead of
+celebrated, and clown instead of favourite.
+
+The major invited them to take a seat, and Razetta, receiving a
+parcel from Grimani's gondolier, handed it to me, saying,
+
+"I have brought you your rags; take them."
+
+I answered:
+
+"Some day I will bring you a 'rigano':"
+
+At these words the scoundrel dared to raise his cane, but the
+indignant major compelled him to lower his tone by asking him whether
+he had any wish to pass the night in the guard-house.  Petrillo, who
+had not yet opened his lips, told me then that he was sorry not to
+have found me in Venice, as I might have shewn him round certain
+places which must be well known to me.
+
+"Very likely we should have met your wife in such places,"
+I answered.
+
+"I am a good judge of faces," he said, "and I can see that you are a
+true gallows-bird."
+
+I was trembling with rage, and the major, who shared my utter
+disgust, told them that he had business to transact, and they took
+their leave.  The major assured me that on the following day he would
+go to the war office to complain of Razetta, and that he would have
+him punished for his insolence.
+
+I remained alone, a prey to feelings of the deepest indignation, and
+to a most ardent thirst for revenge.
+
+The fortress was entirely surrounded by water, and my windows were
+not overlooked by any of the sentinels.  A boat coming under my
+windows could therefore easily take me to Venice during the night and
+bring me back to the fortress before day-break.  All that was
+necessary was to find a boatman who, for a certain amount, would risk
+the galleys in case of discovery.  Amongst several who brought
+provisions to the fort, I chose a boatman whose countenance pleased
+me, and I offered him one sequin; he promised to let me know his
+decision on the following day.  He was true to his time, and declared
+himself ready to take me.  He informed me that, before deciding to
+serve me, he had wished to know whether I was kept in the fort for
+any great crime, but as the wife of the major had told him that my
+imprisonment had been caused by very trifling frolics, I could rely
+upon him.  We arranged that he should be under my window at the
+beginning of the night, and that his boat should be provided with a
+mast long enough to enable me to slide along it from the window to
+the boat.
+
+The appointed hour came, and everything being ready I got safely into
+the boat, landed at the Sclavonian quay, ordered the boatman to wait
+for me, and wrapped up in a mariner's cloak I took my way straight to
+the gate of Saint-Sauveur, and engaged the waiter of a coffee-room to
+take me to Razetta's house.
+
+Being quite certain that he would not be at home at that time, I rang
+the bell, and I heard my sister's voice telling me that if I wanted
+to see him I must call in the morning.  Satisfied with this, I went
+to the foot of the bridge and sat down, waiting there to see which
+way he would come, and a few minutes before midnight I saw him
+advancing from the square of Saint-Paul.  It was all I wanted to
+know; I went back to my boat and returned to the fort without any
+difficulty.  At five o'clock in the morning everyone in the garrison
+could see me enjoying my walk on the platform.
+
+Taking all the time necessary to mature my plans, I made the
+following arrangements to secure my revenge with perfect safety, and
+to prove an alibi in case I should kill my rascally enemy, as it was
+my intention to do.  The day preceding the night fixed for my
+expedition, I walked about with the son of the Adjutant Zen, who was
+only twelve years old, but who amused me much by his shrewdness.  The
+reader will meet him again in the year 1771.  As I was walking with
+him, I jumped down from one of the bastions, and feigned to sprain my
+ankle.  Two soldiers carried me to my room, and the surgeon of the
+fort, thinking that I was suffering from a luxation, ordered me to
+keep to bed, and wrapped up the ankle in towels saturated with
+camphorated spirits of wine.  Everybody came to see me, and I
+requested the soldier who served me to remain and to sleep in my
+room.  I knew that a glass of brandy was enough to stupefy the man,
+and to make him sleep soundly.  As soon as I saw him fast asleep, I
+begged the surgeon and the chaplain, who had his room over mine, to
+leave me, and at half-past ten I lowered myself in the boat.
+
+As soon as I reached Venice, I bought a stout cudgel, and I sat
+myself down on a door-step, at the corner of the street near Saint-
+Paul's Square.  A narrow canal at the end of the street, was, I
+thought, the very place to throw my enemy in.  That canal has now
+disappeared.
+
+At a quarter before twelve I see Razetta, walking along leisurely.  I
+come out of the street with rapid strides, keeping near the wall to
+compel him to make room for me, and I strike a first blow on the
+head, and a second on his arm; the third blow sends him tumbling in
+the canal, howling and screaming my name.  At the same instant a
+Forlan, or citizen of Forli, comes out of a house on my left side
+with a lantern in his hand.  A blow from my cudgel knocks the lantern
+out of his grasp, and the man, frightened out of his wits, takes to
+his heels.  I throw away my stick, I run at full speed through the
+square and over the bridge, and while people are hastening towards
+the spot where the disturbance had taken place, I jump into the boat,
+and, thanks to a strong breeze swelling our sail, I get back to the
+fortress.  Twelve o'clock was striking as I re-entered my room
+through the window.  I quickly undress myself, and the moment I am in
+my bed I wake up the soldier by my loud screams, telling him to go
+for the surgeon, as I am dying of the colic.
+
+The chaplain, roused by my screaming, comes down and finds me in
+convulsions.  In the hope that some diascordium would relieve me, the
+good old man runs to his room and brings it, but while he has gone
+for some water I hide the medicine.  After half an hour of wry faces,
+I say that I feel much better, and thanking all my friends, I beg
+them to retire, which everyone does, wishing me a quiet sleep.
+
+The next morning I could not get up in consequence of my sprained
+ankle, although I had slept very well; the major was kind enough to
+call upon me before going to Venice, and he said that very likely my
+colic had been caused by the melon I had eaten for my dinner the day
+before.
+
+The major returned at one o'clock in the afternoon.  "I have good
+news to give you," he said to me, with a joyful laugh.  "Razetta was
+soundly cudgelled last night and thrown into a canal."
+
+"Has he been killed?"
+
+"No; but I am glad of it for your sake, for his death would make your
+position much more serious.  You are accused of having done it."
+
+"I am very glad people think me guilty; it is something of a revenge,
+but it will be rather difficult to bring it home to me."
+
+"Very difficult!  All the same, Razetta swears he recognized you, and
+the same declaration is made by the Forlan who says that you struck
+his hand to make him drop his lantern.  Razetta's nose is broken,
+three of his teeth are gone, and his right arm is severely hurt.  You
+have been accused before the avogador, and M. Grimani has written to
+the war office to complain of your release from the fortress without
+his knowledge.  I arrived at the office just in time.  The secretary
+was reading Grimani's letter, and I assured his excellency that it
+was a false report, for I left you in bed this morning, suffering
+from a sprained ankle.  I told him likewise that at twelve o'clock
+last night you were very near death from a severe attack of colic."
+
+"Was it at midnight that Razetta was so well treated?"
+
+"So says the official report.  The war secretary wrote at once to M.
+Grimani and informed him that you have not left the fort, and that
+you are even now detained in it, and that the plaintiff is at
+liberty, if he chooses, to send commissaries to ascertain the fact.
+Therefore, my dear abbe, you must prepare yourself for an
+interrogatory."
+
+"I expect it, and I will answer that I am very sorry to be innocent."
+
+Three days afterwards, a commissary came to the fort with a clerk of
+the court, and the proceedings were soon over.  Everybody knew that I
+had sprained my ankle; the chaplain, the surgeon, my body-servant,
+and several others swore that at midnight I was in bed suffering from
+colic.  My alibi being thoroughly proved, the avogador sentenced
+Razetta and the Forlan to pay all expenses without prejudice to my
+rights of action.
+
+After this judgment, the major advised me to address to the secretary
+of war a petition which he undertook to deliver himself, and to claim
+my release from the fort.  I gave notice of my proceedings to M.
+Grimani, and a week afterwards the major told me that I was free, and
+that he would himself take me to the abbe.  It was at dinnertime, and
+in the middle of some amusing conversation, that he imparted that
+piece of information.  Not supposing him to be in earnest, and in
+order to keep up the joke, I told him very politely that I preferred
+his house to Venice, and that, to prove it, I would be happy to
+remain a week longer, if he would grant me permission to do so.  I
+was taken at my word, and everybody seemed very pleased.  But when,
+two hours later, the news was confirmed, and I could no longer doubt
+the truth of my release, I repented the week which I had so foolishly
+thrown away as a present to the major; yet I had not the courage to
+break my word, for everybody, and particularly his wife, had shown
+such unaffected pleasure, it would have been contemptible of me to
+change my mind.  The good woman knew that I owed her every kindness
+which I had enjoyed, and she might have thought me ungrateful.
+
+But I met in the fort with a last adventure, which I must not forget
+to relate.
+
+On the following day, an officer dressed in the national uniform
+called upon the major, accompanied by an elderly man of about sixty
+years of age, wearing a sword, and, presenting to the major a
+dispatch with the seal of the war office, he waited for an answer,
+and went away as soon as he had received one from the governor.
+
+After the officer had taken leave, the major, addressing himself to
+the elderly gentleman, to whom he gave the title of count, told him
+that his orders were to keep him a prisoner, and that he gave him the
+whole of the fort for his prison.  The count offered him his sword,
+but the major nobly refused to take it, and escorted him to the room
+he was to occupy.  Soon after, a servant in livery brought a bed and
+a trunk, and the next morning the same servant, knocking at my door,
+told me that his master begged the honour of my company to breakfast.
+I accepted the invitation, and he received me with these words:
+
+"Dear sir, there has been so much talk in Venice about the skill with
+which you proved your incredible alibi, that I could not help asking
+for the honour of your acquaintance."
+
+"But, count, the alibi being a true one, there can be no skill
+required to prove it.  Allow me to say that those who doubt its truth
+are paying me a very poor compliment, for--"
+
+"Never mind; do not let us talk any more of that, and forgive me.
+But as we happen to be companions in misfortune, I trust you will not
+refuse me your friendship.  Now for breakfast."
+
+After our meal, the count, who had heard from me some portion of my
+history, thought that my confidence called for a return on his part,
+and he began: "I am the Count de Bonafede.  In my early days I served
+under Prince Eugene, but I gave up the army, and entered on a civil
+career in Austria.  I had to fly from Austria and take refuge in
+Bavaria in consequence of an unfortunate duel.  In Munich I made the
+acquaintance of a young lady belonging to a noble family; I eloped
+with her and brought her to Venice, where we were married.  I have
+now been twenty years in Venice.  I have six children, and everybody
+knows me.  About a week ago I sent my servant to the postoffice for
+my letters, but they were refused him because he had not any money to
+pay the postage.  I went myself, but the clerk would not deliver me
+my letters, although I assured him that I would pay for them the next
+time.  This made me angry, and I called upon the Baron de Taxis, the
+postmaster, and complained of the clerk, but he answered very rudely
+that the clerk had simply obeyed his orders, and that my letters
+would only be delivered on payment of the postage.  I felt very
+indignant, but as I was in his house I controlled my anger, went
+home, and wrote a note to him asking him to give me satisfaction for
+his rudeness, telling him that I would never go out without my sword,
+and that I would force him to fight whenever and wherever I should
+meet him.  I never came across him, but yesterday I was accosted by
+the secretary of the inquisitors, who told me that I must forget the
+baron's rude conduct, and go under the guidance of an officer whom he
+pointed out to me, to imprison myself for a week in this fortress.  I
+shall thus have the pleasure of spending that time with you."
+
+I told him that I had been free for the last twenty-four hours, but
+that to shew my gratitude for his friendly confidence I would feel
+honoured if he would allow me to keep him company.  As I had already
+engaged myself with the major, this was only a polite falsehood.
+
+In the afternoon I happened to be with him on the tower of the fort,
+and pointed out a gondola advancing towards the lower gate; he took
+his spy-glass and told me that it was his wife and daughter coming to
+see him.  We went to meet the ladies, one of whom might once have
+been worth the trouble of an elopement; the other, a young person
+between fourteen and sixteen, struck me as a beauty of a new style.
+Her hair was of a beautiful light auburn, her eyes were blue and very
+fine, her nose a Roman, and her pretty mouth, half-open and laughing,
+exposed a set of teeth as white as her complexion, although a
+beautiful rosy tint somewhat veiled the whiteness of the last.  Her
+figure was so slight that it seemed out of nature, but her perfectly-
+formed breast appeared an altar on which the god of love would have
+delighted to breathe the sweetest incense.  This splendid chest was,
+however, not yet well furnished, but in my imagination I gave her all
+the embonpoint which might have been desired, and I was so pleased
+that I could not take my looks from her.  I met her eyes, and her
+laughing countenance seemed to say to me: "Only wait for two years,
+at the utmost, and all that your imagination is now creating will
+then exist in reality."
+
+She was elegantly dressed in the prevalent fashion, with large hoops,
+and like the daughters of the nobility who have not yet attained the
+age of puberty, although the young countess was marriageable.  I had
+never dared to stare so openly at the bosom of a young lady of
+quality, but I thought there was no harm in fixing my eyes on a spot
+where there was nothing yet but in expectation.
+
+The count, after having exchanged a few words in German with his
+wife, presented me in the most flattering manner, and I was received
+with great politeness.  The major joined us, deeming it his duty to
+escort the countess all over the fortress, and I improved the
+excellent opportunity thrown in my way by the inferiority of my
+position; I offered my arm to the young lady, and the count left us
+to go to his room.
+
+I was still an adept in the old Venetian fashion of attending upon
+ladies, and the young countess thought me rather awkward, though I
+believed myself very fashionable when I placed my hand under her arm,
+but she drew it back in high merriment.  Her mother turned round to
+enquire what she was laughing at, and I was terribly confused when I
+heard her answer that I had tickled her.
+
+"This is the way to offer your arm to a lady," she said, and she
+passed her hand through my arm, which I rounded in the most clumsy
+manner, feeling it a very difficult task to resume a dignified
+countenance.  Thinking me a novice of the most innocent species, she
+very likely determined to make sport of me.  She began by remarking
+that by rounding my arm as I had done I placed it too far from her
+waist, and that I was consequently out of drawing.  I told her I did
+not know how to draw, and inquired whether it was one of her
+accomplishments.
+
+"I am learning," she answered, "and when you call upon us I will shew
+you Adam and Eve, after the Chevalier Liberi; I have made a copy
+which has been found very fine by some professors, although they did
+not know it was my work."
+
+"Why did you not tell them?"
+
+"Because those two figures are too naked."
+
+"I am not curious to see your Adam, but I will look at your Eve with
+pleasure, and keep your secret."
+
+This answer made her laugh again, and again her mother turned round.
+I put on the look of a simpleton, for, seeing the advantage I could
+derive from her opinion of me, I had formed my plan at the very
+moment she tried to teach me how to offer my arm to a lady.
+
+She was so convinced of my simplicity that she ventured to say that
+she considered her Adam by far more beautiful than her Eve, because
+in her drawing of the man she had omitted nothing, every muscle being
+visible, while there was none conspicuous in Eve.  "It is," she
+added, "a figure with nothing in it."
+
+"Yet it is the one which I shall like best."
+
+"No; believe me, Adam will please you most."
+
+This conversation had greatly excited me.  I had on a pair of linen
+breeches, the weather being very warm....  I was afraid of the major
+and the countess, who were a few yards in front of us, turning round
+.... I was on thorns.  To make matters worse, the young lady
+stumbled, one of her shoes slipped off, and presenting me her pretty
+foot she asked me to put the shoe right.  I knelt on the ground, and,
+very likely without thinking, she lifted up her skirt....  she had
+very wide hoops and no petticoat.... what I saw was enough to strike
+me dead on the spot.... When I rose, she asked if anything was the
+matter with me.
+
+A moment after, coming out of one of the casemates, her head-dress
+got slightly out of order, and she begged that I would remedy the
+accident, but, having to bend her head down, the state in which I was
+could no longer remain a secret for her.  In order to avoid greater
+confusion to both of us, she enquired who had made my watch ribbon; I
+told her it was a present from my sister, and she desired to examine
+it, but when I answered her that it was fastened to the fob-pocket,
+and found that she disbelieved me, I added that she could see for
+herself.  She put her hand to it, and a natural but involuntary
+excitement caused me to be very indiscreet.  She must have felt
+vexed, for she saw that she had made a mistake in her estimate of my
+character; she became more timid, she would not laugh any more, and
+we joined her mother and the major who was shewing her, in a sentry-
+box, the body of Marshal de Schulenburg which had been deposited
+there until the mausoleum erected for him was completed.  As for
+myself, I felt deeply ashamed.  I thought myself the first man who
+had alarmed her innocence, and I felt ready to do anything to atone
+for the insult.
+
+Such was my delicacy of feeling in those days.  I used to credit
+people with exalted sentiments, which often existed only in my
+imagination.  I must confess that time has entirely destroyed that
+delicacy; yet I do not believe myself worse than other men, my equals
+in age and inexperience.
+
+We returned to the count's apartment, and the day passed off rather
+gloomily.  Towards evening the ladies went away, but the countess
+gave me a pressing invitation to call upon them in Venice.
+
+The young lady, whom I thought I had insulted, had made such a deep
+impression upon me that the seven following days seemed very long;
+yet I was impatient to see her again only that I might entreat her
+forgiveness, and convince her of my repentance.
+
+The following day the count was visited by his son; he was plain-
+featured, but a thorough gentleman, and modest withal.  Twenty-five
+years afterwards I met him in Spain, a cadet in the king's body-
+guard.  He had served as a private twenty years before obtaining this
+poor promotion.  The reader will hear of him in good time; I will
+only mention here that when I met him in Spain, he stood me out that
+I had never known him; his self-love prompted this very contemptible
+lie.
+
+Early on the eighth day the count left the fortress, and I took my
+departure the same evening, having made an appointment at a coffee-
+house in St. Mark's Square with the major who was to accompany me to
+M. Grimani's house.  I took leave of his wife, whose memory will
+always be dear to me, and she said, "I thank you for your skill in
+proving your alibi, but you have also to thank me for having
+understood you so well.  My husband never heard anything about it
+until it was all over."
+
+As soon as I reached Venice, I went to pay a visit to Madame Orio,
+where I was made welcome.  I remained to supper, and my two charming
+sweethearts who were praying for the death of the bishop, gave me the
+most delightful hospitality for the night.
+
+At noon the next day I met the major according to our appointment,
+and we called upon the Abbe Grimani.  He received me with the air of
+a guilty man begging for mercy, and I was astounded at his stupidity
+when he entreated me to forgive Razetta and his companion.  He told
+me that the bishop was expected very soon, and that he had ordered a
+room to be ready for me, and that I could take my meals with him.
+Then he introduced me to M. Valavero, a man of talent, who had just
+left the ministry of war, his term of office having lasted the usual
+six months.  I paid my duty to him, and we kept up a kind of
+desultory conversation until the departure of the major.  When he had
+left us M. Valavero entreated me to confess that I had been the
+guilty party in the attack upon Razetta.  I candidly told him that
+the thrashing had been my handiwork, and I gave him all the
+particulars, which amused him immensely.  He remarked that, as I had
+perpetrated the affair before midnight, the fools had made a mistake
+in their accusation; but that, after all, the mistake had not
+materially helped me in proving the alibi, because my sprained ankle,
+which everybody had supposed a real accident, would of itself have
+been sufficient.
+
+But I trust that my kind reader has not forgotten that I had a very
+heavy weight upon my conscience, of which I longed to get rid.  I had
+to see the goddess of my fancy, to obtain my pardon, or die at her
+feet.
+
+I found the house without difficulty; the count was not at home.  The
+countess received me very kindly, but her appearance caused me so
+great a surprise that I did not know what to say to her.  I had
+fancied that I was going to visit an angel, that I would find her in
+a lovely paradise, and I found myself in a large sitting-room
+furnished with four rickety chairs and a dirty old table.  There was
+hardly any light in the room because the shutters were nearly closed.
+It might have been a precaution against the heat, but I judged that
+it was more probably for the purpose of concealing the windows, the
+glass of which was all broken.  But this visible darkness did not
+prevent me from remarking that the countess was wrapped up in an old
+tattered gown, and that her chemise did not shine by its cleanliness.
+Seeing that I was ill at ease, she left the room, saying that she
+would send her daughter, who, a few minutes afterwards, came in with
+an easy and noble appearance, and told me that she had expected me
+with great impatience, but that I had surprised her at a time at
+which she was not in the habit of receiving any visits.
+
+I did not know what to answer, for she did not seem to me to be the
+same person.  Her miserable dishabille made her look almost ugly, and
+I wondered at the impression she had produced upon me at the
+fortress.  She saw my surprise, and partly guessed my thoughts, for
+she put on a look, not of vexation, but of sorrow which called forth
+all my pity.  If she had been a philosopher she might have rightly
+despised me as a man whose sympathy was enlisted only by her fine
+dress, her nobility, or her apparent wealth; but she endeavoured to
+bring me round by her sincerity.  She felt that if she could call a
+little sentiment into play, it would certainly plead in her favour.
+
+"I see that you are astonished, reverend sir, and I know the reason
+of your surprise.  You expected to see great splendour here, and you
+find only misery.  The government allows my father but a small
+salary, and there are nine of us.  As we must attend church on
+Sundays and holidays in a style proper to our condition, we are often
+compelled to go without our dinner, in order to get out of pledge the
+clothes which urgent need too often obliges us to part with, and
+which we pledge anew on the following day.  If we did not attend
+mass, the curate would strike our names off the list of those who
+share the alms of the Confraternity of the Poor, and those alms alone
+keep us afloat."
+
+What a sad tale!  She had guessed rightly.  I was touched, but rather
+with shame than true emotion.  I was not rich myself, and, as I was
+no longer in love, I only heaved a deep sigh, and remained as cold as
+ice.  Nevertheless, her position was painful, and I answered
+politely, speaking with kindness and assuring her of my sympathy.
+"Were I wealthy," I said, "I would soon shew you that your tale of
+woe has not fallen on unfeeling ears; but I am poor, and, being at
+the eve of my departure from Venice, even my friendship would be
+useless to you."  Then, after some desultory talk, I expressed a hope
+that her beauty would yet win happiness for her.  She seemed to
+consider for a few minutes, and said, "That may happen some day,
+provided that the man who feels the power of my charms understands
+that they can be bestowed only with my heart, and is willing to
+render me the justice I deserve; I am only looking for a lawful
+marriage, without dreaming of rank or fortune; I no longer believe in
+the first, and I know how to live without the second; for I have been
+accustomed to poverty, and even to abject need; but you cannot
+realize that.  Come and see my drawings."
+
+"You are very good, mademoiselle."
+
+Alas!  I was not thinking of her drawings, and I could no longer feel
+interested in her Eve, but I followed her.
+
+We came to a chamber in which I saw a table, a chair, a small toilet-
+glass and a bed with the straw palliasse turned over, very likely for
+the purpose of allowing the looker-on to suppose that there were
+sheets underneath, but I was particularly disgusted by a certain
+smell, the cause of which was recent; I was thunderstruck, and if I
+had been still in love, this antidote would have been sufficiently
+powerful to cure me instanter.  I wished for nothing but to make my
+escape, never to return, and I regretted that I could not throw on
+the table a handful of ducats, which I should have considered the
+price of my ransom.
+
+The poor girl shewed me.  her drawings; they were fine, and I praised
+them, without alluding particularly to Eve, and without venturing a
+joke upon Adam.  I asked her, for the sake of saying something, why
+she did not try to render her talent remunerative by learning pastel
+drawing.
+
+"I wish I could," she answered, "but the box of chalks alone costs
+two sequins."
+
+"Will you forgive me if I am bold enough to offer you six?"
+
+"Alas!  I accept them gratefully, and to be indebted to you for such
+a service makes me truly happy."
+
+Unable to keep back her tears, she turned her head round to conceal
+them from me, and I took that opportunity of laying the money on the
+table, and out of politeness, wishing to spare her every unnecessary
+humiliation, I saluted her lips with a kiss which she was at liberty
+to consider a loving one, as I wanted her to ascribe my reserve to
+the respect I felt for her.  I then left her with a promise to call
+another day to see her father.  I never kept my promise.  The reader
+will see how I met her again after ten years.
+
+How many thoughts crowded upon my mind as I left that house!  What a
+lesson!  I compared reality with the imagination, and I had to give
+the preference to the last, as reality is always dependent on it.  I
+then began to forsee a truth which has been clearly proved to me in
+my after life, namely, that love is only a feeling of curiosity more
+or less intense, grafted upon the inclination placed in us by nature
+that the species may be preserved.  And truly, woman is like a book,
+which, good or bad, must at first please us by the frontispiece.  If
+this is not interesting, we do not feel any wish to read the book,
+and our wish is in direct proportion to the interest we feel.  The
+frontispiece of woman runs from top to bottom like that of a book,
+and her feet, which are most important to every man who shares my
+taste, offer the same interest as the edition of the work.  If it is
+true that most amateurs bestow little or no attention upon the feet
+of a woman, it is likewise a fact that most readers care little or
+nothing whether a book is of the first edition or the tenth.  At all
+events, women are quite right to take the greatest care of their
+face, of their dress, of their general appearance; for it is only by
+that part of the frontispiece that they can call forth a wish to read
+them in those men who have not been endowed by nature with the
+privilege of blindness.  And just in the same manner that men, who
+have read a great many books, are certain to feel at last a desire
+for perusing new works even if they are bad, a man who has known many
+women, and all handsome women, feels at last a curiosity for ugly
+specimens when he meets with entirely new ones.  It is all very well
+for his eye to discover the paint which conceals the reality, but his
+passion has become a vice, and suggests some argument in favour of
+the lying frontispiece.  It is possible, at least he thinks so, that
+the work may prove better than the title-page, and the reality more
+acceptable than the paint which hides it.  He then tries to peruse
+the book, but the leaves have not been opened; he meets with some
+resistance, the living book must be read according to established
+rules, and the book-worm falls a victim to a coquetry, the monster
+which persecutes all those who make a business of love.  As for thee,
+intelligent man, who hast read the few preceding lines, let me tell
+thee that, if they do not assist in opening thy eyes, thou art lost;
+I mean that thou art certain of being a victim to the fair sex to the
+very last moment of thy life.  If my candour does not displease thee,
+accept my congratulations.  In the evening I called upon Madame Orio,
+as I wanted to inform her charming nieces that, being an inmate of
+Grimani's house, I could not sleep out for the first night.  I found
+there the faithful Rosa, who told me that the affair of the alibi was
+in every mouth, and  that, as such celebrity was evidently caused by
+a very decided belief in the untruth of the alibi itself, I ought to
+fear a retaliation of the same sort on the part of Razetta, and to
+keep on my guard, particularly at night. I felt all the importance of
+this advice, and I took care never to go out in the evening otherwise
+than in a gondola, or accompanied by some friends.  Madame Manzoni
+told me that I was acting wisely, because, although the judges could
+not do otherwise than acquit me, everybody knew the real truth of the
+matter, and Razetta could not fail to be my deadly foe.
+
+Three or four days afterwards M.  Grimani announced the arrival of
+the bishop, who had put up at the convent of his order, at Saint-
+Francois de Paul.  He presented me himself to the prelate as a jewel
+highly prized by himself, and as if he had been the only person
+worthy of descanting upon its beauty.
+
+I saw a fine monk wearing his pectoral cross.  He would have reminded
+me of Father Mancia if he had not looked stouter and less reserved.
+He was about thirty-four, and had been made a bishop by the grace of
+God, the Holy See, and my mother.  After pronouncing over me a
+blessing, which I received kneeling, and giving me his hand to kiss,
+he embraced me warmly, calling me his dear son in the Latin language,
+in which he continued to address me.  I thought that, being a
+Calabrian, he might feel ashamed of his Italian, but he undeceived me
+by speaking in that language to M. Grimani.  He told me that, as he
+could not take me with him from Venice, I should have to proceed to
+Rome, where Grimani would take care to send me, and that I would
+procure his address at Ancona from one of his friends, called Lazari,
+a Minim monk, who would likewise supply me with the means of
+continuing my journey.
+
+"When we meet in Rome," he added, "we can go together to Martorano by
+way of Naples.  Call upon me to-morrow morning, and have your
+breakfast with me.  I intend to leave the day after."
+
+As we were on our way back to his house, M.  Grimani treated me to a
+long lecture on morals, which nearly caused me to burst into loud
+laughter.  Amongst other things, he informed me that I ought not to
+study too hard, because the air in Calabria was very heavy, and I
+might become consumptive from too close application to my books.
+
+The next morning at day-break I went to the bishop.  After saying his
+mass, we took some chocolate, and for three hours he laid me under
+examination.  I saw clearly that he was not pleased with me, but I
+was well enough pleased with him.  He seemed to me a worthy man, and
+as he was to lead me along the great highway of the Church, I felt
+attracted towards him, for, at the time, although I entertained a
+good opinion of my personal appearance, I had no confidence whatever
+in my talents.
+
+After the departure of the good bishop, M.  Grimani gave me a letter
+left by him, which I was to deliver to Father Lazari, at the Convent
+of the Minims, in Ancona.  M. Grimani informed me that he would send
+me to that city with the ambassador from Venice, who was on the point
+of sailing.  I had therefore to keep myself in readiness, and, as I
+was anxious to be out of his hands, I approved all his arrangements.
+As soon as I had notice of the day on which the suite of the
+ambassador would embark, I went to pay my last farewell to all my
+acquaintances.  I left my brother Francois in the school of M. Joli,
+a celebrated decorative painter.  As the peotta in which I was to
+sail would not leave before daybreak, I spent the short night in the
+arms of the two sisters, who, this time, entertained no hope of ever
+seeing me again.  On my side I could not forsee what would happen,
+for I was abandoning myself to fate, and I thought it would be
+useless to think of the future.  The night was therefore spent
+between joy and sadness, between pleasures and tears.  As I bade them
+adieu, I returned the key which had opened so often for me the road
+to happiness.
+
+This, my first love affair, did not give me any experience of the
+world, for our intercourse was always a happy one, and was never
+disturbed by any quarrel or stained by any interested motive.  We
+often felt, all three of us, as if we must raise our souls towards
+the eternal Providence of God, to thank Him for having, by His
+particular protection, kept from us all the accidents which might
+have disturbed the sweet peace we were enjoying.
+
+I left in the hands of Madame Manzoni all my papers, and all the
+forbidden books I possessed.  The good woman, who was twenty years
+older than I, and who, believing in an immutable destiny, took
+pleasure in turning the leaves of the great book of fate, told me
+that she was certain of restoring to me all I left with her, before
+the end of the following year, at the latest.  Her prediction caused
+me both surprise and pleasure, and feeling deep reverence for her, I
+thought myself bound to assist the realization of her foresight.
+After all, if she predicted the future, it was not through
+superstition, or in consequence of some vain foreboding which reason
+must condemn, but through her knowledge of the world, and of the
+nature of the person she was addressing.  She used to laugh because
+she never made a mistake.
+
+I embarked from St: Mark's landing.  M. Grimani had given me ten
+sequins, which he thought would keep me during my stay in the
+lazzaretto of Ancona for the necessary quarantine, after which it was
+not to be supposed that I could want any money.  I shared Grimani's
+certainty on the subject, and with my natural thoughtlessness I cared
+nothing about it.  Yet I must say that, unknown to everybody, I had
+in my purse forty bright sequins, which powerfully contributed to
+increase my cheerfulness, and I left Venice full of joy and without
+one regret.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of MEMOIRES OF JACQUES CASANOVA
+VENETION YEARS, Vol. 1a, CHILDHOOD  by Jacques Casanova de Seingalt
+
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