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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Venetian Years: Milan and Mantua
+by Jacques Casanova de Seingalt
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Venetian Years: Milan and Mantua
+       The Memoirs Of Jacques Casanova De Seingalt 1725-1798
+
+Author: Jacques Casanova de Seingalt
+
+Release Date: October 30, 2006 [EBook #2955]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK VENETIAN YEARS: MILAN AND MANTUA ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+MEMOIRS OF JACQUES CASANOVA de SEINGALT 1725-1798
+
+VENETIAN YEARS, Volume 1e--MILAN AND MANTUA
+
+THE RARE UNABRIDGED LONDON EDITION OF 1894 TRANSLATED BY ARTHUR MACHEN TO
+WHICH HAS BEEN ADDED THE CHAPTERS DISCOVERED BY ARTHUR SYMONS.
+
+
+
+
+MILAN AND MANTUA
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+Slight Misfortunes Compel Me to Leave Venice--My Adventures in Milan and
+Mantua
+
+On Low Sunday Charles paid us a visit with his lovely wife, who seemed
+totally indifferent to what Christine used to be. Her hair dressed with
+powder did not please me as well as the raven black of her beautiful
+locks, and her fashionable town attire did not, in my eyes, suit her as
+well as her rich country dress. But the countenances of husband and wife
+bore the stamp of happiness. Charles reproached me in a friendly manner
+because I had not called once upon them, and, in order to atone for my
+apparent negligence, I went to see them the next day with M. Dandolo.
+Charles told me that his wife was idolized by his aunt and his sister who
+had become her bosom friend; that she was kind, affectionate, unassuming,
+and of a disposition which enforced affection. I was no less pleased with
+this favourable state of things than with the facility with which
+Christine was learning the Venetian dialect.
+
+When M. Dandolo and I called at their house, Charles was not at home;
+Christine was alone with his two relatives. The most friendly welcome was
+proffered to us, and in the course of conversation the aunt praised the
+progress made by Christine in her writing very highly, and asked her to
+let me see her copy-book. I followed her to the next room, where she told
+me that she was very happy; that every day she discovered new virtues in
+her husband. He had told her, without the slightest appearance of
+suspicion of displeasure, that he knew that we had spent two days
+together in Treviso, and that he had laughed at the well-meaning fool who
+had given him that piece of information in the hope of raising a cloud in
+the heaven of their felicity.
+
+Charles was truly endowed with all the virtues, with all the noble
+qualities of an honest and distinguished man. Twenty-six years afterwards
+I happened to require the assistance of his purse, and found him my true
+friend. I never was a frequent visitor at his house, and he appreciated
+my delicacy. He died a few months before my last departure from Venice,
+leaving his widow in easy circumstances, and three well-educated sons,
+all with good positions, who may, for what I know, be still living with
+their mother.
+
+In June I went to the fair at Padua, and made the acquaintance of a young
+man of my own age, who was then studying mathematics under the celebrated
+Professor Succi. His name was Tognolo, but thinking it did not sound
+well, he changed it for that of Fabris. He became, in after years, Comte
+de Fabris, lieutenant-general under Joseph II., and died Governor of
+Transylvania. This man, who owed his high fortune to his talents, would,
+perhaps, have lived and died unknown if he had kept his name of Tognolo,
+a truly vulgar one. He was from Uderzo, a large village of the Venetian
+Friuli. He had a brother in the Church, a man of parts, and a great
+gamester, who, having a deep knowledge of the world, had taken the name
+of Fabris, and the younger brother had to assume it likewise. Soon
+afterwards he bought an estate with the title of count, became a Venetian
+nobleman, and his origin as a country bumpkin was forgotten. If he had
+kept his name of Tognolo it would have injured him, for he could not have
+pronounced it without reminding his hearers of what is called, by the
+most contemptible of prejudices, low extraction, and the privileged
+class, through an absurd error, does not admit the possibility of a
+peasant having talent or genius. No doubt a time will come when society,
+more enlightened, and therefore more reasonable, will acknowledge that
+noble feelings, honour, and heroism can be found in every condition of
+life as easily as in a class, the blood of which is not always exempt
+from the taint of a misalliance.
+
+The new count, while he allowed others to forget his origin, was too wise
+to forget it himself, and in legal documents he always signed his family
+name as well as the one he had adopted. His brother had offered him two
+ways to win fortune in the world, leaving him perfectly free in his
+choice. Both required an expenditure of one thousand sequins, but the
+abbe had put the amount aside for that purpose. My friend had to choose
+between the sword of Mars and the bird of Minerva. The abbe knew that he
+could purchase for his brother a company in the army of his Imperial and
+Apostolic Majesty, or obtain for him a professorship at the University of
+Padua; for money can do everything. But my friend, who was gifted with
+noble feelings and good sense, knew that in either profession talents and
+knowledge were essentials, and before making a choice he was applying
+himself with great success to the study of mathematics. He ultimately
+decided upon the military profession, thus imitating Achilles, who
+preferred the sword to the distaff, and he paid for it with his life like
+the son of Peleus; though not so young, and not through a wound inflicted
+by an arrow, but from the plague, which he caught in the unhappy country
+in which the indolence of Europe allows the Turks to perpetuate that
+fearful disease.
+
+The distinguished appearance, the noble sentiments, the great knowledge,
+and the talents of Fabris would have been turned into ridicule in a man
+called Tognolo, for such is the force of prejudices, particularly of
+those which have no ground to rest upon, that an ill-sounding name is
+degrading in this our stupid society. My opinion is that men who have an
+ill-sounding name, or one which presents an indecent or ridiculous idea,
+are right in changing it if they intend to win honour, fame, and fortune
+either in arts or sciences. No one can reasonably deny them that right,
+provided the name they assume belongs to nobody. The alphabet is general
+property, and everyone has the right to use it for the creation of a word
+forming an appellative sound. But he must truly create it. Voltaire, in
+spite of his genius, would not perhaps have reached posterity under his
+name of Arouet, especially amongst the French, who always give way so
+easily to their keen sense of ridicule and equivocation. How could they
+have imagined that a writer 'a rouet' could be a man of genius? And
+D'Alembert, would he have attained his high fame, his universal
+reputation, if he had been satisfied with his name of M. Le Rond, or Mr.
+Allround? What would have become of Metastasio under his true name of
+Trapasso? What impression would Melanchthon have made with his name of
+Schwarzerd? Would he then have dared to raise the voice of a moralist
+philosopher, of a reformer of the Eucharist, and so many other holy
+things? Would not M. de Beauharnais have caused some persons to laugh and
+others to blush if he had kept his name of Beauvit, even if the first
+founder of his family had been indebted for his fortune to the fine
+quality expressed by that name?
+
+Would the Bourbeux have made as good a figure on the throne as the
+Bourbons? I think that King Poniatowski ought to have abdicated the name
+of Augustus, which he had taken at the time of his accession to the
+throne, when he abdicated royalty. The Coleoni of Bergamo, however, would
+find it rather difficult to change their name, because they would be
+compelled at the same time to change their coat of arms (the two
+generative glands), and thus to annihilate the glory of their ancestor,
+the hero Bartholomeo.
+
+Towards the end of autumn my friend Fabris introduced me to a family in
+the midst of which the mind and the heart could find delicious food. That
+family resided in the country on the road to Zero. Card-playing,
+lovemaking, and practical jokes were the order of the day. Some of those
+jokes were rather severe ones, but the order of the day was never to get
+angry and to laugh at everything, for one was to take every jest
+pleasantly or be thought a bore. Bedsteads would at night tumble down
+under their occupants, ghosts were personated, diuretic pills or
+sugar-plums were given to young ladies, as well as comfits who produced
+certain winds rising from the netherlands, and impossible to keep under
+control. These jokes would sometimes go rather too far, but such was the
+spirit animating all the members of that circle; they would laugh. I was
+not less inured than the others to the war of offence and defence, but at
+last there was such a bitter joke played upon me that it suggested to me
+another, the fatal consequences of which put a stop to the mania by which
+we were all possessed.
+
+We were in the habit of walking to a farm which was about half a league
+distant by the road, but the distance could be reduced by half by going
+over a deep and miry ditch across which a narrow plank was thrown, and I
+always insisted upon going that way, in spite of the fright of the ladies
+who always trembled on the narrow bridge, although I never failed to
+cross the first, and to offer my hand to help them over. One fine day, I
+crossed first so as to give them courage, but suddenly, when I reached
+the middle of the plank, it gave way under me, and there I was in the
+ditch, up to the chin in stinking mud, and, in spite of my inward rage,
+obliged, according to the general understanding, to join in the merry
+laughter of all my companions. But the merriment did not last long, for
+the joke was too bad, and everyone declared it to be so. Some peasants
+were called to the rescue, and with much difficulty they dragged me out
+in the most awful state. An entirely new dress, embroidered with
+spangles, my silk stockings, my lace, everything, was of course spoiled,
+but not minding it, I laughed more heartily that anybody else, although I
+had already made an inward vow to have the most cruel revenge. In order
+to know the author of that bitter joke I had only to appear calm and
+indifferent about it. It was evident that the plank had been purposely
+sawn. I was taken back to the house, a shirt, a coat, a complete costume,
+were lent me, for I had come that time only for twenty-four hours, and
+had not brought anything with me. I went to the city the next morning,
+and towards the evening I returned to the gay company. Fabris, who had
+been as angry as myself, observed to me that the perpetrator of the joke
+evidently felt his guilt, because he took good care not to discover
+himself. But I unveiled the mystery by promising one sequin to a peasant
+woman if she could find out who had sawn the plank. She contrived to
+discover the young man who had done the work. I called on him, and the
+offer of a sequin, together with my threats, compelled him to confess
+that he had been paid for his work by Signor Demetrio, a Greek, dealer in
+spices, a good and amiable man of between forty-five and fifty years, on
+whom I never played any trick, except in the case of a pretty, young
+servant girl whom he was courting, and whom I had juggled from him.
+
+Satisfied with my discovery, I was racking my brain to invent a good
+practical joke, but to obtain complete revenge it was necessary that my
+trick should prove worse than the one he had played upon me.
+Unfortunately my imagination was at bay. I could not find anything. A
+funeral put an end to my difficulties.
+
+Armed with my hunting-knife, I went alone to the cemetery a little after
+midnight, and opening the grave of the dead man who had been buried that
+very day, I cut off one of the arms near the shoulder, not without some
+trouble, and after I had re-buried the corpse, I returned to my room with
+the arm of the defunct. The next day, when supper was over, I left the
+table and retired to my chamber as if I intended to go to bed, but taking
+the arm with me I hid myself under Demetrio's bed. A short time after,
+the Greek comes in, undresses himself, put his light out, and lies down.
+I give him time to fall nearly asleep; then, placing myself at the foot
+of the bed, I pull away the clothes little by little until he is half
+naked. He laughs and calls out,
+
+"Whoever you may be, go away and let me sleep quietly, for I do not
+believe in ghosts;" he covers himself again and composes himself to
+sleep.
+
+I wait five or six minutes, and pull again at the bedclothes; but when he
+tries to draw up the sheet, saying that he does not care for ghosts, I
+oppose some resistance. He sits up so as to catch the hand which is
+pulling at the clothes, and I take care that he should get hold of the
+dead hand. Confident that he has caught the man or the woman who was
+playing the trick, he pulls it towards him, laughing all the time; I keep
+tight hold of the arm for a few instants, and then let it go suddenly;
+the Greek falls back on his pillow without uttering a single word.
+
+The trick was played, I leave the room without any noise, and, reaching
+my chamber, go to bed.
+
+I was fast asleep, when towards morning I was awoke by persons going
+about, and not understanding why they should be up so early, I got up.
+The first person I met--the mistress of the house--told me that I had
+played an abominable joke.
+
+"I? What have I done?"
+
+"M. Demetrio is dying."
+
+"Have I killed him?"
+
+She went away without answering me. I dressed myself, rather frightened,
+I confess, but determined upon pleading complete ignorance of everything,
+and I proceeded to Demetrio's room; and I was confronted with
+horror-stricken countenances and bitter reproaches. I found all the
+guests around him. I protested my innocence, but everyone smiled. The
+archpriest and the beadle, who had just arrived, would not bury the arm
+which was lying there, and they told me that I had been guilty of a great
+crime.
+
+"I am astonished, reverend sir," I said to the priest, "at the hasty
+judgment which is thus passed upon me, when there is no proof to condemn
+me."
+
+"You have done it," exclaimed all the guests, "you alone are capable of
+such an abomination; it is just like you. No one but you would have dared
+to do such a thing!"
+
+"I am compelled," said the archpriest, "to draw up an official report."
+
+"As you please, I have not the slightest objection," I answered, "I have
+nothing to fear."
+
+And I left the room.
+
+I continued to take it coolly, and at the dinner-table I was informed
+that M. Demetrio had been bled, that he had recovered the use of his
+eyes, but not of his tongue or of his limbs. The next day he could speak,
+and I heard, after I had taken leave of the family, that he was stupid
+and spasmodic. The poor man remained in that painful state for the rest
+of his life. I felt deeply grieved, but I had not intended to injure him
+so badly. I thought that the trick he had played upon me might have cost
+my life, and I could not help deriving consolation from that idea.
+
+On the same day, the archpriest made up his mind to have the arm buried,
+and to send a formal denunciation against me to the episcopal
+chancellorship of Treviso.
+
+Annoyed at the reproaches which I received on all sides, I returned to
+Venice. A fortnight afterwards I was summoned to appear before the
+'magistrato alla blasfemia'. I begged M. Barbaro to enquire the cause of
+the aforesaid summons, for it was a formidable court. I was surprised at
+the proceedings being taken against me, as if there had been a certainty
+of my having desecrated a grave, whilst there could be nothing but
+suspicion. But I was mistaken, the summons was not relating to that
+affair. M. Barbaro informed me in the evening that a woman had brought a
+complaint against me for having violated her daughter. She stated in her
+complaint that, having decoyed her child to the Zuecca, I had abused her
+by violence, and she adduced as a proof that her daughter was confined to
+her bed, owing to the bad treatment she had received from me in my
+endeavours to ravish her. It was one of those complaints which are often
+made, in order to give trouble and to cause expense, even against
+innocent persons. I was innocent of violation, but it was quite true that
+I had given the girl a sound thrashing. I prepared my defence, and begged
+M. Barbaro to deliver it to the magistrate's secretary.
+
+             DECLARATION
+
+I hereby declare that, on such a day, having met the woman with her
+daughter, I accosted them and offered to give them some refreshments at a
+coffee-house near by; that the daughter refused to accept my caresses,
+and that the mother said to me,--
+
+"My daughter is yet a virgin, and she is quite right not to lose her
+maidenhood without making a good profit by it."
+
+"If so," I answered, "I will give you ten sequins for her virginity."
+
+"You may judge for yourself," said the mother.
+
+Having assured myself of the fact by the assistance of the sense of
+feeling, and having ascertained that it might be true, I told the mother
+to bring the girl in the afternoon to the Zuecca, and that I would give
+her the ten sequins. My offer was joyfully accepted, the mother brought
+her daughter to me, she received the money, and leaving us together in
+the Garden of the Cross, she went away. When I tried to avail myself of
+the right for which I had paid, the girl, most likely trained to the
+business by her mother, contrived to prevent me. At first the game amused
+me, but at last, being tired of it, I told her to have done. She answered
+quietly that it was not her fault if I was not able to do what I wanted.
+Vexed and annoyed, I placed her in such a position that she found herself
+at bay, but, making a violent effort, she managed to change her position
+and debarred me from making any further attempts.
+
+"Why," I said to her, "did you move?"
+
+"Because I would not have it in that position."
+
+"You would not?"
+
+"No."
+
+Without more ado, I got hold of a broomstick, and gave her a good lesson,
+in order to get something for the ten sequins which I had been foolish
+enough to pay in advance. But I have broken none of her limbs, and I took
+care to apply my blows only on her posteriors, on which spot I have no
+doubt that all the marks may be seen. In the evening I made her dress
+herself again, and sent her back in a boat which chanced to pass, and she
+was landed in safety. The mother received ten sequins, the daughter has
+kept her hateful maidenhood, and, if I am guilty of anything, it is only
+of having given a thrashing to an infamous girl, the pupil of a still
+more infamous mother.
+
+My declaration had no effect. The magistrate was acquainted with the
+girl, and the mother laughed at having duped me so easily. I was
+summoned, but did not appear before the court, and a writ was on the
+point of being issued against my body, when the complaint of the
+profanation of a grave was filed against me before the same magistrate.
+It would have been less serious for me if the second affair had been
+carried before the Council of Ten, because one court might have saved me
+from the other.
+
+The second crime, which, after all, was only a joke, was high felony in
+the eyes of the clergy, and a great deal was made of it. I was summoned
+to appear within twenty-four hours, and it was evident that I would be
+arrested immediately afterwards. M. de Bragadin, who always gave good
+advice, told me that the best way to avoid the threatening storm was to
+run away. The advice was certainly wise, and I lost no time in getting
+ready.
+
+I have never left Venice with so much regret as I did then, for I had
+some pleasant intrigues on hand, and I was very lucky at cards. My three
+friends assured me that, within one year at the furthest, the cases
+against me would be forgotten, and in Venice, when public opinion has
+forgotten anything, it can be easily arranged.
+
+I left Venice in the evening and the next day I slept at Verona. Two days
+afterwards I reached Mantua. I was alone, with plenty of clothes and
+jewels, without letters of introduction, but with a well-filled purse,
+enjoying excellent health and my twenty-three years.
+
+In Mantua I ordered an excellent dinner, the very first thing one ought
+to do at a large hotel, and after dinner I went out for a walk. In the
+evening, after I had seen the coffee-houses and the places of resort, I
+went to the theatre, and I was delighted to see Marina appear on the
+stage as a comic dancer, amid the greatest applause, which she deserved,
+for she danced beautifully. She was tall, handsome, very well made and
+very graceful. I immediately resolved on renewing my acquaintance with
+her, if she happened to be free, and after the opera I engaged a boy to
+take me to her house. She had just sat down to supper with someone, but
+the moment she saw me she threw her napkin down and flew to my arms. I
+returned her kisses, judging by her warmth that her guest was a man of no
+consequence.
+
+The servant, without waiting for orders, had already laid a plate for me,
+and Marina invited me to sit down near her. I felt vexed, because the
+aforesaid individual had not risen to salute me, and before I accepted
+Marina's invitation I asked her who the gentleman was, begging her to
+introduce me.
+
+"This gentleman," she said, "is Count Celi, of Rome; he is my lover."
+
+"I congratulate you," I said to her, and turning towards the so-called
+count, "Sir," I added, "do not be angry at our mutual affection, Marina
+is my daughter."
+
+"She is a prostitute."
+
+"True," said Marina, "and you can believe the count, for he is my
+procurer."
+
+At those words, the brute threw his knife at her face, but she avoided it
+by running away. The scoundrel followed her, but I drew my sword, and
+said,
+
+"Stop, or you are a dead man."
+
+I immediately asked Marina to order her servant to light me out, but she
+hastily put a cloak on, and taking my arm she entreated me to take her
+with me.
+
+"With pleasure," I said.
+
+The count then invited me to meet him alone, on the following day, at the
+Casino of Pomi, to hear what he had to say.
+
+"Very well, sir, at four in the afternoon," I answered.
+
+I took Marina to my inn, where I lodged her in the room adjoining mine,
+and we sat down to supper.
+
+Marina, seeing that I was thoughtful, said,
+
+"Are you sorry to have saved me from the rage of that brute?"
+
+"No, I am glad to have done so, but tell me truly who and what he is."
+
+"He is a gambler by profession, and gives himself out as Count Celi. I
+made his acquaintance here. He courted me, invited me to supper, played
+after supper, and, having won a large sum from an Englishman whom he had
+decoyed to his supper by telling him that I would be present, he gave me
+fifty guineas, saying that he had given me an interest in his bank. As
+soon as I had become his mistress, he insisted upon my being compliant
+with all the men he wanted to make his dupes, and at last he took up his
+quarters at my lodgings. The welcome I gave you very likely vexed him,
+and you know the rest. Here I am, and here I will remain until my
+departure for Mantua where I have an engagement as first dancer. My
+servant will bring me all I need for to-night, and I will give him orders
+to move all my luggage to-morrow. I will not see that scoundrel any more.
+I will be only yours, if you are free as in Corfu, and if you love me
+still."
+
+"Yes, my dear Marina, I do love you, but if you wish to be my mistress,
+you must be only mine."
+
+"Oh! of course. I have three hundred sequins, and I will give them to you
+to-morrow if you will take me as your mistress."
+
+"I do not want any money; all I want is yourself. Well, it is all
+arranged; to-morrow evening we shall feel more comfortable."
+
+"Perhaps you are thinking of a duel for to-morrow? But do not imagine
+such a thing, dearest. I know that man; he is an arrant coward."
+
+"I must keep my engagement with him."
+
+"I know that, but he will not keep his, and I am very glad of it."
+
+Changing the conversation and speaking of our old acquaintances, she
+informed me that she had quarreled with her brother Petronio, that her
+sister was primadonna in Genoa, and that Bellino Therese was still in
+Naples, where she continued to ruin dukes. She concluded by saying;
+
+"I am the most unhappy of the family."
+
+"How so? You are beautiful, and you have become an excellent dancer. Do
+not be so prodigal of your favours, and you cannot fail to meet with a
+man who will take care of your fortune."
+
+"To be sparing of my favours is very difficult; when I love, I am no
+longer mine, but when I do not love, I cannot be amiable. Well, dearest,
+I could be very happy with you."
+
+"Dear Marina, I am not wealthy, and my honour would not allow me...."
+
+"Hold your tongue; I understand you."
+
+"Why have you not a lady's maid with you instead of a male servant?"
+
+"You are right. A maid would look more respectable, but my servant is so
+clever and so faithful!"
+
+"I can guess all his qualities, but he is not a fit servant for you."
+
+The next day after dinner I left Marina getting ready for the theatre,
+and having put everything of value I possessed in my pocket, I took a
+carriage and proceeded to the Casino of Pomi. I felt confident of
+disabling the false count, and sent the carriage away. I was conscious of
+being guilty of great folly in exposing my life with such an adversary. I
+might have broken my engagement with him without implicating my honour,
+but, the fact is that I felt well disposed for a fight, and as I was
+certainly in the right I thought the prospect of a duel very delightful.
+A visit to a dancer, a brute professing to be a nobleman, who insults her
+in my presence, who wants to kill her, who allows her to be carried off
+in his very teeth, and whose only opposition is to give me an
+appointment! It seemed to me that if I had failed to come, I should have
+given him the right to call me a coward.
+
+The count had not yet arrived. I entered the coffee-room to wait for him.
+I met a good-looking Frenchman there, and I addressed him. Being pleased
+with his conversation, I told him that I expected the arrival of a man,
+and that as my honour required that he should find me alone I would feel
+grateful if he would go away as soon as I saw the man approaching. A
+short time afterwards I saw my adversary coming along, but with a second.
+I then told the Frenchman that he would oblige me by remaining, and he
+accepted as readily as if I had invited him to a party of pleasure. The
+count came in with his follower, who was sporting a sword at least forty
+inches long, and had all the look of a cut-throat. I advanced towards the
+count, and said to him dryly,--
+
+"You told me that you would come alone."
+
+"My friend will not be in the way, as I only want to speak to you."
+
+"If I had known that, I would not have gone out of my way. But do not let
+us be noisy, and let us go to some place where we can exchange a few
+words without being seen. Follow me."
+
+I left the coffee-room with the young Frenchman, who, being well
+acquainted with the place, took me to the most favourable spot, and we
+waited there for the two other champions, who were walking slowly and
+talking together. When they were within ten paces I drew my sword and
+called upon my adversary to get ready. My Frenchman had already taken out
+his sword, but he kept it under his arm.
+
+"Two to one!" exclaimed Celi.
+
+"Send your friend away, and this gentleman will go likewise; at all
+events, your friend wears a sword, therefore we are two against two."
+
+"Yes," said the Frenchman, "let us have a four-handed game."
+
+"I do not cross swords with a dancer," said the cutthroat.
+
+He had scarcely uttered those words when my friend, going up to him, told
+him that a dancer was certainly as good as a blackleg, and gave him a
+violent bow with the flat of his sword on the face. I followed his
+example with Celi, who began to beat a retreat, and said that he only
+wanted to tell me something, and that he would fight afterwards.
+
+"Well, speak."
+
+"You know me and I do not know you. Tell me who you are."
+
+My only answer was to resume laying my sword upon the scoundrel, while
+the Frenchman was shewing the same dexterity upon the back of his
+companion, but the two cowards took to their heels, and there was nothing
+for us to do but to sheathe our weapons. Thus did the duel end in a
+manner even more amusing than Marina herself had anticipated.
+
+My brave Frenchman was expecting someone at the casino. I left him after
+inviting him to supper for that evening after the opera. I gave him; the
+name which I had assumed for my journey and the address of my hotel.
+
+I gave Marina a full description of the adventure.
+
+"I will," she said, "amuse everybody at the theatre this evening with the
+story of your meeting. But that which pleases me most is that, if your
+second is really a dancer, he can be no other than M. Baletti, who is
+engaged with me for the Mantua Theatre."
+
+I stored all my valuables in my trunk again, and went to the opera, where
+I saw Baletti, who recognized me, and pointed me out to all his friends,
+to whom he was relating the adventure. He joined me after the
+performance, and accompanied me to the inn. Marina, who had already
+returned, came to my room as soon as she heard my voice, and I was amused
+at the surprise of the amiable Frenchman, when he saw the young artist
+with whom he had engaged to dance the comic parts. Marina, although an
+excellent dancer, did not like the serious style. Those two handsome
+adepts of Terpsichore had never met before, and they began an amorous
+warfare which made me enjoy my supper immensely, because, as he was a
+fellow artist, Marina assumed towards Baletti a tone well adapted to the
+circumstances, and very different to her usual manner with other men. She
+shone with wit and beauty that evening, and was in an excellent temper,
+for she had been much applauded by the public, the true version of the
+Celi business being already well known.
+
+The theatre was to be open only for ten more nights, and as Marina wished
+to leave Milan immediately after the last performance, we decided on
+travelling together. In the mean time, I invited Baletti (it was an
+Italian name which he had adopted for the stage) to be our guest during
+the remainder of our stay in Milan. The friendship between us had a great
+influence upon all the subsequent events of my life, as the reader will
+see in these Memoirs. He had great talent as a dancer, but that was the
+least of his excellent qualities. He was honest, his feelings were noble,
+he had studied much, and he had received the best education that could be
+given in those days in France to a nobleman.
+
+On the third day I saw plainly that Marina wished to make a conquest of
+her colleague, and feeling what great advantage might accrue to her from
+it I resolved on helping her. She had a post-chaise for two persons, and
+I easily persuaded her to take Baletti with her, saying that I wished to
+arrive alone in Mantua for several reasons which I could not confide to
+her. The fact was that if I had arrived with her, people would have
+naturally supposed that I was her lover, and I wished to avoid that.
+Baletti was delighted with the proposal; he insisted upon paying his
+share of the expenses, but Marina would not hear of it. The reasons
+alleged by the young man for paying his own expenses were excellent ones,
+and it was with great difficulty that I prevailed upon him to accept
+Marina's offer, but I ultimately succeeded. I promised to wait for them
+on the road, so as to take dinner and supper together, and on the day
+appointed for our departure I left Milan one hour before them.
+
+Reaching the city of Cremona very early, where we intended to sleep, I
+took a walk about the streets, and, finding a coffee-house, I went in. I
+made there the acquaintance of a French officer, and we left the
+coffee-room together to take a short ramble. A very pretty woman happened
+to pass in a carriage, and my companion stopped her to say a few words.
+Their conversation was soon over, and the officer joined me again.
+
+"Who is that lovely lady?" I enquired.
+
+"She is a truly charming woman, and I can tell you an anecdote about her
+worthy of being transmitted to posterity. You need not suppose that I am
+going to exaggerate, for the adventure is known to everybody in Cremona.
+The charming woman whom you have just seen is gifted with wit greater
+even than her beauty, and here is a specimen of it. A young officer, one
+amongst many military men who were courting her, when Marshal de
+Richelieu was commanding in Genoa, boasted of being treated by her with
+more favour than all the others, and one day, in the very coffee-room
+where we met, he advised a brother officer not to lose his time in
+courting her, because he had no chance whatever of obtaining any favour.
+
+"'My dear fellow,' said the other officer, 'I have a much better right to
+give you that piece of advice; for I have already obtained from her
+everything which can be granted to a lover.'
+
+"'I am certain that you are telling a lie,' exclaimed the young man, 'and
+I request you to follow me out.'
+
+"'Most willingly,' said the indiscreet swain, 'but what is the good of
+ascertaining the truth through a duel and of cutting our throats, when I
+can make the lady herself certify the fact in your presence.'
+
+"'I bet twenty-five louis that it is all untrue,' said the incredulous
+officer.
+
+"'I accept your bet. Let us go.'
+
+"The two contending parties proceeded together towards the dwelling of
+the lady whom you saw just now, who was to name the winner of the
+twenty-five louis.
+
+"They found her in her dressing-room. 'Well gentlemen,' she said, 'what
+lucky wind has brought you here together at this hour?
+
+"'It is a bet, madam,' answered the unbelieving officer, 'and you alone
+can be the umpire in our quarrel. This gentleman has been boasting of
+having obtained from you everything a woman can grant to the most
+favoured lover. I have given him the lie in the most impressive manner,
+and a duel was to ensue, when he offered to have the truth of his boast
+certified by you. I have bet twenty-five Louis that you would not admit
+it, and he has taken my bet. Now, madam, you can say which of us two is
+right.'
+
+"You have lost, sir," she said to him; 'but now I beg both of you to quit
+my house, and I give you fair warning that if you ever dare to shew your
+faces here again, you will be sorry for it.'
+
+"The two heedless fellows went away dreadfully mortified. The unbeliever
+paid the bet, but he was deeply vexed, called the other a coxcomb, and a
+week afterwards killed him in a duel.
+
+"Since that time the lady goes to the casino, and continues to mix in
+society, but does not see company at her own house, and lives in perfect
+accord with her husband."
+
+"How did the husband take it all?"
+
+"Quite well, and like an intelligent, sensible man. He said that, if his
+wife had acted differently, he would have applied for a divorce, because
+in that case no one would have entertained a doubt of her being guilty."
+
+"That husband is indeed a sensible fellow. It is certain that, if his
+wife had given the lie to the indiscreet officer, he would have paid the
+bet, but he would have stood by what he had said, and everybody would
+have believed him. By declaring him the winner of the bet she has cut the
+matter short, and she has avoided a judgment by which she would have been
+dishonoured. The inconsiderate boaster was guilty of a double mistake for
+which he paid the penalty of his life, but his adversary was as much
+wanting in delicacy, for in such matters rightly-minded men do not
+venture upon betting. If the one who says yes is imprudent, the one who
+says no is a dupe. I like the lady's presence of mind."
+
+"But what sentence would you pass on her. Guilty or not guilty?"
+
+"Not guilty."
+
+"I am of the same opinion, and it has been the verdict of the public
+likewise, for she has since been treated even better than before the
+affair. You will see, if you go to the casino, and I shall be happy to
+introduce you to her."
+
+I invited the officer to sup with us, and we spent a very pleasant
+evening. After he had gone, I remarked with pleasure that Marina was
+capable of observing the rules of propriety. She had taken a bedroom to
+herself, so as not to hurt the feelings of her respectable fellow-dancer.
+
+When I arrived in Mantua, I put up at St. Mark's hotel. Marina, to whom I
+had given a notice that my intention was to call on her but seldom, took
+up her abode in the house assigned to her by the theatrical manager.
+
+In the afternoon of the same day, as I was walking about, I went into a
+bookseller's shop to ascertain whether there was any new work out. I
+remained there without perceiving that the night had come, and on being
+told that the shop was going to be closed, I went out. I had only gone a
+few yards when I was arrested by a patrol, the officer of which told me
+that, as I had no lantern and as eight o'clock had struck, his duty was
+to take me to the guardhouse. It was in vain that I observed that, having
+arrived only in the afternoon, I could not know that order of the police.
+I was compelled to follow him.
+
+When we reached the guardhouse, the officer of the patrol introduced me
+to his captain, a tall, fine-looking young man who received me in the
+most cheerful manner. I begged him to let me return to my hotel as I
+needed rest after my journey. He laughed and answered, "No, indeed, I
+want you to spend a joyous night with me, and in good company." He told
+the officer to give me back my sword, and, addressing me again, he said,
+"I only consider you, my dear sir, as my friend and guest."
+
+I could not help being amused at such a novel mode of invitation, and I
+accepted it. He gave some orders to a German soldier, and soon afterwards
+the table was laid out for four persons. The two other officers joined
+us, and we had a very gay supper. When the desert had been served the
+company was increased by the arrival of two disgusting, dissolute
+females. A green cloth was spread over the table, and one of the officers
+began a faro bank. I punted so as not to appear unwilling to join the
+game, and after losing a few sequins I went out to breathe the fresh air,
+for we had drunk freely. One of the two females followed me, teased me,
+and finally contrived, in spite of myself, to make me a present which
+condemned me to a regimen of six weeks. After that fine exploit, I went
+in again.
+
+A young and pleasant officer, who had lost some fifteen or twenty
+sequins, was swearing like a trooper because the banker had pocketed his
+money and was going. The young officer had a great deal of gold before
+him on the table, and he contended that the banker ought to have warned
+him that it would be the last game.
+
+"Sir," I said to him, politely, "you are in the wrong, for faro is the
+freest of games. Why do you not take the bank yourself?"
+
+"It would be too much trouble, and these gentlemen do not punt high
+enough for me, but if that sort of thing amuses you, take the bank and I
+will punt."
+
+"Captain," I said, "will you take a fourth share in my bank?"
+
+"Willingly."
+
+"Gentlemen, I beg you to give notice that I will lay the cards down after
+six games."
+
+I asked for new packs of cards, and put three hundred sequins on the
+table. The captain wrote on the back of a card, "Good for a hundred
+sequins, O'Neilan," and placing it with my gold I began my bank.
+
+The young officer was delighted, and said to me,
+
+"Your bank might be defunct before the end of the sixth game."
+
+I did not answer, and the play went on.
+
+At the beginning of the fifth game, my bank was in the pangs of death;
+the young officer was in high glee. I rather astonished him by telling
+him that I was glad to lose, for I thought him a much more agreeable
+companion when he was winning.
+
+There are some civilities which very likely prove unlucky for those to
+whom they are addressed, and it turned out so in this case, for my
+compliment turned his brain. During the fifth game, a run of adverse
+cards made him lose all he had won, and as he tried to do violence to
+Dame Fortune in the sixth round, he lost every sequin he had.
+
+"Sir," he said to me, "you have been very lucky, but I hope you will give
+me my revenge to-morrow."
+
+"It would be with the greatest pleasure, sir, but I never play except
+when I am under arrest."
+
+I counted my money, and found that I had wan two hundred and fifty
+sequins, besides a debt of fifty sequins due by an officer who played on
+trust which Captain O'Neilan took on his own account. I completed his
+share, and at day-break he allowed me to go away.
+
+As soon as I got to my hotel, I went to bed, and when I awoke, I had a
+visit from Captain Laurent, the officer who had played on trust. Thinking
+that his object was to pay me what he had lost, I told him that O'Neilan
+had taken his debt on himself, but he answered than he had only called
+for the purpose of begging of me a loan of six sequins on his note of
+hand, by which he would pledge his honour to repay me within one week. I
+gave him the money, and he begged that the matter, might remain between
+us.
+
+"I promise it," I said to him, "but do not break your word."
+
+The next day I was ill, and the reader is aware of the nature of my
+illness. I immediately placed myself under a proper course of diet,
+however unpleasant it was at my age; but I kept to my system, and it
+cured me rapidly.
+
+Three or four days afterwards Captain O'Neilan called on me, and when I
+told him the nature of my sickness he laughed, much to my surprise.
+
+"Then you were all right before that night?" he enquired.
+
+"Yes, my health was excellent."
+
+"I am sorry that you should have lost your health in such an ugly place.
+I would have warned you if I had thought you had any intentions in that
+quarter."
+
+"Did you know of the woman having . . . ?"
+
+"Zounds! Did I not? It is only a week since I paid a visit to the very
+same place myself, and I believe the creature was all right before my
+visit."
+
+"Then I have to thank you for the present she has bestowed upon me."
+
+"Most likely; but it is only a trifle, and you can easily get cured if
+you care to take the trouble."
+
+"What! Do you not try to cure yourself?"
+
+"Faith, no. It would be too much trouble to follow a regular diet, and
+what is the use of curing such a trifling inconvenience when I am certain
+of getting it again in a fortnight. Ten times in my life I have had that
+patience, but I got tired of it, and for the last two years I have
+resigned myself, and now I put up with it."
+
+"I pity you, for a man like you would have great success in love."
+
+"I do not care a fig for love; it requires cares which would bother me
+much more than the slight inconvenience to which we were alluding, and to
+which I am used now."
+
+"I am not of your opinion, for the amorous pleasure is insipid when love
+does not throw a little spice in it. Do you think, for instance, that the
+ugly wretch I met at the guard-room is worth what I now suffer on her
+account?"
+
+"Of course not, and that is why I am sorry for you. If I had known, I
+could have introduced you to something better."
+
+"The very best in that line is not worth my health, and health ought to
+be sacrificed only for love."
+
+"Oh! you want women worthy of love? There are a few here; stop with us
+for some time, and when you are cured there is nothing to prevent you
+from making conquests."
+
+O'Neilan was only twenty-three years old; his father, who was dead, had
+been a general, and the beautiful Countess Borsati was his sister. He
+presented me to the Countess Zanardi Nerli, still more lovely than his
+sister, but I was prudent enough not to burn my incense before either of
+them, for it seemed to me that everybody could guess the state of my
+health.
+
+I have never met a young man more addicted to debauchery than O'Neilan. I
+have often spent the night rambling about with him, and I was amazed at
+his cynical boldness and impudence. Yet he was noble, generous, brave,
+and honourable. If in those days young officers were often guilty of so
+much immorality, of so many vile actions, it was not so much their fault
+as the fault of the privileges which they enjoyed through custom,
+indulgence, or party spirit. Here is an example:
+
+One day O'Neilan, having drunk rather freely, rides through the city at
+full speed. A poor old woman who was crossing the street has no time to
+avoid him, she falls, and her head is cut open by the horse's feet.
+O'Neilan places himself under arrest, but the next day he is set at
+liberty. He had, only to plead that it was an accident.
+
+The officer Laurent not having called upon me to redeem his promisory
+note of six sequins during the week, I told him in the street that I
+would no longer consider myself bound to keep the affair secret. Instead
+of excusing himself, he said,
+
+"I do not care!"
+
+The answer was insulting, and I intended to compel him to give me
+reparation, but the next day O'Neilan told me that Captain Laurent had
+gone mad and had been locked up in a mad-house. He subsequently recovered
+his reason, but his conduct was so infamous that he was cashiered.
+
+O'Neilan, who was as brave as Bayard, was killed a few years afterwards
+at the battle of Prague. A man of his complexion was certain to fall the
+victim of Mars or of Venus. He might be alive now if he had been endowed
+only with the courage of the fox, but he had the courage of the lion. It
+is a virtue in a soldier, but almost a fault in an officer. Those who
+brave danger with a full knowledge of it are worthy of praise, but those
+who do not realize it escape only by a miracle, and without any merit
+attaching itself to them. Yet we must respect those great warriors, for
+their unconquerable courage is the offspring of a strong soul, of a
+virtue which places them above ordinary mortals.
+
+Whenever I think of Prince Charles de Ligne I cannot restrain my tears.
+He was as brave as Achilles, but Achilles was invulnerable. He would be
+alive now if he had remembered during the fight that he was mortal. Who
+are they that, having known him, have not shed tears in his memory? He
+was handsome, kind, polished, learned, a lover of the arts, cheerful,
+witty in his conversation, a pleasant companion, and a man of perfect
+equability. Fatal, terrible revolution! A cannon ball took him from his
+friends, from his family, from the happiness which surrounded him.
+
+The Prince de Waldeck has also paid the penalty of his intrepidity with
+the loss of one arm. It is said that he consoles himself for that loss
+with the consciousness that with the remaining one he can yet command an
+army.
+
+O you who despise life, tell me whether that contempt of life renders you
+worthy of it?
+
+The opera opened immediately after Easter, and I was present at every
+performance. I was then entirely cured, and had resumed my usual life. I
+was pleased to see that Baletti shewed off Marina to the best advantage.
+I never visited her, but Baletti was in the habit of breakfasting with me
+almost every morning.
+
+He had often mentioned an old actress who had left the stage for more
+than twenty years, and pretended to have been my father's friend. One day
+I took a fancy to call upon her, and he accompanied me to her house.
+
+I saw an old, broken-down crone whose toilet astonished me as much as her
+person. In spite of her wrinkles, her face was plastered with red and
+white, and her eyebrows were indebted to India ink for their black
+appearance. She exposed one-half of her flabby, disgusting bosom, and
+there could be no doubt as to her false set of teeth. She wore a wig
+which fitted very badly, and allowed the intrusion of a few gray hairs
+which had survived the havoc of time. Her shaking hands made mine quiver
+when she pressed them. She diffused a perfume of amber at a distance of
+twenty yards, and her affected, mincing manner amused and sickened me at
+the same time. Her dress might possibly have been the fashion twenty
+years before. I was looking with dread at the fearful havoc of old age
+upon a face which, before merciless time had blighted it, had evidently
+been handsome, but what amazed me was the childish effrontery with which
+this time-withered specimen of womankind was still waging war with the
+help of her blasted charms.
+
+Baletti, who feared lest my too visible astonishment should vex her, told
+her that I was amazed at the fact that the beautiful strawberry which
+bloomed upon her chest had not been withered by the hand of Time. It was
+a birth-mark which was really very much like a strawberry. "It is that
+mark," said the old woman, simpering, "which gave me the name of 'La
+Fragoletta.'"
+
+Those words made me shudder.
+
+I had before my eyes the fatal phantom which was the cause of my
+existence. I saw the woman who had thirty years before, seduced my
+father: if it had not been for her, he would never have thought of
+leaving his father's house, and would never have engendered me in the
+womb of a Venetian woman. I have never been of the opinion of the old
+author who says, 'Nemo vitam vellet si daretur scientibus'.
+
+Seeing how thoughtful I was, she politely enquired my name from Baletti,
+for he had presented me only as a friend, and without having given her
+notice of my visit. When he told her that my name was Casanova, she was
+extremely surprised.
+
+"Yes, madam," I said, "I am the son of Gaetan Casanova, of Parma."
+
+"Heavens and earth! what is this? Ah! my friend, I adored your father! He
+was jealous without cause, and abandoned me. Had he not done so, you
+would have been my son! Allow me to embrace you with the feelings of a
+loving mother."
+
+I expected as much, and, for fear she should fall, I went to her,
+received her kiss, and abandoned myself to her tender recollections.
+Still an actress, she pressed her handkerchief to her eyes, pretending to
+weep, and assuring me that I was not to doubt the truth of what she said.
+
+"Although," she added, "I do not look an old woman yet."
+
+"The only fault of your dear father," she continued, "was a want of
+gratitude."
+
+I have no doubt that she passed the same sentence upon the son, for, in
+spite of her kind invitation, I never paid her another visit.
+
+My purse was well filled, and as I did not care for Mantua, I resolved on
+going to Naples, to see again my dear Therese, Donna Lucrezia, Palo
+father and son, Don Antonio Casanova, and all my former acquaintances.
+However, my good genius did not approve of that decision, for I was not
+allowed to carry it into execution. I should have left Mantua three days
+later, had I not gone to the opera that night.
+
+I lived like an anchorite during my two months' stay in Mantua, owing to
+the folly. I committed on the night of my arrival. I played only that
+time, and then I had been lucky. My slight erotic inconvenience, by
+compelling me to follow the diet necessary to my cure, most likely saved
+me from greater misfortunes which, perhaps, I should not have been able
+to avoid.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+My Journey to Cesena in Search of Treasure--I Take Up My Quarters in
+Franzia's House--His Daughter Javotte
+
+The opera was nearly over when I was accosted by a young man who,
+abruptly, and without any introduction, told me that as a stranger--I had
+been very wrong in spending two months in Mantua without paying a visit
+to the natural history collection belonging to his father, Don Antonio
+Capitani, commissary and prebendal president.
+
+"Sir," I answered, "I have been guilty only through ignorance, and if you
+would be so good as to call for me at my hotel to-morrow morning, before
+the evening I shall have atoned for my error, and you will no longer have
+the right to address me the same reproach."
+
+The son of the prebendal commissary called for me, and I found in his
+father a most eccentric, whimsical sort of man. The curiosities of his
+collection consisted of his family tree, of books of magic, relics, coins
+which he believed to be antediluvian, a model of the ark taken from
+nature at the time when Noah arrived in that extraordinary harbour, Mount
+Ararat, in Armenia. He load several medals, one of Sesostris, another of
+Semiramis, and an old knife of a queer shape, covered with rust. Besides
+all those wonderful treasures, he possessed, but under lock and key, all
+the paraphernalia of freemasonry.
+
+"Pray, tell me," I said to him, "what relation there is between this
+collection and natural history? I see nothing here representing the three
+kingdoms."
+
+"What! You do not see the antediluvian kingdom, that of Sesostris and
+that of Semiramis? Are not those the three kingdoms?"
+
+When I heard that answer I embraced him with an exclamation of delight,
+which was sarcastic in its intent, but which he took for admiration, and
+he at once unfolded all the treasures of his whimsical knowledge
+respecting his possessions, ending with the rusty blade which he said was
+the very knife with which Saint Peter cut off the ear of Malek.
+
+"What!" I exclaimed, "you are the possessor of this knife, and you are
+not as rich as Croesus?"
+
+"How could I be so through the possession of the knife?"
+
+"In two ways. In the first place, you could obtain possession of all the
+treasures hidden under ground in the States of the Church."
+
+"Yes, that is a natural consequence, because St. Peter has the keys."
+
+"In the second place, you might sell the knife to the Pope, if you happen
+to possess proof of its authenticity."
+
+"You mean the parchment. Of course I have it; do you think I would have
+bought one without the other?"
+
+"All right, then. In order to get possession of that knife, the Pope
+would, I have no doubt, make a cardinal of your son, but you must have
+the sheath too."
+
+"I have not got it, but it is unnecessary. At all events I can have one
+made."
+
+"That would not do, you must have the very one in which Saint Peter
+himself sheathed the knife when God said, 'Mitte gladium tuum in
+vaginam'. That very sheath does exist, and it is now in the hands of a
+person who might sell it to you at a reasonable price, or you might sell
+him your knife, for the sheath without the knife is of no use to him,
+just as the knife is useless to you without the sheath."
+
+"How much would it cost me?"
+
+"One thousand sequins."
+
+"And how much would that person give me for the knife?"
+
+"One thousand sequins, for one has as much value as the other."
+
+The commissary, greatly astonished, looked at his son, and said, with the
+voice of a judge on the bench,
+
+"Well, son, would you ever have thought that I would be offered one
+thousand sequins for this knife?"
+
+He then opened a drawer and took out of it an old piece of paper, which
+he placed before me. It was written in Hebrew, and a facsimile of the
+knife was drawn on it. I pretended to be lost in admiration, and advised
+him very strongly to purchase the sheath.
+
+"It is not necessary for me to buy it, or for your friend to purchase the
+knife. We can find out and dig up the treasures together."
+
+"Not at all. The rubric says in the most forcible manner that the owner
+of the blade, 'in vaginam', shall be one. If the Pope were in possession
+of it he would be able, through a magical operation known to me, to cut
+off one of the ears of every Christian king who might be thinking of
+encroaching upon the rights of the Church."
+
+"Wonderful, indeed! But it is very true, for it is said in the Gospel
+that Saint Peter did cut off the ear of somebody."
+
+"Yes, of a king."
+
+"Oh, no! not of a king."
+
+"Of a king, I tell you. Enquire whether Malek or Melek does not mean
+king."
+
+"Well! in case I should make up my mind to sell the knife, who would give
+me the thousand sequins?"
+
+"I would; one half to-morrow, cash down; the balance of five hundred in a
+letter of exchange payable one month after date."
+
+"Ah! that is like business. Be good enough, to accept a dish of macaroni
+with us to-morrow, and under a solemn pledge of secrecy we will discuss
+this important affair."
+
+I accepted and took my leave, firmly resolved on keeping up the joke. I
+came back on the following day, and the very first thing he told me was
+that, to his certain knowledge, there was an immense treasure hidden
+somewhere in the Papal States, and that he would make up his mind to
+purchase the sheath. This satisfied me that there was no fear of his
+taking me at my word, so I produced a purse full of gold, saying I was
+quite ready to complete our bargain for the purchase of the knife.
+
+"The Treasure," he said, "is worth millions; but let us have dinner. You
+are not going to be served in silver plates and dishes, but in real
+Raphael mosaic."
+
+"My dear commissary, your magnificence astonishes me; mosaic is, indeed,
+by far superior to silver plate, although an ignorant fool would only
+consider it ugly earthen ware."
+
+The compliment delighted him.
+
+After dinner, he spoke as follows:
+
+"A man in very good circumstances, residing in the Papal States, and
+owner of the country house in which he lives with all his family, is
+certain that there is a treasure in his cellar. He has written to my son,
+declaring himself ready to undertake all expenses necessary to possess
+himself of that treasure, if we could procure a magician powerful enough
+to unearth it."
+
+The son then took a letter out of his pocket, read me some passages, and
+begged me to excuse him if, in consequence of his having pledged himself
+to keep the secret, he could not communicate all the contents of the
+letter; but I had, unperceived by him, read the word Cesena, the name of
+the village, and that was enough for me.
+
+"Therefore all that is necessary is to give me the possibility of
+purchasing the sheath on credit, for I have no ready cash at present. You
+need not be afraid of endorsing my letters of exchange, and if you should
+know the magician you might go halves with him."
+
+"The magician is ready; it is I, but unless you give me five hundred
+sequins cash down we cannot agree."
+
+"I have no money."
+
+"Then sell me the knife:"
+
+"No."
+
+"You are wrong, for now that I have seen it I can easily take it from
+you. But I am honest enough not to wish to play such a trick upon you."
+
+"You could take my knife from me? I should like to be convinced of that,
+but I do not believe it."
+
+"You do not? Very well, to-morrow the knife will be in my possession, but
+when it is once in my hands you need not hope to see it again. A spirit
+which is under my orders will bring it to me at midnight, and the same
+spirit will tell me where the treasure is buried:"
+
+"Let the spirit tell you that, and I shall be convinced."
+
+"Give me a pen, ink and paper."
+
+I asked a question from my oracle, and the answer I had was that the
+treasure was to be found not far from the Rubicon.
+
+"That is," I said, "a torrent which was once a river:"
+
+They consulted a dictionary, and found that the Rubicon flowed through
+Cesena. They were amazed, and, as I wished them to have full scope for
+wrong reasoning, I left them.
+
+I had taken a fancy, not to purloin five hundred sequins from those poor
+fools, but to go and unearth the amount at their expense in the house of
+another fool, and to laugh at them all into the bargain. I longed to play
+the part of a magician. With that idea, when I left the house of the
+ridiculous antiquarian, I proceeded to the public library, where, with
+the assistance of a dictionary, I wrote the following specimen of
+facetious erudition:
+
+"The treasure is buried in the earth at a depth of seventeen and a half
+fathoms, and has been there for six centuries. Its value amounts to two
+millions of sequins, enclosed in a casket, the same which was taken by
+Godfrey de Bouillon from Mathilda, Countess of Tuscany, in the year 1081,
+when he endeavoured to assist Henry IV, against that princess. He buried
+the box himself in the very spot where it now is, before he went to lay
+siege to Jerusalem. Gregory VII, who was a great magician, having been
+informed of the place where it had been hidden, had resolved on getting
+possession of it himself, but death prevented him from carrying out his
+intentions. After the death of the Countess Mathilda, in the year 1116,
+the genius presiding over all hidden treasures appointed seven spirits to
+guard the box. During a night with a full moon, a learned magician can
+raise the treasure to the surface of the earth by placing himself in the
+middle of the magical ring called maximus:"
+
+I expected to see the father and son, and they came early in the morning.
+After some rambling conversation, I gave them what I had composed at the
+library, namely, the history of the treasure taken from the Countess
+Mathilda.
+
+I told them that I had made up my mind to recover the treasure, and I
+promised them the fourth part of it, provided they would purchase the
+sheath; I concluded by threatening again to possess myself of their
+knife.
+
+"I cannot decide," said the commissary, "before I have seen the sheath."
+
+"I pledge my word to shew it to you to-morrow," I answered.
+
+We parted company, highly pleased with each other.
+
+In order to manufacture a sheath, such as the wonderful knife required,
+it was necessary to combine the most whimsical idea with the oddest
+shape. I recollected very well the form of the blade, and, as I was
+revolving in my mind the best way to produce something very extravagant
+but well adapted to the purpose I had in view, I spied in the yard of the
+hotel an old piece of leather, the remnant of what had been a fine
+gentleman's boot; it was exactly what I wanted.
+
+I took that old sole, boiled it, and made in it a slit in which I was
+certain that the knife would go easily. Then I pared it carefully on all
+sides to prevent the possibility of its former use being found out; I
+rubbed it with pumice stone, sand, and ochre, and finally I succeeded in
+imparting to my production such a queer, old-fashioned shape that I could
+not help laughing in looking at my work.
+
+When I presented it to the commissary, and he had found it an exact fit
+for the knife, the good man remained astounded. We dined together, and
+after dinner it was decided that his son should accompany me, and
+introduce me to the master of the house in which the treasure was buried,
+that I was to receive a letter of exchange for one thousand Roman crowns,
+drawn by the son on Bologna, which would be made payable to my name only
+after I should have found the treasure, and that the knife with the
+sheath would be delivered into my hands only when I should require it for
+the great operation; until then the son was to retain possession of it.
+
+Those conditions having been agreed upon, we made an agreement in
+writing, binding upon all parties, and our departure was fixed for the
+day after the morrow.
+
+As we left Mantua, the father pronounced a fervent blessing over his
+son's head, and told me that he was count palatine, shewing me the
+diploma which he had received from the Pope. I embraced him, giving him
+his title of count, and pocketed his letter of exchange.
+
+After bidding adieu to Marina, who was then the acknowledged mistress of
+Count Arcorati, and to Baletti whom I was sure of meeting again in Venice
+before the end of the year, I went to sup with my friend O'Neilan.
+
+We started early in the morning, travelled through Ferrara and Bologna,
+and reached Cesena, where we put up at the posting-house. We got up early
+the next day and walked quietly to the house of George Franzia, a wealthy
+peasant, who was owner of the treasure. It was only a quarter of a mile
+from the city, and the good man was agreeably surprised by our arrival.
+He embraced Capitani, whom he knew already, and leaving me with his
+family he went out with my companion to talk business.
+
+Observant as usual, I passed the family in review, and fixed my choice
+upon the eldest daughter. The youngest girl was ugly, and the son looked
+a regular fool. The mother seemed to be the real master of the household,
+and there were three or four servants going about the premises.
+
+The eldest daughter was called Genevieve, or Javotte, a very common name
+among the girls of Cesena. I told her that I thought her eighteen; but
+she answered, in a tone half serious, half vexed, that I was very much
+mistaken, for she had only just completed her fourteenth year.
+
+"I am very glad it is so, my pretty child."
+
+These words brought back her smile.
+
+The house was well situated, and there was not another dwelling around it
+for at least four hundred yards. I was glad to see that I should have
+comfortable quarters, but I was annoyed by a very unpleasant stink which
+tainted the air, and which could certainly not be agreeable to the
+spirits I had to evoke.
+
+"Madame Franzia," said I, to the mistress of the house, "what is the
+cause of that bad smell?"
+
+"Sir, it arises from the hemp which we are macerating."
+
+I concluded that if the cause were removed, I should get rid of the
+effect.
+
+"What is that hemp worth, madam?" I enquired.
+
+"About forty crowns."
+
+"Here they are; the hemp belongs to me now, and I must beg your husband
+to have it removed immediately."
+
+Capitani called me, and I joined him. Franzia shewed me all the respect
+due to a great magician, although I had not much the appearance of one.
+
+We agreed that he should receive one-fourth of the treasure, Capitani
+another fourth, and that the remainder should belong to me. We certainly
+did not shew much respect for the rights of Saint Peter.
+
+I told Franzia that I should require a room with two beds for myself
+alone, and an ante-room with bathing apparatus. Capitani's room was to be
+in a different part of the house, and my room was to be provided with
+three tables, two of them small and one large. I added that he must at
+once procure me a sewing-girl between the ages of fourteen and eighteen,
+she was to be a virgin, and it was necessary that she should, as well as
+every person in the house, keep the secret faithfully, in order that no
+suspicion of our proceedings should reach the Inquisition, or all would
+be lost.
+
+"I intend to take up my quarters here to-morrow," I added; "I require two
+meals every day, and the only wine I can drink is jevese. For my
+breakfast I drink a peculiar kind of chocolate which I make myself, and
+which I have brought with me. I promise to pay my own expenses in case we
+do not succeed. Please remove the hemp to a place sufficiently distant
+from the house, so that its bad smell may not annoy the spirits to be
+evoked by me, and let the air be purified by the discharge of gunpowder.
+Besides, you must send a trusty servant to-morrow to convey our luggage
+from the hotel here, and keep constantly in the house and at my disposal
+one hundred new wax candles and three torches."
+
+After I had given those instructions to Franzia, I left him, and went
+towards Cesena with Capitani, but we had not gone a hundred yards when we
+heard the good man running after us.
+
+"Sir," he said to me, "be kind enough to take back the forty crowns which
+you paid to my wife for the hemp."
+
+"No, I will not do anything of the sort, for I do not want you to sustain
+any loss."
+
+"Take them back, I beg. I can sell the hemp in the course of the day for
+forty crowns without difficulty."
+
+"In that case I will, for I have confidence in what you say."
+
+Such proceedings on my part impressed the excellent man very favourably,
+and he entertained the deepest veneration for me, which was increased,
+when, against Capitani's advice, I resolutely refused one hundred sequins
+which he wanted to force upon me for my travelling expenses. I threw him
+into raptures by telling him that on the eve of possessing an immense
+treasure, it was unnecessary to think of such trifles.
+
+The next morning our luggage was sent for, and we found ourselves
+comfortably located in the house of the wealthy and simple Franzia.
+
+He gave us a good dinner, but with too many dishes, and I told him to be
+more economical, and to give only some good fish for our supper, which he
+did. After supper he told me that, as far as the young maiden was
+concerned, he thought he could recommend his daughter Javotte, as he had
+consulted his wife, and had found I could rely upon the girl being a
+virgin.
+
+"Very good," I said; "now tell me what grounds you have for supposing
+that there is a treasure in your house?"
+
+"In the first place, the oral tradition transmitted from father to son
+for the last eight generations; in the second, the heavy sounds which are
+heard under ground during the night. Besides, the door of the cellar
+opens and shuts of itself every three or four minutes; which must
+certainly be the work of the devils seen every night wandering through
+the country in the shape of pyramidal flames."
+
+"If it is as you say, it is evident that you have a treasure hidden
+somewhere in your house; it is as certain as the fact that two and two
+are four. Be very careful not to put a lock to the door of the cellar to
+prevent its opening and shutting of itself; otherwise you would have an
+earthquake, which would destroy everything here. Spirits will enjoy
+perfect freedom, and they break through every obstacle raised against
+them."
+
+"God be praised for having sent here, forty years ago, a learned man who
+told my father exactly the same thing! That great magician required only
+three days more to unearth the treasure when my father heard that the
+Inquisition had given orders to arrest him, and he lost no time in
+insuring his escape. Can you tell me how it is that magicians are not
+more powerful than the Inquisitors?"
+
+"Because the monks have a greater number of devils under their command
+than we have. But I feel certain that your father had already expended a
+great deal of money with that learned man."
+
+"About two thousand crowns."
+
+"Oh! more, more."
+
+I told Franzia to follow me, and, in order to accomplish something in the
+magic line, I dipped a towel in some water, and uttering fearful words
+which belonged to no human language, I washed the eyes, the temples, and
+the chest of every person in the family, including Javotte, who might
+have objected to it if I had not begun with her father, mother, and
+brother. I made them swear upon my pocket-book that they were not
+labouring under any impure disease, and I concluded the ceremony by
+compelling Javotte to swear likewise that she had her maidenhood. As I
+saw that she was blushing to the very roots of her hair in taking the
+oath, I was cruel enough to explain to her what it meant; I then asked
+her to swear again, but she answered that there was no need of it now
+that she knew what it was. I ordered all the family to kiss me, and
+finding that Javotte had eaten garlic I forbade the use of it entirely,
+which order Franzia promised should be complied with.
+
+Genevieve was not a beauty as far as her features were concerned; her
+complexion was too much sunburnt, and her mouth was too large, but her
+teeth were splendid, and her under lip projected slightly as if it had
+been formed to receive kisses. Her bosom was well made and as firm as a
+rock, but her hair was too light, and her hands too fleshy. The defects,
+however, had to be overlooked, and altogether she was not an unpleasant
+morsel. I did not purpose to make her fall in love with me; with a
+peasant girl that task might have been a long one; all I wanted was to
+train her to perfect obedience, which, in default of love, has always
+appeared to me the essential point. True that in such a case one does not
+enjoy the ecstatic raptures of love, but one finds a compensation in the
+complete control obtained over the woman.
+
+I gave notice to the father, to Capitani, and to Javotte, that each
+would, in turn and in the order of their age, take supper with me, and
+that Javotte would sleep every night in my ante-room, where was to be
+placed a bath in which I would bathe my guest one half hour before
+sitting down to supper, and the guest was not to have broken his fast
+throughout the day.
+
+I prepared a list of all the articles of which I pretended to be in need,
+and giving it to Franzia I told him to go to Cesena himself the next day,
+and to purchase everything without bargaining to obtain a lower price.
+Among other things, I ordered a piece, from twenty to thirty yards long,
+of white linen, thread, scissors, needles, storax, myrrh, sulphur, olive
+oil, camphor, one ream of paper, pens and ink, twelve sheets of
+parchment, brushes, and a branch of olive tree to make a stick of
+eighteen inches in length.
+
+After I had given all my orders very seriously and without any wish to
+laugh, I went to bed highly pleased with my personification of a
+magician, in which I was astonished to find myself so completely
+successful.
+
+The next morning, as soon as I was dressed, I sent for Capitani, and
+commanded him to proceed every day to Cesena, to go to the best
+coffee-house, to learn carefully every piece of news and every rumour,
+and to report them to me.
+
+Franzia, who had faithfully obeyed my orders, returned before noon from
+the city with all the articles I had asked for.
+
+"I have not bargained for anything," he said to me, "and the merchants
+must, I have no doubt, have taken me for a fool, for I have certainly
+paid one-third more than the things are worth."
+
+"So much the worse for them if they have deceived you, but you would have
+spoilt everything if you had beaten them down in their price. Now, send
+me your daughter and let me be alone with her."
+
+As soon as Javotte was in my room, I made her cut the linen in seven
+pieces, four of five feet long, two of two feet, and one of two feet and
+a half; the last one was intended to form the hood of the robe I was to
+wear for the great operation. Then I said to Javotte:
+
+"Sit down near my bed and begin sewing. You will dine here and remain at
+work until the evening. When your father comes, you must let us be alone,
+but as soon as he leaves me, come back and go to bed."
+
+She dined in my room, where her mother waited on her without speaking,
+and gave her nothing to drink except St. Jevese wine. Towards evening her
+father came, and she left us.
+
+I had the patience to wash the good man while he was in the bath, after
+which he had supper with me; he ate voraciously, telling me that it was
+the first time in his life that he had remained twenty-four hours without
+breaking his fast. Intoxicated with the St. Jevese wine he had drunk, he
+went to bed and slept soundly until morning, when his wife brought me my
+chocolate. Javotte was kept sewing as on the day before; she left the
+room in the evening when Capitani came in, and I treated him in the same
+manner as Franzia; on the third day, it was Javotte's turn, and that had
+been the object I had kept in view all the time.
+
+When the hour came, I said to her,
+
+"Go, Javotte, get into the bath and call me when you are ready, for I
+must purify you as I have purified your father and Capitani."
+
+She obeyed, and within a quarter of an hour she called me. I performed a
+great many ablutions on every part of her body, making her assume all
+sorts of positions, for she was perfectly docile, but, as I was afraid of
+betraying myself, I felt more suffering than enjoyment, and my indiscreet
+hands, running over every part of her person, and remaining longer and
+more willingly on a certain spot, the sensitiveness of which is extreme,
+the poor girl was excited by an ardent fire which was at last quenched by
+the natural result of that excitement. I made her get out of the bath
+soon after that, and as I was drying her I was very near forgetting magic
+to follow the impulse of nature, but, quicker than I, nature relieved
+itself, and I was thus enabled to reach the end of the scene without
+anticipating the denouement. I told Javotte to dress herself, and to come
+back to me as soon as she was ready.
+
+She had been fasting all day, and her toilet did not take a long time.
+She ate with a ferocious appetite, and the St. Jevese wine, which she
+drank like water, imparted so much animation to her complexion that it
+was no longer possible to see how sunburnt she was. Being alone with her
+after supper, I said to her,
+
+"My dear Javotte, have you been displeased at all I have compelled you to
+submit to this evening?"
+
+"Not at all; I liked it very much."
+
+"Then I hope that you will have no objection to get in the bath with me
+to-morrow, and to wash me as I have washed you."
+
+"Most willingly, but shall I know how to do it well?"
+
+"I will teach you, and for the future I wish you to sleep every night in
+my room, because I must have a complete certainty that on the night of
+the great operation I shall find you such as you ought to be."
+
+From that time Javotte was at her ease with me, all her restraint
+disappeared, she would look at me and smile with entire confidence.
+Nature had operated, and the mind of a young girl soon enlarges its
+sphere when pleasure is her teacher. She went to bed, and as she knew
+that she had no longer anything to conceal from me, her modesty was not
+alarmed when she undressed herself in my presence. It was very warm, any
+kind of covering is unpleasant in the hot weather, so she stripped to the
+skin and soon fell asleep. I did the same, but I could not help feeling
+some regret at having engaged myself not to take advantage of the
+position before the night of the great incantation. I knew that the
+operation to unearth the treasure would be a complete failure, but I knew
+likewise that it would not fail because Javotte's virginity was gone.
+
+At day-break the girl rose and began sewing. As soon as she had finished
+the robe, I told her to make a crown of parchment with seven long points,
+on which I painted some fearful figures and hieroglyphs.
+
+In the evening, one hour before supper, I got into the bath, and Javotte
+joined me as soon as I called her. She performed upon me with great zeal
+the same ceremonies that I had done for her the day before, and she was
+as gentle and docile as possible. I spent a delicious hour in that bath,
+enjoying everything, but respecting the essential point.
+
+My kisses making her happy, and seeing that I had no objection to her
+caresses, she loaded me with them. I was so pleased at all the amorous
+enjoyment her senses were evidently experiencing, that I made her easy by
+telling her that the success of the great magic operation depended upon
+the amount of pleasure she enjoyed. She then made extraordinary efforts
+to persuade me that she was happy, and without overstepping the limits
+where I had made up my mind to stop, we got out of the bath highly
+pleased with each other.
+
+As we were on the point of going to bed, she said to me,
+
+"Would it injure the success of your operation if we were to sleep
+together?"
+
+"No, my dear girl; provided you are a virgin on the day of the great
+incantation, it is all I require."
+
+She threw herself in my arms, and we spent a delightful night, during
+which I had full opportunity of admiring the strength of her constitution
+as well as my own restraint, for I had sufficient control over myself not
+to break through the last obstacle.
+
+I passed a great part of the following night with Franzia and Capitani in
+order to see with my own eyes the wonderful things which the worthy
+peasant had mentioned to me. Standing in the yard, I heard distinctly
+heavy blows struck under the ground at intervals of three or four
+minutes. It was like the noise which would be made by a heavy pestle
+falling in a large copper mortar. I took my pistols and placed myself
+near the self-moving door of the cellar, holding a dark lantern in my
+hand. I saw the door open slowly, and in about thirty seconds closing
+with violence. I opened and closed it myself several times, and, unable
+to discover any hidden physical cause for the phenomenon, I felt
+satisfied that there was some unknown roguery at work, but I did not care
+much to find it out.
+
+We went upstairs again, and, placing myself on the balcony, I saw in the
+yard several shadows moving about. They were evidently caused by the
+heavy and damp atmosphere, and as to the pyramidal flames which I could
+see hovering over the fields, it was a phenomenon well known to me. But I
+allowed my two companions to remain persuaded that they were the spirits
+keeping watch over the treasure.
+
+That phenomenon is very common throughout southern Italy where the
+country is often at night illuminated by those meteors which the people
+believe to be devils, and ignorance has called night spirits, or
+will-o'-the-wisps.
+
+Dear reader, the next chapter will tell you how my magic undertaking
+ended, and perhaps you will enjoy a good laugh at my expense, but you
+need not be afraid of hurting my feelings.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+The Incantation--A Terrible Storm--My Fright--Javotte's Virginity Is
+Saved--I Give Up the Undertaking, and Sell the Sheath to Capitani--I Meet
+Juliette and Count Alfani, Alias Count Celi--I Make Up My Mind to Go to
+Naples--Why I Take a Different Road
+
+My great operation had to be performed on the following day; otherwise,
+according to all established rules, I would have had to wait until the
+next full moon. I had to make the gnomes raise the treasure to the
+surface of the earth at the very spot on which my incantations would be
+performed. Of course, I knew well enough that I should not succeed, but I
+knew likewise that I could easily reconcile Franzia and Capitani to a
+failure, by inventing some excellent reasons for our want of success. In
+the mean time I had to play my part of a magician, in which I took a real
+delight. I kept Javotte at work all day, sewing together, in the shape of
+a ring, some thirty sheets of paper on which I painted the most wonderful
+designs. That ring, which I called maximus, had a diameter of three
+geometric paces. I had manufactured a sort of sceptre or magic wand with
+the branch of olive brought by Franzia from Cesena. Thus prepared, I told
+Javotte that, at twelve o'clock at night, when I came out of the magic
+ring, she was to be ready for everything. The order did not seem
+repugnant to her; she longed to give me that proof of her obedience, and,
+on my side, considering myself as her debtor, I was in a hurry to pay my
+debt and to give her every satisfaction.
+
+The hour having struck, I ordered Franzia and Capitani to stand on the
+balcony, so as to be ready to come to me if I called for them, and also
+to prevent anyone in the house seeing my proceedings. I then threw off
+all profane garments. I clothe myself in the long white robe, the work of
+a virgin's innocent hands. I allow my long hair to fall loosely. I place
+the extraordinary crown on my head, the circle maximus on my shoulders,
+and, seizing the sceptre with one hand, the wonderful knife with the
+other, I go down into the yard. There I spread my circle on the ground,
+uttering the most barbarous words, and after going round it three times I
+jump into the middle.
+
+Squatting down there, I remain a few minutes motionless, then I rise, and
+I fix my eyes upon a heavy, dark cloud coming from the west, whilst from
+the same quarter the thunder is rumbling loudly. What a sublime genius I
+should have appeared in the eyes of my two fools, if, having a short time
+before taken notice of the sky in that part of the horizon, I had
+announced to them that my operation would be attended by that phenomenon.
+
+The cloud spreads with fearful rapidity, and soon the sky seems covered
+with a funeral pall, on which the most vivid flashes of lightning keep
+blazing every moment.
+
+Such a storm was a very natural occurrence, and I had no reason to be
+astonished at it, but somehow, fear was beginning to creep into me, and I
+wished myself in my room. My fright soon increased at the sight of the
+lightning, and on hearing the claps of thunder which succeeded each other
+with fearful rapidity and seemed to roar over my very head. I then
+realized what extraordinary effect fear can have on the mind, for I
+fancied that, if I was not annihilated by the fires of heaven which were
+flashing all around me, it was only because they could not enter my magic
+ring. Thus was I admiring my own deceitful work! That foolish reason
+prevented me from leaving the circle in spite of the fear which caused me
+to shudder. If it had not been for that belief, the result of a cowardly
+fright, I would not have remained one minute where I was, and my hurried
+flight would no doubt have opened the eyes of my two dupes, who could not
+have failed to see that, far from being a magician, I was only a
+poltroon. The violence of the wind, the claps of thunder, the piercing
+cold, and above all, fear, made me tremble all over like an aspen leaf.
+My system, which I thought proof against every accident, had vanished: I
+acknowledged an avenging God who had waited for this opportunity of
+punishing me at one blow for all my sins, and of annihilating me, in
+order to put an end to my want of faith. The complete immobility which
+paralyzed all my limbs seemed to me a proof of the uselessness of my
+repentance, and that conviction only increased my consternation.
+
+But the roaring of the thunder dies away, the rain begins to fall
+heavily, danger vanishes, and I feel my courage reviving. Such is man! or
+at all events, such was I at that moment. It was raining so fast that, if
+it had continued pouring with the same violence for a quarter of an hour,
+the country would have been inundated. As soon as the rain had ceased,
+the wind abated, the clouds were dispersed, and the moon shone in all its
+splendour, like silver in the pure, blue sky. I take up my magic ring,
+and telling the two friends to retire to their beds without speaking to
+me, I hurry to my room. I still felt rather shaken, and, casting my eyes
+on Javotte, I thought her so pretty that I felt positively frightened. I
+allowed her to dry me, and after that necessary operation I told her
+piteously to go to bed. The next morning she told me that, when she saw
+me come in, shaking all over in spite of the heat, she had herself
+shuddered with fear.
+
+After eight hours of sound sleep I felt all right, but I had had enough
+of the comedy, and to my great surprise the sight of Genevieve did not
+move me in any way. The obedient Javotte had certainly not changed, but I
+was not the same. I was for the first time in my life reduced to a state
+of apathy, and in consequence of the superstitious ideas which had
+crowded in my mind the previous night I imagined that the innocence of
+that young girl was under the special protection of Heaven, and that if I
+had dared to rob her of her virginity the most rapid and terrible death
+would have been my punishment.
+
+At all events, thanks to my youth and my exalted ideas, I fancied that
+through my self-denying resolutions the father would not be so great a
+dupe, and the daughter not so unhappy, unless the result should prove as
+unfortunate for her as it had been for poor Lucy, of Pasean.
+
+The moment that Javotte became in my eyes an object of holy horror, my
+departure was decided. The resolution was all the more irrevocable
+because I fancied some old peasant might have witnessed all my tricks in
+the middle of the magic ring, in which case the most Holy, or, if you
+like, the most infernal, Inquisition, receiving information from him,
+might very well have caught me and enhanced my fame by some splendid
+'auto-da-fe' in which I had not the slightest wish to be the principal
+actor. It struck me as so entirely within the limits of probability that
+I sent at once for Franzia and Capitani, and in the presence of the
+unpolluted virgin I told them that I had obtained from the seven spirits
+watching over the treasure all the necessary particulars, but that I had
+been compelled to enter into an agreement with them to delay the
+extraction of the treasure placed under their guardianship. I told
+Franzia that I would hand to him in writing all the information which I
+had compelled the spirits to give me. I produced, in reality, a few
+minutes afterwards, a document similar to the one I had concocted at the
+public library in Mantua, adding that the treasure consisted of diamonds,
+rubies, emeralds, and one hundred thousand pounds of gold dust. I made
+him take an oath on my pocket-book to wait for me, and not to have faith
+in any magician unless he gave him an account of the treasure in every
+way similar to the one which, as a great favor, I was leaving in his
+hands. I ordered him to burn the crown and the ring, but to keep the
+other things carefully until my return.
+
+"As for you, Capitani," I said to my companion, "proceed at once to
+Cesena, and remain at the inn until our luggage has been brought by the
+man whom Franzia is going to send with it."
+
+Seeing that poor Javotte looked miserable, I went up to her, and,
+speaking to her very tenderly, I promised to see her again before long. I
+told her at the same time that, the great operation having been performed
+successfully, her virginity was no longer necessary, and that she was at
+liberty to marry as soon as she pleased, or whenever a good opportunity
+offered itself.
+
+I at once returned to the city, where I found Capitani making his
+preparations to go to the fair of Lugo, and then to Mantua. He told me,
+crying like a child, that his father would be in despair when he saw him
+come back without the knife of Saint Peter.
+
+"You may have it," I said, "with the sheath, if you will let me have the
+one thousand Roman crowns, the amount of the letter of exchange:"
+
+He thought it an excellent bargain, and accepted it joyfully. I gave him
+back the letter of exchange, and made him sign a paper by which he
+undertook to return the sheath whenever I brought the same amount, but he
+is still waiting for it.
+
+I did not know what to do with the wonderful sheath, and I was not in
+want of money, but I should have considered myself dishonoured if I had
+given it to him for nothing; besides, I thought it a good joke to levy a
+contribution upon the ignorant credulity of a count palatine created by
+the grace of the Pope. In after days, however, I would willingly have
+refunded his money, but, as fate would have it, we did not see each other
+for a long time, and when I met him again I was not in a position to
+return the amount. It is, therefore, only to chance that I was indebted
+for the sum, and certainly Capitani never dreamed of complaining, for
+being the possessor of 'gladium cum vagina' he truly believed himself the
+master of every treasure concealed in the Papal States.
+
+Capitani took leave of me on the following day, and I intended to proceed
+at once to Naples, but I was again prevented; this is how it happened.
+
+As I returned to the inn after a short walk, mine host handed me the bill
+of the play announcing four performances of the Didone of Metastasio at
+the Spada. Seeing no acquaintance of mine among the actors or actresses,
+I made up my mind to go to the play in the evening, and to start early
+the next day with post-horses. A remnant of my fear of the Inquisition
+urged me on, and I could not help fancying that spies were at my heels.
+
+Before entering the house I went into the actresses dressing-room, and
+the leading lady struck me as rather good-looking. Her name was Narici,
+and she was from Bologna. I bowed to her, and after the common-place
+conversation usual in such cases, I asked her whether she was free.
+
+"I am only engaged with the manager," she answered.
+
+"Have you any lover?"
+
+"No."
+
+"I offer myself for the post, if you have no objection."
+
+She smiled jeeringly, and said,
+
+"Will you take four tickets for the four performances?"
+
+I took two sequins out of my purse, taking care to let her see that it
+was well filled, and when she gave me the four tickets, presented them to
+the maid who was dressing her and was prettier than the mistress, and so
+left the room without uttering a single word. She called me back; I
+pretended not to hear her, and took a ticket for the pit. After the first
+ballet, finding the whole performance very poor, I was thinking of going
+away, when, happening to look towards the chief box, I saw to my
+astonishment that it was tenanted by the Venetian Manzoni and the
+celebrated Juliette. The reader will doubtless remember the ball she gave
+at my house in Venice, and the smack with which she saluted my cheek on
+that occasion.
+
+They had not yet noticed me, and I enquired from the person seated next
+to me who was that beautiful lady wearing so many diamonds. He told me
+that she was Madame Querini, from Venice, whom Count Spada, the owner of
+the theatre, who was sitting near her, had brought with him from Faenza.
+I was glad to hear that M. Querini had married her at last, but I did not
+think of renewing the acquaintance, for reasons which my reader cannot
+have forgotten if he recollects our quarrel when I had to dress her as an
+abbe. I was on the point of going away when she happened to see me and
+called me. I went up to her, and, not wishing to be known by anyone, I
+whispered to her that my name was Farusi. Manzoni informed me that I was
+speaking to her excellency, Madame Querini. "I know it," I said, "through
+a letter which I have received from Venice, and I beg to offer my most
+sincere congratulations to Madame." She heard me and introduced me to
+Count Spada, creating me a baron on the spot. He invited me most kindly
+to come to his box, asked me where I came from, where I was going to,
+etc., and begged the pleasure of my company at supper for the same
+evening.
+
+Ten years before, he had been Juliette's friend in Vienna, when Maria
+Theresa, having been informed of the pernicious influence of her beauty,
+gave her notice to quit the city. She had renewed her acquaintance with
+him in Venice, and had contrived to make him take her to Bologna on a
+pleasure trip. M. Manzoni, her old follower, who gave me all this
+information, accompanied her in order to bear witness of her good conduct
+before M. Querini. I must say that Manzoni was not a well-chosen
+chaperon.
+
+In Venice she wanted everybody to believe that Querini had married her
+secretly, but at a distance of fifty leagues she did not think such a
+formality necessary, and she had already been presented by the general to
+all the nobility of Cesena as Madame Querini Papozzes. M. Querini would
+have been wrong in being jealous of the count, for he was an old
+acquaintance who would do no harm. Besides, it is admitted amongst
+certain women that the reigning lover who is jealous of an old
+acquaintance is nothing but a fool, and ought to be treated as such.
+Juliette, most likely afraid of my being indiscreet, had lost no time in
+making the first advances, but, seeing that I had likewise some reason to
+fear her want of discretion, she felt reassured. From the first moment I
+treated her politely, and with every consideration due to her position.
+
+I found numerous company at the general's, and some pretty women. Not
+seeing Juliette, I enquired for her from M. Manzoni, who told me that she
+was at the faro table, losing her money. I saw her seated next to the
+banker, who turned pale at the sight of my face. He was no other than the
+so-called Count Celi. He offered me a card, which I refused politely, but
+I accepted Juliette's offer to be her partner. She had about fifty
+sequins, I handed her the same sum, and took a seat near her. After the
+first round, she asked me if I knew the banker; Celi had heard the
+question; I answered negatively. A lady on my left told me that the
+banker was Count Alfani. Half an hour later, Madame Querini went seven
+and lost, she increased her stake of ten sequins; it was the last deal of
+the game, and therefore the decisive one. I rose from my chair, and fixed
+my eyes on the banker's hands. But in spite of that, he cheated before
+me, and Madame lost.
+
+Just at that moment the general offered her his arm to go to supper; she
+left the remainder of her gold on the table, and after supper, having
+played again, she lost every sequin.
+
+I enlivened the supper by my stories and witty jests. I captivated
+everybody's friendship, and particularly the general's, who, having heard
+me say that I was going to Naples only to gratify an amorous fancy,
+entreated me to spend a month with him and to sacrifice my whim. But it
+was all in vain. My heart was unoccupied; I longed to see Lucrezia and
+Therese, whose charms after five years I could scarcely recollect. I only
+consented to remain in Cesena the four days during which the general
+intended to stay.
+
+The next morning as I was dressing I had a call from the cowardly
+Alfani-Celi; I received him with a jeering smile, saying that I had
+expected him.
+
+The hair-dresser being in the room Celi did not answer, but as soon as we
+were alone he said,
+
+"How could you possibly expect my visit?"
+
+"I will tell you my reason as soon as you have handed me one hundred
+sequins, and you are going to do so at once.'
+
+"Here are fifty which I brought for you; you cannot demand more from me."
+
+"Thank you, I take them on account, but as I am good-natured I advise you
+not to shew yourself this evening in Count Spada's drawing-rooms, for you
+would not be admitted, and it would be owing to me."
+
+"I hope that you will think twice before you are guilty of such an
+ungenerous act."
+
+"I have made up my mind; but now leave me."
+
+There was a knock at my door, and the self-styled Count Alfani went away
+without giving me the trouble of repeating my order. My new visitor
+proved to be the first castrato of the theatre, who brought an invitation
+to dinner from Narici. The invitation was curious, and I accepted it with
+a smile. The castrato was named Nicolas Peritti; he pretended to be the
+grandson of a natural child of Sixtus V.; it might have been so I shall
+have to mention him again in fifteen years.
+
+When I made my appearance at Narici's house I saw Count Alfani, who
+certainly did not expect me, and must have taken me for his evil genius.
+He bowed to me with great politeness, and begged that I would listen to a
+few words in private.
+
+"Here are fifty sequins more," he said; "but as an honest man you can
+take them only to give them to Madame Querini. But how can you hand the
+amount to her without letting her know that you have forced me to refund
+it? You understand what consequences such a confession might have for
+me."
+
+"I shall give her the money only when you have left this place; in the
+mean time I promise to be discreet, but be careful not to assist fortune
+in my presence, or I must act in a manner that will not be agreeable to
+you."
+
+"Double the capital of my bank, and we can be partners."
+
+"Your proposal is an insult."
+
+He gave me fifty sequins, and I promised to keep his secret.
+
+There was a numerous attendance in Narici's rooms, especially of young
+men, who after dinner lost all their money. I did not play, and it was a
+disappointment for my pretty hostess, who had invited me only because she
+had judged me as simple as the others. I remained an indifferent witness
+of the play, and it gave me an opportunity of realizing how wise Mahomet
+had been in forbidding all games of chance.
+
+In the evening after the opera Count Celi had the faro bank, and I lose
+two hundred sequins, but I could only accuse ill luck. Madame Querini
+won. The next day before supper I broke the bank, and after supper,
+feeling tired and well pleased with what I had won, I returned to the
+inn.
+
+The following morning, which was the third day, and therefore the last
+but one of my stay in Cesena, I called at the general's. I heard that his
+adjutant had thrown the cards in Alfani's face, and that a meeting had
+been arranged between them for twelve o'clock. I went to the adjutant's
+room and offered to be his second, assuring him that there would be no
+blood spilt. He declined my offer with many thanks, and at dinner-time he
+told me that I had guessed rightly, for Count Alfani had left for Rome.
+
+"In that case," I said to the guests, "I will take the bank tonight."
+
+After dinner, being alone with Madame Querini, I told her all about
+Alfani, alias Celi, and handed her the fifty sequins of which I was the
+depositary.
+
+"I suppose," she said, "that by means of this fable you hope to make me
+accept fifty sequins, but I thank you, I am not in want of money."
+
+"I give you my word that I have compelled the thief to refund this money,
+together with the fifty sequins of which he had likewise cheated me."
+
+"That may be, but I do not wish to believe you. I beg to inform you that
+I am not simple enough to allow myself to be duped, and, what is worse,
+cheated in such a manner."
+
+Philosophy forbids a man to feel repentance for a good deed, but he must
+certainly have a right to regret such a deed when it is malevolently
+misconstrued, and turned against him as a reproach.
+
+In the evening, after the performance, which was to be the last, I took
+the bank according to my promise: I lost a few sequins, but was caressed
+by everybody, and that is much more pleasant than winning, when we are
+not labouring under the hard necessity of making money.
+
+Count Spada, who had got quite fond of me, wanted me to accompany him to
+Brisighetta, but I resisted his entreaties because I had firmly resolved
+on going to Naples.
+
+The next morning I was awoke by a terrible noise in the passage, almost
+at the door of my room.
+
+Getting out of my bed, I open my door to ascertain the cause of the
+uproar. I see a troop of 'sbirri' at the door of a chamber, and in that
+chamber, sitting up in bed, a fine-looking man who was making himself
+hoarse by screaming in Latin against that rabble, the plague of Italy,
+and against the inn-keeper who had been rascally enough to open the door.
+
+I enquire of the inn-keeper what it all means.
+
+"This gentleman," answers the scoundrel, "who, it appears, can only speak
+Latin, is in bed with a girl, and the 'sbirri' of the bishop have been
+sent to know whether she is truly his wife; all perfectly regular. If she
+is his wife, he has only to convince them by shewing a certificate of
+marriage, but if she is not, of course he must go to prison with her. Yet
+it need not happen, for I undertake to arrange everything in a friendly
+manner for a few sequins. I have only to exchange a few words with the
+chief of the 'sbirri', and they will all go away. If you can speak Latin,
+you had better go in, and make him listen to reason."
+
+"Who has broken open the door of his room?"
+
+"Nobody; I have opened it myself with the key, as is my duty."
+
+"Yes, the duty of a highway robber, but not of an honest inn-keeper."
+
+Such infamous dealing aroused my indignation, and I made up my mind to
+interfere. I enter the room, although I had still my nightcap on, and
+inform the gentleman of the cause of the disturbance. He answers with a
+laugh that, in the first place, it was impossible to say whether the
+person who was in bed with him was a woman, for that person had only been
+seen in the costume of a military officer, and that, in the second place,
+he did not think that any human being had a right to compel him to say
+whether his bed-fellow was his wife or his mistress, even supposing that
+his companion was truly a woman.
+
+"At all events," he added, "I am determined not to give one crown to
+arrange the affair, and to remain in bed until my door is shut. The
+moment I am dressed, I will treat you to an amusing denouement of the
+comedy. I will drive away all those scoundrels at the point of my sword."
+
+I then see in a corner a broad sword, and a Hungarian costume looking
+like a military uniform. I ask whether he is an officer.
+
+"I have written my name and profession," he answers, "in the hotel book."
+
+Astonished at the absurdity of the inn-keeper, I ask him whether it is
+so; he confesses it, but adds that the clergy have the right to prevent
+scandal.
+
+"The insult you have offered to that officer, Mr. Landlord, will cost you
+very dear."
+
+His only answer is to laugh in my face. Highly enraged at seeing such a
+scoundrel laugh at me, I take up the officer's quarrel warmly, and asked
+him to entrust his passport to me for a few minutes.
+
+"I have two," he says; "therefore I can let you have one." And taking the
+document out of his pocket-book, he hands it to me. The passport was
+signed by Cardinal Albani. The officer was a captain in a Hungarian
+regiment belonging to the empress and queen. He was from Rome, on his way
+to Parma with dispatches from Cardinal Albani Alexander to M. Dutillot,
+prime minister of the Infante of Parma.
+
+At the same moment, a man burst into the room, speaking very loudly, and
+asked me to tell the officer that the affair must be settled at once,
+because he wanted to leave Cesena immediately.
+
+"Who are you?" I asked the man.
+
+He answered that he was the 'vetturino' whom the captain had engaged. I
+saw that it was a regular put-up thing, and begged the captain to let me
+attend to the business, assuring him that I would settle it to his honour
+and advantage.
+
+"Do exactly as you please," he said.
+
+Then turning towards the 'vetturino', I ordered him to bring up the
+captain's luggage, saying that he would be paid at once. When he had done
+so, I handed him eight sequins out of my own purse, and made him give me
+a receipt in the name of the captain, who could only speak German,
+Hungarian, and Latin. The vetturino went away, and the 'sbirri' followed
+him in the greatest consternation, except two who remained.
+
+"Captain," I said to the Hungarian, "keep your bed until I return. I am
+going now to the bishop to give him an account of these proceedings, and
+make him understand that he owes you some reparation. Besides, General
+Spada is here, and...."
+
+"I know him," interrupted the captain, "and if I had been aware of his
+being in Cesena, I would have shot the landlord when he opened my door to
+those scoundrels."
+
+I hurried over my toilet, and without waiting for my hair to be dressed I
+proceeded to the bishop's palace, and making a great deal of noise I
+almost compelled the servants to take me to his room. A lackey who was at
+the door informed me that his lordship was still in bed.
+
+"Never mind, I cannot wait."
+
+I pushed him aside and entered the room. I related the whole affair to
+the bishop, exaggerating the uproar, making much of the injustice of such
+proceedings, and railing at a vexatious police daring to molest
+travellers and to insult the sacred rights of individuals and nations.
+
+The bishop without answering me referred me to his chancellor, to whom I
+repeated all I had said to the bishop, but with words calculated to
+irritate rather than to soften, and certainly not likely to obtain the
+release of the captain. I even went so far as to threaten, and I said
+that if I were in the place of the officer I would demand a public
+reparation. The priest laughed at my threats; it was just what I wanted,
+and after asking me whether I had taken leave of my senses, the
+chancellor told me to apply to the captain of the 'sbirri'.
+
+"I shall go to somebody else," I said, "reverend sir, besides the captain
+of the 'sbirri'."
+
+Delighted at having made matters worse, I left him and proceeded straight
+to the house of General Spada, but being told that he could not be seen
+before eight o'clock, I returned to the inn.
+
+The state of excitement in which I was, the ardour with which I had made
+the affair mine, might have led anyone to suppose that my indignation had
+been roused only by disgust at seeing an odious persecution perpetrated
+upon a stranger by an unrestrained, immoral, and vexatious police; but
+why should I deceive the kind reader, to whom I have promised to tell the
+truth; I must therefore say that my indignation was real, but my ardour
+was excited by another feeling of a more personal nature. I fancied that
+the woman concealed under the bed-clothes was a beauty. I longed to see
+her face, which shame, most likely, had prevented her from shewing. She
+had heard me speak, and the good opinion that I had of myself did not
+leave the shadow of a doubt in my mind that she would prefer me to her
+captain.
+
+The door of the room being still open, I went in and related to the
+captain all I had done, assuring him that in the course of the day he
+would be at liberty to continue his journey at the bishop's expense, for
+the general would not fail to obtain complete satisfaction for him. He
+thanked me warmly, gave back the eight ducats I had paid for him, and
+said that he would not leave the city till the next day.
+
+"From what country," I asked him, "is your travelling companion?"
+
+"From France, and he only speaks his native language."
+
+"Then you speak French?"
+
+"Not one word."
+
+"That is amusing! Then you converse in pantomime?"
+
+"Exactly."
+
+"I pity you, for it is a difficult language."
+
+"Yes, to express the various shades of thought, but in the material part
+of our intercourse we understand each other quite well."
+
+"May I invite myself to breakfast with you?"
+
+"Ask my friend whether he has any objection."
+
+"Amiable companion of the captain," I said in French, "will you kindly
+accept me as a third guest at the breakfast-table?"
+
+At these words I saw coming out of the bed-clothes a lovely head, with
+dishevelled hair, and a blooming, laughing face which, although it was
+crowned with a man's cap, left no doubt that the captain's friend
+belonged to that sex without which man would be the most miserable animal
+on earth.
+
+Delighted with the graceful creature, I told her that I had been happy
+enough to feel interested in her even before I had seen her, and that now
+that I had the pleasure of seeing her, I could but renew with greater
+zeal all my efforts to serve her.
+
+She answered me with the grace and the animation which are the exclusive
+privilege of her native country, and retorted my argument in the most
+witty manner; I was already under the charm. My request was granted; I
+went out to order breakfast, and to give them an opportunity of making
+themselves comfortable in bed, for they were determined not to get up
+until the door of their room was closed again.
+
+The waiter came, and I went in with him. I found my lovely Frenchwoman
+wearing a blue frock-coat, with her hair badly arranged like a man's, but
+very charming even in that strange costume. I longed to see her up. She
+ate her breakfast without once interrupting the officer speaking to me,
+but to whom I was not listening, or listening with very little attention,
+for I was in a sort of ecstatic trance.
+
+Immediately after breakfast, I called on the general, and related the
+affair to him, enlarging upon it in such a manner as to pique his martial
+pride. I told him that, unless he settled the matter himself, the
+Hungarian captain was determined to send an express to the cardinal
+immediately. But my eloquence was unnecessary, for the general liked to
+see priests attend to the business of Heaven, but he could not bear them
+to meddle in temporal affairs.
+
+"I shall," he said, "immediately put a stop to this ridiculous comedy,
+and treat it in a very serious manner."
+
+"Go at once to the inn," he said to his aide-de-camp, "invite that
+officer and his companion to dine with me to-day, and repair afterwards
+to the bishop's palace. Give him notice that the officer who has been so
+grossly insulted by his 'sbirri' shall not leave the city before he has
+received a complete apology, and whatever sum of money he may claim as
+damages. Tell him that the notice comes from me, and that all the
+expenses incurred by the officer shall be paid by him."
+
+What pleasure it was for me to listen to these words! In my vanity, I
+fancied I had almost prompted them to the general. I accompanied the
+aide-de-camp, and introduced him to the captain who received him with the
+joy of a soldier meeting a comrade. The adjutant gave him the general's
+invitation for him and his companion, and asked him to write down what
+satisfaction he wanted, as well as the amount of damages he claimed. At
+the sight of the general's adjutant, the 'sbirri' had quickly vanished. I
+handed to the captain pen, paper and ink, and he wrote his claim in
+pretty good Latin for a native of Hungary. The excellent fellow
+absolutely refused to ask for more than thirty sequins, in spite of all I
+said to make him claim one hundred. He was likewise a great deal too easy
+as to the satisfaction he demanded, for all he asked was to see the
+landlord and the 'sbirri' beg his pardon on their knees in the presence
+of the general's adjutant. He threatened the bishop to send an express to
+Rome to Cardinal Alexander, unless his demands were complied with within
+two hours, and to remain in Cesena at the rate of ten sequins a day at
+the bishop's expense.
+
+The officer left us, and a moment afterwards the landlord came in
+respectfully, to inform the captain that he was free, but the captain
+having begged me to tell the scoundrel that he owed him a sound
+thrashing, he lost no time in gaining the door.
+
+I left my friends alone to get dressed, and to attend to my own toilet,
+as I dined with them at the general's. An hour afterwards I found them
+ready in their military costumes. The uniform of the Frenchwoman was of
+course a fancy one, but very elegant. The moment I saw her, I gave up all
+idea of Naples, and decided upon accompanying the two friends to Parma.
+The beauty of the lovely Frenchwoman had already captivated me. The
+captain was certainly on the threshold of sixty, and, as a matter of
+course, I thought such a union very badly assorted. I imagined that the
+affair which I was already concocting in my brain could be arranged
+amicably.
+
+The adjutant came back with a priest sent by the bishop, who told the
+captain that he should have the satisfaction as well as the damages he
+had claimed, but that he must be content with fifteen sequins.
+
+"Thirty or nothing," dryly answered the Hungarian.
+
+They were at last given to him, and thus the matter ended. The victory
+was due to my exertions, and I had won the friendship of the captain and
+his lovely companion.
+
+In order to guess, even at first sight, that the friend of the worthy
+captain was not a man, it was enough to look at the hips. She was too
+well made as a woman ever to pass for a man, and the women who disguise
+themselves in male attire, and boast of being like men, are very wrong,
+for by such a boast they confess themselves deficient in one of the
+greatest perfections appertaining to woman.
+
+A little before dinner-time we repaired to General Spada's mansion, and
+the general presented the two officers to all the ladies. Not one of them
+was deceived in the young officer, but, being already acquainted with the
+adventure, they were all delighted to dine with the hero of the comedy,
+and treated the handsome officer exactly as if he had truly been a man,
+but I am bound to confess that the male guests offered the Frenchwoman
+homages more worthy of her sex.
+
+Madame Querini alone did not seem pleased, because the lovely stranger
+monopolized the general attention, and it was a blow to her vanity to see
+herself neglected. She never spoke to her, except to shew off her French,
+which she could speak well. The poor captain scarcely opened his lips,
+for no one cared to speak Latin, and the general had not much to say in
+German.
+
+An elderly priest, who was one of the guests, tried to justify the
+conduct of the bishop by assuring us that the inn-keeper and the 'sbirri'
+had acted only under the orders of the Holy Office.
+
+"That is the reason," he said, "for which no bolts are allowed in the
+rooms of the hotels, so that strangers may not shut themselves up in
+their chambers. The Holy Inquisition does not allow a man to sleep with
+any woman but his wife."
+
+Twenty years later I found all the doors in Spain with a bolt outside, so
+that travellers were, as if they had been in prison, exposed to the
+outrageous molestation of nocturnal visits from the police. That disease
+is so chronic in Spain that it threatens to overthrow the monarchy some
+day, and I should not be astonished if one fine morning the Grand
+Inquisitor was to have the king shaved, and to take his place.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+I Purchase a Handsome Carriage, and Proceed to Parma With the Old Captain
+and the Young Frenchwoman--I Pay a Visit to Javotte, and Present Her With
+a Beautiful Pair of Gold Bracelets--My Perplexities Respecting My Lovely
+Travelling Companion--A Monologue--Conversation with the
+Captain--Tete-a-Tete with Henriette
+
+The conversation was animated, and the young female officer was
+entertaining everybody, even Madame Querini, although she hardly took the
+trouble of concealing her spleen.
+
+"It seems strange," she remarked, "that you and the captain should live
+together without ever speaking to each other."
+
+"Why, madam? We understand one another perfectly, for speech is of very
+little consequence in the kind of business we do together."
+
+That answer, given with graceful liveliness, made everybody laugh, except
+Madame Querini-Juliette, who, foolishly assuming the air of a prude,
+thought that its meaning was too clearly expressed.
+
+"I do not know any kind of business," she said, "that can be transacted
+without the assistance of the voice or the pen."
+
+"Excuse me, madam, there are some: playing at cards, for instance, is a
+business of that sort."
+
+"Are you always playing?"
+
+"We do nothing else. We play the game of the Pharaoh (faro), and I hold
+the bank."
+
+Everybody, understanding the shrewdness of this evasive answer, laughed
+again, and Juliette herself could not help joining in the general
+merriment.
+
+"But tell me," said Count Spada, "does the bank receive much?"
+
+"As for the deposits, they are of so little importance, that they are
+hardly worth mentioning."
+
+No one ventured upon translating that sentence for the benefit of the
+worthy captain. The conversation continued in the same amusing style, and
+all the guests were delighted with the graceful wit of the charming
+officer.
+
+Late in the evening I took leave of the general, and wished him a
+pleasant journey.
+
+"Adieu," he said, "I wish you a pleasant journey to Naples, and hope you
+will enjoy yourself there."
+
+"Well, general, I am not going to Naples immediately; I have changed my
+mind and intend to proceed to Parma, where I wish to see the Infante. I
+also wish to constitute myself the interpreter of these two officers who
+know nothing of Italian:"
+
+"Ah, young man! opportunity makes a thief, does it not? Well, if I were
+in your place, I would do the same."
+
+I also bade farewell to Madame Querini, who asked me to write to her from
+Bologna. I gave her a promise to do so, but without meaning to fulfil it.
+
+I had felt interested in the young Frenchwoman when she was hiding under
+the bed-clothes: she had taken my fancy the moment she had shewn her
+features, and still more when I had seen her dressed. She completed her
+conquest at the dinner-table by the display of a wit which I greatly
+admired. It is rare in Italy, and seems to belong generally to the
+daughters of France. I did not think it would be very difficult to win
+her love, and I resolved on trying. Putting my self-esteem on one side, I
+fancied I would suit her much better than the old Hungarian, a very
+pleasant man for his age, but who, after all, carried his sixty years on
+his face, while my twenty-three were blooming on my countenance. It
+seemed to me that the captain himself would not raise any great
+objection, for he seemed one of those men who, treating love as a matter
+of pure fancy, accept all circumstances easily, and give way
+good-naturedly to all the freaks of fortune. By becoming the travelling
+companion of this ill-matched couple, I should probably succeed in my
+aims. I never dreamed of experiencing a refusal at their hands, my
+company would certainly be agreeable to them, as they could not exchange
+a single word by themselves.
+
+With this idea I asked the captain, as we reached our inn, whether he
+intended to proceed to Parma by the public coach or otherwise.
+
+"As I have no carriage of my own," he answered, "we shall have to take
+the coach."
+
+"I have a very comfortable carriage, and I offer you the two back seats
+if you have no objection to my society."
+
+"That is a piece of good fortune. Be kind enough to propose it to
+Henriette."
+
+"Will you, madam, grant me the favour of accompanying you to Parma?"
+
+"I should be delighted, for we could have some conversation, but take
+care, sir, your task will not be an easy one, you will often find
+yourself obliged to translate for both of us."
+
+"I shall do so with great pleasure; I am only sorry that the journey is
+not longer. We can arrange everything at supper-time; allow me to leave
+you now as I have some business to settle."
+
+My business was in reference to a carriage, for the one I had boasted of
+existed only in my imagination. I went to the most fashionable
+coffee-house, and, as good luck would have it, heard that there was a
+travelling carriage for sale, which no one would buy because it was too
+expensive. Two hundred sequins were asked for it, although it had but two
+seats and a bracket-stool for a third person. It was just what I wanted.
+I called at the place where it would be seen. I found a very fine English
+carriage which could not have cost less than two hundred guineas. Its
+noble proprietor was then at supper, so I sent him my name, requesting
+him not to dispose of his carriage until the next morning, and I went
+back to the hotel well pleased with my discovery. At supper I arranged
+with the captain that we would not leave Cesena till after dinner on the
+following day, and the conversation was almost entirely a dialogue
+between Henriette and myself; it was my first talk with a French woman. I
+thought this young creature more and more charming, yet I could not
+suppose her to be anything else but an adventurers, and I was astonished
+at discovering in her those noble and delicate feelings which denote a
+good education. However, as such an idea would not have suited the views
+I had about her, I rejected it whenever it presented itself to my mind.
+Whenever I tried to make her talk about the captain she would change the
+subject of conversation, or evade my insinuations with a tact and a
+shrewdness which astonished and delighted me at the same time, for
+everything she said bore the impress of grace and wit. Yet she did not
+elude this question:
+
+"At least tell me, madam, whether the captain is your husband or your
+father."
+
+"Neither one nor the other," she answered, with a smile.
+
+That was enough for me, and in reality what more did I want to know? The
+worthy captain had fallen asleep. When he awoke I wished them both good
+night, and retired to my room with a heart full of love and a mind full
+of projects. I saw that everything had taken a good turn, and I felt
+certain of success, for I was young, I enjoyed excellent health, I had
+money and plenty of daring. I liked the affair all the better because it
+must come to a conclusion in a few days.
+
+Early the next morning I called upon Count Dandini, the owner of the
+carriage, and as I passed a jeweller's shop I bought a pair of gold
+bracelets in Venetian filigree, each five yards long and of rare
+fineness. I intended them as a present for Javotte.
+
+The moment Count Dandini saw me he recognized me. He had seen me in Padua
+at the house of his father, who was professor of civil law at the time I
+was a student there. I bought his carriage on condition that he would
+send it to me in good repair at one o'clock in the afternoon.
+
+Having completed the purchase, I went to my friend, Franzia, and my
+present of the bracelets made Javotte perfectly happy. There was not one
+girl in Cesena who could boast of possessing a finer pair, and with that
+present my conscience felt at ease, for it paid the expense I had
+occasioned during my stay of ten or twelve days at her father's house
+four times over. But this was not the most important present I offered
+the family. I made the father take an oath to wait for me, and never to
+trust in any pretended magician for the necessary operation to obtain the
+treasure, even if I did not return or give any news of myself for ten
+years.
+
+"Because," I said to him, "in consequence of the agreement in which I
+have entered with the spirits watching the treasure, at the first attempt
+made by any other person, the casket containing the treasure will sink to
+twice its present depth, that is to say as deep as thirty-five fathoms,
+and then I shall have myself ten times more difficulty in raising it to
+the surface. I cannot state precisely the time of my return, for it
+depends upon certain combinations which are not under my control, but
+recollect that the treasure cannot be obtained by anyone but I."
+
+I accompanied my advice with threats of utter ruin to his family if he
+should ever break his oath. And in this manner I atoned for all I had
+done, for, far from deceiving the worthy man, I became his benefactor by
+guarding against the deceit of some cheat who would have cared for his
+money more than for his daughter. I never saw him again, and most likely
+he is dead, but knowing the deep impression I left on his mind I am
+certain that his descendants are even now waiting for me, for the name of
+Farusi must have remained immortal in that family.
+
+Javotte accompanied me as far as the gate of the city, where I kissed her
+affectionately, which made me feel that the thunder and lightning had had
+but a momentary effect upon me; yet I kept control over my senses, and I
+congratulate myself on doing so to this day. I told her, before bidding
+her adieu, that, her virginity being no longer necessary for my magic
+operations, I advised her to get married as soon as possible, if I did
+not return within three months. She shed a few tears, but promised to
+follow my advice.
+
+I trust that my readers will approve of the noble manner in which I
+concluded my magic business. I hardly dare to boast of it, but I think I
+deserve some praise for my behaviour. Perhaps, I might have ruined poor
+Franzia with a light heart, had I not possessed a well-filled purse. I do
+not wish to enquire whether any young man, having intelligence, loving
+pleasure, and placed in the same position, would not have done the same,
+but I beg my readers to address that question to themselves.
+
+As for Capitani, to whom I sold the sheath of St. Peter's knife for
+rather more than it was worth, I confess that I have not yet repented on
+his account, for Capitani thought he had duped me in accepting it as
+security for the amount he gave me, and the count, his father, valued it
+until his death as more precious than the finest diamond in the world.
+Dying with such a firm belief, he died rich, and I shall die a poor man.
+Let the reader judge which of the two made the best bargain. But I must
+return now to my future travelling companions.
+
+As soon as I had reached the inn, I prepared everything for our departure
+for which I was now longing. Henriette could not open her lips without my
+discovering some fresh perfection, for her wit delighted me even more
+than her beauty. It struck me that the old captain was pleased with all
+the attention I shewed her, and it seemed evident to me that she would
+not be sorry to exchange her elderly lover for me. I had all the better
+right to think so, inasmuch as I was perfection from a physical point of
+view, and I appeared to be wealthy, although I had no servant. I told
+Henriette that, for the sake of having none, I spent twice as much as a
+servant would have cost me, that, by my being my own servant, I was
+certain of being served according to my taste, and I had the satisfaction
+of having no spy at my heels and no privileged thief to fear. She agreed
+with everything I said, and it increased my love.
+
+The honest Hungarian insisted upon giving me in advance the amount to be
+paid for the post-horses at the different stages as far as Parma. We left
+Cesena after dinner, but not without a contest of politeness respecting
+the seats. The captain wanted me to occupy the back seat-near Henriette,
+but the reader will understand how much better the seat opposite to her
+suited me; therefore I insisted upon taking the bracket-seat, and had the
+double advantage of shewing my politeness, and of having constantly and
+without difficulty before my eyes the lovely woman whom I adored.
+
+My happiness would have been too great if there had been no drawback to
+it. But where can we find roses without thorns? When the charming
+Frenchwoman uttered some of those witty sayings which proceed so
+naturally from the lips of her countrywomen, I could not help pitying the
+sorry face of the poor Hungarian, and, wishing to make him share my
+mirth, I would undertake to translate in Latin Henriette's sallies; but
+far from making him merry, I often saw his face bear a look of
+astonishment, as if what I had said seemed to him rather flat. I had to
+acknowledge to myself that I could not speak Latin as well as she spoke
+French, and this was indeed the case. The last thing which we learn in
+all languages is wit, and wit never shines so well as in jests. I was
+thirty years of age before I began to laugh in reading Terence, Plautus
+and Martial.
+
+Something being the matter with the carriage, we stopped at Forli to have
+it repaired. After a very cheerful supper, I retired to my room to go to
+bed, thinking of nothing else but the charming woman by whom I was so
+completely captivated. Along the road, Henriette had struck me as so
+strange that I would not sleep in the second bed in their room. I was
+afraid lest she should leave her old comrade to come to my bed and sleep
+with me, and I did not know how far the worthy captain would have put up
+with such a joke. I wished, of course, to possess that lovely creature,
+but I wanted everything to be settled amicably, for I felt some respect
+for the brave officer.
+
+Henriette had nothing but the military costume in which she stood, not
+any woman's linen, not even one chemise. For a change she took the
+captain's shirt. Such a state of things was so new to me that the
+situation seemed to me a complete enigma.
+
+In Bologna, excited by an excellent supper and by the amorous passion
+which was every hour burning more fiercely in me, I asked her by what
+singular adventure she had become the friend of the honest fellow who
+looked her father rather than her lover.
+
+"If you wish to know," she answered, with a smile, "ask him to relate the
+whole story himself, only you must request him not to omit any of the
+particulars."
+
+Of course I applied at once to the captain, and, having first ascertained
+by signs that the charming Frenchwoman had no objection, the good man
+spoke to me thus:
+
+"A friend of mine, an officer in the army, having occasion to go to Rome,
+I solicited a furlough of six months, and accompanied him. I seized with
+great delight the opportunity of visiting a city, the name of which has a
+powerful influence on the imagination, owing to the memories of the past
+attached to it. I did not entertain any doubt that the Latin language was
+spoken there in good society, at least as generally as in Hungary. But I
+was indeed greatly mistaken, for nobody can speak it, not even the
+priests, who only pretend to write it, and it is true that some of them
+do so with great purity. I was therefore rather uncomfortable during my
+stay in Rome, and with the exception of my eyes my senses remained
+perfectly inactive. I had spent a very tedious month in that city, the
+ancient queen of the world, when Cardinal Albani gave my friend
+dispatches for Naples. Before leaving Rome, he introduced me to his
+eminence, and his recommendation had so much influence that the cardinal
+promised to send me very soon with dispatches for the Duke of Parma,
+Piacenza, and Guastalla, assuring me that all my travelling expenses
+would be defrayed. As I wished to see the harbour called in former times
+Centum cellae and now Civita-Vecchia, I gave up the remainder of my time
+to that visit, and I proceeded there with a cicerone who spoke Latin.
+
+"I was loitering about the harbour when I saw, coming out of a tartan, an
+elderly officer and this young woman dressed as she is now. Her beauty
+struck me, but I should not have thought any more about it, if the
+officer had not put up at my inn, and in an apartment over which I had a
+complete view whenever I opened my window. In the evening I saw the
+couple taking supper at the same table, but I remarked that the elderly
+officer never addressed a word to the young one. When the supper was
+over, the disguised girl left the room, and her companion did not lift
+his eyes from a letter which he was reading, as it seemed to me, with the
+deepest attention. Soon afterwards the officer closed the windows, the
+light was put out, and I suppose my neighbors went to bed. The next
+morning, being up early as is my habit, I saw the officer go out, and the
+girl remained alone in the room.
+
+"I sent my cicerone, who was also my servant, to tell the girl in the
+garb of an officer that I would give her ten sequins for an hour's
+conversation. He fulfilled my instructions, and on his return he informed
+me that her answer, given in French, had been to the effect that she
+would leave for Rome immediately after breakfast, and that, once in that
+city, I should easily find some opportunity of speaking to her.
+
+"'I can find out from the vetturino,' said my cicerone, 'where they put
+up in Rome, and I promise you to enquire of him.'
+
+"She left Civita-Vecchia with the elderly officer, and I returned home on
+the following day.
+
+"Two days afterwards, the cardinal gave me the dispatches, which were
+addressed to M. Dutillot, the French minister, with a passport and the
+money necessary for the journey. He told me, with great kindness, that I
+need not hurry on the road.
+
+"I had almost forgotten the handsome adventuress, when, two days before
+my departure, my cicerone gave me the information that he had found out
+where she lived, and that she was with the same officer. I told him to
+try to see her, and to let her know that my departure was fixed for the
+day after the morrow. She sent me word by him that, if I would inform her
+of the hour of my departure, she would meet me outside of the gate, and
+get into the coach with me to accompany me on my way. I thought the
+arrangement very ingenious and during the day I sent the cicerone to tell
+her the hour at which I intended to leave, and where I would wait for her
+outside of the Porto del Popolo. She came at the appointed time, and we
+have remained together ever since. As soon as she was seated near me, she
+made me understand by signs that she wanted to dine with me. You may
+imagine what difficulty we had in understanding one another, but we
+guessed somehow the meaning expressed by our pantomime, and I accepted
+the adventure with delight.
+
+"We dined gaily together, speaking without understanding, but after the
+dessert we comprehended each other very well. I fancied that I had seen
+the end of it, and you may imagine how surprised I was when, upon my
+offering her the ten sequins, she refused most positively to take any
+money, making me understand that she would rather go with me to Parma,
+because she had some business in that city, and did not want to return to
+Rome.
+
+"The proposal was, after all, rather agreeable to me; I consented to her
+wishes. I only regretted my inability to make her understand that, if she
+was followed by anyone from Rome, and if that person wanted to take her
+back, I was not in a position to defend her against violence. I was also
+sorry that, with our mutual ignorance of the language spoken by each of
+us, we had no opportunity of conversation, for I should have been greatly
+pleased to hear her adventures, which, I think, must be interesting. You
+can, of course, guess that I have no idea of who she can be. I only know
+that she calls herself Henriette, that she must be a Frenchwoman, that
+she is as gentle as a turtledove, that she has evidently received a good
+education, and that she enjoys good health. She is witty and courageous,
+as we have both seen, I in Rome and you in Cesena at General Spada's
+table. If she would tell you her history, and allow you to translate it
+for me in Latin she would indeed please me much, for I am sincerely her
+friend, and I can assure you that it will grieve me to part from her in
+Parma. Please to tell her that I intend to give her the thirty sequins I
+received from the Bishop of Cesena, and that if I were rich I would give
+her more substantial proofs of my tender affection. Now, sir, I shall
+feel obliged to you if you will explain it all to her in French."
+
+I asked her whether she would feel offended if I gave her an exact
+translation. She assured me that, on the contrary, she wished me to speak
+openly, and I told her literally what the captain had related to me.
+
+With a noble frankness which a slight shade of-shame rendered more
+interesting, Henriette confirmed the truth of her friend's narrative, but
+she begged me to tell him that she could not grant his wish respecting
+the adventures of her life.
+
+"Be good enough to inform him," she added, "that the same principle which
+forbids me to utter a falsehood, does not allow me to tell the truth. As
+for the thirty sequins which he intends to give me, I will not accept
+even one of them, and he would deeply grieve me by pressing them upon me.
+The moment we reach Parma I wish him to allow me to lodge wherever I may
+please, to make no enquiries whatever about me, and, in case he should
+happen to meet me, to crown his great kindness to me by not appearing to
+have ever known me."
+
+As she uttered the last words of this short speech, which she had
+delivered very seriously and with a mixture of modesty and resolution,
+she kissed her elderly friend in a manner which indicated esteem and
+gratitude rather than love. The captain, who did not know why she was
+kissing him, was deeply grieved when I translated what Henriette had
+said. He begged me to tell her that, if he was to obey her with an easy
+conscience, he must know whether she would have everything she required
+in Parma.
+
+"You can assure him," she answered, "that he need not entertain any
+anxiety about me."
+
+This conversation had made us all very sad; we remained for a long time
+thoughtful and silent, until, feeling the situation to be painful, I
+rose, wishing them good night, and I saw that Henriette's face wore a
+look of great excitement.
+
+As soon as I found myself alone in my room, deeply moved by conflicting
+feelings of love, surprise, and uncertainty, I began to give vent to my
+feelings in a kind of soliloquy, as I always do when I am strongly
+excited by anything; thinking is not, in those cases, enough for me; I
+must speak aloud, and I throw so much action, so much animation into
+these monologues that I forget I am alone. What I knew now of Henriette
+had upset me altogether.
+
+"Who can she be," I said, speaking to the walls; "this girl who seems to
+have the most elevated feelings under the veil of the most cynical
+libertinism? She says that in Parma she wishes to remain perfectly
+unknown, her own mistress, and I cannot, of course, flatter myself that
+she will not place me under the same restrictions as the captain to whom
+she has already abandoned herself. Goodbye to my expectations, to my
+money, and my illusions! But who is she--what is she? She must have
+either a lover or a husband in Parma, or she must belong to a respectable
+family; or, perhaps, thanks to a boundless love for debauchery and to her
+confidence in her own charms, she intends to set fortune, misery, and
+degradation at defiance, and to try to enslave some wealthy nobleman! But
+that would be the plan of a mad woman or of a person reduced to utter
+despair, and it does not seem to be the case with Henriette. Yet she
+possesses nothing. True, but she refused, as if she had been provided
+with all she needed, the kind assistance of a man who has the right to
+offer it, and from whom, in sooth, she can accept without blushing, since
+she has not been ashamed to grant him favours with which love had nothing
+to do. Does she think that it is less shameful for a woman to abandon
+herself to the desires of a man unknown and unloved than to receive a
+present from an esteemed friend, and particularly at the eve of finding
+herself in the street, entirely destitute in the middle of a foreign
+city, amongst people whose language she cannot even speak? Perhaps she
+thinks that such conduct will justify the 'faux pas' of which she has
+been guilty with the captain, and give him to understand that she had
+abandoned herself to him only for the sake of escaping from the officer
+with whom she was in Rome. But she ought to be quite certain that the
+captain does not entertain any other idea; he shews himself so reasonable
+that it is impossible to suppose that he ever admitted the possibility of
+having inspired her with a violent passion, because she had seen him once
+through a window in Civita-Vecchia. She might possibly be right, and feel
+herself justified in her conduct towards the captain, but it is not the
+same with me, for with her intelligence she must be aware that I would
+not have travelled with them if she had been indifferent to me, and she
+must know that there is but one way in which she can obtain my pardon.
+She may be endowed with many virtues, but she has not the only one which
+could prevent me from wishing the reward which every man expects to
+receive at the hands of the woman he loves. If she wants to assume
+prudish manners towards me and to make a dupe of me, I am bound in honour
+to shew her how much she is mistaken."
+
+After this monologue, which had made me still more angry, I made up my
+mind to have an explanation in the morning before our departure.
+
+"I shall ask her," said I to myself, "to grant me the same favours which
+she has so easily granted to her old captain, and if I meet with a
+refusal the best revenge will be to shew her a cold and profound contempt
+until our arrival in Parma."
+
+I felt sure that she could not refuse me some marks of real or of
+pretended affection, unless she wished to make a show of a modesty which
+certainly did not belong to her, and, knowing that her modesty would only
+be all pretence, I was determined not to be a mere toy in her hands.
+
+As for the captain, I felt certain, from what he had told me, that he
+would not be angry with me if I risked a declaration, for as a sensible
+man he could only assume a neutral position.
+
+Satisfied with my wise reasoning, and with my mind fully made up, I fell
+asleep. My thoughts were too completely absorbed by Henriette for her not
+to haunt my dreams, but the dream which I had throughout the night was so
+much like reality that, on awaking, I looked for her in my bed, and my
+imagination was so deeply struck with the delights of that night that, if
+my door had not been fastened with a bolt, I should have believed that
+she had left me during my sleep to resume her place near the worthy
+Hungarian.
+
+When I was awake I found that the happy dream of the night had turned my
+love for the lovely creature into a perfect amorous frenzy, and it could
+not be other wise. Let the reader imagine a poor devil going to bed
+broken down with fatigue and starvation; he succumbs to sleep, that most
+imperative of all human wants, but in his dream he finds himself before a
+table covered with every delicacy; what will then happen? Why, a very
+natural result. His appetite, much more lively than on the previous day,
+does not give him a minute's rest he must satisfy it or die of sheer
+hunger.
+
+I dressed myself, resolved on making sure of the possession of the woman
+who had inflamed all my senses, even before resuming our journey.
+
+"If I do not succeed," I said to myself, "I will not go one step
+further."
+
+But, in order not to offend against propriety, and not to deserve the
+reproaches of an honest man, I felt that it was my duty to have an
+explanation with the captain in the first place.
+
+I fancy that I hear one of those sensible, calm, passionless readers, who
+have had the advantage of what is called a youth without storms, or one
+of those whom old age has forced to become virtuous, exclaim,
+
+"Can anyone attach so much importance to such nonsense?"
+
+Age has calmed my passions down by rendering them powerless, but my heart
+has not grown old, and my memory has kept all the freshness of youth; and
+far from considering that sort of thing a mere trifle, my only sorrow,
+dear reader, arises from the fact that I have not the power to practise,
+to the day of my death, that which has been the principal affair of my
+life!
+
+When I was ready I repaired to the chamber occupied by my two travelling
+companions, and after paying each of them the usual morning compliments I
+told the officer that I was deeply in love with Henriette, and I asked
+him whether he would object to my trying to obtain her as my mistress.
+
+"The reason for which she begs you," I added, "to leave her in Parma and
+not to take any further notice of her, must be that she hopes to meet
+some lover of hers there. Let me have half an hour's conversation with
+her, and I flatter myself I can persuade her to sacrifice that lover for
+me. If she refuses me, I remain here; you will go with her to Parma,
+where you will leave my carriage at the post, only sending me a receipt,
+so that I can claim it whenever I please."
+
+"As soon as breakfast is over," said the excellent man, "I shall go and
+visit the institute, and leave you alone with Henriette. I hope you may
+succeed, for I should be delighted to see her under your protection when
+I part with her. Should she persist in her first resolution, I could
+easily find a 'vetturino' here, and you could keep your carriage. I thank
+you for your proposal, and it will grieve me to leave you."
+
+Highly pleased at having accomplished half of my task, and at seeing
+myself near the denouement, I asked the lovely Frenchwoman whether she
+would like to see the sights of Bologna.
+
+"I should like it very much," she said, "if I had some other clothes; but
+with such a costume as this I do not care to shew myself about the city."
+
+"Then you do not want to go out?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Can I keep you company?"
+
+"That would be delightful:"
+
+The captain went out immediately after breakfast. The moment he had gone
+I told Henriette that her friend had left us alone purposely, so as to
+give me the opportunity of a private interview with her.
+
+"Tell me now whether you intended the order which you gave him yesterday
+to forget you, never to enquire after you; and even not to know you if he
+happened to meet you, from the time of our arrival in Parma, for me as
+well as for him."
+
+"It is not an order that I gave him; I have no right to do so, and I
+could not so far forget myself; it is only a prayer I addressed to him, a
+service which circumstances have compelled me to claim at his hands, and
+as he has no right to refuse me, I never entertained any doubt of his
+granting my command. As far as you are concerned, it is certain that I
+should have addressed the same prayer to you, if I had thought that you
+had any views about me. You have given me some marks of your friendship,
+but you must understand that if, under the circumstances, I am likely to
+be injured by the kind attentions of the captain, yours would injure me
+much more. If you have any friendship for me, you would have felt all
+that."
+
+"As you know that I entertain great friendship for you, you cannot
+possibly suppose that I would leave you alone, without money, without
+resources in the middle of a city where you cannot even make yourself
+understood. Do you think that a man who feels for you the most tender
+affection can abandon you when he has been fortunate enough to make your
+acquaintance, when he is aware of the sad position in which you are
+placed? If you think such a thing possible, you must have a very false
+idea of friendship, and should such a man grant your request, he would
+only prove that he is not your friend."
+
+"I am certain that the captain is my friend; yet you have heard him, he
+will obey me, and forget me."
+
+"I do not know what sort of affection that honest man feels for you, or
+how far he can rely upon the control he may have over himself, but I know
+that if he can grant you what you have asked from him, his friendship
+must be of a nature very different from mine, for I am bound to tell you
+it is not only impossible for me to afford you willingly the strange
+gratification of abandoning you in your position, but even that, if I go
+to Parma, you could not possibly carry out your wishes, because I love
+you so passionately that you must promise to be mine, or I must remain
+here. In that case you must go to Parma alone with the captain, for I
+feel that, if I accompanied you any further, I should soon be the most
+wretched of men. I could not bear to see you with another lover, with a
+husband, not even in the midst of your family; in fact, I would fain see
+you and live with you forever. Let me tell you, lovely Henriette, that if
+it is possible for a Frenchman to forget, an Italian cannot do it, at
+least if I judge from my own feelings. I have made up my mind, you must
+be good enough to decide now, and to tell me whether I am to accompany
+you or to remain here. Answer yes or no; if I remain here it is all over.
+I shall leave for Naples to-morrow, and I know I shall be cured in time
+of the mad passion I feel for you, but if you tell me that I can
+accompany you to Parma, you must promise me that your heart will forever
+belong to me alone. I must be the only one to possess you, but I am ready
+to accept as a condition, if you like, that you shall not crown my
+happiness until you have judged me worthy of it by my attentions and by
+my loving care. Now, be kind enough to decide before the return of the
+too happy captain. He knows all, for I have told him what I feel."
+
+"And what did he answer?"
+
+"That he would be happy to see you under my protection. But what is the
+meaning of that smile playing on your lips?"
+
+"Pray, allow me to laugh, for I have never in my life realized the idea
+of a furious declaration of love. Do you understand what it is to say to
+a woman in a declaration which ought to be passionate, but at the same
+time tender and gentle, the following terrible words:
+
+"'Madam, make your choice, either one or the other, and decide
+instanter!' Ha! ha! ha!"
+
+"Yes, I understand perfectly. It is neither gentle, nor gallant, nor
+pathetic, but it is passionate. Remember that this is a serious matter,
+and that I have never yet found myself so much pressed by time. Can you,
+on your side, realize the painful position of a man, who, being deeply in
+love, finds himself compelled to take a decision which may perhaps decide
+issues of life and death? Be good enough to remark that, in spite of the
+passion raging in me, I do not fail in the respect I owe you; that the
+resolution I intend to take, if you should persist in your original
+decision, is not a threat, but an effort worthy of a hero, which ought to
+call for your esteem. I beg of you to consider that we cannot afford to
+lose time. The word choose must not sound harshly in your ears, since it
+leaves my fate as well as yours entirely in your hands. To feel certain
+of my love, do you want to see me kneeling before you like a simpleton,
+crying and entreating you to take pity on me? No, madam, that would
+certainly displease you, and it would not help me. I am conscious of
+being worthy of your love, I therefore ask for that feeling and not for
+pity. Leave me, if I displease you, but let me go away; for if you are
+humane enough to wish that I should forget you, allow me to go far away
+from you so as to make my sorrow less immense. Should I follow you to
+Parma, I would not answer for myself, for I might give way to my despair.
+Consider everything well, I beseech you; you would indeed be guilty of
+great cruelty, were you to answer now: 'Come to Parma, although I must
+beg of you not to see me in that city.' Confess that you cannot, in all
+fairness, give me such an answer; am I not right?"
+
+"Certainly, if you truly love me."
+
+"Good God! if I love you? Oh, yes! believe me, my love is immense,
+sincere! Now, decide my fate."
+
+"What! always the same song?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"But are you aware that you look very angry?"
+
+"No, for it is not so. I am only in a state of uncontrollable excitement,
+in one of the decisive hours of my life, a prey to the most fearful
+anxiety. I ought to curse my whimsical destiny and the 'sbirri' of Cesena
+(may God curse them, too!), for, without them, I should never have known
+you."
+
+"Are you, then, so very sorry to have made my acquaintance?"
+
+"Have I not some reason to be so?"
+
+"No, for I have not given you my decision yet."
+
+"Now I breathe more freely, for I am sure you will tell me to accompany
+you to Parma."
+
+"Yes, come to Parma."
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Venetian Years: Milan and Mantua
+by Jacques Casanova de Seingalt
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