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+
+The Project Gutenberg Etext of The English
+by Jacques Casanova
+(#23 in our series by Jacques Casanova)
+
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+Title: The English
+
+Author: Jacques Casanova
+
+Release Date: December, 2001  [Etext #2973]
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+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
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+The Project Gutenberg Etext of The English
+by Jacques Casanova
+******This file should be named jceng10.txt or jceng10.zip******
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+
+The English
+By Jacques Casanova
+
+
+
+THE MEMOIRS OF JACQUES CASANOVA DE SEINGALT
+
+THE RARE UNABRIDGED LONDON EDITION OF 1894 TRANSLATED BY ARTHUR
+MACHEN TO WHICH HAS BEEN ADDED THE CHAPTERS DISCOVERED BY ARTHUR
+SYMONS.
+
+
+MEMOIRS OF JACQUES CASANOVA de SEINGALT 1725-1798
+IN LONDON AND MOSCOW, Volume 5c--THE ENGLISH
+
+
+
+
+THE ENGLISH
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+Eccentricity of the English--Castelbajac Count Schwerin--Sophie at
+School--My Reception at the Betting Club--The Charpillon
+
+
+I passed a night which seemed like a never-ending nightmare, and I
+got up sad and savage, feeling as if I could kill a man on the
+smallest provocation.  It seemed as if the house, which I had
+hitherto thought so beautiful, was like a millstone about my neck.
+I went out in my travelling clothes, and walked into a coffee-house,
+where I saw a score of people reading the papers.
+
+I sat down, and, not understanding English, passed my time in gazing
+at the goers and comers.  I had been there some time when my
+attention was attracted by the voice of a man speaking as follows in
+French:
+
+"Tommy has committed suicide, and he was wise, for he was in such a
+state that he could only expect unhappiness for the rest of his
+life."
+
+"You are quite mistaken," said the other, with the greatest
+composure.  "I was one of his creditors myself, and on making an
+inventory of his effects I feel satisfied that he has done a very
+foolish and a very childish thing; he might have lived on
+comfortably, and not killed himself for fully six months."
+
+At any other time this calculation would have made me laugh, and, as
+it was, I felt as if the incident had done me good.
+
+I left the coffee-house without having said a word or spent a penny,
+and I went towards the Exchange to get some money.  Bosanquet gave me
+what I wanted directly, and as I walked out with him I noticed a
+curious-looking individual, whose name I asked.
+
+"He's worth a hundred thousand," said the banker.
+
+"And who is that other man over there?"
+
+"He's not worth a ten-pound note."
+
+"But I don't want to hear what they are worth; it's their names I
+want."
+
+"I really don't know."
+
+"How can you tell how much they are worth, not knowing their names?"
+
+"Names don't go for anything here.  What we want to know about a man
+is how much he has got?  Besides; what's in a name?  Ask me for a
+thousand pounds and give me a proper receipt, and you can do it under
+the name of Socrates or Attila, for all I care.  You will pay me back
+my money as Socrates or Attila, and not as Seingalt; that is all."
+
+"But how about signing bills of exchange?"
+
+"That's another thing; I must use the name which the drawer gives
+me."
+
+"I don't understand that."
+
+"Well, you see, you are not English, nor are you a business man."
+
+On leaving him I walked towards the park, but wishing to change a
+twenty-pound note before going in I went to a fat merchant, an
+epicure whose acquaintance I had made at the tavern, and put down the
+note on his counter, begging him to cash it for me.
+
+"Come again in an hour," said he, "I have no money by me just now."
+
+"Very good; I will call again when I come from the park."
+
+"Take back your note; you shall give it to me when I hand you the
+money."
+
+"Never mind; keep it.  I don't doubt your honesty."
+
+"Don't be so foolish.  If you left me the note I should certainly
+decline to hand over the money, if only for the sake of giving you a
+lesson."
+
+"I don't believe you are capable of such dishonesty."
+
+"Nor am I, but when it comes to such a simple thing as putting a bank
+note in your pocket, the most honest man in the world would never
+dream of having such a thing in his possession without having paid
+the money for it, and the least slip of memory might lead to a
+dispute in which you would infallibly come off second best."
+
+"I feel the force of your arguments, especially in a town where so
+much business is carried on."
+
+When I got into the park I met Martinelli and thanked him for sending
+me a copy of the Decameron, while he congratulated me on my re-
+appearance in society, and on the young lady of whom I had been the
+happy possessor and no doubt the slave.
+
+"My Lord Pembroke has seen her," said he, "and thought her charming."
+
+"What?  Where could he have seen her?"
+
+"In a carriage with you driving fast along the Rochester road.  It is
+three or four days ago."
+
+"Then I may tell you that I was taking her to Calais; I shall never
+see her face again."
+
+"Will you let the room again in the same way?"
+
+"No, never again, though the god of love has been propitious to me.
+I shall be glad to see you at my house whenever you like to come."
+
+"Shall I send you a note to warn you?"
+
+"Not at all."
+
+We walked on talking about literature, manners, and so forth, in an
+aimless way.  All at once, as we approached Buckingham House, I saw
+five or six persons, relieving nature amidst the bushes, with their
+hinder parts facing the passers-by.  I thought this a disgusting
+piece of indecency, and said as much to Martinelli, adding that the
+impudent rascals might at least turn their faces towards the path.
+
+"Not at all," he exclaimed, "for then they might be recognized;
+whereas in exposing their posteriors they run no such risk; besides
+the sight makes squeamish persons turn away."
+
+"You are right, but you will confess that the whole thing strikes a
+stranger as very revolting."
+
+"Yes, there is nothing so ineradicable as national prejudice.  You
+may have noticed that when an Englishman wants to ease his sluices in
+the street, he doesn't run up an alley or turn to the wall like we
+do."
+
+"Yes, I have noticed them turning towards the middle of the street,
+but if they thus escape the notice of the people in the shops and on
+the pavement they are seen by everybody who is driving in a carriage,
+and that is as bad."
+
+"The people in the carriages need not look."
+
+"That is true"
+
+We walked on to the Green Park, and met Lord Pembroke on horseback.
+He stopped and burst into exclamations on seeing me.  As I guessed
+the cause of his surprise, I hastened to tell him that I was a free
+man once more, to my sorrow, and felt lonely amidst my splendour.
+
+"I feel rather curious about it, and perhaps I may come and keep you
+company to-day."
+
+We parted, and reckoning on seeing him at dinner I, went back to tell
+my cook that dinner was to be served in the large room.  Martinelli
+had an engagement and could not come to dinner, but he led me out of
+the park by a door with which I was not acquainted, and sent me on my
+way.
+
+As we were going along we saw a crowd of people who seemed to be
+staring at something.  Martinelli went up to the crowd, and then
+returned to me, saying,--
+
+"That's a curious sight for you; you can enter it amidst your remarks
+on English manners."
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"A man at the point of death from a blow he has received in boxing
+with another sturdy fellow."
+
+"Cannot anything be done?"
+
+"There is a surgeon there who would bleed him, if he were allowed."
+
+"Who could prevent him?"
+
+"That's the curious part of it.  Two men have betted on his death or
+recovery.  One says, 'I'll bet twenty guineas he dies,' and the other
+says, 'Done.'  Number one will not allow the surgeon to bleed him,
+for if the man recovered his twenty guineas would be gone."
+
+"Poor man!  what pitiless betters!"
+
+"The English are very strange in their betting proclivities; they bet
+about everything.  There is a Betting Club to which I will introduce
+you, if you like."
+
+"Do they speak French there?"
+
+"Most certainly, for it is composed of men of wit and mark."
+
+"What do they do?"
+
+"They talk and argue, and if one man brings forward a proposition
+which another denies, and one backs his opinion, the other has to bet
+too, on pain of a fine which goes to the common fund."
+
+"Introduce me to this delightful club, by all means;  it will make my
+fortune, for I shall always take care to be on the right side."
+
+"You had better be careful; they are wary birds."
+
+"But to return to the dying man; what will be done to his
+antagonist?"
+
+"His hand will be examined, and if it is found to be just the same as
+yours or mine it will be marked, and he will be let go."
+
+"I don't understand that, so kindly explain.  How do they recognize a
+dangerous hand?"
+
+"If it is found to be marked already, it is a proof that he has
+killed his man before and has been marked for it, with the warning,
+'Take care not to kill anyone else, for if you do you will be
+hanged.'"
+
+"But supposing such a man is attacked?"
+
+"He ought to shew his hand, and then his adversary would let him
+alone."
+
+"But if not?"
+
+"Then he is defending himself; and if he kills his man he is
+acquitted, provided he can bring witnesses to swear that he was
+obliged to fight."
+
+"Since fighting with the fist may cause death, I wonder it is
+allowed."
+
+"It is only allowed for a wager.  If the combatants do not put one or
+more pieces of money on the ground before the fight, and there is a
+death, the man is hanged."
+
+"What laws!  What manners!"
+
+In such ways I learnt much concerning the manner and customs of this
+proud nation, at once so great and so little.
+
+The noble lord came to dinner, and I treated him in a manner to make
+him wish to come again.  Although there were only the two of us, the
+meal lasted a long time, as I was anxious for additional information
+on what I had heard in the morning, especially on the Betting Club.
+The worthy Pembroke advised me not to have anything to do with it,
+unless I made up my mind to keep perfect silence for four or five
+weeks.
+
+"But supposing they ask me a question?"
+
+"Evade it."
+
+"Certainly, if I am not in a position to give my opinion; but if I
+have an opinion, the powers of Satan could not shut my mouth."
+
+"All the worse for you."
+
+"Are the members knaves?"
+
+"Certainly not.  They are noblemen, philosophers, and epicures; but
+they are pitiless where a bet is concerned."
+
+"Is the club treasury rich?"
+
+"Far from it; they are all ashamed to pay a fine, and prefer to bet.
+Who will introduce you?"
+
+"Martinelli."
+
+"Quite so; through Lord Spencer, who is a member.  I would not become
+one."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Because I don't like argument."
+
+"My taste runs the other way, so I shall try to get in."
+
+"By the way, M. de Seingalt, do you know that you are a very
+extraordinary man?"
+
+"For what reason, my lord?"
+
+"You shut yourself up for a whole month with a woman who spent
+fourteen months in London without anybody making her acquaintance or
+even discovering her nationality.  All the amateurs have taken a
+lively interest in the affair."
+
+"How did you find out that she spent fourteen months in London?"
+
+"Because several persons saw her in the house of a worthy widow where
+she spent the first month.  She would never have anything to say to
+any advances, but the bill in your window worked wonders."
+
+"Yes, and all the worse for me, for I feel as if I could never love
+another woman."
+
+"Oh, that's childish indeed!  You will love another woman in a week-
+nay, perhaps to-morrow, if you will come and dine with me at my
+country house.  A perfect French beauty has asked me to dine with
+her.  I have told some of my friends who are fond of gaming."
+
+"Does the charming Frenchwoman like gaming?"
+
+"No, but her husband does."
+
+"What's his name?"
+
+"He calls himself Count de Castelbajac."
+
+"Ah!  Castelbajac?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"He is a Gascon?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Tall, thin, and dark, and marked with the smallpox?
+
+"Exactly!  I am delighted to find you know him.  You will agree with
+me that his wife is very pretty?"
+
+"I really can't say.  I knew Castelbajac, as he calls himself, six
+years ago, and I never heard he was married.  I shall be delighted to
+join you, however.  I must warn you not to say anything if he seems
+not to know me; he may possibly have good reasons for acting in that
+manner.  Before long I will tell you a story which does not represent
+him in a very advantageous manner.  I did not know he played.  I
+shall take care to be on my guard at the Betting Club, and I advise
+you, my lord, to be on your guard in the society of Castelbajac."
+
+"I will not forget the warning."
+
+When Pembroke had left me I went to see Madame Cornelis, who had
+written a week before to tell me my daughter was ill, and explained
+that she had been turned from my doors on two occasions though she
+felt certain I was in.  To this I replied that I was in love, and so
+happy within my own house that I had excluded all strangers, and with
+that she had to be contented, but the state in which I found little
+Sophie frightened me.  She was lying in bed with high fever, she had
+grown much thinner, and her eyes seemed to say that she was dying of
+grief.  Her mother was in despair, for she was passionately fond of
+the child, and I thought she would have torn my eyes out when I told
+her that if Sophie died she would only have herself to reproach.
+Sophie, who was very good-hearted, cried out, "No, no!  papa dear;"
+and quieted her mother by her caresses.
+
+Nevertheless, I took the mother aside, and told her that the disease
+was solely caused by Sophie's dread of her severity.
+
+"In spite of your affection," said I, "you treat her with
+insufferable tyranny.  Send her to a boardingschool for a couple of
+years, and let her associate with girls of good family.  Tell her
+this evening that she is to go to school, and see if she does not get
+better."
+
+"Yes," said she, "but a good boarding-school costs a hundred guineas
+a year, including masters."
+
+"If I approve of the school you select I will pay a year in advance."
+
+On my making this offer the woman, who seemed to be living so
+luxuriously, but was in reality poverty-stricken, embraced me with
+the utmost gratitude.
+
+"Come and tell the news to your daughter now," said she, "I should
+like to watch her face when she hears it."
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"My dear Sophie," I said, "your mother agrees with me that if you had
+a change of air you would get better, and if you would like to spend
+a year or two in a good school I will pay the first year in advance."
+
+"Of course, I will obey my dear mother," said Sophie.
+
+"There is no question of obedience.  Would you like to go to school?
+Tell me truly."
+
+"But would my mother like me to go?"
+
+"Yes, my child, if it would please you."
+
+"Then, mamma, I should like to go very much."
+
+Her face flushed as she spoke, and I knew that my diagnosis had been
+correct.  I left her saying I should hope to hear from her soon.
+
+At ten o'clock the next day Jarbe came to ask if I had forgotten my
+engagement.
+
+"No," said I, "but it is only ten o'clock."
+
+"Yes, but we have twenty miles to go."
+
+"Twenty miles?"
+
+"Certainly, the house is at St. Albans."
+
+"It's very strange Pembroke never told me; how did you find out the
+address?"
+
+"He left it when he went away:"
+
+"Just like an Englishman."
+
+I took a post-chaise, and in three hours I had reached my
+destination.  The English roads are excellent, and the country offers
+a smiling prospect on every side.  The vine is lacking, for though
+the English soil is fertile it will not bear grapes.
+
+Lord Pembroke's house was not a particularly large one, but twenty
+masters and their servants could easily be accommodated in it.
+
+The lady had not yet arrived, so my lord shewed me his gardens, his
+fountains, and his magnificent hot-houses; also a cock chained by the
+leg, and of a truly ferocious aspect.
+
+"What have we here, my lord?"
+
+"A cock."
+
+"I see it is, but why do you chain it?"
+
+"Because it is savage.  It is very amorous, and if it were loose it
+would go after the hens, and kill all the cocks on the country-side."
+
+"But why do you condemn him to celibacy?"
+
+"To make him fiercer.  Here, this is the list of his conquests."
+
+He gave me a list of his cock's victories, in which he had killed the
+other bird; this had happened more than thirty times.  He then shewed
+me the steel spurs, at the sight of which the cock began to ruffle
+and crow.  I could not help laughing to see such a martial spirit in
+so small an animal.  He seemed possessed by the demon of strife, and
+lifted now one foot and now the other, as if to beg that his arms
+might be put on.
+
+Pembroke then exhibited the helmet, also of steel.
+
+"But with such arms," said I, "he is sure of conquest."
+
+"No; for when he is armed cap-a-pie he will not fight with a
+defenceless cock."
+
+"I can't believe it, my lord."
+
+"It's a well-known fact.  Here, read this."
+
+He then gave me a piece of paper with this remarkable biped's
+pedigree.  He could prove his thirty-two quarters more easily than a
+good many noblemen, on the father's side, be it understood, for if he
+could have proved pure blood on the mother's side as well, Lord
+Pembroke would have decorated him with the Order of the Golden Fleece
+at least.
+
+"The bird cost me a hundred guineas," said he, "but I would not sell
+him for a thousand."
+
+"Has he any offspring?"
+
+"He tries his best, but there are difficulties."
+
+I do not remember whether Lord Pembroke explained what these
+difficulties were.  Certainly the English offer more peculiarities to
+the attentive observer than any other nation.
+
+At last a carriage containing a lady and two gentlemen drove up to
+the door.  One of the gentlemen was the rascally Castelbajac and the
+other was introduced as Count Schwerin, nephew of the famous marshal
+of that name who fell on what is commonly called the field of glory.
+General Bekw---- an Englishman who was in the service of the King of
+Prussia, and was one of Pembroke's guests, received Schwerin
+politely, saying that he had seen his uncle die; at this the modest
+nephew drew the Order of the Black Eagle from his breast, and shewed
+it to us all covered with blood.
+
+"My uncle wore it on the day of his death, and the King of Prussia
+allowed me to keep it as a noble memorial of my kinsman."
+
+"Yes," said an Englishman who was present, "but the coat-pocket is
+not the place for a thing like that."
+
+Schwerin made as if he did not understand, and this enabled me to
+take his measure.
+
+Lord Pembroke took possession of the lady, whom I did not think
+worthy of being compared to Pauline.  She was paler and shorter, and
+utterly deficient in Pauline's noble air; besides, when she smiled it
+spoiled her face, and this is a defect in a woman, to whom laughter
+should always be becoming.
+
+Lord Pembroke introduced us all to each other, and when he came to me
+Castelbajac said he was delighted to see me again, although he might
+easily have pretended not to know me under my name of Seingalt.
+
+We had a good English dinner, and afterwards the lady proposed a game
+of faro.  My lord never played, so the general consented to amuse the
+company by holding the bank, and placed a hundred guineas and several
+bank notes on the table.  There might be a thousand guineas in all.
+He then gave twenty counters to each punter, saying that every
+counter was worth ten shillings.  As I only staked gold against gold
+I would not accept them.  By the third deal Schwerin had lost his
+twenty counters and asked for twenty more; but the banker told him he
+must pay for them, and the self-styled field-marshal's nephew lapsed
+into silence and played no more.
+
+At the following deal Castelbajac was in the same position as his
+friend, and being on my side he begged to be allowed to take ten
+pieces.
+
+"You will bring me ill-luck," I said, coldly, warding off his hand;
+and he went out to the garden, no doubt to swallow the affront he had
+received.  The lady said her husband had forgotten his pocketbook.
+An hour afterwards the game came to an end, and I took my leave,
+after inviting Lord Pembroke and the rest of the company to dine with
+me the next day.
+
+I got home at eleven o'clock without meeting any highwaymen as I had
+expected, indeed I had put up six guineas in a small purse for their
+special use and benefit.  I woke up my cook to tell him that the next
+day I should have twelve people to dinner, and that I hoped he would
+do me honour.  I found a letter from Madame Cornelis on my table
+telling me that she and her daughter would drive with me on the
+following Sunday, and that we could go and see the boarding-school
+she had selected.
+
+Next day Lord Pembroke and the fair Frenchwoman were the first to
+arrive.  They drove in a carriage with two rather uncomfortable
+seats, but this discomfort is favourable to love.  The Gascon and the
+Prussian were the last to come.
+
+We sat down to table at two and left it at four, ail of us well
+pleased with the cook, and still more so with the wine merchant; for
+though we had emptied forty bottles of wine, not one of us was at all
+intoxicated.
+
+After coffee had been served the general invited us all to sup with
+him, and Madame Castelbajac begged me to hold a bank.  I did not wait
+to be pressed but placed a thousand guineas on the table, and as I
+had no counters of any kind I warned the company that I would only
+play gold against gold, and that I should stop playing whenever I
+thought fit.
+
+Before the game began the two counts paid their losses of the day
+before to the general in bank notes, which he begged me to change.  I
+also changed two other notes presented to me by the same gentleman,
+and put them all under my snuff-box.  Play began.  I had no croupier,
+so I was obliged to deal slowly and keep an eye on the two counts,
+whose method of play was very questionable.  At last both of them
+were dried up, and Castelbajac gave me a bill of exchange for two
+hundred guineas, begging me to discount it for him.
+
+"I know nothing about business," I replied.
+
+An Englishman took the bill, and after a careful examination said he
+neither knew the drawer, the accepter, nor the backer.
+
+"I am the backer," said Castelbajac, "and that ought to be enough, I
+think."
+
+Everybody laughed, besides myself, and I gave it him back
+courteously, saying politely that he could get it discounted on
+'Change the next day.  He got up in a bad temper, and left the room,
+murmuring some insolent expressions.  Schwering followed him.
+
+After these two worthy gentlemen had left us, I went on dealing till
+the night was far advanced, and then left off, though I was at a
+loss.  However, the general had a run of luck, and I thought it best
+to stop.  Before leaving he took me and Lord Pembroke aside, and
+begged me to contrive that the two knaves should not come to his
+house the followifig day.  "For," said he, "if that Gascon were to be
+half as insolent to me as he was to you, I should shew him out by the
+window."
+
+Pembroke said he would tell the lady of the general's wishes.
+
+"Do you think," said I, "that those four notes of theirs can be
+forgeries?"
+
+"It's very possible."
+
+"What would you advise my doing to clear the matter up?"
+
+"I would send them to the bank."
+
+"And if they should be forgeries?"
+
+"I would have patience, or I would arrest the rascals."
+
+The next day I went to the bank myself, and the person to whom I gave
+the notes gave me them back, saying, coldly,--
+
+"These notes are bad, sir."
+
+"Be kind enough to examine them closely."
+
+"It's no good, they are evident forgeries.  Return them to the person
+from whom you got them, and he will be only too glad to cash them."
+
+I was perfectly aware that I could put the two knaves under lock and
+key, but I did not want to do so.  I went to Lord Pembroke to find
+out their address, but he was still in bed, and one of his servants
+took me to them.  They were surprised to see me.  I told them coolly
+enough that the four notes were forged, and that I should feel much
+obliged if they would give me forty guineas and take their notes
+back.
+
+"I haven't got any money," said Castelbajac, "and what you say
+astonishes me very much.  I can only return them to the persons who
+gave them to me, if the are really the same notes that we gave you
+yesterday."
+
+At this suggestion the blood rushed to my face, and with a withering
+glance and an indignant apostrophe I left them.  Lord Pembroke's
+servant took me to a magistrate who, having heard my statement on
+oath, gave me a paper authorizing me to arrest two counts.  I gave
+the document to an alderman, who said he would see it was carried
+out, and I went home ill pleased with the whole business.
+
+Martinelli was waiting for me; he had come to ask me to give him a
+dinner.  I told him my story, without adding that the knaves were to
+be arrested, and his advice delivered with philosophic calm was to
+make an autoda-fe of the four notes.  It was very good advice, but I
+did not take it.
+
+The worthy Martinelli, thinking to oblige me, told me that he had
+arranged with Lord Spencer the day on which I was to be introduced to
+the club, but I answered that my fancy for going there was over.  I
+ought to have treated this learned and distinguished man with more
+politeness, but who can sound human weakness to its depths?  One
+often goes to a wise man for advice which one has not the courage to
+follow.
+
+In the evening I went to the general's, and found the self-styled
+Countess Castelbajac seated on Lord Pembroke's knees.  The supper was
+a good one, and passed off pleasantly; the two rascals were not
+there, and their absence was not remarked.  When we left the table we
+went into another room, and played till day-break.  I left the board
+with a loss of two or three hundred guineas.
+
+I did not wake till late the next morning, and when I did my man told
+me that a person wanted to speak to me.  I had him shewn in, and as
+he only spoke English the negro had to be our interpreter.  He was
+the chief of the police, and told me that if I would pay for the
+journey he would arrest Castelbajac at Dover, for which town he had
+started at noon.  As to the other he was sure of having him in the
+course of the night.  I gave him a guinea, and told him it would be
+enough to catch the one, and that the other could go where he liked.
+
+The next day was Sunday, the only day on which Madame Cornelis could
+go abroad without fear of the bailiff.  She came to dine with me, and
+brought her daughter, whom the prospect of leaving her mother had
+quite cured.  The school which Madame Cornelis had chosen was at
+Harwich, and we went there after dinner.
+
+The head-mistress was a Catholic, and though she must have been
+sixty, she looked keen, witty, and as if she knew the ways of the
+world.  She had received an introduction from Lady Harrington, and so
+welcomed the young lady in the most cordial manner.  She had about
+fifteen young boarders of thirteen or fourteen years of age.  When
+she presented Sophie to them as a new companion, they crowded round
+her and covered her with caresses.  Five or six were perfect angels
+of beauty, and two or three were hideously ugly; and such extremes
+are more common in England than anywhere else.  My daughter was the
+smallest of them all, but as far as beauty went she had nothing to
+fear by comparison, and her talents placed her on a par with the
+eldest, while she responded to their caresses with that ease which
+later in life is only acquired with great difficulty.
+
+We went over the house, and all the girls followed us, and those who
+could speak French or Italian spoke to me, saying how much they would
+love my daughter, while those who could not speak sufficiently well
+held off as if ashamed of their ignorance.  We saw the bedrooms, the
+dining-room, the drawing-room, the harps and the pianos--in fact,
+everything, and I decided that Sophie could not be better placid.  We
+went into the head-mistress's private room, and Madame Cornelis paid
+her a hundred guineas in advance, and obtained a receipt.  We then
+agreed that Sophie should be received as a boarder as soon as she
+liked to come, that she was to bring her bed with her, and all the
+necessary linen.  Madame Cornelis made the final arrangements on the
+ensuing Sunday.
+
+Next day the alderman told me that Count Schwerin was a prisoner, and
+wanted to speak to me.  I declined at first, but as the alderman's
+messenger told me, through Jarbe, that the poor devil had not a
+farthing in his pocket, I was moved with compassion.  As he was
+charged with uttering forged notes he had been taken to Newgate, and
+was in danger of being hanged.
+
+I followed the magistrate's messenger, and cannot say how the woeful
+aspect, the tears and supplications for mercy of the poor wretch,
+moved my heart.  He swore that Castelbajac had given him the notes,
+but he added that he knew where they came from originally, and would
+tell me if I would release him.
+
+A little bitterness still remained in my breast, so I told him that
+if he knew who forged the notes he could certainly escape the
+gallows, but that I should keep him prisoner till I got my money
+back.  At this threat his tears and supplications began over again
+and with renewed force, and telling me that he was in utter poverty
+he emptied his pockets one after the other to shew me that he had no
+money, and at last offered me the bloodstained badge of his uncle.  I
+was delighted to be able to relieve him without any appearance of
+weakness, and accepted the bauble as a pledge, telling him that he
+should have it back on payment of forty pounds.
+
+I wrote out a formal release, and in his presence and in that of the
+alderman I burnt the four notes and set him free.
+
+Two days afterwards the so-called countess came to my house, saying
+that now Castelbajac and Schewirin were gone, she knew not where to
+lay her head.  She complained bitterly of Lord Pembroke, who deserted
+her after making her give him the clearest proofs of her affection.
+By way of consolation I told her that it would be very foolish of him
+to have abandoned her before instead of after.
+
+To get rid of her I was obliged to give her the money to pay her
+journey to Calais.  She told me she did not want to rejoin the
+Gascon, who was not really her husband.  We shall hear more of these
+persons in the course of three years.
+
+Two or three days later an Italian called on me, and gave me a letter
+from my friend Baletti, which recommended the bearer, Constantini, a
+native of Vicenza, to my good offices.  He had come to London on a
+matter of importance in which I could help him.
+
+I assured M. Constantini that I was only too happy to do anything to
+justify the confidence placed in my by one of my best friends, and he
+said that the long journey had almost exhausted his purse; but he
+added,--
+
+"I know that my wife lives here, and that she is rich.  I shall
+easily find out where she lives, and you know that as I am her
+husband all that is hers is mine."
+
+"I was not aware of that."
+
+"Then you don't know the laws of this country?"
+
+"Not at all."
+
+"I am sorry to hear it, but such is the case.  1 am going to her
+house, and I shall turn her out of doors with nothing else than the
+dress on her back, for the furniture, clothes, jewels, linen-in fact,
+all her possessions, belong to me.  May I ask you to be with me when
+I perform this exploit?"
+
+I was astonished.  I asked him if he had told Baletti what he
+intended to do.
+
+"You are the first person to whom I have disclosed my intentions."
+
+I could not treat him as a madman, for he did not look like one, and,
+concluding that there really might be the law he had alleged, I
+replied that I did not feel inclined to join him in his enterprise,
+of which I disapproved very strongly, unless his wife had actually
+robbed him of what she possessed.
+
+"She has only robbed me of my honour, sir, and she left me, taking
+her talents with her.  She must have made a great fortune here, and
+have I not a right to take it from her, were it only for vengeance
+sake?"
+
+"That may be, but I ask you what you would think of me if I agreed to
+join you in an undertaking which seems a cruel one to me, however
+good your reasons may be.  Besides I may know your wife, she may even
+be a friend of mine."
+
+"I will tell you her name."
+
+"No, I beg of you not to do so, although I do not know any Madame
+Constantini."
+
+"She has changed her name to Calori, and she sings at the
+'Haymarket.'"
+
+"I know who she is now.  I am sorry you have told me."
+
+"I have no doubt you will keep my secret, and I am now going to find
+out where she lives; for that is the principal thing."
+
+He left me weeping, and I pitied him, but at the same time I was
+sorry that he had made me the depositary of his secret.  A few hours
+after I called on Madame Binetti, and she told me the histories of
+all the artistes in London.  When she came to the Calori she told me
+that she had had several lovers out of whom she had made a great
+deal, but at present she had no lover, unless it were the violinist
+Giardini, with whom she was in love in earnest.
+
+"Where does she come from?"
+
+"From Vicenza."
+
+"Is she married?"
+
+"I don't think so."
+
+I thought no more of this wretched business, but three or four days
+later I had a letter from King's Bench Prison.  It was from
+Constantini.  The poor wretch said I was the only friend he had in
+London, and that he hoped I would come and see him, were it only to
+give him some advice.
+
+I thought it my duty to accede to his request, and I went to the
+prison, where I found the poor man in a wretched state, with an old
+English attorney, who spoke a little bad Italian, and was known to
+me.
+
+Constantini had been arrested the day before on account of several
+bills drawn by his wife which had not been taken up.  By these bills
+she appeared in debt to the amount of a thousand guineas.  The
+attorney had got the five bills, and he was trying to make some
+arrangements with the husband.
+
+I saw at once that the whole thing was a scandalous swindle, for
+Madame Binetti had told me that the Calori was very rich.  I begged
+the attorney to leave me alone with the prisoner, as I wanted to have
+some private conversation with him.
+
+"They have arrested me for my wife's debts," said he, "and they tell
+me I must pay them because I am her husband."
+
+"It's a trick your wife has played on you; she must have found out
+you were in London."
+
+"She saw me through the window."
+
+"Why did you delay putting your project into execution?"
+
+"I meant to carry it out this morning, but how was I to know that she
+had debts?"
+
+"Nor has she any debts; these bills are shams.  They must have been
+ante-dated, for they were really executed yesterday.  It's a bad
+business, and she may have to pay dearly for it."
+
+"But in the meanwhile I am in prison."
+
+"Never mind, trust to me, I will see you again tomorrow."
+
+This scurvy trick had made me angry, and I made up my mind to take up
+the poor man's cause.  I went to Bosanquet, who told me that the
+device was a very common one in London, but that people had found out
+the way to defeat it.  Finally, he said that if the prisoner
+interested me he would put the case into the hands of a barrister who
+would extricate him from his difficulty, and make the wife and the
+lover, who had probably helped her, repent of their day's work.  I
+begged him to act as if my interests were at stake, and promised to
+guarantee all expenses.
+
+"That's enough," said he; "don't trouble yourself any more about it."
+
+Same days after Mr. Bosanquet came to tell me that Constantini had
+left the prison and England as well, according to what the barrister
+who had charge of the case told him.
+
+"Impossible!"
+
+"Not at all.  The lover of his wife, foreseeing the storm that was
+about to burst over their heads, got round the fellow, and made him
+leave the country by means of a sum more or less large."
+
+The affair was over, but it was soon in all the newspapers, garnished
+with all the wit imaginable, and Giardini was warmly praised for the
+action he had taken.
+
+As for me I was glad enough to have the matter over, but I felt vexed
+with Constantini for having fled without giving the lovers a lesson.
+I wrote an account of the circumstances to Baletti, and I heard from
+Madame Binetti that the Calori had given her husband a hundred
+guineas to leave the country.  Some years later I saw the Calori at
+Prague.
+
+A Flemish officer, the man whom I had helped at Aix-la-Chapelle, had
+called on me several times, and had even dined three or four times
+with me.  I reproached myself for not having been polite enough to
+return his call, and when we met in the street, and he reproached me
+for not having been to see him, I was obliged to blush.  He had his
+wife and daughter with him, and some feeling of shame and a good deal
+of curiosity made me call on him.
+
+When he saw me he threw his arms about my neck, calling me his
+preserver.  I was obliged to receive all the compliments which knaves
+make to honest men when they hope to take them in.  A few moments
+after, an old woman and a girl came in, and I was introduced as the
+Chevalier de Seingalt, of whom he had spoken so often.  The girl,
+affecting surprise, said she had known a M. Casanova, who was very
+like me.  I answered that Casanova was my name as well as Seingalt,
+but that I had not the happiness of recollecting her.
+
+"My name was Anspergher when I saw you," she replied, "but now it is
+Charpillon ; and considering that we only met once, and that I was
+only thirteen at the time, I do not wonder at your not recollecting
+me.  I have been in London with my mother and aunts for the last four
+years."
+
+"But where had I the pleasure of speaking to you?"
+
+"At Paris."
+
+"In what part of Paris?"
+
+"In the Bazaar.  You were with a charming lady, and you gave me these
+buckles" (she shewed me them on her shoes), "and you also did me the
+honour to kiss me."
+
+I recollected the circumstance, and the reader will remember that I
+was with Madame Baret, the fair stocking-seller.
+
+"Now I remember you," said I ; "but I do not recognize your aunt."
+
+"This is the sister of the one you saw, but if you will take tea with
+us you will see her."
+
+"Where do you live?"
+
+"In Denmark Street, Soho."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+The Charpillon--Dreadful Consequences of My Acquaintance With Her
+
+
+The name Charpillon reminded me that I was the bearer of a letter for
+her, and drawing it from my pocket-book I gave it her, saying that
+the document ought to cement our acquaintance.
+
+"What!" she exclaimed, "a letter from the dear ambassador Morosini.
+How delighted I am to have it!  And you have actually been all these
+months in London without giving it me?"
+
+"I confess I am to blame, but, as you see, the note has no address on
+it.  I am grateful for the chance which has enabled me to discharge
+my commission to-day."
+
+"Come and dine with us to-morrow."
+
+"I cannot do so, as I am expecting Lord Pembroke to dinner."
+
+"Will you be alone?"
+
+"I expect so."
+
+"I am glad to hear it; you will see my aunt and myself appearing on
+the scene."
+
+"Here is my address; and I shall be delighted if you will come and
+see me."
+
+She took the address, and I was surprised to see her smile as she
+read it.
+
+"Then you are the Italian," she said, "who put up that notice that
+amused all the town?"
+
+"I am."
+
+"They say the joke cost you dear."
+
+"Quite the reverse; it resulted in the greatest happiness."
+
+"But now that the beloved object has left you, I suppose you are
+unhappy?"
+
+"I am; but there are sorrows so sweet that they are almost joys."
+
+"Nobody knows who she was, but I suppose you do?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Do you make a mystery of it?"
+
+"Surely, and I would rather die than reveal it."
+
+"Ask my aunt if I may take some rooms in your house; but I am afraid
+my mother would not let me."
+
+"Why do you want to lodge cheaply?"
+
+"I don't want to lodge cheaply, but I should like to punish the
+audacious author of that notice."
+
+"How would you punish me?"
+
+"By making you fall in love with me, and then tormenting you.  It
+would have amused me immensely."
+
+"Then you think that you can inspire me with love, and at the same
+time form the dreadful plan of tyrannising over the victim of your
+charms.  Such a project is monstrous, and unhappily for us poor men,
+you do not look a monster.  Nevertheless, I am obliged to you for
+your frankness, and I shall be on my guard."
+
+"Then you must take care never to see me, or else all your efforts
+will be in vain."
+
+As the Charpillon had laughed merrily through the whole of this
+dialogue, I took it all as a jest, but I could not help admiring her
+manner, which seemed made for the subjugation of men.  But though I
+knew it not, the day I made that woman's acquaintance was a luckless
+one for me, as my readers will see.
+
+It was towards the end of the month of September, 1763, when I met
+the Charpillon, and from that day I began to die.  If the lines of
+ascent and declination are equal, now, on the first day of November,
+1797, I have about four more years of life to reckon on, which will
+pass by swiftly, according to the axiom 'Motus in fine velocior'.
+
+The Charpillon, who was well known in London, and I believe is still
+alive, was one of those beauties in whom it is difficult to find any
+positive fault.  Her hair was chestnut coloured, and astonishingly
+long and thick, her blue eyes were at once languorous and brilliant,
+her skin, faintly tinged with a rosy hue, was of a dazzling
+whiteness; she was tall for her age, and seemed likely to become as
+tall as Pauline.  Her breast was perhaps a little small, but
+perfectly shaped, her hands were white and plump, her feet small, and
+her gait had something noble and gracious.  Her features were of that
+exquisite sensibility which gives so much charm to the fair sex, but
+nature had given her a beautiful body and a deformed soul.  This
+siren had formed a design to wreck my happiness even before she knew
+me, and as if to add to her triumph she told me as much.
+
+I left Malingan's house not like a man who, fond of the fair sex, is
+glad to have made the acquaintance of a beautiful woman, but in a
+state of stupefaction that the image of Pauline, which was always
+before me, was not strong enough to overcome the influence of a
+creature like the Charpillon, whom in my heart I could not help
+despising.
+
+I calmed myself by saying that this strong impression was due to
+novelty, and by hoping that I should soon be disenchanted.
+
+"She will have no charm," said I, "when I have once possessed her,
+and that will not be long in coming."  Perhaps the reader will think
+that I was too presumptuous, but why should I suppose that there
+would be any difficulty?  She had asked me to dinner herself, she had
+surrendered herself entirely to Morosini, who was not the man to sigh
+for long at any woman's feet, and must have paid her, for he was not
+young enough nor handsome enough to inspire her with a fancy for him.
+Without counting my physical attractions, I had plenty of money, and
+I was not afraid of spending it; and so I thought I could count on an
+easy victory.
+
+Pembroke had become an intimate friend of mine since my proceedings
+with regard to Schwerin.  He admired my conduct in not making any
+claim on the general for half my loss.  He had said we would make a
+pleasant day of it together, and when he saw that my table was laid
+for four he asked who the other guests were to be.  He was extremely
+surprised when he heard that they were the Charpillon and her aunt,
+and that the girl had invited herself when she heard he was to dine
+with me.
+
+"I once took a violent fancy for the little hussy," said he.  "It was
+one evening when I was at Vauxhall, and I offered her twenty guineas
+if she would come and take a little walk with me in a dark alley.
+She said she would come if I gave her the money in advance, which I
+was fool enough to do.  She went with me, but as soon as we were
+alone she ran away, and I could not catch her again, though I looked
+for her all the evening."
+
+"You ought to have boxed her ears before everybody."
+
+"I should have got into trouble, and people would have laughed at me
+besides.  I preferred to despise her and the money too.  Are you in
+love with her?"
+
+"No; but I am curious, as you were."
+
+"Take care! she will do all in her power to entrap you."
+
+She came in and went up to my lord with the most perfect coolness,
+and began to chatter away to him without taking any notice of me.
+She laughed, joked, and reproached him for not having pursued her at
+Vauxhall.  Her stratagem, she said, was only meant to excite him the
+more.
+
+"Another time," she added, "I shall not escape you."
+
+"Perhaps not, my dear, for another time I shall take care not to pay
+in advance."
+
+"Oh, fie! you degrade yourself by talking about paying."
+
+"I suppose I honour you."
+
+"We never talk of such things."
+
+Lord Pembroke laughed at her impertinences, while she made a vigorous
+assault on him, for his coolness and indifference piqued her.
+
+She left us soon after dinner, making me promise to dine with her the
+day after next.
+
+I passed the next day with the amiable nobleman who initiated me into
+the mysteries of the English bagnio, an entertainment which I shall
+not describe, for it is well known to all who care to spend six
+guineas.
+
+On the day appointed, my evil destiny made me go to the Charpillon's;
+the girl introduced me to her mother, whom I at once recollected,
+although she had aged and altered since I had seen her.
+
+In the year 1759 a Genevan named Bolome had persuaded me to sell her
+jewels to the extent of six thousand francs, and she had paid me in
+bills drawn by her and her two sisters on this Bolome, but they were
+then known as Anspergher.  The Genevan became bankrupt before the
+bills were due, and the three sisters disappeared.  As may be
+imagined, I was surprised to find them in England, and especially to
+be introduced to them by the Charpillon, who, knowing nothing of the
+affair of the jewels, had not told them that Seingalt was the same as
+Casanova, whom they had cheated of six thousand francs.
+
+"I am delighted to see you again," were the first words I addressed
+to her.
+
+"I recollect you, sir; that rascal Bolome .  .  .  ."
+
+"We will discuss that subject another time.  I see you are ill."
+
+"I have been at death's door, but I am better now.  My daughter did
+not tell me your proper name."
+
+"Yes, she did.  My name is Seingalt as well as Casanova.  I was known
+by the latter name at Paris when I made your daughter's acquaintance,
+though I did not know then that she was your daughter."
+
+Just then the grandmother, whose name was also Anspergher, came in
+with the two aunts, and a quarter of an hour later three men arrived,
+one of whom was the Chevalier Goudar, whom I had met at Paris.  I did
+not know the others who were introduced to me under the names of
+Rostaing and Caumon.  They were three friends of the household, whose
+business it was to bring in dupes.
+
+Such was the infamous company in which I found myself, and though I
+took its measure directly, yet I did not make my escape, nor did I
+resolve never to go to the house again.  I was fascinated; I thought
+I would be on my guard and be safe, and as I only wanted the daughter
+I looked on all else as of little moment.
+
+At table I led the conversation, and thought that my prey would soon
+be within my grasp.  The only thing which annoyed me was that the
+Charpillon, after apologizing for having made me sit down to such a
+poor dinner, invited herself and all the company to sup with me on
+any day I liked to mention.  I could make no opposition, so I begged
+her to name the day herself, and she did so, after a consultation
+with her worthy friends.
+
+After coffee had been served we played four rubbers of whist, at
+which I lost, and at midnight I went away ill pleased with myself,
+but with no purpose of amendment, for this sorceress had got me in
+her toils.
+
+All the same I had the strength of mind to refrain from seeing her
+for two days, and on the third, which was the day appointed for the
+cursed supper, she and her aunt paid me a call at nine o'clock in the
+morning.
+
+"I have come to breakfast with you, and to discuss a certain
+question," said she, in the most engaging manner.
+
+"Will you tell me your business now, or after breakfast?"
+
+"After breakfast; for we must be alone."
+
+We had our breakfast, and then the aunt went into another room, and
+the Charpillon, after describing the monetary situation of the
+family, told me that it would be much relieved if her aunt could
+obtain a hundred guineas.
+
+"What would she do with the money?"
+
+"She would make the Balm of Life, of which she possesses the secret,
+and no doubt she would make her fortune, too."
+
+She then began to dilate on the marvellous properties of the balm, on
+its probable success in a town like London, and on the benefits which
+would accrue to myself, for of course I should share in the profits.
+She added that her mother and aunt would give me a written promise to
+repay the money in the course of six years.
+
+"I will give you a decided answer after supper."
+
+I then began to caress her, and to make assaults in the style of an
+amorous man, but it was all in vain, though I succeeded in stretching
+her on a large sofa.  She made her escape, however, and ran to her
+aunt, while I followed her, feeling obliged to laugh as she did.  She
+gave me her hand, and said,--
+
+"Farewell, till this evening."
+
+When they were gone, I reflected over what had passed and thought
+this first scene of no bad augury.  I saw that I should get nothing
+out of her without spending a hundred guineas, and I determined not
+to attempt to bargain, but I would let her understand that she must
+make up her mind not to play prude.  The game was in my hands, and
+all I had to do was to take care not to be duped.
+
+In the evening the company arrived, and the girl asked me to hold a
+bank till supper was ready; but I declined, with a burst of laughter
+that seemed to puzzle her.
+
+"At least, let us have a game of whist," said she.
+
+"It seems to me," I answered, "that you don't feel very anxious to
+hear my reply."
+
+"You have made up your mind, I suppose?"
+
+"I have, follow me."
+
+She followed me into an adjoining room, and after she had seated
+herself on a sofa, I told her that the hundred guineas were at her
+disposal.
+
+"Then please to give the money to my aunt, otherwise these gentlemen
+might think I got it from you by some improper means."
+
+"I will do so."
+
+I tried to get possession of her, but in vain; and I ceased my
+endeavours when she said,--
+
+"You will get nothing from me either by money or violence; but you
+can hope for all when I find you really nice and quiet."
+
+I re-entered the drawing-room, and feeling my blood boiling I began
+to play to quiet myself.  She was as gay as ever, but her gaiety
+tired me.  At supper I had her on my right hand, but the hundred
+impertinences which, under other circumstances, would have amused me,
+only wearied me, after the two rebuffs I had received from her.
+
+After supper, just as they were going, she took me aside, and told me
+that if I wanted to hand over the hundred guineas she would tell her
+aunt to go with me into the next room.
+
+"As documents have to be executed," I replied, "it will take some
+time; we will talk of it again.
+
+"Won't you fix the time?"
+
+I drew out my purse full of gold, and shewed it her, saying,--
+
+"The time depends entirely on you."
+
+When my hateful guests were gone, I began to reflect, and came to the
+conclusion that this young adventuress had determined to plunder me
+without giving me anything in return.  I determined to have nothing
+more to do with her, but I could not get her beauty out of my mind.
+
+I felt I wanted some distraction, something that would give me new
+aims and make me forget her.  With this idea I went to see my
+daughter, taking with me an immense bag of sweets.
+
+As soon as I was in the midst of the little flock, the delight became
+general, Sophie distributing the sweetmeats to her friends, who
+received them gratefully.
+
+I spent a happy day, and for a week or two I paid several visits to
+Harwich.  The mistress treated me with the utmost politeness and my
+daughter with boundless affection, always calling me "dear papa."
+
+In less than three weeks I congratulated myself on having forgotten
+the Charpillon, and on having replaced her by innocent amours, though
+one of my daughter's schoolmates pleased me rather too much for my
+peace of mind.
+
+Such was my condition when one morning the favourite aunt of the
+Charpillon paid me a call, and said that they were all mystified at
+not having seen me since the supper I had given them, especially
+herself, as her niece had given her to understand that I would
+furnish her with the means of making the Balm of Life.
+
+"Certainly; I would have given you the hundred guineas if your niece
+had treated me as a friend, but she refused me favours a vestal might
+have granted, and you must be aware that she is by no means a
+vestal."
+
+"Don't mind my laughing.  My niece is an innocent, giddy girl; she
+loves you, but she is afraid you have only a passing whim for her.
+She is in bed now with a bad cold, and if you will come and see her I
+am sure you will be satisfied."
+
+These artful remarks, which had no doubt been prepared in advance,
+ought to have aroused all my scorn, but instead of that they awakened
+the most violent desires.  I laughed in chorus with the old woman,
+and asked what would be the best time to call.
+
+"Come now, and give one knock."
+
+"Very good, then you may expect me shortly."
+
+I congratulated myself on being on the verge of success, for after
+the explanation I had had with the aunt, and having, as I thought, a
+friend in her, I did not doubt that I should succeed.
+
+I put on my great coat, and in less than a quarter of an hour I
+knocked at their door.  The aunt opened to me, and said,--
+
+"Come back in a quarter of an hour; she has been ordered a bath, and
+is just going to take it."
+
+"This is another imposture.  You're as bad a liar as she is."
+
+"You are cruel and unjust, and if you will promise to be discreet, I
+will take you up to the third floor where she is bathing."
+
+"Very good; take me."  She went upstairs, I following on tiptoe, and
+pushed me into a room, and shut the door upon me.  The Charpillon was
+in a huge bath, with her head towards the door, and the infernal
+coquette, pretending to think it was her aunt, did not move, and
+said,--
+
+"Give me the towels, aunt."
+
+She was in the most seductive posture, and I had the pleasure of
+gazing on her exquisite proportions, hardly veiled by the water.
+
+When she caught sight of me, or rather pretended to do so, she gave a
+shriek, huddled her limbs together, and said, with affected anger,--
+
+"Begone!"
+
+"You needn't exert your voice, for I am not going to be duped."
+
+"Begone!"
+
+"Not so, give me a little time to collect myself."
+
+"I tell you, go!"
+
+"Calm yourself, and don't be afraid of my skewing you any violence;
+that would suit your game too well."
+
+"My aunt shall pay dearly for this."
+
+"She will find me her friend.  I won't touch you, so shew me a little
+more of your charms."
+
+"More of my charms?"
+
+"Yes; put yourself as you were when I came in."
+
+"Certainly not.  Leave the room."
+
+"I have told you I am not going, and that you need not fear for your
+.  .  .  well, for your virginity, we will say."
+
+She then shewed me a picture more seductive than the first, and
+pretending kindliness, said,--
+
+"Please, leave me; I will not fail to shew my gratitude."
+
+Seeing that she got nothing, that I refrained from touching her, and
+that the fire she had kindled was in a fair way to be put out, she
+turned her back to me to give me to understand that it was no
+pleasure to her to look at me.  However, my passions were running
+high, and I had to have recourse to self-abuse to calm my senses, and
+was glad to find myself relieved, as this proved to me that the
+desire went no deeper than the senses.
+
+The aunt came in just as I had finished, and I went out without a
+word, well pleased to find myself despising a character wherein
+profit and loss usurped the place of feeling.
+
+The aunt came to me as I was going out of the house, and after
+enquiring if I were satisfied begged me to come into the parlour.
+
+"Yes," said I, "I am perfectly satisfied to know you and your niece.
+Here is the reward."
+
+With these words I drew a bank-note for a hundred pounds from my
+pocket-book, and was foolish enough to give it her, telling her that
+she could make her balm, and need not trouble to give me any document
+as I knew if would be of no value.  I had not the strength to go away
+without giving her anything, and the procuress was sharp enough to
+know it.
+
+When I got home I reflected on what had happened, and pronounced
+myself the conqueror with great triumph.  I felt well at ease, and
+felt sure that I should never set foot in that house again.  There
+were seven of them altogether, including servants, and the need of
+subsisting made them do anything for a living; and when they found
+themselves obliged to make use of men, they summoned the three
+rascals I have named, who were equally dependent on them.
+
+Five or six days afterwards, I met the little hussy at Vauxhall in
+company with Goudar.  I avoided her at first, but she came up to me
+reproaching me for my rudeness.  I replied coolly enough, but
+affecting not to notice my manner, she asked me to come into an
+arbour with her and take a cup of tea.
+
+"No, thank you," I replied, "I prefer supper."
+
+"Then I will take some too, and you will give it me, won't you, just
+to shew that you bear no malice?"
+
+I ordered supper for four and we sat down together as if we had been
+intimate friends.
+
+Her charming conversation combined with her beauty gradually drew me
+under her charm, and as the drink began to exercise its influence
+over me, I proposed a turn in one of the dark walks, expressing a
+hope that I should fare better than Lord Pembroke.  She said gently,
+and with an appearance of sincerity that deceived me, that she wanted
+to be mine, but by day and on the condition that I would come and see
+her every day.
+
+"I will do so, but first give me one little proof of your love."
+
+"Most certainly not."
+
+I got up to pay the bill, and then I left without a word, refusing to
+take her home.  I went home by myself and went to bed.
+
+The first thought when I awoke was that I was glad she had not taken
+me at my word; I felt very strongly that it was to my interest to
+break off all connection between that creature and myself.  I felt
+the strength of her influence over me, and that my only way was to
+keep away from her, or to renounce all pretension to the possession
+of her charms.
+
+The latter plan seemed to me impossible, so I determined to adhere to
+the first; but the wretched woman had resolved to defeat all my
+plans.  The manner in which she succeeded must have been the result
+of a council of the whole society.
+
+A few days after the Vauxhall supper Goudar called on me, and began
+by congratulating me on my resolution not to visit the Ansperghers
+any more, "for," said he, "the girl would have made you more and more
+in love with her, and in the end she would have seduced you to
+beggary."
+
+"You must think me a great fool.  If I had found her kind I should
+have been grateful, but without squandering all my money; and if she
+had been cruel, instead of ridiculous, I might have given her what I
+have already given her every day, without reducing myself to
+beggary."
+
+"I congratulate you; it shews that you are well off.  But have you
+made up your mind not to see her again?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"Then you are not in love with her?"
+
+"I have been in love, but I am so no longer; and in a few days she
+will have passed completely out of my memory.  I had almost forgotten
+her when I met her with you at Vauxhall."
+
+"You are not cured.  The way to be cured of an amour does not lie in
+flight, when the two parties live in the same town.  Meetings will
+happen, and all the trouble has to be taken over again."
+
+"Then do you know a better way?"
+
+"Certainly; you should satiate yourself.  It is quite possible that
+the creature is not in love with you, but you are rich and she has
+nothing.  You might have had her for so much, and you could have left
+her when you found her to be unworthy of your constancy.  You must
+know what kind of a woman she is."
+
+"I should have tried this method gladly, but I found her out."
+
+"You could have got the best of her, though, if you had gone to work
+in the proper way.  You should never have paid in advance.  I know
+everything."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"I know she has cost you a hundred guineas, and that you have not won
+so much as a kiss from her.  Why, my dear sir, you might have had her
+comfortably in your own bed for as much!  She boasts that she took
+you in, though you pride yourself on your craft."
+
+"It was an act of charity towards her aunt."
+
+"Yes, to make her Balm of Life; but you know if it had not been for
+the niece the aunt would never have had the money."
+
+"Perhaps not, but how come you who are of their party to be talking
+to me in this fashion?"
+
+"I swear to you I only speak out of friendship for you, and I will
+tell you how I came to make the acquaintance of the girl, her mother,
+her grandmother and her two aunts, and then you will no longer
+consider me as of their party.
+
+"Sixteen months ago I saw M. Morosini walking about Vauxhall by
+himself.  He had just come to England to congratulate the king on his
+accession to the throne, on behalf of the Republic of Venice.  I saw
+how enchanted he was with the London beauties, and I went up to him
+and told him that all these beauties were at his service.  This made
+him laugh, and on my repeating that it was not a jest he pointed out
+one of the girls, and asked if she would be at his service.  I did
+not know her, so I asked him to wait awhile, and I would bring him
+the information he required.  There was no time to be lost, and I
+could see that the girl was not a vestal virgin, so I went up to her
+and told her that the Venetian ambassador was amorous of her, and
+that I would take her to him if she would receive his visits.  The
+aunt said that a nobleman of such an exalted rank could only bring
+honour to her niece.  I took their address, and on my way back to the
+ambassador I met a friend of mine who is learned in such commodities,
+and after I had shewed him the address he told me it was the
+Charpillon."
+
+"And it was she?"
+
+"It was.  My friend told me she was a young Swiss girl who was not
+yet in the general market, but who would soon be there, as she was
+not rich, and had a numerous train to support.
+
+"I rejoined the Venetian, and told him that his business was done,
+and asked him at what time I should introduce him the next day,
+warning him that as she had a mother and aunts she would not be
+alone.
+
+"'I am glad to hear it,' said he, 'and also that she is not a common
+woman.' He gave me an appointment for the next day, and we parted.
+
+"I told the ladies at what hour I should have the pleasure of
+introducing the great man to them, and after warning them that they
+must appear not to know him I went home.
+
+"The following day I called on M. de Morosini, and took him to
+Denmark Street incognito.  We spent an hour in conversation, and then
+went away without anything being settled.  On the way back the
+ambassador told me that he should like to have the girl on conditions
+which he would give me in writing at his residence.
+
+"These conditions were that she should live in a furnished house free
+of rent, without any companion, and without receiving any visitors.
+His excellency would give her fifty guineas a month, and pay for
+supper whenever he came and spent the night with her.  He told me to
+get the house if his conditions were received.  The mother was to
+sign the agreement.
+
+"The ambassador was in a hurry, and in three days the agreement was
+signed; but I obtained a document from the mother promising to let me
+have the girl for one night as soon as the Venetian had gone; it was
+known he was only stopping in London for a year."
+
+Goudar extracted the document in question from his pocket, and gave
+it to me.  I read it and re-read it with as much surprise as
+pleasure, and he then proceeded with his story.
+
+"When the ambassador had gone, the Charpillon, finding herself at
+liberty once more, had Lord Baltimore, Lord Grosvenor, and M. de Saa,
+the Portuguese ambassador, in turn, but no titular lover.  I insisted
+on having my night with her according to agreement, but both mother
+and daughter laughed at me when I spoke of it.  I cannot arrest her,
+because she is a minor, but I will have the mother imprisoned on the
+first opportunity, and you will see how the town will laugh.  Now you
+know why I go to their house; and I assure you you are wrong if you
+think I have any part in their councils.  Nevertheless, I know they
+are discussing how they may catch you, and they will do so if you do
+not take care."
+
+"Tell the mother that I have another hundred guineas at her service
+if she will let me have her daughter for a single night."
+
+"Do you mean that?"
+
+"Assuredly, but I am not going to pay in advance."
+
+"That's the only way not to be duped.  I shall be glad to execute
+your commission."
+
+I kept the rogue to dinner, thinking he might be useful to me.  He
+knew everything and everybody, and told me a number of amusing
+ancedotes.  Although a good-for-nothing fellow, he had his merits.
+He had written several works, which, though badly constructed, shewed
+he was a man of some wit.  He was then writing his "Chinese Spy," and
+every day he wrote five or six news-letters from the various coffee-
+houses he frequented.  I wrote one or two letters for him, with which
+he was much pleased.  The reader will see how I met him again at
+Naples some years later.
+
+The next morning, what was my surprise to see the Charpillon, who
+said with an air that I should have taken for modesty in any other
+woman,--
+
+"I don't want you to give me any breakfast, I want an explanation,
+and to introduce Miss Lorenzi to you."
+
+I bowed to her and to her companion, and then said,--
+
+"What explanation do you require?"
+
+At this, Miss Lorenzi, whom I had never seen before, thought proper
+to leave us, and I told my man that I was not at home to anybody.  I
+ordered breakfast to be served to the companion of the nymph, that
+she might not find the waiting tedious.
+
+"Sir," said the Charpillon, "is it a fact that you charged the
+Chevalier Goudar to tell my mother that you would give a hundred
+guineas to spend the night with me?"
+
+"No, not to spend a night with you, but after I had passed it.  Isn't
+the price enough?"
+
+"No jesting, sir, if you please.  There is no question of bargaining;
+all I want to know is whether you think you have a right to insult
+me, and that I am going to bear it?"
+
+"If you think yourself insulted, I may, perhaps, confess I was wrong;
+but I confess I did not think I should have to listen to any
+reproaches from you.  Gondar is one of your intimate friends, and
+this is not the first proposal he has taken to you.  I could not
+address you directly, as I know your arts only too well."
+
+"I shall not pay any attention to your abuse of my self; I will only
+remind you of what I said 'that neither money nor violence were of
+any use,' and that your only way was to make me in love with you by
+gentle means.  Shew me where I have broken my word!  It is you that
+have foresworn yourself in coming into my bath-room, and in sending
+such a brutal message to my mother.  No one but a rascal like Goudar
+would have dared to take such a message."
+
+"Goudar a rascal, is he?  Well, he is your best friend.  You know he
+is in love with you, and that he only got you for the ambassador in
+the hope of enjoying you himself.  The document in his possession
+proves that you have behaved badly towards him.  You are in his debt,
+discharge it, and then call him a rascal if you have the conscience
+to do so.  You need not trouble to weep, for I knew the source of
+those tears; it is defiled."
+
+"You know nothing of it.  I love you, and it is hard to have you
+treat me so."
+
+"You love me?  You have not taken the best way to prove it!"
+
+"As good a way as yours.  You have behaved to me as if I were the
+vilest of prostitutes, and yesterday you seemed to think I was a
+brute beast, the slave of my mother.  You should have written to me
+in person, and without the intervention of so vile an agent; I should
+have replied in the same way, and you need not have been afraid that
+you would be deceived."
+
+"Supposing I had written, what would your answer have been?"
+
+"I should have put all money matters out of question.  I should have
+promised to content you on the condition that you would come and
+court me for a fortnight without demanding the slightest favour.  We
+should have lived a pleasant life; we should have gone to the theatre
+and to the parks.  I should have become madly in love with you.  Then
+I should have given myself up to you for love, and nothing but love.
+I am ashamed to say that hitherto I have only given myself out of
+mere complaisance.  Unhappy woman that I am! but I think nature meant
+me to love, and I thought when I saw you that my happy star had sent
+you to England that I might know the bliss of true affection.
+Instead of this you have only made me unhappy.  You are the first man
+that has seen me weep; you have troubled my peace at home, for my
+mother shall never have the sum you promised her were it for nothing
+but a kiss."
+
+"I am sorry to have injured you, though I did not intend to do so;
+but I really don't know what I can do."
+
+"Come and see us, and keep your money, which I despise.  If you love
+me, come and conquer me like a reasonable and not a brutal lover; and
+I will help you, for now you cannot doubt that I love you."
+
+All this seemed so natural to me that I never dreamed it contained a
+trap.  I was caught, and I promised to do what she wished, but only
+for a fortnight.  She confirmed her promise, and her countenance
+became once more serene and calm.  The Charpillon was a born actress.
+
+She got up to go, and on my begging a kiss as a pledge of our
+reconciliation she replied, with a smile, the charm of which she well
+knew, that it would not do to begin by breaking the term of our
+agreement, and she left me more in love than ever, and full of
+repentance for my conduct.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+Goudar's Chair
+
+If she had written all this to me instead of coming and delivering it
+viva voce, it would probably have produced no effect; there would
+have been no tears, no ravishing features.  She probably calculated
+all this, for women have a wonderful instinct in these matters.
+
+That very evening I began my visits, and judged from my welcome that
+my triumph was nigh at hand.  But love fills our minds with idle
+visions, and draws a veil over the truth.
+
+The fortnight went by without my even kissing her hand, and every
+time I came I brought some expensive gift, which seemed cheap to me
+when I obtained such smiles of gratitude in exchange.  Besides these
+presents, not a day passed without some excursion to the country or
+party at the theatre; that fortnight must have cost me four hundred
+guineas at the least.
+
+At last it came to an end, and I asked her in the presence of her
+mother where she would spend the night with me, there or at my house.
+The mother said that we would settle it after supper, and I made no
+objection, not liking to tell her that in my house the supper would
+be more succulent, and a better prelude for the kind of exercise I
+expected to enjoy.
+
+When we had supped the mother took me aside, and asked me to leave
+with the company and then to come back.  I obeyed, laughing to myself
+at this foolish mystery, and when I came back I found the mother and
+the daughter in the parlour, in which a bed had been laid on the
+floor.
+
+Though I did not much care for this arrangement, I was too amorous to
+raise any objection at a moment when I thought my triumph was at
+hand; but I was astonished when the mother asked me if I would like
+to pay the hundred guineas in advance.
+
+"Oh, fie!" exclaimed the girl; and her mother left the room, and we
+locked the door.
+
+My amorous feelings, so long pent up within my breast, would soon
+find relief.  I approached her with open arms; but she avoided my
+caress, and gently begged me to get into bed while she prepared to
+follow me.  I watched her undress with delight, but when she had
+finished she put out the candles.  I complained of this act of hers,
+but she said she could not sleep with the light shining on her.  I
+began to suspect that I might have some difficulties thrown in my way
+to sharpen the pleasure, but I determined to be resigned and to
+overcome them all.
+
+When I felt her in the bed I tried to clasp her in my arms, but found
+that she had wrapped herself up in her long night-gown; her arms were
+crossed, and her head buried in her chest.  I entreated, scolded,
+cursed, but all in vain; she let me go on, and answered not a word.
+
+At first I thought it was a joke, but I soon found out my mistake;
+the veil fell from my eyes and I saw myself in my true colours, the
+degraded dupe of a vile prostitute.
+
+Love easily becomes fury.  I began to handle her roughly, but she
+resisted and did not speak.  I tore her night-gown to rags, but I
+could not tear it entirely off her.  My rage grew terrible, my hands
+became talons, and I treated her with the utmost cruelty; but all for
+nothing.  At last, with my hand on her throat, I felt tempted to
+strangle her; and then I knew it was time for me to go.
+
+It was a dreadful night.  I spoke to this monster of a woman in every
+manner and tone-with gentleness, with argument, rage, remonstrance,
+prayers, tears, and abuse, but she resisted me for three hours
+without abandoning her painful position, in spite of the torments I
+made her endure.
+
+At three o'clock in the morning, feeling my mind and body in a state
+of exhaustion, I got up and dressed myself by my sense of touch.  I
+opened the parlour door, and finding the street door locked I shook
+it till a servant came and let me out.  I went home and got into bed,
+but excited nature refused me the sleep I needed so.  I took a cup of
+chocolate, but it would not stay on my stomach, and soon after a
+shivering fit warned me that I was feverish.  I continued to be ill
+till the next day, and then the fever left me in a state of complete
+exhaustion.
+
+As I was obliged to keep to my bed for a few days, I knew that I
+should soon get my health again; but my chief consolation was that at
+last I was cured.  My shame had made me hate myself.
+
+When I felt the fever coming on I told my man not to let anybody come
+to see me, and to place all my letters in my desk; for I wanted to be
+perfectly well before I troubled myself with anything.
+
+On the fourth day I was better, and I told Jarbe to give me my
+letters.  I found one from Pauline, dated from Madrid, in which she
+informed me that Clairmont had saved her life while they were fording
+a river, and she had determined to keep him till she got to Lisbon,
+and would then send him back by sea.  I congratulated myself at the
+time on her resolve; but it was a fatal one for Clairmont, and
+indirectly for me also.  Four months after, I heard that the ship in
+which he had sailed had been wrecked, and as I never heard from him
+again I could only conclude that my faithful servant had perished
+amidst the waves.
+
+Amongst my London letters I found two from the infamous mother of the
+infamous Charpillon, and one from the girl herself.  The first of the
+mother's letters, written before I was ill, told me that her daughter
+was ill in bed, covered with bruises from the blows I had given her,
+so that she would be obliged to institute legal proceedings against
+me.  In the second letter she said she had heard I too was ill, and
+that she was sorry to hear it, her daughter having informed her that
+I had some reason for my anger; however, she would not fail to
+justify herself on the first opportunity.  The Charpillon said in her
+letter that she knew she had done wrong, and that she wondered I had
+not killed her when I took her by the throat.  She added that no
+doubt I had made up my mind to visit her no more, but she hoped I
+would allow her one interview as she had an important communication
+to make to me.  There was also a note from Goudar, saying that he
+wanted to speak to me, and that he would come at noon.  I gave orders
+that he should be admitted.
+
+This curious individual began by astonishing me; he told me the whole
+story of what had taken place, the mother having been his informant.
+
+"The Charpillon," he added, "has not got a fever, but is covered with
+bruises.  What grieves the old woman most is that she has not got the
+hundred guineas."
+
+"She would have had them the next morning," I said, "if her daughter
+had been tractable."
+
+"Her mother had made her swear that she would not be tractable, and
+you need not hope to possess her without the mother's consent."
+
+"Why won't she consent?"
+
+"Because she thinks that you will abandon the girl as soon as you
+have enjoyed her."
+
+"Possibly, but she would have received many valuable presents, and
+now she is abandoned and has nothing."
+
+"Have you made up your mind not to have anything more to do with
+her?"
+
+"Quite."
+
+"That's your wisest plan, and I advise you to keep to it,
+nevertheless I want to shew you something which will surprise you.  I
+will be back in a moment."
+
+He returned, followed by a porter, who carried up an arm-chair
+covered with a cloth.  As soon as we were alone, Goudar took off the
+covering and asked me if I would buy it.
+
+"What should I do with it?  It is not a very attractive piece of
+furniture."
+
+"Nevertheless, the price of it is a hundred guineas."
+
+"I would not give three."
+
+"This arm-chair has five springs, which come into play all at once as
+soon as anyone sits down in it.  Two springs catch the two arms and
+hold them tightly, two others separate the legs, and the fifth lifts
+up the seat."
+
+After this description Goudar sat down quite naturally in the chair
+and the springs came into play and forced him into the position of a
+woman in labour.
+
+"Get the fair Charpillon to sit in this chair," said he, "and your
+business is done."
+
+I could not help laughing at the contrivance, which struck me as at
+once ingenious and diabolical, but I could not make up my mind to
+avail myself of it.
+
+"I won't buy it," said I, "but I shall be obliged if you will leave
+it here till to-morrow."
+
+"I can't leave it here an hour unless you will buy it; the owner is
+waiting close by to hear your answer."
+
+"Then take it away and come back to dinner."
+
+He shewed me how I was to release him from his ridiculous position,
+and then after covering it up again he called the porter and went
+away.
+
+There could be no doubt as to the action of the machinery, and it was
+no feeling of avarice which hindered me from buying the chair.  As I
+have said, it seemed rather a diabolical idea, and besides it might
+easily have sent me to the gallows.  Furthermore, I should never have
+had the strength of mind to enjoy the Charpillon forcibly, especially
+by means of the wonderful chair, the mechanism of which would have
+frightened her out of her wits.
+
+At dinner I told Goudar that the Charpillon had demanded an
+interview, and that I had wished to keep the chair so as to shew her
+that I could have her if I liked.  I shewed him the letter, and he
+advised me to accede to her request, if only for curiosity's sake.
+
+I was in no hurry to see the creature while the marks on her face and
+neck were still fresh, so I spent seven or eight days without making
+up my mind to receive her.  Goudar came every day, and told me of the
+confabulations of these women who had made up their minds not to live
+save by trickery.
+
+He told me that the grandmother had taken the name of Anspergher
+without having any right to it, as she was merely the mistress of a
+worthy citizen of Berne, by whom she had four daughters; the mother
+of the Charpillon was the youngest of the family, and, as she was
+pretty and loose in her morals, the Government had exiled her with
+her mother and sisters.  They had then betaken themselves to Franche-
+Comte, where they lived for some time on the Balm of Life.  Here it
+was that the Charpillon came into the world, her mother attributing
+her to a Count de Boulainvilliers.  The child grew up pretty, and the
+family removed to Paris under the impression that it would be the
+best market for such a commodity, but in the course of four years the
+income from the Balm having dwindled greatly, the Charpillon being
+still too young to be profitable, and debtors closing round them on
+every side, they resolved to come to London.
+
+He then proceeded to tell me of the various tricks and cheats which
+kept them all alive.  I found his narrative interesting enough then,
+but the reader would find it dull, and I expect will be grateful for
+my passing it over.
+
+I felt that it was fortunate for me that I had Goudar, who introduced
+me to all the most famous courtezans in London, above all to the
+illustrious Kitty Fisher, who was just beginning to be fashionable.
+He also introduced me to a girl of sixteen, a veritable prodigy of
+beauty, who served at the bar of a tavern at which we took a bottle
+of strong beer.  She was an Irishwoman and a Catholic, and was named
+Sarah.  I should have liked to get possession of her, but Goudar had
+views of his own on the subject, and carried her off in the course of
+the next year.  He ended by marrying her, and she was the Sara Goudar
+who shone at Naples, Florence, Venice, and elsewhere.  We shall hear
+of her in four or five years, still with her husband.  Goudar had
+conceived the plan of making her take the place of Dubarry, mistress
+of Louis XV., but a lettre de cachet compelled him to try elsewhere.
+Ah! happy days of lettres de cachet, you have gone never to return!
+
+The Charpillon waited a fortnight for me to reply, and then resolved
+to return to the charge in person.  This was no doubt the result of a
+conference of the most secret kind, for I heard nothing of it from
+Gondar.
+
+She came to see my by herself in a sedan-chair, and I decided on
+seeing her.  I was taking my chocolate and I let her come in without
+rising or offering her any breakfast.  She asked me to give her some
+with great modesty, and put up her face for me to give her a kiss,
+but I turned my head away.  However, she was not in the least
+disconcerted.
+
+"I suppose the marks of the blows you gave me make my face so
+repulsive?"
+
+"You lie; I never struck you."
+
+"No, but your tiger-like claws have left bruises all over me.  Look
+here.  No, you needn't be afraid that what you see may prove too
+seductive; besides, it will have no novelty for you."
+
+So saying the wretched creature let me see her body, on which some
+livid marks were still visible.
+
+Coward that I was!  Why did I not look another way?  I will tell you:
+it was because she was so beautiful, and because a woman's charms are
+unworthy of the name if they cannot silence reason.  I affected only
+to look at the bruises, but it was an empty farce.  I blush for
+myself; here was I conquered by a simple girl, ignorant of well nigh
+everything.  But she knew well enough that I was inhaling the poison
+at every pore.  All at once she dropped her clothes and came and sat
+beside me, feeling sure that I should have relished a continuance of
+the spectacle.
+
+However, I made an effort and said, coldly, that it was all her own
+fault.
+
+"I know it is," said she, "for if I had been tractable as I ought to
+have been, you would have been loving instead of cruel.  But
+repentance effaces sin, and I am come to beg pardon.  May I hope to
+obtain it?"
+
+"Certainly; I am angry with you no longer, but I cannot forgive
+myself.  Now go, and trouble me no more."
+
+"I will if you like, but there is something you have not heard, and I
+beg you will listen to me a moment."
+
+"As I have nothing to do you can say what you have got to say, I will
+listen to you."
+
+In spite of the coldness of my words, I was really profoundly
+touched, and the worst of it was that I began to believe in the
+genuineness of her motives.
+
+She might have relieved herself of what she had to say in a quarter
+of an hour, but by dint of tears, sighs, groans, digressions, and so
+forth, she took two hours to tell me that her mother had made her
+swear to pass the night as she had done.  She ended by saying that
+she would like to be mine as she had been M. Morosini's, to live with
+me, and only to go out under my escort, while I might allow her a
+monthly sum which she would hand over to her mother, who would, in
+that case, leave her alone.
+
+She dined with me, and it was in the evening that she made this
+proposition.  I suppose because she thought me ripe for another
+cheat.  I told her that it might be arranged, but that I should
+prefer to settle with her mother, and that she would see me at their
+house the following day, and this seemed to surprise her.
+
+It is possible that the Charpillon would have granted me any favour
+on that day, and then there would have been no question of deception
+or resistance for the future.  Why did I not press her?  Because
+sometimes love stupefies instead of quickens, and because I had been
+in a way her judge, and I thought it would be base of me to revenge
+myself on her by satisfying my amorous desires, and possibly because
+I was a fool, as I have often been in the course of my existence.
+She must have left me in a state of irritation, and no doubt she
+registered a vow to revenge herself on me for the half-contemptuous
+way in which I had treated her.
+
+Goudar was astonished when he heard of her visit, and of the way in
+which I had spent the day.  I begged him to get me a small furnished
+house, and in the evening I went to see the infamous woman in her own
+house.
+
+She was with her mother, and I laid my proposal before them.
+
+"Your daughter will have a house at Chelsea," said I to the mother,
+"where I can go and see her whenever I like, and also fifty guineas a
+month to do what she likes with."
+
+"I don't care what you give her a month," she replied, "but before I
+let her leave my house she must give me the hundred guineas she was
+to have had when she slept with you."
+
+"It is your fault that she didn't have them; however, to cut the
+matter short, she shall give them to you."
+
+"And in the meanwhile, till you have found the house, I hope you will
+come and see me."
+
+"Yes."
+
+The next day Goudar shewed me a pretty house at Chelsea, and I took
+it, paying ten guineas, a month's rent, in advance, for which I
+received a receipt.  In the afternoon I concluded the bargain with
+the mother, the Charpillon being present.  The mother asked me to
+give her the hundred guineas, and I did so, not fearing any
+treachery, as nearly the whole of the girl's clothing was already at
+Chelsea.
+
+In due course we went to our country house.  The Charpillon liked the
+house immensely, and after a short talk we supped merrily together.
+After supper we went to bed, and she granted me some slight
+preliminary favours, but when I would have attained my end I found an
+obstacle which I had not expected.  She gave me some physiological
+reasons for the circumstances, but not being a man to stop for so
+little, I would have gone on, but she resisted, and yet with such
+gentleness that I left her alone and went to sleep.  I awoke sooner
+than she did, and determined to see whether she had imposed on me; so
+I raised her night-gown carefully, and took off her linen only to
+find that I had been duped once more.  This roused her, and she tried
+to stop me, but it was too late.  However, I gently chid her for the
+trick, and feeling disposed to forgive it set about making up for
+lost time, but she got on the high horse, and pretended to be hurt at
+my taking her by surprise.  I tried to calm her by renewed
+tenderness, but the wretched creature only got more furious, and
+would give me nothing.  I left her alone, but I expressed my opinion
+of her in pretty strong terms.  The impudent slut honoured me with a
+smile of disdain, and then beginning to dress herself she proceeded
+to indulge in impertinent repartees.  This made me angry, and I gave
+her a box on the ears which stretched her at full length on the
+floor.  She shrieked, stamped her feet, and made a hideous uproar;
+the landlord came up, and she began to speak to him in English, while
+the blood gushed from her nose.
+
+The man fortunately spoke Italian, and told me that she wanted to go
+away, and advised me to let her do so, or she might make it awkward
+for me, and he himself would be obliged to witness against me.
+
+"Tell her to begone as fast as she likes," said I, "and to keep out
+of my sight for ever."
+
+She finished dressing, staunched the blood, and went off in a sedan-
+chair, while I remained petrified, feeling that I did not deserve to
+live, and finding her conduct utterly outrageous and
+incomprehensible.
+
+After an hour's consideration I decided on sending her back her
+trunk, and then I went home and to bed, telling my servants I was not
+at home to anyone.
+
+I spent twenty-four hours in pondering over my wrongs, and at last my
+reason told me that the fault was mine; I despised myself.  I was on
+the brink of suicide, but happily I escaped that fate.
+
+I was just going out when Goudar came up and made me go in with him,
+as he said he wanted to speak to me.  After telling me that the
+Charpillon had come home with a swollen cheek which prevented her
+shewing herself, he advised me to abandon all claims on her or her
+mother, or the latter would bring a false accusation against me which
+might cost me my life.  Those who know England, and especially London
+will not need to be informed as to the nature of this accusation,
+which is so easily brought in England; it will suffice to say that
+through it Sodom was overwhelmed.
+
+"The mother has engaged me to mediate," said Goudar, "and if you will
+leave her alone, she will do you no harm."
+
+I spent the day with him, foolishly complaining, and telling him that
+he could assure the mother that I would take no proceedings against
+her, but that I should like to know if she had the courage to receive
+this assurance from my own lips.
+
+"I will carry your message," said he, "but I pity you; for you are
+going into their nets again, and will end in utter ruin."
+
+I fancied they would be ashamed to see me; but I was very much
+mistaken, for Goudar came back laughing, and said the mother
+expressed a hope that I should always be the friend of the family.
+I ought to have refused to have anything more to do with them, but I
+had not the strength to play the man.  I called at Denmark Street the
+same evening, and spent an hour without uttering a syllable.  The
+Charpillon sat opposite to me, with eyes lowered to a piece of
+embroidery, while from time to time she pretended to wipe away a tear
+as she let me see the ravages I had worked on her cheek.
+
+I saw her every day and always in silence till the fatal mark had
+disappeared, but during these mad visits the poison of desire was so
+instilled into my veins that if she had known my state of mind she
+might have despoiled me of all I possessed for a single favour.
+
+When she was once more as beautiful as ever I felt as if I must die
+if I did not hold her in my arms again, and I bought a magnificent
+pier-glass and a splendid breakfast service in Dresden china, and
+sent them to her with an amorous epistle which must have made her
+think me either the most extravagant or the most cowardly of men.
+She wrote in answer that she would expect me to sup with her in her
+room, that she might give me the tenderest proofs of her gratitude.
+
+This letter sent me completely mad with joy, and in a paroxysm of
+delight I resolved to surrender to her keeping the two bills of
+exchange which Bolomee had given me, and which gave me power to send
+her mother and aunts to prison.
+
+Full of the happiness that awaited me, and enchanted with my own
+idiotic heroism, I went to her in the evening.  She received me in
+the parlour with her mother, and I was delighted to see the pier-
+glass over the mantel, and the china displayed on a little table.
+After a hundred words of love and tenderness she asked me to come up
+to her room, and her mother wished us good night.  I was overwhelmed
+with joy.  After a delicate little supper I took out the bills of
+exchange, and after telling her their history gave them up to her, to
+shew that I had no intention of avenging myself on her mother and
+aunts.  I made her promise that she would never part with them, and
+she said she would never do so, and with many expressions of
+gratitude and wonder at my generosity she locked them up with great
+care.
+
+Then I thought it was time to give her some marks of my passion, and
+I found her kind; but when I would have plucked the fruit, she
+clasped me to her arms, crossed her legs, and began to weep bitterly.
+
+I made an effort, and asked her if she would be the same when we were
+in bed.  She sighed, and after a moment's pause, replied, "Yes."
+
+For a quarter of an hour I remained silent and motionless, as if
+petrified.  At last I rose with apparent coolness, and took my cloak
+and sword.
+
+"What!" said she, "are you not going to spend the night with me?"
+
+"No."
+
+"But we shall see each other to-morrow?"
+
+"I hope so.  Good night."
+
+I left that infernal abode, and went home to bed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+The End of the Story Stranger Than the Beginning
+
+
+At eight o'clock the next morning Jarbe told me that the Charpillon
+wanted to see me, and that she had sent away her chairmen.
+
+"Tell her that I can't see her."
+
+But I had hardly spoken when she came in, and Jarbe went out.  I
+addressed her with the utmost calmness, and begged her to give me
+back the two bills of exchange I had placed in her hands the night
+before.
+
+"I haven't got them about me; but why do you want me to return them
+to you?"
+
+At this question I could contain myself no longer, and launched a
+storm of abuse at her.  It was an explosion which relieved nature,
+and ended with an involuntary shower of tears.  My infamous
+seductress stood as calmly as Innocence itself; and when I was so
+choked with sobs that I could not utter a word, she said she had only
+been cruel because her mother had made her swear an oath never to
+give herself to anyone in her own house, and that she had only come
+now to convince me of her love, to give herself to me without
+reserve, and never to leave me any more if I wished it.
+
+The reader who imagines that at these words rage gave place to love,
+and that I hastened to obtain the prize, does not know the nature of
+the passion so well as the vile woman whose plaything I was.  From
+hot love to hot anger is a short journey, but the return is slow and
+difficult.  If there be only anger in a man's breast it may be
+subdued by tenderness, by submission, and affection; but when to
+anger is added a feeling of indignation at having been shamefully
+deceived, it is impossible to pass suddenly to thoughts of love and
+voluptuous enjoyment.  With me mere anger has never been of long
+duration, but when I am indignant the only cure is forgetfulness.
+
+The Charpillon knew perfectly well that I would not take her at her
+word, and this kind of science was inborn in her.  The instinct of
+women teaches them greater secrets than all the philosophy and the
+research of men.
+
+In the evening this monster left me, feigning to be disappointed and
+disconsolate, and saying,--
+
+"I hope you will come and see me again when you are once more
+yourself."
+
+She had spent eight hours with me, during which time she had only
+spoken to deny my suppositions, which were perfectly true, but which
+she could not afford to let pass.  I had not taken anything all day,
+in order that I might not be obliged to offer her anything or to eat
+with her.
+
+After she had left me I took some soup and then enjoyed a quiet
+sleep, for which I felt all the better.  When I came to consider what
+had passed the, day before I concluded that the Charpillon was
+repentant, but I seemed no longer to care anything about her.
+
+Here I may as well confess, in all humility, what a change love
+worked on me in London, though I had attained the age of thirty-
+eight.  Here closed the first act of my life; the second closed when
+I left Venice in 1783, and probably the third will close here, as I
+amuse myself by writing these memoirs.  Thus, the three-act comedy
+will finish, and if it be hissed, as may possibly be the case, I
+shall not hear the sounds of disapproval.  But as yet the reader has
+not seen the last and I think the most interesting scene of the first
+act.
+
+I went for a walk in the Green Park and met Goudar.  I was glad to
+see him, as the rogue was useful to me.
+
+"I have just been at the Charpillons," he began; "they were all in
+high spirits.  I tried in vain to turn the conversation on you, but
+not a word would they utter."
+
+"I despise them entirely," I rejoined, "I don't want to have anything
+more to do with them."
+
+He told me I was quite right, and advised me to persevere in my plan.
+I made him dine with me, and then we went to see the well-known
+procuress, Mrs. Wells, and saw the celebrated courtezan, Kitty
+Fisher, who was waiting for the Duke of ---- to take her to a ball.
+She was magnificently dressed, and it is no exaggeration to say that
+she had on diamonds worth five hundred thousand francs.  Goudar told
+me that if I liked I might have her then and there for ten guineas.
+I did not care to do so, however, for, though charming, she could
+only speak English, and I liked to have all my senses, including that
+of hearing, gratified.  When she had gone, Mrs.  Wells told us that
+Kitty had eaten a bank-note for a thousand guineas, on a slice of
+bread and butter, that very day.  The note was a present from Sir
+Akins, brother of the fair Mrs. Pitt.  I do not know whether the bank
+thanked Kitty for the present she had made it.
+
+I spent an hour with a girl named Kennedy, a fair Irishwoman, who
+could speak a sort of French, and behaved most extravagantly under
+the influence of champagne; but the image of the Charpillon was still
+before me, though I knew it not, and I could not enjoy anything.
+I went home feeling sad and ill pleased with myself.  Common sense
+told me to drive all thoughts of that wretched woman out of my head,
+but something I called honour bade me not leave her the triumph of
+having won the two bills of exchange from me for nothing, and made me
+determine to get them back by fair means or foul.
+
+M. Malingan, at whose house I had made the acquaintance of this
+creature, come and asked me to dinner.  He had asked me to dine with
+him several times before, and I had always refused, and now I would
+not accept until I had heard what guests he had invited.  The names
+were all strange to me, so I agreed to come.
+
+When I arrived I found two young ladies from Liege, in one of whom I
+got interested directly.  She introduced me to her husband, and to
+another young man who seemed to be the cavalier of the other lady,
+her cousin.
+
+The company pleased me, and I was in hopes that I should spend a
+happy day, but my evil genius brought the Charpillon to mar the
+feast.  She came into the room in high glee, and said to Malingan,--
+
+"I should not have come to beg you to give me a dinner if I had known
+that you would have so many guests, and if I am at all in the way I
+will go."
+
+Everybody welcomed her, myself excepted, for I was on the rack.  To
+make matters worse, she was placed at my left hand.  If she had come
+in before we sat down to dinner I should have made some excuse and
+gone away, but as we had begun the soup a sudden flight would have
+covered me with ridicule.  I adopted the plan of not looking at her,
+reserving all my politeness for the lady on my right.  When the meal
+was over Malingan took me apart, and swore to me that he had not
+invited the Charpillon, but I was not convinced, though I pretended
+to be for politeness' sake.
+
+The two ladies from Liege and their cavaliers were embarking for
+Ostend in a few days, and in speaking of their departure the one to
+whom I had taken a fancy said that she was sorry to be leaving
+England without having seen Richmond.  I begged her to give me the
+pleasure of shewing it her, and without waiting for an answer I asked
+her husband and all the company to be present, excepting the
+Charpillon, whom I pretended not to see.
+
+The invitation was accepted.
+
+"Two carriages," I said, "holding four each, shall be ready at eight
+o'clock, and we shall be exactly eight."
+
+"No, nine, for I am coming," said the Charpillon, giving me an
+impudent stare, "and I hope you will not drive me away."
+
+"No, that would be impolite, I will ride in front on horseback."
+
+"Oh, not at all!  Emilie shall sit on my lap."
+
+Emilie was Malingan's daughter, and as everybody seemed to think the
+arrangement an extremely pleasant one I had not the courage to
+resist.  A few moments after, I was obliged to leave the room for a
+few moments, and when I came back I met her on the landing.  She told
+me I had insulted her grievously, and that unless I made amends I
+should feel her vengeance.
+
+"You can begin your vengeance," I said, "by returning my bills of
+exchange"
+
+"You shall have them to-morrow, but you had better try and make me
+forget the insult you have put on me."
+
+I left the company in the evening, having arranged that we should all
+breakfast together the next day.
+
+At eight o'clock the two carriages were ready, and Malingan, his
+wife, his daughter, and the two gentlemen got into the first vehicle,
+and I had to get into the second with the ladies from Liege and the
+Charpillon, who seemed to have become very intimate with them.  This
+made me ill-tempered, and I sulked the whole way.  We were an hour
+and a quarter on the journey, and when we arrived I ordered a good
+dinner, and then we proceeded to view the gardens; the day was a
+beautiful one, though it was autumn.
+
+Whilst we were Walking the Charpillon came up to me and said she
+wanted to return the bills in the same place in which I had given her
+them.  As we were at some distance from the others I pelted her with
+abuse, telling her of her perfidy and of her corruption at an age
+when she should have retained some vestiges of innocence calling her
+by the name she deserved, as I reminded her how often she had already
+prostituted herself; in short I threatened her with my vengeance if
+she pushed me to extremities.  But she was as cold as ice, and
+opposed a calm front to the storm of invective I rained in her ears.
+However, as the other guests were at no great distance, she begged me
+to speak more softly, but they heard me and I was very glad of it.
+
+At last we sat down to dinner, and the wretched woman contrived to
+get a place beside me, and behaved all the while as if I were her
+lover, or at any rate as if she loved me.  She did not seem to care
+what people thought of my coldness, while I was in a rage, for the
+company must either have thought me a fool or else that she was
+making game of me.
+
+After dinner we returned to the garden, and the Charpillon,
+determined to gain the victory, clung to my arm and after several
+turns led me towards the maze where she wished to try her power.  She
+made me sit down on the grass beside her and attacked me with
+passionate words and tender caresses, and by displaying the most
+interesting of her charms she succeeded in seducing me, but still I
+do not know whether I were impelled by love or vengeance, and I am
+inclined to think that my feelings were a compound of both passions.
+
+But at the moment she looked the picture of voluptuous abandon.
+Her ardent eyes, her fiery cheeks, her wanton kisses, her swelling
+breast, and her quick sighs, all made me think that she stood as much
+in need of defeat as I of victory; certainly I should not have judged
+that she was already calculating on resistance.
+
+Thus I once more became tender and affectionate; I begged pardon for
+what I had said and done.  Her fiery kisses replied to mine, and I
+thought her glance and the soft pressure of her body were inviting me
+to gather the delicious fruit; but just as my hand opened the door of
+the sanctuary, she gave a sudden movement, and the chance was lost.
+
+"What! you would deceive me again."
+
+"No, no but we have done enough now.  I promise to spend the night in
+your arms in your own house."
+
+For a moment I lost my senses.  I only saw the deceitful wretch who
+had profited by my foolish credulity so many times, and I resolved to
+enjoy or take vengeance.  I held her down with my left arm, and
+drawing a small knife from my pocket I opened it with my teeth and
+pricked her neck, threatening to kill her if she resisted me.
+
+"Do as you like," she said with perfect calm, "I only ask you to
+leave me my life, but after you have satisfied yourself I will not
+leave the spot; I will not enter your carriage unless you carry me by
+force, and everybody shall know the reason."
+
+This threat had no effect, for I had already got back my senses, and
+I pitied myself for being degraded by a creature for whom I had the
+greatest contempt, in spite of the almost magical influence she had
+over me, and the furious desires she knew how to kindle in my breast.
+I rose without a word, and taking my hat and cane I hastened to leave
+a place where unbridled passion had brought me to the brink of ruin.
+
+My readers will scarcely believe me (but it is nevertheless the exact
+truth) when I say that the impudent creature hastened to rejoin me,
+and took my arm again as if nothing had happened.  A girl of her age
+could not have played the part so well unless she had been already
+tried in a hundred battles.  When we rejoined the company I was asked
+if I were ill, while nobody noticed the slightest alteration in her.
+
+When we got back to London I excused myself under the plea of a bad
+headache, and returned home.
+
+The adventure had made a terrible impression on me, and I saw that if
+I did not avoid all intercourse with this girl I should be brought to
+ruin.  There was something about her I could not resist.  I therefore
+resolved to see her no more, but feeling ashamed of my weakness in
+giving her the bills of exchange I wrote her mother a note requesting
+her to make her daughter return them, or else I should be compelled
+to take harsh measures.
+
+In the afternoon I received the following reply:
+
+"Sir,--I am exceedingly surprised at your addressing yourself to me
+about the bills you handed to my daughter.  She tells me she will
+give you them back in person when you shew more discretion, and have
+learnt to respect her."
+
+This impudent letter so enraged me that I forgot my vow of the
+morning.  I put two pistols in my pocket and proceeded to the
+wretched woman's abode to compel her to return me my bills if she did
+not wish to be soundly caned.
+
+I only took the pistols to overawe the two male rascals who supped
+with them every evening.  I was furious when I arrived, but I passed
+by the door when I saw a handsome young hairdresser, who did the
+Charpillon's hair every Saturday evening, going into the house.
+
+I did not want a stranger to be present at the scene I meant to make,
+so I waited at the corner of the street for the hairdresser to go.
+After I had waited half an hour Rostaing and Couman, the two supports
+of the house, came out and went away, much to my delight.  I waited
+on; eleven struck, and the handsome barber had not yet gone.  A
+little before midnight a servant came out with a lamp, I suppose to
+look for something that had fallen out of the window.  I approached
+noiselessly, stepped in and opened the parlour-door, which was close
+to the street, and saw .  .  .  the Charpillon and the barber
+stretched on the sofa and doing the beast with two backs, as
+Shakespeare calls it.
+
+When the slut saw me she gave a shriek and unhorsed her gallant, whom
+I caned soundly until he escaped in the confusion consequent on the
+servants, mother, and aunts all rushing into the room.  While this
+was going on the Charpillon, half-naked, remained crouched behind the
+sofa, trembling lest the blows should begin to descend on her.  Then
+the three hags set upon me like furies; but their abuse only
+irritated me, and I broke the pier-'glass, the china, and the
+furniture, and as they still howled and shrieked I roared out that if
+they did not cease I would break their heads.  At this they began to
+calm.
+
+I threw myself upon the fatal sofa, and bade the mother to return me
+the bills of exchange; but just then the watchman came in.
+
+There is only one watchman to a district, which he perambulates all
+night with a lantern in one hand and a staff in the other.  On these
+men the peace of the great city depends.  I put three or four crowns
+into his hand and said "Go away," and so saying shut the door upon
+him.  Then I sat down once more and asked again for the bills of
+exchange:
+
+"I have not got them; my daughter keeps them."
+
+"Call her."
+
+The two maids said that whilst I was breaking the china she had
+escaped by the street door, and that they did not know what had
+become of her.  Then the mother and aunts began to shriek, weep, and
+exclaim,--
+
+"My poor daughter alone in the streets of London at midnight!  My
+dear niece, alas! alas! she is lost.  Cursed be the hour when you
+came to England to make us all unhappy!"
+
+My rage had evaporated, and I trembled at the thought of this young
+frightened girl running about the streets at such an hour.
+
+"Go and look for her at the neighbours' houses," I said to the
+servants, "no doubt you will find her.  When you tell me she is safe,
+you shall have a guinea apiece."
+
+When the three Gorgons saw I was interested, their tears, complaints,
+and invectives began again with renewed vigor, while I kept silence
+as much as to say that they were in the right.  I awaited the return
+of the servants with impatience, and at last at one o'clock they came
+back with looks of despair.
+
+"We have looked for her everywhere," said they, "but we can't find
+her."
+
+I gave them the two guineas as if they had succeeded, whilst I sat
+motionless reflecting on the terrible consequences of my anger.  How
+foolish is man when he is in love!
+
+I was idiot enough to express my repentance to the three old cheats.
+I begged them to seek for her everywhere when dawn appeared, and to
+let me know of her return that I might fall at her feet to beg
+pardon, and never see her face again.  I also promised to pay for all
+the damage I had done, and to give them a full receipt for the bills
+of exchange.  After these acts, done to the everlasting shame of my
+good sense, after this apology made to procuresses who laughed at me
+and my honour, I went home, promising two guineas to the servant who
+should bring me tidings that her young mistress had come home.
+On leaving the house I found the watchman at the door; he had been
+waiting to see me home.  It was two o'clock.  I threw myself on my
+bed, and the six hours of sleep I obtained, though troubled by
+fearful dreams, probably saved me from madness.
+
+At eight o'clock I heard a knock at the door, and on opening the
+window found it was one of the servants from the house of my foes.  I
+cried out to let her in, and I breathed again on hearing that Miss
+Charpillon had just arrived in a sedan-chair in a pitiable condition,
+and that she had been put to bed.
+
+"I made haste to come and tell you," said the cunning maid, "not for
+the sake of your two guineas, but because I saw you were so unhappy."
+This duped me directly.  I gave her the two guineas, and made her sit
+down on my bed, begging her to tell me all about her mistress's
+return.  I did not dream that she had been schooled by my enemies;
+but during the whole of this period I was deprived of the right use
+of my reason.
+
+The slut began by saying that her young mistress loved me, and had
+only deceived me in accordance with her mother's orders.
+
+"I know that," I said, "but where did she pass the night?"
+
+"At a shop which she found open, and where she was known from having
+bought various articles there.  She is in bed with a fever, and I am
+afraid it may have serious consequences as she is in her monthly
+period."
+
+"That's impossible, for I caught her in the act with her
+hairdresser."
+
+"Oh, that proves nothing! the poor young man does not look into
+things very closely."
+
+"But she is in love with him."
+
+"I don't think so, though she has spent several hours in his
+company."
+
+"And you say that she loves me!"
+
+"Oh, that has nothing to do with it!  It is only a whim of hers with
+the hairdresser."
+
+"Tell her that I am coming to pass the day beside her bed, and bring
+me her reply."
+
+"I will send the other girl if you like."
+
+"No, she only speaks English."
+
+She went away, and as she had not returned by three o'clock I decided
+on calling to hear how she was.  I knocked at the door, and one of
+the aunts appeared and begged me not to enter as the two friends of
+the house were there in a fury against me, and her niece lay in a
+delirium, crying out "There's Seingalt, there's Seingalt !  He's
+going to kill me.  Help!  help!" "For God's sake, sir, go away,"
+
+I went home desperate, without the slightest suspicion that it was
+all a lie.  I spent the whole day without eating anything; I could
+not swallow a mouthful.  All night I kept awake, and though I took
+several glasses of strong waters I could obtain no rest.
+
+At nine o'clock the next morning I knocked at the Charpillon's door,
+and the old aunt came and held it half open as before.  She forbade
+me to enter, saying that her niece was still delirious, continually
+calling on me in her transports, and that the doctor had declared
+that if the disease continued its course she had not twenty-four
+hours to live.  "The fright you gave her has arrested her periods;
+she is in a terrible state."
+
+"O, fatal hairdresser!" I exclaimed.
+
+"That was a mere youthful folly; you should have pretended not to
+have seen anything."
+
+"You think that possible, you old witch, do you?  Do not let her lack
+for anything; take that."
+
+With these words I gave her a bank note for ten guineas and went
+away, like the fool I was.  On my way back I met Goudar, who was
+quite frightened at my aspect.  I begged him to go and see how the
+Charpillon really was, and then to come and pass the rest of the day
+with me.  An hour after he came back and said he had found them all
+in tears and that the girl was in extremis.
+
+"Did you see her?"
+
+"No, they said she could see no one."
+
+"Do you think it is all true?"
+
+"I don't know what to think; but one of the maids, who tells me the
+truth as a rule, assured me that she had become mad through her
+courses being stopped, while she has also a fever and violent
+convulsions.  It is all credible enough, for these are the usual
+results of a shock when a woman is in such a situation.  The girl
+told me it was all your fault."
+
+I then told him the whole story.  He could only pity me, but when he
+heard that I had neither eaten nor slept for the last forty-eight
+hours he said very wisely that if I did not take care I should lose
+my reason or my life.  I knew it, but I could find no remedy.  He
+spent the day with me and did me good.  As I could not eat I drank a
+good deal, and not being able to sleep I spent the night in striding
+up and down my room like a man beside himself.
+
+On the third day, having heard nothing positive about the Charpillon,
+I went out at seven o'clock in the morning to call on her.  After I
+had waited a quarter of an hour in the street, the door was partly
+opened, and I saw the mother all in tears, but she would not let me
+come in.  She said her daughter was in the last agony.  At the same
+instant a pale and thin old man came out, telling the mother that we
+must resign ourselves to the will of God.  I asked the infamous
+creature if it were the doctor.
+
+"The doctor is no good now," said the old hypocrite, weeping anew,
+"he is a minister of the Gospel, and there is another of them
+upstairs.  My poor daughter!  In another hour she will be no more."
+
+I felt as if an icy hand had closed upon my heart.  I burst into
+tears and left the woman, saying,--
+
+"It is true that my hand dealt the blow, but her death lies at your
+door."
+
+As I walked away my knees seemed to bend under me, and I entered my
+house determined to commit suicide,--
+
+With this fearful idea, I gave orders that I was not at home to
+anyone.  As soon as I got to my room I put my watches, rings, snuff-
+boxes, purse and pocket-book in my casket, and shut it up in my
+escritoire.  I then wrote a letter to the Venetian ambassador,
+informing him that all my property was to go to M. de Bragadin after
+my death.  I sealed the letter and put it with the casket, and took
+the key with me, and also silver to the amount of a few guineas.  I
+took my pistols and went out with the firm intention of drowning
+myself in the Thames, near the Tower of London.
+
+Pondering over my plan with the utmost coolness, I went and bought
+some balls of lead as large as my pockets would hold, and as heavy as
+I could bear, to carry to the Tower, where I intended to go on foot.
+On my way I was strengthened in my purpose by the reflection, that if
+I continued to live I should be tormented for the remainder of my
+days by the pale shade of the Charpillon reproaching me as her
+murderer.  I even congratulated myself on being able to carry out my
+purpose without any effort, and I also felt a secret pride in my
+courage.
+
+I walked slowly on account of the enormous weight I bore, which would
+assure me a speedy passage to the bottom of the river.
+
+By Westminster Bridge my good fortune made me meet Sir Edgar, a rich
+young Englishman, who lived a careless and joyous life.  I had made
+his acquaintance at Lord Pembroke's, and he had dined with me several
+times.  We suited one another, his conversation was agreeable, and we
+had passed many pleasant hours together.  I tried to avoid him, but
+he saw me, and came up and took me by the arm in a friendly manner.
+
+"Where are you going?  Come with me, unless you are going to deliver
+some captive.  Come along, we shall have a pleasant party."
+
+"I can't come, my dear fellow, let me go."
+
+"What's the matter?  I hardly recognized you, you looked so solemn."
+
+"Nothing is the matter."
+
+"Nothing?  You should look at your face in the glass.  Now I feel
+quite sure that you are going to commit a foolish action."
+
+"Not at all."
+
+"It's no good denying it."
+
+"I tell you there's nothing the matter with me.  Good bye, I shall
+see you again."
+
+"It's no good, I won't leave you.  Come along, we will walk
+together."
+
+His eyes happening to fall on my breeches pocket, he noticed my
+pistol, and putting his hand on the other pocket he felt the other
+pistol, and said,--
+
+"You are going to fight a duel; I should like to see it.  I won't
+interfere with the affair, but neither will I leave you."
+
+I tried to put on a smile, and assured him that he was mistaken, and
+that I was only going for a walk to pass the time.
+
+"Very good," said Edgar, "then I hope my society is as pleasant to
+you as yours is to me; I won't leave you.  After we have taken a walk
+we will go and dine at the 'Canon.'  I will get two girls to come and
+join us, and we shall have a gay little party of four."
+
+"My dear friend, you must excuse me; I am in a melancholy mood, and I
+want to be alone to get over it."
+
+"You can be alone to-morrow, if you like, but I am sure you will be
+all right in the next three hours, and if not, why I will share your
+madness.  Where did you think of dining?"
+
+"Nowhere; I have no appetite.  I have been fasting for the last three
+days, and I can only drink."
+
+"Ah! I begin to see daylight.  Something has crossed you, and you are
+going to let it kill you as it killed one of my brothers.  I must see
+what can be done."
+
+Edgar argued, insisted, and joked till at last I said to myself, "A
+day longer will not matter, I can do the deed when he leaves me, and
+I shall only have to bear with life a few hours longer."
+
+When Edgar heard that I had no particular object in crossing the
+bridge he said that we had better turn back, and I let myself be
+persuaded; but in half an hour I begged him to take me somewhere
+where I could wait for him, as I could not bear the weight of the
+lead any longer.  I gave him my word of honour that I would meet him
+at the "Canon."
+
+As soon as I was alone I emptied my pockets, and put the leaden balls
+into a cupboard.  Then I lay down and began to consider whether the
+good-natured young man would prevent me committing suicide, as he had
+already made me postpone it.
+
+I reasoned, not as one that hopes, but rather as one that foresaw
+that Edgar would hinder me from shortening my days.  Thus I waited in
+the tavern for the young Englishman, doubtful whether he was doing me
+a service or an injury.
+
+He came back before long, and was pleased to find me.
+
+"I reckoned on your keeping your word," said he.
+
+"You did not think that I would break my word of honour."
+
+"That's all right; I see you are on the way to recovery."
+
+The sensible and cheerful talk of the young man did me good, and I
+began to feel better, when the two young wantons, one of whom was a
+Frenchwoman, arrived in high spirits.  They seemed intended for
+pleasure, and Nature had dowered them with great attractions.  I
+appreciated their charms, but I could not welcome them in the manner
+to which they were accustomed.  They began to think me some poor
+valetudinarian; but though I was in torments, a feeling of vanity
+made me endeavour to behave sensibly.  I gave them some cold kisses
+and begged Edgar to tell his fellow-countrywoman that if I were not
+three parts dead I would prove how lovely and charming I thought her.
+They pitied me.  A man who has spent three days without eating or
+sleeping is almost incapable of any voluptuous excitement, but mere
+words would not have convinced these priestesses of Venus if Edgar
+had not given them my name.  I had a reputation, and I saw that when
+they heard who I was they were full of respect.  They all hoped that
+Bacchus and Comus would plead the cause of Love, and I let them talk,
+knowing that their hopes were vain.
+
+We had an English dinner; that is, a dinner without the essential
+course of soup, so I only took a few oysters and a draught of
+delicious wine, but I felt better, and was pleased to see Edgar
+amusing himself with the two nymphs.
+
+The young madcap suddenly proposed that the girls should dance a
+hornpipe in the costume of Mother Eve, and they consented on the
+condition that we would adopt the dress of Father Adam, and that
+blind musicians were summoned.  I told them that I would take off my
+clothes to oblige them, but that I had no hopes of being able to
+imitate the seductive serpent.  I was allowed to retain my dress, on
+the condition that if I felt the prick of the flesh I should
+immediately undress.  I agreed to do so, and the blind musicians were
+sent for, and while they tuned their instruments toilettes were made,
+and the orgy began.
+
+It taught me same useful lessons.  I learnt from it that amorous
+pleasures are the effect and not the cause of gaiety.  I sat gazing
+at three naked bodies of perfect grace and beauty, the dance and the
+music were ravishing and seductive, but nothing made any impression
+on me.  After the dance was over the male dancer treated the two
+females, one after the other, until he was forced to rest.  The
+French girl came up to ascertain whether I skewed any signs of life,
+but feeling my hopeless condition she pronounced me useless.
+
+When it was all over I begged Edgar to give the French girl four
+guineas, and to pay my share, as I had very little money about me.
+
+What should I have said if I had been told in the morning that
+instead of drowning myself I should take part in so pleasant an
+entertainment?
+
+The debt I had contracted with the young Englishman made me resolve
+to put off my suicide to another day.  After the nymphs had gone I
+tried to get rid of Edgar, but in vain; he told me I was getting
+better, that the oysters I had taken skewed my stomach was improving,
+and that if I came with him to Ranelagh I should be able to make a
+good dinner the next day.  I was weak and indifferent and let myself
+be persuaded, and got into a coach with Edgar in obedience to the
+Stoic maxim I had learnt in the happy days of my youth: 'Sequere
+Deum'.
+
+We entered the fine rotunda with our hats off, and began to walk
+round and round, our arms behind our backs--a common custom in
+England, at least in those days.
+
+A minuet was being danced, and I was so attracted by a lady who
+danced extremely well that I waited for her to turn round.  What made
+me notice her more particularly was that her dress and hat were
+exactly like those I had given to the Charpillon a few days before,
+but as I believed the poor wretch to be dead or dying the likeness
+did not inspire me with any suspicion.  But the lady turned round,
+lifted her face, and I saw--the Charpillon herself!
+
+Edgar told me afterwards that at that moment he thought to see me
+fall to the ground in an epileptic fit; I trembled and shuddered so
+terribly.
+
+However, I felt so sure she was ill that I could not believe my own
+eyes, and the doubt brought me to my senses.
+
+"She can't be the Charpillon," I said to myself, "she is some other
+girl like her, and my enfeebled senses have led me astray."  In the
+meanwhile the lady, intent on her dancing, did not glance in my
+direction, but I could afford to wait.  At last she lifted her arms
+to make the curtsy at the end of the minuet, I went up instinctively
+as if I were about to dance with her; she looked me in the face, and
+fled.
+
+I constrained myself; but now that there could be no doubt my
+shuddering fit returned, and I made haste to sit down.  A cold sweat
+bedewed my face and my whole body.  Edgar advised me to take a cup of
+tea but I begged him to leave me alone for a few moments.
+
+I was afraid that I was on the point of death; I trembled all over,
+and my heart beat so rapidly that I could not have stood up had I
+wished.
+
+At last, instead of dying, I got new life.  What a wonderful change I
+experienced!  Little by little my peace of mind returned, and I could
+enjoy the glitter of the multitudinous wax lights.  By slow degrees I
+passed through all the shades of feeling between despair and an
+ecstasy of joy.  My soul and mind were so astonished by the shock
+that I began to think I should never see Edgar again.
+
+"This young man," I said to myself, "is my good genius, my guardian
+angel, my familiar spirit, who has taken the form of Edgar to restore
+me to my senses again."
+
+I should certainly have persisted in this idea if my friend had not
+reappeared before very long.
+
+Chance might have thrown him in the way of one of those seductive
+creatures who make one forget everything else; he might have left
+Ranelagh without having time to tell me he was going, and I should
+have gone back to London feeling perfectly certain that I had only
+seen his earthly shape.  Should I have been disabused if I had seen
+him a few days after?  Possibly; but I am not sure of it.  I have
+always had a hankering after superstition, of which I do not boast;
+but I confess the fact, and leave the reader to judge me.
+
+However, he came back in high spirits, but anxious about me.  He was
+surprised to find me full of animation, and to hear me talking in a
+pleasant strain on the surrounding objects and persons.
+
+"Why, you are laughing!" said he, "your sadness has departed, then?"
+
+"Yes, good genius, but I am hungry, and I want you to do me a favour,
+if you have no other pressing engagements."
+
+"I am free till the day after to-morrow, and till then you can do
+what you like with me."
+
+"I owe my life to you, but to make your gift complete I want you to
+spend this night and the whole of the next day with me."
+
+"Done."
+
+"Then let us go home."
+
+"With all my heart; come along."
+
+I did not tell him anything as we were in the coach, and when we got
+home I found nothing fresh, except a note from Goudar, which I put in
+my pocket, intending to reserve all business for the next day.
+
+It was an hour after midnight.  A good supper was served to us, and
+we fell to; for my part I devoured my food like a wild beast.  Edgar
+congratulated me, and we went to bed, and I slept profoundly till
+noon.  When I awoke I breakfasted with Edgar, and told him the whole
+story, which would have ended with my life if he had not met me on
+Westminster Bridge, and he had not been keen enough to mark my
+condition.  I took him to my room, and shewed him my escritoire, my
+casket, and my will.  I then opened Goudar's letter, and read:
+
+"I am quite sure that the girl you know of is very far from dying, as
+she has gone to Ranelagh with Lord Grosvenor."
+
+Although Edgar was a profligate, he was a sensible man, and my story
+made him furious.  He threw his arms around my neck, and told me he
+should always think the day on which he rescued me from death for so
+unworthy an object the happiest in his life.  He could scarcely
+credit the infamy of the Charpillon and her mother.  He told me I
+could have the mother arrested, though I had not got the bills of
+exchange, as her mother's letter acknowledging her daughter's
+possession of the bills was sufficient evidence.
+
+Without informing him of my intention, I resolved that moment to have
+her arrested.  Before we parted we swore eternal friendship, but the
+reader will see before long what a penance the kind Englishman had to
+do for befriending me.
+
+The next day I went to the attorney I had employed against Count
+Schwerin.  After hearing my story he said that I had an undoubted
+claim, and that I could arrest the mother and the two aunts.
+
+Without losing time I went before a magistrate, who took my sworn
+information and granted me a warrant.  The same official who had
+arrested Schwerin took charge of the affair; but as he did not know
+the women by sight it was necessary that someone who did should go
+with him, for though he was certain of surprising them there might be
+several other women present, and he might not arrest the right ones.
+
+As Goudar would not have undertaken the delicate task of pointing
+them out, I resolved on accompanying him myself.
+
+I made an appointment with him at an hour when I knew they would be
+all in the parlour.  He was to enter directly the door was opened,
+and I would come in at the same instant and point out the women he
+had to arrest.  In England all judicial proceedings are conducted
+with the utmost punctuality, and everything went off as I had
+arranged.  The bailiff and his subaltern stepped into the parlour and
+I followed in their footsteps.  I pointed out the mother and the two
+sisters and then made haste to escape, for the sight of the
+Charpillon, dressed in black, standing by the hearth, made me
+shudder.  I felt cured, certainly; but the wounds she had given me
+were not yet healed, and I cannot say what might have happened if the
+Circe had had the presence of mind to throw her arms about my neck
+and beg for mercy.
+
+As soon as I had seen these women in the hands of justice I fled,
+tasting the sweets of vengeance, which are very great, but yet a sign
+of unhappiness.  The rage in which I had arrested the three
+procuresses, and my terror in seeing the woman who had well-nigh
+killed me, shewed that I was not really cured.  To be so I must fly
+from them and forget them altogether.
+
+The next morning Goudar came and congratulated me on the bold step I
+had taken, which proved, he said, that I was either cured or more in
+love than ever.  "I have just come from Denmark Street," he added,
+"and I only saw the grandmother, who was weeping bitterly, and an
+attorney, whom no doubt she was consulting."
+
+"Then you have heard what has happened?"
+
+"Yes, I came up a minute after you had gone and I stayed till the
+three old sluts made up their minds to go with the constable.  They
+resisted and said he ought to leave them till the next day, when they
+would be able to find someone to bail them.  The two bravos drew
+their swords to resist the law, but the other constable disarmed them
+one after the other, and the three women were led off.  The
+Charpillon wanted to accompany them, but it was judged best that she
+should remain at liberty, in order to try and set them free."
+
+Goudar concluded by saying that he should go and see them in prison,
+and if I felt disposed to come to an arrangement he would mediate
+between us.  I told him that the only arrangement I would accept was
+the payment of the six thousand francs, and that they might think
+themselves very lucky that I did not insist on having my interest,
+and thus repaying myself in part for the sums they had cheated out of
+me.
+
+A fortnight elapsed without my hearing any more of the matter.  The
+Charpillon dined with them every day, and in fact, kept them.  It
+must have cost her a good deal, for they had two rooms, and their
+landlord would not allow them to have their meals prepared outside
+the prison.  Goudar told me that the Charpillon said she would never
+beg me to listen to her mother, though she knew she had only to call
+on me to obtain anything she wanted.  She thought me the most
+abominable of men.  If I feel obliged to maintain that she was
+equally abominable, I must confess that on this occasion she shewed
+more strength of mind than I; but whereas I had acted out of passion,
+her misdeeds were calculated, and tended solely to her own interests.
+
+For the whole of this fortnight I had sought for Edgar in vain, but
+one morning he came to see me, looking in high spirits.
+
+"Where have you been hiding all this time?" said I, "I have been
+looking for you everywhere."
+
+"Love has been keeping me a prisoner," said he, "I have got some
+money for you."
+
+"For me?  From what quarter?"
+
+"On behalf of the Ansperghers.  Give me a receipt and the necessary
+declaration, for I am going to restore them myself to the poor
+Charpillon, who has been weeping for the last fortnight."
+
+"I daresay she has, I have seen her weep myself; but I like the way
+in which she has chosen the being who delivered me from her chains as
+a protector.  Does she know that I owe my life to you?"
+
+"She only knew that I was with you at Ranelagh when you saw her
+dancing instead of dying, but I have told her the whole story since."
+
+"No doubt she wants you to plead with me in her favour."
+
+"By no means.  She has just been telling me that you are a monster of
+ingratitude, for she loved you and gave you several proofs of her
+affection, but now she hates you."
+
+"Thank Heaven for that!  The wretched woman!  It's curious she should
+have selected you as her lover by way of taking vengeance on me, but
+take care! she will punish you."
+
+"It may be so, but at all events it's a pleasant kind of punishment."
+
+"I hope you may be happy, but look to yourself; she is a mistress in
+all sorts of deceit."
+
+Edgar counted me out two hundred and fifty guineas, for which I gave
+him a receipt and the declaration he required, and with these
+documents he went off in high spirits.
+
+After this I might surely flatter myself that all was at an end
+between us, but I was mistaken.
+
+Just about this time the Crown Prince of Brunswick, now the reigning
+duke, married the King of England's sister.  The Common Council
+presented him with the freedom of the City, and the Goldsmith's
+Company admitted him into their society, and gave him a splendid box
+containing the documents which made him a London citizen.  The prince
+was the first gentleman in Europe, and yet he did not disdain to add
+this new honour to a family illustrious for fourteen hundred years.
+
+On this occasion Lady Harrington was the means of getting Madame
+Cornelis two hundred guineas.  She lent her room in Soho Square to a
+confectioner who gave a ball and supper to a thousand persons at
+three guineas each.  I paid my three guineas, and had the honour of
+standing up all the evening with six hundred others, for the table
+only seated four hundred, and there were several ladies who were
+unable to procure seats.  That evening I saw Lady Grafton seated
+beside the Duke of Cumberland.  She wore her hair without any powder,
+and all the other ladies were exclaiming about it, and saying how
+very unbecoming it was.  They could not anathematize the innovator
+too much, but in less than six months Lady Grafton's style of doing
+the hair became common, crossed the Channel, and spread all over
+Europe, though it has been given another name.  It is still in
+fashion, and is the only method that can boast the age of thirty
+years, though it was so unmercifully ridiculed at first.
+
+The supper for which the giver of the feast had received three
+thousand guineas, or sixty-five thousand francs, contained a most
+varied assortment of delicacies, but as I had not been dancing, and
+did not feel taken with any of the ladies present, I left at one in
+the morning.  It was Sunday, a day on which all persons, save
+criminals, are exempt from arrest; but, nevertheless, the following
+adventure befell me:
+
+I was dressed magnificently, and was driving home in my carriage,
+with my negro and another servant seated behind me; and just as we
+entered Pall Mall I heard a voice crying, "Good night, Seingalt."  I
+put my head out of the window to reply, and in an instant the
+carriage was surrounded by men armed with pistols, and one of them
+said,--
+
+"In the king's name!"
+
+My servant asked what they wanted, and they answered,--
+
+"To take him to Newgate, for Sunday makes no difference to
+criminals."
+
+"And what crime have I committed?"
+
+"You will hear that in prison."
+
+"My master has a right to know his crime before he goes to prison,"
+said the negro.
+
+"Yes, but the magistrate's abed."
+
+The negro stuck to his position, however, and the people who had come
+up declared with one consent that he was in the right.
+
+The head-constable gave in, and said he would take me to a house in
+the city.
+
+"Then drive to that city," said I, "and have done with it."
+
+We stopped before the house, and I was placed in a large room on the
+ground floor, furnished solely with benches and long tables.  My
+servant sent back the carriage, and came to keep me company.  The six
+constables said they could not leave me, and told me I should send
+out for some meat and drink for them.  I told my negro to give them
+what they wanted, and to be as amicable with them as was possible.
+
+As I had not committed any crime, I was quite at ease; I knew that my
+arrest must be the effect of a slander, and as I was aware that
+London justice was speedy and equitable, I thought I should soon be
+free.  But I blamed myself for having transgressed the excellent
+maxim, never to answer anyone in the night time; for if I had not
+done so I should have been in my house, and not in prison.  The
+mistake, however, had been committed, and there was nothing to be
+done but to wait patiently.  I amused myself by reflecting on my
+rapid passage from a numerous and exalted assemblage to the vile
+place I now occupied, though I was still dressed like a prince.
+
+At last the day dawned, and the keeper of the tavern came to see who
+the prisoner was.  I could not helping laughing at him when he saw
+me, for he immediately began to abuse the constables for not awaking
+him when I came; he had lost the guinea I should have paid for a
+private room.  At last news was brought that the magistrate was
+sitting, and that I must be brought up.
+
+A coach was summoned, and I got into it, for if I had dared to walk
+along the streets in my magnificent attire the mob would have pelted
+me.
+
+I went into the hall of justice, and all eyes were at once attracted
+towards me; my silks and satins appeared to them the height of
+impertinence.
+
+At the end of the room I saw a gentleman sitting in an arm-chair, and
+concluded him to be my judge.  I was right, and the judge was blind.
+He wore a broad band round his head, passing over his eyes.  A man
+beside me, guessing I was a foreigner, said in French,--
+
+"Be of good courage, Mr. Fielding is a just and equitable
+magistrate."
+
+I thanked the kindly unknown, and was delighted to see before me this
+famous and estimable writer, whose works are an honour to the English
+nation.
+
+When my turn came, the clerk of the court told Mr. Fielding my name,
+at least, so I presume.
+
+"Signor Casanova," said he, in excellent Italian, "be kind enough to
+step forward.  I wish to speak to you."
+
+I was delighted to hear the accents of my native tongue, and making
+my way through the press I came up to the bar of the court, and
+said,--
+
+"Eccomi, Signore."
+
+He continued to speak Italian, and said,--
+
+"Signor de Casanova, of Venice, you are condemned to perpetual
+confinement in the prisons of His Majesty the King of Great Britain."
+
+"I should like to know, sir, for what crime I am condemned.  Would
+you be kind enough to inform me as to its nature?"
+
+"Your demand is a reasonable one, for with us no one is condemned
+without knowing the cause of his condemnation.  You must know, then,
+that the accusation (which is supported by two witnesses) charges you
+with intending to do grievous bodily harm to the person of a pretty
+girl; and as this pretty girl aforesaid goes in dread of you, the law
+decrees that you must be kept in prison for the rest of your days."
+
+"Sir, this accusation is a groundless calumny; to that I will take my
+oath!  It is very possible indeed that the girl may fear my vengeance
+when she comes to consider her own conduct, but I can assure you that
+I have had no such designs hitherto, and I don't think I ever shall."
+
+"She has two witnesses."
+
+"Then they are false ones.  But may I ask your worship the name of my
+accuser?"
+
+"Miss Charpillon."
+
+"I thought as much; but I have never given her aught but proofs of my
+affection."
+
+"Then you have no wish to do her any bodily harm?"
+
+"Certainly not."
+
+"Then I congratulate you.  You can dine at home; but you must find
+two sureties.  I must have an assurance from the mouths of two
+householders that you will never commit such a crime."
+
+"Whom shall I find to do so?"
+
+"Two well-known Englishmen, whose friendship you have gained, and who
+know that you are incapable of such an action.  Send for them, and if
+they arrive before I go to dinner I will set you at liberty."
+
+The constable took me back to prison, where I had passed the night,
+and I gave my servants the addresses of all the householders I
+recollected, bidding them explain my situation, and to be as quick as
+possible.  They ought to have come before noon, but London is such a
+large place!  They did not arrive, and the magistrate went to dinner.
+I comforted myself by the thought that he would sit in the afternoon,
+but I had to put up with a disagreeable experience.
+
+The chief constable, accompanied by an interpreter, came to say that
+I must go to Newgate.  This is a prison where the most wretched and
+abject criminals are kept.
+
+I signified to him that I was awaiting bail, and that he could take
+me to Newgate in the evening if it did not come, but he only turned a
+deaf ear to my petition.  The interpreter told me in a whisper that
+the fellow was certainly paid by the other side to put me to trouble,
+but that if I liked to bribe him I could stay where I was.
+
+"How much will he want?"
+
+The interpreter took the constable aside, and then told me that I
+could stay where I was for ten guineas.
+
+"Then say that I should like to see Newgate."
+
+A coach was summoned, and I was taken away.
+
+When I got to this abode of misery and despair, a hell, such as Dante
+might have conceived, a crowd of wretches, some of whom were to be
+hanged in the course of the week, greeted me by deriding my elegant
+attire.  I did not answer them, and they began to get angry and to
+abuse me.  The gaoler quieted them by saying that I was a foreigner
+and did not understand English, and then took me to a cell, informing
+me how much it would cost me, and of the prison rules, as if he felt
+certain that I should make a long stay.  But in the course of half an
+hour, the constable who had tried to get ten guineas out of me told
+me that bail had arrived and that my carriage was at the door.
+
+I thanked God from the bottom of my heart, and soon found myself in
+the presence of the blind magistrate.  My bail consisted of Pegu, my
+tailor, and Maisonneuve, my wine merchant, who said they were happy
+to be able to render me this slight service.  In another part of the
+court I noticed the infamous Charpillon, Rostaing, Goudar, and an
+attorney.  They made no impression on me, and I contented myself with
+giving them a look of profound contempt.
+
+My two sureties were informed of the amount in which they were to
+bail me, and signed with a light heart, and then the magistrate said,
+politely,--
+
+"Signor Casanova, please to sign your name for double the amount, and
+you will then be a free man again."
+
+I went towards the clerk's table, and on asking the sum I was to
+answer for was informed that it was forty guineas, each of my
+sureties signing for twenty.  I signed my name, telling Goudar that
+if the magistrate could have seen the Charpillon he would have valued
+her beauty at ten thousand guineas.  I asked the names of the two
+witnesses, and was told that they were Rostaing and Bottarelli.  I
+looked contemptuously at Rostaing, who was as pale as death, and
+averting my face from the Charpillon out of pity, I said,--
+
+"The witnesses are worthy of the charge."
+
+I saluted the judge with respect, although he could not see me, and
+asked the clerk if I had anything to pay.  He replied in the
+negative, and a dispute ensued between him and the attorney of my
+fair enemy, who was disgusted on hearing that she could not leave the
+court without paying the costs of my arrest.
+
+Just as I was going, five or six well-known Englishmen appeared to
+bail me out, and were mortified to hear that they had come too late.
+They begged me to forgive the laws of the land, which are only too
+often converted into a means for the annoyance of foreigners.
+
+At last, after one of the most tedious days I have ever spent, I
+returned home and went to bed, laughing at the experience I had
+undergone.
+
+
+
+
+End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of MEMOIRES OF JACQUES CASANOVA
+IN LONDON AND MOSCOW, Vol. 5c, THE ENGLISH
+by Jacques Casanova de Seingalt
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+The Project Gutenberg Etext of The English, by Jacques Casanova
+#23 in our series by Jacques Casanova de Seingalt
+
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+Title: The English, Casanova, v23
+
+Author: Jacques Casanova de Seingalt
+
+Release Date: December, 2001 [Etext #2973]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[Most recently updated: December 10, 2001]
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+Edition: 11
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+Language: English
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+The Project Gutenberg Etext of The English, by Jacques Casanova
+*****This file should be named jceng11.txt or jceng11.zip******
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+
+THE MEMOIRS OF JACQUES CASANOVA DE SEINGALT
+
+THE RARE UNABRIDGED LONDON EDITION OF 1894 TRANSLATED BY ARTHUR
+MACHEN TO WHICH HAS BEEN ADDED THE CHAPTERS DISCOVERED
+BY ARTHUR SYMONS.
+
+
+MEMOIRS OF JACQUES CASANOVA de SEINGALT 1725-1798
+IN LONDON AND MOSCOW, Volume 5c--THE ENGLISH
+
+
+
+
+THE ENGLISH
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+Eccentricity of the English--Castelbajac Count Schwerin--Sophie at
+School--My Reception at the Betting Club--The Charpillon
+
+
+I passed a night which seemed like a never-ending nightmare, and I
+got up sad and savage, feeling as if I could kill a man on the
+smallest provocation.  It seemed as if the house, which I had
+hitherto thought so beautiful, was like a millstone about my neck.
+I went out in my travelling clothes, and walked into a coffee-house,
+where I saw a score of people reading the papers.
+
+I sat down, and, not understanding English, passed my time in gazing
+at the goers and comers.  I had been there some time when my
+attention was attracted by the voice of a man speaking as follows in
+French:
+
+"Tommy has committed suicide, and he was wise, for he was in such a
+state that he could only expect unhappiness for the rest of his
+life."
+
+"You are quite mistaken," said the other, with the greatest
+composure.  "I was one of his creditors myself, and on making an
+inventory of his effects I feel satisfied that he has done a very
+foolish and a very childish thing; he might have lived on
+comfortably, and not killed himself for fully six months."
+
+At any other time this calculation would have made me laugh, and, as
+it was, I felt as if the incident had done me good.
+
+I left the coffee-house without having said a word or spent a penny,
+and I went towards the Exchange to get some money.  Bosanquet gave me
+what I wanted directly, and as I walked out with him I noticed a
+curious-looking individual, whose name I asked.
+
+"He's worth a hundred thousand," said the banker.
+
+"And who is that other man over there?"
+
+"He's not worth a ten-pound note."
+
+"But I don't want to hear what they are worth; it's their names I
+want."
+
+"I really don't know."
+
+"How can you tell how much they are worth, not knowing their names?"
+
+"Names don't go for anything here.  What we want to know about a man
+is how much he has got?  Besides; what's in a name?  Ask me for a
+thousand pounds and give me a proper receipt, and you can do it under
+the name of Socrates or Attila, for all I care.  You will pay me back
+my money as Socrates or Attila, and not as Seingalt; that is all."
+
+"But how about signing bills of exchange?"
+
+"That's another thing; I must use the name which the drawer gives
+me."
+
+"I don't understand that."
+
+"Well, you see, you are not English, nor are you a business man."
+
+On leaving him I walked towards the park, but wishing to change a
+twenty-pound note before going in I went to a fat merchant, an
+epicure whose acquaintance I had made at the tavern, and put down the
+note on his counter, begging him to cash it for me.
+
+"Come again in an hour," said he, "I have no money by me just now."
+
+"Very good; I will call again when I come from the park."
+
+"Take back your note; you shall give it to me when I hand you the
+money."
+
+"Never mind; keep it.  I don't doubt your honesty."
+
+"Don't be so foolish.  If you left me the note I should certainly
+decline to hand over the money, if only for the sake of giving you a
+lesson."
+
+"I don't believe you are capable of such dishonesty."
+
+"Nor am I, but when it comes to such a simple thing as putting a bank
+note in your pocket, the most honest man in the world would never
+dream of having such a thing in his possession without having paid
+the money for it, and the least slip of memory might lead to a
+dispute in which you would infallibly come off second best."
+
+"I feel the force of your arguments, especially in a town where so
+much business is carried on."
+
+When I got into the park I met Martinelli and thanked him for sending
+me a copy of the Decameron, while he congratulated me on my re-
+appearance in society, and on the young lady of whom I had been the
+happy possessor and no doubt the slave.
+
+"My Lord Pembroke has seen her," said he, "and thought her charming."
+
+"What?  Where could he have seen her?"
+
+"In a carriage with you driving fast along the Rochester road.  It is
+three or four days ago."
+
+"Then I may tell you that I was taking her to Calais; I shall never
+see her face again."
+
+"Will you let the room again in the same way?"
+
+"No, never again, though the god of love has been propitious to me.
+I shall be glad to see you at my house whenever you like to come."
+
+"Shall I send you a note to warn you?"
+
+"Not at all."
+
+We walked on talking about literature, manners, and so forth, in an
+aimless way.  All at once, as we approached Buckingham House, I saw
+five or six persons, relieving nature amidst the bushes, with their
+hinder parts facing the passers-by.  I thought this a disgusting
+piece of indecency, and said as much to Martinelli, adding that the
+impudent rascals might at least turn their faces towards the path.
+
+"Not at all," he exclaimed, "for then they might be recognized;
+whereas in exposing their posteriors they run no such risk; besides
+the sight makes squeamish persons turn away."
+
+"You are right, but you will confess that the whole thing strikes a
+stranger as very revolting."
+
+"Yes, there is nothing so ineradicable as national prejudice.  You
+may have noticed that when an Englishman wants to ease his sluices in
+the street, he doesn't run up an alley or turn to the wall like we
+do."
+
+"Yes, I have noticed them turning towards the middle of the street,
+but if they thus escape the notice of the people in the shops and on
+the pavement they are seen by everybody who is driving in a carriage,
+and that is as bad."
+
+"The people in the carriages need not look."
+
+"That is true"
+
+We walked on to the Green Park, and met Lord Pembroke on horseback.
+He stopped and burst into exclamations on seeing me.  As I guessed
+the cause of his surprise, I hastened to tell him that I was a free
+man once more, to my sorrow, and felt lonely amidst my splendour.
+
+"I feel rather curious about it, and perhaps I may come and keep you
+company to-day."
+
+We parted, and reckoning on seeing him at dinner I, went back to tell
+my cook that dinner was to be served in the large room.  Martinelli
+had an engagement and could not come to dinner, but he led me out of
+the park by a door with which I was not acquainted, and sent me on my
+way.
+
+As we were going along we saw a crowd of people who seemed to be
+staring at something.  Martinelli went up to the crowd, and then
+returned to me, saying,--
+
+"That's a curious sight for you; you can enter it amidst your remarks
+on English manners."
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"A man at the point of death from a blow he has received in boxing
+with another sturdy fellow."
+
+"Cannot anything be done?"
+
+"There is a surgeon there who would bleed him, if he were allowed."
+
+"Who could prevent him?"
+
+"That's the curious part of it.  Two men have betted on his death or
+recovery.  One says, 'I'll bet twenty guineas he dies,' and the other
+says, 'Done.'  Number one will not allow the surgeon to bleed him,
+for if the man recovered his twenty guineas would be gone."
+
+"Poor man!  what pitiless betters!"
+
+"The English are very strange in their betting proclivities; they bet
+about everything.  There is a Betting Club to which I will introduce
+you, if you like."
+
+"Do they speak French there?"
+
+"Most certainly, for it is composed of men of wit and mark."
+
+"What do they do?"
+
+"They talk and argue, and if one man brings forward a proposition
+which another denies, and one backs his opinion, the other has to bet
+too, on pain of a fine which goes to the common fund."
+
+"Introduce me to this delightful club, by all means;  it will make my
+fortune, for I shall always take care to be on the right side."
+
+"You had better be careful; they are wary birds."
+
+"But to return to the dying man; what will be done to his
+antagonist?"
+
+"His hand will be examined, and if it is found to be just the same as
+yours or mine it will be marked, and he will be let go."
+
+"I don't understand that, so kindly explain.  How do they recognize a
+dangerous hand?"
+
+"If it is found to be marked already, it is a proof that he has
+killed his man before and has been marked for it, with the warning,
+'Take care not to kill anyone else, for if you do you will be
+hanged.'"
+
+"But supposing such a man is attacked?"
+
+"He ought to shew his hand, and then his adversary would let him
+alone."
+
+"But if not?"
+
+"Then he is defending himself; and if he kills his man he is
+acquitted, provided he can bring witnesses to swear that he was
+obliged to fight."
+
+"Since fighting with the fist may cause death, I wonder it is
+allowed."
+
+"It is only allowed for a wager.  If the combatants do not put one or
+more pieces of money on the ground before the fight, and there is a
+death, the man is hanged."
+
+"What laws!  What manners!"
+
+In such ways I learnt much concerning the manner and customs of this
+proud nation, at once so great and so little.
+
+The noble lord came to dinner, and I treated him in a manner to make
+him wish to come again.  Although there were only the two of us, the
+meal lasted a long time, as I was anxious for additional information
+on what I had heard in the morning, especially on the Betting Club.
+The worthy Pembroke advised me not to have anything to do with it,
+unless I made up my mind to keep perfect silence for four or five
+weeks.
+
+"But supposing they ask me a question?"
+
+"Evade it."
+
+"Certainly, if I am not in a position to give my opinion; but if I
+have an opinion, the powers of Satan could not shut my mouth."
+
+"All the worse for you."
+
+"Are the members knaves?"
+
+"Certainly not.  They are noblemen, philosophers, and epicures; but
+they are pitiless where a bet is concerned."
+
+"Is the club treasury rich?"
+
+"Far from it; they are all ashamed to pay a fine, and prefer to bet.
+Who will introduce you?"
+
+"Martinelli."
+
+"Quite so; through Lord Spencer, who is a member.  I would not become
+one."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Because I don't like argument."
+
+"My taste runs the other way, so I shall try to get in."
+
+"By the way, M. de Seingalt, do you know that you are a very
+extraordinary man?"
+
+"For what reason, my lord?"
+
+"You shut yourself up for a whole month with a woman who spent
+fourteen months in London without anybody making her acquaintance or
+even discovering her nationality.  All the amateurs have taken a
+lively interest in the affair."
+
+"How did you find out that she spent fourteen months in London?"
+
+"Because several persons saw her in the house of a worthy widow where
+she spent the first month.  She would never have anything to say to
+any advances, but the bill in your window worked wonders."
+
+"Yes, and all the worse for me, for I feel as if I could never love
+another woman."
+
+"Oh, that's childish indeed!  You will love another woman in a week-
+nay, perhaps to-morrow, if you will come and dine with me at my
+country house.  A perfect French beauty has asked me to dine with
+her.  I have told some of my friends who are fond of gaming."
+
+"Does the charming Frenchwoman like gaming?"
+
+"No, but her husband does."
+
+"What's his name?"
+
+"He calls himself Count de Castelbajac."
+
+"Ah!  Castelbajac?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"He is a Gascon?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Tall, thin, and dark, and marked with the smallpox?
+
+"Exactly!  I am delighted to find you know him.  You will agree with
+me that his wife is very pretty?"
+
+"I really can't say.  I knew Castelbajac, as he calls himself, six
+years ago, and I never heard he was married.  I shall be delighted to
+join you, however.  I must warn you not to say anything if he seems
+not to know me; he may possibly have good reasons for acting in that
+manner.  Before long I will tell you a story which does not represent
+him in a very advantageous manner.  I did not know he played.  I
+shall take care to be on my guard at the Betting Club, and I advise
+you, my lord, to be on your guard in the society of Castelbajac."
+
+"I will not forget the warning."
+
+When Pembroke had left me I went to see Madame Cornelis, who had
+written a week before to tell me my daughter was ill, and explained
+that she had been turned from my doors on two occasions though she
+felt certain I was in.  To this I replied that I was in love, and so
+happy within my own house that I had excluded all strangers, and with
+that she had to be contented, but the state in which I found little
+Sophie frightened me.  She was lying in bed with high fever, she had
+grown much thinner, and her eyes seemed to say that she was dying of
+grief.  Her mother was in despair, for she was passionately fond of
+the child, and I thought she would have torn my eyes out when I told
+her that if Sophie died she would only have herself to reproach.
+Sophie, who was very good-hearted, cried out, "No, no!  papa dear;"
+and quieted her mother by her caresses.
+
+Nevertheless, I took the mother aside, and told her that the disease
+was solely caused by Sophie's dread of her severity.
+
+"In spite of your affection," said I, "you treat her with
+insufferable tyranny.  Send her to a boardingschool for a couple of
+years, and let her associate with girls of good family.  Tell her
+this evening that she is to go to school, and see if she does not get
+better."
+
+"Yes," said she, "but a good boarding-school costs a hundred guineas
+a year, including masters."
+
+"If I approve of the school you select I will pay a year in advance."
+
+On my making this offer the woman, who seemed to be living so
+luxuriously, but was in reality poverty-stricken, embraced me with
+the utmost gratitude.
+
+"Come and tell the news to your daughter now," said she, "I should
+like to watch her face when she hears it."
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"My dear Sophie," I said, "your mother agrees with me that if you had
+a change of air you would get better, and if you would like to spend
+a year or two in a good school I will pay the first year in advance."
+
+"Of course, I will obey my dear mother," said Sophie.
+
+"There is no question of obedience.  Would you like to go to school?
+Tell me truly."
+
+"But would my mother like me to go?"
+
+"Yes, my child, if it would please you."
+
+"Then, mamma, I should like to go very much."
+
+Her face flushed as she spoke, and I knew that my diagnosis had been
+correct.  I left her saying I should hope to hear from her soon.
+
+At ten o'clock the next day Jarbe came to ask if I had forgotten my
+engagement.
+
+"No," said I, "but it is only ten o'clock."
+
+"Yes, but we have twenty miles to go."
+
+"Twenty miles?"
+
+"Certainly, the house is at St. Albans."
+
+"It's very strange Pembroke never told me; how did you find out the
+address?"
+
+"He left it when he went away:"
+
+"Just like an Englishman."
+
+I took a post-chaise, and in three hours I had reached my
+destination.  The English roads are excellent, and the country offers
+a smiling prospect on every side.  The vine is lacking, for though
+the English soil is fertile it will not bear grapes.
+
+Lord Pembroke's house was not a particularly large one, but twenty
+masters and their servants could easily be accommodated in it.
+
+The lady had not yet arrived, so my lord shewed me his gardens, his
+fountains, and his magnificent hot-houses; also a cock chained by the
+leg, and of a truly ferocious aspect.
+
+"What have we here, my lord?"
+
+"A cock."
+
+"I see it is, but why do you chain it?"
+
+"Because it is savage.  It is very amorous, and if it were loose it
+would go after the hens, and kill all the cocks on the country-side."
+
+"But why do you condemn him to celibacy?"
+
+"To make him fiercer.  Here, this is the list of his conquests."
+
+He gave me a list of his cock's victories, in which he had killed the
+other bird; this had happened more than thirty times.  He then shewed
+me the steel spurs, at the sight of which the cock began to ruffle
+and crow.  I could not help laughing to see such a martial spirit in
+so small an animal.  He seemed possessed by the demon of strife, and
+lifted now one foot and now the other, as if to beg that his arms
+might be put on.
+
+Pembroke then exhibited the helmet, also of steel.
+
+"But with such arms," said I, "he is sure of conquest."
+
+"No; for when he is armed cap-a-pie he will not fight with a
+defenceless cock."
+
+"I can't believe it, my lord."
+
+"It's a well-known fact.  Here, read this."
+
+He then gave me a piece of paper with this remarkable biped's
+pedigree.  He could prove his thirty-two quarters more easily than a
+good many noblemen, on the father's side, be it understood, for if he
+could have proved pure blood on the mother's side as well, Lord
+Pembroke would have decorated him with the Order of the Golden Fleece
+at least.
+
+"The bird cost me a hundred guineas," said he, "but I would not sell
+him for a thousand."
+
+"Has he any offspring?"
+
+"He tries his best, but there are difficulties."
+
+I do not remember whether Lord Pembroke explained what these
+difficulties were.  Certainly the English offer more peculiarities to
+the attentive observer than any other nation.
+
+At last a carriage containing a lady and two gentlemen drove up to
+the door.  One of the gentlemen was the rascally Castelbajac and the
+other was introduced as Count Schwerin, nephew of the famous marshal
+of that name who fell on what is commonly called the field of glory.
+General Bekw---- an Englishman who was in the service of the King of
+Prussia, and was one of Pembroke's guests, received Schwerin
+politely, saying that he had seen his uncle die; at this the modest
+nephew drew the Order of the Black Eagle from his breast, and shewed
+it to us all covered with blood.
+
+"My uncle wore it on the day of his death, and the King of Prussia
+allowed me to keep it as a noble memorial of my kinsman."
+
+"Yes," said an Englishman who was present, "but the coat-pocket is
+not the place for a thing like that."
+
+Schwerin made as if he did not understand, and this enabled me to
+take his measure.
+
+Lord Pembroke took possession of the lady, whom I did not think
+worthy of being compared to Pauline.  She was paler and shorter, and
+utterly deficient in Pauline's noble air; besides, when she smiled it
+spoiled her face, and this is a defect in a woman, to whom laughter
+should always be becoming.
+
+Lord Pembroke introduced us all to each other, and when he came to me
+Castelbajac said he was delighted to see me again, although he might
+easily have pretended not to know me under my name of Seingalt.
+
+We had a good English dinner, and afterwards the lady proposed a game
+of faro.  My lord never played, so the general consented to amuse the
+company by holding the bank, and placed a hundred guineas and several
+bank notes on the table.  There might be a thousand guineas in all.
+He then gave twenty counters to each punter, saying that every
+counter was worth ten shillings.  As I only staked gold against gold
+I would not accept them.  By the third deal Schwerin had lost his
+twenty counters and asked for twenty more; but the banker told him he
+must pay for them, and the self-styled field-marshal's nephew lapsed
+into silence and played no more.
+
+At the following deal Castelbajac was in the same position as his
+friend, and being on my side he begged to be allowed to take ten
+pieces.
+
+"You will bring me ill-luck," I said, coldly, warding off his hand;
+and he went out to the garden, no doubt to swallow the affront he had
+received.  The lady said her husband had forgotten his pocketbook.
+An hour afterwards the game came to an end, and I took my leave,
+after inviting Lord Pembroke and the rest of the company to dine with
+me the next day.
+
+I got home at eleven o'clock without meeting any highwaymen as I had
+expected, indeed I had put up six guineas in a small purse for their
+special use and benefit.  I woke up my cook to tell him that the next
+day I should have twelve people to dinner, and that I hoped he would
+do me honour.  I found a letter from Madame Cornelis on my table
+telling me that she and her daughter would drive with me on the
+following Sunday, and that we could go and see the boarding-school
+she had selected.
+
+Next day Lord Pembroke and the fair Frenchwoman were the first to
+arrive.  They drove in a carriage with two rather uncomfortable
+seats, but this discomfort is favourable to love.  The Gascon and the
+Prussian were the last to come.
+
+We sat down to table at two and left it at four, ail of us well
+pleased with the cook, and still more so with the wine merchant; for
+though we had emptied forty bottles of wine, not one of us was at all
+intoxicated.
+
+After coffee had been served the general invited us all to sup with
+him, and Madame Castelbajac begged me to hold a bank.  I did not wait
+to be pressed but placed a thousand guineas on the table, and as I
+had no counters of any kind I warned the company that I would only
+play gold against gold, and that I should stop playing whenever I
+thought fit.
+
+Before the game began the two counts paid their losses of the day
+before to the general in bank notes, which he begged me to change.  I
+also changed two other notes presented to me by the same gentleman,
+and put them all under my snuff-box.  Play began.  I had no croupier,
+so I was obliged to deal slowly and keep an eye on the two counts,
+whose method of play was very questionable.  At last both of them
+were dried up, and Castelbajac gave me a bill of exchange for two
+hundred guineas, begging me to discount it for him.
+
+"I know nothing about business," I replied.
+
+An Englishman took the bill, and after a careful examination said he
+neither knew the drawer, the accepter, nor the backer.
+
+"I am the backer," said Castelbajac, "and that ought to be enough, I
+think."
+
+Everybody laughed, besides myself, and I gave it him back
+courteously, saying politely that he could get it discounted on
+'Change the next day.  He got up in a bad temper, and left the room,
+murmuring some insolent expressions.  Schwering followed him.
+
+After these two worthy gentlemen had left us, I went on dealing till
+the night was far advanced, and then left off, though I was at a
+loss.  However, the general had a run of luck, and I thought it best
+to stop.  Before leaving he took me and Lord Pembroke aside, and
+begged me to contrive that the two knaves should not come to his
+house the followifig day.  "For," said he, "if that Gascon were to be
+half as insolent to me as he was to you, I should shew him out by the
+window."
+
+Pembroke said he would tell the lady of the general's wishes.
+
+"Do you think," said I, "that those four notes of theirs can be
+forgeries?"
+
+"It's very possible."
+
+"What would you advise my doing to clear the matter up?"
+
+"I would send them to the bank."
+
+"And if they should be forgeries?"
+
+"I would have patience, or I would arrest the rascals."
+
+The next day I went to the bank myself, and the person to whom I gave
+the notes gave me them back, saying, coldly,--
+
+"These notes are bad, sir."
+
+"Be kind enough to examine them closely."
+
+"It's no good, they are evident forgeries.  Return them to the person
+from whom you got them, and he will be only too glad to cash them."
+
+I was perfectly aware that I could put the two knaves under lock and
+key, but I did not want to do so.  I went to Lord Pembroke to find
+out their address, but he was still in bed, and one of his servants
+took me to them.  They were surprised to see me.  I told them coolly
+enough that the four notes were forged, and that I should feel much
+obliged if they would give me forty guineas and take their notes
+back.
+
+"I haven't got any money," said Castelbajac, "and what you say
+astonishes me very much.  I can only return them to the persons who
+gave them to me, if the are really the same notes that we gave you
+yesterday."
+
+At this suggestion the blood rushed to my face, and with a withering
+glance and an indignant apostrophe I left them.  Lord Pembroke's
+servant took me to a magistrate who, having heard my statement on
+oath, gave me a paper authorizing me to arrest two counts.  I gave
+the document to an alderman, who said he would see it was carried
+out, and I went home ill pleased with the whole business.
+
+Martinelli was waiting for me; he had come to ask me to give him a
+dinner.  I told him my story, without adding that the knaves were to
+be arrested, and his advice delivered with philosophic calm was to
+make an autoda-fe of the four notes.  It was very good advice, but I
+did not take it.
+
+The worthy Martinelli, thinking to oblige me, told me that he had
+arranged with Lord Spencer the day on which I was to be introduced to
+the club, but I answered that my fancy for going there was over.  I
+ought to have treated this learned and distinguished man with more
+politeness, but who can sound human weakness to its depths?  One
+often goes to a wise man for advice which one has not the courage to
+follow.
+
+In the evening I went to the general's, and found the self-styled
+Countess Castelbajac seated on Lord Pembroke's knees.  The supper was
+a good one, and passed off pleasantly; the two rascals were not
+there, and their absence was not remarked.  When we left the table we
+went into another room, and played till day-break.  I left the board
+with a loss of two or three hundred guineas.
+
+I did not wake till late the next morning, and when I did my man told
+me that a person wanted to speak to me.  I had him shewn in, and as
+he only spoke English the negro had to be our interpreter.  He was
+the chief of the police, and told me that if I would pay for the
+journey he would arrest Castelbajac at Dover, for which town he had
+started at noon.  As to the other he was sure of having him in the
+course of the night.  I gave him a guinea, and told him it would be
+enough to catch the one, and that the other could go where he liked.
+
+The next day was Sunday, the only day on which Madame Cornelis could
+go abroad without fear of the bailiff.  She came to dine with me, and
+brought her daughter, whom the prospect of leaving her mother had
+quite cured.  The school which Madame Cornelis had chosen was at
+Harwich, and we went there after dinner.
+
+The head-mistress was a Catholic, and though she must have been
+sixty, she looked keen, witty, and as if she knew the ways of the
+world.  She had received an introduction from Lady Harrington, and so
+welcomed the young lady in the most cordial manner.  She had about
+fifteen young boarders of thirteen or fourteen years of age.  When
+she presented Sophie to them as a new companion, they crowded round
+her and covered her with caresses.  Five or six were perfect angels
+of beauty, and two or three were hideously ugly; and such extremes
+are more common in England than anywhere else.  My daughter was the
+smallest of them all, but as far as beauty went she had nothing to
+fear by comparison, and her talents placed her on a par with the
+eldest, while she responded to their caresses with that ease which
+later in life is only acquired with great difficulty.
+
+We went over the house, and all the girls followed us, and those who
+could speak French or Italian spoke to me, saying how much they would
+love my daughter, while those who could not speak sufficiently well
+held off as if ashamed of their ignorance.  We saw the bedrooms, the
+dining-room, the drawing-room, the harps and the pianos--in fact,
+everything, and I decided that Sophie could not be better placid.  We
+went into the head-mistress's private room, and Madame Cornelis paid
+her a hundred guineas in advance, and obtained a receipt.  We then
+agreed that Sophie should be received as a boarder as soon as she
+liked to come, that she was to bring her bed with her, and all the
+necessary linen.  Madame Cornelis made the final arrangements on the
+ensuing Sunday.
+
+Next day the alderman told me that Count Schwerin was a prisoner, and
+wanted to speak to me.  I declined at first, but as the alderman's
+messenger told me, through Jarbe, that the poor devil had not a
+farthing in his pocket, I was moved with compassion.  As he was
+charged with uttering forged notes he had been taken to Newgate, and
+was in danger of being hanged.
+
+I followed the magistrate's messenger, and cannot say how the woeful
+aspect, the tears and supplications for mercy of the poor wretch,
+moved my heart.  He swore that Castelbajac had given him the notes,
+but he added that he knew where they came from originally, and would
+tell me if I would release him.
+
+A little bitterness still remained in my breast, so I told him that
+if he knew who forged the notes he could certainly escape the
+gallows, but that I should keep him prisoner till I got my money
+back.  At this threat his tears and supplications began over again
+and with renewed force, and telling me that he was in utter poverty
+he emptied his pockets one after the other to shew me that he had no
+money, and at last offered me the bloodstained badge of his uncle.  I
+was delighted to be able to relieve him without any appearance of
+weakness, and accepted the bauble as a pledge, telling him that he
+should have it back on payment of forty pounds.
+
+I wrote out a formal release, and in his presence and in that of the
+alderman I burnt the four notes and set him free.
+
+Two days afterwards the so-called countess came to my house, saying
+that now Castelbajac and Schewirin were gone, she knew not where to
+lay her head.  She complained bitterly of Lord Pembroke, who deserted
+her after making her give him the clearest proofs of her affection.
+By way of consolation I told her that it would be very foolish of him
+to have abandoned her before instead of after.
+
+To get rid of her I was obliged to give her the money to pay her
+journey to Calais.  She told me she did not want to rejoin the
+Gascon, who was not really her husband.  We shall hear more of these
+persons in the course of three years.
+
+Two or three days later an Italian called on me, and gave me a letter
+from my friend Baletti, which recommended the bearer, Constantini, a
+native of Vicenza, to my good offices.  He had come to London on a
+matter of importance in which I could help him.
+
+I assured M. Constantini that I was only too happy to do anything to
+justify the confidence placed in my by one of my best friends, and he
+said that the long journey had almost exhausted his purse; but he
+added,--
+
+"I know that my wife lives here, and that she is rich.  I shall
+easily find out where she lives, and you know that as I am her
+husband all that is hers is mine."
+
+"I was not aware of that."
+
+"Then you don't know the laws of this country?"
+
+"Not at all."
+
+"I am sorry to hear it, but such is the case.  I am going to her
+house, and I shall turn her out of doors with nothing else than the
+dress on her back, for the furniture, clothes, jewels, linen-in fact,
+all her possessions, belong to me.  May I ask you to be with me when
+I perform this exploit?"
+
+I was astonished.  I asked him if he had told Baletti what he
+intended to do.
+
+"You are the first person to whom I have disclosed my intentions."
+
+I could not treat him as a madman, for he did not look like one, and,
+concluding that there really might be the law he had alleged, I
+replied that I did not feel inclined to join him in his enterprise,
+of which I disapproved very strongly, unless his wife had actually
+robbed him of what she possessed.
+
+"She has only robbed me of my honour, sir, and she left me, taking
+her talents with her.  She must have made a great fortune here, and
+have I not a right to take it from her, were it only for vengeance
+sake?"
+
+"That may be, but I ask you what you would think of me if I agreed to
+join you in an undertaking which seems a cruel one to me, however
+good your reasons may be.  Besides I may know your wife, she may even
+be a friend of mine."
+
+"I will tell you her name."
+
+"No, I beg of you not to do so, although I do not know any Madame
+Constantini."
+
+"She has changed her name to Calori, and she sings at the
+'Haymarket.'"
+
+"I know who she is now.  I am sorry you have told me."
+
+"I have no doubt you will keep my secret, and I am now going to find
+out where she lives; for that is the principal thing."
+
+He left me weeping, and I pitied him, but at the same time I was
+sorry that he had made me the depositary of his secret.  A few hours
+after I called on Madame Binetti, and she told me the histories of
+all the artistes in London.  When she came to the Calori she told me
+that she had had several lovers out of whom she had made a great
+deal, but at present she had no lover, unless it were the violinist
+Giardini, with whom she was in love in earnest.
+
+"Where does she come from?"
+
+"From Vicenza."
+
+"Is she married?"
+
+"I don't think so."
+
+I thought no more of this wretched business, but three or four days
+later I had a letter from King's Bench Prison.  It was from
+Constantini.  The poor wretch said I was the only friend he had in
+London, and that he hoped I would come and see him, were it only to
+give him some advice.
+
+I thought it my duty to accede to his request, and I went to the
+prison, where I found the poor man in a wretched state, with an old
+English attorney, who spoke a little bad Italian, and was known to
+me.
+
+Constantini had been arrested the day before on account of several
+bills drawn by his wife which had not been taken up.  By these bills
+she appeared in debt to the amount of a thousand guineas.  The
+attorney had got the five bills, and he was trying to make some
+arrangements with the husband.
+
+I saw at once that the whole thing was a scandalous swindle, for
+Madame Binetti had told me that the Calori was very rich.  I begged
+the attorney to leave me alone with the prisoner, as I wanted to have
+some private conversation with him.
+
+"They have arrested me for my wife's debts," said he, "and they tell
+me I must pay them because I am her husband."
+
+"It's a trick your wife has played on you; she must have found out
+you were in London."
+
+"She saw me through the window."
+
+"Why did you delay putting your project into execution?"
+
+"I meant to carry it out this morning, but how was I to know that she
+had debts?"
+
+"Nor has she any debts; these bills are shams.  They must have been
+ante-dated, for they were really executed yesterday.  It's a bad
+business, and she may have to pay dearly for it."
+
+"But in the meanwhile I am in prison."
+
+"Never mind, trust to me, I will see you again tomorrow."
+
+This scurvy trick had made me angry, and I made up my mind to take up
+the poor man's cause.  I went to Bosanquet, who told me that the
+device was a very common one in London, but that people had found out
+the way to defeat it.  Finally, he said that if the prisoner
+interested me he would put the case into the hands of a barrister who
+would extricate him from his difficulty, and make the wife and the
+lover, who had probably helped her, repent of their day's work.  I
+begged him to act as if my interests were at stake, and promised to
+guarantee all expenses.
+
+"That's enough," said he; "don't trouble yourself any more about it."
+
+Same days after Mr. Bosanquet came to tell me that Constantini had
+left the prison and England as well, according to what the barrister
+who had charge of the case told him.
+
+"Impossible!"
+
+"Not at all.  The lover of his wife, foreseeing the storm that was
+about to burst over their heads, got round the fellow, and made him
+leave the country by means of a sum more or less large."
+
+The affair was over, but it was soon in all the newspapers, garnished
+with all the wit imaginable, and Giardini was warmly praised for the
+action he had taken.
+
+As for me I was glad enough to have the matter over, but I felt vexed
+with Constantini for having fled without giving the lovers a lesson.
+I wrote an account of the circumstances to Baletti, and I heard from
+Madame Binetti that the Calori had given her husband a hundred
+guineas to leave the country.  Some years later I saw the Calori at
+Prague.
+
+A Flemish officer, the man whom I had helped at Aix-la-Chapelle, had
+called on me several times, and had even dined three or four times
+with me.  I reproached myself for not having been polite enough to
+return his call, and when we met in the street, and he reproached me
+for not having been to see him, I was obliged to blush.  He had his
+wife and daughter with him, and some feeling of shame and a good deal
+of curiosity made me call on him.
+
+When he saw me he threw his arms about my neck, calling me his
+preserver.  I was obliged to receive all the compliments which knaves
+make to honest men when they hope to take them in.  A few moments
+after, an old woman and a girl came in, and I was introduced as the
+Chevalier de Seingalt, of whom he had spoken so often.  The girl,
+affecting surprise, said she had known a M. Casanova, who was very
+like me.  I answered that Casanova was my name as well as Seingalt,
+but that I had not the happiness of recollecting her.
+
+"My name was Anspergher when I saw you," she replied, "but now it is
+Charpillon; and considering that we only met once, and that I was
+only thirteen at the time, I do not wonder at your not recollecting
+me.  I have been in London with my mother and aunts for the last four
+years."
+
+"But where had I the pleasure of speaking to you?"
+
+"At Paris."
+
+"In what part of Paris?"
+
+"In the Bazaar.  You were with a charming lady, and you gave me these
+buckles" (she shewed me them on her shoes), "and you also did me the
+honour to kiss me."
+
+I recollected the circumstance, and the reader will remember that I
+was with Madame Baret, the fair stocking-seller.
+
+"Now I remember you," said I; "but I do not recognize your aunt."
+
+"This is the sister of the one you saw, but if you will take tea with
+us you will see her."
+
+"Where do you live?"
+
+"In Denmark Street, Soho."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+The Charpillon--Dreadful Consequences of My Acquaintance With Her
+
+
+The name Charpillon reminded me that I was the bearer of a letter for
+her, and drawing it from my pocket-book I gave it her, saying that
+the document ought to cement our acquaintance.
+
+"What!" she exclaimed, "a letter from the dear ambassador Morosini.
+How delighted I am to have it!  And you have actually been all these
+months in London without giving it me?"
+
+"I confess I am to blame, but, as you see, the note has no address on
+it.  I am grateful for the chance which has enabled me to discharge
+my commission to-day."
+
+"Come and dine with us to-morrow."
+
+"I cannot do so, as I am expecting Lord Pembroke to dinner."
+
+"Will you be alone?"
+
+"I expect so."
+
+"I am glad to hear it; you will see my aunt and myself appearing on
+the scene."
+
+"Here is my address; and I shall be delighted if you will come and
+see me."
+
+She took the address, and I was surprised to see her smile as she
+read it.
+
+"Then you are the Italian," she said, "who put up that notice that
+amused all the town?"
+
+"I am."
+
+"They say the joke cost you dear."
+
+"Quite the reverse; it resulted in the greatest happiness."
+
+"But now that the beloved object has left you, I suppose you are
+unhappy?"
+
+"I am; but there are sorrows so sweet that they are almost joys."
+
+"Nobody knows who she was, but I suppose you do?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Do you make a mystery of it?"
+
+"Surely, and I would rather die than reveal it."
+
+"Ask my aunt if I may take some rooms in your house; but I am afraid
+my mother would not let me."
+
+"Why do you want to lodge cheaply?"
+
+"I don't want to lodge cheaply, but I should like to punish the
+audacious author of that notice."
+
+"How would you punish me?"
+
+"By making you fall in love with me, and then tormenting you.  It
+would have amused me immensely."
+
+"Then you think that you can inspire me with love, and at the same
+time form the dreadful plan of tyrannising over the victim of your
+charms.  Such a project is monstrous, and unhappily for us poor men,
+you do not look a monster.  Nevertheless, I am obliged to you for
+your frankness, and I shall be on my guard."
+
+"Then you must take care never to see me, or else all your efforts
+will be in vain."
+
+As the Charpillon had laughed merrily through the whole of this
+dialogue, I took it all as a jest, but I could not help admiring her
+manner, which seemed made for the subjugation of men.  But though I
+knew it not, the day I made that woman's acquaintance was a luckless
+one for me, as my readers will see.
+
+It was towards the end of the month of September, 1763, when I met
+the Charpillon, and from that day I began to die.  If the lines of
+ascent and declination are equal, now, on the first day of November,
+1797, I have about four more years of life to reckon on, which will
+pass by swiftly, according to the axiom 'Motus in fine velocior'.
+
+The Charpillon, who was well known in London, and I believe is still
+alive, was one of those beauties in whom it is difficult to find any
+positive fault.  Her hair was chestnut coloured, and astonishingly
+long and thick, her blue eyes were at once languorous and brilliant,
+her skin, faintly tinged with a rosy hue, was of a dazzling
+whiteness; she was tall for her age, and seemed likely to become as
+tall as Pauline.  Her breast was perhaps a little small, but
+perfectly shaped, her hands were white and plump, her feet small, and
+her gait had something noble and gracious.  Her features were of that
+exquisite sensibility which gives so much charm to the fair sex, but
+nature had given her a beautiful body and a deformed soul.  This
+siren had formed a design to wreck my happiness even before she knew
+me, and as if to add to her triumph she told me as much.
+
+I left Malingan's house not like a man who, fond of the fair sex, is
+glad to have made the acquaintance of a beautiful woman, but in a
+state of stupefaction that the image of Pauline, which was always
+before me, was not strong enough to overcome the influence of a
+creature like the Charpillon, whom in my heart I could not help
+despising.
+
+I calmed myself by saying that this strong impression was due to
+novelty, and by hoping that I should soon be disenchanted.
+
+"She will have no charm," said I, "when I have once possessed her,
+and that will not be long in coming."  Perhaps the reader will think
+that I was too presumptuous, but why should I suppose that there
+would be any difficulty?  She had asked me to dinner herself, she had
+surrendered herself entirely to Morosini, who was not the man to sigh
+for long at any woman's feet, and must have paid her, for he was not
+young enough nor handsome enough to inspire her with a fancy for him.
+Without counting my physical attractions, I had plenty of money, and
+I was not afraid of spending it; and so I thought I could count on an
+easy victory.
+
+Pembroke had become an intimate friend of mine since my proceedings
+with regard to Schwerin.  He admired my conduct in not making any
+claim on the general for half my loss.  He had said we would make a
+pleasant day of it together, and when he saw that my table was laid
+for four he asked who the other guests were to be.  He was extremely
+surprised when he heard that they were the Charpillon and her aunt,
+and that the girl had invited herself when she heard he was to dine
+with me.
+
+"I once took a violent fancy for the little hussy," said he.  "It was
+one evening when I was at Vauxhall, and I offered her twenty guineas
+if she would come and take a little walk with me in a dark alley.
+She said she would come if I gave her the money in advance, which I
+was fool enough to do.  She went with me, but as soon as we were
+alone she ran away, and I could not catch her again, though I looked
+for her all the evening."
+
+"You ought to have boxed her ears before everybody."
+
+"I should have got into trouble, and people would have laughed at me
+besides.  I preferred to despise her and the money too.  Are you in
+love with her?"
+
+"No; but I am curious, as you were."
+
+"Take care! she will do all in her power to entrap you."
+
+She came in and went up to my lord with the most perfect coolness,
+and began to chatter away to him without taking any notice of me.
+She laughed, joked, and reproached him for not having pursued her at
+Vauxhall.  Her stratagem, she said, was only meant to excite him the
+more.
+
+"Another time," she added, "I shall not escape you."
+
+"Perhaps not, my dear, for another time I shall take care not to pay
+in advance."
+
+"Oh, fie! you degrade yourself by talking about paying."
+
+"I suppose I honour you."
+
+"We never talk of such things."
+
+Lord Pembroke laughed at her impertinences, while she made a vigorous
+assault on him, for his coolness and indifference piqued her.
+
+She left us soon after dinner, making me promise to dine with her the
+day after next.
+
+I passed the next day with the amiable nobleman who initiated me into
+the mysteries of the English bagnio, an entertainment which I shall
+not describe, for it is well known to all who care to spend six
+guineas.
+
+On the day appointed, my evil destiny made me go to the Charpillon's;
+the girl introduced me to her mother, whom I at once recollected,
+although she had aged and altered since I had seen her.
+
+In the year 1759 a Genevan named Bolome had persuaded me to sell her
+jewels to the extent of six thousand francs, and she had paid me in
+bills drawn by her and her two sisters on this Bolome, but they were
+then known as Anspergher.  The Genevan became bankrupt before the
+bills were due, and the three sisters disappeared.  As may be
+imagined, I was surprised to find them in England, and especially to
+be introduced to them by the Charpillon, who, knowing nothing of the
+affair of the jewels, had not told them that Seingalt was the same as
+Casanova, whom they had cheated of six thousand francs.
+
+"I am delighted to see you again," were the first words I addressed
+to her.
+
+"I recollect you, sir; that rascal Bolome .  .  .  ."
+
+"We will discuss that subject another time.  I see you are ill."
+
+"I have been at death's door, but I am better now.  My daughter did
+not tell me your proper name."
+
+"Yes, she did.  My name is Seingalt as well as Casanova.  I was known
+by the latter name at Paris when I made your daughter's acquaintance,
+though I did not know then that she was your daughter."
+
+Just then the grandmother, whose name was also Anspergher, came in
+with the two aunts, and a quarter of an hour later three men arrived,
+one of whom was the Chevalier Goudar, whom I had met at Paris.  I did
+not know the others who were introduced to me under the names of
+Rostaing and Caumon.  They were three friends of the household, whose
+business it was to bring in dupes.
+
+Such was the infamous company in which I found myself, and though I
+took its measure directly, yet I did not make my escape, nor did I
+resolve never to go to the house again.  I was fascinated; I thought
+I would be on my guard and be safe, and as I only wanted the daughter
+I looked on all else as of little moment.
+
+At table I led the conversation, and thought that my prey would soon
+be within my grasp.  The only thing which annoyed me was that the
+Charpillon, after apologizing for having made me sit down to such a
+poor dinner, invited herself and all the company to sup with me on
+any day I liked to mention.  I could make no opposition, so I begged
+her to name the day herself, and she did so, after a consultation
+with her worthy friends.
+
+After coffee had been served we played four rubbers of whist, at
+which I lost, and at midnight I went away ill pleased with myself,
+but with no purpose of amendment, for this sorceress had got me in
+her toils.
+
+All the same I had the strength of mind to refrain from seeing her
+for two days, and on the third, which was the day appointed for the
+cursed supper, she and her aunt paid me a call at nine o'clock in the
+morning.
+
+"I have come to breakfast with you, and to discuss a certain
+question," said she, in the most engaging manner.
+
+"Will you tell me your business now, or after breakfast?"
+
+"After breakfast; for we must be alone."
+
+We had our breakfast, and then the aunt went into another room, and
+the Charpillon, after describing the monetary situation of the
+family, told me that it would be much relieved if her aunt could
+obtain a hundred guineas.
+
+"What would she do with the money?"
+
+"She would make the Balm of Life, of which she possesses the secret,
+and no doubt she would make her fortune, too."
+
+She then began to dilate on the marvellous properties of the balm, on
+its probable success in a town like London, and on the benefits which
+would accrue to myself, for of course I should share in the profits.
+She added that her mother and aunt would give me a written promise to
+repay the money in the course of six years.
+
+"I will give you a decided answer after supper."
+
+I then began to caress her, and to make assaults in the style of an
+amorous man, but it was all in vain, though I succeeded in stretching
+her on a large sofa.  She made her escape, however, and ran to her
+aunt, while I followed her, feeling obliged to laugh as she did.  She
+gave me her hand, and said,--
+
+"Farewell, till this evening."
+
+When they were gone, I reflected over what had passed and thought
+this first scene of no bad augury.  I saw that I should get nothing
+out of her without spending a hundred guineas, and I determined not
+to attempt to bargain, but I would let her understand that she must
+make up her mind not to play prude.  The game was in my hands, and
+all I had to do was to take care not to be duped.
+
+In the evening the company arrived, and the girl asked me to hold a
+bank till supper was ready; but I declined, with a burst of laughter
+that seemed to puzzle her.
+
+"At least, let us have a game of whist," said she.
+
+"It seems to me," I answered, "that you don't feel very anxious to
+hear my reply."
+
+"You have made up your mind, I suppose?"
+
+"I have, follow me."
+
+She followed me into an adjoining room, and after she had seated
+herself on a sofa, I told her that the hundred guineas were at her
+disposal.
+
+"Then please to give the money to my aunt, otherwise these gentlemen
+might think I got it from you by some improper means."
+
+"I will do so."
+
+I tried to get possession of her, but in vain; and I ceased my
+endeavours when she said,--
+
+"You will get nothing from me either by money or violence; but you
+can hope for all when I find you really nice and quiet."
+
+I re-entered the drawing-room, and feeling my blood boiling I began
+to play to quiet myself.  She was as gay as ever, but her gaiety
+tired me.  At supper I had her on my right hand, but the hundred
+impertinences which, under other circumstances, would have amused me,
+only wearied me, after the two rebuffs I had received from her.
+
+After supper, just as they were going, she took me aside, and told me
+that if I wanted to hand over the hundred guineas she would tell her
+aunt to go with me into the next room.
+
+"As documents have to be executed," I replied, "it will take some
+time; we will talk of it again.
+
+"Won't you fix the time?"
+
+I drew out my purse full of gold, and shewed it her, saying,--
+
+"The time depends entirely on you."
+
+When my hateful guests were gone, I began to reflect, and came to the
+conclusion that this young adventuress had determined to plunder me
+without giving me anything in return.  I determined to have nothing
+more to do with her, but I could not get her beauty out of my mind.
+
+I felt I wanted some distraction, something that would give me new
+aims and make me forget her.  With this idea I went to see my
+daughter, taking with me an immense bag of sweets.
+
+As soon as I was in the midst of the little flock, the delight became
+general, Sophie distributing the sweetmeats to her friends, who
+received them gratefully.
+
+I spent a happy day, and for a week or two I paid several visits to
+Harwich.  The mistress treated me with the utmost politeness and my
+daughter with boundless affection, always calling me "dear papa."
+
+In less than three weeks I congratulated myself on having forgotten
+the Charpillon, and on having replaced her by innocent amours, though
+one of my daughter's schoolmates pleased me rather too much for my
+peace of mind.
+
+Such was my condition when one morning the favourite aunt of the
+Charpillon paid me a call, and said that they were all mystified at
+not having seen me since the supper I had given them, especially
+herself, as her niece had given her to understand that I would
+furnish her with the means of making the Balm of Life.
+
+"Certainly; I would have given you the hundred guineas if your niece
+had treated me as a friend, but she refused me favours a vestal might
+have granted, and you must be aware that she is by no means a
+vestal."
+
+"Don't mind my laughing.  My niece is an innocent, giddy girl; she
+loves you, but she is afraid you have only a passing whim for her.
+She is in bed now with a bad cold, and if you will come and see her I
+am sure you will be satisfied."
+
+These artful remarks, which had no doubt been prepared in advance,
+ought to have aroused all my scorn, but instead of that they awakened
+the most violent desires.  I laughed in chorus with the old woman,
+and asked what would be the best time to call.
+
+"Come now, and give one knock."
+
+"Very good, then you may expect me shortly."
+
+I congratulated myself on being on the verge of success, for after
+the explanation I had had with the aunt, and having, as I thought, a
+friend in her, I did not doubt that I should succeed.
+
+I put on my great coat, and in less than a quarter of an hour I
+knocked at their door.  The aunt opened to me, and said,--
+
+"Come back in a quarter of an hour; she has been ordered a bath, and
+is just going to take it."
+
+"This is another imposture.  You're as bad a liar as she is."
+
+"You are cruel and unjust, and if you will promise to be discreet, I
+will take you up to the third floor where she is bathing."
+
+"Very good; take me."  She went upstairs, I following on tiptoe, and
+pushed me into a room, and shut the door upon me.  The Charpillon was
+in a huge bath, with her head towards the door, and the infernal
+coquette, pretending to think it was her aunt, did not move, and
+said,--
+
+"Give me the towels, aunt."
+
+She was in the most seductive posture, and I had the pleasure of
+gazing on her exquisite proportions, hardly veiled by the water.
+
+When she caught sight of me, or rather pretended to do so, she gave a
+shriek, huddled her limbs together, and said, with affected anger,--
+
+"Begone!"
+
+"You needn't exert your voice, for I am not going to be duped."
+
+"Begone!"
+
+"Not so, give me a little time to collect myself."
+
+"I tell you, go!"
+
+"Calm yourself, and don't be afraid of my skewing you any violence;
+that would suit your game too well."
+
+"My aunt shall pay dearly for this."
+
+"She will find me her friend.  I won't touch you, so shew me a little
+more of your charms."
+
+"More of my charms?"
+
+"Yes; put yourself as you were when I came in."
+
+"Certainly not.  Leave the room."
+
+"I have told you I am not going, and that you need not fear for your
+.  .  .  well, for your virginity, we will say."
+
+She then shewed me a picture more seductive than the first, and
+pretending kindliness, said,--
+
+"Please, leave me; I will not fail to shew my gratitude."
+
+Seeing that she got nothing, that I refrained from touching her, and
+that the fire she had kindled was in a fair way to be put out, she
+turned her back to me to give me to understand that it was no
+pleasure to her to look at me.  However, my passions were running
+high, and I had to have recourse to self-abuse to calm my senses, and
+was glad to find myself relieved, as this proved to me that the
+desire went no deeper than the senses.
+
+The aunt came in just as I had finished, and I went out without a
+word, well pleased to find myself despising a character wherein
+profit and loss usurped the place of feeling.
+
+The aunt came to me as I was going out of the house, and after
+enquiring if I were satisfied begged me to come into the parlour.
+
+"Yes," said I, "I am perfectly satisfied to know you and your niece.
+Here is the reward."
+
+With these words I drew a bank-note for a hundred pounds from my
+pocket-book, and was foolish enough to give it her, telling her that
+she could make her balm, and need not trouble to give me any document
+as I knew if would be of no value.  I had not the strength to go away
+without giving her anything, and the procuress was sharp enough to
+know it.
+
+When I got home I reflected on what had happened, and pronounced
+myself the conqueror with great triumph.  I felt well at ease, and
+felt sure that I should never set foot in that house again.  There
+were seven of them altogether, including servants, and the need of
+subsisting made them do anything for a living; and when they found
+themselves obliged to make use of men, they summoned the three
+rascals I have named, who were equally dependent on them.
+
+Five or six days afterwards, I met the little hussy at Vauxhall in
+company with Goudar.  I avoided her at first, but she came up to me
+reproaching me for my rudeness.  I replied coolly enough, but
+affecting not to notice my manner, she asked me to come into an
+arbour with her and take a cup of tea.
+
+"No, thank you," I replied, "I prefer supper."
+
+"Then I will take some too, and you will give it me, won't you, just
+to shew that you bear no malice?"
+
+I ordered supper for four and we sat down together as if we had been
+intimate friends.
+
+Her charming conversation combined with her beauty gradually drew me
+under her charm, and as the drink began to exercise its influence
+over me, I proposed a turn in one of the dark walks, expressing a
+hope that I should fare better than Lord Pembroke.  She said gently,
+and with an appearance of sincerity that deceived me, that she wanted
+to be mine, but by day and on the condition that I would come and see
+her every day.
+
+"I will do so, but first give me one little proof of your love."
+
+"Most certainly not."
+
+I got up to pay the bill, and then I left without a word, refusing to
+take her home.  I went home by myself and went to bed.
+
+The first thought when I awoke was that I was glad she had not taken
+me at my word; I felt very strongly that it was to my interest to
+break off all connection between that creature and myself.  I felt
+the strength of her influence over me, and that my only way was to
+keep away from her, or to renounce all pretension to the possession
+of her charms.
+
+The latter plan seemed to me impossible, so I determined to adhere to
+the first; but the wretched woman had resolved to defeat all my
+plans.  The manner in which she succeeded must have been the result
+of a council of the whole society.
+
+A few days after the Vauxhall supper Goudar called on me, and began
+by congratulating me on my resolution not to visit the Ansperghers
+any more, "for," said he, "the girl would have made you more and more
+in love with her, and in the end she would have seduced you to
+beggary."
+
+"You must think me a great fool.  If I had found her kind I should
+have been grateful, but without squandering all my money; and if she
+had been cruel, instead of ridiculous, I might have given her what I
+have already given her every day, without reducing myself to
+beggary."
+
+"I congratulate you; it shews that you are well off.  But have you
+made up your mind not to see her again?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"Then you are not in love with her?"
+
+"I have been in love, but I am so no longer; and in a few days she
+will have passed completely out of my memory.  I had almost forgotten
+her when I met her with you at Vauxhall."
+
+"You are not cured.  The way to be cured of an amour does not lie in
+flight, when the two parties live in the same town.  Meetings will
+happen, and all the trouble has to be taken over again."
+
+"Then do you know a better way?"
+
+"Certainly; you should satiate yourself.  It is quite possible that
+the creature is not in love with you, but you are rich and she has
+nothing.  You might have had her for so much, and you could have left
+her when you found her to be unworthy of your constancy.  You must
+know what kind of a woman she is."
+
+"I should have tried this method gladly, but I found her out."
+
+"You could have got the best of her, though, if you had gone to work
+in the proper way.  You should never have paid in advance.  I know
+everything."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"I know she has cost you a hundred guineas, and that you have not won
+so much as a kiss from her.  Why, my dear sir, you might have had her
+comfortably in your own bed for as much!  She boasts that she took
+you in, though you pride yourself on your craft."
+
+"It was an act of charity towards her aunt."
+
+"Yes, to make her Balm of Life; but you know if it had not been for
+the niece the aunt would never have had the money."
+
+"Perhaps not, but how come you who are of their party to be talking
+to me in this fashion?"
+
+"I swear to you I only speak out of friendship for you, and I will
+tell you how I came to make the acquaintance of the girl, her mother,
+her grandmother and her two aunts, and then you will no longer
+consider me as of their party.
+
+"Sixteen months ago I saw M. Morosini walking about Vauxhall by
+himself.  He had just come to England to congratulate the king on his
+accession to the throne, on behalf of the Republic of Venice.  I saw
+how enchanted he was with the London beauties, and I went up to him
+and told him that all these beauties were at his service.  This made
+him laugh, and on my repeating that it was not a jest he pointed out
+one of the girls, and asked if she would be at his service.  I did
+not know her, so I asked him to wait awhile, and I would bring him
+the information he required.  There was no time to be lost, and I
+could see that the girl was not a vestal virgin, so I went up to her
+and told her that the Venetian ambassador was amorous of her, and
+that I would take her to him if she would receive his visits.  The
+aunt said that a nobleman of such an exalted rank could only bring
+honour to her niece.  I took their address, and on my way back to the
+ambassador I met a friend of mine who is learned in such commodities,
+and after I had shewed him the address he told me it was the
+Charpillon."
+
+"And it was she?"
+
+"It was.  My friend told me she was a young Swiss girl who was not
+yet in the general market, but who would soon be there, as she was
+not rich, and had a numerous train to support.
+
+"I rejoined the Venetian, and told him that his business was done,
+and asked him at what time I should introduce him the next day,
+warning him that as she had a mother and aunts she would not be
+alone.
+
+"'I am glad to hear it,' said he, 'and also that she is not a common
+woman.' He gave me an appointment for the next day, and we parted.
+
+"I told the ladies at what hour I should have the pleasure of
+introducing the great man to them, and after warning them that they
+must appear not to know him I went home.
+
+"The following day I called on M. de Morosini, and took him to
+Denmark Street incognito.  We spent an hour in conversation, and then
+went away without anything being settled.  On the way back the
+ambassador told me that he should like to have the girl on conditions
+which he would give me in writing at his residence.
+
+"These conditions were that she should live in a furnished house free
+of rent, without any companion, and without receiving any visitors.
+His excellency would give her fifty guineas a month, and pay for
+supper whenever he came and spent the night with her.  He told me to
+get the house if his conditions were received.  The mother was to
+sign the agreement.
+
+"The ambassador was in a hurry, and in three days the agreement was
+signed; but I obtained a document from the mother promising to let me
+have the girl for one night as soon as the Venetian had gone; it was
+known he was only stopping in London for a year."
+
+Goudar extracted the document in question from his pocket, and gave
+it to me.  I read it and re-read it with as much surprise as
+pleasure, and he then proceeded with his story.
+
+"When the ambassador had gone, the Charpillon, finding herself at
+liberty once more, had Lord Baltimore, Lord Grosvenor, and M. de Saa,
+the Portuguese ambassador, in turn, but no titular lover.  I insisted
+on having my night with her according to agreement, but both mother
+and daughter laughed at me when I spoke of it.  I cannot arrest her,
+because she is a minor, but I will have the mother imprisoned on the
+first opportunity, and you will see how the town will laugh.  Now you
+know why I go to their house; and I assure you you are wrong if you
+think I have any part in their councils.  Nevertheless, I know they
+are discussing how they may catch you, and they will do so if you do
+not take care."
+
+"Tell the mother that I have another hundred guineas at her service
+if she will let me have her daughter for a single night."
+
+"Do you mean that?"
+
+"Assuredly, but I am not going to pay in advance."
+
+"That's the only way not to be duped.  I shall be glad to execute
+your commission."
+
+I kept the rogue to dinner, thinking he might be useful to me.  He
+knew everything and everybody, and told me a number of amusing
+ancedotes.  Although a good-for-nothing fellow, he had his merits.
+He had written several works, which, though badly constructed, shewed
+he was a man of some wit.  He was then writing his "Chinese Spy," and
+every day he wrote five or six news-letters from the various coffee-
+houses he frequented.  I wrote one or two letters for him, with which
+he was much pleased.  The reader will see how I met him again at
+Naples some years later.
+
+The next morning, what was my surprise to see the Charpillon, who
+said with an air that I should have taken for modesty in any other
+woman,--
+
+"I don't want you to give me any breakfast, I want an explanation,
+and to introduce Miss Lorenzi to you."
+
+I bowed to her and to her companion, and then said,--
+
+"What explanation do you require?"
+
+At this, Miss Lorenzi, whom I had never seen before, thought proper
+to leave us, and I told my man that I was not at home to anybody.  I
+ordered breakfast to be served to the companion of the nymph, that
+she might not find the waiting tedious.
+
+"Sir," said the Charpillon, "is it a fact that you charged the
+Chevalier Goudar to tell my mother that you would give a hundred
+guineas to spend the night with me?"
+
+"No, not to spend a night with you, but after I had passed it.  Isn't
+the price enough?"
+
+"No jesting, sir, if you please.  There is no question of bargaining;
+all I want to know is whether you think you have a right to insult
+me, and that I am going to bear it?"
+
+"If you think yourself insulted, I may, perhaps, confess I was wrong;
+but I confess I did not think I should have to listen to any
+reproaches from you.  Gondar is one of your intimate friends, and
+this is not the first proposal he has taken to you.  I could not
+address you directly, as I know your arts only too well."
+
+"I shall not pay any attention to your abuse of my self; I will only
+remind you of what I said 'that neither money nor violence were of
+any use,' and that your only way was to make me in love with you by
+gentle means.  Shew me where I have broken my word!  It is you that
+have foresworn yourself in coming into my bath-room, and in sending
+such a brutal message to my mother.  No one but a rascal like Goudar
+would have dared to take such a message."
+
+"Goudar a rascal, is he?  Well, he is your best friend.  You know he
+is in love with you, and that he only got you for the ambassador in
+the hope of enjoying you himself.  The document in his possession
+proves that you have behaved badly towards him.  You are in his debt,
+discharge it, and then call him a rascal if you have the conscience
+to do so.  You need not trouble to weep, for I knew the source of
+those tears; it is defiled."
+
+"You know nothing of it.  I love you, and it is hard to have you
+treat me so."
+
+"You love me?  You have not taken the best way to prove it!"
+
+"As good a way as yours.  You have behaved to me as if I were the
+vilest of prostitutes, and yesterday you seemed to think I was a
+brute beast, the slave of my mother.  You should have written to me
+in person, and without the intervention of so vile an agent; I should
+have replied in the same way, and you need not have been afraid that
+you would be deceived."
+
+"Supposing I had written, what would your answer have been?"
+
+"I should have put all money matters out of question.  I should have
+promised to content you on the condition that you would come and
+court me for a fortnight without demanding the slightest favour.  We
+should have lived a pleasant life; we should have gone to the theatre
+and to the parks.  I should have become madly in love with you.  Then
+I should have given myself up to you for love, and nothing but love.
+I am ashamed to say that hitherto I have only given myself out of
+mere complaisance.  Unhappy woman that I am! but I think nature meant
+me to love, and I thought when I saw you that my happy star had sent
+you to England that I might know the bliss of true affection.
+Instead of this you have only made me unhappy.  You are the first man
+that has seen me weep; you have troubled my peace at home, for my
+mother shall never have the sum you promised her were it for nothing
+but a kiss."
+
+"I am sorry to have injured you, though I did not intend to do so;
+but I really don't know what I can do."
+
+"Come and see us, and keep your money, which I despise.  If you love
+me, come and conquer me like a reasonable and not a brutal lover; and
+I will help you, for now you cannot doubt that I love you."
+
+All this seemed so natural to me that I never dreamed it contained a
+trap.  I was caught, and I promised to do what she wished, but only
+for a fortnight.  She confirmed her promise, and her countenance
+became once more serene and calm.  The Charpillon was a born actress.
+
+She got up to go, and on my begging a kiss as a pledge of our
+reconciliation she replied, with a smile, the charm of which she well
+knew, that it would not do to begin by breaking the term of our
+agreement, and she left me more in love than ever, and full of
+repentance for my conduct.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+Goudar's Chair
+
+If she had written all this to me instead of coming and delivering it
+viva voce, it would probably have produced no effect; there would
+have been no tears, no ravishing features.  She probably calculated
+all this, for women have a wonderful instinct in these matters.
+
+That very evening I began my visits, and judged from my welcome that
+my triumph was nigh at hand.  But love fills our minds with idle
+visions, and draws a veil over the truth.
+
+The fortnight went by without my even kissing her hand, and every
+time I came I brought some expensive gift, which seemed cheap to me
+when I obtained such smiles of gratitude in exchange.  Besides these
+presents, not a day passed without some excursion to the country or
+party at the theatre; that fortnight must have cost me four hundred
+guineas at the least.
+
+At last it came to an end, and I asked her in the presence of her
+mother where she would spend the night with me, there or at my house.
+The mother said that we would settle it after supper, and I made no
+objection, not liking to tell her that in my house the supper would
+be more succulent, and a better prelude for the kind of exercise I
+expected to enjoy.
+
+When we had supped the mother took me aside, and asked me to leave
+with the company and then to come back.  I obeyed, laughing to myself
+at this foolish mystery, and when I came back I found the mother and
+the daughter in the parlour, in which a bed had been laid on the
+floor.
+
+Though I did not much care for this arrangement, I was too amorous to
+raise any objection at a moment when I thought my triumph was at
+hand; but I was astonished when the mother asked me if I would like
+to pay the hundred guineas in advance.
+
+"Oh, fie!" exclaimed the girl; and her mother left the room, and we
+locked the door.
+
+My amorous feelings, so long pent up within my breast, would soon
+find relief.  I approached her with open arms; but she avoided my
+caress, and gently begged me to get into bed while she prepared to
+follow me.  I watched her undress with delight, but when she had
+finished she put out the candles.  I complained of this act of hers,
+but she said she could not sleep with the light shining on her.  I
+began to suspect that I might have some difficulties thrown in my way
+to sharpen the pleasure, but I determined to be resigned and to
+overcome them all.
+
+When I felt her in the bed I tried to clasp her in my arms, but found
+that she had wrapped herself up in her long night-gown; her arms were
+crossed, and her head buried in her chest.  I entreated, scolded,
+cursed, but all in vain; she let me go on, and answered not a word.
+
+At first I thought it was a joke, but I soon found out my mistake;
+the veil fell from my eyes and I saw myself in my true colours, the
+degraded dupe of a vile prostitute.
+
+Love easily becomes fury.  I began to handle her roughly, but she
+resisted and did not speak.  I tore her night-gown to rags, but I
+could not tear it entirely off her.  My rage grew terrible, my hands
+became talons, and I treated her with the utmost cruelty; but all for
+nothing.  At last, with my hand on her throat, I felt tempted to
+strangle her; and then I knew it was time for me to go.
+
+It was a dreadful night.  I spoke to this monster of a woman in every
+manner and tone-with gentleness, with argument, rage, remonstrance,
+prayers, tears, and abuse, but she resisted me for three hours
+without abandoning her painful position, in spite of the torments I
+made her endure.
+
+At three o'clock in the morning, feeling my mind and body in a state
+of exhaustion, I got up and dressed myself by my sense of touch.  I
+opened the parlour door, and finding the street door locked I shook
+it till a servant came and let me out.  I went home and got into bed,
+but excited nature refused me the sleep I needed so.  I took a cup of
+chocolate, but it would not stay on my stomach, and soon after a
+shivering fit warned me that I was feverish.  I continued to be ill
+till the next day, and then the fever left me in a state of complete
+exhaustion.
+
+As I was obliged to keep to my bed for a few days, I knew that I
+should soon get my health again; but my chief consolation was that at
+last I was cured.  My shame had made me hate myself.
+
+When I felt the fever coming on I told my man not to let anybody come
+to see me, and to place all my letters in my desk; for I wanted to be
+perfectly well before I troubled myself with anything.
+
+On the fourth day I was better, and I told Jarbe to give me my
+letters.  I found one from Pauline, dated from Madrid, in which she
+informed me that Clairmont had saved her life while they were fording
+a river, and she had determined to keep him till she got to Lisbon,
+and would then send him back by sea.  I congratulated myself at the
+time on her resolve; but it was a fatal one for Clairmont, and
+indirectly for me also.  Four months after, I heard that the ship in
+which he had sailed had been wrecked, and as I never heard from him
+again I could only conclude that my faithful servant had perished
+amidst the waves.
+
+Amongst my London letters I found two from the infamous mother of the
+infamous Charpillon, and one from the girl herself.  The first of the
+mother's letters, written before I was ill, told me that her daughter
+was ill in bed, covered with bruises from the blows I had given her,
+so that she would be obliged to institute legal proceedings against
+me.  In the second letter she said she had heard I too was ill, and
+that she was sorry to hear it, her daughter having informed her that
+I had some reason for my anger; however, she would not fail to
+justify herself on the first opportunity.  The Charpillon said in her
+letter that she knew she had done wrong, and that she wondered I had
+not killed her when I took her by the throat.  She added that no
+doubt I had made up my mind to visit her no more, but she hoped I
+would allow her one interview as she had an important communication
+to make to me.  There was also a note from Goudar, saying that he
+wanted to speak to me, and that he would come at noon.  I gave orders
+that he should be admitted.
+
+This curious individual began by astonishing me; he told me the whole
+story of what had taken place, the mother having been his informant.
+
+"The Charpillon," he added, "has not got a fever, but is covered with
+bruises.  What grieves the old woman most is that she has not got the
+hundred guineas."
+
+"She would have had them the next morning," I said, "if her daughter
+had been tractable."
+
+"Her mother had made her swear that she would not be tractable, and
+you need not hope to possess her without the mother's consent."
+
+"Why won't she consent?"
+
+"Because she thinks that you will abandon the girl as soon as you
+have enjoyed her."
+
+"Possibly, but she would have received many valuable presents, and
+now she is abandoned and has nothing."
+
+"Have you made up your mind not to have anything more to do with
+her?"
+
+"Quite."
+
+"That's your wisest plan, and I advise you to keep to it,
+nevertheless I want to shew you something which will surprise you.  I
+will be back in a moment."
+
+He returned, followed by a porter, who carried up an arm-chair
+covered with a cloth.  As soon as we were alone, Goudar took off the
+covering and asked me if I would buy it.
+
+"What should I do with it?  It is not a very attractive piece of
+furniture."
+
+"Nevertheless, the price of it is a hundred guineas."
+
+"I would not give three."
+
+"This arm-chair has five springs, which come into play all at once as
+soon as anyone sits down in it.  Two springs catch the two arms and
+hold them tightly, two others separate the legs, and the fifth lifts
+up the seat."
+
+After this description Goudar sat down quite naturally in the chair
+and the springs came into play and forced him into the position of a
+woman in labour.
+
+"Get the fair Charpillon to sit in this chair," said he, "and your
+business is done."
+
+I could not help laughing at the contrivance, which struck me as at
+once ingenious and diabolical, but I could not make up my mind to
+avail myself of it.
+
+"I won't buy it," said I, "but I shall be obliged if you will leave
+it here till to-morrow."
+
+"I can't leave it here an hour unless you will buy it; the owner is
+waiting close by to hear your answer."
+
+"Then take it away and come back to dinner."
+
+He shewed me how I was to release him from his ridiculous position,
+and then after covering it up again he called the porter and went
+away.
+
+There could be no doubt as to the action of the machinery, and it was
+no feeling of avarice which hindered me from buying the chair.  As I
+have said, it seemed rather a diabolical idea, and besides it might
+easily have sent me to the gallows.  Furthermore, I should never have
+had the strength of mind to enjoy the Charpillon forcibly, especially
+by means of the wonderful chair, the mechanism of which would have
+frightened her out of her wits.
+
+At dinner I told Goudar that the Charpillon had demanded an
+interview, and that I had wished to keep the chair so as to shew her
+that I could have her if I liked.  I shewed him the letter, and he
+advised me to accede to her request, if only for curiosity's sake.
+
+I was in no hurry to see the creature while the marks on her face and
+neck were still fresh, so I spent seven or eight days without making
+up my mind to receive her.  Goudar came every day, and told me of the
+confabulations of these women who had made up their minds not to live
+save by trickery.
+
+He told me that the grandmother had taken the name of Anspergher
+without having any right to it, as she was merely the mistress of a
+worthy citizen of Berne, by whom she had four daughters; the mother
+of the Charpillon was the youngest of the family, and, as she was
+pretty and loose in her morals, the Government had exiled her with
+her mother and sisters.  They had then betaken themselves to Franche-
+Comte, where they lived for some time on the Balm of Life.  Here it
+was that the Charpillon came into the world, her mother attributing
+her to a Count de Boulainvilliers.  The child grew up pretty, and the
+family removed to Paris under the impression that it would be the
+best market for such a commodity, but in the course of four years the
+income from the Balm having dwindled greatly, the Charpillon being
+still too young to be profitable, and debtors closing round them on
+every side, they resolved to come to London.
+
+He then proceeded to tell me of the various tricks and cheats which
+kept them all alive.  I found his narrative interesting enough then,
+but the reader would find it dull, and I expect will be grateful for
+my passing it over.
+
+I felt that it was fortunate for me that I had Goudar, who introduced
+me to all the most famous courtezans in London, above all to the
+illustrious Kitty Fisher, who was just beginning to be fashionable.
+He also introduced me to a girl of sixteen, a veritable prodigy of
+beauty, who served at the bar of a tavern at which we took a bottle
+of strong beer.  She was an Irishwoman and a Catholic, and was named
+Sarah.  I should have liked to get possession of her, but Goudar had
+views of his own on the subject, and carried her off in the course of
+the next year.  He ended by marrying her, and she was the Sara Goudar
+who shone at Naples, Florence, Venice, and elsewhere.  We shall hear
+of her in four or five years, still with her husband.  Goudar had
+conceived the plan of making her take the place of Dubarry, mistress
+of Louis XV., but a lettre de cachet compelled him to try elsewhere.
+Ah! happy days of lettres de cachet, you have gone never to return!
+
+The Charpillon waited a fortnight for me to reply, and then resolved
+to return to the charge in person.  This was no doubt the result of a
+conference of the most secret kind, for I heard nothing of it from
+Gondar.
+
+She came to see my by herself in a sedan-chair, and I decided on
+seeing her.  I was taking my chocolate and I let her come in without
+rising or offering her any breakfast.  She asked me to give her some
+with great modesty, and put up her face for me to give her a kiss,
+but I turned my head away.  However, she was not in the least
+disconcerted.
+
+"I suppose the marks of the blows you gave me make my face so
+repulsive?"
+
+"You lie; I never struck you."
+
+"No, but your tiger-like claws have left bruises all over me.  Look
+here.  No, you needn't be afraid that what you see may prove too
+seductive; besides, it will have no novelty for you."
+
+So saying the wretched creature let me see her body, on which some
+livid marks were still visible.
+
+Coward that I was!  Why did I not look another way?  I will tell you:
+it was because she was so beautiful, and because a woman's charms are
+unworthy of the name if they cannot silence reason.  I affected only
+to look at the bruises, but it was an empty farce.  I blush for
+myself; here was I conquered by a simple girl, ignorant of well nigh
+everything.  But she knew well enough that I was inhaling the poison
+at every pore.  All at once she dropped her clothes and came and sat
+beside me, feeling sure that I should have relished a continuance of
+the spectacle.
+
+However, I made an effort and said, coldly, that it was all her own
+fault.
+
+"I know it is," said she, "for if I had been tractable as I ought to
+have been, you would have been loving instead of cruel.  But
+repentance effaces sin, and I am come to beg pardon.  May I hope to
+obtain it?"
+
+"Certainly; I am angry with you no longer, but I cannot forgive
+myself.  Now go, and trouble me no more."
+
+"I will if you like, but there is something you have not heard, and I
+beg you will listen to me a moment."
+
+"As I have nothing to do you can say what you have got to say, I will
+listen to you."
+
+In spite of the coldness of my words, I was really profoundly
+touched, and the worst of it was that I began to believe in the
+genuineness of her motives.
+
+She might have relieved herself of what she had to say in a quarter
+of an hour, but by dint of tears, sighs, groans, digressions, and so
+forth, she took two hours to tell me that her mother had made her
+swear to pass the night as she had done.  She ended by saying that
+she would like to be mine as she had been M. Morosini's, to live with
+me, and only to go out under my escort, while I might allow her a
+monthly sum which she would hand over to her mother, who would, in
+that case, leave her alone.
+
+She dined with me, and it was in the evening that she made this
+proposition.  I suppose because she thought me ripe for another
+cheat.  I told her that it might be arranged, but that I should
+prefer to settle with her mother, and that she would see me at their
+house the following day, and this seemed to surprise her.
+
+It is possible that the Charpillon would have granted me any favour
+on that day, and then there would have been no question of deception
+or resistance for the future.  Why did I not press her?  Because
+sometimes love stupefies instead of quickens, and because I had been
+in a way her judge, and I thought it would be base of me to revenge
+myself on her by satisfying my amorous desires, and possibly because
+I was a fool, as I have often been in the course of my existence.
+She must have left me in a state of irritation, and no doubt she
+registered a vow to revenge herself on me for the half-contemptuous
+way in which I had treated her.
+
+Goudar was astonished when he heard of her visit, and of the way in
+which I had spent the day.  I begged him to get me a small furnished
+house, and in the evening I went to see the infamous woman in her own
+house.
+
+She was with her mother, and I laid my proposal before them.
+
+"Your daughter will have a house at Chelsea," said I to the mother,
+"where I can go and see her whenever I like, and also fifty guineas a
+month to do what she likes with."
+
+"I don't care what you give her a month," she replied, "but before I
+let her leave my house she must give me the hundred guineas she was
+to have had when she slept with you."
+
+"It is your fault that she didn't have them; however, to cut the
+matter short, she shall give them to you."
+
+"And in the meanwhile, till you have found the house, I hope you will
+come and see me."
+
+"Yes."
+
+The next day Goudar shewed me a pretty house at Chelsea, and I took
+it, paying ten guineas, a month's rent, in advance, for which I
+received a receipt.  In the afternoon I concluded the bargain with
+the mother, the Charpillon being present.  The mother asked me to
+give her the hundred guineas, and I did so, not fearing any
+treachery, as nearly the whole of the girl's clothing was already at
+Chelsea.
+
+In due course we went to our country house.  The Charpillon liked the
+house immensely, and after a short talk we supped merrily together.
+After supper we went to bed, and she granted me some slight
+preliminary favours, but when I would have attained my end I found an
+obstacle which I had not expected.  She gave me some physiological
+reasons for the circumstances, but not being a man to stop for so
+little, I would have gone on, but she resisted, and yet with such
+gentleness that I left her alone and went to sleep.  I awoke sooner
+than she did, and determined to see whether she had imposed on me; so
+I raised her night-gown carefully, and took off her linen only to
+find that I had been duped once more.  This roused her, and she tried
+to stop me, but it was too late.  However, I gently chid her for the
+trick, and feeling disposed to forgive it set about making up for
+lost time, but she got on the high horse, and pretended to be hurt at
+my taking her by surprise.  I tried to calm her by renewed
+tenderness, but the wretched creature only got more furious, and
+would give me nothing.  I left her alone, but I expressed my opinion
+of her in pretty strong terms.  The impudent slut honoured me with a
+smile of disdain, and then beginning to dress herself she proceeded
+to indulge in impertinent repartees.  This made me angry, and I gave
+her a box on the ears which stretched her at full length on the
+floor.  She shrieked, stamped her feet, and made a hideous uproar;
+the landlord came up, and she began to speak to him in English, while
+the blood gushed from her nose.
+
+The man fortunately spoke Italian, and told me that she wanted to go
+away, and advised me to let her do so, or she might make it awkward
+for me, and he himself would be obliged to witness against me.
+
+"Tell her to begone as fast as she likes," said I, "and to keep out
+of my sight for ever."
+
+She finished dressing, staunched the blood, and went off in a sedan-
+chair, while I remained petrified, feeling that I did not deserve to
+live, and finding her conduct utterly outrageous and
+incomprehensible.
+
+After an hour's consideration I decided on sending her back her
+trunk, and then I went home and to bed, telling my servants I was not
+at home to anyone.
+
+I spent twenty-four hours in pondering over my wrongs, and at last my
+reason told me that the fault was mine; I despised myself.  I was on
+the brink of suicide, but happily I escaped that fate.
+
+I was just going out when Goudar came up and made me go in with him,
+as he said he wanted to speak to me.  After telling me that the
+Charpillon had come home with a swollen cheek which prevented her
+shewing herself, he advised me to abandon all claims on her or her
+mother, or the latter would bring a false accusation against me which
+might cost me my life.  Those who know England, and especially London
+will not need to be informed as to the nature of this accusation,
+which is so easily brought in England; it will suffice to say that
+through it Sodom was overwhelmed.
+
+"The mother has engaged me to mediate," said Goudar, "and if you will
+leave her alone, she will do you no harm."
+
+I spent the day with him, foolishly complaining, and telling him that
+he could assure the mother that I would take no proceedings against
+her, but that I should like to know if she had the courage to receive
+this assurance from my own lips.
+
+"I will carry your message," said he, "but I pity you; for you are
+going into their nets again, and will end in utter ruin."
+
+I fancied they would be ashamed to see me; but I was very much
+mistaken, for Goudar came back laughing, and said the mother
+expressed a hope that I should always be the friend of the family.
+I ought to have refused to have anything more to do with them, but I
+had not the strength to play the man.  I called at Denmark Street the
+same evening, and spent an hour without uttering a syllable.  The
+Charpillon sat opposite to me, with eyes lowered to a piece of
+embroidery, while from time to time she pretended to wipe away a tear
+as she let me see the ravages I had worked on her cheek.
+
+I saw her every day and always in silence till the fatal mark had
+disappeared, but during these mad visits the poison of desire was so
+instilled into my veins that if she had known my state of mind she
+might have despoiled me of all I possessed for a single favour.
+
+When she was once more as beautiful as ever I felt as if I must die
+if I did not hold her in my arms again, and I bought a magnificent
+pier-glass and a splendid breakfast service in Dresden china, and
+sent them to her with an amorous epistle which must have made her
+think me either the most extravagant or the most cowardly of men.
+She wrote in answer that she would expect me to sup with her in her
+room, that she might give me the tenderest proofs of her gratitude.
+
+This letter sent me completely mad with joy, and in a paroxysm of
+delight I resolved to surrender to her keeping the two bills of
+exchange which Bolomee had given me, and which gave me power to send
+her mother and aunts to prison.
+
+Full of the happiness that awaited me, and enchanted with my own
+idiotic heroism, I went to her in the evening.  She received me in
+the parlour with her mother, and I was delighted to see the pier-
+glass over the mantel, and the china displayed on a little table.
+After a hundred words of love and tenderness she asked me to come up
+to her room, and her mother wished us good night.  I was overwhelmed
+with joy.  After a delicate little supper I took out the bills of
+exchange, and after telling her their history gave them up to her, to
+shew that I had no intention of avenging myself on her mother and
+aunts.  I made her promise that she would never part with them, and
+she said she would never do so, and with many expressions of
+gratitude and wonder at my generosity she locked them up with great
+care.
+
+Then I thought it was time to give her some marks of my passion, and
+I found her kind; but when I would have plucked the fruit, she
+clasped me to her arms, crossed her legs, and began to weep bitterly.
+
+I made an effort, and asked her if she would be the same when we were
+in bed.  She sighed, and after a moment's pause, replied, "Yes."
+
+For a quarter of an hour I remained silent and motionless, as if
+petrified.  At last I rose with apparent coolness, and took my cloak
+and sword.
+
+"What!" said she, "are you not going to spend the night with me?"
+
+"No."
+
+"But we shall see each other to-morrow?"
+
+"I hope so.  Good night."
+
+I left that infernal abode, and went home to bed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+The End of the Story Stranger Than the Beginning
+
+
+At eight o'clock the next morning Jarbe told me that the Charpillon
+wanted to see me, and that she had sent away her chairmen.
+
+"Tell her that I can't see her."
+
+But I had hardly spoken when she came in, and Jarbe went out.  I
+addressed her with the utmost calmness, and begged her to give me
+back the two bills of exchange I had placed in her hands the night
+before.
+
+"I haven't got them about me; but why do you want me to return them
+to you?"
+
+At this question I could contain myself no longer, and launched a
+storm of abuse at her.  It was an explosion which relieved nature,
+and ended with an involuntary shower of tears.  My infamous
+seductress stood as calmly as Innocence itself; and when I was so
+choked with sobs that I could not utter a word, she said she had only
+been cruel because her mother had made her swear an oath never to
+give herself to anyone in her own house, and that she had only come
+now to convince me of her love, to give herself to me without
+reserve, and never to leave me any more if I wished it.
+
+The reader who imagines that at these words rage gave place to love,
+and that I hastened to obtain the prize, does not know the nature of
+the passion so well as the vile woman whose plaything I was.  From
+hot love to hot anger is a short journey, but the return is slow and
+difficult.  If there be only anger in a man's breast it may be
+subdued by tenderness, by submission, and affection; but when to
+anger is added a feeling of indignation at having been shamefully
+deceived, it is impossible to pass suddenly to thoughts of love and
+voluptuous enjoyment.  With me mere anger has never been of long
+duration, but when I am indignant the only cure is forgetfulness.
+
+The Charpillon knew perfectly well that I would not take her at her
+word, and this kind of science was inborn in her.  The instinct of
+women teaches them greater secrets than all the philosophy and the
+research of men.
+
+In the evening this monster left me, feigning to be disappointed and
+disconsolate, and saying,--
+
+"I hope you will come and see me again when you are once more
+yourself."
+
+She had spent eight hours with me, during which time she had only
+spoken to deny my suppositions, which were perfectly true, but which
+she could not afford to let pass.  I had not taken anything all day,
+in order that I might not be obliged to offer her anything or to eat
+with her.
+
+After she had left me I took some soup and then enjoyed a quiet
+sleep, for which I felt all the better.  When I came to consider what
+had passed the, day before I concluded that the Charpillon was
+repentant, but I seemed no longer to care anything about her.
+
+Here I may as well confess, in all humility, what a change love
+worked on me in London, though I had attained the age of thirty-
+eight.  Here closed the first act of my life; the second closed when
+I left Venice in 1783, and probably the third will close here, as I
+amuse myself by writing these memoirs.  Thus, the three-act comedy
+will finish, and if it be hissed, as may possibly be the case, I
+shall not hear the sounds of disapproval.  But as yet the reader has
+not seen the last and I think the most interesting scene of the first
+act.
+
+I went for a walk in the Green Park and met Goudar.  I was glad to
+see him, as the rogue was useful to me.
+
+"I have just been at the Charpillons," he began; "they were all in
+high spirits.  I tried in vain to turn the conversation on you, but
+not a word would they utter."
+
+"I despise them entirely," I rejoined, "I don't want to have anything
+more to do with them."
+
+He told me I was quite right, and advised me to persevere in my plan.
+I made him dine with me, and then we went to see the well-known
+procuress, Mrs. Wells, and saw the celebrated courtezan, Kitty
+Fisher, who was waiting for the Duke of ---- to take her to a ball.
+She was magnificently dressed, and it is no exaggeration to say that
+she had on diamonds worth five hundred thousand francs.  Goudar told
+me that if I liked I might have her then and there for ten guineas.
+I did not care to do so, however, for, though charming, she could
+only speak English, and I liked to have all my senses, including that
+of hearing, gratified.  When she had gone, Mrs.  Wells told us that
+Kitty had eaten a bank-note for a thousand guineas, on a slice of
+bread and butter, that very day.  The note was a present from Sir
+Akins, brother of the fair Mrs. Pitt.  I do not know whether the bank
+thanked Kitty for the present she had made it.
+
+I spent an hour with a girl named Kennedy, a fair Irishwoman, who
+could speak a sort of French, and behaved most extravagantly under
+the influence of champagne; but the image of the Charpillon was still
+before me, though I knew it not, and I could not enjoy anything.
+I went home feeling sad and ill pleased with myself.  Common sense
+told me to drive all thoughts of that wretched woman out of my head,
+but something I called honour bade me not leave her the triumph of
+having won the two bills of exchange from me for nothing, and made me
+determine to get them back by fair means or foul.
+
+M. Malingan, at whose house I had made the acquaintance of this
+creature, come and asked me to dinner.  He had asked me to dine with
+him several times before, and I had always refused, and now I would
+not accept until I had heard what guests he had invited.  The names
+were all strange to me, so I agreed to come.
+
+When I arrived I found two young ladies from Liege, in one of whom I
+got interested directly.  She introduced me to her husband, and to
+another young man who seemed to be the cavalier of the other lady,
+her cousin.
+
+The company pleased me, and I was in hopes that I should spend a
+happy day, but my evil genius brought the Charpillon to mar the
+feast.  She came into the room in high glee, and said to Malingan,--
+
+"I should not have come to beg you to give me a dinner if I had known
+that you would have so many guests, and if I am at all in the way I
+will go."
+
+Everybody welcomed her, myself excepted, for I was on the rack.  To
+make matters worse, she was placed at my left hand.  If she had come
+in before we sat down to dinner I should have made some excuse and
+gone away, but as we had begun the soup a sudden flight would have
+covered me with ridicule.  I adopted the plan of not looking at her,
+reserving all my politeness for the lady on my right.  When the meal
+was over Malingan took me apart, and swore to me that he had not
+invited the Charpillon, but I was not convinced, though I pretended
+to be for politeness' sake.
+
+The two ladies from Liege and their cavaliers were embarking for
+Ostend in a few days, and in speaking of their departure the one to
+whom I had taken a fancy said that she was sorry to be leaving
+England without having seen Richmond.  I begged her to give me the
+pleasure of shewing it her, and without waiting for an answer I asked
+her husband and all the company to be present, excepting the
+Charpillon, whom I pretended not to see.
+
+The invitation was accepted.
+
+"Two carriages," I said, "holding four each, shall be ready at eight
+o'clock, and we shall be exactly eight."
+
+"No, nine, for I am coming," said the Charpillon, giving me an
+impudent stare, "and I hope you will not drive me away."
+
+"No, that would be impolite, I will ride in front on horseback."
+
+"Oh, not at all!  Emilie shall sit on my lap."
+
+Emilie was Malingan's daughter, and as everybody seemed to think the
+arrangement an extremely pleasant one I had not the courage to
+resist.  A few moments after, I was obliged to leave the room for a
+few moments, and when I came back I met her on the landing.  She told
+me I had insulted her grievously, and that unless I made amends I
+should feel her vengeance.
+
+"You can begin your vengeance," I said, "by returning my bills of
+exchange"
+
+"You shall have them to-morrow, but you had better try and make me
+forget the insult you have put on me."
+
+I left the company in the evening, having arranged that we should all
+breakfast together the next day.
+
+At eight o'clock the two carriages were ready, and Malingan, his
+wife, his daughter, and the two gentlemen got into the first vehicle,
+and I had to get into the second with the ladies from Liege and the
+Charpillon, who seemed to have become very intimate with them.  This
+made me ill-tempered, and I sulked the whole way.  We were an hour
+and a quarter on the journey, and when we arrived I ordered a good
+dinner, and then we proceeded to view the gardens; the day was a
+beautiful one, though it was autumn.
+
+Whilst we were Walking the Charpillon came up to me and said she
+wanted to return the bills in the same place in which I had given her
+them.  As we were at some distance from the others I pelted her with
+abuse, telling her of her perfidy and of her corruption at an age
+when she should have retained some vestiges of innocence calling her
+by the name she deserved, as I reminded her how often she had already
+prostituted herself; in short I threatened her with my vengeance if
+she pushed me to extremities.  But she was as cold as ice, and
+opposed a calm front to the storm of invective I rained in her ears.
+However, as the other guests were at no great distance, she begged me
+to speak more softly, but they heard me and I was very glad of it.
+
+At last we sat down to dinner, and the wretched woman contrived to
+get a place beside me, and behaved all the while as if I were her
+lover, or at any rate as if she loved me.  She did not seem to care
+what people thought of my coldness, while I was in a rage, for the
+company must either have thought me a fool or else that she was
+making game of me.
+
+After dinner we returned to the garden, and the Charpillon,
+determined to gain the victory, clung to my arm and after several
+turns led me towards the maze where she wished to try her power.  She
+made me sit down on the grass beside her and attacked me with
+passionate words and tender caresses, and by displaying the most
+interesting of her charms she succeeded in seducing me, but still I
+do not know whether I were impelled by love or vengeance, and I am
+inclined to think that my feelings were a compound of both passions.
+
+But at the moment she looked the picture of voluptuous abandon.
+Her ardent eyes, her fiery cheeks, her wanton kisses, her swelling
+breast, and her quick sighs, all made me think that she stood as much
+in need of defeat as I of victory; certainly I should not have judged
+that she was already calculating on resistance.
+
+Thus I once more became tender and affectionate; I begged pardon for
+what I had said and done.  Her fiery kisses replied to mine, and I
+thought her glance and the soft pressure of her body were inviting me
+to gather the delicious fruit; but just as my hand opened the door of
+the sanctuary, she gave a sudden movement, and the chance was lost.
+
+"What! you would deceive me again."
+
+"No, no but we have done enough now.  I promise to spend the night in
+your arms in your own house."
+
+For a moment I lost my senses.  I only saw the deceitful wretch who
+had profited by my foolish credulity so many times, and I resolved to
+enjoy or take vengeance.  I held her down with my left arm, and
+drawing a small knife from my pocket I opened it with my teeth and
+pricked her neck, threatening to kill her if she resisted me.
+
+"Do as you like," she said with perfect calm, "I only ask you to
+leave me my life, but after you have satisfied yourself I will not
+leave the spot; I will not enter your carriage unless you carry me by
+force, and everybody shall know the reason."
+
+This threat had no effect, for I had already got back my senses, and
+I pitied myself for being degraded by a creature for whom I had the
+greatest contempt, in spite of the almost magical influence she had
+over me, and the furious desires she knew how to kindle in my breast.
+I rose without a word, and taking my hat and cane I hastened to leave
+a place where unbridled passion had brought me to the brink of ruin.
+
+My readers will scarcely believe me (but it is nevertheless the exact
+truth) when I say that the impudent creature hastened to rejoin me,
+and took my arm again as if nothing had happened.  A girl of her age
+could not have played the part so well unless she had been already
+tried in a hundred battles.  When we rejoined the company I was asked
+if I were ill, while nobody noticed the slightest alteration in her.
+
+When we got back to London I excused myself under the plea of a bad
+headache, and returned home.
+
+The adventure had made a terrible impression on me, and I saw that if
+I did not avoid all intercourse with this girl I should be brought to
+ruin.  There was something about her I could not resist.  I therefore
+resolved to see her no more, but feeling ashamed of my weakness in
+giving her the bills of exchange I wrote her mother a note requesting
+her to make her daughter return them, or else I should be compelled
+to take harsh measures.
+
+In the afternoon I received the following reply:
+
+"Sir,--I am exceedingly surprised at your addressing yourself to me
+about the bills you handed to my daughter.  She tells me she will
+give you them back in person when you shew more discretion, and have
+learnt to respect her."
+
+This impudent letter so enraged me that I forgot my vow of the
+morning.  I put two pistols in my pocket and proceeded to the
+wretched woman's abode to compel her to return me my bills if she did
+not wish to be soundly caned.
+
+I only took the pistols to overawe the two male rascals who supped
+with them every evening.  I was furious when I arrived, but I passed
+by the door when I saw a handsome young hairdresser, who did the
+Charpillon's hair every Saturday evening, going into the house.
+
+I did not want a stranger to be present at the scene I meant to make,
+so I waited at the corner of the street for the hairdresser to go.
+After I had waited half an hour Rostaing and Couman, the two supports
+of the house, came out and went away, much to my delight.  I waited
+on; eleven struck, and the handsome barber had not yet gone.  A
+little before midnight a servant came out with a lamp, I suppose to
+look for something that had fallen out of the window.  I approached
+noiselessly, stepped in and opened the parlour-door, which was close
+to the street, and saw .  .  .  the Charpillon and the barber
+stretched on the sofa and doing the beast with two backs, as
+Shakespeare calls it.
+
+When the slut saw me she gave a shriek and unhorsed her gallant, whom
+I caned soundly until he escaped in the confusion consequent on the
+servants, mother, and aunts all rushing into the room.  While this
+was going on the Charpillon, half-naked, remained crouched behind the
+sofa, trembling lest the blows should begin to descend on her.  Then
+the three hags set upon me like furies; but their abuse only
+irritated me, and I broke the pier-'glass, the china, and the
+furniture, and as they still howled and shrieked I roared out that if
+they did not cease I would break their heads.  At this they began to
+calm.
+
+I threw myself upon the fatal sofa, and bade the mother to return me
+the bills of exchange; but just then the watchman came in.
+
+There is only one watchman to a district, which he perambulates all
+night with a lantern in one hand and a staff in the other.  On these
+men the peace of the great city depends.  I put three or four crowns
+into his hand and said "Go away," and so saying shut the door upon
+him.  Then I sat down once more and asked again for the bills of
+exchange:
+
+"I have not got them; my daughter keeps them."
+
+"Call her."
+
+The two maids said that whilst I was breaking the china she had
+escaped by the street door, and that they did not know what had
+become of her.  Then the mother and aunts began to shriek, weep, and
+exclaim,--
+
+"My poor daughter alone in the streets of London at midnight!  My
+dear niece, alas! alas! she is lost.  Cursed be the hour when you
+came to England to make us all unhappy!"
+
+My rage had evaporated, and I trembled at the thought of this young
+frightened girl running about the streets at such an hour.
+
+"Go and look for her at the neighbours' houses," I said to the
+servants, "no doubt you will find her.  When you tell me she is safe,
+you shall have a guinea apiece."
+
+When the three Gorgons saw I was interested, their tears, complaints,
+and invectives began again with renewed vigor, while I kept silence
+as much as to say that they were in the right.  I awaited the return
+of the servants with impatience, and at last at one o'clock they came
+back with looks of despair.
+
+"We have looked for her everywhere," said they, "but we can't find
+her."
+
+I gave them the two guineas as if they had succeeded, whilst I sat
+motionless reflecting on the terrible consequences of my anger.  How
+foolish is man when he is in love!
+
+I was idiot enough to express my repentance to the three old cheats.
+I begged them to seek for her everywhere when dawn appeared, and to
+let me know of her return that I might fall at her feet to beg
+pardon, and never see her face again.  I also promised to pay for all
+the damage I had done, and to give them a full receipt for the bills
+of exchange.  After these acts, done to the everlasting shame of my
+good sense, after this apology made to procuresses who laughed at me
+and my honour, I went home, promising two guineas to the servant who
+should bring me tidings that her young mistress had come home.
+On leaving the house I found the watchman at the door; he had been
+waiting to see me home.  It was two o'clock.  I threw myself on my
+bed, and the six hours of sleep I obtained, though troubled by
+fearful dreams, probably saved me from madness.
+
+At eight o'clock I heard a knock at the door, and on opening the
+window found it was one of the servants from the house of my foes.  I
+cried out to let her in, and I breathed again on hearing that Miss
+Charpillon had just arrived in a sedan-chair in a pitiable condition,
+and that she had been put to bed.
+
+"I made haste to come and tell you," said the cunning maid, "not for
+the sake of your two guineas, but because I saw you were so unhappy."
+This duped me directly.  I gave her the two guineas, and made her sit
+down on my bed, begging her to tell me all about her mistress's
+return.  I did not dream that she had been schooled by my enemies;
+but during the whole of this period I was deprived of the right use
+of my reason.
+
+The slut began by saying that her young mistress loved me, and had
+only deceived me in accordance with her mother's orders.
+
+"I know that," I said, "but where did she pass the night?"
+
+"At a shop which she found open, and where she was known from having
+bought various articles there.  She is in bed with a fever, and I am
+afraid it may have serious consequences as she is in her monthly
+period."
+
+"That's impossible, for I caught her in the act with her
+hairdresser."
+
+"Oh, that proves nothing! the poor young man does not look into
+things very closely."
+
+"But she is in love with him."
+
+"I don't think so, though she has spent several hours in his
+company."
+
+"And you say that she loves me!"
+
+"Oh, that has nothing to do with it!  It is only a whim of hers with
+the hairdresser."
+
+"Tell her that I am coming to pass the day beside her bed, and bring
+me her reply."
+
+"I will send the other girl if you like."
+
+"No, she only speaks English."
+
+She went away, and as she had not returned by three o'clock I decided
+on calling to hear how she was.  I knocked at the door, and one of
+the aunts appeared and begged me not to enter as the two friends of
+the house were there in a fury against me, and her niece lay in a
+delirium, crying out "There's Seingalt, there's Seingalt!  He's
+going to kill me.  Help!  help!" "For God's sake, sir, go away,"
+
+I went home desperate, without the slightest suspicion that it was
+all a lie.  I spent the whole day without eating anything; I could
+not swallow a mouthful.  All night I kept awake, and though I took
+several glasses of strong waters I could obtain no rest.
+
+At nine o'clock the next morning I knocked at the Charpillon's door,
+and the old aunt came and held it half open as before.  She forbade
+me to enter, saying that her niece was still delirious, continually
+calling on me in her transports, and that the doctor had declared
+that if the disease continued its course she had not twenty-four
+hours to live.  "The fright you gave her has arrested her periods;
+she is in a terrible state."
+
+"O, fatal hairdresser!" I exclaimed.
+
+"That was a mere youthful folly; you should have pretended not to
+have seen anything."
+
+"You think that possible, you old witch, do you?  Do not let her lack
+for anything; take that."
+
+With these words I gave her a bank note for ten guineas and went
+away, like the fool I was.  On my way back I met Goudar, who was
+quite frightened at my aspect.  I begged him to go and see how the
+Charpillon really was, and then to come and pass the rest of the day
+with me.  An hour after he came back and said he had found them all
+in tears and that the girl was in extremis.
+
+"Did you see her?"
+
+"No, they said she could see no one."
+
+"Do you think it is all true?"
+
+"I don't know what to think; but one of the maids, who tells me the
+truth as a rule, assured me that she had become mad through her
+courses being stopped, while she has also a fever and violent
+convulsions.  It is all credible enough, for these are the usual
+results of a shock when a woman is in such a situation.  The girl
+told me it was all your fault."
+
+I then told him the whole story.  He could only pity me, but when he
+heard that I had neither eaten nor slept for the last forty-eight
+hours he said very wisely that if I did not take care I should lose
+my reason or my life.  I knew it, but I could find no remedy.  He
+spent the day with me and did me good.  As I could not eat I drank a
+good deal, and not being able to sleep I spent the night in striding
+up and down my room like a man beside himself.
+
+On the third day, having heard nothing positive about the Charpillon,
+I went out at seven o'clock in the morning to call on her.  After I
+had waited a quarter of an hour in the street, the door was partly
+opened, and I saw the mother all in tears, but she would not let me
+come in.  She said her daughter was in the last agony.  At the same
+instant a pale and thin old man came out, telling the mother that we
+must resign ourselves to the will of God.  I asked the infamous
+creature if it were the doctor.
+
+"The doctor is no good now," said the old hypocrite, weeping anew,
+"he is a minister of the Gospel, and there is another of them
+upstairs.  My poor daughter!  In another hour she will be no more."
+
+I felt as if an icy hand had closed upon my heart.  I burst into
+tears and left the woman, saying,--
+
+"It is true that my hand dealt the blow, but her death lies at your
+door."
+
+As I walked away my knees seemed to bend under me, and I entered my
+house determined to commit suicide,--
+
+With this fearful idea, I gave orders that I was not at home to
+anyone.  As soon as I got to my room I put my watches, rings, snuff-
+boxes, purse and pocket-book in my casket, and shut it up in my
+escritoire.  I then wrote a letter to the Venetian ambassador,
+informing him that all my property was to go to M. de Bragadin after
+my death.  I sealed the letter and put it with the casket, and took
+the key with me, and also silver to the amount of a few guineas.  I
+took my pistols and went out with the firm intention of drowning
+myself in the Thames, near the Tower of London.
+
+Pondering over my plan with the utmost coolness, I went and bought
+some balls of lead as large as my pockets would hold, and as heavy as
+I could bear, to carry to the Tower, where I intended to go on foot.
+On my way I was strengthened in my purpose by the reflection, that if
+I continued to live I should be tormented for the remainder of my
+days by the pale shade of the Charpillon reproaching me as her
+murderer.  I even congratulated myself on being able to carry out my
+purpose without any effort, and I also felt a secret pride in my
+courage.
+
+I walked slowly on account of the enormous weight I bore, which would
+assure me a speedy passage to the bottom of the river.
+
+By Westminster Bridge my good fortune made me meet Sir Edgar, a rich
+young Englishman, who lived a careless and joyous life.  I had made
+his acquaintance at Lord Pembroke's, and he had dined with me several
+times.  We suited one another, his conversation was agreeable, and we
+had passed many pleasant hours together.  I tried to avoid him, but
+he saw me, and came up and took me by the arm in a friendly manner.
+
+"Where are you going?  Come with me, unless you are going to deliver
+some captive.  Come along, we shall have a pleasant party."
+
+"I can't come, my dear fellow, let me go."
+
+"What's the matter?  I hardly recognized you, you looked so solemn."
+
+"Nothing is the matter."
+
+"Nothing?  You should look at your face in the glass.  Now I feel
+quite sure that you are going to commit a foolish action."
+
+"Not at all."
+
+"It's no good denying it."
+
+"I tell you there's nothing the matter with me.  Good bye, I shall
+see you again."
+
+"It's no good, I won't leave you.  Come along, we will walk
+together."
+
+His eyes happening to fall on my breeches pocket, he noticed my
+pistol, and putting his hand on the other pocket he felt the other
+pistol, and said,--
+
+"You are going to fight a duel; I should like to see it.  I won't
+interfere with the affair, but neither will I leave you."
+
+I tried to put on a smile, and assured him that he was mistaken, and
+that I was only going for a walk to pass the time.
+
+"Very good," said Edgar, "then I hope my society is as pleasant to
+you as yours is to me; I won't leave you.  After we have taken a walk
+we will go and dine at the 'Canon.'  I will get two girls to come and
+join us, and we shall have a gay little party of four."
+
+"My dear friend, you must excuse me; I am in a melancholy mood, and I
+want to be alone to get over it."
+
+"You can be alone to-morrow, if you like, but I am sure you will be
+all right in the next three hours, and if not, why I will share your
+madness.  Where did you think of dining?"
+
+"Nowhere; I have no appetite.  I have been fasting for the last three
+days, and I can only drink."
+
+"Ah! I begin to see daylight.  Something has crossed you, and you are
+going to let it kill you as it killed one of my brothers.  I must see
+what can be done."
+
+Edgar argued, insisted, and joked till at last I said to myself, "A
+day longer will not matter, I can do the deed when he leaves me, and
+I shall only have to bear with life a few hours longer."
+
+When Edgar heard that I had no particular object in crossing the
+bridge he said that we had better turn back, and I let myself be
+persuaded; but in half an hour I begged him to take me somewhere
+where I could wait for him, as I could not bear the weight of the
+lead any longer.  I gave him my word of honour that I would meet him
+at the "Canon."
+
+As soon as I was alone I emptied my pockets, and put the leaden balls
+into a cupboard.  Then I lay down and began to consider whether the
+good-natured young man would prevent me committing suicide, as he had
+already made me postpone it.
+
+I reasoned, not as one that hopes, but rather as one that foresaw
+that Edgar would hinder me from shortening my days.  Thus I waited in
+the tavern for the young Englishman, doubtful whether he was doing me
+a service or an injury.
+
+He came back before long, and was pleased to find me.
+
+"I reckoned on your keeping your word," said he.
+
+"You did not think that I would break my word of honour."
+
+"That's all right; I see you are on the way to recovery."
+
+The sensible and cheerful talk of the young man did me good, and I
+began to feel better, when the two young wantons, one of whom was a
+Frenchwoman, arrived in high spirits.  They seemed intended for
+pleasure, and Nature had dowered them with great attractions.  I
+appreciated their charms, but I could not welcome them in the manner
+to which they were accustomed.  They began to think me some poor
+valetudinarian; but though I was in torments, a feeling of vanity
+made me endeavour to behave sensibly.  I gave them some cold kisses
+and begged Edgar to tell his fellow-countrywoman that if I were not
+three parts dead I would prove how lovely and charming I thought her.
+They pitied me.  A man who has spent three days without eating or
+sleeping is almost incapable of any voluptuous excitement, but mere
+words would not have convinced these priestesses of Venus if Edgar
+had not given them my name.  I had a reputation, and I saw that when
+they heard who I was they were full of respect.  They all hoped that
+Bacchus and Comus would plead the cause of Love, and I let them talk,
+knowing that their hopes were vain.
+
+We had an English dinner; that is, a dinner without the essential
+course of soup, so I only took a few oysters and a draught of
+delicious wine, but I felt better, and was pleased to see Edgar
+amusing himself with the two nymphs.
+
+The young madcap suddenly proposed that the girls should dance a
+hornpipe in the costume of Mother Eve, and they consented on the
+condition that we would adopt the dress of Father Adam, and that
+blind musicians were summoned.  I told them that I would take off my
+clothes to oblige them, but that I had no hopes of being able to
+imitate the seductive serpent.  I was allowed to retain my dress, on
+the condition that if I felt the prick of the flesh I should
+immediately undress.  I agreed to do so, and the blind musicians were
+sent for, and while they tuned their instruments toilettes were made,
+and the orgy began.
+
+It taught me same useful lessons.  I learnt from it that amorous
+pleasures are the effect and not the cause of gaiety.  I sat gazing
+at three naked bodies of perfect grace and beauty, the dance and the
+music were ravishing and seductive, but nothing made any impression
+on me.  After the dance was over the male dancer treated the two
+females, one after the other, until he was forced to rest.  The
+French girl came up to ascertain whether I skewed any signs of life,
+but feeling my hopeless condition she pronounced me useless.
+
+When it was all over I begged Edgar to give the French girl four
+guineas, and to pay my share, as I had very little money about me.
+
+What should I have said if I had been told in the morning that
+instead of drowning myself I should take part in so pleasant an
+entertainment?
+
+The debt I had contracted with the young Englishman made me resolve
+to put off my suicide to another day.  After the nymphs had gone I
+tried to get rid of Edgar, but in vain; he told me I was getting
+better, that the oysters I had taken skewed my stomach was improving,
+and that if I came with him to Ranelagh I should be able to make a
+good dinner the next day.  I was weak and indifferent and let myself
+be persuaded, and got into a coach with Edgar in obedience to the
+Stoic maxim I had learnt in the happy days of my youth: 'Sequere
+Deum'.
+
+We entered the fine rotunda with our hats off, and began to walk
+round and round, our arms behind our backs--a common custom in
+England, at least in those days.
+
+A minuet was being danced, and I was so attracted by a lady who
+danced extremely well that I waited for her to turn round.  What made
+me notice her more particularly was that her dress and hat were
+exactly like those I had given to the Charpillon a few days before,
+but as I believed the poor wretch to be dead or dying the likeness
+did not inspire me with any suspicion.  But the lady turned round,
+lifted her face, and I saw--the Charpillon herself!
+
+Edgar told me afterwards that at that moment he thought to see me
+fall to the ground in an epileptic fit; I trembled and shuddered so
+terribly.
+
+However, I felt so sure she was ill that I could not believe my own
+eyes, and the doubt brought me to my senses.
+
+"She can't be the Charpillon," I said to myself, "she is some other
+girl like her, and my enfeebled senses have led me astray."  In the
+meanwhile the lady, intent on her dancing, did not glance in my
+direction, but I could afford to wait.  At last she lifted her arms
+to make the curtsy at the end of the minuet, I went up instinctively
+as if I were about to dance with her; she looked me in the face, and
+fled.
+
+I constrained myself; but now that there could be no doubt my
+shuddering fit returned, and I made haste to sit down.  A cold sweat
+bedewed my face and my whole body.  Edgar advised me to take a cup of
+tea but I begged him to leave me alone for a few moments.
+
+I was afraid that I was on the point of death; I trembled all over,
+and my heart beat so rapidly that I could not have stood up had I
+wished.
+
+At last, instead of dying, I got new life.  What a wonderful change I
+experienced!  Little by little my peace of mind returned, and I could
+enjoy the glitter of the multitudinous wax lights.  By slow degrees I
+passed through all the shades of feeling between despair and an
+ecstasy of joy.  My soul and mind were so astonished by the shock
+that I began to think I should never see Edgar again.
+
+"This young man," I said to myself, "is my good genius, my guardian
+angel, my familiar spirit, who has taken the form of Edgar to restore
+me to my senses again."
+
+I should certainly have persisted in this idea if my friend had not
+reappeared before very long.
+
+Chance might have thrown him in the way of one of those seductive
+creatures who make one forget everything else; he might have left
+Ranelagh without having time to tell me he was going, and I should
+have gone back to London feeling perfectly certain that I had only
+seen his earthly shape.  Should I have been disabused if I had seen
+him a few days after?  Possibly; but I am not sure of it.  I have
+always had a hankering after superstition, of which I do not boast;
+but I confess the fact, and leave the reader to judge me.
+
+However, he came back in high spirits, but anxious about me.  He was
+surprised to find me full of animation, and to hear me talking in a
+pleasant strain on the surrounding objects and persons.
+
+"Why, you are laughing!" said he, "your sadness has departed, then?"
+
+"Yes, good genius, but I am hungry, and I want you to do me a favour,
+if you have no other pressing engagements."
+
+"I am free till the day after to-morrow, and till then you can do
+what you like with me."
+
+"I owe my life to you, but to make your gift complete I want you to
+spend this night and the whole of the next day with me."
+
+"Done."
+
+"Then let us go home."
+
+"With all my heart; come along."
+
+I did not tell him anything as we were in the coach, and when we got
+home I found nothing fresh, except a note from Goudar, which I put in
+my pocket, intending to reserve all business for the next day.
+
+It was an hour after midnight.  A good supper was served to us, and
+we fell to; for my part I devoured my food like a wild beast.  Edgar
+congratulated me, and we went to bed, and I slept profoundly till
+noon.  When I awoke I breakfasted with Edgar, and told him the whole
+story, which would have ended with my life if he had not met me on
+Westminster Bridge, and he had not been keen enough to mark my
+condition.  I took him to my room, and shewed him my escritoire, my
+casket, and my will.  I then opened Goudar's letter, and read:
+
+"I am quite sure that the girl you know of is very far from dying, as
+she has gone to Ranelagh with Lord Grosvenor."
+
+Although Edgar was a profligate, he was a sensible man, and my story
+made him furious.  He threw his arms around my neck, and told me he
+should always think the day on which he rescued me from death for so
+unworthy an object the happiest in his life.  He could scarcely
+credit the infamy of the Charpillon and her mother.  He told me I
+could have the mother arrested, though I had not got the bills of
+exchange, as her mother's letter acknowledging her daughter's
+possession of the bills was sufficient evidence.
+
+Without informing him of my intention, I resolved that moment to have
+her arrested.  Before we parted we swore eternal friendship, but the
+reader will see before long what a penance the kind Englishman had to
+do for befriending me.
+
+The next day I went to the attorney I had employed against Count
+Schwerin.  After hearing my story he said that I had an undoubted
+claim, and that I could arrest the mother and the two aunts.
+
+Without losing time I went before a magistrate, who took my sworn
+information and granted me a warrant.  The same official who had
+arrested Schwerin took charge of the affair; but as he did not know
+the women by sight it was necessary that someone who did should go
+with him, for though he was certain of surprising them there might be
+several other women present, and he might not arrest the right ones.
+
+As Goudar would not have undertaken the delicate task of pointing
+them out, I resolved on accompanying him myself.
+
+I made an appointment with him at an hour when I knew they would be
+all in the parlour.  He was to enter directly the door was opened,
+and I would come in at the same instant and point out the women he
+had to arrest.  In England all judicial proceedings are conducted
+with the utmost punctuality, and everything went off as I had
+arranged.  The bailiff and his subaltern stepped into the parlour and
+I followed in their footsteps.  I pointed out the mother and the two
+sisters and then made haste to escape, for the sight of the
+Charpillon, dressed in black, standing by the hearth, made me
+shudder.  I felt cured, certainly; but the wounds she had given me
+were not yet healed, and I cannot say what might have happened if the
+Circe had had the presence of mind to throw her arms about my neck
+and beg for mercy.
+
+As soon as I had seen these women in the hands of justice I fled,
+tasting the sweets of vengeance, which are very great, but yet a sign
+of unhappiness.  The rage in which I had arrested the three
+procuresses, and my terror in seeing the woman who had well-nigh
+killed me, shewed that I was not really cured.  To be so I must fly
+from them and forget them altogether.
+
+The next morning Goudar came and congratulated me on the bold step I
+had taken, which proved, he said, that I was either cured or more in
+love than ever.  "I have just come from Denmark Street," he added,
+"and I only saw the grandmother, who was weeping bitterly, and an
+attorney, whom no doubt she was consulting."
+
+"Then you have heard what has happened?"
+
+"Yes, I came up a minute after you had gone and I stayed till the
+three old sluts made up their minds to go with the constable.  They
+resisted and said he ought to leave them till the next day, when they
+would be able to find someone to bail them.  The two bravos drew
+their swords to resist the law, but the other constable disarmed them
+one after the other, and the three women were led off.  The
+Charpillon wanted to accompany them, but it was judged best that she
+should remain at liberty, in order to try and set them free."
+
+Goudar concluded by saying that he should go and see them in prison,
+and if I felt disposed to come to an arrangement he would mediate
+between us.  I told him that the only arrangement I would accept was
+the payment of the six thousand francs, and that they might think
+themselves very lucky that I did not insist on having my interest,
+and thus repaying myself in part for the sums they had cheated out of
+me.
+
+A fortnight elapsed without my hearing any more of the matter.  The
+Charpillon dined with them every day, and in fact, kept them.  It
+must have cost her a good deal, for they had two rooms, and their
+landlord would not allow them to have their meals prepared outside
+the prison.  Goudar told me that the Charpillon said she would never
+beg me to listen to her mother, though she knew she had only to call
+on me to obtain anything she wanted.  She thought me the most
+abominable of men.  If I feel obliged to maintain that she was
+equally abominable, I must confess that on this occasion she shewed
+more strength of mind than I; but whereas I had acted out of passion,
+her misdeeds were calculated, and tended solely to her own interests.
+
+For the whole of this fortnight I had sought for Edgar in vain, but
+one morning he came to see me, looking in high spirits.
+
+"Where have you been hiding all this time?" said I, "I have been
+looking for you everywhere."
+
+"Love has been keeping me a prisoner," said he, "I have got some
+money for you."
+
+"For me?  From what quarter?"
+
+"On behalf of the Ansperghers.  Give me a receipt and the necessary
+declaration, for I am going to restore them myself to the poor
+Charpillon, who has been weeping for the last fortnight."
+
+"I daresay she has, I have seen her weep myself; but I like the way
+in which she has chosen the being who delivered me from her chains as
+a protector.  Does she know that I owe my life to you?"
+
+"She only knew that I was with you at Ranelagh when you saw her
+dancing instead of dying, but I have told her the whole story since."
+
+"No doubt she wants you to plead with me in her favour."
+
+"By no means.  She has just been telling me that you are a monster of
+ingratitude, for she loved you and gave you several proofs of her
+affection, but now she hates you."
+
+"Thank Heaven for that!  The wretched woman!  It's curious she should
+have selected you as her lover by way of taking vengeance on me, but
+take care! she will punish you."
+
+"It may be so, but at all events it's a pleasant kind of punishment."
+
+"I hope you may be happy, but look to yourself; she is a mistress in
+all sorts of deceit."
+
+Edgar counted me out two hundred and fifty guineas, for which I gave
+him a receipt and the declaration he required, and with these
+documents he went off in high spirits.
+
+After this I might surely flatter myself that all was at an end
+between us, but I was mistaken.
+
+Just about this time the Crown Prince of Brunswick, now the reigning
+duke, married the King of England's sister.  The Common Council
+presented him with the freedom of the City, and the Goldsmith's
+Company admitted him into their society, and gave him a splendid box
+containing the documents which made him a London citizen.  The prince
+was the first gentleman in Europe, and yet he did not disdain to add
+this new honour to a family illustrious for fourteen hundred years.
+
+On this occasion Lady Harrington was the means of getting Madame
+Cornelis two hundred guineas.  She lent her room in Soho Square to a
+confectioner who gave a ball and supper to a thousand persons at
+three guineas each.  I paid my three guineas, and had the honour of
+standing up all the evening with six hundred others, for the table
+only seated four hundred, and there were several ladies who were
+unable to procure seats.  That evening I saw Lady Grafton seated
+beside the Duke of Cumberland.  She wore her hair without any powder,
+and all the other ladies were exclaiming about it, and saying how
+very unbecoming it was.  They could not anathematize the innovator
+too much, but in less than six months Lady Grafton's style of doing
+the hair became common, crossed the Channel, and spread all over
+Europe, though it has been given another name.  It is still in
+fashion, and is the only method that can boast the age of thirty
+years, though it was so unmercifully ridiculed at first.
+
+The supper for which the giver of the feast had received three
+thousand guineas, or sixty-five thousand francs, contained a most
+varied assortment of delicacies, but as I had not been dancing, and
+did not feel taken with any of the ladies present, I left at one in
+the morning.  It was Sunday, a day on which all persons, save
+criminals, are exempt from arrest; but, nevertheless, the following
+adventure befell me:
+
+I was dressed magnificently, and was driving home in my carriage,
+with my negro and another servant seated behind me; and just as we
+entered Pall Mall I heard a voice crying, "Good night, Seingalt."  I
+put my head out of the window to reply, and in an instant the
+carriage was surrounded by men armed with pistols, and one of them
+said,--
+
+"In the king's name!"
+
+My servant asked what they wanted, and they answered,--
+
+"To take him to Newgate, for Sunday makes no difference to
+criminals."
+
+"And what crime have I committed?"
+
+"You will hear that in prison."
+
+"My master has a right to know his crime before he goes to prison,"
+said the negro.
+
+"Yes, but the magistrate's abed."
+
+The negro stuck to his position, however, and the people who had come
+up declared with one consent that he was in the right.
+
+The head-constable gave in, and said he would take me to a house in
+the city.
+
+"Then drive to that city," said I, "and have done with it."
+
+We stopped before the house, and I was placed in a large room on the
+ground floor, furnished solely with benches and long tables.  My
+servant sent back the carriage, and came to keep me company.  The six
+constables said they could not leave me, and told me I should send
+out for some meat and drink for them.  I told my negro to give them
+what they wanted, and to be as amicable with them as was possible.
+
+As I had not committed any crime, I was quite at ease; I knew that my
+arrest must be the effect of a slander, and as I was aware that
+London justice was speedy and equitable, I thought I should soon be
+free.  But I blamed myself for having transgressed the excellent
+maxim, never to answer anyone in the night time; for if I had not
+done so I should have been in my house, and not in prison.  The
+mistake, however, had been committed, and there was nothing to be
+done but to wait patiently.  I amused myself by reflecting on my
+rapid passage from a numerous and exalted assemblage to the vile
+place I now occupied, though I was still dressed like a prince.
+
+At last the day dawned, and the keeper of the tavern came to see who
+the prisoner was.  I could not helping laughing at him when he saw
+me, for he immediately began to abuse the constables for not awaking
+him when I came; he had lost the guinea I should have paid for a
+private room.  At last news was brought that the magistrate was
+sitting, and that I must be brought up.
+
+A coach was summoned, and I got into it, for if I had dared to walk
+along the streets in my magnificent attire the mob would have pelted
+me.
+
+I went into the hall of justice, and all eyes were at once attracted
+towards me; my silks and satins appeared to them the height of
+impertinence.
+
+At the end of the room I saw a gentleman sitting in an arm-chair, and
+concluded him to be my judge.  I was right, and the judge was blind.
+He wore a broad band round his head, passing over his eyes.  A man
+beside me, guessing I was a foreigner, said in French,--
+
+"Be of good courage, Mr. Fielding is a just and equitable
+magistrate."
+
+I thanked the kindly unknown, and was delighted to see before me this
+famous and estimable writer, whose works are an honour to the English
+nation.
+
+When my turn came, the clerk of the court told Mr. Fielding my name,
+at least, so I presume.
+
+"Signor Casanova," said he, in excellent Italian, "be kind enough to
+step forward.  I wish to speak to you."
+
+I was delighted to hear the accents of my native tongue, and making
+my way through the press I came up to the bar of the court, and
+said,--
+
+"Eccomi, Signore."
+
+He continued to speak Italian, and said,--
+
+"Signor de Casanova, of Venice, you are condemned to perpetual
+confinement in the prisons of His Majesty the King of Great Britain."
+
+"I should like to know, sir, for what crime I am condemned.  Would
+you be kind enough to inform me as to its nature?"
+
+"Your demand is a reasonable one, for with us no one is condemned
+without knowing the cause of his condemnation.  You must know, then,
+that the accusation (which is supported by two witnesses) charges you
+with intending to do grievous bodily harm to the person of a pretty
+girl; and as this pretty girl aforesaid goes in dread of you, the law
+decrees that you must be kept in prison for the rest of your days."
+
+"Sir, this accusation is a groundless calumny; to that I will take my
+oath!  It is very possible indeed that the girl may fear my vengeance
+when she comes to consider her own conduct, but I can assure you that
+I have had no such designs hitherto, and I don't think I ever shall."
+
+"She has two witnesses."
+
+"Then they are false ones.  But may I ask your worship the name of my
+accuser?"
+
+"Miss Charpillon."
+
+"I thought as much; but I have never given her aught but proofs of my
+affection."
+
+"Then you have no wish to do her any bodily harm?"
+
+"Certainly not."
+
+"Then I congratulate you.  You can dine at home; but you must find
+two sureties.  I must have an assurance from the mouths of two
+householders that you will never commit such a crime."
+
+"Whom shall I find to do so?"
+
+"Two well-known Englishmen, whose friendship you have gained, and who
+know that you are incapable of such an action.  Send for them, and if
+they arrive before I go to dinner I will set you at liberty."
+
+The constable took me back to prison, where I had passed the night,
+and I gave my servants the addresses of all the householders I
+recollected, bidding them explain my situation, and to be as quick as
+possible.  They ought to have come before noon, but London is such a
+large place!  They did not arrive, and the magistrate went to dinner.
+I comforted myself by the thought that he would sit in the afternoon,
+but I had to put up with a disagreeable experience.
+
+The chief constable, accompanied by an interpreter, came to say that
+I must go to Newgate.  This is a prison where the most wretched and
+abject criminals are kept.
+
+I signified to him that I was awaiting bail, and that he could take
+me to Newgate in the evening if it did not come, but he only turned a
+deaf ear to my petition.  The interpreter told me in a whisper that
+the fellow was certainly paid by the other side to put me to trouble,
+but that if I liked to bribe him I could stay where I was.
+
+"How much will he want?"
+
+The interpreter took the constable aside, and then told me that I
+could stay where I was for ten guineas.
+
+"Then say that I should like to see Newgate."
+
+A coach was summoned, and I was taken away.
+
+When I got to this abode of misery and despair, a hell, such as Dante
+might have conceived, a crowd of wretches, some of whom were to be
+hanged in the course of the week, greeted me by deriding my elegant
+attire.  I did not answer them, and they began to get angry and to
+abuse me.  The gaoler quieted them by saying that I was a foreigner
+and did not understand English, and then took me to a cell, informing
+me how much it would cost me, and of the prison rules, as if he felt
+certain that I should make a long stay.  But in the course of half an
+hour, the constable who had tried to get ten guineas out of me told
+me that bail had arrived and that my carriage was at the door.
+
+I thanked God from the bottom of my heart, and soon found myself in
+the presence of the blind magistrate.  My bail consisted of Pegu, my
+tailor, and Maisonneuve, my wine merchant, who said they were happy
+to be able to render me this slight service.  In another part of the
+court I noticed the infamous Charpillon, Rostaing, Goudar, and an
+attorney.  They made no impression on me, and I contented myself with
+giving them a look of profound contempt.
+
+My two sureties were informed of the amount in which they were to
+bail me, and signed with a light heart, and then the magistrate said,
+politely,--
+
+"Signor Casanova, please to sign your name for double the amount, and
+you will then be a free man again."
+
+I went towards the clerk's table, and on asking the sum I was to
+answer for was informed that it was forty guineas, each of my
+sureties signing for twenty.  I signed my name, telling Goudar that
+if the magistrate could have seen the Charpillon he would have valued
+her beauty at ten thousand guineas.  I asked the names of the two
+witnesses, and was told that they were Rostaing and Bottarelli.  I
+looked contemptuously at Rostaing, who was as pale as death, and
+averting my face from the Charpillon out of pity, I said,--
+
+"The witnesses are worthy of the charge."
+
+I saluted the judge with respect, although he could not see me, and
+asked the clerk if I had anything to pay.  He replied in the
+negative, and a dispute ensued between him and the attorney of my
+fair enemy, who was disgusted on hearing that she could not leave the
+court without paying the costs of my arrest.
+
+Just as I was going, five or six well-known Englishmen appeared to
+bail me out, and were mortified to hear that they had come too late.
+They begged me to forgive the laws of the land, which are only too
+often converted into a means for the annoyance of foreigners.
+
+At last, after one of the most tedious days I have ever spent, I
+returned home and went to bed, laughing at the experience I had
+undergone.
+
+
+
+
+End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of MEMOIRES OF JACQUES CASANOVA
+IN LONDON AND MOSCOW, Vol. 5c, THE ENGLISH
+by Jacques Casanova de Seingalt
+
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