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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of In London And Moscow: Russia and Poland
+by Jacques Casanova de Seingalt
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: In London And Moscow: Russia and Poland
+       The Memoirs Of Jacques Casanova De Seingalt 1725-1798
+
+Author: Jacques Casanova de Seingalt
+
+Release Date: October 31, 2006 [EBook #2975]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RUSSIA AND POLAND ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+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 5e--RUSSIA AND POLAND
+
+
+
+
+RUSSIA AND POLAND
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+My Stay at Riga--Campioni St. Heleine--D'Asagon--Arrival of the
+Empress--I Leave Riga and Go to St. Petersburg--I See Society--I Buy
+Zaira
+
+Prince Charles de Biron, the younger son of the Duke of Courland,
+Major-General in the Russian service, Knight of the Order of St.
+Alexander Newski, gave me a distinguished reception after reading his
+father's letter. He was thirty-six years of age, pleasant-looking without
+being handsome, and polite and well-mannered, and he spoke French
+extremely well. In a few sentences he let me know what he could do for me
+if I intended to spend some time at Riga. His table, his friends, his
+pleasures, his horses, his advice, and his purse, all these were at my
+service, and he offered them with the frankness of the soldier and the
+geniality of the prince.
+
+"I cannot offer you a lodging," he said, "because I have hardly enough
+room for myself, but I will see that you get a comfortable apartment
+somewhere."
+
+The apartment was soon found, and I was taken to it by one of the
+prince's aides-de-camp. I was scarcely established when the prince came
+to see me, and made me dine with him just as I was. It was an
+unceremonious dinner, and I was pleased to meet Campioni, of whom I have
+spoken several times in these Memoirs. He was a dancer, but very superior
+to his fellows, and fit for the best company polite, witty, intelligent,
+and a libertine in a gentlemanly way. He was devoid of prejudices, and
+fond of women, good cheer, and heavy play, and knew how to keep an even
+mind both in good and evil fortune. We were mutually pleased to see each
+other again.
+
+Another guest, a certain Baron de St. Heleine from Savoy, had a pretty
+but very insignificant wife. The baron, a fat man, was a gamester, a
+gourmand, and a lover of wine; add that he was a past master in the art
+of getting into debt and lulling his creditors into a state of false
+security, and you have all his capacities, for in all other respects he
+was a fool in the fullest sense of the word. An aide-decamp and the
+prince's mistress also dined with us. This mistress, who was pale, thin,
+and dreamy-looking, but also pretty, might be twenty years old. She
+hardly ate anything, saying that she was ill and did not like anything on
+the table. Discontent shewed itself on her every feature. The prince
+endeavoured, but all in vain, to make her eat and drink, she refused
+everything disdainfully. The prince laughed good-humouredly at her in
+such a manner as not to wound her feelings.
+
+We spent two hours pleasantly enough at table, and after coffee had been
+served, the prince, who had business, shook me by the hand and left me
+with Campioni, telling me always to regard his table as my last resource.
+
+This old friend and fellow-countryman took me to his house to introduce
+me to his wife and family. I did not know that he had married a second
+time. I found the so-called wife to be an Englishwoman, thin, but full of
+intelligence. She had a daughter of eleven, who might easily have been
+taken for fifteen; she, too, was marvellously intelligent, and danced,
+sang, and played on the piano and gave such glances that shewed that
+nature had been swifter than her years. She made a conquest of me, and
+her father congratulated me to my delight, but her mother offended her
+dreadfully by calling her baby.
+
+I went for a walk with Campioni, who gave me a good deal of information,
+beginning with himself.
+
+"I have lived for ten years," he said, "with that woman. Betty, whom you
+admired so much, is not my daughter, the others are my children by my
+Englishwoman. I have left St. Petersburg for two years, and I live here
+well enough, and have pupils who do me credit. I play with the prince,
+sometimes winning and sometimes losing, but I never win enough to enable
+me to satisfy a wretched creditor I left at St. Petersburg, who
+persecutes me on account of a bill of exchange. He may put me in prison
+any day, and I am always expecting him to do so."
+
+"Is the bill for a large sum?"
+
+"Five hundred roubles."
+
+"That is only two thousand francs."
+
+"Yes, but unfortunately I have not got it."
+
+"You ought to annul the debt by paying small sums on account."
+
+"The rascal won't let me."
+
+"Then what do you propose doing?"
+
+"Win a heavy sum, if I can, and escape into Poland.
+
+"The Baron de St. Heleine will run away, too if he can, for he only lives
+on credit. The prince is very useful to us, as we are able to play at his
+house; but if we get into difficulty he could not extricate us, as he is
+heavily in debt himself. He always loses at play. His mistress is
+expensive, and gives him a great deal of trouble by her ill-humour."
+
+"Why is she so sour?"
+
+"She wants him to keep his word, for he promised to get her married at
+the end of two years; and on the strength of this promise she let him
+give her two children. The two years have passed by and the children are
+there, and she will no longer allow him to have anything to do with her
+for fear of having a third child."
+
+"Can't the prince find her a husband?"
+
+"He did find her a lieutenant, but she won't hear of anybody under the
+rank of major."
+
+The prince gave a state dinner to General Woyakoff (for whom I had a
+letter), Baroness Korf, Madame Ittinoff, and to a young lady who was
+going to marry Baron Budberg, whom I had known at Florence, Turin, and
+Augsburg, and whom I may possibly have forgotten to mention.
+
+All these friends made me spend three weeks very pleasantly, and I was
+especially pleased with old General Woyakoff. This worthy man had been at
+Venice fifty years before, when the Russians were still called
+Muscovites, and the founder of St. Petersburg was still alive. He had
+grown old like an oak, without changing his horizons. He thought the
+world was just the same as it had been when he was young, and was
+eloquent in his praise of the Venetian Government, imagining it to be
+still the same as he had left it.
+
+At Riga an English merchant named Collins told me that the so-called
+Baron de Stenau, who had given me the forged bill of exchange, had been
+hanged in Portugal. This "baron" was a poor clerk, and the son of a small
+tradesman, and had left his desk in search of adventure, and thus he had
+ended. May God have mercy upon his soul!
+
+One evening a Russian, on his way from Poland, where he had been
+executing some commission for the Russian Court, called on the prince,
+played, and lost twenty thousand roubles on his word of honour. Campioni
+was the dealer. The Russian gave bills of exchange in payment of his
+debts; but as soon as he got to St. Petersburg he dishonoured his own
+bills, and declared them worthless, not caring for his honour or good
+faith. The result of this piece of knavery was not only that his
+creditors were defrauded, but gaming was henceforth strictly forbidden in
+the officers' quarters.
+
+This Russian was the same that betrayed the secrets of Elizabeth
+Petrovna, when she was at war with Prussia. He communicated to Peter, the
+empress's nephew and heir-presumptive, all the orders she sent to her
+generals, and Peter in his turn passed on the information to the Prussian
+king whom he worshipped.
+
+On the death of Elizabeth, Peter put this traitor at the head of the
+department for commerce, and the fellow actually made known, with the
+Czar's sanction, the service for which he had received such a reward, and
+thus, instead of looking upon his conduct as disgraceful, he gloried over
+it. Peter could not have been aware of the fact that, though it is
+sometimes necessary to reward treachery, the traitor himself is always
+abhorred and despised.
+
+I have remarked that it was Campioni who dealt, but he dealt for the
+prince who held the bank. I had certain claims, but as I remarked that I
+expected nothing and would gladly sell my expectations for a hundred
+roubles, the prince took me at my word and gave me the amount
+immediately. Thus I was the only person who made any money by our night's
+play.
+
+Catherine II, wishing to shew herself to her new subjects, over whom she
+was in reality supreme, though she had put the ghost of a king in the
+person of Stanislas Poniatowski, her former favourite, on the throne of
+Poland, came to Riga, and it was then I saw this great sovereign for the
+first time. I was a witness of the kindness and affability with which she
+treated the Livonian nobility, and of the way in which she kissed the
+young ladies, who had come to kiss her hand, upon the mouth. She was
+surrounded by the Orloffs and by other nobles who had assisted in placing
+her on the throne. For the comfort and pleasure of her loyal subjects the
+empress graciously expressed her intention of holding a bank at faro of
+ten thousand roubles.
+
+Instantly the table and the cards were brought forward, and the piles of
+gold placed in order. She took the cards, pretended to shuffle them, and
+gave them to the first comer to cut. She had the pleasure of seeing her
+bank broken at the first deal, and indeed this result was to be expected,
+as anybody not an absolute idiot could see how the cards were going. The
+next day the empress set out for Mitau, where triumphal arches were
+erected in her honour. They were made of wood, as stone is scarce in
+Poland, and indeed there would not have been time to build stone arches.
+
+The day after her arrival great alarm prevailed, for news came that a
+revolution was ready to burst out at St. Petersburg, and some even said
+that it had begun. The rebels wished to have forth from his prison the
+hapless Ivan Ivanovitz, who had been proclaimed emperor in his cradle,
+and dethroned by Elizabeth Petrovna. Two officers to whom the
+guardianship of the prince had been confided had killed the poor innocent
+monarch when they saw that they would be overpowered.
+
+The assassination of the innocent prince created such a sensation that
+the wary Panin, fearing for the results, sent courier after courier to
+the empress urging her to return to St. Petersburg and shew herself to
+the people.
+
+Catherine was thus obliged to leave Mitau twenty-four hours after she had
+entered it, and after hastening back to the capital she arrived only to
+find that the excitement had entirely subsided. For politic reasons the
+assassins of the wretched Ivan were rewarded, and the bold man who had
+endeavoured to rise by her fall was beheaded.
+
+The report ran that Catherine had concerted the whole affair with the
+assassins, but this was speedily set down as a calumny. The czarina was
+strong-minded, but neither cruel nor perfidious. When I saw her at Riga
+she was thirty-five, and had reigned two years. She was not precisely
+handsome, but nevertheless her appearance was pleasing, her expression
+kindly, and there was about her an air of calm and tranquillity which
+never left her.
+
+At about the same time a friend of Baron de St. Heleine arrived from St.
+Petersburg on his way to Warsaw. His name was Marquis Dragon, but he
+called himself d'Aragon. He came from Naples, was a great gamester, a
+skilled swordsman, and was always ready to extract himself from a
+difficulty by a duel. He had left St. Petersburg because the Orloffs had
+persuaded the empress to prohibit games of chance. It was thought strange
+that the prohibition should come from the Orloffs, as gaming had been
+their principal means of gaining a livelihood before they entered on the
+more dangerous and certainly not more honourable profession of
+conspiracy. However, this measure was really a sensible one. Having been
+gamesters themselves they knew that gamesters are mostly knaves, and
+always ready to enter into any intrigue or conspiracy provided it assures
+them some small gain; there could not have been better judges of gaming
+and its consequences than they were.
+
+But though a gamester may be a rogue he may still have a good heart, and
+it is only just to say that this was the case with the Orloffs. Alexis
+gained the slash which adorns his face in a tavern, and the man who gave
+the blow had just lost to him a large sum of money, and considered his
+opponent's success to be rather the result of dexterity than fortune.
+When Alexis became rich and powerful, instead of revenging himself, he
+hastened to make his enemy's fortune. This was nobly done.
+
+Dragon, whose first principle was always to turn up the best card, and
+whose second principle was never to shirk a duel, had gone to St.
+Petersburg in 1759 with the Baron de St. Heleine. Elizabeth was still on
+the throne, but Peter, Duke of Holstein, the heir-presumptive, had
+already begun to loom large on the horizon. Dragon used to frequent the
+fencing school where the prince was a frequent visitor, and there
+encountered all comers successfully. The duke got angry, and one day he
+took up a foil and defied the Neapolitan marquis to a combat. Dragon
+accepted and was thoroughly beaten, while the duke went off in triumph,
+for he might say from henceforth that he was the best fencer in St.
+Petersburg.
+
+When the prince had gone, Dragon could not withstand the temptation of
+saying that he had only let himself be beaten for fear of offending his
+antagonist; and this boast soon got to the grand-duke's ears. The great
+man was terribly enraged, and swore he would have him banished from St.
+Petersburg if he did not use all his skill, and at the same time he sent
+an order to Dragon to be at the fencing school the next day.
+
+The impatient duke was the first to arrive, and d'Aragon was not long in
+coming. The prince began reproaching him for what he had said the day
+before, but the Neapolitan, far from denying the fact, expressed himself
+that he had felt himself obliged to shew his respect for his prince by
+letting him rap him about for upwards of two hours.
+
+"Very good," said the duke, "but now it is your turn; and if you don't do
+your best I will drive you from St. Petersburg."
+
+"My lord, your highness shall be obeyed. I shall not allow you to touch
+me once, but I hope you will deign to take me under your protection."
+
+The two champions passed the whole morning with the foils, and the duke
+was hit a hundred times without being able to touch his antagonist. At
+last, convinced of Dragon's superiority, he threw down his foil and shook
+him by the hand, and made him his fencer-in-ordinary, with the rank of
+major in his regiment of Holsteiners.
+
+Shortly after, D'Aragon having won the good graces of the duke obtained
+leave to hold a bank at faro in his court, and in three or four years he
+amassed a fortune of a hundred thousand roubles, which he took with him
+to the Court of King Stanislas, where games of all sorts were allowed.
+When he passed through Riga, St. Heleine introduced him to Prince
+Charles, who begged him to call on him the next day, and to shew his
+skill with the foils against himself and some of his friends. I had the
+honour to be of the number; and thoroughly well he beat us, for his skill
+was that of a demon. I was vain enough to become angry at being hit at
+every pass, and told him that I should not be afraid to meet him at a
+game of sharps. He was calmer, and replied by taking my hand, and
+saying,--
+
+"With the naked sword I fence in quite another style, and you are quite
+right not to fear anyone, for you fence very well."
+
+D'Aragon set out for Warsaw the next day, but he unfortunately found the
+place occupied by more cunning Greeks than himself. In six months they
+had relieved him of his hundred thousand roubles, but such is the lot of
+gamesters; no craft can be more wretched than theirs.
+
+A week before I left Riga (where I stayed two months) Campioni fled by
+favour of the good Prince Charles, and in a few days the Baron de St.
+Heleine followed him without taking leave of a noble army of creditors.
+He only wrote a letter to the Englishman Collins, to whom he owed a
+thousand crowns, telling him that like an honest man he had left his
+debts where he had contracted them. We shall hear more of these three
+persons in the course of two years.
+
+Campioni left me his travelling carriage, which obliged me to use six
+horses on my journey to St. Petersburg. I was sorry to leave Betty, and I
+kept up an epistolary correspondence with her mother throughout the whole
+of my stay at St. Petersburg.
+
+I left Riga with the thermometer indicating fifteen degrees of frost, but
+though I travelled day and night, not leaving the carriage for the sixty
+hours for which my journey lasted, I did not feel the cold in the least.
+I had taken care to pay all the stages in advance, and Marshal Braun,
+Governor of Livonia, had given me the proper passport. On the box seat
+was a French servant who had begged me to allow him to wait on me for the
+journey in return for a seat beside the coachman. He kept his word and
+served me well, and though he was but ill clad he bore the horrible cold
+for two days and three nights without appearing to feel it. It is only a
+Frenchman who can bear such trials; a Russian in similar attire would
+have been frozen to death in twenty-four hours, despite plentiful doses
+of corn brandy. I lost sight of this individual when I arrived at St.
+Petersburg, but I met him again three months after, richly dressed, and
+occupying a seat beside mine at the table of M. de Czernitscheff. He was
+the uchitel of the young count, who sat beside him. But I shall have
+occasion to speak more at length of the office of uchitel, or tutor, in
+Russia.
+
+As for Lambert, who was beside me in the carriage, he did nothing but
+eat, drink, and sleep the whole way; seldom speaking, for he stammered,
+and could only talk about mathematical problems, on which I was not
+always in the humour to converse. He was never amusing, never had any
+sensible observation to make on the varied scenes through which we
+passed; in short, he was a fool, and wearisome to all save himself.
+
+I was only stopped once, and that was at Nawa, where the authorities
+demanded a passport, which I did not possess. I told the governor that as
+I was a Venetian, and only travelled for pleasure, I did not conceive a
+passport would be necessary, my Republic not being at war with any other
+power, and Russia having no embassy at Venice.
+
+"Nevertheless," I added, "if your excellency wills it I will turn back;
+but I shall complain to Marshal Braun, who gave me the passport for
+posting, knowing that I had not the political passport."
+
+After rubbing his forehead for a minute, the governor gave me a pass,
+which I still possess, and which brought me into St. Petersburg, without
+my having to allow the custom-house officers to inspect my trunks.
+
+Between Koporie and St. Petersburg there is only a wretched hut for the
+accommodation of travellers. The country is a wilderness, and the
+inhabitants do not even speak Russian. The district is called Ingria, and
+I believe the jargon spoken has no affinity with any other language. The
+principal occupation of the peasants is robbery, and the traveller does
+well not to leave any of his effects alone for a moment.
+
+I got to St. Petersburg just as the first rays of the sun began to gild
+the horizon. It was in the winter solstice, and the sun rose at the
+extremity of an immense plain at twenty-four minutes past nine, so I am
+able to state that the longest night in Russia consists of eighteen hours
+and three quarters.
+
+I got down in a fine street called the Millione. I found a couple of
+empty rooms, which the people of the house furnished with two beds, four
+chairs, and two small tables, and rented to me very cheaply. Seeing the
+enormous stoves, I concluded they must consume a vast amount of wood, but
+I was mistaken. Russia is the land of stoves as Venice is that of
+cisterns. I have inspected the interior of these stoves in summer-time as
+minutely as if I wished to find out the secret of making them; they are
+twelve feet high by six broad, and are capable of warming a vast room.
+They are only refuelled once in twenty-four hours, for as soon as the
+wood is reduced to the state of charcoal a valve is shut in the upper
+part of the stove.
+
+It is only in the houses of noblemen that the stoves are refuelled twice
+a day, because servants are strictly forbidden to close the valve, and
+for a very good reason.
+
+If a gentleman chance to come home and order his servants to warm his
+room before he goes to bed, and if the servant is careless enough to
+close the valve before the wood is reduced to charcoal, then the master
+sleeps his last sleep, being suffocated in three or four hours. When the
+door is opened in the morning he is found dead, and the poor devil of a
+servant is immediately hanged, whatever he may say. This sounds severe,
+and even cruel; but it is a necessary regulation, or else a servant would
+be able to get rid of his master on the smallest provocation.
+
+After I had made an agreement for my board and lodging, both of which
+were very cheap (now St. Petersburg, is as dear as London), I brought
+some pieces of furniture which were necessaries for me, but which were
+not as yet much in use in Russia, such as a commode, a bureau, &c.
+
+German is the language principally spoken in St. Petersburg, and I did
+not speak German much better then than I do now, so I had a good deal of
+difficulty in making myself understood, and usually excited my auditors
+to laughter.
+
+After dinner my landlord told me that the Court was giving a masked ball
+to five thousand persons to last sixty hours. He gave me a ticket, and
+told me I only needed to shew it at the entrance of the imperial palace.
+
+I decided to use the ticket, for I felt that I should like to be present
+at so numerous an assembly, and as I had my domino still by me a mask was
+all I wanted. I went to the palace in a sedan-chair, and found an immense
+crowd assembled, and dancing going on in several halls in each of which
+an orchestra was stationed. There were long counters loaded with eatables
+and drinkables at which those who were hungry or thirsty ate or drank as
+much as they liked. Gaiety and freedom reigned everywhere, and the light
+of a thousand wax candles illuminated the hall. Everything was wonderful,
+and all the more so from its contrast with the cold and darkness that
+were without. All at once I heard a masquer beside me say to another,--
+
+"There's the czarina."
+
+We soon saw Gregory Orloff, for his orders were to follow the empress at
+a distance.
+
+I followed the masquer, and I was soon persuaded that it was really the
+empress, for everybody was repeating it, though no one openly recognized
+her. Those who really did not know her jostled her in the crowd, and I
+imagined that she would be delighted at being treated thus, as it was a
+proof of the success of her disguise. Several times I saw her speaking in
+Russian to one masquer and another. No doubt she exposed her vanity to
+some rude shocks, but she had also the inestimable advantage of hearing
+truths which her courtiers would certainly not tell her. The masquer who
+was pronounced to be Orloff followed her everywhere, and did not let her
+out of his sight for a moment. He could not be mistaken, as he was an
+exceptionally tall man and had a peculiar carriage of the head.
+
+I arrested my progress in a hall where the French square dance was being
+performed, and suddenly there appeared a masquer disguised in the
+Venetian style. The costume was so complete that I at once set him down
+as a fellow-countryman, for very few strangers can imitate us so as to
+escape detection. As it happened, he came and stood next to me.
+
+"One would think you were a Venetian," I said to him in French.
+
+"So I am."
+
+"Like myself."
+
+"I am not jesting."
+
+"No more am I."
+
+"Then let us speak in Venetian."
+
+"Do you begin, and I will reply."
+
+We began our conversation, but when he came to the word Sabato, Saturday,
+which is a Sabo in Venetian, I discovered that he was a real Venetian,
+but not from Venice itself. He said I was right, and that he judged from
+my accent that I came from Venice.
+
+"Quite so," said I.
+
+"I thought Bernadi was the only Venetian besides myself in St.
+Petersburg."
+
+"You see you are mistaken."
+
+"My name is Count Volpati di Treviso."
+
+"Give me your address, and I will come and tell you who I am, for I
+cannot do so here."
+
+"Here it is."
+
+After leaving the count I continued my progress through this wonderful
+hall, and two or three hours after I was attracted by the voice of a
+female masquer speaking Parisian French in a high falsetto, such as is
+common at an opera ball.
+
+I did not recognize the voice but I knew the style, and felt quite
+certain that the masquer must be one of my old friends, for she spoke
+with the intonations and phraseology which I had rendered popular in my
+chief places of resort at Paris.
+
+I was curious to see who it could be, and not wishing to speak before I
+knew her, I had the patience to wait till she lifted her mask, and this
+occurred at the end of an hour. What was my surprise to see Madame Baret,
+the stocking-seller of the Rue St. Honor& My love awoke from its long
+sleep, and coming up to her I said, in a falsetto voice,--
+
+"I am your friend of the 'Hotel d'Elbeuf.'"
+
+She was puzzled, and looked the picture of bewilderment. I whispered in
+her ear, "Gilbert Baret, Rue des Prouveres," and certain other facts
+which could only be known to herself and a fortunate lover.
+
+She saw I knew her inmost secrets, and drawing me away she begged me to
+tell her who I was.
+
+"I was your lover, and a fortunate one, too," I replied; "but before I
+tell you my name, with whom are you, and how are you?"
+
+"Very well; but pray do not divulge what I tell you. I left Paris with M.
+d'Anglade, counsellor in the Court of Rouen. I lived happily enough for
+some time with him, and then left him to go with a theatrical manager,
+who brought me here as an actress under the name of de l'Anglade, and now
+I am kept by Count Rzewuski, the Polish ambassador. And now tell me who
+you are?"
+
+Feeling sure of enjoying her again, I lifted my mask. She gave a cry of
+joy, and exclaimed,--
+
+"My good angel has brought you to St. Petersburg."
+
+"How do you mean?"
+
+"Rzewuski is obliged to go back to Poland, and now I count on you to get
+me out of the country, for I can no longer continue in a station for
+which I was not intended, since I can neither sing nor act."
+
+She gave me her address, and I left her delighted with my discovery.
+After having passed half an hour at the counter, eating and drinking of
+the best, I returned to the crowd and saw my fair stocking-seller talking
+to Count Volpati. He had seen her with me, and hastened to enquire my
+name of her. However, she was faithful to our mutual promise, and told
+him I was her husband, though the Venetian did not seem to give the least
+credence to this piece of information.
+
+At last I was tired and left the ball, and went to bed intending to go to
+mass in the morning. I slept for some time and woke, but as it was still
+dark I turned on the other side and went to sleep again. At last I awoke
+again, and seeing the daylight stealing through my double windows, I sent
+for a hairdresser, telling my man to make haste as I wanted to hear mass
+on the first Sunday after my arrival in St. Petersburg.
+
+"But sir," said he, "the first Sunday was yesterday; we are at Monday
+now."
+
+"What! Monday?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+I had spent twenty-seven hours in bed, and after laughing at the mishap I
+felt as if I could easily believe it, for my hunger was like that of a
+cannibal.
+
+This is the only day which I really lost in my life; but I do not weep
+like the Roman emperor, I laugh. But this is not the only difference
+between Titus and Casanova.
+
+I called on Demetrio Papanelopulo, the Greek merchant, who was to pay me
+a hundred roubles a month. I was also commended to him by M. da Loglio,
+and I had an excellent reception. He begged me to come and dine with him
+every day, paid me the roubles for the month due, and assured me that he
+had honoured my bill drawn at Mitau. He also found me a reliable servant,
+and a carriage at eighteen roubles, or six ducats per month. Such
+cheapness has, alas! departed for ever.
+
+The next day, as I was dining with the worthy Greek and young Bernardi,
+who was afterwards poisoned, Count Volpati came in with the dessert, and
+told us how he had met a Venetian at the ball who had promised to come
+and see him.
+
+"The Venetian would have kept his promise," said I, "if he had not had a
+long sleep of twenty-seven hours. I am the Venetian, and am delighted to
+continue our acquaintance."
+
+The count was about to leave, and his departure had already been
+announced in the St. Petersburg Gazette. The Russian custom is not to
+give a traveller his passports till a fortnight has elapsed after the
+appearance of his name in the paper. This regulation is for the advantage
+of tradesmen, while it makes foreigners think twice before they contract
+any debts.
+
+The next day I took a letter of introduction to M. Pietro Ivanovitch
+Melissino, colonel and afterwards general of artillery. The letter was
+written by Madame da Loglio, who was very intimate with Melissino. I was
+most politely welcomed, and after presenting me to his pleasant wife, he
+asked me once for all to sup with him every night. The house was managed
+in the French style, and both play and supper were conducted without any
+ceremony. I met there Melissino's elder brother, the procurator of the
+Holy Synod and husband of the Princess Dolgorouki. Faro went on, and the
+company was composed of trustworthy persons who neither boasted of their
+gains nor bewailed their losses to anyone, and so there was no fear of
+the Government discovering this infringement of the law against gaming.
+The bank was held by Baron Lefort, son of the celebrated admiral of Peter
+the Great. Lefort was an example of the inconstancy of fortune; he was
+then in disgrace on account of a lottery which he had held at Moscow to
+celebrate the coronation of the empress, who had furnished him with the
+necessary funds. The lottery had been broken and the fact was attributed
+to the baron's supposed dishonesty.
+
+I played for small stakes and won a few roubles. I made friends with
+Baron Lefort at supper, and he afterwards told me of the vicissitudes he
+had experienced.
+
+As I was praising the noble calmness with which a certain prince had lost
+a thousand roubles to him, he laughed and said that the fine gamester I
+had mentioned played upon credit but never paid.
+
+"How about his honour?"
+
+"It is not affected by the non-payment of gaming debts. It is an
+understood thing in Russia that one who plays on credit and loses may pay
+or not pay as he wishes, and the winner only makes himself ridiculous by
+reminding the loser of his debt."
+
+"Then the holder of the bank has the right to refuse to accept bets which
+are not backed by ready money."
+
+"Certainly; and nobody has a right to be offended with him for doing so.
+Gaming is in a very bad state in Russia. I know young men of the highest
+rank whose chief boast is that they know how to conquer fortune; that is,
+to cheat. One of the Matuschkins goes so far as to challenge all foreign
+cheats to master him. He has just received permission to travel for three
+years, and it is an open secret that he wishes to travel that he may
+exercise his skill. He intends returning to Russia laden with the spoils
+of the dupes he has made."
+
+A young officer of the guards named Zinowieff, a relation of the Orloffs,
+whom I had met at Melissino's, introduced me to Macartney, the English
+ambassador, a young man of parts and fond of pleasure. He had fallen in
+love with a young lady of the Chitroff family, and maid of honour to the
+empress, and finding his affection reciprocated a baby was the result.
+The empress disapproved strongly of this piece of English freedom, and
+had the ambassador recalled, though she forgave her maid of honour. This
+forgiveness was attributed to the young lady's skill in dancing. I knew
+the brother of this lady, a fine and intelligent young officer. I had the
+good fortune to be admitted to the Court, and there I had the pleasure of
+seeing Mdlle. Chitroff dancing, and also Mdlle. Sievers, now Princesss,
+whom I saw again at Dresden four years ago with her daughter, an
+extremely genteel young princess. I was enchanted with Mdlle. Sievers,
+and felt quite in love with her; but as we were never introduced I had no
+opportunity of declaring my passion. Putini, the castrato, was high in
+her favour, as indeed he deserved to be, both for his talents and the
+beauties of his person.
+
+The worthy Papanelopulo introduced me to Alsuwieff, one of the ministers,
+a man of wit and letters, and only one of the kind whom I met in Russia.
+He had been an industrious student at the University of Upsala, and loved
+wine, women, and good cheer. He asked me to dine with Locatelli at
+Catherinhoff, one of the imperial mansions, which the empress had
+assigned to the old theatrical manager for the remainder of his days. He
+was astonished to see me, and I was more astonished still to find that he
+had turned taverner, for he gave an excellent dinner every day to all who
+cared to pay a rouble, exclusive of wine. M. d'Alsuwieff introduced me to
+his colleague in the ministry, Teploff, whose vice was that he loved
+boys, and his virtue that he had strangled Peter III.
+
+Madame Mecour, the dancer, introduced me to her lover, Ghelaghin, also a
+minister. He had spent twenty years of his life in Siberia.
+
+A letter from Da Loglio got me a warm welcome from the castrato Luini, a
+delightful man, who kept a splendid table. He was the lover of Colonna,
+the singer, but their affection seemed to me a torment, for they could
+scarce live together in peace for a single day. At Luini's house I met
+another castrato, Millico, a great friend of the chief huntsman,
+Narischkin, who also became one of my friends. This Narischkin, a
+pleasant and a well-informed man, was the husband of the famous Maria
+Paulovna. It was at the chief huntsman's splendid table that I met
+Calogeso Plato, now archbishop of Novgorod, and then chaplain to the
+empress. This monk was a Russian, and a master of ruses, understood
+Greek, and spoke Latin and French, and was what would be called a fine
+man. It was no wonder that he rose to such a height, as in Russia the
+nobility never lower themselves by accepting church dignities.
+
+Da Loglio had given me a letter for the Princess Daschkoff, and I took it
+to her country house, at the distance of three versts from St.
+Petersburg. She had been exiled from the capital, because, having
+assisted Catherine to ascend the throne, she claimed to share it with
+her.
+
+I found the princess mourning for the loss of her husband. She welcomed
+me kindly, and promised to speak to M. Panin on my behalf; and three days
+later she wrote to me that I could call on that nobleman as soon as I
+liked. This was a specimen of the empress's magnanimity; she had
+disgraced the princess, but she allowed her favourite minister to pay his
+court to her every evening. I have heard, on good authority, that Panin
+was not the princess's lover, but her father. She is now the President of
+the Academy of Science, and I suppose the literati must look upon her as
+another Minerva, or else they would be ashamed to have a woman at their
+head. For completeness' sake the Russians should get a woman to command
+their armies, but Joan d'Arcs are scarce.
+
+Melissino and I were present at an extraordinary ceremony on the Day of
+the Epiphany, namely the blessing of the Neva, then covered with five
+feet of ice.
+
+After the benediction of the waters children were baptized by being
+plunged into a large hole which had been made in the ice. On the day on
+which I was present the priest happened to let one of the children slip
+through his hands.
+
+"Drugoi!" he cried.
+
+That is, "Give me another." But my surprise may be imagined when I saw
+that the father and mother of the child were in an ecstasy of joy; they
+were certain that the babe had been carried straight to heaven. Happy
+ignorance!
+
+I had a letter from the Florentine Madame Bregonci for her friend the
+Venetian Roccolini, who had left Venice to go and sing at the St.
+Petersburg Theatre, though she did not know a note of music, and had
+never appeared on the stage. The empress laughed at her, and said she
+feared there was no opening in St. Petersburg for her peculiar talents,
+but the Roccolini, who was known as La Vicenza, was not the woman to lose
+heart for so small a check. She became an intimate friend of a
+Frenchwoman named Prote, the wife of a merchant who lived with the chief
+huntsman. She was at the same time his mistress and the confidante of his
+wife Maria Petrovna, who did not like her husband, and was very much
+obliged to the Frenchwoman for delivering her from the conjugal
+importunities.
+
+This Prote was one of the handsomest women I have ever seen, and
+undoubtedly the handsomest in St. Petersburg at that time. She was in the
+flower of her age. She had at once a wonderful taste for gallantry and
+for all the mysteries of the toilette. In dress she surpassed everyone,
+and as she was witty and amusing she captivated all hearts. Such was the
+woman whose friend and procuress La Vicenza had become. She received the
+applications of those who were in love with Madame Prote, and passed them
+on, while, whether a lover's suit was accepted or not, the procuress got
+something out of him.
+
+I recognized Signora Roccolini as soon as I saw her, but as twenty years
+had elapsed since our last meeting she did not wonder at my appearing not
+to know her, and made no efforts to refresh my memory. Her brother was
+called Montellato, and he it was who tried to assassinate me one night in
+St. Mark's Square, as I was leaving the Ridotto. The plot that would have
+cost me my life, if I had not made my escape from the window, was laid in
+the Roccolini's house.
+
+She welcomed me as a fellow-countryman in a strange land, told me of her
+struggles, and added that now she had an easy life of it, and associated
+with the pleasantest ladies in St. Petersburg.
+
+"I am astonished that you have not met the fair Madame Prote at the chief
+huntsman's, for she is the darling of his heart. Come and take coffee
+with me to-morrow, and you shall see a wonder."
+
+I kept the appointment, and I found the lady even more beautiful than the
+Venetian's praises of her had led me to expect. I was dazzled by her
+beauty, but not being a rich man I felt that I must set my wits to work
+if I wanted to enjoy her. I asked her name, though I knew it quite well,
+and she replied, "Prote."
+
+"I am glad to hear it, madam," said I, "for you thereby promise to be
+mine."
+
+"How so?" said she, with a charming smile. I explained the pun, and made
+her laugh. I told her amusing stories, and let her know the effect that
+her beauty had produced on me, and that I hoped time would soften her
+heart to me. The acquaintance was made, and thenceforth I never went to
+Narischkin's without calling on her, either before or after dinner.
+
+The Polish ambassador returned about that time, and I had to forego my
+enjoyment of the fair Anglade, who accepted a very advantageous proposal
+which was made her by Count Brawn. This charming Frenchwoman died of the
+small-pox a few months later, and there can be no doubt that her death
+was a blessing, as she would have fallen into misery and poverty after
+her beauty had once decayed.
+
+I desired to succeed with Madame Prote, and with that idea I asked her to
+dinner at Locatelli's with Luini, Colonna, Zinowieff, Signora Vicenza,
+and a violinist, her lover. We had an excellent dinner washed down with
+plenty of wine, and the spirits of the company were wound up to the pitch
+I desired. After the repast each gentleman went apart with his lady, and
+I was on the point of success when an untoward accident interrupted us.
+We were summoned to see the proofs of Luini's prowess; he had gone out
+shooting with his dogs and guns.
+
+As I was walking away from Catherinhoff with Zinowieff I noticed a young
+country-woman whose beauty astonished me. I pointed her out to the young
+officer, and we made for her; but she fled away with great activity to a
+little cottage, where we followed her. We went in and saw the father,
+mother, and some children, and in a corner the timid form of the fair
+maiden.
+
+Zinowieff (who, by the way, was for twenty years Russian ambassador at
+Madrid) had a long conversation in Russian with the father. I did not
+understand what was said, but I guessed it referred to the girl because,
+when her father called her, she advanced submissively, and stood modestly
+before us.
+
+The conversation over, Zinowieff went out, and I followed him after
+giving the master of the house a rouble. Zinowieff told me what had
+passed, saying that he had asked the father if he would let him have the
+daughter as a maid-servant, and the father had replied that it should be
+so with all his heart, but that he must have a hundred roubles for her,
+as she was still a virgin. "So you see," added Zinowieff, "the matter is
+quite simple."
+
+"How simple?"
+
+"Why, yes; only a hundred roubles."
+
+"And supposing me to be inclined to give that sum?"
+
+"Then she would be your servant, and you could do anything you liked with
+her, except kill her."
+
+"And supposing she is not willing?"
+
+"That never happens, but if it did you could have beaten her."
+
+"Well, if she is satisfied and I enjoy her, can I still continue to keep
+her?"
+
+"You will be her master, I tell you, and can have her arrested if she
+attempts to escape, unless she can return the hundred roubles you gave
+for her."
+
+"What must I give her per month?"
+
+"Nothing, except enough to eat and drink. You must also let her go to the
+baths on Saturday and to the church on Sunday."
+
+"Can I make her come with me when I leave St. Petersburg?"
+
+"No, unless you obtain permission and find a surety, for though the girl
+would be your slave she would still be a slave to the empress."
+
+"Very good; then will you arrange this matter for me? I will give the
+hundred roubles, and I promise you I will not treat her as a slave. But I
+hope you will care for my interests, as I do not wish to be duped."
+
+"I promise you you shall not be duped; I will see to everything. Would
+you like her now?"
+
+"No, to-morrow."
+
+"Very good; then to-morrow it shall be."
+
+We returned to St. Petersburg in a phaeton, and the next day at nine
+o'clock I called on Zinowieff, who said he was delighted to do me this
+small service. On the way he said that if I liked he could get me a
+perfect seraglio of pretty girls in a few days.
+
+"No," said I, "one is enough." And I gave him the hundred roubles.
+
+We arrived at the cottage, where we found the father, mother, and
+daughter. Zinowieff explained his business crudely enough, after the
+custom of the country, and the father thanked St. Nicholas for the good
+luck he had sent him. He spoke to his daughter, who looked at me and
+softly uttered the necessary yes.
+
+Zinowieff then told me that I ought to ascertain that matters were
+intact, as I was going to pay for a virgin. I was afraid of offending
+her, and would have nothing to do with it; but Zinowieff said the girl
+would be mortified if I did not examine her, and that she would be
+delighted if I place her in a position to prove before her father and
+mother that her conduct had always been virtuous. I therefore made the
+examination as modestly as I could, and I found her to be intact. To tell
+the truth, I should not have said anything if things had been otherwise.
+
+Zinowieff then gave the hundred roubles to the father, who handed them to
+his daughter, and she only took them to return them to her mother. My
+servant and coachman were then called in to witness as arrangement of
+which they knew nothing.
+
+I called her Zaira, and she got into the carriage and returned with me to
+St. Petersburg in her coarse clothes, without a chemise of any kind.
+After I had dropped Zinowieff at his lodging I went home, and for four
+days I was engaged in collecting and arranging my slave's toilet, not
+resting till I had dressed her modestly in the French style. In less than
+three months she had learnt enough Italian to tell me what she wanted and
+to understand me. She soon loved me, and afterwards she got jealous. But
+we shall hear more of her in the following chapter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+Crevecoeur--Bomback--Journey to Moscow--My Adventures At St. Petersburg
+
+The day on which I took Zaira I sent Lambert away, for I did not know
+what to do with him. He got drunk every day, and when in his cups he was
+unbearable. Nobody would have anything to say to him except as a common
+soldier, and that is not an enviable position in Russia. I got him a
+passport for Berlin, and gave him enough money for the journey. I heard
+afterwards that he entered the Austrian service.
+
+In May, Zaira had become so beautiful that when I went to Moscow I dared
+not leave her behind me, so I took her in place of a servant. It was
+delicious to me to hear her chattering in the Venetian dialect I had
+taught her. On a Saturday I would go with her to the bath where thirty of
+forty naked men and women were bathing together without the slightest
+constraint. This absence of shame must arise, I should imagine, from
+native innocence; but I wondered that none looked at Zaira, who seemed to
+me the original of the statue of Psyche I had seen at the Villa Borghese
+at Rome. She was only fourteen, so her breast was not yet developed, and
+she bore about her few traces of puberty. Her skin was as white as snow,
+and her ebony tresses covered the whole of her body, save in a few places
+where the dazzling whiteness of her skin shone through. Her eyebrows were
+perfectly shaped, and her eyes, though they might have been larger, could
+not have been more brilliant or more expressive. If it had not been for
+her furious jealousy and her blind confidence in fortune-telling by
+cards, which she consulted every day, Zaira would have been a paragon
+among women, and I should never have left her.
+
+A young and distinguished-looking Frenchman came to St. Petersburg with a
+young Parisian named La Riviere, who was tolerably pretty but quite
+devoid of education, unless it were that education common to all the
+girls who sell their charms in Paris. This young man came to me with a
+letter from Prince Charles of Courland, who said that if I could do
+anything for the young couple he would be grateful to me. They arrived
+just as I was breakfasting with Zaira.
+
+"You must tell me," said I to the young Frenchman, "in what way I can be
+of use to you."
+
+"By admitting us to your company, and introducing us to your friends."
+
+"Well, I am a stranger here, and I will come and see you, and you can
+come and see me, and I shall be delighted; but I never dine at home. As
+to my friends, you must feel that, being a stranger, I could not
+introduce you and the lady. Is she your wife? People will ask me who you
+are, and what you are doing at St. Petersburg. What am I to say? I wonder
+Prince Charles did not send you to someone else."
+
+"I am a gentleman of Lorraine, and Madame la Riviere is my mistress, and
+my object in coming to St. Petersburg is to amuse myself."
+
+"Then I don't know to whom I could introduce you under the circumstances;
+but I should think you will be able to find plenty of amusement without
+knowing anyone. The theatres, the streets, and even the Court
+entertainments, are open to everyone. I suppose you have plenty of
+money?"
+
+"That's exactly what I haven't got, and I don't expect any either."
+
+"Well, I have not much more, but you really astonish me. How could you
+have been so foolish as to come here without money?"
+
+"Well, my mistress said we could do with what money we got from day to
+day. She induced me to leave Paris without a farthing, and up to now it
+seems to me that she is right. We have managed to get on somehow."
+
+"Then she has the purse?"
+
+"My purse," said she, "is in the pockets of my friends."
+
+"I understand, and I am sure you have no difficulty in finding the
+wherewithal to live. If I had such a purse, it should be opened for you,
+but I am not a rich man."
+
+Bomback, a citizen of Hamburg, whom I had known in England whence he had
+fled on account of his debts, had come to St. Petersburg and entered the
+army. He was the son of a rich merchant and kept up a house, a carriage,
+and an army of servants; he was a lover of good cheer, women, and
+gambling, and contracted debts everywhere. He was an ugly man, but full
+of wit and energy. He happened to call on me just as I was addressing the
+strange traveller whose purse was in the pocket of her friends. I
+introduced the couple to him, telling the whole story, the item of the
+purse excepted. The adventure was just to Bomback's taste, and he began
+making advances to Madame la Riviere, who received them in a thoroughly
+professional spirit, and I was inwardly amused and felt that her axiom
+was a true one. Bomback asked them to dine with him the next day, and
+begged them to come and take an unceremonious dinner the same day with
+him at Crasnacaback. I was included in the invitation, and Zaira, not
+understanding French, asked me what we were talking about, and on my
+telling her expressed a desire to accompany me. I gave in to appease her,
+for I knew the wish proceeded from jealousy, and that if I did not
+consent I should be tormented by tears, ill-humour, reproaches,
+melancholy, etc. This had occurred several times before, and so violent
+had she been that I had been compelled to conform to the custom of the
+country and beat her. Strange to say, I could not have taken a better way
+to prove my love. Such is the character of the Russian women. After the
+blows had been given, by slow degrees she became affectionate again, and
+a love encounter sealed the reconciliation.
+
+Bomback left us to make his preparations in high spirits, and while Zaira
+was dressing, Madame Riviere talked in such a manner as to make me almost
+think that I was absolutely deficient in knowledge of the world. The
+astonishing thing was that her lover did not seem in the least ashamed of
+the part he had to play. He might say that he was in love with the
+Messalina, but the excuse would not have been admissible.
+
+The party was a merry one. Bomback talked to the adventuress, Zaira sat
+on my knee, and Crevecoeur ate and drank, laughed in season and out of
+season, and walked up and down. The crafty Madame Riviere incited Bomback
+to risk twenty-five roubles at quinze; he lost and paid pleasantly, and
+only got a kiss for his money. Zaira, who was delighted to be able to
+watch over me and my fidelity, jested pleasantly on the Frenchwoman and
+the complaisance of her lover. This was altogether beyond her
+comprehension, and she could not understand how he could bear such deeds
+as were done before his face.
+
+The next day I went to Bomback by myself, as I was sure of meeting young
+Russian officers, who would have annoyed me by making love to Zaira in
+their own language. I found the two travellers and the brothers Lunin,
+then lieutenants but now generals. The younger of them was as fair and
+pretty as any girl. He had been the beloved of the minister Teploff, and,
+like a lad of wit, he not only was not ashamed but openly boasted that it
+was his custom to secure the good-will of all men by his caresses.
+
+He had imagined the rich citizen of Hamburg to be of the same tastes as
+Teploff, and he had not been mistaken; and so he degraded me by forming
+the same supposition. With this idea he seated himself next to me at
+table, and behaved himself in such a manner during dinner that I began to
+believe him to be a girl in man's clothes.
+
+After dinner, as I was sitting at the fire, between him and the
+Frenchman, I imparted my suspicions to him; but jealous of the
+superiority of his sex, he displayed proof of it on the spot, and
+forthwith got hold of me and put himself in a position to make my
+happiness and his own as he called it. I confess, to my shame, that he
+might perhaps have succeeded, if Madame la Riviere, indignant at this
+encroachment of her peculiar province, had not made him desist.
+
+Lunin the elder, Crevecceur, and Bomback, who had been for a walk,
+returned at nightfall with two or three friends, and easily consoled the
+Frenchman for the poor entertainment the younger Lunin and myself had
+given him.
+
+Bomback held a bank at faro, which only came to an end at eleven, when
+the money was all gone. We then supped, and the real orgy began, in which
+la Riviere bore the brunt in a manner that was simply astonishing. I and
+my friend Lunin were merely spectators, and poor Crevecoeur had gone to
+bed. We did not separate till day-break.
+
+I got home, and, fortunately for myself, escaped the bottle which Zaira
+flung at my head, and which would infallibly have killed me if it had hit
+me. She threw herself on to the ground, and began to strike it with her
+forehead. I thought she had gone mad, and wondered whether I had better
+call for assistance; but she became quiet enough to call me assassin and
+traitor, with all the other abusive epithets that she could remember. To
+convict me of my crime she shewed me twenty-five cards, placed in order,
+and on them she displayed the various enormities of which I had been
+guilty.
+
+I let her go on till her rage was somewhat exhausted, and then, having
+thrown her divining apparatus into the fire, I looked at her in pity and
+anger, and said that we must part the next day, as she had narrowly
+escaped killing me. I confessed that I had been with Bomback, and that
+there had been a girl in the house; but I denied all the other sins of
+which she accused me. I then went to sleep without taking the slightest
+notice of her, in spite of all she said and did to prove her repentance.
+
+I woke after a few hours to find her sleeping soundly, and I began to
+consider how I could best rid myself of the girl, who would probably kill
+me if we continued living together. Whilst I was absorbed in these
+thoughts she awoke, and falling at my feet wept and professed her utter
+repentance, and promised never to touch another card as long as I kept
+her.
+
+At last I could resist her entreaties no longer, so I took her in my arms
+and forgave her; and we did not part till she had received undeniable
+proofs of the return of my affection. I intended to start for Moscow in
+three days, and she was delighted when she heard she was to go.
+
+Three circumstances had won me this young girl's furious affection. In
+the first place I often took her to see her family, with whom I always
+left a rouble; in the second I made her eat with me; and in the third I
+had beaten her three or four times when she had tried to prevent me going
+out.
+
+In Russia beating is a matter of necessity, for words have no force
+whatever. A servant, mistress, or courtezan understands nothing but the
+lash. Words are altogether thrown away, but a few good strokes are
+entirely efficacious. The servant, whose soul is still more enslaved than
+his body, reasons somewhat as follows, after he has had a beating:
+
+"My master has not sent me away, but beaten me; therefore he loves me,
+and I ought to be attached to him."
+
+It is the same with the Russian soldier, and in fact with everybody.
+Honour stands for nothing, but with the knout and brandy one can get
+anything from them except heroical enthusiasm.
+
+Papanelopulo laughed at me when I said that as I liked my Cossack I
+should endeavour to correct him with words only when he took too much
+brandy.
+
+"If you do not beat him," he said, "he will end by beating you;" and he
+spoke the truth.
+
+One day, when he was so drunk as to be unable to attend on me, I began to
+scold him, and threatened him with the stick if he did not mend his ways.
+As soon as he saw my cane lifted, he ran at me and got hold of it; and if
+I had not knocked him down immediately, he would doubtless have beaten
+me. I dismissed him on the spot. There is not a better servant in the
+world than a Russian. He works without ceasing, sleeps in front of the
+door of his master's bedroom to be always ready to fulfil his orders,
+never answering his reproaches, incapable of theft. But after drinking a
+little too much brandy he becomes a perfect monster; and drunkenness is
+the vice of the whole nation.
+
+A coachman knows no other way of resisting the bitter cold to which he is
+exposed, than by drinking rye brandy. It sometimes happens that he drinks
+till he falls asleep, and then there is no awaking for him in this world.
+Unless one is very careful, it is easy to lose an ear, the nose, a cheek,
+or a lip by frost bites. One day as I was walking out on a bitterly cold
+day, a Russian noticed that one of my ears was frozen. He ran up to me
+and rubbed the affected part with a handful of snow till the circulation
+was restored. I asked him how he had noticed my state, and he said he had
+remarked the livid whiteness of my ear, and this, he said, was always a
+sign that the frost had taken it. What surprised me most of all is that
+sometimes the part grows again after it has dropped off. Prince Charles
+of Courland assured me that he had cost his nose in Siberia, and that it
+had grown again the next summer. I have been assured of the truth of this
+by several Russians.
+
+About this time the empress made the architect Rinaldi, who had been
+fifty years in St. Petersburg, build her an enormous wooden amphitheatre
+so large as to cover the whole of the space in front of the palace. It
+would contain a hundred thousand spectators, and in it Catherine intended
+to give a vast tournament to all the knights of her empire. There were to
+be four parties of a hundred knights each, and all the cavaliers were to
+be clad in the national costume of the nations they represented. All the
+Russians were informed of this great festival, which was to be given at
+the expense of the sovereign, and the princes, counts, and barons were
+already arriving with their chargers from the most remote parts of the
+empire. Prince Charles of Courland wrote informing me of his intention to
+be present.
+
+It had been ordained, that the tournament should take place on the first
+fine day, and this precaution was a very wise one; for, excepting in the
+season of the hard frosts, a day without rain, or snow, or wind, is a
+marvel. In Italy, Spain, and France, one can reckon on fine weather, and
+bad weather is the exception, but it is quite the contrary in Russia.
+Ever since I have known this home of frost and the cold north wind, I
+laugh when I hear travelling Russians talking of the fine climate of
+their native country. However, it is a pardonable weakness, most of us
+prefer "mine" to "thine;" nobles affect to consider themselves of purer
+blood than the peasants from whom they sprang, and the Romans and other
+ancient nations pretended that they were the children of the gods, to
+draw a veil over their actual ancestors who were doubtless robbers. The
+truth is, that during the whole year 1756 there was not one fine day in
+Russia, or in Ingria at all events, and the mere proofs of this statement
+may be found in the fact that the tournament was not held in that year.
+It was postponed till the next, and the princes, counts, barons, and
+knights spent the winter in the capital, unless their purses forbade them
+to indulge in the luxuries of Court life. The dear Prince of Courland was
+in this case, to my great disappointment.
+
+Having made all arrangements for my journey to Moscow, I got into my
+sleeping carriage with Zaira, having a servant behind who could speak
+both Russian and German. For twenty-four roubles the chevochic (hirer out
+of horses) engaged to carry me to Moscow in six days and seven nights
+with six horses. This struck me as being extremely cheap. The distance is
+seventy-two Russian stages, almost equivalent to five hundred Italian
+miles, or a hundred and sixty French leagues.
+
+We set out just as a cannon shot from the citadel announced the close of
+day. It was towards the end of May, in which month there is literally no
+night at St. Petersburg. Without the report of the cannon no one would be
+able to tell when the day ended and the night began. One can read a
+letter at midnight, and the moonlight makes no appreciable difference.
+This continual day lasts for eight weeks, and during that time no one
+lights a candle. At Moscow it is different; a candle is always necessary
+at midnight if one wished to read.
+
+We reached Novgorod in forty-eight hours, and here the chevochic allowed
+us a rest of five hours. I saw a circumstance there which surprised me
+very much, though one has no business to be surprised at anything if one
+travels much, and especially in a land of half savages. I asked the
+chevochic to drink, but he appeared to be in great melancholy. I enquired
+what was the matter, and he told Zaira that one of his horses had refused
+to eat, and that it was clear that if he could not eat he could not work.
+We followed him into the stable, and found the horse looking oppressed by
+care, its head lowered and motionless; it had evidently got no appetite.
+His master began a pathetic oration, looking tenderly at the animal, as
+if to arouse it to a sense of duty, and then taking its head, and kissing
+it lovingly, he put it into the manger, but to no purpose. Then the man
+began to weep bitterly, but in such a way that I had the greatest
+difficulty to prevent myself laughing, for I could see that he wept in
+the hope that his tears might soften the brute's heart. When he had wept
+some time he again put the horse's head into the manger, but again to no
+purpose. At this he got furious and swore to be avenged. He led the horse
+out of the stable, tied it to a post, and beat it with a thick stick for
+a quarter of an hour so violently that my heart bled for the poor animal.
+At last the chevochic was tired out, and taking the horse back to the
+stable he fastened up his head once more, and to my astonishment it began
+to devour its provender with the greatest appetite. At this the master
+jumped for joy, laughed, sang, and committed a thousand extravagancies,
+as if to shew the horse how happy it had made him. I was beside myself
+with astonishment, and concluded that such treatment would have succeeded
+nowhere but in Russia, where the stick seems to be the panacea or
+universal medicine.
+
+They tell me, however, that the stick is gradually going out of fashion.
+Peter the Great used to beat his generals black and blue, and in his days
+a lieutenant had to receive with all submission the cuffs of his captain,
+who bent before the blows of his major, who did the same to his colonel,
+who received chastisement from his general. So I was informed by old
+General Woyakoff, who was a pupil of Peter the Great, and had often been
+beaten by the great emperor, the founder of St. Petersburg.
+
+It seems to me that I have scarcely said anything about this great and
+famous capital, which in my opinion is built on somewhat precarious
+foundations. No one but Peter could have thus given the lie to Nature by
+building his immense palaces of marble and granite on mud and shifting
+sand. They tell me that the town is now in its manhood, to the honour of
+the great Catherine; but in the year 1765 it was still in its minority,
+and seemed to me only to have been built with the childish aim of seeing
+it fall into ruins. Streets were built with the certainty of having to
+repair them in six months' time. The whole place proclaimed itself to be
+the whim of a despot. If it is to be durable constant care will be
+required, for nature never gives up its rights and reasserts them when
+the constraint of man is withdrawn. My theory is that sooner or later the
+soil must give way and drag the vast city with it.
+
+We reached Moscow in the time the chevochic had promised. As the same
+horses were used for the whole journey, it would have been impossible to
+travel mote quickly. A Russian told me that the Empress Elizabeth had
+done the journey in fifty-two hours.
+
+"You mean that she issued a ukase to the effect that she had done it,"
+said a Russian of the old school; "and if she had liked she could have
+travelled more quickly still; it was only a question of the wording of
+the ukase."
+
+Even when I was in Russia it was not allowable to doubt the infallibility
+of a ukase, and to do so was, equivalent to high treason. One day I was
+crossing a canal at St. Petersburg by a small wooden bridge; Melissino
+Papanelopulo, and some other Russians were with me. I began to abuse the
+wooden bridge, which I characterized as both mean and dangerous. One of
+my companions said that on such a day it would be replaced by a fine
+stone bridge, as the empress had to pass there on some state occasion.
+The day named way three weeks off, and I said plainly that it was
+impossible. One of the Russians looked askance at me, and said there was
+no doubt about it, as a ukase had been published ordering that the bridge
+should be built. I was going to answer him, but Papanelopulo gave my hand
+a squeeze, and whispered "Taci!" (hush).
+
+The bridge was not built, but I was not justified, for the empress
+published another ukase in which she declared it to be her gracious
+pleasure that the bridge should not be built till the following year. If
+anyone would see what a pure despotism is like, let him go to Russia.
+
+The Russian sovereigns use the language of despotism on all occasions.
+One day I saw the empress, dressed in man's clothes, going out for a
+ride. Her master of the horse, Prince Repnin, held the bridle of the
+horse, which suddenly gave him a kick which broke his anklebone. The
+empress instantly ordained that the horse should be taken away, and that
+no one should mount it again under pain of death. All official positions
+in Russia have military rank assigned to them, and this sufficiently
+indicates the nature of the Government. The coachman-in-chief of her
+imperial highness holds the rank of colonel, as also does her chief cook.
+The castrato Luini was a lieutenant-colonel, and the painter Toretti only
+a captain, because he had only eight hundred roubles a year, while the
+coachman had three thousand. The sentinels at the doors of the palace
+have their muskets crossed, and ask those who wish to pass through what
+is their rank. When I was asked this question, I stopped short; but the
+quick-witted officer asked me how much I had a year, and on my replying,
+at a hazard, three thousand roubles, he gave me the rank of general, and
+I was allowed to pass. I saw the czarina for a moment; she stopped at the
+door and took off her gloves to give her hands to be kissed by the
+officer and the two sentinels. By such means as this she had won the
+affection of the corps, commanded by Gregorius Gregorovitch Orloff, on
+which her safety depended in case of revolution.
+
+I made the following notes when I saw the empress hearing mass in her
+chapel. The protopapa, or bishop, received her at the door to give her
+the holy water, and she kissed his episcopal ring, while the prelate,
+whose beard was a couple of feet in length, lowered his head to kiss the
+hands of his temporal sovereign and spiritual head, for in Russia the he
+or she on the throne is the spiritual as well as temporal head of the
+Church.
+
+She did not evidence the least devotion during mass; hypocrisy did not
+seem to be one of her vices. Now she smiled at one of her suite, now at
+another, and occasionally she addressed the favourite, not because she
+had anything to say to him, but to make him an object of envy to the
+others.
+
+One evening, as she was leaving the theatre where Metastasio's Olympiade
+had been performed, I heard her say,--
+
+"The music of that opera has given the greatest pleasure to everyone, so
+of course I am delighted with it; but it wearies me, nevertheless. Music
+is a fine thing, but I cannot understand how anyone who is seriously
+occupied can love it passionately. I will have Buranello here, and I
+wonder whether he will interest me in music, but I am afraid nature did
+not constitute me to feel all its charms."
+
+She always argued in that way. In due time I will set down her words to
+me when I returned from Moscow. When I arrived at that city I got down at
+a good inn, where they gave me two rooms and a coach-house for my
+carriage. After dinner I hired a small carriage and a guide who could
+speak French. My carriage was drawn by four horses, for Moscow is a vast
+city composed of four distinct towns, and many of the streets are rough
+and ill-paved. I had five or six letters of introduction, and I
+determined to take them all. I took Zaira with me, as she was as curious
+to see everything as a girl of fourteen naturally is. I do not remember
+what feast the Greek Church was keeping on that day, but I shall never
+forget the terrific bell-ringing with which my ears were assailed, for
+there are churches every where. The country people were engaged in sowing
+their grain, to reap it in September. They laughed at our Southern custom
+of sowing eight months earlier, as unnecessary and even prejudicial to
+the crops, but I do not know where the right lies. Perhaps we may both be
+right, for there is no master to compare with experience. I took all the
+introductions I had received from Narischkin, Prince Repnin, the worthy
+Pananelopulo, and Melissino's brother. The next morning the whole of the
+persons at whose houses I had left letters called on me. They all asked
+Zaira and myself to dinner, and I accepted the invitation of the first
+comer, M. Dinidoff, and promised to dine with the rest on the following
+days, Zaira, who had been tutored by me to some extent, was delighted to
+shew me that she was worthy of the position she occupied. She was
+exquisitely dressed, and won golden opinions everywhere, for our hosts
+did not care to enquire whether she were my daughter, my mistress, or my
+servant, for in this matter, as in many others, the Russians are
+excessively indulgent. Those who have not seen Moscow have not seen
+Russia, for the people of St, Petersburg are not really Russians at all.
+Their court manners are very different from their manners 'au naturel',
+and it may be said with truth that the true Russian is as a stranger in
+St. Petersburg. The citizens of, Moscow, and especially the rich ones,
+speak with pity of those, who for one reason or another, had expatriated
+themselves; and with them to expatriate one's self is to leave Moscow,
+which they consider as their native land. They look on St. Petersburg
+with an envious eye, and call it the ruin of Russia. I do not know
+whether this is a just view to take of the case, I merely repeat what I
+have heard.
+
+In the course of a week I saw all the sights of Moscow--the
+manufacturers, the churches, the remains of the old days, the museums,
+the libraries, (of no interest to my mind), not forgetting the famous
+bell. I noticed that their bells are not allowed to swing like ours, but
+are motionless, being rung by a rope attached to the clapper.
+
+I thought the Moscow women more handsome than those of St. Petersburg,
+and I attribute this to the great superiority of the air. They are gentle
+and accessible by nature; and to obtain the favour of a kiss on the lips,
+one need only make a show of kissing their hands.
+
+There was good fare in plenty, but no delicacy in its composition or
+arrangement. Their table is always open to friends and acquaintances, and
+a friend may bring to five or six persons to dinner, and even at the end
+of the meals you will never hear a Russian say, "We have had dinner; you
+have come too late." Their souls are not black enough for them to
+pronounce such words as this. Notice is given to the cook, and the dinner
+begins over again. They have a delicious drink, the name of which I do
+not remember; but it is much superior to the sherbet of Constantinople.
+The numerous servants are not given water, but a light, nourishing, and
+agreeable fluid, which may be purchased very cheaply. They all hold St.
+Nicholas in the greatest reverence, only praying to God through the
+mediation of this saint, whose picture is always suspended in the
+principal room of the house. A person coming in makes first a bow to the
+image and then a bow to the master, and if perchance the image is absent,
+the Russian, after gazing all round, stands confused and motionless, not
+knowing what to do. As a general rule the Muscovites are the most
+superstitious Christians in the world. Their liturgy is in Greek, of
+which the people understand nothing, and the clergy, themselves extremely
+ignorant, gladly leave them completely in the dark on all matters
+connected with religion. I could never make them understand that the only
+reason for the Roman Christians making the sign of the Cross from left to
+right, while the Greeks make it from right to left, is that we say
+'spiritus sancti', while they say 'agion pneuma'.
+
+"If you said pneuma agion," I used to say, "then you would cross yourself
+like us, and if we said sancti spiritus we should cross ourselves like
+you."
+
+"The adjective," replied my interlocutor, "should always precede the
+substantive, for we should never utter the name of God without first
+giving Him some honourable epithet."
+
+Such are nearly all the differences which divide the two churches,
+without reckoning the numerous idle tales which they have as well as
+ourselves, and which are by no means the least cherished articles of
+their faith.
+
+We returned to St. Petersburg by the way we had come, but Zaira would
+have liked me never to leave Moscow. She had become so much in love with
+me by force of constant association that I could not think without a pang
+of the moment of separation. The day after our arrival in the capital I
+took her to her home, where she shewed her father all the little presents
+I had given her, and told him of the honour she had received as my
+daughter, which made the good man laugh heartily.
+
+The first piece of news I heard was that a ukase had been issued,
+ordering the erection of a temple dedicated to God in the Moscoi opposite
+to the house where I resided. The empress had entrusted Rinaldi, the
+architect, with the erection. He asked her what emblem he should put
+above the portal, and she replied,--
+
+"No emblem at all, only the name of God in large letters."
+
+"I will put a triangle."
+
+"No triangle at all; but only the name of God in whatever language you
+like, and nothing more."
+
+The second piece of news was that Bomback had fled and had been captured
+at Mitau, where he believed himself in safety. M. de Simolia had arrested
+him. It was a grave case, for he had deserted; however, he was given his
+life, and sent into barracks at Kamstchatka. Crevecoeur and his mistress
+had departed, carrying some money with them, and a Florentine adventurer
+named Billotti had fled with eighteen thousand roubles belonging to
+Papanelopulo, but a certain Bori, the worthy Greek's factotum, had caught
+him at Mitau and brought him back to St. Petersburg, where he was now in
+prison. Prince Charles of Courland arrived about this time, and I
+hastened to call upon him as soon as he advised me of his coming. He was
+lodging in a house belonging to Count Dimidoff, who owned large iron
+mines, and had made the whole house of iron, from attic to basement. The
+prince had brought his mistress with him, but she was still in an
+ill-humour, and he was beginning to get heartily sick of her. The man was
+to be pitied, for he could not get rid of her without finding her a
+husband, and this husband became more difficult to find every day. When
+the prince saw how happy I was with my Zaira, he could not help thinking
+how easily happiness may be won; but the fatal desire for luxury and
+empty show spoils all, and renders the very sweets of life as bitter as
+gall.
+
+I was indeed considered happy, and I liked to appear so, but in my heart
+I was wretched. Ever since my imprisonment under The Leads, I had been
+subject to haemorrhoids, which came on three or four times a year. At St.
+Petersburg I had a serious attack, and the daily pain and anxiety
+embittered my existence. A vegetarian doctor called Senapios, for whom I
+had sent, gave me the sad news that I had a blind or incomplete fistula
+in the rectum, and according to him nothing but the cruel pistoury would
+give me any relief, and indeed he said I had no time to lose. I had to
+agree, in spite of my dislike to the operation; but fortunately the
+clever surgeon whom the doctor summoned pronounced that if I would have
+patience nature itself would give me relief. I had much to endure,
+especially from the severe dieting to which I was subjected, but which
+doubtless did me good.
+
+Colonel Melissino asked me to be present at a review which was to take
+place at three versts from St. Petersburg, and was to be succeeded by a
+dinner to twenty-four guests, given by General Orloff. I went with the
+prince, and saw a cannon fired twenty times in a minute, testing the
+performance with my watch.
+
+My neighbour at dinner was the French ambassador. Wishing to drink
+deeply, after the Russian fashion, and thinking the Hungarian wine as
+innocent as champagne, he drank so bravely that at the end of dinner he
+had lost the use of his legs. Count Orloff made him drink still more, and
+then he fell asleep and was laid on a bed.
+
+The gaiety of the meal gave me some idea of Russian wit. I did not
+understand the language, so M. Zinowieff translated the curious sallies
+to me while the applause they had raised was still resounding.
+
+Melissino rose to his feet, holding a large goblet full of Hungarian wine
+in his hand. There was a general silence to listen to him. He drank the
+health of General Orloff in these words:
+
+"May you die when you become rich."
+
+The applause was general, for the allusion was to the unbounded
+generosity of Orloff. The general's reply struck me as better still, but
+it was equally rugged in character. He, too, took a full cup, and turning
+to Melissino, said,
+
+"May you never die till I slay you!"
+
+The applause was furious, for he was their host and their general.
+
+The Russian wit is of the energetic kind, devoid of grace; all they care
+about is directness and vigour.
+
+Voltaire had just sent the empress his "Philosophy of History," which he
+had written for her and dedicated to her. A month after, an edition of
+three thousand copies came by sea, and was sold out in a week, for all
+the Russians who knew a little French were eager to possess a copy of the
+work. The leaders of the Voltaireans were two noblemen, named,
+respectively, Stroganoff and Schuvaloff. I have seen verses written by
+the former of these as good as Voltaire's own verses, and twenty years
+later I saw an ode by the latter of which Voltaire would not have been
+ashamed, but the subject was ill chosen; for it treated of the death of
+the great philosopher who had so studiously avoided using his pen on
+melancholy themes. In those days all Russians with any pretensions to
+literature read nothing but Voltaire, and when they had read all his
+writings they thought themselves as wise as their master. To me they
+seemed pigmies mimicking a giant. I told them that they ought to read all
+the books from which Voltaire had drawn his immense learning, and then,
+perhaps, they might become as wise as he. I remember the saying of a wise
+man at Rome: "Beware of the man of one book." I wonder whether the
+Russians are more profound now; but that is a question I cannot answer.
+At Dresden I knew Prince Biloselski, who was on his way back to Russia
+after having been ambassador at Turin. He was the author of an admirable
+world on metaphysics, and the analysis of the soul and reason.
+
+Count Panin was the tutor of Paul Petrovitch, heir-presumptive to the
+throne. The young prince had a severe master, and dared not even applaud
+an air at the opera unless he first received permission to do so from his
+mentor.
+
+When a courier brought the news of the sudden death of Francis I.,
+Emperor of Germany and of the Holy Roman Empire, the czarina being at
+Czarsko-Zelo, the count minister-tutor was in the palace with his pupil,
+then eleven years old. The courier came at noon, and gave the dispatch
+into the hands of the minister, who was standing in the midst of a crowd
+of courtiers of whom I was one. The prince imperial was at his right
+hand. The minister read the dispatch in a low voice, and then said:
+
+"This is news indeed. The Emperor of the Romans has died suddenly."
+
+He then turned to Paul, and said to him,--
+
+"Full court mourning, which your highness will observe for three months
+longer than the empress."
+
+"Why so?" said Paul.
+
+"Because, as Duke of Holstein, your highness has a right to attend the
+diet of the empire, a privilege," he added, turning to us, "which Peter
+the Great desired in vain."
+
+I noted the attention with which the Grand Duke Paul listened to his
+mentor, and the care with which he concealed his joy at the news. I was
+immensely pleased with this way of giving instruction. I said as much to
+Prince Lobkowitz, who was standing by me, and he refined on my praises.
+This prince was popular with everyone. He was even preferred to his
+predecessor, Prince Esterhazy; and this was saying a great deal, for
+Esterhazy was adored in Russia. The gay and affable manner of Prince
+Lobkowitz made him the life and soul of all the parties at which he was
+present. He was a constant courtier of the Countess Braun, the reigning
+beauty, and everyone believed his love had been crowned with success,
+though no one could assert as much positively.
+
+There was a great review held at a distance of twelve or fourteen versts
+from St. Petersburg, at which the empress and all her train of courtiers
+were present. The houses of the two or three adjoining villages were so
+few and small that it would be impossible for all the company to find a
+lodging. Nevertheless I wished to be present chiefly to please Zaira, who
+wanted to be seen with me on such an occasion. The review was to last
+three days; there were to be fireworks, and a mine was to be exploded
+besides the evolutions of the troops. I went in my travelling carriage,
+which would serve me for a lodging if I could get nothing better.
+
+We arrived at the appointed place at eight o'clock in the morning; the
+evolutions lasted till noon. When they were over we went towards a tavern
+and had our meal served to us in the carriage, as all the rooms in the
+inn were full.
+
+After dinner my coachman tried in vain to find me a lodging, so I
+disposed myself to sleep all night in the carriage; and so I did for the
+whole time of the review, and fared better than those who had spent so
+much money to be ill lodged. Melissino told me that the empress thought
+my idea a very sensible one. As I was the only person who had a sleeping
+carriage, which was quite a portable house in itself, I had numerous
+visitors, and Zaira was radiant to be able to do the honours.
+
+I had a good deal of conversation during the review with Count Tott,
+brother of the nobleman who was employed at Constantinople, and known as
+Baron Tott. We had known each other at Paris, and afterwards at the
+Hague, where I had the pleasure of being of service to him. He had come
+to St. Petersburg with Madame de Soltikoff, whom he had met at Paris, and
+whose lover he was. He lived with her, went to Court, and was well
+received by everyone.
+
+Two or three years after, the empress ordered him to leave St. Petersburg
+on account of the troubles in Poland. It was said that he kept up a
+correspondence with his brother, who was endeavouring to intercept the
+fleet under the command of Alexis Orloff. I never heard what became of
+him after he left Russia, where he obliged me with the loan of five
+hundred roubles, which I have not yet been able to return to him.
+
+M. Maruzzi, by calling a Venetian merchant, and by birth a Greek, having
+left trade to live like a gentleman, came to St. Petersburg when I was
+there, and was presented at Court. He was a fine-looking man, and was
+admitted to all the great houses. The empress treated him with
+distinction because she had thoughts of making him her agent at Venice.
+He paid his court to the Countess Braun, but he had rivals there who were
+not afraid of him. He was rich enough, but did not know how to spend his
+money; and avarice is a sin which meets with no pity from the Russian
+ladies.
+
+I went to Czarsko-Zelo, Peterhoff, and Cronstadt, for if you want to say
+you have been in a country you should see as much as possible of it. I
+wrote notes and memorandums on several questions with the hope of their
+procuring me a place in the civil service, and all my productions were
+laid before the empress but with no effect. In Russia they do not think
+much of foreigners unless they have specially summoned them; those who
+come of their own account rarely make much, and I suspect the Russians
+are right.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+I See the Empress--My Conversations with Her--The Valville--I Leave Zaiya
+I Leave St. Petersburg and Arrive at Warsaw--The Princes Adam Czartoryski
+and Sulkowski--The King of Poland--Theatrical Intrigues--Byanicki
+
+I thought of leaving Russia at the beginning of the autumn, but I was
+told by M M. Panin and Alsuwieff that I ought not to go without having
+spoken to the empress.
+
+"I should be sorry to do so," I replied, "but as I can't find anyone to
+present me to her, I must be resigned."
+
+At last Panin told me to walk in a garden frequented by her majesty at an
+early hour, and he said that meeting me, as it were by chance, she would
+probably speak to me. I told him I should like him to be with her, and he
+accordingly named a day.
+
+I repaired to the garden, and as I walked about I marvelled at the
+statuary it contained, all the statues being made of the worst stone, and
+executed in the worst possible taste. The names cut beneath them gave the
+whole the air of a practical joke. A weeping statue was Democritus;
+another, with grinning mouth, was labelled Heraclitus; an old man with a
+long beard was Sappho; and an old woman, Avicenna; and so on.
+
+As I was smiling at this extraordinary collection, I saw the czarina,
+preceded by Count Gregorius Orloff, and followed by two ladies,
+approaching. Count Panin was on her left hand. I stood by the hedge to
+let her pass, but as soon as she came up to me she asked, smilingly, if I
+had been interested in the statues. I replied, following her steps, that
+I presumed they had been placed there to impose on fools, or to excite
+the laughter of those acquainted with history.
+
+"From what I can make out," she replied, "the secret of the matter is
+that my worthy aunt was imposed on, and indeed she did not trouble
+herself much about such trifles. But I hope you have seen other things in
+Russia less ridiculous than these statues?"
+
+I entertained the sovereign for more than an hour with my remarks on the
+things of note I had seen in St. Petersburg. The conversation happened to
+turn on the King of Prussia, and I sang his praises; but I censured his
+terrible habit of always interrupting the person whom he was addressing.
+Catherine smiled and asked me to tell her about the conversation I had
+had with this monarch, and I did so to the best of my ability. She was
+then kind enough to say that she had never seen me at the Courtag, which
+was a vocal and instrumental concert given at the palace, and open to
+all. I told her that I had only attended once, as I was so unfortunate as
+not to have a taste for music. At this she turned to Panin, and said
+smilingly that she knew someone else who had the same misfortune. If the
+reader remembers what I heard her say about music as she was leaving the
+opera, he will pronounce my speech to have been a very courtier-like one,
+and I confess it was; but who can resist making such speeches to a
+monarch, and above all, a monarch in petticoats?
+
+The czarina turned from me to speak to M. Bezkoi, who had just come up,
+and as M. Panin left the garden I did so too, delighted with the honour I
+had had.
+
+The empress, who was a woman of moderate height and yet of a majestic
+appearance, thoroughly understood the art of making herself loved. She
+was not beautiful, but yet she was sure of pleasing by her geniality and
+her wit, and also by that exquisite tact which made one forget the
+awfulness of the sovereign in the gentleness of the woman. A few days
+after, Count Partin told me that the empress had twice asked after me,
+and that this was a sure sign I had pleased her. He advised me to look
+out for another opportunity of meeting her, and said that for the future
+she would always tell me to approach whenever she saw me, and that if I
+wanted some employment she might possible do something for me.
+
+Though I did not know what employ I could ask for in that disagreeable
+country, I was glad to hear that I could have easy access to the Court.
+With that idea I walked in the garden every day, and here follows my
+second conversation with the empress She saw me at a distance and sent an
+officer to fetch me into her presence. As everybody was talking of the
+tournament, which had to be postponed on account of the bad weather, she
+asked me if this kind of entertainment could be given at Venice. I told
+her some amusing stories on the subject of shows and spectacles, and in
+this relation I remarked that the Venetian climate was more pleasant than
+the Russian, for at Venice fine days were the rule, while at St.
+Petersburg they were the exception, though the year is younger there than
+anywhere else.
+
+"Yes," she said, "in your country it is eleven days older."
+
+"Would it not be worthy of your majesty to put Russia on an equality with
+the rest of the world in this respect, by adopting the Gregorian
+calendar? All the Protestants have done so, and England, who adopted it
+fourteen years ago, has already gained several millions. All Europe is
+astonished that the old style should be suffered to exist in a country
+where the sovereign is the head of the Church, and whose capital contains
+an academy of science. It is thought that Peter the Great, who made the
+year begin in January, would have also abolished the old style if he had
+not been afraid of offending England, which then kept trade and commerce
+alive throughout your vast empire."
+
+"You know," she replied, with a sly smile, "that Peter the Great was not
+exactly a learned man."
+
+"He was more than a man of learning, the immortal Peter was a genius of
+the first order. Instinct supplied the place of science with him; his
+judgment was always in the right. His vast genius, his firm resolve,
+prevented him from making mistakes, and helped him to destroy all those
+abuses which threatened to oppose his great designs."
+
+Her majesty seemed to have heard me with great interest, and was about to
+reply when she noticed two ladies whom she summoned to her presence. To
+me she said,--
+
+"I shall be delighted to reply to you at another time," and then turned
+towards the ladies.
+
+The time came in eight or ten days, when I was beginning to think she had
+had enough of me, for she had seen me without summoning me to speak to
+her.
+
+She began by saying what I desired should be done was done already. "All
+the letters sent to foreign countries and all the important State records
+are marked with both dates."
+
+"But I must point out to your majesty that by the end of the century the
+difference will be of twelve days, not eleven."
+
+"Not at all; we have seen to that. The last year of this century will not
+be counted as a leap year. It is fortunate that the difference is one of
+eleven days, for as that is the number which is added every year to the
+epact our epacts are almost the same. As to the celebration of Easter,
+that is a different question. Your equinox is on March the 21st, ours on
+the 10th, and the astronomers say we are both wrong; sometimes it is we
+who are wrong and sometimes you, as the equinox varies. You know you are
+not even in agreement with the Jews, whose calculation is said to be
+perfectly accurate; and, in fine, this difference in the time of
+celebrating Easter does not disturb in any way public order or the
+progress of the Government."
+
+"Your majesty's words fill me with admiration, but the Festival of
+Christmas---- "
+
+"I suppose you are going to say that we do not celebrate Christmas in the
+winter solstice as should properly be done. We know it, but it seems to
+me a matter of no account. I would rather bear with this small mistake
+than grievously afflict vast numbers of my subjects by depriving them of
+their birthdays. If I did so, there would be no open complaints uttered,
+as that is not the fashion in Russia; but they would say in secret that I
+was an Atheist, and that I disputed the infallibility of the Council of
+Nice. You may think such complaints matter for laughter, but I do not,
+for I have much more agreeable motives for amusement."
+
+The czarina was delighted to mark my surprise. I did not doubt for a
+moment that she had made a special study of the whole subject. M.
+Alsuwieff told me, a few days after, that she had very possibly read a
+little pamphlet on the subject, the statements of which exactly coincided
+with her own. He took care to add, however, that it was very possible her
+highness was profoundly learned on the matter, but this was merely a
+courtier's phrase.
+
+What she said was spoken modestly and energetically, and her good humour
+and pleasant smile remained unmoved throughout. She exercised a constant
+self-control over herself, and herein appeared the greatness of her
+character, for nothing is more difficult. Her demeanour, so different
+from that of the Prussian king, shewed her to be the greater sovereign of
+the two; her frank geniality always gave her the advantage, while the
+short, curt manners of the king often exposed him to being made a dupe.
+In an examination of the life of Frederick the Great, one cannot help
+paying a deserved tribute to his courage, but at the same time one feels
+that if it had not been for repeated turns of good fortune he must have
+succumbed, whereas Catherine was little indebted to the favours of the
+blind deity. She succeeded in enterprises which, before her time, would
+have been pronounced impossibilities, and it seemed her aim to make men
+look upon her achievements as of small account.
+
+I read in one of our modern journals, those monuments of editorial
+self-conceit, that Catherine the Great died happily as she had lived.
+Everybody knows that she died suddenly on her close stool. By calling
+such a death happy, the journalist hints that it is the death he himself
+would wish for. Everyone to his taste, and we can only hope that the
+editor may obtain his wish; but who told this silly fellow that Catherine
+desired such a death? If he regards such a wish as natural to a person of
+her profound genius I would ask who told him that men of genius consider
+a sudden death to be a happy one? Is it because that is his opinion, and
+are we to conclude that he is therefore person of genius? To come to the
+truth we should have to interrogate the late empress, and ask her some
+such question as:
+
+"Are you well pleased to have died suddenly?"
+
+She would probably reply:
+
+"What a foolish question! Such might be the wish of one driven to
+despair, or of someone suffering from a long and grievous malady. Such
+was not my position, for I enjoyed the blessings of happiness and good
+health; no worse fate could have happened to me. My sudden death
+prevented me from concluding several designs which I might have brought
+to a successful issue if God had granted me the warning of a slight
+illness. But it was not so; I had to set out on the long journey at a
+moment's notice, without the time to make any preparations. Is my death
+any the happier from my not foreseeing it? Do you think me such a coward
+as to dread the approach of what is common to all? I tell you that I
+should have accounted myself happy if I had had a respite of but a day.
+Then I should not complain of the Divine justice."
+
+"Does your highness accuse God of injustice, then?"
+
+"What boots it, since I am a lost soul? Do you expect the damned to
+acknowledge the justice of the decree which has consigned them to eternal
+woe?"
+
+"No doubt it is a difficult matter, but I should have thought that a
+sense of the justice of your doom would have mitigated the pains of it."
+
+"Perhaps so, but a damned soul must be without consolation for ever."
+
+"In spite of that there are some philosophers who call you happy in your
+death by virtue of its suddenness."
+
+"Not philosophers, but fools, for in its suddenness was the pain and
+woe."
+
+"Well said; but may I ask your highness if you admit the possibility of a
+happy eternity after an unhappy death, or of an unhappy doom after a
+happy death?"
+
+"Such suppositions are inconceivable. The happiness of futurity lies in
+the ecstasy of the soul in feeling freed from the trammels of matter, and
+unhappiness is the doom of a soul which was full of remorse at the moment
+it left the body. But enough, for my punishment forbids my farther
+speech."
+
+"Tell me, at least, what is the nature of your punishment?"
+
+"An everlasting weariness. Farewell."
+
+After this long and fanciful digression the reader will no doubt be
+obliged by my returning to this world.
+
+Count Panin told me that in a few days the empress would leave for her
+country house, and I determined to have an interview with her, foreseeing
+that it would be for the last time.
+
+I had been in the garden for a few minutes when heavy rain began to fall,
+and I was going to leave, when the empress summoned me into an apartment
+on the ground floor of the palace, where she was walking up and down with
+Gregorovitch and a maid of honour.
+
+"I had forgotten to ask you," she said, graciously, "if you believe the
+new calculation of the calendar to be exempt from error?"
+
+"No, your majesty; but the error is so minute that it will not produce
+any sensible effect for the space of nine or ten thousand years."
+
+"I thought so; and in my opinion Pope Gregory should not have
+acknowledged any mistake at all. The Pope, however, had much less
+difficulty in carrying out his reform than I should have with my
+subjects, who are too fond of their ancient usages and customs."
+
+"Nevertheless, I am sure your majesty would meet with obedience."
+
+"No doubt, but imagine the grief of my clergy in not being able to
+celebrate the numerous saints' days, which would fall on the eleven days
+to be suppressed. You have only one saint for each day, but we have a
+dozen at least. I may remark also that all ancient states and kingdoms
+are attached to their ancient laws. I have heard that your Republic of
+Venice begins the year in March, and that seems to me, as it were, a
+monument and memorial of its antiquity--and indeed the year begins more
+naturally in March than in January--but does not this usage cause some
+confusion?"
+
+"None at all, your majesty. The letters M V, which we adjoin to all dates
+in January and February, render all mistakes impossible."
+
+"Venice is also noteworthy for its peculiar system of heraldry, by the
+amusing form under which it portrays its patron saint, and by the five
+Latin words with which the Evangelist is invoked, in which, as I am told,
+there is a grammatical blunder which has become respectable by its long
+standing. But is it true that you do not distinguish between the day and
+night hours?"
+
+"It is, your majesty, and what is more we reckon the day from the
+beginning of the night."
+
+"Such is the force of custom, which makes us admire what other nations
+think ridiculous. You see no inconvenience in your division of the day,
+which strikes me as most inconvenient."
+
+"You would only have to look at your watch, and you would not need to
+listen for the cannon shot which announces the close of day."
+
+"Yes, but for this one advantage you have over us, we have two over you.
+We know that at twelve o'clock it is either mid-day or midnight."
+
+The czarina spoke to me about the fondness of the Venetians for games of
+chance, and asked if the Genoa Lottery had been established there. "I
+have been asked," she added, "to allow the lottery to be established in
+my own dominions; but I should never permit it except on the condition
+that no stake should be below a rouble, and then the poor people would
+not be able to risk their money in it."
+
+I replied to this discreet observation with a profound inclination of the
+head, and thus ended my last interview with the famous empress who
+reigned thirty-five years without committing a single mistake of any
+importance. The historian will always place her amongst great sovereigns,
+though the moralist will always consider her, and rightly, as one of the
+most notable of dissolute women.
+
+A few days before I left I gave an entertainment to my friends at
+Catherinhoff, winding up with a fine display of fireworks, a present from
+my friend Melissino. My supper for thirty was exquisite, and my ball a
+brilliant one. In spite of the tenuity of my purse I felt obliged to give
+my friends this mark of my gratitude for the kindness they had lavished
+on me.
+
+I left Russia with the actress Valville, and I must here tell the reader
+how I came to make her acquaintance.
+
+I happened to go to the French play, and to find myself seated next to an
+extremely pretty lady who was unknown to me. I occasionally addressed an
+observation to her referring to the play or actors, and I was immensely
+delighted with her spirited answers. Her expression charmed me, and I
+took the liberty of asking her if she were a Russian.
+
+"No, thank God!" she replied, "I am a Parisian, and an actress by
+occupation. My name is Valville; but I don't wonder I am unknown to you,
+for I have been only a month here, and have played but once."
+
+"How is that?"
+
+"Because I was so unfortunate as to fail to win the czarina's favour.
+However, as I was engaged for a year, she has kindly ordered that my
+salary of a hundred roubles shall be paid monthly. At the end of the year
+I shall get my passport and go."
+
+"I am sure the empress thinks she is doing you a favour in paying you for
+nothing."
+
+"Very likely; but she does not remember that I am forgetting how to act
+all this time."
+
+"You ought to tell her that."
+
+"I only wish she would give me an audience."
+
+"That is unnecessary. Of course, you have a lover."
+
+"No, I haven't."
+
+"It's incredible to me!"
+
+"They say the incredible often happens."
+
+"I am very glad to hear it myself."
+
+I took her address, and sent her the following note the next day:
+
+"Madam,--I should like to begin an intrigue with you. You have inspired
+me with feelings that will make me unhappy unless you reciprocate them. I
+beg to take the liberty of asking myself to sup with you, but please tell
+me how much it will cost me. I am obliged to leave for Warsaw in the
+course of a month, and I shall be happy to offer you a place in my
+travelling carriage. I shall be able to get you a passport. The bearer of
+this has orders to wait, and I hope your answer will be as plainly worded
+as my question."
+
+In two hours I received this reply:
+
+"Sir,--As I have the knack of putting an end to an intrigue when it has
+ceased to amuse me, I have no hesitation in accepting your proposal. As
+to the sentiments with which you say I have inspired you, I will do my
+best to share them, and to make you happy. Your supper shall be ready,
+and later on we will settle the price of the dessert. I shall be
+delighted to accept the place in your carriage if you can obtain my
+expenses to Paris as well as my passport. And finally, I hope you will
+find my plain speaking on a match with yours. Good bye, till the
+evening."
+
+I found my new friend in a comfortable lodging, and we accosted each
+other as if we had been old acquaintances.
+
+"I shall be delighted to travel with you," said she, "but I don't think
+you will be able to get my passport."
+
+"I have no doubt as to my success," I replied, "if you will present to
+the empress the petition I shall draft for you."
+
+"I will surely do so," said she, giving me writing materials.
+
+I wrote out the following petition,--
+
+"Your Majesty,--I venture to remind your highness that my enforced
+idleness is making me forget my art, which I have not yet learnt
+thoroughly. Your majesty's generosity is therefore doing me an injury,
+and your majesty would do me a great benefit in giving me permission to
+leave St. Petersburg."
+
+"Nothing more than that?"
+
+"Not a word."
+
+"You say nothing about the passport, and nothing about the journey-money.
+I am not a rich woman."
+
+"Do you only present this petition; and, unless I am very much mistaken,
+you will have, not only your journey-money, but also your year's salary."
+
+"Oh, that would be too much!"
+
+"Not at all. You do not know Catherine, but I do. Have this copied, and
+present it in person."
+
+"I will copy it out myself, for I can write a good enough hand. Indeed,
+it almost seems as if I had composed it; it is exactly my style. I
+believe you are a better actor than I am, and from this evening I shall
+call myself your pupil. Come, let us have some supper, that you may give
+me my first lesson."
+
+After a delicate supper, seasoned by pleasant and witty talk, Madame
+Valville granted me all I could desire. I went downstairs for a moment to
+send away my coachman and to instruct him what he was to say to Zaira,
+whom I had forewarned that I was going to Cronstadt, and might not return
+till the next day. My coachman was a Ukrainian on whose fidelity I could
+rely, but I knew that it would be necessary for me to be off with the old
+love before I was on with the new.
+
+Madame Valville was like most young Frenchwomen of her class; she had
+charms which she wished to turn to account, and a passable education; her
+ambition was to be kept by one man, and the title of mistress was more
+pleasing in her ears than that of wife.
+
+In the intervals of four amorous combats she told me enough of her life
+for me to divine what it had been. Clerval, the actor, had been gathering
+together a company of actors at Paris, and making her acquaintance by
+chance and finding her to be intelligent, he assured her that she was a
+born actress, though she had never suspected it. The idea had dazzled
+her, and she had signed the agreement. She started from Paris with six
+other actors and actresses, of whom she was the only one that had never
+played.
+
+"I thought," she said, "it was like what is done at Paris, where a girl
+goes into the chorus or the ballet without having learnt to sing or
+dance. What else could I think, after an actor like Clerval had assured
+me I had a talent for acting and had offered me a good engagement? All he
+required of me was that I should learn by heart and repeat certain
+passages which I rehearsed in his presence. He said I made a capital
+soubrette, and he certainly could not have been trying to deceive me, but
+the fact is he was deceived himself. A fortnight after my arrival I made
+my first appearance, and my reception was not a flattering one."
+
+"Perhaps you were nervous?"
+
+"Nervous? not in the least. Clerval said that if I could have put on the
+appearance of nervousness the empress, who is kindness itself, would
+certainly have encouraged me."
+
+I left her the next morning after I had seen her copy out the petition.
+She wrote a very good hand.
+
+"I shall present it to-day," said she.
+
+I wished her good luck, and arranged to sup with her again on the day I
+meant to part with Zaira.
+
+All French girls who sacrifice to Venus are in the same style as the
+Valville; they are entirely without passion or love, but they are
+pleasant and caressing. They have only one object; and that is their own
+profit. They make and unmake an intrigue with a smiling face and without
+the slightest difficulty. It is their system, and if it be not absolutely
+the best it is certainly the most convenient.
+
+When I got home I found Zaira submissive but sad, which annoyed me more
+than anger would have done, for I loved her. However, it was time to
+bring the matter to an end, and to make up my mind to endure the pain of
+parting.
+
+Rinaldi, the architect, a man of seventy, but still vigorous and sensual,
+was in love with her, and he had hinted to me several times that he would
+be only too happy to take her over and to pay double the sum I had given
+for her. My answer had been that I could only give her to a man she
+liked, and that I meant to make her a present of the hundred roubles I
+had given for her. Rinaldi did not like this answer, as he had not very
+strong hopes of the girl taking a fancy to him; however, he did not
+despair.
+
+He happened to call on me on the very morning on which I had determined
+to give her up, and as he spoke Russian perfectly he gave Zaira to
+understand how much he loved her. Her answer was that he must apply to
+me, as my will was law to her, but that she neither liked nor disliked
+anyone else. The old man could not obtain any more positive reply and
+left us with but feeble hopes, but commending himself to my good offices.
+
+When he had gone, I asked Zaira whether she would not like me to leave
+her to the worthy man, who would treat her as his own daughter.
+
+She was just going to reply when I was handed a note from Madame
+Valville, asking me to call on her, as she had a piece of news to give
+me. I ordered the carriage immediately, telling Zaira that I should not
+be long.
+
+"Very good," she replied, "I will give you a plain answer when you come
+back."
+
+I found Madame Valville in a high state of delight.
+
+"Long live the petition!" she exclaimed, as soon as she saw me. "I waited
+for the empress to come out of her private chapel. I respectfully
+presented my petition, which she read as she walked along, and then told
+me with a kindly smile to wait a moment. I waited, and her majesty
+returned me the petition initialled in her own hand, and bade me take it
+to M. Ghelagin. This gentleman gave me an excellent reception, and told
+me that the sovereign hand ordered him to give me my passport, my salary
+for a year, and a hundred ducats for the journey. The money will be
+forwarded in a fortnight, as my name will have to be sent to the
+Gazette."
+
+Madame Valville was very grateful, and we fixed the day of our departure.
+Three or four days later I sent in my name to the Gazette.
+
+I had promised Zaira to come back, so telling my new love that I would
+come and live with her as soon as I had placed the young Russian in good
+hands, I went home, feeling rather curious to hear Zaira's determination.
+
+After Zaira had supped with me in perfect good humour, she asked if M.
+Rinaldi would pay me back the money I had given far her. I said he would,
+and she went on,--
+
+"It seems to me that I am worth more than I was, for I have all your
+presents, and I know Italian."
+
+"You are right, dear, but I don't want it to be said that I have made a
+profit on you; besides, I intend to make you a present of the hundred
+roubles."
+
+"As you are going to make me such a handsome present, why not send me
+back to my father's house? That would be still more generous. If M.
+Rinaldi really loves me, he can come and talk it over with my father. You
+have no objection to his paying me whatever sum I like to mention."
+
+"Not at all. On the contrary, I shall be very glad to serve your family,
+and all the more as Rinaldi is a rich man."
+
+"Very good; you will be always dear to me in my memory. You shall take me
+to my home to-morrow; and now let us go to bed."
+
+Thus it was that I parted with this charming girl, who made me live
+soberly all the time I was at St. Petersburg. Zinowieff told me that if I
+had liked to deposit a small sum as security I could have taken her with
+me; but I had thought the matter over, and it seemed to me that as Zaira
+grew more beautiful and charming I should end by becoming a perfect slave
+to her. Possibly, however, I should not have looked into matters so
+closely if I had not been in love with Madame Valville.
+
+Zaira spent the next morning in gathering together her belongings, now
+laughing and now weeping, and every time that she left her packing to
+give me a kiss I could not resist weeping myself. When I restored her to
+her father, the whole family fell on their knees around me. Alas for poor
+human nature! thus it is degraded by the iron heel of oppression. Zaira
+looked oddly in the humble cottage, where one large mattress served for
+the entire family.
+
+Rinaldi took everything in good part. He told me that since the daughter
+would make no objection he had no fear of the father doing so. He went to
+the house the next day, but he did not get the girl till I had left St.
+Petersburg. He kept her for the remainder of his days, and behaved very
+handsomely to her.
+
+After this melancholy separation Madame Valville became my sole mistress,
+and we left the Russian capital in the course of a few weeks. I took an
+Armenian merchant into my service; he had lent me a hundred ducats, and
+cooked very well in the Eastern style. I had a letter from the Polish
+resident to Prince Augustus Sulkowski, and another from the English
+ambassador for Prince Adam Czartoryski.
+
+The day after we left St. Petersburg we stopped at Koporie to dine; we
+had taken with us some choice viands and excellent wines. Two days later
+we met the famous chapel-master, Galuppi or Buranelli, who was on his way
+to St. Petersburg with two friends and an artiste. He did not know me,
+and was astonished to find a Venetian dinner awaiting him at the inn, as
+also to hear a greeting in his mother tongue. As soon as I had pronounced
+my name he embraced me with exclamations of surprise and joy.
+
+The roads were heavy with rain, so we were a week in getting to Riga, and
+when we arrived I was sorry to hear that Prince Charles was not there.
+From Riga, we were four days before getting to Konigsberg, where Madame
+Valville, who was expected at Berlin, had to leave me. I left her my
+Armenian, to whom she gladly paid the hundred ducats I owed him. I saw
+her again two years later, and shall speak of the meeting in due time.
+
+We separated like good friends, without any sadness. We spent the night
+at Klein Roop, near Riga, and she offered to give me her diamonds, her
+jewels, and all that she possessed. We were staying with the Countess
+Lowenwald, to whom I had a letter from the Princess Dolgorouki. This lady
+had in her house, in the capacity of governess, the pretty English woman
+whom I had known as Campioni's wife. She told me that her husband was at
+Warsaw, and that he was living with Villiers. She gave me a letter for
+him, and I promised to make him send her some money, and I kept my word.
+Little Betty was as charming as ever, but her mother seemed quite jealous
+of her and treated her ill.
+
+When I reached Konigsberg I sold my travelling carriage and took a place
+in a coach for Warsaw. We were four in all, and my companions only spoke
+German and Polish, so that I had a dreadfully tedious journey. At Warsaw
+I went to live with Villiers, where I hoped to meet Campioni.
+
+It was not long before I saw him, and found him well in health and in
+comfortable quarters. He kept a dancing school, and had a good many
+pupils. He was delighted to have news of Fanny and his children. He sent
+them some money, but had no thoughts of having them at Warsaw, as Fanny
+wished. He assured me she was not his wife.
+
+He told me that Tomatis, the manager of the comic opera, had made a
+fortune, and had in his company a Milanese dancer named Catai, who
+enchanted all the town by her charms rather than her talent. Games of
+chance were permitted, but he warned me that Warsaw was full of
+card-sharpers. A Veronese named Giropoldi, who lived with an officer from
+Lorrain called Bachelier, held a bank at faro at her house, where a
+dancer, who had been the mistress of the famous Afflisio at Vienna,
+brought customers.
+
+Major Sadir, whom I have mentioned before, kept another gaming-house, in
+company with his mistress, who came from Saxony. The Baron de St. Heleine
+was also in Warsaw, but his principal occupation was to contract debts
+which he did not mean to pay. He also lived in Villier's house with his
+pretty and virtuous young wife, who would have nothing to say to us.
+Campioni told me of some other adventurers, whose names I was very glad
+to know that I might the better avoid them.
+
+The day after my arrival I hired a man and a carriage, the latter being
+an absolute necessity at Warsaw, where in my time, at all events, it was
+impossible to go on foot. I reached the capital of Poland at the end of
+October, 1765.
+
+My first call was on Prince Adam Czartoryski, Lieutenant of Podolia, for
+whom I had an introduction. I found him before a table covered with
+papers, surrounded by forty or fifty persons, in an immense library which
+he had made into his bedroom. He was married to a very pretty woman, but
+had not yet had a child by her because she was too thin for his taste.
+
+He read the long letter I gave him, and said in elegant French that he
+had a very high opinion of the writer of the letter; but that as he was
+very busy just then he hoped I would come to supper with him if I had
+nothing better to do.
+
+I drove off to Prince Sulkouski, who had just been appointed ambassador
+to the Court of Louis XV. The prince was the elder of four brothers and a
+man of great understanding, but a theorist in the style of the Abbe St.
+Pierre. He read the letter, and said he wanted to have a long talk with
+me; but that being obliged to go out he would be obliged if I would come
+and dine with him at four o'clock. I accepted the invitation.
+
+I then went to a merchant named Schempinski, who was to pay me fifty
+ducats a month on Papanelopulo's order. My man told me that there was a
+public rehearsal of a new opera at the theatre, and I accordingly spent
+three hours there, knowing none and unknown to all. All the actresses
+were pretty, but especially the Catai, who did not know the first
+elements of dancing. She was greatly applauded, above all by Prince
+Repnin, the Russian ambassador, who seemed a person of the greatest
+consequence.
+
+Prince Sulkouski kept me at table for four mortal hours, talking on every
+subject except those with which I happened to be acquainted. His strong
+points were politics and commerce, and as he found my mind a mere void on
+these subjects, he shone all the more, and took quite a fancy to me, as I
+believe, because he found me such a capital listener.
+
+About nine o'clock, having nothing better to do (a favourite phrase with
+the Polish noblemen), I went to Prince Adam, who after pronouncing my
+name introduced me to the company. There were present Monseigneur
+Krasinski, the Prince-Bishop of Warmia, the Chief Prothonotary Rzewuski,
+whom I had known at St. Petersburg, the Palatin Oginski, General Roniker,
+and two others whose barbarous names I have forgotten. The last person to
+whom he introduced me was his wife, with whom I was very pleased. A few
+moments after a fine-looking gentleman came into the room, and everybody
+stood up. Prince Adam pronounced my name, and turning to me said,
+coolly,--
+
+"That's the king."
+
+This method of introducing a stranger to a sovereign prince was assuredly
+not an overwhelming one, but it was nevertheless a surprise; and I found
+that an excess of simplicity may be as confusing as the other extreme. At
+first I thought the prince might be making a fool of me; but I quickly
+put aside the idea, and stepped forward and was about to kneel, but his
+majesty gave me his hand to kiss with exquisite grace, and as he was
+about to address me, Prince Adam shewed him the letter of the English
+ambassador, who was well known to the king. The king read it, still
+standing, and began to ask me questions about the Czarina and the Court,
+appearing to take great interest in my replies.
+
+When supper was announced the king continued to talk, and led me into the
+supper-room, and made me sit down at his right hand. Everybody ate
+heartily except the king, who appeared to have no appetite, and myself,
+who had no right to have any appetite, even if I had not dined well with
+Prince Sulkouski, for I saw the whole table hushed to listen to my
+replies to the king's questions.
+
+After supper the king began to comment very graciously on my answers. His
+majesty spoke simply but with great elegance. As he was leaving he told
+me he should always be delighted to see me at his Court, and Prince Adam
+said that if I liked to be introduced to his father, I had only to call
+at eleven o'clock the next morning.
+
+The King of Poland was of a medium height, but well made. His face was
+not a handsome one, but it was kindly and intelligent. He was rather
+short-sighted, and his features in repose bore a somewhat melancholy
+expression; but in speaking, the whole face seemed to light up. All he
+said was seasoned by a pleasant wit.
+
+I was well enough pleased with this interview, and returned to my inn,
+where I found Campioni seated amongst several guests of either sex, and
+after staying with them for half an hour I went to bed.
+
+At eleven o'clock the next day I was presented to the great Russian
+Paladin. He was in his dressing-gown, surrounded by his gentlemen in the
+national costume. He was standing up and conversing with his followers in
+a kindly but grave manner. As soon as his son Adam mentioned my name, he
+unbent and gave me a most kindly yet dignified welcome. His manners were
+not awful, nor did they inspire one with familiarity, and I thought him
+likely to be a good judge of character. When I told him that I had only
+gone to Russia to amuse myself and see good company, he immediately
+concluded that my aims in coming to Poland were of the same kind; and he
+told me that he could introduce me to a large circle. He added that he
+should be glad to see me to dinner and supper whenever I had no other
+engagements.
+
+He went behind a screen to complete his toilette, and soon appeared in
+the uniform of his regiment, with a fair peruke in the style of the late
+King Augustus II. He made a collective bow to everyone, and went to see
+his wife, who was recovering from a disease which would have proved fatal
+if it had not been for the skill of Reimann, a pupil of the great
+Boerhaave. The lady came of the now extinct family of Enoff, whose
+immense wealth she brought to her husband. When he married her he
+abandoned the Maltese Order, of which he had been a knight. He won his
+bride by a duel with pistols on horseback. The lady had promised that her
+hand should be the conqueror's guerdon, and the prince was so fortunate
+as to kill his rival. Of this marriage there issued Prince Adam and a
+daughter, now a widow, and known under the name of Lubomirska, but
+formerly under that of Strasnikowa, that being the title of the office
+her husband held in the royal army.
+
+It was this prince palatine and his brother, the High Chancellor of
+Lithuania, who first brought about the Polish troubles. The two brothers
+were discontented with their position at the Court where Count Bruhl was
+supreme, and put themselves at the head of the plot for dethroning the
+king, and for placing on the throne, under Russian protection, their
+young nephew, who had originally gone to St. Petersburg as an attache at
+the embassy, and afterwards succeeded in winning the favour of Catherine,
+then Grand Duchess, but soon to become empress.
+
+This young man was Stanislas Poniatowski, son of Constance Czartoryski
+and the celebrated Poniatowski, the friend of Charles III. As luck would
+have it, a revolution was unnecessary to place him on the throne, for the
+king died in 1763, and gave place to Prince Poniatowski, who was chosen
+king on the 6th of September, 1776, under the title of Stanislas Augustus
+I. He had reigned two years at the time of my visit; and I found Warsaw
+in a state of gaiety, for a diet was to be held and everyone wished to
+know how it was that Catherine had given the Poles a native king.
+
+At dinner-time I went to the paladin's and found three tables, at each of
+which there were places for thirty, and this was the usual number
+entertained by the prince. The luxury of the Court paled before that of
+the paladin's house. Prince Adam said to me,
+
+"Chevalier, your place will always be at my father's table."
+
+This was a great honour, and I felt it. The prince introduced me to his
+handsome sister, and to several palatins and starosts. I did not fail to
+call on all these great personages, so in the course of a fortnight I
+found myself a welcome guest in all the best houses.
+
+My purse was too lean to allow of my playing or consoling myself with a
+theatrical beauty, so I fell back on the library of Monseigneur Zalewski,
+the Bishop of Kiowia, for whom I had taken a great liking. I spent almost
+all my mornings with him, and it was from this prelate that I learnt all
+the intrigues and complots by which the ancient Polish constitution, of
+which the bishop was a great admirer, had been overturned. Unhappily, his
+firmness was of no avail, and a few months after I left Warsaw the
+Russian tyrants arrested him and he was exiled to Siberia.
+
+I lived calmly and peaceably, and still look back upon those days with
+pleasure. I spent my afternoons with the paladin playing tressette an
+Italian game of which he was very fond, and which I played well enough
+for the paladin to like to have me as a partner.
+
+In spite of my sobriety and economy I found myself in debt three months
+after my arrival, and I did not know where to turn for help. The fifty
+ducats per month, which were sent me from Venice, were insufficient, for
+the money I had to spend on my carriage, my lodging, my servant, and my
+dress brought me down to the lowest ebb, and I did not care to appeal to
+anyone. But fortune had a surprise in store for me, and hitherto she had
+never left me.
+
+Madame Schmit, whom the king for good reasons of his own had accommodated
+with apartments in the palace, asked me one evening to sup with her,
+telling me that the king would be of the party. I accepted the
+invitation, and I was delighted to find the delightful Bishop Kraswiski,
+the Abbe Guigiotti, and two or three other amateurs of Italian
+literature. The king, whose knowledge of literature was extensive, began
+to tell anecdotes of classical writers, quoting manuscript authorities
+which reduced me to silence, and which were possibly invented by him.
+Everyone talked except myself, and as I had had no dinner I ate like an
+ogre, only replying by monosyllables when politeness obliged me to say
+something. The conversation turned on Horace, and everyone gave his
+opinion on the great materialist's philosophy, and the Abbe Guigiotti
+obliged me to speak by saying that unless I agreed with him I should not
+keep silence.
+
+"If you take my silence for consent to your extravagant eulogium of
+Horace," I said, "you are mistaken; for in my opinion the 'nec cum venari
+volet poemata panges', of which you think so much, is to my mind a satire
+devoid of delicacy."
+
+"Satire and delicacy are hard to combine."
+
+"Not for Horace, who succeeded in pleasing the great Augustus, and
+rendering him immortal as the protector of learned men. Indeed other
+sovereigns seem to vie with him by taking his name and even by disguising
+it."
+
+The king (who had taken the name of Augustus himself) looked grave and
+said,--
+
+"What sovereigns have adopted a disguised form of the name Augustus?"
+
+"The first king of Sweden, who called himself Gustavus, which is only an
+anagram of Augustus."
+
+"That is a very amusing idea, and worth more than all the tales we have
+told. Where did you find that?"
+
+"In a manuscript at Wolfenbuttel."
+
+The king laughed loudly, though he himself had been citing manuscripts.
+But he returned to the charge and said,--
+
+"Can you cite any passage of Horace (not in manuscript) where he shews
+his talent for delicacy and satire?"
+
+"Sir, I could quote several passages, but here is one which seems to me
+very good: 'Coyam rege', says the poet, 'sua de paupertate tacentes, plus
+quan pocentes ferent."
+
+"True indeed," said the king, with a smile.
+
+Madame Schmit, who did not know Latin, and inherited curiosity from her
+mother, and eventually from Eve, asked the bishop what it meant, and he
+thus translated it:
+
+"They that speak not of their necessities in the presence of a king, gain
+more than they that are ever asking."
+
+The lady remarked that she saw nothing satirical in this.
+
+After this it was my turn to be silent again; but the king began to talk
+about Ariosto, and expressed a desire to read it with me. I replied with
+an inclination of the head, and Horace's words: 'Tempora quoeram'.
+
+Next morning, as I was coming out from mass, the generous and unfortunate
+Stanislas Augustus gave me his hand to kiss, and at the same time slid a
+roll of money into my hand, saying,--
+
+"Thank no one but Horace, and don't tell anyone about it."
+
+The roll contained two hundred ducats, and I immediately paid off my
+debts. Since then I went almost every morning to the king's closet, where
+he was always glad to see his courtiers, but there was no more said about
+reading Ariosto. He knew Italian, but not enough to speak it, and still
+less to appreciate the beauties of the great poet. When I think of this
+worthy prince, and of the great qualities he possessed as a man, I cannot
+understand how he came to commit so many errors as a king. Perhaps the
+least of them all was that he allowed himself to survive his country. As
+he could not find a friend to kill him, I think he should have killed
+himself. But indeed he had no need to ask a friend to do him this
+service; he should have imitated the great Kosciuszko, and entered into
+life eternal by the sword of a Russian.
+
+The carnival was a brilliant one. All Europe seemed to have assembled at
+Warsaw to see the happy being whom fortune had so unexpectedly raised to
+a throne, but after seeing him all were agreed that, in his case at all
+events, the deity had been neither blind nor foolish. Perhaps, however,
+he liked shewing himself rather too much. I have detected him in some
+distress on his being informed that there was such a thing as a stranger
+in Warsaw who had not seen him. No one had any need of an introduction,
+for his Court was, as all Courts should be, open to everyone, and when he
+noticed a strange face he was the first to speak.
+
+Here I must set down an event which took place towards the end of
+January. It was, in fact, a dream; and, as I think I have confessed
+before, superstition had always some hold on me.
+
+I dreamt I was at a banquet, and one of the guests threw a bottle at my
+face, that the blood poured forth, that I ran my sword through my enemy's
+body, and jumped into a carriage, and rode away.
+
+Prince Charles of Courland came to Warsaw, and asked me to dine with him
+at Prince Poninski's, the same that became so notorious, and was
+afterwards proscribed and shamefully dishonoured. His was a hospitable
+house, and he was surrounded by his agreeable family. I had never called
+on him, as he was not a 'persona grata' to the king or his relations.
+
+In the course of the dinner a bottle of champagne burst, and a piece of
+broken glass struck me just below the eye. It cut a vein, and the blood
+gushed over my face, over my clothes, and even over the cloth. Everybody
+rose, my wound was bound up, the cloth was changed, and the dinner went
+on merrily. I was surprised at the likeness between my dream and this
+incident, while I congratulated myself on the happy difference between
+them. However, it all came true after a few months.
+
+Madame Binetti, whom I had last seen in London, arrived at Warsaw with
+her husband and Pic the dancer. She had a letter of introduction to the
+king's brother, who was a general in the Austrian service, and then
+resided at Warsaw. I heard that the day they came, when I was at supper
+at the palatin's. The king was present, and said he should like to keep
+them in Warsaw for a week and see them dance, if a thousand ducats could
+do it.
+
+I went to see Madame Binetti and to give her the good news the next
+morning. She was very much surprised to meet me in Warsaw, and still more
+so at the news I gave her. She called Pic who seemed undecided, but as we
+were talking it over, Prince Poniatowski came in to acquaint them with
+his majesty's wishes, and the offer was accepted. In three days Pic
+arranged a ballet; the costumes, the scenery, the music, the dancers--all
+were ready, and Tomatis put it on handsomely to please his generous
+master. The couple gave such satisfaction that they were engaged for a
+year. The Catai was furious, as Madame Binetti threw her completely into
+the shade, and, worse still, drew away her lovers. Tomatis, who was under
+the Catai's influence, made things so unpleasant for Madame Binetti that
+the two dancers became deadly enemies.
+
+In ten or twelve days Madame Binetti was settled it a well-furnished
+house; her plate was simple but good, her cellar full of excellent wine,
+her cook an artist and her adorers numerous, amongst them being
+Moszciuski and Branicki, the king's friends.
+
+The pit was divided into two parties, for the Catai was resolved to make
+a stand against the new comer, though her talents were not to be compared
+to Madame Binetti's. She danced in the first ballet, and her rival in the
+second. Those who applauded the first greeted that second in dead
+silence, and vice versa. I had great obligations towards Madame Binetti,
+but my duty also drew me towards the Catai, who numbered in her party all
+the Czartoryskis and their following, Prince Lubomirski, and other
+powerful nobles. It was plain that I could not desert to Madame Binetti
+without earning the contempt of the other party.
+
+Madame Binetti reproached me bitterly, and I laid the case plainly before
+her. She agreed that I could not do otherwise, but begged me to stay away
+from the theatre in future, telling me that she had got a rod in pickle
+for Tomatis which would make him repent of his impertinence. She called
+me her oldest friend; and indeed I was very fond of her, and cared
+nothing for the Catai despite her prettiness.
+
+Xavier Branicki, the royal Postoli, Knight of the White Eagle, Colonel of
+Uhlans, the king's friend, was the chief adorer of Madame Binetti. The
+lady probably confided her displeasure to him, and begged him to take
+vengeance on the manager, who had committed so many offences against her.
+Count Branicki in his turn probably promised to avenge her quarrel, and,
+if no opportunity of doing so arose, to create an opportunity. At least,
+this is the way in which affairs of this kind are usually managed, and I
+can find no better explanation for what happened. Nevertheless, the way
+in which the Pole took vengeance was very original and extraordinary.
+
+On the 20th of February Branicki went to the opera, and, contrary to his
+custom, went to the Catai's dressing-room, and began to pay his court to
+the actress, Tomatis being present. Both he and the actress concluded
+that Branicki had had a quarrel with her rival, and though she did not
+much care to place him in the number of her adorers, she yet gave him a
+good reception, for she knew it would be dangerous to despise his suit
+openly.
+
+When the Catai had completed her toilet, the gallant postoli offered her
+his arm to take her to her carriage, which was at the door. Tomatis
+followed, and I too was there, awaiting my carriage. Madame Catai came
+down, the carriage-door was opened, she stepped in, and Branicki got in
+after her, telling the astonished Tomatis to follow them in the other
+carriage. Tomatis replied that he meant to ride in his own carriage, and
+begged the colonel to get out. Branicki paid no attention, and told the
+coachman to drive on. Tornatis forbade him to stir, and the man, of
+course, obeyed his master. The gallant postcili was therefore obliged to
+get down, but he bade his hussar give Tomatis a box on the ear, and this
+order was so promptly and vigorously obeyed that the unfortunate man was
+on the ground before he had time to recollect that he had a sword. He got
+up eventually and drove off, but he could eat no supper, no doubt because
+he had a blow to digest. I was to have supped with him, but after this
+scene I had really not the face to go. I went home in a melancholy and
+reflective mood, wondering whether the whole had been concerted; but I
+concluded that this was impossible, as neither Branicki nor Binetti could
+have foreseen the impoliteness and cowardice of Tomatis.
+
+In the next chapter the reader will see how tragically the matter ended.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+My Duel with Branicki--My Journey to Leopol and Return to Warsaw--I
+Receive the Order to Leave--My Departure with the Unknown One
+
+On reflection I concluded that Branicki had not done an ungentlemanly
+thing in getting into Tomatis's carriage; he had merely behaved with
+impetuosity, as if he were the Catai's lover. It also appeared to me
+that, considering the affront he had received from the jealous Italian,
+the box on the ear was a very moderate form of vengeance. A blow is bad,
+of course, but not so bad as death; and Branicki might very well have run
+his sword through the manager's body. Certainly, if Branicki had killed
+him he would have been stigmatised as an assassin, for though Tomatis had
+a sword the Polish officer's servants would never have allowed him to
+draw it, nevertheless I could not help thinking that Tomatis should have
+tried to take the servant's life, even at the risk of his own. He wanted
+no more courage for that than in ordering the king's favourite to come
+out of the carriage. He might have foreseen that the Polish noble would
+be stung to the quick, and would surely attempt to take speedy vengeance.
+
+The next day the encounter was the subject of all conversations. Tomatis
+remained indoors for a week, calling for vengeance in vain. The king told
+him he could do nothing for him, as Branicki maintained he had only given
+insult for insult. I saw Tomatis, who told me in confidence that he could
+easily take vengeance, but that it would cost him too dear. He had spent
+forty thousand ducats on the two ballets, and if he had avenged himself
+he would have lost it nearly all, as he would be obliged to leave the
+kingdom. The only consolation he had was that his great friends were
+kinder to him than ever, and the king himself honoured him with peculiar
+attention. Madame Binetti was triumphant. When I saw her she condoled
+with me ironically on the mishap that had befallen my friend. She wearied
+me; but I could not guess that Branicki had only acted at her
+instigation, and still less that she had a grudge against me. Indeed, if
+I had known it, I should only have laughed at her, for I had nothing to
+dread from her bravo's dagger. I had never seen him nor spoken to him; he
+could have no opportunity for attacking me. He was never with the king in
+the morning and never went to the palatin's to supper, being an unpopular
+character with the Polish nobility. This Branicki was said to have been
+originally a Cossack, Branecki by name. He became the king's favorite and
+assumed the name of Branicki, pretending to be of the same family as the
+illustrious marshal of that name who was still alive; but he, far from
+recognizing the pretender, ordered his shield to be broken up and buried
+with him as the last of the race. However that may be, Branicki was the
+tool of the Russian party, the determined enemy of those who withstood
+Catherine's design of Russianising the ancient Polish constitution. The
+king liked him out of habit, and because he had peculiar obligations to
+him.
+
+The life I lived was really exemplary. I indulged neither in love affairs
+nor gaming. I worked for the king, hoping to become his secretary. I paid
+my court to the princess-palatine, who liked my company, and I played
+tressette with the palatin himself.
+
+On the 4th of March, St. Casimir's Eve, there was a banquet at Court to
+which I had the honour to be invited. Casimir was the name of the king's
+eldest brother, who held the office of grand chamberlain. After dinner
+the king asked me if I intended going to the theatre, where a Polish play
+was to be given for the first time. Everybody was interested in this
+novelty, but it was a matter of indifference to me as I did not
+understand the language, and I told the king as much.
+
+"Never mind," said he, "come in my box."
+
+This was too flattering an invitation to be refused, so I obeyed the
+royal command and stood behind the king's chair. After the second act a
+ballet was given, and the dancing of Madame Caracci, a Piedmontese, so
+pleased his majesty that he went to the unusual pains of clapping her.
+
+I only knew the dancer by sight, for I had never spoken to her. She had
+some talents. Her principal admirer was Count Poninski, who was always
+reproaching me when I dined with him for visiting the other dancers to
+the exclusion of Madame Caracci. I thought of his reproach at the time,
+and determined to pay her a visit after the ballet to congratulate her on
+her performance and the king's applause. On my way I passed by Madame
+Binetti's dressing-room, and seeing the door open I stayed a moment.
+Count Branicki came up, and I left with a bow and passed on to Madame
+Caracci's dressing-room. She was astonished to see me, and began with
+kindly reproaches for my neglect; to which I replied with compliments,
+and then giving her a kiss I promised to come and see her.
+
+Just as I embraced her who should enter but Branicki, whom I had left a
+moment before with Madame Binetti. He had clearly followed me in the
+hopes of picking a quarrel. He was accompanied by Bininski, his
+lieutenant-colonel. As soon as he appeared, politeness made me stand up
+and turn to go, but he stopped me.
+
+"It seems to me I have come at a bad time; it looks as if you loved this
+lady."
+
+"Certainly, my lord; does not your excellency consider her as worthy of
+love?"
+
+"Quite so; but as it happens I love her too, and I am not the man to bear
+any rivals."
+
+"As I know that, I shall love her no more."
+
+"Then you give her up?"
+
+"With all my heart; for everyone must yield to such a noble as you are."
+
+"Very good; but I call a man that yields a coward."
+
+"Isn't that rather a strong expression?"
+
+As I uttered these words I looked proudly at him and touched the hilt of
+my sword. Three or four officers were present and witnessed what passed.
+
+I had hardly gone four paces from the dressing-room when I heard myself
+called "Venetian coward." In spite of my rage I restrained myself, and
+turned back saying, coolly and firmly, that perhaps a Venetian coward
+might kill a brave Pole outside the theatre; and without awaiting a reply
+I left the building by the chief staircase.
+
+I waited vainly outside the theatre for a quarter of an hour with my
+sword in my hand, for I was not afraid of losing forty thousand ducats
+like Tomatis. At last, half perishing with cold, I called my carriage and
+drove to the palatin's, where the king was to sup.
+
+The cold and loneliness began to cool my brain, and I congratulated
+myself on my self-restraint in not drawing my sword in the actress's
+dressing-room; and I felt glad that Branicki had not followed me down the
+stairs, for his friend Bininski had a sabre, and I should probably have
+been assassinated.
+
+Although the Poles are polite enough, there is still a good deal of the
+old leaven in them. They are still Dacians and Samaritans at dinner, in
+war, and in friendship, as they call it, but which is often a burden
+hardly to be borne. They can never understand that a man may be
+sufficient company for himself, and that it is not right to descend on
+him in a troop and ask him to give them dinner.
+
+I made up my mind that Madame Binetti had excited Branicki to follow me,
+and possibly to treat me as he had treated Tomatis. I had not received a
+blow certainly, but I had been called a coward. I had no choice but to
+demand satisfaction, but I also determined to be studiously moderate
+throughout. In this frame of mind I got down at the palatin's, resolved
+to tell the whole story to the king, leaving to his majesty the task of
+compelling his favourite to give me satisfaction.
+
+As soon as the palatin saw me, he reproached me in a friendly manner for
+keeping him waiting, and we sat down to tressette. I was his partner, and
+committed several blunders. When it came to losing a second game he
+said,--
+
+"Where is your head to-night?"
+
+"My lord, it is four leagues away."
+
+"A respectable man ought to have his head in the game, and not at a
+distance of four leagues."
+
+With these words the prince threw down his cards and began to walk up and
+down the room. I was rather startled, but I got up and stood by the fire,
+waiting for the king. But after I had waited thus for half an hour a
+chamberlain came from the palace, and announced that his majesty could
+not do himself the honour of supping with my lord that night.
+
+This was a blow for me, but I concealed my disappointment. Supper was
+served, and I sat down as usual at the left hand of the palatin, who was
+annoyed with me, and chewed it. We were eighteen at table, and for once I
+had no appetite. About the middle of the supper Prince Gaspard Lubomirski
+came in, and chanced to sit down opposite me. As soon as he saw me he
+condoled with me in a loud voice for what had happened.
+
+"I am sorry for you," said he, "but Branicki was drunk, and you really
+shouldn't count what he said as an insult."
+
+"What has happened?" became at once the general question. I held my
+tongue, and when they asked Lubomirski he replied that as I kept silence
+it was his duty to do the same.
+
+Thereupon the palatin, speaking in his friendliest manner, said to me,--
+
+"What has taken place between you and Branicki?"
+
+"I will tell you the whole story, my lord, in private after supper."
+
+The conversation became indifferent, and after the meal was over the
+palatin took up his stand by the small door by which he was accustomed to
+leave the room, and there I told him the whole story. He sighed, condoled
+with me, and added,--
+
+"You had good reasons for being absent-minded at cards."
+
+"May I presume to ask your excellency's advice?"
+
+"I never give advice in these affairs, in which you must do every-thing
+or nothing."
+
+The palatin shook me by the hand, and I went home and slept for six
+hours. As soon as I awoke I sat up in bed, and my first thought was
+everything or nothing. I soon rejected the latter alternative, and I saw
+that I must demand a duel to the death. If Branicki refused to fight I
+should be compelled to kill him, even if I were to lose my head for it.
+
+Such was my determination; to write to him proposing a duel at four
+leagues from Warsaw, this being the limit of the starostia, in which
+duelling was forbidden on pain of death. I Wrote as follows, for I have
+kept the rough draft of the letter to this day:
+
+"WARSAW,
+
+"March 5th, 1766. 5 A.M.
+
+"My Lord,--Yesterday evening your excellency insulted me with a light
+heart, without my having given you any cause or reason for doing so. This
+seems to indicate that you hate me, and would gladly efface me from the
+land of the living. I both can and will oblige you in this matter. Be
+kind enough, therefore, to drive me in your carriage to a place where my
+death will not subject your lordship to the vengeance of the law, in case
+you obtain the victory, and where I shall enjoy the same advantage if God
+give me grace to kill your lordship. I should not make this proposal
+unless I believe your lordship to be of a noble disposition.
+
+"I have the honour to be, etc."
+
+I sent this letter an hour before day-break to Branicki's lodging in the
+palace. My messenger had orders to give the letter into the count's own
+hands, to wait for him to rise, and also for an answer.
+
+In half an hour I received the following answer:
+
+"Sir,--I accept your proposal, and shall be glad if you will have the
+kindness to inform me when I shall have the honour of seeing you.
+
+"I remain, sir, etc."
+
+I answered this immediately, informing him I would call on him the next
+day, at six o'clock in the morning.
+
+Shortly after, I received a second letter, in which he said that I might
+choose the arms and place, but that our differences must be settled in
+the course of the day.
+
+I sent him the measure of my sword, which was thirty-two inches long,
+telling him he might choose any place beyond the ban. In reply, I had the
+following:
+
+"Sir,--You will greatly oblige me by coming now. I have sent my carriage.
+
+"I have the honour to be, etc."
+
+I replied that I had business all the day, and that as I had made up my
+mind not to call upon him, except for the purpose of fighting, I begged
+him not to be offended if I took the liberty of sending back his
+carriage.
+
+An hour later Branicki called in person, leaving his suite at the door.
+He came into the room, requested some gentlemen who were talking with me
+to leave us alone, locked the door after them, and then sat down on my
+bed. I did not understand what all this meant so I took up my pistols.
+
+"Don't be afraid," said he, "I am not come to assassinate you, but merely
+to say that I accept your proposal, on condition only that the duel shall
+take place to-day. If not, never!"
+
+"It is out of the question. I have letters to write, and some business to
+do for the king."
+
+"That will do afterwards. In all probability you will not fall, and if
+you do I am sure the king will forgive you. Besides, a dead man need fear
+no reproaches."
+
+"I want to make my will."
+
+"Come, come, you needn't be afraid of dying; it will be time enough for
+you to make your will in fifty years."
+
+"But why should your excellency not wait till tomorrow?"
+
+"I don't want to be caught."
+
+"You have nothing of the kind to fear from me."
+
+"I daresay, but unless we make haste the king will have us both
+arrested."
+
+"How can he, unless you have told him about our quarrel?"
+
+"Ah, you don't understand! Well, I am quite willing to give you
+satisfaction, but it must be to-day or never."
+
+"Very good. This duel is too dear to my heart for me to leave you any
+pretext for avoiding it. Call for me after dinner, for I shall want all
+my strength."
+
+"Certainly. For my part I like a good supper after, better than a good
+dinner before."
+
+"Everyone to his taste."
+
+"True. By the way, why did you send me the length of your sword? I intend
+to fight with pistols, for I never use swords with unknown persons."
+
+"What do you mean? I beg of you to refrain from insulting me in my own
+house. I do not intend to fight with pistols, and you cannot compel me to
+do so, for I have your letter giving me the choice of weapons."
+
+"Strictly speaking, no doubt you are in the right; but I am sure you are
+too polite not to give way, when I assure you that you will lay me under
+a great obligation by doing so. Very often the first shot is a miss, and
+if that is the case with both of us, I promise to fight with swords as
+long as you like. Will you oblige me in the matter?"
+
+"Yes, for I like your way of asking, though, in my opinion, a pistol duel
+is a barbarous affair. I accept, but on the following conditions: You
+must bring two pistols, charge them in my presence, and give me the
+choice. If the first shot is a miss, we will fight with swords till the
+first blood or to the death, whichever you prefer. Call for me at three
+o'clock, and choose some place where we shall be secure from the law."
+
+"Very good. You are a good fellow, allow me to embrace you. Give me your
+word of honour not to say a word about it to anyone, for if you did we
+should be arrested immediately."
+
+"You need not be afraid of my talking; the project is too dear to me."
+
+"Good. Farewell till three o'clock."
+
+As soon as the brave braggart had left me, I placed the papers I was
+doing for the king apart, and went to Campioni, in whom I had great
+confidence.
+
+"Take this packet to the king," I said, "if I happen to be killed. You
+may guess, perhaps, what is going to happen, but do not say a word to
+anyone, or you will have me for your bitterest enemy, as it would mean
+loss of honour to me."
+
+"I understand. You may reckon on my discretion, and I hope the affair may
+be ended honourably and prosperously for you. But take a piece of
+friendly advice--don't spare your opponent, were it the king himself, for
+it might cost you your life. I know that by experience."
+
+"I will not forget. Farewell."
+
+We kissed each other, and I ordered an excellent dinner, for I had no
+mind to be sent to Pluto fasting. Campioni came in to dinner at one
+o'clock, and at dessert I had a visit from two young counts, with their
+tutor, Bertrand, a kindly Swiss. They were witnesses to my cheerfulness
+and the excellent appetite with which I ate. At half-past two I dismissed
+my company, and stood at the window to be ready to go down directly
+Branicki's carriage appeared. He drove up in a travelling carriage and
+six; two grooms, leading saddle-horses, went in front, followed by his
+two aide-de-camps and two hussars. Behind his carriage stood four
+servants. I hastened to descend, and found my enemy was accompanied by a
+lieutenant-general and an armed footman. The door was opened, the general
+gave me his place, and I ordered my servants not to follow me but to
+await my orders at the house.
+
+"You might want them," said Branicki; "they had better come along."
+
+"If I had as many as you, I would certainly agree to your proposition;
+but as it is I shall do still better without any at all. If need be, your
+excellency will see that I am tended by your own servants."
+
+He gave me his hand, and assured me they should wait on me before
+himself.
+
+I sat down, and we went off.
+
+It would have been absurd if I had asked where we were going, so I held
+my tongue, for at such moments a man should take heed to his words.
+Branicki was silent, and I thought the best thing I could do would be to
+engage him in a trivial conversation.
+
+"Does your excellency intend spending the spring at Warsaw?"
+
+"I had thought of doing so, but you may possibly send me to pass the
+spring somewhere else."
+
+"Oh, I hope not!"
+
+"Have you seen any military service?"
+
+"Yes; but may I ask why your excellency asks me the question, for--"
+
+"I had no particular reason; it was only for the sake of saying
+something."
+
+We had driven about half an hour when the carriage stopped at the door of
+a large garden. We got down and, following the postoli, reached a green
+arbour which, by the way, was not at all green on that 5th of March. In
+it was a stone table on which the footman placed two pistols, a foot and
+half long, with a powder flask and scales. He weighed the powder, loaded
+them equally, and laid them down crosswise on the table.
+
+This done, Branicki said boldly,
+
+"Choose your weapon, sir."
+
+At this the general called out,
+
+"Is this a duel, sir?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"You cannot fight here; you are within the ban."
+
+"No matter."
+
+"It does matter; and I, at all events, refuse to be a witness. I am on
+guard at the castle, and you have taken me by surprise."
+
+"Be quiet; I will answer for everything. I owe this gentleman
+satisfaction, and I mean to give it him here."
+
+"M. Casanova," said the general, "you cannot fight here."
+
+"Then why have I been brought here? I shall defend myself wherever I am
+attacked."
+
+"Lay the whole matter before the king, and you shall have my voice in
+your favour."
+
+"I am quite willing to do so, general, if his excellency will say that he
+regrets what passed between us last night."
+
+Branicki looked fiercely at me, and said wrathfully that he had come to
+fight and not to parley.
+
+"General," said I, "you can bear witness that I have done all in my power
+to avoid this duel."
+
+The general went away with his head between his hands, and throwing off
+my cloak I took the first pistol that came to my hand. Branicki took the
+other, and said that he would guarantee upon his honour that my weapon
+was a good one.
+
+"I am going to try its goodness on your head," I answered.
+
+He turned pale at this, threw his sword to one of his servants, and bared
+his throat, and I was obliged, to my sorrow, to follow his example, for
+my sword was the only weapon I had, with the exception of the pistol. I
+bared my chest also, and stepped back five or six paces, and he did the
+same.
+
+As soon as we had taken up our positions I took off my hat with my left
+hand, and begged him to fire first.
+
+Instead of doing so immediately he lost two or three seconds in sighting,
+aiming, and covering his head by raising the weapon before it. I was not
+in a position to let him kill me at his ease, so I suddenly aimed and
+fired on him just as he fired on me. That I did so is evident, as all the
+witnesses were unanimous in saying that they only heard one report. I
+felt I was wounded in my left hand, and so put it into my pocket, and I
+ran towards my enemy who had fallen. All of a sudden, as I knelt beside
+him, three bare swords were flourished over my head, and three noble
+assassins prepared to cut me down beside their master. Fortunately,
+Branicki had not lost consciousness or the power of speaking, and he
+cried out in a voice of thunder,--
+
+"Scoundrels! have some respect for a man of honour."
+
+This seemed to petrify them. I put my right hand under the pistoli's
+armpit, while the general helped him on the other side, and thus we took
+him to the inn, which happened to be near at hand.
+
+Branicki stooped as he walked, and gazed at me curiously, apparently
+wondering where all the blood on my clothes came from.
+
+When we got to the inn, Branicki laid himself down in an arm-chair. We
+unbuttoned his clothes and lifted up his shirt, and he could see himself
+that he was dangerously wounded. My ball had entered his body by the
+seventh rib on the right hand, and had gone out by the second false rib
+on the left. The two wounds were ten inches apart, and the case was of an
+alarming nature, as the intestines must have been pierced. Branicki spoke
+to me in a weak voice,--
+
+"You have killed me, so make haste away, as you are in danger of the
+gibbet. The duel was fought in the ban, and I am a high court officer,
+and a Knight of the White Eagle. So lose no time, and if you have not
+enough money take my purse."
+
+I picked up the purse which had fallen out, and put it back in his
+pocket, thanking him, and saying it would be useless to me, for if I were
+guilty I was content to lose my head. "I hope," I added, "that your wound
+will not be mortal, and I am deeply grieved at your obliging me to
+fight."
+
+With these words I kissed him on his brow and left the inn, seeing
+neither horses nor carriage, nor servant. They had all gone off for
+doctor, surgeon, priest, and the friends and relatives of the wounded
+man.
+
+I was alone and without any weapon, in the midst of a snow-covered
+country, my hand was wounded, and I had not the slightest idea which was
+the way to Warsaw.
+
+I took the road which seemed most likely, and after I had gone some
+distance I met a peasant with an empty sleigh.
+
+"Warszawa?" I cried, shewing him a ducat.
+
+He understood me, and lifted a coarse mat, with which he covered me when
+I got into the sleigh, and then set off at a gallop.
+
+All at once Biniski, Branicki's bosom-friend, came galloping furiously
+along the road with his bare sword in his hand. He was evidently running
+after me. Happily he did not glance at the wretched sleigh in which I
+was, or else he would undoubtedly have murdered me. I got at last to
+Warsaw, and went to the house of Prince Adam Czartoryski to beg him to
+shelter me, but there was nobody there. Without delay I determined to
+seek refuge in the Convent of the Recollets, which was handy.
+
+I rang at the door of the monastery, and the porter seeing me covered
+with blood hastened to shut the door, guessing the object of my visit.
+But I did not give him the time to do so, but honouring him with a hearty
+kick forced my way in. His cries attracted a troop of frightened monks. I
+demanded sanctuary, and threatened them with vengeance if they refused to
+grant it. One of their number spoke to me, and I was taken to a little
+den which looked more like a dungeon than anything else. I offered no
+resistance, feeling sure that they would change their tune before very
+long. I asked them to send for my servants, and when they came I sent for
+a doctor and Campioni. Before the surgeon could come the Palatin of
+Polduchia was announced. I had never had the honour of speaking to him,
+but after hearing the history of my duel he was so kind as to give me all
+the particulars of a duel he had fought in his youthful days. Soon after
+came the Palatin of Kalisch, Prince Jablenowski. Prince Sanguska, and the
+Palatin of Wilna, who all joined in a chorus of abuse of the monks who
+had lodged me so scurvily. The poor religious excused themselves by
+saying that I had ill-treated their porter, which made my noble friends
+laugh; but I did not laugh, for my wound was very painful. However I was
+immediately moved into two of their best guest-rooms.
+
+The ball had pierced my hand by the metacarpus under the index finger,
+and had broken the first phalanges. Its force had been arrested by a
+metal button on my waistcoat, and it had only inflicted a slight wound on
+my stomach close to the navel. However, there it was and it had to be
+extracted, for it pained me extremely. An empiric named Gendron, the
+first surgeon my servants had found, made an opening on the opposite side
+of my hand which doubled the wound. While he was performing this painful
+operation I told the story of the duel to the company, concealing the
+anguish I was enduring. What a power vanity exercises on the moral and
+physical forces! If I had been alone I should probably have fainted.
+
+As soon as the empiric Gendron was gone, the palatin's surgeon came in
+and took charge of the case, calling Gendron a low fellow. At the same
+time Prince Lubomirski, the husband of the palatin's daughter, arrived,
+and gave us all a surprise by recounting the strange occurrences which
+had happened after the duel. Bininski came to where Branicki was lying,
+and seeing his wound rode off furiously on horseback, swearing to strike
+me dead wherever he found me. He fancied I would be with Tomatis, and
+went to his house. He found Tomatis with his mistress, Prince Lubomirski,
+and Count Moszczinski, but no Casanova was visible. He asked where I was,
+and on Tomatis replying that he did not know he discharged a pistol at
+his head. At this dastardly action Count Moszczincki seized him and tried
+to throw him out of the window, but the madman got loose with three cuts
+of his sabre, one of which slashed the count on the face and knocked out
+three of his teeth.
+
+"After this exploit," Prince Lubomirski continued, "he seized me by the
+throat and held a pistol to my head, threatening to blow out my brains if
+I did not take him in safety to the court where his horse was, so that he
+might get away from the house without any attack being made on him by
+Tomatis's servants; and I did so immediately. Moszczinski is in the
+doctor's hands, and will be laid up for some time.
+
+"As soon as it was reported that Branicki was killed, his Uhlans began to
+ride about the town swearing to avenge their colonel, and to slaughter
+you. It is very fortunate that you took refuge here.
+
+"The chief marshal has had the monastery surrounded by two hundred
+dragoons, ostensibly to prevent your escape, but in reality to defend you
+from Branicki's soldiers.
+
+"The doctors say that the postoli is in great danger if the ball has
+wounded the intestines, but if not they answer for his recovery. His fate
+will be known tomorrow. He now lies at the lord chamberlain's, not daring
+to have himself carried to his apartments at the palace. The king has
+been to see him, and the general who was present told his majesty that
+the only thing that saved your life was your threat to aim at Branicki's
+head. This frightened him, and to keep your ball from his head he stood
+in such an awkward position that he missed your vital parts. Otherwise he
+would undoubtedly have shot you through the heart, for he can split a
+bullet into two halves by firing against the blade of a knife. It was
+also a lucky thing for you that you escaped Bininski, who never thought
+of looking for you in the wretched sleigh."
+
+"My lord, the most fortunate thing for me is that I did not kill my man
+outright. Otherwise I should have been cut to pieces just as I went to
+his help by three of his servants, who stood over me with drawn swords.
+However, the postoli ordered them to leave me alone.
+
+"I am sorry for what has happened to your highness and Count Moszczinski;
+and if Tomatis was not killed by the madman it is only because the pistol
+was only charged with powder."
+
+"That's what I think, for no one heard the bullet; but it was a mere
+chance."
+
+"Quite so."
+
+Just then an officer of the palatin's came to me with a note from his
+master, which ran as follows:
+
+"Read what the king says to me, and sleep well."
+
+The king's note was thus conceived:
+
+"Branicki, my dear uncle, is dangerous wounded. My surgeons are doing all
+they can for him, but I have not forgotten Casanova. You may assure him
+that he is pardoned, even if Branicki should die."
+
+I kissed the letter gratefully, and shewed it to my visitors, who lauded
+this generous man truly worthy of being a king.
+
+After this pleasant news I felt in need of rest, and my lords left me. As
+soon as they were gone, Campioni, who had come in before and had stood in
+the background, came up to me and gave me back the packet of papers, and
+with tears of joy congratulated me on the happy issue of the duel.
+
+Next day I had shoals of visitors, and many of the chiefs of the party
+opposed to Branicki sent me purses full of gold. The persons who brought
+the money on behalf of such a lord or lady, said that being a foreigner I
+might be in need of money, and that was their excuse for the liberty they
+had taken. I thanked and refused them all, and sent back at least four
+thousand ducats, and was very proud of having done so. Campioni thought
+it was absurd, and he was right, for I repented afterwards of what I had
+done. The only present I accepted was a dinner for four persons, which
+Prince Adam Czartoryski sent me in every day, though the doctor would not
+let me enjoy it, he being a great believer in diet.
+
+The wound in my stomach was progressing favourably, but on the fourth day
+the surgeons said my hand was becoming gangrened, and they agreed that
+the only remedy was amputation. I saw this announced in the Court Gazette
+the next morning, but as I had other views on the matter I laughed
+heartily at the paragraph. The sheet was printed at night, after the king
+had placed his initials to the copy. In the morning several persons came
+to condole with me, but I received their sympathy with great irreverence.
+I merely laughed at Count Clary, who said I would surely submit to the
+operation; and just as he uttered the words the three surgeons came in
+together.
+
+"Well, gentlemen," said I, "you have mustered in great strength; why is
+this?"
+
+My ordinary surgeon replied that he wished to have the opinion of the
+other two before proceeding to amputation, and they would require to look
+at the wound.
+
+The dressing was lifted and gangrene was declared to be undoubtedly
+present, and execution was ordered that evening. The butchers gave me the
+news with radiant faces, and assured me I need not be afraid as the
+operation would certainly prove efficacious.
+
+"Gentlemen," I replied, "you seem to have a great many solid scientific
+reasons for cutting off my hand; but one thing you have not got, and that
+is my consent. My hand is my own, and I am going to keep it."
+
+"Sir, it is certainly gangrened; by to-morrow the arm will begin to
+mortify, and then you will have to lose your arm."
+
+"Very good; if that prove so you shall cut off my arm, but I happen to
+know something of gangrene, and there is none about me."
+
+"You cannot know as much about it as we do."
+
+"Possibly; but as far as I can make out, you know nothing at all."
+
+"That's rather a strong expression."
+
+"I don't care whether it be strong or weak; you can go now."
+
+In a couple of hours everyone whom the surgeons had told of my obstinacy
+came pestering me. Even the prince-palatin wrote to me that the king was
+extremely surprised at my lack of courage. This stung me to the quick,
+and I wrote the king a long letter, half in earnest and half in jest, in
+which I laughed at the ignorance of the surgeons, and at the simplicity
+of those who took whatever they said for gospel truth. I added that as an
+arm without a hand would be quite as useless as no arm at all, I meant to
+wait till it was necessary to cut off the arm.
+
+My letter was read at Court, and people wondered how a man with gangrene
+could write a long letter of four pages. Lubomirski told me kindly that I
+was mistaken in laughing at my friends, for the three best surgeons in
+Warsaw could not be mistaken in such a simple case.
+
+"My lord, they are not deceived themselves, but they want to deceive me."
+
+"Why should they?"
+
+"To make themselves agreeable to Branicki, who is in a dangerous state,
+and might possibly get better if he heard that my hand had been taken
+off."
+
+"Really that seems an incredible idea to me!"
+
+"What will your highness say on the day when I am proved to be right?"
+
+"I shall say you are deserving of the highest praise, but the day must
+first come."
+
+"We shall see this evening, and I give you my word that if any gangrene
+has attacked the arm, I will have it cut off to-morrow morning."
+
+Four surgeons came to see me. My arm was pronounced to be highly
+aedematous, and of a livid colour up to the elbow; but when the lint was
+taken off the wound I could see for myself that it was progressing
+admirably. However, I concealed my delight. Prince Augustus Sulkowski and
+the Abbe Gouvel were present; the latter being attached to the palatin's
+court. The judgment of the surgeons was that the arm was gangrened, and
+must be amputated by the next morning at latest.
+
+I was tired of arguing with these rascals, so I told them to bring their
+instruments, and that I would submit to the operation. At this they went
+way in high glee, to tell the news at the Court, to Branicki, to the
+palatin, and so forth. I merely gave my servants orders to send them away
+when they came.
+
+I can dwell no more on this matter, though it is interesting enough to
+me. However, the reader will no doubt be obliged to me by my simply
+saying that a French surgeon in Prince Sulkowski's household took charge
+of the case in defiance of professional etiquette, and cured me
+perfectly, so I have my hand and my arm to this day.
+
+On Easter Day I went to mass with my arm in a sling. My cure had only
+lasted three weeks, but I was not able to put the hand to any active
+employment for eighteen months afterwards. Everyone was obliged to
+congratulate me on having held out against the amputation, and the
+general consent declared the surgeons grossly ignorant, while I was
+satisfied with thinking them very great knaves.
+
+I must here set down an incident which happened three days after the
+duel.
+
+I was told that a Jesuit father from the bishop of the diocese wanted to
+speak to me in private, and I had him shewn in, and asked him what he
+wanted.
+
+"I have come from my lord-bishop," said he, "to absolve you from the
+ecclesiastical censure, which you have incurred by duelling."
+
+"I am always delighted to receive absolution, father, but only after I
+have confessed my guilt. In the present case I have nothing to confess; I
+was attacked, and I defended myself. Pray thank my lord for his kindness.
+If you like to absolve me without confession, I shall be much obliged."
+
+"If you do not confess, I cannot give you absolution, but you can do
+this: ask me to absolve you, supposing you have fought a duel."
+
+"Certainly; I shall be glad if you will absolve me, supposing I have
+fought a duel."
+
+The delightful Jesuit gave me absolution in similar terms. He was like
+his brethren--never at a loss when a loophole of any kind is required.
+
+Three days before I left the monastery, that is on Holy Thursday, the
+marshal withdrew my guard. After I had been to mass on Easter Day, I went
+to Court, and as I kissed the king's hand, he asked me (as had been
+arranged) why I wore my arm in a sling. I said I had been suffering from
+a rheum, and he replied, with a meaning smile,--
+
+"Take care not to catch another."
+
+After my visit to the king, I called on Branicki, who had made daily
+enquiries after my health, and had sent me back my sword, He was condemned
+to stay in bed for six weeks longer at least, for the wad of my pistol
+had got into the wound, and in extracting it the opening had to be
+enlarged, which retarded his recovery. The king had just appointed him
+chief huntsman, not so exalted an office as chamberlain, but a more
+lucrative one. It was said he had got the place because he was such a
+good shot; but if that were the reason I had a better claim to it, for I
+had proved the better shot--for one day at all events.
+
+I entered an enormous ante-room in which stood officers, footmen, pages,
+and lacqueys, all gazing at me with the greatest astonishment. I asked if
+my lord was to be seen, and begged the door-keeper to send in my name. He
+did not answer, but sighed, and went into his master's room. Directly
+after, he came out and begged me, with a profound bow, to step in.
+
+Branicki, who was dressed in a magnificent gown and supported by pillows
+and cushions, greeted me by taking off his nightcap. He was as pale as
+death.
+
+"I have come here, my lord," I began, "to offer you my service, and to
+assure you how I regret that I did not pass over a few trifling words of
+yours."
+
+"You have no reason to reproach yourself, M. Casanova."
+
+"Your excellency is very kind. I am also come to say that by fighting
+with me you have done me an honour which completely swallows up all
+offence, and I trust that you will give me your protection for the
+future."
+
+"I confess I insulted you, but you will allow that I have paid for it. As
+to my friends, I openly say that they are my enemies unless they treat
+you with respect. Bininski has been cashiered, and his nobility taken
+from him; he is well served. As to my protection you have no need of it,
+the king esteems you highly, like myself, and all men of honour. Sit
+down; we will be friends. A cup of chocolate for this gentleman. You seem
+to have got over your wound completely."
+
+"Quite so, my lord, except as to the use of my fingers, and that will
+take some time."
+
+"You were quite right to withstand those rascally surgeons, and you had
+good reason for your opinion that the fools thought to please me by
+rendering you one-handed. They judged my heart by their own. I
+congratulate you on the preservation of your hand, but I have not been
+able to make out how my ball could have wounded you in the hand after
+striking your stomach."
+
+Just then the chocolate was brought, and the chamberlain came in and
+looked at me with a smile. In five minutes the room was full of lords and
+ladies who had heard I was with Branicki, and wanted to know how we were
+getting on. I could see that they did not expect to find us on such good
+terms, and were agreeably surprised. Branicki asked the question which
+had been interrupted by the chocolate and the visitors over again.
+
+"Your excellency will allow me to assume the position I was in as I
+received your fire."
+
+"Pray do so."
+
+I rose and placed myself in the position, and he said he understood how
+it was.
+
+A lady said,--
+
+"You should have put your hand behind your body."
+
+"Excuse me, madam, but I thought it better to put my body behind my
+hand."
+
+This sally made Branicki laugh, but his sister said to me,--
+
+"You wanted to kill my brother, for you aimed at his head."
+
+"God forbid, madam! my interest lay in keeping him alive to defend me
+from his friends."
+
+"But you said you were going to fire at his head."
+
+"That's a mere figure of speech, just as one says, 'I'll blow your brains
+out.' The skilled duellist, however, always aims at the middle of the
+body; the head does not offer a large enough surface."
+
+"Yes," said Branicki, "your tactics were superior to mine, and I am
+obliged to you for the lesson you gave me."
+
+"Your excellency gave me a lesson in heroism of far greater value."
+
+"You must have had a great deal of practice with the pistol," continued
+his sister.
+
+"Not at all, madam, I regard the weapon with detestation. This unlucky
+shot was my first; but I have always known a straight line, and my hand
+has always been steady."
+
+"That's all one wants," said Branicki. "I have those advantages myself,
+and I am only too well pleased that I did not aim so well as usual."
+
+"Your ball broke my first phalanges. Here it is you see, flattened by my
+bone. Allow me to return it to you."
+
+"I am sorry to say I can't return yours, which I suppose remains on the
+field of battle."
+
+"You seem to be getting better, thank God!"
+
+"The wound is healing painfully. If I had imitated you I should no longer
+be in the land of the living; I am told you made an excellent dinner?"
+
+"Yes, my lord, I was afraid I might never have another chance of dining
+again."
+
+"If I had dined, your ball would have pierced my intestines; but being
+empty it yielded to the bullet, and let it pass by harmlessly."
+
+I heard afterwards that on the day of the duel Branicki had gone to
+confession and mass, and had communicated. The priest could not refuse
+him absolution, if he said that honour obliged him to fight; for this was
+in accordance with the ancient laws of chivalry. As for me I only
+addressed these words to God:
+
+"Lord, if my enemy kill me, I shall be damned; deign, therefore, to
+preserve me from death. Amen."
+
+After a long and pleasant conversation I took leave of the hero to visit
+the high constable, Count Bielinski, brother of Countess Salmor. He was a
+very old man, but the sovereign administrator of justice in Poland. I had
+never spoken to him, but he had defended me from Branicki's Uhlans, and
+had made out my pardon, so I felt bound to go and thank him.
+
+I sent in my name, and the worthy old man greeted me with:
+
+"What can I do for you?"
+
+"I have come to kiss the hand of the kindly man that signed my pardon,
+and to promise your excellency to be more discreet in future."
+
+"I advise you to be more discreet indeed. As for your pardon, thank the
+king; for if he had not requested me especially to grant it you, I should
+have had you beheaded."
+
+"In spite of the extenuating circumstances, my lord?"
+
+"What circumstances? Did you or did you not fight a duel."
+
+"That is not a proper way of putting it; I was obliged to defend myself.
+You might have charged me with fighting a duel if Branicki had taken me
+outside the ban, as I requested, but as it was he took me where he willed
+and made me fight. Under these circumstances I am sure your excellency
+would have spared my head."
+
+"I really can't say. The king requested that you should be pardoned, and
+that shews he believes you to be deserving of pardon; I congratulate you
+on his good will. I shall be pleased if you will dine with me tomorrow."
+
+"My lord, I am delighted to accept your invitation."
+
+The illustrious old constable was a man of great intelligence. He had
+been a bosom-friend of the celebrated Poniatowski, the king's father. We
+had a good deal of conversation together at dinner the next day.
+
+"What a comfort it would have been to your excellency's friend," said I,
+"if he could have lived to see his son crowned King of Poland."
+
+"He would never have consented."
+
+The vehemence with which he pronounced these words gave me a deep insight
+into his feelings. He was of the Saxon party. The same day, that is on
+Easter Day, I dined at the palatin's.
+
+"Political reasons," said he, "prevented me from visiting you at the
+monastery; but you must not think I had forgotten you, for you were
+constantly in my thoughts. I am going to lodge you here, for my wife is
+very fond of your society; but the rooms will not be ready for another
+six weeks."
+
+"I shall take the opportunity, my lord, of paying a visit to the Palatin
+of Kiowia, who has honoured me with an invitation to come and see him."
+
+"Who gave you the invitation?"
+
+"Count Bruhl, who is at Dresden; his wife is daughter of the palatin."
+
+"This journey is an excellent idea, for this duel of yours has made you
+innumerable enemies, and I only hope you will have to fight no more
+duels. I give you fair warning; be on your guard, and never go on foot,
+especially at night."
+
+I spent a fortnight in going out to dinner and supper every day. I had
+become the fashion, and wherever I went I had to tell the duel story over
+again. I was rather tired of it myself, but the wish to please and my own
+self-love were too strong to be resisted. The king was nearly always
+present, but feigned not to hear me. However, he once asked me if I had
+been insulted by a patrician in Venice, whether I should have called him
+out immediately.
+
+"No, sire, for his patrician pride would have prevented his complying,
+and I should have had my pains for my trouble."
+
+"Then what would you have done?"
+
+"Sire, I should have contained myself, though if a noble Venetian were to
+insult me in a foreign country he would have to give me satisfaction."
+
+I called on Prince Moszczinski, and Madame Binetti happened to be there;
+the moment she saw me she made her escape.
+
+"What has she against me?" I asked the count.
+
+"She is afraid of you, because she was the cause of the duel, and now
+Branicki who was her lover will have nothing more to say to her. She
+hoped he would serve you as he served Tomatis, and instead of that you
+almost killed her bravo. She lays the fault on him for having accepted
+your challenge, but he has resolved to have done with her."
+
+This Count Moszczinski was both good-hearted and quick-witted, and so,
+generous that he ruined himself by making presents. His wounds were
+beginning to heal, but though I was the indirect cause of his mishap, far
+from bearing malice against me he had become my friend.
+
+The person whom I should have expected to be most grateful to me for the
+duel was Tomatis, but on the contrary he hated the sight of me and hardly
+concealed his feelings. I was the living reproach of his cowardice; my
+wounded hand seemed to shew him that he had loved his money more than his
+honour. I am sure he would have preferred Branicki to have killed me, for
+then he would have become an object of general execration, and Tomatis
+would have been received with less contempt in the great houses he still
+frequented.
+
+I resolved to pay a visit to the discontented party who had only
+recognized the new king on compulsion, and some of whom had not
+recognized him at all; so I set out with my true friend Campioni and one
+servant.
+
+Prince Charles of Courland had started for Venice, where I had given him
+letters for my illustrious friends who would make his visit a pleasant
+one. The English ambassador who had given me an introduction to Prince
+Adam had just arrived at Warsaw. I dined with him at the prince's house,
+and the king signified his wish to be of the party. I heard a good deal
+of conversation about Madame de Geoffrin, an old sweetheart of the king's
+whom he had just summoned to Warsaw. The Polish monarch, of whom I cannot
+speak in too favourable terms, was yet weak enough to listen to the
+slanderous reports against me, and refused to make my fortune. I had the
+pleasure of convincing him that he was mistaken, but I will speak of this
+later on.
+
+I arrived at Leopol the sixth day after I had left Warsaw, having stopped
+a couple of days at Prince Zamoiski's; he had forty thousand ducats
+a-year, but also the falling sickness.
+
+"I would give all my goods," said he, "to be cured."
+
+I pitied his young wife. She was very fond of him, and yet had to deny
+him, for his disease always came on him in moments of amorous excitement.
+She had the bitter task of constantly refusing him, and even of running
+away if he pressed her hard. This great nobleman, who died soon after,
+lodged me in a splendid room utterly devoid of furniture. This is the
+Polish custom; one is supposed to bring one's furniture with one.
+
+At Leopol I put up, at an hotel, but I soon had to move from thence to
+take up my abode with the famous Kaminska, the deadly foe of Branicki,
+the king, and all that party. She was very rich, but she has since been
+ruined by conspiracies. She entertained me sumptuously for a week, but
+the visit was agreeable to neither side, as she could only speak Polish
+and German. From Leopol I proceeded to a small town, the name of which I
+forget (the Polish names are very crabbed) to take an introduction from
+Prince Lubomirski to Joseph Rzewuski, a little old man who wore a long
+beard as a sign of mourning for the innovations that were being
+introduced into his country. He was rich, learned, superstitiously
+religious, and polite exceedingly. I stayed with him for three days. He
+was the commander of a stronghold containing a garrison of five hundred
+men.
+
+On the first day, as I was in his room with some other officers, about
+eleven o'clock in the morning, another officer came in, whispered to
+Rzewuski, and then came up to me and whispered in my ear, "Venice and St.
+Mark."
+
+"St. Mark," I answered aloud, "is the patron saint and protector of
+Venice," and everybody began to laugh.
+
+It dawned upon me that "Venice and St. Mark" was the watchword, and I
+began to apologize profusely, and the word was changed.
+
+The old commander spoke to me with great politeness. He never went to
+Court, but he had resolved on going to the Diet to oppose the Russian
+party with all his might. The poor man, a Pole of the true old leaven,
+was one of the four whom Repnin arrested and sent to Siberia.
+
+After taking leave of this brave patriot, I went to Christianpol, where
+lived the famous palatin Potocki, who had been one of the lovers of the
+empress Anna Ivanovna. He had founded the town in which he lived and
+called it after his own name. This nobleman, still a fine man, kept a
+splendid court. He honoured Count Bruhl by keeping me at his house for a
+fortnight, and sending me out every day with his doctor, the famous
+Styrneus, the sworn foe of Van Swieten, a still more famous physician.
+Although Styrneus was undoubtedly a learned man, I thought him somewhat
+extravagant and empirical. His system was that of Asclepiades, considered
+as exploded since the time of the great Boerhaave; nevertheless, he
+effected wonderful cures.
+
+In the evenings I was always with the palatin and his court. Play was not
+heavy, and I always won, which was fortunate and indeed necessary for me.
+After an extremely agreeable visit to the palatin I returned to Leopol,
+where I amused myself for a week with a pretty girl who afterwards so
+captivated Count Potocki, starost of Sniatin, that he married her. This
+is purity of blood with a vengeance in your noble families!
+
+Leaving Leopol I went to Palavia, a splendid palace on the Vistula,
+eighteen leagues distant from Warsaw. It belonged to the prince palatin,
+who had built it himself.
+
+Howsoever magnificent an abode may be, a lonely man will weary of it
+unless he has the solace of books or of some great idea. I had neither,
+and boredom soon made itself felt.
+
+A pretty peasant girl came into my room, and finding her to my taste I
+tried to make her understand me without the use of speech, but she
+resisted and shouted so loudly that the door-keeper came up, and asked
+me, coolly,--
+
+"If you like the girl, why don't you go the proper way to work?"
+
+"What way is that?"
+
+"Speak to her father, who is at hand, and arrange the matter amicably."
+
+"I don't know Polish. Will you carry the thing through?"
+
+"Certainly. I suppose you will give fifty florins?"
+
+"You are laughing at me. I will give a hundred willingly, provided she is
+a maid and is as submissive as a lamb."
+
+No doubt the arrangement was made without difficulty, for our hymen took
+place the same evening, but no sooner was the operation completed than
+the poor lamb fled away in hot haste, which made me suspect that her
+father had used rather forcible persuasion with her. I would not have
+allowed this had I been aware of it.
+
+The next morning several girls were offered to me, but the faces of all
+of them were covered.
+
+"Where is the girl?" said I. "I want to see her face."
+
+"Never mind about the face, if the rest is all right."
+
+"The face is the essential part for me," I replied, "and the rest I look
+upon as an accessory."
+
+He did not understand this. However, they were uncovered, but none of
+their faces excited my desires.
+
+As a rule, the Polish women are ugly; a beauty is a miracle, and a pretty
+woman a rare exception. At the end of a week of feasting and weariness, I
+returned to Warsaw.
+
+In this manner I saw Podolia and Volkynia, which were rebaptized a few
+years later by the names of Galicia and Lodomeria, for they are now part
+of the Austrian Empire. It is said, however, that they are more
+prosperous than they ever were before.
+
+At Warsaw I found Madame Geoffrin the object of universal admiration; and
+everybody was remarking with what simplicity she was dressed. As for
+myself, I was received not coldly, but positively rudely. People said to
+my face,--
+
+"We did not expect to see you here again. Why did you come back?"
+
+"To pay my debts."
+
+This behaviour astonished and disgusted me. The prince-palatin even
+seemed quite changed towards me. I was still invited to dinner, but no
+one spoke to me. However, Prince Adam's sister asked me very kindly to
+come and sup with her, and I accepted the invitation with delight. I
+found myself seated opposite the king, who did not speak one word to me
+the whole time. He had never behaved to me thus before.
+
+The next day I dined with the Countess Oginski, and in the course of
+dinner the countess asked where the king had supper the night before;
+nobody seemed to know, and I did not answer. Just as we were rising,
+General Roniker came in, and the question was repeated.
+
+"At Princess Strasnikowa's," said the general, "and M. Casanova was
+there."
+
+"Then why did you not answer my question?" said the countess to me.
+
+"Because I am very sorry to have been there. His majesty neither spoke to
+me nor looked at me. I see I am in disgrace, but for the life of me I
+know not why."
+
+On leaving the house I went to call on Prince Augustus Sulkowski, who
+welcomed me as of old, but told me that I had made a mistake in returning
+to Warsaw as public opinion was against me.
+
+"What have I done?"
+
+"Nothing; but the Poles are always inconstant and changeable. 'Sarmatarum
+virtus veluti extra ipsos'. This inconstancy will cost us dear sooner or
+later. Your fortune was made, but you missed the turn of the tide, and I
+advise you to go."
+
+"I will certainly do so, but it seems to me rather hard."
+
+When I got home my servant gave me a letter which some unknown person had
+left at my door. I opened it and found it to be anonymous, but I could
+see it came from a well-wisher. The writer said that the slanderers had
+got the ears of the king, and that I was no longer a persona grata at
+Court, as he had been assured that the Parisians had burnt me in effigy
+for my absconding with the lottery money, and that I had been a strolling
+player in Italy and little better than a vagabond.
+
+Such calumnies are easy to utter but hard to refute in a foreign country.
+At all Courts hatred, born of envy, is ever at work. I might have
+despised the slanders and left the country, but I had contracted debts
+and had not sufficient money to pay them and my expenses to Portugal,
+where I thought I might do something.
+
+I no longer saw any company, with the exception of Campioni, who seemed
+more distressed than myself. I wrote to Venice and everywhere else, where
+there was a chance of my getting funds; but one day the general, who had
+been present at the duel, called on me, and told me (though he seemed
+ashamed of his task) that the king requested me to leave the ban in the
+course of a week.
+
+Such a piece of insolence made my blood boil, and I informed the general
+that he might tell the king that I did not feel inclined to obey such an
+unjust order, and that if I left I would let all the world know that I
+had been compelled to do so by brute force.
+
+"I cannot take such a message as that," said the general, kindly. "I
+shall simply tell the king that I have executed his orders, and no more;
+but of course you must follow your own judgment."
+
+In the excess of my indignation I wrote to the king that I could not obey
+his orders and keep my honour. I said in my letter,--
+
+"My creditors, sire, will forgive me for leaving Poland without paying my
+debts, when they learn that I have only done so because your majesty gave
+me no choice."
+
+I was thinking how I could ensure this letter reaching the king, when who
+should arrive but Count Moszczinski. I told him what had happened, and
+asked if he could suggest any means of delivering tire letter. "Give it
+to me," said he; "I will place it in the king's hands."
+
+As soon as he had gone I went out to take the air, and called on Prince
+Sulkowski, who was not at all astonished at my news. As if to sweeten the
+bitter pill I had to swallow, he told me how the Empress of Austria had
+ordered him to leave Vienna in twenty-four hours, merely because he had
+complimented the Archduchess Christina on behalf of Prince Louis of
+Wurtemberg.
+
+The next day Count Moszczinski brought me a present of a thousand ducats
+from the king, who said that my leaving Warsaw would probably be the
+means of preserving my life, as in that city I was exposed to danger
+which I could not expect to escape eventually.
+
+This referred to five or six challenges I had received, and to which I
+had not even taken the trouble to reply. My enemies might possibly
+assassinate me, and the king did not care to be constantly anxious on my
+account. Count Moszczinski added that the order to leave carried no
+dishonour with it, considering by whom it had been delivered, and the
+delay it gave me to make my preparations.
+
+The consequence of all this was that I not only gave my word to go, but
+that I begged the count to thank his majesty for his kindness, and the
+interest he had been pleased to take in me.
+
+When I gave in, the generous Moszczinski embraced me, begged me to write
+to him, and accept a present of a travelling carriage as a token of his
+friendship. He informed me that Madame Binetti's husband had gone off
+with his wife's maid, taking with him her diamonds, jewels, linen, and
+even her silver plate, leaving her to the tender mercies of the dancer,
+Pic. Her admirers had clubbed together to make up to her for what her
+husband had stolen. I also heard that the king's sister had arrived at
+Warsaw from Bialistock, and it was hoped that her husband would follow
+her. This husband was the real Count Branicki, and the Branicki, or
+rather Branecki, or Bragnecki, who had fought with me, was no relation to
+him whatever.
+
+The following day I paid my debts, which amounted to about two hundred
+ducats, and I made preparations for starting for Breslau, the day after,
+with Count Clary, each of us having his own carriage. Clary was one of
+those men to whom lying has become a sort of second nature; whenever such
+an one opens his mouth, you may safely say to him, "You have lied, or you
+are going to lie." If they could feel their own degradation, they would
+be much to be pitied, for by their own fault at last no one will believe
+them even when by chance they speak the truth. This Count Clary, who was
+not one of the Clarys of Teplitz, could neither go to his own country nor
+to Vienna, because he had deserted the army on the eve of a battle. He
+was lame, but he walked so adroitly that his defect did not appear. If
+this had been the only truth he concealed, it would have been well, for
+it was a piece of deception that hurt no one. He died miserably in
+Venice.
+
+We reached Breslau in perfect safety, and without experiencing any
+adventures. Campioni, who had accompanied me as far as Wurtemburg,
+returned, but rejoined me at Vienna in the course of seven months. Count
+Clary had left Breslau, and I thought I would make the acquaintance of
+the Abbe Bastiani, a celebrated Venetian, whose fortune had been made by
+the King of Prussia. He was canon of the cathedral, and received me
+cordially; in fact, each mutually desired the other's acquaintance. He
+was a fine well-made man, fair-complexioned, and at least six feet high.
+He was also witty, learned, eloquent, and gifted with a persuasive voice;
+his cook was an artist, his library full of choice volumes, and his
+cellar a very good one. He was well lodged on the ground floor, and on
+the first floor he accommodated a lady, of whose children he was very
+fond, possibly because he was their father. Although a great admirer of
+the fair sex, his tastes were by no means exclusive, and he did not
+despise love of the Greek or philosophic kind. I could see that he
+entertained a passion for a young priest whom I met at his table. This
+young abbe was Count di Cavalcano and Bastiani seemed to adore him, if
+fiery glances signified anything; but the innocent young man did not seem
+to understand, and I suppose Bastiani did not like to lower his dignity
+by declaring his love. The canon shewed me all the letters he had
+received from the King of Prussia before he had been made canon. He was
+the son of a tailor at Venice, and became a friar, but having committed
+some peccadillo which got him into trouble, he was fortunate enough to be
+able to make his escape. He fled to The Hague, and there met Tron, the
+Venetian ambassador, who lent him a hundred ducats with which he made his
+way to Berlin and favour with the king. Such are the ways by which men
+arrive at fortune! 'Sequere deum'!
+
+On the event of my departure from Breslau I went to pay a call on a
+baroness for whom I had a letter of introduction from her son, who was an
+officer of the Polish Court. I sent up my name and was asked to wait a
+few moments, as the baroness was dressing. I sat down beside a pretty
+girl, who was neatly dressed in a mantle with a hood. I asked her if she
+were waiting for the baroness like myself.
+
+"Yes, sir," she replied, "I have come to offer myself as governess for
+her three daughters."
+
+"What! Governess at your age?"
+
+"Alas! sir, age has nothing to do with necessity. I have neither father
+nor mother. My brother is a poor lieutenant who cannot help me; what can
+I do? I can only get a livelihood by turning my good education to
+account."
+
+"What will your salary be?"
+
+"Fifty wretched crowns, enough to buy my dresses."
+
+"It's very little."
+
+"It is as much as people give."
+
+"Where are you living now?"
+
+"With a poor aunt, where I can scarce earn enough bread to keep me alive
+by sewing from morning till night."
+
+"If you liked to become my governess instead of becoming a children's
+governess, I would give you fifty crowns, not per year, but per month."
+
+"Your governess? Governess to your family, you mean, I suppose?"
+
+"I have no family; I am a bachelor, and I spend my time in travelling. I
+leave at five o'clock to-morrow morning for Dresden, and if you like to
+come with me there is a place for you in my carriage. I am staying at
+such an inn. Come there with your trunk, and we will start together."
+
+"You are joking; besides, I don't know you."
+
+"I am not jesting; and we should get to know each other perfectly well in
+twenty-four hours; that is ample time."
+
+My serious air convinced the girl that I was not laughing at her; but she
+was still very much astonished, while I was very much astonished to find
+I had gone so far when I had only intended to joke. In trying to win over
+the girl I had won over myself. It seemed to me a rare adventure, and I
+was delighted to see that she was giving it her serious attention by the
+side-glances she kept casting in my direction to see if I was laughing at
+her. I began to think that fate had brought us together that I might
+become the architect of her fortune. I had no doubt whatever as to her
+goodness or her feelings for me, for she completely infatuated my
+judgment. To put the finishing stroke on the affair I drew out two ducats
+and gave them her as an earnest of her first month's wages. She took them
+timidly, but seemed convinced that I was not imposing on her.
+
+By this time the baroness was ready, and she welcomed me very kindly; but
+I said I could not accept her invitation to dine with her the following
+day, as I was leaving at day-break. I replied to all the questions that a
+fond mother makes concerning her son, and then took leave of the worthy
+lady. As I went out I noticed that the would-be governess had
+disappeared. The rest of the day I spent with the canon, making good
+cheer, playing ombre, drinking hard, and talking about girls or
+literature. The next day my carriage came to the door at the time I had
+arranged, and I went off without thinking of the girl I had met at the
+baroness's. But we had not gone two hundred paces when the postillion
+stopped, a bundle of linen whirled through the window into the carriage,
+and the governess got in. I gave her a hearty welcome by embracing her,
+and made her sit down beside me, and so we drove off.
+
+In the ensuing chapter the reader will become more fully acquainted with
+my fresh conquest. In the meantime let him imagine me rolling peacefully
+along the Dresden road.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+My Arrival at Dresden with Maton--She Makes Me a
+Present--Leipzig--Castelbajac--Schwerin--Return to Dresden and
+Departure--I Arrive at Vienna--Pocchini's Vengeance
+
+When I saw myself in the carriage with this pretty girl, who had fallen
+on me as if from the clouds, I imagined I was intended to shape her
+destiny. Her tutelary genius must have placed her in my hands, for I felt
+inclined to do her all the good that lay in my power. But for myself; was
+it a piece of good or ill luck for me? I formed the question, but felt
+that time alone could give the answer. I knew that I was still living in
+my old style, while I was beginning to feel that I was no longer a young
+man.
+
+I was sure that my new companion could not have abandoned herself to me
+in this manner, without having made up her mind to be complaisant; but
+this was not enough for me, it was my humour to be loved. This was my
+chief aim, everything else was only fleeting enjoyment, and as I had not
+had a love affair since I parted with Zaira, I hoped most fervently that
+the present adventure would prove to be one.
+
+Before long I learnt that my companion's name was Maton; this at least
+was her surname, and I did not feel any curiosity to know the name of the
+he or she saint whom her godmothers had constituted her patron at the
+baptismal font. I asked her if she could write French as well as she
+spoke it, and she shewed me a letter by way of sample. It assured me that
+she had received an excellent education, and this fact increased my
+pleasure in the conquest I had made. She said she had left Breslau
+without telling her aunt or her cousin that she was going, perhaps never
+to return.
+
+"How about your belongings?"
+
+"Belongings? They were not worth the trouble of gathering together. All I
+have is included in that small package, which contains a chemise, a pair
+of stockings, some handkerchiefs, and a few nicknacks."
+
+"What will your lover say?"
+
+"Alas! I haven't got one to say anything."
+
+"I cannot credit that."
+
+"I have had two lovers; the first one was a rascal, who took advantage of
+my innocence to seduce me, and then left me when I ceased to present any
+novelty for him; my second was an honest man, but a poor lieutenant with
+no prospects of getting on. He has not abandoned me, but his regiment was
+ordered to Stetin, and since then--"
+
+"And since then?"
+
+"We were too poor to write to one another, so we had to suffer in
+silence."
+
+This pathetic history seemed to bear the marks of truth; and I thought it
+very possible that Maton had only come with me to make her fortune or to
+do rather better than she had been doing, which would not be difficult.
+She was twenty-five years old, and as she had never been out of Breslau
+before, she would doubtless be delighted to see what the world was like
+at Dresden. I could not help feeling that I had been a fool to burden
+myself with the girl, who would most likely cost me a lot of money; but
+still I found my conduct excusable, as the chances were a hundred to one
+against her accepting the proposal I had been foolish enough to make. In
+short, I resolved to enjoy the pleasure of having a pretty girl all to
+myself, and I determined not to do anything during the journey, being
+anxious to see whether her moral qualities would plead as strongly with
+me as her physical beauty undoubtedly did. At nightfall I stopped,
+wishing to spend the night at the posting-station. Maton, who had been
+very hungry all day, but had not dared to tell me so, ate with an amazing
+and pleasing appetite; but not being accustomed to wine, she would have
+fallen asleep at table, if I had not begged her to retire. She begged my
+pardon, assuring me she would not let such a thing occur again. I smiled
+by way of reply, and stayed at the table, not looking to see whether she
+undressed or went to bed in her clothes. I went to bed myself soon after,
+and at five o'clock was up again to order the coffee, and to see that the
+horses were put in. Maton was lying on her bed with all her clothes on,
+fast asleep, and perspiring with the heat. I woke her, telling her that
+another time she must sleep more comfortably, as such heats were
+injurious to health.
+
+She got up and left the room, no doubt to wash, for she returned looking
+fresh and gay, and bade me good day, and asked me if I would like to give
+her a kiss.
+
+"I shall be delighted," I replied; and, after kissing her, I made her
+hurry over the breakfast, as I wished to reach Dresden that evening.
+However, I could not manage it, my carriage broke down, and took five
+hours to mend, so I had to sleep at another posting station. Maton
+undressed this time, but I had the firmness not to look at her.
+
+When I reached Dresden I put up at the "Hotel de Saxe," taking the whole
+of the first floor. My mother was in the country, and I paid her a visit,
+much to her delight; we made quite an affecting picture, with my arm in a
+sling. I also saw my brother John and his wife Therese, Roland, and a
+Roman girl whom I had known before him, and who made much of me. I also
+saw my sister, and I then went with my brother to pay my suit to Count
+Bruhl and to his wife, the daughter of the palatin of Kiowia, who was
+delighted to hear news of her family. I was welcomed everywhere, and
+everywhere I had to tell the story of my duel. I confess that very little
+pressing was required, for I was very proud of it.
+
+At this period the States were assembled in Dresden, and Prince Xavier,
+uncle of the Elector, was regent during his minority.
+
+The same evening I went to the opera-house, where faro was played. I
+played, but prudently, for my capital only consisted of eighteen hundred
+ducats.
+
+When I came back we had a good supper, and Maton pleased me both by her
+appetite and amiability. When we had finished I affectionately asked her
+if she would like to share my bed, and she replied as tenderly that she
+was wholly mine. And so, after passing a voluptuous night, we rose in the
+morning the best friends in the world.
+
+I spent the whole morning in furnishing her toilette. A good many people
+called on me, and wanted to be presented to Maton; but my answer was
+that, as she was only my housekeeper, and not my wife, I could not have
+the pleasure of introducing her. In the same way I had instructed her
+that she was not to let anyone in when I was away. She was working in her
+room on the linen I had provided for her, aided in her task by a
+seamstress. Nevertheless, I did not want to make her a slave, so I
+occasionally took her into the pleasant suburbs of Dresden, where she was
+at liberty to speak to any of my acquaintances we might meet.
+
+This reserve of mine which lasted for the fortnight we stayed in Dresden
+was mortifying for all the young officers in the place, and especially
+for the Comte de Bellegarde, who was not accustomed to being denied any
+girl to whom he chose to take a fancy. He was a fine young fellow, of
+great boldness and even impudence, and one day he came into our room and
+asked me to give him a dinner just as Maton and myself were sitting down
+to table. I could not refuse him, and I could not request Maton to leave
+the room, so from the beginning to the end of the meal he showered his
+military jokes and attentions on her, though he was perfectly polite the
+whole time. Maton behaved very well; she was not prudish, nor did she
+forget the respect she owed to me and indeed to herself.
+
+I was accustomed to take a siesta every day after dinner, so half an hour
+after the conclusion of the meal I stated the fact and begged him to
+leave us. He asked smilingly if the lady took a siesta too, and I replied
+that we usually took it together. This made him take up his hat and cane,
+and as he did so he asked us both to dine with him the next day. I
+replied that I never took Maton out anywhere, but that he would be
+welcome to come and take pot-luck with us every day if he liked.
+
+This refusal exhausted his resources, and he took his leave if not
+angrily, at least very coldly.
+
+My mother returned to her town apartments, which were opposite to mine,
+and the next day when I was calling on her I noticed the erker (a sort of
+grating in the Spanish fashion) which indicated my rooms in the hotel. I
+happened to look in that direction and I saw Maton at the window standing
+up and talking to M. de Bellegarde, who was at a neighbouring window.
+This window belonged to a room which adjoined my suite of rooms, but did
+not belong to it. This discovery amused me. I knew what I was about, and
+did not fear to be made a cuckold in spite of myself. I was sure I had
+not been observed, and I was not going to allow any trespassers. I was
+jealous, in fact; but the jealousy was of the mind, not the heart.
+
+I came in to dinner in the highest spirits, and Maton was as gay as
+myself. I led the conversation up to Bellegarde, and said I believed him
+to be in love with her.
+
+"Oh, he is like all officers with girls; but I don't think he is more in
+love with me than any other girl."
+
+"Oh, but didn't he come to call on me this morning?"
+
+"Certainly not; and if he had come the maid would have told him you were
+out."
+
+"Did you not notice him walking up and down 'under the windows?"
+
+"No."
+
+This was enough for me; I knew they had laid a plot together. Maton was
+deceiving me, and I should be cheated in twenty-four hours unless I took
+care. At my age such treason should not have astonished me, but my vanity
+would not allow me to admit the fact.
+
+I dissembled my feelings and caressed the traitress, and then leaving the
+house I went to the theatre where I played with some success and returned
+home while the second act was in progress; it was still daylight. The
+waiter was at the door, and I asked him whether there were any rooms
+besides those which I occupied on the first floor. "Yes, two rooms, both
+looking on the street."
+
+"Tell the landlord that I will take them both."
+
+"They were taken yesterday evening."
+
+"By whom?"
+
+"By a Swiss officer, who is entertaining a party of friends to supper
+here this evening."
+
+I said no more lest I should awaken suspicion; but I felt sure that
+Bellegarde could easily obtain access to my rooms from his. Indeed, there
+was a door leading to the room where Maton slept with her maid when I did
+not care to have her in my room. The door was bolted on her side, but as
+she was in the plot there was not much security in this.
+
+I went upstairs softly, and finding Maton on the balcony, I said, after
+some indifferent conversation, that I should like to change rooms.
+
+"You shall have my room," I said, "and I will have yours; I can read
+there, and see the people going by."
+
+She thought it a very good idea, and added that it would serve us both if
+I would allow her to sit there when I was out.
+
+This reply shewed me that Maton was an old hand, and that I had better
+give her up if I did not wish to be duped.
+
+I changed the rooms, and we supped pleasantly together, laughing and
+talking, and in spite of all her craft Maton did not notice any change in
+me.
+
+I remained alone in my new room, and soon heard the voices of Bellegarde
+and his merry companions. I went on to the balcony, but the curtains of
+Bellegarde's room were drawn, as if to assure me that there was no
+complot. However, I was not so easily deceived, and I found afterwards
+that Mercury had warned Jupiter that Amphytrion had changed his room.
+
+Next day, a severe headache, a thing from which I seldom suffer, kept me
+to the house all day. I had myself let blood, and my worthy mother, who
+came to keep me company, dined with Maton. My mother had taken a weakness
+for the girl, and had often asked me to let her come and see her, but I
+had the good sense to refuse this request. The next day I was still far
+from well, and took medicine, and in the evening, to my horror, I found
+myself attacked by a fearful disease. This must be a present from Maton,
+for I had not known anyone else since leaving Leopol. I spent a troubled
+night, rage and indignation being my principal emotions; and next
+morning, coming upon Maton suddenly, I found everything in the most
+disgusting state. The wretched creature confessed she had been infected
+for the last six months, but that she had hoped not to give it me, as she
+had washed herself carefully whenever she thought I was going to have to
+do with her.
+
+"Wretch, you have poisoned me; but nobody shall know it, as it is by my
+own fault, and I am ashamed of it. Get up, and you shall see how generous
+I can be."
+
+She got up, and I had all the linen I had given her packed into a trunk.
+This done, I told my man to take a small room for her at another inn. His
+errand was soon over, and I then told Maton to go immediately, as I had
+done with her. I gave her fifty crowns, and made her sign a receipt
+specifying the reason why I had sent her away, and acknowledging that she
+had no further claim upon me. The conditions were humiliating, and she
+wished me to soften them down, but she soon gave in when I told her that
+unless she signed I would turn her into the streets as naked as when I
+found her.
+
+"What am I to do here? I don't know anyone."
+
+"If you like to return to Breslau I will pay your expenses there."
+
+She made no answer, so I sent her away bag and baggage, and merely turned
+my back on her when she went down on her knees to excite my compassion.
+
+I got rid of her without the slightest feeling of pity, for from what she
+had done to me and from what she was preparing to do I considered her as
+a mere monster, who would sooner or later have cost me my life.
+
+I left the inn the following day, and I took a furnished apartment on the
+first floor of the house where my mother lived for six months, and
+proceeded about my cure. Everyone asked me what I had done with my
+housekeeper, and I said that having no further need of her services I had
+sent her away.
+
+A week afterwards my brother John came to tell me that Bellegarde and
+five or six of his friends were on the sick list; Maton had certainly
+lost no time.
+
+"I am sorry for them, but it's their own fault; why didn't they take more
+care?"
+
+"But the girl came to Dresden with you."
+
+"Yes, and I sent her about her business. It was enough for me to keep
+them off while she was under my charge. Tell them that if they complain
+of me they are wrong, and still more wrong to publish their shame. Let
+them learn discretion and get themselves cured in secrecy, if they do not
+want sensible men to laugh at them. Don't you think I am right?"
+
+"The adventure is not a very honourable one for you."
+
+"I know it, and that's why I say nothing; I am not such a fool as to
+proclaim my shame from the housetops. These friends of yours must be
+simpletons indeed; they must have known that I had good reasons for
+sending the girl away, and should consequently have been on their guard.
+They deserve what they got, and I hope it may be a lesson to them."
+
+"They are all astonished at your being well."
+
+"You may comfort them by saying that I have been as badly treated as
+they, but that I have held my tongue, not wishing to pass for a
+simpleton."
+
+Poor John saw he had been a simpleton himself and departed in silence. I
+put myself under a severe diet, and by the middle of August my health was
+re-established.
+
+About this time, Prince Adam Czartoryski's sister came to Dresden,
+lodging with Count Bruhl. I had the honour of paying my court to her, and
+I heard from her own mouth that her royal cousin had had the weakness to
+let himself be imposed on by calumnies about me. I told her that I was of
+Ariosto's opinion that all the virtues are nothing worth unless they are
+covered with the veil of constancy.
+
+"You saw yourself when I supped with you, how his majesty completely
+ignored me. Your highness will be going to Paris next year; you will meet
+me there and you can write to the king that if I had been burnt in effigy
+I should not venture to shew myself."
+
+The September fair being a great occasion at Leipzig, I went there to
+regain my size by eating larks, for which Leipzig is justly famous. I had
+played a cautious but a winning game at Dresden, the result of which had
+been the gain of some hundreds of ducats, so I was able to start for
+Leipzig with a letter of credit for three thousand crowns on the banker
+Hohman, an intelligent old man of upwards of eighty. It was of him I
+heard that the hair of the Empress of Russia, which looked a dark brown
+or even black, had been originally quite fair. The old banker had seen
+her at Stettin every day between her seventh and tenth years, and told me
+that even then they had begun to comb her hair with lead combs, and to
+rub a certain composition into it. From an early age Catherine had been
+looked upon as the future bride of the Duke of Holstein, afterwards the
+hapless Peter III. The Russians are fair as a rule, and so it was thought
+it that the reigning family should be dark.
+
+Here I will note down a pleasant adventure I had at Leipzig. The Princess
+of Aremberg had arrived from Vienna, and was staying at the same hotel as
+myself. She took a fancy to go to the fair incognito, and as she had a
+large suite she dressed up one of her maids as the princess, and mingled
+with her following. I suppose my readers to be aware that this princess
+was witty and beautiful, and that she was the favourite mistress of the
+Emperor Francis the First.
+
+I heard of his masquerade, and leaving my hotel at the same time I
+followed her till she stopped at a stall, and then going up to her and
+addressing her as one would any other maid, I asked if that (pointing at
+the false princess) were really the famous Princess of Aremberg.
+
+"Certainly," she replied.
+
+"I can scarcely believe it, for she is not pretty, and she, has, not the
+look nor the manners of a princess."
+
+"Perhaps you are not a good judge of princesses."
+
+"I have seen enough of them anyhow, and to prove that I am a good judge I
+say that it is you who ought to be the princess; I would willingly give a
+hundred ducats to spend the night with you."
+
+"A hundred ducats! What would you do if I were to take you at your word?"
+
+"Try me. I lodge at the same hotel as you, and if yet can contrive ways
+and means, I will give you the money in advance, but not till I am sure
+of my prize, for I don't like being taken in."
+
+"Very good. Say not a word to anyone, but try to speak with me either
+before or after supper. If you are brave enough to face certain risks, we
+will spend the night together."
+
+"What is your name?"
+
+"Caroline."
+
+I felt certain it would come to nothing, but I was glad to have amused
+the princess, and to have let her know that I appreciated her beauties,
+and I resolved to go on with the part I was playing. About supper-time I
+began a promenade near the princess's apartments, stopping every now and
+then in front of the room where her women were sitting, till one of them
+came out to ask me if I wanted anything.
+
+"I want to speak for a moment to one of your companions to whom I had the
+pleasure of talking at the fair."
+
+"You mean Caroline, I expect?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"She is waiting on the princess, but she will be out in half an hour."
+
+I spent this half hour in my own room, and then returned to dance
+attendance. Before long the same maid to whom I had spoken came up to me
+and told me to wait in a closet which she shewed me, telling me that
+Caroline would be there before long. I went into the closet, which was
+small, dark, and uncomfortable. I was soon joined by a woman. This time I
+was sure it was the real Caroline, but I said nothing.
+
+She came, in, took my hand, and told me that if I would wait there she
+would come to me as soon as her mistress was in bed.
+
+"Without any light?"
+
+"Of course, or else the people of the house would notice it, and I should
+not like that."
+
+"I cannot do anything without light, charming Caroline; and besides, this
+closet is not a very nice place to pass five or six hours. There is
+another alternative, the first room above is mine. I shall be alone, and
+I swear to you that no one shall come in; come up and make me happy; I
+have got the hundred ducats here."
+
+"Impossible! I dare not go upstairs for a million ducats."
+
+"So much the worse for you, as I am not going to stay in this hole which
+has only a chair in it, if you offer me a million and a half. Farewell,
+sweet Caroline."
+
+"Wait a moment; let me go out first."
+
+The sly puss went out quickly enough, but I was as sharp as she, and trod
+on the tail of her dress so that she could not shut the door after her.
+So we went out together, and I left her at the door, saying,--
+
+"Good night, Caroline, you see it was no use."
+
+I went to bed well pleased with the incident. The princess, it was plain,
+had intended to make me pass the night in the hole of a closet, as a
+punishment for having dared to ask the mistress of an emperor to sleep
+with me for a hundred crowns.
+
+Two days later, as I was buying a pair of lace cuffs, the princess came
+into the shop with Count Zinzendorf, whom I had known at Paris twelve
+years before just as I was making way for the lady the count recognized
+me, and asked me if I knew anything about the Casanova that had fought
+the duel at Warsaw.
+
+"Alas! count, I am that Casanova, and here is my arm still in a sling."
+
+"I congratulate you, my dear fellow; I should like to hear about it."
+
+With these words he introduced me to the princess, asking her if she had
+heard of the duel.
+
+"Yes; I heard something about it in the papers. So this is the hero of
+the tale. Delighted to make your acquaintance."
+
+The princess spoke with great kindness, but with the cool politeness of
+the Court. She did not give me the slightest sign of recognition, and of
+course I imitated her in her reserve.
+
+I visited the count in the afternoon, and he begged me to come and see
+the princess, who would be delighted to hear the account of my duel from
+my own lips, and I followed him to her apartment with pleasure. The
+princess listened to my narrative in stately sort, and her women never
+looked at me. She went away the day after, and the story went no farther.
+
+Towards the end of the fair I received a very unexpected visit from the
+fair Madame Castelbajac. I was just sitting down to table to eat a dozen
+larks, when she made her appearance.
+
+"What, madam, you here!"
+
+"Yes, to my sorrow. I have been here for the last three weeks, and have
+seen you several times, but you have always avoided us."
+
+"Who are 'us'?"
+
+"Schwerin and myself."
+
+"Schwerin is here, is he?"
+
+"Yes; and in prison on account of a forged bill. I am sure I do not know
+what they will do to the poor wretch. He would have been wise to have
+fled, but it seems as if he wanted to get hanged."
+
+"And you have been with him ever since you left England? that is, three
+years ago."
+
+"Exactly. Our occupation is robbing, cheating, and escaping from one land
+to another. Never was a woman so unhappy as I."
+
+"For how much is the forged bill?"
+
+"For three hundred crowns. Do a generous action M. Casanova, and let
+bygones be bygones; deliver the poor wretch from the gallows and me from
+death, for if he is hanged I shall kill myself."
+
+"Indeed, madam, he may hang for me, for he did his best to send me to the
+gallows with his forged bills; but I confess I pity you. So much, indeed,
+that I invite you to come to Dresden with me the day after to-morrow, and
+I promise to give you three hundred crowns as soon as Schwerin has
+undergone the extreme penalty of the law. I can't understand how a woman
+like you can have fallen in love with a man that has neither face, nor
+talents, nor wit, nor fortune, for all that he has to boast of is his
+name of Schwerin."
+
+"I confess, to my shame, that I never loved him. Ever since the other
+rogue, Castelbajac--who, by the way, was never married to me--made me
+know him, I have only lived with him by force, though his tears and his
+despairs have excited my compassion. If destiny had given me an honest
+man in his stead, I would have forsaken him long ago, for sooner or later
+he will be the death of me."
+
+"Where do you live?"
+
+"Nowhere. I have been turned out into the street with nothing but the
+clothes on my back. Have compassion on me."
+
+With these words the hapless woman threw herself at my knees and burst
+into tears. I was much affected. The waiter of the inn stood staring with
+amazement till I told him to go out. I may safely say that this woman was
+one of the most handsome in France; she was probably about twenty-six
+years old. She had been the wife of a druggist of Montpellier, and had
+been so unfortunate as to let Castelbajac seduce her. At London her
+beauty had produced no impression on me, my heart was another's;
+nevertheless, she was made to seduce the heart of man.
+
+I raised her from her knees, and said I felt inclined to help her, but
+that in the first place she must calm herself, and in the second share my
+supper. The waiter brought another bed and put it in my room, without
+receiving any orders to do so; this made me feel inclined to laugh.
+
+The appetite with which the poor woman ate, despite her sorrow, reminded
+me of the matron of Ephesus. When supper was over I gave her her choice:
+she might either stay in Leipzig and fare as best she might, or I would
+reclaim her effects, take her with me to Dresden, and pay her a hundred
+gold ducats as soon as I could be certain that she would not give the
+money to the wretch who had reduced her to such an extremity. She did not
+ask much time for reflection. She said that it would be no good for her
+to stay in Leipzig, for she could do nothing for the wretched Schwerin or
+even keep herself for a day, for she had not got a farthing. She would
+have to beg or to become a prostitute, and she could not make up her mind
+to either course.
+
+"Indeed," she concluded, "if you were to give me the hundred ducats this
+moment, and I used them to free Schwerin, I should be no better off than
+before; so I accept your generous offer thankfully."
+
+I embraced her, promised to get back what her landlord had seized for
+rent, and then begged her to go to bed, as she was in need of rest.
+
+"I see," she answered, "that either out of liking or for politeness' sake
+you will ask me for those favours which I should be only too happy to
+grant, but if I allowed that it would be a bad return indeed for your
+kindness. Look at my linen, and behold in what a state that unhappy
+wretch has left me!"
+
+I saw that I ran the risk of being infected again, and thanked her for
+warning me of the danger I ran. In spite of her faults she was a woman of
+feeling, and had an excellent heart, and from these good qualities of
+hers proceeded all her misfortunes.
+
+The next morning I arranged for the redemption of her effects, which cost
+me sixty crowns of Saxony, and in the afternoon the poor woman saw
+herself once more in possession of her belongings, which she had thought
+never to see again. She seemed profoundly grateful, and deplored her
+state, which hindered her from proving the warmth of her feelings.
+
+Such is the way of women: a grateful woman has only one way of shewing
+her gratitude, and that is to surrender herself without reserve. A man is
+different, but we are differently constituted; a man is made to give and
+a woman to receive.
+
+The next day, a short while before we left, the broker I had employed in
+the redemption of the lady's effects, told me that the banker, whom
+Schwerin had cheated, was going to send an express to Berlin, to enquire
+whether the king would object to Count Schwerin's being proceeded against
+with the utmost rigour of the law.
+
+"Alas!" cried his late mistress, "that's what he was most afraid of. It's
+all up with him. The King of Prussia will pay his debts, but he will end
+his days at Spandau. Why didn't they put him there before I ever knew
+him?"
+
+She left Leipzig with me, and our appearance at Dresden caused a good
+deal of surprise. She was not a mere girl, like Maton; she had a good
+appearance, and a modest yet distinguished manner. I called her Countess
+Blasin, and introduced her to my mother and relations, and put her in my
+best room. I summoned the doctor who had treated me, and made him swear
+not to disclose the countess's state, but to tell everyone that he came
+to see me. I took her to the theatre, and it was my humour to have her
+regarded as a person of distinction. Good treatment soon restored her to
+health, and by the end of November she believed herself in a state to
+reward me for my kindness.
+
+The wedding was a secret one, but none the less pleasant; and as if by
+way of wedding present the next day I heard that the King of Prussia had
+paid Schwerin's debts, and had had him brought to Berlin under a strong
+escort. If he is alive, the rascal is at Spandau to this day.
+
+The time had come for me to pay her the hundred ducats. I told her
+frankly that I was obliged to go to Portugal, and that I could not make
+my appearance there in company with a pretty woman without failing in my
+project. I added that my means would not allow me to pay double expenses
+for so long a journey.
+
+She had received too many proofs of my love to think for a moment that I
+had got tired of her, and wanted to be on with some other woman. She told
+me that she owed everything to me, while I owed nothing to her; and that
+all she asked of me was to enable her to return to Montpellier.
+
+"I have relations there," said she, "who will be glad to see me, and I
+hope that my husband will let me return to him. I am the Prodigal Son,
+and I hope to find in him the forgiving father."
+
+I told her I would do my utmost to send her home in safety and comfort.
+
+Towards the middle of December I left Dresden with Madame Blasin. My
+purse only contained four hundred ducats, for I had had a run of bad luck
+at play; and the journey to Leipzig had cost me altogether three hundred
+ducats. I told my mistress nothing of all this, for my only thought was
+how to please her.
+
+We stayed a short while at Prague, and reached Vienna on Christmas Day.
+We put up at the "Red Bull," the Countess Blasin (who had been
+transformed into a milliner) in one room, and I in another, so that we
+might pass for strangers while continuing our intimacy.
+
+The next morning, as we were taking coffee together, two individuals came
+into the room, and asked the rude question,--
+
+"Who are you, madam?"
+
+"My name is Blasin."
+
+"Who is this gentleman?"
+
+"You had better ask him."
+
+"What are you doing at Vienna?"
+
+"Taking coffee. I should have thought you could have seen that for
+yourselves."
+
+"If the gentleman is not your husband, you will leave the town within
+twenty-four hours."
+
+"The gentleman is my friend, and not my husband; and I shall leave Vienna
+exactly when I choose, unless you make me go away by force."
+
+"Very good. We are aware, sir, that you have a separate room, but that
+makes no difference."
+
+Thereupon one of the policemen entered my room, I following him.
+
+"What do you want here?" said I.
+
+"I am looking at your bed, and I can see you have not slept in it. That's
+enough."
+
+"The devil! What business have you here at all, and who authorizes such
+disgraceful proceedings?"
+
+He made no reply, but returned to Madame Blasin's room, where they both
+ordered her to leave Vienna in the course of twenty-four hours, and then
+they both left us.
+
+"Dress yourself," said I to her, "and tell the French ambassador the
+whole story. Tell him that you are a milliner, Blasin by name, and that
+all you want is to go from here to Strasburg, and from there to
+Montpellier."
+
+While she was dressing I ordered a carriage and a servant to be in
+attendance. She returned in an hour's time, and said the ambassador had
+assured her that she would be left alone, and need not leave Vienna till
+she thought fit. I took her to mass in triumph, and then, as the weather
+was bad, we spent the rest of the day in eating and drinking and sitting
+by the fire.
+
+At eight o'clock in the evening the landlord came up and said very
+politely that he had been ordered by the police to give the lady a room
+at some distance from mine, and that he was obliged to obey.
+
+"I am quite ready to change my room," said Madame Blasin, with a smile.
+
+"Is the lady to sup alone?" I asked.
+
+"I have received no instructions on that point."
+
+"Then I will sup with her, and I hope you will treat us well."
+
+"You shall be well served, sir."
+
+In spite of the detestable and tyrannical police we spent the last four
+days and nights together in the closest intimacy. When she left I wanted
+her to take fifty Louis; but she would only have thirty, saying that she
+could travel to Montpellier on that sum, and have money in her pocket
+when she got there. Our parting was an affecting one. She wrote to me
+from Strasburg, and we shall hear of her again when I describe my visit
+to Montpellier.
+
+The first day of the year 1767 I took an apartment in the house of a
+certain Mr. Schroder, and I took letters of introduction to Madame de
+Salmor and Madame de Stahremberg. I then called on the elder Calsabigi,
+who was in the service of Prince Kaunitz.
+
+This Calsabigi, whose whole body was one mass of eruption, always worked
+in bed, and the minister, his master, went to see him almost every day. I
+went constantly to the theatre, where Madame Vestris was dancing. On
+January the 7th or 8th, I saw the empress dowager come to the theatre
+dressed in black; she was received with applause, as this was the first
+appearance she had made since the death of her husband. At Vienna I met
+the Comte de la Perouse, who was trying to induce the empress to give him
+half a million of florins, which Charles VI. owed his father. Through him
+I made the acquaintance of the Spaniard Las Casas, a man of intelligence,
+and, what is a rare thing in a Spaniard, free from prejudices. I also met
+at the count's house the Venetian Uccelli, with whom I had been at St.
+Cyprian's College at Muran; he was, at the time of which I write,
+secretary to the ambassador, Polo Renieri. This gentleman had a great
+esteem for me, but my affair with the State Inquisitors prevented him
+from receiving me. My friend Campioni arrived at this date from Warsaw;
+he had passed through Cracovia. I accommodated him in my apartment with
+great pleasure. He had an engagement at London, but to my great delight
+he was able to spend a couple of months with me.
+
+Prince Charles of Courland, who had been at Venice and had been well
+received by M. de Bragadin and my other friends, had been in Vienna and
+had left it a fortnight before my arrival to return to Venice. Prince
+Charles wrote to tell me that there was no bounds to the care and
+kindness of my Venetian friends, and that he would be grateful to me for
+all his days.
+
+I lived very quietly at Vienna; my health was good, and I thought of
+nothing but my journey to Portugal, which I intended to take place in the
+spring. I saw no company of any kind, whether good or ill. I often called
+on Calsabigi, who made a parade of his Atheism, and slandered my friend
+Metastasio, who despised him. Calsabigi knew it and laughed at him; he
+was a profound politician and the right hand of Prince Kaunitz.
+
+One day after dinner, as I was sitting at table with my friend Campioni,
+a pretty little girl, between twelve and thirteen, as I should imagine,
+came into my room with mingled boldness and fear, and made me a low bow.
+I asked her what she wanted, and she replied in Latin verse to the effect
+that her mother was in the next room, and that if I liked she would come
+in. I replied in Latin prose that I did not care about seeing her mother,
+telling her my reasons with great plainness. She replied with four Latin
+lines, but as they were not to the point I could see that she had learnt
+them by heart, and repeated them like a parrot. She went on-still in
+Latin verse--to tell me that her mother must come in or else the
+authorities might think I was abusing her.
+
+This last phrase was uttered with all the directness of the Latin style.
+It made me burst out laughing, and I felt inclined to explain to her what
+she had said in her own language. The little slut told me she was a
+Venetian, and this putting me at my ease I told her that the authorities
+would never suspect her of doing such a thing as she was too young. At
+this the girl seemed to reflect a moment, and then recited some verses
+from the Priapeia to the effect that unripe fruit is often more piquant
+than that which is ripe. This was enough to set me on fire, and Campioni,
+seeing that he was not wanted, went back to his room.
+
+I drew her gently to me and asked her if her father was at Vienna. She
+said yes, and instead of repulsing my caresses she proceeded to accompany
+my actions with the recital of erotic verses. I sent her away with a fee
+of two ducats, but before she went she gave me her address written in
+German with four Latin verses beneath, stating that her bedfellow would
+find her either Hebe or Ganymede, according to his liking.
+
+I could not help admiring the ingenuity of her father, who thus contrived
+to make a living out of his daughters. She was a pretty girl enough, but
+at Vienna pretty girls are so common that they often have to starve in
+spite of their charms. The Latin verses had been thrown in as an
+attraction in this case, but I did not think she would find it very
+remunerative in Vienna.
+
+Next evening my evil genius made me go and seek her out at the address
+she had given me. Although I was forty-two years old, in spite of the
+experience I had had, I was so foolish as to go alone. The girl saw me
+coming from the window, and guessing that I was looking for her, she came
+down and shewed me in. I went in, I went upstairs, and when I found
+myself in the presence of the wretch Pocchini my blood froze in my veins.
+A feeling of false shame prevented my retracing my steps, as it might
+have looked as if I had been afraid. In the same room were his pretended
+wife, Catina, two Sclavonic-looking assassins, and the decoy-duck. I saw
+that this was not a laughing matter, so I dissembled to the best of my
+ability, and made up my mind to leave the place in five minutes' time.
+
+Pocchini, swearing and blaspheming, began to reproach me with the manner
+in which I had treated him in England, and said that his time had come,
+and that my life was in his hands. One of the two Sclavs broke in, and
+said we must make friends, and so made me sit down, opened a bottle, and
+said we must drink together. I tried to put as good a face upon it as I
+could, but I begged to be excused, on which Pocchini swore that I was
+afraid of having to pay for the bottle of wine.
+
+"You are mistaken," said I; "I am quite ready to pay."
+
+I put my hand in my pocket to take out a ducat without drawing out my
+purse, but the Sclav told me I need not be afraid, as I was amongst
+honest people. Again shame made me yield, and as I had some difficulty in
+extracting my purse, the Sclav kindly did it for me. Pocchini immediately
+snatched it from his hands, and said he should keep it as part
+compensation for all I had made him endure.
+
+I saw that it was a concerted scheme, and said with a smile that he could
+do as he liked, and so I rose to leave them. The Sclav said we must
+embrace each other, and on my declaring that to be unnecessary, he and
+his comrade drew their sabres, and I thought myself undone. Without more
+ado, I hastened to embrace them. To my astonishment they let me go, and I
+went home in a grievous state, and not knowing what else to do went to
+bed.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of In London And Moscow: Russia and Poland
+by Jacques Casanova de Seingalt
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