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diff --git a/old/jcrom10.txt b/old/jcrom10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4825a2b --- /dev/null +++ b/old/jcrom10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5731 @@ +****The Project Gutenberg Etext of Rome, by Jacques Casanova**** +#28 in our series by Jacques Casanova + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the laws for your country before redistributing these files!!!!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. + +Please do not remove this. + +This should be the first thing seen when anyone opens the book. +Do not change or edit it without written permission. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.07.00*END* + + + + + +This etext was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net> + + + + + +ROME + +by Jacques Casanova + + + + +MEMOIRS OF JACQUES CASANOVA de SEINGALT 1725-1798 +SPANISH PASSIONS, Volume 6c--ROME + + + +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. + + + + +RETURN TO ROME + + +CHAPTER XIII + +Rome--The Actor's Punishment--Lord Baltimore--Naples--Sara Goudar-- +Departure of Betty--Agatha--Medina--Albergoni--Miss Chudleigh--The Prince +of Francavilla--The Swimmers + + +As I fell over the Englishman I had struck my hand against a nail, and +the fourth finger of my left hand was bleeding as if a vein had been +opened. Betty helped me to tie a handkerchief around the wound, while Sir +B---- M---- read the letter with great attention. I was much pleased +with Betty's action, it shewed she was confident, and sure of her lover's +forgiveness. + +I took up my coat and carpet-bag, and went into the next room to change +my linen, and dress for dinner. Any distress at the termination of my +intrigue with Betty was amply compensated for by my joy at the happy +ending of a troublesome affair which might have proved fatal for me. + +I dressed myself, and then waited for half an hour, as I heard Betty and +Sir B---- M---- speaking in English calmly enough, and I did not care to +interrupt them. At last the Englishman knocked at my door, and came in +looking humble and mortified. He said he was sure I had not only saved +Betty, but had effectually cured her of her folly. + +"You must forgive my conduct, sir," said he, "for I could not guess that +the man I found with her was her saviour and not her betrayer. I thank +Heaven which inspired you with the idea of catching hold of me from +behind, as I should certainly have killed you the moment I set eyes on +you, and at this moment I should be the most wretched of men. You must +forgive me, sir, and become my friend." + +I embraced him cordially, telling him that if I had been in his place I +should have acted in a precisely similar manner. + +We returned to the room, and found Betty leaning against the bed, and +weeping bitterly. + +The blood continuing to flaw from my wound, I sent for a surgeon who said +that a vein had been opened, and that a proper ligature was necessary. + +Betty still wept, so I told Sir B---- M---- that in my opinion she +deserved his forgiveness. + +"Forgiveness?" said he, "you may be sure I have already forgiven her, and +she well deserves it. Poor Betty repented directly you shewed her the +path she was treading, and the tears she is shedding now are tears of +sorrow at her mistake. I am sure she recognizes her folly, and will +never be guilty of such a slip again." + +Emotion is infectious. Betty wept, Sir B---- M---- wept, and I wept to +keep them company. At last nature called a truce, and by degrees our +sobs and tears ceased and we became calmer. + +Sir B---- M----, who was evidently a man of the most generous character, +began to laugh and jest, and his caresses had great effect in calming +Betty. We made a good dinner, and the choice Muscat put us all in the +best of spirits. + +Sir B---- M---- said we had better rest for a day or two; he had +journeyed fifteen stages in hot haste, and felt in need of repose. + +He told us that on arriving at Leghorn, and finding no Betty there, he +had discovered that her trunk had been booked to Rome, and that the +officer to whom it belonged had hired a horse, leaving a watch as a +pledge for it. Sir B---- M---- recognized Betty's watch, and feeling +certain that she was either on horseback with her seducer or in the wagon +with her trunk, he immediately resolved to pursue. + +"I provided myself," he added, "with two good pistols, not with the idea +of using one against her, for my first thought about her was pity, and my +second forgiveness; but I determined to blow out the scoundrel's brains, +and I mean to do it yet. We will start for Rome to-morrow." + +Sir B---- M----'s concluding words filled Betty with joy, and I believe +she would have pierced her perfidious lover to the heart if he had been +brought before her at that moment. + +"We shall find him at Roland's," said I. + +Sir B---- M---- took Betty in his arms, and gazed at me with an air of +content, as if he would have shewn me the greatness of an English heart-- +a greatness which more than atones for its weakness. + +"I understand your purpose," I said, "but you shall not execute your +plans without me. Let me have the charge of seeing that justice is done +you. If you will not agree, I shall start for Rome directly, I shall get +there before you, and shall give the wretched actor warning of your +approach. If you had killed him before I should have said nothing, but +at Rome it is different, and you would have reason to repent of having +indulged your righteous indignation. You don't know Rome and priestly +justice. Come, give me your hand and your word to do nothing without my +consent, or else I shall leave you directly." + +Sir B---- M---- was a man of my own height but somewhat thinner, and five +or six years older; the reader will understand his character without my +describing it. + +My speech must have rather astonished him, but he knew that my +disposition was benevolent, and he could not help giving me his hand and +his pledge. + +"Yes, dearest," said Betty, "leave vengeance to the friend whom Heaven +has sent us." + +"I consent to do so, provided everything is done in concert between us." + +After this we parted, and Sir B---- M----, being in need of rest, I went +to tell the vetturino that we should start for Rome again on the +following day. + +"For Rome! Then you have found your pocketbook? It seems to me, my good +sir, that you would have been wiser not to search for it." + +The worthy man, seeing my hand done up in lint, imagined I had fought a +duel, and indeed everybody else came to the same conclusion. + +Sir B---- M---- had gone to bed, and I spent the rest of the day in the +company of Betty, who was overflowing with the gratitude. She said we +must forget what had passed between us, and be the best of friends for +the rest of our days, without a thought of any further amorous relations. +I had not much difficulty in assenting to this condition. + +She burned with the desire for vengeance on the scoundrelly actor who had +deceived her; but I pointed out that her duty was to moderate Sir B---- +M----'s passions, as if he attempted any violence in Rome it might prove +a very serious matter for him, besides its being to the disadvantage of +his reputation to have the affair talked of. + +"I promise you," I added, "to have the rogue imprisoned as soon as we +reach Rome, and that ought to be sufficient vengeance for you. Instead +of the advantages he proposed for himself, he will receive only shame and +all the misery of a prison." + +Sir B---- M---- slept seven or eight hours, and rose to find that a good +deal of his rage had evaporated. He consented to abide by my +arrangements, if he could have the pleasure of paying the fellow a visit, +as he wanted to know him. + +After this sensible decision and a good supper I went to my lonely couch +without any regret, for I was happy in the consciousness of having done a +good action. + +We started at day-break the next morning, and when we reached +Acquapendente we resolved to post to Rome. By the post the journey took +twelve hours, otherwise we should have been three days on the road. + +As soon as we reached Rome I went to the customhouse and put in the +document relating to Betty's trunk. The next day it was duly brought to +our inn and handed over to Betty. + +As Sir B---- M---- had placed the case in my hands I went to the +bargello, an important person at Rome, and an expeditious officer when he +sees a case clearly and feels sure that the plaintiffs do not mind +spending their money. The bargello is rich, and lives well; he has an +almost free access to the cardinal-vicar, the governor, and even the Holy +Father himself. + +He gave me a private interview directly, and I told him the whole story, +finally saying that all we asked for was that the rogue should be +imprisoned and afterwards expelled from Rome. + +"You see," I added, "that our demand is a very moderate one, and we could +get all we want by the ordinary channels of the law; but we are in a +hurry, and I want you to take charge of the whole affair. If you care to +do so we shall be prepared to defray legal expenses to the extent of +fifty crowns." + +The bargello asked me to give him the bill of exchange and all the +effects of the adventurer, including the letters. + +I had the bill in my pocket and gave it him on the spot, taking a receipt +in exchange. I told him to send to the inn for the rest. + +"As soon as I have made him confess the facts you allege against him," +said the bargello, "we shall be able to do something. I have already +heard that he is at Roland's, and has been trying to get the +Englishwoman's trunk. If you liked to spend a hundred crowns instead of +fifty we could send him to the galleys for a couple of years." + +"We will see about that," said I, "for the present we will have him into +prison." + +He was delighted to hear that the horse was not l'Etoile's property, and +said that if I liked to call at nine o'clock he would have further news +for me. + +I said I would come. I really had a good deal to do at Rome. I wanted +to see Cardinal Bernis in the first place, but I postponed everything to +the affair of the moment. + +I went back to the inn and was told by a valet de place, whom Sir B---- +M---- had hired, that the Englishman had gone to bed. + +We were in need of a carriage, so I summoned the landlord and was +astonished to find myself confronted by Roland in person. + +"How's this?" I said. "I thought you were still at the Place d'Espagne." + +"I have given my old house to my daughter who has married a prosperous +Frenchman, while I have taken this palace where there are some +magnificent rooms." + +"Has your daughter many foreigners staying at her house now?" + +"Only one Frenchman, the Comte de l'Etoile, who is waiting for his +equipage to come on. He has an excellent horse, and I am thinking of +buying it from him." + +"I advise you to wait till to-morrow, and to say nothing about the advice +I have given you." + +"Why should I wait?" + +"I can't say any more just now." + +This Roland was the father of the Therese whom I had loved nine years +before, and whom my brother Jean had married in 1762, a year after my +departure. Roland told me that my brother was in Rome with Prince +Beloselski, the Russian ambassador to the Court of Saxony. + +"I understood that my brother could not come to Rome." + +"He came with a safe-conduct which the Dowager Electress of Saxony +obtained for him from the Holy Father. He wants his case to be re-tried, +and there he makes a mistake, for if it were heard a hundred times the +sentence would continue the same. No one will see him, everyone avoids +him, even Mengs will have nothing to say to him." + +"Mengs is here, is he? I though he had been at Madrid." + +"He has got leave of absence for a year, but his family remains in +Spain." + +After hearing all this news which was far from pleasant to me, as I did +not wish to see Mengs or my brother, I went to bed, leaving orders that +I was to be roused in time for dinner. + +In an hour's time I was awakened by the tidings that some one was waiting +to give me a note. It was one of the bargello's men, who had come to +take over l'Etoile's effects. + +At dinner I told Sir B---- M---- what I had done, and we agreed that he +should accompany me to the bargello's in the evening. + +In the afternoon we visited some of the principal palaces, and after +taking Betty back to the inn we went to the bargello, who told us our man +was already in prison, and that it would cost very little to send him to +the galleys. + +"Before making up my mind I should like to speak to him," said Sir B---- +M----." + +"You can do so to-morrow. He confessed everything without any trouble, +and made a jest of it, saying he was not afraid of any consequences, as +the young lady had gone with him of her own free will. I shewed him the +bill of exchange, but he evinced no emotion whatever. He told me that he +was an actor by profession, but also a man of rank. As to the horse, he +said he was at perfect liberty to sell it, as the watch he had left in +pledge was worth more than the beast." + +I had forgotten to inform the bargello that the watch aforesaid belonged +to Betty. + +We gave the worthy official fifty crowns, and supped with Betty, who had, +as I have remarked, recovered her trunk, and had been busying herself in +putting her things to rights. + +She was glad to hear that the rascal was in prison, but she did not seem +to wish to pay him a visit. + +We went to see him in the afternoon of the next day. + +The bargello had assigned us an advocate, who made out a document +demanding payment by the prisoner of the expenses of the journey, and of +his arrest, together with a certain sum as compensation to the person +whom he had deceived, unless he could prove his right to the title of +count in the course of six weeks. + +We found l'Etoile with this document in his hand; someone was translating +it for him into French. + +As soon as the rascal saw me, he said, with a laugh, that I owed him +twenty-five Louis as he had left Betty to sleep with me. + +The Englishman told him he lied; it was he that had slept with her. + +"Are you Betty's lover?" asked l'Etoile. + +"Yes, and if I had caught you with her I should have blown out your +brains, for you have deceived her doubly; you're only a beggarly actor." + +"I have three thousand crowns." + +"I will pay six thousand if the bill proves to be a good one. In the +meanwhile you will stay here, and if it be false, as I expect it is, you +will go to the galleys." + +"Very good." + +"I shall speak to my counsel." + +We went out and called on the advocate, for Sir B---- M---- had a lively +desire to send the impudent rascal to the galleys. However, it could not +be done, for l'Etoile said he was quite ready to give up the bill, but +that he expected Sir B---- M---- to pay a crown a day for his keep while +he remained in prison. + +Sir B---- M---- thought he would like to see something of Rome, as he was +there, and was obliged to buy almost everything as he had left his +belongings behind him, while Betty was well provided for as her trunk was +of immense capacity. I went with them everywhere; it was not exactly the +life I liked, but there would be time for me to please myself after they +had gone. I loved Betty without desiring her, and I had taken a liking +to the Englishman who had an excellent heart. At first he wanted to stay +a fortnight at Rome, and then to return to Leghorn; but his friend Lord +Baltimore, who had come to Rome in the meanwhile, persuaded him to pay a +short visit to Naples. + +This nobleman, who had with him a very pretty Frenchwoman and two +servants, said he would see to the journey, and that I must join the +party. I had made his acquaintance at London. + +I was glad to have the opportunity of seeing Naples again. We lodged at +the "Crocielles" at Chiaggia, or Chiaja, as the Neapolitans call it. + +The first news I heard was the death of the Duke of Matalone and the +marriage of his widow with Prince Caramanica. + +This circumstance put an end to some of my hopes, and I only thought of +amusing myself with my friends, as if I had never been at Naples before. +Lord Baltimore had been there several times, but his mistress, Betty, and +Sir B---- M----, were strangers, and wanted to see everything. I +accordingly acted as cicerone, for which part I and my lord, too, were +much better qualified than the tedious and ignorant fellows who had an +official right to that title. + +The day after our arrival I was unpleasantly surprised to see the +notorious Chevalier Goudar, whom I had known at London. He called on +Lord Baltimore. + +This famous rout had a house at Pausilippo, and his wife was none other +than the pretty Irish girl Sara, formerly a drawer in a London tavern. +The reader has been already introduced to her. Goudar knew I had met +her, so he told me who she was, inviting us all to dine with him the next +day. + +Sara skewed no surprise nor confusion at the sight of me, but I was +petrified. She was dressed with the utmost elegance, received company +admirably, spoke Italian with perfect correctness, talked sensibly, and +was exquisitely beautiful; I was stupefied; the metamorphosis was so +great. + +In a quarter of an hour five or six ladies of the highest rank arrived, +with ten or twelve dukes, princes, and marquises, to say nothing of a +host of distinguished strangers. + +The table was laid for thirty, but before dinner Madame Goudar seated +herself at the piano, and sang a few airs with the voice of a siren, and +with a confidence that did not astonish the other guests as they knew +her, but which astonished me extremely, for her singing was really +admirable. + +Goudar had worked this miracle. He had been educating her to be his wife +for six or seven years. + +After marrying her he had taken her to Paris, Vienna, Venice, Florence, +Rome, etc., everywhere seeking fortune, but in vain. Finally he had come +to Naples, where he had brought his wife into the fashion of obliging her +to renounce in public the errors of the Anglican heresy. She had been +received into the Catholic Church under the auspices of the Queen of +Naples. The amusing part in all this was that Sara, being an Irishwoman, +had been born a Catholic, and had never ceased to be one. + +All the nobility, even to the Court, went to see Sara, while she went +nowhere, for no one invited her. This kind of thing is a characteristic +of nobility all the world over. + +Goudar told me all these particulars, and confessed that he only made his +living by gaming. Faro and biribi were the only pillars of his house; +but they must have been strong ones, for he lived in great style. + +He asked me to join with him, and I did not care to refuse; my purse was +fast approaching total depletion, and if it were not for this resource I +could not continue living in the style to which I had been accustomed. + +Having taken this resolution I declined returning to Rome with Betty and +Sir B---- M-----, who wanted to repay me all I had spent on her account. +I was not in a position to be ostentatious, so I accepted his generous +offer. + +Two months later I heard that l'Etoile had been liberated by the +influence of Cardinal Bernis, and had left Rome. Next year I heard at +Florence that Sir B---- M----- had returned to England, where no doubt he +married Betty as soon as he became a widower. + +As for the famous Lord Baltimore he left Naples a few days after my +friends, and travelled about Italy in his usual way. Three years later +he paid for his British bravado with his life. He committed the wild +imprudence of traversing the Maremma in August, and was killed by the +poisonous exhalations. + +I stopped at "Crocielles," as all the rich foreigners came to live there. +I was thus enabled to make their acquaintance, and put them in the way of +losing their money at Goudar's. I did not like my task, but +circumstances were too strong for me. + +Five or six days after Betty had left I chanced to meet the Abby Gama, +who had aged a good deal, but was still as gay and active as ever. After +we had told each other our adventures he informed me that, as all the +differences between the Holy See and the Court of Naples had been +adjusted, he was going back to Rome. + +Before he went, however, he said he should like to present me to a lady +whom he was sure I should be very glad to see again. + +The first persons I thought of were Donna Leonilda, or Donna Lucrezia, +her mother; but what was my surprise to see Agatha, the dancer with whom +I had been in love at Turin after abandoning the Corticelli. + +Our delight was mutual, and we proceeded to tell each other the incidents +of our lives since we had parted. + +My tale only lasted a quarter of an hour, but Agatha's history was a long +one. + +She had only danced a year at Naples. An advocate had fallen in love +with her, and she shewed me four pretty children she had given him. The +husband came in at supper-time, and as she had often talked to him about +me he rushed to embrace me as soon as he heard my name. He was an +intelligent man, like most of the pagletti of Naples. We supped together +like old friends, and the Abbe Gama going soon after supper I stayed with +them till midnight, promising to join them at dinner the next day. + +Although Agatha was in the very flower of her beauty, the old fires were +not rekindled in me. I was ten years older. My coolness pleased me, for +I should not have liked to trouble the peace of a happy home. + +After leaving Agatha I proceeded to Goudar's, in whose bank I took a +strong interest. I found a dozen gamesters round the table, but what was +my surprise to recognize in the holder of the bank Count Medini. + +Three or four days before this Medini had been expelled from the house of +M. de Choiseul, the French ambassador; he had been caught cheating at +cards. I had also my reason to be incensed against him; and, as the +reader may remember, we had fought a duel. + +On glancing at the bank I saw that it was at the last gasp. It ought to +have held six hundred ounces, and there were scarcely a hundred. I was +interested to the extent of a third. + +On examining the face of the punter who had made these ravages I guessed +the game. It was the first time I had seen the rascal at Goudar's. + +At the end of the deal Goudar told me that this punter was a rich +Frenchman who had been introduced by Medini. He told me I should not +mind his winning that evening, as he would be sure to lose it all and a +good deal more another time. + +"I don't care who the punter is," said I, "it is not of the slightest +consequence to me, as I tell you plainly that as long as Medini is the +banker I will have nothing to do with it." + +"I have told Medini about it and wanted to take a third away from the +bank, but he seemed offended and said he would make up any loss to you, +but that he could not have the bank touched." + +"Very good, but if he does not bring me my money by to-morrow morning +there will be trouble. Indeed, the responsibility lies with you, for I +have told you that as long as Medini deals I will have nothing to do with +it." + +"Of course you have a claim on me for two hundred ounces, but I hope you +will be reasonable; it would be rather hard for me to lose two-thirds." + +Knowing Goudar to be a greater rascal than Medini, I did not believe a +word he said; and I waited impatiently for the end of the game. + +At one o'clock it was all over. The lucky punter went off with his +pockets full of gold, and Medini, affecting high spirits, which were very +much out of place, swore his victory should cost him dear. + +"Will you kindly give me my two hundred ounces," said I, "for, of course, +Gondar told you that I was out of it?" + +"I confess myself indebted to you for that amount, as you absolutely +insist, but pray tell me why you refuse to be interested in the bank when +I am dealing." + +"Because I have no confidence in your luck." + +"You must see that your words are capable of a very unpleasant +interpretation." + +"I can't prevent your interpreting my words as you please, but I have a +right to my own opinion. I want my two hundred ounces, and I am quite +willing to leave you any moneys you propose to make out of the conqueror +of to-night. You must make your arrangements with M. Goudar, and by noon +to-morrow, you, M. Goudar, will bring me that sum." + +"I can't remit you the money till the count gives it me, for I haven't +got any money." + +"I am sure you will have some money by twelve o'clock to-morrow morning. +Goodnight." + +I would not listen to any of their swindling arguments, and went home +without the slightest doubt that they were trying to cheat me. I +resolved to wash my hands of the whole gang as soon as I had got my money +back by fair means or foul. + +At nine the next morning I received a note from Medini, begging me to +call on him and settle the matter. I replied that he must make his +arrangements with Goudar, and I begged to be excused calling on him. + +In the course of an hour he paid me a visit, and exerted all his +eloquence to persuade me to take a bill for two hundred ounces, payable +in a week. I gave him a sharp refusal, saying that my business was with +Goudar and Gondar only, and that unless I received the money by noon I +should proceed to extremities. Medini raised his voice, and told me that +my language was offensive; and forthwith I took up a pistol and placed it +against his cheek, ordering him to leave the room. He turned pale, and +went away without a word. + +At noon I went to Gondar's without my sword, but with two good pistols in +my pocket. Medini was there, and began by reproaching me with attempting +to assassinate him in my own house. + +I took no notice of this, but told Gondar to give me my two hundred +ounces. + +Goudar asked Medini to give him the money. + +There would undoubtedly have been a quarrel, if I had not been prudent +enough to leave the room, threatening Gondar with ruin if he did not send +on the money directly. + +Just as I was leaving the house, the fair Sara put her head out of the +window, and begged me to come up by the back stairs and speak to her. + +I begged to be excused, so she said she would come down, and in a moment +she stood beside me. + +"You are in the right about your money," she said, "but just at present +my husband has not got any; you really must wait two or three days, I +will guarantee the payment." + +"I am really sorry," I replied, "not to be able to oblige such a charming +woman, but the only thing that will pacify me is my money, and till I +have had it, you will see me no more in your house, against which I +declare war." + +Thereupon she drew from her finger a diamond ring, worth at least four +hundred ounces, and begged me to accept it as a pledge. + +I took it, and left her after making my bow. She was doubtless +astonished at my behaviour, for in her state of deshabille she could not +have counted on my displaying such firmness. + +I was very well satisfied with my victory, and went to dine with the +advocate, Agatha's husband. I told him the story, begging him to find +someone who would give me two hundred ounces on the ring. + +"I will do it myself," said he; and he gave me an acknowledgment and two +hundred ounces on the spot. He then wrote in my name a letter to Goudar, +informing him that he was the depositary of the ring. + +This done, I recovered my good temper. + +Before dinner Agatha took me into her boudoir and shewed me all the +splendid jewels I had given her when I was rich and in love. + +"Now I am a rich woman," said she, "and my good fortune is all your +making; so take back what you gave me. Don't be offended; I am so +grateful to you, and my good husband and I agreed on this plan this +morning." + +To take away any scruples I might have, she shewed me the diamonds her +husband had given her; they had belonged to his first wife and were worth +a considerable sum. + +My gratitude was too great for words, I could only press her hand, and +let my eyes speak the feelings of my heart. Just then her husband came +in. + +It had evidently been concerted between them, for the worthy man embraced +me, and begged me to accede to his wife's request. + +We then joined the company which consisted of a dozen or so of their +friends, but the only person who attracted my attention was a very young +man, whom I set down at once as in love with Agatha. His name was +Don Pascal Latilla; and I could well believe that he would be successful +in love, for he was intelligent, handsome, and well-mannered. We became +friends in the course of the meal. + +Amongst the ladies I was greatly pleased with one young girl. She was +only fourteen, but she looked eighteen. Agatha told me she was studying +singing, intending to go on the stage as she was so poor. + +"So pretty, and yet poor?" + +"Yes, for she will have all or nothing; and lovers of that kind are rare +in Naples." + +"But she must have some lover?" + +"If she has, no one has heard of him. You had better make her +acquaintance and go and see her. You will soon be friends." + +"What's her name?" + +"Callimena. The lady who is speaking to her is her aunt, and I expect +they are talking about you." + +We sat down to the enjoyment of a delicate and abundant meal. Agatha, I +could see, was happy, and delighted to shew me how happy she was. The +old Abbe Gama congratulated himself on having presented me. Don Pascal +Latilla could not be jealous of the attentions paid me by his idol, for I +was a stranger, and they were my due; while her husband prided himself on +his freedom from those vulgar prejudices to which so many Neapolitans are +subject. + +In the midst of all this gaiety I could not help stealing many a furtive +glance towards Callimena. I addressed her again and again, and she +answered me politely but so briefly as to give me no opportunity of +displaying my powers in the way of persiflage. + +I asked if her name was her family name or a pseudonym. + +"It is my baptismal name." + +"It is Greek; but, of course, you know what it means?" + +"No." + +"Mad beauty, or fair moon." + +"I am glad to say that I have nothing in common with my name." + +"Have you any brothers or sisters?" + +"I have only one married sister, with whom you may possibly be +acquainted." + +"What is her name, and who is her husband?" + +"Her husband is a Piedmontese, but she does not live with him." + +"Is she the Madame Slopis who travels with Aston?" + +"Exactly." + +"I can give you good news of her." + +After dinner I asked Agatha how she came to know Callimena. + +"My husband is her godfather." + +"What is her exact age?" + +"Fourteen." + +"She's a simple prodigy! What loveliness!" + +"Her sister is still handsomer." + +"I have never seen her." + +A servant came in and said M. Goudar would like to have a little private +conversation with the advocate. + +The advocate came back in a quarter of an hour, and informed me that +Goudar had given him the two hundred ounces, and that he had returned him +the ring. + +"Then that's all settled, and I am very glad of it. I have certainly +made an eternal enemy of him, but that doesn't trouble me much." + +We began playing, and Agatha made me play with Callimena, the freshness +and simplicity of whose character delighted me. + +I told her all I knew about her sister, and promised I would write to +Turin to enquire whether she were still there. I told her that I loved +her, and that if she would allow me, I would come and see her. Her reply +was extremely satisfactory. + +The next morning I went to wish her good day. She was taking a music +lesson from her master. Her talents were really of a moderate order, but +love made me pronounce her performance to be exquisite. + +When the master had gone, I remained alone with her. The poor girl +overwhelmed me with apologies for her dress, her wretched furniture, and +for her inability to give me a proper breakfast. + +"All that make you more desirable in my eyes, and I am only sorry that I +cannot offer you a fortune." + +As I praised her beauty, she allowed me to kiss her ardently, but she +stopped my further progress by giving me a kiss as if to satisfy me. + +I made an effort to restrain my ardour, and told her to tell me truly +whether she had a lover. + +"Not one." + +"And have you never had one?" + +"Never." + +"Not even a fancy for anyone?" + +"No, never." + +"What, with your beauty and sensibility, is there no man in Naples who +has succeeded in inspiring you with desire?" + +"No one has ever tried to do so. No one has spoken to me as you have, +and that is the plain truth." + +"I believe you, and I see that I must make haste to leave Naples, if I +would not be the most unhappy of men." + +"What do you mean?" + +"I should love you without the hope of possessing you, and thus I should +be most unhappy." + +"Love me then, and stay. Try and make me love you. Only you must +moderate your ecstacies, for I cannot love a man who cannot exercise +self-restraint." + +"As just now, for instance?" + +"Yes. If you calm yourself I shall think you do so for my sake, and thus +love will tread close on the heels of gratitude." + +This was as much as to tell me that though she did not love me yet I had +only to wait patiently, and I resolved to follow her advice. I had +reached an age which knows nothing of the impatient desires of youth. + +I gave her a tender embrace, and as I was getting up to go I asked her if +she were in need of money. + +This question male her blush, and she said I had better ask her aunt, who +was in the next room. + +I went in, and was somewhat astonished to find the aunt seated between +two worthy Capuchins, who were talking small talk to her while she worked +at her needle. At a little distance three young girls sat sewing. + +The aunt would have risen to welcome me, but I prevented her, asked her +how she did, and smilingly congratulated her on her company. She smiled +back, but the Capuchins sat as firm as two stocks, without honouring me +with as much as a glance. + +I took a chair and sat down beside her. + +She was near her fiftieth year, though some might have doubted whether +she would ever see it again; her manner was good and honest, and her +features bore the traces of the beauty that time had ruined. + +Although I am not a prejudiced man, the presence of the two evil-smelling +monks annoyed me extremely. I thought the obstinate way in which they +stayed little less than an insult. True they were men like myself, in +spite of their goats' beards and dirty frocks, and consequently were +liable to the same desires as I; but for all that I found them wholly +intolerable. I could not shame them without shaming the lady, and they +knew it; monks are adepts at such calculations. + +I have travelled all over Europe, but France is the only country in which +I saw a decent and respectable clergy. + +At the end of a quarter of an hour I could contain myself no longer, and +told the aunt that I wished to say something to her in private. I +thought the two satyrs would have taken the hint, but I counted without +my host. The aunt arose, however, and took me into the next room. + +I asked my question as delicately as possible, and she replied,-- + +"Alas! I have only too great a need of twenty ducats (about eighty +francs) to pay my rent." + +I gave her the money on the spot, and I saw that she was very grateful, +but I left her before she could express her feelings. + +Here I must tell my readers (if I ever have any) of an event which took +place on that same day. + +As I was dining in my room by myself, I was told that a Venetian +gentleman who said he knew me wished to speak to me. + +I ordered him to be shewn. in, and though his face was not wholly +unknown to me I could not recollect who he was. + +He was tall, thin and wretched, misery and hunger spewing plainly in his +every feature; his beard was long, his head shaven, his robe a dingy +brown, and bound about him with a coarse cord, whence hung a rosary and a +dirty handkerchief. In the left hand he bore a basket, and in the right +a long stick; his form is still before me, but I think of him not as a +humble penitent, but as a being in the last state of desperation; almost +an assassin. + +"Who are you?" I said at length. "I think I have seen you before, and +yet . . ." + +"I will soon tell you my name and the story of my woes; but first give me +something to eat, for I am dying of hunger. I have had nothing but bad +soup for the last few days." + +"Certainly; go downstairs and have your dinner, and then come back to me; +you can't eat and speak at the same time." + +My man went down to give him his meal, and I gave instructions that I was +not to be left alone with him as he terrified me. + +I felt sure that I ought to know him, and longed to hear his story. + +In three quarters of an hour he came up again, looking like some one in a +high fever. + +"Sit down," said I, "and speak freely." + +"My name is Albergoni." + +"What!" + +Albergoni was a gentleman of Padua, and one of my most intimate friends +twenty-five years before. He was provided with a small fortune, but an +abundance of wit, and had a great leaning towards pleasure and the +exercise of satire. He laughed at the police and the cheated husbands, +indulged in Venus and Bacchus to excess, sacrificed to the god of +pederasty, and gamed incessantly. He was now hideously ugly, but when I +knew him first he was a very Antinous. + +He told me the following story: + +"A club of young rakes, of whom I was one, had a casino at the Zuecca; we +passed many a pleasant hour there without hurting anyone. Some one +imagined that these meetings were the scenes of unlawful pleasures, the +engines of the law were secretly directed against us, and the casino was +shut up, and we were ordered to be arrested. All escaped except myself +and a man named Branzandi. We had to wait for our unjust sentence for +two years, but at last it appeared. My wretched fellow was condemned to +lose his head, and afterwards to be burnt, while I was sentenced to ten +years' imprisonment 'in carcere duro'. In 1765 I was set free, and went +to Padua hoping to live in peace, but my persecutors gave me no rest, and +I was accused of the same crime. I would not wait for the storm to +burst, so I fled to Rome, and two years afterwards the Council of Ten +condemned me to perpetual banishment. + +"I might bear this if I had the wherewithal to live, but a brother-in-law +of mine has possessed himself of all I have, and the unjust Tribunal +winks at his misdeeds. + +"A Roman attorney made me an offer of an annuity of two pawls a day on +the condition that I should renounce all claims on my estate. I refused +this iniquitous condition, and left Rome to come here and turn hermit. I +have followed this sorry trade for two years, and can bear it no more." + +"Go back to Rome; you can live on two pawls a day." + +"I would rather die." + +I pitied him sincerely, and said that though I was not a rich man he was +welcome to dine every day at my expense while I remained in Naples, and I +gave him a sequin. + +Two or three days later my man told me that the poor wretch had committed +suicide. + +In his room were found five numbers, which he bequeathed to Medini and +myself out of gratitude for our kindness to him. These five numbers were +very profitable to the Lottery of Naples, for everyone, myself excepted, +rushed to get them. Not a single one proved a winning number, but the +popular belief that numbers given by a man before he commits suicide are +infallible is too deeply rooted among the Neapolitans to be destroyed by +such a misadventure. + +I went to see the wretched man's body, and then entered a cafe. Someone +was talking of the case, and maintaining that death by strangulation must +be most luxurious as the victim always expires with a strong erection. +It might be so, but the erection might also be the result of an agony of +pain, and before anyone can speak dogmatically on the point he must first +have had a practical experience. + +As I was leaving the cafe I had the good luck to catch a handkerchief +thief in the act; it was about the twentieth I had stolen from me in the +month I had spent at Naples. Such petty thieves abound there, and their +skill is something amazing. + +As soon as he felt himself caught, he begged me not to make any noise, +swearing he would return all the handkerchiefs he had stolen from me, +which, as he confessed, amounted to seven or eight. + +"You have stolen more than twenty from me." + +"Not I, but some of my mates. If you come with me, perhaps we shall be +able to get them all back." + +"Is it far off?" + +"In the Largo del Castello. Let me go; people are looking at us." + +The little rascal took me to an evil-looking tavern, and shewed me into a +room, where a man asked me if I wanted to buy any old things. As soon as +he heard I had come for my handkerchiefs, he opened a big cupboard full +of handkerchiefs, amongst which I found a dozen of mine, and bought them +back for a trifle. + +A few days after I bought several others, though I knew they were stolen. + +The worthy Neapolitan dealer seemed to think me trustworthy, and three or +four days before I left Naples he told me that he could sell me, for ten +or twelve thousand ducats, commodities which would fetch four times that +amount at Rome or elsewhere. + +"What kind of commodities are they?" + +"Watches, snuff-boxes, rings, and jewels, which I dare not sell here." + +"Aren't you afraid of being discovered?" + +"Not much, I don't tell everyone of my business." + +I thanked him, but I would not look at his trinkets, as I was afraid the +temptation of making such a profit would be too great. + +When I got back to my inn I found some guests had arrived, of whom a few +were known to me. Bartoldi had arrived from Dresden with two young +Saxons, whose tutor he was. These young noblemen were rich and handsome, +and looked fond of pleasure. + +Bartoldi was an old friend of mine. He had played Harlequin at the King +of Poland's Italian Theatre. On the death of the monarch he had been +placed at the head of the opera-buffa by the dowager electress, who was +passionately fond of music. + +Amongst the other strangers were Miss Chudleigh, now Duchess of Kingston, +with a nobleman and a knight whose names I have forgotten. + +The duchess recognized me at once, and seemed pleased that I paid my +court to her. An hour afterwards Mr. Hamilton came to see her, and I was +delighted to make his acquaintance. We all dined together. Mr. +Hamilton was a genius, and yet he ended by marrying a mere girl, who was +clever enough to make him in love with her. Such a misfortune often +comes to clever men in their old age. Marriage is always a folly; but +when a man marries a young woman at a time of life when his physical +strength is running low, he is bound to pay dearly for his folly; and if +his wife is amorous of him she will kill him even years ago I had a +narrow escape myself from the same fate. + +After dinner I presented the two Saxons to the duchess; they gave her +news of the dowager electress, of whom she was very fond. We then went +to the play together. As chance would have it, Madame Goudar occupied +the box next to ours, and Hamilton amused the duchess by telling the +story of the handsome Irishwoman, but her grace did not seem desirous of +making Sara's acquaintance. + +After supper the duchess arranged a game of quinze with the two +Englishmen and the two Saxons. The stakes were small, and the Saxons +proved victorious. I had not taken any part in the game, but I resolved +to do so the next evening. + +The following day we dined magnificently with the Prince of Francavilla, +and in the afternoon he took us to the bath by the seashore, where we saw +a wonderful sight. A priest stripped himself naked, leapt into the +water, and without making the slightest movement floated on the surface +like a piece of deal. There was no trick in it, and the marvel must be +assigned to some special quality in his organs of breathing. After this +the prince amused the duchess still more pleasantly. He made all his +pages, lads of fifteen to seventeen, go into the water, and their various +evolutions afforded us great pleasure. They were all the sweethearts of +the prince, who preferred Ganymede to Hebe. + +The Englishmen asked him if if he would give us the same spectacle, only +subsituting nymphs for the 'amoyini', and he promised to do so the next +day at his splendid house near Portici, where there was a marble basin in +the midst of the garden. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +My Amours with Gallimena--Journey to Soyento--Medini--Goudar-- +Miss Chudleigh--The Marquis Petina--Gaetano--Madame Cornelis's Son-- +An Anecdote of Sara Goudar--The Florentines Mocked by the King-- +My Journey to Salerno, Return to Naples, and Arrival at Rome + + +The Prince of Francavilla was a rich Epicurean, whose motto was 'Fovet et +favet'. + +He was in favour in Spain, but the king allowed him to live at Naples, as +he was afraid of his initiating the Prince of Asturias, his brothers, and +perhaps the whole Court, into his peculiar vices. + +The next day he kept his promise, and we had the pleasure of seeing the +marble basin filled with ten or twelve beautiful girls who swam about in +the water. + +Miss Chudleigh and the two other ladies pronounced this spectacle +tedious; they no doubt preferred that of the previous day. + +In spite of this gay company I went to see Callimena twice a day; she +still made me sigh in vain. + +Agatha was my confidante; she would gladly have helped me to attain my +ends, but her dignity would not allow of her giving me any overt +assistance. She promised to ask Callimena to accompany us on an +excursion to Sorento, hoping that I should succeed in my object during +the night we should have to spend there. + +Before Agatha had made these arrangements, Hamilton had made similar ones +with the Duchess of Kingston, and I succeeded in getting an invitation. +I associated chiefly with the two Saxons and a charming Abbe Guliani, +with whom I afterwards made a more intimate acquaintance at Rome. + +We left Naples at four o'clock in the morning, in a felucca with twelve +oars, and at nine we reached Sorrento. + +We were fifteen in number, and all were delighted with this earthly +paradise. + +Hamilton took us to a garden belonging to the Duke of Serra Capriola, who +chanced to be there with his beautiful Piedmontese wife, who loved her +husband passionately. + +The duke had been sent there two months before for having appeared in +public in an equipage which was adjudged too magnificent. The minister +Tanucci called on the king to punish this infringement of the sumptuary +laws, and as the king had not yet learnt to resist his ministers, the +duke and his wife were exiled to this earthly paradise. But a paradise +which is a prison is no paradise at all; they were both dying of ennui, +and our arrival was balm in Gilead to them. + +A certain Abbe Bettoni, whose acquaintance I had made nine years before +at the late Duke of Matalone's, had come to see them, and was delighted +to meet me again. + +The abbe was a native of Brescia, but he had chosen Sorento as his +residence. He had three thousand crowns a year, and lived well, enjoying +all the gifts of Bacchus, Ceres, Comus, and Venus, the latter being his +favourite divinity. He had only to desire to attain, and no man could +desire greater pleasure than he enjoyed at Sorento. I was vexed to see +Count Medini with him; we were enemies, and gave each other the coldest +of greetings. + +We were twenty-two at table and enjoyed delicious fare, for in that land +everything is good; the very bread is sweeter than elsewhere. We spent +the afternoon in inspecting the villages, which are surrounded by avenues +finer than the avenues leading to the grandest castles in Europe. + +Abbe Bettoni treated us to lemon, coffee, and chocolate ices, and some +delicious cream cheese. Naples excells in these delicacies, and the abbe +had everything of the best. We were waited on by five or six country +girls of ravishing beauty, dressed with exquisite neatness. I asked him +whether that were his seraglio, and he replied that it might be so, but +that jealousy was unknown, as I should see for myself if I cared to spend +a week with him. + +I envied this happy man, and yet I pitied him, for he was at least twelve +years older than I, and I was by no means young. His pleasures could not +last much longer. + +In the evening we returned to the duke's, and sat down to a supper +composed of several kinds of fish. + +The air of Sorento gives an untiring appetite, and the supper soon +disappeared. + +After supper my lady proposed a game at faro, and Bettoni, knowing Medini +to be a professional gamester, asked him to hold the bank. He begged to +be excused, saying he had not enough money, so I consented to take his +place. + +The cards were brought in, and I emptied my poor purse on the table. It +only held four hundred ounces, but that was all I possessed. + +The game began; and on Medini asking me if I would allow him a share in +the bank, I begged him to excuse me on the score of inconvenience. + +I went on dealing till midnight, and by that time I had only forty ounces +left. Everybody had won except Sir Rosebury, who had punted in English +bank notes, which I had put into my pocket without counting. + +When I got to my room I thought I had better look at the bank notes, for +the depletion of my purse disquieted me. My delight may be imagined. I +found I had got four hundred and fifty pounds--more than double what I +had lost. + +I went to sleep well pleased with my day's work, and resolved not to tell +anyone of my good luck. + +The duchess had arranged for us to start at nine, and Madame de Serra +Capriola begged us to take coffee with her before going. + +After breakfast Medini and Bettoni came in, and the former asked Hamilton +whether he would mind his returning with us. Of course, Hamilton could +not refuse, so he came on board, and at two o'clock I was back at my inn. +I was astonished to be greeted in my antechamber by a young lady, who +asked me sadly whether I remembered her. She was the eldest of the five +Hanoverians, the same that had fled with the Marquis dells Petina. + +I told her to come in, and ordered dinner to be brought up. + +"If you are alone," she said, "I should be glad to share your repast." + +"Certainly; I will order dinner for two." + +Her story was soon told. She had come to Naples with her husband, whom +her mother refused to recognize. The poor wretch had sold all he +possessed, and two or three months after he had been arrested on several +charges of forgery. His poor mate had supported him in prison for seven +years. She had heard that I was at Naples, and wanted me to help her, +not as the Marquis della Petina wished, by lending him money, but by +employing my influence with the Duchess of Kingston to make that lady +take her to England with her in her service. + +"Are you married to the marquis?" + +"No." + +"Then how could you keep him for seven years?" + +"Alas . . . . You can think of a hundred ways, and they would all be +true." + +"I see." + +"Can you procure me an interview with the duchess?" + +"I will try, but I warn you that I shall tell her the simple truth." + +"Very good." + +"Come again to-morrow." + +At six o'clock I went to ask Hamilton how I could exchange the English +notes I had won, and he gave me the money himself. + +Before supper I spoke to the duchess about the poor Hanoverian. My lady +said she remembered seeing her, and that she would like to have a talk +with her before coming to any decision. I brought the poor creature to +her the next day, and left them alone. The result of the interview was +that the duchess took her into her service in the place of a Roman girl, +and the Hanoverian went to England with her. I never heard of her again, +but a few days after Petina sent to beg me to come and see him in prison, +and I could not refuse. I found him with a young man whom I recognized +as his brother, though he was very handsome and the marquis very ugly; +but the distinction between beauty and ugliness is often hard to point +out. + +This visit proved a very tedious one, for I had to listen to a long story +which did not interest me in the least. + +As I was going out I was met by an official, who said another prisoner +wanted to speak to me. + +"What's his name?" + +"His name is Gaetano, and he says he is a relation of yours." + +My relation and Gaetano! I thought it might be the abbe. + +I went up to the first floor, and found a score of wretched prisoners +sitting on the ground roaring an obscene song in chorus. + +Such gaiety is the last resource of men condemned to imprisonment on the +galleys; it is nature giving her children some relief. + +One of the prisoners came up to me and greeted me as "gossip." He would +have embraced me, but I stepped back. He told me his name, and I +recognized in him that Gaetano who had married a pretty woman under my +auspices as her godfather. The reader may remember that I afterwards +helped her to escape from him. + +"I am sorry to see you here, but what can I do for you?" + +"You can pay me the hundred crowns you owe me, for the goods supplied to +you at Paris by me." + +This was a lie, so I turned my back on him, saying I supposed +imprisonment had driven him mad. + +As I went away I asked an official why he had been imprisoned, and was +told it was for forgery, and that he would have been hanged if it had not +been for a legal flaw. He was sentenced to imprisonment for life. + +I dismissed him from my mind, but in the afternoon I had a visit from +an advocate who demanded a hundred crowns on Gaetano's behalf, +supporting his claim by the production of an immense ledger, +where my name appeared as debtor on several pages. + +"Sir," said I, "the man is mad; I don't owe him anything, and the +evidence of this book is utterly worthless. + +"You make a mistake, sir," he replied; "this ledger is good evidence, and +our laws deal very favorably with imprisoned creditors. I am retained +for them, and if you do not settle the matter by to-morrow I shall serve +you with a summons." + +I restrained my indignation and asked him politely for his name and +address. He wrote it down directly, feeling quite certain that his +affair was as good as settled. + +I called on Agatha, and her husband was much amused when I told my story. + +He made me sign a power of attorney, empowering him to act for me, and he +then advised the other advocate that all communications in the case must +be made to him alone. + +The 'paglietti' who abound in Naples only live by cheating, and +especially by imposing on strangers. + +Sir Rosebury remained at Naples, and I found myself acquainted with all +the English visitors. They all lodged at "Crocielles," for the English +are like a flock of sheep; they follow each other about, always go to the +came place, and never care to shew any originality. We often arranged +little trips in which the two Saxons joined, and I found the time pass +very pleasantly. Nevertheless, I should have left Naples after the fair +if my love for Callimena had not restrained me. I saw her every day and +made her presents, but she only granted me the slightest of favours. + +The fair was nearly over, and Agatha was making her preparations for +going to Sorento as had been arranged. She begged her husband to invite +a lady whom he had loved before marrying her while she invited Pascal +Latilla for herself, and Callimena for me. + +There were thus three couples, and the three gentlemen were to defray all +expenses. + +Agatha's husband took the direction of everything. + +A few days before the party I saw, to my surprise, Joseph, son of Madame +Cornelis and brother of my dear Sophie. + +"How did you come to Naples? Whom are you with?" + +"I am by myself. I wanted to see Italy, and my mother gave me this +pleasure. I have seen Turin, Milan, Genoa, Florence, Venice, and Rome; +and after I have done Italy I shall see Switzerland and Germany, and then +return to England by way of Holland." + +"How long is this expedition to take?" + +"Six months." + +"I suppose you will be able to give a full account of everything when you +go back to London?" + +"I hope to convince my mother that the money she spent was not wasted." + +"How much do you think it will cost you?" + +"The five hundred guineas she gave me, no more." + +"Do you mean to say you are only going to spend five hundred guineas in +six months? I can't believe it." + +"Economy works wonders." + +"I suppose so. How have you done as to letters of introduction in all +these countries of which you now know so much?" + +"I have had no introductions. I carry an English passport, and let +people think that I am English." + +"Aren't you afraid of getting into bad company?" + +"I don't give myself the chance. I don't speak to anyone, and when +people address me I reply in monosyllables. I always strike a bargain +before I eat a meal or take a lodging. I only travel in public +conveyances." + +"Very good. Here you will be able to economize; I will pay all your +expenses, and give you an excellent cicerone, one who will cost you +nothing." + +"I am much obliged, but I promised my mother not to accept anything from +anybody." + +"I think you might make an exception in my case." + +"No. I have relations in Venice, and I would not take so much as a +single dinner from them. When I promise, I perform." + +Knowing his obstinacy, I did not insist. He was now a young man of +twenty-three, of a delicate order of prettiness, and might easily have +been taken for a girl in disguise if he had not allowed his whiskers to +grow. + +Although his grand tour seemed an extravagant project, I could not help +admiring his courage and desire to be well informed. + +I asked him about his mother and daughter, and he replied to my questions +without reserve. + +He told me that Madame Cornelis was head over ears in debts, and spent +about half the year in prison. She would then get out by giving fresh +bills and making various arrangements with her creditors, who knew that +if they did not allow her to give her balls, they could not expect to get +their money. + +My daughter, I heard, was a pretty girl of seventeen, very talented, and +patronized by the first ladies in London. She gave concerts, but had to +bear a good deal from her mother. + +I asked him to whom she was to have been married, when she was taken from +the boarding school. He said he had never heard of anything of the kind. + +"Are you in any business?" + +"No. My mother is always talking of buying a cargo and sending me with +it to the Indies, but the day never seems to come, and I am afraid it +never will come. To buy a cargo one must have some money, and my mother +has none." + +In spite of his promise, I induced him to accept the services of my man, +who shewed him all the curiosities of Naples in the course of a week. + +I could not make him stay another week. He set out for Rome, and wrote +to me from there that he had left six shirts and a great coat behind him. +He begged me to send them on, but he forgot to give me his address. + +He was a hare-brained fellow, and yet with the help of two or three sound +maxims he managed to traverse half Europe without coming to any grief. + +I had an unexpected visit from Goudar, who knew the kind of company I +kept, and wanted me to ask his wife and himself to dinner to meet the two +Saxons and my English friends. + +I promised to oblige him on the understanding that there was to be no +play at my house, as I did not want to be involved in any unpleasantness. +He was perfectly satisfied with this arrangement, as he felt sure his +wife would attract them to his house, where, as he said, one could play +without being afraid of anything. + +As I was going to Sorento the next day, I made an appointment with him +for a day after my return. + +This trip to Sorento was my last happy day. + +The advocate took us to a house where we were lodged with all possible +comfort. We had four rooms; the first was occupied by Agatha and her +husband, the second by Callimena and the advocate's old sweetheart, the +third by Pascal Latilla, and the fourth by myself. + +After supper we went early to bed, and rising with the sun we went our +several ways; the advocate with his old sweetheart, Agatha with Pascal, +and I with Callimena. At noon we met again to enjoy a delicious dinner, +and then the advocate took his siesta, while Pascal went for a walk with +Agatha and her husband's sweetheart, and I wandered with Callimena under +the shady alleys where the heat of the sun could not penetrate. Here it +was that Callimena consented to gratify my passion. She gave herself for +love's sake alone, and seemed sorry she had made me wait so long. + +On the fourth day we returned to Naples in three carriages, as there was +a strong wind. Callimena persuaded me to tell her aunt what had passed +between us, that we might be able to meet without any restraint for the +future. + +I approved of her idea, and, not fearing to meet with much severity from +the aunt, I took her apart and told her all that had passed, making her +reasonable offers. + +She was a sensible woman, and heard what I had to say with great good +humour. She said that as I seemed inclined to do something for her +niece, she would let me know as soon as possible what she wanted most. +I remarked that as I should soon be leaving for Rome, I should like to +sup with her niece every evening. She thought this a very natural wish +on my part, and so we went to Callimena, who was delighted to hear the +result of our interview. + +I lost no time, but supped and passed that night with her. I made her +all my own by the power of my love, and by buying her such things as she +most needed, such as linen, dresses, etc. It cost me about a hundred +louis, and in spite of the smallness of my means I thought I had made a +good bargain. Agatha, whom I told of my good luck, was delighted to have +helped me to procure it. + +Two or three days after I gave a dinner to my English friends, the two +Saxons, Bartoldi their governor, and Goudar and his wife. + +We were all ready, and only waiting for M. and Madame Goudar, when I saw +the fair Irishwoman come in with Count Medini. This piece of insolence +made all the blood in my body rush to my head. However, I restrained +myself till Goudar came in, and then I gave him a piece of my mind. It +had been agreed that his wife should come with him. The rascally fellow +prevaricated, and tried hard to induce me to believe that Medini had not +plotted the breaking of the bank, but his eloquence was in vain. + +Our dinner was a most agreeable one, and Sara cut a brilliant figure, for +she possessed every pleasing quality that can make a woman attractive. +In good truth, this tavern girl would have filled a throne with any +queen; but Fortune is blind. + +When the dinner was over, M. de Buturlin, a distinguished Russian, and a +great lover of pretty women, paid me a visit. He had been attracted by +the sweet voice of the fair Sara, who was singing a Neapolitan air to the +guitar. I shone only with a borrowed light, but I was far from being +offended. Buturlin fell in love with Sara on the spot, and a few months +after I left he got her for five hundred Louis, which Goudar required to +carry out the order he had received, namely, to leave Naples in three +days. + +This stroke came from the queen, who found out that the king met Madame +Goudar secretly at Procida. She found her royal husband laughing +heartily at a letter which he would not shew her. + +The queen's curiosity was excited, and at last the king gave in, and her +majesty read the following: + +"Ti aspettero nel medesimo luogo, ed alla stessa ora, coll' impazienza +medesima che ha una vacca che desidera l'avvicinamento del toro." + +"Chi infamia!" cried the queen, and her majesty gave the cow's husband to +understand that in three days he would have to leave Naples, and look for +bulls in other countries. + +If these events had not taken place, M. de Buturlin would not have made +so good a bargain. + +After my dinner, Goudar asked all the company to sup with him the next +evening. The repast was a magnificent one, but when Medini sat down at +the end of a long table behind a heap of gold and a pack of cards, no +punters came forward. Madame Goudar tried in vain to make the gentlemen +take a hand. The Englishmen and the Saxons said politely that they +should be delighted to play if she or I would take the bank, but they +feared the count's extraordinary fortune. + +Thereupon Goudar had the impudence to ask me to deal for a fourth share. + +"I will not deal under a half share," I replied, "though I have no +confidence in my luck." + +Goudar spoke to Medini, who got up, took away his share, and left me the +place. + +I had only two hundred ounces in my purse. I placed them beside Goudar's +two hundred, and in two hours my bank was broken, and I went to console +myself with my Callimena. + +Finding myself penniless I decided to yield to the pressure of Agatha's +husband, who continued to beg me to take back the jewelry I had given his +wife. I told Agatha I would never have consented if fortune had been +kinder to me. She told her husband, and the worthy man came out of his +closet and embraced me as if I had just made his fortune. + +I told him I should like to have the value of the jewels, and the next +day I found myself once more in possession of fifteen thousand francs. +>From that moment I decided to go to Rome, intending to stop there for +eight months; but before my departure the advocate said he must give me a +dinner at a casino which he had at Portici. + +I had plenty of food for thought when I found myself in the house where I +had made a small fortune by my trick with the mercury five-and-twenty +years ago. + +The king was then at Portici with his Court, and our curiosity attracting +us we were witnesses of a most singular spectacle. + +The king was only nineteen and loved all kinds of frolics. He conceived +a desire to be tossed in a blanket! Probably few crowned heads have +wished to imitate Sancho Panza in this manner. + +His majesty was tossed to his heart's content; but after his aerial +journeys he wished to laugh at those whom he had amused. He began by +proposing that the queen should take part in the game; on her replying by +shrieks of laughter, his majesty did not insist. + +The old courtiers made their escape, greatly to my regret, for I should +have liked to see them cutting capers in the air, specially Prince Paul +Nicander, who had been the king's tutor, and had filled him with all his +own prejudices. + +When the king saw that his old followers had fled, he was reduced to +asking the young nobles present to play their part. + +I was not afraid for myself, as I was unknown, and not of sufficient rank +to merit such an honour. + +After three or four young noblemen had been tossed, much to the amusement +of the queen and her ladies, the king cast his eyes on two young +Florentine nobles who had lately arrived at Naples. They were with their +tutor, and all three had been laughing heartily at the disport of the +king and his courtiers. + +The monarch came up and accosted them very pleasantly, proposing that +they should take part in the game. + +The wretched Tuscans had been baked in a bad oven; they were undersized, +ugly, and humpbacked. + +His majesty's proposal seemed to put them on thorns. Everybody listened +for the effects of the king's eloquence; he was urging them to undress, +and saying that it would be unmannerly to refuse; there could be no +humiliation in it, he said, as he himself had been the first to submit. + +The tutor felt that it would not do to give the king a refusal, and told +them that they must give in, and thereupon the two Florentines took off +their clothes. + +When the company saw their figures and doleful expressions, the laughter +became general. The king took one of them by the hand, observing in an +encouraging manner that there would be no danger; and as a special honour +he held one of the corners of the blanket himself. But, for all that, +big tears rolled down the wretched young man's cheeks. + +After three or four visits to the ceiling, and amusing everyone by the +display of his long thin legs, he was released, and the younger brother +went to the torture smilingly, for which he was rewarded by applause. + +The governor, suspecting that his majesty destined him for the same fate, +had slipped out; and the king laughed merrily when he heard of his +departure. + +Such was the extraordinary spectacle we enjoyed--a spectacle in every way +unique. + +Don Pascal Latilla, who had been lucky enough to avoid his majesty's +notice, told us a number of pleasant anecdotes about the king; all shewed +him in the amiable light of a friend of mirth and an enemy to all pomp +and stateliness, by which kings are hedged in generally. He assured us +that no one could help liking him, because he always preferred to be +treated as a friend rather than a monarch. + +"He is never more grieved," said Pascal, "than when his minister Tanucci +shews him that he must be severe, and his greatest joy is to grant a +favour." + +Ferdinand had not the least tincture of letters, but as he was a man of +good sense he honoured lettered men most highly, indeed anyone of merit +was sure of his patronage. He revered the minister Marco, he had the +greatest respect for the memory of Lelio Caraffa, and of the Dukes of +Matalone, and he had provided handsomely for a nephew of the famous man +of letters Genovesi, in consideration of his uncle's merits. + +Games of chance were forbidden; and one day he surprised a number of the +officers of his guard playing at faro. The young men were terrified at +the sight of the king, and would have hidden their cards and money. + +"Don't put yourselves out," said the kindly monarch, "take care that +Tanucci doesn't catch you, but don't mind me." + +His father was extremely fond of him up to the time when he was obliged +to resist the paternal orders in deference to State reasons. + +Ferdinand knew that though he was the King of Spain's son, he was none +the less king of the two Sicilies, and his duties as king had the +prerogative over his duties as son. + +Some months after the suppression of the Jesuits, he wrote his father a +letter, beginning: + +"There are four things which astonish me very much. The first is that +though the Jesuits were said to be so rich, not a penny was found upon +them at the suppression; the second, that though the Scrivani of Naples +are supposed to take no fees, yet their wealth is immense; the third, +that while all the other young couples have children sooner or later, we +have none; and the fourth, that all men die at last, except Tanucci, who, +I believe, will live on in 'saecula saeculorum'." + +The King of Spain shewed this letter to all the ministers and +ambassadors, that they might see that his son was a clever man, and he +was right; for a man who can write such a letter must be clever. + +Two or three days later, the Chevalier de Morosini, the nephew of the +procurator, and sole heir of the illustrious house of Morosini, came to +Naples accompanied by his tutor Stratico, the professor of mathematics at +Padua, and the same that had given me a letter for his brother, the Pisan +professor. He stayed at the "Crocielles," and we were delighted to see +one another again. + +Morosini, a young man of nineteen, was travelling to complete his +education. He had spent three years at Turin academy, and was now under +the superintendence of a man who could have introduced him to the whole +range of learning, but unhappily the will was wanting in the pupil. The +young Venetian loved women to excess, frequented the society of young +rakes, and yawned in good company. He was a sworn foe to study, and +spent his money in a lavish manner, less from generosity than from a +desire to be revenged on his uncle's economies. He complained of being +still kept in tutelage; he had calculated that he could spend eight +hundred sequins a month, and thought his allowance of two hundred sequins +a month an insult. With this notion, he set himself to sow debts +broadcast, and only laughed at his tutor when he mildly reproached him +for his extravagance, and pointed out that if he were saving for the +present, he would be able to be all the more magnificent on his return to +Venice. His uncle had made an excellent match for him; he was to marry a +girl who was extremely pretty, and also the heiress of the house of +Grimani de Servi. + +The only redeeming feature in the young man's character was that he had a +mortal hatred of all kinds of play. + +Since my bank had been broken I had been at Goudar's, but I would not +listen to his proposal that I should join them again. Medini had become +a sworn foe of mine. As soon as I came, he would go away, but I +pretended not to notice him. He was at Goudar's when I introduced +Morosini and his mentor, and thinking the young man good game he became +very intimate with him. When he found out that Morosini would not hear +of gaming, his hatred of me increased, for he was certain that I had +warned the rich Venetian against him. + +Morosini was much taken with Sara's charms, and only thought of how he +could possess her. He was still a young man, full of romantic notions, +and she would have become odious in his eyes if he could have guessed +that she would have to be bought with a heavy price. + +He told me several times that if a woman proposed payment for her +favours, his disgust would expel his love in a moment. As he said, and +rightly, he was as good a man as Madame Goudar was a woman. + +This was distinctly a good point in his character; no woman who gave her +favours in exchange for presents received could hope to dupe him. Sara's +maxims were diametrically opposed to his; she looked on her love as a +bill of exchange. + +Stratico was delighted to see him engaged in this intrigue, for the chief +point in dealing with him was to keep him occupied. If he had no +distractions he took refuge in bad company or furious riding. He would +sometimes ride ten or twelve stages at full gallop, utterly ruining the +horses. He was only too glad to make his uncle pay for them, as he swore +he was an old miser. + +After I had made up my mind to leave Naples, I had a visit from Don +Pascal Latilla, who brought with him the Abbe Galiani, whom I had known +at Paris. + +It may be remembered that I had known his brother at St. Agatha's, where +I had stayed with him, and left him Donna Lucrezia Castelli. + +I told him that I had intended to visit him, and asked if Lucrezia were +still with him. + +"She lives at Salerno," said he, "with her daughter the Marchioness +C----." + +I was delighted to hear the news; if it had not been for the abbe's +visit, I should never have heard what had become of these ladies. + +I asked him if he knew the Marchioness C----. + +"I only know the marquis," he replied, "he is old and very rich." + +That was enough for me. + +A couple of days afterwards Morosini invited Sara, Goudar, two young +gamesters, and Medini, to dinner. The latter had not yet given up hopes +of cheating the chevalier in one way or another. + +Towards the end of dinner it happened that Medini differed in opinion +from me, and expressed his views in such a peremptory manner that I +remarked that a gentleman would be rather more choice in his expressions. + +"Maybe," he replied, "but I am not going to learn manners from you." + +I constrained myself, and said nothing, but I was getting tired of his +insolence; and as he might imagine that my resentment was caused by fear, +I determined on disabusing him. + +As he was taking his coffee on the balcony overlooking the sea, I came up +to him with my cup in my hand, and said that I was tired of the rudeness +with which he treated me in company. + +"You would find me ruder still," he replied, "if we could meet without +company." + +"I think I could convince you of your mistake if we could have a private +meeting." + +"I should very much like to see you do it." + +"When you see me go out, follow me, and don't say a word to anyone." + +"I will not fail." + +I rejoined the company, and walked slowly towards Pausilippo. I looked +back and saw him following me; and as he was a brave fellow, and we both +had our swords, I felt sure the thing would soon be settled. + +As soon as I found myself in the open country, where we should not be +interrupted, I stopped short. + +As he drew near I attempted a parley, thinking that we might come to a +more amicable settlement; but the fellow rushed on me with his sword in +one hand and his hat in the other. + +I lunged out at him, and instead of attempting to parry he replied in +quart. The result was that our blades were caught in each other's +sleeves; but I had slit his arm, while his point had only pierced the +stuff of my coat. + +I put myself on guard again to go on, but I could see he was too weak to +defend himself, so I said if he liked I would give him quarter. + +He made no reply, so I pressed on him, struck him to the ground, and +trampled on his body. + +He foamed with rage, and told me that it was my turn this time, but that +he hoped I would give him his revenge. + +"With pleasure, at Rome, and I hope the third lesson will be more +effectual than the two I have already given you." + +He was losing a good deal of blood, so I sheathed his sword for him and +advised him to go to Goudar's house, which was close at hand, and have +his wound attended to. + +I went back to "Crocielles" as if nothing had happened. The chevalier +was making love to Sara, and the rest were playing cards. + +I left the company an hour afterwards without having said a word about my +duel, and for the last time I supped with Callimena. Six years later I +saw her at Venice, displaying her beauty and her talents on the boards of +St. Benedict's Theatre. + +I spent a delicious night with her, and at eight o'clock the next day I +went off in a post-chaise without taking leave of anyone. + +I arrived at Salerno at two o'clock in the afternoon, and as soon as I +had taken a room I wrote a note to Donna Lucrezia Castelli at the Marquis +C----'s. + +I asked her if I could pay her a short visit, and begged her to send a +reply while I was taking my dinner. + +I was sitting down to table when I had the pleasure of seeing Lucrezia +herself come in. She gave a cry of delight and rushed to my arms. + +This excellent woman was exactly my own age, but she would have been +taken for fifteen years younger. + +After I had told her how I had come to hear about her I asked for news of +our daughter. + +"She is longing to see you, and her husband too; he is a worthy old man, +and will be so glad to know you." + +"How does he know of my existence?" + +"Leonilda has mentioned your name a thousand times during the five years +they have been married. He is aware that you gave her five thousand +ducats. We shall sup together." + +"Let us go directly; I cannot rest till I have seen my Leonilda and the +good husband God has given her. Have they any children?" + +"No, unluckily for her, as after his death the property passes to his +relations. But Leonilda will be a rich woman for all that; she will have +a hundred thousand ducats of her own." + +"You have never married." + +"No." + +"You are as pretty as you were twenty-six years ago, and if it had not +been for the Abbe Galiani I should have left Naples without seeing you." + +I found Leonilda had developed into a perfect beauty. She was at that +time twenty-three years old. + +Her husband's presence was no constraint upon her; she received me with +open arms, and put me completely at my ease. + +No doubt she was my daughter, but in spite of our relationship and my +advancing years I still felt within my breast the symptoms of the +tenderest passion for her. + +She presented me to her husband, who suffered dreadfully from gout, and +could not stir from his arm-chair. + +He received me with smiling face and open arms, saying,-- + +"My dear friend, embrace me." + +I embraced him affectionately, and in our greeting I discovered that he +was a brother mason. The marquis had expected as much, but I had not; +for a nobleman of sixty who could boast that he had been enlightened was +a 'rara avis' in the domains of his Sicilian majesty thirty years ago. + +I sat down beside him and we embraced each other again, while the ladies +looked on amazed, wondering to see us so friendly to each other. + +Donna Leonilda fancied that we must be old friends, and told her husband +how delighted she was. The old man burst out laughing, and Lucrezia +suspecting the truth bit her lips and said nothing. The fair marchioness +reserved her curiosity for another reason. + +The marquis had seen the whole of Europe. He had only thought of +marrying on the death of his father, who had attained the age of ninety. +Finding himself in the enjoyment of thirty thousand ducats a year he +imagined that he might yet have children in spite of his advanced age. +He saw Leonilda, and in a few days he made her his wife, giving her a +dowry of a hundred thousand ducats. Donna Lucrezia went to live with her +daughter. Though the marquis lived magnificently, he found it difficult +to spend more than half his income. + +He lodged all his relations in his immense palace; there were three +families in all, and each lived apart. + +Although they were comfortably off they were awaiting with impatience the +death of the head of the family, as they would then share his riches. +The marquis had only married in the hope of having an heir; and these +hopes he could no longer entertain. However, he loved his wife none the +less, while she made him happy by her charming disposition. + +The marquis was a man of liberal views like his wife, but this was a +great secret, as free thought was not appreciated at Salerno. +Consequently, any outsider would have taken the household for a truly +Christian one, and the marquis took care to adopt in appearance all the +prejudices of his fellow-countrymen. + +Donna Lucrezia told me all this three hours after as we walked in a +beautiful garden, where her husband had sent us after a long conversation +on subjects which could not have been of any interest to the ladies. +Nevertheless, they did not leave us for a moment, so delighted were they +to find that the marquis had met a congenial spirit. + +About six o'clock the marquis begged Donna Lucrezia to take me to the +garden and amuse me till the evening. His wife he asked to stay, as he +had something to say to her. + +It was in the middle of August and the heat was great, but the room on +the ground floor which we occupied was cooled by a delicious breeze. + +I looked out of the window and noticed that the leaves on the trees were +still, and that no wind was blowing; and I could not help saying to the +marquis that I was astonished to find his room as cool as spring in the +heats of summer. + +"Your sweetheart will explain it to you," said he. + +We went through several apartments, and at last reached a closet, in one +corner of which was a square opening. + +>From it rushed a cold and even violent wind. From the opening one could +go down a stone staircase of at least a hundred steps, and at the bottom +was a grotto where was the source of a stream of water as cold as ice. +Donna Lucrezia told me it would be a great risk to go down the steps +without excessively warm clothing. + +I have never cared to run risks of this kind. Lord Baltimore, on the +other hand, would have laughed at the danger, and gone, maybe, to his +death. I told my old sweetheart that I could imagine the thing very well +from the description, and that I had no curiosity to see whether my +imagination were correct. + +Lucrezia told me I was very prudent, and took me to the garden. + +It was a large place, and separated from the garden common to the three +other families who inhabited the castle. Every flower that can be +imagined was there, fountains threw their glittering sprays, and grottoes +afforded a pleasing shade from the sun. + +The alleys of this terrestrial paradise were formed of vines, and the +bunches of grapes seemed almost as numerous as the leaves. + +Lucrezia enjoyed my surprise, and I told her that I was not astonished at +being more moved by this than by the vines of Tivoli and Frascati. The +immense rather dazzles the eyes than moves the heart. + +She told me that her daughter was happy, and that the marquis was an +excellent man, and a strong man except for the gout. His great grief was +that he had no children. Amongst his dozen of nephews there was not one +worthy of succeeding to the title. + +"They are all ugly, awkward lads, more like peasants than noblemen; all +their education has been given them by a pack of ignorant priests; and so +it is not to be wondered that the marquis does not care for them much." + +"But is Leonilda really happy?" + +"She is, though her husband cannot be quite so ardent as she would like +at her age." + +"He doesn't seem to me to be a very jealous man." + +"He is entirely free from jealousy, and if Leonilda would take a lover I +am sure he would be his best friend. And I feel certain he would be only +too glad to find the beautiful soil which he cannot fertile himself +fertilized by another." + +"Is it positively certain that he is incapable of begetting a child?" + +"No, when he is well he does his best; but there seems no likelihood of +his ardour having any happy results. There was some ground to hope in +the first six months of the marriage, but since he has had the gout so +badly there seems reason to fear lest his amorous ecstasies should have a +fatal termination. Sometimes he warts to approach her, but she dare not +let him, and this pains her very much." + +I was struck with a lively sense of Lucrezia's merits, and was just +revealing to her the sentiments which she had re-awakened in my breast, +when the marchioness appeared in the garden, followed by a page and a +young lady. + +I affected great reverence as she came up to us; and as if we had given +each other the word, she answered me in atone of ceremonious politeness. + +"I have come on an affair of the highest importance," she said, "and if I +fail I shall for ever lose the reputation of a diplomatist?" + +"Who is the other diplomatist with whom you are afraid of failing?" + +"'Tis yourself." + +"Then your battle is over, for I consent before I know what you ask. I +only make a reserve on one point." + +"So much the worse, as that may turn out to be just what I want you to +do. Tell me what it is." + +"I was going to Rome, when the Abbe Galiani told me that Donna Lucrezia +was here with you." + +"And can a short delay interfere with your happiness? Are you not your +own master?" + +"Smile on me once more; your desires are orders which must be obeyed. I +have always been my own master, but I cease to be so from this moment, +since I am your most humble servant." + +"Very good. Then I command you to come and spend a few days with us at +an estate we have at a short distance. My husband will have himself +transported here. You will allow me to send to the inn for your +luggage?" + +"Here, sweet marchioness, is the key to my room. Happy the mortal whom +you deign to command." + +Leonilda gave the key to the page, a pretty boy, and told him to see that +all my belongings were carefully taken to the castle. + +Her lady-in-waiting was very fair. I said so to Leonilda in French, not +knowing that the young lady understood the language, but she smiled and +told her mistress that we were old acquaintances. + +"When had I the pleasure of knowing you, mademoiselle?" + +"Nine year ago. You have often spoken to me and teased me." + +"Where, may I ask?" + +"At the Duchess of Matalone's." + +"That may be, and I think I do begin to remember, but I really cannot +recollect having teased you." + +The marchioness and her mother were highly amused at this conversation, +and pressed the girl to say how I had teased her. She confined herself, +however, to saying that I had played tricks on her. I thought I +remembered having stolen a few kisses, but I left the ladies to think +what they liked. + +I was a great student of the human heart, and felt that these reproaches +of Anastasia's (such was her name) were really advances, but unskillfully +made, for if she had wanted more of me, she should have held her peace +and bided her time. + +"It strikes me," said I, "that you were much smaller in those days." + +"Yes, I was only twelve or thirteen. You have changed also." + +"Yes, I have aged." + +We began talking about the late Duke of Matalone, and Anastasia left us. + +We sat down in a charming grotto, and began styling each other papa and +daughter, and allowing ourselves liberties which threatened to lead to +danger. + +The marchioness tried to calm my transports by talking of her good +husband. + +Donna Lucrezia remarked our mutual emotion as I held Leonilda in my arms, +and warned us to be careful. She then left us to walk in a different +part of the garden. + +Her words had the contrary effect to what was intended, for as soon as +she left us in so opportune a manner, although we had no intention of +committing the double crime, we approached too near to each other, and an +almost involuntary movement made, the act complete. + +We remained motionless, looking into one another's eyes, in mute +astonishment, as we confessed afterwards, to find neither guilt nor +repentance in our breasts. + +We rearranged our position, and the marchioness sitting close to me +called me her dear husband, while I called her my dear wife. + +The new bond between us was confirmed by affectionate kisses. We were +absorbed and silent, and Lucrezia was delighted to find us so calm when +she returned. + +We had no need to warn each other to observe secrecy. Donna Lucrezia was +devoid of prejudice, but there was no need to give her a piece of useless +information. + +We felt certain that she had left us alone, so as not to be a witness of +what we were going to do. + +After some further conversation we went back to the palace with +Anastasia, whom we found in the alley by herself. + +The marquis received his wife with joy, congratulating her on the success +of her negotiations. He thanked me for my compliance, and assured me I +should have a comfortable apartment in his country house. + +"I suppose you will not mind having our friend for a neighbor?" he said +to Lucrezia. + +"No," said she; "but we will be discreet, for the flower of our lives has +withered." + +"I shall believe as much of that as I please." + +The worthy man dearly loved a joke. + +The long table was laid for five, and as soon as dinner was served an old +priest came in and sat down. He spoke to nobody, and nobody spoke to +him. + +The pretty page stood behind the marchioness, and we were waited on by +ten or twelve servants. + +I had only a little soup at dinner, so I ate like an ogre, for I was very +hungry, and the marquis's French cook was a thorough artist. + +The marquis exclaimed with delight as I devoured one dish after another. +He told me that the only fault in his wife that she was a very poor eater +like her mother. At dessert the wine began to take effect, and our +conversation, which was conducted in French, became somewhat free. The +old priest took no notice, as he only understood Italian, and he finally +left us after saying the 'agimus'. + +The marquis told me that this ecclesiastic had been a confessor to the +palace for the last twenty years, but had never confessed anybody. He +warned me to take care what I said before him if I spoke Italian, but he +did not know a word of French. + +Mirth was the order of the day, and I kept the company at table till an +hour after midnight. + +Before we parted for the night the marquis told me that we would start in +the afternoon, and that he should arrive an hour before us. He assured +his wife that he was quite well, and that he hoped to convince her that +I had made him ten years younger. Leonilda embraced him tenderly, +begging him to be careful of his health. + +"Yes, yes," said he, "but get ready to receive me." + +I wished them a good night, and a little marquis at nine months from +date. + +"Draw the bill," said he to me, "and to-morrow I will accept it." + +"I promise you," said Lucrezia, "to do my best to ensure your meeting +your obligations." + +Donna Lucrezia took me to my room, where she handed me over to the charge +of an imposing-looking servant, and wished me a good night. + +I slept for eight hours in a most comfortable bed, and when I was dressed +Lucrezia took me to breakfast with the marchioness, who was at her +toilette. + +"Do you think I may draw my bill at nine months?" said I. + +"It will very probably be met," said she. + +"Really?" + +"Yes, really; and it will be to you that my husband will owe the +happiness he has so long desired. He told me so when he left me an hour +ago. + +"I shall be delighted to add to your mutual happiness." + +She looked so fresh and happy that I longed to kiss her, but I was +obliged to restrain myself as she was surrounded by her pretty maids. + +The better to throw any spies off the scent I began to make love to +Anastasia, and Leonilda pretended to encourage me. + +I feigned a passionate desire, and I could see that I should not have +much trouble in gaining my suit. I saw I should have to be careful if I +did not want to be taken at my word; I could not bear such a surfeit of +pleasures. + +We went to breakfast with the marquis, who was delighted to see us. He +was quite well, except the gout which prevented his walking. + +After breakfast we heard mass, and I saw about twenty servants in the +chapel. After the service I kept the marquis company till dinner-time. +He said I was very good to sacrifice the company of the ladies for his +sake. + +After dinner we set out for his country house; I in a carriage with the +two ladies, and the marquis in a litter borne by two mules. + +In an hour and a half we arrived at his fine and well-situated castle. + +The first thing the marchioness did was to take me into the garden, where +my ardour returned and she once more abandoned herself to me. + +We agreed that I should only go to her room to court Anastasia, as it was +necessary to avoid the slightest suspicion. + +This fancy of mine for his wife's maid amused the marquis, for his wife +kept him well posted in the progress of our intrigue. + +Donna Lucrezia approved of the arrangement as she did not want the +marquis to think that I had only come to Salerno for her sake. My +apartments were next to Leonilda's, but before I could get into her room +I should be obliged to pass through that occupied by Anastasia, who slept +with another maid still prettier than herself. + +The marquis came an hour later, and he said he would get his people to +carry him in an arm-chair round the gardens, so that he might point out +their beauties to me. After supper he felt tired and went to bed, +leaving me to entertain the ladies. + +After a few moments' conversation, I led the marchioness to her room, and +she said I had better go to my own apartment through the maids' room, +telling Aanastasia to shew me the way. + +Politeness obliged me to shew myself sensible of such a favour, and I +said I hoped she would not be so harsh as to lock her door upon me. + +"I shall lock my door," said she, "because it is my duty to do so. This +room is my mistress's closet, and my companion would probably make some +remark if I left the door open contrary to my usual custom." + +"Your reasons are too good for me to overcome, but will you not sit down +beside me for a few minutes and help me to recollect how I used to tease +you?" + +"I don't want you to recollect anything about it; please let me go." + +"You must please yourself," said I; and after embracing her and giving +her a kiss, I wished her good night. + +My servant came in as she went out, and I told him that I would sleep by +myself for the future. + +The next day the marchioness laughingly repeated the whole of my +conversation with Anastasia. + +"I applauded her virtuous resistance, but I said she might safely assist +at your toilette every evening." + +Leonilda gave the marquis a full account of my talk with Anastasia. The +old man thought I was really in love with her, and had her in to supper +for my sake, so I was in common decency bound to play the lover. +Anastasia was highly pleased at my preferring her to her charming +mistress, and at the latter's complaisance towards our love-making. + +The marquis in his turn was equally pleased as he thought the intrigue +would make me stay longer at his house. + +In the evening Anastasia accompanied me to my room with a candle, and +seeing that I had no valet she insisted combing my hair. She felt +flattered at my not presuming to go to bed in her presence, and kept me +company for an hour; and as I was not really amorous of her, I had no +difficulty in playing the part of the timid lover. When she wished me +good night she was delighted to find my kisses as affectionate but not so +daring as those of the night before. + +The marchioness said, the next morning, that if the recital she had heard +were true, she was afraid Anastasia's company tired me, as she very well +knew that when I really loved I cast timidity to the winds. + +"No, she doesn't tire me at all; she is pretty and amusing. But how can +you imagine that I really love her, when you know very well that the +whole affair is only designed to cast dust in everyone's eyes?" + +"Anastasia fully believes that you adore her, and indeed I am not sorry +that you should give her a little taste for gallantry." + +"If I can persuade her to leave her door open I can easily visit you, for +she will not imagine for a moment that after leaving her I go to your +room instead of my own." + +"Take care how you set about it." + +"I will see what I can do this evening." + +The marquis and Lucrezia had not the slightest doubt that Anastasia spent +every night with me, and they were delighted at the idea. + +The whole of the day I devoted to the worthy marquis, who said my company +made him happy. It was no sacrifice on my part, for I liked his +principles and his way of thinking. + +On the occasion of my third supper with Anastasia I was more tender than +ever, and she was very much astonished to find that I had cooled down +when I got to my room. + +"I am glad to see you so calm," said she, "you quite frightened me at +supper." + +"The reason is that I know you think yourself in danger when you are +alone with me." + +"Not at all; you are much more discreet than you were nine years ago." + +"What folly did I commit then?" + +"No folly, but you did not respect my childhood." + +"I only gave you a few caresses, for which I am now sorry, as you are +frightened of me, and persist in locking your door." + +"I don't mistrust you, but I have told you my reasons for locking the +door. I think that you must mistrust me, as you won't go to bed while I +am in the room." + +"You must think me very presumptuous. I will go to bed, but you must not +leave me without giving me a kiss." + +"I promise to do so." + +I went to bed, and Anastasia spent half an hour beside me. I had a good +deal of difficulty in controlling myself, but I was afraid of her telling +the marchioness everything. + +As she left me she gave me such a kind embrace that I could bear it no +longer, and guiding her hand I skewed her the power she exercised over +me. She then went away, and I shall not say whether my behaviour +irritated or pleased her. + +The next day I was curious to know how much she had told the marchioness, +and on hearing nothing of the principal fact I felt certain she would not +lock her door that evening. + +When the evening came I defied her to skew the same confidence in me as I +had shewn in her. She replied that she would do so with pleasure, if I +would blow out my candle and promise not to put my hand on her. I easily +gave her the required promise, for I meant to keep myself fresh for +Leonilda. + +I undressed hastily, followed her with bare feet, and laid myself beside +her. + +She took my hands and held them, to which I offered no resistance. We +were afraid of awakening her bedfellow, and kept perfect silence. Our +lips however gave themselves free course, and certain motions, natural +under the circumstances, must have made her believe that I was in +torments. The half hour I passed beside her seemed extremely long to me, +but it must have been delicious to her, as giving her the idea that she +could do what she liked with me. + +When I left her after we had shared an ecstatic embrace, I returned to my +room, leaving the door open. As soon as I had reason to suppose that she +was asleep, I returned, and passed through her room to Leonilda's. She +was expecting me, but did not know of my presence till I notified it with +a kiss. + +After I had given her a strong proof of my love, I told her of my +adventure with Anastasia, and then our amorous exploits began again, and +I did not leave her till I had spent two most delicious hours. We agreed +that they should not be the last, and I returned to my room on tiptoe as +I had come. + +I did not get up till noon, and the marquis and his wife jested with me +at dinner on the subject of my late rising. At supper it was Anastasia's +turn, and she seemed to enjoy the situation. She told me in the evening +that she would not lock her door, but that I must not come into her room, +as it was dangerous. It would be much better, she said, for us to talk +in my room, where there would be no need of putting out the light. She +added that I had better go to bed, as then she would feel certain that +she was not tiring me in any way. + +I could not say no, but I flattered myself that I would keep my strength +intact for Leonilda. + +I reckoned without my host, as the proverb goes. + +When I held Anastasia between my arms in bed, her lips glued to mine, I +told her, as in duty bound, that she did not trust in me enough to lie +beside me with her clothes off. + +Thereupon she asked me if I would be very discreet. + +If I had said no, I should have looked a fool. I made up my mind, and +told her yes, determined to satisfy the pretty girl's desires. + +In a moment she was in my arms, not at all inclined to keep me to my +promise. + +Appetite, it is said, comes in eating. Her ardour made me amorous, and I +rendered homage to her charms till I fell asleep with fatigue. + +Anastasia left me while I was asleep, and when I awoke I found myself in +the somewhat ridiculous position of being obliged to make a full +confession to the marchioness as to why I had failed in my duties to her. + +When I told Leonilda my tale, she began to laugh and agreed that further +visits were out of the question. We made up our minds, and for the +remainder of my visit our amorous meetings only took place in the +summerhouses in the garden. + +I had to receive Anastasia every night, and when I left for Rome and did +not take her with me she considered me as a traitor. + +The worthy marquis gave me a great surprise on the eve of my departure. +We were alone together, and he began by saying that the Duke of Matalone +had told him the reason which had prevented me marrying Leonilda, and +that he had always admired my generosity in making her a present of five +thousand ducats, though I was far from rich. + +"These five thousand ducats," he added, "with seven thousand from the +duke, composed her dower, and I have added a hundred thousand, so that +she is sure of a comfortable living, even if I die without a successor. + +"Now, I want you to take back the five thousand ducats you gave her; and +she herself is as desirous of your doing so as I am. She did not like to +ask you herself; she is too delicate." + +"Well, I should have refused Leonilda if she had asked me, but I accept +this mark of your friendship. A refusal would have borne witness to +nothing but a foolish pride, as I am a poor man. I should like Leonilda +and her mother to be present when you give me the money." + +"Embrace me; we will do our business after dinner." + +Naples has always been a temple of fortune to me, but if I went there now +I should starve. Fortune flouts old age. + +Leonilda and Lucrezia wept with joy when the good marquis gave me the +five thousand ducats in bank notes, and presented his mother-in-law with +an equal sum in witness of his gratitude to her for having introduced me +to him. + +The marquis was discreet enough not to reveal his chief reason. Donna +Lucrezia did not know that the Duke of Matalone had told him that +Leonilda was my daughter. + +An excess of gratitude lessened my high spirits for the rest of the day, +and Anastasia did not spend a very lively night with me. + +I went off at eight o'clock the next morning. I was sad, and the whole +house was in tears. + +I promised that I would write to the marquis from Rome, and I reached +Naples at eleven o'clock. + +I went to see Agatha, who was astonished at my appearance as she had +thought I was at Rome. Her husband welcomed me in the most friendly +manner, although he was suffering a great deal. + +I said I would dine with them and start directly afterwards, and I asked +the advocate to get me a bill on Rome for five thousand ducats, in +exchange for the bank notes I gave him. + +Agatha saw that my mind was made up, and without endeavoring to persuade +me to stay went in search of Callimena. + +She too had thought I was in Rome, and was in an ecstasy of delight to +see me again. + +My sudden disappearance and my unexpected return were the mystery of the +day, but I did not satisfy anyone's curiosity. + +I left them at three o'clock, and stopped at Montecasino, which I had +never seen. I congratulated myself on my idea, for I met there Prince +Xaver de Saxe, who was travelling under the name of Comte de Lusace with +Madame Spinucci, a lady of Fermo, with whom he had contracted a semi- +clandestine marriage. He had been waiting for three days to hear from +the Pope, for by St. Benedict's rule women are not allowed in +monasteries; and as Madame Spinucci was extremely curious on the subject, +her husband had been obliged to apply for a dispensation to the Holy +Father. + +I slept at Montecasino after having seen the curiosities of the place, +and I went on to Rome, and put up with Roland's daughter in the Place +d'Espagne. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +Margarita--Madame Buondcorsi--The Duchess of Fiano--Cardinal Bernis-- +The Princess Santa Croce--Menicuccio and His Sister + + +I had made up my mind to spend a quiet six months at Rome, and the day +after my arrival I took a pleasant suite of rooms opposite the Spanish +Ambassador, whose name was d'Aspura. It happened to be the same rooms as +were occupied twenty-seven years ago by the teacher of languages, to whom +I had gone for lessons while I was with Cardinal Acquaviva. The landlady +was the wife of a cook who only, slept with his better half once a week. +The woman had a daughter of sixteen or seventeen years old, who would +have been very pretty if the small-pox had not deprived her of one eye. +They had provided her with an ill-made artificial eye, of a wrong size +and a bad colour, which gave a very unpleasant expression to her face. +Margarita, as she was called, made no impression on me, but I made her a +present which she valued very highly. There was an English oculist named +Taylor in Rome at that time, and I got him to make her an eye of the +right size and colour. This made Margarita imagine that I had fallen in +love with her, and the mother, a devotee, was in some trouble as to +whether my intentions were strictly virtuous. + +I made arrangements with the mother to supply me with a good dinner and +supper without any luxury. I had three thousand sequins, and I had made +up my mind to live in a quiet and respectable manner. + +The next day I found letters for me in several post-offices, and the +banker Belloni, who had known me for several years, had been already +advised of my bill of exchange. My good friend Dandolo sent me two +letters of introduction, of which one was addressed to M. Erizzo, the +Venetian ambassador. He was the brother of the ambassador to Paris. +This letter pleased me greatly. The other was addressed to the Duchess +of Fiano, by her brother M. Zuliani. + +I saw that I should be free of all the best houses, and I promised myself +the pleasure of an early visit to Cardinal Bernis. + +I did not hire either a carriage or a servant. At Rome both these +articles are procurable at a moment's notice. + +My first call was on the Duchess of Fiano. She was an ugly woman, and +though she was really very good-natured, she assumed the character of +being malicious so as to obtain some consideration. + +Her husband, who bore the name of Ottoboni, had only married her to +obtain an heir, but the poor devil turned out to be what the Romans call +'babilano', and we impotent. The duchess told me as much on the occasion +of my third visit. She did not give me the information in a complaining +tone, or as if she was fain to be consoled, but merely to defy her +confessor, who had threatened her with excommunication if she went on +telling people about her husband's condition, or if she tried to cure him +of it. + +The duchess gave a little supper every evening to her select circle of +friends. I was not admitted to these reunions for a week or ten days, by +which time I had made myself generally popular. The duke did not care +for company and supped apart. + +The Prince of Santa Croce was the duchess's 'cavaliere servante', and the +princess was served by Cardinal Bernis. The princess was a daughter of +the Marquis Falconieri, and was young, pretty, lively, and intended by +nature for a life of pleasure. However, her pride at possessing the +cardinal was so great that she did not give any hope to other competitors +for her favour. + +The prince was a fine man of distinguished manners and great capability, +which he employed in business speculations, being of opinion, and +rightly, that it was no shame for a nobleman to increase his fortune by +the exercise of his intelligence. He was a careful man, and had attached +himself to the duchess because she cost him nothing, and he ran no risk +of falling in love with her. + +Two or three weeks after my arrival he heard me complaining of the +obstacles to research in the Roman libraries, and he offered to give me +an introduction to the Superior of the Jesuits. I accepted the offer, +and was made free of the library; I could not only go and read when I +liked, but I could, on writing my name down, take books away with me. +The keepers of the library always brought me candles when it grew dark, +and their politeness was so great that they gave me the key of a side +door, so that I could slip in and out as I pleased. + +The Jesuits were always the most polite of the regular clergy, or, +indeed, I may say the only polite men amongst them; but during the crisis +in which they were then involved, they were simply cringing. + +The King of Spain had called for the suppression of the order, and the +Pope had promised that it should be done; but the Jesuits did not think +that such a blow could ever be struck, and felt almost secure. They did +not think that the Pope's power was superhuman so far as they were +concerned. They even intimated to him by indirect channels that his +authority did not extend to the suppression of the order; but they were +mistaken. The sovereign pontiff delayed the signature of the bull, but +his hesitation proceeded from the fact that in signing it he feared lest +he should be signing his own sentence of death. Accordingly he put it +off till he found that his honour was threatened. The King of Spain, the +most obstinate tyrant in Europe, wrote to him with his own hand, telling +him that if he did not suppress the order he would publish in all the +languages of Europe the letters he had written when he was a cardinal, +promising to suppress the order when he became Pope. On the strength of +these letters Ganganelli had been elected. + +Another man would have taken refuge in casuistry and told the king that +it was not for a pope to be bound to the cardinal's promises, in which +contention he would have been supported by the Jesuits. However, in his +heart Ganganelli had no liking for the Jesuits. He was a Franciscan, and +not a gentleman by birth. He had not a strong enough intellect to defy +the king and all his threats, or to bear the shame of being exhibited to +the whole world as an ambitious and unscrupulous man. + +I am amused when people tell me that Ganganelli poisoned himself by +taking so many antidotes. It is true that having reason, and good +reason, to dread poison, he made use of antidotes which, with his +ignorance of science, might have injured his health; but I am morally +certain that he died of poison which was given by other hands than his +own. + +My reasons for this opinion are as follows: + +In the year of which I am speaking, the third of the Pontificate of +Clement XIV., a woman of Viterbo was put in prison on the charge of +making predictions. She obscurely prophesied the suppression of the +Jesuits, without giving any indication of the time; but she said very +clearly that the company would be destroyed by a pope who would only +reign five years three months and three days--that is, as long as Sixtus +V., not a day more and not a day less. + +Everybody treated the prediction with contempt, as the product of a +brain-sick woman. She was shut up and quite forgotten. + +I ask my readers to give a dispassionate judgment, and to say whether +they have any doubt as to the poisoning of Ganganelli when they hear that +his death verified the prophecy. + +In a case like this, moral certainty assumes the force of scientific +certainty. The spirit which inspired the Pythia of Viterbo took its +measures to inform the world that if the Jesuits were forced to submit to +being suppressed, they were not so weak as to forego a fearful vengeance. +The Jesuit who cut short Ganganelli's days might certainly have poisoned +him before the bull was signed, but the fact was that they could not +bring themselves to believe it till it took place. It is clear that if +the Pope had not suppressed the Jesuits, they would not have poisoned +him, and here again the prophecy could not be taxed with falsity. We may +note that Clement XIV., like Sixtus V., was a Franciscan, and both were +of low birth. It is also noteworthy that after the Pope's death the +prophetess was liberated, and, though her prophecy had been fulfilled to +the letter, all the authorities persisted in saying that His Holiness had +died from his excessive use of antidotes. + +It seems to me that any impartial judge will scout the idea of Ganganelli +having killed himself to verify the woman of Viterbo's prediction. If +you say it was a mere coincidence, of course I cannot absolutely deny +your position, for it may have been chance; but my thoughts on the +subject will remain unchanged. + +This poisoning was the last sign the Jesuits gave of their power. It was +a crime, because it was committed after the event, whereas, if it had +been done before the suppression of the order, it would have been a +stroke of policy, and might have been justified on politic grounds. The +true politician looks into the future, and takes swift and certain +measures to obtain the end he has in view. + +The second time that the Prince of Santa Croce saw me at the Duchess of +Fiano's, he asked me 'ex abrupta' why I did not visit Cardinal Bernis. + +"I think of paying my suit to him to-morrow," said I. + +"Do so, for I have never heard his eminence speak of anyone with as much +consideration as he speaks of yourself." + +"He has been very kind to me, and I shall always be grateful to him." + +The cardinal received me the next day with every sign of delight at +seeing me. He praised the reserve with which I had spoken of him to the +prince, and said he need not remind me of the necessity for discretion as +to our old Venetian adventures. + +"Your eminence," I said, "is a little stouter, otherwise you look as +fresh as ever and not at all changed." + +"You make a mistake. I am very different from what I was then. I am +fifty-five now, and then I was thirty-six. Moreover, I am reduced to a +vegetable diet." + +"Is that to keep down the lusts of the flesh?" + +"I wish people would think so; but no one does, I am afraid." + +He was glad to hear that I bore a letter to the Venetian ambassador, +which I had not yet presented. He said he would take care to give the +ambassador a prejudice in my favour, and that he would give me a good +reception. + +"We will begin to break the ice to-morrow," added this charming cardinal. +"You shall dine with me, and his excellence shall hear of it." + +He heard with pleasure that I was well provided for as far as money was +concerned, and that I had made up my mind to live simply and discreetly +so long as I remained in Rome. + +"I shall write about you to M---- M----," he said. "I have always kept +up a correspondence with that delightful nun." + +I then amused him by the, talk of my adventure with the nun of Chamberi. + +"You ought to ask the Prince of Santa Croce to introduce you to the +princess. We might pass some pleasant hours with her, though not in our +old Venetian style, for the princess is not at all like M---- M----. + +"And yet she serves to amuse your eminence?" + +"Well, I have to be content with what I can get." + +The next day as I was getting up from dinner the cardinal told me that M. +Zuliani had written about me to the ambassador, who would be delighted to +make my acquaintance, and when I went I had an excellent reception from +him. + +The Chevalier Erizzo, who is still alive, was a man of great +intelligence, common sense, and oratorical power. He complimented me on +my travels and on my being protected by the State Inquisitors instead of +being persecuted by them. He kept me to dinner, and asked me to dine +with him whenever I had no other engagement. + +The same evening I met Prince Santa Croce at the duchess's, and asked him +to introduce me to his wife. + +"I have been expecting that," he replied "even since the cardinal talked +to her about you for more than an hour. You can call any day at eleven +in the morning or two in the afternoon." + +I called the next day at two o'clock. She was taking her siesta in bed, +but as I had the privileges allowed to a person of no consequence she let +me in directly. She was young, pretty, lively, curious, and talkative; +she had not enough patience to wait for my answer to her questions. She +struck me as a toy, well adapted to amuse a man of affairs, who felt the +need of some distraction. The cardinal saw her regularly three times a +day; the first thing in the morning he called to ask if she had had a +good night, at three o'clock in the afternoon he took coffee with her, +and in the evening he met her at the assembly. He always played at +piquet, and played with such talent that he invariably lost six Roman +sequins, no more and no less. These losses of the cardinal's made the +princess the richest young wife in Rome. + +Although the marquis was somewhat inclined to be jealous, he could not +possibly object to his wife enjoying a revenue of eighteen hundred francs +a month, and that without the least scandal, for everything was done in +public, and the game was honestly conducted. Why should not fortune fall +in love with such a pretty woman? + +The Prince of Santa Croce could not fail to appreciate the friendship of +the cardinal for his wife, who gave him a child every year, and sometimes +every nine months, in spite of the doctor's warnings to beware of +results. It was said that to make up for his enforced abstinence during +the last few days of his wife's pregnancy, the prince immediately set to +again when the child was being baptized. + +The friendship of the cardinal for the prince's wife also gave him the +advantage of getting silks from Lyons without the Pope's treasurer being +able to say anything, as the packets were addressed to the French +ambassador. It must also be noted that the cardinal's patronage kept +other lovers from the house. The High Constable Colonna was very much +taken with her. The prince had surprised this gentleman talking to the +princess in a room of the palace and at an hour when she was certain that +the cardinal would not be in the way. Scarcely had the Colonna gone when +the prince told his wife that she would accompany him into the country +the next day. She protested, saying that this sudden order was only a +caprice and that her honour would not allow of her obeying him. The +prince, however, was very determined, and she would have been obliged to +go if the cardinal had not come in and heard the story from the mouth of +the innocent princess. He shewed the husband that it was to his own +interests to go into the country by himself, and to let his wife remain +in Rome. He spoke for her, assuring the prince that she would take more +care for the future and avoid such meetings, always unpleasant in a +house. + +In less than a month I became the shadow of the three principal persons +in the play. I listened and admired and became as necessary to the +personages as a marker at billiards. When any of the parties were +afflicted I consoled them with tales or amusing comments, and, naturally, +they were grateful to me. The cardinal, the prince, and his fair wife +amused each other and offended no one. + +The Duchess of Fiano was proud of being the possessor of the prince who +left his wife to the cardinal, but no one was deceived but herself. The +good lady wondered why no one acknowledged that the reason why the +princess never came to see her was mere jealousy. She spoke to me on the +subject with so much fire that I had to suppress my good sense to keep +her good graces. + +I had to express my astonishment as to what the cardinal could see in the +princess, who, according to her, was skinny in person and silly in mind, +altogether a woman of no consequence. I agreed to all this, but I was +far from thinking so, for the princess was just the woman to amuse a +voluptuous and philosophic lover like the cardinal. + +I could not help thinking now and again that the cardinal was happier in +the possession of this treasure of a woman than in his honours and +dignities. + +I loved the princess, but as I did not hope for success I confined myself +strictly to the limits of my position. + +I might, no doubt, have succeeded, but more probably I should have raised +her pride against me, and wounded the feelings of the cardinal, who was +no longer the same as when we shared M---- M---- in common. He had told +me that his affection for her was of a purely fatherly character, and I +took that as a hint not to trespass on his preserves. + +I had reason to congratulate myself that she observed no more ceremony +with me than with her mail. I accordingly pretended to see nothing, +while she felt certain I saw all. + +It is no easy matter to win the confidence of such a woman, especially if +she be served by a king or a cardinal. + +My life at Rome was a tranquil and happy one. Margarita had contrived to +gain my interest by the assiduity of her attentions. I had no servant, +so she waited on me night and morning, and her false eye was such an +excellent match that I quite forgot its falsity. She was a clever, but a +vain girl, and though at first I had no designs upon her I flattered her +vanity by my conversation and the little presents I bestowed upon her, +which enabled her to cut a figure in church on Sundays. So before long I +had my eyes opened to two facts; the one that she was sure of my love, +and wondered why I did not declare it; the other, that if I chose I had +an easy conquest before me. + +I guessed the latter circumstance one day when, after I had asked her to +tell me her adventures from the age of eleven to that of eighteen, she +proceeded to tell me tales, the telling of which necessitated her +throwing all modesty to the winds. + +I took the utmost delight in these scandalous narrations, and whenever I +thought she had told the whole truth I gave her a few pieces of money; +while whenever I had reason to suppose that she had suppressed some +interesting circumstances I gave her nothing. + +She confessed to me that she no longer possessed that which a maid can +lose but once, that a friend of hers named Buonacorsi was in the same +case, and finally she told me the name of the young man who had relieved +them both of their maidenheads. + +We had for neighbor a young Piedmontese abbe named Ceruti, on whom +Margarita was obliged to wait when her mother was too busy. I jested +with her about him, but she swore there was no lovemaking between them. + +This abbe was a fine man, learned and witty, but he was overwhelmed with +debt and in very bad odour at Rome on account of an extremely unpleasant +story of which he was the hero. + +They said that he had told an Englishman, who was in love with Princess +Lanti, that she was in want of two hundred sequins, that the Englishman +had handed over the money to the abbe, and that the latter had +appropriated it. + +This act of meanness had been brought to light by an explanation between +the lady and the Englishman. On his saying to the princess that he was +ready to do anything for her, and that the two hundred sequins he had +given her were as nothing in comparison with what he was ready to do, she +indignantly denied all knowledge of the transaction. Everything came +out. The Englishman begged pardon, and the abbe was excluded from the +princess's house and the Englishman's also. + +This Abbe Ceruti was one of those journalists employed to write the +weekly news of Rome by Bianconi; he and I had in a manner become friends +since we were neighbours. I saw that he loved Margarita, and I was not +in the least jealous, but as he was a handsome young fellow I could not +believe that Margarita was cruel to him. Nevertheless, she assured me +that she detested him, and that she was very sorry that her mother made +her wait on him at all. + +Ceruti had already laid himself under obligations to me. He had borrowed +a score of crowns from me, promising to repay them in a week, and three +weeks had gone by without my seeing the money. However, I did not ask +for it, and would have lent him as much more if he had requested me. But +I must tell the story as it happened. + +Whenever I supped with the Duchess of Fiano I came in late, and Margarita +waited up for me. Her mother would go to bed. For the sake of amusement +I used to keep her for an hour or two without caring whether our +pleasantries disturbed the abbe, who could hear everything we said. + +One evening I came home at midnight and was surprised to find the mother +waiting for me. + +"Where is your daughter?" I enquired. + +"She's asleep, and I really cannot allow you to pass the whole night with +her any longer." + +"But she only stays with me till I get into bed. This new whim wounds my +feelings. I object to such unworthy suspicions. What has Margarita been +telling you? If she has made any complaints of me, she has lied, and I +shall leave your house to-morrow." + +"You are wrong; Margarita has made no complaints; on the contrary she +says that you have done nothing to her." + +"Very good. Do you think there is any harm in a little joking?" + +"No, but you might be better employed." + +"And these are your grounds for a suspicion of which you should be +ashamed, if you are a good Christian." + +"God save me from thinking evil of my neighbour, but I have been informed +that your laughter and your jests are of such a nature as to be offensive +to people of morality." + +"Then it is my neighbour the abbe who has been foolish enough to give you +this information?" + +"I cannot tell you how I heard it, but I have heard it." + +"Very good. To-morrow I shall seek another lodging, so as to afford your +tender conscience some relief." + +"Can't I attend on you as well as my daughter?" + +"No; your daughter makes me laugh, and laughing is beneficial to me, +whereas you would not make me laugh at all. You have insulted me, and I +leave your house to-morrow." + +"I shall have to tell my husband the reason of your departure, and I do +not want to do that." + +"You can do as you like; that's no business of mine. Go away; I want to +get into bed." + +"Allow me to wait on you." + +"Certainly not; if you want anybody to wait on me, send Margarita." + +"She's asleep." + +"Then wake her up." + +The good woman went her way, and two minutes later, the girl came in with +little on but her chemise. She had not had time to put in her false eye, +and her expression was so amusing that I went off into a roar of +laughter. + +"I was sleeping soundly," she began, "and my mother woke me up all of a +sudden, and told me to come and wait on you, or else you would leave, and +my father would think we had been in mischief." + +"I will stay, if you will continue to wait on me." + +"I should like to come very much, but we mustn't laugh any more, as the +abbe has complained of us." + +"Oh! it is the abbe, is it?" + +"Of course it is. Our jests and laughter irritate his passions." + +"The rascal! We will punish him rarely. If we laughed last night, we +will laugh ten times louder tonight." + +Thereupon we began a thousand tricks, accompanied by shouts and shrieks +of laughter, purposely calculated to drive the little priest desperate. +When the fun was at its height, the door opened and the mother came in. + +I had Margarita's night-cap on my head, and Margarita's face was adorned +with two huge moustaches, which I had stuck on with ink. Her mother had +probably anticipated taking us in the fact, but when she came in she was +obliged to re-echo our shouts of mirth. + +"Come now," said I, "do you think our amusements criminal?" + +"Not a bit; but you see your innocent orgies keep your neighbour awake." + +"Then he had better go and sleep somewhere else; I am not going to put +myself out for him. I will even say that you must choose between him and +me; if I consent to stay with you, you must send him away, and I will +take his room." + +"I can't send him away before the end of the month, and I am afraid he +will say things to my husband which will disturb the peace of the house." + +"I promise you he shall go to-morrow and say nothing at all. Leave him +to me; the, abbe shall leave of his own free will, without giving you the +slightest trouble. In future be afraid for your daughter when she is +alone with a man and you don't hear laughing. When one does not laugh, +one does something serious." + +After this the mother seemed satisfied and went off to bed. Margarita +was in such high spirits over the promised dismissal of the abbe that I +could not resist doing her justice. We passed an hour together without +laughing, and she left me very proud of the victory she had gained. + +Early the next day I paid the abbe a visit, and after reproaching him for +his behaviour I gave him his choice between paying me the money he owed +me and leaving the house at once. He did his best to get out of the +dilemma, but seeing that I was pitiless he said he could not leave +without paying a few small sums he owed the landlord, and without the +wherewithal to obtain another lodging. + +"Very good," said I, "I will present you with another twenty crowns; but +you must go to-day, and not say a word to anyone, unless you wish me to +become your implacable enemy." + +I thus got rid of him and entered into possession of the two rooms. +Margarita was always at my disposal, and after a few days so was the fair +Buonacorsi, who was much the prettier of the two. + +The two girls introduced me to the young man who had seduced them. + +He was a lad of fifteen or sixteen, and very handsome though short. +Nature had endowed him with an enormous symbol of virility, and at +Lampsacus he would no doubt have had an altar erected to him beside that +of Priapus, with which divinity he might well have contended. + +He was well-mannered and agreeable, and seemed much above a common +workman. He did not love Margarita or Mdlle. Bounacorsi; he had merely +satisfied their curiosity. They saw and admired, and wished to come to a +nearer acquaintance; he read their minds and offered to satisfy them. +Thereupon the two girls held a consultation, and pretending to submit out +of mere complaisance; the double deed was done. I liked this young man, +and gave him linen and clothes. So before long he had complete +confidence in me. He told me he was in love with a girl, but unhappily +for him she was in a convent, and not being able to win her he was +becoming desperate. The chief obstacle to the match lay in the fact that +his earnings only amounted to a paul a day, which was certainly an +insufficient sum to support a wife on. + +He talked so much about her that I became curious, and expressed a desire +to see her. But before coming to this I must recite some other incidents +of my stay at Rome. + +One day I went to the Capitol to see the prizes given to the art +students, and the first face I saw was the face of Mengs. He was with +Battoni and two or three other painters, all being occupied in adjudging +the merits of the various pictures. + +I had not forgotten his treatment of me at Madrid, so I pretended not to +see him; but as soon as he saw me, he came up and addressed me as +follows: + +"My dear Casanova, let us forget what happened at Madrid and be friends +once more." + +"So be it, provided no allusion is made to the cause of our quarrel; for +I warn you that I cannot speak of it and keep my head cool." + +"I dare say; but if you had understood my position at Madrid you would +never have obliged me to take a course which gave me great pain." + +"I do not understand you." + +"I dare say not. You must know, then, that I was strongly suspected of +being a Protestant; and if I had shewn myself indifferent to your +conduct, I might possibly have been ruined. But dine with me tomorrow; +we will make up a party of friends, and discuss our quarrel in a good +bottle of wine. I know that you do not receive your brother, so he shall +not be there. Indeed, I do not receive him myself, for if I did all +honest people would give me the cold shoulder." + +I accepted his friendly invitation, and was punctual to the appointment. + +My brother left Rome a short time afterwards with Prince Beloselski, the +Russian ambassador to Dresden, with whom he had come; but his visit was +unsuccessful, as Rezzonico proved inexorable. We only saw each other two +or three times at Rome. + +Three or four days after he had gone I had the agreeable surprise of +seeing my brother the priest, in rags as usual. He had the impudence to +ask me to help him. + +"Where do you come from?" + +"From Venice; I had to leave the place, as I could no longer make a +living there." + +"Then how do you think of making a living at Rome?" + +"By saying masses and teaching French." + +"You a teacher of languages! Why, you do not know your native tongue." + +"I know Italian and French too, and I have already got two pupils." + +"They will no doubt make wonderful progress under your fostering care. +Who are they?" + +"The son and daughter of the inn-keeper, at whose house I am staying. +But that's not enough to keep me, and you must give me something while I +am starting." + +"You have no right to count on me. Leave the room." + +I would not listen to another word, and told Margarita to see that he did +not come in again. + +The wretched fellow did his best to ruin me with all my friends, +including the Duchess of Fiano and the Abbe Gama. Everybody told me that +I should either give him some help, or get him out of Rome; I got +heartily sick of the sound of his name. At last the Abbe Ceruti came and +told me that if I did not want to see my brother begging his bread in the +streets I must give him some assistance. + +"You can keep him out of Rome," he said, "and he is ready to go if you +will allow him three pauls a day." I consented, and Ceruti hit on a plan +which pleased me very much. He spoke to a priest who served a convent of +Franciscan nuns. This priest took my brother into his service, and gave +him three pauls for saying one mass every day. If he could preach well +he might earn more. + +Thus the Abbe Casanova passed away, and I did not care whether he knew or +not where the three pauls had come from. As long as I stayed at Rome the +nine piastres a month came in regularly, but after my departure he +returned to Rome, went to another convent, and died there suddenly +thirteen or fourteen years ago. + +Medini had also arrived in Rome, but we had not seen each other. He +lived in the street of the Ursulines at the house of one of the Pope's +light-cavalry men, and subsisted on the money he cheated strangers of. + +The rascal had done well and had sent to Mantua for his mistress, who +came with her mother and a very pretty girl of twelve or thirteen. +Thinking it would be to his advantage to take handsome furnished +apartments he moved to the Place d'Espagne, and occupied a house four or +five doors from me, but I knew nothing of all this at the time. + +Happening to dine one day with the Venetian ambassador, his excellency +told me that I should meet a certain Count. Manucci who had just arrived +from Paris, and had evinced much delight on learning that I was at Rome. + +"I suppose you know him well," said the ambassador, "and as I am going to +present him to the Holy Father to-morrow, I should be much obliged if you +could tell me who he really is." + +"I knew him at Madrid, where he lived with Mocenigo our ambassador; he is +well mannered, polite, and a fine looking young man, and that's all I +know about him." + +"Was he received at the Spanish Court?" + +"I think so, but I cannot be positive." + +"Well, I think he was not received; but I see that you won't tell me all +you know about him. It's of no consequence; I shall run no risk in +presenting him to the Pope. He says he is descended from Manucci, the +famous traveller of the thirteenth century, and from the celebrated +printers of the same name who did so much for literature. He shewed me +the Aldine anchor on his coat of arms which has sixteen quarters." + +I was astonished beyond measure that this man who had plotted my +assassination should speak of me as an intimate friend, and I determined +to conceal my feelings and await events. I did not shew the least sign +of anger, and when after greeting the ambassador he came up to me with +open arms, I received him cordially and asked after Mocenigo. + +Manucci talked a great deal at dinner, telling a score of lies, all in my +honour, about my reception at Madrid. I believe his object was to force +me to lie too, and to make me do the same for him another time. + +I swallowed all these bitter pills, for I had no choice in the matter, +but I made up my mind I would have a thorough explanation the next day. + +A Frenchman, the Chevalier de Neuville by name, who had come with +Manucci, interested me a great deal. He had come to Rome to endeavour to +obtain the annulment of marriage of a lady who was in a convent at +Mantua. He had a special recommendation to Cardinal Galli. + +His conversation was particularly agreeable, and when we left the +ambassador's I accepted the offer to come into his carriage with Manucci, +and we drove about till the evening. + +As we were returning at nightfall he told us that he was going to present +us to a pretty girl with whom we would sup and where we should have a +game of faro. + +The carriage stopped at the Place d'Espagne, at a short distance from my +lodging, and we went up to a room on the second floor. When I went in I +was surprised to see Count Medini and his mistress, the lady whom the +chevalier had praised, and whom I found not at all to my taste. Medini +received me cordially, and thanked the Frenchman for having made me +forget the past, and having brought me to see him. + +M. de Neuville looked astonished, and to avoid any unpleasant +explanations I turned the conversation. + +When Medini thought a sufficient number of punters were present he sat +down at a large table, placed five or six hundred crowns in gold and +notes before him, and began to deal. Manucci lost all the gold he had +about him, Neuville swept away half the bank, and I was content with the +humble part of spectator. + +After supper, Medini asked the chevalier to give him his revenge, and +Manucci asked me to lend him a hundred sequins. I did so, and in an hour +he had not one left. Neuville, on the other hand, brought down Medini's +bank to twenty or thirty sequins, and after that we retired to our +several homes. + +Manucci lodged with my sister-in-law, Roland's daughter, and I had made +up my mind to give him an early call; but he did not leave me the +opportunity, as he called on me early in the morning. + +After returning me the hundred sequins he embraced me affectionately, +and, shewing me a large letter of credit on Bettoni, said that I must +consider his purse as mine. In short, though he said nothing about the +past, he gave me to understand that he wished to initiate a mutual policy +of forget and forgive. + +On this occasion my heart proved too strong for my brain; such has often +been the case with me. I agreed to the articles of peace he offered and +required. + +Besides, I was no longer at that headstrong age which only knows one kind +of satisfaction, that of the sword. I remembered that if Manucci had +been wrong so had I, and I felt that my honour ran no danger of being +compromised. + +The day after, I went to dinner with him. The Chevalier de Neuville came +in towards the close of the meal, and Medini a few moments later. The +latter called on us to hold a bank, each in his turn, and we agreed. +Manucci gained double what he had lost; Neuvilie lost four hundred +sequins, and I only lost a trifle. Medini who had only lost about fifty +sequins was desperate, and would have thrown himself out of the window. + +A few days later Manucci set out for Naples, after giving a hundred louis +to Medini's mistress, who used to sup with him; but this windfall did not +save Medini from being imprisoned for debt, his liabilities amounting to +more than a thousand crowns. + +The poor wretch wrote me doleful epistles, entreating me to come to his +assistance; but the sole effect of his letters was to make me look after +what he called his family, repaying myself with the enjoyment of his +mistress's young sister. I did not feel called upon to behave generously +to him for nothing. + +About this time the Emperor of Germany came to Rome with his brother, the +Grand Duke of Tuscany. + +One of the noblemen in their suite made the girl's acquaintance, and gave +Medini enough to satisfy his creditors. He left Rome soon after +recovering his liberty, and we shall meet him again in a few months. + +I lived very happily amongst the friends I had made for myself. In the +evenings I visited the Duchess of Fiano, in the afternoons the Princess +of Santa Croce. The rest of my time I spent at home, where I had +Margarita, the fair Buonacorsi, and young Menicuccio, who told me so much +about his lady-love that I felt quite curious to see her. + +The girl was in a kind of convent where she had been placed out of +charity. She could only leave it to get married, with the consent of the +cardinal who superintended the establishment. When a girl went out and +got married, she received a dower of two hundred Roman crowns. + +Menicuccio had a sister in the same convent, and was allowed to visit her +on Sundays; she came to the grating, followed by her governess. Though +Menicuccio was her brother, she was not permitted to see him alone. + +Five or six months before the date of which I am writing his sister had +been accompanied to the grating by another girl, whom he had never seen +before, and he immediately fell in love with her. + +The poor young man had to work hard all the week, and could only visit +the convent on holidays; and even then he had rarely the good luck to see +his lady-love. In five or six months he had only seen her seven or eight +times. + +His sister knew of his love, and would have done all in her power for +him, but the choice of a companion did not rest with her, and she was +afraid of asking for this particular girl for fear of exciting suspicion. + +As I have said, I had made up my mind to pay the place a visit, and on +our way Menicuccio told me that the women of the convent were not nuns, +properly speaking, as they had never taken any vow and did not wear a +monastic dress. In spite of that they had few temptations to leave their +prison house, as they would only find themselves alone in the world with +the prospect of starvation or hard work before them. The young girls +only came out to get married, which was uncommon, or by flight, which was +extremely difficult. + +We reached a vast ill-built house, near one of the town gates--a lonely +and deserted situation, as the gate led to no highway. When we went into +the parlour I was astonished to see the double grating with bars so thick +and close together that the hand of a girl of ten could scarce have got +through. The grating was so close that it was extremely difficult to +make out the features of the persons standing on the inner side, +especially as this was only lighted by the uncertain reflection from the +outer room. The sight of these arrangements made me shudder. + +"How and where have you seen your mistress?" I asked Menicuccio; "for +there I see nothing but darkness." + +"The first time the governess chanced to have a candle, but this +privilege is confined, under pain of excommunication, to relations." + +"Then she will have a light to-day?" + +"I expect not, as the portress will have sent up word that there was a +stranger with me." + +"But how could you see your sweetheart, as you are not related to her?" + +"By chance; the first time she came my sister's governess--a good soul-- +said nothing about it. Ever since there has been no candle when she has +been present." Soon after, the forms of three or four women were dimly +to be seen; but there was no candle, and the governess would not bring +one on any consideration. She was afraid of being found out and +excommunicated. + +I saw that I was depriving my young friend of a pleasure, and would have +gone, but he told me to stay. I passed an hour which interested me in +spite of its painfulness. The voice of Menicuccio's sister sent a thrill +through me, and I fancied that the blind must fall in love through their +sense of hearing. The governess was a woman under thirty. She told me +that when the girls attained their twenty-fifth year they were placed in +charge of the younger ones, and at thirty-five they were free to leave +the convent if they liked, but that few cared to take this step, for fear +of falling into misery. + +"Then there are a good many old women here?" + +"There are a hundred of us, and the number is only decreased by death and +by occasional marriages." + +"But how do those who go out to get married succeed in inspiring the love +of their husbands?" + +"I have been here for twenty years, and in that time only four have gone +out, and they did not know their husbands till they met at the altar. As +might be expected, the men who solicit the cardinal for our hands are +either madmen, or fellows of desperate fortunes who want the two hundred +piastres. However, the cardinal-superintendent refuses permission unless +the postulant can satisfy him that he is capable of supporting a wife." + +"How does he choose his bride?" + +"He tells the cardinal what age and disposition he would prefer, and the +cardinal informs the mother-superior." + +"I suppose you keep a good table, and are comfortably lodged." + +"Not at all. Three thousand crowns a year are not much to keep a hundred +persons. Those who do a little work and earn something are the best +off." + +"What manner of people put their daughters in such a prison?" + +"Either poor people or bigots who are afraid of their children falling +into evil ways. We only receive pretty girls here." + +"Who is the judge of their prettiness?" + +"The parents, the priest, and on the last appeal the cardinal- +superintendent, who rejects plain girls without pity, observing that ugly +women have no reason to fear the seductions of vice. So you may imagine +that, wretched as we are, we curse those who pronounced us pretty." + +"I pity you, and I wonder why leave is not given to see you openly; you +might have some chance of getting married then." + +"The cardinal says that it is not in his power to give permission, as +anyone transgressing the foundation is excommunicated." + +"Then I should imagine that the founder of this house is now consumed by +the flames of hell" + +"We all think so, and hope he may stay there. The Pope ought to take +some order with the house." + +I gave her ten crowns, saying that as I could not see her I could not +promise a second visit, and then I went away with Menicuccio, who was +angry with himself for having procured me such a tedious hour. + +"I suppose I shall never see your mistress or your sister," said I; "your +sister's voice went to my heart." + +"I should think your ten paistres ought to work miracles." + +"I suppose there is another parlour." + +"Yes; but only priests are allowed to enter it under pain of +excommunication, unless you get leave from the Holy Father." + +I could not imagine how such a monstrous establishment could be +tolerated, for it was almost impossible, under the circumstances, for the +poor girls to get a husband. I calculated that as two hundred piastres +were assigned to each as a dowry in case of marriage, the founder must +have calculated on two marriages a year at least, and it seemed probable +that these sums were made away with by some scoundrel. + +I laid my ideas before Cardinal Bernis in the presence of the princess, +who seemed moved with compassion for these poor women, and said I must +write out a petition and get it signed by all of them, entreating the +Holy Father to allow them the privileges customary in all other convents. + +The cardinal told me to draft the supplication, to obtain the signatures, +and to place it in the hands of the princess. In the meantime he would +get the ear of the Holy Father, and ascertain by whose hands it was most +proper for the petition to be presented. + +I felt pretty sure of the signatures of the greater number of the +recluses, and after writing out the petition I left it in the hands of +the governess to whom I had spoken before. She was delighted with the +idea, and promised to give me back the paper when I came again, with the +signatures of all her companions in misfortune. + +As soon as the Princess Santa Croce had the document she addressed +herself to the Cardinal-Superintendent Orsini, who promised to bring the +matter before the Pope. Cardinal Bernis had already spoken to His +Holiness. + +The chaplain of the institute was ordered to warn the superior that for +the future visitors were to be allowed to see girls in the large parlour, +provided they were accompanied by a governess. + +Menicuccio brought me this news, which the princess had not heard, and +which she was delighted to hear from my lips. + +The worthy Pope did not stop there. He ordered a rigid scrutiny of the +accounts to be made, and reduced the number from a hundred to fifty, +doubling the dower. He also ordered that all girls who reached the age +of twenty-five without getting married should be sent away with their +four hundred crowns apiece; that twelve discreet matrons should have +charge of the younger girls, and that twelve servants should be paid to +do the hard work of the house. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +I Sup at the Inn With Armelline and Emilie + + +These innovations were the work of some six months. The first reform was +the abolition of the prohibition on entering the large parlour and even +the interior of the convent; for as the inmates had taken no vows and +were not cloistered nuns, the superior should have been at liberty to act +according to her discretion. Menicuccio had learnt this from a note his +sister wrote him, and which he brought to me in high glee, asking me to +come with him to the convent, according to his sister's request, who said +my presence would be acceptable to her governess. I was to ask for the +governess. + +I was only too glad to lend myself to this pleasant arrangement, and felt +curious to see the faces of the three recluses, as well as to hear what +they had to say on these great changes. + +When we got into the large parlour I saw two grates, one occupied by the +Abbe Guasco, whom I had known in Paris in 1751, the other by a Russian +nobleman, Ivan Ivanovitch Schuvaloff, and by Father Jacquier, a friar +minim of the Trinita dei Monti, and a learned astronomer. Behind the +grate I saw three very pretty girls. + +When our friends came down we began a very interesting conversation, +which had to be conducted in a low tone for fear of our being overheard. +We could not talk at our ease till the other visitors had taken their +leave. My young friend's mistress was a very pretty girl, but his +sister was a ravishing beauty. She had just entered on her sixteenth +year, but she was tall and her figure well developed; in short, she +enchanted me. I thought I had never seen a whiter skin or blacker hair +and eyebrows and eyes, but still more charming was the sweetness of her +voice and expression, and the naive simplicity of her expressions. Her +governess who was ten or twelve years older than she was, was a woman of +an extremely interesting expression; she was pale and melancholy looking, +no doubt from the fires which she had been forced to quench within her. +She delighted me by telling me of the confusion which the new regulations +had caused in the house. + +"The mother-superior is well pleased," she said, "and all my young +companions are overjoyed; but the older ones whom circumstance has made +into bigots are scandalized at everything. The superior has already +given orders for windows to be made in the dark parlours, though the old +women say that she cannot go beyond the concessions she has already +received. To this the superior answered that as free communication had +been allowed, it would be absurd to retain the darkness. She has also +given orders for the alteration of the double grating, as there was only +a single one in the large parlour." + +I thought the superior must be a woman of intelligence, and expressed a +desire to see her. Emilie obtained this pleasure for me the following +day. + +Emilie was the friend of Armelline, Menicuccio's sister. This first +visit lasted two hours, and seemed all too short. Menicuccio spoke to +his well-beloved at the other grating. + +I went away, after having given them ten Roman crowns as before. I +kissed Armelline's fair hands, and as she felt the contact of my lips her +face was suffused by a vivid blush. Never had the lips of man touched +more dainty hands before, and she looked quite astounded at the ardour +with which I kissed them. + +I went home full of love for her, and without heeding the obstacles in my +path I gave reins to my passion, which seemed to me the most ardent I had +ever experienced. + +My young friend was in an ocean of bliss. He had declared his love, and +the girl had said that she would gladly become his wife if he could get +the cardinal's consent. As this consent only depended on his ability to +keep himself, I promised to give him a hundred crowns and my patronage. +He had served his time as a tailor's apprentice, and was in a position to +open a shop of his own. + +"I envy your lot," said I, "for your happiness is assured, while I, +though I love your sister, despair of possessing her." + +"Are you married then?" he asked. + +"Alas, yes! Keep my counsel, for I propose visiting her every day, and +if it were known that I was married, my visits would be received with +suspicion." + +I was obliged to tell this lie to avoid the temptation of marrying her, +and to prevent Armelline thinking that I was courting her with that +intention. + +I found the superioress a polite and clever woman, wholly free from +prejudices. After coming down to the grate to oblige me, she sometimes +came for her own pleasure. She knew that I was the author of the happy +reform in the institution, and she told me that she considered herself +under great obligations to me. In less than six weeks three of her girls +made excellent marriages, and six hundred crowns had been added to the +yearly income of the house. + +She told me that she was ill pleased with one of their confessors. He +was a Dominican, and made it a rule that his penitents should approach +the holy table every Sunday and feast day; he kept them for hours in the +confessional, and imposed penances and fastings which were likely to +injure the health of young girls. + +"All this," said she, "cannot improve them from a mortal point of view, +and takes up a lot of their time, so that they have none left for their +work, by the sale of which they procure some small comforts for +themselves. + +"How many confessors have you?" + +"Four." + +"Are you satisfied with the other three?" + +"Yes, they are sensible men, and do not ask too much of poor human +nature." + +"I will carry your just complaint to the cardinal; will you write out +your petition?" + +"Kindly give me a model." + +I gave her a rough draft, which she copied out and signed, and I laid it +before his eminence. A few days after the Dominican was removed, and his +penitents divided amongst the three remaining confessors. The younger +members of the community owed me a great debt of gratitude on account of +this change. + +Menicuccio went to see his sweetheart every holiday, while I, in my +amorous ardour, visited his sister every morning at nine o'clock. I +breakfasted with her and Emilie, and remained in the parlour till eleven. +As there was only one grating I could lock the door behind me, but we +could be seen from the interior of the convent, as the door was left open +to admit light, there being no window. This was a great annoyance for +me; recluses, young or old, were continually passing by, and none of them +failed to give a glance in the direction of the grate; thus my fair +Armelline could not stretch out her hand to receive my amorous kisses. + +Towards the end of December the cold became intense, and I begged the +superior to allow me to place a screen in front of the door, as I feared +I should catch cold otherwise. The worthy woman granted my request +without any difficulty, and we were at our ease for the future, though +the desires with which Armelline inspired me had become dreadful torment. + +On the 1st day of January, 1771, I presented each of them with a good +winter dress, and sent the superior a quantity of chocolate, sugar, and +coffee, all of which were extremely welcome. + +Emilie often came by herself to the grating, as Armelline was not ready, +and in the same way Armelline would come by herself when her governess +happened to be busy. It was in these quarters of an hour that she +succeeded in captivating me, heart and soul. + +Emilie and Armelline were great friends, but their prejudices on the +subject of sensual enjoyment were so strong that I could never get them +to listen to licentious talk, to allow certain small liberties which I +would gladly have taken, or to afford me those pleasures of the eyes that +we accept in default of better things. + +One day they were petrified by my asking them whether they did not +sometimes sleep in the same bed, so as to give each other proofs of the +tenderness of their mutual affection. + +How they blushed Emilie asked me with the most perfect innocence what +there was in common between affection and the inconvenience of sleeping +two in a narrow bed. + +I took care not to explain myself, for I saw that I had frightened them. +No doubt they were of the same flesh and blood as I, but our educators +had differed widely. They had evidently never confided their little +secrets to one another, possibly not even to their confessor, either +through shame, or with the idea that the liberties they indulged in alone +were no sin. + +I made them a present of some silk stockings, lined with plush to keep +out the cold, and vainly endeavoured to make them try the stockings on +before me. I might say as often as I pleased that there was no real +difference between a man's legs and a woman's, and that their confessor +would laugh at them if they confessed to shewing their legs. They only +answered that girls were not allowed to take such a liberty, as they wore +petticoats on purpose to conceal their legs. + +The manner in which Emilie spoke, always with Armelline's approbation, +convinced me that their modesty was genuine. I penetrated her idea; she +thought that in acceding to my request she would be lowering herself in +my eyes, and that I should despise her ever after. Nevertheless Emilie +was a woman of twenty-seven, and by no means a devotee. + +As for Armelline, I could see that she took Emilie for her model, and +would have been ashamed of appearing less precise than her friend. I +thought she loved me, and that, contrary to the general rule, she would +be more easily won by herself than in company with her friend. + +I made the trial one morning when she appeared at the grating by herself, +telling me that her governess was busy. I said that I adored her and was +the most hapless of men, for being a married man I had no hope of ever +being able to clasp her to my arms and cover her with kisses. + +"Can I continue to live, dear Armelline, with no other consolation than +that of kissing your fair hands?" + +At these words, pronounced with so much passion, she fixed her gaze on +me, and after a few moments' reflection she began to kiss my hands as +ardently as I had kissed hers. + +I begged her to put her mouth so that I might kiss it. She blushed arid +looked down, and did nothing. I bewailed my fate bitterly, but in vain. +She was deaf and dumb till Emilie came and asked us why we were so dull. + +About this time, the beginning of 1771, I was visited by Mariuccia, whom +I had married ten years before to a young hairdresser. My readers may +remember how I met her at Abbe Momolo's. During the three months I had +been in Rome I had enquired in vain as to what had become of her; so that +I was delighted when she made her appearance. + +"I saw you at St. Peter's," said she, "at the midnight mass on Christmas +Eve, but not daring to approach you because of the people with whom I +was, I told a friend of mine to follow you and find out where you lived." + +"How is it that I have tried to find you out in vain for the last three +months?" + +"My husband set up at Frascati eight years ago, and we have lived there +very happily ever since." + +"I am very glad to hear it. Have you any children?" + +"Four; and the eldest, who is nine years old, is very like you." + +"Do you love her?" + +"I adore her, but I love the other three as well." + +As I wanted to go to breakfast with Armelline I begged Margarita to keep +Mariuccia company till my return. + +Mariuccia dined with me, and we spent a pleasant day together without +attempting to renew our more tender relationship. We had plenty to talk +about, and she told me that Costa, my old servant, had come back to Rome +in a splendid coach, three years after I had left, and that he had +married one of Momolo's daughters. + +"He's a rascal; he robbed me." + +"I guessed as much; his theft did him no good. He left his wife two +years after their marriage, and no one knows what has become of him." + +"How about his wife?" + +"She is living miserably in Rome. Her father is dead." + +I did not care to go and see the poor woman, for I could not do anything +for her, and I could not have helped saying that if I caught her husband +I would do my best to have him hanged. Such was indeed my intention up +to the year 1785, when I found this runagate at Vienna. He was then +Count Erdich's man, and when we come to that period the reader shall hear +what I did. + +I promised Mariuccia to come and see her in the course of Lent. + +The Princess Santa Croce and the worthy Cardinal Bernis pitied me for my +hapless love; I often confided my sufferings to their sympathizing ears. + +The cardinal told the princess that she could very well obtain permission +from Cardinal Orsini to take Armelline to the theatre, and that if I +cared to join the party I might find her less cruel. + +"The cardinal will make no objection," said he, "as Armelline has taken +no vows; but as you must know our friend's mistress before making your +request, you have only to tell the cardinal that you would like to see +the interior of the house." + +"Do you think he will give me leave?" + +"Certainly; the inmates are not cloistered nuns. We will go with you." + +"You will come too? that will be a delightful party indeed." + +"Ask for leave, and we will arrange the day." + +This plan seemed to me a delicious dream. I guessed that the gallant +cardinal was curious to see Armelline, but I was not afraid as I knew he +was a constant lover. Besides I felt sure that if he took an interest in +the fair recluse he would be certain to find her a husband. + +In three or four days the princess summoned me to her box in the Alberti +Theatre, and shewed me Cardinal Orsini's note, allowing her and her +friends to see the interior of the house. + +"To-morrow afternoon," said she, "we will fix the day and the hour for +the visit." + +Next day I paid my usual visit to the recluses, and the superioress came +to tell me that the cardinal had told her that the Princess Santa Croce +was coming to visit the house with some friends. + +"I know it," said I; "I am coming with her." + +"When is she coming?" + +"I don't know yet, but I will inform you later on." + +"This novelty has turned the house upside down. The devotees scarcely +know whether they are awake or dreaming, for with the exception of a few +priests, the doctor, and the surgeon, no one has ever entered the house +since its foundation." + +"All these restrictions are now removed, and you need not ask the +cardinal's permission to receive visits from your friends." + +"I know that, but I don't like to go so far." + +The time for the visit was fixed for the afternoon of the next day, and I +let the superioress know early the next morning. The Duchess of Fiano +had asked to join us; the cardinal came, of course, dressed as a simple +priest, with no indication of his exalted rank. He knew Armelline +directly from my description, and congratulated her on having made my +acquaintance. + +The poor girl blushed to the roots of her hair; and I thought she would +have fainted when the princess, after telling her she was the prettiest +girl in the house, gave her two affectionate kisses, a mark of friendship +strictly forbidden by the rules. + +After these caresses, the princess proceeded to compliment the +superioress. She said that I had done well to praise her parts, as she +could judge of them by the order and neatness which reigned everywhere. + +"I shall mention your name to Cardinal Orsini," she added, "and you may +be sure I shall do you all the justice you deserve." + +When we had seen all the rooms, which contained nothing worth seeing, I +presented Emilie to the princess, who received her with great cordiality. + +"I have heard of your sadness," she said, "but I know the reason of it. +You are a good girl, and pretty too, and I shall get you a husband who +will cure you of your melancholy." + +The superioress gave a smile of approbation, but I saw a dozen aged +devotees pulling wry faces. + +Emilie dared not reply, but she took the princess's hand and kissed it, +as if to summon her to keep her promise. + +As for me, I was delighted to see that though all the girls were really +pretty, my Armelline eclipsed them all, as the light of the sun obscures +the stars. + +When we came down to the parlour, the princess told Armelline that she +meant to ask leave of the cardinal to take her two or three times to the +theatre before Lent began. This observation seemed to petrify everyone +except the superioress, who said that his eminence had now a perfect +right to relax any or all of the rules of the establishment. + +Poor Armelline was so overwhelmed between joy and confusion that she +could not speak. She seemed unable to find words wherein to thank the +princess, who commended her and her friend Emilie to the superioress +before she left the house, and gave her a small present to buy +necessaries for them. + +Not to be outdone, the Duchess of Fiano told the superioress that she +would make me the almoner of her bounty towards Armelline and Emilie. +My expressions of gratitude to the princess when we were back in the +carriage may be imagined. + +I had no need to excuse Armelline, for the princess and the cardinal had +gauged her capacities. Her confusion had prevented her shewing her +cleverness, but her face shewed her to possess it. Besides, the +influence of the education she had received had to be taken into account. +The princess was impatient to take her to the theatre, and afterwards to +supper at an inn, according to the Roman custom. + +She wrote the names of Armelline and Emilie upon her tablets, so as to +remember them on every occasion. + +I did not forget the mistress of my poor friend Menicuccio, but the time +was not opportune for mentioning her name. The next day, however, I got +the cardinal's ear, and told him that I was anxious to do something for +the young man. The cardinal saw him, and Menicuccio pleased him so well +that the marriage took place before the end of the carnival, the bride +having a dowry of five hundred crowns. With this sum and the hundred +crowns I gave him, he was in a position to open a shop for himself. + +The day after the princess's visit was a triumphant one for me. As soon +as I appeared at the grating the superioress was sent for, and we had an +interview. + +The princess had given her fifty crowns, which she was going to lay out +on linen for Armelline and Emilie. + +The recluses were stupefied when I told them that the fat priest was +Cardinal Bernis, as they had an idea that a cardinal can never doff the +purple. + +The Duchess of Fiano had sent a cask of wine, which was an unknown +beverage there, and these presents made them hope for others. I was +looked upon as the bringer of all this good luck, and gratitude shewed +itself so plainly in every word and glance that I felt I might hope for +everything. + +A few days later, the princess told Cardinal Orsini that she had taken a +peculiar interest in two of the young recluses, and desiring to provide +them with suitable establishments she wished to take them now and again +to the theatre so as to give them some knowledge of the world. She +undertook to take them and bring them back herself or only to confide +them to sure hands. The cardinal replied that the superioress should +receive instructions to oblige her in every paraticular. + +As soon as I heard of this from the princess, I said that I would +ascertain what orders had been actually received at the convent. + +The next day the superioress told me that his eminence had instructed her +to do what she thought best for the welfare of the young people committed +to her charge. + +"I have also received orders," she added, "to send in the names of those +who have attained the age of thirty, and wish to leave the convent, that +they may receive a warrant for their two hundred crowns. I have not yet +published this command, but I haven't the slightest doubt that we shall +get rid of a score at least." + +I told the princess of the cardinal's orders, and she agreed with me that +his behaviour was most generous. + +Cardinal Bernis, who was by, advised her that the first time she took the +girls to the theatre she had better go in person, and tell the +superioress that she would always send her carriage and liveried servants +to fetch them. + +The princess approved of this advice, and a few days later she called for +Emilie and Armelline, and brought them to her palace, where I awaited +them with the cardinal, the prince, and the Duchess of Fiano. + +They were welcomed warmly, encouraged to reply, to laugh, and to say what +was in their minds, but all in vain; finding themselves for the first +time in a splendid apartment surrounded by brilliant company, they were +so confounded that they could not say a word. Emilie persisted in rising +from her seat whenever she was addressed, and Armelline shone only by her +beauty and the vivid blush which suffused her face whenever she was +addressed. The princess might kiss her as much as she pleased, but the +novice had not the courage to return her kisses. + +At last Armelline mustered up courage to take the princess's hand and +kiss it, but when the lady kissed her on the lips the girl remained +inactive, seeming to be absolutely ignorant of such a natural and easy +matter as the returning of a kiss. + +The cardinal and the prince laughed; the duchess said that so much +restraint was unnatural. As for me I was on thorns, such awkwardness +seemed to me near akin to stupidity, for Armelline had only to do to the +princess's lips what she had already done to her hand. No doubt she +fancied that to do to the princess what the princess had done to her +would shew too much familiarity. + +The cardinal took me on one side and said he could not believe that I had +not initiated her in the course of two months' intimacy, but I pointed +out to him the immense force of long engrained prejudice. + +Far this first tine the princess had made up her mind to take them to the +Torre di Nonna Theatre, as comic pieces were played there, and they could +not help but laugh. + +After the play we went to sup at an inn, and at table the good cheer and +my exhortations began to take some effect on her. We persuaded them to +drink a little wine, and their spirits improved visibly. Emilie ceased +to be sad, and Armelline gave the princess some real kisses. We +applauded their efforts to be gay and our applause convinced them that +they had done nothing wrong. + +Of course the princess charged me with the pleasant trust of taking the +two guests back to the convent. Now, I thought, my time has come; but +when we were in the carriage I saw that I had reckoned without my host. +When I would have kissed, heads were turned aside; when I would have +stretched forth an indiscreet hand, dresses were wrapped more tightly; +when I would have forced my way, I was resisted by force; when I +complained, I was told that I was in the wrong; when I got in a rage, I +was allowed to say on; and when I threatened to see them no more, they +did not believe me. + +When we got to the convent a servant opened the side door, and noticing +that she did not shut it after the girls, I went in too, and went with +them to see the superioress, who was in bed, and did not seem at all +astonished to see me. I told her that I considered it my duty to bring +back her young charges in person. She thanked me, asked them if they had +had a pleasant evening, and bade me good night, begging me to make as +little noise as possible on my way downstairs. + +I wished them all happy slumbers, and after giving a sequin to the +servant who opened the door, and another to the coachman, I had myself +set down at the door of my lodging. Margarita was asleep on a sofa and +welcomed me with abuse, but she soon found out by the ardour of my +caresses that I had not been guilty of infidelity. + +I did not get up till noon, and at three o'clock I called on the princess +and found the cardinal already there. + +They expected to hear the story of my triumph, but the tale I told and my +apparent indifference in the matter came as a surprise. + +I may as well confess that my face was by no means the index of my mind. +However, I did my best to give the thing a comic turn, saying that I did +not care for Pamelas, and that I had made up my mind to give up the +adventure. + +"My dear fellow," said the cardinal, "I shall take two or three days +before I congratulate you on your self-restraint." + +His knowledge of the human heart was very extensive. + +Armelline thought I must have slept till late as she did not see me in +the morning as usual; but when the second day went by without my coming +she sent her brother to ask if I were ill, for I had never let two days +pass without paying her a visit. + +Menicuccio came accordingly, and was delighted to find me in perfect +health. + +"Go and tell your sister," I said, "that I shall continue to interest the +princess on her behalf, but that I shall see her no more." + +"Why not?" + +"Because I wish to cure myself of an unhappy passion. Your sister does +not love me: I am sure of it. I am no longer a young man, and I don't +feel inclined to become a martyr to her virtue. Virtue goes rather too +far when it prevents a girl giving the man who adores her a single kiss." + +"Indeed, I would not have believed that of her." + +"Nevertheless it is the fact, and I must make an end of it. Your sister +cannot understand the danger she runs in treating a lover in this +fashion. Tell her all that, my dear Menicuccio, but don't give her any +advice of your own." + +"You can't think how grieved I am to hear all this; perhaps it's Emilie's +presence that makes her so cold." + +"No; I have often pressed her when we have been alone together, but all +in vain. I want to cure myself, for if she does not love me I do not +wish to obtain her either by seduction or by any feeling of gratitude on +her part. Tell me how your future bride treats you." + +"Very well, ever since she has been sure of my marrying her." + +I felt sorry then that I had given myself out as a married man, for in my +state of irritation I could even have given her a promise of marriage +without deliberately intending to deceive her. + +Menicuccio went on his way distressed, and I went to the meeting of the +"Arcadians," at the Capitol, to hear the Marchioness d'Aout recite her +reception piece. This marchioness was a young Frenchwoman who had been +at Rome for the last six months with her husband, a man of many talents, +but inferior to her, for she was a genius. From this day I became her +intimate friend, but without the slightest idea of an intrigue, leaving +all that to a French priest who was hopelessly in love with her, and had +thrown up his chances of preferment for her sake. + +Every day the Princess Santa Croce told me that I could have the key to +her box at the theatre whenever I liked to take Armelline and Emilie, but +when a week passed by without my giving any sign she began to believe +that I had really broken off the connection. + +The cardinal, on the other hand, believed me to be still in love, and +praised my conduct. He told me that I should have a letter from the +superioress, and he was right; for at the end of the week she wrote me a +polite note begging me to call on her, which I was obliged to obey. + +I called on her, and she began by asking me plainly why my visits had +ceased. + +"Because I am in love with Armelline." + +"If that reason brought you here every day, I do not see how it can have +suddenly operated in another direction." + +"And yet it is all quite natural; for when one loves one desires, and +when one desires in vain one suffers, and continual suffering is great +unhappiness. And so you see that I am bound to act thus for my own +sake." + +"I pity you, and see the wisdom of your course; but allow me to tell you +that, esteeming Armelline, you have no right to lay her open to a +judgment being passed upon her which is very far from the truth." + +"And what judgment is that?" + +"That your love was only a whim, and that as soon as it was satisfied you +abandoned her." + +"I am sorry indeed to hear of this, but what can I do? I must cure +myself of this unhappy passion. Do you know any other remedy than +absence? Kindly advise me." + +"I don't know much about the affection called love, but it seems to me +that by slow degrees love becomes friendship, and peace is restored." + +"True, but if it is to become friendship, love must be gently treated. +If the beloved object is not very tender, love grows desperate and turns +to indifference or contempt. I neither wish to grow desperate nor to +despise Armelline, who is a miracle of beauty and goodness. I shall do +my utmost for her, just as if she had made me happy, but I will see her +no more." + +"I am in complete darkness on the matter. They assure me that they have +never failed in their duty towards you, and that they cannot imagine why +you have ceased coming here." + +"Whether by prudence, or timidity, or a delicate wish not to say anything +against me, they have told you a lie; but you deserve to know all, and my +honour requires that I should tell you the whole story." + +"Please do so; you may count on my discretion." + +I then told my tale, and I saw she was moved. + +"I have always tried," she said, "never to believe evil except on +compulsion, nevertheless, knowing as I do the weakness of the human +heart, I could never have believed that throughout so long and intimate +an acquaintance you could have kept yourself so severely within bounds. +In my opinion there would be much less harm in a kiss than in all this +scandal." + +"I am sure that Armelline does not care about it." + +"She does nothing but weep." + +"Her tears probably spring from vanity, or from the cause her companions +assign for my absence." + +"No, I have told them all that you are ill." + +"What does Emilie say?" + +"She does not weep, but she looks sad, and says over and over again that +it is not her fault if you do not come, thereby hinting that it is +Armelline's fault. Come tomorrow to oblige me. They are dying to see +the opera at the Aliberti, and the comic opera at the Capronica." + +"Very good, then I will breakfast with them to-morrow morning, and to- +morrow evening they shall see the opera." + +"You are very good; I thank you. Shall I tell them the news?" + +"Please tell Armelline that I am only coming after hearing all that you +have said to me." + +The princess skipped for joy when she heard of my interview with the +superioress, and the cardinal said he had guessed as much. The princess +gave me the key of her box, and ordered that her carriage and servants +should be at my orders. + +The next day when I went to the convent Emilie came down by herself to +reproach me on my cruel conduct. She told me that a man who really loved +would not have acted in such a manner, and that I had been wrong to tell +the superioress everything. + +"I would not have said anything if I had had anything important to say." + +"Armelline has become unhappy through knowing you." + +"Because she does not want to fail in her duty, and she sees that you +only love her to turn her from it." + +"But her unhappiness will cease when I cease troubling her." + +"Do you mean you are not going to see her any more?" + +"Exactly. Do you think that it costs me no pain? But I must make the +effort for the sake of my peace of mind." + +"Then she will be sure that you do not love her." + +"She must think what she pleases. In the meanwhile I feel sure that if +she loved me as I loved her, we should be of one mind." + +"We have duties which seem to press lightly on you." + +"Then be faithful to your duties, and permit a man of honour to respect +them by visiting you no more." + +Armelline then appeared. I thought her changed. + +"Why do you look so grave and pale?" + +"Because you have grieved me." + +"Come then, be gay once more, and allow me to cure myself of a passion, +the essence of which is to induce you to fail in your duty. I shall be +still your friend, and I shall come to see you once a week while I remain +in Rome." + +"Once a week! You needn't have begun by coming once a day." + +"You are right; it was your kind expression which deceived me, but I hope +you will allow me to become rational again. For this to happen, I must +try not to see you more than I can help. Think over it, and you will see +that I am doing all for the best." + +"It's very hard that you can't love me as I love you." + +"You mean calmly, and without desires." + +"I don't say that; but holding your desires in check, if they are +contrary to the voice of duty." + +"I'm too old to learn this method, and it does not seem to me an +attractive one. Kindly tell me whether the restraint of your desires +gives you much pain?" + +"I don't repress my desires when I think of you, I cherish them; I wish +you were the Pope, I wish you were my father, that I might caress you in +all innocence; in my dreams I wish you could become a girl, so that we +might always live happily together." + +At this true touch of native simplicity, I could not help smiling. + +I told them that I should come in the evening to take them to the +Aliberti, and felt in a better humour after my visit, for I could see +that there was no art or coquetry in what Armelline said. I saw that she +loved me, but would not come to a parley with her love, hence her +repugnance to granting me her favours; if she once did so, her eyes would +be opened. All this was pure nature, for experience had not yet taught +her that she ought either to avoid me or to succumb to my affection. + +In the evening I called for the two friends to take them to the opera, +and I had not long to wait. I was by myself in the carriage, but they +evinced no surprise. Emilie conveyed to me the compliments of the +superioress, who would be obliged by my calling on her the following day. +At the opera I let them gaze at the spectacle which they saw for the +first time, and answered whatever questions they put to me. As they were +Romans, they ought to have known what a castrato was, nevertheless, +Armelline took the wretched individual who sang the prima donna's part +for a woman, and pointed to his breast, which was really a fine one. + +"Would you dare to sleep in the same bed with him?" I asked. + +"No; an honest girl ought always to sleep by herself." + +Such was the severity of the education they had received. Everything +connected with love was made a mystery of, and treated with a kind of +superstitious awe. Thus Armelline had only let me kiss her hands after a +long contest, and neither she nor Emilie would allow me to see whether +the stockings I had given them fitted well or not. The severe +prohibition that was laid on sleeping with another girl must have made +them think that to shew their nakedness to a companion would be a great +sin, and let a man see their beauties a hideous crime. The very idea of +such a thing must have given them a shudder. + +Whenever I had attempted to indulge in conversation which was a little +free, I had found them deaf and dumb. + +Although Emilie was a handsome girl in spite of her pallor, I did not +take sufficient interest in her to try to dissipate her melancholy; but +loving Armelline to desperation I was cut to the quick to see her look +grave when I asked her if she had any idea of the difference between the +physical conformation of men and women. + +As we were leaving Armelline said she was hungry, as she had scarcely +eaten anything for the last week on account of the grief I had given her. + +"If I had foreseen that," I answered, "I would have ordered a good +supper, whereas I have now only potluck to offer you." + +"Never mind. How many shall we be?" + +"We three." + +"So much the better; we shall be more at liberty." + +"Then you don't like the princess?" + +"I beg your pardon, but she wants me to kiss her in a way I don't like." + +"Nevertheless, you kissed her ardently enough." + +"I was afraid she would take me for a simpleton if I did not do so." + +"Then do you think you committed a sin in kissing her like that?" + +"Certainly not, for it was very unpleasant for me." + +"Then why won't you make the same effort on my behalf?" + +She said nothing, and when we got to the inn I ordered them to light a +fire and to get a good supper ready. + +The waiter asked me if I would like some oysters, and noticing the +curiosity of my guests on the subject I asked him how much they were." + +"They are from the arsenal at Venice," he replied, "and we can't sell +them under fifty pains a hundred." + +"Very good, I will take a hundred, but you must open them here." + +Armelline was horrified to think that I was going to pay five crowns for +her whim, and begged me to revoke the order; but she said nothing when I +told her that no pleasure of hers could be bought too dearly by me. + +At this she took my hand and would have carried it to her lips, but I +took it away rather roughly, greatly to her mortification. + +I was sitting in front of the fire between them, and I was sorry at +having grieved her. + +"I beg pardon, Armelline," I said, "I only took my hand away because it +was not worthy of being carried to your fair lips." + +In spite of this excuse she could not help two big tears coursing down +her blushing cheeks. I was greatly pained. + +Armelline was a tender dove, not made to be roughly treated. If I did +not want her to hate me I felt that I must either not see her at all or +treat her more gently for the future. + +Her tears convinced me that I had wounded her feelings terribly, and I +got up and went out to order some champagne. + +When I came back I found that she had been weeping bitterly. I did not +know what to do; I begged her again and again to forgive me, and to be +gay once more, unless she wished to subject me to the severest of all +punishments. + +Emilie backed me up, and on taking her hand and covering it with kisses, +I had the pleasure of seeing her smile once more. + +The oysters were opened in our presence, and the astonishment depicted on +the girls' countenances would have amused me if my heart had been more at +ease. But I was desperate with love, and Armelline begged me vainly to +be as I was when we first met. + +We sat down, and I taught my guests how to suck up the oysters, which +swam in their own liquid, and were very good. + +Armelline swallowed half a dozen, and then observed to her friend that so +delicate a morsel must be a sin. + +"Not on account of its delicacy," said Emilie, "but because at every +mouthful we swallow half a Paul." + +"Half a Paul!" said Armelline, "and the Holy Father does not forbid such +a luxury? If this is not the sin of gluttony, I don't know what is. +These oysters are delightful; but I shall speak about the matter to my +director." + +These simplicities of hers afforded me great mental pleasure, but I +wanted bodily pleasure as well. + +We ate fifty oysters, and drank two bottles of sparkling champagne, which +made my two guests eruct and blush and laugh at the same time. + +I would fain have laughed too and devoured Armelline with my kisses, but +I could only devour her with by eyes. + +I kept the remainder of the oysters for dessert, and ordered the supper +to be served. It was an excellent meal, and the two heroines enjoyed it; +even Emilie became quite lively. + +I ordered up lemons and a bottle of rum, and after having the fifty +remaining oysters opened I sent the waiter away. I then made a bowl of +punch, pouring in a bottle of champagne as a finishing touch. + +After they had swallowed a few oysters and drank one or two glasses of +punch, which they liked amazingly, I begged Emilie to give me an oyster +with her lips. + +"I am sure you are too sensible to find anything wrong in that," I added. + +Emilie was astonished at the proposition, and thought it over. Armelline +gazed at her anxiously, as if curious as to how she would answer me. + +"Why don't you ask Armelline?" she said at length. + +"Do you give him one first," said Armelline, "and if you have the courage +I will try to do the same." + +"What courage do you want? It's a child's game; there's no harm in it." + +After this reply, I was sure of victory. I placed the shell on the edge +of her lips, and after a good deal of laughing she sucked in the oyster, +which she held between her lips. I instantly recovered it by placing my +lips on hers. + +Armelline clapped her hands, telling Emilie that she would never have +thought her so brave; she then imitated her example, and was delighted +with my delicacy in sucking away the oyster, scarcely touching her lips +with mine. My agreeable surprise may be imagined when I heard her say +that it was my turn to hold the oysters. It is needless to say that I +acquitted myself of the duty with much delight. + +After these pleasant interludes we went to drinking punch and swallowing +oysters. + +We all sat in a row with our backs to the fire, and our brains began to +whirl, but never was there such a sweet intoxication. However, the punch +was not finished and we were getting very hot. I took off my coat, and +they were obliged to unlace their dresses, the bodices of which were +lined with fur. Guessing at necessities which they did not dare to +mention, I pointed out a closet where they could make themselves +comfortable, and they went in hand-in-hand. When they came out they were +no longer timid recluses, they were shrieking with laughter, and reeling +from side to side. + +I was their screen as we sat in front of the fire, and I gazed freely on +charms which they could no longer conceal. I told them that we must not +think of going till the punch was finished, and they agreed, saying, in +high glee, that it would be a great sin to leave so good a thing behind. + +I then presumed so far as to tell them that they had beautiful legs, and +that I should be puzzled to assign the prize between them. This made +them gayer than ever, for they had not noticed that their unlaced bodices +and short petticoats let me see almost everything. + +After drinking our punch to the dregs, we remained talking for half an +hour, while I congratulated myself on my self-restraint. Just as we were +going I asked them if they had any grounds of complaint against me. +Armelline replied that if I would adopt her as my daughter she was ready +to follow me to the end of the world. "Then you are not afraid of my +turning you from the path of duty?" + +"No, I feel quite safe with you." + +"And what do you say, dear Emilie?" + +"I shall love you too, when you do for me what the superioress will tell +you to-morrow." + +"I will do anything, but I shan't come to speak to her till the evening, +for it is three o'clock now." + +They laughed all the louder, exclaiming,-- + +"What will the mother say?" + +I paid the bill, gave something to the waiter, and took them back to the +convent, where the porteress seemed well enough pleased with the new +rules when she saw two sequins in her palm. + +It was too late to see the superioress, so I drove home after rewarding +the coachman and the lackey. + +Margarita was ready to scratch my eyes out if I could not prove my +fidelity, but I satisfied her by quenching on her the fires Armelline and +the punch had kindled. I told her I had been kept by a gaming party, and +she asked no more questions. + +The next day I amused the princess and the cardinal by a circumstantial +account of what had happened. + +"You missed your opportunity," said the princess. + +"I don't think so," said the cardinal, "I believe, on the contrary, that +he has made his victory more sure for another time." + +In the evening, I went to the convent where the superioress gave me her +warmest welcome. She complimented me on having amused myself with the +two girls till three o'clock in the morning without doing anything wrong. +They had told her how we had eaten the oysters, and she said it was an +amusing idea. I admired her candour, simplicity, or philosophy, +whichever you like to call it. + +After these preliminaries, she told me that I could make Emilie happy by +obtaining, through the influence of the princess, a dispensation to marry +without the publication of banns a merchant of Civita Vecchia, who would +have married her long ago only that there was a woman who pretended to +have claims upon him. If banns were published this woman would institute +a suit which might go on forever. + +"If you do this," she concluded, "you will have the merit of making +Emilie happy." + +I took down the man's name, and promised to do my best with the princess. + +"Are you still determined to cure yourself of your love for Armelline?" + +"Yes, but I shall not begin the cure till Lent." + +"I congratulate you; the carnival is unusually long this year." + +The next day I spoke of the matter to the princess. The first requisite +was a certificate from the Bishop of Civita Vecchia, stating that the man +was free to marry. The cardinal said that the man must come to Rome, and +that the affair could be managed if he could bring forward two good +witnesses who would swear that he was unmarried. + +I told the superioress what the cardinal said, and she wrote to the +merchant, and a few days after I saw him talking to the superioress and +Emilie through the grating. + +He commended himself to my protection, and said that before he married he +wanted to be sure of having six hundred crowns. + +The convent would give him four hundred crowns, so we should have to +obtain a grant of two hundred more. + +I succeeded in getting the grant, but I first contrived to have another +supper with Armelline, who asked me every morning when I was going to +take her to the comic opera. I said I was afraid of turning her astray +from the path of duty, but she replied that experience had taught her to +dread me no longer. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +The Florentine--Marriage of Emilie--Scholastica--Armelline at the Ball + + +Before the supper I had loved Armelline to such an extent that I had +determined to see her no more, but after it I felt that I must obtain her +or die. I saw that she had only consented to my small liberties because +she regarded them as mere jokes, of no account, and I resolved to take +advantage of this way of looking at it to go as far as I could. I begin +to play the part of indifferent to the best of my ability, only visiting +her every other day, and looking at her with an expression of polite +interest. I often pretended to forget to kiss her hand, while I kissed +Emilie's and told her that if I felt certain of receiving positive marks +of her affection I should stay at Civita Vecchia for some weeks after she +was married. I would not see Armelline's horror, who could not bear me +to take a fancy to Emilie. + +Emilie said that she would be more at liberty when she was married, while +Armelline, vexed at her giving me any hopes, told her sharply that a +married woman had stricter duties to perform than a girl. + +I agreed with her in my heart, but as it would not have suited my purpose +to say so openly I insinuated the false doctrine that a married woman's +chief duty is to keep her husband's descent intact, and that everything +else is of trifling importance. + +With the idea of driving Emilie to an extremity I told Emilie that if she +wanted me to exert myself to my utmost for her she must give me good +hopes of obtaining her favours not only after but before marriage. + +"I will give you no other favours." she replied, "than those which +Armelline may give you. You ought to try to get her married also." + +In spite of her grief at these proposals, gentle Armelline replied,---- + +"You are the only man I have ever seen; and as I have no hopes of getting +married I will give you no pledges at all, though I do not know what you +mean by the word." + +Though I saw how pure and angelic she was, I had the cruelty to go away, +leaving her to her distress. + +It was hard for me to torment her thus, but I thought it was the only way +to overcome her prejudices. + +Calling on the Venetian ambassador's steward I saw some peculiarly fine +oysters, and I got him to let me have a hundred. I then took a box at +the Capronica Theatre, and ordered a good supper at the inn where we had +supped before. + +"I want a room with a bed," I said to the waiter. + +"That's not allowed in Rome, signor," he replied, "but on the third floor +we have two rooms with large sofas which might do instead, without the +Holy Office being able to say anything." + +I looked at the rooms and took them, and ordered the man to get the best +supper that Rome could offer. + +As I was entering the boa with the two girls I saw the Marchioness d'Aout +was my near neighbour. She accosted me, and congratulated herself on her +vicinity to me. She was accompanied by her French abbe, her husband, and +a fine-looking young man, whom I had never seen before. She asked who my +companions were, and I told her they were in the Venetian ambassador's +household. She praised their beauty and began to talk to Armelline, who +answered well enough till the curtain went up. The young man also +complimented her, and after having asked my permission he gave her a +large packet of bonbons, telling her to share them with her neighbour. +I had guessed him to be a Florentine from his accent, and asked him if +the sweets came from the banks of the Arno; he told me they were from +Naples, whence he had just arrived. + +At the end of the first act I was surprised to hear him say that he had a +letter of introduction for me from the Marchioness of C----. + +"I have just heard your name," he said, "and tomorrow I shall have the +honour of delivering the letter in person, if you will kindly give me +your address." + +After these polite preliminaries I felt that I must comply with his +request. + +I asked after the marquis, his mother-in-law, and Anastasia, saying that +I was delighted to hear from the marchioness from whom I had been +expecting an answer for the last month. + +"The charming marchioness has deigned to entrust me with the answer you +speak of." + +"I long to read it." + +"Then I may give you the letter now, though I shall still claim the +privilege of calling on you to-morrow. I will bring it to you in your +box, if you will allow me." + +"Pray do so." + +He might easily have given it to me from the box where he was, but this +would not have suited his plans. He came in, and politeness obliged me +to give him my place next to Armelline. He took out an elaborate pocket- +book, and gave me the letter. I opened it, but finding that it covered +four pages, I said I would read it when I got home, as the box was dark. +"I shall stay in Rome till Easter," he said, "as I want to see all the +sights; though indeed I cannot hope to see anything more beautiful than +the vision now before me." + +Armelline, who was gazing fixedly at him, blushed deeply. I felt that +his compliment, though polite, was entirely out of place, and in some +sort an insult to myself. However, I said nothing, but decided mentally +that the Florentine Adonis must be a fop of the first water. + +Finding his compliment created a silence, he saw he had made himself +offensive, and after a few disconnected remarks withdrew from the box. +In spite of myself the man annoyed me, and I congratulated Armelline on +the rapidity of her conquest, asking her what she thought of him. +"He is a fine man, but his compliments shews he has no taste. Tell me, +is it the custom for people of fashion to make a young girl blush the +first time they see her?" + +"No, dear Armelline, it is neither customary nor polite; and anyone who +wishes to mix in good society would never do such a thing." + +I lapsed into silence, as though I wanted to listen to the music; but as +a matter of fact my heart was a prey to cruel jealousy. I thought the +matter over, and came to the conclusion that the Florentine had treated +me rudely. He might have guessed that I was in love with Armelline, and +to make such an open declaration of love to my very face was nothing more +nor less than an insult to me. + +After I had kept this unusual silence for a quarter of an hour the simple +Armelline made me worse by saying that I must calm myself, as I might be +sure that the young man's compliment had not given her the slightest +pleasure. She did not see that by saying this she made me feel that the +compliment had had the directly opposite effect. + +I said that I had hoped he had pleased her. + +To finish the matter up, she said by way of soothing me that the young +man did not mean to vex me, as he doubtless took me for her father. + +What could I reply to this observation, as cruel as it was reasonable? +Nothing; I could only take refuge in silence and a fit of childish ill- +humour. + +At last I could bear it no longer, and begged the two girls to come away +with me. + +The second act was just over, and if I had been in my right senses I +should never have made them such an unreasonable request; but the +crassness of my proceedings did not strike me till the following day. + +In spite of the strangeness of my request they merely exchanged glances +and got ready to go. Not knowing what better excuse to give I told them +I did not want the princess's carriage to be noticed as everyone left the +theatre, and that I would bring them again to the theatre the following +day. + +I would not let Armelline put her head inside the Marchioness d'Aout's +box, and so we went out. I found the man who accompanied the carriage +talking to one of his mates at the door of the theatre, and this made me +think that the princess had come to the opera. + +We got down at the inn, and I whispered to the man to take his horses +home and to call for us at three o'clock; for the cold was intense, and +both horses and men had to be considered. + +We began by sitting down in front of a roaring fire, and for half an hour +we did nothing but eat oysters, which were opened in our presence by a +clever waiter, who took care not to lose a drop of the fluid. As quick +as he opened we ate, and the laughter of the girls, who talked of how we +had eaten them before, caused my anger to gradually disappear. + +In Armelline's gentleness I saw the goodness of her heart, and I was +angry with myself for my absurd jealousy of a man who was much more +calculated to please a young girl than I. + +Armelline drank champagne, and stole occasional glances in my direction +as if to entreat me to join them in their mirth. + +Emilie spoke of her marriage, and without saying anything about my +projected visit to Civita Vecchia I promised that her future husband +should have his plenary dispensation before very long. While I spoke I +kissed Armelline's fair hands, and she looked at me as if thankful for +the return of my affection. + +The oysters and champagne had their natural effect, and we had a +delightful supper. We had sturgeon and some delicious truffles, which I +enjoyed not so much for my own sake as for the pleasure with which my +companions devoured them. + +A man in love is provided with a kind of instinct which tells him that +the surest way to success is to provide the beloved object with pleasures +that are new to her. + +When Armelline saw me become gay and ardent once more she recognized her +handiwork, and was doubtless proud of the power she exercised over me. +She took my hand of her own accord, and continued gazing into my eyes. +Emilie was occupied in the enjoyment of the meal, and did not trouble +herself about our behaviour. Armelline was so tender and loving that I +made sure of victory after we had had some more oysters and a bowl of +punch. + +When the dessert, the fifty oysters, and all the materials for making the +punch were on the table, the waiter left the room, saying that the ladies +would find every requisite in the neighbouring apartment. + +The room was small, and the fire very hot, and I bade the two friends +arrange their dress more comfortably. + +Their dresses fitted their figures, and were trimmed with fur and +stiffened with whalebones, so they went into the next room, and came back +in white bodices and short dimity petticoats, laughing at the slightness +of their attire. + +I had sufficient strength of mind to conceal my emotion, and even not to +look at their breasts when they complained of having no neckerchiefs or +breast-bands to their chemises. I knew how inexperienced they were, and +felt certain that when they saw the indifference with which I took their +slight attire they themselves would think it was of no consequence. +Armelline and Emilie had both beautiful breasts, and knew it; they were +therefore astonished at my indifference, perhaps thought that I had never +seen a fine breast. As a matter of fact a fine figure is much more +scarce at Rome than a pretty face. + +Thus, in spite of their modesty, their vanity impelled them to shew me +that my indifference was ill-placed, but it was my part to put them at +their ease, and to make them fling shame to the winds. + +They were enchanted when I told them to try their hands at a bowl of +punch, and they simply danced for joy when I pronounced it better than my +own brew. + +Then came the oyster-game, and I scolded Armelline for having swallowed +the liquid as I was taking the oyster from her lips. I agreed that it +was very hard to avoid doing so, but I offered to shew them how it could +be done by placing the tongue in the way. This gave me an opportunity of +teaching them the game of tongues, which I shall not explain because it +is well known to all true lovers. Armelline played her part with such +evident relish that I could see she enjoyed it as well as I, though she +agreed it was a very innocent amusement. + +It so chanced that a fine oyster slipped from its shell as I was placing +it between Emilie's lips. It fell on to her breast, and she would have +recovered it with her fingers; but I claimed the right of regaining it +myself, and she had to unlace her bodice to let me do so. I got hold of +the oyster with my lips, but did so in such a manner as to prevent her +suspecting that I had taken any extraordinary pleasure in the act. +Armelline looked on without laughing; she was evidently surprised at the +little interest I had taken in what was before my eye. Emilie laughed +and relaced her bodice. + +The opportunity was too good to be lost, so taking Armelline on my knee I +gave her an oyster and let it slip as Emilie's had slipped, much to the +delight of the elder, who wanted to see how her young companion would go +through the ordeal. + +Armelline was really as much delighted herself, though she tried to +conceal her pleasure. + +"I want my oyster," said I. + +"Take it, then." + +There was no need to tell me twice. I unlaced her corset in such a way +as to make it fall still lower, bewailing the necessity of having to +search for it with my hands. + +What a martyrdom for an amorous man to have to conceal his bliss at such +a moment! + +I did not let Armelline have any occasion to accuse me of taking too much +licence, for I only touched her alabaster spheres so much as was +absolutely necessary. + +When I had got the oyster again I could restrain myself no more, and +affixing my lips to one of the blossoms of her breast I sucked it with a +voluptuous pleasure which is beyond all description. + +She was astonished, but evidently moved, and I did not leave her till my +enjoyment was complete. + +When she marked my dreamy langourous gaze, she asked me it it had given +me much pleasure to play the part of an infant. + +"Yes, dearest," I replied, "but it's only an innocent jest." + +"I don't think so; and I hope you will say nothing about it to the +superioress. It may be innocent for you, but it is not for me, as I +experienced sensations which must partake of the nature of sin. We will +pick up no more oysters." + +"These are mere trifles," said Emilie, "the stain of which will easily be +wiped out with a little holy water. At all events we can swear that +there has been no kissing between us." + +They went into the next room for a moment, I did the same, and we then +sat on the sofa before the fire. As I sat between them I observed that +our legs were perfectly alike, and that I could not imagine why women +stuck so obstinately to their petticoats. + +While I talked I touched their legs, saying it was just as if I were to +touch my own. + +They did not interrupt this examination which I carried up to the knee, +and I told Emilie that all the reward I would ask for my services was +that I might see her thighs, to compare them with Armelline's. + +"She will be bigger than I," said Armelline, "though I am the taller." + +"Well, there would be no harm in letting me see." + +"I think there would." + +"Well, I will feel with my hands." + +"No, you would look at the same time." + +"I swear I will not." + +"Let me bandage your eyes." + +"Certainly; but I will: bandage yours too." + +"Yes; we will play, at blindman's buff." + +Before the bandaging began I took care to make them swallow a good dose +of punch, and, then we proceeded to play. The two girls let me span +their thighs several times, laughing and falling over me whenever my +hands went too high. + +I lifted the bandage and saw everything, but they pretended not to +suspect anything. + +They treated me in the same way, no doubt to see what it was that they +felt when they fell upon me. + +This delightful game went on; till exhausted, nature would not allow me +to play it any more. I put myself in a state of decency, and then told +them to take off their bandages. + +They did so and sat beside me, thinking, perhaps, that they would be able +to, disavow everything on the score of the bandage. + +It seemed to me that Emilie had had a lover, though I took good care not +to tell her so; but Armelline was a pure virgin. She was meeker than her +friend, and her great eyes shone as voluptuously but more modestly. + +I would have snatched a kiss from her pretty mouth, but she turned away +her head, though she squeezed my hands tenderly. I was astonished at +this refusal after the liberties I had taken with her. + +We had talked about balls, and they were both extremely anxious to see +one. + +The public ball was the rage with all the young Romans. For ten long +years the Pope Rezzonico had deprived them of this pleasure. +Although Rezzonico forbade dancing, he allowed gaming of every +description. Ganganelli, his successor, had other views, and forbade +gaming but allowed dancing. + +So much for papal infallibility; what one condemns the other approves. +Ganganelli thought it better to let his subjects skip than to give them +the opportunity of ruining themselves, of committing suicide, or of +becoming brigands; but Rezzonico did not see the matter in that light. +I promised the girls I would take them to the ball as soon as I could +discover one where I was not likely to be recognized. + +Three o'clock struck, and I took them back to the convent, well enough +pleased with the progress I had made, though I had only increased my +passion. I was surer than ever that Armelline was born to exercise an +irresistible sway over every man who owed fealty to beauty. + +I was amongst her liegemen, and am so still, but the incense is all gone +and the censer of no value. + +I could not help reflecting on the sort of glamour which made me fall in +love with one who seemed all new to me, while I loved her in exactly the +same manner as I had loved her predecessor. But in reality there was no +real novelty; the piece was the same, though the title might be altered. +But when I had won what I coveted, did I realize that I was going over +old ground? Did I complain? Did I think myself deceived? + +Not one whit; and doubtless for this reason, that whilst I enjoyed the +piece I kept my eyes fixed on the title which had so taken my fancy. +If this be so, of what use is title at all? The title of a book, the +name of a dish, the name of a town--of what consequence are all these +when what one wants is to read the book, to eat the dish, and to see the +town. + +The comparison is a sophism. Man becomes amorous through the senses, +which, touch excepted, all reside in the head. In love a beautiful face +is a matter of the greatest moment. + +A beautiful female body might well excite a man to carnal indulgence, +even though the head were covered, but never to real love. If at the +moment of physical delight the covering were taken away, and a face of +hideous, revolting ugliness disclosed, one would fly in horror, in spite +of the beauties of the woman's body. + +But the contrary does not hold good. If a man has fallen in love with a +sweet, enchanting face, and succeeds in lifting the veil of the sanctuary +only to find deformities there, still the face wins the day, atones for +all, and the sacrifice is consummated. + +The face is thus paramount, and hence it has come to be agreed that +women's bodies shall be covered and their faces disclosed; while men's +clothes are arranged in such a way that women can easily guess at what +they cannot see. + +This arrangement is undoubtedly to the advantage of women; art can +conceal the imperfections of the face, and even make it appear beautiful, +but no cosmetic can dissemble an ugly breast, stomach, or any other part +of the man body. + +In spite of this, I confess that the phenomerides of Sparta were in the +right, like all women who, though they possess a fine figure, have a +repulsive face; in spite of the beauty of the piece, the title drives +spectators away. Still an interesting face is an inseparable accident of +love. + +Thrice happy are they who, like Armelline, have beauty both in the face +and body. + +When I got home I was so fortunate as to find Margarita in a deep sleep. +I took care not to awake her, and went to bed with as little noise as +possible. I was in want of rest, for I no longer enjoyed the vigour of +youth, and I slept till twelve. + +When I awoke, Margarita told me that a handsome young man had called on +me at ten o'clock, and that she had amused him till eleven, not daring to +awake me. + +"I made him some coffee," said she, "and he was pleased to pronounce it +excellent. He would not tell me his name, but he will come again +tomorrow. He gave me a piece of money, but I hope you will not mind. +I don't know how much it is worth." + +I guessed that it was the Florentine. The piece was of two ounces. I +only laughed, for not loving Margarita I was not jealous of her. I told +her she had done quite right to amuse him and to accept the piece, which +was worth forty-eight pauls. + +She kissed me affectionately, and thanks to this incident I heard nothing +about my having come home so late. + +I felt curious to learn more about this generous Tuscan, so I proceeded +to read Leonilda's letter. + +His name, it appeared, was M----. He was a rich merchant established in +London, and had been commended to her husband by a Knight of Malta. + +Leonilda said he was generous, good-hearted, and polished, and assured me +that I should like him. + +After telling me the family news, Leonilda concluded by saying that she +was in a fair way to become a mother, and that she would be perfectly +happy if she gave birth to a son. She begged me to congratulate the +marquis. + +Whether from a natural instinct or the effects of prejudice, this news +made me shudder. I answered her letter in a few days, enclosing it in a +letter to the marquis, in which I told him that the grace of God was +never too late, and that I had never been so much pleased by any news as +at hearing he was likely to have an heir. + +In the following May Leonilda gave birth to a son, whom I saw at Prague, +on the occasion of the coronation of Leopold. He called himself Marquis +C----, like his father, or perhaps we had better say like his mother's +husband, who attained the age of eighty. + +Though the young marquis did not know my name, I got introduced to him, +and had the pleasure of meeting him a second time at the theatre. He was +accompanied by a priest, who was called his governor, but such an office +was a superfluity for him, who was wiser at twenty than most men are at +sixty. + +I was delighted to see that the young man was the living image of the old +marquis. I shed tears of joy as I thought how this likeness must have +pleased the old man and his wife, and I admired this chance which seemed +to have abetted nature in her deceit. + +I wrote to my dear Leonilda, placing the letter in the hands of her son. +She did not get it till the Carnival of 1792, when the young marquis +returned to Naples; and a short time after I received an answer inviting +me to her son's marriage and begging me to spend the remainder of my days +with her. + +"Who knows? I may eventually do so." + +I called on the Princess Santa Croce at three o'clock, and found her in +bed, with the cardinal reading to her. + +The first question she asked was, why I had left the opera at the end of +the second act. + +"Princess, I can tell you an interesting history of my six hours of +adventure, but you must give me a free hand, for some of the episodes +must be told strictly after nature." + +"Is it anything in the style of Sister M---- M----?" asked the cardinal. + +"Yes, my lord, something of the kind." + +"Princess, will you be deaf?" said his eminence, + +"Of course I will," she replied. + +I then told my tale almost as I have written it. The slipping oysters +and the game of blind man's buff made the princess burst with laughing, +in spite of her deafness. She agreed with the cardinal that I had acted +with great discretion, and told me that I should be sure to succeed on +the next attempt. + +"In three or four days," said the cardinal, "you will have the +dispensation, and then Emilie can marry whom she likes." + +The next morning the Florentine came to see me at nine o'clock, and I +found him to answer to the marchioness's description; but I had a bone to +pick with him, and I was none the better pleased when he began asking me +about the young person in my box at the theatre; he wanted to know +whether she were married or engaged, if she had father, mother, or any +other relations. + +I smiled sardonically, and begged to be excused giving him the required +information, as the young lady was masked when he saw her. + +He blushed, and begged my pardon. + +I thanked him for doing Margarita the honour of accepting a cup of coffee +from her hands, and begged him to take one with me, saying I would +breakfast with him next morning. He lived with Roland, opposite St. +Charles, where Madame Gabrieli, the famous singer, nicknamed la Coghetta, +lived. + +As soon as the Florentine was gone, I went to St. Paul's in hot haste, +for I longed to see what reception I should have from the two vestals I +had initiated so well. + +When they appeared I noticed a great change. Emilie had become gay, +while Armelline looked sad. + +I told the former that she should have her dispensation in three days, +and her warrant for four hundred crowns in a week. + +"At the same time," I added, "you shall have your grant of two hundred +crowns." + +At this happy tidings she ran to tell the superioress of her good +fortune. + +As soon as I was alone with Armelline I took her hands and covered them +with kisses, begging her to resume her wonted gaiety. + +"What shall I do," said she, "without Emilie? What shall I do when you +are gone? I am unhappy. I love myself no longer." + +She shed tears which pierced me to the heart. I swore I would not leave +Rome till I had seen her married with a dowry of a thousand crowns. + +"I don't want a thousand crowns, but I hope you will see me married as +you say; if you do not keep your promise it will kill me." + +"I would die rather than deceive you; but you on your side must forgive +my love, which, perhaps, made me go too far the other evening." + +"I forgive you everything if you will remain my friend." + +"I will; and now let me kiss your beautiful lips." + +After this first kiss, which I took as a pledge of certain victory, she +wiped away her tears; and soon after Emilie reappeared, accompanied by +the superioress, who treated me with great cordiality. + +"I want you to do as much for Armelline's new friend as you have done for +Emilie," said she. + +"I will do everything in my power," I replied; "and in return I hope you +will allow me to take these young ladies to the theatre this evening." + +"You will find them ready; how could I refuse you anything?" + +When I was alone with the two friends I apologised for having disposed of +them without their consent. + +"Our consent!" said Emilie: "we should be ungrateful indeed if we refused +you anything after all you have done for us." + +"And you, Armelline, will you withstand my love?" + +"No; so long as it keeps within due bounds. No more blind man's buff!" + +"And it is such a nice game! You really grieve me." + +"Well, invent another game," said Emilie. + +Emilie was becoming ardent, somewhat to my annoyance, for I was afraid +Armelline would get jealous. I must not be charged with foppishness on +this account. I knew the human heart. + +When I left them I went to the Tordinona Theatre and took a box, and then +ordered a good supper at the same inn, not forgetting the oysters, though +I felt sure I should not require their aid. + +I then called on a musician, whom I requested to get me three tickets for +a ball, where no one would be likely to know me. + +I went home with the idea of dining by myself, but I found a note from +the Marchioness d'Aout, reproaching me in a friendly manner for not +having broken bread with her, and inviting me to dinner. I resolved to +accept the invitation, and when I got to the house I found the young +Florentine already there. + +It was at this dinner that I found out many of his good qualities, and I +saw that Donna Leonilda had not said too much in his favour. + +Towards the end of the meal the marchioness asked why I had not stayed +till the end of the opera. + +"Because the young ladies were getting tired." + +"I have found out that they do not belong to the Venetian ambassador's +household. + +"You are right, and I hope you will pardon my small fiction." + +"It was an impromptu effort to avoid telling me who they are, but they +are known." + +"Then I congratulate the curious." + +"The one I addressed deserves to excite general curiosity; but if I were +in your place I should make her use a little powder." + +"I have not the authority to do so, and if I had, I would not trouble her +for the world." + +I was pleased with the Florentine, who listened to all this without +saying a word. I got him to talk of England and of his business. He +told me that he was going to Florence to take possession of his +inheritance, and to get a wife to take back with him to London. As I +left, I told him that I could not have the pleasure of calling on him +till the day after next, as I was prevented by important business. He +told me I must come at dinnertime, and I promised to do so. + +Full of love and hope, I went for my two friends, who enjoyed the whole +play without any interruption. + +When we alighted at the inn I told the coachman to call for me at two, +and we then went up to the third floor, where we sat before the fire +while the oysters were being opened. They did not interest us as they +had done before. + +Emilie had an important air; she was about to make a good marriage. +Armelline was meek, smiling, and affectionate, and reminded me of the +promise I had given her. I replied by ardent kisses which reassured her, +while they warned her that I would fain increase the responsibility I had +already contracted towards her. However, she seemed resigned, and I sat +down to table in a happy frame of mind. + +As Emilie was on the eve of her wedding, she no doubt put down my neglect +of her to my respect for the sacrament of matrimony. + +When supper was over I got on the sofa with Armelline, and spent three +hours which might have been delicious if I had not obstinately +endeavoured to obtain the utmost favour. She would not give in; all my +supplications and entreaties could not move her; she was sweet, but firm. +She lay between my arms, but would not grant what I wanted, though she +gave me no harsh or positive refusal. + +It seems a puzzle, but in reality it is quite simple. + +She left my arms a virgin, sorry, perhaps, that her sense of duty had not +allowed her to make me completely happy. + +At last nature bade me cease, in spite of my love, and I begged her to +forgive me. My instinct told me that this was the only way by which I +might obtain her consent another time. + +Half merry and half sad, we awoke Emilie who was in a deep sleep, and +then we started. I went home and got into bed, not troubling myself +about the storm of abuse with which Margarita greeted me. + +The Florentine gave me a delicious dinner, overwhelmed me with +protestations of friendship, and offered me his purse if I needed it. + +He had seen Armelline, and had been pleased with her. I had answered him +sharply when he questioned me about her, and ever since he had never +mentioned her name. + +I felt grateful to him, and as if I must make him some return. + +I asked him to dinner, and had Margarita to dine with us. Not caring for +her I should have been glad if he had fallen in love with her; there +would have been no difficulty, I believe, on her part, and certainly not +on mine; but nothing came of it. She admired a trinket which hung from +his watch-chain, and he begged my permission to give it her. I told him +to do so by all means, and that should have been enough; but the affair +went no farther. + +In a week all the arrangements for Emilie's marriage had been made. I +gave her her grant, and the same day she was married and went away with +her husband to Civita Vecchia. Menicuccio, whose name I have not +mentioned for some time, was well pleased with my relations with his +sister, foreseeing advantages for himself, and still better pleased with +the turn his own affairs were taking, for three days after Emilie's +wedding he married his mistress, and set up in a satisfactory manner. +When Emilie was gone the superioress gave Armelline a new companion. She +was only a few years older than my sweetheart, and very pretty; but she +did not arouse a strong interest in my breast. When violently in love no +other woman has ever had much power over me. + +The superioress told me that her name was Scholastica, and that she was +well worthy of my esteem, being, as she said, as good as Emilie. She +expressed a hope that I would do my best to help Scholastica to marry a +man whom she knew and who was in a good position. + +This man was the son of a cousin of Scholastica's. She called him her +nephew, though he was older than she. The dispensation could easily be +got for money, but if it was to be had for nothing I should have to make +interest with the Holy Father. I promised I would do my best in the +matter. + +The carnival was drawing to a close, and Scholastica had never seen an +opera or a play. Armelline wanted to see a ball, and I had at last +succeeded in finding one where it seemed unlikely that I should be +recognized. However, it would have to be carefully managed, as serious +consequences might ensue; so I asked the two friends if they would wear +men's clothes, to which they agreed very heartily. + +I had taken a box at the Aliberti Theatre for the day after the ball, so +I told the two girls to obtain the necessary permission from the +superioress. + +Though Armelline's resistance and the presence of her new friend +discouraged me, I procured everything requisite to transform them into +two handsome lads. + +As Armelline got into the carriage she gave me the bad news that +Scholastica knew nothing about our relations, and that we must be careful +what we did before her. I had no time to reply, for Scholastica got in, +and we drove off to the inn. When we were seated in front of a good +fire, I told them that if they liked I would go into the next room in +spite of the cold. + +So saying, I shewed them their disguises, and Armelline said it would do +if I turned my back, appealing to Scholastics to confirm her. + +"I will do as you like," said she, "but I am very sorry to be in the way. +You are in love with each other, and here am I preventing you from giving +one another marks of your affection. Why don't you treat me with +confidence? I am not a child, and I am your friend." + +These remarks shewed that she had plenty of common sense, and I breathed +again. + +"You are right, fair Scholastics," I said, "I do love Armelline, but she +does not love me, and refuses to make me happy on one pretence or +another." + +With these words I left the room, and after shutting the door behind me +proceeded to make up a fire in the second apartment. + +In a quarter of an hour Armelline knocked at the door, and begged me to +open it. She was in her breeches, and said they needed my assistance as +their shoes were so small they could not get them on. + +I was in rather a sulky humour, so she threw her arms round my neck and +covered my face with kisses which soon restored me to myself. + +While I was explaining the reason of my ill temper, and kissing whatever +I could see, Scholastica burst out laughing. + +"I was sure that I was in the way," said she; "and if you do not trust +me, I warn you that I will not go with you to the opera to-morrow." + +"Well, then, embrace him," said Armelline. + +"With all my heart." + +I did not much care for Armelline's generosity, but I embraced +Scholastica as warmly as she deserved. Indeed I would have done so if +she had been less pretty, for such kindly consideration deserved a +reward. I even kissed her more ardently than I need have done, with the +idea of punishing Armelline, but I made a mistake. She was delighted, +and kissed her friend affectionately as if in gratitude. + +I made them sit down, and tried to pull on their shoes, but I soon found +that they were much too small, and that we must get some more. + +I called the waiter who attended to us, and told him to go and fetch a +bootmaker with an assortment of shoes. + +In the meanwhile I would not be contented with merely kissing Armelline. +She neither dared to grant nor to refuse; and as if to relieve herself of +any responsibility, made Scholastica submit to all the caresses I +lavished on her. The latter seconded my efforts with an ardour that +would have pleased me exceedingly if I had been in love with her. + +She was exceedingly beautiful, and her features were as perfectly +chiselled as Armelline's, but Armelline was possessed of a delicate and +subtle charm of feature peculiar to herself. + +I liked the amusement well enough, but there was a drop of bitterness in +all my enjoyment. I thought it was plain that Armelline did not love me, +and that Scholastica only encouraged me to encourage her friend. + +At last I came to the conclusion that I should do well to attach myself +to the one who seemed likely to give me the completest satisfaction. + +As soon as I conceived this idea I felt curious to see whether Armelline +would discover any jealousy if I shewed myself really in love with +Scholastica, and if the latter pronounced me to be too daring, for +hitherto my hands had not crossed the Rubicon of their waistbands. I was +just going to work when the shoemaker arrived, and in a few minutes the +girls were well fitted. + +They put on their coats, and I saw two handsome young men before me, +while their figures hinted their sex sufficiently to make a third person +jealous of my good fortune. + +I gave orders for supper to be ready at midnight, and we went to the +ball. I would have wagered a hundred to one that no one would recognize +me there, as the man who got the tickets had assured me that it was a +gathering of small tradesmen. But who can trust to fate or chance? + +We went into the hall, and the first person I saw was the Marchioness +d'Aout, with her husband and her inseparable abbe. + +No doubt I turned a thousand colours, but it was no good going back, for +the marchioness had recognized me, so I composed myself and went up to +her. We exchanged the usual compliments of polite society, to which she +added some good-natured though ironical remarks on my two young friends. +Not being accustomed to company, they remained confused and speechless. +But the worst of all was to come. A tall young lady who had just +finished a minuet came up to Armelline, dropped a curtsy, and asked her +to dance. + +In this young lady I recognized the Florentine who had disguised himself +as a girl, and looked a very beautiful one. + +Armelline thought she would not appear a dupe, and said she recognized +him. + +"You are making a mistake," said he, calmly. "I have a brother who is +very like me, just as you have a sister who is your living portrait. My +brother had the pleasure of exchanging a few words with her at the +Capronica." The Florentine's cleverness made the marchioness laugh, and +I had to join in her mirth, though I felt little inclination to do so. + +Armelline begged to be excused dancing, so the marchioness made her sit +between the handsome Florentine and herself. The marquis took possession +of Scholastica, and I had to be attentive to the marchioness without +seeming to be aware of the existence of Armelline, to whom the Florentine +was talking earnestly. + +I felt as jealous as a tiger; and having to conceal my rage under an air +of perfect satisfaction, the reader may imagine how well I enjoyed the +ball. + +However, there was more anxiety in store for me; for presently I noticed +Scholastica leave the marquis, and go apart with a middle-aged man, with +whom she conversed in an intimate manner. + +The minuets over, the square dances began, and I thought I was dreaming +when I saw Armelline and the Florentine taking their places. + +I came up to congratulate them, and asked Armelline, gently, if she was +sure of the steps. + +"This gentleman says I have only to imitate him, and that I cannot +possibly make any mistakes." + +I had nothing to say to this, so I went towards Scholastica, feeling very +curious to know who was her companion. + +As soon as she saw me she introduced me to him, saying timidly that this +was the nephew of whom she had spoken, the same that wished to marry her. + +I was surprised, but I did not let it appear. I told him that the +superioress had spoken of him to me, and that I was thinking over the +ways and means of obtaining a dispensation without any costs. + +He was an honest-looking man, and thanked me heartily, commending himself +to my good offices, as he said he was far from rich. + +I left them together, and on turning to view the dance I was astonished +to see that Armelline was dancing admirably, and executing all the +figures. The Florentine seemed a finished dancer, and they both looked +very happy. + +I was far from pleased, but I congratulated them both on their +performance. The Florentine had disguised himself so admirably that no +one would have taken him for a man. It was the Marchioness d'Aout who +had been his dresser. + +As I was too jealous to leave Armelline to her own devices, I refused to +dance, preferring to watch her. + +I was not at all uneasy about Scholastica, who was with her betrothed. +About half-past eleven the Marchioness d'Aout, who was delighted with +Armelline, and possibly had her protege's happiness in view, asked me, in +a tone that amounted to a command, to sup with her in company with my two +companions. + +"I cannot have the honour," I replied, "and my two companions know the +reason." + +"That is as much as to say," said the marchioness, "that he will do as +you please," turning to Armelline as she spoke. + +I addressed myself to Armelline, and observed smilingly that she knew +perfectly well that she must be home by half-past twelve at latest. + +"True," she replied, "but you can do as you please." + +I replied somewhat sadly that I did not feel myself at liberty to break +my word, but that she could make me do even that if she chose. + +Thereupon the marchioness, her husband, the abbe, and the Florentine, +urged her to use her power to make me break my supposed word, and +Armelline actually began to presume to do so. + +I was bursting with rage; but making up my mind to do anything rather +than appear jealous, I said simply that I would gladly consent if her +friend would consent also. + +"Very well," said she, with a pleased air that cut me to the quick, "go +and ask her." + +That was enough for me. I went to Scholastica and told her the +circumstances in the presence of her lover, begging her to refuse without +compromising me. + +Her lover said I was perfectly right, but Scholastica required no +persuasion, telling me that she had quite made up her mind not to sup +with anyone. + +She came with me, and I told her to speak to Armelline apart before +saying anything to the others. + +I led Scholastica before the marchioness, bewailing my want of success. + +Scholastica told Armelline that she wanted to say a few words to her +aside, and after a short conversation they came back looking sorry, and +Armelline told the marchioness that she found it would be impossible for +them to come. The lady did not press us any longer, so we went away. + +I told Scholastica's intended to keep what had passed to himself, and +asked him to dine with me on the day after Ash Wednesday. + +The night was dark, and we walked to the place where I had ordered the +carriage to be in waiting. + +To me it was as if I had come out of hell, and on the way to the inn I +did not speak a word, not even answering the questions which the too- +simple Armelline addressed to me in a voice that would have softened a +heart of stone. Scholastica avenged me by reproaching her for having +obliged me to appear either rude or jealous, or a breaker of my word. + +When we got to the inn Armelline changed my jealous rage into pity; her +eyes swam with tears, which Scholastica's home truths had drawn forth. + +The supper was ready, so they had no time to change their dress. I was +sad enough, but I could not bear to see Armelline sad also. I resolved +to do my best to drive away her melancholy, even though I suspected that +it arose from love of the Florentine. + +The supper was excellent, and Scholastica did honour to it, while +Armelline, contrary to her wont, scarcely touched a thing. Scholastica +was charming. She embraced her friend, and told her to be merry with +her, as I had become the friend of her betrothed, and she was sure I +would do as much for her as I had done for Emilie. She blessed the ball +and the chance which had brought him there. In short, she did her best +to shew Armelline that with my love she had no reason to be sad. + +Armelline dared not disclose the true cause of her sadness. The fact +was, that she wanted to get married, and the handsome Florentine was the +man to her liking. + +Our supper came to an end, and still Armelline was gloomy. She only +drank one glass of punch, and as she had eaten so little I would not try +and make her drink more for fear lest it should do her harm. +Scholastica, on the other hand, took such a fancy to this agreeable +fluid, which she tasted for the first time, that she drank deeply, and +was amazed to find it mounting to her head instead of descending to her +stomach. In this pleasant state, she felt it was her duty to reconcile +Armelline and myself, and to assure us that we might be as tender as we +liked without minding her presence. + +Getting up from table and standing with some difficulty, she carried her +friend to the sofa, and caressed her in such a way that Armelline could +not help laughing, despite her sadness. Then she called me and placed +her in my arms. I caressed her, and Armelline, though she did not +repulse me, did not respond as Scholastica had hoped. I was not +disappointed; I did not think it likely she would grant now what she had +refused to grant when I had held her in my arms for those hours whilst +Emilie was fast asleep. + +However, Scholastica began to reproach me with my coldness, though I +deserved no blame at all on this score. + +I told them to take off their men's clothes, and to dress themselves as +women. + +I helped Scholastica to take off her coat and waistcoat, and then aided +Armelline in a similar manner. + +When I brought them their chemises, Armelline told me to go and stand by +the fire, and I did so. + +Before long a noise of kissing made me turn round, and I saw Scholastica, +on whom the punch had taken effect, devouring Armelline's breast with +kisses. At last this treatment had the desired result; Armelline became +gay, and gave as good as she got. + +At this sight the blood boiled in my veins, and running to them I found +Scholastic was not ill pleased that I should do justice to her beautiful +spheres, while for the nonce I transformed her into a nurse. + +Armelline was ashamed to appear less generous than her friend, and +Scholastica was triumphant when she saw the peculiar use to which (for +the first time) I put Armelline's hands. + +Armelline called to her friend to help, and she was not backward; but in +spite of her twenty years her astonishment at the catastrophe was great. + +After it was over I put on their chemises and took off their breeches +with all the decency imaginable, and after spending a few minutes in the +next room they came and sat down on my knee of their own accord. + +Scholastica, instead of being annoyed at my giving the preference to the +hidden charms of Armelline, seemed delighted, watching what I did, and +how Armelline took it, with the closest attention. She no doubt longed +to see me perform the magnum opus, but the gentle Armelline would not +allow me to go so far. + +After I had finished with Armelline I recollected I had duties towards +Scholastica, and I proceeded to inspect her charms. + +It was difficult to decide which of the two deserved to carry off the +apple. Scholastica, perhaps, was strictly speaking the more beautiful of +the two, but I loved Armelline, and love casts a glamour over the beloved +object. Scholastica appeared to me to be as pure a virgin as Armelline, +and I saw that I might do what I liked with her. But I would not abuse +my liberty, not caring to confess how powerful an ally the punch had +been. + +However, I did all in my power to give her pleasure without giving her +the greatest pleasure of all. Scholastica, was glutted with voluptuous +enjoyment, and was certain that I had only eluded her desires from +motives of delicacy. + +I took them back to the convent, assuring them that I would take them to +the opera on the following evening. + +I went to bed, doubtful whether I had gained a victory or sustained a +defeat; and it was not till I awoke that I was in a position to give a +decided opinion. + +[There is here a considerable hiatus in the authors manuscript.] + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of MEMOIRES OF JACQUES CASANOVA +SPANISH PASSIONS, Vol. 6c, ROME, by Jacques Casanova de Seingalt + |