The False Nun, Casanova, v9
by
Jacques Casanova de Seingalt
Part 1 out of 2
This etext was produced by David Widger
MEMOIRS OF JACQUES CASANOVA de SEINGALT 1725-1798
TO PARIS AND PRISON, Volume 2d--The False Nun
THE RARE UNABRIDGED LONDON EDITION OF 1894 TRANSLATED BY ARTHUR
MACHEN TO WHICH HAS BEEN ADDED THE CHAPTERS DISCOVERED
BY ARTHUR SYMONS.
THE FALSE NUN
CHAPTER XXI
Supper at My Casino With M. M. and M. de Bernis, the French
Ambassador--A Proposal from M. M.; I Accept It--Consequences--
C. C. is Unfaithful to Me, and I Cannot Complain
I felt highly pleased with the supper-party I had arranged with M----
M----, and I ought to have been happy. Yet I was not so; but whence
came the anxiety which was a torment to me? Whence? From my fatal
habit of gambling. That passion was rooted in me; to live and to
play were to me two identical things, and as I could not hold the
bank I would go and punt at the ridotto, where I lost my money
morning and night. That state of things made me miserable. Perhaps
someone will say to me:
"Why did you play, when there was no need of it, when you were in
want of nothing, when you had all the money you could wish to satisfy
your fancies?"
That would be a troublesome question if I had not made it a law to
tell the truth. Well, then, dear inquisitive reader, if I played
with almost the certainty of losing, although no one, perhaps, was
more sensible than I was to the losses made in gambling, it is
because I had in me the evil spirit of avarice; it is because I loved
prodigality, and because my heart bled when I found myself compelled
to spend any money that I had not won at the gaming-table. It is an
ugly vice, dear reader, I do not deny it. However, all I can say is
that, during the four days previous to the supper, I lost all the
gold won for me by M---- M----
On the anxiously-expected day I went to my casino, where at the
appointed hour M---- M---- came with her friend, whom she introduced
to me as soon as he had taken off his mask.
"I had an ardent wish, sir," said M. de Bernis to me, "to renew
acquaintance with you, since I heard from madame that we had known
each other in Paris."
With these words he looked at me attentively, as people will do when
they are trying to recollect a person whom they have lost sight of.
I then told him that we had never spoken to one another, and that he
had not seen enough of me to recollect my features now.
"I had the honour," I added, "to dine with your excellency at M. de
Mocenigo's house, but you talked all the time with Marshal Keith, the
Prussian ambassador, and I was not fortunate enough to attract your
attention. As you were on the point of leaving Paris to return to
Venice, you went away almost immediately after dinner, and I have
never had the honour of seeing you since that time."
"Now I recollect you," he answered, "and I remember asking whether
you were not the secretary of the embassy. But from this day we
shall not forget each other again, for the mysteries which unite us
are of a nature likely to establish a lasting intimacy between us."
The amiable couple were not long before they felt thoroughly at ease,
and we sat down to supper, of which, of course, I did the honours.
The ambassador, a fine connoisseur in wines, found mine excellent,
and was delighted to hear that I had them from Count Algarotti, who
was reputed as having the best cellar in Venice.
My supper was delicate and abundant, and my manners towards my
handsome guests were those of a private individual receiving his
sovereign and his mistress. I saw that M---- M---- was charmed with
the respect with which I treated her, and with my conversation, which
evidently interested the ambassador highly. The serious character of
a first meeting did not prevent the utterance of witty jests, for in
that respect M. de Bernis was a true Frenchman. I have travelled
much, I have deeply studied men, individually and in a body, but I
have never met with true sociability except in Frenchmen; they alone
know how to jest, and it is rare, delicate, refined jesting, which
animates conversation and makes society charming.
During our delightful supper wit was never wanting, and the amiable
M---- M---- led the conversation to the romantic combination which
had given her occasion to know me. Naturally, she proceeded to speak
of my passion for C---- C----, and she gave such an interesting
description of that young girl that the ambassador listened with as
much attention as if he had never seen the object of it. But that
was his part, for he was not aware that I had been informed of his
having witnessed from his hiding-place my silly interview with C----
C----. He told M---- M---- that he would have been delighted if she
had brought her young friend to sup with us.
"That would be running too great a risk," answered the cunning nun,
"but if you approve of it," she added, looking at me, "I can make you
sup with her at my casino, for we sleep in the same room."
That offer surprised me much, but it was not the moment to shew it,
so I replied:
"It is impossible, madam, to add anything to the pleasure of your
society, yet I confess I should be pleased if you could contrive to
do us that great favour:"
"Well, I will think of it."
"But," observed the ambassador, "if I am to be one of the party, I
think it would be right to apprize the young lady of it."
"It is not necessary, for I will write to her to agree to whatever
madam may propose to her. I will do so to-morrow."
I begged the ambassador to prepare himself with a good stock of
indulgence for a girl of fifteen who had no experience of the world.
In the course of the evening I related the history of O-Morphi, which
greatly amused him. He entreated me to let him see her portrait. He
informed me that she was still an inmate of the 'Parc-aux-cerfs',
where she continued to be the delight of Louis XV., to whom she had
given a child. My guests left me after midnight, highly pleased, and
I remained alone.
The next morning, faithful to the promise I had made to my beautiful
nun, I wrote to C---- C---- without informing her that there would be
a fourth person at the projected supper, and having given my note to
Laura I repaired to Muran, where I found the following letter from
M---- M----:
"I could not sleep soundly, my love, if I did not ease my conscience
of an unpleasant weight. Perhaps you did not approve of the 'partie
carree' with our young friend, and you may not have objected out of
mere politeness. Tell me the truth, dearest, for, should you not
look forward to that meeting with pleasure, I can contrive to undo it
without implicating you in any way; trust me for that. If, however,
you have no objection to the party, it will take place as agreed.
Believe me, I love your soul more than your heart--I mean than your
person. Adieu."
Her fear was very natural, but out of shamefacedness I did not like
to retract. M---- M---- knew me well, and as a skilful tactician she
attacked my weak side.
Here is my answer:
"I expected your letter, my best beloved, and you cannot doubt it,
because, as you know me thoroughly, you must be aware that I know you
as well. Yes, I know your mind, and I know what idea you must
entertain of mine, because I have exposed to you all my weakness and
irritability by my sophisms. I do penance for it, dearest, when I
think that having raised your suspicions your tenderness for me must
have been weakened. Forget my visions, I beg, and be quite certain
that for the future my soul will be in unison with yours. The supper
must take place, it will be a pleasure for me, but let me confess
that in accepting it I have shewn myself more grateful than polite.
C---- C---- is a novice, and I am not sorry to give her an
opportunity of seeing the world. In what school could she learn
better than yours? Therefore I recommend her to you, and you will
please me much by continuing to shew your care and friendship towards
her, and by increasing, if possible, the sum of your goodness. I
fear that you may entice her to take the veil, and if she did I would
never console myself. Your friend has quite captivated me; he is a
superior man, and truly charming."
Thus did I wittingly deprive myself of the power of drawing back, but
I was able to realize the full force of the situation. I had no
difficulty in guessing that the ambassador was in love with C----
C----, and that he had confessed as much to M---- M----, who, not
being in a position to object to it, was compelled to shew herself
compliant, and to assist him in everything that could render his
passion successful. She could certainly not do anything without my
consent, and she had evidently considered the affair too delicate to
venture upon proposing the party point-blank to me. They had, no
doubt, put their heads together, so that by bringing the conversation
on that subject I should find myself compelled, for the sake of
politeness and perhaps of my inward feelings, to fall into the snare.
The ambassador, whose profession it was to carry on intrigues
skilfully, had succeeded well, and I had taken the bait as he wished.
There was nothing left for me but to put a good face on the matter,
not only so as not to shew myself a very silly being, but also in
order not to prove myself shamefully ungrateful towards a man who had
granted me unheard-of privileges. Nevertheless, the consequence of
it all was likely to be some coolness in my feelings towards both my
mistresses. M---- M---- had become conscious of this after she had
returned to the convent, and wishing to screen herself from all
responsibility she had lost no time in writing to me that she would
cause the projected supper to be abandoned, in case I should
disapprove of it, but she knew very well that I would not accept her
offer. Self-love is a stronger passion even than jealousy; it does
not allow a man who has some pretension to wit to shew himself
jealous, particularly towards a person who is not tainted by that
base passion, and has proved it.
The next day, having gone early to the casino, I found the ambassador
already there, and he welcomed me in the most friendly manner. He
told me that, if he had known me in Paris he would have introduced me
at the court, where I should certainly have made my fortune. Now,
when I think of that, I say to myself, "That might have been the
case, but of what good would it have been to me?" Perhaps I should
have fallen a victim of the Revolution, like so many others. M. de
Bernis himself would have been one of those victims if Fate had not
allowed him to die in Rome in 1794. He died there unhappy, although
wealthy, unless his feelings had undergone a complete change before
his death, and I do not believe it.
I asked him whether he liked Venice, and he answered that he could
not do otherwise than like that city, in which he enjoyed excellent
health, and in which, with plenty of money, life could be enjoyed
better than anywhere else.
"But I do not expect," he added, "to be allowed to keep this embassy
very long. Be kind enough to let that remain between us. I do not
wish to make M---- M----- unhappy."
We were conversing in all confidence when M---- M---- arrived with
her young friend, who showed her surprise at seeing another man with
me, but I encouraged her by the most tender welcome; and she
recovered all her composure when she saw the delight of the stranger
at being answered by her in good French. It gave us both an
opportunity of paying the warmest compliments to the mistress who had
taught her so well.
C---- C---- was truly charming; her looks, bright and modest at the
same time, seemed to say to me, "You must belong to me:" I wished to
see her shine before our friends; and I contrived to conquer a
cowardly feeling of jealousy which, in spite of myself, was beginning
to get hold of me. I took care to make her talk on such subjects as
I knew to be familiar to her. I developed her natural intelligence,
and had the satisfaction of seeing her admired.
Applauded, flattered, animated by the satisfaction she could read in
my eyes, C---- C---- appeared a prodigy to M. de Bernis, and, oh!
what a contradiction of the human heart! I was pleased, yet I
trembled lest he should fall in love with her! What an enigma! I
was intent myself upon a work which would have caused me to murder
any man who dared to undertake it.
During the supper, which was worthy of a king, the ambassador treated
C---- C---- with the most delicate attentions. Wit, cheerfulness,
decent manners, attended our delightful party, and did not expel the
gaiety and the merry jests with which a Frenchman knows how to season
every conversation.
An observing critic who, without being acquainted with us, wished to
guess whether love was present at our happy party, might have
suspected, perhaps, but he certainly could not have affirmed, that it
was there. M---- M---- treated the ambassador as a friend. She
shewed no other feeling towards me than that of deep esteem, and she
behaved to C---- C---- with the tender affection of a sister. M. de
Bernis was kind, polite, and amiable with M---- M-----, but he never
ceased to take the greatest interest in every word uttered by C----
C----, who played her part to perfection, because she had only to
follow her own nature, and, that nature being beautiful, C---- C----
could not fail to be most charming.
We had passed five delightful hours, and the ambassador seemed more
pleased even than any of us. M---- M---- had the air of a person
satisfied with her own work, and I was playing the part of an
approving spectator. C---- C---- looked highly pleased at having
secured the general approbation, and there was, perhaps, a slight
feeling of vanity in her arising from the special attention which the
ambassador had bestowed on her. She looked at me, smiling, and I
could easily understand the language of her soul, by which she wished
to tell me that she felt perfectly well the difference between the
society in which she was then, and that in which her brother had
given us such a disgusting specimen of his depravity.
After midnight it was time to think of our departure, and M. de
Bernis undertook all the complimentary part. Thanking M---- M----
for the most agreeable supper he had ever made in his life, he
contrived to make her offer a repetition of it for two days
afterwards, and he asked me, for the sake of appearance, whether I
should not find as much delight in that second meeting as himself.
Could he have any doubt of my answering affirmatively? I believe
not, for I had placed myself under the necessity of being compliant.
All being agreed, we parted company.
The next day, when I thought of that exemplary supper, I had no
difficulty in guessing what the ultimate result would be. The
ambassador owed his great fortune entirely to the fair sex, because
he possessed to the highest degree the art of coddling love; and as
his nature was eminently voluptuous he found his advantage in it,
because he knew how to call desires into existence, and this procured
him enjoyments worthy of his delicate taste. I saw that he was
deeply in love with C---- C----, and I was far from supposing him the
man to be satisfied with looking at her lovely eyes. He certainly
had some plan arranged, and M---- M----, in spite of all her honesty,
was the prime manager of it. I knew that she would carry it on with
such delicate skill that I should not see any evidence of it.
Although I did not feel disposed to shew more compliance than was
strictly just, I foresaw that in the end I should be the dupe, and my
poor C---- C---- the victim, of a cunningly-contrived trick. I could
not make up my mind either to consent with a good grace, or to throw
obstacles in the way, and, believing my dear little wife incapable of
abandoning herself to anything likely to displease me, I allowed
myself to be taken off my guard, and to rely upon the difficulty of
seducing her. Stupid calculation! Self-love and shamefacedness
prevented me from using my common sense. At all events, that
intrigue kept me in a state of fever because I was afraid of its
consequences, and yet curiosity mastered me to such an extent that I
was longing for the result. I knew very well that a second edition
of the supper did not imply that the same play would be performed a
second time, and I foresaw that the changes would be strongly marked.
But I thought myself bound in honour not to retract. I could not
lead the intrigue, but I believed myself sufficiently skilful to
baffle all their manoeuvrings.
After all those considerations, however, considerations which enabled
me to assume the countenance of false bravery, the inexperience of C-
--- C----, who, in spite of all the knowledge she had lately
acquired, was only a novice, caused me great anxiety. It was easy to
abuse her natural wish to be polite, but that fear gave way very soon
before the confidence I had in M---- M----s delicacy. I thought
that, having seen how I had spent six hours with that young girl,
knowing for a certainty that I intended to marry her, M---- M----
would never be guilty of such base treason. All these thoughts,
worthy only of a weak and bashful jealousy, brought no conclusive
decision. I had to follow the current and watch events.
At the appointed time I repaired to the casino, where I found my two
lovely friends sitting by the fire.
"Good evening, my two divinities, where is our charming Frenchman?"
"He has not arrived yet," answered M---- M----, "but he will
doubtless soon be here."
I took off my mask, and sitting between them, I gave them a thousand
kisses, taking good care not to shew any preference, and although I
knew that they were aware of the unquestionable right I had upon both
of them, I kept within the limits of the utmost decency. I
congratulated them upon the mutual inclination they felt for each
other, and I saw that they were pleased not to have to blush on that
account.
More than one hour was spent in gallant and friendly conversation,
without my giving any satisfaction to my burning desires. M--- M----
attracted me more than C---- C----, but I would not for the world
have offended the charming girl. M---- M---- was beginning to shew
some anxiety about the absence of M. de Bernis, when the door-keeper
brought her a note from him.
"A courier," he wrote, "who arrived two hours ago, prevents my being
happy to-night, for I am compelled to pass it in answering the
dispatches I have received. I trust that you will forgive and pity
me. May I hope that you will kindly grant me on Friday the pleasure
of which I am so unfortunately deprived to-day? Let me know your
answer by to-morrow. I wish ardently, in that case, to find you with
the same guests, to whom I beg you will present my affectionate
compliments."
"Well," said M---- M----, "it is not his fault. We will sup without
him. Will you come on Friday?"
"Yes, with the greatest pleasure. But what is the matter with you,
dear C---- C----? You look sad."
"Sad, no, unless it should be for the sake of my friend, for I have
never seen a more polite and more obliging gentleman."
"Very well, dear, I am glad he has rendered you so sensible."
"What do you mean? Could anyone be insensible to his merit?"
"Better still, but I agree with you. Only tell me if you love him?"
"Well, even if I loved him, do you think I would go and tell him?
Besides, I am certain that he loves my friend."
So saying, she sat down on M---- M----'s knee, calling her her own
little wife, and my two beauties began to bestow on one another
caresses which made me laugh heartily. Far from troubling their
sport, I excited them, in order to enjoy a spectacle with which I had
long been acquainted.
M---- M---- took up a book full of the most lascivious engravings,
and said, with a significant glance in my direction:
"Do you wish me to have a fire lighted in the alcove?"
I understood her, and replied:
"You would oblige me, for the bed being large we can all three sleep
comfortably in it."
I guessed that she feared my suspecting the ambassador of enjoying
from the mysterious closet the sight of our amorous trio, and she
wished to destroy that suspicion by her proposal.
The table having been laid in front of the alcove, supper was served,
and we all did honour to it. We were all blessed with a devouring
appetite. While M---- M---- was teaching her friend how to mix
punch, I was admiring with delight the progress made in beauty by
C---- C----.
"Your bosom," I said to her, "must have become perfect during the
last nine months."
"It is like mine," answered M---- M----, "would you like to see for
yourself?"
Of course I did not refuse. M---- M---- unlaced her friend, who made
no resistance, and performing afterwards the same office upon
herself, in less than two minutes I was admiring four rivals
contending for the golden apple like the three goddesses, and which
would have set at defiance the handsome Paris himself to adjudge the
prize without injustice. Need I say what an ardent fire that
ravishing sight sent coursing through my veins? I placed immediately
an the table the Academie des Dames, and pointed out a certain
position to M---- M----, who, understanding my wishes, said to C----
C----:
"Will you, darling, represent that group with me?"
A look of compliance was C---- C----'s only answer; she was not yet
inured to amorous pleasures as much as her lovely teacher. While I
was laughing with delight, the two friends were getting ready, and in
a few minutes we were all three in bed, and in a state of nature. At
first, satisfied with enjoying the sight of the barren contest of my
two bacchanalians, I was amused by their efforts and by the contrast
of colours, for one was dark and the other fair, but soon, excited
myself, and consumed by all the fire of voluptuousness, I threw
myself upon them, and I made them, one after the other, almost faint
away from the excess of love and enjoyment.
Worn out and satiated with pleasure, I invited them to take some
rest. We slept until we were awakened by the alarum, which I had
taken care to set at four o'clock. We were certain of turning to
good account the two hours we had then to spare before parting
company, which we did at the dawn of day, humiliated at having to
confess our exhaustion, but highly pleased with each other, and
longing for a renewal of our delightful pleasures.
The next day, however, when I came to think of that rather too lively
night, during which, as is generally the case, Love had routed
Reason, I felt some remorse. M---- M---- wanted to convince me of
her love, and for that purpose she had combined all the virtues which
I attached to my own affection--namely, honour, delicacy, and truth,
but her temperament, of which her mind was the slave, carried her
towards excess, and she prepared everything in order to give way to
it, while she awaited the opportunity of making me her accomplice.
She was coaxing love to make it compliant, and to succeed in
mastering it, because her heart, enslaved by her senses, never
reproached her. She likewise tried to deceive herself by
endeavouring to forget that I might complain of having been
surprised. She knew that to utter such a complaint I would have to
acknowledge myself weaker or less courageous than she was, and she
relied upon my being ashamed to make such a confession. I had no
doubt whatever that the absence of the ambassador had been arranged
and concerted beforehand. I could see still further, for it seemed
evident to me that the two conspirators had foreseen that I would
guess the artifice, and that, feeling stung to the quick, in spite of
all my regrets, I would not shew myself less generous than they had
been themselves. The ambassador having first procured me a
delightful night, how could I refuse to let him enjoy as pleasant a
one? My friends had argued very well, for, in spite of all the
objections of my mind, I saw that I could not on my side put any
obstacle in their way. C---- C---- was no impediment to them. They
were certain of conquering her the moment she was not hindered by my
presence. It rested entirely with M---- M----, who had perfect
control over her. Poor girl! I saw her on the high road to
debauchery, and it was my own doing! I sighed when I thought how
little I had spared them in our last orgie, and what would become of
me if both of them should happen to be, by my doing, in such a
position as to be compelled to run away from the convent? I could
imagine both of them thrown upon my hands, and the prospect was not
particularly agreeable. It would be an 'embarras de richesse'. In
this miserable contest between reason and prejudice, between nature
and sentiment, I could not make up my mind either to go to the supper
or to remain absent from it. "If I go," said I to myself, "that
night will pass with perfect decency, but I shall prove myself very
ridiculous, jealous, ungrateful, and even wanting in common
politeness: if I remain absent, C---- C---- is lost, at least, in my
estimation, for I feel that my love will no longer exist, and then
good-bye to all idea of a marriage with her." In the perplexity of
mind in which I found myself, I felt a want of something more certain
than mere probabilities to base my decision upon. I put on my mask,
and repaired to the mansion of the French ambassador. I addressed
myself to the gate-keeper, saying that I had a letter for Versailles,
and that I would thank him to deliver it to the courier when he went
back to France with his excellency's dispatches.
"But, sir," answered the man, "we have not had a special courier for
the last two months:"
"What? Did not a special cabinet messenger arrive here last night?"
"Then he must have come in through the garret window or down the
chimney, for, on the word of an honest man, none entered through the
gate."
"But the ambassador worked all night?"
"That may be, sir, but not here, for his excellency dined with the
Spanish ambassador, and did not return till very late:"
I had guessed rightly. I could no longer entertain any doubt. It
was all over; I could not draw back without shame. C---- C---- must
resist, if the game was distasteful to her; no violence would of
course be offered to her. The die was cast!
Towards evening I went to the casino of Muran, and wrote a short note
to M---- M----, requesting her to excuse me if some important
business of M. de Bragadin's prevented me from spending the night
with her and with our two friends, to whom I sent my compliments as
well as my apologies. After that I returned to Venice, but in rather
an unpleasant mood; to divert myself I went to the gaming table, and
lost all night.
Two days afterwards, being certain that a letter from M---- M----
awaited me at Muran, I went over, and the door-keeper handed me a
parcel in which I found a note from my nun and a letter from C----
C----, for everything was now in common between them.
Here is C---- C ----'s letter"
"We were very sorry, dearest friend, when we heard that we should not
have the happiness of seeing you. My dear M---- M----'s friend came
shortly afterwards, and when he read your note he likewise expressed
his deep regret. We expected to have a very dull supper, but the
witty sayings of that gentleman enlivened us and you cannot imagine
of what follies we were guilty after partaking of some champagne
punch. Our friend had become as gay as ourselves, and we spent the
night in trios, not very fatiguing, but very pleasant. I can assure
you that that man deserves to be loved, but he must acknowledge
himself inferior to you in everything. Believe me, dearest, I shall
ever love you, and you must for ever remain the master of my heart."
In spite of all my vexation, that letter made me laugh, but the note
of M---- M---- was much more singular. Here are the contents of it:
"I am certain, my own beloved, that you told a story out of pure
politeness, but you had guessed that I expected you to do so. You
have made our friend a splendid present in exchange for the one he
made you when he did not object to his M---- M---- bestowing her
heart upon you. You possess that heart entirely, dearest, and you
would possess it under all circumstances, but how sweet it is to
flavour the pleasures of love with the charms of friendship! I was
sorry not to see you, but I knew that if you had come we would not
have had much enjoyment; for our friend, notwithstanding all his wit,
is not exempt from some natural prejudices. As for C---- C-----, her
mind is now quite as free of them as our own, and I am glad she owes
it to me. You must feel thankful to me for having completed her
education, and for rendering her in every way worthy of you. I wish
you had been hiding in the closet, where I am certain you would have
spent some delightful hours. On Wednesday next I shall be yours, and
all alone with you in your casino in Venice; let me know whether you
will be at the usual hour near the statue of the hero Colleoni. In
case you should be prevented, name any other day."
I had to answer those two letters in the same spirit in which they
had been written, and in spite of all the bitter feelings which were
then raging in my heart, my answers were to be as sweet as honey. I
was in need of great courage, but I said to myself: "George Dandin,
tu las voulu!" I could not refuse to pay the penalty of my own
deeds, and I have never been able to ascertain whether the shame I
felt was what is called shamefacedness. It is a problem which I
leave to others.
In my letter to C---- C---- I had the courage, or the effrontery, to
congratulate her, and to encourage her to imitate M---- M----, the
best model, I said, I could propose to her.
I wrote to my nun that I would be punctual at the appointment near
the statue, and amidst many false compliments, which ought to have
betrayed the true state of my heart, I told her that I admired the
perfect education she had given to C---- C-----, but that I
congratulated myself upon having escaped the torture I should have
suffered in the mysterious observatory, for I felt that I could not
have borne it.
On the Wednesday I was punctual at the rendezvous, and I had not to
wait long for M---- M----, who came disguised in male attire. "No
theatre to-night," she said to me; "let us go to the 'ridotto', to
lose or double our money." She had six hundred sequins. I had about
one hundred. Fortune turned her back upon us, and we lost a11. I
expected that we would then leave that cutthroat place, but M----
M----, having left me for a minute, came back with three hundred
sequins which had been given to her by her friend, whom she knew
where to find. That money given by love or by friendship brought her
luck for a short time, and she soon won back all we had lost, but in
our greediness or imprudence we continued to play, and finally we
lost our last sequin.
When we could play no longer, M---- M---- said to me,
"Now that we need not fear thieves, let us go to our supper."
That woman, religious and a Free-thinker, a libertine and gambler,
was wonderful in all she did. She had just lost five hundred pounds,
and she was as completely at her ease as if she had won a very large
sum. It is true that the money she had just lost had not cost her
much.
As soon as we were alone, she found me sad and low-spirited, although
I tried hard not to appear so, but, as for her, always the same, she
was handsome, brilliant, cheerful, and amorous.
She thought she would bring back my spirits by giving me the fullest
particulars of the night she had passed with C---- C---- and her
friend, but she ought to have guessed that she was going the wrong
way. That is a very common error, it comes from the mind, because
people imagine that what they feel themselves others must feel
likewise.
I was on thorns, and I tried everything to avoid that subject, and to
lead the conversation into a different channel, for the amorous
particulars, on which she was dwelling with apparent delight, vexed
me greatly, and spite causing coldness, I was afraid of not playing
my part very warmly in the amorous contest which was at hand. When a
lover doubts his own strength, he may almost always be sure that he
will fail in his efforts.
After supper we went to bed in the alcove, where the beauty, the
mental and physical charms, the grace and the ardour of my lovely
nun, cast all my bad temper to the winds, and soon restored me to my
usual good-spirits. The nights being shorter we spent two hours in
the most delightful pleasures, and then parted, satisfied and full of
love.
Before leaving, M---- M---- asked me to go to her casino, to take
some money and to play, taking her for my partner. I did so. I took
all the gold I found, and playing the martingale, and doubling my
stakes continuously, I won every day during the remainder of the
carnival. I was fortunate enough never to lose the sixth card, and,
if I had lost it, I should have been without money to play, for I had
two thousand sequins on that card. I congratulated myself upon
having increased the treasure of my dear mistress, who wrote to me
that, for the sake of civility, we ought to have a supper 'en partie
carree' on Shrove Monday. I consented.
That supper was the last I ever had in my life with C---- C----. She
was in excellent spirits, but I had made up my mind, and as I paid
all my attentions to M---- M----, C---- C---- imitated my example
without difficulty, and she devoted herself wholly to her new lover.
Foreseeing that we would, a little later, be all of us in each
other's way, I begged M---- M---- to arrange everything so that we
could be apart, and she contrived it marvellously well.
After supper, the ambassador proposed a game of faro, which our
beauties did not know; he called for cards, and placed one hundred
Louis on the table before him; he dealt, and took care to make C----
C---- win the whole of that sum. It was the best way to make her
accept it as pin-money. The young girl, dazzled by so much gold, and
not knowing what to do with it, asked her friend to take care of it
for her until such time as she should leave the convent to get
married.
When the game was over, M---- M---- complained of a headache, and
said that she would go to bed in the alcove: she asked me to come and
lull her to sleep. We thus left the new lovers free to be as gay as
they chose. Six hours afterwards, when the alarum warned us that it
was time to part, we found them asleep in each other's embrace. I
had myself passed an amorous and quiet night, pleased with M----
M----, and with out giving one thought to C---- C----.
CHAPTER XXII
M. De Bernis Goes Away Leaving Me the Use of His Casino--His Good
Advice: How I Follow It--Peril of M. M. and Myself--Mr. Murray, the
English Ambassador--Sale of the Casino and End of Our Meetings--
Serious Illness of M. M.--Zorzi and Condulmer--Tonnie
Though the infidelities of C---- C----made me look at her with other
eyes than before, and I had now no intention of making her the
companion of my life, I could not help feeling that it had rested
with me to stop her on the brink of the stream, and I therefore
considered it my duty always to be her friend.
If I had been more logical, the resolution I took with respect to her
would doubtless have been of another kind. I should have said to
myself: After seducing her, I myself have set the example of
infidelity; I have bidden her to follow blindly the advice of her
friend, although I knew that the advice and the example of M--- M----
would end in her ruin; I had insulted, in the most grievous manner,
the delicacy of my mistress, and that before her very eyes, and after
all this how could I ask a weak woman to do what a man, priding
himself on his strength, would shrink from at tempting? I should
have stood self-condemned, and have felt that it was my duty to
remain the same to her, but flattering myself that I was overcoming
mere prejudices, I was in fact that most degraded of slaves, he who
uses his strength to crush the weak.
The day after Shrove Tuesday, going to the casino of Muran, I found
there a letter from M---- M----, who gave me two pieces of bad news:
that C---- C---- had lost her mother, and that the poor girl was in
despair; and that the lay-sister, whose rheum was cured, had returned
to take her place. Thus C---- C---- was deprived of her friend at a
time when she would have given her consolation, of which she stood in
great need. C---- C----, it seemed, had gone to share the rooms of
her aunt, who, being very fond of her, had obtained permission from
the superior. This circumstance would prevent the ambassador taking
any more suppers with her, and I should have been delighted if chance
had put this obstacle in his path a few days sooner.
All these misfortunes seemed of small account com pared with what I
was afraid of, for C---- C---- might have to pay the price for her
pleasures, and I so far regarded myself as the origin of her
unhappiness as to feel bound never to abandon her, and this might
have involved me in terrible complications.
M---- M---- asked me to sup with her and her lover on the following
Monday. I went and found them both sad--he for the loss of his new
mistress, and she because she had no longer a friend to make the
seclusion of the convent pleasant.
About midnight M. de Bemis left us, saying in a melancholy manner
that he feared he should be obliged to pass several months in Vienna
on important diplomatic business. Before parting we agreed to sup
together every Friday.
When we were alone M---- M---- told me that the ambassador would be
obliged to me if in the future I would come to the casino two hours
later. I understood that the good-natured and witty profligate had a
very natural prejudice against indulging his amorous feelings except
when he was certain of being alone.
M. de Bemis came to all our suppers till he left for Vienna, and
always went away at midnight. He no longer made use of his hiding-
place, partly because we now only lay in the recess, and partly
because, having had time to make love before my arrival, his desires
were appeased. M---- M---- always found me amorous. My love,
indeed, was even hotter than it had been, since, only seeing her once
a week and remaining faithful to her, I had always an abundant
harvest to gather in. C---- C----'s letters which she brought to me
softened me to tears, for she said that after the loss of her mother
she could not count upon the friendship of any of her relations. She
called me her sole friend, her only protector, and in speaking of her
grief in not being able to see me any more whilst she remained in the
convent, she begged me to remain faithful to her dear friend.
On Good Friday, when I got to the casino, I found the lovers over-
whelmed with grief. Supper was served, but the ambassador, downcast
and absent, neither ate nor spoke; and M---- M---- was like a statue
that moves at intervals by some mechanism. Good sense and ordinary
politeness prevented me from asking any questions, but on M---- M----
leaving us together, M. de Bemis told me that she was distressed,
and with reason, since he was obliged to set out for Vienna fifteen
days after Easter. "I may tell you confidentially," he added, "that
I believe I shall scarcely be able to return, but she must not be
told, as she would be in despair." M---- M---- came back in a few
minutes, but it was easy to see that she had been weeping.
After some commonplace conversation, M. de Bernis, seeing M----M----
still low-spirited, said,
"Do not grieve thus, sweetheart, go I must, but my return is a matter
of equal certainty when I have finished the important business which
summons me to Vienna. You will still have the casino, but, dearest,
both friendship and prudence make me advise you not to come here in
my absence, for after I have left Venice I cannot depend upon the
faith of the gondoliers in my service, and I suspect our friend here
cannot flatter himself on his ability to get reliable ones. I may
also tell you that I have strong reasons for suspecting that our
intercourse is known to the State Inquisitors, who conceal their
knowledge for political reasons, but I fancy the secret would soon
come to light when I am no longer here, and when the nun who connives
at your departure from the convent knows that it is no longer for me
that you leave it. The only people whom I would trust are the
housekeeper and his wife. I shall order them, before I go, to look
upon our friend here as myself, and you can make your arrangements
with them. I trust all will go well till my return, if you will only
behave discreetly. I will write to you under cover of the
housekeeper, his wife will give you my letters as before, and in the
same way you may reply. I must needs go, dearest one, but my heart
is with you, and I leave you, till my return, in the hands of a
friend, whom I rejoice to have known. He loves you, he has a heart
and knowledge of the world, and he will not let you make any
mistakes."
M---- M---- was so affected by what the ambassador had said that she
entreated us to let her go, as she wished to be alone and to lie
down. As she went we agreed to sup together on the following
Thursday.
As soon as we were alone the ambassador impressed me with the
absolute necessity of concealing from her that he was going to return
no more. "I am going," said he, "to work in concert with the
Austrian cabinet on a treaty which will be the talk of Europe. I
entreat you to write to me unreservedly, and as a friend, and if you
love our common mistress, have a care for her honour, and above all
have the strength of mind to resist all projects which are certain to
involve you in misfortune, and which will be equally fatal to both.
You know what happened to Madame de Riva, a nun in the convent of
St.----. She had to disappear after it became known that she was
with child, and M. de Frulai, my predecessor, went mad, and died
shortly after. J. J. Rousseau told me that he died of poison, but he
is a visionary who sees the black side of everything. For my part, I
believe that he died of grief at not being able to do anything for
the unfortunate woman, who afterwards procured a dispensation from
her vows from the Pope, and having got married is now living at Padua
without any position in society.
"Let the prudent and loyal friend master the lover: go and see M----
M---- sometimes in the parlour of the convent, but not here, or the
boatmen will betray you. The knowledge which we both have that the
girls are in a satisfactory condition is a great alleviation to my
distress, but you must confess that you have been very imprudent.
You have risked a terrible misfortune; consider the position you
would have been in, for I am sure you would not have abandoned her.
She had an idea that the danger might be overcome by means of drugs
but I convinced her that she was mistaken. In God's name, be
discreet in the future, and write to me fully, for I shall always be
interested in her fate, both from duty and sentiment."
We returned together to Venice, where we separated, and I passed the
rest of the night in great distress. In the morning I wrote to the
fair afflicted, and whilst endeavouring to console her to the best of
my ability, I tried to impress on her the necessity for prudence and
the avoidance of such escapades as might eventually ruin us.
Next day I received her reply, every word of which spelt despair.
Nature had given her a disposition which had become so intensified by
indulgence that the cloister was unbearable to her, and I foresaw the
hard fights I should have to undergo.
We saw each other the Thursday after Easter, and I told her that I
should not come to the casino before midnight. She had had four
hours to pass with her lover in tears and regrets, amongst which she
had often cursed her cruel fate and the foolish resolution which made
her take the veil. We supped together, and although the meal was a
rich and delicate one we did it little honour. When we had finished,
the ambassador left, entreating me to remain, which I did, without
thinking at all of the pleasures of a party of two, for Love lighteth
not his torch at the hearts of two lovers who are full of grief and
sorrow. M---- M---- had grown thin, and her condition excited my
pity and shut out all other feelings. I held her a long time in my
arms, covering her with tender and affectionate kisses, but I shewed
no intention of consoling her by amusements in which her spirit could
not have taken part. She said, before we parted, that I had shewn
myself a true lover, and she asked me to consider myself from
henceforth as her only friend and protector.
Next week, when we were together as usual, M. de Bemis called the
housekeeper just before supper, and in his presence executed a deed
in my behalf, which he made him sign. In this document he
transferred to me all rights over the contents of the casino, and
charged him to consider me in all things as his master.
We arranged to sup together two days after, to make our farewells,
but on my arrival I found by herself, standing up, and pale as death,
or rather as white as a statue of Carrara marble.
"He is gone," she said, "and he leaves me to your care. Fatal being,
whom perchance I shall see no more, whom I thought I loved but as a
friend, now you are lost to me I see my mistake. Before I knew him I
was not happy, but neither was I unhappy as I now am."
I passed the whole night beside her, striving by the most delicate
attentions to soften her grief, but with out success. Her character,
as abandoned to sorrow as to pleasure, was displayed to me during
that long and weary night. She told me at what hour I should come to
the convent parlour, the next day, and on my arrival I was delighted
to find her not quite so sad. She shewed me a letter which her lover
had written to her from Trevisa, and she then told me that I must
come and see her twice a week, warning me that she would be
accompanied sometimes by one nun and sometimes by another, for she
foresaw that my visits would become the talk of the convent, when it
became known that I was the individual who used to go to mass at
their church. She therefore told me to give in another name, to
prevent C---- C----'s aunt from becoming suspicious.
"Nevertheless," she added, "this will not prevent my coming alone
when I nave any matter of importance to communicate to you. Promise
me, sweetheart, to sup and sleep at the casino at least once a week,
and write me a note each time by the housekeeper's wife."
I made no difficulty in promising her that much.
We thus passed a fortnight quietly enough, as she was happy again,
and her amorous inclinations had returned in full force. About this
time she gave me a piece of news which delighted me--namely, that
C---- C---- had no longer anything to fear.
Full of amorous wishes and having to be content with the teasing
pleasure of seeing one another through a wretched grating, we racked
our brains to find out some way to be alone together to do what we
liked, without any risk.
"I am assured," she said, "of the good faith of the gardener's
sister. I can go out and come in without fear of being seen, for the
little door leading to the convent is not overlooked by any window--
indeed it is thought to be walled up. Nobody can see me crossing the
garden to the little stream, which is considered unnavigable. All we
want is a one-oared gondola, and I cannot believe that with the help
of money you will be unable to find a boatman on whom we may rely."
I understood from these expressions that she suspected me of becoming
cold towards her, and this suspicion pierced me to the heart.
"Listen," said I, "I will be the boatman myself. I will come to the
quay, pass by the little door, and you shall lead me to your room
where I will pass the whole night with you, and the day, too, if you
think you can hide me."
"That plan," said she, "makes me shudder. I tremble at the danger to
which you might be exposed. No, I should be too unfortunate if I
were to be the cause of your misfortune, but, as you can row, come in
the boat, let me know the time as closely as possible; the trusty
woman will be on the watch, and I will not keep you four minutes
waiting. I will get into the boat, we will go to our beloved casino,
and then we shall be happy without fearing anything."
"I will think it over"
The way I took to satisfy her was as follows: I bought a small boat,
and without telling her I went one night all by myself round the
island to inspect the walls of the convent on the side of the lagune.
With some difficulty I made out a little door, which I judged to be
the only one by which she could pass, but to go from there to the
casino was no small matter, since one was obliged to fetch a wide
course, and with one oar I could not do the passage in less than a
quarter of an hour, and that with much toil. Nevertheless, feeling
sure of success, I told my pretty nun of the plan, and never was news
received with so much pleasure. We set our watches together, and
fixed our meeting for the Friday following.
On the day appointed, an hour before sunset, I betook myself to St.
Francis de la Vigne, where I kept my boat, and having set it in order
and dressed myself as a boatman, I got upon the poop and held a
straight course for the little door, which opened the moment I
arrived. M---- M---- came out wrapped in a cloak, and someone
shutting the door after her she got on board my frail bark, and in a
quarter of an hour we were at the casino. M---- M---- made haste to
go in, but I stayed to belay my boat with a lock and chain against
thieves, who pass the night pleasantly by stealing whatever they can
lay hands on.
Though I had rowed easily enough, I was in a bath of perspiration,
which, however, by no means hindered my charming mistress from
falling on my neck; the pleasure of meeting seemed to challenge her
love, and, proud of what I had done, I enjoyed her transports.
Not dreaming that I should have any occasion for a change of linen, I
had brought none with me, but she soon found a cure for this defect;
for after having undressed me she dried me lovingly, gave me one of
her smocks, and I found myself dressed to admiration.
We had been too long deprived of our amorous pleasures to think of
taking supper before we had offered a plenteous sacrifice to love.
We spent two hours in the sweetest of intoxications, our bliss
seeming more acute than at our first meeting. In spite of the fire
which consumed me, in spite of the ardour of my mistress, I was
sufficiently master of myself to disappoint her at the critical
moment, for the picture which our friend had drawn was always before
my eyes. M---- M----, joyous and wanton, having me for the first
time in the character of boatman, augmented our delights by her
amorous caprices, but it was useless for her to try to add fuel to my
flame, since I loved her better than myself.
The night was short, for she was obliged to return at three in the
morning, and it struck one as we sat down to table. As the climax of
ill luck a storm came on whilst we were at supper. Our hair stood on
end; our only hope was founded in the nature of these squalls, which
seldom last more than an hour. We were in hopes, also, that it would
not leave behind it too strong a wind, as is sometimes the case, for
though I was strong and sturdy I was far from having the skill or
experience of a professional boatman.
In less than half an hour the storm became violent, one flash of
lightning followed another, the thunder roared, and the wind grew to
a gale. Yet after a heavy rain, in less than an hour, the sky
cleared, but there was no moon, it being the day after the Ascension.
Two o'clock stuck. I put my head out at the window, but perceive
that a contrary gale is blowing.
'Ma tiranno del mar Libecchio resta.'
This Libecchio which Ariosto calls--and with good reason--the tyrant
of the sea, is the southwesterly wind, which is commonly called
'Garbin' at Venice. I said nothing, but I was frightened. I told my
sweetheart that we must needs sacrifice an hour of pleasure, since
prudence would have it so.
"Let us set out forthwith, for if the gale gets stronger I shall not
be able to double the island."
She saw my advice was not to be questioned, and taking the key of her
strong box, whence she desired to get some money, she was delighted
to find her store increased fourfold. She thanked me for having told
her nothing about it, assuring me she would have of me nothing but my
heart, and following me she got into my boat and lay down at full
length so as not to hinder its motion, I got upon the poop, as full
of fear as courage, and in five minutes I had the good luck to double
the point. But there it was that the tyrant was waiting for me, and
it was not long before I felt that my strength would not outlast that
of the winds. I rowed with all my strength, but all I could do was
to prevent my boat from going back. For half an hour I was in this
pitiful state, and I felt my strength failing without daring to say a
word. I was out of breath, but could not rest a moment, since the
least relaxation would have let the boat slip a far way back, and
this would have been a distance hard to recover. M---- M---- lay
still and silent, for she perceived I had no breath wherewith to
answer her. I began to give ourselves up as lost.
At that instant I saw in the distance a barque coming swiftly towards
us. What a piece of luck! I waited till she caught us up, for if I
had not done so I should not have been able to make myself heard, but
as soon as I saw her at my left hand, twelve feet off, I shouted,
"Help! I will give two sequins!"
They lowered sail and came towards me, and on their hailing me I
asked for a man to take us to the opposite point of the island. They
asked a sequin in advance, I gave it them, and promised the other to
the man who would get on my poop and help me to make the point. In
less than ten minutes we were opposite to the little stream leading
to the convent, but the secret of it was too dear to be hazarded, so
as soon as we reached the point I paid my preserver and sent him
back. Henceforth the wind was in our favour, and we soon got to the
little door, where M---- M---- landed, saying to me, "Go and sleep in
the casino." I thought her advice wise, and I followed it, and
having the wind behind me I got to the casino without trouble, and
slept till broad day. As soon as I had risen I wrote to my dear
mistress that I was well, and that we should see each other at the
grating. Having taken my boat back to St. Francis, I put on my mask
and went to Liston.
In the morning M---- M---- came to the grating by herself, and we
made all such observations as our adventures of the night would be
likely to suggest, but in place of deciding to follow the advice
which prudence should have given us-namely, not to expose ourselves
to danger for the future, we thought ourselves extremely prudent in
resolving that if we were again threatened by a storm we would set
out as soon as we saw it rising. All the same we had to confess that
if chance had not thrown the barque in our way we should have been
obliged to return to the casino, for M---- M---- could not have got
to the convent, and how could she ever have entered its walls again?
I should have been forced to leave Venice with her, and that for
ever. My life would have been finally and irretrievably linked with
hers, and, without doubt, the various adventures which at the age of
seventy-two years impel me to write these Memoirs, would never have
taken place.
For the next three months we continued to meet each other once a
week, always amorous, and never disturbed by the slightest accidents.
M---- M---- could not resist giving the ambassador a full account of
our adventures, and I had promised to write to him, and always to
write the whole truth. He replied by congratulating us on our good
fortune, but he prophesied inevitable disaster if we had not the
prudence to stop our intercourse.
Mr. Murray, the English ambassador, a witty and handsome man, and a
great amateur of the fair sex, wine, and good cheer, then kept the
fair Ancilla, who introduced me to him. This fine fellow became my
friend in much the same way as M. de Bernis, the only difference
being that the Frenchman liked to look on while the Englishman
preferred to give the show. I was never unwelcome at their amorous
battles, and the voluptuous Ancilla was delighted to have me for a
witness. I never gave them the pleasure of mingling in the strife.
I loved M---- M----, but I should avow that my fidelity to her was
not entirely dependent on my love. Though Ancilla was handsome she
inspired me with repugnance, for she was always hoarse, and
complained of a sharp pain in the throat, and though her lover kept
well, I was afraid of her, and not without cause, for the disease
which ended the days of Francis I. of France brought her to the grave
in the following autumn. A quarter of an hour before she died, her
brave Briton, yielding to the lascivious requests of this new
Messalina, offered in my presence the last sacrifice, in spite of a
large sore on her face which made her look hideous.
This truly heroic action was known all over the town, and it was
Murray himself who made it known, citing me as his witness.
This famous courtezan, whose beauty was justly celebrated, feeling
herself eaten away by an internal disease, promised to give a hundred
louis to a doctor named Lucchesi, who by dint of mercury undertook to
cure her, but Ancilla specified on the agreement that she was not to
pay the aforesaid sum till Lucchesi had offered with her an amorous
sacrifice.
The doctor having done his business as well as he could wished to be
paid without submitting to the conditions of the treaty, but Ancilla
held her ground, and the matter was brought before a magistrate.
In England, where all agreements are binding, Ancilla would have won
her case, but at Venice she lost it.
The judge, in giving sentence, said a condition, criminal per se, not
fulfilled, did not invalidate an agreement--a sentence abounding in
wisdom, especially in this instance.
Two months before this woman had become disgusting, my friend M.
Memmo, afterwards procurator, asked me to take him to her house. In
the height of the conversation, what should come but a gondola, and
we saw Count Rosemberg, the ambassador from Vienna, getting out of
it. M. Memmo was thunderstruck (for a Venetian noble conversing with
a foreign ambassador becomes guilty of treason to the state), and ran
in hot haste from Ancilla's room, I after him, but on the stair he
met the ambassador, who, seeing his distress, burst into a laugh, and
passed on. I got directly into M. Memmo's gondola, and we went
forthwith to M. Cavalli, secretary to the State Inquisitors.
M. Memmo could have taken no better course to avoid the troublesome
consequences which this fatal meeting might have had, and he was very
glad that I was with him to testify to his innocence and to the
harmlessness of the occurrence.
M. Cavalli received M. Memmo with a smile, and told him he did well
to come to confession without wasting any time. M. Memmo, much
astonished at this reception, told him the brief history of the
meeting, and the secretary replied with a grave air that he had no
doubt as to the truth of his story, as the circumstances were in
perfect correspondence with what he knew of the matter.
We came away extremely puzzled at the secretary's reply, and
discussed the subject for some time, but then we came to the
conclusion that M. Cavalli could have had no positive knowledge of
the matter before we came, and that he only spoke as he did from the
instinct of an Inquisitor, who likes it to be understood that nothing
is hid from him for a moment.
After the death of Ancilla, Mr. Murray remained without a titular
mistress, but, fluttering about like a butterfly, he had, one after
another, the prettiest girls in Venice. This good-natured Epicurean
set out for Constantinople two years later, and was for twenty years
the ambassador of the Court of St. James at the Sublime Porte. He
returned to Venice in 1778 with the intention of ending his days
there, far from affairs of state, but he died in the lazaretto eight
days before the completion of his quarantine.
At play fortune continued to favour me; my commerce with M---- M----
could not be discovered now that I was my own waterman ; and the nuns
who were in the secret were too deeply involved not to keep it. I
led them a merry life, but I foresaw that as soon as M. de Bernis
decided to let M---- M---- know that he would not return to Venice,
he would recall his people, and we should then have the casino no
longer. I knew, besides, that when the rough season came on it would
be impossible for me by myself to continue our voyages.
The first Monday in October, when the theatres are opened and masks
may be worn, I went to St. Francis to get my boat, and thence to
Muran for my mistress, afterwards making for the casino. The nights
were now long enough for us to have ample time for enjoyment, so we
began by making an excellent supper, and then devoted ourselves to
the worship of Love and Sleep. Suddenly, in the midst of a moment of
ecstasy, I heard a noise in the direction of the canal, which aroused
my suspicions, and I rushed to the window. What was my astonishment
and anger to see a large boat taking mine in tow! Nevertheless,
without giving way to my passion, I shouted to the robbers that I
would give them ten sequins if they would be kind enough to return me
my boat.
A shout of laughter was all the reply they made, and not believing
what I said they continued their course. What was I to do? I dared
not cry, "Stop thief!" and not being endued with the power of walking
on the water dry-footed, I could not give chase to the robbers. I
was in the utmost distress, and for the moment M---- M---- shewed
signs of terror, for she did not see how I could remedy this
disaster.
I dressed myself hastily, giving no more thoughts to love, my only
comfort being that I had still two hours to get the indispensable
boat, should it cost me a hundred sequins. I should have been in no
perplexity if I had been able to take one, but the gondoliers would
infallibly make proclamation over the whole of Muran that they had
taken a nun to such a convent, and all would have been lost.
The only way, then, that was open to me was either to buy a boat or
to steal one. I put my pistols and dagger in my pocket, took some
money, and with an oar on my shoulder set out.
The robbers had filed the chain of my boat with a silent file; this I
could not do, and I could only reckon on having the good luck to find
a boat moored with cords.
Coming to the large bridge I saw boats and to spare, but there were
people on the quay, and I would not risk taking one. Seeing a tavern
open at the end of the quay I ran like a madman, and asked if there
were any boatmen there; the drawer told me there were two, but that
they were drunk. I came up to them, and said, "Who will take me to
Venice for eighty sous?"
"I," and "I"; and they began to quarrel as to who should go. I
quieted them by giving forty sous to the more drunken of the two, and
I went out with the other.
As soon as we were on our way, I said,
"You are too drunk to take me, lend me your boat, and I will give it
you back to-morrow."
"I don't know you."
"I will deposit ten sequins, but your boat is not worth that. Who
will be your surety?"
He took me back to the tavern, and the drawer went bail for him.
Well pleased, I took my man to the boat, and having furnished it with
a second oar and two poles he went away, chuckling at having made a
good bargain, while I was as glad to have had the worst of it. I had
been an hour away, and on entering the casino found my dear M----
M---- in an agony, but as soon as she saw my beaming face all the
laughter came back on hers. I took her to the convent, and then went
to St. Francis, where the keeper of the boathouse looked as if he
thought me a fool, when I told him that I had trucked away my boat
for the one I had with me. I put on my mask, and went forthwith to
my lodging and to bed, for these annoyances had been too much for me.
About this time my destiny made me acquainted with a nobleman called
Mark Antony Zorzi, a man of parts and famous for his skill in writing
verses in the Venetian dialect. Zorzi, who was very fond of the
play, and desired to offer a sacrifice to Thalia, wrote a comedy
which the audience took the liberty of hissing; but having persuaded
himself that his piece only failed through the conspiracies of the
Abbe Chiari, who wrote for the Theatre of St. Angelo, he declared
open war against all the abbe's plays.
I felt no reluctance whatever to visit M. Zorzi, for he possessed an
excellent cook and a charming wife. He knew that I did not care for
Chiari as an author, and M. Zorzi had in his pay people who, without
pity, rhyme, or reason, hissed all the compositions of the
ecclesiastical playwright. My part was to criticise them in hammer
verses--a kind of doggerel then much in fashion, and Zorzi took care
to distribute my lucubrations far and wide. These manoeuvres made me
a powerful enemy in the person of M. Condulmer, who liked me none the
better for having all the appearance of being in high favour with
Madame Zorzi, to whom before my appearance he had paid diligent
court. This M. Condulmer was to be excused for not caring for me,
for, having a large share in the St. Angelo Theatre, the failure of
the abbe's pieces was a loss to him, as the boxes had to be let at a
very low rent, and all men are governed by interested motives.
This M. Condulmer was sixty years old, but with all the greenness of
youth he was still fond of women, gaming, and money, and he was, in
fact, a money-lender, but he knew how to pass for a saint, as he took
care to go to mass every morning at St. Mark's, and never omitted to
shed tears before the crucifix. The following year he was made a
councillor, and in that capacity he was for eight months a State
Inquisitor. Having thus attained this diabolically-eminent, or
eminently-diabolical, position, he had not much difficulty in shewing
his colleagues the necessity of putting me under The Leads as a
disturber of the peace of the Republic. In the beginning of the
winter the astounding news of the treaty between France and Austria
was divulged--a treaty by which the political balance was entirely
readjusted, and which was received with incredulity by the Powers.
The whole of Italy had reason to rejoice, for the treaty guarded that
fair land from becoming the theatre of war on the slightest
difference which might arise between the two Powers. What astonished
the most acute was that this wonderful treaty was conceived and
carried out by a young ambassador who had hitherto been famed only as
a wit. The first foundations had been laid in 1750 by Madame de
Pompadour, Count Canes (who was created a prince), and M. l'Abbe de
Bernis, who was not known till the following year, when the king made
him ambassador to Venice. The House of Bourbon and the House of
Hapsburg had been foes for two hundred and forty years when this
famous treaty was concluded, but it only lasted for forty years, and
it is not likely that any treaty will last longer between two courts
so essentially opposed to one another.
The Abbe de Bernis was created minister for foreign affairs some time
after the ratification of the treaty; three years after he re-
established the parliament, became a cardinal, was disgraced, and
finally sent to Rome, where he died. 'Mors ultimo linea rerum est'.
Affairs fell out as I had foreseen, for nine months after he left
Venice he conveyed to M---- M---- the news of his recall, though he
did it in the most delicate manner. Nevertheless, M---- M---- felt
the blow so severely that she would very possibly have succumbed, had
I not been preparing her for it in every way I could think of M. de
Bernis sent me all instructions.
He directed that all the contents of the casino should be sold and
the proceeds given to M---- M----, with the exception of the books
and prints which the housekeeper was ordered to bring to Paris. It
was a nice breviary for a cardinal, but would to God they had nothing
worse!
Whilst M---- M---- abandoned herself to grief I carried out the
orders of M. de Bernis, and by the middle of January we had no longer
a casino. She kept by her two thousand sequins and her pearls,
intending to sell them later on to buy herself an annuity.
We were now only able to see each other at the grating; and soon,
worn with grief, she fell dangerously ill, and on the 2nd of February
I recognized in her features the symptoms of approaching death. She
sent me her jewel-case, with all her diamonds and nearly all her
money, all the scandalous books she possessed, and all her letters,
telling me that if she did not die I was to return her the whole, but
that all belonged to me if, as she thought, she should succumb to the
disease. She also told me that C---- C---- was aware of her state,
and asked me to take pity on her and write to her, as my letters were
her only comfort, and that she hoped to have strength to read them
till her latest breath.
I burst into tears, for I loved her passionately, and I promised her
to come and live in Muran until she recovered her health.
Having placed the property in a gondola, I went to the Bragadin
Palace to deposit it, and then returned to Muran to get Laura to find
me a furnished room where I could live as I liked. "I know of a good
room, with meals provided," she said; "you will be quite comfortable
and will get it cheaply, and if you like to pay in advance, you need
not even say who you are. The old man to whom the house belongs
lives on the ground floor; he will give you all the keys and if you
like you need see no one."
She gave me the address, and I went there on the spot, and having
found everything to my liking I paid a month in advance and the thing
was done. It was a little house at the end of a blind alley abutting
on the canal. I returned to Laura's house to tell her that I wanted
a servant to get my food and to make my bed, and she promised to get
me one by the next day.
Having set all in order for my new lodging, I returned to Venice and
packed my mails as if I were about to make a long journey. After
supper I took leave of M. de Bragadin and of his two friends,
telling them that I was going to be away for several weeks on
important business.
Next day, going to my new room, I was surprised to find there Tonine,
Laura's daughter, a pretty girl not more than fifteen years old, who
told me with a blush, but with more spirit than I gave her credit
for, that she would serve me as well as her mother would have done.
I was in too much distress to thank Laura for this pretty present,
and I even determined that her daughter should not stay in my
service. We know how much such resolutions are commonly worth. In
the meanwhile I was kind to the girl: "I am sure," I said, "of your
goodwill, but I must talk to your mother. I must be alone," I added,
"as I have to write all day, and I shall not take anything till the
evening." She then gave me a letter, begging pardon for not having
given it me sooner. "You must never forget to deliver messages,"
I said, "for if you had waited any longer before bringing me this
letter, it might have had the most serious consequences." She
blushed, begged pardon, and went out of the room. The letter was
from C---- C----, who told me that her friend was in bed, and that
the doctor had pronounced her illness to be fever. I passed the rest
of the day in putting my room in order, and in writing to C---- C----
and her suffering friend.
Towards evening Tonine brought in the candles, and told me that my
supper was ready. "Follow me," I said. Seeing that she had only
laid supper for one--a pleasing proof of her modesty, I told her to
get another knife and fork, as I wished her always to take her meals
with me. I can give no account of my motives. I only wished to be
kind to her, and I did everything in good faith. By and by, reader,
we shall see whether this is not one of the devices by which the
devil compasses his ends.
Not having any appetite, I ate little, but I thought everything good
with the exception of the wine; but Tonine promised to get some
better by the next day, and when supper was over she went to sleep in
the ante-room.
After sealing my letters, wishing to know whether the outer door was
locked, I went out and saw Tonine in bed, sleeping peacefully, or
pretending to do so. I might have suspected her thoughts, but I had
never been in a similar situation, and I measured the extremity of my
grief by the indifference with which I looked at this girl; she was
pretty, but for all that I felt that neither she nor I ran any risk.
Next day, waking very early, I called her, and she came in neatly
dressed. I gave her my letter to C---- C----, which enclosed the
letter to M---- M----, telling her to take it to her mother and then
to return to make my coffee.
"I shall dine at noon, Tonine," I said, "take care to get what is
necessary in good time."
"Sir, I prepared yesterday's supper myself, and if you like I can
cook all your meals."
"I am satisfied with your abilities, go on, and here is a sequin for
expenses."
"I still have a hundred and twenty sous remaining from the one you
gave me yesterday, and that will be enough."
"No, they are for yourself, and I shall give you as much every day."
Her delight was so great that I could not prevent her covering my
hand with kisses. I took care to draw it back and not to kiss her in
return, for I felt as if I should be obliged to laugh, and this would
have dishonoured my grief.
The second day passed like the first. Tonine was glad that I said no
more about speaking to her mother, and drew the conclusion that her
services were agreeable to me. Feeling tired and weak, and fearing
that I should not wake early enough to send the letter to the
convent, but not wishing to rouse Tonine if she were asleep, I called
her softly. She rose immediately and came into my room with nothing
on but a slight petticoat. Pretending to see nothing, I gave her my
letter, and told her to take it to her mother in the morning before
she came into my room. She went out, saying that my instructions
should be carried out, but as soon as she was gone I could not resist
saying to myself that she was very pretty; and I felt both sad and
ashamed at the reflection that this girl could very easily console
me. I hugged my grief, and I determined to separate myself from a
being who made me forget it.
"In the morning," I said, "I will tell Laura to get me something less
seducing;" but the night brought counsel, and in the morning I put on
the armour of sophism, telling myself that my weakness was no fault
of the girl's, and that it would therefore be unjust to punish her
for it. We shall see, dear reader, how all this ended.
CHAPTER XXIII
Continues the Preceding Chapter--M. M. Recovers--I Return to Venice--
Tonine Consoles Me--Decrease of My Love For M. M.--Doctor Righelini--
Curious Conversation With Him--How This Conversation Affected M. M.--
Mr. Murray Undeceived and Avenged
Tontine had what is called tact and common sense, and thinking these
qualities were required in our economy she behaved with great
delicacy, not going to bed before receiving my letters, and never
coming into my room except in a proper dress, and all this pleased
me. For a fortnight M---- M---- was so ill that I expected every
moment to hear the news of her death. On Shrove Tuesday C---- C----
wrote that her friend was not strong enough to read my letter, and
that she was going to receive 'extreme unction'. This news so
shocked me that I could not rise, and passed the whole day in weeping
and writing, Tonine not leaving me till midnight. I could not sleep.
On Ash Wednesday I got a letter, in which C---- C---- told me that
the doctor had no hopes for her friend, and that he only gave her a
fortnight to live. A low fever was wasting her away, her weakness
was extreme, and she could scarcely swallow a little broth. She had
also the misfortune to be harassed by her confessor, who made her
foretaste all the terrors of death. I could only solace my grief by
writing, and Tonine now and again made bold to observe that I was
cherishing my grief, and that it would be the death of me. I knew
myself that I was making my anguish more poignant, and that keeping
to my bed, continued writing, and no food, would finally drive me
mad. I had told my grief to poor Tonine, whose chief duty was to
wipe away my tears. She had compassion on me.
A few days later, after assuring C---- C---- that if our friend died
I should not survive her, I asked her to tell M---- M---- that if she
wanted me to take care of my life she must promise to let me carry
her off on her recovery.
"I have," I said, "four thousand sequins and her diamonds, which are
worth six thousand; we should, therefore, have a sufficient sum to
enable us to live honourably in any part of Europe."
C---- C---- wrote to me on the following day, and said that my
mistress, after hearing my letter read, had fallen into a kind of
convulsion, and, becoming delirious, she talked incessantly in French
for three whole hours in a fashion which would have made all the nuns
take to their heels, if they had understood her. I was in despair,
and was nearly raving as wildly as my poor nun. Her delirium lasted
three days, and as soon as she got back her reason she charged her
young friend to tell me that she was sure to get well if I promised
to keep to my word, and to carry her off as soon as her health would
allow. I hastened to reply that if I lived she might be sure my
promise would be fulfilled.
Thus continuing to deceive each other in all good faith, we got
better, for every letter from C---- C----, telling me how the
convalescence of her friend was progressing, was to me as balm. And
as my mind grew more composed my appetite also grew better, and my
health improving day by day, I soon, though quite unconsciously,
began to take pleasure in the simple ways of Tonine, who now never
left me at night before she saw that I was asleep.
Towards the end of March M---- M---- wrote to me herself, saying that
she believed herself out of danger, and that by taking care she hoped
to be able to leave her room after Easter. I replied that I should
not leave Muran till I had the pleasure of seeing her at the grating,
where, without hurrying ourselves, we could plan the execution of our
scheme.
It was now seven weeks since M. de Bragadin had seen me, and thinking
that he would be getting anxious I resolved to go and see him that
very day. Telling Tonine that I should not be back till the evening,
I started for Venice without a cloak, for having gone to Muran masked
I had forgotten to take one. I had spent forty-eight days without
going out of my room, chiefly in tears and distress, and without
taking any food. I had just gone through an experience which
flattered my self-esteem. I had been served by a girl who would have
passed for a beauty anywhere in Europe. She was gentle, thoughtful,
and delicate, and without being taxed with foppishness I think I may
say that, if she was not in love with me, she was at all events
inclined to please me to the utmost of her ability; for all that I
had been able to withstand her youthful charms, and I now scarcely
dreaded them. Seeing her every day, I had dispersed my amorous
fancies, and friendship and gratitude seemed to have vanquished all
other feelings, for I was obliged to confess that this charming girl
had lavished on me the most tender and assiduous care.
She had passed whole nights on a chair by my bedside, tending me like
a mother, and never giving me the slightest cause for complaint.
Never had I given her a kiss, never had I allowed myself to undress
in her presence, and never (with one exception) had she come into my
room without being properly dressed. For all that, I knew that I had
fought a battle, and I felt inclined to boast at having won the
victory. There was only one circumstance that vexed me--namely, that
I was nearly certain that neither M. M. nor C. C. would consider such
continence to be within the bounds of possibility, if they heard of
it, and that Laura herself, to whom her daughter would tell the whole
story, would be sceptical, though she might out of kindness pretend
to believe it all.
I got to M. de Bragadin's just as the soup was being served. He
welcomed me heartily, and was delighted at having foreseen that I
should thus surprise them. Besides my two other old friends, there
were De la Haye, Bavois, and Dr. Righelini at table.
"What! you without a cloak!" said M. Dandolo.
"Yes," said I; "for having gone out with my mask on I forgot to
bring one:"
At this they laughed, and, without putting myself out, I sat down.
No one asked where I had been so long, for it was understood that
that question should be left to me to answer or not. Nevertheless,
De la Haye, who was bursting with curiosity, could not refrain from
breaking some jests on me.
"You have got so thin," said he, "that uncharitable people will be
rather hard on you."
"I trust they will not say that I have been passing my time with the
Jesuits."
"You are sarcastic. They may say, perhaps, that you have passed your
time in a hot-house under the influence of Mercury."
"Don't be afraid, sir, for to escape this hasty judgment I shall go
back this evening."
"No, no, I am quite sure you will not."
"Believe me, sir," said I, with a bantering tone, "that I deem your
opinion of too much consequence not to be governed by it."
Seeing that I was in earnest, my friends were angry with him; and the
Aristarchus was in some confusion.
Righelini, who was one of Murray's intimate friends, said to me in a
friendly way that he had been longing to tell Murray of my re-
appearance, and of the falsity of all the reports about me.
"We will go to sup with him," said I, "and I will return after
supper."
Seeing that M. de Bragadin and his two friends were uneasy about me,
I promised to dine with them on April 25th, St. Mark's Day.
As soon as Mr. Murray saw me, he fell on my neck and embraced me. He
introduced me to his wife, who asked me to supper with great
politeness. After Murray had told me the innumerable stories which
had been made about my disappearance, he asked me if I knew a little
story by the Abbe Chiari, which had come out at the end of the
carnival. As I said that I knew nothing about it, he gave me a copy,
telling me that I should like it. He was right. It was a satire in
which the Zorzi clique was pulled to pieces, and in which I played a
very poor part. I did not read it till some time after, and in the
mean time put it in my pocket. After a very good supper I took a
gondola to return to Muran.
It was midnight and very dark, so that I did not perceive the gondola
to be ill covered and in wretched order. A fine rain was falling
when I got in, and the drops getting larger I was soon wet to the
skin. No great harm was done, as I was close to my quarters. I
groped my way upstairs and knocked at the door of the ante-room,
where Tonine, who had not waited for me, was sleeping.
Awake in a moment she came to open the door in her smock, and without
a light. As I wanted one, I told her to get the flint and steel,
which she did, warning me in a modest voice that she was not dressed.
"That's of no consequence," said I, "provided you are covered." She
said no more, and soon lighted a candle, but she could not help
laughing when she saw me dripping wet.
"I only want you, my dear," said I, "to dry my hair." She quickly
set to work with powder and powder-puff in hand, but her smock was
short and loose at the top, and I repented, rather too late, that I
had not given her time to dress. I felt that all was lost, all the
more as having to use both her hands she could not hold her smock and
conceal two swelling spheres more seductive than the apples of the
Hesperides. How could I help seeing them? I shut my eyes and, said
"For shame!" but I gave in at last, and fixed such a hungry gaze upon
poor Tonine that she blushed. "Come," said I, "take your smock
between your teeth and then I shall see no more." But it was worse
than before, and I had only added fuel to the fire; for, as the veil
was short, I could see the bases and almost the frieze of two marble
columns; and at this sight I gave a voluptuous cry. Not knowing how
to conceal everything from my gaze, Tonine let herself fall on the
sofa, and I, my passions at fever-heat, stood beside her, not knowing
what to do.
"Well," she said, "shall I go and dress myself and then do your
hair?"
"No, come and sit on my knee, and cover my eyes with your hands."
She came obediently, but the die was cast, and my resistance
overcome. I clasped her between my arms, and without any more
thoughts of playing at blind man's buff I threw her on the bed and
covered her with kisses. And as I swore that I would always love
her, she opened her arms to receive me in a way that shewed how long
she had been waiting for this moment.
I plucked the rose, and then, as ever, I thought it the rarest I had
ever gathered since I had laboured in the harvest of the fruitful
fields of love.
When I awoke in the morning I found myself more deeply in love with
Tonine than I had been with any other woman. She had got up without
waking me, but as soon as she heard me stirring she came, and I
tenderly chid her for not waiting for me to give her good morrow.
Without answering she gave me M---- M---- 's letter. I thanked her,
but putting the letter on one side I took her in my arms, and set her
by my side. "What a wonder!" cried Tonine. "You are not in a hurry
to read that letter! Faithless man, why did you not let me cure you
six weeks ago. How lucky I am; thanks to the rain! I do not blame
you, dear, but love me as you love her who writes to you every day,
and I shall be satisfied."
"Do you know who she is?"
"She lives in a boarding-house, and is as beautiful as an angel; but
she is there, and I am here. You are my master, and I will be your
servant as long as you like."
I was glad to leave her in error, and swore an ever-lasting love; but
during our conversation she had let herself drop down in the bottom
of the bed, and I entreated her to lie down again; but she said that
on the contrary it was time for me to get up for dinner, for she
wanted to give me a dainty meal cooked in the Venetian manner.
"Who is the cook?" said I.
"I am, and I have been using all my skill on it since five, when I
got up."
"What time is it now, then?"
"Past one."
The girl astonished me. She was no longer the shy Tonine of last
night; she had that exultant air which happiness bestows, and the
look of pleasure which the delights of love give to a young beauty.
I could not understand how I had escaped from doing homage to her
beauty when I first saw her at her mother's house. But I was then
too deeply in love with C---- C----; I was in too great distress;
and, moreover, Tonine was then unformed. I got up, and making her
bring me a cup of coffee I asked her to keep the dinner back for a
couple of hours.
I found M---- M----'s letter affectionate, but not so interesting as
it would have been the day before. I set myself to answer it, and
was almost thunderstruck to find the task, for the first time, a
painful one. However, my short journey to Venice supplied me with
talk which covered four pages.
I had an exquisite dinner with my charming Tonine. Looking at her as
at the same time my wife, my mistress, and my housekeeper, I was
delighted to find myself made happy at such a cheap rate. We spent
the whole day at the table talking of our love, and giving each other
a thousand little marks of it; for there is no such rich and pleasant
matter for conversation as when they who talk are parties to an
amorous suit. She told with charming simplicity that she knew
perfectly well that she could not make me amorous of her, because I
loved another, and that her only hope was therefore in a surprise,
and that she had foreseen the happy moment when I told her that she
need not dress herself to light a candle.
Tonine was naturally quick-witted, but she did not know either how to
read or to write. She was enchanted to see herself become rich (for
she thought herself so) without a soul at Muran being able to breathe
a word against her honour. I passed three weeks in the company of
this delightful girl--weeks which I still reckon among the happiest
of my life; and what embitters my old age is that, having a heart as
warm as ever, I have no longer the strength necessary to secure a
single day as blissful as those which I owed to this charming girl.
Towards the end of April I saw M. M. at the grating, looking thin and
much changed, but out of danger. I therefore returned to Venice. In
my interview, calling my attachment and tender feelings to my aid, I
succeeded in behaving myself in such wise that she could not possibly
detect the change which a new love had worked in my heart. I shall
be, I trust, easily believed when I say that I was not imprudent
enough to let her suspect that I had given up the idea of escaping
with her, upon which she counted more than ever. I was afraid lest
she should fall ill again, if I took this hope away from her. I kept
my casino, which cost me little, and as I went to see M. M. twice a
week I slept there on those occasions, and made love with my dashing
Tonine.
Having kept my word with my friends by dining with them on St. Mark's
Day, I went with Dr. Righelini to the parlour of the Vierges to see
the taking of the veil.
The Convent of the Vierges is within the jurisdiction of the Doge,
whom the nuns style "Most Serene Father." They all belong to the
first families in Venice.
While I was praising the beauty of Mother M---- E----- to Dr.
Righelini, he whispered to me that he could get her me for a money
payment, if I were curious in the matter. A hundred sequins for her
and ten sequins for the go-between was the price fixed on. He
assured me that Murray had had her, and could have her again. Seeing
my surprise, he added that there was not a nun whom one could not
have by paying for her: that Murray had the courage to disburse five
hundred sequins for a nun of Muran--a rare beauty, who was afterwards
the mistress of the French ambassador.
Though my passion for M---- M---- was on the wane, I felt my heart
gripped as by a hand of ice, and it was with the greatest difficulty
that I made no sign. Notwithstanding, I took the story for an
atrocious calumny, but yet the matter was too near my heart for me to
delay in bringing it to light at the earliest opportunity. I
therefore replied to Righelini in the calmest manner possible, that
one or two nuns might be had for money, but that it could happen very
rarely on account of the difficulties in most convents.
"As for the nun of Muran, justly famous for her beauty, if she be
M---- M----, nun of the convent..., I not only disbelieve that Murray
ever had her, but I am sure she was never the French ambassador's
mistress. If he knew her it could only have been at the grating,
where I really cannot say what happens."
Righelini, who was an honourable and spirited man, answered me coldly
that the English ambassador was a man of his word, and that he had
the story from his own lips.
"If Mr. Murray," he continued, "had not told it me under the seal of
secrecy I would make him tell it you himself. I shall be obliged if
you will take care that he never knows I told you of it."
"You may rely on my discretion."
The same evening, supping at Murray's casino with Righelini, having
the matter at heart, and seeing before me the two men who could clear
up everything to my satisfaction, I began to speak with enthusiasm of
the beauty of M---- E----, whom I had seen at the Vierges.
Here the ambassador struck in, taking the ball on the hop:
"Between friends," said he, "you can get yourself the enjoyment of
those charms, if you are willing to sacrifice a sum of money--not too
much, either, but you must have the key."
"Do you think you have it?"
"No, I am sure; and had less trouble than you might suppose."
"If you are sure; I congratulate you, and doubt no more. I envy your
fortune, for I don't believe a more perfect beauty could be found in
all the convents of Venice."
"There you are wrong. Mother M---- M----, at ---- in Muran, is
certainly handsomer."
"I have heard her talked of and I have seen her once, but I do not
think it possible that she can be procured for money."
"I think so," said he, laughing, "and when I think I mostly have good
reasons."
"You surprise me; but all the same I don't mind betting you are
deceived."
"You would lose. As you have only seen her once, I suppose you would
not recognize her portrait?"
"I should, indeed, as her face left a strong impression on my mind."
"Wait a minute."
He got up from the table, went out, and returned a minute after with
a box containing eight or ten miniatures, all in the same style,
namely, with hair in disorder and bare necks.
"These," said I, "are rare charms, with which you have doubtless a
near acquaintance?"
"Yes, and if you recognize any of them be discreet."
"You need not be afraid. Here are three I recognize, and this looks
like M---- M----; but confess that you may have been deceived--at
least, that you did not have her in the convent or here, for there
are women like her."
"Why do you think I have been deceived? I have had her here in her
religious habit, and I have spent a whole night with her; and it was
to her individually that I sent a purse containing five hundred
sequins. I gave fifty to the good procurer."
"You have, I suppose, visited her in the parlour, after having her
here?"
"No, never, as she was afraid her titular lover might hear of it.
You know that was the French ambassador."
"But she only saw him in the parlour;"
"She used to go to his house in secular dress whenever he wanted her.
I was told that by the man who brought her here."
"Have you had her several times?"
"Only once and that was enough, but I can have her whenever I like
for a hundred sequins."
"All that may be the truth, but I would wager five hundred sequins
that you have been deceived."
"You shall have your answer in three days."
I was perfectly certain, I repeat, that the whole affair was a piece
of knavery; but it was necessary to have it proved, and I shuddered
when the thought came into my head that after all it might be a true
story. In this case I should have been freed from a good many
obligations, but I was strongly persuaded of her innocence. At all
events, if I were to find her guilty (which was amongst possible
occurrences), I resigned myself to lose five hundred sequins as the
price of this horrible discovery and addition to my experience of
life. I was full of restless anguish--the worst, perhaps, of the
torments of the mind. If the honest Englishman had been the victim
of a mystification, or rather knavery, my regard for M---- M----'s
honour compelled me to find a way to undeceive him without
compromising her; and such was my plan, and thus fortune favoured me.
Three or four days after, Mr. Murray told the doctor that he wished
to see me. We went to him, and he greeted me thus:
"I have won; for a hundred sequins I can have the fair nun!
"Alas!" said I, "there go my five hundred sequins."
"No, not five hundred, my dear fellow, for I should be ashamed to win
so much of you, but the hundred she would cost me. If I win, you
shall pay for my pleasure, and if I lose I shall give her nothing."
"How is the problem to be solved?" "My Mercury tells me that we must
wait for a day when masks are worn. He is endeavouring at present to
find out a way to convince both of us; for otherwise neither you nor
I would feel compelled to pay the wager, and if I really have M. M.
my honour would not allow me to let her suspect that I had betrayed
the secret."
"No, that would be an unpardonable crime. Hear my plan, which will
satisfy us both; for after it has been carried out each of us will be
sure that he has fairly won or fairly lost.
"As soon as you have possessed yourself of the real or pretended nun,
leave her on some pretext, and meet me in a place to be agreed upon.
We will then go together to the convent, and I will ask for M. M.
"Will seeing her and speaking to her convince you that the woman you
have left at home is a mere impostor?"
"Perfectly, and I shall pay my wager with the greatest willingness."
"I may say the same. If, when I summon M. M. to the parlour, the
lay-sister tells us she is ill or busy, we will go, and the wager
will be yours; you will sup with the fair, and I will go elsewhere."
"So be it; but since all this will be at nighttime, it is possible
that when you ask for her, the sister will tell you that no one can
be seen at such an hour."
"Then I shall lose."
"You are quite sure, then, that if she be in the convent she will
come down?"
"That's my business. I repeat, if you don't speak to her, I shall
hold myself to have lost a hundred sequins, or a thousand if you
like."
"One can't speak plainer than that, my dear fellow, and I thank you
beforehand."
"The only thing I ask you is to come sharp to time; and not to come
too late for a convent."
"Will an hour after sunset suit you?"
"Admirably."
"I shall also make it my business to compel my masked mistress to
stop where she is, even though it be M. M. herself."
"Some won't have long to wait, if you will take her to a casino which
I myself possess at Muran, and where I secretly keep a girl of whom I
am amorous. I will take care that she shall not be there on the
appointed day, and I will give you the key of the casino. I shall
also see that you find a delicate cold supper ready."
"That is admirable, but I must be able to point out the place to my
Mercury."
"True! I will give you a supper to-morrow, the greatest secrecy to
be observed between us. We will go to my casino in a gondola, and
after supper we will go out by the street door; thus you will know
the way by land and water. You will only have to tell the procurer
the name of the canal and of the house, and on the day fixed you
shall have the key. You will only find there an old man who lives on
the ground floor, and he will see neither those who go out nor those
who come in. My sweetheart will see nothing and will not be seen;
and all, trust me, will turn out well."
"I begin to think that I have lost my bet," said the Englishman, who
was delighted with the plan; "but it matters not, I can gaily
encounter either loss or gain." We made our appointment for the next
day, and separated.
On the following morning I went to Muran to warn Tonine that I was
going to sup with her, and to bring two of my friends; and as my
English friend paid as great court to Bacchus as to Cupid, I took
care to send my little housekeeper several bottles of excellent wine.
Charmed with the prospect of doing the honours of the table, Tonine
only asked me if my friends would go away after supper. I said yes,
and this reply made her happy; she only cared for the dessert.
After leaving her I went to the convent and passed an hour with M. M.
in the parlour. I was glad to see that she was getting back her
health and her beauty every day, and having complimented her upon it
I returned to Venice. In the evening my two friends kept their
appointments to the minute, and we went to my little casino at two
hours after sunset.
Our supper was delicious, and my Tonine charmed me with the
gracefulness of her carriage. I was delighted to see Righelini
enchanted, and the ambassador dumb with admiration. When I was in
love I did not encourage my friends to cajole my sweetheart, but I
became full of complaisance when time had cooled the heat of my
passion.
We parted about midnight, and having taken Mr. Murray to the spot
where I was to wait for him on the day of trial, I returned to
compliment my charming Tonine as she deserved. She praised my two
friends, and could not express her surprise at seeing our English
friend going away, fresh and nimble on his feet, notwithstanding his
having emptied by himself six bottles of my best wine. Murray looked
like a fine Bacchus after Rubens.
On Whit Sunday Righelini came to tell me that the English ambassador
had made all arrangements with the pretended procurer of M. M. for
Whit Tuesday. I gave him the keys of my abode at Muran, and told him
to assure Murray that I would keep the appointment at the exact time
arranged upon.
My impatience brought on palpitation of the heart, which was
extremely painful, and I passed the two nights without closing an
eye; for although I was convinced of M---- M----'s innocence, my
agitation was extreme. But whence all this anxiety? Merely from a
desire to see the ambassador undeceived. M. M. must in his eyes have
seemed a common prostitute, and the moment in which he would be
obliged to confess himself the victim of roguery would re-establish
the honour of the nun.
Mr. Murray was as impatient as myself, with this difference, that
whereas he, looking upon the adventure as a comic one, only laughed,
I who found it too tragic shuddered with indignation.
On Tuesday morning I went to Muran to tell Tonine to get a cold
supper after my instruction, to lay the table for two, to get wax
lights ready, and having sent in several bottles of wine I bade her
keep to the room occupied by the old landlord, and not to come out
till the people who were coming in the evening were gone. She
promised to do so, and asked no questions. After leaving her I went
to the convent parlour, and asked to see M---- M----. Not expecting
to see me, she asked me why I had not gone to the pageant of the
Bucentaur, which, the weather being favourable, would set out on this
day. I do not know what I answered, but I know that she found my
words little to the purpose. I came at last to the important point,
and told her I was going to ask a favour of her, on which my peace of
mind depended, but which she must grant blindly without asking any
questions.
"Tell me what I am to do, sweetheart," said she, "and be sure I will
refuse nothing which may be in my power."
"I shall be here this evening an hour after sunset, and ask for you
at this grating; come. I shall be with another man, to whom I beg of
you to say a few words of politeness; you can then leave us. Let us
find some pretext to justify the unseasonable hour."
"I will do what you ask, but you cannot imagine how troublesome it is
in a convent, for at six o'clock the parlours are shut up and the
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