I Get Rich Again--My Adventure At Dolo--Analysis of a Long Letter From C.
C.--Mischievous Trick Played Upon Me By P. C.--At Vincenza--A
Tragi-comedy At the Inn
Necessity, that imperious law and my only excuse, having made me almost
the partner of a cheat, there was still the difficulty of finding the
three hundred sequins required; but I postponed the task of finding them
until after I should have made the acquaintance of the dupes of the
goddess to whom they addressed their worship. Croce took me to the Prato
delta Valle, where we found madame surrounded with foreigners. She was
pretty; and as a secretary of the imperial ambassador, Count Rosemberg,
had attached himself to her, not one of the Venetian nobles dared court
her. Those who interested me among the satellites gravitating around that
star were the Swede Gilenspetz, a Hamburger, the Englishman Mendez, who
has already been mentioned, and three or four others to whore Croce
called my attention.
We dined all together, and after dinner there was a general call for a
faro bank; but Croce did not accept. His refusal surprised me, because
with three hundred sequins, being a very skilful player, he had enough to
try his fortune. He did not, however, allow my suspicions to last long,
for he took me to his own room and shewed me fifty pieces of eight, which
were equal to three hundred sequins. When I saw that the professional
gambler had not chosen me as his partner with the intention of making a
dupe of me, I told him that I would certainly procure the amount, and
upon that promise he invited everybody to supper for the following day.
We agreed that we would divide the spoils before parting in the evening,
and that no one should be allowed to play on trust.
I had to procure the amount, but to whom could I apply? I could ask no
one but M. de Bragadin. The excellent man had not that sum in his
possession, for his purse was generally empty; but he found a usurer--a
species of animal too numerous unfortunately for young men--who, upon a
note of hand endorsed by him, gave me a thousand ducats, at five per
cent. for one month, the said interest being deducted by anticipation
from the capital. It was exactly the amount I required. I went to the
supper; Croce held the bank until daylight, and we divided sixteen
hundred sequins between us. The game continued the next evening, and
Gilenspetz alone lost two thousand sequins; the Jew Mendez lost about one
thousand. Sunday was sanctified by rest, but on Monday the bank won four
thousand sequins. On the Tuesday we all dined together, and the play was
resumed; but we had scarcely begun when an officer of the podesta made
his appearance and informed Croce that he wanted a little private
conversation with him. They left the room together, and after a short
absence Croce came back rather crestfallen; he announced that by superior
orders he was forbidden to hold a bank at his house. Madame fainted away,
the punters hurried out, and I followed their example, as soon as I had
secured one-half of the gold which was on the table. I was glad enough it
was not worse. As I left, Croce told me that we would meet again in
Venice, for he had been ordered to quit Padua within twenty-four hours. I
expected it would be so, because he was to well known; but his greatest
crime, in the opinion of the podesta, was that he attracted the players
to his own house, whilst the authorities wanted all the lovers of play to
lose their money at the opera, where the bankers were mostly noblemen
from Venice.
I left the city on horseback in the evening and in very bad weather, but
nothing could have kept me back, because early the next morning I
expected a letter from my dear prisoner. I had only travelled six miles
from Padua when my horse fell, and I found my left leg caught under it.
My boots were soft ones, and I feared I had hurt myself. The postillion
was ahead of me, but hearing the noise made by the fall he came up and
disengaged me; I was not hurt, but my horse was lame. I immediately took
the horse of the postillion, to which I was entitled, but the insolent
fellow getting hold of the bit refused to let me proceed. I tried to make
him understand that he was wrong; but, far from giving way to my
arguments, he persisted in stopping me, and being in a great hurry to
continue my journey I fired one of my pistols in his face, but without
touching him. Frightened out of his wits, the man let go, and I galloped
off. When I reached the Dolo, I went straight to the stables, and I
myself saddled a horse which a postillion, to whom I gave a crown,
pointed out to me as being excellent. No one thought of being astonished
at my other postillion having remained behind, and we started at full
speed. It was then one o'clock in the morning; the storm had broken up
the road, and the night was so dark that I could not see anything within
a yard ahead of me; the day was breaking when we arrived in Fusina.
The boatmen threatened me with a fresh storm; but setting everything at
defiance I took a four-oared boat, and reached my dwelling quite safe but
shivering with cold and wet to the skin. I had scarcely been in my room
for a quarter of an hour when the messenger from Muran presented herself
and gave me a letter, telling me that she would call for the answer in
two hours. That letter was a journal of seven pages, the faithful
translation of which might weary my readers, but here is the substance of
it:
After the interview with M. de Bragadin, the father of C---- C---- had gone
home, had his wife and daughter to his room, and enquired kindly from the
last where she had made my acquaintance. She answered that she had seen
me five or six times in her brother's room, that I had asked her whether
she would consent to be my wife, and that she had told me that she was
dependent upon her father and mother. The father had then said that she
was too young to think of marriage, and besides, I had not yet conquered
a position in society. After that decision he repaired to his son's room,
and locked the small door inside as well as the one communicating with
the apartment of the mother, who was instructed by him to let me believe
that she had gone to the country, in case I should call on her.
Two days afterwards he came to C---- C----, who was beside her sick
mother, and told her that her aunt would take her to a convent, where she
was to remain until a husband had been provided for her by her parents.
She answered that, being perfectly disposed to submit to his will, she
would gladly obey him. Pleased with her ready obedience he promised to go
and see her, and to let his mother visit her likewise, as soon as her
health was better. Immediately after that conversation the aunt had
called for her, and a gondola had taken them to the convent, where she
had been ever since. Her bed and her clothes had been brought to her; she
was well pleased with her room and with the nun to whom she had been
entrusted, and under whose supervision she was. It was by her that she
had been forbidden to receive either letters or visits, or to write to
anybody, under penalty of excommunication from the Holy Father, of
everlasting damnation, and of other similar trifles; yet the same nun had
supplied her with paper, ink and books, and it was at night that my young
friend transgressed the laws of the convent in order to write all these
particulars to me. She expressed her conviction respecting the discretion
and the faithfulness of the messenger, and she thought that she would
remain devoted, because, being poor, our sequins were a little fortune
for her.
She related to me in the most assuring manner that the handsomest of all
the nuns in the convent loved her to distraction, gave her a French
lesson twice a-day, and had amicably forbidden her to become acquainted
with the other boarders. That nun was only twenty-two years of age; she
was beautiful, rich and generous; all the other nuns shewed her great
respect. "When we are alone," wrote my friend, "she kisses me so tenderly
that you would be jealous if she were not a woman." As to our project of
running away, she did not think it would be very difficult to carry it
into execution, but that it would be better to wait until she knew the
locality better. She told me to remain faithful and constant, and asked
me to send her my portrait hidden in a ring by a secret spring known only
to us. She added that I might send it to her by her mother, who had
recovered her usual health, and was in the habit of attending early mass
at her parish church every day by herself. She assured me that the
excellent woman would be delighted to see me, and to do anything I might
ask her. "At all events," she concluded, "I hope to find myself in a few
months in a position which will scandalize the convent if they are
obstinately bent upon keeping me here."
I was just finishing my answer when Laura, the messenger, returned for
it. After I had paid the sequin I had promised her, I gave her a parcel
containing sealing-wax, paper, pens, and a tinder-box, which she promised
to deliver to C---- C----. My darling had told her that I was her cousin,
and Laura feigned to believe it.
Not knowing what to do in Venice, and believing that I ought for the sake
of my honour to shew myself in Padua, or else people might suppose that I
had received the same order as Croce, I hurried my breakfast, and
procured a 'bolletta' from the booking-office for Rome; because I foresaw
that the firing of my pistol and the lame horse might not have improved
the temper of the post-masters; but by shewing them what is called in
Italy a 'bolletta', I knew that they could not refuse to supply me with
horses whenever they had any in their stables. As far as the pistol-shot
was concerned I had no fear, for I had purposely missed the insolent
postillion; and even if I had killed him on the spot it would not have
been of much importance.
In Fusina I took a two-wheeled chaise, for I was so tired that I could
not have performed the journey on horseback, and I reached the Dolo,
where I was recognized and horses were refused me.
I made a good deal of noise, and the post-master, coming out, threatened
to have me arrested if I did not pay him for his dead horse. I answered
that if the horse were dead I would account for it to the postmaster in
Padua, but what I wanted was fresh horses without delay.
And I shewed him the dread 'bolletta', the sight of which made him lower
his tone; but he told me that, even if he supplied me with horses, I had
treated the postillion so badly that not one of his men would drive me.
"If that is the case," I answered, "you shall accompany me yourself." The
fellow laughed in my face, turned his back upon me, and went away. I took
two witnesses, and I called with them at the office of a public notary,
who drew up a properly-worded document, by which I gave notice to the
post-master that I should expect an indemnity of ten sequins for each
hour of delay until I had horses supplied to me.
As soon as he had been made acquainted with the contents of this, he gave
orders to bring out two restive horses. I saw at once that his intention
was to have me upset along the road, and perhaps thrown into the river;
but I calmly told the postillion that at the very moment my chaise was
upset I would blow his brains out with a pistol-shot; this threat
frightened the man; he took his horses back to the stables, and declared
to his master that he would not drive me. At that very moment a courier
arrived, who called for six carriage horses and two saddle ones. I warned
the post-master that no one should leave the place before me, and that if
he opposed my will there would be a sanguinary contest; in order to prove
that I was in earnest I took out my pistols. The fellow began to swear,
but, everyone saying that he was in the wrong, he disappeared.
Five minutes afterwards whom should I see, arriving in a beautiful berlin
drawn by six horses, but Croce with his wife, a lady's maid, and two
lackeys in grand livery. He alighted, we embraced one another, and I told
him, assuming an air of sadness, that he could not leave before me. I
explained how the case stood; he said I was right, scolded loudly, as if
he had been a great lord, and made everybody tremble. The postmaster had
disappeared; his wife came and ordered the postillions to attend to my
wants. During that time Croce said to me that I was quite right in going
back to Padua, where the public rumour had spread the report of my having
left the city in consequence of an order from the police. He informed me
that the podesta had likewise expelled M. de Gondoin, a colonel in the
service of the Duke of Modena, because he held a faro bank at his house.
I promised him to pay him a visit in Venice in the ensuing week. Croce,
who had dropped from the sky to assist me in a moment of great distress,
had won ten thousand sequins in four evenings: I had received five
thousand for my share; and lost no time in paying my debts and in
redeeming all the articles which I had been compelled to pledge. That
scamp brought me back the smiles of Fortune, and from that moment I got
rid of the ill luck which had seemed to fasten on me.
I reached Padua in safety, and the postillion, who very likely out of
fear had driven me in good style, was well pleased with my liberality; it
was the best way of making peace with the tribe. My arrival caused great
joy to my three friends, whom my sudden departure had alarmed, with the
exception of M. de Bragadin, in whose hands I had placed my cash-box the
day before. His two friends had given credence to the general report,
stating that the podesta had ordered me to leave Padua. They forgot that
I was a citizen of Venice, and that the podesta could not pass such a
sentence upon me without exposing himself to legal proceedings. I was
tired, but instead of going to bed I dressed myself in my best attire in
order to go to the opera without a mask. I told my friends that it was
necessary for me to shew myself, so as to give the lie to all that had
been reported about me by slandering tongues. De la Haye said to me,
"I shall be delighted if all those reports are false; but you have no one
to blame but yourself, for your hurried departure gave sufficient cause
for all sorts of surmises."
"And for slander."
"That may be; but people want to know everything, and they invent when
they cannot guess the truth."
"And evil-minded fools lose no time in repeating those inventions
everywhere."
"But there can be no doubt that you wanted to kill the postillion. Is
that a calumny likewise?"
"The greatest of all. Do you think that a good shot can miss a man when
he is firing in his very face, unless he does it purposely?"
"It seems difficult; but at all events it is certain that the horse is
dead, and you must pay for it."
"No, sir, not even if the horse belonged to you, for the postillion
preceded me. You know a great many things; do you happen to know the
posting regulations? Besides, I was in a great hurry because I had
promised a pretty woman to breakfast with her, and such engagements, as
you are well aware, cannot be broken."
Master de la Haye looked angry at the rather caustic irony with which I
had sprinkled the dialogue; but he was still more vexed when, taking some
gold out of my pocket, I returned to him the sum he had lent me in
Vienna. A man never argues well except when his purse is well filled;
then his spirits are pitched in a high key, unless he should happen to be
stupefied by some passion raging in his soul.
M. de Bragadin thought I was quite right to shew myself at the opera
without a mask.
The moment I made my appearance in the pit everybody seemed quite
astonished, and I was overwhelmed with compliments, sincere or not. After
the first ballet I went to the card-room, and in four deals I won five
hundred sequins. Starving, and almost dead for want of sleep, I returned
to my friends to boast of my victory. My friend Bavois was there, and he
seized the opportunity to borrow from me fifty sequins, which he never
returned; true, I never asked him for them.
My thoughts being constantly absorbed in my dear C---- C----, I spent the
whole of the next day in having my likeness painted in miniature by a
skilful Piedmontese, who had come for the Fair of Padua, and who in after
times made a great deal of money in Venice. When he had completed my
portrait he painted for me a beautiful St. Catherine of the same size,
and a clever Venetian jeweller made the ring, the bezel of which shewed
only the sainted virgin; but a blue spot, hardly visible on the white
enamel which surrounded it, corresponded with the secret spring which
brought out my portrait, and the change was obtained by pressing on the
blue spot with the point of a pin.
On the following Friday, as we were rising from the dinner-table, a
letter was handed to me. It was with great surprise that I recognized the
writing of P---- C----. He asked me to pay him a visit at the "Star
Hotel," where he would give me some interesting information. Thinking
that he might have something to say concerning his sister, I went to him
at once.
I found him with Madame C----, and after congratulating him upon his
release from prison I asked him for the news he had to communicate.
"I am certain," he said, "that my sister is in a convent, and I shall be
able to tell you the name of it when I return to Venice."
"You will oblige me," I answered, pretending not to know anything.
But his news had only been a pretext to make me come to him, and his
eagerness to communicate it had a very different object in view than the
gratification of my curiosity.
"I have sold," he said to me, "my privileged contract for three years for
a sum of fifteen thousand florins, and the man with whom I have made the
bargain took me out of prison by giving security for me, and advanced me
six thousand florins in four letters of exchange."
He shewed me the letters of exchange, endorsed by a name which I did not
know, but which he said was a very good one, and he continued,
"I intend to buy six thousand florins worth of silk goods from the looms
of Vicenza, and to give in payment to the merchants these letters of
exchange. I am certain of selling those goods rapidly with a profit of
ten per cent. Come with us to Vicenza; I will give you some of my goods
to the amount of two hundred sequins, and thus you will find yourself
covered for the guarantee which you have been kind enough to give to the
jeweller for the ring. We shall complete the transaction within
twenty-four hours."
I did not feel much inclination for the trip, but I allowed myself to be
blinded by the wish to cover the amount which I had guaranteed, and which
I had no doubt I would be called upon to pay some day or other.
"If I do not go with him," I said to myself "he will sell the goods at a
loss of twenty-five per cent., and I shall get nothing."
I promised to accompany him. He shewed me several letters of
recommendation for the best houses in Vicenza, and our departure was
fixed for early the next morning. I was at the "Star Hotel" by daybreak.
A carriage and four was ready; the hotel-keeper came up with his bill,
and P---- C---- begged me to pay it. The bill amounted to five sequins;
four of which had been advanced in cash by the landlord to pay the driver
who had brought them from Fusina. I saw that it was a put-up thing, yet I
paid with pretty good grace, for I guessed that the scoundrel had left
Venice without a penny. We reached Vicenza in three hours, and we put up
at the "Cappello," where P---- C---- ordered a good dinner before leaving
me with the lady to call upon the manufacturers.
When the beauty found herself alone with me, she began by addressing
friendly reproaches to me.
"I have loved you," she said, "for eighteen years; the first time that I
saw you we were in Padua, and we were then only nine years old."
I certainly had no recollection of it. She was the daughter of the
antiquarian friend of M. Grimani, who had placed me as a boarder with the
accursed Sclavonian woman. I could not help smiling, for I recollected
that her mother had loved me.
Shop-boys soon began to make their appearance, bringing pieces of goods,
and the face of Madame C---- brightened up. In less than two hours the
room was filled with them, and P---- C---- came back with two merchants,
whom he had invited to dinner. Madame allured them by her pretty manners;
we dined, and exquisite wines were drunk in profusion. In the afternoon
fresh goods were brought in; P---- C---- made a list of them with the
prices; but he wanted more, and the merchants promised to send them the
next day, although it was Sunday. Towards the evening several counts
arrived, for in Vicenza every nobleman is a count. P---- C---- had left his
letters of recommendation at their houses. We had a Count Velo, a Count
Sesso, a Count Trento--all very amiable companions. They invited us to
accompany them to the casino, where Madame C---- shone by her charms and
her coquettish manners. After we had spent two hours in that place,
P---- C---- invited all his new friends to supper, and it was a scene of
gaiety and profusion. The whole affair annoyed me greatly, and therefore
I was not amiable; the consequence was that no one spoke to me. I rose
from my seat and went to bed, leaving the joyous company still round the
festive board. In the morning I came downstairs, had my breakfast, and
looked about me. The room was so full of goods that I did not see how
P---- C---- could possibly pay for all with his six thousand florins. He
told me, however, that his business would be completed on the morrow, and
that we were invited to a ball where all the nobility would be present.
The merchants with whom he had dealt came to dine with us, and the dinner
was remarkable for its extreme profusion.
We went to the ball; but I soon got very weary of it, for every body was
speaking to Madame C---- and to P---- C----, who never uttered a word with
any meaning, but whenever I opened my lips people would pretend not to
hear me. I invited a lady to dance a minuet; she accepted, but she looked
constantly to the right or to the left, and seemed to consider me as a
mere dancing machine. A quadrille was formed, but the thing was contrived
in such a manner as to leave me out of it, and the very lady who had
refused me as a partner danced with another gentleman. Had I been in good
spirits I should certainly have resented such conduct, but I preferred to
leave the ball-room. I went to bed, unable to understand why the nobility
of Vicenza treated me in such a way. Perhaps they neglected me because I
was not named in the letters of introduction given to P---- C----, but I
thought that they might have known the laws of common politeness. I bore
the evil patiently, however, as we were to leave the city the next day.
On Monday, the worthy pair being tired, they slept until noon, and after
dinner P---- C---- went out to pay for the goods.
We were to go away early on the Tuesday, and I instinctively longed for
that moment. The counts whom P---- C---- had invited were delighted with
his mistress, and they came to supper; but I avoided meeting them.
On the Tuesday morning I was duly informed that breakfast was ready, but
as I did not answer the summons quickly enough the servant came up again,
and told me that my wife requested me to make haste. Scarcely had the
word "wife" escaped his lips than I visited the cheek of the poor fellow
with a tremendous smack, and in my rage kicked him downstairs, the bottom
of which he reached in four springs, to the imminent risk of his neck.
Maddened with rage I entered the breakfast-room, and addressing myself to
P---- C----, I asked him who was the scoundrel who had announced me in the
hotel as the husband of Madame C----. He answered that he did not know;
but at the same moment the landlord came into the room with a big knife
in his hand, and asked me why I had kicked his servant down the stairs. I
quickly drew a pistol, and threatening him with it I demanded
imperatively from him the name of the person who had represented me as
the husband of that woman.
"Captain P---- C----," answered the landlord, "gave the names, profession,
etc., of your party."
At this I seized the impudent villain by the throat, and pinning him
against the wall with a strong hand I would have broken his head with the
butt of my pistol, if the landlord had not prevented me. Madame had
pretended to swoon, for those women can always command tears or fainting
fits, and the cowardly P---- C---- kept on saying,
"It is not true, it is not true!"
The landlord ran out to get the hotel register, and he angrily thrust it
under the nose of the coward, daring him to deny his having dictated:
Captain P---- C----, with M. and Madame Casanova. The scoundrel answered
that his words had certainly not been heard rightly, and the incensed
landlord slapped the book in his face with such force that he sent him
rolling, almost stunned, against the wall.
When I saw that the wretched poltroon was receiving such degrading
treatment without remembering that he had a sword hanging by his side, I
left the room, and asked the landlord to order me a carriage to take me
to Padua.
Beside myself with rage, blushing for very shame, seeing but too late the
fault I had committed by accepting the society of a scoundrel, I went up
to my room, and hurriedly packed up my carpet-bag. I was just going out
when Madame C---- presented herself before me.
"Begone, madam," I said to her, "or, in my rage, I might forget the
respect due to your sex."
She threw herself, crying bitterly, on a chair, entreated me to forgive
her, assuring me that she was innocent, and that she was not present when
the knave had given the names. The landlady, coming in at that moment,
vouched for the truth of her assertion. My anger began to abate, and as I
passed near the window I saw the carriage I had ordered waiting for me
with a pair of good horses. I called for the landlord in order to pay
whatever my share of the expense might come to, but he told me that as I
had ordered nothing myself I had nothing to pay. Just at that juncture
Count Velo came in.
"I daresay, count," I said, "that you believe this woman to be my wife."
"That is a fact known to everybody in the city."
"Damnation! And you have believed such a thing, knowing that I occupy
this room alone, and seeing me leave the ball-room and the supper-table
yesterday alone, leaving her with you all!"
"Some husbands are blessed with such easy dispositions!"
"I do not think I look like one of that species, and you are not a judge
of men of honour, let us go out, and I undertake to prove it to you."
The count rushed down the stairs and out of the hotel. The miserable
C---- was choking, and I could not help pitying her; for a woman has in
her tears a weapon which through my life I have never known to resist. I
considered that if I left the hotel without paying anything, people might
laugh at my anger and suppose that I had a share in the swindle; I
requested the landlord to bring me the account, intending to pay half of
it. He went for it, but another scene awaited me. Madame C----, bathed in
tears, fell on her knees, and told me that if I abandoned her she was
lost, for she had no money and nothing to leave as security for her hotel
bill.
"What, madam! Have you not letters of exchange to the amount of six
thousand florins, or the goods bought with them?"
"The goods are no longer here; they have all been taken away, because the
letters of exchange, which you saw, and which we considered as good as
cash, only made the merchants laugh; they have sent for everything. Oh!
who could have supposed it?"
"The scoundrel! He knew it well enough, and that is why he was so anxious
to bring me here. Well, it is right that I should pay the penalty of my
own folly."
The bill brought by the landlord amounted to forty sequins, a very high
figure for three days; but a large portion of that sum was cash advanced
by the landlord, I immediately felt that my honour demanded that I should
pay the bill in full; and I paid without any hesitation, taking care to
get a receipt given in the presence of two witnesses. I then made a
present of two sequins to the nephew of the landlord to console him for
the thrashing he had received, and I refused the same sum to the wretched
C----, who had sent the landlady to beg it for her.
Thus ended that unpleasant adventure, which taught me a lesson, and a
lesson which I ought not to have required. Two or three weeks later, I
heard that Count Trento had given those two miserable beings some money
to enable them to leave the city; as far as I was concerned, I would not
have anything to do with them. A month afterwards P---- C---- was again
arrested for debt, the man who had been security for him having become a
bankrupt. He had the audacity to write a long letter to me, entreating me
to go and see him, but I did not answer him. I was quite as inflexible
towards Madame C----, whom I always refused to see. She was reduced to
great poverty.
I returned to Padua, where I stopped only long enough to take my ring and
to dine with M. de Bragadin, who went back to Venice a few days
afterwards.
The messenger from the convent brought me a letter very early in the
morning; I devoured its contents; it was very loving, but gave no news.
In my answer I gave my dear C---- C---- the particulars of the infamous
trick played upon me by her villainous brother, and mentioned the ring,
with the secret of which I acquainted her.
According to the information I had received from C---- C----, I placed
myself, one morning, so as to see her mother enter the church, into which
I followed her. Kneeling close to her, I told her that I wished to speak
with her, and she followed me to the cloister. I began by speaking a few
consoling words; then I told her that I would remain faithful to her
daughter, and I asked her whether she visited her.
"I intend," she said, "to go and kiss my dear child next Sunday, and I
shall of course speak of you with her, for I know well enough that she
will be delighted to have news of you; but to my great regret I am not at
liberty to tell you where she is."
"I do not wish you to tell me, my good mother, but allow me to send her
this ring by you. It is the picture of her patroness, and I wish you to
entreat her to wear it always on her finger; tell her to look at the
image during her daily prayers, for without that protection she can never
become my wife. Tell her that, on my side, I address every day a credo to
St. James."
Delighted with the piety of my feelings and with the prospect of
recommending this new devotion to her daughter, the good woman promised
to fulfil my commission. I left her, but not before I had placed in her
hand ten sequins which I begged her to force upon her daughter's
acceptance to supply herself with the trifles she might require. She
accepted, but at the same time she assured me that her father had taken
care to provide her with all necessaries. The letter which I received
from C---- C----, on the following Wednesday, was the expression of the
most tender affection and the most lively gratitude. She said that the
moment she was alone nothing could be more rapid than the point of the
pin which made St. Catherine cut a somersault, and presented to her eager
eyes the beloved features of the being who was the whole world to her. "I
am constantly kissing you," she added, "even when some of the nuns are
looking at me, for whenever they come near me I have only to let the top
part of the ring fall back and my dear patroness takes care to conceal
everything. All the nuns are highly pleased with my devotion and with the
confidence I have in the protection of my blessed patroness, whom they
think very much like me in the face." It was nothing but a beautiful face
created by the fancy of the painter, but my dear little wife was so
lovely that beauty was sure to be like her.
She said, likewise, that the nun who taught her French had offered her
fifty sequins for the ring on account of the likeness between her and the
portrait of the saint, but not out of veneration for her patroness, whom
she turned into ridicule as she read her life. She thanked me for the ten
sequins I had sent her, because, her mother having given them to her in
the presence of several of the sisters, she was thus enabled to spend a
little money without raising the suspicions of those curious and
inquisitive nuns. She liked to offer trifling presents to the other
boarders, and the money allowed her to gratify that innocent taste.
"My mother," added she, "praised your piety very highly; she is delighted
with your feelings of devotion. Never mention again, I beg, the name of
my unworthy brother."
For five or six weeks her letters were full of the blessed St. Catherine,
who caused her to tremble with fear every time she found herself
compelled to trust the ring to the mystic curiosity of the elderly nuns,
who, in order to see the likeness better through their spectacles,
brought it close to their eyes, and rubbed the enamel. "I am in constant
fear," C---- C---- wrote, "of their pressing the invisible blue spot by
chance. What would become of me, if my patroness, jumping up, discovered
to their eyes a face--very divine, it is true, but which is not at all
like that of a saint? Tell me, what could I do in such a case?"
One month after the second arrest of P---- C----, the jeweller, who had
taken my security for the ring, called on me for payment of the bill. I
made an arrangement with him; and on condition of my giving him twenty
sequins, and leaving him every right over the debtor, he exonerated me.
From his prison the impudent P---- C---- harassed me with his cowardly
entreaties for alms and assistance.
Croce was in Venice, and engrossed a great share of the general
attention. He kept a fine house, an excellent table, and a faro bank with
which he emptied the pockets of his dupes. Foreseeing what would happen
sooner or later, I had abstained from visiting him at his house, but we
were friendly whenever we met. His wife having been delivered of a boy,
Croce asked me to stand as god-father, a favour which I thought I could
grant; but after the ceremony and the supper which was the consequence of
it, I never entered the house of my former partner, and I acted rightly.
I wish I had always been as prudent in my conduct.