The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Volume 10: under the LeadsCasanova, Giacomo
History
The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Volume 10: under the Leads
Casanova, Giacomo
Casanova, Giacomo, 1725-1798; Europe -- History -- 18th century -- Biography
On the 25th of June, on which day the Republic celebrates the wonderful
appearance of St. Mark under the form of a winged lion in the ducal
church, about three o'clock in the afternoon, as I was labouring on my
belly at the hole, stark naked, covered with sweat, my lamp beside me. I
heard with mortal fear the shriek of a bolt and the noise of the door of
the first passage. It was a fearful moment! I blew out my lamp, and
leaving my bar in the hole I threw into it the napkin with the shavings
it contained, and as swift as lightning I replaced my bed as best I
could, and threw myself on it just as the door of my cell opened. If
Lawrence had come in two seconds sooner he would have caught me. He was
about to walk over me, but crying out dolefully I stopped him, and he
fell back, saying,
"Truly, sir, I pity you, for the air here is as hot as a furnace. Get up,
and thank God for giving you such good company."
"Come in, my lord, come in," said he to the poor wretch who followed him.
Then, without heeding my nakedness, the fellow made the noble gentleman
enter, and he seeing me to be naked, sought to avoid me while I vainly
tried to find my shirt.
The new-comer thought he was in hell, and cried out,
"Where am I? My God! where have I been put? What heat! What a stench!
With whom am I?"
Lawrence made him go out, and asked me to put on my shirt to go into the
garret for a moment. Addressing himself to the new prisoner, he said
that, having to get a bed and other necessaries, he would leave us in the
garret till he came back, and that, in the mean time, the cell would be
freed from the bad smell, which was only oil. What a start it gave me as
I heard him utter the word "oil." In my hurry I had forgotten to snuff
the wick after blowing it out. As Lawrence asked me no questions about
it, I concluded that he knew all, and the accursed Jew must have betrayed
me. I thought myself lucky that he was not able to tell him any more.
From that time the repulsion which I had felt for Lawrence disappeared.
After putting on my shirt and dressing-gown, I went out and found my new
companion engaged in writing a list of what he wanted the gaoler to get
him. As soon as he saw me, he exclaimed, "Ah! it's Casanova." I, too,
recognised him as the Abbe and Count Fenarolo, a man of fifty, amiable,
rich, and a favourite in society. He embraced me, and when I told him
that I should have expected to see anybody in that place rather than him,
he could not keep back his tears, which made me weep also.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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