The Memoires of Casanova, Complete

J >> Jacques Casanova de Seingalt >> The Memoires of Casanova, Complete


Towards evening I went to see Esther, and found her looking serious and
rather vexed; but as soon as she saw how pale I was her face lighted up,
and she asked me, in a voice of tenderest interest, if I had been ill. I
told her I had been out of sorts, that I had taken some medicine, and
that I now felt better.

"You will see my appetite at supper," added I, to calm her fears, "I have
had nothing to eat since dinner yesterday."

This was really the truth, as I had only eaten a few oysters with the
Paduan girls.

She could scarcely contain her joy at my recovery, and bade me kiss her,
with which request I complied gladly, all unworthy though I felt of so
great a favour.

"I am going to tell you an important piece of news," said she, "and that
is that I am sure that you do not invent the answers to your oracle, or
at least that you only do so when you choose. The reply you procured me
was wonderful-nay, divine, for it told me of a secret unknown to all,
even to myself. You may imagine my surprise when I convinced myself, with
no little trouble of the truth of the answer.

"You possess a treasure, your oracle is infallible; but surely it can
never lie, and my oracle tells me that you love me. It makes me glad to
know that, for you are the man of my heart. But I want you to give me an
exemplary proof of your love, and if you do love me you will not hesitate
to do so. Stay, read the reply you got me; I am sure you do not know what
it says; then I will tell you how you can make me quite happy."

I pretended to read, and kissed the words which declared I loved her. "I
am delighted," said I, "that the oracle has convinced you so easily, but
I must be excused if I say that I believe you knew as much long ago." She
replied, blushing, that if it were possible to chew me the object in
question I should not wonder at her ignorance. Then, coming to the proof
of my love, she told me that she wanted me to communicate the secret to
her. "You love me," said she, "and you ought to make no difficulty in
assuring the bliss of a girl who will be your wife, and in your power. My
father will agree to our marriage, and when I become your wife I will do
whatever you please. We will even go and live in another country if that
would add to your happiness. But you must teach me how to obtain the
answer to any question without inventing it myself."

I took Esther's hands in mine; she inspired me with the tenderest
feelings, and I kissed her hands with respectful fervour, saying, "You
know, Esther, dear, that my word is passed at Paris. Certainly, Manon is
not to be compared to you; but for all that I gave my promise to her poor
mother, and I must keep it."

A sigh escaped from Esther, and her head fell upon her breast: but what
could I do? I could not teach her any other way of consulting the oracle
than the method she understood as well as I: my superiority over her only
consisting in my greater craft and more extensive experience.

Early one morning, two or three days later, a man was announced as
wanting to see me. He called himself an officer, but his name was
perfectly unknown to me. I sent down to say that I could not see him, and
as soon as my Spaniard went out I locked my door. What had happened
already had made me suspicious, and I did not care to see any more
gentlemen alone. The two scoundrels who had robbed me had eluded all the
snares of the police, and Piccolomini was not to be found; but I knew a
good many of the gang were still in Amsterdam, and I thought it well to
be on my guard.

Some time after, Le Duc came in with a letter written in bad Italian,
saying that it had been given him by an officer who was waiting for an
answer. I opened it, and recognized the name I had heard a short while
ago. The writer said we knew each other, but that he could only give his
true name with his own lips, and that he had important information to
give me.

I told Le Duc to shew him in, and to stay by the door. I saw enter a
well-made man of about forty, dressed in the uniform of an officer of I
do not know what army, and bearing on his countenance all the marks of an
escaped gallows'-bird.

"What can I do for you, sir?" said I, as soon as he entered.

"Sir, we knew each other at Cerigo, sixteen or seventeen years ago, and I
am delighted to have an opportunity of renewing the acquaintance."

I knew that I had spent but a few minutes at Cerigo, on my way to
Constantinople, and concluded that my visitor must be one of the
unfortunate wretches to whom I gave alms.

"Are you the man," I said, "who told me that you were the son of a Count
Peccini, of Padua, although there is no such count in Padua at all?"

"I congratulate you on your excellent memory," said he, coolly, "I am
that very individual."

"Well, what do you want with me now?"

"I can't divulge my business in the presence of your servant."

"My servant does not understand Italian, so you can speak out; however,
if you like, I will send him away."

I ordered Le Duc to stay in the ante-chamber, and when he had left the
room my Paduan count told me that I had been with his nieces, and had
treated them as if they were courtezans, and that he was come to demand
satisfaction.

I was tired of being cheated, and I took hold of my pistols and pointed
them at him, bidding him be gone instantly. Le Duc came in and the third
robber took himself off, muttering that "a time would come."

I was placed in a disagreeable position; if I wanted to prosecute, I
should have to tell the whole story to the police. I thought of my honour
and determined to be silent, and the only person to whom I mentioned the
matter was Rigerboos, who not being in the same position as myself took
his measures, the result of which was that Lucie had to send her
high-born dames about their business. But the wretched woman came to me
to say that this misfortune had plunged her into the deepest distress, so
I made her a present of a few ducats, and she went away somewhat
consoled. I begged her not to call on me again.

Everything I did when I was away from Esther seemed to turn out ill, and
I felt that if I wanted to be happy I should do well to keep near her;
but my destiny, or rather my inconstancy, drew me away.

Three days afterwards, the villainous Major Sabi called on me to warn me
to be on my guard, as, according to his account, a Venetian officer I had
insulted and refused to give satisfaction to had vowed vengeance against
me.

"Then," said I, "I shall have him arrested as an escaped galley slave, in
which character I have given him alms, and for wearing without the right
to do so the uniform of an officer, thereby disgracing the whole army.
And pray what outrage can I have committed against girls who live in a
brothel, and whom I have paid according to their deserts?"

"If what you say is true you are quite right, but this poor devil is in a
desperate situation; he wants to leave the country, and does not possess
a single florin. I advise you to give him an alms once more, and you will
have done with him. Two score florins will not make you any the poorer,
and will rid you of a villainous enemy."

"A most villainous one, I think." At last I agreed to give him the forty
florins, and I handed them to him in a coffee-house where the major told
me I should find him. The reader will see how I met this blackguard four
months later.

Now, when all these troubles have been long over and I can think over
them calmly, reflecting on the annoyances I experienced at Amsterdam,
where I might have been so happy, I am forced to admit that we ourselves
are the authors of almost all our woes and griefs, of which we so
unreasonably complain. If I could live my life over again, should I be
wiser? Perhaps; but then I should not be myself.

M. d'O---- asked me to sup with him at the Burgomasters' Lodge, and this
was a great distinction, for, contrary to the rules of Freemasonry, no
one but the twenty-four members who compose the lodge is admitted, and
these twenty-four masons were the richest men on the Exchange.

"I have told them that you are coming," said M. d'O----, "and to welcome
you more honourably the lodge will be opened in French." In short, these
gentlemen gave me the most distinguished reception, and I had the fortune
to make myself so agreeable to them that I was unanimously chosen an
honorary member during the time I should stay at Amsterdam. As we were
going away, M. d'O---- told me that I had supped with a company which
represented a capital of three hundred millions.

Next day the worthy Dutchman begged me to oblige him by answering a
question to which his daughter's oracle had replied in a very obscure
manner. Esther encouraged me, and I asked what the question was. It ran
as follows:

"I wish to know whether the individual who desires me and my company to
transact a matter of the greatest importance is really a friend of the
King of France?"

It was not difficult for me to divine that the Comte de St. Germain was
meant. M. d'O was not aware that I knew him, and I had not forgotten what
M. d'Afri had told me.

"Here's a fine opportunity," thought I, "for covering my oracle with
glory, and giving my fair Esther something to think about."

I set to work, and after erecting my pyramid and placing above the four
keys the letters O, S, A, D, the better to impose on Esther, I extracted
the reply, beginning with the fourth key, D. The oracle ran as follows:

"The friend disavows. The order is signed. They grant. They refuse. All
vanishes. Delay."

I pretended to think the reply a very obscure one, but Esther gave a cry
of astonishment and declared that it gave a lot of information in an
extraordinary style. M. d'O----, in an ecstasy of delight, exclaimed,

"The reply is clear enough for me. The oracle is divine; the word 'delay'
is addressed to me. You and my daughter are clever enough in making the
oracle speak, but I am more skilled than you in the interpretation
thereof. I shall prevent the thing going any further. The project is no
less a one than to lend a hundred millions, taking in pledge the diamonds
of the French crown. The king wishes the loan to be concluded without the
interference of his ministers and without their even knowing anything
about it. I entreat you not to mention the matter to anyone."

He then went out.

"Now," said Esther, when we were by ourselves, "I am quite sure that that
reply came from another intelligence than yours. In the name of all you
hold sacred, tell me the meaning of those four letters, and why you
usually omit them."

"I omit them, dearest Esther, because experience has taught me that in
ordinary cases they are unnecessary; but while I was making the pyramid
the command came to me to set them down, and I thought it well to obey."

"What do they mean?"

"They are the initial letters of the holy names of the cardinal
intelligences of the four quarters of the world."

"I may not tell you, but whoever deals with the oracle should know them."

"Ah! do not deceive me; I trust in you, and it would be worse than murder
to abuse so simple a faith as mine."

"I am not deceiving you, dearest Esther."

"But if you were to teach me the cabala, you would impart to me these
holy names?"

"Certainly, but I cannot reveal them except to my successor. If I violate
this command I should lose my knowledge; and this condition is well
calculated to insure secrecy, is it not?"

"It is, indeed. Unhappy that I am, your successor will be, of course,
Manon."

"No, Manon is not fitted intellectually for such knowledge as this."

"But you should fix on someone, for you are mortal after all. If you
like, my father would give you the half of his immense fortune without
your marrying me."

"Esther! what is it that you have said? Do you think that to possess you
would be a disagreeable condition in my eyes?"

After a happy day--I think I may call it the happiest of my life--I left
the too charming Esther, and went home towards the evening.

Three or four days after, M. d'O---- came into Esther's room, where he
found us both calculating pyramids. I was teaching her to double, to
triple, and to quadruple the cabalistic combinations. M. d'O---- strode
into the room in a great hurry, striking his breast in a sort of ecstasy.
We were surprised and almost frightened to see him so strangely excited,
and rose to meet him, but he running up to us almost forced us to embrace
him, which we did willingly.

"But what is the matter, papa dear?" said Esther, "you surprise me more
than I can say."

"Sit down beside me, my dear children, and listen to your father and your
best friend. I have just received a letter from one of the secretaries of
their high mightinesses informing me that the French ambassador has
demanded, in the name of the king his master, that the Comte St. Germain
should be delivered over, and that the Dutch authorities have answered
that His Most Christian Majesty's requests shall be carried out as soon
as the person of the count can be secured. In consequence of this the
police, knowing that the Comte St. Germain was staying at the Etoile
d'Orient, sent to arrest him at midnight, but the bird had flown. The
landlord declared that the count had posted off at nightfall, taking the
way to Nimeguen. He has been followed, but there are small hopes of
catching him up.

"It is not known how he can have discovered that a warrant existed
against him, or how he continued to evade arrest."

"It is not known;" went an M. d'O----, laughing, "but everyone guesses
that M. Calcoen, the same that wrote to me, let this friend of the French
king's know that he would be wanted at midnight, and that if he did not
get the key of the fields he would be arrested. He is not so foolish as
to despise a piece of advice like that. The Dutch Government has
expressed its sorrow to M. d'Afri that his excellence did not demand the
arrest of St. Germain sooner, and the ambassador will not be astonished
at this reply, as it is like many others given on similar occasions.

"The wisdom of the oracle has been verified, and I congratulate myself on
having seized its meaning, for we were on the point of giving him a
hundred thousand florins on account, which he said he must have
immediately. He gave us in pledge the finest of the crown diamonds, and
this we still retain. But we will return it to him an demand, unless it
is claimed by the ambassador. I have never seen a finer stone.

"And now, my children, you see what I owe to the oracle. On the Exchange
the whole company can do nothing but express their gratitude to me. I am
regarded as the most prudent and most farseeing man in Holland. To you,
my dear children, I owe this honour, but I wear my peacock's feathers
without scruple.

"My dear Casanova, you will dine with us, I hope. After dinner I shall
beg you to enquire of your inscrutable intelligence whether we ought to
declare ourselves in possession of the splendid diamond, or to observe
secrecy till it is reclaimed."

After this discourse papa embraced us once more and left us.

"Sweetheart," said Esther, throwing her arms round my neck, "you have an
opportunity for giving me a strong proof of your friendship. It will cost
you nothing, but it will cover me with honour and happiness."

"Command me, and it shall be done. You cannot think that I would refuse
you a favour which is to cost me nothing, when I should deem myself happy
to shed my blood for your sake."

"My father wishes you to tell him after dinner whether it will be better
to declare that they have the diamond or to keep silence till it is
claimed. When he asks you a second time, tell him to seek the answer of
me, and offer to consult the oracle also, in case my answer may be too
obscure. Then perform the operation, and I will make my father love me
all the better, when he sees that my knowledge is equal to yours."

"Dearest one, would I not do for thee a task a thousand times more
difficult than this to prove my love and my devotion? Let us set to work.
Do you write the question, set up the pyramids, and inscribe with your
own hand the all-powerful initials. Good. Now begin to extract the answer
by means of the divine key. Never was a cleverer pupil!"

When all this had been done, I suggested the additions and subtractions I
wanted made, and she was quite astonished to read the following reply:
"Silence necessary. Without silence, general derision. Diamond valueless;
mere paste."

I thought she would have gone wild with delight. She laughed and laughed
again.

"What an amazing reply!" said she. "The diamond is false, and it is I who
am about to reveal their folly to them. I shall inform my father of this
important secret. It is too much, it overwhelms me; I can scarcely
contain myself for joy! How much I owe you, you wonderful and delightful
man! They will verify the truth of the oracle immediately, and when it is
found that the famous diamond is but glittering paste the company will
adore my father, for it will feel that but for him it would have been
covered with shame, by avowing itself the dupe of a sharper. Will you
leave the pyramid with me?"

"Certainly; but it will not teach you anything you do not know." The
father came in again and we had dinner, and after the dessert, when the
worthy d 'O---- learnt from his daughter's oracle that the stone was
false, the scene became a truly comical one. He burst into exclamations
of astonishment, declared the thing impossible, incredible, and at last
begged me to ask the same question, as he was quite sure that his
daughter was mistaken, or rather that the oracle was deluding her.

I set to work, and was not long in obtaining my answer. When he saw that
it was to the same effect as Esther's, though differently expressed, he
had no longer any doubts as to his daughter's skill, and hastened to go
and test the pretended diamond, and to advise his associates to say
nothing about the matter after they had received proofs of the
worthlessness of the stone. This advice was, as it happened, useless; for
though the persons concerned said nothing, everybody knew about it, and
people said, with their usual malice, that the dupes had been duped most
thoroughly, and that St. Germain had pocketed the hundred thousand
florins; but this was not the case.

Esther was very proud of her success, but instead of being satisfied with
what she had done, she desired more fervently every day to possess the
science in its entirety, as she supposed I possessed it.

It soon became known that St. Germain had gone by Emden and had embarked
for England, where he had arrived in safety. In due time we shall hear
some further details concerning this celebrated impostor; and in the
meanwhile I must relate a catastrophe of another kind, which was near to
have made me die the death of a fool.

It was Christmas Day. I had got up early in the morning in better spirits
than usual. The old women tell you that always presages misfortune, but I
was as far then as I am now from making my happiness into an omen of
grief. But this time chance made the foolish belief of good effect. I
received a letter and a large packet from Paris; they came from Manon. I
opened the letter and I thought I should have died of grief when I
read,--

"Be wise, and receive the news I give you calmly. The packet contains
your portrait and all the letters you have written to me. Return me my
portrait, and if you have kept my letters be kind enough to burn them. I
rely on your honour. Think of me no more. Duty bids me do all I can to
forget you, for at this hour to-morrow I shall become the wife of M.
Blondel of the Royal Academy, architect to the king. Please do not seem
as if you knew me if we chance to meet on your return to Paris."

This letter struck me dumb with astonishment, and for more than two hours
after I read it I was, as it were, bereft of my senses. I sent word to M.
d'O---- that, not feeling well, I was going to keep my room all day. When
I felt a little better I opened the packet. The first thing to fall out
was my portrait. I looked at it, and such was the perturbation of my
mind, that, though the miniature really represented me as of a cheerful
and animated expression, I thought I beheld a dreadful and a threatening
visage. I went to my desk and wrote and tore up a score of letters in
which I overwhelmed the faithless one with threats and reproaches.

I could bear no more; the forces of nature were exhausted, and I was
obliged to lie down and take a little broth, and court that sleep which
refused to come. A thousand designs came to my disordered imagination. I
rejected them one by one, only to devise new ones. I would slay this
Blondel, who had carried off a woman who was mine and mine only; who was
all but my wife. Her treachery should be punished by her losing the
object for whom she had deserted me. I accused her father, I cursed her
brother for having left me in ignorance of the insult which had so
traitorously been put upon me.

I spent the day and night in these delirious thoughts, and in the
morning, feeling worse than ever, I sent to M. d'O---- to say that I could
not possibly leave my room. Then I began to read and re-read the letters
I had written to Manon, calling upon her name in a sort of frenzy; and
again set myself to write to her without finishing a single letter. The
emptiness of my stomach and the shock I had undergone began to stupefy
me, and for a few moments I forgot my anguish only to re-awaken to acuter
pains soon after.

About three o'clock, the worthy M. d'O---- came to invite me to go with
him to the Hague, where the chief masons of Holland met on the day
following to keep the Feast of St. John, but when he saw my condition he
did not press me to come.

"What is the matter with you, my dear Casanova?" said he.

"I have had a great grief, but let us say no more about it."

He begged me to come and see Esther, and left me looking almost as
downcast as I was. However, the next morning Esther anticipated my visit,
for at nine o'clock she and her governess came into the room. The sight
of her did me good. She was astonished to see me so undone and cast down,
and asked me what was the grief of which I had spoken to her father, and
which had proved too strong for my philosophy.

"Sit down beside me, Esther dear, and allow me to make a mystery of what
has affected me so grievously. Time, the mighty healer, and still more
your company, will effect a cure which I should in vain seek by appealing
to my reason. Whilst we talk of other things I shall not feel the
misfortune which gnaws at my heart."

"Well, get up, dress yourself, and come and spend the day with me, and I
will do my best to make you forget your sorrow."

"I feel very weak; for the last three days I have only taken a little
broth and chocolate."

At these words her face fell, and she began to weep.

After a moment's silence she went to my desk, took a pen, and wrote a few
lines, which she brought to me. They were,--

"Dear, if a large sum of money, beyond what my father owes you, can
remove or even soothe your grief I can be your doctor, and you ought to
know that your accepting my treatment would make me happy."

I took her hands and kissed them affectionately, saying,--

"No, dear Esther, generous Esther, it is not money I want, for if I did I
would ask you and your father as a friend: what I want, and what no one
can give me, is a resolute mind, and determination to act for the best."

"Ask advice of your oracle."

I could not help laughing.

"Why do you laugh?" said she, "if I am not mistaken, the oracle must know
a remedy for your woes."

"I laughed, dearest, because I felt inclined to tell you to consult the
oracle this time. As for me I will have nothing to do with it, lest the
cure be worse than the disease."

"But you need not follow your advice unless you like it."

"No, one is free to act as one thinks fit; but not to follow the advice
of the oracle would be a contempt of the intelligence which directs it."

Esther could say no more, and stood silent for several minutes, and then
said that if I like she would stay with me for the rest of the day. The
joy which illumined my countenance was manifest, and I said that if she
would stay to dinner I would get up, and no doubt her presence would give
me an appetite. "Ah!" said she, "I will make you the dish you are so fond
of." She ordered the sedan-chairs to be sent back, and went to my
landlady to order an appetising repast, and to procure the chafing-dish
and the spirits of wine she required for her own cooking.

Esther was an angel, a treasure, who consented to become mine if I would
communicate to her a science which did not exist. I felt that I was
looking forward to spending a happy day; this shewed me that I could
forget Manon, and I was delighted with the idea. I got out of bed, and
when Esther came back and found me on my feet she gave a skip of
pleasure. "Now," said she, "you must oblige me by dressing, and doing
your hair as if you were going to a ball."