To Paris And Prison: Under the Leads

J >> Jacques Casanova de Seingalt >> To Paris And Prison: Under the Leads


But our time was come. The moon had set. I hung the half of the ropes by
Father Balbi's neck on one side and his clothes on the other. I did the
same to myself, and with our hats on and our coats off we went to the
opening.

E quindi uscimmo a rimirar le stelle.--DANTE.




CHAPTER XXX

The Escape I Nearly Lose My Life on the Roof I Get out of the Ducal
Palace, Take a Boat, and Reach the Mainland--Danger to Which I Am Exposed
by Father Balbi--My Scheme for Ridding Myself of Him

I got out the first, and Father Balbi followed me. Soradaci who had come
as far as the opening, had orders to put the plate of lead back in its
place, and then to go and pray to St. Francis for us. Keeping on my hands
and knees, and grasping my pike firmly I pushed it obliquely between the
joining of the plates of lead, and then holding the side of the plate
which I had lifted I succeeded in drawing myself up to the summit of the
roof. The monk had taken hold of my waistband to follow me, and thus I
was like a beast of burden who has to carry and draw along at the same
time; and this on a steep and slippery roof.

When we were half-way up the monk asked me to stop, as one of his packets
had slipped off, and he hoped it had not gone further than the gutter. My
first thought was to give him a kick and to send him after his packet,
but, praised be to God! I had sufficient self-control not to yield to it,
and indeed the punishment would have been too heavy for both of us, as I
should have had no chance of escaping by myself. I asked him if it were
the bundle of rope, and on his replying that it was a small packet of his
own containing manuscript he had found in one of the garrets under the
Leads, I told him he must bear it patiently, as a single step might be
our destruction. The poor monk gave a sigh, and he still clinging to my
waist we continued climbing.

After having surmounted with the greatest difficulty fifteen or sixteen
plates we got to the top, on which I sat astride, Father Balbi imitating
my example. Our backs were towards the little island of St. George the
Greater, and about two hundred paces in front of us were the numerous
cupolas of St. Mark's Church, which forms part of the ducal palace, for
St. Mark's is really the Doge's private chapel, and no monarch in the
world can boast of having a finer. My first step was to take off my
bundle, and I told my companion to do the same. He put the rope as best
he could upon his thighs, but wishing to take off his hat, which was in
his way, he took hold of it awkwardly, and it was soon dancing from plate
to plate to join the packet of linen in the gutter. My poor companion was
in despair.

"A bad omen," he exclaimed; "our task is but begun and here am I deprived
of shirt, hat, and a precious manuscript, containing a curious account of
the festivals of the palace."

I felt calmer now that I was no longer crawling on hands and knees, and I
told him quietly that the two accidents which had happened to him had
nothing extraordinary in them, and that not even a superstitious person
would call them omens, that I did not consider them in that light, and
that they were far from damping my spirits.

"They ought rather," said I, "to warn you to be prudent, and to remind
you that God is certainly watching over us, for if your hat had fallen to
the left instead of to the right, we should have been undone; as in that
case it would have fallen into the palace court, where it would have
caught the attention of the guards, and have let them know that there was
someone on the roof; and in a few minutes we should have been retaken."

After looking about me for some time I told the monk to stay still till I
came back, and I set out, my pike in my hand, sitting astride the roof
and moving along without any difficulty. For nearly an hour I went to
this side and that, keeping a sharp look-out, but in vain; for I could
see nothing to which the rope could be fastened, and I was in the
greatest perplexity as to what was to be done. It was of no use thinking
of getting down on the canal side or by the court of the palace, and the
church offered only precipices which led to nothing. To get to the other
side of the church towards the Canonica, I should have had to climb roofs
so steep that I saw no prospect of success. The situation called for
hardihood, but not the smallest piece of rashness.

It was necessary, however, either to escape, or to reenter the prison,
perhaps never again to leave it, or to throw myself into the canal. In
such a dilemma it was necessary to leave a good deal to chance, and to
make a start of some kind. My eye caught a window on the canal sides, and
two-thirds of the distance from the gutter to the summit of the roof. It
was a good distance from the spot I had set out from, so I concluded that
the garret lighted by it did not form part of the prison I had just
broken. It could only light a loft, inhabited or uninhabited, above some
rooms in the palace, the doors of which would probably be opened by
day-break. I was morally sure that if the palace servants saw us they
would help us to escape, and not deliver us over to the Inquisitors, even
if they recognized us as criminals of the deepest dye; so heartily was
the State Inquisition hated by everyone.

It was thus necessary for me to get in front of the window, and letting
myself slide softly down in a straight line I soon found myself astride
on top of the dormer-roof. Then grasping the sides I stretched my head
over, and succeeded in seeing and touching a small grating, behind which
was a window of square panes of glass joined with thin strips of lead. I
did not trouble myself about the window, but the grating, small as it
was, appeared an insurmountable difficulty, failing a file, and I had
only my pike.

I was thoroughly perplexed, and was beginning to lose courage, when an
incident of the simplest and most natural kind came to my aid and
fortified my resolution.

Philosophic reader, if you will place yourself for a moment in my
position, if you will share the sufferings which for fifteen months had
been my lot, if you think of my danger on the top of a roof, where the
slightest step in a wrong direction would have cost me my life, if you
consider the few hours at my disposal to overcome difficulties which
might spring up at any moment, the candid confession I am about to make
will not lower me in your esteem; at any rate, if you do not forget that
a man in an anxious and dangerous position is in reality only half
himself.

It was the clock of St. Mark's striking midnight, which, by a violent
shock, drew me out of the state of perplexity I had fallen into. The
clock reminded me that the day just beginning was All Saints' Day--the
day of my patron saint (at least if I had one)--and the prophecy of my
confessor came into my mind. But I confess that what chiefly strengthened
me, both bodily and mentally, was the profane oracle of my beloved
Ariosto: 'Fra il fin d'ottobre, a il capo di novembre'.

The chime seemed to me a speaking talisman, commanding me to be up and
doing,--and--promising me the victory. Lying on my belly I stretched my
head down towards the grating, and pushing my pike into the sash which
held it I resolved to take it out in a piece. In a quarter of an hour I
succeeded, and held the whole grate in my hands,--and putting it on one
side I easily broke the glass window, though wounding my left hand.

With the aid of my pike, using it as I had done before, I regained the
ridge of the roof, and went back to the spot where I had left Balbi. I
found him enraged and despairing, and he abused me heartily for having
left him for so long. He assured me that he was only waiting for it to
get light to return to the prison.

"What did you think had become of me?"

"I thought you must have fallen over."

"And you can find no better way than abuse to express the joy you ought
to feel at seeing me again?"

"What have you been doing all this time?"

"Follow me, and you shall see."

I took up my packets again and made my way towards the window. As soon as
were opposite to it I told Balbi what I had done, and asked him if he
could think of any way of getting into the loft. For one it was easy
enough, for the other could lower him by the rope; but I could not
discover how the second of us was to get down afterwards, as there was
nothing to which the rope could be fastened. If I let myself fall I might
break my arms and legs, for I did not know the distance between the
window and the floor of the room. To this chain of reasoning uttered in
the friendliest possible tone, the brute replied thus:

"You let me down, and when I have got to the bottom you will have plenty
of time to think how you are going to follow me."

I confess that my first indignant impulse was to drive my pike into his
throat. My good genius stayed my arm, and I uttered not a word in
reproach of his base selfishness. On the contrary, I straightway untied
my bundle of rope and bound him strongly under the elbows, and making him
lie flat down I lowered him feet foremost on to the roof of the
dormer-window. When he got there I told him to lower himself into the
window as far as his hips, supporting himself by holding his elbows
against the sides of the window. As soon as he had done so, I slid down
the roof as before, and lying down on the dormer-roof with a firm grasp
of the rope I told the monk not to be afraid but to let himself go. When
he reached the floor of the loft he untied himself, and on drawing the
rope back I found the fall was one of fifty feet-too dangerous a jump to
be risked. The monk who for two hours had been a prey to terror; seated
in a position which I confess was not a very reassuring one, was not
quite cool, and called out to me to throw him the ropes for him to take
care of--a piece of advice you may be sure I took care not to follow.

Not knowing what to do next, and waiting for some fortunate idea, I made
my way back to the ridge of the roof, and from there spied out a corner
near a cupola; which I had not visited. I went towards it and found a
flat roof, with a large window closed with two shutters. At hand was a
tubful of plaster, a trowel, and ladder which I thought long enough for
my purpose. This was enough, and tying my rope to the first round I
dragged this troublesome burden after me to the window. My next task was
to get the end of the ladder (which was twelve fathoms long) into the
opening, and the difficulties I encountered made me sorry that I had
deprived myself of the aid of the monk. [The unit of measure:'fathoms'
describing the ladder and earlier the 100 fathoms of rope, is likely a
translation error: Casanova might have manufactured 100 feet of rope and
might have dragged a 12 foot ladder up the steep roof, but not a longer.
D.W.]

I had set the ladder in such a way that one end touched the window, and
the other went below the gutter. I next slid down to the roof of the
window, and drawing the ladder towards me I fastened the end of my rope
to the eighth round, and then let it go again till it was parallel with
the window. I then strove to get it in, but I could not insert it farther
than the fifth round, for the end of the ladder being stopped by the
inside roof of the window no force on earth could have pushed it any
further without breaking either the ladder or the ceiling. There was
nothing to be done but to lift it by the other end; it would then slip
down by its own weight. I might, it is true, have placed the ladder
across the window, and have fastened the rope to it, in which manner I
might have let myself down into the loft without any risk; but the ladder
would have been left outside to shew Lawrence and the guards where to
look for us and possibly to find us in the morning.

I did not care to risk by a piece of imprudence the fruit of so much toil
and danger, and to destroy all traces of our whereabouts the ladder must
be drawn in. Having no one to give me a helping hand, I resolved to go
myself to the parapet to lift the ladder and attain the end I had in
view. I did so, but at such a hazard as had almost cost me my life. I
could let go the ladder while I slackened the rope without any fear of
its falling over, as it had caught to the parapet by the third rung.
Then, my pike in my hand, I slid down beside the ladder to the parapet,
which held up the points of my feet, as I was lying on my belly. In this
position I pushed the ladder forward, and was able to get it into the
window to the length of a foot, and that diminished by a good deal its
weight. I now only had to push it in another two feet, as I was sure that
I could get it in altogether by means of the rope from the roof of the
window. To impel the ladder to the extent required I got on my knees, but
the effort I had to use made me slip, and in an instant I was over the
parapet as far as my chest, sustained by my elbows.

I shudder still when I think of this awful moment, which cannot be
conceived in all its horror. My natural instinct made me almost
unconsciously strain every nerve to regain the parapet, and--I had nearly
said miraculously--I succeeded. Taking care not to let myself slip back
an inch I struggled upwards with my hands and arms, while my belly was
resting on the edge of the parapet. Fortunately the ladder was safe, for
with that unlucky effort which had nearly cost me so dearly I had pushed
it in more than three feet, and there it remained.

Finding myself resting on my groin on the parapet, I saw that I had only
to lift up my right leg and to put up first one knee and then the other
to be absolutely out of danger; but I had not yet got to the end of my
trouble. The effort I made gave me so severe a spasm that I became
cramped and unable to use my limbs. However, I did not lose my head, but
kept quiet till the pain had gone off, knowing by experience that keeping
still is the best cure for the false cramp. It was a dreadful moment! In
two minutes I made another effort, and had the good fortune to get my two
knees on to the parapet, and as soon as I had taken breath I cautiously
hoisted the ladder and pushed it half-way through the window. I then took
my pike, and crawling up as I had done before I reached the window, where
my knowledge of the laws of equilibrium and leverage aided me to insert
the ladder to its full length, my companion receiving the end of it. I
then threw into the loft the bundles and the fragments that I had broken
off the window, and I stepped down to the monk, who welcomed me heartily
and drew in the ladder. Arm in arm, we proceeded to inspect the gloomy
retreat in which we found ourselves, and judged it to be about thirty
paces long by twenty wide.

At one end were folding-doors barred with iron. This looked bad, but
putting my hand to the latch in the middle it yielded to the pressure,
and the door opened. The first thing we did was to make the tour of the
room, and crossing it we stumbled against a large table surrounded by
stools and armchairs. Returning to the part where we had seen windows, we
opened the shutters of one of them, and the light of the stars only
shewed us: the cupolas and the depths beneath them. I did not think for a
moment of lowering myself down, as I wished to know where I was going,
and I did not recognize our surroundings. I shut the window up, and we
returned to the place where we had left our packages. Quite exhausted I
let myself fall on the floor, and placing a bundle of rope under my head
a sweet sleep came to my relief. I abandoned myself to it without
resistance, and indeed, I believe if death were to have been the result,
I should have slept all the same, and I still remember how I enjoyed that
sleep.

It lasted for three and a half hours, and I was awakened by the monk's
calling out and shaking me. He told me that it had just struck five. He
said it was inconceivable to him how I could sleep in the situation we
were in. But that which was inconceivable to him was not so to me. I had
not fallen asleep on purpose, but had only yielded to the demands of
exhausted nature, and, if I may say so, to the extremity of my need. In
my exhaustion there was nothing to wonder at, since I had neither eaten
nor slept for two days, and the efforts I had made--efforts almost beyond
the limits of mortal endurance--might well have exhausted any man. In my
sleep my activity had come back to me, and I was delighted to see the
darkness disappearing, so that we should be able to proceed with more
certainty and quickness.

Casting a rapid glance around, I said to myself, "This is not a prison,
there ought, therefore, be some easy exit from it." We addressed
ourselves to the end opposite to the folding-doors, and in a narrow
recess I thought I made out a doorway. I felt it over and touched a lock,
into which I thrust my pike, and opened it with three or four heaves. We
then found ourselves in a small room, and I discovered a key on a table,
which I tried on a door opposite to us, which, however, proved to be
unlocked. I told the monk to go for our bundles, and replacing the key we
passed out and came into a gallery containing presses full of papers.
They were the state archives. I came across a short flight of stone
stairs, which I descended, then another, which I descended also, and
found a glass door at the end, on opening which I entered a hall well
known to me: we were in the ducal chancery. I opened a window and could
have got down easily, but the result would have been that we should have
been trapped in the maze of little courts around St. Mark's Church. I saw
on a desk an iron instrument, of which I took possession; it had a
rounded point and a wooden handle, being used by the clerks of the
chancery to pierce parchments for the purpose of affixing the leaden
seals. On opening the desk I saw the copy of a letter advising the
Proveditore of Corfu of a grant of three thousand sequins for the
restoration of the old fortress. I searched for the sequins but they were
not there. God knows how gladly I would have taken them, and how I would
have laughed the monk to scorn if he had accused me of theft! I should
have received the money as a gift from Heaven, and should have regarded
myself as its master by conquest.

Going to the door of the chancery, I put my bar in the keyhole, but
finding immediately that I could not break it open, I resolved on making
a hole in the door. I took care to choose the side where the wood had
fewest knots, and working with all speed I struck as hard and as cleaving
strokes as I was able. The monk, who helped me as well as he could with
the punch I had taken from the desk, trembled at the echoing clamour of
my pike which must have been audible at some distance. I felt the danger
myself, but it had to be risked.

In half an hour the hole was large enough--a fortunate circumstance, for
I should have had much trouble in making it any larger without the aid of
a saw. I was afraid when I looked at the edges of the hole, for they
bristled with jagged pieces of wood which seemed made for tearing clothes
and flesh together. The hole was at a height of five feet from the
ground. We placed beneath it two stools, one beside the other, and when
we had stepped upon them the monk with arms crossed and head foremost
began to make his way through the hole, and taking him by the thighs, and
afterwards by the legs, I succeeded in pushing him through, and though it
was dark I felt quite secure, as I knew the surroundings. As soon as my
companion had reached the other side I threw him my belongings, with the
exception of the ropes, which I left behind, and placing a third stool on
the two others, I climbed up, and got through as far as my middle, though
with much difficulty, owing to the extreme narrowness of the hole. Then,
having nothing to grasp with my hands, nor anyone to push me as I had
pushed the monk, I asked him to take me, and draw me gently and by slow
degrees towards him. He did so, and I endured silently the fearful
torture I had to undergo, as my thighs and legs were torn by the
splinters of wood.

As soon as I got through I made haste to pick up my bundle of linen, and
going down two flights of stairs I opened without difficulty the door
leading into the passage whence opens the chief door to the grand
staircase, and in another the door of the closet of the 'Savio alla
scrittura'. The chief door was locked, and I saw at once that, failing a
catapult or a mine of gunpowder, I could not possibly get through. The
bar I still held seemed to say, "Hic fines posuit. My use is ended and
you can lay me down." It was dear to me as the instrument of freedom, and
was worthy of being hung as an 'ex voto' on the altar of liberty.

I sat down with the utmost tranquillity, and told the monk to do the
same.

"My work is done," I said, "the rest must be left to God and fortune.

"Abbia chi regge il ciel cura del resto, O la fortuna se non tocca a lui.

"I do not know whether those who sweep out the palace will come here
to-day, which is All Saints' Day, or tomorrow, All Souls' Day. If anyone
comes, I shall run out as soon as the door opens, and do you follow after
me; but if nobody comes, I do not budge a step, and if I die of hunger so
much the worse for me."

At this speech of mine he became beside himself. He called me a madman,
seducer, deceiver, and a liar. I let him talk, and took no notice. It
struck six; only an hour had passed since I had my awakening in the loft.

My first task was to change my clothes. Father Balbi looked like a
peasant, but he was in better condition than I, his clothes were not torn
to shreds or covered with blood, his red flannel waistcoat and purple
breeches were intact, while my figure could only inspire pity or terror,
so bloodstained and tattered was I. I took off my stockings, and the
blood gushed out of two wounds I had given myself on the parapet, while
the splinters in the hole in the door had torn my waistcoat, shirt,
breeches, legs and thighs. I was dreadfully wounded all over my body. I
made bandages of handkerchiefs, and dressed my wounds as best I could,
and then put on my fine suit, which on a winter's day would look odd
enough. Having tied up my hair, I put on white stockings, a laced shirt,
failing any other, and two others over it, and then stowing away some
stockings and handkerchiefs in my pockets, I threw everything else into a
corner of the room. I flung my fine cloak over the monk, and the fellow
looked as if he had stolen it. I must have looked like a man who has been
to a dance and has spent the rest of the night in a disorderly house,
though the only foil to my reasonable elegance of attire was the bandages
round my knees.

In this guise, with my exquisite hat trimmed with Spanish lace and
adorned with a white feather on my head, I opened a window. I was
immediately remarked by some lounger in the palace court, who, not
understanding what anyone of my appearance was doing there at such an
early hour, went to tell the door-keeper of the circumstance. He,
thinking he must have locked somebody in the night before, went for his
keys and came towards us. I was sorry to have let myself be seen at the
window, not knowing that therein chance was working for our escape, and
was sitting down listening to the idle talk of the monk, when I heard the
jingling of keys. Much perturbed I got up and put my eye to a chink in
the door, and saw a man with a great bunch of keys in his hand mounting
leisurely up the stairs. I told the monk not to open his mouth, to keep
well behind me, and to follow my steps. I took my pike, and concealing it
in my right sleeve I got into a corner by the door, whence I could get
out as soon as it was opened and run down the stairs. I prayed that the
man might make no resistance, as if he did I should be obliged to fell
him to the earth, and I determined to do so.

The door opened; and the poor man as soon as he saw me seemed turned to a
stone. Without an instant's delay and in dead silence, I made haste to
descend the stairs, the monk following me. Avoiding the appearance of a
fugitive, but walking fast, I went by the giants' Stairs, taking no
notice of Father Balbi, who kept cabling: out "To the church! to the
church!"

The church door was only about twenty paces from the stairs, but the
churches were no longer sanctuaries in Venice; and no one ever took
refuge in them. The monk knew this, but fright had deprived him of his
faculties. He told me afterwards that the motive which impelled him to go
to the church was the voice of religion bidding him seek the horns of the
altar.

"Why didn't you go by yourself?" said I.

"I did not, like to abandon you," but he should rather have said, "I did
not like to lose the comfort of your company."

The safety I sought was beyond the borders of the Republic, and
thitherward I began to bend my steps. Already there in spirit, I must
needs be there in body also. I went straight towards the chief door of
the palace, and looking at no one that might be tempted to look at me I
got to the canal and entered the first gondola that I came across,
shouting to the boatman on the poop,