Previous

Home

Next

---

 

VENICE - Chapter XIV

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.