The Memoires of Casanova

lle-The Abby Gali

t for Dunkirk on

to Paris by Amiens-

nniere-My Report G

e Hundred Lou

essary qualities to second the efforts of the blind goddess on my behalf save one-pers

t is more like a friend than a minister. He asked

e necessar

hink

earning a livelihood, and as for my talents I w

ion made him smile

one years which time had not entirely defaced, the minist

his grateful king rewarded him by giving him a bishopric on the day of his death. It was a little late, but kings have not always sufficient leisure to remember things. His heir was a wealthy man named Garnier, who had formerly been chief cook at M. d'Argenson

ssions and the discretion necessary to those charged with them, he told m

bbe Galiani was a man of wit. He had a knack of making the most serious subjects appear comic; and being a good talker, speaking French with the ineradicable Neapolitan accent, he was a favouri

s in it that are not laughable. And why should he be vexed; he who makes people laugh is sure of being beloved. The Nea

, but I should not have thought that w

nevert

her a pleasant journey. I found her in good spirits and quite at her ease, and, far from being vexed at this, I was pleased, a certain sign that I was cured. We talked without the sli

who grew more infatuated with her Strephon ev

entalize with Mdlle. Baletti, who gave me every

grew more and more in love with her, and had no thoughts of marriage, I should have been puzzled to sa

abbe asked me was whether I thought myself capable of paying a visit to eight or ten men-of-war in the roads at Dunkirk, of making the acquaintance of t

and you in my report on my return, and it will

u a letter of commendation; I can only give yo

me what you think fit. I shall want three or four days before

e the end of the month. I have no

y in refusing payment in advance; and taking advantage of my having done so he made me accept a packet of a hundred Louis.

e. You quite understand how discreet your behaviour must be. Above all, do not get into any trouble; for I suppose you know that, if anything happened to you, it would be of no use to talk of your mission. We should be obliged to know nothing about you, for ambassadors are the only avowed spies. Remember that you must b

t she would oblige me by getting me a passport from the Duc de Gesvres. Always ready to oblige me, she sat down directly and wrote the duke a letter, telling me to deliver it mysel

ame if she had anything I could take to her niece. "You can take her the box of china statuettes," said she, "if M. Corneman has not sent them already." I called on the banker who gave me the box, and in return for a hundred Louis a letter of credit o

sband, and telling me how happy she was, he came in, saying he was delighted to see me and asked me to stay in his house, without enquiring whether my stay in Dunkirk wo

d a reception as I had received from her husband. After we had partaken of an excellent supper several persons arrived, and play commenced in which I did not join, as I wished to study the society of the place, and above all certain officers of both services who were present. By means of speaking with an air of authority about naval matters,

and Jack is so trustful! I went into the hold, I asked questions innumerable, and I found plenty of young officers delighted to shew their own importance, who gossipped without needing any encouragement from me. I took care, however,

t about a league's distance from Dunkirk. She took me there herself, and on finding myself alone with the woman I had loved so well I delighted her by the delicacy of my behaviour, which was marked only by respect and friendship. As I still thought her charming, and

nsieri', and my head

for the sake of the change. About midnight, on my asking for horses at some stage, the name of which I forget, they

said I, "I will make

in due time we r

s whip and the sentry cal

ss mes

to the governor. I did so, fretting and fuming on my way as if I were some great person, and

essenger

but as I am

ver tomorrow. In the meanwhile you will

sir

if you please;

ground. The daylight appeared. I shouted, swore, made all the rack

ficer, telling him that the governor might assassinate me if he liked, but had no right

name

s my pa

ke it to the governor, but

ike to see t

I sh

and brought me in. I gave up my passport in proud silence. The governor read it through, examining me all the wh

a messenger to Paris and wait his return; for by stopping me o

ourself in calling y

told you that

illion that you were, and th

a liar, I told him

you shew you

o so? In the course of the next f

s you p

y portmanteau and all my belongings taken into my room, and having washed and put on my dressing-gown I sat down to write, to whom I did not know, for I was quite wrong in my contention. However, I had begun by playing the great man, and I thought myself bound in honour to sustain the part, without thinking whether I stood to have to back out of it or no. All the s

ood reason for complaint, inasmuch as I only did my duty, for how was I to imag

our sense of duty need not have m

n need o

nt moment, but a feeling of politeness

u have ever been

a, and have left off when mos

of a fortified town are only opened by night to

opened the thing was done, and y

ur clothes, and walk a

difficulty, but the present course took all trouble out of my hands. I answered quietly and politely that the honour of walkin

my pockets on to the bed, called up the barber, and in t

got to a door where my guide stopped short. He asked me to come in, and I found myself in a fine

ing to her without pausing, "here is M. de

wise I should have had no chance of forgi

r the purgatory I had endured I am sure you

g me to sit beside her she continued whatever conve

could do was to put a good face on it-a feat which I found sufficiently easy from t

s so well how to reconcile with the rules of politeness; no one could have guessed that there had ever been the slightest difference between us. He had made himself the hero of the piece by the dexterous manner in which he had led

nt vein, and I took great care to give the governor's wife opportunities for shining in it. She was a charming and pretty woman, still quite youthful, for she was at least thirty years you

think I was going to fight you. Ah

that I was med

at such was

confess, however, that your invitation to take a walk roused my curiosity as to what was to come next, and I admire your wit. But

arming mistress of the house. In the evening I took my leave, an

for besides the insolence of their manners nothing makes a man feel more like a slave than the inquisitorial search they are accustomed to make through one's clothes and most secret possessions. He asked me if I

," said the creature, "we

carriage. He had my luggage hauled down, and n

exciseman. At the time of which I am writing these gaugers were the dregs of the people, but would become tractable on being treated with a little politeness. The sum of twenty-four sous given with good grace would ma

everything even to my shirts, between which t

an to search my carriage. The rascal who was at the head of them began to shout "victory," he had

s that my carriage should be seized, and warned me tha

called them to the imagination of the reader; but they were pro

ke," said they, "we a

ed the shopkeeper to take me to the superintendent's. As I was telling the circumstances of the case, a man of good appearance, who happened to be in the shop,

on money," said he, "you will find it a hard

d me to give the rabble a louis to buy drink, and thus to rid myself of them, on which I gave him the louis,

n was not to be seen. The porter told us that he had gone out alone, that h

day lost, then,"

orts and friends, and we will find them out. I will giv

mp

nsiderably the injury that had been done to me. I was listened to, condoled with, and comforted with the remark that he would certainly be ob

l by herself. After giving great attention to my story, she said that she did not think she could be doing wrong i

after him now, and you will find him at table in the best society in Amiens, but," said she, with a smile, "I advise you not to give your name at the door. The numerous servants will shew you the way

y, who was almost tired out, accompanying me. Without the least difficulty he and I slipped in between the crowds o

e my troubling your quiet on this fes

verybody rose. The surprise of the high-born company of k

t up, so that I may continue my journey. If the laws bid me pay twelve hundred francs for seven ounces of snuff for my own private use, I renounce those laws and declare that I will not pay a farthing. I shall stay here and send a messenger to my ambassador, who will complain that the 'jus gentium' has been violated in the Ile-de-France in my person, and I will have reparat

, I threw my pass

und I saw expressed on every face surprise and indignation, but the superintendent replied haughtily that he

ssport as a positive command to speed me on my way, and

il for breaches of the

irth do not condescend to ta

r the king can b

would say the

re what

who has been grievously outraged, and know, too, that

f the mistress of the house, "in my hou

ff which I bought at St. Omer three weeks ago, this gentleman robs me and interrupts my journey, though the king's majesty is my surety that no one shall interfere with me; he calls on me to pay fifty louis, he delivers me to the rage of his impudent menials and to the derision of the mob, from whom I had to rid myself by my money and the aid of this worthy man beside me. I am treated like a scoundrel, and the man who should have been my defender and deliverer slinks away and hides himsel

ay, and if you do not care to pa

en, good-bye. As for you,

to me in good Italian to wait a minute. I turned round, and saw the voice had

ndent? I will be his surety. You don't know these Italians. I went through the whole of the last wa

have to do is to pay a matter of thirty or forty francs

l it you again. But who are you, sir," said I, turning to the worthy ol

the 'Hotel de Saxe,' Rue Colombien, where I shall be glad to see you after to-morrow. W

would wait upon him without fail, I made my excuses to

of the commissary I should have been in great difficulty; it would have been a case of the earthen pot and the iron pot over again; fo

was getting in, one of the excisemen who had searched my luggage

en left in the hands of men of yo

been confisca

or if it had been there I wo

nd look for

wait for it. Driv

me a hearty welcome, and took me to M. Britard, the fermier-general, who discharged his bail

e la Ville, who read it through in silence, and told me that he would let me know the result. A month after I received five hundred louis, and I had the pleasure of hearing that M. de Cremille, the first lord of the adm

of a secret agent was to keep out of difficulties; for though he might have the tact to ext

on of the ministers. But all the French ministers are the same. They lavished money which came out of other people's pockets to enrich their creatures, and they were absolute; the downtrodden people counted for nothing, and of this course the indebtedness of the state and the confusion of the finances were

ss if I had had a wife beside me. She replied that a wife, if a good one, would have been only too happy to alleviate my troubles by sharing in them, but her mother observed that a woman of parts, after se