Produced by David Widger

MEMOIRS OF JACQUES CASANOVA de SEINGALT 1725-1798

IN LONDON AND MOSCOW, Volume 5d—LONDON TO BERLIN
THE MEMOIRS OF JACQUES CASANOVA DE SEINGALT

THE RARE UNABRIDGED LONDON EDITION OF 1894 TRANSLATED BY ARTHUR MACHEN TOWHICH HAS BEEN ADDED THE CHAPTERS DISCOVERED BY ARTHUR SYMONS.

FLIGHT FROM LONDON TO BERLIN

CHAPTER XIV

Bottarelli—A Letter from Pauline—The Avenging Parrot—Pocchini—Guerra,the Venetian—I Meet Sara Again; My Idea of Marrying Her and Settling inSwitzerland—The Hanoverians

Thus ended the first act of the comedy; the second began the nextmorning. I was just getting up, when I heard a noise at the street door,and on putting my head out of the window I saw Pocchini, the scoundrelwho had robbed me at Stuttgart trying to get into my house. I cried outwrathfully that I would have nothing to do with him, and slammed down mywindow.

A little later Goudar put in an appearance. He had got a copy of the St.James's Chronicle, containing a brief report of my arrest, and of mybeing set a liberty under a bail of eighty guineas. My name and thelady's were disguised, but Rostaing and Bottarelli were set down plainly,and the editor praised their conduct. I felt as if I should like to knowBottarelli, and begged Goudar to take me to him, and Martinelli,happening to call just then, said he would come with us.

We entered a wretched room on the third floor of a wretched house, andthere we beheld a picture of the greatest misery. A woman and fivechildren clothed in rags formed the foreground, and in the background wasBottarelli, in an old dressing-gown, writing at a table worthy ofPhilemon and Baucis. He rose as we came in, and the sight of him moved meto compassion. I said,—

"Do you know me, sir?"

"No, sir, I do not."

"I am Casanova, against whom you bore false witness; whom you tried tocast into Newgate."

"I am very sorry, but look around you and say what choice have I? I haveno bread to give my children. I will do as much in your favour anothertime for nothing."

"Are you not afraid of the gallows?"

"No, for perjury is not punished with death; besides it is very difficultto prove."

"I have heard you are a poet."

"Yes. I have lengthened the Didone and abridged the Demetrio."

"You are a great poet, indeed!"

I felt more contempt than hatred for the rascal, and gave his wife aguinea, for which she presented me with a wretched pamphlet by herhusband: "The Secrets of the Freemasons Displayed." Bottarelli had been amonk in his native city, Pisa, and had fled to England with his wife, whohad been a nun.

About this time M. de Saa surprised me by giving me a letter from my fairPortuguese, which confirmed the sad fate of poor Clairmont. Pauline saidshe was married to Count Al——. I was astonished to hear M. de Saaobserve that he had known all about Pauline from the moment she arrivedin London. That is the hobby of all diplomatists; they like people tobelieve that they are omniscient. However, M. de Saa was a man of worthand talent, and one could excuse this weakness as an incident inseparablefrom his profession; while most diplomatists only make themselvesridiculous by their assumption of universal knowledge.

M. de Saa had been almost as badly treated by the Charpillon as myself,and we might have condoled with one another, but the subject was notmentioned.

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