Volume II Part 68 (1/2)
”Truly, sir, I pity you, for the air here is as hot as a furnace Get up, and thank God for giving you such good company”
”Come in, my lord, come in,” said he to the poor wretch who followed hi entleht to avoid me while I vainly tried to find ht he was in hell, and cried out,
”Where am I? My God! where have I been put? What heat! What a stench!
With whoo out, and asked arret for ahiet a bed and other necessaries, he would leave us in the garret till he came back, and that, in the mean time, the cell would be freed froave otten to snuff the wick after blowing it out As Lawrence asked me no questions about it, I concluded that he knew all, and the accursed Jew ht myself lucky that he was not able to tell him any more
From that time the repulsion which I had felt for Lawrence disappeared
After putting on own, I went out and founda list of what he wanted the gaoler to get him As soon as he saw nised him as the Abbe and Count Fenarolo, a man of fifty, amiable, rich, and a favourite in society He embraced me, and when I told him that I should have expected to see anybody in that place rather than him, he could not keep back his tears, which made me weep also
When ere alone I told him that, as soon as his bed ca him at the same time not to accept it I asked hi that I would tell him the reason another time He proht himself fortunate to be placed with me He said that as no one knehy I was i at it Some said that I was the heresiarch of a new sect; others that Madame Memmo had persuaded the Inquisitors that I had made her sons Atheists, and others that Antony Condulmer, the State Inquisitor, had me imprisoned as a disturber of the peace, because I hissed Abbe Chiari's plays, and had for him
All these accusations had a certain foundation in fact which gave them an air of truth, but in reality they were all wholly false I cared too little for religion to trouble myself to found a new one The sons of Madame Memmo were full of wit, and more likely to seduce than to be seduced; and Master Condulmer would have had too much on his hands if he had imprisoned all those who hissed the Abbe Chiari; and as for this abbe, once a Jesuit, I had forgiven hio, hie by praising him everywhere, which incited the malicious to vent their satire on the abbe; and thus I was avenged without any trouble to ood bed, fine linen, perfumes, an excellent supper, and choice wines The abbe ate nothing, but I supped for two When Lawrence had wished us good night and had shut us up till the next day, I got outsucked up all the oil This ht and set the room on fire, the idea of the confusion which would have ensued excited my hilarity I ihed hiht in pleasant talk The history of his imprisonment was as follows:
”Yesterday, at three o'clock in the afternoon, Madaondola We went to Padua to see the opera, intending to return to Venice afterwards In the second act -table, where I unfortunately saw Count Rosenberg, the Austrian ambassador, without his mask, and about ten paces fro to Vienna to represent the Republic I greeted the ahen the ambassador called out to me, so as to be heard by everyone, 'You are very fortunate in being able to pay your court to so sweet a lady At present the personage I represent alley Tell the lady, I beseech you, that the lahich now preventto her will be without force at Venice, where I shall go next year, and then I shall declare war against her' Mada spoken of, asked me what the count had said, and I told her, word for word 'Tell him,' said she, 'that I accept his declaration of war, and that we shall see age it best' I did not think I had co her reply, which was after all a ot here at ht nor Bussinello, Secretary of the Council of Ten, having so to say to me Astonished at such an order--always of bad oed to obey, I went at the ti me a word, ordered me to be taken here”
Certainly no fault could be less criminal than that which Count Fenarolo had committed, but one can break certain laws in all innocence without being any the less punishable I congratulated hi what his crime had been, and told him that he would be set free in a week, and would be requested to spend six months in the Bressian ”I can't think,”
said he, ”that they will leave ood company, and to soften the bitterness of his imprisonment, and so well did I syot all about ht coffee and a basket filled with all the requisites for a good dinner The abbe was astonished, for he could not conceive how anyone could eat at such an early hour They let us walk for an hour in the garret and then shut us up again, andno hout the day The fleas which tormented us made the abbe ask why I did not have the cell swept out I could not let hireeable to me, or that my skin was any harder than his own, so I told him the whole story, and shewed hi as it were forced o on, and if possible to finish what I was about that day, as he said he would helpto complicate his own difficulties by an escape I shewed him the et possession of the sheets which were to bepiece of thread By this stick I intended to attachdown to the floor of the rooot there I should pull the thread and the rope would fall down He tried it, and congratulated me on my invention, as this was a necessary part ofdoould have immediately discovered ht to stopto do several days' work before finishi+ng the hole which would cost Lawrence his life Should the thought of gaining my liberty at the expense of a fellow-creature have made me desist? I should have still persisted if uards, and even to the Inquisitors theh it be, prevail in the heart of the ood hu some bad quarters of an hour He was in love with Madaer, and was either the o; and he should have deemed himself happy, but the happier a lover is, so much the more his unhappiness when he is snatched frohed, wept, and declared that he loved a woman in whom all the noble virtues were contained I co that love is a iven to lovers by fools, and, moreover, it is not true that love is a mere trifle
The week I had mentioned as the probable terh, and I lostfor hi him to be discreet, for the least doubt on that score would have wounded his noble spirit During the week he itha little Canary wine It was I who ht Before he left ore eternal friendshi+p
The next day Lawrence gavethat I had a balance of four sequins I gave the him it was a present from me to his wife I did not tell him that it was for the rent of ain betakingwithout cessation, on the 23rd of August I saw it finished This delay was caused by an inevitable accident As I was hollowing out the last plank, I put ht to have seen the hall of the Inquisitors-in fact, I did see it, but I saw also at one side of the hole a surface about eight inches thick It was, as I had feared all the ti I was thus coe my hole on the other side, for the beam would have ot through
I increased the hole, therefore, by a fourth, working--between fear and hope, for it was possible that the space between two of the beah After I had finished, a second little hole assured me that God had blessed my labour I then carefully stopped up the two s down into the hall, and also lest a ray from my lamp should be perceived, for this would have discovered all and ruined ustine's Day, because I knew that the Grand Council assembled on that feast, and there would consequently be nobody near the roo away This would have been on the twenty-seventh of the month, but a misfortune happened to me on the twenty-fifth whichthe years which have passed since then
Precisely at noon I heard the noise of bolts, and I thought I should die; for a violent beating of the heart ine my last hour was come I fell into arret and put his head at the grating, and said, ”I give you joy, sir, for the good news I a able to think of any other nehich could be good to me, I fancied I had been set at liberty, and I trembled, for I knew that the discovery of the hole I had made would have caused my pardon to be recalled
Lawrence came in and told me to follow him
”Wait till I put on my clothes”
”It's of no consequence, as you only have to walk frohted and quite fresh, with ts whence you can see half Venice, and you can stand upright too”---- I could bear no ar,” said I, ”and go and tell the secretary that I thank the Court for this favour, and entreat it to leave one mad? They would take you from hell to put you in heaven, and you would refuse to stir? Coive you ht for you” Seeing that resistance was of no avail, I got up, and was ive orders for ht, for my pike was to follow me, and with it hope I should have much liked to have been able to take the hole--the object of so much wasted trouble and hope--with me I may say with truth that, as I came forth from that horrible and doleful place,on Lawrence's shoulder, while he, thinking to cheer h two narrow passages, and going down three steps I found hted hall, at the end of which, on the left-hand side, was a door leading into another passage two feet broad by about twelve long, and in the corner was my new cell
It had a barred hich was opposite to ts, also barred, which lighted the passage, and thus one had a fine view as far as Lido