Volume III Part 39 (2/2)
I, too, went to the play, and as chance would have it hbour in the pit was Count Tot, brother to the count famous for his stay in Constantinople
We had soed to leave France on account of a duel which he had had with apresent at the battle of Minden, saying that he had absented hie with the sword on the other's body--a rough kind of argument which was fashi+onable then as now He told me he had no money, and I ioes, a kindness is never throay, and five years later he did the sa Between the acts he happened to notice the Countess Piccolomini, and asked htly,” I answered, ”but we happen to be staying at the saular black sheep,” said the count, ”and his wife's no better than he”
It seemed that they had already won a reputation in the town
After the play I went back to the hotel by myself, and the head-waiter told me that Piccoloe being a light portmanteau He did not know the reason of this sudden departure, but awhispered soone away because he had fought a duel but that often happened She asked me to sup with her and Walpole, and her appetite did not seem to suffer from the absence of her spouse
Just as ere finishi+ng supper, an Englishman, who had been of the whist party, caht cheating and had given the lie to their fellow Englishether An hour afterwards the Englishman returned with tounds, one on the fore-arether
Next day, after I had had dinner with the Comte d'Afri, I found a letter from Piccolo for ive his wife the letter, which would infor her to the Ville de Lyon at Alish on
The duty struck hed with all my heart if I had felt the least desire to profit by the confidence he was pleased to place in me Nevertheless I went up to the countess, who with Walpole She read the letter, told , and inforo, as if it had been all settled; but I smiled sardonically, and told her that ue, and that I could not possibly escort her When Walpole heard reed They set out the day following, intending to lie at Leyden
Two days after their departure, I was sitting down to dinner with the usual company, increased by two Frenchmen who had just come After the soup one of them said, coolly,
”The famous Casanova is now in Holland”
”Is he?” said the other, ”I shall be glad to see him, and ask for an explanation which he will not like”
I looked at thecertain that I had never seen hied; but I ht to know him,” said he, in that self-satisfied tone which is always so unpleasant
”Nay, sir, you arehis self-possession, he replied, insolently,
”You are really very much mistaken if you think you are the only Casanova in the world”
It was a sharp answer, and put rievously offended, and determined to make hioing to extract an unpleasant explanation, in myself In the ure hebefore the officers at table, who, after hearing the insolence of this young blockhead, ht take me for a coward He, the insolent fellow, had no scruple in abusing the triuiven hiot himself so far as to ask from what country I came
”I aood friend to France, as your republic is under French protection”
At these words my ill-temper boiled aver, and, in the tone of voice one uses to put down a puppy, I replied that the Republic of Venice was strong enough to do without the protection of France or of any other power, and that during the thirteen centuries of its existence it had had many friends and allies but no protectors ”Perhaps,” I ended, ”you will reply by beggingthat these was only one Venice in the world”