In the evening, I made a careful toilette and called for Adjutant Minolto. Together we went to pay a visit to Madame Sagredo, the general's favourite.
After Madame F., she was the greatest beauty in Corfu.
My visit surprised her. She had been the first cause of all my recent adventures, and she naturally supposed I bore her resentment.
I undeceived her, speaking to her very candidly, and she treated me most kindly, inviting me to come now and then to spend the evening at her house.
I neither accepted nor refused her amiable invitation.
I knew that Madame F. disliked her, and that knowledge was enough to make regular visits impossible. How could I become a familiar guest in the house of a woman whom the woman I adored could not endure?
Love may be blind, but it is rarely ignorant of rivalries.
There was another reason.
Madame Sagredo was very fond of gambling, and, to please her, it was necessary either to lose or make her win, but to accept such conditions one must be in love with the lady or wish to make her conquest, and I had not the slightest idea of either.
The Adjutant Minolto never played, but he had captivated the lady's good graces by his services in the character of Mercury.
When I returned to the palace, I found Madame F. alone.
D. R. was busy with his correspondence, and she, seeing me enter, invited me to sit near her.
"Tell me," she said, "all your adventures in Constantinople."
I obeyed, and had no reason to repent it.
I spoke of Bonneval, of Yusuf, of Ismail, of the Turkish houses, the gardens, the pipes, the dinners, the veils, the slaves, the grave philosophers, and the strange mixture of wisdom and voluptuousness which I had found in that city. She listened with rapt attention.
My meeting with Yusuf's wife pleased her extremely, but when I came to the bathing scene by moonlight, her face changed. A light rose under her skin, and she blushed in spite of herself.
I veiled as much as I could the too brilliant colours of my picture, but, if she did not find me clear, she would oblige me to be more explicit, and if I made myself better understood by giving to my recital a touch of voluptuousness which I borrowed from her looks more than from my recollection, she would scold me and tell me that I might have disguised a little more.
I felt that the way she was talking would give her a liking for me, and I was satisfied that the man who can give birth to amorous desires is easily called upon to gratify them.
It was the reward I was ardently longing for, and I dared to hope it would be mine, although I could see it only looming in the distance.
That same day, M. D. R. had invited a large company to supper.
Naturally, I was made to furnish the entertainment.
Everyone wished to hear the whole story, and I was obliged to begin at the moment Minolto brought me the order to put myself under arrest, and to continue through my flight, my island kingdom, the priest and his curse, the peasant army, the midnight departure, and my brief introduction to the irons of the bastarda.
Foscari sat beside me.
The last part of my narrative cannot have pleased him much. I did not exaggerate his eagerness to have me chained, but truth, when it falls in the right place, sometimes does the work of malice. I said only what had happened, and left the company to understand the rest.
They understood it very well.
My adventures amused everyone. It was decided that the proveditore-generale himself must hear the tale from my own lips.
During my account, I mentioned that hay was abundant in Casopo.
That little detail interested M. D. R as that article was very scarce in Corfu.
He said, "You ought to seize the opportunity of making yourself agreeable to the general by informing him of that circumstance without delay."
I followed his advice the next day.
The general received me well. When I informed him that Casopo had plenty of hay, he immediately ordered a detachment to go to the island and bring back a large quantity.
Thus my rebellion rendered service to the Republic.
A few days later, Minolto came to find me at the coffee-house.
"The general wishes to see you."
This time I promptly obeyed his commands.
The room was full when I entered.
His excellency saw me, smiled, and, with one sentence, turned every eye in the room upon me.
"Here comes the young man who is a good judge of princes."
"My lord," I said, "I have become a judge of nobility by frequenting the society of men like you."
"The ladies are curious to know all you have done from the time of your escape from Corfu up to your return."
"Then you sentence me, monsignor, to make a public confession?"
"Exactly; but, as it is to be a confession, be careful not to omit the most insignificant circumstance, and suppose that I am not in the room."
"On the contrary, I wish to receive absolution only from your excellency. But my history will be a long one."
"If such is the case, your confessor gives you permission to be seated."
I sat down and began.
I gave all the particulars of my adventures, with the exception of my dalliance with the nymphs of the island.
When I finished, his excellency said,
"Your story is a very instructive one."
"Yes, my lord, for the adventures shew that a young man is never so near his utter ruin than when, excited by some great passion, he finds himself able to minister to it, thanks to the gold in his purse."
I was preparing to take my leave when the majordomo came to tell me that his excellency wished me to remain for supper.
I therefore had the honour of a place at his table, though not the pleasure of eating.
Questions came at me from every side, and I could not contrive to swallow a single mouthful.
I was seated beside the Proto-Papa Bulgari, and took the occasion to beg his pardon for having mocked Deldimopulo's oracle.
He shrugged.
"It is nothing else but regular cheating," he said, "but it is very difficult to put a stop to it; it is an old custom."
A little later, I saw Madame F. lean towards the general and whisper a few words.
His excellency turned to me.
"We should be glad," he said, "to hear the adventures you had in Constantinople with the wife of the Turk Yusuf, and at another friend's house, where you had seen bathing by moonlight."
I was surprised.
I bowed and smiled.
"Monseigneur, those little frolics are hardly worth your excellency's attention."
The general did not insist, and the subject died where it stood.
But I was hurt.
Madame F. had been indiscreet. Those stories had been told to her in confidence, under the charm of a private conversation, where a woman may command boldness and then scold it. She had no right to carry them into public, least of all to the general's table.
I wanted her to be jealous of her own dignity, which I loved even more than her person.
Two or three days later, she said to me,
"Why did you refuse to tell your adventures in Constantinople before the general?"
"Because I do not wish everybody to know that you allow me to tell you such things. What I may dare, madam, to say to you when we are alone, I would certainly not say to you in public."
"And why not? It seems to me, on the contrary, that if you are silent in public out of respect for me, you ought to be all the more silent when we are alone."
The answer was sharp, and not unjust.
"I wanted to amuse you," I said, "and I have exposed myself to the danger of displeasing you, but I can assure you, madam, that I will not run such a risk again."
"I have no wish to pry into your intentions," she replied, "but it strikes me that if your wish was to please me, you ought not to have run the risk of obtaining the opposite result."
She looked at me with that calm severity which a beautiful woman assumes when she is not quite displeased, but wishes to appear so.
"We take supper with the general this evening, and M. D---- R----- has been asked to bring you. I feel certain that the general will ask you again for your adventures in Constantinople, and this time you cannot refuse him."
Before I could answer, M. D. R. entered, and we went to the general's.
In the carriage, I thought over what had just passed.
Although Madame F. seemed to have intended to humiliate me, I ought to accept it all as a favour of fortune.
By compelling me to explain my refusal to the general, Madame F---- had, at the same time, compelled me to a declaration of my feelings, which was not without importance.
The proveditore-generale gave me a friendly welcome.
He handed me a letter which had arrived with the official dispatches from Constantinople. I bowed my thanks and put it in my pocket.
"No, no," he said. "I am a great lover of news. Read it."
I broke the seal.
The letter was from Yusuf. He announced the death of Count de Bonneval.
At the name of my worthy Turk, the general looked up.
"Yusuf! Then you must tell us about your adventure with his wife."
This time I could not refuse.
I began.
For an hour I held the table attentive as I narrated a story which amused and interested the general and his friends for an hour or so, but which was from beginning to end the work of my imagination.
I gave the story tenderness, peril, dignity, and enough gallantry to please without offending.
By this useful falsehood I respected the privacy of Yusuf, spared Madame F. the shame of seeing her private confidence served raw before the general, and placed myself in a tolerably favourable light.
The story succeeded.
The general laughed, the ladies listened, the officers approved, and Madame F. watched me with a pleased expression, although she seemed somewhat surprised.
When we returned to her house, Madame F. spoke to me in the presence of M. D. R.
"The story you related to the general was certainly very pretty," she said, "though entirely imaginary. I am not angry, since you amused me. But I cannot help but remark your obstinacy in refusing to comply with my wishes."
Then she turned to M. D. R.
"M. Casanova pretends that if he had given an account of his meeting with Yusuf's wife without changing anything everybody would think that I allowed him to entertain me with indecent stories. I want you to give your opinion about it."
She looked back at me.
"Will you be so good as to relate immediately the adventure in the same words which you have used when you told me of it?"
"Yes, madam, if you wish me to do so."
Stung to the quick by an indiscretion which, as I did not yet know women thoroughly, seemed to me without example. I cast aside all fear of displeasing her and began.
This time I related the adventure with all the warmth of an impassioned poet, and without disguising or attenuating in the least the desires which the charms of the Greek beauty had inspired me with.
When I had finished, M. D. R. turned to Madame F.
"Do you think he ought to have told that story before our friends as he has just told it to us?"
"If it be wrong for him to tell it in public," she replied, "it is also wrong to tell it to me in private."
"You are the only judge of that: yes, if he has displeased you; no, if he has amused you. As for my own opinion, here it is: He has just now amused me very much, but he would have greatly displeased me if he had related the same adventure in public."
Madame F. looked at me.
"Then I must request you never to tell me in private anything that you cannot repeat in public."
"I promise, madam, to act always according to your wishes."
D. R. smiled.
"It being understood," added M. D. R., smiling, "that madam reserves all rights of repealing that order whenever she may think fit."
I was vexed, but I contrived not to show it.
A few minutes later we took our leave.
I was beginning to understand that charming woman, and also to fear the trials she would impose upon me.
Yet love was stronger than fear.
Hope fortified me. I had the courage to endure the thorns, so as to gather the rose at the end of my sufferings.
I was particularly pleased to find that M. D---- R---- was not jealous of me, even when she seemed to dare him to it. This was a point of the greatest importance.
A few days later, while I was amusing her with different stories, she remarked that I had been very unfortunate to enter the lazzaretto at Ancona without money.
"In spite of my distress," I said, "I fell in love with a young and beautiful Greek slave, who very nearly contrived to make me break through all the sanitary laws."
"How so?"
"You are alone, madam, and I have not forgotten your orders."
"Is it a very improper story?"
"No, yet I would not relate it to you in public."
"Well," she said, laughing, "I repeal my order, as M. D---- R---- said I would. Tell me all about it."
I told my story, and, seeing that she was pensive, I exaggerated the misery I had felt at not being able to complete my conquest.
"What do you mean by your misery?" she asked. "I think that the poor girl was more to be pitied than you. You have never seen her since?"
"I beg your pardon, madam; I met her again, but I dare not tell you when or how."
"Now you must go on; it is all nonsense for you to stop. Tell me all; I expect you have been guilty of some black deed."
"Very far from it, madam, for it was a very sweet, although incomplete, enjoyment."
"Go on! But do not call things exactly by their names. It is not necessary to go into details."
That permission, and the restriction attached to it, gave me courage.
Without looking directly at her, I told her how I had found the Greek slave again, this time in the presence of Bellino; how she had seized the moment granted by fortune; how her old master's return had interrupted our enjoyment.
Madame F. listened without interrupting me.
When I finished, she remained silent.
I changed the subject.
I felt myself on excellent footing with her, but that very success warned me to proceed with prudence.
She was too young to have lowered herself before, and she would certainly look upon a connection with me as a lowering of her dignity.
Fortune, which had so often smiled upon me in hopeless cases, did not abandon me that day.
It granted me a favour of the strangest and sweetest kind.
My charming ladylove having pricked her finger rather severely, screamed loudly, and stretched her hand towards me, entreating me to suck the blood flowing from the wound.
You may judge, dear reader, whether I was long in seizing that beautiful hand, and if you are, or if you have ever been in love, you will easily guess the manner in which I performed my delightful work.
What is a kiss? Is it not an ardent desire to inhale a portion of the being we love?
Was not the blood I was sucking from that charming wound a portion of the woman I worshipped?
When the wound had ceased to bleed, she thanked me affectionately.
"Now spit out the blood," she said.
I placed my hand upon my heart.
"It is here, madam. God alone knows what happiness it has given me."
She looked at me, half amused, half startled.
"You have drunk my blood with happiness! Are you then a cannibal?"
"I believe not, madam; but it would have been sacrilege in my eyes if I had suffered one single drop of your blood to be lost."
She smiled, yet did not immediately withdraw her hand.