“I have never had such a piece of shame cast on me, but I laid it all in the hands of God, and said, ‘Thy will be done.’

“Whilst I heard mass my mind was made up, and as long as you love me I shall be yours, and yours only.  When you leave Spain and abandon me to despair, I shall find another confessor.  My conscience holds me guiltless; this is my comfort.  My cousin, whom I have told all, is astonished, but then she is not very clever.”

After this declaration, which put me quite at my ease, and would have relieved me of any scruples if I had had them, I took her to my bed.  In the morning, she left me tired out, but more in love with her than ever.

MEMOIRS OF JACQUES CASANOVA de SEINGALT 1725-1798

Spanish passions, Volume 6b—­expelled from Spain

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

EXPELLED FROM SPAIN

CHAPTER VII

I Make a Mistake and Manucci Becomes My Mortal Foe—­His Vengeance—­I Leave Madrid—­Saragossa—­Valentia—­Nina—­I Arrive at Barcelona

If these Memoirs, only written to console me in the dreadful weariness which is slowly killing me in Bohemia—­and which, perhaps, would kill me anywhere, since, though my body is old, my spirit and my desires are as young as ever—­if these Memoirs are ever read, I repeat, they will only be read when I am gone, and all censure will be lost on me.

Nevertheless, seeing that men are divided into two sections, the one and by far the greater composed of the ignorant and superficial, and the other of the learned and reflective, I beg to state that it is to the latter I would appeal.  Their judgment, I believe, will be in favour of my veracity, and, indeed, why should I not be veracious?  A man can have no object in deceiving himself, and it is for myself that I chiefly write.

Hitherto I have spoken nothing but the truth, without considering whether the truth is in my favour or no.  My book is not a work of dogmatic theology, but I do not think it will do harm to anyone; while I fancy that those who know how to imitate the bee and to get honey from every flower will be able to extract some good from the catalogue of my vices and virtues.

After this digression (it may be too long, but that is my business and none other’s), I must confess that never have I had so unpleasant a truth to set down as that which I am going to relate.  I committed a fatal act of indiscretion—­an act which after all these years still gives my heart a pang as I think of it.