“I should think M. d’Afri might assist you.”

“I do not require his assistance.  Probably I shall not even call upon him, as he might say he helped me.  No, I shall have all the trouble, and I mean to have all the glory, too.”

“I presume you will be going to Court, where the Duke of Brunswick may be of service to you?”

“Why should I go to Court?  As for the Duke of Brunswick, I do not care to know him.  All I have got to do is to go to Amsterdam, where my credit is sufficiently good for anything.  I am fond of the King of France; there’s not a better man in the kingdom.”

“Well, come and dine at the high table, the company is of the best and will please you.”

“You know I never eat; moreover, I never sit down at a table where I may meet persons who are unknown to me.”

“Then, my lord, farewell; we shall see each other again at Amsterdam.”

I went down to the dining-roam, where, while dinner was being served, I conversed with some officers.  They asked me if I knew Prince Piccolomini, to which I answered that he was not a prince but a count, and that it was many years since I had seen him.

When the count and his fair wife (who only spoke Italian) came down, I shewed them some polite attentions, and we then sat down to dinner.

MEMOIRS OF JACQUES CASANOVA de SEINGALT 1725-1798

The eternal quest, Volume 3c—­Holland and Germany

The rare unabridged London edition of 1894 translated by Arthur Machen to which has been added the chapters discovered by Arthur Symons.

THE ETERNAL QUEST

HOLLAND AND GERMANY

CHAPTER X

Portrait of the Pretended Countess Piccolomini—­Quarrel and Duel—­Esther and Her Father, M. D’O.—­Esther Still Taken with the Cabala—­Piccolomini Forges a Bill of Exchange:  Results I Am Fleeced, and in Danger of Being Assassinated—­Debauch with the Two Paduan Girls—­I Reveal A Great Secret To Esther—­I Bate the Rascally St. Germain; His Flight—­Manon Baletti Proves Faithless to Me; Her Letter Announcing Her Marriage:  My Despair—­Esther Spends a Day With Me—­My Portrait and My Letters to Manon Get Into Esther’s Hands—­I Pass a Day with Her—­We Talk of Marrying Each Other

The so-called Countess Piccolomini was a fine example of the adventurers.  She was young, tall, well-made, had eyes full of fire, and skin of a dazzling whiteness; not, however, that natural whiteness which delights those who know the value of a satin skin and rose petals, but rather that artificial fairness which is commonly to be seen at Rome on the faces of courtezans, and which disgusts those who know how it is produced.  She had also splendid teeth, glorious hair as black as jet, and arched eyebrows like ebony.  To these advantages she added attractive manners, and there was something intelligent about the way she spoke; but through all I saw the adventuress peeping out, which made me detest her.