Holland and Germany | Page 5

He begged me to give his wife the letter, which
would inform her of his plans, and then to bring her to the Ville de
Lyon at Amsterdam, where he was staying. He wanted to know how
the Englishman whom he had wounded was getting on.
The duty struck me as an amusing one, and I should have laughed 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,
whom I found sitting up in bed playing with Walpole. She read the
letter, told me that she could not start till the day following, and
informed me what time she would go, as if it had been all settled; but I
smiled sardonically, and told her that my business kept me at the Hague,
and that I could not possibly escort her. When Walpole heard me say
this he offered to be my substitute, to which she agreed. 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 the man, and feeling certain that I had never seen him before
I began to get enraged; but I merely asked the fellow if he knew
Casanova.
I'll ought too know him," said he, in that self-satisfied tone which is
always so unpleasant.
"Nay, sir, you are mistaken; I am Casanova."

Without losing his 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 me in the wrong. I bit my lips and held
my tongue, but I was grievously offended, and determined to make him
find the Casanova who was in Holland, and from whom he was going
to extract an unpleasant explanation, in myself. In the meanwhile I bore
as well as I could the poor figure he must be cutting before the officers
at table, who, after hearing the insolence of this young blockhead,
might take me for a coward. He, the insolent fellow, had no scruple in
abusing the triumph his answer had given him, and talked away in the
random fashion. At last he forgot himself so far as to ask from what
country I came.
"I am a Venetian, sir," I replied.
"Ah! then you are a good 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 begging my pardon for not knowing that these was only one
Venice in the world."
I had no sooner said this than a burst of laughter from the whole table
set me right again. The young blockhead seemed taken aback and in his
turn bit his lips, but his evil genius made him, strike in again at dessert.
As usual the conversation went from one subject to another, and we
began to talk about the Duke of Albermarle. The Englishmen spoke in
his favour, and said that if he had been alive there would have been no
war between England and France; they were probably right, but even if
the duke had lived war might have broken out, as the two nations in
question have never yet succeeded in understanding that it is for both

their interests to live at peace together. Another Englishman praised
Lolotte, his mistress. I said I had seen that charming woman at the
Duchess of Fulvi's, and that no one deserved better to become the
Countess of Eronville. The Count of Eronville, a lieutenant-general and
a man of letters, had just married her.
I had scarcely finished what I had to say when Master Blockhead said,
with a laugh, that he knew Lolotte to be a good sort of girl, as he had
slept with her at Paris. I could restrain myself no longer; my
indignation and rage consumed me. I took up my plate, and made as if I
would throw it at his head, saying at the same time, "You infernal liar!"
He got up, and stood with his back to the fire,