London to Berlin | Page 4

XIV
Bottarelli--A Letter from Pauline--The Avenging Parrot--Pocchini--
Guerra, the Venetian--I Meet Sara Again; My Idea of Marrying Her
and Settling in Switzerland--The Hanoverians
Thus ended the first act of the comedy; the second began the next
morning. I was just getting up, when I heard a noise at the street door,
and on putting my head out of the window I saw Pocchini, the
scoundrel who had robbed me at Stuttgart trying to get into my house. I
cried out wrathfully that I would have nothing to do with him, and
slammed down my window.
A little later Goudar put in an appearance. He had got a copy of the St.
James's Chronicle, containing a brief report of my arrest, and of my
being set a liberty under a bail of eighty guineas. My name and the
lady's were disguised, but Rostaing and Bottarelli were set down
plainly, and the editor praised their conduct. I felt as if I should like to
know Bottarelli, and begged Goudar to take me to him, and Martinelli,
happening to call just then, said he would come with us.
We entered a wretched room on the third floor of a wretched house,
and there we beheld a picture of the greatest misery. A woman and five
children clothed in rags formed the foreground, and in the background
was Bottarelli, in an old dressing-gown, writing at a table worthy of
Philemon and Baucis. He rose as we came in, and the sight of him
moved me to compassion. I said,--
"Do you know me, sir?"
"No, sir, I do not."
"I am Casanova, against whom you bore false witness; whom you tried

to cast into Newgate."
"I am very sorry, but look around you and say what choice have I? I
have no bread to give my children. I will do as much in your favour
another time for nothing."
"Are you not afraid of the gallows?"
"No, for perjury is not punished with death; besides it is very difficult
to prove."
"I have heard you are a poet."
"Yes. I have lengthened the Didone and abridged the Demetrio."
"You are a great poet, indeed!"
I felt more contempt than hatred for the rascal, and gave his wife a
guinea, for which she presented me with a wretched pamphlet by her
husband: "The Secrets of the Freemasons Displayed." Bottarelli had
been a monk in his native city, Pisa, and had fled to England with his
wife, who had been a nun.
About this time M. de Saa surprised me by giving me a letter from my
fair Portuguese, which confirmed the sad fate of poor Clairmont.
Pauline said she was married to Count Al----. I was astonished to hear
M. de Saa observe that he had known all about Pauline from the
moment she arrived in London. That is the hobby of all diplomatists;
they like people to believe that they are omniscient. However, M. de
Saa was a man of worth and talent, and one could excuse this weakness
as an incident inseparable from his profession; while most diplomatists
only make themselves ridiculous by their assumption of universal
knowledge.
M. de Saa had been almost as badly treated by the Charpillon as myself,
and we might have condoled with one another, but the subject was not
mentioned.

A few days afterwards, as I was walking idly about, I passed a place
called the Parrot Market. As I was amusing myself by looking at these
curious birds, I saw a fine young one in a cage, and asked what
language it spoke. They told me that it was quite young and did not
speak at all yet, so I bought it for ten guineas. I thought I would teach
the bird a pretty speech, so I had the cage hung by my bed, and
repeated dozens of times every day the following sentence: "The
Charpillon is a bigger wh--e than her mother."
The only end I had in view was my private amusement, and in a
fortnight the bird had learnt the phrase with the utmost exactness; and
every time it uttered the words it accompanied them with a shriek of
laughter which I had not taught it, but which made me laugh myself.
One day Gondar heard the bird, and told me that if I sent it to the
Exchange I should certainly get fifty guineas for it. I welcomed the idea,
and resolved to make the parrot the instrument of my vengeance against
the woman who had treated me so badly. I secured myself from fear of
the law, which is severe in such cases, by entrusting the bird to my
negro, to whom such merchandise was very suitable.
For the first two or three days my parrot did not attract much attention,
its observations