At length he reached the dilapidated inn, and had to knock repeatedly before the door was opened to him with a slow unfriendliness.
When, a few minutes later, having but half undressed, he threw himself upon his uneasy pallet, he was overwhelmed with a weariness amounting to pain, while upon his lips was a bitter after-taste which seemed to permeate his whole being.

Thus, at the close of his long exile, did he first woo sleep in the city to which he had so eagerly desired to return.

And here, when morning was about to break, the heavy and dreamless sleep of exhaustion came to console the aging adventurer.
THE END POSTFACE It is a historical fact that Casanova visited Voltaire at Ferney.

There is, however, no historical warrant for the account of the matter given in the foregoing novel, and still less for the statement that Casanova wrote a polemic against Voltaire.

It is a historical fact, likewise, that Casanova, when between fifty and sixty years of age, found it necessary to enter Venetian service as a spy.