[The Memoires of Casanova by Jacques Casanova de Seingalt]@TWC D-Link bookThe Memoires of Casanova CHAPTER VII 8/40
I began to feel weary in this comparative solitude, and I gave way to terrible fits of passion. The heat was intense, and so disagreeable to me that I wrote to M. Grimani, asking for two summer suits of clothes, and telling him where they would be found, if Razetta had not sold them.
A week afterwards I was in the major's apartment when I saw the wretch Razetta come in, accompanied by a man whom he introduced as Petrillo, the celebrated favourite of the Empress of Russia, just arrived from St.Petersburg.
He ought to have said infamous instead of celebrated, and clown instead of favourite. The major invited them to take a seat, and Razetta, receiving a parcel from Grimani's gondolier, handed it to me, saying, "I have brought you your rags; take them." I answered: "Some day I will bring you a 'rigano':" At these words the scoundrel dared to raise his cane, but the indignant major compelled him to lower his tone by asking him whether he had any wish to pass the night in the guard-house.
Petrillo, who had not yet opened his lips, told me then that he was sorry not to have found me in Venice, as I might have shewn him round certain places which must be well known to me. "Very likely we should have met your wife in such places," I answered. "I am a good judge of faces," he said, "and I can see that you are a true gallows-bird." I was trembling with rage, and the major, who shared my utter disgust, told them that he had business to transact, and they took their leave. The major assured me that on the following day he would go to the war office to complain of Razetta, and that he would have him punished for his insolence. I remained alone, a prey to feelings of the deepest indignation, and to a most ardent thirst for revenge. The fortress was entirely surrounded by water, and my windows were not overlooked by any of the sentinels.
A boat coming under my windows could therefore easily take me to Venice during the night and bring me back to the fortress before day-break.
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