The Historical Nights' Entertainment by Rafael Sabatini (most important books to read .txt) đź“–
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Soradici should presume to frustrate the divine intentions, he
would immediately strangle him with his own hands.
On October 31st Lorenzo paid his usual daily visit early in the
morning. After his departure they waited some hours, Soradici
in expectant terror, Casanova in sheer impatience to be at work.
Promptly at noon fell heavy blows overhead, and then, in a cloud
of plaster and broken laths, the heavenly messenger descended
clumsily into Casanova’s arms.
Soradici found this tall, gaunt, bearded figure, clad in a dirty
shirt and a pair of leather breeches, of a singularly unangelic
appearance; indeed, he looked far more like a devil.
When he produced a pair of scissors, so that the spy might cut
Casanova’s beard, which, like the angel’s, had grown in captivity,
Soradici ceased to have any illusions on the score of Balbi’s
celestial nature. Although still intrigued - since he could not
guess at the secret correspondence that had passed between Casanova
and Balbi - he perceived quite clearly that he had been fooled.
Leaving Soradici in the monk’s care, Casanova hoisted himself
through the broken ceiling and gained Balbi’s cell, where the sight
of Count Asquino dismayed him. He found a middle-aged man of a
corpulence which must render it impossible for him to face the
athletic difficulties that lay before them; of this the Count
himself seemed already persuaded.
“If you think,” was his greeting, as he shook Casanova’s hand, “to
break through the roof and find a way down from the leads, I don’t
see how you are to succeed without wings. I have not the courage
to accompany you,” he added, “I shall remain and pray for you.”
Attempting no persuasions where they must have been idle, Casanova
passed out of the cell again, and approaching as nearly as possible
to the edge of the attic, he sat down where he could touch the roof
as it sloped immediately above his head. With his spontoon he
tested the timbers, and found them so decayed that they almost
crumbled at the touch. Assured thereby that the cutting of a hole
would be an easy matter, he at once returned to his cell, and there
he spent the ensuing four hours in preparing ropes. He cut up
sheets, blankets, coverlets, and the very cover of his mattress,
knotting the strips together with the utmost care. In the end he
found himself equipped with some two hundred yards of rope, which
should be ample for any purpose.
Having made a bundle of the fine taffeta suit in which he had been
arrested, his gay cloak of floss silk, some stockings, shirts, and
handkerchiefs, he and Balbi passed up to the other cell, compelling
Soradici to go with them. Leaving the monk to make a parcel of his
belongings, Casanova went to tackle the roof. By dusk he had made
a hole twice as large as was necessary, and had laid bare the lead
sheeting with which the roof was covered. Unable, single-handed,
to raise one of the sheets, he called Balbi to his aid, and between
them, assisted by the spontoon, which Casanova inserted between the
edge of the sheet and the gutter, they at last succeeded in tearing
away the rivets. Then by putting their shoulders to the lead they
bent it upwards until there was room to emerge, and a view of the
sky flooded by the vivid light of the crescent moon.
Not daring in that light to venture upon the roof, where they would
be seen, they must wait with what patience they could until midnight,
when the moon would have set. So they returned to the cell where
they had left Soradici with Count Asquino.
>From Balbi, Casanova had learnt that Asquino, though well supplied
with money, was of an avaricious nature. Nevertheless, since money
would be necessary, Casanova asked the Count for the loan of thirty
gold sequins. Asquino answered him gently that, in the first place,
they would not need money to escape; that, in the second, he had a
numerous family; that, in the third, if Casanova perished the money
would be lost; and that, in the fourth, he had no money.
“My reply,” writes Casanova, “lasted half an hour.”
“Let me remind you,” he said in concluding his exhortation, “of your
promise to pray for us, and let me ask you what sense there can be
in praying for the success of an enterprise to which you refuse to
contribute the most necessary means.”
The old man was so far conquered by Casanova’s eloquence that he
offered him two sequins, which Casanova accepted, since he was not
in case to refuse anything.
Thereafter, as they sat waiting for the moon to set, Casanova found
his earlier estimate of the monk’s character confirmed. Balbi now
broke into abusive reproaches. He found that Casanova had acted in
bad faith by assuring him that he had formed a complete plan of
escape. Had he suspected that this was a mere gambler’s throw on
Casanova’s part, he would never have laboured to get him out of his
cell. The Count added his advice that they should abandon an
attempt foredoomed to failure, and, being concerned for the two
sequins with which he had so reluctantly parted, he argued the case
at great length. Stifling his disgust, Casanova assured them that,
although it was impossible for him to afford them details of how
he intended to proceed, he was perfectly confident of success.
At half-past ten he sent Soradici -who had remained silent throughout
- to report upon the night. The spy brought word that in another
hour or so the moon would have set, but that a thick mist was rising,
which must render the leads very dangerous.
“So long as the mist isn’t made of oil, I am content,” said Casanova.
“Come, make a bundle of your cloak. It is time we were moving.”
But at this Soradici fell on his knees in the dark, seized Casanova’s
hands, and begged to be left behind to pray for their safety, since
he would be sure to meet his death if he attempted to go with them.
Casanova assented readily, delighted to be rid of the fellow. Then
in the dark he wrote as best he could a quite characteristic letter
to the Inquisitors of State, in which he took his leave of them,
telling them that since he had been fetched into the prison without
his wishes being consulted, they could not complain that he should
depart without consulting theirs.
The bundle containing Balbi’s clothes, and another made up of half
the rope, he slung from the monk’s neck, thereafter doing the same
in his own case. Then, in their shirt-sleeves, their hats on their
heads, the pair of them started on their perilous journey, leaving
Count Asquino and Soradici to pray for them.
Casanova went first, on all fours, and thrusting the point of his
spontoon between the joints of the lead sheeting so as to obtain a
hold, he crawled slowly upwards. To follow, Balbi took a grip of
Casanova’s belt with his right hand, so that, in addition to making
his own way, Casanova was compelled to drag the weight of his
companion after him, and this up the sharp gradient of a roof
rendered slippery by the mist.
Midway in that laborious ascent, the monk called to him to stop.
He had dropped the bundle containing the clothes, and he hoped that
it had not rolled beyond the gutter, though he did not mention which
of them should retrieve it. After the unreasonableness already
endured from this man, Casanova’s exasperation was such in that
moment that, he confesses, he was tempted to kick him after this
bundle. Controlling himself, however, he answered patiently that
the matter could not now be helped, and kept steadily amain.
At last the apex of the roof was reached, and they got astride of
it to breathe and to take a survey of their surroundings. They
faced the several cupolas of the Church of Saint Mark, which is
connected with the ducal palace, being, in fact, no more than the
private chapel of the Doge.
They set down their bundles, and, of course, in the act of doing
so the wretched Balbi must lose his hat, and send it rolling down
the roof after the bundle he had already lost. He cried out that
it was an evil omen.
“On the contrary,” Casanova assured him patiently, “it is a sign
of divine protection; for if your bundle or your hat had happened
to roll to the left instead of the right it would have fallen into
the courtyard, where it would be seen by the guards, who must
conclude that some one is moving on the roof, and so, no doubt,
would have discovered us. As it is your hat has followed your
bundle into the canal, where it can do no harm.”
Thereupon, bidding the monk await his return, Casanova set off
alone on a voyage of discovery, keeping for the present astride
of the roof in his progress. He spent a full hour wandering along
the vast roof, going to right and to left in his quest, but failing
completely to make any helpful discovery, or to find anything to
which he could attach a rope. In the end it began to look as if,
after all, he must choose between returning to prison and flinging
himself from the roof into the canal. He was almost in despair,
when in his wanderings his attention was caught by a dormer window
on the canal side, about two-thirds of the way down the slope of
the roof. With infinite precaution he lowered himself down the
steep, slippery incline until he was astride of the little dormer
roof. Leaning well forward, he discovered that a slender grating
barred the leaded panes of the window itself, and for a moment
this grating gave him pause.
Midnight boomed just then from the Church of Saint Mark, like a
reminder that but seven hours remained in which to conquer this and
further difficulties that might confront him, and in which to win
clear of that place, or else submit to a resumption of his
imprisonment under conditions, no doubt, a hundredfold more
rigorous.
Lying flat on his stomach, and hanging far over, so as to see what
he was doing, he worked one point of his spontoon into the sash of
the grating, and, levering outwards, he strained until at last it
came away completely in his hands. After that it was an easy matter
to shatter the little latticed window.
Having accomplished so much, he turned, and, using his spontoon as
before, he crawled back to the summit of the roof, and made his way
rapidly along this to the spot where he had left Balbi. The monk,
reduced by now to a state of blending despair, terror, and rage,
greeted Casanova in terms of the grossest abuse for having left
him there so long.
“I was waiting only for daylight,” he concluded, “to return to
prison.”
“What did you think had become of me?” asked Casanova.
“I imagined that you had tumbled off the roof.”
“And is this abuse the expression of your joy at finding yourself
mistaken?”
“Where have you been all this time?” the monk counter-questioned
sullenly.
“Come with me and you shall see.”
And taking up his bundle again, Casanova led his companion forward
until they were in line with the dormer. There Casanova showed him
what he had done, and consulted him as to the means to be adopted
to enter the attic. It would be too risky for them to allow
themselves to drop from the sill,
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