was so great that his hands were too stiff to
hold his weapon, and he was obliged to wait for
milder weather. One thing at this season greatly
afflicted him, the intolerable length of the winter
nights, and even in the daytime but little light
entered his prison, owing to the mists that float
at that time of the year over the waters of
Venice. To get a lamp, then, was his great
desire, but the process by which he achieved
this object is too long for detail.

By the aid of his lamp, Casanova was enabled
to wait with some degree of patience until the
period arrived which he had chosen for attempting
his escape. As he thought it likely that the
prisons would be filled during the disorders of
the Carnival, and that he might have another
companion, he resolved to wait until that festive
time was over, and not commence operations on
the floor, till the first Monday in Lent. The
result justified his anticipations, for on
Quinquagesima Sunday his cell-door was again
opened to admit a fellow-prisoner in the person
of a Jew, who, for certain peccadilloes in the
exercise of his profession as a money-lender, had
fallen under the displeasure of the Inquisitors of
State. This man proved a very disagreeable
companion, and the more so because his detention
was longer than Casanova expected, his
removal not taking place till a fortnight after
Easter, when he was condemned to two years'
imprisonment in "I Quattri." While enduring
the enforced society of this Israelite, Casanova
received two other visits. The first was from
the Secretary of the Inquisition, with whom his
interview was a scene of complete silence; and
the second from a Jesuit who came to confess
him, and who left him with the strange
prophecy—uttered, no doubt, at random—that
Casanova would leave his prison on the day of
his patron saint. Fortified by this hope, though
he could not divine what day this might be (the
festival of St. James, whose name he bore, being
that on which he was arrested), Casanova now
set to work in earnest.

As soon as I found myself alone, he says, I
resumed my project with activity. It was necessary
I should make haste lest some new guest might
arrive. I began by moving my bed, and after
lighting my lamp I lay down on the floor with
my spontoon in my hand and a towel near me
for collecting the fragments I chipped off. I
had to destroy the plank entirely with the point
of my instrument, and the bits of wood which I
first detached were not bigger than a grain of
wheat, but gradually they increased in size.
The floor was made of deal planking, six inches
wide. I began my work at the junction of two
pieces, and there were neither nails nor iron of
any kind to obstruct it. After six hours' toil I
knotted up my towel and put it aside, to empty
it next morning behind the rubbish heap in the
ante-chamber. The fragments I thus gathered
were five or six times larger than the hole they
left behind, the diameter of which might be
nearly ten inches. I then restored my bed to
its place, and next morning disposed of the
chips in such a way that they could not be
observed. When I resumed work, having broken
through the first plank which was two inches
thick, I was stopped by a second, which I
judged to be of the same thickness. Urged by
the fear of fresh visitors, I redoubled my efforts,
and in three weeks' time I succeeded in piercing
the three planks of which the floor was
composed; but this accomplished, I gave myself
up for lost, for I now discovered a layer of small
pieces of marble, known in Venice by the name
of terrazzo marmorin. It is the common pavement
of all the Venetian houses except the
poorest, even the nobility preferring the
terrazzo to the finest boarding. I was in perfect
consternation at finding that my weapon did not
penetrate this composition. After pausing for
a while in a state of complete discouragement,
I called to mind that Hannibal, according to
Livy, had forced a passage through the Alps by
softening them with vinegar, and I trusted that
vinegar would do as much for me. I had some
of very strong quality by me, and whether it
proved effectual, or was owing to my increased
exertions after a night's rest, I know not, but
I succeeded in overcoming this new obstacle,
pulverising with the point of my instrument the
cement that united the bits of marble, and as
the only difficulty was at the surface, in four
days I destroyed the whole of the mosaic without
in the slightest degree damaging my spontoon.
Beneath the pavement I found another
plank, but I was prepared for it. I judged,
however, that this was the last. I had
considerable trouble in beginning upon it, for my
hole being ten inches deep I could not freely
use my spontoon, but I recommended myself
to God and toiled on, fortified by the
confidence with which my sense of His mercy
inspired me. I was thus engaged, lying flat
on my belly, stripped to my skin and sweating
from every pore, on the afternoon of the 25th
of June, when, with my lamp burning at my
side to throw light into the hole, I heard with
mortal shuddering the noise of the creaking
bolts in the first corridor. In an instant I blew
out my lamp, left my spontoon in the hole,
pitched into it, also, my towel full of chips, put
my bed in order as well as I could, and threw
myself on it just at the moment that the door of
my cell opened and Lorenzo entered.

This unexpected visit was occasioned by the
arrival of another companion, a certain Count
Fenarolo, whose imprisonment only lasted a
week, and Casanova was again alone.

Having resumed my labours, he goes on, I
completed them on the 23rd of August. The
great length of time I had been at work arose
from a very natural accident. Having hollowed
out the last plank, which I did with great care, to
make it very thin, I pierced a small hole by means
of which I was enabled to see the chamber of the
Inquisitors; but I saw, at the same time, that I
was close to a perpendicular surface, about
eight inches deep. This, as I had all along
feared might be the case, was one of the beams
which supported the ceiling. This discovery
obliged me to enlarge my intended opening on