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"Nicolas has told me," added my correspondent, "that M. de Bragadin has promised him a thousand sequins if he will aid you to make your escape but that Lawrence, who knows of it, hopes to get the money without risking his neck, his plan being to obtain your liberty by means of the influence of his wife with M. Diedo.
Why do you postpone your marriage with her? Why do you not visit her? You never answer her letters, and you let her be in want." "I cannot marry her, your excellency, before I have enough to support her. That will come in three or four years, thanks to a situation which M. de Bragadin, my only protector, promises to obtain for me. Until then she must live honestly, and support herself by working.
I paid my debts, and the licence for the marriage having arrived from Rome ten days after M. de Bragadin had applied for it, I gave him one hundred ducats, that being the sum it had cost.
Of his faithful friends, the nobles Bragadin, Barbaro and Dandolo, the first had died in 1767, having gone into debt "that I might have enough," sending Casanova, from his death-bed, a last gift of a thousand crowns. Barbaro who had died also, in 1771, left Casanova a life-income of six sequins a month.
We had no hope of contriving another meeting, for I had promised to bring her brother in the afternoon. The count and his son dined with us, and after dinner M. de Bragadin said, "I have joyful news for you, count; your beloved daughter has been found!" What an agreeable surprise for the father and son! M. de Bragadin handed them the promise of marriage written by Steffani, and said,
He had an engagement at London, but to my great delight he was able to spend a couple of months with me. Prince Charles of Courland, who had been at Venice and had been well received by M. de Bragadin and my other friends, had been in Vienna and had left it a fortnight before my arrival to return to Venice.
On the next day, to assure myself that my suspicions were well founded, I told the spy to give me the letter I had written to M. de Bragadin as I wanted to add something to it. "You can sew it up afterwards," said I. "It would be dangerous," he replied, "as the gaoler might come in in the mean time, and then we should be both ruined." "No matter. Give me my letters:"
I asked M. de Bragadin not to send his letter until the following day. The reader can very well guess that C C had not to wait for me long after midnight. I gained admittance without any difficulty, and I found my darling, who received me with open arms. "You have nothing to fear," she said to me; "my father has arrived in excellent health, and everyone in the house is fast asleep."
I gave him courage for his task by informing him that the girl had a dowry of four thousand ducats, but I added that his choice was to be made within a fortnight. M. de Bragadin, delighted at not being entrusted with the commission, laughed heartily. Those arrangements made me feel at peace with myself.
I was in love beyond all measure, and I would not postpone an application on which my happiness depended any longer. After dinner, and as soon as everybody had retired, I begged M. de Bragadin and his two friends to grant me an audience of two hours in the room in which we were always inaccessible.
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