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Updated: May 16, 2025
As soon as I came in she told me joyously that my niece's father had just received a letter from the father of the Genoese, asking the hand of his daughter for his only son, who had been introduced to her by the Chevalier de Seingalt, her uncle, at the Paretti's. "The worthy man thinks himself under great obligations to you," said Madame Audibert.
Who will introduce you?" "Martinelli." "Quite so; through Lord Spencer, who is a member. I would not become one." "Why not?" "Because I don't like argument." "My taste runs the other way, so I shall try to get in." "By the way, M. de Seingalt, do you know that you are a very extraordinary man?" "For what reason, my lord?"
At the present time I feel very thankful that I acted as I did, but I confess that if I had felt sure that it was not a trap I should have promised the money. The fear of committing myself spared me this crime. The next day I got to Parma, and I put up at the posting-house under the name of the Chevalier de Seingalt, which I still bear.
Canano studied me, but I saw he could not make me out. I heard whispers running round the table. "It isn't Seingalt; he doesn't play like that; besides, he is at the ball." The luck turned; three deals were in my favour, and brought me back more than I had lost.
I had the bill which Madame du Rumain had sent me, and finding that it would be convenient for me to get it discounted, I gave it to the Israelite, who cashed it, deducting commission at the ordinary rate of two per cent. The letter was payable to the order of the Chevalier de Seingalt, and with that name I endorsed it.
Ask me for a thousand pounds and give me a proper receipt, and you can do it under the name of Socrates or Attila, for all I care. You will pay me back my money as Socrates or Attila, and not as Seingalt; that is all." "But how about signing bills of exchange?" "That's another thing; I must use the name which the drawer gives me." "I don't understand that."
Herr Brockhaus, on obtaining possession of the manuscript, had it translated into German by Wilhelm Schutz, but with many omissions and alterations, and published this translation, volume by volume, from 1822 to 1828, under the title, 'Aus den Memoiren des Venetianers Jacob Casanova de Seingalt. While the German edition was in course of publication, Herr Brockhaus employed a certain Jean Laforgue, a professor of the French language at Dresden, to revise the original manuscript, correcting Casanova's vigorous, but at times incorrect, and often somewhat Italian, French according to his own notions of elegant writing, suppressing passages which seemed too free-spoken from the point of view of morals and of politics, and altering the names of some of the persons referred to, or replacing those names by initials.
It was finally disproved by a series of articles of Armand Baschet, entitled 'Preuves curieuses de l'authenticite des Memoires de Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, in 'Le Livre, January, February, April and May, 1881; and these proofs were further corroborated by two articles of Alessandro d'Ancona, entitled 'Un Avventuriere del Secolo XVIII., in the 'Nuovo Antologia, February 1 and August 1, 1882.
As may be imagined, I was surprised to find them in England, and especially to be introduced to them by the Charpillon, who, knowing nothing of the affair of the jewels, had not told them that Seingalt was the same as Casanova, whom they had cheated of six thousand francs. "I am delighted to see you again," were the first words I addressed to her.
The next deal was also in his favour, and he collected his winnings and left the table. I sat down in the chair he had occupied, and a lady said, "That's the Chevalier de Seingalt." "No," said another. "I saw him a little while ago in the ball-room disguised as a beggar, with four other masquers whom nobody knows." "How do you mean, dressed as a beggar?" said Canano.
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