ing upon the subject of his intended flight. The garrulity of the jailor, who had an inordinate love of babbling, supplied him with some particulars relative to the prison, which ultimately proved useful. But it was from the leave to walk in the gallery that he derived the greatest advantage. At first the favour was considered valuable only as affording him an enlarged space for exercise; but it was not long before he began to imagine that he might turn it to better account. In the course of his brief visits to this spot, he discovered in a corner two chests, round which was a quantity of old lumber. One of the chests was locked; that which was open contained feathers, paper, and twine, and a piece of what seemed to be smooth black marble, about an inch thick, three inches wide, and six inches long. Apparently without having settled what use he could make of it, he carried the stone to his cell, and hid it under his shirts.

Some time after this, while he was walking, his eyes rested on a bolt as thick as a thumb and eighteen inches in length, which he had more than once seen among the lumber; and the thought suddenly struck him, that it might be converted into a tool and a weapon. He concealed it under his clothes and took it to his cell. He now examined more closely the supposed piece of marble, and was delighted to find that it was

in reality a whet-stone. Quite uncertain as to what purpose he should apply the bolt, but with a vague hope that it might possibly be of service, Casanova set to work to point it. This was a wearisome task. He was nearly in the dark, held the stone in his hand because he had no place where he could fix it, and for want of oil was obliged to moisten it with spittle. For fourteen days he worked incessantly, till his left hand. became one blister, and his right arm could not be moved without difficulty. He had, however, succeeded in converting the rusty bolt into an octangular stiletto, which might have done credit to a swordmaker's skill. When it was finished, he hid it in the straw of his arm-chair. Whether it would be employed in committing murder or giving freedom, or perhaps both, circumstances alone could decide.

After having pondered for five days on what was to be done, Casanova decided that to break through the floor of his cell was the only plan which afforded a chance of success. The state cells, in one of which he was immured, were in the roof, and were covered with plates of lead three feet square and about a line in thickness. They occupied the two opposite sides, eastern and western, of the building, four on the former side and three on the latter. The eastern cells were light, and would allow a man to stand up

right in them, while the others were rendered low and dark by the beams which crossed the windows. The only access was through the gates of the Palace, the Bridge of Sighs, and the galleries, and the secretary kept the key, which was daily returned to him by the jailor, after he had attended on the prisoners.

Casanova was aware that under his cell was the secretary's chamber, and that the chamber was open every morning. If by the help of the bedclothes he could descend unseen into it, he purposed to hide himself under the table of the tribunal, and watch an opportunity to sally forth. If, contrary to his expectations, he should find a sentinel in the room, he made up his mind to kill him. He could not, however, yet begin his work, for the cold was so intense, that when he grasped the iron his hands became frozen; and besides, for nineteen hours out of the twenty-four he was in complete darkness, the winter fogs at Venice being so thick, that even in the day-time he had not light enough to read by. He was therefore compelled to postpone till a more favourable season the commencement of his operations.

This compulsory delay, and the want of something to beguile the lagging hours, depressed his spirits. He again sunk into despondency. A lamp would have made him happy. He thought

how he could supply the place of one. He required a lamp, wick, oil, flint and steel, and tinder, and he had not one of them all. By dint of contrivance he soon procured a part of them. An earthen pipkin,

which he managed to conceal, was the lamp; the oil was saved from his salad; a wick he formed from cotton taken out of his bed; and a buckle in his girdle was converted into a steel. A flint, matches, and tinder were still deficient. These, too, his perseverance obtained. Pretending to have a violent toothache, he prevailed on Lorenzo to give him a fragment of flint, for the purpose of being steeped in vinegar and applied to the tooth; and to prevent suspicion, he put three pieces of it into vinegar in the presence of the jailor. Sulphur he got by a similar stratagem. He was very opportunely attacked by an irritation of the skin, for which the article he stood in need of was one of the remedies prescribed.

But now for the tinder; to contrive a substitute for that was the work of three days. It at last occurred to him that he had ordered his tailor to stuff his silken vest under the arms with sponge, to prevent the appearance of stain. The clothes lay before him. My heart beat,' he says; 'the tailor might not have fulfilled my orders; I hesitated between fear and hope. It only required two steps, and I should be out

of suspense; but I could not resolve on those two steps. At last I advanced to where the clothes lay, and feeling unworthy of such a favour if I should find the sponge there, I fell on my knees and prayed fervently. Comforted by this, I took up the dress and found the sponge. I was no sooner in possession of it than I poured the oil into the pipkin, set the wick in, and the lamp was ready. It was no little addition to the pleasure this luxury afforded me, that I owed it entirely to my own ingenuity, and that I had violated one of the strictest laws of the prison. I dreaded the approach of night no longer.' The pleasure which he derived from this acquisition enabled him to bear with tolerable patience the necessary postponement of his great undertaking. Considering that during the riotous festivities of the Carnival he would be daily liable to have companions sent to him, he resolved not to begin his labours till the first Monday in Lent. But here he was staggered by another obstacle, which he had not hitherto taken into account. He had always manifested an eagerness to have his room swept, for the purpose of keeping down the vermin that annoyed him. But if he persisted in having this done, the jailor could not fail to discover the breach which the prisoner was making in the floor.

He was therefore obliged to desire that the sweeping might be dis

continued. For about a week Lorenzo humoured the prisoner, but he seems at last to have felt an undefined suspicion that something wrong was intended. He ordered the cell to be swept and the bed removed, and he brought in a light, on pretence of ascertaining whether the work had been thoroughly done. But his vigilance was thrown away; he was no match for the wily captive. Next morning he found Casanova in bed, and was greeted with 'I have coughed so violently that I have burst a blood-vessel.' Then, holding up a handkerchief which he had stained by purposely cutting his thumb, the speaker added, 'See how I have bled! Pray, send for a physician!' came, prescribed, listened to his complaint against the jailor, assented to its justice, and directed that the broom should thenceforth be banished.

A doctor

Having thus secured a clear field for his operations, he moved his bed out of the alcove, lighted the lamp, and set vigorously to work on the floor with his stiletto. The deals were sixteen inches broad, and he began to make the hole at the point where two of them joined. At the outset the chips were no bigger than grains of corn, but they soon increased to respectable splinters. After having worked for six hours he desisted, and gathered the chips into a napkin, intending to throw them behind the lumber in the garret. When by dint of much

toil he had penetrated through this plank, he found beneath it another of equal thickness, which was succeeded by a third. Three weeks were consumed in getting through these multiplied impediments. When he had conquered them, he came to a still more formidable obstaclea sort of pavement, composed of small pieces of marble. On this his stiletto could make no impression. His resourceful brain, however, discovered a method of surmounting this difficulty. Taking the hint from a well-known proceeding ascribed to Hannibal, he moistened the mortar with vinegar, and softened it so much, that at the end of four days he was enabled to remove the pieces of marble. There was yet another plank to cut through, and as the hole was already ten inches deep, this part of his task was exceedingly troublesome and laborious.

Prone on the ground, quite naked, and streaming with perspiration, his lamp standing lighted in the hole, Casanova had been working at the last plank for three hours of a sultry day in June, when he was startled by the rattling of bolts in the ante-rooms. He had barely time to blow out the lamp, push the bed back into its place, and throw upon it the mattress and bedding, before Lorenzo entered. The jailor brought with him a prisoner, and congratulated the tenant of the cell on having such a companion. The new-comer

exclaimed, 'Where am I? and where am I to be confined? What a heat, and what a smell! With whom am I to be imprisoned?' As soon as the captives could see each other, a mutual recognition took place. The person whom Lorenzo had installed in the cell was Count Fanarola, an agreeable and honourable man of middle age, who was committed for some trifling remarks, which he had been so imprudent as to make. in a public place. Casanova, who was well acquainted with the count, confided to him the secret of his project, and was encouraged to persevere. Fanarola was liberated in the course of a few days.

Left once more alone, Casanova resumed his toilsome occupation. It was protracted by a circumstance which he had feared might happen, but was unable to prevent. When he had made a small perforation in the last plank, he found that the room beneath was, as he had supposed, the secretary's; but he found also that he had made his aperture just over a large cross-beam, which would hinder his descent. He was therefore obliged to widen the hole on the other side, so as to keep clear of this impediment. In the meantime he carefully stopped up the small perforation with bread, that the light of his lamp might not be perceived. It was not till the 23d of August, 1756, that he brought his labour to a close. All was ready for breaking