Produced by David Widger
MEMOIRS OF JACQUES CASANOVA de SEINGALT 1725-1798
VENETIAN YEARS, Volume 1e—MILAN AND MANTUA
Slight Misfortunes Compel Me to Leave Venice—My Adventures in Milan and
Mantua
On Low Sunday Charles paid us a visit with his lovely wife, who seemedtotally indifferent to what Christine used to be. Her hair dressed withpowder did not please me as well as the raven black of her beautifullocks, and her fashionable town attire did not, in my eyes, suit her aswell as her rich country dress. But the countenances of husband and wifebore the stamp of happiness. Charles reproached me in a friendly mannerbecause I had not called once upon them, and, in order to atone for myapparent negligence, I went to see them the next day with M. Dandolo.Charles told me that his wife was idolized by his aunt and his sister whohad become her bosom friend; that she was kind, affectionate, unassuming,and of a disposition which enforced affection. I was no less pleased withthis favourable state of things than with the facility with whichChristine was learning the Venetian dialect.
When M. Dandolo and I called at their house, Charles was not at home;Christine was alone with his two relatives. The most friendly welcome wasproffered to us, and in the course of conversation the aunt praised theprogress made by Christine in her writing very highly, and asked her tolet me see her copy-book. I followed her to the next room, where she toldme that she was very happy; that every day she discovered new virtues inher husband. He had told her, without the slightest appearance ofsuspicion of displeasure, that he knew that we had spent two daystogether in Treviso, and that he had laughed at the well-meaning fool whohad given him that piece of information in the hope of raising a cloud inthe heaven of their felicity.
Charles was truly endowed with all the virtues, with all the noblequalities of an honest and distinguished man. Twenty-six years afterwardsI happened to require the assistance of his purse, and found him my truefriend. I never was a frequent visitor at his house, and he appreciatedmy delicacy. He died a few months before my last departure from Venice,leaving his widow in easy circumstances, and three well-educated sons,all with good positions, who may, for what I know, be still living withtheir mother.
In June I went to the fair at Padua, and made the acquaintance of a youngman of my own age, who was then studying mathematics under the celebratedProfessor Succi. His name was Tognolo, but thinking it did not soundwell, he changed it for that of Fabris. He became, in after years, Comtede Fabris, lieutenant-general under Joseph II., and died Governor ofTransylvania. This man, who owed his high fortune to his talents, would,perhaps, have lived and died unknown if he had kept his name of Tognolo,a truly vulgar one. He was from Uderzo, a large village of the VenetianFriuli. He had a brother in the Church, a man of parts, and a greatgamester, who, having a deep knowledge of the world, had taken the nameof Fabris, and the younger brother had to assume it likewise. Soonafterwards he bought an estate with the title of count, became a Venetiannobleman, and his origin as a country bumpkin was forgotten. If he hadkept his name of Tognolo it would have injured him, for he could not havepronounced it without reminding his hearers of what is called, by themost contemptible of