When we were alone I told him that, as soon as his bed came, I should offer him the recess, begging him at the same time not to accept it.  I asked him, also, not to ask to have the cell swept, saying that I would tell him the reason another time.  He promised to keep all secrecy in the matter, and said he thought himself fortunate to be placed with me.  He said that as no one knew why I was imprisoned, everyone was guessing at it.  Some said that I was the heresiarch of a new sect; others that Madame Memmo had persuaded the Inquisitors that I had made her sons Atheists, and others that Antony Condulmer, the State Inquisitor, had me imprisoned as a disturber of the peace, because I hissed Abbe Chiari’s plays, and had formed a design to go to Padua for the express purpose of killing him.

All these accusations had a certain foundation in fact which gave them an air of truth, but in reality they were all wholly false.  I cared too little for religion to trouble myself to found a new one.  The sons of Madame Memmo were full of wit, and more likely to seduce than to be seduced; and Master Condulmer would have had too much on his hands if he had imprisoned all those who hissed the Abbe Chiari; and as for this abbe, once a Jesuit, I had forgiven him, as the famous Father Origo, himself formerly a Jesuit, had taught me to take my revenge by praising him everywhere, which incited the malicious to vent their satire on the abbe; and thus I was avenged without any trouble to myself.

In the evening they brought a good bed, fine linen, perfumes, an excellent supper, and choice wines.  The abbe ate nothing, but I supped for two.  When Lawrence had wished us good night and had shut us up till the next day, I got out my lamp, which I found to be empty, the napkin having sucked up all the oil.  This made me laugh, for as the napkin might very well have caught and set the room on fire, the idea of the confusion which would have ensued excited my hilarity.  I imparted the cause of my mirth to my companion, who laughed himself, and then, lighting the lamp, we spent the night in pleasant talk.  The history of his imprisonment was as follows: 

“Yesterday, at three o’clock in the afternoon, Madame Alessandria, Count Martinengo, and myself, got into a gondola.  We went to Padua to see the opera, intending to return to Venice afterwards.  In the second act my evil genius led me to the gaming-table, where I unfortunately saw Count Rosenberg, the Austrian ambassador, without his mask, and about ten paces from him was Madame Ruzzini, whose husband is going to Vienna to represent the Republic.  I greeted them both, and was just going away, when the ambassador called out to me, so as to be heard by everyone, ’You are very fortunate in being able to pay your court to so sweet a lady.  At present the personage I represent makes the fairest land in the world no better for me than a galley.  Tell the lady, I beseech you, that the laws which now prevent me speaking