“Yes; and in prison on account of a forged bill.  I am sure I do not know what they will do to the poor wretch.  He would have been wise to have fled, but it seems as if he wanted to get hanged.”

“And you have been with him ever since you left England? that is, three years ago.”

“Exactly.  Our occupation is robbing, cheating, and escaping from one land to another.  Never was a woman so unhappy as I.”

“For how much is the forged bill?”

“For three hundred crowns.  Do a generous action M. Casanova, and let bygones be bygones; deliver the poor wretch from the gallows and me from death, for if he is hanged I shall kill myself.”

“Indeed, madam, he may hang for me, for he did his best to send me to the gallows with his forged bills; but I confess I pity you.  So much, indeed, that I invite you to come to Dresden with me the day after to-morrow, and I promise to give you three hundred crowns as soon as Schwerin has undergone the extreme penalty of the law.  I can’t understand how a woman like you can have fallen in love with a man that has neither face, nor talents, nor wit, nor fortune, for all that he has to boast of is his name of Schwerin.”

“I confess, to my shame, that I never loved him.  Ever since the other rogue, Castelbajac—­who, by the way, was never married to me—­made me know him, I have only lived with him by force, though his tears and his despairs have excited my compassion.  If destiny had given me an honest man in his stead, I would have forsaken him long ago, for sooner or later he will be the death of me.”

“Where do you live?”

“Nowhere.  I have been turned out into the street with nothing but the clothes on my back.  Have compassion on me.”

With these words the hapless woman threw herself at my knees and burst into tears.  I was much affected.  The waiter of the inn stood staring with amazement till I told him to go out.  I may safely say that this woman was one of the most handsome in France; she was probably about twenty-six years old.  She had been the wife of a druggist of Montpellier, and had been so unfortunate as to let Castelbajac seduce her.  At London her beauty had produced no impression on me, my heart was another’s; nevertheless, she was made to seduce the heart of man.

I raised her from her knees, and said I felt inclined to help her, but that in the first place she must calm herself, and in the second share my supper.  The waiter brought another bed and put it in my room, without receiving any orders to do so; this made me feel inclined to laugh.

The appetite with which the poor woman ate, despite her sorrow, reminded me of the matron of Ephesus.  When supper was over I gave her her choice:  she might either stay in Leipzig and fare as best she might, or I would reclaim her effects, take her with me to Dresden, and pay her a hundred gold ducats as soon as I could be certain that she would not give the money to the wretch who had reduced her to such an extremity.  She did not ask much time for reflection.  She said that it would be no good for her to stay in Leipzig, for she could do nothing for the wretched Schwerin or even keep herself for a day, for she had not got a farthing.  She would have to beg or to become a prostitute, and she could not make up her mind to either course.