the thought that he would sit in the afternoon, but I had to put up with
a disagreeable experience.

The chief constable, accompanied by an interpreter, came to say that I
must go to Newgate. This is a prison where the most wretched and abject
criminals are kept.

I signified to him that I was awaiting bail, and that he could take me to
Newgate in the evening if it did not come, but he only turned a deaf ear
to my petition. The interpreter told me in a whisper that the fellow was
certainly paid by the other side to put me to trouble, but that if I
liked to bribe him I could stay where I was.

"How much will he want?"

The interpreter took the constable aside, and then told me that I could
stay where I was for ten guineas.

"Then say that I should like to see Newgate."

A coach was summoned, and I was taken away.

When I got to this abode of misery and despair, a hell, such as Dante
might have conceived, a crowd of wretches, some of whom were to be hanged
in the course of the week, greeted me by deriding my elegant attire. I
did not answer them, and they began to get angry and to abuse me. The
gaoler quieted them by saying that I was a foreigner and did not
understand English, and then took me to a cell, informing me how much it
would cost me, and of the prison rules, as if he felt certain that I
should make a long stay. But in the course of half an hour, the constable
who had tried to get ten guineas out of me told me that bail had arrived
and that my carriage was at the door.

I thanked God from the bottom of my heart, and soon found myself in the
presence of the blind magistrate. My bail consisted of Pegu, my tailor,
and Maisonneuve, my wine merchant, who said they were happy to be able to
render me this slight service. In another part of the court I noticed the
infamous Charpillon, Rostaing, Goudar, and an attorney. They made no
impression on me, and I contented myself with giving them a look of
profound contempt.

My two sureties were informed of the amount in which they were to bail
me, and signed with a light heart, and then the magistrate said,
politely,--

"Signor Casanova, please to sign your name for double the amount, and you
will then be a free man again."

I went towards the clerk's table, and on asking the sum I was to answer
for was informed that it was forty guineas, each of my sureties signing
for twenty. I signed my name, telling Goudar that if the magistrate could
have seen the Charpil