The fortress was ringed with water, and from my windows no sentinel could see a thing.
A boat could slip beneath them in the dark, take me to Venice, and bring me back before dawn without a soul being the wiser.
All I needed was a boatman willing to risk the galleys for a little gold.
Several men came daily with provisions. I picked one whose face pleased me and offered him a sequin.
He asked for a day to decide.
Next morning he returned. He confessed he had first gone to learn why I was confined.
The major's wife had assured him that I was guilty of nothing worse than youthful pranks.
Satisfied on that point, he agreed to serve me.
We arranged that he would come beneath my window at nightfall, his boat fitted with a mast long enough for me to slide down from the window into the boat.
At the appointed hour the mast rose under my casement like a discreet ladder. I eased myself along it and dropped safely into the boat.
We crossed without incident and landed at the Slavonian quay.
I told the boatman to wait, wrapped myself in a sailor's cloak, and walked straight to the gate of Saint-Sauveur.
There I hired a coffee-room waiter to show me the way to Razetta's house.
Convinced he would be out at that hour, I rang the bell.
My sister's voice came through the door: if I wanted to see him, I must come in the morning.
That was all I needed.
I went to the foot of the bridge and sat down to watch which direction he would take on returning home.
A few minutes before midnight I saw him coming from the square of Saint-Paul.
My reconnaissance was complete.
I went back to my boat and returned to the fortress as quietly as I had left it.
At five o'clock, when the garrison awoke, they could see me taking my morning walk on the platform.
Taking all the time necessary to mature my plans, I made the following arrangements to secure my revenge with perfect safety, and to prove an alibi in case I should kill my rascally enemy, as it was my intention to do.
The day before my planned expedition, I walked about the fortress with the adjutant Zen's son, a clever boy of twelve whose wit amused me. (The reader will meet him again in 1771.)
As we crossed one of the bastions, I suddenly jumped down, twisted my face in pain, and pretended to sprain my ankle.
Two soldiers carried me to my room.
The surgeon examined the leg, pronounced it luxated, wrapped my ankle in towels soaked with camphorated spirits, and ordered me strictly to bed.
The news spread quickly. Everyone came to pity the invalid.
I asked the soldier who waited on me to stay the night in my room.
I knew his weakness: one glass of brandy and he would sleep like a stone. When he began to nod, I gave him the drink.
Soon he was stretched on his pallet, breathing like a bellows.
Toward half-past ten I dismissed both surgeon and chaplain -the latter had his room just over mine- pleading the need for quiet.
When all was still, at half-past ten I lowered myself into the boat waiting under my window.
Once in Venice, I bought a stout cudgel and went to Saint-Paul's Square.
I sat myself down on a door-step, at the corner of the street. A narrow canal at the end of the street, was, I thought, the very place to throw my enemy in. That canal has now disappeared.
At a quarter before twelve I saw Razetta walking along leisurely. I came out of the street with rapid strides, keeping near the wall to compel him to make room for me.
As we met, I swung the stick.
The first blow caught him on the head, the second on the arm. The third sent him howling into the canal, shouting my name as he fell.
At that instant a Forlì man came out of a doorway on my left, lantern in hand.
I knocked the lantern from his grip with a single blow.
Frightened out of his wits, he took to his heels.
I dropped the cudgel, sprinted across the square and over the bridge, and while people rushed toward the noise, I reached my boat.
A strong breeze filled the sail and carried us back to the fortress.
Midnight was striking as I climbed in at my window.
I undressed at once, flung myself into bed, and began to scream.
I shouted for the soldier to fetch the surgeon. I was dying of colic.
The chaplain, woken by my cries, came down and found me in what looked like convulsions.
He hurried upstairs for some diascordium, convinced it would calm my stomach.
While the good old man went for water, I slipped the medicine out of sight.
After half an hour of grimaces and groans, I announced myself much relieved.
I thanked them for their care and begged everyone to retire. They withdrew wishing me a quiet sleep.
The next morning I "could not" get out of bed because of my bad ankle, though in truth I had slept excellently.
The major came to see me before going to Venice. He attributed my nocturnal torments to the melon I had eaten at dinner the day before.
I let him keep his diagnosis. It is never wise to deprive a good man of a harmless illusion.
The major returned at one in the afternoon, laughing as he came into my room.
"I have good news for you," he said. "Razetta was soundly cudgelled last night and thrown into a canal."
"Is he dead?" I asked.
"No; but I am glad of it for your sake, for his death would make your position much more serious. You are accused of having done it."
"I am very glad people think me guilty;" I replied. "it is something of a revenge, but it will be rather difficult to bring it home to me."
"Very difficult! All the same, Razetta swears he recognized you, and the same declaration is made by the Forlan who says that you struck his hand to make him drop his lantern. Razetta's nose is broken, three of his teeth are gone, and his right arm is severely hurt. You have been accused before the avogador, and M. Grimani has written to the war office to complain of your release from the fortress without his knowledge. I arrived at the office just in time. The secretary was reading Grimani's letter, and I assured his excellency that it was a false report, for I left you in bed this morning, suffering from a sprained ankle. I told him likewise that at twelve o'clock last night you were very near death from a severe attack of colic."
"Was it at midnight that Razetta was so well treated?"
"So says the official report. The war secretary wrote at once to M. Grimani and informed him that you have not left the fort, and that you are even now detained in it, and that the plaintiff is at liberty, if he chooses, to send commissaries to ascertain the fact. Therefore, my dear abbe, you must prepare yourself for an interrogatory."
"I expect it," I said, "and I will answer that I am very sorry to be innocent."
Three days later a commissary arrived at the fort with a court clerk.
The inquiry was brief. Everyone knew of my supposed sprain; the chaplain, the surgeon, my servant, and several others swore that at midnight I was in bed, groaning with colic.
My alibi stood firm.
The avogador condemned Razetta and the Forlì witness to pay all costs, without prejudice to any action I might later bring against them.
After the judgment, the major advised me to petition the secretary of war for my release, and offered to deliver the request himself.
I wrote the petition and informed M. Grimani of what I was doing.
A week later, at dinner, in the middle of some lively conversation, the major turned to me with a smile.
"You are free," he said. "I am to take you myself to the Abbé."
I thought he was teasing and, to continue the jest, replied politely that I preferred his house to Venice and would gladly stay another week if he would allow it.
He accepted my offer on the spot, and everyone applauded the idea.
Two hours later, when the news was confirmed and I could no longer doubt that I was actually released, I began to repent the week I had just given away so generously.
But I did not retract.
The joy of the whole household, and particularly of the major's wife, made it impossible.
She knew I owed nearly all my comforts to her kindness; to change my mind would have looked like ingratitude.
Yet before my week was up, I encountered one last adventure in the fortress, which I must not forget to relate.