The next day an officer in national uniform came to see the major. With him was an elderly man, about sixty, who wore a sword.
The officer presented a dispatch sealed by the war office, waited while the major read and answered it, then withdrew.
When he had gone, the major turned to the older man, whom he addressed as count, and informed him that his orders were to keep him a prisoner, and that he gave him the whole of the fort for his prison.
The count offered him his sword, but the major nobly refused to take it and escorted him to the room that had been prepared.
Soon after, a servant in livery arrived with a bed and a trunk.
The next morning the same servant knocked at my door. His master, he said, wished to have the honor of my company for breakfast.
I accepted.
The count received me with these words.
"Dear sir, there has been so much talk in Venice about the skill with which you proved your incredible alibi, that I could not help asking for the honour of your acquaintance."
"But, count, the alibi being a true one, there can be no skill required to prove it. Allow me to say that those who doubt its truth are paying me a very poor compliment, for—"
He raised a hand.
"Never mind; do not let us talk any more of that, and forgive me. But as we happen to be companions in misfortune, I trust you will not refuse me your friendship. Now for breakfast."
After we had eaten, the count, who had heard from me part of my history, seemed to feel that my confidence required a return on his part. He began to speak.
"I am the Count de Bonafede. In my early days I served under Prince Eugene, but I gave up the army, and entered on a civil career in Austria. I had to fly from Austria and take refuge in Bavaria in consequence of an unfortunate duel.
"In Munich I made the acquaintance of a young lady belonging to a noble family; I eloped with her and brought her to Venice, where we were married. I have now been twenty years in Venice. I have six children, and everybody knows me.
"About a week ago I sent my servant to the postoffice for my letters, but they were refused him because he had not any money to pay the postage. I went myself, but the clerk would not deliver me my letters, although I assured him that I would pay for them the next time.
"This made me angry, and I called upon the Baron de Taxis, the postmaster, and complained of the clerk, but he answered very rudely that the clerk had simply obeyed his orders, and that my letters would only be delivered on payment of the postage.
"I felt very indignant, but as I was in his house I controlled my anger, went home, and wrote a note to him asking him to give me satisfaction for his rudeness, telling him that I would never go out without my sword, and that I would force him to fight whenever and wherever I should meet him.
"I never came across him, but yesterday I was accosted by the secretary of the inquisitors, who told me that I must forget the baron's rude conduct, and go under the guidance of an officer whom he pointed out to me, to imprison myself for a week in this fortress. I shall thus have the pleasure of spending that time with you."
I told him that I had been free for the last twenty four hours, yet that in gratitude for his confidence I would be honored if he allowed me to keep him company.
Since I was already pledged to remain a week for the major's sake, this was no more than a courteous falsehood.
In the afternoon we were on the tower together when I pointed out a gondola making for the lower gate. The count raised his spyglass and smiled.
"It is my wife and daughter."
We went down to meet them.
The mother still carried traces of a beauty that might once have been worth the trouble of an elopement.
The daughter, fifteen or sixteen, struck me at once. She possessed a kind of beauty new to me.
Her hair was a shining light auburn, her eyes a clear blue, her nose boldly Roman, and her half-open laughing mouth revealed teeth as white as her skin beneath its rosy glow.
She was slight to the point of improbability, but her perfectly shaped chest -still more promise than presence- was an altar on which the god of love would have delighted to breathe the sweetest incense.
My imagination helped nature where she lagged. I could not stop looking at her.
When our eyes met, her smile seemed to whisper: "Only wait for two years, at the utmost, and all that your imagination is now creating will then exist in reality."
She was elegantly dressed in the prevalent fashion, with large hoops, and like the daughters of the nobility who have not yet attained the age of puberty, although the young countess was marriageable.
I had never dared stare so openly at the bosom of a young lady of quality, but here there was hardly a bosom to offend, and I allowed myself the liberty of expectation.
After a few words in German with his wife, the count presented me in the most flattering manner, and I was received with great politeness.
The major joined us, determined to escort the countess around the fortress.
I seized the advantage my inferior rank offered and offered my arm to the young lady.
The count left us and went to his room.
I prided myself on my old Venetian gallantry, but she found my manner rustic.
I slipped my hand under her arm in what I thought a fashionable way; she burst out laughing and drew back.
Her mother turned at the sound.
"He tickled me," the girl said.
I felt my cheeks burn. She took pity on me—or thought she did.
"This is how you offer your arm to a lady," she said, sliding her hand through my arm with easy grace.
I rounded my arm in the most clumsy manner, feeling it a very difficult task to resume a dignified countenance.
Thinking me a novice of the most innocent species, she very likely determined to make sport of me.
She began by telling me that rounding my arm as I had done placed it too far from her waist, making me "out of drawing."
"I do not know how to draw," I said. "Is it one of your accomplishments?"
"I am learning," she answered, "and when you call upon us I will shew you Adam and Eve, after the Chevalier Liberi; I have made a copy which has been found very fine by some professors, although they did not know it was my work."
"Why did you not tell them?"
"Because those two figures are too naked."
"I am not curious to see your Adam, but I will look at your Eve with pleasure, and keep your secret."
She laughed again. Her mother turned once more.
I put on the look of a simpleton, for, seeing the advantage I could derive from her opinion of me, I had formed my plan at the very moment she tried to teach me how to offer my arm to a lady.
She was so convinced of my simplicity that she ventured to say that she considered her Adam was far more beautiful than her Eve, since in drawing the man she had omitted nothing, every muscle clearly defined, while Eve, as she put it, had no single line that stood out.
"It is a figure with nothing in it," she said.
"Yet that is the one I shall like best," I answered.
"No. Believe me, Adam will please you more."
This light play of words did me no good.
The heat was strong, I wore only thin linen, and her laughter and confidence had already unsettled me.
The major and the countess walked only a few steps ahead. I dreaded their turning and catching some trace of my agitation.
I felt as if I were walking on thorns.
Matters grew worse through a trifle.
The young lady stumbled, one of her shoes slipped off, and she held out a small, elegant foot, asking me to put it back on. I knelt to obey.
As I did so she lifted her skirt higher than strict modesty required, no doubt from pure habit and without thought.
She had very wide hoops and no petticoat.... what I saw was enough to strike me dead on the spot....
When I rose she looked at me with sudden attention.
"Is anything the matter with you?" she asked.
A moment later, as we stepped out from one of the casemates, her head dress slipped a little and she asked me to put it right.
She bent her head.
My confusion had by then become almost impossible to hide. To give us both a way out she abruptly asked who had made my watch ribbon.
"My sister gave it to me," I said.
She wanted to see it.
I told her it was fastened to the fob pocket.
When she smiled as if she did not believe me, I added that she could judge for herself.
She put her hand to it, and a natural but involuntary excitement caused me to be very indiscreet.
She drew back at once.
She had just discovered how wrong she had been about my simplicity. Her manner changed. The teasing ceased.
She became quieter, more reserved, and we rejoined her mother and the major, who were looking, inside a sentry box, at the body of Marshal de Schulenburg, laid there until his mausoleum should be completed.
As for myself, I felt deeply ashamed. I thought myself the first man who had alarmed her innocence, and I felt ready to do anything to atone for the insult.
Such was my delicacy of feeling in those days. I used to credit people with exalted sentiments, which often existed only in my imagination.
I must confess that time has entirely destroyed that delicacy; yet I do not believe myself worse than other men, my equals in age and inexperience.
We returned to the count's apartment, and the day passed off rather gloomily.
Towards evening the ladies went away, but the countess gave me a pressing invitation to call upon them in Venice.
The young girl, whom I thought I had offended beyond pardon, had made a deep impression on me.
The seven days that followed seemed endless.
I burned to see her again, not to pursue a conquest, but to ask forgiveness and persuade her of my sincere repentance.