contained in the two innermost rooms. The book shelves are painted white
and reach to the low vaulted ceilings, which are whitewashed. At the end
of a bookcase, in the corner of one of the windows, hangs a fine engraved
portrait of Casanova."

In this elaborate setting, Casanova found the refuge he so sadly needed
for his last years. The evil days of Venice and Vienna, and the problems
and makeshifts of mere existence, were left behind. And for this refuge
he paid the world with his Memoirs.



II

LETTERS FROM FRANCESCA

In 1786, Casanova renewed his correspondence with Francesca, who wrote:

1st July 1786. "After a silence of a year and a half, I received from you
yesterday a good letter which has consoled me in informing me that you
are in perfect health. But, on the other hand, I was much pained to see
that in your letter you did not call me Friend, but Madame . . . . You
have reason to chide me and to reproach me for having rented a house
without surety or means of paying the rent. As to the advice you give me
that if some honest person would pay me my rent, or at least a part of
it, I should have no scruples about taking it because a little more, or a
little less, would be of little importance . . . . I declare to you that
I have been disconsolated at receiving from you such a reproach which is
absolutely unjustified . . . . You tell me that you have near you a young
girl who merits all your solicitations and your love, she and her family