opened every morning. A hole once made in the floor, he could easily
lower himself by a rope made of the sheets of his bed, and fastened to
one of the bed-posts. He might hide under the great table of the
tribunal till the door was opened, and then make good his escape. It was
probable, indeed, that one of the archers would mount guard in this room
at night; but him Casanova resolved to kill with his pointed iron. The
great difficulty really was that the hole in the floor was not to be
made in a day, but might be a work of months. And therefore some pretext
must be found to prevent the archers from sweeping out the cell, as they
were accustomed to do every morning.

Some days after, alleging no reason, he ordered the archers not to
sweep. This omission was allowed to pass for several mornings, and then
the gaoler demanded Casanova's reason. He answered, that the dust
settled on his lungs, and made him cough, and might give him a mortal
disease. Laurent, the gaoler, offered to throw water on the floor before
sweeping it; but Casanova's arguments against the dampness of the
atmosphere that would result were equally ingenious. Laurent's
suspicions, however, were roused, and one day he ordered the room to be
swept most carefully, and even lit a candle, and on the pretence of
cleanliness, searched the cell thoroughly. Casanova seemed indifferent,
but the next day, having pricked his finger, he showed his handkerchief
stained with blood, and said that the gaoler's cruelty had brought on so
severe a cough that he had actually broken a small blood-vessel. A
doctor was sent for, who took the prisoner's part, and forbade sweeping
out the cell in future. One great point was gained; but the work could
not begin yet, owing to the fearful cold. The prisoner would have been
forced to wear gloves, and the sight of a worn glove might have excited
suspicion. So he occupied himself with another stratagem--the creation,
little by little, of a lamp, for the solace of the endless winter
nights. One by one, the gaoler himself, unsuspectingly, brought the
different ingredients: oil was imported in salads, wick the prisoner
himself made from threads pulled from the quilt, and in time the lamp
was complete.

The very unwelcome sojourn of a Jewish usurer, like himself captive of
the Inquisition, in his cell, forced Casanova to delay his projects of
escape till after Easter, when the Jew was imprisoned elsewhere.

No sooner had he left than Ca