FAMOUS ESCAPES OF HISTORY.

Auckland Star, Volume 55, Issue 22, 26 January 1924, Page 19

FAMOUS ESCAPES OF HISTORY.

By V. METHLEY.

VII.-THE ESCAPE OF JACQUES CASANOVA DI SEINGAX.T. Jacques Casanora ii Peinzfllt was a mora tcmarkable man, and a man who. In his •time, played many parts. By turns priest, soldier, gambler, fiddler, lottery-promoter, treasure-seeker, poet, manufacturer ot wallpaper, duellist, joumnllst. and man ot pleasure, he was always the Master-Adven-turer, and so marked a personality that his advent ln a small town on the continent was quite an event. Born at Venice in 172.". it was to Venice that he constantly returned all through hi 3 stormy life, and it was at Venire that he ■ceomplisbe- that amazing escape from prison which has made biai famous down to the present day. It was at the age of thirty, in the year 1755, and ou July 2_tb, Hint Casanova fell into the clutches of the Inquisition at Venice. He was arrested by the Tribunal of the Sacred Office on the charge of being a magician and a dabbler In the black art, merely, so he tells us in his memoirs, because a devouring curlositj tn all literature had led him to buy some pamphlets ou magle, which were found In his rooms. "Messer ■Grande." the leader of the. Archers of the Tribunal, came to Casanova's lodgings at dawn, and woke him with the Information that he was under arrest. Confused and bewildered, the unfortunate man was taken ln a gondola to the Doge's Palace, in which building were found the "Plomhi" or attics under the leads, which were the dread prisons of the Tribunal. Casanova was first led to a large, rub-bish-filled attic, from which a door, only three and a-half feet high, covered witn sheet iron, led into his cell. This cell was barely five feet in height, so that Casanova, & tall man, could never stand upright. It was lighted by one tiny window, covere* by six Iron bars, each an Inch thick. There was no furniture except a pall and ■ shelf, a foot wide, fixed to the wall about four feet from the ground, for sleeping purposes. The cell was haunted by huge rats and infested with millions of fleas: »nd here Casanova was left lor the first forty-eight boors without food or water. Later, Lorenzo, the gaoler, procured his steals, for which the prisoner himself was ebllged to pay, hut Casanova's plight was most mi-erajble, an_ thus he remained until the beginning of November, when, ln sheer desperation, he began to plan the escape, which seemed well-nigh hopeless. But Casanova's most outstanding quality was that he never lost hope; he was one Of tho master-optimists of the world. He decided that the only way of escape' would be by piercing through the floor ot his cell, and so reaching the room beneath, which he Bhrewdly suspected was the Grand Inquisitor's Council Chamber. ret nothing could lie lone without tools, and Casanova possessed none except his bare hands. About the middle of November he was allowed to walk for half an hour dally in the large attic adjoining his cell, and here, amongst the rubbish, he managed to nnd, and conceal, a small block of marble, anal an iron bolt about eighteen inches lons. By rubbing the bolt on the marble, Casanova made a kind of stiletto, although to accomplish this took more than eight days of appalling labour, and left his hands rubbed raw. With this tool, the prisoner set to work to make a hole in the floor under his bed, but before he proceeded any further, it was necessary to persuade the gaoler not to sweep the cell, or the proceedings would certainly be discovered and foiled. Casanova, accordingly, deliberately cut his own finger one morning, and, having soaked several handkerchiefs in blood, pretended to have had a haemorrhage from the lungs, and asked Lorenzo to summon a doctor. This Individual was easily persuaded to believe that the attack was owing to the pernicious clouds of dust which were daily raised by sweeping the cell, and he gave orders that the floor wae to be left untouched. Next —as during the winter months the cell was pitch dark—Casanova required a lamp by which to work, and means to light it. A bowl which held his eggs, filled with n:l from his salad and provided with a floating wick drawn from his cotton counterpane, was easily managed, but more snbtlety was needed <o acquire a flint and »tecl. Finally be persuaded Lorenzo to give Mm one of the flints from his pistol, on tie pretext that, soaked in vinegar, this was an infallible remedy for the toothache. Els own belt-buckle provided a steel, sulphur was sent by the doctor to cure a pretended rash, and tinder he discovered In the armholes of his "fine German coat," where It was inserted by fashionable tailors to prevent the stains of perspiration. For a time, all this ingenuity was Wasted, for a second prisoner was sent to Casanova's cell, and lie did not dare to proceed with his plans. Once more alone, after Easter, he set to Work, and soon had managed to pierce through three thicknesses of planks. He J then came upon a marble floor, and re- j duced this, with the aid of vinegar, in four days. I After four months' labour. Casanova hid j made a hole large enough to sc? through' and to Identify the room beneath as the j Council Chamber of the Tribunal, as he I Snspected. j And then—just at the point when every- : thing seemed going well—Casanova was I transferred to another cell, and the hole j was discovered! A less brave man might j well have despaired. I The prisoner was vow watched, day and . Bight, but he had managed lo conceal his i tool, and this he conveyed to a monk • called Balbi, who was imprisoned in the ( cell immediately above that of Casanova. Balbi, acting on Casanova's Instructions, and not watched like his fellowprisoner, managed to make two holes— one down into Casanova's cell, the other upwards on to the leads of the roof. On October 31, 17.C, Casanova gave his I guards the slip, and reached first Balbl's cell, and then. In company with the monk, the steep and slippery roof above. Dragging the helpless and cowardly Balbi after him. clinging to his belt. Casanova leached the ridge of the roof, after a most terrible and perilous climb—but, for the moment, it seemed that the pair were »o nearer escape ! It was only after hours ot search that Casanova discovered a small and almost Inaccessible open skylight, through which he lowered Balbi. it was a far more difficult matter to get down himself, but he succeeded at last, and the pair found themselves in a series of attics, which contained the Doge's archives. Through one closed door they contrived to bore a bole .and force their way through, although who was the larger and stouter ""tt was cruelly torn and cut in the pas-

Finally they reached a massive, ironbarred door, which it was quite impossible to negotiate. It was daylight by now, and Casanova, going in desperation to the window, was seen by a porter in the courtyard below, who immediately jumped to the conclusion that, he had carelessly locked some visitor Into the Palace. He ran up in a great hurry and unlocked the door, and was so much taken aback by the appearance of the two fugitives that they were able to spring past him before he had sufficiently recovered his senses to give the alarm to the guards. Casanova leading the way, with the cowardly monk pattering behind imd breathing out curses and prayers alternately, the pair reached ihe bauk of the canal and leapt into a gondola. The gondolier, dazzled by the handful of gold which Casanova thrust into his hand disregarded tbe shouts from the I'ulncc," and pushed off, speeding along by waterbyeways and half-hidden canal, until they were clear of the town, and Casanova judged it safe to land. They hid amongst sand dunes and stunted bushes for some hours, until the pangs of hunger drove Balbt out In search of food. After being absent for some hours, the monk returned, having eaten himself, but bringing nothing back for the half-starved Casanova, who was exasperated beyond words by this display of his companion's selfishness, and declared that he would travel with him no longer. Balbi accordingly departed, nnd Casanova heard no more of him. He himself dared not go near any human habitation for some days, but remained amongst the sandhlllß and marshes which surround Venice, feeding on berries and shell-fish, until he grew so thin aud gaunt that, he declares, his bitterest enemies would not have recognised him! Finally, through the help of a beautiful nun, who loved him hopelessly aud devotedly, he succeeded in escaping from the territories of the Bepubllc and in reaching Paris safely, there to embark upon a new phaße of his eventful career.