three blame my cook
for putting them in such a state. The Count's courier had already told
me, at Leipzig, that she had crippled him. Yesterday the Count arrived
and would do nothing but laugh, but I have sent her back and exhorted her
to imitate the Magdalene. The amusing part is that she is old, ugly and
ill-smelling."

In 1789, 1791 and 1792, Casanova received three letters from Maddalena
Allegranti, the niece of J. B. Allegranti the innkeeper with whom
Casanova lodged at Florence in 1771. "This young person, still a child,
was so pretty, so gracious, with such spirit and such charms, that she
incessantly distracted me. Sometimes she would come into my chamber to
wish me good-morning . . . . Her appearance, her grace, the sound of her
voice . . . were more than I could resist; and, fearing the seduction
would excuse mine, I could find no other expedient than to take flight.
. . . Some years later, Maddalena became a celebrated musician."

At this period of Casanova's life, we hear again of the hussy who so
upset Casanova during his visit to London that he was actually on the
point of committing suicide through sheer desperation. On the 20th
September 1789, he wrote to the Princess Clari, sister of the Prince de
Ligne: "I am struck by a woman at first sight, she completely ravishes
me, and I am perhaps lost, for she may be a Charpillon."

There were, among the papers at Dux, two letters from Marianne
Charpillon, and a manuscript outlining the story of Casanova's relations
with her and her family, as detailed in the Memoirs: With the story in
mind, the letters from this girl, "the mistress, now of one, now of
another," are of interest:

"I know not, Monsieur, whether you forgot the engagement Saturday last;
as for me, I remember that you consented to give us the pleasure of
having you at dinner to-day, Monday, the 12th of the month. I would
greatly like to know whether your ill-humor has left you; this would
please me. Farewell, in awaiting the honor of seeing you.

"Marianne de Charpillon."

"Monsieur,

"As I have a part in all which concerns you, I am greatly put out to know
of the new illness which incommodes you; I hope that this will be so
trifling that we will have the pleasure of seeing you well and at our
house, to-day or to-morrow.

"And, in truth, the gift which you sent me is so pretty that I know not
how to express to you the pleasure it has given me and how much I value
it; and I cannot see why