Prague,
supervising the printing of the Histoire de ma fuite.

"I remember laughing very heartily at Prague, six years ago, on learning
that some thin-skinned ladies, on reading my flight from The Leads, which
was published at that date, took great offense at the above account,
which they thought I should have done well to leave out."

In May he was troubled with an attack of the grippe. In October, he was
in Dresden, apparently with his brother. Around this time "The
Magdalene," a painting by Correggio, was stolen from the Museum of the
Elector.

On the 30th October 1788, Casanova wrote to the Prince Belozelski,
Russian Minister to the Court of Dresden: "Tuesday morning, after having
embraced my dear brother, I got into a carriage to return here. At the
barrier on the outskirts of Dresden, I was obliged to descend, and six
men carried the two chests of my carriage, my two night-bags and my
capelire into a little chamber on the ground level, demanded my keys, and
examined everything . . . . The youngest of these infamous executors of
such an order told me they were searching for 'The Magdalene! . . . The
oldest had the impudence to put his hands on my waistcoat . . . . At last
they let me go.

"This, my prince, delayed me so that I could not reach Petervalden by
daylight. I stopped at an evil tavern where, dying of famine and rage, I
ate everything I saw; and, wishing to drink and not liking beer, I gulped
down some beverage which my host told me was good and which did not seem
unpleasant. He told me that it was Pilnitz Moste. This beverage aroused a
rebellion in my guts. I passed the night tormented by a continual
diarrhoea. I arrived here the day before yesterday (the 28th), where I
found an unpleasant duty awaiting me. Two months ago, I brought a woman
here to cook, needing her while the Count is away; as soon as she
arrived, I gave her a room and I went to Leipzig. On returning here, I
found three servants in the hands of surgeons and all 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