of macaroni, which he required
each day. There were always quarrels in the house. The cook had ruined
his polenta; the coachman had given him a bad driver to bring him to see
me; the dogs had barked all night; there had been more guests than usual
and he had found it necessary to eat at a side table. Some hunting-horn
had tormented his ear with its blasts; the priest had been trying to
convert him; Count Waldstein had not anticipated his morning greeting;
the servant had delayed with his wine; he had not been introduced to some
distinguished personage who had come to see the lance which had pierced
the side of the great Wallenstein; the Count had lent a book without
telling him; a groom had not touched his hat to him; his German speech
had been misunderstood; he had become angry and people had laughed at
him."
Like Count Waldstein, however, the Prince de Ligne made the widest
allowances, understanding the chafing of Casanova's restless spirit.
"Casanova has a mind without an equal, from which each word is
extraordinary and each thought a book."
On the 16th December, he wrote Casanova: "One is never old with your
heart, your genius and your stomach."
Casanova's own comment on his trip away from Dux will be found in the
Memoirs. "Two years ago, I set out for Hamburg, but my good genius made
me return to Dux. What had I to do at Hamburg?"
On the 10th December, Casanova's brother Giovanni [Jean] died. He was the
Director of the Academy of Painting at Dresden. Apparently the two
brothers could not remain friends.
Giovanni left two daughters, Teresa and Augusta, and two sons, Carlo and
Lorenzo. While he was unable to remain friendly with his brother,
Casanova apparently wished to be of assistance to his nieces, who were
not in the best of circumstances, and he exchanged a number of letters
with Teresa after her father's death.
On the occasion of Teresa Casanova's visit to Vienna in 1792, Princess
Clari, oldest sister of the Prince de Ligne, wrote of her: "She is
charming in every way, pretty as love, always amiable; she has had great
success. Prince Kaunitz loves her to the point of madness."
In a letter of the 25th April 1796, Teresa assured her "very amiable and
very dear uncle" that the cautions, which occupied three-fourths of his
letter, were unnecessary; and compared him with his brother Francois, to
the injury of the latter. On the 5th May, Teresa wrote:
"Before thanking you for your charming letter, m
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