“Monsieur, your sincere “Caton M. . . .”

16th July 1786.  “I have spoken with the Abbe Da Ponte.  He invited me to come to his house because, he said, he had something to tell me for you.  I went there, but was received so coldly that I am resolved not to go there again.  Also, Mlle. Nanette affected an air of reserve and took at on herself to read me lessons on what she was pleased to call my libertinism . . . .  I beg that you will write nothing more about me to these two very dangerous personages....  Just now I will tell you of a little trick which I played on you, which without doubt deserves some punishment.  The young, little Kasper, whom you formerly loved, came to ask me for the address of her dear Monsieur de Casanova, so that she could write a very tender letter full of recollections.  I had too much politeness to wish to refuse a pretty girl, who was once the favorite of my lover, so just a request, so I gave her the address she wished; but I addressed the letter to a city far from you.  Is it not, my dear friend, that you would like well to know the name of the city, so that you could secure the letter by posts.  But you can depend on my word that you will not know it until you have written me a very long letter begging me very humbly to indicate the place where the divine letter of the adorable object of your vows has gone.  You might well make this sacrifice for a girl in whom the Emperor [Joseph ii] interests himself, for it is known that, since your departure from Vienna, it is he who is teaching her French and music; and apparently he takes the trouble of instructing her himself, for she often goes to his house to thank him for his kindnesses to her, but I know not in what way she expresses herself.

“Farewell, my dear friend.  Think sometimes of me and believe that I am your sincere friend.”

On the 23rd April 1785, the ambassador Foscarini died, depriving Casanova of a protector, probably leaving him without much money, and not in the best of health.  He applied for the position of secretary to Count Fabris, his former friend, whose name had been changed from Tognolo, but without success.  Casanova then determined to go to Berlin in the hope of a place in the Academy.  On the 30th July he arrived at Bruen in Moravia, where his friend Maximilian-Joseph, Count Lamberg gave him, among other letters of recommendation, a letter addressed to Jean-Ferdinand Opiz, Inspector of Finances and Banks at Czaslau, in which he wrote: 

“A celebrated man, M. Casanova, will deliver to you, my dear friend, the visiting card with which he is charged for Mme. Opiz and yourself.  Knowing this amiable and remarkable man, will mark an epoch in your life, be polite and friendly to him, ’quod ipsi facies in mei memoriam faciatis’.  Keep yourself well, write to me, and if you can direct him to some honest man at Carlsbad, fail not to do so. . . .”

On the 15th August 1785, M. Opiz wrote Count Lamberg about Casanova’s visit: