"I give you with pleasure my fullest consent to the edition of the Beethoven Liederkreis by Breitkopf and Hartel."

So by tomorrow's post I shall have the honor of returning you the proofs of the Lieder-Cyclus, which forms a continuation to the Beethoven Lieder which you have already edited, and which you will publish when you think well. .—.

With the proofs of my third piece on the "Prophete" I will also send you all the pieces on it (piano and voice) which you have been so good as to lend me, as well as the piano score, which I don't require any more; for, unless I should have a success which I dare not hope for (for these three pieces), and an express order from you for another series of three pieces, which I could easily extract from that vast score, I shall make this the end of my work on the "Prophete." I come at last to a question, not at all serious, but somewhat embarrassing for me,—that of fixing the price of the manuscripts that you are so good as to print. I confess that this is my "quart d'heure de Rabelais!" [The "quart d'heure de Rabelais" refers to an incident in his life, and means, in round terms, the moment of paying—i.e., any disagreeable moment.] In order not to prolong it for you, allow me to tell you without further ceremony that the whole of the six works together, which are as follows:—

Lieder of Beethoven, Lieder-Cyclus of Beethoven, Consolations (six numbers), Illustrations of the "Prophete" (three numbers), published by your house, are worth, according to my estimation, 80-100 louis d'or.

If this price does not seem disproportionate to you, as I am pleased to think it will not, and if it suits you to publish other pieces of my composition, I shall have the pleasure of sending you in the course of the year:—

1. A "Morceau de Concert"(for piano without orchestra), composed for the competition of the Paris Conservatoire, 1850.

2. The complete series of the Beethoven Symphonies, of which you have as yet only published the "Pastorale" and the "C minor." (In the supposition that this publication will suit your house, I will beg you to make the necessary arrangements from now onwards with Mr. Haslinger; perhaps it will even be expedient that the Symphony in A (7th), which Haslinger published several years ago from the arrangement that I had made, should reappear in its proper place in the complete series of the symphonies.)

3. Bach's six fugues (for organ with pedals), arranged for piano alone.

In the middle of February I shall send you the complete manuscript of my little volume on Chopin, and a little later in the same month we shall set ourselves to work here on the study of Schubert's opera, the performance of which will take place in the first days of April. If, as I do not doubt, the performance of the "Prophete" draws you to Dresden, I shall certainly have the pleasure of seeing you there, for I have just begged Mr. de Luttichau to be so good as to reserve me a place for that evening, and I shall not fail to be there. Meanwhile, my dear M. Hartel, believe me,

Yours sincerely and affectionately,