“In spite of that, all honour to the royal remembrance that has saved from despair such a highly endowed young artist.
“My concerts were successful, the second even more so than the first. What the public liked best were the Requiem—although we could not give the most difficult numbers of it—and the 5th May Cantata, no doubt because the memory of Napoleon is as dear to the Germans now as to us French.[19]
“I made the acquaintance of that wonderful English harpist, Parish-Alvars. He is indeed the Liszt of the harp! He produces the most extraordinary effects, and has written a fantasia on Moses that Thalberg has most happily arranged for the piano.
“Why on earth does he not come to Paris?
“When I left Dresden to go back to Leipzig, Lipinski heard that Mendelssohn had put the finale of Romeo and Juliet in rehearsal, and told me that if he could get a holiday he should go over and hear it.
“I thought it was a mere compliment, but judge of my consternation when, on the day of the concert, he turned up. He had travelled thirty-five leagues to hear a piece that was not given after all, because the singer who was entrusted with Friar Lawrence’s part refused to learn his notes!
To H. Heine.
“So great has been my happiness in your good town of Brunswick that I should like to tell it all to my dearest foes instead of to you, my friend, to whom it can hardly give pleasure!
“But a truce to irony; it is mere vanity that makes me begin like this, taking a leaf out of your book—inimitable satirist!
“How often in our talks have I regretted that nothing would make you serious, that nothing would stop the restless working of those feline claws, even when you were under the delusion that they were safely sheathed in your velvet paws—you tiger-cat!