“The second time it went even better. The audience spied me on my three-franc bench (they had not honoured me with a ticket). There were more calls, shouts, waving of hats and handkerchiefs.
“‘Vive Berlioz!’ they cried. ‘Get up; we want to see you.’
“I, the while, trying to hide myself!
“Coming out, a crowd surrounded me on the boulevard. This morning many callers, and a charming letter from Legouvé’s daughter.
“Liszt was there. I saw him from my perch. He has just come from Rome. Why were you not there too?
“There were at least three thousand people. Once I should have been pleased....
“The effect was grand, particularly the sound of the sea (impossible to give on the piano) at the passage:
‘And the sleeping sea
Whispers in dreams her sweet deep chords.’
“It touched me profoundly.
“My gallery neighbours, hearing that I was the author of it, pressed my hands and thanked me.