So once more, dear Moscheles, I commend my cause to you, and shall anxiously await your answer, with highest esteem. Hummel is here, and has several times come to see me.
Your friend,
BEETHOVEN.
[Footnote 1: Schindler mentions, on Beethoven's authority, that this gentleman translated Beethoven's letters to Smart into English, which his nephew had previously done.]
474.[1]
TO SCHINDLER.--
March 17, 1827.
WONDERFUL! WONDERFUL! WONDERFUL!--
Both the learned gentlemen are defeated, and I shall be saved solely by Malfatti's skill! You must come to me for a few minutes without fail this forenoon.
Yours,
BEETHOVEN.
[Footnote 1: Schindler dates this note March 17, 1827, and says that these are the last lines Beethoven ever wrote. They certainly were the last that he wrote to Schindler. On the back of the note, in another writing (probably Schindler's), the receipt is given in pencil for the bath with hay steeped in it, ordered by Malfatti, which the poor invalid thought had saved his life. The "learned gentlemen" are Dr. Wawruch and the surgeon Seibert, who had made the punctures.]