rattle of the departing one
interrupted the Countess in the middle of the second piece.
The instrument was quickly removed, and beside the bed
remained only the priest who said the prayers for the dying,
and the kneeling friends around him.

However, the end was not yet come, indeed, was not to come till two
days after. M. Gavard, in saying that he did not hear what the Countess
Potocka sang, acts wisely, for those who pretended to have heard it
contradict each other outright. Liszt and Karasowski, who follows him,
say that the Countess sang the Hymn to the Virgin by Stradella, and a
Psalm by Marcello; on the other hand, Gutmann most positively asserted
that she sang a Psalm by Marcello and an air by Pergolesi; whereas
Franchomme insisted on her having sung an air from Bellini's Beatrice
di Tenda, and that only once, and nothing else. As Liszt was not himself
present, and does not give the authority for his statement, we may set
it, and with it Karasowski's, aside; but the two other statements,
made as they were by two musicians who were ear witnesses, leave us
in distressing perplexity with regard to what really took place, for
between them we cannot choose. Chopin, says M. Gavard, looked forward to
his death with serenity.

Some days after his removal to the Place Vendome, Chopin,
sitting upright and leaning on the arm of a friend, remained
silent for a long time and seemed lost in deep meditation.
Suddenly he broke the silence with the words: "Now my death-
struggle begins" [Maintenant j'entre en agonie]. The
physician, who was feeling his pulse, wished to comfort him
with some commonplace words of hope. But Chopin rejoined with
a superiority which admitted of no reply: "God shows man a
rare favour when He reveals to him the moment of the approach
of death; this grace He shows me. Do not disturb me."

M. Gavard relates also that on the 16th October Chopin twice called his
friends that were gathered in his apartments around him. "For everyone
he had a touching word; I, for my part, shall never forget the tender
words he spoke to me." Calling to his side the Princess Czartoryska and
Mdlle. Gavard, [FOOTNOTE: A sister of M. Charles Gavard, the pupil to
whom Chopin dedicated his Berceuse.] he said to them: "You will play
together, you will think of me, and I shall listen to you." And calling
to his side Franchomme, he said to the Princess: "I recommend Franchomme
to you, you will play Moza