nformed me, went frequently to the
ambassadors Appony and Von Kilmannsegge, and still more frequently to
his compatriots, the Platers. At the house of the latter much good music
was performed, for the countess, the Pani Kasztelanowa (the wife of the
castellan), to whom Liszt devotes an eloquent encomium, "knew how to
welcome so as to encourage all the talents that then promised to take
their upward flight and form une lumineuse pleiade," being

in turn fairy, nurse, godmother, guardian angel, delicate
benefactress, knowing all that threatens, divining all that
saves, she was to each of us an amiable protectress, equally
beloved and respected, who enlightened, warmed, and elevated
his [Chopin's] inspiration, and left a blank in his life when
she was no more.

It was she who said one day to Chopin: "Si j'etais jeune et jolie, mon
petit Chopin, je te prendrais pour mari, Hiller pour ami, et Liszt
pour amant." And it was at her house that the interesting contention of
Chopin with Liszt and Hiller took place. The Hungarian and the German
having denied the assertion of the Pole that only he who was born and
bred in Poland, only he who had breathed the perfume of her fields and
woods, could fully comprehend with heart and mind Polish national music,
the three agreed to play in turn, by way of experiment, the mazurka
"Poland is not lost yet." Liszt began, Hiller followed, and Chopin came
last and carried off the palm, his rivals admitting that they had not
seized the true spirit of the music as he had done. Another anecdote,
told me by Hiller, shows how intimate the Polish artist was with this
family of compatriots, the Platers, and what strange whims he sometimes
gave way to. One day Chopin came into the salon acting the part of
Pierrot, and, after jumping and dancing about for an hour, left without
having spoken a single word.

Abbe Bardin was a great musical amateur, at whose weekly afternoon
gatherings the best artists might be seen and heard, Mendelssohn among
the rest when he was in Paris in 1832-1833. In one of the many obituary
notices of Chopin which appeared in French and other papers, and which
are in no wise distinguished by their trustworthiness, I found the
remark that the Abbe Bardin and M.M. Tilmant freres were the first to
recognise Chopin's genius. The notice in question is to be found in the
Chronique Musicale of November 3, 1849.

In Franck, whose lodgings Chopin had taken, the reader w