h he
addressed to Anthony Wodzinski, who had been wounded in Spain, where
civil war was then raging, occur remarks confirmatory of Mendelssohn's
and Moscheles' statements:--

My dearest life! Wounded! Far from us--and I can send you
nothing....Your friends are thinking only of you. For mercy's
sake recover as soon as possible and return. The newspaper
accounts say that your legion is completely annihilated.
Don't enter the Spanish army....Remember that your blood may
serve a better purpose....Titus [Woyciechowski] wrote to ask
me if I could not meet him somewhere in Germany. During the
winter I was again ill with influenza. They wanted to send me
to Ems. Up to the present, however, I have no thought of
going, as I am unable to move. I write and prepare
manuscript. I think far more of you than you imagine, and
love you as much as ever.

F. C.

Believe me, you and Titus are enshrined in my memory.

On the margin, Chopin writes--

I may perhaps go for a few days to George Sand's, but keep
your mind easy, this will not interfere with the forwarding
of your money, for I shall leave instructions with Johnnie
[Matuszynski].

With regard to this and to the two preceding letters to members of the
Wodzinski family, I have yet to state that I found them in M. A. Szulc's
"Fryderyk Chopin."

CHAPTER XIX.

GEORGE SAND: HER EARLY LIFE (1804--1836); AND HER CHARACTER AS A WOMAN,
THINKER, AND LITERARY ARTIST.

It is now necessary that the reader should be made acquainted with
Madame Dudevant, better known by her literary name, George Sand, whose
coming on the scene has already been announced in the preceding chapter.
The character of this lady is so much a matter of controversy, and a
correct estimate of it so essential for the right understanding of the
important part she plays in the remaining portion of Chopin's life, that
this long chapter--an intermezzo, a biography in a biography--will not
be regarded as out of place or too lengthy. If I begin far off, as it
were before the beginning, I do so because the pedigree has in this case
a peculiar significance.

The mother of George Sand's father was the daughter of the Marschal de
Saxe (Count Maurice of Saxony, natural son of August the Strong, King
of Poland and Elector of Saxony, and the Countess Maria Aurora von
Konigsmark) and the dame de l'opera, Mdlle. de Verrieres, whose real
name was Madame de la R