ng dream!
Terrible power exercised over man by the most exquisite gifts which he
possesses! Like the coursers of the sun, when the hand of Phaeton, in
place of guiding their beneficent career, permits them to wander at
random, disordering the beautiful structure of the celestial spheres,
they bring devastation and flames in their train! Chopin felt and often
repeated that the sundering of this long friendship, the rupture of this
strong tie, broke all the chords which bound him to life.

During this attack his life was despaired of for several days. M.
Gutman, his most distinguished pupil, and during the last years of his
life, his most intimate friend, lavished upon him every proof of tender
attachment. His cares, his attentions, were the most agreeable to him.
With the timidity natural to invalids, and with the tender delicacy
peculiar to himself, he once asked the Princess Czartoryska, who visited
him every day, often fearing that on the morrow he would no longer be
among the living: "if Gutman was not very much fatigued? If she thought
he would be able to continue his care of him;" adding, "that his
presence was dearer to him than that of any other person." His
convalescence was very slow and painful, leaving him indeed but the
semblance of life. At this epoch he changed so much in appearance
that he could scarcely be recognized The next summer brought him that
deceptive decrease of suffering which it sometimes grants to those who
are dying. He refused to quit Paris, and thus deprived himself of the
pure air of the country, and the benefit of this vivifying element.

The winter of 1847 to 1848 was filled with a painful and continual
succession of improvements and relapses. Notwithstanding this, he
resolved in the spring to accomplish his old project of visiting London.
When the revolution of February broke out, he was still confined to bed,
but with a melancholy effort, he seemed to try to interest himself in
the events of the day, and spoke of them more than usual. M. Gutman
continued his most intimate and constant visitor. He accepted through
preference his cares until the close of his life.

Feeling better in the month of April, he thought of realizing his
contemplated journey, of visiting that country to which he had intended
to go when youth and life opened in bright perspective before him. He
set out for England, where his works had already found an intelligent
public, and were generally known and admired.