on him. He thought of death
with Christian calm and resignation, yet he did not cease to prepare for
the morrow. The fancy he had for changing his residence was once more
manifested, he took another lodging, disposed the furnishing of it anew,
and occupied himself in its most minute details. As he had taken no
measures to recall the orders he had given for its arrangement, they
were transporting his furniture to the apartments he was destined never
to inhabit, upon the very day of his death!

Did he fear that death would not fulfil his plighted promise! Did he
dread, that after having touched him with his icy hand, he would still
suffer him to linger upon earth? Did he feel that life would be almost
unendurable with its fondest ties broken, its closest links dissevered?
There is a double influence often felt by gifted temperaments when upon
the eve of some event which is to decide their fate. The eager heart,
urged on by a desire to unravel the mystic secrets of the unknown
Future, contradicts the colder, the more timid intellect, which fears to
plunge into the uncertain abyss of the coming fate! This want of harmony
between the simultaneous previsions of the mind and heart, often causes
the firmest spirits to make assertions which their actions seem to
contradict; yet actions and assertions both flow from the differing
sources of an equal conviction. Did Chopin suffer from this inevitable
dissimilarity between the prophetic whispers of the heart, and the
thronging doubts of the questioning mind?

From week to week, and soon from day to day, the cold shadow of death
gained upon him. His end was rapidly approaching; his sufferings became
more and more intense; his crises grew more frequent, and at each
accelerated occurrence, resembled more and more a mortal agony. He
retained his presence of mind, his vivid will upon their intermission,
until the last; neither losing the precision of his ideas, nor the clear
perception of his intentions. The wishes which he expressed in his
short moments of respite, evinced the calm solemnity with which he
contemplated the approach of death. He desired to be buried by the side
of Bellini, with whom, during the time of Bellini's residence in Paris,
he had been intimately acquainted. The grave of Bellini is in the
cemetery of Pere LaChaise, next to that of Cherubini. The desire of
forming an acquaintance with this great master whom he had been brought
up to admire, was one of the motives