c, conceived the idea of establishing a
club or society for the purpose of amusement and mutual instruction in
his favourite art, and for the purpose also of training singers of both
sexes. Hoffmann's interest was enlisted in the scheme; and things
proceeded at an energetic rate, the first concert being successful
beyond expectation. With this encouragement the society was induced to
go to work on a larger and more pretentious scale. The Miniszeki
Palace, injured by fire, was bought for the seat of the new academy;
and then Hoffmann threw himself into the plans of the society with all
his soul, working indefatigably in preparing architectural designs, and
later in decorating the halls and corridors. During all the mild days
of the spring of 1806 he was never to be met with at home. If not in
the government office, he was invariably to be found perched up on a
high scaffolding in the new musical Ressource, painter's jacket on and
surrounded by a crowd of colour-pots, amongst which was sure to be a
bottle of Hungarian or Italian wine; there he painted and thence he
conversed with his friends below. If, on occasion, parties requiring
the services of Councillor Hoffmann came to look for him at the new
Ressource, whither they had been directed from his own house, they were
greatly surprised to see him drop nimbly to the floor from before an
elaborate wall-painting of ancient Egyptian gods, mixed up with
caricature figures and animal-like fragments of modems (his friends
with tails, wings, etc.), hastily wash his hands, trot along in front
of them to his place of business, and in a brief space of time turn out
some complicated legal instrument with which it would defy the sharpest
critic to find anything amiss.

So absorbed was he in this work, and in that of directing at the
evening performances and composing music for them, that he hardly knew
anything of the dark thunder-cloud of war that was gathering in the
West until the news of the fateful battle of Jena came; but upon these
music enthusiasts in Warsaw even this intelligence made no perceptible
impression. Their concerts and practisings and meetings went on
uninterruptedly just as before, until one fine day the advanced guard
of the Russian army rode into the streets of the former Polish capital.
Soon after the Russian general had taken up his quarters in Praga,
close to Warsaw, there appeared on the other side of the town the
pioneers of the great army of Napoleon. Th