ut, dear Countess, you have made me lose all the month of January
and the first fifteen days of February by saying to me: 'I start
--to-morrow--next week,' and by making me wait for letters; in
short, by throwing me into rages which I alone know! This has
brought a frightful disorder into my affairs, for instead of
getting my liberty February 15, I have before me a month of
herculean labor, and on my brain I must inscribe this which will
be contradicted by my heart: 'Think no longer of your star, nor of
Dresden, nor of travel; stay at your chain and work miserably!
. . . Dear Countess, I decidedly advise you to leave Dresden at
once. There are princesses in that town who infect and poison your
heart, and were it not for _Les Paysans_, I should have started at
once to prove to that venerable invalid of Cythera how men of my
stamp love; men who have not received, like her prince, a Russian
pumpkin in place of a French heart from the hands of hyperborean
nature. . . . Tell your dear Princess that I have known you since
1833, and that in 1845 I am ready to go from Paris to Dresden to
see you for a day; and it is not impossible for me to make this
trip; . . ."

In the meantime she had not only forbidden his coming to visit her,
but had even asked him not to write to her again at Dresden, to which
he replies:

"May I write without imprudence, before receiving a counter-order?
Your last letter counseled me not to write again to Dresden.
However, I take up my pen on the invitation contained in your
letter of the 8th. Since you, as well as your child, are
absolutely determined to see your Lirette again, there is but one
way for it, viz., to come to Paris."

He planned how she could secure a passport for Frankfort and the Rhine
and meet him at Mayence, where he would have a passport for his sister
and his niece so that they could come to Paris to remain from March 15
until May 15. Once in Paris, in a small suite of rooms furnished by
him, they could visit Lirette at the convent, take drives, frequent
the theatres, shop at a great advantage, and keep everything in the
greatest secrecy. He continues:

"Dear Countess, the uncertainty of your arrival at Frankfort has
weighed heavily on me, for how can I begin to work, whilst
awaiting a letter, which may cause me to set out immediately? I
have not written a line of the _Paysans_. From a material point of
view, all this has