Carl Banck, had been deceived by her friendship into thinking that he
could persuade her to love him. His ambition suited eminently the
family politics of Father Wieck. He made his first mistake by
slandering Schumann, not knowing the A B C of a woman's heart. For a
lover slandered is twice recommended. As Clara wrote later: "I was
astounded at his black heart. He wanted to betray you, and he only
insulted me."

One of the attempts to undermine Schumann was the effort to poison
Clara's mind against him; because when a piano Concerto of hers was
played (Opus 7), Schumann did not review it in his paper, but left it
to a friend of his named Becker. In the next number Schumann wrote an
enthusiastic criticism upon a Concerto by Sterndale Bennett. The
attempt failed, however, and Schumann's letter is in existence in which
he had asked Becker to review the Concerto, because, in view of the
publicity given to the estrangement with the Wiecks, praise from him
would be in poor taste.

Soon Clara at a public concert in Leipzig dared to put upon the
programme the F Sharp Minor Sonata, in which Schumann had given voice
to his heart's cry ("_Herzensschrei nach der Geliebten_"). Schumann's
name did not appear on the programme, but it was credited to two of his
pen-names, Eusebius and Florestan. Now, as Litzman notes, the answer to
that outcry came back to him over the head of the audience. Clara knew
he would be there, and that he would understand. Her fingers seemed to
be giving expression not only to his own yearning, but to her answer
and her like desire. It was a bold effort to declare her love before
the world, and, as she wrote him later: "Do you not realise that I
played it since I knew no other way to express my innermost feelings at
all. Secretly, I did not dare express them, though I did it openly. Do
you imagine that my heart did not tremble?"

The musical message renewed in Schumann's heart a hope and
determination that had been dying slowly for two years. His friend
Becker came to Leipzig, and took up the cause of the lovers with great
enthusiasm. He carried letters to and fro with equal diplomacy and
delight. He appeared in time to play a leading role in a drama Schumann
was preparing. Wieck's enmity to Schumann had been somewhat mitigated
after two years of meeting no opposition. Schumann was encouraged to
hope that, if he wrote a letter to Wieck on Clara's birthday, September
13, 1837, it might find the old bear in