able to send you something vocal. I only wish and hope that you will not
ascribe my anxiety to serve these venerable ladies to a certain degree of
vanity or desire for fame, as this would grieve me exceedingly. If these
good ladies wish to do me any service in return, I beg they will include me
with their pupils in their pious orisons. I remain, with esteem,

Your friend,

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN.

I shall remain here for some weeks; so if there is any occasion to write,
address to me here.

91.

WRITTEN IN THE ALBUM OF THE SINGER, MDME. AUGUSTE SEBALD.

Toeplitz, August 8, 1812.

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN,

Who even if you would,
Forget you never should.

92.

TO H.R. HIGHNESS THE ARCHDUKE RUDOLPH.

Franzensbrunn, Aug. 12, 1812.

It was my bounden duty long ago to have recalled myself to Y.R.H.'s
recollection, but partly my occupations and the state of my health, as well
as my own insignificance, made me reluctant to do so. I missed Y.R.H. by
one night only in Prague; for when proceeding to pay my respects to you in
the morning, I found you had set off the very night before. In Toeplitz I
heard a military band four times a day,--the only musical report which I
can give you. I was a great deal with Goethe.[1] My physician Staudenheim,
however, ordered me off to Carlsbad,[2] and from thence here, and probably
I shall have to go back to Toeplitz from this. What flights! And yet it
seems very doubtful whether any improvement in my condition has hitherto
taken place. I receive the best accounts of Y.R.H.'s health, and also of
the persistent devotion you exhibit towards the musical Muse. Y.R.H. has no
doubt heard of a concert that I gave for the benefit of the sufferers by
fire in the Stadt Baden,[3] assisted by Herr Polledro.[4] The receipts were
nearly 1000 florins W.W., and if I had not been restricted in my
arrangements we might easily have taken 2000 florins. It was literally a
_poor concert for the poor_. I could only find at the publisher's here some
of my earlier sonatas with violin accompaniments, and as Polledro had set
his heart on these, I was obliged to content myself with playing an old
Sonata.[5] The entire concert consisted of a trio, in which Polledro
played, my Sonata with violin, then again something was played by Polledro,
and, lastly, I extemporized. Meanwhile I do sincerely rejoice that by this
means something has fallen to the share of the poor _Badeners_. Pray deign
to accept my best