In the nature of things it could not be expected that these men would be
able to appreciate Beethoven, or understand much of his art. His
reverence for it was great; he felt that it would be a degradation, in a
sense, to play for them under the circumstances, and refused. The
Prince, with the amiable desire of pleasing his guests, urged the
matter, but Beethoven continued obdurate; upon which he told him,
probably by way of a joke, that he must either comply or that he would
be confined in the castle as a prisoner of war for disobeying orders.
This persistence so enraged him that, although it was night, he left the
castle without the Prince's knowledge, and walked three miles to
Trappau, the nearest post-town. He remained here overnight, and, while
waiting for the post-chaise, wrote the following letter to Prince
Lichnowsky:

"Prince! what you are you owe to chance and birth. What I am, I am
through myself. There has been, and will yet be thousands of princes,
but there is only one Beethoven."[A]

[A] Frimmel's Beethoven.

It was raining when he left the castle, and the manuscript of the
Appassionata Sonata, hastily packed, became water-soaked and blurred; it
bears the marks of that night's journey to the present day.

Some difficulty was experienced in procuring his passport for Vienna. It
could readily have been obtained by having recourse to Prince
Lichnowsky, but Beethoven would not permit this. The matter was finally
arranged, and he proceeded on his journey. He nursed his wrath all the
way, and on reaching his quarters in Vienna, his first act was to smash
a bust of the Prince which stood on a bookcase.

Although a reconciliation was effected later, the old cordial relations
were never restored. There were times when the Prince called on
Beethoven and was not received, when the latter was not in the mood for
seeing him. Through his wilfulness, Beethoven lost the annuity which the
Prince had settled on him on his coming to Vienna. The initiative in
this matter was probably taken by Beethoven himself, as may be inferred
from a letter he writes to a friend two years later: "My circumstances
are improving without having recourse to people who treat their friends
insultingly."

The winter of 1806-7 was a period of great activity for Beethoven,
although a felon on his finger must have stopped all work for a while.
Some important works were published, notably the Eroica Symphony and
the Appassionata Sonata. Al