nt); and of Schumann,
NOTHING.

Madame Streicher's interesting reminiscences, given in Appendix III.,
form a supplement to this chapter.

CHAPTER XXIX.

RUPTURE OF THE SAND-CHOPIN CONNECTION.--HER OWN, LISZT'S, AND
KARASOWSKI'S ACCOUNTS.-THE LUCREZIA FLORIANI INCIDENT.--FURTHER
INVESTIGATION OF THE CAUSES OF THE RUPTURE BY THE LIGHT OF LETTERS AND
THE INFORMATION OF GUTMANN, FRANCHOMME, AND MADAME RUBIO.--SUMMING-UP OF
THE EVIDENCE.--CHOPIN'S COMPOSITIONS IN 1847.--GIVES A CONCERT, HIS
LAST IN PARIS (1848): WHAT AND HOW HE PLAYED; THE CHARACTER OF THE
AUDIENCE.--GEORGE SAND AND CHOPIN MEET ONCE MORE.--THE FEBRUARY
REVOLUTION; CHOPIN MAKES UP HIS MIND TO VISIT ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND.

WE now come to the catastrophe of Chopin's life, the rupture of his
connection with George Sand. Although there is no lack of narratives in
which the causes, circumstances, and time of this rupture are set forth
with absolute positiveness, it is nevertheless an undeniable fact that
we are not at the present moment, nor, all things well considered,
shall be even in the most distant future, in a position to speak on this
subject otherwise than conjecturally.

[FOOTNOTE: Except the letter of George Sand given on p. 75, and the
note of Chopin to George Sand which will be given a little farther on,
nothing, I think, of their correspondence has become public. But even
if their letters were forth-coming, it is more likely than not that they
would fail to clear up the mystery. Here I ought, perhaps, to reproduce
the somewhat improbable story told in the World of December 14, 1887, by
the Paris correspondent who signs himself "Theoc." He writes as follows:
"I have heard that it was by saving her letters to Chopin that M.
Alexandre Dumas won the friendship of George Sand. The anecdote runs
thus: When Chopin died, his sister found amongst his papers some two
hundred letters of Madame Sand, which she took with her to Poland. By
chance this lady had some difficulties at the frontier with the Russian
custom-house officials; her trunks were seized, and the box containing
the letters was mislaid and lost. A few years afterwards, one of the
custom-house officials found the letters and kept them, not knowing
the name and the address of the Polish lady who had lost them. M. Dumas
discovered this fact, and during a journey in Russia he explained to
this official how painful it would be if by some indiscretion these
letters of the illustrious no