he B. flat major Quartet, Op. 130, little anticipating that this was to be
his "Swan song."]

460.

TO TOBIAS HASLINGER.[1]

[Music: Bass clef. C major.
Bester--]

No time is left to-day for further words and vocalization. I beg you will
at once deliver the enclosed letter. Pray forgive my causing you this
trouble; but, as you are the owner of an artistic post-office, it is
scarcely possible not to take advantage of this.

You will perceive that I am now at Gneixendorf. The name sounds like the
breaking of an axletree. The air is healthy. The _memento mori_ must be
applied to all else. Most marvellous and best of all Tobiases, we salute
you in the name of the arts and poets!

I remain yours,

BEETHOVEN.

[Footnote 1: The music alone and the words "I remain" at the close, are in
Beethoven's writing. The rest is probably written by his nephew, with whom
he had been obliged to take refuge in the house of his odious brother near
Krems, because the police had intimated to the young delinquent that he
must leave Vienna. See No. 435 on the subject of Beethoven's repugnance to
live in his brother's family circle, whose ignoble wife treated the
gray-haired and suffering _maestro_ as badly as possible.]

461.

TO TOBIAS HASLINGER.

GNEIXENDORF, October 13, 1826.

BEST OF ALL TOBIASES,--

[Here follow eight bars of music.]

We are writing to you from the castle of our _Signor Fratello_. I must
again intrude on you by the polite request to post the two enclosed letters
without delay.

I will repay you for the time I kept the "School for the Pianoforte" and
all the other expenses as soon as I return to Vienna. I am staying here
longer, owing to the weather being so fine, and also not having gone to the
country at all during the summer. A quartet[1] for Schlesinger is already
finished; only I don't know which is the safest way to send it to you, that
you may give it to Tendler and Manstein and receive the money in return.
Schlesinger will probably not make the remittance in _gold_, but if you can
contrive that I should get it, you would very much oblige me, as all my
publishers pay me in gold. Besides, my worthy _Tobiasserl_, we stand in
need of money, and it is by no means the same thing whether we have money
or not. If you get a sight of Holz make sure of him, and nail him at once.
The passion of love has so violently assailed him that he has almost taken
fire, and some one jestingly wrote that Holz was a s