ness; and the young girl threw herself weeping into her
mother's arms. Then they appeared to consult together: they
resumed their instruments; they commenced again. This time
their enthusiasm reached its height; their eyes were filled
with tears, and the color mounted to their cheeks.

"'My friends,' said Beethoven, 'I am very unhappy that I can
take no part in the delight which you experience; for I also
love music: but, as you see, I am so deaf that I cannot hear
any sound. Let me read this music which produces in you such
sweet and lively emotions.'

"He took the paper in his hand: his eyes grew dim, his
breath came short and fast; then he dropped the music, and
burst into tears.

"These peasants had been playing the allegretto of
Beethoven's Symphony in A.

"The whole family surrounded him with signs of curiosity and
surprise.

"For some moments his convulsive sobs impeded his utterance;
then he raised his head, and said, 'I am Beethoven.'

"And they uncovered their heads, and bent before him in
respectful silence. Beethoven extended his hands to them,
and they pressed them, kissed, wept over them; for they knew
that they had amongst them a man who was greater than a
king.

"Beethoven held out his arms, and embraced them all,--the
father, the mother, the young girl, and her three brothers.

"All at once he rose up, and, sitting down to the clavecin,
signed to the young men to take up their violins, and
himself performed the piano part of his _chef-d'oeuvre_.
The performers were alike inspired: never was music more
divine or better executed. Half the night passed away thus,
and the peasants listened. Those were the last accents of
the swan.

"The father compelled him to accept his own bed; but, during
the night, Beethoven was restless and fevered. He rose: he
needed air: he went forth with naked feet into the country.
All nature was exhaling a majestic harmony; the winds
sighing through the branches of the trees, and moaning along
the avenues and glades of the wood. He remained some hours
wandering thus amid the cool dews of the early morning; but,
when he returned to the house, he was seized with an icy
chill. They sent to Vienna for a physician. Dropsy on the
chest was found to have declared its