emember me to the fairest of the fair, and send
me half a dozen needles.

I never could have believed that I could be so idle as I am here. If this
be followed by a fit of industry, something worth while may be produced.

_Vale!_ Your

BEETHOVEN.

[Footnote 1: Ries says, in Wegeler's _Biographical Notices_:--"Beethoven
never visited me more frequently than when I lived in the house of a
tailor, with three very handsome but thoroughly respectable daughters."]

39.

TO MESSRS. ARTARIA & CO.[1]

Vienna, June 1, 1805.

I must inform you that the affair about the new quintet is settled between
Count Fries and myself.

The Count has just assured me that he intends to make you a present of it;
it is too late to-day for a written agreement on the subject, but one shall
be sent early in the ensuing week. This intelligence must suffice for the
present, and I think I at all events deserve your thanks for it.

Your obedient servant,

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN.

[Footnote 1: The quintet is probably not that in C, Op. 29, dedicated to
Count v. Fries, previously published in 1803 by Breitkopf & Haertel [see No.
27]. It is more likely that he alludes to a new quintet which the Count had
no doubt ordered.]

40.

TO MADAME LA PRINCESSE LIECHTENSTEIN, &C.[1]

November, 1805.

Pray pardon me, illustrious Princess, if the bearer of this should cause
you an unpleasant surprise. Poor Ries, my scholar, is forced by this
unhappy war to shoulder a musket, and must moreover leave this in a few
days, being a foreigner. He has nothing, literally nothing, and is obliged
to take a long journey. All chance of a concert on his behalf is thus
entirely at an end, and he must have recourse to the benevolence of others.
I recommend him to you. I know you will forgive the step I have taken. A
noble-minded man would only have recourse to such measures in the most
utter extremity. Confident of this, I send the poor youth to you, in the
hope of somewhat improving his circumstances. He is forced to apply to all
who know him.

I am, with the deepest respect, yours,

L. VAN BEETHOVEN.

[Footnote 1: Communicated by Ries himself, who, to Beethoven's extreme
indignation, did not deliver the note. See Wegeler's work, p. 134. The
following remark is added:--"Date unknown; written a few days before the
entrance of the French in 1805" (which took place Nov. 13). Ries, a native
of Bonn, was now a French subject, and recalled under the laws of
co