Your friend,

BEETHOVEN.

74.

TO ZMESKALL.

Oct. 26, 1811.

I shall be at the “Swan” to-day, and hope to meet you there to a certainty, but don’t come too late.  My foot is better; the author of so many poetical feet promises the head author a sound foot within a week’s time.

75.

TO ZMESKALL.

Nov. 20, 1811.

We are deucedly obliged to you.  We beg you to be careful not to lose your well-earned fame.  You are exhorted to pursue the same course, and we remain once more your deucedly attached

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN.

76.

TO ZMESKALL.

Jan. 19, 1812.

I shall be at the “Swan” to-day, dear Z. I have, alas! too much leisure, and you none!  Your

BEETHOVEN.

77.

TO ZMESKALL.[1]

1812.

CONFOUNDED LITTLE QUONDAM MUSICAL COUNT!

What the deuce has become of you?  Are you to be at the “Swan” to-day?  No? ...  Yes!  See from this enclosure what I have done for Hungary.  When a German undertakes a thing, even without pledging his word, he acts very differently from one of those Hungarian Counts, such as B. [Brunswick], who allowed me to travel by myself—­from what paltry, miserable motive who can tell?—­and kept me waiting, though he did not wait for me!

My excellent little quondam musical Count,

I am now, as ever, your attached

BEETHOeVERL.

Return the enclosure, for we wish to bring it, and something else, pretty forcibly under the notice of the Count.

[Footnote 1:  The date of this and the following note is decided by the allusion to his compositions written for Hungary (Pesth).  See the subsequent letter to Varenna.]

78.

TO ZMESKALL.

You are summoned to appear to-day at the “Swan;” Brunswick also comes.  If you do not appear, you are henceforth excluded from all that concerns us.  Excuses per excellentiam cannot be accepted.  Obedience is enjoined, knowing that we are acting for your benefit, and that our motive is to guard you against temptations and faithlessness per excellentiam—­dixi.

BEETHOVEN.

79.

TO ZMESKALL.

DEAR ZMESKALL,—­

The well-known watchmaker who lives close to the Freiung is to call on you.  I want a first-rate repeater, for which he asks forty ducats.  As you like that kind of thing, I beg you will exert yourself on my behalf, and select a really good watch for me.

With the most enthusiastic admiration for a man like yourself, who is soon to give me an opportunity of displaying in his favor my particular knowledge of horn-playing, I am your

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN.

80.

TO KAMMERPROCURATOR VARENNA,—­GRATZ.[1]

1812.