Lud.  V. Beethoven,

Court Organist.

[Footnote 1:  An electoral decree was issued in compliance with this request on May 3, 1793.]

4.

To Eleonore von Breuning,—­Bonn.

Vienna, Nov. 2, 1793.

My highly esteemed Eleonore, my dearest friend,—­

A year of my stay in this capital has nearly elapsed before you receive a letter from me, and yet the most vivid remembrance of you is ever present with me.  I have often conversed in thought with you and your dear family, though not always in the happy mood I could have wished, for that fatal misunderstanding still hovered before me, and my conduct at that time is now hateful in my sight.  But so it was, and how much would I give to have the power wholly to obliterate from my life a mode of acting so degrading to myself, and so contrary to the usual tenor of my character!

Many circumstances, indeed, contributed to estrange us, and I suspect that those tale-bearers who repeated alternately to you and to me our mutual expressions were the chief obstacles to any good understanding between us.  Each believed that what was said proceeded from deliberate conviction, whereas it arose only from anger, fanned by others; so we were both mistaken.  Your good and noble disposition, my dear friend, is sufficient security that you have long since forgiven me.  We are told that the best proof of sincere contrition is to acknowledge our faults; and this is what I wish to do.  Let us now draw a veil over the whole affair, learning one lesson from it,—­that when friends are at variance, it is always better to employ no mediator, but to communicate directly with each other.

With this you will receive a dedication from me [the variations on “Se vuol ballare"].  My sole wish is that the work were greater and more worthy of you.  I was applied to here to publish this little work, and I take advantage of the opportunity, my beloved Eleonore, to give you a proof of my regard and friendship for yourself, and also a token of my enduring remembrance of your family.  Pray then accept this trifle, and do not forget that it is offered by a devoted friend.  Oh! if it only gives you pleasure, my wishes will be fulfilled.  May it in some degree recall the time when I passed so many happy hours in your house!  Perhaps it may serve to remind you of me till I return, though this is indeed a distant prospect.  Oh! how we shall then rejoice together, my dear Eleonore!  You will, I trust, find your friend a happier man, all former forbidding, careworn furrows smoothed away by time and better fortune.