The C sharp minor Quartet and the one in F, opus 135, which rounds out this wonderful series, were all but completed before leaving Vienna on the visit to Johann.  That there was some polishing still to be done on the latter is apparent from the fact that it has the superscription in the master’s handwriting, “Gneixendorf am 30 Oktober 1826.”  The finale has these curious sentences:  “Der schwergefasste Entschluss.  Muss es sein?  Es muss sein.”  Question and answer turn on the subject of paying his room rent according to Schindler, the dialogue being a reminiscence of previous times.  Beethoven often made some discussion when his rent was demanded, either from the desire to extract some sport from the situation, or from fear of being cheated.  It often had to be demonstrated to him by the aid of an almanac that the time was up and the money really due.

The only work begun and completed by the master while at Gneixendorf was the new finale, which replaced the long fugue of the B flat Quartet.  It proved to be his last work.  The series of unpleasant events referred to in the last chapter ensued, and, without considering consequences, he returned to Vienna.

It is not likely that Johann or his wife exerted themselves much to keep him longer.  They intended spending the winter in Vienna themselves, and were probably relieved to have the visit ended so that they could make their preparations for the journey.  With his usual impatience, he must needs take the first conveyance which was to be had.  Johann had a closed carriage, but would not let him have it, and the journey was made in a light open wagon.  December had arrived and the weather, which had been fine all the fall, was now bad.  He was insufficiently clothed for the two days’ drive in such weather.  He contracted inflammation of the lungs on the way, and reached his quarters in the house of the Black Spaniards, a very sick man.

This house, his last earthly abiding-place, had been his home for the past year.  It was a disused monastery, which had been established in 1633 by the daughter of Philip III of Spain on taking up her residence in Vienna after her marriage.  The original building was destroyed in one of the wars of that turbulent time, but was rebuilt at the end of the seventeenth century.  The building was demolished in 1904.  It was situated on the glacis, in a part of the city where Beethoven had lived much of the time since coming to Vienna.

The fates seem to have been against him from the beginning of his journey.  His sleeping-room was an enormous one on the second floor, which, with two small anterooms, composed the apartment.  The facilities for heating a room of that size, in those times must have been wholly inadequate.  Several days elapsed before a physician could be found to attend him.  He had quarrelled with two of his former physicians and each refused his aid.  Finally, a professor from the medical college, a Dr. Wawruch, was summoned, who took the case in hand.  Schindler states that it was several days before he or any of the master’s friends knew of his arrival in Vienna, and leaves the inference that he was unattended during this interval except by his nephew.  When they learned of his return, Schindler and Stephen von Breuning were unremitting in their attentions.