“For contemplation he, and valour formed,
  For softness she, and sweet attractive grace;
  He for God only, she for God in him!”

She presents him with a baton set with jewels; he writes to her about the first concert at which he will use it.  He transcribes Schubert’s lovely song, “My sweet Repose, My Peace art Thou,” and tells her that he can play it only for her.  At the same time their letters to each other are filled with references to public affairs and literary, artistic and musical matters.  They are the letters of two people of broad and cultivated taste, who are drawn to each other by every bond of intellect and sentiment.  Is it a wonder that but little more than a year after they met, the Princess decided to burn her bridges behind her and leave her husband?  Through his friend, Prince Felix Lichnowsky, Liszt arranged that they should meet at Krzyzanowitz, one of the Lichnowsky country seats in Austrian Silesia.  “May the angel of the Lord lead you, my radiant morning star!” he exclaims.  At the same time he has an eye to the practical side of the affair, and describes the place as just the one for their meeting point, because Lichnowsky will be too busy to remain there, and there will not be a soul about, save the servants.

It was shortly before the revolution of 1848.  To gain permission to cross the border, the Princess pretended to be bound for Carlsbad, for the waters.

Liszt’s valet met her and her daughter as soon as they were out of Russia, took them to Ratibor, where they were received by Lichnowsky, who conducted them to Liszt.  After a few days at this place of meeting, they went to Graz, where they spent a fortnight in another of the Lichnowsky villas.  Among the miscellaneous correspondence of Liszt is a letter from Graz to his friend Franz von Schober, councillor of legation at Weimar, where Liszt was settled as court conductor.  In it he describes the Princess as “without doubt an uncommonly and thoroughly brilliant example of soul and mind and intelligence (with a prodigious amount of esprit as well).  You readily will understand,” he adds, “that henceforth I can dream very little of personal ambition and of a future wrapped up in myself.  In political relations serfdom may have an end; but the dominion of one soul over another in the spirit region—­should that not remain indestructible?”—­Oh, Liszt’s prophetic soul!  Thereafter his life was shaped by this extraordinary woman, for weal and, it must be confessed, for reasons which will appear later, partly for woe.

The Grandduchess of Weimar took the Princess under her protection, and she settled at Weimar in the Altenburg, while Liszt lived in the Hotel zum Erbprinzen.  Many tender missives passed between them.  “Bonjour, mon bon ange!” writes Liszt.  “On vous aime et vous adore du matin au soir et du soir au matin.”—­“On vous attend et vous benit, chere douce lumiere de mon ame!”—­“Je suis triste comme toujours et toutes les fois que je n’entends pas votre voix—­que je ne regarde pas vos yeux.”