Hereupon [he relates] I heard the ladies, who had taken seats near a table, whisper to each other:  “Un theme, un theme.”  Three young princesses consulted together and at last turned to Mr. Fritsche, the tutor of Prince Clary’s only son, who, with the approbation of all present, said to me:  “The principal theme of Rossini’s ’Moses’.”  I improvised, and, it appears, very successfully, for General Leiser [this was the Saxon general] afterwards conversed with me for a long time, and when he heard that I intended to go to Dresden he wrote at once to Baron von Friesen as follows:  “Monsieur Frederic Chopin est recommande de la part du General Leiser a Monsieur le Baron de Friesen, Maitre de Ceremonie de S.M. le Roi de Saxe, pour lui etre utile pendant son sejour a Dresde et de lui procurer la connaissance de plusieurs de nos artistes.”  And he added, in German:  “Herr Chopin is himself one of the most excellent pianists whom I know.”

In short, Chopin was made much of; had to play four times, received an invitation to dine at the castle the following day, &c., &c.  That our friend, in spite of all these charming prospects, leaving behind him three lovely princesses, and who knows what other aristocratic amenities, rolled off the very next morning at five o’clock in a vehicle hired at the low price of two thalers—­i.e., six shillings—­must be called either a feat of superhuman heroism or an instance of barbarous insensibility—­let the reader decide which.  Chopin’s visit to Teplitz was not part of his original plan, but the state of his finances was so good that he could allow himself some extravagances.  Everything delighted him at Teplitz, and, short as his stay was, he did the sight-seeing thoroughly—­we have his own word for it that he saw everything worth seeing, among the rest Dux, the castle of the Waldsteins, with relics of their ancestor Albrecht Waldstein, or Wallenstein.

Leaving Teplitz on the morning of August 26, he arrived in the evening of the same day in Dresden in good health and good humour.  About this visit to Dresden little is to be said.  Chopin had no intention of playing in public, and did nothing but look about him, admiring nature in Saxon Switzerland, and art in the “magnificent” gallery.  He went to the theatre where Goethe’s Faust (the first part), adapted by Tieck, was for the first time produced on the stage, Carl Devrient impersonating the principal part.  “An awful but grand imagination!  In the entr’actes portions from Spohr’s opera “Faust” were performed.  They celebrated today Goethe’s eightieth birthday.”  It must be admitted that the master-work is dealt with rather laconically, but Chopin never indulges in long aesthetical discussions.  On the following Saturday Meyerbeer’s “Il Crociato” was to be performed by the Italian Opera—­for at that time there was still an Italian Opera in Dresden.  Chopin, however, did not stay long enough to hear it, nor did he very much regret missing it, having heard