his air, and marches straight on the company, who give way at his approach, open to him a passage, and soon, by a rapid evolution, are off again in pursuit of him.

  On all sides one hears the exclamation:  “Ah! this is perhaps
  the last.  Look, young people, perhaps this is the last who
  will know how to conduct thus the polonaise!”

Among those of Chopin’s compositions which he himself published are, exclusive of the “Introduction et Polonaise brillante” for piano and violoncello, Op. 3, eight polonaises—­namely:  “Grande Polonaise brillante” (in E flat major), “precedee d’un Andante spianato” (in G major), “pour le piano avec orchestre,” Op. 22; “Deux Polonaises” (in C sharp minor and E flat minor), Op. 26; “Deux Polonaises” (in A major and C minor), Op. 40; “Polonaise” (F sharp minor), Op. 44; “Polonaise” (in A flat major), Op. 53; [Footnote:  This polonaise is called the “eighth” on the title-page, which, of course, it is only by including the “Polonaise,” Op. 3, for piano and violoncello.] and “Polonaise-Fantaisie” (in A flat major), Op. 61.  The three early polonaises posthumously-published by Fontana as Op. 71 have already been discussed in Chapter VIII.  Other posthumously-published polonaises—­such as the Polonaise in G sharp minor, to be found in Mikuli’s edition, and one in B flat minor of the year 1826, first published in the supplement of the journal “Echo Muzyczne”—­need not be considered by us. [Footnote:  Both polonaises are included in the Breitkopf and Hartel edition, where the one in G sharp minor bears the unlikely date 1822.  The internal evidence speaks against this statement.]

Chopin’s Polonaises Op. 26, 40, 53, and 61 are pre-eminently political, they are the composer’s expression of his patriotic feelings.  It is not difficult to recognise in them proud memories of past splendours, sad broodings over present humiliations, bright visions of a future resurrection.  They are full of martial chivalry, of wailing dejection, of conspiracy and sedition, of glorious victories.  The poetically-inferior Polonaise, Op. 22, on the other hand, while unquestionably Polish in spirit, is not political.  Chopin played this work, which was probably composed, or at least sketched, in 1830, [footnote:  See Vol.  I., Chapter xiii., pp. 201, 202.] and certainly published in July, 1836, for the first time in public at a Paris Conservatoire concert for the benefit of Habeneck on April 26, 1835; and this was the only occasion on which he played it with orchestral accompaniments.  The introductory Andante (in G major, and 6/8 time), as the accompanying adjective indicates, is smooth and even.  It makes one think of a lake on a calm, bright summer day.  A boat glides over the pellucid, unruffled surface of the water, by-and-by halts at a shady spot by the shore, or by the side of some island (3/4 time), then continues its course (f time), and finally returns to its moorings (3/4).  I can perceive no connection