and that he himself had copied them.  Now with Chopin’s letters to Fontana before us we must come to the conclusion that Gutmann was either under a false impression or confirmed a rash statement by a bold assertion, unless we prefer to assume that Chopin’s labours on the Preludes in Majorca were confined to selecting, [footnote:  Internal evidence suggests that the Preludes consist (to a great extent at least) of pickings from the composer’s portfolios, of pieces, sketches, and memoranda written at various times and kept to be utilised when occasion might offer.] filing, and polishing.  My opinion—­which not only has probability but also the low opus number (28) and the letters in its favour—­is that most of the Preludes, if not all, were finished or sketched before Chopin went to the south, and that a few, if any, were composed and the whole revised at Palma and Valdemosa.  Chopin cannot have composed many in Majorca, because a few days after his arrival there he wrote:  from Palma (Nov. 15, 1838) to Fontana that he would send the Preludes soon; and it was only his illness that prevented him from doing so.  There is one statement in George Sand’s above-quoted narrative which it is difficult to reconcile with other statements in “Un Hiver a Majorque” and in her and Chopin’s letters.  In the just-mentioned book (p. 177) she says that the journey in question was made for the purpose of rescuing the piano from the hands of the custom-house officers; and in a letter of January 15, 1839, to her friend Madame Marliani (quoted on p. 31), which does not contain a word about adventures on a stormy night, [They are first mentioned in the letter of January 20, 1839, quoted on p. 32.] she writes that the piano is still in the clutches of the custom-house officers.  From this, I think, we may conclude that it must have taken place after January 15.  But, then, how could Chopin have composed on that occasion a Prelude included in a work the manuscript of which he sent away on the lath?  Still, this does not quite settle the question.  Is it not possible that Chopin may have afterwards substituted the new Prelude for one of those already forwarded to France?  To this our answer must be that it is possible, but that the letters do not give any support to such an assumption.  Another and stronger objection would be the uncertainty as to the correctness of the date of the letter.  Seeing that so many of Chopin’s letters have been published with wrong dates, why not also that of January 12?  Unfortunately, we cannot in this case prove or disprove the point by internal evidence.  There is, however, one factor we must be especially careful not to forget in our calculations—­namely, George Sand’s habitual unconscientious inaccuracy; but the nature of her narrative will indeed be a sufficient warning to the reader, for nobody can read it without at once perceiving that it is not a plain, unvarnished recital of facts.