The people, hot from dancing, who went into the room where he played, were but little in the humour to pay attention, and anxious to return to their amusement.  He was in the last stage of exhaustion, and the affair resulted in disappointment.  His playing at such a place was a well-intentioned mistake.

What a sad conclusion to a noble artistic career!

Although Chopin was longing for Paris in November, he was still in London in the following January.

Chopin to Grzymaia; London, Tuesday, January, 1849:—­

My dearest friend,—­To-day I am again lying almost the whole day, but Thursday I shall leave the to me unbearable London.  The night from Thursday to Friday I shall remain at Boulogne, and, I hope, go to bed on Friday night in the Place d’Orleans.  To other ailments is now added neuralgia.  Please see that the sheets and pillows are quite dry and cause fir-nuts to be bought; Madame Etienne is not to spare anything, so that I may warm myself when I arrive.  I have written to Drozewski that he is to provide carpets and curtains.  I shall pay the paper- hanger Perrichon at once after my arrival.  Tell Pleyel to send me a piano on Thursday; let it be closed and a nosegay of violets be bought, so that there may be a nice fragrance in the salon.  I should like to find a little poesy in my rooms and in my bedroom, where I in all probability shall lie down for a long time.

Friday evening, then, I expect to be in Paris; a day longer here, and I shall go mad or die!  My Scotch ladies are good, but so tedious that—­God have mercy on us!  They have so attached themselves to me that I cannot easily get rid of them; only Princess Marcelline [Czartoryska] and her family, and the excellent Szulczewski keep me alive.  Have fires lighted in all rooms and the dust removed—­perhaps I may yet recover.—­Yours ever,

       Frederick.

Mr. Niedzwiecki told me that he travelled with Chopin, who was accompanied by his servant, from London to Paris.

[Footnote:  Leonard Niedzwiecki, born in the Kingdom of Poland in 1807, joined the National Army in 1830, distinguished himself on several battlefields, came in 1832 as a refugee to England, made there a livelihood by literary work and acted as honorary librarian of the Literary Association of the friends of Poland, left about 1845 London for Paris and became Private Secretary, first to General Count Ladislas Zamoyski, and after the Count’s death to the widowed Countess.  M. Niedzwiecki, who is also librarian of the Polish Library at Paris, now devotes all his time to historical and philological research.]

The three had a compartment to themselves.  During the journey the invalid suffered greatly from frequent attacks of breathlessness.  Chopin was delighted when he saw Boulogne.  How hateful England and the English were to him is shown by the following anecdote.  When they had left Boulogne and Chopin had been for some time looking at the landscape through which they were passing, he said to Mr. Niedzwiecki:  “Do you see the cattle in this meadow?  Ca a plus d’intelligence que les Anglais.”  Let us not be wroth at poor Chopin:  he was then irritated by his troubles, and always anything but a cosmopolitan.