One proceeding Beethoven never omitted, viz., the reading of the evening paper. In these stirring times the newspaper was an absolute necessity, and our musician would never retire to rest without previously ascertaining the state of the political horizon. He used to frequent a coffee-house which boasted another means of exit besides the general one, and taking up his position in the background, he would steadily peruse the _Gazette_ (not a very long task in those days, when "our own" correspondents were as yet undreamt of), and as soon as the last word of the last page had been scanned, beat a hasty retreat through the private door, and wend his solitary way homewards. Ten o'clock rarely found him out of bed. Such was his simple, innocent day! It was no mere phrase, that declaration of his, "_I live only in my art_,"--it was indeed the one connecting link between him and others. What he produced in suffering and loneliness stirred, like a mighty wind among the forest branches, the noblest feelings of a thousand hearts, bidding them grapple with Destiny as he had done, and prove themselves _men_ and heroes! FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 30: In translating these letters we have thought it best to keep to the original pronoun,--the simple _thou_ being more suited to Beethoven's ideal love than the coarser _you_.] [Footnote 31: Beethoven could not endure the foreign word _pianoforte_.] [Illustration] [Illustration] CHAPTER VIII. VICTORY AND SHADOW. Period of Greatest Intellectual Activity--Hummel--The Battle of Vittoria--Congress of Vienna--Maelzel--Pecuniary Difficulties--Adoption of Nephew--The Philharmonic Society--The Classical and Romantic Schools--The Ninth Symphony--His Nephew's Conduct--Last Illness.