“In Rome I learnt to appreciate the beauties of his marvellous _Fingal’s Cave_. Often, worn out by the scirocco and thoroughly out of sorts, I would hunt him out and tear him away from his composition. With perfect good humour--seeing my pitiable state--he would lay aside his pen, and, with his extraordinary facility in remembering intricate scores, would play whatever I chose to name--he properly and soberly seated at the piano, I curled up in a snappy bunch on his sofa. “He liked me, with my wearied voice, to murmur out my setting of Moore’s melodies. He always had a certain amount of commendation for my--little songs! “After a month of this intercourse--so full of interest for me--he disappeared without saying good-bye, and I saw him no more. “His Leipzig letter, therefore, the more agreeably surprised me, for it showed an unexpected and genial kindness of heart that I found to be one of his most notable characteristics. “The Concert Society has a magnificent hall--the Gewandhaus--of which the acoustic is perfect. I went straight to see it, and stumbled into the middle of the final rehearsal of Mendelssohn’s _Walpurgis Nacht_. “I am inclined to think[18] that this is the finest thing he has yet done, and I hardly know which to praise most--orchestra, chorus, or the whole combined effect. “As Mendelssohn came down from his desk, radiant with success, I went to meet him. It was the right moment for our greetings, yet, after the first words, the same thought struck us both--‘Twelve years since we wandered day-dreaming in the Campagna!’ “‘Are you still a jester?’ he asked. “‘Ah no! my joking days are past. To show you how sober and in earnest I am, I hereby solemnly beg a priceless gift of you.’ “‘That is----’ “‘The baton with which you conduct your new work.’ “‘By all means, if I may have yours instead?’ “‘It will be copper for gold, still you shall have it. “Next day came Mendelssohn’s musical sceptre, for which I returned my heavy oak cudgel with the following note, which I hope would not have disgraced the Last of the Mohicans:-- “‘Great Chief! To exchange our tomahawks is our word given. Common is mine, plain is yours. Squaws and Pale-faces alone love ornament. May we be brethren, so that, when the Great Spirit calls us to the happy hunting grounds, our warriors may hang our tomahawks side by side in the door-way of the Long House.’” _To_ JOSEPH D’ORTIGUE. “_28th February 1843._--My trade of galley-slave is my excuse for not having written sooner. I have been, and am still, ill with fatigue, the work involved in conducting rehearsals in both Leipzig and Dresden is incredible.