“I have just been interrupted by a message from the Grand Duchess. She has a musical soirée to-night and wishes to hear the duet from _Beatrice_. Her pianist and two singers know it perfectly in French, so I have sent the score, with a message to them not to be nervous as they will get through all right. “I shall go back to bed. I would tell you a lot more but I am tired out and am not used to being up at such unreasonable hours. “It is half-past nine. I shall take some laudanum to be sure of sleep. “You know that you are charming. But why the devil _are_ you so charming? Farewell, I am your H. B.” _To the Same._ “_18th January 1868._ “DEAR MADAME MASSART,--I found quite a pile of letters on my return from Moscow, among them one that gave me even greater pleasure than yours; you can guess from whom it came. “Yours, nevertheless, rejoices me too. “The Michael Square is noiseless under its snowy mantle; crows, pigeons and sparrows stir not; sledges have ceased to run; there is a great funeral--that of Prince Dolgorouki--at which the Emperor and all the Court were present. “My programme for Saturday is settled. “Oh! the joy when I lay down my baton at the end of _Harold_ and say: “‘In three days I start for Paris.’ “I cannot stand this climate, although I felt better in Moscow. Such enthusiasm there! “The first concert was in the Riding School and there were ten thousand six hundred people present. And when they applauded the Offertory from my _Requiem_, with its two-note chorus, I must own that the uncommon religious feeling shown by that mighty crowd, went to my heart. “Do not speak of a concert in Paris. “If I _gave_ one to my friends and spent three thousand francs over it I should only be the more reviled by the press. “After seeing you I shall go right on to St Symphorien and thence to Monaco to roll in the violets and sleep in the sun. “I suffer so continually, dear lady; my paroxysms of pain are so frequent that I cannot think what is to become of me. “I do not want to die now, for I have something to live for.”[35] _To_ WLADIMIR STASSOFF. “PARIS, _1st March 1868_.--I did not write sooner, I was too ill. And now I want to tell you that I am leaving for Monaco at seven this evening. “I cannot imagine why I do not die. “But since I am living, I am going to see my dear Nice, the rocks of Villefranche and the sun of Monaco. “I hear that the sculptor is having three copies of my New York bust cast; was it you who suggested getting one for the St Petersburg Conservatoire? More can easily be made. “Address your letters to me to 4 Rue de Calais, Paris, and they will be forwarded.