The last eight years of Méhul's life were depressed by melancholy and
suffering, proceeding from pulmonary disease. He resigned his place in
the Conservatory, and retired to a pleasant little estate near Paris,
where he devoted himself to raising flowers, and found some solace in
the society of his musical friends and former pupils, who were assiduous
in their attentions. Finally becoming dangerously ill, he went to the
island of Hyères to find a more genial climate. But here he pined for
Paris and the old companionships, and suffered more perhaps by fretting
for the intellectual cheer of his old life than he gained by balmy air
and sunshine. He writes to one of his friends after a short stay at
Hyères: "I have broken up all my habits; I am deprived of all my old
friends; I am alone at the end of the world, surrounded by people whose
language I scarcely understand; and all this sacrifice to obtain a
little more sun. The air which best agrees with me is that which I
breathe among you." He returned to Paris for a few weeks only, to
breathe his last on October 18, 1817, aged fifty-four.

Méhul was a high-minded and benevolent man, wrapped up in his art,
and singularly childlike in the practical affairs of life. Abhorring
intrigue, he was above all petty jealousies, and even sacrificed the
situation of chapel-master under Napoleon, because he believed it should
have been given to the greatest of his rivals, Cherubini. When he
died Paris recognized his goodness as a man as well as greatness as a
musician by a touching and spontaneous expression of grief, and funeral
honors were given him throughout Europe. In 1822 his statue was crowned
on the stage of the Grand Opera, at a performance of his "Valentine de
Rohan." Notwithstanding his early death, he composed forty-two operas,
and modern musicians and critics give him a notable place among those
who were prominent in building up a national stage. A pupil and disciple