pet of the aristocracy of Warsaw. He was invited to the houses of
the Princes Czartoryski, Sapieha, Czetwertynski, Lubecki,
Radziwill, the Counts Skarbek, Wolicki, Pruszak, Hussarzewski,
Lempicki, and others. By the Princess Czetwertynska, who, says
Liszt, cultivated music with a true feeling of its beauties, and
whose salon was one of the most brilliant and select of Warsaw,
Frederick was introduced to the Princess Lowicka, the beautiful
Polish wife of the Grand Duke Constantine, who, as Countess
Johanna Antonia Grudzinska, had so charmed the latter that, in
order to obtain the Emperor's consent to his marriage with her,
he abdicated his right of succession to the throne. The way in
which she exerted her influence over her brutal, eccentric, if
not insane, husband, who at once loved and maltreated the Poles,
gained her the title of "guardian angel of Poland." In her salon
Frederick came of course also in contact with the dreaded Grand
Duke, the Napoleon of Belvedere (thus he was nicknamed by
Niemcewicz, from the palace where he resided in Warsaw), who on
one occasion when the boy was improvising with his eyes turned to
the ceiling, as was his wont, asked him why he looked in that
direction, if he saw notes up there. With the exalted occupants
of Belvedere Frederick had a good deal of intercourse, for little
Paul, a boy of his own age, a son or adopted son of the Grand
Duke, enjoyed his company, and sometimes came with his tutor,
Count de Moriolles, to his house to take him for a drive. On
these occasions the neighbours of the Chopin family wondered not
a little what business brought the Grand Duke's carriage, drawn
by four splendid horses, yoked in the Russian fashion--i.e., all
abreast--to their quarter.

Chopin's early introduction into aristocratic society and