kept by Chopin. According to this his agitation must have been
terrible. Here are several examples:

"My poor father! My dearest ones! Perhaps they hunger? Maybe he
has not anything to buy bread for mother? Perhaps my sisters have
fallen victims to the fury of the Muscovite soldiers? Oh, father,
is this the consolation of your old age? Mother, poor suffering
mother, is it for this you outlived your daughter?"

"And I here unoccupied! And I am here with empty hands! Sometimes
I groan, suffer and despair at the piano! O God, move the earth,
that it may swallow the humanity of this century! May the most
cruel fortune fall upon the French, that they did not come to our
aid." All this sounds a trifle melodramatic and quite unlike
Chopin.

He did not go to Warsaw, but started for France at the end of
September, arriving early in October, 1831. Poland's downfall had
aroused him from his apathy, even if it sent him further from
her. This journey, as Liszt declares, "settled his fate." Chopin
was twenty-two years old when he reached Paris.



II. PARIS:--IN THE MAELSTROM



Here, according to Niecks, is the itinerary of Chopin's life for
the next eighteen years: In Paris, 27 Boulevard Poisonniere, to 5