I therefore, with all dutiful respect, entreat your Highness to renew this
decree, and to order the paymaster of your Highness's treasury to grant me
the last quarter of this benevolent addition to my salary (due the
beginning of February). I have the honor to remain,

Your Highness's most obedient and faithful servant,

LUD. V. BEETHOVEN,

_Court Organist._

[Footnote 1: An electoral decree was issued in compliance with this request
on May 3, 1793.]


4.

TO ELEONORE VON BREUNING,--BONN.

Vienna, Nov. 2, 1793.

MY HIGHLY ESTEEMED ELEONORE, MY DEAREST FRIEND,--

A year of my stay in this capital has nearly elapsed before you receive a
letter from me, and yet the most vivid remembrance of you is ever present
with me. I have often conversed in thought with you and your dear family,
though not always in the happy mood I could have wished, for that fatal
misunderstanding still hovered before me, and my conduct at that time is
now hateful in my sight. But so it was, and how much would I give to have
the power wholly to obliterate from my life a mode of acting so degrading