* * * * *
Moscheles remained three days with the Mendelssohns. To none did he give
greater pleasure than to the elder Mendelssohn, who, afflicted as he was
with partial blindness, derived the keenest enjoyment from music. On the
last evening of
[Illustration: 17. Fac-simile of Diploma given to Mendelssohn by the
University of Leipzig. March 20, 1836.]
Moscheles’s stay, he and Mendelssohn were improvising together; as the
hour of departure approaches, the latter suddenly breaks in with the
familiar bugle-call of the post-chaise. Moscheles answers with a solemn
valedictory Andante; again he is interrupted by the warning notes of the
bugle, and pressing forward, the two performers end with a _brillant_
Finale. These days were amongst the last that Mendelssohn’s father was
destined to enjoy. A heavy blow was in store for the Mendelssohn family
and the wide circle of their friends. Abraham Mendelssohn died quite
suddenly on the 19th of November.
* * * * *
BERLIN, Nov. 25, 1835.
MY DEAR FRIEND,--We have lost my father. He breathed his last tranquilly
and peacefully on the 19th, in the morning, at half-past ten o’clock. He
had long since wished it might be so, and God has heard him. May He give
us strength to live on without him, and bear up under a loss we can
scarcely realize! My mother and sisters are well; my mother an example
to all, looking at the future with courage and fortitude. It was owing
to you that I saw my father the last time, and for that I thank you. The
remembrance of those two happy days is like a blessing that I shall
carry through life. You knew him, and can judge how, with him, light and
happiness have gone from me. I will strive to live as he would have
wished me to live, had he been amongst us. To your wife my father was
always sincerely attached, and grateful for all her kindness to him and
to us all. She, too, has lost a friend, and so have all those who knew
him well.
I must return to Leipzig in a few days, and do my best to get through my
duties there.
Good-by.
Yours,