under great difficulties, as under the circumstances I considered it impossible to wait to have my passport endorsed by the French envoy.  At the same time I wrote a few lines to Mme. Laussot, exhorting her to be calm and self-possessed, but, true to my purpose, refrained from even hinting at any movement on my part. (When, years afterwards, I told Liszt this story, he declared I had acted very stupidly in not, telling Mme. Laussot of my intentions.) I took leave of Karl the same day, in order to set out next morning from Geneva on my tedious journey across France.  But I was so exhausted by all this that I could not help thinking I was going to die.  That same night I wrote to Frau Ritter in Dresden, to this effect, giving her a short account of the incredible difficulties I had been drawn into.  As a matter of fact, I suffered great inconvenience at the French frontier on account of my passport; I was made to give my exact place of destination, and it was only upon my assuring them that pressing family affairs required my immediate presence, that the authorities showed exceptional leniency and allowed me to proceed.

I travelled by Lyons through Auvergne by stage-coach for three days and two nights, till at length I reached Bordeaux.  It was the middle of May, and as I surveyed the town from a height at early dawn I saw it lit up by a fire that had broken out.  I alighted at the Hotel Quatre Soeurs, and at once sent a note to M. Laussot, informing him that I held myself at his disposal and would remain in all day to receive him.  It was nine o’clock in the morning when I sent him this message.  I waited in vain for an answer, till at last, late in the afternoon, I received a summons from the police-station to present myself immediately.  There I was first of all asked whether my passport was in order.  I acknowledged the difficulty I found myself in with regard to it, and explained that family matters had necessitated my placing myself in this position.

I was thereupon informed that precisely this family matter, which had no doubt brought me there, was the cause of their having to deny me the permission to remain in Bordeaux any longer.  In answer to my question, they did not conceal the fact that these proceedings against me were being carried out at the express wish of the family concerned.  This extraordinary revelation immediately restored my good-humour.  I asked the police inspector whether, after such a trying journey, I might not be allowed a couple of days’ rest before returning; this request he readily granted, and told me that in any case there could be no chance of my meeting the family in question, as they had left Bordeaux at mid-day.  I used these two days to recover from my fatigue, and also wrote a letter to Jessie, in which I told her exactly what had taken place, without concealing my contempt at the behaviour of her husband, who could expose his wife’s honour by a denunciation to the police.