Supreme
Judge, - and under grave and decisive circumstances learn not to
give ear to any one but your conscience and your God! -
Austria has shown lately a remarkable activity, and a military
and diplomatic energy the service of which we cannot deny for the
re-establishment of her credit and political position. Certainly
by the prevision of a great number of exclusive Austrians - a
prevision which, moreover, I have never shared - it is probable
that the Russian alliance will have been a stroke of diplomatic
genius very favorable to the Vienna Cabinet, and that, in
consequence of this close alliance, the monarchical status quo
will be consolidated in Europe, notwithstanding all the
democratic ferments and dissolving elements which are evidently,
whatever people may say, at their period of ebb. I do not
precisely believe in a state of tranquility and indefinite peace,
but simply in a certain amount of order in the midst of disorder
for a round dozen of years, the main spring of this order being
naturally at Petersburg. From the day in which a Russian
battalion had crossed the Austrian frontier my opinion was fixed,
and when my friend Mr. de Ziegesar came and told me the news I
immediately said to him, "Germany will become Russian, and for
the great majority of Germans there is no sort of hesitation as
to the only side it remains to them to take."
The Princess having very obligingly taken the trouble to tell you
my wishes with regard to my money matters, I need not trouble you
further with them, and confine myself to thanking you very
sincerely for your exactness, and for the discerning integrity
with which you watch over the sums confided to your care. May
events grant that they may prosper, and that they may not become
indispensable to us very soon. -
Before the end of the winter I will send you a parcel of music
(of my publications), which will be a distraction for your
leisure hours. I endeavour to work the utmost and the best that I
can, though sometimes a sort of despairing fear comes over me at
the thought of the task I should like to fulfill, for which at
least ten years more of perfect health of body and mind will be
necessary to me.
Give my tender respects to Madame Liszt; you two form henceforth
my father's entire family; and believe in the lively and
unalterable friendship of
Your truly devoted,
F. Liszt
74. To Count Casimir Esterhazy
[Autograph (without address) in the possession of Herr Albert
Cohn, bookseller in Berlin. - The addressee was presumably Count
Esterhazy, whose guest Liszt was in Presburg in 1840.]
Let me thank you very sincerely for your kind remembrance, dear
friend, and let me also tell you how much I regret that my
journey to Hohlstein cannot come to pass during your short stay
there.
