The
Prince, with the amiable desire of pleasing his guests, urged the
matter, but Beethoven continued obdurate; upon which he told him,
probably by way of a joke, that he must either comply or that he would
be confined in the castle as a prisoner of war for disobeying orders.
This persistence so enraged him that, although it was night, he left the
castle without the Prince's knowledge, and walked three miles to
Trappau, the nearest post-town. He remained here overnight, and, while
waiting for the post-chaise, wrote the following letter to Prince
Lichnowsky:
"Prince! what you are you owe to chance and birth. What I am, I am
through myself. There has been, and will yet be thousands of princes,
but there is only one Beethoven."[A]
[A] Frimmel's Beethoven.
It was raining when he left the castle, and the manuscript of the
Appassionata Sonata, hastily packed, became water-soaked and blurred; it
bears the marks of that night's journey to the present day.
Some difficulty was experienced in procuring his passport for Vienna.
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