It must often have occurred to him that Breuning's
companionship would be more enjoyable than that of some of the friends
of these years. An accidental meeting with him on the bastion one
evening in August of 1825, happily led to a reconciliation. Beethoven's
eyes were at last opened to the injustice done Von Breuning, upon which
he wrote him a letter, so imbued with penitence, so fraught with the
desire of obliterating his past unkindness, so filled with yearning and
tenderness, that it must have compensated Stephen for all the pain of
the past years.
Accompanying the letter was his portrait painted many years before. The
letter has been frequently published. It is so characteristic of the man
that it can hardly be omitted:
"Behind this portrait, dear, good Stephen, may all be forever buried
which has for so long kept us apart. I have torn your heart I know. The
agitation that you must constantly have noticed in me has punished me
enough. It was not malice that prompted my behavior toward you. No! I
should then be no longer worthy of your friendship.
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