Johann had a closed
carriage, but would not let him have it, and the journey was made in a
light open wagon. December had arrived and the weather, which had been
fine all the fall, was now bad. He was insufficiently clothed for the
two days' drive in such weather. He contracted inflammation of the lungs
on the way, and reached his quarters in the house of the Black
Spaniards, a very sick man.
This house, his last earthly abiding-place, had been his home for the
past year. It was a disused monastery, which had been established in
1633 by the daughter of Philip III of Spain on taking up her residence
in Vienna after her marriage. The original building was destroyed in one
of the wars of that turbulent time, but was rebuilt at the end of the
seventeenth century. The building was demolished in 1904. It was
situated on the glacis, in a part of the city where Beethoven had lived
much of the time since coming to Vienna.
The fates seem to have been against him from the beginning of his
journey. His sleeping-room was an enormous one on the second floor,
which, with two small anterooms, composed the apartment.
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