Your Imperial Highness!
Much as I should like to do, it is not possible for me to wait upon you today. I am arranging for the dispatch to London of my composition on Wellington’s victory [Opus 91]. Such things always have their fixed time-limits which one dare not ignore unless one is prepared to miss everything –
I hope to have the privilege of waiting upon Y.I.H. tomorrow –
Your Imperial Highness’s
Most loyal and most obedient
Ludwig van Beethoven