12. There
he died. His sister Louise was sent for, and came from Poland to
Paris. In the early days of October he could no longer sit
upright without support. Gutmann and the Countess Delphine
Potocka, his sister, and M. Gavard, were constantly with him. It
was Turgenev who spoke of the half hundred countesses in Europe
who claimed to have held the dying Chopin in their arms. In
reality he died in Gutmann's, raising that pupil's hand to his
mouth and murmuring "cher ami" as he expired. Solange Sand was
there, but not her mother, who called and was not admitted--so
they say. Gutmann denies having refused her admittance. On the
other hand, if she had called, Chopin's friends would have kept
her away from him, from the man who told Franchomme two days
before his death, "She said to me that I would die in no arms but
hers." Surely--unless she was monstrous in her egotism, and she
was not--George Sand did not hear this sad speech without tears
and boundless regrets. Alas! all things come too late for those
who wait.
Tarnowski relates that Chopin gave his last orders in perfect
consciousness.
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