[Letter from George Sand to Carlotta Marliani]

They gave Nourrit a very scanty funeral service here since the bishop made a fuss [on account of Nourrit's suicide]. I don't know whether the choristers did it on purpose, but I have never heard such out-of-tune singing. Chopin sacrificed himself by playing the organ at the Elevation-- and what an organ ! Anyhow our boy made the best of it by using the less discordant stops, and he played Schubert's Die Sterne, not with the passionate and glowing tone that Nourrit used, but with a plaintive sound as soft as an echo from another world. Two or three at most among those present felt its meaning and had tears in their eyes-- the rest of the congregation, which had come in crowds and had pushed curiosity to the point of paying 50 centimes for their seats (an unheard- of price at Marseilles), were very disappointed, for they expected Chopin to kick up a devil of a row and to break at least two or three stops.