Disappointment--Ill Health--Visit to England--Devotion of Friends--Last Sacraments--Delphina Potocka--Louise--M.

Gutman--Death.
FROM the date of 1840, the health of Chopin, affected by so many changes, visibly declined.

During some years, his most tranquil hours were spent at Nohant, where he seemed to suffer less than elsewhere.
He composed there, with pleasure, bringing with him every year to Paris several new compositions, but every winter caused him an increase of suffering.

Motion became at first difficult, and soon almost impossible to him.

From 1846 to 1847, he scarcely walked at all; he could not ascend the staircase without the most painful sensation of suffocation, and his life was only prolonged through continual care and the greatest precaution.
Towards the Spring of 1847, as his health grew more precarious from day to day, he was attacked by an illness from which it was thought he could never recover.