Your Imperial Highness!
Only now, as I am getting up from my bed, can I reply to your gracious letter of today. I do not think that it will be possible for me to wait upon you tomorrow, but perhaps the day after –– I have suffered much during the last few days and, I may even say, doubly, because I have not been able, in accordance with my dearest wishes, to devote a great deal of time to you. But no doubt I shall manage to shake off this condition (my illness, I mean) during the spring and the summer.
Your Imperial Highness’s
Most obedient servant
Ludwig van Beethoven