On 8th October 1834, four and a half years after the death of his first wife, Johanna, a new lady entered his life: Melanie D’Hervilly Gohier [1800-1878], a young, attractive and well-connected French artist, who paid him a surprise visit in Coethen.
Over forty years younger than him, she became first his patient, then his homeopathy student and then his lover.