198 EXPRESSION IN MUSIC. 



loud that the audience were undetermined whether to clap their 

 hands or stop their ears ; but as Miss Tibbs cried beautiful ! they 

 all cried grand ! 



The last replication of the sounds died away, when the bells, 

 Pandean pipes, and triangle, were desired to be in concert ; Pe- 

 regrine requested them to throw as much supplication as possible 

 into their instruments, in order to signify that the Christian pri- 

 soners where offering up prayers for success. " Beautiful !" whis- 

 pered Miss Mellitung to Mr. Snaggs ; " what a consolation under 

 such trying circumstances I" " Very," said Mr. Snaggs. The three 

 performers began with sounds " most musical, most melancholy ;* 

 but as the Pandean pipes decidedly had the advantage in sound, the 

 bells, not to be outdone, shook with such a rapidity that, had not 

 the triangle and the pipes quickened their motions, they must soon 

 have been left behind ; a steeple chase followed, the bells, of course, 

 first, when the clear, shrill blast of a horn silenced them all at once. 

 " It is a flag of truce," said the rejoicing voice of the eldest Miss 

 Shrirapington. The horn sounded again, when, instead of the 

 presence of the turbaned Turk, on rattled the London Mail ! — 

 Then the ladies laughed, the gentlemen laughed, all laughed; 

 Bob Salter said the herald knew how to sound his own trumpet, 

 and then he laughed. Silence being restored, the ladies blew their 

 noses and shifted themselves into a more easy position. Bob Salter 

 said he should feel much pleasure in complying with Mr. Peascod's 

 request in introducing a little variation, especially as it was perfectly 

 consistent with the naval character of the overture ; it was an imi- 

 tation of the boatswain's whistle on himself. He then sounded so 

 shrill and piercing a note, long drawn out, that it was even suspect- 

 ed he must have had the instrument itself. There was something 

 so exhilarating in the sound to the inland ears of the audience that 

 he was requested to repeat it : he blew louder and louder still, so that 

 Miss Pinkinton, an old maid, stone deaf, ejaculated " Sure it must be 

 a rough night." " What a compliment !" said Miss Tibbs. Mr. Crook 

 ^ut his clarinet to his lips and, fetching his breath hard, blew a long 

 series of sighs. '^ The surgeons have too much to do, is explained 

 by that passage," said Peregrine. *' That is quite a novelty," said Dr. 

 Mellitung. Bob Salter then struck one, two, three, distinct blows 

 on the drum, which the Miss Shrimpingtons supposed was some 

 signal of distress, but were informed by Mr. Peascod that two post 

 captains and a private were killed. " Two captains ! — dreadful !*' 

 said the Miss Shrimpingtons. Mr. Peascod particularly directed 

 the sympathetic attention of the ladies to the next solo, by the man 



