260 Stories of Living Musicians. ^Si:pt. 



sador, she consented to sing at the Russian court for two short months, on 

 condition of having five thousand ducats, and all the expences of her resi- 

 dence in the northern capital,with those of her voyage thither and return, 

 fully paid. " Tell the Italian," replied the Empress to her minister, 

 " that I do not pay my field-marshals so much." " Tell your mistress," 

 answered Gabrieli, on the message being conveyed to her, " that she 

 may set her field-marshals to sing." Unused as she was to concession, 

 the haughty empress acceded to the terms of the Roman, and so de- 

 lighted was she by her performance, that jewels, far exceeding the 

 amount of her salary, were presented to the enchantress. Yet Gabrieli 

 was any thing but covetous : indeed she was munificently generous 

 on occasions, and ever charitable ; but sometimes, as we have seen, she 

 indulged in freaks of independence which were not always so happy in 

 their results as that practised upon Catherine. Invited to visit Palermo 

 she reached the shores of Sicily, when her fame was at its acme, and 

 her arrival caused as great a " sensation" in the capital of the island as 

 Paganini's has created among us. For once, in Neapolitan govern- 

 ment, the feelings of the Viceroy ran parallel with the enthusiasm of 

 the people. A splendid repast was furnished by him to the nobility of 

 Palermo, on the day of her first appearance — the proudest of the land 

 were in attendance, and the banquet waited — yet she came not. Mes- 

 sengers were despatched to remind the prima-donna of her promise 

 and her host's expectation. — "La Signora sends to say that she had entirely 

 forgotten the invitation — is in bed, and desires not to be disturbed," was 

 the easy answer which he bore; and it was much — as my Lord Pembroke, 

 or any of our countrymen cognizant of the sweetnesses of Sicilian rvile, 

 will admit. The promised airs of the evening, however, would, it was 

 thought, recompence the disappointed Viceroy for the less grateful 

 ones thus exhibited, and he repaired to the theatre, followed by an illus- 

 trious cortege. Those who have endured long hovu's of suffocation in 

 the gallery of the House of Commons to hear the motion of some cele- 

 brated orator postponed — those who have read a fashionable novel to 

 the end, in the hope of extracting some little particle of pleasure — may 

 appreciate the horror of his Highness, to hear the shrew-like songstress 

 perversely setting all harmony and measure at defiance — stultifying the 

 laborious efforts of the astonished orchestra, and giving her " native 

 wood-notes wild" with a generous disdain of rule, that would have 

 startled the classical ears of the JMaster of the Rolls, and thrown my 

 Lord IMount-Edgecombe into a swoon. This was really too much for 

 vice-regal forbearance ; the contempt of authority was construed into a 

 crime of the deepest dye, and the intractable syren was, on the termina- 

 tion of her performance, safely consigned to a prison, to pay the penalty 

 of the insult. Handsome apartments were however afforded her; she 

 adopted a sumptuous table ; was " at home" to all, and at all times, and 

 the prison became a scene of attraction perfectly unprecedented. As 

 the term of the audacious culprit's confinement approached, she ordered 

 a list of those detained for debt to be laid before her, and discharged all 

 claims upon them ! A vessel was jirepared to bear her to her beloved 

 Italy ; and as she issued from her prison-walls, she was borne in pro- 

 cession by the congregated inhabitants of Palermo, past the Viceroy's 

 palace, to the Marina, where she embarked amidst shouts of triumph 

 i'rom the grateful multitude. 



The professional career of Rossini has not always been coleiir de rose. 



