NOTES ON GHOSTS AND GOBLINS. 433 



Bach, the great composer), a musical amateur. The 

 next night the elder Bach dreamt that he saw a hand- 

 some young man, dressed in old court costume, who 

 told him that the spinet had been given to him by 

 his master King Henry. He then said he would play 

 on it an air, with words composed by the King, in 

 memory of a lacly he had greatly loved ; he did so, and 

 M. Bach woke in tears, touched by the pathos of the 

 song. He went to sleep again, and on waking in the 

 morning was amazed to find on his bed a sheet of 

 paper, on which were written, in very old characters, 

 both words and music of the song he had heard in his 

 dreams. It was said to be by Henry III., and the date 

 inscribed on the spinet was a few years earlier. 

 M. Bach, completely puzzled, showed the music to his 

 friends, and among them were some spiritualists, from 

 whom he heard, for the first time, their interpretation 

 of the phenomena. Now comes the most wonderful 

 part of the history. M. Bach became himself a writing 

 medium; and through his hand was written involun- 

 tarily a statement that inside the spinet, in a secret 

 niche near the key-board, was a parchment, nailed in 

 the case, containing the lines written by King Henry 

 when he gave the instrument to his musician. The 

 four-line stanza, which it was said would be found on 

 the parchment, was also given, and was followed by 

 the signature Baldazzarini. Father and son then set 

 to work to search for this hidden scroll, and after some 

 two hours' close examination found, in a narrow slit, a 



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