ILE ST. FEREOL. 237 



While legend and histor^' encircle the two lies de 

 Lerins as it were with a halo, an extraordinary, almost 

 demoniacal, m^-th has been associated with St. Fereol. 

 It was said — and the sa^'ing is still current — that 

 the bodA' of Paganini la^■ for a time buried on the islet 

 of vSt. Fereol. I ha^'e read this statement in French 

 «-orks. The^' maintain that Paganini died of cholera 

 at Nice in Ma\ 1840. and that his son Aohille had 

 taken the remains of his father hy ship to Genoa in 

 order to inter them in his native place. But the priest- 

 hood denied burial to the man of whom it uas said 

 that he had pledged himself to vSatan ; and the Muni- 

 cipality- would not permit the landing of the bod\' for 

 fear of the cholera. The son then tried to accomplish 

 his object at Alarseilles but did not succeed. As he 

 ^\-as refused at Cannes also he decided to take the 

 coffin b\' night to the little uninhabited island, and there 

 the bod\' remained for five years. It was onh- in May 

 1845 that the son returned after having obtained per- 

 mission to burA' the remains of his father in the church- 

 Aard of Gajona, near Parma, not far from the Adlla that 

 Paganini had owned. This tale canie to ni) mind on 

 seeing Paganini's violin in the magnificent Palazzo Doria 

 Tursi, now the Palazzo Municipio at Genoa. This Avas 

 during the Columbian Fete \A-hen the members of the 

 Scientific Congress \A'ere received bA' the Sindaco in the 

 rooms of the Municipio. The A'iolin — a Guarneri — 

 from AA'hich Paganini once drcAv such magic strains, is 

 kept like a sacred relic in a costly shrine. During the 

 Fete it had been decorated AA-ith silken ribbons in the 



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