unted to about four hundred thousand dollars, besides which he had a
valuable collection of musical instruments. His large Guarnieri violin
he bequeathed to the town of Genoa, that no artist might possess it
after him.

During his last illness Paganini, not realising that death was so near,
devoted himself to music and to arranging for another concert tour.
During his lifetime he had never paid much attention to religion and
there were some doubts as to his belief. Although he expressed his
adherence to the Roman Church, yet he dallied with its formalities, and
when the priest visited him three days before his death to administer
the final consolations of religion, the dying man put him off on the
ground that he was not yet ready, and would send for him when the time
came. Death prevented this, and burial in consecrated ground was
therefore denied him. An appeal was made to the spiritual tribunal and
in the meantime the body was embalmed and kept in a hall in the palace
of the Conte di Cessole, whose guest he was during his last illness.

People now began to come from all parts of Italy to pay honour to the
dead artist, and this so angered the bishop and priests that an order
was obtained for the removal of the body. Under military escort the
remains of the great violinist were taken to Villafranca and placed in
a small room, which was then sealed up. And now Paganini became a terror
to the ignorant peasants and fishermen, who crossed themselves as they
hurried past the spot where the excommunicated remains lay. It was said
that in the dead of night the spectre of Paganini appeared and played
the violin outside his resting-place.

In the meantime every effort was being made to secure Christian burial.
The spiritual tribunal decided that Paganini had died a good Catholic.
The bishop refused to accept the decision, and an appeal to the
archbishop was unavailing. Eventually the case was brought before the
Pope himself by the friends of the dead man, and the Pope overruled the
decision of the archbishop and ordained that Christian burial should be
accorded to the artist. On the 21st of August, 1843, the Conte di
Cessole took away the coffin from Villafranca, and interred it in the
churchyard near Paganini's old residence at Villa Gavona, near Parma.
Thus even after death he was the victim of superstition, as he had been
during his lifetime.

Paganini resolved not to publish his compositions until after he had
ceased to