dark figure suddenly
appeared on the scene, and spoke in a voice whose tones carried with
them a magic authority which stilled all tumult at once. "Madame,
leave this gold alone!"--and to Ole Bull: "Sir, take your money, if
you please." The winner of an amount which had become very considerable
lingered a few moments to see the further results of the play, and, much
to his disgust, discovered that he would have possessed quite a little
fortune had he left his pile undisturbed for one more turn of the cards.
He was consoled, however, on arriving at his miserable lodgings, for he
could scarcely believe that this stroke of good luck was true, and yet
there was something repulsive in it to the fresh, unsophisticated nature
of the man. He said in a letter to one of his friends, "What a hideous
joy I felt--what a horrible pleasure it was to have saved one's own soul
by the spoil of others!" The mysterious stranger who had thus befriended
Ole Bull was the great detective Vidocq, whose adventures and exploits
had given him a world-wide reputation. Ole Bull never saw him again.

In exploring Paris for the purchase of a new violin, he accidentally
made the acquaintance of an individual named Labout, who fancied that he
had found the secret of the old Cremona varnish, and that, by using it
on modern-made violins, the instruments would acquire all the tone
and quality of the best old fiddles of the days of the Stradiuarii and
Amati. The inventor persuaded Ole Bull to appear at a private concert
where he proposed to test his invention, and where the Duke and Duchesse
de Montebello were to be present. The Norwegian's playing produced
a genuine sensation, and the duke took the young artist under his
patronage. The result was that Ole Bull was soon able to give a concert
on his own account, which brought him a profit of about twelve hundred
francs, and made him talked about among the musical _cognoscenti_ of
Paris. Of course every one at the time was Paganini mad, but Ole Bull
secured more than a respectful hearing, and opened the way toward
getting a solid footing for himself.

Among the incidents which occurred to him in Paris about this time was
one which had a curiously interesting bearing on his life. Obliged to
move from his lodgings on account of the death of the landlord and his
wife of cholera, a disease then raging in Paris, Ole Bull was told of
a noble but impoverished family who had a room to let on account of the
recent