d, as showing the
tender, generous nature of the artist. An imaginative Spanish girl,
whose fancy had been excited by the public enthusiasm about Gottschalk,
but was too ill to attend his concerts, had a passionate desire to hear
him play, and pined away in the fret-fulness of ungratified desire. Her
family were not able to pay Gottschalk for the trouble of giving such an
exclusive concert, but, to satisfy the sick girl, made the circumstances
known to the artist. Gottschalk did not hesitate a moment, but ordered
his piano to be conveyed to the humble abode of the patient. Here by her
bedside he played for hours to the enraptured girl, and the strain of
emotion was so great that her life ebbed away before he had finished the
final chords. Gottschalk remained in Spain for two years, and it was not
till the autumn of 1852 that he returned to Paris, to give a series of
farewell concerts before returning again to America, where his father
and brothers were anxiously awaiting him.

IV.

Before Gottschalk's departure from Paris, Hector Berlioz thus wrote of
his _protege_, for whom we may fancy he had a strong bias of liking; and
no judge is so generous in estimation as one artist of another, unless
the critic has personal cause of dislike, and then no judge is so
sweepingly unjust: "Gottschalk is one of the very small number who
possess all the different elements of a consummate pianist, all the
faculties which surround him with an irresistible prestige, and give him
a sovereign power. He is an accomplished musician; he knows just how far
fancy may be indulged in expression. He knows the limits beyond which
any freedom taken with the rhythm produces only confusion and disorder,
and upon these limits he never encroaches. There is an exquisite grace
in his manner of phrasing sweet melodies and throwing off light touches
from the higher keys. The boldness, brilliancy, and originality of his
play at once dazzle and astonish, and the infantile _naivete_ of his
smiling caprices, the charming simplicity with which he renders simple
things, seem to belong to another individuality, distinct from that
which marks his thundering energy. Thus the success of M. Gottschalk
before an audience of musical cultivation is immense."

But even this enthusiastic praise was pale in comparison with the
eulogiums of some of the New York journals, after the first concert of
Gottschalk at Niblo's Garden Theatre. One newspaper, which arrogated
spec