Be industrious and well behaved, and, if you
make good progress, I will put you under the tuition of a great master."
So Louis Spohr was installed as a _Kammer-musicus_, and his patron
fulfilled his promise in 1802 by placing his _protege_ under the charge
of Francis Eck, one of the finest violinists then living. Under the
tuition of this accomplished instructor, the young virtuoso made such
rapid advance in the excellence of his technique, that he was soon
regarded as worthy of accompanying his master on a grand concert tour
through the principal cities of Germany and Russia.

II.

This concert expedition of the two violinists, as narrated in Spohr's
"Autobiography," was full of interesting and romantic episodes. Both
master and pupil were of amorous and susceptible temperaments, and
their affairs were rarely regulated by a common sense of prudence. Spohr
relates with delightful _naivete_ the circumstances under which he fell
successively in love, and the rapidity with which he recovered from
these fitful spasms of the tender passion. Herr Eck, in addition to his
tendency to intrigues with the fairer half of creation, was also of
a quarrelsome and exacting disposition, and the general result was
ceaseless squabbling with authorities and musical societies in nearly
every city they visited. In spite of these drawbacks, however, the
two violinists gained both in fame and purse, and were everywhere well
received. If Herr Eck carried off the palm over the boyish Spohr as a
mere executant, the impression everywhere gained ground that the latter
was by far the superior in real depth of musical science, and many of
his own violin concertos were received with the heartiest applause. The
concert tour came to an end at St. Petersburg in a singular way. Eck
fell in love with a daughter of a member of the imperial orchestra, but
the idea of marriage did not enter into his project. As the young lady
soon felt the unfortunate results of her indiscretion, her parents
complained to the Empress, at whose instance Eck was given the choice of
marrying the girl or taking an enforced journey to Siberia. He chose the
former, and determined to remain in St. Petersburg, where he was offered
the first violin of the imperial orchestra. Poor Eck found he had
married a shrew, and, between matrimonial discords and ill health
brought on by years of excess, he became the victim of a nervous fever,
which resulted in lunacy and confinement in a mad-