ming."

"Nay! and there are hideous birds of prey now joining us. They rush
upon us. What screams? Their black wings strike me." And then a bell
tolled.

"Hark ye! It is the bell for her death. Hasten," the Devil urged.

"Aye, make haste, make haste." And the horses, black as night, were
urged on and on. "See those ghastly skeletons dancing!" Faust
screamed, as the fearful spectres gathered round them.

"Think not of them, but of our Marguerite!" the Devil counselled.

"Our horses' manes are bristling. They tremble, the earth rocks
wildly. I hear the thunders roar, it is raining blood," Faust
shrieked. Then the Devil shouted:

"Ah! Ye slaves of Hell, your trumpets blow. I come triumphant. This
man is mine!" And as he spoke, the two riders fell headlong into the
abyss of Hell.

Then all the fiends of Hell began to sing wildly. The scene was one of
damnation.

Then, grandly above Hell's din rose a mighty chorus. It was a heavenly
strain. Marguerite had not been spared the horror of execution; but
dead, the saints forgave her. In Heaven, as her soul ascended, they
sang:

"Ascend, O trusting spirit! It was love which misled thee. Come, let
us wipe away thy tears. Come, come, and dwell forever among the
blest."

And thus Faust met his end, and Marguerite her reward for faith and
innocence.

BIZET

When Bizet wrote his music around Prosper Merimee's story of Carmen,
he reflected his familiarity with Spanish life and his long living in
the Pyrenees mountains. The character of Michaela is not found in the
novel, but the clever introduction of it into the opera story adds
greatly to dramatic effect, since the gentle and loving character is
in strong contrast with that of Carmen.

Bizet's name was Alexandre Cesar Leopold, and he was born on October
25, 1838, at Bougival, and died June 3, 1875. He with Charles Lecocq
won the Offenbach prize for the best operetta while Bizet was as yet a
youth, and from that time his art gained in strength and beauty. In
those days it was a reproach to suggest Wagner in musical composition,
but Bizet was accused of doing so. Thus he was handicapped by leaning
toward an unpopular school at the very start, but the great beauty of
his productions made their way in spite of all. He wrote, as his
second composition of importance, an opera around the novel of Scott's
Fair Maid of Perth--in French, La Jolie Fille de Perth--and this was
not a success, but that same opera survives