were, of dancing
groups, the dizzy round of a whole nation escaped from danger? And
when the clarionet gives the signal for the _stretto_,--'_Voci di
giubilo_,'--so brilliant and gay, was not your soul filled with the
sacred pyrrhic joy of which David speaks in the Psalms, ascribing it to
the hills?"

"Yes, it would make a delightful dance tune," said the doctor.

"French! French! always French!" exclaimed the Duchess, checked in her
exultant mood by this sharp thrust. "Yes; you would be capable of taking
that wonderful burst of noble and dainty rejoicing and turning it into
a rigadoon. Sublime poetry finds no mercy in your eyes. The highest
genius,--saints, kings, disasters,--all that is most sacred must pass
under the rods of caricature. And the vulgarizing of great music by
turning it into a dance tune is to caricature it. With you, wit kills
soul, as argument kills reason."

They all sat in silence through the _recitative_ of Osiride and Membrea,
who plot to annul the order given by Pharaoh for the departure of the
Hebrews.

"Have I vexed you?" asked the physician to the Duchess. "I should be in
despair. Your words are like a magic wand. They unlock the pigeon-holes
of my brain, and let out new ideas, vivified by this sublime music."

"No," replied she, "you have praised our great composer after your own
fashion. Rossini will be a success with you, for the sake of his witty
and sensual gifts. Let us hope that he may find some noble souls,
in love with the ideal--which must exist in your fruitful land,--to
appreciate the sublimity, the loftiness, of such music. Ah, now we have
the famous duet, between Elcia and Osiride!" she exclaimed, and she went
on, taking advantage of the triple salvo of applause which hailed la
Tinti, as she made her first appearance on the stage.

"If la Tinti has fully understood the part of Elcia, you will hear
the frenzied song of a woman torn by her love for her people, and
her passion for one of their oppressors, while Osiride, full of mad
adoration for his beautiful vassal, tries to detain her. The opera is
built up as much on that grand idea as on that of Pharaoh's resistance
to the power of God and of liberty; you must enter into it thoroughly or
you will not understand this stupendous work.

"Notwithstanding the disfavor you show to the dramas invented by our
_libretto_ writers, you must allow me to point out the skill with which
this one is constructed. The antithesis require