y and beautiful Sophie Arnould, who had a train of princes at
her feet, was the principal exponent of Gluck's heroines, while Mile.
La-guerre was the mainstay of the Piccinists. The rival factions made
the names of these charming and capricious women their war-cries not
less than those of the composers. The public bowed and cringed before
these idols of the stage. Gaetan Vestris, the first of the family, known
as the "Dieu de la Danse," and who held that there were only three great
men in Europe, Frederick the Great of Prussia, Voltaire, and himself,
dared to dictate even to Gluck. "Write me the music of a chaconne,
Monsieur Gluek," said the god of dancing.

"A chaconne!" said the enraged composer. "Do you think the Greeks, whose
manners we are endeavoring to depict, knew what a chaconne was?"

"Did they not?" replied Vestris, astonished at this news, and in a tone
of compassion continued, "then they are much to be pitied."

Vestris did not obtain his ballet music from the obdurate German; but,
when Piccini's rival "Iphigenie en Tauride" was produced, such beautiful
dance measures were furnished by the Italian composer as gave Vestris
the opportunity for one of his greatest triumphs.

IV.

The contest between Gluck and Piccini, or rather the cabals who adopted
the two musicians as their figure-heads, was brought to an end by the
death of the former. An attempt was made to set up Sacchini in his
place, but it proved unavailing, as the new composer proved to be quite
as much a follower of the prevailing Italian method as of the new school
of Gluck. The French revolution swept away Piccini's property, and he
retired to Italy. Bad fortune pursued him, however. Queen Caroline of
Naples conceived a dislike to him and used her influence to injure his
career, out of a fit of wounded vanity.

"Do you not think I remember my sister, Marie Antoinette?" queried the
somewhat ill-favored queen. Piccini, embarrassed but truthful, replied:
"Your majesty, there maybe a family likeness, but no resemblance." A
fatality attended him even to Venice. In 1792 he was mobbed and his
house burned, because the populace regarded him as a republican, for
he had a French son-in-law. Some partial musical successes, however,
consoled him, though they flattered his _amour propre_ more than they
benefited his purse. On his return to Naples he was subjected to a
species of imprisonment during four years, for royal displeasure in
those days did no