ding on the seats to get a
better view of him.

* His first English appearance in public was at the King's
Theatre on the 24th of January, 1824, when he conducted his
own opera, "Zelmira."

He continued for a minute or two to bow respectfully to the audience,
and then gave the signal for the overture to begin. He appeared stout
and somewhat below the middle height, with rather a heavy air, and a
countenance which, though intelligent, betrayed none of the vivacity
which distinguishes his music; and it was remarked that he had more of
the appearance of a sturdy, beef-eating Englishman, than a fiery and
sensitive native of the south."

The king, George IV., treated Rossini with peculiar consideration. On
more than one occasion he walked with him arm-in-arm through a crowded
concert-hall to the conductor's stand. Yet the composer, who seems
not to have admired his English Majesty, treated the monarch with much
independence, not to say brusqueness, on one occasion, as if to signify
his disdain of even royal patronage. At a grand concert at St. James's
Palace, the king said, at the close of the programme, "Now, Rossini,
we will have one piece more, and that shall be the _finale_." The other
replied, "I think, sir, we have had music enough for one night," and
made his bow.

He was an honored guest at the most fashionable houses, where his
talents as a singer and player were displayed with much effect in an
unconventional, social way. Auber, the French composer, was present on
one of these occasions, and indicates how great Rossini could have been
in executive music had he not been a king in the higher sphere. "I shall
never forget the effect," writes Auber, "produced by his lightning-like
execution. When he had finished I looked mechanically at the ivory
keys. I fancied I could see them smoking." Rossini was richer by seven
thousand pounds by this visit to the English metropolis. Though he had
been under engagement to produce a new opera as well as to conduct those
which had already made him famous, he failed to keep this part of his
contract. Passages in his letters at this time would seem to indicate
that Rossini was much piqued because the London public received his
wife, to whom he was devotedly attached, with coldness. Notwithstanding
the beauty of her face and figure, and the greatness of her style both
as actress and singer, she was pronounced _passee_ alike in person
and voice, with a species of bru