, and vows to prefer death to
such intolerable disgrace. The scene of the next act is in the Pre aux
Clercs, in the outskirts of Paris. Valentine, who is to be married
that night to Nevers, obtains leave to pass some hours in prayer in a
chapel. While she is there she overhears the details of a plot devised
by Saint Bris for the assassination of Raoul, in order to avenge the
affront put upon himself and his daughter. Valentine contrives to warn
Marcel, Raoul's old servant, of this, and he assembles his Huguenot
comrades hard by, who rush in at the first _cliquetis_ of steel and
join the general _melee_. The fight is interrupted by the entrance of
the queen. When she finds out who are the principal combatants, she
reproves them sharply, and _en passant_ tells Raoul the real story of
Valentine's visit to Nevers. The act ends with the marriage
festivities, while Raoul is torn by an agony of love and remorse. In
the next act Raoul contrives to gain admittance to Nevers's house, and
there has an interview with Valentine. They are interrupted by the
entrance of Saint Bris and his followers, whereupon Valentine conceals
Raoul behind the arras. From his place of concealment he hears Saint
Bris unfold the plan of the massacre of Saint Bartholomew, which is to
be carried out that night. The conspirators swear a solemn oath to
exterminate the Huguenots, and their daggers are consecrated by
attendant priests. Nevers alone refuses to take part in the butchery.
When they all have left, Raoul comes out of his hiding-place, and, in
spite of the prayers and protestations of Valentine, leaps from the
window at the sound of the fatal tocsin, and hastens to join his
friends. In the last act, Raoul first warns Henry of Navarre and the
Huguenot nobles, assembled at the Hotel de Sens, of the massacre, and
then joins the _melee_ in the streets. Valentine has followed him,
and, after vainly endeavouring to make him don the white scarf, which
is worn that night by all Catholics, she throws in her lot with him,
and dies in his arms, after they have been solemnly joined in wedlock
by the wounded and dying Marcel."

WAGNER.

"Had it not been for Meyerbeer, my wife and I would have starved in
Paris," Wagner once told a friend, in speaking of his dark days, and he
always esteemed the composer as a man, though his honesty in art
matters forced him to condemn Meyerbeer's music.

Wagner wandered over Europe for many years. Born i