one followed for half a century.

Let us, however, return to Tartini at Assisi, and tell how an
unforeseen incident at last freed the young artist from his
hiding-place and gave him back to his family. On a certain holiday,
Tartini was playing a violin solo, during services, in the choir of the
church, when a sudden gust of wind blew aside the curtains which had
concealed him from the assembly. A man from Padua, who happened to be
in the church at the time, recognised Tartini, and betrayed his
hiding-place. Circumstances had fortunately changed in the course of
two years, the anger of the bishop was pacified, and Tartini was
allowed to return to his wife at Padua.

In the year 1723 he was called to Prague to perform during the
festivities at the coronation of the Emperor Charles VI. He went with
his friend, the violoncellist, Antonio Nardini, to Prague, where they
both accepted a position in the orchestra of Count Kinsky. After three
years in this service, they returned to Padua, which city Tartini never
left again. Invitations flowed in from all the great capitals, but no
terms tempted him to leave his native soil.

Among the first of these offers was one from Lord Middlesex, inviting
Tartini to London, and hinting that a visit to England would probably
bring him in at least three thousand pounds; but it was declined in the
following disinterested language: "I have a wife with the same
sentiments as myself, and no children. We are perfectly contented with
our position, and if we wish for anything, it is, certainly, not to
possess more than we have at present." The remainder of his long and
famous career passed quietly, dedicated to study, composition, and
teaching. The school founded by him in 1728 soon became famous all
over Europe, and sent out some of the most noted violinists. Padua was
then the place of pilgrimage for all violinists, and it was not without
cause that Tartini's countrymen called him "il maestro delle nazioni."

This period of Tartini's labour is, above all, remarkable for his
theoretic researches. Already, in 1714, he had discovered the
combination tones (the so-called "third" or Tartini's tone). This
discovery, a lasting and valuable acquisition to all later
investigations into acoustics, led him further and further, but apart
from the exact road of natural science into the nebulous regions of
mystic philosophy. Tartini taught that with the problem of harmony
would also be solved