fresh the admiration of
her hearers, who were all _cognoscenti_, as Italian audiences generally
are. It became the vogue to patronize the beautiful cantatrice, and the
large English colony, who were led by some of the noblest gentlewomen
of England, such as Lady Templeton, Lady Palmerston, Lady Gertrude
Villiers, Lady Grandison, and others, made it a matter of national
pride to give the singer an enthusiastic support. English influence
was all-paramount at the court of Naples, from important political
exigencies, and this cooperated with Mrs. Billington's extraordinary
merits to raise her to a degree of consideration which had been rarely
attained by any singer in that beautiful Italian capital, prone as its
people are to indulge in exaggerated admiration of musical celebrities.
She sang for nearly two years at the San Carlo, and in 1796 we find her
at Bologna before French military audiences, whom Napoleon's Italian
victories had brought across the Alps. The conqueror confessed himself
vanquished by the lovely Billington, and made her the guest of himself
and Josephine, who admired the art no less than she dreaded the beauty
of a possible rival.

The English singer passed from city to city of Italy, everywhere
arousing the liveliest admiration. Her _debut_ in Venice was to be in
"Semiramide," written expressly for her by Nasolini, a young composer of
great promise. Illness, however, confined her to her bed for six
months, in spite of which the impressario paid her salary in full. She
recovered, and showed her gratitude by singing without recompense during
the fair of the Ascension, when immense throngs flocked to Venice. The
_corps diplomatique_ presented her on the first night with a jeweled
necklace of immense value, as a testimonial of their esteem and pleasure
at her recovery.

A singular evidence of the superstition of the Neapolitans was shown on
her return to their city, which was then threatened by an eruption of
Vesuvius and a dreadful earthquake, the cause of considerable damage.
The populace believed that it was a visitation of God in punishment for
the permission granted to a heretic Englishwoman to sing at San Carlo.
Mrs. Billington's safety was for a time threatened, but her talents and
popularity at last triumphed, and she rose higher in public regard than
before. Her Neapolitan engagement was terminated very suddenly by the
death of her husband, as he was in the act one evening of cloaking her
prior t