hunger die,
Beware! albeit a Haman proud,
Served by thy slaves on bended knee,
The heaven can speak in thunder loud
And rend to dust both them and thee."

There is a temporary pause in the revels, but at the Queen's command they
are resumed with a quick-step introduced by the pipes and full of the
genuine Scotch spirit and bustle, the "Fal lal" trio and chorus still
accompanying it. It is interrupted afresh by a repetition of the psalm
("A Hand of Fire was on the Wall"), after which John Knox enters. With
his entrance the gay music closes and the work assumes a gloomy tragic
cast as the dialogue proceeds and the terrible incidents of the prophecy
are unfolded. It is a relief when they join in a hopeful duet ("E'en if
Earth should wholly fail me") which is very quiet and melodious. It leads
to the Queen's farewell, a quaintly-written bit, with an old-fashioned
cadenza, followed by the final chorus, which takes up a theme in the same
joyous spirit as the opening one:--

"Hence with evil omen,
Doleful bird of night,
Who in tears of women
Takest chief delight!
Think not to alarm her,
As with mystic power;
Nought shall ever harm her,
Scotland's lily flower."

LISZT.

Franz Liszt, the most eminent pianist of his time, who also obtained
world-wide celebrity as a composer and orchestral conductor, was born at
Raiding, Hungary, Oct. 22, 1811. His father was an accomplished amateur,
and played the piano and violoncello with more than ordinary skill. He
was so impressed with the promise of his son that he not only gave him
lessons in music, but also devoted himself to his artistic progress with
the utmost assiduity. In his ninth year Liszt played for the first time
in public at Oedenburg. His performances aroused such enthusiasm that
several Hungarian noblemen encouraged him to continue his studies, and
guaranteed him sufficient to defray the expenses of six years' tuition.
He went to Vienna at once and studied the piano with Czerny, besides
taking lessons in composition of Salieri and Randhartinger. It was while
in that city that his first composition, a variation on a waltz of
Diabelli, appeared. In 1823 he went to Paris, hoping to secure permission
to enter the Conservatory; but Cherubini refused it on account of his
foreign origin, though Cherubini himself was a foreigner. Nothing
daunted, young Liszt continued his studies with Reicha and Pae