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07 - Nightmare Tales by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky · Nightmare Tales

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  Speaker 1: Section six of Nightmare Tales by Helena Popolovatsky. The LibriVox
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  Speaker 1: recordings in the public domain read by Ben Tucker. The
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  Speaker 1: insold violin one. In the year eighteen twenty eight, an
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  Speaker 1: old German, a music teacher, came to Paris with his
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  Speaker 1: pupil and settled unostentatiously in one of the quiet faubourges
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  Speaker 1: of the metropolis. The first rejoiced in the name of
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  Speaker 1: Samuel Klaus, the second answer to the more poetical appellation
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  Speaker 1: of Franz Stenio. The younger man was a violinist, gifted,
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  Speaker 1: as rumor went, with extraordinary, almost miraculous talent. Yet as
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  Speaker 1: he was poor and had not hitherto made a name
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  Speaker 1: for himself in Europe, he remained for several years in
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  Speaker 1: the capital France, the heart and pulse of capricious continental fashion,
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  Speaker 1: unknown and unappreciated. Franz was a Styrian by birth, and
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  Speaker 1: at the time of the event to be presently described,
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  Speaker 1: he was a young man considerably under thirty, a philosopher
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  Speaker 1: and a dreamer by nature, imbued with all the mystic
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  Speaker 1: oddities of true genius. He reminded one of some of
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  Speaker 1: the heroes in Hoffmann's Comte phantastique. His earlier existence had
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  Speaker 1: been a very unusual, in fact, quite an eccentric one,
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  Speaker 1: and its history must be briefly told for the better
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  Speaker 1: understanding of the present story. Born of a very pious
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  Speaker 1: country people in a quiet berg among Sterrian Alps, nursed
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  Speaker 1: by the native gnomes who watched over his cradle, growing
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  Speaker 1: up in the weird atmosphere of the ghouls and vampires
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  Speaker 1: who played such a prominent part in the household of
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  Speaker 1: every Styrian and Slavonian in southern Austria. Educated later as
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  Speaker 1: a student in the shadow of the old Rhenish castles
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  Speaker 1: of Germany, Franz from his childhood had passed through every
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  Speaker 1: emotional stage on the plain of the so called supernatural.
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  Speaker 1: He had also studied at one time the occult arts
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  Speaker 1: with an enthusiastic disciple of Paracelsus and Kunrath. Alchemy had
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  Speaker 1: few theoretical secrets for him, and he had dabbled in
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  Speaker 1: ceremonial magic and sorcery with some Hungarian zigons. Yet he
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  Speaker 1: loved above all else music, and above music his violin.
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  Speaker 1: At the age of twenty two, he suddenly gave up
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  Speaker 1: his practical studies in the occult, and from that day,
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  Speaker 1: though as devoted as ever in thought to the beautiful
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  Speaker 1: Grecian gods, he surrendered himself entirely to his art. Of
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  Speaker 1: his classic studies he had retained only that which related
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  Speaker 1: to the Muses, Eutepia, specially at whose altar he worshiped,
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  Speaker 1: and Orpheus, whose magic lyre he tried to emulate with
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  Speaker 1: his violin. Except his dreamy belief in the nymphs and
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  Speaker 1: the Sirens, on account probably of the double relationship of
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  Speaker 1: the latter to the Muses, through Calliope and Orpheus, he
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  Speaker 1: was interested but little in the matters of this sublenary world.
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  Speaker 1: All his aspirations mounted like incense with the wave of
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  Speaker 1: the heavenly harmony that he drew from his instrument to
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  Speaker 1: a higher and nobler sphere. He dreamed awake, and lived
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  Speaker 1: a real, though an enchanted life, only during those hours
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  Speaker 1: when his magic beau carried him along the wave of
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  Speaker 1: sound to the pagan Olympus, to the feet of you, Tuppy.
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  Speaker 1: A strange child he had ever been in his own home,
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  Speaker 1: where tales of magic and witchcraft grow out of every
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  Speaker 1: inch of the soil. A still stranger boy, he had become,
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  Speaker 1: until finally he had blossomed into manhood without one single
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  Speaker 1: characteristic of youth. Never had a fair face attracted his attention.
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  Speaker 1: Not for one moment had his thoughts turned from his
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  Speaker 1: solitary studies to a life beyond that of a mystic bohemian,
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  Speaker 1: content with his own company. He had thus passed the
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  Speaker 1: best years of his youth and manhood, with his violin
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  Speaker 1: for his chief idol, and with the gods and goddesses
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  Speaker 1: of old Greece for his audience, in perfect ignorance of
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  Speaker 1: practical life. His whole existence had been one long day
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  Speaker 1: of dreams of melody and sunlight, and he had never
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  Speaker 1: felt any other aspirations. How useless, but oh how glorious
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  Speaker 1: those dreams, how vivid? And why should he desire any
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  Speaker 1: better fate? Was he not all that he wanted to
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  Speaker 1: be transformed in a second of thought into one or
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  Speaker 1: another hero from Orpheus, who held all nature breathless, to
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  Speaker 1: the urchin who piped away under the plane tree, to
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  Speaker 1: the naiads of Chileroi's crystal fountain, did not the swift
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  Speaker 1: footed nymphs frolic at his beck and call to the
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  Speaker 1: sound of the magic flute of the Arcadian shepherd, who
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  Speaker 1: was himself. Behold the goddess of love and beauty, herself
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  Speaker 1: descending from on high, attracted by the sweet voiced notes
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  Speaker 1: of his violin. Yet there came a time when he
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  Speaker 1: preferred Syrinx to Aphrodite, not as the fair nymph pursued
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  Speaker 1: by Pan, but after her transformation by the merciful gods,
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  Speaker 1: and to the reed out of which the frustrated god
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  Speaker 1: of the shepherds had made his magic pipe. For also
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  Speaker 1: with time, ambition grows and is rarely satisfied. When he
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  Speaker 1: tried to emulate on his violin the enchanting sounds that
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  Speaker 1: resounded in his mind, the whole of Parnassus kept silent
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  Speaker 1: under the spell, or joined in heavenly chorus. But the
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  Speaker 1: audience he finally craved was composed of more than the
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  Speaker 1: gods sung by Hesiod, verily of the most appreciative melemans
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  Speaker 1: of European capitals. He felt jealous of the magic pipe,
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  Speaker 1: and would fain have had it at his command. Oh
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  Speaker 1: that I could allure a nymph and to my beloved violin,
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  Speaker 1: he often cried, after awakening from one of his day dreams.
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  Speaker 1: Oh that I could only span in spirit flight the
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  Speaker 1: abyss of time. Oh, that I could find myself for
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  Speaker 1: one short day a partaker of the secret arts of
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  Speaker 1: the gods, a god myself in the sight and hearing
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  Speaker 1: of enraptured humanity, and having learned the mystery of the
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  Speaker 1: lyre of Orpheus, or secured within my violin a siren,
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  Speaker 1: thereby benefit mortals to my own glory. Thus, having for
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  Speaker 1: long years dreamed in the company of the gods of
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  Speaker 1: his fancy, he now took to dreaming of the transitory
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  Speaker 1: glories of fame upon this earth. But at this time
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  Speaker 1: he was only called home by his widowed mother from
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  Speaker 1: one of the German universities, where he had lived for
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  Speaker 1: the last year or two. This was an event which
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  Speaker 1: brought his plans to an end, at least so far
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  Speaker 1: as the immediate future was concerned, for he had hitherto
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  Speaker 1: drawn upon her alone for his meager pittance and his
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  Speaker 1: means were not sufficient for an independent life outside his
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  Speaker 1: native place. His return had a very unexpected result. His mother,
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  Speaker 1: whose only love he was on earth, died soon after
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  Speaker 1: she had welcomed her Benjamin back, and the good wives
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  Speaker 1: of the burg exercised their swift tongues for many a
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  Speaker 1: month after as to the real causes of that death.
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  Speaker 1: Fraustinio before Franz's return, was a healthy, buxom, middle aged body,
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  Speaker 1: strong and hearty. She was a pious and a god
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  Speaker 1: fearing soul too, who had never failed in saying her prayers,
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  Speaker 1: nor had missed an early Mass for years during his absence.
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  Speaker 1: On the first Sunday after her son had settled at home,
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  Speaker 1: a day that she had been longing for and had
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  Speaker 1: anticipated for months in joyces visions in which she saw
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  Speaker 1: him kneeling by her side in the little church on
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  Speaker 1: the hill, she called him from the foot of the stairs.
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  Speaker 1: The hour had come when her pious dream was to
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  Speaker 1: be realized, and she was waiting for him, carefully wiping
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  Speaker 1: the dust from the prayer book he had used in
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  Speaker 1: his boyhood. But instead of Fronds, it was his violin
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  Speaker 1: that responded to her call, mixing its sonorous voice with
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  Speaker 1: the rather cracked tones of the peal of the merry
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  Speaker 1: Sunday bells. The fond mother was somewhat shocked at hearing
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  Speaker 1: the prayer inspiring sounds drowned by the weird, fantastic notes
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  Speaker 1: of the dance of the witches. They seemed to her
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  Speaker 1: so unearthly and mocking. But she almost fainted upon hearing
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  Speaker 1: the definite refusal of her well beloved son to go
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  Speaker 1: to church. He never went to church, he coolly remarked.
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  Speaker 1: It was loss of time. Besides which the loud peals
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  Speaker 1: of the old church organ jarred on his nerves. Nothing
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  Speaker 1: should induce him to submit to the torture of listening
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  Speaker 1: to that cracked organ. He was firm, and nothing could
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  Speaker 1: move him to her supplications and romanstresses. He put an
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  Speaker 1: end by offering to play for her a hymn to
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  Speaker 1: the Sun he had just composed. From that memorable Sunday morning,
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  Speaker 1: Fraustenio lost her usual serenity of mind. She hastened to
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  Speaker 1: lay her sorrows and seek for consolation at the foot
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  Speaker 1: of the confessional. But that which she heard in response
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  Speaker 1: from the stern priest filled her gentle and unsophisticated soul
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  Speaker 1: with dismay and almost with despair. A feeling of fear,
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  Speaker 1: a sense of profound terror, which soon became a chronic
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  Speaker 1: state with her, pursued her. From that moment. Her nights
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  Speaker 1: became disturbed and sleepless, her days passed in prayer and lamentations.
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  Speaker 1: In her maternal anxiety for the salvation of her beloved
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  Speaker 1: son's soul and for his post mortem welfare, she made
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  Speaker 1: a series of rash vows, finding that neither the Latin
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  Speaker 1: petition to the Mother of God written for her by
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  Speaker 1: her spiritual adviser, nor yet the humble supplications in German
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  Speaker 1: addressed by herself to every saint she had reason to
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  Speaker 1: believe was residing in paradise, worked the desired effect. She
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  Speaker 1: took to pilgrimages to distant shrines. During one of these journeys,
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  Speaker 1: to a holy chapel situated high up in the mountains,
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  Speaker 1: she caught cold amidst the glaciers of the Tyrol and redescended,
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  Speaker 1: only to take to a sick bed, from which she
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  Speaker 1: arose no more. Frausteniov's vow had led her, in one sense,
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  Speaker 1: to the desired result. The poor woman was now given
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  Speaker 1: an opportunity of seeking out in propria persona the saints
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  Speaker 1: she had believed in so well, and of pleading face
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  Speaker 1: to face for the recreant son who refused adherents to
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  Speaker 1: them and to the church. Scoffed at monk and confessional
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  Speaker 1: and held the organ in such horror. Franz sincerely lamented
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  Speaker 1: his mother's death, unaware of being the indirect cause of it.
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  Speaker 1: He felt no remorse, but selling the modest household goods
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  Speaker 1: and chattel's light in person heart, he resolved to travel
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  Speaker 1: on foot for a year or two before settling down
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  Speaker 1: to any definite profession. A hazy desire to see the
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  Speaker 1: great cities of Europe and to try his luck in
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  Speaker 1: France lurked at the bottom of this traveling project, but
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  Speaker 1: his bohemian habits of life were too strong to be
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  Speaker 1: abruptly abandoned. He placed his small capital with a banker
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  Speaker 1: for a rainy day and started on his pedestrian journey
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  Speaker 1: via Germany and Austria. His violin paid for his board
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  Speaker 1: and lodging in the inns and farms on his way,
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  Speaker 1: and he passed his days in the green fields in
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  Speaker 1: the solemn, silent woods, face to face with nature, dreaming
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  Speaker 1: all the time as usual, with his eyes open. During
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  Speaker 1: the three months of his pleasant travels to and fro
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  Speaker 1: he never descended for one moment from Parnassus. But as
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  Speaker 1: an alchemist, transmutes lead into gold, so he transformed everything
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  Speaker 1: on his way into a song of Hesiod or Anacreon
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  Speaker 1: every evening, while fiddling for his supper and bed, whether
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  Speaker 1: on a green lawn or in the hall of a
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  Speaker 1: rustic inn, his fancy changed the whole scene for him.
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  Speaker 1: Village swains and maidens became transfigured into Arcadian shepherds and nymphs.
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  Speaker 1: The sand cup vert floor was now a green sward.
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  Speaker 1: The uncouth couples spinning round in a measured waltz with
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  Speaker 1: the wild grace of tamed bears became priests and priestesses
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  Speaker 1: of terpsicor the bulky, cherry cheeked and blue eyed daughters
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  Speaker 1: of rural Germany were the Hesperides, circling around the trees
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  Speaker 1: laden with the golden apples. Nor did the melodious strains
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  Speaker 1: of the Arcadian demigods, piping on their synxes and audible.
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  Speaker 1: But to his own enchanted ear vanished with the dawn.
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  Speaker 1: For no sooner was the curtain of sleep raised from
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  Speaker 1: his eyes than he would sally forth into a new
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  Speaker 1: magic realm of day dreams. On his way to some
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  Speaker 1: dark and solemn pine forest. He played incessantly to himself
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  Speaker 1: and to everything else. He fiddled to the green hill
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  Speaker 1: and forthwith the mountain, and the moss covered rocks moved
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  Speaker 1: forward to hear him, the better as they had down
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  Speaker 1: at the sound of the orphean lyre he fiddled to
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  Speaker 1: the merry voiced brook, to the hurrying river, and both
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  Speaker 1: slackened their speed and stopped their waves, and, becoming silent,
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  Speaker 1: seemed to listen to him in an entranced rapture. Even
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  Speaker 1: the long legged stork, who stood meditatively on one leg
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  Speaker 1: on the thatched top of the rustic mill, gravely resolving
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  Speaker 1: unto himself the problem of his too long existence, sent
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  Speaker 1: out after him a long and strident cry, screeching, art
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  Speaker 1: thou orpheus himself ostenio. It was a period of full bliss,
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  Speaker 1: of a daily and almost hourly exaltation. The last words
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  Speaker 1: of his dying mother, whispering to him of the horrors
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  Speaker 1: of eternal condemnation, had left him unaffected, and the only
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  Speaker 1: vision of her warning evoked in him was that of Pluto.
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  Speaker 1: By a ready association of ideas, he saw the lord
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  Speaker 1: of the dark nether kingdom greeting him as he had
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  Speaker 1: greeted the husband of Eurydes before him, Charmed with the
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  Speaker 1: magic sounds of his violin, the will of Ixion was
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  Speaker 1: at a standstill once more, thus affording relief to the
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  Speaker 1: wretched seducer of Juno and giving the lie to those
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  Speaker 1: who claim eternity for the duration of the punishment of
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  Speaker 1: condemned sinners. He perceived Tantalus forgetting his never ceasing thirst
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  Speaker 1: and smacking his life lips as he drank in the
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  Speaker 1: heaven born melody, the stone of Sisyphus becoming motionless, the
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  Speaker 1: furies themselves smiling on him, and the sovereign of the
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  Speaker 1: gloomy regions delighted and awarding preference to his violin over
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  Speaker 1: the lyre of Orpheus Tickin a Sirio mythology thus seems
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  Speaker 1: a decided antidote to fear in the face of theological threats,
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  Speaker 1: especially when strengthened with an insane and passionate love of music.
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  Speaker 1: With Franz, a tuppy proved always victorious in every contest, I,
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  Speaker 1: even with Hell itself. But there is an end to everything,
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  Speaker 1: and very soon Franz had to give up uninterrupted dreaming.
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  Speaker 1: He had reached the university town where dwelt his old
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  Speaker 1: violin teacher Samuel Klauss. When this antiquated musician found that
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  Speaker 1: his beloved and favorite pupil, Franz, had been left poor
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  Speaker 1: in purse and still poorer in earthly affections. He felt
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  Speaker 1: his strong attachment to the boy awaken with tenfold force.
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  Speaker 1: He took Franz to his heart, and forthwith adopted him
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  Speaker 1: as his son. The old teacher reminded pe of one
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  Speaker 1: of those grotesque figures which look as if they had
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  Speaker 1: just stepped out of some medieval panel. And yet Klaus,
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  Speaker 1: with his fantastic allure of a knight goblin, had the
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  Speaker 1: most loving heart, as tender as that of a woman,
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  Speaker 1: and the self sacrificing nature of an old Christian martyr.
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  Speaker 1: When Franz had briefly narrated to him the history of
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  Speaker 1: his last few years, the professor took him by the hand, and,
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  Speaker 1: leading him into his study, simply said, stop with me
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  Speaker 1: and put an end to your bohemian life. Make yourself famous.
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  Speaker 1: I am old and childless and will be your father.
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  Speaker 1: Let us live together and forget all save fame and forthwith,
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  Speaker 1: he offered to proceed with Franz to Paris via several
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  Speaker 1: large German cities, where they would stop to give concerts
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  Speaker 1: in a few days, Klaus succeeded in making Franz forget
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  Speaker 1: his vagrant life and his artistic independence, and reawakened in
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  Speaker 1: his pupil his now dormant ambition and desire for worldly fame. Hitherto,
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  Speaker 1: since his mother's death, he had been content to receive
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  Speaker 1: applause only from the gods and goddesses who inhabited his
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  Speaker 1: vivid fancy. Now he began to crave once more for
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  Speaker 1: the admiration of mortals. Under the clever and careful training
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  Speaker 1: of old Klaus, his remarkable talent gained in strength and
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  Speaker 1: powerful charm with every day, and his reputation grew and
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  Speaker 1: expanded with every city in town wherein he made himself heard.
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  Speaker 1: His ambition was being rapidly realized. The presiding geni of
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  Speaker 1: various musical centers, to whose patronage his talent was submitted,
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  Speaker 1: soon proclaimed him the one violinist of the day, and
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  Speaker 1: the public declared loudly that he stood unrivaled by any
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  Speaker 1: one whom they had ever heard. These laudations very soon
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  Speaker 1: made both master and pupil completely lose their heads. But
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  Speaker 1: Paris was less ready with such appreciation. Paris makes reputations
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  Speaker 1: for itself, and will take none on faith. They had
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  Speaker 1: been living in it for almost three years, and were
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  Speaker 1: still climbing with difficulty the artist's cavalry when an event
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  Speaker 1: occurred which put an end even to their most modest expectations.
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  Speaker 1: The first arrival of Niccolo Pugany was suddenly heralded and
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  Speaker 1: threw Lutetia into a convulsion of expectation. The unparalleled artist arrived,
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  Speaker 1: and all Paris fell at once at his feet. Two
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  Speaker 1: Now it is a well known fact that a superstition,
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  Speaker 1: born in the dark days of medieval superstition, and surviving
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  Speaker 1: almost to the middle of the present century, attributed all
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  Speaker 1: such abnormal, out of the way talent as that of
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  Speaker 1: Paganini to supernatural agency. Every great and marvelous artist had
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  Speaker 1: been accused in his day of dealings with the devil.
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  Speaker 1: A few instances will suffice to refresh the reader's memory. Tartini,
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  Speaker 1: the great composer and violinist of the seventeenth century, was
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  Speaker 1: denounced as one who got his best inspirations from the
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  Speaker 1: evil one with whom he was. It was said in
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  Speaker 1: regular league. This accusation was, of course due to the
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  Speaker 1: almost magical impression he produced upon his audiences. His inspired
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  Speaker 1: performance on the violin secured for him in his native
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  Speaker 1: country the title of Master of Nations. The Sonnat de
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  Speaker 1: de lab also called Tartini's Dream, as every one who
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  Speaker 1: has heard it will be ready to testify, is the
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  Speaker 1: most weird melody ever heard or invented. Hence the marvelous
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  Speaker 1: composition has become the source of endless legends. Nor were
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  Speaker 1: they entirely baseless, since it was he himself who was
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  Speaker 1: shown to have originated them. Tartini confessed to have written
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  Speaker 1: it on awakening from a dream in which he had
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  Speaker 1: heard his sonata performed by Satan for his benefit and
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  Speaker 1: in consequence of a bargain made with his infernal majesty.
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  Speaker 1: Several famous singers, even whose exceptional voices struck the hearers
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  Speaker 1: with superstitious admiration, have not escaped a like accusation. Pasta's
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  Speaker 1: splendid voice was attributed in her day to the fact that,
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  Speaker 1: three months before her birth, the diva's mother was carried
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  Speaker 1: during a trance to heaven and there treated to a
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  Speaker 1: vocal concert of Seraph's Malibran was indebted for her voice
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  Speaker 1: to Saint Cecilia, while others said she owed it to
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  Speaker 1: a demon who watched over her cradle and sung the
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  Speaker 1: baby to sleep. Finally, Paganini, the unrivaled performer, the mean Italian, who,
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  Speaker 1: like Dryden's jewbal striking on the corded shell, forced the
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  Speaker 1: throngs that followed him to worship the divine sounds produced
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  Speaker 1: and made people say that less than a god could
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  Speaker 1: not dwell within the hollow of his violin. Paganini left
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  Speaker 1: a legend too. The almost supernatural art of the greatest
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  Speaker 1: violin player that the world has ever known was often
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: speculated upon, never understood. The effect produced by him on
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: his audience was literally marvelous, overpowering. The great Rossini is
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: said to have wept like a sentimental German maiden on
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: hearing him play for the first time. The Princess Eliza
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: of Lucca, a sister of the Great Napoleon and whose
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: service Paganini was as director of her private orchestra for
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: a long time, was unable to hear him play without fainting.
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: In women, he produced nervous fits and hysterics at his will.
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: Stout hearted men he drove to phrenzy. He changed cowards
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: into heroes, and made the bravest soldiers feel like so
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: many nervous schoolgirls. Is it to be wondered, then, that
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: hundreds of weird tales circulated for long years about and
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: around the mysterious Genoese that modern Orpheus of Europe. One
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: of these was especially ghastly. It was rumored and was
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: believed by more people than would probably like to confess it,
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: that the strings of his violin were made of human intestines,
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: according to all the rules and requirements of the black
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: art exaggerated? Is this idea may seem to some, it
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: has nothing impossible in it, and it is more than
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: probable that it was this legend that led to the
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: extraordinary events which we are about to narrate. Human organs
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: are often used by the Eastern Black magician so called,
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: and it is an averred fact that some Bengali tantricas,
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: reciters of tantras or invocations to the demon, as a
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: reverend writer has described them, use human corpses and certain
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: internal and external organs pertaining to them as powerful magical
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: agents for bad purposes. However, this may be now that
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: the magnetic and mesmer potencies of hypnotism are recorded as
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: facts by most physicians, it may be suggested with less
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: danger than heretofore, that the extraordinary effects of Paganini's violin
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: playing were not, perhaps entirely due to his talent and genius.
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: The wonder in awe he so easily excited, were as
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: much caused by his external appearance, which had something weird
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: and demoniacal in it, according to certain of his biographers,
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: as by the inexpressible charm of his execution and his
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: remarkable mechanical skill. The latter is demonstrated by his perfect
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: imitation of the flagelet and his performance of long and
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: magnificent melodies on the G string alone. In this performance,
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: which many an artist has tried to copy without success,
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: he remains unrivaled to this day. It is owing to
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: this remarkable appearance of his termed by his friends eccentric
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: and by his two nervous victims diabolical, that he experienced
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: great difficulties in refuting certain ugly rumors. These were credited
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: far more easily in his day than they would be now.
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: It was whispered throughout Italy, and even in his own
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: native town, that Paganini had murdered his wife and later
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: on a mistress, both of whom he had loved passionately,
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: and both of whom he had not hesitated to sacrifice
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: to his fiendish ambition. He had made himself proficient in
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: magic arts, it was asserted, and had succeeded thereby in
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: imprisoning the souls of his two victims and his violin,
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: his famous Cremona. It is maintained by the immediate friends
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: of Ernst T. W. Hoffmann, the celebrated author of Di
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: Eleixar de Tuffel, Mister Matton, and other charming inimistical tales.
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: The councilor Crespel and the Violin of Cremona was taken
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: from the legend about Paganini. It is, as all who
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: have read it know, the history of a celebrated violin,
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: to which the voice and soul of a famous diva,
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: a woman whom Crespel had loved and killed, had passed,
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: and to which was added the voice of his beloved
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: daughter Antonia. Nor was this the perstition utterly ungrounded. Nor
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: was Hoffmann to be blamed for adopting it after he
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: had heard Paganini's playing. The extraordinary facility with which the
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: artists drew out of his instrument. Not only the most
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: unearthly sounds, but positively human voices justified the suspicion. Such
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: effects might well have startled an audience and thrown terror
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: into many a nervous heart. Add to this, the impenetrable
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: mystery connected with a certain period of Paganini's youth and
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: the most wild tales about him, must be found in
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: a measure justifiable and even excusable, especially among a nation
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: whose ancestors knew the borgias and the medicis of black
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: art fame. Three. In those pre telegraphic days, newspapers were limited,
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: and the wings of fame had a heavier flight than
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: they have now. Franz had hardly heard of Paganini, and
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: when he did, he swore he would rival, if not eclipse,
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: the Genoese magician. Yes, he would either become the most
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: famous of all living violinists, or he would break his
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: instrument and an end to his life. At the same time,
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: Old Klaus rejoiced at such a determination. He rubbed his
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: hands in glee, and jumping about on his lame leg
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: like a crippled satyr, he flattered and incensed his pupil,
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: believing himself all the while to be performing a sacred
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: duty to the holy and majestic cause of art. Upon
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: first setting foot in Paris three years before, Franz had
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: all but failed. Musical critics pronounced him a rising star,
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: but had all agreed that he required a few more
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: years practice before he could hope to carry his audiences
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: by storm. Therefore, after a desperate study of over two
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: years and uninterrupted preparations, the Styrian artist had finally made
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: himself ready for his first serious appearance in the Great
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: Opera House, where a public concert before the most exacting
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: critics of the old world was to be held. At
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: this critical moment, Paganini's arrival in the European metropolis placed
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: an obstacle in the way of the realization of his hopes,
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: and the old German professor wisely postponed his pupil's debut.
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: At first, he had simply smiled the wild enthusiasm, the
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: laudatory hymns sung about the Genoese violinist, and the almost
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: superstitious awe with which his name was pronounced. But very
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: soon Paganini's name became a burning iron in the hearts
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: of both the artists, and a threatening phantom in the
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: mind of Klaus. A few days more, and they shuddered
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: at the very mention of their great rival, whose success
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: became with every night more unprecedented. The first series of
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: concerts was over, but neither Klaus nor Franz had as
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: yet had an opportunity of hearing him and of judging
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: for themselves. So great and so beyond their means was
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: the charge for admission, and so small the hope of
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: getting a free pass from a brother artist justly regarded
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: as the meanest of men and monetary transactions, that they
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: had to wait for a chance, as did so many others.
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: But the day came when neither Master nor pupil could
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: control their impatience any longer. So they pawned their watches
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: and with the proceeds bought two modest seats. Who can
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: describe the enthusiasm the triumphs of this famous and at
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: the same time fatal night. The audience was frantic. Men wept,
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: and women screamed and fainted, while both Klaus and Stenio
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: sat looking paler than two ghosts. At the first touch
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: of Paganini's magic beau, both Franz and Samuel felt as
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: if the icy hand of death had touched them, carried
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: away by an irresistible enthusiasm, which turned into a violent,
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: unearthly mental torture. They dared neither look into each other's
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: faces nor exchange one word during the whole performance. At midnight,
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: while the chosen delegates of the musical societies and the
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: Conservatory of Paris unhitched the horses and dragged the carriage
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: of the Grand Artist home in triumph, the two Germans
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: returned to their modest lodging, and it was a pitiful
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: sight to see them. Mournful and desperate. They placed themselves
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: in their usual seats at the fire corner, and neither
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: for a while opened his mouth. Samuel at last exclaimed
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: Franz pale as death itself. Samuel, it remains for us now,
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: but to die? Do you hear me? We are worthless.
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: We were two madmen to have ever hoped that any
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: one in this world would ever rival him. The name
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: of Paganini stuck in his throat, as in utter despair,
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: he fell into his arm chair. The old professor's wrinkles
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: suddenly became purple, his little greenish eyes gleamed phosphorescently. As
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: bending toward his pupil, he whispered to him in hoarse,
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: unbroken tones. Nine nine, thou art wrong, my friends, I
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: have taught thee, and thou hast learned all of the
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: great art that a simple mortal and a Christian by
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: baptism can learn from another simple mortal. Am I to blame,
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: because these accursed Italians, in order to reign unequaled in
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: the domain of art, have recourse to Satan and the
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: diabolical effects of black magic. Franz turned his eyes upon
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: his old master. There was a sinister light burning in
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: those glittering orbs, a light telling plainly that to secure
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: such a power, he too would not scruple to sell himself,
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: body and soul to the evil one. But he said
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: not a word, and, turning his eyes from his old
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: master's face, gazed dreamily at the dying embers, the same
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: long forgotten incoherent dreams, which, after seeming such realities to
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: him in his younger days, had been given up entirely
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: and had gradually faded from his mind. Now crowded back
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: into it with the same force and vividness as of old,
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: the grimacing shadows of Ixion, Sisyphus, and Tantalus resurrected and
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: stood before him, saying what matters hell in which thou
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: believest not, And even if hell there be, it is
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: the hell described by the old Greeks, not that of
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: the modern Bigots, a locality full of conscious shadows, to
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: whom thou canst be a second Orpheus. Franz felt that
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: he was going mad, and turning instinctively, he looked his
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: old master once more right in the face. Then his
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: blood shot eye evaded the gaze of Klaus. Whether Samuel
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: understood the terrible state of mind of his pupil, or
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: whether he wanted to draw him out, to make him
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: speak and thus to divert his thoughts, must remain as
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: hypothetical to the reader as it is to the writer.
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: Whatever may have been in his mind. The German enthusiast
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: went on, speaking with a feigned calmness. Franz, my dear boy,
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: I tell you that the art of the accursed Italian
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: is not natural, that it is due neither to study
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: nor to genius. It never was acquired in the usual
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: natural way. You need not stare at me in that
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: wild manner, for what I say is in the mouth
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: of millions of people. Listen to what I now tell
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: you and try to understand you have heard the strange
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: tale whispered about the famous Tartini. He died one fine
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: Sabbath night, strangled by his familiar demon, who had taught
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: him how to endow his violin with a human voice
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: by shutting up in it by means of incantations the
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: soul of a young virgin. Paganini did more in order
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: to endow his instrument with the faculty of omitting human
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: sounds such as sobs, despairing cries, supplications, moans of love,
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: and fury, in short, the most heartrending notes of the
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: human voice. Paganini became the murderer not only of his
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: wife and his mistress, but also of a friend who
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: was more tenderly attached to him than any other being
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: on this earth. He then made the four chords of
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: his magic violin out of the intestines of his last victim.
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: This is the secret of his enchanting talent, of that
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: overpowering melody, that combination of sounds which you will never
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: be able to master. Unless the old man could not
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: finish the sentence, he staggered back before the fiendish look
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: of his pupil, and covered his face with his hands.
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: Franz was breathing heavily, and his eyes had an expression
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: which reminded claups of those of a hyena. His pallor
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: was cadaverous. For some time, he could not speak, but
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: only gasped for breath. At last, he slowly muttered, are
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: you in earnest? I am as I hope to help you?
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: And and do you really believe that had I only
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: the means of obtaining human intestines for strings, I could rival?
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: Paganini asked Franz. After a moment's pause, and casting down
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: his eyes, the old German unveiled his face, and, with
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: a strange look of determination upon it, softly answered, human
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: attestines alone are not sufficient for a purpose. They must
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: have belonged to some one who had loved us well
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: with an unselfish holy love. Tartini endowed his violin with
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: the life of a virgin, but that virgin had died
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: of unrequited love for him. The fiendish artist had prepared
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: beforehand a tube in which he managed to catch her
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: last breath as she expired, pronouncing his beloved name, and
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: he then transferred this breath to his violin. As to Paganini,
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: I have just told you his tale. It was with
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: the consent of his victim, though, that he murdered him
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: to get possession of his intestines. Oh, for the power
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: of the human voice, Samuel went on, after a brief pause.
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: What can equal the eloquence the magic spell of the
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: human voice? Do you think, my poor boy, I would
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: not have taught you this great, this final secret, were
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: it not that it throws one right into the clutches
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: of him who must remain unnamed at night, he added,
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: with a sudden return to the superstitions of his youth.
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: Franz did not answer, but with a calmness awful to behold,
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: he left his place, took down his violin from the
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: wall where it was hanging, and with one powerful grasp
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: of the cords, he tore them out and flung them
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: into the fire. Samuel suppressed a cry of horror. The
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: chords were hissing upon the coals, where among the blazing
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: logs they wriggled and curled like so many living snakes.
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: By the witches of Thessaly and the dark arts of Circi,
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: he exclaimed, with foaming mouth and his eyes burning like coals.
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: By the furies of Hell and Pluto himself. I now
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: swear in thy presence, O Samuel, my master, never to
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: touch a violin again until I can string it with
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: four human chords. May I be a cursed forever and
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: ever if I do. He fell senseless on the floor
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: with a deep sob that ended like a funeral wail.
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: Old Samuel lifted him up as he would have lifted
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: a child, and carried him to his bed. Then he
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: sallied forth in search of a physician. Four. For several
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: days after this painful scene, Franz was very ill, ill
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: almost beyond recovery. The physician declared him to be suffering
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: from brain fever and said that the worst was to
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: be feared. For nine long days, the patient remained delirious,
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: and Klaus, who was nursing him night and day with
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: the solicitude of the tenderest mother, was horrified at the
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: work of his own hands. For the first time since
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: their acquaintance began, the old teacher, owing to the wild
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: ravings of his pupil, was able to penetrate into the
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: darkest corners of that weird, superstitious, cold and at the
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: same time passionate nature, and he trembled at what he discovered,
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: For he saw that which he had failed to perceive
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: before Franz as he was in reality and not as
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: he seemed to superficial observers. Music was the life of
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: the young man, and adulation was the air he breathed,
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: without which that life became a burden. From the chords
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: of his violin alone, Stenio drew his life and being,
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: but the applause of men and even of gods was
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: necessary to its support. He saw unveiled before his eyes
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: a genuine, artistic, earthly soul, with its divine counterpart totally absent,
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: a son of the muses, all fancy and brain poetry,
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: but without a heart. While listening to the ravings of
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: that delirious and unhinged fancy, Klaus felt as if he were,
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: for the first time in his long life, exploring a
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: marvelous and untraveled region, a human nature not of this world,
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: but of some incomplete planet. He saw all of this
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: and shuddered more than once. He asked himself whether it
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: would not be doing a kindness to his boy to
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: let him die before he returned to consciousness. But he
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: loved his pupil too well to dwell. For law on
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: such an idea, Franz had bewitched his truly artistic nature,
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: and now old Klaus felt as though their two lives
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: were inseparably linked together. That he could thus feel was
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: a revelation to the old man. So he decided to
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: save Franz, even at the expent of his own old
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: and as he thought useless life. The seventh day of
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: the illness brought on a most terrible crisis. For twenty
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: four hours, the patient never closed his eyes, nor remained
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: for a moment silent. He raved continuously during the whole time.
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: His visions were peculiar, and he minutely described each fantastic,
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: ghastly figures kept slowly swimming out of the penumbra of
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: his small dark room in regular and uninterrupted procession, and
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: he greeted each by name, as he might greet old acquaintances.
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: He referred to himself as Prometheus, bound to the rock
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: by four bands made of human intestines. At the foot
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: of the Caucasian mount the black waters of the river
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: Sticks were running. They had deserted Arcadia and were now
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: endeavoring to encircle within a sevenfold embrace the rock upon
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: which he was suffering. What'st thou know the name of
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: the Promethean rock old man? He roared into his adopted
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: father's ear. Listen, then its name is called Samuel Klaus. Yes, yes,
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: the German murmured, disconsolately. It is I who killed him.
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: While seeking to console the news of Paganini's magic arts
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: struck his fancy too vividly. Oh my poor poor boy.
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: Ha ha ha ha. The patient broke into a loud
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: and discordant laugh. Ay, poor old man, sayest thou so
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: so thou art of poor stuff? Anyhow? And what's look well?
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: Only when stretched upon a fine chromona violin, Klaus shuddered
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: but said nothing. He only bent over the poor maniac
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: and with a kiss upon his brow, a caress as
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: tender and as gentle as that of a doting mother,
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: he left the sick room for a few instants to
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: seek relief in his own garret. When he turned, the
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: ravings were following another channel. Franz was singing, trying to
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: imitate the sounds of a violin. Toward the evening of
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: that day, the delirium of the sick man became perfectly ghastly.
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: He saw spirits of fire clutching at his violin their
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: skeleton hands, from each finger of which grew a flaming claw.
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: Beckoned to Old Samuel, they approached and surrounded the old Master,
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: and were preparing to rip him open. Him the only
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: man on this earth who loves me with an unselfish,
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: holy love, and whose intestines can be of any good
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: at all. He went on, whispering with glaring eyes and
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: demon laugh. By the next morning, however, the fever had disappeared,
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: and by the end of the ninth day, Stinio had
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: left his bed, having no recollection of his illness, and
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: no suspicion that he had allowed Klaus to read his
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: inner thought. Nay, had he himself any knowledge that such
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: a horrible idea as the sacrifice of his old master
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: to his ambition had ever entered his mind. Hardly, the
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: only immediate result of his fatal illness was that, as
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: by reason of his vow his artistic passion could find
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: no issue, another passion awoke, which might avail to feed
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: his ambition and his insatiable fancy. He plunged headlong into
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: the study of the occult arts, of alchemy and of magic.
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: In the practice of magic, the young dreamer sought to
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: stifle the voice of his passionate longing for his as
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: he thought for ever lost violin. Weeks and months passed away,
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: and the conversation about Paganini was never resumed between the
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: master and the pupil, But a profound melancholy had taken
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: possession of Franz. The too hardly exchanged a word. The
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: violin hung mute, cordless, full of dust in its habitual place.
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: It was as the presence of a soulless corpse between them.
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: The young man had become gloomy and sarcastic, even avoiding
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: the mention of music. Once as his old professor, after
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: long hesitation, took out his own violin from its dust
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: covered case and prepared to play. Franz gave a convulsive
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: shit utter, but said nothing. At the first notes of
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: the beau, however, he glared like a madman, and, rushing
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: out of the house, remained for hours wandering in the streets.
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: Then Old Samuel, in his turn, threw his instrument down
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: and locked himself up in his room till the following morning.
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: One night, as Franz sat, looking particularly pale and gloomy,
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: Old Samuel suddenly jumped from his seat, and, after hopping
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: about the room in a magpie fashion, approached his pupil
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: and printed a fond kiss upon the young man's brow,
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: and squeaked at the top of his shrill voice, is
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: it not time to put an end to all of this? Whereupon,
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: starting from his usual lethargy, Franz echoed, as in a dream, yes,
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: it is time to put an end to this, upon
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: which the two separated and went to bed. On the
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: following morning, when Franz awoke, he was astonished not to
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: see his old teacher in his usual place to greet him,
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: but he had greatly altered during the last few months,
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: and he had first paid no attention to his absence,
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: unusual as it was, he dressed and went into the
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: adjoining room, a little parlor where they had their meals
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: in which separated their two bedrooms. The fire had not
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: been lighted since the embers had died out on the
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: previous night, and no sign was anywhere visible of the
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: professor's busy hand in his usual housekeeping duties. Greatly Puzzled
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: but in no way dismayed, Franz took his usual place
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: at the corner of the now cold fireplace and fell
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: into an aimless reverie. As he stretched himself in his
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: old arm chair, raising both his hands to clasp them
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: behind his head in a favorite posture of his, his
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: hand came into contact with something on a shelf at
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: his back. He knocked against a case and brought it
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: violently on the ground. It was Old Klaus's violin case
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: that came down to the floor with such a sudden
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: crash that the case opened and the violin fell out
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: of it, rolling to the feet of Franz, and then
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: the cords, striking against the brass fender, emitted a sound prolonged,
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: sad and mournful, as the sigh of an unrestful soul.
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: It seemed to fill the whole room and reverberated in
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: the head and the very heart of the young man.
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: The effect of that broken violin stream was magical. Samuel
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: cried Stenio, with his eyes starting from their sockets, and
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: an unknown terror suddenly taking possession of his whole being. Samuel,
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: what has happened, my good, my dear old master, He
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: called out, hastening to the professor's little room and throwing
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: the door violently open. No one answered. All was silent within.
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: He staggered back, frightened at the sound of his own voice,
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: so changed and hoarse, it seemed to him. At this
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: moment no reply came in response to his call. Naught
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: followed but a dead silence, that stillness which in the
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: domain of sounds usually denotes death. In the presence of
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: a corpse, as in the lugubrious stillness of a tomb,
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: such silence acquires a mysterious power which strikes the sensitive
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: soul with a nameless terror. The little room was dark,
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: and Franz hastened to open the shutters. Samuel was lying
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: on his bed, cold, stiff, and lifeless. At the sight
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: of the corpse, of him who had loved him so
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: well and had been to him more than a father,
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: Franz experienced a dreadful revulsion of feeling a terrible shock.
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: But the ambition of the fanatical artist got the better
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: of the despair of the man and smothered the feelings
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: of the latter. In a few seconds, a note bearing
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: his own name was conspicuously placed upon a table near
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: the corpse. With trembling hand, the violinist tore open the
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: envelope and read the following, My beloved son Franz, when
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: you read this, I shall have made the greatest sacrifice
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: that your best and only friend and teacher could have
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: accomplished for your fame. He who loved you most is
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: now but an inanimate lump of clay of your old teacher.
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: There now remains but a cloud of cold, organic matter.
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: I need not prompt you as to what you have
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: to do with it. Fear not, stupid press judices. It
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: is for your future fame that I have made an
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: offering of my body, and you would be guilty of
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: the blackest ingratitude were you now to render useless the sacrifice.
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: When you shall have replaced the chords upon your violin,
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: and these chords a portion of my own self under
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: your touch, it will acquire the power of that accursed sorcerer.
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: All the magic voices of Paganini's instrument. You will find
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: therein my voice, my sighs and groans, my song of welcome,
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: the prayerful sobs of my infinite and sorrow sympathy, my
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: love for you, and now my frowns. Fear nobody. Take
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: your instrument with you, and dog the steps of him
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: who filled our lives with bitterness and despair appear in
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: every arena where hitherto he has reigned without arrival, and
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: bravely throw the gauntlet of defiance in his face. Oh Franz, then,
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: only wilt now hear what a magic power the full
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: notes of unselfish love will issue forth from thy Vyolene.
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: Perchance with the last caressing touch of its chords, thou
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: wilt remember that they once formed a portion of thine
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: old teacher, who now embraces and blesses thee for the
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: last time. Samuel. Two burning tears sparkled in the eyes
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: of Franz, but they dried up instantly under the fiery
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: rush of passionate, hope, and pride. The two orbs of
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: the future magician artist riveted to the ghastly face of
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: the dead man, shone like the eyes of a demon.
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: Our pen refuses to describe that which took place on
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: that day after the legal inquiry was over, as another
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: note written with the view of satisfying the authorities, had
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: been prudently provided by the loving care of the old teacher.
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: The verdict was suicide from causes unknown. After this, the
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: coroner and the police retired, leaving the bereaved air alone.
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: In the death room, with the remains of that which
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: had once been a living man. Scarce a fortnight had
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: elapsed from that day ere the violin had been dusted
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: and four new stout strings had been stretched upon it.
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: Fran and dared not look at them. He tried to play,
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: but the bow trembled in his hand like a dagger
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: in the grasp of a novice brigand he then determined
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: not to try again until the portentous knight should arrive,
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: when he should have a chance of rivaling, nay of surpassing. Paganini.
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: The famous violinist, had meanwhile left Paris and was giving
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: a series of triumphant concerts at an old Flemish town
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: in Belgium. Five One night, as Paganini, surrounded by a
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: crowd of admirers, was sitting in the dining room of
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: the hotel at which he was staying, a visiting card
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: with a few words written on it in pencil, was
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: handed to him by a young man with wild and
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: staring eyes, fixing upon the intruder a look which few
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: persons could bear, but receiving back a glance as calm
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: and determined as his own, Paganini slightly bowed and then
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: dryly said, sir, it shall be as you desire, name
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: the knight I am at your service. On the following morning,
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: the whole town was startled by the appearance of bill
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: posted at the corner of every street and bearing the
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: strange notice on the night of Blank at the grand
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: theater of Blank and for the first time will appear
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: before the public. Franz Stenio, a German violinist, arrived purportedly
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: to throw down the gauntlet to the world famous Paganini
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: and to challenge him to a duel upon their violins.
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: He purposes to compete with the great virtuoso in the
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: execution of the most difficult of his compositions. The famous
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: Paganini has accepted the challenge. Franz Stenio will play in
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: competition with the unrivaled violinist, the celebrated Phantesie caprice of
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: the latter known as the Witches. The effect of the
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: notice was magical. Paganini, who amid his greatest triumphs, never
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: lost sight of a profitable speculation, doubled the usual price
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: of admission, but still the theater could not hold the
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: crowds that flocked to secure tickets for that memorable performance.
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: At last, the morning of the concert day dawned and
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: the duel was in every one's mouth. Franz Stenio, who
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: instead of sleeping, had passed the whole long hours of
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: the preceding midnight in walking up and down in his
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: room like an uncaged panther, had toward morning fallen on
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: his bed from mere physical exhaustion. Gradually he passed into
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: a deathlike in dreamless slumber. At the gloomy winter dawn,
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: he awoke, but finding it too early to rise, he
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: fell asleep again. And then he had a vivid dream,
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: so vivid, indeed, so lifelike, that from its terrible realism
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: he felt sure that it was a vision rather than
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: a dream. He had left his violin on a table
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: by his bedside, locked in its case, the key of
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: which never left him since he had strung it with
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: those terrible chords. He never let it out of his
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: sight for a moment. In accordance with his resolution, he
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: had not touched it since his first trial, and his
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: bow had never but once touched the human strings, for
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: he had since always practiced on another instrument. But now
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: in his sleep he saw himself looking at the locked
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: case something in it was attracting his attention, and he
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: found himself incapable of detaching his eyes from it. Suddenly
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: he saw the upper part of the case slowly rising,
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: and within the cheek thus produced, he perceived two small
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: phosphorescent green eyes, eyes but too familiar to him, fixing
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: themselves on his lovingly, almost beseechingly. Then a thin, shrill voice,
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: as if issuing from these ghastly orbs. The voice in
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: orbs of Samuel Klaus himself resounded in Stenio's horrified ear,
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: and he heard it say, Franz, my beloved boy, Franz,
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: I cannot no, I cannot separate myself from them, and
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: they twanged piteously inside the case. Franz stood speechless, horror bound.
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: He felt his blood actually freezing, and his hair moving
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: and standing erect on his head. It's but a dream,
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: an empty dream, he attempted to formulate in his mind.
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: I have tried my best, Frunchin, I have tried my
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: best to sever myself from these accursed strings without pulling
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: them to pieces. Pleaded the same shrill, familiar voice, wilt
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: thou help me to do so? Another twain, still more prolonged,
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: and dismal resounded within the case, now dragged about the
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: table in every direction by some interior power, like some living,
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: wriggling thing, the twains becoming sharper and more jerky with
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: every new pull. It was not for the first time
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: that Stenio heard those sounds. He had often remarked them before, indeed,
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: ever since, he had used his master's viscera as a
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: footstool for his own ambition. But on every occasion a
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: feeling of creeping horror had prevented him from investigating their cause,
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: and he had tried to assure himself that the sounds
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: were only a hallucination. But now he stood face to
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: face with the terrible fact. Whether in dream or in reality,
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: he knew not, nor did he care, since the hallucination,
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: if hallucination it were, was far more real and vivid
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: than any reality. He tried to speak to take a
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: step forward, but as often happens in nightmares, he could
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: neither utter a word nor move a finger. He felt
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: hopelessly paralyzed. The pulls and jerks were becoming more desperate
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: with each moment, and at last, something inside the case
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: snapped violently. The vision of his strativarius devoid of its
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: magical strings, flashed before his eyes, throwing him into a
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: cold sweat of mute and unspeakable terror. He made a
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: superhuman effort to rid himself of the incubus that held
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: him spell bound, but as the last supplicating whisper of
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: the invisible presence repeated, do oh, do help me to
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: cut myself off, Franz sprang to the case with one
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: bound like an enraged tiger defending its prey, and with
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: one frantic effort breaking the spell. Leave the violin alone,
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: you old fiend from hell, he cried in hoarse and
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: trembling tones. He violently shut down the self raising, and
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: while firmly pressing his left hand on it, he seized
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: with the right a piece of rosin from the table
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: and drew on the leather covered top the sign of
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: the six pointed star, the seal used by King Solomon
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: to bottle up the rebellious gins inside their prisons. A
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: wail like the howl of a she wolf moaning over
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: her dead little ones, came out of the violin case.
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: Thou art ungrateful, very ungrateful. My Franz sobbed the blubbering
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: spirit voice, but I forgive, for I still love thee well.
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: Yet thou canst not shut me in boy beyold And
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: instantly a grayish mist spread over in covered case and table,
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: and rising upward, formed itself first into an indistinct shape.
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: Then it began growing, And as it grew, Franz felt
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: himself gradually enfolded in cold and damp coils, slimy as
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: those of a huge He gave a terrible cry and awoke,
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: but strangely enough, not on his bed, but near the table,
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: just as he had dreamed, pressing the violin case desperately
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: with both his hands. It was but a dream after all,
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: he muttered, still terrified, but relieved of the load on
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: his heaving breast. With a tremendous effort, he composed himself
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: and unlocked the case to inspect the violin. He found
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: it covered with dust, but otherwise sound and in order,
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: and he suddenly felt himself as cool and as determined
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: as ever. Having dusted the instrument, he carefully rosined the bow,
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: tightened the strings, and tuned them. He even went so
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: far as to try upon it the first notes of
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: the witches, first cautiously and timidly, then using his bow
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: boldly and with full force. The sound of that loud,
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: solitary note, defiant as the war trumpet of a conqueror,
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: sweet and majestic as the touch of a seraph on
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: his golden harp, in the fancy of the faithful, thrilled
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: through the very soul of Franz. It revealed to him
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: a hitherto unsuspected potency in his bow, which ran on
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: in strains that filled the room with the richest swell
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: of melody unheard by the artist until that night, Commencing
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: in uninterrupted legato tones, his bow sang to him of sun,
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: bright hope, and beauty of moonlit nights, when the soft
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: and balmy stillness endowed every blade of grass, in all
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: things animate and inanimate, with a voice and a song
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: of love. For a few brief moments, it was a
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: torrent of melody, the harmony of which, tuned to soft woe,
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: was calculated to make mountains weep, had there been any
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: in the room, and to soothe even the inexorable powers
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: of Hell, the presence of which was undeniably felt in
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: this modest hotel room. Suddenly the solemn legato chant, contrary
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: to all laws of harmony quivered became Arpeggio's and ended
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: in shrill staccatos like the notes of a hyaena. Laugh.
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: The same creeping sensation of terror as he had before felt,
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: came over him, and Franz threw the bow away. He
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: had recognized the familiar laugh and would have no more
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: of it. Dressing, he locked the bedeviled violin securely in
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: its case, and taking it with him to the dining room,
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: determined to await quietly the hour of trial. Six, the
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: terrible hour of the struggle had come, and Stunio was
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: at his post, calm, resolute, almost smiling. The theater was
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: crowded to suffocation, and there was not even standing room
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: to be got for any amount of hard cash or favoritism.
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: The singular challenge had reached every quarter to which the
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: post could carry it, and gold flowed freely into Paganini's
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: unfathomable pockets to an extent almost satisfying even to his
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: insatiate and venal soul. It was arranged that Paganini should begin.
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: When he appeared upon the stage, the thick walls of
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: the theater shook to their foundations with the applause that
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: greeted him, he began an ended his famous composition The Witches,
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: amid a storm of cheers. The shouts of public enthusiasm
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: lasted so long that Franz began to think his turn
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: would never come. When at last Paganini, amid the roaring
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: applause of a frantic public, was allowed to retire behind
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: the scenes, his eye fell upon Stenio, who was tuning
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: his violin, and he felt amazed at the serene, calmness,
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: the air of assurance of the unknown German artist. When
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: Franz approached the footlights, he was received with icy coldness,
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: but for all that he did not feel in the
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: least disconcerted. He looked very pale, but his thin white
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: lips wore a scornful smile. As response to this dumb,
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: unwelcome he was sure of his triumph. At the first
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: notes of the prelude of the Witches, a thrill of
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: astonishment passed over the audience. It was Paganini's touch, and
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: it was something more some and they were the majority
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: thought that never, in his best moments of inspiration, had
• 54:58
  Speaker 1: the Italian artist himself, in executing that diabolical composition of his,
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: exhibited such an extraordinary diabolical power. Under the pressure of
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: the long muscular fingers of Franz, the chords shivered like
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: the palpitating intestines of a disemboweled victim. Under the vivisector's knife.
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: They moaned melodiously, like a dying child. The large blue
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: eye of the artist, fixed with a satanic expression upon
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: the sounding board, seemed to summon forth Orpheus himself from
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: the infernal regions. Rather than the musical notes supposed to
• 55:28
  Speaker 1: be generated in the depths of the violin, sounds seemed
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: to transform themselves into objective shapes, thickly and precipitately, gathering
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: as at the avocation of a mighty magician, and to
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: be whirling around him like a host of fantastic infernal figures,
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: dancing the witch's goat dance. In the empty depths of
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: the shadowy background of the stage Behind the artist, a
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: nameless phantasmagoria produced by the concussion of unearthly vibrations seemed
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: to form pictures of shameless orgies, of the voluptuous highs
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: of a real witch's sabbat. A collective hallucination took hold
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: of the public, panting for breath ghastly and trickling with
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: the icy perspiration of an inexpressible horror. They sat spellbound
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: and unable to break the spell of the music. By
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: the slightest motion. They experienced all the illicit, enervating delights
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: of the paradise of Mohammed that come into the disordered
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: fancy of an opium eating Mussulman, and felt at the
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: same time the abject terror, the agony of one who
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: struggles against an attack of delirium tremens. Many ladies shrieked aloud,
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: others fainted, and strong men gnashed their teeth in a
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: state of utter helplessness. Then came the finale, thundering uninterrupted
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: applause delayed its beginning, expanding the momentary pause to a
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: duration of almost a quarter of an hour. The Bravos
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: were furious, almost hysterical at last, when, after a profound
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: and last bow, Stenio, whose smile was as sardonic as
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: it was triumphant, lifted his bow to attack the famous finale.
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: His eye fell upon Paganini, who, calmly seated in the
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: manager's box, had been behind none in zealous applause, The
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: small and piercing black eyes of the Genoese artist were
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: riveted to the Strata varius in the hands of Franz,
• 57:13
  Speaker 1: but otherwise he seemed quite cool and unconcerned. His rival's
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: face troubled him for one short instant, but he regained
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: his self possession, and lifting once more his bow, drew
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: the first note. Then the public enthusiasm reached its acme,
• 57:28
  Speaker 1: and soon knew no bounds. The listeners heard and saw, indeed,
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: the witch's voices resounded in the air, and beyond all
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: the other voices, one voice was heard, discordant and unlike
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: too human sounds. It seemed of dogs, the bark of wolves,
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: the howl, the doleful screechings of the midnight owl, the
• 57:48
  Speaker 1: hiss of snakes, the hungry lion's roar, the sounds of
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: bellows beating on the shore, the groan of winds among
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: the leafy wood, and burst of thunder from the rending cloud.
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: Twas thee all these in one. The magic Beau was
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: drawing forth its last, quivering sounds, famous among prodigious musical feats,
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: imitating the precipitate flight of the witches before bright dawn
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: of the unholy women, saturated with the fumes of their
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: nocturnal saturnalia. When a strange thing came to pass on
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: stage without the slightest transition, the notes suddenly changed in
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: their aerial flight of ascension and descent. Their melody was
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: unexpectedly altered in character. The sounds became confused, scattered, disconnected,
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: and then, it seemed from the sounding board of the violin,
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: came out squeaking, jarring tones like those of a street punch,
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: screaming at the top of a senile voice. Art Thou satisfied, Franz,
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: my boy, have not I gloriously kept my promise? Eh?
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: The spell was broken, Though still unable to realize the
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: whole situation, those who heard the voice and the punchinello
• 58:58
  Speaker 1: like tones were freed, as by enchantment, from the terrible
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: charm under which they had been held. Loud roars of laughter,
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: mocking exclamations of half anger and half irritation were now
• 59:08
  Speaker 1: heard from every corner of the vast theater. The musicians
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: and the orchestra, with faces still blanched from weird emotion,
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: were now seen shaking with laughter, and the whole audience
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: rose like one man from their seats, unable yet to
• 59:20
  Speaker 1: solve the enigma. They felt, nevertheless too disgusted, too disposed
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: to laugh, to remain one moment longer in the building.
• 59:31
  Speaker 1: But suddenly the sea of moving heads and the stalls
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: in the pit became once more motionless and stood petrified,
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: as though struck by lightning. What all saw was terrible enough.
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: The handsome though wild face of the young artist suddenly aged,
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: and his graceful, erect figure bent down, as though under
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: the weight of years. But this was nothing to that
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: which some of the most sensitive clearly perceived. Franz Stinio's
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: person was now entirely enveloped in a semi transparent mist
• 59:59
  Speaker 1: cloud like, creeping with serpentine motion, and gradually tightening round
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: the living form, as though ready to engulf him. And
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: there were those also who discerned in this tall and
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: ominous pillar of smoke a clearly defined figure, a form
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: showing the unmistakable outlines of a grotesque and grinning but
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: terribly awful looking old man whose viscera were protruding, and
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: the ends of the intestines stretched on the violin. Within
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: this hazy, quivering veil, the violinist was then seen driving
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: his bow furiously across the human chords with the contortions
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: of a demoniac, as we see them represented on medieval
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: cathedral paintings. An indescribable panic swept over the audience, and,
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: breaking now for the last time through the spell which
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: had again bound them motionless, every living creature in the
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: theater made one mad rush towards the door. It was
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: like the sudden outburst of a dam, a human torrent,
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: roaring amid a shower of discordant notes, idiotic squeakings, prolonged
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 1: and whining moans, cacoffinous cries of frenzy, above which, like
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 1: the detonations of pistol shots, was heard the consecutive bursting
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 1: of the four strings stretched upon the sound board of
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: that bewitched violin. When the theater was emptied of the
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: last man of the audience, the terrified manager rushed on
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: the stage in search of the unfortunate performer. He was
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 1: found dead and already stiff behind the footlights, twisted up
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 1: into the most unnatural postures, with the catguts wound curiously
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: around his neck, and his violin shattered into a thousand fragments.
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: When it became publicly known that the unfortunate would be
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: rival of Niccolo Paganini had not left a cent to
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: pay for his funeral or his hotel bill. The Genoese,
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: his proverbial meanness, notwithstanding, settled the hotel bill and had
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 1: Porstinio buried at his own expense. He claimed, however, in
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: exchange the fragments of the Strativarius as a memento of
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: the strange event. End of section six, end of Nightmare
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: Tales by Helena P. Blavatsky