had bewitched her senses. "But let her appear," he said, "and you will see with what ardour she will rush into my arms." The prince thought this was extremely reasonable, and withdrew to be an unperceived witness of the interview: Gulpenhal appeared. The poor tailor, dazzled by the jewels and the magnificence of the dress she wore, hardly knew her. She, on the contrary, recognized him in a moment. She stopped, turned pale and then blushed once or twice; but that presence of mind which ladies are so famous for did not desert her. The prince who had been looking on, appeared. "Do you know this man?" he asked. “Do I know him?" replied the tender wife "I can never forget him. This is the robber I told your highness of, who meeting me on the road, robbed and stripped, and beat me cruelly, and then dragged me into the cemetery where your highness found me." Casem listened with horror. The blood seemed to freeze in his veins ; his eyes were fixed, his knees trembled, his hair stood on end, and his mouth was wide open, but he could not utter a word. All the lords in waiting, and indeed every body who was present were immediately convinced of his guilt, and the prince ordered him to be taken before a judge. The lady gave her evidence in a most satisfactory manner; Casem did not contradict it; why should he have done so, since life had no longer any charms for him? He was found guilty upon the clearest evidence, and was sentenced to be hanged. The procession had arrived at the foot of the gibbet; the cord was tied, poor Casem was about to be deprived of his character and his life together; and he would have been, but that by good luck, Aissa, the prophet, who had a habit of making his appearance at very critical moments, passed by. He immediately declared Casem's innocence, and said he was ready to prove it. It was well known in Samarcand that a lie had never issued from Aissa's lips; the execution was postponed, and Casem and the prophet, together with the crowd, who bore their disappointment as well as could have been expected, went immediately to the palace. Aissa explained matters shortly to the Sultan. Gulpenhal was sent for. As soon as her eyes met those of the prophet she fell dead at his feet; perhaps weighed down by a sense of her guilt, or because the life which the prophet had returned to her, was suddenly snatched away. Casem was loaded with honours and riches, and his wife's body was carried back to her old grave, which she never afterwards quitted. The dear husband felt himself released from his promise to mourn over her for nine days; and from that day to this, the husbands of Samarcand have never been known to require the aid of the prophet Aissa. THE SKETCH BOOK. Our readers may recollect that we adopted this head on account of the ready opportunity it affords of cccasionally embellishing the pages of the Parthenon with extracts from the works of eminent masters. We now resume it to introduce the following imitation of an etching by Rembrandt. We learn from the German papers that there is at present in Berlin, a boy, between four and five years old, who has manifested an extraordinary precosity of musical talent. Carl Anton Florian Eckert, the son of a Serjeant in the 2d Regiment of Fencible Guards, was born on the 7th of December, 1820. While in the cradle, the predilection of this remarkable child for music was striking, and passages in a Minor key affected him so much, as to make tears come into his eyes. When about a year and a quarter old, he listened to his father playing the air "Schöne Minka" with one hand, on an old harpsichord ; he immediately played it with both hands, employing the knuckles in aid of his short and feeble fingers. He continued afterwards to play every thing by the ear. He retains whatever he hears in his memory, and can tell at once whether an instrument is too high or too low for Concert pitch. It was soon observed that his ear was sufficiently delicate to enable him to name any note or chord which might be struck without his seeing it. He also transposes with the greatest facility into any key he pleases, and executes pieces of fancy extempore. A subscription has been opened to buy him a piano-forte, as he has got tired of the old harpsichord, and two able musi cians have undertaken to instruct him. SPOHR'S JESSONDA. JESSONDA, grosse Oper in drey Aufzügen, von Gehe; in Musik Gesetz von Louis Spohr. Leipzig, C. F. Peters. London, Boosey, Holles Street." This Opera would well deserve a detailed examination, but the specimen we give of the music is so extensive, that though two extra pages are added to the present Number, we can only have room for a few introductory lines. We must therefore confine ourselves to a brief notice of the story, which, as we have not the book of the author, M. Gehe, we have gleaned as well as we could from the scattered fragments of the text, which accompany the published music. The hero appears to be the celebrated Portuguese navigator, Tristan da Cunha, or, according to the common but erroneous orthography of the Opera, d'Acunha. In an expedition to the coast of India, Tristan has become enamoured of a native female of great beauty, named Jessonda. She is, however, secretly carried off by a party of Indians, and conveyed to a distant province, whence no tidings of her can be obtained. Tristan returns disconsolate to Europe; but some time after, at the head of another expedition, he makes a descent on a point of the Indian coast very remote from that which he had first visited. The Rajah of the country is dead, and his widow, in conformity with the Brahminical superstition, is called upon to perform the sacrifice of suttee, and to be burnt with the remains of her husband. She is conducted, in solemn procession, to a sacred fountain, for the performance of some religious rites, preparatory to the last awful ceremonies, when she is to ascend the funeral pile. Tristan, who with some of his officers is a spectator of this extraordinary scene, recognizes the victim to be his lost Jessonda. He rushes forward to rescue her from so horrible a fate, but the Indians remind him of the truce which he has just entered into, and which he has pledged his word of honour to observe inviolate. His friends, too, endeavour to persuade him to relinquish his hostile intentions until the expiration of the armistice; but while perplexed by the conflicting suggestions of love and honour, he is secretly informed of a plot, formed by the Indians for setting fire to the Portuguese ships. Thus released from his engagement, he storms the Indian town, enters it victoriously, and delivers Jessonda. The part of the music which we have selected consists of a military chorus and dance, performed by the followers of Tristan, in celebration of his second landing in India. The German words of the chorus are very trifling in themselves, but suitable enough to the occasion, and the character of the singers. They consist of mere joyous exclamations of somewhat the follow ing purport: How nobly spent the warrior's life When deeds of arms have won renown! To die enwreathed by glory's crown! What has been said of the originality and dramatic skill displayed in other theatrical compositions of Spohr, may, in a great measure, be with equal justice, applied to this piece. Here and there, indeed, some traces of heaviness are observable, but on the other hand, how beautiful, how appropriately expressive, and how naturally connected with the whole of the subject are the most of the melodies! The subjoined specimen occurs at the Commencement of the second act. |