A buzz of acknowledgment and recognition followed, and I resumed:--
"Lord E--------, you are aware, was a great musical amateur ; he was the leader of everything of that kind about town, and whenever he could prevail upon himself to open his house in Carlton Terrace, it was always to Lablache, and Kubini, and Marini, and the reat of them. Well, it was just at the period of this Christmas visit--over which I may remark, en passant, Lady Blanche's indisposition cast a shade of gloom--that, in making some alteration in the mansion, they discovered in a concealed press in the wall a mahogany case, on opening which were found the moth and worm eaten remains of a violin. A parchment document enclosed in a little scroll of brass, and which had escaped the ravages of time, explained that this was the instrument of the celebrated Giacomo Battesta Pizzicbetoni, the greatest violinist that ever lived,--the composer of 'II Diavolo e la sua Moglia' and the 'Balia di Paradise,' and many other great works, with which you are all familiar."
The company chorused assent, and I continued: "The party had somehow not gone off well; the accustomed spirit aud animation of the scene were wanting. Perhaps Lady Blanche's illness had some share in this; in any case, every one seemed low aud out of sorts, and the pleasant people talked of taking leave, when his Royal Highness proposed, by way of doing something, that they should have a raffle for this wonderful fiddle, of which, though only seen by the host and another, every one was talking.
"Even this much of stir was hailed with enthusiasm, the secrecy and mystery increasing the interest to a high degree.
The tickets were two guineas each ; and Lord E--------, dying to possess 'a real Pizzichetoni,' took twenty of them. The number was limited to a hundred; but such was the judicious management of those who directed the proceedings that the shares were at a 'high premium' on the day of drawing, his Royal Highness actually buying up several at five guineas apiece. The excitement, too, was immense ; encyclopedias were ransacked for histories of the violin, and its great professors and proficients. The 'Conversations Lexicon' opened of itself at the letter P., and Pizzichetoni's name turned up in every corner and on every theme, fifty times a day. What a time I have heard that was! nothing talked of but bow-action, shifting, bridging, double fingering, and the like, from morning to night. Lord E-------- became, in consequence of this run about a favorite subject, a personage of more than ordinary importance; instead of being deemed, what he was commonly called at the clubs, the Great 'Borassus,' he was listened to with interest and attention; and, in fact, from the extent of his knowledge of the subject, and his acquaintance with every detail of its history, each felt that to his Lordship ought by right to fall the fortunate ticket.