De faire égorger tout Paris;
Mais son coup a manqué
Grâce à nos canonniers.
Dansans la Carmagnole
Vive le son,
Vive le son,
Dansans la Carmagnole
Vive le son du canon”
rings in our ears.
Close beside this melancholy relic is the cheering cast of Brian Borroimbe’s harp, which was played on by that versatile King of Ireland during the eleventh century. A little farther—in an obscure corner—is the fiddle said to have belonged to James I. of England, and almost beneath it is a cast of the beautifully carved violin which is generally supposed to have been given to the Earl of Leicester by Queen Elizabeth. Facing this is Handel’s harpsichord, a plain, workmanlike little instrument of neutral tint, and, and—can it be? or—is it only the shadow of that pillar there that deceives us into imagining that we see a misty outlined figure near the keyboard?