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    'Hop ! hop ! hop ! ' said the doctor , putting the cane betwixt his legs , he is off again ; he is prancing away . ' ' The catastrophe ! the catastrophe ! ' bawled the chapelmaster .

    € doubtless recollect , chapel-master , the last time that Clara sang before she lost her voice . I dare say you remember that it was Easter Sunday , and that you conducted that day the beautiful mass of Haydn in F major . Clara sang the solos in fine voice . You know I was amongst the tenors . At the moment when the " Sanctus" was commencing , I heard a slight movement

    behind me ; and , turning round , perceived , to my great astonishment , that Clara had left her place and was endeavouring to pass between the singers and the instrumentalists . cf Are you going ? " said I . — " I must go / * she answered ; " I have to sing at

    another church , and I want to go home to practise some duets , for we are invited to a party this evening ; will you accompany us ? we shall have some chorusses from the Messiah and the finale to the first act of Figaro . " ' As we spoke , the majestic harmony of the " Sanctus * burst forth , and the incense ascended in clouds to the cupola . " Don't you

    know / ' said I , that to leave church during the '' Sanctus" is a sin which never remains long unpunished ?"

    ' I was jesting , and I don ' t know how it was that my words took a solemn tone . Clara turned pale and left the church . From that moment she lost her voice . ' The doctor rested his chin upon his cane , but spoke not a syllable . ' How very odd P exclaimed the chapel-master .

    ' I thought no more , continued the dialogist , of what I had said to Clara , until I heard the doctor speaking of her illness ; and now a tale , which I read many years ago , in an old book , suddenly strikes me ; I will , if you please , relate it . ' ' Do relate it / said the chapel-master ; ' perhaps it will give me some idea on which to found a good comic ' opera . '

    c My dear chapel-master / said the doctor , if you can set to music dreams , presentiments , and magnetic ecstasies , it is all very well ; for doubtless his tale treats on those subjects . ' The enthusiast answered not the doctor , but settling himself comfortably in his arm-chair , commenced , in a grave voice , thus : — ' The tents of Isabella and Ferdinand of Arragon stretched ,

    almost numberless , before the walls of Granada —' ' In the name of Scheherazade ! ' exclaimed the doctor , ' here begins a story likely to last a blue moon ; and I am stopping here whilst my patients are lamenting . Gentlemen , your most obedient . ' The doctor went out ; but the chapel-master remained quietly sitting , and said , From your opening movement , I should ex-

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    84 The Sanctus .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1835, page 84, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2642/page/4/