The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1900-02-02

cTER a ohnele CO. CINCINNATI
| The manager was absent, and heard
| the bell ring for the second act. Holding
the diamond in my hand, l fastened to
my seat.
The unknown singer entered again.
She was if possible tinge paler than be-
| fore. She wore gloves this time, and her
| lips were not so cruelty red. She sang,
| and, We gods, what a yoicei Her voice
SCARED, spread, fused with other invisible
voices; it rang generously and murmured
divinely in magnificent power and har-
| mony-a voice all fire. a voice all soul.
I trembled; the audience quivered.
I Still that strange being stood in the same
| position; still did her great, luminous
| eyes gaze continually upward. She SEEM
| ed not to heed her fellow artists. She
| would glide by them like vision, light,
ethereal, graceful. No one heard her
| walk.
Again the curtain went down. Again
| the delighted audience cried out in a
| delirium of joy.
1 Immediately sought Cassella's apart
ments as before, bat they were empty,
| and l returned to listen to the animated
| discussions among the audience.
| "Cassella is eclipsed," they said. 1t
| seems that no one but Barzillai, the
tenor, had spoken to her. He told her Of
his wonder, his admiration, and she an
swered him in Milanese dialect, eve
shall meet again"
| The bell rang, and the curtain went up
slowly. The lights seemed dim, the at
mosphere murky; the heat was sitting,
but upon the entrance of the mysterious
singer a chill seemed to peryade every
one.
| The audience listened breathlessly, and
as l gazed upon her, charmed by her su-
| pernatural beauty, 1 noticed that from
one of her ears hung large, bright stone,
similar to the one / held in my hand.
| Scarcely had l seen it when she caught
my eye. She smiled-the only time.
ayerted my gaze. The music went on.
The scene where the unhappy Lucia,
after having been dragged to the altar by
| her heartless brother, realizes the full
| atrocity of his conduct, seemed to infiu-
ence the somber, spiritlike prima donna,
| for she reused herself at last and acted
| with the frenzy of passion-acted with
the sublimity of pathos and despair. She
was intense, superb, in the mad scene.
Her voice had sobs of anguish.
The eliminating point arrived, and the
pains and pangs of Donizetti's master
piece vibratcd on her lips as they had
never done before. She gazed wildly,
| stupidity, about when she stopped. The
/ curtain went down slowly. The house
/ was in tears.
In half an hour all New Orleans
knew of the miraculous performance at
| the St. Charles theater. The last act was
II to irta I unin
appearing in it. Nothing occurred except
the sudden indspostion of the tenor,
| Barzillai, who was taken i'll at his hotel
and who, / afterward learned, died that
| night.
New Orleans outdoors, all fun, frolic
| and animation, could not comprehend the
story told and repeated in the cafes and
on the streets by members of the audi
ence. The reports were called exagger-
ated and the singers phenomenal voice a
myth.
| But no one could find her. She disap-
| peared as soon as the curtain was lower
| ed, and the manager told me confidential
ly that he was as nonplused as the audi
| ence.
| Full of conflicting thoughts, l walked
homeward and heard again through the
quiet streets far away from the riot and
| revel of the carnival the heavenly echo Of
that unutterably divine voice.
l walked on and passed across the St.
| Mary cemetery, near by my lodgings. 1t
| was late. The noise of the city's festivi-
i ties reached my ear from time to time
| family, but needed it not, wrapped us /
| was in my own thoughts.
Within a few steps Of my boarding
house, separated by a high wall from the
| end of the graveyard, there beneath a
| few cypress trees, in the full glare of the
moon, l saw n sight that made me shud-
der with an unknown fear. Impellcd by n
| power not my own, | advanced to the
| spot and remarked with establishment
| that tomb had been desecrated. The
| sod on either side had been strewn and
| scattered here and there; footprints were
| plainly visible, and to my horror l saw
| that the coffin was open. In it, wrapped
In faded yellow shroud, was q human
| form. l was about to go for assistance
| when my eye was attracted by a twin
| Killing near the head of the coffin. / stoop-
ed over and to my amazement saw dia-
mond earring in the lobe Of the corpsc's
| ear-the mate to the one l had found in
| Cassclla's dressing room.
| The moonlight, checkered by the tree
boughs, did not allow me to get a view of
the face, and trembling like leaf l drew
aside and lighted match. Approaching
l gazcd on the face before me. 1t was
that of the spectral songstress!
| Utterly bewildered, with haggard eyes
and quivcring knees. l grasped at tho
coffin lid and hurriedly replaced it over
the CHASTITY face. On the plate was ell
graved: Virginia Grazzani, Queen Of
Soprano. Died September, 1893. Requi-
escat In Pace"
A wild thrill of horror came over me,
and l fell senscless. For weeks l raved
in dclirium. When | had sufficiently re-
covered, left New Orleans and came
north, where have made my home ever
| since People were still talking about the
| mysterious prima donna and the famous
| representation of Lucia.
They have not understood. but be-
Geve in spirits.-Omaha World-Herald.