The plaudits of a Venetian audience are indicative of an extravagance of enthusiasm, which I do not recollect ever to have seen displayed in any of the French or English theatres. This was the case at the performances of the celebrated Paganini.* The astonishing execution of this unrivalled artist extorted such bursts of applause, as would in any other country have passed for the ravings of insanity. During some part of the performance, the silence was so profound that the faintest noise would have been easily perceptible. His audience seemed to hold their breath, lest a single note should escape them, but the loud and deafening cries of bravissimo Paganini! mixed with such exclamations as these, Sangue della Madonna! e uno diavolo! passionately vociferated and accompanied with a corresponding extravagance of gesticulation, were expressive of those delirious feelings of which only the most ardent and sensitive natures are susceptible.

  * Paganini executed the most difficult and exquisite pieces of musick with astonishing effect, upon a violin with only a single string. His uncommon attainments in musick were said to have been the effect of a long imprisonment, as he is represented to have been originally incapable of study or application. Having, as it was said, in a fit of jealousy assassinated his mistress, he was condemned to suffer the punishment of death. But this penalty being commuted for that of perpetual imprisonment, he devoted himself exclusively to his violin, and in the course of the first six years of his confinement, attained a skill on that instrument almost miraculous. He exhibited in the presence of many of the crowned heads of Europe, who all interested themselves in his behalf, and finally obtained his release. He now travels from one extremity of Italy to the other, assembling wherever he exhibits, a numerous audience, and squandering the tribute his talents commands with the same rapidity with which he collects it.