ecessary leisure in which to compose.

The "Harold" music was now finished and Berlioz advertised both this
and the Symphonie Fantastique for a concert at the Conservatoire,
December 16, 1838. Paganini was present, and declared he had never
been so moved by music before. He dragged the composer back on the
platform, where some of the musicians still lingered, and there knelt
and kissed his hand. The next day he sent Berlioz a check for twenty
thousand francs.

Berlioz and his wife, two of the most highly strung individuals to be
found anywhere, were bound to have plenty of storm and stress in their
daily life. And so it came about that a separation, at least for a
time, seemed advisable. Berlioz made every provision in his power
for her comfort, and then started out on various tours to make his
compositions known. Concerts were given in Stuttgart, Heckingen,
Weimar, Leipsic, and in Dresden two, both very successful. Others took
place in Brunswick, Hamburg, Berlin, Hanover, finishing at Darmstadt,
where the Grand Duke insisted not only on the composer taking the full
receipts for the concert, but, in addition, refused to let him pay any
of the expenses.

And now back in Paris, at the treadmill of writing again. Berlioz had
the sort of mentality which could plan, and also execute, big musical
enterprises on a grand scale. It was proposed that he and Strauss
should give a couple of monster concerts in the Exhibition Building.
He got together a body of 1022 performers, all paid except the singers
from the lyric theaters, who volunteered to help for the love of
music.

It was a tremendous undertaking, and though an artistic success, the
exertion nearly finished Berlioz, who was sent south by his physician.
Resting on the shores of the Mediterranean, he afterwards gave
concerts in Marseilles, Lyons, and Lille and then traveled to Vienna.
He writes of this visit:

"My reception by all in Vienna--even by my fellow-plowmen, the
critics--was most cordial; they treated me as a man and a brother, for
which I am heartily grateful.

"After my third concert, there was a grand supper, at which my friends
presented me with a silver-gilt baton, and the Emperor sent me eleven
hundred francs, with the odd compliment: 'Tell Berlioz I was really
amused.'"

His way now led through Hungary. Performances were given in Pesth and
Prague, where he was royally entertained and given a silver cup.

On returning to Paris, he had much domest