of
cypress bung in its stead.

"I knew then what had happened. 'Antonia, alas! Antonia,' I cried in
uncontrollable anguish.

"Krespel was standing in front of me with his arms folded, like a man
turned to stone.

"'When she died,' he said, very solemnly, 'the sound-post of that fiddle
shivered to pieces with a grinding crash. The faithful thing could only
live with her and in her; it is lying with her in her grave.' I sank
into a chair overpowered; but Krespel began singing a merry ditty, in a
hoarse voice; and it was a truly awful sight to see him dancing, as he
sang it, upon one foot, while the crape on his hat kept flapping about
the fiddles on the wall; and I could not help giving a scream of horror
as this crape streamer, during one of his rapid gyrations, came wafting
over my face, for I felt as if the touch of it must infallibly infect
me, and drag me, too, down into the black, terrible abyss of madness.
But when I gave the scream, Krespel stopped dancing, and said, in his
singing voice:

"'What are you shrieking out like that for, little son? Did you see the
death angel, think you? people always do before the funeral.' Then,
walking into the middle of the floor, he drew the bow out of his belt,
and, raising it with both hands above his head, he broke it into
splinters. Then he laughed long and loud, and cried, 'The staff's
broken over me now, you think, little son, don't you?[2]
nothing of the kind, nothing of the kind!'

"'I'm free now--I'm free! I'm free!
And fiddles I'll make no more, boys!
And fiddles I'll make no more!
Hurray! hurray! hip-hip hurray!
Oh! fiddles I'll make no more.'"

"This he sang to a terribly merry tune, dancing about on one foot again
as he did so. Full of horror I was making for the door; but he held me
back, saying, quite quietly and soberly this time:

"'Don't go away, Master Student. Don't think that those outbreaks of my
pain, which is so terrible that I can scarcely bear it longer, mean
that I am mad. No, no, I am as sane as you are, and as calmly in my
senses. The only thing is, a little while ago I made myself a
nightshirt, and thought when I had it on I should be like Destiny, or
God.' He went on talking the wildest incoherence for a time, till he
sank down, completely exhausted. The old housekeeper came at my
summons, and I was thankful when I found myself outside in the open
air.

"I never doubted for an instant that Krespel had gone