ll murdered by the Elector Frederick,
in--What was that?--Didn't you see something like a blue flame yonder?"

"Well, and what then; you know these people have a hundred contrivances
for stage purposes----"

"Ach Gott! that's true; but I wish I was out again, in the Mohren Gasse;
I'm only a poor sausage maker, and one needn't be brave for my trade."

"Come, come, take courage; here comes the Herr Director;" and with that
he entered with two candles in large gilt candlesticks.

"Now, friend," said he, "where will you sit? My advice is, the
orchestra; take a place near the middle, behind the leader's bench, and
you'll be out of the draught of wind. Stauf, do you hold the candles,
and sit in the 'pupitre.' You'll excuse my lighting the foot lights,
won't you?--well, what do you say to a great coat; you feel it cold--I
see you do."

"If not too much trouble----"

"Not at all--don't speak of it;" and with that he slipped be-hind the
flats, and returned in an instant with a huge fur mantle of mock sable.
"I wear that in 'Otto von Bohmen,'" said he proudly; "and it always
produces an immense effect. It is in that same 'peltzer' I stab the
king, in the fourth act; do you remember where he says, (it is at the
chess table,)--'Check to the Queen;' then I reply, 'Zum Koenig, selbst.'
and run him through."

"Gott bewahr!" piously ejaculated Stauf, who seemed quite beyond all
chance of distinguishing fiction from reality.

"You'll have to wait ten or twenty minutes, I fear," said the Director.
"Der Catinka can't be found, and Der Ungedroht has just washed his
doublet, and can't appear till if s dry; but we'll give you the
Krfihwinkel in good style. You shall be content; and now I must go dress
too."

"He is a strange carl," said Stauf, as he sat up on a tall bench, like
an office stool; "but I wish from my soul it was over!"

I can't say I did not participate in the wish, notwithstanding a certain
curiosity to have a peep at the rest of the company. I had seen, in my
day, some droll exhibitions in the dramatic way; but this, certainly, if
not the most amusing, was the very strangest of them all.

I remember at Corfu, where an Italian company came one winter, and gave
a series of operas; amongst others, "II Turco in Italia." The strength
of the corps did not, however, permit of their being equal to those
armies of Turks and Italians, who occasionally figure "en scene;" and
they were driven to ask assistance from the Comma