oming back to the place
again."

The friends were of one mind in the opinion that there is no
possibility of imagining anything more marvellous or out of the common
than that which comes before us in actual life, of its own accord.

"I am wonderfully delighted," said Cyprian, "that it chances to be in
my power to add to your two oddities a third character, of whom I was
told a short time ago by a well-known violinist, whom we all of us know
very well. This third character of mine is none other than the Baron
von B----, a man who lived in Berlin about the years 1789 and 1790, and
was acknowledged to be one of the most extraordinary phenomenons ever
met with in the world of music. For the sake of greater vividness, I
will tell you the tale in the first person, as if I were the violinist
concerned in it, and I hope my worthy Serapion brother Theodore won't
take it amiss that I encroach, on this occasion, into his peculiar
province.

"At the time when the Baron was living in Berlin," the violinist said,
"I was a very young fellow, scarcely sixteen, and absorbed in the
most zealous study of my instrument, to which I was devoted with all
the powers and faculties of my body and soul. My worthy master,
Concert-Meister Haak, who was excessively strict with me, was much
content with my progress. He lauded the finish of my bowing, the
correctness of my intonation, and he allowed me to play in the
orchestra of the opera, and even in the King's chamber-concerts. On
those occasions I often heard Haak talking with young Duport, with
Ritter, and other great artists belonging to the orchestra, about the
musical evenings which Baron von B---- was in the habit of having in
his house. Such was the research and the taste connected with those
evenings that the King himself often deigned to take part in them.
Mention was made of magnificent works of the old, nearly forgotten
masters, which were nowhere else to be heard than at the Baron's, who,
as regarded music for stringed instruments, possessed, probably,
the most complete collection from the most ancient times down to
the present day, in existence. Then they spoke of the marvellous
hospitality which the Baron extended to artists, and they were all
unanimous in concluding that he was the most bright and shining star
which had ever risen in the musical horizon of Berlin.

"All this excited my curiosity, and made my teeth water; and all the
more that, during these conversations, the art