alien, and she was warmly welcomed by
her French audiences. "Even amid the loud applause with which the crowd
greeted her appearance on the stage," says a French writer, "it was easy
to distinguish the respect which was entertained for the virtuous lady,
the devoted wife and mother."

Before her acceptance of the offer to go to America, in 1852, she
appeared in successive engagements at London, Vienna, and Berlin, where
her reception was of the most satisfying nature both to the artist and
the woman. On her arrival in New York, on September 19th, she commenced
a series of concerts with Salvi and Signo-ra Blangini. At New York,
Boston, Philadelphia, and the larger cities of the South, she quickly
established herself as one of the greatest favorites who had ever sung
in this country, in spite of the fact that people had hardly recovered
from the Lind mania which had swept the country like wildfire, a fact
apt to provoke petulant comparisons. Her pecuniary returns from her
American tour were very great, and she was enabled to buy a chateau and
domain in Germany, a home which she was unfortunately destined never to
enjoy.

In New Orleans, in 1854, she entered into an engagement with M. Masson,
director of opera in the city of Mexico, to sing for a fixed period
of two months, with the privilege of three months longer. This was
the closing appearance in opera, as she contemplated, for the task of
reinstating her family fortunes was almost done. Fate fulfilled her
expectations with a malign sarcasm; for while her agent, M. Ullman,
was absent in Europe gathering a company, Mme. Sontag was seized
with cholera and died in a few hours, on June 17, 1854. Such was the
lamentable end of one of the noblest women that ever adorned the
lyric stage. Her funeral was a magnificent one, in presence of a great
concourse of people, including the diplomatic corps. The service was
celebrated by the orchestras of the two Italian theatres; the nuns of
St. Francis sang the cantata; the prayer to the Virgin was intoned by
the German Philharmonic Society, who also sang Lindpainter's chorus,
"Ne m'oubliez pa "; and the leading Mexican poet, M. Pantaleon Tovar,
declaimed a beautiful tribute in sonorous Spanish verse. The body was
taken to Germany and buried in the abbey of Makenstern, in Lausitz.

THE END.

End of Project Gutenberg's Great Singers, First Series, by George T. Ferris

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