of her ambition,
she continued her instrumental and theoretical studies with unremitting
zeal for nearly four years. At the end of this period the recovery of
her voice occurred as abruptly as her loss of it had done.

A grand concert was to be given at the Court theatre, in which the
fourth act of "Robert le Diable" was to be a principal feature. No one
of the singers cared for the part of _Alice_, as it had but one solo,
and in the emergency Herr Berg thought of his unlucky young _eleve_,
Jenny Lind, who might be trusted with such a minor responsibility. The
girl meekly consented, though, when she appeared on the stage, she shook
with such evident trepidation and nervousness that her little remaining
power of voice threatened to be destroyed. Perhaps the passion and
anxiety under which she was laboring wrought the miracle. She sang the
aria allotted her with such power and precision, and the notes of
her voice burst forth with such beauty and fullness of tone, that the
audience were carried away with admiration. The recently despised young
vocalist became the heroine of the evening. Berg, the director of the
music, was amazed, and on the next day acquainted Jenny Lind that he
had selected her to undertake the _role_ of _Agatha_ in Weber's "Der
Freischutz."

This was the first character which had awakened our young singer's
artistic sympathies, and toward it her secret ambition had long set.
She studied with the labor of love, and all the Maytide of her young
enthusiasm poured itself into her impersonation of Weber's beautiful
creation. At the last rehearsal before performance, she sang with such
intense ardor and feeling that the members of the orchestra laid aside
their instruments and broke into the most cordial applause. "I saw her
at the evening representation," says Fredrika Bremer. "She was then
in the spring of life--fresh, bright, and serene as a morning in May;
perfect in form; her hands and her arms peculiarly graceful, and lovely
in her whole appearance. She seemed to move, speak, and sing without
effort or art. All was nature and harmony. Her singing was distinguished
especially by its purity and the power of soul which seemed to swell in
her tones. Her 'mezzo voice' was delightful. In the night-scene where
_Agatha_, seeing her lover coming, breathes out her joy in rapturous
song, our young singer, on turning from the window at the back of
the stage to the spectators again, was pale for joy; and in that