had bestowed the knighthood upon him in '46 or '47, after
a performance of his "Christophe Colomb" at the Tuileries. When Auber
was told of the honour conferred, he said, "Napoleon is worse than the
fish with the ring of Polycrates; it did not take him eleven years to
bring it back." Alexandre Dumas opined that "it was a pearl hid in a
dunghill for a decade or more." When, towards the end of the Empire, a
street near the projected opera building was named after Auber, and when
he could see his bust on the facade of the building, the scaffolding of
which had been removed, Auber remarked that the Emperor had been good
enough to give him credit. "Now we are quits," he added, "for he was
David's debtor for eleven years. At any rate, I'll do my best to square
the account, so you need not order any hat-bands until '79." When '79
came, he had been in his tomb for nearly eight years.

I wrote just now that Felicien David composed very slowly. But for this
defect, if it was one, Verdi would have never put his name to the score
of "Aida." The musical encyclopedias will tell you that Signor
Ghislanzoni is the author of the libretto, and that the khedive applied
to Signor Verdi for an opera on an Egyptian subject. The first part of
that statement is utterly untrue, the other part is but partially true.
Signor Ghislanzoni is at best but the adapter in verse and translator of
the libretto. The original in prose is by M. Camille du Locle, founded
on the scenario supplied by Mariette-Bey, whom Ismail-Pasha had given
_carte blanche_ with regard to the music and words. Mariette-Bey
intended from the very first to apply to a French playwright, when one
night, being belated at Memphis in the Serapeum, and unable to return on
foot, he all at once remembered an old Egyptian legend. Next day he
committed the scenario of it to paper, showed it to the khedive, and ten
copies of it were printed in Alexandria. One of these was sent to M. du
Locle, who developed the whole in prose.

M. du Locle had also been authorized to find a French composer, but it
is very certain that Mariette-Bey had in his mind's eye the composer of
"Le Desert," though he may not have expressly said so. At any rate, M.
du Locle applied to David, who refused, although the "retaining fee" was
fifty thousand francs. It was because he could not comply with the first
and foremost condition, to have the score ready in six months at the
latest. Then Wagner was thought of. It is mo