The "Violin Notes," now first published, were written out that season, during the holidays, and he was experimenting on and developing the chinrest.
The following characteristic anecdotes were related by a Brooklyn gentleman who called on Mr. Colton to meet Ole Bull, and was shown to the door of the model workshop. He writes:-
I knocked, at first hesitatingly, lest I might disturb the quiet that reigned within, broken only by the tones of Ole Bull"s violin. Taking advantage of a pause, I knocked again, this time to be admitted by Mr. Colton, who forthwith presented me to the violinist. All my fear and embarra.s.sment as to my reception were at once expelled by the pleasant greeting. His countenance was lit up by that same genial smile so well known to us all.... He explained that Mr. Colton was at work upon his famous Gaspar da Salo, while he was practicing on his beautiful Nicholas Amati. He seemed in such capital spirits that I ventured to ply question upon question, and all were answered with a perfect grace and simplicity. On his asking whether I had attended his last concert at the Academy of Music in Brooklyn, I replied, regretting my own engagement to play at a _soiree musicale_ the same evening. "You play? What did you play at the soiree?" ""L"Elegie" by Ernst."
"What, do you play that? Here," handing me his precious violin, "you shall play what I could not hear that night, and I will play for you what you could not hear." With great caution and greater reluctance I took the fine Amati, and the studded diamonds seemed to laugh at me from the keys they adorned. I had not proceeded far when he suggested a different interpretation of one of the weird phrases of that composition. I yielded and tried to express his idea, but, failing completely, handed him the instrument, and with eagerness watched the movement and with better result. He then took the violin, straightened himself, and played the Paganini Concerto as I have never heard it played. He seemed completely lost to the surroundings. The very notes ring in my ears as I now think of that performance. Speaking of the German school of violinists, he objected to their heavy and coa.r.s.e style of interpretation, saying, "The German plays his violin conveniently; that is, he would not play the larghetto in _la_ of Mozart on the D and A strings, but use the E for the A when convenient and A for D, and thus spoil the most beautiful of melodies." When I asked who was his favorite composer, he quickly exclaimed: "Mozart, yes, Mozart, and more, he is the most difficult composer to interpret." I remonstrating gently, saying that I thought his melodies were easily written, as stated by Mozart himself, and more easily understood than a Beethoven composition, he replied warmly, "Just so; because so easy and graceful, the more noticeable are the breaks of coa.r.s.e interpreters, as, for instance, in their poor modulation in changing from one string to another." I must confess, his ill.u.s.tration on the violin corroborated his theories. Referring to Paganini, he said that it was next to impossible to play any one of his compositions as he played them; and apropos of the silly stories circulated throughout Europe during Paganini"s time, they were simply the products of the conspiring minds of Lafont and his musical friends, who but too keenly felt the superiority of the dark Italian. "I shall never forget," he continued, "how Habeneck, the musical director, told me of Paganini"s reception in Paris. When Paganini went to rehearsal for the first concert, he was received with great coolness by the orchestra who were to accompany him. The first violins especially showed their contempt for their rival by playing an _ensemble pizzicato_ movement for the left hand, as much as to say, You are not the only man that can do that. But Paganini"s quiet remark, "Gentlemen, you do not play in tune; you had better practice scales before attempting that," so completely upset them that they made no further efforts to discommode him. One of the tympani, however, persisted in beating out of time, which so exasperated Paganini that he shouted, "Wait, I"ll come there and make you play right," and started towards him; whereupon the fellow beat a hasty retreat, to the amus.e.m.e.nt of all as well as of Paganini himself."
Ole Bull once admiring the ability with which Malibran read music at sight, she challenged him, saying, "You cannot play anything, be it ever so intricate, but I can sing it after once hearing."
Ole Bull played a caprice full of technical difficulties, but she sang it correctly; and, said he, "I cannot, even at this day, after fortyfive or more years, understand how she did it." He played it and I confess it was a labyrinth of musical phrases to me. And thus the afternoon glided away, telling one anecdote after another. One which I am about to relate will show the goodness of his heart: "I was announced to play at Hartford, Connecticut.
Arriving late in the afternoon I hurried to a barbershop. While I was getting shaved, the bootblack, a colored boy, rattled off some lively tunes on a fiddle. When I praised him he seemed pleased, saying, "Yes, Mister, I can beat any man in Hartford."
Noticing how he worked and stretched to gain the high notes, I asked him if there were no other means of obtaining them. He gave me a look as much as to say, "What do you know about a fiddle any how?" adding that there was no other way. I took his fiddle, and ill.u.s.trated my suggestion by playing harmonics. The boy stood with openmouthed wonder, and I, returning the instrument, left the shop. On reaching the street above, I could not refrain from looking down through the window. There he sat scratching his head and then the violin, the very picture of perplexity, trying to solve the mystery of harmonics. I sent him a ticket to my concert.
After it was over I saw that negro boy standing in the aisle, battling with himself whether to come forward or not. I beckoned him, and with plaintive voice he said: "Mister, can"t you come down to the shop tomorrow to get shaved and show me those tricks?
I feel powerful bad!" I promised him I would, and I kept my word."
The summer of 1879 was one of the happiest ever spent by the artist in Norway. One memorable day was when a party of friends went down to the little hamlet Lofthus in the Hardanger, to be immortalized, as Ole Bull told the peasants, because the composer Grieg had chosen to stay there for months and to write some of his best works. They had now come to celebrate his birthday. No spot could be more enchanting, so wonderfully blended were the beautiful and the sublime in nature. The little study of one room, erected by the composer for perfect retirement, was perched half way up a rock and near the fjord. In the field above, the appletrees were in bloom about an old farmhouse, where the guests a.s.sembled. From the summit of the beetling cliffs not far away fell a beautiful waterfall, while the opposite mountain sh.o.r.e of the broad fjord, clothed with heavy forests of pine above and the feathery birch below, presented range after range of lofty peaks and domes, crowned by the great Folgefond with its eternal snow. The day was as perfect as friendship, music, and lovely surroundings could make it.
King Oscar and the young prince made a visit to Bergen that summer, and Ole Bull was proud of the escort of steamers, the crowds of honest, st.u.r.dy peasant faces, the refined but hearty welcome, and the imposing pageant which Bergen presented in greeting their sovereign. While the artist was standing on a height overlooking the harbor, the procession and bands discovered his presence as they moved along to take their position and welcome the ship on its entrance to the harbor with the royal guests; and each division of the long line halted in front below, the bands playing and the men cheering Ole Bull. This instant recognition and spontaneous expression of regard was so constantly given him by his countrymen that it deserves mention. He proudly said that day that not another city in Europe could furnish so royal an escort as the fleet of steamers selected from the shipping in the Bergen harbor. Certainly, none could have given a more beautiful or loyal welcome. On the king"s departure from Bergen, Ole Bull had, with the city authorities, the honor of accompanying their guests for one day along the coast. To the toast at dinner proposed by Ole Bull for the royal princes, in which, according to those present, he eloquently referred to the royal family and to the successive sovereigns whom he had personally known, the king responded by singing the three verses of Ole Bull"s "Saeterbesog."
But only too soon came the time for departure from his home. On the last day and evening every part of the island was visited. It was in truth a farewell, and it now seems as if the last lingering looks rested with more than wonted tenderness on the spot he so loved; for it was the last time his foot pressed the soil, as on his next return he was borne in the arms of others to his home. His feeling for that scene is best expressed by himself. He once wrote:-
I have suffered so much,-no one knows how much, but He whose everlasting, superhuman love you have to sustain you in everything n.o.ble and elevated.... How I am longing for Norway, for Lyso! If you only knew the beauty of the "Clostrum vallis lucida,"
as it was called in the year 1146, you would pine for it. I have never seen anything that attracts me so mysteriously; so grand, so sweet, so sad, so joyous! I cannot account for it. The atmosphere there has certainly a rare charm, and the woods, the ravines, and the lakes are so varied in expression; but the grand views from the mountains must be seen with caution, or they will overpower you; they make me feel thankful to G.o.d and weep in prayer for all enemies and friends.
On his return to the United States in the fall of 1879 it was decided to spend the winter quietly with family friends, and a residence with them was taken in Cambridge, Ma.s.s. It is pleasant to dwell upon the charming intercourse that made the months pa.s.s so swiftly, and two occasions may be mentioned here. The first was the celebration of Ole Bull"s seventieth birthday, which has been so gracefully recalled by Mr.
Appleton; and the other, which came soon after, was the seventythird anniversary of Mr. Longfellow"s birth, when he invited the artist with a few friends to dine and spend the evening with him. The beautiful presence of the poet was a benediction to those about him; and this, the last evening Ole Bull was with him, Mr. Longfellow, as it is now pleasant to recall, seemed especially to enjoy. A friend of the poet, who was present, sent to the violinist just as he was to leave Cambridge this sonnet, which was written while his playing for Mr. Longfellow was still fresh in her memory:
TO OLE BULL.
How full of music"s harmony and state Thy presence is, ere inspiration stirs!
As on thy Norseland mountains tower the firs, Light with Norse glory when the hour is late; But as when through their branches penetrate The winds, those gentle, mighty conquerors, Swelling their music all along the spurs, So breath of heaven thy form can agitate, Thy searching power can in a little s.p.a.ce Undo the door where wordless thoughts are pent.
Philosopher and poet, even these Expression of their dimmest secrets trace, As if their soul were in thine instrument, Unprisoned slowly and by sweet degrees.
CHARLOTTE FISKE BATES.
Among the valued letters written in answer to the birthday summons was this pleasant response from Mr. Whittier:-
OAKKNOLL, DANVERS, _2^{nd} Mo. 1, 1880_.
DEAR MRS. BULL,-I am extremely sorry that the state of my health will not permit me the great pleasure of calling on thee and thy gifted husband on the occasion of his seventieth birthday. I have a happy memory of meeting him some years ago and talking with him of his wonderful art. While it is a matter of regret to me that I know little of music, and can scarcely distinguish one tone from another, I am not insensible of "the concord of sweet sounds," and I know something of the delight of those who "carry music in their hearts." I would be glad to join with those who are able to testify in person their high regard for the great musician, who, as one of the rare interpreters of poetry and harmony, has made the world his debtor; and who brings to us from his native land its voices and melodies, the lapsing waves of its fjords, the stormsong of the wind, the rustic of the birch groves, the murmur of its pines and the laugh of children, and the low of cattle and song of milkmaids on its summer mountains.
Give him the best wishes of one who is two years his senior that, to use an Irish phrase, the years to come may only bring "more power to his elbows" and make him happy in making others happy.
Very truly thy friend, JOHN G. WHITTIER.
Mr. Thomas G. Appleton"s account of the birthday gathering is as follows:-
OLE BULL"S SEVENTIETH BIRTHDAY.
The date, February 5, 1880, is a very memorable one to many of us, for in some sense then we heard the swansong of the great Norwegian.
It was one of those impromptu _fetes_ which, when successful, s.n.a.t.c.h a grace beyond the reach of art. Such occasions have the freshness of a rose suddenly plucked, with the dew and the bloom which disappear if kept waiting too long. It was the seventieth birthday of Mr. Ole Bull, and soon after he left us for his native land, never to return.
There was a little domestic conspiracy shared in somewhat by outside friends to make this _fete_ a pleasant surprise to the object of it. The nearest intimates of Mr. Ole Bull were summoned secretly and in time to prepare their tributes of respect and affection, and the scene of this gathering had memories of its own, suitable, harmonious, and poetic. For Mr. Bull was then living at Elmwood, the home of our present amba.s.sador to London, Mr. J. R. Lowell. In his drawingroom, where pictures of J. R.
Stillman, Christopher Cranch, and other friends hung upon the paneled walls, there was an aroma of scholarship, of wit and fancy, in keeping with the old mansion, which shares with the residence of Mr. Longfellow an oldtime dignity, a colonial pomp, as if to emphasize the genius of the poets with the added charm of antiquity. Communicating with the drawingroom is Mr. Lowell"s study. It was those studywindows which gave the t.i.tle of one of his pleasantest books, and there indignation sharpened the shaft of satire which made the humor of the "Biglow Papers" a national event.
One by one in the fading twilight the friendly conspirators arrived. Mr. Bull was detained by unsuspected constraint in a neighboring family till the suitable moment for his appearance arrived. He could hardly have forgotten the date of so important an anniversary, yet in the fine simplicity of his nature one could see how unconscious he was of the delightful plot in which he was involved. When it broke upon him little by little it was beautiful to witness the mild surprise, the questioning astonishment, displaced by an affectionate ardor and cordial recognition of its significance. As the world knows, there is something fascinating, individual, and characteristic in the countenance of the great artist. Geniuses often, while most individual themselves, are yet the highest expression of national characteristics. Mr. Bull looked the mystic land to which he owes his birth. Seeing him, one better understood the Sagas which tell of the heroes who launched, a thousand years ago, their galleys over stormy seas to conquest. His smile, so sweet and genuine, lingered round his mouth, as the sunshine sweetens the northern valleys, while fancy could think it saw in his streaming locks of silver the icy crests above or the flickering of the pale aurora of the North. Among the presents of this birthday was a violin wholly composed of flowers, their harmonies, though silent, suggesting in a fresh way the melodies which lingered in the memory of all. A disk, also of flowers, displayed at its centre the word "skaal," the proper word for the occasion. There were aquarelles and heapedup baskets of flowers, and whatever suitable gift individual love prompted to bring. When the artist had received our salutes and handshakings, and smiles had warmed all with a common purpose, Ole Bull felt that he had but one thing to do, to reply to the spoken and silent messages of goodwill in the language he loved best,-the one best suited to the occasion. And, standing in our midst, his snowy locks falling forward across his bent and sympathetic face, he bade his violin speak for him. He played with his whole heart an answer, a swansong of melody, on which, as upon a great river, we were carried away into dreamland, into the Valhalla and the halls of Odin. His skill, the vigor and power of his bow arm, belied the seventy years they celebrated.
Time had left as iron that wonderful right arm which never could grow old. A distinguished artist answered the violin with a voice into which was gathered the responsive cordial enthusiasm of all, and with these two musical expressions Mr. Ole Bull"s _fete_ was accomplished. Supper and the tumult of chat, laughter, and content took off pleasantly the acute edge of excitement. Then later we were summoned away from the piano to the drawingroom, where a huge cake in frosted sugar displayed the name and age of the great artist. Amid much merriment it was cut and shared, each one eagerly hunting for the symbolic tiny golden violin, somewhere hid in its capacious flanks. When the little treasure was discovered it was found to have most suitably fallen to one of the oldest and dearest of friends, who was, perhaps, the nearest neighbor of them all in Cambridge. After the cake had been divided and the golden violin discovered, a venerable bottle of Tokay was produced, which Professor Horsford had brought home from his Austrian sojourn: this liqueurlike wine having been distributed in little gla.s.ses, Mr. Longfellow proposed the health and happiness of Ole Bull, which was drunk in a silence meaning more than words.
Thus ended a happy evening, a memorable birthday, sacred now as the last communion of love and music, between the poet of the North and that throng which could have been multiplied a hundred times over if all those who have held in dear regard the great artist could have found admittance to that little room.
In March and April Ole Bull appeared in a few concerts in the princ.i.p.al Eastern cities with Miss Thursby. His last appearance but one in New York was for the benefit of the _Herald_ Fund for the starving Irish, at the request of Mr. Edwin Booth, who planned and carried out most successfully a dramatic and musical entertainment. Good as was the cause, it was more for the sake of the originator of the plan that Ole Bull responded with pleasure. During that winter he had the opportunity of giving the Boston Philharmonic Society his a.s.sistance; and he also played for the Philharmonic a.s.sociation in Cambridge, where he was honored by an audience that might well inspire any artist to his best efforts.
Late in June, with a pleasant party of friends, Ole Bull sailed the last time for Europe. He had not been feeling well for a month before, but the physicians consulted a.s.sured him that a seatrip was all that he needed to bring relief. The first days out revived him somewhat, and no anxiety was felt; but later, what seemed a violent attack of seasickness, the first he had ever suffered, reduced his strength. At Liverpool he revived, and the physician thought a few days" rest would quite restore him, but more violent symptoms soon appeared, and great concern was felt as to his being able to bear the journey to Norway, on which he insisted when he found he was not improving. Dr. Moore, of Liverpool, accompanied him. The trip across the North Sea was finally accomplished, but at great risk, and when at last the little fjord steamer came alongside to bear the invalid to his home, a prayer of thanksgiving filled all hearts. As the steamer glided gently onward the restful calm brought a sweet sleep, and all the surroundings seemed to breathe a promise of health. As Ole Bull approached Lyso he wakened, and how earnestly, how gratefully he gazed on his beloved mountains in their calm majestic beauty at that early morning hour! After the first day of exhaustion the sufferer seemed to gain steadily, until a complete recovery was looked for. Those days were full of happiness and blessing.
Professor E. N. Horsford, a valued and dear friend of many years, made his first and longpromised visit to Norway that summer. His description of the island and of the artist"s homecoming was written shortly after.
He says:-
I first saw Lyso in the twilight of Norwegian midsummer. It was from the steamer Domino, on my voyage across the North Sea from Hull, by way of Stavanger, to Bergen. The island may have been seven or eight miles away. Its irregular domes of dusky green were but dimly outlined upon the bank of wooded mountains beyond. It was too late to see clearly. Distant objects had begun to look weird, and the sky was shadowy. We were approaching the region of long twilights-the kingdom of the midnight sun; besides, the eyes were fatigued with the endless succession of unfamiliar forms. All day we had been sailing along inhospitable sh.o.r.es, and among rocky islands, scantily covered with vegetation. Now and then, in less exposed situations, fishing hamlets with sunny red roofs had come in sight; we had taken in review the openings into narrow fjords with opposing cliffs, and repeated collections of runic columns, with the commanding monument to Harold Haarf.a.ger, the first king of Norway. All these were in the foreground, while in the distant eastern horizon, spread upon the tableland and covering the lofty mountain range, was the majestic glacier of the Folgefond. These had challenged attention, and in their novelty, or picturesqueness, or grandeur, had fascinated us; but the spot about which the abiding interest centred only came into view when it was too late to more than make out its general position in the Bjorne Fjord at the foot of the Lyshorn. Soon after crossing the Bjorne Fjord, we swept past a column of ships of the inward bound Loffoden fishing fleet, stern and stately, with their antique prows and huge single square sails; and entered the crowd of countless lesser fishing vessels and iron steamers, and came to anchor in the harbor of Bergen.
My next view of the island was from the little steamboat landing near Lysekloster, the point on the mainland where one takes boat for Lyso. The island is scarcely more than half a mile from the wharf, and from other points on the mainland the distance is less.
We had driven from Bergen, some eighteen miles over a mountain road. Near the end, the way led down past the ruins of Lysekloster, a relic of the eleventh century, with its many remains of halls, refectory, chapterhouse, cloisters, rude stone coffins, and ruder inscriptions; past the fine old mansion of the Nicolaysons, whose estate shares the name of Lysekloster; past the antique chapel, where the gathering peasant women still wear a costume suggesting the monastery; down to the wharf where we were to cross the narrow Lysefjord to the home of Ole Bull. On our left, the high mainland stretched away in a southerly direction for a mile or more, and then turned sharply to the west beyond the island. On the right, the bare, rocky headlands jutted irregularly out for many miles toward the broad entrance to the Bjorne Fjord.
In a little bay under the slope of the Lyshorn, and a few rods from the wharf, giving a touch of surprising grace to the scene, were two stately swans. This was, we learned, a favorite resort, to which they made occasional excursions from their island home.
Immediately before us was Lyso, a series of granite domes of unequal height, half covered with birch and evergreen above, half carpeted with heather and moss below. No trees had been felled.
There was scarcely a trace of disturbed surface except in the narrow footpaths that led up from the sh.o.r.e. There were two little wharves, one near the boathouse, and low, red tileroofed cottage of HaldorLyso, the family servant; the other under the bluff on which stood the imposing mansion of the proprietor.
Of other structures there were none on the island. There were no beaches; there was no gravel. The rocky cliffs of Norway, here as elsewhere, and uniformly, rise almost with the sharpness of a wall from the sea. If gravel there be at the foot of the precipices, it must be far down in the water. Above, the pines and spruces and feathery birches start from fissures in the rocks, and soar away to great heights, giving to the island a fleecy air of indescribable beauty, and to the inner fjord the soft seclusion of an inland sea.
Across this sheet of water we were rowed by Haldor. In the distance, the American and Norwegian flags were waving their welcome. The deep green of the Norway pines gave the finest relief to the Hall. It stands upon a shelf. The first story leans against the mountain. The second story, and the Byzantine turret rising above the roof at the corner nearest the brow of the bluff, are clearly defined against the dark foliage.
A large, open tower, with winding stairs midway on the long side of the Hall, and rising from the ground far above the eaves, gives, with its richlydecorated panels, brilliant entrance to the reception room below and the music hall above. The apartment devoted to music, occupying the whole width of the house, with two thirds of its length, and the entire height of the second story to the roof, is finished throughout in unstained spruce. Rows of slender cl.u.s.tered and twisted columns rise to support an elaborate system of delicately and curiously wrought arches. The two concert grand pianos, embodying the inventions to which so much thought had been given, and from which the inventor hoped so much of advancement to the art, were here.
Turkish and Persian carpets and rugs were spread upon the floor or suspended between the columns. On one side, the whispers of the mountain pines came in through the open windows. Through the windows opposite you saw the fjord and the highlands beyond in undisturbed natural beauty. How fitting! In what keeping with the spirit that inspired the whole! Without and within, the perpetual fragrance of the balsam and birch. Everywhere quiet; no rattle of carts, no noise of hurrying trains, no hum of business. Everywhere repose, only to be invaded by human voices or music, or the soft lapping of the waves at the base of the cliff, or the soughing of the south wind among the swaying pines.
The shelf of rock on which the Hall stands is about fifty feet above the water, and some two or three hundred feet below the highest point on the island. Immediately around the narrow plot which spreads out on the sides and front is a dense border of roses and flowering and decorative shrubbery; and along the retreating slopes, here and there, room has been found for beds of strawberries and small groups of fruittrees. A quarter of a mile northward is the cottage of the servant who cares for the grounds and mans the yacht and rowboat. Of roadways, properly speaking, there are none; but bridle and footpaths penetrate every part of the six hundred acres of the island, winding in and out, and up and down, through the dells and glens, and by the caverns, for twenty miles or more in all, from the sh.o.r.es to the summits of the highest peaks. As there are no beaches, so there are no pebbles for walks, and the surface, a coating of broken sh.e.l.ls, is gathered from below the sea, at some distant point, from which they were brought in vessels. There are two little lakes nestling among the hills, and there are two or three little meadows, resting upon beds of peat, from which the product is annually gathered.
Standing on one of the higher peaks of the island, you look northward upon the Lyshorn, a bold, rocky cone, skirted with evergreens, and lifting its bare summit twelve hundred feet from the sea. At its foot are the undulating meadows and picturesque group of Lysekloster. On the west, the eye, glancing down the Bjorne Fjord, takes in the chain of lofty, dark islands beyond the channel pursued by the steamers approaching Bergen from the south.
On the east the mainland half embraces the island, approaching at the nearest point within a few rods of the bold cliffs that fall sheer into the sea. On the south lies the broad entrance to the Hardanger Fjord, the most extended, unique, and famed of the Norwegian water highways.
A few days after our arrival at the island, the great musician and sufferer was brought to his longedfor home. The tender care of thoughtful kindred, and the ever busy, lifelong friend of the family, Martha,[24] full of affectionate solicitude, had made every needed preparation. Gentle hands bore him on his couch from the steamer to the centre of the grand music hall. Faint and worn and weak, he was at last under his own roof. How gratefully fell on his waiting sense every familiar sound and form! Above and around him were the vistas of arches and cl.u.s.tered columns he had planned; a very Alhambra of fairy architecture. How often through these galleries, in happier days, he remembered, had so sweetly thrilled the strains of his favorite Gaspar da Salo! There was the organ that later, at his wish, yielded from the touch of love and anguish the sweet requiem of Mozart. The windows, distantly screened by oriental hangings, were open to the sympathetic trees, whose incense was so full of the a.s.sociations of youth and the days of strength. The moan of the burdened pines was hushed. Was it too much to hope there might be, in this spontaneous recognition and welcome, the breath of life to the prostrate friend? What air could be more grateful than one"s native air, washed with all the waves of the Atlantic, and surcharged with the balm of the evergreens of Norway? Did the fevered invalid need water to quench his thirst or to bathe his brow? The freshlyfallen dew could not be purer or more clear than the water that welled from Lysekilde, under the rock a few rods away.
[24] The housekeeper.
Was there a delicacy that affection or medical skill could suggest or devise for a reluctant and fastidious palate? Devotion and utmost culinary art had provided for its instant preparation.
Every attention that neverwearying love and forethought could secure were bestowed upon the dear sufferer. A few days in this restful home so far revived his strength that he was able to see the friends who had come to visit him; but as the physician saw ground for believing that, with absolute quiet, the lost health might be regained, the stay was not prolonged.
During the visit a most touching incident occurred, ill.u.s.trating the tender affection felt for Ole Bull throughout Norway. The annual encampment of militia troops at Ulven, a few miles from Lyso, broke up. The regiments, embarked upon a fleet of steamers, on their way to Bergen, the point for disbanding, necessarily pa.s.sed a short distance outside of Lyso. The fleet was conducted through the inner fjord, that opportunity might be given to show the sympathy and affection of the troops for the man whose music had so often entranced them. The foremost vessel of the fleet, with the military band, came slowly to rest immediately under the windows of the music hall. Ole Bull, too feeble to present himself, directed his great American flag with the Norwegian arms in the escutcheon (the gift of the New York Philharmonic Society) to be run out from the window overlooking the fjord. Immediately the band played with infinite sweetness an original composition of the master. This was followed by a superb ancient Norwegian air, to which Bjornson had written the words, and this was succeeded by the proud national hymn. At the close, dipping its flag, the head of the fleet silently moved away. The successive vessels slowly following, dipped their flags in turn, and pa.s.sed on around the island to resume their course.
Alas! that this fleet should have been the herald of the convoy of steamers that, a few weeks later, gave such mournful and impressive dignity to the sorrow of Norway, when the mortal remains of Ole Bull were borne by sea to their last restingplace in Bergen, where he was born.