CHAP. xvn.] TEE “ LAY OF TEF LAST MINSTREL.” 457
vided I would allow him to cross the stream, and
sing to my Tokrooris, in my praise, beneath a neighbouring
tree about fifty yards distant. He remounted
his mule with his violin, to ford the muddy stream,
and he descended the steep hank, followed by his
attendant on foot, who drove the unwilling mule.
Upon arrival at the brink of' the dirty brook, that
was about three feet deep, the mule positively -refused
to enter the water, and stood firm with its
fore-feet sunk deep in the mud. The attendant
attempted to push it on behind, at the same time
he gave it a sharp blow with his sheathed sword;
this changed the scene to the “ opera comique.” In
one instant, the mule gave so vigorous and unexpected
a kick into the bowels of the attendant, that
he fell upon his back, heels uppermost, while at
the same moment the minstrel, in his snow-white
garments, was precipitated head foremost into the
muddy brook, and for the moment disappearing, the
violin alone could be seen floating on the surface.
A second later, a wretched-looking object, covered
with slime and filth, emerged from the slough; this
was Paganini the second! who, after securing his
fiddle, that had stranded on a mud-bank, scrambled
up the steep slope, amidst the roars of laughter of
my people and of ourselves; while the perverse
mule, having turned harmony into discord, kicked
up its heels and galloped off, braying an ode in
praise of liberty, as the “ Lay of the last Minstrel.”
The discomfited fiddler was wiped down by my