of Russia and the various kings and princes of Germany.  The lovers of sights and the curious of the whole country round poured in to see the magnificence displayed.  In the company of some of my pupils, I made a pedestrian excursion to Erfurt, less to see the great ones of the earth than to see and admire the great ones of the French stage, Talma and Mars.  The Emperor had sent to Paris for his tragic performers, who played every evening in the classic works of Corneille and Racine.  I and my companions had hoped to have seen one such representation, but unfortunately I was informed that they took place for the sovereigns and their suites alone, and that everybody else was excluded from them.”  In this dilemma Spohr had recourse to stratagem.  He persuaded four musicians of the orchestra to vacate their places for a handsome consideration, and he and his pupils engaged to fill the duties.  But one of the substitutes must needs be a horn-player, and the four new players could only perform on violin and ’cello.  So there was nothing to be done but for Spohr to master the French horn at a day’s notice.  At the expense of swollen and painful lips, he managed this sufficiently to play the music required with ease and precision.  “Thus prepared,” he writes, “I and my pupils joined the other musicians, and, as each carried his instrument under his arm, we reached our place without opposition.  We found the saloon in which the theatre had been erected already brilliantly lit up and filled with the numerous suites of the sovereigns.  The seats for Napoleon and his guests were right behind the orchestra.  Shortly after, the most able of my pupils, to whom I had assigned the direction of the music, and under whose leadership I had placed myself as a new-fledged hornist, had tuned up the orchestra, the high personages made their appearance, and the overture began.  The orchestra, with their faces turned to the stage, stood in a long row, and each was strictly forbidden to turn around and look with curiosity at the sovereigns.  As I had received notice of this beforehand, I had provided myself secretly with a small looking-glass, by the help of which, as soon as the music was ended, I was enabled to obtain in succession a good view of those who directed the destinies of Europe.  Nevertheless, I was soon so engrossed with the magnificent acting of the tragic artists that I abandoned my mirror to my pupils, and directed my whole attention to the stage.  But at every succeeding entr’acte the pain of my lips increased, and at the close of the performance they had become so much swollen and blistered that in the evening I could scarcely eat any supper.  Even the next day, on my return to Gotha, my lips had a very negro-like appearance, and my young wife was not a little alarmed when she saw me.  But she was yet more nettled when I told her that it was from kissing to such excess the pretty Erfurt women.  When I had related, however, the history of my lessons on the horn, she laughed heartily at my expense.”