 INTRODUCTION OF THE LAW STRATEVERIUS This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Clarica. THE LAW STRATEVERIUS by J. Mead Faulkner, 1895 THE AUTHOR John Mead Faulkner was a remarkable character, as he was not only a scholar and a writer, but a captain of industry as well. Born in 1858, the son of a clergyman in Wiltshire, he was educated at Marlborough and Hertford College, Oxford. Upon leaving the university, he became tutor to the sons of Sir Andrew Noble, then vice-chairman of the Armstrong Whitworth Company, and his ability so much impressed his employer that in 1885 he was offered a post in the firm. Without connections or influence in industrial circles, and solely by his intellect, he rose to be a director in 1901, and finally, in 1915, chairman of this enormous business. He was actually chairman during the important years, 1915 to 1920, and remained a director until 1926. His intellectual energy was so great that throughout his life he found time for scholarship as well as business. He traveled for his firm in Europe and South America, and in the intervals of negotiating with foreign governments, studied manuscripts wherever he found a library. His researches in the Vatican library were of special importance, and in connection with them he received a gold medal from the Pope. He was also decorated by the Italian, Turkish, and Japanese governments. His scholastic interests included archaeology, folklore, paleography, medieval history, architecture, and church music, and he was a collector of missiles. Towards the end of his life he was made an honorary fellow of Hertford College, Oxford, honorary reader in paleography to Durham University, and honorary librarian to the chapter library of Durham Cathedral, which he left one of the best cathedral libraries in Europe. He died at Durham in 1932. Apart from the lost Stradivarius, Folkner was the author of two other novels, The Nebulae Coat, 1903, also published in Penguin Books, and Moonfleet, 1898. He also wrote a history of Oxfordshire, handbooks to that country and to Berkshire, historical short stories, and some medievalist verse. Letter from Miss Sophia Maltravers to her nephew, Sir Edward Maltravers, then a student at Christchurch, Oxford, to Sir Edward Maltravers, Baronette, Thirteen Pondsfort Buildings, Bath, October 21st, 1867. My dear Edward, it was your late father's dying request that certain events which occurred in his last years should be communicated to you on your coming of age. I have reduced them to writing, partly from my own recollection, which is, alas, still too vivid, and partly with the aid of notes taken at the time of my brother's death. As you are now a full age, I submit the narrative to you. Much of it has necessarily been exceedingly painful to me to write, but at the same time I feel it is better that you should hear the truth from me than garbled stories from others who did not love your father as I did. Your loving aunt, Sophia Maltravers. A tale out of season is as music in mourning. Ecclesiasticus chapter 22 verse 6 End of introduction. CHAPTER ONE Your father, John Maltravers, was born in 1820 at Worth, and succeeded his father and mine, who died when we were still young children. John was sent to Eaton in due course, and in 1839, when he was nineteen years of age, it was determined that he should go to Oxford. It was intended at first to enter him at Christchurch, but Dr. Sarsdale, who visited us at Worth in the summer of 1839, persuaded Mr. Thorsby, our guardian, to send him instead to Magdalen Hall. Dr. Sarsdale was himself principal at that institution, and represented that John, who then exhibited some symptoms of delicacy, would meet with more personal attention under his care, than he could hope to do in so large a college as Christchurch. Mr. Thorsby, ever solicitous for his ward's welfare, readily waved other considerations in favour of an arrangement which he considered conducive to John's health, and he was accordingly matriculated at Magdalen Hall in the autumn of 1839. Dr. Sarsdale had not been unmindful of his promise to look after my brother, and had secured him an excellent first floor sitting-room with a bedroom adjoining, having an aspect towards new college lane. I shall pass over the first two years of my brother's residence at Oxford, because they have nothing to do with the present story. They were spent no doubt in the ordinary routine of work and recreation common in Oxford at that period. From his earliest boyhood he had been passionately devoted to music, and had attained a considerable proficiency on the violin. In the autumn term of 1841 he made the acquaintance of Mr. William Gaskell, a very talented student at New College, and also a more than tolerable musician. The practice of music was then very much less common at Oxford than it has since become, and there were none of those societies existing which now do so much to promote its study among undergraduates. It was therefore a cause of much gratification to the two young men, and it afterwards became a strong bond of friendship to discover that one was as devoted to the piano forte as was the other to the violin. Mr. Gaskell, though in easy circumstances, had not a piano forte in his rooms, and was pleased to use a fine instrument by Dalmaine that John had that term received as a birthday present from his guardian. From that time the two students were thrown much together, and in the autumn term of 1841 and Easter term of 1842 practiced a variety of music in John's rooms, he taking the violin part and Mr. Gaskell that for the piano forte. It was, I think, in March 1842 that John purchased for his rooms a piece of furniture which was destined afterwards to play no unimportant part in the story I am narrating. This was a very large and low wicker chair of a form then coming into fashion in Oxford, and since, I am told, become a familiar object of most college rooms. It was cushioned with a gaudy pattern of chints and bought for new of an upholsterer at the bottom of the high street. Mr. Gaskell was taken by his uncle to spend Easter in Rome, and obtaining special leave from his college to prolong his travels did not return to Oxford till three weeks of the summer term were passed and May was well advanced. So impatient was he to see his friend but he would not let even the first evening of his return pass without coming round to John's rooms. The two young men sat without lights until the night was late and Mr. Gaskell had much to narrate of his travels and spoke specially of the beautiful music which he had heard at Easter in the Roman churches. He had also had lessons on the piano from a celebrated professor of the Italian style but seemed to have been particularly delighted with the music of the seventeenth-century composers of whose works he had brought back some specimens set for piano and violin. It was past eleven o'clock when Mr. Gaskell left to return to New College but the night was unusually warm with a moon near the full and John sat for some time in a cushioned window-seed before the open sash, thinking over what he had heard about the music of Italy. Feeling still disinclined for sleep he lit a single candle and began to turn over some of the musical works which Mr. Gaskell had left on the table. His attention was especially attracted to an oblong book bound in soiled vellum with a coat of arms stamped in guilt upon the side. It was a manuscript copy of some early suites by Graziani for violin and harpsichord and was apparently written at Naples in the year 1744, many years after the death of that composer. Though the ink was yellow and faded the transcript had been accurately made and could be read with tolerable comfort by an advanced musician in spite of the antiquated notation. Perhaps by accident or perhaps by some mysterious direction which our minds are incapable of appreciating his eye was arrested by a suite of four movements with a basso continuo or figured base for the harpsichord. The other suites in the book were only distinguished by numbers but this one the composer had dignified with the name of Lario Pagita. Almost mechanically John put the book on his music stand, took his violin from its case and after a moment's tuning stood up and played the first movement The light of the single candle burning on the table was scarcely sufficient to illumine the page. The shadows hung in the creases of the leaves which had grown into those wavy folds sometimes observable in books made of thick paper and remaining long shut and it was with difficulty that he could read what he was playing. But he felt the strange impulse of the old world music urging him forward and did not even pause to light the candles which stood ready in their sconces on either side of the desk. The coranto was followed by a sarabanda and the sarabanda by a galiarda. My brother stood playing with his face turned to the window with the room and the large wicker chair of which I have spoken behind him. The galiarda began with a bold and lively air and as he played the opening bars he heard behind him a creaking of the wicker chair. The sound was a perfectly familiar one as of some person placing a hand on either arm of the chair preparatory to lowering himself into it followed by another as of the same person being leisurely seated. But for the notes of the violin all was silent and the creaking of the chair was strangely distinct. The illusion was so complete that my brother stopped playing suddenly and turned round expecting that some late friend of his had slipped in unawares being attracted by the sound of the violin or that Mr. Gaskell himself had returned. With the cessation of the music an absolute stillness fell upon all. The light of the single candle scarcely reached the darker corners of the room but fell directly on the wicker chair and showed it to be perfectly empty. Half amused, half vexed with himself at having without reason interrupted his music my brother returned to the galiarda but some impulse induced him to light the candles in the sconces which gave an illumination more adequate to the occasion. The galiarda and the last movement a minuetto were finished and John closed the book intending as it was now late to seek his bed. As he shut the pages a creaking of the wicker chair again and he heard distinctly sounds such as would be made by a person raising himself from a sitting posture. This time being less surprised he could more aptly consider the probable causes of such a circumstance and easily arrived at the conclusion that there must be in the wicker chair Osia's responsive to certain notes of the violin as panes of glass and church windows are observed to vibrate in sympathy with certain notes of the organ. But while this argument approved itself to his reason his imagination was but half convinced and he could not but be impressed with the fact that the second creaking of the chair had been coincident with his shutting the music-book and unconsciously pictured to himself some strange visitor waiting until the termination of the music and then taking his departure. His conjectures did not, however, either rob him of sleep or even disturb it with dreams and he woke the next morning with a cooler mind and one less inclined to fantastic imagination. If the strange episode of the previous evening had not entirely vanished from his mind it seemed at least fully accounted for by the acoustic explanation to which I have alluded above. Although he saw Mr. Gaskell in the course of the morning he did not think it necessary to mention to him so trivial a circumstance but made with him an appointment to sub-together in his own rooms that evening and to amuse themselves afterwards by assaying some of the Italian music. It was shortly after nine that night when supper being finished Mr. Gaskell seated himself at the piano and John tuned his violin. The evening was closing in. There had been heavy thunder-rain in the afternoon and the moist air hung now heavy and steaming while across it there throbbed the distant vibrations of the tenor bell at Christchurch. It was tolling the customary one hundred and one strokes which are rung every night in term time as a signal for closing the college gates. The two young men enjoyed themselves to some while playing first a suite by Cesti and then two early sonatas by Bononcini. Both of them were sufficiently expert musicians to make reading at sight a pleasure rather than an effort and Mr. Gaskell especially was well versed in the theory of music and in the correct rendering of the basso continuo. After the Bononcini Mr. Gaskell took up the oblong copy of the Gazziani and turning over its leaves proposed that they should play the same suite which John had performed by himself the previous evening. His selection was apparently perfectly fortuitous as my brother had purposely refrained any way to that piece of music. They played the coranto and the salabanda and in the singular fascination of the music John had entirely forgotten the episode of the previous evening when as the bold air of the Galiarda commenced he suddenly became aware of the same strange creaking of the wicked chair that he had noticed on the first occasion. The sound was identical and so exact was its resemblance to that of a person sitting down that he stared at the chair almost wondering that it still appeared empty. Beyond turning his head sharply for a moment to look round Mr. Gaskell took no notice of the sound and my brother, ashamed to portray any foolish interest or excitement continued the Galiarda with its repeat. At its conclusion Mr. Gaskell stopped before proceeding to the minuet and turning the stool on which he was sitting round towards the room observed, How very strange, Johnny, for these young men were on terms of sufficient intimacy to address each other in a familiar style. How very strange! I heard someone sit down in that chair when we began the Galiarda. I looked round quite expecting to see someone had come in. Did you hear nothing? It was only the chair creaking, my brother answered, feigning an indifference which he scarcely felt. Certain parts of the wicker work seemed to be in accord with musical notes and respond to them. Let us continue with the minuetto. Thus they finished the suite. Mr. Gaskell demanding a repetition of the Galiarda with the air of which he was much pleased. Not to play more that night, and Mr. Gaskell rose, blew out the sconces, shut the piano, and put the music aside. My brother has often assured me that he was quite prepared for what followed and had been almost expecting it. For as the books were put away a creaking of the wicked chair was audible exactly similar to that which he had heard when he stopped playing on the previous night. There was a moment's silence. The young men looked involuntarily at one another, and then Mr. Gaskell said, I cannot understand the creaking of that chair. It has never done so before with all the music we have played. I am perhaps imaginative and excited with the fine airs we have heard tonight, but I have an impression that I cannot dispel that something has been sitting listening to us all this time, and that now when the concert is ended it has got up and gone. There was a spirit of railery in his words, but his tone was not so light as it would ordinarily have been, and he was evidently ill at ease. Let us try the Galiarda again, said my brother. It is the vibration of the opening notes which affects the wicker work, and we shall see if the noise is repeated. But Mr. Gaskell excused himself from trying the experiment, and after some disultery conversation to which it was evident that neither was giving any serious attention, he took his leave and returned to new college. CHAPTER II I shall not weary you, my dear Edward, by recounting similar experiences which occurred on nearly every occasion that the young men met in the evenings for music. The repetition of the phenomenon accustomed them to expected. Both professed to be quite satisfied that it was to be attributed to acoustical affinities of vibration between the wicker work and certain of the piano wires, and indeed this seemed the only explanation possible. But at the same time the resemblance of the noises to those caused by a person sitting down in or rising from a chair was so marked that even their frequent recurrence never failed to make a strange impression on them. They failed to reluctance partly from a fear of being themselves laughed at, and partly despair from ridicular circumstance to which each perhaps, in spite of himself, attached some degree of importance. Experience soon convinced them that the first noise as of one sitting down never occurred unless the galiarda of the Ariopajita was played, and that this noise being once heard the second only followed it when they ceased playing for the evening. They met every night, sitting later with the lengthening summer evenings, and every night, as by some tacit understanding played the Ariopajita suite before parting. At the opening bars of the galiarda the creaking of the chair occurred spontaneously with the utmost regularity. They seldom spoke even to one another of the subject. But one night, when John was putting away his violin after a long evening's music without having played the Ariopajita, Mr. Gaskell, who had risen from the piano forte, sat down again as by a sudden impulse and said, Johnny, do not put away your violin yet. It is near twelve o'clock and I shall get shut out. But I cannot stop to-night without playing the galiarda. Suppose that all our theories of vibration and affinity are wrong. Suppose that there really comes here night by night some strange visitant to hear us, some poor creature whose heart is bound up in that tune. Would it not be unkind to send him away without the hearing of that piece which he seems most to relish? Let us not be ill-mannered, let us play the galiarda. They played it with more vigor and precision than usual, and the now customary sound of one taking his seat at once ensued. It was that night that my brother, looking steadfastly at the chair, saw, or thought he saw there, some slight obscuration, some penumbra, mist or subtle vapor which, as he gazed, seemed to struggle to take human form. He ceased playing for a moment and rubbed his eyes. But as he did so, all dimness vanished, and he saw the chair perfectly empty. The pianist stopped also at the cessation of the violin and asked what ailed him. It is only that my eyes were dim, he answered. We have had enough for tonight, said Mr. Gaskell. Let us stop. I shall be locked out. He shut the piano, and as he did so, the clock in New College Tower struck twelve. He left the room running, but was late enough at his college door to be reported, admonished with a fine against such late hours and confined for a week to college. Being out after midnight was considered, at that time, at least, a somewhat serious offence. Thus, for some days, the musical practice was compulsorily intermittent, but resumed on the first evening after Mr. Gaskell's term of confinement was expired. After they had performed several suites of Graziani and finished as usual with the Ariopagita, Mr. Gaskell sat for a time silent at the instrument, as though thinking with himself, and then said, I cannot say how deeply this old-fashioned music affects me. Some would try to persuade us that these suites of which the airs bear the names of different dancers were always written rather as a musical essay and for purposes of performance, than for persons to dance to, as their names would more naturally imply. But I think these critics are wrong, at least in some instances. It is to me impossible to believe at such a melody, for instance, as the Gija of Corelli, which we have played, was not written for actual purposes—one can almost hear the beat of feet upon the floor—and I imagine that in the time of Corelli, the practice of dancing, while not a wit, inferior, and grace, had more of the tributistic or beating character than is now esteemed consistent with the correct ballroom performance. The Galliarda II, which we play now so constantly, possesses a singular power of assisting the imagination to picture or reproduce such scenes as those which it no doubt formally enlivened. I know not why, but it is constantly identified in my mind with some revel which I have perhaps seen in a picture, where several couples are dancing a licentious measure in a long room lit by a number of silver sconces of the debased model common at the end of the seventeenth century. It is probably a reminiscence of my late excursion that gives to these dancers in my fancy the olive skin, dark hair and bright eyes of the Italian type, and their wear dresses of exceedingly rich fabric and elaborate design. Imagination is whimsical enough to paint for me the character of the room itself, as having an arcade of arches running down one side alone of the fantastic and paganized gothic of the Renaissance. At the end is a gallery or balcony for the musicians, which on its coved front has a florid coat of arms of foreign heraldry. The shield bears on a field oar, a cherub's head blowing on three lilies, a blazon I have no doubt seen somewhere in my travels, though I cannot recollect where. This scene, I say, is so nearly connected in my brain with a caliarda that scarcely are its first notes sounded ere it presents itself to my eyes with a vividness which increases every day. The couple's advance, set and recede using free and licentious gestures which my imagination should be ashamed to recall. Amongst so many foreign as fancy pictures I know not in the least why, the presence of a young man of an English type of face whose features, however, always elude my mind's attempt to fix them. I think that the opening subject of this caliarda is a superior composition to the rest of it, for it is only during the first sixteen bars that the vision of bygone revelry presents itself to me. With the last note of the sixteenth bar a veil is drawn suddenly across the scene and with a sense almost of some catastrophe it vanishes. This I attribute to the fact that the second subject must be inferior in conception to the first, and by some sense of incongruity destroys the fabric and imagination of the preceding one built up. My brother, though he had listened with interest to what Mr. Gaskell had said, did not reply and the subject was allowed to drop. End of Chapter 2 Chapter 3 of The Lost's Stradivarius This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please go to LibriVox.org. Reading by Mary Rodey. The Lost's Stradivarius by J. Meade Faulkner. Chapter 3 It was in the same summer of 1842 and near the middle of June that my brother John wrote inviting me to come to Oxford for the commemoration festivities. I had been spending some weeks with Mrs. Temple, a distant cousin of ours at their house of Royston in Derbyshire, and John was desirous that Mrs. Temple should come up to Oxford and chaperone her daughter Constance and myself at the balls and various other entertainments which take place at the close of the summer term. Owing to Royston being some 200 miles from Worthmeltravers our families had hitherto seen little of one another, but during my present visit I had learned to love Mrs. Temple, a lady of singular sweetness of disposition, and had contracted a devoted attachment to her daughter Constance. Constance's Temple was then 18 years of age, and to great beauty united such mental graces and excellent traits of character as must ever appear to reasoning persons more increasingly valuable than even the highest personal attractions. She was well-read and witty, and had been trained in those principles of true religion which she afterwards followed with devoted consistency in the self-sacrifice and resigned piety of her too short life. In person I may remind you, my dear Edward, that after her, ere you were of years to appreciate either her appearance or her qualities, she was tall with somewhat long and oval face with brown hair and eyes. Mrs. Temple readily accepted Sir John Maltravers' invitation. She had never seen Oxford herself, and was pleased to afford us the pleasure of so delightful an excursion. She had entered convenient rooms for us above the shop of a well-known print-seller in High Street, and we arrived in Oxford on Friday evening, June 18, 1842. I shall not dilate to you on the various commemoration festivities which have probably altered little since those days, and with which you are familiar. Suffice it to say that my entertainment, and that we enjoyed our visit as only youth with its keen sensibilities and un-cloid pleasures, can. I could not help observing that John was very much struck by the attractions of Miss Constance Temple, and that she for her part, while exhibiting no un-becoming forwardness, certainly betrayed no aversion to him. I was greatly pleased both with my own powers of observation which had enabled me to discover so important a fact, and also with the circumstance itself. To a romantic girl of nineteen it appeared high time that a brother of twenty-two should be at least preparing some matrimonial project, and my friend was so good and beautiful that it seemed impossible that I should ever obtain a more lovable sister, or my brother a better wife. Mrs. Temple could not refuse her sanction to such a scheme, for while their mental quality seemed eminently compatible, John was, in his own right, master of worth-mal-travers, and her daughter, Soul Aris of the Royston Estates. The commemoration festivities terminated on Wednesday night with a grand ball at the music room in the street. This was given by a lodge of university freemasons, and John was there with Mr. Gaskell whose acquaintance we had made with much gratification, both wearing blue silk scarves and small white aprons. They introduced us to many other of their friends, similarly adorned, and these important and mysterious insignia sat not amiss with their youthful figures and boyish faces. After a long and pleasurable program, it was decided that we should prolong our visit till the next evening, leaving Oxford at half-past ten o'clock at night, and driving to Didcot, there to join the mail for the west. We rose late the next morning, and spent the day rambling among the old colleges and gardens of the most beautiful of English universities. At seven o'clock we dined together for the last time at our lodgings in High Street, and my brother proposed that before parting we should enjoy the fine evening in the gardens of St. John's College. This was at once agreed to, and we proceeded to either John walking on in front with Constance and Mrs. Temple, and I following him. My companion explained that these gardens were esteemed the most beautiful in the university, but that under ordinary circumstances it was not permitted to strangers to walk there of an evening. Here he quoted some Latin about Aurum, Bermelios, and Resatellites, which I smilingly made as if I understood, and did indeed gather from it that John would admit us. It was a warm and very still night, without a moon, but with enough of fading light to show the outlines of the garden front. This long, low line of buildings, built in Charles I's reign, looked so exquisitely beautiful that I shall never forget it, though I have not since seen its oriel windows and creeper-covered walls. There was a very heavy dew on the broad lawn, and we walked at first only on the paths. No one spoke, for we were oppressed by the very beauty of the scene, and by the sadness which an imminent parting from friends and from so sweet a place combined to cause. John had been silent and depressed the whole day, nor did Mr. Gaskell himself seem inclined to conversation. Constance and my brother fell a little way behind, and Mr. Gaskell asked me to cross the lawn if I was not afraid of the dew, that I might see the garden front to better advantage from the corner. Mrs. Temple waited for us on the path, not wishing to wet her feet. As we stood silent and listening, Mr. Gaskell pointed out the beauties of the perspective as seen from his room, and we were fortunate in hearing the sweet descant of nightingales for which this garden has ever been famous. As we stood silent and listening, a candle was lit in a small orial at the end, and the light showing the tracery of the window added to the picturesqueness of the scene. Within an hour we were in a landow driving through the still warm lanes to did-caught. My hearting with my brother had been tender, and I am not sure that she was not in tears during some part, at least, of our drive, but I did not observe her closely, having my thoughts elsewhere. Though we were thus being carried every moment further from the sleeping city, where I believed that both our hearts were busy, I feel as if I had been a personal witness of incidents I am afraid, so often have I heard them from my brother's lips. The two young men, after parting with us in the high street, returned to their respective colleges. John reached his room shortly before eleven o'clock. He was at once sad and happy, sad at our departure, but happy in a newfound world of delight which his admiration for Constance was. He was, in fact, deeply in love with her, and the full flood of a hitherto unknown passion filled him with an emotion so overwhelming that his ordinary life seemed transfigured. He moved, as it were, in an ether superior to our mortal atmosphere, and a new region of high resolves and noble possibilities spread itself before his eyes. He slammed his heavy outside door, called an oak, to prevent anyone entering and flung himself into the window seat. Here he sat for a long time, the sash thrown up and his head outside, for he was excited and feverish. His mental exultation was so great and his thoughts of so absorbing an interest that he took no notice of him and only remembered afterwards that the scent of a syringebush was born up to him from a little garden-patch opposite, and that a bat had circled slowly up and down the lane until he heard the clock striking three. At the same time the faint light of dawn made itself felt almost imperceptibly. The classic statues on the roof of the schools began to look quite sky, and a faint glimmer to penetrate the darkened room. It glistened on the varnish top of his violin case lying on the table and on a jug of toast and water placed there by his college servant or scout every night before he left. He drank a glass of this mixture and was moving towards his bedroom door when a sudden thought struck in from its case, tuned it, and began to play the Areapagita Suite. He was conscious of that mental clearness and vigor which not infrequently comes with the dawn to those who have sat watching or reading through the night, and his thoughts were exalted by the effect which the first consciousness of a deep passion causes in imaginative minds. He had never played the Suite of Power, and the airs even without the piano part seemed fraught with a meaning hitherto unrealized. As he began the Gugliarda he heard the wicker chair-creek, but he had had his back towards it, and the sound was now too familiar to him to cause him even to look round. It was not until he was playing the repeat that he became aware of a new and overpowering sensation. At first it was a vague feeling, so often experienced by us all, of not being alone. He did not stop playing, and in a few seconds the impression of a presence in the room other than his own became so strong that he was actually afraid to look round. But in another moment he felt that at all hazards he must see what or who this presence was. Without stopping he partly turned and partly looked over his shoulder. The silver light of early morning was filling the room making the various objects appear of less bright color than usual, and giving to everything a pearl gray neutral tint. In this cold but clear light he saw seated in the wicker chair the figure of a man. In the first violent shock of so terrifying a discovery he could not appreciate such details as those of features, dress, or appearance. He was merely conscious that with him in a locked room of which he knew himself to be the only human inmate there sat something which bore a human form. He looked at it for a moment with a hope which he felt to be vain that it might vanish and prove a phantom of his excited imagination. But still it sat there. Then my brother put down his violin and he used to assure me that a horror overwhelmed him of an intensity which he had previously believed impossible. Whether the image which he saw was subjective or objective I cannot pretend to say you will be in a position to judge for yourself when you have finished this narrative. Our limited experience would lead us to believe that it was a phantom conjured up by some unusual condition of his own brain. But we are feigned to confess that there certainly do exist in nature phenomena such as baffle human reason. And it is possible that for some hidden purposes of providence permission may occasionally be granted to those who have passed from this life to assume again for a time the form of their earthly tabernacle. We must, I say, be content to suspend our judgment on such matters. But in this instance the subsequent course of events is very difficult to explain except on the supposition that there was then presented to my brother's view the actual bodily form of one long deceased. The dread which took possession of him was due, he has more than once told me when analyzing his feelings long afterwards, to two predominant causes. Firstly, he felt that mental dislocation which accompanies the sudden subversion of preconceived theories, the sudden alteration of long habit or even the occurrence of any circumstance beyond the walk of our daily experience. This I have observed myself in the perturbing effect which a sudden death, a grievous accident or in recent years the declaration of war has exercised upon all except the most lethargic or the most determined minds. Secondly, he experienced the profound self abasement or mental annihilation caused by near conception of a being of a superior order. In the presence of an existence wearing indeed the human form but of attributes widely different from and superior to his own he felt the combined reverence and revulsion which even the noblest wild animals exhibit when brought for the first time into face with man. The shock was so great that I feel persuaded it exerted an effect on him from which he never wholly recovered. After an interval which seemed to him interminable though it was only of a second's duration he turned his eyes again to the occupant of the wicker chair. His faculties had so far recovered from the first shock that it seemed to him to see that the figure was that of a man perhaps thirty-five years of age and still youthful in appearance. The face was long and oval the hair brown and brushed straight off an exceptionally high forehead. His complexion was very pale or bloodless. He was clean shaven and his finely cut mouth with compressed lips of a sneering smile. His general expression was unpleasing and from the first my brother felt as by intuition that there was present some malign and wicked influence. His eyes were not visible as he kept them cast down resting his head on his hand in the attitude of one listening. His face and even his dress so vividly upon John's mind that he never had any difficulty in recalling them to his imagination and he and I had afterwards an opportunity of verifying them in a remarkable manner. He wore a long cutaway coat of green cloth with an edge of gold embroidery and a white satin waistcoat figured with rose sprigs a full cravat of rich lace knee breeches of buff silk and stockings of the same. His shoes were of polished black leather with heavy silver buckles and his costume in general recalled that worn a century ago. As my brother gazed at him he got up putting his hands on the arms of the chair to raise himself and caused the creaking so often heard before. The hands forced themselves on my brother's notice. They were very white with long delicate fingers of a musician. He showed a considerable height and still keeping his eyes on the floor walked with an ordinary gate towards the end of the bookcase at the side of the room farthest from the window. He reached the bookcase and then John suddenly lost sight of him. The figure did not fade gradually but went out as it were like the flame of a suddenly extinguished candle. The room was now filled with the clear light of the summer morning. The whole vision had lasted but a few seconds but my brother knew that there was no possibility of his having been mistaken that the mystery of the creaking chair that he had seen the man who had come evening by evening for a month passed to listen to the rhythm of the gogliarda. Terribly disturbed he sat for some time half dreading and half expecting a return of the figure but all remained unchanged. He saw nothing nor did he dare to challenge its reappearance by playing again the gogliarda which seemed to have so strange an attraction for it. At last in the full sunlight of a late June morning at Oxford he heard the steps of early pedestrians on the pavement below his windows the cry of a milkman and other sounds which showed the world was awake it was after six o'clock and going to his bedroom he flung himself on the outside for an hour's troubled slumber. When his servant called him about eight o'clock my brother sent a note to Mr. Gaskell at New College begging him to come around to Magdalen Hall as soon as might be in the course of the morning. His summons was at once obeyed and Mr. Gaskell was with him before he had finished breakfast. My brother was still much agitated and at once told him what had happened the night before detailing the various circumstances with minuteness and not even concealing from him the sentiments which he entertained towards Miss Constance Temple. In narrating the appearance which he had seen in the chair his agitation was still so excessive that he had difficulty in controlling his voice. Mr. Gaskell heard him with much attention and did not at once reply and finished his narration. At length he said, I suppose many friends would think it right to effect even if they did not feel an incredulity as to what you have just told me. They might consider it more prudent to attempt to allay your distress by persuading you that what you have seen has no objective reality but is merely the phantasm of an excited imagination that had not been in love had not sat up all night and had not thus overtaxed your physical powers you would have seen no vision. I shall not argue thus for I am as certainly convinced as of the fact that we sit here that on all the nights when we have played the sweet called the aria pagita there has been someone listening to us and that you have at length been fortunate or unfortunate enough to see him. Do not say fortunate said my brother for I feel as though I shall never recover from last night's shock. That is likely enough, Mr. Gaskell answered, coolly, for as in the history of the race or individual increased culture and a finer mental susceptibility necessarily impaired the brute courage and powers of endurance which we note in savages so any supernatural visions such as you have seen must be purchased at the cost of physical reaction. From the first evening that we played this music and heard the noises mimicking so closely the sitting down and rising up of some person I have felt convinced that causes other than those which we usually call natural were at work and that we were very near the manifestation of some extraordinary phenomenon. I do not quite apprehend you meaning. I mean this he continued that this man or spirit of a man has been sitting here night after night and that we have not been able to see him because our minds are dull and obtuse. The exciting force of a strong passion such as that which you have confided to me combined with the power of fine music so exalted your mind that you became endowed as it were with a sixth sense and suddenly were unable to see that which had previously been invisible. To this sixth sense music gives I believe the key. We are at present only on the threshold of such a knowledge of that art as will enable us to use it eventually as the greatest of all humanizing and educational agents. Music will prove a ladder to the loftier regions of thought. Indeed I have long found for myself that I cannot attain to the highest range of my intellectual power except when hearing good music. All poets and most writers of prose will say that their thought is never so exalted their sense of beauty and proportion never so just as when they are listening either to the artificial music made by man or to some of the grander tones of nature such as the roar of a western ocean or the sighing of wind in a clump of furs. Though I have often felt on such occasions on the very verge of some high mental discovery and though a hand has been stretched forward as it were to rend a veil yet it has never been much saved me to see behind it. This you no doubt were allowed in a measure to do last night. You probably played the music with a deeper intuition than usual and this combined with the excitement under which you were already laboring raised you for a moment to the required pitch of mental exaltation. It is true, John said, that I never felt the melody so deeply as when I played it last night. Just so answered his friend and there is probably some link between this air and the history of the man whom you saw last night. Some fatal power in it which enables it to exert an attraction on him even after death. For we must remember that the influence of music though always powerful is not always for good. We can scarcely doubt that a certain forms of music tend to raise us above the sensuality of the animal or the more degrading passion we will gain and to transport us into the ether of higher thought so other forms are directly calculated to awaken in us luxurious emotions and to quit those sensual appetites which it is the business of a philosopher not indeed to annihilate or to be ashamed of but to keep rigidly in check. This possibility to reflect evil as well as good I have seen recognized and very aptly expressed in some beautiful verses by Mr. Kibble which I have just read. See, stranger, seize those witching notes the art of siren-quires hush the seductive voice that floats across the trembling wires. Music's ethereal power was given not to dissolve but to draw permethean beams from heaven to purge the dross away. They are fine lines said my brother but I do not see how you apply your argument to the present instance. I mean Mr. Gaskell answered that I have little doubt that the melody of this gogliarda has been connected in some manner with the life of the man you saw last night. It is not unlikely either that it was a favorite air of his whilst in the flesh or even that it was played by himself or others at the moment of some crisis in his history. It is possible that such connection may be due merely to the innocent pleasure the melody gave him in life but the nature of the music itself and a peculiar effect it has upon my own thoughts to believe that it was associated with some occasion when he either fell into great sin or when some evil fate perhaps even death itself overtook him. You will remember I have told you that this air calls up to my mind a certain scene of Italian revelry in which an Englishman takes part. It is true that I have never been able to fix his features in my mind nor even to say exactly how he was dressed. Yet now some instinct tells me that it is this very man whom you saw last night. It is not for us to attempt to pierce the mystery which veils from our eyes the secrets of an after-death existence but I can scarcely suppose that a spirit entirely at rest would feel so deeply the power of a certain melody as to be called back by it to his old haunts like a dog by his master's whistle. It is more probable that there is some evil history connected with the matter and this I think we ought to consider if it be possible to unravel. My brother ascending he continued When this man left you, Johnny did he walk to the door? No, he made for the side wall and when he reached the end of the bookcase I lost sight of him. Mr. Gaskell went to the bookcase and looked for a moment at the titles of the books as though expecting to see something in them to assist his inquiries but finding apparently no clue he said this is the last time we shall meet for three months or more let us play the gogliarda and see if there be any response. My brother at first would not hear of this showing a lively dread of challenging any reappearance of the figure he had seen. Indeed, he felt that such an event would probably fling him into a state of serious physical disorder. Mr. Gaskell, however, continued to press him assuring him that the fact of his now being no longer alone should largely allay any fear on his part and urging that this would be the last opportunity they would have of playing together for some months. At last being overborn my brother took his violin and Mr. Gaskell seated himself at the piano forte. John was very agitated and as he commenced the gogliarda his hands trembled so that he could scarcely play the air. Mr. Gaskell also exhibited some nervousness not performing with his customary correctness. But for the first time the charm failed. No noise accompanied the music nor did anything of an unusual character occur. They repeated the whole sweet but with similar result. Both were surprised but neither had any explanation to offer. My brother who had first read intensely a repetition of the vision was now almost disappointed that nothing had occurred so quickly does the mood of man change. After some further conversation the young men parted for the long vacation John returning to Worth Maltravers and Mr. Gaskell going to London where he was to pass a few days before he proceeded to his home in Westmoreland. End of Chapter 4 Chapter 5 of The Lost Strativarius by John Mead Faulkner This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Tamara Hamilton The Lost Strativarius by John Mead Faulkner Chapter 5 John spent nearly the whole of this summer vacation at Worth Maltravers. He had been anxious to pay a visit to Royston but the continued and serious illness of Mrs. Temple's sister had called her in Constance to Scotland where they remained until the death of their relative allowed them to return to Derbyshire in the late autumn. John and I had been brought up together from childhood. For a few days at Worth and after my dear mother's death when we were left quite alone the bonds of our love were naturally drawn still closer. Even after my brother went to Oxford at a time when most young men are anxious to enjoy a newfound liberty and to travel or to visit friends in their vacation John's ardent affection for me and for Worth Maltravers kept him at home and he was pleased on most occasions to make me the partner of his thoughts until 1942 was, I think, the happiest of our lives. In my case I know it was so and I think it was happy also for him for none could guess that the small clouds seen in the distance like a man's hand was afterwards to rise and darken all his later days. It was a summer of brilliant and continued sunshine. Many of the old people said that they could never recollect so fine a season and both fruit and crops were alike abundant. John hired a small cutter yacht in which he kept in our little harbour of Encombe and in which he and I made many excursions visiting Weymouth Lime Regis and other places of interest on the south coast. In this summer my brother confided to me two secrets. His love for Constance Temple which indeed was after all no secret and the history of the apparition which he had seen. This last filled me with inexpressible dread and distress. It seemed cruel and unnatural that any influence so dark and mysterious should thus intrude on our bright life and from the first I had an impression which I could not entirely shake off that any such appearance or converse of a disembodied spirit must pretend misfortune if not worse to him who saw or heard it. It never occurred to me to combat or to doubt the reality of the vision he believed that he had seen it and his conviction was enough to convince me. He had meant he said to tell no one and had given a promise to Mr. Gaskell to that effect but I think that he could not bear to keep such a matter in his own breast and within the first week of his return he made me his confidant. I remember, my dear Edward, the look everything wore on that sad night when he first told me what afterwards proved so terrible a secret. We had dined quite alone and he had been moody and depressed all the evening. It was a chilly night with some fret blowing up from the sea. The moon showed that blunted and deformed and the moisture in the air encircled her with a stormy-looking halo. We had stepped out of the dining-room windows onto the little terrace looking down towards Smedmore and Encombe. The glockest shrubs that grow in between the balusters were wet and dripping with the salt breath of the sea and we could hear the waves coming into the cove from the west. After standing a minute I felt chill and proposed that we should go back to the billiard room where a fire was lit on all except the warmest nights. John said, I want to tell you something, Sophie. And then we walked on to the old boat's summer house. There he told me everything. I cannot describe to you my feelings of anguish and horror when he told me of the appearance of the man. The interest of the tale was so absorbing to me that I took no note of time nor of the cold night air and it was only when it was all finished that I felt how deadly chill it had become. Let us go in, John, I said. I am cold and feel benumbed. But youth is hopeful and strong and in another week the impression had faded from our minds and we were enjoying the full glory of mid-summer weather which I think only those know who have watched the blue sea come rippling in at the foot of the white chalk cliffs of Dorset. I had felt a reluctance even so much as to hear the air of the gagliarda. And though he had spoken to me of the subject on more than one occasion my brother had never offered to play it to me. I knew that he had the copy of Graziani's sweets with him at Worth-Meltravers because he had told me that he had brought it from Oxford. But I had never seen the book and fancied that he kept it intentionally locked up. He did not however neglect the violin and during the summer mornings as I sat reading or working on the terrace I often heard him playing to himself in the library. Though he had never even given me any description of the melody of the gagliarda yet I felt certain that he not infrequently played it. I cannot say how it was but from the moment that I heard him one morning in the library performing an air set in a curiously low key it forced itself upon my attention and I knew as it were by instinct that it must be the gagliarda of the aereo pagida. He was using a sardino and playing it very softly but I was not mistaken. One wet afternoon in October only a week before the time of his leaving us to return to Oxford for the autumn term he walked into the drawing room where I was sitting and proposed that we should play some music together. To this I readily agreed. Though but a mediocre performer I have always taken much pleasure in the use of the piano forte and esteemed it an honour whenever he asked me to play with him since my powers as a musician were so very much inferior to his. After we had played several pieces he took up an oblong music book bound in white vellum placed it upon the desk of the piano forte and proposed that we should play a suite by Graziani. I knew that he meant the aereo pagida and bagged him at once not to ask me to play it. He rallied me lightly on my fears and said it would much please him to play it as he had not heard the piano forte part since he had left Oxford three months ago. I saw that he was eager to perform it and being loathed to disoblige so kind a brother during the last week of his stay at home I at length overcame my scruples and set out to play it. But I was so alarmed at the possibility of any evil consequences ensuing that when we commenced the gagliata I could scarcely find my notes. Nothing in any way unusual however occurred and being reassured by this and feeling an irresistible charm in the music I finished the suite with more appearance of ease. My brother however was I fear not satisfied with my performance and compared it very possibly with that of Mr. Gaskell to which it was necessarily much inferior both through weakness of execution and from my insufficient knowledge of the principles of the basso continuo. We stopped playing and John stood looking under the window across the sea where the sky was clearing low down under the clouds. The sun went down behind Portland in a fiery glow which cheered us after a long day's rain. I had taken the copy of Graziani's sweets off the desk and was holding it in my lap turning over the old foxed and yellow pages. As I closed it a streak of evening sunlight fell across the room soaked in guilt on the cover. It was much faded and would ordinarily have been hard to make out but the ray of strong light illumined it and in an instant I recognized the same shield which Mr. Gaskell had pictured to himself as hanging on the musician's gallery of his phantasmal dancing room. My brother had often recounted to me this effort of his friend's imagination and here I saw before me the same floored foreign blazin' a cherub's head blowing on three lilies on a gold field. This discovery was not only of interest but afforded me much actual relief for it accounted rationally for at least one item of the strange story. Mr. Gaskell had no doubt noticed at some time this shield stamped on the outside of the book and bearing the impression of it unconsciously in his mind had reproduced it in his imagined revels. I said as much to my brother and he was greatly interested and after examining the shield agreed that this was certainly a probable solution of that part of the mystery. On the 12th of October John returned to Oxford. End of Chapter 5 Chapter 6 of The Lost Strativarius by John Mead Faulkner This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Tamara Hamilton The Lost Strativarius The Lost Strativarius by John Mead Faulkner Chapter 6 My brother told me afterwards that more than once during the summer vacation he had seriously considered with himself the propriety of changing his rooms at Madeleine Hall. He had thought that it might thus be possible for him to get rid at once of the memory of the apparition and of the fear of any reappearance of it. He could either have moved into another set of rooms in the hall itself or else gone into lodgings in the town a usual proceeding, I am told for gentlemen near the end of their course at Oxford. Would to God that he had indeed done so. But with the supineness which has, I fear, my dear Edward, been too frequently a characteristic of our family he shrank from the trouble such a course would involve and the opening of the autumn term found him still in his old rooms. You will forgive me for entering here on a very brief description of your father's sitting-room. It is, I think, necessary for the proper understanding of the incidents that follow. It was not a large room, though probably the finest in the small buildings of Madeleine Hall, and paneled from floor to ceiling with oak which successive generations had obscured by numerous coats of paint. On one side were two windows having an aspect on to New College Lane and fitted with deep cushioned seats in the recesses. Outside these windows there were boxes of flowers, the brightness of which formed in the summer term in a pretty contrast to the gray and crumbling stone and afforded pleasure at once to the inmate and to passers-by. Along nearly the whole length of the wall opposite to the windows some tenet in years long past had had mahogany book-shelves placed reaching to a height of perhaps five feet from the floor. They were handsomely made in the style of the eighteenth century and pleased my brother's taste. He had always exhibited a partiality for books and the fine library at Worth Maltravers had no doubt contributed to foster his taste in that direction. At the time of which I write he had formed a small collection for himself at Oxford, paying particular attention to the bindings and acquiring many excellent specimens of that art, principally I think from Mr's Pain and Foss, the celebrated London booksellers. Towards the end of the autumn term having occasion one cold day to take down a volume of play-doh from his shelf he found to his surprise that the book was quite warm. A closer examination easily explained to him the reason, namely that the flu of a chimney passing behind one end of the bookcase, sensibly heated not only the wall itself but also the books in the shelves. Although he had been in his rooms now near three years, he had never before observed this fact, partly no doubt because the books in these shelves were seldom handled, being more for show as specimens of bindings than for practical use. Somewhat annoyed at this discovery, fearing less such a heat which in moderation is beneficial to books might through its excess warp the leather or otherwise injure the bindings. Mr. Gaskell was sitting with him at the time of the discovery and indeed it was for his use that my brother had taken down the volume of play-doh. He strongly advised that the bookcase should be moved and suggested that it would be better to place it across that end of the room where the piano forte then stood. And found that it would easily admit of removal, being in fact only the frame of a bookcase and showing at the back the painted paneling of the wall. Mr. Gaskell noted it as curious that all the shelves were fixed and immovable except one at the end which had been fitted with the ordinary arrangement allowing its position to be altered at will. My brother thought that the change would improve the appearance of his rooms besides being advantageous for the books and gave instructions to the college upholsterer the necessary work carried out at once. The two young men had resumed their musical studies and had often played the aereo-piguita and other music of Graziani since their return to Oxford in the autumn. They remarked, however, that the chair no longer creaked during the Gaigliarda and, in fact, that no unusual occurrence whatever attended its performance. At times they were almost tempted to doubt the accuracy of their own remembrances and to consider as entirely mythical the mystery which had so much commoner term. My brother had also pointed out to Mr. Gaskell my discovery that the coat of arms on the outside of the music-book was identical with that which is fancy portrayed on the musician's gallery. He readily admitted that he must at some time have noticed an afterwards forgotten the blazin' on the book and that an unconscious reminiscence of it had no doubt inspired his imagination in this instance. He rebuked my brother for having agitated me unnecessarily by telling me at all of so idle a tale and was pleased to write a few lines to me at Worthmeltravers, felicitating me on my shrewdness of perception but speaking banteringly of the whole matter. On the evening of the 14th of November my brother and his friend were sitting talking in the former's room. The position of the bookcase had been changed on the morning of that day and Mr. Gaskell had come round to see how the books looked when placed at the end instead of at the side of the room. He had applauded the new The Fire with a bottle of college port and a dish of meddlers which I had sent my brother from our famous tree in the uppercroft at Worthmeltravers. Later on they felt a music and played a variety of pieces performing also the Areopigita Suite. Mr. Gaskell before he left complimented John on the improvement in which the alteration in the place of the bookcase had made in his room saying, not only do the books in their present place very much enhance the general appearance of the room, but the change made to have affected also a market acoustical improvement. The oak paneling now exposed on the side of the room has given a resident property to the wall which is peculiarly responsive to the tones of your violin. While you were playing the Gagliarda tonight I could almost have imagined that someone in an adjacent room was playing the same air with a sardino so distinct was the echo. Shortly after this he left. My brother partly undressed himself in his bedroom which had joined and then returning to his room pulled the large wicker chair in front of the fire and sat there looking at the glowing coals and thinking perhaps of Miss Constance Temple. The night promised to be very cold and the wind whistled down the chimney increasing the comfortable sensation of the clear fire. He sat watching the ruddy reflection of the firelight dancing on the paneled wall when he noticed that a picture placed where the end of the bookcase formerly stood was not truly hung and needed adjustment. A picture hung as skew was particularly offensive to his and he got up at once to alter it. He remembered as he went up to it that at this precise spot four months ago he had lost sight of the man's figure which he saw rise from the wicker chair and at the memory felt an involuntary shutter. This reminiscence probably influenced his fancy also in another direction for it seemed to him that very faintly as though played far off and with the sardino he could hear the air of the Gagliarda. He put one hand behind the picture to steady it and as he did so his fingers struck a very slight projection in the wall. He pulled the picture a little to one side and saw that what he had touched was the back of a small hinge sunk in the wall and almost obliterated with many coats of paint. His curiosity was excited and he took a candle from the table and examined the wall carefully. Inspections soon showed him another hinge a little further up and by degrees he perceived that one of the panels had been made at some time in the past to open and served probably as the door of a cupboard. At this point he assured me that a feverish anxiety to reopen this cupboard door took possession of him and that the intense excitement filled his mind which we experience on the eve of a discovery which we fancy may produce important results. He loosened the paint in the cracks with a pen knife and attempted to press open the door but his instrument was not adequate to such a purpose and all his efforts remained ineffective. His excitement had now reached an overmastering pitch for he anticipated though he knew not why some strange discovery to be made in this sealed cupboard. He looked round the room for some weapon with which to force the door and at length with his pen knife cut away sufficient wood at the joint to enable him to insert the end of the poker in the hole. The clock in the new college tower struck one at the exact moment when with a sharp effort he thus forced open the door. It appeared never to have had a fastening but merely to have been stuck fast by the accumulation of paint. As he bent it slowly back upon the rusted hinges his heart beat so fast that he could scarcely catch his breath, though he was conscious all the while of a ludicrous aspect of his position knowing that it was most probable that the cavity within would be found empty. The cupboard was small but very deep and in the obscure light seemed at first to contain nothing except a small heap of dust and cobwebs. His sense of disappointment was keen as he thrust his hand into it but changed again in a moment to breathless interest on feeling something solid in what seemed to be only an accumulation of mold and dirt. He snatched up a candle and holding this in one hand with the other pulled out an object from the cupboard and put it on the table covered as it was with the curious drapery of black and clinging cobwebs which I have seen adhering to bottles of old wine. It lay there between the dish of meddlers and the decanter veiled indeed with thick dust as with a mantel but revealing beneath it the shape and contour of a violin. End of Chapter 6 Chapter 7 of The Lost Stradivarius This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org The Lost Stradivarius by John Mead Faulkner Chapter 7 John was excited at his discovery and felt his thoughts confused in a manner that I have often experienced myself on the unexpected recede of news interesting me deeply whether for pleasure or pain. Yet at the same time he was half amused at his own excitement feeling that it was childish to be moved over an event so simple as the finding of a violin in an old cupboard. He soon collected himself and took up the instrument using great care as he feared last age should have rendered the wood brittle or rotten. With some vigorous puffs of breath and a little dusting with a handkerchief he removed the heavy outer coating of cobwebs and began to see more clearly the delicate curves of the body and of the scroll. A few minutes more gentle handling left the instrument sufficiently clean to enable him to appreciate its chief points. Its seclusion from the outer world which the heavy accumulation of dust proved to have been for many years did not seem to have damaged it in the least. And the fact of a chimney flew passing through the wall at no great distance had no doubt conduced to maintain the air in the cupboard at an equitable temperature. So far as he was able to judge the wood was as sound as when it left the maker's hands but the strings were of course broken and curled up in little tangled knots. The body was of a light red color with a varnish of peculiar luster and softness. The neck seemed rather longer than ordinary and the scroll was remarkably bold and free. The violin which my brother was in the habit of using was a fine presenda given to him on his 15th birthday by Mr. Thorsby his guardian. It was of that maker's later and best period and a copy of the Stradivarius model. John took this from its case and laid it side by side with his new discovery meaning to compare them for size and form. He perceived at once that while the model of both was identical the superiority of the older violin in every detail was so marked to convince him that it was undoubtedly an instrument of exceptional value. The extreme beauty of its varnish impressed him vividly and though he had never seen a genuine Stradivarius he felt a conviction gradually gaining on him that he stood in the presence of a masterpiece of that great maker. On looking into the interior he found that surprisingly little dust had penetrated into it and by blowing through the sound holes he soon cleared it sufficiently to enable him to discern a label. He put the candle close to him and held the violin up so that a little patch of light fell through the sound hole onto the label. His heart leapt with a violent pulsation as he read the characters. Antonius Stradivarius Cruminensis 1904 Under ordinary circumstances it would naturally be concluded that such a label was a forgery but the conditions were entirely altered in the case of a violin found in a forgotten cupboard with proof so evident of its having remained there for a very long period. He was not at that time as familiar with the history of the fiddles of the great maker as he and indeed I also afterwards became. Thus he was unable to decide how far the exact year of its manufacture would determine its value as compared with other specimens of Stradivarius. But although the prosenda he had been used to play on was always considered a very fine instrument both in make and varnish his new discovery so far excelled it in both points as to assure him that it must be one of the Criminese master's greatest productions. He examined the violin minutely scrutinizing each separate feature and finding each in turn to be of the utmost perfection so far as his knowledge of the instrument would enable him to judge. He lit more candles that he might be able better to see it and holding it on his knees sat still admiring it until the dying fire and increasing cold warned him that the night was now far advanced. At last carrying it to his bedroom he locked it carefully into a drawer and retired for the night. He woke next morning with that pleasurable consciousness of there being some reason for gladness which we feel unwaking in seasons of happiness even before our reason locating it reminds us what the actual source of our joy may be. He was at first afraid lest his excitement working on the imagination should have led him on the previous night to overestimate the fineness of the instrument and he took it from the drawer half expecting to be disappointed with its daylight appearance but a glance sufficed to convince him of his suspicions. The various beauties which he had before observed were enhanced a hundredfold by the light of day and he realized more fully than ever that the instrument was one of altogether exceptional value. And now my dear Edward I shall ask your forgiveness if in the history I have to relate any observation of mine should seem to reflect on the character of your late father Sir John Maltravers and I beg you to consider that your father was also my dear and only brother and that it is inexpressibly painful to me to recount any actions of his which may not seem becoming to a noble gentleman as he surely was. I only now proceed because when very near his end he most strictly enjoined me to narrate these circumstances to you fully when you should come of age. We must humbly remember that to God alone belongs judgment and that it is not for poor mortals to decide what is right or wrong in certain instances for their fellows but that each should strive most earnestly to do his own duty. Your father entirely concealed from me the discovery he had made. It was not till long afterwards that I had it narrated to me and I only obtained a knowledge of this and many other of the facts which I am now telling you at a date much subsequent to their actual occurrence. He explained to his servant that he had discovered and opened an old cupboard in the paneling without mentioning the fact of his having found anything in it but merely asking him to give instructions for the paint to be mended and the cupboard put into a usable state. Before he had finished a very late breakfast Mr. Gaskell was with him and it has been a source of lasting regret to me that my brother concealed also from his most intimate and trusted friend the discovery of the previous night. He did indeed that he had found and opened an old cupboard in the paneling but made no mention of their having been anything within. I cannot say what prompted him to this action for the two young men had for long been on such intimate terms that the one shared almost as a matter of course with the other any pleasure or pain which might fall to his lot. Mr. Gaskell looked at the cupboard with some interest saying afterwards I know now, Johnny, why the one shelf of the bookcase which stood there was made movable when all the others were fixed. Some former occupant used the cupboard, no doubt, as a secret receptacle for his treasures and masked it with the bookshelves in front. Who knows what he kept in there or who he was. I should not be surprised if he were that very man who used to come here so often to hear us play the Areopajita and whom you saw that night last June. He had the one shelf made, you see, to move as to give him access to this cavity on occasion. Then when he left Oxford or perhaps died the mystery was forgotten and with a few times of painting the cracks closed up. Mr. Gaskell shortly afterwards took his leave as he had a lecture to attend and my brother was left alone to the contemplation of his newfound treasure. After some consideration he determined that he would take the instrument to London and obtain the opinion of an expert as to its authenticity and value. He was well acquainted with the late Mr. George Smart the celebrated London dealer from whom his guardian Mr. Thorsby had purchased the Presenda violin, which John commonly used. Besides being a dealer in valuable instruments Mr. Smart was a famous collector of Stradivarius fiddles esteemed one of the first authorities in Europe in that domain of art and author of a valuable work of reference in connection with it. It was to him, therefore, that my brother decided to submit the violin and he wrote a letter to Mr. Smart saying that he should give himself the pleasure of waiting on him the next day on a matter of business. He then called on his tutor and with some excuse obtained leave to journey to London the next morning. He spent the rest of the day in very carefully cleaning the violin and noon of the next saw him with it securely packed in Mr. Smart's establishment in Bond Street. Mr. Smart received Sir John Maltravers with deference demanded in what way he could serve him and on hearing that his opinion was required on the authenticity of a violin smiled somewhat dubiously and led the way into a back parlor. My dear Sir John he said I hope you have not been led into buying any instrument by a faith in its antiquity so many good copies of instruments by famous makers and bearing their labels are now afloat that the chances of obtaining a genuine fiddle from an unrecognized source are quite remote. Of hundreds of violins submitted to me for opinion I find that scarce one in fifty is actually that which it represents itself to be. In fact the only safe rule he added as a professional commentary is never to buy a violin unless you obtain it from a dealer with a reputation to lose and are prepared to pay a reasonable price for it. My brother had meanwhile unpacked the violin and laid it on the table. As he took from it the last leaf of silver paper he saw Mr. Smart's smile of condescension fade and assuming a look of interest he stepped forward took the violin in his hands and scrutinized it minutely. He turned it over in silence for some moments looking narrowly at each feature and even applying the test of a magnifying glass. At last he said with an altered tone Sir John I have had in my hands nearly all the finest productions of Stradivarius and thought myself acquainted with every instrument of note that ever left his workshop but I confess myself mistaken and apologize to you for the doubt which I expressed as to the instrument you had brought me. The violin is of the great master's golden period is incontestably genuine and finer in some respects than any Stradivarius that I have ever seen not even accepting the famous dolphin itself. You need be under no apprehension as to its authenticity. No connoisseur could hold it in his hand for a second and entertain a doubt on the point. My brother was greatly pleased at so favorable a verdict and Mr. Smart continued The varnish is of that rich red which Stradivarius used in his best period after he had abandoned the yellow tint copied by him at first after Amitya I have never seen a varnish thicker or more lustrous and it shows on the back that peculiar shading to imitate wear which we term breaking up. The purfling also is of an unsurpassable excellence its execution is so fine that I should recommend you to use a magnifying glass for its examination. So he ran on to moment some new beauties to admire. My brother was at first anxious lest Mr. Smart should ask him when so extraordinary an instrument came but he saw that the expert had already jumped to a conclusion in the matter. He knew that John had recently come of age and evidently supposed that he had found the violin among the heirlooms of worth-mal-travers. John allowed Mr. Smart to continue in this misconception merely saying that he had discovered the instrument in an old cupboard where he had reason to think it had remained hidden for many years. Are there no records attached to so splendid an instrument? asked Mr. Smart. I suppose it has been with your family a number of years. Do you not know how it came into their possession? I believe this was the first occasion on which it had occurred to John to consider what right he had to the possession of the instrument. He had been so excited by its discovery that the question of ownership had never hitherto crossed his mind. The unwelcome suggestion that it was not his after all that the college might rightfully prefer a claim to it presented itself to him for a moment. But he set it instantly aside, quieting his conscience with the reflection that this, at least, was not the moment to make such a disclosure. He fenced with Mr. Smart's inquiry as best he could, saying that he was ignorant of the history of the instrument, but not contradicting the assumption that it had been a long time in his family's possession. It is indeed singular, Mr. Smart continued, that so magnificent an instrument should have lain buried so long, that even those best acquainted with such matters should be in perfect ignorance of its existence. I shall have to revise the list of famous instruments in the next edition of my History of the Violin, and, to write, he added, smiling, a special paragraph on the worth Mel Travers Stradivarius. After much more, which I need not narrate, Mr. Smart suggested that the violin should be left with him that he might examine it more at leisure, and that my brother should return in a week's time, when he would have the instrument opened, an operation which would be in any case advisable. The interior, he added, appears to be in a strictly original state, and this I shall be able to ascertain when opened. The label is perfect, but if I am not mistaken, I can see something higher up on the back, which appears like a second label. This excites my interest, as I know of no instance of an instrument bearing two labels. To this proposal, my brother readily assented, being anxious to enjoy alone the pleasure of so gratifying as that of the undoubted authenticity of the instrument. As he thought over the matter more at leisure, he grew anxious as to what might be the import of the second label in the violin, of which Mr. Smart had spoken. I blushed to say that he feared lest it might bear some owner's name or other inscription proving that the instrument had not been so long in the Maltraverse family, Mr. Smart, to suppose. So, within so short a time, it was possible that Sir John Maltraverse of Worth should dread being detected, if not in an absolute falsehood, at least in having by his silence assented to one. During the ensuing week John remained in an excited and anxious condition. He did little work at his friends, having his thoughts continually occupied with the strange discovery he had made. I know also that his sense of honour troubled him and that he was not satisfied with the course he was pursuing. The evening of his return from London, he went to Mr. Gaskell's rooms at New College and spent an hour conversing with him on indifferent subjects. In the course of their talk, he proposed to his friend as a moral problem the question of the course of action to be taken were one to find some article of value concealed in his room. Mr. Gaskell answered unhesitatingly that he should feel bound to disclose it to the authorities. He saw that my brother was ill at ease and with the clearness of judgment which he always exhibited, guessed that he had actually of this sort in the old cupboard in his rooms. He could not divine, of course, the exact nature of the object found and thought it might probably relate to a hoard of gold but insisted with much urgency on the obligation to at once disclose anything of this kind. My brother, however misled, I fear, by that feeling of inalienable right which the treasure-hunter experiences over the treasure paid no more attention to the advice of his friend than to the promptings of his own conscience and went away. From that day, my dear Edward, he began to exhibit a spirit of secretiveness and reserve entirely alien to his own open and honourable disposition and also saw less of Mr. Gaskell. His friend tried, indeed, to win his confidence and affection in every way in his power but, in spite of this, the rift between them widened insensibly and my brother lost the fellowship and counsel of a true friend at a time when he could ill afford to be without them. He returned to London the ensuing week and met Mr. George Smart by appointment in Bond Street. If the expert had been enthusiastic on a former occasion he was ten times more so on this. He spoke in terms almost of rapture about the violin. He had compared it with two magnificent instruments in the collection of the late Mr. James Loading then the finest in Europe and it was admittedly superior to either both in the delicate markings of its wood and singularly fine varnish. Of its tone, he said, we cannot, of course, yet pronounce with certainty but I am very sure that its voice will not be lie its splendid exterior. It has been carefully opened and is in a strangely perfect condition. Several persons eminently qualified to judge unite with me in considering that it has been exceedingly little played upon and admit that never has so an interior been seen. The scroll is exceptionally bold and original. Although undoubtedly from the hand of the great master, this is of a pattern entirely different and distinct from any that have ever come under my observation. He then pointed out to my brother that the sidelines of the scroll were unusually deeply cut and that the front of it projected far more than is with such instruments. The most remarkable feature he concluded is that the instrument bears a double label. Besides the label which you have already seen bearing Antonius Stradivarius Criminensis Fachiebot with the date of his most splendid period, 1704, so clearly that the ink seems scarcely dry. There is another smaller one higher up on the back which I will show you. He took the violin apart and showed him a small label with characters written in faded ink. That is the writing of Antonius Stradivarius himself and is easily recognizable, though it is much firmer than a specimen which I once saw, written in extreme old age and giving his name and the date 1736. He was then 92 and died in the following year but this, as you will see, does not give his name but merely the two words Porphyrius philosophus. What this may refer to I cannot say. It is beyond my experience. My friend Mr. Calvert has suggested that Stradivarius may have dedicated this violin to the pagan philosopher or named it after him but this seems improbable. I have indeed heard of two famous violins being called Peter and Paul but the instances of such naming are very rare and I believe it to be altogether without precedent to find a name attached thus on a label. In any case I must leave this matter to your ingenuity to decipher. Neither the sound post has ever been moved and you see here a Stradivarius violin wearing exactly the same appearance as it once wore in the great master's workshop and in exactly the same condition. Yet I think the belly is sufficiently strong to stand modern stringing. I should advise you to leave the instrument with me for some little while that I may give it to care and attention and ensure it is sufficiently strong. My brother thanked him and left the violin with him saying that he would instruct him later by letter to what address he wished it sent. End of Chapter 7 Recording by Laura Koskinen