The popularity of the song has naturally led to a great many claimants concerning it, especially the music. The author of a book entitled _An Englishman in Paris_, relates a very interesting story of a certain Alexandre Boucher, an eccentric violinist, who vowed that he (Boucher) wrote the _Marseillaise_ for the colonel of a regiment who was about to leave Marseilles the next day. According to this story, Boucher was seated next Rouget de Lisle at a dinner party in Paris some years after the _Marseillaise_ had become famous throughout the world. They had never met before, and the violinist was very much interested in the gentleman whom, with many others at the table, he complimented on his production; only Boucher confined himself to complimenting him on his poem. "You don't say a word about the music," Rouget replied, "and yet, being a celebrated musician, that ought to interest you. Do you not like it?" "Very much indeed," said Boucher, in a somewhat significant tone. "Well," continued de Lisle, "let me be frank with you; the music is not mine. It was that of a march which came heaven knows whence, and which they kept on playing at Marseilles during the Terror when I was a prisoner at the fortress of St. Jean. I made a few alterations necessitated by the words, and there it is." "Thereupon," says Boucher, "to his great surprise, I hummed the march as I had originally written it. 'Wonderful!' he exclaimed; 'How did you come by it?' When I told him," says the violinist, "he threw himself round my neck, but the next moment he said: 'I am very sorry, my dear Boucher, but I am afraid that you will be despoiled forever, do what you will; for your music and my words go so well together that they seem to have sprung simultaneously from the same brain, and the world, even if I proclaimed my indebtedness to you, would never believe it.'" "Keep the loan," was Boucher's magnanimous reply. "Without your genius, my march would be forgotten by now. You have given it a patent of nobility. It is yours forever." All this is very interesting, but, unfortunately for Boucher's claim, De Lisle had put the music and the words together before the Reign of Terror began, and the story must fall to the ground. Under the monarchical governments in France the song has always been held seditious, because of its extraordinary influence upon the French people. The first time since the Revolution that it was not regarded as treasonable by those in authority was at the opening of the World's Fair in 1878. [Illustration] [Illustration: _CHARLES EDWARD STUART, THE PRETENDER_] _THE BLUE BELLS OF SCOTLAND._