Seated before this ivory organ was the Prince de Hansfeld. He wore a long tunic of black woollen, loosely confined round the waist, a sort of black velvet cap but half concealed his hair, portions of which, escaping, fell in long, light locks upon his shoulders, which were somewhat bent. His long, loose sleeves were thrown back almost to the elbows during the rapid passage of his long thin fingers over the keys of the instruments, displaying hands and arms while and polished as marble, but unnaturally small and wasted. The finger-nails, even though well shaped, hard, and polished as agate, possessed not that roseate tint so sure a harbinger of good health, but were surrounded by a pale, blue circlet; while the head of the prince, slightly thrown back, proved that his eyes were cast upwards towards the ceiling. After having paused for some time, the Prince de Hansfeld recommenced playing, but in an extremely low key. Whether it were the superior excellence of the mighty organ or the skilful hand that touched it, it is certain that never did sounds so full, so soft, yet so sonorous, breathe forth in notes of melancholy sweetness, amounting almost to passionate expression. It would be wholly impossible to trace the source of those feelings which found vent in passages at once so thrilling, yet soul-saddening, now plaintive as a sigh, yet sweet and touching as the smile bestowed by a mother on her infant, then breaking forth again in strains harmonious, vague, unfinished, capricious as the thought which, flitting through the mazes of a saddened imagination, suddenly glows with the pure, rapturous whispering of hope, whose finger points from troubled clouds to the clear, serene azure of summer skies. And the hardest heart must have owned the influence of those delicious sounds, descending in gentle melody like a flood of happy tears. In the solemn stillness of the night the rich, full sounds of the organ pealed forth in grander majesty, and ascended unto heaven itself, even as the incense of the heart. There was one particular strain which occurred frequently and at regular intervals during these inspired performances. To convey a notion of the ideas which were called up by this enchanting passage, played on the highest and most _glassy_ notes of the instrument, it will be requisite to evoke the most youthful, smiling, and joyous images, such as these. Like each pearly drop as it hangs on the soft, green moss, or the roseate colours of an early spring morning. All that is soft and gently soothing in the mild silver beams of the moon, as during a delicious summer's night she plays amid the dark shadows of the thick woods, whose wavy branches keep time to the delicious warbling of the nightingale.