Both in Paris and London the sisters were triumphantly successful, and when in 1841 they toured through America they met with a reception that was sensational. It was “roses, roses all the way”; and in some of the towns triumphal arches were erected. At Philadelphia their horses were unharnessed and their carriage drawn by the admiring populace, headed by the Mayor! Fanny was an especial favourite, and when the sisters left New Orleans, some niggers, who were hoisting freight from the hold of an adjacent steamboat--and niggers are notoriously apt at catching up topical subjects--thus chanted, as the vessel bearing the dancers left the wharf: “Fanny, is you going up de ribber? Grog time o’ day. When all dese here’s got Elssler fever? Oh, hoist away! De Lor’ knows what we’ll do widout you, Grog time o’ day. De toe an’ heel won’t dance widout you. Oh, hoist away! Day say you dances like a fedder, Grog time o’ day. Wid t’ree t’ousand dollars all togedder. Oh, hoist away!” Fanny Elssler was at her best in the ballet of “Le Diable Boiteux,” the plot of which is founded on Le Sage’s famous romance. An enthusiastic contemporary described her in the following quaint terms: “_La_ Fanny is tall, beautifully formed, with limbs that strongly resemble the hunting Diana, combining strength with the most delicate and graceful style. Her small and classically shaped head is placed on her shoulders in a singularly elegant manner; the pure fairness of her skin requires no artificial whiteness; while her eyes beam with a species of playful malice, well-suited to the half-ironical expression at times visible in the corners of her finely curved lips. Her rich, glossy hair, of bright chestnut hue, is usually braided over a forehead formed to wear, with equal grace and dignity, the diadem of a queen, or the floral wreath of a nymph; and though strictly feminine in her appearance, none can so well or so advantageously assume the costume of the opposite sex.” As a dancer she excelled in all spirited dances, such as the _Fandango_, and the _Mazurka_, while in the _Cachucha_ and the _Cracovienne_, she stirred her audience to a frenzy of admiration. Thérèse Elssler retired from the stage in 1850. Fanny, a year later, married a rich banker, withdrew, and died in 1884. CHAPTER XXV CARLO BLASIS