The Retreat from Frisco--Hotel Dangers--A Scene from _Carmen_--Operatic Invalids--Murderous Lovers--Ravelli's Claim--General Barnes's Reply--Clamour for Higher Prices--My Onward March pp. 185-214 CHAPTER XIII. Del Puente in the Kitchen--Scalding Coffee--Californian Wine--The Sergeant takes a Header--The Russian Mother--I Become a Sheriff--A Dumb Chorus--Dynamite Bombs pp. 215-228 CHAPTER XIV. Subterranean Music--The Striker Struck--Tuscan Taffy--A Healthy "Lucia"--I Recover from the United States--A Beknighted Mayor pp. 229-243 CHAPTER XV. Back in the Old Country--The London Season--Sluggish Audiences--My Outside Public--The Patti Disappointments--The "Sandwich's" Story pp. 244-257 CHAPTER XVI. Master and Man--_Don Giovanni_ Centenary--Mozart and Parnell--Bursting of "Gilda"--Colonel Stracey and the Demons--The Hawk's Mountain Flight--Ambitious Students and Indigent Professors--A School for Opera--Anglicized Foreigners--Italianized Englishmen pp. 258-275 CHAPTER XVII. Fight with Mr. and Mrs. Ravelli--An Improvised Public--Ravelli's Dangerous Illness--Mr. Russell Gole--Reappearance of Mr. Registrar Hazlitt--Offenbach in Italian--Who is that Young Man?--Fancelli's Autograph--Ristori's Aristocratic Household pp. 276-291 FINAL CHAPTER. Envoi 293 APPENDIX. Singers and Operas produced by me 295 Index to Volumes I. and II. 303 CHAPTER I MY CONNECTION SEVERED--MUSICAL PROTECTION UNION--AMERICAN ORCHESTRAS--RIVAL OPERA-HOUSES--OPERATIC TRIAL BY JURY--ST. CECILIA'S DAY--THE FEAST OF FATHER FLATTERY. Shortly after my return to London I had various meetings with the Directors of the Royal Italian Opera Company, Limited, when, to my astonishment, they informed me they would not ratify the contract I had made with Mdme. Patti. In fact, they repudiated the engagement altogether, although it had been concluded by me conjointly with Mr. Ernest Gye, the General Manager of the Company. I was therefore left with about £15,000 worth of authorized contracts which the Company had made with other artists, in addition to Mdme. Patti's contract for 250,000 dollars (£50,000). I represented to the Directors that the only way to get out of the difficulty was to release me entirely from all connection with the Company, as I could then carry out the contracts I had made in the name of myself and of their representative with Mdme. Patti and with several other artists. The matter, however, ended by the Directors giving me my _congé_, refusing at the same time to pay me any of the money that was then owing to me.