Marais wrote a great deal of music for the strings. “We know,” writes a contemporary, “the fecundity and beauty of the genius of this musician by the number of works that he composed. They are astounding in taste and variety. His great knowledge appears in all his works; but particularly in two pieces: one, in his fourth book called the _Labyrinth_, where, after having gone through various scales and touched on diverse dissonances, and marked his way by grave tones and then by lively and animated ones, describing the uncertainty of a man who is going through a labyrinth, he comes out happily in a graceful and natural _Chaconne_. But he astonished connoisseurs still more by a piece called the _Scale_—_La Gamme_—a symphonic composition which mounts insensibly through all the notes in the octave and then descends again with harmonious and beautiful melodies through all the musical scales.”[46] Marais also wrote several operas, one of which, _Alcyone_ (1706), had in it a storm that the people of the time thought perfectly terrific; for the drums rolled continually; the violins played on the highest string—the _chanterelle_; the oboes screamed; and the bass viols and bassoons added to the horrors in depicting the agitated sea and the whistling wind. Many were shocked! In 1725 Marais, very old, lived in a house in the rue de Lourcine and devoted himself to the cultivation of flowers. He also rented a room and gave lessons two or three times a week to talented pupils. Marais died in 1728. Then there was La Londe, who began life as a _valet de chambre_ to the Maréchale de Grammont. He was very talented and became one of the best violinists in Europe. Then there was another violinist known as Baptiste. It is supposed that he was Baptiste Anet, a pupil of Corelli. We know of a few other names: Nicholas Baudry, _dessus de violon_; Julien Bernier, German flute; Bernard Alberty, theorbo; Jean Théobalde, _basse de violon_; and Jean Rabel, clavecin. There was also connected with the Orchestra Jean Fischer (born in Swabia in 1650), who came to Paris when very young and belonged to Lully’s orchestral family as a music-copyist. An old document came to light in Paris several years ago that gave the pay-roll of Lully’s Orchestra. Here it is: Batteur de mesure 1,000 livres 10 instruments de petit chœur à 6,000 6,000 ” 12 dessus de violon à 400 4,800 ” 8 basses à 400 3,200 ” 2 quintes à 400 800 ” 2 tailles à 400 800 ” 2 hautes contres à 400 1,200 ” 3 hautbois flutes ou basson à 400 3,200 ” 1 timbalier à 150 150 ” ------ 21,150 livres