--

This " - he laid his hand on the bundle | a weird fantasy. The Indians sat and gently undid it" is my oldest breathless. Upon them it acted more friend, since the warm days at Parma impressively than upon the others; - all dead-all dead." Out of the besides, the player's eye was searching velvet wrapping, broidered with royal them now; he was playing into their and ducal arms, and rounded by a very bodies. And they responded with wreath of violets - which the chief some swift shocks of recognition crossfactor looked at closely he drew his ing their faces. Suddenly the old violin. He lifted it reverently to his Indian sprang up. He thrust his arms lips. out, and made, as if unconsciously, "My good Garnerius !" he said. some fantastic yet solemn motions. "Three masters played you; but I am The player smiled in a far-off fashion, chief of them all. They had the classic and presently ran the bow upon the soul; but I the romantic heart-les strings in an exquisite cry; and then a grandes caprices." His head lifted beautiful avalanche of sound slid from higher. "I am the master artist of a distance, growing nearer and nearer, the world. I have found the core of till it swept through the room, and emNature. Here in the North is the won- bedded all in its sweetness. derful soul of things. Beyond this, far beyond, where the foolish think is only forward at the player's feet. "It is the inviolate ice, is the first song of the song of the White Weaver, the maker of ages, and a very pleasant land. I am the world-the music from the Hills of the lost Master, and I shall return, I the Mighty Men. I knew it - I knew it shall return but not yet not yet. He fetched the instrument to his chin with a noble pride. The ugliness of his face was almost beautiful now.

The factor looked on him with bewilderment; the factor was trying to remember something; his mind went feeling, he knew not why, for a certain day, a quarter of a century before, when he unpacked a box of books and papers from England. Most of them were still in the fort. The association of this man with these things fretted him.

The Tall Master swung his bow upwards; but at that instant there came a knock, and, in response to a call, Wind Driver and Wine Face entered. Wine Face was certainly a beautiful girl; and Lazenby might well have been pardoned for throwing in his fate with such a heathen, if he despaired of ever seeing England again. The Tall Master did not turn towards these. The Indians sat gracefully on a bearskin before the fire. The eyes of the girl were cast shyly upon the man as he stood there unlike an ordinary being-in his face a fine hardness and the cold light of the North. He suddenly tipped his bow upward and brought it down with a most delicate crash upon the strings. Then softly, slowly, he passed into

At this the old Indian threw himself

but never like that. It was lost to the world; the wild cry of the lofty stars.” His face was wet.

The girl, too, had risen. She came forward as if in a dream, and reverently touched the arm of the player, who paused now, and was looking at them from under his long eyelashes. She spoke whisperingly : "Are you a spirit? Do you come from the Hills of the Mighty Men?"

He answered gravely: "I am no spirit. But I have journeyed in the Hills of the Mighty Men and along their ancient hunting-grounds. This that I have played is the ancient music of the world-of Jubal and his comrades. It comes humming from the Poles; it rides laughing down the planets; it trembles through the snow; it gives joy to the bones of the wind. And I am the voice of It," he added; and he drew up his loose, unmanageable body till it looked enormous, firm, and dominant.

The girl's fingers ran softly over to his breast. "I will follow you," she said, "when you go again to the Happy Valleys."

Down from his brow there came a faint hue of color, and, for a breath, his eyes closed tenderly with hers. But

he straightway gathered back his look to his feet; Lazenby winced and drew again; his body shrank, not rudely, from her fingers; and he absently said: "I am old in years the father of the world. It is a man's life gone since, at Genoa, she laid her fingers on my breast like that. These things can be no more -until the North hath its summer again; and I stand young - the Master upon the high summits of renown." The girl drew slowly back. Lazenby was muttering under his breath now; he was overwhelmed by this change in Wine Face. He had been impressed to awe by the Tall Master's music; but he was piqued, and determined not to give in easily. He said sneeringly that Maskelyne and Cooke in music had come to life, and suggested a snakedance.

The Tall Master heard these things, and immediately he turned to Lazenby with an angry look on his face. His brows hung heavily over the dull fire of his eyes; his hair itself seemed like Medusa's, just quivering into savage life; the fingers spread out white and claw-like upon the strings as he curved his violin to his chin, whereof it became, as it were, a piece. The bow shot out and down upon the instrument with a painful clangor. There eddied into a vast arena of sound the prodigious elements of war. Torture rose from those four immeasurable cords; a dreadful dance of death supervened.

Through the chief factor's mind there flashed

though mechanically, and only to be remembered afterwards -- the words of a schoolday poem. It shuttled in and out of the music :

Wheel the wild dance,
While lightnings glance,
And thunders rattle loud;

And call the brave to bloody grave,
To sleep without a shroud.

The face of the player grew old and drawn. The skin was wrinkled, but shone; the hair spread white, the nose almost met the chin, the mouth was all malice. It was old age with vast power; conquest volleyed from the fingers.

Shon McGann whispered aves, aching with the noise; the factor shuddered

back to the wall, putting his hand before his face as though the sounds were striking him; the old Indian covered his head with his blanket upon the floor. Wine Face knelt, her face all grey, her fingers lacing and interlacing with pain. Only Pierre sat with masterful stillness, his eyes never moving from the face of the player; his arms folded; his feet firmly wedded to the floor. The sound became strangely distressing. It shocked the flesh and angered the nerves. Upon Lazenby it acted singularly. He cowered from it; but soon, with a look of madness in his eyes, he rushed forward, arms outstretched, as if to seize the intolerable minstrel. There was a sudden pause in the playing; then the room shook with noise, buffeting Lazenby into stillness. But the sounds changed instantly again, and music of great sweetness and delight fell about them as in silver drops

an enchanting lyric of love. Its inexpressible tenderness subdued Lazenby, who but now had had a heart for slaughter. He dropped on his knees, threw his head into his arms, and sobbed. The Tall Master's fingers crept caressingly along one of those heavenly veins of sound, his bow poising softly over it.

The farthest star seemed singing.

At dawn the next day the Golden Dogs were gathered for war before the fort. Immediately after the sun rose, the foe were seen gliding darkly out of the horizon. From another direction came two travellers. These also saw the White Hands bearing upon the fort, and hurried forward. They reached the gates of the fort in good time, and were welcomed. One was a chief trader from a fort in the west. He was an old man, and had been many years in the service of the H.B.C.; and, like Lazenby had spent his early days in London, a connoisseur in all its pleasures. The other was a voyageur. They had posted on quickly to bring news of this crusade of the White Hands.

The hostile Indians came steadily to within a few hundred yards of the

Golden Dogs. Then they sent a brave the women and children. They drew to say that they had no quarrel with the people of the fort; and that if the Golden Dogs came on they would battle with them alone, since the time had come for “one to be as both," as their medicine men had been declaring from the days of the Great Race. And this signified that one should destroy the other.

When he came near to the vortex of north-west-beautiful austere barriers. fight he raised his violin to his chin, and instantly a most sweet call pene- and trembled. They watched long. trated the uproar. The call filled it, drained through it, wrapped it, overcame it; so that it sank away at last like the outwash of an exhausted tide. The weft of battle stayed unfinished in the loom.

66

Yes, yes," said the other; "that is he. And the world buried him forty years ago!"

rupting him, and drew a picture from the name of New Caledonia represents his pocket-one but just now taken an arid settlement where wretched from that musty pile of books received convicts drag out a weary existence so many years before. He showed it under the supervision of hard-hearted to the old man. gaolers until death or an hair-breadth escape puts a term to their misery. Any who hold such opinions would be quickly disabused if they could arrive, as we did, in the port of Noumea early on a July morning. July in the southern hemisphere answers to a northern January, but few January days in Europe would dawn with such a golden sun shining on such a sapphire sea. The port of Noumea is a double harbor,

Pierre, standing near, added with soft irony: "There are strange things in the world. He is a superb gamester- -a grand comrade !"

The music came waving back upon them delicately; but the pilgrims were fading from view. Soon the watchers were alone with so enclosed by dented shores and lovely the glowing day.

GILBERT PARKER.

islands as to recall two lakes opening into each other. The western portion is not at present serviceable, as it is separated from the other by a shoal; but the governor hopes in time to cut a From The Nineteenth Century. channel, and to bring it into use for a A FRENCH COLONY. roadstead and graving docks. MeanWHEN Francis the First heard that time the eastern harbor offers secure the pope had granted to Spain all of anchorage for men-of-war and large the New World which she could dis- merchant vessels, and is not only safe cover by sailing west, and to Portugal but highly picturesque. Having passed all newly found territories in the east, the outlying barrier of coral reefs, you he exclaimed, "Where is the testament enter the port, steaming between the of my father Adam which cuts me off promontory on which the town of Noufrom a share in this heritage ? ” Not mea is built and the Ile Nou which long before, Henry the Seventh was forms a bulwark against all southern quietly recording in his ledger the dona-storms. The entrance is further detion "to him that found the New Isle "fended by a small island on which are Sebastian Cabot. Papal fiefs to Spain quartered les hommes terribles, incorriand Portugal, a point of honor for gible criminals of whom justice has no France, a mixture of viking and mer- hope. chant in England, such beginnings do not ill represent the tendencies of the four great nations in question.

The low-lying ground immediately surrounding the water is covered by vegetation of many vivid greens; in Nearly four hundred years have the middle distance are low hills and passed away, and the powers of Eu- mounds, where the red soil glows rope are yet occupied with the game of through shrubs and groves of oranges empire-winning in Asia and Africa. In and palms, and behind rise blue and the Pacific Ocean the England of the purple mountains, some bold and coneTudors is now trebly represented. topped, others with soft, rounded The mother country and two of her curves, and one, the Mont d'Or, so daughters hold powerful hands. Australia still banks with her parent, but America prefers a separate state. France has discovered many legacies in the will of her progenitor, and to one of these our good fortune lately introduced us. Probably to many minds in Europe The shops and private houses are rather

called from the golden hues which it assumes as its sunset robe.

The town of Noumea does not present any striking peculiarities. Several streets cutting each other at right angles, and the Place des Cocotiers, lie on the flat ground just beyond the quay.

low, with verandahs and corrugated Government House and became the iron roofs, but many of the dwellings guests of the deservedly popular govpossess pretty gardens full of roses, ernor, M. Laffon. geraniums, bougainvilleas, and fruit trees. The infantry and artillery barracks, hospital and public schools stand on higher ground, as does the cathedral, a fine building occupying a commanding site. When its two spires are complete it will form a worthy memorial of the work done by the Roman Catholic missionaries, the pioneers of France in New Caledonia. Its interior is enriched by an elaborately carved pulpit of kaori, acacia, and other native woods, and by an altar constructed of a remarkable monolith resembling grey marble. A Protestant church is also in course of erection. Our landing at Noumea was not unattended with difficulty. A few cases of small-pox had occurred at Sydney, introduced by a recent passenger ship, and New Caledonia enjoying, like Australia, a general immunity from this malady, the health officers are very chary of admitting passengers from an infected port. On the other hand, the French officials were courteously eager to extend a hospitable welcome to the first Australian governor who had visited their island. A compromise was ultimately effected; our fellow-passengers had to spend the night on the quarantine island, the Ile de Freycinet, and we were detained in our very comfortable quarters on board the Armand Béhic till the following morning, when all were released.

We whiled away the afternoon by a scramble on the said quarantine island, a very pretty spot with a beach entirely covered with pieces of white coral, washed up from the reefs around. Early on the morning of the 13th of July we landed to much booming of cannon, each shot fired eliciting a shout of delight from the aboriginals, who, like natives of other islands in the South Pacific, are called Kanakas.

The whole town was gaily decorated in preparation for the national fête of the republic, due next day. After a kindly reception by the mayor, M. Sauvan, an old and respected resident, and by the municipal council, we drove to 4147

LIVING AGE.

VOL. LXXX.

New Caledonia, originally found by that universal discoverer Captain Cook, was formally annexed by the French in September, 1853, French missionaries having established themselves in the country about ten years before. Not much was done in the way of colonization till after another decade, when it was definitely decided to send out convicts, and the first batch arrived in May, 1864. Last year the number of those undergoing sentence was over six thousand; to these should be added between five and six thousand libérés — that is to say, convicts who have completed their terms of penal servitude, but of whom by far the larger number are compelled by law to reside in New Caledonia, either for a term equal to that of their former sentence, or permanently if they were originally condemned to a punishment of not less than eight years' duration. The libérés thus astreints à la résidence are, of course, under strict supervision, and are only by special favor allowed to live in the capital. The free inhabitants, including over seventeen hundred troops, may be estimated at something under ten thousand. There are about forty thousand Kanakas in New Caledonia and in the dependent Loyalty Islands, but, as in the case of other aboriginal races, the native population rapidly diminishes when brought into contact with civilization.

The governor is assisted by a Privy Council, consisting of the director of the interior, the heads of the naval, military, and judicial departments, the director of the convict settlement, and two or three others. In 1885 a popular element was added to the constitution by the creation of a Conseil Général, composed of a president and sixteen members elected by universal suffrage. This council has a good deal to say with regard to the levying of taxes for interior improvements and similar matters, but absolute home rule has not been conceded to New Caledonia.

Government House resembles one of