Page:The Works of J. W. von Goethe, Volume 12.djvu/452

426 as are executed at Trapani, and also for exquisitely manufactured articles in ivory, the princess had an especial taste, and about some of them she had amusing stories to tell The prince called our attention to those of more solid value; and so several hours slipped away; not, however, without either amusement or edification.

In the course of our conversation, the princess discovered that we were Germans: she therefore asked us after Riedesel, Bartels, and Münter, all of whom she knew, and whose several characters she seemed well able to appreciate and to discriminate. We parted from her reluctantly; and she, too, seemed loath to bid us farewell An insular life has in it something very peculiar to be thus excited and refreshed by none but passing sympathies.

From the palace the abbé led us to the Benedictine Monastery, and took us to the cell of a brother of the order, whose reserved and melancholy expression (though he was not of more than middle age) promised but little of cheerful conversation. He was, however, the skilful musician who alone could manage the enormous organ in the church of this monastery. When he had rather guessed than waited to hear our request, he complied with it in silence. We proceeded to the very spacious church, where, sitting down at the glorious instrument, he made the softest notes whisper through its remotest corners, or filled the whole of it with the crash of the loudest tones.

If you had not previously seen the organist, you would fancy that none but a giant could exercise such power: as, however, we were already acquainted with his personal appearance, we only wondered that the necessary exertion had not long since worn him out.

Soon after dinner our abbé arrived with a carriage, and proposed to show us a distant part of the city. Upon getting in we had a strange dispute about