Page:The story of the flute (IA storyofflute1914fitz).djvu/71

 was seized with a panic; some escaped through a door into the Place du Carrousel; those who remained were cut to pieces by the mob, who stripped the bodies naked and adorned themselves with fragments of the uniforms and helmets torn from the dead soldiers. This dreadful scene, combined with the subsequent loss of his fortune and position, affected Gordon's mind, and he seems never to have recovered from its effects. In his distress he "conceived the idea of turning this new flute to account in order to re-establish himself by performing on it in the principal towns of Europe; then he intended to patent his invention, and to establish manufactories and introduce this beautiful instrument to the musical world." Accordingly in 1831 he visited London, where flutes were made for him by Rudall & Rose, and also by Cornelius Ward. The latter, though a partisan of Gordon's claims, says that he "was considered to be of unsound mind He was generally treated with consideration on that account, but very little attention was paid to his flute-mania, such being the light in which his views respecting the flute were regarded." Böhm happened to be in London at the same time, also at work on improving the flute; Gordon made his acquaintance, and they showed each other their respective attempts. Böhm tells us that he considered Gordon's flute very different in its construction from other flutes, that it had a ring and crescent key, and that the keys and levers were ingeniously conceived, but too complicated ever to be of much advantage; moreover, it was made in defiance of the principles