been made fully aware of the formidable position in which he stood until
he had reached Vienna, when the Theatrical Gazette, in reviewing his
first concert, dropped some pretty broad hints as to the rumoured
misdeeds of his early life. Whereupon he resolved at once publicly to
proclaim his innocence, and to put down the calumny; for which purpose,
on the 10th of April, 1828, there was inserted in the leading Vienna
journals a manifesto, in Italian as well as German, subscribed by him,
declaring that all these widely-circulated rumours were false; that at
no time, and under no government whatever, had he ever offended against
the laws, or been put under coercion; and that he had always demeaned
himself as became a peaceable and inoffensive member of society; for the
truth of which he referred to the magistracies of the different states
under whose protection he had till then lived in the public exercise of
his profession.

The truth of this appeal (which it is obvious no delinquent would have
dared to make) was never called in question, no one ever ventured to
take up the gauntlet which Paganini had thrown down, and his character
as a man thenceforward stood free from suspicion.

His whimsicalities, his love of fun, and many other points of his
character, are sometimes curiously exemplified in his fantasias. He
imitates in perfection the whistling and chirrupping of birds, the
tinkling and tolling of bells, and almost every variety of tone which
admits of being produced; and in his performance of _Le Streghe_
(The Witches) a favourite interlude of his, where the tremulous voices
of the old women are given with a truly singular and laughable effect,
his _vis comica_ finds peculiar scope.

His command of the back-string of the instrument has always been an