prisoner by the English. Making the best of his misfortunes the elder
Oury settled in England, married a Miss Hughes, and became a professor
of dancing and music.

The son, Antonio, began to learn the violin at the age of three, in
which he was a year or two ahead of the average virtuoso, and he made
great progress. By and by he heard Spohr, and after that his diligence
increased, for he practised, during seven months, not less than fourteen
hours a day. Even Paganini used to sink exhausted after ten hours'
practice. In 1820, we are told, he went to Paris and studied under
Baillot, Kreutzer, and Lafont, receiving from each two lessons a week
for several successive winters. With such an imposing array of talent at
his service much might be expected of Mr. Oury, and he actually made his
début at the Philharmonic concerts in London.

There was another unfortunate officer of Napoleon who became tutor to
the Princesses of Bavaria. His name was Belleville. Mr. Oury met his
daughter, and, there being naturally a bond of sympathy between them,
they married. She was an amiable and accomplished pianist, and together
they made the nine years' concert tour.

During the period in which the art of violin playing was being perfected
on the Continent, the English were too fully occupied with commercial
pursuits to foster and develop the art. Up to the present day the most
eminent virtuoso is commonly spoken of as a "fiddler." Even Joachim,
when he went to a barber's shop in High Street, Kensington, and declined
to accept the advice of the tonsorial artist, and have his hair cropped
short, was warned that "he'd look like one o' them there fiddler chaps."
The barber apparently had no greater estimation of the violinist's art
than the latter had of the tonsorial profession, and the situation was