sufficiently touching.

The young chevaliers of Lucca were wild over the new operatic star; for
her talent, beauty, and fascination made her a paragon of attraction,
and her capricious whims and coquetries riveted the chains in which she
held her admirers. Catarina, however she may have felt pleased at lordly
tributes of devotion, and willing to accept substantial proofs of
their sincerity, lavished her friendship for the most part on her own
comrades, and became specially devoted to the singer Guardagni, whose
rare artistic excellence made him a valuable mentor to the young prima
donna. Three years after her _début_ her reputation had become national,
and we find her singing at Naples in the San Carlo. The aged poet
Metastasio, a name so imperishably connected with the development of the
Italian opera, became one of her bond slaves. Gabrielli was wont to use
her admirers for artistic advantage, and she learned certain invaluable
lessons in the delivery of recitative and the higher graces of her art
from one whose experience and knowledge were infinitely higher and more
suggestive than those of a mere singing-master. The courtly poet, the
pet of rank and beauty for nearly fifty years, sighed in vain at the
feet of this inexorable coquette, and shared his disappointment with a
host of other distinguished suitors, who showered costly gifts at the
shrine of beauty, and were compelled to content themselves with kissing
her hand as a reward.

Metastasio's interest, unchecked by the disdain of the capricious
beauty, succeeded in obtaining for her the position of court singer at
Vienna, where the Emperor, Francis I., was one of her admirers. She soon
created as great a furor among the gallants of the Austrian capital as
she had in Italy. Swords were drawn freely in the quarrels which she
delighted to foster, and dueling became a mania with those who aspired