specially arranged for her by Francesco Bianchi. The fervid Naples
audience received her with passionate acclamations, to which she had
never been accustomed from the more impassive English. Hitherto her
reputation had been mostly identified with English opera; thenceforward
she was to be known chiefly as a brilliant exponent of the Italian
school of music.

Paesiello's "Didone," Paer's "Ero e Leandro," and Guglielmi's "Deborah e
Sisera" rapidly succeeded, each one confirming afresh the admiration of
her hearers, who were all _cognoscenti_, as Italian audiences generally
are. It became the vogue to patronize the beautiful cantatrice, and the
large English colony, who were led by some of the noblest gentlewomen
of England, such as Lady Templeton, Lady Palmerston, Lady Gertrude
Villiers, Lady Grandison, and others, made it a matter of national
pride to give the singer an enthusiastic support. English influence
was all-paramount at the court of Naples, from important political
exigencies, and this cooperated with Mrs. Billington's extraordinary
merits to raise her to a degree of consideration which had been rarely
attained by any singer in that beautiful Italian capital, prone as its
people are to indulge in exaggerated admiration of musical celebrities.
She sang for nearly two years at the San Carlo, and in 1796 we find her
at Bologna before French military audiences, whom Napoleon's Italian
victories had brought across the Alps. The conqueror confessed himself
vanquished by the lovely Billington, and made her the guest of himself
and Josephine, who admired the art no less than she dreaded the beauty
of a possible rival.

The English singer passed from city to city of Italy, everywhere
arousing the liveliest admiration. Her _début_ in Venice was to be in
"Semiramide," written expressly for her by Nasolini, a young composer of