art-training, which looked to the lyric stage, to devote to literature.
All this denotes a remarkable nature, fit to overcome every difficulty
and rise to the topmost shining peaks of artistic greatness. What she
did our sketch will further relate.


II.

Pauline Garcia was just sixteen when, panting with an irrepressible
sense of her own powers, she exclaimed, "_Ed io anclû son cantatrice_."
Her first public appearance was worthy of the great name she afterward
won. It was at a concert given in Brussels, on December 15, 1837, for
the benefit of a charity, and De Bériot made his first appearance on
this occasion after the death of Mme. Malibran. The court and most
distinguished people of Belgium were present on this occasion, and so
great was the impression made on musicians that the Philharmonic Society
caused two medals to be struck for De Bériot and Mlle. Garcia, the mold
of which was broken immediately. Pauline Garcia, in company with De
Bériot, gave a series of concerts through Belgium and Germany, and it
soon became evident that a new star of the first magnitude was rising in
the musical firmament. In Germany many splendid gifts were showered on
her. The Queen of Prussia sent her a superb suite of emeralds, and Mme.
Sontag, with whom she sang at Frankfort, gave the young cantatrice a
valuable testimonial, which was alike an expression of her admiration
of Pauline Garcia and a memento of her regard for the name of the great
Malibran, whose passionate strains had hardly ceased lingering in the
ears of Europe. Paris first gathered its musical forces to hear the new
singer at the Théâtre de la Renaissance, December 15, 1838, eager to
compare her with Malibran. Among other numbers on the concert programme,
she gave a very difficult air by Costa, which had been a favorite song