But he had not proceeded far enough to exhibit all the variety and compass
of this melodious instrument, when a noise was heard at the gate, and a party
of armed men entered the chapel. The song of the choristers died away
in a shake of demisemiquavers, contrary to all the rules of psalmody.
The organ-blower, who was working his musical air-pump with one hand,
and with two fingers and a thumb of the other insinuating a peeping-place
through the curtain of the organ-gallery, was struck motionless by the
double operation of curiosity and fear; while the organist, intent only
on his performance, and spreading all his fingers to strike a swell
of magnificent chords, felt his harmonic spirit ready to desert his body
on being answered by the ghastly rattle of empty keys, and in the consequent
agitato furioso of the internal movements of his feelings, was preparing
to restore harmony by the segue subito of an appoggiatura con foco with
the corner of a book of anthems on the head of his neglectful assistant,
when his hand and his attention together were arrested by the scene below.
The voice of the abbot subsided into silence through a descending scale
of long-drawn melody, like the sound of the ebbing sea to the explorers
of a cave. In a few moments all was silence, interrupted only by the iron
tread of the armed intruders, as it rang on the marble floor and echoed
from the vaulted aisles.
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