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STORIES OF
the fact of its being the National melody by playing it at the Mansion House during a ban-quet to a French minister in the year of grace and loyalty, 1893 ! But what a wonderful his-tory has this truly marvellous song! And how often has it been erroneously related!
There are several variants as to the circum-stances under which it was composed and written, for Rouget de Lisle wrote both words and music. Our author, says one version, was a young artillery officer at Strasburg, who was imbued with considerable poetic and musical talent, and under the combined influence of love and patriotism he wrote the hymn one night in the house of his sweetheart's father during the severe winter of 1792. The young maiden who had inspired him with the idea shed tears upon hearing the stirring strains. At once conveying the exact prevailing spirit of the whole of France, the song quickly spread from Strasburg to Alsace, where the melody was learnt by the Marseilles troops then on their way to Paris. The piece created a tremendous furore in the French capital, and soon the re-frain was being sung and played all over the country. This is only partly true, because there is some doubt about the sweetheart incident. The real facts are as follows, though his claims
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