nsiderable time overtook it. The father's vexation and wrath were
extreme, but futile; scolding and threats were thrown away on this
child. He owned his fault, cried bitterly, promised endless good
behaviour in the future, but stuck all the time to his original point,
which was that this time he must go. The end was that the father had
to give in and take him, and this journey practically decided Handel's
career.

"Music at Weissenfels was held in high esteem. The duke, a generous
and enlightened prince, was a friend to musicians. And though Heinrich
Schuetz had been twenty years dead, his long life and noble labours were
fresh in the memory of his fellow townsmen, who were justly proud of
their burgomaster's son. He, too, had been educated for the law, and
not till after long doubts and severe struggles did he abandon it to
follow his true vocation.

"Little Handel soon found allies. The choir of the ducal chapel
admitted him to their practices, and encouraged him to try his hand at
the organ. Finding him soon quite able to manage it, they lifted him
up to the organ-stool, one Sunday afternoon at the conclusion of the
service, and let him play away as best he could. This attracted the
notice of the duke, who listened with astonishment to the performance,
and, at its close, inquired who the brave little organist might be. On
hearing the whole story from his chamberlain, he summoned father and
son to his presence. With the former he expostulated on the folly of
coercing a child in the choice of a profession, and assured him, with
all due respect for his conscientious scruples, that to restrain the
activity of a heaven-born genius like this was to sin against nature
and the public good. As to the boy, he filled his pockets with gold
pieces, and exhorted him to be industrious. Here was a change! Music
was to be not only suffered, but furthered; his father was to lose no
time in finding him a good teacher. Often as old Handel must have
stopped his ears to these very same arguments before, he could not
choose but listen, now that they fell from ducal lips. He did not
change his mind,--a doctorship of law remained the goal of his
ambition,--but he practically acquiesced, and, on his return to Halle,
sent his son to study music with Zachau, organist of the Frauenkirche."

[Illustration: The Child Handel. From painting by Margaret Dicksee.]

The legend that accompanied, in the catalogue of the Royal Academy