ion in which
Mozart was held at the Court, for in a letter to his father at this
time he quotes a remark made by Prince Kaunitz to the Archduke
Maximilian on the subject of the Emperor's inaction with regard to
retaining Mozart's services: 'That men of that stamp only came into
the world once in a hundred years, and that they ought not to be
driven out of Germany, especially when, as good luck would have it,
they were already in the capital.'

Mozart was, indeed, seriously contemplating a journey to London and
Paris, and had even begun to make his preparations, but his father's
urgent appeals for patience and further effort had the effect of
postponing for the time the carrying out of his schemes. In the
meantime Mozart seized the opportunity for which he had been longing
of paying a visit to Salzburg to present Constanze to his father, and
at the same time of fulfilling a vow which he had made that, if
Constanze became his wife, he would have a Mass composed by him for
the occasion performed in her honour. It was, on the whole, a very
happy visit, and later on, when Mozart and his wife had once more
settled down in Vienna, they had the pleasure of welcoming the father
on a return visit. Leopold found his son immersed in work, and it
gladdened his heart to witness the appreciation in which his playing
and compositions were held. One never-to-be-forgotten evening they
spent together in the company of Haydn, when, after hearing several of
Mozart's quartets performed, Leopold was made the happy recipient of a
testimony to his son's greatness, which he treasured above all else
that had been spoken or written in his favour, and which came as a
fitting reward for the unremitting care and solicitude which he had
bestowed upon Mozart's welfare and training. Haydn took the old man
aside at the close of the evening, and said: 'I declare to you before
God as a man of honour that your son is the greatest composer that I
know, either personally or by reputation. He has taste, and, beyond
that, the most consummate knowledge of the art of composition.'

This pleasant time was rendered the happier by the fact that Leopold
found Wolfgang and his wife in somewhat better circumstances, and
their home brightened by the presence of a little grandson, Karl, who
clambered upon his grandfather's knee, and filled the old man's mind
with tender recollections of a little son whom he had lost before
Wolfgang's birth. But it was destined to be th