vexations to drive him from freely using the gift which God had bestowed upon him. But at twenty-five he was called to Munich to compose an opera, and to this he gave himself heart and soul. It was "Idomeneus, King of Crete," and Mozart, in the strength of his young manhood, produced in this opera something new; for though other operas had been written before it, this, written in a few weeks, is the basis of all the music of our day." It brought him friends, and filled the young composer with high hope of a future career, unchecked by the petty tyranny of the Archbishop of Salzburg. "I should rejoice,” he writes to his father at this time, "were I to be told that my services were no longer required; for with the great patronage that I have here, both my present and future circumstances would be secure, death excepted, which no one can guard against, though no great misfortune to a single man. But anything in

the world to please you. It would be less trying to me if I could only occasionally escape from time to time, just to draw my breath. You know how difficult it was to get away on this occasion; and without some very urgent cause, there would not be the faintest hope of such a thing. It is enough to make one weep to think of it, so I say no more."

His father and Nannerl visited Munich to In the midst of festivities

hear the opera. came a command from the Archbishop for Mozart to accompany his household to Vienna, for the prelate wished to appear in great pomp in the Imperial city. Mozart obeyed the summons, and thenceforth his life was led there, for he never returned to Salzburg to live. It gives an idea of the dependent life which a musician led, though he were a man of divine genius, when we read in one of Mozart's letters, written just after reaching Vienna: "Our party consists of the two valets, the comptroller, Herr Zetti, the confectioner, the two cooks, Cecarelli, Brunetti, and my insignificant self. N. B. The two valets sit at the head of the table. I have, at all events, the honor to be placed above the cooks; I almost believe I am back in Salzburg! At table all kinds of coarse, silly joking go on; but no one jokes with me, for I never say a word, or, if I am obliged to speak, I do so with the utmost gravity, and when I have dined I go away." To be reckoned by the Archbishop as a fit companion for his valets and cooks! But Mozart shows in his words that though he sat at table with them he would not make himself their comrade. It was evident that the Archbishop

consulted only his own vanity, and Mozart very shortly determined to cut loose from the service. To do this was hard, for it was also to disobey his father, who trembled before the Archbishop's power. Mozart had ever been a boy in his filial obedience, and now when he took this step contrary to his father's wishes, but impelled by the keenest sense of honor and self-respect, he grew, as we think, suddenly a man. He seemed to his friends to be plunging into ruin, but in reality he was now just entering upon his great career. He married shortly after, and threw himself for support on teaching and composition.

Now succeeded ten years of busy life. All varieties of musical compositions came thick and fast from his pen. The most dramatic of musical romances,-"Don Giovanni," that fanciful and sweet play, "The Magic Flute," and his symphonies that flow like changing streams through woods and sunlit fields, - were products of this period. His life was brimming with music and social pleasure. Care and anxiety indeed came upon him; with manhood he left off some of his youthful exuberance of spirit, and until the end he seemed always at odds with riches, never free from petty embarrassment, but more than once there is an April

scene of sun and rain chasing one another in his familiar letters. Listen to him as he adds a postscript to a letter to his absent wife: "While writing the last page, many a tear has fallen on it. But now let us be merry. Look! Swarms of kisses are flying about- quick! catch some! I have caught three, and delicious they are. Adieu, my dearest, sweetest wife! Be careful of your health, and do not go into the town on foot. how you like your new quarters. Adieu! I send you a million kisses!" And again in another postscript, "Kiss Sophie for me. Silsmag (his little boy) I send two good fillips on the nose, and a hearty pull at his hair. A thousand compliments to Stoll. Adieu! The hour strikes! Farewell! We shall meet

again!""

Write to me

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These words were the last written by him; they are quoted from the "Magic Flute," on which he was then engaged. They intimate what was passing in his mind, for the shadow of death was creeping over him. Some time before, a tall man, clad in sombre gray, had called upon him to inquire whether he would undertake to write a Requiem, but did not name the person who ordered it. Mozart accepted the order, and set about it eagerly; but

before finishing it, was forced to visit Prague. Just as he was setting out, the mysterious man in gray appeared suddenly by the carriage to demand the " Requiem." There was something singular about his manner, and that, taken with the subjecta funeral piecetook strong hold of Mozart, and he gave himself up to the task. We know now that all the mystery was due to the wish of a certain count to get possession of this "Requiem," and to pass himself off as the composer. But Mozart was conscious of an ebb in his life. Long before others would believe it, and before any visible sign was seen beyond a weariness under the cares and labors imposed upon him, he saw the approaching end, and declared that he was writing this "Requiem for his own funeral. Gradually his strength failed, as he worked upon it, and he could not leave the house. Then he could not leave his bed; but still he labored, hoping to complete it as a final account of his life; and so he did in every material point. "In it," says his biographer, "he expressed, in never-dying powerful tones, his consciousness of guilt, and of reconciliation with Heaven. In the innermost depths of his heart he was conscious of his human frailty, and expressed the deep peni

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