thing was done,--"Pass--free of duty."

The imperial family were sincere lovers of music. Charles VI., the
father of Maria Theresa, had two passions, hunting and music, and was
an accomplished musician. He used to accompany operatic or other
performances at court upon the clavier, and also composed pieces. At
one time he wrote an opera, which was performed with great splendour in
the theatre of his palace. On this occasion the emperor led the
orchestra, and his two daughters, Maria Theresa and Maria Anne, danced
in the ballet. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu speaks of an opera which she
saw at Vienna in 1716, the decorations and dresses of which cost the
emperor thirty thousand pounds. He called Metastasio from Italy to
compose the operas for his court. Maria Theresa inherited this love of
music, and in 1725, when only seven years old, sang in an opera by Fux,
at a fete given in honour of her mother, the Empress Elizabeth.
Alluding to this, she once said in a joking way to the celebrated
singer, Faustina Hasse, that she believed herself to be the first of
living vocalists. In 1739 she sang a duet with Senesino so beautifully
that the famous old singer was melted to tears. Her husband, Francis
I., was also a lover of music, and her daughters were carefully
instructed in singing, and often appeared in operatic performances at
court. Maria Theresa's son, afterward the Emperor Joseph, also sang
well, and played both the harpsichord and the violoncello.

[Illustration: Mozart and His Sister before Maria Teresa. From
painting by A. Borckmann.]

"With a court so favourably disposed toward music, it is not surprising
that Leopold, a few days only after his arrival, should have received a
command to bring his children on the 13th of October to Schoenbrunn, an
imperial palace near Vienna, and this without any solicitation on his
part. The children remained three hours with the court, and were then
obliged to repeat their performance. The Emperor Francis I., the
husband of Maria Theresa, took a peculiar interest in the little
'sorcerer.'

"He made the little fellow play with only one finger, in which he
perfectly succeeded. An attempt which little Mozart made at the
special request of the emperor, to play with the keys covered by a
piece of cloth, was also a brilliant success. It was, perhaps, owing
to the imperial fancy that this species of artistic trick obtained
considerable celebrity, and played a not unimportant