feeling happy, for the aristocracy as a body
welcomed him with enthusiasm, and invited him to their houses to dine.
To Hieronymus, on the other hand, who was cordially detested by the
nobility, and especially by the Emperor Joseph, the fact that one of
his musicians--a mere domestic of his establishment--was made the
object of all this attention on the part of the great people of
Vienna, was in itself sufficient to rekindle the hatred which he had
always felt towards Mozart. It was a purely selfish feeling which had
induced the Archbishop to reattach Mozart to his Court; and now, when
he found that requests were flowing in from the nobility to be allowed
to hear the composer play at their own houses, where Hieronymus
himself was far from being a welcome guest, he gave full rein to his
spite, with the result that Mozart's life speedily became unbearable.

The culminating point was reached when the Emperor purposely left the
Archbishop out of the list of guests invited to his summer residence
at Laxenburg. Enraged at the slight thus offered to him, Hieronymus
before leaving Vienna sought to gratify a portion of his revenge by
turning Mozart from his doors. Mozart had just before made up his mind
to quit the Archbishop's service, for his treatment had of late become
unendurable, and there was every prospect of his being able to make a
living in Vienna. He now requested an audience for the purpose of
ascertaining his position. Hieronymus seized the occasion for
showering upon the head of his Concertmeister all the abuse which he
could summon to his aid. Calling him 'villain,' 'low wretch,' 'low
fellow of the streets,' the Archbishop declared that none of his
servants treated him so badly. 'Your Grace is dissatisfied with me,
then?' said Mozart. 'What! you dare to employ threats! Fex! there is
the door! I will have nothing more to do with such a vile wretch!'
'Nor I with, you,' was Mozart's retort, as he quitted the room.

Mozart was now virtually free from the intolerable burden under which
he had suffered, but his actual discharge was not obtained without
further indignity and insult. Leopold Mozart received the news of the
rupture with alarm, and endeavoured to induce Wolfgang to reconsider
his decision not to return to Salzburg. But even though an official
acceptance of his resignation was not then forthcoming, Mozart made a
stand for his independence. 'Do not ask it,' he wrote to his father in
reply. 'Demand of me any