traint of Court duties, he would be able to give full vent
to the powers which he was burning to express.

In November of this year he bade farewell to Bonn and his friends, and
set forth on his journey, though not, we may be sure, without regrets
at parting with such true helpers and sympathisers as Count Waldstein,
the Breunings, and the man to whom he owed so much--Christian Neefe.
With the last named he left these words of thanks: 'Thank you for the
counsel you have so often given me on my progress in my divine art.
Should I ever become a great man you will certainly have assisted in
it.' In an album provided for the purpose his musical brethren
inscribed their farewells, and Waldstein's message ran as follows:

'DEAR BEETHOVEN,

'You are travelling to Vienna in fulfilment of your
long-cherished wish. The genius of Mozart is still weeping and
bewailing the death of her favourite.[16] With the
inexhaustible Haydn she found a refuge, but no occupation, and
is now waiting to leave him and join herself to some one else.
Labour assiduously, and receive Mozart's spirit from the hands
of Haydn.

'Your old friend,
'WALDSTEIN.

'BONN,
'_October 29, 1792._

Little did either Beethoven or his friends imagine that he would never
set foot in Bonn again, but so it was to be. Two years later war had
broken out with France, Bonn was captured by the French Republican
army, and the Elector and his retinue were forced to fly the town.
Those two years had witnessed great strides in the march of
Beethoven's career. He had arrived in Vienna as a comparatively
unknown musician--though not, it is true, without recommendations from
Count Waldstein--but his marvellous command of the pianoforte, and,
more especially, his powers of extemporisation, had electrified his
hearers to such a degree as to secure for him a place in the front
rank of performers of the day. He was a constant visitor at the houses
of the aristocracy, with several members of whom he had become on
terms of intimacy. In the Prince and Princess Karl Lichnowsky he had
found true friends and sincere admirers, who not only welcomed him as
one of the family, but provided apartments for him in their house, and
bestowed upon him an annuity of L60. Many who had heard him play
forthwith engaged him as teacher, and on every hand his genius and
powers were the theme of the hour.

It i