135. "To please you, best of fathers, I would sacrifice my
happiness, my health and my life; but my honor is my own, and
ought to be above all else to you. Let Count Arco and all
Salzburg read this letter."

(Vienna, May 19, 1781. It was Count Arco who had dismissed Mozart
with a kick. The father was thrown into consternation at the
maltreatment of his son and sought to persuade Mozart to return
to Salzburg. Mozart replied: "Best, dearest father, ask of me
anything you please but not that; the very thought makes me
tremble with rage.")

136. "You did not think when you wrote this that such a back-step
would stamp me as one of the most contemptible fellows in the
world. All Vienna knows that I have left the Archbishop, knows
why, knows that it is because of my injured honor, of an injury
inflicted three times,--and I am to make a public denial,
proclaim myself a cur and the Archbishop a noble prince? No man
could do the former, least of all I, and the second can only be
done by God if He should choose to enlighten him."

(Vienna, May 19, 1781, to his father, who had asked him to return
to the service of the Archbishop.)

137. "If it be happiness to be rid of a prince who never pays
one, but torments him to death, then I am happy. For if I had to
work from morning till night I would do it gladly rather than
live off the bounty of such a,--I do not dare to call him by the
name he deserves,--I was forced to take the step I did and I can