zart should be compensated for his extra work, he laid down fifty ducats on the table and departed, promising to return at the end of another month. Mozart sent a servant to follow his visitor and, if possible, to find out who he was, but the servant lost sight of him.
More than ever persuaded that his visitor was a messenger from the other world sent to warn him that his end was approaching, Mozart applied himself with fresh zeal to the requiem, and, in spite of his exhaustion of body and mind, he completed it before the end of the month.
At the appointed day the stranger came for the work and received it, but the composer's work on earth was finished.
Later investigation proved that the visitor was the servant of a certain nobleman, who wished in this manner to obtain a composition which he could pass off as his own work, written by himself, and dedicated to his wife's memory; and for many years the fraud remained undiscovered.
269.—LISZT'S REPLY TO LOUIS PHILIPPE.
In Liszt's essay on "The Position of an Artist in France," he scored King Louis Philippe and his administration quite severely on their niggardly appropriations for music. Ever after that he avoided meeting the king and declined to play at the Tuileries. But some time afterward he came face to face with His Majesty at an exhibition, and the king engaged him in conversation. Liszt could not escape, but only answered with a bow and "Yes, Sire."
"Do you remember," said the king at last, "that you played at my house when you were but a boy and I Duke of Orleans? Much has changed since then."
"Yes," Liszt burst forth, "but not for the better."
The result of this reply was that when the roll of
