Despite all this work, the young man chafed at the narrow provincialism
of his native town, at the absence of true artistic interest, at the
company he was obliged to keep at the Archbishop’s table, and, most of
all, at that cleric’s attitude. Leopold, seeing the dangerous way in
which the situation was shaping itself between the young man and his
master, made an effort to stave off a catastrophe by planning another
trip. Wolfgang applied to the Archbishop for his discharge, whereupon
Colloredo, who was not really anxious to lose the composer’s services,
told the pair to “seek their fortunes where they pleased”—but at the
same time would not permit Leopold to leave. The father thereupon
decided that his son should go to Paris, perhaps to find some lucrative
position at the French court, unless he should be lucky enough to
discover one somewhere else. But since he was forbidden to go along he
deputed his wife to go in his place and keep a careful eye on the
impulsive young man.