After visiting Vienna the Mozart family spent some months quietly at
home. This time was well used by the children. Never a day went by that
they did not devote many hours to their studies. Their progress was
amazing. In fact they improved so much that their father concluded to
take them on another tour.
This time they were to go to Paris. The summer after Wolfgang's seventh
birthday, Leopold Mozart set out with his children. They stopped at so
many towns and cities that it took them five months to complete the
journey to Paris.
They decided to give a concert in Frankfurt, one of the German towns
that they visited. At that time Goethe was a lad of fourteen. He
attended the concert and never forgot little Wolfgang Mozart. Years
afterward the poet wrote, "In imagination I can still see the little man
in his wig and sword."
The first Paris concert was a great success. The people applauded again
and again. When the children came upon the stage, the men clapped their
hands, and the ladies waved their handkerchiefs. In writing about this
very concert to a friend, Leopold Mozart said, "We burned more than
sixty candles."
At New Year's the Mozart children were presented at the French court,
where they were kindly received by the king and queen. The queen had
Wolfgang placed beside her and talked with him in German. He had the
honor of playing the great organ in the king's chapel. Those who heard
him play both the piano and the organ could not decide which he played
the better.
The children of a royal family are not often allowed to play with
children of lower rank. The king's daughters admired Wolfgang and Marian
Mozart very much. The princesses and the little musicians had many romps
together in the palace.
From the French capital the Mozarts went to London. On their journey the
children saw the sea for the first time. They liked to watch the great
waves break against the cliffs. They clapped their hands with delight
when the spray dashed over the rocks on the shore. They liked to run
down upon the beach to meet the incoming waves. "See, brother,"
exclaimed Marian, "how the sea runs away and grows again."
[Illustration: _Carl Herpfer_