Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Quotes
Now let the matter rest as it is, or as it may be, what avail useless speculations? What is to occur we do not know; still in so far we do! what God wills!
Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus. The Letters of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1769-1791). Translated by Lady Wallace, vol. 1, Longmans, Green, and Co., 1865.
Charles was a young man who ruled under the thumb of his mother, Catherine de Medici. She and the leading Catholic political figures had decided to have the army massacre the Huguenots—Protestants—of France. Charles knew the massacre was to begin that night and tried to save his friend Rochefoucault, a Protestant, who was a member of the King’s court. He suggested several times that Rochefoucault not go home that evening but stay at the Louvre. The unsuspecting Rochefoucault felt that he had to get home to his wife and left explaining that to the King. Hence the King’s remark. Rochefoucault and his family were murdered that night. In the end, 50,000 Protestants were massacred in what has come to be known as the Massacre of Saint Bartholomew. Many of the palace servants were Protestants and were cut to ribbons throughout the palace. The King from a palace window shot a rifle at Protestants trying to swim the River Seine to escape, while his page kept reloading for him.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, baptised as Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period.
