Ludwig looked after the education of his brothers; Caspar learned music, and Johann was put under the Court Apothecary. And now he found devoted friends in Count Waldstein and the Breuning family. The widow von Breuning was a woman of society, accomplished and kind-hearted. She was one of the few people who had an influence over the actions of Beethoven, and her influence was no doubt strengthened by the sweetness of her daughter Eleonore. He gave Eleonore lessons, and she in turn acquainted him with the German poets, and Homer and Shakespeare. Was he in love with her? We know that he was of amorous temperament. Dr. Wegeler, Stephen von Breuning, Ries, Romberg, all bear witness that he was never without an object of passion in his heart. Mr. Thayer says that we have no proof that Beethoven loved her, but such affairs are not often matters for cross-examination and a jury. No doubt the susceptible young man was smitten deeply with every fair girl he met, and in the new-comer forgot the old flame. There was Miss Jeannette d'Honrath of Cologne; there was Miss Westerhold, whose eyes he remembered for forty years; nor must pretty Babette Koch be forgotten, the daughter of a tavern keeper, and afterward a Countess. And so he passed his days in music, conversation, and innocent pleasures. He went with the Elector to Mergentheim; at Aschaffenburg he played in friendly rivalry with the Abbé Sterkel. It was at Mergentheim that the modest and unassuming pianist touched hearts by his telling, suggestive, expressive improvisations; for so Chaplain Junker bore record. In 1792, Haydn passed through Bonn on his return from London to Vienna, and praised a cantata by Beethoven on the succession of Leopold II., and in November of the same year Ludwig left Bonn for ever. The Elector realized the extent of his genius, and gave him a small pension. The political condition of France affected the Rhenish town; there was panic, and in October there was a general exodus. His many friends bade Beethoven warm God-speed, and Count Waldstein in a letter prayed him to receive "through unbroken industry from the hands of Haydn the spirit of Mozart." Nearly twenty-two, he was known chiefly by the remarkable facility of his extempore playing, and the record of his compositions during the Bonn period is insignificant. At the age of twenty-three, Mozart was famous as a writer of operas, symphonies, cantatas, and masses, and his pieces were in number about three hundred. [Illustration: BEETHOVEN. Miniature portrait on ivory painted by C. Hernemann, in 1802.]