The King welcomed foreign artists not only liberally in point of payment, but with the utmost kindness and freedom of personal intercourse, so that it is not surprising that they should have held him in great reverence, and approached him with large expectations.[18] Mozart's best introductions to the King's favour were his instrumental compositions, especially his quartets, and the very successful performance of his "Entführung" which had taken place in Berlin; there can be little doubt that he confirmed the good opinion conceived of him by his accomplishments as a virtuoso and by his general demeanour. But he found a powerful opponent in the haughty and intriguing Duport.[19] At Mozart's first visit he insisted on speaking French, which Mozart, although familiar with the language, decidedly declined doing. "The grinning mounseer," said he, "has been long enough making German money, and eating German bread, to be able to speak the German language, or to murder it as best he may, with his French grimaces."[20] Duport did not forgive him, and did all he could to prejudice the King against him, although Mozart paid him the compliment of composing variations (573 K.) to a charming minuet of Duport's (April 29, 1789), and of performing them himself. But the King was proof against {OFFER OF THE KING OF PRUSSIA.} (231) Duport's ill-nature, invited Mozart regularly to his concerts, and was fond of hearing him play. When he asked him what he thought of the Berlin Kapelle, Mozart answered frankly, that it contained the best performers in the world, but that if the gentlemen would play together it would be an improvement.[21] This implied disapprobation of the Kapellmeister Reichardt, whose direction had indeed been found fault with by others.[22] We hear of no intercourse between the two artists; perhaps some such sharp expressions as the above were the cause of the grudging notices of Mozart by Reichardt and the journals under his influence, which we cannot fail to remark.[23] No two natures could well be more dissimilar. Reichardt was undoubtedly a distinguished man; he had musical talent, a keen intellect, varied cultivation, and great energy; but ambition, vanity, and a passionate temper seldom allowed him to arrive at a calm judgment, and he was in continual search of some new way in which to bring himself forward. The journalist and the musician, the critic and the composer, trod close on each other's heels; and while always seeking to gain credit for originality of style, his greater compositions are in truth uncertain and unequal, and seldom produce the desired effect. No wonder that he failed to understand a nature such as Mozart's, which, undisturbed by external considerations, followed its creative impulses from sheer inner necessity; no wonder, either, that so failing, he should have sought to justify his aversion to his rival on polemical grounds.[24] Mozart's remark must have made some impression