Vienna, 9 Jun 1781
Well, Count Arco has managed things to perfection! So that
is the way to persuade people, to win them over, to refuse
petitions out of congenital stupidity, not to say a word to
your master for lack of spirit and love of sycophancy, to
keep a man hanging about for four weeks and at last, when
he is obliged to present the petition himself, instead of
arranging for his admittance, to throw him out and give him
a kick in the pants... I wrote three petitions, handed them
in five times, and each time had them thrown back at
me...and since the Archbishop was planning to leave on
the next day, I was quite beside myself with rage and wrote
another petition, in which I disclosed to him that I had had
a petition in readiness for the past four weeks! With that
petition I received my discharge in the most gallant way.
So seeing the reasons why I left him no father could be
angry with his own son.