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The town of Hainburg lies close to the Danube, and looks very
picturesque with its old walls and towers. According to the
Nibelungen Lied, King Attila once spent a night in the place, and
a stone figure of that "scourge of God" forms a feature of the
Hainburg Wiener Thor, a rock rising abruptly from the river,
crowned with the ruined Castle of Rottenstein. The town cannot be
very different from what it was in Haydn's time, except perhaps
that there is now a tobacco manufactory, which gives employment
to some 2000 hands.
It is affecting to think of the little fellow of six dragged away
from his home and his mother's watchful care to be planted down
here among strange surroundings and a strange people. That he was
not very happy we might have assumed in any case. But there were,
unfortunately, some things to render him more unhappy than he
need have been. Frankh's intentions were no doubt excellent; but
neither in temper nor in character was he a fit guardian and
instructor of youth. He got into trouble with the authorities
more than once for neglect of his duties, and had to answer a
charge of gambling with loaded dice. As a teacher he was of that
stern disciplinarian kind which believes in lashing instruction
into the pupil with the "tingling rod." Haydn says he owed him
more cuffs than gingerbread.
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