One evening, just as Fredrick the Great was getting his flute ready, and his musicians were assembled, an officer brought him a list of the strangers who had arrived. With his flute in his hand he ran over the list, but immediately turned to the assembled musicians, and said, with a kind of agitation:

"Gentlemen, old Bach is come."

The flute was now laid aside, and old Bach, who had alighted at his son's lodgings, was immediately summoned to the Palace.