possibility of embracing you, but as you were unable to come, I was unable to wait at Frankfort; you understand why.  Therefore, I ventured to ask you to follow me to Baden, where my narrow financial circumstances compelled me to go.  I fully understand the reasons which prevented you from coming there.  Pardon me for having attempted to smuggle, so to speak, our meeting into another plan.  The temptation to such an attempt was too great.

You are quite mistaken, however, in thinking that a “special occasion” would be necessary for inducing me to pay a visit to Weimar.  Believe me that I abide by what I told the Grand Duke at Lucerne years ago, when he asked me whether I should be inclined, in case of an amnesty, to stay at Weimar now and then.  I told him that the chief reason which would attract me to Weimar would be your society, and that, therefore, I should pay frequent visits to Weimar as long as you were there.  You will understand that in my relations to Weimar no change whatever has, fortunately, taken place; on the contrary, I may hope that I shall no longer be obliged to pay for the boon of your society by my participation in insufficient artistic doings (I am speaking of the opera).  Be assured that I am joyfully looking forward to the day when I may set sail for Altenburg.

My position in Germany is still far from satisfactory.  As you know, I am neither amnestied nor has my sentence been remitted.  All I have obtained is the promise that the claim to extradition will be abandoned whenever, for the purpose of performing my works, I wish to enter a German territory, the government of which has given its consent, and asked permission of the Saxon Government.  Even my six days’ journey to the Rhine I could not have extended to Weimar without previously complying with those conditions, for otherwise I should have offended the Saxon Government at the very outset.  Our German potentates cannot enter into direct communication with me, for I am still a political outlaw, neither must I hope for important or sufficient measures in my favour at any court, and the plans for the performances of my last works have not been advanced much.  This is all the more evident, as the condition of our largest operatic theatres is most disappointing.  Of Berlin I could not think at all without first contemplating the possibility of a complete revolution of affairs, both as regards the theatre and the management.  I was not bold enough to approach the Princess of Prussia with any hope of producing a profound impression in that sense.  I was quite satisfied with meeting in her the spirituelle, intellectual, lively woman I had pictured to myself, and I limited myself to acknowledging and thanking her for the uninterrupted sympathy she had shown for my works without being in the least tempted to communicate to her any plan or wish of mine.