Had you nothing more to tell me about Berlioz?  I was expecting to hear a great deal of him.  And cannot you send me any of his scores?  I am, as you may imagine, making a pause in my work now.  I am waiting to see what my health will do; my doctor wants to send me to some watering place, but to this I will not, and cannot agree.  If I knew how to manage it I should go with Semper to Rome in the autumn.  We frequently talk about it, always in the silent hope that you might be one of the party.  Here you have my latest whim.  A thousand greetings to the Princess and her daughter.  She has written me a very cheerful and friendly letter, for which I am deeply obliged to her.  I ask you fervently, dearest friend, not again to keep me waiting for a letter so long.  Write to me soon and at some length, as we are not going to meet just yet.

Farewell, and continue to love me.

Your

R. W.

214.

My dear Franz,

Before taking any steps with regard to my amnesty, I must, once more, take counsel with you, and as this is impossible by word of mouth, as I should have wished, it must be done by letter as briefly as possible.

From Prague the Director of Police there, Baron von Peimann, sent me the advice that I should become a Swiss citizen.  In that case the Austrian minister would give his vise to my passport for all the Imperial states, and I might then reside there without being disturbed, for if Saxony should claim me, the reply would be that no Saxon subject of the name of R. W. was known.  This would give me some air at least in one direction, and although not much would be gained by it, I might make use of it if there were an intention of performing “Tannhauser” at Vienna, which opera I should let them have there only on condition of my conducting it personally.  It is of course more important to me to be allowed to return to Germany proper, not in order to reside there permanently, for I can thrive only in the retirement which I can best secure in a little quiet place in Switzerland, but in order to be present now and then at an important performance, especially of “Lohengrin,” and to gain the necessary excitement, without which I must perish at last.  I am firmly resolved not to allow “Lohengrin” to be given at either Berlin or Munich without me.  A performance of my “Nibelungen” can of course not be thought of, unless I have the permission to travel through Germany so as to gain a knowledge of the acting and singing materials at the theatres.  Finally I feel the absolute necessity of living, at least part of every year, near you, and you may be assured that I should make a more frequent and more constant use of the possibility of visiting you than you do.  To gain all this has now become a matter of the greatest importance to me, and I cannot go on living without at last and quickly taking a decisive step in that direction.  I am therefore