I therefore agreed with her that she should join me late in the autumn in Paris.  In the meantime I was willing to look for a possible abode there, and undertook to arrange for the removal of our furniture and household goods to the French capital.  In order to carry out this plan financial assistance was imperative, as the means at my disposal were quite inadequate.  I then made to Wesendonck the same offer in regard to my Nibelungen that I had made to the Grand Duke of Weimar, that is to say, I proposed that he should buy the copyright for publishing the work.  Wesendonck acceded to my wishes without demur, and was ready to buy out each of the completed portions of my work in turn for about the same sum as it was reasonable to suppose a publisher would pay for it later on.  I was not able to fix my departure, which took place on the 7th of September, when I went for a three days’ visit to my friends in Zurich.  I spent these days at the Wesendonck’s, where I was well looked after and saw my former acquaintances, Herwegh, Semper, and Gottfried Keller.  One of the evenings I spent with them was marked by an animated dispute with Semper over the political events of the time.  Semper professed to recognise, in the recent defeat of Austria, the defeat of the German nationality; in the Romance element represented by Louis Napoleon, he recognised a sort of Assyrian despotism which he hated both in art and politics.  He expressed himself with such emphasis that Keller, who was generally so silent, was provoked into a lively debate.  Semper in his turn was so aggravated at this, that at last in a fit of desperation he blamed me for luring him into the enemy’s camp, by being the cause of his invitation to the Wesendonck’s.  We made it up before we parted that night, and met again on several occasions after this, when we took care never again to let our discussions become so passionate.  From Zurich I went to Winterthur to visit Sulzer.  I did not see my friend himself, but only his wife and the boy she had borne to him since my last visit; the mother and child made a very touching and friendly impression on me, particularly when I realised that I must now regard my old friend in the light of a happy father.

On the 15th of September I reached Paris.  I had intended to fix my abode somewhere in the neighbourhood of the Champs Elysees, and with this object in view at once looked out for temporary lodgings in that district, which I found eventually in the Avenue de Matignon.  My main object was to discover my desired peaceful place of refuge in some small house remote from the thoroughfares.  I at once bestirred myself to find this, and thought it my duty to make use of every acquaintance I could call to mind.  The Olliviers were not in Paris at the time; Countess d’Agoult was ill, and was also busy arranging her departure for Italy, and unable to receive me.  She referred me to her daughter the Countess Charnace, upon whom I called, but without being able to explain