near him as his friend, so that I might escape any malignant stroke of fate.  Herr Pfistermeister informed me at the same time that he was instructed to conduct me to Munich at once to see the King, and begged my permission to inform his master by telegram that I would come on the following day.  I was invited to dine with the Eckerts, but Herr Pfistermeister was obliged to decline to accompany me.  My friends, who had been joined by young Weisheimer from Osthofen, were very naturally amazed and delighted at the news I brought them.  While we were at table Eckert was informed by telegram of Meyerbeer’s death in Paris, and Weisheimer burst out in boorish laughter to think that the master of opera, who had done me so much harm, had by a strange coincidence not lived to see this day.  Herr von Gall also made his appearance, and had to admit in friendly surprise that I certainly did not need his good services any more.  He had already given the order for Lohengrin, and now paid me the stipulated sum on the spot.  At five o’clock that afternoon I met Herr Pfistermeister at the station to travel with him to Munich, where my visit to the King was announced for the following morning.

On the same day I had received the most urgent warnings against returning to Vienna.  But my life was to have no more of these alarms; the dangerous road along which fate beckoned me to such great ends was not destined to be clear of troubles and anxieties of a kind unknown to me heretofore, but I was never again to feel the weight of the everyday hardships of existence under the protection of my exalted friend.