The fact that the playing of such criminal parts as the one he had had in view with my wife was unable to divert the ever-increasing attention of the outside world from his vicious and dissolute habits, does not seem to have escaped him; for those behind the scenes told me candidly that it was owing to the fear of very unpleasant revelations that he had suddenly decided to give up his position at Riga altogether.  Even in much later years I heard about Holtei’s bitter dislike of me, a dislike which showed itself, among other things, in his denunciation of The Music of the Future, [Footnote:  Zukunftsmusik is a pamphlet revealing some of Wagner’s artistic aims and aspirations, written 1860-61.—­Editor.] and of its tendency to jeopardise the simplicity of pure sentiment.  I have previously mentioned that he displayed so much personal animosity against me during the latter part of the time we were together in Riga that he vented his hostility upon me in every possible way.  Up to that time I had felt inclined to ascribe it to the divergence of our respective views on artistic points.

To my dismay I now became aware that personal considerations alone were at the bottom of all this, and I blushed to realise that by my former unreserved confidence in a man whom I thought was absolutely honest, I had based my knowledge of human nature on such very weak foundations.  But still greater was my disappointment when I discovered the real character of my friend H. Dorn.  During the whole time of our intercourse at Riga, he, who formerly treated me more like a good-natured elder brother, had become my most confidential friend.  We saw and visited each other almost daily, very frequently in our respective homes.  I kept not a single secret from him, and the performance of his Schoffe van Paris under my direction was as successful as if it had been under his own.  Now, when I heard that my post had been given to him, I felt obliged to ask him about it, in order to learn whether there was any mistake on his part as to my intention regarding the position I had hitherto held.  But from his letter in reply I could clearly see that Dorn had really made use of Holtei’s dislike for me to extract from him, before his departure, an arrangement which was both binding on his successor and also in his (Dorn’s) own favour.  As my friend he ought to have known that he could benefit by this agreement only in the event of my resigning my appointment in Riga, because in our confidential conversations, which continued to the end, he always carefully refrained from touching on the possibility of my going away or remaining.  In fact, he declared that Holtei had distinctly told him he would on no account re-engage me, as I could not get on with the singers.  He added that after this one could not take it amiss if he, who had been inspired with fresh enthusiasm for the theatre by the success of his Schoffe von Paris, had seized and turned to his own advantage the