Tuesday, March 26:
Lovely day; cheerful surmounting of all worries; R. works again. Much time in the garden with the children. Long letter from Clemens, who sends me the Augsburg Confession and the Lutheran catechism.
In gay spirits R. walks into town and returns home with a changed expression: he found a letter from Councillor Düfflipp at the post office! We were not wrong to have been alarmed by Baron Lerchenfeld’s audience. The King now wishes it brought to our notice, firstly, that he has learned that the cost of our theater undertaking would far exceed 900,000 thalers, and the many festival performances would cause the Bayreuth people much expense; secondly, that the Bayreuth newspapers were talking of the luxury of our house, which was very unpleasant for the King; thirdly, that the King requires Siegfried, since he acquired it by purchase. I at once beg R. to return the house to the King, that is to say, to ask Düfflipp to cancel the purchase of the site; to say that the score of Siegfried is not yet completed; and finally to say that he knows where these statements, of which he had heard nothing, came from.
And so we are once more exposed to the old misery! Long conference with R.; he will ask the people in Bayreuth for a statement; should this be subdued in tone, we will abandon the whole project, for we cannot succeed if the King himself is against us. R. would probably also have to give up his allowance, and we to manage as best we could.