Thursday, December 30:
Our friend Seidl has departed with instructions for Neumann, also equipped with cuts for Tristan. Today R. writes to the King, telling him all kinds of things — everything, in fact; he begins his letter in the morning and concludes it in the evening.
Over coffee he says that a dream last night ended with the words: "Rise, all you tailors, you brave Bayreuthers." This was probably due, he thinks, to the following line of thought he had been pursuing: "In ten years the French will celebrate the centennial of the great revolution; by that time the Emperor, Moltke, and Bismarck will all be dead. The French are quietly setting aside a billion a year for army and navy; we are piling up too, but will not be able to keep it up. I believe they will beat us and then do what Bismarck did not do with France — could not do because it is too unified — divide Germany into provinces, some going to Belgium. I can already see la haute Franconie and all of us put to work as tailors when the Jewish genius, the Jewish Napoleon, makes his appearance there. The whole European mainland will be drowned in pomade. We getting poorer and poorer — though the German Empire will not be much of a loss."
"Then," I observe, "will come emigration." "I should like it to come even sooner," says R.
We go for a walk in the palace gardens — Marke has a fight. R. comments: "He is an enemy of the spirit — he finds all flesh blameless." We walk in the palace gardens with Joukowsky; R. is very merry. He draws our attention to the faces, among them one he describes as "a perennial bellyache." He delights in the sunset, laughing however when we hear the drums rolling, and remarking how well they combine — how the shades of colour are reflected in the drum rolls! In the quiet palace gardens there is scarcely anything to be heard except the angry commands of a sergeant in the nearby barracks.
Yesterday, in connection with the bugle calls — which are not nearly so nice as the previous ones — R. remarked, "With these calls the Bavarians conquered; with the nice ones they were defeated."
In the evening our friends the mayor, Feustel, Gross, Rubinstein, Wolzogen, and Joukowsky join us. I was rather weary today and had to lie down during the day, which gave R. an opportunity of showing all his solicitous kindness toward me.