Saturday, July 16:
Not a wink of sleep, the excitement is too great! According to a letter from Catulle Mendès, our friends will probably not visit us, and of that we are glad, for to see a Frenchman now would be very unpleasant. On top of this the newspaper provides the illuminating news that the Emperor was indeed well aware of the Prince of H.’s candidature for the throne and only annoyed because the latter refused to marry a niece of the Empress, Frl. d’Albe. That the ministers did not know, they were hoodwinked by their own Emperor! So on account of a band of crooks a firebrand is to be thrown into Europe. And for this the people in Paris are singing the “Marseillaise” and à bas la Prusse!
I write to Councilor Düfflipp, because among other things K. Kl[indworth] brought us the curious news that they were not quite certain whether to refuse Die Walküre to the theater managers who offered to buy it. Things in Munich are said to be in such a muddle that they would like to have von Bülow back and to change everything. R. declares that he will never again set foot in Munich.
Yesterday a visit from Countess B., who tells me that all the hopes she has in her affairs she owes to me. Letter from Prof. Nietzsche, who out of consideration for us did not go to see Die Walküre in Munich; I reply to him and try as hard as I can to arouse his enthusiasm for Prussia’s right to represent Germany.
(Many newspapers, foreign ones, on the performances in Weimar, all full of the most distasteful praise.) What lies ahead of us, how will, how can this frightful war end? The King of Bavaria ill, did not attend any performance of Die Walküre. The newspapers allow a ray of hope for peace to shine through. Played through third act of Siegfried; in the evening, biography.