Monday, April 10:
Loldi’s birthday. Celebrations.
Twenty Jesuits shot dead in Paris. “Not the right way,” says R. “These people should be destroyed only through the power of the state, that is to say, they should be driven out as corrupters of mankind.”
Letter from Claire. I write to my mother, who is waiting in Geneva for an early restoration of order in Paris. To Countess Bassenheim’s; the rumor is going around that Dollinger is to be appointed minister of culture, which R. finds excellent, though we cannot understand how our young master came on this idea.
In the Musikalische Zeitung there is an article on Gluck which astonishes R. greatly; Gluck is quoted as talking about the performance of his works and declaring that the performance lacks soul when the composer is not present.
R. announces to me that Richter is to leave us, because he wants to assist his mother in Vienna, and he asks me to lend him a thousand francs from my savings so that he can give Richter a small present. I do it willingly, though with a heavy heart; I feel as if we shall never be able to set anything aside. God help us!
My mood regarding our journey is becoming more and more despondent; it seems like blasphemy for me to seek contact with the outside world again. Fidi indisposed.