Be completely reassured. Envy, stupidity, and slander got hold of something they could not understand and used it to report falsehoods about me. Since there has been not the slightest cause for change in my relations, I am happy to enjoy now as before the full favor of my sublime protector, for the world will soon have the best proof, and thus I am too proud to refute that lying correspondence.
Richard Wagner
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner: The Burrell Collection, ed. John N. Burk (Macmillan, 1950), No. 278