. . . The hopes and prospects opened to me by you and Herrn Batz just a year ago induced me then to acquire the plot of land and to carry through the definite building of a house, although the estimates exceeded the capital placed at my disposal. Those estimates were overstepped by the laying out of a garden and by some supplementary construction, and therefore I was forced in advance to give up the idea of contracting a mortgage; but at the same time I depended entirely on the realization of the prospects then offered by you, so far as the inside furnishings were concerned. At present I can't give the slightest further order for such furnishings, and therefore am put in many ways in a very awkward, almost shameful position.
So I maintain that after the great success of your endeavors you could render me now no greater favor than to raise by yourself the 5,000 thalers which you could place at my disposal right away, and for which I would give over to you my receipts as they pass through your hands until my liabilities, plus interest, are cleared.
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner: The Burrell Collection, ed. John N. Burk (Macmillan, 1950), No. 323