Most excellent Laube,
In following your orders to the letter, I am writing to inform you that Madame Schröder-Devrient has just received the letter I sent her.
The score of my opera is now on its way to Dresden; it came into the world accompanied by the most dreadful pangs of childbirth; no one can imagine a more terrible time than the two days I had to face on the first and second of this unhappy month; as far as was possible, the last remaining pfennigs of my poor friends here have helped me to postpone the threatened blow until the 15th; there is no doubt but that this will involve immediate seizure of my property and loss of personal liberty: I did not believe it could happen, - but I have had the narrowest of escapes; for as a foreigner I do not have the usual means of protest at my disposal. I have until that date to scrape together the necessary sum from whatever quarter I can; if there is anything you yourself can contribute - whatever it may be, send it without delay!
God reward you for your kindness and affection!
Your
loyal and obedient servant
Richard Wagner.
Source: Selected Letters of Richard Wagner, trans. and ed. Stewart Spencer and Barry Millington (W. W. Norton & Company, 1988), No. 32