My dear, beloved Frau Ritter,
You will already have received a letter from Karl a day earlier than these lines from me. Scarcely had I found Karl when I had to leave him again for a short time: I am summoning up the last remaining ounce of strength in my ailing body in order to travel with all speed to Bordeaux, - to see not Jessie but Eugene. Regard me as a dying man, for imminent death - or a new life awaits me: my strength is at an end, only the miracle of love can restore me to life.
[...]
Source: Selected Letters of Richard Wagner, trans. and ed. Stewart Spencer and Barry Millington (W. W. Norton & Company, 1988), No. 108