My dear King,
I am sure that you, too, are under no illusion as to the length of time I shall be away. I would ask you therefore to allow me some few days in which to put my house and affairs in order in a dignified manner. Everything I shall do is merely by way of preparation for my departure which, as I say, shall take place in a few days’ time. Do not allow me to be hurried in an undignified manner, nor importuned in any other way. Trust in my nobility of mind and, above all, in my love for you, and believe me when I say that I shall not cause you, or anyone else, the least disquiet in any conceivable manner. In return I would ask you most urgently that my departure - as you indeed promised - shall go unnoticed. I shall repair to the gentle shores of Lake Geneva “for the sake of my health”. When I depart I shall leave you my temporary legacy. Let me never for a moment doubt in your love. Continue to offer me your protection. Make me happy by faithfully nurturing our ideals!
If you cannot persuade the Court Secretariat to issue the necessary declaration as I desired of you yesterday, I shall consider it necessary to act independently and to issue the same declaration, in more or less the same words, in a wholly unprovocative manner. If my lengthier declaration concerning the truth of the favours which you have shown me is irksome to you, I shall suppress it, just as I have always been ready to do whatever was agreeable to you, and not to do what was disagreeable. I would ask you only to consider how important it is that those gross reproaches to which the declaration I requested from the Court Secretariat would have related should not be allowed to weigh upon your friend once he is removed from your presence. -
A final parting word will follow soon! Until then I entreat your royal protection for my undisturbed peace of mind. In a few days’ time I shall write to inform you that I am standing on your country’s furthest frontier.
True unto death
Your
Richard Wagner
Source: Selected Letters of Richard Wagner, trans. and ed. Stewart Spencer and Barry Millington (W. W. Norton & Company, 1988), No. 339