Dearest Friend,
I should be the most ungrateful of men, did I not announce to you at once my boundless good fortune!
You know that the young King of Bavaria had me searched for. To-day I was conducted to him. Alas! he is so handsome and intelligent, so splendid and so full of soul, that I fear lest his life should vanish like a fleeting dream of gods in this vulgar world. He loves me with the depth and glow of a first love: he knows and fathoms everything about me, and understands me as my soul. He wills that I shall always stay with him, work, rest, perform my works; he will give me all I need therefor; I am to finish the Nibelungen, and he will have it performed according to my wish. I am to be my own unfettered master, not Kapellmeister, nothing but myself and his friend. And all this he means quite seriously and strictly, as if we two, yourself and I, were talking to each other. All trouble shall be taken from me; I am to have whatever I want — only, near him am I to abide.
What do you say to it? — What do you say? — Is it not unheard of? — Can it be aught save a dream? Imagine how moved I am!
A thousand hearty wishes! My happiness is so great, that I'm quite shattered by it. Of the magic of his eye you can form no notion: if only he be granted life; it is too rare a miracle!
Hearty friendship to Wille and the young men!
Ever
Your grateful
Richard Wagner.
Spread nothing abroad! Not a word to the papers! Everything is private, and must remain so!
Source: Richard Wagner's Letters to Wesendonck et al., trans. and indexed by William Ashton Ellis (Grant Richards, 1899), No. 58