Dearest Richard,
I have not neglected the steps for your return to Germany. Unfortunately my late efforts and endeavours have not as yet led to a favourable result, which proves by no means that such may not be the case in the future. Your hint about the roundabout way, viz., Prague, I believe to be an illusion which you ought not to cherish, because it might lead to the most dangerous consequences.
The only thing that I can advise, and which I most urgently request you to do, is to send at once your petition to His Majesty the King of Saxony.
The stage into which this affair has got makes such a step absolutely necessary, and you may be sure that I should not urge you to it if I were not firmly convinced that your return to Germany cannot be brought about in any other way. As you have already told me that you would write to the King, I feel sure that you will do so without delay. Send me a copy of your letter to the King. You should, in the first instance, ask for an amnesty to the extent only that you might be permitted to hear your works at Weymar, because this would be necessary for your intellectual development, and because you felt sure that the Grand Duke of Weymar would receive you in a kindly spirit. It breaks my heart to have to prescribe such tedious methods, but believe me, in that direction lies your only way to Germany. When you have once been here for a few weeks the rest will be easily arranged, and I shall give you the necessary information in due course.
In the meantime we must have patience and again patience.
Take heart of grace in the hope which I have by no means abandoned, that we shall see you here.
Johanna has been here this last week, and has sung Orpheus and Romeo with the most enormous applause.
I shall have to tell you many things about her when we meet.
By this post you receive the three first numbers of my Symphonic Poems, which have just been published.
Source: Project Gutenberg eBook #4234, Correspondence of Wagner and Liszt — Volume 2, No. 215