[...] I have heard from Dresden that the King will on no account alter his decision to offer an amnesty only to those who submit to the examination and verdict of the courts. I was advised to submit to that condition, but after mature consideration and after weighing all the chances I am firmly resolved, once for all, never to do so. Nevertheless, in order to neglect no possibility, I recently wrote to the Minister of Justice, asking him to discuss the matter once more with the King. The pretext on which I have decided to act was accidentally suggested to me by my latest experience here. I must give you and the Grand Duke the pleasure of hearing, that upon the representations of the Saxon Government, I was recently to have been banished from this place. I was advised to submit unconditionally, but at the same time to send a medical certificate to the Governor-General petitioning to be allowed to remain a few months longer for urgent reasons of health. That has succeeded momentarily and I am allowed to stay. Well, in my address to the Government refusing to be examined, or even perhaps jailed in Saxony for a couple of months, I base my refusal simply and solely on this same state of health, which, after all, I need only exaggerate a little in order to maintain the chief consideration which influences me to make that refusal. In other respects I submit most humbly to the destiny assigned me, unreservedly confess my guilt and the justice of the proceedings against me, and only pray His Majesty graciously to remit in my case the conditions of the amnesty out of special consideration for my health, which has become so precarious that the doctor strongly advises me not to subject it to this test. In this way I think I have taken the only means of going straight to my goal—namely, certain knowledge of where I stand. Should the King refuse to grant this request, it will be clear that I must for ever give up hope in that quarter. Even in that case I am determined to make one last attempt. I shall then apply direct to the Grand Duke of Baden, first informing him of all that has occurred hitherto, and then asking him for his permission to approach the Emperor of Austria, the Prince of Prussia, the Grand Duke of Weimar, the Duke of Coburg, and perhaps one other prince friendly to me, with a petition for a special dispensation allowing residence in their respective states, either by agreement among themselves or by a decree of the Federal Diet. Avoiding any suggestion of a complaint against the King of Saxony, I shall base this request simply on this same circumstance, namely consideration for my grave state of health and the nervous prostration which prevents me from undergoing the chances of legal proceedings in Dresden, whose justice I nevertheless recognise so fully that I in no wise expect the King to alter his decision on my behalf. I shall further ask these princes, as an exceptional act of grace, to suspend in my favour the treaty of extradition by agreement with Saxony, thereby securing my personal efforts for the cultivation of German art. It must, then, depend on the consent of the Grand Duke of Baden as to whether I take further steps on these lines. I do not venture to say that I expect a favourable issue, but I shall gain one advantage, and that is the certainty of my lot, which is now the thing I need most. I must no longer delay in gaining this certainty, for my whole future depends on it. Before telling you what further step I contemplate in order to gain certainty in another quarter also, I will answer your question as to Karlsruhe.
Devrient wrote to me that if I had finished Tristan in time, September 6th, being the birthday of the Grand Duke, would be a desirable date for the performance, and that the Grand Duke counted upon my personal presence. As to this last point, which I naturally made a principal condition from the first, I have just received further information. The Grand Duke proposes to invite me to Karlsruhe for the necessary period on his own sole responsibility; there is not to be a word of this beforehand and my presence is simply to be an accomplished fact, for which the Grand Duke will accept personal responsibility. That seems to me truly princely—and this young sovereign has my confidence. [...]
Well, then! Does the Grand Duke [Karl Alexander von Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach] hold to his proprietary rights in The Nibelungs, based on my undertaking, given in Lucerne, to have the work dedicated to him and produced under his patronage? We shall see. I am very happy now at the prospect of its completion. There is now only one act of Siegfried wanting, and I shall make light work of that next winter. What is the Grand Duke prepared to do to earn proprietary rights in this work? [...]
All my transactions with Härtel's as to the publication of the scores, etc., of The Nibelungs which should now be got ready, have gone awry again and again. [...] This is where the above-mentioned prince, in whose honour the work is to appear, must come in as patron and arbiter to preserve the work for the worker. Accordingly, I herewith propose to the Grand Duke, through you, that he should immediately take possession of my completed scores. I will make over to him those which are already finished as his absolute property, and pledge myself to do the same with the rest as soon as they are ready. For this the Grand Duke will pay me the same fee on each score as that which Härtel's now pay me for Tristan, viz. 300 louis d'or (200 of which in cash I have received, in part, already and am to receive the rest after the delivery of the last act, while 100 are to be paid later out of the profits on the business). [...]
I will say no more here and now as to the fate I destine for my Nibelungs in case the Grand Duke refuses my offer. It is very plain that I should have to pursue some quite new and different course.
Your advice to me to settle permanently in Paris in case Germany remains closed to me, quite accords with my own resolves. [...]
Believe me, my dear Franz, when I weigh all the advantages which this amnesty I am working for would afford me, the only one which seems to me worth any real sacrifice is that of being able to see and be with you more often. [...]
And now, my dear fellow, let me have a fuller account of yourself. I only hear of all your troubles from others—or even from the newspapers. That is not right—and you should not be too brief either; it keeps me at a distance from you. I want a closer view, so that I can tell where to rest the hand which longs to give you a friendly touch. It is natural enough that you should be too great, too noble, too fine for our dear rustic Germany, that you should appear among these people like a god, whose splendour they are not accustomed to or willing to bear, for never before in Germany was such a light- and warmth-giving phenomenon. [...]
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Vol. 2, selected and ed. Wilhelm Altmann, trans. M. M. Bozman (J. M. Dent & Sons, 1927), No. 396