[...] I wish [...] to avoid a repetition of the circumstances under which my representative has left my letters unanswered, paid no regard to my wishes, failed to follow my dispositions, and quite obviously made it his one object to prevent my return to Vienna, and accordingly I have been obliged to decide to withdraw the power of attorney committed to Herr Dr. E. Liszt, and to transfer it to Herr Advocate August Bach, as soon as he is good enough to take on the business. [...]
Since a week ago, when news of the brutal, headless, heartless and utterly treacherous outrage perpetrated by my attorneys reached me as I was on the point of setting out for Penzing to meet my creditors on an honourable and reassuring basis, I have not slept a wink, and my hair has grown almost completely grey. This time I have been forced to take to heart the old precept, "Heaven save me from my friends—I can easily deal with my enemies!" [...]
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Vol. 2, selected and ed. Wilhelm Altmann, trans. M. M. Bozman (J. M. Dent & Sons, 1927), No. 571