[...] I must be the most thankless of mortals were I not to tell you at once of my boundless good fortune!
You know that the young King of Bavaria sought me out. I was taken to him to-day. He is so beautiful and intellectual, so spiritual and noble, that, alas, I fear lest his life be doomed to fade in this vulgar world like some fleeting dream of the gods. He loves me with the intensity and glow of first love; he knows and understands all about me like my own soul. He wants me to stay with him always, to work, to rest, to produce; he will give me all I need for that. I am to finish The Nibelungs, and he will get it produced just as I wish. I am to be my own absolute master, not a kapellmeister, nothing but myself and his friend. And he means all this seriously and literally, just as if we two, you and I, were talking together. I am to be relieved of every want. I am to have what I need; only I am to stay with him.
What do you say to that?—What do you say?—Is it not fabulous?—Can it be anything but a dream? [...] My happiness is so great that I am quite overwhelmed by it. You can have no conception of the magic of his eyes. If only he lives! It is too rare a miracle! [...]
Do not let this go any farther! Not a word to the newspapers! All this is confidential and must remain so!—
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Vol. 2, selected and ed. Wilhelm Altmann, trans. M. M. Bozman (J. M. Dent & Sons, 1927), No. 573