[...] In accordance with my promise I can only hint to you of the impending change in my lot. If I had not taken the doubtless well-meant, but as the consequences prove unfortunate, advice of my friends to leave Penzing secretly, the young King of Bavaria's envoy, who was searching for me there, would have found me by the middle of last month; as it is, he has had to make extraordinary detours to discover me and lead me to the King. The King wishes to keep me here as his friend, and will at once do what he can to remove the worst evils of my present position. In the course of the year he proposes to do more. His first wish, however, is that our relations should be kept private and that no whisper of them should reach the public. I may take it, therefore, that you will observe the utmost discretion, even among our friends. [...]
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Vol. 2, selected and ed. Wilhelm Altmann, trans. M. M. Bozman (J. M. Dent & Sons, 1927), No. 574