[...] On the face of it, the storm originated in a mishap to a letter which I posted to Moscow on February 2nd, and which, as now appears, did not arrive there till March 23rd, thus bringing to naught an important enterprise carefully initiated, which was to provide me with the means of subsistence for a year. I was so deeply shaken, not only by the immediate consequences of this accident and the practical embarrassment which it caused, but also by an intense inward realisation of my whole position, with its helpless dependence on such accidents, that—I admit it!—I lost my head for a time. I felt the old conflict break out in me again, raising the old question, Must I be condemned without hope of relief to live on such a repellent basis? With all the impetuosity of my excitable temperament, I came back upon the fundamental question of my social position, which, at various periods of my life, has oppressed me so acutely that I have sought means of making a radical and decisive change in it. I am very sorry to have involved you in uneasiness again on this occasion, for this time (amidst terrible sufferings I acknowledge) I have fought my fight to a finish and now feel the quiet yet deep conviction that it was the last battle, the last effort!
I see light ahead, kindly prospects open before me, and whatever happens, even before I set out again on my Russian journey (missed on this occasion by such an untoward accident), I shall contrive to indemnify you to the full and, moreover, get my poor wife regularly supplied with the necessary funds.
Kindest greetings to her! Tell her I think I shall be able to spend this summer for the benefit of my health and my work in the Bavarian highlands, as the guest of the young King of Bavaria, and tell her she may rest assured that she has in me a true and solicitous friend.
Well then, adieu, my dear Anton! Forgive these last horrid complications. They were the last and I shall never, never again be a burden to anyone. [...]
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Vol. 2, selected and ed. Wilhelm Altmann, trans. M. M. Bozman (J. M. Dent & Sons, 1927), No. 577