Of course you will stay with
me. There shall also be a room in readiness for Kahnt.
With regard to Wagner's pardon [Wagner had been exiled from
Germany for political reasons.] I am expecting reliable
information shortly. It seems strange that the Dresden papers
should not have been the first to give the official announcement,
and that an act of pardon of H.M. the King of Saxony should be
made known through the "Bohemia" (in Prague). Wagner has not yet
written to me.
To our speedy meeting. Heartily your
F. Liszt
August 9th, 1860
240. To Princess Caroline Sayn-Wittgenstein.
[Portions of the above were published in the Neue Zeitschrift fur
Musik of 4th May, 1887.]
Weymar, September 14th, 1860
I am writing this down on the 14th September, the day on which
the Church celebrates the Festival of the Holy Cross. The
denomination of this festival is also that of the glowing and
mysterious feeling which has pierced my entire life as with a
sacred wound.
Yes, "Jesus Christ on the Cross," a yearning longing after the
Cross and the raising of the Cross, - this was ever my true inner
calling; I have felt it in my innermost heart ever since my
seventeenth year, in which I implored with humility and tears
that I might be permitted to enter the Paris Seminary; at that
time I hoped it would be granted to me to live the life of the
saints and perhaps even to die a martyr's death.
