who, by his gentle manner and soothing ways, succeeded after a
time in bringing me into a healthier condition.

I longed to get well enough to be able to take in hand the
completion of my combined Nibelungen poem. Before I could summon
up the courage to begin, I thought I would wait for the spring,
and in the meanwhile I occupied myself with a few trifles,
amongst other things a letter to Liszt on the founding of a
Goethe Institution (Goethe Stiftung), stating my ideas on the
necessity of founding a German National Theatre, as also a second
letter to Franz Brendel about the line of thought which in my
opinion should be taken up in founding a new musical journal.

I recollect a visit from Henri Vieuxtemps at this time, who came
to Zurich with Belloni to give an evening concert, and he again
delighted me and my friends with his violin playing.

With the approach of spring I was agreeably surprised by a visit
from Hermann Franck, with whom I had an interesting conversation
about the general course of events since I had lost sight of him.

In his quiet way he expressed his astonishment at the
enthusiastic manner in which I had got mixed up in the Dresden
revolution. As I quite misunderstood his remark, he explained
that he thought me capable of enthusiasm in everything, but he
could hardly credit me with having taken a serious part in
anything so foolish as trivial matters of that kind. I now
learned for the first time what the prevalent opinion was about
these much-maligned occurrences in Germany, and I was in a
position to defend my poor friend Rockel, who had been branded as