a coward, and to put not only his conduct but also my own in a
different light to that in which it had been regarded hitherto
even by Hermann Franck, who afterwards expressed his sincere
regret that he had so misunderstood us.

With Rockel himself, whose sentence had by royal mercy been
commuted to lifelong imprisonment, I carried on at this time a
correspondence, the character of which soon showed that his life
was more cheerful and happy in his enforced captivity than mine
with its hopelessness, in spite of the freedom I enjoyed.

At last the month of May arrived, and I felt I needed change of
air in the country in order to strengthen my weakened nerves and
carry out my plans in regard to poetry. We found a fairly
comfortable pied-a-terre on the Rinderknecht estate. This was
situated halfway up the Zurich Berg, and we were able to enjoy an
alfresco meal on the 22nd of May--my thirty-ninth birthday--with
a lovely view of the lake and the distant Alps. Unfortunately a
period of incessant rain set in which scarcely stopped throughout
the whole summer, so that I had the greatest struggle to resist
its depressing influence. However, I soon got to work, and as I
had begun to carry out my great plan by beginning at the end and
going backwards, I continued on the same lines with the beginning
as my goal. Consequently, after I had completed the Siegfrieds
Tod and Junger Siegfried, I next attacked one of the principal
subjects, the Walkure, which was to follow the introductory
prelude of the Rheingold. In this way I completed the poem of the
Walkure by the end of June. At the same time I wrote the
dedication of the score of my Lohengrin to Liszt, as well as a
rhymed snub to an unprovoked attack on my Fliegender Hollander in