with me. And yet I had palpable evidence in a letter of his to
Avenarius, which the latter forwarded to me, that Scribe had
actually occupied himself with my work, and that I was indeed in
communication with him, and this letter of Scribe's made such an
impression upon my wife, who was by no means inclined to be
sanguine, that she gradually overcame her apprehensions in regard
to the Paris adventure. At last it was fixed and settled that on
the expiry of my second year's contract in Riga (that is to say,
in the coming summer, 1839), we should journey direct from Riga
to Paris, in order that I might try my luck there as a composer
of opera.

The production of my Rienzi now began to assume greater
importance. The composition of its second act was finished before
we started, and into this I wove a heroic ballet of extravagant
dimensions. It was now imperative that I should speedily acquire
a knowledge of French, a language which, during my classical
studies at the Grammar School, I had contemptuously laid aside.
As there were only four weeks in which to recover the time I had
lost, I engaged an excellent French master. But as I soon
realised that I could achieve but little in so short a time, I
utilised the hours of the lessons in order to obtain from him,
under the pretence of receiving instruction, an idiomatic
translation of my Rienzi libretto. This I wrote with red ink on
such parts of the score as were finished, so that on reaching
Paris I might immediately submit my half-finished opera to French
judges of art.

Everything now seemed to be carefully prepared for my departure,
and all that remained to be done was to raise the necessary funds