One little adventure we had at the gaming-table at Wiesbaden still lingers in my memory.  Within the last few days I had received a royalty of twenty louis d’or from the theatre for an opera.  Not knowing what to do with so small a sum (as my situation, on the whole, was growing worse and worse), I ventured to ask Cosima to risk half the sum at roulette in our joint interest.  I observed with astonishment how, without even the smallest knowledge of the game, she staked one gold piece after another on the table, throwing it down so that it never definitely covered any particular number or colour.  In this way it gradually disappeared behind the croupier’s rake.  I grew alarmed, and hurriedly went to another table in the hope of counteracting the effect of Cosima’s unguided and misguided efforts.  In this very economical pursuit luck befriended me so substantially, that I at once recovered the ten louis d’or which my fair friend had lost at the other table.  This soon put us into a very merry mood.  Less cheering than this adventure was our visit to a performance of Lohengrin in Wiesbaden.  After we had been pretty well satisfied and put into a fairly good humour by the first act, the representation turned, as it proceeded, into a current of maddening misrepresentation such as I should never have believed possible.  In a fury I left the theatre before the end, while Hans, urged by Cosima’s reminder of the proprieties (though they were both as much infuriated as I was), endured the martyrdom of witnessing the performance to a close.

On another occasion I heard that the Metternichs had arrived at their Castle Johannisberg.  Still preoccupied with my main anxiety to obtain a peaceful domicile in which to conclude the Meistersinger, I kept an eye on this castle, which was generally unoccupied, and announced my intention of calling on the Prince.  An invitation soon followed, and the Bulows accompanied me to the railway station.  I could not fail to be satisfied with the friendly reception accorded to me by my patrons.  They, too, had been considering the question of finding a temporary resting-place for me in the Johannisberg Castle, and found they could give me a small flat in the house of the keeper of the castle for my sole use, only they drew my attention to the difficulty of obtaining my board.  The Prince, however, had busied himself more actively with another matter, that of creating a permanent position for me in Vienna.  He said that on his next stay in Vienna he would have a discussion about my affairs with Schmerling the minister, whom he thought it was most suitable to consult on such a matter.  He was a man who would understand me, and perhaps be able to discover a proper position for me in the higher sense of the word, and arouse the Emperor’s interest in me.  If I went to Vienna again, I was simply to call on Schmerling, and he would receive me as a matter of course on account of the Prince’s introduction.  As the result of an invitation to the ducal court, the Metternichs had repaired without loss of time to Wiesbaden, to which city I accompanied them, and again fell in with the Bulows.