soared,
Yet I must sink them to the common horde.

"He that our heads had crowned with laurels green,
By priestly staff whose verdure had decayed,
Robbed me of Hope's sweet solaces, and e'en
The last delusive comfort caused to fade;
Yet thus was nourished in my soul serene
An inward trust, by which my faith was stayed;
And if to this trust I prove ever true
The withered staff shall blossom forth anew.

"What deep in my own heart I did discern,
Dwelt also, silent, in another's breast;
And that which in his eager soul did burn,
Within my youthful heart peaceful did rest;
And as he half unconsciously did yearn
For all the Spring-time joys that were in quest,
The Spring's delightsomeness our souls shall nourish,
And newer verdure round our faiths shall flourish."

On his seventeenth birthday, the 25th of August, 1861, the grandson of
that King Louis of Bavaria who was the first among the princes of
Germany to again take an active interest in the plastic arts,
witnessed a performance of "Lohengrin," the first play that he had
seen. Full of enthusiasm, he inquired for the other works of this
master. Wagner's writings convinced him, who now had on his desk only
the busts of Beethoven and Wagner, that the one seemed likely to meet
the same fate that the other had in fact encountered--to sink into the
grave before the attainment of his goal and of his fame. His silent
vow was to reach out his hand to this "one" as soon as he should be
king. Two years later, the "Ring of the Nibelungen" appeared in
print. In it was the question: "Will this prince be found?" In the
following spring the author of the work was in dire distress in
Vienna. The silver rubles had rapidly disappeared. How could such
common treasures be heeded by him who had at his disposal the Holy
Grail? But inexorably approached the danger of loss of personal
liberty. He had to fly. A friend had provided him a refuge on his
estate in Switzerland. On the way there he remained a few days in
Stuttgart. Of a sudden the friend's door-bell is rung, but Wagner's
presence is denied. The stranger urges pressing business, and on
inquiry informs the master of the house--who was none other than Carl
Eckert, subsequently Hofkapellmeister at Berlin--that he comes in
the name of the King of Bavaria! Louis II. by the sudden death of
Maximilian II. had been called to the throne in Ma