Cosima WAGNER. 2 L.A.S. "Cose" and "Cosi", [1862], to her "little Bugler" [her half-sister Claire de CHARNACÉ]; 4 pages in-8 with her crowned figure each, filled with small handwriting. Thursday morning [February 13]. She is at the castle of Löwenberg in Silesia, at the home of Prince HOHENZOLLERN HECHINGEN, "our patron, with whom we lead a life of cocooning, made up of music, freedom, amiability, and animation. The concerts follow the rehearsals, which are also concerts because they often rehearse something other than what will be performed in front of the public; the Pce is the first individual after me to whom I have seen to love and understand music, as I do, he really only loves it and he understands it, I was going to say as I do, but I am modest! The 24 concerts that he offers in his charming hall to the people of the city and the surrounding area are composed of excellent works and include all music without exclusion of the past or the present or the future if you prefer", notably Harold in Italy by Berlioz". Then she returned to Berlin, where "life is nothing but hustle and bustle"; she was able, however, to write a few pages for "maman germanique" [the Germanic Review]. On the political situation: "Prussia has been put against the wall, that is to say obliged to take a side. For my part, I find this crisis very fortunate and if I am not mistaken it could lead to a turnaround very favorable to Prussia, but I fear that here the difficulty is still being turned around and that instead of declaring oneself definitively, one is still wading in half measures. However the split with Austria is imminent, and perhaps the Venetian question is gaining ground by this conflict which worries and alarms everyone here. In my opinion, it only remains for Prussia to appeal to the people of Germany, to maintain herself in relation to Austria, supported by the four kingdoms and several principalities, with the help of patriotism, to represent, in a word, the liberal force against the autocratic force"... She is convinced that "Rome will remain in Rome", and that the papacy will resist the attacks and keep its authority." I have not heard from Wagner for a long time; I doubt he would accept mother's invitation, when he works he needs absolute rest, and salon conversation is generally unsympathetic to him... [Berlin] April 29. She comments with envy on Parisian life and its spectacles: "I see that you are having fun while in our neighbourhood we are learning, improving, and getting bored, and I draw complex conclusions that go to the advantage of Germany but do not affect my predilection for France, so much the reasonings and considerations are foreign to love". Neither she nor Claire will make old bones: "I am as decided as you to die entirely, that is to say not to let my heart, my mind, my reason die out, I will love until my last breath, until my last breath I will delude myself". Their mother [Marie d'AGOULT] announces her coming to Germany, "without showing me the slightest pleasure at this forthcoming reunion, I confess that I am still naïve enough, banal enough, attached enough to the outdated forms of tenderness to have been stunned at first and then saddened"... Then she speaks of her sister Blandine [OLLIVIER] who has just given birth. She has read the Life of Jesus by Renan and is quite critical, but she admires the figure of Mgr Myriel in Victor Hugo's Les Misérables. She reread the Second Faust "with more ardor and contentment than ever" .... Attached is an end of L.A.S., [Berlin May 1861], where she comments on La Mer by MICHELET, and the trial of the banker Mirès.