The English tour raised little money but restored Wagner's spirits. On his return he began work on what would prove to be his final stage work, "Parsifal", a project that would occupy him for most of the next five years. Cosima's influence was such that Wagner asserted that he would not have written another note, had she not been there. On a practical level, when the festival's creditors began to press for payment, Cosima's personal plea to Ludwig in 1878 persuaded the king to provide a loan to pay off the outstanding debt and open the door to the prospect of a second Bayreuth Festival. For Cosima's birthday on 25 December 1878, Wagner hired an orchestra to play the newly composed prelude to "Parsifal". The concert also included the "Siegfried Idyll"; Cosima wrote afterwards: "There stands he who has called forth these wonders, and he loves me. He loves me!".