The spectacle which met my eyes was dazzling. In a blaze of light
all the Archdukes of the Imperial House, wearing their uniforms and
robes of State, were grouped in a semicircle, facing a throne on
which the representative of the Cæsars was seated in his Imperial
mantle, wearing the great Double Eagle Crown of Austria. Before him,
on a footstool, knelt a handsome lad of fifteen, in whom I had no
difficulty in recognising the Archduke Karl, the destined successor
to the throne.
At the moment I burst in I saw the venerable Emperor raise his hands
to his head, lift up the Imperial Crown, in which the huge diamonds
and rubies and sapphires sparkled like founts of fire, and hold it
poised in the air over his young kinsman’s bent head. In another
second it would have rested on the boy’s brow, and Francis-Joseph
would have ceased to reign.
‘Pardon!’
My voice rang out like the hoarse scream of a drunkard. I tottered
forward and fell on my knees, while the Emperor half rose from his
throne, still grasping the great crown in both hands.
‘Pardon, sire! At this hour a Russian army of eighty thousand men is
encamped upon the soil of Austria!’
Francis-Joseph sank back on his seat, and mechanically replaced the
diadem on his own head.
* * * * *
The explanations which followed between the two Governments were not
communicated to me. But I learned through my friends the gipsies that
the discovery of the motor, and my subsequent flight gave the alarm
to the Russian War Office. The invading force retired as stealthily
as it had come, and all vestiges of its having crossed the frontier
were so speedily and skilfully effaced that if Count Lamsdorff fell
back on a denial of the truth, it is probable that the Austrian
Government found itself unable to press the charge.
So the evil day has been postponed; for, as long as Francis-Joseph
reigns over the Dual Monarchy, Russia will be content to bide her
time.
In the meanwhile I have been informed that a warrant has been issued
against me, in the Russian courts, for the murder of the sentry whose
fate I have described.