My Hosts at the Hofburg--the Emperor Francis Joseph and the Empress
Elizabeth
Since defeat has overthrown in one day thrones which were the foundation
of the world of Germany, I sometimes pass from the Ring towards the
Graben by the Hofburg, the ancient Imperial Palace of this city of
Vienna where I am now writing. I can see from the Fransenplatz (the
large inner court) the windows of the rooms which formerly saw me
received by the guards and chamberlains with the honours due to my rank.
These windows are now closed, empty and silent. In Vienna everything
seems dead. The old Hofburg has ceased to exist. The new Hofburg, an
outward symbol of vanished hopes, is an unfinished building. It bears
witness to the downfall of an Empire.
Of all the princesses and archduchesses belonging to the vanished Court,
I am the only one remaining in Vienna, loved, I believe, by the people,
and respected by those in authority.
There is one city in the world in which I have lived for a long time.
It has been the scene of my "crimes." This city, after it abandoned all
pretence of honour, truth and virtue, has now reserved for me my right
to speak, and, whilst abolishing titles, has left me mine. I stand alone
in the ruins of a Power which was cruel to me.
I have known the "justice" of the Court and that of the Emperor Francis
Joseph. I have learned that a princess has not the same legal rights
as the rest of the world. For her, secret arrangements exist which are
applied without the judges having anything to say, or, if they do, they
only carry out certain orders. They disguise these with all kinds of
pretexts. In my case the excuse was that of madness.
It would be impossible to-day to tax a rebellious conscience with
insanity. It would be impossible to accuse a victim of causing
impossible scandals if she dared appeal for help. No one can be thrown
by force into a madhouse, where the superintendent says that you are not
mad and yet is obliged to keep a guard over you. He had his orders! They
called these "_une affaire de cour_!"
I do not think it would require many criminal attempts of this nature to
obtain a sentence from a Divine justice which no hypocrisy of words or
deeds and no machinery of human power can deceive.
But why should not those who were guilty of an immoral and cowardly
policy be the only ones to expiate their faults? A whole nation is at
this moment expiating the decadence and the downfall of the Court of
Vienna. Yes, the poor people, who are so good, so duped, so resigned,
so industrious and so much to be pitied, are now expiating the crimes of
their rulers!
When I arrived at the Austrian Court in 1875 Francis Joseph was
forty-five years old.
He was always distinguishable at a distance by his gallant bearing in
uniform. At close quarters he gave one the impression of possessing a
certain amount of good humour, which was contradicted by the severity of
his glance. He was a narrow-minded man, full of false and preconceived
ideas, but he possessed from his upbringing and from the traditions of
Austrian politics certain formulas and mannerisms, which enabled him to
keep afloat for a long time before he was finally engulfed in the sea of
blood in which the Imperial galley ultimately foundered. But, stripped
of his rank and ceremonial, devoid of routine or receptions, audiences
and speeches, he was nothing but a fool. At his birth, Nature deprived
him of a heart. He was an emperor but he was not a man. He is best
described as an automaton dressed as a soldier.
The Emperor at first made a great impression on me when my husband
presented me to him as the new Princess of Coburg. I listened to
his amiable and polished phrases, which I found difficult to answer
becomingly. They were usually so banal that almost before leaving his
presence I had already forgotten what he had said. It was almost always
like this, except on one memorable occasion which I will describe later.
I do not know anyone who remembers a single word uttered by Francis
Joseph that was worth repeating. His conversation in the Imperial circle
was disconcertingly cold and poor. He never became animated except
when talking scandal, but that was generally in the apartment of Madame
Schratt, who constituted alike his refuge and his relaxation, where he
was really "at home" and where he was simply "Franz" or "Joseph."
I have seen Madame Schratt at the Burg Theatre. Her influence (if she
ever had any, other than that of permitting the Emperor to escape from
the insufficiencies which constituted the fatalities of his life) was
not injurious to any living soul.
An actress at the Comédie Française of Vienna, pretty, and honest by
nature, Katti Schratt was a "Brohan," and her gaiety of heart at least
pleased the Sovereign. He first gave her a peaceful and an assured
position, and then one fine evening he quietly introduced her to the
Court, where the Empress resigned herself admirably to this Imperial
audacity. She was quite satisfied in knowing that Francis Joseph was now
methodical in his passions, had curtailed his excesses and had chosen a
confidante who did not pretend to be anything more than a recreation for
him. There was a great difference between Madame Schratt and Madame de
Maintenon. There was a still greater difference between Francis Joseph
and Louis XIV.
But so far as actual looks went, the Emperor might easily have been
taken for his _maître d'hôtel_ had it not been for his uniform and his
surroundings. Seen at close quarters he was a very ordinary person. Two
bad habits, however, were noticeable in him: at the least perplexity
he pulled and massaged his side-whiskers, and at dinner he frequently
looked at his reflection in the blade of his knife. As for the rest of
his actions, he ate, he drank, he slept, he walked, he hunted, he spoke
according to the accepted ritual laid down by the circumstances of the
hour, the day, and the calendar. These mannerisms were hardly disturbed
by revolutions, wars or misfortunes. He greeted his calamities with the
same expression with which he noticed if it were raining when he was
about to leave for Ischl.
When his son killed himself, when his wife was assassinated, he did not
lose one ounce of flesh; his step was as firm as ever, and his hair just
as faultlessly dressed.
The funeral ceremonies over, nothing changed in Austria. Francis Joseph
still continued to speak in just the same tones of the love of his
people towards himself, and of his love for them.
And that same evening he was with Madame Schratt. To this man devoid of
brilliance, without courage, and without justice, I owe the misfortunes
of my life.
At the time when he should have filled his place as Sovereign and head
of the house where I was concerned, he did not do so because he was
afraid.
On two occasions only he behaved differently _à propos_ of what
concerned me; these circumstances were not, however, decisive. A man
is not judged by the way he helps you out of a carriage, but by his
behaviour in a big fire; he does not draw back before the flames in his
effort to save you!
[Illustration: _Photo: Boute_
PRINCESS VICTOR NAPOLEON
(Princess Clémentine of Belgium)]
Francis Joseph was incapable of throwing himself into the fire in order
to save anyone. He could not be depended upon for any help in danger. He
would have been afraid of spoiling his uniform, or of disarranging his
whiskers!
Ah! I can easily understand the despair of his son and his wife, whose
only thought in life was to escape from this nonentity.
The Emperor's brother, the Archduke Louis Victor, was the instigator
of the hatred of which I was the victim. This man was later to know
the tortures of a dishonourable exile, and he died dishonoured. God has
punished him. I have seen His might strike this guilty man, who started
the persecutions from which I had to suffer.
For many years he laid his devotion at my feet. All Vienna knew it; the
Emperor included, and he better than most people, because scandal was
his daily bread. To him it was almost an affair of State to know whether
the Archduke Louis Victor would succeed in vanquishing the citadel of my
virtue.
Nevertheless, the prince could be pleasing when he chose; his was
an ardent nature, the excessive inquisitiveness of which dragged him
eventually into the scandal of public punishment.
I resigned myself to receive his compliments and his flowers with
patience. We all know the exigencies of the world. I had to endure the
assiduity of an archduke, the brother of the Emperor, with a smile.
But the smile has been especially given by Nature to woman in order to
enable her occasionally to conceal her thoughts!
Unfortunately Louis Victor, jealous of the worthy sentiments with which
another, who was not a "prince," had inspired me, lost his patience, and
from being the object of his love I became the object of his hatred. I
own that I had a taste for satirical repartee which I had inherited from
the King and which made me many enemies. Was the archduke offended at a
little plain speaking? Wounded vanity is prompt to avenge itself. I
had henceforth in him an open enemy. He swore that he would force me to
leave the Court.
I had inspired jealousy. What woman has not? My rivals ensconced
themselves around my former admirer. The usual intrigues began. My
freedom of life was attacked by some charitable souls whose only thought
was to destroy it, aided by a rejected Don Juan. The archduke was not
long in arranging the necessary details. People commenced to talk of
the notice which I took of that honourable man, the only person who has
filled my life. I have always given him my whole confidence and esteem.
The Archduke Louis Victor went to his brother and told him that he
had seen me with his own eyes in a popular restaurant at night,
_tête-à-tête_ with a Uhlan officer.
Carried away by indignation at such forgetfulness of my rank, three
noble Furies, whom I will not mention, and who possessed exclusive
rights to represent virtue on earth, made it known to His Majesty that
if I were allowed to attend the coming State ball they would turn their
backs upon me in the presence of the Imperial circle.
My sister, who was told of this uproar, questioned me and warned me.
I had no difficulty in discovering whence the plot emanated, and I
protested my innocence to Stéphanie. On the evening when the Archduke
Louis Victor had told his brother he had seen me at the restaurant, I
had not quitted the palace. I may add that I have _never, never, never_
sat in a restaurant _tête-à-tête_ with anyone. When I have had occasion
to appear at a dinner or supper in public I have always been accompanied
by one or more persons of my entourage.
And what was more, at the identical hour mentioned by my calumniator
I was with the prince my husband, and we were having one of those
discussions which constituted the daily storms of our existence. The
prince was there to witness this, besides which, the servants could
attest that I had not given any orders for my carriage and that I had
not left the palace. So nothing would have been easier than to have
contradicted the archduke and his virtuous friends.
My sister was quite convinced, but, not wishing to place herself between
the devil and the deep sea, she said that she thought it would be as
well if I appealed to the Emperor in person. The cabal, however, acted
quickly. Francis Joseph forestalled my request by summoning _me_. I saw
him in Stéphanie's room. I was in such a state of righteous rage that,
alas! I was unable to control myself in the presence of this infamous
man.
First of all I thanked the Sovereign for his audience, and I said
(mastering my temper with difficulty) that he ought to defend me and
take my part; that I was the butt of the attacks of a miserable cabal,
and he ought to put an end to it by punishing the slanderer. I asked
him to make an inquiry, as I had a perfect right to one. The rest of my
words may be left to the imagination. As the Emperor knew what defence I
should probably put forward, he had prepared his answer according to the
formula of one of the heads of the Imperial Chancellery who had trained
him in his youth. This is what he said: "Madam, all that has nothing to
do with me; you have a husband; it is his affair. I think, however, that
for the present you had better take a trip somewhere, and not appear at
the next State ball."
"But, Sire, I am a victim; you make me out a criminal."
"Madam, I have listened to my brother, and when Victor has spoken..." He
finished with a sign which was Imperial and definite.
I was not the kind of woman to suffer such iniquity in silence. But I
managed to conceal my contempt, and replied:
"The future will reveal, Sire, which of us has lied, the Archduke or I."
I then made my regulation curtsy, and the Emperor left the room.
On my return to the Coburg Palace I went to my husband and told him that
I trusted to his honour to destroy the abominable plot in which I was
involved, and that he must send his seconds to the Archduke Victor.
The Prince of Coburg coldly answered that if I had lost the Imperial
favour _he_ had no wish to lose it by fighting a duel with an archduke
who was the brother of the Sovereign.
After the chivalrous Emperor I had indeed encountered another Galahad;
I was furious, but I could do nothing. My fury, however, brought about
unlooked-for results. The prince did not wish to remember that I was
at the palace on this particular evening. He declared that he would not
contradict the assertion made by my slanderer. This was the last straw.
From that hour my mind was made up. I would not remain any longer with a
husband who had abandoned me in this disgraceful manner. I would listen
to the voice that said: "Madam, you are lost in the world where you
live; it is cowardly and perverse." But my family feeling proved
stronger than my anger. I said to the prince: "We must separate and
regain our liberty. But we have children. Let us avoid a scene. Let us
travel for a year, and if at the end of that time we have not found a
better way of living together we will part; you must go your way and I
will go mine."
To the mind of a man such as the Prince of Coburg these words were the
most awful imaginable. The prospect of a separation or a divorce would
be known to millions of people, to the King and others, and not only to
the father of my children; such a thing was impossible. He said I should
hear more about this. And I did.
Since I am telling the whole story from the beginning I must give the
other reasons for Francis Joseph's inconceivable attitude towards
me. These were more or less political, and I do not wish to dwell on
politics, and still less on any affecting him. But at the same time I
am writing for the purpose of adding a few fresh facts to the history
of this time, as well as for the purpose of defending myself from false
accusations.
Francis Joseph refused to help me, and he abandoned me from the first
moment because he was obliged to be cautious; he therefore left my
husband complete liberty to do as he pleased. The Prince of Coburg
knew the secret of Meyerling and the termination of Rudolph's despair.
Moreover, the prince had a brother Ferdinand who was quartered at
the outpost of Nach Oste in Bulgaria. The Coburgs were a power in
themselves. Francis Joseph bowed down to them. He chose the lesser of
two evils and sacrificed me.
I only knew him to adopt a chivalrous attitude on two occasions. Once
when I asked him to change a gentleman-in-waiting attached to my person
and that of my husband who made common cause with the Archduke Victor,
he immediately granted me my request. Again, when I had entered upon a
new life, and was living up to a higher ideal and disregarding the most
sinister proofs of an atrocious calumny, it happened that the Prince of
Coburg found himself face to face with a man of honour who was ready to
give him satisfaction. My husband put on an air of supreme disdain. The
Emperor then reminded him that the uniform of a soldier was intended for
more than purposes of show. He advised the Prince of Coburg to fight; he
fought.
I believe this was the only military victory that Francis Joseph gained
over anyone; and as for the prince, an Austrian general, it was the only
battle in which he was personally engaged.
* * * * *
I often think that Providence was very merciful to the Empress in
not letting her attain old age, riveted as she was to the chain which
dragged the Empire into the abyss of human foolishness and ferocity.
Shall I say that my thoughts go out to her in prayer? She, too, was a
martyr; she is only second to the Queen in my daily meditations. The
difference in my age and rank kept me, to my great grief, farther apart
from her than I should have liked. At the time when I could have drawn
nearer to her, I was torn between my yearning for the ideal, and the
vanities of the world. If she was a serene empress I was a distressed
princess! But I had, however, something in common with her; the love of
nature and freedom and the taste for Heinrich Heine.
Without putting this writer on the same pedestal as Goethe, the mind
by which I have tried to vivify my own, I have enjoyed many happy hours
reading Heine, and the older I have grown the more I have learned
to know and admire the poet who was both an inspired humorist and a
philosopher. He was the De Musset of Prussia and Judea, the wit _par
excellence_ of Europe--Heine had taken from France and given her a unity
of gifts, the blending of which promises a race of men, freed from race
barriers, moved by the same love of eternal beauty. An indication of the
reconciliation which the future will perhaps see.
It is possible that he _was_ a Jew; the Apostles were also Jews. But I
understand and appreciate the sentiments of the Empress in going to see
him at Hamburg, continuing to be on friendly relations with his sister
after his death, and lastly in erecting a monument to him at Corfu.
Rudolph once said of his mother: "She is a philosopher on a throne." She
had truly a great mind.
The day on which I had the honour of being received privately by the
Empress was an exciting one for me. I knew that she only wore black,
white, grey or violet, so I arranged my toilette without invoking the
help of a dressmaker, and if I am to believe the flattery of the Rue de
la Paix, I knew how to dress myself; but I confess that, confident as I
had now become in matters of dress, I took my time in deciding what to
wear on this occasion. In the end I chose a violet gown most tastefully
trimmed with grebe and a little velvet toque. I can say without boasting
that my toilette was remarked upon and generally admired.
The Empress was delightful. She spoke of the Queen in well chosen,
simple terms, as of a friend dear to her. This was her way of speaking
about almost everything. Her conversation was of a high order, but
at the same time it was absolutely natural. She scarcely ever spoke
harshly, and always in low and pure tones. She possessed a soulful
voice--muffled crystal, but crystal all the same. I have never seen a
smile like hers; it was like a smile from Heaven; it enchanted me and
it affected me, it was at the same time both sweet and grave. She was
beautiful, a celestial beauty with something ethereal in the purity of
her features and the lines of her figure. No one walked like Elizabeth
of Austria; the movement of her limbs was imperceptible, she glided; she
seemed to float on the ground. I have often read that some celebrated
and adored woman was endowed with "inimitable grace." The Empress
Elizabeth truly possessed this inimitable grace. And her large eyes
seemed to speak and express a noble language peculiarly their own, which
embodied the three virtues, Faith, Hope and Charity.
Bavaria, her birthplace, has retained throughout the ages the essential
elements of the Celtic race established as far as the Danube. South
Germany also has this ancient European blood in abundance. The Empress
represented the most refined characteristics of Celtic beauty. She was
not a German type--at least not a type of Central Germany--she expressed
to perfection, both morally and physically, all that separated and will
continue to separate Munich and Vienna from Berlin.
* * * * *
Recollections crowd upon me when I return in thought to the Hofburg. I
must record some of the most striking.
Thus, I will think of the Archduke John, who was afterwards known as
John Orth, the name of one of Maria Theresa's castles on the Danube, the
spot preferred of all others by this strange being.
Like Rudolph, with whom he was on terms of great friendship and certain
understanding, the Archduke John could not breathe the air of Courts.
He once said to me: "You and I, Louise, in many respects are not made to
live here."
He interested me, but I did not like his sarcastic spirit. He had none
of Rudolph's high ideals. When he disappeared I believed him to be
living somewhere in secret, and that there was a possibility of his
reappearance. I read in the papers not long ago that a person who might
easily have been the Archduke John had just died in Rome, where he had
lived for twenty years in seclusion. Rome attracts the solitary and
disillusioned souls of the world. If this unknown man was really John
Orth, he was indeed able to meditate on the grandeur and decadence of
empires.
I will leave this mysterious shadow and speak of two others who have
passed, whose existence touches us more closely and constitutes a
problem of State to minds interested in this subject.
I see in imagination the ball where Francis Ferdinand d'Este showed by
his attachment to the Countess Chotek what would eventually come to pass
between them. He loved her and she loved him; they were married. This
was a great event. The countess was clever and intelligent, and she
was not personally displeasing to the Emperor. She knew better than to
offend this narrow-minded being. But her rôle in the political events
of central Europe, from the day when the death of Rudolph allowed her
to dream of a throne (even though it was only that of Hungary), was more
important than one imagined.
It has occurred to me more than once, that if France had known and
would have put up with an Austrian policy, she would have found that
the Countess Chotek, raised to the rank of Duchess of Hohenberg, had far
different ideas from those of Berlin. Unfortunately France committed the
fault (and she will forgive me for daring to say so, _en passant_) of
separating politics from religion, and of forgetting that religion is
the first of all politics. She bound her own hands, bandaged her own
eyes, and advanced on Europe. There was very little chance for her to
reach the Danube, the most important of all the European routes.
I knew how much the King of the Belgians deplored the blindness of
France, and what he said on this subject to more than one distinguished
Frenchman. It was to the effect that the disadvantage of democratic
governments was that they were obliged to provide numerous schools
of thought before they possessed the small number of principles which
constitute the foundation and the whole secret of government. The
religious principle is not the least of these.
In a country in which statesmen formerly abounded, and which has ended
politically through corrupt foolishness, that destroyer of characters
and convictions, Countess Chotek, the woman of solid beliefs, came into
prominence through the possession of a political brain.
She made Ferdinand d'Este a man capable of action and energy. Her chief
fault and that of her husband was that through fear of showing weakness,
they did not know how to show kindness. The hereditary archduke and his
wife were strict in maintaining their landed possessions, and they taxed
the people with great severity.
It needed little to aggravate the latent hatred against the heir to the
thrones in a state divided against itself, and, added to this rivalry,
jealousy and general restlessness existed, and certain trifling matters
due to the severity of Francis Ferdinand and the Duchess of Hohenberg
were perfidiously exploited against them. The day of their death was
decided, the way was prepared, and the instruments selected. But I must
pass over the terrible events of yesterday, the result of which does not
justify me to speak.
The hereditary archduke and his wife had a powerful camarilla against
them. They were not in need of partisans and they could have opposed
cabal after cabal, but their adversaries, who were nearly all hidden,
had plans outside the Monarchy.
This is not the place or the moment to discuss the conflict of
influences of which Vienna was the battlefield. It will be the work of
some penetrating and impartial genius who will perhaps be in a position
to enlighten the world as to the general worthlessness of the Court of
Austria during the ten or fifteen years before 1914. He will then make
known to the world the history of one of the most formidable conflicts
of self-interest and vanity which the world has ever known.
At the Court of Vienna there was a camarilla consisting of a group
of men, more or less filled with ambition, who gathered around the
Sovereign, guarding every approach to him, and they exploited the Prince
to the best of their hatred and avidity. As the Emperor became more and
more of a figure-head the old favourites saw themselves confronted with
the coming power. This power, for the less important reasons which are
known, and for others greater than these, recognized the morganatic
marriage of Francis Ferdinand, and the ardent Catholicism of the Duchess
of Hohenberg, who, owing to her character and her ambitious dreams
for her children, possessed both interior and exterior enemies. There
resulted, therefore, a third camarilla, the most secret and the most
redoubtable, for the simple reason that, in a Court where individuals
fight amongst themselves, they indirectly fight the whole world. They
do not betray merely this one and that one--they betray their whole
country.