The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1883-01-06 00:00:00

1

SUICIDE OF THE AUSTRIAN AMBAS-

SADOR AT PARIS.

The Paris correspondent of The Times gives an
account of the suicide of Count Wimpffen, the Aus-
trian Ambassador, from which we make the following
extracts :

With profound grief I have to inform you that
Count Wimpffen, the Austrian Ambassador here,
shot himself on Saturday morning. This suicide took
place under circumstances so painful as scarcely
to be credible. The Count, who last June was a
second time appointed to the French Embassy, had
since been stopping at the Hotel Meurice, in which,
with the Countess and two daughters, twelve and
ten years of age, he occupied rooms, those of the
Countess looking out on the Rue di Rivoli, and the
others on the inner court. Count Witnpffen rose
rather earlier than usual, he took his first breakfast,
after which he withdrew to his room, where he re-
mained alone till 1045. He then went out and
crossed the Rue de Rivoli to the pavement running
along the Tuileries gardens.
Hero he stayed for a minute looking at the windows
of the hotel, after which he went on towards the
Place de la Concorde. As at one o'clock he had
not reappeared, and this was the time he was in the
habit of going down with his family to the dining.
room on the ground floor, the Countess sent to
inquire whether he had not come back. On a reply
in the negative, she sent to the Austrian Embassy,
Rue Las Cases, to see whether he was there. At
half-past one the First Secretary of the Embassy, M.
de Zichy, who had just been informed by the Prefeat
of Police of what had happened, arrived at the
hotel. He entered the Cz.r.r Nom, where he
found four letters in his handwriting, addressed
respectively to the Countess, to himself (M. de
Zichy), to Count Kalnoky, and to a rich Austrian
financier living in Paris. M. de Zichy waited on
the Countess, and after preparing her for the sad
event handed her the letter addressed to her, which
made her utter a despairing cry, leaving as it did
no doubt as to the calamity which had befallen her.
What hail taken place was this. The Count, after
leaving the Hotel Meurico, crossed the Place de la
Concorde, and took the direction of the Champs
Elytiees. At the Palais de l' Industrie, a friend
looking round saw him approaching, and stopped
and asked him how he was. He learnt that the
Ambassador was proceeding on foot to the Bois de
Boulogne. His friend remarking that the Count
would breakfast late he replied, I often breakfast
late," and hurried away as if undesirons of con-
tinuing the conversation, His friend followed him
at a distance in the same direction—viz , towards
the Arc de Triumphs. It was then 11 15 and, as
it was beginning to rain slightly, the equestrians
from the Bois de Boulogne were returning in masses,
so that the Ambassador was saluted four or five
times, According to the person who was following
him at some distance, he responded to only one or
two of theJe greetings. On reaching the corner of
the Rue Galilee, and seeing, doubdess, the return-
ing equestrians increase in number, he suddenly
turned up that street, where his friend lost sight of
him.

Twelve minutes or a quarter of an hour later the
workmen engaged in the building of a mansion at the
corner of the Rue Galli& and Avenue Marceau heard
a loud report proceed from one of those old-fashioned
urinals which are fitted with doors, One of the doors
fell, aid the body of a man, his hand clasping a re-
volver, and his head bleeding, rolled on to the pave-
ment. A crowd collected, but did not at first touch the
body, whieh, however, after a few minutes was drawn
on to a heap of sand placed ready for mixing, and two,
workmen placed bags of plaster under his head in
order to stop the profuse bleeding. The supposition
of the crowd, from his having fallen near a house in
course of construction and from his clothes being
daubed with mud, sand, and plaster, was that he was
a builder who had killed himself. A valet, however,
among the crowd pointed out that the soles of his
boots were blackened, a custom rare in France, and
that he must be a man belonging to the upper
class. Meanwhile, aft,r a few spasms, he had ex-
pired, without uttering a word. His body was then
conveyed to a shed, while the Police Commis,mry
was btit.g fetched from his office at the Palaic
de l'lndustrie. Some little time elapsed before
the Commissary, with two policemen, arrived on the
spot. The count had then been dead half an hour.
At the police-station his clothes were examined, and
it was ascertainod who was the man who had just
committed suicide in so horrible a manner. A vehicle
was procured to transport the body to the Rue Las
Cases, and M. de Zichy went to the Hotel Meurice,
as I have said, to acquit himself of his painful task
of informing the unconscious widow of the terrible
occurrence.

After giving some details respecting Count
Arial pffea's political career, the, Corretpondent of
The Times proceeds :
After a while he hired a mansion in the Rue de
Lille, which was to become the Embassy. He had
had some trouble in finding what he wanted. He was
not rich, yet wished to receive company, and to exalt
his position by receptions, which would assuredly
have been much frequented. He finally hired pre-
mises not exactly suiting ham, and which seem to have
had a share in bringing about his tragical end. . . .

The truth is, be had long given signs of an irritability,
the more strange from his good breeding and amiability.
Some time ago one of his colleagues, on being told that
he must speak to him on a certain question, said, "I
would readily do so, but of late Count Wimpffen has
been very excitable, and incapable of being reasoned
with." His excitability was remarked by all who
came near him, especially when his future house
was referred to. Neither he nor his wife seemed
satisfied with it. The latter, indeed, had disliked it
all along, and his own dissatisfaction steadily in-
creased. His death is unquestionably the pre-
meditated consequence of daily vexations, acting on
an unhealthy and nervous temperament, and exciting
it to a paroxysm of insanity. The proof of this is,
that two barrels of his revolver had been discharged,
yet he had only fired off one. It happened that the
Count had had no revolver, and only a few days ago
bought the one with which he killed himself. On
Friday morning the servants and visitors at the hotel
heard a thud in the court. It was thought a
vase of flowers had fallen, but nothing was seen.
When the Count appeared at breakfast, he apologized
for the trouble he had given. He said he had wished
to test his revolver' and the ball had gone from the
open window, and lodged in the opposite wall. The
fact is that, under nervous excitement, harassed by
the daily cares of life, he had come to think of suicide.
He had bought a revolver with this object. His excite-
ment went on increasing; he had•tried a weapon, the
precision of which was unknown to him, and, satisfied
with the trial, he started off on the following day, to
put an end to an existence, the incessant irritation
of which had finally produced on him the effect of
madness. _ _

The death of Count Wimpfren produced a great
shock not only in Vienna, but also in Berlin. Both
the Emperor and Prince Bismarck were very much
shocked on being informed of the deplorable occur-
rence. The news created a very great and painful
sensation in Rome, where the Count had won the re-
gard and esteem of all who came in contact with him.
The King and Queen telegraphed immeiiately to
General Menabrea, asking him to express their deepest
condolence to the widowed Countess.

Born in 1827, Count Wimplien passed his life in the
diplomatic career. He was for a good many years
Councillor of Embassy in London, in the time of
Count Apponyi, and left in 1866. At the end of the
war, he took part in the preliminaries of peace, at
Nicolebourg, and in the negotiations for the treaty
of Prague. In 1867 he was appointed to Berlin
as Minister Plenipotentiary, afterwards Ambas-
sador to Rome, and then to Paris. Upon Count
Beust being transferred to Paris, Count Wimpffen
was for some time on half•pay, but after the appoint-
ment of the late Baron Haymerle, he went back again
to Rome, aud on Count Beust's retirement, returned
to Paris. He was married to the Countess Lynar, a
Prussian lady, and leaves two daughters.
•

The Paris Correspondent of the Daily Telegraph
says :
It is not easy to arrive at any conclusion as to the
motives which led the Austrian Ambassador to commit
this rash act. The most charitable explanation seems
to be that for some time past he had been a prey to
great nervous excitement and to sleeplessness, his
intellect finally succumbing to the brain disease
under which he laboured. The most trifling annoy-
ances occasioned him the utmost distress. As the
lease of the Embassy in the Rue Las Cases had
nearly expired, he had taken another mansion, and
while superintending the details of the furnish-
ing he is said to have repeatedly declared that
the worry it gave him was enough to make him kill
himself. On other matters he is stated to have dis-
played great irritation. Thus, only on Thlarsday even-
ing, he is reported to have torn up adiplomatic despatch
because a comma had been accidentally omitted. Count
Zichy was dining with him, and he is said to have
noticed the excitement under which his chief laboured,
and which had not escaped the affectionate eye of the
countess, who had expressed some anxiety as to her
husband's condition. The Count and Countess de
Wimpffen were much together, and were devoted to
their children,

A Reuters telegram from Vienna, says :—" The
latest authentic particulars received here concern-
ing the suicide of Count Wimpffen leave no
doubt that it was entirely due to sudden mental
aberration. The few lines contained in the letters left
by the deceased are regarded as affording ample proof
that the strong nervous excitement under which the
late AmbasFador laboured for sevtral days previously,
coupled with the presaure of a fixed idea, ulamately
developed into complete mental derangement. All
the rumours circulated assigning other motives for the
act are unfounded, as the linancial and other private
affairs of the deceased have been found in perfect
order."

THE FUNERAL OF COUNT WIMPFFEN.
The funeral ceremonial took place on Tuesday morn•
ing at the Church of St, Clothilde—the Archbishop of
Paris having, at the request of the Papal Nuncio, ac-
cepted the medical report that the deceased nobleman
was suffering from temporary insanity.

Nothing WM more etriking than the contrast be

tween the circumstances of his sad end, and the pomp
of his interment (remarks the Paris Correspondent of
The Times). The Whole church was draped in black,
and escutcheons, bearicig his Litial or arms, were
placed over the entrance. The choir and nave were
lavishly lighted up, and the latter was full of mourners,
the front row of seats being occupied by officers of the
R -publican Guard. The Diplomatic Corps, without a
single exception, were p, esent in the choir. The
band of the Republican Guard was stationed in one
of the side chapels. Outside the church there was
a line of troops, while the square and neighbouring
streets were filled with a compact and silent crowd.
Through the great door way could be seen the
lamps in the nave ; and those within could see a
crowd extending as far as the War Office The
deceased being a Grand Cross of the Legion of
Honour, an entire brigade rendered military
honours. At a quarter-past twelve a company
entered, and, with rifles held low, formed a line, from
the doorway, round the chief altar. A few minutes
later the organ announced the arrival of the coffin,
of ebony, with silver facings, which was placed at
the entrance of the choir. The ceremony during
which the organ, choristers and band performed,
lasted till half-past one. Upon the conclusion of it,
Prince Lynar, the brother-in-law of the deceased,
General Pittio, representing the President of the
Republic, and the Barons Wimpffen, his cousins,
stood on the right, in front of the chief entrance,
and the Diplomatic Corps, headed by the Nuncio, on
the left. Between them was the coffin. Facing the
square the crowd was very dense, when the brigade of
infantry, fully-equipped artillery, and a squadron of
horse defiled before the coffin; which was then removed
to a vault in the church, prior to being conveyed to
Gritz, whither M. de Zichy, the First Secretary of the
Embassy, will accompany it.