The Sun.
London, England, 1863-03-09 00:00:00

A DUEL AT VIENNA.

The capital of Austria has the reputation of being
one of the gayest cities of Europe, but it seldom was
so gay as during the carnival just passed. For the
period of more than a month, all existence seemed
drowned in one perpetual round of dancing, singing,
eating and drinking, the whole population getting
almost frantic in its thirst for pleasure. Distin-

guished among the many rich and noble families
who delighted in hospitality during this season was

the house of Baron Falkenstein, a gentleman of large

privo.te fortune in the service of the Imperial Go-
vernment. It formed the centre of attraction to the
most brilliant members of the Hungarian and Bohe-
mian aristocracy and to numerous foreigner b belong-
ing to the elite of the diplomatic corps of the capi-
tal. Among the most assiduous visitors of the latter

class were two young secretaries of legation, Don
Emilio de Muruaga Vildosola, of the Spanish Em-
bassy, and Count Rechteren van Rosande, of that

of the Netherlands. Scarcely a night passed that
those two diplomatists were not seen at the Baron's
mansion, and rumour asserted, and it was generally
believed, that both were in love with the mistress of
the house—a young Hungarian lady of surpassing
beauty, only recently married to her somewhat older
husband. The spectators watched with much curi-

osity, hidden under a due veil of courtly etiquette,
the behaviour of the two foreign noblemen. The
contrast between them was striking. Count Rech-
teren, a tall, fair-haired, and blue-eyed young man
of about 26 years of age, flitted around the beautiful
Baroness in unceasing movement, evidently lost in
admiration, but scarcely daring to approach so far as
to touch the hem of her garment. Less timid than
the Count was his friend and rival, the Spanish

Secretary of Legation, Don Emilio de Muruaga, a
_ _

handsome dark-complexioned man of between 30

and 40. He entirely monopolised the society of
the lady as far as consistent with propriety, whis-

pering sweet speeches in the softest French accent.

The customs and habits of Viennese society allow

great latitude in this respect, which however, did
not tempt the Baroness to encourage in the least de-
gree the visible attentions of the foreign gentleman.
The winning smiles of the young mistress of the
house were distributed with fair impartiality among
all her visitors, and the most careful of observers
could detect nothing either in her speech or manners
that tended in the least to show even her conscious-
ness of the feelings she inspired in two of her guests.
Only some more than usually sharp elderly ladies
thought they could see a slight preference given to
the pale and timid young Count from the Nether-
lands. At Vienna, as elsewhere, the climax of the

carnival is the Mardi Gras, the day before Ash
Wednesday. On the evening of this day a splendid
bal masque finished the festivities of the season, as
in many other houses of the Austrian capital so in
that of Baron Falkenstein. The crowd here was
immense, completely filling all the reception rooms
of the large mansion and scarcely allowing free
circulation in some apartments. As the chief
pleasure in these carnival assemblies consists in
making the disguise of the ballroom as perfect as
possible, and keeping it a strict secret, even to inti-
mate friends, so nothing was known to tell the pre-
sence of the mistress of the house and her two sup-
posed admirers of the diplomatic service, except the
general supposition that the lady, as well as the two
gentlemen, would not fail to appear. The company,
however, were too much interested in their own
amusements to speculate much upon the matter, and
would, probably, not have thought of it at all had not
a curious scene towards midnight arrested atten-
tion. A black domino was seen following a lady
dressed as a shepherdess in all directions, and with
a pertinacity greatly passing the license of carnival
diversions. It was clear to all observers of the
incident that the shepherdess was displeased by
the attentions of the black domino, for she evi-
dently tried to evade him as much as possible,
and at times made some more or less unsuc-
cessful attempts to elude his vigilance and to
escape from him altogether. The spectacle be-
came exciting, when at last, in a sudden movement
of the crowd, the fair fugitive was pressed into a
corner, and her hand thereupon was immediately
seized by the :pursuing figure in black. A faint
shriek was heard, followed in an instant by a scene
of extraordinary tumult. The black domino
saw himself attacked from behind by a mask in
steel armour, representing a crusader of the 11th
century. There was a short struggle, and before the
bystanders had time to interfere the police hurried
up to the spot, and the two gentlemen who had
committed the grave breach of the peace were laid
hold of and carried to prison. The masks were made
to fall from the faces of the black domino and the
knight in armour, and the assembled company be-
held with astonishment the well-known features of
the two secretaries of legation, Don Emilio de
Muruaga and Count Rechteren. The shepherdess
had vanished and was nowhere to be seen. Close to
the banks of the Danube, a little beyond the
southern suburb of Vienna called the Leopold-town,
lies the Brigittenau, one of the most lovely spots in
the environs of the Austrian capital. Beautiful walks
interchange with wood and meadow, and the eye
sweeps far over the expanse of the mighty river,
the waters of which connect Western Europe with
the Orient. The Brigittenau is famous as a rendez-
vous for lovers; more famous still as the place where
the great German patriot,' Robert Blum, was exe-
cuted, or rather assassinated, by order of General
Windischgratz, on Nov. 9, 1848. It is a noted place
also for the termination of " affairs of honour," the
feudal abridgment of the slow process of judge and
jury. At the break of dawn on Sunday, the 22d
ult., another of these tragedies, likely to obtain last-
ing celebrity in the Viennese realms of romance,
came off on the spot. The sun was still hidden be •
hind the low range of hills north of the Danube,
when some carriages drove up to the spot. Half a
dozen gentlemen in black iseued in an instant, and
the vehicles having been sent back they began to
look over the ground. A piece of meadow in the
lower part of the Brigittenau was chosen as the
place of duel, and the pistols having been carefully
examined the combatants were placed in their al-
lotted positions. By this time the sun had risen
above the hills, lighting up in vivid colours the
lugubrious scene. Separated into several groups,the
actors stood there quiet and almost motionless; on
the one side the young Dutch nobleman, visibly
affected, his face pale as death; on the other, at a
distance of 50 paces, the Spanish Secretary of Lega-
tion, as it is said, with his old smile, and almost an
air of triumph. A little aside were the seconds, and
further in the background a surgeon, called up by
the party on the road through the Leopold-stadt,
and still with the slumber in his eyes. There was
a slight pause amid deep silences interrupted only
by the singing of the birds in the woods. Then
came the command of the leading second, " Tout est
pret," Count Rechteren lifted up his pistol ; his
hand trembled ; it seemed as if he had never fired a
revolver in his life. A minute elapsed ; then a pull
at the trigger, and the ball flew high over the head
of the Spanish nobleman. The latter, raising hie
pistol with the air of a man confident in his own
skill and taking steady aim at his oppenent, fired
arwtiiettahfoeouertwnudatrtode:gfiaannd few seconds,and in the same instant
the Count was seen falling down upon his face
h
a thesound. g e
oAul
was
the s bystanders
toh do
hur-
ried
duty. The latter opened the waistcoat of the
Count, laid his hand upon the heart of the young
man, and exclaimed, "Er Ist todt!" (he is dead). The
word had no sooner been pronounced when the
actors and participators in the drama fled in all
directions, leaving the corpse on the ground. The
surgeon hesitated for a moment, but a vague fear of
Austrian police, prison, and scaffold creeping over
him, he too made off, never resting till he had
reached his dwelling. Two hours later, one of the
parkkeepers, on making his accustomed round,carne
upon the body, lying on the grass, with the pistol
aside. The man's cries soon brought assistance,the
body was examined, an address found in a pocket-
book, and a letter directed to Baron von Heckeren,
Ambassador of the Netherlands. Not long after a
low cart,with a few bundles of straw at the bottom,
stopped at the embassy, into the hall of which the
corpse was carried without further ceremony by the
parkkeepers. When Baron von Heckeren received
the sudden announcement that his young friend and
relative, the only son of one of the richest families of
~Holland was lying dead in the house,he sank down