The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-02-28
THE MORNING NEWS: THURSDAY, FEBRUARY %. 1889.

- A Il @N(4
he was about to sue for divorce, land then
l shall marry the only woman l ever loved,
the Baroness Vetschera."
The kaiser probably laughed at the idea.
Then seeing the serious turn things had
taken, he spoke of the horrible scandal the
divorce would occasion all through the
country, even if the pope sanctioned it. of
which there was not the slightest chance,
"aDd if you marry your Mistress he
sternly added, 81 Will Danish you as did
the Archduke Heinrich. to some senuer hut
in the Alps, like the goatherd he is. "
RESOLVED TO DIE FOR LOVE.
1t will never be known whether the crown
prince ever attempted to put his divorce
project into execution, for the nuncidtltre
do not leak, as do most other embassies
Probably he shrank from the monstrous
cruelty of the thing, and determined 10 die
to terminate his miserable existence with
the woman of his choice. Then there mus
have ensued a moment of crucial torture
and of narrowing doubt What if she pre-
ferred dshonored life TO a death which
with memorable decree honor seemed to de-
mandg What If she loved the crown prince
and not Rudolph the mana
Doubling, and yet hating and despising
himself for the doubt, the crown prince
hasteaed to the rendezvous, where hts
doubts were set at rest by the baroness, who
told him that, having given all that makes
life dear and desirable for her love, it
would be better now to die for it. Happy
in the belief of the baroness disinterested
ness, the prince had for each and every one
kind words. Then the mysterious letters to
Herr SzOegyOenyi were written; letters in
which he conjured his faithful friead to
put his papers III order, to watch and guard
over them that posterity might judge Alright
Rudolph of Hapsburg.
Perplexed and half distracted. the trusted
Geheme Rath came up from Bada-Pesth on
the Saturday preceding the fatal Tuesday
night and found the young prince at table
in his wing Of the burg, surrounded by a
merry company With load Of anxiety
and dark forebodings lifted off his mind the
old Hungarian congratulated his young
friend upon his sple did appearance and his
high spirits But Rudolph laughingly re-
Piled "Don't f1atter me, Szoeg yoenyi. Go
aud pay court to the Duke Of Este, for you
must know that Franz Ferdinand will be
kaiser. not l."
AT MEIERLING.
On Sunday night the lovers left the ball
at the German Embassy together. The
suicide had been determined upon. That
night in the cold, clear moonlight together
they traversed the ghostly shadows of the
beautiful Wiener Waid in an open carriage.
Early in the morning they reached the
priory Of Meierling, which three years be-
fore the prince had bought from the monks
of Heiligen Kreuz, and save by the servants
they were never seen again in life. Count
Hoyos and the Duke of Coburg, his friends
and confidants, watched at Baden on the
MeierliDg road to guard against Interrupt
ton from the direction of the court.
What happened between this time and
Wednesday night no one knows with GER
| tainty. 1t is safe to say that the merry
| fiction about a drunken debauch and the
whistling serenade, brought TO the young
| couple by Bratfsch, the cabman, and the
| groomS of the stable, is absolutely false
At daybreak on Wednesday morning the
servants were aroused by the sharp report
in quick succession of two pistol shots.
When the apartment was broken open
the young girl was found, all clothed in
| white, with orange blossoms in her hair,
| lying dead upon the bed. The bullet had
| penetrated her back between the shoulder
blades, where it would not show and least
| disfigure,' as her Low said in one of his
! letters. BY the bedside, on his knees and
clutching her hand with icy grip, the crown
prince was found The pistol lay beside
him, and a purple mark in the temple
showed where the deadly bullet had gone.
LEGENDS ALREADY BORN.
In the first moments of CONSERVATION and
excitement the royal family committed the
blunder of suppressing the truth, and the
story of death from apoplectic stroke was
given to the world. This version having
been proven false, owing to t Q manly re-
| fusal of the physicians to sign lying Ger
titcate, the peasants at least will never be-
lieve the true story which now comes from
the same tainted source; and the legend is
running over mill and dale, as when the
Kaiser Franz died, that the "Rudi" was
murdered because he was too liberal
minded and loved the Volk too much.
Letters were left by the crown prince to
his parents and to his wife Needless to
say, they will never be published, and the
versions appearing in the foreign press are
absolutely without foundation in fact The
kaiser has found much comfort in his sons
last words. In one letter he asks for for
gtveness, as he forgave. 1t was untainted
by single reproach. He admitted that
his father could not have acted otherwise
than he did. But could he either? He spoke
of his awakening-alas! too late-from the
sleep of a merely physical existence. For
giving all. die" the letter ran, "a victim
of my high destiny"
The castle of Meirling has been returned
to the monks of Heiligen Kreuz 1t will be
changed into chdpette e,cpiGtoire and for
centuries to come it will be a shrine at which
many lovers Will worship. Hans Will bring
his Gretel here on Sunday afternoon from
the city and tell her how much happier they
are than the wearers Of the purple.
The memory of the Crown Prince Ri
dolph will become brighter IN the annals of
Austria with the flight of time and the com
ing of his successors. For the ArcAduke
Karl Ludwig is admittedly a narrow
minded blockhead, and his sons, as it has
been well said, are "a brood of brutes. -
Little is known of them, and that little
could hardly be of more evil report. The
Archduke Franz Ferdinand attracted some
attention two years ago by stopping a
simple peasant funeral in the Bohemian
forest and upsetting the coffin in an attempt
to jump his horse over it. His brother
Ohio is beStial in his habits beyond all de-
scription. He, too, obtained some notorlety
last winter by endeavoring to introduce
some of his boon companions into his wifss
bedchamber while sle slept, and getting a
good thrashing from his aide-de-camp, who
refused himI admittance.
With the memory of these things aud of
the words so full of noble promise which
the late crown prince spoke to them fresh
before them, no wonder the Viennese sing
so sadly, God Save Austria" and look
with such anxiety into the future, which,
be it as it may, will never be the future the
"Rudi" promised them.
pripra EiSv,,orcl>,s noo.o.