Middletown transcript., 1898-10-01
HORRID REGAL RITE.
THE EMPRESS ELIZABETH TO LIE IN
THREE GRAVES.

Her Remains Not to Rest In the Ca
puchin Vault In Their Entirety.
The IMtestines and HeSrt to Be
Preserved In Different Churches.
The remains of the murdered Empress
Elizabeth reached Vienna the other day,
and there is every reason to believe that,
in spite of the very little sympathy that
existed between the people of this gay
metropolis and herself during her life
time, the mourning Of the Viennese
will be sincere and heartfelt.
The unpopularity of the kaiserin at
Vienna was due to her aversion to all
those state ceremonies and public funo-
tions Of which the Austrians are SO
fond. The people seemed to think that
they had right to exact that she should
constitute herself a part and parcel Of
the imperial show, and they resented
her failure to comply with their wishes.
She, on the other hand, never either
forgot or forgave the GOODNESS and lack
Of cordiality which had marked her re-
ception by the people as we'll as by the
nobility of the kaiserstadt when first
she came to Austria as 16-year-old
bride.
And, besides that, she detested being
stared at, and it was impossible for her
to show herself anywhere at Vienna
without being stared at not only in an
ordinary fashion, but even through big
feldglasses and telescopes, horrible
ordeal for woman suffering from
nerves SO high strung as hers. In Hun
gary it was quite different. There she
was never mobbed, the people possessing
too keen sense of their native dignity
to run after her and stare at her in the
rude way of the Viennese. That is why
she loved Hungary SO.
The remains of the empress will
within the next few days, therefore, BIZ
laid in the vaults of that old Capuchin
church at Vienna where all the mem
bers of the imperial house of Hapsburg
since the days Of Emperor Matthias re-
pose. There are nearly i, 400 cofins in
these vaults, the most notable objects
being the enormous sarcophagus which
made for her beloved husband, herself
and her children. According to an old
custom, members Of the imperial family
must actually lie in wood, though the
outer coffin may be Of metal. The cas-
kets Of the emperors and expresses and
Of their children are covered with black
velvet and gold, while those of the COL
lateral archdukes and archduchesses are
covered with red velvet and silver.
Emperor Joseph II ordered that the
outer cofins from his reign onward
should be plain copper shells, with a
cross and an inscription on the lid, and
his own is perfectly plain. The first re-
turn to ornamentation was made in
1879 for the coffin Of Archduchess
Sophia, the emperor s mother. Formerly
the males of the imperial family were
laid on the gospel side crypt and the
female on the epistle side. But this rule
was broken through because Empress
beside her husband. Since 1914 the cof-
fins are grouped according to families.
Pope Plus VI visited these vaults in
1852. Napoleon likewise visited them
and was so much impressed by the |
gloomy scene that he is said to have |
exclaimed, "Vanitas vanitatum, omnia |
vanitas-hors la force"
In accordance with the traditions and |
regulations governing the obsequies of
the members of the imperial house, the |
corpse of the empress will not be laid |
to rest in the Oapuchin vault in its en-
tirety. Thus her intestines will be |
placed in gold and crystal receptacle |
and conveyed with much religious |
pomp and courtly ceremony to the |
Cathedral of st. Stephen, there to be
preserved along with the entrails of |
more than thousand other members |
Of the house of Hapsbug in the inches |
of a great shrine constructed for the |
purpose. Her majesty g heart-the only |
Hapsburg heart that has ever been
pierced by the knife Of an assassin-will
IN the same way be placed in beauti-
fully chased golden urn and conveyed
in similar manner to the Church Of |
the Augustins, scarcely stones throw
away.
The only member of the house of
Hapsburg who is on record as having
been laid whole in his tomb is Arch
duke Charles Louis, brother of the en-
peror, who, fervently believing in the
resurrection of the body, expressed his
objections to this potting and dismem-
bering process of his remains and
thought it uncanny that his heart and
his entrails should each have to 60
hunting through the city for his body
on the day of Judgment.
Let me add that most Of the reigning
houses Of the continent Of Europe are
accustomed to entomb their members,
SO to speak, in sections precisely as is
the case with the sovereign family of
Hapsburg. .-Marquise de Fontenoy in
New York JournaJ