The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1901-11-09
II STORICAL
DEPARTMENT.
Empress Elizabeth of Austria.
-0-S

essential and dramatic and repression
of the unessential, is overshadowed by
greater cares and deeper griefs than
fall to the share of most mortals. But
not even the life of Marie Antoinette
is so intensely sad as that of the late
Empress Elizabeth, the tracing of
whose career is Miss Tschudi's most
recent addition to the literature of
biography. says a reviewer in the
Westminster Budget. A shadow seems
| to have lain upon her life from the
very day when she was born, according
! to the old, deep-rooted continental su-
perstition that it is unlucky to be born
! on Christmas eve. For it was on Dec.
/ "a, 1887, that the child was born to
! Duke Macmillan Joseph, head of a
! branch of the Wittlesbach family, VINO
was to share the throne of Austria
Hungary with the Emperor Francis
Joseph However, neither the luckless
! day of her birth nor the ill-fate which
/ has for generations brooded over the
! destinies of the finest flower of the
Wittelsbach family could dim the sun
shine of Princess Elizabeth's childhood,
the out door child" whose mind was
thrilled so readily by the power of all
things grand and beautiful. Together
with her father, whose love of nature
she inherited, the child roamed about
the mountains of her home, became
a visitor at the cottages of the peas
ants. and laid the foundation for that
passion for simple outdoor pleasures
which was to remain her solace to the
very end. Miss Tschudi points out that
the empress, speaking of her love OF
walking. said to one of her readers:
Il am never tired of walking, and 1
thank my father for it. He was an
ardent sportsman, and expected my
sisters and myself to skip and spring
about like chamoiX."
9 9 g
A charming story is told of these
happy days, when the duke and his
little daughter roamed about the Ba-
varian Alps, lunching at mountain cha
let's and playing dance music on the
zithers which they brought with them
or borrowed from the peasants.
1T happened once that they played
in remote district where nobody
knew either the strange sportsman or
the child, and the peasants gave the
charming little girl a few silver coins
as her reward. Elizabeth accepted
them with glee, and one day observed
to some acquaintance to whom she
was showing them, as empress: This is
the only money 1 have earned in my
life"
The simple and unfettered life of
such a childhood was the worst pos
sible preparation for her position at
the head of the Austrian court, which
is hedged in by stricter etiquette and
greater formalities than any other
European court.
Everybody knows the story of how
the young emperor of Austria went to
Ischi to ask the hand of Princess
Elizabeth's elder sister, and how, in
stead, he fell desperately in love at
first sight with the wonderfully lovely
child who was amusing herself with
a herd of goats in a meadow. The ro-
nance lasted until the imperial bride
of II years made her triumphant en-
trance into Vienna, ideally beautiful,
and received with wild enthusiasm by
the whole nation. Soon, however, the
court intrigues were in full swing; the
cruelties of a court etiquette handed
down from the middle ages and the
insults of a narrow-m minded aristocracy
oppressed the empress wherever she
turned and the dark cloud, which was
never to lift again. began to settle upon
her.
Elizabeth was naturally nervous
and though in after life there were
critical moments in which her self sac
rifice was great, the innumerabe little
daily Weddings seemed impossible to
one of her temperament. She felt her
self misunderstood in her best thoughts
and intentions, and gradually became
a lonely woman at her own court
Domestic troubles and ill-health
added to the increasing estrangement
of the empress from her court, anc
presently she set out on the first OF
the journeys and wanderings which
hpnnafOrth fn Ter1 al oh al
Solace
THE sickness which had pressed sc
hard upon her was a deliverance. II
had freed her from the crushing life
of the court land the long solitude in
Madeira was to strengthen her in pa
thence and prepare her for the heavy
trials which Providence had in store
The. greatest of the heavy trials,
apart from the ever-present fear of in
sanity, was the terrible end of Grown
Prince Rudolph, that tragedy of May
erling'' which, even to this day, ha
never been cleared up, and the onl!
facts concerning which are that eth
crown prince was found dead in hi
bed in the imperial shooting box a
, Mayerling, near Baden. in Lower Aus
tria, where he had been spending a few
days. He met his death through a ter
rible wound in the head and in tn
same room was found the body of
young girl, the Baroness Vetsera
whom he had loved. There was gen
eral impression that they had boil
committed suicide, but there were ais
} signs which pointed to the fact tina
Rudolph might have been murdered"
! In those days of despair and sorrow
the Empress Elizabeth stood by TIL
[ emperor with almost superhuman for
titude; the two, though for years pas
/ they had been reconciled and friend
, ly." were then once more united in
common sorrow. But the empress
r heart was broken.
"She changed from that day. and it i
said that she was never heard to laugl
again, that it was even q rarity to Sc
her smilee She had been heroic at tn
time of the shock, but the strong self
control of those early weeks was fol
lowed by heart-rending despair Man.
, were of opinion that she had been con
Trajectory and eccentric for some tim
t past Now she herself remarked tina
she had no longer either the strength
to live or the wish to die. "
And thus she wandered restlessl.
over the face of the earth, the ionelies
of lonely women, till the assassin
:. knife put an end to her drawn GU
suffering"
PATRIARCH OF CoNNEMARA.