The Washington herald., 1913-06-15

Copyrght lel3. By A. ID. JacoosonJ
Countess Marie Larisch's book, my
Past" is quite the most entertaining of
the works of this class. Its interest lies
not so much in the light-no very new
light-that 1t throws on the death of the
Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria as in
the gossip about her own relatives in Ba-
varia and Austria, and especially that &C.
centric, beautiful. and Inflated lady, the
Empress Elizabeth. II is evident that
the countess was deeply attached to
her aunt Cissi;" in fact. fascinated and
dominated by her. at least down to the
day of Meyerling, and her scrappy rem
iniscences of Elizabeth's conversation
and manners, her toilettes. diet, habits.
superstitions. and fiirtations. make a very
vivid picture of the late Empress.
The avowed object of the countess
memoirs is to justify her share in the
tragedy at Meyeriing," which might well
be called a melodrama-and a very un-
pleasant one at that. For this purpose
the story might just as well have not
been written. According to her own ac-
count, the countess was prevailed upon
by her cousin, Rudolf, for whom she dis
plays no affection and rather something
like aversion, to get Baroness Marie
Netsera, OF whom she Processes to have
been very fond, away from her parents
palace in Vienna and take her to Rudolf's
room in the Hofburg. She describes Marie
as no better than a cocotte, who. after
adventures in Egypt, had thrown herself
at Rudolf. although still In her teens.
Maries mother Is represented as
knowing of the liaison and half favor
ing II, apparently from the sense of
distinction" IL conferred on the fam
lily. but after insulting Crown Princess
stefanie at court ball the forward
Marie was more or less placed under
lock and key. Hence, Rudolfs appeal
TO the kind Offices of his cousin, the
Countess Lavisch, as a mutual friend.
So. to oblige her cousin-or, as she
suggested, bullied and frightened by
him into compliance-she gets posses
sion of the girl. and the two Maries go
of together to Rudolfs apartments.
Rudolf takes Marie the younger out
of the room, and presently returns
without her. He declines to say where
she is. except that she is not in the
Hofburg, and that he wants to keep
her a couple of days in order to come
to an understanding with the Baroness
Vetsera, the girls mother.
He then propounds to Marie the
elder the details of an ingenious hoax.
by which il is to be made to appear.
Win lne COHHlNdHCt VI lhC
that Marie has run away from her
chaperon while they were in a shop.
After more bullying and coaxing the
countess consents once more TO carry
out his instructions and proceeds to
do so. Having told her tale on these
lines, she departs with heavy heart
to her home in Bavaria, to hear few
days later that Rudolf and Marie have
been found shot in the princes room
in the hunting lodge at Meyerling.
The Empress refuses ever again to see
or communicate with her niece, the
countess. Small wonder! The only
matter for surprise is that this niece,
having kept silent all these years and
having now the field entirely to. her
self, did not serve up the story in
way that would have displayed her
conduct in a more favorable light, es-
pecially as her object is to vindicate
herself from unfounded aspersions.
Considered as an attempt to put the
hest face on a bad business, the narra-
tive is far from convincing. The long
dialogue between the Crown Prince and
his tive Maries, which are designed to
show how the countess better Judgment
was overcome, must, after all these years,
be drawn as much from imagination as
memory, a remark which applies to all
the other conversations, unless the
Countess Larisch always carried a short
hand notebook about with her. A side
plot is introduced, based or the alleged
danger to the Crown Princes life, owing
to reasonable intrigues for time Crown
of Hungary, in which he had engaged.
There is a mysterious box Of documents
intrusted to the narrator and delivered
by her. some time after the tragedy, TO
an equally mysterious stranger, who
knows the password, and who reveals
himself by moonlight as the Archduke
John of Tuscany-"Johann Orth"-who,
is conveniently out of the way for the