Norwich bulletin., 1916-11-22

where he sried a little girl whose ex- | traordinary beauty attracted him. He learned that sine was Princess Elizabeth, younger sister of his ln- | tended. He resolved that Elizabeth should be his bride, and SO she became in 1854.
 In addition to her beauty Elizabeth was highly endowed with talents, but she found no welcome at court. The emperor's mother would hardly coun-
 tenance the match, and all of the Viennese aristocracy held aloof from her. Elizabeth returned scorn for scorn. Her enemies bore her every
 tale that could wound her pride and estrange her love. At last they sue ceeded. In a burst of pique she fled
 but the Viennese never forsave her. They charged her with loving fox hunting in Ireland better than her duty and preferred to remember her always as the absent wife.
 The estrangement widened The | emperor was fond of pretty women
 and. Vienna did not lack them. The
 empress grew more and more to con
 slider herself "a dutiful sovereign lady," and less and less a wife The tragic death of her only son drew her
 nearer to her husband for a while,
 but there came a succeeding period
 of stronger repulsion, and thereafter
 she almost disappeared from the Hof-
 burg.
 Fifteen years ago appeared Katha-
 rina Schratt. formerly of the imperial
 theatre. By her tact and wit she sue
 ceeded in creating for herself place
 below but beside the throne, never ac-
 corded before her time so openly and
 so permanently to any woman. Specu-
 lation as to her relations with the emperor was wide and malicious. Of course it found it's way to the em- press, and there followed an incident which testif1es to her uncommon deli cacy and courage.
 Nettled by the continual humiliation of such distasteful scandal mongering, she devised a way to end it. One day she took her youngest daughter by the hand and, to the immeasureable astonishment of her guests. set out to pay a long call on Frau Schratt at her
 world knew the emperor spent hours daily. That ended it effectually. It was impossible to gossip before the empress about a condition which she
 herself had socially legalized by her presence.
 Whatever the truth about Katharina Schratt and the emperor, she had the good sense never to attempt te in- l f1uence him politically. Those Of her predecessors who had dared more
 noiseless removal from his surround ings. When, with the assassination of the empress, the court went into mourning, Frau Schratt was seen but little. Shortly, the old intimacy was l openly resumed, but it was impossible to continue malignant about friend | ship that heightened into old age. and the sting of criticism gradually died out At Shonbrunn Castle. Frau Schratt appeared nearly every after | noon to keep the emperor company for | an hour or two. In turn. he delighted | to call on her at her town house as a
 private gentleman, where he could meet a few friends of his own choos- ing, and not guests imposed on him by etiquette or reasons of state. Poli- tics was never discussed. Frau Schratt had her town house and her country
 house, together with a goodly allow | ance, but it never was objected that the endperor was lavish With her and she had the discretion not to make her ostentation @ national scandal. As a soldier. the emperor was be- loved of his army. Tn a crushing re- verse by the French at Solferino he suffered such humiliation that he is said to have so wished to die with his men that he stood motionless in the