Evening star., 1916-07-28

present Emperor of Austria Hungary.
were centered IN his only son. the
Crown Prince Rudolf This promising
young man was married a generation
ago to the Princess Stephanie, daugh-
ter of Leopold II. late King Of the
Belgians, but the union was unhappy.
Rudolf was of a lively disposition.
care free. dashing. and fond Of adven-
| ture, while his wife was moody, sullen
and jealous. Thus were supplied two
points of the eternal triangle" The
| woman in the case was the beautiful
young baroness. Marie Vetsera.
For some time Princess Stephanie had
wished a divorce, and Rudolf was
| willing to supply her with all of the
legal grounds that she needed. but his his
the Grand Duke Johann Salvador,
offered to relinauish all of his honors
| for the woman he loved-to give up
| but wed Marie Vetsera.
Rudolf arranged a gay house party
| late in January, 1889. The scene was
the castle of Meyerling: twelve miles lle
January 80 one of Rudolfs servants
entered his bedchamber and beheld
scene which turned his blood cold Be
|
| of Austria Hungary lay dead. At f1rst
1t was given out that the young crown
prince during the night had died or
apoplexy, but, Is he was only tnlr ty
and Of not %aeniftns createa
by medical men, and the suspicion be
came broadcast that the public was
being deceived by the court bulletins.
Later there was issued an announce
ment that Rudolf had committed sui
eide, and great excitement resulted
But a third shock was in store for
the subjects of Franz josef Ihere
gradually leaked out the fact that the
corpse of Baroness Marie Vetsera had
been found with that of the crown
prince.
Then followed a long list of conflict
ing theories as to the cause OF the
Meyerling tragedy. According to one
party at the castle. had told the bar
oness Of his fathers refusal to allow
| his divorce, and that she, unwilling to
live without him, had killed herself
Some say that she left a note. beseech-
| ing him to follow her into eternity. and
| that upon finding this he had covered
| her corpse with pail of flowers, had
| lain upon the floor beside her couch and
blown out his brains with an army
| pistol.
According to a further theory. the
| lovers, as soon as they discovered their
marriage was hopeless, had entered
| upon suicide pact. that Rudolf agreed
| to shoot the baroness between the
| shoulder blades, and that he left note
explaining that he had placed the bullet
where 1t would not mar her beauty"
| 1t was asserted in some quarters that
Marie had fance whom she had prom
ised to jilt for Rudolf. that this noble
| man was present at the house party,
! that Rudolf, in fit of jealousy over her
attentions to his rival. had shot her.
| that her other lover had Drained him
,fxt, hot, hot nrir co.
servants had later killed his slayer.
There was another story that Marie
| herself had shot Rudolf and had then
| taken poison. And 1t was further re-
| lated that the crown prince while hunt
| ing had been shot by peasant whom
he had once subjected to cruelty, where
upon the Baroness Marie, upon seeing
| his corpse brought back to the castle
| had committed suicide from grief
Some time after the tragedy a New
York paper published evidence purport-
| ing to prove that Rudolf and his be-
| loved Marie were living in voluntary
exile in America under assumed names
and other papers have from time to
! time limited that the story of the Meyer
| ling tragedy had been hoax designed
to cover up a scandal and enable him to
lose himself in foreign lands. Several
times in recent years persons have as
serted that they had seen Rudolf in
various parts of America. An authori-
tative encyclopedia records its skepti-
| cism of the official account of his death
by stating that he was believed" to
have taken his own life.
After Rudolfs mysterious death the
right Of succession to the throne Of
Austria Hungary fell to the emperors s
| brother, Charles Louis. But, sharing
| the proverbial "Hapsburg LUCK SO long
! synonym for tragedy. the latter died,
| leaving the succession to his son,
Archduke Francis Ferdinand.
Indeed. throughout his long reign.