New-York tribune., 1921-05-08
Freed at Last by Death From
Liasison He Could Not Break

Rudolph remained at Meyerling from
the evening of the 2Sth to the morning
OF the 3oth, alone with Marie Vegcera.
When his hunting companions arrived
the reunion was like one of those ban
quets of the time of Nero or Tiberius,
at which Death also had been hidden
by the master of the feast.
The self-condemfed in this case was
the prince, and he took with him into
the abyss the imperious mistress who
had led him to it's brink.
They were found dead together
frlghtful spectacle, which Count Hoyos
was the first to Sec
If Vescera was the stronger willed.
Venus clinging TO her prey, Rudolph,
in a last outburst of despair and rage,
didn't pardon her for having drawn
him into an impossible situation, for
which also he could no longer forgive
himself. The morning after an enervat-
ing orgy she died by his hand Then
he killed himself.
1t was like a lightning stroke. He
couldn't continue to have two house
holds. Impetuous and enslaved, he
! couldn't endure any longer a Iiaison
which paralyzed him and which, never
theless, he couldn't break, SO strong
were the sensual bonds which attached
him to her. 1t was 8 slavery of the
flesh against which was raised the des-
perate protest of spirit seeing no way
out but death.
i The sinister news reached Vienna on
the morning of the 30th. That after
noon the Emperor sent an e-de-camp
to question me.
told him that knew nothing ex-
| cept the rumor of the tragic end Of
Rudolph and Vescera, and that my hus-
band, who had gone to Meyerling, had
not yet returned.
Meanwhile / had received one Of
Stephanie's ladies in waiting, who told
me about the catastrophe,
Controlling myself, I drove to Hof-
burg, to my sisters apartments.
found her pale and silent, holding
in her hand letter whose secret is
due to history. -r+ w @ee4
The latter, addressed to Stsphanie,
had just been discovered in Rudoiph's
desk. 1t announced his death.
AT the hour when my brother-in-law
was talking to me in the Prater his
fatal resolution had been taken.
The letter began thus:
81 say farewell to life" ..
Reading that was too much, for me.
The words were blurred by my tears.
"Be happy in your own way" he
said to his wife.
And his, last thought was for mis-
child:
"Take good care of your daughter.
She is the thing hold most dear.
leave you that duty"
The Prince of Coburg didn't return
to the palace until the night of the
S1st after passing long hours with the
Emperor. The haggardness Of his
face and the snatchiness of his con-
versation told Of the strain he had
been under. pressed him to give me
some details.
"It is horrible! Horrible! What
saw at Meyerling! But can't talk
about it. can tell you nothing except
that they are both dead"
He had taken an oath to the Emperor
to reveal nothing. as had the other
four friends whom Rudolph invited TO
the hunting party. The secret YVES
we'll kept. The few servants who could
have told the truth had also strong
reasons for concealing it.
Judgment of Heaven Seem
In Chain of Fatalities
When I was called into the Empress's
presence was face to face with
marble statue covered with black veil.
was SO affected that could hardly
move.
! kissed her hand passionately. With
| her Calvary she murmured:
"You weep with ras. don't you? Yaas
knew that you loved him."
The unfortunate Empress! She
adored her son. He enabled her to
endure the ennui Of that atmosphere
of niggardliness and meanness which
surrounded his father, as contemplate
as shs was great. With Rudolph torn
from her life and from the work of the
| empire she was also TO fee that court,
thereafter without any attraction or
| future for her, and TO meet her death.
The world knows in what cruel and
maniacal fashion she was assassinated,
an innocent victim of the faults OF her
race.
I saw, and still see, in the successive
dramas which marked the end Of the
House Of Austria q judgment from
! heaven. Such a chain of fatalities could
not be mere accident. The court OF
Vienna had to perish. 1t had betrayed
| everything, above all it's traditions, for
there remained in it nothing noble or
aristocratic, even in matters OF in
| trigue. It was only a below-stairs
group of servants Of Berlin. And after
! Francis Joseph, sc the famous Euchar-
istic Congress on the eve OF the war,
had appeared in the imperial state