Evening star., 1921-06-19
Will Removal of the Aiglon's Body -.
- Reveal Great Treasure of Austria?
by STERLING HEILIG.

N
n Vienna.
~ The story is not one of those
which are made tor exporta-
tion. Call it pure Viennese. Yet IT
agitates the Island of Corsica as
tonishingly. because it visibly meets
the deep desires Of every Corscan, to
whom the glory of Napoleon is as an
affair of family and the possession
of his sons remains (though after
near 100 years. will be second only
in desira bility to that Of the great
ness that sleeps beneath the dome or
the InvalideS.
From Nice the passenger boats cross
to Corsica in ten hours. On May
(b> ginning of the centenary of Ma
Doleon'S death at St. Helena) crowds
of tourists heard the solemn requiem
mother is buried. Two days later
vast concourSe gathered at the lay
ing of the corner stone of monu-
ment outside the cave where. as a
read Rousseau.
Then was sent. with government
permi ssion, the following news agency
cablegram to all the world:
The project has been inaugurated
of transporting the body Of the King
of Rome, Napoleon's son, from Vienna
to Corsica. where he will be placed
by the side of his grandmother
not for expectation. Yet the Island of
Corsica. 50 to speak, is quite alive to
it. For everyday American news col
umns it may throw reasonable light
for Austria, so strenuously asserted
and denied.
THE thing seems naturally with
these Napoleonic centenaries
which have just come off in France
with great eclat and set the whole
world talking of the great Corsican.
For nearly a century the body of
Napoleon'S son has reposed beside
that of his mother, Marie Louise, in
the crypts of the Kapuziner in vi
emma; and there has always been, up
to these present days. when all things
change. great unwillingness to
When Napoleon III came into power
one of his first acts was to open ne
gotiations for the return of the body.
Return is the right word. because
forcibly taRen from Paris by the
allied kings. In 1855 the cession was
almost agreed on. In 1857 there was
an unaccountable hitch. The final
failure of the project has been va
riously set down as the cause or the
effect of the war with Austria in
1859. And now; well. you will see
1t is Il gloomy tale to relate of
so pretty a baby. so unfortunate a
youth, yet.not unbeautiful in mystic
sense.
The child's birth and proclamation
as King of Rome was hailed by Eu-
rope as a guarantee of lasting peace.
1t united the Napoleonic power with
the family of kings. Son of Napoleon.
him to the Emperor of Austria. his
heir of the empire, born in the Tuil-
cries. the Aiglon Gas Rostand calls
him in the play), lived three years
in France, baby idol. After Napo-
Icons abdication, the allies Confided
grandfather. He never saw France
again. But. exactly as Napoleon, at
st. Helena, begged that he might see
his boy again, so the common people
of France continued to buy copies
of his portraits. whose supply never
equaled the demand.
The legend. of course. is that he
was killed by kindness" Growing
up a gilded princeling in corrupted
court, it was sought (the legend
says). to lead him into pleasures un-
DETECTING him from healthful out
door sports. Rostand makes him turn
the danger point. with pious aid from
unexpected quarters. There is no
danger existed. The heroic explana-
tion of the Aiglon's death is quite
sufficient. He died of grief.
He had the education of an arch
duke of his time. He was not pre-
vented from reading about his father
other hand. they kept him strictly
isolated from France. from French
men and from all Bonapartist sympa-
thiZers.
THE Aiglon lived in a gilded cage.
l. So living. he developed a verit-
able cult of his great father and de-
sired only to resemble him. Recog-
niZing that he could not be emperor
he had been proclaimed Napoleon II
by the chamber of the hundred days
he craved for the throne OF Poland
or of Greece, successlvely promised
and withheld from him. Colonel of
simple Austrian regiment. he might
not command his men. They feared
that the Napoleonic genius might
blaze out in him. He hoped that it
might. He grieved himself to death,
at the age of twenty-one, because he
had lost hope.
And now for the queer story of
Vienna. The son Of Napoleon sleeps
in the black Kapuziner crypts. with
-emperors and archdukes.
For the people of Vienna the an
cient labyrinths and dismal vaults
have a terrifying but. fascinating
reputation The endless subterranean
maze beneath and beyond the court
church is connected with the palace
by wide underground corridors used
by the court on great funeral occa-
sions In them, during the kossuth
revolution, a band of Danubian con-
federates, seeking to kidnap the en-
peror. were permitted to penetrate
half way and then were moved
down by cannon loaded with some
thing like shrapnel.
Their shrieking ghosts are said to
dash confusedly through maZes OF an
tique catecombs that date back to
the Roman times. but in remoter
chambers, which the Ffennese shiver
to name. such common. ordinary
ghosts are themselves terrified by
wraiths exceeding them in horror be-
yond description. They are victims
of Black Mathias-sufferng ghosts Of
faithless palace servants. lost 900
years back. seeking for tine treasure:
That there is the" treasure is an ar
ticle of Vienna belief for several cen
turies. The Capuchin crypts are rulec,
the legand says. by the terrible deao
Emperor Matthias. Down there, ne
guards forgotten crown 1ewels. an
kings barrels of coined gold and piles
Of ingots. loot of the Turks and oner-
ings of Venice, profits of crusades'
tribute from Bohemia. extorted tor-
tunes of Magyar and Polish and bo-
hemian magnates-all dark riches,
beyond dreams Of avarice. unclean.
accursed. to be purified only by some
vital need and noble application.
None of the succeeding emperores
after Black Mathias) seems to have
found the treasure, althougn many
sought it, Black Matthias did not play
the game. quite. He hid out the old
stuff and his own accumulations,
where he ought to have passed 1t on
as a kind of sinking fund.
They say. even. that later en-
Ii. i