Blandford Weekly News. — 1889-02-16 (Blandford, Dorset, England)

STORY OF THE MEYERLING TRAGEDY. There have been so many versions of the circumstances under which the Crown Prince of Austria died that it is almost needless to add another to the ghastly story of profligacy and crime ; but the World believes the true story to be that the Emperor and Empress, as well as the Crown Princess, exasperated beyond endurance at the intrigue which had been discovered between him and one of the ladies at Court, informed him, after a most painful and stormy interview, that his conduct was so infamous they had determined to appeal to the Pope for a divorce, and would never forgive or see him again. The Crown Prince went to Meyerling,whence Count Hoyos and ! one or two of his friends were to come and shoot, and during the two days thatelapsed between his departure from Vienna and his death he was in a more or less stupid tipsy condition. On the fatal evening, after spending some hours drinking and singing with Count Hoyos and the cabman Bratfiseh, he sent them away, making arrangements for Count Hoyos to shoot with him in the morning. After they left him the Crown Prince left the house and went to the cottage of one of the gamekeepers, who had a remarkably pretty wife whom the Prince admired. The gamekeeper was out, but returned before the Prince had left. The latter, on hearing the husband return,escaped through the window, and the husband, seeing a man leave his wife's room by that exit,fired, and shot the Prince in the back, not knowing who he was. The Prince, badly bit and bleeding, limped back to the chateau, and maddened with pain, drink, and despair, locked himself in his room and there shot himself. The World has the best authority for saying that this is the true account of what happened,and all other stories are more or less modifications of the true one. The prospects of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy are certainly not bright. The Archduke Francis, the new Crown Prince, is an epileptic disetse which "runs" in the Hapsburg family) and last year he was banished from Court in consequence of his disgraceful behaviour in Bohemia; for, having met a village funeral while out riding, he stopped the procession, and set his horse to jump over the coffin to and fro. The second brother, Archduke Otto, is quite as dull, and more profligate and more addicted to drink. Last year he treated his young wife (Princess Marie of Saxony) so badly that she was on the point of leaving him, and the Emperor banished him front Court, after an interview during which Francis Joseph laid a stick across his hopeful nephew's shoulders, and he was reported also to have soundly boxed his ears. They are the sons of the Archduke Charles Louis by his second wife, a sister of the ex-King of Naples, who died in 1871.  Lieutenant Szepeshazy, of the Prince of Wales's Hungarian Regiment of Hussars, has committed suicide in the same way as Prince Rudolph, by firing ' &revolver at hia head whilst looking into a mirror. He had returned hem a mourning service for the Crown Prince,during which he wan much affected. The erection of the new infantry barracks at North Weald, Essex, will be commenced at once. The ground, which is situated between North Weald and Ongar, on the east side of the main road running from the latter place to Epping, has already been measured and staked out. - •  The freedom of the City of London will be conferred upon the Marquis of Dufferin and Ave in recognition of his distinguished public services, at the Guildhall, on May 29th. The same evening the Lord Mayor will entertain his Excellency at a banquet at the Mansion House