eAo nil F AUSTRIA ««»W^i>J«i»*ii8(!fjrSi»«!8i»>'i BY-THE-AUTHOR^QF 1 MART YRDOM-OF-AN'EMPRESS' OtoritcU Uniucraita Sitbrari} atljara, Ntro lork N\ \ %s K^tTsi * ^^^5^^*^ "^ic-^ • L'e •• 2 ". 1S45 W0Y1 nT?f\ APR~Si-49&&-l>f CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 924 067 345 177 The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924067345177 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE FRANCIS JOSEPH OF AUSTRIA BY THE AUTHOR OF "THE MARTYRDOM OF AN EMPRESS" ILLUSTRATED HARPER &- BROTHERS PUBLISHERS NEW YORK AND LONDON 1903 ^■^>^,r, Copyright, 1903, by Harper & Brothers. All rii^Jits rescnjcd. Published November, 1903 TO HIS MAJESTY FRANCIS-JOSEPH, EMPEROR-KING OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY IN MEMORY OF FORMER DAYS Remembering al] the beauty of that star Which shone so close beside Thee that ye made One light together, but has past, and leaves The Crown a lonely splendor. ILLUSTRATIONS FRANCIS-JOSEPH ERGHCRZOG CARL LUDWIG EMPEROR FRANCIS I. (GRANDFATHER OF FRANCIS- JOSEPH) AND EMPRESS CAROLINE IN THE IM- PERIAL BOX AT THE THEATRE .... A " B.\LL-nEI-HOF" AT THE BURG THE emperor's BAPTISM OF FIRE AT SANTA LUCIA FRANCIS-JOSEPH IN 1848 A SPEECH FROM THE THRONE EMPEROR FRANCIS-JOSEPH IN HIS ROBES OF STATE THE "washing OF THE FEET," ON THURSDAY OF HOLY WEEK, IN THE GREAT HALL OF CERE- MONIES AT THE HOFBURG THE CORPUS CHRISTI PROCESSION THE emperor's PRIVATE HALL OF AUDIENCE ] IN THE HOFBURG }• SCHLOSS LAXENBURG J "eRZSI," ARCHDUCHESS ELIZABETH NOW PRIN- CESS OTTO VON WINDISCHGRATZ GRAND- DAUGHTER OF THE EMPEROR ARCHDUKE RAINER A LITTLE PETITIONER THE emperor's PRIVATE SALON IN THE HOFBURG A FUTURE EMPEROR. ARCHDUKE KARL-FRANZ, SON OF THE HEIR-PRESUMPTIVE, ARCHDUKE OTTO V Frontispiece Facing p. 16 28 38 46 122 168 178 244 266 282 208 310 A mighty Keystone shouldering up the span Of a gray arch of Empire, while below Threatens a torrent black and fierce of flow That ill-wrought masonry uncouth of plan. All strange, dissimilar stones the quarry can Yield, East or Southward, in a helpless row Let ponderously their great bulks inward go And lean upon it, bearing like a man. Pray Heaven it hold! and when Time crumble it May naught unworthy take that high command But granite strengthened by the shock of seas. And thus true-centred, well and firmly knit Austria, by ages honored, still withstand The crush and turmoil of the centuries. A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE CHAPTER I The great park was smiling with the new, clean- washed radiance of spring, under a velvety blue sky, seen through the tender foliage of veteran trees, stretch- ing their mighty arms greedily towards the golden sun- rays. On the mossy edge of a fountain stood a baby — rosy, chubby, golden-haired, and blue-eyed — peering intently into the transparent water, wherein the squat body of a big, green frog reposed comfortably upon a miniature bowlder, his round, topaz eyes gleaming just above the surface. Plainly the frog was sunk in a deep reverie, revolving in his round, flat head queer, mysterious water secrets, and regretful memories of long, lazy summer days spent amid the tangle of oozy weeds carpeting his native brook. Now, alas! he was old and cynical and heavy, contemptuously silent, and quite undisturbed by the gay little figure so perilously balanced on the slippery bastions of his splendid prison. The baby, fascinated by the yellow, glittering eyes of the monster, extended a dimpled, pink -palmed hand, and, bending forward, tried to touch ever so gently the top of the shining, partly immersed head. Almost was the deed accomplished, almost had the little fingers A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE caressed the imperturbable water-god, a soft, purling, victorious laugh thrilled the morning quiet ; then came a splash, a cry of terror, and the future high and puissant Emperor of Austro-Hungary lay on his little round nose, at the bottom of the fountain ! The water - plants rocked with a violence hitherto quite unknown to those decorous, admirably tended growths, while scores of birds, with a loud whir of startled wings, rose from their twittering councils in the scented thickets hard by; finches, nightingales, robins, and even gray - clad, ubiquitous little sparrows raising alike shrill cries of amazement and alarm, and for a short moment the out-door world stood still as though time had ceased to be while the fate of a great empire, and that of a tiny, dimpled toddler, hung in the balance. Then the sound of hurried feet came down a shaded avenue, where the sun, glancing through dainty clouds of tender green, dappled the gravel -path with rosy spots, and a young gardener's assistant, attracted by the cries of the birds and moved by an inexplicable but overwhelming impulse, ran straight to where the white form of the little Archduke still feebly struggled among the lily-pads. With a wildly beating heart, and a choking sensation . in his throat, he snatched the half-drowned mite from the water, and ran at full speed towards the castle, where the careless attendants who had allowed the child to stray away had already given the alarm, for a knot of people were running excitedly down the marble steps of the upper terraces, and crying out confusedly to one another, as if almost distraught. One tall, graceful figure, however, guided by an unerring mother-instinct, flew down the path taken by the young gardener and his precious burden, and Arch- duchess Sophia, with her beautiful hair streaming loose A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE upon her shoulders, her face white and haggard, her trembling Hps unable to form a word, stretched implor- ing arms towards the lad, her usual icy, proud composure completely shattered by overpowering anguish. "He is not hurt, Kaiserliche Hoheit, not a bit the worse," he shouted joyfully, thrusting the boy into his mother's arms; and then, smitten with a sudden, paralyz- ing shyness, which made the blood tingle like fire through his veins, he turned on his heel and, without waiting for thanks or reward, ran off as fast as he could put foot to the ground. ********* *******;(::); On the 1 8th of August, 1830, a salute of one hundred and one guns had proclaimed to the good citizens of Vienna that yet another Prince had been born to the Imperial House of Habsburg. Later on the Wiener Zeitnng published a bulletin of which the following is a literal translation : "Her Imperial Highness Archduchess Sophia, wife of his Imperial Highness Archduke Franz-Karl, and daughter-in-law of his Imperial Majesty Francis I., has been happily delivered of a son at the Imperial Palace of Schonbrunn. Her Imperial Highness and the Imperial Babe are both in a satisfactory condition. The christening will take place to-morrow at the Palace of Schonbrunn, and will be followed by a Cercle." The birth of this particular little Archduke was greeted with joy not only by the Emperor's loyal subjects, but by the entire House of Habsburg, for obvious reasons. To begin with, the then reigning Emperor, Francis I., had never been robust, for ever since the injuries received by him at the battle of Lugos, during the war with the Turks, to which he had in 1788 accompanied his uncle and predecessor Emperor Joseph, his chest had remained 3 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE delicate, and it was always greatly feared lest any shock or overstrain of the nerves or the brain should precipitate him into the grave, leaving the throne vacant for his weak-minded and unpopular son Ferdinand, who had no issue, and was looked upon as a most un- desirable successor to his kind-hearted and conscientious father. Nor were the people of Austro-Hungary, or, for the matter of that, the Imperial Family, very eager to see Ferdinand's younger brother. Archduke Franz-Karl, assume the reins of government should it become nec- essary to pass over the former, for, although the most upright and just of men, his tastes were far more quiet and domestic than political, and he was of so very kindly a disposition that his heart always overruled his head; not the best of recommendations for a monarch beneath whose sceptre a score of different races and peoples exist, creating and fomenting unceasing conflicts, which can alone be subdued by an iron hand in a velvet glove. It will, therefore, be readily understood that the neces- sity for a fit and proper heir to the heavy Dual Crown was bitterly felt, and hence the rejoicing occasioned by the birth of Francis-Joseph, who, none doubted, would be brought up in every particular as an Emperor should be by his mother, the shrewd, clever, and determined Archduchess Sophia; a ma'itresse femme if ever there was one. Myriads of roses were glowing upon the velvety lawns of Schonbrunn and the warm beams of summer sun danced on the tall jets of the fountains in the Pleasaunce, when the handsome, vigorous, Archducal baby was for the first time carried into open air. Beside the stately, Junoesque wet-nurse in her gorgeous Tyrolese costume, proudly bearing in her arms the white chrysalis from which an emperor would presently emerge, walked no less a personage than Francis I. himself, his pale, drawn 4 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE face transfigtired by a profound and all - engrossing tenderness — the sincerest, deepest, purest feeling of his whole existence — as he gazed through its soft, snowy lace veils at the small, pink visage of his grandson. Day by day he accompanied the baby to the gardens, and thus in that lovely place and season began what was to become a very touching companionship between the weary, disappointed, deeply embittered sovereign and the tiny mite destined to inherit the crown which he himself had found so truly one of thorns. The two were seldom far apart, and as soon as the child could walk he found no readier playfellow, no more patient attendant than his beloved Grot — a charm- ing corruption of the as yet unpronounceable Gross- vater — over whom he could tyrannize to his heart's content. Indeed, a disposition less sweet might have been totally ruined by such an adoring affection as that lavished upon him by the doting old man; but little " Franzi "was an exception to the general rule, and passed unscathed through the trying ordeal, despite his mother's gloomy prognostications. It was a touching sight to watch the spare, stooping figure of the monarch bend yet lower to put himself on the level of the child, or to see his stern blue eyes softening and smiling, and his usually knitted brows smooth themselves under his silver locks when the little one appeared on the scene. The old Emperor was passionately fond of birds and flowers, and he initiated his httle grandson at the ear- liest possible age into the mysteries of natural history and botany — not, however, the cruel, insensate sciences which prompt the student to tear apart the satiny petals of delicate blooms in order to dissect their tender hearts, or to pull to pieces the velvet wings of butter- flies, and the emerald corselets of rose-beetles while they Still live and flutter, or after they have been done to S A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE death with ammonia, ether, or — worse yet — with tort- uring pins that have fastened their poor little quivering bodies to corks for long days of agony. No! No! Francis I., whom historians, especially German ones, have not hesitated to accuse of utter heartlessness, harshness, craftiness, and a decided leaning towards refined cruelty, would not have hurt an insect or even a flower for any consideration. His favorite playgrounds for his little grandson were in winter the magnificent winter-gardens, communicating with the private apartments at the Hofburg, and in sum- mer the gorgeous parks and greenhouses of Schbnbrunn and Laxenburg, where the quaintly assorted pair devoted many hours to floriculture. Often they would walk all alone and hand in hand under the grand elms and walnut- trees of the Imperial Park, watching wonderful nature — the pale primroses peeping through dark mosses, the tur- quoise wings of the blue-jays fluttering in the branches, the shy, brown squirrels swinging among the hazel-bush- es, and the gold-fish, glowing like flames or animated jewels, everlastingly touring in the gigantic fountain- basin, where " Franzi " had nearly found his death. In- deed, this last was one of their greatest delights, and when the greedy swarm opened and shut their bland, cavernous mouths in catching crumbs, and swallowed them with a coldly contented flicker of their gold-rimmed eyes, the little boy's laughter would ring out in ecstasy and be echoed by the low, repressed merriment of his much- pleased Grot. Poor Archduchess Sophia! even her omnipotence stopped short of the power required to separate these two, although she employed her finest strategy and her cleverest plannings and plottings to that end, for she was greatly alarmed lest her beloved boy should escape from under her Spartan rule, and be over-indulged and 6 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE encouraged to disobey lier by that meek Autocrat, his Most Cathohc Majesty, Francis I. But the bond be- tween " Franzi " and his Grot proved unbreakable, and remained so until death closed the sad, tired eyes of the fond old grandfather, whom his subjects called the People's Emperor, because he was truly their spiritual father, in spite of all that the jaundiced works of Hor- mayr and others may say to the contrary. Archduchess Sophia was at that time a beautiful woman, possessed of supreme distinction and of that dignity of bearing which is the appanage of ancient lineage and of long traditions of courtesy and culture. Her every gesture was harmonious and reposeful, and her cameo-like features bore a calm, proud, cold ex- pression, denoting perfect self-reliance. In her character an inextinguishable thirst for power, a disposition to exercise too despotic a will and to show herself con- temptuous of any dictates but her own, and a distinct leaning towards intolerance, were curiously blended with a strong sense of duty and responsibility that rendered her unsparing of herself and untiring in her numerous charities. "Sophia," her father-in-law once said, "has it in her to be a second Maria-Theresa. She brooks no con- tradiction, no opposition of any kind. She is overbear- ing and autocratic; but even her faults are noble ones, and had I myself had a few such the country would have greatly benefited thereby!" Indeed, the Archduchess would have been an ideal ruler for a realm so difficult to keep in order as Austro- Hungary, for she would have known without a per- adventure how to repress and discourage all tendencies to revolt and rioting long ere the time when grave revolutionary outbreaks sapped the very foundations of the Empire. 7 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE Her undeniable nobility of temper, her inexorable pride and stern clearness of judgment, clothed her in an unyielding armor, and she serenely pursued her way in life unhampered by any feminine weakness of mind or body, walking as it were in the gratifying conviction that she at least could do no wrong. That this convic- tion carried her too far at times is sufficiently known. It has often been said that she was unscrupulous. This she was not in any ordinary sense, and as for the political interpretation of the word, everybody knows that its extreme elasticity permits any historical scribbler to stretch it enough to cover offences against his own personal tastes and opinions. Indeed, there is no mas- ter of statecraft, no energetic and painstaking prime- minister, or for the matter of that no successful politician of whatsoever color or inclination, who has not been laid under this accusation. A hard, cold, determined woman, if you will, was Archduchess Sophia, who would have been sufficiently remarkable in any age for her total lack of gentleness and softness, and was much more so in a time of vaporous, languorous femininities; a woman more likel}^ to be feared and admired than loved even in her own im- mediate family ; a woman capable of causing the greatest pain to those nearest to her, by her firm belief in the superiority of her own judgment, and her steady resolu- tion to uphold it against any other; but a woman of a large and fine moral mould, in no way paltry or mean. Moreover, she was certainly neither the remorseless in- trigante nor the Machiavellian schemer she has been represented to be. Her excessive severity, fortunately for little " Franzi," was counter - balanced by the infinite tenderness and boundless leniency displayed towards him by the lad's Imperial grandfather, and was still further mitigated A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE by the absolute adoration of the child's father, Archduke Franz-Karl. The accepted opinion about this Prince will have it that he was a rather colorless, insignificant gentleman, solicitous only about his own comfort, decidedly self- ish, and so remarkably eager to avoid any exertion, trouble, or fatigue that he allowed himself to pass for a total nonentity. This, as a matter of fact, is a very unfair and unjust portrayal of the generous, gold- en-hearted man who throughout a long life abhorred the very idea of giving pain to others. Moreover, his intense and bitterly criticised love of peace, and his much-derided dread of any sort of quarrel, were without a doubt engendered by the terror which filled his earliest recollections of those dreadful days in 1805 and 1807 when Napoleon drove the Imperial Family of Habsburg from their beloved city of Vienna — at the point of the sword, as one might say. From these troubled times of his childhood the winning sweetness of his ways also took its origin. Indeed, far from being self-centred or an egotist, he was most wonderfully unselfish, living entirely for his wife and children, and making it his continual occupation to render them happier than any mortals have a right to be in this sad world of ours. He had in his nature not a trace of the cold, forbidding haughtiness which is popularly supposed to be one of the characteristics of Royal and Imperial personages, nor did he confuse dignity with that stiffness suggestive of "having swaflowed a ramrod," as do, alas! but too frequently those to whom dignity is but a laboriously acquired attitude — a matter of mere pose. He was invariably courteous to high and low alike, but his reserve of manner was singularly impenetrable, and his mode of speech gave one the impression of a gentle and sustained indifiference to all that did not touch his 9 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE beloved ones. In short, he might have been summarized by that strangely pathetic appellation which so often calls forth the ridicule and merriment of the crowd — a dreamer. With his little son, Archduke Franz-Karl, like his Imperial father, became the merest child, thoroughly happy with all a child's pleasure in a long day spent in the woods, a search after wild flowers or autumn berries, or in any other simple amusement pertaining to the Golden Age of Youth; and in these pursuits there was true companionship between them, for so far from having to descend to the child's level, as Emperor Fran- cis had done, he did but follow the bent of his own spirit. His love of nature was a part of himself, an inborn, Hellenic sympathy, which is something entirely different from the pose of the individual who thinks to do honor to his own cleverness by patronizingly commending the works of the Almighty; and different also from that of the botanizing fiend who, with his tin canister at his back and his pompous Latin jargon, depoetizes the very essence of nature's poetry. Archduke Franz-Karl quietly enjoyed the beauty of the out-door world, feeling himself thoroughly akin to all that grew or moved in it, all that rejoiced in the sunshine and flavored of the soil, whether flower or beast or man. He was familiar with every mountain or forest blossom, and had the love begotten of knowl- edge and long acquaintance for all the furred and feath- ered Hfe of the woodlands, as well as for the stalwart Scnner and Sennerinneii of his favorite summer re- treats in Upper Austria and Tyrol. One day as little " Franzi " — then a boy nearly five years old — was wandering with his father under the budding trees of the park at Schonbrunn, the child, spying in the young grass the first tuft of violets, de- A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE lightcdly fell on his knees, and, kissing the flowers glee- fully, exclaimed, in his pretty, uncertain German: " Willkoimiwn, Ihr hiibsche, Ihr siisse ! Gott segne eiich!" (Welcome, you pretty, you sweet! God bless you!) A soand of contemptuous laughter came from the neighboring shrubbery, and Archduchess Sophia, twirl- ing a rose-lined sunshade on her shoulder, pushed aside the supple boughs of a copper-beech, and stood before them. "You ridiculous child!" she exclaimed, with some impatience. "A fine thing for a future soldier to fraternize with budding violets!" Crimson with shame, the bonny little lad jumped to his feet, and gazed at the tiny, nodding blossoms through fast-gathering tears. "Weine nicht, Herzchen!" said his father, bending caressingly over him, " Mutzerl meint es dock nicht!" An ominous frown contracted the Archduchess's del- icately pencilled brows, and her lips parted for further reproof, but closed immediately, her better nature gain- ing the upper hand. Stooping quickly she lifted the child from the ground, and drawing his curly head upon her shoulder, she soothed him with that graceful ten- derness to which she, unfortunately, but infrequently gave expression, and which transformed her ordinarily impassive face as a bright sun-ray transforms a clear and colorless ice-crystal into a thing of transcendent beauty. A scene from a story-book, say you? Not so! An incident that actually occurred. It is a very thankless task, a weary undertaking, to tell the true history of a romantic life. For there are many who invariably conclude that one is disregard- ing truth for effect — which is humihating indeed; and A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE therefore too often, alas! the scribe — hke the artist who does not dare, when setting his palette, to approach the gorgeous coloring of nature, the dazzling gold of an Oriental sunset, or the flaming hues of tropical blos- soms — hesitates to relate the real, the live, the palpi- tating, or even the mere simple touching incidents which go to make up the existences of royal person- ages past or present. At ten years of age Francis-Joseph was a handsome boy, fair of skin and slender of form, though very strong and supple from living much out-of-doors. His bright amber hair curled on his low, broad forehead, and his eyes were big, honest, fearless, and of the exact hue of a forget-me-not. He was tall for his age, and possessed to a supreme degree that air of refinement and distinction for which his mother was remarkable, and which, as I have already said, though not always the result of a patri- cian ancestry, is, however, rarely derived from any other source. Full of high spirits, there was something charm- ing and contagious in his frank gayety, which was quite devoid of boisterousness, and rarely made him forget, despite a quick and impulsive temper, that an absolute and chivalrous courtesy is the first duty of a prince. Somehow or other he never worried anybody, as he was neither wayward nor imperious, but so considerate that his attendants were loud in his praise, and though by no means that horror of horrors, a model child, he had a knack of endearing himself at once and forever to those who had the fortune of meeting him intimately. Of course, in spite of all this, he thoroughly well knew that he was a little man of considerable importance, to whom everybody rendered homage, and whose tiny hand was kissed by gray-haired Ministers of State and great nobles; but adulation had no bad effect upon him, thanks to his affectionate, sensitive nature, and his A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE almost alarming swiftness in self-reproach and self- discontent, if I may use such a word. Sports of all kinds delighted him. At eight years of age he rode his pony with consummate grace and skill, swam like an otter, was a sure and well-drilled shot at the target or running mark, and could use crampons and alpenstock with the same felicity as any mountaineer of his own beloved Tyrol. In the Tyrol it was that from his earliest childhood he found his greatest joys; for long since his grandfather's and his father's love of nature had appeared in him. "A dreamer of dreams," his mother — who could never appreciate this side of his character — called him, and so, indeed, he may be said to have remained his life long — not in the sense of an indolent idealist, for none have worked harder nor more conscientiously than he, but in that of a temperament keenly alive to the beauti- ful in every form, satisfied with simple amusements, and incapable of ennui when thrown upon its own resources. Then as now he was ready to fly back to the tall hills and lofty peaks which he loved so dearly, and there, surrounded by the precipices black with pine and fir shelving dizzily downward, and wrapped about by the utter silence of the high ranges — broken only by the ripple of water or the distant tinkle and rustle of avalanches on the upper snows — drink deep draughts of solitude and delicious loneliness. It was but natural that this httle lad, drawn as he was so irresistibly to the romantic and the ideal, should love to wander in the winter twiHght through the great panelled and tapestried galleries of the Hofburg, in order to watch the gleam of the rising moon filter through long, lancet windows painted by Jacob of Ulm and Seller of Landshut in the days of long ago, or to gaze dreamily at the grim figures in full armor keeping 13 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE their rigid and eternal vigil under the gorgeous, gold- broidered banners adorning the walls in the Rittcrsaal. Natural, also, though prophetically strange, that he should be devoted to the worship of St. Elizabeth of Hungary, that gracious and poetic figure which after so many centuries was to find reincarnation in the woman to whom, " malgre tout ce que Von pent dire," the years of his manhood gave so deep and true a tenderness, the only woman, indeed, he really has loved as love should be loved. A picture representing the noble wife of Louis of Hesse with the miraculous roses in her lap was one of the most cherished possessions of his childhood, and to this day it hangs above the narrow camp-bed which he invariably uses. Yet through the tissue of all his winning and lovable qualities, his softness of heart and tender, affectionate nature, ran the strong strain of his maternal inheritance, like a clear breath of mountain wind through the sweet fragrance of flowers. This showed itself especially in his total lack of self-consciousness, in his honest}^ of purpose, and the brave, quiet determination that marked him as one who in after-times should be of those who may be broken but never defeated, and who amid misfortunes may say with the poet: "Beneath the bludgconings of Chance My head is bloody, but not bowed." His extreme consideration for others and great .gen- erosity became apparent almost simultaneously with his acquisition of speech, and the following little anecdote may illustrate what I mean: One day when he was not 3'et quite four years old he had followed his grandfather into the great tapestried hall where State papers were daily brought for the 14 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE Imperial signature. Even at that time the child was in harmony with his royal surroundings, as he pattered about with the golden light of the sun falling through the painted panes of the immense windows upon his curly pate, his round, rosy face, big blue eyes, and the dove-hued velvets and laces of his little frock. The tiny feet were noiseless on the thick, purple carpet, and he trotted around, joyful and unhindered, stopping from time to time to examine the priceless vases, groups of bronze figures, and exquisite statues standing here and there upon tables and consoles. Suddenly in the deep embrasure of one of the windows he discovered the sword of the General- Ad judant on duty. Fascinated by the shimmering tassels of the portc-epee and by the possibilities of so novel a plaything, he pounced upon it, bestrode the sword, seized the golden cords and tassels in his chubby hands, and, using them as reins, began to gallop up and down, clapping his pink tongue energet- ically to encourage his charger. The Emperor silently indicated the boy's characteristic performance to his companion, and a wistful look came into his eyes, for he realized perchance that this delicious period of baby- hood was almost at an end — always a sorrow for those who really love their children. With a sudden impulse of the joy and mastery of pos- session, "Franzi" gave his mount a decidedly vicious jerk, which tore apart the delicately wrought porte-epee and caused the great sword to fall at his feet with a terri- fying rattle of steel. Consternation depicted on his little face, where the color had suddenly deepened, and big tears gathering in his "forget-me-not" eyes, he stood trans- fixed and completely overcome by the magnitude of his crime. For a moment he remained thus; then the two men, watching him covertly, saw him slowly pick up the dismantled sabre and drag it to where its inwardly IS A KEYSTONE OP EMPIRE much-entertained owner stood at the Emperor's elbow. Up went the dimpled hands bearing their heavy burden, and from the piteously trembling Hps came this as- tonishing and consoling sentence: ' ' Weine nicht ! Franzi wird's bezahlen wann er einmal Kaiser ist!" (Don't cry! "Franzi" will pay for it when he is Emperor!) "Franzi's" intercourse with his brothers was not as free as is usually the case when there is but a trifling difference of age. This was due to the fact that his education was directed entirely by his mother and on wholly different lines from theirs, which the father had now taken completely under his own charge. Of course during the summer months the boys romped together a good deal, but as soon as the Imperial Family returned to Vienna, or even Schonbrunn, the curious estrangement, separating them as virtually as if they lived miles apart, was resumed. The brother he loved best was Ferdinand-Maximilian, who, only two years younger than himself, was best fit- ted to be his companion, and from the moment when the child had begun to walk "Franzi," when he was allow- ed to be with him, had been careful of his every step, jealous of his affection, and had tended him with untir- ing tenderness, risking, indeed, more than once, life and limb to bring him down from the mountains some covet- ed flower or bit of tinted quartz. Little Ferdinand was a quaint child if ever there was one, and of a serious, mild, yielding disposition, which, alas! was to prove his undoing in later years, when, to satisfy the mad ambition of his Belgian wife, he accepted the crown and sceptre of Mexico. Karl-Ludwig, who was a year younger than Ferdinand, was not, like him, gentle and quiet, but singularly opinionated, masterful, and eager to get his own way in i6 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE everything; "a proud, rebellious child," as his mother would say. He never, however, had "P'ranzi's" daring and skill in sports, and from the first he did not have what one calls iin cJiaraclcrc facile. Years and educa- tion failed to change him, but only "combed his hide" and gave him a silken coat of dignity and self-com- , mand which sufficed at most times to conceal much roughness and narrowness of mind. Moreover, he was very single-minded in all he did and thought. He was pleased or displeased with people and with things, recognized no half - tints or half - measures, and was equally ready to give his life up for his friends and to consign his enemies to the tortures of the pit. A passionate, fiery soul under a rough bark — that was Karl-Ludwig! As to Louis-Victor, the youngest of the brood, he was as yet but a baby, with light yellow curls, big round blue eyes, and a skin like a pink lily, and he did not enter into "Franzi's" life excepting in the role of an animated doll, with which he was occasionally allowed to play. Moreover, this littlest one of all was the darling and favorite of his aunt Empress Maria-Anna, who monopolized him and dreaded to see his brothers romp with the delicate, often ailing, child. Poor Empress! her life was a colorless one, without great joys or deep sorrows, but unspeakably dreary in its childless monotony. Delicate and fragile, she took no pleasures in the sports so dear to all Austrian women, while her Italian heart unceasingly mourned the Court of her father. King Victor Emanuel of Sar- dinia, where she had lived in a warm and sensuous atmosphere, fragrant with flowers and enlivened by witty gossip. To her the feudal etiquette of the Hof- burg, and the long northern winters seemed alike very terrible, and she only breathed entirely at ease when s 17 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE surrounded exclusively b_\- Italians and priests, which marked preference naturally caused her to be ex- tremely unpopular and freely accused of bigotry, and of wielding a very deleterious influence over her Imperial husband. Little Louis-Victor was a veritable godsend to her, and this one sincere affection was the only really lumi- nous spot in an existence spent in alternately eating bon- bons and telling the beads of her rosary. " Franzi " she did not greatly like, for she was absolutely unable to comprehend his daring, his intrepiditv, his love for open-air pastimes or his delight in those long, white- frozen months which she so greatly hated and con- temptuously called "hyperborean!" "Franzi," she used to say, "is too full of vitality; it is fatiguing to watch him!" And when Archduchess Sophia left Vienna for the summer months the Empress's only regret was that this Spartan mother should decline to leave "Baby Vic- tor" with his doting aunt, who spoiled him as it was, a great deal too much for her taste. The best time of the year for "Franzi " and his broth- ers was just those summers spent at Weissenbach on the Attersee in Upper Austria, one of the most beautiful spots of that surpassingly lovely lake and mountain re- gion. The divinely blue sheet of water, closed in from the world by an amphitheatre of pine-clad slopes, sweep- ing down from the eternal snows, was to the bovs a con- stant source of delight, whether they canoed upon its gleaming surface, or frolicked and swam in its clean depths as soon as the snow-fed waters were sufficiently sun-warmed to allow of such a sport. In this neighborhood "Franzi's" greatest friend was the now almost historically celebrated Doppelbauer, rec- tor of Steinbach, a blunt individual, who prided himself upon speaking "w/fc' //;;;; Jcr Schnabd gewachsen war "; i8 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE that is to say, "just as his beak grew," or, in other words, very much to the point, and in a remarkably unconventional manner. A character was this old man, whose clever, humor- ous, wrinkled countenance constantly beamed with good -humor. Of peasant birth, a son of the soil in heart, soul, and body, he lacked neither shrewdness nor a certain amount of learning; but a contented spirit, and a great love for his own place and surroundings, led him to seek no advancement or favor from the Church he so faithfully served. His very humble par- sonage was to him a paradise, a daily cause for self- congratulation that he had resisted all such tempta- tions, and his flowers, his orchard, his bee-hives, his poultry, and his splendidly fat, loudly grunting pigs were second only in interest to his parishioners. He had already lived a long and blameless life of true devotion and some hardship, entailed by the prosecution of his labors in his rough mountain parish, when the lit- tle Archduke appeared to brighten his lonely and forced- ly rather monotonous existence, and the extremely af- fectionate relations soon established between the slight, elegant Imperial child and the rubicund old priest were delightful to witness. The merry, sympathetic boy was a rare and enchanting companion to Doppelbauer, among whose virtues toadyism had no place, who was totally regardless of Court etiquette, and far from feeling that awe of his future sovereign which might have been ex- pected of a man of his humble origin and simple life. Indeed, he treated the child "tout a fait dc puissance a puissance," and with the freedom, ease, and sans gene of a grandfatherly playfellow, loving him with all the strength of a great simple heart. Early one morning, in the summer of 1840, " Franzi " took his way towards his reverend friend's modest abode, 19 A K.E Y S T O N E OF EMPIRE accompanied only by his favorite dog, a huge, mouse- colored Dane, whose big, gold-pailleted eyes were con- stantly fixed on his young master, and whose erect ears testified to liis watchfulness and to his sincere and earnest consciousness of the responsibility resting upon him as the boy's trusty guardian. The walk to the parsonage lay under the cathedral gloom of Siberian pines along abrupt slopes carpeted by deep, soft, velvety mosses, and thick fern -brakes, and here and there a narrow brook made itself heard as it tumbled through the dim green- ness to fall in foaming cascades into the Attersee far be- low. In the priest's garden there was a loud hum of bees about the old-fashioned stocks, gillvflowers, hollvhocks, and snap-dragon surrounding great patches of sturdv cabbages, salads, and pungent onions, while, in a blos- soming elderberry-bush by the trim fence, a goldfinch sang at the top of his harmonious little voice. "Franzi," pausing at the wicket just long enough to explain to the dog that his size and his big paws would endanger the "Herr Pfarrer's" fine flowers and vege- tables, and to console the disappointed attendant with a kiss on his beseeching nose, ran into the garden with a face of sunshine. In a far corner of the enclosure Doppelbauer was kneeling amid his potatoes, weeding and tending the promising plants, and truth compels me to add that the reverend gentleman was excessively grimy, his large, sunburned hands bearing ample testimony to his labor amid the rich mould wherein the tubers throve. "Ho, ho! Is that you, little friend?" he exclaimed, turning a crimson and perspiring but beaming counte- nance towards his visitor. "'What good wind blew you here:'"' Then he added, with a laugli, "I can't shake hands with vou, I'm too dirtv." A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE "That's nothing," exclaimed " Franzi," extending his smooth, pink pahn ; but, seeing that his beloved " Pfar- rer" refused to grasp it, a shade of annoyance cloud- ed his bonny visage, and with a little frown he stooped quickly, thrust his hand deep into the dark, greasy earth, and, withdrawing it thoroughly coated with mire, waved it triumphantly under the nose of his amazed and delighted host. "Now," he cried with a laugh, "I'm just as dirty as you are, and you will have to shake hands!" Which ceremony was accordingly performed with much enthu- siasm and merriment on both sides. They were still chatting to their heart's content about the fowls and the fruit, the new-laid eggs — which the young Archduke loved to bring from the nests — and the tiny green flies threatening the rose-bushes, when they were suddenly warned by the mid-day bell of the Kaiser- villa chiming and clanging in the distance, how long a road, comparatively speaking, lay between the lad and his dejeuner. Also, an errand intrusted to him by his mother, but which had, until that moment, entirely es- caped his memory, was recalled to "Franzi's" mind, and he said, coaxingly: " ' Herr Pfarrer,' mamma told me to ask you if you will dine with us to-night?" Gravely Doppelbauer shook his large, shaggy head, wiped his hands upon his blue gardening-apron, and ex- tracting a "rat-tail" snuff-box from the big, front pocket thereof, inhaled a generous pinch of "sneezing-powder," as "Franzi" called it. "Won't you come?" the boy asked again, wistfully. "Atch— chew!" sneezed the priest. "Ateh— chew!" and, after blowing his nose vigorously in a gorgeous red- and-yellow handkerchief, he answered, roundly; "No, my boy, I won't come. I've got two fine sau- 21 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE sages and some right ' scliiiicckhaft' (tasty) sauerkraut for mv supper, and that's much better than the messes cooked b}' your grand chef; tliey do not agree with me at alb But you can tell your good mother that I'll come in for dessert. Your coffee is pretty fair, but for the rest — pfui!" Which peroration was emphasized by a grimace of the most realistic disgust. Somewhat disappointed, but smiling to himself at the thought of what mamma would say to such a very un- sophisticated mode of declining an invitation, the lit- tle Archduke turned his face homeward, racing down through the pine wood which slopes abruptly towards the flowery lawns of the "Schloss." Damp and dishevelled from short-cuts through tangled undergrowth, he burst into his mother's morning-room: " Der Herr Pjarrcr." he panted, "will come after din- ner. He does not like the cooking here, but he savs the coflee is good, and, do you know, Miiitcrl, I think he is quite right." As usual, when alone with her boy, the Archduchess thawed, and her grave eyes sparkled with genuine fun. "The 'Herr Pfarrer,'" she remarked, dryly, "is quite a connoisseur, and so are you, no doubt ! But go now and change your damp shoes, Biibi. Also, do not bring this elephantine dog in here. He capsizes everything with his interminable tail." When at Weissenbach, I may state here. Archduchess Sophia was inclined to relax somewhat the severity of her Spartan rule, and her younger children felt that there they were far less outside her life. In Vienna, altliough never unjust, impatient, or unkind to them, vet her stern stateliness awed them, and when she attended to any of their demands upon her they knew by instinct that her whole heart was not in this accomplishment of maternal duty; so, very gradually, a slight and for a A KEYSTONE OF EA1PIRE long time almost imperceptible jealousy of their elder brother crept into their hearts, from whence it was never eradicated. The mother, whose hand caressed "Franzi's" golden curls, whose lips curved into a welcoming smile when he came into the room, who listened with exemplary patience to his stammering I^atin, and praised his still unformed handwriting, seemed to them a distant god- dess, proud and inflexible, who often rebuked them with peremptory and unyielding decision — not as she did to him, a dear Mtittcrl or Miitzcrl, in whose very strictness the thoughtful boy had already perceived the best evi- dence of love. Of a truth, " Franzi " alone aroused in his mother those softer moods which suited her so well. She who, although a pious daughter of Rome, would have bearded the Holy Father himself, and braved the very thunders of excommunication when her indomi- table spirit was roused, who would bend her will to none, who for days on end when offended intrenched herself in silence and pride, and who was accustomed to twist human volition like a willow wand in her hand, had never willingly' had a harsh look for her first-born, from the moment when, in his babyhood, she had soothed and caressed and amused him, and watched him falling asleep on her lap with his downy head nestled upon her breast. He was, indeed, her all, and when, peradvent- ure, an impatient word escaped her, it was followed by a throb of intolerable remorse. There was yet another who escaped the half-terrified awe which the Archduchess inspired in most persons, and whom she greatly respected for it, strange as it may ap- pear. This was the Reverend Doppelbauer. The excellent old priest arrived that evening in time to swallow, with an appreciative smacking of the lips, a cup of the "pretty fair" coffee he had so condescendingly 23 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE commended earlier in the day. After draining the last drop, however, he looked pityingly at the tiny Sevres toy in which it had been served, and, shrugging his heavy shoulders, remarked: "Now, what nonsense it is to use such thimbles! I've got a pint bowl at home that's something like; but this doesn't even hold enough to tickle the tongue!" They were quite en faniillc on the terrace overlooking the lake ; there was the tinkle of coffee-cups, the smell of cigar-smoke mingling with that of great beds of reseda and heliotrope. Chnging to the wall of the villa behind them, two immense climbing roses were all aglow with crimson and yellow blossoms, and in the distance the ramparts and bastions and high pinnacles of the moun- tains ghttered under the slanting rays of the setting sun. Archduke Franz-Karl, stretched peacefully in a long, cane chair, dandled his youngest son on his knee, and watching the lithe figure of "Franzi," as the boy ran down the steps towards the lake, saw, perchance, in his mind's eye, his grandchildren reigning here when he him- self would be ever so old, and when "Franzi " would have long been a puissant monarch. Doppelbauer, sitting by the open glass door of the now empty dining-room, blinked into his cup with ludicrous disappointment, and repeated, ruefully: "Ah, yes; hardly enough to tickle the tongue!" Archduchess Sophia walked across to him with a full cup in her hand. She was dressed in white, and pearls — these unassuming gems of demi-toilette — were wound round her throat; her beautiful hair was very simply but very perfectly arranged, and she was smiling gayly. "Come 'Herr Pfarrer'i" she said, indulgently. "I am going to prevent you from committing the sin of covetousness, at least for the present. Drink this, and when you want some more, I'll fill it again for you." 24 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE Oh, good Doppelbauer, did you at this instant reaUze that a daughter and mother of kings was waiting upon you? It did not seem so, for, with a hearty laugh, of the quality which the French so graphically describe as tin rirc gras, he coolly exchanged cups, and allowed the greatly entertained Archduchess to carry away the empty "thimble" of precious china, calling after her, cheerily: "Ha, Imperial Highness, all I ever covet are eatables! That's only half a sin." She laughed too, and sat down on a low, cushioned chair to watch the glorious harvest - moon rise above the mountains. At her feet lay the great, glancing sheet of water, and the wonderful evening light seemed to have a voice that blended with the silvery tones of the church-bell ringing the "Angelus" behind the pine-crested slopes of a high hill on the left. The scene was strangely poetical, the lovely night aimed at an atmosphere of tenderness, of almost reverent ro- mance, and with it mingled, ethereal and mysteriously pathetic, the sweet scent of nature in night's silent hours. Suddenly, on the swiftly brightening luminous path made by Dame Luna upon the bosom of the lake, a tiny canoe, rocking violently, appeared. In it stood, paddle in hand, the venturesome "Franzi," swinging recklessly from side to side, and evidently enchanted with the illu- sion of being tempest-tossed which he was producing for himself. Archduchess Sophia rose to her feet with a blanched, frightened face. "Oh, 'Herr Pfarrer,' please shout to 'Franzi' not to do that!" she exclaimed, evidently relying on the old man's superior power of lung. He lazily turned his bullet head, glanced at the httle boat madly rolling about, watched for a minute the 25 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE supple inclinations from right to left of the graceful figure poised perilously on its narrow thwarts, and re- sponded, in broad patois: " Ach ! Wenn cr amal Kaiser is, wird no mehr uber eahin koinnia, an wanner jctzt cinjallt zarrn man seho'aussa." (When he is once Emperor nothing will touch him more, and if he now falls in we can easily get him out.) Alas for the worthy priest's prophecy! How many were the things hidden in the future, that were to touch, and touch bitterly and keenly, the boy rocking so hap- pily in the canoe ! In the charming gardens of the " Kaiservilla " at Weissenbach was a kiosque overlooking the lake, a small, low building made of carved, fretted, and fragrant red pine, surmounted by a pointed, thatched roof overrun with jasmine and roses. Long locks of mauve and white wistaria tumbled down its sides, heavy with the weight of bloom they supported, and rustled odorously in the light summer wind, or humbly drooped their glittering, tearful petals when one of the dense showers, which are the rule rather than the exception in those re- gions, came to freshen the earth. It was reached by winding paths curving between tall syringa, laburnum, lilac, and rhododendron bushes, and was a place alwavs abounding in three beautiful things — silence, flowers, and perfume. Here it was that every morning " Franzi " sat at his lessons with one or other of his instructors. There were not many sights or sounds without to distract his atten- tion save the ripple of the blue lake, faint bird-songs among the shadows of the gardens, a shepherd seen on the opposite mountain's flank driving his flock before him, and perhaps yodling melodiously to the drowsy echoes, or a peasant woman returning to her chalet with 36 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE a gigantic bundle of fresh-cut grass poised upon her shapely head. The task done, all that paradise was his to range, but still to him the hours of study were not a time of penance, and he willingly bent his curly pate above ponderous tomes and absorbing exercises. At the Hofburg his " school-room ' ' was not so poetical, and yet Archduchess Sophia, who believed, and rightly so, that a child's artistic taste and comprehension should be developed by his surroundings as early as possible, in- variably devoted to this use, not as is generally the case even for little Royal boys and girls, a plainly, nay, an oft meagrely furnished room, with glaring maps in lieu of mural decoration, and ink-stained tables supporting ill-bound volumes of the most discouraging aspect, but a room panelled and ceiled with oak, carved in dead-and- gone days by Schuferstein. Two great tapestries of Marc de Comans faced the Imperial boy's writing-table, which itself was a masterpiece of Buhl, and the atmos- phere was kept warm and mellow by a brilliant fire of cedar logs burning day and night in a monumental polychrome stove of fifteenth-century make, with beau- tifully tinted tiled steps guarded by two wolves ex- quisitely carved in green bronze. Also there were always vases filled with hot - house blossoms on the centre-table — the only touch of femininity about this stately apartment which people enamored of French gilding, gay hangings, and plush - covered furniture would assuredly have criticised as somewhat too severe in style for a child's study. The Imperial boy from the very first loved his lessons in history, his eyes shining like stars when he heard of some grand deed, some heroic action. Rudolph von Habsburg and Wallenstein were among his favorite his- torical characters — soldiers being always foremost in his esteem — and he could have listened to the records of their 27 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE magnificent bravery from "Matins" to "Ave-Maria" during the long winter days when the snow fell with gentle pertinacity upon the grim, gray courts of the "Burg," or the wind howled around its thick, granite walls in a fitting accompaniment to the recital of these Homeric combats. Thus was passed a singularly happy and peaceful childhood, under the wisest of regimens, with simple fare, and an almost total absence of the amusements we are accustomed to associate with the life of the great of this world, but beautified instead by harmless pastimes and out -door sports and occupations amid the pure Alpine air. Surrounded, during six months out of every twelve, by scenes so germane to his sunny nature, and forming so fitting a background to the gay dreams of a lively boyish fancy, the little Archduke grew towards maturity sound in body, soul, and brain. When Archduke Franz attained his twelfth year, his mother decided that his baby name of "Franzi" should now be dropped and replaced by "Franz," tout court, as an indication that he had left childhood behind him and had entered adolescence. From that day on, too, she had her younger children brought to her more often, drove out with them occasionally, inquired into their studies, their amusements, their pastimes, their com- forts, habits, and even their playthings, and, wonder of wonders, now and again at the twilight hour they were allowed to sit at her feet, plaj'ing, or listening to the legends and stories which she excelled in telling. But, nevertheless, her pride and her hopes dwelt as ever in her fair-haired first-born, whom she already saw bearing the weight and glory of the Dual Crown. In spite of her stoicism, however, she, like any other loving mother, suffered acutely from this change, and notwithstanding her eagerness to urge on by all possible EMPEROR FRANCIS I. (ORANnFATHER OP FRANCIS - JOSEPH) AND EMPRESS CAROLINE IN THE IMPERIAL BOX AT THE THEATRE A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE means the moment when the lad she was so proud of should reach full manhood, and therefore be ready to ascend the steps of the throne, yet she felt deeply, almost cruelly, regretful of the days when lie had been all her own, her little, curly-headed darling, coming to be consoled for small troubles and small pains within the shelter of her arms. When Emperor Francis had died in 1835 she had breathed a sigh of relief, for she had always dreaded what she called his "effeminating influence" upon his favorite grandson; and when watching the child's almost abnormal grief at that moment, when hearing him sob- bing aloud almost deliriously, jealous thoughts, which, like rust upon iron, had eaten deeply into her heart, nearly overcame her, and she had had to strive not to treat the child she adored with positive harshness in her impatience at witnessing how great must have been the love between those two. Poor Emperor Francis! He was sincerely mourned by his subjects far and wide, and the feathers taken from the pillow upon which he breathed his last, and which had very characteristically been distributed to the ladies of the aristocracy, are still found in many a patrician household exquisitel}^ framed and sacred as were they relics ; but his daughter-in-law kept no such memento, for had he not been a dangerous stumbling-block in her path ? After all, she was inclined to think, evefj'thing happens for the best in this uncertain and changeful world of ours, even the accession of her timid, weak, delicate brother-in-law, Ferdinand, whom at heart she despised, for he would at least make a wonderful foil for the Em- peror she was fashioning, as a great sculptor fashions the clay of a future chef-d'cciivre. Her Franz! The greatness of his race, the greatness of his future, were wellnigh sacred things to her, and far 29 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE dearer than her own pride. She never tired of telling him of his obHgations and privileges, pointing out to him his proud descent, like a dazzling line of light streaming down to him through the darkness of the ages to guide his footsteps. All ordinary emotion of maternity, all softening recollections of her own childhood, were near- ly killed in her by her consciousness that it was she, and she alone, who was predestined to be the mentor of this King, and that her hands might mould, her spirit create, that superb and dazzling creature of her dreams — a perfect Monarch. Weaker women would have asked for counsel. She was her own and her son's sole law -giver. She did not even seek to ease her often overburdened spirit by confiding to others the anxieties that possessed her dur- ing long, wretched nights of pondering, long days of earnest reflection upon the then far from reassuring state of her son's inheritance, but kept silence, indomi- tably scorning the tribunals of all human wisdom save her own. " God must see the grandeur of my endeavor," she once said, "and His help is all I demand." " Apprcndre a faire son metier de soitvcrain!" This was what Archduke Franz had now to do, and it must be confessed that nothing was neglected which could help him thereto, and also that he himself showed re- markable good-will and aptitude in so doing. CHAPTER II "Franzi," the simple-hearted boy who had infinitely preferred the society of Doppelbauer to that of courtiers, and the simple joys of country-life to the amusements of cities, had now to relinquish both, to a certain extent, and to turn his undivided attention to all the branches of science and of practical knowledge necessary for him to study. The days when his tutors. Count Heinrich Bombelles and Count Johann Coronini.had sought to awaken and set in motion his childish intelligence under the inter- lacing roses of the lake-pavilion at Weissenbach were but a memory, and together with four young nobles — his "brothers-in-arms," as he called them — Prince Rich- ard Metternich, son of the great Chancellor; Count Karl Bombelles, son of his tutor, and who, after a very check- ered career, became, many years later, the instructor of poor, ill-fated Crown-Prince Rudolf; Count Franz Coro- nini, son of his second tutor, and finally Count Taafe, afterwards one of Austria's greatest Prime-Ministers, Archduke Franz began his military training under Colo- nel von Hauslab, a superb soldier and a man of talent, warm-hearted, conscientious, and brave. Nor was this training child's play, for the future Ruler of Austro-Hungary was made to begin at the very be- ginning, just like any other recruit, and if his clothes were finer, his food better prepared, and his lodging dif- ferent from that of the rest of his Majesty Ferdinand I.'s private soldiers, the fatigues entailed by the break- 31 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE ing of his jAlajesty's iicjihew to harness were by no means hghter than those endured by them. He was completely given up to the grasf> of that great war mechanism which untiringly turns out what the French graphically term " de la chair a canon," and sometimes it seemed to him as if he had himself become a piece of machinery, a mere niannikin making gestures in obedience to a wire pulled by a ruthlessly authoritative hand. He was made to groom his own horse, to saddle and bridle and feed it, to serve and manoeuvre a cannon. He was put through ordinary infantry drill, was taught to lay mines under the direction of a colonel of sappers, to handle a pick and shovel shoulder to shoulder with the gray-uniformed men of the pioneer corps, and from six in the morning until late at night the lad labored almost unceasingly, dropping rifle or sword only to sit before a desk where his theoretical and classical education was pursued most industriously. None but the young Archduke himself knew at that time the extent of the sacrifice he was making, not to his own ainbition, but to his mother's, in thus turning his every thought and effort, and devoting his every moment to the accomplishment of her wishes, and in- deed, a budding sportsman Hke himself, keen of eye and swift of foot, fond, above all things, of freedom and of out-door pastimes, must have suflfered exceedingly under this iron ferule of science and learning. Count Taafe, who was his favorite "brother-in-arms," told me one evening, as we sat amid the giant holly- hocks, the flowering linden-trees, and the ripening cher- ries of a delicious garden mirrored in the calm, broad, moonlit waters of the Moldau — or rather the Veltava, as that beautiful river is called by its soft, melodious Czech name — how he had often watched his Imperial comrade curb torturing restlessness, feverish impatience, and an 32 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE almost unconquerable desire to revolt, with a determina- tion and a force seemingly sufficient to make his every muscle and mental fibre break and snap, until he had mastered himself and sat quiet and victorious with big beads of moisture on his pale brow. How, also, many years later, Francis-Joseph had confessed to him that he had several times been on the point of shaking himself free from his trammels, and had held on only by sheer force of will, battling with himself until he felt absolutely broken and tired out, and was once more passive and subdued, like a beaten horse. Then, pitilessly, fiercely, he lashed himself forward, starting afresh again and again in this superb conquest of self. Still he was far from really disliking the strange and interesting experiences which were his, spending, as he did, so many hours of the day among the rank and file — laborers, artisans, and peasants — gathered together by the great military dredge from every corner of the Em- pire, and all and sundry helped to make of him the man he has become — well-informed, and understanding, with the sympathy born of personal contact, the lives, the sorrows, and the joys of the lowliest of his people. He was at once oppressed and stimulated by that high ideal, that shadowing forth of the unattainable which his own soul no less than his mother held ever before his eyes, and dreading not to justify his birthright by dis- tancing his compeers, he worked with desperate energy, alternately confident and despairing of success. Gradually, however, the brave lad became more silent and reserved; he withdrew into himself and brooded alone over the heavy burden of his destiny, until it seemed to him that the form of the Ruler he was to be took shape and hue, and stood forth from the atmos- phere embodied at his side. He saw it with his bodily eyes, he spoke to it (this I have from his own lips), it 3 33 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE went with him wherever he went, and was his constant companion. He believed this brilliant, intangible form to be his fate, and if it were absent he feared lest it should wish to forsake him, and would pursue it in spirit, entreating its return. As if, indeed, our fate could be avoided or lost! Alas, whether we love or abhor it, it will surely and steadily attend our steps, for such is the law, immutable as those of the Medes and Persians! In turn the future Emperor of Austro-Hungary was placed under the orders of Colonel Loschner, Captain Sachse, Lieutenant Kappler, Major Eitel von Seean, Colonel Dominick Beck, Captains Giesl, Wiistefeld, Sing- er, Baron von Smola, etc., as he passed from the infantry to the cavalry, from the artillery to the sappers, the Jagers and the pioneers, until at last he himself became able to command the officers who had taught him, and who reddened with pride when the clear, young voice of their beloved pupil shouted an order to them across the parade-ground. Gradually, slowly, too, but steadily and surely, a great alteration became noticeable in the Imperial youth. There is a flowering of knowledge and of dearly bought experience distinct as the burgeoning of an or- chard in spring. Sometimes the face of a boy merging into manhood becomes almost insolent with triumph when the nature of that boy happens to be evil; some- times it is wistful in its shy and painful lack of self-confi- dence, although the strong, brave heart may pulsate for the days and the great deeds that are to come; and again, it may show the inane satisfaction of a being entirely pleased with himself, and daring the future to teach him something he does not already know. None of these feelings were to be read on Archduke 34 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE Franz's handsome countenance; there dwelt there usu- ally a thoughtful expression, suggestive of hidden and unfathomed depths, and through his eyes, clear and blue and honest as in earlier years, shone a soul of truth, a proud reserve of latent patience and courage, with already more than a hint of an inflexible deter- mination surprising in so young a man. He had become extremely attached to the army, both as its future commander, and also as an integral part thereof, belonging to it body and soul — perchance be- cause he had begun to learn all about it at an age when most boys are ignorant of even the more ordinary no- menclature of military matters. A passionate devotion to the heroes of antiquity interfered to a certain extent with his comprehension and appreciation of the great captains of modern times ; but this delving into the past through the medium of books and black letter-records, this sedulous raking among the ashes of dead centuries, brought to him the tonic effect of many an example, and many a precept that braced him to the arduous task of resisting the lavish flattery and enervating adulation to which all Royal personages are exposed. He always preferred warriors to diplomats and politicians, and felt himself more in sympathy with men in action than with scheming minds — a mental attitude which was placed to his credit by most of those who prophesied for him a splendid career once he had ascended the throne. It was a distinct piece of good-fortune for a man des- tined to rule over the most polyglottic territory in the universe, that he was so remarkably quick at acquiring languages. His excellent and perfectly trained musical ear helped him greatly in the pronunciation of the bar- baric consonants with which Hungarian, Slovak, Czech, and most of the other idioms of the Dual-Empire abound, and as early as October, 1847, he won the hearts of the 35 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE Magyars when, for the first time speaking in public as the Emperor's representative, he addressed them in their own tongue instead of making use, as was cus- tomary on such occasions, of the Latin language. The enthusiasm knew no bounds, and loud Eljens repeatedly drowned the young orator's voice, for every Hungarian present felt the compliment to his nation, and when, a few months afterwards, Kossuth reminded the hot- headed, royal-hearted Magyars of this incident at a mo- ment of great danger for the Habsburg dynasty, the re- sponse was immediate, and all vied in showing their appreciation of an Austrian Prince who had not thought it beneath his dignity to learn their difficult language so as to be able to address them directly, without the me- diation of priests or interpreters. From that moment, to the Hungarian mind, even during the days of the rebel- lion, he was a personality apart from his entire House. That keen-witted, keen -eyed woman. Archduchess Sophia, realized perfectly that at the completion of his studies her handsome boy would enter into that period — dangerous to all young men, but especially to one cast amid the countless temptations which environ Royal personages — when the slumbering senses awaken. Nor was she to be blamed for almost morbidly dreading the feminine adorations, which would be thrown at a Prince whose personal and intellectual gifts would have made him a singularly winning and seductive youth, even had he belonged to any other and much humbler walk of life. Her only hope was in his extreme fastidiousness and deli- cacy of mind and tastes — in these there would assuredly be salvation from any ordinary intrigue — but still she incessantly watched him with terrified anxiety, lest all that was so dehciously spiritual and innocent in him should be destroyed by the merciless witchery of illicit love, for she was too thorough-paced a woman of the 36 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE world not to know that the first passion of a boy colors all his future, and that he who has once passed the gates of disillusion never quite recovers from the shock nor regains a tithe of the self-esteem he has sacrificed. "A blonde attx yeitx noirs!" I have been told that there is but one thing men of taste admire as much, and that is a "Brum aux yeux bleus," but that they are both surpassed by a " Rousse aux yeux grisf" Of course, much depends upon the face, the figure, and the personal witchery of such charmettses, but in Austria dark-eyed blondes, beautiful of face and form, are not the excep- tion, but very nearly the rule, as many, many brave gentlemen of that enticing and fascinating country have known to their cost. Well, once upon a time — to be precise, in 1847 — there breathed and loved at the Court of a puissant monarch — Emperor Ferdinand of Austria — to conceal nothing of this little fairy tale — just such a siren, a "blonde aux yeux noirs," with eyes long and dark and exceeding lus- trous, embellished yet more by a provoking droop of curly lashes, and by delicately pencilled eyebrows, as dark as they. Her tresses were not only blond — they were of purest gold, of spun sunbeams, or, good people, if you should prefer it so put, as sparkling as if daintily powdered and frosted with some extraordinarily brill- iant yellow diamond dust. What has such hair to do with the hackneyed "ripe corn," "amber," or "copper" similes so dear to novelists? Nothing whatsoever, I assure you; it was much, much finer than all these! Add to the above enumeration a dazzlingly fair skin, a small, straight, imperceptibly tip-tilted nose, with deli- cately rose-tinted nostrils of an emotional, vibrating type, lips full, sensuous, red as the bud of the pomegran- ate, disclosing short, pearl-white teeth, a slender but perfectly rounded figure, singularly tiny feet and hands, 37 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE and that most surpassingly excellent thing in woman, a voice low, rich, and sweet, and you will, I believe, see before your mind's eye a marvellously lovely being whom Greuze would have rapturously immortalized had he only been wise enough to avoid the fatal error of coming into the world a great deal too soon. Nor do I desire it to be overlooked that this en- chantress was by birth, and by marriage as well, en- titled to crown her glittering curls with a " cotironne fermee," "ce qui ne gdie jamais joli visage." Diogenes himself could have been pardoned for falling a victim to such a being, especially if he had been granted the sight of her half - searching, half -bashful glances, through those strangely silky lashes, or heard her mock- ing, tantalizing, tinkling, bewitching, airy laugh. A beauty whose insouciance and piquant freedom of speech and manner have all the grace taught by the breeding of Courts is fatally dangerous and dangerously fatal, for there is simply no escaping such a combination. Our siren was, moreover, the most capricious coquette that ever broke hearts with a fan-handle, peeping the while with mischievous cruelty around the comer of her noli-me-tangere shield, in a fashion which even St. An- thony — one may as well cite celebrities while about it — would assuredly not have resisted. How could anybody doubt that when young Archduke Franz came face to face with this entrancing apparition he would fall a victim to her extraordinary charm? The fateful meeting took place on a gala night at Schon- brunn, in one of those superb salons still rustling with the melodious swish of robes h la Pompadour, and the echo of eighteenth-century " galanteries" — a true repHca of Versailles in its palmiest days — with the delicate fragrance of poudre h la Marechale and of Frangipani lingering in the pale brocades of its draperies. 38 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE On that particular night, in spite of the grievously troubled political horizon, the great palace was full of color, of Hfe, of music, and of laughter. Entering the salon in question, and finding it untenanted, as he thought, the young Archduke was about to retreat to the terrace, when, framed by the faint greens and pinks of the window-curtains, he caught sight of the slender, graceful form of a woman thrown out in exquisite relief against the moonlit haze of the flower-laden terrace beyond. Clad in ivory -hued laces, and with a diadem of gigantic emeralds sparkling in her dazzling hair, stood this loveliest of all lovely Court beauties, her dark eyes dancing with sunny laughter, her sweet lips half parted, her ridiculously small hands holding back the curtains which had concealed her, intentionally, until then — a picture quite inimitable in its soft, delicious brilliancy. For a moment the young man stood transfixed and to- tally startled out of his usual self-possession, then he bowed profoundly, with the Old-World courtesy, which sat so well on this tall, slim, blond-locked boy of seven- teen. Love is a quick match, easily lighted, which often flares into burning flame at a single glance, and from the instant when he set eyes on that seductive, bizarre, irre- sistible beauty, with her dangerous under-glances and her childlike bloom, as dainty as the flush on a sea-shell, a dizzy, breathless, all-consuming intoxication mastered, snared, and captivated him against his will. This was the first whisper of love's song, that music which, alas! so often leads a man, to the accompani- ment of sweetest melody, from the snowy -perfumed arms of Circe to wreck and death and despair. Archduchess Sophia when she saw them together looked on aghast and horrified. She knew, without the consoling possibility of a doubt, that this queen of 39 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE loveliness was a coquette, absolutely merciless in her wiles, a woman intensely selfish, heartless, one of those who "live on the censing of fools, and spend their time in fooling wise men," and she decided to resort to he- roic measures in order to remove her "future sover- eign" from the influence of this particular blonde anx yeux noirs. The young man had but very little in common at that time with the easy-going, merry, happy-go-lucky Vien- nese whom he so sincerely loved and admired. Courtlv, silent, extraordinarily self-contained for his age, pas- sions swift and strong had lain dormant within him until partially awakened by the gloriously beautiful woman whom, having met, he was to leave almost at once. Had the spell not been broken at one blow, the risk for him would have indeed been great, for he was as yet too young and inexperienced to perceive her tactics and to defy them, as well as to prevent his pulses from quickening under the fire of her lustrous eyes; and, moreover, clever enchantress that she was, she had, even in the short days of their acquaintance, managed to impress him with the many alleged sorrows of her life, and posed, with misleading and astonishing art, as a Miranda married to a Caliban, although this was decidedly overstraining the truth. Her lord was neither particularly young nor particularly attractive, yet he was neither a fool nor a knave. Moreover, he was very much in love with her, and, being exceedingly wealthy, delighted in satisfying her every caprice. Nevertheless, her sweet, pathetic attitude of femnic incomprise ap- pealed strongly to the chivalry which was Archduke Franz's most marked characteristic, and his eyes inva- riably softened with adoring pity and boundless sym- pathy when they met hers. 40 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE It had long been decided that, his studies completed, Archduke Franz should be appointed Governor of Bo- hemia, the dignity to be assumed as soon as he had accomplished a series of Royal and Imperial visits throughout Europe. But political events, and especially the arrival upon the scene of the dusky-eyed blonde, in- terfered decisively with this carefully laid plain. The tempest which vras beginning to rage both within and without Austro - Hungary gave the Archduchess a more than valid excuse to momentarily eloigner her son. Of course it was necessary for him to receive his baptism of fire, and with an aching heart, but unfalteringly, the mother took the first step in the scheme which put, for the first time, many, many miles of battle-ravaged coun- try between herself and the only being she loved in the world, and also before all was said or done, placed in his young hands the reins of government amid Sturm mid Drang. The situation of Austro-Hungary was at that moment a truly lamentable one, for that unhappy country was at war with a twofold enemy; at war with Italy beyond the borders, and at home, alas! with a steady wave of disloyalty and revolt rapidly arising, which threatened to submerge and destroy the monarchy itself. Indeed, the very air seemed instinct with black despair, and from none knew where a sense of some dim, portentous tragedy — as yet distant, but approaching swiftly — that threatened the trembling star of the Habsburgs, crept into every loyal heart. Rising revolution closed in the pathway to the future as a gloomy, crumbling tunnel might that of an onward rushing train, and so terrifying was its menacing dark- ness that Austrians may well be pardoned if they did not then realize that their beloved Fatherland was rush- ing towards the light, after all, and that the boy who 41 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE was soon to assume control of that mad and headlong course would, with all his brave young heart filled but by one thought — that of saving Crown and honor, and of bringing safely into prosperity the country which by Right Divine was his to rule — succeed in his terrible task beyond all expectations. In the spring of 1848 Archduchess Sophia had a long and tumultuous interview with the Emperor, which re- sulted in his future successor being allowed to join Field- Marshal Count Radetzky at Verona, where the old hero was encamped, and as soon as this was done the delight- ed youth, who, in the enthusiasm of martial ardor had, for the time being at least, forgotten his dawning pas- sion, set off for the field of war at the head of the Third Regiment of Dragoons, of which he was colonel both de jure and de facto. A terrible void was left in the hearts and lives of his parents by his departure, and Archduchess Sophia, to whom he had, until very lately, brought nothing but unclouded satisfaction, began to ascend the Calvary of all mothers in fear and trembling for their sons' lives. Even she, the stout of heart, almost broke down when bidding him Godspeed — a weakness which she would never have forgiven herself. Indeed, the few who wit- nessed that good-bye scene noticed that she closed her eyes for a moment, as if striving for control, and that a slight sound, like a quick catching of the breath, escaped from her white lips. Poor Archduchess! this struggle between her cruel anxiety for the safety of her son, her absolute horror of showing how deeply she felt the impending separa- tion, and with all her disgust at discovering that she, strong-minded par excellence, should be but a tender, loving, frightened mother, like the rest of that long- suffering genus, was nearly the final undoing of her 42 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE stoical philosophy, and it seemed to her as if this hour would drive her beyond the confines of reason. There are moments when such a catastrophe seems imminent, when a human creature is tortured to this bitter extreme, and when all normal faculty of self-con- trol, all power of considering matters from the stand- point of the necessary, the practical, or the expedient, is suddenly and terribly withdrawn. Keenly realizing all this, the mother silently fought for strength to retain her habitual marble mask, but the effort was one of those that sometimes kill, and a blank look came upon her face, the look that usually precedes a fainting fit, and the hands which she had mechanically stretched towards him wavered confusedly, as if groping in the dark for something. Meanwhile her "Franzi" — nothing but her own "lit- tle Franzi" now — stood before her in his campaigning uniform, a slight, almost imperceptible tremor passing over his face from the lips upward to the eyes, although he was apparently wholly absorbed in the arrangement of his sword-knot. Neither attempted to speak. Again the mother's slightly trembhng hands were hesitatingly held out, and then impatiently drawn back, as if the controlHng spirit had laid a harsh, restraining grasp upon the bridle of impulse. Suddenly the tension broke, the young war- rior seized her violently in his arms, and, with closed eyes, pressed his face hard against her neck, like a child in pain. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Northern Italy, in the early spring, is the nearest ap- proach to paradise which man can visit, with its cypress 43 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE woods and olive-groves of silvered green, its clambering rose-vines hanging fragrant blossoms from every bough, its thickets of camellia and rhododendron, its fields of lilies, where purple dissolves into blue and crimson, blue into a thousand mauve, violet, and roseate overtones, and the vivid green of the lush grass into every dainty elusive kindred hue known to the spectrum. In such a climate nature, with the help of a stray beam of sunshine, a thimbleful of dew, a puff of breeze from the hills, and a handful of rich, brown earth, can distil the very fragrance of heaven. Amid this riot of delicate odor goldfinches, green- finches, blackcaps, nightingales, and robin - redbreasts disport themselves and shower their full bright notes in tiny rills and thrills and runs of exquisite harmony from the protecting depths of the foliage, each little feathered throat pulsating in time to the crystalline mu- sic, like a live and extraordinarily melodious metronome. The spell of spring, and of that lovely land he was visiting for the first time, were upon Archduke Franz as he arrived in Radetzky's camp. The melancholy of departure had absolutely disappeared, and a great hap- piness welled up in his heart. He was going into action ! What magic in those few words. Heir to a great Empire and to great traditions of honor and fearlessness, to great duties and obhgations as well, he owed it, therefore, to his ancestors to do the very utmost within his power in order to revive and maintain the Habsburg honor, of which he was the custodian — he, the banner-bearer of his race! The time had come, God be praised! when he could unfurl this banner bravely and nobly in the sight of the world. That was his mission, the work he was born to do, he thought exultantly, as he directed his steps towards the spot where he was to meet Radetzky. 44 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE For a moment he stopped, gazing straight ahead at the fair landscape flooded with brilHant sunshine, but see- ing nothing save his famihar phantasm striding proudly before him to victory and glory. Excepting this there was nothing else in all created space for him that day but battling armies, waving standards, and the rush of charging squadrons ; and at the sound of the war-trumpet his soul came forth from its hiding-place and shone in his eyes, looking fearlessly towards the future. The Field-Marshal did not relish the responsibiHty placed upon him by the arrival of the Heir-Apparent to go under fire for the first time under his — Radetzky's — orders, and almost comically did the face of the young Archduke lengthen when the blunt-spoken old warrior curtly exclaimed: "Your Imperial Highness's presence here is very dis- agreeable to me! Should anything happen to you, what will be said of me ? — and if you should be taken prisoner all the advantages that I might otherwise gain over the enemy will, of course, be set at naught." He spoke peremptorily, his multitudinous wrinkles expressive of extreme displeasure, his bold, unflinching hawk eyes forcing themselves to forget that he was ad- dressing his future sovereign. The Archduke could not repress a nervous and rather abashed little laugh, but, with a slightly breathless and triumphant enunciation, he replied: "'Herr Feldmarschall,' it may have been imprudent to send me here, but here I am, and here I stay. It is my place!" Then, drawing himself up and saluting stiffly, he added: "I have the honor to report myself for duty." Radetzky hastily turned his eyes— in which a suspi- cious glisten had suddenly appeared — down the avenue of tents, before which file after file of soldiers stood at 45 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE attention, for this brave veteran of eighty-two now saw in the lad of seventeen his own youth rising up before him, as well as the ardent hope of the Imperial House he had served so long and loyally. With a deep inclination he grasped the Archduke's hand, and would have raised it to his withered lips, but, freeing himself, the young man threw his arms about the bent old form and em- braced his commanding officer as had he been his own father, while the palest flicker of a smile passed over the imperturbable face of the aide-de-camp in attendance as he watched the conflicting emotions of his chief. Neither the Archduke nor the Field-Marshal spoke again until, walking side by side, they had reached the latter's quarters. Radetzky often declared afterwards that his had not at that period been a bed of roses, for he had the un- precedented and uncomfortable honor of numbering among his officers and generals not only the Archdukes Albrecht and Wilhelm, sons of the victor of Aspern, who had joined him at the beginning of the campaign, but alas! now also the apple of Archduchess Sophia's eye — Archduchess Sophia who was feared throughout Aus- tria — her first-born, fashioned by her strong, clever hands to occupy the Dual Throne, and whose death she would never forgive. As for the young Archduke himself, he from the first moment took to active military life as a duck takes to water, and the highest-trained, longest-inured soldier of Radetzky's army did not endure privation with more content and more fortitude than he. On May 6tli he received his baptism of fire at Santa Lucia, and bore himself throughout that fiercely fought battle in the splendid manner so fitly celebrated by the Hnes of Wernhart — "Die Feuerprobe" — of which I here give a copy for those who admire war-poetry. 46 *-K •vTfe. A KEYSTOiNE OF EMPIRE Die Trommel rie£ ztim Sturme Einst bei Sanct Lucia, Da gieng es an ein Streiten So kiihn von beiden Seiten Wie ich kein zweites sah. Die Sohne Osterreichs rangen Urns Recht so manche Stund'; Doch furchtbar kam das Feuer Aus Lucias Gemauer, Wie aus der Holle Schlund. Da ritt aus den Schwadronen Ein junger Ofticier, Er flog beim Kugelregen Dem Feindeshort entgegen, Vol! edler Kampfbegier. Als er an unsern Reihen Gehemmt des Rosses Lauf, Da rief er "Vorwarts Jager! Seid ihr des Ruhmes Trager Auf dieser Thiirme h'nauf!" Das Wort kaum ausgesprochen Hat Wunder schon gethan; Die Feinde in bezwingen, Gieng's wie auf Adlerschwingen Den steilen Berg hinan. Der schmucke Reiter wusste, Dass Muth nur gilt im Krieg, Bestand im Kampfgetobe Mit uns die Feuerprobe, Und unser war der Sieg. Kennt ihr den Heldenjungling, Der kiihn voran uns flog? Franz-Josef war's, der Kaiser, Der sich schon Lorbeerreiser Gepfliickt als Erzherzog. It would take a cleverer pen than mine to adequately describe the look of absolute anguish which so many 47 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE noticed on Radetzky's face on that memorable day, when he saw Archduke Franz quietly check his charger in the thickest of a storm of bullets, and without so much as a flicker of the eyelids remain watching intently the progress of the enemy. Nor had the natural excitement of the moment, the bracing smell of powder, the swish- ing sound of the wind-tossed flags anything to do with the martial attitude of this neophyte, for he was indeed a bom soldier. He gently waved away Feldmarschall- Lieutenant Baron d'Aspre, who was imploring him to take shelter, conjuring him to remember the extreme value of his life, and whose ferocious glares and gestures of impotent exasperation and despair were received by the object of all this undesired solicitude with a disarm- ingly winning smile, as, settling himself squarely in his saddle, the amused Archduke replied, slowly, softly, but with complete and inexorable obstinacy: "I won't go!" This day of initiation wa"?, perchance, the longest, the most agitating, the most ela''ing, and the most unfor- gettable the young Archduke i.ad ever spent. Expect- ant of the end, as one who toils upward towards some towering hidden summit of dazzling magnificence, he lost the sense of time, of fatigue, of hunger, of thirst, every sense, in fact, but that of a strange joy, almost fierce in its intensity. For hour after hour there was no relaxation of muscles, no throwing off of tension, the Hds never drooped over the intently gazing eyes, the firm lips scarcely parted; the whole energetic young figure was alert with passionate vitality, with fasci- nated enthusiasm. He never forgot, at any rate, the sunset of that day, of which he still loves to talk, the dull blue of thunder- clouds that brooded in the west, the sky of purple and gold, the warmth and soft transparency of living color amid which the fiery sphere went down in indescribable 48 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE majesty, seen through the ruddy veil of smoke drifting from the battle - field — an orgy of sky and cloud tints frontiered by the darkness of threatening vapors, which formed, had he but known it, so fitting an emblem of his future. Prudence had been at no time among his prominent characteristics, and this glorious defence of the Austri- ans, this lucky throw of Radetzky's last card, was not calculated to teach caution to a young man normally deficient in it. The latent instinct in him — the instinct that had flashed out in days of keen sport on the dan- gerous summits of the Tyrolese Alps — was that of abso- lute, unconscious courage, and he found something of himself, a familiarity as of previous experience, in the heat of battle, the rush of the charge, and the reckless deviltry of clashing regiments. Tears of pride stood in his eyes as he saw a handful of men — twelve companies — fighting successfully against five entire brigades, an almost unheard-of, almost unsur- passed feat of arms. These men were the flower of Ra- detzky's army, and they moved with the ferocity of tigers, with wondrous celerity, hurling themselves upon the Piedmontese, their hands gripped hard upon their weapons, their white coats stained with dust and blood, until Austrian and Italian were blended in one inextri- cable mass. The Austrian cavalry, hemmed in between infantry and artillery, for a long time was unable to charge, every man keeping his life by a ceaseless hand-to-hand sword- play, beautiful to behold, but nevertheless bitter, stifling, cruel work, during which many a saddle was emptied, many lives crushed out under the stamping hoofs of the maddened horses. But at last the moment long looked for, long desired, arrived, and with lightning rapidity Archduke Franz seized it. Spurring his horse against 4 49 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE the wall of swarthy, savage Italian faces, and waving his sword above his head , the young colonel literally threw his dragoons upon their now swa^ang and yielding ranks. The men rushed forward in a superb effort, like arrows launched from a thousand powerful bows. The impetu- osity of their charge was irresistible, and bore King Al- bert's troops headlong before it. Men fell on every side, to be ground into pulp upon the blood-soaked ground. Above the hellish din, the tumult and the shouting, the wild neighing of chargers, and the roar of musketry and of cannon, rang out a succession of coolly given orders from the ever-changing spot where, with the reek of smoke and of carnage around him, rode Archduke Franz, a slim, inspiring figure on his rearing, fretting, curvet- ting charger, as he forced his way through a storm of blows and a hurricane of projectiles, leading the sweep of his squadrons over the lifeless forms of the fallen. When at length this superb feat of arms was over, the soldiers crowded shouting about him. They had had enough of monarchs who sat sedately at home and looked upon a throne as the most comfortable of rest- ing-places; a man of action was what they desired, and here, indeed, was a slender, blue-eyed Prince, their fut- ure Emperor and Generalissimo, who had been tried and not found wanting! Therefore, with enthusiasm raised to boiling-point, as much by the modesty of his bearing as by what he had done, they rent the air with cries of "Hoch!" they kissed his hands, his clothing, his very boots, and, had he permitted it, would have carried him in triumph upon their shoulders amid frenzied hurrahs. As he came face to face with Radetzky, the grave, noble-looking old man doffed his plumed hat and bent to his saddle-bow, "God grant," he said, in a strangely unsteady voice, "that our soldiers may emulate Your Imperial Highness 5° A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE wherever our colors are displayed. God bless Your Im- perial Highness!" "I did nothing," repHed the Archduke, quietly. "Any of your officers would do what I have done." And then, pointing with his naked sword towards the battle-field, "It is with to-day's dead that glory lies!" Once again wild, frantic, tumultuous cheers sounded like the call of trumpets, sending his name through the heavy, powder - laden air. He was their predestined leader, and every heart beat with the joy of having found him ; nor would one man of that crowding soldiery have hesitated to follow him into the very jaws of death had he but said the word. A great courage, a cool head, and a quick decision are the chief qualities of an officer, but to those qualities Archduke Franz added one which, if it is not so essen- tial, is, at all events, most rare and endearing — a kind- ness of heart, which in truth knew no bounds, an infinite compassion for those who had suffered the mischances of war, and though he had been many hours in the sad- dle, and had tasted no food since dawn, he now turned unhesitatingly towards the wounded and dying that strewed the ground. The sights which met his eye were assuredly awful enough to make a far more hardened soldier quail; but though at times he could hardly keep back the tears from his eyes, he labored like any surgeon amid that scene of suffering and misery, without shrinking from those who writhed in their agony, or from the distorted corpses, with mutilated limbs, scattered singly or hud- dled together as they had fallen, in ghastly mounds of horrible entanglement, under the rising moon. Tenderly, fearlessly he continued his self-imposed task, seeking for lingering life among both friend and foe, and saving it, too, in many cases, with a curious, untaught 51 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE surgical skill, until, at length, when the night was far ad- vanced, utterly exhausted, he consented to eat and rest, and rolling himself in his long cavalry coat sank into a half -lethargic slumber under the calm stars shining with undisturbed lustre in the deep violet sky far, far above his head. At home, meanwhile, the lonely mother, although none of those about her would have believed it, thought night and day, with increasing agony, of the naked hor- rors of war. To her war was not a great pageant dressed in the splendid array of romance — the presence of a be- loved life at the front is not conducive to such illusions — but a grewsome tragedy, a bitter, deadly truth, made only more terrible by the glitter of accoutrements, the polish of costly weapons, the snowy whiteness of tents over which droop the silken folds of gold-embroidered flags, all that pomp which but emphasizes hunger, cold, heat, racking physical pain, thirst, travail, and torture, except for the novelist or the poet looking on from afar, and whose perspective is so often faulty. No one ever heard the Archduchess sigh, or saw tears in her deep-set eyes, and she never in any way alluded to her torturing anxiety, not even under the seal of con- fession. Its pain was buried in her own breast, and none guessed its depth. . Her expression had always been grave, her beauty of a severe type, her moods silent; therefore her present frozen calm successfully covered and con- cealed the fire burning within. Her onh^ consolation was her stern conception of the demands of honor, and to these she forced herself to yield obedience, instead of to those tyrannically haunting impulses which bade her recall her boy, for the time was not yet. A letter written privately to her by Radetzky, however, and which she mentioned to none, made her reconsider this verdict with passionate alacrity. Archduke Franz 52 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE was doing far more than honor demanded, far, far more than even she had expected of him. This being so, she decided to bring him back, but without laying bare her shameful fears, without sacrificing her self-respect and dignity, for superficially she had been throughout so in- flexibly unemotional that she could not thus at the last openly acknowledge her weakness. That very day she sought her brother-in-law, whose Imperial will was, alas! but as spun glass in her hands, and who greatly feared her. He was conscious that her intelligence was far keener than his own, that she was never vague or uncertain as to any course of action, that it was impossible to hoodwink her; and instinctivel}' realized, although her wire - pulling was almost always too subtle for his dull vision, that he was only a mere puppet, everlastingly dancing to her imperious pip- ing and eternally obeying her viewless directions. He dreaded her silences, generally pregnant with storm, and 3'et more her closely reasoned, ironical speeches, which invariably rose in the peroration to a caustic, withering, exquisitely rounded eloquence of polite in- vective. He felt keenly her contempt for his compla- cent narrowness of mind, his boundless egotism, his small, contracted views, begotten of formula, his singu- larly conventional religiosity, which clipped and trimmed everything to suit his own wishes, and especially his weak, ailing body, already at fifty-five that of an old man, and his yet weaker mentality. Emperor Ferdinand had inherited from his father, Emperor Francis, a veneration for rectitude, but nature had not endowed him with his father's capacity to un- dergo bodily and mental exertions for the welfare of his people, and the latter seldom understood him. The art of pleasing is more based on that of seeming pleased than is generally known, and the sickly, fretful 53 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE man who occupied the throne gave the continual im- pression that he lamented his unhappy lot in season and out of season. In this case, also, the old proverb which says, "Be honey and the flies will eat you," was glaringly exemplified. He was too meek, too easily cozened and led with delicate flattery, and especially too anxious to conciliate both the cabbage and the goat to ever cope successfully with the fearful problems he had been set to solve. Another saying — one of wise old Talleyrand's — Fer- dinand unfortunately never remembered, ' ' Live with your friends, but remember that one day they will be your enemies," and this neglect ended by costing him dear. Assuredly his life as a monarch was not a happy one. The long, weary days unrolled themselves drearily be- fore him, beginning in the morning with altercation and strife, continuing with cares and fatigues, ending often in rough dispute, and knowing peace of a sort only dur- ing the rare absences of Archduchess Sophia; but, of course, a man more energetic than himself could easily have alleviated, if not entirely obliterated, all these troubles. On a delicious morning in early May, when thousands of song-birds filled the grand old trees of Schonbrunn with melody, or played hide-and-seek in the tall, feath- ery weeds and purple iris along the margins of the foun- tains, when the deer bounded through the grassv, beech- studded slopes of the park, trampling violets, primroses, and stars of Bethlehem under their scurrying hoofs, Archduchess Sophia joined the Emperor in the "Glori- ette," where he was delightedly inhaling the soft, fra- grant breezes. At her approach a heavy gloom overcast his wrinkled countenance, and he rose to greet her with an almost childish pettishness. 54 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE The Archduchess inchned her proud head in acknowl- edgment of his curt bow, and, seating herself upon a marble bench, let her eyes dwell earnestly upon the sun- lit landscape, as if to do so were her only object in life. "A beautiful morning," said the Emperor, nervously, with an involuntary twitching of the lips which he never could restrain when speaking to her. "Beautiful!" assented the Archduchess, and then re- lapsed into cool silence. The aide-de-camp, standing behind his sovereign, said, later, to a friend, that the wretched old man looked to him at that moment like a bird trembling at the near approach of a snake. "We may have a storm, later on," continued the mon- arch, with a desperate attempt at conversational ease and an embarrassed nod of his senile head in the direc- tion of what is called, in Austria, "die Wetter Seite" (the weather side). The Archduchess deigned to lower her gaze to the level of her brother-in-law's cringing form. He had suddenly assumed a look of age, and appeared like one double his years. As her glance met his, he started, and dropped his gold - headed cane with a clatter upon the marble pavement. The aide-de-camp rushed forward, picked it up, handed it respectfully to the Emperor, and re- tired precipitately into the background, as if glad to avoid the storm-centre. Poor Ferdinand would have greatly liked to do the same, but perforce remained where an unkind fate had sent him, balancing the cane delicately in his thin, blue-veined hand, and studying its turquoise-paved head with every appearance of great and absorbing interest. "Don't make yourself uneasy," said his tormentor, in the gentlest of voices, "the stones are quite uninjured!" The Emperor hastily turned away, and, looking across 55 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE the shaded, dark -green turf, dappled with wavering spots of rippHng sun-gold, tried to collect himself. The breath of that peerless morning was like a power- ful extract of fragrant blossoms fresh from the hand of a heavenly parjumeur, and he was strangely conscious of its charm despite the fear tugging at his heart, that pitiful anguish which should, in the nature of things, fall only to the lot of extreme old age, when the soul nears its flight and feels its inability to struggle with the diffi- culties and trials of life. There came over him a pas- sionate longing for peace and rest, for cessation of noise and worry, for escape from this apprehension of coming evil, this dread that, like Merlin's, even now shook him as had he been touched by a chill wind, although it was spring-time and the glorious day drowsed warmly on in soft fire and lovely coloring, under his weary, anxious eyes. Well did he know what she had come to upbraid him about, well did he realize what sins of omission she laid at his door, and greatly did he inwardly revolt at her unsparing criticism and oft-repeated "I told you so." He, with the Habsburg Family and Court, had done little else but scoff at the mere idea of a successful revolution in Austria. Even now it scarcely occurred to any one that the throne was standing in imminent peril and that at any moment the bulwarks of imperialism might burst asunder and the tide of anarchy rush into its magic cir- cle, scattering destruction and death all around. The mass of the people were at the outset opposed to all advanced ideas, their superb loyalty to the reigning dy- nasty was regarded as absolutely unshakable, and when, in the previous month of March, devastating waves began to lap at the foundations of a hitherto inviolate authority, the phenomenon was beheld with astonish- ment, and received with gay ridicule, not only by the 56 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE nobility, but by pretty much everybody else as well, always excepting the sharp-sighted Archduchess Sophia. Her continual inefiez vons was unfortunately disregard- ed, for though the seeds sown by agitators and malcon- tents fell upon a soil not yet sufficiently prepared to in- sure a quick fruition, the efforts of the noisy and fanatical minority had at length produced a very noticeable crop. The reforms instituted by Emperor Joseph, half a cen- tury before, had their share in precipitating the catas- trophe, for, although they had doubtless alleviated many of the people's miseries at the time, they had not reck- oned with the spirit of discontent, which, in these our beautifully enlightened days, was bound to arise from measures which practically extended yet more the power of the Crown. Poor Emperor Joseph! His self-written epitaph was indeed a true one: "A Prince whose intentions were pure, yet who had the misfortune to see all his plans miscarry." The time was now ripe for the fruition of just such miscarried, misdirected reforms. Metternich, the great chancellor, the omnipotent arbiter of two reigns, after trying his best to control the upheaval, had failed ig- nominiously, and since a fortnight had been a fugitive in England. The right to carry arms had been granted to the ignorant multitude, liberty of the press gave oppor- tunity and audience to every scheming or crack-brained agitator, and finally, on the 26th of April, a constitution had been accorded to a people unused to and unfitted for popular government. Indeed, none save a monarch of almost unparalleled strength and sagacity could have averted the misfortunes that were now to overtake the country in this sad year of 1848. With war beyond her borders, and revolution within them, Austria was, indeed, in a sorry plight; but during 57 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE the silence that fell between the Emperor and his sister- in-law, on that exquisite May morning, he thought of nothing but his own grievances, and the cruel injustice of Providence towards himself in giving him a mentor who loomed unceasingly in his immediate neighborhood, like a tempest-cloud that darkens the sky with a menace sure to be fulfilled. In the cool assumption of right as a matter of course, there lies an irresistible power. This was one of Arch- duchess Sophia's greatest weapons, especially when deal- ing with her weak and easily cowed brother-in-law. She never gave him the slightest chance of doubting her perfect title to dictate to him with superb insolence, for even in her worst wrath she was ever self-controlled, shrewd, and wise. He was paying dearly, indeed, for that most unpardonable and terrible of follies — irreso- lution. At last she spoke: "Do you believe in spectres, Ferdinand?" Her voice was calm and indifferent as usual, and yet he fancied that he could catch the echo of some hidden irony in the low, level tones. "In spectres? What spectres?" he asked, uneasily, instantly on the defensive. In the distance the fresh young voice of little Arch- duke Ludwig- Victor's French nurse rang out suddenly under the trees; On a mis la graine en terre, Saute done la brune au son du fluteau!" "Spectres of your own making, for instance," the Archduchess replied, with a sneer, faint but unmistak- able, which revealed her meaning completely. "En terre prcs du ruisseau Au son de la flute, ati son du fluteau," A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE came the gay, lilting melody, answered by a childish pipe, repeating, joyfully: "Au son du tluteau! au son du IMteau!" The Emperor stirred nervously. Then a sudden cour- age seized him to probe to the depth of her meaning and discover if he could not for once silence those cruel lips and force those calm, scornful eyes to droop before a master. Perchance he had made a succession of false moves. Perhaps instead of retreating he ought to have attacked. So he now assumed a sterner manner, and said, with what decision he could command: "I wish, Sophia, that if you have anything to say to me you w^ould do so in plain language, instead of adopt- ing that of metaphor. I do really," he concluded, al- most recklessly. "Do you?" she murmured. There was a note of gen- uine surprise in her voice, and she regarded him curious- ly, as though she had discovered something new, puz- zling, and quite amazingly ridiculous about him. He struggled against the influence of her eyes, his dry fingers grasping the handle of his gorgeous cane with unconscious force as he leaned forward, resting an elbow on his crossed knees, and forced himself to look her un- swervingly in the face, but already his resolution was ebbing away. "You and I could surely understand each other, Sophia, if only you would be less inclined to think that I wish to thwart you, for, on the contrary, I am only too happy when I can meet your wishes. Tell me what it is that you desire?" A bowl of milk to a cobra is the better part of valor, for it enables one to retreat unmolested; but Ferdinand's abrupt change of manner, his sudden swerve, and his attempt at charming, instead of risking a bite, was not S9 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE lost upon so clever a woman as his antagonist. Her ex- pression altered from dreamy sarcasm and half-curiosity to extreme alertness, and there was a sharp, belligerent vitality in her whole attitude as she turned towards him, so quickly that he almost dropped his cane again. She stared hard at him, her face set, her chin a little forward, the whole woman a gaze of extreme power. "How very curious," she said, at last, "that a man born on the steps of a throne, born to be a ruler of men, should be so readily influenced by his likes and dislikes ! Neither should ever interfere with prudence, Ferdinand, and you are, I assure you, singularly rash when you try to propitiate me" — the pronoun was superbly em- phasized — "in such a paltry fashion. You might just as well attempt to appease a whirlwind by means of a nice little green-enamelled watering-pot." "My dear Sophia!" pleaded her victim, looking dis- tressedly round for his aide-de-camp, who, however, had long since retreated from view, although duty compelled him, until formally dismissed, to remain within earshot. But the Archduchess cared little for the piteous misery so evidently overwhelming her Imperial relative. It was clearly her place to frighten him into acceding to what she considered necessary for the welfare of the Crown, so she laughed a little, satisfied laugh, and, cross- ing her slender hands upon her lap, mercilessly resumed: "In comparing myself to a whirlwind, I am not, I as- sure you, underrating my humble personality. A whirl- wind is a very wholesome thing — it sweeps pestilence away and drives contagion before it." Ferdinand instantly abjured any lingering remnants of an intention to face the music. "I am shocked at you, Sophia," he said, coaxingly, and with a sickly smile. "What is the use of railing at yourself in this fashion?" Archduchess Sophia laughed again her exasperating 60 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE little laugh, as if her only object was to see him writhe. She was feeling her way. Her object clearly in view, it was only a question which of her many weapons to use; meanwhile a little judiciously applied touch of the whip would open the way for useful attacks of every de- scription. So she studied him with searching eyes, which he, as usual, avoided, looking intently at a deli- cate pearly cloud travelling across the radiant sky like a graceful swan upon a lake of azure. He would have sincerely preferred an encounter with a virago from the slums, flying at him with oaths and curses, or tearing him bodily like a wild cat, to this fencing and parrying with a polished, shrewd, absolute- ly relentless adversary, who took advantage of every weakness, and knew where to find every defect in his thin, ill-fitting armor. More than ever before he felt like a man upon whose breast crouches some beautiful, fierce animal, some exquisitely graceful, velvety leopard or jaguar, from the clutches of which, struggle as he will, there is no escape. But a sullen, desperate anger be- gan to rise in his breast, against life, against fate, and especially against her. His hands suddenly closed on his ill-fated cane so that the knuckles whitened with the grip. Archduchess Sophia, with the swift delicacy of per- ception that made her so dangerous an enemy, divined something of his feelings, and concluded it would be unwise to push her pusillanimous antagonist too far. The worm might turn, and then, what? So, with even more than her accustomed suppleness, she assumed a tone of honest bluntness: "When I spoke just now of spectres, my dear Ferdi- nand, I meant simply that ours is an age of cowardice, that chivalry is out of place in it, and that we, who once could consider ourselves as the masters of the universe, 6i A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE are now haunted day and night by all the grim phan- toms of revolution and civil war. In saying 'we,' I of course allude to our order, but especially to yourself, for whom revolution is no longer a spectre, but a stern, ghastly reality, with which you must count and against which you must fight. As racing-men say, you are not having a very 'rosy time' of it just now!" The tragic expression of fear and exasperation upon Ferdinand's face gave way to a bitterly humorous smile. "No," he acquiesced, in an undertone, with a sidelong glance at her through half-closed lids, " I am not having a very 'rosy time' of it, as you are pleased to put it." "Naturall}', for apart from anything else you are garroted by the collar of your own conscience, or, if you are not, you should be!" The opportunity for the thrust had been too tempting. Her conciliatory intentions were for the moment quite forgotten, and she tapped the marble pavement impatiently with her narrow, admi- rably shod foot. He shrank from the incisive sentence, then quickly leaned forward. The tension snapped! "My possible ruin seems to amuse 3'ou. Truly, the joy of disparagement never dies!" His voice was rough and uncontrolled, and he cHnched his hands yet more convulsively together. "You think I can no longer gov- ern! You dare to hint — oh, God! no, you actually say that my soul, my body, my honor are worthless, worn out, that I am but the parody of a king, an apology for a man! During all the years I have sat on the throne, your derision, your ridicule have made me wince and smart at every turn. You are eternally unsatisfied, you censure everybody, you would walk through blood to the neck to attain your desire. What are you? What are you? What do you want of me? Tell me now, at once, this moment, and I will give it to you so as to gain peace once for all!" 62 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE His tone, at the outset almost one of fierce invective, progressively weakened to a sort of desperate queru- lousness, and the last words finished in a stifled wail. He had become passionately excited, his eyes were those of a madman. Archduchess Sophia still sat quietly watching him with an expression of undisguised sur- prise and interest. She seemed about to reply, when suddenly, as if impelled by an external force, he sprang to his feet with an oath: "What is it that you do want?" he cried, furiously. "My crown to put on the curly pate of your son? Do you think you can get it? By God! you'll never get it while I live! I'll show you yet in whose hands the power lies — power, the only thing you love, the only thing that touches and moves you! What else do you care for? You have but contempt for all humanity, your husband, your children — except Franz, who is to be the instrument of your insane ambition — your whole family, the Empress — myself. Ah, especially myself! Do you think I will always be your tool? I have been — a weak fool for you to sacrifice at your pleasure, to crush under the wheel of your triumphal car — but I'll show you now even at this late hour how little I care for your plots and counter -plots, for your — " Gasping for breath, inarticulate with rage, he stretched out his hands towards her, as if to seize her or hurl her from him. Archduchess Sophia rose also. She was as calm as ever, although this was apparently but the calm before the storm; for her eyes looked as if she longed to do some act of violence for which great physical force would be necessary, and yet beneath her icy armor ran a cold undercurrent of fear. This scene was something en- tirely new. After all he was a king, with the powers of his great office ready to his hand, though the hand was such a feeble and unsteady one. Now that, in the ex- 63 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE tremity of his anger, he had momentarily forgotten his overwhelming dread of her, he found a certain dignity, despite his undignified language; he stood erect at his full height, and looked more the monarch than she had ever seen him. Had she gone too far? had she ruined all? would this miserable man actually assert himself after all, overrule her, thwart the plans she had laid, and drag Austria down with him to destruction? Had she really wrung the galled withers once too often ? Her breath failed her, she shuddered at the vision that flashed before her eyes; for just a moment, one short, fleeting moment, she was daunted, had he but known it. She bent her head and set her teeth hard. If Ferdinand had read her aright, if he had seized this golden opportunity, if he had had a little tenacity of purpose — but it was not to be, and it is well for the future of a great country that, exhausted and terrified by his own unexampled violence, he did not rise to the occasion. Sinking back into his great chair he closed his eyes, overcome by the sickening feeling that he was struggling against the inevitable, against his own wretched fate, that fate he always accused of all his misfortunes, and he bowed his head to the tempest which he knew would now be his punishment. Archduchess Sophia's eyes flashed with triumph. So she had not been mistaken ; it was only a second of gal- vanic energy, after all! Now her path lay plain before her, and all there was in her of tenacious persistence and ruthless resolution rose up to do battle for her son. Win she would, and now! She was as one inspired; her extraordinary intensity of feeling communicated itself with telegraphic rapidity to Ferdinand, and he drew back from her apprehen- sively. With one swift movement she was beside him, and 64 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE gripped his shoulder beween her slender fingers with a force that staggered and shook him from head to foot. "Sophia! for God's sake, Sophia!" he cried, in terror. "What are you going to do?" "You want to know what I am going to do?" she said, in a low voice through clinched teeth. "Well, I think I'll tell you, but you will wish you had never asked." She paused, pressing her lips tightly together, as if to control a rising tide of exultation, and smiled down at him contemptuously. How collapsed and helpless he looked, shrunk into the depths of his great chair! She wondered that for a moment she could have doubted her ability to crush him. As for the Emperor, he would have cried out if he had entertained any hope of being heard, but he had by this time completely forgotten his aide-de-camp, who, even had he been summoned, could certainly not have helped him out of this mauvais-pas, and so he looked up at his tormentor with abject fear and almost hypnotic fascination, as if he were drawn against his will to utter destruction within the whirl- pool of her ever-growing power. "You want to know what I am going to do?" she re- peated, still smiling and with a hard, cold certainty of intonation and enunciation. "You will know in good time, but first I'll tell you, once for all, what I want, what I have wanted for many years — ah, yes! longed for as no other woman has ever longed for anything, for no woman's world has ever meant anything to me. You accused me jrst now of feeling contempt for all human relations. Well, it is, in a great measure, true. I am not one to be attracted by second-rate emotions, or by the various sensations which you sentimental people call love — filial love, parental love, love " tottt court." I need not enumerate them all, even you must know what I mean! I never could comprehend such idiocy. What 5 65 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE is life to most women but an ugly, degrading succession of days and nights, shackled, enslaved, and cursed? And all because every woman's ambition turns towards love, or the pretence of love, towards social successes, luxury, a grand marriage, or, if she be so inclined, towards chil- dren that are first mere playthings and afterwards be- come tyrants!" Her face changed suddenly, as the face of one might change who passes from the first exultation of success to the fruition of long-deferred hope. She gazed down at him with unseeing eyes, her hand dropped from his shoulder, and it seemed as if his cowering figure and gray, drawn face had slipped from her consciousness, as things no longer of consequence or meaning. To the submis- sive Emperor there was something almost appalling in this visible union between the evident activity of her soul and the marble-like inactivity of her body; her silence seemed unnatural, worse than speech, and it brought additional distress to his overstrained nerves, without, however, lessening that curious and weird fas- cination she exercised over him. After a moment she resumed, still without appearing to see him, and in a slow, meditative voice, as if thinking now aloud rather than addressing him. "Women! what are they — even those whom one calls great — but creatures of the moment, beings whom a mere grain of dust may bHnd, who are bred to smother hate under smiles and disgust under compliments, who are broken in early youth to the full hypocrisies of human life, and who, as a rule, are governed by purely sensual motives? What were Catherine of Russia, Cleopatra, Marguerite of Burgundy, Ehzabeth of England, and their hke, but slaves to their impulses, endlessly dis- satisfied, unreliable, untrustworthy, unable to conquer themselves or to lead others, except by cruelty!" 66 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE Then her eyes flashed into hfe again. "I am not ruled by what fills up other women's lives, by hand touching hand, or lips touching lips, by the per- fume of a flower or by the state of the weather. I do not exist to fill other women with envy or to capture men. Thank God, I am made differently! My desires have nothing in common with theirs. My one ambition, my only one, is power, as you say, but not for myself! No, not that, but for the boy whom, ever since his birth, I have fashioned with my own hands to be a king. My conception of the nobility of human nature cannot be said to be absurdly high, but a king must be sans re- proche, free from all the ordinary tinsel of modem roy- alty, its shams, its pretences, and its small, narrow, sor- did views. Austria needs such a king to drag her from the gutter of anarchy and revolution, where you and your predecessors have criminally allowed her to fall. No, do not interrupt me! You are a tricky egotist, without a thought that is not concentrated upon self. You have always considered yourself too good for the wear and tear of real sovereignty!" The faintest little quiver of revolt showed itself in Ferdinand's eyes, but she silenced him with a peremptory wave of her slim, authoritative hand, and continued: "You have completely ignored your sacred responsi- bilities. Such meekness as yours is, in a monarch, an absolutely contemptible virtue, for some people call meekness a virtue, do they not? To yield, out of sheer lack of spirit, has been your usual principle throughout. Your rule — one should hardly call it that — has been a grotesque farce, with, added to it, since a year, a dan- gerous element of tragedy, and during it you have never accomplished anything for the good of your people, but only infinite harm by your insane neglect and pusillanimity." 67 A KEYSTO.NE OF EMPIRE Her mouth was twisted with contempt, her voice had become harsh and grating while pronouncing her inex- orable judgment. The Emperor shuffled his feet in a manner suggestive of increasing discomfort, his dull eyes beginning to blink, as eyes do in dazzling sunshine. "You want me to abdicate in favor of your son?" he said, suddenly, in a trembling voice. "Why do you not say so?" For just an instant Archduchess Sophia started in obvious surprise. Was her Imperial dummy about to behave like an intelhgent being and spare her any further effort? "Is not that what you want?" he asked again, in his thin, high-pitched, querulous voice. "That is ex-act-ly what I want," she replied, slowly and deliberately. But Ferdinand was not quite as malleable as she had hoped. He fidgeted and writhed under her scrutinizing gaze, his face twitching fantastically and tears actually rising in his lack-lustre eyes. "I can't do it, Sophia, indeed I cannot. Think of my deserting the throne when it is menaced — of showing the white feather! Think of the ridicule — the — the baseness of it! I may be a weak and worthless man, as j^ou say, but this I cannot do ; it would be Hke seeing hell through its open doors!" The Archduchess's face whitened and her straight brows ominously lowered over her eyes. "You miserable wretch!" she cried, shaking from head to foot in uncontrollable passion. "What idiotic volte- face is this, after hving a Ufe of utter, remorseless selfish- ness, during which all the manhood you ever possessed has dwindled away to nothing? What insanity has overtaken you to propose playing the part of a man now, 6S A KEYSTONE OP EMPIRE not to mention that of a sovereign? Do you imagine that I will allow your still-born scruples to interfere with the fulfilment of my boy's destiny? Do you fancy that I will let the monarchy be killed by your feeble at- tempts to retain a hold upon what is left of it?" She bent lower to scan his ashen cheeks, which looked as if they would be as cold to the touch as those of a corpse. "You are," she resumed, keeping her eagle glance upon him, and with a ring of sarcasm in her voice terrible in its cold intensity — "you are a fit person to hold the reins of a runaway chariot of state, are you not? A nice yellow image to waken from your reptilian lethargy now — now that it is too late!" The Emperor gazed at her with almost animal fear, like a poor, crouching dog "begging off" from punish- ment, but it was only too evident that she had no inten- tion of relenting. With a pitiful effort he succeeded in controlling himself for a moment, then shame, humil- iation, and the violence of change mastered him, and with a groan he hid his face in his hands. An almost tangible silence reigned for a moment, broken only by the fresh murmur of the fountains tossed by a rising breeze. Then, in her ordinary calm and commanding voice, the Archduchess resumed: "You shall recall Franz at once! He has received his baptism of fire, he has showed the metal he is made of, and there is no longer any reason for him to" — she had almost said "endanger his life," but checked herself and said "remain absent" instead. "The strong hand of youth, integrity, and fearlessness can alone arrest the course of events; therefore you will arrange everything as secretly and quietly as possible for your abdication. I do not intend to have this matter discussed en famille, it is always best to keep one's family at arm's-length! 69 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE Not even the Empress is to know about it as yet. She is an excellent creature, a dear, good soul, but she is entirely at the mercy of her father - confessor, and I desire to avoid complications. I do not ask you to lie about the matter, because a lie is alwa3's a mistake. Simply refrain from talking. I am not of a diplomatic turn of mind, but diplomacy is an elastic word, and the greatest diplomacy of all is to hold one's tongue. In conclusion, let me add, that should you in any way play me false, be it ever so slightly, I have means to force you into obedience!" The Emperor rose to his feet. He was still very white, and there were dark rings around his eyes — he confessed afterwards that the very sound of his sister-in-law's voice had given him a sensation of actual nausea! There were beads of perspiration on his forehead, he cleared his throat as if he were suffering from a cold, and fidgeted about as if desperately anxious to escape. "Is that all," he asked — "all you really require of me?" She did not answer. Her gown rustled slightly as she straightened herself to her full height. He cleared his throat again. "Is that all?" he re- peated. "Yes, provided you promise what I ask, and keep that promise, I think it is all; but promise you must!" She spoke determinedly, and his face became distorted with an expression of absolute loathing as she bent tow- ards him. Then he replied, reluctantly and in a manner calculated to inspire serious doubts as to his sincerity: "I promise." "Unstable as water," she exclaimed, piercing him with her keen, comprehending eyes. "But I think that this time you will follow the line of the least resistance by holding to your word." A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE Then, with a sHght bow, she walked rapidly away, leaving him beaten and humiliated, his colorless features transformed into a vehement mask of grief, hatred, and impotent rage; tmdignified, almost absurd, and rocking to and fro, as if about to fall. CHAPTER III Emperor Ferdinand, when confronted by forces that daunted him — for to others he opposed a monoHthic inertia — was, morally speaking, very like a hollow rub- ber ball, yielding and soft, but extremely difficult to permanently impress. Archduchess Sophia had ap- plied force, and with such energy as to momentarily impair the Imperial elasticity, but there remained still an almost undiminished power of rolling, rebounding, and executing resilient evasions of various kinds, and though her threat of enforcing obedience was not by any means an idle one, yet great things take time in doing, and to push a monarch from his throne judiciously, and with due regard to surrounding circumstances of a some- what chaotic nature, must be reckoned among these. Ferdinand, while incapable of defending it, prized his Imperial dignity as none but titterly selfish men can prize any of the so-called good things of this life, as none but insignificant men can prize a purely fortuitous dis- tinction, and now that the possibility of losing the throne stared him in the face, he only clung the tighter to it. As a consequence, if he had passed his existence dis- agreeably before, he now lived in a veritable Inferno. Wildly suspicious of everj^thing and evervbody, his whole attitude was that of one continually expectant of some outrage, his eyes restlessly searched his entourage, half defiant, incessantly^ watching, fearful of neglect, or of any sign that his secret was known, and that any one A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE should see that his sceptre was passing away from him. In the meanwhile, the indomitable Archduchess bided her time, confident that her hand held the master card, and keeping him under the surveillance of an eye that sent a chilly thrill through him every time he encountered its penetrating glance. Events moved rapidly onward, however, towards the realization of her schemes. Less than two weeks after the memorable interview in the "Gloriette," the Em- peror and several members of the Imperial family, in- cluding, of course, the Archduchess, removed from the surcharged atmosphere of Vienna to loyal Tyrol, and settled at Innsbruck. This was not exactly a flight, but a "prudent step " on the part of a man too sick of body and of heart to offer effective resistance. After feebly attempting for a time to direct affairs from this secure retreat, the Emperor wearied even of this shred of sovereignty, and sent Archduke John to Vienna, giving him full vice - regal powers. Unfortu- nately, there was another viceroy in Hungary, as inde- pendent of the Viennese representative as the latter was of him, so that with the weak central authority thus divided between two mutually hostile sections of the country, the people drank deep of the first and most inalienable of the rights of freemen, more dear even than "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," that of quarrelling at large, violently, and indiscriminately. German and Czech, Pole and Italian, Magyar, Slovak, and Croat, all pursued their racial and provincial interests without the slightest possible regard for the integrity of the Empire. Prague lay in ruins after a fierce bom- bardment and several days of desperate street-fighting, and while Hungary stood ready to fight both the Slavs and the Imperial authority, Jellachich, Ban of Croatia, 73 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE . summoned an assembl)^ of Croatian leaders to concert measures both against the Emperor and the Hungari- ans. Truly the apple of discord had begun to roll merrily on! Archduke Franz had, much to his disgust, been re- called from the Italian war soon after his mother had dictated that measure to his uncle, and spent a restless two months among the mountains striving vainly — since his whole heart and soul were far away upon the plains of Lombardy — to interest himself in the scenes and sports which he had loved so well and which had never failed him before. When at length the Emperor tardily decided to re- visit Vienna, and to take up his residence at Schon- brunn, he accompanied him there, glad to be so much nearer to the scene of events, even if he were not al- lowed to take in them the part for which he longed, even if he were but exchanging the quiet of the hills for the calm still Hngering on the edge of the storm. There was nothing about the grand old Imperial resi- dence to remind one of the neighborhood of that unruly Kaiserstadt, where now raged such a melee of racial and social strife. Everything that met the eye bespoke it a "haunt of ancient peace"; vision ranged restfully over the low terraces with their broad flights of shallow mar- ble steps and ivy-mantled balustrades, drowsy gardens, heavy with fragrant odors, dazzling with a profusion of magnificent bloom, great groups of velvet-boughed Si- berian pines spreading tentlike over emerald lawns, corbeilles wherein the flowers of Africa and India arrayed themselves in beauty, and deep defiles of luxuriant foli- age through which glittered the tall jets of the foun- tains; the laughing voice of the waters and the jovous songs of many birds, alone disturbing the summer silence that hung golden over all. 74 A KEYSTONE OP EMPIRE In Archduke Franz all this loveliness touched no re- sponsive chord ; to him the splendid gates of Schonbrunn were as the four walls of a prison. He was no longer a boy, for though not yet quite eighteen — his birthday fell on the i8th of August — he was a man grown, he had lived within the circle of that fierce light which beats upon a throne, and been prematurely ripened by all the forcing influences that dwell there. Already he had known warfare, danger, the leadership of men, the pleas- ures of duty well done, the intoxication of applause; and he cursed his present inaction while blood flowed on every side, while there were fights to be fought, and swords to follow the hoofs of his charger. With a hun- dred heroic dreams surging in his brain, he fretted in- wardly, as a high-mettled horse frets at the martingale hampering its every movement, and sank deeper and deeper each day in the reserve and moodiness of hope deferred. For the first time in her life Archduchess Sophia al- most regretted a step taken by her, for during this period of inaction the young Archduke fell once more under the spell of the woman who had been the primary cause of his joining Radetzky's army. To this headstrong beauty the conquest of the cold, proud, self-reliant boy, who had once already escaped her wiles, had become a burning question of unsatisfied vanity, almost of bafHed malice. She was in the most perfect years of her youth, at the height of her matchless loveHness, she had not a wish she could not instantly gratify, and her slender, arched foot was irretrievably pressed down upon the neck of the great Viennese world. She ruled it as she listed. Moreover, she was thoroughly aware of her power, and of the fact that the sceptre of great physical beauty and the skill of a born tactician were hers, and therefore did not doubt 75 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE that thus armed she could vanquish both the Imperial youth and his imperious mother. Alas! of what avail is it for us to erect our sand castles for attack or defence when any chance blast of fate may blow them to nothing? Life hinges upon hazard, and at every turn wisdom or folly are mocked by it ; so at least both Archduchess Sophia and her fair antagonist were fated to speedily discover. It must be confessed that the lady played her cards with amazing cleverness. Her low, sweet whisperings, the gleam of her luminous eyes, with their dangerous eloquence, her thrilling, musical voice, and crystalline, tantalizing laugh, all were brought into pla}^ with ex- treme felicity, and last, but not least, the irresistible mournfulness which has already been mentioned, and which at times gave so winsome a droop to the heavily fringed lids of her dark eyes, thrilled her chivalrous young admirer with ardent and perilous sympathy and pity. Archduke Franz's strength had as yet, of course, the polish of steel that has never been dimmed, and he thought himself quite secure, believing, as all very young men do, that he could handle fire without feel- ing the flame — a complete self-confidence not without its own grandeur, but bound to find itself mistaken ninety-nine times out of everv hundred. She drew him on and on; the real instinct, the true pleasure of this soft, exquisite creature being, after all, cruelty and the satisfaction of her every whim, and he, whenever he was in her presence, showed by the very darkening of his eyes, the lowered gentleness of his voice, that, as day followed day, his enslavement grew more and more complete, and that her toils were being drawn tighter and tighter about him. It was not alone Archduchess Sophia who writhed and fumed as she watched this fascination of a boy, so gentle 76 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE of nature, so true of honor, so strong, and so frank, and, in one word, so different from others, by the most capri- cious of coquettes; for all those who loved him thought alike on the subject, none daring, however, to warn him, save one alone who rushed in where angels might have been afraid to tread. Prince Richard Metternich was too young as yet to have been influenced by life, which, to a greater or less- er extent makes egotists and dissemblers of us all, and had so far quite escaped its corrosion. He loved Arch- duke Franz like a brother, nay more than any of his (Franz's) brothers loved him — for they were by now becoming gradually estranged from him by the slowly growing jealousy I have already alluded to. The bond between young Prince Metternich and his future sovereign was a close and firmly riveted one and their attachment to each other so uncommon that Richard Goldenherz " ( " the golden -hearted , " as he was called by his comrades), although himself a boy of barely nineteen, considering that it would be but a wretched friendship that would shirk the truth when its telling was needed, went straight to the enamoured Heir-Ap- parent and coolly took him to task upon a subject no man in his senses thinks it prudent or wise to touch upon to another. Moreover, this wiseacre, yet in his teens, far from mincing matters, spoke out his mind roundly, and de- clared unblushingly and in the most decisive fashion that the all-conquering lady of his thoughts was "a pan- ther with merciless claws," " a capricious witch, scatter- ing coquetries broadcast, and making her unfortunate husband ridiculous," and, in one word, attributed to her all the wanton treachery of a social Circe, playing un- scrupulously and matchlessly with the hearts and lives of men. 77 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE Franz listened to him with ominous tranquilHty, and, when at last the impetuous flood of words ceased, in- formed his self-appointed mentor that even "old friend- ship" may be officious and impertinent, that the office of moral censor sat very ill on so inexperienced a coun- sellor, that attentions to young married women were not by any manner of means uncommon transgressions in gav Vienna, and that by this and by that — as the Irish put it — his (Richard's) virtue, need not be alarmed, since the lady under discussion was not at all what he sup- posed her to be, but an angel of purity and innocence, enduring with' admirable and extraordinary fortitude her most miserable lot. The poor counsellor, totally routed and deeply hurt when he found that his excellently meant advice was so ill-received, crept away to nurse his wounds in soli- tude, while Franz, stung to madness by words which had unwittingly heaped fuel on the flame, began to be cer- tain that there remained for him on earth nothing worth heeding, remembering, or caring for, but that one slender, graceful being who had shackled him, as in gyves of iron, with the silky locks of her yellow hair. That very night there was a demi-gala dinner at Schonbrunn on the occasion of some birthday or an- niversary, and, in spite of Archduchess Sophia's pro- tests, "Archduke Franz's Siren" — as the enchanting blonde aux yeiix noirs was now designated — was present, looking more enticing and more than ever determined to conquer. With her glittering hair crowned by the velvety blue of priceless sapphires, her exquisite form shrouded but not in any way concealed by clouds of snow-white gauzes light as morning mists, and her dark eyes gleaming with mischief, she seemed to have set her will upon making her beauty more than mortal, in order to goad 78 A KEYSTONE OP EMPIRE him until he was utterly her bond-slave, "pied et poings li^s." His eyes followed her with a look of admira- tion which she fanned to fire by glances of superhuman witchery, or by the mere sweep of her dress across his feet. To arouse and then play with the self-contained nature of her Imperial prize was a regal de deesse for this voluptuous coquette, and certainly on that night she surpassed herself and mastered him as Vivien did her lover under the murmuring foliage of Broceliande. Perchance, the only compensation which the revolu- tionary climax offered was that it put yet another tem- porary end to this perilous game, else, Hke Antony, for- getting all for his Queen's blandishments, the young Archduke might have been sore tempted to leave his shield for foes to mock at, his sword to rust, and his honor to drift away while he lay lapped in the love of a worthless woman. But all was not yet over between those two, alas! and more was to follow when graver cares than those of love and passion lulled a little around the young Emperor that was to be. September was on the wane, and autumn drew near, heralded by a glory of heliotrope and " Louise de Savoie " roses, which filled the old park with exquisite fragrance, when alarming intelligence arrived. Hungary had al- ready broken loose, Kossuth was dictator, and swiftly on the heels of these heavy blows came the news that Count Lamberg, hurrying to take the chief command of the Imperial troops in the revolted kingdom, which had just been intrusted to his strong, firm hands, had been met by a mob upon the bridge at Buda-Pesth, and bru- tally hacked to pieces with scythes and spades. A week later the seismic wave had radiated to Vienna itself, as to a volcano which for a long time has muttered and threatened unheeded, so that the 6th of October was rendered memorable by an explosion that not only 79 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE numbered among its many victims the Minister of War, Count Baillet de Latour, but sent Emperor Ferdinand galloping as fast as his horses could drag him from the vicinity of his raging capital. A day or so before the outbreak, having been asked to authorize a scheme for quelling the vehemence and tur- bulence of his good burghers by force of arms, the Em- peror, who, though irresolute and broken in health and spirit, was by no means devoid of the hereditary Habs- burg courage, ordered his carriage, and, accompanied only by one aide-de-camp, proceeded to drive through the concourse of violently excited people thronging the Leopoldstadt, the Josephstadt, and all those thorough- fares which had been reported to him as most danger- ous. Of course, what was bound to take place happened, for the Viennese, loyal at heart, in spite of their over- heated heads and seething rancors, and always disposed to make much of their Emperors, as soon as they caught sight of Ferdinand leaning carelessly back in his victoria and accompanied merely by an aide-de-camp, began to cheer him enthusiastically. Naturally this delighted the monarch, and upon his return he declared, with a chuckle, and in the popular dialect invariably spoken by the Imperial family and the aristocracy: " /' auf mane guten Wianer Schicssen ! Gar Ka' Red ; die sail ja mane liaben kinder !" (I shoot my good Viennese? Not a bit of it. They are my own dear children.) Thus absolutely deceived by the expressions of an al- most instinctive sentiment of affection for the ruler, Ferdinand was thrown into a correspondingly severe confusion and consternation when Count Latour fell a victim to the obstinately conciliatory Imperial policy, and, absolutely at his wit's end, he could think of no So A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE better move tban his lamentably ill-advised flight to the Moravian fortress of Olmittz. The maintenance of order in the capital had been in- trusted to the National Guards, a militia for the most part disaffected, and to the Academic Legion, a student corps frequently designated in its political aspect — which was insanely inflammatory and seditious — as the "Aula," from the fact of its holding meetings in the hall of the University. Troops of the line to the number of some twelve thousand men, under Count Auersperg, were scattered about the suburbs of the city. The students earnestly desired "freedom," and this they could find according to their notions only under a republican regime. Desirous of doing away with the existing form of government, they naturally hated and feared the War Minister of a constitutional monarchy, who, moreover, was a man renowned for courage and energy, and lost no opportunity of making him a scape- goat for all the evils, real or imaginary, that they consid- ered the people were suffering. They worked actively for his overthrow among the ignorant populace, de- nouncing him in inflammatory speeches at tavern meet- ings or street assemblages, and, even within the precincts of the University itself, circulating placards demanding vengeance for his alleged misdeeds, and inspiring news- paper cartoons against him. Finally, a few days before the outbreak, when a large part of the National Guard and the proletariat were convinced that Latour was really a monster, deserving of even worse than death, they worked themselves up to the point of declaring that he should be hanged. Nor was the match to fire the train long wanting. Troops from the capital had been ordered to proceed against the Hungarians, for whom, as rebels against the government, the malcontents had a fellow-feeling, and a 6 8l A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE certain grenadier battalion, long quartered amid metro- politan delights, had no desire to go to the front, and accordingly fraternized with the disaffected portion of the populace and the National Guard. On the night of the 5th of October a deputation of Na- tional Guards waited upon the War Minister, asking that the battalion should not be dispatched from the city. Latour referred the request, as a matter beyond his im- mediate decision, to the military commander. Count Auersperg, who, of course, refused it, and directed that a force of cavalry should be on hand to insure the obedi- ence of the recalcitrant grenadiers. The National Guard and the "Aula" could not tamely - submit to this new exhibition of "arbitrary" power. Delegations went out to the suburbs, under cover of darkness, and worked to such effect that by the following morning a section of the railway over which the troops were to be sent had been torn up, and a barricade, manned by a strong force, erected on the bridge across which it was necessary for them to march. In a few hours, when an attempt to force the passage of the bridge had resulted in the desertion to the populace of the mutinous grenadiers, and in the sanguinary defeat of the attacking column by overwhelming numbers, the whole city was aflame with excitement, for was not tyr- anny again at her work of crushing the liberties of free- men? While the military hesitated, and their com- mander rushed off for a consultation to the War Office, whither many ministers, deputies, and officers of the National Guard had already betaken themselves with a similar intent, heated orators harangued tumultuous crowds in the streets, gunsmiths' shops were looted for weapons, frothing students rushed from house to house directing that boiling water and boiHng oil be kept in readiness to cast from the upper windows, and barri- 82 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE cades rose as if by magic across the principal thorough- fares. Meanwhile, from the War Office, orders were issued to put down by main force the armed resistance in the suburbs, and some pacificatory proclamations to the peo- ple, who were now beyond all pacification, were made. Outside the city there was a collision between a detach- ment of the Academic Legion and the Government forces ; inside, the loyal section of the National Guard, while at- tempting to prevent the sounding of the tocsin, was at- tacked by the mutinous majority, aided by the mob, and driven in a bloody rout into the great cathedral church of St. Stephen, where they barricaded and defended themselves with the greatest valor. Count Latour now made the first of his magnanimous mistakes. The guard of the War Office, in the heart of this rebellious city, consisted of little more than four companies of infantry; but on hearing how the loyal militia were besieged in the church he sent three com- panies and two cannon to their relief, thus decreasing his available force to about two hundred men. The officer in command was under orders to return for the protection of the War Office as soon as he had accom- plished his mission ; but the mob had by now increased to such overpowering numbers that not only was the re- treat of his forces cut off, and they compelled to escape by whatever route offered, but a battalion of infantry sent from the army without, to insure the safety of Count Latour, was attacked so fiercely frora all sides and from the windows of the houses that it retired in confusion. Then the mob surged up to the gates of the War Office. Cut off and beleaguered on every side, Count Latour had disposed his little garrison for a siege, fastening the great front gates, barricading the rear doors, and disposing his men for the defence of the windows. 83 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE It was a strange sight that the gray-headed soldier looked down upon. Below surged and swayed a terrible human sea, roaring and howling with a ferocity that fre- quently blended all words and individual cries into one heart-shaking whirlwind of sound. There was a bub- bhng foam of open-mouthed faces, those strangely, in- conceivably villainous and brutal types that seem for years, for centuries even, to hide in the cellars and sew- ers of a great city, and to creep forth in dark times Hke these, when Cruelty and Horror are abroad; while here and there burst up from the weltering commotion a spray of naked arms, brandishing crowbars, cudgels, lengths of lead pipe, pikes, axes, hammers, cutlasses, and a motley array of weapons captured from the defeated soldiery or looted from the shops of the city. Now and again the dark waves broke apart, showing for an instant, before they rushed together again, in- dividual forms, insane atoms that went to form the total of this hideous flood, figures in the uniforms of the Na- tional Guard, the Academic Legion, the mutinous grena- dier battalion, laborers, thieves, murderers from the slums, market-women shrieking as ferociously as their Parisian sisters of 1793, and not infrequently well-dress- ed people, whose respectable appearance was somewhat contradicted by the furtive way in which they slipped about and threaded their way among the press. These were the agents of various political societies, the walk- ing delegates of revolution, dropping a word here, urging there, advising everywhere, avoiding active par- ticipation as far as possible, but pushing on the mad- dened throng to deeds of blood. The yells and cries now rose in a full-throated tempest, and now broke and scat- tered in hoarse, individual vociferations, culminating always in one terrifying shriek of "Death to Latour! S4 A KEYSTONE OP EMPIRE Down with the tyrant! Nieder mil deni Hund. Hang him! Hang him!" Many times during the immediately preceding days the War Minister had been warned that his Hfe was in danger. He had shrugged his shoulders then, he shrug- ged them now, as he listened to these roars of menace, and coolly surveyed this packed mass of human wild beasts thirsting for his blood. Below in the court-yard his one cannon was pointed at the great doors, which groaned and thundered to the assault without; behind it stood the gunners, steady at their post, waiting the command to fire; on either side was a sohd column of grenadiers with fixed bayonets, their officers at their head. Every time the doors seemed to yield or buckle to a fresh blow, he could see the men start and lean for- ward, like eager hounds with the quarry in sight, wait- ing for the slipping of the leash. What would happen when that gate did finally burst open was before the minister's inward eye. The crashing discharge, the canister at that terribly short range cut- ting a ghastly lane of death through the dense masses with- out, the ordered charge of disciplined troops passing over that maddened herd, the flight, the shrieking and the slaughter of women and children. A well-timed sortie of even so small a force might disperse the cowardly mob, and, on the other hand, if the grenadiers were beaten back, he could at least defend the building until help should arrive. The orders were given. Should he swiftly countermand them before it was too late? At any mo- ment the gate might give way. He felt that he had al- ready leaned too much towards conciliation; besieged and threatened, he had not yet fired a shot in defence, when to defend himself seemed the only soldierly — nay, common-sense thing to do. And yet there were his in- structions from the Emperor. Should he risk it ? Should 85 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE lie make one more trial for a peaceful solution of the trouble? His eye glanced again over the impenetrable press of ignorance and blind fury outside, and he smiled in pitying contempt. A shattering blow from without and a crash in the court-yard announced that a portion of the gate had been driven in. With one stride the minister was at the window. "Don't fire! Don't fire!" he cried to the troops be- low. "Throw open the gates!" "Let them come in, I will speak to them!" he said, turning impatiently to the deputies and ministers who surrounded him, and v/ere trying to reason with him. An aide-de-camp ran down with orders. At once the threatening muzzle of the gun was swung around, and as the dismayed and disheartened soldiers drew back, the gates opened, and the dammed-up flood swept through the portal with a roar. It was the rush of be- siegers through a breach, not by any means the advance of a populace impressed by the Wrr Minister's frank, manly, and heroic display of confidence. Quickly he himself saw his fatal mistake, but, alas! no opportunity was given him to retrieve his position. Al- most immediately the people thundered through the corridors, drunk with rage and triumph, shrieking again loudly for his blood. Gaining the stairway from the now thoroughly demoralized soldiers set to guard them, they swarmed through the upper stories of the building, battering in the doors, hurUng the furniture and equip- ment of the rooms through the windows into the street, plundering or destrojdng with insensate brutality every- thing that came in their way. There was no time to be lost. Urging the ministers and others who offered him as- sistance to look to their own safety. Count Latour, at- 86 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE tended by his aide-de-camp and several officers of the army, ascended to the top story to seek a way of escape. The minutes passed. Drunken fury, unimaginably disgusting and horrible to behold, reigned in the War Office. There were many ring-leaders but no leader, and the search for the hated Latour appeared to be de- generating into a mere orgy of robbery and wanton vio- lence, when loud shouts arose without, and those craning from the windows could see a white flag slowly forcing a passage through the dense crowd towards the gate. A deputation had arrived from the National Diet for the protection of the War Minister! Slowly pushing their way up the packed staircase, now thrust upward by a rush from below, now forced down by a torrent from above, the deputies at length encountered some of Count Latour's companions, who, despairing of escape, had prevailed upon him to seek concealment while they scouted through the building for possible assistance ; and they in their blindness con- trived that the deputies should reach the Count. Swift consultations followed in an isolated chamber, while the tumult sounded all about, lost in the labyrinth of looms and corridors. Count Latour's resignation was urged upon him, and granted by that stout old soldier, who conceded for the restorrtion of peace what he would not for his own safety; but even this failed to pacify the hordes that were by now storming towards the doors of the apartment in which he was, clamoring to see him, and threatening even the lives of the mediators if he did not show himself at once. The resignation as written was made conditional upon the approval tf the Em- peror; but though the deputies repeatedly protested that this would be a fatal objection, Count Latour would not have it otherwise. Nevertheless the people's representatives still had con- 87 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE fidence in their official influence. Pledging their pro- tection to the Count, they again faced the pikes and crowbars, declaring that he should be arrested in due form for trial and impeachment, but demanding as a condition that a guard be selected who would swear to defend him to the death. Twenty-five men, workmen, students, and National Guards, came forward and sol- emnly took the oath; a moment later the door opened and Latour stepped out into the corridor, calmly, as if about to assume the chair at some great assemblage. "I am here, ineine Kinder," he said, quietly, "a man of honor, with a clear conscience, does not fear either bayonets or daggers. You have offered to guard me. I surrender myself into your hands!" A roar of execration was the only reply. The depu- ties and the guard closed around him and began to de- scend the staircase, closely pressed and almost suffocated by the mob. Oaths, yells, and threats of death rang from all sides. Some of the guard endeavored to protect their prisoner, but the most part, animated by the worst intentions and anxious only to prevent his escape, added their voices to the storm of jeers and insults. Panting, struggling, forcing towards their victim from every direction, the crowd seethed and surged around; hands thrust through the ring of men, plucking and tear- ing at him ; one dashed his hat over his eyes ; here and there clenched fists dealt him heavy blows; one man, taller than the rest, leaned over and slashed him across the face with a quadrupled cord, shouting, "This is to hang you with!" and every moment, as they slowly de- scended towards the court-yard, some defender or dep- uty was torn from his side and the places filled by im- placable monsters, who were rapidly losing even all human semblance in their bestial ferocity. Shouts of savage welcome greeted the arrival in the ss A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE court-yard of the terrible cortege. "Hang him! Hang him!" roared the mob. Pushed, pulled, struck at, vio- lently passed from hand to hand through a whirl of bristhng weapons, his own guard now foremost among the assailants, the unhappy minister was thrust up against the wall. A young officer, greatly devoted to him, Captain Count de Gondrecourt, breaking a way through the maddened throng, flung himself before his chief, vainly defending him with his bare hands, but he was torn off and cast aside, hke an importunate child too insignificant to punish, and there was no further protection for Count Latour. One assassin cut at him with a sabre, another struck him a fearful blow with a crowbar; hammers, pikes, bayonets, musket -butts de- scended upon him. Dashed to the ground by a tem- pest of blows, trampled by the feet of the mob, and literally torn limb from limb by rending hands, he was yet seen to snatch at a bayonet which was thrust into his thigh. Still living, he was dragged through pools of his own blood and hanged to a window-bar. What was left of his mangled, shredded body fell when the cord broke, and the last spark of life was trodden out by furious market-women, stamping with demoniacal laughter upon that palpitating, mutilated thing, which had been one of God's grandest, noblest creatures. His clothing, torn to bits already, was collected for souvenirs, handkerchiefs were dipped in his blood, and, until late at night, the naked and hideously mangled trunk swung by the neck from a lamp-post, an object of insult for the populace and a target for the bullets of the National Guard. Thus died an honorable gentleman, whose only offences were his loyalty to his sovereign and his dauntless courage. At Schonbrunn the consternation was great. All was hurry and bustle for immediate departure. Ferdinand, 8q A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE ill and helpless as usual, looked like a beaten child, and avoided the eye of his young nephew, whose ardent soul chafed at the inaction into which he was forced. Poor Archduke Franz ! He implored to be allowed to join the troops and throw himself at the throat of that tower- ing spectre of revolution which was having it all its own way at Vienna, and when this request was refused he positively sickened with despair, and with the hungry, unsatisfied desire to fight, and to be of use, instead of sitting at home like a frightened woman. When, finally, at four o'clock in the morning, the Court departed under strong military escort to take refuge in the fortress of Olmutz, he yielded to his uncle's agonized entreaties and rode beside the Imperial car- riage mile after mile in the gray dawn, trying by his pres- ence to reassure and console the broken-spirited old man moaning and muttering prayers on the silken cushions inside. That terrible journey, in the teeth of a furious storm of wind and rain, remained like some ghastly nightmare upon the mind of Archduke Franz. Water fell in sheets from the leaden skies, hiding the whole landscape and filling the air with masses of gray vapor. In places the road was barely passable, for the smallest brooks had suddenly swollen to regular torrents, sweeping away the grassy banks and turning everything to liquid mud. As the day advanced the gloom deepened amid an increasing sound of splashing water, that muffled the noise of the carriage-wheels and the stamping of the horses' hoofs. Soon the fog and the darkness compelled the fugitives to advance more cautiously and slowly, so that hours followed hours, and became a long, slow tort- ure to the Emperor, and an unceasing weariness to all those who were with him. At last the fortress was reached, and the Emperor, 90 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE who for the first time in his life had experienced true discomfort and real, crushing bodily fatigue, broke down completely as he was assisted to alight. In spite of the lateness of the hour the young Archduke seated himself beside the bed whereon his Imperial uncle had hurriedly been placed, and now cowered, lost in lamentation and almost delirious with exhaustion and remorse. Outside the storm still raged furiously, growing wild- er and wilder as the night advanced. The wind beat against the massive walls of the fortress and shrieked like a tortured soul through the endless windings of the stone-flagged passages and corridors, echoes of thunder now and again sounded like salvoes of artillery, while the blue-and-purple glance of lightning shot through the chinks of the thick curtains drawn before the windows. But the tumult in Archduke Franz's heart was far more terrible than that which was abroad over the little town- ship of Olmtitz. Vainly he strove to console and com- fort his wretched charge, vainly he tried to reason with his own misery and anger ! Stiff with fatigue in his chair, scarcely moving, except when he bent over the stricken Emperor to dose him with soothing potions, he felt the torture of a great shame and a great disappointment. It was his first experience of mental pain, and he im- agined that all joy, all hope was being trampled to death within his heart by its intensity, and felt as if years must elapse before strength was once more given to him to gather up his moral courage. His imagination dwelt persistently upon the scenes described by the few im- perialists who had witnessed the cowardly assassination of Latour. He saw incessantly a maddened mob tearing and rending the body of that brave soldier whom he had known and loved, and he felt sick, as a man may feel sick at some revolting sight, his flesh shuddered, and he loathed himself for having consented to come away, for 91 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE having shared a flight which he considered as too humili- ating to be borne, and degrading beyond anything a monarch could have done. He thought bitterly of Louis XVI. running away from the scaffold, a deed he had al- ways looked upon with contempt, and smothered a curse through his clenched teeth. Why not face danger, risk, peril? Would not certain doom have been far easier to bear than remorse and shame ? Why not show a bold front and emulate those other people of the Terror who did not run away, and who walked up the slippery, crim- soned steps of the guillotine with smiling lips and chal- lenging, undaunted, unflinching eyes? Why not "faire son metier de Roy V ' — -why not ? Ah ! why not show this frenzied canaille that fear is not numbered among the hereditary vices with which monarchs are credited ? Was the Imperial ermine growing too heavy for modem shoul- ders, were the orb and the sceptre no longer in harmony with the time? The lad writhed at the thought, and cold perspiration stood thick on his puckered brow. Surely there could not be on the face of the earth a man so weak, so guilty, so pusillanimous as his uncle, he, one of the chief rulers of the world, in whose stewardship the fate of fair lands and loyal peoples had been placed. Was the immensity of his responsibilities only equalled, then, by the bound- lessness of his incapacity? — was he fit only to lie secure in a satin-lined shelter? Why had he been selected, pre- ordained to meet with the frightful exigencies of the pres- ent situation, he who seemed to appreciate of the throne naught save its soft, velvet upholstery and the immuni- ties it gave him? What would become of the monarchy, aye, of the country itself, in such palsied hands? To the young man keeping vigil through the watches of that appalHng night, the power and might and glory »f the House of Habsburg had, since the cradle, been a 92 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE religion, a creed, a faith. He was certainly not ambitious for himself, but he burned to give all the years of his hfe to the service of the monarchy created by Rudolph I. so many centuries ago, and which had been ever a proud and a noble one. "L'Etai, c'cst inoi!" would never be his maxim, but he was beyond measure resentful and infuriated when his eyes fell upon the man shivering on the bed beside the chair where he himself writhed with humihation, and who went many steps further than that and cared apparently not a straw what became of the State so long as he, the Emperor, need sacrifice not a whit of his com- fort or peace in screening it from harm. What a cruel, senseless thing was destiny ! Again he glanced at the tear-flushed face upon the lace-bordered pillows, and as he did so he drew a long breath of relief, for Ferdinand at last was asleep. A ray from the night-lamp fell upon the swollen features, showing the still trembling mouth and nervously quiver- ing eyelids. Very softly the self-appointed nurse drew the gold- brocaded bed-curtain between the sleeper and the faint, rosy light, and was on the point of retreating on tip- toe from the room, when a small side door noiselessly unclosed and his mother entered. She was very pale, and there was a suggestion of a tremor about her firm lips. She went a step nearer to him, the folds of her loose gown of soft, white wool trailing noiselessly on the thick carpet. "Come!" she whispered. Her imperious manner was a little less so than usual, perchance there was a tiny suspicion of tremor in her lowered voice, too. He obeyed eagerly, and followed her through the dimly lighted passages to her own apartments, where shaded lamps and great baskets of mountain-flowers, placed there by 93 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE her orders — for she, too, in her cold, strange, unemotional way, loved all the blossoms that bloom, and was seldom without some fragrant cluster or bouquet about her — relieved the severity of the tapestried walls and stiff fur- niture of carved ebony and palisander. She signed to him to sit down, and with the caressing grace she used with him alone, and that but rarely, she tilted his face upward and looked into his eyes; but much of the im- potent rage which had racked him during the past hours still lingered in their blue depths, and he rose abruptly, as if dreading her scrutinizing gaze. The Archduchess understood very well the strife which went on in his soul, the impulse for expression which could scarcely be resisted, and which would, if yielded to, lay his innermost feelings bare to her, and also the iron restraint he was endeavoring to keep upon himself touched a certain chord in her mind, a certain pulse in her heart, as nothing else could have done. She mo- tioned him back to his chair. "Franz, hear me a moment," she said, in a low tone, through which there ran an unwonted thrill of passionate tenderness. "You have long known that the Crown of the Habsburgs is to be yours; lately you have been in a position to judge how ill your uncle can cope with his almost insurmountable difficulties, and although you have concealed it well, yet I have noticed how im- measurable is your scorn for his weakness!" For a fleet- ing instant a gleam of admiration passed into her eyes. "You are now a man in the full acceptance of the word," she continued, pride vibrating in her every accent, "and I will force your uncle to abdicate in your favor, to re- linquish into your hands the reins of government he is incapable of wielding; for you, and you alone, can save Austria!" As she spoke, a vivid, palpitating, intoxicating hope 94 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE slowly dawned in the boy's eyes. He foresaw in a flash all the loss of freedom, of " joie de vivre," which would be entailed on him by the assumption of the weighty Dual Crown; he realized that as his uncle's successor his future would be neither peaceful nor easy ; but the hot, hope-inspiring blood of youth was surging madly in his veins and rendered him willing to set no limits to the sacrifices which his Imperial duties would exact from him. He loathed the veiilerie of the times, and longed for the means to prove that the old, fearless, high-hand- ed, single-hearted, loyal, and pure devotion to duty, which sees in the whole teeming universe but one task to accomplish and but one straight and worthy way of accomplishing it, lived still in the breast of at least one monarch. The evanescent breath of his noble purpose passed like the cool breeze of an April morn, sweet with the scent of meadow blossoms, across the stormy, passion- heated atmosphere of the room, and seemed to influence the Archduchess's meditations, for her next sentence was colored by his thoughts more than by her own, as if she had listened to his silence. "Yes," she said, gently, "you will be a great Emper- or, my son. You will show the world what a monarch can be, and what infinite good he can work for his peo- ple, but" — and here she hesitated a little — "in order to achieve this you must not throw down your heart like a naked, trembHng, panting thing, to be played with and trampled upon by that very world. You are just now under the influence of a great exaltation and ready to give freely all your future, to fling away all personal interest for the honor and preservation of your House, and to ask nothing more of earth and heaven than to fully and brilliantly accomplish this heavy task. That vision of what may be dazzles you as the mirage of a 95 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE green oasis blinds the desert pilgrim, but I, with chillier prescience, can, alas, foresee the weariness behind the charm, and the heaviness of the yoke you are about to assume," This momentary compassion, this apparent desire to draw him back on the very brink of resolve, was, per- chance, the cleverest thing which that extraordinarily clever woman had ever done. To demurely point out to the enthusiastic, excited boy, difficulties and obstacles, was, in his present mood, nothing short of a challenge, an open hint, a doubt as to his steadfastness and power of renunciation, a doubt, she realized perfectly well, that he would not endure, a challenge he would imhesitatingly accept. He sprang to his feet, his face colorless, his mouth set, and caught her wrist in his cold fingers. "There is no need," he said, in a low, concentrated voice, "to be afraid for me. You say that His Majesty is willing to abdicate in my favor; let him do so, I am ready to relieve him of his charge now, at once, and to assume all the penalties that go with it!" A faint, almost imperceptible smile of triumph trem- bled on the lips of the able king-maker at his side, but he did not notice it, for he was in that state of mental ten- sion where elusive smiles and delicate diplomacy pass unrecognized. His mother had stung and humiliated him profoundly, but he did not know that she had played him as a good angler plays a trout. He had little vanity, but still he knew himself to be one of those who can carry through a resolve, whatever it is, to the very end without wincing; he knew, also, that he was no mere child to be treated with pitying indulgence and warned of every pitfall. This, too, com- ing from the only living being who had a real knowledge of him, made his white cheeks suddenly flame with 96 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE mortification, and cast a shadow of perplexity upon his eyes. Had he but been able to see clearly, he would have perceived that his mother was in an absolute ecstasy of pride and delight, surely in itself a startling thing in so cold and self-controlled a woman. She was intolerant of illusions as a rule, but her son's present illusive mood served her purpose admirably, and, moreover, she, perchance, remembered the old saying which states that " les illusions sont des zeros, mats c'est avcc les zeros qu'oii fait les beaux chiffres!" But now, almost in the moment of her triumph, a keen, unexpected sense of regret arose in her — strange, indeed, in one who having put a hand to the plough never looked backward. Nevertheless, her indescribable air of indif- ference and disdain suddenly disappeared, and with a gentle, caressing movement she drew him towards her, actuated by this sudden weakness, this sudden yearning and wistful desire that all she had done to secure him the throne had been left unaccomplished, that her boy could still remain all her own, and the kiss she gave him was that of a mere loving, anxious mother. "My own dar- ling!" she murmured. The words escaped her unawares, and when they were uttered she longed to recall them. This was not the time for demonstrative affection, least of all from a woman such as she; and, straightening herself to her full height and casting off her softer mood with a little shake of the shoulders, habitual to her when she had, as she called it, "caught herself napping," she resumed her explanation, as had this little tender interlude been a trifle beneath notice : "As I have just told you, I long since approached your uncle on the subject of his abdication; to be exact, I spoke to him very decidedly about the matter last May, when he was still under the impression produced by the 7 97 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE March riots, and he promised me then" — she halted im- perceptibly — "to make this sacrifice for the sake of the country's safety. Since that time I have continually held this promise before his eyes, and the events of the last few days will undoubtedly lead him to fulfil it now." "Did he consider it in the light of a sacrifice?" Arch- duke Franz said, quietly, and without a hint of sarcasm. The Archduchess's eyes opened a little wider, but her answer to this inconvenient question was delivered in a perfectly calm and secure tone. "Oh, you see, no man desires to suffer more keenly than is absolutely necessary, your uncle Ferdinand least of all, and there is no doubt that he has debated the amount of pain to be avoided or endured that hangs in the balance of his decision against or for an abdication ; but, taking it all in all, I think that the result of his in- ward debates is a foregone conclusion." The young Archduke's powers of self-restraint must just then have amazed even the mother who had instilled them into him. His eyes were fixed steadily upon her, his lips were slightly parted, and his attitude indicated careful attention, but, save for the fact that a few tiny beads of moisture still glistened on his forehead, he gave no sign of agitation or even of unusual interest in what she said. And yet he was being called upon not only to take that active part which he had dreamed of and longed for, but actually to assume full control of affairs, and to shoulder responsibilities a great deal heavier than those which had staggered and unseated the great Metternich himself! But after the first flush of surprise, called forth by news he had never even sus- pected and for which he was totally unprepared, he be- trayed neither qualms nor enthusiasms. This, indeed, was a man! Youth has a cunning magic peculiar and enviable FRAKCIS-JOSKPH IN 1848 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE which can be replaced by nothing else in the world, for it grants its possessor a quick and kaleidoscopic adapta- bility which makes everything easy in comparison to the inalterable habitude of maturer age. Already, in the in- stinctive throwing back of the shoulders and holding up of the finely shaped head, this youth, who but a few short minutes before had been a mere unit — more gifted than the rest, it is true — in a numerous Imperial family, a boy exasperated by circumstances, smarting beneath the constraint put upon him by the timorous chief of both his House and his country, already bore himself like a sovereign of twice his years and a hundred times his experience. There was no boastfulness in his attitude, not a trace of pose or of affectation in this curious and immediate outward assumption of responsibility and care ; evidently emanating from the fulness of the strong- ly beating young heart, the swiftly working brain, eager to go at once on duty and to direct the rescue of Crown and Fatherland. Archduchess Sophia sat still as a statue, her eyes fixed upon him; then she laughed— a soft, victorious laugh. "Speaking in all moderation," she declared, "I think that I may rely wholly upon you to be what I have al- ways prayed you should be — a great ruler." He looked at her gravely, then smiled and said, very slowly, with an effect supremely impersonal, "I may at least promise you that I will do the uttermost in my power to revive and maintain the Habsburg traditions." The Archduchess had slipped an emerald ring from her finger, and was twirling it round in the palm of her hand. "We have had tawdry imitations on the throne, which were as different from the old Habsburgs as pinchbeck is from gold," she mused aloud, glancing obliquely at him, "but you are genuine, Franz; thank God for that! since 99 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE your occasion has come at last, and unseen hands are pushing you towards a glorious destiny." He did not speak, he did not look at her, but he caught his breath audibly, a long, tremulous breath! Suddenly the Archduchess's pale, grave face leaped into light and color, her eyes blazed, and moved seem- ingly by an inexpHcable impulse — for the silence had apparently remained quite unbroken save by that low, tremulous sigh — she rose swiftly, ran hghtly across the room, and, tearing aside the heavy tapestry, bared to view the dark, narrow opening of a shding door in the wall, and standing within it the cowering figure of no less a personage than Empress Maria-Anna herself. This was a serious discovery, a terribly embarrassing one at any rate, and Archduke Franz fell back against the tapestried wall with an exclamation of supreme as- tonishment. Not so Archduchess Sophia, who possessed one of those contradictory natures which never take a situation as one would expect it to be taken, and who, instead of exploiting the dramatic possibilities of the present one at the expense of the enemy, said, with the utmost calmness : "Ah, I thought I heard a rat. Pardon me, my dear, for this unflattering mistake. Pray come in and form one of our little council." Maria-Anna glanced at her terrible sister-in-law with reproachful, tragic eyes, and would have fled had not the Archduchess prevented this by grasping her hand and leading her gently but inexorably to a chair by the now almost extinguished fire. Though nominally mistress of all the Imperial palaces of Austro-Hungary, and supposed by the ignorant to lead her weak, vacillating husband by a silken thread, Em- press Maria-Anna held both housewifely and wifely reins with a slack hand, and under her management matters had gone hopelessly to the bad in her domain. She had A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE nothing in common with the brave, resolute, self-reliant Sophia, of whom she stood in dumb, nameless awe. In- deed, the latter had once or twice spoken such blightingly plain truths to Ferdinand's self-indulgent, indolent con- sort, and presented her with such jagged and uncom- fortable "pieces of her mind," that she had been thrown into violent hysterics, and had subsequently implored her lord to send " diese Sophia" about her business, and far away from the Hofburg or Schonbrunn. But this was easier said than done, and he knew far too well what manner of an enemy Sophia could become on provoca- tion to even attempt carrying out his wife's tearful wishes. So the Empress always avoided her autocratic sister- in-law most scrupulously ; and when absolutely forced to communicate with her upon private matters, invariably did so through the priestly intervention of her father- confessor, a shrewd and sagacious man, who, she con- sidered, was far more able to cope with her than she her- self was. Now, however, she was face to face with the being she feared most in the world, and under what circumstances! What could the masterful and unforgiving Archduchess mean to do with her ? What dire punishment lurked be- hind that pretence of welcome, that delicately scornful smile, that eye that had "marked her coming, and looked brighter when she came," in spite of the manner of that appearance? The calm of the dim, sweet-scented old chamber seem- ed surcharged with menace. Shivering with cold and fright, the wretched Empress bent over the dying embers, feigning to warm her shaking fingers at flames "shin- ing solely by their absence," as the French put it, while the amazed Archduke stood immovable, looking down at the carpet. Archduchess Sophia alone preserved her equanimity as absolutely as if her Imperial sister-in-law A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE fiad merely dropped in for a cheery morning visit, instead of having been thus caught eavesdropping under pecul- iarly suspicious and inconvenient circumstances. Sophia sank into a chair facing her, leaned back with careless grace on some cushions, and, gazing mockingly at her, asked, serenely, "Well, now, tell me, my dear, quite frankly, what do you think of our little project?" Maria-Anna shrank into the utmost comer of her seat, and her frightened, imploring eyes began to dilate with abject terror before her arch-enemy's unexpected and tan- talizing gentleness, a sweetness far more terrible to those who knew Sophia well than any of her most violent out- bursts would have been. "Well!" repeated the latter, playing with the tassel of a cushion, her eyes glowing maliciously. A groan escaped the Empress's white lips. " Reflect for a moment, if you have not as yet had time to co-ordinate your ideas," continued the merciless Archduchess, assuming a tone wholly argumentative. "The day is young yet, for, lazier than we, the sun still slumbers." Maria- Anna tried to speak, but in vain; her tongue was cleaving to the roof of her mouth, and with an en- couraging smile her tormentor said, in a more and more ominously coaxing manner, " I see ! No doubt you would prefer to speak to me alone. Why did not you say so at once?" Then, turning to the worried and puz- zled Archduke, she added, softly, "Will you go and wait for me in my bedroom, Franz? I will be with you directly." He glanced at his mother a little wistfully, as if he did not quite understand or like this move, but he knew her too well to resist, and, bowing low before the Empress, who looked at this moment anything but Imperial or imposing, he went without a word. A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE Outside both rain and wind were still raging, and, al- though it was now past three o'clock, there was not even a hint of dawn to be seen through the heavy clouds shouldering each other above the horizon, and the air was so raw that when the Archduchess threw open a window for an instant, to clear the heavy atmosphere of the room, the tempest burst in with a roar like that of unchained wild beasts, and it took all her strength to close it again. She herself confessed when, long afterwards, she re- lated the scene, having been glad of this short buffet with an insensate force, for at that moment all that was most cruel, most intolerant, most tyrannical in her was aroused, and she was in the humor to hurt some- thing; the first thing that came within the grasp of her hand. Of a truth, the bantering, mocking mood, which she had constrained herself to adopt before her son, was at an end now, and when she turned from the window, after her victorious encounter with the elements, her eyes were full of scorn and of command as she looked haughtily at the cringing figure still huddled over the al- most cold cinders. "What possessed you to spy upon me?" she said, con- temptuously, advancing a step or two. "I did not come to spy upon you," murmured the wretched, demoralized Empress. "No, your presence behind this secret door, or rather within it, for you knew of it — which is more than I did — and you had, no doubt, to work some compHcated piece of machinery in order to open it, was quite fortuitous; you will have me beheve, no doubt, that you were merely promenading inside the wall long after three in the morning, and that quite by chance — bah! You are but a poor liar, after all." Before that remorseless scrutiny, those cold, level 103 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE tones, that cut like the lashes of a knout, Maria-Anna was paralyzed. She colored, grew pale again, hesitated, tried to speak, failed, and became absolutely unable to keep down the tremor which shook her like an ague. The physical fear which Sophia's anger always inspired in her, now overwhelmed her with tenfold intensity, and assuredly a much more courageous person than she might well have shrunk from the prospect of being shut up with this dangerously infuriated woman, who could neither be deceived nor softened, and who was known to have a hand of iron when offended or in- jured — swift to punish and slow to relent. In the momentary silence which followed, Archduchess Sophia, holding her victim with her eye the while, re- viewed the situation with swift, concerted thoughts, and to herself admitted defeat. Of ultimate success she did not doubt, but she knew that any information pos- sessed by the Empress was speedily transmitted to quar- ters where sufficient power resided to delay the execution of her schemes. Had the unbidden participant in her counsels been any other person, she would have found means to insure silence, but though confident that the power she could exert over the weak, frightened woman before her was equal to extracting any promise, she com- prehended too well the stuff of which Maria-Anna was made to expect that she would adhere to her word. A promise of secrecy she, nevertheless, decided to obtain, since the fact of its being subsequently broken would place no despicable weapon in her hands, and, further- more, she resolved to make her defeat on this occasion so costly to her antagonist as to give her no opportunity for the present to taste the sweets of her temporary success. "Now, my dear," she said, at length, "the rupture of our entente cordiale" — here she laughed her httle, low, 104 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE musical, mocking laugh — "lies in your own choice; keep secret what you have heard here to-night, even from your father-confessor; refrain from meddling with af- fairs that you cannot possibly comprehend, and I will, on my side, remain neutral where you are concerned. On the other hand, say but one word of all this to a living soul, and you will indeed have reason to regret it." The words were pronounced almost lightly sneeringly, slightingly, and without especial emphasis and accentu- ation, more like a warning to a timid child than a men- ace to a kindred power, and their seeming moderation, compared to the withering anger of a few moments be- fore, encouraged Maria- Anna to break at last her trem- ulous silence. "For pity's sake, Sophia, do not talk to me as if I were a common spy. I mean no harm to you or to Franz; but cannot you see that what you propose would cover us with eternal shame and reproaoh in the eyes of all Europe ? Cannot you relent towards us ? Will nothing but our disgrace satisfy you?" she concluded, hurriedly, noticing a peculiar smile which she had seen before on Sophia's lips, and which she dreaded like a blow. "You are distressing yourself most needlessly," the Archduchess replied, as quietly as ever. "You cannot evade me nor enlist my sympathies, so it is quite useless to try. You are aware that I am not overforbearing, and that I will not tamely submit to treachery, or sit a silent witness to perfidious meddlings; therefore, be ad- vised and accept my terms, such as they are, before I re- consider them, and offer harsher and juster ones." The Empress was at the same time emboldened and puzzled by the restraint in tone and manner of her dreaded foe. "May — may — not your plans entail some — some danger? 'Who has sown the wind shall reap A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE the whirlwind,' " she ventured, with timid and stupid sententiousness. Archduchess Sophia let her eyes rest on her sister-in- law with an expression of half-contemptuous pity, half derision, which might have given her plentiful food for reflection had she been a woman who ever reflected. "You possess all the antique virtues, even a praise- worthy facility in Biblical quotation," she said, with suave sarcasm. "Let us hope that you number among them that of loyalty to a promise, for assuredly you will not leave this room until you have promised to keep silent about this night's performance — a sorry one, as far as you are concerned, certainly, and of which you can scarcely be proud. An Empress might at least employ an agent to do such work, and not stoop to it herself!" " All is fair in love and war. I — I — I was only fighting my own battle, Sophia." Into the face of the overbearing Archduchess came a gleam of mahcious amusement, crossed with surprise, at this unheard-of pertinacity. " I beg your pardon, but you should really make a con- scientious effort to be a little less foolhardy. It is not your usual attitude, and you know what our French cousins say: 'Ne jorfez pas voire talent; vous ne feriez rien avec grdce. ' ' ' "I cannot promise what you ask. Why should I? Promises are sacred," contended poor Maria-Anna, "and you know as well as I do that it would be a sin for me to hold anything back from my father-confessor." "Ah, nous y voilh done l" Sophia exclaimed. "Has anybody ever heard anything that sounded so bewilder- ingly devoid of reason? Not content with confessing your own sins, you deem it your duty to reveal those which, in your admirable purity of motive, you accord to your neighbors. I sincerely pity your confessor! But, lo6 A KEYSTONE OP EMPIRE before you go any further, would it not be better to cal- culate what you yourself are likely to lose by such un- paralleled loyalty to Holy Mother Church? For, when you have done this, you will very Hkely thank me for claiming and enforcing your silence!" Maria-Anna gazed distressedly into space, as if ap- pealing to invisible arbiters. "This is too, too cruel!" she moaned. "Am I child without discretion that I should be treated so?" "Oh, you are very far from being a child, as anybody looking at you in this crude morning light would enthu- siastically vouch," retorted the other, unable for once to refrain from a wholly feminine repartee, which made the Empress wince, for vanity formed a large part of her pampered, flattery -loving soul. "And now," continued the imperturbable Archduchess, more sternly, "there must be no more talk of wanting or not wanting to do as you are told. You shall do what I wish, and that at once!" "This is outrageous!" exclaimed the other, goaded to renewed pertinacity. "How long do you expect me to keep silent, and why should you take it for granted that I am inclined to connive at your plots?" "I see that I have been altogether too patient with you, my dear sister, but" — Sophia considered a moment — "but, let me see — I shall be very moderate, if you will be so good as to refrain from future impertinences — three months will do. After three months I will allow you to give full play to your diligent tongue. During those three months, however, you must not, absolutely must not, breathe a word to anybody of our little pro- ject!" "Three months! Twelve weeks!" almost screamed Maria-Anna. "Ninety days, to put it commercially," commented 107 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE Sophia, looking at the coffered ceiling with meditative eyes. The Empress held up her hands in vehement protest, and, in a high, agitated, trembling voice that belied the astonishing energy of her words, cried: " You can do what you please, Sophia, but I will prom- ise you nothing! I have feared you greatly, it is true, but I do not fear you any longer, whatever you may choose to do to me!" Archduchess Sophia gazed at her with undisguised amusement. She knew, without the possibiHty of a mis- take, that this was but a momentary flash of revolt, and that Maria-Anna, no more than Ferdinand, would dare to resist her to the end, and this Httle flash of self-assertion on her prisoner's part seemed very droll to her. "Poor Franz, I hope he fell asleep in my room!" she murmured, " puisqtte c'est tout a recommencer . I am not very tolerant of defeat," she continued, louder, "although I may have to swallow it at some future time, but that time is not yet. I invariably contend that what one wishes to accomplish can be compassed sooner or later; with me it will be sooner, that is all. Peste! ma chere, a crusade against me embraced by you and your party is visionary indeed! I had hoped better and especially far wiser things from you." She smiled, and looked over to the rain-lashed windows. " The gods have showered upon you their fairy gifts, and they will be too merciful to those who look upon you as one of the greatest acquisitions the Habsburgs ever made to let you attempt resisting me unhindered." The Empress had braced herself to withstand the fit of rage which she felt certain Sophia would treat her to when she found herself openly defied; but, surprised by the continuance of this suave, calm insolence, crushed by her antagonist's unruffled air of mastery, and, above all, io8 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE too frightened and humiliated to control her nerves, she sank back upon the cushions of her chair and burst into tears. Archduchess Sophia rose and stood over her with a face that had the immutability of a mask of stone. She had played with her mouse long enough. Now she would put an end to this wearisome scene, and when she spoke it was with a bitter fierceness, before which the sobs of the ignominiously detected listener died into silence. "I wish no more words between us. You know how basely you have acted. All your life has been one long eavesdropping ; this last and supremely disgraceful deed committed by you, an Empress, has but set the seal upon your shame, in my eyes at least. One can pardon and understand sin, even crime, but not baseness. A daugh- ter of kings should at least be loyal and truthful and brave. You are none of these things, and your attempt at resistance just now was a mere piece of comedy. I know you; you are a fit mate for the miserable Roi faineant you married, and it is because I do know you bo'ih so well that I mean to wrench the crown from you, who have sunk so despicably low. Were your honor or Ferdinand's honor called into question, I would, of course, defend it — as I would that of any of the Habsburgs — not for your sakes, but merely for my own, since from my heart I despise you both. And now I have trifled much too long with you. Promise me silence, for if you still refuse you will rue the very day you were born!" Huddled in her chair, exhausted, hysterical, and in- capable of further resistance, Maria-Anna faintly mur- mured : " I promise." "Do you mean that?" "Yes." " It is understood that by this promise you engage not 109 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE to communicate what you have heard to-night to any one, by writing or otherwise, and also that you will not act upon your information, is it not?" "Yes." "Ah, I am glad that we have come to an understand- ing. Will you permit me to assist you to the door? It is day — after a fashion — and you must be tired." The Empress rose limply. Dazed by the exhausting scene she had just gone through, she obeyed mechani- cally, and suffered herself to be conducted across the apartment. Slowly she passed down the corridor, hard- ly knowing whither she went, for all the pride and vanity of her narrow soul had been crushed out for the moment, and the greatest humiliation she had ever known poured into their empty places. CHAPTER IV Two months later, on December 2d, 1848, the old citadel of Olmtitz looked more grim and forbidding than usual under a leaden sky of uniform and dismal grayness, low and disconsolate and threatening. Snow lay thickly on the ground and weighed down the branches of the pines all over the country, and now and again a bough snapped under its burden with a sharp, tearing sound , followed by the clear, steely tinkle of falling icicles. The cutting north wind, blowing like a death-deal- ing blast, was full of whirling flakes, like feather-tips, waltzing in maddened circles, freezing as they fell, and adding to the heaped -up whiteness hiding the world from sight. As the morning wore on the whole lower- ing heaven seemed to open, so dense a tourmente poured upon the small town where the Court had taken refuge. A thick, woolly, impenetrable gloom enshrouded every- thing like a suffocating cloak, and the weather grew wilder and wilder under the cruelty of that black frost, the chill of that desolate winter. Above the fortress, above the wildly flapping folds of the Habsburg standard, a flight of huge, dark birds, their sable wings monotonously sweeping the sombre sky, kept circling round and round, each circle narrowing and widening again regularly, while their dismal croaking made itself heard above even the roar of the wind. Those who caught sight of them crossed themselves and muttered superstitiously about "the curse of the Habsburgs," and about the dread legend of the ravens, A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE supposed to betoken misfortune by their mere presence to all members of the Imperial family. Many years later those dusky birds of ill-omen hov- ered with sinister croakings above the proud heads of Archduchess Charlotte and of Archduke Ferdinand- Maximilian, in the fragrant gardens of Miramar during their last walk there together before starting upon their ill-starred journey to far-off Mexico; one of the gloomy band alighting with a swoop on the very train of the new-made Empress. Still later they accompanied the travelling-carriage of Archduchess Maria-Christina, leaving Vienna to join her Royal fiance at Madrid, where she ultimately suffered all that a woman can suffer, and but five short years ago the same black -plumed messengers flew to bring her death- warrant to that peerless creature, Empress Elizabeth, upon a magnificent blue-and-gold, green-and-silver au- tumnal afternoon, as she sat on the moss-grown rocks of the Swiss mountains above Territet, gazing at the lake, the woods, the glaciers, and the far-distant haze of the mellow horizon. Similar presage their swift wings bore to poor Archduchess Marie-Louise journeying from her dear native land to wed Napoleon; to Emperor Joseph, to lovely Queen Marie-Antoinette , whom they accom- panied to the very steps of the scaffold, and to many, many others belonging to that glorious but sorely afflict- ed House of Habsburg, And yet few know the origin of this curse, or rather the primary cause of the ravens' supposed blighting in- fluence upon all the descendants of Rudolph, first of the name, for the legend has never been printed as yet, save perchance in some long-forgotten, black-letter record, which none who live now have so much as heard of, and it is handed down orally in the inner family circle of those whom alone it concerns. A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE Thus it runs; Nearly a thousand years ago there Uved, near the spot where the river Aar joins the Rhine, a bold and powerful lord, who, by his mighty courage, vanquished all his foes; a tall and handsome man, very fair and of splendid bearing and with a physiognomy that showed both the habit and the power of command. He was satiated to weariness with public homage, and, though he ever acknowledged it with proud and court- ly grace, yet his happiest moments were those which he spent among the towering peaks of the mountains, or within the deep gloom of his forest-lands, hunting the bear, the wolf, or the red deer from their silent, mysteri- ous haunts ; for he was an ardent disciple of Nimrod, and when he gave the coup de grdce to some fierce animal which he had conquered by brute force, his blue eyes darkened to steel-like brilliance with an instantaneous and unconquerable joy which had won him the sobriquet of Der Habicht Graf (The Vulture Count). Such was Gontran-le-Riche, Count of Altenbourg, a man to be both feared and admired, swift and fierce in passion, bitter and implacable in hate, keen to avenge and slow to forgive, and yet with a warm, generous heart beating under his glittering surcoat of steel, and a sense of justice and of fair-play rare indeed and superb to behold in one so nearly omnipotent as he. Even towards his favorite antagonists, the bear and wolf, during the short, bleak winter, or the long, bright sum- mer days when he pursued the wild swan, the blue heron, or the golden eagle through the tall, rough meadow-grass or over the precipitous rocks of the high summits, he displayed those qualities which are generally not found in men who live such free, headstrong, barbaric lives as he did, who know no law, no rule, and no constraint but their own. One day Gontran-le-Riche was hunting in a maze of * 113 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE dense, still woods and fir-clad heights, where headlong' rivers thundered through rocky gorges, and madly rush- ing torrents foamed in the green gloom between the vast trunks of veteran pines, when he came upon a rocky summit, shaped like a stronghold built by the hands of Titans, and as lonely as any falcon's nest hung amid lofty branches. These great, voiceless powers of beauty and loneliness drew Count von Altenbourg irresistibly, and, ascending to the highest point, he sat himself down on a bowlder and gazed with enraptured eyes at the admi- rable, wild panorama of wood and mountain unfolded before him. And as he sat he saw, descending towards him from the clouds, great dark birds, their immense wings circling and sweeping the air with a rustle as of tearing silks. Nearer and nearer and nearer they came, till they were poised immediately above his head, and remained almost motionless in a huge, sombre ring, bal- ancing themselves upon outstretched pinions, so that he could see plainly their fierce, golden eyes bent upon him, their murderous claws drawn up against their silver- flecked breasts, their sharply curved beaks opened men- acingly, and he felt that in another moment they would swoop down upon him, who had so boldly intruded upon their domain, and batter him to death with blows from their pitiless wings and rending talons. Countless were the soaring birds; the whole heavens seemed lined by that angrily ruffled tribe assembled from every quarter, and harsh, threatening noises came ever increasingly from the billowy cloud of gleam- ing feathers. Nor was their onslaught a slight peril, even for so strong a man as Count Gontran, who, al- though he had always started honestly and given its fair chance of escape to every woodland quarry, now was in deadly risk of finding no such mercy from this overwhelming force. 114 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE His followers were scattered in the wood below him, quite out of reach of his call, and he was alone to fight against impossible odds. The day was still and cloudy — true sportsman's weather — with no gleam of sun to shine in the hunter's eyes, but in this universal gray- ness the menace of the vulture horde seemed still more terrible and deadlier of intent. There were few braver men living than he, but he yet realized clearly that for all he knew to the contrary his hour had come, and that he, the Habicht Graf, was like to be killed by the very birds whose name he bore. He rose to his full height, however, with undiminished courage, his eyes sparkling with dangerous fire, and on his face a look of utter con- tempt for his pressing danger. Thus he steadfastly pre- pared to meet his foes, for men must die, and little does it matter what is the manner of their death so long as they die nobly and without flinching, as men should. Then, at that moment of dire peril, a wonderful thing came to pass, and a strange, for with the swiftness of sum- mer lightning a feathered cloud, far denser, far blacker than that formed by the vultures, overspread the space between the Count's head and his imminent assailants, darkening still further the light of the gray day, and intercepting the now down-swooping attack of the great birds of prey. No man wrestling through the tumult of battle to reach what he loves best, can light a more bitter conflict with the death that menaces him on every side than that flight of ravens, coming none could know whence, which, with no human love, no human pity as their incentive, yet cast themselves upon that murder- ous army of vultures and forced them back with a hoarse, hollow roar of wide-flung throats and clashing beaks, like the sound of a tempest, and drove them swiftly across the darkening skies like a cloud-rack before the wind. The Count could not repress a shout of triumph and of en- A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE couragement to the winged legions of his defenders, but even as he gazed victors and vanquished were gone, and only some stragglers still hurled themselves on one an- other, their smothered cries accentuating the great si- lence that was again falling upon the green woods. Sud- denly the sun broke red through the gray shroud of mist, the pine boughs below Gontran - le - Riche were bathed in light, and his followers, rushing through them, fell at his feet in the joy of having found him after a desperate search, guided only by the strange turmoil of the battle raging above the impenetrable dome of the trees, through which they had labored so long in vain. Count Gontran, in commemoration of the miracle which had saved him, built himself a watch-tower on the top of the rock which nature had shaped so closely to resemble one, and called it the " Habichtsburg," which from corruption became "Habsburg," so he really was the founder of the Habsburg name, he himself being far better known towards the end of his life by the name of Count of Habsburg than by that of Count von Alten- bourg. His knightly pennon also from the day of his strange rescue bore a raven sable on a field or, and since the birds were regarded by him as friends to whom he owed a deep debt, food in plenty was always placed, summer and winter alike, on the rocky base of the tower, so that they greatly prospered and increased, building their strong nests all through the woods for miles around. When, nearly a hundred years after the death of this great and noble lord. Arch Abbot Werner and his brother, the Chevalier Radbot, came into possession of the solitary tower built by Gontran-le-Riche, Count von Altenbourg- Habsburg, and added to it, until Schloss Habsburg raised its proud turrets and battlements above the green billows of the splendid forest murmuring and ii6 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE rustling at its feet; the "Habichtsburg" ravens protest- ed against the desecration of their beloved protector's favorite retreat with such violence, and in such numbers, that a destructive war upon them was promptly decreed. The birds did not readily forsake their time-honored haunt, however, for it is to Rudolph von Habsburg, first Emperor of his House, fully two hundred years later still, that the final extermination of the raven colony around the castle is attributed. Hence the legend to the effect that the birds, disgusted and infuriated by this piece of unparalleled ingratitude, turned their hatred from cen- tury to century upon all the descendants of Emperor Ru- dolph, and that to this very day they take cruel delight in presaging misfortune to all those bearing that ancient and glorious name.* Inside the fortress of Olmiitz, on the memorable De- cember day of which I speak at the beginning of this chapter, agitation and curiosity reigned supreme. The dim winter light stole through the tall, deep-embrasured windows of the gloomy throne-room, and made so feeble a contest with the shadows that a sense of unrest, born of that troubled time, had fallen upon a group of Impe- rial personages and high court officials who had been summoned thither. Together, near the wide porphyry hearth, where huge logs of pine and cedar burned, stood Archduke Ferdi- nand-Karl, Francis-Joseph's brothers Ferdinand-Max- imilian and Karl - Ludwig, and Archduke Ferdinand- d'Este. A little further were the Archduchesses Maria- Dorothea and Elizabeth, shivering in their gorgeous robes de cour as they whispered earnestly with Archduke Wil- helm- Joseph, who bent inquiring glances upon the two * The orthography of the word Habsburg is uncertain, the members of the Imperial family still write it with a "b," from Habicht (vulture). 117 A KEYSTONE OP EMPIRE heroes of the hour, Prince Windischgratz and the cele- brated Baron Jellachich, Ban of Croatia, no longer a de- clared rebel, but commander-in-chief of the Imperial forces in Hungary, and a firm ally of Archduchess Sophia. A little over a month before these two commanders had appeared before rebellious Vienna with an army of a hundred thousand men, had defeated a relieving force of Hungarian insurgents under Kossuth, and after a de- structive bombardment had taken the city by assault and reduced it to submission, and it was expected that in a few days they would carry the banner of the Empire against Hungary. Excepting Prince Schwartzenberg, Count Griinne, Baron von Hiibner, and those already named, no other persons were present in the great apart- ment. The assembled company were discussing the possible reasons of their being so suddenly brought together, for, strange as it may appear, nobody, not even the Emperor's nearest relatives, knew the nature of the all-important ceremony which was immediately to take place. The ponderous, richly carved furniture, the glittering throne itself, looked ghostly in the almost empty hall, where none dared to talk above a whisper, and wherein the very spirit of the cruel ice and snow that wrapped the outer world seemed to have penetrated, so cold and silent was its atmosphere. A stray flash from the crackling fire threw into promi- nence here and there a delicate bit of carving, a jewelled tazza, a CeUini cup, or coaxed high lights from the dra- peries of deep-purple velvet, and the gold-brocaded por- tieres falling in straight folds before the many doors. That palace of Olmiitz was very old, spacious, magnifi- cent, faded, and dull. Busts of dusky, age -yellowed n8 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE marble and of sombre bronze were barely visible in the semi-darkness, amid the worn brocades and the ancient hangings, with strange and pallid figures wrought upon them by hands dead since many centuries. "What hornet's nest have we stepped into now?" queried Archduke Wilhelm-Joseph, with a sigh of im- patience, addressing himself to Archduchess Elizabeth, "Sophia has a finger in it, you may depend. She has always considered that all creation exists only for the honor of her immediate family, and refuses to admit that others may have some additional though no doubt minor objects in view. For the last few months she has had a preoccupied look which, in my humble opinion, bodes no good as to her latest machinations." " You are, none of you, quite just to her," replied the gentle Archduchess. "She possesses a keener sense of duty than most women, and if her views are perchance somewhat extreme — " The Archduke laughed sarcastically, and, before time had been given for the interrupted reproof to be resumed, the double doors opposite the throne were flung open, and , preceded by the Grandmaster of the Court , Landgrave Egon von Fiirstenberg, walking backward and tapping his ivory wand of office upon the floor, the Emperor and Empress entered and passed towards the dais, followed by Archduke Franz-Karl, Archduchess Sophia, and last, but not least, by Archduke Franz himself. The groups in the great Thronsaal fell abruptly asunder, curtseying and bowing low, but furtively glancing at the pale face of Ferdinand, whose painfully restless eyes and twitching lips denoted a nervousness controlled with visible difficulty. The Empress at his side looked as if she had been recently crying, though now a sombre light of regret and resentment burned in her eyes, and her bosom quivered under the glistening jewels that dec- 119 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE orated it. Now and again she twisted the lace hand- kerchief she held, and a sUght tremor shaking her inter- mittently, made the diamonds with which her hair was spangled sparkle like liquid fire. Immediately behind her swept Archduchess Sophia, with her usual stately grace and proud, cold dignity. Her velvet dress was very plainly made, but fitted her magnificent figure to perfection ; on her breast shone the stars of many orders, and on her shapely head rested a diadem of marvellous uncut gems which she wore like an Imperial crown. Only her eyes betrayed that she was strung to the highest pitch, for they were alive with an intensity of expression wonderful to behold, as she fixed them on the trembling form of the Emperor and then upon her darling, her handsome blue-eyed boy, the child who so soon now was to be her sovereign. During the silence which followed it seemed as if all the fierce passions that mould humanity fluttered their un- quiet wings through the lofty hall, the air seemed heavy with portent, and a keen tingling tension of expectancy drew every eye upon the throne. The Emperor's face had turned gray as ashes; for a moment he strove to hide his emotion, conscious that there were but few in the assembly but watched him un- kindly. He pressed his lips together tightly, and an un- usual and curiously obstinate expression drew down the corners of his mouth, as his eyes sought for a second the terribly commanding orbs of Archduchess Sophia, whose hand closed vise-Hke upon the sticks of the fan which she held Hke a marshal's baton; then, suddenly, an ex- pression almost fierce transformed his colorless features into a tragic mask; authority, nay, absolute imperious- ness, came into his bearing and manner; he no longer seemed awkward, cowed, and feeble, but dignified and commanding, and for once in his life looked as one born 1 20 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE to dominate the crowd. His whole attitude, indeed, de- manded attention as he rose from the throne, unfolded a paper he held in his hand, and began to read in a deep, firm, sonorous voice none had ever heard from him be- fore, the following declaration: "For very weighty reasons we have irrevocably de- cided to lay down our Imperial Crown in favor of our beloved nephew, the Most Serene Archduke Francis- Joseph, whom we hereby declare to be of age, our be- loved brother, the Most Serene Archduke Francis- Charles, father of our above-mentioned Most Serene Nephew, having irrevocably renounced his right of suc- cession to a throne which belongs to him by right, according to the fundamental laws of our family and of the state, in favor of his above-mentioned son, Francis- Joseph." As he pronounced the last words, more like a sovereign in laying down the sceptre than at any time when he swayed it, the intense excitement which caused this one supreme effort went out within him like a suddenly ex- tinguished lamp ; he was overtaken by a reaction visible to all who had been watching him with amazed surprise ; he shivered, bowed his head, and sat wearily down again. Immediately Prince Schwartzenberg arose and read, in tones that sounded clear and sharp upon the strained silence, three official documents, the declaration that Francis-Joseph was now of age, his father's formal re- nunciation to his right of succession, and the Emperor's formal abdication. As the Prince presented these papers to the Empe- ror and Archduke Franz-Karl for their signatures, and counter-signed them with his own, many glances turned towards Archduchess Sophia, and noted the very faint smile that hovered about her lips, and accentuated the gleam of exulting triumph in her eyes when she looked A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE towards her son, whom she crowned that day with a richer diadem than any of the proud old Empire, that of a love so intense, so profound, so devoted, that all else paled before it. She felt truly like one who, after long fasting and travail of spirit before the dim altar of a shrine, suddenly beholds a luminous white vision con- firming and rewarding his faith. She had conquered, and success is sweet always, but doubly so to such a hewer of fate as was this inexorably masterful woman, around whom to-day celestial ether seemed to swim and swirl. As in a dream she heard a voice delivering a farewell address, as in a dream saw faces pale and eyes fill with tears as her son knelt before the retiring Emperor for his embrace and blessing; but as the j^oung sovereign rose to receive the formal homage and congratulations of the members of his House, she came swiftly forward and folded him in her arms with a clasp passionate and strong, like her own heart. The deed was done ! Already the heralds were on their way to proclaim it throughout the little town. The crown of the Habsburgs had changed places, and the poor discrowned monarch, who had donned it thirteen years before, now felt a strange and unaccountable sense of void and of bitter loss as he rose from the throne — vacating it, as it were, for the slender youth who, with ready tears glistening in his eyes, was watching his pale features, which appeared but a shrivelled mask of re- serve and misery, as if the page of history which he had just completed had been written in a blinding light which had dazzled and hurt him cruelly, and the passing away of which now left him in an almost sightless dark- ness. The young Emperor turned his eyes from him and gazed out at the whirling snow, falling in ever-thickening A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE flakes, afraid of the emotions into which he might be hiirried, for in his heart he was profoundly sorry for this broken man, who had spent his whole life in wanting that which he had not, in regretting his own actions when it was too late to efface them, in putting the blame upon fate which was due to his own folly, caprice, and insta- bility ; and who yet had always been to him both kind and indulgent. He had reasoned with himself that the relinquishing of what one is weary and afraid of cannot be looked upon in the light of a sacrifice, and yet the sight of his uncle dethroned and uncrowned was very painful to him, for he did not possess the enviable faculty of being able to readily dismiss from his mind the thought of another's unhappiness. Indeed, the subject had, during the past weeks, occupied his mind to an extent which surprised himself. And thus, after a few minutes of irresolution and of conflicting impulses, he once more abruptly sank on his knee, with the humility belonging to men of high mind and strong feeling, both young and old, before the gray-haired figure standing stoopingly at the hearth-cor- ner, and tears fell upon his uncle's withered hand as he kissed it. Genuinely touched, Ferdinand raised and embraced him, not now as before, with mere conventionality, but in a tender and fatherly fashion. "Nay, weep not for me," he said, gently. "I am growing old, and the thought that in my retirement I shall miss something of this life makes me see just now all things in shadow, but I will be consoled in watching you fulfil your duty as I wish I, myself, had done, for you are not one, I believe, to repudiate or neglect your obli- gations, and so, God bless you, my boy! and grant that your path be not too arduous a one." None, perhaps, understood the intense diffidence which 123 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE enveloped Francis-Joseph, as a frost encloses and covers a lake with a sheet of armor at the beginning of a hard winter, from the moment when he realized the weight and responsibilities of the Dual-Crown; none understood the bewilderment and inward agitation which made him pronounce the memorable "Good-bye, my youth," on the day of his accession, and none certainly would have thought how heavily the only fear which had ever touch- ed his dauntless and courageous temper — namely, a fear of his own limitations, lay upon him while listening to his uncle's words. He was still bewildered with all that had taken place that morning, and, in answer, he mur- mured something, he knew not what, and so remained standing before him, unable to recover his composure, while the color came and went nervously on his young face. " I will try to please you and my parents," he said, at last, involuntarily. It was what a boy would have said, and he knew it, yet he could not restrain the words! Empress Maria-Anna put out her left hand — the one nearer him — and gently clasped his, for she, too, was moved by so much humility and modesty at so proud a moment for him. "You have always pleased us all," she said, very kind- ly. " Do not look back and think of your uncle and my- self now. Cosa fatta, capo ha. What is done is done. We will be very happy, he and I, in Prague, and will give you a warm welcome, both as Emperor and as nephew, when you come to see us." Francis- Joseph looked at her with a puzzled expres- sion. He had always thought of his aunt as selfish, ex- acting, cold, and capricious; perhaps he had misjudged her, and he regretted that, too. So all the heart he had, and that was much, he put into his manner of returning the warm, motherly kiss she gave him. As he turned A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE from her embrace he saw in his own mother's eyes a look which disconcerted him, not quite of derision, but cruelly hinting at pity for his extraordinary youthfulness and guilelessness ! Poor boy - Emperor, he was too little versed in the whole gamut of feminine emotions not to be perplexed as to the motive and meaning of that mocking gaze which hurt him so deeply. Two hours later Ferdinand and Maria- Anna set off for Prague. The snow had ceased falling and the landscape was austere and astonishingly grim in its solemn winter livery of black and white ; but the low, gray clouds were slowly dissolving and being drawn away like a huge gauzy curtain from the chill sky, and the walls of Olmiitz, the island-fortress — planted in the middle of the broad, frozen surface of the river March — gleamed palely in the intermittent rays of the dim, yellow, sickly sun. Above the ice-clad bosom of the stream, wont in the spring to roll so boisterously, peat-stained and foam -broidered, through its belt of marshes, now motionless and chained down under the Iron grip of the frost, flocks of wild-fowl flew, with shrill cries, where, in the early morning, the Habsburg ravens had circled. The whole scene had changed, indeed, when the new sovereign mounted his charger to accompany his Im- perial predecessor so far as the railway station, galloping at the window of the state carriage, with its coachman, in full-bottomed wig and three-cornered hat, seated alone in his glory, and its gorgeous footmen swinging behind. The ranks of the good-natured and admiring crowd which had assembled to watch the departure opened to let the equipage pass by, with Hochs of delight and loud-shouted blessings upon "Franz der Kaiser" and " Ferdinand der Giitige," who " soi-dit en passant " is to this day remembered throughout Austria as the softest- i25 A KEYSTONE OF EMPIRE hearted monarch of them all! The gold lace on the brilliant uniforms of the escort shone gayly, the horses pranced merrily, and there could be no doubt whatever of the popularity of both the young and the old mon- arch with the excellent Moravians thronging the nar- row streets of Olmutz. They evidently knew naught of " Le Roi est mort, vive le Roi!" but wisely considered that "/