ROYAL ROMANCE.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1740, 3 May 1913, Page 5

ROYAL ROMANCE.

AND TRAGEDY.

A COUNTESS'S MEMOIRS. *

By Teletrraph-PvcßS Association-Copyrlsht London, May 1. The Countess Lariscli seeks, in, her memoirs.published to-day, to prove that her cousin, the Crown Prince Rudolph of Austria, in committing suicide after killing the Baroness Mary Votsfira, was not simply the victim of a guilty love. She endeavours to show that Rudolph was involved in an attempt to separate Hungary from Austria and seize the Hungarian. Crown. The Countess says:—"Two days beforo tho Meyerjing tragedy, the Crown Prince entrusted to mo a steel box, enjoining secrecy, and bidding mo deliver it only to One man, who was aware of its secret.. I begged him to confide his difficulties to tho Emperor, but Rudoliih replied that that would bo signing his death warrant. The Archduke John, who afterwards Went to sea, and disappeared, gave tho prescribed password, and obtained th® box on tho day after tho tragedy, saying: 'Had the Countess surrendered it to the Empress, Rudolph would have been tried at tho Emperor Francis Joseph's instance, and shot as a. traitor.'" She asked, was Rudolph thinking of the Crown of Hungary, and John'nodded assent. He added that fear of discovery might have impelled Rudolph to commit suicide, and concluded, "I am going to die without dying." ' Some of the reviewers are dissatisfied with the slender evidence thus presented of the alleged political aspect of the tragedy. Others attach the greatest interest to the Countess's intimate study of tho Enigmatical, ill-fated^Empross. PRiNCE RUDOLPH'S TRAGIC END. ROMANTIC HISTORY OP THE HAPSBURGS. 'ttfritihg ,"n. tho occasion of the marriage between the Archduchess Elisabeth I'ranziska and Count Georg von Waldburg, which took place in September last in me Castle Chapel at the Schloss WallBee, when the Emperor Francis Joseph aiid other members of th 6 Imperial House Woro present, a correspondent of tho London "Daily News" taid:—This adds another romance to the many in the records of the House of Hapsburg. Count Waldburg is - ii yoting officer who has,neither property nor prospects, and Wht> was formerly a tutor to the Archduchess's brother's.

The alliance is said to be a love match, and the story goed that the Emperor encouraged the Archduchess in the affair of her heart.

Last year the Archduchess and tho tutor inet and fell in love at first sight, but there were fatal objections and many Royal suitors presented themselves for the Royal lady's hand. She rejected them all, being determined to marry the tutor.. She confided her secret to her grandfather, and enlisted his sympathy. This happy ending is a pleasant contract to some of the Hapsburg marriages. Ono of the most bensational and tragic termination of an allianco Was the suicide of, the. Emperor's eldest son, Prince Rudolph, who snot himself at a huntingbox near Baden in 1899. . The Prince had married Princras Stephanie, daughter of King Leopold of. Belgium. It was not a love match. On the night before his death the Prince declared his intention of getting a divorce,;-stating .that, .no'ther the Emperor nOf Empress could keep him : harnessed to a woman of so incompatiblo a temper. He was then staying -with the Baroness Vctsera, for whom ho had conceived an affection; and her brother.. The nesjt morning tho Crown Prince and tho Baroness Vetsera were found shot.

The Archdukei Ferdinand, eldest eon of thei Emperor's third brother bo-' came heir- to the > throne, and the Emperor _ desifed tho heirappaferifs marriago with tlra widowed Princess Stepllania. T-he Princess, however, announced that slio had fallen in lovo with Count Lbnyay, a Hungarian nobleman, who was chamberlain of tho Princess' 9 household. The Emperor was very angry,- but the' mairiage took place. King Leopold, tho Princfcsg"s father, but Kt-r off from the Belgian royal family. Then the Grown Prince said he desired to marry the Countess Chotek. Tho Emperor opposed this alliance, and there were also difficulties of succession. The Crown Prinwt was firm, and in 1900 the marriage took place, after he had declared. that he would not claim Royal privileges for his wife or children. Other Hapsburir . include tho.marriage in 1893 of the Princess Elizabeth of Bavaria to a lieutenant of the Bavarian cavalry. lii 18G8 Archduke Henry married Prauleiri I/eopoWine. Hofman, .daughter of a vory humble official employed in the assessment. office at Krems. The marriage talis forbiddon by the Emperor, and for many years the Archduke was exiled, forfeiting. his appointments and income from tho Imperial Civil List. In 1902 tho Archduchess Elizabeth; only daughter of Prince Rudolph, married Prince Otto Graetz, who was considered quit© below tho Archduchess, wliilo in 1!)03 a daughter of the Archduchew Gisela married a Baron, who was afterwards raised to the rank of Count.