MYSTERY OF BIRTH

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 293, 3 May 1913, Page 9

MYSTERY OF BIRTH

REMARKABLE LIFE JTORY. An extraordinary lir'e-ston is about to be published. It is called "Tin: Secret of an Empress, Revealed by Iter Daughter," and the author is a strikingly beautiful woman, residing in London with her husband, an Italian nobleman, who makes the startling claim that her mother was the Empress Elizabeth of Austria, the unhappy victim of ail assassin's dagger at Teritet, on the Lake of Geneva, in I§!).S. Countess Zanardi Laiuli lias related the story of her life with her own lips, and lias submitted a copy of lier petition to the Viennese authorities through her lawyer, Dr. Walther Rode. She ofl'ers no documentary corroboration, but point" to certain remarkable resemblances between portraits of herself and her two children by her iirst marriage on the one hand and portraits of the Emperor Francis .Josef, the Empress, and the mad King Louis of Bavaria, the Empress' first cousin, on the other, which slie declares to be "incontestable proof." Whether such a claim, based on such evidence, will continue to be regarded by tie Austrian Government, as it certainly has been in the past, as "flimsy and unfounded," remains to be seen.

j THE ALLEGED "SECRET." "I sign myself Caroline Franziska Maria d'Austria," said Countess ZanardiLandi, "because I am the daughter of the Empress Elizabeth of Austria, and was born in 1882. My birth tpok place at the Chateau of Sasseteau, near Petites Dalles, in Normandy. My mother was staying there incognito,'under the title of Countess of Hohenems, and was attended by the well-known Viennese gynaecologist, Professor Karl Braun von Fernwald. The Emperor visited my mother at Sassteau, if only for a few hours. He also was in France incognito at that time. There was no registration of my birth. I believe that, as my mother told me herself, the Emperor had promised her that her next child, which proved to be myself, should be born secretly, and, if a girl, should be brought up by her entirely as she wished, free from all restrictions of Court etiquette. "This had become her dearest wish, and he granted it. For the first seven years of my life I lived with a family named Kaiser in a second floor flat in Vienna, and was brought up asMme. Kaiser's second daughter. The first floor was occupied by Caroline Breyer, the Empress' dressmaker, and from my earliest childhood a slim and graceful lady used to visit me. Mme. Kaiser, who was the wife of a banker, always curtsied deeply to her, and I always wore my best clothes when she was coming. I addressed her as 'Aunt Eli,' and she was extremely kind and tender to me. She came ostensibly to visit her dressmaker,' of course, and then came up to the second floor to see me. At length, when I was still a small child, I was taken to stay a week with my mother, the Empress, at Lainz, and she then told me that she was my real mother. It was given out among the servants at the castle at Lainz that I was an orphan, but I know that the general opinion among theiii was that I was an illegitimate child of the Crown Prince Rudolph, who was killed in tragic and mysterious circumstances at Meyer] ing about that time.

OUR LITTLE PRINCESS. . "My mother called me 'Little Woman' and 'Beb,' like the English "Babs.' Immediately after the death of the Crown Prince, in January, 1889,1 was taken to my mother at the Hofburg in Vienna, and found her overwhelmed with grief. She decided that Frau Kaiser was not bringing me up as she wished, and in that year provided a separate establishment for me at Lainz, a little villa in the middle of a large garden. A Miss Yves became my governess. The Empress often came to see me. I remember particularly a Christmas party at which she • was present. I was still known and announced as Fraulein Kaiser, but I heard an old servant named Popi say once to Miss Yves, as she was looking at a photograph of me, 'What a big girl our little princess is getting to be.' Miss Yves rebuked her, and they had high words. I heard all this from the next room. Till then I did not know that this beautiful mother of mine was the Empress. I told her all I had heard, and she admitted it was true, but made me promise to be silent. Miss Yves punished mc after she had gone away. I complained to my mother, and the result was that I was sent back to Mme. Kaiser. Mother appointed Frau Victoria von Friese to be my guardian a few months later, and a house was taken and furnished for me in the Strohgasse, I was in constant correspondence with my mother. I was taken to see her at a number of places where she stayed. In November, 1894, I hurt myself by falling from a ladder. My mother came to me in the Strohgasse, and stayed with me the whole night. When I was recovering from this accident I was taken to my mother at Cap St. Martin, and stayed with her here at the hotel from the middle of January to the beginning of February, 1895. A villa was hired for me at Isehl in the summer of ISOO. Dr. Kraus, my tutor, had a long conversation with my mother about mc, most of which he wrote down. The Empress often spent the night with me in my villa. In 1597 I was with my mother at Karersee. I occupied the floor above hers. During the time she often talked with me, and especially on September 2, 1897, about the incident surrounding my birth and also about the tragic death of my unfortunate brother, the Crown Prince Rudolph.

WORKED AS WAITRESS. "Early in 1898 my mother told me that she wished to make my position clear, but was not just then well enough to make the exertion required to establish my rights. In -luly, at Nanheim, she told me all the documents were in her desk at Lain/.. I was sent to Portschach, and never saw her again. The dreadful news of her murder on September 10, 189S, made me very ill. Fran von lu'iese, believing my affairs had all been settled favorably, had gone away to Denmark before my mother's death. When I got better 1 went back to the Kaiser family. In December I heard that Frau von Friese was dead. I have never been able f o eonfirm it. On .lanuary 2G, 1002, I married Dr. Richard Knhnelt, at that time a. young cavalry officer. My husband lost his small property by speculation, and in 1000 we went to Canada with our two children. We lived two years at Saul an I'ocollet, near Montreal. Things went from bad to worse. We separated in 1!)08, and 1 went to Vancouver with the eli....i'en and worked for them as pastrycook, waitress and proprietor of a confectionery business which I bought. I speculated in land, and was fortunate in getting together a nice little property. Then T met Count Carlo Zanardi Lamli. who, through talent and energy, had acquired considerable means. On August 1, 1011, I came to Europe to obtain a divorce from Dr. Kuhnelt, and the decree took elTect on October 21, Mil. Early in September I met my aunt, the Queen of Xaples. She listened attentively to my whole story, ami then said. 'T know of the affair, but T believed you were dead.' Iler Koval Highness also said to Count Zanardi, whose wife I now am. on September 11, 'I thank you for what vou have done for my niece.'

"So one can doubt my resemblance ta the Empress. .My two children have 811 extraordinary family resemblance also to tlio Kinpress, the Emperor mid the Empress' cousin, King Louis of Bavaria.. I have reason to .think that mv mother in her will and oilier dociiniciils acknowledged me, and also left me a large sum of money that I, never received. Ido not know if Dr. Knlmelt received money on my behalf when we were married. Last year I employed a Viennese lawyer to put forward my claim to the rank of Archduchess for the sake of my two children. Thereupon 1 was informed through lawyers that the sum of 2,000,.0011.000 kroner (more than 080,000) would he. given me. if [ would accept it. J regarded this as a trap. Ido not need money. 1 want recognition of my birth." Countess Zanardi's two children are Antony Franz -Josef, aged 10, and .Maria Cristina Elizabeth, aged eight.