1889] Crozun Prince Rudolph's Death 19 



Lloyd steamer, has made a large fortune. He is an admirable sample 

 of the self-made man, quiet, unobstrusive, absorbed in his work, liberal 

 to his men, open-handed in all his ways. The Countess is a pretty 

 woman, mother of pretty daughters, he a well-bred man of much sense 

 and information, a first cousin of Hoyos the Ambassador at Paris and 

 of that younger Hoyos who was connected the other day with the 

 Austrian Crown Prince Rudolph's death. This is what they tell me, 

 or rather what she has told me about that tragedy. 



" The Crown Prince Rudolph was a very charming man and had 

 had innumerable successes with women, but had never been in love 

 till at a party last year he met a girl of seventeen, Mademoiselle de 

 Wetschera, daughter of a certain Baroness of that name, of no very 

 honest reputation. The girl, however, was charming, and when the 

 Prince made love 'to her fell desperately too in love. Their liaison had 

 lasted four months, and though the Prince talked somewhat strangely, 

 nobody suspected there was anything so serious in the case. Hoyos 

 was a friend of the Prince, not in his service but very intimate and in 

 the habit of going with him on his shooting excursions. He went 

 down at the Prince's invitation to Meyerling, to shoot with him the 

 following day, and they passed the evening till nine o'clock very gaily, 

 when the Prince went to bed. Hoyos knew nothing of Mademoiselle 

 de Wetschera's being at the shooting lodge. In the morning, however, 

 he was called by the Prince's servant, who complained that his master's 

 door was locked, and they went together, and after knocking in vain, 

 broke it open, when they found the two bodies together in the Prince's 

 bed. The girl was then recognized by Hoyos, and seeing her to be ' a 

 member of society,' his first idea was to conceal her presence there. 

 He accordingly carried her with the servant's help into a distant room, 

 where they left her, undressed as she was, locked up, till her relations 

 should come. This was not till the evening, when her uncle arrived, 

 dressed the girl with his own hands, and placed her in his brougham, 

 upright, beside him, and so conveyed her home, and she was buried 

 with equal secrecy in the night. With regard to the Prince, Hoyos 

 also conveyed the news to the Emperor, and it was tried to hush up 

 the truth but in vain. The Crown Prince had previously written to 

 Sechenyi a letter, part of which only has been made public ; the un- 

 published part contained these words : 'I am resolved to die, since I 

 am no longer worthy to wear the Imperial uniform.' The Countess 

 says she knew the Crown Prince well, she had also met the girl and 

 liked her. She could not condemn them for their death, poor things. 



" Another topic of conversation has been King Milan's abdication 

 in Servia. According to the Hoyos', Queen Nathalie has long been 

 plotting against her husband, hoping to become Regent for her son. 

 She is a very pretty, charming woman, but ' a Russian, and therefore 



