B008AITH44 EBOK (23 page)

During the months Sisi was living in Madeira, the fortress of Gaeta fell. The twenty-year-old Queen Marie of Naples and her husband fled to Rome. Elisabeth, who had no news, was deeply troubled about her young sister.

But while Sisi’s worries were all for Marie, Archduchess Sophie was thinking in purely political terms. For her, the fall of the absolute
monarchy
of the Two Sicilies was a further step in the decline of all monarchies. “Now even our last consolation, the last luster of the monarchic
principle, 
has vanished!” she lamented after the fall of Gaeta in February 1861.
²²

*

After a six-month separation, Franz Joseph and Elisabeth met again in Trieste in May 1861. The friendly welcome tendered by the populace was encouraging for the future. Ludovika wrote to her sister Sophie.

Ludovika hoped in vain. Sisi had been in Vienna for precisely four days when her attacks of fever and coughing took on frightening proportions again, especially after the first salon with the high aristocracy. As before her trip to Madeira, the Empress was again constantly in tears, again took refuge in solitude.

Foreign Minister Count Louis Rechberg wrote about the “Emperor’s deep distress” and the “depressed mood” at the court. “Since her return, the Empress has the deepest aversion to any kind of nourishment. She no longer eats anything at all, and her energies are exhausted all the more as the cough persists and severe pain robs her of the sleep that might still be able to keep up her energies.”
²⁴

We cannot be certain whether it was really only the raw Viennese climate and the exertions of public appearances that were responsible for this total collapse or whether resumption of marital relations might not also have played a part. In any case, after the renewed outbreak of her illness, Sisi had a reason for keeping her bedroom door locked to her husband.

In June, Dr. Skoda diagnosed galloping consumption and, as a last hope, ordered a stay on Corfu. Sisi had come to know the island during the return journey from Madeira, and she deeply admired Corfu’s scenic beauty. But the island had no more of a reputation as a place conducive to curing pulmonary diseases than had Madeira.

This time, even Ludovika believed in a serious, even fatal, illness. She was further concerned because Sisi regularly quarreled with the doctors who were treating her. Ludovika wrote to Sophie that the doctor had not told Sisi the whole truth, “or everything would be lost and Sisi would not admit him any longer, either…. I am devastated.”
²⁵

The physicians’ pessimistic diagnosis may or may not have been correct; whatever the case, the state of the Empress’s nerves was desperate. She even believed, as Ludovika related, that she was “nothing but a burden on the Emperor and the country, never again able to be of use to the children, yes, she may even think that if she were no longer alive, the Emperor could marry again and that, as a miserable, languishing creature, she can no longer make him happy!” Ludovika to Sophie: “Surely she also wished for the separation to spare him this sad sight? … If you had read the letter, after her return to Vienna, the expression of happiness to be with her Emperor, her children again! At the time, it quickened my heart—now it makes it break.”
²⁶

Weeping, Sophie embraced the two children “because they are
approaching
a great misfortune, the loss of their poor mother.” When Sisi left Vienna, Sophie wrote in her diary, “Sad parting from our poor Sisi, perhaps for life. She wept and was extremely emotional and begged my forgiveness in case she had not been to me as she should have been. I cannot express the anguish I felt, it broke my heart.” In parting from the children’s nurse, Leopoldine Nischer, Sisi entrusted the children to her care with the words, “they are the only thing that is left to the Emperor!”
²⁷

Fanned by newspaper reports, there was great excitement among the people of Vienna. Archduchess Therese reported that the departure of the imperial couple from Laxenburg “was very moving. A huge crowd came to the railroad station. There was a profound silence, broken only by the women’s sobs. As the train slowly began to move, the people felt as if a funeral procession were riding past.”
²⁸
And in truth, as early as two days after Sisi’s departure, rumors ran through Vienna to the effect that the Empress had died.
²⁹

Franz Joseph traveled with his wife as far as Miramar near Trieste. His brother Max went to Corfu with her, along with an entourage of
thirty-three.
Even on the sea journey the invalid’s appetite improved.

The atmosphere between the Emperor and Empress continued tense. At the end of July, Franz Joseph sent Count Grünne to Corfu, apparently with instructions to initiate a reconciliation. The attempt failed utterly. But not only that: Elisabeth’s friendship with Grünne was shattered. Whether the gossip was correct that the Empress accused the Count of acting as
go-between
in the Emperor’s love affairs is moot. The rumors can be neither disproved nor supported by the documentary sources.

Subsequently, the Empress repeatedly spoke about her quarrel with Grünne. Thus, as late as 1872, she told Marie Festetics, “The man did so many things to me that I believe even on my deathbed I won’t be able to forgive him.”
³⁰

There are some indications that Grünne unfairly implied that the young Empress had been untrue to the Emperor. But in his fatherly way, he did not reproach her on this account, instead giving her more good advice, which infuriated the Empress all the more. Later she told her lady-
in-waiting
Marie Festetics about Count Grünne: “With the greatest
bonhomie,
he said incredible things; for example, speaking as a fatherly friend: ‘Your Majesty must remember one thing, you can do as you like, but you must never write so much as a word. Anything is better than the written word.’” Elisabeth’s comment, ten years after the fact: “At the time, I hardly understood, but instinct told me that such advice cannot spring from a pure heart.”
³¹

The upsets caused by Grünne’s visit aggravated Sisi’s condition. She refused to eat and fell into a deep depression. “She seems to consider herself lost, incurable,” Ludovika wrote to Saxony.
³²

And after Grünne left, Elisabeth wrote to her former friend and closest intimate, “although the outcome of your journey has not brought any change in the situation, either for the Emperor or for myself, it seems that you need not fear a repetition of your long travels and your stay, which offered little relaxation.” It did not seem, she continued “that we will be seeing each other again soon, or ever.”
³³

*

As always in times of crisis, Sisi longed for her mother and her brothers and sisters. Helene Taxis decided to make the journey to Corfu. Ludovika: “Helene is making a great sacrifice, which is very hard for her, but she says the Emperor has so ardently begged her, she felt indescribably sorry for him—the poor, dear Emperor; he is said to be so unhappy and sad.”
³⁴

By this time, Helene Taxis was the mother of two little children, whom she was reluctant to leave for such a long time. Furthermore, the political situation in the Mediterranean was anything but reassuring. Corfu and its neighboring islands, members of the “Ionian Republic,” were a British protectorate with a strong anti-Greek government. (Only in 1864, two years after the expulsion of the Wittelsbach King of Greece, Otto, did England cede the Ionian Islands to Greece.) There were riots, and in
September 1861, during Sisi’s stay on Corfu, there was even an attempt to assassinate Queen Amalie of Greece.

Helene’s reluctance to undertake the trip was understandable. But Ludovika knew how urgently Sisi needed help from Bavaria. “Helene may be the only one who can manage it [that is, to bring a favorable influence to bear]; she was always Sisi’s favorite sister.”
³⁵
In fact, the news from Corfu improved after Helene’s arrival. Sisi “eats a lot of meat,” wrote Ludovika, “drinks a lot of beer, is invariably cheerful, coughs little, especially since the weather, as Helene finds, has turned so very hot again, and they make very beautiful outings by water and by land.”
³⁶
At first, however, Helene had been “frightened” by Sisi’s “puffiness and pallor.”
³⁷

The news of the Empress’s sudden cheerfulness was an occasion for grudging comment in Vienna: “The idea that she is ill with her nerves rather than with her chest is current again.”
³⁸
In this situation, Ludovika once more felt obliged to make her excuses to Sophie. “Of course Sisi’s lot is quite a painful topic for me to mention, all the more painful because she brought it on herself by so much carelessness, yes one must almost say: presumption, since she refused to listen to any of us!”
³⁹

Emperor Franz Joseph, kept busy by new assassination attempts and riots in Hungary, reacted with surliness to the conflicting news and complained to his mother about “the time the correspondence with Corfu consumes.”
⁴⁰
In October, he traveled to Corfu to see for himself how matters stood. He reported to his mother that Sisi “has grown stronger, is, it is true, still a little puffy in the face, but mostly has a good color; she coughs very little and without any chest pains, and her nerves are much calmer.” Franz Joseph and Elisabeth went for walks, but primarily he toured the fortifications, barracks, and warships; wearing “civilian clothes” and attending incognito, he observed the exercises of the English troops, “which interested me very much and, because of their stiffness, also amused me.”
⁴¹

Since Sisi’s longing for her children was great but she did not dare to spend the winter in Vienna, the Emperor allowed the children to be brought to Venice, so that they could spend several months with their mother. Sophie was beside herself. “One more sacrifice for our poor martyr, their excellent father!”
⁴²

Sophie cited every possible reason why the children must not leave Vienna for such a long period. Most particularly, she put forward the claim that the water in Venice was bad. Thereupon, Franz Joseph ordered that fresh spring water be shipped daily from Schönbrunn to Venice. Sophie did, however, get her way in that her confidante, Countess Sophie
Esterházy, 
accompanied the children to Venice. The Countess kept the
Archduchess
regularly informed, not only about the children, but especially about her daughter-in-law.

Given the circumstances, it might have been predicted that renewed discord would break out. This time the conflict was between the Empress and Countess Esterházy. Elisabeth now managed to dismiss her chatelaine, who had always placed Sophie’s interest before the Empress’s. For eight years Elisabeth had had to endure the presence of this woman, who was charged with the task of training Sisi. Now, at last, Elisabeth carried off a victory. Not only Sophie but also Ludovika were at a fever pitch of excitement. “It is truly very regrettable that Sisi has taken this step and altogether is so uncompromising,” Ludovika wrote apologetically to
Sophie
in Vienna, “without any consideration, without keeping in mind that it can be harmful to her and will make a very bad impression.”
⁴³

A very bad impression was also made on the court by Sisi’s insistence on installing her lady-in-waiting Paula Bellegarde, Countess Königsegg, as the new chatelaine. The Prussian ambassador reported to Berlin that “local society” was “very embarrassed” because Countess Königsegg, “
according
to her rank,” was “not legitimately entitled to the office.”
⁴⁴
Unlike Countess Esterházy, née Princess of Liechtenstein, the new chatelaine did not belong to the high nobility but was merely a countess (by birth as well as marriage). As the head of the Empress’s household, she took “precedence over all the ladies of the land”—that is, even over the ladies of the high nobility. This appointment was Sisi’s first, still relatively cautious,
provocation
of the Viennese court in questions of rank.

The political mood in Venice continued to be hostile in Austria. A German diplomat reported that “since the Empress has arrived, the
populace
avoids St. Mark’s Square.”
⁴⁵

Ludovika was anxious to see for herself what was actually wrong with her daughter. In spite of severe attacks of migraine, she responded to Sisi’s urgent plea by traveling to Venice with her son Karl Theodor. She found Sisi “looking better,” but without any confidence in the doctors. “These are peculiarities which I fail to understand but which worry me.” The old privy councillor Dr. Fischer had also come from Munich to examine the Empress. “He says that for the moment, the lung affliction has receded into the background, but there was greensickness to such a degree that it was a total anemia, owing to which, tendencies to dropsy are appearing again.”
⁴⁶
At times, Sisi’s feet were so swollen that she could not step on them; walking required a special effort and could be accomplished only with the support of two people. (We can only conjecture that even at
this time the symptoms pointed to acute edema from undernourishment.)