B008AITH44 EBOK (43 page)

The patience of the Shah’s imperial host was tested to the fullest. Crenneville was at the end of his tether. The newspapers began to voice some critical remarks. In
Neues
Wiener
Tagblatt,
Moritz Szeps calculated the value of the Shah’s diamonds, not forgetting to mention that under the “glorious rule” of the Shah, “a flat four million have died of starvation.” He called the Shah a “despot steeped in blood” and spoke of “delusions of grandeur”: “It strikes us as anything but chivalric for a prince to slaughter wethers with his own hands, soiling with blood the splendid chambers hallowed by history. The ritual mysteries of the Shah and his court are so unclean, so repulsive, that it is not inappropriate to give voice to feelings of pure outrage.”
⁸³

With her departure for Payerbach, obviously the Empress had removed herself from all these strains. Since she intended to leave Payerbach not for Vienna, but for Bad Ischl, the Shah had no opportunity to meet her. He was determined, however, to see the Empress in Vienna, and he was insistent. The court feared that he would “stay himself into” a meeting with Elisabeth—that is, simply remain in Laxenburg until he could set eyes on her. The confusion was enormous; the Shah simply could not be persuaded to leave. The liberal newspapers defended Elisabeth and objected to the Emperor’s excessive politeness toward such a shameless guest. “We can understand that the Austrian court observes international custom and grants the Shah the honors due a high sovereign,” the cautious article read. “But the refusal of being received by the Empress might serve the Shah as an indication that offenses against manners and decency do not go unpunished.” And, “But if one were to ask why Europe showed the Shah, at heart a powerless tyrant, so many marks of respect, no sensible answer would be forthcoming.”
⁸⁴

The pressure—and the fear that the Shah might stay in Vienna even longer—finally became so great that Elisabeth made up her mind to appear at the Shah’s farewell soiree in Schönbrunn. All day, there had been great confusion. For the Shah had let it be known that he was ill and therefore could not come to Schönbrunn. It was said “that this indisposition was seen as the first step in the threatened ‘staying himself into’ an audience with the Empress.” Elisabeth’s concession really did come at the very last moment: “Only when the hour that had been set for the party to begin had passed was it possible to send word to Laxenburg that the Shah would be allowed to present himself to the Empress. His indisposition was
relieved,
and the Shah went to the feast, which, as a result of this incident, began after a delay of an hour and a half.”
⁸⁵

Marie Festetics: “It was very amusing when he caught sight of her the
first time. Bang, he stopped short right in front of her, took out his golden eyeglasses, and calmly looked her over from the topmost curl to the tips of her toes—‘
ah
qu’elle
est
belle
’ escaped him.”
⁸⁶

Neues
Wiener
Tagblatt:
“When Nasr-ed-Din stood before the Empress, it is said, he showed a bashfulness and self-consciousness never observed in him before, and during the hour the monarch granted him to remain at her side, he was allegedly of an almost boyish timidity in every gesture and every word.”
⁸⁷

The presence of the beautiful Empress and the fireworks at the Gloriette of Schönbrunn cheered the Shah to such an extent that he declared this evening to be the highlight of his entire European trip and actually decided to return to Persia the following morning. Three days later, the Empress left as well, to go to Bad Ischl. The Emperor continued to receive the visitors to the exhibition, assisted by the Crown Prince.

In the midst of the festivities, disturbing news intruded of an outbreak of cholera. As early as July 2, Crenneville wrote to his wife, “In
Schönbrunn
(ne
le
racontez
pas)
a silver cleaner … died of cholera yesterday, they are trying to hush it up, it is said not to be an epidemic.” The cases of illness increased. In spite of the secrecy, strangers became reluctant to come to the exhibition. The crowd at the rotunda in the Prater was far smaller than expected. More and more clearly, a huge financial loss loomed.

Total hysteria broke out at the Viennese court as well. At the slightest stomachache, everyone imagined himself seriously ill. Nor was the
Empress,
concerned with her health and highly susceptible, an exception. Whether or not it was a pretext, after returning from Bad Ischl when King Victor Emmanuel of Italy was to be feted in Vienna, she took to her bed complaining of a stomach ailment, naturally fearful of cholera. Crenneville to his wife: “Victor Emmanuel was unable to make Sisi’s acquaintnace, it is a
genuine
stomach cold from which she suffers.”
⁸⁸

According to Marie Festetics, the King of Italy was “desperate at not seeing her. Andrássy also. It gives rise to talk and articles that might better have been avoided, now that a reconciliation is being arranged.”
⁸⁹

The story had made the rounds that the Empress was refusing to receive Victor Emmanuel because in 1860, he had driven her sister Marie from Naples. Foreign Minister Andrássy had no use for resentments of this sort in 1873, when he was resolutely aiming at an alliance between Austria and her former antagonist. Sisi’s stomach upset lasted so long that she was also unable to lend her presence to the visit of the German Emperor Wilhelm I in October. This time she remained in Gödöllö. Since late July, Emperor Franz Joseph had single-handedly dispatched all the social duties attendant
on the World Exhibition—with the exception of the farewell for the Shah.

After the Vienna World Exhibition closed, December 1873 brought still further festive events, this time in celebration of the twenty-five-year jubilee of Franz Joseph’s reign. Once again there were fireworks and illuminations, solemn church services, ceremonial speeches, and an amnesty for all those in prison for lèse majesté. In Trieste and Prague, there were “a few fanatical or childish demonstrations” against the Imperial House, as the Swiss envoy reported. His overall impression of the mood in the monarchy, however, was favorable: The jubilee had “given conclusive evidence that the peoples of Austria harbor strong and warm sympathies for their monarch, who, though unfortunate in most of his wars,
nevertheless
in times of calm and peace is always zealous and upright in his concern for the welfare of his lands.”
⁹⁰

The newspapers listed the achievements of Franz Joseph’s reign—that is, since 1848. Especially the capital, Vienna, had changed during this period, and to an extent surpassing all previous centuries. The number of inhabitants had grown from 500,000 (including the suburbs, 600,000) to over a million. The expansion of the city—the demolition of the old city walls and the creation of the Ringstrasse—had brought about a modern Vienna. The regulation of the Danube was about to be completed, the time of the frequent floods was over. The
Fremdenblatt:
“In the near future, the proud merchant vessels of every nation will sail in on the broad surface of the Danube.”
⁹¹
The formerly poor hygienic conditions in Vienna had been abruptly improved by the construction of the new aqueduct bringing in spring water. A great many schools, churches, and hospitals had been opened. The new university at the Schottentor was being built; the
Künstlerhaus,
the Musikvereingebäude, the new opera house, the Stadttheater (municipal theater), and the Volksoper had already been completed. Since 1848, Vienna had been given eleven new bridges alone.

There are no indications that the Empress took an interest in this progress within the empire, that she felt any pride. She made herself unpleasantly conspicuous by interrupting her stay in Hungary for a mere two days for the jubilee. But even during these two days, she was as inaccessible as she could manage. For her arrival at the Vienna railroad station, she wore a hat “with an impenetrable silver-gray gauze veil,” the newspapers noted. At the solemn drive through Vienna of Their Majesties during the nightly “illumination,” the Emperor and the Crown Prince rode in an open carriage, the Empress followed in a closed coach so that she could not be recognized.

Elisabeth’s demeanor during a walk along the Ringstrasse created a great stir. Marie Festetics, who was among her companions, recalled:

Of course, these people were friendly and not in the least malicious. Countess Festetics’s terror was surely hysterical. But during the entire occurrence, Elisabeth uttered not a word, was totally passive, helpless, intimidated. There was no possibility here of an understanding between the Empress and the people. The daily papers painted a picture of the scene that differed sharply from Marie Festetics’s account. No mention of the fact that the ovation had taken on a threatening dimension: “The noble lady was recognized by the public and greeted with the most enthusiastic cheers. Her Majesty was visibly touched and very gladdened by this ovation.”
⁹³

Elisabeth’s behavior on the occasion of the jubilee was strongly
criticized.
There was even a critical newspaper article (“The Strange Woman”) that mentioned her infrequent presence in the capital. The Emperor made this article the occasion to rebuke sharply the delegation of Concordia, a journalists’ association, which came to deliver its congratulations. He had, he said, “agreed to the removal of the regulations that placed barriers in the way of the free expression of opinion.” But he hoped that now the press “would discuss the national situation with reasonable objectivity and in the patriotic spirit, far from intrusions in the sphere of private and family life.”
⁹⁴

The louder the criticism grew, the stronger was Elisabeth’s anger at Vienna and the more she talked herself into a literal persecution mania, finally seeing nothing but enemies on all sides. Marie Festetics listed these antagonists as follows:

Most of this is probably true. But the Empress did make enemies. She justified her stand by ascribing mistakes to others—her mother-in-law; her first chatelaine, Countess Esterházy; the Viennese court altogether. Marie Festetics (and in reading her statements, we must always bear in mind that she was an ardent admirer of Elisabeth) wrote about this quality, which intensified in subsequent years: “Even if she is wrong, she finds something to serve as a reason not to do this or that.”
⁹⁶
Elisabeth refused to fulfill the traditional duties, both of a wife and mother and of an empress, but lacked anything more meaningful to fill her time. Countess Festetics was worried for good reason. “She is an enthusiast, and her principal
occupation
is brooding. How dangerous that is. She wants to get to the bottom of everything and searches around too much, it seems to me that the healthiest mind would have to suffer from this kind of life. She needs an occupation, a position, and since the only one Sisi could have is one that is repugnant to her nature, everything in her lies fallow.” The lady-
in-waiting
saw that Elisabeth “never [did] anything by halves”: “how, with what energy, she learned Hungarian—it was a mortification. Now
Archduchess
Valerie fills her soul completely. But for a being with her
endowments,
the relationship with her child does not furnish enough intellectual nourishment, and she has little other occupation. It is clear to see how unfulfilled she is.”
⁹⁷