Mata Hari's Last Dance by Michelle Moran

Mata Hari's Last Dance by Michelle Moran

Author:Michelle Moran
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Touchstone
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00


Part 2

Fecundity

LINING UP OF THE ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FOUR AUSTRIAN ARCHDUKES AND ARCHDUCHESSES FOR THE FIGHT OVER THE SUCCESSION HAS BEGUN-BELIEF THAT THE TROUBLE, WHICH WILL COME WITH THE DEATH OF THE KAISER FRANZ JOSEF, IS CLOSE AT HAND-ONLY MUTUAL RESPECT FOR THE AGING MONARCH KEEPS THE BITTER COMBATANTS APART.

By Bernard Aston.

Special Correspondent.

Vienna, Oct. 1.

Secret strife rends the numerous Hapsburg clans. Only respect for the venerable Kaiser Franz Josef keeps it from open warfare. For twelve years past, but particularly since 1908, when Archduke Franz Ferdinand practically took command of the Empire, the one hundred and twenty-four archdukes and archduchesses have been divided sharply into two camps which hardly ever speak and seldom even meet one another. Of the seventy odd out of the one hundred and twenty-four who are old enough to have opinions, about twenty stand in with Archduke Franz Ferdinand: while about fifty are banded together to resist to the death the heir, his pretensions, and his morganatic wife. Members of the opposing groups no longer entertain one another, or even pay formal visits; they are at present engaged in severing their common property interest, and so universal is the feud that even the army is divided in mind as to what will be its duty when the great crash comes.

“The great crash” is involved in the decision for or against Franz Ferdinand, which is inevitable when Kaiser Franz Josef dies. It is a European issue. For with the Austrian Slavs gravitating to Russia, and the Austrian Germans gravitating to Germany, a civil war in Austria almost certainly means a general war in Europe. And at most within a few years, but possibly within a few months, Europe will be faced with this risk.



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