lightest sign of fear, saying that such events,
when announced beforehand, seldom were carried out. The Duchess
suffered all the more in her fears for his life, and I think that in
imagination the poor lady often went through the catastrophe of which
she and her husband were the victims. Another praiseworthy feature in
the Archduke was that, out of consideration for his wife's anxiety, he
tolerated the constant presence of a detective, which not only bored
him terribly but in his opinion was absurd. He was afraid that if the
fact became known it would be imputed to timidity on his part, and he
conceded the point solely with the view of calming his wife's fears.

But he anxiously concealed all his good qualities and took an
obstinate pleasure in being hard and disagreeable. I will not
endeavour here to excuse certain traits in his character. His strongly
pronounced egotism cannot be denied any more than the hardness of
character, which made him insensible to the sufferings of all who were
not closely connected with him. He also made himself hated by his
severe financial proceedings and his inexorable judgment on any
subordinate whom he suspected of the slightest dishonesty. In this
connection there are hundreds of anecdotes, some true, some false.
These petty traits in his character injured him in the eyes of the
great public, while the really great and manly qualities he possessed
were unknown to them, and were not weighed in the balance in his
favour. For those who knew him well his great and good qualities
outweighed the bad ones a hundredfold.

The Emperor was always very perturbed concerning the Archduke's plans
for the future. There was a stern trait also in the old monarch's
character, and in the interests of the Monarchy he feared the
impetuosity and obstinacy of his nephew. Nevertheless, he often took a
very magnanimous view of the matter. For instance, Count Stuergkh, the
murdered Prime Minister, gave me details respecting my nomination to
the Herrenhaus which are very characteristic of the old monarch. It
was Franz Ferdinand's wish that I should be in the Herrenhaus, as he
was anxious for me to be one of a delegation and also to profit by my
extensive training in the province of foreign policy. I must mention
here that it had been impressed on the Emperor on all sides that the
Archduke's friends and trusted men were working against him; a version
of affairs which to a certain degree he obviously believed, owi