Page:The Czechoslovak Review, vol3, 1919.djvu/230
the Czech campaign. Bienert told us on the one side what was going on at Prague police headquarters, and gave us frequent warnings and suggestions; on the other side we sent through him to Vienna, to the ministry of the interior and the emperor’s secretary, such reports as would serve Czech interests. Thus at one time the Hapsburg family council determined that Charles should visit Prague; of course tremendous preparations would be made to. line up every ignorant old woman and every man without backbone to yell hurrah and make the appearance of a genuine demonstration for the dynasty. The result would be that our people abroad would be faced with the claim that they misrepresented the feeling of the Czech people: “Look at Prague, with what enthusiasm the city received the emperor.” I arranged matters with Bienert so that the police headquarters in Prague sent to the emperor’s chancellery a very impressive report of murderous conspiracies, anti-dynastic movement posing as loyal to the dynasty etc. That was enough. The cowardly Hapsburg kept away from Prague. In that fashion we carried out other schemes, and sent out to our friends in the Allied states reports of conditions at court and in Bohemia of which they made excellent use. Our main effort has been all along to support the campaign of our workers abroad, or at least never to interfere with its success.
The first reports from the court made an extraordinary impression upon us; they struck us as sensational. These reports dealt with Francis Joseph and his daily life. We had been all brought up on school-books which praised the activity of the Anointed, his goodness of heart, his gigantic mental gifts, etc., and it really astonished us what our reports had to say about the idiotic, capricious, lewd old man that was our emperor. We received very vivid pictures of the life at the court—Marie Valerie, eternally avaricious and envious of everyone, even the servants; Frederick the Cruel, a stupid fellow completely under German influences; we saw Magyar and Polish noblemen kissing the hands of these monsters and begging for favors at the expense of the people, etc. The mean fussing of the old man with his chamberlains, his constant fears about the throne or the loss of a piece of territory, his relations to Germany, to other sovereigns, all that was as clear and lifelike, as on a film. And how totally different it was from all we had been taught about the illustrious imperial family. It reminds me of a story that circulated about Francis Joseph in the Alp provinces: He went hunting somewhere in Styria, and the game-keepers as usual prepared his spoils in advance. They tied a dead eagle to a fir tree, and a young man was stationed below the tree. When the exalted group approached, they pointed out an eagle to the old man in a slightly different direction, where in reality there was nothing at all. Franz lets the rifle go, the young man pulls the dead eagle down, and the entire entourage is full of admiration for the splendid shot and the big bird. Another glorious incident that will be immortalized in schoolbooks to teach the young Hapsburg subjects to venerate their God-given rulers. A game-keeper picks up the bird and spreads out his wings before his Majesty; what an enormous specimen. His Majesty looks foolishly at the eagle and asks a chamberlain, what it is. But when he is told that he shot a magnificent eagle, the all-highest mumbles over his thick, shaggy lips: “Sie werden mir doch nich einreden wollen, dass das ein Aar ist.” (You don’t mean to tell me that this is an eagle). “As if I did not know that the Austrian eagle has two heads.” Whether the story be true or not, it seemed to fit the man who was described to us in secret reports by persons who stood closest to him in daily life.
The picture changed, when Charles ascended the throne. Not that the young man was wiser or more humane or more just. No, he was a true Hapsburg, brought up on feudal and medieval ideas, and completely under the thumb of Wilhelm. But he was stupid in a different way than Franz Josef, had other lusts, and that meant a complete overturn at the court. Like the old one, he ran after women, but he was in a more difficult position, because his wife Zitta was energetic and watched him like a hawk. Francis Joseph had been taught to rise early, to eat moderately, to be a human machine; Karl was too young for that, and besides he had received a more modern education. His exploits at the army headquarters with women and heavy drinking were notorious; it was fairly widely know that the Germans took him to their headquarters, whenever they thought it neces-