In the heart of Vienna there stands an insignificant-looking chapel belonging to the Capuchins. Above a side door are the words “Imperial Vaults,” and a flight of well-worn steps leads down into the dim burial-place of the royal race of Hapsburg. It was into this chamber that the great Maria Theresa used to force her gay young daughters to descend to meditate on the perishability of all earthly greatness, and here she herself would spend hours beside the tomb of her husband. At the end of a cross passage stands the tomb of the murdered Empress, between that of her brother-in-law, the murdered Emperor of Mexico, and her son Rudolf, who also met with a violent end.
In life she had shunned all religious observances; now masses are said day and night for the repose of her soul. Every morning the gates of the crypt are opened, and she who in life so loved solitude and seclusion is a mark for the gaze of hundreds of curious sightseers.
How much more fitting a place of rest for the nature-loving Empress the sunny shores of her Greek island would have been than the gloomy burial chamber of the Capuchins! How much finer a requiem the sighing of winds and waters than the chantings of vestured priests!
To the world in general Elizabeth of Austria and Hungary will be little remembered as the queenly sovereign in all the insignia of her lofty rank, but rather as the beautiful and unfortunate daughter of the Wittelsbachs, following her solitary way through life, her lonely spirit ever seeking rest and peace in vain. Terrible as it seemed to die by the hand of an assassin in a foreign country, far from all she loved, the dagger of Luccheni was but the instrument of fate, and death came to her almost as a friend. She died, as she had often wished to die, swiftly and painlessly and under the open sky. Who shall say that her last earthly breath was not a sigh of thankfulness and peace?
Footnotes
[1]A few days before the death of the Empress Elizabeth, in 1898, this bridge was torn down.
Appendix
The following is a chronological statement of important events connected with the life of Elizabeth, Empress of Austria:
| 1837 | Birth of Elizabeth. |
| 1853 | Betrothal to Franz Joseph. |
| 1854 | Marriage. |
| 1856 | Visit to Austrian Alps. |
| 1855 | Birth of Sophie Dorothea. |
| 1856 | Birth of second daughter, Gisela. |
| 1858 | Birth of Crown Prince Rudolf. |
| 1859 | Sardinian War. |
| 1866 | Estrangement of Emperor and Empress. |
| 1866 | War with Prussia. |
| 1867 | Elizabeth Crowned Queen of Hungary. |
| 1868 | Birth of Marie Valerie. |
| 1878 | War with Bosnia and Herzegovina. |
| 1881 | Marriage of Prince Rudolf. |
| 1889 | Death of Prince Rudolf. |
| 1896 | Hungary Celebrated Thousandth Anniversary. |
| 1898 | Elizabeth Killed by an Assassin. |
LIFE STORIES FOR YOUNG PEOPLE