Above: The Mayerling hunting lodge complex at the time of the deaths (detail). Photo credit: Richard Skala (1876-?).
Source: Osterreichische Nationalbibliothek (Austrian National Library)
16. Mary's Burial (continued)
Mary's body had already been removed from Rudolf's bedroom and laid out on a bed in another room. She was washed and then dressed in her coat and hat and placed in the open carriage, but her stiffened corpse had to be laid on the seat in a semi-reclining position.
Her two uncles sat opposite her on the carriage's rear seat. They were followed in a second carriage by Dr. Heinrich Slatin and Dr. Franz von Auchenthaler, Rudolf's personal physician.
Slatin, who was Court Secretary in the Lord Marshall's Office, had also been at Mayerling as part of a commission that was sent there to investigate the deaths and he saw the bodies and the state of Rudolf's bedroom. He took shorthand notes during his visits and used them to write an account of what he witnessed, but specified that it only be published after his death. His account became an important source for Mayerling researchers.
The unusual activity at the hunting lodge could hardly fail to attract attention and curious locals followed the two carriages all the way the Heiligenkreuz, a little over two miles distant. Writing many years later police commissar Gorup "reported that a large crowd of people had collected in the usually quiet village of Heiligenkreuz."
A later abbot stated that "Numerous spectators waited patiently near the cemetery all night for whatever macabre scenes would unroll."
"These reports prove that all efforts to bury Mary Vetsera in secret failed completely, and, indeed, a few days later the newspapers throughout the world were buzzing with reports of the young Baroness's interment at Heiligenkreuz"