Above: Mary Vetsera and her younger brother Franz ("Feri") as children (detail).

Source: Osterreichische Nationalbibliothek (Austrian National Library).

18. Aftermath: Helene (continued)

Helene innocently believed that her memorandum was seized because of a mistaken fear that it vilified the emperor when in fact the real offence was her attempt to publish the truth. Franz Josef and his advisors were determined to keep the events at Mayerling as clouded as possible. The last thing they wanted was for somebody to set the record straight.

Franz Josef's reply came via State Counsellor Baron Adolph Aloys von Braun in the form of what Fritz Judtmann sarcastically calls a "masterpiece." It was certainly a masterpiece of doubletalk.

The emperor, it said, "had from the very first rejected the idea that the baronness [Helene] bore any deliberate share in the responsibility for the causes of the tragedy.... The boundless consternation at the spot of the tragedy, the need for speedy decisions, must be the excuse for the injuries inflicted upon a grief-filled mother's heart -- injuries which the Emperor greatly deplored. The invoked protection for her children would never be withheld from them, in the event of their future appearing seriously jeopardized through no fault of their own" (Judtmann 173).

But these fine sentiments were undercut by an obvious anger over the publication of the memorandum and a clear indication that Helene would receive no "satisfaction" from the emperor.

"His Majesty did not wish to discuss the question whether it might have been better not to publish the memorandum containing her defence. By having her memorandum printed the Baroness had now herself obtained her desired satisfaction from the Emperor, apart from the fact that it was not at all clear what form such satisfaction could take."

Of course, the satisfaction that Helene wanted, the satisfaction that would have helped to diminish the impact of rumour on herself and her children, was to have her banishment from Court rescinded. But this was not going to happen.