drosera-nepenthes: The late Empress of Austria was an exceedingly beautiful woman, tall, and with a
drosera-nepenthes: The late Empress of Austria was an exceedingly beautiful woman, tall, and with a most graceful queenly bearing. She was a cleaver linguist, speaking and reading Hungarian, Bohemian, Italian, English, French, and Greek (both ancient and modern), besides her own language. Among the ladies of Europe there was no better or more courageous horsewoman than Empress Elizabeth, and many were the brushes she carried back as trophies to her own country. She travelled much, and her yacht, the Miramare, was often her home for several weeks at a time. For Vienna she did not care much, except as a centre of literature, art, and music. She bestowed the high privilege of her friendship on many men of letters, painters, and musicians, among whom we may mention Liszt and Wagner. The latter owed a great deal to her, and on more than one occasion she helped the great composer out of her own purse when he was in difficulties. But few women have had to pass through so many misfortunes and trials as the late Empress. She witnessed the defeat of her husband in war. Her favourite brother-in-law was executed on the plains of Queretaro by Juarez; and his wife, to whom she was greatly devoted, became insane through grief. At that time the health of the Empress broke down and she went abroad. Later on she mourned the untimely death of a kinsman she greatly admired and loved in her own way, the romantic King Ludwig II of Bavaria, who died by his own hand. Both loved solitude and they used to meet at his Castle of Berg in the Starnberger See (Lake). For some years she was misunderstood by her subjects. Her only brother is the Archduke Theodore of Bavaria, who has since become a famous oculist, and like his sister, well known and beloved for his kindness and philanthropy.But the sorrow the Empress experienced after the death of Ludwig II faded into insignificance beside her suffering on the tragic death of her only son, the Crown Prince Rudolf. It was ever said that the Empress and her son were more like brother and sister in their intercourse than parent and child. Who can fully conceive how great were the pangs which rent that devoted, loving heart when she looked upon the pale face of the youthful Prince, who was the centre of her hopes and expectations? From the moment she was told of his death she was never known to laugh again, even a smile was rare. The last great grief of this noble lady was the tragic death of her sister, the Duchess d'Alençon who perished in the terrible fire at the Paris Bazaar a few years ago. The Empress, who was always somewhat romantic in her ideas, built a fairy-like castle near Corfu, which she has named after her favourite hero Homer’s immortal epic. “Achilleon.” There she lived for some years the life of a hermit, surrounded by parks, gardens, and lovely terraces, and there she errected a temple to her beloved poet, Heinrich Heine. She also built a memorial to her only son.The Living Rulers of Mankind by Henry Neville Hutchinson, 1902 -- source link