Mayerling (4)

The Friend's Tale

His groin was mutilated -- did you know?
Please, try these pastries. Do. I love them so!
And how is London? It's my favourite city.
Are all the English journalists so pretty?
I'm sorry -- correspondent to the court
here in Vienna. You will have your sport.
Be patient, dear. You say I know your father?
First Secretary of State? I need him. Rather,
his daughter is the one who needs me, now.
You'll have the where and when, the why and how.
The Hope of Austria dies with his bawd.
You watch -- our talent will all flee abroad.
Of course, the Court will meet the blows and parry them -- 
the Habsburgs never fight their foes. They marry them.
The situation's grave, not serious, we say,
But this is lethal. This is End of Days.
She lashed out, is my theory, when he said
she was no longer welcome in his bed.
He fell asleep, she took his razor blade
and hacked about his privates. He, dismayed,
enraged, in pain, took up his gun and fired.
And in the watches of the night, alone,
he knew he'd lost his manhood - and his throne.
Your town house, did you say, is Berkeley Square?
Could you present me to your father there?

Author's Note

The Friend's Tale -- Count Joseph Hoyos, friend of Prince Rudolf, is granting an interview to a young English lady journalist.
His groin was mutilated -- This startling piece of evidence was not mentioned by Doctor Widerhofer, who examined the bodies. Did the doctor omit it out of a sense of delicacy, or is Hoyos simply inventing it?
Please try these pastries -- Hoyos has no trouble shifting from the gruesome to the frivolous.
my favourite city -- Showering the young journalist with compliments, Hoyos is being ostentatiously flirty. We will learn why very shortly.
I'm sorry -- The young woman must have reacted badly to the heavy-handed compliment, because Hoyos quickly back-pedals and uses her professional title.
I need him -- In an unguarded moment, Hoyos blurts out the real reason for giving this interview. He needs the help of well-placed people in London. However, he soon recovers, and points out that the girl needs HIM -- he has "the goods" on what happened in that royal bedroom.
this bawd -- Hoyos clearly disliked Mary Vetsera, whom he refers to as a whore.
our talent will all flee abroad -- as Hoyos himself is carefully scheming to do!
the Habsburgs -- the Austrian royal family
End of Days -- The death of the young prince is, for Hoyos, the final blow. The Austrian Empire has been in steady decline for a century, and Hoyos can see only disaster ahead. He wants out. (He was right -- in less than 30 years, the Empire would cease to exist.)
She lashed out -- Hoyos' hypothesis is that Mary provoked the tragedy by attacking Rudolf in a jealous rage.
Your town house -- Using his sordid climax to maximum effect, Hoyos scrounges a favour of the young Englishwoman.