Apparently, a fortune-teller once predicted that Franz Ferdinand would one day let loose a world war. That has a nice Delphic touch to it, but you can't argue with one version of the truth of it. Did Franz see what was coming?
A royal relative reported that in May Franz had said, "I know I shall soon be murdered." Of course this was reported after the assassination and hence is suspect.
More certainly, in Vienna on the way down to Bosnia, the royal couple had to change trains because an axle was overheating. Not afraid of sarcasm, Franz said, "Well, well, this journey is getting off to a really promising start. You see, that's the way it starts. At first the carriage running hot, then a murder attempt in Sarajevo." In the replacement carriage, the electricity failed and it had to be lit by candles. "How do you find this lighting?" Franz asked his secretary. "Like in a grave isn't it."
Hindsight makes mysticism easy. Maybe Franz simply spent his life making statements like this. In any case, he had never been overly concerned about his personal security. He once said, "Worry and caution paralyze life. To be afraid is always a dangerous business in itself."
The occult aside, 100 years ago tomorrow, something extraordinary happened that, to a novelist, reeks of prefiguring.
No comments:
Post a Comment