Above: The Larisch Villa, the Countess's residence in Pardubice.

Source: Smart Guide: Larisch Villa.

12. The Pursuit (continued)

Krauss reported the two meetings to Taaffe who could not understand why the Countess had not gone directly to Empress Elisabeth with Helene's concerns. As Elisabeth's niece the Countess had ready access to her, and Elisabeth was reputed to be the only one in the family with any real influence over Rudolf. Elisabeth could discuss Mary with him directly and perhaps resolve the situation without involving Franz Josef, Taaffe or the police.

The meetings with Krauss seem to have thrown the Countess into a panic. That night she wrote Krauss a muddled letter full of exclamation points and underlinings in which she begged him not to tell the emperor about her involvement with Rudolf and Mary: "the mother [Helene] will probably turn to H.M. the Emperor as a last resort – I request you urgently to keep silent about my confidences even in that case" (Judtmann 68).

Like many liars, the Countess was having trouble keeping track of her lies. She had not actually divulged any "confidences" to Krauss about her involvement with Rudolf and Mary (Krauss pencilled "Which?" against the word in her letter) but now she was confessing that she harboured such confidences and that she was desperate to keep them secret. All her letter did was advertise her guilt and increase Krauss's suspicions.

To complicate an already stressful day for the Countess she received a letter from her irate husband commanding her to return home to Pardubice immediately. With events slipping out of her control her only hope of influencing them was to stay in Vienna, but now that hope was denied her.

As if one panicky letter weren't enough, the Countess sent another one to Krauss from Pardubice the following day. In it she now claimed to have found a second note in Franz Weber's cab, this time from Rudolf, which revealed his plan to elope with Mary.

Unfortunately she had followed Rudolf's written instructions to destroy the note but she had now decided to break his confidence because "I fear that the matter will turn out more serious than it seems!" (Judtmann 70).

The vague but sinister remark struck Krauss as significant. He underlined the sentence and then filed the letters with his interview notes and reports from confidential informants in what was to become his "secret" dossier on the Mayerling case.