April

Today, alone, I again visited the Burg Palace. All the great figures who in their little day had strutted across this scene, the aged Francis Joseph, the beautiful Elizabeth, the luckless Rudolph of the Mayerling mystery, have vanished now, and the millennial empire of the Hapsburgs lies in squalid ruins. But there was one in the hungry crowd who recalled the well-fed days. He was tattered and torn, but from his manner it was evident that in the happier days he had been a palace lackey and his thoughts ran to food.

“The Kaiser sat him down to lunch,” he said, “and what they brought did not appeal to his appetite. ‘I crave,’ he said, a slice of salmon.’ There was a hurried conference and then, greatly embarrassed and chagrined, the major-domo said, ‘Majestät, there is no salmon today! ’

Let us see your diet books,’ remonstrated the Kaiser. They were brought, and then, I see you bought sixty kilos of salmon yesterday,’ said the Kaiser. ‘Is it all gone?’ ‘All gone,’ bleated the major-domo. ‘Well, for tomorrow order seventy kilos so that the Kaiser may have a stiickl—a little piece.’ ”

“Seventy kilos of salmon,” the famished mob that had invaded the Burg kept repeating as they wandered through the damp and dreary salons where in other days these great feasts had been spread and now were spread no more.