The Ornamented Being
Ornamented: -verb: Adorn; beautify. Be·ing: -noun: Fulfillment of possibilities; essential completeness.
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“Sisi fell to the ground, but was helped up by the Countess. “It was nothing”, she said to calm the lady down, and they went on board. Shortly after that she fainted. “It is nothing but the fright”, she insisted. But once they were sailing the Leman waters she felt a Sharp pain in her chest.
The Countess unbuttoned her dress and saw a stain of blood the size of a coin. The wound looked insignificant, the awl had just pierced her left ventricle, causing a slight bleeding, the blood was falling drop by drop on her pericardium, causing a slow heart failure.
Only then she identified herself to the ship’s captain, who immediately turned around towards Geneva. She was taken to her hotel where she died an hour later, without complaints. Death was perhaps liberating to her.
When Lucheni, who would be sentenced to life, found out about her personality during his trial, he said in dismay: “And for me to think I had killed a person who was arrogantly happy.”
He then committed suicide.”
The murder weapon on display at the Vienna Sissi Museum
“Death was perhaps liberating to her.” It is so tragic to think that she would have blithely embraced death to escape from such an unhappy life. My hearts mourns for her. No person should leave this Earth feeling so unloved.
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“The last dress of the Empress. An exhibition on a museum of NY, the original one (the hole of the stylet being pointed) and a replica.”
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‘Caylee’s Law’ petition calls for establishing two new federal offenses: failure of a parent to notify authorities of a missing child within 24 hours and failure to report a child’s death within one hour.
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‘Good Christian people, I am come hither to die, for according to the law, and by the law I am judged to die, and therefore I will speak nothing against it. I am come hither to accuse no man, nor to speak anything of that, whereof I am accused and condemned to die, but I pray God save the king and send him long to reign over you, for a gentler nor a more merciful prince was there never: and to me he was ever a good, a gentle and sovereign lord. And if any person will meddle of my cause, I require them to judge the best. And thus I take my leave of the world and of you all, and I heartily desire you all to pray for me. O Lord have mercy on me, to God I commend my soul. To Jesus Christ I commend my soul; Lord Jesu receive my soul.’
Detail. Print depicting the execution of Anne Boleyn, consort to Henry VIII and mother of Elizabeth I. Print made by Jan Luyken, c.1664-1712.
Inscription: ‘ANNA BULLEYN Gemalinne van HENDRIK DE VIII/Koning van Engeland, binnen London onthalst’.
The print is part of a series of plates depicting the deaths of various notable persons. They are held at the British Museum.
Height: 190mm (trimmed)
Width: 146mm -
I took this when I was at the Tower.
In 1674 the skeletons of two children were unearthed under a staircase in the tower as renovations were being carried out. The king at that time, Charles II ordered them to be reburied in Westminster Abbey. In 1933 the remains were dug up again but it was not possible to identify the age or gender of the bones and they were reinterred.
The sign on the wall read: “The tradition of the tower has always pointed out that this, as the stair under which the bones of Edward 5th and his brother were found in Charles II time and from whence they were removed to Westminster Abbey”.
