To the world in general Elizabeth of Austria and Hungary will be little remembered as the queenly sovereign in all the insignia of her lofty rank, but rather as the beautiful and unfortunate daughter of the Wittelsbachs, following her solitary way through life, her lonely spirit ever seeking rest and peace in vain. Terrible as it seemed to die by the hand of an assassin in a foreign country, far from all she loved, the dagger of Luccheni was but the instrument of fate, and death came to her almost as a friend. She died, as she had often wished to die, swiftly and painlessly and under the open sky. Who shall say that her last earthly breath was not a sigh of thankfulness and peace? Footnotes [1]A few days before the death of the Empress Elizabeth, in 1898, this bridge was torn down. Appendix The following is a chronological statement of important events connected with the life of Elizabeth, Empress of Austria: 1837 Birth of Elizabeth. 1853 Betrothal to Franz Joseph. 1854 Marriage. 1856 Visit to Austrian Alps. 1855 Birth of Sophie Dorothea. 1856 Birth of second daughter, Gisela. 1858 Birth of Crown Prince Rudolf. 1859 Sardinian War. 1866 Estrangement of Emperor and Empress. 1866 War with Prussia. 1867 Elizabeth Crowned Queen of Hungary. 1868 Birth of Marie Valerie. 1878 War with Bosnia and Herzegovina. 1881 Marriage of Prince Rudolf. 1889 Death of Prince Rudolf. 1896 Hungary Celebrated Thousandth Anniversary. 1898 Elizabeth Killed by an Assassin. LIFE STORIES FOR YOUNG PEOPLE _Translated from the German by_ GEORGE P. UPTON 24 Volumes Now Ready _Historical and Biographical_ Barbarossa William of Orange Maria Theresa The Maid of Orleans Frederick the Great The Little Dauphin Herman and Thusnelda The Swiss Heroes Marie Antoinette’s Youth The Duke of Brittany Louise, Queen of Prussia The Youth of the Great Elector Emperor William First Elizabeth, Empress of Austria _Musical Biography_ Beethoven Mozart Johann Sebastian Bach Joseph Haydn _Legendary_ Frithjof Saga Gudrun The Nibelungs William Tell Arnold of Winkelried Undine Illustrated. Each 60 cents _net_ A. C. McCLURG & CO., Chicago Transcriber’s Notes --Copyright notice provided as in the original—this e-text is public domain in the country of publication. --In the text versions, delimited italics text in _underscores_ (the HTML version reproduces the font form of the printed book.) --Silently corrected palpable typos; left non-standard spellings and dialect unchanged.