Archduchess Maria Immaculata, whose compositions for the piano are said
to be beyond all criticism; she herself did not play them, but would sit
there while they were inflicted by a courtier on the helpless men. Not
very enviable was the lot of those Magyar officers who were taken to
that hospital in Buda-Pest over which the Archduchess Augusta, a
strikingly ugly woman, presided. It was a regulation that no wounds were
allowed to be dressed until the Archduchess, arrayed in uniform and
armed with a revolver, made her appearance of an evening. The officers
were told that it was etiquette for them to broach a pleasant
conversation with their benefactress. But the most dangerous Habsburg
was the Archduchess Blanka, who was interested in medicine; she had
thought out for herself a remedy which human ailments never would
withstand, but which was more especially effective in cases of
tuberculosis, of malaria and of kidney diseases. At the hospital in the
Kirchstetterngasse she had a ward entirely devoted to kidneys. Her
treatment consisted in hot bandages of corn-flowers; the patients were
packed in these bandages and that was all that was done to them. With
regard to the diet, there were no particular regulations. Some of the
men were sent from there to another and less original hospital, but it
was often too late.
AND OF THE NATIVES
The Montenegrins who had been for so long--some of them for three
years--leading a congenial life among their rocks, descending now and
then to kill an Austrian and to gather booty, were most active when the
ill-starred Imperial army was retiring. Six hundred Austrians, for
instance, took the road from Kolašin with the intention of marching
to Lieva Rieka, a distance of 45 kilometres. Thirty-five of them arrived
there. Thus the population avenged such incidents as the hanging by the
Austrian authorities of the brother of the ex-Minister General
Vešović,[27] the General having taken to the hills and his brother
being executed by way of reprisal. The Austrians had now to pay the
penalty of ruthlessness; on September 1, 1917, Count Clam Martinić,
the Military Governor, issued Order No. 3110 which stated that: "In
consequence of the recent inquiry having revealed the fact that
telegraph and telephone wires have been cut by civilians, we make the
following order:
"1. Persons caught red-handed in acts of sabotage will be
summarily shot, their houses will be razed to the ground and
their property confiscated by the Military Administration
Authorities.
"2. If the author of the outrage cannot be found, the
procedure will be as follows:--
"(_a_) The commune where the act of sabotage has taken place
will be condemned to a heavy fine. If the sum demanded is not
paid within forty-eight hours, the cattle will be seized.
"(_b_) Hostages will be taken who, if the cases of sabotage
are repeated, will be executed in their commune."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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