In connection with politics, too, this bitterness exercised a lasting influence on his entire mental outlook.  I have been told by an authentic witness that the Archduke, when suffering and combating his terrible disease, saw one day an article in a Hungarian paper which, in brutal and derisive tones, spoke of the Archduke’s expectations of future government as laid aside, and gloated openly, with malicious delight, over the probable event.  The Archduke, who while reading the article had turned ashen grey with rage and indignation, remained silent for a moment and then made the following characteristic remark:  “Now I must get better.  I shall live from now only for my health.  I must get better in order to show them that their joy is premature.”  And though this may not have been the only reason for his violent antipathy to everything Hungarian, there is no doubt that the episode influenced his mind considerably.  The Archduke was a “good hater”; he did not easily forget, and woe betide those upon whom he vented his hatred.  On the other hand, though but few knew it, he had an uncommonly warm corner in his heart; he was an ideal husband, the best of fathers, and a faithful friend.  But the number of those he despised was incomparably greater than those who gained his affection, and he himself was in no doubt whatever as to his being the most unpopular person in the Monarchy.  But there was a certain grandeur in this very contempt of popularity.  He never could bring himself to make any advances to newspapers or other organs that are in the habit of influencing public opinion either favourably or unfavourably.  He was too proud to sue for popularity, and too great a despiser of men to attach any importance to their judgment.

The Archduke’s antipathy to Hungary runs like a scarlet thread through the political chain of his thoughts.  I have been told that at the time when the Crown Prince Rudolf was frequently in Hungary shooting, the Archduke was often with him, and that the Hungarian gentlemen took a pleasure in teasing and ridiculing the young Archduke in the presence and to the delight of the considerably older Crown Prince.  Ready as I am to believe that the Crown Prince Rudolf enjoyed the jokes—­and little do I doubt that there were men there who would act in such fashion so as to curry favour with the Crown Prince—­I still think that these unpleasant incidents in his youth weighed less in the balance with Franz Ferdinand than the already-mentioned occurrences during his illness.

Apart from his personal antipathies, which he transferred from a few Hungarians to the entire nation, there were also various far-reaching and well-founded political reasons which strengthened the Archduke in his antagonistic relations with Hungary.  Franz Ferdinand possessed an exceptionally fine political flair, and this enabled him to see that Hungarian policy was a vital danger to the existence of the whole Habsburg Empire.  His desire to overthrow the predominance