“Josef. I’ll be back.”
“…”
“I am the Empress, after all. And as your Empress, I promised I would help you.”
“Go, then.”
Unable to hide the sorrow in his eyes, Josef gazed pitifully at me as I finally climbed into the carriage.
“Your Majesty… we truly must depart now.”
No matter what Count Buol said, Josef and I looked at each other through the window between us.
“Your Majesty, the longer you do this, the less time Her Majesty the Empress will have to recover from the journey.”
Only then did Josef take one step back, and we set off.
I waved to him until he was no longer in sight, bidding him farewell.
“Chief lady-in-waiting. Explain it now. Why is the Archduchess giving me such an opportunity?”
“Her Imperial Highness Archduchess Sophie will benefit whether Your Majesty succeeds or fails.”
I looked at Esterházy, signaling for her to continue.
“If you succeed, Her Imperial Highness the Archduchess will prove that her judgment was correct, and she will make it so that Your Majesty’s charm is used only as a figurehead for external affairs, not internal ones.”
“And if I fail?”
“That is likely what Her Imperial Highness the Archduchess most desires.”
She would say, “She is still young, and unfit to be entrusted with the Empire’s important affairs.”
Esterházy added lightly to my words.
“She can target His Majesty the Emperor’s guilt. After all, he will have made his beloved Empress cause harm to the Empire. She will try to exploit that opening to drive a wedge between the two of you.”
Conversely, I had something to gain as well, which was why I accepted the journey to Paris.
“The fact that I am the highest-ranking person in the imperial delegation will not change.”
“Yes, Your Majesty. You will be able to declare, both at home and abroad, that you are not someone to be controlled, but an Empress who acts of her own accord. And it will be an opportunity to obtain connections outside Vienna, which the Archduchess has seized.”
So it may be a win-win for both of us, or I may be the only one who loses.
“Your Majesty… but would the cost of failure not be greater?”
I did not answer Esterházy. I simply looked out at the scenery beyond the window.
With the failure of Greater Germanism, I can rise again.
Even then, I will be only twenty-eight, while Sophie will be sixty-one. Having lived her whole life for a Greater Germany, will she still be able to survive in politics and revive herself then?
Time is on my side anyway.
“Even if Russia helps… would that be a victory for the Empire?”
To the other German peoples, she would merely look like an Archduchess who brought in foreign powers.
Alone, she cannot defeat Prussia; and if Russia helps, a Greater Germany becomes impossible.
The winning hand is not in Sophie’s grasp. It is in mine.
When Sophie fails, whom will the imperial subjects, the soldiers, and Josef resent—and whom will they rely on?
Until I reveal that card, I will remain the Empress who loves the culture of the imperial people.
*
Upon entering Paris, the atmosphere changed into something unlike anything before.
Old alleys had been torn down, and in their place, vast roads, splendid squares, and gas lamps were rising one by one.
“Could we not make our streets safe at night in that way as well?”
“The roads are quite well maintained, too.”
Esterházy agreed with me and looked out the window alongside me.
In this era, traveling abroad required considerable expense.
Even among nobles, perhaps only the eldest son would be sent on a trip to Italy.
Seeing Esterházy’s uneasy gaze, I tossed out a remark.
“It is all for show.”
“Pardon?”
“It is full of noise… and yet, is it not too quiet?”
In the midst of such massive construction, where had the subjects who lost their homes to redevelopment gone?
“Did Count Buol not say so? Napoleon is a man full of vanity.”
The carriage arrived at the Tuileries Palace.
When an attendant opened the door, Count Buol was already waiting to escort me.
As I took his hand and stepped down from the carriage, a maid immediately approached and held a parasol over me.
Across from us, Emperor Napoleon and Empress Eugénie were there to welcome us.
As if France wished to boast of its own technology, they had even brought a photographer.
Count Buol introduced me politely.
“Your Majesties, Emperor and Empress of France. This is Her Majesty Elisabeth, Empress of the Austrian Empire.”
Before arriving in Paris, Count Buol had told me at our last hotel.
He had said there was a clear reason they had chosen the Tuileries, and that the Emperor would welcome me with joy.
Behind the dazzling scenery of Paris, the Tuileries Palace seemed to reveal their ambition to firmly establish their authority.
And in their effort to consolidate that authority, my appearance as the Habsburg Empress must have been the final piece of the puzzle.
His words were correct.
Napoleon approached me and answered with a smile.
The man whom Victoria had assessed as the most charming after her husband, Prince Albert.
I can see why he is called human opium.
A quiet, languid, mysterious air.
He was the opposite of Josef, for whom everything was clear—and perhaps because of that, rigid or predictable.
Not my taste.
In Vienna, I may have been nothing more than a figurehead, but I had no intention whatsoever of being treated like Napoleon’s trophy in Paris.
“I am deeply grateful for Your Majesty the Emperor of France’s warm hospitality. I admire how you possess the shining star of Europe and yet do not lose your humility.”
In any case, it is difficult even to look down at him.
I was already on the taller side, and since this was an official event, I had worn high heels as well.
Between Napoleon, who was 160 centimeters tall, and me, there was a difference of nearly twenty centimeters.
Perhaps conscious of that as well, Napoleon took a step away from me and introduced Empress Eugénie.
“This is the Empress of France, Eugénie.”
She looked up at me as she greeted me.
“Your Majesty’s beauty and courage are already renowned even here in Paris. I, too, was deeply moved in particular by the compassion you showed in personally visiting wounded soldiers on the battlefield.
“While you stay here at the Tuileries, I hope you will fully enjoy the vitality of Paris, which is different from the stiff palaces of Vienna.”
Our Vienna is stiff and boring?
“I thank Your Majesty the Empress for your hospitality as well. I heard that you recently gave birth to the Crown Prince. As a mother myself, having only recently held my first child in my arms, I have come to know that such joy is more precious than any jewel of the Empire.”
Even if I may lack experience as an Empress and in life, I can at least tell her about the experience of having given birth first.
“Just as Your Majesty said, this is a warm welcome I would never dare imagine in the stiff palaces of Vienna. While I remain here, I sincerely look forward to speaking at length with Your Majesty Empress Eugénie, not as the Empress of Austria, but as the mother of His Highness the Crown Prince.”
If our Vienna is stiff, then why is France welcoming me in the stiff Tuileries?
No. Perhaps she was sincerely welcoming me. Have I grown too accustomed, because of Sophie, to thinking only in the worst direction?
As we took our positions for the photograph, the photographer’s gaze rested on us, and soon an okay signal rang out.
…He is not coming?
I moved only my eyes slightly and looked at him.
Why does being escorted feel even more uncomfortable?
It had not been this much of a difference with Josef. Next time, I should change into lower heels.
In any case, I entered the Tuileries Palace together with Napoleon.
…Why on earth is that person here?
“Your Majesty the Empress, this is Prince Albert, consort to Queen Victoria.”
Prince Albert, who looked like a pretty boy, excused himself from his partner and approached me, kissing the back of my hand.
“It is a pleasure to meet Your Majesty, Empress of Austria.”
“It is a pleasure to meet Your Highness Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.”
Was that right…?
Long ago, when I received lessons in etiquette, I think I learned that he had not yet received the title of consort. Napoleon was likely deliberately elevating Britain, his ally, in address.
I looked around, but since there was no particular reaction, it seemed I was correct.
Judging by Count Buol’s expression, he, too, did not seem to have known that even Prince Albert would appear.
And here I thought Sophie had gone out of her way to screw me over.
In any case, Victoria’s assessment had been full of her own bias.
It was not that she had found Napoleon charming after Prince Albert, but that Prince Albert and Napoleon gave off a similar atmosphere.
Rather, is that the board Sophie has arranged?
Princess Marie of Hesse.
A lady who is a fifth cousin to Franz and me.
And.
“Your Majesty, Empress of Austria, this is Her Majesty the Empress of All Russia.”
The Empress of Russia, Maria Alexandrovna.
“…”
“…”
Which of us was the senior again?
Should I greet her first?
Empress Maria, too, looked at me with an uncertain expression.
Everyone’s gazes were focused on us.
Am I mistaken about the order of protocol?
It is true that Empress Maria is my senior in life by thirteen years, but even excluding national rank and visiting status, should I not be the one receiving the greeting?
Recalling the order of protocol I had learned during etiquette lessons, I held firm.
Napoleon was the host, and Prince Albert did not have the title of consort, so he was clearly below me.
Since we held equal status, what remained was who had held the position longer.
I became Empress on April 24, 1854, and Empress Maria became Empress on March 2, 1855.
I am the senior.
Once I finished organizing my thoughts, I felt as if my mind had cleared.
We are allies, are we not? Are you going to keep holding out like this?
Surely you know why Prince Albert, while escorting you, left you behind and came to greet me first?
Just as I felt Napoleon trying to remove his arm from mine in order to mediate, Empress Maria greeted me first.
“It is a pleasure to meet Your Majesty, Empress of Austria.”
“I, too, am pleased to meet Your Majesty, Empress of All Russia.”
Did I do something wrong?
In any case, before the main event even began, I had met all the heavyweights.
Napoleon finished escorting me to the room prepared for me and returned.
“Chief lady-in-waiting.”
“There is no one here. Please speak.”
“Did I do something wrong?”
“You did well. Rather, it was the Empress of Russia who committed discourtesy.”
That is a relief.
“Loosen my corset a little.”
I had tightened it more than usual because I was meeting Eugénie.
I did not wear colored cosmetics normally, and among the newspapers and nobles, they said that Eugénie represented adornment, while I represented natural beauty.
If I had appeared wearing colored cosmetics, rumors would surely have spread that I was conscious of Eugénie.
“Now I feel a little more alive.”
The maid loosened my corset slightly and then tidied my attire again.
Did such important figures gather like this originally?
Surely not. Since when was it easy for imperial and royal family members to move?
If that had been the case, I would have heard anecdotes like Napoleon and Luise, or the Berlin Conference where a treaty was first drafted in English.
***
Sophie was greatly flustered upon receiving the telegram.
“Britain sent Prince Albert?”
Bach simply listed the facts in an impassive tone.
“Yes. It seems the French side deliberately let it slip.”
‘That parvenu….’
Sophie did not like Napoleon III, who had used the Habsburgs.
Moreover, since he had even brought up Napoleon II, with whom she had once been close, and used him for his own authority, she liked him even less.
“Pass all the information we have to the Empress.”
“To Her Majesty the Empress, you mean?”
“Baron Bach. Personal feelings aside, the Empress is the Empress of the Habsburgs.”
Sophie spoke while coldly glaring at Bach.
“This is a stage completely beyond our control. If the Empress were alone, it would be a daughter-in-law’s deviation, but a matter between imperial houses is not a deviation—it is a diplomatic discourtesy.”
Having said what she needed to say, Sophie signaled for Bach to leave.
***
“We are so ashamed that we cannot lift our head.”
Victoria, too, had heard the news from Paris.
“The other nations sent Empresses, and yet we, the mediator of Europe, sent a duke rather than a King Consort.”
Queen Victoria pressured Parliament, saying that because Parliament had not granted Albert the title of King Consort, the British Empire, as mediator, had been humiliated on the international stage. Pass the title at once.
“Your Majesty, however… a foreigner in politics—”
“Would you be satisfied only if we used the royal prerogative?”
Victoria hoped that, through this opportunity, Prince Albert would receive the title of King Consort.
***
The position of Empress is always isolated.
When we, such women, meet our peers in a private setting, what do we talk about?
“Of course. Apart from how much my husband cherishes me, he keeps mistresses in every corner, you see?”
We must confide the feelings we cannot reveal to our subjects.
Public is public, and private is private.
“Your Majesty the Empress of France must have many worries as well. It is the same with our Tsar. These days, my husband uses my health as an excuse not to visit me.”
Of course, one must only share secrets that are, to some extent, already public.
A time for sharing secrets that everyone knows, but that are confirmed by the parties themselves.
“What of His Majesty the Emperor of Austria?”
Me?
“As soon as I gave birth, he went off to the battlefield.”
““Ah…””