Sarajevo The Story Of A Political Murder

943*6 E38s 59-13W $5.00

943 06 R33s 59-1JW8 $5.00

Reniak^ Joach5ja^ 1920-
Sarajevo; the story of a

political jmirder Criterion

Books [1959]
301p

KANSAS CITY. MO. PUBLIC LIBRARY

D DDD1 D3S32P

SARAJEVO

THE STORY OF
A POLITICAL MURDER

JEVO

JOACHIM REMAK

CRITERION BOOKS, INC.
NEW YORK

Copyright 1959, by Joachim Remak
Library of Congress Catalogue Card No. 59-6557
Manufactured in the United States of America
Designed by Sidney Feinberg

Sources for Illustrations

The Bettmann Archive: s and 20; Bildarchiv der Osterreichlschen
Nationalbibliothek; i, 3, 4, 8, 16, 18 and si; MiloS Bogttevfc Le
Procts de Salonique, Andre Delpeuch, Paris: 7; Professor Vojislav
Bogi^evi^, Sarajevo: 9, 10, n, , 13, 14, 15 , ig and 25; Heeresges-
chzchthches Museum, Vienna: 5, 6, 17 and as; The Hoover Institu-
tion on War, Revolution, and Peace: 3 and a*; Rudolf Lecfmer &
Sohn, Vienna: 26.

To Roberta

*"\
'

Preface

Nearly five decades after Sarajevo, some of the details
surrounding the crime that set off the First World War are
still obscure, and are likely to remain so. For motives that
should become apparent in the course o this book, some
of the participants have been prevented from talking, while
others have voluntarily kept silent; some have deliberately
lied about the roles they played, while others have attested
to facts of which in reality they had little or no knowledge.
Yet a time has now arrived when enough evidence is avail-
able to separate truth from falsehood with some degree of
accuracy, and to reconstruct a story of the plot that should
be substantially correct. That is what this book has tried
to do.

In writing it, I have profited very greatly from the aid
and advice that were given by a number of people, and I
should like to express some measure of my gratitude to
them here. Especially I am indebted to Professor Frederick
A. Breier, to Professor Bernadotte E. Schmitt, to Professor
Wayne Vucinich, to Professor Thomas A. Bailey, to Dr.
MiloS Martig, to Professor Charles Burdick, to Mr. Ray
Morrison, to Dr. D. F. O'Brien, to Dr. Paul Sweet, and to
Mrs. Mark Christine for their criticisms and suggestions
concerning the manuscript. On the illustrations, gracious

vii

viil Preface

and generous aid was extended by Professor Vojlslav
Bogidevic, by Duke Max of Hohenberg, by the Austrian
Army Museum, and by the Austrian National Library.
Permission to quote certain crucial material was very
kindly granted by Editions Payot, Paris, for Albert Mousset,
Un Drame Historique, UAttentat de Sarajevo; by Oxford
University Press, for Luigi Albertini, The Origins of the
War of 1914; and by Rudolf Lechner & Sohn, for the manu-
script page from Gavrilo Princips Bekenntnisse shown in
the illustrations.

A particular note of appreciation is owed to the Hoover
Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace, at Stanford
University, without whose unique resources in twentieth
century European history this book could not have been
written. So many members of the Hoover Institution's
staff offered so much help and patience that I hope they
will not misunderstand if I say that the assistance given by
Mrs. Arline B. Paul and by Mrs. Agnes F. Peterson does
call for a separate expression of gratitude.

A long-range debt, which has to do with my whole train-
ing as a historian, is owed above all to two men: to Pro-
fessor Raymond J, Sontag, and to Professor Ernst H. Kan-
torowicz. This is not the sort of debt which can be ad-
equately summed up, but I would at least like to indicate
its existence.

As for the acknowledgments of individual sources, no
footnotes are given in the text, in order not to interrupt the
narrative. Instead, a bibliographical essay, listing and dis-
cussing all the sources used, will be found at the end of the
book.

JOACHIM REMAJC
Lake Grove, Oregon
March 2 1,1 959

Contents

Preface vii

Cast of Principal Characters xiii

PROLOGUE: Sarajevo, June 2 8, 1914 3

I Franz Ferdinand 5

ii Emperor and Nephew 16

in The Trip to Sarajevo 29

iv The Conspirators 43

v The Preparations 58

vi PaSi 71

vii Crossing the Drina 79

vni Waiting 91

ix Maneuvers 101

x Cabrinovi 113

xi Princip 129

xii Riots and Sympathy 146

XHI A Strange Funeral 16 1

xiv The Investigation 182

xv War 199

xvi The Trial 211

xvii The Penalty 230

EPILOGUE: "On This Historic Spot . ." 247

Sources 263

Index 295

ix

List of Illustrations

facing page

1. Archduke Franz Ferdinand with his wife

and children 48

2. Franz Ferdinand 48

3. Franz Joseph I 48

4. Nicola Pasid 49

5. Colonel Dragutin Dimitrijevid 49

6. General Oskar Potiorek 49

7. A Black Hand document 49

8. Gavrilo Princip in Belgrade 80

9. Gavrilo Princip in prison 80

10. Danilo Hid 80

11. Trifko Grabei So

12. Vaso Cubrilovid 81

13. Cvijetko Popovii Si

14. Mi$ko Jovanovid 81

15. Veljko Cubrilovic 81

1 6. The Reception in Mostar, on the way to Sarajevo 144

17. At the maneuvers 144

18. Leaving the city hall 144

19. A few minutes before the assassination 145

20. After the assassination 145

21. Franz Ferdinand's bloodied uniform coat

XI

xii List of Illustrations

22. The funeral cortege

23. The public learns the news a special edition

24. The formal confirmation The Official Gazette

of June 29

25. The trial *77

26. A Princip manuscript xjj

CAST OF PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS

NOTE: Serbo-Croat names have not been transliterated.
The approximate English pronounciation of the letter 2
is tsh, of tch, of j y, of sh, of 2 j. Nedjelko Cabri-
novi thus is pronounced Nedyelko Tshabrinovitch, Gra-
bez Grabej, and Pai Pashitch.

MUHAMED MEHMEDBASI6
NEDJELKO CABRINOVI

VASO CuBRILOVNfl

CVIJETKO Popovnf:
GAVRILO PRINCIP
TRIFKO GRABEZ
DANILO lid

Assassins

ARCHDUKE FRANZ FERDINAND Heir to the Throne

OF AusxRiA-EsTE of Austria

SOPHIE COUNTESS CHOTEK,

DUCHESS OF HOHENBERG His Wife

GENERAL OSKAR POTIOREK

Governor of Bosnia
and Herzegovina

FRANZ JOSEPH I

Emperor of Austria and
Apostolic King of
Hungary

xm

xiv Cast of Principal

NIKOLA PASI

BOGDAN 2ERAJI6
VLADIMIR GA5iNovi6
DR. LEON VON BILINSKI

MILAN CIGANOVKS
COLONEL DRAGUTIN

DiMITRIJEVHS,
CALLED APIS

MAJOR VOJA TAN*cosi<5
VELJKO CUBRILOVK!:

MlTAR KEROVI6
MlKO JOVANOVI6

DR. GERDE

PRINCE ALFRED
MONTENUOVO

ALOIS VON CURINALDI

Characters

Prime Minister of Serbia

An Unsuccessful Murderer
A Revolutionary

Minister of Finance of
Austria-Hungary

Bosnian Exile in Belgrade

Chief of Intelligence,
Serbian General Staff

Dimitrijevic's Aide

Teacher in Priboj and
Agent on the Underground
Route

Farmer; father of Jovo,
Blagoje, and Nedjo Kerovic

Cinema Manager in Tuzla
and Agent on the Under-
ground Route

Commissioner of Police
In Sarajevo

Imperial Lord
Chamberlain

President of the
Sarajevo Court

FRANJO SVARA

Public Prosecutor

Cast of Principal Characters xv

MAX FELDBAUER

KONSTANTIN PREMU^ld

FELIX PERisid Defense Counsel

FRANZ STRUPL
RUDOLF ZISTLER

WENZL MALEK

NIKOLA FORKAPI
BRANKLQ ZAGORAG

CVIJAN SxjEPANOVl

MARKO PERINA . Friends of the Assassins

IVO

LAZAR

DRAGAN KALEMBER

SARAJEVO

PROLOGUE

Sarajevo, June 28, 1914

ON THE MORNING of June #8, 1914, seven young men took
up the positions they had previously agreed on along an
avenue called the Appel Quay in Sarajevo, capital of the
then Austrian province of Bosnia. The first post, near the
building of the Austro-Hungarian Bank, was that of a Mos-
lem carpenter, A few yards away from him, near the teach-
ers' training college, stood a typesetter, who had spent the
earlier part of the day having his picture taken, with an
anti-Austrian paper in one hand, and a bomb in his inside
coat pocket so that, as he said later, **a memory would re-
main/*

A bit further up, by a bridge, stood two Sarajevo high-
school students. Two more students who had recently come
from Belgrade together had placed themselves near the
next two bridges leading across the river. The last member
of the group, a twenty-four year old schoolteacher and
newspaper editor, had no fixed spot of his own but spent
his time passing up and down between the others.

Five members of the group were not yet twenty; all were

3

4 SARAJEVO

natives of Bosnia or of its sister province, Herzegovina. AH,
except for the Moslem, were Serb-Orthodox Catholics.
All were armed with Belgian army revolvers and small
bombs of Serbian manufacture, and carried vials o cyanide
to poison themselves with later in the day.

At about a quarter past ten, several cars approached. In
the first sat the Mayor and the Police Chief of Sarajevo; in
the second, the Heir to the Austrian Throne* Archduke
Franz Ferdinand, his wife Sophie, and the Governor of
Bosnia, General Oskar Potiorek. Three more cars bearing
various members of Franz Ferdinand's and Potiorek's suites
followed behind them.

As, cheered by the crowd, the procession passed his post,
the carpenter thought that just then a policeman had
stepped directly behind him. Torn between indecision and
fear, he did nothing* The typesetter, who was next, had
stronger nerves* When he $a\v the Archduke's car, he took
his bomb from his pocket, knocked its cap off against a
lamp post, stepped forward, and hurled it at Franz Ferdi-
nand.

The bomb fell on the folded hood of the car's open roof
and bounced off into the street* There it exploded with a
loud detonation and badly wounded several spectators as
well as an aide of General Potiorek's who had been riding
in the next car. The Archduke himself appeared unhurt.
Having made sure that the wounded were receiving medi-
cal attention, he turned to his suite saying: **Come on, the
fellow is insane/' and the procession continued on its way
to the City Hall. As it did so, none of the remaining five
conspirators took any action, some because they thought
that the attempt had succeeded, others because their cour-
age failed them.

CHAPTER I

Franz Ferdinand

A Royal Education

Of fairly heavy build and medium height, with slightly
protruding, steel blue eyes and an upturned, thick black
moustache, Franz Ferdinand In 1914 had the physical ap-
pearance of the not uncommon type of Austrian army of-
ficer whose world was limited by his military duties, and
whose interests outside his career were circumscribed by
good food and good company. Actually, Franz Ferdinand
was an extraordinarily complex and difficult person, whose
reported plans for Austria-Hungary's future served to make
him one of the most puzzling and occasionally one of the
most feared of men to his contemporaries.

Franz Ferdinand was born in Graz, capital of the Aus-
trian province of Styria, on December 18, 1863, the eldest
son of Archduke Carl Ludwig and his wife Maria Annun-
ciata. His father was the second youngest brother of the
Emperor of Austria, Franz Joseph I. His mother was the
daughter of the late Bourbon King of the Two Sicilies, Fer-

5

6 SARAJEVO

dinand II. Maria Annunciata was a beautiful, frail woman,

who despite the warnings of her doctors bore her husband
three more children Otto, Ferdinand Carl, and Maxga-
retha Sophie until she died of tuberculosis in 1871 at the
age of twenty-eight,

Archduke Carl Lud%vig, left a widower for the second
time (his first wife, a Saxon princess, had died within two
years of their marriage) remarried in the summer of 1873,
His new wife was the eighteen year old Maria Theresla,
daughter of Dom Miguel, the Infanta of Portugal, She
treated Carl Ludwig's children with great love and devo-
tion* There were to be few people with whom Franz Ferdi-
nand was as close and trusting as with his Portuguese step-
mother.

His youth, in general, was spent in the manner custom-
ary for a Habsburg prince not destined for the succession:
in his father's picturesque castles and hunting lodges on the
Danube and in the Tyrolean mountains, or in the family's
town house in Vienna. His education was private and of the
sort that goes far toward explaining why there are so few
ruling monarchs left in the world. Some of his tutors were
excellent men, such as the liberal and intelligent Prior God-
fried Marschall, his tutor in religion, who went on to be-
come Bishop of Vienna* More typical, however, were men
like Dr. Onno Klopp, his instructor in history, Klopp, a
man of violently clericalist and monarchist bent, felt that
not one among the existing historical textbooks was fit
reading for a descendant of Charles V and Maria Theresia
since none did enough justice to the House of Habsburg.
He therefore taught history to Franz Ferdinand on the basis
not of texts but of lectures he himself prepared, dwelling
in particular detail on those Habsburg emperors who had
distinguished themselves as leaders in the Counter-Refor-

Franz Ferdinand 7

matlon. Franz Ferdinand, bright and quick-witted, stood all
this perhaps better than most, but still the haphazard tutor-
ial system left some very serious gaps in his education, above
all in his working knowledge of languages.

At twenty, an examination presided over by his father
ended his formal schooling. His next step again an ob-
vious one was to take up his military career in earnest.
Joining a regiment of dragoons in Upper Austria as a first
lieutenant, he saw service with an infantry regiment in
Prague, with the hussars in Hungary, and again with the in-
fantry in Bohemia. His promotions, as was to be expected in
the case of a Habsburg prince came fast: captain in 1885
at the age of twenty-one, major in 1888, colonel in 1890,
general in 1896, and Inspector General of the entire armed
forces of Austria-Hungary in 1913.

His relations with his fellow officers lacked warmth, for
Franz Ferdinand had a strong tendency to hold himself
aloof, but this did not mean that the young Archduke
spurned the usual diversions of the Austrian officer and
gentleman. He would often leave his dull garrison town in
Upper Austria for his apartments in the family palace in
Vienna. He was even then a passionate hunter; he was also
not averse as his tactful biographer, Rudolf Kiszling, puts
it to "other pleasure trips, about which many interesting
details were then told in society." He was abetted in these
escapades by his gay and charming younger brother Otto,
who had a disarming knack for letting Franz Ferdinand
pick up the bill for both of them.

Mayerling and the Succession

Thus far, Franz Ferdinand's life had run along a smooth
and entirely predictable course. Then, within the space of

8 SARAJEVO

a few years, three events occurred which gave it a wholly
new direction: his becoming the Emperor's heir apparent,
his illness, and his morganatic marriage.

On January 30, 1889, the Emperor's son, Crown Prince
Rudolf, for reasons and under circumstances that are still
not entirely clear, shot himself at his hunting lodge at May-
erling. Under Habsburg house law, the succession now
passed to Franz Ferdinand's father, Archduke Carl Ludwig.
(First in line to succeed the Emperor, had the Mexicans not
shot him, would have been Carl Ludwig's older brother
Maximilian.)

Greatly devoted to his family, Carl Ludwig was a very
kind and a very sociable man, who had neither the inclina-
tion nor the ability to hold high office. It was generally as-
sumed after Mayerling, therefore, that Franz Ferdinand was
the new heir to the throne. Seven years later, he became the
Heir Apparent In law as well as in fact, after Ins father had
died of too much piety. On a pilgrimage of the Holy Places,
in 1896, Carl Ludwig would not be dissuaded from stooping
down by the river Jordan in Palestine and drinking from
its waters. He caught dysentery and died that same spring.

An Un~Au$trian Austrian

At that particular moment, Franz Ferdinand himself was
so ill that there was considerable speculation over the suc-
cession's passing to his brother. Franz Ferdinand's health
had never been robust* He was much affected by throat
trouble, and in 1885 he had to travel to Greece and Pales-
tine to regain his strength. Whatever relief the Mediter-
ranean climate brought him was short-lived. Between i8&
and 1 893 he went on a trip around the world, in the course
of which he visited the United States, His American itiner-

Franz Ferdinand 9

ary included Yellowstone Park, the Grand Canyon, Salt
Lake City, Chicago, and Niagara Falls, and ended in New
York, where he had the all but obligatory dinner at Del-
monico's. "There is no doubt," he later wrote about his
impressions of New York's high life,

that it [Delmonico's] is a restaurant of the first rank and
of great fame. We were offered not just roast beef and lamb
chops, but select products of French cooking. A distinguished
public filled the elegant rooms.

We ended the evening at Koster and Bial's Music Hall,
which is connected with a restaurant. We attended a per-
formance of the kind offered by Ronacher's in Vienna, and
were more than a little pleased when three girls, apparently
Austrian, sang the "Blue Danube." We were less stimulated
by a ballet performance at the end of the show based on a
f&te at the Court of King Louis XVI; dcor and dancing left
as much to be desired as the dancers, most of whom were far
removed from the days of their youth.

About a year after his return, in 1895, Franz Fer-
dinand fell extremely ill again. The blunt diagnosis of his
personal physician was that he was suffering from tuber-
culosis. An extensive stay in the milder and dryer climates
first of the Tyrol, then of Egypt, and finally of Switzerland
brought about a major improvement of his condition, and
in 1898 he was considered to be entirely well again.

His illness, however, left two deep scars. One was that for
the remainder of his life, he had to take pains not to catch
as much as the mildest of colds. He was forbidden to ride or
walk too hard, or to remain in city air for too long. To ex-
ercise so much physical restraint meant torture to a man of
Franz Ferdinand's active and passionate nature. "I will
never forget/' wrote one o his aides, "his terribly sincere

10 SARAJEVO

and plaintive words when one hot summer day the two of
us climbed a rather steep hill: 'Oh, it's easy for you; you
don't even get warm/ M

An even more crucial result of this period was an all
too understandable feeling of bitterness. During the worst
part of his illness, most people at Court had been convinced
that there was little hope for him, and had turned their at-
tention to his popular and handsome brother Otto. Otto
was given the military advancement reserved for a crown
prince, and the Foreign Minister prevailed upon the Em-
peror to grant Otto the personal retinue of an Heir Appar-
ent, since Franz Ferdinand was "lost anyway." An article in
a Hungarian paper which came to Franz Ferdinand's atten-
tion even expressed some ill-concealed glee over his illness
and the expectation of his impending death*

Had the Archduke been more of a Stoic, he might have
looked back on these incidents with gratitude, for their ef-
fect was to give him an angry determination to get well. He
had been anything but an easy patient; the Hungarian edi-
torial made him observe his doctor's orders punctiliously.
As it was, the period only pointed up his less attractive char-
acter traits*

Potential savior of the Austrian monarchy, and passion-
ately dedicated to the cause of Austria, Franz Ferdinand es~
sentially was the most un-Austrian of Austrians. The mood
of fin de si^cle Austria, and particularly of Vienna, was one
of tolerance and mellow irony* "The situation/* reads the
famous if mythical Austrian war communique, f< is desper-
ate but not serious/* The mood of Franz Ferdinand was one
o distrust and autocratic aloofness, "You think that every
man is an angel at the outset, and have unfortunate experi-
ences afterwards/' he told one of his close associates. **I re-
gard everyone whom I meet for the first time as a scoundrel,

Franz Ferdinand 11

and wait until he does something to justify a better opinion
in my eyes/ 9

A man of gigantic pride, he was at the same time danger-
ously thin-skinned. It was not just that he was unable to
stand direct criticism; he also had a constant dread of not
being taken seriously enough or of being underrated. If an
associate should imply that he considered himself to be
Franz Ferdinand's intellectual superior, a verbal explosion
would inevitably follow. No really outstanding person
would remain in his entourage for long; broken friendships
and associations dissolved in anger were the marks of his
career.

He was, as even an admiring biographer, Theodor von
Sosnosky, is forced to concede, "the natural autocrat; had
he lived in more ancient times, he would probably have be-
come a despot."

This dark side of his character to which must be added
the further un- Austrian traits of misanthropy, religious big-
otry, and miserliness made him one of the least loved of
figures in Austrian life. He did not seem to care. Partly it
was his pride, nourished by his decided convictions about
the divine origins of royal power, and partly his choleric
temperament which made him show the same unconcern
for public opinion that had ultimately cost his ancestress
Marie Antoinette her head a century or so earlier.

His failings might have mattered less had they not been
accompanied by lack of moderation and balance. It seemed
that he could only love or hate, not like or dislike. Many of
the things he touched had a tendency to lose their normal
proportions, to become much larger than life. This even
applied to his favorite pastimes of hunting and antique col-
lecting.

Franz Ferdinand was a dedicated hunter and a fabulous

12 SARAJEVO

shot. Dining his trip around the world an Indian maha-
rajah he was visiting produced a professional marksman
who entertained his audience by tossing coins high up into
the air and riddling them with bullets. Franz Ferdinand
watched, then tried the same trick and beat the startled pro-
fessional. When he was recuperating from tuberculosis in
the Tyrol two years later, he once amused himself by shoot-
Ing, from the deck chair in which he was sitting, small twigs
from a larch tree about thirty feet distant with such un-
canny accuracy that it finally looked as though the tree had
been clipped with a gardener's shears,

But in Franz Ferdinand's hands, hunting changed from
an aristocratic sport into mass butchery. During his world
tour, he sometimes shot game from the windows of his mov-
ing train. In 1897, at the age of thirty-three, he killed his
thousandth stag; in 1910 his five thousandth. Single hunts
in which he killed up to 2,000 pheasants were not rare,

No one discouraged him from going on these rampages*
As one of the monthly reports from the Archducal forest ad-
ministration had it: "His Royal and Imperial Highness'
most devoted of servants very humbly begs to report that
in the Kozli district 380 hares have been counted, all of
whom are already looking forward with unbounded joy to
being shot by His Highness/*

When collecting antiques, he was similarly voracious.
Unappreciative of music or literature ("Goethe and Schil-
ler/' he said indignantly during the unveiling of a Goethe
monument in Vienna, 4i get their statues, while many Aus-
trian generals who have done more for our country are neg-
lectedl"), he started an art collection whose chief claim to
distinction lay in its quantity. His special fondness was for
obfets d y art showing representations of Saint George and
the Dragon. Over the years, often after some shrewd bar-

Franz Ferdinand 13

gaining on his part, he collected some 3,750 pieces bearing
a likeness of the knight and the beast: paintings, coats of
mail, pieces of furniture, inn signs, letter weights, clocks,
coins, carpets, cups, bookbindings, blankets, candlesticks,
snuffboxes, etc. A special museum finally had to be built to
house all this indiscriminate Georgiana.

There were, of course, many compensating features. Not
all his hobbies were as excessive as his collecting or as
bloody as his hunting. At his favorite residence, the estate
and castle of Konopisht in Bohemia, he established a
model farm, and grew roses that became the envy of the
world's horticulturalists. Aloof he might be, but those who
did manage to break through his reserve, such as the Ger-
man Emperor for one, were genuinely devoted to him. Few
might love him, but even fewer would impugn his intelli-
gence, ability, determination, and courage. Harsh he might
appear, but much of his harshness may have been no more
than a mask he felt his position forced him to wear.

As for his unpopularity, the affair of his marriage was to
gain him a fair amount of public sympathy, even though
that marriage never noticeably altered his disposition.

A Courting Deception Uncovered

In the early nineties, rumors abounded in Vienna society
that Franz Ferdinand was paying court to one of the daugh-
ters of Archduke Friedrich and Archduchess Isabella in
Pressburg. He was known to be a frequent traveler between
Vienna and Pressburg, and sometimes visited the archdu-
cal family as often as twice a week. Archduchess Isabella,
self-important and ambitious, was vastly pleased at the pros-
pect of becoming mother-in-law to the future Emperor.

One evening, after Franz Ferdinand, who had been play-

14 SARAJEVO

Ing tennis that day, had left for Vienna, a servant discovered
that the Archduke had left his watch behind in the dressing
room* He picked it tip and took it to Isabella, The watch
was somewhat unusual In that it had a large number of
trinkets collected by its owner over the yearsstrung to-
gether in place of the usual watch chain. Curious, the Arch-
duchess examined these trinkets, until she came to a locket
designed to hold a miniature portrait.

Expecting, perhaps, to discover which one of her daugh-
ters Franz Ferdinand really favored (pretty Marie Christine,
the eldest, was generally considered to be his most likely
choice), she opened the locket. Instead of being faced with
one of her daughters* pictures, she was startled to see a pho-
tograph of her lady in waiting, Countess Sophie Chotek.
Furiously angry, and in the best tradition of old-fashioned
melodrama, she discharged her lady in waiting on the spot,
forcing her to leave the archducal house that same evening.

Countess Sophie Chotek von Chotkova und Wognin was
a handsome, proud* and tall woman, with dark hair, dark
flashing eyes, and a great deal of vital energy. Her family
was of Czech origin. Her father had been a diplomat, who
had gone on to serve as chief equerry at the Imperial Court
in Vienna* There was little money*

Franz Ferdinand may first have met Sophie as early as
1888 at a dance in Prague* Seeing her again during a num-
ber of social occasions, he finally fell very much in love with
her. The attention paid to Archduke Friedrich's daughter
had been nothing but a cover for being with Sophie. Dur-
ing the days the lovers were separated from each other, let-
ters were carried from Vienna to Pressburg and back by his
trusted valet and later major dome, Franz Janaczek. (When
last heard of a few years ago, Janaczek* then eighty-nine* was
still in the family's employ, serving Franz Ferdinand's

Franz Ferdinand 15

eldest son. Duke Maximilian of Hohenberg.) For almost a
year, until the incident of the forgotten watch, the decep-
tion worked very well indeed.

Unfortunately, the disappointed Archduchess was not
the only person to take offense at the affair. In the spring
of 1899, after having been reassured by his physician that
his health was good, and that there was little or no danger
of his giving tuberculosis to his future wife or children,
Franz Ferdinand decided to marry Sophie. The decision
brought on a bitter battle with Court, society, and Emperor,
which Franz Ferdinand never fully won.

CHAPTER II

Emperor and Nephew

The Court Objects

Marriage, the Emperor and his advisers felt, was out of
the question. The Choteks were an ancient and noble Bo-
hemian family, but Habsburg house law plainly stipulated
that a Habsburg could marry none but an eligible partner*
The definition of eligibility was descent either from the
House of Habsburg, or from a detailed list of families that
included all the ruling dynasties of Europe and a number
of princely though no longer sovereign houses* The Cho-
teks could claim neither.

A Habsburg unhappy over this might request the ap-
proval of the Emperor as head of the family to enter into a
morganatic marriage. In such a marriage, the wife did not
assume her husband's rank, and the children could not
claim the titles, privileges, and offices of the line of Habs-
burg-Lorraine. Several Habsburgs had done so, but never
a successor to the throne* and the Emperor was wholly un-
willing to approve a morganatic marriage in this case*

16

Emperor and Nephew 17

Franz Joseph was far from being a heartless or arrogant
man. Many bourgeois as well as nobles had served him and
the state (although the former, if able, would very soon
have a knighthood conferred on them; old Austria com-
pared perhaps only to Great Britain in the amount of social
nobility that it offered). He was, however, a firm believer
in tradition and the law's observance. Equally profound
was his conviction that while an increasingly democratic
society might blur old class distinctions, the monarchy was
not a class but a divinely ordained institution above all
groups and classes. Private happiness, therefore, ought in
the Emperor's view always to give way to the higher dynas-
tic duties of a Habsburg.

But if Franz Joseph was stubborn in withholding his ap-
proval of the marriage, so was his nephew in demanding it.
None of the Court's emissaries could dissuade him from his
resolve. When the Emperor sent the urbane Dr. Marschall,
Franz Ferdinand's old tutor, to explain the obstacles to mar-
rying Sophie, the only result was that Marschall forever af-
ter was out of favor with Franz Ferdinand and years later
saw his expected appointment as Prince Archbishop of Vi-
enna blocked by his former pupil.

The most honorable course for Franz Ferdinand to fol-
low the Duke of Windsor took it not quite four decades
later would have been to make a clear choice between in-
clination and duty, either marrying Sophie and retiring to
private life, or giving up Sophie and keeping his rights to
the throne. But he was resolved, whatever the cost, both to
marry her and to remain the Heir Apparent.

"I beg Your Excellency/' he wrote to the Prime Minister,
von Koerber, whom he was trying to enlist in his aid early
in 1 900, "to make His Majesty show me some pity, for I have
reached the very limit of my physical and moral strength,

18 SARAJEVO

and am no longer responsible for anything!" 'Tour Excel-
lency is aware/' he wrote in another note, "of my unshak-
able intention; it is now a question of my life, my existence,
and my future/'

In his oral entreaties to the Prime Minister he was, if any-
thing, even more desperate. Renouncing the throne, he ar-
gued, was impossible; to do so would be a violation of di-
vine law. To give up Sophie was equally unthinkable.
Should the Emperor persist in his opposition, he might go
mad or shoot himself, or else, as he told Koerber in a some-
what calmer mood, he would simply wait and delay the
marriage until old Franz Joseph was dead, even though he
would be a man without happiness until then.

Matters might have been settled more easily had rela-
tions between Emperor and nephew been better. But there
never had been much affection between them. The pros-
pect of an audience with the Emperor would put Franz Fer-
dinand in a state of nervous agitation; afterwards, he would
frequently flee Vienna and remain away from the city as
long as he could. Franz Joseph, for his part, was no more
eager to receive his impetuous nephew. ("I saw him on this
occasion only," the Emperor, with his usual understate-
ment, was relieved to write to a close friend after meeting
Franz Ferdinand at a military parade, "since he went on to
Semlin at 2 o'clock to shoot eagles on the Lower Danube. I
was rather glad that there was no chance for an argument.")

Strained relations between crown prince and monarch
are, of course, nothing new or surprising. The one, under-
standably, is as eager to assume power as the other is to re-
main alive and retain it. What was involved here was some-
thing else. Franz Joseph and Franz Ferdinand represented
not just different generations, but different worlds. All that

Emperor and Nephew 19

the nephew lacked the uncle possessed: balance, popularity,
quiet authority.

Franz Joseph

His venerable age and the length of his reign alone were
enough to make him the symbol of tradition and glory.
Nearly seventy at the time of the marriage controversy, and
ruler of Austria-Hungary since the revolutionary year of
1848, Franz Joseph was the quintessential Emperor, the last
perhaps that Europe has seen. He was also a gentleman.

His working day began at four o'clock in the morning
and did not end until eight or so at night. His needs and
desires were almost Spartan in their simplicity. Yet in every
public word and gesture, Franz Joseph was the monarch.
No one left an audience with him without knowing that he
had been face to face with an Emperor.

Unlike Franz Ferdinand, the Emperor knew how to con-
trol his feelings. He had had more than his share of per-
sonal sorrows. His brother, Maximilian, had been stood
up against a wall and shot in Mexico. His only son, Rudolf,
had ended violently at Mayerling. His wife, the beautiful
and kind Elizabeth of Bavaria, had been murdered by a
half -demented Italian anarchist in 1898. Franz Joseph kept
his tears to himself. Private emotions were for private oc-
casions.

The same sense of dignity which imposed this reserve
sometimes showed up in an observance of formality and
decorum that might have been considered old-fashioned at
Queen Victoria's Court. There was, for example, the mat-
ter of how archducal babies were to be saluted.

Living in the Hofburg, the Emperor's Vienna residence,
were several Habsburg relatives prodigiously blessed with

20 SARAJEVO

children. Regulations prescribed that every time one of
the children passed through the courtyard, the guards had
to salute by presenting arms, sounding the drums, and low-
ering the flag. Since most of the children were far too young
to understand the meaning of this performance- some of
them still wore diapers the salute would usually be ac-
knowledged by a nod from their tutor or by a bow from a
pleased if somewhat startled nurse. Finally, against his own
better judgment, an aide suggested to Franz Joseph that the
regulations be changed, and that only those archdukes and
duchesses who had been declared of age be saluted in this
fashion. Franz Joseph was very much annoyed. The idea, he
said, was a slight against the dynasty; things were to remain
as they had always been; and he never wished to hear such
a proposal again.

The Emperor knew very well that times were changing,
"He said/' Theodore Roosevelt recorded of an audience
with him during the ex-President's world tour in 1910,
"that he had been particularly interested in seeing me be-
cause he was the last representative of the old system,
whereas I embodied the new movement, the movement of
the present and future, and that he had wished to see me so
as to know how the prominent exponent of that movement
thought and felt/ 1 However, while he might have a look at
the century's odd new men, for himself he wished to live as
he always had. Only after being asked repeatedly did he at
last permit the addition of several automobiles to the
royal coaches, but he himself would hardly ever use these
new inventions, and he could never be persuaded to enter
an elevator. For almost seventy years, the story went, he
spent every summer vacation in the resort town of Ischl,
where he visited the same old Mends, ordered the same fia-

Emperor and Nephew 21

ere for his use, and gave the coachman the same tip each
year.

What mattered of course was that behind these externals
lay the qualities of the true gentleman: good manners, kind-
ness, generosity, and fairness. He could be very stern; in-
deed more than one visitor was disconcerted to see how
much displeasure he could convey by no more than the hard
and long glance of his pale blue eyes. But he would no more
lose his temper than use a harsh word. Every order issued by
Franz Joseph, Emperor of Austria and Apostolic King of
Hungary and there were many orders each day began
with thewords "I request."

Unlike Franz Ferdinand again, he knew the meaning of
generosity. Shortly before the World War, Franz Ferdi-
nand proposed that his advisor on foreign affairs, Count
Ottokar Czernin, be appointed to Austria's upper house.
Relations between uncle and nephew were still far from be-
ing cordial, and there were a great many rumors that the
men around Franz Ferdinand were conspiring against the
Emperor. As the Prime Minister mentioned Gzernin's
name, Franz Joseph hesitated for a moment, and then said:
"Oh yes, he's the man who is to become foreign minister
after I am dead. Yes, he should be in the Upper House and
learn something about the job/'

A good Catholic himself, he had no use for intolerance of
other faiths. "His Empire was too large," a contemporary
observer has written, "the nations and religions were
too many to allow him to feel or show any likes or dis-
likes in this connection. He was used to being blessed
by Catholic bishops, Protestant ministers, Jewish rabbis,
Greek-Orthodox popes, and Mohammedan muftis and
imams; he met all of them with the same friendliness and
respect/'

22 SARAJEVO

Set he might be in his ways, but they were good ways. Un-
willing he might be in contrast to Franz Ferdinand to
deal with the new problems of racialism and nationalism
which threatened to break up his monarchy. Yet ironically,
it was the respect his person evoked which chiefly held the
Austrian Empire together. When, after a rule that had
lasted for sixty-eight years, he closed his eyes in 1916 at the
age of eighty-six, his death all but meant that of Austria-
Hungary too.

Renunciation and Marriage

None of his qualities made it any easier for Franz Joseph
to sympathize with his nephew's predicament. What finally
forced him to change his stand in the summer of 1900 were
reasons of state. Pope Leo XIII, Emperor Wilhelm of Ger-
many, and Tsar Nicholas all had interceded in Franz Fer-
dinand's behalf. Softly saying "was I not to be spared even
this?" Franz Joseph gave his reluctant approval to a mor-
ganatic marriage.

On June 28, 1900, in the presence of the Emperor, all
archdukes, the principal ministers of the monarchy, the
Cardinal Prince Archbishop of Vienna, and the Primate of
Hungary, Franz Ferdinand took the following written oath
in the Secret Council Chamber of the Vienna Hofburg:

Our marriage with the Countess Chotek is not an eligible
but a morganatic marriage, and is to be considered as such
for now and all time; in consequence whereof neither Our
wife nor the issue to be hoped for with God's blessing from
this Our marriage, nor their descendants, will possess or be
entitled to claim those rights, titles, armorial bearings, privi-
leges, etc., that belong to the eligible wives and to the issue
of Archdukes from eligible marriages. And in particular We

Emperor and Nephew 23

again recognize and declare that inasmuch as the issue from
Our aforesaid marriage and their descendants are not mem-
bers of the most high Archhouse, they possess no right to
succeed to the Throne.

Three days after the oath of renunciation, Franz Ferdi-
nand and Sophie Chotek were married in the chapel of
Reichsstadt castle in Bohemia. Almost the entire Chotek
family attended the wedding. The only Habsburgs to come
were Franz Ferdinand's stepmother, Maria Theresia, and
her two daughters. No other members of the Imperial
House attended; even his brothers stayed away.

Franz Joseph sent a telegram conferring the title of a
Princess of Hohenberg upon Sophie. Nine years later, he
raised her in rank to a Duchess, with the right of being ad-
dressed as "Highness."

The Emperor never again mentioned the marriage ques-
tion in his nephew's presence, and tried his best to be kind
to Sophie at their occasional meetings. The most uncharita-
ble known remark he ever made about her was contained in
a private letter to the motherly Katharina Schratt, his
friend of many years' standing: "At 7: 30 I went to the city/ 1
he wrote three months after the marriage, "where I stayed
until 4:30 and saw several people, including my nephew
Franz. At my invitation, he brought his wife. Things went
quite well; she was natural and modest, but does not look
quite young any more."

Despite the Emperor's attitude, Franz Ferdinand and
Sophie were exposed to a great many slights at Court. Court
protocol seemed inflexible. Sophie was not allowed to ac-
company her husband in the royal carriage with its golden
spokes, nor could she sit by his side in the Burgtheater's
royal box. At court dinners, the youngest archduchess

24 SARAJEVO

would be placed above her at the table. At court balls, Franz
Ferdinand might lead the procession, but Sophie would be
forced to leave his side and appear behind the last princess
of royal blood.

Very slowly, these galling reminders of her morganatic
status were being dropped, particularly after she had been
received with the honors due to an archduchess at several
foreign courts. Wilhelm II, during the archducal couple's
visit to Potsdam in 1909, had ingeniously solved the seating
problem by placing his guests at several small and separate

tables.

But by the time Vienna was ready to follow the example
set by foreign monarchs, Franz Ferdinand and Sophie had
largely withdrawn from, court functions* It was not much
of a sacrifice. The Archduke had never got along well with
his Habsburg relatives, and his home life with Sophie was
one of supreme happiness.

"Soph is a treasure, I am indescribably happy/' he wrote
a week after the wedding to his stepmother, "She looks after
me so much, I am doing wonderfully. I am so healthy and
much less nervous. I feel as though I had been born again/*

The birth of their children confirmed them in their af-
fection. First there was Sophie, born in 1901, then Maxi-
milian in 1902, and Ernst in 1904. A fourth child died still-
born* Franz Ferdinand was the fondest of fathers; his day
began and ended by looking in on his children. Rumors
abounded that he and Sophie harbored hidden ambitions
for their future, and that he planned to have the renuncia-
tion oath annulled upon Franz Joseph's death. He himself
denied this. "The Habsburg crown/* he wrote to a sup-
porter, "is a crown of thorns, and no one who is not born
to it should desire it, A withdrawal of the renunciation will
never be considered/ 1

Emperor and Nephew 25

Franz Ferdinand's public character remained as difficult
as it had ever been, but his private happiness was true and
it was lasting. "You don't know/' he confided in a letter to
his stepmother in 1904,

how happy I am with my family, and how I can't thank
God enough for all my happiness.

The most intelligent thing I've ever done in my life has
been the marriage to my Soph. She is everything to me: my
wife, my adviser, my doctor, my warner, in a word: my entire
happiness. Now, after four years, we love each other as on our
first year of marriage, and our happiness has not been marred
for a single second.

And our children. They are my whole delight and pride. I
sit with them and admire them the whole day because I love
them so.

Political Plans

There was much beside his family to keep Franz Ferdi-
nand busy at this time. He was preparing for the day when
he would become ruler of an Empire which, as he was well
aware, showed every sign o falling apart.

The dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary admittedly was
an anachronism. It comprised something like a dozen na-
tionalities and cultures, and the spirit of its government was
one of improvisation, compromise, and tolerance. The cen-
ters of administration were Vienna and Budapest. Ger-
mans and Hungarians predominated in the higher echelons
of army and administration, but such careers were by no
means closed to the Empire's other nationalities, to Czechs,
Italians, and Poles, to Croats, Slovaks, Serbs, Rumanians,

Both politically and economically, the union of Central

26 SARAJEVO

and Southeastern Europe which Austria-Hungary provided
made a great deal of sense. How much so was discovered af-
ter the Empire's willfull destruction in 1919, when it be-
came very clear that none of its successor states were capable
of standing by themselves, and all of them at one time or
another fell victim to the pressure first of Germany and
then of Russia.

But at the turn of the century most of Austria-Hungary's
nationalities were tired of the Empire. A multinational
state, they felt, was out of keeping with the age. Modern
democracy required equal rights for all; modern national-
ism required that each nationality form its own nation.
Many Poles thus wished to see the establishment of a new
Polish state, many Slavs were putting their hopes in Russia,
many Magyars wanted an independent Hungary, many
Serbs wished to join the neighboring kingdom of Serbia.

Much of the criticism was justified. The monarchy was
not perfect, and the concepts on which it rested were doubt-
lessly obsolete. Old Austria's basic trouble, however, lay not
in the suppression of national rights, or in civic inequality.
Neither was of an unbearable kind; change might be slow
but it was taking place. The basic trouble lay in the mis-
taken assumption of its rulers that traditions were stronger
than passions, and that, fundamentally, men were rational
beings who would prefer peace to chaos, and the shelter of
Empire to the predictable excesses of modern racialism and
nationalism.

Having ruled over Austria for nearly two generations,
Franz Joseph was wary of undertaking any major reforms
in the structure of the monarchy. Franz Ferdinand felt dif-
ferently.

In the years that followed his marriage, Franz Ferdinand
acquired a good deal of actual power. He was beginning to

Emperor and Nephew 27

place several people o his choice in responsible army posi-
tions, and he did much to support the expansion o the
navy. He also worked on plans for Imperial reform. "I must
have the nationalities with me/' he wrote, "for this is the
only salvation for the future/'

His early ideas for reform envisaged the substitution of
"Dualism" with "Trialism." A third state was to be formed
within the frontiers of the monarchy, consisting of the Em-
pire's Southern Slavs Croats, Slovenes, and Serbs and
power was to be shared more equally between Germans,
Hungarians, and Slavs. Later, he apparently became con-
vinced that Trialism was not enough and that nothing short
of complete federalism along the lines of the American or
Swiss systems could save the state. Presumably this would
have provided for a division of the Empire into as many as
sixteen autonomous states, linked together by a common
ruler: the Emperor. There would also have been a joint
foreign policy, joint armed forces, a joint economic system,
and a federal parliament elected by the member states in
proportion to their population.

It is not entirely clear which of these plans Franz Ferdi-
nand would have put into execution in the event of his suc-
cession to the throne. At the time, Trialism received more
publicity, but it is likely that in his last years Franz Ferdi-
nand favored federalism. Nor is it certain whether his re-
forms would have been successful.

Austria-Hungary, wrote a skeptical contemporary ob-
server, was

a broken pot held together with a piece of wire. It might do
duty as long as it was treated with due care, but woe if it
were exposed to too many hard knocks or got some kick or
other. Then it would be liable to fall to pieces.

28 SARAJEVO

Autonomy might all too easily lead to independence.
Certainly the Hungarians, who were ruling their portion
of the Empire with a strong hand, and who had no inten-
tion of surrendering any part of it, were incensed over
Franz Ferdinand's reported plans. By a feat of gerryman-
dering of truly heroic proportions, and by other such de-
vices, eight and a half million Magyars were represented in
the parliament at Budapest by 392 deputies, and eight mil-
lion non-Magyars by 2 1 .

Franz Ferdinand bore the Hungarians no greater love
than they did him. "Rabble," "Huns/' "Asiatics" were
some of his epithets for the Magyars. And it is conceivable
that Hungarian opposition alone would have been suffi-
cient to wreck any schemes for reform. No one can say of
course, for it must also be remembered that Franz Ferdi-
nand was a man of considerable ability and obstinacy, and
that he was by no means alone in believing that Austria-
Hungary's only choice lay between reform and destruction.
What mattered was that in 1913, the chances of success
looked favorable enough to make someone in the neighbor-
ing kingdom of Serbia decide that Franz Ferdinand should
be killed.

CHAPTER III

The Trip to Sarajevo

An Invitation to the Maneuvers

In the late summer pf 1913, General Oskar Potiorek,
Governor of the Austrian provinces of Bosnia and Herze-
govina, invited Franz Ferdinand to the maneuvers of the
Fifteenth and Sixteenth Army Corps that were to be held
in Bosnia the following June under Potiorek's command.
Would the Archduke, he asked, attend in his capacity as
Inspector General of the Armed Forces, and set aside a day
to let himself be received in the capital of Sarajevo as Heir
to the Throne? As for a place to stay during the visit,
Potiorek suggested the pretty resort town of Ilide near
Sarajevo*

Franz Ferdinand accepted. It was time for a goodwill trip
of this sort; no Habsburg had shown himself in Bosnia
since the Emperor's visit of 1910. Besides, it was an oppor-
tunity to have Sophie along, and to see that she was re-
ceived with full honors.

The extent to which thoughts about Sophie influenced

29

30 SARAJEVO

his decision can only be guessed at. It is known, however,
that he delayed asking the Emperor's permission to have
Sophie come to Ilid2e until early in June, 1914, and that
when the printed programs of the journey reached the Im-
perial Palace, there was considerable consternation. The
form and design of Sophie's as well as of Franz Ferdinand's
program were those reserved for members of the Imperial
House. "This is a bit much! What are we coming to!" said
Franz Joseph's venerable aide, Count Paar, as he looked at
Sophie's program. The Emperor, reportedly, was no more
pleased, but he had no taste for scenes and simply left for
his Ischl vacation a few days early in order to avoid his
nephew.

If Franz Ferdinand's reasons for accepting the invitation
were not entirely straightforward, neither were General
Potiorek's for extending it. There was more involved for
him than the usual display of royal pageantry with which,
since the days of the first Egyptian dynasty, kings and
princes have at certain intervals entertained and impressed
their subjects. The truth was that General Potiorek had re-
cently run into a great deal of trouble with a restive Bos-
nian population, and that he was eager for some visible evi-
dence of Franz Ferdinand's support.

Occupation and Annexation

The story is told in Bosnia that when God created the
earth, He carried two sacks, one full of earth, the other full
of stones. As he was passing over what was to become Bosnia
and Herzegovina, the sack of stones burst and all its con-
tents came crashing down.

The accident's results still show. There is a good deal
more wild and mountainous terrain in Bosnia than there is

The Trip to Sarajevo 31

arable land, and to make one's living from the Bosnian soil
seems always to have meant a life of want and hardship.
God's sack, however, must have contained something else
besides rocks, for the country is rich in mineral resources
coal, iron, silver and in vast, fairy tale forests, where
bears and wolves, chamoix and deer, wild boar and lynx can
be found to this day. The country's rivers are full of fish,
and toward the Southern Coast, oranges, lemons, plums,
olives, grapes, and figs grow.

Such pleasures of the region, but even more its strategic
location between the Black Sea and the Adriatic had invited
conquest, in turn, from Illyrians, Romans, Byzantines, Ser-
bians, and Magyars, until in the fifteenth century, the
Turks had come, apparently to stay. But by the nineteenth
century, Bosnia's Turkish overlord had become "the sick
man of Europe/' and the vast holdings of the Ottoman Em-
pire were beginning to crumble. In Bosnia and Herzego-
vina, armed insurrection against Turkish rule erupted in
1874, which was soon joined by the neighboring regions of
Bulgaria, Serbia, and Montenegro. The revolt fared badly,
until in 1877, the Russians, as the self-appointed protectors
of Slavdom, declared war on Turkey, quickly routed the
sick man, and forced him to promise independence to Serbia
and Rumania, autonomy to Bulgaria, and reforms to Bos-
nia-Herzegovina.

At this point, the European powers, alarmed at the pros-
pects of a Near East dominated by St. Petersburg, inter-
vened and pressed Russia to submit its Turkish peace terms
to an international Congress. In 1878, the Congress met in
Berlin, under the chairmanship of Prince Otto von Bis-
marck, the German Chancellor. The settlement reached pre-
sented nearly everyone among the participants with some
choice piece of Turkish territory. (Only the Germans took

32 SARAJEVO

nothing, and the Italians had to be satisfied with some vague
promises for the future; "The Italians/* said Bismarck,
"have such a large appetite and such poor teeth.") The Rus-
sians received the Caucasian border town of Kars and the
Black Sea Port of Batum, and gained independence for
Serbia and Rumania, with a modified sort of autonomy for
Bulgaria.

To counteract Russia's gains, Bosnia and Herzegovina
where all the trouble had started went to Austria-Hun-
gary "to occupy and administer," Nominally, the territory
remained Turkish; actually, no one expected the Austrian
occupation to be anything but permanent.

In October, 1908, having first bought off the Russians by
an ambiguous promise of Austrian support in the question
of the Dardanelles, the Austrians proclaimed the outright
annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. There were several
good reasons for this step. Three months earlier, Young
Turk reformers had seized power in Constantinople, which
raised the alarming possibility that the dissolution of the
Ottoman Empire might be coming to a halt, and that the
Turks might even ask for the return of their Bosnian prop-
erty. In Bosnia-Herzegovina the Austrian occupation re-
gime was unpopular, and the need for some sort of repre-
sentative government obvious. Yet if there were to be any
real change, it could be introduced far more easily if Franz
Joseph were able to act as sovereign, rather than as the tem-
porary administrator of someone else's territory.

There also were some good reasons against annexation.
Legally, it was a clear violation of the 1878 Treaty of Ber-
lin. Nor did the need to break the treaty seem truly com-
pelling to a good many Austrians. Someone who has had an
affair with a woman for thirty years, commented one such
critic, and who after all this time suddenly feels the need

The Trip to Sarajevo 33

to legalize the relationship, must strike his friends as more
than a bit odd. Franz Ferdinand had definitely been op-
posed to annexation. "Considering our sad domestic state
of affairs/' he had written in a hastily penciled note to the
Austrian foreign minister in August, "I am, quite generally
speaking, against all such displays of strength. In my opin-
ion, only a well-consolidated, strong state can afford such
things. . . ."

In spite of Franz Ferdinand's misgivings, international
reaction to annexation was nonviolent. The great powers,
while annoyed, in the end were satisfied when Austria paid
a large cash compensation to the Turks. Not so the Ser-
bians. In Belgrade, large and angry crowds filled the streets,
shouted ''Down With Austria!/' and demanded action. The
Serbian government called up the reserves, and the parlia-
ment voted the necessary credits for war. Only when the
Russians frankly warned Serbia that they did not intend to
support them in a war over Bosnia did the Belgrade govern-
ment draw back. Serbia never forgave or forgot the annexa-
tion, however.

The reason for Serbia's pique was not that Bosnia suf-
fered misery and oppression under Austrian rule. The qual-
ity of Austrian administration was generally competent
and certainly far superior to that of the Turks. The
Austrians, in their slow way, did all the things which
the conscientious colonial administrator is prone to do,
even if it seldom seems to endear him to those he admin-
isters. They built roads and railways; they provided ma-
terial prosperity and orderly government; and, with the
grant of a constitution in 1910, they prepared the way for
full autonomy.

What caused the anger in Belgrade was that Serbia cov-
eted Bosnia and Herzegovina for itself. Strong groups

34 SARAJEVO

within the kingdom wished to create a Greater Serbia
which, with Serbia itself as a nucleus, would comprise
the Austrian provinces of Bosnia, Herzegovina, Slavonia,
and Croatia, parts of Turkish-held Macedonia, and the in-
dependent principality of Montenegro. Their argument
was that ethnically, Serbs, Bosnians, Croats, Slovenes, and
Montenegrines were closely related, and should be con-
sidered one people the South Slavs, or Yugoslavs. Pan-
Serb agitation received a new and strong impetus with the
First Balkan War of 1912, in which Greece, Bulgaria and
Serbia joined forces to detach Macedonia from Turkey.
The allies' victories over the Turks aroused a great deal of
enthusiasm for the Serbian cause in Austria's South Slav
provinces, even though Bulgaria, in the Second Balkan War,
was to see its recent associates turn into enemies in a fight
over the Macedonian spoils.

The Death of a Hero

With the spirited support of Serbia, a fair amount of un-
rest developed in Bosnia, particularly among those who
were young enough to have had no experience or recollec-
tion of Turkish rule. In 1 9 1 3, in the wake of Serbia's Balkan
War victories, anti-Austrian agitation became so virulent
that Governor Potiorek saw himself forced to impose press
censorship and to suspend parliament temporarily.

The population of Bosnia and Herzegovina at that time
numbered just under two million. Of that total, over 40 per
cent were of the Serb-Orthodox faith a church that was
and is closely related to the Greek-Orthodox; over 30 per
cent were Moslems; and not quite 25 per cent were Roman
Catholics. The remainder were mostly Jews and Protes-
tants. Race and religion were nearly synonymous. Most of

The Trip to Sarajevo 35

the Serb-Orthodox were Serbs "Serb" being a racial or
ethnic designation, which referred to any member of this
Slavic group whether or not he was a citizen of Serbia, as
distinct from "Serbian/' which was a national designation
referring to a citizen of the Kingdom of Serbia. The Mos-
lems were either Turks or Serbs. The Roman Catholics
were mostly Croats.

By and large, Bosnia's Serbs were in favor of union with
Serbia. The Croats were divided: some wanted Serb-Croat
union; others declined the Serbian offer of racial brother-
hood and preferred to remain within the Empire. The Mos-
lems were largely loyal to Austria.

The agitation took two principal forms. One was to use
existing legal organizations as covers for illegal activities.
The other was to work through an underground organiza-
tion that called itself Mlada Bosna "Young Bosnia" sup-
ported by and patterned after a secret Serbian terrorist or-
ganization known as the Black Hand. Its basic structure
was that of various individual "circles," between which con-
tact was maintained by special intermediaries. Each circle
kept its membership small, so that a Mlada Bosna member
could reveal no more than the names of a very few associates
in case of arrest. Members were recruited mainly from
among high-school and college students and the poorer peas-
ants. All of Mlada Bosna's key members also belonged to
the Belgrade Black Hand.

The guiding spirit behind Mlada Bosna was a young man
named Vladimir Ga<5inovi6 The son of a Serb-Orthodox
priest in Herzegovina, he had studied theology for a while,
but had changed his field when he discovered the writings
of the Russian anarchists. His favorite among them was
Bakunin, who held that the way to achieve a free and

36 SARAJEVO

happy society was to assassinate the proper number of kings,

presidents, and grand dukes.

During the annexation crisis, Gainovi left Bosnia for
Belgrade, vainly hoping that there would be war and that
he might find a chance to bear arms against Austria. While
in Belgrade, he met many of the men who were to become
prominent in the Black Hand, and who thought as he did
about Russian anarchism. His finest hour came after he had
found a martyr to the cause.

In 1910, during the opening of Parliament in Sarajevo,
a Serb from Herzegovina, Bogdan Zerajii, fired five shots
at the Austrian governor of Bosnia, General Vareanin.
The sixth bullet he used to kill himself. General VareSanin,
unhurt but displeased, reportedly stepped over to the
blood-spattered Zerajic, kicked him, and called him a
"filthy cur." As a final indignity, the would-be assassin's
body was buried in the corner of the cemetery reserved for
suicides and criminals,

Gainovi<i seized the occasion to write a fiery pamphlet
entitled "The Death of A Hero" in praise of 2eraji "a
man of action, of strength, of life and virtue, a type such
as opens an epoch, proclaims ideas and enlivens suffering
and spell-bound hearts." Quoting 2eraji<5 as saying "I leave
it to Serbdom to avenge me," Gainovi ended his eulogy
by asking rhetorically: "Young Serbs, will you produce
such men?"

Armed with copies of his pamphlet and with other prop-
agandist ammunition, Gadinovic!; made frequent forays
from Serbia into Bosnia to look after the affairs of Mlada
Bosna. "He speaks," an associate of his has written of this pe-
riod, "offers encouragement, and disappears again like a
shadow, as though the earth had swallowed him, since he
forever feels that he is being followed by Austrian agents/*

The Trip to Sarajevo 37

2eraji<5 did become a hero to many Bosnian Serbs, but the
concrete results were disappointing. Mlada Bosna's sister
organization in neighboring Croatia did much better, man-
aging to kill a Croat Secretary of Education in 1912, and to
wound the Governor the next year. In Bosnia-Herzegovina,
however, there were no further assassinations, successful or
attempted.

Chlumetz to Ilidze: Portents and Accidents

Franz Ferdinand, early in June, was showing an odd re-
luctance to attend the Bosnian maneuvers. He saw the
Emperor, and suggested that for health reasons, he would
just as soon not go. Franz Joseph left the decision up to his
nephew. A few days later, Franz Ferdinand's Private Sec-
retary took a phone call from Colonel Bardolff at the Arch-
duke's Military Chancellery. He was very sorry, Bardolff
said, but there would have to be a small change on the re-
turn trip. The departure from Bosnia would have to be
advanced by one hour, else it would be impossible to make
the proper train connections.

Franz Ferdinand reacted with unreasonable fury. Angrily
tearing up a handkerchief he shouted: "Tell Colonel Bar-
dolffi that if he should spoil our taste for the Bosnian trip
even more than he has done so far by these daily difficulties
and troubles, he can hold the maneuvers by himself. I won't
go at all then. He seems to have forgotten that the maneu-
vers will be over on the morning of the twenty-ninth, and
that after that it will be a nonmilitary, private trip, with a
lady present who deserves some consideration."

On June 12 and 13, Franz Ferdinand received the Ger-
man Emperor at his estate of Konopisht in Bohemia. The
weather was so perfect, and the park in such lovely summer
bloom, that he decided to open it to the public on June 14,

38 SARAJEVO

the Sunday after Wilhelm/s departure. On Wednesday,
June 17, accompanied by Sophie, he followed an invitation
to go quail hunting at Countess Jella Haugwitz' estate of
Namiest. He stayed until June 20, when he left for his other
Bohemian castle of Chlumetz. Franz Ferdinand, the Count-
ess later said, had struck her as unusually depressed, and
full of forebodings.

Three days later, the archducal couple started on their
Bosnian journey. The program provided for their traveling
together as far as Vienna only. From there, Franz Ferdinand
was to go to Trieste and to cross the Adriatic on the battle-
ship Viribus Unitis, while Sophie was to take the land route
by way of Budapest.

On the afternoon of Tuesday, June 23, Franz Ferdinand
made a present of his gold watch to his valet, the faithful
Janaczek, asking him to remain with Sophie and the chil-
dren in the event that anything should ever happen to him.
He and Sophie then took leave from the children, and
caught the train to Vienna. At the station, the first of a
number of accidents occurred which later enabled several
witnesses to claim early premonitions of disaster.

For years, Franz Ferdinand had been using his own spe-
cial parlor car. As the Vienna express, to which his parlor
car had been coupled a few miles out of town, pulled into
Chlumetz station, smoke was seen rising from a hotbox.
One of the parlor car's journal boxes, it turned out, had be-
come badly overheated. No one could explain the accident.
Hotboxes usually occurred only in very old or carelessly
attended cars; neither was the case here. The porter in
charge, normally the very model of the calm and conscien-
tious official, was a picture of despair. There was nothing
left to do, however, but to uncouple the car, and to make
room for Franz Ferdinand and Sophie in the first-class com-

The Trip to Sarajevo 39

partment that had been reserved for the Archduke's young
Chamberlain. "Well, that's a promising beginning for this
trip/' said Franz Ferdinand.

At seven o'clock that evening, the train arrived at Vien-
na's Franz Joseph Station. From there, Franz Ferdinand and
Sophie drove to Belvedere castle, their official residence in
the city. Franz Ferdinand, after a light supper, then went
on to the Sudbahnhof to catch his train to Trieste, while
Sophie stayed over until the next morning, June 24.

The Duchess' trip passed without further surprises. She
traveled in a less capricious parlor car. There were no of-
ficial receptions for her anywhere along the route, but at
many stations large and curious crowds had turned up for
a look. Between the Bosnian border and Ilidze she could
see that every station had put out flags in welcome.

On June 25, at 9:20 A.M., she and her party arrived at
Ilidze in pouring rain. Station, surrounding buildings, Kur-
restaurantj and many private houses along the road to the
hotel had been decorated with flags and bunting, which
now hung limp and sodden. Still, there was a cordial re-
ception for her at the station, and an automobile to take
her to the Hotel Bosna, where she and Franz Ferdinand
were to stay.

At the Bosna, more receptions followed for the Duchess.
When she finally managed to withdraw to her rooms, she
found that looking out from her first-floor windows, she had
a fine view of the resort's well-kept park, and that the rooms
themselves had been provided not only with quantities of
flowers, but with elaborately carved, inlaid furniture, Ori-
ental rugs, mosque lamps, a collection of Turkish arms, and
other antiques loaned by Sarajevo's best firms not, per-
haps, without the thought of making some sales to the au-
gust visitors. Amid this Eastern splendor, she awaited her

40 SARAJEVO

husband's arrival, which was scheduled for midafternoon.

Franz Ferdinand's trip had not at first run quite so
smoothly. He had left on June 23, the evening before
Sophie's departure. As he arrived at the Siidbahnhof, he was
met by a disconsolate station-master. The Sudbahndirek-
tion, the station-master said, had put a parlor car at the
Archduke's disposal to replace his own which had broken
down at Chlumetz, but he was afraid that the electric wir-
ing system had suddenly failed. In the short time before the
train's departure, it was impossible to fix it. Would the
Archduke mind very much if the car were to be illuminated
with candles?

At nine o'clock, Franz Ferdinand's secretary, who was to
accompany Sophie the next day, came to the Siidbahnhof
to receive his last minute instructions. The picture that
faced him was a weird one, and he remembered it for a long
time afterwards: at the table of the parlor car sat Franz Fer-
dinand, framed to his right and to his left by burning
candles. As the secretary took his leave, Franz Ferdinand
said to him: "Good-by then; look after Her Highness, see
that everything is all right. Get her there in good shape.
What do you think about these lights? Just like in a grave,
isn't it? At first my carriage is afire when it pulls into the
station, and now this other car does not seem to be in a
cooperative mood either. Oh well, take care of yourself.
Good-by."

The next morning, at Trieste, Franz Ferdinand was
piped aboard the battleship Viribus Unitis. On June 25,
after an eighteen-hour trip across a calm Adriatic, he
boarded the smaller warship Dalmat at the mouth of the
river Narenta. Aboard the Dalmat, he was welcomed by
Governor Potiorek and his staff, who had traveled to the
Adriatic coast to meet their visitor* Preceded by the rev-

The Trip to Sarajevo 41

enue cutter Zadar, the archducal party traveled up the
river to the small town of Metkovi, where a special train to
Ilidze was awaiting them. Large and good-natured crowds
had taken up positions on both banks of the Narenta for the
entire length of the trip. Flags and brightly colored rugs
decorated most house fronts, and in several places triumphal
arches had been erected. In every town salutes were fired as
the Dalmat steamed by, while the crowds waved, cheered, or
ran along the river bank to keep up with the ship's progress.
Some men in the crowd, dressed in native costume, sent
exuberant shots into the air from their long-barreled guns.

At Metkovi, Franz Ferdinand left the Dalmat > and after
a brief reception by the local authorities entered his train.
At Mostar, the next station, there was a two-hour stopover
for a more elaborate reception. Mostar was the capital of
Herzegovina, a strikingly Oriental and sunny city of about
16,000, its mosques and whitewashed houses surrounded by
pine, cypress, and laurel trees.

At the station, Mostar's mayor, all of the town's leading
dignitaries, and a band had assembled to greet Franz Fer-
dinand. The mayor made the sort of brief but flowery ad-
dress we seem to have lost both the taste and the talent for
today:

While the rays of that sun still warm us that shone on us
through the Most Serene visit of His Imperial and Royal
Apostolic Majesty [the mayor said; the reference was to Franz
Joseph's trip in 1910] a new proof of the highest Imperial
favor, the presence of Your Imperial and Royal Highness in
our midst, brings happiness to us.

I most humbly thank Your Royal Highness for the gracious
visit being paid to our city and I pray that God may grant
health and a long and happy life to Your Royal and Imperial

42 SARAJEVO

Highness and Your August House. I also beg Your Royal
and Imperial Highness to be gracious enough to lay at the
steps of the greatest of thrones the feelings of our filial love
for, and our devotion and unshakable loyalty to, the exalted
person of our beloved Emperor.

I welcome Your Royal Highness among us, in our rocky
Herzegovina. Hurrahl

Franz Ferdinand replied in a similar vein, ending with a
sentence spoken in Croat: "Will you, Mr, Mayor, convey
my most cordial salute to the inhabitants of this beautiful
city, in whose development I take the most sincere interest/'

At 10:30 A.M., after a tour of Mostar, the archducal party
boarded the train again, and arrived in Ilidze, as scheduled,
at three. A bright sun had been shining in Mostar, but in
Ilidze it was still raining steadily. Despite the bad weather,
a large crowd had gathered in front of the station. As the
train moved into the station, the sound of commands to the
waiting guard of honor could be heard, and the garrison
band struck up Haydn's graceful national anthem, "God
Save Francis, Our Emperor. . . ."

Franz Ferdinand, alighting, was greeted by a number of
military dignitaries, passed the guard of honor in review;
found a friendly word for everyone who had come to wel-
come him, and then proceeded to the hotel to join Sophie,
He was in excellent spirits, and later in the afternoon he
and Sophie decided to take an unscheduled shopping trip
into Sarajevo, where they came face to face with one of their
assassins.

CHAPTER IV

The Conspirators

Bomb, Crucifix^ and Dagger: Narodna Odbrana
and Ujedinjenje ill Smrt

On October 8, 1908, two days after Austria's annexation
of Bosnia and Herzegovina, a number of men met in Bel-
grade to found a secret organization which they named the
Narodna Odbrana "National Defense." Among those pres-
ent or represented at the meeting were the Serbian Foreign
Minister, Milovan Milovanovi<5, and a number of other
ranking ministers, officials, and generals. General Bozo
Jankosi of the Serbian Army, a kindly looking man with a
flowing white beard, was elected president.

The purpose of the Narodna Odbrana was to enlist and
train partisans, for a possible war against Austria, to cany
on anti-Austrian propaganda in Serbia and abroad, and
to enlist reliable spies and saboteurs in the Austrian provin-
ces Serbia meant to annex. The Narodna Odbrana's work
was beautifully organized and it was effective. It soon had
agents in every important Bosnian locality informants,

43

44 SARAJEVO

propagandists, and relay men along an underground rail-
way that was used to smuggle fugitives from Bosnia into
Serbia, and propaganda material, weapons, and conspira-
tors from Serbia into Bosnia.

In the spring of 1909, the irritated Austrians pressed the
Serbian government to put a stop to these activities. Serbia,
having been deserted by Russia during the annexation cri-
sis, stood very much alone at that time, and the Narodna
Odbrana decided to transform itself into a primarily cul-
tural organization that would concentrate on education and
propaganda at home rather than on espionage and violence
abroad.

While the Narodna Odbrana never became the precise
Serbian equivalent of a Rotary Club or a Great Books Semi-
nar, it did in subsequent years largely abandon revolu-
tionary action. It therefore became desirable to replace it
with a new terrorist organization. The new group's charter
members were ten Serbian partisan leaders and army of-
ficers. Several had played a part in the Serbian revolution
of 1903, when they had been among those who had forced
their way into the royal palace, shot and killed King Alex-
ander Obrenovi<5, Queen Draga, the queen's brothers, and
a number of cabinet ministers, and proclaimed Peter Kara-
georgevid the new king. On May 9, 1911, the ten finally
adopted the written statutes for a secret organization which
they christened Ujedinjenje Hi Smrt, "Union or Death,"
but which became better known as the "Black Hand/'

Black Hand membership very soon stood at about 300,
Many of the early joiners were veterans of the regicide of
1903. Most were army officers, but there also was a fair
sprinkling of diplomats, lawyers, journalists, university pro-
fessors, and others. By 1914, it is possible that membership
was up to about 2,500. More would have joined had they

The Conspirators 45

been admitted, but the Black Hand consistently chose to re-
main an elite organization. This was particularly true of its
operations outside Serbia, where absolute secrecy and loy-
alty were essential. Total Black Hand membership in Bos-
nia-Herzegovina, for example, may never have exceeded
thirty.

The professed aim of the Black Hand was the creation,
by means of violence, of a Greater Serbia. "This organiza-
tion," read the first two articles of its statutes, "was created
in order to realize the national ideal, the unification of all
Serbs. . . . This organization prefers terrorist action to
cultural activities; it will therefore remain secret."

To achieve its aim, the Black Hand used methods of or-
ganization that combined the paraphernalia of Masonic ri-
tual with the practical efficiency of a mail order catalogue.
At the bottom of the organizational pyramid was a large
number of compact groups of from three to five members
each. Above them were several district committees; above
these a single Central Committee at Belgrade. The top of
the pyramid consisted of a ten-member, policy making Cen-
tral Executive Committee. Members* names were known to
a very few people only; in general, groups were referred to
by Roman, and individual members by Arabic code nu-
merals.

In those Austrian and Turkish territories which the
Black Hand meant to join to Serbia, and where it operated
as well as in Serbia proper, the basic group was often larger,
and had more freedom of action. "Major revolutionary
action, however/' the statutes prescribed, "shall be made
dependent upon the approval of the Central Committee in
Belgrade/' Representatives from all of the "unredeemed
territories" had a place in the Central Committee; the rep-

46 SARAJEVO

resentative from Bosnia-Herzegovina was a Gadnovi<^, the
panegyrist of 2eraji6

Initiation of new members took place in a darkened
room, lighted by a single candle. In the center of the room
stood a table covered with a black cloth, on which were dis-
played a dagger, a revolver, and a crucifix. After listening to
a brief speech on the Black Hand's aims and rules, and on
the dangers to which anyone joining it exposed himself, each
candidate was asked i he was ready to swear the initiation
oath. As he replied that he was, a cloaked, masked man a
member of a higher group silently entered from an adjoin-
ing room. In the presence of the masked man, the candidate
then pronounced the following oath:

I, ***, in joining the organization "Union or Death,"
swear by the Sun that warms me, by the Earth that nourishes
me, before God, by the blood of my ancestors, on my honor
and on my life, that I will from this moment until my death
be faithful to the laws of this organization; and that I will
always be ready to make any sacrifice for it.

I swear before God, on my honor and on my life, that I will
execute all missions and commands without question.

I swear before God, on my honor and on my life, that I
will take all the secrets of this organization into my grave
with me.

May God and my comrades in the organization be my
judges if, knowingly or not, I should ever violate this oath.

Afterwards the masked stranger shook hands with the
novices and, still without uttering a word, left the room.
Each new member then wrote out and signed a copy of the
oath, which went to the Central Committee in Belgrade,
and received his code number and the password or recogni-
tion signal of the moment.

The Conspirators 47

The Black Hand's seal was in keeping with the spirit of
the oath. The center showed a clenched fist holding an un-
furled flag bearing a skull and crossbones. To the left of the
flag were a dagger, a bomb, and a bottle of poison. Around
it ran the legend Ujedinjenje Hi Smrt "Union or Death/'

Communications between Central Committee and local
groups were seldon put in writing, although sometimes a
code advertisement might be placed in a reputable Belgrade
daily read mostly by business people. Financing was by
membership dues and by occasional collections among non-
members. Discipline was maintained by having each mem-
ber act as an informer "all members are obliged to ob-
serve . . . the behavior of comrades known to them"
and by threatening death to anyone who revealed Black
Hand secrets.

The organization's principal activities were the establish-
ment of a school for guerillas and saboteurs, the appoint-
ment of frontier officers, and political murders. It is im-
possible to say precisely how many assassinations the Black
Hand sponsored. Much information about the organization
came to light at the trial of some of its leaders in 1917, but
on this particular subject little has been revealed. It is prob-
able, however, that the Black Hand was involved in an un-
successful attempt to kill Emperor Franz Joseph in 1911,
and it seems certain that in 1912 it aided in a Croat ter-
rorist's gun plot against the governor of Croatia which
missed the intended victim, but killed a bystander and a
policeman.

The guerilla academy was established in 191 1, in an out-
of-the-way village near the ancient Orthodox bishopric of
Ni5. Here students, the majority of whom came from Bos-
nia and Herzegovina, received instruction in shooting,
bomb-throwing, bridge-blowing, espionage, and related

48 SARAJEVO

skills. Many o them had been recruited by the border
officers, the most valuable single group of members, per-
haps, of the Black Hand.

By an arrangement between the Black Hand and the Ser-
bian General Staff, there were appointed, as officers in
charge of a half dozen crucial border stations facing Austria
and Turkey, Black Hand members who, in addition to their
more conventional duties, were entrusted with espionage
and subversion. To the War Ministry, these frontier officers
were responsible for co-ordinating espionage activities in
those sections of Austrian and Turkish territory that lay
across their respective posts. To the Black Hand, they were
responsible for sponsoring and organizing revolutionary
activities in the same areas, and for serving as links in the
underground railway originally established by the Narodna
Odbrana, and now taken over by the Black Hand.

Other things which the Black Hand borrowed from the
Narodna Odbrana were its prestige and name. The frontier
officers did nothing to counteract the general assumption
that the group they were secretly representing was the
Narodna Odbrana, and with few exceptions enrolled their
collaborators across the border in that organization rather
than in the Black Hand.

It all worked out to a neat bit of camouflage. Should an
agent be caught, the Austrian police might possibly make
him admit a connection with the Narodna Odbrana, but he
would be unable to say anything about the Black Hand,
since he was quite genuinely ignorant of its existence. The
Austrians, who had found out a good deal about the activi-
ties of the Narodna Odbrana, thus knew next to nothing
about those of the Black Hand, and mistakenly continued
to attribute most of the subversion in Bosnia to the older
organization.

i. Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-
Este with his wife, Sophie, Duchess oi
Hohenberg, and their three children:
Maximillian, Ernst, and Sophie.

Franz Ferdinand

3. Franz Joseph I, Emperor of Austria
and Apostolic King of Hungary. A photo-
graph taken in 1916, the year of the Em-
peror's death at the age of 86.

4. Nicola Pasic,
Minister of Serbia

Prime 5. Colonel Dragutin Di-
mitrijevic", called Apis

(>. General Oskar Poti-
orek, Governor of Bosnia
and Herzegovina.

1 Photogrnphie du module d'une catte d ItSgilimatlon.

7. A Black Hand document: "Identification (Original) The Central Executive Committee
of the Organization Union or Death hereby delegates its member No, 1873 with organizing
a local committee in Paris, France, in the spirit of the constitution and rules of procedure
of the organization. Results to be reported to the Central Executive Committee through
the familiar channels." On the rubber stamp, to the left of the clenched fist holding the
flag with a skull and crossbones, note the bomb, the dagger, and the poison bottle. The in-
scription around it reads: "Union or Death -Central Executive Committee."

The Conspirators 49

The Belgrade government was in a far better position to
know, despite the secrecy that surrounded the Black Hand
even in Serbia. At first, there was close cooperation between
government and Black Hand. Black Hand members held
important positions in army and civil service; the Crown
Prince, Alexander, reportedly gave the new organization
26,000 dinars toward starting a newspaper, The Piemont;
and members of the Black Hand's Central Executive Com-
mittee took care to inform selected cabinet members of any
major decisions they had taken. Later, relations cooled and
even became hostile. Prince Alexander lost much of his en-
thusiasm when, despite his cash contribution, the Black
Hand refused him a position of leadership. More impor-
tant, in 1914, the government, then headed by Nikola Pasi,
engaged in a drawn-out, bitter power struggle with the
Black Hand over the question of whether civilian or mili-
tary control was to have priority in the territories Serbia
had annexed during the Balkan Wars.

Despite such friction, the government continued to be
rather well informed about what went on in the Black
Hand. One likely reason for this was that one of the or-
ganization's more trusted members, a man named Milan
Ciganovid he was to play a major role in the Sarajevo plot
very probably was a personal agent of Pasi, and had
joined the organization primarily to keep the Prime Min-
ister informed of its doings.

Apis

Thirty-seven years of age in 1914, heavy-set and quite
bald, with an elegantly upswept moustache and the pleas-
antest of manners, Colonel Dragutin Dimitrijevi was the

50 SARAJEVO

Chief of the Intelligence Department in the Serbian Gen-
eral Staff, and the moving spirit behind the Black Hand.

His background and education were the customary ones
for the professional army officer: lycee in Belgrade, then, at
eighteen, the Military Academy. He was a popular student
and a brilliant one. He also displayed so much restless
activity that his fellow-students at the lycee amicably nick-
named him Apis the Bee a name that stuck to him for
the remainder of his life. He graduated from the Military
Academy with such an outstanding record that he went
directly into the General Staff.

Even in his youth, Apis was an ardent patriot. To help
achieve Serbian greatness, he became a specialist in revolu-
tion, conspiracy, and assassination. He was, quite possibly,
the foremost European expert in regicide of his time.

He acquired this skill by much experiment and experi-
ence. His first effort was still quite clumsy and probably
doomed to fail from the start. In 1901, a number of young
Serbian officers undertook to remove the autocratic and un-
popular King Alexander and his wife Draga, a woman with
a dubious past. The plan Apis worked out called for doing
the killing at the Queen's Birthday Ball. A few of the of-
ficers were to seize Belgrade's two power plants and to shut
off the electricity. The others were to attend the Ball, and
at the moment the lights went off were to set fire to the
curtains, sound a fire alarm, and poison the royal couple
during the ensuing confusion.

The poison was secured and successfully tested on a cat;
everything else, however, went wrong. The power stations
turned out to be so well guarded that the officers could not
force their way in. Moreover, the king and queen failed to
appear at the ball.

His first setback apparently did not disconcert Apis too

The Conspirators 51

badly, and in the course of pursuing the murder scheme he
learned the value of binding conspirators together by fear
as well as by common motive. In the winter of 1902, he
drafted the following oath, which all the less cautious mem-
bers of the group readily signed:

Anticipating certain collapse of the state if the existing
situation continues for even the shortest time, and blaming
for this primarily the King and his paramour Draga Masin,
we swear that we shall murder them and to that effect affix
our signatures. In place of these dishonorable individuals,
we shall bring to the Serbian throne Peter Karageorgevi,
grandson of the Leader [a reference to Kara George, the
leader of the first Serbian revolt against the Turks in 1804],
and the legitimate son of Prince Alexander Karageorgevid.

In the spring of 1903, amid indications that the police
had discovered the plot, Apis, with the knowledge of one
other officer only, destroyed the document. He did not tell
anyone else what he had done, so that the other conspir-
ators continued to feel endangered and thus firmly bound
by an oath that in reality no longer existed.

Later that year, in June, some of the group stormed the
royal palace under cover of night, after much hectic search-
ing found the king and queen, who had been hiding in an
alcove behind a secret door of their bedroom, shot them
and threw their naked and bloody bodies from the bed-
room window into the garden below. In town, the remain-
ing conspirators sought out and killed the others on their
liquidation list. Early in the foray, Apis had thrown him-
self at the palace guard, who opened fire and left him badly
wounded. He eventually recovered, but three bullets left
from the encounter were never removed from his body.

The new dynasty was grateful to Apis, then a Captain,

52 SARAJEVO

and to his fellow conspirators. Parliament thanked him for
what he had done, calling him "the savior of the father-
land." Promotions, however, did not come unusually fast
for so outstanding an officer as Dimitrijevi^ was. One reason
may have been that he was as critical of the new regime as
he was unwilling to give up his secret position of power.

Apis was held in great regard by his fellow-officers, and,
having been appointed Professor of Tactics at the Military
Academy, in addition to his general-staff duties, he exercised
a profound influence over a large number of students as
well. In the years that followed the coup of 1903, Apis, al-
ways careful to keep to the background, became a leader in
the fight for army reforms, against corruption in govern-
ment, and for a Greater Serbia. "Although there was no-
thing despotic about him, his suggestions and wishes were
treated as commands/* a friend of his has written since,
"One saw him nowhere, yet one knew that he was doing
everything. . . . There was no minister of war who did
not have the feeling of having another, invisible minister
next to him."

Trips to Germany and Russia taught Apis some new
military ideas, and when the Balkan Wars of 1912 and 1913
broke out, the Serbian army's victories owed much to the
strategy he had planned. He himself could take no active
part in the fighting. Disguised as a simple partisan, he had,
just before the beginning of the First Balkan War, made his
way into Turkish territory and won over the most powerful
of Albanian chieftains to the Serbian cause. He returned
from this exploit gravely ill. For a while, his condition was
critical. After a specialist was called in from Berlin and
diagnosed his disease as Maltese fever, a rare and painful
illness, he slowly improved, but he was still far too ill to
lead any troops. In June, 1913, when he had quite recov-

The Conspirators 53

ered, he was appointed head of Serbian Intelligence. One of
his first acts was to organize a very superior espionage serv-
ice in Austria-Hungary.

His increasing military responsibilities did not cause
Apis to abandon conspiracy and violence. Among other
plots, he sent a young enthusiast to Vienna to try his hand
at killing Emperor Franz Joseph in 1911, three years later
agreed with a Bulgarian revolutionary group to the assas-
sination of Ferdinand of Bulgaria, and during the World
War formulated a plot against the King of Greece.

Apis* principal instrument for the organization of polit-
ical terror was the Black Hand. He had been charter mem-
ber number six, and, although nominally he was never any-
thing but one among ten on the Central Executive Com-
mittee, he very soon became its true leader. Partly this was
due to the high rate of attrition among the organization's
leadership; of the ten charter members, three died in the
Balkan Wars, and one left Belgrade to serve at the Serbian
Legation in Athens. But to a much larger degree it was
Apis* personal qualities which made him the Black Hand's
life and soul.

Personal magnetism, great intelligence, and utter discre-
tion combined to make Apis a wonderful organizer of what-
ever intrigue he happened to be pursuing at the moment.
Brave, incorruptible, modest, vastly patriotic, and totally
ruthless, he reminds one of a number of other leaders Eu-
rope, and more recently the Middle East, have seen since
the French Revolution. It is a line that begins with Robes-
pierre and ends, for the time being, with Colonel Nassar.
Apis* weakness aside from his conviction that patriotic
aims left no room for moral scruples was that for all his
immediate political skill, he knew little about the world

54 SARAJEVO

outside Serbia, and that he had no real sense for what was
politically feasible and what, in the long run, was not.

Apis Plans A Murder

The exact dates and circumstances of how Franz Ferdi-
nand's murder was planned although not the motives,
for those are very plain indeed have never been estab-
lished with absolute certainty, and probably never will be.
The plot's surviving participants have either kept silent or
told stories widely at variance with one another, and a writ-
ten confession left by Apis himself (which was suppressed
by a succession of Belgrade governments until its release by
Tito's in 1953) is plainly a mixture of truth and untruth.
The following account, therefore, can claim no more than
that it is based on the most likely among several stories and
on the testimony of the more credible among the witnesses,
and must remain open to some amount of doubt.

Early in November, 1913, Danilo Ili<5, a young news-
paper editor and Black Hand member in Sarajevo, crossed
the border into Serbia, to look up a frontier officer, Colo-
nel Cedomir Popovi<5. Some revolutionary action, Ili said,
ought to be taken in Bosnia. Popovi replied that to him,
the time did not seem right for acts of open violence.

The answer did not satisfy Ili<5. Would Popovii mind if
he, Ili, talked things over with Apis? Popovi thought this
an excellent idea, gave Ili money and travel papers for the
journey to Belgrade, and asked him to stop by on the way
back to tell him what had been decided. IH6 failed to do so,
since he chose a different route for his return trip. Popovi6
had reason to believe, however, that what Ilifi discussed with
Apis was an attempt on Governor Potiorek's life.

The Conspirators 55

At any rate, Apis* chief aide, Major Voja Tankosic, care-
ful as always to cover up any traces that might lead to
Serbia, organized a meeting of some trusted Bosnian revolu-
tionaries in France. Early in January, 1914, there came
together in the Hotel-Restaurant St. Jerome, on the rue St.
J6r6me in Toulouse, the pamphleteer Gainovi and two
other Bosnian Black Hand members, Mustafa GolubiC and
Muhamed Mehmedbasii. Golubi was a law student of
twenty-two. Mehmedbasi<5 was a cabinetmaker from Her-
zegovina, a Moslem in his late twenties, and this account of
the Toulouse meeting and its consequences is based largely
on the story he himself has told of it.

At the St. Jr6me, according to Mehmedbasic, Gainovi
spoke at some length on the need to arouse Bosnia by acts of
terrorism. The three young men then debated who might
best be assassinated, mentioning Franz Ferdinand among
others, but settling on Potiorek as the most effective victim.
The man chosen as the assassin was Mehmedbasi6 The
weapon he was to use was a poisoned dagger. Ga<Hnovi pro-
cured the poison in which to dip the dagger, and Mehmed-
basi set out for the return trip to Bosnia.

As his train passed into Austrian territory, he noticed that
several policemen were searching the compartments for
something. In some panic, he threw the dagger out of the
window, and flushed the poison down the toilet. A while
later he learned that the police had been after a petty thief.

Mehmedbasi^ wrote to Gainovi to report the fiasco and
to ask for further instructions. He also looked up IH6 in
Sarajevo, to say that he still was ready to assassinate Po-
tiorek. Ilia's answer was to forget about Potiorek. A decision
had meanwhile been made, Ili said, to kill Franz Ferdi-
nand instead.

At what point Apis decided to have Franz Ferdinand

56 SARAJEVO

murdered is not clear. That It was Apis, however, who
planned the murder is in as little doubt as are his reasons
for wanting Franz Ferdinand's death.

Much nonsense has been written about Apis' motives by
people intent on vindicating his deed. Franz Ferdinand
supposedly was a warmonger. Apis supposedly had found
out that the Bosnian maneuvers were nothing but the pre-
lude to an Austrian attack on Serbia. The German Kaiser,
during the meeting at Konopisht in June, supposedly had
promised Franz Ferdinand his country's help in smashing
the Serbian state. The truth was that there had been no
such talk at Konopisht, that there was nothing sinister about
the Bosnian maneuvers, and that Franz Ferdinand dreaded
the thought of war with Serbia since he realized that it
would lead to a disastrous war with Serbia's ally Russia.
Moreover, as head of Serbian Intelligence, Apis knew very
well what was fact and what was rumor.

Apis decided on Franz Ferdinand's assassination not be-
cause he thought him a warmonger, but because he feared
the Archduke's ideas might bring about the solution of
Austria-Hungary's nationality problems by offering major
concessions to the monarchy's South Slavs. Greater Serbian
agitation needed dissatisfied Serbs in Austria. Franz Ferdi-
nand's schemes for Trialism or Federalism, if they were ever
allowed to be put into practice, would mean the collapse of
the Yugoslav dream. In fact, the creation of a prosperous,
autonomous South Slav state within the Austrian Empire
represented an even graver threat than that. Not only
might union with Serbia lose its appeal to Austria's Serbs
union with an Austro-Hungarian-Slav federation might
well make sense to a great number of people in the kingdom
of Serbia some day.

Apis was not alone in being appalled by the prospect. In

The Conspirators 57

a moment of frankness, Prime Minister Nikola Pasic con-
fided to an Italian friend during the war that he had
trembled only once for the future of his country when he
had found out about Franz Ferdinand's plan for reorganiz-
ing the Austro-Hungarian monarchy.

At about the time of the Toulouse meeting, Apis learned
about the Archduke's forthcoming visit to Sarajevo, and he
very quickly decided that the killing of Franz Ferdinand
would make far greater sense than that of Potiorek. It is
unlikely that Apis thought the murder would lead to war
with Austria, and it is even less likely that he wanted such
a war at that time. He made sure, however, that if the un-
expected should happen, Serbia would not have to fight
alone.

For some time, Apis had been working in close harmony
with the Russian military attache 1 to Belgrade, Colonel
Victor Artamonov. Artamonov had been providing Apis
with money to finance his intelligence network in Austria
at a time when the Serbian General Staff was short of funds.
In return, Apis probably shared some of the information
gathered by his agents with Artamonov. Apis now may have
told the Russian attache* about the assassination scheme,
and asked if Serbia could count on Russian aid in the
event of war.

When Artamonov, apparently after consulting with St.
Petersburg, reportedly assured him that Russia would stand
by Serbia if Austria attacked first, Apis definitely made up
his mind to have Franz Ferdinand killed.

CHAPTER V

The Preparations

Coffee Shops and Terrorists

Having decided on the murder, Colonel Dimitrijevi<5
preferred to touch few of the actual details himself. Instead,
he left the preparations to his principal Black Hand aide,
Major Voja Tankosid.

Tankosi was a kindly and gentle man in his private life,
who was capable of acting with total ruthlessness wherever
his political beliefs were Involved. He had played a leading
part in the coup of 1903, when he had directed the killing
of the queen's two brothers. During the Balkan War, he
made a name for himself as a partisan fighter. A close as-
sociate of Apis, he was charter member number seven of the
Black Hand, and went on to become the commanding
officer of its guerilla academy near NiS.

Tankosifi had little difficulty in recruiting his assassins.
There were, at this time, a great many disaffected young
Bosnians in Belgrade. Some were high-school students who
had come to Serbia to study. Others had served as partisans

58

The Preparations 59

in the Balkan Wars, and now had a good deal of time on
their hands which they were spending in talking about rev-
olution and Greater Serbia. Most of these youths had little
money, although some of the ex-partisans held minor gov-
ernment jobs. Their principal meeting places were several
inexpensive Belgrade coffee shops, where for no more than
the price of a cup of coffee they could sit and talk for as
long as the mood struck them: the Zlatna Moruna or Gol-
den Sturgeon; across from it the Zirovni Venae or Acorn
Garland; and not far from these the Moruna or Sturgeon,
and the Zeleni Venae or Green Garland.

The world of these coffee shops was one of excite-
ment, of restlessness, conspiracy, and good companionship.
The partisans, despite the martial beards they often af-
fected, were as a rule only a few years older than the eager
high-school juniors and seniors in their audience. They
talked endlessly of their recent exploits against Turks and
Bulgarians, and of how they were looking forward to fight-
ing the Austrians next. Both groups seemed forever to be
living in expectation of some great happening that would
change their lives, forever to be plotting wars and violence.
Their poverty was sometimes bitter. There might be no
food for a day; some of them might sleep in Belgrade's
public shelter or in shacks they built themselves of boards
and newspapers. It did not matter it was shared poverty.
Beside, they felt themselves to be the vanguard of a different
future, of the new Empire of all South Slavs.

From among this group, Tankosid chose his recruits. He
chose well: one absolutely trustworthy youth, who had a
very definite idea of what the crime he was going to com-
mit was really about, and two relative innocents. Their
names were Gavrilo Princip, Nedjelko Cabrinovid, and
Trifko Grabez.

60 SARAJEVO

Grabez was a dark and serious-looking young man of
nineteen. He was the son of a Serb-Orthodox priest in Pale,
a small town about twelve miles east of Sarajevo. At the age
of seventeen, he was expelled from school for striking one
of his teachers. He thereupon left Bosnia for Belgrade to
continue his schooling, passed through three high-school
classes within about a year and a half, and in the spring of
1914 was finishing his junior year.

At his trial, the judge was to express some surprise over
the rapidity of Grabez's educational progress in Belgrade,
asking "Are our schools better than the Serbian schools, or
are Bosnian students being favored?" Grabez gave a curt
reply: "The spirit of instruction is different. One does not
get five to six hours of Latin, Greek is not taught, and the
whole emphasis is different."

Greatly addicted to devising plans for the overthrow of
authority, Grabez joined the Black Hand and spent much
of his time in the company of the ex-partisans and exiles of
the coffee shops. For all his talk of violence, his health was
poor; he was probably suffering from consumption even
then.

Nedjelko Cabrinovi^, nineteen like Grabe2, and a hand-
some, black-haired youth, had had a rather more varied
career. His father was an Austrian police spy, and relations
between father and son were constantly marked by bicker-
ing and by outright hostility. His father, Cabrinovii
claimed at his trial, failed to support him and mistreated
him, once locking him up for three days for behaving badly
toward a servant. (In 1924, near the tenth anniversary of
the Sarajevo crime, Cabrinovi^s father died a suicide.)

Cabrinovid; finished the first two years of commercial high
school, but he was a poor student, and his father made him
leave school at about the age of fourteen. He tried a number

The Preparations 61

of trades, apprenticing himself in turn to a plumber, a car-
penter, and a typesetter. He had frequent quarrels with
most of his employers, and quit his first job as a printer in
anger after some superior struck him. Leaving Bosnia, he
made his way to Belgrade, where he found work in a print
shop specializing in anarchist literature.

Before long, he became quite ill. Like Grabez, he was
probably a consumptive. He returned home to Bosnia for
a rest cure, bringing with him a number of anarchist books
which he was fond of reading as well as printing, and which
his mother, when she discovered them, very promptly
burned.

After his condition improved, he went to work for a prin-
ter in Sarajevo, took a leading part in a typesetters' strike
in 1912, and as a result received an expulsion order from
the city for a period of five years. Returning to Belgrade, he
began to associate with the young revolutionaries of the
coffee shops. When he fell ill again, and when his money
ran short, someone introduced him to Major Milan Vasi,
Secretary of both the Narodna Odbrana and the Black
Hand, at the Acorn Garland cafe.

As Cabrinovi later told it in court, he happened to have
a volume of Maupassant stories with him at the time of
their meeting. Vasi<5 took the book away from him, saying
that this sort of reading was not for Cabrinovii, and gave
him some money as well as a batch of Greater Serbian litera-
ture. "I don't know how to thank you for your kindness,"
said Cabrinovid Vasi^ replied that he could do so by just
being a good Serb.

Cabrinovi, who had been first a socialist and then an
anarchist, became a passionate nationalist in Belgrade, al-
though there is no evidence that he was ever admitted to
Black Hand membership. Nor would it seem probable that

62 SARAJEVO

he was; for, strongly attached to whatever convinctions he
held at the moment, and pathetically anxious to make
everyone forget that his father was serving the Austrians as
a police informer, Cabrinovic; had a dangerous tendency to
be incautious and talkative.

After some more wanderings, which included a trip back
to Sarajevo the five year expulsion order had been com-
muted to two months his friends procured a job for him
at the Serbian Government Printing Office in Belgrade. It
was here that Cabrinovi was working early in 1 9 14.

Gavrilo Princip, the third of Tankosi's recruits, and the
outstanding one among them, was born in July, 1894, in the
village of Oblej, in the wild and mountainous region that
separates Bosnia from the Dalmation coast. His father
worked as a postman, and Gavrilo was the fourth among
nine children, six of whom died in infancy. He attended
high school in Sarajevo and Tuzla, but in May, 1912, he
left Bosnia for Belgrade, ostensibly in order to continue his
education there.

Princip had become an active propagandist for the
Greater Serbian cause while still at school in Bosnia, and
in Belgrade he quickly found his way to the right coffee
shops. He joined the Black Hand, and enrolled in Tankos-
id's partisan academy. When his turn came to go to the
front, however, it was discovered that his health ren-
dered him quite unfit for actual service. The disease he was
suffering from very probably was tuberculosis. Slight of
build, thin lipped and pale, Princip certainly always seemed
to look frail, if not actually ill, and it is difficult to see how
anything but his immense strength of will ever got him ad-
mitted to the partisan academy.

Having been sent back by Tankosi<5, Princip spent the
next year or so either in Belgrade or near Sarajevo, studying

The Preparations 63

for high school examinations and plotting revolution with
a number of friends which included Gacinovi, Grabez, and
Cabrinovi. His family mailed him a modest sum of money
for his support each month, but Princip seldom seemed to
have any of it left. Although essentially far from gregarious
by nature, he would gladly pay for the meal of some fellow-
student poorer than himself, or loan money to his friends,
no matter how slim the chances of repayment.

In February, 1914, having spent the winter in the village
of Hadzi& near Sarajevo, Princip was back in Belgrade, pre-
paring for his final high school examinations, and looking
for an opportunity to strike some blow against the Aus-
trians.

The Clean Young Assassins

Certain similarities between Tankosi's three recruits for
the murder are striking. They all knew each other. "Prin-
cip was my best friend," said Cabrinovi at his trial, and
Grabez and Princip roomed together for some time in Bel-
grade. They were of the same age all were nineteen. They
came from poor families, and had spent childhoods that
were far from happy, although Princip and Grabez did not
dislike their families with Cabrinovic^'s intensity. Legally,
they were citizens of Austria-Hungary, ethnically, they were
Serbs, and they felt that their loyalty belonged to Serbia,
not to Austria.

Aside from their compulsion to commit treason and mur-
der, they really were good and kindly fellows. They shared
what they had, and with the possible exception of Cabrino-
vi, they worked and studied hard. They had had little or no
trouble with the police. Grabez had been sentenced to two
weeks in prison for striking his high-school teacher, and

64 SARAJEVO

Cabrinovi had been told to leave Sarajevo for his activities
in the typesetters' strike, but these two minor offenses apart,
they had perfectly clean records.

They were, in fact, remarkably free of bad habits. In some
ways, it might even be said that they were excessively seri-
ous and moral young men. They had no expensive tastes.
They drank sparingly, if at all. They made no bad debts,
did not gamble, and we definitely know at least of Princip
that he was frightfully shy in the company of women.

Their health was bad. Knowing themselves to be in more
or less advanced stages of consumption, they believed that
it was all but their duty to sacrifice whatever life they might
have left to their cause. At their trial, for example, the fol-
lowing exchange took place between Cabrinovi and his de-
fense counsel, Dr. Premuzi:

Premuzit; "You told me, when we talked about the
[newspaper] Zora, that you still had some doubts at that
moment, and that reading it made an impression on you/*

Premuzid: "I ask the defendant to sum up the contents
of the Zora article."

Cabrinovit: "There was a story in it about a young Serb
professor who had killed himself somewhere, and that he
had acted foolishly, for by sacrificing himself he could have
disposed of at least one of our enemies. Since he had decided
to die, he should have killed at least one enemy."

No murderer's motives, of course, are entirely unmixed.
Dreams of glory that many a high-school student has
dreamed before and since may have helped to drive them
on 2eraji<5's martyrdom and fame called for imitation.
They may have been seriously concerned over the poverty
in which the ordinary Bosnian peasant lived, hoping that
any sort of change could improve his lot. "People are re-

The Preparations 65

duced to complete poverty . . . ," said Princip at their
trial. "I am the son of peasants and I know what is happen-
ing in the villages. That is why I wanted to take revenge,
and I regret nothing/' But since very obviously it was not
Franz Ferdinand who had impoverished Bosnia's peasants,
their overriding motive was a different one the creation
of a Greater Serbia.

Nominally, Princip, Cabrinovi, and Grabez were Serb-
Orthodox by religion. Actually, none of them practiced his
faith. "I am an atheist/' said Princip at the trial, and he
might have been speaking for his friends as well. Yet while
they were atheists, they had found a new secular belief for
which they were ready to die with the conviction and forti-
tude of any religious martyr. One of the most revealing ex-
changes took place when the President of the Court, Alois
von Curinaldi, questioned Grabez on his faith:

Curinaldi: "Do you believe in God or are you an athe-
ist?"

Grabez: "I am a believer."

Curinaldi: "How can you reconcile your faith with the
destruction of one of God's creatures? You know that as far
as religion is concerned that is a mortal sin."

Grabez: "My faith does not go that far."

Curinaldi: "Your father is a parish priest. What sort of
education did he give you? Did he inculcate any religious
feelings in you?"

Grabel: "He gave me a religious education, within the
framework of Holy Scripture."

Curinaldi: "How did you follow your father's teach-
ings?"

Grabei: "I did as a child, but then, coming into contact
with other people, there were other influences."

Curinaldi: "These young people have no faith?"

66 SARAJEVO

Grabez: "Not the faith you are thinking of, but they have
a national religion, and that to a high degree/'

If the national religion, the advancement of Serbo-Croat
union, required Franz Ferdinand's death, they would kill
him. It was that simple.

Perhaps not all three realized what Apis' real motives
were for wanting Franz Ferdinand killed. Possibly Grabez
and Cabrinovi thought of him mainly as a potential enemy
and oppressor of the Serbs, and only Princip realized fully
that Apis had sentenced Franz Ferdinand to death not be-
cause the Archduke was hostile to the Slavs but, on the con-
trary, because he planned reforms that might prove far too
attractive to them. At their trial, in order to give the Aus-
trians no clue that might point to Apis and the Black Hand,
the three usually took great pains to hide their true motives,
and the extent to which they were aware of the reasons for
Apis' decision may therefore never be known. What is cer-
tain, however, is that none of them felt that what he was
about to commit was a crime.

No matter on what grounds, Franz Ferdinand had been
declared an enemy of Serbia and of Serbo-Croat union. The
Black Hand had decided that he should die. They were
merely engaged in carrying out a sentence and killing an
enemy. All that was involved, as Princip put it to Curinaldi
and again he might have been the spokesman for the
whole group was the removal of "an evildoer. I meant to
do a good deed."

Shooting Lessons and Weapons

Apis had delegated much of the work of organizing the
murder to Tankosi6 Tankosit, in turn, also avoided direct
contacts with the youths as much as he could, and used yet

The Preparations 67

another agent for many of his dealings with them. The go-
between was Milan Ciganovid, a twenty-six year old native
of Bosnia, an early Black Hand member who had served as
a partisan under Tankosid against the Bulgarians, and who
now held a minor post with the Serbian State Railways. The
chain of command that led from Apis to Tankosic to Ci-
ganovic to Princip and his two associates was cumbersome,
but it had one immense advantage. Should the youths sur-
vive their crime, and be arrested by the Austrian police,
they might reveal Ciganovid's name, and under extremely
persistent questioning even Tankosi's, but they could logi-
cally stop there, without so much as hinting that they knew
of Apis' existence. This was an absolutely essential precau-
tion, for should the Austrians ever discover and be able
to prove that the man who had organized the murder was
Colonel Dimitrijevid, Chief of Serbian Intelligence, they
would have ample reason to accuse the Belgrade govern-
ment of complicity, and appear justified in taking the
strongest of measures against Serbia.

By April, the three youths had definitely agreed to com-
mit the murder. In May, they practiced shooting. The best
shot among them was Princip, which was not too surprising
perhaps in view of his having attended the Black Hand's
partisan academy two years before.

On May 27, Ciganovid gave them the weapons they were
to use four revolvers and six bombs and some vials of
poison. The guns were Belgian automatics of the most re-
cent model. The bombs, manufactured at the Serbian State
Arsenal of Kragujevac, were beautifully suited for assassi-
nations. Rectangular in shape, and weighing less than two
and a half pounds, they were harmless looking, easy to
handle, and compact enough to carry in a coat pocket, being
even smaller in size than the revolvers. When Cabrinovid

68 SARAJEVO

removed his bomb from his pocket on June 28, one specta-
tor thought that he was taking out a pipe.

The bombs may have been among some weapons which
Ciganovii had saved from the Balkan Wars; GrabeX
claimed at the trial that he saw a whole suitcase full of
bombs in Ciganovi*s room. The guns were bought by
Dimitrijevi^.

The poison was cyanide, packed in small vials carefully
wrapped in cotton. After killing the Archduke, the three
were under instructions to shoot themselves, and, should
this prove impossible, they were to commit suicide by swal-
lowing the cyanide.

The Trip to the Border

Since Princip, Cabrinovi<5, and Grabe2 were to use the
underground route to Bosnia, and since the Austrians
might be expected to have strong security forces on duty
during the Archduke's visit, the three started for Sarajevo
a full four weeks ahead of Franz Ferdinand's arrival at
Ilidze. We do not know for certain whether it was Cigano-
vi, Tankosi, or Apis himself who planned their trip;
what we do know is that it was planned with considerable
attention to detail.

On May 28, Princip and his two friends left Belgrade.
The first part of their trip, from Belgrade to the town of
Sabac, resembled a pleasant excursion, for they traveled by
river boat. At Sabac, a small Serbian border post facing Aus-
tria, they went to look for the local frontier officer, Captain
Rada Popovid Finding him at a local coffee shop playing
cards they identified themselves by handing him a note
bearing the letters M. G. Milan Ciganovi's initials. The
two letters told Popovi<5 all he needed to know; the day be-

The Preparations 69

fore, he had been to Belgrade and received Apis' instruc-
tions.

He left the coffee shop, and took his visitors to the cus-
toms house. There he filled out and signed the proper forms
indicating that they were customs officials, and hence en-
titled to free tickets on the Serbian State Railways, and to
half-price tickets on the private railways. (Aside from being
well-organized, the Sarajevo plot was cheap there can
have been few other murders in which the killers managed
to buy tickets at reduced rates to take them to the scene of
the crime.) He also gave them a letter to Captain Prvano-
vi<5, the frontier officer at Loznica, some twenty miles south-
west of Sabac. "Try to receive these people and to guide
them where you know your way/' he wrote.

On their arrival at Loznica, they looked up Prvanovit
and gave him Popovi's letter. The captain picked up his
telephone to call one of his sergeants at the frontier and to
consult about the best border crossing point, but there was
some trouble with the line, and he was unable to get
through. He therefore asked the youths to be back the next
day.

The three spent the night at a small resort town outside
of Loznica. Here they had their first fight. The exultant
Cabrinovi could not refrain from writing a half dozen post
cards to friends. On one card, he quoted these all too apt
lines written by the nineteenth-century Serbian leader and
national hero Kara George:

Noble waters of the Drina
Frontier between Bosnia and Serbia
Soon will come the time
When I shall cross you
To enter faithful Bosnia.

70 SARAJEVO

Princip, appalled by Cabrinovi's lack of caution, spoke
sharply to his friend, and for some time after that refused
to exchange another word with him.

The next morning, Saturday, May 30, the three were sit-
ting in a coffee shop at Loznica when a border guard en-
tered and asked them to accompany him to the customs
house. There they found the captain and three of his ser-
geants of the border guard. Whose station, Prvanovi asked
the sergeants, was the safest one for an undisclosed crossing?
The customs guard from Ljesnica thought that his was.
Ljesnica faced a wooded little island in the river Drina that
separated Serbia from Austria. One might rest there. Be-
sides, hidden pathways on the island as well as on either
bank of the river across from it offered enough protection
to make the region one that was greatly favored among the
local smugglers. His post, in short, might well be the per-
fect spot from which to take Princip and Grabe2 across.

The suggestion was accepted, and the group split up.
Princip and Grabez traveled north with the sergeant to try
to slip across the border near LjeSnica, while Cabrinovi^
equipped with a letter of introduction from Captain
Prvanovid went south, to try his luck at a town called Mali
Zvornik.

CHAPTER VI

Pasic

The Prime Minister's Alarm

At about the same time, the Serbian Prime Minister,
Nikola Pai, learned about the plot. Who his informant
was is not certain. One guess would be that it was Cigano-
vi, who was rumored to be Pai's confidential agent in the
Black Hand. Another would be that someone in the Serbian
police made the discovery. Government and Black Hand
were at loggerheads at that period, and either the police or
Pasi's own agents must have been on special guard against
any unusual Black Hand activity.

Pai went into conference with the Minister of the In-
terior, Stojan Proti, and several other cabinet members.
Serbia was not ready for a major war the Balkan Wars
were still far too recent and Pai had no desire to run
the risk of conflict with Austria at that particular moment.
The decision reached, therefore, was to prevent Franz Fer-
dinand's murder by the simple device of stopping the as-
sassins.

71

72 SARAJEVO

Proti sent the necessary orders to the frontier authorities
along the Drina not to let Princip, Grabez, and Cabrinovi
pass. In theory, the frontier officers came under the Minis-
ter of the Interior's authority; their involvement with Black
Hand work was something that, in theory again, was no part
of their official functions which were those of guarding
the borders rather than of smuggling assassins across them.
The frontier officers, however, sent word that it was too late
for any effective action. The three youths, their message
went, already had crossed into Austria. Whether this was
true, or whether the frontier officers had chosen to follow
Apis' rather than Proti's orders Is a matter of conjecture
again, since the precise date on which the Minister's in-
structions went out has never been revealed.

An Inadequate Warning

A truly unenviable dilemma now confronted PaSid He
had two main courses of action open to him. One was to con-
sider that he had done his duty by trying to stop the assas-
sins at the border, and to let further events take their own
course. The other was to prevent the murder by giving the
Austrians the facts about the plot.

If he did nothing, and the assassins succeeded, he would
have to share some of the guilt for Franz Ferdinand's death.
Worse, if the assassins confessed their Belgrade connections,
Serbia would face some very embarrassing Austrian ques-
tions and demands, and the possibility of war.

If, on the other hand, he revealed the plot to the Aus-
trians, he might well find himself the next victim marked
for assassination by the Black Hand. PaSi was no coward,
but there were other dangers involved as well, Telling the
Austrians the facts would mean admitting the extent to

Pasid 73

which the Serbian government was aware of, and had tol-
erated, those subversive activities which it always dis-
claimed. Beside, a parliamentary election was coming up
in Serbia that summer. Many Serbian voters would con-
sider the assassins heroes not murderers. Should it ever be-
come known that Pasic: had delivered these youths and their
Bosnian helpers to the Austrian police, he might just as
soon announce his retirement from politics and save him-
self the bother of an election campaign.

Finding himself in this quandary, Pasid chose a course of
action very much in keeping with his character. A liberal
at home, and a pan-Serb abroad. Pasi owed the many years
he had spent in office to his considerable popularity, to his
shrewdness, and to his immense political skill, which in-
cluded the exercise of great caution in critical situations.
Pai was the owner of a magnificent, flowing white beard;
"the beard will manage all right" was a phrase often heard
among his supporters when matters looked dangerous or
hopeless. He frequently did.

From the regicide of 1903 until his death in 1926, it was
Pasi who, with few interruptions, held power in Serbia.
Yet, significantly enough, Pai had taken pains to avoid
making any advance commitments to the regicides, and at
the height of the crisis, he simply could not be found any-
where in Belgrade. Or there was the story very likely apoc-
ryphal told about an interview he supposedly gave to a
foreign correspondent. As he was talking to the journalist,
his wife entered the room. PaSid rose, and introduced her
as Jeanne Pa3i<5. After the journalist had left, Mme. Pasi
angrily turned to her husband. Why, she asked him, had he
introduced her by that name; surely he must remember
that her name was Georgina. Pai's supposed reply was that
he had some excellent reasons. Very probably, he said, the

74 SARAJEVO

correspondent would mention the meeting with the prime
minister's wife. If his article should prove politically em-
barrassing, one could always deny his entire account by say-
ing that Pasi could not possibly have introduced his wife
under the name of Jeanne, when everyone knew that it was
Georgina.

Pasi now decided that what he would do was to warn the
Austrians through the Serbian Minister in Vienna, but to
make the warning neither formal nor specific. This form of
warning, if extremely well handled, had the advantage that,
without giving too many of the facts away, it might be suffi-
cient to absolve him from any further responsibility for
what would happen to both Franz Ferdinand and the
would-be assassins. The trouble with it was that it probably
was too clever by far, and that it definitely was badly
handled.

The Serbian Minister to Vienna was a pan-Serb named
Jovan Jovanovi, whose extremist views were so well known
that the Austrians had on several occasions hinted to Bel-
grade that they would not mind at all if he were to be re-
called. The Court snubbed him, and the Foreign Minister,
Count Berchtold, greatly preferred not to receive him. A
practice therefore developed by which Jovanovi would
have most of his dealings not with the Foreign Minister,
but with the Minister of Finance, Bilinski, with whom he
got along much more easily. It was an unusual arrange-
ment, but old Austria abounded in unusual arrangements.
Beside, it made some sense in this case, since administra-
tively, Bosnia and Herzegovina came under the jurisdic-
tion of Bilinski's Ministry.

Pa3i's instruction to alert the Austrians, and yet to do so
in an innocuous manner, severely taxed JovanovWs diplo-
matic ingenuity. He was, at that time, the Black Hand's

Pasic 75

choice for the Foreign Ministry in the event that Pasi's gov-
ernment should be overthrown, and he could make no dis-
closure that contained even the slightest risk of putting the
Austrians on that organization's trail. Nor could he afford
to create the impression that his government was trying to
intimidate the Austrians to the point of making Franz Fer-
dinand abandon his Bosnian trip.

Late In May or early in June, Jovanovi called Bilinski's
secretary to say that he would like to see the Minister some
time. There was no hurry about it, he added, and the ap-
pointment was set for a date several days later.

On June 5, Jovanovii had his interview with Bilinski.
What he was about to tell him, Jovanovid said, was purely
on his personal initiative. (The use of the phrase "personal
initiative" is a time-honored and useful diplomatic prac-
tice. Translated into nondiplomatic language, its meaning
is roughly that the person using it Is speaking in the name
of his government no diplomat who wishes to remain one
ever makes truly private suggestions involving policy to a
foreign government but that, if so desired, no official cog-
nizance need be taken of his words. In this fashion, should
his proposals be accepted, nothing has been lost. Should
they be disregarded, the rejection will cause his home gov-
ernment no loss of prestige, since for the record, they had
never been made in the first place.)

He had heard, Jovanovi said, that the Bosnian maneu-
vers were to be held along the River Drina, and that Franz
Ferdinand was to be in personal charge. (Both assumptions
were incorrect. Franz Ferdinand was a guest at the maneu-
vers, the commanding general being Potiorek, and the lo-
cation of the maneuvers was about fifty miles west of the
Drina, and thus at a safe distance from the Serbian border.)
He then, according to his own report, told Bilinski: "If that

76 SARAJEVO

is true, I can assure Your Excellency that this will cause
much discontent among the Serbs, who will consider it a
provocative gesture. Maneuvers, under such circumstances,
are a dangerous thing. Some young Serb might put a live
rather than a blank cartridge in his gun, and fire it. That
bullet might hit the man who provoked him. Therefore it
might be good and reasonable if Archduke Franz Ferdinand
were not to go to Sarajevo, and if the maneuvers were to
take place neither on St. Vims' Day [June 28] nor in Bos-
nia/'

Bilinski, presumably unfamiliar with the meaning of the
phrase "personal initiative/' and far from guessing that he
was being warned about an actual assassination plot, tried
to reassure Jovanovid No, he said, he really could not be-
lieve that the maneuvers would have such an effect. Accord-
ing to his information, things had been quite peaceful in
Bosnia recently. As the frustrated Jovanovi took his leave
the kindly Bilinski tried to humor him. "Let us hope noth-
ing does happen/ 1 he said.

Back at the Serbian Legation, Jovanovi confessed to the
military attach6 that he was worried; Bilinski had not
seemed at all impressed by his warning. Nor is it possible to
see how he could have been. On the basis of quite inaccur-
ate premises, and in the vaguest of terms, Jovanovi<5 had
warned him not so much of an assassination plot as against
holding the Bosnian maneuvers which certainly were
none of the Finance Minister's business. Nor was Franz Fer-
dinand's trip any of Bilinski's concern. Even though Bosnia
and Herzegovina were under the jurisdiction of his Minis-
try, Franz Ferdinand was visiting the region in his capacity
as Inspector General of the Armed Forces, so that all ar-
rangements for the trip became the responsibilty of Gen-
eral Potiorek, as the ranking military figure. Bilinski's Min-

PaSid 77

istry, In fact, didn't even receive a copy of the travel pro-
gram.

Despite his misgivings, Jovanovi did not take the matter
up again in plainer terms either with Bilinski or with any-
one else in Vienna. Bilinski, for his part, attached so little
importance to Jovanovic's remarks that while he may have
repeated them in an equally casual manner to Berchtold
there is sharp contradiction between the witnesses in-
volved whether he informed the Foreign Minister at all,
and no document mentioning any Serbian warning has
been found in the archives of the Austrian Foreign Min-
istry he did not consider it necessary to report the con-
versation to either the Emperor or to Franz Ferdinand.
Europe was a very large step closer to the World War.

The Black Hand Votes Against Apis

A more promising attempt to halt the assassination came
from an unexpected quarter. On June 14, 1914, Apis called
a meeting of the Black Hand's Central Executive Commit-
tee in Belgrade. So far, only he, Tankosi, Ciganovi, and
perhaps one or two other Black Hand members had been in-
volved in planning the murder. Apis now informed the en-
tire Central Committee of the plot against Franz Ferdinand.

It must have been a memorable meeting. Apis* influence
had long dominated the Black Hand. The Committee mem-
bers were not exactly squeamish many of them had been
among the regicides of 1903, and all of them were satisfied
that the pan-Serb aim justified violence. Yet when con-
fronted with this bald plan for killing the Austrian Heir to
the Throne, they sobered, for it was plain that they might
be inviting war.

A long and violent debate ensued. Apis stubbornly de~

78 SARAJEVO

fended his position. The opposition, equally vocal, was
stronger; at the end, a large majority voted against Apis'
plan.

Apis gave in. He would call the assassination off, he prom-
ised the Committee. The promise was without meaning.
Apis later assured one member of the Committee that he
had indeed sent an emissary out after the assassins to dis-
suade them from their deed, but that they had refused. This
story constitutes the sole evidence that Apis so much as tried
to carry out the Committee's vote.

CHAPTER VII

Crossing the Drina

&abrinovi'$ Journey

FRONTIER OFFICER
LOZNICA DISTRICT

Official No.:

Dear Sunid:

Please help this boy cross the border from Mali Zvornik
with his passport. It should be safer, Jakovljevic" can ac-
company him.

In case Suni<5 should not be in Mali Zvornik, this letter
is addressed to Mr. Milan Jakovljevic*.

Regards,

Prvan

Bearing this letter from the helpful Captain Prvanovii,
Cabrinovi arrived at the town of Mali Zvornik, on the
Serbian side of the border, on May 30. Sunic", chief of the
customs office, was in fact absent, so Cabrinovi looked up
Jakovljevic*, a local teacher and one of the agents along the
underground railway.

79

80 SARAJEVO

Jakovljevi took Cabrinovi^ to the Serbian frontier post,
where he asked a guard to make the proper exit notations
in Cabrinovi<!:'s passport. Actually, the travel documents
Cabrinovi was carrying were not his own, but Grabez's.
The two had traded passports before separating at Loznica;
Cabrinovi^s name was too well known to the Austrian
police as that of a troublemaker and hence might cause
suspicion.

While the Serbian guard busied himself with the travel
papers, Cabrinovii and his companion went to have a cup
of coffee. When they had finished, they strolled back and
picked up the passport. The two of them then walked to
the neighboring town of Zvornik, which was on the Austrian
side of the border. Cabrinovi, still using GrabeiTs name,
registered at the Austrian frontier post, exchanging a few
words of small talk with the guard on duty*

Having completed these formalities, they walked into
town, and Jakovljevi<5 introduced CabrinovW to a man
named Daki<5, who was Secretary to the mayor of Zvornik
and the next agent along the underground route to his side
of the border.

Daki took Cabrinovi<5 to dinner, found him a place to
stay overnight, and the next morning, May 31, told him
where and when the mail coach for Tuzla was leaving.
Cabrinovi<5, setting out on foot, caught the coach a short
distance out of town, and soon arrived in Tuzla. Tuzla
was a small industrial town on the way to Sarajevo, about
twenty-five miles east of Zvornik, where the three youths
had agreed to meet again if they succeeded in crossing the
border. At Tuzla, Cabrinovi settled down to wait for his
Mends, whose trip meanwhile was going much less
smoothly than his had.

8 Gavrilo Princip (right) in Belgrade. Seated with him on a park bench is Trifko Grabez
at the extreme left. The man between them may be Milan Ciganovic.

9. Gavrilo Princip in
prison following his ar-
rest.

10. Danilo Ilic"

11. Trifko Grabez

2. Vaso fiubrilovifi

15, Cvijetko Popovi6

14. MiSko Jovanovid

15. Veljko

Crossing the Drina 81

Border-guards and Smugglers: Princip and Grabez
Cross the Frontier

Grbi, the sergeant of the Serbian border guard whom
Captain Prvanovi had assigned as a guide to Princip and
GrabeX, took his charges to his post at Ljesnica. He saw to
it that they were given a place to sleep at the Ljesnica
border guards' barracks, and the next morning, May 31, he
ferried them across the Drina to Isakovic Island. Isakovic,
while still Serbian territory, was situated next to the
Austrian frontier, and on the side facing Austria the river
was narrow and shallow enough to be traversed on foot.

On the island, the three travelers went to a local inn and
waited for a peasant with the euphonious name of Mio
Mii to turn up. Mici was a young farmer who lived on
the Austrian side of the border. As he told the Court later,
he was in the habit of making frequent trips to the island to
drink Serbian plum brandy, and "to dance and have fun
with the girls."

Mii, disappointingly, did not come that day, and the
three spent the night in the innkeeper's house. The next
day, when Micic did drop in, Sergeant Grbi told him how
he might help. "These are two students," he explained.
"They're from Sarajevo; they want to go to Tuzla." Mii
was ready to be of assistance. He would go, he said, and
fetch a car for Princip and GrabeJ. The sergeant told him
that he had not quite understood him. "They'll have to
pass secretly; they have no passports." Mi&6, said Grbi,
was to go back and fetch his friend Jakov Milovi6.

While MI2i probably was no smuggler at least not
a professional one Milovi<5, a farmer in his forties from
another nearby village, definitely was. In addition to smug-
gling for profit, he acted as a courier and guide on the

82 SARAJEVO

underground railway, either for reasons of conviction, or
because the Serbian border guards closed their eyes to his
smuggling activities in return for these other services.

Milovi was in no hurry to comply with Grbi's request.
"Later maybe; I can't do it now/' he said, and went to have
a look at his corn field near the border.

Mii<5 returned to the island to report to Grbi. "Jakov is
coining/' he said reassuringly. In court later, this prompted
a surprised question from the judge. Whenever the trip
was being mentioned during the trial, Princip and Grabez
were thoughtful enough to try to clear the great many peo-
ple who had aided them along the route by saying that they
had threatened them with dire reprisals if they refused to
help or if they disclosed what they had seen. Mici told a
similar story in court. Grbi, he said, had warned him that
if he valued his life, he must say nothing about their meet-
ing. Here the judge interrupted. Why, he asked Mii, had
he voluntarily gone back to join the travelers on the island
after hearing such threats? Mici had an obvious answer:
"I returned. I had not finished my brandy/'

At three o'clock in the afternoon, Milovi turned up at
the inn, and at dusk, the party left the island. They walked
quietly and in single file, at a distance of about twenty feet
from one another. Milovi, who looked like the smuggler
that he was, led the way. Mii followed. Then came the
two students. At one point, Mii wordlessly dropped out
and left for his home. No one spoke. It had been raining
hard that day, and the pathways they were using were
muddy as well as rough, but it was essential that they
avoid the main roads. Princip and GrabeX had to pay close
attention in order not to stumble, but Milovi seemed to
be familiar with every part of the wooded terrain through
which they were passing, and they met neither Austrian

Crossing the Drina 83

border guards nor policemen. In court later, Milovi could
not hide his professional pride. He could have taken them
across undetected even i it had been daytime, he said.

After walking for some time, they reached Milovi's
house, and took a brief rest. They were safely inside Aus-
trian territory now, but they were still a good twenty-five
miles from Tuzla. Still guided by Milovi, they started on
their way again, but it was beginning to rain so hard and to
get so dark that they decided to stop and spend the night in
a deserted cottage near the edge of the woods, not far from
the house they had j ust left.

The Underground Railway: Continuing
On to Priboj

In the morning, they walked on until they came to a
farm owned by Obren MiloSevi^, a friend of Milovi's.
(Novelists are fortunate; they can invent obviously different
names for their characters and thus spare their readers
much confusion. In a historical narrative like this, one can
only record that the names of Princip's and Grabez's suc-
cessive guides were Mii<5, Milovi, and Milosevic, and
hope.) At Milosevic's farm, they had some coffee and asked
to be given bags to carry their weapons in. They had been
hiding them under their clothing while crossing the
border, but they found this too uncomfortable to do for
long. MiloSevi<5 obliged, and found them some pieces of
cloth for wrapping the weapons as well as the bags they had
asked for.

At the trial, Miloevi played the role of the simple-
minded Balkan peasant to the hilt. He had had no idea, he
said, what the youths were about, and pleaded innocent
the actual exchange going like this:

84 SARAJEVO

Judge: "Are you guilty?'*

Milosevic; " God willing, no."

When one lawyer asked whether he had not thought it
strange to have two young students turn up at his farm
with bombs and guns, his reply went: "How could I think
that? If intelligent people, people with an education, act
like that, how can I, a simple fellow, find fault with it? Sir,
I thought they were government officials/'

Accompanied now by Milosevic^ as well as Milovid, who
were carrying the arms, the two presumed government of-
ficials walked through the woods for nearly four hours
until they reached the outskirts of the small town of Priboj.
They stopped frequently on the way, to make sure they
were not being seen, and once, when they noticed the
imprints of heavy boots on the soft and muddy soil, they hid
for a while, since they feared that the imprints had been
made by the police.

Outside Priboj they hid again, in a meadow behind a
thicket, while their two guides went to fetch the local
agent on the underground route, Veljko Cubrilovii, a
young school teacher. Cubrilovii was riding to a funeral in
a nearby village with the Priboj parish priest, but the
peasants managed to intercept him. Milovii took him
aside, and told him about his two charges. Cubrilovid made
his excuses to the priest. The water really was too high for
him to go on, he said. The priest laughed, and called him
a coward, and rode on alone.

Princip and Grabez went out into the road as they saw
their guides return with Cubrilovid They explained who
they were, and asked Cubrilovi to arrange for their trans-
portation to Tuzla. Turning to Milovi and Miloevi
no longer needed as guides now they gave them some
money for their trouble, and let them take their departure.

Crossing the Drina 85

Cubrilovid put the arms in his saddlebag, and, while
being told about the purpose of the trip, took Princip and
Grabez to the house of a prosperous old farmer he knew
named Mitar Kerovid.

On reaching Kerovid's house, however, Grabez, who felt
exhausted and miserable after all the walking he had done,
wasted no time in pulling off his shoes and falling into bed.

Sitting around the living-room table with Kerovid and
his three sons, Princip and Cubrilovid meanwhile were
discussing the safest way to reach Tuzla. The farmer's
youngest son, Ned jo, had recently hurt his hand with an
axe, and Cubrilovid had an inspiration. "Let Nedjo go to
Tuzla today before the wound gets worse," he suggested.
"That way, they can go with him."

Nedjo's eldest brother shrugged his shoulders. He did
not mind the idea, but who, he wanted to know, would pay
for the cart?

Cubrilovid reassured him: "The cart will be paid for."

The matter settled, the men began to talk about some
coming local elections, and about the saddlebag which
Cubrilovid had brought in with him. Cubrilovid had been
reluctant to touch the bombs at first, but Princip and
Grabez had eased his fears by telling him that the bombs
could not explode until the caps were unscrewed, and the
bombs themselves were knocked against some hard object.
The school teacher was drinking glass after glass of plum
brandy now, and feeling boastful.

"Do you know who these people are?" he asked the
Kerovides. "They're going to Sarajevo to throw bombs and
kill the Archduke who is going to come there."

Crossing over to the bed where he had placed his sad-
dlebag, Cubrilovid took out a bomb and displayed it to
his hosts. Princip joined him, and demonstrated how to

86 SARAJEVO

unscrew and throw the bomb. For good measure, he also
brought out a revolver for the company to admire.

This, no doubt, was the ugliest aspect of the assassins*
trip: hiding from the police and needing helpers, they left
behind them a terrible trail of people whom they had
implicated in their deed. The Kerovies were truly simple
peasants. In court, for example, all of them were vague
about such basic facts as their own ages. "How old are you,"
the judge asked one of the sons, himself the father of five
children. "I don't know," came the answer. "My father
should know." Semiliterate, their interest in international
affairs was negligible, and their information about the
aims of pan-Serbism small. (Their vagueness, incident-
ally, extended to certain other personal matters as well.
"Were you drunk that night," the judge asked old Mr.
Kerovid Kerovid, an impressive figure of a Bosnian farmer
with prominent cheekbones, a large hooked nose, and a
splendid white walrus moustache, admitted that he had
been. Just how much, the judge wanted to know, had he
had to drink? Kerovi: "When I drink, I don't keep count.
I drink as much as I can." His defense counsel tried to
interfere. Had he really forgotten how much he had had?
Kerovi<5, petulantly: "I don't know. I take my flask and
drink what I can.")

Yet for all their lack of sophistication, Mitar Kerovi and
every one of his sons, along with many others, later found
themselves arraigned in court on the two capital charges
of treason and of being accessories to murder as a result
of Princip's and GrabeFs visit. Very possibly, the way one
of the Kerovies tried to plead, while unusual, was truthful
enough:

Judge: "Are you guilty?"

Jovo Kerovid: "I don't know. How should I know?"

Crossing the Drina 87

The Underground Railway: The Last Stage

Late that night, June 2, at about eleven o'clock, Princip
and Grabez left the house. Nedjo and a friend of his
carried the weapons, and all four got into the cart. Grabez
had recovered a bit, but still did not feel very talkative. It
had stopped raining, and the night was beautiful and clear
so clear, in fact, that the young men were concerned
that they might be seen by some passing police patrol.

Still, Grabe2 and Princip managed to get some sleep,
while Nedjo and his friend did the driving. At one village
along the way there was a police barracks, and thus some
definite danger. Princip and Grabez knew about it, how-
ever, since they had brought a special map with them
from Belgrade, showing the location of every police bar-
racks in Bosnia. They therefore left the cart before reach-
ing the village, walked around it, and re-entered the cart
at a safe distance, whereupon they went to sleep again.

Arriving at the outskirts of Tuzla early the next morn-
ing, the two students got out, and went to wash themselves
in a nearby river. Princip's clothes were covered with mud
and dirt after the walk through the woods and the ride in
the peasants' cart. Not wishing to run the risk of being
arrested on a vagrancy charge at this point, he bought a
new pair of trousers. Having washed and changed, he and
Grabel had some breakfast at a coffee shop in town, sitting
at different tables and pretending not to know each other.

Their drivers, meanwhile, had gone on into Tuzla with
the weapons to see MiSko Jovanovi, a distant relative of
Veljo Cubrilovii, the Priboj agent on the underground
route. Jovanovii was a middle-aged and eminently respect-
able businessman in Tuzla. He was a director of a local
bank, the president of a school board, a member at the Serb-

88 SARAJEVO

Orthodox Episcopal Council, and, among his unlisted
activities, the local agent on the underground railway. He
lived in a building which housed Tuzla's cinema of which
he was the manager his private apartments, and a Serb
reading and club room.

Nedjo and his friend gave Jovanovid the weapons and
a note from Cubrilovifi reading "Miko, receive these
people/' adding that the people mentioned in the note
would meet him in the Serb reading-room at nine that
morning. Nedjo then went on to the hospital to have
his injured hand looked after, while Jovanovid took the
guns and bombs and placed them in his hall closet. Later,
he began to worry whether this was a good hiding place;
his wife kept some of her kitchen utensils in there, and
might stumble against them. He got out an old box, put the
arms inside, and took it upstairs to the attic, where he hid
it behind some bricks. He still felt far from pleased about
having the arms in his house, however.

Punctually at nine, he met Princip and GrabeX in the
reading-room, and hopefully asked them if they would
not like to pick up their arms. The boys declined they
were in the country illegally, and controls around Sarajevo
were bound to be extremely strict in view of Franz
Ferdinand's expected arrival. Would Jovanovi be kind
enough to take the weapons to Sarajevo for them?

It now was their host's turn to say no. He could not
take the risk, Jovanovid said, but he was willing to keep
the weapons for them for a few days. Princip agreed. Some-
one would come by, he promised, identify himself by
showing Jovanovid a pack of Stefanifa cigarettes, and pick
up the arms.

Princip and Grabe2 then took their leave, and joined
Cabrinovi who, having reached Tuzla three days ahead

Crossing the Drina 89

of his friends, had been waiting for them in town so that
they could travel the rest of the way to Sarajevo together.
They found Cabrinovid slightly worried. The day before,
he had gone to a restaurant to eat lunch, and there had run
into a detective he knew from Sarajevo. They had talked
about Cabrinovid's family. He saw his father quite often,
the detective said, and everybody was doing very well.
Cabrinovid grew careless, and mentioned that he had been
to Belgrade. The detective became interested. "How is life
there?" he asked. "Not so good," complained Cabrinovid
with some presence of mind. "Wages are low and life is
expensive. If you want a fairly decent meal, it costs you a
dinar and a half, if you're satisfied with less, it costs you a
dinar."

The detective went on to eat his lunch, pleased pre-
sumably at the low cost of living in Bosnia, and apparently
suspecting nothing. Cabrinovid also had had the bad luck
to be seen by another official who knew him, however, and
he suggested to his two friends that they all leave as soon
as possible.

The same day, therefore, the three young men took the
train to Sarajevo. Entering their compartment, they met
an old friend the detective who had been Cabrinovid's
luncheon companion. Princip took one good look at the
guileless policeman, and decided that he need not worry
about him.

Cabrinovid and the detective made some small talk.
Things were busy these days in Sarajevo, the detective
volunteered. The city was expecting the arrival of none
less than the Austrian Heir to the Throne. When was he
going to be there, asked Cabrinovid, and the detective
obliged him with the date.

On their arrival in Sarajevo that evening, June 3, the

90 SARAJEVO

three friends separated Grabez to go to his home town
of Pale, Cabrinovi to live with his family in Sarajevo,
and Princip to stay with a friend of his in town. Quite
possibly, the whole conspiratorial apparatus of their
journey from. Belgrade to Sarajevo had been a needless
bit of romantic folderol. All of them were Austrian sub-
jects; had they returned to Bosnia as peaceful travelers,
there was no legal reason why anyone should have stopped
them at the frontier. They would have been left with the
problem of procuring the weapons, but these could either
have been bought in Bosnia, or been smuggled in for them
from Serbia. Whether necessary or not, however, the
decision had been made to travel by the Black Hand's
underground railway, and, as their trip proved, that route
was working to perfection.

CHAPTER VIII

Waiting

Ilic's Parallel Action: Mehmedbasic

The friend In whose house Princip stayed at Sarajevo
was Danilo Ili, a twenty-three year old fellow-revolution-
ary. Hid was a rather tall and good-looking young man,
with calm blue eyes and a pale and sensitive face that
suggested the poet. He had attended the State Teachers'
College in Sarajevo on an Austrian government scholar-
ship, had taught school briefly at a small town in Eastern
Bosnia, but had fallen ill and resigned. He returned home
to recuperate at the house of his widowed mother, and
when his health improved worked at a local bank for about
half a year.

In 1913, he went to Belgrade. A leader of the local
Bosnian revolutionary organization Mlada Bosna, and an
old and close personal friend of Ga<5inovi the pam-
phleteer and apologist for the would-be murderer 2eraji
Ilii had no difficulty in finding his way to the right coffee

91

92 SARAJEVO

shops. He also joined the Black Hand, and won the con-
fidence o Apis.

When his illness recurred, he went back to Sarajevo.
For a while, he found employment as a proofreader, and
then became an editor of a local Serb paper. He drew no
regular salary, but was paid for whatever articles he con-
tributed. He was the owner of a house that brought him
a modest amount of rent each month, but his combined
income as a landlord and a journalist was not enough to
live on, and it proved necessary for Ili's mother to pay
many of his bills. It also is possible that he received an
occasional gift of money from the Black Hand. If so, Bel-
grade's money was well spent, for Ili possessed a very
considerable influence over the young students of his
acquaintance, and proved to be a generally able and
discreet organizer of secret activities.

While the preparations for the murder were being made
in Belgrade, Ili had been corresponding with Princip.
When Princip wrote him around Easter, 1914, that the
assassination had definitely been decided on, Ili set about
recruiting three local youths who were to join in the crime.

One of Ili's recruits was Muhamed Mehmedba5i,
whose attempt to kill Governor Potiorek that January had
failed before it started when MehmedbaSici had panicked
and rid himself of both poison and dagger as his train was
crossing the Austrian border. IH<5 now wrote him a letter
Mehmedbai<5 was living in Herzegovina and asked him
to come to the provincial capital of Mostar, to discuss an
important matter. It is not likely that Ili<5 had many
illusions about MehmedbaSid's reliability after this earlier
fiasco, but he was needed for the political effects which his
participation in the murder would create. MehmedbaSi
was a Moslem; all the other conspirators were Serbs. If the

Waiting 93

Austrians were to arrest none but Serbs, people might say
that theirs obviously was the only disaffected group. The
name Muhamed Mehmedbasid, on the other hand, the
plotters hoped, might create the impression of more gen-
eral discontent. They must have been gravely disappointed
that no likely Croat assassin was in sight to join their group.

Franz Ferdinand, Hid told Mehmedbasid when they met
at Mostar, was going to visit Sarajevo in June, and Belgrade
was in favor of killing him rather than Potiorek first. The
bombs and guns would be provided by Belgrade, Hid added.
Was Mehmedbasid willing to take part in the murder?

Mehmedbasid said that he was, but that he had one
objection. At Toulouse, he had definitely promised Gacino-
vid to kill Potiorek, he said, and he would like to get Gadino-
vid's consent to the change of plan.

They wrote a joint letter to Gadinovid, who, fully in-
formed about the scheme against Franz Ferdinand, sent
a quick and succinct reply: "Forward Lions." Mehmed-
basid promised Hid that he could count on him.

Two More Assassins Are Recruited

Hid also enlisted two recruits in Sarajevo. He first talked
to a friend of his from the State Teachers' College named
Lazar Djukid. Djukid once had mentioned in front of Hid
that if only the arms could be procured, one ought to kill
Franz Ferdinand when he came to Sarajevo. Hid now gave
Djukid the good news that the arms were available. Was
he willing to be one of the assassins?

Djukid, confronted with a concrete scheme for murder,
lost his enthusiasm and begged off. He volunteered, how-
ever, to introduce Hid to a friend of his who, he said, would
probably be pleased to take his place. The friend was

94 SARAJEVO

Vaso Cubrilovi, a seventeen-year-old Sarajevo high-school
sophomore and a brother of Veljko Cubrilovi<5, the Priboj
agent on the underground route who had helped Princip
and Grabez on their trip. Cubrilovi<5 not only agreed to
take part in the plot, but when Ili mentioned that he
needed one more assassin, said that he thought he knew
just the right person, and that he would gladly talk to him
about it.

The fellow he had in mind was a friend, Cvijetko
Popovi, a brilliant high-school student of eighteen.
Popovi immediately declared his readiness, and Ilia's
Sarajevo group was complete.

Whether the two had any inkling of why Apis wanted
the Archduke dead is extremely doubtful. Their answers
in court certainly do not suggest it, but rather reflect the
phraseology of political pamphlets read avidly and under-
stood imperfectly.

Why, the presiding judge, von Curinaldi, asked Popovi,
had he wished for Franz Ferdinand's death? "He possessed
influence/' said Popovi. Curinaldi asked Popovi to elab-
orate. Just what did he think of the Archduke?

Popovid: "I had the impression that he liked us other
Slavs better than the Magyars. I heard that when he came
to Budapest, he only stayed for an hour."

Curinaldi: "Is that really your conviction?"

Curinaldi: "In that case, should you not have wanted
him to stay alive in the interest of the Slavs?"

Popovi6: ". . Through him, I wanted to revenge myself
on those groups who oppress the Slavs .... I thought that
such vengeance would be an effective warning to the ruling
circles."

CubrilovI6's answers showed a similar spirit. What ethnic

Waiting 95

group did Cubrilovi feel he belonged to, Curinaldi
wanted to know at one point. Did he consider himself a
Serb or a Croat?

Cubrilovid: "I am a Serbo-Croat."

Curinaldi: "What does that term mean?"

Cubrilovid: "It means that I don't consider myself solely
a Serb, but that I must work for Croatia as well as for
Serbia."

Curinaldi: "Are you a nationalist?"

Cubrilovid: "Yes."

Curinaldi: "What does that mean?"

Cubrilovid: "It means that one must fight to have our
people arrive at their proper stage of development."

But whether Popovi<5 and Cubrilovid truly understood
the motives of the deed they were about to participate in
was a matter of minor importance to Ili<5. The less they
knew, in fact, the better. The recruitment of Mehmed-
bai, Cubrilovid, and Popovi would seem to have served
the main purpose not of increasing the group's effec-
tiveness, but of making the crime look like a local affair.
If arrests were made, and it turned out that all the assassins
had recently come to Bosnia from Belgrade, it would be
blatantly obvious that the plot had been organized across
the border. Since this was the very last impression that
Apis wished to create, the appearance on the scene of some
extras who had never been to Serbia was essential.

In all, it was an arrangement that showed a touch of
genius. The boys sent from Belgrade were trained in
shooting and bomb-throwing, and should be able to carry
off their parts well on June 28. If arrested, they could be
expected to reveal nothing to the police, since at least two
of the three were trusted Black Hand members. The boys
from Sarajevo might not be of much help to Princip,

96 SARAJEVO

Cabrinovic, and Grabez, but they would deflect attention
from Apis. Under interrogation they were unlikely to talk
either for the simple reason that they did not know very
much.

Ilic Picks Up the Weapons

On Sunday, June 14, a week and a half after his friends 1
arrival in Sarajevo, Hit rang the bell of MiSko Jovanovid's
house in Tuzla. Jovanovid was in his study, and his wife
ushered the young man in. Hid identified himself by taking
out the pack of Stefanija cigarettes. Jovanovid, impatient
to be rid of the bothersome weapons, wasted few words.
''How are you going to carry them/' he asked. "One can't
put six bombs and four revolvers into one's pocket."

Hid had an unpleasant surprise for Jovanovid. No one
knew him in Tuzla, he said, and there always was the
chance that the police might stop and search him. Would
Jovanovid therefore be kind enough to wrap the arms in a
harmless looking package, and take them to a train station
past Tuzla, where Hit would pick them up from him.

Jovanovid had no choice. He would meet Hid in Doboj
the next day, he promised. Doboj was a town about thirty-
five miles northeast of Tuzla. Jovanovid owned some lumber
there, and needed workmen to make it up into crossbars for
rails, so that he had a good excuse for the trip.

After Hid had left, Jovanovid thought briefly of having
his servant go to Doboj in his stead, but not wanting to get
the man into trouble, he rejected the temptation. He
climbed up to the attic, put the weapons he had hidden
there into a sugar carton, wrapped the carton in white
paper, and tied it securely with some string. It was about
the last sensible thing he was to do about the arms.

Waiting 97

Early the next morning, he took the train to Doboj,
accompanied, it so happened, by his sister-in-law, who had
no idea what the package he was carrying contained. At
the Tuzla station, he hopefully if cautiously looked around
for Ili, but could see him nowhere. Nor was he able to
find him on the train. Arriving at Doboj, the rattled
Jovanovi simply set down the box in the second-class wait-
ing-room, put his overcoat on top of it, and accompanied
his sister-in-law out of the station. He returned to the wait-
ing-room, still could detect no trace of Ili<5, and went to
the shop of a tailor he knew in town. The tailor himself
unfortunately was out, and only the young apprentice was
in the store. Jovanovi casually asked the boy to keep an eye
on his package and his overcoat, and left to see a business
associate of his about getting some workmen for the lum-
ber. An hour or so later, he returned to the tailor shop. He
found the tailor in, and the two men sat down to talk
about local affairs. Shortly before the next train from Tuzla
was due, Jovanovi rose, and asked the tailor a favor. "If
you are going to have lunch before I get back/' he said,
"please don't close your shop, for a man will come to whom
I must give back a box."

At the station, Jovanovi was relieved to see lli<5 getting
out of the train. He walked to the tailor's with him, found
the store empty but the door open, gave him the package
of arms he had left there, and took his leave to have lunch.

Ili, still exercising the sort of precaution that showed
the spirit of conspiratorial play-acting rather than that o
common sense, took an express train to within two stations
of Sarajevo, changed to the local train, got out at a stop on
the outskirts of Sarajevo, took the streetcar as far as the
city's cathedral, walked the rest of the way home, and hid
the weapons under a couch in his room. If Ili had simply

98 SARAJEVO

picked up the arms from Jovanovi, and taken them back
on the next direct train to Sarajevo, there Is no conceivable
reason why he should have run into any trouble. This way,
the arms had been left entirely unattended twice once
In the Doboj waiting-room and once at the tailor shop
and guarded by a quite possibly curious young tailor's
apprentice for a whole hour. Beside, by traveling as
circuitously as he did, I1I had been seen by considerably
more people than he would have been had he taken the
obvious and easy route. If all went well in the end, it was
in spite of Ilia's arrangements, not because of them.

The Unconspir atonal Conspirators

Trying to attract as little police attention to themselves
as possible, the conspirators took pains to lead conspicu-
ously carefree and bohemian lives during the weeks they
spent waiting in Sarajevo. Princip even went out with some
girls. When the friends met, which was rarely, it was at
night. As June 28 drew closer, Ili<5 in particular grew
worried that the police might be on their trail, and urged
caution.

We know relatively few details about the activities of the
conspirators in this period, and we can only assume that
they followed the usual occupations and pastimes of high-
school students on their summer vacation which, after
all, most of them were. Cabrinovi had some fleeting
thoughts about abandoning the murder scheme. His
family had been so kind to him when they first saw him
again that he felt like making his peace with the world and
starting afresh, but soon there were new scenes with his
father when he stayed out too late at night, and the mood
passed.

Waiting 99

Aside from Cabrinovi, none o the youths appears to
have had any qualms of conscience. What they were about
to do, they assured themselves, was a great and noble act,
not a murder. "Sentimentality/* Wallace Stevens has
written, "is the failure of feeling." Their single-mind-
edness very possibly was the failure of youth. At its root was
a deep and genuine idealism that was stronger than any
fears or doubts the same kind of idealism which, far from
evil in its essence, has gone into so many bad causes in
this century.

If anyone among them showed some torment it was
Princip. He was living in Ilia's modest, whitewashed house
in a quiet sidestreet near the Oriental bazaar, and he had
much leisure for thought and worry. Principal among them
was that people would misunderstand the motives of his
deed. What he really regretted, he confided to a friend of
his as they were walking along the Quay one evening, was
that there had not been enough time to pass his high-
school graduating examination in Belgrade. Now people
might say that his had simply been the case of a poor
high-school student who had failed to graduate, and who
had taken out his disappointment in violence. Perhaps
because of this fear, Princip spent some of the last free
days of his life with his school books.

Another thought that bothered him was that Sarajevo
might not be a worthy location for his sacrifice. Along
with many of his revolutionary friends, he had no fondness
for large cities, and despised what he thought of as the
morality of the market place. Sarajevo Austrianized, busy
Sarajevo was not a city he loved. "If I could stuff Sara-
jevo into a matchbox/' he told his friend that same eve-
ning, "I would set it afire."

But all these were minor, and usually unspoken, doubts.

100 SARAJEVO

Princip, Grabez, and Ili unhesitatingly agreed upon some
of the last advance preparations for the trip when they
got together and arranged precisely what station along
Franz Ferdinand's route each assassin was to occupy on
June 28. Princip also had the unplanned good luck to
catch a glimpse of their intended victims some days in
advance of the murder.

CHAPTER IX

Maneuvers

A Shopping Trip to Sarajevo

"Be greeted, our hope!" wrote one of Sarajevo's Croat
newspapers on June 25, in welcome of Franz Ferdinand.
"Hail to youl" exclaimed another, which like every paper in
town was putting out a special edition in honor of the
Archduke's arrival. "Be Greeted, Illustrious Princel"
chimed in a Moslem headline writer. The Serbian papers
were somewhat more guarded. One filled its whole front
page with a picture of Franz Ferdinand, but hinted
editorially that it might be well if the Heir to the Throne
were to become "the noble spokesman before the Illustrious
crown for the justified wishes and needs of the Serb people
in our fatherland/' But even this editorial ended with a
"Hail to the Heir Apparent."

The journalistic enthusiasm may have been a good deal
too fulsome, but the archducal visit obviously was a cheer-
ful and exciting event in the life of the city. Franz Ferdi-
nand, too, for all his original misgivings, was beginning to

101

102 SARAJEVO

enjoy the trip. The objets d'art with which the local dealers
had crammed his rooms at the Hotel Bosna in Ilidze ap-
parently whetted his collector's appetite. In the afternoon
of June 25, the day of his arrival in Bosnia, he and the
Duchess decided on the spur of the moment to take an
unscheduled shopping trip into Sarajevo.

At five o'clock, they left Ilidze by car, and drove to the
store of the town's leading furniture and antique dealer,
where they spent more than an hour looking at silks,
rugs, inlay and metal work, and made a great many
purchases. While they were shopping, word spread that
they were in town, and a crowd collected in front of the
store. It soon became so large that it filled the entire street.
When the archducal couple emerged, everyone pressed
around, acclaiming the visitors with shouts of "Ziviol"
the Serbo-Croat exclamation of cheer and welcome.

Franz Ferdinand and Sophie were anxious to have a look
at a few of the stalk at the famous Oriental bazaar. The
bazaar was a wonderful place, with all the color, noise, and
life of the medieval markets of the East. The expert could
find some very beautiful and wholly handmade things here,
although the ordinary tourist was cautioned by a dry word
of warning in his Baedeker to the effect that "many of the
so-called Oriental goods are of Austrian make."

As Franz Ferdinand and Sophie were trying to make
their way to the bazaar, they found their path all but barred
by the enthusiastic crowd. The officers in the Archduke's
entourage slowly had to pave a way through the mass of
people for the visitors from Vienna, who were smilingly
acknowledging the many cheers with which they were
being greeted from all sides. When, their shopping finished,
they finally re-entered their car, there were more cheers,

Maneuvers 103

and the archducal couple returned to Ilidze well pleased
with the results o their surprise visit.

Something they did not know, and never were to learn,
was that one member of the crowd outside the shop was
Gavrilo Princip. He managed to get so close to Franz Fer-
dinand that they were almost face to face, but he held
himself in check and did not shoot. Plans plainly provided
for Sunday, June 28, as the day of the murder, with a large
group of assassins, not one single individual, committing
the deed, and Princip was a disciplined revolutionary.
What he did do was to fix the Archduke's features clearly
in his mind, so there would be no mistake on Sunday, and
to tell his friends about the meeting later that evening.

Cabrinovi, incidentally, was less favored by luck. That
same day, he put on his best clothes and traveled to Ilidze
to get a look at his victims. He thought that he was being
recognized by a Moslem detective near the hotel, however,
devoted all his energies to losing him, and went back to
Sarajevo without having seen either Franz Ferdinand or
Sophie. The detective, who had in* fact recognized Cabrino-
vi<5, telephoned police headquarters, and reported the meet-
ing. The answer he supposedly received from Dr. Gerde,
Sarajevo's Chief of Police, was to leave Cabrinovi alone.
Cabrinovid's record was clear at the time, and Gerde appar-
ently associated the boy's name with that of his father, the
Austrian police spy.

The Maneuvers

Franz Ferdinand spent the next two days attending the
army maneuvers about ten miles west of Ilidze. The major
part of the terrain consisted of naked, jagged rocks, creat-
ing an impression of utter desolation, but at several points

104 SARAJEVO

there were magnificent views across the river Ivan below,
and occasional meadows and woods in the ravines reminded
the visitor of Swiss Alpine scenery. Roads were few and
poor, and there was little shelter. It was a logical area for
the maneuvers, for many of the border regions of the
Austro-Hungarian Empire consisted of just such rough
mountain terrain.

About 225,000 troops took part, with Bosnia's Fifteenth
Army Corps drawn up against Croatia's Sixteenth Corps.
The over-all command lay in the hands of Bosnia's Gover-
nor and Franz Ferdinand's host, General Potiorek.

On both mornings, Franz Ferdinand left Ilidze for the
maneuver area by special train before six. At the nearest
station, horses were waiting for him, and he and his party
rode on from there on horseback to join the troops. The
weather was terrible, and visibility low. Rain, hail, and
even snow were falling, and only occasionally did some
cold gust of wind provide a break in the fog. The maneuv-
ers were going extremely well, however. Troop training
had obviously been good, and both Army Corps executed
their movements with skill and precision despite terrain
and weather. Franz Ferdinand, no amateur in military mat-
ters, was liberal with his praise for the troops and Potiorek.

He did not complain about the hardships. In fact, there
was one reason why they might have pleased him. Twenty
policemen had been assigned to him during the maneuvers
to look after his personal safety. They did not have an easy
time of it. With his strong dislike for bodyguards, he was
forever trying to lose them by riding off in the most un-
expected directions and by never telling them in advance
where he was going next. He was often successful; what
with the rocky terrain and the fog, the poor policemen
were hard put indeed to keep him in their sight. Just how

Maneuvers 105

easy it would have been for an assassin to take a shot at him
during the maneuvers given the Archduke's casual at-
titude toward security and Potiorek's inadequate measures
to guard him was shown by two incidents.

On the first day of the maneuvers, a man was seen to come
running after the Archduke's car. No one intercepted him.
Franz Ferdinand, catching sight of him, had the car
stopped. The man turned out to be a peddler from Austria,
and the amused Archduke bought some postcards and
medals from him. The peddler, thanking his customer,
mentioned that he knew the Archduke well; he made it a
practice, he said, to attend all the maneuvers, and thus had
seen him often.

Another time a civilian suddenly jumped out of the
bushes, holding a long, black tube. For a moment, every-
one sat rigid with fright or surprise. Then a police officer,
who had managed to stay close to Franz Ferdinand by
putting on an umpire's badge so that the Archduke would
not know who he was, managed to catch the man by the
collar. Franz Ferdinand, laughing out loud, stopped the
false umpire. "But that's the court photographer," he
called. "Do let go of him; that's his business! These people
have to live too, after all!"

Early in the afternoon of Friday, June 27, a bugler of the
guard blew retreat, signaling the end of the maneuvers.
Franz Ferdinand, after a final review of the troops, issued
the following directive to indicate his satisfaction with
what he had seen:

I have had an opportunity during the past two days to ob-
serve a large part of the XVth and XVIth Army Corps under
unfavorable weather conditions and on sometimes difficult
terrain.

106 SARAJEVO

I had been convinced that 1 would find nothing but the
best, and my expectations were fully confirmed by the out-
standing performances of all officers and men. I shall report
this to His Majesty the Emperor, our beloved Commander-
in-Chief, and in the name of the Service I express my cordial
thanks and fullest appreciation to His Excellency, the In-
spector of the Army [General Potiorek], and to all generals,
officers and men of both Corps, who have again been proving
themselves in the events of the recent past.

This directive is to be communicated to all men in their
respective mother tongues immediately.

ARCHDUKE FRANZ, GENERAL OF THE CAVALRY.

The promised report to the Emperor went out at four
o'clock that same afternoon. "The state of the troops/'
Franz Ferdinand said in his telegram to his uncle, "their
training and performance have been excellent and beyond
all praise. Morale is excellent; they have been trained well
and show great ability. There were almost no sick calls."
He added a few personal words. "Everyone well and in
good spirits," he wired. "Tomorrow I shall visit Sarajevo
and leave in the evening."

Farewell Dinner in Ilidze

Not only had the maneuvers been a success, but both
Franz Ferdinand and Sophie had been having a very pleas-
ant stay. While the Archduke was attending the maneuvers,
Sophie was paying official visits to schools, orphanages, and
churches in Sarajevo. She was given a cordial reception
wherever she went, and in turn was gracious and kind her-
self. The schedule worked out for her was haphazard at
times; at some places, she turned up as much as two or three
hours late. On the other hand, some of the arrangements

Maneuvers 107

showed an endearing kind of forethought. In the Augus-
tinian convent school, for example, after acknowledging the
teachers' speeches of welcome, listening to the childrens'
choir, and receiving her bouquet of roses, she had gifts for
all of the school's pupils pictures of the archducal family
for the older group, and, for the younger group, candy.

On her return to Ilidze on both afternoons, she went for
brief strolls in the park with her husband in spite of the
poor weather, and watched the bear cubs that were kept
there. In honor of the visitors, the cubs were released from
their cage, whereupon two of them promptly escaped, and
had to be recaptured by their harried keeper.

On the first two days, Sophie and Franz Ferdinand had
dinner in the company of all the members of their entour-
age, and the atmosphere at the table was pleasant and free.
Baron Conrad, the Chief of the General Staff, who was
among those invited, and who on some previous occasions
had exchanged sharp words with Franz Ferdinand, later
recalled that he almost had the feeling of being at a relaxed
family dinner. Franz Ferdinand's health seemed good
again, Conrad thought, and both he and Sophie were their
most charming selves. They talked about the maneuvers,
their impressions of Bosnia, the German Emperor's recent
visit with the Archduke at Konopischt and his praise for
the gardens there, and about Franz Ferdinand's plans to
attend autumn maneuvers in Germany, to which he as well
as Conrad had been invited. The company remained
together for some time after dinner, talking easily and
comfortably. One of the things that contributed to the
archducal couple's happy mood was a telephone call re-
ceived by Sophie one night, saying that her eldest son,
Maximilian, had just passed his high-school examinations

108 SARAJEVO

with distinction. Visibly pleased, the proud parents ac-
cepted everyone's congratulations.

On Saturday, June 27, dinner was a more formal affair. It
was to be their last night in Bosnia, and all of Sarajevo's
dignitaries had been invited. The windows o the hotel's
dining-room, where the court dinner was being held, were
kept open, and through them, the sounds of music being
played by the Sarajevo garrison band on the lawn below
drifted in. They were rendering a pleasant if unstartling
program: Schumann's "Traumerei," a phantasy on "La
Boheme," a LeMr medley, "The Blue Danube." Nor did
the menu offer any surprises. From souffl to lamb to filet
of beef to roast goose to salad and fruit, it was all good,
solid banquet fare, although the French wines were fol-
lowed by two of the Empire's specialties: a local wine from
Mostar, and a Tokay from Hungary.

Sophie was the only woman present. Placed between the
Serb-Orthodox and the Roman-Catholic Archbishops of
Sarajevo, she was capably presiding over the dinner
together with her husband, who sat across from her between
the President of Bosnia's Parliament and General Potiorek.
When dinner was finished, the Archduke and the Duchess
rose, and held court for a while near their respective ends
of the table. Among the guests who came to pay their
respect to Sophie was Dr. Josip Sunari, a leader of Bosnia's
Croats, and a Vice-President of Parliament. He had warned
Potiorek against the Bosnian trip when he first heard about
it, since he thought that some local Serbs might be in an
ugly mood, and that the visitors faced definite danger.
When Sophie caught sight of him, she took a few steps
toward him, and, as Sunari recalled it later, said with a
radiant smile on her face: "Dear Dr. Sunari, you were
wrong after all; things don't always turn out the way you

Maneuvers 109

say they will. Everywhere we have gone here we have been
greeted with so much friendliness and by every last Serb,
too with so much cordiality and unsimulated warmth,
that we are very happy about it!"

"Your Highness, I pray to God that when I have the
honor tomorrow night of seeing you again, you can repeat
those words to me. I shall breathe easier then, a great deal
easier."

Shortly afterwards, most of the guests took their leave,
but a smaller group, consisting largely of the members of
Franz Ferdinand's entourage, remained until midnight.
Franz Ferdinand, while still in excellent spirits, made a
remark to the effect that he was glad the trip was over.
Someone thereupon suggested that Franz Ferdinand cancel
the next day's visit to Sarajevo, and return to Vienna
directly. It was not a wholly unreasonable suggestion. The
Archduke was fond of making impulsive changes in his
travel schedules, and the program for June 28 was a very
slight one. Following a stop at the town's military camp, he
was to drive through Sarajevo for a brief reception at the
City Hall in the morning, spend the next hour at the
National Museum, and go on to the Governor's residence
for a farewell luncheon at 12:30. Nothing was planned for
the afternoon, but according to the program, the archducal
party was not to leave Ilidze until nine o'clock in the eve-
ning.

Franz Ferdinand seemed tempted to agree with the sug-
gestion that he cut his visit short, until some of the
military aides spoke up. Potiorek's adjutant reasonably
pointed out that to cancel the visit would be interpreted
as a slight to the population of Sarajevo, who were expect-
ing the Archduke on Sunday. Some of the Archduke's
aides, rightly again, added that it would be an open in-

110 SARAJEVO

suit to General Potiorek as well, and Franz Ferdinand,
who apparently did not care too much one way or the
other, decided that it would be wisest to keep to the original
schedule. Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of
Austria, was going to be in Sarajevo on the morning of
June 28, 1914.

The Assassins' Last Party

The assassins, meanwhile, were making their last-minute
preparation. Sometime during the week, Hit went to
Belgrade to receive his final instructions from Dimitrijevic.
Precisely what was said between them we do not know. On
Ili<5's return, he summoned Mehmedbasi to Sarajevo. On
Saturday, June 217, he introduced him to Princip at a Sara-
jevo caf6 as "Mehmedbasic, who tomorrow is to be with
us," and the three of them signed a post card to their com-
mon friend Gadnovi who was living in Switzerland at
the time.

Also on Saturday, Ili met Popovi and Cubrilovid, his
Sarajevo recruits, at a Turkish coffee shop. He walked to
a nearby park with them, and gave each of them a bomb,
a pistol and ammunition, and their portion of poison. He
showed them how to load and shoot the guns, and how to
throw the bombs. Firing off two practice shots with
Popovi^'s gun, he said: "Anyone getting this bullet, he's
done for."

Princip, at about the same time, looked up Cabrinovi,
handed him his cyanide, and told him where his post for
the assassination was going to be. He asked him to stay
there and nowhere else, since each of the conspirators had
his definitely assigned station. For reasons that are not
clear, Cabrinovi was to be given no gun; all that any of

Maneuvers 111

the defendants would say about it in court later was that
"that was the way things were organized." Princip assured
him, however, that he would receive his bomb the next
morning, and so he did. Sometime that day, Princip also
went out to the cemetary, and left a wreath on the grave of
Zerajid

In the evening, several members of Sarajevo's illegal
Mlada Bosna group met for a party at Semiz's inn. Semiz's
really was a wine shop rather than an inn, a small place
with a few simple tables and chairs, and a great many casks
and barrels standing about. It was dark inside Semiz's even
during the daytime, for only a single window admitted the
light. Through it, one could see the Lateiner Bridge,
Princip's station for the assassination. (The Lateiner Bridge
will no longer be found on a Sarajevo street map under that
name; its current name is Princip Bridge.)

Just which of the assassins attended the party we do not
know, although it appears certain that Princip was there.
The boys sang and drank red wine. Their judgment on
wine, incidentally, had much in common with that of the
Hotel Bosna's sommelier who had chosen a local wine from
Mostar to follow the Bordeaux and the Burgandy at Franz
Ferdinand's court dinner in Ilidze that evening the reason
they liked to meet at Semiz's was the good Mostar wine sold
there.

Despite the wine and the singing, Princip was in a dark
mood, and very much occupied with his own thoughts.
He even surprised a friend by drinking down a glass of wine
in one gulp. A friend managed to cheer him up by telling
some jokes, and the group soon was happily cursing the
Austrians amid more songs and laughter.

When the group broke up, the mood was an easy one.
Princip, who did not feel like going to sleep yet, joined two

112 SARAJEVO

of his friends in the street, and walked to their home with
them. In the darkness outside their house, he embraced
them, and told them to go in immediately, lest they be seen
with him.

The next morning at eight, Ili<5 joined Cabrinovi and
Grabez at the same Turkish coffee shop where he had met
his Sarajevo recruits the day before. He handed a bomb to
Cabrinovi, and bomb and revolver to Grabez. All the
assassins now had their arms and knew their stations. Every-
thing was ready for the murder of Franz Ferdinand.

CHAPTER X

V

Cabrinovic

Upon Saint Vitus' Day

Saint Vitus' Day, June 2,8, 1389. The Turks, after a
murderous battle, have defeated the Serbian army at Kos-
sovo, or Blackbirds' Field, in the plains of Southern Serbia.
The Prince of the Serbs, Lazar, is a captive of the Turks.
One of his men, Milos Obilic, smuggles himself into the
Turkish camp, finds the Sultan, Murad I, and strikes him
dead. In reprisal, the Sultan's son, Bayazid, has his captured
enemy Lazar brought out and beheaded. The battle of
Blackbirds' Field on Saint Vitus' Day 1389 means the end
of the medieval Serbian Empire. Serbia, henceforth, be-
comes a vassal state of Turkey. A whole cycle of legends,
folk songs, and ballads gathers around the battle, and each
year, the Serbs commemorate June 28 as a day of national
mourning.

Autumn, 1912. In the First Balkan War, the armies of
the small kingdom of Serbia, wholly independent again
since the end of the nineteenth century, have badly de-

113

114 SARAJEVO

feated those of the Turkish Empire. Blackbirds' Field has
been recaptured from the Turks, and the humiliation of
the defeat of 1389 finally wiped out.

Saint Vitus' Day, June 28, 1914. The date has been chosen
for Franz Ferdinand's visit to Sarajevo purely by accident,
but in the streets of the city stand seven youths ready
to strike at Serbia's new enemy, Austria, and to sacrifice
Franz Ferdinand, and possibly themselves, for the cause of
creating a new Serbian Empire.

To the City Hall

Early on Sunday morning, June 28, Franz Ferdinand
called in his Chamberlain, Baron Horsey, to dictate two
telegrams. One was addressed to his Private Secretary at
Chlumetz Castle, the other to his three children. "Papa and
Mamma/* the telegram to his children read, were well, and
looked forward to being with them again on Tuesday.

At nine o'clock, having finished his dictation, he and
Sophie attended mass together in a room at the hotel that
had been specially prepared for the purpose. The room was
oppressively warm, and smelled of too many flowers. After
mass, they walked to the Ilidze station, accompanied by
their retinues. From there, a special train, departing at
9:25, took them to Sarajevo. At the Sarajevo station,
General Potiorek was waiting for the archducal party.

Their first stop in town was the Philipovi army camp,
located opposite the railroad station, where they were for-
mally welcomed by Sarajevo's commanding general,
Michael von Appel. Following a very brief review of the
troops, the archducal party, at about ten o'clock, got into
their cars to drive up the city's broadest avenue, the Appel
Quay, to the City Hall for the Mayor's reception.

Gabrinomd 115

The procession which now started out from Philipovi
camp numbered six cars in all In the first car sat Fehini
Effendi QuYci, the Mayor of Sarajevo, and Dr. Gerde, the
city's Commissioner of Police. The second automobile, a
high-sided gray touring car flying the black and yellow
Habsburg pennant, held the most distinguished of the
visitors, and the car's top was rolled back in order to allow
the crowds a good view of its occupants. In front, next to
the driver, sat Franz Count Harrach, the owner of the car,
and a member of the Austro-Hungarian Voluntary Auto-
mobile Corps. In back, on the left, sat Franz Ferdinand,
dressed in his general's uniform, and wearing all his dec-
orations. At his side was Sophie, in a billowing white dress
and a very large hat, and across from them, on the folding
seat, sat Governor Potiorek. The next car's passengers were
Countess Lanjus, Sophie's lady in waiting; Colonel Carl
von Bardolff, the head of Franz Ferdinand's military chan-
cellery; Lieutenant Colonel Merizzi, General Potiorek's
chief adjutant; and the car's owner, Count Boos-Waldeck.
In the two automobiles that followed traveled various other
members of Franz Ferdinand's staff and of the Bosnian ad-
ministration; the six and last automobile was empty, to be
used as a reserve car in case of accident.

In contrast to the previous week's cold and rain, the day
had opened with splendid summer weather. At the Mayor's
suggestion, a great many citizens had decorated their houses
and stores with flags, flowers, and oriental rugs. The decora-
tions were particularly colorful along the official route, and
in numerous windows one could see pictures of Franz Ferdi-
nand. The visit was an exciting and festive event for Sara-
jevo. ("Because of the great amount of material," the Sara-
jevoer Tagblatt apologized on June 27, amid all the stories
about the previous day's maneuvers and about Sunday's

116 SARAJEVO

program, "today's installment of our novel [Typhoon, by
Heinz E'Monts] had to be omitted.") The sidewalks were
full of people cheering Franz Ferdinand and Sophie as
they were passing by. There was an occasional policeman
and secret service agent among them, but no lines of sol-
diers or police had been formed to hold back the crowds.

Security arrangements, in fact, were startlingly casual.
Many spectators still had a vivid memory of how differently
things had been handled during the Emperor's visit to
Sarajevo in 1910. On that occasion, all the soldiers of the
Sarajevo garrison had been called out to line the streets
through which Franz Joseph was to pass, and his route had
been so chosen that nowhere was there enough room for
dangerously large crowds to assemble. Over two hundred
suspects were placed under police arrest for the duration of
the Imperial visit, and a number of other citizens were told
not to leave their houses.

This time, while thousands of troops were in the region
for maneuvers, the city was declared off-limits to them for
the duration of Franz Ferdinand's and Sophie's visit. Only
one full infantry battalion and five smaller units not
more than a few hundred men in all remained in town.
Of this number, most were busy with various military
duties, and only the infantry battalion and part of one
infantry company were available at their barracks in case of
emergency. Precautionary arrests apparently numbered
thirty-five. All security arrangements lay in the hands of
a police force that comprised no more than a hundred
and twenty men, including uniformed policemen and
plainclothes detectives.

There were several reasons for the contrast between
1910 and 1914. The strict security measures taken during
his visit had not escaped Franz Joseph, and he was quite

Cabrinovic 117

plainly displeased with them. Throwing a bad fright into
some of the local dignitaries accompanying him, he some-
times disregarded the careful advance arrangements to walk
right through the crowds, and when he took his leave, every-
one noticed the coolness of manner with which he treated
the responsible head of the civil administration. Nor was it
possible in 1914 to make large-scale arrests without showing
very good cause, since a new Constitution had meanwhile
been introduced.

There were other reasons as well. Franz Ferdinand was
a man of great personal bravery who disliked the presence
of secret service men. Nor can he have been anxious to have
a cordon of troops between the crowd and himself. After
all, the visit's purpose was to give people a glimpse of their
future Emperor. Perfect security was next to impossible to
achieve in Bosnia; underneath the voluminous dresses of
the Moslem women, for example, almost any sort of arms
might be hidden, and the police, instructed to show every
sign of respect for Moslem sensibilities, would have to
hesitate very much before making a body search. Finally,
even the tightest of security precautions normally are use-
less in the case of assassins truly willing to sacrifice their
own lives.

But these are speculations. The fact remains that while
there were many reasons for not equaling the precautions
taken in 1910, none were good enough. In the summer of
1914, Austrian authorities were as aware of the existence
of secret societies as they were of the fact that there was a
sizable number of young men in Bosnia who thought the
uses of violence were sweet. And it was Potiorek, as Inspec-
tor of the Army and Governor of Bosnia, who bore the ulti-
mate responsibility for whatever arrangements the police
made or failed to make. Potiorek, although several people

118 SARAJEVO

later claimed that they had plainly warned him, apparently
felt that the presence of the troops during maneuvers was
sufficient protection, and ignored the fact that the conclud-
ing day's visit to Sarajevo was to be a civilian and not a mili-
tary one Franz Ferdinand was to be received as Heir to the
Throne, not as Inspector General. In the end there were
far too few policemen guarding Franz Ferdinand's route
to the City Hall.

Aided by the lax security, the seven assassins, mingling
with the crowds, had all safely taken up their positions along
the Appel Quay. The first post, near the building of the
Austro-Hungarian Bank by the Cumurja Bridge, was that
of Mehmedbasid, the one Moslem among the conspirators.
A few steps from him, also on the side of the river, and across
from the Teachers' College, stood Cabrinovic, the printer.
A bit further up in the direction of the City Hall were Ilia's
two Sarajevo recruits, Cubrilovi<5 and Popovi6 Near the
next bridge, the Lateiner Bridge, stood Princip, and the
final post was that of his friend Grabe2, who had come with
him from Belgrade on the underground route. Grabez was
impatiently pacing up and down the Quay, to find the
best vantage point from which to shoot. Ili, the organizer
of the Sarajevo group, had no fixed post of his own, but
moved between the other six assassins, to keep their spirits
up and to see that all was well.

He paused to stop by MehmedbaSi^, and said softly: "Be
strong, be brave." Not much later, at barely a quarter past
ten in the morning, the procession of cars was approaching,
and Mehmedbasid's opportunity to be strong and brave had
come. As the second car, in which Franz Ferdinand was rid-
ing, drew up to eye level, MehmedbaSid froze, and did
nothing. His apology later was that he thought he could see
a policeman stepping up behind him at the precise moment

Gabrinomd 119

the cars were passing by. If he were to bring his bomb out,
he said his quick reasoning went, the policeman would seize
him by the arm, the whole plot would be revealed, and all
the remaining conspirators would be prevented from taking
action. While he was still pursuing these thoughts, he said,
the Archduke's car was gone, and with it his opportunity to
do his part.

The next conspirator whom Franz Ferdinand had to pass
was Cabrinovi. As the cars slowly drove by him among the
cheers of the crowd, Cabrinovid, the unstable, boastful
ex-anarchist, ex-socialist, ex-strike leader, about whom even
his friends had their reservations, suddenly proved how
calm his nerves could be under pressure. He pulled out his
bomb, took careful aim, and hurled it straight at Franz
Ferdinand's car.

Cabrinovic

On the morning of June 28, Nedjelko Cabrinovi<5 took
leave from his family. He gave twenty crowns, most of the
money he owned, to his grandmother, of whom he was very
fond, and who had occasionally helped him out with gifts
of money in the past. She was reluctant to accept the unex-
pected present at first, saying that she wished to keep only
half of it, but her grandson insisted. He had five crowns
left, and gave those to his sister. He was going on a long
trip, he told her, from which he would never return.

Alone, Cabrinovi wept. He was seized by a sudden surge
of affection for his father. His father, he thought, had treated
him badly, and had given him a miserable education, and
yet he could feel fondness and pity for him now. What
made him saddest, however, was the thought of being sep-
arated forever from his sister and his grandmother.

120 SARAJEVO

He left the house, and accompanied by a friend, went
to a photographer's shop where, shortly after nine o'clock,
he asked to have his picture taken, "so that," as he explained
at his trial later, "a memory would remain behind me."
Dressed rather formally in a dark suit, a white shirt with
a stiff round collar, and high button shoes, he posed sitting
on the side of a low armchair. In his left hand, he held
a copy of Sarajevo's nationalist Serb paper, Srpska Rijec:,
and in his right inside coat pocket he carried his bomb,
which was to show up as a slight bulge in the finished por-
trait. To prevent the police from seizing the pictures after-
wards, he gave the photographer a false name and an equally
false address in another city. When they had left the shop,
he asked his friend to send two prints to that address, but to
give four others to his grandmother.

He said goodby to his friend, and walked to the Appel
Quay to take up his post. To attract no attention to himself,
he casually walked up and down the Quay. Catching sight
of a boy he knew, a mentally retarded mute, he asked him
to join him, since he thought it wiser not to be seen alone.
It was sunny and warm on the river side where he was stroll-
ing, but he was careful to keep his coat tightly buttoned,
so that he would not risk dropping the bomb.

Most of the spectators stood on the other side of the street,
where there was shade and protection from the sun. Among
them was a doctor who had come to the capital with his
daughter for the Archduke's visit. Watching Gabrinovi
on the sunny side of the street, his dark coat buttoned, and
his left hand inside his coat pocket as though he was holding
something, the doctor thought that there was something
odd about him. "What's this young man doing there?** he
wondered aloud, addressing his question to two acquaint-
ances with him.

Cabrinovic 121

A short while later, at a quarter past ten, the cars came
into sight. As they approached, Cabrinovid's excitement
mounted. He stepped away from the crowd as far as possible
in order not to hurt any bystanders, and drew the bomb
out of his pocket. He let the first car pass him, and struck
the bomb's percussion cap against a lantern post. The doctor
across the street, who was still watching him, thought that
he was taking out and emptying a pipe. The doctor turned
to his companions in disbelief and asked: "Do you suppose
he's going to light his pipe as the Heir to the Throne is
passing?"

His friends were not listening. "Look!" one of them
called out. "There he is! Call 'Hurrah!' Three times and
loud!"

Others around him also felt it proper to shout hurrah. As
they did so, and craned their necks for a look at their august
visitors, Cabrinovid raised his right arm, took careful aim
at Franz Ferdinand's general's helmet with its green feath-
ers, and threw the bomb. As he was letting go of it, he
thought he could see Franz Ferdinand turn around and fix
him with a cold and steady look.

In the car, just a moment before, General Potiorek had
been pointing out a new army barracks to Franz Ferdinand.
Count Harrach, the car's owner, who was sitting next to the
driver in front, had heard the detonating sound made by
Cabrinovi's knocking off the cap of the bomb. His instinc-
tive reaction was to think that a tire had blown out. Irony
in his voice, he called to the chauffeur: "Bravo. Now we'll
have to stop."

The driver, more quick-witted than Harrach, also had
heard the sharp, cracking sound, and had seen a black object
hurling through the air. Rather than following the Count's
instructions and stopping, he did precisely the right thing

122 SARAJEVO

under the circumstances, pressed down on the accelerator,
and drove on at full speed.

As a result, the bomb did not land where it was intended
to. Instead, it passed behind Sophie's back she was sitting
on the tight, and thus on the side closest to Cabrinovid
Franz Ferdinand, sitting next to her, who had also seen the
object that came flying at them, raised his hand to protect
his wife. With this motion, he deflected the bomb, which
fell onto the resilient, folded back roof of the touring car,
and bounced off into the street, where it exploded with a
detonation that seemed as loud as a cannon shot and filled
the air with debris and smoke.

The crowd, excited, began to push and shove, some to
have a closer look at what had happened, others and there
were more o them to get away from the scene as fast as
they could. Two women fainted.

The lead car, bearing the mayor, at first continued on its
way, and so did Franz Ferdinand's. In the few moments be-
fore the bomb exploded, the Archduke did not know what
the object he had seen coming at him was, and failed to
realize that it had bounced off into the street. Instead, he
thought that it had come to rest between himself and
Sophie inside the car. He decided to say nothing about it,
in order not to frighten his wife.

Turning around at the sound of the explosion, he saw
the confusion in the street. He also saw that the car which
had been following behind his had come to a stop, and that
some of its occupants were getting out. He ordered the
driver of his car to stop too. Several members of his en-
tourage were jumping out of their cars and rushing up to
his, to find out if anything had happened to him or to
Sophie. They saw that the Archduke was completely un-
hurt, although Sophie's face bore a slight scratch from a

Cabrinovic 123

flying splinter. The car itself had suffered damage from
three bomb fragments. One had dented the gas tank, the
second was lodged in the trunk compartment, and a third
was stuck in the folding roof. The damage was so slight,
however, and there was so much other excitement, that no
one even noticed it until much later.

The bomb had worked its real harm elsewhere. There
were no dead; but about a dozen spectators were injured,
none of them seriously. The worst had been reserved for
the automobile following immediately behind Franz Fer-
dinand's. The car's owner, Count Boos-Waldeck, was hit
by several bomb splinters, but he was not doing badly. One
of his passengers, however, was bleeding profusely from a
wound he had received in the back of his head. He was
Lieutenant Colonel Erik von Merizzi, Potiorek's adjutant,
who had advised against canceling the Sarajevo visit the
night before. Countess Lanjus, Sophie's lady in waiting,
who was sitting next to him, although herself hit by a
small splinter, was attempting to still the flow of blood by
calmly holding a handkerchief to Merizzi's wound. The
gash seemed an ugly one, but fortunately, Franz Ferdi-
nand's physician, Dr. Fischer, had been riding in the next
car. He had a quick look at the wound, and ordered the
Colonel taken to the office of a nearby physician.

The car itself, which had borne the brunt of the explo-
sion, was stalled, and the remaining occupants had to trans-
fer to the fifth and last automobile, which was in better
condition than the fourth car directly behind them. The
owner of the fourth car, Lieutenant Egger, discovered to
his relief that while small fragments of the bomb had
pierced his cap and shattered his windshield, he was unhurt,
and his car still in running order.

For the civilian wounded, effective help soon material-

124 SARAJEVO

ized with the arrival on the scene o General Appel, Sara-
jevo's commanding general, who had greeted Franz Ferdi-
nand at the Philipovid army camp earlier that morning.
He was not a member of the archducal party, but had fol-
lowed behind the procession on the way to his office, which
was located just off the Quay. He took a look at the destruc-
tion, and put through a telephone call to the garrison hos-
pital. The doctor in charge, Major Arnstein, quickly re-
sponded to his summons, and hurried to the Appel Quay
accompanied by three army surgeons. Two of the doctors
gave first aid to the injured spectators, while Arnstein and
one of the surgeons examined Merizzi, and ordered an
ambulance to take him to the hospital for further treat-
ment.

The Arrest

Having thrown his bomb, Gabrinovi swallowed the
cyanide he was carrying, and jumped into the river Mil-
jaflka which faced the quay, and which was low at this time
of year. At least four men scrambled in after him. (When
they appeared on the witness stand during his trial, Cabri-
novic got indignant over their statements that they had
jumped in behind him. "I was the only one to have jumped
into the river/' he said. "All the others made their way
down.") Two of his pursuers came from among the specta-
tors one was a shopkeeper, the other a barber and the
two others were a policeman and a plainclothes detective.
The barber struck Cabrinovid, who was lying sprawled out
in the river bed, and the shopkeeper kicked at his left hand.
The barber, still irate, drew a gun, and had to be restrained
from shooting Cabrinovii by the policeman, who pointed

Cabrinovic 125

out that the police would want to interrogate the young
man first.

Together, they made their way up the river bank, and
led Cabrinovi to the police station. Baron Morsey, Franz
Ferdinand's Second Chamberlain, having assured himself
that the Archduke was unhurt, joined the group, his saber
drawn, and walked along as far as the next bridge, the La-
teiner Bridge. Here, they passed by Gavrilo Princip. As
they did so, the idea briefly flitted through Princip's mind
that he might shoot Cabrinovic, and then himself, and that
it would all be over then. Just as quickly, he rejected the
thought.

At the police station, the detective who had made the
arrest began to interrogate his suspect. The poison Cabri-
novic had taken had failed to have any fatal effect, but he
was in pain from it and from the jump, and he was weary.
"Leave me in peace and I will tell you everything," he said
to the detective.

The detective tried to take him up on his offer. "From
whom did you get the bomb?" he asked.

"From our organization."

"Which organization?"

"Ill tell you later."

"Do you have accomplices?"

But having almost said too much already, Cabrinovi
refused to answer, and would say no more.

Back at the Appel Quay meanwhile, Franz Ferdinand
showed himself more interested in the fate of the victims
than in that of his would-be assassin. Having made sure that
all the wounded were properly cared for, he said, "Come
on, the fellow is insane; let us go on with our program," and
the procession started on its way toward the City Hall again.

126 SARAJEVO

Past Four Assassins

A few steps from the scene stood Vaso Cubrilovi, at
seventeen the youngest of the conspirators. He could see the
bomb being hurled, and threw himself aside to escape its
impact. What he did next is not wholly clear. Several wit-
nesses at the trial testified to having heard an explosive
sound reminiscent of a pistol shot at about the time Cab-
rinovi threw his bomb, some stating that they heard this
sound before the explosion, others insisting that it came
afterward. Cubrilovic himself, before his arrest, told several
friends that he had fired a shot at Franz Ferdinand. During
his trial, however, he changed his story, and denied having
shot at the Archduke. His gun, when recovered by the
police, was found to be fully loaded. It would therefore
seem most likely that Cubrilovi did nothing, and that the
shotlike sound heard by the witnesses preceded the explo-
sion, and was caused by Gabrinovid knocking off the cap of
his bomb against the lantern post.

The next would-be assassin, Cvijetko Popovi, who had
been standing in the shade across the street, no longer was
at his post as the cars started up again. Hearing the bomb
explode, he left his station and hid his bomb behind a box
in the basement of a building a few yards away. In court
later, he was frank and to the point about the motives
for his inaction. "I lost courage/* he said.
His defection left two more assassins, Princip and GrabeiL
At eight that morning, Princip had taken his bomb and
his revolver, and left Ilia's house where he had been staying
since his return to Sarajevo. He walked around the city
park for a while, stopping to talk with two students o his
acquaintance. Neither of them had any suspicions of what
Princip was about to do; one of them, in fact, was the son of

Gabrinovic 127

the district attorney who later was to lead the prosecution
in the trial of Princip and his accomplices.

The two boys were anxious to spend the rest of the morn-
ing with Princip, but after a while he excused himself and
left them to take up his post at the Lateiner Bridge. When
he heard the explosion, he felt certain that it was one of
the conspirators who had acted, although he was not sure
which one of them. The crowd was running toward the
spot, and Princip allowed himself to be drawn along. He
saw that the cars had stopped, and a feeling of triumph and
relief came over him. Their mission, he thought, had been
successfully accomplished.

Seeing Cabrinovi being led away and the cars starting
up a few minutes later, he realized how wrong his first im-
pression had been. He brought out neither his bomb nor his
revolver, however. Everything seemed to be happening
much too fast for him, and while he could clearly see
Sophie, he was unable to make out Franz Ferdinand. He
walked back toward the Lateiner Bridge, overhearing some
spectators say that the attempt against the Heir Apparent
had failed. Wondering what there remained for him to do,
Princip crossed the street, thinking that he should find
another station for himself, since the Archduke's itinerary
called for his return down the Appel Quay after the City
Hall reception.

Trifko Grabez whose nineteenth birthday this was
meanwhile paced up and down between the Lateiner
Bridge and the Kaiser Bridge, looking for Princip. Their
plan of action, he testified in court later, called for his
throwing a bomb as the cars were approaching, and for
Princip to shoot Franz Ferdinand in the ensuing confusion.
He did not see Princip anywhere near the appointed spot
at the Lateiner Bridge, however. He made his way through

128 SARAJEVO

the crowds toward the City Hall, frequently crossing from
one side of the Quay to the other, but he still could not find
Princlp. Perhaps, he thought, the police have arrested him.

For a while, Grabez remained on the Kaiser Bridge, near
the spot where Zerajic had tried to kill the Austrian Gov-
ernor in 1910. Too impatient to remain in any one spot
for too long, he returned to the Lateiner Bridge. Looking
around, he felt convinced that he could see two detectives
staring at him, and quickly decided to walk back to the
City Hall. By this time, the streets were thronged and he
was able to get no farther than the Kaiser Bridge, since too
many spectators blocked his way. A few minutes later, he
heard a bomb explode, but could see nothing of what had
happened. No cars were coming by, and Grabez was be-
ginning to hope that the attempt had succeeded.

Suddenly, however, he caught sight of the official pro-
cession coming toward him. Hearing no more shots or ex-
plosions, Grabez thought that all his friends must have
been arrested. He was on his way back to the Lateiner
Bridge when the Archduke's car passed him. He could
see that Franz Ferdinand was alive. Grabez did nothing.
The crowd, he told a friend before his arrest, was pressing
him in so tightly that he was unable to pull out his bomb.
To the police, he gave a different explanation, saying that
at the decisive moment he lacked the necessary fortitude.

Whatever his motives, Grabez let the cars pass, but stayed
near the Kaiser Bridge, in order to wait- like Princip
standing below him for the Archduke and his party to
return from the City Hall.

CHAPTER XI

Princip

"Our Hearts Are Full of Happiness 33

Outside the City Hall, a massive structure built in the
heavy and graceless pseudo-Moorish manner favored in
that region around the turn of the century for ministries,
railway stations, and other public buildings, the entire
city administration was waiting for the archducal party to
arrive. At a quarter past ten, they heard the sound of a
heavy detonation Cabrinovi's bomb. There was some
discussion about what might have caused the explosion,
and the concensus of opinion was that it must have been
an unscheduled cannon shot fired to salute the visitors.

Almost as soon as they saw the cars draw up, the city
fathers learned differently. The fezzed Mayor, Fehim Ef-
f endi Curci, stepped out of his car, preparing, as arranged,
to launch into his speech of welcome. The Archduke fol-
lowed, but the shock of what he had just gone through
seemed suddenly to catch up with him. Unable to control
his temper, he stopped the startled Curci before he could

129

ISO SARAJEVO

begin. "Mr. Mayor," he said, "one comes here for a visit
and is received with bombs 1 It is outrageous! " Trying to
calm himself, he went on after a pause, "All right, now you
may speak/'

The Mayor did, and considering the circumstances, his
speech could not have been much more inappropriate.

Your Royal and Imperial Highness! [said the Mayor,
addressing the irate Franz Ferdinand] Your Highness! [this
to address Sophie]

Our hearts are full of happiness over the most gracious
visit with which Your Highnesses are pleased to honor our
capital city of Sarajevo, and I consider myself happy that
Your Highnesses can read in our faces the feelings of our
love and devotion, of our unshakable loyalty, and of our
obedience to His Majesty our Emperor and King, and to the
Most Serene Dynasty of Habsburg-Lorraine. . . .

All the citizens of the capital city of Sarajevo find that
their souls are filled with happiness, [no one has recorded the
Mayor's having stumbled over this or the following passages]
and they most enthusiastically greet Your Highnesses* most
illustrious visit with the most cordial of welcomes, deeply
convinced that this stay in our beloved city of Sarajevo will
ever increase Your Highnesses* most gracious interest in our
progress and well-being, and ever fortify our own most pro-
found gratitude and loyalty, a loyalty that shall dwell im-
mutably in our hearts, and that shall grow forever.

In this enthusiasm, we call out from our hearts to Your
Highnesses:

Welcome! Long live our beloved and most exalted guests:
His Royal and Imperial Highness, the Most Serene Arch-
duke Heir Apparent Franz Ferdinand, and Her Highness,
Duchess Sophie!

Princip 131

God maintain His Royal and Imperial Apostolic Majesty,
Our Most Gracious Lord Franz Joseph I, Emperor and King!

Franz Ferdinand, stepping forward to give his reply,
showed that he was more skillful in coping with an unex-
pected situation, and was able to think of at least a few
appropriate extemporaneous words:

It gives me special pleasure [said the still shaken Archduke]
to accept the assurances of your unshakable loyalty and af-
fection for His Majesty, our Most Gracious Emperor and
King. I thank you cordially, Mr. Mayor, for the resounding
ovations with which the population received me and my wife,
the more so since I see in them an expression of pleasure over
the failure of the assassination attempt.

To my sincere satisfaction, I was in the fortunate position
of convincing myself personally, during this brief stay in your
midst, of the satisfying development of this magnificent re-
gion, in the prosperity of which I have always taken the most
lively interest.

So far, the Archduke had spoken in German. He now
changed to Serbo-Croatian to finish his speech:

May I ask you [he said to the Mayor] to give my cordial
greetings to the inhabitants of this beautiful capital city,
and assure you of my unchanged regard and favor.

Both speeches had been given in front of the City Hall.
The crowd shouted its applause, and Franz Ferdinand tried
very hard to show a smiling face. Everyone entered the
City Hall, Sophie to go upstairs to receive a delegation o
the town's Moslem ladies, while Franz Ferdinand and his
entourage remained in the vestibule downstairs.

132 SARAJEVO

Count Harrach's Protection

Once inside, the first thing Franz Ferdinand did was
to draft a telegram to the Emperor. Fearing that exaggerated
news stories of Cabrinovid's attempt might appear in the
press, he sent Franz Joseph a brief and reassuring account
of what had happened.

There had meanwhile been a telephone call from the
garrison hospital to the City Hall, saying that Merizzi's
wounds were slight, and that he was in no danger. Franz
Ferdinand discussed the welcome piece of news with the
assembled officials, and announced his intention of visit-
ing Merizzi at the hospital. He also asked if the bomb-
thrower had been arrested. When told that he had been, his
temper flared again. "J ust watch it," he said, "instead of
rendering the fellow harmless they will be truly Austrian
about it and give him the medal of merit."

The discussion next turned to the most crucial topic of
all what was to be done about the remaining program for
the day? Plans called for an hour's visit to the National
Museum before going to the farewell lunch at the Gov-
ernor's Residence, the Konak, but to drive through the
crowded and narrow streets of the old city after having just
escaped one bomb was obviously inadvisable. Potiorek said
that he considered another attack unlikely, and Dr. Gerde,
the Commissioner of Police, who joined the group just as
Potiorek was saying this, agreed. Even so, Potiorek sug-
gested canceling the visit to the museum. Instead, he said,
the Archduke might consider going directly to lunch, or
returning to Ilidze by driving down the Appel Quay at
high speed.

No, Franz Ferdinand said, he did not wish to do either,
for he definitely intended to visit Merizzi at the hospital.

Princip 133

Afterwards, they might go to the museum by a roundabout
route.

Here Baron Rumerskirch, Franz Ferdinand's Chamber-
lain, interrupted with a sensible question. Where was the
hospital, he asked Potiorek. Could one reach it without
passing through the city?

Yes, said Potiorek, all one has to do is to drive straight
down the Appel Quay.

One of the members of Franz Ferdinand's retinue still
felt uneasy. Would it not be better, he asked, to change the
day's plans very radically? Why not stay at the City Hall
until two companies of troops could be brought into town,
and orders issued to evacuate the streets?

Potiorek said No, the troops weren't in proper uniform
to be lining the streets.

The suggestion was dropped. They would drive along
the Appel Quay to the hospital, visit Merizzi, and go on
to the museum.

Colonel Bardolff, the Chief of Franz Ferdinand's Military
Chancellery, and one of the few who kept a clear head
during the discussion, thought of summing up the new
arrangements, and of asking the Commissioner of Police
to repeat them. Gerde, without really listening, said "Yes,
yes, certainly," and rushed away. No one, apparently,
stopped to give the necessary new instructions to the driver
of Franz Ferdinand's car.

Potiorek and Gerde had not only made an ill-considered
decision; they had also bungled one of its most essential
details. In mitigation, it might be said that both were act-
ing under a strain. Potiorek, who had been riding in Franz
Ferdinand's car, and had just avoided being torn apart by
an assassin's bomb through a sheer piece of luck, must still
have been badly scared. Gerde, whose police force had not

134 SARAJEVO

been watchful enough to prevent the occurrence, must have
been a thoroughly worried man at that moment. Merizzi,
Potiorek's aide who might normally have been expected
to make sure that the driver received his changed instruc-
tions, was in the hospital. Also, it should seem all but un-
imaginable that one assassination attempt might be followed
by any others on one and the same day. "Do you think that
Sarajevo is full of assassins?" was the rhetorical question
which Potiorek reportedly asked a member of Franz Ferdi-
nand's entourage who was suggesting greater caution.

Having decided on the new route, Franz Ferdinand
apparently willing to take chances for himself, but reluc-
tant to do so where his wife's safety was involved asked
Baron Morsey to drive Sophie either directly to the Gov-
ernor's residence or to Ilidze, and to take along a soldier of
the guard for added protection. Morsey went upstairs, but
found the reception of Moslem ladies still in progress. Since
the ladies had unveiled their faces for the Duchess, no man
was allowed to enter, and Morsey had to wait outside the
door.

The reception was proving something of a strain on
Sophie. She was plainly suffering from the aftereffects of
the assassination attempt, and was extraordinarily quiet at
first. She soon regained control of herself, however. Talk-
ing about her children, she pointed to a little Turkish girl
in the room, and said, "You see, this girl is just about as
tall as my Sophie." A little later, she expressed some worry.
"We have never left our children alone for this long," she
said.

When the reception was over, and she emerged from the
room, Morsey helped her into her coat and told her about
the Archduke's request. The Duchess, in a manner that was
at once friendly and determined, refused. She said: "As

Princip 135

long as the Archduke shows himself in public today I will
not leave him." By way of reply, Baron Morsey bowed.

Downstairs, Franz Ferdinand himself asked his wife to
change her mind, but she remained firm, saying, according
to one report, "No Franz, I am going with you."

At the foot of the City Hall steps, the cars drew up to
take everyone to the hospital. Their order was the same as
on the way in, with the Mayor's car in the lead again.

There was to be one difference in the seating arrange-
ments, however. Count Harrach opened the door of his
car and helped the Duchess into it. When Franz Ferdinand
and Potiorek were seated too, Harrach, instead of taking
his former place by the driver's side, stepped onto the left
running board, to shield the Archduke and the Duchess
with his body, Harrach's choice of the left rather than the
right running board probably was an instinctive one. Stand-
ing there, he would be away from the side closest to the
curb, but he would be acting as a shield against the river
side of the Quay, which was where Cabrinovic had hurled
his bomb from that morning. The Archduke laughed, and
told Harrach not to bother, but the Count insisted. Har-
rach's gesture was a wonderfully Austrian one kind, im-
pulsive, brave, chivalrous, and ineffectual.

As the cars drove by, the crowds broke into loud cheers,
and the gratified Archduke turned to Harrach to comment
on the warmth of the reception. But once again, the crowd
contained assassins.

By the first bridge past the City Hall, the Kaiser Bridge,
stood Trifko Grabez. He had stationed himself there after
his failure to do his part earlier in the morning, thinking
as he said in court later that he might have another chance
to kill the Archduke if the cars were to cross the Kaiser

136 SARAJEVO

Bridge to drive to the Konak, Instead, he watched them
go straight down the Appel Quay, and did nothing.

At least two of his accomplices also had remained near
the Appel Quay, hoping for a second chance, and crossing
the street from the river side to be closer to the returning
cars. One was Vaso Cubrilovi^. The other was Gavrilo
Princip.

Princip

After Cabrinovic's arrest. Princip had left his post on
the Lateiner Bridge, and walked across to the shady side
of the street. He felt that there were too many people for
comfort on the Quay, and took a few steps down Franz
Joseph Street, Sarajevo's principal shopping center, stop-
ping outside the spacious and elegant food shop of Moritz
Schiller. Here, the crowd was not quite so dense, and the
solicitous Mr. Schiller even found room to set down a chair
on the sidewalk for one of his lady customers.

A friend of Princip's, Mihailo Pusara, passed by, and
asked Princip whether he had seen the bomb attack. Princip
thought it wisest not to react to the question. Pusara, still
sociable, asked if Princip had any news from a certain
friend of theirs. As Princip was answering him, they heard
loud cries of Zivio, and saw the first two cars turn into their
street.

Franz Ferdinand's chauffeur, not knowing that the day's
plans had been changed, had simply followed the Mayor's
car in front of him. The driver of that car either because
he, too, was unfamiliar with the new program, or because
the Mayor was confused on who was to go to the museum
and who was to call on Merizzi at the hospital had followed

Princip 137

the exact route mapped out for the museum visit, and made
a right turn into Franz Joseph Street.

General Potiorek, realizing the mistake, immediately
leaned toward the driver and called: "What is this? This
is the wrong way I We're supposed to take the Appel Quay!*'

The driver put his foot on the brake, and began to back
up. The maneuver put the car straight in line with Princip.
Princip stepped forward, drew his gun, and at a distance of
not more than five feet, fired twice. Harrach, standing on
the left running board away from the curb, offered no ob-
stacle, and one bullet pierced Franz Ferdinand's neck,
while the other entered Sophie's abdomen.

"I aimed at the Archduke . . . ," Princip told the in-
vestigating judge during his first interrogation shortly
afterwards. "I do not remember what I thought at that
moment. I only know that I fired twice, or perhaps several
times, without knowing whether I had hit or missed. ..."

Potiorek, who had happened to look straight at Princip's
face during the shooting, was surprised at the weak detona-
tion made by the gun's going off. Turning his attention to
Franz Ferdinand and Sophie, he had the impression that
the shots had missed their mark, for both continued to sit
upright. He thought it wiser to cancel the hospital visit
under the circumstances, however, and called to the chauf-
feur to back up and to drive across the Lateiner Bridge to
the Konak.

All the cars behind had come to a halt, and their occu-
pants scurried out to see if their help was needed. Their
first impression, like Potiorek's, was that no one had been
seriously hurt, but to be on the safe side, Major Hiitten-
brenner hurried off in search of a doctor. Lieutenant Grein,
the owner of the last car, and Baron Morsey ran past them,
and threw themselves into the melee around Princip.

138 SARAJEVO

The Arrest

Having fired at his two victims, Princip turned the gun
on himself, intending to commit suicide with a third shot.
A spectator standing behind him, a man named Ante Veli<5,
saw what he was doing, threw himself forward, and seized
Princip's right arm. Seconds later, the mob had closed in
on them.

A policeman tried to arrest Princip, but too many people
barred his way. A Catholic student of theology, Danilo
Pusii, grabbed Princip by the collar. Princip twisted free,
but Pusi caught hold of him again. For a moment, Pusi
thought of strangling him, but then, as he told it later, he
thought of his Eternal Judge, and rejected the temptation.

For a while, everything was utter confusion. Grein and
Morsey drew their sabers and struck out at Princip, who
still held his automatic. Dozens of hands seemed to reach
out to seize him, but could not twist the gun away from
him, for Princip had put his gun hand between his knees.
Suddenly the furious Morsey saw the automatic, still black
with smoke, coming up, aiming or so it seemed straight
at his dress uniform trousers, and circling twice before it
disappeared again.

Morsey continued his saber thrusts at Princip. One of
the blows caught the hand with which the dogged Pui
was holding Princip. Pui, to his immense relief, noticed
that the saber apparently had not been sharpened for a long
time.

Some sensible soul shouted: "Don't kill him!" Someone
less kindly disposed struck Morsey several powerful blows
on the back of his helmet with an iron bar. Morsey thrashed
about with his saber and shouted: "I'll kill whoever touches
me!" Spying a man at his side who looked like a police

Princip 139

officer, Morsey pointed his saber at Princip and called:
"Arrest him!" Voices from the crowd yelled: "Go away!"

A young Moslem detective, Smail Spahovid, had in fact
been standing about ten feet away from Princip on Franz
Joseph Street with instructions to watch the crowds rather
than the cars. He had heard the shots, of course, but had
been unable to make out who had fired them. He now
pressed through the mob, and managed to seize Princip.

He was ill rewarded for his efforts. From somewhere,
a fist shot out and dealt him a powerful blow in the stomach.
Princip, who had gained some ground, followed up this
punishment by raising his gun and bringing it down again
on Spahovid's head, unappreciative of the fact that the po-
liceman was rescuing him from a lynching.

Finally Spahovid, together with the chief of his squad
who had come to his aid, succeeded in dragging Princip
away. Spahovic's stomach hurt furiously from the blow,
and on reaching the Appel Quay, he asked another police-
man to take over.

Sometime during all this commotion, Princip managed
to take the cyanide out of his pocket and swallow it.

Just as in Cabrinovid's case, the poison was ineffective. All
it did was to cause him a severe stomach pain and much
vomiting. The poison given them by their Belgrade em-
ployers had been too old. The consequences of this bit of
negligence were truly momentous. Had Cabrinovid's and
Princip's suicide attempts succeeded both of them did
take their poison the Austrians might have remained en-
tirely in the dark about the background of the crime, in
which case, there would very likely have been no Austro-
Serbian crisis, and hence no World War, in 19 14.

As Princip was being led away, his bomb slipped from
him. Pusid, the theology student who had been the first to

140 SARAJEVO

lay hands on Princip, saw it lying in the street, and called
a warning to a policeman. Another spectator had seen it too,
and while not wholly sure what the black, boxlike object
was, shouted: "Watch out! Don't step on the bomb!" Hear-
ing him, some people panicked, while others were too ex-
cited to care, and the police, arriving in strength now,
had a far from easy time clearing the scene.

Princip, meanwhile, had arrived at the police first-aid
post. He was in a pitiable state disheveled, vomiting, and
bleeding from several cuts on his head.

The Trip to the Konak

On the way to the Governor's Residence across the river,
it became apparent how wrong Potiorek's initial optimism
had been, and how seriously Franz Ferdinand and Sophie
had been hurt. As the car was reversing to cross the Lateiner
Bridge, a thin streak of blood shot from the Archduke's
mouth onto Count Harrach's right cheek. Harrach, still on
the left running board, had been bending over Franz Fer-
dinand. He drew out a handkerchief to still the gushing
blood.

The Duchess, seeing this, called: "For Heaven's sake!
What happened to you?" and sank from her seat, her face
falling between her huband's knees.

Harrach, not realizing that she had been hit, thought
that she had fainted. Potiorek, sitting opposite her, reached
over and tried to help her to sit up. He, too, thought that
she was suffering from nothing worse than shock.

Only her husband seemed to have an instinct for what
was happening. Turning to his wife despite the bullet in
his neck, Franz Ferdinand pleaded: "Sopherl! Sopherl!
Sterbe nicht! Bleibe am Leben fiir unsere Kinder! Sophie

Princip 141

dear! Sophie dear! Don't die! Stay alive for our children!"

Having said this, he seemed about to sag down himself.
His plumed general's hat, which had made him an easily
recognized target for Princip's bullets, fell off; many of its
green feathers later were found all over the car's floor.
Count Harrach seized the Archduke by the uniform collar
to hold him up. He asked: "Leiden Eure Kaiserliche Hoheit
sehr? Is Your Imperial Highness suffering very badly?"

"Es ist nichts It is nothing/* said the Archduke in a
weak but audible voice. He seemed to be losing conscious-
ness, but, his voice growing steadily weaker, he repeated the
phrase "es ist nichts'' perhaps six or seven times more.

A rattle began to issue from his throat, which subsided
as the car drew up in front of the Konak. Two or three
doctors, summoned by Major von Hiittenbrenner, were
already waiting for them. Four more were to arrive a few
minutes later from the garrison hospital, in response to an
urgent telephone call made by Major Hoger.

Several aides converged on the car, lifted up Sophie and
Franz Ferdinand, and carried them inside the Governor's
Residence. Crossing the vestibule, they carried them up one
flight of stairs, gently placing Sophie on the bed of Po-
tiorek's bedroom, and Franz Ferdinand on a couch in the
adjoining study.

The Death of Sophie

Assisted by Countess Lanjus and Colonel von Bardolff,
Dr. Wolfgang of the garrison hospital who not two hours
before had given first aid to the spectators wounded by
Cabrinovid's bomb began to examine Sophie. Lieutenant
Grein and Major Hoger meanwhile rushed out in search of
a bottle of ether.

142 SARAJEVO

It did not take Dr. Wolfgang long to discover that Sophie
was beyond medical aid. By the time Hoger returned with
his ether, the doctor had found the death-wound, a small,
dark red spot in the region of Sophie's right groin.

Princip's bullet, passing through the car door and the
upholstery of the seat, had entered Sophie's stomach, where,
after opening her stomach artery, it came to rest. She had
died from internal bleeding; presumably, she was no longer
alive as she was being carried into the Konak. Her worried
question, after Princip's shots, about her husband had
been her last words.

Countess Lanjus, her lady in waiting, closed Sophie's
eyes. Quickly, someone found flowers to place on her body
v the bouquet given her by the little girl during the
morning's City Hall reception, and flowers taken from the
decoration of the Konak's dining room table, set for the
luncheon that was to have been given in her and Franz
Ferdinand's honor at noon.

"His Highness' Sufferings Are Over"

As soon as he realized that Sophie was dead, Colonel von
Bardolff hurried into the next room, to see if there was
anything he could do for Franz Ferdinand. Here he found
Dr. Payer, a regimental surgeon who had administered first
aid to Cabrinovi6's victims with Dr. Wolfgang that morn-
ing. With Dr. Payer were four other doctors, summoned
by Hoger from the garrison hospital, where they had been
treating the wounded Merizzi Dr. Arnstein, Dr. Pollaco,
Dr. Hochmann, and Franz Ferdinand's personal physician,
Dr. Fischer.

The Archduke was lying on an ottoman, over which a
tablet proclaimed that Emperor Franz Joseph had stayed

Princip 143

and worked in that room during his visit in 1910. He was
in a deep coma. His breathing was barely audible, and his
heartbeat and pulse were faint. Blood flowed from his neck
and mouth.

To help Dr. Payer, several aides were trying to undress
Franz Ferdinand, but they could not manage to open the
clasp on his general's sash. At this moment, Baron Morsey
entered. He had walked to the Governor's Residence after
his slightly quixotic attempt to assist in Princip's arrest,
and he had raced up the stairs when a very pale Lieutenant
Grein told him at the door of the Konak that Sophie was
dead, and Franz Ferdinand badly wounded. In a flash,
Morsey recalled how early that morning, the Archduke had
proudly shown him the new and elaborate clasp holding
his sash together. Making an effort to remember exactly
how the clasp had worked, he tried to undo it, but in his
excitement he had no more luck than the others. Hastily,
he took out a pen knife, and cut away at the sash, throwing
the blood-soaked pieces far into the room behind him.

Someone cut open the Archduke's shirt with a pair of
scissors, and hands reached out to help him up into a sitting
position. As Franz Ferdinand's back was being raised, blood
spurted into Morsey's face and onto the yellow cuffs of his
uniform. For a few moments, Franz Ferdinand seemed to
be feeling better with the blood flowing freely, and his
breathing became more audible. Major von Hiitten-
brenner, suddenly regaining hope, rushed out of the room
for some ether.

Dr. Payer, however, remained pessimistic. We'll be
lucky, he said softly, if we get him to the garrison hospital
alive.

Baron Morsey knelt down by the Archduke's side, and
asked him if he had any message for his children. Franz

144 SARAJEVO

Ferdinand could no longer reply. His lips, Morsey saw,
were stiffening.

At about 11:00 A.M., within a quarter of an hour of
Sophie's death, Dr. Payer said: "No more human aid can be
given here. His Highness' sufferings are over."

One by one, the men present came forward, and kissed
Franz Ferdinand's hand. Baron Rumerskirch, his Chamber-
lain, closed the dead Archduke's eyes.

Like Sophie, Franz Ferdinand had died from internal
bleeding. Princip's bullet had pierced his jugular vein,
and come to rest in his spine. Dr. Payer had briefly con-
templated an emergency operation right at the Konak, but
with the bullet lodged where it was, the doctors' opinion was
that an operation would mean certain death.

Two priests, called when there no longer was a doubt that
the murder victims were beyond medical aid, gave Franz
Ferdinand and Sophie absolution in extremis, and per-
formed the last unction. One, dressed in his brown friar's
cowl, was the head of the Franciscan establishments in
Bosnia, Brother Mihacevii. The other was the Jesuit Father
Puntigam, now a teacher in Sarajevo, who, it so happened,
had once been confessor to the Archduke.

The bodies of Franz Ferdinand and Sophie were placed
on two metal bedsteads next to one another as on temporary
biers. More clergymen arrived to say prayers for the dead
Archbishop Stadler of Sarajevo, a military chaplain from
the garrison, and several of the town's priests.

Downstairs, in the Konak's banquet room, the table set
for the now canceled lunch in honor of the visitors from
Vienna had meanwhile been hastily cleared of china, silver,
and linen, so that it might serve as a work table for Potiorek,
Rumerskirch, and their staffs. For several hours, they sat
there, drafting a formal protocol of the morning's events,

16. The Reception in Mo-
star on the way to Sara-
jevo, June 25, 1914. On the
right, in light coat and
with plumed helmet, Franz
Ferdinand. Half hidden
behind him, Governor
Potiorek. In the center,
Franz Ferdinand's Cham-
berlain, Baron Rumer-
skirch.

17. At the maneuvers:
Franz Ferdinand (third
from left) and his Staff in
the Bosnian mountains,
June 27, 1914.

18. Leaving the City Hall
June 28, 1914. Sophie and
Franz Ferdinand descend
the steps and approach the
waiting car.

19. A few minutes before the assassination, the departure from City Hall. Franz Ferdi-
nand, in plumed helmet, has taken his seat in the car on the left, with Sophie to his right.
On the running board, to protect the couple stands Count Harrach.

21. After the. assassination,
Franz Ferdinand's bloodied and
torn uniform coat.

20. After the assassination, Princip's arrest.

Princip 145

dispatching reports to Vienna on the crime and on the re-
sults of Princip 's and Cabrinovi6's first interrogations, ask-
ing the Emperor's instructions, issuing orders. Only when
the most urgent work was finished did they remember to
have a light lunch served.

The most painful message of all was sent by Baron
Morsey. It contained the news of the assassination, and
was addressed to Dr. Stanowsky, the tutor of Franz Ferdi-
nand's and Sophie's three children.

CHAPTER XII

Riots and Sympathy

"A Decent Member of Bourgeois Society"

The news of Franz Ferdinand's and Sophie's death spread
fast through Sarajevo. In the evening, the first sporadic anti-
Serb demonstrations took place. They sufficiently alarmed
Dr. Gerde, Sarajevo's Commissioner of Police, to make him
put in a request for troops. The Commanding General, von
Appel, replied to Gerde's appeal by sending two infantry
companies into town. The demonstrators' mood was still
pacific, however, and, as Appel reported later, the troops
were soon able to return to their barracks "without being
forced to take any action/ 1

It was not long before they were needed again, for at
about 9:30 the next morning, Monday, June 29, the storm
broke, as mobs of Croats and Moslems went on a rampage
against the city's Serbs. To the London Times' shocked
correspondent, the mob seemed made up "of the lowest
elements, particularly in the Moslem quarter," and an
Austrian observer agreed that it consisted of the "work-shy

146

Riots and Sympathy 147

riffraff from town and country." One equally appalled cor-
respondent from Vienna, however, reported having seen
"many very well dressed ladies and gentlemen" among
them as well.

Carrying black-draped flags and pictures of the Emperor,
Franz Ferdinand, and Sophie, singing the national anthem,
and shouting Zivio for the Empire and the Habsburgs, one
large mob proceeded to the place of the assassination, where
they knelt and prayed for the salvation of the souls of
Princip's two victims. After listening to patriotic speeches,
they proceeded to the Sarajevo Cathedral, where they said
more prayers for the dead. Many wept.

The same mob then went on to assault whatever Serbs
they could lay their hands on, to smash Serb property, to
loot and pillage. By early afternoon, there was hardly an
undamaged Serb school, club, house, or store left in Sara-
jevo. The mob broke into Sarajevo's best hotel, the "Eu-
rope," which belonged to a prominent Serb, and left it a
shambles. They attacked and demolished the offices of the
city's two Serb newspapers. They broke the windows of
the Serb-Orthodox Metropolitan's Palace. The Metropol-
itan he had been one of the guests of honor at Franz Fer-
dinand's state banquet in Ilidze two days before suffered
cuts on his left hand from pieces of glass as he stood behind
a window of his palace watching the mob.

At eleven o'clock in the morning, the civilian authorities,
apparently aware that Sarajevo's small police force was no
match for the demonstrators, asked that troops be held in
readiness. An hour later, as the riots continued unabated,
General von Appel decided to take matters into his own
hands, and to restore order. Governor Potiorek seems to
have been paralyzed into inaction at this time; the day be-
fore, too, it had been Appel and not Potiorek who had

148 SARAJEVO

had the presence of mind to order the troops back from
the maneuver area Into town. He took no exception to the
Commanding General's measure, however, and in less than
four hours three battalions and one squadron of troops, as-
sisted by the police, had cleared the streets of demonstrators
without having had to fire a single shot.

A few determined hooligans tried to go on rioting for a
while longer, but the proclamation of martial law which
Potiorek issued at four o'clock in the afternoon effectively
cooled their ardor. All inns, read the proclamation, were
to close at 8:00 P.M., and coffee shops and "first-class hotels"
at ten. No more than three people were allowed to walk
together in the street, all public assemblies were banned,
and young people under fifteen were made subject to a
7:00 P.M. curfew. Violators of these orders were threat-
ened with penalties that ranged from light prison sentences
to death.

Fifty persons had been wounded in the day's rioting,
some of them severely. One man had been killed. (He was
not a Serb, but a member of the mob killed by a Serb in
self-defense.) Rough estimates of property destroyed ran as
high as five million crowns, or about one million dollars at
the then rate of exchange. "Sarajevo," reported the cor-
respondent of the conservative Vienna Reichspost on June
go, "looks like the scene of a pogrom today."

Actually, the physical destruction was not quite as bad
as originally feared. In some ways, business even profited
from the events of June 28 and 29 the murder and the
riots were serving as a grisly form of vacation attraction.
For several days, numbers of tourists descended on Sarajevo,
to look at the spot from which Cabrinovi<5 had thrown his
bomb, at Schiller's food store in front of which Princip
had fired his fatal shots, and at the smashed windows and

Riots and Sympathy 149

broken furniture left by the rioting mob, taking many a
photograph of all these scenes.

Only the earliest visitors, however, found many traces
of the rioting. A Russian diplomat, sent to Sarajevo by his
government on a fact-finding mission a week and a half after
the crime, reported back that nearly all of the damage had
been repaired, that the shops were open, the streetcars full,
and traffic heavy. On the surface, at least, everything had
returned to normal.

Beneath it, tension did not disappear that easily. "To the
Esteemed Citizens, Officials, and Military Personnel of
Sarajevo/' ran one sad advertisement in the pro-govern-
ment Sarajevoer Tagblatt on July 4, which was signed by
"Several [anonymous] Citizens of Sarajevo." Five days be-
fore, the advertisement read, the inn belonging to one Kosta
Kontos had been completely demolished, on the mistaken
assumption that Kontos was a Serb. This was not so the
innkeeper was a Greek. Moreover, he had always been en-
tirely loyal to the monarchy.

Since this error has caused him great material damage
[the advertisement continued], he asks his honored customers
for their continued confidence, declaring most emphatically
that he always has been, and always will be, a decent member
of bourgeois society, and a respecter of the laws of Austria-
Hungary, the orders of the authorities, and civic order.

He is still in business and would like to continue in busi-
ness. He asks all his friends and customers for their fair un-
derstanding, confidence, and patronage. . . .

Collecting for a Monument

Over Potiorek's objections, Minister of Finance Bilinski,
the Governor's superior as the head of the entire civil ad-

150 SARAJEVO

ministration of Bosnia-Herzegovina, indignantly ordered
the compensation of Sarajevo's "peaceful citizens" for the
damages they had suffered. They were to be paid from gov-
ernment funds, Bilinski wired, and the administration was
not to take refuge in pleading force majeure.

Potiorek, while willing enough to use relief funds to
extend emergency aid to any Serb needing such aid as a
result of the riots, opposed any full-scale compensation. By
their blatantly obvious lack of sympathy for Franz Ferdi-
nand and Sophie, he argued, they had done much to bring
the day's violence on themselves.

A bitterly reproachful exchange of letters between
Bilinski and Potiorek ensued. Bilinski, who had always
favored a conciliatory policy toward Bosnia's Serbs, asked
that "the old course" be maintained. Potiorek did not see
things that way. The Minister, after guardedly blaming
Potiorek for the insufficient security precautions taken to
protect the Archduke, added some harsh words about the
"riot and plunder" that had followed, " in the face of which
the police proved helpless." Potiorek, stung by both charges,
denied that the demonstrations had been that bad, or the
police that remiss in their duties.

But at any rate, the riots were over, and there was time
for some more worthy expression of sympathy for the mur-
dered Archduke and Duchess. On June 29, the presiding
officers of Bosnia's parliament issued a statement condemn-
ing the deed and the pan-Serb agitation behind it. Many
messages of condolence from Bosnia began to arrive at the
Imperial Chancellery in Vienna. (Just how sincere these
were is another matter. One, for example, was signed by
Misko Jovanovii, the cinema manager in Tuzla who had
helped Princip and Cabrinovi<^ on the underground route

Riots and Sympathy 151

from Belgrade, and had hidden their bombs and guns for
them.)

A local newspaper sponsored a collection to erect a monu-
ment on the place of the murder. The list of contributions,
published every day, at times makes strange reading. The
Serb-Orthodox Metropolitan, hurt in the rioting, sent 200
crowns, the largest contribution that day. Lazar Djuki<5,
who, while refusing to take part in the assassination him-
self, had recruited Vaso Cubrilovic for it, contributed one
crown, or not quite 25 cents. Dr. Gerde, whose police force
had proved unable to prevent the murder, offered 50
crowns.

"Hail to the Gun of Princip"

The news of Princip's crime caused world-wide shock,
even though few people yet guessed what its eventual conse-
quences were going to be. Telegrams and letters of con-
dolence poured into Vienna as soon as the murders became
known. Many European courts went into mourning. King
George V commanded the British court to wear mourning
for one week beginning June 28; Tsar Nicholas II of
Russia ordered twelve days' court mourning in memory of
Franz Ferdinand.

Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany and President Wilson of the
United States were of the same mind when it came to ex-
pressing their sympathies for the murdered couple. The
German Emperor, recalling his recent visit to Konopisht,
sent a telegram to Franz Ferdinand's children which read:

We can hardly find words to tell you children how our
hearts bleed, thinking of you and of your indescribable
misery. Only two weeks ago we spent such lovely hours with

152 SARAJEVO

your parents, and now we hear of this terrible sadness that
you must suffer. May God protect you and give you the
strength to bear this blow. The blessing of the parents reaches
beyond the grave.

The President of the United States sent the following
telegram o condolence to Emperor Franz Joseph:

THE WHITE HOUSE
Washington, June 2 9, 1914

Deeply shocked at the atrocious murder of His Imperial
and Royal Highness Archduke Francis Ferdinand and Con-
sort at an assassin's hands, I extend to Your Majesty, to the
Imperial and Royal family, and to the Government of
Austria-Hungary the sincere condolences of the Government
and people of the United States and an expression of my own
profound sympathy.

WOODROW WILSON

And yet, behind several of these professions of sympathy
there lay a good deal of relief. The horror over the crime
was genuine enough, and a widespread initial impression
that the assassination had been organized by anarchists may
have caused a personal enough feeling of involvement at
many a royal and presidential residence. On the other
hand, Franz Ferdinand's political plans had created much
fear and worry, either because of their apparent vagueness
or because, as in some countries, they seemed to make him
look like a potential future enemy. Franz Ferdinand never
had had a good press in his lifetime, and there were few
people who truly mourned him now.

The crime was a terrible one, of course, the Italian For-
eign Minister told one ambassador in a startlingly wrong
prediction, "but world peace will not be any worse off."

Riots and Sympathy 153

The Italian press, reported the British Ambassador in
Rome to London, was vociferous in denouncing the crime,
yet "it is obvious that people generally have regarded the
elimination of the late Archduke as almost providential/'
In France and Russia, the feeling was very much the same.
The prevailing mood was best summed up perhaps by the
eminently unsentimental King Nicholas of Montenegro.
According to "an absolutely reliable but secret source,"
wrote the French Minister, the King "does not approve the
action itself, . . . but he is delighted with the result."

Several journalists, unhampered by governmental respon-
sibilities, could afford to be even blunter in their comments.
Not all, however, went as far as an Italian editor named
Benito Mussolini then a Socialist who some months
after the event wrote: "Hail to the gun of Princip and to
the bomb of Cabrinovid:!"

Serbian Condolences

In Serbia, a majority of the people probably felt the same
way about Franz Ferdinand's disappearance from the scene,
but the government took immediate measures to prevent
them from giving voice to their sentiments.

The news of Princip's crime reached Belgrade on Sunday
afternoon. The Russian Minister, upon hearing it, re-
portedly expressed what must have been the fears of many
a responsible Serbian politician at that moment. "In heav-
en's name!" he said. "Let us hope he is not a Serbian."
Kaiser Wilhelm's comment, when he read about the Minis-
ter's remark, was unkind. "After all," wrote the Emperor,
"he would have known!"

General Bozo Jankovii, the president o the now innocu-
ous Narodna Odbrana and a member of Pass's cabinet, at

154 SARAJEVO

about the same time was saying very much the same thing
to a Hungarian official. That afternoon, Jankovic was on a
train headed for the Adriatic coast with his family for a
summer vacation, and hence found himself on Austro-Hun-
garian territory. As the train sped toward the Croatian capi-
tal of Zagreb, two friends hastily entered his compartment,
and asked him to step into the corridor with them for a
minute. Lowering their voices, they told him that the train
was full of Austrian officials word had just been received
at the last station that Franz Ferdinand and Sophie had
been murdered in Sarajevol

The General went pale. He had attended the meeting
in which Pasi had told of having learned about the plot,
and in which the fruitless decision had been reached to stop
the assassins at the border. He therefore must have had a
fair idea of what the news meant, even though the Narodna
Odbrana was not a direct accessory to the crime.

After a few moments of near panic, Jankovid: recovered
his composure. Let us stay in our compartments, he told his
two friends, and pretend ignorance.

Having arrived at his destination, the Adriatic port city
of Fiume, he hired a fiacre to take him to the Hungarian
Prefect. Expressing his regrets over the morning's unfortu-
nate occurrence, he asked whether there was any definite
information yet about the assassin's identity. Jankovid
already had some thoughts on the subject, but he wanted
to make sure.

The assassin, the Prefect said, was a Serb, meaning that
he was a Serb ethnically and linguistically, but not a Serbian
by nationality.

"Since I had learned before that the assassin was a
Bosnian," Jankovid has recalled the scene, "and since he
[the Prefect] confirmed this, I replied that it was a relief

Riots and Sympathy 155

to me, a Serbian cabinet minister, that the assassin at least
was an Austro-Hungarian and not a Serbian national."

In Belgrade itself, the news of the murder had created a
sensation. Some citizens expressed their delight over the
day's events, but the prevailing mood at first was one o
utter surprise rather than of pleasure. To prevent private
feelings of approval from erupting into demonstrations in
honor of Princip, and to indicate the government's shock,
the quick-thinking Minister of the Interior ordered all
theaters, coffee shops, and other places of assembly to close
at 10:00 P.M. The Belgrade police followed this up by ban-
ning all public concerts, dances, and other amusements.

The next morning, the government newspaper carried
an editorial condemning the deed. Most other Belgrade
newspapers wrote in a similar vein, although some pointed
out that it had been a mistake on Franz Ferdinand's part
to choose Saint Vitus* Day, a day so full of historic associa-
tions to any Serb, for his visit to Sarajevo.

Only The Piemont, the organ of the Black Hand, called
Princip a "y un g martyr," and wrote that the real culprits
were the Austrians themselves, who had provoked the
murder by creating an insufferable state of affairs in Bos-
nia. The Serbian police promptly seized the issue.

The government also conveyed its formal sympathies to
the Austrians. Pasi himself was on an election campaign
in the provinces, but in his place the Minister of Justice
and the Secretary General of the Foreign Ministry called at
the Austrian Legation on Monday. The call embarrassed
everybody concerned.

The Austrian Minister was absent too from Belgrade at
that time, and they were received by the charg6 d'affaires
instead. The charg6, Wilhelm Ritter von Storck, while
not yet possessing any concrete evidence about the murder

156 SARAJEVO

that pointed to Belgrade, was profoundly convinced that
the agitation for a Greater Serbia which the government
had either tolerated or sponsored for so long was ultimately
responsible for Franz Ferdinand's and Sophie's deaths. For
years, Storck wrote to Vienna, these people had sowed
hatred; they had now reaped murder. Storck was one of
those Austrians who believed that only strong action against
Serbia could save the Empire. "Serbia must learn to fear us
again/' he bluntly advised his superiors in Vienna two days
after Sarajevo, "otherwise our old border regions, and not
just the annexed provinces, will be in danger."

His manner in acknowledging his Serbian visitors' con-
dolences was, as he himself reported it, "reserved but cor-
rect," incapable as he was of forgetting his suspicions about
the crime's true origins. As more Serbian dignitaries called
the King's Cabinet Secretary, the Royal Chamberlain,
the Crown Prince he grew to dislike his job even more.
"I was unable to utter much more than the usual thank-you
phrases," he admitted in his dispatch to Vienna.

When he reported the announcement of a week's court
mourning the next day, he added that the gesture struck
him as another piece of hypocrisy. "If many a person now
offering his condolences with a properly funeral face, were
to pass by the bier of the victims, the wounds would begin
to bleed again."

There was still one other ordeal ahead of Storck. On
July 3, a requiem mass for the murdered couple was held
in the chapel of the Austro-Hungarian Legation. Several
Serbian cabinet members attended it. Among them was
Ljuba Jovanovic, the Minister of Education who, like Gen-
eral Jankovi, had been present when Pasi<5 had revealed
his advance information about the plot. Jovanovi's feel-
ings, as he entered the chapel, were torn. On the one hand,

Riots and Sympathy 157

he approved of Princip's deed. On the other, he agreed
with Pasic's efforts to avoid trouble with Austria by acting
in a wholly innocent manner. "Nevertheless," he wrote in
what may have been the year's understatement, "both my
action in going there and the short period during which we
were in the church were unpleasant to me."

Three days earlier, before the Austrian government had
even accused Serbia of any complicity in the crime, Jovano-
vi<5 had hastened to assure a visiting French diplomat that
Belgrade had never aided the Bosnian revolutionaries in
any fashion. We have treated Austria's Serbs, he said, "as
though they had cholera."

Pasi, after returning to Belgrade, pursued the same line.
On July i, again before any formal Austrian charges had
been made, he sent a circular instruction to all Serbian mis-
sions abroad. The deed, he wrote, had been generally de-
plored in Serbia. "It would be absurd to believe that at a
time when Serbia is doing all it can to bring about better
and more friendly relations with the neighboring mon-
archy, it would be capable of provoking such acts directly or
indirectly."

A week later, the Prime Minister followed this up by a
remarkable interview he gave to a correspondent of a Buda-
pest newspaper. The double assassination, he said, had
caused widespread and honest sympathy in Serbia. The
criminals clearly were Austrian citizens, and not even citi-
zens of voting age at that, but foolish children. His govern-
ment had had no advance knowledge of the plot, nor had it
been involved in it in any other way.

Having told one plain untruth not only had he known
about the plot beforehand, but he had failed to issue an
adequate warning to the Austrians he added a strange ver-
sion of an incident that had taken place half a year earlier.

158 SARAJEVO

In the winter of 1913, the Belgrade police had sent a
routine inquiry to the Austro-Hungarian Consulate, asking
whether some personal data which Cabrinovic had sub-
mitted to them agreed with what was known about him at
the Consulate, or whether he had any criminal record in
Bosnia. The Consulate sent an equally routine reply, say-
ing that the information Cabrmovi had given was correct;
and that he did not in fact have any prison record.

If only the Austrian police had drawn our attention to
Princip and Cabrinovic when these two were in Belgrade,
Pasi mournfully complained to the correspondent. (The
Austrians, of course, did not realize that Princip was in
Serbia, since he had gone there illegally. On the other hand,
the Serbians did know about it, since he was taking the
official high school examinations given by the Ministry of
Education, and had met the Minister.) The Serbian Police,
Pasic said, would have kept a sharp watch on them in that
case. But it was not just that the Austrian police had been
derelict about putting their Serbian colleagues on their
guard. There had been something far worse. The Belgrade
police, PaSid said, becoming suspicious of Cabrinovid on
the basis, presumably, of their own evidence, had intended
to expel the young anarchist from the country. (Actually,
the young anarchist was holding a job at the Serbian Gov-
ernment Printing Office that winter.) Upon hearing this,
the Austrians had interceded in his behalf, and had used
their efforts to save him from expulsion.

No Tears in Austria

In Vienna, rumors about an assassination first began to
circulate in the early hours of the afternoon. It was terribly
hot that Sunday, and the streets of the city were all but

Riots and Sympathy 159

deserted. Most Viennese had either gone to the country and
woods that surrounded Vienna, or had chosen to stay in the
cool darkness of their homes. Even so, small crowds began
to assemble, discussing the rumors. At 3:00 P.M., one-page
extra editions reporting the news from Sarajevo reached
the streets. At the same hour, the Imperial Chamberlain's
office ordered the Burgtheater to cancel the evening's per-
formance, and later in the afternoon, all other theaters
staying open for the summer announced that they, too,
would remain dark that evening.

Indignation against Belgrade ran high. It was taken for
granted that the murder was Serbian inspired, and for sev-
eral days, the police had their hands full in keeping the
mobs away from the Serbian Legation. During one such
scuffle, some ingenious rioters almost scored a brief victory
when they threw live frogs at the line of mounted police-
men barring their way, hoping to upset the horses. But de-
spite the dark theaters and despite the riots, true sorrow
for Franz Ferdinand was rare.

Some few people realized that the Archduke, had he
lived to become Emperor, might have effected those painful
reforms which Austria-Hungary needed to survive. Many
more, however, seemed to share the feelings of a respected
liberal politician who on June 28 wrote in his diary: "Per-
haps [some day] one will be able to say: 'God meant to be
kind to Austria by saving it from this Emperor/ "

Popular sympathy was reserved for Sophie and the or-
phaned children, but above all for the old Emperor.

Franz Joseph, in Ischl for his annual summer vacation,
learned about the murder of his nephew through a tele-
gram from Potiorek, which arrived within about an hour of
the event. General Count Paar, his chief aide, took the tele-
gram to the Emperor. Baron Margutti, another of Franz

160 SARAJEVO

Joseph's aides on duty in Ischl, has given an account in his
memoirs o what he says Paar told him that evening about
the Emperor's reaction. Franz Joseph, Margutti quotes
Paar as telling him, seemed very much affected at first. He
almost looked as though he had suffered a stroke. For sev-
eral minutes, he closed his eyes, completely lost in his pri-
vate thoughts, and not uttering a word. When he finally
spoke, it was as though he was talking to himself rather than
to Paar: "Terrible! The Almighty cannot be provoked!"
And after a pause: "A higher force has restored that order
which unfortunately I was not able to maintain."

Whether the Emperor's reaction to his nephew's violent
death really did take the form of this almost blasphemous
allusion to Franz Ferdinand's and Sophie's morganatic mar-
riage is dubious at best. The quotation Is a third-hand one
what Margutti, some years after the event, claimed Count
Paar told him about what the Emperor, in turn, had told
Paar, and Margutti's memoirs are full of entertaining but
unsubstantiated gossip. Nor was the Emperor as simple
a man in his speech as he was in his other tastes in the
habit of speaking in such pretentious or blasphemous
phrases. Unfortunately, however, Margutti's is the only ac-
count we have that was written by anyone present in Ischl
at the time.

CHAPTER XIII

A Strange Funeral

"There Is No Need For Reproach, Your Majesty"

Having heard the news of Sarajevo, Franz Joseph gave
Immediate orders to prepare for the return to Schonbrunn,
his residence near Vienna. Leaving Ischl at 6:00 A.M. on
Monday, Franz Joseph and his retinue arrived at Schon-
brunn five hours later. At the station, the Emperor was
welcomed by Archduke Carl Franz Joseph, Franz Ferdi-
nand's nephew. Owing to Franz Ferdinand's oath of re-
nunciation the price he had had to pay for his morganatic
marriage in 1900 his children were excluded from the
succession and Carl, the son of his younger brother Otto,
had become the new Successor to the Throne. In 1916, in
the midst of a hopeless war, Carl was to be crowned Austria-
Hungary's last Emperor.

Together, Franz Joseph and his grandnephew walked
out of the station the Emperor had taken the young Arch-
duke's arm -and drove to Schonbrunn castle. Many specta-
ators were lining the streets along their way. Some stood

161

162 SARAJEVO

quietly to show their sympathy; others cheered the Em-
peror and Carl. In the courtyard, no words were spoken
in welcome. The courtiers assembled there to greet the
Emperor did so by bowing silently.

The Emperor either did not feel his nephew's loss very
deeply, or else he was suppressing his emotions. Three days
after his return to Schonbrunn, Colonel Bardolff came to
give an eyewitness report of the assassination. Having lis-
tened to him in silence, Franz Joseph, in a low voice, asked
only one question: "And how did the Archduke bear him-
self?"

"Like a soldier, Your Majesty/' said Bardolff.

"That was to be expected from His Imperial Highness."

There was a brief pause. It was broken by the Emperor.

"And how were the maneuvers?" he asked, speaking in
his normal tone of voice again, and changing the subject.

A few days later, he saw Baron Conrad, the Chief of the
General Staff. Conrad originally had been one of Franz
Ferdinand's favorites, but in recent years there had been
many a bitter quarrel between them.

Franz Joseph's conversation with the Chief of Staff first
touched upon the recent death of a general whom both had
known.

"All are dying, only I can't die," said the Emperor.

"The Lord be thanked," said Conrad. "We're glad you're
alive."

"Yes, yes, but one is so alone then."

The conversation moved on to the subject of the Bosnian
maneuvers. He had feared a new conflict with Franz Ferdi-
nand, Conrad admitted, but the Archduke had been kind
and charming.

"Yes," broke in the Emperor. "He has changed recently,
and for the better. Did he have any premonitions? I re-

A Strange Funeral 163

proach myself. He was asking me whether he should not

forget about the trip."

"But there is no need for reproaches, Your Majesty."
"He said he could not bear the great heat/' said the

Emperor, ready to abandon the subject again.

Potiorek To Resign?

Franz Joseph, noted Conrad, while reproaching himself,
had no word of blame for Potiorek.

Here, in fact, is one of the strangest aspects of the mur-
ders. There was, it seemed, no intention to call Potiorek
and Gerde to account for their negligence.

There was much public criticism of both men in Austria,
and even harsher things were being said about them pri-
vately. The leading Socialist paper, the Arbeiter Zeitung,
bitterly attacked Potiorek for his share of the responsi-
bility. The widely respected Liberal paper, the Neue Freie
Presse, asked editorially:

Is it really so difficult to know who the fanatics are among
the propagandized youth; would it really be impossible to
keep these political birds of passage under observation? We
do not think so, and it is precisely this which the police in the
dangerous vicinity of the Balkans have to do if they are to
fulfill their most basic duties.

In the same issue, the paper carried an outspoken dis-
patch from Vienna saying that "the insufficiency of the
police in Sarajevo is a topic of general conversation."

Many people, reported the Conservative Reichspost
from Sarajevo, "are reproaching General Potiorek and
Police Commissioner Gerde for the poor security service/*

164 SARAJEVO

The streets, these critics were arguing, should have been
much better guarded, particularly after Cabrinovid's at-
tempt. "The heads of the Sarajevo police are generally held
to be very much responsible, and it is likely that there will
be some retirements/' A week later, on July 7, the Reichs-
post reported a rumor according to which General Potiorek
had been asked to submit his resignation.

"The most indescribable state of affairs must exist among
the police," angrily exclaimed the Hungarian Prime Minis-
ter at a secret cabinet meeting about a week after the crime,
"if on the day of the assassination six or seven individuals
who were known to the police could take up their positions,
armed with bombs and guns, along the route of the late
Successor to the Throne, without the police observing or
arresting a single one of them."

"If an archduke should be stung by a fly in some railroad
station/* the German Ambassador to Vienna privately told
an Austrian friend, "the station master might well lose his
job. But no one is as much as bothered for his share in this
slaughter in the streets of Sarajevo/'

Everyone, it seemed, was blaming Gerde and Potiorek
except for the Emperor. Not only did Franz Joseph abstain
from uttering a single reproach against Potiorek, but in a
conversation with Bilinski on June 29 he took pains, as the
Minister reported to Potiorek, "to say some highly appre-
ciative words of Your Excellency's person/'

What accounted for the Emperor's attitude? Was it sim-
ply the resignation of a very old man? Franz Joseph had
suffered so many personal losses during his long reign that
the death of his nephew may have seemed no more than
another inevitable blow of fate, to be borne in dignity and
silence. Was it his dislike of Franz Ferdinand? The two cer-

A Strange Funeral 165

tainly had never got on well with each other. Yet one won-
ders, for Franz Joseph was too much of a gentleman to have
welcomed his nephew's death, and too much of a respecter
of the law to close his eyes to the possibility of criminal
negligence.

Was it friendship for Potiorek? The Bosnian Governor
had the reputation of being one of the most capable gen-
erals of the Empire, and Franz Joseph had known and liked
him for years. Gossip had it that in 1906, when the post of
Chief of the General Staff fell vacant, Franz Joseph would
have preferred to see Potiorek rather than Conrad ap-
pointed to it, and withdrew Potiorek's name only because
Franz Ferdinand was totally unyielding in supporting
Conrad's candidacy. But personal favoritism makes an
unconvincing explanation too; for Franz Joseph was too
honest a man and too good a ruler to let personal considera-
tions influence his official decisions to this extent.

Whatever the motives, the facts remain that the Emperor,
to all appearances, was absolving the Governor and the local
authorities under him of any part of the responsibility; that
Potiorek neither offered his resignation nor was asked for
it; and that there was no investigation of the obviously
insufficient security measures taken in Sarajevo. Perhaps
parliament would have demanded such an investigation,
but parliament was not in session. When it was, the country
was at war clearly not the proper time for an investigation
which could uncover facts showing that there were Austrian
officials who might have prevented the Sarajevo crime.

But if excuses exist why Potiorek and Gerde should have
escaped the consequences of their negligence, none do for
the manner in which the funeral of Franz Ferdinand and
Sophie was arranged.

166 SARAJEVO

The Trip Home

At first, there seemed to be nothing out of the ordinary
about the funeral arrangements. Resting in metal coffins,
the bodies of Franz Ferdinand and Sophie, which military
surgeons had embalmed during the night, were placed in
the drawing room of the Konak on the day following the
murders. The room, lined in black, soon filled with flowers
and with mourners from the city. At six in the afternoon,
Brother Mihacevid, the Franciscan Provincial, and Arch-
bishop Stadler, who was accompanied by the entire cathe-
dral chapter, blessed the two bodies. Soldiers slowly carried
the coffins to the waiting hearses, and a long cortege began
its procession toward the station. A detachment of cavalry
and several infantry battalions led the way, among them a
battalion in which Bosnian Serbs predominated the
soldiers had volunteered for this duty in order to demon-
strate their loyalty to the crown. Behind the troops walked
Stadler, Mihacevi, and the remainder of the clergy. They
were followed by a car bearing the many wreaths sent to
the Konak, by the two hearses, and by a group of mourners
that included Baron Rumerskirsch, Colonel Bardolff,
Countess Lanjus, Governor Potiorek, and every ranking
officer and official of Sarajevo.

At the station, a special railroad car received the coffins.
Stadler and Mihacevi pronounced a final blessing, the car
was sealed under the supervision of Baron Rumerskirch,
and at a few minutes past seven, amid a twenty-four gun
salute fired from the fortress cannon, the funeral train left
the city in which Dimitrijevic's men had murdered Franz
Ferdinand and Sophie.

The coffins were returning by the same route by which
Franz Ferdinand had arrived four days earlier by rail and

A Strange Funeral 167

river to the coast, across the Adriatic on board the Viribus
Unitis ; and from Trieste to Vienna by train once more.
Again, as on the Archduke's trip to Bosnia, large crowds,
dressed in mourning this time, turned up all along the way
between Sarajevo and the coast, and as the Viribus Unitis
slowly crossed the calm Adriatic the flag-draped coffins
guarded by detachments of the ship's officers and men
boats of nearly every size and description came up to the
battleship in a last and silent gesture of condolence.

Only when the Viribus Unitis anchored in Trieste two
days later, on the afternoon of July i, were there any in-
dications that something was amiss. Instructions had been
received from Vienna ordering a delay the special train
bearing the coffins was not to arrive in Vienna until ten
o'clock the next evening, and thus well after dark. The
author of this order was the Emperor's Lord Chamberlain,
Prince Alfred Montenuovo.

Relations between Montenuovo and Franz Ferdinand
had been badly strained during the latter's lifetime. No
one could quite say why. Some gossip had it that the Prince,
a distant relative of Sophie Chotek, felt slighted by her
coolness toward him after her marriage, while according
to other purveyors of scandal he was resentful over several
alleged discourtesies on Franz Ferdinand's part. What
made some of the people at court relish the hostility between
the two men was a special bit of historic irony: Mon-
tenuovo, upholder of court etiquette and resolute opponent,
so it was said, of Franz Ferdinand's morganatic marriage,
was himself the descendant of a morganatic union. After
Napoleon's exile to Elba, the Austrian Court had detailed a
dashing general, Count Neipperg, to look after the Empress,
Marie Louise, from whom Napoleon had been forced to
part. The general fulfilled his duties so expertly that eventu-

168 SARAJEVO

ally, he and Marie Louise were married; and one of the
grandsons of their morganatic union was none other than
Prince Montenuovo.

As Lord Chamberlain, Montenuovo found himself in
charge of all formal ceremonies surrounding the funeral.
His first plan, it was said, was to enforce court etiquette
with total cold-bloodedness. Franz Ferdinand was to be
entombed in the Capuchin Crypt, the traditional burial
place of the Habsburgs, but Sophie, who had no claim to
such Imperial honors, was to receive a separate burial in
the crypt which Franz Ferdinand had ordered built at
Artstetten castle. The plan had to be revised when someone
pointed out that Franz Ferdinand presumably in anticipa-
tion of the court's attitude, had included a passage in his
will which specifically requested that he and Sophie be
buried side by side in Artstetten.

Montenuovo had little choice except to give in, but he
could raise a new objection. It would unfortunately be
impossible, it appeared, to hold any memorial services in
Vienna for the late Duchess without violating that holy of
holies, court etiquette. Sophie, the Chamberlain's office
reportedly ruled, having been born a mere Countess Cho-
tek, could not possibly be allowed to lie in state next to her
Habsburg husband in the Hofburg chapel.

At this point, the indignant new Heir to the Throne,
Archduke Carl Franz Joseph, apparently went to see the
Emperor. As a result of their talk, an Imperial command
went out ordering joint requiem services. Montenuovo,
unable to oppose the command directly, took refuge in what
might be called a strategy of massive, administrative pet-
tiness there was to be no full ceremonial and no military
parade; the coffins were to be brought from the station to
the Hofburg chapel after dark, with only a minimum of

A Strange Funeral 169

soldiers lining the streets; the chapel was to be open to the
public for four hours only, from eight in the morning to
noon on July 3, and the position and decoration of the
coffins was to make Sophie's morganatic position painfully
obvious.

An Absence of Royalty

Neither Franz Ferdinand nor Sophie had ever been
widely beloved, but thanks to the Lord Chamberlain's at-
titude they suddenly had more sympathizers than they had
had in their lifetime. One open indication of this occurred
as the train bearing their mortal remains arrived at the
Vienna Sildbahnhof on July 2. Among those awaiting the
train could be seen Archduke Carl and all the officers of the
Vienna garrison not on duty that evening, even though
there was no provision for the presence of either the Heir
to the Throne or of the officers in the elaborately worked
out ceremonial. They accompanied the cortege from the
station to the Hofburg chapel, making a spectacular pro-
cession even more memorable by their uninvited presence.
For while Montenuovo had denied Franz Ferdinand the
full honors due to an Heir to the Throne and Inspector
General of the Armed Forces, it must be said that even a
lesser Habsburg cortege offered some spectacular pageantry.
Two grooms carrying lanterns opened the procession,
followed by a squadron of the Seventh Lancers, courtiers
in coaches and courtiers on horseback, the Lord Chamber-
lain and the Archduke's First Chamberlain, more grooms
in braided court uniforms carrying lanterns, the two
hearses, flanked by twelve royal guards to the right, carry-
ing halberds, and twelve to the left, holding swords drawn.
Franz Ferdinand, when alive, had never been so well

170 SARAJEVO

guarded. Behind the hearses came more grooms, a court
coach bearing Franz Ferdinand's retinue and another bear-
ing Sophie's, and, finally, another squadron of Lancers.

When the public was admitted to the Hofburg chapel
the next morning to view the bodies lying in state, the
setting at first seemed solemn enough, too. The church was
draped almost entirely in black; even the prie-dieus had
been covered with black cloth. Masses were being read at
every altar, and at ten o'clock, the court choir entered to
chant the Miserere. Royal guards were keeping the death
watch, and the two catafalques on which the bodies rested
were gleaming in the light of enormous wax candles in
silver candelabras.

As the visitor stepped closer to the silver and gold coffins,
however, he was confronted with the final insult committed
in the name of protocol. The two coffins had been placed
side by side, but that of the Duchess her former status as
a lady in waiting apparently unforgiven even in death
was at a level lower than that of her hubsand's. Nor was this
all. For while on top of the Heir to the Throne's coffin
rested his medals, the crown of an Imperial Prince, a gen-
eral's cap and sabre, and an Archduke's hat, all that could
be seen on Sophie's coffin, in addition to her medals, were
a pair of white gloves and a fan. In front of the catafalques
lay a wreath of white roses sent by the orphaned children,
bearing the simple inscription "Sophie, Max, Ernst," but
none, the Archduke's friends noted, from the Emperor.

Sharply at noon, as the bells of the church started to toll,
the attendants closed the doors of the church, admitting no
more visitors, even though this meant turning away a good
many Viennese who were still waiting outside to pay their
last respects to the dead. The church was being cleared for
the funeral requiem service that afternoon.

A Strange Funeral 171

Four hours later, the brief requiem service began. The
Cardinal Prince Archbishop of Vienna officiated, and the
audience included the Emperor, all archdukes and arch-
duchesses, ministers and generals, and the diplomatic corps.
But brilliant though this assembly might be, there were
some almost equally conspicuous absences. No foreign
royalty had come to Vienna.

Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany, it seems, had almost im-
mediately sent word that he was ready to attend the funeral
services, and so had King Victor Emmanuel of Italy. King
George of England was going to be represented by the
Duke of Connought, Tsar Nicholas by Grand Duke Nicho-
las Nicolaievich. As late as June 30, the Austrian press still
reported the impending arrival of both the German Em-
peror and the King of the Belgians as facts. Actually, how-
ever, the Austrian Foreign Ministry had let it be known the
day after the murders that it would prefer to have no for-
eign monarchs or missions at the requiem services. The of-
ficial explanation was that in view of the Emperor's ad-
vanced age, he should be spared the exertions of a long
ceremony. But while the thought of avoiding, for Franz
Joseph's sake, the tiring formal functions involved in the
reception of foreign royalty may have been genuine
enough, there must have been other, unspoken motives as
well,

If any monarch was to be invited, all would have to be
including King Peter of Serbia. Yet it required no major
feat of the imagination to picture the embarrassment which
his presence would have caused to everyone concerned.
Beside, the same guardians of protocol who had seen to it
that the decorations on Sophie's coffin showed how far
beneath her Habsburg husband she stood may have vetoed
the presence of royal guests from abroad at even the requiem

172 SARAJEVO

services for a former lady In waiting. Finally, the one mon-
arch who out of his personal friendship for Franz Fer-
dinand might have made the journey despite court ob-
jections, Kaiser Wilhelm, was dissuaded from coming by
an urgent telegram sent by the German Consul General in
Sarajevo. An "absolutely reliable" informant, wired the
consul, had told him that he feared an attempt might be
made against Wilhelm's life in Vienna by either Russian or
Serbian fanatics. The German Chancellor, apparently tak-
ing the warning seriously, strongly counseled against the
trip, and Wilhelm gave in. A slight cold and a touch of
lumbago, read a subsequent press release, had forced the
Emperor to his great regret to cancel his Austrian travel
plans.

From time to time, history staggers us with its might-
have-beens and this is one such instance. The absence of
foreign royalty at the Hofburg chapel meant that the best
possible opportunity for political conversations between
Europe's heads of state was lost. Had the monarchs of the
major powers met in Vienna at that time, and plainly dis-
cussed the political repercussions of Princip's crime, it is
easy enough to imagine the totally different and happier
course which events might have taken.

At a quarter past four, the requiem mass had ended. The
Emperor was the first to rise and leave, without, as one of
Franz Ferdinand's aides later wrote with ill-concealed bit-
terness, "casting as much as a glance at the two coffins."
Franz Joseph, thought the aide angrily, had displayed no
trace of emotion or sadness during the service either; in-
stead, he had been looking around the assembly "with com-
plete indifference and the same unmoved facial expression
which he displayed toward his subjects during other oc-
casions too. One had the involuntary feeling that Franz

A Strange Funeral 173

Joseph was breathing more freely again, as though with a
sense of liberation, and doubtlessly most of his old courtiers
shared this feeling."

The Uninvited Mourners

When the last of the guests had left, the doors of the
church were closed again, to remain shut until the removal
of the bodies to the Westbankof at ten o'clock that night,
where the special train to Artstetten was waiting. During
the move, there took place one more incident, at once
bolder and more spectacular than Archduke Carl's earlier
opposition to Montenuovo's protocol.

Since both coffins were to travel in the same cortege, the
Lord Chamberlain had denied Franz Ferdinand the mili-
tary honors which would have been due to him as Inspector
General of the Armed Forces. Montenuovo had offered a
compromise, however. The soldiers of the Vienna garrison,
his office ruled, while not required to line the streets lead-
ing to the station were permitted to do so if they or their
officers wished. Many of them had so wished, and the dark
streets were full of bright uniforms now.

Almost as if foreseeing the results of his concession,
Montenuovo had put pressure on the holders of high court
honors on the privy councilors, chamberlains, and knights
of the Golden Fleece not to accompany the cortege to the
station. But here, Montenuovo had gone too far. Few
among the aristocracy had any pleasant memories of Franz
Ferdinand; not a few had had good reason to fear him. Still,
most of them found the Chamberlain's attitude appalling.
As one disgusted Hungarian nobleman put it, "Every ass
was kicking the dead lion now." They would, they decided,

174 SARAJEVO

give a clear demonstration of how they felt about the way

the dead lion had been treated.

As the hearses, drawn by six black horses each, left the
Hofburg and headed for Vienna's main thoroughfare, the
Ring, there broke into the cortege over a hundred members
of the most ancient nobility of the realm. Some of them
bore the names of families that had fought the Saracens
during the Crusades, or the Turks outside Vienna, or the
Prussians of Frederick the Great in Silesia: Starhemberg,
Lobkowitz, and Pallavicini; Szch<nyi, Fiirstenberg, Ho-
henlohe, Zichy, Thurn und Taxis, Hoyos, and Sapieha;
Kinsky, Esterhazy, Schwarzenberg, Fugger, Thun-Salm, and
Liechtenstein. Many of them wearing their heavily braided
gala uniforms, they followed behind the cortege in a body,
walking all the way from the Ring to the station, where
they took up positions on either side of the two coffins.

As a priest pronounced his blessing over the bodies, his
audience was infinitely more illustrious than Montenuovo
had planned. Not only did the princes, counts, and barons
remain until the train's departure, but there had come to
the station by a less conspicuous route but in equal dis-
regard of the Lord Chamberlain's original arrangements
all the archdukes of the House of Habsburg, led by the
new Heir to the Throne, Archduke Carl Franz Joseph.

The numerous spectators who had turned up to watch
the passing of the procession showed, as one paper tactfully
put it, their "profound appreciation" of the appearance
of these unbidden guests; the more so since for many days,
the shabbiness of the funeral arrangements had been bit-
terly and publicly criticized. "Vienna," thought a French
writer not otherwise noted for his pro-Austrian sympathies,
"did not love Franz Ferdinand, but the people of Vienna
were lacking neither in tact, nor in dignity, nor in kind-

A Strange Funeral 175

ness' 1 all qualities notable for their absence in the services
arranged by Montenuovo. Surely court ceremonial was not
that inflexible, commented the staunchly conservative
Reichspost. When nine officers and enlisted men of the
fledgling air force had been killed in a recent accident, the
paper pointed out in a reasonable parallel, they had re-
ceived a common military burial, at which the ceremonies
for all had been those due to the highest ranking officer
among them, a Captain.

When the dear departed [wrote the paper] was still on his
bier it was important not to introduce any discordant note
into a solemn hour. [Actually, there had been no such reti-
cence.] But now our patriotic duty and the mood not only
of Vienna and Austria but of the entire monarchy compel us
to discuss the question why, according to the original ar-
rangements, the funeral was to be so startlingly simple, and
so insulting to the feelings of a grieving people. . . .

To quote the words of one of the highest generals of our
army [the editorial concluded less reasonably], the funeral
was ... no different than one that would have been ar-
ranged for a six year old child.

Criticism might have become even sharper had there not
been made public, on July 7, the following remarkable
letter from the Emperor to the Lord Chamberlain:

Dear Prince Montenuovo:

For a number of years now, you have headed my court
administration in the full possession of my confidence, and
you have always exercised your office one rich in responsi-
bility in accordance with my intentions and with complete
success.

176 SARAJEVO

In recent days, the passing away of my beloved nephew,
Archduke Franz Ferdinand with whom relations o con-
fidence and trust have always connected you has made very
extraordinary demands on you, my dear Prince, and has
given you one more opportunity to prove your great and
unselfish devotion to my person and my house.

I am glad to have this occasion to assure you of my most
cordial gratitude and of my full appreciation of your ex-
cellent and faithful service.

Vienna, July 6, 1914

FRANZ JOSEPH

The letter contains some obvious ambiguities were the
funeral arrangements as much "in accordance with my in-
tentions" as the Prince's earlier services? and it is difficult
if not impossible to say to what extent it implied Franz
Joseph's approval of these much criticized arrangements.
The two pieces of evidence we possess are contradictory.
One of the few courtiers who later wrote about the affair,
the wonderfully gossipy but often unreliable Baron Mar-
gutti, has definitely stated that the Emperor had little
sympathy with Montenuovo's attitude, and that it was the
Emperor who personally vetoed the Lord Chamberlain's
original plan for holding separate requiem services. Franz
Ferdinand and Sophie, he reports the old Emperor as hav-
ing said, had died together as victims of the same conspiracy;
they must therefore be allowed to receive their last rites
together. On the other hand, the detailed ceremonial for
the funeral services issued by the Lord Chamberlain's of-
fice are preceded by the very plain phrase "On the Emperor's
orders/'

But no matter which version is true, the Emperor's

22. The trip home. The funeral cortege passes through Trieste, July 2, 1914.

I rt

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^uf) fdjiBcr uer(c|t uub ucrfdjicb fur^e 3t bamuf.

23. The public learns the news. A special
edition, printed in the early afternoon on
June 28, and distributed free: "Heir to
the Throne and Wife Murdered . . .
From Sarajevo, horrifying, inconceivable
news is being reported . . ."

24. The formal confirmation. The Offi-
cial Gazette of June 29: "Official Part. His
Royal and Imperial Highness, the Most
Serene Archduke Franz Ferdinand, suf-
fered a severe bullet wound on the morn-
ing of Sunday, June 28 inst, at Sarajevo,
and died a short time later."

25. The trial The defendants in the court room at Sarajevo.

S,^

lfT(.'sX#

26. A Princip manuscript, written in prison at the request of a visiting Austrian doctor:
"On one occasion, we were discussing in company the question Kropotkin raised in his 'Uni-
versal Wealth:' 'What will the anarchists do in the event of the outbreak of a social revo-
lution?' We all thought that what was involved was a phrase used by an old anarchist
rather than any real and serious belief of his that such a revolution was possible at this
time. Still, when we discussed this 'social revolution/ we almost all of us agreed that it
was possible; but in our opinion it would first be necessary to create relations between the
nations which would ameliorate the differences between the nations. But although we had
read socialist and anarchist writings, we were nationalists, and did not concern ourselves
much with this question, for we thought that everyone of us had a different duty, a na-
tional duty. May 12, 1916, Gavrilo Princip"

A Strange Funeral 177

prestige was still so vast and unquestioned that his inter-
vention on behalf of Montenuovo stilled any further public
criticism.

Artstetten

As one follows the winding Danube westward from
Vienna toward Linz, one reaches, after seventy miles or so,
the lovely and romantic region of Pochlarn. There is the
town of Pochlarn itself, the legendary Bechelaren of Mar-
grave Riidiger of the Nibelungen Epic. There are the many
ruins of both ancient Roman fortresses and of medieval
robber barons' castles, each built to overlook the river.
There is the Benedictine Abbey of Melk, founded in the
eleventh century, but rebuilt entirely in the eighteenth in
the gold and marble splendor of the Austrian baroque;
there is the ancient Habsburg Castle of Persenbeug, birth-
place of the last Emperor of the Dual Monarchy; there is,
set back not quite two miles into the woods and hills, its
four red onion towers visible from afar, Franz Ferdinand's
castle of Artstetten.

At Artstetten, Franz Ferdinand had spent some of the
happiest days of his childhood. Having inherited the castle
as a young man upon his father's death, he had undertaken
some extensive restoration work, and shortly after his mar-
riage had ordered a crypt built underneath the castle
church. The builders soon ran into trouble; the excavations
for the new structure, they discovered, were threatening the
foundations of the old church. But the Archduke urged
them on. It seemed, his Private Secretary has written, as
though he was possessed "by an intimation of his impend-
ing fate, . . . and could hardly await its [i.e v the crypt's]
completion."

178 SARAJEVO

It was here that Franz Ferdinand had wished to be
buried, and it was here that the final funeral ceremonies
took place free of the excesses of Spanish etiquette, but
not free, unfortunately, of further bungling and confusion.

At 2:00 A.M., in the deepest dark of the night, the funeral
train arrived at Pochlarn, the station closest to Artstetten.
Montenuovo had rejected all responsibility for the funeral
arrangements beyond Vienna. "I shall get the bodies to the
station"; was the gist of what he told Franz Ferdinand's
staff, "I shall have them put aboard a train and see that they
leave, but from then on, you must do with them what you
want." Accordingly, the services of the Municipal Under-
taking Establishment of the City of Vienna were engaged
for the journey from the capital to Artstetten and for the
local services probably the first and only case in which
this establishment, normally used to more bourgeois clients,
had been asked to bury an Heir to the Habsburg Throne.
The costs, however, were borne by the court after all. The
Emperor, on hearing that the Archduke's children were hard
put to pay for the funeral expenses, ordered Montenuovo
to settle all of the Municipal Undertakers' bills.

Outside Pochlarn station, large delegations of the re-
gion's social and civic organizations, ranging from the vet-
erans' association to the local volunteer fire brigade, had
taken their positions, for arrangements had been made to
hold brief services in the station square. But just as the
train was entering Pochlarn, a violent thunderstorm broke.
So much water suddenly came pouring down that it was
difficult to see anything more than a foot away, much less to
imagine how the clergy, in their ecclesiastical robes, would
be able to proceed with the ceremony out in the open.

Still the bareheaded delegates, many of them war vet-
erans well advanced in years, continued to stand stiffly at

A Strange Funeral 179

attention until Franz Ferdinand's Chamberlain, the sensi-
ble Baron Rumers Kirch, took pity on them. Would they,
he sent word, please come and take refuge under the station
roof.

Half an hour later, with no indication that the weather
was likely to clear, the decision was reached to hold the
ceremonies in the railroad waiting-room and not in the
square outside. The coffins were placed on their biers,
someone found a pair of candelabras, someone else brought
in a few wreaths from the train. A guard of honor, consist-
ing of six officers of dragoons and an equal number of
uhlans, surrounded the coffins, and the mourners once
more crowded into the small room after them. There was,
it now turned out, no room for a single member of the
local delegations. Why not, why someone in authority did
not think of posting part of the guard of honor outside the
door rather than by the coffins to allow at least a few of the
local mourners to be admitted, is as incomprehensible as
the choice of the hour of two o'clock at night for the arrival
of the funeral train in Pochlarn.

Since the railroad buffet was open, the foreseeable result
was that many of the good veterans and firemen repaired
there for some suitable refreshments, or, as Franz Ferdi-
nand's Private Secretary put it tactfully: "that these people,
who had walked for hours to get there, and who had been
standing in the rain for some time as well, tried to warm
up at the railroad buffet is possible or even probable."
Later, all this gave rise to the most picturesque rumors
about wild beer and sausage bacchanalia that were said to
have been held by the bodies in Artstetten station, with the
coffins doing service as buffet tables.

When the clergy had pronounced their blessings, the
mourners entered some old and ramshackle taxicabs that

180 SARAJEVO

had been hired for the trip to Artstetten, no court con-
veyances having been made available by Montenuovo. The
roads were rough and rain-soaked, and wherever the climb
up the hills became too steep, the disgruntled mourners had
to leave their venerable vehicles and walk through the mud.

The hearses, each drawn by eight black horses which
seemed to be shying at every thunderclap, were faring even
worse. The storm was not letting up and some anxious
moments passed before the horses, trembling with fear,
could be brought aboard the Pochlarn ferry by which the
Danube had to be crossed.

The ferry had reached the middle of the river when the
shaft-horses of one hearse, scared by a particularly loud
crash of thunder, reared up. Only the fact that some quick-
witted bystanders, realizing what was happening, rushed
in to pull back the frightened animals, kept the hearse from
slipping into the Danube. One wheel at least, noted an ob-
server, was already hanging over the side of the ferry.

Later that morning, amid sunnier weather, more mourn-
ers arrived from Vienna. Among them were most of the
aristocrats who had accompanied the cortege to the station.
Their presence was another studied affront to Montenuovo,
who was expecting them to attend an official requiem serv-
ice at the Hofburg, which he had scheduled for precisely
the same hour as the Artstetten funeral. Among them also
were the Heir to the Throne, Archduke Carl Franz Joseph
with his wife Zita, as well as one Heir Burg, who was seen
to weep copiously. Herr Burg was none other than Franz
Ferdinand's younger brother Ferdinand Carl, who had
been stripped of his military rank, expelled from the ter-
ritory of the monarchy, and deprived of his family name
for marrying the daughter of a Vienna college professor
some years before* The Emperor had lifted his exile for one

A Strange Funeral 181

day, so that he might come to Artstetten. He had not lifted
the order forbidding any use of Ferdinand Carl's former
titles. It did not matter, for faced with the ill and grief-
stricken ex-Archduke nearly everyone took pains to address
him as "Imperial Highness." There also were the murdered
couple's childen thirteen year old Sophie and her two
brothers, Max, eleven, and Ernst, barely ten.

When all the guests had assembled in the flower-decked
Artstetten church, the simple services began. The abbot of
a nearby monastery consecrated the bodies. Lance corporals
lifted the coffins, and with measured steps carried them into
the crypt. At a sharp turn at the entrance to the vault, they
apparently relaxed their attention for a moment, and
knocked one coffin against the edge of the wall, breaking
loose a small fragment of stone and mortar, but to the
relief of the mourners there were no further incidents as
the coffins were being set in their final resting place.

It is here at Artstetten, then, that the bodies of Apis'
victims lie, and not in the customary burial place of the
Habsburgs, the Capuchin Crypt in Vienna. It is oddly fit-
ting that this should be so. In a historic sense, though not
in a chronological one, the nineteenth century begins not
in 1801, but in 1789, that is with the French Revolution,
and ends not in 1900, but in 1914, with the First World
War. It seems a strikingly symbolic coincidence, therefore,
that the visitor to the Capuchin Crypt should miss, among
the many royal dead, the sarcophagi of two Habsburgs
one that of Marie Antoinette, whose execution and burial
in an unmarked Paris grave helped to usher in an age, the
other that of Franz Ferdinand, whose murder helped to
usher it out.

CHAPTER XIV

The Investigation

Sunday

In Sarajevo meanwhile, the law had very quickly gone
into action. Even before Princip had fired his shots, the
District Judge, Alois von Cuiinaldi, hurriedly ordered
Judge Leo Pfeffer of Sarajevo to investigate Cabrinovi^'s
attempt against the Archduke's life. In no time at all, Pfef-
fer found that the simple task of interrogating a bomb-
throwing young anarchist had become a vastly complex
one, for as the second, more successful crime became
known, and the police brought in Princip and dozens of
others whom they suspected of complicity, Pfeffer saw him-
self appointed judge in charge of investigating the entire
murder plot.

Pfeffer's first act was to have Princip brought before
him. Princip was still suffering from the near-lynching the
crowd had given him before the police managed to arrest
him, and his head was swathed in white bandages. He was
still sick, too, from the cyanide he had swallowed. The

182

The Investigation 183

police doctor had assured the investigating judge, however,
that the wounds were not serious, although he would not
rule out the possibility of later complications.

From the very beginning, Princip managed to impress
the hostile Austrian interrogator he was facing almost as
much as he had impressed his partisans in Bosnia and
Serbia. Pfeffer later described their meeting that Sunday.
"The young assassin, exhausted by his beating, was unable
to utter a word. He was undersized, emaciated, sallow,
sharp-featured. It was difficult to imagine that so frail look-
ing an individual could have committed so serious a crime.
Even his clear blue eyes, burning and piercing but serene,
had nothing cruel or criminal in their expression. They
spoke of innate intelligence, of steady and harmonious
energy. When I told him I was the investigating judge and
asked him if he had the strength to speak, he answered my
question with perfect clearness in a voice that grew steadily
stronger and more assured."

The story which Princip now proceeded to tell Pfeffer
was as plausible and simple as it was false. Years ago, he
said, he had vowed on the grave of 2eraji to avenge that
martyr to Serbdom. When, at Eastertime, he had heard that
Franz Ferdinand was going to visit Sarejevo, he had chosen
him as the fitting victim, since the Archduke seemed to
embody all the forces of Austrian oppression. The decision
to kill Franz Ferdinand had been entirely his own; and he
had had no accomplices in executing his plan. The deed,
in short, had been his and his alone.

But what about the fellow who had thrown the bomb,
Pf eff er wanted to know.

I have nothing to do with him, said Princip. When I
heard the explosion, I said to myself: here is someone else
who feels as I do, but that was all.

184 SARAJEVO

With this, Princip had touched upon one of the weakest
points in his story, for to accept this particular claim re-
quired a degree of belief in coincidence which no investi-
gating judge could be expected to possess. Still, Princip
persisted in denying any sort of acquaintance with Cabrino-
vid for one more day. When he had heard the detonation of
the bomb, he added the next morning, he had in fact
been so startled that he had forgotten to shoot as the arch-
ducal party passed by him on the way to the City Hall. It
was an ingenious explanation, and he might have stuck to
it had not Cabrinovic proved himself somewhat less skill-
ful in the answers which he gave to Pf eff er.

On Sunday, Cabrinovic's account still bore out Princip's.
He had intended, the young typesetter admitted, to kill
Franz Ferdinand with his bomb, but he had acted without
any accomplices.

In that case, Pfeffer asked, where did the bomb come
from?

From an anarchist in Belgrade, said Cabrinovic.

What was the anarchist's name?

He could not tell his real name, said Gabrinovi; he
did not know.

What were his motives,, then? Was he an anarchist too?

It was not quite that simple, said Cabrinovii. Partly his
motives were anarchistic, but partly they were nationalistic.

Monday and Tuesday

The next day Cabrinovi, for no apparent reason, re-
versed himself on the issue of collusion. He had, he ad-
mitted, conspired to commit the crime with Princip in
Belgrade. (All that Princip had been saying on this point
was that he had spent three months in Serbia recently. It

The Investigation 185

was a fact which the police were likely to discover anyway.)
The weapons, Cabrinovid added, had come not from an
anarchist, but from former partisans with whom they had
been associating.

Could Cabrinovic name any of these men?

Yes, said Cabrinovic mentioning the least consequential
of Apis* emissaries there was one Ciganovic.

Confronted with Cabrinovi's admissions at noon,
Princip quickly allowed that he had not told the whole
truth in his previous interrogation. Yes, he said, he had
acted in concert with Cabrinovic. He had not wanted to
implicate his friend before, he explained, but now that
Cabrinovic himself had talked, there was no need for him
to keep silent about it any longer.

Thus far, even with Cabrinovi's admission of com-
plicity, the stories which the youths had offered Pfeffer
amounted to a masterpiece of evasion. They had admitted
the deed. They had provided a plausible motive national-
ism in Princip's case, nationalism plus anarchism in that
of Cabrinovi<5. They had satisfactorily explained the means
bombs and guns received from ex-partisans in Belgrade.
Circumstantial and material evidence in the possession of
the police bore them out. There was no shortage of wit-
nesses to either crime. A police search had uncovered several
revolutionary pamphlets at Cabrinovic's Sarajevo residence
and, as Potiorek put it in a report to Vienna, "a whole
library" of pan-Serb literature in the house of Princip's
brother. As for the arms, it was common knowledge that
the Serbian partisans had secretly saved large stocks of just
such weapons from the Balkan Wars. By and large, it was
an account that made sense, and that would allow for the
preparation of a strong indictment.

Between Sunday, June 28, and Tuesday, June 30, Pfeffer

186 SARAJEVO

knew neither that there had been five other assassins in
the streets of Sarajevo nor that anyone other than Princip
or Cabrinovi had organized the crime.

He might never have found out. Pfeffer strikes one
either as infinitely more solicitous over the rights of a sus-
pect than one might normally expect someone in his posi-
tion to be, or else as not a terribly competent investigator.
He was reluctant, for example, to confront his witnesses
with one another, or even to quote incriminating parts of
one suspect's testimony to another. "Only independent,
individual confessions could reveal the truth about the
various facts to me," he later wrote. The one advantage
such a system had, of not allowing any communication be-
tween the prisoners, was illusory from the first in this case,
since Princip and Cabrinovi as well as all those of their
associates who were arrested afterward communicated be-
tween their cells by the simplest of secret systems, that of
long and short knocks against the walls. They had learned
about this method from a Russian novel.

At this point then, the assassination of Archduke Franz
Ferdinand might still have remained a local murder, and
not the cause of a world war. But the Sarajevo police, im-
mediately after the shooting, had diligently if somewhat
haphazardly begun to round up a large number of suspects.
Some were known relatives and friends of Princip and
Cabrinovic, others were merely suspected of pro-Ser-
bian sympathies. Among them were a great many inno-
cents, such as Cabrinovid's grandmother, or the proprietor
of Sarajevo's best-known hotel, whose misfortune, under the
circumstances, it was to have a former Serbian cabinet min-
ister for a father-in-law. Among them also, however, was a
school teacher and friend of Princip, Danilo Hid.

The Investigation 187

Wednesday

arrest was a matter of police routine. The authori-
ties vaguely suspected him of being involved in subversive
propaganda activities, and they knew that Princip had
stayed at his house in Sarajevo recently. That was all they
had enough to justify detaining him briefly for question-
ing; not enough, on the other hand, to charge him with any
specific crime. Had Ilic kept his head, and offered any sort
of credible story to his questioners, the likelihood is that
he would have been released again in a matter of days. But
Ili, not guessing how little evidence the police really pos-
sessed against him, was very badly scared.

As soon as he was taken before Pfeffer, Ilic proposed a
bargain to the investigating judge. He would confess every-
thing, he said, if Pfeffer would undertake to save him from
the death penalty.

He could make no definite promises, Pfeffer answered,
but it might interest Ilic to know that the law granted ex-
tenuating circumstances to any prisoner who turned state's
evidence. What did Hit have to tell him?

What Ilic had to tell him was short, to the point, and
true. Princip and Cabrinovic, said Ili, had not been acting
on their own. Instead, they were members of a conspiracy to
kill Franz Ferdinand that comprised no less than seven
members. Three of the assassins Princip, Cabrinovic,
and Grabez had come from Belgrade. Three more he,
Ilic, had recruited locally.

Ilic's bland admission destroyed Princip's and Cabrino-
vic's stories beyond any hope of repair. Pfeffer, interrupt-
ing the prisoner's confession, rushed to the telephone to
issue urgent orders for the arrest of the accomplices named
by Ilic. This time, arrests were not going to be made on the

188 SARAJEVO

basis of general suspicions. Pfeffer now had a real case,
although he must have suspected that Ilic was still with-
holding certain essential facts.

First to be arrested was Grabez, whom the police brought
in that same day. Ilic had volunteered the information
about Grabez's probable whereabouts. It was likely, he said,
that Grabez had gone to his home town of Pale, and would
try to make his way to Serbia from there. It was an excellent

guess.

After hearing Princip's shots on the morning of June s>8,
Grabez's first thoughts, as he said later, were to get rid of
his arms and to escape. Trying to appear unconcerned, he
walked from his post near the Kaiser Bridge to the house
of an uncle of his in town. He hid the bomb in the toilet,
and the gun under the coping of the roof, and strolled back
to the scene of the crime. He then had lunch with another
uncle of his in Sarajevo, a parliamentary deputy, spent the
night at his house, and took the train home to Pale the next
morning. His father was very much surprised to see him;
he had expected him to be under arrest.

Deciding that his best protection lay in boldness, Grabez
told everyone he met in Pale where he had just come from.
No one, he reasoned, was likely to suspect him of being one
of the assassins if he himself so obviously mentioned his
having spent the day of the murder in Sarajevo.

On Tuesday, without telling his father what he was about
to do, Grabez started out for Serbia and safety. On Wednes-
day, the police arrested him in a small town some forty miles
west of the Serbian border.

Taken back to Sarajevo, Grabez admitted his own role
in the plot, and even added a precise description of where
he had hidden the arms, but refused to implicate any of his
friends. There was no need. The next day, the police found

The Investigation 1 89

his gun and bomb where he had said they would, in his un-
cle's house, examined them, and discovered them to be of
precisely the same make as those of Princip and Cabrinovic
as tangible a bit of corroboration of Ilic's confession as
Pfeffer might have wished for.

More Arrests

Grabez's arrest left three more assassins at liberty; Cu-
brilovic and Popovic, the high-school friends from Sarajevo,
and Mehmedbasic, the Moslem carpenter and veteran of
previous plots. On June 5, the Sunday after the murder, the
police managed to arrest Cubrilovic, and two days later,
Popovic joined him in prison.

Under interrogation, both of them, like Grabez before
them, tried to protect their friends while admitting their
own share of the guilt. Despite their good intentions, their
admissions resulted in a wave of new arrests, for in their
eagerness to be rid of their arms after Princip's shots, they
had clumsily implicated a sizable number of people, many
of whom in reality were innocent bystanders. On the morn-
ing of June 28, a pale and trembling Cubrilovic had, by pre-
arrangement, passed his gun and bomb to a young friend,
Ivo Kranjcevic, the son of a retired Austrian policeman.
Kranjcevid, rather than hiding the weapons himself,
wrapped them up into a package and took them to the
house of a couple he knew named Sadilo. He handed his
lethal package to the Sadilos* five year old daughter, who
happened to be at home alone, and told her to ask her par-
ents to keep it for him for a while. A few days later, as he
was going for a walk with his mother, he met Mrs. Sadilo
in the street. What was in that package he had left, Mrs.
Sadilo asked him.

190 SARAJEVO

Two old pistols, replied Kranjcevic; my father is going
to give them to the museum.

Please take them away again immediately, said Mrs. Sa-
dilo. These are difficult times; I can't have any guns in my
house. "Do you want to make us miserable?"

Mrs. Kranjcevic, audibly angry with her son over this
mysterious bit of mischief in which he seemed to have in-
volved himself, picked up the package that same day. Open-
ing it, either she or her son hid the bomb in the municipal
park across from the main government building, and the
gun in the Moslem cemetery, and there they still were when
the police did their searching after young Kranjcevic's ar-
rest.

Popovic, more daring than Cubrilovic, had hidden his
weapons himself, in the basement of a house on the Appel
Quay close to his post. These, too, the police found, noting
on examining them that it was not for lack of means that
Popovic had failed to act on the morning of June 28. The
bomb was uncapped and ready to be thrown, and the revol-
ver fully loaded.

MehmedbaSic

The only assassin who still eluded the police was Meh-
medbasic. "It has not yet been possible to ascertain his
whereabouts/' wired Governor Potiorek to Vienna on July
3. Two days later, the police had managed to get on to the
fugitive's trail, and Potiorek sent a more optimistic tele-
gram. "His arrest," he wired, "is imminent."

It was not at least not by the Austrian authorities. On
July 13, Potiorek learned that Mehmedbasid had succeeded
where all his accomplices had failed; he had safely crossed
into neighboring Montenegro.

The Investigation 191

Officially, the small kingdom of Montenegro pursued a
policy of neutrality between the powers, but popular sym-
pathies were overwhelmingly pro-Serbian. Had Mehmed-
basic curbed his tongue, he would probably have run into
no trouble with the indulgent Montenegrin authorities.
But once he had crossed the border, Mehmedbasic could
not refrain from playing the hero, boasting loudly and pub-
licly that he was one of those Sarajevo assassins everyone
was talking about. On July 12, Montenegrin police took
the self-confessed assassin into custody, and questioned him.
Mehmedbasic not only admitted his boasts, but volunteered
some additional information about a supposed meeting be-
tween the conspirators in Tours to arrange the details of
the assassination. The latter was an invention that was to
become the basis for one of the several myths about the ori-
gins of the conspiracy.

Montenegro's king and cabinet now found themselves in
a fairly unenviable position. On the one hand, there existed
a clear treaty of extradition with Austria, and hence no le-
gal way of denying an Austrian demand for the surrender
of one of Franz Ferdinand's admitted assassins. If, on the
other hand, they should hand over Mehmedbasic to the
Austrians for trial, an uncomfortably large part of the pub-
lic who tended to consider the conspirators heroes and not
murderers would be up in arms against them. It was a
minor government functionary who found a way out of this
dilemma. His solution had the simplicity of genius Meh-
medbasic's guards would allow him to escape.

On July 15, the Austrian Minister, acting on official in-
structions from Vienna, asked the Montenegrin Foreign
Minister for the extradition of Mehmedbasic. Well, said
the Foreign Minister, that is a very embarrassing affair. You
are right; the police have arrested him, and he has made a

192 SARAJEVO

full confession, but unfortunately, he managed to break out
of prison just last night. The police are looking for him
everywhere now; let us hope that they will be able to pick
him up again very soon.

There the matter rested. Periodically, the Austrians
repeated their inquiries about Mehmedbasid; just about as
often as they did so, the Montenegrins apologized for the
negligence of the police, and asserted that every effort was
being made to recapture the fugitive. The well-informed
French Minister summed up the whole little comedy neatly
if cynically in a dispatch to the Quai d'Orsay. The Mon-
tenegrin Foreign Ministry, he reported, was swearing holy
oaths that it had nothing to do with the escape, but "I do
not think that the guilty official will have his future ad-
vancement retarded by the initiative he has taken in this
affair." Nor, it so happened, did the Montenegrin police
ever have any luck in picking up Mehmedbasic's trail again.

Mehmedbasic, during all this time, was still in the coun-
try of course, although he seems to have co-operated with his
reluctant pursuers to the extent of behaving with somewhat
greater circumspection than before. He remained until
November, when he crossed into Serbia, where he enlisted
in the partisans of Princip's old mentor, Major Tankosi*

The Circle Widens

From the point of view of the Sarajevo investigation,
Mehmedbasic's escape made next to no difference. With
Ilid's confession, and the arrests that followed it, the ficti-
tious accounts which Princip and Cabrinovid had offered
Pfeffer could no longer be maintained in any case. The
thread of the conspiracy had begun to unravel.

The Investigation 193

On July 4, the unfortunate Ilic introduced Misko Jo-
vanovic's name. It was from Jovanovi in Tuzla, he told
Pfeffer, that he had picked up the arms smuggled in from
Serbia by Princip and Grabez. Arrested that day, and
brought to Sarajevo, Jovanovi at first attempted to deny
any knowledge of the plot, but before long had to admit his
meeting with the youths as well as his share in storing and
transporting their weapons. His admission inevitably
brought in the name of his relative, Veljko Cubrilovi, the
school teacher and Priboj, agent on the underground route.
Cubrilovi's arrest, in turn, made it impossible to protect
any of the others who had sheltered or guided Princip and
Grabez on their underground journey from the Serbian
border to Sarajevo.

Earlier, Princip had confirmed Ili's list of his Sarajevo
recruits, explaining that he did not want any innocent per-
sons to suffer. After Jovanovic's admission and Cubrilovic's
arrest, both Princip and Grabez no longer withheld the de-
tails of their trip, although they pretended to be ignorant
of the names of their helpers. This reticence offered no pro-
tection to those they had implicated; the police had enough
leads now. Between mid-July and mid-August, the Sarajevo
prison began to fill with the men who had aided them along
the way. Jakov Milovi, the smuggler who had taken them
across the border from Isakovic Island; his friend Mico
Micic, who had brought him to Isakovi; Obren Milosevic,
in whose cottage they had spent the first night on Bosnian
soil; Nedjo Kerovi and his unsuspecting neighbor, who
had driven them from Priboj to Tuzla in his cart; Nedjo's
two brothers and his old father, who had sheltered the boys
and provided the cloth for wrapping the bombs and guns.

To deny the existence of a conspiracy had become wholly

194 SARAJEVO

futile. What Pfeffer did not yet know, however, and what
the assassins could still try to hide from him, was the degree
to which the conspiracy extended into Serbia.

Protecting Belgrade

Three men in Belgrade, it will be recalled, had been the
principal actors in staging the assassination Colonel Di-
mitrijevic, called Apis, Chief of Serbian Army Intelligence,
leading spirit of the Black Hand, and author of the crime;
Major Tankosic, his Black Hand aide; and Milan Cigano-
vi, Bosnian refugee and go-between. On July 2, Cabrinovic
volunteered Ciganovid's name to Pfeffer.

It was Ciganovic, he said, who had provided them with
their guns and bombs. Ciganovic, a humble employee of the
Serbian State Railways, had not acted on his own, however,
but on instructions received from none other than the Sec-
retary General of the Narodna Odbrana, Milan Pribicevic.
Princip, he added, had introduced him to the Secretary
General a few days after they had told Ciganovic about their
plan to assassinate Franz Ferdinand. Questioned the same
day, Princip and Grabez confirmed the gist of Cabrinovic's
story. Princip disagreed on one detail only; he had not, he
said, known Pribicevic. Both Princip and Grabez were
ready to admit, however, that their arms came from Cigano-
vic. As far as they knew, they added, Ciganovic was a mem-
ber of the Narodna Odbrana.

It was a masterly story to tell the Austrian police. It was
enough to explain the aid which they had plainly received
in Belgrade, but not enough to enable the Austrians to find
the real culprits. The part about Ciganovi was true, of
course, but Ciganovic was the least consequential member
of the conspiracy. Moreover, he was in Serbia, safely out of

The Investigation 195

reach of the Sarajevo police. As for Pribicevid and his or-
ganization, the Narodna Odbrana had become an all but
harmless and open group ever since the formation of the
Black Hand, and its Secretary General was a man who was
firmly convinced of the superiority of moral suasion over
murder and violence. As Apis must have known, however,
the Austrians were not aware of these facts, assuming in-
stead, in their vast ignorance of the Black Hand, that the
Narodna Odbrana still aimed at detaching Bosnia and Her-
zegovina from the Empire by terror and subversion.
Whether Apis had rehearsed Cabrinovic, Princip, and Gra-
bez in their story beforehand is a point on which we possess
no direct evidence, but it is difficult to imagine how else
they could have agreed on it so neatly and conveniently oth-
erwise.

Quite possibly, Pf effer would have been entirely satisfied
with it, had not the hapless Hid contradicted it three days
later. The trio, said Hid, indeed knew Ciganovid in Bel-
grade, but the man to whom Ciganovid had introduced
them was a Major Tankosid. It was Tankosic, said Hid, who
had supplied the arms, given them their shooting lessons,
and told them not to let themselves be taken alive.

Confronted with Ilid's statement, the three youths fol-
lowed a strategy that led, by way of splendid confusion,
from initial denial to reluctant and incomplete admis-
sion. Yes, there had been some shooting practice, said Gra-
bez, but his and Princip's instructor had been Ciganovid,
and Cabrinovic's had been a partisan named Milan Majid.
A few days later, Princip was ready to grant Tankosic's ex-
istence, but denied that he had ever seen him. The only one
among them, he said, who had any dealings with Tankosic
in Belgrade was GrabeL Having said this, he abruptly

196 SARAJEVO

changed the subject, and suddenly offered Pfeffer a great
many details about the trip from Belgrade to Sarajevo.

No, said Grabez, Princip is wrong, I did not see Tanko-
sic. If anyone did, it was Princip himself. In a way, said Ca-
brinovid, both Tankosic and Pribicevic were involved. We
first intended to approach Pribicevic about the weapons,
but he was out of town. We thereupon turned to Ciganovic,
who told us on the eve of our departure from Belgrade that
Major Tankosii had had to sign an IOU to pay for the arms.

Only a good two weeks after Ilic's admission did Grabez,
Princip, and Cabrinovid, following one of Pf eff er's rare con-
frontations, finally agree on Tankosic's involvement. As for
their earlier contradictions about which one of them had
talked to Tankosic, they now stated it was Grabez and not
Princip who had done so. The Major, they explained, had
told Ciganovi^ that before handing over the arms, he
wished to meet one of the would-be assassins to convince
himself of their reliability, and since Princip felt that he
was too weak physically to make the proper impression,
Grabez had gone.

In all, it was another admirable performance. They had
admitted the existence of Tankosic, but they had success-
fully devoted their considerable talents to holding back the
one name that really mattered, that of Apis. Pfeffer's inves-
tigation had established the fact that there was a Sarajevo
conspiracy, and that that conspiracy had had two rather
shadowy helpers in Belgrade who had provided weapons
and shooting lessons. What it had not brought out for
here even Ili managed to keep silent was that the origins
of the conspiracy lay in Belgrade, that it involved an organi-
zation called the Black Hand, and that the crime's instiga-
tor was the Chief of Serbian Army Intelligence.

The Investigation 197

"Of A Black Hand I Know Nothing . . ."

Only once during the investigation was the Black Hand
so much as mentioned. Early in July, the police picked up
a bakery worker, named Trifko Krstanovid, who had been
overheard to say, shortly after the assassination, that such
an act might have been expected. He explained to his inter-
rogators that all he had meant by his remark was that in
view of all the anti-Austrian propaganda that emanated
from Serbia, he had not been surprised to see Franz Ferdi-
nand killed. The police believed him, and decided to prefer
no charges against him, but since he seemed to possess some
information about theNarodna Odbrana^ they interrogated
him again as a witness on July 19.

The baker said he had illegally crossed over into Serbia
some years before, and had met Tankosic at the Green Gar-
land cafe in Belgrade. Subsequently, he had become a stu-
dent at the Major's partisan academy. Later, he had broken
with the Narodna Odbmna, and returned to Bosnia. At the
end of his statement, he casually brought in the Black
Hand, saying: "Of a Black Hand I know nothing definite,
except for what I read of this Hand in the Serbian newspa-
pers. I don't remember any more today what there was in
the papers about this Black Hand."

That the police did not cross-question him on this is ex-
cusable; it was hardly a very specific reference and besides,
they rightly considered him innocent of any participation
in Princip's plot. What is less understandable is the general
manner in which Pfeffer conducted his investigation.

Criticism that derives in part from the advantages o
hindsight tends to sound petty and unfair; still, it should be
said that some of Pf effer's mistakes and omissions seem star-
tling. There were serious indiscretions to the press on what

198 SARAJEVO

the suspects had been telling the police; and the first such
article to appear was based on an interview given by Pfef-
fer himself. There was the leisurely pace of the investiga-
tion; even if a suspect was found out in some patent un-
truth, days might pass before he would be interrogated
again, giving him ample time to think up some more be-
lievable version. There was the absence of sharp and search-
ing cross-examination, no matter how contradictory or re-
hearsed the suspects' stories might sound. Perhaps the re-
sources of the Sarajevo police simply were not adequate to
the investigation, but if so, why was not the help of the Vi-
enna police requested?

As it was, Pfeffer did a great deal of listening, but very
little probing. Possibly the most amazing but by no means
atypical example of this took place near the end of the in-
vestigation, in an incident whose meaning is still obscure.

On August 15, Cabrinovic, out of a clear sky, said that he
regretted his deed, but that he had one consolation: the
idea of killing Franz Ferdinand had not been his. If Prin-
cip should permit him to do so, he said, he would name the
instigators of the crime.

Confronted with his friend, Princip said, and these were
his precise words: "If someone made you do it, say so/*
whereupon Cabrinovic would speak no more.

When interrogated again the next day, Cabrinovic said
that his lips were sealed; Princip had forbidden him to talk.
What happened next was nothing. Pfeffer simply left it at
that. He pressed neither Princip nor Cabrinovi about the
episode, nor did he insist on obtaining some solution to the
puzzle of why Princip's statement should have been the sig-
nal for Cabrinovi's lapse into silence.

CHAPTER XV

War

The Wiesner Investigation

In Vienna, the piecemeal reports which Potiorek was
sending on the progress of the investigation at least one
or two such telegrams from Sarajevo would usually arrive
each day were causing some understandable confusion.
In the wake of Franz Ferdinand's assassination, the Aus-
trian government was considering the presentation of an
unequivocal ultimatum to Serbia, demanding an end to all
Serbian-inspired subversive activities against Austria. To
lend emphasis to such a demand, it was imperative to know
to what extent if at all the Serbian government was in-
criminated in the murder plot. Had it been Pribicevi who
supplied the assassins with arms? Were there any provable
connections between the Narodna Odbrana and the assas-
sins? What links, if any, existed between that organization
and the Belgrade government? All these were points on
which Potiorek's daily summaries of Pf effer's investigation
seemed to provide no clear answer. In consequence, it was

199

200 SARAJEVO

decided, on July 9, to appoint someone who was to go over
all the available facts, and to put together a dossier that
would provide an intelligible picture of the whole conspir-
acy. The man entrusted with this task was Sektionsrat
Friedrich von Wiesner, a career official of the Foreign Min-
istry.

Earlier that month Wiesner had been looking over both
the Foreign Ministry's and the Ministry of Finance's files on
Serbian activities without finding any very significant
material at either place. On July 10, he left for Sarajevo,
where he arrived on the morning of the eleventh. During
the next two days, he kept frantically busy. There were con-
ferences with Potiorek and with the Governor's principal
administrative assistant; with Pfeffer and with Pfeffer's
superior, the Chief of the Bosnian Administration's Justice
Department; with Gerde, the Sarajevo Commissioner of
Police; with the Head of Army Intelligence; and with the
general in charge of the frontier guards. In between, he
read all the major Administration files dealing with sub-
versive activities, and the latest summaries of Pfeffer's in-
terrogations. He did not, however, attend or conduct any
interrogations of Princip, Cabrinovi6, or any of. the other
suspects.

The first night, he stayed up until 4:00 A.M., working his
way through the files in his hotel room, nor did he get to bed
much earlier the second night. On July 13, after perhaps
four hours' sleep, and some final morning conferences,
Wiesner drafted the dispatch for which Vienna was waiting.

The suspects' admissions, he wired, proved the following
facts to be true beyond a reasonable doubt: the decision to
assassinate Franz Ferdinand had been made in Belgrade.
The assassins had undertaken their Belgrade preparations
with the aid of the employee of the Serbian State Railways,

War 201

Ciganovi, and of the Serbian Army Major Tankosic. The
latter had provided the bombs, guns, ammunition, and
poison. The bombs had come from the Serbian Army arse-
nal of Kragujevac. Princip, Grabez, and Cabrinovic had
crossed the border with the aid of certain Serbian officials,
most notably that of the border captains at Sabac and Loz-
nica.

What had not been proven, however, was this. Pribice-
vic's complicity could not be accepted as a fact. The bombs'
origin was indisputable, but there was no way of telling
whether Tankosi had withdrawn them for the purposes of
the assassination, or whether they were left over from the
supplies issued to the partisans during the Balkan Wars. As
for anti-Austrian propaganda activities in Bosnia and Her-
zegovina, there was no doubt either of their existence or of
the support they received from private Serbian organiza-
tions, yet "the material dating from the period prior to the
assassination offers no evidence that [this] propaganda has
been sponsored by the Serbian Government."

But the really crucial passage of Wiesner's report con-
sisted of two short and fateful sentences. He was to rue them
for the rest of his life, part of which he was to spend in, writ-
ing articles that intended to prove that on the one hand, no
other conclusion had been tenable at the time, and on the
other, that his words did not really mean what they said:

There is nothing to indicate [wrote Sektionsrat von Wies-
ner from Sarajevo on the morning of July 13, 1914], or even to
give rise to the suspicion, that the Serbian Government knew
about the plot, its preparation, or the procurement of arms.
On the contrary, there are indications that this is impossible.

It was the triumph of Apis* planning.

202 SARAJEVO

Austria's Ultimatum

On July 23, nine days after Wiesner's return from Sara-
jevo, the Austrians presented Serbia with an ultimatum
based on his findings > to which they demanded an answer
by July 25. Vienna had decided to seek a showdown with
the Serbians. Either Serbia was to agree to the demands of
the Austrian ultimatum unconditionally * 'acceptance
pure et simple" as the Austrian Foreign Minister put it
or Austria was prepared to go to war against Serbia. There
was no longer any other way, the Austrians felt, of stopping
the dissolution of their Empire.

The presentation of the ultimatum in Belgrade took
place amid some curious byplay. Pasic, the Prime Minister,
was in the country making election speeches, and the Aus-
trian envoy, Baron von Giesl, had had to make his appoint-
ment with the Minister of Finance, Pa&i, who was acting as
Pasic's deputy. He would like to draw the Minister's atten-
tion to the fact, said Giesl when he had been shown into
Pacu's office at six o'clock in the evening, that there was a
definite time limit to the note he had with him. Should
there be no Serbian answer within forty-eight hours, or
should that answer be unsatisfactory, he and the Legation
staff were under strict instructions to leave Belgrade.

Pa&i, by way of reply, desperately tried to temporize.
He could not really accept the note, he suggested. This was
election time, he explained, and several ministers were
absent from the capital. It might be physically impossible
to call a full cabinet meeting at such short notice for a
discussion of the Austrian demands.

This is the age of railroads, of the telephone and the
telegraph, replied Giesl curtly. Surely the return of the
ministers could take a few hours at the most. Beside, he re-

War 203

minded Pacu, he had hinted earlier in the day that it might
become necessary to get in touch with the Prime Minister.
All this however, he concluded, was an internal Serbian af-
fair and no concern of his.

Pacu continued to hesitate. He still did not see how he
could accept the note, he said.

If you will not take it from my hands, declared Giesl,
abruptly ending the conversation, I shall leave it on the
table and you can then do as you wish with it, and having
said this, took his leave from Pacu.

As soon as Giesl was gone, two of Pacu's colleagues who
had quietly been waiting in an adjoining room, entered,
and together went over the note. Their reaction, as they did
so, must have been a mixed one worry, on the one hand,
over the stiffness of the Austrian conditions; relief, on the
other, over the false premises on which these conditions
were based.

The principal Austrian demands, they read, ran as fol-
lows: The Belgrade government was to put an immediate
stop to all Serbian-sponsored subversive activities on the
territory of the Austro-Hugarian monarchy, and to all
anti-Austrian propaganda in Serbia. The Narodna Odbrana
was to be dissolved. Judicial proceedings were to be insti-
gated against anyone in Serbia who was an accessory to the
Sarajevo crime with "agencies delegated by the Imperial
and Royal [Austrian] Government" taking part in any in-
vestigation that might be undertaken in Serbia in this
connection. Tankosii and Ciganovic were to be arrested
"forthwith." The Serbian government was to co-operate in
putting an end to the illegal arms traffic across the border,
and the frontier officers in Sabac and Loznica were to be
punished for their share in helping Princip and Grabez
cross secretly into Bosnia. Vienna, finally, was to be in-

204 SARAJEVO

formed without delay of all measures taken by the Serbian
authorities to satisfy the foregoing demands.

Appended to the ultimatum was a summary of the find-
ings of Pfeffer's investigation. Nowhere, either in the sum-
mary or in the note itself, was there a single mention of
Colonel Dimitrijevid: or of the Black Hand.

"Secret Society: The Black Hand in Serbia"

It was an omission that immeasurably weakened the Aus-
trian case. "One did know vaguely/' wrote Wiesner in one
of his many later attempts to justify the blunder, "that there
was a 'Black Hand/ and that this secret military faction was
exercising a sinister influence. But that the 'Black Hand*
was engaged in irredentist and foreign as well as in do-
mestic activities one did not know, at least not in Austria."
Yet why should not one have known?

The Austrian diplomatic reports for the period were not
without some occasional hints about the Black Hand and
its involvement in the murder, but these reports were filed
and disregarded. If the material in the hands of the Austrian
Intelligence Services was any better, the people responsible
for drafting the ultimatum to Serbia certainly never heard
about it. The most valuable information on Apis and his
organization available to the Foreign Ministry apparently
was contained in a folder bearing the label ''Secret Society:
The Black Hand in Serbia." It consisted of random press
clippings covering the period from September, 1911, to
May, 1912, as well as the month of October, 1913 with no
material at all on the time between June, 1912, and Sep-
tember, 1913, or on the eight months prior to Sarajevo.
Some of the material contained in these clippings was sur-
prisingly correct there was a list of prominent Black Hand

War 205

members, for example, that included Apis* name some of
it was wildly misleading one story quoted an early mem-
bership figure of no less than 2,500. No one, it appears, ever
made any effort to evaluate the material. Worse, even the
raw file seems to have been unavailable when the ultimatum
to Serbia was being prepared.

"Among the documents ... I went through," wrote
Wiesner after the war, "there was not a single one concern-
ing the Black Hand. . . . The only explanation . . . which
I can offer is that they must have been indexed in such a
manner that the archivists could not find them/'

"Absolutism mitigated by sloppiness," had been the fa-
mous definition of Austria's system of government in an
earlier epoch. By 1914, absolutism had become archaic;
sloppiness had not.

In fairness, it should be said that a close study o the
diplomatic documents from the archives of Britain, France,
and Germany shows these powers to have been similarly ill-
informed about the Black Hand. But to these nations, Ser-
bian activities were not a matter of life and death, as they
were to Austria. Nor did their police hold a number of con-
fessed assassins, who knew some very essential facts about
the Black Hand, and who, under more skillful question-
ing, might have been made to tell what they knew.

To realize how strong the Austrian position might have
been, and what the failure of the investigation meant, one
ought to picture an imaginary American parallel. Let us
assume that there existed a treaty of mutual assistance, in
case of attack, between Mexico and a number of South
American states. Let us assume further that for years, there
has been an active movement headed by the Chief of
Mexican Army Intelligence and condoned, if not aided, by
the Mexican government to unite Texas, Arizona, and

206 SARAJEVO

Southern California with Mexico, and that these regions
have been flooded with propaganda, arms, and under-
ground agents sent from Mexico City. Let us assume finally
that in 1914, on the anniversary of the battle of San Jacinto,
the Vice-President of the United States, visiting Texas in
the course of his official duties, is assassinated in the streets
of Houston by a group of young Mexican-Americans,
trained and equipped with bombs and revolvers in Mexico
City, and acting under the orders of the Mexican Chief of
Intelligence.

What assistance would Mexico receive from its allies if
the United States, possessing proof of the crime's Mexican
origins, decided to seek a radical end to all such activities in
the future; and on whose side would international opinion
be if it carne to war between the United States and Mexico
over the issue?

Had the Austrian ultimatum of July 23, 1914* begun
with the words: "The responsibility for the murder of Arch-
duke Franz Ferdinand has been traced to a secret Serbian
society called the Black Hand and its leading member,
Colonel Dimitrijevic, whose immediate arrest we demand,"
it is more than doubtful that Serbia would have received the
aid which the Allies extended it in the days that followed.
For faced with such a charge, Pasi<5 would have been caught
in a dilemma which even he could not have escaped. He
would have been forced either to reject the Austrian de-
mand the more likely course in view of the Black Hand's
power in Serbia thus putting himself in the wrong be-
fore world opinion, or to accede to it, thus running the risk
of exposing the extent to which high Serbian government
officials were involved in pan-Serb activities.

But as it was, the Austrian case lacked conviction and

War 207

Pasic knew it. Hence, he was able to engage in a magnificent
bit of temporizing.

Serbia's Answer

On July 25, at 5:58 P.M. precisely two minutes before
Vienna's ultimatum was about to expire the Austrian
envoy to Belgrade received the Prime Minister's answer.
Conciliatory and moderate in tone, the Serbian note fully
accepted several of the Austrian demands, and indicated Ser-
bia's readiness to compromise on most of the others. It failed
to meet Vienna on two points only, one concerning the in-
vestigation, the other the arrest of Ciganovid. On both of
these, compliance might have meant disaster to the Ser-
bians.

The Serbian government, read the note, was unable to
agree to the participation of any Austro-Hungarian agencies
in the investigations that might be held concerning the as-
sassins' Serbian connections, since such participation
" would be in violation of [Serbia's] Constitution and crim-
inal law." As to the demand for Tankosid's and Ciganovic's
arrest, the police had taken Tankosid into custody on the
very evening the Austrian note was received, but unfor-
tunately, the note said, Ciganovid had managed to evade
his captors so far.

The details of how Ciganovid was allowed to escape are
not known to this day, and it is unlikely that they ever will
be. What apparently happened, however, was that almost
immediately after the Sarajevo assassination, Pasi ordered
a police inquiry into its Belgrade origins. Its findings were
never made public, but someone either in the police or the
government soon suggested to Ciganovid that he disappear
from sight. Tankosid's arrest, Pasid may have reasoned, was

208 SARAJEVO

one thing, for the Major was a Serbian citizen, and any
number of obstacles could be placed in the way of his extra-
dition to Austria; Ciganovi^ on the other hand, was an
Austrian subject, whose extradition, should it be de-
manded, could hardly be refused. (It was absolutely es-
sential, of course, to keep Ciganovi<5 from talking to the
Austrians.) Ciganovi, at any rate, took the hint. On July i,
a comfortable three weeks before the Austrians asked for
his arrest, he requested a months' sick leave from his job at
the Serbian State Railways, and under an assumed name
left Belgrade for the provinces, where, oddly enough, all the
resources of the Serbian police proved unable to locate him.

War

Faced with the evasions of Pass's reply, the Austrian
Minister and his Legation staff departed from Serbia on the
morning of July 25. Three days later, exactly one month
after Franz Ferdinand's death, Austria followed the break
in relations with a declaration of war against Serbia. "If the
monarchy must perish," said Franz Joseph sadly, "let it at
least perish decently/*

The further sequence of events is a familiar one. Russia,
which had long and loudly claimed for itself the role of
protector of all Slavs, mobilized its troops in support of
Serbia as the Russian military attach^ in Belgrade had re-
portedly assured Apis that it would. Any other course, St.
Petersburg felt, might lead to the most grievous loss of Rus-
sian prestige and influence in the whole Balkans. The Rus-
sian mobilization did not deter the Austrians, who knew
that if the conflict over Serbia should spread, they would
probably not have to fight alone. An Austro-German mili-
tary alliance, first signed in 1879, and periodically renewed

War 209

since, obliged either nation to assist the other in case of at-
tack by Russia. The alliance had remained no secret, and
expecting the Germans to join their Austrian ally now, Rus-
sia mobilized its army not only along its Austrian, but also
along its German frontier. Germany, still hoping that the
Austro-Serbian conflict might be localized, demanded an
end to Russian mobilization, but receiving no answer, de-
clared war against Russia on August i.

Germany's action meant the war's westward as well as
eastward extension, since the twenty-year old Dual Alliance
between Russia and France provided for mutual assistance
if either power should be attacked by Germany. Convinced
that Russia would invoke the French alliance, and that the
French would honor their treaty obligations, Germany de-
cided not to wait, and declared war against France on Au-
gust 3. Among the major European powers, this left Great
Britain as the only neutral. Britain and France frequently
pursued common policies in the early part of the twentieth
century, but the so-called Entente Cordiale between them
was something of a misnomer, since no binding Anglo-
French alliance existed. What made Britain go to war, too,
was a German blunder. In a single-minded attempt to win
the war in the west before the Russians could break through
German's eastern defenses, the German army invaded neu-
tral Belgium in order to outflank the French. On August 4,
Great Britain, very much concerned over the specter of
German possession of the Channel coast and outraged over
the violation of Belgian neutrality, declared war on Ger-
many, joining France and Russia.

The Austro-Serbian war that had begun over Sarajevo
thus had become a world war, with Serbia drawing in Rus-
sia, with Austria drawing in Germany, and with Russia and
Germany drawing in France and Great Britain. Before it

210 SARAJEVO

was over, there were few neutrals left in the world. The
number of soldiers and civilians known to have been killed
in its course has been given at ten million; the number of
wounded, including the totally disabled, at twenty million.
History has recorded few other single acts of violence with
consequences as bloody as the crime organized by Dimitri-
jevic and executed by Princip.

CHAPTER XVI

The Trial

The Indictment

On Monday, October 12, 1914, at eight o'clock in the
morning some two months after the beginning of the
war the trial against Princip and his associates opened in
the district court of Sarajevo. There were twenty-five de-
fendants in all; the assassins were being tried along with all
those accused of helping them either before or after the
crime. The charges against the six youths as welTas against
their principal helpers were murder and treason, since
under Bosnian (as under American) law, an accessory to
murder was considered guilty of the deed itself. The maxi-
mum penalty for either charge was death. However, the law
provided that if an offender was under twenty at the time
he committed his crime, a prison sentence of not more than
twenty years was to replace the death penalty.

The list of court officers and defense counsel sounded like
the multinational, multiracial Empire in microcosm. The
three judges trying the case were Councilor Bogdan Nau-

211

212 SARAJEVO

mowicz, Dr. Mayer Hoffmann, and Judge Alois von Curi-
naldi, with Curinaldi presiding. The prosecutor was Franjo
Svara; the court reporter Nikola Rasid. Principal defense
counsel were Dr. Max Feldbauer (for Princip and several of
the lesser helpers), Dr. Konstantin Premusi (for Cabrino-
vid, Misko Jovanovic, and two of the farmers), Court Sec-
retary Wenzl Malek (for Ili), Dr. Felix Perisid (for some of
Ilic's local recruits), Franz Strupl (for Grabez) and Dr.
Rudolf Zistler (for Velijko and Vaso Cubrilovid).

There was no jury, since under Bosnian law it was the
judges who would decide on the defendants' guilt or in-
nocence. Another manner in which Bosnian trial procedure
differed from that of an American court but conformed to
that generally followed on the Continent was that prose-
cution and defense counsel were to do next to no cross-ex-
amining. Instead, the questioning was to be done by the
judges chiefly the presiding judge who could base their
line of inquiry on the findings of the pretrial investigation
and on any other pertinent depositions and documents they
had studied before the opening of the trial.

The trial's scene was a small and bare courtroom of the
Philipovid barracks in Sarajevo. The twenty-five defend-
ants, guarded by eight soldiers carrying drawn bayonets, sat
on wooden benches in the middle of the room, facing the
court. The room at times was stiflingly hot, and most of the
defendants looked pale and tired.

The trial was not secret, but the bailiff admitted a hand-
ful of spectators only the Mayor, a parliamentary deputy,
some police officials. The Austro-Hungarian press was ade-
quately represented, and was to do a fair and accurate job
of reporting the trial. Reporters from Serbia, Russia, and
France, or any other enemy belligerent were necessarily
absent; what is less understandable is that no neutral cor-

The Trial 213

respondents had apparently been invited. The New York
Times, for example, was to carry a few fragmentary dis-
patches on the trial only, none of them written by its own
correspondents. What follows here, in fact, is the first com-
plete summary of the proceedings ever given in English.

In some ways, it was an unsensational and at times even
a dull trial. There were no brilliant cross-examinations and
little impassioned oratory. In other ways, the record of
the Sarajevo proceedings is full of suspense, for the trial
represented the Austrians* final chance to discover and ex-
pose the true scope of the conspiracy.

The prosecutor, Fran jo Svara, spent the better part of
Monday morning reading his indictment. Calmly, he de-
scribed the facts which Pfeffer's investigation had brought
out: the Belgrade preparations, the assassins' trip, the deed
itself. His opening speech foreshadowed the prosecution's
entire case only the actual assassins and their local helpers,
it ran, were in the dock, but behind them, and beyond the
reach of the court, stood the propagandists of the Narodna
Odbrana in Belgrade.

"Only I Thought of the Assassination"

The first defendants to take the stand were Princip, Ca-
brinovi, and Grabez. Cabrinovic, subdued for once,
quickly entered his plea before the presiding judge:

Judge Curinaldi: "Nedjelko Cabrinovi, do you feel
guilty?" ("Do you feel guilty," or "are you guilty" rather
than the Anglo-Saxon "how do you plead" were the stand-
ard questions.)

Cabrinovi^ : "Yes."

Curinaldi: "Guilty of what?"

214 SARAJEVO

Cabrinovid; "I am guilty of the crime of Archduke Franz
Ferdinand's assassination."

Grabez, too, admitted his guilt:

Curinaldi: "You are Trifko Grabez? Do you feel guilty?"

Grabez: "Yes."

Curinaldi: "Guilty of what?"

Grabez: "Of having attempted an assassination."

Princip alone was defiant.

Curinaldi: "Do you feel guilty?"

Princip: "I am not a criminal, for I have removed an
evildoer. I meant to do a good deed."

Curinaldi: "And the Archduchess?"

Princip: "I did not mean to kill her; I killed her unin-
tentionally."

Curinaldi: "You do not consider yourself guilty then?"

Princip: "No."

That day and the next, the three defendants proceeded to
give their account of the origins of the plot. They were op-
posed to Austrian rule, they said, and when in Belgrade,
had resolved to kill Franz Ferdinand together. They had
done so, they added, after receiving an anonymous news
clipping from Bosnia around Easter time, which reported
the Archduke's impending trip. At one point, their eager-
ness to shift the whole blame onto themselves, and to divert
the court's attention from their Serbian associates, resulted
in this curious argument between Princip and Cabrinovi
over the honor of being the crime's instigator:

"Did you not say that the first idea of committing the as-
sassination was yours," Curinaldi interrupted one of Prin-
cip's statements, turning to Cabrinovid.

CabrinovU: "When I received the news clipping, I told
Princip about it, and showed it to him."

The Trial 215

Princip: "I did talk with him about the assassination at
the 'Acorn Garland/ but I had decided all by myself to do
it. It was I who spoke of it first, before Cabrinovic received
the clipping, [saying] that I would commit the assassination.
I know positively that I spoke to him about it before he re-
ceived the clipping/'

Cabrinovic: "I received anonymous information. How-
ever Gavro asserts. , . /'

Curinaldi, interrupting him: "He claims that he was al-
ready in agreement with you/'

Cabrinovic: "I don't remember/*

Princip: "I know it positively/'

Cabrinovic: "Princip says that the idea of the assassina-
tion was his before I received the news clipping. . . /'

Curinaldi, interrupting once more: "He says that he de-
cided on it before/*

Cabrinovid: "There was frequent talk about the assas-
sination between us, but I don't recall when the definite
decision was arrived at."

Princip: "The definite decision was made when we re-
ceived the news clipping. Before that, only I thought of the
assassination/'

Curinaldi, instead of pursuing the point, changed the
subject. "Do you know anything of Zerajid," he asked, turn-
ing to Princip.

Princip could have wished for no better cue. Indeed he
did, he said. 2erajic, the would-be assassin of the Austrian
Governor, and hero of Bosnia's pan-Serbs, had been his
model, he told the court. It was on 2eraji's grave in Sara-
jevo, he said, that he had sworn to avenge the dead martyr.
Nor did he leave any doubts about his admiration for Zera-
ji later in the trial. In the session of October 20, Ga<5inovi's

216 SARAJEVO

fiery pamphlet in praise of 2eraji, The Death of A Hero,
was read into the evidence.

"Are there any comments," Curinaldi asked both prose-
cution and defense when the reading of the pamphlet was
finished.

There was silence, and then a shout from Princip:

"Hurrah for Zerajid, that is all!"

The court rose for a brief recess. When Curinaldi re-
turned to the bench, he warned that anyone interrupting
the trial again would find himself excluded from the court-
room.

Princip: "If it's forbidden, all right. But it is still the way
I feel."

Curinaldi: "One must not express it; that is a punishable
act."

"Don't Think of Turning Us In, Sir."

Princip's strategy, and that of his two friends who had
come from Belgrade with him, thus was apparent from the
very beginning. They would describe the crime as local in
origin, born of Bosnian resentment against Austrian rule
and against Franz Ferdinand, "the evil genius of the Slavs/'
as Grabez put it. They would avoid implicating or even
mentioning the Black Hand. They would accept full re-
sponsibility for the crime's execution themselves, and do
their best to parry any indiscretions that might be commit-
ted by any co-defendant or witness. It was a strategy that had
an excellent chance of success. Of the other assassins, only
Ilic and Mehmedbasid were fully aware of Belgrade's in-
volvement. Mehmedbasi was safely across the border,
and Ili, when put on the stand, recovered the composure
he had lost during the pretrial investigation, and kept ab-

The Trial 217

solutely quiet about what he knew of Apis and the Black
Hand.

Ilic's two Sarajevo recruits Cubrilovi and Popovic
knew little or nothing of what had gone on in Belgrade, and
hence were in no position to betray the Black Hand even if
they had wanted to do so. The assassins' various helpers,
similarly ignorant, were far too busy trying to exculpate
themselves. In this, Princip and Grabez supported them as
much as they dared.

Under Curinaldi's questioning, few details of the under-
ground journey from Belgrade to Sarajevo remained hid-
den from the court. The youths' crossing with Mii and
Milovic; their meeting with Veljko Cubrilovic, the Priboj
schoolteacher; their stopover at the farm of old M itar Ke-
rovid and his three sons, where they had rested; the part
which Misko Jovanovic had played in hiding their arms at
Tuzla all became part of the trial record. To make up for
these fatal admissions, Princip and Grabez volunteered
that it was their fault if their helpers had failed to turn
them in to the Bosnian police before or after the crime.

"It seems to me that Kerovi saw the bombs/' said Gra-
bez, when the admission could no longer be avoided. "I
can't say exactly whether he did see them, but I told
him. . . ."

Curinaldi: "Whom?"

Grabez: Blagoje [Kerovi, one of the three sons of old
Mitar Kerovic]. I threatened him not to tell anyone that we
had come by his place. 'You should pay dearly for any im-
prudence; you will be punished by people who will come
here who are stronger than any soldiers and policemen, and
who will kill all the men in your family.' "

Curinaldi: "Someone suggested these words to you?"

GrabeZ: "It was my own idea to say them. There was

218 SARAJEVO

absolutely nothing behind these threats, but they scared the
peasant, of course/'

The peasants were understandably eager to confirm these
accounts of having been threatened, as was Misko Jovano-
vi, the Tuzla businessman and Narodna Odbrana agent.
What could I have done, Jovanovic asked in his defense. My
wife was seven months pregnant, and here was Princip tell-
ing me: "Don't think of turning us in, Sir, for I would
destroy you and your family." What choice did I have but
to hold their weapons and hope that in the end, the youths
would decide against using them?

Princip firmly upheld Jovanovic. He could not very well
deny having given Jovanovic the arms to keep, but he in-
sisted that Jovanovi had had no more of an idea of what
they planned to do with them than did Veljko Cubrilovi or
the peasants.

"Didn't he ask you for what purpose you were carrying
these implements," asked Curinaldi increduously,

"He did not ask us and we did not say any more about
it," answered Princip.

The skill and persistence with which the assassins ob-
scured the parts played by their helpers in Bosnia and Ser-
bia demand admiration. It is worth remembering, how-
ever, that their efforts exposed them to no major risk. Ex-
cept for Ili, who was twenty-three at the time of the mur-
der, all the assassins were under twenty years of age, and
thus safe from the death penalty. Cubriloyid was nineteen,
as was Grabez; Popovii was eighteen, Vaso Cabrinovi sev-
enteen. Only about Princip's age did some questions exist,
and the most critical part of his defense concerned not his
participation in the plot, but the precise date of his birth-
day.

Princip, the prosecution contended, was born on June

The Trial 219

26, 1894, and had therefore passed his twentieth birthday
when he shot his two victims.

No, claimed Princip, his birthday came on July, not
June, 26.

To settle the issue, two depositions were read into the
trial record. One was by Princip's mother. The other was
by the parish priest of his native village of Oblej.

The July 26 date was the correct one, Mrs. Princip had
deposed.

Could she remember the birthdays o her other chil-
dren? she was asked by the examining magistrate.

No, she could not.

The parish priest's testimony was somewhat more con-
vincing.

According to the official church register, the priest had
deposed, Princip was born on July 26, 1894. According to
another equally official church record, on which the entries
were not strictly chronological, but on which the vital
statistics for all the members of one family were listed to-
gether, the date was June 26. He thought that he could ex-
plain the reason for the contradiction, said the priest. At
the time, he had been assistant to the old parish priest, and
it had been part of his duties to make most of the entries in
the church records for him. The old priest did not write
too well, and would simply jot down the date by pencil on
any scrap of paper that was handy. Sometimes, these pen-
ciled notes would pile up for weeks before he could copy
them into the church register, and this was what had hap-
pened in Princip's case.

Inviting no additional testimony, and without recalling
Princip to the stand, the court took the matter under ad-
visement, delaying a definite decision until the time of the
verdict.

220 SARAJEVO

"Do You Think I Am An Animal?"

The court's reluctance to probe any further was indica-
tive of the trial's tone and progress. In going over the trial
record, one has the impression that on most major questions
the court, even when it must have had strong doubts about
the stories told by the defendants, made only feeble efforts
to uncover the full facts. The court did, however, manage
to illuminate some interesting side issues. One of these
was the apparent disingenuousness of many of the plotters'
associates.

"Are you a member of any organization?" Curinaldi
asked young Dragan Kalember, a Sarajevo high-school
student very much on the outer fringes of the conspiracy,
who now found himself in court on the dual charge of hav-
ing had prior knowledge of the plot, and of having withheld
evidence.

Kalember: "No. I am a progressive, but I don't belong
to any organization."

Curinaldi: "What does the word 'progressive' mean?"

Kalember: "To me it means 'always forward/ "

Curinaldi: "What is your opinion of the Yugoslavs?
What should they do, according to you?"

Kalember: "I know nothing about that."

Curinaldi: "You did talk about it. No doubt you've for-
gotten?"

Kalember: "Perina [a classmate of his, on trial on the
same charges as Kalember] once told me 'Be a nationalist/
and I replied 'all right/ But what it means, I don't know."

"Are you guilty?" Curinaldi asked Nedjo Kerovid that
same day.

"It is possible that I am a little guilty," pleaded Kerovi,

The Trial 221

weeping. He continued to weep during much of his testi-
mony that followed.

The assassins 7 other helpers took a line of defense similar
to Kerovid's, that of being "a little guilty/' They had met
Princip, Grabez, and Cabrinovii on their trip to Bosnia or
in Sarajevo, they admitted, but they had had no idea what
these young men were planning to do. Now that they did,
they bitterly regretted their unwitting share in the plot,
they said.

He was sorry for both the murdered couple and for the
deed's political consequences, said Veljko Cubrilovic, the
schoolteacher who had arranged transportation for Princip
and Grabez and the arms they were carrying from Kero-
vi's house to Tuzla. "I am an opponent of assassinations
and revolutions," he explained, "for the traces they leave
behind are too bloody. That is the case here. I believe in the
evolution of the spirit, of ideas; I rely on progress, not on
action."

With the exception of Ilic, the assassins themselves did
not choose to curry the court's favor in this fashion. All they
were willing to show remorse for was Sophie's death, which
they swore had been unintentional his second shot, Prin-
cip asserted, had been meant for Potiorek and the fact
that the crime had resulted in general war.

The deed itself, said Grabez under questioning by Judge
Naumowicz, was "one of the greatest works of history."

Naumowicz: "Did you know what the consequences
would be?"

Grabez: "I did not dream of them."

"I am happy to say that I have no regrets," Cabrinovic
bluntly told Curinaldi. "However, this act has had conse-
quences which one could not possibly forsee or calculate,
and if I would have known what was going to happen, I

222 SARAJEVO

would have sat down on these bombs and let them tear me

to pieces."

Only once did their braggadocio desert the assassins; only
once did their attitude suggest that they considered their
deed anything beside the impersonal removal of a villain
who could not be allowed to live.

On the fifth day of the trial, Curinaldi read into the rec-
ord a factual and moving affidavit by Count Harrach de-
scribing the events of June 28. Harrach, who had been
standing on the running board of the archducal car that
morning, had been a witness to most of the details of the
crime and its aftermath, and it was he who heard and re-
corded the last words which Franz Ferdinand had gasped to
his wife: "Sophie dear! Sophie dear! Don't die! Stay alive
for our children !"

As the reading of the affidavit progressed, all the defend-
ants lowered their heads. Princip closed his eyes. When it
was over, Curinaldi, who had been very much moved by it,
called a five minutes' recess. During the recess, one of the
defense counsel walked up to Princip. Hadn't Harrach's ac-
count left some impression on him, he asked?

Thrusting up his hands in one violent motion, Princip
answered with an anguished question: "Do you think I am
an animal and have no feelings?' '

Cabrinovid's Fumble

But no matter what their private feelings, the defendants
never allowed themselves the luxury of forgetting their
main purpose, which was to clear Belgrade. The Narodna
Odbrana, they asserted, was a purely "cultural organiza-
tion," which had had nothing to do with the preparation of

The Trial 223

the crime. Ciganovic and Tankosi they could not well
deny knowing, since their names had come out in the pre-
trial investigation. What they could and did do, however,
was to confuse the court on the role these men had played.

"Tankosi," testified Grabeiz, "was a secondary figure.
The chief culprit, if one wants to use the word culprit, was
Ciganovi6"

"I don't know/' said Cabrinovi, "if Ciganovi and Tan-
kosid were members and leaders of the Narodna Odbrana;
others who know Tankosid better than I claim that he is in
opposition and even in conflict with the Narodna Od-
brana"

The defendants did not always manage to mix truth and
untruth that smoothly, however. CabrinovM in particular
would occasionally fumble. When this happened, Princip
was usually there to help him, but on one occasion a slip
made by Cabrinovic came so close to revealing Dimitri-
jevid's name that their whole house of cards was suddenly
on the point of collapse.

"Nobody was in a position to know anything about the
project," said Cabrinovi^ heatedly during the session of
October 18, in an effort to discredit a witness who had given
testimony hostile to Belgrade, "except for Ciganovid, Tan-
kosic, and a friend of the latter, for if others had been in-
formed the police would have found out."

"What is the name of this friend of Tankosi's of whom
you just spoke?" asked Curinaldi quickly.

Cabrinovic had caught his mistake: "A former officer
whose name I forget."

Princip, realizing that the danger was not yet over, broke
in. "Yes, an ex-officer. A theology graduate was also in the
know."

224 SARAJEVO

Curinaldi allowed himself to be deflected. "Who was this
theology graduate?'* he asked.

Princip: "It was said that he was Djuro Sarac." (The
name was no invention of Princip's. There did live a theol-
ogy student and ex-partisan by that name in Belgrade.
Moreover, Sarac may have known about the plot. Accord-
ing to one account, it was Sarac who was sent to Bosnia in
the unsuccessful attempt to dissuade the youths from killing
Franz Ferdinand after the Black Hand's vote against Apis
early in June.)

All would have been well, had not Cabrinovi<5 needlessly
mentioned "this friend of Tankosic's" again a minute
later.

Now his defense counsel, Dr. Premuzic, intervened.

"What does this friend of Tankosid's do?"

Cabrinovic: "I don't know. He is a very mystical [sic]
person."

Premuzit: "Do you know his name?"

Cabrinovic: "I don't know it."

Again, Princip thought it wise to interrupt. "He called
himself Kazimirovid," he offered, "and he studied theology
in Russia."

Princip's defense counsel, Dr. Feldbauer, rose. "Princip,
what are you saying about this Kazimirovi<5?"

"I say that this is what he calls himself, and that he
studied theology in Russia. Ciganovic mentioned him to
me. He did not want to become a priest, and I believe that
he finished his studies at Kiev." (Here too, Princip was us-
ing some partially correct details. Dr. Radovan Kazimiro-
vic, a graduate of the Kiev Theological Seminary, was a
high-school teacher in Belgrade at that time. To what ex-
tent, if any, he was involved in the plot is still a matter o
conjecture, however.)

The Trial 225

Masons and Mayerling

It was late In the afternoon, and the court was about to
adjourn. Before it did, Princip engaged in another divert-
ing maneuver.

Some days earlier, he had suggested that Ciganovic was a
Freemason. He now came back to this point, and hinted
that Kazimirovid might be a Mason too. "When Ciganovic
alluded to the Freemasons," he said, "he told me that he
would speak to Voja Tankosic and to this man. ... I
told him that I would have no part in the assassination if
others knew about it; he repeated that this man was safe,
that he was a good friend, and that his name was Kazimi-
rovid."

That night, it seems, Princip and Cabrinovid agreed, by
the covert system of knocks which the prisoners used to com-
municate between their cells, to pursue the subject of the
Masons. The next day, they volunteered more details about
Kazimirovid.

Kazimirovid, implied Cabrinovic, was the mysterious
man behind the scenes. He could seldom be found in Bel-
grade, he said; one day he would be in Budapest, another in
France, yet another in Russia. "When the other man re-
turns/' he quoted Ciganovid as having said to him, the
youths would get their arms. "Ciganovid then told me," he
went on, "that two years before, the Freemasons had con-
demned Franz Ferdinand to death, but that they could not
find the men to execute the sentence. When he brought me
the gun and the ammunition, he said: 'That man came back
from Budapest last night/ I knew that his trip was con-
cerned with the affair, that he had gone abroad, and that
he had conferred with certain circles/'

As Cabrinovid's stories about Kazimirovid grew wilder,

226 SARAJEVO

Curlnaldi broke in. "Aren't these fables you are telling us?"

Cabrinovid: "It is the pure truth and a hundred times
more truthful than all your documents about the Narodna
Odbrana."

Cross-examination would shake neither his nor Princip's
testimony. Since Cabrinovid's statement of the previous
afternoon, someone had hurriedly checked up on what was
known about Kazimirovii, and had found him to be a con-
tributor to a Belgrade theological journal called The
Christian Messenger, which published such non-Masonic
articles as "Our Young Theologians/' "The Religious
Policy of Dubrovnik," and "Second Marriages of Ministers."

"How can one simultaneously be a Freemason and a con-
tributor to The Christian Messenger'?" asked Curinaldi,
sensibly.

"The Freemasons/' said Cabrinovi simply, "get into
all sorts of circles, and work everywhere for the realization
of their aims/'

Curinaldi remained incredulous. Owing to the defend-
ants efforts, the court was to remain wholly in the dark
about the Black Hand's involvement, but it would not ac-
cept their fabrications about the Freemasons. "In regard to
this particular/' the sentence was to read, "the court is of the
opinion that the statements on Freemasonry are part of the
attempt to hide the activity of the Narodna Odbrana and
the complicity of Serbian official circles."

If the judges had substituted "Black Hand" for "Narodna
Odbrana/' they would have described the full truth.

The court's findings, incidentally, did not keep a number
of later writers from elaborating on Princip's and Cabri-
novid's inventions, and from insisting that the Masons had
indeed killed Franz Ferdinand. The editor of the German
version of the trial record, the Jesuit Father Puntigam, so

The Trial 227

mutilated the record that the Masons' involvement ap-
peared possible. General Ludendorff, a brilliant German
military planner during the war, and a man dedicated to
somewhat less brilliant political causes afterwards, pub-
lished several books and pamphlets intending to prove the
Masons' guilt. The World War, he wrote, had been decided
on years before its actual outbreak by what he called the
"metanational forces/' the Jews, the Freemasons, and the
Jesuits. Among the reasons they had chosen to start it in
1914 was that i -f- 9 + i + 4 the numbers making up
1914 added up to 15, a number sacred to these forces. It
was followed, Ludendorff further explained, by the "second
Yahve year 1915," containing the numerical values of i + 9
10, and of 15. Beside, the Jewish year for 1914, when put
into Hebrew letters, meant "War on Earth."

Dimitrijevi, Tankosid, and Ciganovic, the general went
on, were all Freemasons. They had prepared their plot with
the aid of a secret department in the British Foreign Office
which specialized in political assassinations, and which had
a budget of five million pounds sterling. "Cabrinovi and
Princip," LudendorfE wrote simply, "were Freemasons too,
and Princip was a Jew. His first name was the promising
name Gabriel."

Undaunted by the difficulty of explaining why the Jesuits
should have co-operated with their sworn enemies, the Ma-
sons, the general advanced the following thought:

The Jesuits let the Freemasons go ahead. They did not
prevent the Archduke's trip to Sarajevo, even though Roman
circles, too, looked toward Sarajevo with much suspense.
With strange zeal, they then directed people's attention to
the guilt of the Freemasons.

228 SARAJEVO

Much of this nonsense was repeated by other writers.
Even as respectable a journal as the Mercure de France
printed an article in which the Masons were accused of hav-
ing sentenced Franz Ferdinand to death, and of having
chosen Sarajevo as the place of execution. "Perhaps/' the
author of the article suggested ominously, "light will be
thrown some day on these words uttered by a highly placed
Swiss Freemason on the subject of the Austrian Heir Ap-
parent: 'He is a good man; it is a pity that he has been con-
demned; he will die on the steps of the throne/ "

The Masonic myth was not the only one to be told about
Sarajevo. Some writers blamed the Hungarians for the as-
sassination, arguing that Budapest was eager to manufac-
ture a pretext for war against Serbia. Others blamed the
Austrians. Wickham Steed, a former editor of the London
Times y and a man with nearly as many prejudices as Gen-
eral Ludendorff, published an account of the crime's ori-
gins in which he hinted strongly that its instigators should
be sought in Vienna. "In any case/' he wrote with a neat bit
of innuendo, "the possibility of a 'removal' of the Heir
Presumptive and his consort . . . was not thought entirely
deplorable from the point of view of the Hapsburg fam-
ily." Franz Ferdinand's death, said yet others and their
story was at least as credible as the rest was his punishment
for once having shot a white stag at Konopisht.

But the most picturesque myth of all is the one that made
Sarajevo the result of Mayerling. Properly speaking, there
are two versions of this story. According to one, Princip was
none other than the illegitimate son of Archduchess Stefa-
nie, the wife of Archduke Rudolf, the suicide of Mayerling.
Holding Franz Ferdinand responsible for Rudolf's death,
she had made young Princip kill the Heir to the Throne in
Sarajevo. According to the other, which is set forth in a

The Trial 229

French novel entitled Taia, Rudolf definitely did not com-
mit suicide at Mayerling, but was assassinated, together
with his mistress Marie Vetsera, by his cousin Franz Ferdi-
nand. Unbeknown to the world, however, Marie had given
birth to an illegitimate daughter by Rudolf. This daughter,
to avenge her mother, armed Princip and sent him to Sara-
jevo.

Ta'ia is prefaced by a statement declaring crisply: "This
is not a work of fiction. This book, in essence, is a true his-
tory." It must be admitted that unlike the other stories
except that of the white stag it offers the reader romance
and the illusion of poetic justice, and not just sheer bigotry.
Like the others, however, it lacks the least amount of truth.

CHAPTER XVII

The Penalty

"I Have No Words To Condemn This Crime"

On October 22, the tenth day of the trial, the last witness
left the stand, and the prosecutor rose for his summing up.
Svara began with the kind of heavy, old-fashioned oratory
that countless lawyers, no matter in what part of the world,
have found effective: "... a bomb explodes, a gun is fired,
and the life of two noble hearts is brutally ended. I have no
words to condemn this crime, and one cannot imagine that
men could be found to commit such a deed. The grief of
every patriot, of every citizen of the monarchy of Austria,
becomes even more terrible, more profound, when one
remembers how the two august guests arrived full of con-
fidence, how the Archduke moved openly in the midst of
his people, and how his noble spouse nourished for our
youth a maternal love."

Growing more restrained, Svara proceeded to give a com-
petent outline of the facts of the crime. His analysis came
remarkably close to the truth, except that in place of Apis,

230

The Penalty 231

he named Kazimirovic as the crime's principal instigator
In Belgrade, and that he made no allusion to the Black
Hand, but put the blame on the Narodna Odbrana.

"Official circles'* in Serbia, he insisted, wishing Franz
Ferdinand's death for reasons of their own, had arranged
the killing. He was contemptuous of the defendants* claims
that the crime's idea had been their own, and that they had
hated the Archduke because they thought him an enemy of
the Slavs. To show how unlikely this explanation was, he
did not hesitate to allude to the painful details of Franz
Ferdinand's marriage:

It [the accusation that Franz Ferdinand was anti-Slav] was
nothing but a maneuver on the part of Serbia, of Serbian
circles, to convince children to commit this horrible act. The
august spouse of the Archduke was Czech, and thus of Slav
origin, and due to this marriage the late Archduke has had
difficulties [a wonderful piece of understatement]; he would
never have decided on it if he had been an enemy of the
Slavs.

No more than three among the twenty-five defendants
in. the dock, he concluded, should be acquitted of treason.
They were Mr. and Mrs. Sadilo, and Mrs. Sadilo's father,
Ivan Mominovi, in whose house Cubrilovid's arms had
briefly been hidden after the crime with the explanation
that they were antiques about to be presented to the Sara-
jevo museum. These three, he said, were guilty only of be-
ing accessories after the fact. The remaining twenty-two de-
fendants were guilty as charged, and should be convicted
of treason. All of them were, "to the same degree, the direct
authors of the assassination/' Treason was punishable by
death, and this was the penalty he was demanding wher-

232 SARAJEVO

ever the law allowed it. Nine among the twenty-two, he ex-
plained, were clearly under twenty at the time of the mur-
der, and should therefore be sentenced to prison and not to
death. In the case of Princip, he admitted that the evidence
concerning his birthdate was conflicting. He himself was
convinced, however, that Princip had passed his twentieth
birthday when he fired the fatal shots, and hence should
suffer the death penalty.

Not As Black As Beards

When Svara had sat down, the first lawyer to rise for the
defense was Dr. Feldbauer, counsel for Princip. Shrewdly
agreeing with the prosecutor that the true responsibility
for the crime lay beyond the border, he pleaded with the
court to consider Princip no more than the tool of others,
"the victim of the Greater Serbia movement." Insisting that
July, and not June, was his client's birthdate, he ended his
brief appeal by recommending Princip to the mercy of the
court.

Feldbauer also was defending three of the assassins' help-
ers Blagoje Kerovi, the farmer's son, Jakov Milovic, the
smuggler, and one Nikola Forkapi, a Sarajevo student ac-
cused of having had prior knowledge of the conspiracy
and he could do more for them than he could for Princip.
The case against Forkapi<5, he said, had simply not been
borne out by the evidence. Blagoje Kerovi<5 had had no idea
of what was going on when the youths stopped at his father's
house; "his peasant's mind does not know the meaning of
the words 'assassination plot/ " Milovi<5 finally, who had
guided the youths across the border, might be "a common
smuggler," not an offense with which he was charged, but

The Penalty 233

he was no traitor, an offense with which he was. All three,
Feldbauer demanded, should be acquitted.

He was followed by Dr. Premuzi, counsel for Cabrino-
vic, Misko Jovanovic, and two o the lesser helpers Mitar
Kerovi, and a seventeen year old student named Branko
Zagorac, who was accused of having received advance in-
formation about the plot from Vaso Cubrilovid Old Mitar
Kerovi, the defense counsel said, was an illiterate peasant,
with no understanding of the assassins' intent. Nor could
Zagorac be expected to have lent any credence to the tales
told him by CubriloviiS, "a virtual child." Neither, there-
fore, was guilty as charged.

In Cabrinovi's and Jovanovi's cases, Premuzi could
hardly ask for an acquittal, of course, but he could and did
plead extenuating circumstances. The court, he asked,
should erase from its mind the character sketches the prose-
cution had drawn of his clients. "The prosecutor thinks that
MiSko [Jovanovi]'s soul is as black as his beard." But this
was untrue. Jovanovid had had no idea that the arms he was
keeping were to be used in an act that constituted treason.
Admittedly, he had been the Tuzla representative of the
Narodna Odbrana,, but he had thought of that organization
as a purely cultural one. He might have been an unwitting
accessory to murder, but never to treason.

In Cabrinovic's case, one should bear in mind his un-
happy home life, as well as the fact that during the trial, he
had shown more "sincerity" than any of the other defend-
ants. "He has revealed," said Premuzte with an irony that
was totally unintentional, "the existence of Kazimirovid
[the alleged Mason] to us/' If Cabrinovi had been an an-
archist, it had been because of the Christian elements in
anarchism. Assuredly, he had not been the crime's true in-

234 SARAJEVO

stigator. Like Princip, he had merely acted as the tool of
others. He would recommend no specific penalty, con-
cluded Premuzi, but he again wished to ask the judges, in
arriving at the proper sentence, to remember the crucial
role played by Kazimirovic.

The next two defense pleas offered no surprises. The
third one did.

Dr. Perisid demanded acquittals for Momcinovic and the
two Sadilos, saying that they could not conceivably have
known that the package left at their house contained arms
used in the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, and were thus
innocent of any offense. For Cvijan Stjepanovi, one of
Princip's and Grabez's lesser helpers along the route, he
pleaded ignorance; "this simple peasant," he said, had had
no inkling of the object of the trip. Coming to his most
heavily incriminated client, Cvijetko Popovi one of the
seven assassins he begged the court to be lenient. At eight-
een, Popovid was terribly young still, he said, and what he
had known about the meaning of violence had all come
from books. He had grown up in an atmosphere poisoned
by pan-Serbian propaganda, but "at the bottom of his soul,
he is no revolutionary." He was not a member of the inner
conspiracy, nor had he known about the true motives of the
rest of the group. Above all, when presented with his oppor-
tunity to kill Franz Ferdinand that bloody Sunday four
months ago, he had refrained from taking any action.

The following morning, October 24, Dr. Strupl de-
manded the acquittal of two of his clients Mico Mici, ac-
cused of having helped to smuggle Princip and GrabeX
across the border, and Jovo Kerovii, another of old Mitar
Kerovi's sons, at whose farm they had stayed afterwards.
Neither had known that the youths were planning an assas-

The Penalty 235

sination, he argued, and hence the prosecution had failed
to establish any treasonable act. He pleaded extenuating
circumstances for his two other charges Trifko Grabez,
the only one among the three Belgrade-trained plotters who
had failed to act on June 28, and Marko Perina, one more
Sarajevo high-school student accused of having known
about plans for the assassination. Perina, he said, had been
unaware of any of the plot's details; moreover, he had been
very much afraid of what might happen to him if he talked
to the police. As for Grabez, Strupl did not deny his part
in the conspiracy, but he pleaded that Grabez, rather than
acting on his own volition, had been drawn into it by others.
Beside, like Popovic, he had refused to kill when face to
face with his intended victim.

A Parliamentary Oversight

All these had been highly competent, if unstartling,
pleas. But when Dr. Rudolf Zistler rose to address the three
judges, the atmosphere of the courtroom suddenly changed.
Zis tier's clients were Vaso and Veljko Cubrilovi, the Sara-
jevo assassin and his Priboj cousin; Ivo Kranjcevi, the Sara-
jevo student who had helped to hide Vaso Cubrilovi^s arms
after the crime in the Sadilos' house; and Nedjo Kerovi,
last of Mitar Kerovid's sons, who had weepingly pleaded "It
is possible that I am a little guilty." What Zistler was at-
tempting to prove now was nothing less than the total in-
nocence, under the law, of every one of his clients.

The judges, he said, must not allow themselves to be in-
fluenced by the passions of war; they "must judge this case
purely from a legal point of view." They must be perfectly
objective, and "not be guided by their hearts."

236 SARAJEVO

You, My Lords, you are the priests of the blindfolded God-
dess, that blind divinity who in one hand holds the scales
and in the other the sword, who seeks only the objective
truth, who makes all men equal before the law, and judges
each according to his merits.

Some of the defendants, said Zistler, might be accused of
murder, but none of them was guilty of treason. Zistler's
manner was long-winded and digressive; at one point Curi-
naldi had to stop him when he embarked on an explanation
of some of the intricacies of Croatian law, at another point
he had to call him to order when he tried to launch into a
history of European nationalism from "the end of the mid-
dle ages onward." The gist of his case, however, was force-
ful and simple.

The defendants' actions, Zistler argued, "not only do not
constitute, under our laws, the crime of treason, but are not
even punishable acts/' The reason was this: Under the
Peace of San Stefano of 1878 and the subsequent Treaty of
Berlin, Austria-Hungary had been allowed to occupy the
provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but not to annex
them. Since the provinces were thus not an integral part of
the monarchy, no one could be accused of treason for try-
ing to detach them.

In 1880, Zistler went on, the Austrian parliament had
passed a law concerning the occupation, which specifically
provided that no change in the territorial status of Bosnia-
Herzegovina could be affected without the consent of the
legislative bodies of Austria and Hungary. There had, of
course, been a recent change, he said, since on October 5,
1908, the Austro-Hungarian government had proclaimed
the annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina, and the Turkish
government, formerly sovereign over the region, had re-

The Penalty 237

nounced its local rights. The annexation, however, was not
legally valid for parliament had forgotten to ratify the
annexation.

Bills legalizing the annexation had been submitted to
parliament in Vienna and Budapest, but no action had been
taken so far. "Consequently, the union of Bosnia and Her-
zegovina with the monarchy exists de facto but not de jure;
in other words, the sovereign rights of our most gracious
Emperor extend to Bosnia and Herzegovina not as integral
parts of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, but as political
units distinct from, and located outside of, the monarchy."

The Prosecutor: "I object."

But if Svara acted shocked by Zistler's argument, Zistler
was scornful about the prosecution's entire case. The trea-
son charge, he said, had been introduced only because Aus-
tria and Serbia were at war. The prosecutor was a govern-
ment official, and the government he was serving wished to
do as much damage as possible to Serbia before world opin-
ion. By accusing the defendants of both treason and mur-
der, he implied, the prosecution had admitted the falseness
of the treason charge. "The indictment is very foresighted:
it figures that the court might find that there was no treason,
and is ready to fall back on the murder charge."

Zistler was too good a lawyer to put everything on one
card, however, and to end his speech on this note. Instead
he went into the extenuating circumstances which he felt
his clients could claim in the event that the court should
uphold the treason charge.

Veljko Cubrilovi, he said, was a man devoted to his fam-
ily, a man of kindness and intelligence. His only part in the
crime had been to aid Princip and Grabez on their trip to
Sarajevo; and here the court must consider how terribly
frightened he had been by the two young men's threats. If

238 SARAJEVO

found guilty, he did not deserve death, for he had only been
an accessory to the crime, and not its instigator.

Vaso Cubrilovic, one of Hid 's recruits, was only seventeen
a difficult age in anyone's life. He had been a victim of
pan-Serb propaganda, whose answers in court had shown
how profound his political naivete was. He might have been
an accessory to planning the murder, but when Franz Fer-
dinand actually passed him, he had made no use of his bomb
or gun. "Saul became Paul; the criminal became a just
man/' The court should set him free: "I feel that Vaso Cu-
brilovic!: would benefit from an acquittal."

Kranjevl had helped Vaso Cubrilovid to hide his arms
only because he had taken pity on "a repentant criminal."
His loyalty to the monarchy was beyond doubt, and he had
had just about as much to do with the plot "as Pontius Pi-
late with the Apostles' Creed." Nedjo Kerovi, finally, was
"a big child," a peasant wholly ignorant of politics. When
told to transport some students and their baggage by Veljko
Cubrilovi(i, a learned schoolteacher, how could this simple
soul refuse? "That is the extent of Nedjo Kerovi's partici-
pation. Where is the intention of detaching Bosnia and
Herzegovina from the monarchy?"

Reverting to his dramatic mood once more, Zistler ended
his plea with this appeal to the court:

I am profoundly convinced that if you were to address
yourselves to those who have perhaps suffered the most,
really, from the death of the Heir to the Throne, because
they have lost their family, if you were to address those who
every night before falling asleep bathe their pillows in tears
if you were to address the children of the deceased princely
couple, asking them if they demanded the heads of the de-
fendants, they would spare their lives.

The Penalty 239

We must not lose sight of the fact that this is a historical
trial; that the eyes of the whole world look on this illustrious
court today; and that the world waits curiously for the sen-
tence that will "be pronounced in this hall of judgment.

Future generations and historians will speak of this trial.
For this reason, the sentences must not be brutal; they must
be just and endure as a bright page in the annals of criminal
jurisprudence, before the tribunal of civilization, and of
posterity.

My Lords, if you will imbue your minds with this idea, I
am convinced that in considering the defendants in general
and my clients in particular, you will give proof of leniency
and generosity.

"We Have Loved the People"

After this direct attack on the whole basis of the trial, one
might have expected any plea that followed to sound anti-
climactic. In a sense it did, for the last counsel to rise for the
defense, Court Secretary Wenzl Malek, decided to take an
approach that was infinitely less aggressive than Zistler's.
At the same time, he was really saying very much the same
things Zistler had in defense of his individual clients, ex-
cept that it was doing it in a manner designed to win the
sympathy of the court.

Zistler had begun by casting doubts on the judges' objec-
tivity. Malek began by making clear his personal distaste
for defending the people who were his clients. "If I hear/'
he quoted Cicero, "that someone has undertaken to defend
a man guilty of treason against his country, I consider him
an accomplice to the crime." In the much-maligned Austro-
Hungarian monarchy, the Court Secretary went on, matters
were different, and the country's magistrates themselves

240 SARAJEVO

might be charged with defending men accused o treason.
"That is my duty, too, much as I would prefer sitting among
you, My Lords, to standing before this bar."

Having said this, Malek launched into a skillful and lu-
cid defense of his four clients Ili, Djukic, Kalember, and
Milosevic. Hid, he said, had committed no overt act of trea-
son. His part in transporting the arms from Tuzla to Sara-
jevo might make him an accomplice to Princip's crime, but
not its instigator. Beside, in deciding whether or not he had
committed treason, it was essential to weigh his motives.
Whatever Ilic's role in the assassination, there was no evi-
dence that he had been driven by any desire to see Bosnia
and Herzegovina detached from the monarchy, as charged
by the prosecution. The true reason for his involvement
was the dominating influence exerted over him by Princip.

Regarding the murder charge, Ilic's only involvement
again consisted in transporting the arms, an act of "indirect
participation" at most. The real crime, argued Malek, did
not begin until the conspirators assembled on the Appel
Quay on June 28. By that time, Ilic had abandoned the
whole murder plan, and was trying to dissuade the others
from going through with it.

In considering Ilia's penalty for the lesser charge of com-
plicity, the court should hold in his favor the fact that he
had acted under Princip's orders, and it should remember
his genuine regrets after the crime, regrets that had led him
to make a full confession to the investigating judge.

Malek's pleas for his remaining three charges were short.
Djuki, accused of having recruited Vaso Cubrilovi for the
assassination, had never really taken the plot seriously, and
thus been without any treasonable intent. Nor had Kalem-
ber, accused of having heard about the crime from Cubrilo-
vic and of having withheld evidence, harbored any such in-

The Penalty 241

tent. Cubrilovi<5 was known as a fellow addicted to wild talk,
and there was no reason why Kalember should have be-
lieved his "Wild West novel" tales about an assassination.
MiloSevifi, finally, who had sheltered Princip and Grabez
after they had crossed into Bosnia, and who had carried
their arms for them, had known neither who his visitors
were, nor what was in their bags. All the defendants, said
Malek, had agreed on the stand that Milosevic had not been
told one word about the plot.

In Djuki's case, he begged the court to take into account
his youth and his good record; as for Kalember and Milo-
sevi, he was demanding an acquittal.

With this, the defense rested its case. Under Bosnian trial
procedure, the prosecution now was allowed a last brief
summing up, after which the defendants themselves would
be given an opportunity to make any final statement they
wished.

Svara, the prosecutor, concentrated on Zistler's charges
in his closing words. Zistler, he said, might be right when
he claimed that parliament had failed to act on the annexa-
tion. The issue was immaterial, however, since the trial was
being held under Bosnian, not Austrian law, and "the law
in force among us" made the crime one of treason. "I reit-
erate," were the final words Svara uttered in the trial, "the
entire indictment."

Judge Curinaldi turned to the defendants. Was there
anything they wished to add?

Three of them made use of their right on this last day of
the trial, Friday, October 23 Veljko Cubrilovii, Nedjelko
Cabrinovi, and Gavrilo Princip.

Cubrilovi<5 spoke for a minute only, and the school teach-
er's sole point was to stress again that his part in the crime
had been of no real consequence.

242 SARAJEVO

Cabrinovi's statement was of a very different sort. He
would like to explain, said the young man who had thrown
the bomb at Franz Ferdinand, "in clear terms the circum-
stances that influenced us before the assassination/'

"We did not hate Austria," he said, but the Austrians had
done nothing, since the occupation, to solve the problems
that faced Bosnia and Herzegovina. In particular, they had
failed to relieve the economic misery of the Bosnian farmer.
"Nine-tenths of our people are farmers who suffer, who live
in misery, who have no schools, who are deprived of any cul-
ture. We sympathized with them in their distress/' The
court should understand this, and "not consider us crimi-
nals. We loved our people/'

The assassination, Cabrinovi went on his voice betray-
ing his deep emotion had arisen from an atmosphere in
which there was daily talk of violence, and in which assas-
sins were celebrated as heroes. "We thought that only peo-
ple of noble character were capable of committing [politi-
cal] assassinations/* There had been no personal hatred for
Franz Ferdinand, but "we heard it said that he was an
enemy of the Slavs. Nobody directly told us 'kill him'; but
in this environment, we arrived at the idea ourselves/'

Cabrinovi<5 ended by voicing a sentiment he had stead-
fastly suppressed during the trial so far:

I would like to add something else [he said, as tears showed
in his eyes]. Although Princip is playing the hero, and al-
though we all wanted to appear as heroes, we still have pro-
found regrets. In the first place, we did not know that the
late Franz Ferdinand was a father. We were greatly touched
by the words he addressed to his wife: 'Sophie, stay alive for
our children/ We are anything you want, except criminals.
In my name and in the name of my comrades, I ask the chil-

The Penalty 243

dren of the late successor to the throne to forgive us. As for
you, punish us according to your understanding. We are not
criminals. We are honest people, animated by noble senti-
ments; we are idealists; we wanted to do good; we have loved
our people; and we shall die for our ideals.

Weeping, he sat down. Both the audience and one of the
judges, noted a local reporter, had been moved to tears by
his words.

The last defendant to face the bar was Princip. As he rose,
he looked pale and calm; "his voice," wrote the same re-
porter, "does not show the least trace of emotion/' What he
had to say he put into four terse sentences:

In trying to insinuate that someone else has instigated the
assassination, one strays from the truth. The idea arose in
our own minds, and we ourselves executed it. We have loved
the people. I have nothing to say in my defense.

Curinaldi: "The trial is ended. Sentence will be pro-
nounced here on Thursday, the sgth, at 8:30 A.M."

The Sentence

Six days later, as Curinaldi had announced, the court re-
convened to hear the decision of the judges.

Five of the six assassins Princip, Cabrinovii, Grabe5,
Popovic, and Vaso Cubrilovic were found guilty of trea-
son and murder. Since all but Princip were indisputably un-
der twenty years of age at the time they had broken the law,
they were not subject to the death penalty, however, and
even in Princip '$ case, the judges ruled that the conflicting
evidence about his birthdate must be interpreted in his
favor, and the defendant be considered underage. Princip,

244 SARAJEVO

Grabez, and Cabrinovid accordingly received the maximum
term of twenty years in prison; while the less actively In-
volved Vaso Cubrilovid was sentenced to sixteen years, and
Popovid to thirteen. Except for Popovic, the judges added,
the prisoners were to suffer one fast day each month, and
every June 28, they were to spend twenty-four hours in
solitary confinement, "in a darkened cell, and on hard
boards."

Danilo Hid, the last of the assassins, and four of the plot-
ters* principal helpers Veljko Cubrilovid, the Priboj
schoolteacher, Miko Jovanovid, the Tuzla businessman,
Nedjo Kerovid, who had driven Princip and Grabez to
Tuzla, and Lazar Djukid, who had recruited Vaso Cubrilo-
vic for the assassination were found guilty of treason and
of being accessories to murder. Djukid got off with a prison
term of ten years, but the four others were sentenced to
death by hanging.

Found guilty of the treason charge, but innocent of mur-
der, were Mitar Kerovid, head of the Kerovid clan, and
Jakov Milovid, Princip's and Grabez's guide across the bor-
der. The sentence against Milovid was death, that against
Kerovid prison for life. Guilty of being accessories to either
treason or murder, for having failed to inform the police of
the plot, were four of the killers' associates: Kranj2evid,
Stjepanovic, Zagorac, and Perina. Their sentences were
prison terms of between three and ten years. '

Nine of the defendants Mr. and Mrs. Sadilo and Mrs.
Sadilo's father, accused of having hidden Cubrilovid's arms;
Jovo and Blagoje Kerovid, accused of having aided Princip
and Grabez on their trip to Sarajevo; Forkapid and Kalem-
ber, accused of having withheld evidence; and Miid and
Milosevid, accused of having accompanied Princip and Gra-

The Penalty 245

bez during and after their border crossing were acquitted
on all charges.

The five death sentences cannot but strike one as harsh,
yet it should be borne in mind that under Anglo-Saxon law,
too, death is the ultimate penalty for treason, and that any-
one conspiring to commit an act of murder is fully as guilty
of that murder as the person striking the fatal blow. In all,
it had been a fair and objective trial, held at a time, more-
over, when the war the direct result of the crime was
endangering the very existence of the monarchy which the
accused had betrayed. They had had all the latitude which
the law permitted to defend themselves and their action;
their judges, throughout, had indeed shown themselves to
be "priests of the blindfolded Goddess." The court's ob-
servance of the rules of evidence had been so scrupulous
that the conflicting testimony about Princip's birthdate had
been resolved in the defendant's favor, and that two of the
assassins' principal helpers Micic and Milosevic found
themselves acquitted. To realize just how fair the trial had
been, one only needs to recall some of the circumstances of
the trial of Lincoln's assassins, in which defense counsel was
treated with contempt and abuse by the court, in which the
government offered perjured testimony, in which people
on the mere fringes of the plot, like Mrs. Surratt, whose
guilt is in doubt to this day, were sentenced to death, and
in which, finally, the condemned prisoners' pleas for clem-
ency were suppressed and never reached the President.

The Sarajevo sentences, subsequently, were appealed to
a higher court. The higher court upheld all of them, except
for the death sentences against Jakov Milovid and Nedjo
Kerovi6 It changed Milovi<5's sentence to imprisonment
for life, and Kerovi<5's to twenty years.

Those sentenced to prison were then taken to various

246 SARAJEVO

places of confinement; where, we do not always know. Some
apparently stayed in Sarajevo; others, like Princip and Ca-
brinovic, began to serve out their terms at the fortress
prison of Theresienstadt in Bohemia. With the end of the
trial, they fell back into the obscurity from which they had
come. Many people must have seen them or talked to them
in prison, but there are next to no descriptions of any such
meetings, or of the circumstances of their confinement. The
terrors of the war, it seems, made the fate of its instigators
a matter of very minor interest.

The execution of the three men whose death sentences
had been confirmed took place, some three months after
the trial, in the courtyard of the Sarajevo prison. There is
no known record of it other than the barest newspaper ac-
counts, and the official telegram sent by the Bosnian Ad-
ministration to the Joint Ministry of Finance in Vienna
on February 3, 1915. The telegram reads as follows:

Trial sentence against Veljko Cubrilovid, Misko Jovanovi,
and Danilo Hid executed today between 9 and 10 A.M. with-
out incident.

CHIEF, ADMINISTRATION [NO.] 1439.

EPILOGUE

: On this Historic Spot"

The Salonica Murders

Few of the remaining plotters, either in Austria or in
Serbia, survived the war. Major Tankosi, arrested in Bel-
grade after the receipt of the Austrian ultimatum, but re-
leased again after the declaration of war, was killed in action
during the retreat of the Serbian army before the Central
Powers in 1915. Ciganovic, Apis* go-between, joined
Tankosic's company after the Serbian mobilization, but. he
was more fortunate than the major. In 1 9 1 7, Prime Minister
Pasi furnished him with some money and with a false pass-
port, and sent him to the United States, where he waited out
the war. In 1919, he returned to Serbia, received a small
grant of land from the government, married, and settled
down. He died in 1927, the only one among the principal
plotters to die from natural causes outside prison. The
price CiganovicV had to pay for his survival, however, was
the open betrayal of Dimitrijevi6.

The betrayal was needed in the judicial murder of Apis

247

248 SARAJEVO

and his friends by the Serbian government. Toward the
end o 1916, Prime Minister Pasic decided to break up the
Black Hand once and for all, and to destroy its leaders.
What his reasons were is not clear. The Serbian army had
suffered a series of disastrous defeats, and the government
had been forced to take refuge on Greek soil. One pos-
sibility is that Pasic thought of negotiating a separate peace
with the Austrians at this time, and that he as well as the
Prince Regent were mortally afraid of what Apis might do
to them if he should hear of this. Another is that Apis was
actively intriguing against Pasic's regime. Yet another is
that Pasic: was very much concerned lest Apis, on some oc-
casion, reveal the truth about Sarajevo, and thus expose
the guilty knowledge of the Serbian government.

Whatever the motives, between December 1916 and
March 1917 the Serbian police arrested Apis and a great
many of his associates, including Mehmedbasi<5, the Moslem
carpenter who, alone among the Sarajevo assassins, had
succeeded in escaping to Serbia. In May 1917 these men
were tried before a military tribunal in the city of Salonica.
There were two charges against them. One was treason.
They had, the prosecution claimed, planned to overthrow
the legal Serbian government, and to conclude peace with
the country's enemies. The other was attempted murder.
In August 1916 according to the indictment, they had
made an unsuccessful attempt against the life of the Prince
Regent, Alexander. One charge was as baseless as the other.

The trial, in which Ciganovi appeared as one of the
government's star witnesses, was a travesty of justice. The
judges chosen were personal enemies of the defendants.
The prosecution produced eighty witnesses, but none had
anything concrete to say about the treason charge, and only
one claimed to have been present at the scene of the sup-

"On this Historic Spot" 249

posed attack on Alexander. That witness had to be brought
in from prison, where he was serving a sentence for murder.
The most important part of the evidence, that against the
Black Hand, was incomplete, since the government was in-
tent on keeping out of the record anything bearing on
either the Black Hand's general activities abroad, or on its
share in the Sarajevo assassination. Apis, patriotically,
agreed before the trial's start to introduce no such evidence
himself. Thus, there is something of the quality of Koestler's
Darkness at Noon about the proceedings. Apis, one realizes
as one reads between the lines of the Salonica trial record,
must have known that one of the reasons the government
was so anxious to see him dead was his participation in the
Sarajevo plot. Yet there was no way in which he could de-
fend himself against this unspoken charge if only to ex-
plain his motives except by revealing facts which would
harm the case of Serbia. This Apis could not bring himself
to do.

Only once did a possible allusion to Sarajevo get into
the record. It happened when Djuro Sarac, one of Apis'
Black Hand associates who had either known about or aided
in Franz Ferdinand's murder, testified for the government
that he had once heard Ciganovi<5 say something that im-
plied that Tankosic had once murdered or tortured some
people outside Belgrade. (This bit of third-hand, hearsay
evidence was fairly characteristic of the testimony heard
during the trial as a whole.)

Dimitrijevi interrupted the witness: "That is a lie."

"No!" shot back Sarac. "That is no lie! It hurts my soul

when I consider what you made of us, and what you still

intended to make of us. One can't mention everything here

in court. You know that very well. But the time for that

250 SARAJEVO

will come. I knew no evil before I fell into your hands.
Horror seizes me when I think what you made of us!"

The legal farce had a tragic ending. On May 23, 1917,
Apis and six of his fellow officers were sentenced to death;
the remaining defendants received long prison terms. Meh-
medbasi was sentenced to fifteen years in prison for his
alleged part in the alleged assassination plot against the
Prince Regent. On appeal to a higher court, four of the
death sentences were commuted to long prison terms, but
those against the three others Apis among them were
upheld. The Prince Regent, for his part, rejected a final
appeal for clemency.

A Necessity of State

Before informing the defendants of the decision of the
higher court, one of the judges paid a visit to each of the
prisoners in their cells. Would they, the judge asked, give
him a full and secret statement describing their involve-
ment in the Sarajevo plot.

Apis, for one, complied, writing a confession which was
a curious blend of truth and untruth. He admitted his
own share in Franz Ferdinand's murder, and gave a largely
correct account of the crime's genesis, but took pains to
mention a co-defendant of his named Malobabi, rather
than Tankosi, as his link with the assassins.

A few days later, having been told that the court of
appeal had upheld his death sentence, Apis wrote his last
will and testament. Into it, he inserted a number of refer-
ences to Sarajevo, which he must have hoped later readers
would understand as indeed they can. The text reads as
follows:

"On this Historic Spot" 251

My Last Will and Testament

Although sentenced to death by two competent courts, and
deprived of the mercy of the Crown, I die innocently, and in
the conviction that my death is necessary to Serbia for higher
reasons.

This conviction gives me the peace of soul with which I await
my last hour.

Provided that Serbia be happy, and that our holy oath the
union of all South Slavs and all that is South Slav be ful-
filled, I shall be happy even after death.

The pain that I feel over dying by Serbian guns shall be
sweet and dear to me, since I am convinced that the guns are
aimed at my chest for the good of Serbia and the Serbian
people, a cause to which I have dedicated my entire life.

I may, without wishing to, have committed errors in my
work as a patriot. I may even, unknowingly, have hurt Ser-
bian interests. But in taking any action one almost always
runs the risk of being sometimes wrong. I am certain, how-
ever, of having committed no intentional errors, and of al-
ways having wished to serve no other cause than that of
Serbia.

May these mistakes be forgiven me, at least by the Serbs, and
I shall pray to God to show me His inexhaustible mercy.

What property remains to me I distribute as follows:

1. I request that my money be sent to my nephew Milan
2ivanovic*, refugee in France, a student at the Grand Lyc6e
Neuf in Nice.

2. I request that my horse "Bliicher" be offered first to the
state, and that the money from the sale be sent to my nephew.

3. As for my horse "Zvesdana," I leave it to those best able
to judge the matter whether this horse is still capable of

252 SARAJEVO

rendering some service. If he is, I donate him to the state;
if not, 1 ask that he be killed.

4. All my other possessions should be distributed among poor
refugees, with the canned goods, food, and tobacco going to
the soldiers and policemen who have guarded me in prison,
as a gift toward the repose of my soul.

5, I request that my watch, a souvenir from my brother-in-
law, 2ivan Zivanovic, be sent to my nephew Milan 2ivanovi
as a souvenir.

This is my last will and testament.

I request, finally, that after the execution of my bequests, this
testament be sent to my nephew Milan 2ivanovi in Nice.

June 11 [Old Style] 24 [New Style], atSalonica.

DRAGUTIN DIMITRIJEVIC APIS, m[anu] p[ropria]

cc No One Was Hit in the Head"

Less than forty-eight hours later, during the night of
June 25, the executioners came to fetch the condemned
men from their cells. Apis, who in his single-minded pur-
suit of the Greater Serbian idea had not hesitated to sac-
rifice either individuals or nations, showed them no weak-
ness and no self-pity. Whether Apis' life deserves admira-
tion or blame will always be a matter of argument, but
there can be no question that his death was that of a hero.
Here is the account of his last hours, written immediately
after the event by an official witness to the execution,
Lieutenant Colonel Ljubomir Dabid, of the Judge Advo-
cate's Division of the Royal Serbian Army:

"After having made their confessions to arch-priest
Zdravko Paunkovic, the condemned men Dimitrijevid and

"On this Historic Spot" 253

Vulovl gave him letters for their families; the arch-priest
will pass them on today to the commanding officer. The
condemned Malobabi gave him keys and combinations in
order to withdraw money from a bank, which is to go to the
state.

"Dimitrijevic, Vulovi, and Malobabi<5 were taken to
the place of execution in a closed car at 1:00 A.M. [of June
26].

". . . We arrived at the place of execution at 1:30. All
along the narrow path that led to it from the car Vulovi
talked animatedly with Lieutenant Joseph Proti [appar-
ently a guard officer in command of the policemen who
were charged with the execution]. Dimitrijevii said three
times: 'This is a special military service we are made to
perform/ talking all the while with Captain Milan Stojkovi
[apparently another officer of the guards] in a low voice.
Malobabic said nothing.

"At the precise spot of the execution, we had to wait for
twenty minutes, the time necessary to make the prepara-
tions. It was then that Dimitrijevic and Vulovi asked
repeatedly not to be executed before dawn, and to tell the
policemen to aim well, so that they would not be massacred
in the dark. This was granted. When he saw me, Dimitri-
jevid asked if I had come on behalf of the court, and when I
replied that I had, and that I was obliged to read the sen-
tence to him, he said in a bantering tone: 'Understand
what has happened to me; I assure you that I am innocent/

"I replied that as a man and a comrade I felt sorry to see
him die in his best years, when he still could have rendered
so many services to his country, but that according to the
law he was guilty, and that he might find consolation in the
certain knowledge that his death was necessary for the
country and for public order. He seemed to be pleased to

254 SARAJEVO

hear these words, for he said: 'I beg you, tell my friends
that I do not regret dying under Serbian bullets, since it is
for the welfare of Greater Serbia, which I hope with all my
heart will soon come about. Yes, according to the law I
am guilty, and what will happen had to happen. Relations
[with Pasii's government?] had become too strained
through my fault, and that is why it is necessary that I go/

"Then he continued jestingly: 'But why could not one
have chosen a better place for the execution, preferably
on a hill, from which one could have gazed at the sea. You
know, what this country lacks is a bit of solemnity/ His
attitude was one of firmness; he was, however, quite
changed, his face was pale and his voice trembled slightly.
From time to time he consoled Rade Malobabi6 When the
latter reproached him by saying that it was due to him that
he found himself in this spot, he replied: It's fate, Rade.
If you had not been with me, it would not have happened
to me either. If you had stayed at Kurchumlia, you and I
would have remained alive/ [Malobabi<5, an Austrian citi-
zen, had been Apis' top espionage agent in Austria-Hun-
gary. After the outbreak of the war, he had been arrested
and maltreated by the Serbian police. When Dimitrijevi
heard about this, he effected Malobabic's release. Kurch-
umlia was the place to which he took the "more dead than
alive" ex-spy to recover from the effects of his prison ex-
periences. As the enemy advance into Serbia continued,
Malobabi<5 begged Apis not to let him fall into Austrian
hands, and Apis agreed that he should leave Kurchumlia,
and accompany him on the Serbian retreat into Greece.]

"Vulovi^ bore himself best of alL He did not lose his
sense of humor for a moment. He admitted having been
guilty, but not of the crime of which he was accused. When
I asked for some water while reading the sentence, and

"On this Historic Spot" 255

when I had drunk, he addressed me with the words: 'Give
me some water top, please, namesake.' Taking the jug, he
added: 'Let's hope you don't have syphilis/ to which I
replied that it was too late now for such worries; he laughed
in an entirely natural manner.

"MalobabiC was the most discouraged and beaten; he re-
proached himself all the time for finishing his life in this
manner instead of being able to offer it freely in the cause
of Serbia.

"After the sentences of both courts and the orders from
headquarters concerning the executions had been read,
which took from 2:00 to 4:30 [A.M.], Dimitrijevid and
Vulovi took leave from all the officers present, bidding
them adieu. Dimitrijevi turned to the priest and kissed
his hand, and in a low voice spoke some words to Colonel
Duni [another officer detailed to attend the execution].
The three condemned men embraced, and Dimitrijevi
turned toward us, saying, as he put his hand on Malobabte's
shoulder: 'I affirm again that this man was a good patriot
and that he was always acted for the welfare of Serbia/

"Then the three condemned men stepped down into the
ditches that had been dug for the purpose, and placed
themselves in front of the stakes, Dimitrijevic^ on the right,
Vulovi in the middle, and Malobabi on the left. When
stepping down, Dimitrijevic said: It seems that the ditch
is not quite deep enough for me.' When it came to blind-
folding Malobabi, and the latter asked that one dispense
with it, Dimitrijevi^ said: 'Let them do it, Rade, the law
requires it/ After being blindfolded, Dimitrijevid and
Vulovi cried: 'Long live Greater Serbia!' and Dimitrijevi<5
added: 'Long live Yugoslavia!' At the last moment, Vulovi
said: 'Adieu, Dragutin' to Dimitrijevii once again, and

256 SARAJEVO

Dimitrijevic passed on this farewell to Malobabi, adding:
'Adieu, Rade,' to which the latter made no reply.

1 'Although it had taken more than two hours and a half
to read the sentence, dawn had not broken yet, and the
three condemned men waited calmly, talking to each other
from time to time in low voices. At one point, Malobabi
turned almost entirely away from us, and there was talk
that he was thinking of escaping and was looking for a way
to do so. However, he did no such thing. All he did was to
give some more instructions concerning his property which
he was leaving to his family.

"The condemned Vulovi threw his cane over his head
from the ditch, asking that it be given to Major Alexander
Savic, who should take it to his wife, and asked that his
wallet be taken from his pocket.

"Malobabic succumbed after the first five shots, while
the two others suffered longer, twenty shots having to be
fired at each of them. No one was hit in the head.

"The doctor made the usual examination, and the con-
demned men were buried.

"The execution was over on June 13/26, 1917, at 4:47
in the morning."

There remains one postscript to record about the trial
and execution of Apis. Thirty-six years later, in 1953, the
Supreme Court of the Federal People's Republic of Yugo-
slavia (Princip's dream has taken on a very different shape
today) retried the case of Dimitrijevic!: and associates, and
found them innocent of the charges on which they had been
convicted at Salonica. The posthumous acquittal led to a
public debate in Yugoslavia whether Dimitrijevic and the
Black Hand might not, perhaps, be considered early "pro-
gressives." The debate was ended when a government
spokesman declared that while the reversal of the Salonica

"On this Historic Spot" 257

sentence was fully justified, the Black Hand's ideals bore no
resemblance to those of modern, Communist Yugoslavia.
Hence no monument, no tablet, and no street name pro-
claims the fame of the author of the Sarajevo murders to
this day.

Prison and Death

What happened to the others? Not everyone involved
in Franz Ferdinand's murder ended as violently as Dimitri-
jevi, or the three men executed at Sarajevo. Yet for the
survivors, life never was the same after the First World War
and the peace that, ending it, decreed the dissolution of
Austria-Hungary and the establishment of a number of
successor states which included the new kingdom of Yugo-
slavia.

Curinaldi, the Presiding Judge at Princip's trial, quietly
lived out the last years of his life at a Jesuit retreat in
Sarajevo. Pfeffer, the Investigating Judge, was appointed
District Attorney a year after the trial. At the end of the war,
he asked for his retirement, and subsequently published
some reminiscences of Sarajevo in which he absolved the
Serbian government of any responsibility for the crime, and
implied that certain people in Austria whom he would
not name might have been behind the assassination.

Zistler, the most temperamental among the defense
counsel, also opted for Yugoslavia, and in the late nine-
teen-thirties went on a lecture tour to raise funds toward
the construction of a memorial to Princip. Grbi, the Serb-
ian border guard who had helped Princip and Grabe2 cross
into Bosnia, was wounded and taken prisoner-of-war by
the Austrians in August, 1914, but was never brought to
trial.

258 SARAJEVO

Governor Potiorek and Minister of Finance Bilinski,
whose Ministry in Vienna held the ultimate authority over
the affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina, engaged in a bitter
and protracted argument in which they accused each other
of not having done enough to prevent Franz Ferdinand's
murder. Potiorek, who had long thought war with Serbia
inevitable, and who immediately after the crime urged
Vienna to use force against Belgrade, was put in supreme
command of the Southeastern front when war came. He won
some brilliant initial victories, which brought his troops
deep into Serbia, but in December, 1914, he was forced to
retreat in disastrous haste, and was relieved of his command.
His greatest failing, apparently, had been his ignorance of
actual conditions in the field. He directed all operations
from his office at headquarters, communicating even with
his chief of staff by means of written notes only. For all his
considerable talents, Potiorek had always been an unsociable
and lonely man, but an added reason why he would never
leave his office for an inspection of the front, Vienna gossip
had it, was that ever since Princip had almost shot him
instead of Sophie on June 28, he lived in perpetual fear of
his personal safety. He died in the Austrian province of
Carinthia in 1933, at the age of eighty. "When," read one
obituary, "he walked through the streets of Klagenfurt
in simple civilian clothes, rucksack on his shoulders to do
his shopping, as he did until the last years of his life, no
one could have seen that this man had once been so power-
ful, proud, and unapproachable."

Bilinski, when peace came, for a while served in the
government of the newly created Republic of Poland as
Minister of Finance, but as an acquaintance noted, "he
soon returned to Austria, chagrined, and lived mostly in
Vienna, or during the summer in Ischl, amidst his memories

"On this Historic Spot" 259

of the Empire that was no more." Emperor Franz Joseph,
at the age of 86, collapsed while going over some state pa-
pers on a cold November morning in 1916. He had been
trying to observe his usual work schedule despite his age,
and despite the fact that he was suffering from a severe case
of pneumonia. He died during the evening of November
21, surrounded by his daughters, by the Heir to the Throne,
and by a number of old servants.

Konopisht castle, from which Franz Ferdinand had
started on his fateful journey, was seized by the government
of the new Czechoslovak republic, after the First World
War. In 1938, after the Nazi occupation of Austria, the
Gestapo arrested both of Franz Ferdinand's sons, Duke
Maximilian and Duke Ernst, and sent them to Dachau con-
centration camp. One of their Austrian fellow-inmates
remembers having met them, "unbowed, and encouraging
everyone by their example. Even in their dirty, torn prison
clothing they remained gentlemen, true noblemen. In what
little free time we had, they sat in the dusty road with us,
sharing the few pieces of sugar one had somehow got hold
of. There was not a person in the whole camp who did not
speak of the 'Hohenbergs* with the greatest respect/ 1 After
the end of the Second World War, Duke Maximilian von
Hohenberg for several years served as mayor of Artstetten,
and in 1956, his son Franz Ferdinand namesake and
grandson of the murdered Archduke married Princess
Elizabeth of Luxembourg in Luxembourg's Cathedral of
Notre Dame.

Pai<5, the Serbian Prime Minister, played a leading role
in Yugoslav politics until his death in 1926. In the final
years of his life, he was rumored to be working on a manu-
script which would tell his side of the Sarajevo story, but
no such book ever appeared.

260 SARAJEVO

Of the assassins and their helpers, only a handful lived
long enough to witness the defeat of Austria, and the crea-
tion of the Yugoslav state for which they had hoped and
killed. Old Mitar Kerovi, the farmer, died in prison, as
did young Marko Perina, Cabrinovic's friend, who had
been among those initiated into the plot. Nedjelko Cabri-
novic, the bomb-thrower and ex-anarchist, died in Ther-
esienstadt prison at the end of January, 1916, of the tuber-
culosis he had contracted before his arrest. At the end of
the previous year, Franz Werf el, the playwright and novel-
ist, who was serving with the Austrian army at the time,
happened to see him briefly, and came away profoundly im-
pressed by the meeting. Cabrinovi, he wrote later, was
pitifully weak, and looked like "a ghost who is about to dis-
solve." Yet the expression of his face looked to Werfel
"turned deeply and nobly inward," and a power born of his
obvious convictions seemed to radiate from him "I do not
believe that anyone dealing with this shadow [of a man]
could escape this force/' A month after Cabrinovid's death
followed that of Grabez. In his case, too, the cause was
tuberculosis.

Princip, deeply grieved by the loss of his friends, and
suffering, as they had, from tuberculosis in its most cruel
form, died during the last year of the war, on the evening
of April 28, 1918, in the hospital of Theresienstadt prison.
His illness seems to have made his last years a period of
physical torture. Not enough is known of the conditions
of Princip's and his friends' imprisonment to pass any
judgment on their jailers, or to say what might have been
done to ease their final sufferings, but the evidence of three
deaths in two years alone reflects little credit on the Austro-
Hungarian authorities.

Not one among the youths ever revealed what he really

"On this Historic Spot" 261

knew about Sarajevo. Even when visited by a psychiatrist
in 1916, Princip, while speaking freely about his dreams
and feelings, took care to emphasize that the idea of the
murder had been his and his alone.

Only three of the assassins survived the war Popovi,
Cubrilovi, and Mehmedbasi. Young Cvijetko Popovid,
sentenced to thirteen years in prison at the Sarajevo trial,
was released after the collapse of Austria, as was the other
young local high-school student, Vaso Cubrilovi. Cubrilo-
vi, after teaching high school in Sarajevo for a number of
years, went on to become a university professor. After the
Second World War, he joined Tito's government as minis-
ter of forests, and at present is a professor of history at the
University of Belgrade, where he is offering a course in
nineteenth-century Serbia. Popovic also chose an educa-
tor's career. He advanced to high-school supervisor and at
present is Curator of the Ethnographic Department of the
Sarajevo Museum. Muhamed Mehmedbasic, pardoned in
1919, along with the other survivors of the Salonica trial,
went back to Sarajevo, where he made a modest living as a
gardener and occasionally as a carpenter, his old trade.
There he died during the Second World War.

In 1920, the mortal remains of Princip, Cabrinovid, and
Grabez were solemnly transferred from Theresienstadt
now in Czechoslovakia to Yugoslavia, and reburied in the
Sarajevo cemetery, in a simple and impressive grave, whose
only ornament consists of three large stone slabs. Princip
rests in the middle, under a raised slab; to his left lie
Cabrinovi and Grabe2, and their mentor 2eraji; to his
right lie the men who were executed after the Sarajevo
trial, or who died in prison.

A memorial which the Austrians had erected in honor of
Franz Ferdinand and Sophie near the place of the assassina-

262 SARAJEVO

tion was razed soon after the war. The Lateiner Bridge,
where Princip fired his fatal shots, now bears the name of
Princip Bridge; the street in which Ilia's house stands, and
where Princip stayed with his friend after returning from
Belgrade, has been renamed Ili Street. On the pavement
in front of Schiller's store, Princip's footprints have been
scooped out, to show exactly where he stood when he shot
his two victims, and after the Second World War, a Princip
Museum was founded in Sarajevo. Some years before this,
a black marble tablet was unveiled over the door of Schil-
ler's store, in the presence of Ilia's aged mother, and of
other relatives of the assassins. The inscription, in gold
letters, reads: "On this historic spot, Gavrilo Princip ini-
tiated freedom on Saint Vims' Day, June 15/28, 1914."

Sources

To interrupt the text of a historical narrative with fre-
quent footnotes that list and discuss all the sources used
in its preparation tends to weary the reader, if not distract
his attention entirely. On the other hand, the reader o a
factual account such as this has a right to know where
the facts that he is asked to believe come from. Hence a
list of principal sources is given below. The nonhistorian
may want to do some further reading and checking, particu-
larly when wondering whether he ought to accept some of
the author's statements; and the specialist should have a
reasonably clear idea, after examining these notes, of the
research on which the present story of the Sarajevo plot
is based. Books and articles, particularly after their first
mention, are often referred to in abbreviated form; sub-
titles have been given only where they add some significant
piece of information.

PROLOGUE: Sarajevo, June 28, 1914
See the notes for Chapter XI.

263

264 SARAJEVO

CHAPTER i: Franz Ferdinand

The best biography of Franz Ferdinand is Rudolf Kiszling,
Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand von Osterretch-Este (Graz, 1953).
The Archduke's eldest son, Duke Maximilian von Hohenberg,
put many of his father's letters at the author's disposal; beside,
Kiszling was given access to files in the Vienna archives at
both the Verwaltungsarchiv and the Hau$-> Ho/-, und Staats-
archiv which are not yet open to general research. His book,
while containing no major political revelations, gives the reader
a picture of Franz Ferdinand that is balanced, understanding,
and detailed.

Earlier biographies that should be consulted also are: Ed-
mund von Glaise-Horstenau, "Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand,"
Neue Qsterreichische Biographic 1815-1918, III (Vienna,
1956), pp. 9-33; Theodor von Sosnosky, Franz Ferdinand
(Munich, 1929); Leopold von Chlumecky, Erzherzog Franz
Ferdinands Wirken und Wollen (Berlin, 1929); Paul Nikitsch-
Boulles, For dem Sturm (Berlin, 1925); and Victor Eisen-
menger, Archduke Francis Ferdinand (London, 1931). Glaise-
Horstenau's brief biographical sketch is factual, revealing, and
fair. Sosnosky is admittedly prejudiced in favor of his subject,
being convinced that Franz Ferdinand was the only person who
could have saved the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, but his book
contains some valuable family documents. Chlumecky's objec-
tivity is marred by his even stronger partisanship for the
Archduke, but he, too, is able to cite some confidential docu-
ments in the text. Nikitsch-Boulles was the Archduke's private
secretary for several years. His account, while basically sympa-
thetic, makes no attempt at hiding Franz Ferdinand's harsher
qualities. Dr. Eisenmenger's book is "not a straight biography,
but consists of the lightly written personal reminiscences of the
Archduke's former personal physician.

Two excellent summaries in English of Franz Ferdinand's
life, career, and plans will be found in Sidney B. Fay, The
Origins of the World War, II (New York, 1928), pp. 1-32; and
Luigi Albertini, The Origins of the War of 1914, II (London,
1953), pp. 1-18. Both Albertini and Fay, aside from being in-

Sources 265

dispensable works on their general subject, contain a great deal
of original material on Franz Ferdinand and Sarajevo. A short
biographical essay that is interesting primarily because of its
author is Winston Churchill, "The Victim of Sarajevo," The
Saturday Review f CLII (London, 1931), pp. 388-389.

Personal recollections which mention Franz Ferdinand and
his family in passing are Im Weltkriege (Berlin, 1919), by
Count Ottokar Czernin, who became Austro-Hungarian For-
eign Minister at the end of the World War; and Ein Leben fur
Ungarn (Bonn, 1953), by Admiral Nicholas von Horthy, a
former aide to Franz Joseph, and Regent of Hungary in the
postwar period. (An English translation of Horthy's book en-
titled Memoirs, appeared in London in 1956.) Franz Ferdi-
nand's own description of his world tour, Tagebuch meiner
Reise urn die Erde (2 vols., Vienna, 1895-96) is too carefully
edited to be very revealing.

One of the best accounts of Mayerling is that by Egon Caesar
Conte Corti, Elisabeth (Salzburg, 1934), pp. 412-428, (trans-
lated as Elizabeth, Empress of Austria [New Haven, 1936], pp.
388-403.) and a summary of most of the rumors extant about
the tragedy will be found in Ernest Cormons (the pseudonmym
for an Austro-Hungarian official named Emanuel Urbas),
Schicksale und Schatten (Salzburg, 1951), pp. 34-45- For a
strange premonition which Rudolf seems to have had that not
he but his cousin Franz Ferdinand would inherit the throne,
see Count Hoyos' contemporary memorandum on Mayerling in
Jean de Bourgoing, ed., Brief e Kaiser Franz Josephs an Frau
Katharina Schratt (Vienna, 1949), p. 137.

On Franz Ferdinand's illness and character, two authors
should be consulted in addition to the biographies and recol-
lections cited above. One, whose approach is friendly, is his
military aide Carl Freiherr von Bardolff, Soldat im alien
Gsterreich (Jena, 1938), and "Franz Ferdinand," Die Kriegs-
schuldfrage (hereafter cited as KSF.), V (1927), pp. 599-608.
(Published from 1923 to 1944, KSF. its subtitle varies, and its
main title was changed to Berliner Monatshefte in 1929 is a
journal that will be cited frequently here. Aided by a covert
subsidy from the German Foreign Ministry, KSF. set itself the

266 SARAJEVO

admitted task of disproving the Versailles allegation of Ger-
many's war guilt But despite its obvious bias, KSF. yields
much valuable and original material on Sarajevo, particularly
in its translations of Serbo-Croatian articles not easily ac-
cessible otherwise.) The other, which is much more critical, is
Albert Freiherr von Margutti, Vom alien Kaiser (Leipzig and
Vienna, 1921). Margutti was for many years aide to Emperor
Franz Joseph. His memoirs, while always entertaining and
gossipy, must be read with some caution, since some of the
stories he tells fall short of being wholly reliable. Perhaps the
most revealing single document is a character sketch written by
a military associate of Franz Ferdinand's, Colonel Brosch, in
1913 (it was so frank an evaluation that Brosch thought of
burning it), which is printed in Chlumecky, pp. S54-3 6 *- For
the Archduke's marriage, see the notes on the following chapter.

CHAPTER n: Emperor and Nephew

To see the story of both Franz Ferdinand's marriage and of
his relationship with his uncle, the Emperor, in perspective,
one must examine the literature on Franz Joseph as well as
that on Franz Ferdinand. Oddly enough, there is no really
satisfactory biography of the Emperor. Of the three existing
full-length biographies, two Eugene Bagger, Francis Joseph
(New York, 1928) and Karl Tschuppik, Franz Joseph I (Hel-
lerau, 1928) are too superficial and unreliable to be of any
real value. The third Joseph Redlich, Emperor Francis
Joseph (New York, 1929) while very much superior to the
other two, is perhaps the least successful work of an otherwise
distinguished scholar. A more recent book, Ottokar Janatschek,
The Emperor Franz Joseph (London, 1953) is almost pure
fiction. The best account is a brief and sensitive sketch by
Heinrich Hitter von Srbik, "Franz Joseph I," which appeared
in the Historische Zeitschrift (hereafter cited as H.Z.) for 1931
(CXLIV, pp. 509-526).

Important memoirs and documents bearing on the conflict
between Emperor and Archduke, and on the latter's marriage,
are Czernin; Friedrich Funder, Vom Gestern ins Heute
(Vienna, 1952); Nikitsch, Margutti, and Rudolf Sieghart, Die

Sources 267

letzten Jahrzehnte einer Grossmacht (Berlin, 1932), which con-
tains the texts of some of Franz Ferdinand's desperate appeals
for help to the Austrian Prime Minister during the height of
the marriage crisis. Franz Joseph's letters to his friend Frau
Katharina Schratt, edited by Bourgoing, yield disappointingly
little.

From an American point of view, Theodore Roosevelt's im-
pressions during his visit to Vienna in 1910 are particularly
entertaining and illuminating. He met Franz Joseph, with
whom he spoke in French, and^he obviously loved Viennese so-
ciety, although he noted that its world was "as remote from
mine as if it had been in France before the Revolution"; Elting
E. Morison, ed., The Letters of Theodore Roosevelt, VII
(Cambridge, 1954), pp. 369-370. For some of the motives be-
hind the German Emperor's friendly attitude toward Franz
Ferdinand, see Bernhard Fiirst von Billow, Denkwurdigkeiten,
I (Berlin, 1930), pp. 400-401 and 624-626. More official ma-
terial can be found in Robert A. Kann, "Emperor William II
and Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Their Correspondence,"
The American Historical Review, LVII (January 1952), pp.

The newly married Archduke's letters about Sophie are cited
from Sosnosky, pp. 34-43, where on pp. 34-35 there will also be
found the text of his oath of renunciation. The story of his break
with his younger brother Ferdinand Carl over the latter's mar-
riage to a professor's daughter is told in Nikitsch, pp. 17-21.
The evidence on whether Franz Ferdinand intended to observe
the oath of renunciation is inconclusive. Nikitsch, p. 31, and
Funder, pp. 495-496, think that he was just as happy to see his
sons grow up as country gentlemen; on the other hand,
Margutti, p. 141, and Albertini, II, pp. 2-3, make it clear how
widely Sophie was suspected of intending to have the oath
annulled after Franz Joseph's death.

Judgments on Old Austria differ widely, of course. At one end
of the scale, there is the concept of the Empire as a "Volkerker-
ker" a veritable "dungeon of nations*' or, in the words of
Mazzini, "a land of slavery, of inertia, of death; an anomaly in
the nineteenth century; a mystery of immobility in the univer-

268 SARAJEVO

sal movement of Europe/' At the other end, there is Sir Winston
Churchill's anger, in The Gathering Storm (Boston, 1948), at
the peacemakers of Paris for destroying a country that "had
afforded a common life, with advantages in trade and security,
to a large number of peoples. . . . There is not one of the peo-
ples or provinces that constituted the Empire of the Habsburgs
to whom gaining their independence has not brought the tor-
tures which ancient poets and theologians had reserved for the
damned." His comment seems to echo Prince Otto von Bis-
marck's startling prophecy, made when the Chancellor success-
fully opposed those who favored the destruction of the Austrian
Empire after the Austro-Prussian War of 1866. "... I could
imagine/' Bismarck recorded in his memoirs, "no future for
the nations forming the Austrian monarchy that was acceptable
to us, if the latter were destroyed by Hungarian and Slavic
revolts, or if its independence was to be destroyed forever. What
system was to take over in that part of Europe which up until
now had been filled by the Austrian state from the Tyrol to the
Bukovina? New formations in this region could only be of a
permanently revolutionary nature/'

This is not the place for an exhaustive bibliography on Aus-
tria-Hungary. Among more recent books in English, A. J. P.
Taylor, The Habsburg Monarchy 1809-1918, (New Edition,
London, 1948), and the early sections of Gordon Shepherd, The
Austrian Odyssey (London, 1957) make perhaps the best start-
ing point; the reader will easily find his way from there. Taylor
has an excellent selected bibliography, which is brought up to
date by Shepherd's listing of books on the subject published
since the end of the Second World War. One other title worth
mentioning it seems to be listed in no bibliography is a great
novelist's charming and nostalgic panegyric to Royal and Im-
perial Austria: Robert Musil, Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften,
I (Berlin, 1921), chapter 8, which has at long last been translated
into English (by Eithne Wilkins and Ernst Kaiser), The Man
Without Qualities (London, 1953).

On Franz Ferdinand's political plans, the following are essen-
tial: Fay, II, pp. 6-27; Bardolff, pp. 136-179; Kiszling, pp. 87-
260 (this is revealing also for Franz Ferdinand's anti-Magyar

Sources 269

and other prejudices); Funder, pp. 505-507; Albertini, II, pp.
7-! 8 (the broken pot quotation will be found on p. 16); Chlu-
mecky, "Franz Ferdinands Aussenpolitik/' Berliner Monats-
hefte (hereafter cited as BM.), XII (1934), pp. 455-466; an< i
the pro-Serbian R. W. Seton-Watson, Sarajevo (London, n.d.),
pp. 80-91.

CHAPTER in: The Trip to Sarajevo

The precise date of Potiorek's first invitation is in some doubt,
as are his motives for extending it. The fullest account of the
trip's genesis, based on voluminous notes taken at the time, will
be found in the memoirs of the Chief of the Austro-Hungarian
General Staff and close associate of Franz Ferdinand, Count
Franz Conrad von Hotzendorf, Aus meiner Dienstzeit, III
(Vienna, 1923), pp. 445-447* 622, 700, and 705. The chagrin
which the manner of Franz Ferdinand's acceptance caused at
court is recorded in Margutti, pp. 145-147.

The definitive account of the annexation crisis and its origins
is Bernadotte E. Schmitt, The Annexation of Bosnia 1908-1909
(Cambridge, 1937). For a shorter summary, there is the excel-
lent History of the Modern World by R. R. Palmer (New York,
1954). Dore Ogrizek, La Yougoslavie (Paris, 1955) has a hand-
somely illustrated description of the region involved, while the
detailed maps in that classic among travel guides, Karl Baedeker,
Austria-Hungary (Leipzig, 1911) are unsurpassed. Franz Fer-
dinand's worried comment about the annexation is from Chlu-
mecky, pp. 99-100. For similar thoughts expressed by other
Austrians see Conrad, I, p. 174; Margutti, p. 27; and Nikitsch,
pp. 119-120. A good account of Bosnia-Herzegovina's postan-
nexation constitution, of the quality of Austrian administra-
tion, and of conditions in general is that by Josef Brauner,
"Bosnien und Herzegovina. Politik, Verwaltung und leitende
Personen vor Kriegsausbruch," B. M., VII (1929), pp. 313-344*
which should be compared with the revelant passages in Jozo
Tomasevich, Peasants, Politics, and Economic Change in Yugo-
slavia (Stanford, 1955). The connection between the region's
economic ills and the Sarajevo plot is stressed in Wladyslaw

270 SARAJEVO

Gluck, Sarajewo, Historja Zamachu Sarajewskiego (Cracow,

1935)-

A sympathetic description of the Greater Serbia movement
and of the 1903 Revolution is that of Seton-Watson. A more
balanced work, based on many Serbo-Croat sources generally
inaccessible to the Western reader, is Wayne S. Vucinich, Serbia
Between East and West, The Events of 1903-1908 (Stanford,
1954). The best summaries in English of the Bosnian revolu-
tionary movement and of Gacinovid's life and writings are in
Fay and Seton-Watson, where suggestions for further reading
will also be found.

Several writers have claimed that Vienna received some more
or less concrete warnings against the trip, but with the evidence
so far available the truth of these claims is impossible to estab-
lish. The following sources should be consulted on this subject,
which is well summed up in Bernadotte E. Schmitt, "July 1914:
Thirty Years After/' The Journal of Modern History (hereafter
cited as JM.H.), XVI (1944), p. 173; Bardolff, p. 181; "Dr.
Bilinski iiber das Attentat von Sarajevo/' Neue Freie Presse,
No. 21479, Vienna, June 28, 1924; August Urbariski von
Ostrymiecz, "Mein Beitrag zur Kriegsschuldfrage/' B.M., IV
(1926), pp. 84-85, and the same author's "Conrad von Hotzen-
dorf und die Reise des Thronfolgers nach Sarajevo/' ibid., VII
(1929), p. 466; Funder, pp. 480-485; Maurice Muret, "L'At-
tentat de Sarajevo," La Revue de Paris, LX (1932), p. 102; Anton
R&ny-Berzencovich, "Die Wahrheit iiber Sarajevo/' Neues
Wiener Tagblatt (hereafter cited as N.W.T.), October 3, 1925;
Emil Seeliger, "Aus den Geheimakten des Sarajevoer Attentats,"
ibid., June 29, 1924; and I. A. 2ibert, Der Mord von Sarajevo
und Tiszas Schuld an dem Weltkriege (Ljubljana, 1919). R&ny-
Berzencovich and Seeliger are dubious sources, and 2ibert is
a totally unreliable one. On the responsibility for the security
arrangements see, in addition to the above, the letter from
Bilinski to Potiorek of July 3, 1914, in the collection of Aus-
trian diplomatic documents edited by Ludwig Bittner and
others, Osterreich-Ungarns Aussenpolitik von der Bosnischen
Krise 1908 bis zum Kriegsausbruch 1914 (hereafter cited as

Sources 271

<5.-C/.), VIII (Vienna, 1930), pp. 289-391; Albertini, II, pp. 111-
115; Fay, II, pp. 48-49; and Seton-Watson, p. 107.

On the subject of the Archduke's forebodings, real or alleged,
see Czernin, p. 57; Funder, p. 498; Conrad, III, p. 700; Prince
Ludwig Windischgraetz, Vom roten zum schwarzen Prinzen
(Berlin, 1920), pp. 49-50 (this is another very dubious source);
and also Joseph M. Baernreither, Fragments of a Political Diary
(London, 1930), p. 158. The incident of BardolfFs call is told
in Nikitsch, pp. 210-211. For the rumors as well as the facts
about the Konopisht meeting with Emperor Wilhelm, see the
summary in Fay, II, pp. 32-43; the personal recollections of
Andreas Freiherr von Morsey, "Konopisht und Sarajevo; EM.,
XII (1934); the fanciful allegations by Henry Wickham Steed,
Through Thirty Year, I (New York, 1924), p. 396-399 and
by Jules Chopin (the pseudonym of Jules E. Pichon), Le Corn-
plot de Sarajevo (Paris, 1918); and Minister von Trau tier's ver-
sion of the actual events in Karl Kautsky, ed., Die Deutschen
Dokumente zum Kriegausbruch 1914, 1 (New Edition, Berlin,
19*7)* PP- 5-8.

The principal unpublished documents from the Austrian
Archives (the Osterreichisches Staatsarchiv at Vienna) bearing
on Franz Ferdinand's and Sophie's trip to Bosnia are the travel
program issued by the Archduke's Military Chancellery, of
which 400 copies were printed for official distribution, and the
report written after the event by the captain of the Viribus
Vnitis: "Programm fur die Reise Seiner k. u. k. Hoheit des
durchlauchtigsten Herrn Generalinspektors der gesamten
bewaffneten Macht Erzherzogs Franz Ferdinand nach Bosnien
und der Herzegovina vom 23. bis 30. Juni 1914;" and "Bericht
S. M. S. 'Viribus unitis' vom i. Juli 1914 iiber Vorfallenheiten
in der Zeit vom 23. Juni bis i. Juli 1914; Res. Nr. 382." A
microfilm of these documents and of all other material from
the Austrian Archives here cited most of which comes from
the Kriegsarchiv has been deposited in the Hoover Institu-
tion on War, Revolution, and Peace at Stanford.

The principal published sources on the trip and its incidents
are: Nikitsch, pp. 509-213; Morsey, B.M., XII, pp. 490-491;
Paul Hoger, "Erinnerungen an die Todesfahrt," Osterreichische

272 SARAJEVO

Wehrzeitung, No. 26, June 27, 1924; "E>er Reiseweg des
Erzherzogs Franz Ferdinand nach Bosnien und die Wege der
Attentater von Belgrad nach Sarajevo/' KSF., V (1927), pp. 226-
230 (which has a good map, as does Fay, II, p. 47); Conrad, IV,
p. 13; and Kiszling, pp. 291-292. Of considerable value for
details and local color are contemporary press reports, particu-
larly those of the Sarajevoer Tagblatt (the speech of the Mayor
of Mostar has been translated from the issue of June 26, 1914).

CHAPTER iv: The Conspirators

Fay, II, pp. 76-85 has an excellent summary of the Narodna
Odbrana's activities. One of his most useful sources is a book
which/while written to plead the Serbian case, inadvertently
revealed far more than the author intended: Stanoje Stanojevii,
Ubistvo Austriskog Prestolonaslednika Ferdinanda (Belgrade,
1923); German translation by Hermann Wendel, Die Ermor-
dung des Erzherzogs Franz Ferdinand (Frankfurt, 1923).

The indispensable primary source on the Black Hand is the
transcript of the trial of Dimitrijevte and associates at Salonica
in 1917, which is described in chapter XIX: Tajna Prevratna
Organizatsija (Salonica, 1918). This is as strange a document
as any. It is a garbled and censored record: most of the pro-
ceedings are paraphrased rather than quoted in full, and the
evidence bearing on the Black Hand's foreign activities has
been deleted. Published by the Serbian Government in an effort
to destroy Dimitrijevi's reputation, it was withdrawn when it
became apparent how much incriminating material the record
still contained and today is a bibliographical rarity. A German
translation was published in 1933 (Der Saloniki Prozess, edited
by Professor Hans Uebersberger); but no English translation
has ever appeared. When supplemented by a number of postwar
revelations, it is possible to reconstruct many of those Black
Hand secrets which the faithful member was supposed to take
into the grave with him.

The most important of these sources whose reliability is
often less than certain, and whose facts need constant checking
are the following books and articles by Milo Bogievi& Le
Proces de Salonique Juin 191? (Paris, 1927); Le Colonel

Sources 273

Dragutin Dimitrijevid (Paris, 1928); "Die serbische Gesellschaft
'Vereinigung oder Tod/ genannt die 'Schwarze Hand/ " KSF.,
IV (1926), pp. 664-676; and "Mord und Justizmord," Siid-
deutsche Monatshefte, XXVI (1929), pp. 331-369, a summary
of Le Proces and Le Colonel. (Bogi&vid, a Serbian diplomat
before 1914, chose to become an migr after the war, publish-
ing a great deal of pro-Dimitrijevid and anti-Pasi literature, in
which the facts are not always easy to separate from liberal
amounts of rumor and conjecture. The spelling of his name
differs in various publications). Further sources are: Stanojevid;
[Cedomir A. Popovi], "Das Sarajevoer Attentat und die Organ-
ization 'Vereinigung oder Tod;' " BM., X (1932), pp. 1097-
1121 (an attempted exoneration of the Black Hand, this is a
translation of the major portion of an article which originally
appeared in the Zagreb Nova Evropa); Henry Pozzi, Black Hand
Over Europe (London, 1935); the reader had best be very skepti-
cal here, for Pozzfs reliability is next to impossible to assess);
and Dobrovoi R. Lazarevid, Die Schwarze Hand (Lausanne,
1917); wildly prejudiced against Pasid and the Black Hand,
Lazarevid makes perhaps the most questionable of all the wit-
nesses listed here).

There are English translations of some key documents in
Edith M. Durham, The Sarajevo Crime (London, 1925). This
is a book whose value is marred by its extreme anti-Serbian
bias. An outstanding recent account, based on all the available
sources and on interviews with Black Hand survivors, will be
found in Albertini, II, pp. 25-35, which has the additional
attraction to the reader unfamiliar with Italian of offering some
extensive quotations from Luciano Magrini, II Dramma di
Saraiewo (Milan, 1929).

Most of the titles cited above should also be consulted for the
facts of Apis* career and for the genesis of the plot. In addition,
Vucinich, pp. 47-51, has an excellent description of Apis' role
in 1903, which has been followed here. The same author is
planning a review article on recent Serbo-Croat publications
on Dimitrijevid, which is to appear in the Journal of Modern
History. The difficulties of arriving at the truth about the ori-
gins of the assassination are compounded by the fact that the

274 SARAJEVO

few surviving plotters who could be persuaded to talk about the
subject usually did so only years afterwards, and that the youths
who were arrested and tried by the Austrians in 1914 deliber-
ately and quite legitimately lied in order to obscure the role
played by their associates in Belgrade.

For Apis* confession, see Stoyan Gavrilovi, "New Evidence
on the Sarajevo Assassination," and Bernadotte E. Schmitt,
"Comment," J.M.H., XXVII (1955), pp. 410-414. The story of
Ilid's trip has been told by Colonel Popovi<5 to Albertini (II,
p. 79). On the Toulouse meeting, and on Mehmedba5i's fiasco,
see ibid., pp. 78-79; as well as Milos Bogidevii, "Nouvelles
depositions concernant Fattentat de Sarajevo/' KSF., IV (1926),
pp. 21-28. The Italian friend to whom Pasi revealed his fears
about Franz Ferdinand was Count Carlo Sforza, Italy's Foreign
Minister after both the First and Second World Wars. It is
recorded in his Makers of Modern Europe (Indianapolis, n. d.)j
p. 50. For Apis' contacts with the Russian military attach^, see
J.M.H., XXVII, pp. 410-414; Albertini, II. 81-86; Milos
Bogicevi<*, "Weitere Einzelheiten iiber das Attentat von Sara-
jevo/' B. M., Ill (1925), pp. 15-21 and 437-444; and Victor M.
Artamonov, "Erinnerungen an meine Militarattach&zeit in
Belgrade/' ibid., XVI (1938), pp. 583-602. Perhaps the most
intriguing of recent theories about Apis' motives as that set
forth by A. J. P. Taylor in "Murder at Sarajevo," The Observer,
November 16, 1958. Apis, the distinguished British historian
maintains, was guided entirely by domestic considerations, and
Sarajevo was to be nothing but a tactical move in his power
struggle with Pasid In the absence of any supporting evidence,
and in the face of some definite misstatements (such as the claim
that no precautionary arrests at all were made in Sarajevo in
June, 1914, or that the news of Franz Ferdinand's visit had not
yet appeared in the press when Princip said it had, and that he
therefore must have received the information from Dimitri-
jevi^) Taylor's theory, while novel, remains pure conjecture.

CHAPTER v: The Preparations

By far the major source here is the transcript of the trial of
Franz Ferdinand's murderers held at Sarajevo. There are three

Sources 275

versions of the trial record. The first to appear was a German
edition, Der Prozess gegen die Attentdter von Sarajevo, Nach
dem amtlichen Stenogramm der Gericthsverhandlung akten-
massig dargestellt (Berlin, 1918), edited by "Professor Pharos/'
a pseudonym, for the Jesuit Father Puntigam. This is a dis-
graceful piece of work. There are frequent deletions in the text,
with no editorial indication that such deletions have been
made; elsewhere, different statements have been made; else-
where, different statements have been combined into one or
paraphrased, again without any open acknowledgment that
the original text has been tampered with. A vastly better edi-
tion is the French one: Albert Mousset, ed., Un Drame histor-
ique, Uattentat de Sarajevo, documents inedits et texte integral
des stenogrammes du proces (Editions Payot, Paris, 1930).
Here, too, one can not be sure that the text always repro-
duces precisely what was said in court, although Mousset claims
to be offering a straight translation of the daily shorthand
reports of the trial sent from Sarajevo to Vienna. It is a far more
reliable source than Pharos, however. More recently there ap-
peared a Croatian version of the record which is also superior
to Pharos: Vojislav Bogi^evid, Sarajevski Atentat, Izvorne Sten-
ografske Biljeske Sa Glavne Rasprave Protiv Gavrila Principa
i Drugova, Odrzane u Sarajevu 1914 G (Sarajevo, 1954), which
claims to be more accurate than either Pharos or Mousset. That
the claim is true in the case of Pharos is evident; whether it is
so in that of Mousset is open to doubt. An English translation
of Bogi(^evi(5 is being planned; it is to be hoped that it will ap-
pear before too long. All quotations here are from Mousset.

Next in importance to the trial record are the interrogation
reports of which sometimes several a day were sent from Sara-
jevo to Vienna during the police investigation of the crime.
Practically all of these are printed in the Austrian diplomatic
documents, O.-U. f VIII; only one or two others will be found
in the Austrian Archives. Needless to say, what was said at the
trial must be read skeptically. (Many writers, for example, have
followed the story told by Princip and Cabrinovid that they
resolved to kill Franz Ferdinand only after receiving a mysteri-

276 SARAJEVO

cms press clipping from Bosnia, an explanation which does not
ring true, and which therefore has not been emphasized here.)
If evaluated critically, however, the court record will yield a
very great deal of information.

On the biographies of the major participants, on the Belgrade
preparations, and on the assassins' trip, the trial transcript and
interrogation reports are again indispensable, and only a few
additional details can be obtained from the following (in addi-
tion to Albertini, Fay, and Seton-Watson): For the Belgrade
atmosphere, and for the actual preparations: Borivoje Jevtid,
Sarajevski Atentat, Sedanja i Utisd (Sarajevo, 1924), this has
been partly translated into German, but not into English, under
the title "Weitere Ausschnitte zum Attentat von Sarajevo,"
KSF ., Ill, pp. 657-686); Stanojevte; and Ljuba Jovanovid, The
Murder of Sarajevo (London, 1925). On the biography of Tank-
osi6 Stanojevid On that of Princip, three books of doubtful
reliability: Jose Almira and Giv. Stoyan, Le declic de Sarajevo
(Paris, 1927; this is a strongly anti-Austrian account "Its
[Bosnia's] schools were closed, after the occupation, to become
prisons or barracks" which tries to compensate for its lack of
facts by a false lyricism [Princip arrived in Sarajevo] "with a
heart that was entirely open and pure and a soul that was as
white and chaste as the snow of his mountains;" Gza Herczeg,
Von Sarajevo bis Lodz (Munich, 1916); the report of a Hun-
garian journalist who went to Belgrade a few days after the
crime to retrace Princip's steps; his accuracy is questionable, but
the book is worth looking at: Gavrilo Princips Bekenntnisse
(Vienna, 1926; prison conversations with one Dr. Pappenheim;
vague and unrevealing); and the document reproduced in Milos
Bogi<fevi4 Die Auswartige Politik Serbiens 1903-1914, II
(Berlin, 1929), pp. 525-526. On the question of whether
Ciganovid was Paste's agent: Fay, II, p. 90, and Vaso Trivano-
vi<5, "The Responsibility for the Sarajevo Assassination," Cur-
rent History, XXIX (1929), pp. 987-992. For a picture of the
bombs, and a description of the manner in which they worked:
K. u. k. AZD., Sarajevo, to Ministry of War, July 13, 1914, in
the Austrian Archives.

Sources 277

CHAPTER VI: PASl6

Since Serbia, alone among the powers, has never opened its
diplomatic archives, many of the details about the warning to
Austria must remain conjectural. The disclosure that Pa5i
possessed advance information about the plot, and made a futile
attempt to stop the assassination, was first made in 1924, in an
article written by Ljuba Jovanovid, who in 1914 had been Minis-
ter of Education in Pasi<5's Cabinet. (Jovanovi, Sarajevo, p. 3.)
The Yugoslav press, realizing the disastrous implications of
Jovanovi's admissions, violently attacked his article, and it is
possible that his indiscretion cost him the premiership that
year. In 1926, after a good deal of impatient prompting by those
of his partisans who had been maintaining official Serbia's
total ignorance of Sarajevo, Pasid publicly denied Jovanovid's
charges, and assailed his former cabinet colleague for his "un-
pardonable conduct."

Jovanovi<5, expelled from his party, and his political career
ended, refused to withdraw his story. All he would grant was
that PaSi had made his statement not in a cabinet meeting, but
in the course of a private conversation. If the Prime Minister
and the Foreign Minister, he added, would take the respon-
sibility for his doing so, he would submit documentary proof
of his original assertion. Both refused. (See Albertini, II, pp.
93-94; and Seton-Watson, pp. 153-59.) Even so, to reiterate the
point, the evidence on the whole subject of the Serbian warning
is far from conclusive. The most that can be claimed for the
version of it given in this chapter is that having considered all
the fragmentary evidence that is available, it seemed plausible
to the present author. What cannot be claimed for it is that it
is based on incontrovertible fact.

Of the Serbian envoy's luckless interview with Bilinski, only
one version has been told. It is that of Jovanovid; Bilinski, in
his memoirs, made no mention of the episode. Jovan Jovanovi<5,
"Meine Warnung an den Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand," N.W.T.,
June 28, 1924, pp. 3-4. For additional evidence, and for the
whole bitter argument on the question of PaSid's foreknowledge
and of Jovanovid's warning, which for all its violent allegations

278 SARAJEVO

and counterallegations in the end produced little or nothing
that was not contained in Jovan and Ljuba Jovanovic's original
disclosures, see the following:

The opposing testimony given by Roderich Gooss and
Hermann Wendel before the Reichstag committee investiga-
ting the causes of the war in Die Vorgeschichte des Weltkrieges,
X (Berlin, 1930); Alfred von Wegerer, "Neue Ausschnitte zum
Attentat von Sarajevo/' KSF., IV (1926), pp. 400-414, "Die
serbische Warming," ibid., VIII (1930), pp. 539-546* "Die
Erinnerungen des Dr. Velizar Jankovi," ibid., IX (1931), pp.
851-869, and "Der ehemalige serbische Kriegsminister liber
den Ausbruch des Weltkrieges/' ibid., IX, pp. 990-998; as well
as these notes and articles in the same journal: I, pp. 82-83,
II, p. 282, III, pp. 213-220, 270, and 286, VIII, pp. 324-329;
Albertini, II, pp. 89-109; Fay, II, pp. 61-74 and 152-166;
Seton-Watson, pp. 152-159; Bilinski, Friedrich von Wiesner,
"Der Sarajevoer Mord und die Kriegsschuldfrage," Das Neue
Reich, VI (1924), pp. 969-976; Pierre Renouvin, The Im-
mediate Origins of the War (New Haven, 1928); pp. 28-29;
Harold Temperley, "The Coming of the War/' Foreign Affairs,
IX (1931), pp. 330-331; Documents diplomatiques fran^ais
(hereafter cited as D.D.F.), Third Series, X (Paris, 1936), No.
466 (this is a key document, since it records a statement made
by the Serbian Minister in Paris, in July, 1914, to the effect that
the Austrians had been warned by Serbia about the Sarajevo
plot. If true, Pasic obviously must have had that foreknowledge
which he later denied); O.~-U. y VIII, pp. 219-220 and 2 2 on.;
Leopold Mandl, "Zur Warnung Serbians an Osterreich," KSF.,
II (1924), pp. 108-111; [Flandrak], "Die falsche Deutung der
Bilinskischen Warnung durch Senator de Jouvenel," ibid., VI
(1928), pp. 1152-1154; Milos Bogievi, "Die Warnung vor dem
Attentate in Sarajevo," ibid., II (1924), pp. 231-238; and
"Weitere;" and [Edmund von Glaise-Horstenau], "Der Thron-
folgermord im Lichte der heutigen Geschichtskenntnis,"
N.W.T., June 29, 1924, pp. 2-3.

For a brief biography of Paste, see Heinz Sasse, "Staatsmanner
und Diplomaten der Vorkriegszeit, Nicola Paste," BM.> XVI

Sources 279

(1936), pp. 23-42. Count Carlo Sforza, Fifty Years of War and
Diplomacy in the Balkans, Pashich and the Union of the Yugo-
slavs (New York, 1940), is a disappointing book.

For the meeting of the Black Hand's Central Committee, and
for Apis* unkept promise, see Stanojevid, p. 56; Alfred von
Wegerer, Der Ausbruch des Weltkrieges 1914, I (Hamburg,
*939)> PP- 96-97; and "R.D.L 5 Nr. 9," BM., XII (1934), p.
507; andPopovid, pp. 114-115.

CHAPTER vii : Crossing the Drina

This chapter is based almost entirely on the transcript of the
Sarajevo trial (Mousset and Bogitevi<^). On the topography of
the region, and on the number of Austrian frontier guards,
compare Ludwig Schnagl, "War der Grenziibertritt? . . .," B.M.,
XIII (1934), 957-965, with the translation of Vogislav Bogi-
cevi^'s Nova Evropa article, ibid., pp. 990-991. The letter from
Captain Prvanovi<5 which opens the chapter was captured by
Hungarian troops which occupied Mali Zvornik in August,
1914. It is printed in Wiesner, "Die Schuld der serbischen
Regierung am Mord von Sarajevo/' KSF., VI (1928), pp. 334-

335-

All quotations from the trial follow the transcript, of course.
Conversations that took place during the assassins' trip are
placed in quotation marks only if this is the way they appear
in the transcript or in the account of some other reliable wit-
ness; conversations that are paraphrased in the sources also are
paraphrased in this narrative. In other words: the temptation
to make people say what they might have said, but did not as
far as we know in fact say, has been resisted; neither here nor
in any other part of this book are there any imaginary conversa-
tions. Admittedly, even the literal quotations of the sources
are subject to some doubt, of course, since no unseen companion
took any shorthand notes of what Princip said to Grbi on
Isakovid Island for example, and the exchanges quoted in court
are plainly reconstructions made some four months after the
event. To quote as Princip's words what he himself so quoted
seemed justifiable, however, quite aside from the monotony

280 SARAJEVO

that would have been produced by a dramatic narrative in
which none of the protagonists is ever allowed to speak for
himself.

CHAPTER vni: Waiting

Here, too, the principal source is the trial transcript and, to a
lesser extent, the interrogation reports in O.U., VIII. The story
of the correspondence between the conspiracy's one Moslem
member and Gacinovic was told by Mehemedbasid himself to
Albertini (II, pp. 78-79). For an illustrated description of
Ilic's house and of the room in which Princip stayed, see Rend
Pelletier, "Les Souvenirs du drame chez la m&re du regicide,"
L' Illustration, CLXXXVIII (1934), pp. 434-437- The best
account of the waiting period aside, again, from the facts
uncovered at the trial is that of Jevti, from which Princip's
"matchbox" quotation has been taken.

CHAPTER ix: Maneuvers

The story of the archducal couple's surprise visit to Sarajevo has
largely been reconstructed from contemporary press accounts.
The date of the visit is definitely June 25, not June 26, as
assumed by some writers. (See Fay, II, p. 51; 6.-U., VIII, p.
216; and KSF.; V, pp. 226-227). The chance encounter between
Princip and Franz Ferdinand on that occasion, and Cabrinovid's
trip to Ilidze that same day, have been described by Jevtid. Also
worth looking up in this connection are [Albert] T'serstevens,
"tapes Yougoslaves, II, De Raguse Sarajevo," Revue des
Deux Mondes, XLIII (1938), pp. 127-148, which is a question-
able source; and Albert Mousset, "L'Attentat de Sarajevo,"
Revue d'Histoire Diplomatique, XXXIX (1925), pp. 44-68,
which is more solidly based on ascertainable fact.

Estimates on the number of troops taking part in the maneu-
vers differ wildly, with one Serbian writer setting it as high as
250,000 (see B.M., IX, p. 854; for a wrong Austrian estimate,
see Urbaiiski, "Conrad," p. 469). The sources mainly relied on
here are the printed instructions issued by Potiorek's office in
the Austrian Archives, "K. u. k. Armeeinspektor in Sarajevo,
Nr. 3000 von 1914, Detailbestimmungen fur die grosseren

Sources 281

Manover in Bosnien-Herzegovina 1914 und Anordnungea der
Manoverleitung"; and the following books and articles:
Conrad, VI; Ludwig Schnagl, "Die Manover in Bosnien im
Jahre 1914," KSF., IV (1928), pp. 873-881; "Reiseweg"; and
Hoger. The story about the peddler comes from the Vienna
Reichspost (which had sent its own special correspondent to
Bosnia), No. 296, June 28, 1914; that about the court photog-
rapher from Schnagl, p. 879. Franz Ferdinand's directive to the
troops is printed in Bardolff, pp. 181-182; the passage from the
telegram to the Emperor of June 27 is taken from the copy in
the Austrian Archives (No. 170/168).

For Sophie's trips into Sarajevo, and for the details of the
farewell dinner at Ildze, see T'Serstevens, "fitapes;" and
Morsey, "Konopischt." Funder, p. 484, has a report of the con-
versation between Sophie and Sunarid

Morsey, p. 491; Bardolff, p. 182; and Nikitsch, pp. 214-215
agree on how close the June 28 visit came to being cancelled.
The program for the day is that from the Austrian Archives
which was mentioned in the notes on chapter IV.

On the matter of Ilia's alleged trip to Belgrade, see the deposi-
tions by Bastai and Golubid in Bogievi6, "Nouvelles dposi-
tions," pp. 27-28. The other preparations have been recon-
structed from the trial record, and from the story Mehmed-
bai<5 told to Albertini (II, 49). Jevtid (pp. 34-35) is the wit-
ness for Princip's last party; a later description of Semiz' wine
shop is that of T'Serstevens, "tapes."

CHAPTER x: Cabrinovi<5

The sources for the events surrounding the departure from
Ilidze and the arrival in Sarajevo aside from the program in
the Austrian Archives, from contemporary press accounts, and
from the trial record are: Hoger; Nikitsch; Morsey, "Kono-
pischt," and "Der Schicksalstag von Sarajevo, Nach eigenen
Tagebuchaufzeichmmgen," Reichspost^ No. 177, June 28, 1924,
pp. 1-3; Chlumecky; and Conrad, IV. Of lesser value are two
tendentious accounts, one pro-Austrian, the other pro-Serb:
Sarajevo, La Conspiration Serbe centre la monarchic Austro-

282 SARAJEVO

Hongroise (Berne, 1917); and Raymond Recouly, Les Heures
tragiques d'avant guerre (Paris, n.d.).

Auffenberg-Komar6w, Aus Osterreichs Hohe und Niedergang
(Munich, 1921), pp. iSS-^; Baron Carl Collas, "Auf den
bosnischen Spuren der Kriegsschuldigen," KSF., V (1927), p.
22; Funder, pp. 445-446; and Rmy-Berzencovich, pp. 2-3,
describe the security measures taken in 1910. An idea of how
General Potiorek had himself guarded during major public
appearances can be gleaned from Nikola Stojanovi, Le Serbie
d'hier et de demain (Paris, 1917), p- 108. The most significant
unpublished document on the number of troops in Sarajevo on
June 28, 1914, is the report which General von Appel sent to
the War Ministry in Vienna on July 17, 1914, which is at
variance with the General's undated letter printed in
Chlumecky, p. 363. ("K. u. k. 15. Korpskommando an das
k. u. k. Kriegsministerium, Pras. Nr. 2535" in the Austrian
Archives.) For published material on the 1914 security arrange-
ments, see, in addition to the 1910 sources, Sosnosky, p. 207;
Conrad, IV, pp. 65-66; Schnagl, BM., XII, p. 9% Seton-
Watson, pp. 112-114; Mousset, Drame, pp. 491-493; M. N.
Pokrowski, ed., Die internationalen Beziehungen im Zeitalter
des Imperialism. (the official collection of Russian diplomatic
documents, hereafter cited as /..), Series I, vol. IV (Berlin,
1932), p. 123; and Albertini, II, pp. 1 1 1-1 15.

The account of Cabrinovi's crime and arrest, and of the
actions or, more accurately, the inaction of his associates
on Franz Ferdinand's way to the City Hall has been recon-
structed almost entirely from the trial record. Additional
sources are the interrogation reports in (3.-Z7., VIII; the testi-
mony given by Mehmedbasi and Cubrilovi to Albertini, II,
pp. 46-49; the affidavits from Bernstein, Morsey, and Harrach
in Sosnosky, pp. 215-221; Colonel Bardolff's report in Conrad,
IV, pp, 19-20; the description by General Appel in Chlumecky,
pp. 363-364; Wiesner, "War Nedj^ljko Cabrinovi [sic] ein
osteireichischer Konfident?" KSF. f V (1927), p. 884; Seton-
Watson, p. 114; Morsey, "Konopischt," pp. 492-494 and
"Schicksalstag," p. 2; Recouly, p. 183; and various newspaper
dispatches, particularly in The Times of London, and the

Sources 283

Neue Freie Presse (hereafter cited as N.F.P.) and Reichspost of
Vienna, all of which had their own special correspondents in
Sarajevo.

CHAPTER xi: Princip

This chapter, too, is based mainly on the trial transcript.
Additional details come from newspaper accounts, and from
the reminiscences of the various participants that were men-
tioned before, especially Morsey, Hoger, Nikitsch, Sosnosky,
and Bardolff .

Of considerable interest for the City Hall reception is the
report which the Vice-Mayor of Sarajevo wired to the N.F.P. on
the day of the murder, and which appeared in its issue of June
29: Vancas, "Die Letzten Worte des Erzherzogs Franz Ferdi-
nand/' The text of the Mayor's speech and of Franz Ferdinand's
reply has been translated from the Reichspost of the same day
(No. 298). For the City Hall discussion on the new route to be
followed, Conrad, IV, pp. 20-21 should be consulted in addi-
tion to the trial record. A supposed collection of eye-witnesses'
statements which appeared ten years after the event, Leonhard
Adelt, "Der Mord von Sarajevo," Berliner Tageblatt, June 28,
19^4, is of questionable accuracy. Sophie's decision to stay with
her husband is described in Morsey, "Konopischt"; her "No,
Franz, I am staying with you," is from the story in the N.F.P. of
June 29, 1914.

On the crime itself, from Princip's choice of Schiller's to the
death of his victims, only one major statement will not be
found in the trial transcript. It is Princip's "I aimed at the
Archduke . . ."; which is recalled in L[eo] Pfeffer, Istraga u
Sarajevskom Atentatu (Zagreb, 1938), and translated in
Albertini, II, p. 43. On the precise nature of Franz Ferdinand's
and Sophie's wounds, Bogifevic*, pp. 427 and 437, contains some
medical evidence omitted in Mousset, but otherwise, the key
documents are the same in both versions of the transcript. The
Jesuit Father Puntigam, who came to perform the last rites at
the Konak, and "Professor Pharos," editor of the mutilated
German edition of the trial record, are one and the same per-
son.

284 SARAJEVO

CHAPTER xii : Riots and Sympathy

The most revealing unpublished document on the riots, and
on the attitude of the Sarajevo authorities toward them, is
General von Appel's long letter to the Vienna War Ministry of
July 17, 1914 ("K. u. k. 15. Korpskommando an das k. u. k.
Kriegsministerium, Pras. Nr. 2535," in the Austrian Archives).
To round it out, the following published material should also
be consulted: Bilinski's reports to Vienna in O.-U., VIII;
Appel's letter to Brosch in Chlumecky, pp. 364-365; the diplo-
matic dispatches in G. P. Gooch and Harold Temperley, ed.,
British Documents on the Origins of the War, 1898-1914 (here-
after cited as B.D.), XI (London, 1926), p. 15, and I.B., IV,
234, pp. 236-237; and the reports in the Arbeit er-Zeitung,
N.F.P., and Reichspost of Vienna, and The Times of London.
The proclamation announcing martial law is printed in the
official Wiener Zeitung (Abendpost), June 30, 1914. The cor-
respondence between Bilinski and Potiorek will be found in
6.-U., VIII, pp. 227-231, 288-290; and in Conrad, IV, pp. 64-
66. On the funds collected for a monument, see Reichspost, No.
304, July 2, 1914; and Sarajevoer Tagblatt, particularly the
issues of July 4 and 7.

The source for Emperor Wilhelm's condolences is Kiszling,
p. 303; for President Wilson's, Papers Relating to the Foreign
Relations of the United States, 1914 (Washington, 1922), p. 25.
International reaction to the news of the assassination can be
judged most dispassionately from the diplomatic correspond-
ence of time: Bogievi, A.P.S., I, pp. 424-425; B.D., XI,
pp. 19-20, 28, 55-56, D.D.F., X, pp. 659-660, 662, 668, 673-679,
684; I.B., IV, pp. 152-153; Kautsky, I, p. 16; 6.-U., VIII, pp.
209-212, 218-219, 270-271, 292-293, 296-297, 321, 325-326, 361,
376-380,699-700.

The Mussolini comment is cited from Sosnosky, p. 224. Other
editorial opinion is summarized in Albertini, II, 270-271.
Jankovi<fs experiences have been recounted by himself (B JVL,
IX, pp. 851-869) as were Jovanovi's (Murder, p. 8). Additional
sources worth consulting, particularly for the repercussions in

Sources 285

Austria, are newspapers and the following memoirs: Bilinski,
N.F.P.; pp. 9-10; Cormons, pp. 156-158; Funder, p. 485;
Nikitsch, pp. 216-217; Redlich, Tagebuch, I, p. 235 (which
contains the "God meant to be kind to Austria" quotation);
Sieghart, pp. 242-243; Stanojevic", pp. 43-44; Windischgraetz,
p. 50. Franz Joseph's alleged "A higher force" comment is
recorded in Margutti, pp. 147-148. Its accuracy is questioned
in Kiszling, p. 344, n. 18, and Sosnosky, p. 233 n. For a very
different account of the Emperor's supposed first words ("Hor-
rible, horrible! No sorrow is spared me") see the story in The
New York Times of June 29, 1914.

For the reception of the news in Hungary, where perhaps
even fewer tears were shed than in Vienna, see the dispatch of
the British Consul General in Budapest reporting "an espe-
cially large attendance at the races" on June 29 (B.D., XI, pp.
55-56) and the alleged comment of the Hungarian Prime Min-
ister: "God has wanted it this way, and we must be grateful to
God for everything 1 ' (Stanojevic", pp. 43-44).

CHAPTER xni : A Strange Funeral

There is a moving account of Franz Joseph's return to Schon-
brunn in Margutti, p. 153, which is borne out to be the N.F.P*
report of June 29, 1914, and by Conrad, IV, p. 32. Bardolff, p.
183, and Conrad, IV, p. 37, quote the author's conversations
with the Emperor.

The date of the N.F.P. editorial criticizing the Sarajevo
authorities is June 30, 1914. Tisza's blunt comment was made
during a meeting of the Council of Ministers in Vienna on
July 7 (O.-U., VIII, p. 347); Franz Joseph's kind words for
Potiorek were recorded by Bilinski (ibid., p. 227).

Unpublished documents in the Austrian Archives on the
return of the bodies to Vienna, and on the whole, sad funeral
farce, are General Paar's telegram to the War Ministry in
Vienna of June 28, 1914; the "Bericht S. M. S. Viribus Unitis"
Res. Nr. 382, of July i; the War Ministry's telegram to the 2.
and 3. Korpskommando of July 2, 9:30 A.M.; the dispatch, Res.
Nr. 848 M.A., sent by the Seebezirkskommando, Trieste, to the

286 SARAJEVO

War Ministry on July 3; and, as the key document, Montenu-
ovo's "Zeremoniell der Einholung, Exponierung, Einsegnung
und Uberfuhrung der Leichen weiland Seiner kaiserlichen und
koniglichen Hoheit des durchlauchtigsten Erzherzogs Franz
Ferdinand von Osterreich-Este und Ihrer Hoheic Sophie
Herzogin von Hohenberg," which was printed for official dis-
tribution only, and which has been relied on heavily here.
Published sources are the various memoirs and newspapers
mentioned before.

Good descriptions in English of the Hofburg chapel service
are those of The New York Times of July 4, 1914, and of the
British envoy in B.D., XI, p. 26. The angry witness who has
recorded the Emperor's apparent indifference is Nikitsch, pp.
219220. On the absence of foreign royalty, see Kautsky, I, pp.
11-12 and 14; D.D.F., X, p. 652; O.-J7., VIII, pp. 312 and 336;
Nikitsch, p. 221; Margutti, p, 151, and the Berliner Tageblatt
of July 2, 1914.

How the aristocracy broke into the cortege is told in
Nikitsch, p. 220; Windischgraetz, pp. 51-52; D.D.F., X, pp.
712-714; Kiszling, pp. 303-304; and Seton-Watson, p. 104.
More details, as well as some pointed criticism, will be found
in Fritz Fellner, ed., Das politische Tagebuch Josef Redlichs
1908-1919, I (Graz, 1953), p. 236; and in the contemporary
press, particularly the Arbeit er-Zeitung, N.F.P., and Reichspost,
whose No. 310 of July 5 contains the editorial comparing Franz
Ferdinand's funeral with that given to the airmen. The French
writer commenting on Vienna's "tact, dignity, and kindness"
is Muret, Revue de Paris,, LX, p. 115. Franz Joseph's letter to
Montenuovo was published in the official Wiener Zeitung of
July 7, 1914; the words "on the Emperor's orders" will be found
on Montenuovo's handwritten instructions of June 30 ("Seiner
k. und k. Apost. Majestat Obersthofmeisteramt") in the
Austrian Archives.

Concerning the trip from Vienna to Artstetten, the tragi-
comedy at Pochlarn station, and the final funeral services, our
best sources are Nikitsch, pp. 220-225; Eisenmenger, pp. 265-
266; and the dispatches to the Reichspost.

Sources 287

CHAPTER xiv: The Investigation

The detailed reports on the progress of the investigation
which Potiorek sent to his superiors in Vienna as often as
three times a day form the primary source for this chapter.
Most of them are printed in O.-U.,, VIII. Since the published
Austrian documents end with August i, 1914, however, there
are some Important unpublished Potiorek reports in the
Austrian Archives, notably on the arrest of Micic", Milovic, and
Milosevic", on the capture of the Serbain border guard Grbic*,
and on the strange scene between Princip and Cabrinovid on
August 15. (Potiorek to Bilinski, August 11, 16, and 23, 1914.
The critical reader may also be interested to know that a com-
parison of the earlier documents In the archives with the ver-
sions printed in O.-U. has shown no essential discrepancies
between the two.) Additional facts on Ilic^s loss of nerve, and
on the circumstances of Grabez's, Cubrilovid's, and Popovi's,
arrest, can be found in the transcript of the Sarajevo trial.
Judge Pfeffer's memoirs (unless otherwise noted the quotations
cited here follow the translations in Albertini and In KSF., IV,
p. 719) should be used with caution; his version of events
frequently clashes with that of the reports written at the time.
His press statement referred to was given to the Budapesti
Hirlap of July 2, and is summed up in the Arbeiter-Zeitung of
July 3, 1914.

The story of how the defendants communicated secretly from
cell to cell was first revealed by Jevtic" (pp. 54-56) and confirmed
by Vaso Cubrilovid to Albertini (II, p. 59). For allegations of
mistreatment in prison, and for a convincing refutation of
these charges, see Rebecca West's overwrought Black Lamb and
Grey Falcon, I (New York, 1941), p. 373; Mousset, pp. 175-176
and 346, and the same author's article in Revue d'Histoire
Diplomatique, XXXIX, 59; Pfeffer, Istraga, pp. 27, 50, 54~55?
Jevtic", pp. 47-48; Seton-Watson, p. 150; Herczeg, p. 19; and
Albertini, II, p. 45 n. How Mehmedbasid escaped into Monte-
negro, and how the authorities there successfully frustrated his
pursuers, is told in the Austrian diplomatic correspondence
(6.-U., VIII, pp. 314, 392-393* 4H> 432, 45 1 * 475 5<>*> 5 8 -

288 SARAJEVO

581, 709-710) and in the amusing dispatch of the French Mini-
ster in Cetinje, M. Delaroche-Vernet, to Paris in D.D.F., X,
pp. 766-767.

CHAPTER xv: War

The story o the investigation made by the Vienna Foreign
Ministry's emissary has been told by Friedrich von Wiesner
himself in several articles: most fully in "Meine Depesche vom
13. Juli 1914," in Eduard von Steinitz, ed., Rings urn Sasonov
(Berlin, 1928), but also in "Der Sarajevoer Mord," Das Neue
Reich, VI, pp. 972-973, and "Die unwiderlegt gebliebene
Begriindung fur das Ultimatum Osterreichs an Serbien vom
Juli 1914;' KSF., V (1927), pp. 499-5 01 - The crucial telegram in
which Wiesner summed up his conclusions is printed in O.-U.,
VIII, pp. 436-437; Potiorek's emphatic disagreement with
Wiesner's findings in Conrad, IV, 82-85.

[Alexander] Freiherr von Musulin, Das Haus am Ballplatz
(Munich, 1924), pp. 222-223, and Cormons, pp. 165-166, have
some details on how the Austrian ultimatum was drafted, and
why its completion took so long. The ultimatum itself, and
Vienna's instructions to Giesl, will be found in O.-U., VIII, pp.
284-289, 515, 518-519, and 594-595- For the unusual circum-
stances of its presentation, see ibid., p. 596; Steinitz, ed., Zwei
Jahrzehnte im Nahen Orient, Aufzeichnungen des Generals
der Kavallerie Baron Wladimir Giesl (Berlin, 1927), pp. 266-
267; and Albertini, II, p. 285.

For some of the reasons behind the startling absence of any
reference to the Black Hand in the Austrian ultimatum, see
Wiesner, "Depesche/ 1 in Steinitz, Rings, pp. 185-186, and "Das
Gutachten von Gooss," B.M., X (1932), pp. 55 8 ~5 6 ; Liidwig
Bittner, "Osterreich-Ungarn und Serbien," Historische Zeit-
schrift, GXLIV (1931), pp. 91-92, and "Die Schwarze Hand/'
BM. y X (1932), pp. 64-65; and Albertini, II, pp. 28 and 64-
68. The information contained in the Austrian dossier sent
to the powers after relations with Serbia were broken is no
better; see 6.-U., VIII, pp. 665-704, and Wiesner, KSF., V, pp.
503-542. The reference to ''occasional hints" about the Black
Hand in the Austrian diplomatic documents is based on 6.-U.,

Sources 289

VIII, pp. 84, 118-120, 282-284, 325, 30-331, 365, and 854.
Why the Austrian Legation in Belgrade should have been so ill-
informed about Apis' organization is difficult to explain (see,
e.g., O.-U., VIII, pp. 232 and 317-318), even when proper al-
lowances are made by citing the ignorance of other foreign
missions, shown ir^ Johannes Lepsius and others, ed., Die
Grosse Politik der Europdischen Kabinette 1811-1914 (here-
after cited as G.F.), XXXVIII (Berlin, 1926), pp. 358-361; and
D.D.F., 3rd series, X, pp. 333-335* 3 6 2~3% 495~497 535-~53 8 >
565-567, 630-631, and 649-650. The contents of the folder
"Secret Society, The Black Hand in Serbia/' are described in
Bittner, B.M., X, pp. 55-61.

There exists some evidence that the Belgrade government
undertook, an investigation into the crime's origins after June
28, although it never published the results, and never even
admitted that such an inquiry had taken place. On this subject,
see I.B., IV, p. 96; Herczeg, pp. 2127, and Jovan Jovanovid's
letter to B.M., XIII (1935), p. 881. What connection if any
there existed between such an investigation and Ciganovid's
disappearance is not clear, however.

For the Serbian reply to the Austrian ultimatum, and for
some of the circumstances of its preparation and presentation,
see 0.-Z7., VIII, 660-663; Wegerer, B.M., IX, pp. 860-864; Giesl,
ibid., XI, pp. 466-467; Steinitz Zwei, p. 268; and Jovanovic",
Murder, p. 7. Franz Joseph's "If the monarchy must perish
. . ." is cited by the usually reliable Conrad (IV, p. 162).

CHAPTER xvi: The Trial

That the problem of the trial's political implications must
have caused some serious thoughts in Vienna is indicated by
an unpublished letter from Potiorek to Bilinski of September
12, 1914, in the Austrian Archives. "The draft of the indict-
ment for the trial of the plotters is nearly finished," wrote the
Governor, "and before long, the question will have to be con-
sidered and decided whether the main trial is to take place in
a few weeks, or only after the end of the war. I am not in
favor of postponing the trial/' An even plainer letter from
the Foreign Minister, Count Berchtold, to Bilinski of October

290 SARAJEVO

i, 1914 in Bruno Adler, Der Schuss in den Weltfrieden
(Stuttgart, 1931), pp. 169-170 ordering a trial before the end
o the war, and demanding a sentence "which should corre-
spond to the vast international consequences of the crime" is
of doubtful authenticity.

Charges made by some writers that the trial was "strictly
secret" (Wendel, p. 327) are strictly incorrect. A few spectators
found admittance, and the trial proceedings were reported in
the Austrian as well as in the neutral press. (See, for example,
the Swiss Neue Zurcher Zeitung in addition to The New York
Times dispatches mentioned in the text.) A comparison of the
various press reports makes it appear as if one single agency,
if not one single correspondent, supplied the entire coverage,
however. The most detailed reports will be found in the offi-
cial Wiener Zeitung. The rest of the press merely seems to have
carried shorter versions of the same dispatches.

The best explanations of the points of Bosnian law involved
the paragraphs under which the defendants were tried are
cited in their entirety is in Serajevo, la conspiration Serbe,
pp. 151-154. The local press and Pharos have some colorful
details about the setting of the trial, but all quotations are
from Mousset, the French version of the trial transcript. The
sole exception is Princip's "Do you think I am an animal" out-
cry during the recess, which is from Pharos, p. 159. It is borne
out by Feldbauer's later reference to it, which is a part of the
official record (Mousset, p. 574). On the argument over Princip's
birthdate, Bogievi4 Sar. At., pp. 423-424, has information con-
tained in neither Pharos nor Mousset.

The one real link that may actually have existed between the
Masons and the Black Hand was mentioned by Apis and a
codefendant of his at the 1917 Salonica trial; Ljuba Jovanovi6
Cupa, one of the Black Hand's charter members, apparently
was a Mason, and may have patterned such rites as the Black
Hand's initiation ceremony after Masonic ritual. (Saloniki-
Prozess, pp. 5 1, 68, and 201.)

Examples of General Erich LudendorfFs bigoted nonsense
can be found in his Vernichtung der Freimaurerei durch Ent-
hullung ihrer Geheimnisse, II. Teil (Munich, 1928) and Wie

Sources 291

der Weltkrieg 1914 "gemacht" wurde (Munich, 1934). Milder
English versions are Durham and C. H. Norman, "Grand
Orient/' B.M., IX (1931), pp. 177-182. The Mercure de France
article is L[eon] de Poncins, "I/Attentat de Sarajevo et la
Franc-ma<:onnerie," M.dJF., CCXI (1929), pp. 121-131. It is
convincingly answered in the same magazine by Mousset, in
an article that is also entitled "L'Attentat de Sarajevo et la
Franc-ma^onnerie," and in another article, signed "L.D.,"
"L'Attentat de Sarajevo et les Responsabilit<s de la Guerre,"
ibid., CCXI, pp. 733-736, and CCXIU, pp. 731-737. For the
charges leveled against the Hungarians, see 2ibert, passim;
Renouvin, pp. 15-16; Stojanovi, pp. 106-107; for innuendoes
against the Austrians, Recouly, pp. 175-194; Steed, I, pp. 396-
403; and Rebecca West, I, pp. 348-350. The reader has his
choice.

Other superstitions are expounded in Eisenmenger, pp. 136-
137; Muret, p. 119 (for the myth that Princip was Archduchess
Stephanie's illegitimate son); and Aflbert] T'Serstevens, Tata,
roman contemporain (Paris, 1929), which is mentioned in the
text. This novel's fraudulent basis is explained in Poncins,
"Une nouvelle version de Mayerling et de Serajevo," Mercure
de France, CCXVII (1930), pp. 347-354, and in Basil Thomson's
aptly named Queer People (London, n.d.), pp. 238-240. As a
final curiosity, there is the story of Bishop L^nyi's dream during
the night of June 27, 1914, in which the Archduke's former
Hungarian language teacher claimed to have received a letter
from his one-time pupil, informing him of "my and my wife's
death today as victims of a political assassination/' (Adelt, p.
2; and J5.M V IX, pp. 1 1 15-1 1 17.)

CHAPTER xvn: The Penalty

This chapter, too, is based almost entirely on the Mousset
version of the trial record. Only two details are taken from
other sources. How Cabrinovid wept, and how Princip re-
mained calm as each made his final statement is described in
the Sarajevoer Tagblatt of October 24, 1914; and a reproduc-
tion of the telegram reporting the execution of the three con-
demned men is shown in Bogievi, Sar. At., following p. 444.

292 SARAJEVO

There is a more graphic account of the execution scene in Cor-
nelius Zimka, Das Drama von Sarajevo (second edition, Leip-
zig, 1915), pp. igS-iSg, but it lacks all substantiation.

EPILOGUE: "On This Historic Spot . . ."

Magrini and Albertini, II, contain some reliable information
on the post-1914 fate of Tankosid as well as others among
the plotters. Worth consulting on Ciganovi are Weisner,
"Milan Ciganovit" KSF., V (1927), PP- 1041-1048, and the
briefer notices in the same periodical, V, pp. 1036 and 1140.

The indispensable source for the Salonica trial is the tran-
script mentioned before (Tajna prevratna organizatsija). Com-
ments on the motives behind it, and additional documents, will
be found in Albertini, II, pp. 30-31; Bogi&vi<S, "Mord," and
Proces de Salonique; Gabrilovici, J.M.H., XXVII; [Popovii,]
BM., X, p. 1108; Svetozar Pribitdhdvitch [Pribi6m], La
Dictature du Roi Alexandre (Paris, 193$); Schmitt, JM.H.,
XVI, 170, and XXVII, 413; [Seton-Watson,] "Serbia's Choice,"
The New Europe (London), VIII, pp. is 1-128; Hans Uebers-
berger, "Das entscheidende Aktenstiick zur Kriegsschuldfrage
1914," Auswartige Politik, X (1943), pp. 429~43 8 ; and Vucinich,
p. 104.

Apis' confession here is given in the Gavrilovid version just
mentioned, which differs slightly from that of Uebersberger.
The version of his last will and testament follows Bogievi,
Proces, pp. 68-69, rather than text published in the Belgrade
newspaper Politika of September 3, 1925, which is translated
in BM., Ill, pp. 686-687. Also from Bogifevid (pp. 94-99) is
Lieutenant Colonel Dabic's report on Dimitrijevid's execution.
The retrial of Apis and the subsequent discussion in Yugo-
slavia are summarized in Vucinich, p. 105. A major reason for
retrying the case may have been the desire to bring discredit
on the royal house. An English version of the record of the
new trial, though promised, so far has not been released. See
Taylor, The Observer, November 16, 1958, p. 5.

On the later fate of Curinaldi and Zistler, see Albertini, H,
pp. 47 and 59; on that of Pfeffer, KSF., IV, pp. 640-641, 661,
and 718-719; on that of Grbid, Potiorek's dispatch to Vienna

Sources 293

of August 16, 1914, in the Austrian Archives. The sources for
Bilinski's argument with Potiorek are &.-U., VIII, Conrad, IV,
and Theodor Sosnosky, "Der Letzte Akt vor dein Weltkrieg/'
Wiener Zeitung, January 6, 14, and 21, 1934 (which is based
on the files of the Kriegsarchiv). Facts and rumors on the
Governor's wartime role can be found in Glaise-Horstenau,
"Feldzeugmeister Potiorek," EM., XII, pp. 144-148; C.R.M.F.
Cruttwell, A History of the Great War 1914-1918 (Second Edi-
tion, Oxford, 1936), pp. 53 and 90-92; and Margutti, pp. 423-
426 and 430. In addition to Potiorek's dispatches to Vienna
urging strong action against Serbia after the Sarajevo crime
in O.-U., VIII, there is an unpublished telegram of a similar
nature in the Austrian Archives, which while unsigned, clearly
seems to have been written by the General. (Telegram to the
War Ministry, Res. Nr. 4754, Received July 6, 1914.) The obitu-
ary quoted is that of Glaise; the reference to his former antag-
onist, Bilinski, comes from Sieghart, p. 29. For a translation of
two Belgrade press reports about Pasid and his unpublished
memoirs see KSF., V, pp. 174-175.

On the death of Mitar Kerovi<5, Marko Perina, and Trifko
GrabeS see Mousset, p. 676, and Seton-Watson, p. 121 n. The
meeting between Cabrinovid and Franz Werfel is described in
a story which first appeared in 1923, "Cabrinowitsch, Ein
Tagebuch aus dem Jahre 1915," Erzahlungen aus zwei Welten,
I (Stockholm, 1948), pp. 21-28. As a historical document, it is
of questionable value, since WerfeFs mystic mind and mystic
style blur all lines between fact and fiction. The meeting may
also have inspired an early novel; see Annemarie von Putt-
kamer, Franz Werfel (Wurzburg, 1952), pp. 16-18.

On the conditions of Princip's imprisonment, no reliable
evidence exists, and we must do with the doubtful material in
Princips Bekenntnisse; Pharos, p. 165; and Nikitsch, pp. 226-
227. His death certificate is reproduced in Bogidevi^, Sar. At.,
facing p. 445. Facts on Popovi, Cubrilovid, and MehmedbaSid
can be found in Albertini, II, p. 47; B.M., X, p. 1098; West,
New Statesman, XLVI1, p. 824; Rebecca West, II, p. 770; Seton-
Watson, p. 149; Tomasevich, pp. 92-97, and 708; and T'Ser-
Stevens, "tapes."

294 SARAJEVO

For information concerning the postwar fate of some of the
Sarajevo survivors, the author is greatly indebted to personal
communications received from Professor Wayne Vucinich of
Stanford University and from Professor Vojislav Bogievi of
Sarajevo. An English visitor's recent report on Cubrilovi and
Popovi is that of Richard West, "Martyr Princip," The New
Statesman and Nation, XL VII (1954), p. 824. Some caution is
indicated here; West never quite makes it clear whether or not
he talked with the two men, and in one important reference he
apparently confuses Vaso Cubrilovid with the politician Branko
Cubrilovid The meeting with Franz Ferdinand's two sons in
Duchau concentration camp is recounted in Funder, pp. 489-
490.

"The Serbs carry on a hero cult" was Professor Cubrilovi's
comment on the many ways in which various groups were pay-
ing homage to the assassins' memory in Yugoslavia (Albertini,
II, p. 47 n.). How the assassins were reburied in Sarajevo is told
in B.M., VIII, pp. 573~574> and Rebecca West, II, p. 380; how
the memorial to the victims (for a photograph see Pharos, facing
p. 165) was destroyed and the assassins were praised is told in
Albertini, II, p. 47; KSF., VI, pp. 711-713, VIII, pp. 91, 434,
574, 886, and XIII, p. 347; Mousset, Revue d'Histoire DipL,
XXXIX, p. 61; Pelletier, L f Illustration, CLXXXVIII, p. 434;
Seton-Watson, p. 159; and West, p. 854. Photographs of the
memorial tablet for Princip erected in 1930, a translation of its
inscription, and reports of the unveiling ceremony are to be
found in BM., pp. 281, 284-285, 289; "La Commemoration
d'un grand drame," L' Illustration, CLXXV, (1930), p. 217; "In
Memory of an Assassin/' The Literary Digest, CIV (1930), p. 13;
and Politika of February 3, 1930, which is translated in BM.>
VIII, pp. 281-284. Perhaps the cruelest comment on it all
was made by an old friend of the Austrian monarchy, Sir
Winston Churchill, who wrote (in The Unknown War [New
York, 1932], p. 54): "He [Princip] died in prison, and a monu-
ment erected in recent years by his fellow countrymen records
his infamy, and their own."

Index

Albert I, King of Belgium, 171

Alexander, Prince Regent of Ser-
bia, 49, 248, 249, 250

Alexander, Obrenovic, King of
Serbia, 44, 50, 51

Anarchism. See Assassination

Apis. See Dimitrijevi, Cbl.
Dragutin

Appel, Gen. Michael von, 114,
123-24, 146, 147-48

Arbeit er Zeitung, 163

Arnstein, Maj., 124, 142

Artstetten, burial at, 168, 173,
177, 178, 180, 181

Artamonov, Col. Victor, 57, 208

Assassination, 19, 3536, 37, 44,
5 1 * 53 77 78; unsuccessful
attempts at, 4, 36, 47, 50-51,
53, 55, 92, 121-23

Assassination of Franz Ferdinand,
119, 136-37, 214, 230, 231,
242, 243, 249; attempts to
prevent, 71, 72, 7476, 77,
224; first attempt at, 3-4,
12123, 182, 183; investiga-
tions of, 125, 137, 145, 182,
183-86, 187, 192, 196, 197-
98, 199 200-01, 204; plan-
ning of, 54, 55-56, 57, 93,
100, no ii, 112, 127; reac-
tions to, 146-47, 148, 149,
150, 151, 152-53, 154-56,
*57> 15.8-59* 163-65, 199;

reasons for, 28, 56-57, 64-65,
66, 94; theories about, 226-
29; Wiesner's report on, 200
01; see also Assassins; Franz
Ferdinand, Archduke
Assassins, 3-4, 44-45, 51, 63-64,
66-67, 69, 72, 73, 74, 76, 78,
80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 88-

9<V93 94. 9 6 > 98, 99> no*
111, 112, 114, 118, 260-61;
arrest of, 12425, 13840,
187-88, 189, 193; border
crossing of, 68-69, 7' 78-83;
confessions of, 18385, 186,
187, 188, 189, 192, 193, 194
96, 198, 21617, 22324, 225
26; defense pleas for, 232-41;
memorials to, 261; selection
of, 59, 92-94, 95-96; sen-
tences of, 243-45, 246, 257;
trial of, 60, 61, 64, 65-66, 81,
82, 83-84, 86, 9495, 120,

126, 211, 212, 213-l6, 217-

26, 241 43; see also dabrino-
vic, Nedjelko; 6ubrilovi,
Vaso; Grabez, Trifko; Meh-
medbasi6, Muhamed; Prin-
cip, Gavrilo

Austro-Hungarian Empire, 25
26, 27, 33, 35, 159; alliance
with Germany of, 208-09;
knowledge of Black Hand in,
48, 117, 195, 204-05, 206;

295

296

Index

nationality problems in, 26,
28, 56; Serbian reply to ulti-
matum of, 207, 208; ulti-
matum to Serbia of, 199, 202,
203-04, 206-07; see also
Bosnia-Herzegovina

Bakunin, Mikhail A., 35-36
Balkan Wars, 34, 49, 51, 53, 58,

59, 68, 71, 113-14
Bardolff, Col. Carl von, 37, 115,

133, 141, 142, 162, 166
Bayazid, 113
Belgium, German invasion of,

209
Berchtold, Count Leopold von,

74' 77
Berlin, Treaty of (1878), 31, 32,

236
Bilinski, Dr. Leon von, 74, 75-77,

150-51, 164, 258

Bismarck, Prince Otto von, 31-32
Black Hand, 35, 36, 44-49, 50,

53' 54^ 55 5 8 ' 6> 6l > 6 * 66 >
67, 71, 72, 74-75* 77-78, 90,

9*' 95' *55* *94' *95 *9 6 '
197, 204-05, 206, 216, 217,
224, 226, 231, 248, 249, 256,
257; see also Dimitrijevid,
CoL Dragutin

Boos-Waldeck, Count 115, 123

Bosnia-Herzegovina, 30-31, 34-
35; annexation of, 32-34, 43,
236-37; revolutionary in-
trigues in, 35-36, 54, 55, 91,
92; unrest in, 30, 34, 35, 36;
see also Franz Ferdinand,
Archduke, trip to Sarajevo

Bulgaria, 31, 32, 34

Burg, Herr. See Ferdinand Carl,
Archduke

Cabrinovic", Nedjelko, 3, 4, 59,
60-62, 63-64, 65, 66, 67-68,
69, 70, 72, 79, 80, 88-89, 90,
95-96* 9%> 99 !3

112, Il8, 119, 120, 121, 122,
124-25, 126, 127, 129, 132,

135' *3 6 ' *39' H 1 ' 142, H5'
148, 150-51, 153, 158, 164,
182, 183, 184, 185, 186, 187,

189, 192, 194, 195, 198, 200,
201, 211, 213, 214, 215, 2l8,
221-22, 223, 224, 225, 226,

227, 233-34' 241, 242, 243,
244, 246, 260, 261
Carl Franz Joseph, Archduke,
161, 162, 168, 169, 173, 174,
180

Carl Ludwig, Archduke, 5-6, 7, 8
Christian Messenger, The t 226
Ciganovi, Milan, 49, 67, 68, 71,
77' l8 5' 194-95* X 9 6 ' 200-01,
207, 208, 223, 224, 225, 227,
247-48, 249

Connought, Duke of, 171
Conrad, Baron, 107, 162, 163, 165
Conspiracy. See Assassination;
Assassination of Franz Ferdi-
nand; Black Hand; Mlada
Bosna; Narodna Odbrana
Cubrilovi, Vaso, 3, 93-96, 98,
99, no, 118, 126, 136, 151,
189, 190, 212, 217, 218, 231,
233, 235, 238, 240, 241, 243,
244, 261

Cubrilovid, Veljko, 84, 85, 87, 88,
94, 193, 212, 217, 218, 221,
235' 237-38, 241, 244, 246
Cruricid, Fehim Effendi, 4, 115,

122, 129-3!' 135' !3 6
Curinaldi, Alois von, 65, 94-95,
182, 212, 213, 214, 215, 216,

217, 2l8, 220, 221, 222, 224,
226, 241, 243, 257

Czernin, Count Ottokar, 2 1

Dabi, Lt. CoL Ljubomir, ac-
count of Apis* death by,
252-56

Dakit Mr., 80

Dalmat, 40-41

Index

297

Darkness at Noon, 249
Death of a Hero, The, 36, 216
Demonstrations after assassina-
tion, 146-47, 148, 149, 159
Dimitrijevid, Col. Dragutin, 49-
57, 58, 66, 67, 68, 72, 77-78,

92, 94 95> 9 6 > 110 l66 l8l >
185, 194, 195, 196, 201, 204,
206, 208, 210, 217, 223, 224,
227, 230, 247, 248, 249, 250-
52, 253, 254, 255, 256, 257

Djukic*, Lazar, 93, 151, 240, 241,
244

Draga, Queen o Serbia, 44, 50,

5*
Duni, Col., 255

Egger, Lieutenant, 123

Elizabeth, Empress of Austria, 19

Elizabeth, Princess of Luxem-
bourg, 259

Ernst von Hohenberg, Duke, 24,
170, 181, 259

Federalism, 27, 56, 57
Feldbauer, Dr. Max, 212, 224,

23** 233

Ferdinand, King of Bulgaria, 53
Ferdinand II, King of the Two

Sicilies, 5-6
Ferdinand Carl, Archduke, 6,

180-81

Fischer, Dr., 123, 142
Forkapi6, Nikola, 232, 244
France, Russian alliance of, 209
Franz Ferdinand, Archduke, 4, 5,

8-13, 18-19, ^i, 37, 77 94>

100, 102-03, 104, 105-06, 107,

1O8, 1O9~10, 111, 117, 121,
122-24, 125, 126, 127, 128,
129-30, 131, 132, 133, 134

135-36, *45> i5* !54 156.
162, 167, 177, 216, 229, 261;
assassination of, 119, 136-37,
214, 230, 231, 242, 243, 249;
death of, 140-41, 142-44, 162;

education of, 6-7; funeral
and burial of, 165, 166-67,
168-70, 171-75, 176, 177, 178-
79, 180, 181; marriage of,
13-14, 15, 16, 17-18, 22-25,
160, 161, 167; political con-
victions of, 22, 26-27, 28, 33,
56, 57, 152; reactions to
death of, 151-52, 153, 159*

160, 162-63, 16465; Sara-
jevo visit of, 29, 30, 37, 38-
39 4<>-42, 57' 68, 75, 76-77,
93, 101-02, 106, 109, no,
114, 115, 116, 118, 120, 123,
130, 183, 227; see also Assas-
sination of Franz Ferdinand;
Assassins

Franz Ferdinand von Hohenberg,
Duke, 259

Franz Joseph I, 5, 7, 10, 15,
16, 17, 18-22, 23, 26, 29, 30,
32,37,41,4^47. 5&77> i6,
116-17, 130, 131, 132, 142-
43, 145, 147, 152, 159, 160,

161, 162-63, 164-65, 168,
170, 171, 172-73, 175, 176-
77, 178, 180, 181, 208, 259

Freemasons, 225, 226, 227, 228
Friedrich, Archduke, 13

Ga&novic", Vladimir, 35-36, 46,
55,91, 93, no, 215

Giesl, Baron von, 202, 203

George V, of England, 151, 171

Gerde, Dr., 4, 103, 115, 132, 133-
34, 146, 151, 163, 164, 165,
200

Germany, 26, 31-32, 107; en-
trance into war of, 208-09

Golubic, Mustafa, 55

GrabeS, Trifko, 3, 59, 60, 61, 63-
64, 65-66, 68, 70, 73, 80, 81,
82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 90,

94* 95-9 6 > 9 8 > 99 100 > 112 >
118, 126, 127-28, 135-36*
187, 188-89, 193, 194, 195*

298

Index

196, 201, 203, 212, 213, 214,

2l6, 2l7~l8, 221, 223, 234,

257, 260, 261,

Grbic, Sergeant, 81, 82, 257
Great Britain, declaration of war

by, 209
Grein, Lieutenant, 137, 138, 141,

H3

Harrach, Count, 115, 121, 135,

137, 140, 141, 222
Haugwitz, Countess Jella, 38
Herzegovina. See Bosnia-Herzego-

vina

Hochmann, Dr., 142
Hoffmann, Dr. Mayer, 212
Hoger, Major, 141, 142
Hiittenbrenner, Major von, 137,

14 1 * 143

Hit, Danilo, 3, 54, 55,

93>

99*

no, 112, 118, 126, 186, 187,
188, 189, 192, 193, i95> *9 6 '
212, 216-17, 218, 221, 238,
240, 244, 246, 262
Ilidze, 29, 30, 39, 42, 102-03, 104,

107, 109, 111, 114, 132, 134
Isabella, Archduchess, 13-14, 15
Isakovid Island, inn at, 81, 82

Jakovljevic, Milan, 79, 80
Jankovic, Gen. Bozo, 43, 153-55*

156

Jonaczek, Franz, 14-15, 3 8
Jovanovic, Jovan, 74-76, 77
Jovanovit Ljuba, 156-57
Jovanovic, Miko, 87-88, 96, 97-

98, 150-51, 193, 212, 217, 218,

233, 244, 246

Kalember, Dragan, 220, 240, 241,

244

Kara, George, 51
Karageorgevic, Prince Alexan-

der, 51

Karageorgevi, Peter, 44, 51
Kazimirovi, Dr. Radovan, 224,

225, 226, 231, 234
Kerovic, Blagoje, 85, 86, 193, 217,

232, 244

Kerovic, Jovo, 85, 86, 193, 234,

244
Kerovic, Mitar, 85, 86, 193, 217,

233, 234* 235, 244, 260
Kerovic, Nedjo>, 85, 86, 87, 88,

193, 220-21, 235, 238, 244,

^45

Kiszling, Rudolf, 7
Klopp, Dr. Onno, 6
Koerber, Ernest von, 17-18
Koestler, Arthur, 249
Kontos, Ko&ta, 149
Kranjcevid, Mrs. 189, 190
Kranjcevic, Ivo, 189, 190, 235,

238, 244
Krstanovid, Trifko, 197

Lanjus, Countess, 115, 123, 141,

142, 166

Lazar, Prince of the Serbs, 113
Lje&nica, border crossing at, 70,

81

Leo XIII, Pope, 22
Letica, Metropolitan, 147, 151
London Times f 146, 228
Loznica, 69, 70, 79
Ludendorff, Gen. Erich von, 227,

228

Maji, Milan, 195

Malek, Wenzl, 212, 239, 240, 241

Mali Zvornik, Cabrinovic's cross-
ing at, 70, 79, 80

Malobabic, Rade 250, 253, 254,
255, 256

Margaretha Sophie, daughter of
Archduke Carl Ludwig, 6

Margutti, Baron Albert Freiherr,
159, 160, 176

Maria Annunciata, Princess, 5-6

Marie Antoinette, 181

Index

299

Maria Theresia, Archduchess, 6,

23* 24, 25
Marie Christine, daughter of

Archduke Friedrich, 14
Marie Louise, Empress, 167-68
Marschall, Godfried, 6, 17
Masons. See Freemasons
Maximilian, Archduke, 8, 19
Maximilian von Hohenberg,

Duke, 14-15, 24, 107-08, 170,

181, 259
Mehmedbasic", Muhamed, 3, 4,

55, 92, 93, 95-96, 98, 99, no,

118-19, 189, 190, 191-92,

216, 248, 250, 261
Mercure de France, 228
Merizzi, Lt. Col. Erik, 4, 109,

115, 123, 124, 132, 133, 134,

136, 142
Metkovic", 41
Micic, Mico, 81, 82, 83, 193, 217,

234, 244, 245

Miguel, King of Portugal, 6
Mikacevic", Brother, 144, 166
Milosevic, Obren, 83-84, 193,

240, 241, 244, 245
Milovanovi, Milovan, 43
Milovid, Jakov, 81-83, 8 4> *93

217, 232-33, 244* 245
Mlada Bosna, 35-36, 37, 91, in
Momcinovic, Ivan, 231, 234,

244
Montenegro, 31, 34; Mehmed-

ba&ic" in, 190-92, 216
Montenuovo, Prince Alfred, 167-

69, 173, 174-75* !7 6 > !78, 180
Morsey, Baron, 114, 125, 134,

Mostar, 41-42

Municipal Undertaking Estab-

lishment of the City of Vi-

enna, 178
Murad I, 113
Murder. See Assassination; Assas-

sination of Franz Ferdinand

Mussolini, Benito, 153

Napoleon, 167

Narodna Odbrana, 43-44, 48, 61,

*53> *54> 194* *95> *97> 199^

203, 213, 218, 222-23, 226,

231.233
Naumowicz, Judge Bogdan, 211-

12, 221

Neipperg, Count, 16768
Neue Freie Presse, 163
New York Times, 213
Nicholas, King of Montenegro,

153
Nicholas II, of Russia, 22, 151,

171
Nicholas Nicolaievich, Grand

Duke, 171

Obilic", Milos, 113
Otto, Archduke, 6, 7, 10, 161
Ottoman Empire, disintegration
of, 31, 32, 34

Paar, Count, 30, 159, 160

Pacu, Minister of Finance, 202,

203

Pasi<5, Georgina, 73-74
PaSic, Nikola, 49, 56-57, 71, 72,

73-75^ J 53> *54> *55> *$>
157, 158, 202, 206, 207, 208,
247, 248, 254, 259
Paunkovic, Arch-priest Zdravko,

252, 253, 255
Payer, Dr., 142, 143, 144
Perina, Marko, 220, 235, 244, 260
Peris'^, Dr. Felix, 212, 234
Peter, King of Serbia, 171
Pfeffer, Judge Leo, 137, 182, 183,
184, 185-86, 187, 188, 189,
192, 193, 194, 195, 196, 197,
198, 199, 200, 204, 213, 257
Piemant, 49, 155
Pochlarn, services at, 178-79
Police protection in Sarajevo.
See Sarajevo, security ar-
rangements in

300

Index

Pollaco, Dr., 142
Popovte, Cvijetko, 3, 94, 95-96,
98, 99, no, 118, 126, 189,
190, 217, 218, 234, 235, 243*
244, 261

Popovic", Col, Cedomir, 54
Popovi, Col. Rada, 68-69
Potiorek, Gen. Oskar, 4, 29, 30,

S4> 54* 55> 57* 75> 7^ 9%> 93>
104-05, 106, 108, 109-10,

114, 115, 117-18, 121, 123,

!32, 133, 134. i35> !37* HO,
144-45, 147, 148, 149, 150,
159, 163, 164, 165, 166, 185,

190, 199, 20O, 221, 258

PremuHc*, Dr. Konstantin, 64,

212, 224, 233, 234

Press coverage of assassins' trial,
212-13

Pribicevi, Milan, 194, 195, 196,
199, 201

Pnboj/84, 87, 94

Princip, Mrs., 218, 219

Princip, Gavrilo, 3, 42, 62-63,
64-65, 66, 67, 68, 70, 72, 81,
82, 83, 84, 85-86, 87, 88, 89,
91, 92, 94, 95-9 6 > 9 8 > 99' 1OO >

103, 11O, 111-12, Il8, 125,
126-28, 136, 137, 138, 139,
140, 141, 142, 143, 144, 145,
147, 148, 150-51, 153, 155,
157, 158, 172, l82, 183, 184,
185, l86, 187, l88, 189, 192,
193, 194, 195-96, 198, 200,
201, 203, 210, 211, 212, 213,
214, 215, 2l6, 217, 218-19,
221, 222, 223, 224, 225, 226,
227, 228, 229, 232, 234, 237,

240, 241, 242, 243* *44 245,

246, 256, 257, 258, 260, 26l,
262

Protic", Lt. Joseph, 253
Protic", Stojan, 71, 72
Prvanovic*, Capt., 69, 70, 79, 81,

201, 203
Pimtigam, Father, 144, 226-27

PuSara, Mihailo, 136
Pusic", Danilo, 138, 139-40

Ras'ic', Nikola, 212

Riots. See Demonstrations after
assassination

Roosevelt, Theodore, 20

Rudolf, Crown Prince, 8, 19, 228,
229

Rumania, 31, 32

Rumerskirch, Baron, 133, 144-45,
166, 179

Russia, 26, 31, 32; French alli-
ance of, 209; Serbian alli-
ance of, 33, 44, 56, 57, 208

Sadilo, Mr. and Mrs., 189

Saint Vitus Day, 76, 113, 114, 155,

262

Salonica, trial in, 248-50
Sarac, Djuro, 224, 249-50
Sarajevo, riots in. See Demon-
strations after assassination
Sarajevo visit, security arrange-
ments for, 104-05, 116-18,
163-64, 165; see also Franz
Ferdinand, Archduke, trip to
Sarajevo of

Sarajevoer Tagblatt, 11516, 149
Savic", Maj. Alexander, 256
Schiller, Moritz, 136, 148, 262
Schratt, Katharine, 23
Security arrangements. See Sara-
jevo visit, security arrange-
ments for
Semiz's Inn, Sarajevo, party at,

in

Serbia, 31, 32, 33~34> 35>* Austrian
ultimatum to, 199, 202, 203-
04, 206-07; coup of 1903 in,

44> 5*> 5*> 5^, 73 77J govern-
mental connections with ter-
rorist organizations in, 48,

49-50, 53. 55> 7i 7*~73 74-
75, 201, 206, 226; intrigues
of, 48, 49, 53; reaction to

Index

301

assassination in, 153, 155-56,
157; reply to Austrian ulti-
matum by, 207, 208; Russian
alliance of, 33, 44, 56, 57,
208; see also Black Hand;
Dimitrijevi, Col. Dragutin
Sophie Chotek, Duchess, 4, 14,
15, 17, 18, 22, 23-24, 25, 29-
30, 38-40, 42, 102-03, 106-
09, 114, 115, 1 16, 122-23, l *1>
130, 131, i34~35> 1 S7> HO>
141, 142, 144, 145, 146, 147,
150, 152, 154, 156, 159, 160,

167, 214, 221, 222, 228, 230,

231, 242, 258, 261; funeral
and burial of, 165, 166-67,
168-70, 171-75, 176, 178-79,
180, 181

Sophie, daughter of Archduke
Franz Ferdinand, 24, 134,
170, 181

Sosnosky, Theodor von, 11
Spahovi, Smail, 139
Srpska Rijec, 120
Stadler, Archbishop, 144, 166
Stanowsky, Dr., 145
Steed, Wickham, 228
Stefanie, Archduchess, 228
Stiepanovi, Cvijan, 234, 244
Stojkovi, Capt. Milan, 253
Storck, Wilhelm Ritter von, 155-

56

Strupl, Dr. Franz, 212, 234-35
Sunari, Dr. Josip, 108-109
Suni, customs chief, 79
Surratt, Mrs., 245
Svara, Franjo, 212, 213, 230, 231,

232, 237, 241

Taia, 229

Tankosic, Major Voja, 55, 58, 59,
62, 63, 66-67, 68, 77, 192,
194/195, 196, 197, 201, 207,
223, 224, 225, 227, 247, 249,
250

Terrorist organizations. See Assas-

sination; Black Hand; Mlada
Bosna; Narodna Odbrana
Toulouse, France, meeting in,

55* 57> 93

Trialism, 27, 56, 57
Turkey. See Ottoman Empire,

disintegration of
Tuzla, assassins' trip to, 80, 83,

84, 85, 87, 88-89, 96, 97

Ujedinjenje Hi Smrt. See Black

Hand
Underground, assassins' use of,

43-44, 68, 79, 81-82, 84, 87,

88,90, 94, 118

VareSanin, Gen., 36

Vasic", Maj. Milan, 61

Velic, Ante, 138

Vetsera, Marie, 229

Victor Emmanuel, of Italy, 171

Vienna Reichspost, 148, 163, 164,

175

Viribus Unitis, 38, 40, 166-67
Vulovid, 253, 254-55, 256

Werfel, Franz, 260

Wiesner, Friedrich von, 200, 201,

202, 203
Wilhelm II, Kaiser, 13, 22, 24,

172

Wilson, Woodrow, 151, 152
Wolfgang, Dr., 141, 142

Zadar, 40

Zagorac, Branko, 233, 244

Zerajte, Bogdan, 36, 37, 46, 64,

91, in, 128, 183, 215, 216,

261
Zistler, Dr. Rudolf, 212, 235, 236,

237, 238, 239, 241, 257
Zita, Archduchess, 180
Zivanovid, Milan, 251, 252
Zivanovi, Zivan, 252
Zora, 64

8482