12th October 1914, Vienna.
The doctors had been called back again, the emperor was sleeping fitfully and was periodically wracked by a hacking cough. He had been visited by the chief of staff of the Austro-Hungarian Army Conrad von Hotzendorf the previous day, that meeting had gone poorly. The emperor had questioned the Field Marshal on the progress of the war and the hopes for victory, he had questioned the Field Marshal’s obfuscation and prevarication, growing increasingly impassioned and irate. That interview concluded he had joined his cousin Archduke Friedrich on walk in the grounds of the Schonbrunn Park, the day had been cold and dismal, but was positively sunny compared to the mood of the two men. They had dismissed their aides and walked alone, with defeat on every front neither man knew what to do and both expressed their dissatisfaction with von Hotzendorf. The army had already lost hundreds of thousands of dead, wounded and missing, in Galicia and in Serbia. They had received a report that the French and Russians had captured so many prisoners, that they were tallying captured troops by the hectare and the desyatina.
They had also received disturbing reports about the dreadful morale amoungst their own forces and the rising rates of desertion and banditry that were already occurring. The empire was ill prepared for this war and that lack of preparedness was giving succour to those who wanted to tear it apart. Deep in their thoughts and moving slowly, the emporer was an old man and tired, they didn’t realise the weather had worsened, a sudden heavy shower overtook them, both men were soaked to their skins. The staff realising the change in the weather suddenly reappeared, the emperor was taken back to the palace. The emperor was shivering by the time his worried servants had him dried of and dressed. He continued with his day but by 6pm he announced he felt dreadful and would be going to bed, his doctor was called in noting his slightly elevated temperature and heart rate, prescribing bed rest and a day off the following day, with that Franz Joseph went to bed.