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cheerful, and said that it really was wonderfully amusing for a change to pass a day without trailing a comet’s tail.” Marie Larisch was nevertheless astonished when Middleton, who had taken the evening train to Brighton, stood ready to welcome the Empress, wearing an innocent expression, bowing respectfully, and saying, “I hope your Majesty had a good time.”
    One can hardly deny that Elisabeth showed a sense of humor during her escapades. She amused herself, for example, by leading the ever daring Prince of Wales (later, King Edward VII) up the garden path. A poem (probably exaggerated with her usual flights of fancy) records the scene. 
    “There is somebody coming upstairs”
     
    Wir sassen im Drawing-room gemütlich beisammen
Prince Eduard und ich.
Er raspelte Süssholz und schwärmte,
Er sagte, er liebte mich.
Er rückte sehr nah und nahm meine Hand,
Und lispelte: Dear cousin, wie wär’s?
Ich lachte von Herzen und drohte:
“There is somebody coming upstairs.”
Wir lauschten, es war aber nichts,
Und weiter ging das lustige Spiel
Sir Eduard ward mutig,
Ja, er wagte auch viel.
Ich wehrte mich nicht, es war interessant,
Ich lachte: “Dear cousin, wie wär’s?”
Da ward er verlegen und flüsterte leis:
“There is somebody coming upstairs.” 23
     

    [We were sitting cosily together in the drawing room, / Prince Edward and I. / He whispered sweet nothings and raved on, / He said that he loved me. / He drew very close and took my hand, / And whispered, Dear cousin, how about it? / I laughed with all my heart and warned him, / “There is somebody coming upstairs.” We listened, but it was nothing, / And the merry game went on. / Sir Edward grew bold, / Yes, and very daring. / I did not protest, it was interesting, / I laughed, “Dear cousin, how about it?” / At that he grew embarrassed and whispered softly, / “There is somebody coming upstairs.”]
     
    A man as well informed as Count Charles Bombelles, chamberlain to Crown Prince Rudolf, declared all the sensationalist gossip around the Empress to be untrue—and he was anything but a supporter of Elisabeth. In 1876, he mentioned “the extravagances of the Empress, but very innocent ones,” as Hübner noted in his diary. He, too, attributed a major part of Sisi’s behavior to the effects of her early very unhappy life in Vienna and the excessive severity of Archduchess Sophie. “One has placed one chain after another around this bottle of champagne, and finally the cork blew. It is a lucky thing that this explosion had no consequences other than the ones we see: unfettered preference for horses, hunting, and sports, as well as a secluded life, which is not easy to reconcile with the obligations of an empress.” 24
    The older Elisabeth grew and the more her shyness increased, the more she became trapped in her fantasies and her dream world. It was specifically in this area that her inhibited relations with men became evident.
    Among the myths and legends that particularly caught the Empress’s fancy was the story of a legendary Egyptian queen who never grew old and who lived, veiled, in a mysterious place. Her name had long ago been forgotten. “She” retained her power not to age, but only so long as she did not give herself in love to a man. 25 Elisabeth, too, was unapproachable, with the deep fear that love might rob her of her power and aura.
    In her poems, she saw herself most often as Titania, Queen of the Fairies. The unsuccessful suitors were represented as donkeys. Every castle where the Empress lived boasted a painting of Titania with the donkey. Elisabeth to Christomanos: “That is the ass’s head of our illusions, which we caress ceaselessly…. I never get tired of looking at it.” 26
    In almost all her poems, Franz Joseph is depicted as Oberon, King of the Fairies, standing by Titania’s side. Occasionally, however, Elisabethincluded even her husband in the ranks of her admirers, which was probably a realistic view of the