At Geneva on Saturday last, at about 2 o'clock in
the afternoon, the Empress of Austria was assassinated by an Italian Anarchist of about twenty-five named Luigi Luccheni, the weapon used being a stiletto with a blade so thin as to resemble a very long bradawl rather than a dagger. The Empress, accompanied by a lady-in-waiting, was walking from her hotel along the quay, on her way to take the lake steam- boat, by which she intended travelling to Montreux. She had nearly reached the steamer when a man, coming in tiv: opposite direction, rushed at her and stabbed her with great force in the region of the heart. The Empress fell, but with the assistance of the lady-in-waiting and a few passers-by she rose to her feet and walked on towards the steamer, evidently under the impression, as was her attendant, that she had merely received a blow. On arriving on board, how- ever, the Empress lost consciousness, and her dress being cut open, bloodstains were discovered. The steamboat at once put back, and the Empress was carried back to the hotel. There she was attended by two doctors, but without avail, and after receiving extreme unction from a priest., who had been summoned in haste, she died,—not half an hour after the infliction of the wound. The extreme thinness of the dagger caused the external wound to close at once, and the hemorrhage was thus almost entirely internal. It is almost certain that the Empress felt little or no pain, and was even unaware that she had been stabbed. She had, in fact, what she in common with all mankind desired, "a painless death." The assassin, after delivering the blow, attempted to escape, but was overtaken and arrested by two cabmen. He is now in prison. As capital punishment has been abandoned in the canton of Geneva, he will only be imprisoned for life. The indignation in Switzerland was very great.
