The Assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, by John Buchan

❰

1 2

❱

Some small attempt was made to dissuade him, for in the narrow streets among the motley population no proper guard could be kept. But Count Potiorek was reassuring.* He knew his Bosnians, he said, and they rarely attempted two murders in one day. The party set out accordingly, the Archduke and his wife in the same car with the Governor.

About ten minutes to eleven, as they moved slowly along the Appel Quay, in the narrow part where it is joined by the Franz-Josefsgasse, a young man pushed forward from the crowd on the side-walk and fired three pistol shots into the royal car. He was a Bosnian student called Prinzip,* a friend of Gabrinovitch, who like him had been living in Belgrade. The Archduke was hit in the jugular vein, and died almost at once. His wife received a bullet in her side, and expired a few minutes later in the Government House, after receiving the last sacraments.

The tumult of the fete-day was suddenly hushed. The police were busy in every street laying hands on suspects, and in an impassioned proclamation to the awed and silent city the Burgomaster laid the crime at Serbia’s door.*

by John Buchan 1875-1940

From ‘Episodes of the Great War’ (1936) by John Buchan (1875-1940).

* Oskar Potiorek (1853-1933) was a soldier in the army of Austria-Hungary, who served as the eighth Governor of Bosnia from 1911 to 1014.

* Gavrilo Princip (1894-1918), a Bosnian Serb student. Sentenced to twenty years hard labour, he died in prison in 1918 from tuberculosis.

* As Buchan goes on to explain, this incident ultimately led to the outbreak of the Great War of 1914-18.

Précis

The assurance that lightning would not strike twice mollified the Archduke, and he and his wife returned to their car. However, a young student dashed up and brazenly shot them. Ferdinand died where he sat; his wife died of her wounds later. The shooter was apprehended, and as he had studied in Belgrade, the authorities pointed the finger at Serbia.

Questions for Critics

1. What is the author aiming to achieve in writing this?

2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that strike you. How do they help the author communicate his ideas more effectively?

3. What impression does this passage make on you? How might you put that impression into words?

Based on The English Critic (1939) by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn, Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University, USA.

Sevens

Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.

On whom was the assassination blamed?

Suggestion

On Serbia, where the assassin had studied.

Précis

Questions for Critics

Sevens

Read Next