July 15 Friday – Sam’s notebook:

July 15. The Duke de Frias gambled himself deep into debt & had to leave his Embassy & fly to Madrid with his young wife & young child. Count Coudenhove, & Countess Wydenbruck-Esterházy say his estates are exhausted & he is a ruined man. He is hardly 30.

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Rudolph Lindau spent part of to-day with us—on his way back to his post at Constantinople. Looks as well as ever.

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The aged Countess Khevenhuller called, & told us about the man who is dying at Anstallt. She is aunt to the “black Princess,” & just as lovely in spirit.

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News of the fall of Santiago.

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Looks as if there will be a revolution in Austria. A reconcilement of the parties seems as improbable as ever [NB 40 TS 26].

Notes: Count Richard Coudenhove. Dolmetsch mentions him as a “luminary,” and that, “Twain’s frequent notebook references suggest the count may have been the one who introduced Mark Twain to the baroness [von Suttner]” [184]. The Battle of Santiago, in which the Spanish fleet was destroyed trying to run the American blockade, took place on July 3 . News of it would have reached Vienna by cable as early as July 4. The separators above after the first entry may reflect somewhat later dates prior to the next dated entry, Aug. 4.