The urgent pounding on the door gave Franz a bad feeling.
"Your Majesty, the Empress's carriage was attacked in Russia. Her Majesty has been injured. The number of other wounded and dead is still being counted."
Colonel Bordeaux said, so out of breath his words came in gasps.
"How is that possible?"
That was Franz's first reaction, because Olga's return to Russia had been classified. Although she had many attendants, very few people knew the details of the mission beforehand.
Moreover, she was bound to have an escort along the way. An attack would not have been so easy to carry out.
On top of that, Olga's travel arrangements were identical to Franz's. Forget bandits or guerrillas—even if they encountered a regiment of regular troops, they would still have the strength to fight.
The only force within Russia capable of this would be the Russian regular army. In fact, Franz's first thought had been that Nicholas I had done it, since the latter had always wanted the Austrian Empire to enter the war.
Perhaps because he understood Nicholas I, or perhaps because of his ingrained impression of Russia, Franz felt that such a thing was entirely possible.
But making such a grand spectacle of it was truly strange. If they wanted to stir up conflict, they could simply have someone fire two blank rounds into a crowd, then find an Arab with a West Asian appearance to take the blame, and finally silence him forever so that the dead could tell no tales.
The effect would be the same, while it would also be safer and less costly.
In truth, there was no need to go to so much trouble. The Austrian military's contingency plans already included evidence of Ottoman troops crossing the border to attack, steal from, spy on,