Archduchess Marianne’s thrilling adventure in the underground burial crypt of the Schwarzenbergs is over, and she is back at her desk reading the first written document related to the case — the excerpt from the funeral register obtained from Brother Aloïs. Keeping accounts of baptisms, weddings, and funerals was one of the principal duties of ecclesiastical administration; the registers they maintained still provide an essential source of personal data.
The excerpt described, although fictional in form, conveys historically accurate factual information. By 1757, the individuals listed in the chapter had indeed been buried in the crypt and, logically, the corresponding entries must have existed in the register. Marianne now immerses herself in the unglamorous everyday work familiar to all researchers — comparing and collating, checking dates, taking notes, reflecting on them, and searching for small inconsistencies. She notices that the name of Eleonora, Princess Schwarzenberg, appears in the register although her body had been buried elsewhere — a detail that immediately prompts Marianne to scrutinise this irregularity.
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