#1804 - He removed his own glove, reached out and caressed the smooth, exquisitely soft leather encasing Sophie's dead hands and arms, running his fingers along the buttons closing the mousquetaire opening and up the Duchess' arms to the heartstopping place where the glove tops flared out over the soft, yielding biceps. Kissing the Duchess one last time with a whispered endearment, he lifted the casket lid back into place and locked it again, then took up the folded flag and draped it over the coffin once again. Nobody knows exactly when Sophie Maria Josephine Albina, Countess of Chotek and Duchess of Hohenberg, died, but she may have sighed her last faint breath before the auto braked to a screeching halt in front of the Konak's grand entrance.