She was not to know that her death and that of her husband would bring about the death of tens of millions more, and possibly the most tumultous century ever in the annals of the human race. The second bullet – for two bullets had been fired by Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip, the first striking Franz Ferdinand at the joining of neck and chest – had punched through the thin sheet metal of the car door, through Sophie’s white dress, her tightly laced corset and chemise, and into her soft, vulnerable torso four centimeters above her right colon. XXX An officer was sent to fetch ether, and desperate hands fumbled at the fastenings on her white dress. He paid particular attention to making sure that the pierced liver and other abdominal organs were properly infused with preservative solution, and ran the trochar down the track of the bullet wound to inject Sophie’s corpse from that direction.
