A FALLEN STAR
I
Even with Lola Montez out of the way and the University doors
re-opened, it was not a case of all quiet on the Munich front. Far
from it. Berks, the new Minister of the Interior, who had always
supported her, still remained in office; and Lola herself continued
from a distance to pull strings. Some of them were effective.
But Lola Montez, or no Lola Montez, there was in the eyes of his
exasperated subjects more than enough to make them thoroughly
dissatisfied with the Wittelsbach regime, as carried out by Ludwig.
The Cabinet had become very nearly inarticulate; public funds had been
squandered on all sorts of grandiose and unnecessary schemes; and the
clerical element had long been allowed to ride roughshod over the
constitution. Altogether, the "Ministry of Dawn," brought into
existence with such a flourish of trumpets after the dismissal of von
Abel and his colleagues, had not proved the anticipated success.
Instead of getting better, things had got worse; and, although it had
not actually been suggested, the idea of substituting the monarchy by
a republic was being discussed in many quarters.
The editor of the _Annual Register_, abandoning his customary attitude
of an impartial historian, dealt out a sharp rap on the knuckles to
the Royal Troubadour:
"The discreditable conduct of the doting old King of Bavaria, in his
open _liaison_ with a wandering actress who had assumed the name of
Lola Montez (but who was in reality the eloped wife of an Englishman,
and whom he had created a Bavarian Countess by the title of Gräfin de
Landsfeld), had thoroughly alienated the hearts of his subjects."
As the result of a solemn conclave at the Rathaus, an ultimatum was
delivered by the Cabinet; and Ludwig was informed, without any beating
about the bush, that unless he wanted to plunge the country into
revolution, Lola Montez must leave the kingdom. Ludwig yielded; and
forgetful of, or else deliberately ignoring, the fact that he had once
written a passionate threnody, in which he declared:
"And though thou be forsaken by all the world,
Yet, never wilt thou be abandoned by me!"
he could find it in his heart to issue a decree expelling her from his
realms.
To this end, on March 17, he signed two separate Orders in Council.
1
"We, Ludwig, by the Grace of God, King of Bavaria, etc.,
think it necessary to give notice that the Countess of
Landsfeld has ceased to possess the rights of
naturalisation."
2
"Since the Countess of Landsfeld does not give up her design
of disturbing the peace of the capital and country, all the
judicial authorities of the kingdom are hereby ordered to
arrest the said Countess wherever she may be discovered.
They are to carry her to the nearest fortress, where she is
to be kept in custody."
Events moved rapidly. A few days later Lola was arrested by Prince
Wallerstein (whom she herself had put into power when his stock had
fallen) and deported, as an "undesirable alien," to Switzerland.
Woman-like, she had the last word.
"I am leaving Bavaria," she said, "but, before very long, your King
will also leave."
Everybody had something to say about the business. Most people had a
lot to say. The wires hummed; and the foreign correspondents in Munich
filled columns with long accounts of the recent disturbances in Munich
and their origin. No two accounts were similar.
"The people insisted," says Edward Cayley, in his _European
Revolutions of_ 1848, "on the dismissal of the King's mistress. She
was sent away, but, trusting to the King's dotage, she came back,
police or no police.... This was a climax to which the people were
unprepared to submit, not that they were any more virtuous than their
Sovereign." Another publicist, Edward Maurice, puts it a little
differently: "In Bavaria the power exercised by Lola Montez over
Ludwig had long been distasteful to the sterner reformers." This was
true enough; but the Müncheners disliked the Jesuits still more,
asserting that it was with them that Lola shared the conscience of the
King. The Liberals were ready for action, and welcomed the opportunity
of asserting themselves.
As soon as Lola was really out of the country, her Barerstrasse
mansion was searched from attic to cellar by the Munich police. Since,
in order to justify the search, they had to discover something
compromising, they announced that they had discovered "proofs" that
Lord Palmerston and Mazzini were in active correspondence with the
King's ex-mistress; and that the go-between for the British Foreign
Office was a Jew called Loeb. This individual was an artist who had
been employed to decorate the house. Seized with pangs of remorse, he
is said to have gone to Ludwig and confessed having intercepted Lola's
correspondence with Mazzini and engineered the rioting. He further
declared that large sums of money had been sent her from abroad.
Historians, however, have no knowledge of this; nor was the nature of
the "proofs" ever revealed.
Lola's villa in the Barerstrasse afterwards became the new home of the
British Legation. It was demolished in 1914; and not even a wall
plaque now marks her one-time occupancy. As for the Residenz Palace
where she dallied with Ludwig, this building is now a museum, and as
such echoes to the tramp of tourists and the snapping of cameras. _Sic
transit_, etc.
II
When Lola, hunted from pillar to post, eventually left Munich for
Switzerland, it was in the company of Auguste Papon, who, on the
grounds of "moral turpitude," had already been given his
marching-orders. He described himself as a "courier." His passport,
however, bore the less exalted description of "cook." It was probably
the more correct one. The faithful Fritz Peissner, anxious to be of
service to the woman he loved, and for whom he had already risked his
life, joined her at Constance, together with two other members of the
_Alemannia_, Count Hirschberg and Lieutenant Nussbaum. But they only
stopped a few days.
Anxious to get into touch with them, Lola wrote to the landlord at
their last address:
_2 March, 1848._
SIR,
In case the students of the Alemannia Society have left your
hotel, I beg you to inform my servant, the bearer of this
letter, where Monsieur Peissner, for whom he has a parcel to
deliver, has gone.
Receive in advance my distinguished sentiments.
COUNTESS OF LANDSFELD.
Lola's first halt in Switzerland (a country she described as "that
little Republic which, like a majestic eagle, lies in the midst of the
vultures and cormorants of Europe") was at Geneva. An error of
judgment, for the austere citizens of Calvin's town, setting a
somewhat lofty standard among visitors, were impervious to her
blandishments. "They were," she complained, "as chilly as their own
icicles." At Berne, however, to which she went next, she had better
luck. This was because she met there an impressionable young Chargé
d'affaires attached to the British Legation, whom she found "somewhat
younger than Ludwig, but more than twice as silly." An _entente_ was
soon established. "Sometimes riding, and sometimes driving she would
appear in public, accompanied by her youthful adorer."
The official was Robert Peel, a son of the distinguished statesman,
and was afterwards to become third baronet. In a curious little work,
typical of the period, _The Black Book of the British Aristocracy_,
there is an acid allusion to the matter: "This bright youth has just
taken under his protection the notorious Lola Montez, and was lately
to be observed walking with her, in true diplomatic style, in the
streets of a Swiss town."
It was about this period that it occurred to a theatrical manager in
London, looking for a novelty, that there was material for a stirring
drama written round the career of Lola Montez. No sooner said than
done; and a hack dramatist, who was kept on the premises, was
commissioned to set to work. Locked up in his garret with a bottle of
brandy, at the end of a week he delivered the script. This being
approved by the management, it was put into rehearsal, and the
hoardings plastered with bills:
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| THEATRE ROYAL, HAYMARKET |
| |
| (Under the Patronage of Her Gracious Majesty The Queen, |
| His Royal Highness Prince Albert, and the Élite of Rank and |
| Fashion.) On Wednesday, April 26, 1848, will be produced a |
| New and Original and Apropos Sketch entitled: |
| |
| "LOLA MONTEZ, or THE COUNTESS FOR AN HOUR." |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
"An hour." This was about as long as it lasted, for the reception by
the critics was distinctly chilly. "We cannot," announced one of them,
"applaud the motives that governed the production of a farce
introducing a mock sovereign and his mistress. In our opinion the
piece is extremely objectionable."
The Lord Chamberlain apparently shared this view, for he had the play
withdrawn after the second performance.
"_Es gibt kein Zurück_" ("There is to be no coming back") had been
Ludwig's last words to her. But Lola did not take the injunction
seriously. According to a letter in the _Deutsche Zeitung_, she was
back in Munich within a week, travelling under the "protection" of
Baron Möller, a Russian diplomatist. Entering the Palace
surreptitiously, she extracted a cheque for 50,000 florins from
Ludwig. As it was drawn on Rothschild's bank at Frankfort, she hurried
off there, and returned to Switzerland the same evening, "with a
bagful of notes."
To convince his readers that he was well behind the scenes, Papon
gives a letter which he asserts was written by Ludwig to a
correspondent some months later:
I wish to know from you if my dear Countess would like her
annuity assured by having it paid into a private bank, or if
she would rather I deposited a million francs with the Bank
of England.... I am already being blamed for giving her too
much. As the revolutionaries seize upon any pretext to
assert themselves, it is important to avoid directing
attention to her just now. Still, I want my dearly loved
Countess to be satisfied. I repeat that the whole world
cannot part me from her.
While he was with her in Switzerland, Papon strung together a
pamphlet: _Lola Montez, Mémoires accompagnés de lettres intimes de
S.M. le Roi de Bavière et de Lola Montez, ornés des portraits, sur
originaux donnés par eux à l'auteur_, purporting to be written by
their subject. "I owe my readers," he makes her say smugly, "the exact
truth. They must judge between my enemies and myself." But, in his
character of a Peeping Tom, very little truth was expended by Papon.
Thus, he declares that, during her sojourn in the land of the
mountains and William Tell, she had a series of _affaires_ with a
"baron," a "muscular artisan," and an "intrepid sailor." He also has a
story to the effect that "two pure-blooded English ladies, the bearers
of illustrious names," called on her uninvited; and that this
circumstance annoyed her so much that she made her pet monkey attack
them.
But Auguste Papon cannot be considered a very reliable authority. A
decidedly odd fish, he claimed to be an ex-officer and also dubbed
himself a marquis. For all his pretensions, however, he was merely a
_chevalier d'industrie_, living on his wits; and, masquerading as a
priest, he was afterwards convicted of swindling and sent to prison.
III
A doughty, but anonymous, champion jumped into the breach and issued a
counterblast to Papon's effort in the shape of a second pamphlet,
headed "A Reply." But this was not any more remarkable for its
accuracy than the original. Thus, it declares, "She [Lola] lived with
the King of Bavaria, a man of eighty-seven. The nature of that
intimacy can best be surmised by reading the second and third verses
of the First Book of Kings, Chapter i. It is evident to any reflecting
mind that it was a sort of King David arrangement." As for the rest of
the pamphlet, it was chiefly taken up with an elaborate argument that,
all said and done, its subject was no worse than other ladies, and
much better than many of them.
Among extracts from this well intentioned effort, the following are
the more important:
A certain Marquis Auguste Papon, a quondam panderer to the
natural desires and affections which are common to the whole
human race, published and circulated throughout Europe a
volume which stamps his own infamy (as we shall have
occasion to show in the course of this reply) in far more
ineffaceable characters than that of those whom, in his
vindictiveness, he gloatingly sought to destroy.
But, before we proceed to dissect his book, it may be
permitted us to ask the impartial reader what there is so
very remarkable in the conduct of the King of Bavaria and
Lola Montez as to distinguish them unfavourably from the
monarchs and women celebrated for their talent, originality,
and beauty who have gone before. Where are Henry IV of
France, Henry V, Louis XIV, and Louis XV, with their
respective mistresses? Who of their people ever presumed to
interfere on the score of morality with the favours and
honours conferred on those distinguished women? Nay, to come
down to a later period, has the Marquis Auguste Papon ever
heard of the loves of Louis XVIII and Madame de Cuyla, and
that after the monarch's restoration in 1814? Is he ignorant
of those of Napoleon himself and Mademoiselle Georges? Have
not almost all the royal family of England--even those of
the House of Hanover--been notorious for their connection
with celebrated women? Has he never heard of Mrs.
Walkinshaw, ostensible mistress of Charles Edward the
Pretender, of Lucy Barlow, mistress of Charles II, mother of
the Duke of Monmouth? Of Arabella Churchill and Katherine
Sedley, mistresses of James II? Of the Countess of Kendal,
mistress of George II, who was received everywhere in
English society? Or of George IV and the Marchioness of
C----? Of the Duke of York and Mary Anne Clark? Of the Duke
of Clarence and the amiable and respected Mrs. J----? And
last, not least, of the present King of Hanover and late
Duke of Cumberland, who labours even unto this hour under
suspicion of having murdered his valet Sellis, to conceal
his adultery with his wife? In what differs the King of
Bavaria from these?
[Illustration: _Lola Montez in caricature. "Lola on the Allemannen
Hound"_]
But even to descend lower into the social scale of those who
have occupied the attention of the world without incurring
its marked and impertinent censure, has the Marquis Auguste
Papon ever heard of the beautiful Miss Foote, who, first the
favourite of the celebrated Colonel Berkeley (a natural
brother of the Duke of Devonshire) and secondly of a
personal friend of the writer of this reply--the
celebrated Pea Green Hayne--became finally the charming and
amiable Countess of Harrington, one of the sweetest women
that ever were placed at the head of the Stanhope family or
graced a peerage?
Who, that ever once enjoyed the pleasure of knowing this
fairest flower in the parterre of England's aristocracy of
beauty, would, in a spirit of revenge and disappointed
avarice, have had the grossness to insult _her_ as the
Marquis of Papon--the depository of all her secrets--has
insulted the Countess of Landsfeld with the loathsome name
of "courtesan," because, yielding to the confidence of her
woman's heart, she had been the adored of two previous
lovers? Never did Lord Petersham, afterwards the Earl of
Harrington, take a more sensible course than when he
elevated in a holy and irreproachable love--a love that
strangled scandal in its bloated fullness--the fascinating
Maria Foote to the position she was made to adorn, being
twin sister in beauty as well as in law to the charming Miss
Green, whose ripe red lips and long dark-lashed blue and
laughing eyes were, before her marriage with Colonel
Stanhope, the admiration and subject of homage of all
London. Should her eye ever rest on this page, she will
perceive that we have not forgotten its power and
expression.
To descend still lower in the scale of social life, has the
Marquis Auguste Papon ever heard of the celebrated Madame
Vestris, now Mrs. Mathews? Is he ignorant that her
theatre--the Olympic--was ever a resort of the most
fashionable and aristocratic people of London? Did her moral
life in any way detract from her popularity as a woman of
talent and of beauty, and an artiste of exceeding
fascination and merit? And yet she had more lovers than the
Marquis Auguste Papon can, with all his ingenuity, raise up
in evidence against the remarkable woman he, in his not very
creditable spirit of vengeance, has sworn to destroy.
Let us enumerate those we know to have been the lovers of
Madame Vestris, who, after having passed her youth in all
the variety of enjoyment, at length became the wife of a
man, not without talent himself, and whose father stood
first among the names celebrated in the comic art.
First was a personal friend of the writer of this reply to
the unmanly attack of the Marquis Auguste Papon. And we have
reason to remember it, for the connection of Henry Cole with
the most fascinating woman of her day led to a duel in Hyde
Park, of which that lady was the immediate cause, between
the writer and a British officer who was so ungallant as to
seek to check the enthusiasm created by her scarcely
paralleled acting. To him succeeded Sir John Anstruther, and
after Sir John the celebrated Horace Claggett. In what order
their successors came we do not recollect, but of those who
knew Madame Vestris in all the intimacy of the most tender
friendship were Handsome Jack, Captain Best, Lord Edward
Thynne, and Lord Castlereagh. These things were no secrets
to the thousands who, fascinated by her beauty and the
perfection of her acting, nevertheless thronged the theatre
she was admitted to have conducted with the most amiable
propriety and skill. On the contrary, they were as much
matters of general knowledge among people of the first rank
and fashion as the sun at noon-day. And yet what gentleman
ever presumed to affix to the name of this gifted woman,
whose very disregard of the opinion of those who
hypocritically and _sub rosa_ pursued in nearly ninety-nine
cases out of a hundred the same course--what gentleman, we
ask, ever dared to commit himself so far as to term her a
"courtesan"?
There was a good deal more of it, for the "Reply" ran to seventy-six
pages.
The title-page of this counterblast ran:
LOLA MONTEZ
or
A REPLY TO THE
"PRIVATE HISTORY AND MEMOIRS"
of
THAT CELEBRATED LADY
RECENTLY PUBLISHED
By
THE MARQUIS PAPON
FORMERLY SECRETARY TO
THE KING OF BAVARIA
AND FOR A PERIOD
THE PROFESSED FRIEND AND ATTENDANT
of
THE COUNTESS OF LANDSFELD
_Stet Nomnis Umbra_--Junius
NEW YORK
1851
IV
Bavaria was the key position in the sphere of European politics just
then. Ludwig, however, had dallied with the situation too long.
Nothing that he could do now would save him. Unrest was in the air.
All over Europe the tide of democracy was rising, and fast threatening
to engulf the entrenched positions of the autocrats. Metternich,
reading the portents, was planning to leave a mob-ridden Vienna for
the more tranquil atmosphere of Brighton; Louis Philippe, setting him
an example, had already fled from Paris; and Prince William of
Prussia, shaving off his moustache (and travelling on a false
passport), was hurrying to England while the going was still good.
With these examples to guide them, the Bavarians, tired of soft
promises and smooth words, were clamouring for a fresh hand at the
helm. Realising that the choice lay between this and a republic,
Ludwig bowed to the inevitable; and, with crocodile tears and
hypocritical protestations of good faith, surrendered his sceptre. To
give the decision full effect, he issued a Proclamation:
"Bavarians! A new condition has arisen. This differs
substantially from the one under which I have governed you
for twenty-three years. Accordingly, I lay down my sceptre
in favour of my beloved son, Prince Maximilian. I have
always governed you with full regard for your welfare. Had I
been a mere clerk, I could not have worked more strenuously;
had I been a Minister of Finance, I could not have devoted
more attention to the requirements of my country. I thank
God that I can look the whole world fearlessly in the face
and there confront the most scrutinising eye. Although I now
relinquish my crown, I can assure you that my heart still
beats as warmly as ever for Bavaria.
"MUNICH,
_March 21, 1848_."
Ludwig's signature to this mixture of rigmarole and bombast was
followed by those of his sons, the Princes Maximilian Luitpold,
Adalbert, and Carl. As for Maximilian, the new sovereign, he, rather
than risk being thrown out of the saddle, was prepared to make a clean
sweep of a number of existing grievances. As an earnest of his
intentions, he promised, in the course of a frothy oration, to grant
an amnesty to political prisoners, liberty of the press, the abolition
of certain taxes, the institution of trial by jury, and a long delayed
reform of the franchise.
With the idea, no doubt, of filling the vacancy in his affections
caused by the abrupt departure of Lola Montez, Fräulein Schroder, a
young actress at the Hof Theatre, endeavoured to comfort Ludwig in his
retirement. He, however, was beyond forming any fresh contacts.
"My happiness is gone from me," he murmured sadly. "I cannot stop in a
capital to which I have long given a father's loving care."
Firm in this resolve, he left Munich for the Riviera and took a villa
among the olives and oranges of Nice. There he turned over a fresh
leaf. But he did not stop writing poetry. Nor did he stop writing to
the woman who was still in his thoughts. One ardent epistle that
followed her into exile ran in this fashion:
Oh, my Lolita! A ray of sunshine at the break of day! A
stream of light in an obscured sky! Hope ever causes chords
long forgotten to resound, and existence becomes once again
pleasant as of yore. Such were the feelings which animated
me during that night of happiness when, thanks to you alone,
everything was sheer joy. Thy spirit lifted up mine out of
sadness; never did an intoxication equal the one I then
felt!
Thou hast lost thy gaiety; persecution has stripped you of
it; and has robbed you of your health. The happiness of your
life is already disturbed. But now, and more solidly than
ever, are you attached to me. Nobody will ever be able to
separate us. You have suffered because you love me.
When accounts of what was happening in Bavaria reached England a well
pickled rod was applied to Lola's back:
"The sanguinary and destructive conduct of the Munich mob," began a
furious leading article, "was caused by the supposed return of
Bavaria's famous strumpet, Lola Montez. This heroine was once familiar
to the eyes of all Paris, and notorious as a courtesan. When she was
invested with a title, the Bavarians shuddered at their degradation.
It was nothing less than an outrage on the part of royalty, never to
be forgotten or forgiven."
The columns of _Maga_ also wielded the rod in vigorous fashion:
"The late King, one of the most accomplished of dilettanti,
worst of poets, and silliest of men, had latterly put the
coping-stone to a life of folly by engaging in a most
bare-faced intrigue with the notorious Lola Montez. The
indecency and infatuation of this last _liaison_--far more
openly conducted than any of his former numerous amours--had
given intense umbrage to the nobility whom he had insulted
by elevating the ci-devant opera-dancer to their ranks."
Yet, with all his faults heavy upon him, Ludwig, none the less, had
his points. Thus, in addition to converting Munich from a second-rate
town to a really important capital, he did much to encourage the
development of art and letters and science and education throughout
his kingdom. Ignaz Döllinger, the theologian, Joseph Görres, the
historian, Jean Paul Richter, the poet, Franz Schwanthaler, the
sculptor, and Wilhelm Thirsch, the philosopher, with Richard Wagner
and a host of others basked in his patronage. When he died, twenty
years later, these facts were remembered and his little slips
forgotten. The Müncheners gave him burial in the Basilica; and an
equestrian statue, bearing the inscription, "Just and Persevering,"
was set up in the Odeon-Platz.
It is the fashion among certain historians to charge Lola Montez with
responsibility for the revolution in Bavaria. But this charge is not
justified. The fact is, the kingdom was ripe for revolution; and the
equilibrium of the government was so unstable that Ludwig would have
lost his crown, whether she was in the country or not.
It is just as well to remember this.
V
After a few months among them, Lola, tiring of the Swiss cantons,
thought she might as well discover if England, which she had not
visited for six years, could offer any fresh attractions. Accordingly,
resolved to make the experiment, on December 30, 1848, she arrived in
London.
The _Satirist_, hearing the news, suggested that the managers of Drury
Lane and Covent Garden should engage her as a "draw." But she did not
stop in England very long, as she returned to the Continent almost at
once.
In the following spring, she made a second journey to London, and
sailed from Rotterdam. Unknown to her, the passenger list was to have
included another fallen star. This was Metternich, who, with the
riff-raff of Vienna thundering at the doors of his palace, was
preparing to seek sanctuary in England. Thinking, however, that the
times were not altogether propitious, he decided to postpone the
expedition.
"If," he wrote, "the Chartist troubles had not prevented me embarking
yesterday at Rotterdam, I should have reached London this morning in
the company of the Countess of Landsfeld. She sailed by the steamer in
which I was to have travelled. I thank heaven for having preserved me
from such contact!"
All things considered, it is perhaps just as well that the two
refugees did not cross the Channel together. Had they done so, it is
probable that one of them would have found a watery grave.
Metternich had worsted Napoleon, but he found himself worsted by Lola
Montez. On April 9, he wrote from The Hague:
"I have put off my departure for England, because I wished
to know first what was happening in that country as a result
of the Chartists' disturbance. I consider that, for me who
must have absolute rest, it would have been ridiculous to
have arrived in the middle of the agitation."
Louis Napoleon, however, was made of sterner stuff; and it is to his
credit that, as a return for the hospitality extended him, he was
sworn in as a special constable.