MONTEZ IN CARICATURE. "LOLA ON THE ALLEMANNEN HOUND"

BERRYMEAD PRIORY, ACTON, WHERE LOLA MONTEZ LIVED WITH CORNET HEALD

LOLA MONTEZ IN LONDON. AGED THIRTY

A "BELLE OF THE BOULEVARDS." LOLA MONTEZ IN PARIS

THE "SPIDER DANCE." CAUSE OF MUCH CRITICISM

LOLA MONTEZ IN "LOLA IN BAVARIA." A "PLAY WITH A PURPOSE"

LOLA AS A LECTURER. FROM STAGE TO PLATFORM

LOLA MONTEZ IN MIDDLE LIFE. A CHARACTERISTIC POSE

"LECTURES AND LIFE." FROM STAGE TO PLATFORM

COUNTESS OF LANDSFELD. A FAVOURITE PORTRAIT

GRAVE OF LOLA MONTEZ, IN GREEN-WOOD CEMETERY, NEW YORK

* * * * *

THE MAGNIFICENT MONTEZ

CHAPTER I

PRELUDE TO ADVENTURE

I

In a tearful column, headed "Necrology of the Year," a mid-Victorian
obituarist wrote thus of a woman figuring therein:

This was one who, notwithstanding her evil ways, had a share
in some public transactions too remarkable to allow her name
to be omitted from the list of celebrated persons deceased
in the year 1861.

Born of an English or Irish family of respectable rank, at a
very early age the unhappy girl was found to be possessed of
the fatal gift of beauty. She appeared for a short time on
the stage as a dancer (for which degradation her sorrowing
relatives put on mourning, and issued undertakers' cards to
signify that she was now dead to them) and then blazed forth
as the most notorious Paphian in Europe.

Were this all, these columns would not have included her
name. But she exhibited some very remarkable qualities. The
natural powers of her mind were considerable. She had a
strong will, and a certain grasp of circumstances. Her
disposition was generous, and her sympathies very large.
These qualities raised the courtesan to a singular position.
She became a political influence; and exercised a
fascination over sovereigns and ministers more widely
extended than has perhaps been possessed by any other member
of the _demi-monde_. She ruled a kingdom; and ruled it,
moreover, with dignity and wisdom and ability. The political
Hypatia, however, was sacrificed to the rabble. Her power
was gone, and she could hope no more from the flattery of
statesmen. She became an adventuress of an inferior class.
Her intrigues, her duels, and her horse-whippings made her
for a time a notoriety in London, Paris, and Americ