the former. Individual
damnation or salvation in such a case as hers are matters of
strict opinion; but for Lola's brief to the last judgment
there is an ancient tag that might never be more aptly
appended. Like the moral of her life, it is exceedingly
trite--_Quia multum amavit._"

This is well put.

V

Even after she was in it, and might, one would think, have been left
there in peace, the dead woman was not allowed to rest quietly in her
grave. Some years later her mantle was impudently assumed by an
alleged actress, who, dubbing herself "Countess of Landsfeld,"
undertook a lecture tour in America. If she had no other gift, this
one certainly had that of imagination. "I was born," she said to a
reporter, "in Florence, and my mother, Lola Montez, was really married
to the King Ludwig of Bavaria. This marriage was strictly valid, and
my mother's title of countess was afterwards conferred on myself. The
earliest recollections I have are of being brought up by some nuns in
a convent in the Black Forest. But for the help of the good Dr.
Doellinger, who assisted me to escape, I should still have been kept
there, a victim of political interests."

This nonsense was eagerly swallowed; and for some time the
pseudo-"Countess" attracted a following and reaped a rich harvest. It
was not until diplomatic representations were made that her career was
checked.

On Christmas Day, 1898, a New York obituary announced the death of a
woman, Alice Devereux, the wife of a carpenter in poor circumstances.
It further declared that she was the "daughter of the notorious Lola
Montez, and may well have been the grand-daughter of Lord Byron." To
this it added: "Society has maintained a studious and charitable
reserve as to the parentage of Lola Montez. All that is definitely
known on the subject is that a fox-hunting Irish squire, Sir Edward
Gilbert, was the husband of her mother." Thus is "history" written.

Nor would the "Spirits" leave poor Lola in peace. In the year 1888 a
woman "medium," calling herself Madam Anna O'Delia Diss DeBar (but,
under pressure, admitting to several _aliases_) claimed to be a
daughter of Lola Montez. As such, she conducted a number of seances,
and, in return for cash down, evoked the spirit of her alleged mother.
Some of the cash was extracted from the pocket of a credulous lawyer,
one Luther Marsh. Thinking he had not had fair value for his dollars,
he eventually prosecuted Ma