the weakness of woman ? In the pursuit of power we
use the instruments easiest to our hands, we attack
our opponents' most vulnerable points. This Lola did ;
this did every strong man of whom history has any
record. Her qualities of mind, as evinced in the adminis-
tration of Bavaria, were of a high order, and in a man
would have commanded success ; but men were dazzled
by her beauty, and cried out to be influenced by that
alone. We esteem in our own sex the faculties by which
we are helped, led, and ruled ; in the other, we prate

231



Lola Montez

of chastity, and value only that which ministers to our
vanity, comfort, and sensuality. Women must be
human in just so far as may conform to our individual
needs. When we prize intellectual worth in women
as highly as physical beauty, it will be time to protest
against the methods of Lola Montez.

She subdued men by their passions, but she ruled
them weU. She challenged history to adduce a case
where a woman had wielded so much power so wisely
and so disinterestedly. She was no Pompadour or
Du Barry to whom the scurrile De Mirecourt compared
her. Guilty at moments, as we all are, of derelictions
from her principles, she was throughout life a lover of
liberty in thought, word, and deed. When Europe
lay under the feet of Metternich and the Ultramon-
tanes, she, almost single-handed, struck a blow for
freedom. The wiles of the cleverest intriguers in
Europe proved powerless against her bold policy.
At scheming she was no adept, trusting, as the strong
will ever trust, to her force and personality to defeat
the manoeuvres of her foes. Had Louis of Bavaria
not bowed before the storm, she and his kingdom would
have played a great part in European history. As it
was, to her intervention Switzerland partly owes the
freedom of her institutions from clerical control. The
terms in which she speaks of that country and of the
United States, though purposely exaggerated, display
her profound sympathy with the principles of democracy.
Setting aside the qualities of the woman, let us grate-
fully acknowledge that Lola Montez, on a small stage
and for a brief period, proved herself an able and
humane administratrix and a staunch friend to liberty.
In her we have another of the'many instances of capacity

232



Last Scene of All

for government as the concomitant of an intensely
feminine temperament.

She was valiant as an antique worthy. She was never
at an end of her resources, never unnerved by catas-
trophe. Disaster after disaster left unexhausted her
marvellous powers of recuperation. She could adapt
herself to all men and all circumstances. She was at
home in the courts of emperors and kings, in the salons
of the learned, in the backwoods of Cahfomia, in the
mining camps of Australia, in the conventicles of New
York. To the Ufe of a recluse in a primeval wilderness
she adapted herself as readily as to a London drawing-
room. She was eloquent in many tongues, witty and
light-hearted, adding to the world's gaiety. She was
kindly and compassionate, cherishing dogs, and all
four-footed things, visiting the sick and the afflicted,
saying a kind word for the despised cooUes of India.
Her money she showered with reckless generosity on
all who stood in need. Her excellences were her own ;
her faults lie at the door of society.



233



SOURCES OF INFORMATION

The files of the following newspapers : Times, Morning Herald, Era,
Illustrated London News ; Le Constitutionnel, Le Figaro, Le Journal
des Debats ; New York Tribune ; Sydney Morning Herald, Melbourne
Argus.

" Autobiography and Lectures of Lola Montez " {by C. Chauncy
Burr); "An Englishman in Paris" (Vandam) ; " Letters from Up-
Country " (Hon. Emily Eden) ; " You have heard of them ? " (Q).
" History of the 44th Regiment " {Carter) ; " Revelations of Russia "
(Henningsen) ; "Life and Adventures" (George A. Sala) ; "Bygone
Years " (Leveson Gower) ; " Eraser's Magazine," 1848 ; " Players
of a Century " (Phelps) ; " New York Stage " (Ireland) ; " Story of
u Penitent " (Hawks) ; " Dictionary of National Biography."

" Les Contemporains " (De Mirecourt) ; " Mes Souvenirs " (Claudin);
" Souvenirs " (Theodore de Banville) ; " Histoire de I'Art Dramatique
en France " (Th&ophile Gautier) ; " Dictionnaire Larousse."

" Ein Vormarzliches Tanzidyll " (Fuchs) ; " Ludwig Augustus "
ISepp) ; " Ludwig I." { Heigel) ; " Unter den vier ersten Konigen
Bayerns " (Kobell) ; " Lola Montez und die Jesuiten " (Erdmann) ;
" Bayern's Erhebung " ; " Franz Liszt als Mensch ung Kunstler "
(Ramann) ; Metternich's Memoirs ; Bernstorff Papers ; etc., etc.