The Magnificent Montez Part 12

_Tropfen der Seligkeit und ein Meer von bitteren Leiden Die Italienerin gab--Seligkeit, Seligkeit nur La.s.sest Du mich entzundend, begeistert, befandig empfinden, In der Spanierin fand Liebe und Leben ich nur!_

A free rendering of this pa.s.sionate heart throb would read very much as follows:

Drops of bliss and a sea of bitter sorrow The Italian woman gave me. Bliss, only bliss, Thou gav'st my enraptured heart and soul and spirit.

In the Spanish woman alone have I found Love and Life!

Ludwig had a prettier name for his inamorata than the "feminine devil"

of Henry LXXII of Reuss. He called her the "Lovely Andalusian" and the "Woman of Spain." She also inspired him to fresh poetic flights. One of these ran:

Thine eyes are blue as heavenly vaults Touched by the balmy air; And like the raven's plumage is Thy dark and glistening hair!

There were several more verses.

A feature of the Residenz Palace was a collection of old masters.

Wanting to add a young mistress, Ludwig allotted a place of honour among them to a portrait of Lola Montez, from the brush of Josef Stieler. The work was well done, for the artist was inspired by his subject; and he painted her wearing a costume of black velvet, with a touch of colour added by red carnations in her head-dress.

Ludwig's heart being large, _Die Schonheitengalerie_ (as the "Gallery of Beauties" was called) filled two separate rooms. The one qualification for securing a niche on the walls being a pretty face, the collection included the Princess Alexandra of Bavaria (daughter of the King of Greece), the Archd.u.c.h.ess Sophie of Austria, and the Baroness de Krudener (catalogued as the "spiritual sister" of the Czar Alexander I), a popular actress, Charlotte Hagen, a ballet-dancer, Antoinette Wallinger, and the daughters of the Court butcher and the munic.i.p.al town-crier. To these were added a quartet of Englishwomen, in Lady Milbanke (the wife of the British Minister), Lady Ellenborough, Lady Jane Erskine, and Lady Teresa Spence. It was to this gallery that Ludwig was accustomed to retire for a couple of hours every evening, to "meditate" on the charms of its occupants.

Being, however, possessed of generous instincts, and always ready (within limits) to share his good things, the public were admitted on Sunday afternoons.

But Ludwig could scratch, as well as purr. On one occasion he chanced to meet a lady who had figured among the occupants of the _Schonheiten_. She was considerably past the first flush of youth, and Ludwig, exercising his prerogative, affected not to remember her.

"But, Sire," she protested, "I used to be in your gallery."

"That, madame," was the response, "must have been a very long time ago. You would certainly not be there now."

II

From her modest hotel, where, soon tiring of his society, she left Auguste Papon to stay by himself, Lola took up fresh quarters in a small villa which the King had placed at her disposal in the Theresienstra.s.se, a boulevard conveniently near the Hofgarten and the Palace. While comfortable enough, it was held to be merely a temporary arrangement. There was not enough room in it for Lola to expand her wings. She wanted to establish a _salon_ and to give receptions.

Accordingly, she demanded something more suitable. It meant spending money, and Ludwig had already, he reflected, spent a great deal on her whims and fancies. Still, under pressure, he came round, and, agreeing that there must be a fitting nest for his love-bird (with a perch in it for himself), he summoned his architect, Metzger, and instructed him to build one in the more fashionable Barerstra.s.se.

"No expense is to be spared," he said.

None was spared.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Supper-Party at Les Freres Provencaux. First act in a Tragedy_]

The new dwelling, which adjoined the Karolinen Platz, was really a bijou palace, modelled on the Italian style. Everything in it was of the best, for Ludwig had cash and Lola had taste. Thus, her toilet-set was of silver ware; her china and gla.s.s came from Dresden: the rooms were filled with costly nicknacks; mirrors and cabinets and vases and bronzes; richly-bound books on the shelves; and valuable tapestries and pictures on the walls. French elegance, added to Munich art, with a touch of solid English comfort in the shape of easy chairs and couches.

To check a playful habit that the Munich mob had of throwing bricks through them, when they had drunk more beer than they could carry, the windows were fitted with iron grilles. As a further precaution, a mounted officer always accompanied the Barerstra.s.se chatelaine when she was driving in public, and sentries stood at the door, to keep the curious at a respectful distance.

A description of the Barerstra.s.se nest was sent to London by a privileged journalist who had inspected it:

"The style of luxury in which Lola Montez lives here pa.s.ses all bounds. Nothing to equal it has been met with in Munich. It might almost be an Aladdin's palace! The walls of her bed-chamber are hung with guipure and costly satin. The furniture is of Louis XV era, and the mantelpiece is of valuable Sevres porcelain. The garden is filled with rare flowers, and the carriages and horses in the stables are the wonder and envy of the honest burghers."

"The Queen herself could not be better housed," said Lola delightedly, when she saw all the luxuries of which she was now the mistress.

"You are my Queen," declared Ludwig fondly.

While Lola, to please her patron, grappled with the intricacies of the German tongue, Ludwig, to please his charmer, took lessons from her in Spanish. She still stuck to her Andalusian upbringing, and is said (but the report lacks confirmation) to have introduced him to a Kempis. This, however, is probably a misprint for Don Quixote. None the less, her inspiration was such that her pupil could write:

Thou dost not wound thy lover with heartless tricks; Nor dost thou play with him wantonly.

Thou art not for self; thy nature is generous and kind.

My beloved! Thou art munificent and unchanging.

"Give me happiness!" I begged with fierce longing.

And happiness I received from thee, thou Woman of Spain!

Notwithstanding the suggestion implied by this a.s.surance, Lola always insisted that her relations with the King were purely platonic. While this view is a little difficult to accept, it is significant that Ludwig's lawful spouse never objected to their "friendship." Her Majesty, however, was of a placid temperament. Perhaps, too, she thought that the fancy would not endure. If so, she was wrong, for, with the pa.s.sage of time, the newcomer was obviously consolidating her position. "Lola Montez, of horse-whipping notoriety," remarked a journalist, "appears to be increasing in favour at the Court of Bavaria. The Queen calls her 'My dear,' and the ladies consider it their duty to caress the one who has all the world of Munich at her feet."

During the summer, Ludwig, divesting himself of the cares of state, retired to his castle at Bruckenau, picturesquely situated in the Fulda Forest; and Lola, attended by a squadron of Cuira.s.siers, accompanied him to this retreat. There, as in the Nymphenburg Park, Ludwig dreamed dreams, while Lola amused herself with the officers of the escort. Halcyon days--and nights. They inspired His Majesty with yet another "poem":

SONG OF WALHALLA

Through the holy dome, oh come, Brothers, let us roam along; Let from thousand throats the hum Rise, like rivers, swift and strong!

When the notes have died away Let us clasp each other's hand; And, to high Heaven, let us pray For our dearest Fatherland!

While she accorded it full value, Lola Montez did not depend on mere beauty for her power. She had a markedly s.a.d.i.s.tic vein in her composition; and, when annoyed, was not above laying about her right and left with a dog-whip that she always carried. An impudent lackey would be flogged into submission, or set upon by a fierce mastiff that she kept at her heels. High office, too, meant nothing to her. She boxed the ears of Baron Pechman; and, because he chanced to upset her, she encouraged her four-coated companion to tear the best trousers of Professor Lasaulx, the nephew of Gorrez, a Cabinet Minister.

Her English bulldog (with apparently a strain of Presbyterian blood in him) had an unerring scent for Jesuits. He seemed to disapprove of their principles as much as his mistress did, and would attack them at sight. This animal would also appear to have been something of a prohibitionist. At any rate, he once bit a brewer's carman, delivering goods to a _bierkeller_. When the victim expostulated, Lola struck him with her whip. This infuriated the crowd to such an extent that she had to take refuge in a shop. There she happened to jostle a lieutenant, who, not recognising her, ventured on a protest. The next morning he received a challenge from a fire-eating comrade, alleging that he had "insulted a lady." Because the challenge was refused, a "court of honour" had him deprived of his commission.

III

What a distressed commentator has dubbed the "equivocal position" of Lola Montez at Munich also stuck in the gullet of the Cabinet, and heads were shaken. Public affronts were offered her. When she visited the Odeon Theatre, the stalls adjoining the one she occupied were promptly emptied. "Respectable women drew back, exhibiting on their countenances disgust and terror." But the masculine members of the audience were less exclusive, or perhaps made of sterner material, for they displayed eagerness to fill up the vacant stalls. "A new chivalry was born," says a chronicler of town gossip, "and paladins were anxious to act as a buckler."

With the pa.s.sage of time the infatuation of the Wittelsbach Lovelace became so marked that it could not be ignored in places beyond Munich.

The Countess Bernstorff grew seriously perturbed. "There has long been talk," she confided to a friend, "as to whether King Ludwig would so far presume on the kindness and indulgence of the Queen of Prussia as to bring Lola Montez to Court during Her Majesty's forthcoming stay in Munich." The problem, however, was solved by the tactful action of Lola herself, who gave the palace a wide berth until the visit had come to an end.

In his _Memoirs of Madam Jenny Lind-Goldschmidt_ shocked horror is similarly expressed by Canon Scott Holland at the possibility of the Swedish Nightingale, who was arranging to give a concert there, encountering Lola in her audience:

The time fixed for this visit to Munich was, in one respect, most unpropitious; and, for a young artist, unsupported by powerful moral protection, the visit itself might well have proved extremely unpleasant. It was impossible to sing at Court, for the reigning spirit in the household of King Ludwig I was the notorious Lola Montez, who was then at the climax of her ill-gotten power. To have been brought into contact with such a person would have been intolerable. An invitation to Court would have rendered such contact inevitable.

But if Jenny Lind adopted a lofty att.i.tude and refused to fulfil an engagement in the Bavarian capital, lest she should have chanced to rub shoulders with Ludwig's mistress, other visitors did not share these qualms. They arrived in battalions, and evinced no disinclination to make her acquaintance. "To the shame of the aristocracy and the arts," says a rigid commentator, "every day there were to be found at the feet of this Cyprian intruder a throng of princes and philosophers, authors and painters, and sculptors and musicians."

Fresh tactics to get her out of Munich were then adopted. When, however, somebody remarked that Ludwig was old enough to be her grandfather, she sent him away with a flea in his ear.

"It is ridiculous to talk like that," she said. "My Ludwig's heart is young. If you knew the strength of his pa.s.sion, you would not credit him with being more than twenty!"

As for Ludwig himself he was bombarded with anonymous letters and warnings, calling Lola by every evil name that occurred to the writers. She was La Pompadour and the Semp.r.o.nia of Sall.u.s.t in one, a "voluptuous woman," and a "flame of desire." There were also tearful protests from the higher clergy, who, headed by Archbishop Diepenbrock, were positive that the "dancing woman" was an emissary of Satan (sometimes they said of Lord Palmerston) sent from England to destroy the Catholic religion in Bavaria.

Ludwig was curt with His Grace. "You stick to your _stola_," he said, "and let me stick to my Lola."

A soft answer, perhaps; but not a very satisfactory one.

"It is all very well for kings to have mistresses," was the opinion of the more broad-minded, "but they should select them from their own countrywomen. This one is a foreigner. Why should our hard-earned money be lavished on her?" The grievance was, as it happened, well founded, for Lola was drawing 20,000 marks a year, wrung from the pockets of the tax-payers.