to the novelty:

THEATRE ROYAL, COVENT GARDEN
Monday, July 10, 1843.

COLOSSAL ATTRACTION!
(For the Benefit of Mr. Fitzball)

EXTRAORDINARY COMBINATION OF TALENT!

During the evening the celebrated DONNA LOLA MONTEZ (whose
recent performance created so pronounced a sensation at Her
Majesty's Theatre) will execute, by special request, her
remarkable dance, "El Oleano."

N.B.--This will positively be the Donna's only appearance in
London, as she departs on Thursday next for St. Petersburg.

"The theatre," says Fitzball, in his account of the evening, "was
crammed. Lola Montez arrived in a splendid carriage, accompanied by
her maid. When she was dressed, she enquired if I thought her costume
would be approved. I have seen sylphs and female forms of the most
dazzling beauty in ballets and fairy dramas, but the most dazzling and
perfect form I ever did gaze upon was that of Lola Montez in her white
and gold attire studded with diamonds. Her bounding before the public
was the signal for general applause and admiration. On the conclusion
of her performance, there was a rapturous and universal call for her
reappearance."

CHAPTER V

A PASSIONATE PILGRIMAGE

I

The "departure for St. Petersburg" was a stretch of Fitzball's
imagination. Where Lola did go when she left England was not to
Russia, but to Belgium. The visit was not a success, as none of the
theatres in Brussels at which she applied for an engagement exhibited
any interest in ballet-dancers, whether they came from Seville, or
elsewhere. A spell of ill luck followed; and, if her own account of
this period is to be trusted, she was reduced to such a pass that in
the Belgian capital she became familiar with the inside of pawnshops
and had to sing in the streets, to secure a lodging. But this "singing
in the streets" business was, if a picturesque one, not an original
touch. It is still in active use, as a stock portion of the
autobiographical equipment of every stage and film heroine who wants
"publicity." Further, if Lola Montez ever did anything of the kind, it
was not for long. A "rich man"--she had a knack of establishing
contact with them--promptly came to the rescue; and, assisted by, it
is said, the mysterious Jean Francois Montez, who had followed her
from London, she shook the inhospitable dust of the Brussels
boulevards