and strait-laced Ebersdorfians dubbed the intruder among
them. There was also some suggestion, advanced by a gardener, that she
had a habit of taking a short cut across the princely flower-beds when
she was in a hurry. This was the last straw.

"Leave my kingdom at once," exclaimed the furious Henry. "You are
nothing but a feminine devil!"

Not in the least discomfited by this change of opinion, Lola riposted
by presenting a lengthy and detailed account for "services rendered";
and, when it had been met (and not before), shook the dust of
Reuss-Lobenstein-Ebersdorf from her pretty feet.

"You can keep your Thuringia," was her parting-shot. "I wouldn't have
it as a gift."

The next places at which she halted were Homburg and Carlsbad, two
resorts then beginning to become popular and attracting a wealthy
crowd seeking a promised "cure" for their various ills. But, finding
the barons apt to be close-fisted, and the smart young lieutenants
without one _pfennig_ in their pockets to rub against another, Lola
was soon continuing her travels.

In September, 1846, she found herself in Wurtemburg, where, much to
her annoyance, she discovered that a certain Amalia Stubenrauch, a
prepossessing damsel, who would now be called a gold-digger, had
conquered the spare affections of King William, on whom Lola herself
had designs. But that large-hearted monarch had, as it happened, few
affections to spare for anybody just then, for, when she encountered
him at Stuttgart, he was on the point of being married to Princess
Olga of Russia. A correspondent of the _Athenaeum_, who was there to
chronicle the wedding festivities for his paper, registered
disapproval at her presence in the district. "From the capital of
Wurtemburg," he announced sourly, "Lola Montez departed in the
_schnellpost_ for Munich, unimpeded by any luggage." Somebody else,
however (perhaps a more careful observer), is emphatic that she "went
off with three carts full of trunks." As she always had a considerable
wardrobe, this is quite possible.

II

When, at the suggestion of Baron Maltitz (a Homburg acquaintance who
had suggested that she should "try her luck in Munich"), Lola set off
for Bavaria, that country was ruled by Ludwig I. A god-child of
Marie-Antoinette, and the son of Prince Max Joseph of Zweibrucken and
Princess Augusta of Hesse-Darmstadt, he was born at Salzburg in 1786
and had succeeded his father in 1825. As a young man, he had served
with the