y introducing her with the remark: "Gentlemen, I have
the honour to present to you my best friend. See to it that you accord
her every possible respect." He also compelled his long suffering
spouse to admit her to the Order of the Chanoines of St. Therese, a
distinction for which--considering her somewhat lurid "past"--this new
recipient was scarcely eligible.

When he heard that instructions had been issued for paying special
compliments to her, Mr. _Punch_ registered severe disapproval.

"It is a good joke," he remarked, "to call upon others to uphold the
dignity of one who is always at some freak or other to lower herself."

When she first sailed in dramatic fashion into the orbit of Bavaria's
sovereign, Lola Montez was just twenty-seven. In the full noontide of
her beauty and allurement, she was well equipped with what the modern
jargon calls sex-appeal. Big-bosomed and with generously swelling
curves, "her form," says Eduard Fuchs, "was provocation incarnate."
Fuchs, who was an expert on the subject of feminine attractions, knew
what he was talking about. "Shameless and impudent," adds Heinrich von
Treitschke, "and as insatiable in her voluptuous desires as Sempronia,
she could converse with charm among friends; manage mettlesome horses;
sing in thrilling fashion; and recite amorous poems in Spanish. The
King, an admirer of feminine beauty, yielded to her magic. It was as
if she had given him a love philtre. For her he forgot himself; he
forgot the world; and he even forgot his royal dignity."

The fact that Lola always wore a Byronic collar helped the theory,
held by many, that she was a daughter of the poet. But her real reason
for adopting the style was that she had a lovely neck, and this set it
off to the best advantage. She studied the art of dress and gave it an
immense amount of care. Where this matter was concerned, no trouble or
care was too much. Her favourite material was velvet, which she
considered--and quite justifiably--to exercise an erotic effect on men
of a certain age. She was insistent, too, that the contours of her
figure ("her quivering thighs and all the demesnes adjacent thereto")
should be clearly revealed, and in a distinctly provocative fashion.
This, of course, was not far removed from exhibitionism. As a result,
bourgeois opinion was outraged. The wives of the petty officials
shopping in the Marienplatz shuddered, and clutched their ample skirts
when they saw her; anxious mothers in