turning on him furiously,
"I'll get someone who can. A change of air may do you good."

The next morning the discomfited Baron Pechman found himself _degomme_
and a successor appointed to his office.

The intrigue was too openly conducted to be "hushed up." Word of what
was happening in Munich soon filtered through to Vienna. Queen
Caroline-Augusta, Ludwig's sister, shook her head. "Alas," she sighed,
"my wretched brother is always bringing fresh shame on me." She wrote
him letters of tearful protest. They were ignored. She protested by
word of mouth. Ludwig, in unbrotherly fashion, told her to "mind her
own business." Caroline's next move was to take clerical counsel.
"These creatures are always venal," said the Jesuits. "They only care
for cash." An emissary was accordingly despatched to the Barerstrasse
mansion, to convey an offer. Unfortunately, however, he had not
advanced beyond "_Gnaedige Frau, erlauben_," when he himself
capitulated to Lola's charms, and returned to the Hofburg, his task
unaccomplished. Still, he must have made out some sort of story to
save his face, for the Princess Melanie wrote: "Our good Senfft has
come back. He was unable to speak to Lola Montez. The poor country of
Bavaria is in a sad condition, which gets worse every day."

The least disturbed individual appeared to be Queen Therese. Her
attitude was one of placidity itself. But perhaps she was, by this
time, accustomed to the dalliance of her Ludwig along the primrose
path. Also, she probably knew by experience that it was not the
smallest use making a fuss. The milk was spilled. To cry over it now
would be a wasted effort.

The King's favourite was good "copy" for the Bavarian press; and the
Munich journals were filled with accounts of her activities. Not in
the least upset by their uncomplimentary references to himself, Ludwig
instructed his librarian, Herr Lichenthaler, to collect all the
pasquinades, lampoons, squibs, and caricatures (many of them far from
flattering, and others verging on the indecent) that appeared and have
them sumptuously bound. It was not long before enough had been
assembled to fill half a dozen volumes. His idea was "to preserve for
posterity all this mountain of mud, as a witness of Bavaria's shame."
That somebody else was responsible for the "shame" did not occur to
him.

A choice specimen among the collection was one entitled _Lola Montez,
oder Des Mench gehoert dem Koenige_ ("Lola Montez, or the We