rs. This they held to be "an affront to the
honour of the Palatia," and the offenders, glorying in their conduct,
were expelled by the committee. Thereupon, they joined with Fritz
Peissner when he was thinking of establishing a fresh corps.

In her new position, Lola did not forget her old friends. Feeling her
situation with Ludwig secure, she wrote to Liszt, offering him "the
highest order that Bavaria could grant." He declined the suggestion,
and sent word of her doings to Madame d'Agoult:

Apropos of this too celebrated Anglo-Spanish woman, have you
heard that King Louis of Bavaria has demanded the sacrifice
of her theatrical career? and that he is keeping her at
Munich (where he has bought her a house) in the quality of a
favourite Sultanah?

Later on, he returned to the subject:

I have been specially pleased with a couple of allusions to
Lola and this poor Mariette; but, to be perfectly
candid--and being afraid that you would find the subject a
little indecorous--I began to reproach myself for having
mentioned it to you in my last letter from Czernowitz.

In speaking of Lola, you tell me that you defend her (which
I do also, but not for the same reasons) because she stands
for progress. Then, a page further on, in resuming the
subject at Vienna, you find me very young to still believe
in justice, not realising that, in this little circle of
ideas and things, I represent in Europe a progressive and
intelligent movement. "Alas! Who represents anything in
Europe to-day?" you enquire with Bossuet.

Well, then, Lola stands for the nineteenth century, and
Daniel Stern stands for the woman of the ninth century; and,
were it not for having contributed to the representation of
others, I too shall finish by representing something else,
by means of the 25,000 francs of income it will be necessary
for me to end up by securing.

CHAPTER IX

"MAITRESSE DU ROI"

I

The role for which Lola cast herself was that of La Pompadour to the
Louis XV of Ludwig I. She had been a coryphee. Now she was a
courtesan. History was repeating itself. Like an Agnes Sorel or a Jane
Shore before her, she held in Munich the semi-official and quite
openly acknowledged position of the King's mistress. It is said of her
that she was so proud of the title and all it implied, that she would
add "Maitresse du Roi" t