hem, Lola wrote to the landlord at
their last address:

_2 March, 1848._

SIR,

In case the students of the Alemannia Society have left your
hotel, I beg you to inform my servant, the bearer of this
letter, where Monsieur Peissner, for whom he has a parcel to
deliver, has gone.

Receive in advance my distinguished sentiments.

COUNTESS OF LANDSFELD.

Lola's first halt in Switzerland (a country she described as "that
little Republic which, like a majestic eagle, lies in the midst of the
vultures and cormorants of Europe") was at Geneva. An error of
judgment, for the austere citizens of Calvin's town, setting a
somewhat lofty standard among visitors, were impervious to her
blandishments. "They were," she complained, "as chilly as their own
icicles." At Berne, however, to which she went next, she had better
luck. This was because she met there an impressionable young Charge
d'affaires attached to the British Legation, whom she found "somewhat
younger than Ludwig, but more than twice as silly." An _entente_ was
soon established. "Sometimes riding, and sometimes driving she would
appear in public, accompanied by her youthful adorer."

The official was Robert Peel, a son of the distinguished statesman,
and was afterwards to become third baronet. In a curious little work,
typical of the period, _The Black Book of the British Aristocracy_,
there is an acid allusion to the matter: "This bright youth has just
taken under his protection the notorious Lola Montez, and was lately
to be observed walking with her, in true diplomatic style, in the
streets of a Swiss town."

It was about this period that it occurred to a theatrical manager in
London, looking for a novelty, that there was material for a stirring
drama written round the career of Lola Montez. No sooner said than
done; and a hack dramatist, who was kept on the premises, was
commissioned to set to work. Locked up in his garret with a bottle of
brandy, at the end of a week he delivered the script. This being
approved by the management, it was put into rehearsal, and the
hoardings plastered with bills:

+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| THEATRE ROYAL, HAYMARKET |
| |
| (Under the Patronage of Her Gracious Majesty The Queen, |
| His Royal Highness Prince Albert, and the Elite of Rank and