rts of the Colony, however, Lola's reception more than made
up for any little unpleasantnesses at Ballarat. "Her popularity," says
William Kelly, an Australian squatter, "was not limited to the stage.
She was welcomed with rapture on the gold fields, and all the more for
the liberal fashion in which she 'shouted' when returning the
hospitality of the diggers. Her pluck, too, delighted them, for she
would descend the deepest shafts with as much nonchalance as if she
were entering a boudoir."

From Sandhurst Lola Montez travelled to Bendigo, where the tour
finished. There, says a pressman, "she lived on terms of the most
cordial amity with the entire populace, and without a single
disturbing incident to ruffle the serenity of the intercourse."

V

Having completed her tour in Australia, with considerable profit to
herself, Lola Montez disbanded her company, and, in the autumn of
1856, returned to Europe. She had several offers from London; but,
feeling that a rest was well earned, she left the ship at Marseilles
and took a villa at St. Jean de Luz. While there, she appears to have
occupied a certain amount of public attention. At any rate, Emile de
Girardin, thinking it good "copy," reprinted in _La Presse_ a letter
she had written to the _Estafette_:

ST. JEAN DE LUZ,

_September 3, 1856._

Sir: The French and Belgian papers are announcing as a
positive fact that the suicide of Monsieur Mauclerc (who
deliberately precipitated himself from the top of the Pic du
Midi cliff) was caused by various troubles I had occasioned
him. If he were still living, Monsieur Mauclerc would
himself, I feel certain, contradict this calumny.

It is true that we were married; but, finding, after eight
days, that our union was not likely to turn out a happy one,
we parted by mutual consent. The story of my responsibility
for the Pic du Midi business only exists in the imaginative
brain of some journalist who revels in supplying tragic
details. Anyhow, Mr. Editor, I count upon your sympathy to
exculpate me from any share in the melancholy event.--Yours,
LOLA MONTEZ.

Mauclerc, however, so far from being dead, was still very much alive,
and was sunning himself just then at Bayonne. Having read this letter,
he answered it in the next issue:

I have just seen in the columns of _La Presse_ a letter from
Lola Montez. This gives an account of a de