d to thousands. Among them Charles Sumner, the
distinguished jurist, who declared of Lola Montez that, "She was by
far the most graceful and delightful woman I ever met."

Her next scheme for raising the financial wind was to employ her pen.
It was true that her "memoirs," strung together in Paris, had fallen
flat--owing to the pusillanimity of the editor of _Le Pays_--but a
full length "autobiography" would, she thought, stand a better
prospect. Apart, too, from other considerations, there was now more
material on which to draw. An embarrassing amount of it. She could say
something--a lot--about the happenings in Bavaria, in France, in
California, and in Australia. All good stuff, and a field hitherto
untouched.

The pen, however, being still an unaccustomed weapon, she availed
herself of outside help; and practically the whole of the
_Autobiography of Lola Montez_ was written for her (on a
profit-sharing agreement) by a clerical collaborator, the Rev.
Chauncey Burr.

The tale of the Odyssey--as set forth in this joint
production--established contact with glittering circles and the
breathing of perfumed air. Within its chapters emperors and kings and
princes jostle one another; scenes shift continually from capital to
capital; and plots follow counter-plots in breathless fashion. Yet
those who purchased the volume in the fond belief that it would turn
out to be the analysis of a modern Aspasia were disappointed. As a
matter of fact, there was next to nothing in it that would have upset
a Band of Hope committee-meeting. This, however, was largely because,
an adept at skating over thin ice, the Rev. Mr. Burr ignored, or
coloured, such happenings as did not redound to the credit of his
subject.

[Illustration: _Lola Montez in Middle Life. A characteristic pose_]

The "Autobiography" (alleged) finishes on a high note:

"Ten years have elapsed since the events with which Lola
Montez was connected in Bavaria; and yet the malice of the
diffusive and ever vigilant Jesuits is as fresh and as
active as it was at the first hour it assailed her. It is
not too much to say that few artists of her profession ever
escaped with so little censure; and certainly none ever had
the doors of the highest social respectability so
universally open to them as she had, up to the time she went
to Bavaria. And she denies that there was anything in her
conduct there which ought to have comp