ajesty's Theater: "WHY, IT'S BETTY JAMES!"

She was, indeed, Betty James, and London would not accept her as Lola
Montez. She left England and appeared upon the Continent as a beautiful
virago, making a sensation--as the French would say, a succes de
scandale--by boxing the ears of people who offended her, and even on
one occasion horsewhipping a policeman who was in attendance on the
King of Prussia. In Paris she tried once more to be a dancer, but Paris
would not have her. She betook herself to Dresden and Warsaw, where she
sought to attract attention by her eccentricities, making mouths at the
spectators, flinging her garters in their faces, and one time removing
her skirts and still more necessary garments, whereupon her manager
broke off his engagement with her.

An English writer who heard a great deal of her and who saw her often
about this time writes that there was nothing wonderful about her
except "her beauty and her impudence." She had no talent nor any of the
graces which make women attractive; yet many men of talent raved about
her. The clever young journalist, Dujarrier, who assisted Emile
Girardin, was her lover in Paris. He was killed in a duel and left Lola
twenty thousand francs and some securities, so that she no longer had
to sing in the streets as she did in Warsaw.

She now betook herself to Munich, the capital of Bavaria. That country
was then governed by Ludwig I., a king as eccentric as Lola herself. He
was a curious compound of kindliness, ideality, and peculiar ways. For
instance, he would never use a carriage even on state occasions. He
prowled around the streets, knocking off the hats of those whom he
chanced to meet. Like his unfortunate descendant, Ludwig II., he wrote
poetry, and he had a picture-gallery devoted to portraits of the
beautiful women whom he had met.

He dressed like an English fox-hunter, with a most extraordinary hat,
and what was odd and peculiar in others pleased him because he was odd
and peculiar himself. Therefore when Lola made her first appearance at
the Court Theater he was enchanted with her. He summoned her at once to
the palace, and within five days he presented her to the court, saying
as he did so:

"Meine Herren, I present you to my best friend."

In less than a month this curious monarch had given Lola the title of
Countess of Landsfeld. A handsome house was built for her, and a
pension of twenty thousand florins was granted her. This was in 1847.
Wi