Lola Montez : $b An adventuress of the 'fortiesD'Auvergne, Edmund B. (Edmund Basil)
History
Lola Montez : $b An adventuress of the 'forties
D'Auvergne, Edmund B. (Edmund Basil)
Montez, Lola, 1818-1861
enemies, is one which deserves a place in the gallery of heroic deeds.
The King immediately gave effect to Lola's threat. On 9th February he
signed a decree closing the University, and ordered all students not
natives of the city to leave it within twenty-four hours. The edict threw
all Munich into consternation. The departure of upwards of a thousand
young men, many of them wealthy and well-connected, meant a serious blow
to trade and a rending of innumerable social ties. The students marched,
singing songs of adieu, to present a valedictory address to the Rector.
The citizens bestirred themselves, and to the number of two thousand
signed a petition, imploring His Majesty to reconsider the decision. Louis
inclined a favourable ear to their prayers, and announced on 10th February
that the University would remain closed only for the summer term.
This act of weakness cost Louis I. his mistress and his crown.
The revolutionary party perceived that this was the moment to strike. The
King had yielded; the students were exultant and conscious of their
strength; the townsfolk were weary of this ceaseless conflict between the
Countess and her foes. Your good, old-fashioned burgher cares nothing for
the rights and wrongs of a public dispute; he wishes to be left in peace
to turn a penny into three half-pence, and to achieve that end is as ready
to sacrifice the innocent as the guilty. Jacob Vennedey, a publicist and
Radical famous in his day, writing from Frankfort, did his utmost to fan
the flame of revolution.
"The King of Bavaria," so ran an article, "wastes the sweat of the
poor country on mistresses and their followers. Everybody knows that
the jewellery which Lola wore lately at the theatre cost 60,000
guldens; that her house in the Barerstrasse is a fairy palace; that
the Cabinet, the Council of State, and the whole civil service are at
her beck and call; that the _gendarmerie_ and military are her
particular escort; that the best Catholic professors at the University
have been dismissed at her caprice. For the people nothing is done."
The last statement was untrue. If, too, the sixty thousand guldens had
come out of the people's pockets, Lola had well earned them by her
services in emancipating the country from its clerical oppressors.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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