This idyllic life at Possenhofen was interrupted for a time, however, by the political agitations in Munich. All over Europe the spirit of revolution was stirring, a spirit that was soon to find expression in a general outbreak. Nowhere did the royal power seem more secure than in Bavaria. No monarch was more beloved than Ludwig the First, no people so universally loyal to the crown as his good-natured, easy-going subjects. Nevertheless the popular upheaval was here, too, bearing fruit, and a demand for more share in the government, with a freer constitution, was becoming general, although the immediate cause of the outbreak in Munich and the King’s subsequent abdication had seemingly little to do with politics. About this time a very beautiful and fascinating public dancer, called Lola Montez, made her appearance there and created a great sensation. Her origin was obscure and uncertain; but the best authorities seem to make her the daughter of an Irish officer and a beautiful Spanish woman of Moorish descent. She was born in Ireland in 1820 and at the age of seventeen married one Lieutenant James, with whom she went to the West Indies. She soon left her husband, however, and returned to England, where she prepared herself to become a dancer. While hardly a regular beauty, Lola Montez seems to have possessed in the highest degree what the French call _la beauté du diable_. She had wonderful black hair, fiery eyes that could change in an instant to melting warmth, a perfect figure, with hands and feet so small and beautifully shaped that a duchess might have envied them. Her first appearance in London met with no great success—a marked contrast to the enthusiasm she afterward excited everywhere she went. After a season in Paris she obtained a permanent position at the royal theatre in Dresden, where she created a tremendous sensation and was shown great favor by the court. From there she went to Berlin, Warsaw, and St. Petersburg, making a succession of conquests and also many enemies by her violent temper and the frequent use she made of her riding-whip or dagger.