The Magnificent Montez: From Courtesan to ConvertWyndham, Horace
History
The Magnificent Montez: From Courtesan to Convert
Wyndham, Horace
Montez, Lola, 1818-1861
"The woman who revives in the nineteenth century the scandals of
Jeanne Vaubernier belongs to our gallery, and the abject materialism
accompanying her misconduct will be revealed in the pages that
follow."
De Mirecourt was not too happy in his self-appointed task. Like
everything else from his pen, the entire section is distinctly
imaginative. Thus, he declares that Lola, while living in Madrid, was
"supported by five or six great English lords"; and, among other
amorous incidents, says that a Brahmin priest fell in love with her;
that she conducted a "scandalous intrigue" with a young French
diplomat who was carrying despatches to the Emperor of China; and that
her husband, Lieutenant James, once intercepted a tender passage
between herself and a rajah. Further embroideries assert that Lola's
father was the son of a Lady Gilbert, and that her mother was the
daughter of a "Moorish warrior who abjured paganism." To this
rigmarole he adds that she was sent to a boarding-school at Bath, kept
by a Mrs. Olridge, where she had an early _liaison_ with the
drawing-master.
It was perhaps as well for de Mirecourt, and others of his kidney,
that libel actions had not then been added to the perils of
authorship. Still, if they had, Lola would not have troubled to bring
one. To take proceedings in America against a man living in France was
difficult. Also, by this time she was so accustomed to studied
misrepresentation and deliberate falsehoods that she refused to
interfere.
"It doesn't matter what people choose to say about me," she remarked
contemptuously, when she was informed by a friend in Paris of the
liberties being taken with her name.
Although (except when she took it into her own hands) she liked to
keep clear of the law, this was not always possible. Such an instance
occurred in March, 1858, when a Mr. Jobson of New York brought an
action against her in respect of an alleged debt. The proceedings
would appear to have been conducted in a fashion that must have been
peculiar to the time and place; and, in an effort to discredit her,
she was subjected to a cross-examination that would now be described
as "third degree."
"Were you not," began the plaintiff's counsel, "born in Montrose, the
daughter of one Molly Watson?"
When this was denied, he put his next question.
"How many intrigues have you had during your career?"
"None," was the answer.
"We'll see about that, Madam," returned the other, consulting his
brief. "To begin with, were you not the mistress of King Ludwig?"
"You are a vulgar villain," exclaimed Lola indignantly. "I can swear
on the Bible, which I read every night, but you don't, that I never
had what you call an 'intrigue' with him. As a matter of fact, I did
him a lot of good."
"In what way?" enquired the judge, looking interested.
"Well, I moulded his mind to the love of freedom."
"Before you ran off with your first husband," continued counsel, "were
you not employed as a chambermaid?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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