The Magnificent Montez: From Courtesan to ConvertWyndham, Horace
History
The Magnificent Montez: From Courtesan to Convert
Wyndham, Horace
Montez, Lola, 1818-1861
One of her bodyguard managed to make his way to the nearest barracks
and summon assistance. Thereupon, the bugles rang out the alarm; the
drums beat a warning call. In response, a squadron of Cuirassiers
clattered up the Barerstrasse; sabres rattled; and the rioters fled
precipitously.
Prince Wallerstein, who combined the office of Minister of Public
Worship with that of Treasurer of the Royal Household, leaping into
the breach, harangued the mob; and Prince Vrede, a strong adherent to
the "whiff of grapeshot" remedy for a disturbance, suggested firing on
the ringleaders. Although the suggestion was not accepted, hundreds of
arrests were made before some semblance of order was restored. But the
rioting was only checked temporarily. A couple of days later it
started afresh. The temper of the troops being upset, Captain Bauer (a
young officer whom Lola had patronised) took it upon himself to give
them the word to charge. Sabres flashed, and there were many broken
heads and a good deal of bloodshed.
The Alemannia, thinking discretion the better part of valour,
barricaded themselves in the restaurant of one Herr Rothmanner, where
they fortified themselves with vast quantities of beer. Becoming
quarrelsome, their leader, Count Hirschberg, drew his sword and was
threatened with arrest by a schutzmannschaft. Thereupon, his comrades
sent word to Lola. She answered the call, and rushed to the house. It
was a characteristic, but mad, gesture, for she was promptly
recognised and pursued by a furious mob. Nobody would give her
sanctuary; and the Swiss Guards on duty there shut the doors of the
Austrian Legation in her face. Thereupon, she fled to the Theatiner
Church, where she took refuge. But she did not stop there long; and,
for her own safety, a military escort arrived to conduct her to the
main guard-room. As soon as the coast was comparatively clear, she was
smuggled out by a back entrance and making her way on foot to the
Barerstrasse, hid in the garden.
In the meantime fresh attempts were being made to storm her house.
Suddenly, a figure, dishevelled and bare-headed, appeared on the
threshold and confronted the rioters.
"You are behaving like a pack of vulgar blackguards," he exclaimed,
"and not like true Bavarians at all. I give you my word, the house is
empty. Leave it in peace."
A gallant gesture, and a last act of homage to the building that had
sheltered the woman he loved. The mob, recognising the speaker,
uncovered instinctively. _Heil, unserm Koenig, Heil!_ they shouted. A
chorus swelled; the troops presented arms.
"It is an orgy of ingratitude," said Ludwig, as he watched the rabble
dancing with glee before the house. "The Jesuits are responsible. If
my Lola had been called Loyala, she could still have stopped here."
To Dr. Stahl, Bishop of Wurzburg, who had criticised his conduct, he
addressed himself more strongly. "Should a single hair of one I hold
dear to me be injured," he informed that prelate, "I shall exhibit no
mercy."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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