SINGULAR LIFE OF LOLA MONTES.

Marlborough Daily Times, Volume II, Issue 170, 5 November 1880, Page 2 (Supplement)

SINGULAR LIFE OF LOLA MONTES.

Lola Montes, a beautiful i!<niwns<\ came to Munich from Paris, overflowing with a passionate entfiusiasm for liberty, cquali y. and fraternity, a sentiment she had imbibed under the auspices of a young journalist named Du jarrier. At Munich her beauty and distinguished manners attracted the notice of the King. From that moment .Bavaria and its king were governed by Lola Montes. This adventuress’s exit from Paris was as picturesque as her rise into power at Munich. Du jarrier, who was editor of ‘La I’resse,’ quarrelled with a political opponent named Beauvallon. Beauvallon challenged him to a duel, which they fought in the Buis do Bulogno. Du jarrier, who could not fiit a mark as large as a man twice in fourteen times, was shot through the brain. For this' honourable murder Beauvallon was tried at Rouen and acquitted. Among the witnesses at the trial were Alexandre Dumas, who was a friend of Dnjarrier, and Lola Montes. This is what the journals said of Lolas part in the tragedy : —* Mudle. do Montes had expressed a desire to lie introduced to .Beauvallon and go to the dinner, but Dnjarrier positively refused to allow it. She received the letter on her return from rehearsal, and immediately took measures to prevent the duel, but it was too late. ‘ 1 was,’ said she. in her testimony, ‘a better shot than Dnjarrier, and if Beauvallon wanted satisfaction I would have fought him myself.’ She received the corpse from the carriage, and the emotion which she then experienced was still visible in her testimony. .Dujarrier evidently entertained a warm affection for her, as, in addition to his farewell letter, lie wrote a will on the morning of the duel, leaving her the principal part of h’s estate.’ Before Lola Montes became thus notorious, her life had been a very varied one. Her baptismal name was Marie Dolores Eliza Rosanna Gilbert, and she was born of respectable parents in the city of Limerick in the year LSIB. Her mother was of Bpani.sk descent. Her father was an officer in the 4:Rii regiment. Short!/ after her birth her parents took her to India. Here her father died of cholera, and, her mother speedily re-marrying, Dolores, or Lola, as she was always called, was sent to Europe, where she was placed under the care of a Scotch family at Montrose. From Montrose she went to France, and thence to Bath. Bath was at that time a centre of fashion, and Lola’s visit there was a crisis in her life. She had inherited from her mixed Irish and Spanish descent a fierce passionate temperament;, and education and example had done nothing to modify it. Her mother did nothing by her example to correct the faults of the daugl ter, and unfortunately all other difficulties were complicated by L -la’s consciousness that sim possessed the aliMibduing gift of beauty. Under the eircu instances, for Lola to finish her education with a, fashionable course at Bath was about the most fatal thing that could happen to her. While at Bati: her mother arranged a marriage between her and a gouty old judge of sixty. Lola objected ; her mother insisted on her obedience. The impetuous girl settled the dispute by eloping with a captain named .lames, to wliian she was married at Neath, in the month of July 1887. C iptaiu James ro-

mained in Ireland with bis wife eight months, when h i joined his regiment, the dlst Bengal Native Foot, in India. Differences arose, by mutual desire a divorce was obtained, and Lola was sent back to Europe at the close of the year IP I'd. It was decided by her friends that she should take up her residence witli a branch of her father-in-law’s family at Forth. Lola retained no pleasant memories of her previous residence with a Oalvanistic Scotch family, ami she refused to accompany nil - . David Craigio, who was waiting to escort her to Forth She had a small sum of money with which her friends had supplied her before 11 nitting India, and on this she lived for a time. Ib-r intention was to become an actress, but deficient English was a i at* to her immediate appearance, so it was settled that she should be a 8,»,/,•. </.„. A Spanish teacher of that art was soon procured, with whom she studied for four months, after which she made her debut

at Her Majesty’s Theatre. As a danmise she was not very successful, but her style preved a source of attraction in various cities of the Continent, and eventually placed her in power at Munich. There, to the surprise of every one, she ruled with wisdom and ability, but her innovations created numerous enemies, who, working on the popular dislike to her foreign extraction and equivocal position, roused disturbances which ended in her expulsion from the kingdom. During her brief tenure of power she unquestionably assisted the Liberal party in Bavaria. King Ludwig, after she had been at Munich a few months, raised her to the ranks of the nobility with the title of Countess of Handsfeld, and gave her an estate of the same name with certain feudal privileges and rights which yielded an income of over To,ooo per annum. When the popular disturbances drove her from Bavaria bo even endeavoured to bring her back again, but was prevented. Her estates were confiscated and her naturalisation _as a Bavarian subject vas cancelled. A arious descriptions of her appearance about this time are extant. In person she was of the middle height, slender, with a mass of raven-black hair, and large lustrous eves of a deep blue almost approaching black, with long black lashes. '1 he lower part of her face was symmetrical, the upper part not so good, owing to rat nor prominent cheek-bones. Her chin was somewhat ungracefully sharp, her nose was delicately fashioned with thin mobile nostrils whoso vibrations betrayed every emotion of anger or pleasure. Her complexion was pale and dark. Seen in repose she did not merit her great reputation as a beauty ; but when in motion or speaking, her vivaciry and the expressiveness which lit up her mobile features and magnificent eyes made her undeniably fascinating. She was a charming and eloquent talker, and displayed in her conversation a wide and keen intelligence and a mental grasp unusual in a woman. From Bavaria Lolo was conveyed under arrest to Switzerland, whence she came to London. Her arrival in the metropolis was signalled by various notices in the press of her career, and the directors of Covent Garden Thatro announced a piece entitled ‘ Lola Montes, or a Countess for an Hour.’ The dramatic censor of that day, however, interdicted the representation. While in London, a young lieutenant named Heald, much to the annoy nice of his friends, fell in love with and married the beautiful but too notorious iliinmiM. An aunt, in whose guardianship he had been left, endeavoured as at last resource to trace Lola’s previous husband. Captain James, and succeeded. On the strength of this she instituted a charge of bigamy against Lola, but before the case was concluded Heald fled with her to Spain. They wandered about Spain and France together for some time, but eventually Heald left Lola and returned tu Loudon, where he succeeded in getting Ilia marriage annulled. After a short residence in Paris, Lola s restless spirit flung her from one end of the world to the other, and she was heard of in quick succession at the theatres of the United States and of Australia. The last few months of her life were devoted to visiting the outcasts of her own sex at the Magdalen Asylum near New York. While thus labouring, she was suddenly sstricken down with paralysis. She lingered for a few weeks and died, sincerely penitent for her past life, on the 1< th January, She was buried, according to the Episcopalian rites, in Greenwood Cemetery. A plain marble tablet has been erected above the spot, inscribed with her name and the date of her birth and decease. The remains of her property she bequeathed to the Magdalen Asylum. Thus died Lola Montes at the age of forty-three.