XXXI
LOLA AS A LECTURER
We have no knowledge of the business that took Lola once more to France on this occasion. She probably went there to spend, in the most agreeable way possible, the considerable sums she had amassed in her Australian tour. It may be supposed that she spent some time at Paris, renewing the acquaintance of her old friends. Dumas, Méry, De Beauvoir, were all living, and death had made few gaps in her circle of friends during the past ten years. In August, Lola followed the fashionable crowd to the southern watering-places, and stayed at St. Jean de Luz, within easy reach of the imperial court at Biarritz. Hence she addressed this extraordinary letter to the Estafette:—
“St. Jean de Luz, Hôtel du Cygne,
“2nd September, 1856.
“The Belgian newspapers, and some French ones, have asserted that the suicide of the actor, Mauclerc, who, it is reported, has thrown himself from the summits of the Pic du Midi, was caused by domestic troubles for which I was responsible. This is a calumny which M. Mauclerc himself will be ready to refute. We separated amicably, it is true, after eight days of married life, but urged only by our common and imperious need of personal liberty. It is probable that the tragedy of the Pic du Midi exists only in the imagination of some journalist on the look-out for sensational news. Trusting to your sense of fairness to insert this explanation in your excellent journal, I remain, yours, etc.,
Lola Montez.”
This letter was copied by La Presse, which De Girardin still edited, and was presently noticed by the person most interested. His reply was duly published:—
“Bayonne, 9th September, 1856.
“Sir,—I read in your issue of the 7th. inst. a letter from Lola Montez, wherein there is talk of a suicide of which I have been the victim, and a marriage in which I have been principal actor. I am a complete stranger to such catastrophes. I have never had the least intention of throwing myself from the Pic du Midi, or from any other peak, and I do not recollect having had the advantage of marrying—even for eight days—the celebrated Countess of Landsfeld,—Yours, etc.,
Mauclerc.”[29]