III
After Melbourne, the next step in Lola's itinerary was Geelong. The programme she offered there was a generous one, for it included a "Stirring drama, entitled, Maidens, Beware! and the elegant and successful comedy, The Eton Boy," to which were added a "sparkling comedietta" and a "laughable farce." This was good value. The Geelong critic, however, did not think very much of the principal item in this bill. "It has," he observed solemnly, "an impossible plot, with situations and sentiments quite beyond the understanding of us barbarians."
This supercilious attitude was not shared by the simple-minded diggers, who found Maidens, Beware! very much to their taste. But nothing else could have been expected, for it offered good measure of all the elements that ensure success every time they are employed. Thus, the hero is wrongfully charged with a series of offences committed by the villain; a comic servant unravels the plot when it becomes intricate; and the heroine only avoids "something worse than death" by proving that a baronet, "paying unwelcome addresses," (but nothing else) has forged a will.
Having a partiality for the society of diggers, with whom she had always got on well, Lola next betook herself to Ballarat. It was an unpropitious moment for a theatrical venture in that part of the world. The atmosphere was somewhat unsettled. The broad arrows and ticket-of-leave contingent who made up a large section of the community were clamouring for a republic; and there was a considerable amount of rioting. A rebel flag had been run up by the mob; and the military had to be called out to suppress the activities of the "Ballarat Reform League." Still, Lola was not the woman to run away from danger. As she had told a Sydney audience, she "rather liked a good row."
The coming of Lola Montez to Ballarat was heralded by a preliminary paragraph: "Our readers will be pleased to learn that the world-renowned Lola, a lady who has had Kings at her beck, and who has caused nearly as much upheaval in the world as Helen of Troy, is about to appear among us. On leaving Melbourne by coach, she presented the booking clerk with an autographed copy of a work by the famous Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe. Young gentlemen of Ballarat, look out for your hearts! Havoc will assuredly be played among them."
Her colourful career attracted the laureates. One of them found in it inspiration for a ballad, "Lola, of the rolling black eye!" which was sung at every music-hall in the Colony. A second effort regarded the matter in its graver aspects. The first verse ran as follows: She is more to be pitied than censured, She is more to be helped than despised. She is only a lassie who ventured On life's stormy path ill-advised. Do not scorn her with words fierce and bitter, Do not laugh at her shame and downfall, For a moment just stop to consider That a man was the cause of it all!