"Be this notified to all the authorities and to Our subjects in general, with a view to not only recognising the said Maria as Countess of Landsfeld, but also to supporting her in that dignity; and it is Our will that whoever shall act contrary to these provisions shall be summoned by Our Attorney-General and there and then be condemned to make public and private atonement.
"For Our confirmation of the above we have affixed Our royal name to this document and placed on it the seal of Our kingdom.
"Given at Aschaffensberg, this 14th of August, in the 1847th year after the birth of Christ, our Lord, and in the 22nd year of Our Government."
This did not miss the eagle eye of Punch, in whose columns appeared a caustic reference: "The armorial bearings of the new COUNTESS OF LANDSFELD, the ex-coryphée of Her Majesty's Theatre, have been designed, but we think they are hardly so appropriate as they might have been. We have therefore made some slight modifications of the original, which we hope will prove satisfactory."
The suggested "modifications" were to substitute a parasol for the sword, a bulldog for the lion, and a pot of rouge for the rose. Were such an adjunct of the toilet table then in existence, a lipstick would probably have been added.
V With her title and heraldic honours complete, plus a generous allowance on which to support them, and a palace in which to live, Lola Montez cut a very considerable dash in Munich. Two sentries marched up and down in front of her gate, and two mounted orderlies (instead of one, as had previously been the case) accompanied her whenever she left the house in the Barerstrasse.
While by far the most important of them, Ludwig was not by any means the only competitor for Lola's favours. Men of wealth and position--the bearers of high-sounding titles--with politicians and place-hunters, fluttered round her. It is to her credit that she sent them about their business.
"The peculiar relations existing between the King of Bavaria and the Countess of Landsfeld," remarked an apologist, "are not of a coarse or vulgar character. His Majesty has a highly developed poetic mind, and thus sees his favourite through his imagination, and regards her with affectionate respect."
This found a responsive echo in another quarter, and some sharp raps on the knuckles were administered to the Bavarian moralists by a Paris journal: "Why do you interfere with the amours of your good Ludwig? We don't say he should not have observed rather more discretion or have avoided compromising his dignity. Still, a monarch, like a simple citizen, is surely free to love where he pleases. In selecting Lola Montez, the amorous Ludwig proves that he loves equality and, as a true democrat, can identify himself with the public. Let him espouse his servant girl, if he wants to. Personally, we would rather see the Bavarians excite themselves about their constitution than about the banishment of a royal favourite. The King of Bavaria turns his mistress into a Countess; his subjects refuse to recognise her; and a section of the students clamour for her head. Happy days of Montespan, of Pompadour, of Dubarry, of Potemkin, of Orloff, where have you gone?"