"In the following sonnet," comments the translator, "the royal poet does not clearly intimate whether he has renounced the political or the personal rivals of the fair Lolita:--
"'If, for my sake, thou hast renounced all ties, I, too, for thee have broken with them all; Life of my life, I am thine--I am thy thrall-- I hold no compact with thine enemies. Their blandishments are powerless on me, No arts will serve to seduce me from thee; The power of love raises me above them. With thee my earthly pilgrimage will end. As is the union between the body and the soul, So, until death, with thine my being is blended. In thee I have found what I ne'er yet found in any-- The sight of thee gave new life to my being. All feeling for any other has died away, For my eyes read in thine--love!'"
The final example of the King's lyrical genius might be inscribed to "Lolita in Dejection." It is dated the evening of 6th July 1847.
"A glance of the sun of former days, A ray of light in gloomy night! Have sounded long-forgotten strings, And life once more as erst was bright.
"Thus felt I on that night of gladness, When all was joy through thee alone; Thy spirit chased from mine its sadness, No joy was greater than mine own.
"Then was I happy for feeling more deeply What I possessed and what I lost; It seemed that thy joy then went for ever, And that it could never more return.
"Thou hast lost thy cheerfulness, Persecution has robbed thee of it; It has deprived thee of thy health, The happiness of thy life is already departed.
"But the firmer only, and more firmly Thou hast tied me to thee; Thou canst never draw me from thee-- Thou sufferest because thou lovest me."
The King of Bavaria was not a poet; but, as a critic said of Emile Auger, in some remote corner of his being, something was singing.
The Ultramontanes had no intention of taking their defeat lying down. The Jesuits were fighting for their very existence just over the frontier in Switzerland; the Sonderbund or Catholic League was threatened with an attack at any moment by the forces of the Confederation. Austria and France could do nothing for the League through fear of Palmerston, but it is very probable that help was expected from Bavaria, on which England could not have brought any direct pressure to bear. Munich was the asylum of Ultramontane exiles from all parts of Europe--of French Legitimists, Polish Catholics, and Swiss Jesuits. In Lola's action they detected the hand of the arch-enemy, Palmerston. Liberally supplied with gold from Austria (as Bernstorff did not hesitate to allege), these champions of legitimacy sedulously strove to inflame the people with hatred of the favourite. Lola's unfortunate temper aided their exertions. The citizens of Munich disliked being boxed on the ears even by the most beautiful of her sex, and Baron Pechmann, who had endeavoured to avenge them, had been banished. Lola, like all people of a rich, generous nature, was fond of dogs. In London she had bought a bull-dog from a man who told Mark Lemon, with a very proper professional reservation, that the lady was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen--_on two legs_. The animal, being indisposed, was sent by his devoted mistress to the Veterinary Hospital at Munich. The patient did not progress very rapidly towards recovery, and Lola remonstrated with the medical man in attendance. His reply was too brusque for her taste. Her ears having been offended, she promptly boxed his. She then carried off her darling, who was soon restored to health and vigour. So complete was his recovery that a week or two later, while accompanying his mistress in the streets of Munich, he prepared himself to attack a carrier who was walking beside his cart. The man anticipated the onslaught by flicking the bull-dog with his whip. The enraged Lola at once smote the man on the ear. The assault was witnessed by several passers-by, whose threatening attitude compelled her to take refuge in a neighbouring shop. From this dangerous situation she was delivered only by the police. Lola and the King laughed good-humouredly over these incidents; the people of Munich were disposed to look upon them as deadly outrages.