15. Gents and Mooners. In the 1840’s the term Gent was most particularly applied to the young middle-class idler who aped his superiors and dressed extravagantly; the Mooner was rather older and spent his time “mooning” at shop windows and ambling gently about the town. Flashman would consider both species to be well beneath him.

16. Despite Flashman’s enthusiastic notice, it seems probable that Lola Montez was not a particularly good artiste, although the historian Veit Valentin observes that she had “the tigerish vivacity that inspires the Andalusian dance”.

17. The account of Lola’s disastrous appearance at Her Majesty’s Theatre (June 3, 1843) is splendidly accurate, not only in its description of Lord Ranelagh’s denunciation, but even in such details as the composition of the audience and the programme notes. (See Wyndham’s Magnificent Montez.) This is a good, verifiable example of Flashman’s ability as a straight reporter, and encourages confidence in those other parts of his story where corroboration is lacking and checking of the facts is impossible.

18. Lola had a passionate affair with Liszt in the year following her departure from London; after their first rapture she appears to have had much the same effect on the famous pianist as she did on Flashman. He tired of her, and did indeed abandon her in a hotel, whereupon she spent several hours smashing the furniture. Typically, Lola bore no grudge; in her high days in Munich she wrote to Liszt offering him Bavarian honours.

19. The coat-of-arms of the Countess of Landsfeld is accurately described; the “fat whale” was a silver dolphin.

20. Stieler’s portrait of Lola in Ludwig’s gallery is a model of Victorian respectability. A more characteristic Montez is to be seen in Dartiguenave’s lithograph; he has caught not only her striking beauty, but her imperious spirit.

21. “Lola was always vain of her bosom.” She was indeed, if the story of her first meeting with Ludwig is to be believed. He is supposed to have expressed doubts about the reality of her figure: her indignant reply was to tear open the top of her dress.

22. There is no supporting evidence that Wagner visited Lola in Munich at this time, but it is not impossible. They met for the first time in 1844, when Liszt took her to a special performance of “Rienzi” at Dresden, and Wagner’s impression was of “a painted and jewelled woman with bold, bad eyes”. He also described her as “demonic and heartless”. Curiously, the great composer gained as much favour from Ludwig II as Lola had done from Ludwig I—so much so that the wits nicknamed him “Lolotte”.

23. The American may have been C. G. Leland, a student at Munich University and a friend of Lola’s. He claimed that he was the only one of her intimates at whom she had never thrown “a plate or a book, or attacked with a dagger, poker, broom, or other deadly weapon”.