Weep, Grey Bird, Weep

Elisa was born in Cork in 1835 and later claimed that her father's side of the family had produced several bishops, while one of her mother's family was a vice-admiral in the Royal Navy who had fought at Trafalgar with his four brothers.  All of her uncles, she stated, had been officers either in the British army or the Royal Navy. Her immediate family, however, seems to have been less fortunate, and were in such dire financial straits that at the time of the potato famine in 1845 they left Cork and emigrated to Paris. When Elisa was only 15 she met a French military veterinarian called Xavier Quatrefages. He immediately fell in love with her and asked her to marry him. She was too young to do so under French law and so the couple eloped to England and on June 3 1850 were married by Church of England rites at Folkestone Parish Church.

Shortly after this, Quatrefages was sent to Algeria (a reason, perhaps, for his desire to marry quickly) and although Elisa went with him, within a year the marriage was effectively over. She returned to Paris and tried to earn her living as a teacher of languages: in fact, she embarked on a promising career as a courtesan. She was well-connected socially and had become friendly with Princesse Mathilde, the cousin of the Emperor Napoleon III.

She was introduced to López through José Brizuela, the Paraguayan chargé d’affaires in Paris, and they became lovers almost immediately.  Had she been free to do so, it is certain that they would have married but she was unable to obtain a divorce from her husband. Under French law he was not legally married at all and since he had no desire to live anywhere else but France, Quatrefages saw no reason to go through a court proceeding simply to oblige Elisa. This was to have severe consequences for her, but nevertheless, her love affair with López was to last for the rest of his life.