I knew John Morrissey.

I have seen Heenan--one of the handsomest men of his time--and likewise Adah Isaacs Menken, his inamorata--many said his wife--who went into mourning for him and thereafter hied away to Paris, where she lived under the protection of Alexandre Dumas, the elder, who buried her in Pere Lachaise under a handsome monument bearing two words, "Thou knowest," beneath a carved hand pointed to heaven.
I did draw the line, however, at Cora Pearl and Marcus Cicero Stanley.
The Parisian courtesan was at the zenith of her extraordinary celebrity when I became a rustic boulevardier.

She could be seen everywhere and on all occasions.

Her gowns were the showiest, her equipage the smartest; her entourage, loud though it was and vulgar, yet in its way was undeniable.

She reigned for a long time the recognized queen of the demi-monde.