willing to defend him once he became the target of the international protest movement led by the Congo Reform Association. Belgian socialists in particular used the affair to prove that because Leopold was in his "dotage" and under the control of a "rapacious and ambitious woman", he was unfit to govern. A wealthy mistress After Marie Henriette's death, Leopold's relationship with Caroline became flagrantly open, and he placed her across from his Laeken mansion, in the Villa Vanderborght, even building a pedestrian bridge (above the ground, and over the fences of the mansion) so he could see her at will. The bridge reveals the king's jealousy, although this may have been justified, as her former lover Durrieux had been caught with her on several occasions. Caroline tried to pass him off as her brother when Leopold caught the two together; one publication reported that she and Durrieux had placed secret electric bells in all her residences so that servants could warn her when the king was approaching. Leopold spent vast sums of money on gifts and estates for his young mistress, presenting for instance the Villa Leopolda to Caroline in 1902. She frequently traveled to Paris to visit her dress- and hat-maker, once bragging that she spent three million francs on dresses at a single store on one occasion. Caroline once complained to Leopold that the evening express train back to Brussels gave her little time to shop, causing Leopold to arrange it so that the train would leave an hour later. When pregnant with their first child, the king and the French government even split the cost of constructing a new road close to her villa so that her ride would not be uncomfortable. Taking Caroline with him everywhere, the king spent much of his time outside Belgium on his various properties throughout Western Europe, and was much resented by the Belgian people as a result. Much of this time was spent with Caroline and their two sons at his estate at Cap Ferrat in southern France. Caroline also stayed at Chateau de Larmoy, which Leopold had rented for her; he acquired the French Chateau de Balaincourt as well as a villa in Brussels, where Caroline had no scruples in appearing in public. Though typically traveling incognito, she accompanied Leopold to the funeral of Queen Victoria in 1901, causing a great scandal. Her unpopularity in Belgium increased dramatically once