Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 02.pdf/101

 Rh

Majesty blinded my eyes. I saw no deceit, and I am sorry." And M. de Rohan took from his pocket a letter, the same that this Madame de la Motte had attributed to the queen, and which gave him the commission. The king took the letter, and at a glance of the eye saw that the writing had no resemblance to that of the queen. It was signed " Marie Antoinette of France." "What, Monsieur!" cried the king, "you, a prince of the house of Rohan, you, a grand almoner of France, — could you believe that the queen would sign herself thus? Every one knows that queens sign only their baptismal names." "I have been deceived," murmured the cardinal, in great confusion, — " I have been deceived." Then the king gave him a copy of his letter to Boehmer. "Did you write such a letter as that?" he asked. The cardinal glanced at the letter with a frightened air, and stammered, " I do not remember having written it." "And if the original signed by you were shown you?" "If the letter is signed by me, I must have written it." "Explain all this enigma, Monsieur," said the king, more calmly; "I do not wish to find you guilty, I desire your justification. Explain to me what all these transactions with Boehmer mean." The cardinal grew visibly pale; he was obliged to support himself against a chair. "Sire, I am too much disturbed to answer your Majesty in a manner —" "Collect yourself, Monsieur, and pass into my private apartment; you will find pens, ink, and paper there; write what you have to say to me." The cardinal withdrew, and wrote a sort of confession as confused as his words had been; at the end of a quarter of an hour he returned with the paper. But he had had time to write a note addressed to the Abbe

Georgel, his grand-vicar. This note con tained these words : " I am about to be arrested; burn everything." While Louis XVI. read the confession of the cardinal, the latter slipped the note into the hands of a valet, who escaped unperceived and hastened to the cardinal's palace; the compromising papers were at once de stroyed. A search made in time would have unveiled the whole secret, and laid bare at the same time the foolish credulity and the shameful vices of this prince of the Church. But irresolute Louis XVI. never did any thing in time. The Cardinal de Rohan, however, and Madame de la Motte were at once placed under arrest. That there had been secret relations between the two there was no question; but had this Comtesse de la Motte, as the cardinal had said, played the principal. r61e in the negotiation of the neck lace? On being interrogated she denied everything. The cardinal being desirous to obtain the addresses of some jewellers, she had, she said, procured them for him. A short time afterward she again saw the car dinal, who was enchanted at having com pleted the negotiation, and who said to her : "I would tell you, but you do not know how to keep the smallest secret, — it is for the queen! " If the cardinal had made any negotiation, he had made it alone; as for herself, she had never been mixed up in it. Once the cardinal had shown her a box full of diamonds, saying, " I do not know what they are worth." At his request she had sold them for him. He had also given dia monds to her husband to sell. That was all that Madame de la Motte knew. As to these diamonds which she had seen in the cardinal's hands, did they come from the necklace? She was inclined to believe that they did. But the Prince de Rohan had doubtless played in this affair only the r61e of a dupe; he had pulled the chestnuts, or, if one prefers, the diamonds, out of the fire for the profit of the Comte de Cagliostro. Who was this Comte de Cagliostro, so