The jeweller took his leave and, when he had gone, Antoinette went at once to Louis’ apartments.

‘Louis,’ she cried, ‘I must speak to you alone … at once.’

Louis dismissed all his attendants, and she burst out: ‘That man, that wicked man who so maligned my mother, has determined to humiliate me also. He has contrived some absurd plot – some frightful plot – to … to do me some harm. Though I cannot quite clearly see what. He has been to the jeweller and, according to Boehmer, bought on my account that diamond necklace which he was always talking about and urging us to buy.’

‘Bought it … on your account? But the Cardinal …’

‘Exactly! I have not exchanged a word with the man for years. And now it seems he has been to the jeweller and told him that I have begged him to buy the necklace on my behalf. There are forged documents – documents said to have my signature on them. Look at this. This is supposed to be my order. You can see for yourself that it is a forgery. “Marie Antoinette de France”! As if I would sign myself thus. And do you mean to tell me that Rohan did not know this for a forgery?’

Louis was bewildered; he could only stare at the paper in his hand.

‘What does it mean, Louis? What does it mean?’

‘You … have not bought the necklace?’

She looked at him with deep reproach. ‘You … even you … ask that! Indeed I have not bought the necklace. Would it not have been noticed immediately if I had worn it? Why should I keep it a secret? There has been a terrible fraud … a fraud to humiliate and insult me and involve me in – I know not what … ’

Louis said: ‘Be calm. We will sift this matter, and we will discover what it is all about.’


* * *

It was Assumption Day and the courtiers thronged the Salle de Glace and the Oeil-de-Boeuf waiting to accompany the King and Queen to Mass.

Louis, Prince and Cardinal de Rohan, who, as Grand Almoner to the King, was to officiate, was also waiting there. He was excited – as he always was on those occasions when he had an opportunity of being near the Queen. She never gave a sign that she noticed him; but recently, since the affair of the necklace, he had convinced himself that she had her reasons for behaving thus. She was by no means indifferent to him: Jeanne de Lamotte-Valois had assured him of this.

He was obsessed by the Queen. He had thought of her constantly since he had first seen her – a young, so innocent girl, a little frightened, leaving her native country to come to a new one where she was to be called upon to play such an important part.

He had been a fool, he often accused himself, to write slightingly of her mother. But who would have thought it would have been allowed to get to the Queen’s ears that he had done so? That was bad luck.

She had been very disdainful towards him since, and never given him so much as a glance. Perhaps that very attitude of hers had inflamed his passion, for he was a man of deep sensuality, and the fact that he wore the robes of the church had never been allowed to interfere with his amorous adventures. But these had begun to pall; there was one woman with whom he wished to share them, and she had been completely out of his reach until Jeanne de Lamotte-Valois had come along and informed him to the contrary.

Then the exciting and incredible adventure had begun. There had been letters from the Queen; there had even been a brief meeting in the gardens of Versailles. The Cardinal had begun to believe that the Queen was far from indifferent to him and that if he were a little patient she would become his mistress.

To show how absolute was her faith in him she had entrusted him with that transaction with the jewellers and he had procured for her the diamond necklace which, he had been told, she wished to buy secretly as the King would not buy it for her; he had even lent her money.

At any moment now the doors would be thrown open and she would appear with Louis. Poor Louis! Who cared for Louis? No wonder the enchanting creature must have a lover.

Now was the moment. The doors were flung open.

But the King and Queen did not appear. Instead a lackey stood where they should have been.

‘Prince Cardinal de Rohan!’ called the lackey.

The Cardinal went forward.

‘The King commands you to go at once to his private apartments.’


* * *

The Queen was with the King in his private apartments. Rohan gave her a quick look; but she did not seem to see him. Also present was the Baron de Breteuil, the Minister of State.

The King said: ‘Cousin, have you recently bought diamonds from the jeweller Boehmer?’

‘Yes, Sire. I have.’

‘Where are they?’

Rohan looked anxiously towards Antoinette, who stared beyond him with the utmost haughtiness. He presumed now that the King knew the necklace was in the Queen’s possession, and that no good would come of trying to hide this fact.

‘I think they have been delivered to the Queen,’ said Rohan.

‘By whom?’

‘By the Comtesse de Lamotte-Valois who brought me instructions from Her Majesty, whose commands I then carried out.’

Antoinette cried angrily: ‘Do you think, Monsieur le Cardinal, that I, who have not spoken to you for years, would ask you to arrange such a commission, and that it is possible that this should be through a woman I do not know?’

Rohan was bewildered. The King saw this and was sorry for him.

‘There must be some explanation,’ said Louis kindly.

‘I believe, Sire,’ murmured Rohan, ‘that I have been most cruelly deceived.’

‘I am awaiting your explanation,’ said the King. ‘Where is this necklace?’

‘I have handed it to Madame de Lamotte-Valois. She assured me that she had passed it on to the Queen. I have letters, which, I was told, were written by the Queen.’

‘Show me,’ said Louis.

The Cardinal produced one, and the King looked at it. ‘Marie Antoinette de France,’ murmured Louis. ‘You should know, cousin, that no Queen would sign herself thus. Leave us now. This is a matter which it will be necessary to sift, that we may know the truth. The Queen’s good name is involved, and I would have you know, cousin, that makes this a matter of first importance to me.’

The Cardinal retired. In the Salle de Glace and Oeil-de-Boeuf people were asking each other why Mass was being delayed. They saw the Cardinal walk out of the King’s apartment, his face quite white, his eyes glittering.

He had taken but a few paces when Breteuil appeared behind him and shouted an order to one of the guard who was stationed in the King’s ante-room.

‘Arrest Louis, Prince and Cardinal de Rohan.’

There was a breathless silence as the tall and handsome Cardinal was conducted to one of the guard-rooms in the lower part of the Palace.


* * *

The performance of Le Barbier de Seville was given at the Trianon Theatre on the 19th August, four days after the arrest of Rohan.

The audience was a little absentminded, because they were thinking of this preposterous affair of the necklace. Already the people in the streets were talking of it, calling it ‘The Queen’s Necklace’, asking each other what fresh extravagance was this. 1,600,000 livres squandered on one necklace to adorn that proud neck, while many in Paris had not the necessary sous to buy their bread. And it was a secret transaction too! The Queen had called in her latest lover to buy the necklace for her. What next?

They waited eagerly to find out.

The truth was that an amazing fraud had been perpetrated, and the victims of that fraud were the Queen and the Cardinal de Rohan. The person who had planned the whole affair was a wily and extremely handsome woman who called herself Jeanne de Lamotte-Valois, claiming that she was of the royal house because an ancestor of hers had been the illegitimate son of Henri Deux.

Jeanne had had a hard childhood and had often been reduced to begging in the streets; but she was clever and, when only seven years old, had presented herself to the Marquis de Boulainvilliers and told her story of possessing royal blood so pitiably that the Marquise had taken the girl and her younger sister into her household and educated them; finally, when Jeanne married a Captain of the Guards, she insisted that he must assume the title of Comte, that he might be worthy to mate with a descendant of the Valois; and she added Valois to their name so that they were known as the Comte and Comtesse de Lamotte-Valois.

Jeanne soon tired of her husband, but with the help of the Marquise de Boulainvilliers she made the acquaintance of the Cardinal de Rohan, that notoriously sensual prelate. Jeanne was a very handsome woman and it was not long before she became his mistress. To be the mistress of an exalted Cardinal was pleasing, but Jeanne was too worldly not to know that her triumph was ephemeral; she was too strong-minded to accept a minor role in any partnership, and immediately began to wonder how she could make herself rich and independent.

Obsessed by the thought of the royal blood of which she boasted, she determined to see if she could make her way at Court; and the only way she could think of in which she could call attention to herself was by fainting in the apartments of Madame Elisabeth. This lady, saintly by nature, was known to be good of heart and to have a very soft spot in it for the poor. Jeanne made sure that there should be friends at hand to explain that she was descended from the Valois – who were as royal as the Bourbons – and that she had fainted from starvation. The result of this was that Madame Elisabeth had her taken to her home and gave her a sum of money. Jeanne repeated the fainting fit, once in the apartments of Madame d’Artois and once in those of Antoinette. On each occasion she was given financial help, but no one seemed interested in her story.