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The Queen's Necklace, a novel by Alexandre Dumas |
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Chapter 73 |
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_ CHAPTER LXXIII "Roi ne puis, prince ne daigne,
Boehmer kneeled at her feet, and Bossange followed his example. "Gentlemen," said she, "I have now grown calm, and an idea has come into my head which has modified my opinion with regard to you. It seems to me that we have both been duped." "Ah, madame, you suspect me no longer. Forger was a dreadful word." "No, I do not suspect you now." "Does your majesty suspect any one else?" "Reply to my questions. You say you have not these diamonds?" "No, madame, we have not." "It then matters little to you that I sent them--that is my affair. Did you not see Madame de la Motte?" "Yes, madame." "And she gave you nothing from me?" "No, madame; she only said to us, 'Wait.'" "But this letter--who brought it?" "An unknown messenger, during the night." She rang, and a servant entered. "Send for Madame de la Motte. And," continued the queen to M. Boehmer, "did you see M. de Rohan?" "Yes, madame; he paid us a visit in order to ask." "Good!" said the queen. "I wish to hear no more now; but if he be mixed up with this affair, I think you need not despair. I think I can guess what Madame de la Motte meant by saying 'Wait.' Meanwhile, go to M. de Rohan, and tell him all you have told us, and that I know it." The jewelers had a renewed spark of hope; only Bossange said that the receipt was a false one, and that that was a crime. "True," replied Marie Antoinette, "if you did not write it, it is a crime; but to prove this I must confront you with the person whom I charged to return you the jewels." "Whenever your majesty pleases; we do not fear the test." "Go first to M. de Rohan; he alone can enlighten you." "And will your majesty permit us to bring you his answer?" "Yes; but I dare say I shall know all before you do." When they were gone she was restless and unquiet, and despatched courier after courier for Madame de la Motte. We will, however, leave her for the present, and follow the jewelers in their search after the truth. The cardinal was at home, reading, with a rage impossible to describe, a little note which Madame de la Motte had just sent him, as she said, from Versailles. It was harsh, forbidding any hope, ordering him to think no more of the past, not to appear again at Versailles, and ending with an appeal to his loyalty not to attempt to renew relations which were become impossible. "Coquette, capricious, perfidious!" cried he. "Here are four letters which she has written to me, each more unjust and tyrannical than the other. She encouraged me only for a caprice, and now sacrifices me to a new one." It was at this moment that the jewelers presented themselves. Three times he refused them admittance, and each time the servant came back, saying that they would not go without an audience. "Let them come in, then," said he. "What means this rudeness, gentlemen? No one owes you anything here." The jewelers, driven to despair, made a half-menacing gesture. "Are you mad?" asked the cardinal. "Monseigneur," replied Boehmer, with a sigh, "do us justice, and do not compel us to be rude to an illustrious prince." "Either you are not mad, in which case my servants shall throw you out of the window; or you are mad, and they shall simply push you out of the door." "Monseigneur, we are not mad, but we have been robbed." "What is that to me? I am not lieutenant of police." "But you have had the necklace in your hands, and in justice----" "The necklace! is it the necklace that is stolen?" "Yes, monseigneur." "Well, what does the queen say about it?" "She sent me to you." "She is very amiable; but what can I do, my poor fellows?" "You can tell us, monseigneur, what has been done with it." "I?" "Doubtless." "Do you think I stole the necklace from the queen?" "It is not the queen from whom it was stolen." "Mon Dieu! from whom, then?" "The queen denies having had it in her possession." "How! she denies it? But I thought you had an acknowledgment from her." "She says it is a forged one." "Decidedly, you are mad!" cried the cardinal. "We simply speak the truth." "Then she denied it because some one was there." "No, monseigneur. And this is not all: not only does the queen deny her own acknowledgment, but she produced a receipt from us, purporting that we had received back the necklace." "A receipt from you?" "Which also is a forgery, M. le Cardinal--you know it." "A forgery, and I know it!" "Assuredly, for you came to confirm what Madame de la Motte had said; and you knew that we had sold the necklace to the queen." "Come," said the cardinal, "this seems a serious affair. This is what I did: first, I bought the necklace of you for her majesty, and paid you 100,000 francs." "True, monseigneur." "Afterwards you told me that the queen had acknowledged the debt in writing, and fixed the periods of payment." "We said so. Will your eminence look at this signature?" He looked at it, and said directly, "'Marie Antoinette of France:' you have been deceived, gentlemen; this is not her signature; she is of the House of Austria." "Then," cried the jewelers, "Madame de la Motte must know the forger and the robber." The cardinal appeared struck with this. He acted like the queen; he rang, and said, "Send for Madame de la Motte." His servants went after Jeanne's carriage, which had not long left the hotel. M. Boehmer continued, "But where is the necklace?" "How can I tell?" cried the cardinal; "I gave it to the queen. I know no more." "We must have our necklace, or our money," cried the jewelers. "Gentlemen, this is not my business." "It is Madame de la Motte," cried they in despair, "who has ruined us." "I forbid you to accuse her here." "Some one must be guilty; some one wrote the forged papers." "Was it I?" asked M. de Rohan, haughtily. "Monseigneur, we do not wish to say so." "Well, who then?" "Monseigneur, we desire an explanation." "Wait till I have one myself." "But, monseigneur, what are we to say to the queen? For she accused us at first." "What does she say now?" "She says that either you or Madame de la Motte has the necklace, for she has not." "Well," replied the cardinal, pale with rage and shame, "go and tell her--no, tell her nothing; there is scandal enough. But to-morrow I officiate at the chapel at Versailles: when I approach the queen, come to us; I will ask her again if she has the necklace, and you shall hear what she replies; if she denies it before me, then, gentlemen, I am a Rohan, and will pay." And with these words, pronounced with an indescribable dignity, he dismissed them. _ |
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