The Queen's Necklace - Alexandre Dumas père (electric book reader TXT) 📗

that she will wait."

The ministers applauded this patriotic speech of the king,--only M. de Calonne insisted.

"Really, monsieur," said the king, "you are more interested for us than we are for ourselves."

"The queen, sire, will accuse us of having been backward when her interests were concerned."

"I will plead your cause."

"But, sire, the queen never asks without necessity."

"If the queen has wants, they are, I trust, less imperious than those of the poor, and she will be the first to acknowledge it."

"Sire!"

"I am resolved," said the king; "and I fancy I hear the queen in her generosity thanking me for having so well understood her heart."

M. de Calonne bit his lips, and Louis, content with this personal sacrifice, signed all the rest without looking at them.

"Calonne, you shall tell the queen yourself."

"Oh! sire, I beg to resign to you the honor."

"So be it then. Ah! here she comes, let us meet her."

"I beg your majesty to excuse me," he replied, and retired quickly.

The king approached the queen--she was leaning on the arm of the Comte d'Artois, and seemed very gay.

"Madame," said the king, "have you had a pleasant walk?"

"Yes, sire. And you an agreeable council?"

"Yes, madame, I have gained you 500,000 francs."

"M. de Calonne has kept his word," thought the queen.

"Only imagine, madame," continued the king; "M. de Calonne had put down 500,000 francs for you, and I have struck it out,--a clear gain, therefore, of that sum."

"Struck it through!" cried the queen, turning pale; "but, sire----"

"Oh! I am so hungry, I am going to supper;" and he went away delighted with his work.

"Brother," said the queen, "seek M. de Calonne for me."

At that moment a note from him was handed to her: "Your majesty will have learned that the king refused your grant. It was incomprehensible, and I retired from the council penetrated with grief."

"Read," said she, passing the note to the count.

"And there are people," said he, "who say that we squander the revenue! This is an extraordinary proceeding----"

"Quite husbandlike," said the queen. "Adieu, brother."

"I condole with you," he replied; "and it is a lesson for me. I was going to make a request to-morrow for myself."

"Send for Madame de la Motte," said the queen, when she returned to her room.


CHAPTER LIX.

MARIE ANTOINETTE AS QUEEN, AND MADAME DE LA MOTTE AS WOMAN.

The courier despatched for Madame de la Motte, not finding her at home, went to the hotel of the Cardinal de Rohan to inquire if she were there.

The well-tutored Swiss replied that she was not, but that he could get any message transmitted to her.

The courier, therefore, left word for her to come to the queen as soon as possible. The man had hardly left the door before the message was delivered to Jeanne as she sat at supper with the cardinal. She set off immediately, and was at once introduced into the queen's chamber.

"Oh!" cried the queen on seeing her, "I have something to tell you. The king has refused me 500,000 francs."

"Mon Dieu!" murmured the countess.

"Incredible, is it not? He struck through the item; but it is useless to talk of it; you must return to Paris, and tell the cardinal that since he is so kind I accept the 500,000 francs he offered me. It is selfish, I know, but what can I do?"

"Oh! madame!" cried Jeanne, "we are lost--the cardinal no longer has the money."

The queen started.

"No money!" stammered she.

"No, madame; an unexpected creditor claimed this money from him. It was a debt of honor, and he paid it."

"The whole 500,000 francs?

"Yes, madame."

"And he has no more?"

"No, madame, he told me this an hour and a half ago, and confessed to me that he had no other resources."

The queen leaned her head on her hands; then, after a few moments' reflection, she said:

"This, countess, is a terrible lesson for me, and a punishment for having done anything, great or small, without the king's knowledge. It was a folly; I had no need of this necklace."

"True, madame; but if the queen consulted only her absolute wants----"

"I must consult before everything the tranquillity and happiness of my household. I renounce forever what has begun with so much annoyance. I will sacrifice my vanity on the altar of duty, as M. de Provence would say; and beautiful as this necklace is, you shall carry it back to MM. Boehmer and Bossange."

"Carry it back?"

"Yes."

"But, madame, your majesty has already given 100,000 francs for it."

"Well, I shall gain all the rest that was to have been paid for it."

"But, madame, they will not like to return your money."

"I give it up on condition of their breaking the contract. Now, countess, that I have come to this determination, I feel at ease once more. This necklace brought with it cares and fears; diamonds cannot compensate for these. Take it away, countess; the jewelers must be satisfied; they will have their necklace, and 100,000 francs into the bargain."

"But M. de Rohan?"

"He only acted to give me pleasure, and when he is told it is my pleasure, not to have the necklace, he will understand me, I am sure; and if he is a good friend, he will approve and strengthen me in my sacrifice." Saying these words, the queen held out the casket to Jeanne.

She did not take it. "Why not ask for time, madame?"

"No, countess, it is humiliation. One may humiliate one's self for a person one loves, to save a living creature, were it only a dog; but only to keep some sparkling stones--never, countess; take it away."

"But, madame, it will surely become known that your majesty has had the jewels, and was obliged to return them."

"No one will know anything about it. The jewelers will surely hold their tongues for 100,000 francs. Take it away, countess, and thank M. de Rohan for his good-will towards me. There is no time to lose; go as soon as possible, and bring me back a receipt for them."

"Madame, it shall be done as you wish."

She first drove home, and changed her dress, which was too elegant for a visit to the jewelers. Meanwhile she reflected much; she thought still it was a fault for M. de Rohan to allow the queen to part with these jewels; and should she obey her orders without consulting him, would he not have reason to complain? Would he not rather sell himself than let the queen return them? "I must consult him," she thought; "but, after all, he never can get the money." She then took the necklace from the case, once more to look at and admire it. "1,600,000 francs in my possession; true, it is but for an hour. To carry away such a sum in gold I should want two horses, yet how easily I hold it here! But I must decide. Shall I go to the cardinal, or take it direct to the jewelers, as the queen ordered? And the receipt--in what form shall I get it, so as not to compromise the queen, the cardinal, or myself? Shall I consult---- Ah! if he loved me more, and could give me the diamonds."

She sat down again and remained nearly an hour in deep thought. Then she rose, with a strange look in her eyes, and rang the bell with a determined air.

She ordered a coach, and in a few minutes she reached the house of the journalist, M. Reteau de Villette.


CHAPTER LX.

THE RECEIPT OF MM. BOEHMER AND BOSSANGE, AND THE GRATITUDE OF THE QUEEN.

The result of Madame de la Motte's visit to M. Reteau de Villette appeared the next day. At seven o'clock in the morning she sent to the queen the following paper:


"We, the undersigned, acknowledge having received back again the
diamond necklace sold to the queen for 1,600,000 francs, the
diamonds not suiting her majesty, who has paid us for our loss and
trouble 100,000 francs.

"BOEHMER AND BOSSANGE."


The queen, now tranquil about the whole affair, locked up the receipt, and thought no more of it.

But, in strange contradiction to this receipt, the jewelers received a visit two days after from M. de Rohan, who felt uneasy about the payment.

If the instalment had not been paid, he expected to find them naturally annoyed; but to his great satisfaction they received him with smiles.

"The queen has paid, then?" he asked.

"No, monseigneur, the queen could not procure the money, as the king had refused it to her; but she has guaranteed the debt, and that fully satisfies us."

"Ah! so much the better; but how? Through the countess?"

"No, monseigneur. On hearing of the king's refusal, which soon became public, we wrote to Madame de la Motte----"

"When?"

"Yesterday."

"And she replied?"

"By one word, 'Wait.' That evening we received from the queen, by a courier, a letter."

"A letter to you?"

"Or rather a guarantee, in due form."

"Let me see it."

"Oh! we would with pleasure, but her majesty enjoins that it is not to be shown to any one."

"Then you are safe?"

"Perfectly, monseigneur."

"The queen acknowledges the debt?"

"Fully."

"And engages to pay?"

"500,000 francs in three months, the rest in six;" and she adds, "let the affair rest between ourselves. You will have no cause to repent it."

"I am charmed that it is settled," said the cardinal.

We must now raise the veil, though, doubtless, our readers comprehend how Jeanne de la Motte had acted towards her benefactress, and how she had managed to satisfy both the queen and the jewelers by borrowing the pen of M. Reteau.

Three months were thus obtained for the completion of her design of crime and deception, and within three months everything would be arranged.

She went to M. de Rohan, and repeated to him what the jewelers had already told him.

He asked if the queen remembered his good intentions. She drew a picture of her gratitude, which enchanted him.

Her intention had been to sell some of the diamonds to the value of 100,000 crowns, and then pass over to England, where, when necessary, she could dispose of the remainder. But her first essay frightened her; some offered despicably small sums for the stones, others went into raptures, declaring they had never seen such diamonds but in the necklace of MM. Boehmer and Bossange.

She abandoned this course, therefore, which she saw might soon bring about her ruin. She shut up the diamonds carefully, and resolved to wait. But her position was critical. A few words of explanation between the queen and the cardinal, and all would be discovered. She consoled herself by thinking that the cardinal was too much in love not to fall into all the snares she might lay for him.

One thought alone occupied her--how to prevent their meeting. That he would not be long satisfied without an interview she knew--what should she do? Persuade him to ask for one, and offend the queen by his presumption?--but then