"My forgers!" cried the poor Boehmer, ready to faint at this new blow.
"You suspect me?"
"You accuse me, Marie Antoinette?" replied she.
"But this letter?"
"This receipt? Give it me back, and take your letter; the first lawyer you ask will tell you how much that is worth." And taking the receipt from his trembling hands, and throwing the letter indignantly down, she left the room.
The unfortunate man ran to communicate this dreadful blow to his partner, who was waiting in the carriage for him; and on their way home their gestures and cries of grief were so frantic as to attract the attention of every pa.s.ser-by. At last they decided to return to Versailles.
Immediately they presented themselves they were admitted by the order of the queen.
CHAPTER LXXIII.
"Roi ne puis, prince ne daigne, Rohan je suis."[B]
[B] The motto of the Rohans.
"Ah!" cried the queen, immediately they entered, "you have brought a reinforcement, M. Boehmer; so much the better."
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 ill.u.s.trious 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?"