The Queen's Confession Part 23

"Oh, no! Not that thing again. The Sultan of Turkey has it."

"He says that is not so, Madame. That was merely a tale he was asked to put about. I told him that he must be dreaming. I said: The Queen refused to buy the necklace long ago and as a matter of fact I knew that His Majesty had offered to buy it for her and still she refused it.' He said: 'She changed her mind.'"

"Oh, Campan, what does all this nonsense mean?"

"I do not know, Madame, but Boehmer tells a very strange story. He a.s.sured me that you had bought the necklace. I replied that it was impossible. I had never seen it among your jewels. Boehmer said that he had been told you were to wear it on Whitsunday and was very surprised that you did not." "My dear Campan, this is the most utter nonsense. I told you Boehmer was mad."

"Yes, Madame, but he talked so earnestly. He seemed so sensible ... so sure. I asked when you had told him that you had made up your mind to buy the necklace, for I knew you would not see him and had not done so for a very long time. He then said a strange thing, Madame. He said that the Cardinal de Rohan acted for you."

"The Cardinal de Rohan! Then he is quite quite mad. I loathe Rohan. I haven't spoken to him for eight years."

"I told Boehmer this, Madame, and he said Your Majesty pretended to be on bad terms with Rohan, but in fact you were very great friends."

"Oh, this grows madder and madder."

"As it seemed to me, Madame. I pointed this out to Boehmer, but he was so insistent that he spoke the truth and indeed, Madame, if he is mad, he makes a very good show of being sane. He had an answer to everything. He said that Your Majesty's commands were transmitted to him by letters which bore Your Majesty's signature and that he had to use them to satisfy his creditors. The necklace was to be paid for in installments, and that he had already received 30,000 francs which Your Majesty had given the Cardinal to give to him, Boehmer, when the necklace was handed over."

"I don't understand this," I cried; but it no longer seemed a joke. There was something very mysterious going on.

"I believe," I said, "that a great fraud may well have been played on Boehmer. We must get to the bottom of this. I will send for him at once."

I sent a messenger to Paris and commanded the jeweler to come to the Trianon without delay.

"Monsieur Boehmer," I said, "I wish to know why I am expected to listen to mad a.s.sertions that you have sold me a necklace which I have often refused to buy."

"Madame," he answered, "I am forced to this unpleasant business because I must satisfy my creditors."

"I fail to see where your creditors concern me."

"Madame," he replied in great distress, "it is too late to pretend. Unless Your Majesty will be so good as to admit you have the necklace and give me some money, I shall be declared bankrupt and the reason will be known to all."

"You talk in riddles, Monsieur. I know nothing of this necklace."

The man was almost in tears. "Madame," he said, "forgive me, but I must have my money."

"I tell you I owe nothing. I did not buy your necklace. You know that I had not seen it ... nor you, for a long time." "Madame, the Cardinal de Rohan paid me the first installment when I handed the necklace to him. I must have the money owing to me ..."

I could not bear to look at the man.

I said: "There has been some fraud here. It must be examined. Go now, Monsieur Boehmer, but I promise you that I will look into this matter without delay."

He left me and I went into my bedchamber, where I remained. I was trembling with apprehension. Something very strange was happening about me and at the center of it was that sinister man, the Cardinal de Rohan.

It was a fraud, of course. The man was a scoundrel. He had acquired the diamond necklace and pretended that I had bought it.

I had heard a great deal about him since that day he officiated at Strasbourg when I had first come to France. My mother was constantly writing to me about him when he was Amba.s.sador to Austria and she had urged Mercy to do all he could to get him recalled. "All our young and plain women are bewitched by him," she had written. "His language is extremely improper and this ill becomes his position as priest and minister. He insolently uses these expressions no matter what company he is in. His suite follow his example - they are without merit or morals." Neither I nor Mercy had been in a position to have him removed from Vienna, but when my husband became King, it was a different matter. My mother wrote that she was pleased to see an end to "his horrible and shameful emba.s.sy." She had written warning letters, I must be wary of this man; he would bring me no good, I must not be charmed by him, for he was a flatterer and could be very amusing. I saw him as a kind of ogre and had refused to receive him. My feelings toward him were not softened when I heard that he had written a letter to the Duc d'Aiguillon about my mother and that Madame de Barry had read this aloud at one of her salons.

In this he wrote: "Marie Theresa wept over the misery of oppressed Poland, but she is an adept at concealing her thoughts and seems to produce tears at will. In one hand she holds a handkerchief to dry her tears and in the other a sword, so as to be the third sharer."

This letter had arrived at the time when I was making matters worse by refusing to speak to Madame du Barry and my mother, while making stem rules against the prost.i.tutes of Vienna, was urging me not to irritate the situation between France and Austria by persisting in this refusal.

I loathed the man. I ignored him; and I believe that the desire to find a way into my good graces obsessed him. The more I ignored him, the more he tried to gain my favor, and I was determined not to give it.

He had scored over me in one way. It was not my wish that he should hold the post of Grand Almoner of France. I had been annoyed when I had heard that he had baptized my babies; but what could be done about it when he held that high post?

Madame de Marsan, Rohan's cousin, had asked my husband, without my knowledge, that the post should be Rohan's, and Louis, who liked to please people, had given his word that it should be. When I discovered this, I determined to prevent it, particularly as Mercy and my mother were urging me to do this. I told Louis that he could not allow a man who had insulted my mother to hold the post of Grand Almoner of France. It was unfortunate, said my husband, but he had promised Madame de Marsan, and he did not see how he could go back on his word.

"I can see!" I cried. "It is impossible. This man has insulted me ... through my mother. Could you grant such a favor to a man who had insulted your wife?"

"I could not, of course ..."

"Then you must tell him he cannot have the post. You are the King."

"My dear, I have given my word ..."

It seemed imperative that I have my way. If I did not, my mother would say that I had no influence with my husband. I began to cry. I was of no importance, I wept. My husband preferred to grant favors to other women rather than to me.

Tears always distressed Louis. It was not so. He would do anything to please me. What about those chandelier earrings I had admired. They contained some of Boehmer's best diamonds.

I continued to weep. I did not want diamonds. I wanted him to forget his promise to Madame de Marsan. Was it much to ask?

He would do it, he said. He would tell Madame de Marsan that she would have to forget his promise.

I threw my arms about his neck. He was the best husband in the world.

I had counted without Madame de Marsan.

She complained bitterly. The King had given his word. Was she not rely on the King's word?

"Madame, I cannot grant your wish," Louis told her. "I have given the Queen my word."

Because Louis was kind, he was also weak. Had his grandfather or Louis Quatorze declared that they wished to break their word, it would have been accepted as law. But with my husband it was different. People were ready to reason with him, even to criticize him ... and in this case threaten him.

"I respect the Queen's wishes, Sire," said the impertinent Marsan, who had always hated me, "but Your Majesty cannot have two words. The Queen would not wish that the King, in order to please her, should do what the threat of death would not force from the meanest gentleman. I therefore must respectfully take the liberty of a.s.suring Your Majesty that having published the promise he gave me, I should find myself reluctantly compelled to make it known that the King had broken it to please the Queen."

As Louis explained to me afterward, there was nothing he could do but give way, for it was true that he had given his word to her first.

I was angry, but I knew that neither tears nor pleading could help, so I accepted the situation and forgot about it - until now.

But Cardinal de Rohan was a man I would never accept I had disliked him even more than ever. Then I had in fact ceased to think of him. Now I was forced to.

As my anger subsided I began to tell myself that the only reason I had become so agitated was because the Cardinal de Rohan appeared to be so deeply implicated. All the same I must tell my husband about it without delay.

Louis listened gravely and said that Boehmer should be immediately commanded to give his account of what had happened. Knowing that Mercy would most certainly have communicated something of the affair to my brother Joseph - for he still wrote to Vienna, although not as frequently as he had when my mother was alive - I myself wrote to my brother ... giving him what at the time seemed the most logical explanation.

"The Cardinal has made use of my name like a vile and clumsy forger. It is probable that he did so under pressure and an urgent need for money and believed he would be able to pay the jeweler without anything having been discovered."

I was very angry. I hated that man. Not only had he slandered my mother but he had slandered me. I wanted revenge and I was determined to have it.

When Boehmer sent in his account of how he had been approached by the Cardinal with orders to buy the necklace for me, my fury increased. He had sworn on oath that he had received the commission from me.

I said: "He shall be disgraced. He shall be robbed of all his posts. Louis, you must promise to arrest him."

"Arrest the Cardinal de Rohan! But my dear ..."

"He has used my name. He has lied and cheated. He shall be arrested. Louis, you must swear it."

Louis was uneasy. "We must look into this matter. We are a little in the dark at the moment."

"In the dark! We have Boehmer's word that he went to them with this story ... this lie. If you do not arrest that man, it will be as though you believe this story against me." "That I would never do but ..."

"Then arrest him." I put my arms about his neck. "Louis, you must arrest him. If you do not, it will seem that even you are against me. Promise me ... promise me now that you will arrest the Cardinal."

My poor Louis! Was there ever a more clear example of a man who had the intelligence to know what was the wise thing to do and lacked the willpower to do it? Louis wanted peace. He wanted to hurt no one; he could not stand up against my blandishments, even though he knew that I was acting against my own interests. He could not reason against tears and the fury of featherbrained women.

"The Cardinal shall be arrested," he promised; and I was satisfied.

It was the 15th of August, the Feast of the a.s.sumption. The King summoned the Baron de Breteuil, Minister of his Household, and Monsieur de Miromesnil, Keeper of the Seals, to his cabinet. I was there.

The King quickly explained the reason for our presence there and added that he intended that the Cardinal de Rohan should be arrested without delay.

Monsieur de Miromesnil immediately protested: "Sire, Rohan's rank and family ent.i.tle him to be heard before he is arrested."

Louis wavered, in fact agreeing with Miromesnil, but I put in hastily: "He has forged my name. He has behaved like a common swindler. I insist that he be arrested."

I saw Breteuil's eyes gleam. He hated the Cardinal as much as I did because he had followed the Cardinal as Amba.s.sador to Vienna and since then the Cardinal had made him a b.u.t.t of his malicious wit.

Breteuil said: "It is clear what has happened. Rohan is the most extravagant man in France. Not only has he rebuilt the episcopal palace in Strasbourg - think how much that must have cost him - but he has a retinue of women on whom he lavishes a fortune. He has taken up with that sorcerer Cagliostro, who lives at his palace in luxury and who, although he is reputed to make gold and jewels for his patron, costs the Cardinal a great deal to maintain. He has been embarra.s.sed for money for years - in spite of his great revenues. He is undoubtedly in debt and this is his means of satisfying his creditors."

"He has disgraced his cloth and his name," I said hastily. "He does not deserve any considerations because of them."

I could see my husband wavering between what he considered right and what would please me and I threw him my most appealing glance; Monsieur de Breteuil, unable to hide his satisfaction is an enemy's imminent downfall, came in decisively on my side.

The King decided that Rohan should be arrested.

The Feast of the a.s.sumption happened to be my name day and there was to be a special levee at Versailles that I might receive congratulations. Thus the galleries and the oeil de boeuf were crowded. As Grand Almoner of France, it was the Cardinal's duty to celebrate Ma.s.s in the royal chapel. Unaware of what lay before him, he came in his lace rochet and scarlet soutane. He was told that the King wished to see him in his cabinet at midday. He must have been surprised that neither the King nor I had appeared in state, as was expected on such an occasion; but he came in blithely enough, completely unaware of what was about to break over his head.

He bowed low to the King and me; I deliberately turned my head and behaved as though I did not see him. I was aware of the effect my conduct had on him.

Louis came straight to the point.

"My dear cousin," he said, "did you buy diamonds from Boehmer?"

The Cardinal turned pale but he answered: "Yes, Sire."

"Where are they?"

"I believe they have been given to the Queen."

I gave an exclamation of anger, but the King went on as though he had not noticed: "Who gave you the commission to buy these diamonds?"

"A lady called the Comtesse de la Motte-Valois. She gave me a letter from Her Majesty the Queen. I thought that I should please Her Majesty by carrying out this commission." I could no longer contain myself. "Do you think, Monsieur, that I should entrust such a commission to you, to whom I have not spoken for eight years! And could you really believe that I would choose to carry through the negotiations by means of this woman?"

The Cardinal was trembling. "I can see that I have been cruelly deceived. I will pay for the necklace." He turned to me and his expression was one of humility, as though he were begging me for a little sympathy. He would certainly not get it. "My desire to please Your Majesty blinded me. I did not suspect fraud ... until now. I am deeply sorry. May I show Your Majesty how I became involved in this matter?" The King gave his permission and with shaking hands the Cardinal took a paper from his pocket, which he handed to the King. I went swiftly to my husband's side. There was an undoubted order to buy the necklace; it appeared to have been written by me and addressed to a Comtesse de la Motte-Valois.

"That is not my writing," I cried triumphantly.

"And see," said the King, "it is signed 'Marie Antoinette de France.'" He turned sternly to Rohan, who looked as though he would faint. "How could a Prince of the House of Rohan and the King's chaplain believe that this is how a Queen of France would sign herself? Surely you know that Queens only sign their Christian names, and that even Kings' daughters have no other signature, and that if the royal family added any other name, it would not be 'de France.' I have a letter here. It is signed by you and addressed to Boehmer. Pray look at it and tell me if this is a forgery."

The Cardinal swayed slightly. Louis thrust the letter into his hand. "I ... I have no recollection of writing this," he said.

"It bears your signature. Is that your signature?"

"Yes, Sire. It must be authentic if it bears my signature."

"I must have an immediate explanation of these matters," said the King. I could see that he was feeling sorry for Rohan. Such a proud arrogant man, accustomed to making fun of others; now he was about to be brought low. That would seem pathetic to Louis, no matter how villainous the fellow was.

He said gently: "My cousin, I do not want to find you guilty. I should like you to justify your behavior. Now explain to me the meaning of all this."

"Sire," stammered the Cardinal, "I am too distressed to reply to Your Majesty at present ... I am not in the condition ..."

The King said kindly: "Try to calm yourself, Monsieur le Cardinal, and go into my study. There you will find paper, pens, and ink. Write what you have to tell me."

He left us.

"He is a very guilty man," said Breteuil; but the King was silent. An affair like this distressed him greatly.

We waited for a quarter of an hour. Outside in the oeil de boeuf the crowds must be becoming restive. They would know there was something wrong. The King sat at his table frowning, now and then glancing at the clock. Miromesnil looked very uneasy.

It was fifteen minutes later when the Cardinal appeared with the paper on which he appeared to have written very little.

I stood beside the King and read it with him. It was only about fifteen lines and seemed very confused. All I could gather was that a woman calling herself the Comtesse de la Motte-Valois had persuaded him that the necklace was to be bought for me, and that he knew now that this woman had deceived him.

The King sighed and laid down the paper. I would not look in Rohan's direction, but I was aware how his eyes kept turning toward me. I had never hated him so much.

"Where is this woman?" asked the King.

"I do not know, Sire."

"Where is the necklace?"

"In the hands of this woman, Sire."

"Where are the doc.u.ments purported to be signed by the Queen?"

"I have them, Sire. They are forged."

"We well know they are forged!"