the most wicked libel that appeared during the earlier years
of her reign was circulated in Paris. The blackest colours were employed
to paint an enjoyment so harmless that there is scarcely a young woman
living in the country who has not endeavoured to procure it for herself.
The verses which appeared on this occasion were entitled "Sunrise."

The Duc d'Orleans, then Duc de Chartres, was among those who accompanied
the young Queen in her nocturnal ramble: he appeared very attentive to her
at this epoch; but it was the only moment of his life in which there was
any advance towards intimacy between the Queen and himself. The King
disliked the character of the Duc de Chartres, and the Queen always
excluded him from her private society. It is therefore without the
slightest foundation that some writers have attributed to feelings of
jealousy or wounded self-love the hatred which he displayed towards the
Queen during the latter years of their existence.

It was on this first journey to Marly that Boehmer, the jeweller, appeared
at Court,--a man whose stupidity and avarice afterwards fatally affected
the happiness and reputation of Marie Antoinette. This person had, at
great expense, collected six pear-formed diamonds of a prodigious size;
they were perfectly matched and of the finest water. The earrings which
they composed had, before the death of Louis XV., been destined for the
Comtesse du Barry.

Boehmer; by the recommendation of several persons about the Court, came to
offer these jewels to the Queen. He asked four hundred thousand francs
for them. The young Princess could not withstand her wish to purchase
them; and the King having just raised the Queen's income, which, under the
former reign, had been but two hundred thousand livres, to one hundred
thousand crowns a year, she wished to make the purchase out of her own
purse, and not burthen the royal treasury with the payment. She proposed
to Boehmer to take off the two buttons which formed the tops of the
clusters, as they could be replaced by two of her own diamonds. He
consented, and then reduced the price of the earrings to three hundred and
sixty thousand francs; the payment for which was to be made by
instalments, and was discharged in the course of four or five years by the
Queen's first femme de chambre, deputed to manage the funds of her privy
purse. I have omitted no details as to the manner in which the Queen
first became possessed of these jewel