is very soon
executed;" and, with a shrewd perception of the argument which was most
likely to influence the humane disposition of her husband, she pressed
upon him that "the delays and shuffling of his ministers might very
probably involve him in war, in spite of his own intentions." However,
eventually the clouds which had caused her anxiety were dissipated; the
mediation of France had even some share in leading to a conclusion of
these disputes in a manner in which Joseph himself acquiesced; and the
good understanding between the two crowns, on which, as Marie Antoinette
often declared, her happiness greatly depended, was preserved, or, as she
hoped, even strengthened, by the result of these negotiations.

But on one occasion of real moment to the personal comfort and credit of
the queen, Louis behaved with a clear good sense, and, what was equally
important, with a firmness which she gratefully acknowledged,[6] and
contrasted remarkably with the pusillanimous advice that had been given by
more than one of the ministers. That the affair in which he exhibited
these qualities should for a moment have been regarded as one of political
importance, is another testimony to the diseased state of the public mind
at the time; and that it should have been possible so to use it as to
attach the slightest degree of discredit to the queen, is a proof as
strange as melancholy how greatly the secret intrigues of the basest cabal
that ever disgraced a court had succeeded in undermining her reputation,
and poisoning the very hearts of the people against her.[7]

Boehmer, the court jeweler, had collected a large number of diamonds of
unusual size and brilliancy, which he had formed into a necklace, in the
hope of selling it to the queen, whose fancy for such jewels had some
years before been very great. She had at one time spent sums on diamond
ornaments, large enough to provoke warm remonstrances from her mother,
though certainly not excessive for her rank; and Louis, knowing her
partiality for them, had more than once made her costly gifts of the kind.
But her taste for them had cooled; her children now engrossed far more of
her attention than her dress, and she was keenly alive to the distress
which still prevailed in many parts of the kingdom, and to the
embarrassments of the revenue, which the ingenuity of Calonne did not
relieve half so rapidly as his rashness encumbered it. Accordingly, her
reply to Boehmer's application that