eness.

What followed was a drama of surprises. It was with as much astonishment
as indignation that Marie Antoinette learned that Boehmer believed that
she had secretly bought the necklace, which openly and formally she had
refused, and that he was looking to her for the payment of its price. And
about a fortnight later it was like a thunder-clap that a summons came
upon the Cardinal de Rohan, who had just been performing mass before the
king and queen, to appear before them in Louis's private cabinet, and that
he found himself subjected to an examination by Louis himself, who
demanded of him with great indignation an explanation of the circumstances
that had led him to represent himself to Boehmer as authorized to buy a
necklace for the queen. Terrified and confused, he gave an explanation
which was half a confession; but which was too complicated to be
thoroughly intelligible. He was ordered to retire into the next room and
write out his statement. His written narrative proved more obscure than
his spoken words. In spite of his prayers that he might be spared the
degradation of being arrested while still clad in his pontifical habits,
he was at once sent to the Bastile. A day or two afterward Madame La Mothe
was apprehended in the provinces, and Louis directed that a prosecution
should be instantly commenced against all who had been concerned in the
transaction.

For the queen's name had been forged. The cardinal did not deny that he
had represented himself to Boehmer as employed by her for the purchase of
the jewel which, as he said, she secretly coveted, and for the payment of
its price by installments. But, as his justification, he produced a letter
desiring him to undertake the business, and signed "Marie Antoinette de
France." He declared that he had never suspected the genuineness of this
letter, though it was notorious that such an addition to their Christian
names was used by none but the sons and daughters of the reigning
sovereign, and never by a queen. And eventually his whole story was found
to be that Madame La Mothe had induced him to believe that she was in the
queen's confidence, and also that the queen coveted the necklace and was
resolved to obtain it; but that she was unable at once to pay for it; and
that, being desirous to make amends to the cardinal for the neglect with
which she had hitherto treated him, she had resolved on employing him to
make arrangements with Boehmer for the instant deliver