was
forced to fly, two or three years ago, for being the Prince of
Swindlers. _Our_ Nabobs are not treated so roughly; yet I doubt they
collect diamonds still more criminally.

[Footnote 1: "_A collar of diamonds._" The transaction here referred
to--though, strangely enough, it is looked on as one that had a
political interest--was, in fact, a scheme of a broken-down gambler to
swindle a jeweller out of a diamond necklace of great value. The Court
jeweller had collected a large number of unusually fine diamonds, which
he had made into a necklace, in the hope that the Queen would buy it,
and the Cardinal de Rohan, who was a member of one of the noblest
families in France, but a man of a character so notoriously profligate,
that, when he was ambassador at Vienna, Maria Teresa had insisted on his
recall, was mixed up in the fraud in a manner scarcely compatible with
ignorance of its character. He was brought to trial with the more
evident agents in the fraud, and the whole history of the French
Parliaments scarcely records any transaction more disgraceful than his
acquittal. For some months the affair continued to furnish pretext to
obscure libellers to calumniate the Queen with insinuations not less
offensive than dangerous from their vagueness; all such writers finding
a ready paymaster in the infamous Duc d'Orleans.]

[Footnote 2: The Prince de Guemenee, a very profligate and extravagant
man, by 1782 had become so hopelessly embarrassed that he was compelled
to leave Paris, and consequently the Princess, his wife, who ever since
the birth of Louis XVI. had held the office of "Governess of the Royal
Children," a life-appointment, was forced to resign it, much to the
pleasure of the Queen, who disapproved of her character, and bestowed
the office on Mme. de Polignac, and when, at the beginning of the
Revolution, she also fled from Paris, on Mme. de Tourzel. But, in truth,
under Marie Antoinette the office was almost a sinecure. She considered
superintendence of the education of her children as among the most
important of her duties; and how judiciously she performed it is seen in
an admirable letter of hers to Mme. de Tourzel, which can hardly be
surpassed for its discernment and good-feeling. (See the Editor's "Life
of Marie Antoinette," iii. 55.)]

Your nephew will be sorry to hear that the Duke of Montrose's third
grandson, Master William Douglas, died yesterday of a fever. These poor
Montroses are most unfortunate