constantly and painfully
watched, and that might so easily disappear. How many a nimble-fingered
and stout-hearted rogue would not, in those days, have imperiled a dozen
lives to clutch that blazing handful of dross, convertible into an
Elysium of pomp and pleasure! It would hardly have been a safe noonday
plaything in moral Gotham, let alone the dissolute Paris of eighty years
ago!

The first thought, of course, that kindled in the breasts of Boehmer and
Bassange was, that the only proper resting-place for their matchless
bauble was the snowy neck of the Queen Marie Antoinette, then the
admired and beloved of all! Her peerless beauty alone could live in the
glow of such supernal splendor, and the French throne was the only one
in Christendom that could sustain such glittering weight. Moreover, the
Queen had already once been a good customer to the court jewelers, for
in 1774 she bought four diamonds of them for $75,000.

Louis XV would not have hesitated to fling it on the shoulders of the Du
Barry, and Louis XVI, in spite of his odd notions upon economy and just
administration, easily listened to the delicate insinuations of his
court-jewelers; and, one fine morning, laid the necklace in its casket
on the table of his Queen. Her Majesty, for a moment, yielded to the
promptings of feminine weakness, and danced and laughed with the glee of
an overjoyed child in the new sunshine of those burning, sparkling,
dazzling gems. Once and once only she placed it on her neck and breast,
and probably the world has never before or since seen such a countenance
in such a setting. It was almost the head of an angel shining in the
glory of the spheres. But a better thought prevailed, and quickly
removing it, she, with a wave of her beautiful hand, declined the gift
and besought the King to apply the sum to any other purpose that would
be useful or honorable to France, whose finances were sadly straitened.
"We want ships of war more than we do necklaces," said she. The King was
really delighted at this act of the Queen's, and the incident soon
becoming widely known, gave the latter immense popularity for at least
twenty-four hours after it occurred. In fact, the amount was really
applied to the construction of a grand line-of-battle ship called the
Suffren, after the great Admiral of that name.

Boehmer, who seems to have been the business manager of the jeweler
firm, found his necklace as troublesome as the cobbler did the elephant