r
went to Switzerland, his dupe maintained a constant communication with
him in cipher.

Lastly is to be mentioned Jeanne de St. Remi, Countess de Lamotte de
Valois de France, the chief scoundrel, if the term may be used of a
woman--of the necklace affair. She seems to have been really a
descendant of the royal house of Valois, to which Francis I. belonged;
through an illegitimate son of Henry II. created Count de St. Remi. The
family had run down and become poor and rascally, one of Jeanne's
immediate ancestors having practiced counterfeiting for a living. She
herself had been protected by a certain kind hearted Countess de
Boulainvilliers; was receiving a small pension from the Court of about
$325 a year; had married a certain tall soldier named Lamotte; had come
to Paris, and was living in poverty in a garret, hovering about as it
were for a chance to better her circumstances. She was a quick-witted,
bright-eyed, brazen-faced hussy, not beautiful, but with lively pretty
ways, and indeed somewhat fascinating.

Her protectress, the countess de Boulainvilliers, was now dead; while
she was alive Jeanne had once visited her at de Rohan's palace of
Saverne, and had thus scraped a slight acquaintance with the gay
Cardinal, which she resumed during her abode at Paris.

Everybody at Paris knew about the Diamond Necklace, and about de Rohan's
desire to get into court favor. This sharp-witted female swindler now
came in among the elements I have thus far been describing, to frame
necklace, jeweller, cardinal, queen, and swindler, all together into her
plot, just as the key-stone drops into an arch and locks it up tight.

No mortal knows where ideas come from. Suddenly a conception is in the
mind, whence, or how, we do not know, any more than we know Life. The
devil himself might have furnished that which now popped into the
cunning, wicked mind of this adventuress. This is what she saw all at
once:

Boehmer is crazy to sell his necklace. De Rohan is crazy after the
Queen's favor. I am crazy after money. Now if I can make De Rohan think
that the Queen wants the necklace, and will become his friend in return
for his helping her to it; if I can make him think I am her agent to
him, then I can steal the diamonds in their transit.

A wonderfully cunning and hardy scheme! And most wonderful was the cool,
keen promptitude with which it was executed.

The countess began to hint to the cardinal that she was fast getting
into th