"
"I laughed," continued Madame de Campan, "and asked him how he could
assert such a thing, when he told me only a few months ago that he
had sold the necklace to the Sultan. Then he replied that the queen
had ordered him to give this answer to every one that asked about
the necklace. Then he told me further, that your majesty had
secretly bought the necklace, and through the instrumentality of the
Lord Cardinal de Rohan."
"Through Rohan?" cried the queen, rising. "Through the man whom I
hate and despise? And is there a man in France who can believe this,
and who does not know that the cardinal is the one who stands the
lowest in my favor!"
"I said to Mr. Bohmer--I said to him that he was deceived, that the
queen would never make a confidant of Cardinal Rohan, and he made me
this very answer: 'You deceive yourself, madame. The cardinal stands
so high in favor, and maintains such confidential relations with her
majesty, that she had sent, through his hands, thirty thousand
francs as a first payment. The queen took this money in the presence
of the cardinal, from the little secretary of Sevres porcelain,
which stands near to the chimney in her boudoir.' 'And did the
cardinal really say that?' I asked; and when he reaffirmed it, I
told him that he was deceived. He now began to be very much
troubled, and said, 'Good Heaven! what if you are right, what if I
am deceived! There has already a suspicion come to me; the cardinal
promised me that on Whit-sunday the queen would wear the collar, and
she did not do so; so this determined me to write to her.
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