I will pay for the necklace.
The earnest wish to please your majesty has blinded your eyes
regarding me. I have planned no deception, and am now bitterly
undeceived. But I will pay for the necklace."
"And you suppose that that ends all!" said the queen, with a burst
of anger. "You think that, with a pitiful paying for the brilliants,
you can atone for the disgrace which you have brought upon your
queen? No, no, sir; I desire a rigid investigation. I insist upon it
that all who have taken part in this ignominious deception be
brought to a relentless investigation. Give me the proofs that you
have been deceived, and that you are not much rather the deceiver."
"Ah, madame," cried the cardinal, with a look at once so full of
reproach and confidence, that the queen fairly shook with anger.
"Here are the proofs of my innocence," continued he, drawing a small
portfolio from his pocket, and taking from it a folded paper. "There
is the letter of the queen to the Countess Lamotte, in which her
majesty empowered me to purchase the diamonds."
The king took the paper, looked over it hastily, read the signature,
and gave it, with a suspicious shrug of the shoulders, to his wife.
The queen seized the letter with the wild fury of a tigress, which
has at last found its prey, and with breathless haste ran over the
paper.
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