"No, it
was an entirely different hand. Only the signature had any
resemblance, although the letter to the duchess was simply
subscribed 'Marie Antoinette.' I hastened home, and awaited the
coming of the countess with feverish impatience. She came, smiling
as ever, and brought me the thirty thousand francs. With glowing,
passionate words, I threw my suspicions in her face. She appeared a
moment alarmed, confused, and then granted that it was possible that
the letters were not from the hand of the queen, but that she had
dictated them. But the signatures were the queen's, she could take
her oath of it. I again took a little courage; but soon after the
countess had left me, the jewellers came in the highest excitement
to me, to tell me that, receiving no payments from the queen, they
had applied in writing to her several times, without receiving any
answer; their efforts to obtain an audience were also all in vain,
and so they had at last applied to the first lady-in-waiting on the
queen, Madame de Campan, with whom they had just had an interview.
Madame de Campan had told them that the queen did not possess the
necklace; that no Countess Lamotte-Valois had ever had an interview
with the queen; that she had told the jewellers with extreme
indignation that some one had been deceiving them; that they were
the victims of a fraud, and that she would at once go to Trianon to
inform the queen of this fearful intrigue.
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