"My lord
president," answered she, "it is very clear that you are not much
accustomed to deal with ladies, or else you would not take the
liberty of asking a lady, like myself in her prime, after her age. I
will pardon you this breach of etiquette, and I will magnanimously
pretend not to have heard that question, in order to answer the
others. You wish to know my name? I am the Countess Lamotte-Valois
of France, the latest descendant of the former Kings of Prance; and
if in this unhappy land, which is trodden to the dust by a stupid
king and a dissolute queen, right and justice still prevailed, I
should sit on the throne of France, and the coquette who now
occupies it would be sitting here in this criminal's chair, to
justify herself for the theft which she has committed, for it is
Marie Antoinette who possesses the diamonds of the jeweller Bohmer,
not I."
At the spectators' tribune a gentle bravo was heard at these words,
and this daring calumny upon the queen found no reproval even from
the judges' bench.
"Madame," said L'Aigre, after a short pause, "instead of simply
answering my questions you reply with a high-sounding speech, which
contains an untruth, for it is not true that you can lay any claim
to the throne of France. The descendants of bastards have claims
neither to the name nor the rank of their fathers.
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