"
"That means they disown me; they all disown me!" cried the countess,
with flaming rage, stamping upon the floor with her little satin-
covered foot. "But the truth will one day come to the light. The
cardinal will not deny that the queen gave him a rendezvous at
Versailles; that she thanked him personally for the necklace which
she had procured through his instrumentality."
"Yes, the truth will come to the light," answered the president. "I
summon the crown attorney, M. de Borillon, to present the charge
against the Countess Lamotte-Valois."
On this the attorney-general, Borillon, rose, and amid the
breathless silence of the assembly began to speak. He painted the
countess as a crafty, skilful adventuress, who had come to Paris
with the determined purpose of making her fortune in whatever way it
could be done. He then spoke of the destitution in which she had
lived at first, of the begging letters which she addressed to all
people of distinction, and especially to Cardinal de Rohan, in
consequence of his well-known liberality. He painted in lively and
touching colors the scene where the cardinal, struck by the name of
the suppliant, went in person to the attic to convince himself
whether it were really true that a descendant of the Kings of France
had been driven to such poverty and humiliation, and to give her
assistance for the sake of the royal house, to which he was devoted
heart and soul.
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