"Even if the judges clear her," cried the sharp voice of Marat from
the heart of the crowd, "the people will pass sentence upon her. The
people are always right; the people cannot be bribed--they are like
God in this; and the people will not disown their verdict before the
beautiful eyes and the seductive smiles of the Austrian woman. The
people will not be made fools of; they will not believe in the story
of the counterfeited letters and the forged signature."

"No," shouted the crowd, laughing in derision, "we will not believe
it. The queen wrote the letters; her majesty understands how to
write love-letters!"

"The queen loves to have a hand in all kinds of nonsense," thundered
the brewer Santerre, in another group. "She wanted to see whether a
pretty girl from the street could play the part of the Queen of
France, and at the same time she wanted to avenge herself upon the
cardinal because she knew that he once found fault with her before
her mother the empress, on account of her light and disreputable
behavior, and the bad manners which, as the dauphiness, she would
introduce into this court. Since then she has with her glances, her
smiles, and her apparent anger, so worked upon the cardinal as to
make him fall over ears in love with the beautiful, pouting queen.
And that was just what she wanted, for now she could avenge herself.
She appointed a rendezvous with the cardinal, and while she secretly
looked on the scene in the thicket, she allowed the pretty
Mademoiselle Oliva to play her part. And you see that it is not such
a difficult thing to represent a queen, for Mademoiselle Oliva
performed her part so well that the cardinal was deceived, and took
a girl from the streets to be the Queen of France."