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. Then she broke out into loud, scornful laughter, and,
pointing to the letter, she looked at the cardinal with glances of
flame.

"That is not my handwriting, that is not my signature!" cried she,
furiously. "How are you--sir, a prince and grand almoner of France--
how are you so ignorant, so foolish, as to believe that I could
subscribe myself 'Marie Antoinette of France?' Everybody knows that
queens write only their baptismal names as signatures, and you alone
have not known that?"

"I see into it," muttered the cardinal, pale under the look of the
queen, and so weak that he had to rest upon the table for support,
"I see into it; I have been dreadfully deceived."