people assembled in immense masses at all the squares, and listened
with abated breath to the speakers who had taken their stand amid
the groups, and who were confirming the astonished hearers
respecting the great news of the day.

"The Lord Cardinal de Rohan, the grand almoner of the king," cried a
Franciscan monk, who had taken his station upon a curbstone, at the
corner of the Tuileries and the great Place de Carrousel--"Cardinal
de Rohan has in a despotic manner been deprived of his rights and
his freedom. As a dignitary of the Church, he is not under the
ordinary jurisdiction, and only the Pope is the rightful lord of a
cardinal; only before the Holy Father can an accusation be brought
against a servant of the Church. For it has been the law of the
Church for centuries that it alone has the power to punish and
accuse its servants, and no one has ever attempted to challenge that
power. But do you know what has taken place? Cardinal de Rohan has
been withdrawn from the jurisdiction of his rightful judges; he has
been denied an ecclesiastical tribunal, and he is to be tried before
Parliament as if he were an ordinary servant of the king; secular
judges are going to sit in judgment upon this great church
dignitary, and to charge him with a crime, when no crime has been
committed! For what has he done, the grand almoner of France,
cardinal, and cousin of the king? A lady, whom he believed to be in
the queen's confidence, had told him that the queen wanted to
procure a set of jewels, which she was unfortunately not able to
buy, because her coffers, as a natural result of her well-known
extravagance, were empty. The lady indicated to the lord cardinal
that the queen would be delighted if he would advance a sum
sufficient to buy the jewels with, and in his name she would cause
the costly fabric to be purchased. The cardinal, all the while a