The Story of the Diamond Necklace by Henry Vizetelly

THE COUNT HAWKS THE LIBELS ABROAD. -IS IMPRISONED IN LA FORCE AND THE CONCIERGERIE. -THE LAST OF THE DE LA MOTTE LIBELS.

Count de la Motte, having circulated copies of his wife's "Mémoires Justificatifs" among the London booksellers and in other directions, and being, as usual, involved in debt, thinks it prudent to make an excursion to Holland, where he believes some business in these libels may be done; for it is, reasons he, just as easy to smuggle copies of them into France over the Flemish frontier as across the British Channel, and we all know that Mynheer has never been particular as to the character of the wares he trades in. To Holland, therefore, the count goes in the month of April, 1789. In tracing his career from this date we have but few materials to guide us beyond his own posthumous "Mémoires,"[408] which abound in evident exaggerations, and no less evident falsehoods. The reader is therefore cautioned to accept the count's statements with the same reserve which we have already asked of him in respect to many of the assertions of the countess. Truth would seem to have held no place in the De la Motte system of morals.