Read "The Story of the Diamond Necklace" by Henry Vizetelly online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
PREPARATIONS FOR THE TRIAL. -CAPTURE OF THE COUNTERFEIT QUEEN.
The Cardinal de Rohan, who in the first instance was looked upon as the grand criminal in the Necklace affair, was no sooner in safe keeping than the somewhat difficult question arose what should be done with him. It is true that the queen, in her first moments of anger, urged on by her adviser, the Abbé Vermond, and the cardinal's enemy, the Baron de Breteuil, was for doing swift execution upon the grand almoner; but fortunately for the latter there were certain tedious forms of law to be gone through before a prince of the holy Roman Church could be consigned to the scaffold. Irresolute Louis XVI. had, of course, no opinion of his own upon the subject, and it is quite certain that much indecision on the subject prevailed among his chief advisers. Phlegmatic M. de Vergennes, though no friend of the queen, seems to have thought it best to hush the matter up, and let the scandal die out if it would, and he well-nigh convinced the king that this would be the proper course to pursue. While the affair was under discussion, Louis XVI. wrote to M. de Vergennes as follows: