第73章 THE NIGHT OF GEMS(7)
"Ever prodigal in his expenditure, he is further saddled with the debts of the Prince de Guimenee.""And you can believe," the King cried, "that a Prince of the House of Rohan, however pressed for money, could - Oh, it is unimaginable!""Yet has he not stolen my name?" the Queen cut in. "Is he not proven a common, stupid forger?""We have not heard him," the King reminded her gently.
"And His Eminence might be able to explain," ventured Miromesnil.
"It were certainly prudent to give him the opportunity."Slowly the King nodded his great, powdered head. "Go and find him.
Bring him at once!" he bade Breteuil; and Breteuil bowed and departed.
Very soon he returned, and he held the door whilst the handsome Cardinal, little dreaming what lay before him, serene and calm, a commanding figure in his cassock of scarlet watered silk, rustled forward into the royal presence, and so came face to face with the Queen for the first time since that romantic night a year ago in the Grove of Venus.
Abruptly the King launched his thunderbolt.
"Cousin," he asked, "what purchase is this of a diamond necklace that you are said to have made in the Queen's name?"King and Cardinal looked into each other's eyes, the King's narrowing, the Cardinal's dilating, the King leaning forward in his chair, elbows on the table, the Cardinal standing tense and suddenly rigid.
Slowly the colour ebbed from Rohan's face, leaving it deathly pale.
His eyes sought the Queen, and found her contemptuous glance, her curling lip. Then at last his handsome head sank a little forward.
"Sire," he said unsteadily, "I see that I have been duped. But Ihave duped nobody."
"You have no reason to be troubled, then. You need but to explain."Explain! That was precisely what he could not do. Besides, what was the nature of the explanation demanded of him? Whilst he stood stricken there, it was the Queen who solved this question.
"If, indeed, you have been duped," she said scornfully, her colour high, her eyes like points of steel, "you have been self-duped. But even then it is beyond belief that self-deception could have urged you to the lengths of passing yourself off as my intermediary - you, who should know yourself to be the last man in France I should employ, you to whom I have not spoken once in eight years." Tears of anger glistened in her eyes; her voice shrilled up. "And yet, since you have not denied it, since you put forward this pitiful plea that you have been duped, we must believe the unbelievable."Thus at a blow she shattered the fond hopes he had been cherishing ever since the night of gems - of gems, forsooth! - in the Grove of Venus; thus she laid his ambition in ruins about him, and left the man himself half stunned.
Observing his disorder, the ponderous but kindly monarch rose.
"Come, my cousin," he said more gently, "collect yourself. Sit down here and write what you may have to say in answer."And with that he passed into the library beyond, accompanied by the Queen and the two Ministers.
Alone, Rohan staggered forward and sank nervelessly into the chair.
He took up a pen, pondered a moment, and began to write. But he did not yet see clear. He could not yet grasp the extent to which he had been deceived, could not yet believe that those treasured notes from Marie Antoinette were forgeries, that it was not the Queen who had met him in the Grove of Venus and given him the rose whose faded petals kept those letters company in a portfolio of red morocco. But at least it was clear to him that, for the sake of honour - the Queen's honour - he must assume it so; and in that assumption he now penned his statement.
When it was completed, himself he bore it to the King in the library.
Louis read it with frowning brows; then passed it to the Queen.
"Have you the necklace now?" he asked Rohan.
"Sir, I left it in the hands of this woman Valois.""Where is this woman?"
"I do not know, Sire."
"And the letter of authority bearing the Queen's signature, which the jewellers say you presented to them - where is that?""I have it, Sire. I will place it before you. It is only now that I realize that it is a forgery.""Only now!" exclaimed the Queen in scorn.
"Her Majesty's name has been compromised," said the King sternly.
"It must be cleared. As King and as husband my duty is clear.
Your Eminence must submit to arrest."