so
unhappily associated. This trinket is still disputed about even in our
own times. It has a literature of its own and it is emphatically The
Necklace of History. We will endeavor to make clear its singular career
and ultimate fate. In 1772, Louis xv. in the full tide of his
infatuation for the worthless Madame Dubarry determined to make her a
present that should be unique. It was to be a diamond necklace the like
of which had never been seen before and which was to cost two millions
of livres. Accordingly in the November of the same year he gave the
order to his jewelers, Messrs. Bohmer & Bassenge, who set about the
job with glee. But it took both time and money to get together such a
lot of diamonds. Of time there seemed enough, for the king was healthy
and not old, and as for money friends were ready to supply it in ample
store upon such fair security as the beauty and influence of Madame
Dubarry. But Fate in the guise of small-pox intervened and upset all
these calculations. In May, 1774,
