A FAMOUS NECKLACE. 245
at
her trial and to be taunted with the theft of them by the mocking
crowds who surrounded her scaffold. Such being the state of the case in
1784, we shall leave the Queen and the jeweler to follow the fortunes
of two other persons who were made famous and infamous by the necklace.
The first was Louis de Rohan, cardinal grand-almoner of France and a
prince in his own right. This person had been ambassador at Vienna
where he had ridiculed Maria Theresa, Marie Antoinette's mother, and
afterward a courtier at Versailles where he had criticised the
Dauphiness, Marie Antoinette herself. By these double deeds he was
cordially detested by the Queen who, like young people generally, was
extreme in her likes and dislikes and Vehement in the expression of her
sentiments. Since the accession of Louis xvi. the cardinal had been in
disgrace, and as royal favor is as the breath of life to the nostrils
of a courtier, he was morbidly anxious to re-establish himself in the
Queen's good graces. So much for the cardinal.
