A FAMOUS NECKLACE. 257
ing
thus completely put themselves in the wrong the case came on for trial
before a bench of judges, who seem to have acted with perfect
uprightness and impartiality. And this, too, when public feeling was
running very high in Paris and the Reign of Terror only five years off.
All
the perpetrators of the crime, except Madame de la Motte, confessed to
their share in it; so the whole series of gigantic cheats and
trickeries was exposed. The forger confessed to his forgery, and the
girl confessed to the scene she had acted in the gardens of the
Trianon. At length the cardinal had to admit to himself that the woman
la Motte, who had bewitched his senses to the detriment of his fair
fame, had also cheated his purse to an almost fabulous extent and had
involved him in the crime of high treason which in days of more
absolute power would undoubtedly have cost him his head. The cardinal
was acquitted of the capital crime, but was condemned to lose.
