A FAMOUS NECKLACE. 259
begone
forever. The sentence on Madame de la Motte was sufficiently rigorous.
She was to be whipped at the cart's tail, branded, and then imprisoned
for life. The whipping was but slightly administered, but a large V (roleuse-thief)
was marked with a red-hot iron on her shoulder : a fact which caused
the jocose to say that she was marked with her own royal initial, V
standing for Valois as well as for voleuse.
After
a couple of years in prison the authorities connived at her escape, in
pursuance it was believed of orders from Versailles. Marie Antoinette's
unpopularity was, if possible, increased by the affair of the
necklace, and the cardinal became a hero for a short time until others
more conspicuous arose to overshadow him. Even yet, however, the
unhappy necklace continued to work for evil towards the Queen. Safe in
England Madame de la Motte wrote her Memoirs, which are nothing but a
mass of libels and a tissue of falsehood all directed against the
Queen. For private politi-
