At the same moment as M. de Breteuil asked for an audience of the king, M. de Charny, pale and agitated, begged one of the queen. He was admitted, and touching tremblingly the hand she held out to him, said in an agitated voice, “Oh! madame, what a misfortune!”
“What is the matter?”
“Do you know what I have just heard? What the king has perhaps already heard, or will hear to-morrow.”
She trembled, for she thought of her night with Charny, and fancied they had been seen. “Speak,” said she; “I am strong.”
“They say, madame, that you bought a necklace from M. Bœhmer.”
“I returned it,” said she quickly.
“But they say that you only pretended to do so, when the king prevented you from paying for it by refusing you the money, and that you went to borrow the amount from some one else, who is your lover.”
“And,” cried the queen, with her usual impetuous confidence, “you, monsieur—you let them say that?”
“Madame, yesterday I went to M. Bœhmer’s with my uncle, who had brought some diamonds from the Indies, and wished to have them valued. There we heard this frightful story now being spread abroad by your majesty’s enemies. Madame, I am in despair; if you bought the necklace, tell me; if you have not paid, tell me; but do not let me hear that M. de Rohan paid for you.”
“M. de Rohan!”