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Vicissitudes: Motte

The necklace was delivered to the cardinal February 1st, 1785, by the court jewellers; the price paid for it was one million six hundred thousand livres. The Countess de la Motte brought a pretended message from the queen that the jewels should be given to her the next day, as she wished to wear them at a state banquet. Accordingly, towards evening, the cardinal went to the house of Madame de la Motte at Versailles, followed by a servant who carried the precious casket, and where he was received by the clever actress, who took care that no time should be lost, and in a few moments the door of the apartment was suddenly opened, a voice exclaimed "from the queen," and a valet de chambre in the royal livery (who was the confederate Villette) received the casket from Madame de la Motte, and quickly disappeared. The robbery of these precious jewels was thus adroitly effected. Madame de la Motte and her husband lost no time in taking the necklace to pieces, in order to dispose at once of some of the diamonds; the former obtained at Paris two hundred thousand livres, the latter went to London and sold some of the diamonds at a high price; but an English jeweller named Gray, to whom the Count de la Motte had offered all the remaining gems, was able, afterwards, when the design of the famous necklace was shown to him, to recognize them as having belonged to it. The non-payment of the first draft of five hundred thousand livres, due on July 31st, 1785, which Madame de la Motte, on the pretended authority of the queen, had prepared, brought about the discovery of this audacious robbery. Her majesty, informed by Madame Campan (to whom the court jewellers had related the circumstances of the sale of the necklace) of the abuse made of her name, conferred with the Baron de Breteuil, governor of the royal household, the implacable enemy of the Cardinal de Rohan, who took measures to bring the culprits to justice. The Countess de la Motte was arrested August 18th, 1785, as was also, soon afterwards, the woman Leguay, who had personated the queen, and Villette. The Count de la Motte remained in England, after placing in security the products of the fraud. Amongst the number of persons implicated in this shameful intrigue was the famous Count de Cagliostro, an impostor who pretended to have been present at the marriage at Cana in Galilee with our Saviour, and whose juggleries had blinded the eyes of the Cardinal de Rohan.

Sentence was pronounced in a solemn judicial assembly of the parliament at Paris, May 31st, 1786. Mark Antony de la Motte was condemned to be beaten with rods, to be marked on the right shoulder with the three letters G. A. L. (galleys), and to have hard labour for life; Madame de la Motte to be beaten with rods, to have a cord round her neck, and the letter V. (vol) to be burned in her two shoulders by the executioner before the door of her prison, and to be imprisoned for life. Leguay was acquitted, as were also Cagliostro and others, the Cardinal de Rohan also escaping from penal punishment. Four hours after the release of the latter from the Bastille, he received an order from the king to resign his appointments at court, and to exile himself in his Abbey of the Chaise Dieu in Auvergne. Madame de la Motte suffered within the prison of the Conciergerie the punishment that had been decreed, because it was feared that in her fury and despair, she would give utterance to scandalous calumnies. It was necessary to employ strong force to apply the hot irons. In prison she attempted to stifle herself with the bedclothes. In the course of a few months she succeeded in effecting her escape, dressed in masculine attire, and rejoined her husband in London, where, August 25th, 1791, she terminated her infamous career, after having published her "Justificatory Memoirs," which are a series of mendacious libels. Some curious particulars are related in connection with the "HASTINGS" DIAMOND. While the impeachment of Warren Hastings in 1786 was pending, a circumstance occurred which told against him in the popular feeling, and the suspicions current that Queen Charlotte, who was generally believed to be avaricious, had sold her favour for Indian presents. The Nizam of the Deccan, anxious at this time to conciliate the friendship of England, had sent King George a valuable diamond of unusual dimensions, and, ignorant of what was going on in the English Parliament, had selected Hastings as the channel through which to deliver it. This peace-offering arrived in England on the 2nd of June, after the second charge had been decided against Hastings by the Commons. The diamond, with a rich purse containing the Nizam's letter, was presented by Lord Sydney at a levee when Hastings was present. When the story of the diamond got wind, it was tortured into a thousand shapes, and was even spoken of in a serious manner in the House of Commons; and Major Scott, the intimate friend and zealous champion of Hastings in the House, was obliged to give an explanation in his defence. It was believed that the king had not only received one diamond, but a large quantity, and they were to be the price of Hastings' acquittal. Caricatures on the subject were to be seen in the windows of every print-seller. In one of these, Hastings was represented wheeling in a barrow the king, with his crown and sceptre, observing, "What a man buys, he may sell." In another, the king was exhibited on his knees, with his mouth wide open, and Warren Hastings throwing diamonds into it. At that time there was a quack who pretended to eat stones, and bills of his exhibition were placarded over the walls, headed in large letters, "The Great Stone-Eater." The caricaturists took the hint, and drew the king with a diamond between his teeth, and a heap of others before him, with the inscription, "The Greatest Stone-Eater."