‘I am delighted that I need no longer regard you as blameworthy. It is not possible to grant you yet an audience such as you desire, but I will let you know when circumstances permit this. Meanwhile be discreet …’
And this extraordinary document was signed ‘Marie Antoinette de France.’
The Cardinal, in his delight, showered gifts on Jeanne – the clever go-between through whose favour he might win the Queen’s.
How to turn this amazing situation to greater advantage occupied Jeanne and her lover day and night. Jeanne was a bold schemer and she believed so fervently in her own astuteness that she never hesitated to put into action her most outrageous plans.
She now told the Cardinal that the Queen was short of money and was asking him to show his esteem by lending her 50,000 livres, which should be handed to her dear friend the Comtesse de Lamotte-Valois. The Cardinal showed signs of suspicions, so Jeanne hastily declared that the Queen would meet him for a few moments in the gardens of Versailles. This meeting must be very secret. She could not explain why, but he would know later when Antoinette was able to receive him openly.
The Cardinal, overjoyed, borrowed the 50,000 livres from a moneylender and gave the money to Jeanne; this was riches in the household in the rue Neuve-Saint-Gilles, but both Jeanne and Retaux realised that unless they could procure a ‘Queen’ to meet the Cardinal it would be the last of their pickings.
They were bemused by their success; they had come to believe that they could do exactly what they liked with the gullible Cardinal, so Retaux discovered a modiste who was a prostitute in her spare time, a very pretty, fair young woman in whom many noticed a faint resemblance to the Queen.
They brought her to the house in the rue Neuve-Saint-Gilles and offered her what seemed to her a fabulous sum if she would do exactly what they wanted. They rehearsed her in what she must say, dressed her in muslin such as the Queen wore for her simple country life at Trianon, and took her one starry night to the grove of Venus in the Versailles gardens where the trees were so thick that it was impossible to see clearly the faces of those who sheltered beneath them. There Mademoiselle d’Oliva waited, nervously clutching a rose and a letter which she was to give to a tall gentleman who would come to her and converse for a few seconds only. With her was Retaux in the livery of a royal servant which he had managed to procure, and also Jeanne who would help her if she needed help.
The tall handsome man came to the rendezvous; he was wrapped in a great cloak and, as soon as he saw the little prostitute, he knelt and kissed the hem of her muslin gown.
Mademoiselle d’Oliva whispered: ‘You may hope that the past will be forgotten.’
The dark man was on his feet. He had taken her hand.
She proffered the rose which he took eagerly.
At that moment Jeanne whispered in a voice of great alarm: ‘Come away … quickly, Madame. Someone comes this way. You must not be discovered.’
Only too glad to have played her part, Mademoiselle d’Oliva turned and hurried away with Jeanne.
After that incident it was easy to draw more sums from the Cardinal.
Then to Jeanne came the great idea of making herself rich for ever.
She was entertaining lavishly on the money which the Cardinal had provided; her friends were certain that she had some high place at Court. Several times a week they saw her ride out in her carriage for Versailles. There she would alight and wait with the crowds in the courtyards or the Galerie, and whenever possible study the Queen. She could then go home and describe to her friends what the Queen wore, what she looked like that day – in fact, with the aid of her memory and her vivid imagination, she was able to give credibility to this story of her friendship with Antoinette.
And to one of her parties a friend brought Boehmer the Court jeweller. He was very deferential to the Comtesse de Lamotte-Valois, and asked if he might speak to her alone.
‘Madame,’ he said, ‘I find myself in great financial difficulties. There is a diamond necklace which I made in the hope that the Queen would buy it. I have put myself and my partners deeply in debt in order to procure only the finest stones; and the skilled workmanship which has gone into the making of this necklace is the best in the world. But if the Queen cannot be persuaded to buy this necklace – and no one else in the country could afford to do so – I and my partner are ruined men. Now you are the Queen’s dear friend. If you could persuade her to buy this necklace, believe me, dear Comtesse, I should be ready to offer you a very big commission.’
Jeanne considered this. It would have been a pleasant way of earning money, if she had known the Queen, if she had been in a position to persuade her.
She said she would do what she could, and the jeweller went away somewhat relieved.
She continued to think of the necklace, and eventually asked the jeweller if he would bring it to her house and show it to her.
As soon as she set eyes on it her fertile mind began to work. She dreamed of the necklace. She did not see the beauty of those magnificent stones and their clever setting; she saw 1,600,000 livres – a fortune.
She paid a visit to the Cardinal.
‘I have news, Excellency, of Her Majesty.’
The Cardinal’s handsome eyes gleamed with excitement.
‘The Queen needs your help. She says that if you will help her in this matter she will know you are truly her friend. She wishes to buy a diamond necklace. The King will not buy it for her, so she must do it herself; and this means doing it secretly.’
‘I will do all in my power …’ murmured the Cardinal.
‘These are the Queen’s instructions. You are to visit the jeweller and tell him that you have the Queen’s order to purchase the necklace for her. The price is 1,600,000 livres, and the Queen finds it difficult to raise this large sum; so she wants you to arrange that it shall be paid in four parts … the first of these to be payable on August 1st. The necklace should be handed to you on February 1st. Would you agree to make this transaction for the Queen?’
‘There is nothing on earth I would not do for the Queen.’
‘Then if you will write out the agreement I will submit it to Her Majesty for her approval.’
The Cardinal sat down at once and drew up the document. Jeanne took this, and a few days later returned to the Cardinal.
‘Her Majesty is satisfied with this document and agrees to abide by the terms,’ she said. ‘She asks that you take it to the jeweller, who will give you the necklace. Then she wishes you to hand it to me that I may take it to her at once.’
The Cardinal hesitated.
‘You do not wish to undertake this transaction for the Queen?’ asked Jeanne quickly.
‘I wish to please Her Majesty in every way. But this is a very big undertaking. It involves a great deal of money. I feel that the jeweller will wish to see Her Majesty’s signature on the agreement.’
Jeanne could hardly suppress a sigh of relief. Her Majesty’s signature – what could be easier than that? She took the document home and Rétaux signed each clause: ‘Approved, Marie Antoinette de France.’
It was so simple that it was almost unbelievable that it could have worked out so easily.
Rohan took the document to the jeweller, and the next day the necklace was in Jeanne’s hands.
How they gloated over it – she, her husband and Rétaux. Their fortunes were made. The most magnificent diamonds in the world were in their hands. They immediately set about breaking up the necklace. They disposed of some of the diamonds in Paris but, as they were so startlingly magnificent, this caused a little questioning; Rétaux was able to tell the police that he had been charged to sell them by the lady whom he served. She was the Comtesse de Lamotte-Valois. The royal name allayed the suspicions of the police; but after that it was decided that it was too dangerous to sell the remainder of the jewels in Paris, so the Comte de Lamotte-Valois took them to London to dispose of them there.