"Let the emperor pay for his own follies," people said; and the ill-humor of the public openly and unjustly accused the queen.
This direful malevolence on the part of public opinion, springing from a few acts of imprudence and fomented by a long series of calumnies, was about to burst forth on the occasion of a scandalous and grievous occurrence.

On the 15th of August, 1785, at Mass-time, Cardinal Rohan, grand almoner of France, already in full pontificals, was arrested in the palace of Versailles and taken to the Bastille.

The king had sent for him into his cabinet.

"Cardinal," said Louis XVI.

abruptly, "you bought some diamonds of Bcehmer ?" "Yes, Sir." "What have you done with them ?" "I thought they had been sent to the queen." "Who gave you the commission ?" (The cardinal began to be uneasy.) "A lady, the Countess de la Motte Valois,.