he countess.

Whether the cardinal was a victim or an accomplice is a question which
never has been, and now never can be, decided. The mystery in which the
affair is involved must remain a mystery until the secrets of all hearts
are revealed at the great day of judgment. If he was the guilty
instigator, and the poor countess but his tool and victim, how much has
he yet to be accountable for in the just retributions of eternity! There
were three suppositions adopted by the community in the attempt to
solve the mystery of this transaction:

1. The first was, that the queen had really employed the
Countess Lamotte to obtain the necklace by deceiving the
cardinal. That it was a trick by which the queen and the
countess were to obtain the necklace, and, by selling it
piecemeal, to share the spoil, leaving the cardinal
responsible for the payment. This was the view the enemies
of Maria Antoinette, almost without exception, took of the
case; and the sentence of acquittal of the cardinal, and the
horrible condemnation of the countess, were intended to
sustain this view. This opinion, spread through Paris and
France, was very influential in rousing that animosity which
conducted Maria Antoinette to sufferings more poignant and
to a doom more awful than the Countess Lamotte could by any
possibility endure.

2. The second supposition was, that the cardinal and the
countess forged the signature of the queen to defraud the
jeweler; that they thus obtained the rich prize of three
hundred and twenty thousand dollars, intending to divide the
spoil between them, and throw the obloquy of the transaction
upon the queen. The king and queen were both fully
convinced that this was the true explanation of the fraud,
and they retained this belief undoubted until they died.

3. The third supposition, and that which now is almost
universally entertained, was, that the crafty woman Lamotte,
by forgery, and by means of an accomplice, who very much, in
figure, resembled Maria Antoinette, completely duped the
cardinal. His anxiety was such to be restored to the royal
favor, that he eagerly caught at the bait which the wily
countess presented to him. But, whoever may have been the
guilty ones, no one now doubts that Maria Antoinette was
entirely innocent. She, however, experienced all the