The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1893-03-30
hook and eye, de Rohan and BEGINNER

hook and eye, de Rohan and BEGINNER,
with their respective monomanias.
With messages from de Rohan, and
even with forged notes, so skillfully done
as to deceive an old courtier-with O
monomania; with even midnight meet
ing in the Versailles garden--a lady
Of shady business, Mile. Elliva, who de-
scribes herself one with moderate Gus
TOM" very like the queen in stature and
appearance, personating the queen-an
interview aptly interrupted and the sim
ulate queen hurried off with Come,
quick quick pa rose di6pped, however,
with "You know what that means'-
rose priced by de Rohan and kept in .
costly cabinet.
Patiently, slowly, this princess Of fraud,
who out-frauded Cagliastro, works her
wiles. exctes her dupes until the diamond
necklace is sprung. Then comes the nice,
critical test of her art. She delays, makes
de Rohan fret, the queen coquette, Marie.
will - the necklace P yes-wants it,
yes-hesitates--isa afraid.
At last she will, and contract between
de Rohan and BEGINNER is drawn up and
signed-tirst payment in six months, de
Rohan, surety. 1t is returned with
marginal note, Marie's handwriting:
bon: Marie Antoinette de France" The
"De France" is vulgar, smacks Of the
low position OF the forger. Always some
thing in fraud does 80 exhibit fraud as
not the real but the inflamed dupes here,
as infiamed dupes always, overlooked 1t.
Bon, then, the necklace 10 delivered.
That eve de Rohan takes 1t to the fair
go between and diabola er machina.
Most timely the queens chief valet en-
tiers in the queens uniform-being the
very forger, in fact, personating valet;
and de Rohan delivers the necklace.
And, whisk, the forger is off to Holland,
and Count de Lamotte is off to London,
the great necklace broken up and sold
queen, de Rohan and Bphmer never the
wiser until six-monthly pay day and no
first installment. But the fair duper
brings $4,000 from the queen as interest
queen sorry, but little involved-as
truly the French court is-can't meet frat
payment, but will pay interest. BEGINNER
must have payment: creditors. bank
ruptcy, private devil to pay and no pitch
hot-ss well as public devil to pay and
no pitch hot in all France-goes to court,
interview with the queen, de Rohsn sum-
moned, arrested - but believing them
genuine, with dishonors canon and law
OF honor, manages to have the queens
notes and rose casket burned. Cagliastro
arrested, fair go-between arrested, nine
months trial, all Europe filled with
scandal, queen In tears. reputation un-
justly ruined with all France at critical
period, when all OF down-trodden France
believed anything of court so long and
so additionally vile, and when Marie's
reputation was most needed by her and
by Louis.
The trial resulted in the acquittal of de
Rohan and Cagliostro. The first was Q
dupe OF fool, but he had done no crime.
The second, doubtless TO his own dis
gust, had escaped being in the one gigan-
tic fraud that dwarfed all his great
achievements. The fair go-between was
branded "V" for Voleuse Chief, and
condemned to life imprisonment, but
escaped. No other scandal in the world
has approached this Of the diamond neck
lace. Allowing for changed times, the
Panama scandal is but the outcropping of
that corruption which has always been
excessive in France, Involving court,
princes, kings, queens and mobiles as no
where else in the world.
Curiously. woman, sensuslity and pas
sion have figured little and almost not
at all in the Panama scandal. Curiously,
woman as an object OF passion, sensuality
and intrigue for loves sske-so called
did not figure in the diamond necklace
scandal, even at that superennial French
era.
What fruit the first bore, wedged In
with other influences rushing toward and
absorbing all into the revolution. we
know. What the Panama scandal may
do, or be the cause of doing, is yet in the
future. The fact that M. Carnot, the ex-
ecutive and responsible head of the pres
emit government. is free from any faint Of
completely makes the outlook now only
for publication and reform. Had he be-
come involved q change in the govern.
ment would have inevitably occurred.
The reader who desires to 80 into this
most romantic of all scandals will find
the two Cagliostro papers and the dia-
mond necklace of Thomas Carlyle mat
ters of verify and history SURPRISING any
novel, although rather scenic pictures
than direct narrative.
Jos. X. BANKS.
- a