With No Warning (Romance/Inspirational)(Complete)

CHAPTER 15: Affair De'Clare

CHAPTER 15: Affair De'Clare

In the classroom, Dakota began the new year by jumping headlong into the French Revolution. The students were rested from the long holiday, and avidly participated in the assignments and discussions. As she lectured on the “Affair de Clare”, one afternoon, her gaze fell on the silver bracelet Evan had given her over the holidays. It had been days since they had talked, since she had dropped him at his house, the night of their return from Florida. Actually, they had traded voice mails and a few texts, but she guessed he must be as busy catching up from his days off, as she was getting back into the routine around school.

“So the necklace was designed for the queen? Why didn’t she want it?”

“It was a grudge–right?”

Reluctantly, she forced her concentration to the discussion at hand. “The necklace was originally designed for Mme du Barry, mistress of the current king Louis XV, but when Louis XV died, the jeweler depended on the new queen, Marie Antoinette, to purchase it.” This particular clip of history was one of her favorites, and she was soon caught up in the intrigue of the story.

“When she refused, Louis XVI suggested to buy it as a present to her, but again she refused saying that if he did so, he could give it to his daughter as a wedding present. Rohn, Cardinal of France, this is whom Marie hated and carried a grudge for, and the possible reasons we will delve into later, was convinced by a woman, Jeanne de le Motte, that Marie did indeed want to purchase the necklace and needed a guarantor. This is how it all came about...Jeanne de le Motte claimed to be royal blood through a previous dynasty, and passed herself off, to the Cardinal, as Marie’s closest confident. For a time, she simply took money from him, telling him that she could forge a more favorable relationship between him and the queen. To be in the favor of the royal family was something Rohn wanted badly, because he wanted to become a Bishop, and this was not possible until Marie accepted his gesture of amends. Letters were passed back and forth, with Jeanne forging those from the queen, and acting as the deliverer. Then something happened that would change extortion into theft and conspiracy. The jeweler, hearing of Jeanne’s influence with Marie, approached Jeanne and begged her help in convincing the queen to purchase the necklace, because he was nearing destitution. And Jeanne hatched a plan. Jeanne told Rohn that Marie really loved the necklace, was short of money and wanted to pay in installments. Rohn was no dummy. He insisted on a meeting with Marie. This was arranged in the dark garden of the Palis Versades with a look alike. Rohn fell for it. After Marie’s name was forged on the contract, Rohn signed and turned the necklace over to Jeanne for delivery. Jeanne, of course, did not send the necklace to the queen, she took it home, broke it up, and her husband sold the individual diamonds around Paris. Remember the necklace was 2,800 carats!”

Dakota went on to construe how and when everything culminated into a realization that Jeanne, and her accomplices had duped everyone involved. As she expanded on the trial that followed, and the ramifications of it on the dissension of the French people at the time, her gaze was sliding from face to face and uncertainly, they paused on Lana as she noted the girl’s troubled eyes focused unseeingly at some point on the side board.

As usual, Lana had been out late the night before, but she hadn’t broken curfew yet since the new semester began. In the split second that Lana refocused, and her eyes locked with Dakota’s, Dakota saw her raw confusion and mixed up emotions. Moving her own gaze onto the next student, Dakota hid her empathy knowing it would not be welcomed.

“Jeanne was condemned to be branded with a “V”, the Mark of a thief, and to be imprisoned for life. If you will recall from your reading, Jeanne had originally claimed that her family had been financially ruined, and their title taken by the regime and laws of the time. With the current “enlightenment of the era” you can imagine the public sympathy for her. Many people visited her every day, and she “escaped” to England two years later where she published her Memoirs. In her Memoirs, she writes that with her ‘dying breath, I will maintain that illicit relations existed between the Cardinal and the queen.’ Jeanne died from a fall from a hotel window. Whether it was accident, suicide or homicide we may never know. Another rumor around the time was that Rohan was the father of Marie’s last child. The Affair of the Necklace, or Affair de Clare, shaped the mood of the French people and harmed the image of Marie Antoinette at a critical time. Monday we went over how the financial state of the country contributed to the French Revolution, and we talked about the popularity of the American Revolution with the French. Today we discussed the inequalities of the social structure. Tomorrow we will begin the actual revolution events. Any questions?”