Chapter I: Dedicate,

WITH MUCH AFFECTION,

THIS RECORD OF AN ERRING WOMAN’S CAREER.

H. V.

PARIS, 1867.

ADVERTISEMENT.

“THE STORY OF THE DIAMOND NECKLACE,” which met with marked success at the time of its first appearance—two editions in an expensive form having speedily become exhausted—has been out of print for some years. The author was unwilling that it should be re-issued until it had been subjected to a complete revision, and this more pressing occupations have obliged him continually to postpone. Having at length found the necessary leisure, he has thoroughly revised the work, availing himself of a new study of the documents preserved in the French National Archives for this purpose, and incorporating in the present volume such additional facts relative to his subject as the investigations of recent years have brought to light. If the work in its new form meets with anything like the favour which was accorded to the early editions, the author will feel himself amply rewarded for the extra labour he has expended in rendering it more complete.

LONDON, _October, 1880_.

Several critics of the first edition of this work took the author to task for regarding as genuine the autograph letters of Marie-Antoinette and others, comprised in the collection of M. Feuillet de Conches, and expressed their surprise at his ignorance of the controversy which had taken place on the subject of their authenticity, and had resulted, they said, in the almost universal condemnation of these documents by both French and German critics. The author was not only fully acquainted with all the details of the controversy in question, but he had carefully examined the letters themselves—not their contents merely, but the character of the handwriting, and had studied its variations at different periods of Marie-Antoinette’s career; and he had come to the conclusion, in common with the majority of French writers who are regarded as authorities on matters pertaining to the history of France during the latter half of the eighteenth century, that the impugned documents are, with certain exceptions, perfectly genuine. The above remarks, it should be noted, apply exclusively to the autograph letters in M. Feuillet de Conches’ collection, and not to the exceedingly dubious letters published by Comte d’Hunolstein.