She became acquainted with the facts of the Queen’s admiration for the necklace and the infatuation of Rohan for the Queen; and upon these she arranged her scheme for duping the Prince and obtaining possession of the property. She soon won the confidence of Rohan, and represented to him the Queen’s intense longing for the necklace, and the favor he would gain in loaning the means which would enable her to obtain the coveted jewel and pay for it at her leisure. She promised, furthermore, through the aid of Cagliostro, to obtain an interview with the Queen on this subject. The promised interview took place one night in August, 1784, in the garden of Versailles; but the Queen was represented by a low character by the name of D’Oliva, who was almost a counterpart of Marie Antoinette. Rohan was completely deceived, and agreed to purchase the necklace; which he did not long after, giving his notes for half-yearly payments, and receiving as security a bond from the pretended Queen, which, however, was forged by La Motte’s husband. The Prince Cardinal then intrusted the jewel to the Countess for conveyance to the Queen; but she passed it over to her husband, who lost no time in hurrying to London, where he immediately converted its gems into money. The Countess, however, did not hasten to join her husband, but remained at Paris, rejoicing in her audacity and good fortune, and with the hope of plucking more feathers from her princely victim. Nearly a year passed away before the secret was discovered. Böhmer, anxious for his pay, approached the King; and the fraud was at once discovered. The Cardinal Prince was arrested just as he was about to perform mass before the court, and sent to the Bastile. After a short imprisonment, he was tried by a court of justice, but acquitted of criminal offence. However, he was sent in disgrace to reside at an abbey of his in Auvergne. Madame la Motte paid dearly for her crime and her dalliance in Paris after the prize had been secured, for she was sentenced to be branded on the shoulders, scourged in public, and condemned to perpetual imprisonment. She bore her trials with fortitude, and had the good fortune to escape from her prison in less than a year after her sentence. She joined her husband in London, and there published a bitter pamphlet against the French Court, and especially the Queen. It is generally supposed that the Countess died in London in 1791, either from a fever or the result of an accident caused by a drunken debauch. But a startling story comes from Russia, giving another account of the last moments of this celebrated adventuress.