The Dream Within by: Lara Fabian
Category: Music

Free
The dream within
The stars are crying a tear
A sigh
Escapes from heaven
And worlds end
Breathe
The dream within
The mystifying

We tremble and spin
Suspended within

Look beyond
Where hearts can see
Dream in peace
Trust the belief

We tremble and spin
Suspended within

Free
The dream within
The voice is calling a song
A prayer
From deep inside you
To guide you
Be
The dream within
The light is shining

A flight on the wind
Salvation begins

Look beyond
Where hearts can see
Dream in peace
Trust the belief

We tremble and spin
Suspended within

Free
The dream within
The stars are crying
A tear
A sigh
Escapes from heaven
And worlds end

7:22 PM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Where Have the Unicorns Gone? by; Jane Yolen
Category: Writing and Poetry

Where have the unicorns gone?

They have left their haven of greening bowers, of dapple-down trees and yellow-eyed flowers, their dimity dells and golding glades.

Where shadows shift in sliver shades.  They have followed the paths where the nightingale calls.

Down, down to the water that tumbles and falls, to splash in the silent drifts of pool.

Where have the unicorns gone?  Routed by gouts of iron-red flames, by helmeted knights and their steel-weapon games.  They have galloped past castles of towering stone.  Gouged from the hillsides from which birds have flown, past iron-plowed fields, past grazed-over ground.

They have galloped away, never looking around, to wade in the perfect peace of ponds.

They have fled the noise going down, down, down, to the rambling, tumbling streams. Down to the ribbon-rolled river.

Silken and swift and silver and streak, they galloped through yesturday, into next week.  They have all disappeared to the back and beyond.

And into the flowing moment of dawn. Down and away, to the endless sea.

Will we ever see them again? If you go at night, when the moon is full,  when the waves and tide exert a pull; if you bury your toes in the shadowy sand and cast your eyes away from the land,

In the moment that separates nighttime and dawn, the instant of daydream that's here and then gone. You might see the toss of a mane or a horn and the wavery shape of escaped unicorn,

In that watery eden, the sea.

(the story has been shortened)

1:09 PM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Disappearing Bees
Category: Life

In the winter of 2006, a strange phenomenon fell upon honeybee hives across the country. Without a trace, millions of bees vanished from their hives. A precious pollinator of fruits and vegetables, the disappearing bees left billions of dollars of crops at risk and threatened our food supply. The epidemic set researchers scrambling to discover why honeybees were dying in record numbers -- and to stop the epidemic in its tracks before it spread further.

Silence of the Bees is the first in-depth look at the search to uncover what is killing the honeybee. The filmmakers of Bees take viewers around the world to the sites of fallen hives, to high-tech labs, where scientists race to uncover clues, and even deep inside honeybee colonies. Silence of the Bees is the story of a riveting, ongoing investigation to save honeybees from dying out. The film goes beyond the unsolved mystery to tell the story of the honeybee itself, its invaluable impact on our diets and takes a look at what's at stake if honeybees disappear. Silence of the Bees explores the complex world of the honeybee in crisis and instills in viewers a sense of urgency to learn ways to help these extraordinary animals.

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im gonna bite you!!!! hahahaha

Bees conserving warmth after long-haul to Maine to pollinate wild blueberries

"We're not there yet," says Jeff Pettis of the USDA. Pettis says there are steps researchers and beekeepers can take to ensure that the bee population doesn't plummet to catastrophic levels. "One measure beekeepers have been taking is to keep bees as healthy as possible -- improve nutrition and reduce stress," says Pettis. Consumers have become more demanding and expect to have fruits and vegetables available to us all year round. In order to achieve this, commercial beekeepers haul colonies of honeybees across the country so their pollination services can serve all growing seasons. The season may start with almonds in California, then move on to apples in the Northwest, cranberries in New Jersey and Maine blueberries. The constant moving about places stress on the bees. In addition, certain crops that may be in the pollination circuit, like cranberries and cucumbers, are not very nutritious for bees. To keep the bees healthy, beekeepers may need to ease up on their schedules. It may be necessary for them to retire bees for a particular season or skip some less nutritious crops entirely.

Of course, nature has its own safeguards to keep crops pollinated. Honeybees aren't our only pollinators. Other insects and birds pollinate fruits and vegetables as well. The problem with other natural pollinators picking up the bees' slack is that today's agricultural industry has simply grown too large for them to keep up. The leviathan that is U.S. agriculture creates a huge demand for pollination. Because honeybees are relatively mobile and can pollinate a generous number of crops, they have been the ideal recruits to meet our crop needs. But honeybees don't perform such feats naturally without help -- lots of it. Commercial beekeepers keep colonies nourished and healthy and move their hives from state to state in semis, selling their pollination services to farmers at a premium.

With the threat of CCD looming, researchers are starting to study how other pollinators like the larger bumble bees could step in for honeybees. "The Dutch have figured out how to use bumblebees," says Pettis. Bumblebees share many similarities with honeybees. Both are social nesters, although the bumblebees' society is not as highly ordered as that of honeybees. Also, bumblebees make a new nest each spring by solitary queens, who hibernate through the winter. Honeybees remain in the old nest.

Perhaps the biggest consideration is an economic one. Bumblebees last just 2 months and cost $200 per colony, whereas honeybees can last several months in the summer with colony rentals running only $100 to $140. As a result, the use of bumblebee pollination is usually confined to high-value crops like tomatoes. Clearly, the use of bumblebees is a step in the right direction, but not a final solution.

"There's nothing waiting in the wings that can replace honeybees at this time," says Pettis, "but we can solve the problem in honeybee health." Pettis says that by focusing on reducing stress and improving nutrition, beekeepers can limit some of the factors that potentially lead to disastrous conditions like CCD, thereby keeping bees -- and our diets -- healthy.

How Can You Help The Bees

While researchers probe deeper into understanding CCD, or colony collapse disorder, and beekeepers work harder to improve bee health, ordinary citizens can help the honeybee too.

Go Retro -- Become a Backyard Beekeeper

Over the years, our diets have increased the demand for a constant stream of all-season fruits and veggies. Such demand hasn't bypassed the bees. It's turned bee pollination into a year-round service and beekeeping into a commercial industry. Today, there are half as many beekeepers as there were two decades ago, and the remaining beekeepers are mostly large-scale pollination services with thousands of hives and millions of bees. But there was a time when beekeeping was much more of a hobby than a commercial industry. "Beekeeping is a graying hobby," says Jeff Pettis of the Dept of Agriculture. Joining the ranks of backyard beekeepers can not only infuse the dying hobby with life, it can strengthen the bee gene pool by adding healthy local bees to the mix.

If you're interested in becoming a backyard beekeeper, experts recommend starting with a local beekeepers' association to learn about keeping bees alive and healthy. It's important that bees are adapted to the local climate, so you'll want to start with a local source for bees. Aside from contributing to the bee population, just two hives can pollinate an entire mid-sized residential garden. You might just find yourself with a lifelong hobby. For most people, beekeeping grows into a passion.

Get Closer to Nature

Backyard gardens can offer a welcome supply of nectar and pollen for honeybees

If you decide to pass putting on a beekeeper's suit, merely keeping a backyard bee garden is another good deed you can do for the honeybees. With rapid urban development limiting their foraging habitat, backyard gardens can offer a welcome supply of nectar and pollen for honeybees.

Cultivating plants that will attract bees is the most important task of a bee gardener. Choose flowers that bloom successively over the spring, summer, and fall seasons such as coreopsis, Russian sage, or germander in order to provide pollen and nectar resources to the native bees of all seasons. If you're not sure what to choose, you can always check with a local garden center for their advice on "bee-friendly" florals. To improve bee visitation, the garden should contain large patches of like flowers planted in close proximity to one another. Diversity is a key factor in keeping bee gardens buzzing. Researchers have found that more bees will be drawn to gardens with ten or more species of attractive plants.

As you diversify your garden, keep part of it wild because bees prefer that to a manicured space. Go for a "planted by nature" effect rather than a perfectly pruned garden. Remember: bees don't discriminate between weeds and cultivated flowers, so let those dandelions grow.

And of course keep your bee garden free of pesticides -- a danger in any garden. Some pesticides can kill the bee before it returns to the hive; other pesticides get carried back and can harm the rest of the hive.

If, after all of your hard work, you're still not seeing bees in your garden, it's not a wasted effort. Growing a pesticide-free garden is also good for you if you're growing fruits and vegetables. Robert Mendela, President of the Backyard Beekeepers Association, says, "Even if there isn't a hive of honeybees within a couple of miles of your garden, gardening brings the grower closer to nature and closer to realizing that what s/he grows is more nutritious and tasty than the 'factory-ized,' perfect, unblemished, and perhaps pesticide-covered" produce.

Even if you don't have a green thumb, buying pesticide-free foods at the market also protects humans and bees from pesticide poisons.

Give the Bees a Voice

"Something the average person can do," says Mendela, "is to write to their senators and representatives in congress on the federal level and to do the same on the state level to support funding of honeybee research. This support has fallen off over the years."

The news focus on CCD makes it an ideal time to put pressure on politicians to reinstate laws that used to prevent importing bees into the country and transporting them across state borders.

Large or small, any effort you make to help bees or increase awareness is a step towards healthy bees, healthy crops, and, consequently, healthy humans.

It was a mystery that left scientists around the world buzzing for answers. Last year a mysterious and deadly plague silently worked its way through bee colonies, leaving millions of dead bees in its wake. The killer was coined as CCD or Colony Collapse Disorder. It had moved in suddenly and unexpectedly, and left so few clues, experts could not crack the case.

Luckily this past September, there was a big break in the case. A team of scientists led by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Pennsylvania State University, The Pennsylvanis State Department of Agriculture and Columbia University linked CCD with a virus imported from Australia, IAPV or Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus. Over the past three years, genetic tests on bees collected from stricken colonies around the U.S. found the virus in 96 percent of bees from hives affected by Colony Collapse Disorder.

IAPV had not historically been present in U.S. bees. In fact, it was only discovered in Israel in 2004, the same year American beekeepers started importing packaged bees from Australia. "Before that, nobody knew to look for it," says Jeff Pettis of the United States Department of Agriculture's Bee Research Laboratory. "As people began to look for it, it was found in China, Australia and the U.S."

CCD-affected hive

Though the discovery of IAPV was indeed a big break, the case of CCD was not closed. Scientists have much to learn about how IAPV affects colonies and how it may have brought on CCD. Future studies will tell researchers if they are dealing with just one strain of the virus or if there are other strains to look for. "Discovering the IAPV was a lead but not the end of the story. We're looking at IAPV as a marker. It's there. It's present in colonies but viruses by themselves are not known to be that dangerous," says Pettis. Pettis and other scientists believe that CCD is not caused by one single factor, but by a whole host of forces including pesticides, parasites, poor nutrition, and stress. Any of these may leave bees vulnerable to infection and make IAPV lethal. "We know all of those things have affected bees in the past," says Pettis. "We have to look at combinations of factors."

Researchers at Penn State University and the USDA are planning a complicated set of experiments where they stress bees in certain ways and evaluate the effect on their health. The tests will hopefully indicate whether IAPV causes CCD by itself or if it is triggered by other pathogens and stresses.

Some studies on IAPV have already brought positive news. Israeli researchers say there is a possibility that IAPV-resistant bees can be bred. A third of bees sampled in Israel have incorporated the virus into their genome. In experiments, almost 20% of these bees survived when injected with IAPV.

While the work is ongoing and answers are sought, until the government declares otherwise, the nation's borders remain open for bees. Packaged bees are being brought in from Australia, which has yet to report cases of CCD colonies. Though researchers are still searching for answers, they are considering whether stressors that disproportionately affect U.S. bees such as pesticides, poor nutrition or pests like varroa mites might trigger the virus, making it virulent.

Last year, imports from Australia and New Zealand made up only 5 percent of the bees needed just for almond pollination (though almond pollination represents half of our need for honeybee pollination services).

Case closed? Not yet; but at least the prime suspect is now in custody. In the meantime, beekeepers must take measures to keep bees as healthy as possible. The goal now is improved nutrition, reduced stress, and better overall health for bees. Many beekeepers have been able to achieve just that. Over the summer, many experienced beekeepers had been able to build up the number of bees in the colonies over the summer. However, Diana Cox-Foster of Penn State University and a lead researcher on the team that discovered IAPV in U.S. bees says there are some reports now of CCD making a reappearance, though mainly in the colonies of less experienced beekeepers. If CDD continues, researchers like Cox-Foster are concerned that we could see major problems in honeybee numbers next Spring. She explains that beekeepers were able to restore colony numbers this year, but the weather was in our favor. Next time, we may not be that fortunate. If it strikes again, CCD could have disastrous impacts on U.S. agriculture -- causing prices to soar and threatening the availability of some crops. Among the most vulnerable crops are almonds -- a crop that completely depends on honeybee pollination. But foods like apples, berries and alfalfa seeds, which is fed to dairy cows and livestock, will be in peril as well. "It's still fairly early," says Cox-Foster. "It's still a concern that some people will continue to have problems with CCD but the verdict is out."

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Posted: September 6, 2007, 5:25 PM ET

--> headline blurb table --> ..> ..> Virus May Be Cause of Disappearing Bees A virus from Australia may be the culprit in the mysterious deaths of tens of millions of honeybees in the past year, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Science. --> photo table --> ..> ..> --> END photo table --> Colony Collapse Disorder affected 23 percent of U.S. beekeepers last year. Affected beekeepers lost an average 45 percent of their bees to the phenomenon -- the bees simply disappeared, leaving empty or nearly empty hives. The disorder threatens many crops that rely on bees for pollination, and could have a $75 billion impact, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Scientists and beekeepers have been puzzled by the disappearances, suggesting causes as disparate as parasites, pesticides, environmental stressors and cell phone towers. Many saw the new study as a breakthrough. "This is a very significant finding," University of Delaware entomologist Dewey Caron, who was not involved in the study, told Technology Review magazine. Still, Caron and others cautioned that the new finding do not rule out other possible causes, because bees weakened by parasites or environmental stressors could be more susceptible to the virus, called Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus. Scientists identified IAPV as a culprit using new gene-sequencing methods. The researchers mapped DNA taken from both healthy and infected bee colonies around the country, as well as colonies in Australia and jelly produced by bees in China. After they subtracted the DNA that came from the bees themselves -- which was possible because scientists recently finished mapping the bee genome -- they were left with DNA from the bacteria, fungi and viruses that infected the bees. They found that of the 30 colonies affected by Colony Collapse Disorder, all but one showed IAPV, while the 21 healthy colonies did not. "The authors themselves recognize that it's not a slam dunk, it's correlative," entomologist May Berenbaum of the University of Illinois told the Associated Press. "But it's certainly more than a smoking gun -- more like a smoking arsenal. It's very compelling." The researchers' next step will be to infect previously healthy colonies, as well as colonies with mites and other stressors, with IAPV, to find out what happens. "At least we have a lead we can now begin to follow," study co-author Ian Lipkin, and entomologist at Columbia University, told the AP. "We can use it as a marker and we can use it to investigate whether it does in fact cause the disease." IAPV had previously been detected in bee colonies in Australia and Israel, however, it hasn't caused colony collapse disorder in those countries. That bolsters the idea that the virus may work in concert with other causes, the researchers say. The study also suggests that the virus may have entered the United States from Australia -- all of the diseased hives were either imported from Australia or had contact with Australian bees. And the first signs of Colony Collapse Disorder appeared soon after beekeepers started importing Australian bees in 2004. The researchers suggested that it's possible that the virus, harmless in Australia, might have mutated to a more dangerous form after arriving in the United States. "We know from other viruses like West Nile that very small genetic changes can turn a benign virus into virulent ones," biologist Edward Holmes, who was involved in the study, told Technology Review. The researchers say it's also possible that the virus affected U.S. bees already stressed by mites or other factors. The Australian government did not respond to requests for a comment on the study, according to Bloomberg News, but a bee industry group there rejected the findings. "We unequivocally reject claims that Australia caused the introduction of Colony Collapse Disorder in the U.S.," Stephen Ware, of the Australian Honey Bee Industry Council, told Bloomberg News.

For More Information go to www.pbs.org

12:06 AM - 2 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

Prelude to Autumn’s Dreams~by: Jude ForEse
Category: Writing and Poetry

I never denied
The polarity of color and form
Stretching across deep hillsides
Or touching the fibers of my thoughts

Being in two places at once
Brings out the best in motion

Looking to the sky
Through branches and leaves

Observing strange hues of pomegranate
Or perhaps vermilion
In the cool teal of dusk

My soul lifts up and drifts to a distant shore
Strolling across sandy, sacred moments

Fated to reside in
The vaporous space of earth's embrace

Here, beauty resembles towering trees
Swaying under clouds in special breezes
And around the ravine into the next valley
The magic of flowers grow without one single raindrop

Shedding leafy clothing for stellar garments
The variable of color permeates the landscape
And the collective chatter of consciousness
Is emboldened to listen to its momentum

I never felt I was any different
Yet I sensed I wasn't the same

Surrounded by derision and dysphoria
The repercussions of my presence
Flows like lava across misty grass

Surrounding leaves I have grown to know
And the electric of concrete and decorated flesh

I developed in the orderly manner
Of a turbulent existence
Where everything seemed lucid and calm

And autumn is a phase of direction
And a prelude to the shade of dreams
 

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10:33 AM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

I Lool Like a Girl - by: Sheila Hamanaka
Category: Writing and Poetry

I look like a girl, but I'm really a tiger, with a rumble, a roar and a leap!

I look like a girl, but I'm really a dolphin, with a spin and a splash in the sea.

When I sit at the table you think that you see me, but the real me has run out the door...

For I'm really a mustang, a wild horse on the mesa, wind across the canyon floor.

As I soar with the condors, the earth spins below me. I know how it feels to be free.

As when I am sleeping, like a jaguar I'm creeping, through the jungle of my dreams.

If you hear me sing sweet songs, please listen again, for the calls of my spirit friends.

With the moon I'll be howling, with the wolves I'll be racing, through a forest that never ends.

Throw out those glass slippers.

Send the fairies to sleep.

No prince is waiting for me.

For If you look twice, past the sugar and spice, the eyes of a tiger you'll see.

I just need the forest, the mesa, the jungle, the stars dreaming over the sea,

to free what is wild, in the heart of a child - so I can be me, just me.

2:56 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Marie Antoinette Online

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The Diamond Necklace Affair

How did the French Revolution begin? With the fall of the Bastille. Similarly - How did the American Revolution begin? - With shots fired at Lexington and Concord.

Those are the stock answers, but neither marked the first act of open defiance against the crown. Americans would say the Boston Tea Party or Boston Massacre or Stamp Act riots marked that.

Same for the French Revolution. Frenchman may say the erosion of royal authority that overthrew France's social order began with the Estates General in 1789, but before that the first event to both rock the foundation of monarchy and also display open defiance of royal authority was the "Diamond Necklace Affair" or the"Affair of the Queen's Necklace".

The Story

This article retells that story. This story that launched the French Revolution was one of the most notorious public scandals of history. It involved great fortunes made and lost, of avarice, mystery and intrigue, it pits great forces in French society against each other, but in the end severely damaged the monarchy to the great detriment of both, and destroyed for all time the reputation of the second highest public figure in the French monarchy. The story starts with three players; the first is that famous public figure - the Queen of France: Marie Antoinette. This story had its root cause, its currency and appeal from this most star-crossed figure of French history.

The Queen

Marie Antoinette was an Austrian Princess when she came to France, at age 15, in 1770, to marry the Crown Prince. She and husband Louis XVI were still teenagers when they ascended the throne in 1774. Unlike her shy awkward husband, Marie Antoinette was admired for her legendary beauty, grace and elegance and her tastes which set fashion trends for Europe. She took pride in her appearance and in her ancestry as a princess of Hapsburg, the oldest royal house of Europe. Her arrogance brought resentment from old nobility of France, a country which had been at war with Austria for much of the 18th century. Marie Antoinette also attracted gossip for her inability (due to Louis's impotence) to become pregnant and produce an heir to the throne, for her youthful disregard of court etiquette, and for her frivolous and costly lifestyle. This lifestyle included gambling, masked balls, late night rendezvous and rumours of her having had numerous love affairs with both men and women. Even by 1785, an underground literature existed that reviled the Queen in pornographic songs, pictures and pamphlets.

Much of Marie's fast and loose behaviour in her first decade in France was a reaction to her marital frustration; but in 1778, Louis had an operation and the couple at last had children. By 1785, Marie Antoinette had given birth to three children. She was maturing and her lifestyle had grown far more sedentary and less extravagant. But that change was hardly noticeable to the uninformed public and did little to assuage those who had already developed their dislike for her.

The Nobleman

Against this backdrop in 1784, enter the two key players in the story - one, a great nobleman, the other, a woman swindler who dupes him. The nobleman Louis René Édouard de Rohan was Cardinal of France and son of one of its oldest and most famous noble houses. However, Rohan had a problem. He was in disfavour at the French court. The Queen's mother Marie Thérèse did not like Rohan, frivolous dandy, when he served as a diplomat to Austria. After her mother scorned him, Marie Antoinette refused to receive Rohan and had not even spoken to him for a number of years. For 10 years, Rohan had longed to become a member of the Queen's close circle, with the new favours and patronage that could bring. Rohan, the dandy, was also attracted by the Queen's beauty and fancied that if she would only admit him to her circle, he too might partake in her amorous favours, of the type frequently rumoured in court.

The Swindler

The woman swindler is the Countess de Lamotte. She was the daughter of the old and famous Valois family, but the family has long lost its resources. She was quite impoverished when she arrived in Paris. But Lamotte was also quite attractive and brazen in her desire to escape poverty and obtain an aristocratic life of comfort and leisure. She sought to enlist the sympathy of the royal court in the fate of a woman from one of France's old houses. She was given to fainting spells at court and in doing this has at last receives notice from Madame Elizabeth, the King's sister who provided her with some funding. She was also noticed by Cardinal Rohan. By 1784, she had become his mistress. Even though she had not succeeded in obtaining the interest or support of the Queen or even met the Queen, Lamotte succeeded in convincing Cardinal Rohan that she has the favour of Marie Antoinette. Rohan fully subscribed to the tales in court circles of Marie Antoinette's sexual dissipation. Using her full figure and attractive looks to great effect, Lamotte spun stories that convinced Rohan that she, Lamotte, was becoming one of the Queen's new lesbian love interests, just as Rohan hoped to become her lover as well.

The Necklace

Now enters the object all seek - the necklace. The necklace was 2800 carats. First was a choker of seventeen diamonds, five to eight carats each; from that hung a three-wreathed festoon and pendants; then came the necklace proper, a double row of diamonds cumulating in an eleven-carat stone, finally, hanging from the necklace four knotted tassel. It cost 1,600,000 lives. Perhaps in today's currency, this is the equivalent of $100 million. The jeweller Charles Bohmer had the beautiful necklace made for Madame du Barry. But Louis XV died, du Barry was banished from court, and Bohmer placed his hopes on the new Queen to purchase the necklace. She modelled it before her ladies, but would not purchase it or permit Louis to buy it as a gift for her. "Better to buy a new ship of the line (battleship or aircraft carrier equivalent) than to spend such a sum on a necklace, regardless of how beautiful ..." she said.

The Opportunity

Boehmer too had seen Lamotte at court. Like Rohan, the jeweller too believed the Marie Antoinette rumours at court. The jeweller appreciated Lamotte's looks, believed she had the Queen's favour and sought her out as an intermediary. Knowing Rohan's keen desire to obtain the Queen's favour, Lamotte saw her opportunity to trade on the belief of both men in her intimacy with the Queen to satisfy the desires of both men and enrich herself. She told the cardinal that the Queen wanted him to secretly purchase the necklace on her behalf. The cardinal obtained the necklace from Bohmer and gave it to Mme Lamotte, expecting the Queen to pay for it. Of course, Marie Antoinette never saw the necklace. Lamotte gave the diamonds to her husband, who took them to London and sold them. Lamotte forged letters from the Queen to Rohan attesting to her interest in the necklace, approving the plan and Lamotte's role, and indicating Rohan could expect return to the Queen's favour

The Rendezvous

The letters satisfied Rohan for a time, but at Versailles, Marie Antoinette ignored Rohan as always. He wanted a real sign of her interest in him. Rohan needed more and it was at this moment in the gardens of the Palais Royal in Paris the final piece to her puzzle fell in place. It came in the from of a 25-year old streetwalker, Madame d'Olivia, buxom and blonde, with an arrogant strut, such that people called her "Queen". Lamotte was at once captivated by the young d'Olivia's striking resemblance to 29-year old Marie Antoinette. And so, Cardinal Rohan did get the sign of favour he wanted from the Queen... or so he thought. On a summer night in 1784, Lamotte outfitted the woman in a lawn dress, the same as the famous Marie Antoinette "en gaulle" painting then on exhibit. The veiled woman briefly met the Cardinal in the gardens of Versailles, late at night as Antoinette was rumoured to meet her lovers. The false Queen gave the Cardinal a rose. She said, "All may be forgiven ..." and hurried away, leaving the Cardinal under the illusion that he had met Marie Antoinette.

The Confrontation

Unaware of the real drama unfolding, Marie Antoinette was busy preparing herself for the part of the saucy barmaid Rosina in the controversial play Marriage of Figaro. On the day of one her rehearsals Boehmer's invoice for the necklace arrived and was discarded by the Queen. Later, Bohmer came to Versailles and spoke to the Queen's servant Madame Campan, seeking payment. He displayed forged letters signed by her, and told how Rohan was involved in acquiring the necklace. At last, Marie Antoinette realized the serious of the case, and summonsed Bohmer to Versailles. She was furious with Rohan, so was Louis XVI. The royal couple demanded a trial. They arranged for the arrest of the Cardinal, the highest clergyman in France, in the most public way, handing him the arrest warrant in the great hall of Versailles with hundreds present. He was brought before the King and Queen, who confronted him with the swindle and would hear none of his professions of innocence and that he too had been made the fool.

The Trial

The public arrest of the Cardinal of France had already caused a national sensation, and the acts of King and Queen that followed added new fuel to the fire of public interest and imagination. That this nobleman with whom she had not spoken a word in 15 years would dare to presume that she, Marie Antoinette, would meet him at a secret rendezvous, was a serious insult to her name and reputation. The proud Queen demanded public vindication of her good name. The matter could have been handled quietly at the court or by the Vatican. Louis's advisors suggested caution, but the wavering King agreed to a public trial before the Parlement of Paris. France of 1785 was not used to such public events. While rumours of Marie's errant behaviour were prevalent in the capital, they now became sensation for all of France. The charge against the Cardinal was lese-majeste, insult to the dignity of the Queen. For months, the nation was gripped by the mystery of the diamond necklace and the recounting of the Queen's reputation that led Rohan to believe she had participated. The public was riveted by the accounts and characters, the swindler Lamotte, the prostitute who impersonated the Queen, the $100 million necklace at stake at a hard time when the country faced bankruptcy. Through it all, Lamotte held to her story that the Queen was behind it all and had the necklace.

The Verdicts

The case to defend the Queen's dignity would never have been easy. Though she never appeared, this case put the life of Marie Antoinette was on trial. Many jurors could believe based on her past spending and loose lifestyle that Marie Antoinette was capable of these activities and that the Cardinal was reasonable in his beliefs. The Cardinal struck a sympathetic figure as he pleaded his devotion to the Queen and that he only sought to serve her. But this was no ordinary court, it was a court of nobles in Paris, where Rohan was a great and wealthy family, where many had been at odds with the King and many more still resented the Queen. Add to that considerable sums were passed in bribery by the Duc of Orleans and other disaffected noblemen. The trial ended with the Cardinal acquitted of the charge of lese-majeste. Lamotte was found guilty as a thief and imprisoned. She was also publicly flogged, and branded. As she struggled against the branding iron, the poker slipped and impaled her breast. Lamotte hurled imprecations for all to hear: "It is the Queen who should be branded not me!"

The Uproar

The night of the verdict, against constable's advice, Marie Antoinette attended a charitable benefit at the Paris Opera. When the verdict "Rohan Acquitted" was announced, the opera house erupted with applause. The crowds then whistled and hooted at the Queen, who left in dismay to weep at Versailles with her ladies in waiting. Repudiation of a French sovereign by court verdict and public rebuke had never before occurred. The Revolution had now begun. Within the year, Lamotte escaped to London. With her husband they enjoyed the money from the diamond necklace, now broken up, but she also took to the quill to spread malicious rumours about Marie Antoinette.

The Libels

Pamphlets by Lamotte of new stories of Antoinette's sexual appetites and orgies at Versailles, and her claimed love letters between Rohan and the Queen became a new sensation in France as they were smuggled in by the thousands. The court literature against Marie Antoinette in the capital, by virtue of the necklace case, had now become commonplace throughout France. The economic position of the country worsened and King Louis, who drew closer to Marie in her sorrows, increasingly turned to her for advice in economic matters. The Queen's increasing role and national disgrace weakened the position of Louis and the monarchy. Her presence galvanised and emboldened the opponents of the regime.

The Revolution

Revolution could have been averted in France after the necklace case, just as it could have been averted in America after the Boston Tea Party, but a course of action had been set in motion. The monarchy was humbled by the noblemen in court and people, all done with impunity. Going forward, the opponents of the regime, first among the nobles, later among the merchants, finally in the peasantry took heed and didn't let up until the final violent overthrow of the French monarchy and the Terror among its citizens that followed. The nobles who sought to check Louis's power and others like Phillipe Egalite who resented the King, came to be caught up themselves in the whirlwind of Revolution. That Revolution would claim the lives of thousands of nobleman including Phillipe, and end the privileges nobles had held in France. This was not what the nobles intended when they sought to vindicate Rohan and strike a blow against the King and Queen.

The Reversal

When Marie Antoinette learned of the necklace affair, she instinctively insisted on a public trial to avenge the offence to her honour and dignity. No one could have imagined how her act of hubris would trigger the catastrophic upheaval of Revolution in the 7 years that followed. In 1786, Madame Lamotte was imprisoned and branded; Rohan was acquitted at trial but forced from his Cardinal post to a remote posting. Marie Antoinette sat on her throne, still the glamorous powerful Queen of France, meeting out punishment to those who dared transgress her honour. In 7 years time, the Revolution would reverse the positions of the three players in this story. In 1793, Lamotte who had escaped her prison lived in comfort in England. The fortune she and her husband shared from the necklace was enhanced by the amounts made from the sales in France of her best-selling pamphlets against the Queen. Lamotte had become a hero of the Revolution. In 1793, Rohan too was living in comfort in exile. In the early years of Revolution, he returned in triumph and was elected to the Assembly. But Rohan saw the violent turn of revolution against the nobility and clergy including his family. Rohan escaped France to live out his life in a comfortable exile.

The World Upside Down

In the ultimate role reversal, the hunter became the prey. 1793 saw the final destruction of Marie Antoinette - humbled, humiliated and finally beheaded by her own subjects. The years of Revolution took everything away from Marie - her palaces, her jewels, her servants, her fine clothes, her friends and her family. Gone was her beauty and finery in which she took such pride and all the other trappings of her once fabulous life. In the end, Marie Antoinette was alone. She was taken from her prison cell, as a poor broken widow in her rags, old before her time. Now, it was SHE who would be the prisoner in the dock. SHE would have to answer the charges of the revolutionary tribunal, including the necklace case allegations of Madame Lamotte.

The Queen Beheaded

These charges still rang in her ears in the jeers of the crowd as Marie Antoinette road to her date with Madame Guillotine. The former Queen now road in an open cart, her hands tied behind her back, and held in tether like a chained dog. Lamotte must have relished the irony that 7 years after she was flogged, branded and humiliated, 7 years after Lamotte swore vengeance, it was the turn of her tormentor to face punishment - Marie Antoinette was beheaded at age 37, her fair head held high for the populace to cheer her death. Such was the pendulum swing of great French Revolution, first set in motion by the case of the Queen's necklace.

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