Marie Antoinette

[Crowd cheering] Woman: Hurrah!

Long live the Queen!

Man: Free the Cardinal!

Free him now!

Different man: Long live the Queen!

Different man: Support the Cardinal, a victim of royal tyranny!

Different man: Long live the King.

Long live the King.

God Save the King, and God save the Queen.

Madame de Rohan.

You promised to avoid a spectacle.

Chartres: What can I say?

The King's persecution of the Cardinal has inflamed public opinion.

We put up with your liberal lawyer, but now you are using this trial as propaganda for your radical ideas.

You had better get my nephew off.

Otherwise, I'll denounce you as a traitor at your class.

Man: Down with monarchy!

Down with monarchy!

You should tell them the truth.

Without witnesses, we can't prove Rohan's innocence.

Man: Long live Her Majesty.

[Marie breathing heavily] Are you sure you need to attend in person, Your Majesty?

I want to see Rohan confess.

You can observe proceedings here.

Man: All rise for the President d'Aligre.

Do you need cushions?

Not really, no.

I'm fine.

Are you sure?

[Gavel banging] As President of the Parliament of Paris, I declare that the case of the Crown versus Cardinal Rohan is now in session.

[Bangs gavel] What a ham.

Yolande: Ridiculous.

I hope the parliamentarians are not fooled by his performance.

Yolande: I'm certain they won't be.

Marie: Well, let justice be done.

Lawyer: And so the prosecution concludes that the diamond necklace was handed to an accomplice of the Cardinal posing as the Queen's guard.

The accomplice has not been seen since he fled, no doubt on the orders of the accused, or his wizard, Cagliostro, who will appear later as a co-conspirator.

I think we have a strong case.

The missing guard is a loose end.

Well, the rumor is he's dead.

I'd prefer it to be watertight.

Yolande: Shh.

Monsieur Target for the defense, you may question the accused.

Thank you, Monsieur President.

[Slow footsteps] Please state your name.

Louis-Ren-Edouard, Cardinal de Rohan, Prince-Bishop of Strasbourg, Provisor of the Sorbonne, and Grand Almoner of France.

The defense will prove to you that the Cardinal was the victim of a confidence trick.

Now, in his desire to be a faithful subject, he was taken in by a cunning and manipulative woman.

Who stole the necklace, Cardinal?

As far as I know, and based on the evidence available to me, the thief was Queen Marie Antoinette.

[Audience gasping and murmuring] [Gavel bangs] President: Order.

Order!

I should have known he'd lie.

They must correct the record immediately.

It's a dirty defense tactic.

Everyone will see through it.

Target: Why would you suspect the Queen?

It was known that I was out of favor and hoped to redeem myself.

I donated to one of her charities run by the Countess de Valois.

Yes, you mean Madame Jeanne La Motte?

Yes, sorry.

She told everyone she was a countess.

Yes, we'll meet Miss La Motte later as a supposed witness.

Go on, Cardinal.

Following my donations, I received a note from the Queen.

I replied, and we began correspondence.

Her letters were written on pale blue note paper.

It wouldn't be gentlemanly to reveal what she said to me.

Suffice to say, I believed myself her intimate friend.

[Audience gasping and murmuring] President: This is a serious accusation, Cardinal.

What proof do you have that Her Majesty the Queen wrote these letters?

Rohan: Because she met me in the gardens at midnight.

Yolande: If no one is going to stop him, we should leave.

It's all right.

Rohan: She gave me a rose.

I had it dried.

[Audience gasping and murmuring] It was all above board.

Obviously, I-- I'm a man of the church.

Target: But...why would the Queen do this?

Rohan: Alas, I now see it was because she wanted to exploit my loyalty.

She knew she could not buy the diamond necklace publicly, given the criticism she received after her purchase of Saint-Cloud.

Breteuil: How dare he!

Rohan: I admit I brokered the sale of the necklace and entrusted it to the Queen's guard per her specific instructions, but that was the last I saw of the necklace and the diamonds.

My only crime is of being too loyal a servant to the Crown, a crown I now fear is flawed.

[Audience murmuring] President: Silence.

[Bangs gavel] You look pale.

You should return to Versailles and rest.

I'll manage.

I really think-- I'll manage.

I-- Please, would you just go back and check on the children?

Really, I'll feel better knowing you're looking after them.

[Music] Target: Monsieur President, I suggest we take a short break.

[Gavel bangs] Man: Free the Cardinal!

Free him now!

Prosecutor: And the meeting in the gardens?

Hold on.

Are you-- It would be helpful to refute the allegation, if you can tell us where you were on the night in question.

I did not meet that man in a garden.

He is lying to cover his own guilt.

Oh, my God.

Leave us.

[Door opens and closes] Fersen was here in early June.

How can we answer Rohan's lies without lying ourselves?

I don't know.

He seemed convinced of them himself.

What if he-- What if he did meet someone?

I don't understand.

Just someone pretending to be me.

I once saw this woman onstage at the Palais Royal, and she was a-- they--they are impersonators who dress like me, and they affect my mannerisms.

So if Rohan met a woman and believed her to be you... [chuckles] well, that suggests he was a fool, not a thief.

Yeah.

Ohh.

Well, can you investigate?

Outside official channels?

Yes.

Well, according to this, we would go bankrupt within six months.

We-- I'm afraid so.

Unless Parliament approves the loan extension.

Why are they delaying?

The Rohan trial.

They think you're persecuting the nobility to enhance your own power.

And, I'm afraid, there's a rumor going around Parliament that we're about to propose radical tax reforms.

How?

How did Parliament find out about the reforms?

Only you, Vergennes, and I knew about those proposals.

I have no idea, but we need that loan extension.

Don't confirm their suspicions about the reports until we have that money.

Mm.

Did you tell anyone about our plans?

[Door opens] Of course not, sire.

No.

What?

Someone rolled out on the wrong side of bed this morning.

These walls have been talking.

Have you been-- Have you been rifling through my desk?

What would I want in there?

Can't imagine there's much of interest, besides your scintillating hunting journal.

No.

I merely came to bring the latest tripe from the Palais Royal.

More attacks on your authority.

This one calls for the separation of Church and state.

You're disheveled, brother.

It's not a good look for a king.

[Door closes] President: Please be seated.

Prosecutor Fleury, your witness.

Please state your name.

Jeanne de Valois.

And what is your relationship to Cardinal Rohan?

I understand it is difficult, but we are here for the truth, madame.

The Cardinal exploited my poverty and my innocence.

[Audience gasping and murmuring] Fleury: Go on, please.

Jeanne: I was born to a noble family.

My father owned land in Champagne.

But we fell on hard times.

As a child, I was forced to beg on the streets.

People would take pity on a poor girl, someone descended directly from Henry II of Valois, King of France.

Fleury: And then you went to Versailles and encountered the Cardinal.

Yes.

Was this when he started to exploit you?

I asked the Cardinal for guidance.

He gave me some money and asked me to collect donations at Versailles for his charity.

I thought he was being kind.

[Audience murmuring] Fleury: And the necklace?

No.

I knew nothing about the necklace until the Cardinal was arrested.

But given what I know now, about the Cardinal's vast debts, that this charity was a lie, that everything that he says is a lie...

I think that the Cardinal masterminded the theft of the necklace with the help of that wicked Count Cagliostro.

Ugh.

[Mutters indistinctly] [Audience murmuring] Fleury: Thank you.

I think that concludes today's testimony, Monsieur President.

Rohan: You should have let me tell the truth.

Now I've angered the Queen even more, and that bitch Jeanne will walk free.

Target: We had to blame the Queen.

Without any other witnesses, it's your word against Jeanne's.

Chartres: And she's more believable than you.

How dare you speak to him like that?

Cardinal Rohan: He's right.

Why haven't you found any more witnesses?

The missing guard, the woman who impersonated the Queen in the garden.

Rohan: Blaming the Queen was your idea.

Would everyone calm down?

This trial isn't lost yet.

We can't find the guard, but we think we know the identity of the woman in the garden.

She fled when you were arrested.

My men are hunting her down.

However, if you don't need my support, I'll withdraw it.

You won't.

Your reputation is as much on the line as ours.

So trust me.

Perhaps we do need a new strategy.

[Sighs] You've asked for this trial because you wanted to know the truth.

I'm just saying, what if there are things we don't want to know?

Well, that's the risk of a public trial.

Ow.

You're meant to be supporting me.

You want me to pander to you like everyone else?

You are decisive, which is a strength, but you also act without considering the consequences.

I didn't ask you to lecture me.

Do you think there's a chance that the Cardinal could be innocent?

He can't be.

We have accused him publicly.

[Door opens] King Louis XVI: Please, don't-- don't get up.

I hear today went well.

Very well.

I just loved getting accused of stealing the necklace.

That's, a... a desperate move.

Don't you agree?

Oh, I agree, yeah.

We'll soon have this Rohan business behind us, I'm sure.

Yeah.

I will come with you tomorrow.

You don't need to.

No, I should be there.

Adelaide: I hear half of Paris now thinks she stole the necklace.

Victoire: Oh, there you are.

You must tell us everything, blow by blow.

Has Jeanne testified yet?

Adelaide: Forget about Jeanne.

Tell us about Monsieur Target.

I hear he's rather dashing for a dangerous liberal.

Yes, if you like a peacock.

Oh!

[Clears throat] Mesdames.

Louis is becoming rather beautifully paranoid.

We must tell Malherbe.

Now, if Antoinette is blamed for the necklace theft... Mm-hmm.

the regency will surely be mine, yeah?

[Chuckles] Where do we stand?

The magistrates believe Jeanne La Motte's every word.

She's making Cardinal Rohan look guilty as sin.

Provence: Oh, good.

We don't want the Crown to actually lose the trial.

But if Rohan is convicted, I think people will feel sympathy for Antoinette.

Sympathy?

That is the last thing we need.

The whole point is to damage her.

Can Jeanne be persuaded to aid the cause?

[Sighs] God.

Don't you ever get tired of plotting?

This plotting serves us both.

Don't you want Marguerite back?

Now... we just need to figure out how to get to Madame La Motte.

And where is she?

[Jeanne humming] Provence: Bastille.

Can't we send someone?

A spy.

Beaumarchais?

Beaumarchais: Charming confidence.

I heard you gave a good performance.

I'm very flattered.

But it wasn't a performance.

[Scoffs, chuckles] And yet you gaily admitted to stealing money from half of Versailles.

On the naughty Cardinal's orders.

A crime, nonetheless.

You must be relying on someone very powerful to grant you clemency.

If I were, I wouldn't tell you.

Quite right.

But if it were, say, the Queen you were relying on... it's only fair to warn you-- she's known for her inconstancy.

You got a better offer?

[Cell door shuts and is locked nearby] Look, Marie Antoinette has no say on the sentencing.

The parliamentarians do.

Some factions of Parliament would be happy to hear anything that damages the Queen.

I'm not a fool.

You've come straight from the Cardinal wanting me to back up his ridiculous accusations.

I have not.

[Men shouting in distance] My friends are happy for the Cardinal to fall, provided the Queen goes down with him.

Why should I trust you?

You can't.

But we both know you're walking a fine line.

You saw how ready the court was to believe the Queen stole the necklace.

Can you really rely on her to save you?

[Indistinct shouting and jeering] [Gavel bangs] Target: Madame Jeanne La Motte, wife of Nicholas La Motte.

My name is Jeanne de Valois.

Yes.

In fact, you told everyone at Versailles you were the Countess de Valois, didn't you?

When you were granted this title?

The Cardinal told me to use it, not that it's inappropriate for me to use a title.

I am descended from kings.

And I suppose the Cardinal also came up with the catalog of lies you told us?

A disinherited heiress living on the street.

Apparently, your life has been a romance novel, hasn't it?

I have spoken the exact truth.

The exact truth.

[Chuckles] Thank goodness for that.

[Laughter] You see, I think you made it up on the spot.

We all know how convincing you can be.

After all, you--you fooled half of Versailles.

You persuaded them to donate to your fake charity for which you'll soon stand trial yourself.

It was the Cardinal's charity.

The truth, Madame La Motte, is that before you came to Versailles, you were destitute.

You were indebted up to your eyeballs, only really able to eat when...[chuckles] some benefactor took pity on you.

I'm actually quite surprised you managed to stay healthy enough for anyone to mistake you as a countess.

All of my money went on the fight to recover my ancestral lands.

Your ancestral lands!

I mean, what is it?

Half a field in Champagne here with some resident pigs floating around?

[Laughter] Target: Is it true that six years ago, you were accused of forging letters of recommendation?

That was a slander against me.

Of course it was.

And the list of merchants who will testify to the rash of spending in your household shortly after the theft of the necklace?

The furniture, jewels, dresses.

Slander also?

No.

The truth, Madame La Motte... De Valois.

is that you're a fantasist.

You're a fantasist and a career criminal.

I'm not.

I mean, who are we to believe stole this necklace?

What, the Cardinal?

With his many debts, yes, but with so many wealthy connections, who still believes he was only serving his Queen.

What need has he to cheat and steal, whereas you-- well, you're absolutely nothing without these lies.

He is obsessed with the Queen.

Sexually, I mean.

[Audience gasping] That's why he did it.

King Louis XVI: What did she say?

Target: Sorry.

The Cardinal has testified to being a loyal subject.

Jeanne: Oh, but you should have heard his boasts to me about his visits to the Petit Trianon.

He said he would cross a plank over a ditch to get to the Queen.

On one occasion, he fell in and got his cassock quite muddy.

This is more of your fantasy, Madame La Motte.

Jeanne: If it is a fantasy, it is his.

But can it all be?

I mean, he told me about the wall of diamonds in her bedroom in the Petit Trianon.

She buys jewels, you know, behind the King's back.

T-There is no wall of diamonds.

What--what is she saying?

Your Majesty, no one must know you are here.

Marie: Louis, please.

Jeanne: It's no wonder Rohan thinks he could put the blame on her.

We all know the Queen's penchant for brilliant things.

You'd slander the Queen?

I am merely reporting what Cardinal Rohan told me, so the crime is his.

He would boast of her insatiable appetites and eclectic interests.

He said she has suitors scurried to her chambers and is said to be learning Swedish, although what use she has with that language, I can't possibly know.

He said it's lucky the King enjoys being a cuckold.

[Audience members murmur and laugh] And he even has a giant peep hole in his royal closet.

Stop this trial immediately.

No, we can't.

It would look like you have something to hide.

Marie: Louis, sit down.

And listen to this?

They are ridiculing us publicly.

Yolande: I will testify and refute all of it.

I will tell them I was with you the night he claimed to have met you in the garden.

No, I won't have you perjure yourself.

W--we're leaving.

Oh, I have to hear it out.

Yolande will go with you.

That woman clearly has her own agenda.

At least she's still saying Rohan is guilty.

The meeting in the gardens-- did you find anything?

The woman who impersonated you is missing.

My spies are looking for her.

If it turns out she tricked Rohan, we just cannot have her appear in court.

[Sighs] [Laughter, excited chatter] Saint-Georges: You should have seen his face falling on the floor.

[Laughter] Oh, there you are.

We were hoping you'd join us.

Yes, and I was hoping for a quiet evening without my salon being used as a forum for yet another political cause.

Oh, he's grumpy because Rohan is losing in court.

At least he's taking Antoinette down with him.

Her reputation will never recover.

Saint-Georges: You've always been too concerned with the Queen's bedchamber.

Join us and discuss the real issues of the day.

Have you persuaded the Queen to join your abolitionist movement?

We might need the King and Queen's signature to end the slave trade, but we won't wait for them to convince society what's right.

Isn't it you who talks about the power of the people?

Your Cardinal is a distraction from the real problems, my friend.

[Scattered laughter] Saint-Georges: We have to remember, we are the solution.

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

[Laughter] He's right.

This trial is not about humiliating the queen.

I know.

I am not the fool you'll take me for.

I am trying to drive a wedge between Parliament and absolute monarchy.

If you can't help me, then what are you still doing here?

I can help you.

First, I need something from you.

What do you want?

A promise, that if you ever become King, you will give women equal rights to men.

[Laughs] You can't be serious.

I have what you need to win the trial.

So?

Come on.

Who is this?

The missing guard.

Why the hell didn't you tell me?

I didn't tell anyone.

If he'd revealed his story, Rohan would have been exonerated and the trial called off.

This way, we have the whole world watching.

Villette: I will not say a word that damages the reputation of Jeanne de Valois.

It's time we moved you to the Bastille.

There's something you need to see with your own eyes.

You look good... for a corpse.

[Cell door opens nearby] Marie: Thank God we can rely on Parliament to vote in our favor.

I'm not so sure.

Excuse me?

Parliament have heard that I'm extending the taxes to the clergy and the nobles.

Some parliamentarians suspect that I am mismanaging the finances.

And are you?

We are in a bit of debt.

Marie: So you... you're thinking that some parliamentarians might use the trial to punish you?

Maybe.

King Louis XVI: Yes.

Yes, and we need to be prepared.

[Inhales deeply] Mm-hmm.

They might defy me and vote Rohan innocent.

I'm sorry.

I-- I should have told you.

I wanted to protect you.

I wanted you--to keep you away from the politics.

Louis, please.

You--you didn't want to protect me.

You thought I wasn't capable enough to know.

[Sighs] Parliament cannot vote against us in the trial.

It will tell the country that I've lost control.

Well, then this trial is not about a necklace.

It's a referendum on our reign.

[Audience murmuring softly] [Audience gasping] Yolande: That's the whore from the Palais Royal.

Marie: She cannot appear in court.

That's what you-- I don't know how they found her.

I told you my men would find her in the end.

I'm sorry, Your Majesty.

I failed you.

I'm sorry.

Target: What is your name?

Mademoiselle Nicole d'Oliva.

I asked for the truth.

I suppose I must hear it.

Mademoiselle, have you ever met the accused, Cardinal Rohan?

Yes.

Someone paid me to impersonate the Queen and meet him in the Garden of Venus.

Who paid you?

I don't know.

He never said his name.

He just told me he wanted to play a practical joke on the Cardinal.

Is it plausible that the Cardinal would mistake you for the Queen?

I've had a lot of practice playing her.

I used to do it nightly onstage at the Palais Royal and in gentlemen's beds after the shows.

[Audience murmuring] Nicole: You'd be surprised at the things they want the Queen to do-- dirty things--making her beg, crawl across the floor for them.

One of them even made me call him "Your Majesty."

[Laughter] Fleury: This trick proves nothing!

The defense has paid a common prostitute to back up a ridiculous story!

[Audience exclaiming] President: Order.

Order!

[Bangs gavel] Monsieur Target, I will not stand for any more stunts.

I'm sorry to disappoint, Monsieur President, but I'm about to bring a man back from the dead.

Jeanne: I have longed to see you, Villette.

They told me you were dead.

That makes two of us, then, doesn't it?

After Nicholas stabbed me, I was unconscious.

When I came around, you and him were gone.

He betrayed us both.

Look...

I've made a deal and told them that Rohan orchestrated everything.

All you need to do is tell the same story, and we're free.

You tell the truth, and we both go down, and none of those fine people will save us.

You want to save your own neck, you stick to my story.

[Crowd murmuring] Target: Please sit down.

Would you please identify yourself?

Uh, my name is Rtaux de Villette.

I forged letters and dressed as the Queen's guard to steal the necklace.

[Audience murmuring] On whose orders?

Jeanne La Motte.

[Audience exclaiming] Target: And I have the evidence to prove it.

This was found in the possession of the man sitting before us.

Monsieur Villette, please tell the court what this is.

It's a draft of one of the fraudulent letters Jeanne sent to Rohan.

She had me copy it out on the Queen's paper.

It's in her handwriting.

[Applause] President: Order.

Order!

[Bangs gavel] Marie: Enough.

Order.

Order!

[Door opens] Fleury: Well, today proved Rohan's innocence.

Even the parliamentarians loyal to the Crown will find it hard to convict him.

Don't give up.

We are working behind the scenes to secure their votes.

Many are still loyal.

I'm going to lose all my authority.

Marie: We can't prove Rohan is guilty of stealing the necklace, but we can propose a new charge.

He stood up in Parliament and accused me of theft.

Breteuil: Are you suggesting we charge Rohan with damaging your good name?

Yeah.

Exactly.

Vergennes: That's a capital crime.

You risk making Rohan a martyr.

No.

No.

We charge them all.

Vergennes: This trial has been a circus.

The whole world is watching.

You really want to risk ending it in public execution?

Better than losing the country.

[Indistinct conversations] [Laughter, gavel banging] Messieurs, silence, please.

Monsieur Target.

The evidence shows that the final defendant was wrongfully arrested for the theft of the diamond necklace, but he has a right to be heard in this court.

I call the Count Cagliostro.

[Audience murmuring] That's... Target: You may speak.

Cagliostro.

Cagliostro: I had nothing to do with the theft of this necklace.

I'm on trial because of my reputation alone.

I've been mistreated, I have been mocked simply because I seek knowledge.

Marie: He was at Versailles.

I saw him.

Cagliostro: The fact is, I'm merely a man of the age.

I explore... what you consider occult.

And I try to heal people, even the highest in the land... even those who have no hope.

Was he attending Dauphin?

Yolande: Of course not.

Was he attending the Dauphin?

No.

Call my carriage.

I have somewhere else I need to be.

Breteuil: Your Majesty.

[Door opens] [Woman jeers] Target: Now, the evidence proves that Jeanne La Motte and Rtaux de Villette, with the unwitting assistance of Mademoiselle Nicole d'Oliva, are guilty of stealing the diamond necklace.

Cardinal Rohan and the charlatan, Count Cagliostro, are innocent.

[Audience murmuring] There's been a development.

The Crown asks the Parliament to consider a second, even more serious, charge against the defendants.

[Horse neighs] President: Did their actions tarnish the Queen's name?

[Audience exclaiming] Target: Let me see that.

They knew we had them beaten on the theft charge.

Yeah, but why would the Queen risk this?

[Horse neighs] President: Proceed, Monsieur Target.

Target: Sir, I need time to consider these new accusations.

President: There is none.

Speak now.

In your opinion, did the actions of Cardinal Rohan and the other defendants damage the Queen's good reputation?

[Sighs] Well, this case has depicted the Queen as an extravagant and duplicitous adulteress.

But are these accusations new?

Is the Queen not famous for her profligate spending?

Since she arrived in France, she's squandered our resources.

She's made purchases behind her husband's back.

It's also common knowledge that she has lovers, that she carries on intimate correspondences and then has scandalous sexual liaisons.

The defendants' actions did nothing to damage the Queen's reputation.

By her own hand, she has long since destroyed her good name.

Target: Should these people hang for the sins of the Queen?

Target: This is what you've been asked to decide.

I tell you they should not.

The fault isn't here.

It's in Versailles.

[Applause] [Speaking indistinctly] Excuse me for a moment.

For a job well done.

Damn Louis and this second charge.

The Crown can't lose twice.

What do I do?

Just like you said, the whole point is to damage her.

Parliament is... split.

My friends and I are willing to vote against the King, but there are concerns.

Defeat will deal a serious blow to the monarchy.

And the last thing we want is to empower Orlans and his populist rabble.

We want a king we can work with, but we'll not risk losing our monarchy entirely.

France cannot follow America into anarchy.

If we defeat Louis and he can't recover, are you willing to step into his shoes?

You must make a decision.

On the first count-- stealing the diamond necklace-- the court finds the defendant, Cardinal Louis-Ren-Edouard de Rohan, and the Count Cagliostro... not guilty.

[Cheers and applause] Order.

[Banging gavel] Order!

President: Jeanne La Motte... you are found guilty of theft, of shamefully deceiving the Cardinal, and along with your husband, Nicholas La Motte, of co-opting your accomplices, Monsieur Villette and Mademoiselle d'Oliva.

On the second count, the capital charge of damaging the Queen's name, all the defendants are found... [Knock on door] They've been found not guilty.

President: ...not guilty.

[Cheers and applause] [Scattered boos] Woman: Long live the Cardinal!

Others: Long live the Cardinal!

Woman: Long live the Cardinal!

President: Retaux de Villette... you are banished from this kingdom.

Nicholas La Motte, in absentia, is sentenced to a lifetime of hard labor in the King's galleys.

Jeanne La Motte... you are the worst kind of criminal, one hardened since birth.

You will be beaten and branded with the sign of the thief, and incarcerated for life in the Salptrire women's prison, where perhaps you will earn a small portion of honor.

[Bangs gavel] Take her away.

[People shouting] [Yelling indistinctly] Aah!

Aah!

[Groans] Aah!

Aah!

Stop!

Aah!

Aah!

[Screaming] [Cheers and applause] Victory!

[Cheers, whistles, and applause] [Indistinct conversations] Chartres: Count Fersen.

The reason the Queen studies Swedish.

You're not gonna slap me, are you?

[People exclaiming] All this because she doesn't love you?

I'm fine.

I'm fine!

Get lost.

[Door shuts] [Low whistle] Hardly a regal look, cousin.

It's what the people see that matters.

And they see me as the future.

Mm.

It's a shame that people have no say in who rules them.

Not yet.

May the best man win.

[Indistinct conversations] Quite a fire you started.

You're staying?

I thought it politic to go before the King's guards kick me out.

Hmm.

Thank you for my freedom.

You once asked me about the...secret that unites my brotherhood.

The truth is there's no secret, only the understanding that true enlightenment, true change comes from men working together.

Men, not women.

No, I personally don't agree, but most of them still see no place for you at the table.

Then we will make them see it.

I don't care about the verdict.

I don't care if he is praised throughout all of France.

Rohan is banished.

Vergennes: Sire, this loss proves that we can't rely on the Paris Parliament to approve the land tax or any further loans.

Forget the Parliament.

There's another decision-making body you can appeal to.

We think you should call an Assembly of Notables to help pass the reforms.

King Louis XVI: Not now, madame, please.

Marie: Leave us.

Majesty-- Both of you.

[Door closes] I banished Rohan.

How much time does he have?

How much time?

No more than two years.

How long have you known?

I, um... "I"?

"I"?

I couldn't...

I couldn't bear-- bear to tell you.

You lied to me?

You did.

You told me he'd recover.

How--how could you do that?

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

I'm so sorry.

I couldn't bear to-- You stole time from me.

You stole time from me...

I wanted to protect you.

so much time.

How could you do that?!

I-I wanted to protect you.

I was trying to-- You can't!

You can't protect me!

You can't protect me!

You can't!

You can't... [Sobs] not from this.

[Sniffles] Not from anything.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

Please.

Please.

How will we survive this?

[Door closes] The DVD version of this program is available online and in stores.

This program is also available with PBS Passport and on Amazon Prime Video