AVICULIDiE. SEA-WING. 95 



agent, Sir Nicholas Elphinstone, who undertook to 

 negotiate their sale with the assistance of Throck- 

 morton. Queen Elizabeth had the first offer of them, 

 and the French Ambassador thus describes them : — 

 " There are six cordons of large pearls strung as pater- 

 nosters, but there are five and twenty separate from 

 the rest, much finer and larger than those which are 

 strung. These are, for the most part, like black 

 muscades " (a very rare and valuable variety of pearl, 

 with the deep purple colour and bloom of the mus- 

 catel grape).* 



They were appraised by various merchants, but 

 Queen Elizabeth was determined to have them at the 

 sum named by the jeweller, though he would have 

 made his profit by selling them again. Others valued 

 them at three thousand pounds sterling ; some Italian 

 merchants at twelve thousand crowns; but twelve 

 thousand was the price Queen Elizabeth was allowed 

 to have them for, and Catherine de Medicis was quite 

 as eager to purchase these pearls as her good cousin 

 of England, knowing they were worth nearly double 

 the sum at which they had been valued in London, 

 having presented some of them herself to Mary. She 

 therefore used every endeavour to recover them, but 

 the French Ambassador wrote to inform her that it 

 was impossible to accomplish her desire of obtaining 

 the Queen of Scots* pearls, "for, as he had told her 

 from the first, they were intended for the gratification 

 of the Queen of England, who had been allowed to 

 purchase them at her own price, and they were now 

 in her hands." The possession of wealth and jewels is 

 not always a source of happiness or benefit to their 

 * See note, ' Lives of the Queens of Scotland,' vol. ii. p. 83. 



