A CHAPTER ON DIAMONDS. 



47 



having lost his throne, employed a descendant of this family, who 

 was gommander of the Swiss troops in his service, to proceed to 

 Switzerland, for the purpote of recruiting his forces in that coun- 

 try ; and having no pecuniary resources at command, he persua- 

 ded the same loyal officer to borrow of his family the Sanci dia- 

 mond, in order to deposit it \vith the Swiss government, as securi- 

 ty for the payment of the troops. Accordingly, the diamond was 

 despatched for this purpose by a confidential domestic, who dis- 

 appeared, and could nowhere be heard of for a great length of 

 time. At last, however, it was ascertained that he had been stop- 

 ped by robbers and assassinated, and his body buried in a forest ; 

 and such confidence had his master in the prudence and probity 

 of his servant, that he searched, and at last discovered the place 

 of his burial, and had the corpse disinterred, when the diamond 

 was found in his stomach, he having swallowed it when attacked 

 by the robbers. The Baron de Sanci subsequently disposed of 

 this diamond to James IL, of England, then residing at St. Ger- 

 mains, from whom it passed to Louis XIV.'"^' 



The Piggott diamond was brought to England by Earl Piggott, 

 when Governor-General of India. It was disposed of by lottery, 

 in 1801, for 30,000/. Its weight is carats. The Nassac dia- 

 mond, now in the East India House, was taken from the Peshwa 

 of the Mahrattas. Its weight is stated to be 89f carats. Hol- 

 land has a diamond of 36 carats weight, said to be of a conical 

 shape, and valued at 10,368/. The Brazilian treasury is extreme- 

 1}^ rich in diamonds, of great magnitude and beauty, such as the 

 Portugal Round Brilliant, the Slave Diamond, and others. In the 

 walking stick of King John IV., which is a Brazilian cane, and the 

 handle of which is of wrought gold, there is a beautiful brilliant 

 surmounting its summit, and cut in the form of a pyramid, valued 

 at about 300,000/. The buttons on the silken stole of King Jo- 

 seph L, of Portugal, were twenty in all, each a brilliant. The ag- 

 gregate value of these amounted to 100,000/. 



As the statement made by the writer in the " Encyclopaedia 

 Britannica," as to the weight of the Russian diamond, appears to 



* This history is related by M rray. We have before seen that the dia- 

 mond of Charles the Bold was the first that was polished ; and an acconnt 

 which coincides in some of the details, but differs in others, is related of it 

 by Gognet, in his " Origine des Arts," t. iii., p. 221 ; and by Brard/' Mine- 

 ralogie appliquee aii^ Arts/' t. iii-, p. 191. 



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