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416 THE DIAMOND
charged
with fraud. The mysterious envelope was called for. Sir Julius offered
Lemoine an additional $8o,ooo for it, but the prisoner, assisted by his
counsel, Maitre Labori, strenuously resisted every attempt to obtain
possession of the envelope, and Mme. Lemoine was sent to London to stop
the Bank from giving it up. Sir Julius followed post haste to secure it
if possible, before she got an injunction preventing. Lord Armstrong
defended the Frenchman by saying that the crystals he made were
certainly genuine diamonds. It looked like a fight for millions between
an inventor and capital.
The
newspapers exploited the matter, and though the affair was covered with
the earmarks of fraud, many believed that the envelope in London
contained the great secret. In the trade, the claim had little if any
influence.
Revelations
came with the trial. Lemoine accused Sir Julius of conspiring with him
to sell the secret to the De Beers Company for $25,000,000. The
Frenchman was said to be preparing to buy De Beers shares when they
dropped on the publication of stories about his success. There seemed
to be more need for a press-agent and a broker, in the scheme, than a
laboratory.
Lemoine
was held prisoner for two months, during which the contest for the
envelope was transferred to London. The Bow Street magistrate refused
to allow anyone to remove it. The Court of King's Bench reversed his
decision on April 30, and authorized the Bank to hand it over to the
French court. Before that decision, Lemoine maintained the attitude of
a man fighting desperately to hold a valuable secret. The
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