THE GREAT SANCY
This
diamond has a great history. Even if it weighs but 53-1/2 carats and is
worth hardly a million dollars, it is entitled to a high place among
the noted gems. It was an heirloom in the family of the Duke of
Burgundy. In one of the many fierce battles in which the dukes engaged
in the stormy Middle Ages, the Burgundian chief was cut down, and on
his body some human vulture found and carried off the diamond. He sold
it to the King of Portugal. Ten years later the King, sorely pressed
for money, sold it to the Baron de Sancy, who sent it to the King of
France as a present. Unhappily, news of the present went before, and a
band of robbers attacked the messenger and slew him. The faithful man,
in his last agony, determined to balk his assassins. He swallowed the
diamond. The baron was dismayed when he heard the news; but the
practical monarch speedily had the corpse of the dead messenger cut
open, and the jewel was found undigested in his stomach. From the King
of France the Sancy passed to James the Second of England as the price
of one of those acts of subserviency which eventually cost James his
throne. In his exile and poverty poor James sold it back to the French
for 125,000 dollars and it remained among the French crown jewels till
the Revolution.
This
diamond, Sancy, was at the Paris World's Exposition of 1867, having
previously changed owners many times. It was later sent again to Bombay
and from a jeweler there was purchased in 1875 by the Maharaja of
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