176 THE GREAT DIAMONDS OF THE WORLD.
points
out the mistake made in the operation, and shows how it might be
improved, remarks that there is only one small speck, and that placed
in such a position as not to be detected in the setting. He also says
that another £5,000 was spent in negotiating its sale to the Regent,
Duke of Orleans, who purchased it in 1717, during the minority of Louis
XV., for £135,000. The cleavage and dust obtained in the cutting were
also valued at from £7,000 to £8,000,* so that Pitt must have netted at
least £100,000 by his venture. With this he restored the fortunes of
the ancient house of Pitt, which was destined later on to give to
England two of her greatest statesmen and orators, for the governor of
Fort St. George was grandfather of the great Earl of Chatham, father of
the illustrious William Pitt. He was born at Bland-ford, in
Dorsetshire, where he was buried in May, 1726. In the funeral oration
preached on the occasion by the Rev. Canon R. Eyre, the following
reference was made to the "diamond scandal:"—"That he should have
enemies no wonder, when envy will make them, and when their malice
could reach him in no other way, it is as little to be wondered at that
they should make such an attempt upon his credit by an abusive story as
if it had been by some stretch of his power that he got that diamond
which was of too value for any subject to purchase, an ornament more
