2?8 THE GREAT DIAMONDS OF THE WORLD.
ray
of light is attempted to be thrown upon its acquisition, the less "
luminious " it becomes. It is pretty certain, however, that he brought
this rare diamond to England somewhere about the year 1775. There is no
record of the source whence he procured it, but it probably came to him
either from his friend, the Rajah of Tanjore, or from the Nabob of
Arcot, from whom he admitted, in a letter to the Court of Directors,
that he had accepted a few presents " of a trifling value." If this
diamond was amongst the gifts, it was certainly no " trifle," for it
has been valued by Mawe at no less a sum than £40,000. At any rate it
fetched £30,000 in the year 1801, when it fell in a public lottery to a
young man, who afterwards sold it for a low price. It passed, in the
year 1818, into the hands of Messrs. Rundell and Bridge, the city
jewellers, and from them it was soon afterwards purchased, also for
£30,000, by Ali Pasha, who forwarded a special messenger to receive it.
Murray tells us that its new owner, " always wore it in a green silk
purse attached to his girdle. When Ali Pasha was mortally wounded by
Reshid Pasha, he immediately retired to his divan, and desired that his
favourite wife, Vasilika, should be poisoned. He then gave the diamond
to Captain DAnglas, with an order that it should be crushed to powder
in his presence, which was forthwith obeyed, and the beautiful gem
utterly destroyed. Vasilika still lives, but the model of the
diamond alone remains. The too obedient officer bitterly regretted his
folly ; and the destroyed diamond haunted him in his dreams for months
afterwards."
