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NOTES.
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419
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jewel
of his unlucky ancestor six years before that date. Hence it
necessarily follows that the weight of the latter bore no comparison
to that of Affetati's, and consequently that it did not so much as
approach to the 54 carats of the actual Sancy.
The
origin of the confusion between this diamond and the celebrated one of
Charles the Bold seems to be this. Nicolas Harlai, Seigneur de Sancy,
was the early friend and afterwards treasurer to Henri IV., with whom
he changed his religion, and acted as his envoy at several courts,
Queen Elizabeth's amongst others. In the year 1589 he obtained a
certain large diamond (not further described) from Dom Antonio, the
prétendant to the crown of Portugal, as security for a loan of 100,000
livres (not repaid). Now the tellers of the story here assume a step
and make this to be the stone formerly Charles's, but then in the
possession of Philip II. ; a change of ownership of all others the most
improbable. Harlai being at Soleure, his king and friend wanting to
raise a loan upon this diamond, it was sent to him by a trusty servant.
He, as the story goes, being beset by robbers, had just time to swallow
the diamond before he was murdered. His master, having recovered his
corpse, had the lucky idea to open his stomach, counting upon this last
expedient of his faithful envoy, and was not disappointed in his
expectation of there discovering the lost treasure. But his possession
of it was but brief, for, pursuant to his first scheme, he pledged it
to the Jews of Metz for a large sum, and being unable to redeem it, he
forfeited the same for ever ('Biograp. Universelle'). This diamond,
therefore, now disappears from the scene ; and there only remains that
brought by him " from the East," i. e. Constantinople, during
his embassy. That he was an amateur in diamonds appears from his
purchasing Dom Antonio's in those troublous times. Sancy died in 1627,
and we next find, forty-two years later, his well-known jewel in the
possession of the " Queen of England."
The Sancy was stolen, together with the regalia, from the Garde-MevMe, in
the great robbery of September, 1792, and was never recovered. But
Barbot asserts positively that a diamond exactly agreeing with its
description in all particulars was sold by an agent of the Bourbons
(the elder branch) for the sum of 500,000 roubles (75,000Z.2)
in the year 1838 to the Princess Paul Demidoff. By a singular freak of
fortune this mythical gem returns in our day once more to the East. It
has been purchased of the Demidoff family (February, 1865) for the sum
of 20,000t. on the commission of Sir Jamsetjee .Teejeebhoy of Bombay,
by Messrs. Garrard.
ARTIFICIAL IMPROVEMENT OF DIAMONDS, p. 45,
Large
stones, besides flaws and specks of different colours, sometimes
contain actual cavities filled with a black sediment that discolours
their whole mass. How to get rid of such impurities without excision,
and the
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