TEE "PITT'' OR "REGENT" DIAMOND. 85
finished, hanged himself—a most appropriate finale to the tale.
The robbery of the Garde Meuble, already
alluded to (Sancy), was effected under the most suspicious
circumstances as regards the keepers : who were supposed to have acted
in the interest of the royal family. The Regalia, including gold plate
of almost incalculable value, had been sealed up by the officers of the
Commune of Paris, after the massacres of the 10th of August. On the
17th of the following month, the seals were found broken, the locks
picked by means of false keys, and the cabinets empty. The thieves were
never discovered ; but an anonymous letter directed to the Commune gave
the information where to find the Regent, together with the nobje Agate
Chalice of the Abbot Suger (which had been buried in the Allée des
Veuves in the Champs Elysées), the latter stripped of its precious
gold-mounting. Both these objects were too well known to be convertible
into money without certain detection ; hence this politeness, on the
part of the thieves ; but everything else had disappeared for ever. The
fortunes of Buonaparte may be said to have been founded upon this
Diamond : it was verily the Bock upon which his empire was built, for
after the famous 18th Brumaire, by pledging the Regent to the Dutch
Government, he procured the funds indispensable for the consolidation
of his power. After he became emperor, he wore the Diamond set in the
pommel of his state-sword : doubtless holding that to be a more
significant and needful article of his imperial paraphernalia than
either crown or sceptre. One is tempted to indulge, after old Pliny's
fashion, in profound reflections upon the direct influence of this
remarkable gem in raising to the helm of government of the two hostile
nations ; in one the Corsican adventurer, in the other his once equally
renowned adversary William Pitt, whose accession to the
