The Case of the Nun's Ruby 91
about
ninety miles N.N.E. of Mandalay, which is the home of the Burma ruby,
where it is found embedded in limestone formations. From this region
come all the great rubies. And many great rubies there have been in
history. There was the noble stone, for instance, by which a great king
sought to write his name imperishably upon human memory. He knew better
than Shelley's Ozyman-dias, "King of Kings":
"I
met a traveller from an antique land Who said: Two vast and trunkless
legs of stone Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand, Half
sunk, a shattered visage lies. . . . And on the pedestal these words
appear: 'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye
Mighty, and despair!' Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that
colossal wreck, boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far
away."
The
Mogul Emperor Jehangir had his name carved on a noble ruby, secure in
the belief that thereby he would be remembered by posterity for a
longer period than through monuments of stone or the records of
historians. For the ruby may be small. It may be easily lost in times
of disturbance. But somehow, somewhere, it will survive destruction and
appear again. The Mogul ruby passed in time into the hands of Shah
Jehan, who gave it to his lovely wife, the same lady for whom as a
sorrowing widower he built the Taj Mahal, jewel of jewels among
buildings. And royal gem as it was, it came at last into the
