became
reconciled to the thought of dying, but suddenly it occurred to him
that he had not tested the hardness of the fragment he had found in his
food. He immediately took the splinter and tried to crush it between
his knife and the stone window-sill; to his joy the attempt succeeded,
and he became convinced that what he had swallowed was not diamond
dust. Later, after his release, Cellini learned that an enemy had given
a diamond to a certain Lione Aretino, a gem-cutter, instructing him to
grind it up so that the dust could be placed in Cellini's food. The
gem-cutter was very poor and the diamond was worth a hundred scudi, so
the man yielded to temptation and substituted a citrine for the
diamond. To this circumstance alone did Cellini attribute his escape
from death.17
In
England, more than seventy years after Cellini's experience, diamond
dust was selected as a poison to do away with a luckless prisoner. Sir
Thomas Overbury had incurred the bitter animosity of the Countess of
Essex, because he opposed her marriage with the favorite of James I,
Robert Carr, Viscount Somerset, whom he had befriended and whose career
he had furthered. The marriage took place, however, and, in 1613,
Overbury was imprisoned in the Tower, through the machinations of the
countess. She then sought the aid of one James Franklin, an apothecary,
directing him to concoct a slow and deadly poison, which should be
mixed with Overbury's food. In the minutes of Franklin's confession,
he is said to have stated that the countess asked him what he thought
of white arsenic. His reply was that this poison would prove too
violent. "What say you (quoth she) to powder of diamonds?" He answered,
"I know
" "Vita di Benvenuto Cellini, ed. Carpani, Milano, 1806, p. 445.
