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THE REGENT. 25
We
lose sight of the Regent in the black gloom that hangs over the Reign
of Terror. There is however a persistent tradition, impossible now
either to prove or disprove, that on the occasion of the marriage of
Napoleon Bonaparte with Josephine Beauharnais in 1796 the former wore
a most superb diamond in his sword hilt. Could this perchance have been
the Regent? It is certainly difficult to imagine how Napoleon could
have become possessed of the Regent at this date. Yet it is also
difficult to imagine how the young man who was then an unknown and a
poor general without an army although full of high expectations, could
have become the owner of any diamond of such splendor as to attract the
attention of at least two contemporary historians. It is just possible
it may have been the peerless Regent already shedding its rays upon the
blade of that sword destined to flash through Europe and to leave
behind it so bloody a trail.
However this may be, it is certainly a fact
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