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132 THE BRAGANZA.
provisionally
at least, class the Braganza among the diamonds of this series; and
when its true character is established beyond dispute we shall know
whether to call it the Monarch of Diamonds or only a vulgar impostor.
The
stated weight of the Braganza reaches the astounding figure of one
thousand six hundred and eighty carats. Of course this is in its rough
state, for the giant gem has refused to trust itself to the hands of
any cutter however skillful. Yet this weight exceeds by more than
double the weight, in the rough, of the next largest diamond known to
history, namely, the Great Mogul. When we think of the price of the
Regent — over six hundred thousand dollars, while weighing only four
hundred and ten carats in the rough — and then turn to the Braganza
with its sixteen hundred carats, the mind staggers before the
money-value thus suggested.
All
the other famous diamonds of which we have treated have been Asiatic;
but the Braganza, like the Pelegrina Pearl, hails from the New
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