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VIII.
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THE SANCI.
T
HE diamond which is
known as "the Sanci," or, as it is sometimes written, " Sancy," has
been not inaptly termed a Sphinx among stones. Until recently writers
have been accustomed to begin the story of this diamond with Charles
the Bold Duke of Burgundy and, with numerous variations of detail, to
derive it from him.
Now
Charles the Bold had three diamonds which were famous throughout Europe
as well for their size as for the fact that they were cut by a European
lapidary. Louis de Berquen, who nourished in the fifteenth century,
discovered by chance the true principle of diamond-cutting. He rubbed
two diamonds together and found that one would bite upon the other, and
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