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THE SANCI.
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to the Restoration we find Henrietta disposing of the diamond to the Earl of Worcester. The following letter is in her hand :
"
We Henrietta Moria of Bourbon, Queen of Great Britain, have by command
of our much honored lord and master the King caused to be handed to our
dear and well-beloved cousin Edward Somerset, Count and Earl of
Worcester, a ruby necklace containing ten large rubies, and one hundred
and sixty pearls set and strung together in gold. Among the said rubies
are also two large diamonds called the ' Sanci' and the ' Portugal,' "
etc.
After
the Restoration Charles II. made strenuous endeavors to collect the
scattered jewels of his Crown. How or when he recovered the Sanci and
the Portugal we cannot now tell. It would be very like the devoted
Worcester who ruined himself for the Stuarts to have given them back to
Charles without stipulation, and it would be very like a Stuart to have
accepted them and never to have paid for them. Worcester died in 1677
and two years later, as we have seen, the Sanci was in the hands of the
" present Queen of England."
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