for
his work, the king fined him ten thousand rupees and would have taken
more if he had possessed it. If Sieur Hortenzio had understood his
business well he would have been able to get several good pieces from
this stone without doing any wrong to the King, and without having the
trouble of grinding it down, but he was an unskillful diamond-cutter."
Tavernier
held this great stone in his hand for some time and contemplated it at
his leisure. It must have been a great day for him, the conÂnoisseur,
to see and examine the finest diamond in existence. It is well he
looked long and keenly at it, for it was never again to be seen by
European eyes. On this second of NovemÂber, 1665, the Great Mogul was
seen for the first, last and only time by one able to tell us anything
about it. This was its meteor-flash into history and fame. It was seen
by the man best able to appreciate it and then never seen again. The
accompanying illustration is taken from Tavernier's drawing of the
Great Mogul.
Incidentally we learn something more of the monster diamond from the pen of the same
