Page:All the Year Round - Series 2 - Volume 1.djvu/164

 The British Museum, amongst the native diamonds, exhibits an octahedral diamond attached to alluvial gold: and—strange confirmation of the ancient idea as to their affinity!—not only is the octahedron the primary crystal of that metal also, but all its secondary modifications exactly correspond with those of the diamond. Modern science has made no further advance towards a solution of this problem beyond that propounded as a certainty in the ancient Timæus. But without solving the problem, it is clearly worth while for persons likely to travel in gold-bearing regions to know a rough diamond when they see it. Otherwise, they may make ducks and drakes with pebbles that would pay for their preservation.

Two points determine the value of diamonds—their weight, which can be estimated in the rough, and their lustre, or water, which is less easy to judge of. An old treatise says, "The Water called Cœlestis is the Worth of all, and yet is somewhat difficult to discover in a rough Diamond. The only infallible Way is to examine it in the Shade of some tufted Tree. In Europe, the Lapidaries examine the Goodness of their rough Diamonds, their Water, Points, &c., by Daylight; in the Indies, they do it by Night."

The diamond is the only gem which becomes phosphorescent in the dark after long exposure to the sun's rays, or, Boyle says, after steeping in hot water. Dr. Wall, in the Philosophical Transactions, gives his "infallible method" of distinguishing diamonds from other stones. A diamond with an easy slight friction in the dark with any soft animal substance, as the finger, woollen cloth, or silk, appears luminous in its whole body. Nay, if you keep rubbing for some time, and then expose it to the eye, it will remain so for some time. The excessive hardness of the diamond is another extraordinary and superlative quality which sets it apart from most other known substances.

The history of individual diamonds is often strange and romantic. They have influenced the fortunes of families, dynasties, and nations. They bring with them luck, good or ill. Take the Pitt or Regent diamond, which was found at Puteal, forty-five leagues from the city of Golconda, and next to Mirgimola's (the "Mogul" Diamond) was the largest on record, weighing in the rough four hundred and ten carats.

Pride, they say, feels no pain; nor, sometimes, does poverty. The slave who found this precious pebble concealed it, as the story goes, in a gash made to receive it in the calf of his leg until he found an opportunity of escaping to Madras. There the poor wretch fell in with an English skipper who, by promising to find a purchaser for the stone on condition of sharing half the proceeds, lured him to his ship, and there disposed of his claims by pitching him overboard. A Parsee merchant of the name of Jamchund bought this wonderful specimen from the thief and murderer for the paltry sum of one thousand pounds, which sum he (the murderer) speedily squandered in debauchery, and, when it was finished, hanged himself.

Governor Pitt, of Fort St. George, Madras, states that he purchased it himself of Jamchund for twelve thousand five hundred pounds. Pope, to his annoyance, tried to rob him of the credit of doing so by assigning its acquisition to the agency of an "honest factor." To cut it into a perfect brilliant, in London, occupied two whole years, at a cost of five thousand pounds; which outlay was nearly covered by the value (three thousand five hundred pounds) of the fragments separated in shaping it. This operation reduced its weight to one hundred and thirty-six carats and seven-eighths, but made it, for perfection of shape as well as for purity of water, the first diamond in the world, which it still remains.

The fame of this incomparable jewel soon spread all over Europe. Uffenbach, a German traveller who visited this country in 1712, states that he made many fruitless attempts to get a sight of it. There was no obtaining an interview with Governor Pitt, its far from enviable possessor. So fearful was he of robbery (not without cause) that he never let be know beforehand the day of his coming to town, nor slept in the same house twice consecutively. During the next five years—that is, until after long negotiation the Regent Orleans relieved him of its custody in 1717—Pitt must have felt his too-precious stone almost as harassing a possession as its first finder did. He finally sold it for one hundred and thirty-five thousand pounds, a price considered much below its value; for, in the inventory of the Regalia, it is entered at twelve millions of francs, or four hundred and eighty thousand pounds.

In September, 1792, the great robbery of the Garde Meuble occurred. Together with the other regalia of France, the Sancy and the Regent diamonds were stolen. The former, being more convertible than its companion, was never recovered, although a diamond exactly answering to its description afterwards turned up. This robbery was effected under circumstances of great suspicion in respect to the keepers, who were supposed to have acted in the interest of the royal family. The regalia, including gold plate of almost incalculable value, had been sealed up by the officers of the Commune of Paris, after the massacres of the 10th of August. On the 17th of the following month, the seals were found broken, the locks picked by means of false keys, and the cabinets empty. The thieves were never discovered; but an anonymous letter directed to the Commune gave information where to find the Regent together with a noble agate chalice, the latter stripped of its precious gold mounting. Both these objects were too well known to be convertible into money without certain detection. Hence this politeness on the part of the thieves; but everything else had disappeared for ever.

Upon this diamond Buonaparte may be said to have founded his fortunes. It was verily the rock on which his empire was built. After the famous 18th of Brumaire, by pledging the Regent to the Dutch government, he procured