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The Jagersfontein: Orloff

A Royal Lover's Gift--Prince Orloff and the Czarina Catharine--An Imperial Gem--Fable of the Temple of Brama--A French Grenadier's Plot--The costly Eye of an Idol stolen--A Great Diamond on its Travels--The Adventurer, Khojeh Raphael--Prince Orloff Purchases the Gem to restore his favour at Court--pound 90,000 and pound 4,000 a year is paid for the Stone--Another Grenadier--The Peacock Throne--Shah Jehan again--A Merchant Adventurer and Warrior--The desolating war of the Deccan--Royal Freebooters--A tragic end--The Koh-i-Nur and Koh-i-Tur--The Moon of Mountains.

THE rays of light which penetrate this brilliant are not more deflected, distorted, and confusing than is the history of the birth and early destination of the gem; and to add still more to the perplexity, there is inseparably attached to its very name a scandal which, like the stone itself, appears to be about the only solid reality on which we can rest. Prince Orloff's love intrigue with the Czarina, Catherine the Second of Russia, is a well-known page in the history of Imperial courts. The temporary cloud that gathered about his relations with his royal mistress was dispelled by the brilliant rays of a lover's gift, dazzling enough for Goethe to have made it the pendant that tempted Marguerite.