We were now thoroughly broken down; but the intense excitement of the time denied us repose.  After an unquiet slumber of some three or four hours’ duration, we arose, as if by preconcert, to make examination of our treasure.

The chest had been full to the brim, and we spent the whole day, and the greater part of the next night, in a scrutiny of its contents.  There had been nothing like order or arrangement.  Everything had been heaped in promiscuously.  Having assorted all with care, we found ourselves possessed of even vaster wealth than we had at first supposed.  In coin there was rather more than four hundred and fifty thousand dollars—­estimating the value of the pieces, as accurately as we could, by the tables of the period.  There was not a particle of silver.  All was gold of antique date and of great variety:  French, Spanish, and German money, with a few English guineas, and some counters of which we had never seen specimens before.  There were several very large and heavy coins, so worn that we could make nothing of their inscriptions.  There was no American money.  The value of the jewels we found more difficulty in estimating.  There were diamonds—­some of them exceedingly large and fine—­a hundred and ten in all, and not one of them small; eighteen rubies of remarkable brilliancy; three hundred and ten emeralds, all very beautiful; and twenty-one sapphires, with an opal.  These stones had all been broken from their settings and thrown loose in the chest.  The settings themselves, which we picked out from among the other gold, appeared to have been beaten up with hammers, as if to prevent identification.  Besides all this, there was a vast quantity of solid gold ornaments:  nearly two hundred massive finger and ear-rings; rich chains—­thirty of these, if I remember; eighty-three very large and heavy crucifixes; five gold censers of great value; a prodigious golden punch-bowl, ornamented with richly chased vine-leaves and Bacchanalian figures; with two sword-handles exquisitely embossed, and many other smaller articles which I cannot recollect.  The weight of these valuables exceeded three hundred and fifty pounds avoirdupois; and in this estimate I have not included one hundred and ninety-seven superb gold watches; three of the number being worth each five hundred dollars, if one.  Many of them were very old, and as time-keepers valueless, the works having suffered more or less from corrosion; but all were richly jewelled and in cases of great worth.  We estimated the entire contents of the chest, that night, at a million and a half of dollars; and, upon the subsequent disposal of the trinkets and jewels (a few being retained for our own use), it was found that we had greatly undervalued the treasure.

When, at length, we had concluded our examination, and the intense excitement of the time had in some measure subsided, Legrand, who saw that I was dying with impatience for a solution of this most extraordinary riddle, entered into a full detail of all the circumstances connected with it.