The second in size is the Orloff, or Grand Russian, sometimes called the Moon of the Mountain, of one hundred and ninety-three carats.  The Great Mogul once owned it.  Then it passed by conquest into the possession of Nadir the Shah of Persia.  In 1747 he was assassinated, and all the crown-jewels slipped out of the dead man’s fingers,—­a common incident to mortality.  What became of the great diamond no one at that time knew, till one day a chief of the Anganians walked, mole-footed, into the presence of a rich Armenian gentleman in Balsora, and proposed to sell him (no lisping,—­not a word to betray him) a large emerald, a splendid ruby, and the great Orloff diamond.  Mr. Shafrass counted out fifty thousand piastres for the lot; and the chief folded up his robes and silently departed.  Ten years afterwards the people of Amsterdam were apprised that a great treasure had arrived in their city, and could be bought, too.  Nobody there felt rich enough to buy the great Orloff sparkler.  So the English and Russian governments sent bidders to compete for the gem.  The Empress Catharine offered the highest sum; and her agent, the Count Orloff, paid for it in her name four hundred and fifty thousand roubles, cash down, and a grant of Russian nobility!  The size of this diamond is that of a pigeon’s egg, and its lustre and water are of the finest:  its shape is not perfect.

The Grand Tuscan is next in order,—­for many years held by the Medici family.  It is now owned by the Austrian Emperor, and is the pride of the Imperial Court.  It is cut as a rose, nine-sided, and is of a yellow tint, lessening somewhat its value.  Its weight is one hundred and thirty-nine and a half carats; and its value is estimated at one hundred and fifty-five thousand, six hundred and eighty-eight pounds.

The most perfect, though not the largest, diamond in Europe is the Regent, which belongs to the Imperial diadem of France.  Napoleon the First used to wear it in the hilt of his state-sword.  Its original weight was four hundred and ten carats; but after it was cut as a brilliant, (a labor of two years, at a cost of three thousand pounds sterling,) it was reduced to one hundred and thirty-seven carats.  It came from the mines of Golconda; and the thief who stole it therefrom sold it to the grandfather of the Earl of Chatham, when he was governor of a fort in the East Indies.  Lucky Mr. Pitt pocketed one hundred and thirty-five thousand pounds for his treasure, the purchaser being Louis XV.  This amount, it is said, is only half its real value.  However, as it cost the Governor, according to his own statement, some years after the sale, only twenty thousand pounds, his speculation was “something handsome.”  Pope had a fling at Pitt, in his poetical way, intimating a wrong with regard to the possession of the diamond; but we believe the transaction was an honest one.  In the inventory of the crown-jewels, the Regent diamond is set down at twelve million francs!