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THE ORLOFF
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Prince
Gregory Gregoryvitch Orloff sat in a long, high-ceilinged room in the
palace and smiled complacently as he fondled the small object before
him. This would be his trump card, the Heart of Diamonds. It was a card
only figuratively; it was a diamond literally. It would be the
Prince's answer to all the fantastic schemes of the fabulous Potem-kin
to hold the favor of the Empress of All the Russias.
This
diamond was the Orloff, in whose fiery depths is a story of adventure,
romance, and intrigue probably un-equaJed by any other gem. A
glittering stone whose exact weight is now 199.6 carats, which is 7/8
of an inch high, 1-1/4 inches wide, and 1-3/8 inches
long, it is mounted in the scepter that once belonged to the Romanoffs
but now is guarded in the Diamond Treasury of the Union of Soviet
Socialist Republics in Moscow. (Since this is written in a time of war,
which means change in the lives and traditions of men and stones, let
us say it was in the Treasury at least until the fall of 1941.)
Aside
from its geological history, the origin of the Orloff is vague.
Sometimes it has been said that it was the Great Mogul, but then the
Great Mogul has been linked with any stone of ancient vintage without a
definite pedigree. The Orloff first came to the attention of the
occidental world when it was reported stolen from the eye of a Hindu
idol. It seems that near Trichinopoly, which is in Mysore, a native
state in southern India, there is in the Cauvery river an island called
Srirangam. Near the western shore of that island stood a temple
enclosed within seven walls, and within the innermost shrine stood this
idol of the god Sri-
(37)
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