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FIRE IN THE EARTH
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and shelter of a house. But once inside you notice that it is raining on you just as hard as ever.
That
is Hollywood; that was Potemkin. He kept fooling Catherine with his
"movie sets" and his "movie extras," with which Orloff's handsome face
couldn't compete. At any rate he eventually was banished horn the
court. He went to France and, hearing about this Lasarev, induced him
and his partner to sell him the stone for 400,000 rubles, to be paid
for in the course of seven years.
Now
he returned to Russia, sure of triumph. It was the custom on the
Empress's Saint's Day to present her with a bouquet of Rowers. Prince
Orloff did so, but imbedded in the bouquet was the exquisite stone that
had come from the eye of the Hindu idol. The Empress was entranced. She
even called the stone the Orloff and had it mounted in the royal
scepter as a symbol of the sovereignty of her empire. But it didn't
help Orloff any; she thanked him for the gift and told him to go home.
It
remained in the scepter. Napoleon had his mind on it. As he approached
Moscow the diamond was secreted in the tomb of a priest in the Kremlin.
When he entered Moscow he ordered that the gem be sought. When its
hiding place was learned, Napoleon is said to have proceeded in person
to the Kremlin, accompanied by a bodyguard, to seize the stone. It
must have been transferred to some other spot, for he never found it.
It is still in the scepter as I write. But because the present history
of the world is being written in blood, it cannot be said with
certainty whether it will be there when you read this.
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(40)
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