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FIRE IN THE EARTH
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angry
Persians stormed the embassy and killed him. This, of course, meant the
threat of war between Persia and Russia. (Russia is now known, as we
write this, as the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; Persia is now
known, as we write this, as Iran. It is difficult to guess what either
or both will be known as when you read this.) Persia, weaker nation by
far, decided to appease Russia. She sacrificed much wealth, including
The Shah, to save her race that had humbled the Moguls.
So
the Russians seized The Shah, after it had been carried over the
border by the Persjan prince, Chozre Mizra. It was presented to the
czar as a "token of grief for the murder, although the czar, as a
matter of fact, thought Griboyedoff was a renegade in the first place,
and had sent him to Persia to get him out of the way.
That
diamond remained in the crown jewels of Russia until a misty Petrograd
dawn of March 2, 1917, when the House of Romanoff fell.
A
new Russian nation now held the diamond. On July 23, 1924, it was
removed from the Diamond Room in the White Palace to Moscow and eight
years later the strong boxes with the regalia and treasures were opened
and this diamond was included in the "Diamond Treasure of the Union of
Soviet Republics" and placed in the Kremlin.
What may happen to it, what has happened to it—? It was shaped like a coffin.
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(116)
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