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EXIT THE FLORENTINE
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Only
for a moment, now, let us think of an Austria-Hungary that was a
synonym for charm and beauty. Perhaps much of that was exaggerated;
there may have been slums and starvation and suffering, there, too,
before the first World War. But the idea was there, the idea of charm
and beauty growing out of a kind of freedom, even though it was under
an absolute monarchy. The center and the symbol was a grouchy-looking,
heavily mustached emperor named Francis Joseph who, with the exception
of Wilhelm of Germany, who later became his partner in the first World
War against the Allies, was the most powerful absolute monarch in
Europe and, with the exception of the emperor of Japan, the most
powerful absolute monarch in the world.
There
was a popular symbol of this power, and it was not the royal crown. It
was a stone that was placed sometimes in the crown, sometimes in a
brooch, or was used as a hat ornament or some other royal
decoration—but always directly identified with the crown jewels. This
was the Florentine diamond, at the time regarded as one of the most
glittering diamonds in existence and also the seventh in size.
It
was a diamond that could be defiantly proud of itself in such regal
surroundings. Its own history was as imperious as the history of the
house of Hapsburg. It is presumed to have been in the possession of the
Medici family of Florence for more ihan a century. And for more than a
century the Media's were the most powerful family in Europe. They were
the Morgans and the Rothschilds (combined) of their time. They were the
dictators of finance, the patrons
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