The Blue Diamond Read Free Page B

is really why I asked you here.”
    “What, to foster a feud between the Grand Duchess and King William? Sounds like lady’s work to me.”
    “No, no—it is your cousin I speak of. Palgrave.”
    “He will doubtlessly carry his own particular brand of mischief into the toils of the Congress. And prices are already so high too! But then you know, with a hundred thousand visitors to outspend, and two hundred and fifteen princely families, he will hardly cause much rise in the rate of inflation.”
    “I don’t know about that,” Castlereagh replied, in perfect seriousness. He was clever, but not much given to levity. “He is certainly spending like a drunken sailor in any case."
    “Palgrave’s man of business called on me a week ago. I expect there was some ill feeling when the semiofficial group from Württemberg had their headquarters rented out from under them, but really that is nothing to do with me. It is a fait accompli . The Württemberg group were put up elsewhere, were they not?”
    “It is not the house I’m worried about. Palgrave is spouting some nonsense about blue diamonds.”
    “Blue diamonds?” Moncrief asked, frowning. "The lady has every other color known to science. Now you must own, Castlereagh, blue diamonds would match her eyes very well.”
    “It is all fine and dandy for you to joke, but you know well enough what blue diamond he refers to.”
    “I’m afraid I don’t.”
    “What, you don’t know of the Blue Tavernier, and you call yourself an expert on gems?”
    “I don’t, actually, though I don’t trouble to refute it when others bestow the title on me. Certainly I am familiar with the Blue Tavernier.”
    “I am glad to hear it. I want you to tell me all about it. Someone was saying last night that it belongs to the King of France, and that it is stolen property. One of the French delegates it was—Chabon. Ready to raise a great stink about it.”
    “How much do you want to know?”
    “Everything.”
    “A comprehensive answer,” Moncrief said, and adjusted his posture to achieve total comfort. He crossed his arms, tilted his chair back, rested his chin on his chest and closed his eyes, to aid memory. “Well then, some several thousand years ago, there was a forest growing in India . . ."
    “Let us just skip over the next few millenia till a diamond had formed and been discovered by man, shall we?” Castlereagh asked, in a damping tone.
    “If you like, but the formation of a diamond is really very interesting. The stone commonly known as the Blue Tavernier comes from Golconda, in India. It first became known in Europe when it was brought back to France by Tavernier, a French traveler and gem merchant, who had stolen it from the forehead of a statue of Rama Sita in India. This was around 1668. It was over a hundred carats at the time, but was subsequently recut to two-thirds the size. Badly cut, in the opinion of most experts. I have not personally seen the stone, you understand,” Moncrief said, opening his eyes to regard his listener.
    “I don’t see what all this has to do . . ."
    “You did say everything. But I shall shorten the history if you like. It was sold to King Louis XIV, to be set in the crown jewels. It is set in a fabulous jeweled insignia of the Order of the Golden Fleece. It picked up rather a nasty reputation as a stone of evil about that time. Tavernier, you see, was eaten alive by wild dogs in Russia. King Louis caught a disease which delicacy forbids mentioning and died, Louis XVI, er—lost his head . . . and the stone is now bringing ill luck to an unknown party.”
    “But where is it? Who has it? Chabon spoke as though it were someone here in Vienna."
    “Chabon seems to know a good deal more about it than anyone else. It has not been heard of since the French Revolution. It was part of the jewel exhibition put on at that time, when the French crown jewels were claimed in the name of the bourgeoisie and set out for them to see. This was at the