Page:Julian Niemcewicz - Notes of my Captivity in Russia.djvu/266

or other indifferent to me, and it was only by chance that once, being with my friends in the apartments of the Empress, I saw her collection of diamonds. Upon a table of the apartment are placed the crown, sceptre, and globe; the imperial crown is a huge mass of beautiful jewels; the diamond weighs 779 carats, and is in the shape of a small spoon, being round on one side, and flat on the other. Catherine gave for it 2,250,000 French livres, and an annuity of 100,000. The merchant who sold it soon died. Another jewel which is to be seen in this collection, is a ruby of the finest water, of the size of a hen's egg; it adorns the sceptre. Gustavus III, King of Sweden, during his visit to St. Petersburg in 1777, presented it to the Empress. The remainder fell short of my expectations; there were large glass cases on the tables, as in jewellers' shops, filled with chains, watches, boxes, and caskets, all garnished with rather paltry diamonds. They were, certainly, much inferior to the collection of Augustus III, King of Poland, and