The Duchess, spite of her retirement, was still a considerable social power. Her rank, the remains of a once splendid beauty, her singular aptitude for business, her wide charity, and her genuine kindness of disposition, all conspired to make her a very great personage indeed. But in addition to all this, she was famous as the possessor of the Ribblesdale Diamonds, these magnificent stones which Geoffrey, second Duke, had brought from Russia when he was Ambassador at St. Petersburgh, which were currently reported to have belonged to the Empress Catharine, and which had never been re-set. These Diamonds, too, were the Duchess’s own possession, they were not entailed with the property; the Duke had given them to her outright on the morning of their marriage, and she was free to chuck them into the Thames, if she so willed it, or--which you will agree with me would be the better course--to leave them to you or me. More famous, however, even than the Ribblesdale Diamonds, was another possession of the Duchess’s, that superb stone known as “the Great Scarswicke Emerald,” which had been named in wills and settlements for hundreds of years, and which was believed to be without its equal in Europe. It was indeed a glorious stone, and merits a particular description. The Scarswicke Emerald then was of scarabæoid form and of vast size. Though not free from flaws, these seemed rather to increase than to diminish the flashing lustre of the gem. The upper surface was of rounded form, the lower flat, and on the under side was engraved, by the cunning hand of some long-haired Greek of Alexandria, the contemporary bust of Cleopatra, with her twisted hair and full, luscious Egyptian lips, and wearing, like Isis herself, the vulture head-attire of a Queen. Below the bust, a cartouch or oval contained the delicately engraved name of the Queen in the hieroglyphs of the ancient cult of the land of Khem. A thin band of ancient gold encircled the jewel, on which were several inscriptions. The first, in minute Cufic characters, contained the words, “_Suleiman-ibn-Am’r Kul: Allahu Ahad. Allahu-s-Samad._ (_Say, God is One, God the Eternal._”--Kuran, cxii. i.), followed by the double triangle, the favourite Muslim charm called the Seal of Solomon, and esteemed sovereign against evil spirits. Then in beautiful Gothic letters appeared AMAVRIVS: HIER: REX, and lastly IOHAN DE SCARSVVIKE, followed by a Cross. It thus appears that the Emerald had been owned and used as a talisman by the son of the first Mohammedan Conqueror of Egypt; that it had fallen into the hands of Amaury, the Latin King of Jerusalem; and family tradition asserted that it had been given by that monarch to that Sir John de Scarswicke who, returning from the Crusades, was buried on the South side of the Chancel of Scarswicke Church, under an altar tomb which supports his effigy clothed in chain armour. But the story of this marvellous jewel is not even yet complete.