The students were conducted to a room on the second floor, which is guarded day and night by officers of the household, where the crown jewels are kept. On the sceptre is the great Orlof diamond, the largest in Europe, presented to Catharine II. by her favorite, whose name it takes. It is said that it once formed the eye of an idol in India, and was stolen by a French soldier. After passing through various hands, it was purchased by Count Orlof, who paid four hundred and fifty thousand rubles for it, besides conferring a patent of nobility, and an annuity of two thousand rubles upon the seller. The crown of the emperor is shaped something like a bishop's mitre, and is covered with diamonds and pearls. On the top is an immense ruby, which supports a cross formed of five beautiful diamonds. The crown of the empress is a mass of diamonds of the most perfect hue and lustre. There are many other treasures, such as the plume of Suvaroff, presented by the Sultan of Turkey; the "Shah," a diamond from Persia; and necklaces, bracelets, brooches, and other articles, glittering with diamonds, and studded with immense pearls. Millions upon millions of rubles in value lie idle and useless in this apartment, which would plant a common school in nearly every town of the vast empire. On the lower floor is the room in which the Emperor Nicholas died, in 1855, with everything just as it was on the day he breathed his last. It is one of the smallest and plainest apartments of the palace, and a grenadier of the guard is always on duty within it to protect the sacred relics of the czar. It is furnished with a narrow iron camp bedstead, on which he expired. On it lies his military cloak, and his sword and helmet are just as he left them. On the table is a quartermaster's report, given to him on the day he died. Everything in the room is of the simplest manufacture, with nothing of the luxuriousness of the other parts of the palace.