FAMOUS TALISMANS

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 81, 29 December 1934, Page 6

FAMOUS TALISMANS

Napoleon’s Stolen Dagger

"Lucks” and talismans —objects . invested by tradition with a mystical quality and handed down from generation to generation—have played their part in history. The fortunes of great houses and great causes have been linked with them; they represent n strange blending of religion and superstition. and have given rise to legends and customs which have been accepted with devout faith. A deeply rooted belief in their powers has for thousands of years permeated all ranks of society from the lowest to the highest. Royal crowns were decked with for-tune-bringing gems and relies, monarchs have fought for them, kings have lost their kingdoms for lack of them. They have led to trials for treason, their possession has turned the trust and affection of a despot to hatred and suspicion of a Minister. Napoleon had an unshaken belief in his star and other talismans. One of these was the dagger of Jean Parisot de la Valette, Grand Master of the Knights of Malta, which he stole from the Treasury of the Cathedral of St. John at Valetta in 1798, together with its companion sword. Both had been a gift from Giovanni Angelo Medici, Pope Pius IV., to De la Valette in 1566, in celebration of this defence of Malta against the fleet of Sollman IL They were German work, “hilted with gold and enriched with enamel and gems.” The dagger accompanied Napoleon upon all his campaigns for over fifteen years, and went with him into exile; when he died he bequeathed it to his son, the King of Rome. It. Is now in the Ga.lerie d’Apollon at the Louvre; i

' the sword Is in the Bibliotlieque Nationale. Napoleon also owned the Talisman of Charlemagne, a fragment of the True Gross in an emerald case. Many of these talismans, in our less credulous age, find their way into salerooms. The moonstone given to Emma Hamilton by Lieut. Duval. R.X., with its ovory ease inscribed "Emma Hamilton, Iler Luck,” was sold at Christie’s last year to a New York dealer for 22 guineas. Even so. we are not too sceptical to create our own, though they be of somewhat homelier metal. In the same year Mr. Joseph Stringer, a cabinet manufacturer of Stourbridge, bequeathed his son a shilling, the first coin taken in his prosperous business 52 years before. He left a fortune of £14,571, but this shilling had been his most treasured possession, and it will now become a family "luck.” Ml Beard, an enthusiast on the subject of talismans, accepts the legend of the Luck of Edenhall as the arehe type of talismanlc tradition. This famous luck, a goblet of Syrian workmanship, of the early part of the thirteenth century, belongs to the Musgraves, who have held land in the valley of rhe Eden. Cumberland, for nearly five centuries. The earliest record of the legend. Mr. Beard says, appeared in the "Gentleman’s Magazine” in 1791. and was to the effect that a party of fairies were drinking, and making merry round St. Cuthbert’s well near the Hall, when they were interrupted by some curious people, made a. hasty retreat, and left the cup, one of the last screaming out: