title: The Crown Jewels and Coronation Ritual
author: Thomas Butler
description: Beautifully illustrated, informative guide sharing the majesty and splendor of the Crown Jewels of England and the in's and out's of the coronation process. Color photographs and in depth text.
zlib_text: ![](images/00001.jpg)
  
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  The Gift of the Emperor
  
  
    
    
  I  
    
  II  
    
  III
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  This page copyright © 2001 Blackmask Online.
  
  
  
  
  
  http://www.blackmask.com
  
  
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  # The Gift of the Emperor
  
  
  ### E.W. Hornung
  
  
  
  
  
  This page copyright © 2001 Blackmask Online.
  
  
  
  
  
  http://www.blackmask.com  
    
  
  * I 
  
  
  * II 
  
  
  * III
  
  
  
  
  
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  ### I
  
  
  
  
  
  WHEN the King of the Cannibal Islands made faces at Queen Victoria,
  
  
  and a European monarch set the cables tingling with his compliments on
  
  
  the exploit, the indignation in England was not less than the surprise,
  
  
  for the thing was not so common as it has since become. But when it
  
  
  transpired that a gift of peculiar significance was to follow the
  
  
  congratulations, to give them weight, the inference prevailed that the
  
  
  white potentate and the black had taken simultaneous leave of their
  
  
  fourteen senses. For the gift was a pearl of price unparalleled, picked
  
  
  aforetime by British cutlasses from a Polynesian setting, and present