This was very freely rendered by Thomas Nicols as follows:206

There is in the Imperial Academy at Moscow a turquoise two inches in diameter, inscribed with a text from the Koran in letters of gold. This turquoise was formerly worn by the Shah of Persia as an amulet, and it was valued at 5000 rubles by the jeweller from whose hands it came.207

It is well known that Napoleon III was inclined to be superstitious, and there is not, therefore, anything inherently improbable in the report that he left the seal he wore on his watch-chain to his son, the unfortunate Prince Imperial, as a talisman. This seal is said to have borne an inscription in Arabic characters, signifying “The slave Abraham relying on the Merciful One (God).”208 The talisman lost its virtue on that unlucky day when, in far-off Zululand, the heir to so many hopes was cut off in the first flush of early manhood (see page 64).