The pearloined letter by Edgar Allan Poe l Sapientiae Odiosius Acumenae Nimio Seneca. At
Paris, just after dark, one gusty evening in the autumn of eighteen,
I was enjoying the twofold luxury of meditation and Meerschaum in company with my friend
see Augusta Dupin in his little back library or book closet Altrosime, number thirty
three Rue du nott Haalberg, Saint Germain. For one hour at least we
had maintained a profound silence, while each to any casual observer might have seemed
intently and exclusively occupied with the curling neededs of smoke that oppressed the atmosphere of
the chamber. For myself, however, I was mentally discussing certain topics which
had formed a matter of conversation between us at an earlier period of the evening.
I mean the affair of the Rue Morgue and the mystery attending the murder
of Marie Rogette. I looked upon it therefore as something of a coincidence when
d'orvar apartment was thrown open and omitted our old acquaintance Monsieur g the Prefect of
the Parisians Police. We gave him a hearty welcome, for there was nearly
half as much of the entertaining as of the contemptible that the man. No,
we had not seen him for several years. We had been sitting in
the dark, and Dupin now arose for the purpose of lighting the lamp,
but sat down again without doing so, upon g saying that he had called
to consult us, or rather to us, the opinion of my friend,
have had some official business which had occasioned a great deal of trouble. If
it is any point to require in reflection, observed Dupin, as he forboret
to enkindle the wick, we shall examine it to better purpose in the dark.
That is another of your odd notions, said the Prefect, through the
fashion of calling everything odd that was beyond his comprehension, and thus lived amid
an absolute legion of oddities. Very true, said Dupin, as he supplied
his visitor with a pipe and rode toward him a comfortable chair. And what
is the difficulty now, I asked, nothing more in the assassination way,
I hope, oh, no, nothing of that nature. The fact is
the business is very simple, indeed, and I make no doubt we can
manage it sufficiently well ourselves. But then I thought Dupin would like to hear
the details of it, because it is so excessively odd, simple and odd,
said Dupin. Why yes, and not exactly that either. The fact
is we have opened a good deal puzzled because the affair is so simple,
and yet baffles us all together. Perhaps it is the very simplicity of the
thing which puts you at fault, said my friend. What nonsense you do
talk, replied the Prefect, laughing heartily. Perhaps the mystery is just a
little too plain, said Dupin. Oh good heavens, who ever heard of
such an idea? A little too self evident? Roared our visitor profoundly amused,
Oh ho, Dupin, you will be the death of me. Yet,
and what, after all, he is the matter on hand? I
asked? Why I would tell you, replied the Prefect, As he gave
a long and steady, imp contemplative put In settled himself in his chair.
It will tell you in a few words. But before I begin, let
me caution you that this is an affair of many the greatest secrecy, and
that I should most probably lose the position I now hold, were it known
that I confide it to any one, proceed said I. Oh not,
said the new Pin. Well, then I have received personal information from a
very high quarter that a certain document of the last importance has been purloined from
the royal apartments. The individual who purloined it is known this beyond a doubt
you seem to take it. It is known also that it still remains in
his possession. How is this known, asked to Pinn, It is clearly
inferred, replied the priefect from the nature of the document, and from the
non appearance of certain results which would at once arise from its passing out of
the robber's possession, that is to say, from his employing it as he
must design in the end to employ it. Be a little more explicit,
I said, Well, I may venture so far as to say that the
paper gives it told very certain power in a certain quarter, where such power
is immensely valuable. The Prefect was fond of the cant of diplomacy. Still
I do not quite understand, said Dupinn. No, Well, the disclosure
of the document to a third person, who shall be nameless, would bring
in question the honor of a personage of what exalted station, and this fact
gives the honor holder of the document an ascendency over the illustrious personage whose honor
and peace are so jeopardized. But this ascendancy, I interspose, would depend
upon the robber's knowledge of the loser's knowledge of the robber. Who would dare
the thief? Said, g is the Minister D, who dares all things,
those unbecoming as well as those becoming a man. The method of the
theat was not less ingenious and bold. Document in question, a letter to
be frank had been received by the personage robbed. While alone in the royal
boudoirs doing it for usal, she was suddenly interrupted by the entrance of the
other exalted personage, from whom especially it was her wish to conceal it.
After a hurried and vain endeavor to thrust it in the drawer, she was
forced to place it open, as it was upon a table. The address,
however, was uppermost. When the contents thus unexposed, the letter escape
notice. At this juncture enters the Minister D. His link's eye immediately perceives
the paper, recognizes the handwriting of the address, observes the confusion of the
personage addressed, and fathoms a secret. After some business transactions hurried through in
his ordinary manner, he produces a letter somewhat similar to the one in question,
opens it, pretends to read it, and then places it in close
juxta position to the other. Again, he converses for some fifteen minutes upon
the public affairs at length. In taking leave, he takes also from the
table the letter to which he had no claim. His rightful owner saw,
but of course dared not call attention to the act. In the presence of
the third personage, who stood at her elbow, the Minister de comte,
leaving his own letter one of no importance upon the table here, then said
Dupindmi, you have precisely achewed the man to make the ascendancy complete the robber's
knowledge of the loser's knowledge joke. The robber, yes, replied the prifet,
and the power thus attained has for some months past been welded for political
purposes to a very dangerous extent. The personage rob is more thoroughly convinced every
day of the necessity of proclaiming her letter. But this, of course cannot
be done openly in fine driven to despair, she has committed the matter to
me than whom said dupinn Amid, a perfect whirlwind of smoke. No more
sagacious agent could I suppose be desired, or even imagined. You flatter me,
replied the prophet. But it is possible that some such opinion may have
been entertained. It is clear, said I, as you observe that the
letter is still in the possession of the minister. Since it is this possession
and not any employment, a letter which bestows the power with the employment,
the power departs, true, said she, And upon this conviction I proceeded.
My first care was to make thorough sarch in the minister's hotel. And
here my chief embarrassment lay in the necessity of searching without his knowledge. Beyond
all things, I have been wanted the day which would result from giving him
reason to suspect our design. But said I, you are quite off,
Hittay, in these investigations. The Parisian police have done this thing often before.
Oh yes, And for this reason I did not despair. The habits
of the minister gave me to a great advantage. He is frequently absent from
home all night. The servants are by no means numerous. They sleep at
a distance from their master's apartment, and, being chiefly Neapolitans, are readily
made drunk. I have keys, as you know, with which I can
open any chamber or cabinet in Paris. For three months a night has not
passed during the greater part of which I have not been engaged personally and ransacking
the d hotel. My honor is interested, and to mention a great secret,
the reward is enormous. So I did not abandon the search until I
had become fully satisfied that the thief is a more astute man than myself.
I fancy that I investigated every nook and corner of the premises in which it
is possible that the paper can be concealed. But is it not possible?
I suggested that although the letter may be in possession of the minister has it
in question he is, he may have conceived it elsewhere than upon his own
premises. This is barely possible, said Dupin. The present peculiar condition of
affairs at court, and especially of those artrigues in which d is known to
be involved, would render the instant availability of the document, its susceptibility of
being produced at a moment's noticed a point of nearly equal importance with its possession
its susceptibility of being produced, said I, that is to say, of
being destroyed, said Dupin. True, I observe the paper is clearly then
upon the premises. As for its being upon the person of the minister,
we may consider that as out of the question entirely, said the priefect.
He has been twice way laid as if by footpads, and his person rigidly
SERTs under my own inspection, you might have spared yourself this trouble, said
Dupin. D I presume is not altogether a fool, and if not,
must have anticipated these ways they in says, A matter of course, not
altogether a fool. But then he is a poet. Try to take to
be only one removed from a fool. True, said Dupin, after a
long and thoughtful with from his Meerschaum. Although I have been guilty of certain
dogger room myself, suppose you detail, said I, the particulars of your
search. Why the fact is, we took our time, and we searched
everywhere. I have had long experience in these affairs. I took the entire
building room by room, devoting the nights of a whole week to each.
We examined first the furniture reach apartment. We opened every possible drawer. I
presume you know that to a properly trained police agent, such a thing as
a secret drawer as impossible. Any man is an adult who permits a secret
drawer to escape him in a search of this kind. The thing is so
plain there is a certain amount of book of speech to be accounted for in
every cabinet. Then we have accurate rules. The fiftieth part of a line
could not escape us. After the cabinets, we took the chairs. The
cushions we probe with the fine long needles you have seen me employ. From
the tables, we remove the tops. Why so, sometimes the top of
the table or other similarly arranged piece of furniture is removed by the person wishing
to conceal that article. Then the leg is excavated, the article deposited within
the cavity, and the top replaced. The bottoms and tops of bedpost are
employed in the same way. But could not the cavity be detected by sounding?
I asked by no, means if when the article is deposited, a
sufficient wading of cotton be placed around it. Besides, in our case,
we are obliged to proceed with our noise. But you could not have removed.
You could not have taken pieces all articles of furniture in which it would
have been possible to make a deposit in the manner you mentioned. A letter
may be compressed into a thin spiral roll not differing much in shape, or
oak from a large knitting needle, and in this form it might be uncertain
of the rung of a chair, for example. You did not take the
piece as all the chairs, certainly not. But we did better. We
examine the runs of every chair in the hotel, and indeed the joinings of
every description of furniture, by the aid of remark powerful microscope. Had there
been any traces of recent disturbance, we should not have failed to detect it
instantly. A single grain of gimlet dust, for example, would have been
as obvious as an apple, and the disorder in the glueing and the unusual
gaping in the joints would have sufficed to ensure detection. I presume you look
to the mears between the boards and the plates. And you probed the beds
and the bedclothes, as well as the curtains and carpets that, of course,
And when we had absolutely completed every particle of the furniture in this way,
then we examined the house itself. We divided its entire surface into compartments,
which we numbered so that none might be missed. Then we scrutinized each
individual square intro at the premises, including the two houses immediately adjoining with the
microscope. As before the two houses adjoining, I exclaimed, you must have
had a great deal of trouble. We had, but the world offered is
prodigious. You include the grounds about the houses. All the grounds are paved
with brick. They gave us comparatively little trouble. We examined the moss between
the bricks and found it undisturbed. You look among these papers, of course,
and into the books of the library. Certainly we opened every package and
parcel. We not only opened every book, but we turned over every leaf
and every value, not contenting ourselves with mere shake. According to the fashion
of some of our police officers, we also measured the thickness of every book
cover, with the most accurate measurement, and supplied to each the most jealous
scrut near the microscope. Had any of the bindings been recently meddled with,
it would have been utterly impossible that the fact should of escaped observation some five
or six volumes just from the hands of the binder. We carefully probed,
longituitedly with the needles. You explored the floors beneath the carpets, beyond doubt.
We removed every carpet and examined the boards with the microscope and the paper
on the walls. Yes, you looked into the cellars. We did.
Then, I said, you have been making a miscalculation, and the letter
is not upon the premises as you suppose. I fear you are right there,
said the Prefect. And now'd you pined, what would you advise me
to do to make a thorough research of the premises That is absolutely needless,
replied g I am not more sure than I breathe than I am that the
letter is not at a hotel. I have no better advice to give you,
said Dupin. You have, of course an accurate description of the letter.
Oh yes, and here the Prefect of producing a memorandum book proceeded to
read aloud a minute account of the internal and especially of the external appearance of
the missing document. Soon after finishing the poosal of this description, took his
departure more entirely depressed in spirits than I had ever known the good gentleman before.
And about a month afterward he paid us another visit and found us occupied
very nearly as before. He took a pipe and a chair and entered into
some ordinary conversation. At length, I said, well, but g what
of the purloined letter? I presume you have at last made up your mind
that there is no such thing as overreaching. The minister confound him say,
I, yes, I made the re examination however, as Dupin suggested,
But it was all labor lost, as I knew it would be. How
much is the reward offered, did you say, asked Dupin? Why A
very great deal, a very liberal award. I don't like to say how
much precisely, but one thing I will say that I wouldn't mind giving my
individual check for fifty thousand francs to anyone who could obtain me that letter.
The fact is, it is becoming more and more important every day. And
the word has been lately doubled of it were troubled? However, I could
do no more than I have done. Why, yes, said Dupin,
drawing me between the whiffs of his Meersham, I really think you have not
exerted yourself to the earthmost in this manner you might do a little more.
I think a how in what way? Why you might employ counsel in the
matter? Do you remember the story they tell of abanity? No, hang
have anything to be sure? Hang him and well come. But once upon
a time a certain rich miser conceived the design of sponging upon this Abernathy for
a medical opinion. Getting up for this purpose an ordinary conversation in a private
company, he insinuated his case to the physician as that of an imaginary individual.
We will suppose, said the miser, that his symptoms are such and
such. Now, doctor, what would you have directed him to take?
Take? Said Abernathy? Why take advice? To be sure? But said
the prefect, a little discomposed, I am perfectly willing to take advice and
to pay for it. I would really give fifty thousand francs to any one
who would aid me in a matter. In that case, replied Dupinn,
opening a drawer and producing a check book. You may as well fill me
up a check for the amount mentioned. When you have signed it, I
will hand you the letter. I was astounded. The Prefect appeared absolutely thunderstrick
him. For some minutes he remained speechless and motionless, looking incredulously in my
friend, with open mouth and eyes that seemed starting from their sockets. Then,
apparently recovering himself in some measure, he seized a pen, and,
after several pauses in vacant stairs, finally filled up and signed a check for
fifty thousand francs, and handed it across the table to Dupin. The latter
examined it carefully and deposited it in his pocket book, then unknocking an escritoire,
took thence a letter and gave it to the Prefect. This functionary grasped
it in a perfect agony of joy, opened it with a trembling hand,
cast a rapid glance at its contents, and then, scrambling and struggling to
the door, crusted length unceremoniously from the room and flung the house without having
uttered a syllable. Since Dupin had requested him to fill up the check.
When he had gone, my friend entered into some explanations. The Parisian police,
he said, not exceeding the able in their way. They are persevering,
ingenious, cut in and thoroughly versed in the knowledge, which in her
duties seemed chiefly to demand. Thus, when g detailed to us his mode
of searching the premises at the hotel d, I felt entire confidence in his
having made a satisfactory investigation, so far as his labors extended. So far
as his labors extended, said I, yes, said Dupenn. The measures
adopted were not only the best of their kind, but carried out to absolute
perfection. Had the letter been deposited within the range of their search, these
fellows would, beyond a question have found it. I merely laughed. But
he seemed quite serious and already said. The measures, then, he continued,
were good in their kind and well executed. Their defect delay in their
being inapplicable to the case and to the man. A certain set of highly
ingenious resources are with the prefect a sort of pro Christian bed to which he
forcibly adapts his designs. But he perpetually errs by being too deep or too
shallow for the matter in hand, And many a schoolboys a better reasoner than
he. I knew one about eight years of age, whose success at guessing
in the game of even an odd attracted universal admiration. This game is simple
and is played with marbles. One player holds in his hand a number of
these toys in the mands of another, whether that number is even or odd.
If the guess is right, the guesser wins one. If wrong,
he loses one. The boy to whom I allude won all the marbles of
the school. Of course, he had some principle of guessing, and this
lay in mere observation and a measurement of the astuteness of his opponents. For
example, an eron simpleton is his opponent, and, holding up his closed
hand, asks are they even or odd? While a schoolboy replies odd and
loses. But upon the second trial he wins. For he then says to
himself, the simpleton had them even upon the first trial, and his amount
of cunning is just sufficient to make him have them odd upon the second.
I will therefore guess odd. He guesses odd and wins. Now with a
simpleton a degree above the first he would have reasoned. Thus, this fellow
finds them. In the first instance, I guessed odd, and the second
he will propose to himself, upon the first impulse, a simple variation from
even to odd as to the first simpleton. But then a second thought will
suggest that this is too simple a variation, and finally he would decide upon
putting it even as before. I will therefore guess even when he guesses even
and wins. Now this mode of reasoning in the schoolboy, whom his fellows
termed lucky, What in its least analysis is it? It is merely,
I said, an identification of the reason as intellect with that of his opponent,
it is said Dupin. And upon inquiring of the boy by what means
he affected the thorough identification in which his success consisted, I received answer as
follows. When I wish to find out how wise or how stupid, or
how good or how wicked is anyone, or what are his thoughts of the
moment, I fashion the expression of my face as accurately as possible in accordance
with the expression of his, And then we to see what thoughts or sentiments
arise to my mind or heart, as if to match or correspond with the
expression. This response of the schoolboy lies at the bottom of all the spurious
profundity which has been attributed to Ruccafoo called to la Bruyere, to Machiavelli,
and to Campanella. And the identification, I said, for the reason his
intellect with that of his opponent depends, if I understand, you are right
upon the accuracy with which the opponent's intellect is unmeasured for its practical value.
It depends upon this, replied Dupin. And the Prefect and his cohort fail
so frequently, first by default of this identification, and secondly by illed measurement,
or rather through non ad measurement of the intellect with which they are engaged.
They consider only their own ideas of ingenuity, and in searching for anything
hidden, advert only to the modes in which they would have hidden it.
They are right in this much that their own ingenuity is a faithful representative of
that of the mass. But when the cunning of the individual felon is diverse
in character from their own, the felon foils them. Of course, this
always happens when it is above their own, and very usually when it is
below. They have no variation of principle in their investigations. At best,
when urged by some unusual emergency, by some extraordinary reward, they extend or
exaggerate their old modes of practice without touching their principles. What, for example,
in this case of d has been done to vary the principle of action?
What is all this boring and probing, and sounding, and scrutinizing with
the microscope, and dividing the surface of the building into registered square inches.
What is it all but an exaggeration of the application of the one principle or
set of principles of search, which are based upon the one set of notions
regarding human ingenuity, to which the Prefect, the long routine of his duty,
has been accustomed. Do you not see, as taking it for granted,
that all men proceed to conceal a letter not exactly in a gimlet hall
board, in a chair leg, but at least in some out of the
way hole or corner suggested by the same tenor of thought which would urge a
man to secrete a letter and a gimlet hall board and a chair leg.
And do you not see also that such nooks for concealment are adapted only for
ordinary occasions, and would be adopted only by ordinary intellects. For in all
cases of concealment, a disposal of the article concealed, disposed of it in
this manner is in the very first instance presumable and presumed, and thus its
discovery not at all upon the acumen, but altogether upon the mere care,
patience, and determination of the seekers. And whether cases of importance or what
amounts to the same thing in the political eyes, when the reward is of
magnitude, the qualities in question have never been known to fail. You will
now understand what I meant in suggesting that, had the purloined letter been hidden
anywhere within the limits of the Prefect's examination, in other words, had the
principle of its concealment been comprehended within the principles of the Prefect, its discovery
would have been a matter altogether beyond question. This functionary, however, has
been thoroughly mystified, and the remote source of his defeat lies in the supposition
that the minister is a fool because he is quiet renowned as a poet.
All fools are poets. This the Prefect feels and he is merely guilty of
a non distributor or mid ee, and thence inferring that all poets are fools.
But is this really the poet, I asked. There are two brothers
I know, and both have attained reputation in letters. The minister, I
believe, has written learnedly on the differential calculates. He is a mathematician and
no poet. You are mistaken. I know him well. He is both
as poet and mathematician. He would reason well. As mere mathematician, he
could not have reasoned at all, and thus would have been at the mercy
of the prefect. You surprise me, I said, by these opinions,
which have been contradicted by the voice of the world, You do not mean
to say it not the well digested idea of centuries. The mathematical reason has
long been regarded as the reason par excellence. Ireya Pellier replied Dupin, courting
from Champert quietuta idee publique, toute convention of aqueue as den sotisse caida or
convenuu o plus grand nombre. The mathematicians, I grant you, have done
their best to promulgate the popular error to which you allude and which is none
less an error for its promulgation as truth with an art worthy of better cause.
For example, they've insinuated the term analysis into application to algebra. The
French are the originators of this particular deception. But if a term is of
any importance, if words derive any value from applicability, then analysis conveys algebra
about as much as in Latin Ambetus implies ambition, religio, religion or hominis
honest eye a set of honorable men. You have a qual On one hand,
I see said I for some of the algebra is to Paris. But
proceed. I dispute the availability and thus the value of that reason which is
cultivated in any especial form other than the abstractly logical. I dispute, in
particular the reason attitude by mathematical study. The mathematics are the science of form
and quantity. Mathematical reasoning is may the logic applied to observation of form and
quantity. The great error lies in supposing that even the truth of what is
called pure algebra are abstract or general truth. And this error is so gradious
that I am confounded at the universality with which it has been received. Mathematical
axioms are not axioms of general truth. What is true of relation of form
and quantity is often grossly false in regard to morals. For example, in
this latter science, it is very usually untrue that the aggregated parts are equal
to the whole. In chemistry, also the axiom fails, and the consideration
of motive it fails, for two motives, each of a given value,
have not necessarily a value when united equals to the sum other values apart,
there are numerous other mathematical truths which are only truth within limits of relation.
But the mathematician argues from this finite truth through habit as if they were of
an absolutely general applicability, as the world indeed imagines them to be. Bryant
and his very learned mythology mentions an inalguous source of error when he says that
although the Pagan fables are not believed yet, we forget ourselves continually and make
inferences from them as existing realities. With the algebraists, however, who are
pagans themselves, the Pagan fables are believed, and the inferences are made not
so much through lapse of memory as through an unaccountable addling of the brains.
In short, I never yet encountered the mere mathematician who could be trusted out
of equal roots, a one who did not clandestinely hold it at a point
of his faith that X squared plus px was absolutely an unconditionedly equal to Q.
Say to one of these gentlemen, who, by way of experiment,
if you please, that you believe occasions may occur where x squared plus px
is not altogether equal to Q. And having made him understand what you mean,
get out of his reach as speedily as convenient, for beyond doubt he
endeavor to knock you down, I mean to say, continued to Pin,
when I merely laughed at his last observations, that if the Minister had been
no more than a mathematician, the Prefect would have been under no necessity of
giving me this check. I knew him, however, as both mathematician and
poet, and my measures were adapted to his capacity with reference to the circumstances
by which he was surrounded. I knew him as a courtier too, and
as a bold intringuent. Such a man considered could not fail to be aware
of the ordinary political modes of action he could not have failed to anticipate,
and events approved that he did not fail to anticipate the way lanes to which
he were subjected he must have foreseen. I reflected the secret investigations of his
premises, his frequent absences from home at night, which were held by the
prefect of certain aids to his success. I regarded only his ruses to afford
opportunity for thorough search to the police, and thus the sooner to impress them
with the conviction which g in fact had finally arrived, the conviction that the
letter was not upon the premises. I felt also that the whole train of
thought which I was at some pains in detailing to you just now, concerning
the invariable principle of political action and searches for articles concealed, I felt that
this whole train of thought would necessarily pass through the mind as a minister.
It would imperatively lead them to despise all the ordinary nooks of consualment. It
could not, I reflected, be so weak as not to see that the
most intricate and remote a recess of his hotel would be as open as his
commonest closets to the eyes to the probes, to the gimlets, and the
microscopes of the Prefect. I saw in fine that he would be driven,
as a matter of course to simplicity, if not deliberately induced to it as
a matter of choice. You will remember, perhaps how desperately the Prefect laughed
when I suggested, upon our first interview that it was just possible. This
mystery troubled him so much on account of its being so very self evident.
Yes, I remember his merriment. Well, I really thought he would have
fallen into compulsions. The material world continued to pin a bounds with very strict
analogies to the immaterial, and thus some color of truth has been given to
the rhetorical dogma that metaphor or simony may be made to strengthen an argument as
well as to embarrash a description. The principle of the v inertiae, for
example, seems to be identical in physics and metaphysics. It is not more
true in the former that a large body is with more difficulty set in motion
than a smaller one, and that its subsequent momentum is commensurate with this difficulty,
that it is in the latter that intellects of the vaster capacity, while
more forcible, more constant, and more eventful in their movements than those of
inferior grade, are yet the less readily moved, and more embarrassed and full
of hesitation in the first few steps of their progress. Again, have you
ever noticed which of the street signs of the shop doors the most attractive of
attention? I have never given the matter of thought. I said. There
is a game of puzzles, he resumed, which is played upon a map.
One party plane requires another to find a given word the name of town,
river, estate, or empire, any word in short, upon the
motley and perplexed surface of the chart. A novice in the game generally seeks
to embarrass his opponents by giving them the most minutely that adains. But the
adepts elects such words as stretch and arge characters from one end of the chart
to the other. These likely over largely that it signs and plackets of the
street escape observation by din to being excessively obvious. And here the physical oversight
is precisely analoguous with the moral inapprehension by which the intellect suffers to pass unnoticed
those considerations which are too obtrusively and too palpably self evident. But this is
a point it appears somewhat above or beneath the understanding of the Prefect. He
never once thought it probable or possible that the Minister deposited the letter immediately beneath
the nose of the whole world by way of best preventing any portion of that
world from perceiving it. But the more I reflected upon the daring, dashing,
and discriminating ingenuity of d upon the fact that the document must always have
been at hand he intended to use it a good purpose, And upon the
decisive evidence obtained by the Prefect that it was not hidden within the limits of
that dignitary's ordinary search, the more satisfied I became that to conceal this letter
the Minister had resorted the comprehensive and sagacious expedient of not attempting to conceal it
at all. Full of these ideas, I prepared myself with a pair of
green spectacles, and called one fine morning, quite by accident, at the
ministery or a hotel, I found d at home, yawning, lounging,
and dawdling as usual pretending to be in the last extremity of an Ui.
He is perhaps the most really energetic human being now alive, but that is
only when nobody sees him to be. Even with him, I complained of
my weak eyes and lamented the necessity of the spectacles under cover which I cautiously
and thoroughly surveyed the whole apartment. Whilst seemingly intent only upon the conversation of
my host, I paid a special attention to a large writing table knew which
he sat, and upon which lay confusedly some miscellaneous letters and other papers,
with one or two musical instruments, and a few books. Here, However,
after a long and very deliberate scrutiny, I saw nothing to excite particular
suspicion. At length, my eyes, and going the circuit of the room,
fell upon a trumpet fithergree card rack of pasteboard that hung dangling by a
dirty blue ribbon from a little brass knob just beneath the middle of the mantel
piece. In this rack, which had three or four compartments of five or
six visiting cards and a solitary letter, this last was much soiled and crumpled.
It was torn nearly in two across the middle, as if a design
in the first instance, to tear it entirely up as worthless had been altered
or stayed. In the second. It had a large black seal bearing the
D cipher very conspicuously, and was addressed in a diminutive female hand to d
the Minister himself. It was thrust carelessly, and even as it seemed contemptuously,
to one of the uppermost divisions of the rack. No sooner had I
glanced at this letter than I concluded it to be that of which I was
in search. To be sure, it was, to all appearance radically different
from the one of which the Prefect had read us so minute a description.
Here the seal was large and black with the D cipher. There it was
small and red with the ducal arms of the s family. Here the address
to the Minister was diminutive and feminine. There the souper description to a certain
royal personage was markedly bold and decided the size alone from the point of correspondence.
But then the radicalness of these differences, which was excessive, the dirt,
the soiled and torn condition of the paper, so inconsistent with the true
methodical habits of d and so suggestive of a design to delude the beholder into
an idea of the worthlessness of the document. These things, together with the
hyper obtrusive situation of this document, well in the view of every visitor,
and thus exactly in accordance with the conclusions to which I had previously arrived,
These things, I say, were strongly corroborative of suspicion in one who came
with the intention to suspect. I protracted my visit as long as possible,
and while I maintained a most animated discussion with the Minister upon a topic which
I knew well had never failed to interest and excite him, kept my attention
really riveted upon the letter. In this examination I committed to memory its external
appearance and arrangement in the rack, and also fell at length upon a discovery
which set a arrest. Whatever trivial doubt I might have entertained in scrutinizing the
edges of the paper, I observed him to be more shaffed than seemed necessary.
It presented the broken appearance which is manifested when a stiff paper, having
been once folded and pressed with a folder, is refolded in a reverse direction
in the same creases or edges which had formed the original fold. This discovery
was sufficient. It was clear to me that the letter had been turned as
a glove inside out, redirected, and resealed. I bade the Minister good
morning, and took my departure at once, leaving a gold snuff box upon
the table. The next morning, I called for the snuff box when we
resumed quite eagerly the conversation of the preceding day. While thus engaged, however,
a loud report, as if of a pistol, was heard immediately beneath
the windows of the hotel, and was succeeded by a series of fearful screens
and the sheltings of a terrified mob. D rushed to a casement, threw
it open, and looked out. In the meantime, I stepped to the
card rack, took the letter, put it in my pocket, and replaced
it by a facsimile. So far as regards externals, which I had carefully
prepared at my lodgings, imitating the d cipher very readily by means of a
sea are formed of bread. The disturbance in the street had been occasioned by
the frantic behavior of a man with a musket. He had fired it among
a crowd of women and children. It proved, however, to have been
without a ball, and the fellow was suffered to go his way as a
lunatic or a drunkard. When he had gone, d came from the window
whither I had followed him immediately upon securing the object in view. Soon afterward
I bade him farewell. The pretended lunatic was a man in my own pay.
But what purpose had you, I asked, replacing the letter by facsimone.
Would it not have been better at the first visit to have ceased it
openly and departed? Indeed, replied Dupin is a desperate man and a man
of nerve. His hotel, too, is not without attendance devoted to his
interest. Had I made the wild attempt you suggest, I might never have
left the Ministery of Presence alive. The good people of Paris might have heard
of me no more. But I have an object apart from these considerations.
You know my political prepossessions. In this manner I act as a partisan of
the lady concerned. For eighteen months, the Minister has had her in his
power. She has now him and hers since been unaware that the letter is
not in his possession. He will proceed with his exactions as if it was.
Thus, will he inevitably commit himself at once to his political destruction.
His downfall, too, will not be more precipitate than awkward. It is
all very well to talk about the facilious the census of an eye, But
in all kinds of climbing, as Catalani said of singing, tis far more
easy to get up and to come down. The present instance, I have
no sympathy, at least no pity for him who descends. He is,
that months from horndum, an unprincipled man of genius. I confess, however,
that I should like very well to know the prise character of his thoughts.
When being defied by her, whom the Prefect terms a certain personage,
he is reduced to opening the letter which I left for him in the cart
rack. How did you put anything particular in it? Why it did not
seem altogether right to leave the interior blank? That would have been insulting.
D Adrienna once did me an evil turn, which I told him, quite
good humoredly, that I should remember, so, as I knew he would
feel some curiosity in regard to the identity of the person who had outwidded him,
I thought it a pity not to give him a clue. He is
well acquainted with my MS, and I just copied into the middle of the
blank se the words on the sinciphoneste sese dignatiatre asdigne de thyeste. They are
to be found in Crebillon's atree end of the Purloined Letter by Edgar Allan Poe