Speaker 1: 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