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The Works of Edgar Allan Poe - Volume 2
Edgar Allan Poe
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The Works of Edgar Allan Poe - Volume 2
Edgar Allan Poe
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Edgar Allan Poe (January 19, 1809 â October 7, 1849) was an American writer, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is widely regarded as a central figure of Romanticism in the United States and American literature as a whole, and he was one of the country's earliest practitioners of the short story. Poe is generally considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre and is further credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction.
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ClĂĄsicosTHE PURLOINED LETTER
Nil sapientiae odiosius acumine nimio.
Seneca.
Seneca.
At Paris, just after dark one gusty evening in the autumn of 18-, I was enjoying the twofold luxury of meditation and a meerschaum, in company with my friend C. Auguste Dupin, in his little back library, or book-closet, au troisiĂȘme, No. 33, Rue DunĂŽt, Faubourg St. 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 eddies of smoke that oppressed the atmosphere of the chamber. For myself, however, I was mentally discussing certain topics which had formed matter for 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 RogĂȘt. I looked upon it, therefore, as something of a coincidence, when the door of our apartment was thrown open and admitted our old acquaintance, Monsieur Gâ, the Prefect of the Parisian police.
We gave him a hearty welcome; for there was nearly half as much of the entertaining as of the contemptible about the man, and we had not seen him for several years. We had been sitting in the dark, and Dupin now arose for the purpose of lighting a lamp, but sat down again, without doing so, upon G.âs saying that he had called to consult us, or rather to ask the opinion of my friend, about some official business which had occasioned a great deal of trouble.
âIf it is any point requiring reflection,â observed Dupin, as he forebore to enkindle the wick, âwe shall examine it to better purpose in the dark.â
âThat is another of your odd notions,â said the Prefect, who had a fashion of calling every thing âoddâ that was beyond his comprehension, and thus lived amid an absolute legion of âoddities.â
âVery true,â said Dupin, as he supplied his visiter with a pipe, and rolled towards him a comfortable chair.
âAnd what is the difficulty now?â I asked. âNothing more in the assassination way, I hope?â
âOh no; nothing of that nature. The fact is, the business is very simple indeed, and I make no doubt that 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.â
âSimple and odd,â said Dupin.
âWhy, yes; and not exactly that, either. The fact is, we have all been a good deal puzzled because the affair is so simple, and yet baffles us altogether.â
âPerhaps it is the very simplicity of the thing which puts you at fault,â said my friend.
âWhat nonsense you do talk!â replied the Prefect, laughing heartily.
âPerhaps the mystery is a little too plain,â said Dupin.
âOh, good heavens! who ever heard of such an idea?â
âA little too self-evident.â
âHa! ha! haâha! ha! ha!âho! ho! ho!â roared our visiter, profoundly amused, âoh, Dupin, you will be the death of me yet!â
âAnd what, after all, is the matter on hand?â I asked.
âWhy, I will tell you,â replied the Prefect, as he gave a long, steady and contemplative puff, and settled himself in his chair. âI will tell you in a few words; but, before I begin, let me caution you that this is an affair demanding the greatest secrecy, and that I should most probably lose the position I now hold, were it known that I confided it to any one.â
âProceed,â said I.
âOr not,â said Dupin.
âWell, 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; he was seen to take it. It is known, also, that it still remains in his possession.â
âHow is this known?â asked Dupin.
âIt is clearly inferred,â replied the Prefect, âfrom the nature of the document, and from the non-appearance of certain results which would at once arise from its passing out of the robberâs possession; that is to say, from his employing it as he must design in the end to employ it.â
âBe a little more explicit,â I said.
âWell, I may venture so far as to say that the paper gives its holder a certain power in a certain quarter where such power is immensely valuable.â The Prefect was fond of the cant of diplomacy.
âStill I do not quite understand,â said Dupin.
âNo? Well; the disclosure of the document to a third person, who shall be nameless, would bring in question the honor of a personage of most exalted station; and this fact gives the holder of the document an ascendancy over the illustrious personage whose honor and peace are so jeopardized.â
âBut this ascendancy,â I interposed, âwould depend upon the robberâs knowledge of the loserâs knowledge of the robber. Who would dareââ
âThe thief,â said G., âis the Minister Dâ, who dares all things, those unbecoming as well as those becoming a man. The method of the theft was not less ingenious than bold. The document in questionâa letter, to be frankâhad been received by the personage robbed while alone in the royal boudoir. During its perusal 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 a drawer, she was forced to place it, open as it was, upon a table. The address, however, was uppermost, and, the contents thus unexposed, the letter escaped notice. At this juncture enters the Minister Dâ. His lynx eye immediately perceives the paper, recognises the handwriting of the address, observes the confusion of the personage addressed, and fathoms her 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 juxtaposition 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. Its 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 decamped; leaving his own letterâone of no importanceâupon the table.â
âHere, then,â said Dupin to me, âyou have precisely what you demand to make the ascendancy completeâthe robberâs knowledge of the loserâs knowledge of the robber.â
âYes,â replied the Prefect; âand the power thus attained has, for some months past, been wielded, for political purposes, to a very dangerous extent. The personage robbed is more thoroughly convinced, every day, of the necessity of reclaiming her letter. But this, of course, cannot be done openly. In fine, driven to despair, she has committed the matter to me.â
âThan whom,â said Dupin, amid a perfect whirlwind of smoke, âno more sagacious agent could, I suppose, be desired, or even imagined.â
âYou flatter me,â replied the Prefect; âbut it is possible that some such opinion may have been entertained.â
âIt is clear,â said I, âas you observe, that the letter is still in possession of the minister; since it is this possession, and not any employment of the letter, which bestows the power. With the employment the power departs.â
âTrue,â said G.; âand upon this conviction I proceeded. My first care was to make thorough search of the ministerâs hotel; and here my chief embarrassment lay in the necessity of searching without his knowledge. Beyond all things, I have been warned of the danger which would result from giving him reason to suspect our design.â
âBut,â said I, âyou are quite au fait in these investigations. The Parisian police have done this thing often before.â
âO yes; and for this reason I did not despair. The habits of the minister gave me, too, a great advantage. He is frequently absent from home all night. His servants are by no means numerous. They sleep at a distance from their masterâs 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, in ransacking the Dâ 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 have investigated every nook and corner of the premises in which it is possible that the paper can be concealed.â
âBut is it not possible,â I suggested, âthat although the letter may be in possession of the minister, as it unquestionably is, he may have concealed it elsewhere than upon his own premises?â
âThis is barely possible,â said Dupin. âThe present peculiar condition of affairs at court, and especially of those intrigues in which Dâ is known to be involved, would render the instant availability of the documentâits susceptibility of being produced at a momentâs noticeâa point of nearly equal importance with its possession.â
âIts susceptibility of being produced?â said I.
âThat is to say, of being destroyed,â said Dupin.
âTrue,â I observed; âthe 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.â
âEntirely,â said the Prefect. âHe has been twice waylaid, as if by footpads, and his person rigorously searched under my own inspection.â
âYou might have spared yourself this trouble,â said Dupin. âDâ, I presume, is not altogether a fool, and, if not, must have anticipated these waylayings, as a matter of course.â
âNot altogether a fool,â said G., âbut then heâs a poet, which I take to be only one remove from a fool.â
âTrue,â said Dupin, after a long and thoughtful whiff from his meerschaum, âalthough I have been guilty of certain doggrel myself.â
âSuppose you detail,â said I, âthe particulars of your search.â
âWhy the fact is, we took our time, and we searched every where. 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 of each apartment. We opened every possible drawer; and I presume you know that, to a properly trained police agent, such a thing as a secret drawer is impossible. Any man is a dolt who permits a âsecretâ drawer to escape him in a search of this kind. The thing is so plain. There is a certain amount of bulkâof spaceâto 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 probed with the fine long needles you have seen me employ. From the tables we removed the tops.â
âWhy so?â
âSometimes the top of a table, or other similarly arranged piece of furniture, is removed by the person wishing to conceal an article; then the leg is excavated, the article deposited within the cavity, and the top replaced. The bottoms and tops of bedposts are employed in the same way.â
âBut could not the cavity be detected by sounding?â I asked.
âBy no means, if, when the article is deposited, a sufficient wadding of cotton be placed around it. Besides, in our case, we were obliged to proceed without noise.â
âBut you could not have removedâyou could not have taken to pieces all articles of furniture in which it would have been possible to make a deposit in the manner you mention. A letter may be compressed into a thin spiral roll, not differing much in shape or bulk from a large knitting-needle, and in this form it might be inserted into the rung of a chair, for example. You did not take to pieces all the chairs?â
âCertainly not; but we did betterâwe examined the rungs of every chair in the hotel, and, indeed the jointings of every description of furniture, by the aid of a most 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. Any disorder in the glueingâany unusual gaping in the jointsâwould have sufficed to insure detection.â
âI presume you looked to the mirrors, between the boards and the plates, and you probed the beds and the bed-clothes, as well as the curtains and carpets.â
âThat 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 inch throughout the premises, including the two houses immediately adjoining, with the microscope, as before.â
âThe two houses adjoining!â I exclaimed; âyou must have had a great deal of trouble.â
âWe had; but the reward offered is prodigious!â
âYou include the grounds about the houses?â
âAll the grounds are paved with brick. They gave us comparatively little trouble. We examined the moss between the bricks, and found it undisturbed.â
âYou looked among Dââs papers, of course, and into the books of the library?â
âCertainly; we opened every package and parcel; we not only opened every book, but we turned over every leaf in each volume, not contenting ourselves with a 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 admeasurement, and applied to each the most jealous scrutiny of the microscope. Had any of the bindings been recently meddled with, it would have been utterly impossible that the fact should have escaped observation. Some five or six volumes, just from the hands of the binder, we carefully probed, longitudinally, with the needles.â
âYou explored the floors beneath the carpets?â
âB...