Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1856-05-09
EVENING STAR.
THE PURLoINED LETTER.

4h6 IORto4N6O LEN
At Paris, just after dark, one gusty evening
in the autumn Of IS, L was enjoying the
twofold luxury of meditation and a meer-
schaum, in company with my friend c. August
Dupin, in the Faubourg st. Germsin. For
an hour, at least, we had maintained a pro-
found silence, when the door Of our apartment
was thrown open, and admitted our old ac-
quaintance, Monsieur c., the prefect Of the
Partisan police.
We gave him hearty welcome. The pre-
feet sat down, and shortly disclosed a most
perplexipg case in which bis professional ser.
vices had been in requisition. His story was
this 81 have received information that
! certain document, of the last importance, has
been purloined from the royal apartments.
The individual who purloined it is known
| this is beyond doubt, for he was seen to
take it. 1t is known, also, that il remains in
| his possession. The person on whom the theft
was committed, is a certain royal parsonage,
| a female, over whom the holder Of the docu-
| menI has gained by this means a dangerou.
| granddaughter honor and peace are leopard.
| lied"
"But this ascendany," L interposed, "would
| depend upon the robbers knowledge of the
| loser knowledge of the robber. Who would
| dare -n
sThe thief" said G., "is the minister
D., who dares all things-those unsecom-
ing, as we'll as those becoming a man. The
| method Of the theft was not less ingenious
| than bold. The document In question, let
ter, had been received by the parsonage
| robbed while alone in the royal boudoir
During its perusal, she was suddenly inter
| rupted by the entrance Of another exalted in
dividual, from whom, especially, it was her
wish to conceal it After a hurried and vain
endeavor to thrust it into drawer, she was
| forced to place it, open as it was, upon the
| table. The address, however, was uppermost;
and the contents thus unexposed, the letter
| escaped notice. At this juncture, enters the
minister D. His lynx eye Immediately
| perceiyes the paper, recognizes the handwri-
| ting of the address, observes the confusion of
the party addressed, and fathoms her secret
After some business transactions, hurried
through in his usual manner, he produces a
| letter, somewhat similar to the one In ques-
ton opens it, pretends to read it, and then
places 1t In JuxtapositiOn to the other. Again
he converses some fifteen minutes upon the
public affairs At length, in taking leave, he
takes 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 a third person, who stood
at her elbow. The minister decamped, leav-
ing his own letter, one of no importance, on
the table. The power thus attained has, for
| some months past, been welded for political
purposes to a very dangerous extent The
person robbed is now thoroughly convinced,
every day, of the necessity of reclaiming the
letter. But this, of course, cannot be done
openly In fine, driven to despair, she has
committed the matter to me.'
at is clear" said L, Gas you observe, that
the letter is still in possession of the minister
since it is this possession, and not any employ
ment of the letter, which bestows the power
With the employment, the power departs"
True, said O., and upon this con
viction I proceeded. My first care was to
make thorough search of the minister hotel;
and here my chief embarrassment lay in the
necessity of searching without his knowledge
Beyond all things, have been warned of the
danger which would result from giving him
reason to suspect our design"
But, said l, "you are quite au fat at
these investigations. The Partisan police have
done this thing often before "
90 yes and for this reason L did net des-
pair. The habits Of the minister gave me,
too, great advantage. He is frequently alb.
sent from home all night. His servants are
by no means numerous They sleep at dis
tance from their masters apartments, and
being chiefly Neapolitans, are readily made
drunk. L have keys, as you know, with which |
L can open any chamber or cabinet in Paris
For three months, night has not passed du-
ring the greater part Of which L have not been
engaged. personally, in ransacking the D.
Hotel My honor is interested, and, to men
10.
So L did not abandon the search until had |
become fully satisfied that the thief is more
astute man than myself 1 fancy that have l
investigated every nook and corner Of the /
premises in which it is possible that tho paper /
can be concealed. Yet, neither is the letter /
on the person of the minister He has been |
twice waylaid, as if by footpads, and his per- i
son has been vigorously searched under my
own inspection"
"Suppose you DETAIL" said /, "the partic- |
ulars of your search of the premises
"Why, the fact is, We took our time, and /
we searched eUeryUhere. L have had long
experience in these affairs I took the entire
building, room by room, devoting the nights |
of whole week to each. We examined first /
the furniture of each apartment. We opened
every possible drawer; and L presume you
know that, to properly trained police agent.
such q thing as a secret drawer is impossible. /
Any man is a dolt who permits a secret drawer
to escape him a search Of this kind; the thing
is so plain. There is a certain amount of bulk
of space-to be accounted for in every cabi-
net. Then We have accurate rules. The ff- |
tieth part of line could not escape US After
the cabinets, we took the chairs; the cushions
we probed with the fine needles you have seen
me employ. From the tables we removed the
tops"
"why so?"
Sometimes the top of a table, or other
similarly arranged piece of furniture, is re-
moved by the person wishing to conceal an
article then the leg is excavsted, the article
deposited within the cavity, and the top re.
placed" The bottoms and tops Of bed posts
are employed in the same way"
"But could not the cavity be detected by
sounding?" asked.
by no means, if, when the article is de-
posted, sufficient wadding of cotton be
placed around it. Besides, in our case, we
were obliged to proceed without noise
"But you could not have removed, you
could not have taken to pieces, all articles of
furniture in which it would have been posi-
BILE to make deposit in the manner you men
ton. letter may be compressed into 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 chair,
for example. You did not take to pieces all
the chairs ?'
"Certainly not; but we did better We
examined the rungs of every chair in the ho-
tel, and, indeed, the jointings of every de-
s,ription of furniture, by the aid of most
microscope. Had there been any 1
Il