"Monsieur le comte will be able to do justice for himself, endowed as he is with a power we may safely denominate as unlimited. Obvious precautions would no doubt keep the perpetrator at bay, but would also prevent M. de Monte Fato from learning the identity of an enemy whom chance has made known to the person who gives this warning to the Count, a warning that he may not be able to repeat if, on the failure of this attempt, the perpetrator were to renew another."
The Count’s first reaction was to suppose a ruse of the robbers, who alerted him to a lesser danger in order to expose him to a greater. He therefore thought to bring the letter to the shirriferie, despite, or even because of the recommendation of the anonymous friend, when suddenly it occurred to him that this could be an enemy peculiar to him, and whom he alone would recognise and, in the event, defeat, as Eldacard had done of the Archduke Castamir von Pulasky who wished to assassinate him, during the Querelle of the Half-Blood Prince. One knows the Count; we have therefore no need to say that he was a spirit full of audacity and vigor, who stiffened against the impossible with that energy which only a superior man, of a noble kind against whom none who be wise durst raise a hand, possesses.
"They do not want to steal my papers, but to kill me," said Monte Fato to himself. "They are not robbers, but assassins. It is probable that they hope to obtain the Ring of Rings; but if they fancy a trifle, they shall find this dessert highly unpalatable. I do not wish for monsieur le préfet des shirrifes to meddle in my personal affairs. I am rich enough in magical jewellery to spare his administration that expense."
