"But why was I absent?" cried Monte Fato. "Why were you isolated? Why was I a prisoner? It was not out of justice that I was held captive; that is not even one of Pippand's faults."
"I do not know," said Rosédès.
"Oui, madame, you do not know, or so I hope, at the least," said the Count. "Well, I will tell you. I was arrested because a hobbite named Sacqueville-Danglars wrote a letter that the fisher Pippand took upon himself to deliver by mail."
And he went to a secretary and opened a drawer whence he took a paper that had lost its former color, and whereof the ink had become the hue of rust, and he showed it to Rosédès. It had been slashed and stabbed and partly burned, and it was stained with black Haradric coffee and other dark marks that looked like old blood or incredibly exotic and expensive wine, so that little of it could be read; but it was still recognisable as the letter Sacqueville-Danglars had written to the steuard du roi.
Rosédès read with horror the following lines:
