“Algiers
“MY DEAR PRINCE,—We have a very ugly business on our hands, as you will see by the accompanying documents.
“The story, briefly told, is this: Baron Hulot d’Ervy sent out to the province of Oran an uncle of his as a broker in grain and forage, and gave him an accomplice in the person of a storekeeper. This storekeeper, to curry favor, has made a confession, and finally made his escape. The Public Prosecutor took the matter up very thoroughly, seeing, as he supposed, that only two inferior agents were implicated; but Johann Fischer, uncle to your Chief of the Commissariat Department, finding that he was to be brought up at the Assizes, stabbed himself in prison with a nail.
“That would have been the end of the matter if this worthy and honest man, deceived, it would seem, by his agent and by his nephew, had not thought proper to write to Baron Hulot. This letter, seized as a document, so greatly surprised the Public Prosecutor, that he came to see me. Now, the arrest and public trial of a Councillor of State would be such a terrible thing—of a man high in office too, who has a good record for loyal service —for after the Beresina, it was he who saved us all by reorganizing the administration—that I desired to have all the papers sent to me.
“Is the matter to take its course? Now that the principal agent is dead, will it not be better to smother up the affair and sentence the storekeeper in default?
“The Public Prosecutor has consented to my forwarding the documents for your perusal; the Baron Hulot d’Ervy, being resident in Paris, the proceedings will lie with your Supreme Court. We have hit on this rather shabby way of ridding ourselves of the difficulty for the moment.
“Only, my dear Marshal, decide quickly. This miserable business is too much talked about already, and it will do as much harm to us as to you all if the name of the principal culprit—known at present only to the Public Prosecutor, the examining judge, and myself—should happen to leak out.”
At this point the letter fell from Marshal Hulot’s hands; he looked at his brother; he saw that there was no need to examine the evidence. But he looked for Johann Fischer’s letter, and after reading it at a glance, held it out to Hector:—