“The thief,” said G., “is the Minister D——, 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
question—a letter, to be frank—had 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 D——. 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 letter—one of
no importance—upon the table.”

“Here, then,” said Dupin to me, “you have precisely what you
demand to make the ascendancy complete—the robber’s knowledge of
the loser’s knowledge of the robber.”

“Yes,” replied the Prefect; “and 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.”

“Than whom,” said Dupin, amid a perfect whirlwind of smoke, “no
more sagacious agent could, I suppose, be desired, or even
imagined.”

“You flatter me,” replied the Prefect; “but it is possible that
some such opinion may have been entertained.”

“It is clear,” said I, “as 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.”

“True,” said G.; “and upon this conviction I proceeded. My first
care was to make thorough search of the minister’s 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.”

“But,” said I, “you are quite au fait in these investigations.
The Parisian police have done this thing often before.”

“Oh, 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 master’s 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 D—— 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.”

“But is it not possible,” I suggested, “that 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?”

“This is barely possible,” said Dupin. “The present peculiar
condition of affairs at court, and especially of those intrigues
in which D—— is known to be involved, would render the instant
availability of the document—its susceptibility of being produced
at a moment’s notice—a point of nearly equal importance with its
possession.”

“Its susceptibility of being produced?” said I.

“That is to say, of being destroyed,” said Dupin.

“True,” I observed; “the 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.”

“Entirely,” said the Prefect. “He has been twice waylaid, as if
by footpads, and his person rigorously searched under my own
inspection.”

“You might have spared yourself this trouble,” said Dupin. “D——,
I presume, is not altogether a fool, and, if not, must have
anticipated these waylayings, as a matter of course.”

“Not altogether a fool,” said G., “but then he’s a poet, which I
take to be only one remove from a fool.”

“True,” said Dupin, after a long and thoughtful whiff from his
meerschaum, “although I have been guilty of certain doggrel
myself.”

“Suppose you detail,” said I, “the particulars of your search.”