(no subject)
My dearest Comte,
It is with a heavy heart that I pen this missive to you. I have, just this very hour, completed the last of a series of meetings with my agents, all of whom returned to me bearing ill news of their findings in England.
After receiving your last note, I arranged for the repayment of a favor long owed to me by Mme. Fournier, a retainer of the Marquis de Moreau. As I am sure you are aware, the Mme. Fournier was greatly respected in certain circles as a seer and spiritualist. At my request, she agreed to travel to England along with three of my other agents, with the intent of investigating the Comte di Cagliostro. I am distraught to report that while Mme. Fournier made a number of critical discoveries, she paid for these with her very life.
Mme. Fournier became convinced that Cagliostro is a charlatan of great skill, but a fraud nonetheless. Before her murder, she was able to determine that the Comte is using the guise of a medium to deliver encoded messages to agents of the English crown. In her last letter to me, she provided samples of the Comte’s messages along with her rudimentary translations of certain codes used to conceal information contained within. Some of these messages are quite interesting - pay particular attention to the series of messages indicating the “delivery of payment” by an individual known as “V.”
Not long after sending her final correspondence, Mme. Fournier was found murdered in her rented London flat. My agent, who discovered her body, is convinced that the true method of murder was hemlock poisoning - the knife wounds on Mme. Fournier’s body seemed to be inflicted after her spirit fled, presumably to implicate another for this ghastly crime.
Not content with his findings, my agent continued his vigilant investigations, including surveillance of the Comte de Saint-Germain. My man was able to intercept a letter, delivered to the Comte the same evening of the murder. This note said, simply: “The deed is done, and my loyalties to you are thus proved. Our debts are settled. V.” Although my agent felt it would endanger our investigation to keep the letter, he swears the note was written in a hand bearing a striking resemblance to that of our dear Marquis de Volanges.
The following day, a knife, still bearing the dried blood of Mme. Fournier, was discovered by the English authorities at the home of a rival of Cagliostro’s. It seems they received an anonymous letter and were prompted to investigate this individual’s home. It is also worth noting that this same rival had spoken out against Cagliostro on numerous occasions, claiming that the medium’s gifts were merely clever playacting.
Suspicious, my agents arranged for one of the Marquis’ servants to encounter a lovely maid in the marketplace the following day. This seductress was able to ensure an …invitation, and spent the evening in the servants’ quarters of the Marquis’ home. While her access to the building was somewhat limited, she did discover, in one of the sitting parlors, a strange plant. This plant showed signs of recent and dramatic trimming, and our spy was able to obtain a sample of it for our inspection.
It is, without a doubt, a hemlock plant.
These distressing findings have left me convinced that the Marquis de Volanges is indeed conspiring with the Comte de Cagliostro and his circles. I believe, though it horrifies me to write such, that the Marquis murdered the Mme. Fournier to prove his loyalties to the Comte, and framed an innocent man to strengthen the Comte’s standing within the occult community.
Furthermore, it is my suspicion that the Comte drew the Marquis to such depths of depravity through neither alchemy nor bribery, but blackmail. I do not yet know what act the Marquis might have committed that would require him to pay the Comte for his silence, but I am convinced that all shall become clear as soon as your skilled agents decode the messages discovered by Mme. Fournier.
I have made the necessary arrangements, and am traveling to Paris to deliver all of the evidence in question. I only wish I had happier tidings to bring, and beg your aid in bringing the Marquis de Volanges to justice.
Respectfully,
Vivianne, Duchesse de Saint-Fargeau
It is with a heavy heart that I pen this missive to you. I have, just this very hour, completed the last of a series of meetings with my agents, all of whom returned to me bearing ill news of their findings in England.
After receiving your last note, I arranged for the repayment of a favor long owed to me by Mme. Fournier, a retainer of the Marquis de Moreau. As I am sure you are aware, the Mme. Fournier was greatly respected in certain circles as a seer and spiritualist. At my request, she agreed to travel to England along with three of my other agents, with the intent of investigating the Comte di Cagliostro. I am distraught to report that while Mme. Fournier made a number of critical discoveries, she paid for these with her very life.
Mme. Fournier became convinced that Cagliostro is a charlatan of great skill, but a fraud nonetheless. Before her murder, she was able to determine that the Comte is using the guise of a medium to deliver encoded messages to agents of the English crown. In her last letter to me, she provided samples of the Comte’s messages along with her rudimentary translations of certain codes used to conceal information contained within. Some of these messages are quite interesting - pay particular attention to the series of messages indicating the “delivery of payment” by an individual known as “V.”
Not long after sending her final correspondence, Mme. Fournier was found murdered in her rented London flat. My agent, who discovered her body, is convinced that the true method of murder was hemlock poisoning - the knife wounds on Mme. Fournier’s body seemed to be inflicted after her spirit fled, presumably to implicate another for this ghastly crime.
Not content with his findings, my agent continued his vigilant investigations, including surveillance of the Comte de Saint-Germain. My man was able to intercept a letter, delivered to the Comte the same evening of the murder. This note said, simply: “The deed is done, and my loyalties to you are thus proved. Our debts are settled. V.” Although my agent felt it would endanger our investigation to keep the letter, he swears the note was written in a hand bearing a striking resemblance to that of our dear Marquis de Volanges.
The following day, a knife, still bearing the dried blood of Mme. Fournier, was discovered by the English authorities at the home of a rival of Cagliostro’s. It seems they received an anonymous letter and were prompted to investigate this individual’s home. It is also worth noting that this same rival had spoken out against Cagliostro on numerous occasions, claiming that the medium’s gifts were merely clever playacting.
Suspicious, my agents arranged for one of the Marquis’ servants to encounter a lovely maid in the marketplace the following day. This seductress was able to ensure an …invitation, and spent the evening in the servants’ quarters of the Marquis’ home. While her access to the building was somewhat limited, she did discover, in one of the sitting parlors, a strange plant. This plant showed signs of recent and dramatic trimming, and our spy was able to obtain a sample of it for our inspection.
It is, without a doubt, a hemlock plant.
These distressing findings have left me convinced that the Marquis de Volanges is indeed conspiring with the Comte de Cagliostro and his circles. I believe, though it horrifies me to write such, that the Marquis murdered the Mme. Fournier to prove his loyalties to the Comte, and framed an innocent man to strengthen the Comte’s standing within the occult community.
Furthermore, it is my suspicion that the Comte drew the Marquis to such depths of depravity through neither alchemy nor bribery, but blackmail. I do not yet know what act the Marquis might have committed that would require him to pay the Comte for his silence, but I am convinced that all shall become clear as soon as your skilled agents decode the messages discovered by Mme. Fournier.
I have made the necessary arrangements, and am traveling to Paris to deliver all of the evidence in question. I only wish I had happier tidings to bring, and beg your aid in bringing the Marquis de Volanges to justice.
Respectfully,
Vivianne, Duchesse de Saint-Fargeau