GOD HELP US ALLHe carefully locked the outer door. Then he lit the lamp, for the candle gave but a flickering light, and he had some important work to do.
Firstly, he picked up the charred fragment of the letter, and smoothed it out carefully and reverently as he would a relic. Tears had gathered in his eyes, but he was not ashamed of them, for no one saw them; but they eased his heart, and helped to strengthen his resolve. It was a mere fragment that had been spared by the flame, but Armand knew every word of the letter by heart.
He had pen, ink and paper ready to his band, and from memory wrote out a copy of it. To this he added a covering letter from himself to Marguerite:
This—which I had from Percy through the hands of Chauvelin—I neither question nor understand… . He wrote the let
