The party did not break up till midnight.
Next morning Raoul, Octave de Chagny, his wife, and the three strangers were at breakfast in the dining-room when a farm servant brought a letter.
Raoul looked at the handwriting and murmured gloomily:
"Ah, a letter from her.... Like the last time.... She has gone."
He remembered, as did the Count and Countess, her departure from Roborey.
He tore open the letter and read aloud:
"Raoul, my friend,
"I earnestly beg you to believe blindly what I am going to tell you. It was revealed to me by certain facts which I learnt only yesterday.
"What I am writing is not a supposition, but an absolute certainty. I know it as surely as I know that light exists, and though I have very sound reasons for not divulging the proofs of it, I nevertheless wish you to act and think with the same conviction and serenity as I do myself.