"Necessarily, there must have been some fatalities."
"Ah! Some one was killed? Some friend of mine?"
"Yes. Some one has killed himself."
"Durnief?"
"No. He is a prisoner."
"Why keep me waiting? Tell me at once."
"I greatly fear, your majesty, that I am responsible for this death. Here is the letter he left. Read it. I do not know what it contains. I only just now discovered the body."
"Michael!" He exclaimed as soon as he saw the handwriting. I made no reply and he broke the seal and read the last words of his lifelong friend. Presently he returned it to me.
"Read," he said, and I read.
My Friend,—