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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Lock and Key Library by Julian Hawthorne, Ed.: myself know all its dangers. At length, with the emperor's leave
of absence, I returned. And what did I find? Eight months had
passed, and the faithful Rachael had died. The poor sisters,
clinging together, but now utterly bereft of friends, knew not
which way to turn. In this abandonment they fell into the
insidious hands of the ruffian jailer. My eldest sister, Berenice,
the stateliest and noblest of beauties, had attracted this
ruffian's admiration while she was in the prison with her mother.
And when I returned to your city, armed with the imperial passports
for all, I found that Berenice had died in the villain's custody;
nor could I obtain anything beyond a legal certificate of her
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