In which James locates a Grail

Excerpt

Mar 31

Chateau Roquetaillade Bordeaux, France, 1 December 1793 — My dear Captain, on arrival in the nearby town of Metz, I was able to join an enthusiastic mob hired to dismantle the chateau, on Revolutionary principles stoked by the guillotining of Queen Marie Antoinette on 15 October (may her soul rest in peace). Much to my surprise, when we arrived at the Chateau to begin the destruction, we were met at its gates by the owner, an hospitable lady named Marie Henriette de Lansac, who offered to double what pay we were offered by the Committee of Public Safety, if we would agree to touch solely “the good wine of Roquetaillade” in our endeavor. I must report the wine is indeed incredibly good. Dismantling of non-vintage Chateau elements has subsequently has been confined to a single corner tower not part of the lady’s view from her parlor. Madame de Lansac’s father, the Marquis, and her sister Genevive, are both in custody in Paris, but nonetheless, she has thrown any number of wild parties at the Chateau, and she confided me at one of these (for we have become quite close) that she has enjoyed the so-called Reign of Terror a great deal more than she did all her years under the Ancien Regime. Madame’s husband has emigrated, and she has divorced him, to preserve the family patrimony. I shall continue to cultivate the lady, and report quickly on the existence and current location of any ancient bejeweled objects that might have belonged to King Solomon. I shall refrain from using the phrase “Holy Grail,” since I feel it is quite hackneyed. Yours in haste and inebriety, James Sims.