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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from An Historical Mystery by Honore de Balzac: mysterious abductors were five sharks of the secret service of the
ministry of the police, who were ordered to obtain the proclamations
of the would-be Directory which Malin had surreptitiously taken from
his house in Paris, and which he had himself come to Gondreville for
the express purpose of destroying, being convinced at last that the
Empire was on a sure foundation and could not be overthrown. "I have
no doubt," added de Marsay, "that Fouche took the opportunity to have
the house searched for the correspondence between Malin and Louis
XVIII., which was always kept up, even during the Terror. But in this
cruel affair there was a private element, a passion of revenge in the
mind of the leader of the party, a man named Corentin, who is still
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