The seal! Could he believe his senses--the imprint of three trophies of victory?
It was the seal of Pompeius! The instinct of the partisan and politician conquered every infirmity.

He broke the wax, untied the thread, and opened.

The letters were in cipher, and at first sight illegible.

But this did not present any insuperable difficulty.

Most classic ciphers were sufficiently simple to be solved without very much trouble.