There is one among them, a man called Aguirrez, who is at the heart of this sedition. I have vowed to pursue him to the ends of the earth, to reclaim these relics. Sire, if our Sacred Mission is not al- lowed to continue its work until heresy is uprooted from the land, I fear the call of Roland's horn will summon our enemies to battle and that his Blade will lay waste to all we hold dear."

“Interesting,” Perlmutter said, knitting his brow. “First of all, he seems to be saying that the relics are real. And second, that this fel- low Aguirrez has them in his possession. This certainly backs up the legendary accounts of Roland's fall.”

Signora Maggi poked her head in the door and asked if they needed anything. Nocci thanked her and said, "This is a fascinating document. Do you have any more papers authored by this man Mar- tmez.

“I'm very sorry, but there is nothing I can think of.”

Perlmutter tented his fingers and said, “Martinez comes across in his writings as a man of great ego. I would be surprised if he did not keep a journal of his day-to-day activities. It would be wonderful if such a book existed and we could get our hands on it. Perhaps at the state archives in Seville.”

Signora Maggi was only half-listening. She was reading a sheet of paper that had been tucked into the box with the other records. “This is a list of all the manuscripts in this box. Apparently, one of the doc- uments was taken from this file by a previous curator and sent on to the Venice State Archives.”

“What sort of document?” Perlmutter asked.

“It is described here as an 'Exoneration of a Man of the Sea,' writ- ten by an Englishman, Captain Richard Blackthorne. It was sup- posed to be returned, but there are more than ninety kilometers of archives covering a thousand years of history, so sometimes things fall through the cracks, as you Americans say.”

“I'd love to read Blackthorne's account,” Perlmutter said. “I'm due in Milan tomorrow, but perhaps I can divert to Venice.”

“Perhaps it won't be necessary.” She took the file into her office, and they could hear the soft clicking of a computer keyboard. She reap- peared after a moment. “I have contacted the Venice State Archives and asked for a virtual search of the records. Once the document is found, it can be copied and transmitted through the Internet.”

“Well done!” Perlmutter said. “And my heartfelt thanks.”