The Case of the "Mirror of Portugal"

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Whether or not this case has an historical interest is a matter of / conjecture. If it has none, then the title I have given it is a / misnomer. But I think the conjecture that some historical interest / attaches to it is by no means an empty one, and all that can be urged / against it is the common though not always declared error that romance / expired fifty years at least ago, and history with it. This makes it / seem improbable that the answer to an unsolved riddle of a century / since should be found to-day in an inquiry agent's dingy office in / Bedford Street, Covent Garden. Whether or not it has so been found / the reader may judge for himself, though the evidence stops far short / of actual proof of the identity of the "Mirror of Portugal" with the / stone wherewith this case was concerned.