To the Editor,
Diário de Notícias
Sir,
In case there should be any doubt among readers of the story that your newspaper has been serialising for the past two months, we duly state that it contains only false names and hypothetical places, and hereby authorise you to date the dénouement of said story as follows:
Lisbon, the twenty-seventh day of September, 1870, and to sign it with the names given below.
Yours faithfully,
Eça de Queiroz
Ramalho Ortigão