The Autobiography of Sherlock Holmes by Sherlock Holmes, Don Libey Page A

of what little there was of available skill and talent.
    Inspector Hill was a thrice-talented specialist: he concentrated on Saffron Hill, a small region near Hatton Garden; the Italian Quarter; and secret crime organisations like the Mafia. Hill was educated at University College London and intellectually was able to bridge from the upper to the immigrant classes. He spoke flawless Italian, read Greek and Latin, and was a formidable all-rounder on the cricket pitch with a near-impossible combination leg-break and googly. Hill lived on St. Cross Street between Saffron Hill and Kirby Street, thus having ready exposure to the criminal events of his surroundings.
    I shall forever be deeply in debt to Inspector Hill for his near-obsessive work from November 1895 to the following November. This year-long, indefatigable investigation resulted in the solving of one of Saffron Hill’s most unspeakable murders, a cesspool of horrors, and the vacating of erroneous charges against a member of my family.
    During this missing year, my practice was all but suspended while I seconded Hill in uncovering the malevolent forces leading to the murder that ensnared an innocent, universally trusted and highly-placed member of the government. It was necessary for me to recuse myself to a great degree due to my unfortunate and wrongly accused relation; however, I provided Hill with an anchor chain firmly embedded in fact and reason to guide his investigations, and he came to the end a credit to himself and Scotland Yard.
    Ambrose Hill retired from Scotland Yard soon after his lengthy battle with the Saffron Hill Murderer. He found light, warm breezes and his love of the Italian aesthetic in a small villa in Tuscany, on a hillside not far from Florence, overlooking a tiny valley where his vineyard produces some of Italy’s finest wine. He was a great friend to me, a rarely talented detective, a brave and good man, and he deserves a life of peace, joy and contentment, for he provided a great service in clearing the name of an innocent man in that terrible year.
    During the summer of 1895, another case called me away from London for two months. I was summoned by the Bishop of Urgell, co-prince of the Principality of Andorra, bordering on Spain and France in the Pyrenees mountains, to solve a mysterious case involving a highly-placed Papal emissary that threatened the peaceful mountain state. With a population of just over five thousand, Andorra relied on sheep for its economy along with an active trade in the blending and rolling of cigars for European tastes. The tiny country’s language and temperament is Catalan, and the Catalan ways are reflected throughout the culture.
    The principality is predominately Roman Catholic. In Andorran lore, on the sixth of January during a year in the late twelfth century, a wild rose was found blooming out of season by villagers from Meritxell walking to mass in Canillo. At the base of the rose was a statue of the Virgin and Child. The statue was placed in the Canillo church, but was found the next day under the same rose bush. Next, the statue was taken to the church in Encamp. However, it was found again under the same rose bush the next day. The villagers took this as a sign and built a new chapel at the site of the rose bush in Meritxell and, in time, the Church in Rome elevated one of the women who found the statue and was present at several miracles over the years to sainthood and she became Meritxell, the patron saint of Andorra. The Prelate of Andorra was Cardinal Tosca who was also the Vatican Treasurer from 1880 to the time of the occurrences in this case.
    The Bishop of Urgell in his official role as coprince had hosted Cardinal Tosca at a dinner attended by one Juan Arnau of Caboet, Viscount of Castellbo, a descendant of one of Andorra’s most noble families and its principal banker. The Viscount’s daughter, Ermessenda Fernét, Countess Foix, was also present with her French husband, Epare Fernét,