Dear Howard,
I pray you are doing well, my friend. I am writing to you to inform you of my most recent discovery. It is a marvellous discovery indeed, an amazing one. I have attached a photo I took of it.
I found it in an old abandoned estate, one owned by one of those Confederates during the Civil War here in America. One Charles Kuhn Prioleau. From what I can tell, he was a supplier of arms for the Confederacy.
Portrait of Prioleau. It was tucked away in the attic.
After the war, he could no longer live here in the States, and left to Belgium. I'm unsure if he is still alive, but my brother recalls a Prioleau family making residence in London.
But whether or not he is alive does not matter, for what we have found in his estate is so much more.
In a tiny little box, tucked away behind crates of weapons meant for those awful Southern rebels, we found this queer little hat. One of our helpers, the Russian Aleksandr, identified it as one of the old crowns those tsars would wear. We do not know of when it was made, or who had owned it, but it had been made for royalty.
The Russian Crown.
I am hesitant to describe what we found to be so marvellous about this crown over pen and paper. Contact me through the telegraph as soon as you get ahold of this letter. I am eager to share with you this wonder.
As an aside, I have received word that our old colleague, James, has made plans to have a reunion for our Ontario class. I was hoping that you would be in attendance. Perhaps I might bring the crown. I can already see the look of excitement on Arthur's face, he always had an interest in artefacts such as this.
Yours Truly,
Walter.