How we cite our quotes: (Paragraph)
Quote #4
"In the meantime I stepped to the card-rack, took the letter, put it in my pocket, and replaced it by a facsimile (so far as regards externals), which I had carefully prepared at my lodgings—imitating the D— cipher very readily by means of a seal formed of bread." (117)
Interesting vocab choice, Poe. A "cipher" usually refers to a written code, or, the key to a written code, but it can also mean "a combination of symbolic letters; especially: the interwoven initials of a name." Here, it probably means both. It literally means the D— seal Dupin created for his fake copy of the disguised letter, and it also symbolically stands for the seal when Dupin uses the fake. But what's the difference between the real and the facsimile?
Quote #5
"The pretended lunatic was a man in my own pay." (118)
Here's another layer of deceit: in order to purloin the letter from D—, Dupin stages a deception. He hires a guy to shoot a gun with blanks out on the street so that D— will go to the window, allowing Dupin to purloin the letter. In addition to deceiving D—, Dupin is deceiving the public—both in continuing to cover up the royal lady's secret and in hiring a "pretended lunatic." (And you have to wonder what's going to happen to the "pretended lunatic.")
Quote #6
"But what purpose had you," I asked, "in replacing the letter by a facsimile? Would it not have been better at the first visit to have seized it openly, and departed?" (119)
It's not enough for Dupin to just get the letter back. He's got to play along with this little game of lies and deceits, and so we have to ask: if their positions were reversed, would D— and Dupin act any differently?