After rounding a corner, the black dog that had been leading Severus vanished.
Strangely enough, security outside the palace was extremely tight, yet there were hardly any guards inside. It was as if the black dog knew the layout well enough to avoid them.
Just then, a door suddenly opened, and several staff officers came out. Severus hurried into a corner where they could not see him.
Once the officers had gone far enough away, he returned to the door and opened it with Alohomora. There was no one inside the room, but every candle had been lit.
Reading and needlework both required light. Egyptian homes had no roofs, and moonlight was brightest during a full moon, making it ideal for sewing.
French ceilings were decorated with elaborate oil paintings, so moonlight could not shine in. They could only rely on candlelight. These soldiers had naturally not lit so many candles for needlework. Several long dining tables were covered in paper documents, scattered in complete disorder.
Severus frowned deeply. He stopped before one of the tables, where two documents lay: one in English and the other in French. The ink on the French document had not yet dried.
What the two Americans had meant by "only Britain remains" was that Britain was the only major fighting force left in the Anti-French Coalition. Several armed neutral nations still stood with Britain, and the document Severus held was a license Britain had issued to armed neutral Denmark.
Eighteenth-century America was still an agricultural nation. Besides grain, cotton was one of its main exports.
The cotton grown in America was not Egyptian cotton, but Sea Island cotton from the Bahamas. Like Egyptian cotton, it was long-staple cotton. The greatest difference between the two emerged after they were spun into thread: Egyptian cotton was