[1825]. Carta anónima, atribuída a Agostinho Peres, criado, galego, para Inês Bárbara de Santana Xavier de Pontes, viúva.

Anonymous extortion letter, allegedly from Agostinho Peres, servant, Galician, written to Inês Bárbara de Santana Xavier de Pontes, a widow gentlewoman.

A young Galician immigrant who had worked as a servant but had recently been fired was arrested for writing extortion letters to rich ladies living in Lisbon, including his former employer. This letter was written to two noble sisters who lived in a palace near Lisbon.

Ms. Inês.

I wish you good health.

I want to give you a piece of news: last Sunday someone wanted to rob you, madam. And, as the robbers couldn't break down the door, they wanted to set fire all over the houses. And I forced myself to stop them. And I pleaded them and commited myself to give them 6 coins in notes. And if you don't send them to me in three days, you will have a surprise at home. It is to release one. And send them right away, right now by the messenger, and send them sealed in the same letter, quickly. The messenger is not to blame, he's innocent.

Well, madam, you can be at ease and without fear, because there are four spies.

I won't bother you any longer, stay well, see you.

Hand in the referred sum, for I must hand it in three months from now.

I'm your servant.

Pay it, pay it, pay it without fail, otherwise you'll be the one to feel it.