The post-office was then in the hands of a private individual so far as all management was concerned, and the Cardinal's word was law.

Del Ferice's letters were regularly opened and examined.
The first thing that was discovered was that they frequently contained money, generally in the shape of small drafts on London signed by a Florentine banker, and that the envelopes which contained money never contained anything else.

They were all posted in Florence.

With regard to his letters, they appeared to be very innocent communications from all sorts of people, rarely referring to politics, and then only in the most general terms.

If Del Ferice had expected to have his correspondence examined, he could not have arranged matters better for his own safety.
To trace the drafts to the person who sent them was not an easy business; it was impossible to introduce a spy into the banking-house in Florence, and among the many drafts daily bought and sold, it was almost impossible to identify, without the aid of the banker's books, the person who chanced to buy any particular one.