Through Albert, Borges offers a philosophical discussion of the nature of time. Albert's role in the story is to explain Ts'ui Pen to his great grandson— and to be murdered, simply by the coincidence that his name is identical to the name of a town in Belgium.
Captain Richard Madden is an Irishman who works for English intelligence. After he kills Yu Tsun's contact, Viktor Runeberg, he stalks Yu Tsun to prevent him from passing along the information. Yu Tsun characterizes Madden as "a man accused of laxity and perhaps of treason." Madden tracks Yu Tsun to Albert's house, and arrests him for the murder.
The narrator's words open the story, directing the reader to a particular page in a history of World War I. The narrator then introduces the statement.....
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