When you get retweeted on Twitter without a chance for correction

My great uncle Sir Hieronymus Burchell once sent a letter to his second-cousin, Georgina Montagu, about some manuscripts he was translating. He was stationed in India, and she was taking a tour of Bulgaria at the time. As was the custom, he had transcribed a copy for his records. Two weeks later, he was attending to some matters in his study and re-read the copy and discovered an error in a Latin phrase he had used (I won't repeat the error, it's embarrassing for all involved). As a venerated scholar of the Classics, this perturbed him greatly, and he set about attempting to have Lady Montagu return the missive for correction, by sending out a footman on horseback. However, when his emissary reached Sofia a number of weeks later, it was discovered that she had in turn sent the letter on to the Viscount Von Lieberman - then a diplomatic attaché to none other than the Swedish Royal Court! Obviously, sending the emissary on to Stockholm was absurd, as by the time he got there - it being a severe winter - the Viscount could have sent copies of the letter on to Moscow, Vienna - almost anywhere in Christendom! Poor Uncle Hieronymus had to put up with the shame of the error being spread far and wide with abandon, and it has carried down in our family to this day. So I understand the pain you feel regarding your the retweet. It's a story as old as time itself.

Should have sent a horseman on foot.

Rookie mistake.

Fecit.