What events and attributed statements does Esther Chapter 4 record?

When Mardochai learned of the imperial decree, he tore his garments, donned sackcloth, scattered ashes upon his head, and went through the streets of the city crying aloud with intense anguish. He proceeded as far as the entrance of the palace gate, since Persian custom strictly prohibited anyone clothed in sackcloth from entering the royal court. Throughout every province, town, and community where the cruel mandate arrived, the Jews were plunged into bitter grief, observing strict fasting, weeping, and wailing, with many making sackcloth and ashes their bed. When Queen Esther's maids and eunuchs reported Mardochai's public lamentation to her, she was overwhelmed with distress and sent a garment to clothe him and remove his sackcloth, but he refused to accept it. Esther then summoned Athach, a royal eunuch appointed to attend her, directing him to visit Mardochai and ascertain the cause of his public grief.

Athach met Mardochai in the street before the palace entrance, where Mardochai explained all that had transpired, including the money Aman had promised to the imperial treasuries to purchase the destruction of the Jews. He also provided Athach with a copy of the proclamation posted in Susan so that he might show it to the queen, urging her to enter the king's presence and plead for her people. When Athach delivered this report, Esther sent him back to explain the grave barrier: every servant and province knew that anyone, man or woman, who entered the inner court without an explicit royal summons was sentenced to immediate death, unless the king extended his golden sceptre in clemency to spare their life. Furthermore, Esther noted that thirty days had passed since she had last been called into the sovereign's presence.

Upon receiving Esther's objection, Mardochai replied with a solemn warning, reminding her that she should not imagine her presence within the royal palace would grant her safety above any other Jew. He declared that if she kept silent at this critical juncture, deliverance would arise for the Jews from another quarter, while she and her father's household would perish, asking whether she had not attained the royal dignity precisely for such a crisis. Esther then commanded Mardochai to assemble all Jews in Susan to fast and pray on her behalf, abstaining from food and drink for three days and three nights. Pledging that she and her maidens would observe the same rigorous fast, Esther declared that she would thereafter enter the king's presence in defiance of the law, accepting whatever death or danger might befall her. Mardochai then departed and carried out all the instructions Esther had given him.