told her of the threats

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poirot_Investigates#The_Case_of_the_Missing_Will
Story I:

Poirot tells Hastings that there never were two jewels or any Chinese man – it was all an invention by Rolf. Three years before in the USA he had an affair with Lady Yardly and blackmailed her into giving him the diamond which he then gave to his wife as a wedding present. Lady Yardly’s was a paste copy that would have been discovered when her husband sold it. She was starting to fight back against her blackmailer and Rolf arranged the deception against his wife that Lady Yardly copied when Hastings told her of the threats. Poirot’s threats manage to persuade Rolf to give the real diamond back and leave the Yardlys in peace.
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The sentence is in the past tense; do you think my interpretation is correct?:
-Lady Yardly wanted to fight back. Then Rolf deceives his own wife into giving back the real diamond. Then Lady Yardly uses (=copied) the same method the get back the fake diamond. (But what threats are they? Are those threats mentioned on Wiki? The writer uses THE for THREATS, but I see no reason to use THE, because no context has been given to the reader to show that those threats are common knowledge, do you agree?)