The Count of Monte Cristo................................................................................................................................1

On the 24th of February, 1810, the lookout at NotreDame de la Garde signalled the threemaster, the

As usual, a pilot put off immediately, and rounding the Chateau d'If, got on board the vessel between Cape

Immediately, and according to custom, the ramparts of Fort SaintJean were covered with spectators; it is

always an event at Marseilles for a ship to come into port, especially when this ship, like the Pharaon, has

been built, rigged, and laden at the old Phocee docks, and belongs to an owner of the city.

The ship drew on and had safely passed the strait, which some volcanic shock has made between the

Calasareigne and Jaros islands; had doubled Pomegue, and approached the harbor under topsails, jib, and

spanker, but so slowly and sedately that the idlers, with that instinct which is the forerunner of evil, asked one

another what misfortune could have happened on board. However, those experienced in navigation saw

plainly that if any accident had occurred, it was not to the vessel herself, for she bore down with all the

evidence of being skilfully handled, the anchor acockbill, the jibboom guys already eased off, and standing

by the side of the pilot, who was steering the Pharaon towards the narrow entrance of the inner port, was a

young man, who, with activity and vigilant eye, watched every motion of the ship, and repeated each

The vague disquietude which prevailed among the spectators had so much affected one of the crowd that he

did not await the arrival of the vessel in harbor, but jumping into a small skiff, desired to be pulled alongside

When the young man on board saw this person approach, he left his station by the pilot, and, hat in hand,

He was a fine, tall, slim young fellow of eighteen or twenty, with black eyes, and hair as dark as a raven's

wing; and his whole appearance bespoke that calmness and resolution peculiar to men accustomed from their

"Ah, is it you, Dantes?" cried the man in the skiff. "What's the matter? and why have you such an air of

"A great misfortune, M. Morrel," replied the young man, "a great misfortune, for me especially! Off

"Is all safe, M. Morrel; and I think you will be satisfied on that head. But poor Captain Leclere "

"What happened to him?" asked the owner, with an air of considerable resignation. "What happened to the

"No, sir, he died of brainfever in dreadful agony." Then turning to the crew, he said, "Bear a hand there, to

All hands obeyed, and at once the eight or ten seamen who composed the crew, sprang to their respective

stations at the spanker brails and outhaul, topsail sheets and halyards, the jib downhaul, and the topsail

clewlines and buntlines. The young sailor gave a look to see that his orders were promptly and accurately

"And how did this misfortune occur?" inquired the latter, resuming the interrupted conversation.

"Alas, sir, in the most unexpected manner. After a long talk with the harbormaster, Captain Leclere left

Naples greatly disturbed in mind. In twentyfour hours he was attacked by a fever, and died three days

afterwards. We performed the usual burial service, and he is at his rest, sewn up in his hammock with a

thirtysix pound shot at his head and his heels, off El Giglio island. We bring to his widow his sword and

cross of honor. It was worth while, truly," added the young man with a melancholy smile, "to make war

against the English for ten years, and to die in his bed at last, like everybody else."

"Why, you see, Edmond," replied the owner, who appeared more comforted at every moment, "we are all

mortal, and the old must make way for the young. If not, why, there would be no promotion; and since you

"Is all safe and sound, M. Morrel, take my word for it; and I advise you not to take 25,000 francs for the

Then, as they were just passing the Round Tower, the young man shouted: "Stand by there to lower the

"Let go and clue up!" At this last command all the sails were lowered, and the vessel moved almost

"Now, if you will come on board, M. Morrel," said Dantes, observing the owner's impatience, "here is your

supercargo, M. Danglars, coming out of his cabin, who will furnish you with every particular. As for me, I

The owner did not wait for a second invitation. He seized a rope which Dantes flung to him, and with an

activity that would have done credit to a sailor, climbed up the side of the ship, while the young man, going

to his task, left the conversation to Danglars, who now came towards the owner. He was a man of

twentyfive or twentysix years of age, of unprepossessing countenance, obsequious to his superiors,

insolent to his subordinates; and this, in addition to his position as responsible agent on board, which is

always obnoxious to the sailors, made him as much disliked by the crew as Edmond Dantes was beloved by

"Well, M. Morrel," said Danglars, "you have heard of the misfortune that has befallen us?"

"And a firstrate seaman, one who had seen long and honorable service, as became a man charged with the

"But," replied the owner, glancing after Dantes, who was watching the anchoring of his vessel, "it seems to

me that a sailor needs not be so old as you say, Danglars, to understand his business, for our friend Edmond

seems to understand it thoroughly, and not to require instruction from any one."

"Yes," said Danglars, darting at Edmond a look gleaming with hate. "Yes, he is young, and youth is

invariably selfconfident. Scarcely was the captain's breath out of his body when he assumed the command

without consulting any one, and he caused us to lose a day and a half at the Island of Elba, instead of making

"As to taking command of the vessel," replied Morrel, "that was his duty as captain's mate; as to losing a day

and a half off the Island of Elba, he was wrong, unless the vessel needed repairs."

"The vessel was in as good condition as I am, and as, I hope you are, M. Morrel, and this day and a half was

"In a moment, sir," answered Dantes, "and I'm with you." Then calling to the crew, he said "Let go!"

The anchor was instantly dropped, and the chain ran rattling through the porthole. Dantes continued at his

post in spite of the presence of the pilot, until this manoeuvre was completed, and then he added, "Halfmast

"And why should he not have this?" asked the owner; "he is young, it is true, but he seems to me a thorough

A cloud passed over Danglars' brow. "Your pardon, M. Morrel," said Dantes, approaching, "the vessel now

Danglars retreated a step or two. "I wished to inquire why you stopped at the Island of Elba?"

"I do not know, sir; it was to fulfil the last instructions of Captain Leclere, who, when dying, gave me a

Morrel looked around him, and then, drawing Dantes on one side, he said suddenly "And how is the

"Asked me questions about the vessel, the time she left Marseilles, the course she had taken, and what was

her cargo. I believe, if she had not been laden, and I had been her master, he would have bought her. But I

told him I was only mate, and that she belonged to the firm of Morrel Son. `Ah, yes,' he said, `I know them.

The Morrels have been shipowners from father to son; and there was a Morrel who served in the same

"Pardieu, and that is true!" cried the owner, greatly delighted. "And that was Policar Morrel, my uncle, who

was afterwards a captain. Dantes, you must tell my uncle that the emperor remembered him, and you will see

it will bring tears into the old soldier's eyes. Come, come," continued he, patting Edmond's shoulder kindly,

"you did very right, Dantes, to follow Captain Leclere's instructions, and touch at Elba, although if it were

known that you had conveyed a packet to the marshal, and had conversed with the emperor, it might bring

"How could that bring me into trouble, sir?" asked Dantes; "for I did not even know of what I was the bearer;

and the emperor merely made such inquiries as he would of the first comer. But, pardon me, here are the

health officers and the customs inspectors coming alongside." And the young man went to the gangway. As

"Well, it appears that he has given you satisfactory reasons for his landing at PortoFerrajo?"

"Well, so much the better," said the supercargo; "for it is not pleasant to think that a comrade has not done his

"Dantes has done his," replied the owner, "and that is not saying much. It was Captain Leclere who gave

"I believe that, besides the packet, Captain Leclere confided a letter to his care."

"I was passing close to the door of the captain's cabin, which was half open, and I saw him give the packet

"He did not speak to me of it," replied the shipowner; "but if there be any letter he will give it to me."

Danglars reflected for a moment. "Then, M. Morrel, I beg of you," said he, "not to say a word to Dantes on

"No. I gave the customhouse officers a copy of our bill of lading; and as to the other papers, they sent a man

"I really must ask you to excuse me, M. Morrel. My first visit is due to my father, though I am not the less

Dantes smiled. "My father is proud, sir, and if he had not a meal left, I doubt if he would have asked anything

"I must again excuse myself, M. Morrel, for after this first visit has been paid I have another which I am most

"True, Dantes, I forgot that there was at the Catalans some one who expects you no less impatiently than your

"Ah, ha," said the shipowner, "I am not in the least surprised, for she has been to me three times, inquiring if

there were any news of the Pharaon. Peste, Edmond, you have a very handsome mistress!"

"She is not my mistress," replied the young sailor, gravely; "she is my betrothed."

"Well, well, my dear Edmond," continued the owner, "don't let me detain you. You have managed my affairs

so well that I ought to allow you all the time you require for your own. Do you want any money?"

"Yes, yes, I know how good a son you are, so now hasten away to see your father. I have a son too, and I

should be very wroth with those who detained him from me after a three months' voyage."

"He was unable to write, sir. But that reminds me that I must ask your leave of absence for some days."

"Very good; have what time you require, Dantes. It will take quite six weeks to unload the cargo, and we

cannot get you ready for sea until three months after that; only be back again in three months, for the

Pharaon," added the owner, patting the young sailor on the back, "cannot sail without her captain."

"Without her captain!" cried Dantes, his eyes sparkling with animation; "pray mind what you say, for you are

touching on the most secret wishes of my heart. Is it really your intention to make me captain of the

"If I were sole owner we'd shake hands on it now, my dear Dantes, and call it settled; but I have a partner, and

you know the Italian proverb Chi ha compagno ha padrone `He who has a partner has a master.' But

the thing is at least half done, as you have one out of two votes. Rely on me to procure you the other; I will

"Ah, M. Morrel," exclaimed the young seaman, with tears in his eyes, and grasping the owner's hand, "M.

"That's all right, Edmond. There's a providence that watches over the deserving. Go to your father: go and see

"No, thank you; I shall remain and look over the accounts with Danglars. Have you been satisfied with him

"That is according to the sense you attach to the question, sir. Do you mean is he a good comrade? No, for I

think he never liked me since the day when I was silly enough, after a little quarrel we had, to propose to him

to stop for ten minutes at the island of Monte Cristo to settle the dispute a proposition which I was wrong

to suggest, and he quite right to refuse. If you mean as responsible agent when you ask me the question, I

believe there is nothing to say against him, and that you will be content with the way in which he has

"But tell me, Dantes, if you had command of the Pharaon should you be glad to see Danglars remain?"

"Captain or mate, M. Morrel, I shall always have the greatest respect for those who possess the owners'

"That's right, that's right, Dantes! I see you are a thoroughly good fellow, and will detain you no longer. Go,

The young sailor jumped into the skiff, and sat down in the stern sheets, with the order that he be put ashore

at La Canebiere. The two oarsmen bent to their work, and the little boat glided away as rapidly as possible in

the midst of the thousand vessels which choke up the narrow way which leads between the two rows of ships

The shipowner, smiling, followed him with his eyes until he saw him spring out on the quay and disappear in

the midst of the throng, which from five o'clock in the morning until nine o'clock at night, swarms in the

famous street of La Canebiere, a street of which the modern Phocaeans are so proud that they say with all

the gravity in the world, and with that accent which gives so much character to what is said, "If Paris had La

Canebiere, Paris would be a second Marseilles." On turning round the owner saw Danglars behind him,

apparently awaiting orders, but in reality also watching the young sailor, but there was a great difference

in the expression of the two men who thus followed the movements of Edmond Dantes.

We will leave Danglars struggling with the demon of hatred, and endeavoring to insinuate in the ear of the

shipowner some evil suspicions against his comrade, and follow Dantes, who, after having traversed La

Canebiere, took the Rue de Noailles, and entering a small house, on the left of the Allees de Meillan, rapidly

ascended four flights of a dark staircase, holding the baluster with one hand, while with the other he repressed

the beatings of his heart, and paused before a halfopen door, from which he could see the whole of a small

This room was occupied by Dantes' father. The news of the arrival of the Pharaon had not yet reached the old

man, who, mounted on a chair, was amusing himself by training with trembling hand the nasturtiums and

sprays of clematis that clambered over the trellis at his window. Suddenly, he felt an arm thrown around his

The old man uttered a cry, and turned round; then, seeing his son, he fell into his arms, pale and trembling.

"What ails you, my dearest father? Are you ill?" inquired the young man, much alarmed.

"No, no, my dear Edmond my boy my son! no; but I did not expect you; and joy, the surprise of

"Come, come, cheer up, my dear father! 'Tis I really I! They say joy never hurts, and so I came to you

without any warning. Come now, do smile, instead of looking at me so solemnly. Here I am back again, and

"Yes, yes, my boy, so we will so we will," replied the old man; "but how shall we be happy? Shall you

never leave me again? Come, tell me all the good fortune that has befallen you."

"God forgive me," said the young man, "for rejoicing at happiness derived from the misery of others, but,

Heaven knows, I did not seek this good fortune; it has happened, and I really cannot pretend to lament it. The

good Captain Leclere is dead, father, and it is probable that, with the aid of M. Morrel, I shall have his place.

Do you understand, father? Only imagine me a captain at twenty, with a hundred louis pay, and a share in the

"Well, then, with the first money I touch, I mean you to have a small house, with a garden in which to plant

clematis, nasturtiums, and honeysuckle. But what ails you, father? Are you not well?"

"'Tis nothing, nothing; it will soon pass away" and as he said so the old man's strength failed him, and he

"Come, come," said the young man, "a glass of wine, father, will revive you. Where do you keep your wine?"

"What, no wine?" said Dantes, turning pale, and looking alternately at the hollow cheeks of the old man and

"Yet," stammered Dantes, wiping the perspiration from his brow, "yet I gave you two hundred francs

"Yes, yes, Edmond, that is true, but you forgot at that time a little debt to our neighbor, Caderousse. He

reminded me of it, telling me if I did not pay for you, he would be paid by M. Morrel; and so, you see, lest he

"Never mind it, for I see you once more," said the old man; "and now it's all over everything is all right

"Yes, here I am," said the young man, "with a promising future and a little money. Here, father, here!" he

said, "take this take it, and send for something immediately." And he emptied his pockets on the table, the

contents consisting of a dozen gold pieces, five or six fivefranc pieces, and some smaller coin. The

"To me, to you, to us! Take it; buy some provisions; be happy, and tomorrow we shall have more."

"Gently, gently," said the old man, with a smile; "and by your leave I will use your purse moderately, for they

would say, if they saw me buy too many things at a time, that I had been obliged to await your return, in

"Do as you please; but, first of all, pray have a servant, father. I will not have you left alone so long. I have

some smuggled coffee and most capital tobacco, in a small chest in the hold, which you shall have

"'Tis Caderousse, who has heard of your arrival, and no doubt comes to congratulate you on your fortunate

"Ah, lips that say one thing, while the heart thinks another," murmured Edmond. "But, never mind, he is a

As Edmond paused, the black and bearded head of Caderousse appeared at the door. He was a man of

twentyfive or six, and held a piece of cloth, which, being a tailor, he was about to make into a coatlining.

"What, is it you, Edmond, back again?" said he, with a broad Marseillaise accent, and a grin that displayed

"Yes, as you see, neighbor Caderousse; and ready to be agreeable to you in any and every way," replied

"Thanks thanks; but, fortunately, I do not want for anything; and it chances that at times there are others

who have need of me." Dantes made a gesture. "I do not allude to you, my boy. No! no! I lent you money,

"We are never quits with those who oblige us," was Dantes' reply; "for when we do not owe them money, we

"What's the use of mentioning that? What is done is done. Let us talk of your happy return, my boy. I had

gone on the quay to match a piece of mulberry cloth, when I met friend Danglars. `You at Marseilles?'

"`Why, with his father, no doubt,' replied Danglars. And so I came," added Caderousse, "as fast as I could to

"Yes, to be sure I am. I love and esteem you, because honest folks are so rare. But it seems you have come

back rich, my boy," continued the tailor, looking askance at the handful of gold and silver which Dantes had

The young man remarked the greedy glance which shone in the dark eyes of his neighbor. "Eh," he said,

negligently. "this money is not mine. I was expressing to my father my fears that he had wanted many things

in my absence, and to convince me he emptied his purse on the table. Come, father" added Dantes, "put this

money back in your box unless neighbor Caderousse wants anything, and in that case it is at his service."

"No, my boy, no," said Caderousse. "I am not in any want, thank God, my living is suited to my means. Keep

your money keep it, I say; one never has too much; but, at the same time, my boy, I am as much

"No doubt, my boy; no doubt. Well, you stand well with M. Morrel I hear, you insinuating dog, you!"

"What, did you refuse to dine with him?" said old Dantes; "and did he invite you to dine?"

"Yes, my dear father," replied Edmond, smiling at his father's astonishment at the excessive honor paid to his

"That I might the sooner see you again, my dear father," replied the young man. "I was most anxious to see

"But it must have vexed M. Morrel, good, worthy man," said Caderousse. "And when you are looking

"But I explained to him the cause of my refusal," replied Dantes, "and I hope he fully understood it."

"So much the better so much the better! Nothing will give greater pleasure to all your old friends; and I

know one down there behind the Saint Nicolas citadel who will not be sorry to hear it."

"Yes, my dear father, and with your permission, now I have seen you, and know you are well and have all

"Go, my dear boy," said old Dantes: "and heaven bless you in your wife, as it has blessed me in my son!"

"His wife!" said Caderousse; "why, how fast you go on, father Dantes; she is not his wife yet, as it seems to

"Yes yes," said Caderousse; "but you were right to return as soon as possible, my boy."

"Because Mercedes is a very fine girl, and fine girls never lack followers; she particularly has them by

"Really?" answered Edmond, with a smile which had in it traces of slight uneasiness.

"Ah, yes," continued Caderousse, "and capital offers, too; but you know, you will be captain, and who could

"Meaning to say," replied Dantes, with a smile which but illconcealed his trouble, "that if I were not a

"Come, come," said the sailor, "I have a better opinion than you of women in general, and of Mercedes in

particular; and I am certain that, captain or not, she will remain ever faithful to me."

"So much the better so much the better," said Caderousse. "When one is going to be married, there is

nothing like implicit confidence; but never mind that, my boy, go and announce your arrival, and let her

"I will go directly," was Edmond's reply; and, embracing his father, and nodding to Caderousse, he left the

Caderousse lingered for a moment, then taking leave of old Dantes, he went downstairs to rejoin Danglars,

"Why, yes, he is actually insolent over the matter has already offered me his patronage, as if he were a

"Most assuredly; although I might easily have accepted it, for it was I who put into his hands the first silver

he ever earned; but now M. Dantes has no longer any occasion for assistance he is about to become a

"Ma foi, it will be as well if he is not," answered Caderousse; "for if he should be, there will be really no

"If we choose," replied Danglars, "he will remain what he is; and perhaps become even less than he is."

"Over head and ears; but, unless I am much mistaken, there will be a storm in that quarter."

"I know nothing for certain; only I have seen things which induce me to believe, as I told you, that the future

"Well, every time I have seen Mercedes come into the city she has been accompanied by a tall, strapping,

blackeyed Catalan, with a red complexion, brown skin, and fierce air, whom she calls cousin."

"I only suppose so. What else can a strapping chap of twentyone mean with a fine wench of seventeen?"

"Let us go the same way; we will stop at La Reserve, and we can drink a glass of La Malgue, whilst we wait

"Of course," replied Danglars; and going quickly to the designated place, they called for a bottle of wine, and

Pere Pamphile had seen Dantes pass not ten minutes before; and assured that he was at the Catalans, they sat

down under the budding foliage of the planes and sycamores, in the branches of which the birds were singing

Beyond a bare, weatherworn wall, about a hundred paces from the spot where the two friends sat looking

and listening as they drank their wine, was the village of the Catalans. Long ago this mysterious colony

quitted Spain, and settled on the tongue of land on which it is to this day. Whence it came no one knew, and it

spoke an unknown tongue. One of its chiefs, who understood Provencal, begged the commune of Marseilles

to give them this bare and barren promontory, where, like the sailors of old, they had run their boats ashore.

The request was granted; and three months afterwards, around the twelve or fifteen small vessels which had

brought these gypsies of the sea, a small village sprang up. This village, constructed in a singular and

picturesque manner, half Moorish, half Spanish, still remains, and is inhabited by descendants of the first

comers, who speak the language of their fathers. For three or four centuries they have remained upon this

small promontory, on which they had settled like a flight of seabirds, without mixing with the Marseillaise

population, intermarrying, and preserving their original customs and the costume of their mothercountry as

Our readers will follow us along the only street of this little village, and enter with us one of the houses,

which is sunburned to the beautiful deadleaf color peculiar to the buildings of the country, and within coated

with whitewash, like a Spanish posada. A young and beautiful girl, with hair as black as jet, her eyes as

velvety as the gazelle's, was leaning with her back against the wainscot, rubbing in her slender delicately

moulded fingers a bunch of heath blossoms, the flowers of which she was picking off and strewing on the

floor; her arms, bare to the elbow, brown, and modelled after those of the Arlesian Venus, moved with a kind

of restless impatience, and she tapped the earth with her arched and supple foot, so as to display the pure and

full shape of her wellturned leg, in its red cotton, gray and blue clocked, stocking. At three paces from her,

seated in a chair which he balanced on two legs, leaning his elbow on an old wormeaten table, was a tall

young man of twenty, or twoandtwenty, who was looking at her with an air in which vexation and

uneasiness were mingled. He questioned her with his eyes, but the firm and steady gaze of the young girl

"You see, Mercedes," said the young man, "here is Easter come round again; tell me, is this the moment for a

"I have answered you a hundred times, Fernand, and really you must be very stupid to ask me again."

"Well, repeat it, repeat it, I beg of you, that I may at last believe it! Tell me for the hundredth time that

you refuse my love, which had your mother's sanction. Make me understand once for all that you are trifling

with my happiness, that my life or death are nothing to you. Ah, to have dreamed for ten years of being your

husband, Mercedes, and to lose that hope, which was the only stay of my existence!"

"At least it was not I who ever encouraged you in that hope, Fernand," replied Mercedes; "you cannot

reproach me with the slightest coquetry. I have always said to you, `I love you as a brother; but do not ask

from me more than sisterly affection, for my heart is another's.' Is not this true, Fernand?"

"Yes, that is very true, Mercedes," replied the young man, "Yes, you have been cruelly frank with me; but do

"You mistake, Fernand; it is not a law, but merely a custom, and, I pray of you, do not cite this custom in

your favor. You are included in the conscription, Fernand, and are only at liberty on sufferance, liable at any

moment to be called upon to take up arms. Once a soldier, what would you do with me, a poor orphan,

forlorn, without fortune, with nothing but a halfruined hut and a few ragged nets, the miserable inheritance

left by my father to my mother, and by my mother to me? She has been dead a year, and you know, Fernand,

I have subsisted almost entirely on public charity. Sometimes you pretend I am useful to you, and that is an

excuse to share with me the produce of your fishing, and I accept it, Fernand, because you are the son of my

father's brother, because we were brought up together, and still more because it would give you so much pain

if I refuse. But I feel very deeply that this fish which I go and sell, and with the produce of which I buy the

"And if it were, Mercedes, poor and lone as you are, you suit me as well as the daughter of the first

shipowner or the richest banker of Marseilles! What do such as we desire but a good wife and careful

"Fernand," answered Mercedes, shaking her head, "a woman becomes a bad manager, and who shall say she

will remain an honest woman, when she loves another man better than her husband? Rest content with my

friendship, for I say once more that is all I can promise, and I will promise no more than I can bestow."

"I understand," replied Fernand, "you can endure your own wretchedness patiently, but you are afraid to share

mine. Well, Mercedes, beloved by you, I would tempt fortune; you would bring me good luck, and I should

become rich. I could extend my occupation as a fisherman, might get a place as clerk in a warehouse, and

"You could do no such thing, Fernand; you are a soldier, and if you remain at the Catalans it is because there

is no war; so remain a fisherman, and contented with my friendship, as I cannot give you more."

"Well, I will do better, Mercedes. I will be a sailor; instead of the costume of our fathers, which you despise, I

will wear a varnished hat, a striped shirt, and a blue jacket, with an anchor on the buttons. Would not that

"What do you mean?" asked Mercedes, with an angry glance, "what do you mean? I do not understand

"I mean, Mercedes, that you are thus harsh and cruel with me, because you are expecting some one who is

thus attired; but perhaps he whom you await is inconstant, or if he is not, the sea is so to him."

"Fernand," cried Mercedes, "I believed you were goodhearted, and I was mistaken! Fernand, you are wicked

to call to your aid jealousy and the anger of God! Yes, I will not deny it, I do await, and I do love him of

whom you speak; and, if he does not return, instead of accusing him of the inconstancy which you insinuate, I

will tell you that he died loving me and me only." The young girl made a gesture of rage. "I understand you,

Fernand; you would be revenged on him because I do not love you; you would cross your Catalan knife with

his dirk. What end would that answer? To lose you my friendship if he were conquered, and see that

friendship changed into hate if you were victor. Believe me, to seek a quarrel with a man is a bad method of

pleasing the woman who loves that man. No, Fernand, you will not thus give way to evil thoughts. Unable to

have me for your wife, you will content yourself with having me for your friend and sister; and besides," she

added, her eyes troubled and moistened with tears, "wait, wait, Fernand; you said just now that the sea was

treacherous, and he has been gone four months, and during these four months there have been some terrible

Fernand made no reply, nor did he attempt to check the tears which flowed down the cheeks of Mercedes,

although for each of these tears he would have shed his heart's blood; but these tears flowed for another. He

arose, paced a while up and down the hut, and then, suddenly stopping before Mercedes, with his eyes

glowing and his hands clinched, "Say, Mercedes," he said, "once for all, is this your final determination?"

"I love Edmond Dantes," the young girl calmly replied, "and none but Edmond shall ever be my husband."

Fernand let fall his head like a defeated man, heaved a sigh that was like a groan, and then suddenly looking

her full in the face, with clinched teeth and expanded nostrils, said, "But if he is dead"

"Ah," exclaimed the young girl, blushing with delight, and fairly leaping in excess of love, "you see he has

not forgotten me, for here he is!" And rushing towards the door, she opened it, saying, "Here, Edmond, here I

Fernand, pale and trembling, drew back, like a traveller at the sight of a serpent, and fell into a chair beside

him. Edmond and Mercedes were clasped in each other's arms. The burning Marseilles sun, which shot into

the room through the open door, covered them with a flood of light. At first they saw nothing around them.

Their intense happiness isolated them from all the rest of the world, and they only spoke in broken words,

which are the tokens of a joy so extreme that they seem rather the expression of sorrow. Suddenly Edmond

saw the gloomy, pale, and threatening countenance of Fernand, as it was defined in the shadow. By a

movement for which he could scarcely account to himself, the young Catalan placed his hand on the knife at

"Ah, your pardon," said Dantes, frowning in his turn; "I did not perceive that there were three of us." Then,

"One who will be your best friend, Dantes, for he is my friend, my cousin, my brother; it is Fernand the

man whom, after you, Edmond, I love the best in the world. Do you not remember him?"

"Yes!" said Dantes, and without relinquishing Mercedes hand clasped in one of his own, he extended the

other to the Catalan with a cordial air. But Fernand, instead of responding to this amiable gesture, remained

mute and trembling. Edmond then cast his eyes scrutinizingly at the agitated and embarrassed Mercedes, and

then again on the gloomy and menacing Fernand. This look told him all, and his anger waxed hot.

"I did not know, when I came with such haste to you, that I was to meet an enemy here."

"An enemy!" cried Mercedes, with an angry look at her cousin. "An enemy in my house, do you say,

Edmond! If I believed that, I would place my arm under yours and go with you to Marseilles, leaving the

Fernand's eye darted lightning. "And should any misfortune occur to you, dear Edmond," she continued with

the same calmness which proved to Fernand that the young girl had read the very innermost depths of his

sinister thought, "if misfortune should occur to you, I would ascend the highest point of the Cape de Morgion

Fernand became deadly pale. "But you are deceived, Edmond," she continued. "You have no enemy here

there is no one but Fernand, my brother, who will grasp your hand as a devoted friend."

And at these words the young girl fixed her imperious look on the Catalan, who, as if fascinated by it, came

slowly towards Edmond, and offered him his hand. His hatred, like a powerless though furious wave, was

broken against the strong ascendancy which Mercedes exercised over him. Scarcely, however, had he

touched Edmond's hand than he felt he had done all he could do, and rushed hastily out of the house.

"Oh," he exclaimed, running furiously and tearing his hair "Oh, who will deliver me from this man?

The young man stopped suddenly, looked around him, and perceived Caderousse sitting at table with

"Well", said Caderousse, "why don't you come? Are you really in such a hurry that you have no time to pass

"Particularly when they have still a full bottle before them," added Danglars. Fernand looked at them both

"He seems besotted," said Danglars, pushing Caderousse with his knee. "Are we mistaken, and is Dantes

"Why, we must inquire into that," was Caderousse's reply; and turning towards the young man, said, "Well,

Fernand wiped away the perspiration steaming from his brow, and slowly entered the arbor, whose shade

seemed to restore somewhat of calmness to his senses, and whose coolness somewhat of refreshment to his

"Goodday," said he. "You called me, didn't you?" And he fell, rather than sat down, on one of the seats

"I called you because you were running like a madman, and I was afraid you would throw yourself into the

sea," said Caderousse, laughing. "Why, when a man has friends, they are not only to offer him a glass of

wine, but, moreover, to prevent his swallowing three or four pints of water unnecessarily!"

Fernand gave a groan, which resembled a sob, and dropped his head into his hands, his elbows leaning on the

"Well, Fernand, I must say," said Caderousse, beginning the conversation, with that brutality of the common

people in which curiosity destroys all diplomacy, "you look uncommonly like a rejected lover;" and he burst

"Bah!" said Danglars, "a lad of his make was not born to be unhappy in love. You are laughing at him,

"No," he replied, "only hark how he sighs! Come, come, Fernand," said Caderousse, "hold up your head, and

answer us. It's not polite not to reply to friends who ask news of your health."

"My health is well enough," said Fernand, clinching his hands without raising his head.

"Ah, you see, Danglars," said Caderousse, winking at his friend, "this is how it is; Fernand, whom you see

here, is a good and brave Catalan, one of the best fishermen in Marseilles, and he is in love with a very fine

girl, named Mercedes; but it appears, unfortunately, that the fine girl is in love with the mate of the Pharaon;

"Well, and what then?" said Fernand, lifting up his head, and looking at Caderousse like a man who looks for

some one on whom to vent his anger; "Mercedes is not accountable to any person, is she? Is she not free to

"Oh, if you take it in that sense," said Caderousse, "it is another thing. But I thought you were a Catalan, and

they told me the Catalans were not men to allow themselves to be supplanted by a rival. It was even told me

"Poor fellow!" remarked Danglars, affecting to pity the young man from the bottom of his heart. "Why, you

see, he did not expect to see Dantes return so suddenly he thought he was dead, perhaps; or perchance

faithless! These things always come on us more severely when they come suddenly."

"Ah, ma foi, under any circumstances," said Caderousse, who drank as he spoke, and on whom the fumes of

the wine began to take effect, "under any circumstances Fernand is not the only person put out by the

"Well, never mind," answered Caderousse, pouring out a glass of wine for Fernand, and filling his own for

the eighth or ninth time, while Danglars had merely sipped his. "Never mind in the meantime he marries

During this time Danglars fixed his piercing glance on the young man, on whose heart Caderousse's words

"No, but it will be," said Caderousse, "as surely as Dantes will be captain of the Pharaon eh, Danglars?"

Danglars shuddered at this unexpected attack, and turned to Caderousse, whose countenance he scrutinized,

to try and detect whether the blow was premeditated; but he read nothing but envy in a countenance already

"Well," said he, filling the glasses, "let us drink to Captain Edmond Dantes, husband of the beautiful

Caderousse raised his glass to his mouth with unsteady hand, and swallowed the contents at a gulp. Fernand

"Eh, eh, eh!" stammered Caderousse. "What do I see down there by the wall, in the direction of the Catalans?

Look, Fernand, your eyes are better than mine. I believe I see double. You know wine is a deceiver; but I

should say it was two lovers walking side by side, and hand in hand. Heaven forgive me, they do not know

"Ah, see there, now!" said Caderousse; "and I did not recognize them! Hallo, Dantes! hello, lovely damsel!

Come this way, and let us know when the wedding is to be, for Fernand here is so obstinate he will not tell

"Hold your tongue, will you?" said Danglars, pretending to restrain Caderousse, who, with the tenacity of

drunkards, leaned out of the arbor. "Try to stand upright, and let the lovers make love without interruption.

Fernand, probably excited beyond bearing, pricked by Danglars, as the bull is by the bandilleros, was about to

rush out; for he had risen from his seat, and seemed to be collecting himself to dash headlong upon his rival,

when Mercedes, smiling and graceful, lifted up her lovely head, and looked at them with her clear and bright

eyes. At this Fernand recollected her threat of dying if Edmond died, and dropped again heavily on his seat.

Danglars looked at the two men, one after the other, the one brutalized by liquor, the other overwhelmed with

"I shall get nothing from these fools," he muttered; "and I am very much afraid of being here between a

drunkard and a coward. Here's an envious fellow making himself boozy on wine when he ought to be nursing

his wrath, and here is a fool who sees the woman he loves stolen from under his nose and takes on like a big

baby. Yet this Catalan has eyes that glisten like those of the vengeful Spaniards, Sicilians, and Calabrians,

and the other has fists big enough to crush an ox at one blow. Unquestionably, Edmond's star is in the

ascendant, and he will marry the splendid girl he will be captain, too, and laugh at us all, unless" a

sinister smile passed over Danglars' lips "unless I take a hand in the affair," he added.

"Hallo!" continued Caderousse, halfrising, and with his fist on the table, "hallo, Edmond! do you not see

"No, my dear fellow!" replied Dantes, "I am not proud, but I am happy, and happiness blinds, I think, more

"Ah, very well, that's an explanation!" said Caderousse. "How do you do, Madame Dantes?"

Mercedes courtesied gravely, and said "That is not my name, and in my country it bodes ill fortune, they

say, to call a young girl by the name of her betrothed before he becomes her husband. So call me Mercedes, if

"We must excuse our worthy neighbor, Caderousse," said Dantes, "he is so easily mistaken."

"So, then, the wedding is to take place immediately, M. Dantes," said Danglars, bowing to the young couple.

"As soon as possible, M. Danglars; today all preliminaries will be arranged at my father's, and tomorrow,

or next day at latest, the wedding festival here at La Reserve. My friends will be there, I hope; that is to say,

"My wife's brother is my brother," said Edmond; "and we, Mercedes and I, should be very sorry if he were

Fernand opened his mouth to reply, but his voice died on his lips, and he could not utter a word.

"Today the preliminaries, tomorrow or next day the ceremony! You are in a hurry, captain!"

"Danglars," said Edmond, smiling, "I will say to you as Mercedes said just now to Caderousse, `Do not give

"Your pardon," replied Danglars, "I merely said you seemed in a hurry, and we have lots of time; the Pharaon

"We are always in a hurry to be happy, M. Danglars; for when we have suffered a long time, we have great

difficulty in believing in good fortune. But it is not selfishness alone that makes me thus in haste; I must go to

"Ah, really? to Paris! and will it be the first time you have ever been there, Dantes?"

"Not of my own; the last commission of poor Captain Leclere; you know to what I allude, Danglars it is

"Yes, yes, I understand," said Danglars, and then in a low tone, he added, "To Paris, no doubt to deliver the

letter which the grand marshal gave him. Ah, this letter gives me an idea a capital idea! Ah; Dantes, my

friend, you are not yet registered number one on board the good ship Pharaon;" then turning towards

"Thank you," said Edmond with a friendly nod, and the two lovers continued on their way, as calm and

Danglars followed Edmond and Mercedes with his eyes until the two lovers disappeared behind one of the

angles of Fort Saint Nicolas, then turning round, he perceived Fernand, who had fallen, pale and trembling,

"Well, my dear sir," said Danglars to Fernand, "here is a marriage which does not appear to make everybody

"And you sit there, tearing your hair, instead of seeking to remedy your condition; I did not think that was the

"How do I know? Is it my affair? I am not in love with Mademoiselle Mercedes; but for you in the words

"I would stab the man, but the woman told me that if any misfortune happened to her betrothed, she would

"Idiot!" muttered Danglars; "whether she kill herself or not, what matter, provided Dantes is not captain?"

"Before Mercedes should die," replied Fernand, with the accents of unshaken resolution, "I would die

"That's what I call love!" said Caderousse with a voice more tipsy than ever. "That's love, or I don't know

"Come," said Danglars, "you appear to me a good sort of fellow, and hang me, I should like to help you, but"

"My dear fellow," replied Danglars, "you are three parts drunk; finish the bottle, and you will be completely

so. Drink then, and do not meddle with what we are discussing, for that requires all one's wit and cool

"I drunk!" said Caderousse; "well that's a good one! I could drink four more such bottles; they are no

bigger than cologne flasks. Pere Pamphile, more wine!" and Caderousse rattled his glass upon the table.

"You were saving, sir" said Fernand, awaiting with great anxiety the end of this interrupted remark.

"What was I saying? I forget. This drunken Caderousse has made me lose the thread of my sentence."

"Drunk, if you like; so much the worse for those who fear wine, for it is because they have bad thoughts

which they are afraid the liquor will extract from their hearts;" and Caderousse began to sing the two last

"Yes; but I added, to help you it would be sufficient that Dantes did not marry her you love; and the marriage

"You talk like a noodle, my friend," said Caderousse; "and here is Danglars, who is a wideawake, clever,

deep fellow, who will prove to you that you are wrong. Prove it, Danglars. I have answered for you. Say there

is no need why Dantes should die; it would, indeed, be a pity he should. Dantes is a good fellow; I like

Fernand rose impatiently. "Let him run on," said Danglars, restraining the young man; "drunk as he is, he is

not much out in what he says. Absence severs as well as death, and if the walls of a prison were between

Edmond and Mercedes they would be as effectually separated as if he lay under a tombstone."

"Yes; but one gets out of prison," said Caderousse, who, with what sense was left him, listened eagerly to the

conversation, "and when one gets out and one's name is Edmond Dantes, one seeks revenge"

"And why, I should like to know," persisted Caderousse, "should they put Dantes in prison? he has not

"I won't hold my tongue!" replied Caderousse; "I say I want to know why they should put Dantes in prison; I

Danglars saw in the muddled look of the tailor the progress of his intoxication, and turning towards Fernand,

"Certainly not, if, as you said just now, you have the means of having Dantes arrested. Have you that

"It is to be found for the searching. But why should I meddle in the matter? it is no affair of mine.";

"I know not why you meddle," said Fernand, seizing his arm; "but this I know, you have some motive of

personal hatred against Dantes, for he who himself hates is never mistaken in the sentiments of others."

"I! motives of hatred against Dantes? None, on my word! I saw you were unhappy, and your unhappiness

interested me; that's all; but since you believe I act for my own account, adieu, my dear friend, get out of the

"No, no," said Fernand, restraining him, "stay! It is of very little consequence to me at the end of the matter

whether you have any angry feeling or not against Dantes. I hate him! I confess it openly. Do you find the

means, I will execute it, provided it is not to kill the man, for Mercedes has declared she will kill herself if

Caderousse, who had let his head drop on the table, now raised it, and looking at Fernand with his dull and

fishy eyes, he said, "Kill Dantes! who talks of killing Dantes? I won't have him killed I won't! He's my

friend, and this morning offered to share his money with me, as I shared mine with him. I won't have Dantes

"And who has said a word about killing him, muddlehead?" replied Danglars. "We were merely joking; drink

to his health," he added, filling Caderousse's glass, "and do not interfere with us."

"Yes, yes, Dantes' good health!" said Caderousse, emptying his glass, "here's to his health! his health

"True," replied Danglars; "the French have the superiority over the Spaniards, that the Spaniards ruminate,

"Yes; I am a supercargo; pen, ink, and paper are my tools, and without my tools I am fit for nothing."

"When one thinks," said Caderousse, letting his hand drop on the paper, "there is here wherewithal to kill a

man more sure than if we waited at the corner of a wood to assassinate him! I have always had more dread of

"The fellow is not so drunk as he appears to be," said Danglars. "Give him some more wine, Fernand."

Fernand filled Caderousse's glass, who, like the confirmed toper he was, lifted his hand from the paper and

The Catalan watched him until Caderousse, almost overcome by this fresh assault on his senses, rested, or

"Well!" resumed the Catalan, as he saw the final glimmer of Caderousse's reason vanishing before the last

"Well, then, I should say, for instance," resumed Danglars, "that if after a voyage such as Dantes has just

made, in which he touched at the Island of Elba, some one were to denounce him to the king's procureur as a

"Yes, but they will make you then sign your declaration, and confront you with him you have denounced; I

will supply you with the means of supporting your accusation, for I know the fact well. But Dantes cannot

remain forever in prison, and one day or other he will leave it, and the day when he comes out, woe betide

"Oh, I should wish nothing better than that he would come and seek a quarrel with me."

"Yes, and Mercedes! Mercedes, who will detest you if you have only the misfortune to scratch the skin of her

"No, no," continued Danglars; "if we resolve on such a step, it would be much better to take, as I now do, this

pen, dip it into this ink, and write with the left hand (that the writing may not be recognized) the denunciation

we propose." And Danglars, uniting practice with theory, wrote with his left hand, and in a writing reversed

from his usual style, and totally unlike it, the following lines, which he handed to Fernand, and which

"The honorable, the king's attorney, is informed by a friend of the throne and religion, that one Edmond

Dantes, mate of the ship Pharaon, arrived this morning from Smyrna, after having touched at Naples and

PortoFerrajo, has been intrusted by Murat with a letter for the usurper, and by the usurper with a letter for

the Bonapartist committee in Paris. Proof of this crime will be found on arresting him, for the letter will be

"Very good," resumed Danglars; "now your revenge looks like commonsense, for in no way can it revert to

yourself, and the matter will thus work its own way; there is nothing to do now but fold the letter as I am

doing, and write upon it, `To the king's attorney,' and that's all settled." And Danglars wrote the address as he

"Yes, and that's all settled!" exclaimed Caderousse, who, by a last effort of intellect, had followed the reading

of the letter, and instinctively comprehended all the misery which such a denunciation must entail. "Yes, and

that's all settled; only it will be an infamous shame;" and he stretched out his hand to reach the letter.

"Yes," said Danglars, taking it from beyond his reach; "and as what I say and do is merely in jest, and I,

amongst the first and foremost, should be sorry if anything happened to Dantes the worthy Dantes look

here!" And taking the letter, he squeezed it up in his hands and threw it into a corner of the arbor.

"All right!" said Caderousse. "Dantes is my friend, and I won't have him illused."

"And who thinks of using him ill? Certainly neither I nor Fernand," said Danglars, rising and looking at the

young man, who still remained seated, but whose eye was fixed on the denunciatory sheet of paper flung into

"In this case," replied Caderousse, "let's have some more wine. I wish to drink to the health of Edmond and

"You have had too much already, drunkard," said Danglars; "and if you continue, you will be compelled to

"I?" said Caderousse, rising with all the offended dignity of a drunken man, "I can't keep on my legs? Why,

I'll wager I can go up into the belfry of the Accoules, and without staggering, too!"

"Done!" said Danglars, "I'll take your bet; but tomorrow today it is time to return. Give me your arm,

"Very well, let us go," said Caderousse; "but I don't want your arm at all. Come, Fernand, won't you return to

"What do you mean? you will not? Well, just as you like, my prince; there's liberty for all the world. Come

along, Danglars, and let the young gentleman return to the Catalans if he chooses."

Danglars took advantage of Caderousse's temper at the moment, to take him off towards Marseilles by the

When they had advanced about twenty yards, Danglars looked back and saw Fernand stoop, pick up the

crumpled paper, and putting it into his pocket then rush out of the arbor towards Pillon.

"Well," said Caderousse, "why, what a lie he told! He said he was going to the Catalans, and he is going to

"Come, come," said Danglars to himself, "now the thing is at work and it will effect its purpose unassisted."

The morning's sun rose clear and resplendent, touching the foamy waves into a network of rubytinted light.

The feast had been made ready on the second floor at La Reserve, with whose arbor the reader is already

familiar. The apartment destined for the purpose was spacious and lighted by a number of windows, over

each of which was written in golden letters for some inexplicable reason the name of one of the principal

cities of France; beneath these windows a wooden balcony extended the entire length of the house. And

although the entertainment was fixed for twelve o'clock, an hour previous to that time the balcony was filled

with impatient and expectant guests, consisting of the favored part of the crew of the Pharaon, and other

personal friends of the bridegroom, the whole of whom had arrayed themselves in their choicest costumes,

Various rumors were afloat to the effect that the owners of the Pharaon had promised to attend the nuptial

feast; but all seemed unanimous in doubting that an act of such rare and exceeding condescension could

Danglars, however, who now made his appearance, accompanied by Caderousse, effectually confirmed the

report, stating that he had recently conversed with M. Morrel, who had himself assured him of his intention to

In fact, a moment later M. Morrel appeared and was saluted with an enthusiastic burst of applause from the

crew of the Pharaon, who hailed the visit of the shipowner as a sure indication that the man whose wedding

feast he thus delighted to honor would ere long be first in command of the ship; and as Dantes was

universally beloved on board his vessel, the sailors put no restraint on their tumultuous joy at finding that the

With the entrance of M. Morrel, Danglars and Caderousse were despatched in search of the bridegroom to

convey to him the intelligence of the arrival of the important personage whose coming had created such a

Danglars and Caderousse set off upon their errand at full speed; but ere they had gone many steps they

perceived a group advancing towards them, composed of the betrothed pair, a party of young girls in

attendance on the bride, by whose side walked Dantes' father; the whole brought up by Fernand, whose lips

Neither Mercedes nor Edmond observed the strange expression of his countenance; they were so happy that

Having acquitted themselves of their errand, and exchanged a hearty shake of the hand with Edmond,

Danglars and Caderousse took their places beside Fernand and old Dantes, the latter of whom attracted

universal notice. The old man was attired in a suit of glistening watered silk, trimmed with steel buttons,

beautifully cut and polished. His thin but wiry legs were arrayed in a pair of richly embroidered clocked

stockings, evidently of English manufacture, while from his threecornered hat depended a long streaming

knot of white and blue ribbons. Thus he came along, supporting himself on a curiously carved stick, his aged

countenance lit up with happiness, looking for all the world like one of the aged dandies of 1796, parading

the newly opened gardens of the Tuileries and Luxembourg. Beside him glided Caderousse, whose desire to

partake of the good things provided for the weddingparty had induced him to become reconciled to the

Dantes, father and son, although there still lingered in his mind a faint and unperfect recollection of the

events of the preceding night; just as the brain retains on waking in the morning the dim and misty outline of

As Danglars approached the disappointed lover, he cast on him a look of deep meaning, while Fernand, as he

slowly paced behind the happy pair, who seemed, in their own unmixed content, to have entirely forgotten

that such a being as himself existed, was pale and abstracted; occasionally, however, a deep flush would

overspread his countenance, and a nervous contraction distort his features, while, with an agitated and restless

gaze, he would glance in the direction of Marseilles, like one who either anticipated or foresaw some great

Dantes himself was simply, but becomingly, clad in the dress peculiar to the merchant service a costume

somewhat between a military and a civil garb; and with his fine countenance, radiant with joy and happiness,

Lovely as the Greek girls of Cyprus or Chios, Mercedes boasted the same bright flashing eyes of jet, and ripe,

round, coral lips. She moved with the light, free step of an Arlesienne or an Andalusian. One more practiced

in the arts of great cities would have hid her blushes beneath a veil, or, at least, have cast down her thickly

fringed lashes, so as to have concealed the liquid lustre of her animated eyes; but, on the contrary, the

delighted girl looked around her with a smile that seemed to say: "If you are my friends, rejoice with me, for I

As soon as the bridal party came in sight of La Reserve, M. Morrel descended and came forth to meet it,

followed by the soldiers and sailors there assembled, to whom he had repeated the promise already given, that

Dantes should be the successor to the late Captain Leclere. Edmond, at the approach of his patron,

respectfully placed the arm of his affianced bride within that of M. Morrel, who, forthwith conducting her up

the flight of wooden steps leading to the chamber in which the feast was prepared, was gayly followed by the

guests, beneath whose heavy tread the slight structure creaked and groaned for the space of several minutes.

"Father," said Mercedes, stopping when she had reached the centre of the table, "sit, I pray you, on my right

hand; on my left I will place him who has ever been as a brother to me," pointing with a soft and gentle smile

to Fernand; but her words and look seemed to inflict the direst torture on him, for his lips became ghastly

pale, and even beneath the dark hue of his complexion the blood might be seen retreating as though some

During this time, Dantes, at the opposite side of the table, had been occupied in similarly placing his most

honored guests. M. Morrel was seated at his right hand, Danglars at his left; while, at a sign from Edmond,

Then they began to pass around the dusky, piquant, Arlesian sausages, and lobsters in their dazzling red

cuirasses, prawns of large size and brilliant color, the echinus with its prickly outside and dainty morsel

within, the clovis, esteemed by the epicures of the South as more than rivalling the exquisite flavor of the

oyster, all the delicacies, in fact, that are cast up by the wash of waters on the sandy beach, and styled by

"A pretty silence truly!" said the old father of the bridegroom, as he carried to his lips a glass of wine of the

hue and brightness of the topaz, and which had just been placed before Mercedes herself. "Now, would

anybody think that this room contained a happy, merry party, who desire nothing better than to laugh and

"Ah," sighed Caderousse, "a man cannot always feel happy because he is about to be married."

"The truth is," replied Dantes, "that I am too happy for noisy mirth; if that is what you meant by your

observation, my worthy friend, you are right; joy takes a strange effect at times, it seems to oppress us almost

Danglars looked towards Fernand, whose excitable nature received and betrayed each fresh impression.

"Why, what ails you?" asked he of Edmond. "Do you fear any approaching evil? I should say that you were

"And that is the very thing that alarms me," returned Dantes. "Man does not appear to me to be intended to

enjoy felicity so unmixed; happiness is like the enchanted palaces we read of in our childhood, where fierce,

fiery dragons defend the entrance and approach; and monsters of all shapes and kinds, requiring to be

overcome ere victory is ours. I own that I am lost in wonder to find myself promoted to an honor of which I

"Nay, nay!" cried Caderousse, smiling, "you have not attained that honor yet. Mercedes is not yet your wife.

Just assume the tone and manner of a husband, and see how she will remind you that your hour is not yet

The bride blushed, while Fernand, restless and uneasy, seemed to start at every fresh sound, and from time to

"Well, never mind that, neighbor Caderousse; it is not worth while to contradict me for such a trifle as that.

'Tis true that Mercedes is not actually my wife; but," added he, drawing out his watch, "in an hour and a half

A general exclamation of surprise ran round the table, with the exception of the elder Dantes, whose laugh

displayed the still perfect beauty of his large white teeth. Mercedes looked pleased and gratified, while

"Why, thus it is," replied Dantes. "Thanks to the influence of M. Morrel, to whom, next to my father, I owe

every blessing I enjoy, every difficulty his been removed. We have purchased permission to waive the usual

delay; and at halfpast two o'clock the mayor of Marseilles will be waiting for us at the city hall. Now, as a

quarterpast one has already struck, I do not consider I have asserted too much in saying, that, in another

Fernand closed his eyes, a burning sensation passed across his brow, and he was compelled to support

himself by the table to prevent his falling from his chair; but in spite of all his efforts, he could not refrain

from uttering a deep groan, which, however, was lost amid the noisy felicitations of the company.

"Upon my word," cried the old man, "you make short work of this kind of affair. Arrived here only yesterday

morning, and married today at three o'clock! Commend me to a sailor for going the quick way to work!"

"But," asked Danglars, in a timid tone, "how did you manage about the other formalities the contract

"The contract," answered Dantes, laughingly, "it didn't take long to fix that. Mercedes has no fortune; I have

none to settle on her. So, you see, our papers were quickly written out, and certainly do not come very

"So that what we presumed to be merely the betrothal feast turns out to be the actual wedding dinner!" said

"No, no," answered Dantes; "don't imagine I am going to put you off in that shabby manner. Tomorrow

morning I start for Paris; four days to go, and the same to return, with one day to discharge the commission

intrusted to me, is all the time I shall be absent. I shall be back here by the first of March, and on the second I

This prospect of fresh festivity redoubled the hilarity of the guests to such a degree, that the elder Dantes,

who, at the commencement of the repast, had commented upon the silence that prevailed, now found it

difficult, amid the general din of voices, to obtain a moment's tranquillity in which to drink to the health and

Dantes, perceiving the affectionate eagerness of his father, responded by a look of grateful pleasure; while

Around the table reigned that noisy hilarity which usually prevails at such a time among people sufficiently

free from the demands of social position not to feel the trammels of etiquette. Such as at the commencement

of the repast had not been able to seat themselves according to their inclination rose unceremoniously, and

sought out more agreeable companions. Everybody talked at once, without waiting for a reply and each one

Fernand's paleness appeared to have communicated itself to Danglars. As for Fernand himself, he seemed to

be enduring the tortures of the damned; unable to rest, he was among the first to quit the table, and, as though

seeking to avoid the hilarious mirth that rose in such deafening sounds, he continued, in utter silence, to pace

Caderousse approached him just as Danglars, whom Fernand seemed most anxious to avoid, had joined him

"Upon my word," said Caderousse, from whose mind the friendly treatment of Dantes, united with the effect

of the excellent wine he had partaken of, had effaced every feeling of envy or jealousy at Dantes' good

fortune, "upon my word, Dantes is a downright good fellow, and when I see him sitting there beside his

pretty wife that is so soon to be. I cannot help thinking it would have been a great pity to have served him that

"Oh, there was no harm meant," answered Danglars; "at first I certainly did feel somewhat uneasy as to what

Fernand might be tempted to do; but when I saw how completely he had mastered his feelings, even so far as

to become one of his rival's attendants, I knew there was no further cause for apprehension." Caderousse

"Certainly," continued Danglars, "the sacrifice was no trifling one, when the beauty of the bride is concerned.

Upon my soul, that future captain of mine is a lucky dog! Gad, I only wish he would let me take his place."

"Shall we not set forth?" asked the sweet, silvery voice of Mercedes; "two o'clock has just struck, and you

"To be sure! to be sure!" cried Dantes, eagerly quitting the table; "let us go directly!"

At this moment Danglars, who had been incessantly observing every change in Fernand's look and manner,

saw him stagger and fall back, with an almost convulsive spasm, against a seat placed near one of the open

windows. At the same instant his ear caught a sort of indistinct sound on the stairs, followed by the measured

tread of soldiery, with the clanking of swords and military accoutrements; then came a hum and buzz as of

many voices, so as to deaden even the noisy mirth of the bridal party, among whom a vague feeling of

curiosity and apprehension quelled every disposition to talk, and almost instantaneously the most deathlike

The sounds drew nearer. Three blows were struck upon the panel of the door. The company looked at each

"I demand admittance," said a loud voice outside the room, "in the name of the law!" As no attempt was

made to prevent it, the door was opened, and a magistrate, wearing his official scarf, presented himself,

followed by four soldiers and a corporal. Uneasiness now yielded to the most extreme dread on the part of

"May I venture to inquire the reason of this unexpected visit?" said M. Morrel, addressing the magistrate,

"If it be so," replied the magistrate, "rely upon every reparation being made; meanwhile, I am the bearer of an

order of arrest, and although I most reluctantly perform the task assigned me, it must, nevertheless, be

fulfilled. Who among the persons here assembled answers to the name of Edmond Dantes?" Every eye was

turned towards the young man who, spite of the agitation he could not but feel, advanced with dignity, and

"I cannot inform you, but you will be duly acquainted with the reasons that have rendered such a step

M. Morrel felt that further resistance or remonstrance was useless. He saw before him an officer delegated to

enforce the law, and perfectly well knew that it would be as unavailing to seek pity from a magistrate decked

with his official scarf, as to address a petition to some cold marble effigy. Old Dantes, however, sprang

forward. There are situations which the heart of a father or a mother cannot be made to understand. He prayed

and supplicated in terms so moving, that even the officer was touched, and, although firm in his duty, he

kindly said, "My worthy friend, let me beg of you to calm your apprehensions. Your son has probably

neglected some prescribed form or attention in registering his cargo, and it is more than probable he will be

set at liberty directly he has given the information required, whether touching the health of his crew, or the

"What is the meaning of all this?" inquired Caderousse, frowningly, of Danglars, who had assumed an air of

"How can I tell you?" replied he; "I am, like yourself, utterly bewildered at all that is going on, and cannot in

the least make out what it is about." Caderousse then looked around for Fernand, but he had disappeared.

The scene of the previous night now came back to his mind with startling clearness. The painful catastrophe

he had just witnessed appeared effectually to have rent away the veil which the intoxication of the evening

"So, so," said he, in a hoarse and choking voice, to Danglars, "this, then, I suppose, is a part of the trick you

were concerting yesterday? All I can say is, that if it be so, 'tis an ill turn, and well deserves to bring double

"Nonsense," returned Danglars, "I tell you again I have nothing whatever to do with it; besides, you know

"No, you did not!" answered Caderousse, "you merely threw it by I saw it lying in a corner."

"Hold your tongue, you fool! what should you know about it? why, you were drunk!"

"How do I know?" replied Danglars; "gone, as every prudent man ought to be, to look after his own affairs,

most likely. Never mind where he is, let you and I go and see what is to be done for our poor friends."

During this conversation, Dantes, after having exchanged a cheerful shake of the hand with all his

sympathizing friends, had surrendered himself to the officer sent to arrest him, merely saying, "Make

yourselves quite easy, my good fellows, there is some little mistake to clear up, that's all, depend upon it; and

"Oh, to be sure!" responded Danglars, who had now approached the group, "nothing more than a mistake, I

Dantes descended the staircase, preceded by the magistrate, and followed by the soldiers. A carriage awaited

him at the door; he got in, followed by two soldiers and the magistrate, and the vehicle drove off towards

"Adieu, adieu, dearest Edmond!" cried Mercedes, stretching out her arms to him from the balcony.

The prisoner heard the cry, which sounded like the sob of a broken heart, and leaning from the coach he

called out, "Goodby, Mercedes we shall soon meet again!" Then the vehicle disappeared round one of

"Wait for me here, all of you!" cried M. Morrel; "I will take the first conveyance I find, and hurry to

"That's right!" exclaimed a multitude of voices, "go, and return as quickly as you can!"

This second departure was followed by a long and fearful state of terrified silence on the part of those who

were left behind. The old father and Mercedes remained for some time apart, each absorbed in grief; but at

length the two poor victims of the same blow raised their eyes, and with a simultaneous burst of feeling

Meanwhile Fernand made his appearance, poured out for himself a glass of water with a trembling hand; then

hastily swallowing it, went to sit down at the first vacant place, and this was, by mere chance, placed next to

the seat on which poor Mercedes had fallen half fainting, when released from the warm and affectionate

"He is the cause of all this misery I am quite sure of it," whispered Caderousse, who had never taken his

"I don't think so," answered the other; he's too stupid to imagine such a scheme. I only hope the mischief will

"Surely," answered Danglars, "one cannot be held responsible for every chance arrow shot into the air."

"What think you, Danglars," said one of the party, turning towards him, "of this event?"

"Why," replied he, "I think it just possible Dantes may have been detected with some trifling article on board

"But how could he have done so without your knowledge, Danglars, since you are the ship's supercargo?"

"Why, as for that, I could only know what I was told respecting the merchandise with which the vessel was

laden. I know she was loaded with cotton, and that she took in her freight at Alexandria from Pastret's

warehouse, and at Smyrna from Pascal's; that is all I was obliged to know, and I beg I may not be asked for

"Now I recollect," said the afflicted old father; "my poor boy told me yesterday he had got a small case of

"There, you see," exclaimed Danglars. "Now the mischief is out; depend upon it the customhouse people

went rummaging about the ship in our absence, and discovered poor Dantes' hidden treasures."

Mercedes, however, paid no heed to this explanation of her lover's arrest. Her grief, which she had hitherto

"Come, come," said the old man, "be comforted, my poor child; there is still hope!"

"Hope!" faintly murmured Fernand, but the word seemed to die away on his pale agitated lips, and a

"Good news! good news!" shouted forth one of the party stationed in the balcony on the lookout. "Here

comes M. Morrel back. No doubt, now, we shall hear that our friend is released!"

Mercedes and the old man rushed to meet the shipowner and greeted him at the door. He was very pale.

"Alas, my friends," replied M. Morrel, with a mournful shake of his head, "the thing has assumed a more

"With being an agent of the Bonapartist faction!" Many of our readers may be able to recollect how

A despairing cry escaped the pale lips of Mercedes; the old man sank into a chair.

"Ah, Danglars!" whispered Caderousse, "you have deceived me the trick you spoke of last night has been

played; but I cannot suffer a poor old man or an innocent girl to die of grief through your fault. I am

"Be silent, you simpleton!" cried Danglars, grasping him by the arm, "or I will not answer even for your own

safety. Who can tell whether Dantes be innocent or guilty? The vessel did touch at Elba, where he quitted it,

and passed a whole day in the island. Now, should any letters or other documents of a compromising

character be found upon him, will it not be taken for granted that all who uphold him are his accomplices?"

With the rapid instinct of selfishness, Caderousse readily perceived the solidity of this mode of reasoning; he

gazed, doubtfully, wistfully, on Danglars, and then caution supplanted generosity.

"Suppose we wait a while, and see what comes of it," said he, casting a bewildered look on his companion.

"To be sure!" answered Danglars. "Let us wait, by all means. If he be innocent, of course he will be set at

"With all my heart!" replied Danglars, pleased to find the other so tractable. "Let us take ourselves out of the

After their departure, Fernand, who had now again become the friend and protector of Mercedes, led the girl

to her home, while the friends of Dantes conducted the now halffainting man back to his abode.

The rumor of Edmond arrest as a Bonapartist agent was not slow in circulating throughout the city.

"Could you ever have credited such a thing, my dear Danglars?" asked M. Morrel, as, on his return to the port

for the purpose of gleaning fresh tidings of Dantes, from M. de Villefort, the assistant procureur, he overtook

"Why, you know I told you," replied Danglars, "that I considered the circumstance of his having anchored at

"Certainly not!" returned Danglars. Then added in a low whisper, "You understand that, on account of your

uncle, M. Policar Morrel, who served under the other government, and who does not altogether conceal what

he thinks on the subject, you are strongly suspected of regretting the abdication of Napoleon. I should have

feared to injure both Edmond and yourself, had I divulged my own apprehensions to a soul. I am too well

aware that though a subordinate, like myself, is bound to acquaint the shipowner with everything that occurs,

"'Tis well, Danglars 'tis well!" replied M. Morrel. "You are a worthy fellow; and I had already thought of

your interests in the event of poor Edmond having become captain of the Pharaon."

"Yes, indeed; I had previously inquired of Dantes what was his opinion of you, and if he should have any

reluctance to continue you in your post, for somehow I have perceived a sort of coolness between you."

"That he certainly did think he had given you offence in an affair which he merely referred to without

entering into particulars, but that whoever possessed the good opinion and confidence of the ship's owner

"Poor Dantes!" said Caderousse. "No one can deny his being a noblehearted young fellow."

"Oh," replied Danglars, "since we cannot leave this port for the next three months, let us hope that ere the

"I am entirely at your service, M. Morrel," answered Danglars. "You know that I am as capable of managing

a ship as the most experienced captain in the service; and it will be so far advantageous to you to accept my

services, that upon Edmond's release from prison no further change will be requisite on board the Pharaon

"Thanks, Danglars that will smooth over all difficulties. I fully authorize you at once to assume the

command of the Pharaon, and look carefully to the unloading of her freight. Private misfortunes must never

"Be easy on that score, M. Morrel; but do you think we shall be permitted to see our poor Edmond?"

"I will let you know that directly I have seen M. de Villefort, whom I shall endeavor to interest in Edmond's

favor. I am aware he is a furious royalist; but, in spite of that, and of his being king's attorney, he is a man

"Perhaps not," replied Danglars; "but I hear that he is ambitions, and that's rather against him."

"Well, well," returned M. Morrel, "we shall see. But now hasten on board, I will join you there ere long." So

saying, the worthy shipowner quitted the two allies, and proceeded in the direction of the Palais de Justice.

"You see," said Danglars, addressing Caderousse, "the turn things have taken. Do you still feel any desire to

"Not the slightest, but yet it seems to me a shocking thing that a mere joke should lead to such

"But who perpetrated that joke, let me ask? neither you nor myself, but Fernand; you knew very well that I

threw the paper into a corner of the room indeed, I fancied I had destroyed it."

"Oh, no," replied Caderousse, "that I can answer for, you did not. I only wish I could see it now as plainly as I

"Well, then, if you did, depend upon it, Fernand picked it up, and either copied it or caused it to be copied;

perhaps, even, he did not take the trouble of recopying it. And now I think of it, by Heavens, he may have

"Not I. As I before said, I thought the whole thing was a joke, nothing more. It seems, however, that I have

"Still," argued Caderousse, "I would give a great deal if nothing of the kind had happened; or, at least, that I

had had no hand in it. You will see, Danglars, that it will turn out an unlucky job for both of us."

"Nonsense! If any harm come of it, it should fall on the guilty person; and that, you know, is Fernand. How

can we be implicated in any way? All we have got to do is, to keep our own counsel, and remain perfectly

quiet, not breathing a word to any living soul; and you will see that the storm will pass away without in the

"Amen!" responded Caderousse, waving his hand in token of adieu to Danglars, and bending his steps

towards the Allees de Meillan, moving his head to and fro, and muttering as he went, after the manner of one

"So far, then," said Danglars, mentally, "all has gone as I would have it. I am, temporarily, commander of the

Pharaon, with the certainty of being permanently so, if that fool of a Caderousse can be persuaded to hold his

tongue. My only fear is the chance of Dantes being released. But, there, he is in the hands of Justice; and,"

added he with a smile, "she will take her own." So saying, he leaped into a boat, desiring to be rowed on

In one of the aristocratic mansions built by Puget in the Rue du Grand Cours opposite the Medusa fountain, a

second marriage feast was being celebrated, almost at the same hour with the nuptial repast given by Dantes.

In this case, however, although the occasion of the entertainment was similar, the company was strikingly

dissimilar. Instead of a rude mixture of sailors, soldiers, and those belonging to the humblest grade of life, the

present assembly was composed of the very flower of Marseilles society, magistrates who had resigned

their office during the usurper's reign; officers who had deserted from the imperial army and joined forces

with Conde; and younger members of families, brought up to hate and execrate the man whom five years of

exile would convert into a martyr, and fifteen of restoration elevate to the rank of a god.

The guests were still at table, and the heated and energetic conversation that prevailed betrayed the violent

and vindictive passions that then agitated each dweller of the South, where unhappily, for five centuries

religious strife had long given increased bitterness to the violence of party feeling.

The emperor, now king of the petty Island of Elba, after having held sovereign sway over onehalf of the

world, counting as his subjects a small population of five or six thousand souls, after having been

accustomed to hear the "Vive Napoleons" of a hundred and twenty millions of human beings, uttered in ten

different languages, was looked upon here as a ruined man, separated forever from any fresh connection

The magistrates freely discussed their political views; the military part of the company talked unreservedly of

Moscow and Leipsic, while the women commented on the divorce of Josephine. It was not over the downfall

of the man, but over the defeat of the Napoleonic idea, that they rejoiced, and in this they foresaw for

themselves the bright and cheering prospect of a revivified political existence.

An old man, decorated with the cross of Saint Louis, now rose and proposed the health of King Louis XVIII.

It was the Marquis de SaintMeran. This toast, recalling at once the patient exile of Hartwell and the

peaceloving King of France, excited universal enthusiasm; glasses were elevated in the air a l'Anglais, and

the ladies, snatching their bouquets from their fair bosoms, strewed the table with their floral treasures. In a

"Ah," said the Marquise de SaintMeran, a woman with a stern, forbidding eye, though still noble and

distinguished in appearance, despite her fifty years "ah, these revolutionists, who have driven us from

those very possessions they afterwards purchased for a mere trifle during the Reign of Terror, would be

compelled to own, were they here, that all true devotion was on our side, since we were content to follow the

fortunes of a falling monarch, while they, on the contrary, made their fortune by worshipping the rising sun;

yes, yes, they could not help admitting that the king, for whom we sacrificed rank, wealth, and station was

truly our `Louis the wellbeloved,' while their wretched usurper his been, and ever will be, to them their evil

"I beg your pardon, madame. I really must pray you to excuse me, but in truth I was not attending to

"Marquise, marquise!" interposed the old nobleman who had proposed the toast, "let the young people alone;

let me tell you, on one's wedding day there are more agreeable subjects of conversation than dry politics."

"Never mind, dearest mother," said a young and lovely girl, with a profusion of light brown hair, and eyes

that seemed to float in liquid crystal, "'tis all my fault for seizing upon M. de Villefort, so as to prevent his

listening to what you said. But there now take him he is your own for as long as you like. M. Villefort,

"If the marquise will deign to repeat the words I but imperfectly caught, I shall be delighted to answer," said

"Never mind, Renee," replied the marquise, with a look of tenderness that seemed out of keeping with her

harsh dry features; but, however all other feelings may be withered in a woman's nature, there is always one

bright smiling spot in the desert of her heart, and that is the shrine of maternal love. "I forgive you. What I

was saying, Villefort, was, that the Bonapartists had not our sincerity, enthusiasm, or devotion."

"They had, however, what supplied the place of those fine qualities," replied the young man, "and that was

fanaticism. Napoleon is the Mahomet of the West, and is worshipped by his commonplace but ambitions

followers, not only as a leader and lawgiver, but also as the personification of equality."

"He!" cried the marquise: "Napoleon the type of equality! For mercy's sake, then, what would you call

Robespierre? Come, come, do not strip the latter of his just rights to bestow them on the Corsican, who, to

"Nay, madame; I would place each of these heroes on his right pedestal that of Robespierre on his

scaffold in the Place Louis Quinze; that of Napoleon on the column of the Place Vendome. The only

difference consists in the opposite character of the equality advocated by these two men; one is the equality

that elevates, the other is the equality that degrades; one brings a king within reach of the guillotine, the other

elevates the people to a level with the throne. Observe," said Villefort, smiling, "I do not mean to deny that

both these men were revolutionary scoundrels, and that the 9th Thermidor and the 4th of April, in the year

1814, were lucky days for France, worthy of being gratefully remembered by every friend to monarchy and

civil order; and that explains how it comes to pass that, fallen, as I trust he is forever, Napoleon has still

retained a train of parasitical satellites. Still, marquise, it has been so with other usurpers Cromwell, for

instance, who was not half so bad as Napoleon, had his partisans and advocates."

"Do you know, Villefort, that you are talking in a most dreadfully revolutionary strain? But I excuse it, it is

impossible to expect the son of a Girondin to be free from a small spice of the old leaven." A deep crimson

"'Tis true, madame," answered he, "that my father was a Girondin, but he was not among the number of those

who voted for the king's death; he was an equal sufferer with yourself during the Reign of Terror, and had

"True," replied the marquise, without wincing in the slightest degree at the tragic remembrance thus called

up; "but bear in mind, if you please, that our respective parents underwent persecution and proscription from

diametrically opposite principles; in proof of which I may remark, that while my family remained among the

stanchest adherents of the exiled princes, your father lost no time in joining the new government; and that

while the Citizen Noirtier was a Girondin, the Count Noirtier became a senator."

"Dear mother," interposed Renee, "you know very well it was agreed that all these disagreeable

"Suffer me, also, madame," replied Villefort, "to add my earnest request to Mademoiselle de SaintMeran's,

that you will kindly allow the veil of oblivion to cover and conceal the past. What avails recrimination over

matters wholly past recall? For my own part, I have laid aside even the name of my father, and altogether

disown his political principles. He was nay, probably may still be a Bonapartist, and is called Noirtier;

I, on the contrary, am a stanch royalist, and style myself de Villefort. Let what may remain of revolutionary

sap exhaust itself and die away with the old trunk, and condescend only to regard the young shoot which has

started up at a distance from the parent tree, without having the power, any more than the wish, to separate

"Bravo, Villefort!" cried the marquis; "excellently well said! Come, now, I have hopes of obtaining what I

have been for years endeavoring to persuade the marquise to promise; namely, a perfect amnesty and

"With all my heart," replied the marquise; "let the past be forever forgotten. I promise you it affords me as

little pleasure to revive it as it does you. All I ask is, that Villefort will be firm and inflexible for the future in

his political principles. Remember, also, Villefort, that we have pledged ourselves to his majesty for your

fealty and strict loyalty, and that at our recommendation the king consented to forget the past, as I do" (and

here she extended to him her hand) "as I now do at your entreaty. But bear in mind, that should there fall

in your way any one guilty of conspiring against the government, you will be so much the more bound to

visit the offence with rigorous punishment, as it is known you belong to a suspected family."

"Alas, madame," returned Villefort, "my profession, as well as the times in which we live, compels me to be

severe. I have already successfully conducted several public prosecutions, and brought the offenders to

"I am, at least, fearful of it. Napoleon, in the Island of Elba, is too near France, and his proximity keeps up the

hopes of his partisans. Marseilles is filled with halfpay officers, who are daily, under one frivolous pretext

or other, getting up quarrels with the royalists; from hence arise continual and fatal duels among the higher

"You have heard, perhaps," said the Comte de Salvieux, one of M. de SaintMeran's oldest friends, and

chamberlain to the Comte d'Artois, "that the Holy Alliance purpose removing him from thence?"

"Yes; they were talking about it when we left Paris," said M. de SaintMeran; "and where is it decided to

"An island situated on the other side of the equator, at least two thousand leagues from here," replied the

"So much the better. As Villefort observes, it is a great act of folly to have left such a man between Corsica,

where he was born, and Naples, of which his brotherinlaw is king, and face to face with Italy, the

"Unfortunately," said Villefort, "there are the treaties of 1814, and we cannot molest Napoleon without

"Oh, well, we shall find some way out of it," responded M. de Salvieux. "There wasn't any trouble over

"Well," said the marquise, "it seems probable that, by the aid of the Holy Alliance, we shall be rid of

Napoleon; and we must trust to the vigilance of M. de Villefort to purify Marseilles of his partisans. The king

is either a king or no king; if he be acknowledged as sovereign of France, he should be upheld in peace and

tranquillity; and this can best be effected by employing the most inflexible agents to put down every attempt

"Unfortunately, madame," answered Villefort, "the strong arm of the law is not called upon to interfere until

"Nay, madame, the law is frequently powerless to effect this; all it can do is to avenge the wrong done."

"Oh, M. de Villefort," cried a beautiful young creature, daughter to the Comte de Salvieux, and the cherished

friend of Mademoiselle de SaintMeran, "do try and get up some famous trial while we are at Marseilles. I

"Amusing, certainly," replied the young man, "inasmuch as, instead of shedding tears as at the fictitious tale

of woe produced at a theatre, you behold in a lawcourt a case of real and genuine distress a drama of life.

The prisoner whom you there see pale, agitated, and alarmed, instead of as is the case when a curtain falls

on a tragedy going home to sup peacefully with his family, and then retiring to rest, that he may

recommence his mimic woes on the morrow, is removed from your sight merely to be reconducted to his

prison and delivered up to the executioner. I leave you to judge how far your nerves are calculated to bear

you through such a scene. Of this, however, be assured, that should any favorable opportunity present itself, I

"For shame, M. de Villefort!" said Renee, becoming quite pale; "don't you see how you are frightening us?

"What would you have? 'Tis like a duel. I have already recorded sentence of death, five or six times, against

the movers of political conspiracies, and who can say how many daggers may be ready sharpened, and only

"Gracious heavens, M. de Villefort," said Renee, becoming more and more terrified; "you surely are not in

"Indeed I am," replied the young magistrate with a smile; "and in the interesting trial that young lady is

anxious to witness, the case would only be still more aggravated. Suppose, for instance, the prisoner, as is

more than probable, to have served under Napoleon well, can you expect for an instant, that one

accustomed, at the word of his commander, to rush fearlessly on the very bayonets of his foe, will scruple

more to drive a stiletto into the heart of one he knows to be his personal enemy, than to slaughter his

fellowcreatures, merely because bidden to do so by one he is bound to obey? Besides, one requires the

excitement of being hateful in the eyes of the accused, in order to lash one's self into a state of sufficient

vehemence and power. I would not choose to see the man against whom I pleaded smile, as though in

mockery of my words. No; my pride is to see the accused pale, agitated, and as though beaten out of all

"Bravo!" cried one of the guests; "that is what I call talking to some purpose."

"What a splendid business that last case of yours was, my dear Villefort!" remarked a third; "I mean the trial

of the man for murdering his father. Upon my word, you killed him ere the executioner had laid his hand

"Oh, as for parricides, and such dreadful people as that," interposed Renee, "it matters very little what is done

to them; but as regards poor unfortunate creatures whose only crime consists in having mixed themselves up

"Why, that is the very worst offence they could possibly commit; for, don't you see, Renee, the king is the

father of his people, and he who shall plot or contrive aught against the life and safety of the parent of

"I don't know anything about that," replied Renee; "but, M. de Villefort, you have promised me have you

"Make yourself quite easy on that point," answered Villefort, with one of his sweetest smiles; "you and I will

"My love," said the marquise, "attend to your doves, your lapdogs, and embroidery, but do not meddle with

what you do not understand. Nowadays the military profession is in abeyance and the magisterial robe is the

"Well," said Renee, "I cannot help regretting you had not chosen some other profession than your own a

physician, for instance. Do you know I always felt a shudder at the idea of even a destroying angel?"

"Dear, good Renee," whispered Villefort, as he gazed with unutterable tenderness on the lovely speaker.

"Let us hope, my child," cried the marquis, "that M. de Villefort may prove the moral and political physician

"And one which will go far to efface the recollection of his father's conduct," added the incorrigible marquise.

"Madame," replied Villefort, with a mournful smile, "I have already had the honor to observe that my father

has at least, I hope so abjured his past errors, and that he is, at the present moment, a firm and zealous

friend to religion and order a better royalist, possibly, than his son; for he has to atone for past dereliction,

while I have no other impulse than warm, decided preference and conviction." Having made this wellturned

speech, Villefort looked carefully around to mark the effect of his oratory, much as he would have done had

"Do you know, my dear Villefort," cried the Comte de Salvieux, "that is exactly what I myself said the other

day at the Tuileries, when questioned by his majesty's principal chamberlain touching the singularity of an

alliance between the son of a Girondin and the daughter of an officer of the Duc de Conde; and I assure you

he seemed fully to comprehend that this mode of reconciling political differences was based upon sound and

excellent principles. Then the king, who, without our suspecting it, had overheard our conversation,

interrupted us by saying, `Villefort' observe that the king did not pronounce the word Noirtier, but, on the

contrary, placed considerable emphasis on that of Villefort `Villefort,' said his majesty, `is a young man of

great judgment and discretion, who will be sure to make a figure in his profession; I like him much, and it

gave me great pleasure to hear that he was about to become the soninlaw of the Marquis and Marquise de

SaintMeran. I should myself have recommended the match, had not the noble marquis anticipated my

"Is it possible the king could have condescended so far as to express himself so favorably of me?" asked the

"I give you his very words; and if the marquis chooses to be candid, he will confess that they perfectly agree

with what his majesty said to him, when he went six months ago to consult him upon the subject of your

"How much do I owe this gracious prince! What is there I would not do to evince my earnest gratitude!"

"That is right," cried the marquise. "I love to see you thus. Now, then, were a conspirator to fall into your

"For my part, dear mother." interposed Renee, "I trust your wishes will not prosper, and that Providence will

only permit petty offenders, poor debtors, and miserable cheats to fall into M. de Villefort's hands, then I

"Just the same as though you prayed that a physician might only be called upon to prescribe for headaches,

measles, and the stings of wasps, or any other slight affection of the epidermis. If you wish to see me the

king's attorney, you must desire for me some of those violent and dangerous diseases from the cure of which

At this moment, and as though the utterance of Villefort's wish had sufficed to effect its accomplishment, a

servant entered the room, and whispered a few words in his ear. Villefort immediately rose from table and

quitted the room upon the plea of urgent business; he soon, however, returned, his whole face beaming with

delight. Renee regarded him with fond affection; and certainly his handsome features, lit up as they then were

with more than usual fire and animation, seemed formed to excite the innocent admiration with which she

"You were wishing just now," said Villefort, addressing her, "that I were a doctor instead of a lawyer. Well, I

at least resemble the disciples of Esculapius in one thing that of not being able to call a day my own, not

"And wherefore were you called away just now?" asked Mademoiselle de SaintMeran, with an air of deep

"Is it possible?" burst simultaneously from all who were near enough to the magistrate to hear his words.

"Why, if my information prove correct, a sort of Bonaparte conspiracy has just been discovered."

"I will read you the letter containing the accusation, at least," said Villefort:

"`The king's attorney is informed by a friend to the throne and the religions institutions of his country, that

one named Edmond Dantes, mate of the ship Pharaon, this day arrived from Smyrna, after having touched at

Naples and PortoFerrajo, has been the bearer of a letter from Murat to the usurper, and again taken charge

of another letter from the usurper to the Bonapartist club in Paris. Ample corroboration of this statement may

be obtained by arresting the abovementioned Edmond Dantes, who either carries the letter for Paris about

with him, or has it at his father's abode. Should it not be found in the possession of father or son, then it will

assuredly be discovered in the cabin belonging to the said Dantes on board the Pharaon.'"

"But," said Renee, "this letter, which, after all, is but an anonymous scrawl, is not even addressed to you, but

"True; but that gentleman being absent, his secretary, by his orders, opened his letters; thinking this one of

importance, he sent for me, but not finding me, took upon himself to give the necessary orders for arresting

"Nay, dear mother, say the accused person. You know we cannot yet pronounce him guilty."

"He is in safe custody," answered Villefort; "and rely upon it, if the letter is found, he will not be likely to be

trusted abroad again, unless he goes forth under the especial protection of the headsman."

"Come, come, my friend," interrupted the marquise, "do not neglect your duty to linger with us. You are the

"O Villefort!" cried Renee, clasping her hands, and looking towards her lover with piteous earnestness, "be

The young man passed round to the side of the table where the fair pleader sat, and leaning over her chair

"To give you pleasure, my sweet Renee, I promise to show all the lenity in my power; but if the charges

brought against this Bonapartist hero prove correct, why, then, you really must give me leave to order his

"Never mind that foolish girl, Villefort," said the marquise. "She will soon get over these things." So saying,

Madame de SaintMeran extended her dry bony hand to Villefort, who, while imprinting a soninlaw's

respectful salute on it, looked at Renee, as much as to say, "I must try and fancy 'tis your dear hand I kiss, as

"Upon my word, child!" exclaimed the angry marquise, "your folly exceeds all bounds. I should be glad to

know what connection there can possibly be between your sickly sentimentality and the affairs of the state!"

"Nay, madame, I pray you pardon this little traitor. I promise you that to make up for her want of loyalty, I

will be most inflexibly severe;" then casting an expressive glance at his betrothed, which seemed to say,

"Fear not, for your dear sake my justice shall be tempered with mercy," and receiving a sweet and approving

No sooner had Villefort left the salon, than he assumed the grave air of a man who holds the balance of life

and death in his hands. Now, in spite of the mobility of his countenance, the command of which, like a

finished actor, he had carefully studied before the glass, it was by no means easy for him to assume an air of

judicial severity. Except the recollection of the line of politics his father had adopted, and which might

interfere, unless he acted with the greatest prudence, with his own career, Gerard de Villefort was as happy as

a man could be. Already rich, he held a high official situation, though only twentyseven. He was about to

marry a young and charming woman, whom he loved, not passionately, but reasonably, as became a deputy

attorney of the king; and besides her personal attractions, which were very great, Mademoiselle de

SaintMeran's family possessed considerable political influence, which they would, of course, exert in his

favor. The dowry of his wife amounted to fifty thousand crowns, and he had, besides, the prospect of seeing

her fortune increased to half a million at her father's death. These considerations naturally gave Villefort a

feeling of such complete felicity that his mind was fairly dazzled in its contemplation.

At the door he met the commissary of police, who was waiting for him. The sight of this officer recalled

Villefort from the third heaven to earth; he composed his face, as we have before described, and said, "I have

read the letter, sir, and you have acted rightly in arresting this man; now inform me what you have discovered

"We know nothing as yet of the conspiracy, monsieur; all the papers found have been sealed up and placed on

your desk. The prisoner himself is named Edmond Dantes, mate on board the threemaster the Pharaon,

trading in cotton with Alexandria and Smyrna, and belonging to Morrel Son, of Marseilles."

At this moment, and as Villefort had arrived at the corner of the Rue des Conseils, a man, who seemed to

"Ah, M. de Villefort," cried he, "I am delighted to see you. Some of your people have committed the

"Oh," said Morrel, carried away by his friendship, "you do not know him, and I do. He is the most estimable,

the most trustworthy creature in the world, and I will venture to say, there is not a better seaman in all the

Villefort, as we have seen, belonged to the aristocratic party at Marseilles, Morrel to the plebeian; the first

was a royalist, the other suspected of Bonapartism. Villefort looked disdainfully at Morrel, and replied,

"You are aware, monsieur, that a man may be estimable and trustworthy in private life, and the best seaman

in the merchant service, and yet be, politically speaking, a great criminal. Is it not true?"

The magistrate laid emphasis on these words, as if he wished to apply them to the owner himself, while his

eyes seemed to plunge into the heart of one who, interceding for another, had himself need of indulgence.

Morrel reddened, for his own conscience was not quite clear on politics; besides, what Dantes had told him of

his interview with the grandmarshal, and what the emperor had said to him, embarrassed him. He replied,

"I entreat you, M. de Villefort, be, as you always are, kind and equitable, and give him back to us soon." This

"Ah, ah," murmured he, "is Dantes then a member of some Carbonari society, that his protector thus employs

the collective form? He was, if I recollect, arrested in a tavern, in company with a great many others." Then

he added, "Monsieur, you may rest assured I shall perform my duty impartially, and that if he be innocent you

shall not have appealed to me in vain; should he, however, be guilty, in this present epoch, impunity would

As he had now arrived at the door of his own house, which adjoined the Palais de Justice, he entered, after

having, coldly saluted the shipowner, who stood, as if petrified, on the spot where Villefort had left him. The

antechamber was full of police agents and gendarmes, in the midst of whom, carefully watched, but calm

and smiling, stood the prisoner. Villefort traversed the antechamber, cast a side glance at Dantes, and taking

a packet which a gendarme offered him, disappeared, saying, "Bring in the prisoner."

Rapid as had been Villefort's glance, it had served to give him an idea of the man he was about to interrogate.

He had recognized intelligence in the high forehead, courage in the dark eye and bent brow, and frankness in

the thick lips that showed a set of pearly teeth. Villefort's first impression was favorable; but he had been so

often warned to mistrust first impulses, that he applied the maxim to the impression, forgetting the difference

between the two words. He stifled, therefore, the feelings of compassion that were rising, composed his

features, and sat down, grim and sombre, at his desk. An instant after Dantes entered. He was pale, but calm

and collected, and saluting his judge with easy politeness, looked round for a seat, as if he had been in M.

Morrel's salon. It was then that he encountered for the first time Villefort's look, that look peculiar to the

magistrate, who, while seeming to read the thoughts of others, betrays nothing of his own.

"Who and what are you?" demanded Villefort, turning over a pile of papers, containing information relative

to the prisoner, that a police agent had given to him on his entry, and that, already, in an hour's time, had

swelled to voluminous proportions, thanks to the corrupt espionage of which "the accused" is always made

"My name is Edmond Dantes," replied the young man calmly; "I am mate of the Pharaon, belonging to

"I was at the festival of my marriage, monsieur," said the young man, his voice slightly tremulous, so great

was the contrast between that happy moment and the painful ceremony he was now undergoing; so great was

the contrast between the sombre aspect of M. de Villefort and the radiant face of Mercedes.

"You were at the festival of your marriage?" said the deputy, shuddering in spite of himself.

"Yes, monsieur; I am on the point of marrying a young girl I have been attached to for three years." Villefort,

impassive as he was, was struck with this coincidence; and the tremulous voice of Dantes, surprised in the

midst of his happiness, struck a sympathetic chord in his own bosom he also was on the point of being

married, and he was summoned from his own happiness to destroy that of another. "This philosophic

reflection," thought he, "will make a great sensation at M. de SaintMeran's;" and he arranged mentally,

while Dantes awaited further questions, the antithesis by which orators often create a reputation for

"Tell me on which point you desire information, and I will tell all I know; only," added he, with a smile, "I

"It is reported your political opinions are extreme," said Villefort, who had never heard anything of the kind,

"My political opinions!" replied Dantes. "Alas, sir, I never had any opinions. I am hardly nineteen; I know

nothing; I have no part to play. If I obtain the situation I desire, I shall owe it to M. Morrel. Thus all my

opinions I will not say public, but private are confined to these three sentiment, I love my father, I

respect M. Morrel, and I adore Mercedes. This, sir, is all I can tell you, and you see how uninteresting it is."

As Dantes spoke, Villefort gazed at his ingenuous and open countenance, and recollected the words of Renee,

who, without knowing who the culprit was, had besought his indulgence for him. With the deputy's

knowledge of crime and criminals, every word the young man uttered convinced him more and more of his

innocence. This lad, for he was scarcely a man, simple, natural, eloquent with that eloquence of the heart

never found when sought for; full of affection for everybody, because he was happy, and because happiness

renders even the wicked good extended his affection even to his judge, spite of Villefort's severe look and

"Pardieu," said Villefort, "he is a noble fellow. I hope I shall gain Renee's favor easily by obeying the first

command she ever imposed on me. I shall have at least a pressure of the hand in public, and a sweet kiss in

private." Full of this idea, Villefort's face became so joyous, that when he turned to Dantes, the latter, who

"I have enemies?" replied Dantes; "my position is not sufficiently elevated for that. As for my disposition,

that is, perhaps, somewhat too hasty; but I have striven to repress it. I have had ten or twelve sailors under

me, and if you question them, they will tell you that they love and respect me, not as a father, for I am too

"But you may have excited jealousy. You are about to become captain at nineteen an elevated post; you

are about to marry a pretty girl, who loves you; and these two pieces of good fortune may have excited the

"You are right; you know men better than I do, and what you say may possibly be the case, I confess; but if

such persons are among my acquaintances I prefer not to know it, because then I should be forced to hate

"You are wrong; you should always strive to see clearly around you. You seem a worthy young man; I will

depart from the strict line of my duty to aid you in discovering the author of this accusation. Here is the

paper; do you know the writing?" As he spoke, Villefort drew the letter from his pocket, and presented it to

"No, monsieur, I do not know the writing, and yet it is tolerably plain. Whoever did it writes well. I am very

fortunate," added he, looking gratefully at Villefort, "to be examined by such a man as you; for this envious

person is a real enemy." And by the rapid glance that the young man's eyes shot forth, Villefort saw how

"Now," said the deputy, "answer me frankly, not as a prisoner to a judge, but as one man to another who takes

an interest in him, what truth is there in the accusation contained in this anonymous letter?" And Villefort

"None at all. I will tell you the real facts. I swear by my honor as a sailor, by my love for Mercedes, by the

"Speak, monsieur," said Villefort. Then, internally, "If Renee could see me, I hope she would be satisfied,

"Well, when we quitted Naples, Captain Leclere was attacked with a brain fever. As we had no doctor on

board, and he was so anxious to arrive at Elba, that he would not touch at any other port, his disorder rose to

such a height, that at the end of the third day, feeling he was dying, he called me to him. `My dear Dantes,'

said he, `swear to perform what I am going to tell you, for it is a matter of the deepest importance.'

"`Well, as after my death the command devolves on you as mate, assume the command, and bear up for the

Island of Elba, disembark at PortoFerrajo, ask for the grandmarshal, give him this letter perhaps they

will give you another letter, and charge you with a commission. You will accomplish what I was to have

"`I will do it, captain; but perhaps I shall not be admitted to the grand marshal's presence as easily as you

"`Here is a ring that will obtain audience of him, and remove every difficulty,' said the captain. At these

words he gave me a ring. It was time two hours after he was delirious; the next day he died."

"What I ought to have done, and what every one would have done in my place. Everywhere the last requests

of a dying man are sacred; but with a sailor the last requests of his superior are commands. I sailed for the

Island of Elba, where I arrived the next day; I ordered everybody to remain on board, and went on shore

alone. As I had expected, I found some difficulty in obtaining access to the grandmarshal; but I sent the ring

I had received from the captain to him, and was instantly admitted. He questioned me concerning Captain

Leclere's death; and, as the latter had told me, gave me a letter to carry on to a person in Paris. I undertook it

because it was what my captain had bade me do. I landed here, regulated the affairs of the vessel, and

hastened to visit my affianced bride, whom I found more lovely than ever. Thanks to M. Morrel, all the forms

were got over; in a word I was, as I told you, at my marriagefeast; and I should have been married in an

hour, and tomorrow I intended to start for Paris, had I not been arrested on this charge which you as well as

"Ah," said Villefort, "this seems to me the truth. If you have been culpable, it was imprudence, and this

imprudence was in obedience to the orders of your captain. Give up this letter you have brought from Elba,

and pass your word you will appear should you be required, and go and rejoin your friends.

"You have it already, for it was taken from me with some others which I see in that packet."

"Stop a moment," said the deputy, as Dantes took his hat and gloves. "To whom is it addressed?"

"To Monsieur Noirtier, Rue CoqHeron, Paris." Had a thunderbolt fallen into the room, Villefort could not

have been more stupefied. He sank into his seat, and hastily turning over the packet, drew forth the fatal

"No," replied Villefort; "a faithful servant of the king does not know conspirators."

"It is a conspiracy, then?" asked Dantes, who after believing himself free, now began to feel a tenfold alarm.

"I have, however, already told you, sir, I was entirely ignorant of the contents of the letter."

"Yes; but you knew the name of the person to whom it was addressed," said Villefort.

"Have you shown this letter to any one?" asked Villefort, becoming still more pale.

"Everybody is ignorant that you are the bearer of a letter from the Island of Elba, and addressed to M.

"And that was too much, far too much," murmured Villefort. Villefort's brow darkened more and more, his

white lips and clinched teeth filled Dantes with apprehension. After reading the letter, Villefort covered his

"Oh," said Dantes timidly, "what is the matter?" Villefort made no answer, but raised his head at the

"I give you my word of honor, sir," said Dantes; "but what is the matter? You are ill shall I ring for

"No," said Villefort, rising hastily; "stay where you are. It is for me to give orders here, and not you."

"I want none; it was a temporary indisposition. Attend to yourself; answer me." Dantes waited, expecting a

question, but in vain. Villefort fell back on his chair, passed his hand over his brow, moist with perspiration,

"Oh, if he knows the contents of this!" murmured he, "and that Noirtier is the father of Villefort, I am lost!"

"In heaven's name!" cried the unhappy young man, "if you doubt me, question me; I will answer you."

"Sir," said he, "I am no longer able, as I had hoped, to restore you immediately to liberty; before doing so, I

"Well, I must detain you some time longer, but I will strive to make it as short as possible. The principal

charge against you is this letter, and you see" Villefort approached the fire, cast it in, and waited until it

"Listen," continued Villefort; "you can now have confidence in me after what I have done."

"I shall detain you until this evening in the Palais de Justice. Should any one else interrogate you, say to him

"I promise." It was Villefort who seemed to entreat, and the prisoner who reassured him.

"You see," continued he, glancing toward the grate, where fragments of burnt paper fluttered in the flames,

"the letter is destroyed; you and I alone know of its existence; should you, therefore, be questioned, deny all

Villefort rang. A police agent entered. Villefort whispered some words in his ear, to which the officer replied

"Follow him," said Villefort to Dantes. Dantes saluted Villefort and retired. Hardly had the door closed when

"Alas, alas," murmured he, "if the procureur himself had been at Marseilles I should have been ruined. This

accursed letter would have destroyed all my hopes. Oh, my father, must your past career always interfere

with my successes?" Suddenly a light passed over his face, a smile played round his set mouth, and his

"This will do," said he, "and from this letter, which might have ruined me, I will make my fortune. Now to

the work I have in hand." And after having assured himself that the prisoner was gone, the deputy procureur

The commissary of police, as he traversed the antechamber, made a sign to two gendarmes, who placed

themselves one on Dantes' right and the other on his left. A door that communicated with the Palais de Justice

was opened, and they went through a long range of gloomy corridors, whose appearance might have made

even the boldest shudder. The Palais de Justice communicated with the prison, a sombre edifice, that from

its grated windows looks on the clocktower of the Accoules. After numberless windings, Dantes saw a door

with an iron wicket. The commissary took up an iron mallet and knocked thrice, every blow seeming to

Dantes as if struck on his heart. The door opened, the two gendarmes gently pushed him forward, and the

door closed with a loud sound behind him. The air he inhaled was no longer pure, but thick and mephitic,

he was in prison. He was conducted to a tolerably neat chamber, but grated and barred, and its appearance,

therefore, did not greatly alarm him; besides, the words of Villefort, who seemed to interest himself so much,

resounded still in his ears like a promise of freedom. It was four o'clock when Dantes was placed in this

chamber. It was, as we have said, the 1st of March, and the prisoner was soon buried in darkness. The

obscurity augmented the acuteness of his hearing; at the slightest sound he rose and hastened to the door,

convinced they were about to liberate him, but the sound died away, and Dantes sank again into his seat. At

last, about ten o'clock, and just as Dantes began to despair, steps were heard in the corridor, a key turned in

the lock, the bolts creaked, the massy oaken door flew open, and a flood of light from two torches pervaded

the apartment. By the torchlight Dantes saw the glittering sabres and carbines of four gendarmes. He had

"I believe so." The conviction that they came from M. de Villefort relieved all Dantes' apprehensions; he

advanced calmly, and placed himself in the centre of the escort. A carriage waited at the door, the coachman

Dantes was about to speak; but feeling himself urged forward, and having neither the power nor the intention

to resist, he mounted the steps, and was in an instant seated inside between two gendarmes; the two others

The prisoner glanced at the windows they were grated; he had changed his prison for another that was

conveying him he knew not whither. Through the grating, however, Dantes saw they were passing through

the Rue Caisserie, and by the Rue SaintLaurent and the Rue Taramis, to the port. Soon he saw the lights of

The carriage stopped, the officer descended, approached the guardhouse, a dozen soldiers came out and

formed themselves in order; Dantes saw the reflection of their muskets by the light of the lamps on the quay.

The officer opened the door, which was locked, and, without speaking a word, answered Dantes' question; for

he saw between the ranks of the soldiers a passage formed from the carriage to the port. The two gendarmes

who were opposite to him descended first, then he was ordered to alight and the gendarmes on each side of

him followed his example. They advanced towards a boat, which a customhouse officer held by a chain,

The soldiers looked at Dantes with an air of stupid curiosity. In an instant he was placed in the sternsheets

of the boat, between the gendarmes, while the officer stationed himself at the bow; a shove sent the boat

adrift, and four sturdy oarsmen impelled it rapidly towards the Pilon. At a shout from the boat, the chain that

closes the mouth of the port was lowered and in a second they were, as Dantes knew, in the Frioul and

The prisoner's first feeling was of joy at again breathing the pure air for air is freedom; but he soon sighed,

for he passed before La Reserve, where he had that morning been so happy, and now through the open

windows came the laughter and revelry of a ball. Dantes folded his hands, raised his eyes to heaven, and

The boat continued her voyage. They had passed the Tete de Morte, were now off the Anse du Pharo, and

"We are forbidden to give you any explanation." Dantes, trained in discipline, knew that nothing would be

more absurd than to question subordinates, who were forbidden to reply; and so he remained silent.

The most vague and wild thoughts passed through his mind. The boat they were in could not make a long

voyage; there was no vessel at anchor outside the harbor; he thought, perhaps, they were going to leave him

on some distant point. He was not bound, nor had they made any attempt to handcuff him; this seemed a good

augury. Besides, had not the deputy, who had been so kind to him, told him that provided he did not

pronounce the dreaded name of Noirtier, he had nothing to apprehend? Had not Villefort in his presence

They had left the Ile Ratonneau, where the lighthouse stood, on the right, and were now opposite the Point

des Catalans. It seemed to the prisoner that he could distinguish a feminine form on the beach, for it was there

Mercedes dwelt. How was it that a presentiment did not warn Mercedes that her lover was within three

One light alone was visible; and Dantes saw that it came from Mercedes' chamber. Mercedes was the only

one awake in the whole settlement. A loud cry could be heard by her. But pride restrained him and he did not

He remained silent, his eyes fixed upon the light; the boat went on, but the prisoner thought only of

Mercedes. An intervening elevation of land hid the light. Dantes turned and perceived that they had got out to

sea. While he had been absorbed in thought, they had shipped their oars and hoisted sail; the boat was now

In spite of his repugnance to address the guards, Dantes turned to the nearest gendarme, and taking his hand,

"Comrade," said he, "I adjure you, as a Christian and a soldier, to tell me where we are going. I am Captain

Dantes, a loyal Frenchman, thought accused of treason; tell me where you are conducting me, and I promise

The gendarme looked irresolutely at his companion, who returned for answer a sign that said, "I see no great

"You are a native of Marseilles, and a sailor, and yet you do not know where you are going?"

"Your orders do not forbid your telling me what I must know in ten minutes, in half an hour, or an hour. You

"Look round you then." Dantes rose and looked forward, when he saw rise within a hundred yards of him the

black and frowning rock on which stands the Chateau d'If. This gloomy fortress, which has for more than

three hundred years furnished food for so many wild legends, seemed to Dantes like a scaffold to a

"The Chateau d'If?" cried he, "what are we going there for?" The gendarme smiled.

"I am not going there to be imprisoned," said Dantes; "it is only used for political prisoners. I have committed

"There are only," said the gendarme, "a governor, a garrison, turnkeys, and good thick walls. Come, come, do

not look so astonished, or you will make me think you are laughing at me in return for my good nature."

"You think, then," said he, "that I am taken to the Chateau d'If to be imprisoned there?"

"I do not know what M. de Villefort promised you," said the gendarme, "but I know we are taking you to the

By a rapid movement, which the gendarme's practiced eye had perceived, Dantes sprang forward to

precipitate himself into the sea; but four vigorous arms seized him as his feet quitted the bottom of the boat.

"Good!" said the gendarme, placing his knee on his chest; "believe softspoken gentlemen again! Harkye, my

friend, I have disobeyed my first order, but I will not disobey the second; and if you move, I will blow your

brains out." And he levelled his carbine at Dantes, who felt the muzzle against his temple.

For a moment the idea of struggling crossed his mind, and of so ending the unexpected evil that had

overtaken him. But he bethought him of M. de Villefort's promise; and, besides, death in a boat from the hand

of a gendarme seemed too terrible. He remained motionless, but gnashing his teeth and wringing his hands

At this moment the boat came to a landing with a violent shock. One of the sailors leaped on shore, a cord

creaked as it ran through a pulley, and Dantes guessed they were at the end of the voyage, and that they were

His guards, taking him by the arms and coatcollar, forced him to rise, and dragged him towards the steps

that lead to the gate of the fortress, while the police officer carrying a musket with fixed bayonet followed

Dantes made no resistance; he was like a man in a dream: he saw soldiers drawn up on the embankment; he

knew vaguely that he was ascending a flight of steps; he was conscious that he passed through a door, and

that the door closed behind him; but all this indistinctly as through a mist. He did not even see the ocean, that

terrible barrier against freedom, which the prisoners look upon with utter despair.

They halted for a minute, during which he strove to collect his thoughts. He looked around; he was in a court

surrounded by high walls; he heard the measured tread of sentinels, and as they passed before the light he saw

They waited upwards of ten minutes. Certain Dantes could not escape, the gendarmes released him. They

The prisoner followed his guide, who led him into a room almost under ground, whose bare and reeking walls

seemed as though impregnated with tears; a lamp placed on a stool illumined the apartment faintly, and

showed Dantes the features of his conductor, an underjailer, illclothed, and of sullen appearance.

"Here is your chamber for tonight," said he. "It is late, and the governor is asleep. Tomorrow, perhaps, he

may change you. In the meantime there is bread, water, and fresh straw; and that is all a prisoner can wish

for. Goodnight." And before Dantes could open his mouth before he had noticed where the jailer placed

his bread or the water before he had glanced towards the corner where the straw was, the jailer

disappeared, taking with him the lamp and closing the door, leaving stamped upon the prisoner's mind the

Dantes was alone in darkness and in silence cold as the shadows that he felt breathe on his burning

forehead. With the first dawn of day the jailer returned, with orders to leave Dantes where he was. He found

the prisoner in the same position, as if fixed there, his eyes swollen with weeping. He had passed the night

standing, and without sleep. The jailer advanced; Dantes appeared not to perceive him. He touched him on

"I wish to see the governor." The jailer shrugged his shoulders and left the chamber.

Dantes followed him with his eyes, and stretched forth his hands towards the open door; but the door closed.

All his emotion then burst forth; he cast himself on the ground, weeping bitterly, and asking himself what

The day passed thus; he scarcely tasted food, but walked round and round the cell like a wild beast in its cage.

One thought in particular tormented him: namely, that during his journey hither he had sat so still, whereas he

might, a dozen times, have plunged into the sea, and, thanks to his powers of swimming, for which he was

famous, have gained the shore, concealed himself until the arrival of a Genoese or Spanish vessel, escaped to

Spain or Italy, where Mercedes and his father could have joined him. He had no fears as to how he should

live good seamen are welcome everywhere. He spoke Italian like a Tuscan, and Spanish like a Castilian;

he would have been free, and happy with Mercedes and his father, whereas he was now confined in the

Chateau d'If, that impregnable fortress, ignorant of the future destiny of his father and Mercedes; and all this

because he had trusted to Villefort's promise. The thought was maddening, and Dantes threw himself

furiously down on his straw. The next morning at the same hour, the jailer came again.

"I do not want books, I am satisfied with my food, and do not care to walk about; but I wish to see the

"If you worry me by repeating the same thing, I will not bring you any more to eat."

The jailer saw by his tone he would be happy to die; and as every prisoner is worth ten sous a day to his

"What you ask is impossible; but if you are very well behaved you will be allowed to walk about, and some

day you will meet the governor, and if he chooses to reply, that is his affair."

"Ah," said the jailer, "do not always brood over what is impossible, or you will be mad in a fortnight."

"Yes; we have an instance here; it was by always offering a million of francs to the governor for his liberty

"Listen!" said Dantes. "I am not an abbe, I am not mad; perhaps I shall be, but at present, unfortunately, I am

"I do not offer you a million, because I have it not; but I will give you a hundred crowns if, the first time you

go to Marseilles, you will seek out a young girl named Mercedes, at the Catalans, and give her two lines from

"If I took them, and were detected, I should lose my place, which is worth two thousand francs a year; so that

"Well," said Dantes, "mark this; if you refuse at least to tell Mercedes I am here, I will some day hide myself

behind the door, and when you enter I will dash out your brains with this stool."

"Threats!" cried the jailer, retreating and putting himself on the defensive; "you are certainly going mad. The

abbe began like you, and in three days you will be like him, mad enough to tie up; but, fortunately, there are

"All right, all right," said the jailer; "all right, since you will have it so. I will send word to the governor."

"Very well," returned Dantes, dropping the stool and sitting on it as if he were in reality mad. The jailer went

"By the governor's orders," said he, "conduct the prisoner to the tier beneath."

"Yes; we must put the madman with the madmen." The soldiers seized Dantes, who followed passively.

He descended fifteen steps, and the door of a dungeon was opened, and he was thrust in. The door closed, and

Dantes advanced with outstretched hands until he touched the wall; he then sat down in the corner until his

eyes became accustomed to the darkness. The jailer was right; Dantes wanted but little of being utterly mad.

Villefort had, as we have said, hastened back to Madame de SaintMeran's in the Place du Grand Cours, and

on entering the house found that the guests whom he had left at table were taking coffee in the salon. Renee

was, with all the rest of the company, anxiously awaiting him, and his entrance was followed by a general

"Well, Decapitator, Guardian of the State, Royalist, Brutus, what is the matter?" said one. "Speak out."

"Marquise," said Villefort, approaching his future motherinlaw, "I request your pardon for thus leaving

"Ah, it is really a serious matter, then?" asked the marquis, remarking the cloud on Villefort's brow.

"So serious that I must take leave of you for a few days; so," added he, turning to Renee, "judge for yourself

"You are going to leave us?" cried Renee, unable to hide her emotion at this unexpected announcement.

"That, madame, is an official secret; but if you have any commissions for Paris, a friend of mine is going

there tonight, and will with pleasure undertake them." The guests looked at each other.

"Yes, let us go to the library, please." The marquis took his arm, and they left the salon.

"An affair of the greatest importance, that demands my immediate presence in Paris. Now, excuse the

"Then give me a letter to him, and tell him to sell out without an instant's delay, perhaps even now I shall

And, sitting down, he wrote a letter to his broker, ordering him to sell out at the market price.

"Now, then," said Villefort, placing the letter in his pocketbook, "I must have another!"

"I do not ask you to write to his majesty, but ask M. de Salvieux to do so. I want a letter that will enable me

to reach the king's presence without all the formalities of demanding an audience; that would occasion a loss

"But address yourself to the keeper of the seals; he has the right of entry at the Tuileries, and can procure you

"Doubtless; but there is no occasion to divide the honors of my discovery with him. The keeper would leave

me in the background, and take all the glory to himself. I tell you, marquis, my fortune is made if I only reach

"In that case go and get ready. I will call Salvieux and make him write the letter."

"You will present my excuses to the marquise and Mademoiselle Renee, whom I leave on such a day with

Villefort hastily quitted the apartment, but reflecting that the sight of the deputy procureur running through

the streets would be enough to throw the whole city into confusion, he resumed his ordinary pace. At his door

he perceived a figure in the shadow that seemed to wait for him. It was Mercedes, who, hearing no news of

As Villefort drew near, she advanced and stood before him. Dantes had spoken of Mercedes, and Villefort

instantly recognized her. Her beauty and high bearing surprised him, and when she inquired what had become

"The young man you speak of," said Villefort abruptly, "is a great criminal. and I can do nothing for him,

mademoiselle." Mercedes burst into tears, and, as Villefort strove to pass her, again addressed him.

"But, at least, tell me where he is, that I may know whether he is alive or dead," said she.

And desirous of putting an end to the interview, he pushed by her, and closed the door, as if to exclude the

pain he felt. But remorse is not thus banished; like Virgil's wounded hero, he carried the arrow in his wound,

and, arrived at the salon, Villefort uttered a sigh that was almost a sob, and sank into a chair.

Then the first pangs of an unending torture seized upon his heart. The man he sacrificed to his ambition, that

innocent victim immolated on the altar of his father's faults, appeared to him pale and threatening, leading his

affianced bride by the hand, and bringing with him remorse, not such as the ancients figured, furious and

terrible, but that slow and consuming agony whose pangs are intensified from hour to hour up to the very

moment of death. Then he had a moment's hesitation. He had frequently called for capital punishment on

criminals, and owing to his irresistible eloquence they had been condemned, and yet the slightest shadow of

remorse had never clouded Villefort's brow, because they were guilty; at least, he believed so; but here was

an innocent man whose happiness he had destroyed: in this case he was not the judge, but the executioner.

As he thus reflected, he felt the sensation we have described, and which had hitherto been unknown to him,

arise in his bosom, and fill him with vague apprehensions. It is thus that a wounded man trembles

instinctively at the approach of the finger to his wound until it be healed, but Villefort's was one of those that

never close, or if they do, only close to reopen more agonizing than ever. If at this moment the sweet voice of

Renee had sounded in his ears pleading for mercy, or the fair Mercedes had entered and said, "In the name of

God, I conjure you to restore me my affianced husband," his cold and trembling hands would have signed his

release; but no voice broke the stillness of the chamber, and the door was opened only by Villefort's valet,

Villefort rose, or rather sprang, from his chair, hastily opened one of the drawers of his desk, emptied all the

gold it contained into his pocket, stood motionless an instant, his hand pressed to his head, muttered a few

inarticulate sounds, and then, perceiving that his servant had placed his cloak on his shoulders, he sprang into

the carriage, ordering the postilions to drive to M. de SaintMeran's. The hapless Dantes was doomed.

As the marquis had promised, Villefort found the marquise and Renee in waiting. He started when he saw

Renee, for he fancied she was again about to plead for Dantes. Alas, her emotions were wholly personal: she

She loved Villefort, and he left her at the moment he was about to become her husband. Villefort knew not

when he should return, and Renee, far from pleading for Dantes, hated the man whose crime separated her

Meanwhile what of Mercedes? She had met Fernand at the corner of the Rue de la Loge; she had returned to

the Catalans, and had despairingly cast herself on her couch. Fernand, kneeling by her side, took her hand,

and covered it with kisses that Mercedes did not even feel. She passed the night thus. The lamp went out for

want of oil, but she paid no heed to the darkness, and dawn came, but she knew not that it was day. Grief had

M. Morrel had not readily given up the fight. He had learned that Dantes had been taken to prison, and he had

gone to all his friends, and the influential persons of the city; but the report was already in circulation that

Dantes was arrested as a Bonapartist agent; and as the most sanguine looked upon any attempt of Napoleon to

remount the throne as impossible, he met with nothing but refusal, and had returned home in despair,

Caderousse was equally restless and uneasy, but instead of seeking, like M. Morrel, to aid Dantes, he had shut

himself up with two bottles of black currant brandy, in the hope of drowning reflection. But he did not

succeed, and became too intoxicated to fetch any more drink, and yet not so intoxicated as to forget what had

happened. With his elbows on the table he sat between the two empty bottles, while spectres danced in the

light of the unsnuffed candle spectres such as Hoffmann strews over his punchdrenched pages, like

Danglars alone was content and joyous he had got rid of an enemy and made his own situation on the

Pharaon secure. Danglars was one of those men born with a pen behind the ear, and an inkstand in place of a

heart. Everything with him was multiplication or subtraction. The life of a man was to him of far less value

than a numeral, especially when, by taking it away, he could increase the sum total of his own desires. He

Villefort, after having received M. de Salvieux' letter, embraced Renee, kissed the marquise's hand, and

Old Dantes was dying with anxiety to know what had become of Edmond. But we know very well what had

We will leave Villefort on the road to Paris, travelling thanks to trebled fees with all speed, and

passing through two or three apartments, enter at the Tuileries the little room with the arched window, so well

known as having been the favorite closet of Napoleon and Louis XVIII., and now of Louis Philippe.

There, seated before a walnut table he had brought with him from Hartwell, and to which, from one of those

fancies not uncommon to great people, he was particularly attached, the king, Louis XVIII., was carelessly

listening to a man of fifty or fiftytwo years of age, with gray hair, aristocratic bearing, and exceedingly

gentlemanly attire, and meanwhile making a marginal note in a volume of Gryphius's rather inaccurate, but

much soughtafter, edition of Horace a work which was much indebted to the sagacious observations of

"No, sire, for that would only betoken for us seven years of plenty and seven years of scarcity; and with a

king as full of foresight as your majesty, scarcity is not a thing to be feared."

"Well, my dear duke," replied Louis XVIII., "I think you are wrongly informed, and know positively that, on

the contrary, it is very fine weather in that direction." Man of ability as he was, Louis XVIII. liked a pleasant

"Sire," continued M. de Blacas, "if it only be to reassure a faithful servant, will your majesty send into

Languedoc, Provence, and Dauphine, trusty men, who will bring you back a faithful report as to the feeling in

"Sire," replied the courtier, laughing, in order that he might seem to comprehend the quotation, "your majesty

may be perfectly right in relying on the good feeling of France, but I fear I am not altogether wrong in

"My dear Blacas," said the king, "you with your alarms prevent me from working."

"Wait, my dear sir, wait a moment; for I have such a delightful note on the Pastor quum traheret wait, and

There was a brief pause, during which Louis XVIII. wrote, in a hand as small as possible, another note on the

margin of his Horace, and then looking at the duke with the air of a man who thinks he has an idea of his

"Sire," said Blacas, who had for a moment the hope of sacrificing Villefort to his own profit, "I am compelled

to tell you that these are not mere rumors destitute of foundation which thus disquiet me; but a

seriousminded man, deserving all my confidence, and charged by me to watch over the south" (the duke

hesitated as he pronounced these words), "has arrived by post to tell me that a great peril threatens the king,

"l tell you to the left, and you are looking to the right; I mean on my left yes, there. You will find

yesterday's report of the minister of police. But here is M. Dandre himself;" and M. Dandre, announced by

"Come in," said Louis XVIII., with repressed smile, "come in, Baron, and tell the duke all you know the

latest news of M. de Bonaparte; do not conceal anything, however serious, let us see, the Island of Elba is

a volcano, and we may expect to have issuing thence flaming and bristling war bella, horrida bella." M.

Dandre leaned very respectfully on the back of a chair with his two hands, and said,

"Yes, yes; but tell the duke himself, who cannot find anything, what the report contains give him the

"Monsieur," said the baron to the duke, "all the servants of his majesty must approve of the latest intelligence

which we have from the Island of Elba. Bonaparte" M. Dandre looked at Louis XVIII., who, employed in

writing a note, did not even raise his head. "Bonaparte," continued the baron, "is mortally wearied, and passes

"Yes, indeed, my dear duke. Did you forget that this great man, this hero, this demigod, is attacked with a

"And, moreover, my dear duke," continued the minister of police, "we are almost assured that, in a very short

"Raving mad; his head becomes weaker. Sometimes he weeps bitterly, sometimes laughs boisterously, at

other time he passes hours on the seashore, flinging stones in the water and when the flint makes

`duckanddrake' five or six times, he appears as delighted as if he had gained another Marengo or

Austerlitz. Now, you must agree that these are indubitable symptoms of insanity."

"Or of wisdom, my dear baron or of wisdom," said Louis XVIII., laughing; "the greatest captains of

antiquity amused themselves by casting pebbles into the ocean see Plutarch's life of Scipio Africanus."

M. de Blacas pondered deeply between the confident monarch and the truthful minister. Villefort, who did

not choose to reveal the whole secret, lest another should reap all the benefit of the disclosure, had yet

"Well, well, Dandre," said Louis XVIII., "Blacas is not yet convinced; let us proceed, therefore, to the

"The usurper's conversion!" murmured the duke, looking at the king and Dandre, who spoke alternately, like

"Why, this is the way of it," said the minister, with the gravest air in the world: "Napoleon lately had a

review, and as two or three of his old veterans expressed a desire to return to France, he gave them their

dismissal, and exhorted them to `serve the good king.' These were his own words, of that I am certain."

"Well, Blacas, what think you of this?" inquired the king triumphantly, and pausing for a moment from the

"I say, sire, that the minister of police is greatly deceived or I am; and as it is impossible it can be the minister

of police as he has the guardianship of the safety and honor of your majesty, it is probable that I am in error.

However, sire, if I might advise, your majesty will interrogate the person of whom I spoke to you, and I will

"Most willingly, duke; under your auspices I will receive any person you please, but you must not expect me

to be too confiding. Baron, have you any report more recent than this dated the 20th February. this is the

"No, sire, but I am hourly expecting one; it may have arrived since I left my office."

"Go thither, and if there be none well, well," continued Louis XVIII., "make one; that is the usual way, is

"Oh, sire," replied the minister, "we have no occasion to invent any; every day our desks are loaded with

most circumstantial denunciations, coming from hosts of people who hope for some return for services which

they seek to render, but cannot; they trust to fortune, and rely upon some unexpected event in some way to

"Wait, sir, wait," said Louis XVIII. "Really, M. de Blacas, I must change your armorial bearings; I will give

you an eagle with outstretched wings, holding in its claws a prey which tries in vain to escape, and bearing

"I wish to consult you on this passage, `Molli fugiens anhelitu," you know it refers to a stag flying from a

wolf. Are you not a sportsman and a great wolfhunter? Well, then, what do you think of the molli anhelitu?"

"Admirable, sire; but my messenger is like the stag you refer to, for he has posted two hundred and twenty

"Which is undergoing great fatigue and anxiety, my dear duke, when we have a telegraph which transmits

messages in three or four hours, and that without getting in the least out of breath."

"Ah, sire, you recompense but badly this poor young man, who has come so far, and with so much ardor, to

give your majesty useful information. If only for the sake of M. de Salvieux, who recommends him to me, I

"No; but strongly recommends M. de Villefort, and begs me to present him to your majesty."

"Why did you not mention his name at once?" replied the king, betraying some uneasiness.

"No, no, Blacas; he is a man of strong and elevated understanding, ambitious, too, and, pardieu, you know his

"Blacas, my friend, you have but limited comprehension. I told you Villefort was ambitions, and to attain this

"I hasten to do so." The duke left the royal presence with the speed of a young man; his really sincere

royalism made him youthful again. Louis XVIII. remained alone, and turning his eyes on his halfopened

M. de Blacas returned as speedily as he had departed, but in the antechamber he was forced to appeal to the

king's authority. Villefort's dusty garb, his costume, which was not of courtly cut, excited the susceptibility of

M. de Breze, who was all astonishment at finding that this young man had the audacity to enter before the

king in such attire. The duke, however, overcame all difficulties with a word his majesty's order; and, in

spite of the protestations which the master of ceremonies made for the honor of his office and principles,

The king was seated in the same place where the duke had left him. On opening the door, Villefort found

"Come in, M. de Villefort," said the king, "come in." Villefort bowed, and advancing a few steps, waited until

"M. de Villefort," said Louis XVIII., "the Duc de Blacas assures me you have some interesting information to

"Sire, the duke is right, and I believe your majesty will think it equally important."

"In the first place, and before everything else, sir, is the news as bad in your opinion as I am asked to

"Sire, I believe it to be most urgent, but I hope, by the speed I have used, that it is not irreparable."

"Speak as fully as you please, sir," said the king, who began to give way to the emotion which had showed

itself in Blacas's face and affected Villefort's voice. "Speak, sir, and pray begin at the beginning; I like order

"Sire," said Villefort, "I will render a faithful report to your majesty, but I must entreat your forgiveness if my

anxiety leads to some obscurity in my language." A glance at the king after this discreet and subtle exordium,

"Sire, I have come as rapidly to Paris as possible, to inform your majesty that I have discovered, in the

exercise of my duties, not a commonplace and insignificant plot, such as is every day got up in the lower

ranks of the people and in the army, but an actual conspiracy a storm which menaces no less than your

majesty's throne. Sire, the usurper is arming three ships, he meditates some project, which, however mad, is

yet, perhaps, terrible. At this moment he will have left Elba, to go whither I know not, but assuredly to

attempt a landing either at Naples, or on the coast of Tuscany, or perhaps on the shores of France. Your

majesty is well aware that the sovereign of the Island of Elba has maintained his relations with Italy and

"I am, sir," said the king, much agitated; "and recently we have had information that the Bonapartist clubs

have had meetings in the Rue SaintJacques. But proceed, I beg of you. How did you obtain these details?"

"Sire, they are the results of an examination which I have made of a man of Marseilles, whom I have watched

for some time, and arrested on the day of my departure. This person, a sailor, of turbulent character, and

whom I suspected of Bonapartism, has been secretly to the Island of Elba. There he saw the grandmarshal,

who charged him with an oral message to a Bonapartist in Paris, whose name I could not extract from him;

but this mission was to prepare men's minds for a return (it is the man who says this, sire) a return which

"So serious, sire, that when the circumstance surprised me in the midst of a family festival, on the very day of

my betrothal, I left my bride and friends, postponing everything, that I might hasten to lay at your majesty's

"True," said Louis XVIII., "was there not a marriage engagement between you and Mademoiselle de

"A conspiracy in these times," said Louis XVIII., smiling, "is a thing very easy to meditate, but more difficult

to conduct to an end, inasmuch as, reestablished so recently on the throne of our ancestors, we have our eyes

open at once upon the past, the present, and the future. For the last ten months my ministers have redoubled

their vigilance, in order to watch the shore of the Mediterranean. If Bonaparte landed at Naples, the whole

coalition would be on foot before he could even reach Piomoino; if he land in Tuscany, he will be in an

unfriendly territory; if he land in France, it must be with a handful of men, and the result of that is easily

foretold, execrated as he is by the population. Take courage, sir; but at the same time rely on our royal

"Ah, here is M. Dandre!" cried de Blacas. At this instant the minister of police appeared at the door, pale,

trembling, and as if ready to faint. Villefort was about to retire, but M. de Blacas, taking his hand, restrained

At the sight of this agitation Louis XVIII. pushed from him violently the table at which he was sitting.

"What ails you, baron?" he exclaimed. "You appear quite aghast. Has your uneasiness anything to do with

what M. de Blacas has told me, and M. de Villefort has just confirmed?" M. de Blacas moved suddenly

towards the baron, but the fright of the courtier pleaded for the forbearance of the statesman; and besides, as

matters were, it was much more to his advantage that the prefect of police should triumph over him than that

"Well, what is it?" asked Louis XVIII. The minister of police, giving way to an impulse of despair, was about

"Oh, sire, what a dreadful misfortune! I am, indeed, to be pitied. I can never forgive myself!"

"Well, sire, the usurper left Elba on the 26th February, and landed on the 1st of March."

"The usurper landed in France, near Antibes, in the Gulf of Juan, two hundred and fifty leagues from Paris,

on the 1st of March, and you only acquired this information today, the 4th of March! Well, sir, what you tell

"Alas, sire, it is but too true!" Louis made a gesture of indescribable anger and alarm, and then drew himself

up as if this sudden blow had struck him at the same moment in heart and countenance.

"In France!" he cried, "the usurper in France! Then they did not watch over this man. Who knows? they were,

"Oh, sire," exclaimed the Duc de Blacas, "M. Dandre is not a man to be accused of treason! Sire, we have all

been blind, and the minister of police has shared the general blindness, that is all."

"But" said Villefort, and then suddenly checking himself, he was silent; then he continued, "Your pardon,

sire," he said, bowing, "my zeal carried me away. Will your majesty deign to excuse me?"

"Speak, sir, speak boldly," replied Louis. "You alone forewarned us of the evil; now try and aid us with the

"Sire," said Villefort, "the usurper is detested in the south; and it seems to me that if he ventured into the

"Yes, assuredly," replied the minister; "but he is advancing by Gap and Sisteron."

"Advancing he is advancing!" said Louis XVIII. "Is he then advancing on Paris?" The minister of police

"And Dauphine, sir?" inquired the king, of Villefort. "Do you think it possible to rouse that as well as

"Sire, I am sorry to tell your majesty a cruel fact; but the feeling in Dauphine is quite the reverse of that in

"Then," murmured Louis, "he was well informed. And how many men had he with him?"

"What, you do not know! Have you neglected to obtain information on that point? Of course it is of no

"Sire, it was impossible to learn; the despatch simply stated the fact of the landing and the route taken by the

"And how did this despatch reach you?" inquired the king. The minister bowed his head, and while a deep

"By the telegraph, sire." Louis XVIII. advanced a step, and folded his arms over his chest as Napoleon

"So then," he exclaimed, turning pale with anger, "seven conjoined and allied armies overthrew that man. A

miracle of heaven replaced me on the throne of my fathers after fiveandtwenty years of exile. I have,

during those fiveandtwenty years, spared no pains to understand the people of France and the interests

which were confided to me; and now, when I see the fruition of my wishes almost within reach, the power I

"Sire, it is fatality!" murmured the minister, feeling that the pressure of circumstances, however light a thing

"What our enemies say of us is then true. We have learnt nothing, forgotten nothing! If I were betrayed as he

was, I would console myself; but to be in the midst of persons elevated by myself to places of honor, who

ought to watch over me more carefully than over themselves, for my fortune is theirs before me they

were nothing after me they will be nothing, and perish miserably from incapacity ineptitude! Oh, yes,

The minister quailed before this outburst of sarcasm. M. de Blacas wiped the moisture from his brow.

"To fall," continued King Louis, who at the first glance had sounded the abyss on which the monarchy hung

suspended, "to fall, and learn of that fall by telegraph! Oh, I would rather mount the scaffold of my

brother, Louis XVI., than thus descend the staircase at the Tuileries driven away by ridicule. Ridicule, sir

"Approach, M. de Villefort," resumed the king, addressing the young man, who, motionless and breathless,

was listening to a conversation on which depended the destiny of a kingdom. "Approach, and tell monsieur

"Sire, it was really impossible to learn secrets which that man concealed from all the world."

"Really impossible! Yes that is a great word, sir. Unfortunately, there are great words, as there are great

men; I have measured them. Really impossible for a minister who has an office, agents, spies, and fifteen

hundred thousand francs for secret service money, to know what is going on at sixty leagues from the coast of

France! Well, then, see, here is a gentleman who had none of these resources at his disposal a gentleman,

only a simple magistrate, who learned more than you with all your police, and who would have saved my

crown, if, like you, he had the power of directing a telegraph." The look of the minister of police was turned

"I do not mean that for you, Blacas," continued Louis XVIII.; "for if you have discovered nothing, at least

you have had the good sense to persevere in your suspicions. Any other than yourself would have considered

the disclosure of M. de Villefort insignificant, or else dictated by venal ambition," These words were an

allusion to the sentiments which the minister of police had uttered with so much confidence an hour before.

Villefort understood the king's intent. Any other person would, perhaps, have been overcome by such an

intoxicating draught of praise; but he feared to make for himself a mortal enemy of the police minister,

although he saw that Dandre was irrevocably lost. In fact, the minister, who, in the plenitude of his power,

had been unable to unearth Napoleon's secret, might in despair at his own downfall interrogate Dantes and so

lay bare the motives of Villefort's plot. Realizing this, Villefort came to the rescue of the crestfallen

"Sire," said Villefort, "the suddenness of this event must prove to your majesty that the issue is in the hands

of Providence; what your majesty is pleased to attribute to me as profound perspicacity is simply owing to

chance, and I have profited by that chance, like a good and devoted servant that's all. Do not attribute to

me more than I deserve, sire, that your majesty may never have occasion to recall the first opinion you have

been pleased to form of me." The minister of police thanked the young man by an eloquent look, and

Villefort understood that he had succeeded in his design; that is to say, that without forfeiting the gratitude of

the king, he had made a friend of one on whom, in case of necessity, he might rely.

"'Tis well," resumed the king. "And now, gentlemen," he continued, turning towards M. de Blacas and the

minister of police, "I have no further occasion for you, and you may retire; what now remains to do is in the

"Fortunately, sire," said M. de Blacas, "we can rely on the army; your majesty knows how every report

"Do not mention reports, duke, to me, for I know now what confidence to place in them. Yet, speaking of

reports, baron, what have you learned with regard to the affair in the Rue SaintJacques?"

"The affair in the Rue SaintJacques!" exclaimed Villefort, unable to repress an exclamation. Then, suddenly

pausing, he added, "Your pardon, sire, but my devotion to your majesty has made me forget, not the respect I

"Go on, go on, sir," replied the king; "you have today earned the right to make inquiries here."

"Sire," interposed the minister of police, "I came a moment ago to give your majesty fresh information which

I had obtained on this head, when your majesty's attention was attracted by the terrible event that has

"On the contrary, sir, on the contrary," said Louis XVIII., "this affair seems to me to have a decided

connection with that which occupies our attention, and the death of General Quesnel will, perhaps, put us on

the direct track of a great internal conspiracy." At the name of General Quesnel, Villefort trembled.

"Everything points to the conclusion, sire," said the minister of police, "that death was not the result of

suicide, as we first believed, but of assassination. General Quesnel, it appears, had just left a Bonapartist club

when he disappeared. An unknown person had been with him that morning, and made an appointment with

him in the Rue SaintJacques; unfortunately, the general's valet, who was dressing his hair at the moment

when the stranger entered, heard the street mentioned, but did not catch the number." As the police minister

related this to the king, Villefort, who looked as if his very life hung on the speaker's lips, turned alternately

"Do you not think with me, M. de Villefort, that General Quesnel, whom they believed attached to the

usurper, but who was really entirely devoted to me, has perished the victim of a Bonapartist ambush?"

"Yes, the servant has given his description. He is a man of from fifty to fiftytwo years of age, dark, with

black eyes covered with shaggy eyebrows, and a thick mustache. He was dressed in a blue frockcoat,

buttoned up to the chin, and wore at his buttonhole the rosette of an officer of the Legion of Honor.

Yesterday a person exactly corresponding with this description was followed, but he was lost sight of at the

corner of the Rue de la Jussienne and the Rue CoqHeron." Villefort leaned on the back of an armchair, for

as the minister of police went on speaking he felt his legs bend under him; but when he learned that the

unknown had escaped the vigilance of the agent who followed him, he breathed again.

"Continue to seek for this man, sir," said the king to the minister of police; "for if, as I am all but convinced,

General Quesnel, who would have been so useful to us at this moment, has been murdered, his assassins,

Bonapartists or not, shall be cruelly punished." It required all Villefort's coolness not to betray the terror with

"How strange," continued the king, with some asperity; "the police think that they have disposed of the whole

matter when they say, `A murder has been committed,' and especially so when they can add, `And we are on

"We shall see. I will no longer detain you, M. de Villefort, for you must be fatigued after so long a journey;

go and rest. Of course you stopped at your father's?" A feeling of faintness came over Villefort.

"No, sire," he replied, "I alighted at the Hotel de Madrid, in the Rue de Tournon."

"Ah, I forgot," said Louis, smiling in a manner which proved that all these questions were not made without a

motive; "I forgot you and M. Noirtier are not on the best terms possible, and that is another sacrifice made to

"Sire, the kindness your majesty deigns to evince towards me is a recompense which so far surpasses my

"Never mind, sir, we will not forget you; make your mind easy. In the meanwhile" (the king here detached

the cross of the Legion of Honor which he usually wore over his blue coat, near the cross of St. Louis, above

the order of NotreDameduMontCarmel and St. Lazare, and gave it to Villefort) "in the meanwhile

"Ma foi," said Louis XVIII., "take it, such as it is, for I have not the time to procure you another. Blacas, let it

be your care to see that the brevet is made out and sent to M. de Villefort." Villefort's eyes were filled with

"And now," he said, "may I inquire what are the orders with which your majesty deigns to honor me?"

"Take what rest you require, and remember that if you are not able to serve me here in Paris, you may be of

"Go, sir," said the king; "and should I forget you (kings' memories are short), do not be afraid to bring

yourself to my recollection. Baron, send for the minister of war. Blacas, remain."

"Ah, sir," said the minister of police to Villefort, as they left the Tuileries, "you entered by luck's door

"Will it be long first?" muttered Villefort, saluting the minister, whose career was ended, and looking about

him for a hackneycoach. One passed at the moment, which he hailed; he gave his address to the driver, and

Ten minutes afterwards Villefort reached his hotel, ordered horses to be ready in two hours, and asked to

have his breakfast brought to him. He was about to begin his repast when the sound of the bell rang sharp and

"Who could know that I was here already?" said the young man. The valet entered.

"Eh, pardieu," said the individual whose description we have twice given, entering the door, "what a great

deal of ceremony! Is it the custom in Marseilles for sons to keep their fathers waiting in their anterooms?"

"Father!" cried Villefort, "then I was not deceived; I felt sure it must be you."

"Well, then, if you felt so sure," replied the newcomer, putting his cane in a corner and his hat on a chair,

"allow me to say, my dear Gerard, that it was not very filial of you to keep me waiting at the door."

"Leave us, Germain," said Villefort. The servant quitted the apartment with evident signs of astonishment.

M. Noirtier for it was, indeed, he who entered looked after the servant until the door was closed, and

then, fearing, no doubt, that he might be overheard in the antechamber, he opened the door again, nor was

the precaution useless, as appeared from the rapid retreat of Germain, who proved that he was not exempt

from the sin which ruined our first parents. M. Noirtier then took the trouble to close and bolt the

antechamber door, then that of the bedchamber, and then extended his hand to Villefort, who had followed

"Well, now, my dear Gerard," said he to the young man, with a very significant look, "do you know, you

"My dear father," said Villefort, "I am, on the contrary, delighted; but I so little expected your visit, that it has

"But, my dear fellow," replied M. Noirtier, seating himself, "I might say the same thing to you, when you

announce to me your wedding for the 28th of February, and on the 3rd of March you turn up here in Paris."

"And if I have come, my dear father," said Gerard, drawing closer to M. Noirtier, "do not complain, for it is

"Ah, indeed!" said M. Noirtier, stretching himself out at his ease in the chair. "Really, pray tell me all about

"Father, you have heard speak of a certain Bonapartist club in the Rue SaintJacques?"

"Why, my dear boy, when a man has been proscribed by the mountaineers, has escaped from Paris in a

haycart, been hunted over the plains of Bordeaux by Robespierre's bloodhounds, he becomes accustomed to

"Why, they induced General Quesnel to go there, and General Quesnel, who quitted his own house at nine

"Well, then, in return for your story," continued Noirtier, "I will tell you another."

"Not so loud, father, I entreat of you for your own sake as well as mine. Yes, I heard this news, and knew

it even before you could; for three days ago I posted from Marseilles to Paris with all possible speed,

"Three days ago? You are crazy. Why, three days ago the emperor had not landed."

"To you; and which I discovered in the pocketbook of the messenger. Had that letter fallen into the hands of

another, you, my dear father, would probably ere this have been shot." Villefort's father laughed.

"Come, come," said he, "will the Restoration adopt imperial methods so promptly? Shot, my dear boy? What

an idea! Where is the letter you speak of? I know you too well to suppose you would allow such a thing to

"I burnt it, for fear that even a fragment should remain; for that letter must have led to your condemnation."

"And the destruction of your future prospects," replied Noirtier; "yes, I can easily comprehend that. But I

"You do? Why, really, the thing becomes more and more dramatic explain yourself."

"It appears that this club is rather a bore to the police. Why didn't they search more vigilantly? they would

"Yes, that the usual phrase; I am quite familiar with it. When the police is at fault, it declares that it is on the

track; and the government patiently awaits the day when it comes to say, with a sneaking air, that the track is

"Yes, but they have found a corpse; the general has been killed, and in all countries they call that a murder."

"A murder do you call it? why, there is nothing to prove that the general was murdered. People are found

every day in the Seine, having thrown themselves in, or having been drowned from not knowing how to

"Father, you know very well that the general was not a man to drown himself in despair, and people do not

bathe in the Seine in the month of January. No, no, do not be deceived; this was murder in every sense of the

"The king! I thought he was philosopher enough to allow that there was no murder in politics. In politics, my

dear fellow, you know, as well as I do, there are no men, but ideas no feelings, but interests; in politics we

do not kill a man, we only remove an obstacle, that is all. Would you like to know how matters have

progressed? Well, I will tell you. It was thought reliance might be placed in General Quesnel; he was

recommended to us from the Island of Elba; one of us went to him, and invited him to the Rue SaintJacques,

where he would find some friends. He came there, and the plan was unfolded to him for leaving Elba, the

projected landing, etc. When he had heard and comprehended all to the fullest extent, he replied that he was a

royalist. Then all looked at each other, he was made to take an oath, and did so, but with such an ill grace

that it was really tempting Providence to swear him, and yet, in spite of that, the general was allowed to

depart free perfectly free. Yet he did not return home. What could that mean? why, my dear fellow, that

on leaving us he lost his way, that's all. A murder? really, Villefort, you surprise me. You, a deputy

procureur, to found an accusation on such bad premises! Did I ever say to you, when you were fulfilling your

character as a royalist, and cut off the head of one of my party, `My son, you have committed a murder?' No,

I said, `Very well, sir, you have gained the victory; tomorrow, perchance, it will be our turn.'"

"You are mistaken; he will not advance two leagues into the interior of France without being followed,

"My dear fellow, the emperor is at this moment on the way to Grenoble; on the 10th or 12th he will be at

"He has but a handful of men with him, and armies will be despatched against him."

"Yes, to escort him into the capital. Really, my dear Gerard, you are but a child; you think yourself well

informed because the telegraph has told you, three days after the landing, `The usurper has landed at Cannes

with several men. He is pursued.' But where is he? what is he doing? You do not know at all, and in this way

"Grenoble and Lyons are faithful cities, and will oppose to him an impassable barrier."

"Grenoble will open her gates to him with enthusiasm all Lyons will hasten to welcome him. Believe me,

we are as well informed as you, and our police are as good as your own. Would you like a proof of it? well,

you wished to conceal your journey from me, and yet I knew of your arrival half an hour after you had passed

the barrier. You gave your direction to no one but your postilion, yet I have your address, and in proof I am

here the very instant you are going to sit at table. Ring, then, if you please, for a second knife, fork, and plate,

"Indeed!" replied Villefort, looking at his father with astonishment, "you really do seem very well informed."

"Eh? the thing is simple enough. You who are in power have only the means that money produces we who

And Villefort's father extended his hand to the bellrope, to summon the servant whom his son had not

"The description of the man who, on the morning of the day when General Quesnel disappeared, presented

"Oh, the admirable police have found that out, have they? And what may be that description?"

"Dark complexion; hair, eyebrows, and whiskers, black; blue frockcoat, buttoned up to the chin; rosette of

an officer of the Legion of Honor in his buttonhole; a hat with wide brim, and a cane."

"Ah, ha, that's it, is it?" said Noirtier; "and why, then, have they not laid hands on him?"

"Because yesterday, or the day before, they lost sight of him at the corner of the Rue CoqHeron."

"True," said Noirtier, looking carelessly around him, "true, if this person were not on his guard, as he is;" and

he added with a smile, "He will consequently make a few changes in his personal appearance." At these

words he rose, and put off his frockcoat and cravat, went towards a table on which lay his son's toilet

articles, lathered his face, took a razor, and, with a firm hand, cut off the compromising whiskers. Villefort

His whiskers cut off, Noirtier gave another turn to his hair; took, instead of his black cravat, a colored

neckerchief which lay at the top of an open portmanteau; put on, in lieu of his blue and highbuttoned

frockcoat, a coat of Villefort's of dark brown, and cut away in front; tried on before the glass a

narrowbrimmed hat of his son's, which appeared to fit him perfectly, and, leaving his cane in the corner

where he had deposited it, he took up a small bamboo switch, cut the air with it once or twice, and walked

"Well," he said, turning towards his wondering son, when this disguise was completed, "well, do you think

"And now, my dear boy," continued Noirtier, "I rely on your prudence to remove all the things which I leave

"Yes, yes; and now I believe you are right, and that you have really saved my life; be assured I will return the

"True, but some day they do them justice; and supposing a second restoration, you would then pass for a

"Say this to him: `Sire, you are deceived as to the feeling in France, as to the opinions of the towns, and the

prejudices of the army; he whom in Paris you call the Corsican ogre, who at Nevers is styled the usurper, is

already saluted as Bonaparte at Lyons, and emperor at Grenoble. You think he is tracked, pursued, captured;

he is advancing as rapidly as his own eagles. The soldiers you believe to be dying with hunger, worn out with

fatigue, ready to desert, gather like atoms of snow about the rolling ball as it hastens onward. Sire, go, leave

France to its real master, to him who acquired it, not by purchase, but by right of conquest; go, sire, not that

you incur any risk, for your adversary is powerful enough to show you mercy, but because it would be

humiliating for a grandson of Saint Louis to owe his life to the man of Arcola, Marengo, Austerlitz.' Tell him

this, Gerard; or, rather, tell him nothing. Keep your journey a secret; do not boast of what you have come to

Paris to do, or have done; return with all speed; enter Marseilles at night, and your house by the backdoor,

and there remain, quiet, submissive, secret, and, above all, inoffensive; for this time, I swear to you, we shall

act like powerful men who know their enemies. Go, my son go, my dear Gerard, and by your obedience to

my paternal orders, or, if you prefer it, friendly counsels, we will keep you in your place. This will be," added

Noirtier, with a smile, "one means by which you may a second time save me, if the political balance should

some day take another turn, and cast you aloft while hurling me down. Adieu, my dear Gerard, and at your

next journey alight at my door." Noirtier left the room when he had finished, with the same calmness that had

characterized him during the whole of this remarkable and trying conversation. Villefort, pale and agitated,

ran to the window, put aside the curtain, and saw him pass, cool and collected, by two or three illlooking

men at the corner of the street, who were there, perhaps, to arrest a man with black whiskers, and a blue

Villefort stood watching, breathless, until his father had disappeared at the Rue Bussy. Then he turned to the

various articles he had left behind him, put the black cravat and blue frockcoat at the bottom of the

portmanteau, threw the hat into a dark closet, broke the cane into small bits and flung it in the fire, put on his

travellingcap, and calling his valet, checked with a look the thousand questions he was ready to ask, paid his

bill, sprang into his carriage, which was ready, learned at Lyons that Bonaparte had entered Grenoble, and in

the midst of the tumult which prevailed along the road, at length reached Marseilles, a prey to all the hopes

and fears which enter into the heart of man with ambition and its first successes.

M. Noirtier was a true prophet, and things progressed rapidly, as he had predicted. Every one knows the

history of the famous return from Elba, a return which was unprecedented in the past, and will probably

Louis XVIII. made but a faint attempt to parry this unexpected blow; the monarchy he had scarcely

reconstructed tottered on its precarious foundation, and at a sign from the emperor the incongruous structure

of ancient prejudices and new ideas fell to the ground. Villefort, therefore, gained nothing save the king's

gratitude (which was rather likely to injure him at the present time) and the cross of the Legion of Honor,

which he had the prudence not to wear, although M. de Blacas had duly forwarded the brevet.

Napoleon would, doubtless, have deprived Villefort of his office had it not been for Noirtier, who was all

powerful at court, and thus the Girondin of '93 and the Senator of 1806 protected him who so lately had been

his protector. All Villefort's influence barely enabled him to stifle the secret Dantes had so nearly divulged.

The king's procureur alone was deprived of his office, being suspected of royalism.

However, scarcely was the imperial power established that is, scarcely had the emperor reentered the

Tuileries and begun to issue orders from the closet into which we have introduced our readers, he found

on the table there Louis XVIII.'s halffilled snuffbox, scarcely had this occurred when Marseilles began,

in spite of the authorities, to rekindle the flames of civil war, always smouldering in the south, and it required

but little to excite the populace to acts of far greater violence than the shouts and insults with which they

Owing to this change, the worthy shipowner became at that moment we will not say all powerful, because

Morrel was a prudent and rather a timid man, so much so, that many of the most zealous partisans of

Bonaparte accused him of "moderation" but sufficiently influential to make a demand in favor of Dantes.

Villefort retained his place, but his marriage was put off until a more favorable opportunity. If the emperor

remained on the throne, Gerard required a different alliance to aid his career; if Louis XVIII. returned, the

influence of M. de SaintMeran, like his own, could be vastly increased, and the marriage be still more

suitable. The deputyprocureur was, therefore, the first magistrate of Marseilles, when one morning his door

Any one else would have hastened to receive him; but Villefort was a man of ability, and he knew this would

be a sign of weakness. He made Morrel wait in the antechamber, although he had no one with him, for the

simple reason that the king's procureur always makes every one wait, and after passing a quarter of an hour in

Morrel expected Villefort would be dejected; he found him as he had found him six weeks before, calm, firm,

and full of that glacial politeness, that most insurmountable barrier which separates the wellbred from the

He had entered Villefort's office expecting that the magistrate would tremble at the sight of him; on the

contrary, he felt a cold shudder all over him when he saw Villefort sitting there with his elbow on his desk,

and his head leaning on his hand. He stopped at the door; Villefort gazed at him as if he had some difficulty

in recognizing him; then, after a brief interval, during which the honest shipowner turned his hat in his hands,

"Come nearer," said the magistrate, with a patronizing wave of the hand, "and tell me to what circumstance I

"Monsieur," said Morrel, recovering his assurance as he proceeded, "do you recollect that a few days before

the landing of his majesty the emperor, I came to intercede for a young man, the mate of my ship, who was

accused of being concerned in correspondence with the Island of Elba? What was the other day a crime is

today a title to favor. You then served Louis XVIII., and you did not show any favor it was your duty;

today you serve Napoleon, and you ought to protect him it is equally your duty; I come, therefore, to ask

Villefort by a strong effort sought to control himself. "What is his name?" said he. "Tell me his name."

Villefort would probably have rather stood opposite the muzzle of a pistol at fiveandtwenty paces than

"Yes, monsieur." Villefort opened a large register, then went to a table, from the table turned to his registers,

"Are you quite sure you are not mistaken, monsieur?" said he, in the most natural tone in the world.

Had Morrel been a more quicksighted man, or better versed in these matters, he would have been surprised

at the king's procureur answering him on such a subject, instead of referring him to the governors of the

prison or the prefect of the department. But Morrel, disappointed in his expectations of exciting fear, was

"No," said Morrel; "I am not mistaken. I have known him for ten years, the last four of which he was in my

service. Do not you recollect, I came about six weeks ago to plead for clemency, as I come today to plead

for justice. You received me very coldly. Oh, the royalists were very severe with the Bonapartists in those

"Monsieur," returned Villefort, "I was then a royalist, because I believed the Bourbons not only the heirs to

the throne, but the chosen of the nation. The miraculous return of Napoleon has conquered me, the legitimate

"That's right!" cried Morrel. "I like to hear you speak thus, and I augur well for Edmond from it."

"Wait a moment," said Villefort, turning over the leaves of a register; "I have it a sailor, who was about to

"I made my report to the authorities at Paris, and a week after he was carried off."

"Oh, he has been taken to Fenestrelles, to Pignerol, or to the SainteMarguerite islands. Some fine morning

"Come when he will, it shall be kept for him. But how is it he is not already returned? It seems to me the first

care of government should be to set at liberty those who have suffered for their adherence to it."

"Do not be too hasty, M. Morrel," replied Villefort. "The order of imprisonment came from high authority,

and the order for his liberation must proceed from the same source; and, as Napoleon has scarcely been

"But," said Morrel, "is there no way of expediting all these formalities of releasing him from arrest?"

"It is sometimes essential to government to cause a man's disappearance without leaving any traces, so that

"It has always been so, my dear Morrel, since the reign of Louis XIV. The emperor is more strict in prison

discipline than even Louis himself, and the number of prisoners whose names are not on the register is

incalculable." Had Morrel even any suspicions, so much kindness would have dispelled them.

"Oh, I know what that is; the minister receives two hundred petitions every day, and does not read three."

"With the greatest pleasure. Dantes was then guilty, and now he is innocent, and it is as much my duty to free

him as it was to condemn him." Villefort thus forestalled any danger of an inquiry, which, however

"Sit down there," said Villefort, giving up his place to Morrel, "and write what I dictate."

"That is true. Only think what the poor fellow may even now be suffering." Villefort shuddered at the

suggestion; but he had gone too far to draw back. Dantes must be crushed to gratify Villefort's ambition.

Villefort dictated a petition, in which, from an excellent intention, no doubt, Dantes' patriotic services were

exaggerated, and he was made out one of the most active agents of Napoleon's return. It was evident that at

the sight of this document the minister would instantly release him. The petition finished, Villefort read it

"The best thing I can do will be to certify the truth of the contents of your petition." And, sitting down,

"I will do whatever is necessary." This assurance delighted Morrel, who took leave of Villefort, and hastened

As for Villefort, instead of sending to Paris, he carefully preserved the petition that so fearfully compromised

Dantes, in the hopes of an event that seemed not unlikely, that is, a second restoration. Dantes remained a

prisoner, and heard not the noise of the fall of Louis XVIII.'s throne, or the still more tragic destruction of the

Twice during the Hundred Days had Morrel renewed his demand, and twice had Villefort soothed him with

promises. At last there was Waterloo, and Morrel came no more; he had done all that was in his power, and

Louis XVIII. remounted the throne; Villefort, to whom Marseilles had become filled with remorseful

memories, sought and obtained the situation of king's procureur at Toulouse, and a fortnight afterwards he

married Mademoiselle de SaintMeran, whose father now stood higher at court than ever.

And so Dantes, after the Hundred Days and after Waterloo, remained in his dungeon, forgotten of earth and

heaven. Danglars comprehended the full extent of the wretched fate that overwhelmed Dantes; and, when

Napoleon returned to France, he, after the manner of mediocre minds, termed the coincidence, "a decree of

Providence." But when Napoleon returned to Paris, Danglars' heart failed him, and he lived in constant fear

of Dantes' return on a mission of vengeance. He therefore informed M. Morrel of his wish to quit the sea, and

obtained a recommendation from him to a Spanish merchant, into whose service he entered at the end of

March, that is, ten or twelve days after Napoleon's return. He then left for Madrid, and was no more heard of.

Fernand understood nothing except that Dantes was absent. What had become of him he cared not to inquire.

Only, during the respite the absence of his rival afforded him, he reflected, partly on the means of deceiving

Mercedes as to the cause of his absence, partly on plans of emigration and abduction, as from time to time he

sat sad and motionless on the summit of Cape Pharo, at the spot from whence Marseilles and the Catalans are

visible, watching for the apparition of a young and handsome man, who was for him also the messenger of

vengeance. Fernand's mind was made up; he would shoot Dantes, and then kill himself. But Fernand was

mistaken; a man of his disposition never kills himself, for he constantly hopes.

During this time the empire made its last conscription, and every man in France capable of bearing arms

rushed to obey the summons of the emperor. Fernand departed with the rest, bearing with him the terrible

thought that while he was away, his rival would perhaps return and marry Mercedes. Had Fernand really

meant to kill himself, he would have done so when he parted from Mercedes. His devotion, and the

compassion he showed for her misfortunes, produced the effect they always produce on noble minds

Mercedes had always had a sincere regard for Fernand, and this was now strengthened by gratitude.

"My brother," said she as she placed his knapsack on his shoulders, "be careful of yourself, for if you are

killed, I shall be alone in the world." These words carried a ray of hope into Fernand's heart. Should Dantes

Mercedes was left alone face to face with the vast plain that had never seemed so barren, and the sea that had

never seemed so vast. Bathed in tears she wandered about the Catalan village. Sometimes she stood mute and

motionless as a statue, looking towards Marseilles, at other times gazing on the sea, and debating as to

whether it were not better to cast herself into the abyss of the ocean, and thus end her woes. It was not want

of courage that prevented her putting this resolution into execution; but her religious feelings came to her aid

and saved her. Caderousse was, like Fernand, enrolled in the army, but, being married and eight years older,

he was merely sent to the frontier. Old Dantes, who was only sustained by hope, lost all hope at Napoleon's

downfall. Five months after he had been separated from his son, and almost at the hour of his arrest, he

breathed his last in Mercedes' arms. M. Morrel paid the expenses of his funeral, and a few small debts the

There was more than benevolence in this action; there was courage; the south was aflame, and to assist, even

on his deathbed, the father of so dangerous a Bonapartist as Dantes, was stigmatized as a crime.

A year after Louis XVIII.'s restoration, a visit was made by the inspectorgeneral of prisons. Dantes in his

cell heard the noise of preparation, sounds that at the depth where he lay would have been inaudible to

any but the ear of a prisoner, who could hear the plash of the drop of water that every hour fell from the roof

of his dungeon. He guessed something uncommon was passing among the living; but he had so long ceased

The inspector visited, one after another, the cells and dungeons of several of the prisoners, whose good

behavior or stupidity recommended them to the clemency of the government. He inquired how they were fed,

and if they had any request to make. The universal response was, that the fare was detestable, and that they

The inspector asked if they had anything else to ask for. They shook their heads. What could they desire

"I do not know what reason government can assign for these useless visits; when you see one prisoner, you

"Let us visit them," said the inspector with an air of fatigue. "We must play the farce to the end. Let us see the

"Let us first send for two soldiers," said the governor. "The prisoners sometimes, through mere uneasiness of

life, and in order to be sentenced to death, commit acts of useless violence, and you might fall a victim."

Two soldiers were accordingly sent for, and the inspector descended a stairway, so foul, so humid, so dark, as

"A most dangerous conspirator, a man we are ordered to keep the most strict watch over, as he is daring and

"Yes, the very one who is lighting us. Is it not true, Antoine?" asked the governor.

"Oh, no; it is useless. Besides, he is almost mad now, and in another year he will be quite so."

"So much the better for him, he will suffer less," said the inspector. He was, as this remark shows, a man

"You are right, sir," replied the governor; "and this remark proves that you have deeply considered the

subject. Now we have in a dungeon about twenty feet distant, and to which you descend by another stair, an

abbe, formerly leader of a party in Italy, who has been here since 1811, and in 1813 he went mad, and the

change is astonishing. He used to weep, he now laughs; he grew thin, he now grows fat. You had better see

"I will see them both," returned the inspector; "I must conscientiously perform my duty." This was the

"By all means," replied the governor, and he signed to the turnkey to open the door. At the sound of the key

turning in the lock, and the creaking of the hinges, Dantes, who was crouched in a corner of the dungeon,

whence he could see the ray of light that came through a narrow iron grating above, raised his head. Seeing a

stranger, escorted by two turnkeys holding torches and accompanied by two soldiers, and to whom the

governor spoke bareheaded, Dantes, who guessed the truth, and that the moment to address himself to the

The soldiers interposed their bayonets, for they thought that he was about to attack the inspector, and the

latter recoiled two or three steps. Dantes saw that he was looked upon as dangerous. Then, infusing all the

humility he possessed into his eyes and voice, he addressed the inspector, and sought to inspire him with pity.

The inspector listened attentively; then, turning to the governor, observed, "He will become religious he is

already more gentle; he is afraid, and retreated before the bayonets madmen are not afraid of anything; I

made some curious observations on this at Charenton." Then, turning to the prisoner, "What is it you want?"

"I want to know what crime I have committed to be tried; and if I am guilty, to be shot; if innocent, to be

"I believe so; I don't know; it's of no consequence. What matters really, not only to me, but to officers of

justice and the king, is that an innocent man should languish in prison, the victim of an infamous

"You are very humble today," remarked the governor; "you are not so always; the other day, for instance,

"It is true, sir, and I beg his pardon, for he his always been very good to me, but I was mad."

"Only seventeen months," replied Dantes. "Oh, you do not know what is seventeen months in prison!

seventeen ages rather, especially to a man who, like me, had arrived at the summit of his ambition to a

man, who, like me, was on the point of marrying a woman he adored, who saw an honorable career opened

before him, and who loses all in an instant who sees his prospects destroyed, and is ignorant of the fate of

his affianced wife, and whether his aged father be still living! Seventeen months captivity to a sailor

accustomed to the boundless ocean, is a worse punishment than human crime ever merited. Have pity on me,

then, and ask for me, not intelligence, but a trial; not pardon, but a verdict a trial, sir, I ask only for a trial;

"We shall see," said the inspector; then, turning to the governor, "On my word, the poor devil touches me.

"Monsieur," continued Dantes, "I know it is not in your power to release me; but you can plead for me

you can have me tried and that is all I ask. Let me know my crime, and the reason why I was condemned.

"Monsieur," cried Dantes, "I can tell by your voice you are touched with pity; tell me at least to hope."

"I cannot tell you that," replied the inspector; "I can only promise to examine into your case."

"I am no longer surprised at my detention," murmured Dantes, "since my only protector is removed."

"That is well; wait patiently, then." Dantes fell on his knees, and prayed earnestly. The door closed; but this

"Will you see the register at once," asked the governor, "or proceed to the other cell?"

"Let us visit them all," said the inspector. "If I once went up those stairs. I should never have the courage to

"Ah, this one is not like the other, and his madness is less affecting than this one's display of reason."

"He fancies he possesses an immense treasure. The first year he offered government a million of francs for

his release; the second, two; the third, three; and so on progressively. He is now in his fifth year of captivity;

"It is here; unlock the door, Antoine." The turnkey obeyed, and the inspector gazed curiously into the

In the centre of the cell, in a circle traced with a fragment of plaster detached from the wall, sat a man whose

tattered garments scarcely covered him. He was drawing in this circle geometrical lines, and seemed as much

absorbed in his problem as Archimedes was when the soldier of Marcellus slew him.

He did not move at the sound of the door, and continued his calculations until the flash of the torches lighted

up with an unwonted glare the sombre walls of his cell; then, raising his head, he perceived with

astonishment the number of persons present. He hastily seized the coverlet of his bed, and wrapped it round

"You do not understand," continued the inspector; "I am sent here by government to visit the prison, and hear

"Oh, that is different," cried the abbe; "and we shall understand each other, I hope."

"Monsieur," continued the prisoner, "I am the Abbe Faria, born at Rome. I was for twenty years Cardinal

Spada's secretary; I was arrested, why, I know not, toward the beginning of the year 1811; since then I have

"Because I was arrested at Piombino, and I presume that, like Milan and Florence, Piombino has become the

"My information dates from the day on which I was arrested," returned the Abbe Faria; "and as the emperor

had created the kingdom of Rome for his infant son, I presume that he has realized the dream of Machiavelli

"Monsieur," returned the inspector, "providence has changed this gigantic plan you advocate so warmly."

"Very possibly; only I am not come to discuss politics, but to inquire if you have anything to ask or to

"The food is the same as in other prisons, that is, very bad; the lodging is very unhealthful, but, on the

whole, passable for a dungeon; but it is not that which I wish to speak of, but a secret I have to reveal of the

"It is for that reason I am delighted to see you," continued the abbe, "although you have disturbed me in a

most important calculation, which, if it succeeded, would possibly change Newton's system. Could you allow

"But," said the abbe, "I would speak to you of a large sum, amounting to five millions."

"However," continued Faria, seeing that the inspector was about to depart, "it is not absolutely necessary for

"Unfortunately," said the governor, "I know beforehand what you are about to say; it concerns your treasures,

does it not?" Faria fixed his eyes on him with an expression that would have convinced any one else of his

"Mr. Inspector," continued the governor, "I can tell you the story as well as he, for it has been dinned in my

"That proves," returned the abbe, "that you are like those of Holy Writ, who having ears hear not, and having

"My dear sir, the government is rich and does not want your treasures," replied the inspector; "keep them

until you are liberated." The abbe's eyes glistened; he seized the inspector's hand.

"But what if I am not liberated," cried he, "and am detained here until my death? this treasure will be lost.

Had not government better profit by it? I will offer six millions, and I will content myself with the rest, if

"On my word," said the inspector in a low tone, "had I not been told beforehand that this man was mad, I

"I am not mad," replied Faria, with that acuteness of hearing peculiar to prisoners. "The treasure I speak of

really exists, and I offer to sign an agreement with you, in which I promise to lead you to the spot where you

"It is not illplanned," said the governor. "If all the prisoners took it into their heads to travel a hundred

leagues, and their guardians consented to accompany them, they would have a capital chance of escaping."

"The scheme is well known," said the inspector; "and the abbe's plan has not even the merit of originality."

"Swear to me," replied Faria, "to free me if what I tell you prove true, and I will stay here while you go to the

"Monsieur, you run no risk, for, as I told you, I will stay here; so there is no chance of my escaping."

"Nor you to mine," cried the abbe. "You will not accept my gold; I will keep it for myself. You refuse me my

liberty; God will give it me." And the abbe, casting away his coverlet, resumed his place, and continued his

Faria replied to this sarcasm with a glance of profound contempt. They went out. The turnkey closed the door

"After all," said the inspector, "if he had been rich, he would not have been here." So the matter ended for the

Abbe Faria. He remained in his cell, and this visit only increased the belief in his insanity.

Caligula or Nero, those treasureseekers, those desirers of the impossible, would have accorded to the poor

wretch, in exchange for his wealth, the liberty he so earnestly prayed for. But the kings of modern times,

restrained by the limits of mere probability, have neither courage nor desire. They fear the ear that hears their

orders, and the eye that scrutinizes their actions. Formerly they believed themselves sprung from Jupiter, and

It has always been against the policy of despotic governments to suffer the victims of their persecutions to

reappear. As the Inquisition rarely allowed its victims to be seen with their limbs distorted and their flesh

lacerated by torture, so madness is always concealed in its cell, from whence, should it depart, it is conveyed

to some gloomy hospital, where the doctor has no thought for man or mind in the mutilated being the jailer

delivers to him. The very madness of the Abbe Faria, gone mad in prison, condemned him to perpetual

The inspector kept his word with Dantes; he examined the register, and found the following note concerning

This note was in a different hand from the rest, which showed that it had been added since his confinement.

The inspector could not contend against this accusation; he simply wrote, "Nothing to be done."

This visit had infused new vigor into Dantes; he had, till then, forgotten the date; but now, with a fragment of

plaster, he wrote the date, 30th July, 1816, and made a mark every day, in order not to lose his reckoning

again. Days and weeks passed away, then months Dantes still waited; he at first expected to be freed in a

fortnight. This fortnight expired, he decided that the inspector would do nothing until his return to Paris, and

that he would not reach there until his circuit was finished, he therefore fixed three months; three months

passed away, then six more. Finally ten months and a half had gone by and no favorable change had taken

place, and Dantes began to fancy the inspector's visit but a dream, an illusion of the brain.

At the expiration of a year the governor was transferred; he had obtained charge of the fortress at Ham. He

took with him several of his subordinates, and amongst them Dantes' jailer. A new governor arrived; it would

have been too tedious to acquire the names of the prisoners; he learned their numbers instead. This horrible

place contained fifty cells; their inhabitants were designated by the numbers of their cell, and the unhappy

Dantes passed through all the stages of torture natural to prisoners in suspense. He was sustained at first by

that pride of conscious innocence which is the sequence to hope; then he began to doubt his own innocence,

which justified in some measure the governor's belief in his mental alienation; and then, relaxing his

sentiment of pride, he addressed his supplications, not to God, but to man. God is always the last resource.

Unfortunates, who ought to begin with God, do not have any hope in him till they have exhausted all other

Dantes asked to be removed from his present dungeon into another; for a change, however disadvantageous,

was still a change, and would afford him some amusement. He entreated to be allowed to walk about, to have

fresh air, books, and writing materials. His requests were not granted, but he went on asking all the same. He

accustomed himself to speaking to the new jailer, although the latter was, if possible, more taciturn than the

old one; but still, to speak to a man, even though mute, was something. Dantes spoke for the sake of hearing

his own voice; he had tried to speak when alone, but the sound of his voice terrified him. Often, before his

captivity, Dantes, mind had revolted at the idea of assemblages of prisoners, made up of thieves, vagabonds,

and murderers. He now wished to be amongst them, in order to see some other face besides that of his jailer;

he sighed for the galleys, with the infamous costume, the chain, and the brand on the shoulder. The

galleyslaves breathed the fresh air of heaven, and saw each other. They were very happy. He besought the

The jailer, though rough and hardened by the constant sight of so much suffering, was yet a man. At the

bottom of his heart he had often had a feeling of pity for this unhappy young man who suffered so; and he

laid the request of number 34 before the governor; but the latter sapiently imagined that Dantes wished to

conspire or attempt an escape, and refused his request. Dantes had exhausted all human resources, and he

All the pious ideas that had been so long forgotten, returned; he recollected the prayers his mother had taught

him, and discovered a new meaning in every word; for in prosperity prayers seem but a mere medley of

words, until misfortune comes and the unhappy sufferer first understands the meaning of the sublime

language in which he invokes the pity of heaven! He prayed, and prayed aloud, no longer terrified at the

sound of his own voice, for he fell into a sort of ecstasy. He laid every action of his life before the Almighty,

proposed tasks to accomplish, and at the end of every prayer introduced the entreaty oftener addressed to man

than to God: "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us." Yet in spite of his

Then gloom settled heavily upon him. Dantes was a man of great simplicity of thought, and without

education; he could not, therefore, in the solitude of his dungeon, traverse in mental vision the history of the

ages, bring to life the nations that had perished, and rebuild the ancient cities so vast and stupendous in the

light of the imagination, and that pass before the eye glowing with celestial colors in Martin's Babylonian

pictures. He could not do this, he whose past life was so short, whose present so melancholy, and his future

so doubtful. Nineteen years of light to reflect upon in eternal darkness! No distraction could come to his aid;

his energetic spirit, that would have exalted in thus revisiting the past, was imprisoned like an eagle in a cage.

He clung to one idea that of his happiness, destroyed, without apparent cause, by an unheardof fatality;

he considered and reconsidered this idea, devoured it (so to speak), as the implacable Ugolino devours the

Rage supplanted religious fervor. Dantes uttered blasphemies that made his jailer recoil with horror, dashed

himself furiously against the walls of his prison, wreaked his anger upon everything, and chiefly upon

himself, so that the least thing, a grain of sand, a straw, or a breath of air that annoyed him, led to

paroxysms of fury. Then the letter that Villefort had showed to him recurred to his mind, and every line

gleamed forth in fiery letters on the wall like the mene tekel upharsin of Belshazzar. He told himself that it

was the enmity of man, and not the vengeance of heaven, that had thus plunged him into the deepest misery.

He consigned his unknown persecutors to the most horrible tortures he could imagine, and found them all

insufficient, because after torture came death, and after death, if not repose, at least the boon of

By dint of constantly dwelling on the idea that tranquillity was death, and if punishment were the end in view

other tortures than death must be invented, he began to reflect on suicide. Unhappy he, who, on the brink of

Before him is a dead sea that stretches in azure calm before the eye; but he who unwarily ventures within its

embrace finds himself struggling with a monster that would drag him down to perdition. Once thus ensnared,

unless the protecting hand of God snatch him thence, all is over, and his struggles but tend to hasten his

destruction. This state of mental anguish is, however, less terrible than the sufferings that precede or the

punishment that possibly will follow. There is a sort of consolation at the contemplation of the yawning

Edmond found some solace in these ideas. All his sorrows, all his sufferings, with their train of gloomy

spectres, fled from his cell when the angel of death seemed about to enter. Dantes reviewed his past life with

composure, and, looking forward with terror to his future existence, chose that middle line that seemed to

"Sometimes," said he, "in my voyages, when I was a man and commanded other men, I have seen the

heavens overcast, the sea rage and foam, the storm arise, and, like a monstrous bird, beating the two horizons

with its wings. Then I felt that my vessel was a vain refuge, that trembled and shook before the tempest. Soon

the fury of the waves and the sight of the sharp rocks announced the approach of death, and death then

terrified me, and I used all my skill and intelligence as a man and a sailor to struggle against the wrath of

God. But I did so because I was happy, because I had not courted death, because to be cast upon a bed of

rocks and seaweed seemed terrible, because I was unwilling that I, a creature made for the service of God,

should serve for food to the gulls and ravens. But now it is different; I have lost all that bound me to life,

death smiles and invites me to repose; I die after my own manner, I die exhausted and brokenspirited, as I

No sooner had this idea taken possession of him than he became more composed, arranged his couch to the

best of his power, ate little and slept less, and found existence almost supportable, because he felt that he

could throw it off at pleasure, like a wornout garment. Two methods of selfdestruction were at his

disposal. He could hang himself with his handkerchief to the window bars, or refuse food and die of

starvation. But the first was repugnant to him. Dantes had always entertained the greatest horror of pirates,

who are hung up to the yardarm; he would not die by what seemed an infamous death. He resolved to adopt

the second, and began that day to carry out his resolve. Nearly four years had passed away; at the end of the

Dantes said, "I wish to die," and had chosen the manner of his death, and fearful of changing his mind, he had

taken an oath to die. "When my morning and evening meals are brought," thought he, "I will cast them out of

He kept his word; twice a day he cast out, through the barred aperture, the provisions his jailer brought him

at first gayly, then with deliberation, and at last with regret. Nothing but the recollection of his oath gave

him strength to proceed. Hunger made viands once repugnant, now acceptable; he held the plate in his hand

for an hour at a time, and gazed thoughtfully at the morsel of bad meat, of tainted fish, of black and mouldy

bread. It was the last yearning for life contending with the resolution of despair; then his dungeon seemed less

sombre, his prospects less desperate. He was still young he was only four or five and twenty he had

nearly fifty years to live. What unforseen events might not open his prison door, and restore him to liberty?

Then he raised to his lips the repast that, like a voluntary Tantalus, he refused himself; but he thought of his

oath, and he would not break it. He persisted until, at last, he had not sufficient strength to rise and cast his

supper out of the loophole. The next morning he could not see or hear; the jailer feared he was dangerously

Thus the day passed away. Edmond felt a sort of stupor creeping over him which brought with it a feeling

almost of content; the gnawing pain at his stomach had ceased; his thirst had abated; when he closed his eyes

he saw myriads of lights dancing before them like the willo'thewisps that play about the marshes. It was

Suddenly, about nine o'clock in the evening, Edmond heard a hollow sound in the wall against which he was

So many loathsome animals inhabited the prison, that their noise did not, in general, awake him; but whether

abstinence had quickened his faculties, or whether the noise was really louder than usual, Edmond raised his

head and listened. It was a continual scratching, as if made by a huge claw, a powerful tooth, or some iron

Although weakened, the young man's brain instantly responded to the idea that haunts all prisoners

liberty! It seemed to him that heaven had at length taken pity on him, and had sent this noise to warn him on

the very brink of the abyss. Perhaps one of those beloved ones he had so often thought of was thinking of

No, no, doubtless he was deceived, and it was but one of those dreams that forerun death!

Edmond still heard the sound. It lasted nearly three hours; he then heard a noise of something falling, and all

Some hours afterwards it began again, nearer and more distinct. Edmond was intensely interested. Suddenly

For a week since he had resolved to die, and during the four days that he had been carrying out his purpose,

Edmond had not spoken to the attendant, had not answered him when he inquired what was the matter with

him, and turned his face to the wall when he looked too curiously at him; but now the jailer might hear the

noise and put an end to it, and so destroy a ray of something like hope that soothed his last moments.

The jailer brought him his breakfast. Dantes raised himself up and began to talk about everything; about the

bad quality of the food, about the coldness of his dungeon, grumbling and complaining, in order to have an

excuse for speaking louder, and wearying the patience of his jailer, who out of kindness of heart had brought

Fortunately, he fancied that Dantes was delirious; and placing the food on the rickety table, he withdrew.

"There can be no doubt about it," thought he; "it is some prisoner who is striving to obtain his freedom. Oh, if

I were only there to help him!" Suddenly another idea took possession of his mind, so used to misfortune, that

it was scarcely capable of hope the idea that the noise was made by workmen the governor had ordered to

It was easy to ascertain this; but how could he risk the question? It was easy to call his jailer's attention to the

noise, and watch his countenance as he listened; but might he not by this means destroy hopes far more

important than the shortlived satisfaction of his own curiosity? Unfortunately, Edmond's brain was still so

He saw but one means of restoring lucidity and clearness to his judgment. He turned his eyes towards the

soup which the jailer had brought, rose, staggered towards it, raised the vessel to his lips, and drank off the

contents with a feeling of indescribable pleasure. He had often heard that shipwrecked persons had died

through having eagerly devoured too much food. Edmond replaced on the table the bread he was about to

devour, and returned to his couch he did not wish to die. He soon felt that his ideas became again

collected he could think, and strengthen his thoughts by reasoning. Then he said to himself, "I must put

this to the test, but without compromising anybody. If it is a workman, I need but knock against the wall, and

he will cease to work, in order to find out who is knocking, and why he does so; but as his occupation is

sanctioned by the governor, he will soon resume it. If, on the contrary, it is a prisoner, the noise I make will

alarm him, he will cease, and not begin again until he thinks every one is asleep."

Edmond rose again, but this time his legs did not tremble, and his sight was clear; he went to a corner of his

dungeon, detached a stone, and with it knocked against the wall where the sound came. He struck thrice. At

Edmond listened intently; an hour passed, two hours passed, and no sound was heard from the wall all

Full of hope, Edmond swallowed a few mouthfuls of bread and water, and, thanks to the vigor of his

The day passed away in utter silence night came without recurrence of the noise.

"It is a prisoner," said Edmond joyfully. The night passed in perfect silence. Edmond did not close his eyes.

In the morning the jailer brought him fresh provisions he had already devoured those of the previous day;

he ate these listening anxiously for the sound, walking round and round his cell, shaking the iron bars of the

loophole, restoring vigor and agility to his limbs by exercise, and so preparing himself for his future destiny.

At intervals he listened to learn if the noise had not begun again, and grew impatient at the prudence of the

prisoner, who did not guess he had been disturbed by a captive as anxious for liberty as himself.

Three days passed seventytwo long tedious hours which he counted off by minutes!

At length one evening, as the jailer was visiting him for the last time that night, Dantes, with his ear for the

hundredth time at the wall, fancied he heard an almost imperceptible movement among the stones. He moved

away, walked up and down his cell to collect his thoughts, and then went back and listened.

The matter was no longer doubtful. Something was at work on the other side of the wall; the prisoner had

Encouraged by this discovery, Edmond determined to assist the indefatigable laborer. He began by moving

his bed, and looked around for anything with which he could pierce the wall, penetrate the moist cement, and

He saw nothing, he had no knife or sharp instrument, the window grating was of iron, but he had too often

assured himself of its solidity. All his furniture consisted of a bed, a chair, a table, a pail, and a jug. The bed

had iron clamps, but they were screwed to the wood, and it would have required a screwdriver to take them

off. The table and chair had nothing, the pail had once possessed a handle, but that had been removed.

Dantes had but one resource, which was to break the jug, and with one of the sharp fragments attack the wall.

Dantes concealed two or three of the sharpest fragments in his bed, leaving the rest on the floor. The breaking

of his jug was too natural an accident to excite suspicion. Edmond had all the night to work in, but in the

darkness he could not do much, and he soon felt that he was working against something very hard; he pushed

All night he heard the subterranean workman, who continued to mine his way. Day came, the jailer entered.

Dantes told him that the jug had fallen from his hands while he was drinking, and the jailer went grumblingly

to fetch another, without giving himself the trouble to remove the fragments of the broken one. He returned

Dantes heard joyfully the key grate in the lock; he listened until the sound of steps died away, and then,

hastily displacing his bed, saw by the faint light that penetrated into his cell, that he had labored uselessly the

previous evening in attacking the stone instead of removing the plaster that surrounded it.

The damp had rendered it friable, and Dantes was able to break it off in small morsels, it is true, but at the

end of half an hour he had scraped off a handful; a mathematician might have calculated that in two years,

supposing that the rock was not encountered, a passage twenty feet long and two feet broad, might be formed.

The prisoner reproached himself with not having thus employed the hours he had passed in vain hopes,

prayer, and despondency. During the six years that he had been imprisoned, what might he not have

In three days he had succeeded, with the utmost precaution, in removing the cement, and exposing the

stonework. The wall was built of rough stones, among which, to give strength to the structure, blocks of

hewn stone were at intervals imbedded. It was one of these he had uncovered, and which he must remove

Dantes strove to do this with his nails, but they were too weak. The fragments of the jug broke, and after an

Was he to be thus stopped at the beginning, and was he to wait inactive until his fellow workman had

completed his task? Suddenly an idea occurred to him he smiled, and the perspiration dried on his

The jailer always brought Dantes' soup in an iron saucepan; this saucepan contained soup for both prisoners,

for Dantes had noticed that it was either quite full, or half empty, according as the turnkey gave it to him or to

The handle of this saucepan was of iron; Dantes would have given ten years of his life in exchange for it.

The jailer was accustomed to pour the contents of the saucepan into Dantes' plate, and Dantes, after eating his

soup with a wooden spoon, washed the plate, which thus served for every day. Now when evening came

Dantes put his plate on the ground near the door; the jailer, as he entered, stepped on it and broke it.

This time he could not blame Dantes. He was wrong to leave it there, but the jailer was wrong not to have

The jailer, therefore, only grumbled. Then he looked about for something to pour the soup into; Dantes' entire

"Leave the saucepan," said Dantes; "you can take it away when you bring me my breakfast." This advice was

to the jailer's taste, as it spared him the necessity of making another trip. He left the saucepan.

Dantes was beside himself with joy. He rapidly devoured his food, and after waiting an hour, lest the jailer

should change his mind and return, he removed his bed, took the handle of the saucepan, inserted the point

between the hewn stone and rough stones of the wall, and employed it as a lever. A slight oscillation showed

Dantes that all went well. At the end of an hour the stone was extricated from the wall, leaving a cavity a foot

Dantes carefully collected the plaster, carried it into the corner of his cell, and covered it with earth. Then,

wishing to make the best use of his time while he had the means of labor, he continued to work without

ceasing. At the dawn of day he replaced the stone, pushed his bed against the wall, and lay down. The

breakfast consisted of a piece of bread; the jailer entered and placed the bread on the table.

"No," replied the turnkey; "you destroy everything. First you break your jug, then you make me break your

plate; if all the prisoners followed your example, the government would be ruined. I shall leave you the

saucepan, and pour your soup into that. So for the future I hope you will not be so destructive."

Dantes raised his eyes to heaven and clasped his hands beneath the coverlet. He felt more gratitude for the

possession of this piece of iron than he had ever felt for anything. He had noticed, however, that the prisoner

on the other side had ceased to labor; no matter, this was a greater reason for proceeding if his neighbor

would not come to him, he would go to his neighbor. All day he toiled on untiringly, and by the evening he

had succeeded in extracting ten handfuls of plaster and fragments of stone. When the hour for his jailer's visit

arrived, Dantes straightened the handle of the saucepan as well as he could, and placed it in its accustomed

place. The turnkey poured his ration of soup into it, together with the fish for thrice a week the prisoners

were deprived of meat. This would have been a method of reckoning time, had not Dantes long ceased to do

so. Having poured out the soup, the turnkey retired. Dantes wished to ascertain whether his neighbor had

really ceased to work. He listened all was silent, as it had been for the last three days. Dantes sighed; it

was evident that his neighbor distrusted him. However, he toiled on all the night without being discouraged;

but after two or three hours he encountered an obstacle. The iron made no impression, but met with a smooth

surface; Dantes touched it, and found that it was a beam. This beam crossed, or rather blocked up, the hole

Dantes had made; it was necessary, therefore, to dig above or under it. The unhappy young man had not

thought of this. "O my God, my God!" murmured he, "I have so earnestly prayed to you, that I hoped my

prayers had been heard. After having deprived me of my liberty, after having deprived me of death, after

having recalled me to existence, my God, have pity on me, and do not let me die in despair!"

"Who talks of God and despair at the same time?" said a voice that seemed to come from beneath the earth,

and, deadened by the distance, sounded hollow and sepulchral in the young man's ears. Edmond's hair stood

"Ah," said he, "I hear a human voice." Edmond had not heard any one speak save his jailer for four or five

years; and a jailer is no man to a prisoner he is a living door, a barrier of flesh and blood adding strength

"In the name of heaven," cried Dantes, "speak again, though the sound of your voice terrifies me. Who are

"He abdicated at Fontainebleau in 1814, and was sent to the Island of Elba. But how long have you been here

"Do not dig any more," said the voice; "only tell me how high up is your excavation?"

"I have made a mistake owing to an error in my plans. I took the wrong angle, and have come out fifteen feet

from where I intended. I took the wall you are mining for the outer wall of the fortress."

"I should have thrown myself into the sea, gained one of the islands near here the Isle de Daume or the

"Yes; stop up your excavation carefully, do not work any more, and wait until you hear from me."

"You mistrust me, then," said Dantes. Edmond fancied he heard a bitter laugh resounding from the depths.

"Oh, I am a Christian," cried Dantes, guessing instinctively that this man meant to abandon him. "I swear to

you by him who died for us that naught shall induce me to breathe one syllable to my jailers; but I conjure

you do not abandon me. If you do, I swear to you, for I have got to the end of my strength, that I will dash my

brains out against the wall, and you will have my death to reproach yourself with."

"I do not know my age, for I have not counted the years I have been here. All I do know is, that I was just

"Not quite twentysix!" murmured the voice; "at that age he cannot be a traitor."

"Oh, no, no," cried Dantes. "I swear to you again, rather than betray you, I would allow myself to be hacked

"You have done well to speak to me, and ask for my assistance, for I was about to form another plan, and

"But you will not leave me; you will come to me, or you will let me come to you. We will escape, and if we

cannot escape we will talk; you of those whom you love, and I of those whom I love. You must love

"Then you will love me. If you are young, I will be your comrade; if you are old, I will be your son. I have a

father who is seventy if he yet lives; I only love him and a young girl called Mercedes. My father has not yet

forgotten me, I am sure, but God alone knows if she loves me still; I shall love you as I loved my father."

These few words were uttered with an accent that left no doubt of his sincerity; Dantes rose, dispersed the

fragments with the same precaution as before, and pushed his bed back against the wall. He then gave himself

up to his happiness. He would no longer be alone. He was, perhaps, about to regain his liberty; at the worst,

he would have a companion, and captivity that is shared is but half captivity. Plaints made in common are

almost prayers, and prayers where two or three are gathered together invoke the mercy of heaven.

All day Dantes walked up and down his cell. He sat down occasionally on his bed, pressing his hand on his

heart. At the slightest noise he bounded towards the door. Once or twice the thought crossed his mind that he

might be separated from this unknown, whom he loved already; and then his mind was made up when the

jailer moved his bed and stooped to examine the opening, he would kill him with his water jug. He would be

condemned to die, but he was about to die of grief and despair when this miraculous noise recalled him to

The jailer came in the evening. Dantes was on his bed. It seemed to him that thus he better guarded the

unfinished opening. Doubtless there was a strange expression in his eyes, for the jailer said, "Come, are you

Dantes did not answer; he feared that the emotion of his voice would betray him. The jailer went away

shaking his head. Night came; Dantes hoped that his neighbor would profit by the silence to address him, but

he was mistaken. The next morning, however, just as he removed his bed from the wall, he heard three

"Yes," said Dantes; "he will not return until the evening; so that we have twelve hours before us."

In a moment that part of the floor on which Dantes was resting his two hands, as he knelt with his head in the

opening, suddenly gave way; he drew back smartly, while a mass of stones and earth disappeared in a hole

that opened beneath the aperture he himself had formed. Then from the bottom of this passage, the depth of

which it was impossible to measure, he saw appear, first the head, then the shoulders, and lastly the body of a

Seizing in his arms the friend so long and ardently desired, Dantes almost carried him towards the window, in

order to obtain a better view of his features by the aid of the imperfect light that struggled through the grating.

He was a man of small stature, with hair blanched rather by suffering and sorrow than by age. He had a

deepset, penetrating eye, almost buried beneath the thick gray eyebrow, and a long (and still black) beard

reaching down to his breast. His thin face, deeply furrowed by care, and the bold outline of his strongly

marked features, betokened a man more accustomed to exercise his mental faculties than his physical

strength. Large drops of perspiration were now standing on his brow, while the garments that hung about him

were so ragged that one could only guess at the pattern upon which they had originally been fashioned.

The stranger might have numbered sixty or sixtyfive years; but a certain briskness and appearance of vigor

in his movements made it probable that he was aged more from captivity than the course of time. He received

the enthusiastic greeting of his young acquaintance with evident pleasure, as though his chilled affections

were rekindled and invigorated by his contact with one so warm and ardent. He thanked him with grateful

cordiality for his kindly welcome, although he must at that moment have been suffering bitterly to find

another dungeon where he had fondly reckoned on discovering a means of regaining his liberty.

"Let us first see," said he, "whether it is possible to remove the traces of my entrance here our future

tranquillity depends upon our jailers being entirely ignorant of it." Advancing to the opening, he stooped and

raised the stone easily in spite of its weight; then, fitting it into its place, he said,

"You removed this stone very carelessly; but I suppose you had no tools to aid you."

"I made myself some; and with the exception of a file, I have all that are necessary, a chisel, pincers, and

"Well, in the first place, here is my chisel." So saying, he displayed a sharp strong blade, with a handle made

"With one of the clamps of my bedstead; and this very tool has sufficed me to hollow out the road by which I

"Do not speak so loud, young man don't speak so loud. It frequently occurs in a state prison like this, that

persons are stationed outside the doors of the cells purposely to overhear the conversation of the prisoners."

"I do; that is about the distance that separates your chamber from mine; only, unfortunately, I did not curve

aright; for want of the necessary geometrical instruments to calculate my scale of proportion, instead of

taking an ellipsis of forty feet, I made it fifty. I expected, as I told you, to reach the outer wall, pierce through

it, and throw myself into the sea; I have, however, kept along the corridor on which your chamber opens,

instead of going beneath it. My labor is all in vain, for I find that the corridor looks into a courtyard filled

"That's true," said Dantes; "but the corridor you speak of only bounds one side of my cell; there are three

"This one is built against the solid rock, and it would take ten experienced miners, duly furnished with the

requisite tools, as many years to perforate it. This adjoins the lower part of the governor's apartments, and

were we to work our way through, we should only get into some lockup cellars, where we must necessarily

be recaptured. The fourth and last side of your cell faces on faces on stop a minute, now where does it

The wall of which he spoke was the one in which was fixed the loophole by which light was admitted to the

chamber. This loophole, which gradually diminished in size as it approached the outside, to an opening

through which a child could not have passed, was, for better security, furnished with three iron bars, so as to

quiet all apprehensions even in the mind of the most suspicious jailer as to the possibility of a prisoner's

escape. As the stranger asked the question, he dragged the table beneath the window.

"Climb up," said he to Dantes. The young man obeyed, mounted on the table, and, divining the wishes of his

companion, placed his back securely against the wall and held out both hands. The stranger, whom as yet

Dantes knew only by the number of his cell, sprang up with an agility by no means to be expected in a person

of his years, and, light and steady on his feet as a cat or a lizard, climbed from the table to the outstretched

hands of Dantes, and from them to his shoulders; then, bending double, for the ceiling of the dungeon

prevented him from holding himself erect, he managed to slip his head between the upper bars of the

An instant afterwards he hastily drew back his head, saying, "I thought so!" and sliding from the shoulders of

Dantes as dextrously as he had ascended, he nimbly leaped from the table to the ground.

"What was it that you thought?" asked the young man anxiously, in his turn descending from the table.

The elder prisoner pondered the matter. "Yes," said he at length, "it is so. This side of your chamber looks out

upon a kind of open gallery, where patrols are continually passing, and sentries keep watch day and night."

"Certain. I saw the soldier's shape and the top of his musket; that made me draw in my head so quickly, for I

"Then," answered the elder prisoner, "the will of God be done!" and as the old man slowly pronounced those

words, an air of profound resignation spread itself over his careworn countenance. Dantes gazed on the man

who could thus philosophically resign hopes so long and ardently nourished with an astonishment mingled

"Tell me, I entreat of you, who and what you are?" said he at length; "never have I met with so remarkable a

"Willingly," answered the stranger; "if, indeed, you feel any curiosity respecting one, now, alas, powerless to

"Say not so; you can console and support me by the strength of your own powerful mind. Pray let me know

The stranger smiled a melancholy smile. "Then listen," said he. "l am the Abbe Faria, and have been

imprisoned as you know in this Chateau d'If since the year 1811; previously to which I had been confined for

three years in the fortress of Fenestrelle. In the year 1811 I was transferred to Piedmont in France. It was at

this period I learned that the destiny which seemed subservient to every wish formed by Napoleon, had

bestowed on him a son, named king of Rome even in his cradle. I was very far then from expecting the

change you have just informed me of; namely, that four years afterwards, this colossus of power would be

"The brother of Louis XVII.! How inscrutable are the ways of providence for what great and mysterious

purpose has it pleased heaven to abase the man once so elevated, and raise up him who was so abased?"

Dantes, whole attention was riveted on a man who could thus forget his own misfortunes while occupying

"Yes, yes," continued he, "'Twill be the same as it was in England. After Charles I., Cromwell; after

Cromwell, Charles II., and then James II., and then some soninlaw or relation, some Prince of Orange, a

stadtholder who becomes a king. Then new concessions to the people, then a constitution, then liberty. Ah,

my friend!" said the abbe, turning towards Dantes, and surveying him with the kindling gaze of a prophet,

"True," replied Faria, "we are prisoners; but I forget this sometimes, and there are even moments when my

"Because in 1807 I dreamed of the very plan Napoleon tried to realize in 1811; because, like Machiavelli, I

desired to alter the political face of Italy, and instead of allowing it to be split up into a quantity of petty

principalities, each held by some weak or tyrannical ruler, I sought to form one large, compact, and powerful

empire; and, lastly, because I fancied I had found my Caesar Borgia in a crowned simpleton, who feigned to

enter into my views only to betray me. It was the plan of Alexander VI. and Clement VII., but it will never

succeed now, for they attempted it fruitlessly, and Napoleon was unable to complete his work. Italy seems

Dantes could not understand a man risking his life for such matters. Napoleon certainly he knew something

of, inasmuch as he had seen and spoken with him; but of Clement VII. and Alexander VI. he knew nothing.

"Are you not," he asked, "the priest who here in the Chateau d'If is generally thought to be ill?"

"Well, then," resumed Faria with a bitter smile, "let me answer your question in full, by acknowledging that I

am the poor mad prisoner of the Chateau d'If, for many years permitted to amuse the different visitors with

what is said to be my insanity; and, in all probability, I should be promoted to the honor of making sport for

the children, if such innocent beings could be found in an abode devoted like this to suffering and despair."

Dantes remained for a short time mute and motionless; at length he said, "Then you abandon all hope of

"I perceive its utter impossibility; and I consider it impious to attempt that which the Almighty evidently does

"Nay, be not discouraged. Would it not be expecting too much to hope to succeed at your first attempt? Why

not try to find an opening in another direction from that which has so unfortunately failed?"

"Alas, it shows how little notion you can have of all it has cost me to effect a purpose so unexpectedly

frustrated, that you talk of beginning over again. In the first place, I was four years making the tools I

possess, and have been two years scraping and digging out earth, hard as granite itself; then what toil and

fatigue has it not been to remove huge stones I should once have deemed impossible to loosen. Whole days

have I passed in these Titanic efforts, considering my labor well repaid if, by nighttime I had contrived to

carry away a square inch of this hardbound cement, changed by ages into a substance unyielding as the

stones themselves; then to conceal the mass of earth and rubbish I dug up, I was compelled to break through a

staircase, and throw the fruits of my labor into the hollow part of it; but the well is now so completely choked

up, that I scarcely think it would be possible to add another handful of dust without leading to discovery.

Consider also that I fully believed I had accomplished the end and aim of my undertaking, for which I had so

exactly husbanded my strength as to make it just hold out to the termination of my enterprise; and now, at the

moment when I reckoned upon success, my hopes are forever dashed from me. No, I repeat again, that

nothing shall induce me to renew attempts evidently at variance with the Almighty's pleasure."

Dantes held down his head, that the other might not see how joy at the thought of having a companion

The abbe sank upon Edmond's bed. while Edmond himself remained standing. Escape had never once

occurred to him. There are, indeed, some things which appear so impossible that the mind does not dwell on

them for an instant. To undermine the ground for fifty feet to devote three years to a labor which, if

successful, would conduct you to a precipice overhanging the sea to plunge into the waves from the height

of fifty, sixty, perhaps a hundred feet, at the risk of being dashed to pieces against the rocks, should you have

been fortunate enough to have escaped the fire of the sentinels; and even, supposing all these perils past, then

to have to swim for your life a distance of at least three miles ere you could reach the shore were

difficulties so startling and formidable that Dantes had never even dreamed of such a scheme, resigning

himself rather to death. But the sight of an old man clinging to life with so desperate a courage, gave a fresh

turn to his ideas, and inspired him with new courage. Another, older and less strong than he, had attempted

what he had not had sufficient resolution to undertake, and had failed only because of an error in calculation.

This same person, with almost incredible patience and perseverance, had contrived to provide himself with

tools requisite for so unparalleled an attempt. Another had done all this; why, then, was it impossible to

Dantes? Faria had dug his way through fifty feet, Dantes would dig a hundred; Faria, at the age of fifty, had

devoted three years to the task; he, who was but half as old, would sacrifice six; Faria, a priest and savant,

had not shrunk from the idea of risking his life by trying to swim a distance of three miles to one of the

islands Daume, Rattonneau, or Lemaire; should a hardy sailer, an experienced diver, like himself, shrink

from a similar task; should he, who had so often for mere amusement's sake plunged to the bottom of the sea

to fetch up the bright coral branch, hesitate to entertain the same project? He could do it in an hour, and how

many times had he, for pure pastime, continued in the water for more than twice as long! At once Dantes

resolved to follow the brave example of his energetic companion, and to remember that what has once been

After continuing some time in profound meditation, the young man suddenly exclaimed, "I have found what

Faria started: "Have you, indeed?" cried he, raising his head with quick anxiety; "pray, let me know what it is

"The corridor through which you have bored your way from the cell you occupy here, extends in the same

"Well, then, I will tell you what we must do. We must pierce through the corridor by forming a side opening

about the middle, as it were the top part of a cross. This time you will lay your plans more accurately; we

shall get out into the gallery you have described; kill the sentinel who guards it, and make our escape. All we

require to insure success is courage, and that you possess, and strength, which I am not deficient in; as for

"One instant, my dear friend," replied the abbe; "it is clear you do not understand the nature of the courage

with which I am endowed, and what use I intend making of my strength. As for patience, I consider that I

have abundantly exercised that in beginning every morning the task of the night before, and every night

renewing the task of the day. But then, young man (and I pray of you to give me your full attention), then I

thought I could not be doing anything displeasing to the Almighty in trying to set an innocent being at liberty

"And have your notions changed?" asked Dantes with much surprise; "do you think yourself more guilty in

"No; neither do I wish to incur guilt. Hitherto I have fancied myself merely waging war against

circumstances, not men. I have thought it no sin to bore through a wall, or destroy a staircase; but I cannot so

easily persuade myself to pierce a heart or take away a life." A slight movement of surprise escaped Dantes.

"Is it possible," said he, "that where your liberty is at stake you can allow any such scruple to deter you from

"Tell me," replied Faria, "what has hindered you from knocking down your jailer with a piece of wood torn

from your bedstead, dressing yourself in his clothes, and endeavoring to escape?"

"Because," said the old man, "the natural repugnance to the commission of such a crime prevented you from

thinking of it; and so it ever is because in simple and allowable things our natural instincts keep us from

deviating from the strict line of duty. The tiger, whose nature teaches him to delight in shedding blood, needs

but the sense of smell to show him when his prey is within his reach, and by following this instinct he is

enabled to measure the leap necessary to permit him to spring on his victim; but man, on the contrary, loathes

the idea of blood it is not alone that the laws of social life inspire him with a shrinking dread of taking

Dantes was confused and silent at this explanation of the thoughts which had unconsciously been working in

his mind, or rather soul; for there are two distinct sorts of ideas, those that proceed from the head and those

"Since my imprisonment," said Faria, "I have thought over all the most celebrated cases of escape on record.

They have rarely been successful. Those that have been crowned with full success have been long meditated

upon, and carefully arranged; such, for instance, as the escape of the Duc de Beaufort from the Chateau de

Vincennes, that of the Abbe Dubuquoi from For l'Eveque; of Latude from the Bastille. Then there are those

for which chance sometimes affords opportunity, and those are the best of all. Let us, therefore, wait patiently

"Ah," said Dantes, "you might well endure the tedious delay; you were constantly employed in the task you

set yourself, and when weary with toil, you had your hopes to refresh and encourage you."

"I assure you," replied the old man, "I did not turn to that source for recreation or support."

Dantes gazed with admiration, but he had some difficulty in believing. Faria saw this.

"When you pay me a visit in my cell, my young friend," said he, "I will show you an entire work, the fruits of

the thoughts and reflections of my whole life; many of them meditated over in the shades of the Coloseum at

Rome, at the foot of St. Mark's column at Venice, and on the borders of the Arno at Florence, little imagining

at the time that they would be arranged in order within the walls of the Chateau d'If. The work I speak of is

called `A Treatise on the Possibility of a General Monarchy in Italy,' and will make one large quarto

"On two of my shirts. I invented a preparation that makes linen as smooth and as easy to write on as

"I had nearly five thousand volumes in my library at Rome; but after reading them over many times, I found

out that with one hundred and fifty wellchosen books a man possesses, if not a complete summary of all

human knowledge, at least all that a man need really know. I devoted three years of my life to reading and

studying these one hundred and fifty volumes, till I knew them nearly by heart; so that since I have been in

prison, a very slight effort of memory has enabled me to recall their contents as readily as though the pages

were open before me. I could recite you the whole of Thucydides, Xenophon, Plutarch, Titus Livius, Tacitus,

Strada, Jornandes, Dante, Montaigne, Shaksepeare, Spinoza, Machiavelli, and Bossuet. I name only the most

"You are, doubtless, acquainted with a variety of languages, so as to have been able to read all these?"

"Yes, I speak five of the modern tongues that is to say, German, French, Italian, English, and Spanish; by

the aid of ancient Greek I learned modern Greek I don't speak it so well as I could wish, but I am still

"Why, I made a vocabulary of the words I knew; turned, returned, and arranged them, so as to enable me to

express my thoughts through their medium. I know nearly one thousand words, which is all that is absolutely

necessary, although I believe there are nearly one hundred thousand in the dictionaries. I cannot hope to be

very fluent, but I certainly should have no difficulty in explaining my wants and wishes; and that would be

Stronger grew the wonder of Dantes, who almost fancied he had to do with one gifted with supernatural

powers; still hoping to find some imperfection which might bring him down to a level with human beings, he

added, "Then if you were not furnished with pens, how did you manage to write the work you speak of?"

"I made myself some excellent ones, which would be universally preferred to all others if once known. You

are aware what huge whitings are served to us on maigre days. Well, I selected the cartilages of the heads of

these fishes, and you can scarcely imagine the delight with which I welcomed the arrival of each Wednesday,

Friday, and Saturday, as affording me the means of increasing my stock of pens; for I will freely confess that

my historical labors have been my greatest solace and relief. While retracing the past, I forget the present;

and traversing at will the path of history I cease to remember that I am myself a prisoner."

"There was formerly a fireplace in my dungeon," replied Faria, "but it was closed up long ere I became an

occupant of this prison. Still, it must have been many years in use, for it was thickly covered with a coating of

soot; this soot I dissolved in a portion of the wine brought to me every Sunday, and I assure you a better ink

cannot be desired. For very important notes, for which closer attention is required, I pricked one of my

"Follow me, then," said the abbe, as he reentered the subterranean passage, in which he soon disappeared,

After having passed with tolerable ease through the subterranean passage, which, however, did not admit of

their holding themselves erect, the two friends reached the further end of the corridor, into which the abbe's

cell opened; from that point the passage became much narrower, and barely permitted one to creep through

on hands and knees. The floor of the abbe's cell was paved, and it had been by raising one of the stones in the

most obscure corner that Faria had to been able to commence the laborious task of which Dantes had

As he entered the chamber of his friend, Dantes cast around one eager and searching glance in quest of the

"It is well," said the abbe; "we have some hours before us it is now just a quarter past twelve o'clock."

Instinctively Dantes turned round to observe by what watch or clock the abbe had been able so accurately to

"Look at this ray of light which enters by my window," said the abbe, "and then observe the lines traced on

the wall. Well, by means of these lines, which are in accordance with the double motion of the earth, and the

ellipse it describes round the sun, I am enabled to ascertain the precise hour with more minuteness than if I

possessed a watch; for that might be broken or deranged in its movements, while the sun and earth never vary

This last explanation was wholly lost upon Dantes, who had always imagined, from seeing the sun rise from

behind the mountains and set in the Mediterranean, that it moved, and not the earth. A double movement of

the globe he inhabited, and of which he could feel nothing, appeared to him perfectly impossible. Each word

that fell from his companion's lips seemed fraught with the mysteries of science, as worthy of digging out as

the gold and diamonds in the mines of Guzerat and Golconda, which he could just recollect having visited

The abbe smiled, and, proceeding to the disused fireplace, raised, by the help of his chisel, a long stone,

which had doubtless been the hearth, beneath which was a cavity of considerable depth, serving as a safe

Faria then drew forth from his hidingplace three or four rolls of linen, laid one over the other, like folds of

papyrus. These rolls consisted of slips of cloth about four inches wide and eighteen long; they were all

carefully numbered and closely covered with writing, so legible that Dantes could easily read it, as well as

make out the sense it being in Italian, a language he, as a Provencal, perfectly understood.

"There," said he, "there is the work complete. I wrote the word finis at the end of the sixtyeighth strip about

a week ago. I have torn up two of my shirts, and as many handkerchiefs as I was master of, to complete the

precious pages. Should I ever get out of prison and find in all Italy a printer courageous enough to publish

"I see," answered Dantes. "Now let me behold the curious pens with which you have written your work."

"Look!" said Faria, showing to the young man a slender stick about six inches long, and much resembling the

size of the handle of a fine paintingbrush, to the end of which was tied, by a piece of thread, one of those

cartilages of which the abbe had before spoken to Dantes; it was pointed, and divided at the nib like an

ordinary pen. Dantes examined it with intense admiration, then looked around to see the instrument with

"Ah, yes," said Faria; "the penknife. That's my masterpiece. I made it, as well as this larger knife, out of an

old iron candlestick." The penknife was sharp and keen as a razor; as for the other knife, it would serve a

Dantes examined the various articles shown to him with the same attention that he had bestowed on the

curiosities and strange tools exhibited in the shops at Marseilles as the works of the savages in the South Seas

"As for the ink," said Faria, "I told you how I managed to obtain that and I only just make it from time to

"One thing still puzzles me," observed Dantes, "and that is how you managed to do all this by daylight?"

"Night! why, for heaven's sake, are your eyes like cats', that you can see to work in the dark?"

"Indeed they are not; but God his supplied man with the intelligence that enables him to overcome the

"l separated the fat from the meat served to me, melted it, and so made oil here is my lamp." So saying,

the abbe exhibited a sort of torch very similar to those used in public illuminations.

"I pretended that I had a disorder of the skin, and asked for a little sulphur, which was readily supplied."

Dantes laid the different things he had been looking at on the table, and stood with his head drooping on his

"You have not seen all yet," continued Faria, "for I did not think it wise to trust all my treasures in the same

hidingplace. Let us shut this one up." They put the stone back in its place; the abbe sprinkled a little dust

over it to conceal the traces of its having been removed, rubbed his foot well on it to make it assume the same

appearance as the other, and then, going towards his bed, he removed it from the spot it stood in. Behind the

head of the bed, and concealed by a stone fitting in so closely as to defy all suspicion, was a hollow space,

and in this space a ladder of cords between twentyfive and thirty feet in length. Dantes closely and eagerly

"I tore up several of my shirts, and ripped out the seams in the sheets of my bed, during my three years'

imprisonment at Fenestrelle; and when I was removed to the Chateau d'If, I managed to bring the ravellings

"Oh, no, for when I had taken out the thread I required, I hemmed the edges over again."

"With this needle," said the abbe, as, opening his ragged vestments, he showed Dantes a long, sharp

fishbone, with a small perforated eye for the thread, a small portion of which still remained in it. "I once

thought," continued Faria, "of removing these iron bars, and letting myself down from the window, which, as

you see, is somewhat wider than yours, although I should have enlarged it still more preparatory to my flight;

however, I discovered that I should merely have dropped into a sort of inner court, and I therefore renounced

the project altogether as too full of risk and danger. Nevertheless, I carefully preserved my ladder against one

of those unforeseen opportunities of which I spoke just now, and which sudden chance frequently brings

about." While affecting to be deeply engaged in examining the ladder, the mind of Dantes was, in fact, busily

occupied by the idea that a person so intelligent, ingenious, and clearsighted as the abbe might probably be

able to solve the dark mystery of his own misfortunes, where he himself could see nothing.

"What are you thinking of?" asked the abbe smilingly, imputing the deep abstraction in which his visitor was

"I was reflecting, in the first place," replied Dantes, "upon the enormous degree of intelligence and ability

you must have employed to reach the high perfection to which you have attained. What would you not have

"Possibly nothing at all; the overflow of my brain would probably, in a state of freedom, have evaporated in a

thousand follies; misfortune is needed to bring to light the treasures of the human intellect. Compression is

needed to explode gunpowder. Captivity has brought my mental faculties to a focus; and you are well aware

that from the collision of clouds electricity is produced from electricity, lightning, from lightning,

"No," replied Dantes. "I know nothing. Some of your words are to me quite empty of meaning. You must be

The abbe smiled. "Well," said he, "but you had another subject for your thoughts; did you not say so just

"It was this, that while you had related to me all the particulars of your past life, you were perfectly

"Your life, my young friend, has not been of sufficient length to admit of your having passed through any

"It has been long enough to inflict on me a great and undeserved misfortune. I would fain fix the source of it

"I do, indeed; and this I swear by the two beings most dear to me upon earth, my father and Mercedes."

"Come," said the abbe, closing his hidingplace, and pushing the bed back to its original situation, "let me

Dantes obeyed, and commenced what he called his history, but which consisted only of the account of a

voyage to India, and two or three voyages to the Levant until he arrived at the recital of his last cruise, with

the death of Captain Leclere, and the receipt of a packet to be delivered by himself to the grand marshal; his

interview with that personage, and his receiving, in place of the packet brought, a letter addressed to a

Monsieur Noirtier his arrival at Marseilles, and interview with his father his affection for Mercedes,

and their nuptual feast his arrest and subsequent examination, his temporary detention at the Palais de

Justice, and his final imprisonment in the Chateau d'If. From this point everything was a blank to Dantes

he knew nothing more, not even the length of time he had been imprisoned. His recital finished, the abbe

"There is," said he, at the end of his meditations, "a clever maxim, which bears upon what I was saying to

you some little while ago, and that is, that unless wicked ideas take root in a naturally depraved mind, human

nature, in a right and wholesome state, revolts at crime. Still, from an artificial civilization have originated

wants, vices, and false tastes, which occasionally become so powerful as to stifle within us all good feelings,

and ultimately to lead us into guilt and wickedness. From this view of things, then, comes the axiom that if

you visit to discover the author of any bad action, seek first to discover the person to whom the perpetration

of that bad action could be in any way advantageous. Now, to apply it in your case, to whom could your

"Do not speak thus, for your reply evinces neither logic nor philosophy; everything is relative, my dear young

friend, from the king who stands in the way of his successor, to the employee who keeps his rival out of a

place. Now, in the event of the king's death, his successor inherits a crown, when the employee dies, the

supernumerary steps into his shoes, and receives his salary of twelve thousand livres. Well, these twelve

thousand livres are his civil list, and are as essential to him as the twelve millions of a king. Every one, from

the highest to the lowest degree, has his place on the social ladder, and is beset by stormy passions and

conflicting interests, as in Descartes' theory of pressure and impulsion. But these forces increase as we go

higher, so that we have a spiral which in defiance of reason rests upon the apex and not on the base. Now let

us return to your particular world. You say you were on the point of being made captain of the Pharaon?"

"Now, could any one have had any interest in preventing the accomplishment of these two things? But let us

first settle the question as to its being the interest of any one to hinder you from being captain of the Pharaon.

"I cannot believe such was the case. I was generally liked on board, and had the sailors possessed the right of

selecting a captain themselves, I feel convinced their choice would have fallen on me. There was only one

person among the crew who had any feeling of illwill towards me. I had quarelled with him some time

"Not if the choice had remained with me, for I had frequently observed inaccuracies in his accounts."

"Good again! Now then, tell me, was any person present during your last conversation with Captain

"It might, for the cabin door was open and stay; now I recollect, Danglars himself passed by just as

"That's better," cried the abbe; "now we are on the right scent. Did you take anybody with you when you put

"Somebody there received your packet, and gave you a letter in place of it, I think?"

"You had your portfolio with you, then? Now, how could a sailor find room in his pocket for a portfolio large

"Then it was not till your return to the ship that you put the letter in the portfolio?"

"And what did you do with this same letter while returning from PortoFerrajo to the vessel?"

"So that when you went on board the Pharaon, everybody could see that you held a letter in your hand?"

"Now, listen to me, and try to recall every circumstance attending your arrest. Do you recollect the words in

Dantes paused a moment, then said, "This is it, word for word: `The king's attorney is informed by a friend to

the throne and religion, that one Edmond Dantes, mate on board the Pharaon, this day arrived from Smyrna,

after having touched at Naples and PortoFerrajo, has been intrusted by Murat with a packet for the usurper;

again, by the usurper, with a letter for the Bonapartist Club in Paris. This proof of his guilt may be procured

by his immediate arrest, as the letter will be found either about his person, at his father's residence, or in his

cabin on board the Pharaon.'" The abbe shrugged his shoulders. "The thing is clear as day," said he; "and you

must have had a very confiding nature, as well as a good heart, not to have suspected the origin of the whole

"Stop a bit," said the abbe, taking up what he called his pen, and, after dipping it into the ink, he wrote on a

piece of prepared linen, with his left hand, the first two or three words of the accusation. Dantes drew back,

"How very astonishing!" cried he at length. "Why your writing exactly resembles that of the accusation."

"Simply because that accusation had been written with the left hand; and I have noticed that"

"That while the writing of different persons done with the right hand varies, that performed with the left hand

"Was there any person whose interest it was to prevent your marriage with Mercedes?"

"That is in strict accordance with the Spanish character; an assassination they will unhesitatingly commit, but

"Besides," said Dantes, "the various circumstances mentioned in the letter were wholly unknown to him."

"To have seen them both sitting at table together under an arbor at Pere Pamphile's the evening before the day

fixed for my wedding. They were in earnest conversation. Danglars was joking in a friendly way, but Fernand

"There was a third person with them whom I knew perfectly well, and who had, in all probability made their

acquaintance; he was a tailor named Caderousse, but he was very drunk. Stay! stay! How strange that

it should not have occurred to me before! Now I remember quite well, that on the table round which they

were sitting were pens, ink, and paper. Oh, the heartless, treacherous scoundrels!" exclaimed Dantes, pressing

"Is there anything else I can assist you in discovering, besides the villany of your friends?" inquired the abbe

"Yes, yes," replied Dantes eagerly; "I would beg of you, who see so completely to the depths of things, and to

whom the greatest mystery seems but an easy riddle, to explain to me how it was that I underwent no second

examination, was never brought to trial, and, above all, was condemned without ever having had sentence

"That is altogether a different and more serious matter," responded the abbe. "The ways of justice are

frequently too dark and mysterious to be easily penetrated. All we have hitherto done in the matter has been

child's play. If you wish me to enter upon the more difficult part of the business, you must assist me by the

"Pray ask me whatever questions you please; for, in good truth, you see more clearly into my life than I do

"In the first place, then, who examined you, the king's attorney, his deputy, or a magistrate?"

"So," answered the abbe. "Old enough to be ambitions, but too young to be corrupt. And how did he treat

"He did appear much disturbed when he read the letter that had brought me into this scrape. He seemed quite

"That alters the case. This man might, after all, be a greater scoundrel than you have thought possible."

"Upon my word," said Dantes, "you make me shudder. Is the world filled with tigers and crocodiles?"

"Yes; and remember that twolegged tigers and crocodiles are more dangerous than the others."

"He did; saying at the same time, `You see I thus destroy the only proof existing against you.'"

"Now can you conceive of any interest that your heroic deputy could possibly have had in the destruction of

"Why, it is not altogether impossible he might have had, for he made me promise several times never to

speak of that letter to any one, assuring me he so advised me for my own interest; and, more than this, he

insisted on my taking a solemn oath never to utter the name mentioned in the address."

"Noirtier!" repeated the abbe; "Noirtier! I knew a person of that name at the court of the Queen of Etruria,

a Noirtier, who had been a Girondin during the Revolution! What was your deputy called?"

"De Villefort!" The abbe burst into a fit of laughter, while Dantes gazed on him in utter astonishment.

"Well, the whole thing is more clear to me than that sunbeam is to you. Poor fellow! poor young man! And

you tell me this magistrate expressed great sympathy and commiseration for you?"

"Why, you poor shortsighted simpleton, can you not guess who this Noirtier was, whose very name he was

Had a thunderbolt fallen at the feet of Dantes, or hell opened its yawning gulf before him, he could not have

been more completely transfixed with horror than he was at the sound of these unexpected words. Starting up,

he clasped his hands around his head as though to prevent his very brain from bursting, and exclaimed, "His

"Yes, his father," replied the abbe; "his right name was Noirtier de Villefort." At this instant a bright light

shot through the mind of Dantes, and cleared up all that had been dark and obscure before. The change that

had come over Villefort during the examination, the destruction of the letter, the exacted promise, the almost

supplicating tones of the magistrate, who seemed rather to implore mercy than to pronounce punishment,

all returned with a stunning force to his memory. He cried out, and staggered against the wall like a drunken

man, then he hurried to the opening that led from the abbe's cell to his own, and said, "I must be alone, to

When he regained his dungeon, he threw himself on his bed, where the turnkey found him in the evening

visit, sitting with fixed gaze and contracted features, dumb and motionless as a statue. During these hours of

profound meditation, which to him had seemed only minutes, he had formed a fearful resolution, and bound

Dantes was at length roused from his revery by the voice of Faria, who, having also been visited by his jailer,

had come to invite his fellowsufferer to share his supper. The reputation of being out of his mind, though

harmlessly and even amusingly so, had procured for the abbe unusual privileges. He was supplied with bread

of a finer, whiter quality than the usual prison fare, and even regaled each Sunday with a small quantity of

wine. Now this was a Sunday, and the abbe had come to ask his young companion to share the luxuries with

him. Dantes followed; his features were no longer contracted, and now wore their usual expression, but there

was that in his whole appearance that bespoke one who had come to a fixed and desperate resolve. Faria bent

on him his penetrating eye: "I regret now," said he, "having helped you in your late inquiries, or having given

Again the abbe looked at him, then mournfully shook his head; but in accordance with Dantes' request, he

began to speak of other matters. The elder prisoner was one of those persons whose conversation, like that of

all who have experienced many trials, contained many useful and important hints as well as sound

information; but it was never egotistical, for the unfortunate man never alluded to his own sorrows. Dantes

listened with admiring attention to all he said; some of his remarks corresponded with what he already knew,

or applied to the sort of knowledge his nautical life had enabled him to acquire. A part of the good abbe's

words, however, were wholly incomprehensible to him; but, like the aurora which guides the navigator in

northern latitudes, opened new vistas to the inquiring mind of the listener, and gave fantastic glimpses of new

horizons, enabling him justly to estimate the delight an intellectual mind would have in following one so

richly gifted as Faria along the heights of truth, where he was so much at home.

"You must teach me a small part of what you know," said Dantes, "if only to prevent your growing weary of

me. I can well believe that so learned a person as yourself would prefer absolute solitude to being tormented

with the company of one as ignorant and uninformed as myself. If you will only agree to my request, I

promise you never to mention another word about escaping." The abbe smiled. "Alas, my boy," said he,

"human knowledge is confined within very narrow limits; and when I have taught you mathematics, physics,

history, and the three or four modern languages with which I am acquainted, you will know as much as I do

myself. Now, it will scarcely require two years for me to communicate to you the stock of learning I possess."

"Two years!" exclaimed Dantes; "do you really believe I can acquire all these things in so short a time?"

"Not their application, certainly, but their principles you may; to learn is not to know; there are the learners

"Philosophy cannot be taught; it is the application of the sciences to truth; it is like the golden cloud in which

"Well, then," said Dantes, "What shall you teach me first? I am in a hurry to begin. I want to learn."

"Everything," said the abbe. And that very evening the prisoners sketched a plan of education, to be entered

upon the following day. Dantes possessed a prodigious memory, combined with an astonishing quickness and

readiness of conception; the mathematical turn of his mind rendered him apt at all kinds of calculation, while

his naturally poetical feelings threw a light and pleasing veil over the dry reality of arithmetical computation,

or the rigid severity of geometry. He already knew Italian, and had also picked up a little of the Romaic

dialect during voyages to the East; and by the aid of these two languages he easily comprehended the

construction of all the others, so that at the end of six mouths he began to speak Spanish, English, and

German. In strict accordance with the promise made to the abbe, Dantes spoke no more of escape. Perhaps

the delight his studies afforded him left no room for such thoughts; perhaps the recollection that he had

pledged his word (on which his sense of honor was keen) kept him from referring in any way to the

possibilities of flight. Days, even months, passed by unheeded in one rapid and instructive course. At the end

of a year Dantes was a new man. Dantes observed, however, that Faria, in spite of the relief his society

afforded, daily grew sadder; one thought seemed incessantly to harass and distract his mind. Sometimes he

would fall into long reveries, sigh heavily and involuntarily, then suddenly rise, and, with folded arms, begin

pacing the confined space of his dungeon. One day he stopped all at once, and exclaimed, "Ah, if there were

"There shall not be one a minute longer than you please," said Dantes, who had followed the working of his

thoughts as accurately as though his brain were enclosed in crystal so clear as to display its minutest

"I have already told you," answered the abbe, "that I loathe the idea of shedding blood."

"And yet the murder, if you choose to call it so, would be simply a measure of selfpreservation."

"And you have discovered a means of regaining our freedom, have you not?" asked Dantes eagerly.

"I have; if it were only possible to place a deaf and blind sentinel in the gallery beyond us."

"He shall be both blind and deaf," replied the young man, with an air of determination that made his

"No, no," cried the abbe; "impossible!" Dantes endeavored to renew the subject; the abbe shook his head in

token of disapproval, and refused to make any further response. Three months passed away.

"Are you strong?" the abbe asked one day of Dantes. The young man, in reply, took up the chisel, bent it into

"And will you engage not to do any harm to the sentry, except as a last resort?"

"Tut, tut!" answered the abbe, "man is but man after all, and you are about the best specimen of the genus I

have ever known. Come, let me show you my plan." The abbe then showed Dantes the sketch he had made

for their escape. It consisted of a plan of his own cell and that of Dantes, with the passage which united them.

In this passage he proposed to drive a level as they do in mines; this level would bring the two prisoners

immediately beneath the gallery where the sentry kept watch; once there, a large excavation would be made,

and one of the flagstones with which the gallery was paved be so completely loosened that at the desired

moment it would give way beneath the feet of the soldier, who, stunned by his fall, would be immediately

bound and gagged by Dantes before he had power to offer any resistance. The prisoners were then to make

their way through one of the gallery windows, and to let themselves down from the outer walls by means of

the abbe's ladder of cords. Dantes' eyes sparkled with joy, and he rubbed his hands with delight at the idea of

That very day the miners began their labors, with a vigor and alacrity proportionate to their long rest from

fatigue and their hopes of ultimate success. Nothing interrupted the progress of the work except the necessity

that each was under of returning to his cell in anticipation of the turnkey's visits. They had learned to

distinguish the almost imperceptible sound of his footsteps as he descended towards their dungeons, and

happily, never failed of being prepared for his coming. The fresh earth excavated during their present work,

and which would have entirely blocked up the old passage, was thrown, by degrees and with the utmost

precaution, out of the window in either Faria's or Dantes' cell, the rubbish being first pulverized so finely that

the night wind carried it far away without permitting the smallest trace to remain. More than a year had been

consumed in this undertaking, the only tools for which had been a chisel, a knife, and a wooden lever; Faria

still continuing to instruct Dantes by conversing with him, sometimes in one language, sometimes in another;

at others, relating to him the history of nations and great men who from time to time have risen to fame and

The abbe was a man of the world, and had, moreover, mixed in the first society of the day; he wore an air of

melancholy dignity which Dantes, thanks to the imitative powers bestowed on him by nature, easily acquired,

as well as that outward polish and politeness he had before been wanting in, and which is seldom possessed

except by those who have been placed in constant intercourse with persons of high birth and breeding. At the

end of fifteen months the level was finished, and the excavation completed beneath the gallery, and the two

workmen could distinctly hear the measured tread of the sentinel as he paced to and fro over their heads.

Compelled, as they were, to await a night sufficiently dark to favor their flight, they were obliged to defer

their final attempt till that auspicious moment should arrive; their greatest dread now was lest the stone

through which the sentry was doomed to fall should give way before its right time, and this they had in some

measure provided against by propping it up with a small beam which they had discovered in the walls

through which they had worked their way. Dantes was occupied in arranging this piece of wood when he

heard Faria, who had remained in Edmond's cell for the purpose of cutting a peg to secure their ropeladder,

call to him in a tone indicative of great suffering. Dantes hastened to his dungeon, where he found him

standing in the middle of the room, pale as death, his forehead streaming with perspiration, and his hands

"Quick! quick!" returned the abbe, "listen to what I have to say." Dantes looked in fear and wonder at the

livid countenance of Faria, whose eyes, already dull and sunken, were surrounded by purple circles, while his

"Tell me, I beseech you, what ails you?" cried Dantes, letting his chisel fall to the floor.

"Alas," faltered out the abbe, "all is over with me. I am seized with a terrible, perhaps mortal illness; I can

feel that the paroxysm is fast approaching. I had a similar attack the year previous to my imprisonment. This

malady admits but of one remedy; I will tell you what that is. Go into my cell as quickly as you can; draw out

one of the feet that support the bed; you will find it has been hollowed out for the purpose of containing a

small phial you will see there halffilled with a redlooking fluid. Bring it to me or rather no, no! I

may be found here, therefore help me back to my room while I have the strength to drag myself along. Who

In spite of the magnitude of the misfortune which thus suddenly frustrated his hopes, Dantes did not lose his

presence of mind, but descended into the passage, dragging his unfortunate companion with him; then,

halfcarrying, halfsupporting him, he managed to reach the abbe's chamber, when he immediately laid the

"Thanks," said the poor abbe, shivering as though his veins were filled with ice. "I am about to be seized with

a fit of catalepsy; when it comes to its height I shall probably lie still and motionless as though dead, uttering

neither sigh nor groan. On the other hand, the symptoms may be much more violent, and cause me to fall into

fearful convulsions, foam at the mouth, and cry out loudly. Take care my cries are not heard, for if they are it

is more than probable I should be removed to another part of the prison, and we be separated forever. When I

become quite motionless, cold, and rigid as a corpse, then, and not before, be careful about this, force

open my teeth with the knife, pour from eight to ten drops of the liquor contained in the phial down my

So sudden and violent was the fit that the unfortunate prisoner was unable to complete the sentence; a violent

convulsion shook his whole frame, his eyes started from their sockets, his mouth was drawn on one side, his

cheeks became purple, he struggled, foamed, dashed himself about, and uttered the most dreadful cries,

which, however, Dantes prevented from being heard by covering his head with the blanket. The fit lasted two

hours; then, more helpless than an infant, and colder and paler than marble, more crushed and broken than a

reed trampled under foot, he fell back, doubled up in one last convulsion, and became as rigid as a corpse.

Edmond waited till life seemed extinct in the body of his friend, then, taking up the knife, he with difficulty

forced open the closely fixed jaws, carefully administered the appointed number of drops, and anxiously

awaited the result. An hour passed away and the old man gave no sign of returning animation. Dantes began

to fear he had delayed too long ere he administered the remedy, and, thrusting his hands into his hair,

continued gazing on the lifeless features of his friend. At length a slight color tinged the livid cheeks,

consciousness returned to the dull, open eyeballs, a faint sigh issued from the lips, and the sufferer made a

The sick man was not yet able to speak, but he pointed with evident anxiety towards the door. Dantes

listened, and plainly distinguished the approaching steps of the jailer. It was therefore near seven o'clock; but

Edmond's anxiety had put all thoughts of time out of his head. The young man sprang to the entrance, darted

through it, carefully drawing the stone over the opening, and hurried to his cell. He had scarcely done so

before the door opened, and the jailer saw the prisoner seated as usual on the side of his bed. Almost before

the key had turned in the lock, and before the departing steps of the jailer had died away in the long corridor

he had to traverse, Dantes, whose restless anxiety concerning his friend left him no desire to touch the food

brought him, hurried back to the abbe's chamber, and raising the stone by pressing his head against it, was

soon beside the sick man's couch. Faria had now fully regained his consciousness, but he still lay helpless and

"No, I had no such idea; but, knowing that all was ready for flight, I thought you might have made your

"At least," said the abbe, "I now see how wrong such an opinion would have been. Alas, alas! I am fearfully

"Be of good cheer," replied Dantes; "your strength will return." And as he spoke he seated himself near the

"The last attack I had," said he, "lasted but half an hour, and after it I was hungry, and got up without help;

now I can move neither my right arm nor leg, and my head seems uncomfortable, which shows that there has

been a suffusion of blood on the brain. The third attack will either carry me off, or leave me paralyzed for

"No, no," cried Dantes; "you are mistaken you will not die! And your third attack (if, indeed, you should

have another) will find you at liberty. We shall save you another time, as we have done this, only with a

better chance of success, because we shall be able to command every requisite assistance."

"My good Edmond," answered the abbe, "be not deceived. The attack which has just passed away, condemns

me forever to the walls of a prison. None can fly from a dungeon who cannot walk."

"Well, we will wait, a week, a month, two months, if need be, and meanwhile your strength will

return. Everything is in readiness for our flight, and we can select any time we choose. As soon as you feel

"I shall never swim again," replied Faria. "This arm is paralyzed; not for a time, but forever. Lift it, and judge

if I am mistaken." The young man raised the arm, which fell back by its own weight, perfectly inanimate and

"You are convinced now, Edmond, are you not?" asked the abbe. "Depend upon it, I know what I say. Since

the first attack I experienced of this malady, I have continually reflected on it. Indeed, I expected it, for it is a

family inheritance; both my father and grandfather died of it in a third attack. The physician who prepared for

me the remedy I have twice successfully taken, was no other than the celebrated Cabanis, and he predicted a

"The physician may be mistaken!" exclaimed Dantes. "And as for your poor arm, what difference will that

"My son," said the abbe, "you, who are a sailor and a swimmer, must know as well as I do that a man so

loaded would sink before he had done fifty strokes. Cease, then, to allow yourself to be duped by vain hopes,

that even your own excellent heart refuses to believe in. Here I shall remain till the hour of my deliverance

arrives, and that, in all human probability, will be the hour of my death. As for you, who are young and

"It is well," said Dantes. "Then I shall also remain." Then, rising and extending his hand with an air of

solemnity over the old man's head, he slowly added, "By the blood of Christ I swear never to leave you while

Faria gazed fondly on his nobleminded, singlehearted, highprincipled young friend, and read in his

countenance ample confirmation of the sincerity of his devotion and the loyalty of his purpose.

"Thanks," murmured the invalid, extending one hand. "I accept. You may one of these days reap the reward

of your disinterested devotion. But as I cannot, and you will not, quit this place, it becomes necessary to fill

up the excavation beneath the soldier's gallery; he might, by chance, hear the hollow sound of his footsteps,

and call the attention of his officer to the circumstance. That would bring about a discovery which would

inevitably lead to our being separated. Go, then, and set about this work, in which, unhappily, I can offer you

no assistance; keep at it all night, if necessary, and do not return here tomorrow till after the jailer his visited

Dantes took the hand of the abbe in his, and affectionately pressed it. Faria smiled encouragingly on him, and

the young man retired to his task, in the spirit of obedience and respect which he had sworn to show towards

When Dantes returned next morning to the chamber of his companion in captivity, he found Faria seated and

looking composed. In the ray of light which entered by the narrow window of his cell, he held open in his left

hand, of which alone, it will be recollected, he retained the use, a sheet of paper, which, from being

constantly rolled into a small compass, had the form of a cylinder, and was not easily kept open. He did not

"I have looked at it with all possible attention," said Dantes, "and I only see a halfburnt paper, on which are

"This paper, my friend," said Faria, "I may now avow to you, since I have the proof of your fidelity this

The sweat started forth on Dantes brow. Until this day and for how long a time! he had refrained from

talking of the treasure, which had brought upon the abbe the accusation of madness. With his instinctive

delicacy Edmond had preferred avoiding any touch on this painful chord, and Faria had been equally silent.

He had taken the silence of the old man for a return to reason; and now these few words uttered by Faria,

after so painful a crisis, seemed to indicate a serious relapse into mental alienation.

"Yes," said he. "You have, indeed, a noble nature, Edmond, and I see by your paleness and agitation what is

passing in your heart at this moment. No, be assured, I am not mad. This treasure exists, Dantes, and if I have

not been allowed to possess it, you will. Yes you. No one would listen or believe me, because everyone

thought me mad; but you, who must know that I am not, listen to me, and believe me so afterwards if you

"Alas," murmured Edmond to himself, "this is a terrible relapse! There was only this blow wanting." Then he

said aloud, "My dear friend, your attack has, perhaps, fatigued you; had you not better repose awhile?

Tomorrow, if you will, I will hear your narrative; but today I wish to nurse you carefully. Besides," he

"On the contrary, it is a matter of the utmost importance, Edmond!" replied the old man. "Who knows if

tomorrow, or the next day after, the third attack may not come on? and then must not all be over? Yes,

indeed, I have often thought with a bitter joy that these riches, which would make the wealth of a dozen

families, will be forever lost to those men who persecute me. This idea was one of vengeance to me, and I

tasted it slowly in the night of my dungeon and the despair of my captivity. But now I have forgiven the

world for the love of you; now that I see you, young and with a promising future, now that I think of all

that may result to you in the good fortune of such a disclosure, I shudder at any delay, and tremble lest I

should not assure to one as worthy as yourself the possession of so vast an amount of hidden wealth."

"You persist in your incredulity, Edmond," continued Faria. "My words have not convinced you. I see you

require proofs. Well, then, read this paper, which I have never shown to any one."

"Tomorrow, my dear friend," said Edmond, desirous of not yielding to the old man's madness. "I thought it

"I will not irritate him," thought Edmond, and taking the paper, of which half was wanting, having been

"This treasure, which may amount to two... of Roman crowns in the most distant a... of the second opening

"Why," replied Dantes, "I see nothing but broken lines and unconnected words, which are rendered illegible

"Yes, to you, my friend, who read them for the first time; but not for me, who have grown pale over them by

many nights' study, and have reconstructed every phrase, completed every thought."

"I am sure I have, and you shall judge for yourself; but first listen to the history of this paper."

And Dantes, happy to escape the history and explanation which would be sure to confirm his belief in his

friend's mental instability, glided like a snake along the narrow passage; while Faria, restored by his alarm to

a certain amount of activity, pushed the stone into place with his foot, and covered it with a mat in order the

It was the governor, who, hearing of Faria's illness from the jailer, had come in person to see him.

Faria sat up to receive him, avoiding all gestures in order that he might conceal from the governor the

paralysis that had already half stricken him with death. His fear was lest the governor, touched with pity,

might order him to be removed to better quarters, and thus separate him from his young companion. But

fortunately this was not the case, and the governor left him, convinced that the poor madman, for whom in his

heart he felt a kind of affection, was only troubled with a slight indisposition.

During this time, Edmond, seated on his bed with his head in his hands, tried to collect his scattered thoughts.

Faria, since their first acquaintance, had been on all points so rational and logical, so wonderfully sagacious,

in fact, that he could not understand how so much wisdom on all points could be allied with madness. Was

Dantes remained in his cell all day, not daring to return to his friend, thinking thus to defer the moment when

he should be convinced, once for all, that the abbe was mad such a conviction would be so terrible!

But, towards the evening after the hour for the customary visit had gone by, Faria, not seeing the young man

appear, tried to move and get over the distance which separated them. Edmond shuddered when he heard the

painful efforts which the old man made to drag himself along; his leg was inert, and he could no longer make

use of one arm. Edmond was obliged to assist him, for otherwise he would not have been able to enter by the

"Here I am, pursuing you remorselessly," he said with a benignant smile. "You thought to escape my

Edmond saw there was no escape, and placing the old man on his bed, he seated himself on the stool beside

"You know," said the abbe, "that I was the secretary and intimate friend of Cardinal Spada, the last of the

princes of that name. I owe to this worthy lord all the happiness I ever knew. He was not rich, although the

wealth of his family had passed into a proverb, and I heard the phrase very often, `As rich as a Spada.' But he,

like public rumor, lived on this reputation for wealth; his palace was my paradise. I was tutor to his nephews,

who are dead; and when he was alone in the world, I tried by absolute devotion to his will, to make up to him

all he had done for me during ten years of unremitting kindness. The cardinal's house had no secrets for me. I

had often seen my noble patron annotating ancient volumes, and eagerly searching amongst dusty family

manuscripts. One day when I was reproaching him for his unavailing searches, and deploring the prostration

of mind that followed them, he looked at me, and, smiling bitterly, opened a volume relating to the History of

the City of Rome. There, in the twentieth chapter of the Life of Pope Alexander VI., were the following lines,

"`The great wars of Romagna had ended; Caesar Borgia, who had completed his conquest, had need of

money to purchase all Italy. The pope had also need of money to bring matters to an end with Louis XII.

King of France, who was formidable still in spite of his recent reverses; and it was necessary, therefore, to

have recourse to some profitable scheme, which was a matter of great difficulty in the impoverished

condition of exhausted Italy. His holiness had an idea. He determined to make two cardinals.'

"By choosing two of the greatest personages of Rome, especially rich men this was the return the holy

father looked for. In the first place, he could sell the great appointments and splendid offices which the

cardinals already held; and then he had the two hats to sell besides. There was a third point in view, which

will appear hereafter. The pope and Caesar Borgia first found the two future cardinals; they were Giovanni

Rospigliosi, who held four of the highest dignities of the Holy See, and Caesar Spada, one of the noblest and

richest of the Roman nobility; both felt the high honor of such a favor from the pope. They were ambitious,

and Caesar Borgia soon found purchasers for their appointments. The result was, that Rospigliosi and Spada

paid for being cardinals, and eight other persons paid for the offices the cardinals held before their elevation,

and thus eight hundred thousand crowns entered into the coffers of the speculators.

"It is time now to proceed to the last part of the speculation. The pope heaped attentions upon Rospigliosi and

Spada, conferred upon them the insignia of the cardinalate, and induced them to arrange their affairs and take

up their residence at Rome. Then the pope and Caesar Borgia invited the two cardinals to dinner. This was a

matter of dispute between the holy father and his son. Caesar thought they could make use of one of the

means which he always had ready for his friends, that is to say, in the first place, the famous key which was

given to certain persons with the request that they go and open a designated cupboard. This key was furnished

with a small iron point, a negligence on the part of the locksmith. When this was pressed to effect the

opening of the cupboard, of which the lock was difficult, the person was pricked by this small point, and died

next day. Then there was the ring with the lion's head, which Caesar wore when he wanted to greet his friends

with a clasp of the hand. The lion bit the hand thus favored, and at the end of twentyfour hours, the bite was

mortal. Caesar proposed to his father, that they should either ask the cardinals to open the cupboard, or shake

hands with them; but Alexander VI., replied: `Now as to the worthy cardinals, Spada and Rospigliosi, let us

ask both of them to dinner, something tells me that we shall get that money back. Besides, you forget, Caesar,

an indigestion declares itself immediately, while a prick or a bite occasions a delay of a day or two.' Caesar

gave way before such cogent reasoning, and the cardinals were consequently invited to dinner.

"The table was laid in a vineyard belonging to the pope, near San Pierdarena, a charming retreat which the

cardinals knew very well by report. Rospigliosi, quite set up with his new dignities, went with a good appetite

and his most ingratiating manner. Spada, a prudent man, and greatly attached to his only nephew, a young

captain of the highest promise, took paper and pen, and made his will. He then sent word to his nephew to

"Spada knew what these invitations meant; since Christianity, so eminently civilizing, had made progress in

Rome, it was no longer a centurion who came from the tyrant with a message, `Caesar wills that you die.' but

it was a legate a latere, who came with a smile on his lips to say from the pope, `His holiness requests you to

"Spada set out about two o'clock to San Pierdarena. The pope awaited him. The first sight that attracted the

eyes of Spada was that of his nephew, in full costume, and Caesar Borgia paying him most marked attentions.

Spada turned pale, as Caesar looked at him with an ironical air, which proved that he had anticipated all, and

that the snare was well spread. They began dinner and Spada was only able to inquire of his nephew if he had

received his message. The nephew replied no; perfectly comprehending the meaning of the question. It was

too late, for he had already drunk a glass of excellent wine, placed for him expressly by the pope's butler.

Spada at the same moment saw another bottle approach him, which he was pressed to taste. An hour

afterwards a physician declared they were both poisoned through eating mushrooms. Spada died on the

threshold of the vineyard; the nephew expired at his own door, making signs which his wife could not

"Then Caesar and the pope hastened to lay hands on the heritage, under presence of seeking for the papers of

the dead man. But the inheritance consisted in this only, a scrap of paper on which Spada had written: `I

bequeath to my beloved nephew my coffers, my books, and, amongst others, my breviary with the gold

corners, which I beg he will preserve in remembrance of his affectionate uncle.'

"The heirs sought everywhere, admired the breviary, laid hands on the furniture, and were greatly astonished

that Spada, the rich man, was really the most miserable of uncles no treasures unless they were those

of science, contained in the library and laboratories. That was all. Caesar and his father searched, examined,

scrutinized, but found nothing, or at least very little; not exceeding a few thousand crowns in plate, and about

the same in ready money; but the nephew had time to say to his wife before he expired: `Look well among

"They sought even more thoroughly than the august heirs had done, but it was fruitless. There were two

palaces and a vineyard behind the Palatine Hill; but in these days landed property had not much value, and

the two palaces and the vineyard remained to the family since they were beneath the rapacity of the pope and

his son. Months and years rolled on. Alexander VI. died, poisoned, you know by what mistake. Caesar,

poisoned at the same time, escaped by shedding his skin like a snake; but the new skin was spotted by the

poison till it looked like a tiger's. Then, compelled to quit Rome, he went and got himself obscurely killed in

a night skirmish, scarcely noticed in history. After the pope's death and his son's exile, it was supposed that

the Spada family would resume the splendid position they had held before the cardinal's time; but this was

not the case. The Spadas remained in doubtful ease, a mystery hung over this dark affair, and the public

rumor was, that Caesar, a better politician than his father, had carried off from the pope the fortune of the two

cardinals. I say the two, because Cardinal Rospigliosi, who had not taken any precaution, was completely

"Up to this point," said Faria, interrupting the thread of his narrative, "this seems to you very meaningless, no

"Oh, my friend," cried Dantes, "on the contrary, it seems as if I were reading a most interesting narrative; go

"The family began to get accustomed to their obscurity. Years rolled on, and amongst the descendants some

were soldiers, others diplomatists; some churchmen, some bankers; some grew rich, and some were ruined. I

come now to the last of the family, whose secretary I was the Count of Spada. I had often heard him

complain of the disproportion of his rank with his fortune; and I advised him to invest all he had in an

annuity. He did so, and thus doubled his income. The celebrated breviary remained in the family, and was in

the count's possession. It had been handed down from father to son; for the singular clause of the only will

that had been found, had caused it to be regarded as a genuine relic, preserved in the family with superstitious

veneration. It was an illuminated book, with beautiful Gothic characters, and so weighty with gold, that a

"At the sight of papers of all sorts, titles, contracts, parchments, which were kept in the archives of the

family, all descending from the poisoned cardinal, I in my turn examined the immense bundles of documents,

like twenty servitors, stewards, secretaries before me; but in spite of the most exhaustive researches, I found

nothing. Yet I had read, I had even written a precise history of the Borgia family, for the sole purpose of

assuring myself whether any increase of fortune had occurred to them on the death of the Cardinal Caesar

Spada; but could only trace the acquisition of the property of the Cardinal Rospigliosi, his companion in

" I was then almost assured that the inheritance had neither profited the Borgias nor the family, but had

remained unpossessed like the treasures of the Arabian Nights, which slept in the bosom of the earth under

the eyes of the genie. I searched, ransacked, counted, calculated a thousand and a thousand times the income

and expenditure of the family for three hundred years. It was useless. I remained in my ignorance, and the

Count of Spada in his poverty. My patron died. He had reserved from his annuity his family papers, his

library, composed of five thousand volumes, and his famous breviary. All these he bequeathed to me, with a

thousand Roman crowns, which he had in ready money, on condition that I would have anniversary masses

said for the repose of his soul, and that I would draw up a genealogical tree and history of his house. All this I

"In 1807, a month before I was arrested, and a fortnight after the death of the Count of Spada, on the 25th of

December (you will see presently how the date became fixed in my memory), I was reading, for the

thousandth time, the papers I was arranging, for the palace was sold to a stranger, and I was going to leave

Rome and settle at Florence, intending to take with me twelve thousand francs I possessed, my library, and

the famous breviary, when, tired with my constant labor at the same thing, and overcome by a heavy dinner I

had eaten, my head dropped on my hands, and I fell asleep about three o'clock in the afternoon. I awoke as

the clock was striking six. I raised my head; I was in utter darkness. I rang for a light, but as no one came, I

determined to find one for myself. It was indeed but anticipating the simple manners which I should soon be

under the necessity of adopting. I took a waxcandle in one hand, and with the other groped about for a piece

of paper (my matchbox being empty), with which I proposed to get a light from the small flame still playing

on the embers. Fearing, however, to make use of any valuable piece of paper, I hesitated for a moment, then

recollected that I had seen in the famous breviary, which was on the table beside me, an old paper quite

yellow with age, and which had served as a marker for centuries, kept there by the request of the heirs. I felt

for it, found it, twisted it up together, and putting it into the expiring flame, set light to it.

"But beneath my fingers, as if by magic, in proportion as the fire ascended, I saw yellowish characters appear

on the paper. I grasped it in my hand, put out the flame as quickly as I could, lighted my taper in the fire

itself, and opened the crumpled paper with inexpressible emotion, recognizing, when I had done so, that these

characters had been traced in mysterious and sympathetic ink, only appearing when exposed to the fire;

nearly onethird of the paper had been consumed by the flame. It was that paper you read this morning; read

it again, Dantes, and then I will complete for you the incomplete words and unconnected sense."

Faria, with an air of triumph, offered the paper to Dantes, who this time read the following words, traced with

"This 25th day of April, 1498, be... Alexander VI., and fearing that not... he may desire to become my heir,

and re... and Bentivoglio, who were poisoned,... my sole heir, that I have bu... and has visited with me, that is,

in... Island of Monte Cristo, all I poss... jewels, diamonds, gems; that I alone... may amount to nearly two

mil... will find on raising the twentieth ro... creek to the east in a right line. Two open... in these caves; the

treasure is in the furthest a... which treasure I bequeath and leave en... as my sole heir. "25th April, 1498.

"And now," said the abbe, "read this other paper;" and he presented to Dantes a second leaf with fragments of

"...ing invited to dine by his Holiness ...content with making me pay for my hat, ...serves for me the fate of

Cardinals Caprara ...I declare to my nephew, Guido Spada ...ried in a place he knows ...the caves of the small

...essed of ingots, gold, money, ...know of the existence of this treasure, which ...lions of Roman crowns, and

which he ...ck from the small ...ings have been made ...ngle in the second; ...tire to him ...ar Spada."

Faria followed him with an excited look. "and now," he said, when he saw that Dantes had read the last line,

"put the two fragments together, and judge for yourself." Dantes obeyed, and the conjointed pieces gave the

"This 25th day of April, 1498, be...ing invited to dine by his Holiness Alexander VI., and fearing that

not...content with making me pay for my hat, he may desire to become my heir, and re...serves for me the fate

of Cardinals Caprara and Bentivoglio, who were poisoned...I declare to my nephew, Guido Spada, my sole

heir, that I have bu...ried in a place he knows and has visited with me, that is, in...the caves of the small Island

of Monte Cristo all I poss...ssed of ingots, gold, money, jewels, diamonds, gems; that I alone...know of the

existence of this treasure, which may amount to nearly two mil...lions of Roman crowns, and which he will

find on raising the twentieth ro...ck from the small creek to the east in a right line. Two open...ings have been

made in these caves; the treasure is in the furthest a...ngle in the second; which treasure I bequeath and leave

"It is the declaration of Cardinal Spada, and the will so long sought for," replied Edmond, still incredulous.

"I did. Aided by the remaining fragment, I guessed the rest; measuring the length of the lines by those of the

paper, and divining the hidden meaning by means of what was in part revealed, as we are guided in a cavern

"I resolved to set out, and did set out at that very instant, carrying with me the beginning of my great work,

the unity of the Italian kingdom; but for some time the imperial police (who at this period, quite contrary to

what Napoleon desired so soon as he had a son born to him, wished for a partition of provinces) had their

eyes on me; and my hasty departure, the cause of which they were unable to guess, having aroused their

"Now," continued Faria, addressing Dantes with an almost paternal expression, "now, my dear fellow, you

know as much as I do myself. If we ever escape together, half this treasure is yours; if I die here, and you

"But," inquired Dantes hesitating, "has this treasure no more legitimate possessor in the world than

"No, no, be easy on that score; the family is extinct. The last Count of Spada, moreover, made me his heir,

bequeathing to me this symbolic breviary, he bequeathed to me all it contained; no, no, make your mind

satisfied on that point. If we lay hands on this fortune, we may enjoy it without remorse."

"Impossible? and why?" asked the old man. "The Spada family was one of the oldest and most powerful

families of the fifteenth century; and in those times, when other opportunities for investment were wanting,

such accumulations of gold and jewels were by no means rare; there are at this day Roman families perishing

of hunger, though possessed of nearly a million in diamonds and jewels, handed down by entail, and which

they cannot touch." Edmond thought he was in a dream he wavered between incredulity and joy.

"I have only kept this secret so long from you," continued Faria, "that I might test your character, and then

surprise you. Had we escaped before my attack of catalepsy, I should have conducted you to Monte Cristo;

now," he added, with a sigh, "it is you who will conduct me thither. Well, Dantes, you do not thank me?"

"This treasure belongs to you, my dear friend," replied Dantes, "and to you only. I have no right to it. I am no

"You are my son, Dantes," exclaimed the old man. "You are the child of my captivity. My profession

condemns me to celibacy. God has sent you to me to console, at one and the same time, the man who could

not be a father, and the prisoner who could not get free." And Faria extended the arm of which alone the use

Now that this treasure, which had so long been the object of the abbe's meditations, could insure the future

happiness of him whom Faria really loved as a son, it had doubled its value in his eyes, and every day he

expatiated on the amount, explaining to Dantes all the good which, with thirteen or fourteen millions of

francs, a man could do in these days to his friends; and then Dantes' countenance became gloomy, for the

oath of vengeance he had taken recurred to his memory, and he reflected how much ill, in these times, a man

The abbe did not know the Island of Monte Cristo; but Dantes knew it, and had often passed it, situated

twentyfive miles from Pianosa, between Corsica and the Island of Elba, and had once touched there. This

island was, always had been, and still is, completely deserted. It is a rock of almost conical form, which looks

as though it had been thrust up by volcanic force from the depth to the surface of the ocean. Dantes drew a

plan of the island for Faria, and Faria gave Dantes advice as to the means he should employ to recover the

treasure. But Dantes was far from being as enthusiastic and confident as the old man. It was past a question

now that Faria was not a lunatic, and the way in which he had achieved the discovery, which had given rise to

the suspicion of his madness, increased Edmond's admiration of him; but at the same time Dantes could not

believe that the deposit, supposing it had ever existed, still existed; and though he considered the treasure as

However, as if fate resolved on depriving the prisoners of their last chance, and making them understand that

they were condemned to perpetual imprisonment, a new misfortune befell them; the gallery on the sea side,

which had long been in ruins, was rebuilt. They had repaired it completely, and stopped up with vast masses

of stone the hole Dantes had partly filled in. But for this precaution, which, it will be remembered, the abbe

had made to Edmond, the misfortune would have been still greater, for their attempt to escape would have

been detected, and they would undoubtedly have been separated. Thus a new, a stronger, and more inexorable

"You see," said the young man, with an air of sorrowful resignation, to Faria, "that God deems it right to take

from me any claim to merit for what you call my devotion to you. I have promised to remain forever with

you, and now I could not break my promise if I would. The treasure will be no more mine than yours, and

neither of us will quit this prison. But my real treasure is not that, my dear friend, which awaits me beneath

the sombre rocks of Monte Cristo, it is your presence, our living together five or six hours a day, in spite of

our jailers; it is the rays of intelligence you have elicited from my brain, the languages you have implanted in

my memory, and which have taken root there with all their philological ramifications. These different

sciences that you have made so easy to me by the depth of the knowledge you possess of them, and the

clearness of the principles to which you have reduced them this is my treasure, my beloved friend, and

with this you have made me rich and happy. Believe me, and take comfort, this is better for me than tons of

gold and cases of diamonds, even were they not as problematical as the clouds we see in the morning floating

over the sea, which we take for terra firma, and which evaporate and vanish as we draw near to them. To

have you as long as possible near me, to hear your eloquent speech, which embellishes my mind,

strengthens my soul, and makes my whole frame capable of great and terrible things, if I should ever be free,

so fills my whole existence, that the despair to which I was just on the point of yielding when I knew you,

has no longer any hold over me; and this this is my fortune not chimerical, but actual. I owe you my

real good, my present happiness; and all the sovereigns of the earth, even Caesar Borgia himself, could not

Thus, if not actually happy, yet the days these two unfortunates passed together went quickly. Faria, who for

so long a time had kept silence as to the treasure, now perpetually talked of it. As he had prophesied would be

the case, he remained paralyzed in the right arm and the left leg, and had given up all hope of ever enjoying it

himself. But he was continually thinking over some means of escape for his young companion, and

anticipating the pleasure he would enjoy. For fear the letter might be some day lost or stolen, he compelled

Dantes to learn it by heart; and Dantes knew it from the first to the last word. Then he destroyed the second

portion, assured that if the first were seized, no one would be able to discover its real meaning. Whole hours

sometimes passed while Faria was giving instructions to Dantes, instructions which were to serve him

when he was at liberty. Then, once free, from the day and hour and moment when he was so, he could have

but one only thought, which was, to gain Monte Cristo by some means, and remain there alone under some

pretext which would arouse no suspicions; and once there, to endeavor to find the wonderful caverns, and

search in the appointed spot, the appointed spot, be it remembered, being the farthest angle in the second

In the meanwhile the hours passed, if not rapidly, at least tolerably. Faria, as we have said, without having

recovered the use of his hand and foot, had regained all the clearness of his understanding, and had gradually,

besides the moral instructions we have detailed, taught his youthful companion the patient and sublime duty

of a prisoner, who learns to make something from nothing. They were thus perpetually employed, Faria,

that he might not see himself grow old; Dantes, for fear of recalling the almost extinct past which now only

floated in his memory like a distant light wandering in the night. So life went on for them as it does for those

who are not victims of misfortune and whose activities glide along mechanically and tranquilly beneath the

But beneath this superficial calm there were in the heart of the young man, and perhaps in that of the old man,

many repressed desires, many stifled sighs, which found vent when Faria was left alone, and when Edmond

returned to his cell. One night Edmond awoke suddenly, believing that he heard some one calling him. He

opened his eyes upon utter darkness. His name, or rather a plaintive voice which essayed to pronounce his

name, reached him. He sat up in bed and a cold sweat broke out upon his brow. Undoubtedly the call came

He moved his bed, drew up the stone, rushed into the passage, and reached the opposite extremity; the secret

entrance was open. By the light of the wretched and wavering lamp, of which we have spoken, Dantes saw

the old man, pale, but yet erect, clinging to the bedstead. His features were writhing with those horrible

symptoms which he already knew, and which had so seriously alarmed him when he saw them for the first

"Alas, my dear friend," said Faria in a resigned tone, "you understand, do you not, and I need not attempt to

Edmond uttered a cry of agony, and, quite out of his senses, rushed towards the door, exclaiming, "Help,

"Silence," he said, "or you are lost. We must now only think of you, my dear friend, and so act as to render

your captivity supportable or your flight possible. It would require years to do again what I have done here,

and the results would be instantly destroyed if our jailers knew we had communicated with each other.

Besides, be assured, my dear Edmond, the dungeon I am about to leave will not long remain empty; some

other unfortunate being will soon take my place, and to him you will appear like an angel of salvation.

Perhaps he will be young, strong, and enduring, like yourself, and will aid you in your escape, while I have

been but a hindrance. You will no longer have half a dead body tied to you as a drag to all your movements.

At length providence has done something for you; he restores to you more than he takes away, and it was

Edmond could only clasp his hands and exclaim, "Oh, my friend, my friend, speak not thus!" and then

resuming all his presence of mind, which had for a moment staggered under this blow, and his strength,

which had failed at the words of the old man, he said, "Oh, I have saved you once, and I will save you a

second time!" And raising the foot of the bed, he drew out the phial, still a third filled with the red liquor.

"See," he exclaimed, "there remains still some of the magic draught. Quick, quick! tell me what I must do this

"There is not a hope," replied Faria, shaking his head, "but no matter; God wills it that man whom he has

created, and in whose heart he has so profoundly rooted the love of life, should do all in his power to preserve

"Well, then, try. The cold gains upon me. I feel the blood flowing towards my brain. These horrible chills,

which make my teeth chatter and seem to dislocate my bones, begin to pervade my whole frame; in five

minutes the malady will reach its height, and in a quarter of an hour there will be nothing left of me but a

"Do as you did before, only do not wait so long, all the springs of life are now exhausted in me, and death,"

he continued, looking at his paralyzed arm and leg, "has but half its work to do. If, after having made me

swallow twelve drops instead of ten, you see that I do not recover, then pour the rest down my throat. Now

"And now, my dear friend," said Faria, "sole consolation of my wretched existence, you whom heaven

gave me somewhat late, but still gave me, a priceless gift, and for which I am most grateful, at the

moment of separating from you forever, I wish you all the happiness and all the prosperity you so well

deserve. My son, I bless thee!" The young man cast himself on his knees, leaning his head against the old

"Listen, now, to what I say in this my dying moment. The treasure of the Spadas exists. God grants me the

boon of vision unrestricted by time or space. I see it in the depths of the inner cavern. My eyes pierce the

inmost recesses of the earth, and are dazzled at the sight of so much riches. If you do escape, remember that

the poor abbe, whom all the world called mad, was not so. Hasten to Monte Cristo avail yourself of the

fortune for you have indeed suffered long enough." A violent convulsion attacked the old man. Dantes

raised his head and saw Faria's eyes injected with blood. It seemed as if a flow of blood had ascended from

"Adieu, adieu!" murmured the old man, clasping Edmond's hand convulsively "adieu!"

"Oh, no, no, not yet," he cried; "do not forsake me! Oh, succor him! Help help help!"

"Hush hush!" murmured the dying man, "that they may not separate us if you save me!"

"You are right. Oh, yes, yes; be assured I shall save you! Besides, although you suffer much, you do not seem

"Do not mistake. I suffer less because there is in me less strength to endure. At your age we have faith in life;

it is the privilege of youth to believe and hope, but old men see death more clearly. Oh, 'tis here 'tis here

'tis over my sight is gone my senses fail! Your hand, Dantes! Adieu adieu!" And raising himself

by a final effort, in which he summoned all his faculties, he said, "Monte Cristo, forget not Monte Cristo!"

And he fell back on the bed. The crisis was terrible, and a rigid form with twisted limbs, swollen eyelids, and

lips flecked with bloody foam, lay on the bed of torture, in place of the intellectual being who so lately rested

Dantes took the lamp, placed it on a projecting stone above the bed, whence its tremulous light fell with

strange and fantastic ray on the distorted countenance and motionless, stiffened body. With steady gaze he

When he believed that the right moment had arrived, he took the knife, pried open the teeth, which offered

less resistance than before, counted one after the other twelve drops, and watched; the phial contained,

perhaps, twice as much more. He waited ten minutes, a quarter of an hour, half an hour, no change took

place. Trembling, his hair erect, his brow bathed with perspiration, he counted the seconds by the beating of

his heart. Then he thought it was time to make the last trial, and he put the phial to the purple lips of Faria,

and without having occasion to force open his jaws, which had remained extended, he poured the whole of

The draught produced a galvanic effect, a violent trembling pervaded the old man's limbs, his eyes opened

until it was fearful to gaze upon them, he heaved a sigh which resembled a shriek, and then his convulsed

Half an hour, an hour, an hour and a half elapsed, and during this period of anguish, Edmond leaned over his

friend, his hand applied to his heart, and felt the body gradually grow cold, and the heart's pulsation become

more and more deep and dull, until at length it stopped; the last movement of the heart ceased, the face

became livid, the eyes remained open, but the eyeballs were glazed. It was six o'clock in the morning, the

dawn was just breaking, and its feeble ray came into the dungeon, and paled the ineffectual light of the lamp.

Strange shadows passed over the countenance of the dead man, and at times gave it the appearance of life.

While the struggle between day and night lasted, Dantes still doubted; but as soon as the daylight gained the

preeminence, he saw that he was alone with a corpse. Then an invincible and extreme terror seized upon

him, and he dared not again press the hand that hung out of bed, he dared no longer to gaze on those fixed

and vacant eyes, which he tried many times to close, but in vain they opened again as soon as shut. He

extinguished the lamp, carefully concealed it, and then went away, closing as well as he could the entrance to

It was time, for the jailer was coming. On this occasion he began his rounds at Dantes' cell, and on leaving

him he went on to Faria's dungeon, taking thither breakfast and some linen. Nothing betokened that the man

Dantes was then seized with an indescribable desire to know what was going on in the dungeon of his

unfortunate friend. He therefore returned by the subterraneous gallery, and arrived in time to hear the

exclamations of the turnkey, who called out for help. Other turnkeys came, and then was heard the regular

Edmond heard the creaking of the bed as they moved the corpse, heard the voice of the governor, who asked

them to throw water on the dead man's face; and seeing that, in spite of this application, the prisoner did not

recover, they sent for the doctor. The governor then went out, and words of pity fell on Dantes' listening ears,

"Well, well," said one, "the madman has gone to look after his treasure. Good journey to him!"

"With all his millions, he will not have enough to pay for his shroud!" said another.

"Perhaps," said one of the previous speakers, "as he was a churchman, they may go to some expense in his

Edmond did not lose a word, but comprehended very little of what was said. The voices soon ceased, and it

seemed to him as if every one had left the cell. Still he dared not to enter, as they might have left some

turnkey to watch the dead. He remained, therefore, mute and motionless, hardly venturing to breathe. At the

end of an hour, he heard a faint noise, which increased. It was the governor who returned, followed by the

doctor and other attendants. There was a moment's silence, it was evident that the doctor was examining

The doctor analyzed the symptoms of the malady to which the prisoner had succumbed, and declared that he

was dead. Questions and answers followed in a nonchalant manner that made Dantes indignant, for he felt

that all the world should have for the poor abbe a love and respect equal to his own.

"I am very sorry for what you tell me," said the governor, replying to the assurance of the doctor, "that the old

man is really dead; for he was a quiet, inoffensive prisoner, happy in his folly, and required no watching."

"Ah," added the turnkey, "there was no occasion for watching him: he would have stayed here fifty years, I'll

"Still," said the governor, "I believe it will be requisite, notwithstanding your certainty, and not that I doubt

your science, but in discharge of my official duty, that we should be perfectly assured that the prisoner is

dead." There was a moment of complete silence, during which Dantes, still listening, knew that the doctor

"You may make your mind easy," said the doctor; "he is dead. I will answer for that."

"You know, sir," said the governor, persisting, "that we are not content in such cases as this with such a

simple examination. In spite of all appearances, be so kind, therefore, as to finish your duty by fulfilling the

"Let the irons be heated," said the doctor; "but really it is a useless precaution." This order to heat the irons

made Dantes shudder. He heard hasty steps, the creaking of a door, people going and coming, and some

"Here is the brazier, lighted." There was a moment's silence, and then was heard the crackling of burning

flesh, of which the peculiar and nauseous smell penetrated even behind the wall where Dantes was listening

in horror. The perspiration poured forth upon the young man's brow, and he felt as if he should faint.

"You see, sir, he is really dead," said the doctor; "this burn in the heel is decisive. The poor fool is cured of

"Wasn't his name Faria?" inquired one of the officers who accompanied the governor.

"Yes, sir; and, as he said, it was an ancient name. He was, too, very learned, and rational enough on all points

"You had never anything to complain of?" said the governor to the jailer who had charge of the abbe.

"Never, sir," replied the jailer, "never; on the contrary, he sometimes amused me very much by telling me

stories. One day, too, when my wife was ill, he gave me a prescription which cured her."

"Ah, ah!" said the doctor, "I did not know that I had a rival; but I hope, governor, that you will show him all

"Yes, yes, make your mind easy, he shall be decently interred in the newest sack we can find. Will that satisfy

"Must this last formality take place in your presence, sir?" inquired a turnkey.

"Certainly. But make haste I cannot stay here all day." Other footsteps, going and coming, were now

heard, and a moment afterwards the noise of rustling canvas reached Dantes' ears, the bed creaked, and the

heavy footfall of a man who lifts a weight sounded on the floor; then the bed again creaked under the weight

"That is impossible," replied the governor. "The chaplain of the chateau came to me yesterday to beg for

leave of absence, in order to take a trip to Hyeres for a week. I told him I would attend to the prisoners in his

absence. If the poor abbe had not been in such a hurry, he might have had his requiem."

"Pooh, pooh;" said the doctor, with the impiety usual in persons of his profession; "he is a churchman. God

will respect his profession, and not give the devil the wicked delight of sending him a priest." A shout of

laughter followed this brutal jest. Meanwhile the operation of putting the body in the sack was going on.

"Of what use would it be? Shut the dungeon as if he were alive that is all." Then the steps retreated, and

the voices died away in the distance; the noise of the door, with its creaking hinges and bolts ceased, and a

silence more sombre than that of solitude ensued, the silence of death, which was allpervasive, and

struck its icy chill to the very soul of Dantes. Then he raised the flagstone cautiously with his head, and

looked carefully around the chamber. It was empty, and Dantes emerged from the tunnel.

On the bed, at full length, and faintly illuminated by the pale light that came from the window, lay a sack of

canvas, and under its rude folds was stretched a long and stiffened form; it was Faria's last windingsheet,

a windingsheet which, as the turnkey said, cost so little. Everything was in readiness. A barrier had been

placed between Dantes and his old friend. No longer could Edmond look into those wideopen eyes which

had seemed to be penetrating the mysteries of death; no longer could he clasp the hand which had done so

much to make his existence blessed. Faria, the beneficent and cheerful companion, with whom he was

accustomed to live so intimately, no longer breathed. He seated himself on the edge of that terrible bed, and

Alone he was alone again again condemned to silence again face to face with nothingness! Alone!

never again to see the face, never again to hear the voice of the only human being who united him to

earth! Was not Faria's fate the better, after all to solve the problem of life at its source, even at the risk of

horrible suffering? The idea of suicide, which his friend had driven away and kept away by his cheerful

"If I could die," he said, "I should go where he goes, and should assuredly find him again. But how to die? It

is very easy," he went on with a smile; "I will remain here, rush on the first person that opens the door,

strangle him, and then they will guillotine me." But excessive grief is like a storm at sea, where the frail bark

is tossed from the depths to the top of the wave. Dantes recoiled from the idea of so infamous a death, and

"Die? oh, no," he exclaimed "not die now, after having lived and suffered so long and so much! Die? yes,

had I died years ago; but now to die would be, indeed, to give way to the sarcasm of destiny. No, I want to

live; I shall struggle to the very last; I will yet win back the happiness of which I have been deprived. Before I

die I must not forget that I have my executioners to punish, and perhaps, too, who knows, some friends to

reward. Yet they will forget me here, and I shall die in my dungeon like Faria." As he said this, he became

silent and gazed straight before him like one overwhelmed with a strange and amazing thought. Suddenly he

arose, lifted his hand to his brow as if his brain wore giddy, paced twice or thrice round the dungeon, and

"Just God!" he muttered, "whence comes this thought? Is it from thee? Since none but the dead pass freely

from this dungeon, let me take the place of the dead!" Without giving himself time to reconsider his decision,

and, indeed, that he might not allow his thoughts to be distracted from his desperate resolution, he bent over

the appalling shroud, opened it with the knife which Faria had made, drew the corpse from the sack, and bore

it along the tunnel to his own chamber, laid it on his couch, tied around its head the rag he wore at night

around his own, covered it with his counterpane, once again kissed the icecold brow, and tried vainly to

close the resisting eyes, which glared horribly, turned the head towards the wall, so that the jailer might,

when he brought the evening meal, believe that he was asleep, as was his frequent custom; entered the tunnel

again, drew the bed against the wall, returned to the other cell, took from the hidingplace the needle and

thread, flung off his rags, that they might feel only naked flesh beneath the coarse canvas, and getting inside

the sack, placed himself in the posture in which the dead body had been laid, and sewed up the mouth of the

He would have been discovered by the beating of his heart, if by any mischance the jailers had entered at that

moment. Dantes might have waited until the evening visit was over, but he was afraid that the governor

would change his mind, and order the dead body to be removed earlier. In that case his last hope would have

been destroyed. Now his plans were fully made, and this is what he intended to do. If while he was being

carried out the gravediggers should discover that they were bearing a live instead of a dead body, Dantes did

not intend to give them time to recognize him, but with a sudden cut of the knife, he meant to open the sack

from top to bottom, and, profiting by their alarm, escape; if they tried to catch him, he would use his knife to

If they took him to the cemetery and laid him in a grave, he would allow himself to be covered with earth,

and then, as it was night, the gravediggers could scarcely have turned their backs before he would have

worked his way through the yielding soil and escaped. He hoped that the weight of earth would not be so

great that he could not overcome it. If he was detected in this and the earth proved too heavy, he would be

stifled, and then so much the better, all would be over. Dantes had not eaten since the preceding evening,

but he had not thought of hunger, nor did he think of it now. His situation was too precarious to allow him

The first risk that Dantes ran was, that the jailer, when he brought him his supper at seven o'clock, might

perceive the change that had been made; fortunately, twenty times at least, from misanthropy or fatigue,

Dantes had received his jailer in bed, and then the man placed his bread and soup on the table, and went away

without saying a word. This time the jailer might not be as silent as usual, but speak to Dantes, and seeing

When seven o'clock came, Dantes' agony really began. His hand placed upon his heart was unable to redress

its throbbings, while, with the other he wiped the perspiration from his temples. From time to time chills ran

through his whole body, and clutched his heart in a grasp of ice. Then he thought he was going to die. Yet the

hours passed on without any unusual disturbance, and Dantes knew that he had escaped the first peril. It was

a good augury. At length, about the hour the governor had appointed, footsteps were heard on the stairs.

Edmond felt that the moment had arrived, summoned up all his courage, held his breath, and would have

been happy if at the same time he could have repressed the throbbing of his veins. The footsteps they were

double paused at the door and Dantes guessed that the two gravediggers had come to seek him

this idea was soon converted into certainty, when he heard the noise they made in putting down the

handbier. The door opened, and a dim light reached Dantes' eyes through the coarse sack that covered him;

he saw two shadows approach his bed, a third remaining at the door with a torch in its hand. The two men,

"They say every year adds half a pound to the weight of the bones," said another, lifting the feet.

"What would be the use of carrying so much more weight?" was the reply, "I can do that when we get there."

They deposited the supposed corpse on the bier. Edmond stiffened himself in order to play the part of a dead

man, and then the party, lighted by the man with the torch, who went first, ascended the stairs. Suddenly he

felt the fresh and sharp night air, and Dantes knew that the mistral was blowing. It was a sensation in which

pleasure and pain were strangely mingled. The bearers went on for twenty paces, then stopped, putting the

bier down on the ground. One of them went away, and Dantes heard his shoes striking on the pavement.

"Really, he is by no means a light load!" said the other bearer, sitting on the edge of the handbarrow.

"Give us a light," said the other bearer, "or I shall never find what I am looking for." The man with the torch

"What can he be looking for?" thought Edmond. "The spade, perhaps." An exclamation of satisfaction

indicated that the gravedigger had found the object of his search. "Here it is at last," he said, "not without

As he said this, the man came towards Edmond, who heard a heavy metallic substance laid down beside him,

and at the same moment a cord was fastened round his feet with sudden and painful violence.

They advanced fifty paces farther, and then stopped to open a door, then went forward again. The noise of the

waves dashing against the rocks on which the chateau is built, reached Dantes' ear distinctly as they went

"Bad weather!" observed one of the bearers; "not a pleasant night for a dip in the sea."

"Why, yes, the abbe runs a chance of being wet," said the other; and then there was a burst of brutal laughter.

"Well, here we are at last," said one of them. "A little farther a little farther," said the other. "You know

very well that the last was stopped on his way, dashed on the rocks, and the governor told us next day that we

They ascended five or six more steps, and then Dantes felt that they took him, one by the head and the other

by the heels, and swung him to and fro. "One!" said the gravediggers, "two! three!" And at the same instant

Dantes felt himself flung into the air like a wounded bird, falling, falling, with a rapidity that made his blood

curdle. Although drawn downwards by the heavy weight which hastened his rapid descent, it seemed to him

At last, with a horrible splash, he darted like an arrow into the icecold water, and as he did so he uttered a

Dantes had been flung into the sea, and was dragged into its depths by a thirtysix pound shot tied to his feet.

Dantes, although stunned and almost suffocated, had sufficient presence of mind to hold his breath, and as his

right hand (prepared as he was for every chance) held his knife open, he rapidly ripped up the sack, extricated

his arm, and then his body; but in spite of all his efforts to free himself from the shot, he felt it dragging him

down still lower. He then bent his body, and by a desperate effort severed the cord that bound his legs, at the

moment when it seemed as if he were actually strangled. With a mighty leap he rose to the surface of the sea,

while the shot dragged down to the depths the sack that had so nearly become his shroud.

Dantes waited only to get breath, and then dived, in order to avoid being seen. When he arose a second time,

he was fifty paces from where he had first sunk. He saw overhead a black and tempestuous sky, across which

the wind was driving clouds that occasionally suffered a twinkling star to appear; before him was the vast

expanse of waters, sombre and terrible, whose waves foamed and roared as if before the approach of a storm.

Behind him, blacker than the sea, blacker than the sky, rose phantomlike the vast stone structure, whose

projecting crags seemed like arms extended to seize their prey, and on the highest rock was a torch lighting

two figures. He fancied that these two forms were looking at the sea; doubtless these strange gravediggers

had heard his cry. Dantes dived again, and remained a long time beneath the water. This was an easy feat to

him, for he usually attracted a crowd of spectators in the bay before the lighthouse at Marseilles when he

swam there, and was unanimously declared to be the best swimmer in the port. When he came up again the

He must now get his bearings. Ratonneau and Pomegue are the nearest islands of all those that surround the

Chateau d'If, but Ratonneau and Pomegue are inhabited, as is also the islet of Daume, Tiboulen and Lemaire

were therefore the safest for Dantes' venture. The islands of Tiboulen and Lemaire are a league from the

Chateau d'If; Dantes, nevertheless, determined to make for them. But how could he find his way in the

darkness of the night? At this moment he saw the light of Planier, gleaming in front of him like a star. By

leaving this light on the right, he kept the Island of Tiboulen a little on the left; by turning to the left,

therefore, he would find it. But, as we have said, it was at least a league from the Chateau d'If to this island.

Often in prison Faria had said to him, when he saw him idle and inactive, "Dantes, you must not give way to

this listlessness; you will be drowned if you seek to escape, and your strength has not been properly exercised

and prepared for exertion." These words rang in Dantes' ears, even beneath the waves; he hastened to cleave

his way through them to see if he had not lost his strength. He found with pleasure that his captivity had taken

away nothing of his power, and that he was still master of that element on whose bosom he had so often

Fear, that relentless pursuer, clogged Dantes' efforts. He listened for any sound that might be audible, and

every time that he rose to the top of a wave he scanned the horizon, and strove to penetrate the darkness. He

fancied that every wave behind him was a pursuing boat, and he redoubled his exertions, increasing rapidly

his distance from the chateau, but exhausting his strength. He swam on still, and already the terrible chateau

had disappeared in the darkness. He could not see it, but he felt its presence. An hour passed, during which

Dantes, excited by the feeling of freedom, continued to cleave the waves. "Let us see," said he, "I have swum

above an hour, but as the wind is against me, that has retarded my speed; however, if I am not mistaken, I

must be close to Tiboulen. But what if I were mistaken?" A shudder passed over him. He sought to tread

water, in order to rest himself; but the sea was too violent, and he felt that he could not make use of this

"Well," said he, "I will swim on until I am worn out, or the cramp seizes me, and then I shall sink;" and he

Suddenly the sky seemed to him to become still darker and more dense, and heavy clouds seemed to sweep

down towards him; at the same time he felt a sharp pain in his knee. He fancied for a moment that he had

been shot, and listened for the report; but he heard nothing. Then he put out his hand, and encountered an

Before him rose a grotesque mass of rocks, that resembled nothing so much as a vast fire petrified at the

moment of its most fervent combustion. It was the Island of Tiboulen. Dantes rose, advanced a few steps,

and, with a fervent prayer of gratitude, stretched himself on the granite. which seemed to him softer than

down. Then, in spite of the wind and rain, he fell into the deep, sweet sleep of utter exhaustion. At the

expiration of an hour Edmond was awakened by the roar of thunder. The tempest was let loose and beating

the atmosphere with its mighty wings; from time to time a flash of lightning stretched across the heavens like

Dantes had not been deceived he had reached the first of the two islands, which was, in fact, Tiboulen. He

knew that it was barren and without shelter; but when the sea became more calm, he resolved to plunge into

its waves again, and swim to Lemaire, equally arid, but larger, and consequently better adapted for

An overhanging rock offered him a temporary shelter, and scarcely had he availed himself of it when the

tempest burst forth in all its fury. Edmond felt the trembling of the rock beneath which he lay; the waves,

dashing themselves against it, wetted him with their spray. He was safely sheltered, and yet he felt dizzy in

the midst of the warring of the elements and the dazzling brightness of the lightning. It seemed to him that the

island trembled to its base, and that it would, like a vessel at anchor, break moorings, and bear him off into

the centre of the storm. He then recollected that he had not eaten or drunk for fourandtwenty hours. He

extended his hands, and drank greedily of the rainwater that had lodged in a hollow of the rock.

As he rose, a flash of lightning, that seemed to rive the remotest heights of heaven, illumined the darkness.

By its light, between the Island of Lemaire and Cape Croiselle, a quarter of a league distant, Dantes saw a

fishingboat driven rapidly like a spectre before the power of winds and waves. A second after, he saw it

again, approaching with frightful rapidity. Dantes cried at the top of his voice to warn them of their danger,

but they saw it themselves. Another flash showed him four men clinging to the shattered mast and the

The men he beheld saw him undoubtedly, for their cries were carried to his ears by the wind. Above the

splintered mast a sail rent to tatters was waving; suddenly the ropes that still held it gave way, and it

disappeared in the darkness of the night like a vast seabird. At the same moment a violent crash was heard,

and cries of distress. Dantes from his rocky perch saw the shattered vessel, and among the fragments the

Dantes ran down the rocks at the risk of being himself dashed to pieces; he listened, he groped about, but he

heard and saw nothing the cries had ceased, and the tempest continued to rage. By degrees the wind

abated, vast gray clouds rolled towards the west, and the blue firmament appeared studded with bright stars.

Soon a red streak became visible in the horizon, the waves whitened, a light played over them, and gilded

Dantes stood mute and motionless before this majestic spectacle, as if he now beheld it for the first time; and

indeed since his captivity in the Chateau d'If he had forgotten that such scenes were ever to be witnessed. He

turned towards the fortress, and looked at both sea and land. The gloomy building rose from the bosom of the

ocean with imposing majesty and seemed to dominate the scene. It was about five o'clock. The sea continued

"In two or three hours," thought Dantes, "the turnkey will enter my chamber, find the body of my poor friend,

recognize it, seek for me in vain, and give the alarm. Then the tunnel will be discovered; the men who cast

me into the sea and who must have heard the cry I uttered, will be questioned. Then boats filled with armed

soldiers will pursue the wretched fugitive. The cannon will warn every one to refuse shelter to a man

wandering about naked and famished. The police of Marseilles will be on the alert by land, whilst the

governor pursues me by sea. I am cold, I am hungry. I have lost even the knife that saved me. O my God, I

have suffered enough surely! Have pity on me, and do for me what I am unable to do for myself."

As Dantes (his eyes turned in the direction of the Chateau d'If) uttered this prayer, he saw off the farther point

of the Island of Pomegue a small vessel with lateen sail skimming the sea like a gull in search of prey; and

with his sailor's eye he knew it to be a Genoese tartan. She was coming out of Marseilles harbor, and was

standing out to sea rapidly, her sharp prow cleaving through the waves. "Oh," cried Edmond, "to think that in

half an hour I could join her, did I not fear being questioned, detected, and conveyed back to Marseilles!

What can I do? What story can I invent? under pretext of trading along the coast, these men, who are in

reality smugglers, will prefer selling me to doing a good action. I must wait. But I cannot I am starving.

In a few hours my strength will be utterly exhausted; besides, perhaps I have not been missed at the fortress. I

can pass as one of the sailors wrecked last night. My story will be accepted, for there is no one left to

As he spoke, Dantes looked toward the spot where the fishingvessel had been wrecked, and started. The red

cap of one of the sailors hung to a point of the rock and some timbers that had formed part of the vessel's

keel, floated at the foot of the crag. It an instant Dantes' plan was formed. he swam to the cap, placed it on his

head, seized one of the timbers, and struck out so as to cut across the course the vessel was taking.

He soon saw that the vessel, with the wind dead ahead, was tacking between the Chateau d'If and the tower of

Planier. For an instant he feared lest, instead of keeping in shore, she should stand out to sea; but he soon saw

that she would pass, like most vessels bound for Italy, between the islands of Jaros and Calaseraigne.

However, the vessel and the swimmer insensibly neared one another, and in one of its tacks the tartan bore

down within a quarter of a mile of him. He rose on the waves, making signs of distress; but no one on board

saw him, and the vessel stood on another tack. Dantes would have shouted, but he knew that the wind would

It was then he rejoiced at his precaution in taking the timber, for without it he would have been unable,

perhaps, to reach the vessel certainly to return to shore, should he be unsuccessful in attracting attention.

Dantes, though almost sure as to what course the vessel would take, had yet watched it anxiously until it

tacked and stood towards him. Then he advanced; but before they could meet, the vessel again changed her

course. By a violent effort he rose half out of the water, waving his cap, and uttering a loud shout peculiar to

sailers. This time he was both seen and heard, and the tartan instantly steered towards him. At the same time,

An instant after, the boat, rowed by two men, advanced rapidly towards him. Dantes let go of the timber,

which he now thought to be useless, and swam vigorously to meet them. But he had reckoned too much upon

his strength, and then he realized how serviceable the timber had been to him. His arms became stiff, his legs

He shouted again. The two sailors redoubled their efforts, and one of them cried in Italian, "Courage!"

The word reached his ear as a wave which he no longer had the strength to surmount passed over his head.

He rose again to the surface, struggled with the last desperate effort of a drowning man, uttered a third cry,

and felt himself sinking, as if the fatal cannon shot were again tied to his feet. The water passed over his

head, and the sky turned gray. A convulsive movement again brought him to the surface. He felt himself

When he opened his eyes Dantes found himself on the deck of the tartan. His first care was to see what

course they were taking. They were rapidly leaving the Chateau d'If behind. Dantes was so exhausted that the

As we have said, he was lying on the deck. A sailor was rubbing his limbs with a woollen cloth; another,

whom he recognized as the one who had cried out "Courage!" held a gourd full of rum to his mouth; while

the third, an old sailer, at once the pilot and captain, looked on with that egotistical pity men feel for a

misfortune that they have escaped yesterday, and which may overtake them tomorrow.

A few drops of the rum restored suspended animation, while the friction of his limbs restored their elasticity.

"I am," replied Dantes, in bad Italian, "a Maltese sailor. We were coming from Syracuse laden with grain.

The storm of last night overtook us at Cape Morgion, and we were wrecked on these rocks."

"From these rocks that I had the good luck to cling to while our captain and the rest of the crew were all lost.

I saw your vessel, and fearful of being left to perish on the desolate island, I swam off on a piece of wreckage

to try and intercept your course. You have saved my life, and I thank you," continued Dantes. "I was lost

"It was I," said a sailor of a frank and manly appearance; "and it was time, for you were sinking."

"I almost hesitated, though," replied the sailor; "you looked more like a brigand than an honest man, with

your beard six inches, and your hair a foot long." Dantes recollected that his hair and beard had not been cut

"Yes," said he, "I made a vow, to our Lady of the Grotto not to cut my hair or beard for ten years if I were

"Alas, anything you please. My captain is dead; I have barely escaped; but I am a good sailor. Leave me at

"There are few ports that I could not enter or leave with a bandage over my eyes."

"I say, captain," said the sailor who had cried "Courage!" to Dantes, "if what he says is true, what hinders his

"If he says true," said the captain doubtingly. "But in his present condition he will promise anything, and take

"Take the helm, and let us see what you know." The young man took the helm, felt to see if the vessel

answered the rudder promptly and seeing that, without being a firstrate sailer, she yet was tolerably

"To the sheets," said he. The four seamen, who composed the crew, obeyed, while the pilot looked on. "Haul

"Belay." This order was also executed; and the vessel passed, as Dantes had predicted, twenty fathoms to

"Bravo!" repeated the sailors. And they all looked with astonishment at this man whose eye now disclosed an

"You see," said Dantes, quitting the helm, "I shall be of some use to you, at least during the voyage. If you do

not want me at Leghorn, you can leave me there, and I will pay you out of the first wages I get, for my food

"That's not fair," said the seaman who had saved Dantes; "for you know more than we do."

"What is that to you, Jacopo?" returned the Captain. "Every one is free to ask what he pleases."

"Well, you would do much better to find him a jacket and a pair of trousers, if you have them."

"That is all I want," interrupted Dantes. Jacopo dived into the hold and soon returned with what Edmond

"A piece of bread and another glass of the capital rum I tasted, for I have not eaten or drunk for a long time."

He had not tasted food for forty hours. A piece of bread was brought, and Jacopo offered him the gourd.

"Larboard your helm," cried the captain to the steersman. Dantes glanced that way as he lifted the gourd to

A small white cloud, which had attracted Dantes' attention, crowned the summit of the bastion of the Chateau

d'If. At the same moment the faint report of a gun was heard. The sailors looked at one another.

"A prisoner has escaped from the Chateau d'If, and they are firing the alarm gun," replied Dantes. The captain

glanced at him, but he had lifted the rum to his lips and was drinking it with so much composure, that

"At any rate," murmured he, "if it be, so much the better, for I have made a rare acquisition." Under pretence

of being fatigued, Dantes asked to take the helm; the steersman, glad to be relieved, looked at the captain, and

the latter by a sign indicated that he might abandon it to his new comrade. Dantes could thus keep his eyes on

"I got such a fright last night," replied Dantes, smiling, "that I have almost lost my memory. I ask you what

"The year 1829," returned Jacopo. It was fourteen years day for day since Dantes' arrest. He was nineteen

when he entered the Chateau d'If; he was thirtythree when he escaped. A sorrowful smile passed over his

face; he asked himself what had become of Mercedes, who must believe him dead. Then his eyes lighted up

with hatred as he thought of the three men who had caused him so long and wretched a captivity. He renewed

against Danglars, Fernand, and Villefort the oath of implacable vengeance he had made in his dungeon. This

oath was no longer a vain menace; for the fastest sailer in the Mediterranean would have been unable to

overtake the little tartan, that with every stitch of canvas set was flying before the wind to Leghorn.

Dantes had not been a day on board before he had a very clear idea of the men with whom his lot had been

cast. Without having been in the school of the Abbe Faria, the worthy master of The Young Amelia (the

name of the Genoese tartan) knew a smattering of all the tongues spoken on the shores of that large lake

called the Mediterranean, from the Arabic to the Provencal, and this, while it spared him interpreters, persons

always troublesome and frequently indiscreet, gave him great facilities of communication, either with the

vessels he met at sea, with the small boats sailing along the coast, or with the people without name, country,

or occupation, who are always seen on the quays of seaports, and who live by hidden and mysterious means

which we must suppose to be a direct gift of providence, as they have no visible means of support. It is fair to

At first the captain had received Dantes on board with a certain degree of distrust. He was very well known to

the customs officers of the coast; and as there was between these worthies and himself a perpetual battle of

wits, he had at first thought that Dantes might be an emissary of these industrious guardians of rights and

duties, who perhaps employed this ingenious means of learning some of the secrets of his trade. But the

skilful manner in which Dantes had handled the lugger had entirely reassured him; and then, when he saw the

light plume of smoke floating above the bastion of the Chateau d'If, and heard the distant report, he was

instantly struck with the idea that he had on board his vessel one whose coming and going, like that of kings,

was accompanied with salutes of artillery. This made him less uneasy, it must be owned, than if the

newcomer had proved to be a customs officer; but this supposition also disappeared like the first, when he

Edmond thus had the advantage of knowing what the owner was, without the owner knowing who he was;

and however the old sailor and his crew tried to "pump" him, they extracted nothing more from him; he gave

accurate descriptions of Naples and Malta, which he knew as well as Marseilles, and held stoutly to his first

story. Thus the Genoese, subtle as he was, was duped by Edmond, in whose favor his mild demeanor, his

nautical skill, and his admirable dissimulation, pleaded. Moreover, it is possible that the Genoese was one of

those shrewd persons who know nothing but what they should know, and believe nothing but what they

In this state of mutual understanding, they reached Leghorn. Here Edmond was to undergo another trial; he

was to find out whether he could recognize himself, as he had not seen his own face for fourteen years. He

had preserved a tolerably good remembrance of what the youth had been, and was now to find out what the

man had become. His comrades believed that his vow was fulfilled. As he had twenty times touched at

Leghorn, he remembered a barber in St. Ferdinand Street; he went there to have his beard and hair cut. The

barber gazed in amazement at this man with the long, thick and black hair and beard, which gave his head the

appearance of one of Titian's portraits. At this period it was not the fashion to wear so large a beard and hair

so long; now a barber would only be surprised if a man gifted with such advantages should consent

voluntarily to deprive himself of them. The Leghorn barber said nothing and went to work.

When the operation was concluded, and Edmond felt that his chin was completely smooth, and his hair

reduced to its usual length, he asked for a handglass. He was now, as we have said, threeandthirty years

of age, and his fourteen years' imprisonment had produced a great transformation in his appearance. Dantes

had entered the Chateau d'If with the round, open, smiling face of a young and happy man, with whom the

early paths of life have been smooth. and who anticipates a future corresponding with his past. This was now

all changed. The oval face was lengthened, his smiling mouth had assumed the firm and marked lines which

betoken resolution; his eyebrows were arched beneath a brow furrowed with thought; his eyes were full of

melancholy, and from their depths occasionally sparkled gloomy fires of misanthropy and hatred; his

complexion, so long kept from the sun, had now that pale color which produces, when the features are

encircled with black hair, the aristocratic beauty of the man of the north; the profound learning he had

acquired had besides diffused over his features a refined intellectual expression; and he had also acquired,

being naturally of a goodly stature, that vigor which a frame possesses which has so long concentrated all its

To the elegance of a nervous and slight form had succeeded the solidity of a rounded and muscular figure. As

to his voice, prayers, sobs, and imprecations had changed it so that at times it was of a singularly penetrating

sweetness, and at others rough and almost hoarse. Moreover, from being so long in twilight or darkness, his

eyes had acquired the faculty of distinguishing objects in the night, common to the hyena and the wolf.

Edmond smiled when he beheld himself: it was impossible that his best friend if, indeed, he had any

The master of The Young Amelia, who was very desirous of retaining amongst his crew a man of Edmond's

value, had offered to advance him funds out of his future profits, which Edmond had accepted. His next care

on leaving the barber's who had achieved his first metamorphosis was to enter a shop and buy a complete

sailor's suit a garb, as we all know, very simple, and consisting of white trousers, a striped shirt, and a cap.

It was in this costume, and bringing back to Jacopo the shirt and trousers he had lent him, that Edmond

reappeared before the captain of the lugger, who had made him tell his story over and over again before he

could believe him, or recognize in the neat and trim sailor the man with thick and matted beard, hair tangled

with seaweed, and body soaking in seabrine, whom he had picked up naked and nearly drowned. Attracted by

his prepossessing appearance, he renewed his offers of an engagement to Dantes; but Dantes, who had his

The Young Amelia had a very active crew, very obedient to their captain, who lost as little time as possible.

He had scarcely been a week at Leghorn before the hold of his vessel was filled with printed muslins,

contraband cottons, English powder, and tobacco on which the excise had forgotten to put its mark. The

master was to get all this out of Leghorn free of duties, and land it on the shores of Corsica, where certain

speculators undertook to forward the cargo to France. They sailed; Edmond was again cleaving the azure sea

which had been the first horizon of his youth, and which he had so often dreamed of in prison. He left

Gorgone on his right and La Pianosa on his left, and went towards the country of Paoli and Napoleon. The

next morning going on deck, as he always did at an early hour, the patron found Dantes leaning against the

bulwarks gazing with intense earnestness at a pile of granite rocks, which the rising sun tinged with rosy

light. It was the Island of Monte Cristo. The Young Amelia left it threequarters of a league to the larboard,

Dantes thought, as they passed so closely to the island whose name was so interesting to him, that he had

only to leap into the sea and in half an hour be at the promised land. But then what could he do without

instruments to discover his treasure, without arms to defend himself? Besides, what would the sailors say?

Fortunately, Dantes had learned how to wait; he had waited fourteen years for his liberty, and now he was

free he could wait at least six months or a year for wealth. Would he not have accepted liberty without riches

if it had been offered to him? Besides, were not those riches chimerical? offspring of the brain of the poor

Abbe Faria, had they not died with him? It is true, the letter of the Cardinal Spada was singularly

circumstantial, and Dantes repeated it to himself, from one end to the other, for he had not forgotten a word.

Evening came, and Edmond saw the island tinged with the shades of twilight, and then disappear in the

darkness from all eyes but his own, for he, with vision accustomed to the gloom of a prison, continued to

behold it last of all, for he remained alone upon deck. The next morn broke off the coast of Aleria; all day

they coasted, and in the evening saw fires lighted on land; the position of these was no doubt a signal for

landing, for a ship's lantern was hung up at the masthead instead of the streamer, and they came to within a

gunshot of the shore. Dantes noticed that the captain of The Young Amelia had, as he neared the land,

mounted two small culverins, which, without making much noise, can throw a four ounce ball a thousand

But on this occasion the precaution was superfluous, and everything proceeded with the utmost smoothness

and politeness. Four shallops came off with very little noise alongside the lugger, which, no doubt, in

acknowledgement of the compliment, lowered her own shallop into the sea, and the five boats worked so well

that by two o'clock in the morning all the cargo was out of The Young Amelia and on terra firma. The same

night, such a man of regularity was the patron of The Young Amelia, the profits were divided, and each man

had a hundred Tuscan livres, or about eighty francs. But the voyage was not ended. They turned the bowsprit

towards Sardinia, where they intended to take in a cargo, which was to replace what had been discharged.

The second operation was as successful as the first, The Young Amelia was in luck. This new cargo was

destined for the coast of the Duchy of Lucca, and consisted almost entirely of Havana cigars, sherry, and

There they had a bit of a skirmish in getting rid of the duties; the excise was, in truth, the everlasting enemy

of the patron of The Young Amelia. A customs officer was laid low, and two sailors wounded; Dantes was

one of the latter, a ball having touched him in the left shoulder. Dantes was almost glad of this affray, and

almost pleased at being wounded, for they were rude lessons which taught him with what eye he could view

danger, and with what endurance he could bear suffering. He had contemplated danger with a smile, and

when wounded had exclaimed with the great philosopher, "Pain, thou art not an evil." He had, moreover.

looked upon the customs officer wounded to death, and, whether from heat of blood produced by the

encounter, or the chill of human sentiment, this sight had made but slight impression upon him. Dantes was

on the way he desired to follow, and was moving towards the end he wished to achieve; his heart was in a fair

way of petrifying in his bosom. Jacopo, seeing him fall, had believed him killed, and rushing towards him

raised him up, and then attended to him with all the kindness of a devoted comrade.

This world was not then so good as Doctor Pangloss believed it, neither was it so wicked as Dantes thought

it, since this man, who had nothing to expect from his comrade but the inheritance of his share of the

prizemoney, manifested so much sorrow when he saw him fall. Fortunately, as we have said, Edmond was

only wounded, and with certain herbs gathered at certain seasons, and sold to the smugglers by the old

Sardinian women, the wound soon closed. Edmond then resolved to try Jacopo, and offered him in return for

As a result of the sympathetic devotion which Jacopo had from the first bestowed on Edmond, the latter was

moved to a certain degree of affection. But this sufficed for Jacopo, who instinctively felt that Edmond had a

right to superiority of position a superiority which Edmond had concealed from all others. And from this

Then in the long days on board ship, when the vessel, gliding on with security over the azure sea, required no

care but the hand of the helmsman, thanks to the favorable winds that swelled her sails, Edmond, with a chart

in his hand, became the instructor of Jacopo, as the poor Abbe Faria had been his tutor. He pointed out to him

the bearings of the coast, explained to him the variations of the compass, and taught him to read in that vast

book opened over our heads which they call heaven, and where God writes in azure with letters of diamonds.

And when Jacopo inquired of him, "What is the use of teaching all these things to a poor sailor like me?"

Edmond replied, "Who knows? You may one day be the captain of a vessel. Your fellowcountryman,

Two months and a half elapsed in these trips, and Edmond had become as skilful a coaster as he had been a

hardy seaman; he had formed an acquaintance with all the smugglers on the coast, and learned all the

Masonic signs by which these half pirates recognize each other. He had passed and repassed his Island of

Monte Cristo twenty times, but not once had he found an opportunity of landing there. He then formed a

resolution. As soon as his engagement with the patron of The Young Amelia ended, he would hire a small

vessel on his own account for in his several voyages he had amassed a hundred piastres and under

some pretext land at the Island of Monte Cristo. Then he would be free to make his researches, not perhaps

entirely at liberty, for he would be doubtless watched by those who accompanied him. But in this world we

must risk something. Prison had made Edmond prudent, and he was desirous of running no risk whatever.

But in vain did he rack his imagination; fertile as it was, he could not devise any plan for reaching the island

Dantes was tossed about on these doubts and wishes, when the patron, who had great confidence in him, and

was very desirous of retaining him in his service, took him by the arm one evening and led him to a tavern on

the Via del' Oglio, where the leading smugglers of Leghorn used to congregate and discuss affairs connected

with their trade. Already Dantes had visited this maritime Bourse two or three times, and seeing all these

hardy freetraders, who supplied the whole coast for nearly two hundred leagues in extent, he had asked

himself what power might not that man attain who should give the impulse of his will to all these contrary

and diverging minds. This time it was a great matter that was under discussion, connected with a vessel laden

with Turkey carpets, stuffs of the Levant, and cashmeres. It was necessary to find some neutral ground on

which an exchange could be made, and then to try and land these goods on the coast of France. If the venture

was successful the profit would be enormous, there would be a gain of fifty or sixty piastres each for the

The patron of The Young Amelia proposed as a place of landing the Island of Monte Cristo, which being

completely deserted, and having neither soldiers nor revenue officers, seemed to have been placed in the

midst of the ocean since the time of the heathen Olympus by Mercury, the god of merchants and robbers,

classes of mankind which we in modern times have separated if not made distinct, but which antiquity

appears to have included in the same category. At the mention of Monte Cristo Dantes started with joy; he

rose to conceal his emotion, and took a turn around the smoky tavern, where all the languages of the known

world were jumbled in a lingua franca. When he again joined the two persons who had been discussing the

matter, it had been decided that they should touch at Monte Cristo and set out on the following night.

Edmond, being consulted, was of opinion that the island afforded every possible security, and that great

enterprises to be well done should be done quickly. Nothing then was altered in the plan, and orders were

given to get under weigh next night, and, wind and weather permitting, to make the neutral island by the

Thus, at length, by one of the unexpected strokes of fortune which sometimes befall those who have for a

long time been the victims of an evil destiny, Dantes was about to secure the opportunity he wished for, by

simple and natural means, and land on the island without incurring any suspicion. One night more and he

The night was one of feverish distraction, and in its progress visions good and evil passed through Dantes'

mind. If he closed his eyes, he saw Cardinal Spada's letter written on the wall in characters of flame if he

slept for a moment the wildest dreams haunted his brain. He ascended into grottos paved with emeralds, with

panels of rubies, and the roof glowing with diamond stalactites. Pearls fell drop by drop, as subterranean

waters filter in their caves. Edmond, amazed, wonderstruck, filled his pockets with the radiant gems and then

returned to daylight, when be discovered that his prizes had all changed into common pebbles. He then

endeavored to reenter the marvellous grottos, but they had suddenly receded, and now the path became a

labyrinth, and then the entrance vanished, and in vain did he tax his memory for the magic and mysterious

word which opened the splendid caverns of Ali Baba to the Arabian fisherman. All was useless, the treasure

disappeared, and had again reverted to the genii from whom for a moment he had hoped to carry it off. The

day came at length, and was almost as feverish as the night had been, but it brought reason to the aid of

imagination, and Dantes was then enabled to arrange a plan which had hitherto been vague and unsettled in

his brain. Night came, and with it the preparation for departure, and these preparations served to conceal

Dantes' agitation. He had by degrees assumed such authority over his companions that he was almost like a

commander on board; and as his orders were always clear, distinct, and easy of execution, his comrades

The old patron did not interfere, for he too had recognized the superiority of Dantes over the crew and

himself. He saw in the young man his natural successor, and regretted that he had not a daughter, that he

might have bound Edmond to him by a more secure alliance. At seven o'clock in the evening all was ready,

and at ten minutes past seven they doubled the lighthouse just as the beacon was kindled. The sea was calm,

and, with a fresh breeze from the southeast, they sailed beneath a bright blue sky, in which God also lighted

up in turn his beacon lights, each of which is a world. Dantes told them that all hands might turn in, and he

would take the helm. When the Maltese (for so they called Dantes) had said this, it was sufficient, and all

went to their bunks contentedly. This frequently happened. Dantes, cast from solitude into the world,

frequently experienced an imperious desire for solitude; and what solitude is more complete, or more

poetical, then that of a ship floating in isolation on the sea during the obscurity of the night, in the silence of

Now this solitude was peopled with his thoughts, the night lighted up by his illusions, and the silence

animated by his anticipations. When the patron awoke, the vessel was hurrying on with every sail set, and

every sail full with the breeze. They were making nearly ten knots an hour. The Island of Monte Cristo

loomed large in the horizon. Edmond resigned the lugger to the master's care, and went and lay down in his

hammock; but, in spite of a sleepless night, he could not close his eyes for a moment. Two hours afterwards

he came on deck, as the boat was about to double the Island of Elba. They were just abreast of Mareciana,

and beyond the flat but verdant Island of La Pianosa. The peak of Monte Cristo reddened by the burning sun,

was seen against the azure sky. Dantes ordered the helmsman to put down his helm, in order to leave La

Pianosa to starboard, as he knew that he should shorten his course by two or three knots. About five o'clock

in the evening the island was distinct, and everything on it was plainly perceptible, owing to that clearness of

the atmosphere peculiar to the light which the rays of the sun cast at its setting.

Edmond gazed very earnestly at the mass of rocks which gave out all the variety of twilight colors, from the

brightest pink to the deepest blue; and from time to time his cheeks flushed, his brow darkened, and a mist

passed over his eyes. Never did gamester, whose whole fortune is staked on one cast of the die, experience

the anguish which Edmond felt in his paroxysms of hope. Night came, and at ten o'clock they anchored. The

Young Amelia was first at the rendezvous. In spite of his usual command over himself, Dantes could not

restrain his impetuosity. He was the first to jump on shore; and had he dared, he would, like Lucius Brutus,

have "kissed his mother earth." It was dark, but at eleven o'clock the moon rose in the midst of the ocean,

whose every wave she silvered, and then, "ascending high," played in floods of pale light on the rocky hills of

The island was familiar to the crew of The Young Amelia, it was one of her regular haunts. As to Dantes,

he had passed it on his voyage to and from the Levant, but never touched at it. He questioned Jacopo. "Where

"I do not know of any grottos," replied Jacopo. The cold sweat sprang forth on Dantes' brow.

For a moment Dantes was speechless; then he remembered that these caves might have been filled up by

some accident, or even stopped up, for the sake of greater security, by Cardinal Spada. The point was, then, to

discover the hidden entrance. It was useless to search at night, and Dantes therefore delayed all investigation

until the morning. Besides, a signal made half a league out at sea, and to which The Young Amelia replied by

a similar signal, indicated that the moment for business had come. The boat that now arrived, assured by the

answering signal that all was well, soon came in sight, white and silent as a phantom, and cast anchor within

Then the landing began. Dantes reflected, as he worked, on the shout of joy which, with a single word, he

could evoke from all these men, if he gave utterance to the one unchanging thought that pervaded his heart;

but, far from disclosing this precious secret, he almost feared that he had already said too much, and by his

restlessness and continual questions, his minute observations and evident preoccupation, aroused suspicions.

Fortunately, as regarded this circumstance at least, his painful past gave to his countenance an indelible

sadness, and the glimmerings of gayety seen beneath this cloud were indeed but transitory.

No one had the slightest suspicion; and when next day, taking a fowlingpiece, powder, and shot, Dantes

declared his intention to go and kill some of the wild goats that were seen springing from rock to rock, his

wish was construed into a love of sport, or a desire for solitude. However, Jacopo insisted on following him,

and Dantes did not oppose this, fearing if he did so that he might incur distrust. Scarcely, however, had they

gone a quarter of a league when, having killed a kid, he begged Jacopo to take it to his comrades, and request

them to cook it, and when ready to let him know by firing a gun. This and some dried fruits and a flask of

Monte Pulciano, was the bill of fare. Dantes went on, looking from time to time behind and around about

him. Having reached the summit of a rock, he saw, a thousand feet beneath him, his companions, whom

Jacopo had rejoined, and who were all busy preparing the repast which Edmond's skill as a marksman had

Edmond looked at them for a moment with the sad and gentle smile of a man superior to his fellows. "In two

hours' time," said he, "these persons will depart richer by fifty piastres each, to go and risk their lives again by

endeavoring to gain fifty more; then they will return with a fortune of six hundred francs, and waste this

treasure in some city with the pride of sultans and the insolence of nabobs. At this moment hope makes me

despise their riches, which seem to me contemptible. Yet perchance tomorrow deception will so act on me,

that I shall, on compulsion, consider such a contemptible possession as the utmost happiness. Oh, no!"

exclaimed Edmond, "that will not be. The wise, unerring Faria could not be mistaken in this one thing.

Besides, it were better to die than to continue to lead this low and wretched life." Thus Dantes, who but three

months before had no desire but liberty had now not liberty enough, and panted for wealth. The cause was not

in Dantes, but in providence, who, while limiting the power of man, has filled him with boundless desires.

Meanwhile, by a cleft between two walls of rock, following a path worn by a torrent, and which, in all human

probability, human foot had never before trod, Dantes approached the spot where he supposed the grottos

must have existed. Keeping along the shore, and examining the smallest object with serious attention, he

Time, which encrusts all physical substances with its mossy mantle, as it invests all things of the mind with

forgetfulness, seemed to have respected these signs, which apparently had been made with some degree of

regularity, and probably with a definite purpose. Occasionally the marks were hidden under tufts of myrtle,

which spread into large bushes laden with blossoms, or beneath parasitical lichen. So Edmond had to separate

the branches or brush away the moss to know where the guidemarks were. The sight of marks renewed

Edmond fondest hopes. Might it not have been the cardinal himself who had first traced them, in order that

they might serve as a guide for his nephew in the event of a catastrophe, which he could not foresee would

have been so complete. This solitary place was precisely suited to the requirements of a man desirous of

burying treasure. Only, might not these betraying marks have attracted other eyes than those for whom they

were made? and had the dark and wondrous island indeed faithfully guarded its precious secret?

It seemed, however, to Edmond, who was hidden from his comrades by the inequalities of the ground, that at

sixty paces from the harbor the marks ceased; nor did they terminate at any grotto. A large round rock, placed

solidly on its base, was the only spot to which they seemed to lead. Edmond concluded that perhaps instead

of having reached the end of the route he had only explored its beginning, and he therefore turned round and

Meanwhile his comrades had prepared the repast, had got some water from a spring, spread out the fruit and

bread, and cooked the kid. Just at the moment when they were taking the dainty animal from the spit, they

saw Edmond springing with the boldness of a chamois from rock to rock, and they fired the signal agreed

upon. The sportsman instantly changed his direction, and ran quickly towards them. But even while they

watched his daring progress, Edmond's foot slipped, and they saw him stagger on the edge of a rock and

disappear. They all rushed towards him, for all loved Edmond in spite of his superiority; yet Jacopo reached

He found Edmond lying prone, bleeding, and almost senseless. He had rolled down a declivity of twelve or

fifteen feet. They poured a little rum down his throat, and this remedy which had before been so beneficial to

him, produced the same effect as formerly. Edmond opened his eyes, complained of great pain in his knee, a

feeling of heaviness in his head, and severe pains in his loins. They wished to carry him to the shore; but

when they touched him, although under Jacopo's directions, he declared, with heavy groans, that he could not

It may be supposed that Dantes did not now think of his dinner, but he insisted that his comrades, who had

not his reasons for fasting, should have their meal. As for himself, he declared that he had only need of a little

rest, and that when they returned he should be easier. The sailors did not require much urging. They were

hungry, and the smell of the roasted kid was very savory, and your tars are not very ceremonious. An hour

afterwards they returned. All that Edmond had been able to do was to drag himself about a dozen paces

But, instead of growing easier, Dantes' pains appeared to increase in violence. The old patron, who was

obliged to sail in the morning in order to land his cargo on the frontiers of Piedmont and France, between

Nice and Frejus, urged Dantes to try and rise. Edmond made great exertions in order to comply; but at each

"He has broken his ribs," said the commander, in a low voice. "No matter; he is an excellent fellow, and we

must not leave him. We will try and carry him on board the tartan." Dantes declared, however, that he would

rather die where he was than undergo the agony which the slightest movement cost him. "Well," said the

patron, "let what may happen, it shall never be said that we deserted a good comrade like you. We will not go

till evening." This very much astonished the sailors, although, not one opposed it. The patron was so strict

that this was the first time they had ever seen him give up an enterprise, or even delay in its execution. Dantes

would not allow that any such infraction of regular and proper rules should be made in his favor. "No, no," he

said to the patron, "I was awkward, and it is just that I pay the penalty of my clumsiness. Leave me a small

supply of biscuit, a gun, powder, and balls, to kill the kids or defend myself at need, and a pickaxe, that I may

"I would rather do so," was Edmond reply, "than suffer the inexpressible agonies which the slightest

movement causes me." The patron turned towards his vessel, which was rolling on the swell in the little

harbor, and, with sails partly set, would be ready for sea when her toilet should be completed.

"What are we to do, Maltese?" asked the captain. "We cannot leave you here so, and yet we cannot stay."

"We shall be absent at least a week," said the patron, "and then we must run out of our course to come here

"Why," said Dantes, "if in two or three days you hail any fishingboat, desire them to come here to me. I will

pay twentyfive piastres for my passage back to Leghorn. If you do not come across one, return for me." The

"Listen, Captain Baldi; there's one way of settling this," said Jacopo. "Do you go, and I will stay and take care

"You are a good fellow and a kindhearted messmate," replied Edmond, "and heaven will recompense you

for your generous intentions; but I do not wish any one to stay with me. A day or two of rest will set me up,

and I hope I shall find among the rocks certain herbs most excellent for bruises."

A peculiar smile passed over Dantes' lips; he squeezed Jacopo's hand warmly, but nothing could shake his

determination to remain and remain alone. The smugglers left with Edmond what he had requested and set

sail, but not without turning about several times, and each time making signs of a cordial farewell, to which

Edmond replied with his hand only, as if he could not move the rest of his body. Then, when they had

disappeared, he said with a smile, "'Tis strange that it should be among such men that we find proofs of

friendship and devotion." Then he dragged himself cautiously to the top of a rock, from which he had a full

view of the sea, and thence he saw the tartan complete her preparations for sailing, weigh anchor, and,

balancing herself as gracefully as a waterfowl ere it takes to the wing, set sail. At the end of an hour she was

completely out of sight; at least, it was impossible for the wounded man to see her any longer from the spot

where he was. Then Dantes rose more agile and light than the kid among the myrtles and shrubs of these wild

rocks, took his gun in one hand, his pickaxe in the other, and hastened towards the rock on which the marks

he had noted terminated. "And now," he exclaimed, remembering the tale of the Arabian fisherman, which

The sun had nearly reached the meridian, and his scorching rays fell full on the rocks, which seemed

themselves sensible of the heat. Thousands of grasshoppers, hidden in the bushes, chirped with a monotonous

and dull note; the leaves of the myrtle and olive trees waved and rustled in the wind. At every step that

Edmond took he disturbed the lizards glittering with the hues of the emerald; afar off he saw the wild goats

bounding from crag to crag. In a word, the island was inhabited, yet Edmond felt himself alone, guided by the

hand of God. He felt an indescribable sensation somewhat akin to dread that dread of the daylight which

even in the desert makes us fear we are watched and observed. This feeling was so strong that at the moment

when Edmond was about to begin his labor, he stopped, laid down his pickaxe, seized his gun, mounted to

But it was not upon Corsica, the very houses of which he could distinguish; or on Sardinia; or on the Island of

Elba, with its historical associations; or upon the almost imperceptible line that to the experienced eye of a

sailor alone revealed the coast of Genoa the proud, and Leghorn the commercial, that he gazed. It was at the

brigantine that had left in the morning, and the tartan that had just set sail, that Edmond fixed his eyes. The

first was just disappearing in the straits of Bonifacio; the other, following an opposite direction, was about to

round the Island of Corsica. This sight reassured him. He then looked at the objects near him. He saw that he

was on the highest point of the island, a statue on this vast pedestal of granite, nothing human appearing in

sight, while the blue ocean beat against the base of the island, and covered it with a fringe of foam. Then he

descended with cautious and slow step, for he dreaded lest an accident similar to that he had so adroitly

Dantes, as we have said, had traced the marks along the rocks, and he had noticed that they led to a small

creek. which was hidden like the bath of some ancient nymph. This creek was sufficiently wide at its mouth,

and deep in the centre, to admit of the entrance of a small vessel of the lugger class, which would be perfectly

Then following the clew that, in the hands of the Abbe Faria, had been so skilfully used to guide him through

the Daedalian labyrinth of probabilities, he thought that the Cardinal Spada, anxious not to be watched, had

entered the creek, concealed his little barque, followed the line marked by the notches in the rock, and at the

end of it had buried his treasure. It was this idea that had brought Dantes back to the circular rock. One thing

only perplexed Edmond, and destroyed his theory. How could this rock, which weighed several tons, have

been lifted to this spot, without the aid of many men? Suddenly an idea flashed across his mind. Instead of

raising it, thought he, they have lowered it. And he sprang from the rock in order to inspect the base on which

it had formerly stood. He soon perceived that a slope had been formed, and the rock had slid along this until it

stopped at the spot it now occupied. A large stone had served as a wedge; flints and pebbles had been inserted

around it, so as to conceal the orifice; this species of masonry had been covered with earth, and grass and

weeds had grown there, moss had clung to the stones, myrtlebushes had taken root, and the old rock seemed

Dantes dug away the earth carefully, and detected, or fancied he detected, the ingenious artifice. He attacked

this wall, cemented by the hand of time, with his pickaxe. After ten minutes' labor the wall gave way, and a

hole large enough to insert the arm was opened. Dantes went and cut the strongest olivetree he could find,

stripped off its branches, inserted it in the hole, and used it as a lever. But the rock was too heavy, and too

firmly wedged, to be moved by any one man, were he Hercules himself. Dantes saw that he must attack the

wedge. But how? He cast his eyes around, and saw the horn full of powder which his friend Jacopo had left

him. He smiled; the infernal invention would serve him for this purpose. With the aid of his pickaxe, Dantes,

after the manner of a laborsaving pioneer, dug a mine between the upper rock and the one that supported it,

filled it with powder, then made a match by rolling his handkerchief in saltpetre. He lighted it and retired.

The explosion soon followed; the upper rock was lifted from its base by the terrific force of the powder; the

lower one flew into pieces; thousands of insects escaped from the aperture Dantes had previously formed, and

a huge snake, like the guardian demon of the treasure, rolled himself along in darkening coils, and

Dantes approached the upper rock, which now, without any support, leaned towards the sea. The intrepid

treasureseeker walked round it, and, selecting the spot from whence it appeared most susceptible to attack,

placed his lever in one of the crevices, and strained every nerve to move the mass. The rock, already shaken

by the explosion, tottered on its base. Dantes redoubled his efforts; he seemed like one of the ancient Titans,

who uprooted the mountains to hurl against the father of the gods. The rock yielded, rolled over, bounded

On the spot it had occupied was a circular space, exposing an iron ring let into a square flagstone. Dantes

uttered a cry of joy and surprise; never had a first attempt been crowned with more perfect success. He would

fain have continued, but his knees trembled, and his heart beat so violently, and his sight became so dim, that

he was forced to pause. This feeling lasted but for a moment. Edmond inserted his lever in the ring and

exerted all his strength; the flagstone yielded, and disclosed steps that descended until they were lost in the

obscurity of a subterraneous grotto. Any one else would have rushed on with a cry of joy. Dantes turned pale,

hesitated, and reflected. "Come," said he to himself, "be a man. I am accustomed to adversity. I must not be

cast down by the discovery that I have been deceived. What, then, would be the use of all I have suffered?

The heart breaks when, after having been elated by flattering hopes, it sees all its illusions destroyed. Faria

has dreamed this; the Cardinal Spada buried no treasure here; perhaps he never came here, or if he did,

Caesar Borgia, the intrepid adventurer, the stealthy and indefatigable plunderer, has followed him, discovered

his traces, pursued them as I have done, raised the stone, and descending before me, has left me nothing." He

remained motionless and pensive, his eyes fixed on the gloomy aperture that was open at his feet.

"Now that I expect nothing, now that I no longer entertain the slightest hopes, the end of this adventure

becomes simply a matter of curiosity." And he remained again motionless and thoughtful.

"Yes, yes; this is an adventure worthy a place in the varied career of that royal bandit. This fabulous event

formed but a link in a long chain of marvels. Yes, Borgia has been here, a torch in one band, a sword in the

other, and within twenty paces, at the foot of this rock, perhaps two guards kept watch on land and sea, while

their master descended, as I am about to descend, dispelling the darkness before his aweinspiring progress."

"But what was the fate of the guards who thus possessed his secret?" asked Dantes of himself.

"Yet, had he come," thought Dantes, "he would have found the treasure, and Borgia, he who compared Italy

to an artichoke, which he could devour leaf by leaf, knew too well the value of time to waste it in replacing

Then he descended, a smile on his lips, and murmuring that last word of human philosophy, "Perhaps!" But

instead of the darkness, and the thick and mephitic atmosphere he had expected to find, Dantes saw a dim and

bluish light, which, as well as the air, entered, not merely by the aperture he had just formed, but by the

interstices and crevices of the rock which were visible from without, and through which he could distinguish

the blue sky and the waving branches of the evergreen oaks, and the tendrils of the creepers that grew from

the rocks. After having stood a few minutes in the cavern, the atmosphere of which was rather warm than

damp, Dantes' eye, habituated as it was to darkness, could pierce even to the remotest angles of the cavern,

which was of granite that sparkled like diamonds. "Alas," said Edmond, smiling, "these are the treasures the

cardinal has left; and the good abbe, seeing in a dream these glittering walls, has indulged in fallacious

But he called to mind the words of the will, which he knew by heart. "In the farthest angle of the second

opening," said the cardinal's will. He had only found the first grotto; he had now to seek the second. Dantes

continued his search. He reflected that this second grotto must penetrate deeper into the island; he examined

the stones, and sounded one part of the wall where he fancied the opening existed, masked for precaution's

sake. The pickaxe struck for a moment with a dull sound that drew out of Dantes' forehead large drops of

perspiration. At last it seemed to him that one part of the wall gave forth a more hollow and deeper echo; he

eagerly advanced, and with the quickness of perception that no one but a prisoner possesses, saw that there, in

However, he, like Caesar Borgia, knew the value of time; and, in order to avoid fruitless toil, he sounded all

the other walls with his pickaxe, struck the earth with the butt of his gun, and finding nothing that appeared

suspicious, returned to that part of the wall whence issued the consoling sound he had before heard. He again

struck it, and with greater force. Then a singular thing occurred. As he struck the wall, pieces of stucco

similar to that used in the ground work of arabesques broke off, and fell to the ground in flakes, exposing a

large white stone. The aperture of the rock had been closed with stones, then this stucco had been applied,

and painted to imitate granite. Dantes struck with the sharp end of his pickaxe, which entered someway

between the interstices. It was there he must dig. But by some strange play of emotion, in proportion as the

proofs that Faria, had not been deceived became stronger, so did his heart give way, and a feeling of

discouragement stole over him. This last proof, instead of giving him fresh strength, deprived him of it; the

pickaxe descended, or rather fell; he placed it on the ground, passed his hand over his brow, and remounted

the stairs, alleging to himself, as an excuse, a desire to be assured that no one was watching him, but in reality

because he felt that he was about to faint. The island was deserted, and the sun seemed to cover it with its

fiery glance; afar off, a few small fishing boats studded the bosom of the blue ocean.

Dantes had tasted nothing, but he thought not of hunger at such a moment; he hastily swallowed a few drops

of rum, and again entered the cavern. The pickaxe that had seemed so heavy, was now like a feather in his

grasp; he seized it, and attacked the wall. After several blows he perceived that the stones were not cemented,

but had been merely placed one upon the other, and covered with stucco; he inserted the point of his pickaxe,

and using the handle as a lever, with joy soon saw the stone turn as if on hinges, and fall at his feet. He had

nothing more to do now, but with the iron tooth of the pickaxe to draw the stones towards him one by one.

The aperture was already sufficiently large for him to enter, but by waiting, he could still cling to hope, and

retard the certainty of deception. At last, after renewed hesitation, Dantes entered the second grotto. The

second grotto was lower and more gloomy than the first; the air that could only enter by the newly formed

opening had the mephitic smell Dantes was surprised not to find in the outer cavern. He waited in order to

allow pure air to displace the foul atmosphere, and then went on. At the left of the opening was a dark and

deep angle. But to Dantes' eye there was no darkness. He glanced around this second grotto; it was, like the

The treasure, if it existed, was buried in this corner. The time had at length arrived; two feet of earth

removed, and Dantes' fate would be decided. He advanced towards the angle, and summoning all his

resolution, attacked the ground with the pickaxe. At the fifth or sixth blow the pickaxe struck against an iron

substance. Never did funeral knell, never did alarmbell, produce a greater effect on the hearer. Had Dantes

found nothing he could not have become more ghastly pale. He again struck his pickaxe into the earth, and

encountered the same resistance, but not the same sound. "It is a casket of wood bound with iron," thought

he. At this moment a shadow passed rapidly before the opening; Dantes seized his gun, sprang through the

opening, and mounted the stair. A wild goat had passed before the mouth of the cave, and was feeding at a

little distance. This would have been a favorable occasion to secure his dinner; but Dantes feared lest the

He thought a moment, cut a branch of a resinous tree, lighted it at the fire at which the smugglers had

prepared their breakfast, and descended with this torch. He wished to see everything. He approached the hole

he had dug. and now, with the aid of the torch, saw that his pickaxe had in reality struck against iron and

wood. He planted his torch in the ground and resumed his labor. In an instant a space three feet long by two

feet broad was cleared, and Dantes could see an oaken coffer, bound with cut steel; in the middle of the lid he

saw engraved on a silver plate, which was still untarnished, the arms of the Spada family viz., a sword,

pale, on an oval shield, like all the Italian armorial bearings, and surmounted by a cardinal's hat; Dantes

easily recognized them, Faria had so often drawn them for him. There was no longer any doubt: the treasure

was there no one would have been at such pains to conceal an empty casket. In an instant he had cleared

every obstacle away, and he saw successively the lock, placed between two padlocks, and the two handles at

each end, all carved as things were carved at that epoch, when art rendered the commonest metals precious.

Dantes seized the handles, and strove to lift the coffer; it was impossible. He sought to open it; lock and

padlock were fastened; these faithful guardians seemed unwilling to surrender their trust. Dantes inserted the

sharp end of the pickaxe between the coffer and the lid, and pressing with all his force on the handle, burst

open the fastenings. The hinges yielded in their turn and fell, still holding in their grasp fragments of the

Edmond was seized with vertigo; he cocked his gun and laid it beside him. He then closed his eyes as

children do in order that they may see in the resplendent night of their own imagination more stars than are

visible in the firmament; then he reopened them, and stood motionless with amazement. Three

compartments divided the coffer. In the first, blazed piles of golden coin; in the second, were ranged bars of

unpolished gold, which possessed nothing attractive save their value; in the third, Edmond grasped handfuls

of diamonds, pearls, and rubies, which, as they fell on one another, sounded like hail against glass. After

having touched, felt, examined these treasures, Edmond rushed through the caverns like a man seized with

frenzy; he leaped on a rock, from whence he could behold the sea. He was alone alone with these

He would fain have gazed upon his gold, and yet he had not strength enough; for an instant he leaned his

head in his hands as if to prevent his senses from leaving him, and then rushed madly about the rocks of

Monte Cristo, terrifying the wild goats and scaring the seafowls with his wild cries and gestures; then he

returned, and, still unable to believe the evidence of his senses, rushed into the grotto, and found himself

before this mine of gold and jewels. This time he fell on his knees, and, clasping his hands convulsively,

uttered a prayer intelligible to God alone. He soon became calmer and more happy, for only now did he begin

to realize his felicity. He then set himself to work to count his fortune. There were a thousand ingots of gold,

each weighing from two to three pounds; then he piled up twentyfive thousand crowns, each worth about

eighty francs of our money, and bearing the effigies of Alexander VI. and his predecessors; and he saw that

the complement was not half empty. And he measured ten double handfuls of pearls, diamonds, and other

gems, many of which, mounted by the most famous workmen, were valuable beyond their intrinsic worth.

Dantes saw the light gradually disappear, and fearing to be surprised in the cavern, left it, his gun in his hand.

A piece of biscuit and a small quantity of rum formed his supper, and he snatched a few hours' sleep, lying

It was a night of joy and terror, such as this man of stupendous emotions had already experienced twice or

Day, for which Dantes had so eagerly and impatiently waited with open eyes, again dawned. With the first

light Dantes resumed his search. Again he climbed the rocky height he had ascended the previous evening,

and strained his view to catch every peculiarity of the landscape; but it wore the same wild, barren aspect

when seen by the rays of the morning sun which it had done when surveyed by the fading glimmer of eve.

Descending into the grotto, he lifted the stone, filled his pockets with gems, put the box together as well and

securely as he could, sprinkled fresh sand over the spot from which it had been taken, and then carefully trod

down the earth to give it everywhere a uniform appearance; then, quitting the grotto, he replaced the stone,

heaping on it broken masses of rocks and rough fragments of crumbling granite, filling the interstices with

earth, into which he deftly inserted rapidly growing plants, such as the wild myrtle and flowering thorn, then

carefully watering these new plantations, he scrupulously effaced every trace of footsteps, leaving the

approach to the cavern as savagelooking and untrodden as he had found it. This done, he impatiently

awaited the return of his companions. To wait at Monte Cristo for the purpose of watching like a dragon over

the almost incalculable riches that had thus fallen into his possession satisfied not the cravings of his heart,

which yearned to return to dwell among mankind, and to assume the rank, power, and influence which are

always accorded to wealth that first and greatest of all the forces within the grasp of man.

On the sixth day, the smugglers returned. From a distance Dantes recognized the rig and handling of The

Young Amelia, and dragging himself with affected difficulty towards the landingplace, he met his

companions with an assurance that, although considerably better than when they quitted him, he still suffered

acutely from his late accident. He then inquired how they had fared in their trip. To this question the

smugglers replied that, although successful in landing their cargo in safety, they had scarcely done so when

they received intelligence that a guardship had just quitted the port of Toulon and was crowding all sail

towards them. This obliged them to make all the speed they could to evade the enemy, when they could but

lament the absence of Dantes, whose superior skill in the management of a vessel would have availed them so

materially. In fact, the pursuing vessel had almost overtaken them when, fortunately, night came on, and

enabled them to double the Cape of Corsica, and so elude all further pursuit. Upon the whole, however, the

trip had been sufficiently successful to satisfy all concerned; while the crew, and particularly Jacopo,

expressed great regrets that Dantes had not been an equal sharer with themselves in the profits, which

Edmond preserved the most admirable selfcommand, not suffering the faintest indication of a smile to

escape him at the enumeration of all the benefits he would have reaped had he been able to quit the island;

but as The Young Amelia had merely come to Monte Cristo to fetch him away, he embarked that same

evening, and proceeded with the captain to Leghorn. Arrived at Leghorn, he repaired to the house of a Jew, a

dealer in precious stones, to whom he disposed of four of his smallest diamonds for five thousand francs

each. Dantes half feared that such valuable jewels in the hands of a poor sailor like himself might excite

suspicion; but the cunning purchaser asked no troublesome questions concerning a bargain by which he

The following day Dantes presented Jacopo with an entirely new vessel, accompanying the gift by a donation

of one hundred piastres, that he might provide himself with a suitable crew and other requisites for his outfit,

upon condition that he would go at once to Marseilles for the purpose of inquiring after an old man named

Louis Dantes, residing in the Allees de Meillan, and also a young woman called Mercedes, an inhabitant of

the Catalan village. Jacopo could scarcely believe his senses at receiving this magnificent present, which

Dantes hastened to account for by saying that he had merely been a sailor from whim and a desire to spite his

family, who did not allow him as much money as he liked to spend; but that on his arrival at Leghorn he had

come into possession of a large fortune, left him by an uncle, whose sole heir he was. The superior education

of Dantes gave an air of such extreme probability to this statement that it never once occurred to Jacopo to

doubt its accuracy. The term for which Edmond had engaged to serve on board The Young Amelia having

expired, Dantes took leave of the captain, who at first tried all his powers of persuasion to induce him to

remain as one of the crew, but having been told the history of the legacy, he ceased to importune him further.

The following morning Jacopo set sail for Marseilles, with directions from Dantes to join him at the Island of

Having seen Jacopo fairly out of the harbor, Dantes proceeded to make his final adieus on board The Young

Amelia, distributing so liberal a gratuity among her crew as to secure for him the good wishes of all, and

expressions of cordial interest in all that concerned him. To the captain he promised to write when he had

made up his mind as to his future plans. Then Dantes departed for Genoa. At the moment of his arrival a

small yacht was under trial in the bay; this yacht had been built by order of an Englishman, who, having

heard that the Genoese excelled all other builders along the shores of the Mediterranean in the construction of

fastsailing vessels, was desirous of possessing a specimen of their skill; the price agreed upon between the

Englishman and the Genoese builder was forty thousand francs. Dantes, struck with the beauty and capability

of the little vessel, applied to its owner to transfer it to him, offering sixty thousand francs, upon condition

that he should be allowed to take immediate possession. The proposal was too advantageous to be refused,

the more so as the person for whom the yacht was intended had gone upon a tour through Switzerland, and

was not expected back in less than three weeks or a month, by which time the builder reckoned upon being

able to complete another. A bargain was therefore struck. Dantes led the owner of the yacht to the dwelling of

a Jew; retired with the latter for a few minutes to a small back parlor, and upon their return the Jew counted

The delighted builder then offered his services in providing a suitable crew for the little vessel, but this

Dantes declined with many thanks, saying he was accustomed to cruise about quite alone, and his principal

pleasure consisted in managing his yacht himself; the only thing the builder could oblige him in would be to

contrive a sort of secret closet in the cabin at his bed's head, the closet to contain three divisions, so

constructed as to be concealed from all but himself. The builder cheerfully undertook the commission, and

promised to have these secret places completed by the next day, Dantes furnishing the dimensions and plan in

The following day Dantes sailed with his yacht from Genoa, under the inspection of an immense crowd

drawn together by curiosity to see the rich Spanish nobleman who preferred managing his own yacht. But

their wonder was soon changed to admiration at seeing the perfect skill with which Dantes handled the helm.

The boat, indeed, seemed to be animated with almost human intelligence, so promptly did it obey the

slightest touch; and Dantes required but a short trial of his beautiful craft to acknowledge that the Genoese

had not without reason attained their high reputation in the art of shipbuilding. The spectators followed the

little vessel with their eyes as long as it remained visible; they then turned their conjectures upon her probable

destination. Some insisted she was making for Corsica, others the Island of Elba; bets were offered to any

amount that she was bound for Spain; while Africa was positively reported by many persons as her intended

course; but no one thought of Monte Cristo. Yet thither it was that Dantes guided his vessel, and at Monte

Cristo he arrived at the close of the second day; his boat had proved herself a firstclass sailer, and had come

the distance from Genoa in thirtyfive hours. Dantes had carefully noted the general appearance of the shore,

and, instead of landing at the usual place, he dropped anchor in the little creek. The island was utterly

deserted, and bore no evidence of having been visited since he went away; his treasure was just as he had left

it. Early on the following morning he commenced the removal of his riches, and ere nightfall the whole of his

A week passed by. Dantes employed it in manoeuvring his yacht round the island, studying it as a skilful

horseman would the animal he destined for some important service, till at the end of that time he was

perfectly conversant with its good and bad qualities. The former Dantes proposed to augment, the latter to

Upon the eighth day he discerned a small vessel under full sail approaching Monte Cristo. As it drew near, he

recognized it as the boat he had given to Jacopo. He immediately signalled it. His signal was returned, and in

two hours afterwards the newcomer lay at anchor beside the yacht. A mournful answer awaited each of

Edmond's eager inquiries as to the information Jacopo had obtained. Old Dantes was dead, and Mercedes had

disappeared. Dantes listened to these melancholy tidings with outward calmness; but, leaping lightly ashore,

he signified his desire to be quite alone. In a couple of hours he returned. Two of the men from Jacopo's boat

came on board the yacht to assist in navigating it, and he gave orders that she should be steered direct to

Marseilles. For his father's death he was in some manner prepared; but he knew not how to account for the

Without divulging his secret, Dantes could not give sufficiently clear instructions to an agent. There were,

besides, other particulars he was desirous of ascertaining, and those were of a nature he alone could

investigate in a manner satisfactory to himself. His lookingglass had assured him, during his stay at

Leghorn, that he ran no risk of recognition; moreover, he had now the means of adopting any disguise he

thought proper. One fine morning, then, his yacht, followed by the little fishingboat, boldly entered the port

of Marseilles, and anchored exactly opposite the spot from whence, on the nevertobeforgotten night of

his departure for the Chateau d'If, he had been put on board the boat destined to convey him thither. Still

Dantes could not view without a shudder the approach of a gendarme who accompanied the officers deputed

to demand his bill of health ere the yacht was permitted to hold communication with the shore; but with that

perfect selfpossession he had acquired during his acquaintance with Faria, Dantes coolly presented an

English passport he had obtained from Leghorn, and as this gave him a standing which a French passport

would not have afforded, he was informed that there existed no obstacle to his immediate debarkation.

The first person to attract the attention of Dantes, as he landed on the Canebiere, was one of the crew

belonging to the Pharaon. Edmond welcomed the meeting with this fellow who had been one of his own

sailors as a sure means of testing the extent of the change which time had worked in his own appearance.

Going straight towards him, he propounded a variety of questions on different subjects, carefully watching

the man's countenance as he did so; but not a word or look implied that he had the slightest idea of ever

having seen before the person with whom he was then conversing. Giving the sailor a piece of money in

return for his civility, Dantes proceeded onwards; but ere he had gone many steps he heard the man loudly

calling him to stop. Dantes instantly turned to meet him. "I beg your pardon, sir," said the honest fellow, in

almost breathless haste, "but I believe you made a mistake; you intended to give me a twofranc piece, and

"Thank you, my good friend. I see that I have made a trifling mistake, as you say; but by way of rewarding

your honesty I give you another double Napoleon, that you may drink to my health, and be able to ask your

So extreme was the surprise of the sailor, that he was unable even to thank Edmond, whose receding figure he

continued to gaze after in speechless astonishment. "Some nabob from India," was his comment.

Dantes, meanwhile, went on his way. Each step he trod oppressed his heart with fresh emotion; his first and

most indelible recollections were there; not a tree, not a street, that he passed but seemed filled with dear and

cherished memories. And thus he proceeded onwards till he arrived at the end of the Rue de Noailles, from

whence a full view of the Allees de Meillan was obtained. At this spot, so pregnant with fond and filial

remembrances, his heart beat almost to bursting, his knees tottered under him, a mist floated over his sight,

and had he not clung for support to one of the trees, he would inevitably have fallen to the ground and been

crushed beneath the many vehicles continually passing there. Recovering himself, however, he wiped the

perspiration from his brows, and stopped not again till he found himself at the door of the house in which his

The nasturtiums and other plants, which his father had delighted to train before his window, had all

disappeared from the upper part of the house. Leaning against the tree, he gazed thoughtfully for a time at the

upper stories of the shabby little house. Then he advanced to the door, and asked whether there were any

rooms to be let. Though answered in the negative, he begged so earnestly to be permitted to visit those on the

fifth floor, that, in despite of the oftrepeated assurance of the concierge that they were occupied, Dantes

succeeded in inducing the man to go up to the tenants, and ask permission for a gentleman to be allowed to

The tenants of the humble lodging were a young couple who had been scarcely married a week; and seeing

them, Dantes sighed heavily. Nothing in the two small chambers forming the apartments remained as it had

been in the time of the elder Dantes; the very paper was different, while the articles of antiquated furniture

with which the rooms had been filled in Edmond's time had all disappeared; the four walls alone remained as

he had left them. The bed belonging to the present occupants was placed as the former owner of the chamber

had been accustomed to have his; and, in spite of his efforts to prevent it, the eyes of Edmond were suffused

in tears as he reflected that on that spot the old man had breathed his last, vainly calling for his son. The

young couple gazed with astonishment at the sight of their visitor's emotion, and wondered to see the large

tears silently chasing each other down his otherwise stern and immovable features; but they felt the

sacredness of his grief, and kindly refrained from questioning him as to its cause, while, with instinctive

delicacy, they left him to indulge his sorrow alone. When he withdrew from the scene of his painful

recollections, they both accompanied him downstairs, reiterating their hope that he would come again

whenever he pleased, and assuring him that their poor dwelling would ever be open to him. As Edmond

passed the door on the fourth floor, he paused to inquire whether Caderousse the tailor still dwelt there; but

he received, for reply, that the person in question had got into difficulties, and at the present time kept a small

Having obtained the address of the person to whom the house in the Allees de Meillan belonged, Dantes next

proceeded thither, and, under the name of Lord Wilmore (the name and title inscribed on his passport),

purchased the small dwelling for the sum of twentyfive thousand francs, at least ten thousand more than it

was worth; but had its owner asked half a million, it would unhesitatingly have been given. The very same

day the occupants of the apartments on the fifth floor of the house, now become the property of Dantes, were

duly informed by the notary who had arranged the necessary transfer of deeds, etc., that the new landlord

gave them their choice of any of the rooms in the house, without the least augmentation of rent, upon

condition of their giving instant possession of the two small chambers they at present inhabited.

This strange event aroused great wonder and curiosity in the neighborhood of the Allees de Meillan, and a

multitude of theories were afloat, none of which was anywhere near the truth. But what raised public

astonishment to a climax, and set all conjecture at defiance, was the knowledge that the same stranger who

had in the morning visited the Allees de Meillan had been seen in the evening walking in the little village of

the Catalans, and afterwards observed to enter a poor fisherman's hut, and to pass more than an hour in

inquiring after persons who had either been dead or gone away for more than fifteen or sixteen years. But on

the following day the family from whom all these particulars had been asked received a handsome present,

consisting of an entirely new fishingboat, with two seines and a tender. The delighted recipients of these

munificent gifts would gladly have poured out their thanks to their generous benefactor, but they had seen

him, upon quitting the hut, merely give some orders to a sailor, and then springing lightly on horseback, leave

Such of my readers as have made a pedestrian excursion to the south of France may perchance have noticed,

about midway between the town of Beaucaire and the village of Bellegarde, a little nearer to the former

than to the latter, a small roadside inn, from the front of which hung, creaking and flapping in the wind, a

sheet of tin covered with a grotesque representation of the Pont du Gard. This modern place of entertainment

stood on the lefthand side of the post road, and backed upon the Rhone. It also boasted of what in

Languedoc is styled a garden, consisting of a small plot of ground, on the side opposite to the main entrance

reserved for the reception of guests. A few dingy olives and stunted figtrees struggled hard for existence,

but their withered dusty foliage abundantly proved how unequal was the conflict. Between these sickly

shrubs grew a scanty supply of garlic, tomatoes, and eschalots; while, lone and solitary, like a forgotten

sentinel, a tall pine raised its melancholy head in one of the corners of this unattractive spot, and displayed its

flexible stem and fanshaped summit dried and cracked by the fierce heat of the subtropical sun.

In the surrounding plain, which more resembled a dusty lake than solid ground, were scattered a few

miserable stalks of wheat, the effect, no doubt, of a curious desire on the part of the agriculturists of the

country to see whether such a thing as the raising of grain in those parched regions was practicable. Each

stalk served as a perch for a grasshopper, which regaled the passers by through this Egyptian scene with its

For about seven or eight years the little tavern had been kept by a man and his wife, with two servants, a

chambermaid named Trinette, and a hostler called Pecaud. This small staff was quite equal to all the

requirements, for a canal between Beaucaire and Aiguemortes had revolutionized transportation by

substituting boats for the cart and the stagecoach. And, as though to add to the daily misery which this

prosperous canal inflicted on the unfortunate innkeeper, whose utter ruin it was fast accomplishing, it was

situated between the Rhone from which it had its source and the postroad it had depleted, not a hundred

The innkeeper himself was a man of from forty to fiftyfive years of age, tall, strong, and bony, a perfect

specimen of the natives of those southern latitudes; he had dark, sparkling, and deepset eyes, hooked nose,

and teeth white as those of a carnivorous animal; his hair, like his beard, which he wore under his chin, was

thick and curly, and in spite of his age but slightly interspersed with a few silvery threads. His naturally dark

complexion had assumed a still further shade of brown from the habit the unfortunate man had acquired of

stationing himself from morning till eve at the threshold of his door, on the lookout for guests who seldom

came, yet there he stood, day after day, exposed to the meridional rays of a burning sun, with no other

protection for his head than a red handkerchief twisted around it, after the manner of the Spanish muleteers.

This man was our old acquaintance, Gaspard Caderousse. His wife, on the contrary, whose maiden name had

been Madeleine Radelle, was pale, meagre, and sicklylooking. Born in the neighborhood of Arles, she had

shared in the beauty for which its women are proverbial; but that beauty had gradually withered beneath the

devastating influence of the slow fever so prevalent among dwellers by the ponds of Aiguemortes and the

marshes of Camargue. She remained nearly always in her secondfloor chamber, shivering in her chair, or

stretched languid and feeble on her bed, while her husband kept his daily watch at the door a duty he

performed with so much the greater willingness, as it saved him the necessity of listening to the endless

plaints and murmurs of his helpmate, who never saw him without breaking out into bitter invectives against

fate; to all of which her husband would calmly return an unvarying reply, in these philosophic words:

The sobriquet of La Carconte had been bestowed on Madeleine Radelle from the fact that she had been born

in a village, so called, situated between Salon and Lambesc; and as a custom existed among the inhabitants of

that part of France where Caderousse lived of styling every person by some particular and distinctive

appellation, her husband had bestowed on her the name of La Carconte in place of her sweet and euphonious

name of Madeleine, which, in all probability, his rude gutteral language would not have enabled him to

pronounce. Still, let it not be supposed that amid this affected resignation to the will of Providence, the

unfortunate innkeeper did not writhe under the double misery of seeing the hateful canal carry off his

customers and his profits, and the daily infliction of his peevish partner's murmurs and lamentations.

Like other dwellers in the south, he was a man of sober habits and moderate desires, but fond of external

show, vain, and addicted to display. During the days of his prosperity, not a festivity took place without

himself and wife being among the spectators. He dressed in the picturesque costume worn upon grand

occasions by the inhabitants of the south of France, bearing equal resemblance to the style adopted both by

the Catalans and Andalusians; while La Carconte displayed the charming fashion prevalent among the

women of Arles, a mode of attire borrowed equally from Greece and Arabia. But, by degrees, watchchains,

necklaces, particolored scarfs, embroidered bodices, velvet vests, elegantly worked stockings, striped

gaiters, and silver buckles for the shoes, all disappeared; and Gaspard Caderousse, unable to appear abroad in

his pristine splendor, had given up any further participation in the pomps and vanities, both for himself and

wife, although a bitter feeling of envious discontent filled his mind as the sound of mirth and merry music

from the joyous revellers reached even the miserable hostelry to which he still clung, more for the shelter

Caderousse, then, was, as usual, at his place of observation before the door, his eyes glancing listlessly from a

piece of closely shaven grass on which some fowls were industriously, though fruitlessly, endeavoring to

turn up some grain or insect suited to their palate to the deserted road, which led away to the north and

south, when he was aroused by the shrill voice of his wife, and grumbling to himself as he went, he mounted

to her chamber, first taking care, however, to set the entrance door wide open, as an invitation to any chance

At the moment Caderousse quitted his sentrylike watch before the door, the road on which he so eagerly

strained his sight was void and lonely as a desert at midday. There it lay stretching out into one interminable

line of dust and sand, with its sides bordered by tall, meagre trees, altogether presenting so uninviting an

appearance, that no one in his senses could have imagined that any traveller, at liberty to regulate his hours

for journeying, would choose to expose himself in such a formidable Sahara. Nevertheless, had Caderousse

but retained his post a few minutes longer, he might have caught a dim outline of something approaching

from the direction of Bellegarde; as the moving object drew nearer, he would easily have perceived that it

consisted of a man and horse, between whom the kindest and most amiable understanding appeared to exist.

The horse was of Hungarian breed, and ambled along at an easy pace. His rider was a priest, dressed in black,

and wearing a threecornered hat; and, spite of the ardent rays of a noonday sun, the pair came on with a fair

Having arrived before the Pont du Gard, the horse stopped, but whether for his own pleasure or that of his

rider would have been difficult to say. However that might have been, the priest, dismounting, led his steed

by the bridle in search of some place to which he could secure him. Availing himself of a handle that

projected from a halffallen door, he tied the animal safely and having drawn a red cotton handkerchief, from

his pocket, wiped away the perspiration that streamed from his brow, then, advancing to the door, struck

thrice with the end of his ironshod stick. At this unusual sound, a huge black dog came rushing to meet the

daring assailant of his ordinarily tranquil abode, snarling and displaying his sharp white teeth with a

determined hostility that abundantly proved how little he was accustomed to society. At that moment a heavy

footstep was heard descending the wooden staircase that led from the upper floor, and, with many bows and

"You are welcome, sir, most welcome!" repeated the astonished Caderousse. "Now, then, Margotin," cried

he, speaking to the dog, "will you be quiet? Pray don't heed him, sir! he only barks, he never bites. I make

no doubt a glass of good wine would be acceptable this dreadfully hot day." Then perceiving for the first time

the garb of the traveller he had to entertain, Caderousse hastily exclaimed: "A thousand pardons! I really did

not observe whom I had the honor to receive under my poor roof. What would the abbe please to have? What

The priest gazed on the person addressing him with a long and searching gaze there even seemed a

disposition on his part to court a similar scrutiny on the part of the innkeeper; then, observing in the

countenance of the latter no other expression than extreme surprise at his own want of attention to an inquiry

so courteously worded, he deemed it as well to terminate this dumb show, and therefore said, speaking with a

"Yes, sir," answered the host, even more surprised at the question than he had been by the silence which had

"Gaspard Caderousse," rejoined the priest. "Yes, Christian and surname are the same. You formerly lived,

"True, I was a tailor, till the trade fell off. It is so hot at Marseilles, that really I believe that the respectable

inhabitants will in time go without any clothing whatever. But talking of heat, is there nothing I can offer you

"Yes; let me have a bottle of your best wine, and then, with your permission, we will resume our conversation

"As you please, sir," said Caderousse, who, anxious not to lose the present opportunity of finding a customer

for one of the few bottles of Cahors still remaining in his possession, hastily raised a trapdoor in the floor of

the apartment they were in, which served both as parlor and kitchen. Upon issuing forth from his

subterranean retreat at the expiration of five minutes, he found the abbe seated upon a wooden stool, leaning

his elbow on a table, while Margotin, whose animosity seemed appeased by the unusual command of the

traveller for refreshments, had crept up to him, and had established himself very comfortably between his

knees, his long, skinny neck resting on his lap, while his dim eye was fixed earnestly on the traveller's face.

"Are you quite alone?" inquired the guest, as Caderousse placed before him the bottle of wine and a glass.

"Quite, quite alone," replied the man "or, at least, practically so, for my poor wife, who is the only person

in the house besides myself, is laid up with illness, and unable to render me the least assistance, poor thing!"

"You are married, then?" said the priest, with a show of interest, glancing round as he spoke at the scanty

"Ah, sir," said Caderousse with a sigh, "it is easy to perceive I am not a rich man; but in this world a man

does not thrive the better for being honest." The abbe fixed on him a searching, penetrating glance.

"Yes, honest I can certainly say that much for myself," continued the innkeeper, fairly sustaining the

scrutiny of the abbe's gaze; "I can boast with truth of being an honest man; and," continued he significantly,

with a hand on his breast and shaking his head, "that is more than every one can say nowadays."

"So much the better for you, if what you assert be true," said the abbe; "for I am firmly persuaded that, sooner

"Such words as those belong to your profession," answered Caderousse, "and you do well to repeat them;

but," added he, with a bitter expression of countenance, "one is free to believe them or not, as one pleases."

"You are wrong to speak thus," said the abbe; "and perhaps I may, in my own person, be able to prove to you

"In the first place, I must be satisfied that you are the person I am in search of."

"Did you, in the year 1814 or 1815, know anything of a young sailor named Dantes?"

"Dantes? Did I know poor dear Edmond? Why, Edmond Dantes and myself were intimate friends!"

exclaimed Caderousse, whose countenance flushed darkly as he caught the penetrating gaze of the abbe fixed

on him, while the clear, calm eye of the questioner seemed to dilate with feverish scrutiny.

"You remind me," said the priest, "that the young man concerning whom I asked you was said to bear the

"Said to bear the name!" repeated Caderousse, becoming excited and eager. "Why, he was so called as truly

as I myself bore the appellation of Gaspard Caderousse; but tell me, I pray, what has become of poor

Edmond? Did you know him? Is he alive and at liberty? Is he prosperous and happy?"

"He died a more wretched, hopeless, heartbroken prisoner than the felons who pay the penalty of their

A deadly pallor followed the flush on the countenance of Caderousse, who turned away, and the priest saw

him wiping the tears from his eyes with the corner of the red handkerchief twisted round his head.

"Poor fellow, poor fellow!" murmured Caderousse. "Well, there, sir, is another proof that good people are

never rewarded on this earth, and that none but the wicked prosper. Ah," continued Caderousse, speaking in

the highly colored language of the south, "the world grows worse and worse. Why does not God, if he really

hates the wicked, as he is said to do, send down brimstone and fire, and consume them altogether?"

"You speak as though you had loved this young Dantes," observed the abbe, without taking any notice of his

"And so I did," replied Caderousse; "though once, I confess, I envied him his good fortune. But I swear to

you, sir, I swear to you, by everything a man holds dear, I have, since then, deeply and sincerely lamented his

unhappy fate." There was a brief silence, during which the fixed, searching eye of the abbe was employed in

"I was called to see him on his dying bed, that I might administer to him the consolations of religion."

"Of what, think you, do young and strong men die in prison, when they have scarcely numbered their thirtieth

year, unless it be of imprisonment?" Caderousse wiped away the large beads of perspiration that gathered on

"But the strangest part of the story is," resumed the abbe, "that Dantes, even in his dying moments, swore by

his crucified Redeemer, that he was utterly ignorant of the cause of his detention."

"And so he was," murmured Caderousse. "How should he have been otherwise? Ah, sir, the poor fellow told

"And for that reason, he besought me to try and clear up a mystery he had never been able to penetrate, and to

And here the look of the abbe, becoming more and more fixed, seemed to rest with illconcealed satisfaction

on the gloomy depression which was rapidly spreading over the countenance of Caderousse.

"A rich Englishman," continued the abbe, "who had been his companion in misfortune, but had been released

from prison during the second restoration, was possessed of a diamond of immense value; this jewel he

bestowed on Dantes upon himself quitting the prison, as a mark of his gratitude for the kindness and

brotherly care with which Dantes had nursed him in a severe illness he underwent during his confinement.

Instead of employing this diamond in attempting to bribe his jailers, who might only have taken it and then

betrayed him to the governor, Dantes carefully preserved it, that in the event of his getting out of prison he

might have wherewithal to live, for the sale of such a diamond would have quite sufficed to make his

"Then, I suppose," asked Caderousse, with eager, glowing looks, "that it was a stone of immense value?"

"Why, everything is relative," answered the abbe. "To one in Edmond's position the diamond certainly was of

"Bless me!" exclaimed Caderousse, "fifty thousand francs! Surely the diamond was as large as a nut to be

"No," replied the abbe, "it was not of such a size as that; but you shall judge for yourself. I have it with me."

The sharp gaze of Caderousse was instantly directed towards the priest's garments, as though hoping to

discover the location of the treasure. Calmly drawing forth from his pocket a small box covered with black

shagreen, the abbe opened it, and displayed to the dazzled eyes of Caderousse the sparkling jewel it

contained, set in a ring of admirable workmanship. "And that diamond," cried Caderousse, almost breathless

"It is, without the setting, which is also valuable," replied the abbe, as he closed the box, and returned it to his

pocket, while its brilliant hues seemed still to dance before the eyes of the fascinated innkeeper.

"But how comes the diamond in your possession, sir? Did Edmond make you his heir?"

"No, merely his testamentary executor. `I once possessed four dear and faithful friends, besides the maiden to

whom I was betrothed' he said; `and I feel convinced they have all unfeignedly grieved over my loss. The

"`Another of the number,'" continued the abbe, without seeming to notice the emotion of Caderousse, "`is

called Danglars; and the third, in spite of being my rival, entertained a very sincere affection for me.'" A

fiendish smile played over the features of Caderousse, who was about to break in upon the abbe's speech,

when the latter, waving his hand, said, "Allow me to finish first, and then if you have any observations to

make, you can do so afterwards. `The third of my friends, although my rival, was much attached to me,

his name was Fernand; that of my betrothed was' Stay, stay," continued the abbe, "I have forgotten what

Caderousse quickly performed the stranger's bidding; and after pouring some into a glass, and slowly

swallowing its contents, the abbe, resuming his usual placidity of manner, said, as he placed his empty glass

"To be sure. `You will go to Marseilles,' said Dantes, for you understand, I repeat his words just as he

"`You will sell this diamond; you will divide the money into five equal parts, and give an equal portion to

"Because the fifth is dead, as I hear. The fifth sharer in Edmond's bequest, was his own father."

"Too true, too true!" ejaculated Caderousse, almost suffocated by the contending passions which assailed

"I learned so much at Marseilles," replied the abbe, making a strong effort to appear indifferent; "but from the

length of time that has elapsed since the death of the elder Dantes, I was unable to obtain any particulars of

"I do not know who could if I could not," said Caderousse. "Why, I lived almost on the same floor with the

poor old man. Ah, yes, about a year after the disappearance of his son the poor old man died."

"Why, the doctors called his complaint gastroenteritis, I believe; his acquaintances say he died of grief; but

"Starvation!" exclaimed the abbe, springing from his seat. "Why, the vilest animals are not suffered to die by

such a death as that. The very dogs that wander houseless and homeless in the streets find some pitying hand

to cast them a mouthful of bread; and that a man, a Christian, should be allowed to perish of hunger in the

midst of other men who call themselves Christians, is too horrible for belief. Oh, it is impossible utterly

"And you are a fool for having said anything about it," said a voice from the top of the stairs. "Why should

The two men turned quickly, and saw the sickly countenance of La Carconte peering between the baluster

rails; attracted by the sound of voices, she had feebly dragged herself down the stairs, and, seated on the

lower step, head on knees, she had listened to the foregoing conversation. "Mind your own business, wife,"

replied Caderousse sharply. "This gentleman asks me for information, which common politeness will not

"Politeness, you simpleton!" retorted La Carconte. "What have you to do with politeness, I should like to

know? Better study a little common prudence. How do you know the motives that person may have for trying

"I pledge you my word, madam," said the abbe, "that my intentions are good; and that you husband can incur

"Ah, that's all very fine," retorted the woman. "Nothing is easier than to begin with fair promises and

assurances of nothing to fear; but when poor, silly folks, like my husband there, have been persuaded to tell

all they know, the promises and assurances of safety are quickly forgotten; and at some moment when

nobody is expecting it, behold trouble and misery, and all sorts of persecutions, are heaped on the unfortunate

"Nay, nay, my good woman, make yourself perfectly easy, I beg of you. Whatever evils may befall you, they

La Carconte muttered a few inarticulate words, then let her head again drop upon her knees, and went into a

fit of ague, leaving the two speakers to resume the conversation, but remaining so as to be able to hear every

word they uttered. Again the abbe had been obliged to swallow a draught of water to calm the emotions that

threatened to overpower him. When he had sufficiently recovered himself, he said, "It appears, then, that the

miserable old man you were telling me of was forsaken by every one. Surely, had not such been the case, he

"Why, he was not altogether forsaken," continued Caderousse, "for Mercedes the Catalan and Monsieur

Morrel were very kind to him; but somehow the poor old man had contracted a profound hatred for Fernand

the very person," added Caderousse with a bitter smile, "that you named just now as being one of Dantes'

"Gaspard, Gaspard!" murmured the woman, from her seat on the stairs, "mind what you are saying!"

Caderousse made no reply to these words, though evidently irritated and annoyed by the interruption, but,

addressing the abbe, said, "Can a man be faithful to another whose wife he covets and desires for himself?

But Dantes was so honorable and true in his own nature, that he believed everybody's professions of

friendship. Poor Edmond, he was cruelly deceived; but it was fortunate that he never knew, or he might have

found it more difficult, when on his deathbed, to pardon his enemies. And, whatever people may say,"

continued Caderousse, in his native language, which was not altogether devoid of rude poetry, "I cannot help

being more frightened at the idea of the malediction of the dead than the hatred of the living."

"Do you, then, know in what manner Fernand injured Dantes?" inquired the abbe of Caderousse.

"Gaspard!" cried La Carconte, "do as you will; you are master but if you take my advice you'll hold your

"Why, what good would it do?" asked Caderousse. "If the poor lad were living, and came to me and begged

that I would candidly tell which were his true and which his false friends, why, perhaps, I should not hesitate.

But you tell me he is no more, and therefore can have nothing to do with hatred or revenge, so let all such

"You prefer, then," said the abbe, "that I should bestow on men you say are false and treacherous, the reward

"That is true enough," returned Caderousse. "You say truly, the gift of poor Edmond was not meant for such

traitors as Fernand and Danglars; besides, what would it be to them? no more than a drop of water in the

"Remember," chimed in La Carconte, "those two could crush you at a single blow!"

"I do not. Pray relate it to me!" Caderousse seemed to reflect for a few moments, then said, "No, truly, it

"Well, my good friend," returned the abbe, in a tone that indicated utter indifference on his part, "you are at

liberty, either to speak or be silent, just as you please; for my own part, I respect your scruples and admire

your sentiments; so let the matter end. I shall do my duty as conscientiously as I can, and fulfil my promise to

the dying man. My first business will be to dispose of this diamond." So saying, the abbe again draw the

small box from his pocket, opened it, and contrived to hold it in such a light, that a bright flash of brilliant

"Diamond!" exclaimed La Carconte, rising and descending to the chamber with a tolerably firm step; "what

"Why, did you not hear all we said?" inquired Caderousse. "It is a beautiful diamond left by poor Edmond

Dantes, to be sold, and the money divided between his father, Mercedes, his betrothed bride, Fernand,

"The fifth part of the profits from this stone belongs to us then, does it not?" asked Caderousse.

"It does," replied the abbe; "with the addition of an equal division of that part intended for the elder Dantes,

"I don't call those friends who betray and ruin you," murmured the wife in her turn, in a low, muttering voice.

"Of course not!" rejoined Caderousse quickly; "no more do I, and that was what I was observing to this

gentleman just now. I said I looked upon it as a sacrilegious profanation to reward treachery, perhaps crime."

"Remember," answered the abbe calmly, as he replaced the jewel and its case in the pocket of his cassock, "it

is your fault, not mine, that I do so. You will have the goodness to furnish me with the address of both

Fernand and Danglars, in order that I may execute Edmond's last wishes." The agitation of Caderousse

became extreme, and large drops of perspiration rolled from his heated brow. As he saw the abbe rise from

his seat and go towards the door, as though to ascertain if his horse were sufficiently refreshed to continue his

"There, you see, wife," said the former, "this splendid diamond might all be ours, if we chose!"

"Well," replied La Carconte, "do as you like. For my part, I wash my hands of the affair." So saying, she once

more climbed the staircase leading to her chamber, her body convulsed with chills, and her teeth rattling in

her head, in spite of the intense heat of the weather. Arrived at the top stair, she turned round, and called out,

in a warning tone, to her husband, "Gaspard, consider well what you are about to do!"

"I have both reflected and decided," answered he. La Carconte then entered her chamber, the flooring of

which creaked beneath her heavy, uncertain tread, as she proceeded towards her armchair, into which she

"Well," asked the abbe, as he returned to the apartment below, "what have you made up your mind to do?"

"I certainly think you act wisely in so doing," said the priest. "Not because I have the least desire to learn

anything you may please to conceal from me, but simply that if, through your assistance, I could distribute

the legacy according to the wishes of the testator, why, so much the better, that is all."

"Stop a minute," answered Caderousse; "we might be interrupted in the most interesting part of my story,

which would be a pity; and it is as well that your visit hither should be made known only to ourselves." With

these words he went stealthily to the door, which he closed, and, by way of still greater precaution, bolted and

barred it, as he was accustomed to do at night. During this time the abbe had chosen his place for listening at

his ease. He removed his seat into a corner of the room, where he himself would be in deep shadow, while the

light would be fully thrown on the narrator; then, with head bent down and hands clasped, or rather clinched

together, he prepared to give his whole attention to Caderousse, who seated himself on the little stool, exactly

"Remember, this is no affair of mine," said the trembling voice of La Carconte, as though through the

"Enough, enough!" replied Caderousse; "say no more about it; I will take all the consequences upon myself."

"Why, if you ever make use of the details I am about to give you, that you will never let any one know that it

was I who supplied them; for the persons of whom I am about to talk are rich and powerful, and if they only

"Make yourself easy, my friend," replied the abbe. "I am a priest, and confessions die in my breast. Recollect,

our only desire is to carry out, in a fitting manner, the last wishes of our friend. Speak, then, without reserve,

as without hatred; tell the truth, the whole truth; I do not know, never may know, the persons of whom you

are about to speak; besides, I am an Italian, and not a Frenchman, and belong to God, and not to man, and I

shall shortly retire to my convent, which I have only quitted to fulfil the last wishes of a dying man." This

"Well, then, under these circumstances," said Caderousse, "I will, I even believe I ought to undeceive you as

"Begin with his father, if you please." said the abbe; "Edmond talked to me a great deal about the old man for

"The history is a sad one, sir," said Caderousse, shaking his head; "perhaps you know all the earlier part of

"Yes." answered the abbe; "Edmond related to me everything until the moment when he was arrested in a

"It was and the feast that began so gayly had a very sorrowful ending; a police commissary, followed by four

"Yes, and up to this point I know all," said the priest. "Dantes himself only knew that which personally

concerned him, for he never beheld again the five persons I have named to you, or heard mention of any one

"Well, when Dantes was arrested, Monsieur Morrel hastened to obtain the particulars, and they were very

sad. The old man returned alone to his home, folded up his wedding suit with tears in his eyes, and paced up

and down his chamber the whole day, and would not go to bed at all, for I was underneath him and heard him

walking the whole night; and for myself, I assure you I could not sleep either, for the grief of the poor father

gave me great uneasiness, and every step he took went to my heart as really as if his foot had pressed against

my breast. The next day Mercedes came to implore the protection of M. de Villefort; she did not obtain it,

however, and went to visit the old man; when she saw him so miserable and heartbroken, having passed a

sleepless night, and not touched food since the previous day, she wished him to go with her that she might

take care of him; but the old man would not consent. `No,' was the old man's reply, `I will not leave this

house, for my poor dear boy loves me better than anything in the world; and if he gets out of prison he will

come and see me the first thing, and what would he think if I did not wait here for him?' I heard all this from

the window, for I was anxious that Mercedes should persuade the old man to accompany her, for his footsteps

"But did you not go upstairs and try to console the poor old man?" asked the abbe.

"Ah, sir," replied Caderousse, "we cannot console those who will not be consoled, and he was one of these;

besides, I know not why, but he seemed to dislike seeing me. One night, however, I heard his sobs, and I

could not resist my desire to go up to him, but when I reached his door he was no longer weeping but

praying. I cannot now repeat to you, sir, all the eloquent words and imploring language he made use of; it was

more than piety, it was more than grief, and I, who am no canter, and hate the Jesuits, said then to myself, `It

is really well, and I am very glad that I have not any children; for if I were a father and felt such excessive

grief as the old man does, and did not find in my memory or heart all he is now saying, I should throw myself

"From day to day he lived on alone, and more and more solitary. M. Morrel and Mercedes came to see him,

but his door was closed; and, although I was certain he was at home, he would not make any answer. One

day, when, contrary to his custom, he had admitted Mercedes, and the poor girl, in spite of her own grief and

despair, endeavored to console him, he said to her, `Be assured, my dear daughter, he is dead; and instead

of expecting him, it is he who is awaiting us; I am quite happy, for I am the oldest, and of course shall see

him first.' However well disposed a person may be, why you see we leave off after a time seeing persons who

are in sorrow, they make one melancholy; and so at last old Dantes was left all to himself, and I only saw

from time to time strangers go up to him and come down again with some bundle they tried to hide; but I

guessed what these bundles were, and that he sold by degrees what he had to pay for his subsistence. At

length the poor old fellow reached the end of all he had; he owed three quarters' rent, and they threatened to

turn him out; he begged for another week, which was granted to him. I know this, because the landlord came

into my apartment when he left his. For the first three days I heard him walking about as usual, but, on the

fourth I heard nothing. I then resolved to go up to him at all risks. The door was closed, but I looked through

the keyhole, and saw him so pale and haggard, that believing him very ill, I went and told M. Morrel and then

ran on to Mercedes. They both came immediately, M. Morrel bringing a doctor, and the doctor said it was

inflammation of the bowels, and ordered him a limited diet. I was there, too, and I never shall forget the old

man's smile at this prescription. From that time he received all who came; he had an excuse for not eating any

more; the doctor had put him on a diet." The abbe uttered a kind of groan. "The story interests you, does it

"Mercedes came again, and she found him so altered that she was even more anxious than before to have him

taken to her own home. This was M. Morrel's wish also, who would fain have conveyed the old man against

his consent; but the old man resisted, and cried so that they were actually frightened. Mercedes remained,

therefore, by his bedside, and M. Morrel went away, making a sign to the Catalan that he had left his purse on

the chimneypiece. But availing himself of the doctor's order, the old man would not take any sustenance; at

length (after nine days of despair and fasting), the old man died, cursing those who had caused his misery,

and saying to Mercedes, `If you ever see my Edmond again, tell him I die blessing him.'" The abbe rose from

his chair, made two turns round the chamber, and pressed his trembling hand against his parched throat. "And

"Of hunger, sir, of hunger," said Caderousse. "I am as certain of it as that we two are Christians."

The abbe, with a shaking hand, seized a glass of water that was standing by him halffull, swallowed it at one

gulp, and then resumed his seat, with red eyes and pale cheeks. "This was, indeed, a horrid event." said he in

"Tell me of those men," said the abbe, "and remember too," he added in an almost menacing tone, "you have

promised to tell me everything. Tell me, therefore, who are these men who killed the son with despair, and

"Two men jealous of him, sir; one from love, and the other from ambition, Fernand and Danglars."

"'Twas so, then 'twas so, then," murmured the abbe. "Oh, Faria, Faria, how well did you judge men and

"It was Danglars who wrote the denunciation with his left hand, that his writing might not be recognized, and

The abbe saw he had overshot the mark, and he added quickly, "No one; but in order to have known

"And did you not remonstrate against such infamy?" asked the abbe; "if not, you were an accomplice."

"Sir," replied Caderousse, "they had made me drink to such an excess that I nearly lost all perception. I had

only an indistinct understanding of what was passing around me. I said all that a man in such a state could

say; but they both assured me that it was a jest they were carrying on, and perfectly harmless."

"Next day next day, sir, you must have seen plain enough what they had been doing, yet you said nothing,

"Yes, sir, I was there, and very anxious to speak; but Danglars restrained me. `If he should really be guilty,'

said he, `and did really put in to the Island of Elba; if he is really charged with a letter for the Bonapartist

committee at Paris, and if they find this letter upon him, those who have supported him will pass for his

accomplices.' I confess I had my fears, in the state in which politics then were, and I held my tongue. It was

"Yes, sir," answered Caderousse; "and remorse preys on me night and day. I often ask pardon of God, I swear

to you, because this action, the only one with which I have seriously to reproach myself in all my life, is no

doubt the cause of my abject condition. I am expiating a moment of selfishness, and so I always say to La

Carconte, when she complains, `Hold your tongue, woman; it is the will of God.'" And Caderousse bowed his

"Well, sir," said the abbe, "you have spoken unreservedly; and thus to accuse yourself is to deserve pardon."

"But he knows it all now," interrupted Caderousse; "they say the dead know everything." There was a brief

silence; the abbe rose and paced up and down pensively, and then resumed his seat. "You have two or three

"The part of an honest man, full of courage and real regard. Twenty times he interceded for Edmond. When

the emperor returned, he wrote, implored, threatened, and so energetically, that on the second restoration he

was persecuted as a Bonapartist. Ten times, as I told you, he came to see Dantes' father, and offered to

receive him in his own house; and the night or two before his death, as I have already said, he left his purse

on the mantelpiece, with which they paid the old man's debts, and buried him decently; and so Edmond's

father died, as he had lived, without doing harm to any one. I have the purse still by me a large one, made

"He is reduced almost to the last extremity nay, he is almost at the point of dishonor."

"Yes," continued Caderousse, "so it is; after five and twenty years of labor, after having acquired a most

honorable name in the trade of Marseilles, M. Morrel is utterly ruined; he has lost five ships in two years, has

suffered by the bankruptcy of three large houses, and his only hope now is in that very Pharaon which poor

Dantes commanded, and which is expected from the Indies with a cargo of cochineal and indigo. If this ship

"Yes, he has a wife, who through everything has behaved like an angel; he has a daughter, who was about to

marry the man she loved, but whose family now will not allow him to wed the daughter of a ruined man; he

has, besides, a son, a lieutenant in the army; and, as you may suppose, all this, instead of lessening, only

augments his sorrows. If he were alone in the world he would blow out his brains, and there would be an

"And it is thus heaven recompenses virtue, sir," added Caderousse. "You see, I, who never did a bad action

but that I have told you of am in destitution, with my poor wife dying of fever before my very eyes, and I

unable to do anything in the world for her; I shall die of hunger, as old Dantes did, while Fernand and

"Because their deeds have brought them good fortune, while honest men have been reduced to misery."

"What has become of him? Why, he left Marseilles, and was taken, on the recommendation of M. Morrel,

who did not know his crime, as cashier into a Spanish bank. During the war with Spain he was employed in

the commissariat of the French army, and made a fortune; then with that money he speculated in the funds,

and trebled or quadrupled his capital; and, having first married his banker's daughter, who left him a

widower, he has married a second time, a widow, a Madame de Nargonne, daughter of M. de Servieux, the

king's chamberlain, who is in high favor at court. He is a millionaire, and they have made him a baron, and

now he is the Baron Danglars, with a fine residence in the Rue de MontBlanc, with ten horses in his stables,

six footmen in his antechamber, and I know not how many millions in his strongbox."

"Happy? Who can answer for that? Happiness or unhappiness is the secret known but to one's self and the

walls walls have ears but no tongue; but if a large fortune produces happiness, Danglars is happy."

"But how could a poor Catalan fisherboy, without education or resources, make a fortune? I confess this

"And it has staggered everybody. There must have been in his life some strange secret that no one knows."

"But, then, by what visible steps has he attained this high fortune or high position?"

"It would seem so; but listen, and you will understand. Some days before the return of the emperor, Fernand

was drafted. The Bourbons left him quietly enough at the Catalans, but Napoleon returned, a special levy was

made, and Fernand was compelled to join. I went too; but as I was older than Fernand, and had just married

my poor wife, I was only sent to the coast. Fernand was enrolled in the active troop, went to the frontier with

his regiment, and was at the battle of Ligny. The night after that battle he was sentry at the door of a general

who carried on a secret correspondence with the enemy. That same night the general was to go over to the

English. He proposed to Fernand to accompany him; Fernand agreed to do so, deserted his post, and followed

the general. Fernand would have been courtmartialed if Napoleon had remained on the throne, but his action

was rewarded by the Bourbons. He returned to France with the epaulet of sublieutenant, and as the

protection of the general, who is in the highest favor, was accorded to him, he was a captain in 1823, during

the Spanish war that is to say, at the time when Danglars made his early speculations. Fernand was a

Spaniard, and being sent to Spain to ascertain the feeling of his fellowcountrymen, found Danglars there,

got on very intimate terms with him, won over the support of the royalists at the capital and in the provinces,

received promises and made pledges on his own part, guided his regiment by paths known to himself alone

through the mountain gorges which were held by the royalists, and, in fact, rendered such services in this

brief campaign that, after the taking of Trocadero, he was made colonel, and received the title of count and

"Yes, but listen: this was not all. The war with Spain being ended, Fernand's career was checked by the long

peace which seemed likely to endure throughout Europe. Greece only had risen against Turkey, and had

begun her war of independence; all eyes were turned towards Athens it was the fashion to pity and

support the Greeks. The French government, without protecting them openly, as you know, gave countenance

to volunteer assistance. Fernand sought and obtained leave to go and serve in Greece, still having his name

kept on the army roll. Some time after, it was stated that the Comte de Morcerf (this was the name he bore)

had entered the service of Ali Pasha with the rank of instructorgeneral. Ali Pasha was killed, as you know,

but before he died he recompensed the services of Fernand by leaving him a considerable sum, with which he

"So that now," continued Caderousse, "he owns a magnificent house No. 27, Rue du Helder, Paris." The

abbe opened his mouth, hesitated for a moment, then, making an effort at selfcontrol, he said, "And

"Disappeared," said Caderousse, "yes, as the sun disappears, to rise the next day with still more splendor."

"Mercedes is at this moment one of the greatest ladies in Paris," replied Caderousse.

"Go on," said the abbe; "it seems as if I were listening to the story of a dream. But I have seen things so

extraordinary, that what you tell me seems less astonishing than it otherwise might."

"Mercedes was at first in the deepest despair at the blow which deprived her of Edmond. I have told you of

her attempts to propitiate M. de Villefort, her devotion to the elder Dantes. In the midst of her despair, a new

affliction overtook her. This was the departure of Fernand of Fernand, whose crime she did not know, and

whom she regarded as her brother. Fernand went, and Mercedes remained alone. Three months passed and

still she wept no news of Edmond, no news of Fernand, no companionship save that of an old man who

was dying with despair. One evening, after a day of accustomed vigil at the angle of two roads leading to

Marseilles from the Catalans, she returned to her home more depressed than ever. Suddenly she heard a step

she knew, turned anxiously around, the door opened, and Fernand, dressed in the uniform of a

sublieutenant, stood before her. It was not the one she wished for most, but it seemed as if a part of her past

life had returned to her. Mercedes seized Fernand's hands with a transport which he took for love, but which

was only joy at being no longer alone in the world, and seeing at last a friend, after long hours of solitary

sorrow. And then, it must be confessed, Fernand had never been hated he was only not precisely loved.

Another possessed all Mercedes' heart; that other was absent, had disappeared, perhaps was dead. At this last

thought Mercedes burst into a flood of tears, and wrung her hands in agony; but the thought, which she had

always repelled before when it was suggested to her by another, came now in full force upon her mind; and

then, too, old Dantes incessantly said to her, `Our Edmond is dead; if he were not, he would return to us.' The

old man died, as I have told you; had he lived, Mercedes, perchance, had not become the wife of another, for

he would have been there to reproach her infidelity. Fernand saw this, and when he learned of the old man's

death he returned. He was now a lieutenant. At his first coming he had not said a word of love to Mercedes;

at the second he reminded her that he loved her. Mercedes begged for six months more in which to await and

"So that," said the abbe, with a bitter smile, "that makes eighteen months in all. What more could the most

devoted lover desire?" Then he murmured the words of the English poet, "`Frailty, thy name is woman.'"

"Six months afterwards," continued Caderousse, "the marriage took place in the church of Accoules."

"The very church in which she was to have married Edmond," murmured the priest; "there was only a change

"Well, Mercedes was married," proceeded Caderousse; "but although in the eyes of the world she appeared

calm, she nearly fainted as she passed La Reserve, where, eighteen months before, the betrothal had been

celebrated with him whom she might have known she still loved had she looked to the bottom of her heart.

Fernand, more happy, but not more at his ease for I saw at this time he was in constant dread of Edmond's

return Fernand was very anxious to get his wife away, and to depart himself. There were too many

unpleasant possibilities associated with the Catalans, and eight days after the wedding they left Marseilles."

"Yes, during the Spanish war, at Perpignan, where Fernand had left her; she was attending to the education of

"But, then, to be able to instruct her child," continued the abbe, "she must have received an education herself.

I understood from Edmond that she was the daughter of a simple fisherman, beautiful but uneducated."

"Oh," replied Caderousse, "did he know so little of his lovely betrothed? Mercedes might have been a queen,

sir, if the crown were to be placed on the heads of the loveliest and most intelligent. Fernand's fortune was

already waxing great, and she developed with his growing fortune. She learned drawing, music

everything. Besides, I believe, between ourselves, she did this in order to distract her mind, that she might

forget; and she only filled her head in order to alleviate the weight on her heart. But now her position in life is

assured," continued Caderousse; "no doubt fortune and honors have comforted her; she is rich, a countess,

"Why, when I found myself utterly destitute, I thought my old friends would, perhaps, assist me. So I went to

Danglars, who would not even receive me. I called on Fernand, who sent me a hundred francs by his

"As I went away a purse fell at my feet it contained five and twenty louis; I raised my head quickly, and

"Oh, he never was a friend of mine, I did not know him, and I had nothing to ask of him."

"Do you not know what became of him, and the share he had in Edmond's misfortunes?"

"No; I only know that some time after Edmond's arrest, he married Mademoiselle de SaintMeran, and soon

after left Marseilles; no doubt he has been as lucky as the rest; no doubt he is as rich as Danglars, as high in

station as Fernand. I only, as you see, have remained poor, wretched, and forgotten."

"You are mistaken, my friend," replied the abbe; "God may seem sometimes to forget for a time, while his

justice reposes, but there always comes a moment when he remembers and behold a proof!" As he

spoke, the abbe took the diamond from his pocket, and giving it to Caderousse, said, "Here, my friend,

"This diamond was to have been shared among his friends. Edmond had one friend only, and thus it cannot

be divided. Take the diamond, then, and sell it; it is worth fifty thousand francs, and I repeat my wish that this

"Oh, sir," said Caderousse, putting out one hand timidly, and with the other wiping away the perspiration

which bedewed his brow, "Oh, sir, do not make a jest of the happiness or despair of a man."

"I know what happiness and what despair are, and I never make a jest of such feelings. Take it, then, but in

Caderousse, who touched the diamond, withdrew his hand. The abbe smiled. "In exchange," he continued,

"give me the red silk purse that M. Morrel left on old Dantes' chimneypiece, and which you tell me is still in

your hands." Caderousse, more and more astonished, went toward a large oaken cupboard, opened it, and

gave the abbe a long purse of faded red silk, round which were two copper runners that had once been gilt.

"Oh, you are a man of God, sir," cried Caderousse; "for no one knew that Edmond had given you this

"Which," said the abbe to himself, "you would have done." The abbe rose, took his hat and gloves. "Well," he

said, "all you have told me is perfectly true, then, and I may believe it in every particular."

"See, sir," replied Caderousse, "in this corner is a crucifix in holy wood here on this shelf is my wife's

testament; open this book, and I will swear upon it with my hand on the crucifix. I will swear to you by my

soul's salvation, my faith as a Christian, I have told everything to you as it occurred, and as the recording

"'Tis well," said the abbe, convinced by his manner and tone that Caderousse spoke the truth. "'Tis well, and

may this money profit you! Adieu; I go far from men who thus so bitterly injure each other." The abbe with

difficulty got away from the enthusiastic thanks of Caderousse, opened the door himself, got out and mounted

his horse, once more saluted the innkeeper, who kept uttering his loud farewells, and then returned by the

road he had travelled in coming. When Caderousse turned around, he saw behind him La Carconte, paler and

trembling more than ever. "Is, then, all that I have heard really true?" she inquired.

"What? That he has given the diamond to us only?" inquired Caderousse, half bewildered with joy; "yes,

nothing more true! See, here it is." The woman gazed at it a moment, and then said, in a gloomy voice,

"Suppose it's false?" Caderousse started and turned pale. "False!" he muttered. "False! Why should that man

Caderousse remained for a moment aghast under the weight of such an idea. "Oh!" he said, taking up his hat,

which he placed on the red handkerchief tied round his head, "we will soon find out."

"Why, the fair is on at Beaucaire, there are always jewellers from Paris there, and I will show it to them.

Look after the house, wife, and I shall be back in two hours," and Caderousse left the house in haste, and ran

rapidly in the direction opposite to that which the priest had taken. "Fifty thousand francs!" muttered La

Carconte when left alone; "it is a large sum of money, but it is not a fortune."

The day after that in which the scene we have just described had taken place on the road between Bellegarde

and Beaucaire, a man of about thirty or two and thirty, dressed in a bright blue frock coat, nankeen trousers,

and a white waistcoat, having the appearance and accent of an Englishman, presented himself before the

mayor of Marseilles. "Sir," said he, "I am chief clerk of the house of Thomson French, of Rome. We are, and

have been these ten years, connected with the house of Morrel Son, of Marseilles. We have a hundred

thousand francs or thereabouts loaned on their securities, and we are a little uneasy at reports that have

reached us that the firm is on the brink of ruin. I have come, therefore, express from Rome, to ask you for

"Sir," replied the mayor. "I know very well that during the last four or five years misfortune has seemed to

pursue M. Morrel. He has lost four or five vessels, and suffered by three or four bankruptcies; but it is not for

me, although I am a creditor myself to the amount of ten thousand francs, to give any information as to the

state of his finances. Ask of me, as mayor, what is my opinion of M. Morrel, and I shall say that he is a man

honorable to the last degree, and who has up to this time fulfilled every engagement with scrupulous

punctuality. This is all I can say, sir; if you wish to learn more, address yourself to M. de Boville, the

inspector of prisons, No. 15, Rue de Nouailles; he has, I believe, two hundred thousand francs in Morrel's

hands, and if there be any grounds for apprehension, as this is a greater amount than mine, you will most

The Englishman seemed to appreciate this extreme delicacy, made his bow and went away, proceeding with a

characteristic British stride towards the street mentioned. M. de Boville was in his private room, and the

Englishman, on perceiving him, made a gesture of surprise, which seemed to indicate that it was not the first

time he had been in his presence. As to M. de Boville, he was in such a state of despair, that it was evident all

the faculties of his mind, absorbed in the thought which occupied him at the moment, did not allow either his

memory or his imagination to stray to the past. The Englishman, with the coolness of his nation, addressed

him in terms nearly similar to those with which he had accosted the mayor of Marseilles. "Oh, sir," exclaimed

M. de Boville, "your fears are unfortunately but too well founded, and you see before you a man in despair. I

had two hundred thousand francs placed in the hands of Morrel Son; these two hundred thousand francs were

the dowry of my daughter, who was to be married in a fortnight, and these two hundred thousand francs were

payable, half on the 15th of this month, and the other half on the 15th of next month. I had informed M.

Morrel of my desire to have these payments punctually, and he has been here within the last halfhour to tell

me that if his ship, the Pharaon, did not come into port on the 15th, he would be wholly unable to make this

"But," said the Englishman, "this looks very much like a suspension of payment."

The Englishman appeared to reflect a moment, and then said, "From which it would appear, sir, that this

"No, for two hundred thousand francs. Our house," added the Englishman with a laugh, "does not do things in

"Ready money." And the Englishman drew from his pocket a bundle of banknotes, which might have been

twice the sum M. de Boville feared to lose. A ray of joy passed across M. de Boville's countenance, yet he

made an effort at selfcontrol, and said, "Sir, I ought to tell you that, in all probability, you will not realize

"That's no affair of mine," replied the Englishman, "that is the affair of the house of Thomson French, in

whose name I act. They have, perhaps, some motive to serve in hastening the ruin of a rival firm. But all I

know, sir, is, that I am ready to hand you over this sum in exchange for your assignment of the debt. I only

"Of course, that is perfectly just," cried M. de Boville. "The commission is usually one and a half; will you

"Sir," replied the Englishman, laughing, "I am like my house, and do not do such things no, the

"Well, sir, I was educated at home by a poor devil of an abbe, who disappeared suddenly. I have since learned

that he was confined in the Chateau d'If, and I should like to learn some particulars of his death."

"He pretended to know of an immense treasure, and offered vast sums to the government if they would

"I recollect this, because the poor devil's death was accompanied by a singular incident."

"May I ask what that was?" said the Englishman with an expression of curiosity, which a close observer

"Oh dear, yes, sir; the abbe's dungeon was forty or fifty feet distant from that of one of Bonaparte's

emissaries, one of those who had contributed the most to the return of the usurper in 1815, a very

"Yes," replied M. de Boville; "I myself had occasion to see this man in 1816 or 1817, and we could only go

into his dungeon with a file of soldiers. That man made a deep impression on me; I shall never forget his

"Were separated by a distance of fifty feet; but it appears that this Edmond Dantes"

"Edmond Dantes. It appears, sir, that this Edmond Dantes had procured tools, or made them, for they found a

"No doubt; but unfortunately for the prisoners, the Abbe Faria had an attack of catalepsy, and died."

"For the dead man, yes," replied M. de Boville, "but not for the survivor; on the contrary, this Dantes saw a

means of accelerating his escape. He, no doubt, thought that prisoners who died in the Chateau d'If were

interred in an ordinary burialground, and he conveyed the dead man into his own cell, took his place in the

sack in which they had sewed up the corpse, and awaited the moment of interment."

"It was a bold step, and one that showed some courage," remarked the Englishman.

"As I have already told you, sir, he was a very dangerous man; and, fortunately, by his own act

"The Chateau d'If has no cemetery, and they simply throw the dead into the sea, after fastening a thirtysix

"Well, they fastened a thirtysix pound ball to his feet, and threw him into the sea."

"Yes, sir," continued the inspector of prisons. "You may imagine the amazement of the fugitive when he

found himself flung headlong over the rocks! I should like to have seen his face at that moment."

"No matter," replied De Boville, in supreme goodhumor at the certainty of recovering his two hundred

"So can I," said the Englishman, and he laughed too; but he laughed as the English do, "at the end of his

"And so," continued the Englishman who first gained his composure, "he was drowned?"

"So that the governor got rid of the dangerous and the crazy prisoner at the same time?"

"But some official document was drawn up as to this affair, I suppose?" inquired the Englishman.

"Yes, yes, the mortuary deposition. You understand, Dantes' relations, if he had any, might have some

"So that now, if there were anything to inherit from him, they may do so with easy conscience. He is dead,

"Excuse you for what? For the story? By no means; it really seems to me very curious."

"Yes, indeed. So, sir, you wish to see all relating to the poor abbe, who really was gentleness itself."

"Go into my study here, and I will show it to you." And they both entered M. de Boville's study. Everything

was here arranged in perfect order; each register had its number, each file of papers its place. The inspector

begged the Englishman to seat himself in an armchair, and placed before him the register and documents

relative to the Chateau d'If, giving him all the time he desired for the examination, while De Boville seated

himself in a corner, and began to read his newspaper. The Englishman easily found the entries relative to the

Abbe Faria; but it seemed that the history which the inspector had related interested him greatly, for after

having perused the first documents he turned over the leaves until he reached the deposition respecting

Edmond Dantes. There he found everything arranged in due order, the accusation, examination, Morrel's

petition, M. de Villefort's marginal notes. He folded up the accusation quietly, and put it as quietly in his

pocket; read the examination, and saw that the name of Noirtier was not mentioned in it; perused, too, the

application dated 10th April, 1815, in which Morrel, by the deputy procureur's advice, exaggerated with the

best intentions (for Napoleon was then on the throne) the services Dantes had rendered to the imperial cause

services which Villefort's certificates rendered indispensable. Then he saw through the whole thing. This

petition to Napoleon, kept back by Villefort, had become, under the second restoration, a terrible weapon

against him in the hands of the king's attorney. He was no longer astonished when he searched on to find in

An inveterate Bonapartist; took an active part in the return from the Island of Elba.

To be kept in strict solitary confinement, and to be closely watched and guarded.

Beneath these lines was written in another hand: "See note above nothing can be done." He compared the

writing in the bracket with the writing of the certificate placed beneath Morrel's petition, and discovered that

the note in the bracket was the some writing as the certificate that is to say, was in Villefort's handwriting.

As to the note which accompanied this, the Englishman understood that it might have been added by some

inspector who had taken a momentary interest in Dantes' situation, but who had, from the remarks we have

As we have said, the inspector, from discretion, and that he might not disturb the Abbe Faria's pupil in his

researches, had seated himself in a corner, and was reading Le Drapeau Blanc. He did not see the Englishman

fold up and place in his pocket the accusation written by Danglars under the arbor of La Reserve, and which

had the postmark, "Marseilles, 27th Feb., delivery 6 o'clock, P.M." But it must be said that if he had seen it,

he attached so little importance to this scrap of paper, and so much importance to his two hundred thousand

francs, that he would not have opposed whatever the Englishman might do, however irregular it might be.

"Thanks," said the latter, closing the register with a slam, "I have all I want; now it is for me to perform my

promise. Give me a simple assignment of your debt; acknowledge therein the receipt of the cash, and I will

hand you over the money." He rose, gave his seat to M. de Boville, who took it without ceremony, and

quickly drew up the required assignment, while the Englishman counted out the banknotes on the other side

Any one who had quitted Marseilles a few years previously, well acquainted with the interior of Morrel's

warehouse, and had returned at this date, would have found a great change. Instead of that air of life, of

comfort, and of happiness that permeates a flourishing and prosperous business establishment instead of

merry faces at the windows, busy clerks hurrying to and fro in the long corridors instead of the court filled

with bales of goods, reechoing with the cries and the jokes of porters, one would have immediately

perceived all aspect of sadness and gloom. Out of all the numerous clerks that used to fill the deserted

corridor and the empty office, but two remained. One was a young man of three or four and twenty, who was

in love with M. Morrel's daughter, and had remained with him in spite of the efforts of his friends to induce

him to withdraw; the other was an old oneeyed cashier, called "Cocles," or "Cockeye," a nickname given

him by the young men who used to throng this vast now almost deserted beehive, and which had so

completely replaced his real name that he would not, in all probability, have replied to any one who

Cocles remained in M. Morrel's service, and a most singular change had taken place in his position; he had at

the same time risen to the rank of cashier, and sunk to the rank of a servant. He was, however, the same

Cocles, good, patient, devoted, but inflexible on the subject of arithmetic, the only point on which he would

have stood firm against the world, even against M. Morrel; and strong in the multiplicationtable, which he

had at his fingers' ends, no matter what scheme or what trap was laid to catch him. In the midst of the

disasters that befell the house, Cocles was the only one unmoved. But this did not arise from a want of

affection; on the contrary, from a firm conviction. Like the rats that one by one forsake the doomed ship even

before the vessel weighs anchor, so all the numerous clerks had by degrees deserted the office and the

warehouse. Cocles had seen them go without thinking of inquiring the cause of their departure. Everything

was as we have said, a question of arithmetic to Cocles, and during twenty years he had always seen all

payments made with such exactitude, that it seemed as impossible to him that the house should stop payment,

as it would to a miller that the river that had so long turned his mill should cease to flow.

Nothing had as yet occurred to shake Cocles' belief; the last month's payment had been made with the most

scrupulous exactitude; Cocles had detected an overbalance of fourteen sous in his cash, and the same evening

he had brought them to M. Morrel, who, with a melancholy smile, threw them into an almost empty drawer,

Cocles went away perfectly happy, for this eulogium of M. Morrel, himself the pearl of the honest men of

Marseilles, flattered him more than a present of fifty crowns. But since the end of the month M. Morrel had

passed many an anxious hour. In order to meet the payments then due; he had collected all his resources, and,

fearing lest the report of his distress should get bruited abroad at Marseilles when he was known to be

reduced to such an extremity, he went to the Beaucaire fair to sell his wife's and daughter's jewels and a

portion of his plate. By this means the end of the month was passed, but his resources were now exhausted.

Credit, owing to the reports afloat, was no longer to be had; and to meet the one hundred thousand francs due

on the 10th of the present month, and the one hundred thousand francs due on the 15th of the next month to

M. de Boville, M. Morrel had, in reality, no hope but the return of the Pharaon, of whose departure he had

learnt from a vessel which had weighed anchor at the same time, and which had already arrived in harbor.

But this vessel which, like the Pharaon, came from Calcutta, had been in for a fortnight, while no intelligence

Such was the state of affairs when, the day after his interview with M. de Boville, the confidential clerk of the

house of Thomson French of Rome, presented himself at M. Morrel's. Emmanuel received him; this young

man was alarmed by the appearance of every new face, for every new face might be that of a new creditor,

come in anxiety to question the head of the house. The young man, wishing to spare his employer the pain of

this interview, questioned the newcomer; but the stranger declared that he had nothing to say to M.

Emmanuel, and that his business was with M. Morrel in person. Emmanuel sighed, and summoned Cocles.

Cocles appeared, and the young man bade him conduct the stranger to M. Morrel's apartment. Cocles went

first, and the stranger followed him. On the staircase they met a beautiful girl of sixteen or seventeen, who

"Yes; I think so, at least," said the young girl hesitatingly. "Go and see, Cocles, and if my father is there,

"It will be useless to announce me, mademoiselle," returned the Englishman. "M. Morrel does not know my

name; this worthy gentleman has only to announce the confidential clerk of the house of Thomson French of

The young girl turned pale and continued to descend, while the stranger and Cocles continued to mount the

staircase. She entered the office where Emmanuel was, while Cocles, by the aid of a key he possessed,

opened a door in the corner of a landingplace on the second staircase, conducted the stranger into an

antechamber, opened a second door, which he closed behind him, and after having left the clerk of the

house of Thomson French alone, returned and signed to him that he could enter. The Englishman entered, and

found Morrel seated at a table, turning over the formidable columns of his ledger, which contained the list of

his liabilities. At the sight of the stranger, M. Morrel closed the ledger, arose, and offered a seat to the

stranger; and when he had seen him seated, resumed his own chair. Fourteen years had changed the worthy

merchant, who, in his thirtysixth year at the opening of this history, was now in his fiftieth; his hair had

turned white, time and sorrow had ploughed deep furrows on his brow, and his look, once so firm and

penetrating, was now irresolute and wandering, as if he feared being forced to fix his attention on some

particular thought or person. The Englishman looked at him with an air of curiosity, evidently mingled with

interest. "Monsieur," said Morrel, whose uneasiness was increased by this examination, "you wish to speak to

"He has told you rightly. The house of Thomson French had 300,000 or 400,000 francs to pay this month in

France; and, knowing your strict punctuality, have collected all the bills bearing your signature, and charged

me as they became due to present them, and to employ the money otherwise." Morrel sighed deeply, and

"Here is," said the Englishman, taking a quantity of papers from his pocket, "an assignment of 200,000 francs

to our house by M. de Boville, the inspector of prisons, to whom they are due. You acknowledge, of course,

"Yes; he placed the money in my hands at four and a half per cent nearly five years ago."

"Just so; and now here are 32,500 francs payable shortly; they are all signed by you, and assigned to our

"I recognize them," said Morrel, whose face was suffused, as he thought that, for the first time in his life, he

"No, I have for the end of the month these bills which have been assigned to us by the house of Pascal, and

the house of Wild Turner of Marseilles, amounting to nearly 55,000 francs; in all, 287,500 francs." It is

impossible to describe what Morrel suffered during this enumeration. "Two hundred and eightyseven

"Yes, sir," replied the Englishman. "I will not," continued he, after a moment's silence, "conceal from you,

that while your probity and exactitude up to this moment are universally acknowledged, yet the report is

current in Marseilles that you are not able to meet your liabilities." At this almost brutal speech Morrel turned

deathly pale. "Sir," said he, "up to this time and it is now more than fourandtwenty years since I

received the direction of this house from my father, who had himself conducted it for five and thirty years

"I know that," replied the Englishman. "But as a man of honor should answer another, tell me fairly, shall you

pay these with the same punctuality?" Morrel shuddered, and looked at the man, who spoke with more

assurance than he had hitherto shown. "To questions frankly put," said he, "a straightforward answer should

be given. Yes, I shall pay, if, as I hope, my vessel arrives safely; for its arrival will again procure me the

credit which the numerous accidents, of which I have been the victim, have deprived me; but if the Pharaon

should be lost, and this last resource be gone" the poor man's eyes filled with tears.

"Well," returned Morrel, "it is a cruel thing to be forced to say, but, already used to misfortune, I must

"Have you no friends who could assist you?" Morrel smiled mournfully. "In business, sir," said he, "one has

"I know it, sir; a young man, who still adheres to my fallen fortunes, passes a part of his time in a belvidere at

the top of the house, in hopes of being the first to announce good news to me; he has informed me of the

"No, she is a Bordeaux vessel, La Gironde; she comes from India also; but she is not mine."

"Shall I tell you plainly one thing, sir? I dread almost as much to receive any tidings of my vessel as to

remain in doubt. uncertainty is still hope." Then in a low voice Morrel added, "This delay is not natural.

The Pharaon left Calcutta the 5th February; she ought to have been here a month ago."

"Oh, oh!" cried Morrel, turning pale, "what is it?" A loud noise was heard on the stairs of people moving

hastily, and halfstifled sobs. Morrel rose and advanced to the door; but his strength failed him and he sank

into a chair. The two men remained opposite one another, Morrel trembling in every limb, the stranger gazing

at him with an air of profound pity. The noise had ceased; but it seemed that Morrel expected something

something had occasioned the noise, and something must follow. The stranger fancied he heard footsteps on

the stairs; and that the footsteps, which were those of several persons, stopped at the door. A key was inserted

"There are only two persons who have the key to that door," murmured Morrel, "Cocles and Julie." At this

instant the second door opened, and the young girl, her eyes bathed with tears, appeared. Morrel rose

tremblingly, supporting himself by the arm of the chair. He would have spoken, but his voice failed him. "Oh,

father!" said she, clasping her hands, "forgive your child for being the bearer of evil tidings."

"The Pharaon has gone down, then?" said Morrel in a hoarse voice. The young girl did not speak; but she

"Saved," said the girl; "saved by the crew of the vessel that has just entered the harbor." Morrel raised his two

hands to heaven with an expression of resignation and sublime gratitude. "Thanks, my God," said he, "at least

thou strikest but me alone." A tear moistened the eye of the phlegmatic Englishman.

Scarcely had he uttered those words than Madame Morrel entered weeping bitterly. Emmanuel followed her,

and in the antechamber were visible the rough faces of seven or eight halfnaked sailors. At the sight of these

men the Englishman started and advanced a step; then restrained himself, and retired into the farthest and

most obscure corner of the apartment. Madame Morrel sat down by her husband and took one of his hands in

hers, Julie still lay with her head on his shoulder, Emmanuel stood in the centre of the chamber and seemed to

An old seaman, bronzed by the tropical sun, advanced, twirling the remains of a tarpaulin between his hands.

"Goodday, M. Morrel," said he, as if he had just quitted Marseilles the previous evening, and had just

"Goodday, Penelon," returned Morrel, who could not refrain from smiling through his tears, "where is the

"The captain, M. Morrel, he has stayed behind sick at Palma; but please God, it won't be much, and you

Penelon rolled his quid in his cheek, placed his hand before his mouth, turned his head, and sent a long jet of

tobaccojuice into the antechamber, advanced his foot, balanced himself, and began, "You see, M.

Morrel," said he, "we were somewhere between Cape Blanc and Cape Boyador, sailing with a fair breeze,

southsouthwest after a week's calm, when Captain Gaumard comes up to me I was at the helm I should

tell you and says, `Penelon, what do you think of those clouds coming up over there?' I was just then

looking at them myself. `What do I think, captain? Why I think that they are rising faster than they have any

business to do, and that they would not be so black if they didn't mean mischief.' `That's my opinion too,'

said the captain, `and I'll take precautions accordingly. We are carrying too much canvas. Avast, there, all

hands! Take in the studdingsl's and stow the flying jib.' It was time; the squall was on us, and the vessel

began to heel. `Ah,' said the captain, `we have still too much canvas set; all hands lower the mains'l!' Five

minutes after, it was down; and we sailed under mizzentops'ls and to'gall'nt sails. `Well, Penelon,' said the

captain, `what makes you shake your head?' `Why,' I says, `I still think you've got too much on.' `I think

you're right,' answered he, `we shall have a gale.' `A gale? More than that, we shall have a tempest, or I don't

know what's what.' You could see the wind coming like the dust at Montredon; luckily the captain understood

his business. `Take in two reefs in the tops'ls,' cried the captain; `let go the bowlin's, haul the brace, lower the

"That was not enough for those latitudes," said the Englishman; "I should have taken four reefs in the topsails

His firm, sonorous, and unexpected voice made every one start. Penelon put his hand over his eyes, and then

stared at the man who thus criticized the manoeuvres of his captain. "We did better than that, sir," said the old

sailor respectfully; "we put the helm up to run before the tempest; ten minutes after we struck our tops'ls and

"Eh, it was that that did the business; after pitching heavily for twelve hours we sprung a leak. `Penelon,' said

the captain, `I think we are sinking, give me the helm, and go down into the hold.' I gave him the helm, and

descended; there was already three feet of water. `All hands to the pumps!' I shouted; but it was too late, and

it seemed the more we pumped the more came in. `Ah,' said I, after four hours' work, `since we are sinking,

let us sink; we can die but once.' `That's the example you set, Penelon,' cries the captain; `very well, wait a

minute.' He went into his cabin and came back with a brace of pistols. `I will blow the brains out of the first

"There's nothing gives you so much courage as good reasons," continued the sailor; "and during that time the

wind had abated, and the sea gone down, but the water kept rising; not much, only two inches an hour, but

still it rose. Two inches an hour does not seem much, but in twelve hours that makes two feet, and three we

had before, that makes five. `Come,' said the captain, `we have done all in our power, and M. Morrel will

have nothing to reproach us with, we have tried to save the ship, let us now save ourselves. To the boats, my

lads, as quick as you can.' Now," continued Penelon, "you see, M. Morrel, a sailor is attached to his ship, but

still more to his life, so we did not wait to be told twice; the more so, that the ship was sinking under us, and

seemed to say, `Get along save yourselves.' We soon launched the boat, and all eight of us got into it. The

captain descended last, or rather, he did not descend, he would not quit the vessel; so I took him round the

waist, and threw him into the boat, and then I jumped after him. It was time, for just as I jumped the deck

burst with a noise like the broadside of a manofwar. Ten minutes after she pitched forward, then the other

way, spun round and round, and then goodby to the Pharaon. As for us, we were three days without

anything to eat or drink, so that we began to think of drawing lots who should feed the rest, when we saw La

Gironde; we made signals of distress, she perceived us, made for us, and took us all on board. There now, M.

Morrel, that's the whole truth, on the honor of a sailor; is not it true, you fellows there?" A general murmur of

approbation showed that the narrator had faithfully detailed their misfortunes and sufferings.

"Well, well," said M. Morrel, "I know there was no one in fault but destiny. It was the will of God that this

"Cocles, pay two hundred francs to each of these good fellows," said Morrel. "At another time," added be, "I

should have said, Give them, besides, two hundred francs over as a present; but times are changed, and the

"Well, we all say that fifty francs will be enough for us at present, and that we will wait for the rest."

"Thanks, my friends, thanks!" cried Morrel gratefully; "take it take it; and if you can find another

employer, enter his service; you are free to do so." These last words produced a prodigious effect on the

seaman. Penelon nearly swallowed his quid; fortunately he recovered. "What, M. Morrel!" said he in a low

"No, no," said M. Morrel, "I am not angry, quite the contrary, and I do not send you away; but I have no more

"No more ships!" returned Penelon; "well, then, you'll build some; we'll wait for you."

"I have no money to build ships with, Penelon," said the poor owner mournfully, "so I cannot accept your

"No more money? Then you must not pay us; we can scud, like the Pharaon, under bare poles."

"Enough, enough!" cried Morrel, almost overpowered; "leave me, I pray you; we shall meet again in a

"Yes; I hope so, at least. Now go." He made a sign to Cocles, who went first; the seamen followed him and

Emmanuel brought up the rear. "Now," said the owner to his wife and daughter, "leave me; I wish to speak

with this gentleman." And he glanced towards the clerk of Thomson French, who had remained motionless in

the corner during this scene, in which he had taken no part, except the few words we have mentioned. The

two women looked at this person whose presence they had entirely forgotten, and retired; but, as she left the

apartment, Julie gave the stranger a supplicating glance, to which he replied by a smile that an indifferent

spectator would have been surprised to see on his stern features. The two men were left alone. "Well, sir,"

said Morrel, sinking into a chair, "you have heard all, and I have nothing further to tell you."

"I see," returned the Englishman, "that a fresh and unmerited misfortune his overwhelmed you, and this only

"Well, renew these bills up to the 5th of September; and on the 5th of September at eleven o'clock (the hand

"I shall expect you," returned Morrel; "and I will pay you or I shall he dead." These last words were

uttered in so low a tone that the stranger could not hear them. The bills were renewed, the old ones destroyed,

and the poor shipowner found himself with three months before him to collect his resources. The

Englishman received his thanks with the phlegm peculiar to his nation; and Morrel, overwhelming him with

grateful blessings, conducted him to the staircase. The stranger met Julie on the stairs; she pretended to be

descending, but in reality she was waiting for him. "Oh, sir" said she, clasping her hands.

"Mademoiselle," said the stranger, "one day you will receive a letter signed `Sinbad the Sailor.' Do exactly

"It is well. Adieu, mademoiselle. Continue to be the good, sweet girl you are at present, and I have great

Julie uttered a faint cry, blushed like a rose, and leaned against the baluster. The stranger waved his hand, and

continued to descend. In the court he found Penelon, who, with a rouleau of a hundred francs in either hand,

seemed unable to make up his mind to retain them. "Come with me, my friend," said the Englishman; "I wish

The extension provided for by the agent of Thomson French, at the moment when Morrel expected it least,

was to the poor shipowner so decided a stroke of good fortune that he almost dared to believe that fate was at

length grown weary of wasting her spite upon him. The same day he told his wife, Emmanuel, and his

daughter all that had occurred; and a ray of hope, if not of tranquillity, returned to the family. Unfortunately,

however, Morrel had not only engagements with the house of Thomson French, who had shown themselves

so considerate towards him; and, as he had said, in business he had correspondents, and not friends. When he

thought the matter over, he could by no means account for this generous conduct on the part of Thomson

French towards him; and could only attribute it to some such selfish argument as this: "We had better help

a man who owes us nearly 300,000 francs, and have those 300,000 francs at the end of three months than

hasten his ruin, and get only six or eight per cent of our money back again." Unfortunately, whether through

envy or stupidity, all Morrel's correspondents did not take this view; and some even came to a contrary

decision. The bills signed by Morrel were presented at his office with scrupulous exactitude, and, thanks to

the delay granted by the Englishman, were paid by Cocles with equal punctuality. Cocles thus remained in

his accustomed tranquillity. It was Morrel alone who remembered with alarm, that if he had to repay on the

15th the 50,000 francs of M. de Boville, and on the 30th the 32,500 francs of bills, for which, as well as the

debt due to the inspector of prisons, he had time granted, he must be a ruined man.

The opinion of all the commercial men was that, under the reverses which had successively weighed down

Morrel, it was impossible for him to remain solvent. Great, therefore, was the astonishment when at the end

of the month, he cancelled all his obligations with his usual punctuality. Still confidence was not restored to

all minds, and the general opinion was that the complete ruin of the unfortunate shipowner had been

postponed only until the end of the month. The month passed, and Morrel made extraordinary efforts to get in

all his resources. Formerly his paper, at any date, was taken with confidence, and was even in request. Morrel

now tried to negotiate bills at ninety days only, and none of the banks would give him credit. Fortunately,

Morrel had some funds coming in on which he could rely; and, as they reached him, he found himself in a

condition to meet his engagements when the end of July came. The agent of Thomson French had not been

again seen at Marseilles; the day after, or two days after his visit to Morrel, he had disappeared; and as in that

city he had had no intercourse but with the mayor, the inspector of prisons, and M. Morrel, his departure left

no trace except in the memories of these three persons. As to the sailors of the Pharaon, they must have found

Captain Gaumard, recovered from his illness, had returned from Palma. He delayed presenting himself at

Morrel's, but the owner, hearing of his arrival, went to see him. The worthy shipowner knew, from Penelon's

recital, of the captain's brave conduct during the storm, and tried to console him. He brought him also the

amount of his wages, which Captain Gaumard had not dared to apply for. As he descended the staircase,

Morrel met Penelon, who was going up. Penelon had, it would seem, made good use of his money, for he was

newly clad. When he saw his employer, the worthy tar seemed much embarrassed, drew on one side into the

corner of the landingplace, passed his quid from one cheek to the other, stared stupidly with his great eyes,

and only acknowledged the squeeze of the hand which Morrel as usual gave him by a slight pressure in

return. Morrel attributed Penelon's embarrassment to the elegance of his attire; it was evident the good fellow

had not gone to such an expense on his own account; he was, no doubt, engaged on board some other vessel,

and thus his bashfulness arose from the fact of his not having, if we may so express ourselves, worn

mourning for the Pharaon longer. Perhaps he had come to tell Captain Gaumard of his good luck, and to offer

him employment from his new master. "Worthy fellows!" said Morrel, as he went away, "may your new

August rolled by in unceasing efforts on the part of Morrel to renew his credit or revive the old. On the 20th

of August it was known at Marseilles that he had left town in the mailcoach, and then it was said that the bills

would go to protest at the end of the month, and that Morrel had gone away and left his chief clerk

Emmanuel, and his cashier Cocles, to meet the creditors. But, contrary to all expectation, when the 31st of

August came, the house opened as usual, and Cocles appeared behind the grating of the counter, examined all

bills presented with the usual scrutiny, and, from first to last, paid all with the usual precision. There came in,

moreover, two drafts which M. Morrel had fully anticipated, and which Cocles paid as punctually as the bills

which the shipowner had accepted. All this was incomprehensible, and then, with the tenacity peculiar to

prophets of bad news, the failure was put off until the end of September. On the 1st, Morrel returned; he was

awaited by his family with extreme anxiety, for from this journey to Paris they hoped great things. Morrel

had thought of Danglars, who was now immensely rich, and had lain under great obligations to Morrel in

former days, since to him it was owing that Danglars entered the service of the Spanish banker, with whom

he had laid the foundations of his vast wealth. It was said at this moment that Danglars was worth from six to

eight millions of francs, and had unlimited credit. Danglars, then, without taking a crown from his pocket,

could save Morrel; he had but to pass his word for a loan, and Morrel was saved. Morrel had long thought of

Danglars, but had kept away from some instinctive motive, and had delayed as long as possible availing

himself of this last resource. And Morrel was right, for he returned home crushed by the humiliation of a

refusal. Yet, on his arrival, Morrel did not utter a complaint, or say one harsh word. He embraced his weeping

wife and daughter, pressed Emmanuel's hand with friendly warmth, and then going to his private room on the

second floor had sent for Cocles. "Then," said the two women to Emmanuel, "we are indeed ruined."

It was agreed in a brief council held among them, that Julie should write to her brother, who was in garrison

at Nimes, to come to them as speedily as possible. The poor women felt instinctively that they required all

their strength to support the blow that impended. Besides, Maximilian Morrel, though hardly two and twenty,

had great influence over his father. He was a strongminded, upright young man. At the time when he

decided on his profession his father had no desire to choose for him, but had consulted young Maximilian's

taste. He had at once declared for a military life, and had in consequence studied hard, passed brilliantly

through the Polytechnic School, and left it as sublieutenant of the 53d of the line. For a year he had held this

rank, and expected promotion on the first vacancy. In his regiment Maximilian Morrel was noted for his rigid

observance, not only of the obligations imposed on a soldier, but also of the duties of a man; and he thus

gained the name of "the stoic." We need hardly say that many of those who gave him this epithet repeated it

because they had heard it, and did not even know what it meant. This was the young man whom his mother

and sister called to their aid to sustain them under the serious trial which they felt they would soon have to

endure. They had not mistaken the gravity of this event, for the moment after Morrel had entered his private

office with Cocles, Julie saw the latter leave it pale, trembling, and his features betraying the utmost

consternation. She would have questioned him as he passed by her, but the worthy creature hastened down

the staircase with unusual precipitation, and only raised his hands to heaven and exclaimed, "Oh,

mademoiselle, mademoiselle, what a dreadful misfortune! Who could ever have believed it!" A moment

afterwards Julie saw him go upstairs carrying two or three heavy ledgers, a portfolio, and a bag of money.

Morrel examined the ledgers, opened the portfolio, and counted the money. All his funds amounted to 6,000,

or 8,000 francs, his bills receivable up to the 5th to 4,000 or 5,000, which, making the best of everything,

gave him 14,000 francs to meet debts amounting to 287,500 francs. He had not even the means for making a

possible settlement on account. However, when Morrel went down to his dinner, he appeared very calm. This

calmness was more alarming to the two women than the deepest dejection would have been. After dinner

Morrel usually went out and used to take his coffee at the Phocaean club, and read the Semaphore; this day he

As to Cocles, he seemed completely bewildered. For part of the day he went into the courtyard, seated

himself on a stone with his head bare and exposed to the blazing sun. Emmanuel tried to comfort the women,

but his eloquence faltered. The young man was too well acquainted with the business of the house, not to feel

that a great catastrophe hung over the Morrel family. Night came, the two women had watched, hoping that

when he left his room Morrel would come to them, but they heard him pass before their door, and trying to

conceal the noise of his footsteps. They listened; he went into his sleepingroom, and fastened the door

inside. Madame Morrel sent her daughter to bed, and half an hour after Julie had retired, she rose, took off

her shoes, and went stealthily along the passage, to see through the keyhole what her husband was doing. In

the passage she saw a retreating shadow; it was Julie, who, uneasy herself, had anticipated her mother. The

"He is writing," she said. They had understood each other without speaking. Madame Morrel looked again

through the keyhole, Morrel was writing; but Madame Morrel remarked, what her daughter had not observed,

that her husband was writing on stamped paper. The terrible idea that he was writing his will flashed across

her; she shuddered, and yet had not strength to utter a word. Next day M. Morrel seemed as calm as ever,

went into his office as usual, came to his breakfast punctually, and then, after dinner, he placed his daughter

beside him, took her head in his arms, and held her for a long time against his bosom. In the evening, Julie

told her mother, that although he was apparently so calm, she had noticed that her father's heart beat

violently. The next two days passed in much the same way. On the evening of the 4th of September, M.

Morrel asked his daughter for the key of his study. Julie trembled at this request, which seemed to her of bad

omen. Why did her father ask for this key which she always kept, and which was only taken from her in

"What have I done wrong, father," she said, "that you should take this key from me?"

"Nothing, my dear," replied the unhappy man, the tears starting to his eyes at this simple question,

"nothing, only I want it." Julie made a pretence to feel for the key. "I must have left it in my room," she said.

And she went out, but instead of going to her apartment she hastened to consult Emmanuel. "Do not give this

key to your father," said he, "and tomorrow morning, if possible, do not quit him for a moment." She

questioned Emmanuel, but he knew nothing, or would not say what he knew. During the night, between the

4th and 5th of September, Madame Morrel remained listening for every sound, and, until three o'clock in the

morning, she heard her husband pacing the room in great agitation. It was three o'clock when he threw

himself on the bed. The mother and daughter passed the night together. They had expected Maximilian since

the previous evening. At eight o'clock in the morning Morrel entered their chamber. He was calm; but the

agitation of the night was legible in his pale and careworn visage. They did not dare to ask him how he had

slept. Morrel was kinder to his wife, more affectionate to his daughter, than he had ever been. He could not

cease gazing at and kissing the sweet girl. Julie, mindful of Emmanuel's request, was following her father

when he quitted the room, but he said to her quickly, "Remain with your mother, dearest." Julie wished to

This was the first time Morrel had ever so spoken, but he said it in a tone of paternal kindness, and Julie did

not dare to disobey. She remained at the same spot standing mute and motionless. An instant afterwards the

door opened, she felt two arms encircle her, and a mouth pressed her forehead. She looked up and uttered an

"Maximilian, my dearest brother!" she cried. At these words Madame Morrel rose, and threw herself into her

son's arms. "Mother," said the young man, looking alternately at Madame Morrel and her daughter, "what has

occurred what has happened? Your letter has frightened me, and I have come hither with all speed."

"Julie," said Madame Morrel, making a sign to the young man, "go and tell your father that Maximilian has

just arrived." The young lady rushed out of the apartment, but on the first step of the staircase she found a

"Are you not Mademoiselle Julie Morrel?" inquired the man, with a strong Italian accent.

"Yes, sir," replied Julie with hesitation; "what is your pleasure? I do not know you."

"Read this letter," he said, handing it to her. Julie hesitated. "It concerns the best interests of your father," said

The young girl hastily took the letter from him. She opened it quickly and read:

"Go this moment to the Allees de Meillan, enter the house No. 15, ask the porter for the key of the room on

the fifth floor, enter the apartment, take from the corner of the mantelpiece a purse netted in red silk, and give

it to your father. It is important that he should receive it before eleven o'clock. You promised to obey me

The young girl uttered a joyful cry, raised her eyes, looked round to question the messenger, but he had

disappeared. She cast her eyes again over the note to peruse it a second time, and saw there was a postscript.

"It is important that you should fulfil this mission in person and alone. If you go accompanied by any other

person, or should any one else go in your place, the porter will reply that he does not know anything about it."

This postscript decreased greatly the young girl's happiness. Was there nothing to fear? was there not some

snare laid for her? Her innocence had kept her in ignorance of the dangers that might assail a young girl of

her age. But there is no need to know danger in order to fear it; indeed, it may be observed, that it is usually

Julie hesitated, and resolved to take counsel. Yet, through a singular impulse, it was neither to her mother nor

her brother that she applied, but to Emmanuel. She hastened down and told him what had occurred on the day

when the agent of Thomson French had come to her father's, related the scene on the staircase, repeated the

promise she had made, and showed him the letter. "You must go, then, mademoiselle," said Emmanuel.

"And you shall be alone," replied the young man. "I will await you at the corner of the Rue de Musee, and if

you are so long absent as to make me uneasy, I will hasten to rejoin you, and woe to him of whom you shall

"Then, Emmanuel?" said the young girl with hesitation, "it is your opinion that I should obey this invitation?"

Emmanuel hesitated a moment, but his desire to make Julie decide immediately made him reply.

"Today, then, at eleven o'clock, your father has nearly three hundred thousand francs to pay?"

"Well, then," continued Emmanuel, "we have not fifteen thousand francs in the house."

"Why, if today before eleven o'clock your father has not found someone who will come to his aid, he will be

"Oh, come, then, come!" cried she, hastening away with the young man. During this time, Madame Morrel

had told her son everything. The young man knew quite well that, after the succession of misfortunes which

had befallen his father, great changes had taken place in the style of living and housekeeping; but he did not

know that matters had reached such a point. He was thunderstruck. Then, rushing hastily out of the

apartment, he ran upstairs, expecting to find his father in his study, but he rapped there in vain.

While he was yet at the door of the study he heard the bedroom door open, turned, and saw his father. Instead

of going direct to his study, M. Morrel had returned to his bedchamber, which he was only this moment

quitting. Morrel uttered a cry of surprise at the sight of his son, of whose arrival he was ignorant. He

remained motionless on the spot, pressing with his left hand something he had concealed under his coat.

Maximilian sprang down the staircase, and threw his arms round his father's neck; but suddenly he recoiled,

and placed his right hand on Morrel's breast. "Father," he exclaimed, turning pale as death, "what are you

"Father, father, in heaven's name," exclaimed the young man, "what are these weapons for?"

"Maximilian," replied Morrel, looking fixedly at his son, "you are a man, and a man of honor. Come, and I

And with a firm step Morrel went up to his study, while Maximilian followed him, trembling as he went.

Morrel opened the door, and closed it behind his son; then, crossing the anteroom, went to his desk on which

he placed the pistols, and pointed with his finger to an open ledger. In this ledger was made out an exact

balancesheet of his affair's. Morrel had to pay, within half an hour, 287,500 francs. All he possessed was

The young man was overwhelmed as he read. Morrel said not a word. What could he say? What need he add

to such a desperate proof in figures? "And have you done all that is possible, father, to meet this disastrous

"And in half an hour," said Maximilian in a gloomy voice, "our name is dishonored!"

"You are right, father; I understand you." Then extending his hand towards one of the pistols, he said, "There

is one for you and one for me thanks!" Morrel caught his hand. "Your mother your sister! Who will

support them?" A shudder ran through the young man's frame. "Father," he said, "do you reflect that you are

"Yes, I do so bid you," answered Morrel, "it is your duty. You have a calm, strong mind, Maximilian.

Maximilian, you are no ordinary man. I make no requests or commands; I only ask you to examine my

The young man reflected for a moment, then an expression of sublime resignation appeared in his eyes, and

with a slow and sad gesture he took off his two epaulets, the insignia of his rank. "Be it so, then, my father,"

he said, extending his hand to Morrel, "die in peace, my father; I will live." Morrel was about to cast himself

on his knees before his son, but Maximilian caught him in his arms, and those two noble hearts were pressed

against each other for a moment. "You know it is not my fault," said Morrel. Maximilian smiled. "I know,

"Good, my son. And now there is no more to be said; go and rejoin your mother and sister."

"My father," said the young man, bending his knee, "bless me!" Morrel took the head of his son between his

two hands, drew him forward, and kissing his forehead several times said, "Oh, yes, yes, I bless you in my

own name, and in the name of three generations of irreproachable men, who say through me, `The edifice

which misfortune has destroyed, providence may build up again.' On seeing me die such a death, the most

inexorable will have pity on you. To you, perhaps, they will accord the time they have refused to me. Then do

your best to keep our name free from dishonor. Go to work, labor, young man, struggle ardently and

courageously; live, yourself, your mother and sister, with the most rigid economy, so that from day to day the

property of those whom I leave in your hands may augment and fructify. Reflect how glorious a day it will

be, how grand, how solemn, that day of complete restoration, on which you will say in this very office, `My

father died because he could not do what I have this day done; but he died calmly and peaceably, because in

"If I live, all would be changed; if I live, interest would be converted into doubt, pity into hostility; if I live I

am only a man who his broken his word, failed in his engagements in fact, only a bankrupt. If, on the

contrary, I die, remember, Maximilian, my corpse is that of an honest but unfortunate man. Living, my best

friends would avoid my house; dead, all Marseilles will follow me in tears to my last home. Living, you

would feel shame at my name; dead, you may raise your head and say, `I am the son of him you killed,

"And now," said Morrel, "leave me alone, and endeavor to keep your mother and sister away."

"Will you not see my sister once more?" asked Maximilian. A last but final hope was concealed by the young

man in the effect of this interview, and therefore he had suggested it. Morrel shook his head. "I saw her this

"Have you no particular commands to leave with me, my father?" inquired Maximilian in a faltering voice.

"The house of Thomson French is the only one who, from humanity, or, it may be, selfishness it is not for

me to read men's hearts has had any pity for me. Its agent, who will in ten minutes present himself to

receive the amount of a bill of 287,500 francs, I will not say granted, but offered me three months. Let this

"And now, once more, adieu," said Morrel. "Go, leave me; I would be alone. You will find my will in the

The young man remained standing and motionless, having but the force of will and not the power of

"Hear me, Maximilian," said his father. "Suppose I was a soldier like you, and ordered to carry a certain

redoubt, and you knew I must be killed in the assault, would you not say to me, as you said just now, `Go,

"Yes, yes," said the young man, "yes;" and once again embracing his father with convulsive pressure, he said,

And he rushed out of the study. When his son had left him, Morrel remained an instant standing with his eyes

fixed on the door; then putting forth his arm, he pulled the bell. After a moment's interval, Cocles appeared.

It was no longer the same man the fearful revelations of the three last days had crushed him. This thought

the house of Morrel is about to stop payment bent him to the earth more than twenty years would

"My worthy Cocles," said Morrel in a tone impossible to describe, "do you remain in the antechamber.

When the gentleman who came three months ago the agent of Thomson French arrives, announce his

arrival to me." Cocles made no reply; he made a sign with his head, went into the anteroom, and seated

himself. Morrel fell back in his chair, his eyes fixed on the clock; there were seven minutes left, that was all.

What passed in the mind of this man at the supreme moment of his agony cannot be told in words. He was

still comparatively young, he was surrounded by the loving care of a devoted family, but he had convinced

himself by a course of reasoning, illogical perhaps, yet certainly plausible, that he must separate himself from

all he held dear in the world, even life itself. To form the slightest idea of his feelings, one must have seen his

face with its expression of enforced resignation and its tearmoistened eyes raised to heaven. The minute

hand moved on. The pistols were loaded; he stretched forth his hand, took one up, and murmured his

daughter's name. Then he laid it down seized his pen, and wrote a few words. It seemed to him as if he had

not taken a sufficient farewell of his beloved daughter. Then he turned again to the clock, counting time now

not by minutes, but by seconds. He took up the deadly weapon again, his lips parted and his eyes fixed on the

clock, and then shuddered at the click of the trigger as he cocked the pistol. At this moment of mortal anguish

the cold sweat came forth upon his brow, a pang stronger than death clutched at his heartstrings. He heard

the door of the staircase creak on its hinges the clock gave its warning to strike eleven the door of his

study opened; Morrel did not turn round he expected these words of Cocles, "The agent of Thomson

He placed the muzzle of the pistol between his teeth. Suddenly he heard a cry it was his daughter's voice.

He turned and saw Julie. The pistol fell from his hands. "My father!" cried the young girl, out of breath, and

half dead with joy "saved, you are saved!" And she threw herself into his arms, holding in her extended

Morrel took the purse, and started as he did so, for a vague remembrance reminded him that it once belonged

to himself. At one end was the receipted bill for the 287,000 francs, and at the other was a diamond as large

Morrel passed his hand over his brow; it seemed to him a dream. At this moment the clock struck eleven. He

felt as if each stroke of the hammer fell upon his heart. "Explain, my child," he said, "Explain, my child," he

"In a house in the Allees de Meillan, No. 15, on the corner of a mantelpiece in a small room on the fifth

"But," cried Morrel, "this purse is not yours!" Julie handed to her father the letter she had received in the

"Emmanuel accompanied me, father. He was to have waited for me at the corner of the Rue de Musee, but,

"It is his voice!" said Julie. At this moment Emmanuel entered, his countenance full of animation and joy.

"The Pharaon, sir they signal the Pharaon! The Pharaon is entering the harbor!" Morrel fell back in his

chair, his strength was failing him; his understanding weakened by such events, refused to comprehend such

incredible, unheardof, fabulous facts. But his son came in. "Father," cried Maximilian, "how could you say

the Pharaon was lost? The lookout has signalled her, and they say she is now coming into port."

"My dear friends," said Morrel, "if this be so, it must be a miracle of heaven! Impossible, impossible!"

But what was real and not less incredible was the purse he held in his hand, the acceptance receipted the

"Come, dear ones," said Morrel, rising from his seat, "let us go and see, and heaven have pity upon us if it be

false intelligence!" They all went out, and on the stairs met Madame Morrel, who had been afraid to go up

into the study. In a moment they were at the Cannebiere. There was a crowd on the pier. All the crowd gave

And, wonderful to see, in front of the tower of SaintJean, was a ship bearing on her stern these words,

printed in white letters, "The Pharaon, Morrel Son, of Marseilles." She was the exact duplicate of the other

Pharaon, and loaded, as that had been, with cochineal and indigo. She cast anchor, clued up sails, and on the

deck was Captain Gaumard giving orders, and good old Penelon making signals to M. Morrel. To doubt any

longer was impossible; there was the evidence of the senses, and ten thousand persons who came to

corroborate the testimony. As Morrel and his son embraced on the pierhead, in the presence and amid the

applause of the whole city witnessing this event, a man, with his face halfcovered by a black beard, and

who, concealed behind the sentrybox, watched the scene with delight, uttered these words in a low tone: "Be

happy, noble heart, be blessed for all the good thou hast done and wilt do hereafter, and let my gratitude

And with a smile expressive of supreme content, he left his hidingplace, and without being observed,

descended one of the flights of steps provided for debarkation, and hailing three times, shouted "Jacopo,

Jacopo, Jacopo!" Then a launch came to shore, took him on board, and conveyed him to a yacht splendidly

fitted up, on whose deck he sprung with the activity of a sailor; thence he once again looked towards Morrel,

who, weeping with joy, was shaking hands most cordially with all the crowd around him, and thanking with a

look the unknown benefactor whom he seemed to be seeking in the skies. "And now," said the unknown,

"farewell kindness, humanity, and gratitude! Farewell to all the feelings that expand the heart! I have been

heaven's substitute to recompense the good now the god of vengeance yields to me his power to punish

the wicked!" At these words he gave a signal, and, as if only awaiting this signal, the yacht instantly put out

Towards the beginning of the year 1838, two young men belonging to the first society of Paris, the Vicomte

Albert de Morcerf and the Baron Franz d'Epinay, were at Florence. They had agreed to see the Carnival at

Rome that year, and that Franz, who for the last three or four years had inhabited Italy, should act as cicerone

to Albert. As it is no inconsiderable affair to spend the Carnival at Rome, especially when you have no great

desire to sleep on the Piazza del Popolo, or the Campo Vaccino, they wrote to Signor Pastrini, the proprietor

of the Hotel de Londres, Piazza di Spagna, to reserve comfortable apartments for them. Signor Pastrini

replied that he had only two rooms and a parlor on the third floor, which he offered at the low charge of a

louis per diem. They accepted his offer; but wishing to make the best use of the time that was left, Albert

started for Naples. As for Franz, he remained at Florence, and after having passed a few days in exploring the

paradise of the Cascine, and spending two or three evenings at the houses of the Florentine nobility, he took a

fancy into his head (having already visited Corsica, the cradle of Bonaparte) to visit Elba, the waitingplace

One evening he cast off the painter of a sailboat from the iron ring that secured it to the dock at Leghorn,

wrapped himself in his coat and lay down, and said to the crew, "To the Island of Elba!" The boat shot out

of the harbor like a bird and the next morning Franz disembarked at PortoFerrajo. He traversed the island,

after having followed the traces which the footsteps of the giant have left, and reembarked for Marciana.

Two hours after he again landed at Pianosa, where he was assured that red partridges abounded. The sport

was bad; Franz only succeeded in killing a few partridges, and, like every unsuccessful sportsman, he

returned to the boat very much out of temper. "Ah, if your excellency chose," said the captain, "you might

"Do you see that island?" continued the captain, pointing to a conical pile rising from the indigo sea.

"Ah, indeed!" said the young man. "A desert island in the midst of the Mediterranean must be a curiosity."

"It is very natural; this island is a mass of rocks, and does not contain an acre of land capable of cultivation."

"No, but by browsing the shrubs and trees that grow out of the crevices of the rocks."

"On shore in the grottos, or on board in your cloak; besides, if your excellency pleases, we can leave as soon

as you like we can sail as well by night as by day, and if the wind drops we can use our oars."

As Franz had sufficient time, and his apartments at Rome were not yet available, he accepted the proposition.

Upon his answer in the affirmative, the sailors exchanged a few words together in a low tone. "Well," asked

"No." replied the captain, "but we must warn your excellency that the island is an infected port."

"Monte Cristo although uninhabited, yet serves occasionally as a refuge for the smugglers and pirates who

come from Corsica, Sardinia, and Africa, and if it becomes known that we have been there, we shall have to

"The deuce! That puts a different face on the matter. Six days! Why, that's as long as the Almighty took to

The captain gave his orders, the helm was put up, and the boat was soon sailing in the direction of the island.

Franz waited until all was in order, and when the sail was filled, and the four sailors had taken their places

three forward, and one at the helm he resumed the conversation. "Gaetano," said he to the captain, "you

tell me Monte Cristo serves as a refuge for pirates, who are, it seems to me, a very different kind of game

"I knew there were smugglers, but I thought that since the capture of Algiers, and the destruction of the

"Your excellency is mistaken; there are pirates, like the bandits who were believed to have been exterminated

by Pope Leo XII., and who yet, every day, rob travellers at the gates of Rome. Has not your excellency heard

that the French charge d'affaires was robbed six months ago within five hundred paces of Velletri?"

"Well, then, if, like us, your excellency lived at Leghorn, you would hear, from time to time, that a little

merchant vessel, or an English yacht that was expected at Bastia, at PortoFerrajo, or at Civita Vecchia, has

not arrived; no one knows what has become of it, but, doubtless, it has struck on a rock and foundered. Now

this rock it has met has been a long and narrow boat, manned by six or eight men, who have surprised and

plundered it, some dark and stormy night, near some desert and gloomy island, as bandits plunder a carriage

"But," asked Franz, who lay wrapped in his cloak at the bottom of the boat, "why do not those who have been

"Because, in the first place, they transfer from the vessel to their own boat whatever they think worth taking,

then they bind the crew hand and foot, they attach to every one's neck a four and twenty pound ball, a large

hole is chopped in the vessel's bottom, and then they leave her. At the end of ten minutes the vessel begins to

roll heavily and settle down. First one gun'l goes under, then the other. Then they lift and sink again, and both

go under at once. All at once there's a noise like a cannon that's the air blowing up the deck. Soon the

water rushes out of the scupperholes like a whale spouting, the vessel gives a last groan, spins round and

round, and disappears, forming a vast whirlpool in the ocean, and then all is over, so that in five minutes

nothing but the eye of God can see the vessel where she lies at the bottom of the sea. Do you understand

now," said the captain, "why no complaints are made to the government, and why the vessel never reaches

It is probable that if Gaetano had related this previous to proposing the expedition, Franz would have

hesitated, but now that they had started, he thought it would be cowardly to draw back. He was one of those

men who do not rashly court danger, but if danger presents itself, combat it with the most unalterable

coolness. Calm and resolute, he treated any peril as he would an adversary in a duel, calculated its

probable method of approach; retreated, if at all, as a point of strategy and not from cowardice; was quick to

see an opening for attack, and won victory at a single thrust. "Bah!" said he, "I have travelled through Sicily

and Calabria I have sailed two months in the Archipelago, and yet I never saw even the shadow of a

"I did not tell your excellency this to deter you from your project," replied Gaetano, "but you questioned me,

"Yes, and your conversation is most interesting; and as I wish to enjoy it as long as possible, steer for Monte

The wind blew strongly, the boat made six or seven knots an hour, and they were rapidly reaching the end of

their voyage. As they drew near the island seemed to lift from the sea, and the air was so clear that they could

already distinguish the rocks heaped on one another, like cannon balls in an arsenal, with green bushes and

trees growing in the crevices. As for the sailors, although they appeared perfectly tranquil yet it was evident

that they were on the alert, and that they carefully watched the glassy surface over which they were sailing,

and on which a few fishingboats, with their white sails, were alone visible. They were within fifteen miles

of Monte Cristo when the sun began to set behind Corsica, whose mountains appeared against the sky,

showing their rugged peaks in bold relief; this mass of rock, like the giant Adamastor, rose dead ahead, a

formidable barrier, and intercepting the light that gilded its massive peaks so that the voyagers were in

shadow. Little by little the shadow rose higher and seemed to drive before it the last rays of the expiring day;

at last the reflection rested on the summit of the mountain, where it paused an instant, like the fiery crest of a

volcano, then gloom gradually covered the summit as it had covered the base, and the island now only

appeared to be a gray mountain that grew continually darker; half an hour after, the night was quite dark.

Fortunately, the mariners were used to these latitudes, and knew every rock in the Tuscan Archipelago; for in

the midst of this obscurity Franz was not without uneasiness Corsica had long since disappeared, and

Monte Cristo itself was invisible; but the sailors seemed, like the lynx, to see in the dark, and the pilot who

steered did not evince the slightest hesitation. An hour had passed since the sun had set, when Franz fancied

he saw, at a quarter of a mile to the left, a dark mass, but he could not precisely make out what it was, and

fearing to excite the mirth of the sailors by mistaking a floating cloud for land, he remained silent; suddenly a

great light appeared on the strand; land might resemble a cloud, but the fire was not a meteor. "What is this

"l said there were no fixed habitations on it, but I said also that it served sometimes as a harbor for

"And for pirates," returned Gaetano, repeating Franz's words. "It is for that reason I have given orders to pass

"But this fire?" continued Franz. "It seems to me rather reassuring than otherwise; men who did not wish to

"Oh, that goes for nothing," said Gaetano. "If you can guess the position of the island in the darkness, you

will see that the fire cannot be seen from the side or from Pianosa, but only from the sea."

"That is what we must find out," returned Gaetano, fixing his eyes on this terrestrial star.

"You shall see." Gaetano consulted with his companions, and after five minutes' discussion a manoeuvre was

executed which caused the vessel to tack about, they returned the way they had come, and in a few minutes

the fire disappeared, hidden by an elevation of the land. The pilot again changed the course of the boat, which

rapidly approached the island, and was soon within fifty paces of it. Gaetano lowered the sail, and the boat

came to rest. All this was done in silence, and from the moment that their course was changed not a word was

Gaetano, who had proposed the expedition, had taken all the responsibility on himself; the four sailors fixed

their eyes on him, while they got out their oars and held themselves in readiness to row away, which, thanks

to the darkness, would not be difficult. As for Franz, he examined his arms with the utmost coolness; he had

two doublebarrelled guns and a rifle; he loaded them, looked at the priming, and waited quietly. During this

time the captain had thrown off his vest and shirt, and secured his trousers round his waist; his feet were

naked, so he had no shoes and stockings to take off; after these preparations he placed his finger on his lips,

and lowering himself noiselessly into the sea, swam towards the shore with such precaution that it was

impossible to hear the slightest sound; he could only be traced by the phosphorescent line in his wake. This

track soon disappeared; it was evident that he had touched the shore. Every one on board remained

motionless for half an hour, when the same luminous track was again observed, and the swimmer was soon

"They are Spanish smugglers," said he; "they have with them two Corsican bandits."

"Alas," returned the captain with an accent of the most profound pity, "we ought always to help one another.

Very often the bandits are hard pressed by gendarmes or carbineers; well, they see a vessel, and good fellows

like us on board, they come and demand hospitality of us; you can't refuse help to a poor hunted devil; we

receive them, and for greater security we stand out to sea. This costs us nothing, and saves the life, or at least

the liberty, of a fellowcreature, who on the first occasion returns the service by pointing out some safe spot

"Your excellency, we must live somehow," returned the other, smiling impenetrably.

"Because they are pursued for having made a stiff, as if it was not in a Corsican's nature to revenge himself."

"What do you mean by having made a stiff? having assassinated a man?" said Franz, continuing his

"I mean that they have killed an enemy, which is a very different thing," returned the captain.

"Well," said the young man, "let us demand hospitality of these smugglers and bandits. Do you think they

"Just our number, so that if they prove troublesome, we shall be able to hold them in check; so, for the last

"By all means, be as wise as Nestor and as prudent as Ulysses; I do more than permit, I exhort you."

Every one obeyed. For a man who, like Franz, viewed his position in its true light, it was a grave one. He was

alone in the darkness with sailors whom he did not know, and who had no reason to be devoted to him; who

knew that he had several thousand francs in his belt, and who had often examined his weapons, which

were very beautiful, if not with envy, at least with curiosity. On the other hand, he was about to land,

without any other escort than these men, on an island which had, indeed, a very religious name, but which did

not seem to Franz likely to afford him much hospitality, thanks to the smugglers and bandits. The history of

the scuttled vessels, which had appeared improbable during the day, seemed very probable at night; placed as

he was between two possible sources of danger, he kept his eye on the crew, and his gun in his hand. The

sailors had again hoisted sail, and the vessel was once more cleaving the waves. Through the darkness Franz,

whose eyes were now more accustomed to it, could see the looming shore along which the boat was sailing,

and then, as they rounded a rocky point, he saw the fire more brilliant than ever, and about it five or six

persons seated. The blaze illumined the sea for a hundred paces around. Gaetano skirted the light, carefully

keeping the boat in the shadow; then, when they were opposite the fire, he steered to the centre of the circle,

singing a fishing song, of which his companions sung the chorus. At the first words of the song the men

seated round the fire arose and approached the landingplace, their eyes fixed on the boat, evidently seeking

to know who the newcomers were and what were their intentions. They soon appeared satisfied and

returned (with the exception of one, who remained at the shore) to their fire, at which the carcass of a goat

was roasting. When the boat was within twenty paces of the shore, the man on the beach, who carried a

carbine, presented arms after the manner of a sentinel, and cried, "Who comes there?" in Sardinian. Franz

coolly cocked both barrels. Gaetano then exchanged a few words with this man which the traveller did not

understand, but which evidently concerned him. "Will your excellency give your name, or remain incognito?"

"My name must rest unknown, merely say I am a Frenchman travelling for pleasure." As soon as Gaetano

had transmitted this answer, the sentinel gave an order to one of the men seated round the fire, who rose and

disappeared among the rocks. Not a word was spoken, every one seemed occupied, Franz with his

disembarkment, the sailors with their sails, the smugglers with their goat; but in the midst of all this

carelessness it was evident that they mutually observed each other. The man who had disappeared returned

suddenly on the opposite side to that by which he had left; he made a sign with his head to the sentinel, who,

turning to the boat, said, "S'accommodi." The Italian s'accommodi is untranslatable; it means at once, "Come,

enter, you are welcome; make yourself at home; you are the master." It is like that Turkish phrase of

Moliere's that so astonished the bourgeois gentleman by the number of things implied in its utterance. The

sailors did not wait for a second invitation; four strokes of the oar brought them to land; Gaetano sprang to

shore, exchanged a few words with the sentinel, then his comrades disembarked, and lastly came Franz. One

of his guns was swung over his shoulder, Gaetano had the other, and a sailor held his rifle; his dress, half

artist, half dandy, did not excite any suspicion, and, consequently, no disquietude. The boat was moored to

the shore, and they advanced a few paces to find a comfortable bivouac; but, doubtless, the spot they chose

did not suit the smuggler who filled the post of sentinel, for he cried out, "Not that way, if you please."

Gaetano faltered an excuse, and advanced to the opposite side, while two sailors kindled torches at the fire to

light them on their way. They advanced about thirty paces, and then stopped at a small esplanade surrounded

with rocks, in which seats had been cut, not unlike sentryboxes. Around in the crevices of the rocks grew a

few dwarf oaks and thick bushes of myrtles. Franz lowered a torch, and saw by the mass of cinders that had

accumulated that he was not the first to discover this retreat, which was, doubtless, one of the haltingplaces

of the wandering visitors of Monte Cristo. As for his suspicions, once on terra firma, once that he had seen

the indifferent, if not friendly, appearance of his hosts, his anxiety had quite disappeared, or rather, at sight of

the goat, had turned to appetite. He mentioned this to Gaetano, who replied that nothing could be more easy

than to prepare a supper when they had in their boat, bread, wine, half a dozen partridges, and a good fire to

roast them by. "Besides," added he, "if the smell of their roast meat tempts you, I will go and offer them two

Meanwhile the sailors had collected dried sticks and branches with which they made a fire. Franz waited

impatiently, inhaling the aroma of the roasted meat, when the captain returned with a mysterious air.

"On the contrary," returned Gaetano, "the chief, who was told you were a young Frenchman, invites you to

"Well," observed Franz, "this chief is very polite, and I see no objection the more so as I bring my share

"Oh, it is not that; he has plenty, and to spare, for supper; but he makes one condition, and rather a peculiar

"That you are blindfolded, and do not take off the bandage until he himself bids you." Franz looked at

Gaetano, to see, if possible, what he thought of this proposal. "Ah," replied he, guessing Franz's thought, "I

"Listen," said Gaetano, lowering his voice, "I do not know if what they say is true" he stopped to see if

"It is no nonsense; it is quite true. Cama, the pilot of the Saint Ferdinand, went in once, and he came back

"Do you know," observed Franz, "that with such stories you make me think of Ali Baba's enchanted cavern?"

"Oh, I don't say that; your excellency will do as you please; I should be sorry to advise you in the matter."

Franz pondered the matter for a few moments, concluded that a man so rich could not have any intention of

plundering him of what little he had, and seeing only the prospect of a good supper, accepted. Gaetano

departed with the reply. Franz was prudent, and wished to learn all he possibly could concerning his host. He

turned towards the sailor, who, during this dialogue, had sat gravely plucking the partridges with the air of a

man proud of his office, and asked him how these men had landed, as no vessel of any kind was visible.

"About a hundred tons; but she is built to stand any weather. She is what the English call a yacht."

"And how did a leader of smugglers," continued Franz, "venture to build a vessel designed for such a purpose

"Gaetano had only seen the vessel from a distance, he had not then spoken to any one."

"Come," thought Franz, "he is still more mysterious, since the two accounts do not agree."

"Have you never had the curiosity, when you have landed and found this island deserted, to seek for this

"Oh, yes, more than once, but always in vain; we examined the grotto all over, but we never could find the

slightest trace of any opening; they say that the door is not opened by a key, but a magic word."

"His excellency waits for you," said a voice, which he recognized as that of the sentinel. He was accompanied

by two of the yacht's crew. Franz drew his handkerchief from his pocket, and presented it to the man who had

spoken to him. Without uttering a word, they bandaged his eyes with a care that showed their apprehensions

of his committing some indiscretion. Afterwards he was made to promise that he would not make the least

attempt to raise the bandage. He promised. Then his two guides took his arms, and he went on, guided by

them, and preceded by the sentinel. After going about thirty paces, he smelt the appetizing odor of the kid

that was roasting, and knew thus that he was passing the bivouac; they then led him on about fifty paces

farther, evidently advancing towards that part of the shore where they would not allow Gaetano to go a

refusal he could now comprehend. Presently, by a change in the atmosphere, he knew that they were entering

a cave; after going on for a few seconds more he heard a crackling, and it seemed to him as though the

atmosphere again changed, and became balmy and perfumed. At length his feet touched on a thick and soft

carpet, and his guides let go their hold of him. There was a moment's silence, and then a voice, in excellent

French, although, with a foreign accent, said, "Welcome, sir. I beg you will remove your bandage." It may be

supposed, then, Franz did not wait for a repetition of this permission, but took off the handkerchief, and

found himself in the presence of a man from thirtyeight to forty years of age, dressed in a Tunisian costume

that is to say, a red cap with a long blue silk tassel, a vest of black cloth embroidered with gold,

pantaloons of deep red, large and full gaiters of the same color, embroidered with gold like the vest, and

yellow slippers; he had a splendid cashmere round his waist, and a small sharp and crooked cangiar was

passed through his girdle. Although of a paleness that was almost livid, this man had a remarkably handsome

face; his eyes were penetrating and sparkling; his nose, quite straight, and projecting direct from the brow,

was of the pure Greek type, while his teeth, as white as pearls, were set off to admiration by the black

His pallor was so peculiar, that it seemed to pertain to one who had been long entombed, and who was

incapable of resuming the healthy glow and hue of life. He was not particularly tall, but extremely well made,

and, like the men of the south, had small hands and feet. But what astonished Franz, who had treated

Gaetano's description as a fable, was the splendor of the apartment in which he found himself. The entire

chamber was lined with crimson brocade, worked with flowers of gold. In a recess was a kind of divan,

surmounted with a stand of Arabian swords in silver scabbards, and the handles resplendent with gems; from

the ceiling hung a lamp of Venetian glass, of beautiful shape and color, while the feet rested on a Turkey

carpet, in which they sunk to the instep; tapestry hung before the door by which Franz had entered, and also

in front of another door, leading into a second apartment which seemed to be brilliantly illuminated. The host

gave Franz time to recover from his surprise, and, moreover, returned look for look, not even taking his eyes

off him. "Sir," he said, after a pause, "a thousand excuses for the precaution taken in your introduction hither;

but as, during the greater portion of the year, this island is deserted, if the secret of this abode were

discovered. I should doubtless, find on my return my temporary retirement in a state of great disorder, which

would be exceedingly annoying, not for the loss it occasioned me, but because I should not have the certainty

I now possess of separating myself from all the rest of mankind at pleasure. Let me now endeavor to make

you forget this temporary unpleasantness, and offer you what no doubt you did not expect to find here that

"Ma foi, my dear sir," replied Franz, "make no apologies. I have always observed that they bandage people's

eyes who penetrate enchanted palaces, for instance, those of Raoul in the `Huguenots,' and really I have

nothing to complain of, for what I see makes me think of the wonders of the `Arabian Nights.'"

"Alas, I may say with Lucullus, if I could have anticipated the honor of your visit, I would have prepared for

it. But such as is my hermitage, it is at your disposal; such as is my supper, it is yours to share, if you will.

Ali, is the supper ready?" At this moment the tapestry moved aside, and a Nubian, black as ebony, and

dressed in a plain white tunic, made a sign to his master that all was prepared in the diningroom. "Now,"

said the unknown to Franz, "I do not know if you are of my opinion, but I think nothing is more annoying

than to remain two or three hours together without knowing by name or appellation how to address one

another. Pray observe, that I too much respect the laws of hospitality to ask your name or title. I only request

you to give me one by which I may have the pleasure of addressing you. As for myself, that I may put you at

"And I," replied Franz, "will tell you, as I only require his wonderful lamp to make me precisely like Aladdin,

that I see no reason why at this moment I should not be called Aladdin. That will keep us from going away

from the East whither I am tempted to think I have been conveyed by some good genius."

"Well, then, Signor Aladdin," replied the singular amphitryon, "you heard our repast announced, will you

now take the trouble to enter the diningroom, your humble servant going first to show the way?" At these

words, moving aside the tapestry, Sinbad preceded his guest. Franz now looked upon another scene of

enchantment; the table was splendidly covered, and once convinced of this important point he cast his eyes

around him. The diningroom was scarcely less striking than the room he had just left; it was entirely of

marble, with antique basreliefs of priceless value; and at the four corners of this apartment, which was

oblong, were four magnificent statues, having baskets in their hands. These baskets contained four pyramids

of most splendid fruit; there were Sicily pineapples, pomegranates from Malaga, oranges from the Balearic

Isles, peaches from France, and dates from Tunis. The supper consisted of a roast pheasant garnished with

Corsican blackbirds; a boar's ham with jelly, a quarter of a kid with tartar sauce, a glorious turbot, and a

gigantic lobster. Between these large dishes were smaller ones containing various dainties. The dishes were

Franz rubbed his eyes in order to assure himself that this was not a dream. Ali alone was present to wait at

table, and acquitted himself so admirably, that the guest complimented his host thereupon. "Yes," replied he,

while he did the honors of the supper with much ease and grace "yes, he is a poor devil who is much

devoted to me, and does all he can to prove it. He remembers that I saved his life, and as he has a regard for

his head, he feels some gratitude towards me for having kept it on his shoulders." Ali approached his master,

"Would it be impertinent, Signor Sinbad," said Franz, "to ask you the particulars of this kindness?"

"Oh, they are simple enough," replied the host. "It seems the fellow had been caught wandering nearer to the

harem of the Bey of Tunis than etiquette permits to one of his color, and he was condemned by the bey to

have his tongue cut out, and his hand and head cut off; the tongue the first day, the hand the second, and the

head the third. I always had a desire to have a mute in my service, so learning the day his tongue was cut out,

I went to the bey, and proposed to give him for Ali a splendid doublebarreled gun which I knew he was very

desirous of having. He hesitated a moment, he was so very desirous to complete the poor devil's punishment.

But when I added to the gun an English cutlass with which I had shivered his highness's yataghan to pieces,

the bey yielded, and agreed to forgive the hand and head, but on condition that the poor fellow never again

set foot in Tunis. This was a useless clause in the bargain, for whenever the coward sees the first glimpse of

the shores of Africa, he runs down below, and can only be induced to appear again when we are out of sight

Franz remained a moment silent and pensive, hardly knowing what to think of the halfkindness,

halfcruelty, with which his host related the brief narrative. "And like the celebrated sailor whose name you

have assumed," he said, by way of changing the conversation, "you pass your life in travelling?"

"Yes. I made a vow at a time when I little thought I should ever be able to accomplish it," said the unknown

with a singular smile; "and I made some others also which I hope I may fulfil in due season." Although

Sinbad pronounced these words with much calmness, his eyes gave forth gleams of extraordinary ferocity.

Sinbad started and looked fixedly at him, as he replied, "What makes you suppose so?"

"Everything," answered Franz, "your voice, your look, your pallid complexion, and even the life you

"I? I live the happiest life possible, the real life of a pasha. I am king of all creation. I am pleased with one

place, and stay there; I get tired of it, and leave it; I am free as a bird and have wings like one; my attendants

obey my slightest wish. Sometimes I amuse myself by delivering some bandit or criminal from the bonds of

the law. Then I have my mode of dispensing justice, silent and sure, without respite or appeal, which

condemns or pardons, and which no one sees. Ah, if you had tasted my life, you would not desire any other,

and would never return to the world unless you had some great project to accomplish there."

The unknown fixed on the young man one of those looks which penetrate into the depth of the heart and

"Because," replied Franz, "you seem to me like a man who, persecuted by society, has a fearful account to

"Ah," responded Sinbad, laughing with his singular laugh which displayed his white and sharp teeth. "You

have not guessed rightly. Such as you see me I am, a sort of philosopher, and one day perhaps I shall go to

"Yes; it will. I must seem to you by no means curious, but I assure you that it is not my fault I have delayed it

"I do not know; it depends on circumstances which depend on certain arrangements."

"I should like to be there at the time you come, and I will endeavor to repay you, as far as lies in my power,

"I should avail myself of your offer with pleasure," replied the host, "but, unfortunately, if I go there, it will

The supper appeared to have been supplied solely for Franz, for the unknown scarcely touched one or two

dishes of the splendid banquet to which his guest did ample justice. Then Ali brought on the dessert, or rather

took the baskets from the hands of the statues and placed them on the table. Between the two baskets he

placed a small silver cup with a silver cover. The care with which Ali placed this cup on the table roused

Franz's curiosity. He raised the cover and saw a kind of greenish paste, something like preserved angelica, but

which was perfectly unknown to him. He replaced the lid, as ignorant of what the cup contained as he was

before he had looked at it, and then casting his eyes towards his host he saw him smile at his disappointment.

"Well, then, that green preserve is nothing less than the ambrosia which Hebe served at the table of Jupiter."

"But," replied Franz, "this ambrosia, no doubt, in passing through mortal hands has lost its heavenly

appellation and assumed a human name; in vulgar phrase, what may you term this composition, for which, to

"Ah, thus it is that our material origin is revealed," cried Sinbad; "we frequently pass so near to happiness

without seeing, without regarding it, or if we do see and regard it, yet without recognizing it. Are you a man

for the substantials, and is gold your god? taste this, and the mines of Peru, Guzerat, and Golconda are

opened to you. Are you a man of imagination a poet? taste this, and the boundaries of possibility

disappear; the fields of infinite space open to you, you advance free in heart, free in mind, into the boundless

realms of unfettered revery. Are you ambitious, and do you seek after the greatnesses of the earth? taste this,

and in an hour you will be a king, not a king of a petty kingdom hidden in some corner of Europe like France,

Spain, or England, but king of the world, king of the universe, king of creation; without bowing at the feet of

Satan, you will be king and master of all the kingdoms of the earth. Is it not tempting what I offer you, and is

it not an easy thing, since it is only to do thus? look!" At these words he uncovered the small cup which

contained the substance so lauded, took a teaspoonful of the magic sweetmeat, raised it to his lips, and

swallowed it slowly with his eyes half shut and his head bent backwards. Franz did not disturb him whilst he

absorbed his favorite sweetmeat, but when he had finished, he inquired, "What, then, is this precious

"Did you ever hear," he replied, "of the Old Man of the Mountain, who attempted to assassinate Philip

"Well, you know he reigned over a rich valley which was overhung by the mountain whence he derived his

picturesque name. In this valley were magnificent gardens planted by HassenbenSabah, and in these

gardens isolated pavilions. Into these pavilions he admitted the elect, and there, says Marco Polo, gave them

to eat a certain herb, which transported them to Paradise, in the midst of everblooming shrubs, everripe

fruit, and everlovely virgins. What these happy persons took for reality was but a dream; but it was a dream

so soft, so voluptuous, so enthralling, that they sold themselves body and soul to him who gave it to them,

and obedient to his orders as to those of a deity, struck down the designated victim, died in torture without a

murmur, believing that the death they underwent was but a quick transition to that life of delights of which

"That is it precisely, Signor Aladdin; it is hashish the purest and most unadulterated hashish of

Alexandria, the hashish of AbouGor, the celebrated maker, the only man, the man to whom there should

be built a palace, inscribed with these words, `A grateful world to the dealer in happiness.'"

"Do you know," said Franz, "I have a very great inclination to judge for myself of the truth or exaggeration of

"Judge for yourself, Signor Aladdin judge, but do not confine yourself to one trial. Like everything else,

we must habituate the senses to a fresh impression, gentle or violent, sad or joyous. There is a struggle in

nature against this divine substance, in nature which is not made for joy and clings to pain. Nature

subdued must yield in the combat, the dream must succeed to reality, and then the dream reigns supreme,

then the dream becomes life, and life becomes the dream. But what changes occur! It is only by comparing

the pains of actual being with the joys of the assumed existence, that you would desire to live no longer, but

to dream thus forever. When you return to this mundane sphere from your visionary world, you would seem

to leave a Neapolitan spring for a Lapland winter to quit paradise for earth heaven for hell! Taste the

Franz's only reply was to take a teaspoonful of the marvellous preparation, about as much in quantity as his

host had eaten, and lift it to his mouth. "Diable!" he said, after having swallowed the divine preserve. "I do

not know if the result will be as agreeable as you describe, but the thing does not appear to me as palatable as

"Because your palate his not yet been attuned to the sublimity of the substances it flavors. Tell me, the first

time you tasted oysters, tea, porter, truffles, and sundry other dainties which you now adore, did you like

them? Could you comprehend how the Romans stuffed their pheasants with assafoetida, and the Chinese eat

swallows' nests? Eh? no! Well, it is the same with hashish; only eat for a week, and nothing in the world will

seem to you to equal the delicacy of its flavor, which now appears to you flat and distasteful. Let us now go

into the adjoining chamber, which is your apartment, and Ali will bring us coffee and pipes." They both

arose, and while he who called himself Sinbad and whom we have occasionally named so, that we might,

like his guest, have some title by which to distinguish him gave some orders to the servant, Franz entered

still another apartment. It was simply yet richly furnished. It was round, and a large divan completely

encircled it. Divan, walls, ceiling, floor, were all covered with magnificent skins as soft and downy as the

richest carpets; there were heavymaned lionskins from Atlas, striped tigerskins from Bengal;

pantherskins from the Cape, spotted beautifully, like those that appeared to Dante; bearskins from Siberia,

foxskins from Norway, and so on; and all these skins were strewn in profusion one on the other, so that it

seemed like walking over the most mossy turf, or reclining on the most luxurious bed. Both laid themselves

down on the divan; chibouques with jasmine tubes and amber mouthpieces were within reach, and all

prepared so that there was no need to smoke the same pipe twice. Each of them took one, which Ali lighted

and then retired to prepare the coffee. There was a moment's silence, during which Sinbad gave himself up to

thoughts that seemed to occupy him incessantly, even in the midst of his conversation; and Franz abandoned

himself to that mute revery, into which we always sink when smoking excellent tobacco, which seems to

remove with its fume all the troubles of the mind, and to give the smoker in exchange all the visions of the

soul. Ali brought in the coffee. "How do you take it?" inquired the unknown; "in the French or Turkish style,

strong or weak, sugar or none, cool or boiling? As you please; it is ready in all ways."

"And you are right," said his host; "it shows you have a tendency for an Oriental life. Ah, those Orientals;

they are the only men who know how to live. As for me," he added, with one of those singular smiles which

did not escape the young man, "when I have completed my affairs in Paris, I shall go and die in the East; and

should you wish to see me again, you must seek me at Cairo, Bagdad, or Ispahan."

"Ma foi," said Franz, "it would be the easiest thing in the world; for I feel eagle's wings springing out at my

shoulders, and with those wings I could make a tour of the world in four and twenty hours."

"Ah, yes, the hashish is beginning its work. Well, unfurl your wings, and fly into superhuman regions; fear

nothing, there is a watch over you; and if your wings, like those of Icarus, melt before the sun, we are here to

ease your fall." He then said something in Arabic to Ali, who made a sign of obedience and withdrew, but not

to any distance. As to Franz a strange transformation had taken place in him. All the bodily fatigue of the day,

all the preoccupation of mind which the events of the evening had brought on, disappeared as they do at the

first approach of sleep, when we are still sufficiently conscious to be aware of the coming of slumber. His

body seemed to acquire an airy lightness, his perception brightened in a remarkable manner, his senses

seemed to redouble their power, the horizon continued to expand; but it was not the gloomy horizon of vague

alarms, and which he had seen before he slept, but a blue, transparent, unbounded horizon, with all the blue

of the ocean, all the spangles of the sun, all the perfumes of the summer breeze; then, in the midst of the

songs of his sailors, songs so clear and sonorous, that they would have made a divine harmony had their

notes been taken down, he saw the Island of Monte Cristo, no longer as a threatening rock in the midst of

the waves, but as an oasis in the desert; then, as his boat drew nearer, the songs became louder, for an

enchanting and mysterious harmony rose to heaven, as if some Loreley had decreed to attract a soul thither,

At length the boat touched the shore, but without effort, without shock, as lips touch lips; and he entered the

grotto amidst continued strains of most delicious melody. He descended, or rather seemed to descend, several

steps, inhaling the fresh and balmy air, like that which may be supposed to reign around the grotto of Circe,

formed from such perfumes as set the mind a dreaming, and such fires as burn the very senses; and he saw

again all he had seen before his sleep, from Sinbad, his singular host, to Ali, the mute attendant; then all

seemed to fade away and become confused before his eyes, like the last shadows of the magic lantern before

it is extinguished, and he was again in the chamber of statues, lighted only by one of those pale and antique

lamps which watch in the dead of the night over the sleep of pleasure. They were the same statues, rich in

form, in attraction. and poesy, with eyes of fascination, smiles of love, and bright and flowing hair. They

were Phryne, Cleopatra, Messalina, those three celebrated courtesans. Then among them glided like a pure

ray, like a Christian angel in the midst of Olympus, one of those chaste figures, those calm shadows, those

soft visions, which seemed to veil its virgin brow before these marble wantons. Then the three statues

advanced towards him with looks of love, and approached the couch on which he was reposing, their feet

hidden in their long white tunics, their throats bare, hair flowing like waves, and assuming attitudes which the

gods could not resist, but which saints withstood, and looks inflexible and ardent like those with which the

serpent charms the bird; and then he gave way before looks that held him in a torturing grasp and delighted

his senses as with a voluptuous kiss. It seemed to Franz that he closed his eyes, and in a last look about him

saw the vision of modesty completely veiled; and then followed a dream of passion like that promised by the

Prophet to the elect. Lips of stone turned to flame, breasts of ice became like heated lava, so that to Franz,

yielding for the first time to the sway of the drug, love was a sorrow and voluptuousness a torture, as burning

mouths were pressed to his thirsty lips, and he was held in cool serpentlike embraces. The more he strove

against this unhallowed passion the more his senses yielded to its thrall, and at length, weary of a struggle

that taxed his very soul, he gave way and sank back breathless and exhausted beneath the kisses of these

When Franz returned to himself, he seemed still to be in a dream. He thought himself in a sepulchre, into

which a ray of sunlight in pity scarcely penetrated. He stretched forth his hand, and touched stone; he rose to

his seat, and found himself lying on his bournous in a bed of dry heather, very soft and odoriferous. The

vision had fled; and as if the statues had been but shadows from the tomb, they had vanished at his waking.

He advanced several paces towards the point whence the light came, and to all the excitement of his dream

succeeded the calmness of reality. He found that he was in a grotto, went towards the opening, and through a

kind of fanlight saw a blue sea and an azure sky. The air and water were shining in the beams of the morning

sun; on the shore the sailors were sitting, chatting and laughing; and at ten yards from them the boat was at

anchor, undulating gracefully on the water. There for some time he enjoyed the fresh breeze which played on

his brow, and listened to the dash of the waves on the beach, that left against the rocks a lace of foam as white

as silver. He was for some time without reflection or thought for the divine charm which is in the things of

nature, specially after a fantastic dream; then gradually this view of the outer world, so calm, so pure, so

grand, reminded him of the illusiveness of his vision, and once more awakened memory. He recalled his

arrival on the island, his presentation to a smuggler chief, a subterranean palace full of splendor, an excellent

supper, and a spoonful of hashish. It seemed, however, even in the very face of open day, that at least a year

had elapsed since all these things had passed, so deep was the impression made in his mind by the dream, and

so strong a hold had it taken of his imagination. Thus every now and then he saw in fancy amid the sailors,

seated on a rock, or undulating in the vessel, one of the shadows which had shared his dream with looks and

kisses. Otherwise, his head was perfectly clear, and his body refreshed; he was free from the slightest

headache; on the contrary, he felt a certain degree of lightness, a faculty for absorbing the pure air, and

He went gayly up to the sailors, who rose as soon as they perceived him; and the patron, accosting him, said,

"The Signor Sinbad has left his compliments for your excellency, and desires us to express the regret he feels

at not being able to take his leave in person; but he trusts you will excuse him, as very important business

"So, then, Gaetano," said Franz, "this is, then, all reality; there exists a man who has received me in this

"He exists as certainly as that you may see his small yacht with all her sails spread; and if you will use your

glass, you will, in all probability, recognize your host in the midst of his crew." So saying, Gaetano pointed in

a direction in which a small vessel was making sail towards the southern point of Corsica. Franz adjusted his

telescope, and directed it towards the yacht. Gaetano was not mistaken. At the stern the mysterious stranger

was standing up looking towards the shore, and holding a spyglass in his hand. He was attired as he had

been on the previous evening, and waved his pockethandkerchief to his guest in token of adieu. Franz

returned the salute by shaking his handkerchief as an exchange of signals. After a second, a slight cloud of

smoke was seen at the stern of the vessel, which rose gracefully as it expanded in the air, and then Franz

heard a slight report. "There, do you hear?" observed Gaetano; "he is bidding you adieu." The young man

took his carbine and fired it in the air, but without any idea that the noise could be heard at the distance which

"Ah, yes, I understand," replied the patron, "to find the entrance to the enchanted apartment. With much

pleasure, your excellency, if it would amuse you; and I will get you the torch you ask for. But I too have had

the idea you have, and two or three times the same fancy has come over me; but I have always given it up.

Giovanni obeyed. Franz took the lamp, and entered the subterranean grotto, followed by Gaetano. He

recognized the place where he had awaked by the bed of heather that was there; but it was in vain that he

carried his torch all round the exterior surface of the grotto. He saw nothing, unless that, by traces of smoke,

others had before him attempted the same thing, and, like him, in vain. Yet he did not leave a foot of this

granite wall, as impenetrable as futurity, without strict scrutiny; he did not see a fissure without introducing

the blade of his hunting sword into it, or a projecting point on which he did not lean and press in the hopes it

would give way. All was vain; and he lost two hours in his attempts, which were at last utterly useless. At the

When Franz appeared again on the shore, the yacht only seemed like a small white speck on the horizon. He

looked again through his glass, but even then he could not distinguish anything. Gaetano reminded him that

he had come for the purpose of shooting goats, which he had utterly forgotten. He took his fowlingpiece,

and began to hunt over the island with the air of a man who is fulfilling a duty, rather than enjoying a

pleasure; and at the end of a quarter of an hour he had killed a goat and two kids. These animals, though wild

and agile as chamois, were too much like domestic goats, and Franz could not consider them as game.

Moreover, other ideas, much more enthralling, occupied his mind. Since, the evening before, he had really

been the hero of one of the tales of the "Thousand and One Nights," and he was irresistibly attracted towards

the grotto. Then, in spite of the failure of his first search, he began a second, after having told Gaetano to

roast one of the two kids. The second visit was a long one, and when he returned the kid was roasted and the

repast ready. Franz was sitting on the spot where he was on the previous evening when his mysterious host

had invited him to supper; and he saw the little yacht, now like a seagull on the wave, continuing her flight

towards Corsica. "Why," he remarked to Gaetano, "you told me that Signor Sinbad was going to Malaga,

"Don't you remember," said the patron, "I told you that among the crew there were two Corsican brigands?"

"Precisely so," replied Gaetano. "Ah, he is one who fears neither God nor Satan, they say, and would at any

"But such services as these might involve him with the authorities of the country in which he practices this

"And what cares he for that," replied Gaetano with a laugh, "or any authorities? He smiles at them. Let them

try to pursue him! Why, in the first place, his yacht is not a ship, but a bird, and he would beat any frigate

three knots in every nine; and if he were to throw himself on the coast, why, is he not certain of finding

It was perfectly clear that the Signor Sinbad, Franz's host, had the honor of being on excellent terms with the

smugglers and bandits along the whole coast of the Mediterranean, and so enjoyed exceptional privileges. As

to Franz, he had no longer any inducement to remain at Monte Cristo. He had lost all hope of detecting the

secret of the grotto; he consequently despatched his breakfast, and, his boat being ready, he hastened on

board, and they were soon under way. At the moment the boat began her course they lost sight of the yacht,

as it disappeared in the gulf of PortoVecchio. With it was effaced the last trace of the preceding night; and

then supper, Sinbad, hashish, statues, all became a dream for Franz. The boat sailed on all day and all

night, and next morning, when the sun rose, they had lost sight of Monte Cristo. When Franz had once again

set foot on shore, he forgot, for the moment at least, the events which had just passed, while he finished his

affairs of pleasure at Florence, and then thought of nothing but how he should rejoin his companion, who was

He set out, and on the Saturday evening reached the Eternal City by the mailcoach. An apartment, as we

have said, had been retained beforehand, and thus he had but to go to Signor Pastrini's hotel. But this was not

so easy a matter, for the streets were thronged with people, and Rome was already a prey to that low and

feverish murmur which precedes all great events; and at Rome there are four great events in every year,

the Carnival, Holy Week, Corpus Christi, and the Feast of St. Peter. All the rest of the year the city is in that

state of dull apathy, between life and death, which renders it similar to a kind of station between this world

and the next a sublime spot, a restingplace full of poetry and character, and at which Franz had already

halted five or six times, and at each time found it more marvellous and striking. At last he made his way

through the mob, which was continually increasing and getting more and more turbulent, and reached the

hotel. On his first inquiry he was told, with the impertinence peculiar to hired hackneycoachmen and

innkeepers with their houses full, that there was no room for him at the Hotel de Londres. Then he sent his

card to Signor Pastrini, and asked for Albert de Morcerf. This plan succeeded; and Signor Pastrini himself ran

to him, excusing himself for having made his excellency wait, scolding the waiters, taking the candlestick

from the porter, who was ready to pounce on the traveller and was about to lead him to Albert, when Morcerf

The apartment consisted of two small rooms and a parlor. The two rooms looked onto the street a fact

which Signor Pastrini commented upon as an inappreciable advantage. The rest of the floor was hired by a

very rich gentleman who was supposed to be a Sicilian or Maltese; but the host was unable to decide to which

of the two nations the traveller belonged. "Very good, signor Pastrini," said Franz; "but we must have some

"As to supper," replied the landlord, "you shall be served immediately; but as for the carriage"

"What as to the carriage?" exclaimed Albert. "Come, come, Signor Pastrini, no joking; we must have a

"Sir," replied the host, "we will do all in our power to procure you one this is all I can say."

"Oh, the deuce! then we shall pay the more, that's all, I see plainly enough. At Drake's or Aaron's one pays

twentyfive lire for common days, and thirty or thirtyfive lire a day more for Sundays and feast days; add

five lire a day more for extras, that will make forty, and there's an end of it."

"Then they must put horses to mine. It is a little worse for the journey, but that's no matter."

"There are no horses." Albert looked at Franz like a man who hears a reply he does not understand.

"Do you understand that, my dear Franz no horses?" he said, "but can't we have posthorses?"

"They have been all hired this fortnight, and there are none left but those absolutely requisite for posting."

"I say, that when a thing completely surpasses my comprehension, I am accustomed not to dwell on that

"Be easy, my dear boy; they will come in due season; it is only a question of how much shall be charged for

them." Morcerf then, with that delighted philosophy which believes that nothing is impossible to a full purse

or welllined pocketbook, supped, went to bed, slept soundly, and dreamed he was racing all over Rome at

The next morning Franz woke first, and instantly rang the bell. The sound had not yet died away when Signor

"Well, excellency," said the landlord triumphantly, and without waiting for Franz to question him, "I feared

yesterday, when I would not promise you anything, that you were too late there is not a single carriage to

"That is to say, excellency," replied Pastrini, who was desirous of keeping up the dignity of the capital of the

Christian world in the eyes of his guest, "that there are no carriages to be had from Sunday to Tuesday

"Ah, that is something," said Albert; "today is Thursday, and who knows what may arrive between this and

"Ten or twelve thousand travellers will arrive," replied Franz, "which will make it still more difficult."

"My friend," said Morcerf, "let us enjoy the present without gloomy forebodings for the future."

"Ah, a window!" exclaimed Signor Pastrini, "utterly impossible; there was only one left on the fifth floor

of the Doria Palace, and that has been let to a Russian prince for twenty sequins a day."

"Well," said Franz to Albert, "do you know what is the best thing we can do? It is to pass the Carnival at

"Ah, the devil, no," cried Albert; "I came to Rome to see the Carnival, and I will, though I see it on stilts."

"Bravo! an excellent idea. We will disguise ourselves as monster pulchinellos or shepherds of the Landes,

"Parbleu!" said Albert, "do you think we are going to run about on foot in the streets of Rome, like lawyer's

"I hasten to comply with your excellencies' wishes; only, I tell you beforehand, the carriage will cost you six

"And, as I am not a millionaire, like the gentleman in the next apartments," said Franz, "I warn you, that as I

have been four times before at Rome, I know the prices of all the carriages; we will give you twelve piastres

"Now go," returned Franz, "or I shall go myself and bargain with your affettatore, who is mine also; he is an

old friend of mine, who has plundered me pretty well already, and, in the hope of making more out of me, he

will take a less price than the one I offer you; you will lose the preference, and that will be your fault."

"Do not give yourselves the trouble, excellency," returned Signor Pastrini, with the smile peculiar to the

Italian speculator when he confesses defeat; "I will do all I can, and I hope you will be satisfied."

An hour after the vehicle was at the door; it was a hack conveyance which was elevated to the rank of a

private carriage in honor of the occasion, but, in spite of its humble exterior, the young men would have

thought themselves happy to have secured it for the last three days of the Carnival. "Excellency," cried the

cicerone, seeing Franz approach the window, "shall I bring the carriage nearer to the palace?"

Accustomed as Franz was to the Italian phraseology, his first impulse was to look round him, but these words

were addressed to him. Franz was the "excellency," the vehicle was the "carriage," and the Hotel de Londres

was the "palace." The genius for laudation characteristic of the race was in that phrase.

Franz and Albert descended, the carriage approached the palace; their excellencies stretched their legs along

the seats; the cicerone sprang into the seat behind. "Where do your excellencies wish to go?" asked he.

"To Saint Peter's first, and then to the Colosseum," returned Albert. But Albert did not know that it takes a

day to see Saint Peter's, and a month to study it. The day was passed at Saint Peter's alone. Suddenly the

daylight began to fade away; Franz took out his watch it was halfpast four. They returned to the hotel; at

the door Franz ordered the coachman to be ready at eight. He wished to show Albert the Colosseum by

moonlight, as he had shown him Saint Peter's by daylight. When we show a friend a city one has already

visited, we feel the same pride as when we point out a woman whose lover we have been. He was to leave the

city by the Porta del Popolo, skirt the outer wall, and reenter by the Porta San Giovanni; thus they would

behold the Colosseum without finding their impressions dulled by first looking on the Capitol, the Forum, the

Arch of Septimus Severus, the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina, and the Via Sacra. They sat down to

dinner. Signor Pastrini had promised them a banquet; he gave them a tolerable repast. At the end of the dinner

he entered in person. Franz thought that he came to hear his dinner praised, and began accordingly, but at the

first words he was interrupted. "Excellency," said Pastrini, "I am delighted to have your approbation, but it

"Did you come to tell us you have procured a carriage?" asked Albert, lighting his cigar.

"No; and your excellencies will do well not to think of that any longer; at Rome things can or cannot be done;

"It is much more convenient at Paris, when anything cannot be done, you pay double, and it is done

"That is what all the French say," returned Signor Pastrini, somewhat piqued; "for that reason, I do not

"But," said Albert, emitting a volume of smoke and balancing his chair on its hind legs, "only madmen, or

blockheads like us, ever do travel. Men in their senses do not quit their hotel in the Rue du Helder, their walk

on the Boulevard de Gand, and the Cafe de Paris." It is of course understood that Albert resided in the

aforesaid street, appeared every day on the fashionable walk, and dined frequently at the only restaurant

where you can really dine, that is, if you are on good terms with its frequenters. Signor Pastrini remained

silent a short time; it was evident that he was musing over this answer, which did not seem very clear. "But,"

said Franz, in his turn interrupting his host's meditations, "you had some motive for coming here, may I beg

"It is the same thing. You have told your coachman to leave the city by the Porta del Popolo, to drive round

"Pray, who may this famous Luigi Vampa be?" inquired Albert; "he may be very famous at Rome, but I can

"Well, then, he is a bandit, compared to whom the Decesaris and the Gasparones were mere children."

"I forewarn you, Signor Pastrini, that I shall not believe one word of what you are going to tell us; having told

"Well, go on." Signor Pastrini turned toward Franz, who seemed to him the more reasonable of the two; we

must do him justice, he had had a great many Frenchmen in his house, but had never been able to

comprehend them. "Excellency," said he gravely, addressing Franz, "if you look upon me as a liar, it is

"Albert does not say you are a liar, Signor Pastrini," said Franz, "but that he will not believe what you are

"Signor Pastrini," returned Franz, "you are more susceptible than Cassandra, who was a prophetess, and yet

no one believed her; while you, at least, are sure of the credence of half your audience. Come, sit down, and

"I had told your excellency he is the most famous bandit we have had since the days of Mastrilla."

"Well, what has this bandit to do with the order I have given the coachman to leave the city by the Porta del

"This," replied Signor Pastrini, "that you will go out by one, but I very much doubt your returning by the

"Count," returned Signor Pastrini, hurt at Albert's repeated doubts of the truth of his assertions, "I do not say

this to you, but to your companion, who knows Rome, and knows, too, that these things are not to be laughed

"My dear fellow," said Albert, turning to Franz, "here is an admirable adventure; we will fill our carriage with

pistols, blunderbusses, and doublebarrelled guns. Luigi Vampa comes to take us, and we take him we

bring him back to Rome, and present him to his holiness the Pope, who asks how he can repay so great a

service; then we merely ask for a carriage and a pair of horses, and we see the Carnival in the carriage, and

doubtless the Roman people will crown us at the Capitol, and proclaim us, like Curtius and the veiled

Horatius, the preservers of their country." Whilst Albert proposed this scheme, Signor Pastrini's face assumed

"And pray," asked Franz, "where are these pistols, blunderbusses, and other deadly weapons with which you

"Not out of my armory, for at Terracina I was plundered even of my huntingknife."

"Do you know, Signor Pastrini," said Albert, lighting a second cigar at the first, "that this practice is very

convenient for bandits, and that it seems to be due to an arrangement of their own." Doubtless Signor Pastrini

found this pleasantry compromising, for he only answered half the question, and then he spoke to Franz, as

the only one likely to listen with attention. "Your excellency knows that it is not customary to defend yourself

"What!" cried Albert, whose courage revolted at the idea of being plundered tamely, "not make any

"No, for it would be useless. What could you do against a dozen bandits who spring out of some pit, ruin, or

The innkeeper turned to Franz with an air that seemed to say, "Your friend is decidedly mad."

"My dear Albert," returned Franz, "your answer is sublime, and worthy the `Let him die,' of Corneille, only,

when Horace made that answer, the safety of Rome was concerned; but, as for us, it is only to gratify a whim,

and it would be ridiculous to risk our lives for so foolish a motive." Albert poured himself out a glass of

lacryma Christi, which he sipped at intervals, muttering some unintelligible words.

"Well, Signor Pastrini," said Franz, "now that my companion is quieted, and you have seen how peaceful my

intentions are, tell me who is this Luigi Vampa. Is he a shepherd or a nobleman? young or old? tall or

short? Describe him, in order that, if we meet him by chance, like Bugaboo John or Lara, we may recognize

"You could not apply to any one better able to inform you on all these points, for I knew him when he was a

child, and one day that I fell into his hands, going from Ferentino to Alatri, he, fortunately for me, recollected

me, and set me free, not only without ransom, but made me a present of a very splendid watch, and related his

Signor Pastrini drew from his fob a magnificent Breguet, bearing the name of its maker, of Parisian

"Peste," returned Albert, "I compliment you on it; I have its fellow" he took his watch from his waistcoat

"Let us hear the history," said Franz, motioning Signor Pastrini to seat himself.

The host sat down, after having made each of them a respectful bow, which meant that he was ready to tell

them all they wished to know concerning Luigi Vampa. "You tell me," said Franz, at the moment Signor

Pastrini was about to open his mouth, "that you knew Luigi Vampa when he was a child he is still a young

"Yes, and at his age, Alexander, Caesar, and Napoleon, who have all made some noise in the world, were

"Of the middle height about the same stature as his excellency," returned the host, pointing to Albert.

"Go on, Signor Pastrini," continued Franz, smiling at his friend's susceptibility. "To what class of society

"He was a shepherdboy attached to the farm of the Count of SanFelice, situated between Palestrina and the

lake of Gabri; he was born at Pampinara, and entered the count's service when he was five years old; his

father was also a shepherd, who owned a small flock, and lived by the wool and the milk, which he sold at

Rome. When quite a child, the little Vampa displayed a most extraordinary precocity. One day, when he was

seven years old, he came to the curate of Palestrina, and asked to be taught to read; it was somewhat difficult,

for he could not quit his flock; but the good curate went every day to say mass at a little hamlet too poor to

pay a priest and which, having no other name, was called Borgo; he told Luigi that he might meet him on his

return, and that then he would give him a lesson, warning him that it would be short, and that he must profit

as much as possible by it. The child accepted joyfully. Every day Luigi led his flock to graze on the road that

leads from Palestrina to Borgo; every day, at nine o'clock in the morning, the priest and the boy sat down on a

bank by the wayside, and the little shepherd took his lesson out of the priest's breviary. At the end of three

months he had learned to read. This was not enough he must now learn to write. The priest had a writing

teacher at Rome make three alphabets one large, one middling, and one small; and pointed out to him that

by the help of a sharp instrument he could trace the letters on a slate, and thus learn to write. The same

evening, when the flock was safe at the farm, the little Luigi hastened to the smith at Palestrina, took a large

nail, heated and sharpened it, and formed a sort of stylus. The next morning he gathered an armful of pieces

of slate and began. At the end of three months he had learned to write. The curate, astonished at his quickness

and intelligence, made him a present of pens, paper, and a penknife. This demanded new effort, but nothing

compared to the first; at the end of a week he wrote as well with this pen as with the stylus. The curate related

the incident to the Count of SanFelice, who sent for the little shepherd, made him read and write before him,

ordered his attendant to let him eat with the domestics, and to give him two piastres a month. With this, Luigi

purchased books and pencils. He applied his imitative powers to everything, and, like Giotto, when young, he

drew on his slate sheep, houses, and trees. Then, with his knife, he began to carve all sorts of objects in wood;

"A girl of six or seven that is, a little younger than Vampa tended sheep on a farm near Palestrina; she

was an orphan, born at Valmontone and was named Teresa. The two children met, sat down near each other,

let their flocks mingle together, played, laughed, and conversed together; in the evening they separated the

Count of SanFelice's flock from those of Baron Cervetri, and the children returned to their respective farms,

promising to meet the next morning. The next day they kept their word, and thus they grew up together.

Vampa was twelve, and Teresa eleven. And yet their natural disposition revealed itself. Beside his taste for

the fine arts, which Luigi had carried as far as he could in his solitude, he was given to alternating fits of

sadness and enthusiasm, was often angry and capricious, and always sarcastic. None of the lads of

Pampinara, Palestrina, or Valmontone had been able to gain any influence over him or even to become his

companion. His disposition (always inclined to exact concessions rather than to make them) kept him aloof

from all friendships. Teresa alone ruled by a look, a word, a gesture, this impetuous character, which yielded

beneath the hand of a woman, and which beneath the hand of a man might have broken, but could never have

been bended. Teresa was lively and gay, but coquettish to excess. The two piastres that Luigi received every

month from the Count of SanFelice's steward, and the price of all the little carvings in wood he sold at

Rome, were expended in earrings, necklaces, and gold hairpins. So that, thanks to her friend's generosity,

Teresa was the most beautiful and the bestattired peasant near Rome. The two children grew up together,

passing all their time with each other, and giving themselves up to the wild ideas of their different characters.

Thus, in all their dreams, their wishes, and their conversations, Vampa saw himself the captain of a vessel,

general of an army, or governor of a province. Teresa saw herself rich, superbly attired, and attended by a

train of liveried domestics. Then, when they had thus passed the day in building castles in the air, they

separated their flocks, and descended from the elevation of their dreams to the reality of their humble

"One day the young shepherd told the count's steward that he had seen a wolf come out of the Sabine

mountains, and prowl around his flock. The steward gave him a gun; this was what Vampa longed for. This

gun had an excellent barrel, made at Breschia, and carrying a ball with the precision of an English rifle; but

one day the count broke the stock, and had then cast the gun aside. This, however, was nothing to a sculptor

like Vampa; he examined the broken stock, calculated what change it would require to adapt the gun to his

shoulder, and made a fresh stock, so beautifully carved that it would have fetched fifteen or twenty piastres,

had he chosen to sell it. But nothing could be farther from his thoughts. For a long time a gun had been the

young man's greatest ambition. In every country where independence has taken the place of liberty, the first

desire of a manly heart is to possess a weapon, which at once renders him capable of defence or attack, and,

by rendering its owner terrible, often makes him feared. From this moment Vampa devoted all his leisure

time to perfecting himself in the use of his precious weapon; he purchased powder and ball, and everything

served him for a mark the trunk of some old and mossgrown olivetree, that grew on the Sabine

mountains; the fox, as he quitted his earth on some marauding excursion; the eagle that soared above their

heads: and thus he soon became so expert, that Teresa overcame the terror she at first felt at the report, and

amused herself by watching him direct the ball wherever he pleased, with as much accuracy as if he placed it

"One evening a wolf emerged from a pinewood hear which they were usually stationed, but the wolf had

scarcely advanced ten yards ere he was dead. Proud of this exploit, Vampa took the dead animal on his

shoulders, and carried him to the farm. These exploits had gained Luigi considerable reputation. The man of

superior abilities always finds admirers, go where he will. He was spoken of as the most adroit, the strongest,

and the most courageous contadino for ten leagues around; and although Teresa was universally allowed to

be the most beautiful girl of the Sabines, no one had ever spoken to her of love, because it was known that

she was beloved by Vampa. And yet the two young people had never declared their affection; they had grown

together like two trees whose roots are mingled, whose branches intertwined, and whose intermingled

perfume rises to the heavens. Only their wish to see each other had become a necessity, and they would have

preferred death to a day's separation. Teresa was sixteen, and Vampa seventeen. About this time, a band of

brigands that had established itself in the Lepini mountains began to be much spoken of. The brigands have

never been really extirpated from the neighborhood of Rome. Sometimes a chief is wanted, but when a chief

"The celebrated Cucumetto, pursued in the Abruzzo, driven out of the kingdom of Naples, where he had

carried on a regular war, had crossed the Garigliano, like Manfred, and had taken refuge on the banks of the

Amasine between Sonnino and Juperno. He strove to collect a band of followers, and followed the footsteps

of Decesaris and Gasperone, whom he hoped to surpass. Many young men of Palestrina, Frascati, and

Pampinara had disappeared. Their disappearance at first caused much disquietude; but it was soon known that

they had joined Cucumetto. After some time Cucumetto became the object of universal attention; the most

extraordinary traits of ferocious daring and brutality were related of him. One day he carried off a young girl,

the daughter of a surveyor of Frosinone. The bandit's laws are positive; a young girl belongs first to him who

carries her off, then the rest draw lots for her, and she is abandoned to their brutality until death relieves her

sufferings. When their parents are sufficiently rich to pay a ransom, a messenger is sent to negotiate; the

prisoner is hostage for the security of the messenger; should the ransom be refused, the prisoner is

irrevocably lost. The young girl's lover was in Cucumetto's troop; his name was Carlini. When she recognized

her lover, the poor girl extended her arms to him, and believed herself safe; but Carlini felt his heart sink, for

he but too well knew the fate that awaited her. However, as he was a favorite with Cucumetto, as he had for

three years faithfully served him, and as he had saved his life by shooting a dragoon who was about to cut

him down, he hoped the chief would have pity on him. He took Cucumetto one side, while the young girl,

seated at the foot of a huge pine that stood in the centre of the forest, made a veil of her picturesque

headdress to hide her face from the lascivious gaze of the bandits. There he told the chief all his

affection for the prisoner, their promises of mutual fidelity, and how every night, since he had been near, they

"It so happened that night that Cucumetto had sent Carlini to a village, so that he had been unable to go to the

place of meeting. Cucumetto had been there, however, by accident, as he said, and had carried the maiden

off. Carlini besought his chief to make an exception in Rita's favor, as her father was rich, and could pay a

large ransom. Cucumetto seemed to yield to his friend's entreaties, and bade him find a shepherd to send to

Rita's father at Frosinone. Carlini flew joyfully to Rita, telling her she was saved, and bidding her write to her

father, to inform him what had occurred, and that her ransom was fixed at three hundred piastres. Twelve

hours' delay was all that was granted that is, until nine the next morning. The instant the letter was written,

Carlini seized it, and hastened to the plain to find a messenger. He found a young shepherd watching his

flock. The natural messengers of the bandits are the shepherds who live between the city and the mountains,

between civilized and savage life. The boy undertook the commission, promising to be in Frosinone in less

than an hour. Carlini returned, anxious to see his mistress, and announce the joyful intelligence. He found the

troop in the glade, supping off the provisions exacted as contributions from the peasants; but his eye vainly

sought Rita and Cucumetto among them. He inquired where they were, and was answered by a burst of

laughter. A cold perspiration burst from every pore, and his hair stood on end. He repeated his question. One

of the bandits rose, and offered him a glass filled with Orvietto, saying, `To the health of the brave

Cucumetto and the fair Rita.' At this moment Carlini heard a woman's cry; he divined the truth, seized the

glass, broke it across the face of him who presented it, and rushed towards the spot whence the cry came.

After a hundred yards he turned the corner of the thicket; he found Rita senseless in the arms of Cucumetto.

At the sight of Carlini, Cucumetto rose, a pistol in each hand. The two brigands looked at each other for a

moment the one with a smile of lasciviousness on his lips, the other with the pallor of death on his brow.

A terrible battle between the two men seemed imminent; but by degrees Carlini's features relaxed, his hand,

which had grasped one of the pistols in his belt, fell to his side. Rita lay between them. The moon lighted the

"`Yes, captain,' returned Carlini. `At nine o'clock tomorrow Rita's father will be here with the money.' `It

is well; in the meantime, we will have a merry night; this young girl is charming, and does credit to your

taste. Now, as I am not egotistical, we will return to our comrades and draw lots for her.' `You have

"`What right have you, any more than the rest, to ask for an exception?' `It is true.' `But never mind,'

continued Cucumetto, laughing, `sooner or later your turn will come.' Carlini's teeth clinched convulsively.

"`Now, then,' said Cucumetto, advancing towards the other bandits, `are you coming?' `I follow you.'

"Cucumetto departed, without losing sight of Carlini, for, doubtless, he feared lest he should strike him

unawares; but nothing betrayed a hostile design on Carlini's part. He was standing, his arms folded, near Rita,

who was still insensible. Cucumetto fancied for a moment the young man was about to take her in his arms

and fly; but this mattered little to him now Rita had been his; and as for the money, three hundred piastres

distributed among the band was so small a sum that he cared little about it. He continued to follow the path to

the glade; but, to his great surprise, Carlini arrived almost as soon as himself. `Let us draw lots! let us draw

"Their demand was fair, and the chief inclined his head in sign of acquiescence. The eyes of all shone fiercely

as they made their demand, and the red light of the fire made them look like demons. The names of all,

including Carlini, were placed in a hat, and the youngest of the band drew forth a ticket; the ticket bore the

name of Diovolaccio. He was the man who had proposed to Carlini the health of their chief, and to whom

Carlini replied by breaking the glass across his face. A large wound, extending from the temple to the mouth,

was bleeding profusely. Diovalaccio, seeing himself thus favored by fortune, burst into a loud laugh.

`Captain,' said he, `just now Carlini would not drink your health when I proposed it to him; propose mine to

him, and let us see if he will be more condescending to you than to me.' Every one expected an explosion on

Carlini's part; but to their great surprise, he took a glass in one hand and a flask in the other, and filling it,

`Your health, Diavolaccio,' said he calmly, and he drank it off, without his hand trembling in the least. Then

sitting down by the fire, `My supper,' said he; `my expedition has given me an appetite.' `Well done,

Carlini!' cried the brigands; `that is acting like a good fellow;' and they all formed a circle round the fire,

while Diavolaccio disappeared. Carlini ate and drank as if nothing had happened. The bandits looked on with

astonishment at this singular conduct until they heard footsteps. They turned round, and saw Diavolaccio

bearing the young girl in his arms. Her head hung back, and her long hair swept the ground. As they entered

the circle, the bandits could perceive, by the firelight, the unearthly pallor of the young girl and of

Diavolaccio. This apparition was so strange and so solemn, that every one rose, with the exception of Carlini,

who remained seated, and ate and drank calmly. Diavolaccio advanced amidst the most profound silence, and

laid Rita at the captain's feet. Then every one could understand the cause of the unearthly pallor in the young

girl and the bandit. A knife was plunged up to the hilt in Rita's left breast. Every one looked at Carlini; the

sheath at his belt was empty. `Ah, ah,' said the chief, `I now understand why Carlini stayed behind.' All

savage natures appreciate a desperate deed. No other of the bandits would, perhaps, have done the same; but

they all understood what Carlini had done. `Now, then,' cried Carlini, rising in his turn, and approaching the

corpse, his hand on the butt of one of his pistols, `does any one dispute the possession of this woman with

me?' `No,' returned the chief, `she is thine.' Carlini raised her in his arms, and carried her out of the circle

of firelight. Cucumetto placed his sentinels for the night, and the bandits wrapped themselves in their cloaks,

and lay down before the fire. At midnight the sentinel gave the alarm, and in an instant all were on the alert. It

was Rita's father, who brought his daughter's ransom in person. `Here,' said he, to Cucumetto, `here are three

hundred piastres; give me back my child. But the chief, without taking the money, made a sign to him to

follow. The old man obeyed. They both advanced beneath the trees, through whose branches streamed the

moonlight. Cucumetto stopped at last, and pointed to two persons grouped at the foot of a tree.

"`There,' said he, `demand thy child of Carlini; he will tell thee what has become of her;' and he returned to

his companions. The old man remained motionless; he felt that some great and unforeseen misfortune hung

over his head. At length he advanced toward the group, the meaning of which he could not comprehend. As

he approached, Carlini raised his head, and the forms of two persons became visible to the old man's eyes. A

woman lay on the ground, her head resting on the knees of a man, who was seated by her; as he raised his

head, the woman's face became visible. The old man recognized his child, and Carlini recognized the old

man. `I expected thee,' said the bandit to Rita's father. `Wretch!' returned the old man, `what hast thou

done?' and he gazed with terror on Rita, pale and bloody, a knife buried in her bosom. A ray of moonlight

poured through the trees, and lighted up the face of the dead. `Cucumetto had violated thy daughter,' said

the bandit; `I loved her, therefore I slew her; for she would have served as the sport of the whole band.' The

old man spoke not, and grew pale as death. `Now,' continued Carlini, `if I have done wrongly, avenge her;'

and withdrawing the knife from the wound in Rita's bosom, he held it out to the old man with one hand, while

with the other he tore open his vest. `Thou hast done well!' returned the old man in a hoarse voice;

`embrace me, my son.' Carlini threw himself, sobbing like a child, into the arms of his mistress's father. These

were the first tears the man of blood had ever wept. `Now,' said the old man, `aid me to bury my child.'

Carlini fetched two pickaxes; and the father and the lover began to dig at the foot of a huge oak, beneath

which the young girl was to repose. When the grave was formed, the father kissed her first, and then the

lover; afterwards, one taking the head, the other the feet, they placed her in the grave. Then they knelt on

each side of the grave, and said the prayers of the dead. Then, when they had finished, they cast the earth over

the corpse, until the grave was filled. Then, extending his hand, the old man said; `I thank you, my son; and

now leave me alone.' `Yet' replied Carlini. `Leave me, I command you.' Carlini obeyed, rejoined

his comrades, folded himself in his cloak, and soon appeared to sleep as soundly as the rest. It had been

resolved the night before to change their encampment. An hour before daybreak, Cucumetto aroused his men,

and gave the word to march. But Carlini would not quit the forest, without knowing what had become of

Rita's father. He went toward the place where he had left him. He found the old man suspended from one of

the branches of the oak which shaded his daughter's grave. He then took an oath of bitter vengeance over the

dead body of the one and the tomb of the other. But he was unable to complete this oath, for two days

afterwards, in an encounter with the Roman carbineers, Carlini was killed. There was some surprise,

however, that, as he was with his face to the enemy, he should have received a ball between his shoulders.

That astonishment ceased when one of the brigands remarked to his comrades that Cucumetto was stationed

ten paces in Carlini's rear when he fell. On the morning of the departure from the forest of Frosinone he had

followed Carlini in the darkness, and heard this oath of vengeance, and, like a wise man, anticipated it. They

told ten other stories of this bandit chief, each more singular than the other. Thus, from Fondi to Perusia,

"These narratives were frequently the theme of conversation between Luigi and Teresa. The young girl

trembled very much at hearing the stories; but Vampa reassured her with a smile, tapping the butt of his good

fowlingpiece, which threw its ball so well; and if that did not restore her courage, he pointed to a crow,

perched on some dead branch, took aim, touched the trigger, and the bird fell dead at the foot of the tree.

Time passed on, and the two young people had agreed to be married when Vampa should be twenty and

Teresa nineteen years of age. They were both orphans, and had only their employers' leave to ask, which had

been already sought and obtained. One day when they were talking over their plans for the future, they heard

two or three reports of firearms, and then suddenly a man came out of the wood, near which the two young

persons used to graze their flocks, and hurried towards them. When he came within hearing, he exclaimed. `I

am pursued; can you conceal me?' They knew full well that this fugitive must be a bandit; but there is an

innate sympathy between the Roman brigand and the Roman peasant and the latter is always ready to aid the

former. Vampa, without saying a word, hastened to the stone that closed up the entrance to their grotto, drew

it away, made a sign to the fugitive to take refuge there, in a retreat unknown to every one, closed the stone

upon him, and then went and resumed his seat by Teresa. Instantly afterwards four carbineers, on horseback,

appeared on the edge of the wood; three of them appeared to be looking for the fugitive, while the fourth

dragged a brigand prisoner by the neck. The three carbineers looked about carefully on every side, saw the

young peasants, and galloping up, began to question them. They had seen no one. `That is very annoying,'

said the brigadier; for the man we are looking for is the chief.' `Cucumetto?' cried Luigi and Teresa at the

"`Yes,' replied the brigadier; `and as his head is valued at a thousand Roman crowns, there would have been

five hundred for you, if you had helped us to catch him.' The two young persons exchanged looks. The

brigadier had a moment's hope. Five hundred Roman crowns are three thousand lire, and three thousand lire

"Then the carbineers scoured the country in different directions, but in vain; then, after a time, they

disappeared. Vampa then removed the stone, and Cucumetto came out. Through the crevices in the granite he

had seen the two young peasants talking with the carbineers, and guessed the subject of their parley. He had

read in the countenances of Luigi and Teresa their steadfast resolution not to surrender him, and he drew from

his pocket a purse full of gold, which he offered to them. But Vampa raised his head proudly; as to Teresa,

her eyes sparkled when she thought of all the fine gowns and gay jewellery she could buy with this purse of

"Cucumetto was a cunning fiend, and had assumed the form of a brigand instead of a serpent, and this look

from Teresa showed to him that she was a worthy daughter of Eve, and he returned to the forest, pausing

several times on his way, under the pretext of saluting his protectors. Several days elapsed, and they neither

saw nor heard of Cucumetto. The time of the Carnival was at hand. The Count of SanFelice announced a

grand masked ball, to which all that were distinguished in Rome were invited. Teresa had a great desire to see

this ball. Luigi asked permission of his protector, the steward, that she and he might be present amongst the

servants of the house. This was granted. The ball was given by the Count for the particular pleasure of his

daughter Carmela, whom he adored. Carmela was precisely the age and figure of Teresa, and Teresa was as

handsome as Carmela. On the evening of the ball Teresa was attired in her best, her most brilliant ornaments

in her hair, and gayest glass beads, she was in the costume of the women of Frascati. Luigi wore the very

picturesque garb of the Roman peasant at holiday time. They both mingled, as they had leave to do, with the

"The festa was magnificent; not only was the villa brilliantly illuminated, but thousands of colored lanterns

were suspended from the trees in the garden; and very soon the palace overflowed to the terraces, and the

terraces to the gardenwalks. At each crosspath was an orchestra, and tables spread with refreshments; the

guests stopped, formed quadrilles, and danced in any part of the grounds they pleased. Carmela was attired

like a woman of Sonnino. Her cap was embroidered with pearls, the pins in her hair were of gold and

diamonds, her girdle was of Turkey silk, with large embroidered flowers, her bodice and skirt were of

cashmere, her apron of Indian muslin, and the buttons of her corset were of jewels. Two of her companions

were dressed, the one as a woman of Nettuno, and the other as a woman of La Riccia. Four young men of the

richest and noblest families of Rome accompanied them with that Italian freedom which has not its parallel in

any other country in the world. They were attired as peasants of Albano, Velletri, CivitaCastellana, and

Sora. We need hardly add that these peasant costumes, like those of the young women, were brilliant with

"Carmela wished to form a quadrille, but there was one lady wanting. Carmela looked all around her, but not

one of the guests had a costume similar to her own, or those of her companions. The Count of SanFelice

pointed out Teresa, who was hanging on Luigi's arm in a group of peasants. `Will you allow me, father?' said

Carmela. `Certainly,' replied the count, `are we not in Carnival time?' Carmela turned towards the

young man who was talking with her, and saying a few words to him, pointed with her finger to Teresa. The

young man looked, bowed in obedience, and then went to Teresa, and invited her to dance in a quadrille

directed by the count's daughter. Teresa felt a flush pass over her face; she looked at Luigi, who could not

refuse his assent. Luigi slowly relinquished Teresa's arm, which he had held beneath his own, and Teresa,

accompanied by her elegant cavalier, took her appointed place with much agitation in the aristocratic

quadrille. Certainly, in the eyes of an artist, the exact and strict costume of Teresa had a very different

character from that of Carmela and her companions; and Teresa was frivolous and coquettish, and thus the

embroidery and muslins, the cashmere waistgirdles, all dazzled her, and the reflection of sapphires and

"Luigi felt a sensation hitherto unknown arising in his mind. It was like an acute pain which gnawed at his

heart, and then thrilled through his whole body. He followed with his eye each movement of Teresa and her

cavalier; when their hands touched, he felt as though he should swoon; every pulse beat with violence, and it

seemed as though a bell were ringing in his ears. When they spoke, although Teresa listened timidly and with

downcast eyes to the conversation of her cavalier, as Luigi could read in the ardent looks of the goodlooking

young man that his language was that of praise, it seemed as if the whole world was turning round with him,

and all the voices of hell were whispering in his ears ideas of murder and assassination. Then fearing that his

paroxysm might get the better of him, he clutched with one hand the branch of a tree against which he was

leaning, and with the other convulsively grasped the dagger with a carved handle which was in his belt, and

which, unwittingly, he drew from the scabbard from time to time. Luigi was jealous! He felt that, influenced

"The young peasant girl, at first timid and scared, soon recovered herself. We have said that Teresa was

handsome, but this is not all; Teresa was endowed with all those wild graces which are so much more potent

than our affected and studied elegancies. She had almost all the honors of the quadrille, and if she were

envious of the Count of SanFelice's daughter, we will not undertake to say that Carmela was not jealous of

her. And with overpowering compliments her handsome cavalier led her back to the place whence he had

taken her, and where Luigi awaited her. Twice or thrice during the dance the young girl had glanced at Luigi,

and each time she saw that he was pale and that his features were agitated, once even the blade of his knife,

half drawn from its sheath, had dazzled her eyes with its sinister glare. Thus, it was almost tremblingly that

she resumed her lover's arm. The quadrille had been most perfect, and it was evident there was a great

demand for a repetition, Carmela alone objecting to it, but the Count of SanFelice besought his daughter so

earnestly, that she acceded. One of the cavaliers then hastened to invite Teresa, without whom it was

impossible for the quadrille to be formed, but the young girl had disappeared. The truth was, that Luigi had

not felt the strength to support another such trial, and, half by persuasion and half by force, he had removed

Teresa toward another part of the garden. Teresa had yielded in spite of herself, but when she looked at the

agitated countenance of the young man, she understood by his silence and trembling voice that something

strange was passing within him. She herself was not exempt from internal emotion, and without having done

anything wrong, yet fully comprehended that Luigi was right in reproaching her. Why, she did not know, but

yet she did not the less feel that these reproaches were merited. However, to Teresa's great astonishment,

Luigi remained mute, and not a word escaped his lips the rest of the evening. When the chill of the night had

driven away the guests from the gardens, and the gates of the villa were closed on them for the festa

"`Teresa, what were you thinking of as you danced opposite the young Countess of SanFelice?' `I

thought,' replied the young girl, with all the frankness of her nature, `that I would give half my life for a

"`And what said your cavalier to you?' `He said it only depended on myself to have it, and I had only one

"`He was right,' said Luigi. `Do you desire it as ardently as you say?' `Yes.' `Well, then, you shall have

"The young girl, much astonished, raised her head to look at him, but his face was so gloomy and terrible that

her words froze to her lips. As Luigi spoke thus, he left her. Teresa followed him with her eyes into the

darkness as long as she could, and when he had quite disappeared, she went into the house with a sigh.

"That night a memorable event occurred, due, no doubt, to the imprudence of some servant who had

neglected to extinguish the lights. The Villa of SanFelice took fire in the rooms adjoining the very

apartment of the lovely Carmela. Awakened in the night by the light of the flames, she sprang out of bed,

wrapped herself in a dressinggown, and attempted to escape by the door, but the corridor by which she

hoped to fly was already a prey to the flames. She then returned to her room, calling for help as loudly as she

could, when suddenly her window, which was twenty feet from the ground, was opened, a young peasant

jumped into the chamber, seized her in his arms, and with superhuman skill and strength conveyed her to the

turf of the grassplot, where she fainted. When she recovered, her father was by her side. All the servants

surrounded her, offering her assistance. An entire wing of the villa was burnt down; but what of that, as long

as Carmela was safe and uninjured? Her preserver was everywhere sought for, but he did not appear; he was

inquired after, but no one had seen him. Carmela was greatly troubled that she had not recognized him. As

the count was immensely rich, excepting the danger Carmela had run, and the marvellous manner in

which she had escaped, made that appear to him rather a favor of providence than a real misfortune, the

"The next day, at the usual hour, the two young peasants were on the borders of the forest. Luigi arrived first.

He came toward Teresa in high spirits, and seemed to have completely forgotten the events of the previous

evening. The young girl was very pensive, but seeing Luigi so cheerful, she on her part assumed a smiling air,

which was natural to her when she was not excited or in a passion. Luigi took her arm beneath his own, and

led her to the door of the grotto. Then he paused. The young girl, perceiving that there was something

extraordinary, looked at him steadfastly. `Teresa,' said Luigi, `yesterday evening you told me you would give

all the world to have a costume similar to that of the count's daughter.' `Yes,' replied Teresa with

astonishment; `but I was mad to utter such a wish.' `And I replied, "Very well, you shall have it."'

`Yes,' replied the young girl, whose astonishment increased at every word uttered by Luigi, `but of course

"`I have promised no more than I have given you, Teresa,' said Luigi proudly. `Go into the grotto and dress

yourself.' At these words he drew away the stone, and showed Teresa the grotto, lighted up by two wax

lights, which burnt on each side of a splendid mirror; on a rustic table, made by Luigi, were spread out the

pearl necklace and the diamond pins, and on a chair at the side was laid the rest of the costume.

"Teresa uttered a cry of joy, and, without inquiring whence this attire came, or even thanking Luigi, darted

into the grotto, transformed into a dressingroom. Luigi pushed the stone behind her, for on the crest of a

small adjacent hill which cut off the view toward Palestrina, he saw a traveller on horseback, stopping a

moment, as if uncertain of his road, and thus presenting against the blue sky that perfect outline which is

peculiar to distant objects in southern climes. When he saw Luigi, he put his horse into a gallop and advanced

toward him. Luigi was not mistaken. The traveller, who was going from Palestrina to Tivoli, had mistaken his

way; the young man directed him; but as at a distance of a quarter of a mile the road again divided into three

ways, and on reaching these the traveller might again stray from his route, he begged Luigi to be his guide.

Luigi threw his cloak on the ground, placed his carbine on his shoulder, and freed from his heavy covering,

preceded the traveller with the rapid step of a mountaineer, which a horse can scarcely keep up with. In ten

minutes Luigi and the traveller reached the crossroads. On arriving there, with an air as majestic as that of

an emperor, he stretched his hand towards that one of the roads which the traveller was to follow. "That is

your road, excellency, and now you cannot again mistake.' `And here is your recompense,' said the

"`Thank you,' said Luigi, drawing back his hand; `I render a service, I do not sell it.' `Well,' replied the

traveller, who seemed used to this difference between the servility of a man of the cities and the pride of the

mountaineer, `if you refuse wages, you will, perhaps, accept a gift.' `Ah, yes, that is another thing.'

`Then,' said the traveller, `take these two Venetian sequins and give them to your bride, to make herself a pair

"`And then do you take this poniard,' said the young herdsman; `you will not find one better carved between

"`I accept it,' answered the traveller, `but then the obligation will be on my side, for this poniard is worth

more than two sequins.' `For a dealer perhaps; but for me, who engraved it myself, it is hardly worth a

"`What is your name?' inquired the traveller. `Luigi Vampa,' replied the shepherd, with the same air as he

would have replied, Alexander, King of Macedon. `And yours?' `I,' said the traveller, `am called

"Yes," replied the narrator; "that was the name which the traveller gave to Vampa as his own."

"Well, and what may you have to say against this name?" inquired Albert; "it is a very pretty name, and the

adventures of the gentleman of that name amused me very much in my youth, I must confess." Franz said

no more. The name of Sinbad the Sailor, as may well be supposed, awakened in him a world of recollections,

"Vampa put the two sequins haughtily into his pocket, and slowly returned by the way he had gone. As he

came within two or three hundred paces of the grotto, he thought he heard a cry. He listened to know whence

this sound could proceed. A moment afterwards he thought he heard his own name pronounced distinctly.

The cry proceeded from the grotto. He bounded like a chamois, cocking his carbine as he went, and in a

moment reached the summit of a hill opposite to that on which he had perceived the traveller. Three cries for

help came more distinctly to his ear. He cast his eyes around him and saw a man carrying off Teresa, as

Nessus, the centaur, carried Dejanira. This man, who was hastening towards the wood, was already

threequarters of the way on the road from the grotto to the forest. Vampa measured the distance; the man

was at least two hundred paces in advance of him, and there was not a chance of overtaking him. The young

shepherd stopped, as if his feet had been rooted to the ground; then he put the butt of his carbine to his

shoulder, took aim at the ravisher, followed him for a second in his track, and then fired. The ravisher stopped

suddenly, his knees bent under him, and he fell with Teresa in his arms. The young girl rose instantly, but the

man lay on the earth struggling in the agonies of death. Vampa then rushed towards Teresa; for at ten paces

from the dying man her legs had failed her, and she had dropped on her knees, so that the young man feared

that the ball that had brought down his enemy, had also wounded his betrothed. Fortunately, she was

unscathed, and it was fright alone that had overcome Teresa. When Luigi had assured himself that she was

safe and unharmed, he turned towards the wounded man. He had just expired, with clinched hands, his mouth

in a spasm of agony, and his hair on end in the sweat of death. His eyes remained open and menacing. Vampa

approached the corpse, and recognized Cucumetto. From the day on which the bandit had been saved by the

two young peasants, he had been enamoured of Teresa, and had sworn she should be his. From that time he

had watched them, and profiting by the moment when her lover had left her alone, had carried her off, and

believed he at length had her in his power, when the ball, directed by the unerring skill of the young

herdsman, had pierced his heart. Vampa gazed on him for a moment without betraying the slightest emotion;

while, on the contrary, Teresa, shuddering in every limb, dared not approach the slain ruffian but by degrees,

and threw a hesitating glance at the dead body over the shoulder of her lover. Suddenly Vampa turned toward

his mistress: `Ah,' said he `good, good! You are dressed; it is now my turn to dress myself.'

"Teresa was clothed from head to foot in the garb of the Count of SanFelice's daughter. Vampa took

Cucumetto's body in his arms and conveyed it to the grotto, while in her turn Teresa remained outside. If a

second traveller had passed, he would have seen a strange thing, a shepherdess watching her flock, clad in

a cashmere grown, with earrings and necklace of pearls, diamond pins, and buttons of sapphires, emeralds,

and rubies. He would, no doubt, have believed that he had returned to the times of Florian, and would have

declared, on reaching Paris, that he had met an Alpine shepherdess seated at the foot of the Sabine Hill. At

the end of a quarter of an hour Vampa quitted the grotto; his costume was no less elegant than that of Teresa.

He wore a vest of garnetcolored velvet, with buttons of cut gold; a silk waistcoat covered with embroidery;

a Roman scarf tied round his neck; a cartridgebox worked with gold, and red and green silk; skyblue

velvet breeches, fastened above the knee with diamond buckles; garters of deerskin, worked with a thousand

arabesques, and a hat whereon hung ribbons of all colors; two watches hung from his girdle, and a splendid

poniard was in his belt. Teresa uttered a cry of admiration. Vampa in this attire resembled a painting by

Leopold Robert, or Schnetz. He had assumed the entire costume of Cucumetto. The young man saw the effect

produced on his betrothed, and a smile of pride passed over his lips. `Now,' he said to Teresa, `are you

ready to share my fortune, whatever it may be?' `Oh, yes!' exclaimed the young girl enthusiastically.

`And follow me wherever I go?' `To the world's end.' `Then take my arm, and let us on; we have no

time to lose.' The young girl did so without questioning her lover as to where he was conducting her, for

he appeared to her at this moment as handsome, proud, and powerful as a god. They went towards the forest,

and soon entered it. We need scarcely say that all the paths of the mountain were known to Vampa; he

therefore went forward without a moment's hesitation, although there was no beaten track, but he knew his

path by looking at the trees and bushes, and thus they kept on advancing for nearly an hour and a half. At the

end of this time they had reached the thickest of the forest. A torrent, whose bed was dry, led into a deep

gorge. Vampa took this wild road, which, enclosed between two ridges, and shadowed by the tufted umbrage

of the pines, seemed, but for the difficulties of its descent, that path to Avernus of which Virgil speaks.

Teresa had become alarmed at the wild and deserted look of the plain around her, and pressed closely against

her guide, not uttering a syllable; but as she saw him advance with even step and composed countenance, she

endeavored to repress her emotion. Suddenly, about ten paces from them, a man advanced from behind a tree

and aimed at Vampa. `Not another step,' he said, `or you are a dead man.' `What, then,' said Vampa,

raising his hand with a gesture of disdain, while Teresa, no longer able to restrain her alarm, clung closely to

him, `do wolves rend each other?' `Who are you?' inquired the sentinel. `I am Luigi Vampa, shepherd

of the SanFelice farm.' `What do you want?' `I would speak with your companions who are in the

glade at Rocca Bianca.' `Follow me, then,' said the sentinel; `or, as you know your way, go first.'

Vampa smiled disdainfully at this precaution on the part of the bandit, went before Teresa, and continued to

advance with the same firm and easy step as before. At the end of ten minutes the bandit made them a sign to

stop. The two young persons obeyed. Then the bandit thrice imitated the cry of a crow; a croak answered this

signal. `Good!' said the sentry, `you may now go on.' Luigi and Teresa again set forward; as they went

on Teresa clung tremblingly to her lover at the sight of weapons and the glistening of carbines through the

trees. The retreat of Rocca Bianca was at the top of a small mountain, which no doubt in former days had

been a volcano an extinct volcano before the days when Remus and Romulus had deserted Alba to come

and found the city of Rome. Teresa and Luigi reached the summit, and all at once found themselves in the

presence of twenty bandits. `Here is a young man who seeks and wishes to speak to you,' said the sentinel.

`What has he to say?' inquired the young man who was in command in the chief's absence. `I wish to say

that I am tired of a shepherd's life,' was Vampa's reply. `Ah, I understand,' said the lieutenant; `and you

seek admittance into our ranks?' `Welcome!' cried several bandits from Ferrusino, Pampinara, and

Anagni, who had recognized Luigi Vampa. `Yes, but I came to ask something more than to be your

companion.' `And what may that be?' inquired the bandits with astonishment. `I come to ask to be your

captain,' said the young man. The bandits shouted with laughter. `And what have you done to aspire to this

honor?' demanded the lieutenant. `I have killed your chief, Cucumetto, whose dress I now wear; and I set

fire to the villa SanFelice to procure a weddingdress for my betrothed.' An hour afterwards Luigi Vampa

"Well, my dear Albert," said Franz, turning towards his friend; "what think you of citizen Luigi Vampa?"

"And you say that Signor Vampa exercises his profession at this moment in the environs of Rome?"

"Why, you see, he has a good understanding with the shepherds in the plains, the fishermen of the Tiber, and

the smugglers of the coast. They seek for him in the mountains, and he is on the waters; they follow him on

the waters, and he is on the open sea; then they pursue him, and he has suddenly taken refuge in the islands,

at Giglio, Guanouti, or Monte Cristo; and when they hunt for him there, he reappears suddenly at Albano,

"Alas! his plan is very simple. It depends on the distance he may be from the city, whether he gives eight

hours, twelve hours, or a day wherein to pay their ransom; and when that time has elapsed he allows another

hour's grace. At the sixtieth minute of this hour, if the money is not forthcoming, he blows out the prisoner's

brains with a pistolshot, or plants his dagger in his heart, and that settles the account."

"Well, Albert," inquired Franz of his companion, "are you still disposed to go to the Colosseum by the outer

"Quite so," said Albert, "if the way be picturesque." The clock struck nine as the door opened, and a

"Ah, my dear fellow," said Albert, rising, and lighting his third cigar, "really, I thought you had more

courage." So saying, the two young men went down the staircase, and got into the carriage.

Franz had so managed his route, that during the ride to the Colosseum they passed not a single ancient ruin,

so that no preliminary impression interfered to mitigate the colossal proportions of the gigantic building they

came to admire. The road selected was a continuation of the Via Sistina; then by cutting off the right angle of

the street in which stands Santa Maria Maggiore and proceeding by the Via Urbana and San Pietro in Vincoli,

the travellers would find themselves directly opposite the Colosseum. This itinerary possessed another great

advantage, that of leaving Franz at full liberty to indulge his deep reverie upon the subject of Signor

Pastrini's story, in which his mysterious host of Monte Cristo was so strangely mixed up. Seated with folded

arms in a corner of the carriage, he continued to ponder over the singular history he had so lately listened to,

and to ask himself an interminable number of questions touching its various circumstances without, however,

arriving at a satisfactory reply to any of them. One fact more than the rest brought his friend "Sinbad the

Sailor" back to his recollection, and that was the mysterious sort of intimacy that seemed to exist between the

brigands and the sailors; and Pastrini's account of Vampa's having found refuge on board the vessels of

smugglers and fishermen, reminded Franz of the two Corsican bandits he had found supping so amicably

with the crew of the little yacht, which had even deviated from its course and touched at PortoVecchio for

the sole purpose of landing them. The very name assumed by his host of Monte Cristo and again repeated by

the landlord of the Hotel de Londres, abundantly proved to him that his island friend was playing his

philanthropic part on the shores of Piombino, CivitaVecchio, Ostia, and Gaeta, as on those of Corsica,

Tuscany, and Spain; and further, Franz bethought him of having heard his singular entertainer speak both of

Tunis and Palermo, proving thereby how largely his circle of acquaintances extended.

But however the mind of the young man might he absorbed in these reflections, they were at once dispersed

at the sight of the dark frowning ruins of the stupendous Colosseum, through the various openings of which

the pale moonlight played and flickered like the unearthly gleam from the eyes of the wandering dead. The

carriage stopped near the Meta Sudans; the door was opened, and the young men, eagerly alighting, found

themselves opposite a cicerone, who appeared to have sprung up from the ground, so unexpected was his

The usual guide from the hotel having followed them, they had paid two conductors, nor is it possible, at

Rome, to avoid this abundant supply of guides; besides the ordinary cicerone, who seizes upon you directly

you set foot in your hotel, and never quits you while you remain in the city, there is also a special cicerone

belonging to each monument nay, almost to each part of a monument. It may, therefore, be easily

imagined there is no scarcity of guides at the Colosseum, that wonder of all ages, which Martial thus

eulogizes: "Let Memphis cease to boast the barbarous miracles of her pyramids, and the wonders of Babylon

be talked of no more among us; all must bow to the superiority of the gigantic labor of the Caesars, and the

many voices of Fame spread far and wide the surpassing merits of this incomparable monument."

As for Albert and Franz, they essayed not to escape from their ciceronian tyrants; and, indeed, it would have

been so much the more difficult to break their bondage, as the guides alone are permitted to visit these

monuments with torches in their hands. Thus, then, the young men made no attempt at resistance, but blindly

and confidingly surrendered themselves into the care and custody of their conductors. Albert had already

made seven or eight similar excursions to the Colosseum, while his less favored companion trod for the first

time in his life the classic ground forming the monument of Flavius Vespasian; and, to his credit be it spoken,

his mind, even amid the glib loquacity of the guides, was duly and deeply touched with awe and enthusiastic

admiration of all he saw; and certainly no adequate notion of these stupendous ruins can be formed save by

such as have visited them, and more especially by moonlight, at which time the vast proportions of the

building appear twice as large when viewed by the mysterious beams of a southern moonlit sky, whose rays

are sufficiently clear and vivid to light the horizon with a glow equal to the soft twilight of an eastern clime.

Scarcely, therefore, had the reflective Franz walked a hundred steps beneath the interior porticoes of the ruin,

than, abandoning Albert to the guides (who would by no means yield their prescriptive right of carrying their

victims through the routine regularly laid down, and as regularly followed by them, but dragged the

unconscious visitor to the various objects with a pertinacity that admitted of no appeal, beginning, as a matter

of course, with the Lions' Den, and finishing with Caesar's "Podium,"), to escape a jargon and mechanical

survey of the wonders by which he was surrounded, Franz ascended a halfdilapidated staircase, and, leaving

them to follow their monotonous round, seated himself at the foot of a column, and immediately opposite a

large aperture, which permitted him to enjoy a full and undisturbed view of the gigantic dimensions of the

Franz had remained for nearly a quarter of an hour perfectly hidden by the shadow of the vast column at

whose base he had found a restingplace, and from whence his eyes followed the motions of Albert and his

guides, who, holding torches in their hands, had emerged from a vomitarium at the opposite extremity of the

Colosseum, and then again disappeared down the steps conducting to the seats reserved for the Vestal virgins,

resembling, as they glided along, some restless shades following the flickering glare of so many ignesfatui.

All at once his ear caught a sound resembling that of a stone rolling down the staircase opposite the one by

which he had himself ascended. There was nothing remarkable in the circumstance of a fragment of granite

giving way and falling heavily below; but it seemed to him that the substance that fell gave way beneath the

pressure of a foot, and also that some one, who endeavored as much as possible to prevent his footsteps from

being heard, was approaching the spot where he sat. Conjecture soon became certainty, for the figure of a

man was distinctly visible to Franz, gradually emerging from the staircase opposite, upon which the moon

The stranger thus presenting himself was probably a person who, like Franz, preferred the enjoyment of

solitude and his own thoughts to the frivolous gabble of the guides. And his appearance had nothing

extraordinary in it; but the hesitation with which he proceeded, stopping and listening with anxious attention

at every step he took, convinced Franz that he expected the arrival of some person. By a sort of instinctive

impulse, Franz withdrew as much as possible behind his pillar. About ten feet from the spot where he and the

stranger were, the roof had given way, leaving a large round opening, through which might be seen the blue

vault of heaven, thickly studded with stars. Around this opening, which had, possibly, for ages permitted a

free entrance to the brilliant moonbeams that now illumined the vast pile, grew a quantity of creeping plants,

whose delicate green branches stood out in bold relief against the clear azure of the firmament, while large

masses of thick, strong fibrous shoots forced their way through the chasm, and hung floating to and fro, like

so many waving strings. The person whose mysterious arrival had attracted the attention of Franz stood in a

kind of halflight, that rendered it impossible to distinguish his features, although his dress was easily made

out. He wore a large brown mantle, one fold of which, thrown over his left shoulder, served likewise to mask

the lower part of his countenance, while the upper part was completely hidden by his broadbrimmed hat.

The lower part of his dress was more distinctly visible by the bright rays of the moon, which, entering

through the broken ceiling, shed their refulgent beams on feet cased in elegantly made boots of polished

From the imperfect means Franz had of judging, he could only come to one conclusion, that the person

whom he was thus watching certainly belonged to no inferior station of life. Some few minutes had elapsed,

and the stranger began to show manifest signs of impatience, when a slight noise was heard outside the

aperture in the roof, and almost immediately a dark shadow seemed to obstruct the flood of light that had

entered it, and the figure of a man was clearly seen gazing with eager scrutiny on the immense space beneath

him; then, as his eye caught sight of him in the mantle, he grasped a floating mass of thickly matted boughs,

and glided down by their help to within three or four feet of the ground, and then leaped lightly on his feet.

The man who had performed this daring act with so much indifference wore the Transtevere costume. "I beg

your excellency's pardon for keeping you waiting," said the man, in the Roman dialect, "but I don't think I'm

"Say not a word about being late," replied the stranger in purest Tuscan; "'tis I who am too soon. But even if

you had caused me to wait a little while, I should have felt quite sure that the delay was not occasioned by

"Your excellency is perfectly right in so thinking," said the man; "I came here direct from the Castle of St.

Angelo, and I had an immense deal of trouble before I could get a chance to speak to Beppo."

"Oh, Beppo is employed in the prison, and I give him so much a year to let me know what is going on within

"Why, you see, no one knows what may happen. Perhaps some of these days I may be entrapped, like poor

Peppino and may be very glad to have some little nibbling mouse to gnaw the meshes of my net, and so help

"That two executions of considerable interest will take place the day after tomorrow at two o'clock, as is

customary at Rome at the commencement of all great festivals. One of the culprits will be mazzolato;* he is

an atrocious villain, who murdered the priest who brought him up, and deserves not the smallest pity. The

other sufferer is sentenced to be decapitato;** and he, your excellency, is poor Peppino."

"The fact is, that you have inspired not only the pontifical government, but also the neighboring states, with

"But Peppino did not even belong to my band: he was merely a poor shepherd, whose only crime consisted in

"Which makes him your accomplice to all intents and purposes. But mark the distinction with which he is

treated; instead of being knocked on the head as you would be if once they caught hold of you, he is simply

sentenced to be guillotined, by which means, too, the amusements of the day are diversified, and there is a

"Without reckoning the wholly unexpected one I am preparing to surprise them with."

"My good friend," said the man in the cloak, "excuse me for saying that you seem to me precisely in the

"Perhaps I am; but one thing I have resolved on, and that is, to stop at nothing to restore a poor devil to

liberty, who has got into this scrape solely from having served me. I should hate and despise myself as a

"To surround the scaffold with twenty of my best men, who, at a signal from me, will rush forward directly

Peppino is brought for execution, and, by the assistance of their stilettos, drive back the guard, and carry off

"That seems to me as hazardous as uncertain, and convinces me that my scheme is far better than yours."

"Just this. I will so advantageously bestow 2,000 piastres, that the person receiving them shall obtain a respite

till next year for Peppino; and during that year, another skilfully placed 1,000 piastres will afford him the

"Pardieu!" exclaimed the man in the cloak, suddenly expressing himself in French.

"I said, my good fellow, that I would do more singlehanded by the means of gold than you and all your

troop could effect with stilettos, pistols, carbines, and blunderbusses included. Leave me, then, to act, and

"At least, there can be no harm in myself and party being in readiness, in case your excellency should fail."

"None whatever. Take what precautions you please, if it is any satisfaction to you to do so; but rely upon my

"Remember, the execution is fixed for the day after tomorrow, and that you have but one day to work in."

"And what of that? Is not a day divided into twentyfour hours, each hour into sixty minutes, and every

minute subdivided into sixty seconds? Now in 86,400 seconds very many things can be done."

"Oh, that is very easily arranged. I have engaged the three lower windows at the Cafe Rospoli; should I have

obtained the requisite pardon for Peppino, the two outside windows will be hung with yellow damasks, and

"And whom will you employ to carry the reprieve to the officer directing the execution?"

"Send one of your men, disguised as a penitent friar, and I will give it to him. His dress will procure him the

means of approaching the scaffold itself, and he will deliver the official order to the officer, who, in his turn,

will hand it to the executioner; in the meantime, it will be as well to acquaint Peppino with what we have

determined on, if it be only to prevent his dying of fear or losing his senses, because in either case a very

"Your excellency," said the man, "you are fully persuaded of my entire devotion to you, are you not?"

"Nay, I flatter myself that there can be no doubt of it," replied the cavalier in the cloak.

"Well, then, only fulfil your promise of rescuing Peppino, and henceforward you shall receive not only

devotion, but the most absolute obedience from myself and those under me that one human being can render

"Have a care how far you pledge yourself, my good friend, for I may remind you of your promise at some,

perhaps, not very distant period, when I, in my turn, may require your aid and influence."

"Let that day come sooner or later, your excellency will find me what I have found you in this my heavy

trouble; and if from the other end of the world you but write me word to do such or such a thing, you may

"'Twere better we should not be seen together; those guides are nothing but spies, and might possibly

recognize you; and, however I may be honored by your friendship, my worthy friend, if once the extent of

our intimacy were known, I am sadly afraid both my reputation and credit would suffer thereby."

"The middle window at the Cafe Rospoli will be hung with white damask, bearing a red cross."

"And then, my good fellow, use your daggers in any way you please, and I further promise you to be there as

"We understand each other perfectly, then. Adieu, your excellency; depend upon me as firmly as I do upon

Saying these words, the Transteverin disappeared down the staircase, while his companion, muffling his

features more closely than before in the folds of his mantle, passed almost close to Franz, and descended to

the arena by an outward flight of steps. The next minute Franz heard himself called by Albert, who made the

lofty building reecho with the sound of his friend's name. Franz, however, did not obey the summons till he

had satisfied himself that the two men whose conversation he had overheard were at a sufficient distance to

prevent his encountering them in his descent. In ten minutes after the strangers had departed, Franz was on

the road to the Piazza de Spagni, listening with studied indifference to the learned dissertation delivered by

Albert, after the manner of Pliny and Calpurnius, touching the ironpointed nets used to prevent the ferocious

beasts from springing on the spectators. Franz let him proceed without interruption, and, in fact, did not hear

what was said; he longed to be alone, and free to ponder over all that had occurred. One of the two men,

whose mysterious meeting in the Colosseum he had so unintentionally witnessed, was an entire stranger to

him, but not so the other; and though Franz had been unable to distinguish his features, from his being either

wrapped in his mantle or obscured by the shadow, the tones of his voice had made too powerful an

impression on him the first time he had heard them for him ever again to forget them, hear them when or

where he might. It was more especially when this man was speaking in a manner half jesting, half bitter, that

Franz's ear recalled most vividly the deep sonorous, yet wellpitched voice that had addressed him in the

grotto of Monte Cristo, and which he heard for the second time amid the darkness and ruined grandeur of the

Colosseum. And the more he thought, the more entire was his conviction, that the person who wore the

Under any other circumstances, Franz would have found it impossible to resist his extreme curiosity to know

more of so singular a personage, and with that intent have sought to renew their short acquaintance; but in the

present instance, the confidential nature of the conversation he had overheard made him, with propriety,

judge that his appearance at such a time would be anything but agreeable. As we have seen, therefore, he

permitted his former host to retire without attempting a recognition, but fully promising himself a rich

indemnity for his present forbearance should chance afford him another opportunity. In vain did Franz

endeavor to forget the many perplexing thoughts which assailed him; in vain did he court the refreshment of

sleep. Slumber refused to visit his eyelids and the night was passed in feverish contemplation of the chain of

circumstances tending to prove the identity of the mysterious visitant to the Colosseum with the inhabitant of

the grotto of Monte Cristo; and the more he thought, the firmer grew his opinion on the subject. Worn out at

length, he fell asleep at daybreak, and did not awake till late. Like a genuine Frenchman, Albert had

employed his time in arranging for the evening's diversion; he had sent to engage a box at the Teatro

Argentino; and Franz, having a number of letters to write, relinquished the carriage to Albert for the whole of

the day. At five o'clock Albert returned, delighted with his day's work; he had been occupied in leaving his

letters of introduction, and had received in return more invitations to balls and routs than it would be possible

for him to accept; besides this, he had seen (as he called it) all the remarkable sights at Rome. Yes, in a single

day he had accomplished what his more seriousminded companion would have taken weeks to effect.

Neither had he neglected to ascertain the name of the piece to be played that night at the Teatro Argentino,

The opera of "Parisina" was announced for representation, and the principal actors were Coselli, Moriani, and

La Specchia. The young men, therefore, had reason to consider themselves fortunate in having the

opportunity of hearing one of the best works by the composer of "Lucia di Lammermoor," supported by three

of the most renowned vocalists of Italy. Albert had never been able to endure the Italian theatres, with their

orchestras from which it is impossible to see, and the absence of balconies, or open boxes; all these defects

pressed hard on a man who had had his stall at the Bouffes, and had shared a lower box at the Opera. Still, in

spite of this, Albert displayed his most dazzling and effective costumes each time he visited the theatres; but,

alas, his elegant toilet was wholly thrown away, and one of the most worthy representatives of Parisian

fashion had to carry with him the mortifying reflection that he had nearly overrun Italy without meeting with

Sometimes Albert would affect to make a joke of his want of success; but internally he was deeply wounded,

and his selflove immensely piqued, to think that Albert de Morcerf, the most admired and most sought after

of any young person of his day, should thus be passed over, and merely have his labor for his pains. And the

thing was so much the more annoying, as, according to the characteristic modesty of a Frenchman, Albert had

quitted Paris with the full conviction that he had only to show himself in Italy to carry all before him, and that

upon his return he should astonish the Parisian world with the recital of his numerous loveaffairs. Alas, poor

Albert! none of those interesting adventures fell in his way; the lovely Genoese, Florentines, and Neapolitans

were all faithful, if not to their husbands, at least to their lovers, and thought not of changing even for the

splendid appearance of Albert de Morcerf; and all he gained was the painful conviction that the ladies of Italy

have this advantage over those of France, that they are faithful even in their infidelity. Yet he could not

restrain a hope that in Italy, as elsewhere, there might be an exception to the general rule. Albert, besides

being an elegant, welllooking young man, was also possessed of considerable talent and ability; moreover,

he was a viscount a recently created one, certainly, but in the present day it is not necessary to go as far

back as Noah in tracing a descent, and a genealogical tree is equally estimated, whether dated from 1399 or

merely 1815; but to crown all these advantages, Albert de Morcerf commanded an income of 50,000 livres, a

more than sufficient sum to render him a personage of considerable importance in Paris. It was therefore no

small mortification to him to have visited most of the principal cities in Italy without having excited the most

trifling observation. Albert, however, hoped to indemnify himself for all these slights and indifferences

during the Carnival, knowing full well that among the different states and kingdoms in which this festivity is

celebrated, Rome is the spot where even the wisest and gravest throw off the usual rigidity of their lives, and

The Carnival was to commence on the morrow; therefore Albert had not an instant to lose in setting forth the

programme of his hopes, expectations, and claims to notice. With this design he had engaged a box in the

most conspicuous part of the theatre, and exerted himself to set off his personal attractions by the aid of the

most rich and elaborate toilet. The box taken by Albert was in the first circle; although each of the three tiers

of boxes is deemed equally aristocratic, and is, for this reason, generally styled the "nobility's boxes," and

although the box engaged for the two friends was sufficiently capacious to contain at least a dozen persons, it

had cost less than would be paid at some of the French theatres for one admitting merely four occupants.

Another motive had influenced Albert's selection of his seat, who knew but that, thus advantageously

placed, he might not in truth attract the notice of some fair Roman, and an introduction might ensue that

would procure him the offer of a seat in a carriage, or a place in a princely balcony, from which he might

behold the gayeties of the Carnival? These united considerations made Albert more lively and anxious to

please than he had hitherto been. Totally disregarding the business of the stage, he leaned from his box and

began attentively scrutinizing the beauty of each pretty woman, aided by a powerful operaglass; but, alas,

this attempt to attract notice wholly failed; not even curiosity had been excited, and it was but too apparent

that the lovely creatures, into whose good graces he was desirous of stealing, were all so much engrossed

with themselves, their lovers, or their own thoughts, that they had not so much as noticed him or the

The truth was, that the anticipated pleasures of the Carnival, with the "holy week" that was to succeed it, so

filled every fair breast, as to prevent the least attention being bestowed even on the business of the stage. The

actors made their entries and exits unobserved or unthought of; at certain conventional moments, the

spectators would suddenly cease their conversation, or rouse themselves from their musings, to listen to some

brilliant effort of Moriani's, a wellexecuted recitative by Coselli, or to join in loud applause at the wonderful

powers of La Specchia; but that momentary excitement over, they quickly relapsed into their former state of

preoccupation or interesting conversation. Towards the close of the first act, the door of a box which had

been hitherto vacant was opened; a lady entered to whom Franz had been introduced in Paris, where indeed,

he had imagined she still was. The quick eye of Albert caught the involuntary start with which his friend

beheld the new arrival, and, turning to him, he said hastily, "Do you know the woman who has just entered

"Oh, she is perfectly lovely what a complexion! And such magnificent hair! Is she French?"

"Ah, I know her by name!" exclaimed Albert; "she is said to possess as much wit and cleverness as beauty. I

"My dear fellow, are you really on such good terms with her as to venture to take me to her box?"

"Why, I have only had the honor of being in her society and conversing with her three or four times in my

life; but you know that even such an acquaintance as that might warrant my doing what you ask." At that

instant, the countess perceived Franz, and graciously waved her hand to him, to which he replied by a

respectful inclination of the head. "Upon my word," said Albert, "you seem to be on excellent terms with the

"You are mistaken in thinking so," returned Franz calmly; "but you merely fall into the same error which

leads so many of our countrymen to commit the most egregious blunders, I mean that of judging the

habits and customs of Italy and Spain by our Parisian notions; believe me, nothing is more fallacious than to

form any estimate of the degree of intimacy you may suppose existing among persons by the familiar terms

they seem upon; there is a similarity of feeling at this instant between ourselves and the countess nothing

"By the countess's visiting the Colosseum, as we did last night, by moonlight, and nearly alone."

"Oh, we talked of the illustrious dead of whom that magnificent ruin is a glorious monument!"

"Upon my word," cried Albert, "you must have been a very entertaining companion alone, or all but alone,

with a beautiful woman in such a place of sentiment as the Colosseum, and yet to find nothing better a talk

about than the dead! All I can say is, if ever I should get such a chance, the living should be my theme."

"But," said Albert, breaking in upon his discourse, "never mind the past; let us only remember the present.

Are you not going to keep your promise of introducing me to the fair subject of our remarks?"

"What a confounded time this first act takes. I believe, on my soul, that they never mean to finish it."

"Oh, yes, they will; only listen to that charming finale. How exquisitely Coselli sings his part."

"Well, then, what do you say to La Specchia? Did you ever see anything more perfect than her acting?"

"Why, you know, my dear fellow, when one has been accustomed to Malibran and Sontag, such singers as

"I never fancied men of his dark, ponderous appearance singing with a voice like a woman's."

"My good friend," said Franz, turning to him, while Albert continued to point his glass at every box in the

theatre, "you seem determined not to approve; you are really too difficult to please." The curtain at length fell

on the performances, to the infinite satisfaction of the Viscount of Morcerf, who seized his hat, rapidly passed

his fingers through his hair, arranged his cravat and wristbands, and signified to Franz that he was waiting for

him to lead the way. Franz, who had mutely interrogated the countess, and received from her a gracious smile

in token that he would be welcome, sought not to retard the gratification of Albert's eager impatience, but

began at once the tour of the house, closely followed by Albert, who availed himself of the few minutes

required to reach the opposite side of the theatre to settle the height and smoothness of his collar, and to

arrange the lappets of his coat. This important task was just completed as they arrived at the countess's box.

At the knock, the door was immediately opened, and the young man who was seated beside the countess, in

obedience to the Italian custom, instantly rose and surrendered his place to the strangers, who, in turn, would

Franz presented Albert as one of the most distinguished young men of the day, both as regarded his position

in society and extraordinary talents; nor did he say more than the truth, for in Paris and the circle in which the

viscount moved, he was looked upon and cited as a model of perfection. Franz added that his companion,

deeply grieved at having been prevented the honor of being presented to the countess during her sojourn in

Paris, was most anxious to make up for it, and had requested him (Franz) to remedy the past misfortune by

conducting him to her box, and concluded by asking pardon for his presumption in having taken it upon

himself to do so. The countess, in reply, bowed gracefully to Albert, and extended her hand with cordial

kindness to Franz; then, inviting Albert to take the vacant seat beside her, she recommended Franz to take the

next best, if he wished to view the ballet, and pointed to the one behind her own chair. Albert was soon

deeply engrossed in discoursing upon Paris and Parisian matters, speaking to the countess of the various

persons they both knew there. Franz perceived how completely he was in his element; and, unwilling to

interfere with the pleasure he so evidently felt, took up Albert's glass, and began in his turn to survey the

audience. Sitting alone, in the front of a box immediately opposite, but situated on the third row, was a

woman of exquisite beauty, dressed in a Greek costume, which evidently, from the ease and grace with which

she wore it, was her national attire. Behind her, but in deep shadow, was the outline of a masculine figure; but

the features of this latter personage it was not possible to distinguish. Franz could not forbear breaking in

upon the apparently interesting conversation passing between the countess and Albert, to inquire of the

former if she knew who was the fair Albanian opposite, since beauty such as hers was well worthy of being

observed by either sex. "All I can tell about her," replied the countess, "is, that she has been at Rome since the

beginning of the season; for I saw her where she now sits the very first night of the season, and since then she

has never missed a performance. Sometimes she is accompanied by the person who is now with her, and at

"Oh, I consider her perfectly lovely she is just my idea of what Medora must have been."

Franz and the countess exchanged a smile, and then the latter resumed her conversation with Albert, while

Franz returned to his previous survey of the house and company. The curtain rose on the ballet, which was

one of those excellent specimens of the Italian school, admirably arranged and put on the stage by Henri, who

has established for himself a great reputation throughout Italy for his taste and skill in the choreographic art

one of those masterly productions of grace, method, and elegance in which the whole corps de ballet,

from the principal dancers to the humblest supernumerary, are all engaged on the stage at the same time; and

a hundred and fifty persons may be seen exhibiting the same attitude, or elevating the same arm or leg with a

simultaneous movement, that would lead you to suppose that but one mind, one act of volition, influenced the

moving mass the ballet was called "Poliska." However much the ballet might have claimed his attention,

Franz was too deeply occupied with the beautiful Greek to take any note of it; while she seemed to

experience an almost childlike delight in watching it, her eager, animated looks contrasting strongly with the

utter indifference of her companion, who, during the whole time the piece lasted, never even moved, not even

when the furious, crashing din produced by the trumpets, cymbals, and Chinese bells sounded their loudest

from the orchestra. Of this he took no heed, but was, as far as appearances might be trusted, enjoying soft

repose and bright celestial dreams. The ballet at length came to a close, and the curtain fell amid the loud,

Owing to the very judicious plan of dividing the two acts of the opera with a ballet, the pauses between the

performances are very short, the singers in the opera having time to repose themselves and change their

costume, when necessary, while the dancers are executing their pirouettes and exhibiting their graceful steps.

The overture to the second act began; and, at the first sound of the leader's bow across his violin, Franz

observed the sleeper slowly arise and approach the Greek girl, who turned around to say a few words to him,

and then, leaning forward again on the railing of her box, she became as absorbed as before in what was

going on. The countenance of the person who had addressed her remained so completely in the shade, that,

though Franz tried his utmost, he could not distinguish a single feature. The curtain rose, and the attention of

Franz was attracted by the actors; and his eyes turned from the box containing the Greek girl and her strange

Most of my readers are aware that the second act of "Parisina" opens with the celebrated and effective duet in

which Parisina, while sleeping, betrays to Azzo the secret of her love for Ugo. The injured husband goes

through all the emotions of jealousy, until conviction seizes on his mind, and then, in a frenzy of rage and

indignation, he awakens his guilty wife to tell her that he knows her guilt and to threaten her with his

vengeance. This duet is one of the most beautiful, expressive and terrible conceptions that has ever emanated

from the fruitful pen of Donizetti. Franz now listened to it for the third time; yet it's notes, so tenderly

expressive and fearfully grand as the wretched husband and wife give vent to their different griefs and

passions, thrilled through the soul of Franz with an effect equal to his first emotions upon hearing it. Excited

beyond his usual calm demeanor, Franz rose with the audience, and was about to join the loud, enthusiastic

applause that followed; but suddenly his purpose was arrested, his hands fell by his sides, and the

halfuttered "bravos" expired on his lips. The occupant of the box in which the Greek girl sat appeared to

share the universal admiration that prevailed; for he left his seat to stand up in front, so that, his countenance

being fully revealed, Franz had no difficulty in recognizing him as the mysterious inhabitant of Monte Cristo,

and the very same person he had encountered the preceding evening in the ruins of the Colosseum, and whose

voice and figure had seemed so familiar to him. All doubt of his identity was now at an end; his singular host

evidently resided at Rome. The surprise and agitation occasioned by this full confirmation of Franz's former

suspicion had no doubt imparted a corresponding expression to his features; for the countess, after gazing

with a puzzled look at his face, burst into a fit of laughter, and begged to know what had happened.

"Countess," returned Franz, totally unheeding her raillery, "I asked you a short time since if you knew any

particulars respecting the Albanian lady opposite; I must now beseech you to inform me who and what is her

"What a question so truly French! Do you not know that we Italians have eyes only for the man we love?"

"All I call say is," continued the countess, taking up the lorgnette, and directing it toward the box in question,

"that the gentleman, whose history I am unable to furnish, seems to me as though he had just been dug up; he

looks more like a corpse permitted by some friendly gravedigger to quit his tomb for a while, and revisit this

"Then you know him?" almost screamed the countess. "Oh, pray do, for heaven's sake, tell us all about is

"And I can well understand," said the countess, shrugging up her beautiful shoulders, as though an

involuntary shudder passed through her veins, "that those who have once seen that man will never be likely to

forget him." The sensation experienced by Franz was evidently not peculiar to himself; another, and wholly

uninterested person, felt the same unaccountable awe and misgiving. "Well." inquired Franz, after the

countess had a second time directed her lorgnette at the box, "what do you think of our opposite neighbor?"

"Why, that he is no other than Lord Ruthven himself in a living form." This fresh allusion to Byron* drew a

smile to Franz's countenance; although he could but allow that if anything was likely to induce belief in the

existence of vampires, it would be the presence of such a man as the mysterious personage before him.

"I must positively find out who and what he is," said Franz, rising from his seat.

"No, no," cried the countess; "you must not leave me. I depend upon you to escort me home. Oh, indeed, I

* Scott, of course: "The son of an illfated sire, and the father of a yet more unfortunate family, bore in his

looks that cast of inauspicious melancholy by which the physiognomists of that time pretended to distinguish

those who were predestined to a violent and unhappy death." The Abbot, ch. xxii.

"I'll tell you," answered the countess. "Byron had the most perfect belief in the existence of vampires, and

even assured me that he had seen them. The description he gave me perfectly corresponds with the features

and character of the man before us. Oh, he is the exact personification of what I have been led to expect! The

coalblack hair, large bright, glittering eyes, in which a wild, unearthly fire seems burning, the same

ghastly paleness. Then observe, too, that the woman with him is altogether unlike all others of her sex. She is

a foreigner a stranger. Nobody knows who she is, or where she comes from. No doubt she belongs to the

same horrible race he does, and is, like himself, a dealer in magical arts. I entreat of you not to go near him

at least tonight; and if tomorrow your curiosity still continues as great, pursue your researches if you

will; but tonight you neither can nor shall. For that purpose I mean to keep you all to myself." Franz

protested he could not defer his pursuit till the following day, for many reasons. "Listen to me," said the

countess, "and do not be so very headstrong. I am going home. I have a party at my house tonight, and

therefore cannot possibly remain till the end of the opera. Now, I cannot for one instant believe you so devoid

of gallantry as to refuse a lady your escort when she even condescends to ask you for it."

There was nothing else left for Franz to do but to take up his hat, open the door of the box, and offer the

countess his arm. It was quite evident, by her manner, that her uneasiness was not feigned; and Franz himself

could not resist a feeling of superstitious dread so much the stronger in him, as it arose from a variety of

corroborative recollections, while the terror of the countess sprang from an instinctive belief, originally

created in her mind by the wild tales she had listened to till she believed them truths. Franz could even feel

her arm tremble as he assisted her into the carriage. Upon arriving at her hotel, Franz perceived that she had

deceived him when she spoke of expecting company; on the contrary, her own return before the appointed

hour seemed greatly to astonish the servants. "Excuse my little subterfuge," said the countess, in reply to her

companion's halfreproachful observation on the subject; "but that horrid man had made me feel quite

uncomfortable, and I longed to be alone, that I might compose my startled mind." Franz essayed to smile.

"Nay," said she, "do not smile; it ill accords with the expression of your countenance, and I am sure it does

"I will do anything you desire, except relinquish my determination of finding out who this man is. I have

more reasons than you can imagine for desiring to know who he is, from whence he came, and whither he is

"Where he comes from I am ignorant; but I can readily tell you where he is going to, and that is down below,

"Well, then, you must give me your word to return immediately to your hotel, and make no attempt to follow

this man tonight. There are certain affinities between the persons we quit and those we meet afterwards. For

heaven's sake, do not serve as a conductor between that man and me. Pursue your chase after him tomorrow

as eagerly as you please; but never bring him near me, if you would not see me die of terror. And now,

goodnight; go to your rooms, and try to sleep away all recollections of this evening. For my own part, I am

quite sure I shall not be able to close my eyes." So saying, the countess quitted Franz, leaving him unable to

decide whether she were merely amusing herself at his expense, or whether her fears and agitations were

Upon his return to the hotel, Franz found Albert in his dressinggown and slippers, listlessly extended on a

sofa, smoking a cigar. "My dear fellow." cried he, springing up, "is it really you? Why, I did not expect to see

"My dear Albert," replied Franz, "I am glad of this opportunity to tell you, once and forever, that you

entertain a most erroneous notion concerning Italian women. I should have thought the continual failures you

have met with in all your own love affairs might have taught you better by this time."

"Upon my soul, these women would puzzle the very Devil to read them aright. Why, here they give you

their hand they press yours in return they keep up a whispering conversation permit you to

accompany them home. Why, if a Parisian were to indulge in a quarter of these marks of flattering attention,

"And the very reason why the women of this fine country put so little restraint on their words and actions, is

because they live so much in public, and have really nothing to conceal. Besides, you must have perceived

"At what? At the sight of that respectable gentleman sitting opposite to us in the same box with the lovely

Greek girl? Now, for my part, I met them in the lobby after the conclusion of the piece; and hang me, if I can

guess where you took your notions of the other world from. I can assure you that this hobgoblin of yours is a

deuced finelooking fellow admirably dressed. Indeed, I feel quite sure, from the cut of his clothes, they

are made by a firstrate Paris tailor probably Blin or Humann. He was rather too pale, certainly; but then,

you know, paleness is always looked upon as a strong proof of aristocratic descent and distinguished

breeding." Franz smiled; for he well remembered that Albert particularly prided himself on the entire absence

"Well, that tends to confirm my own ideas," said Franz, "that the countess's suspicions were destitute alike of

sense and reason. Did he speak in your hearing? and did you catch any of his words?"

"I did; but they were uttered in the Romaic dialect. I knew that from the mixture of Greek words. I don't

know whether I ever told you that when I was at college I was rather rather strong in Greek."

"Certainly; and I also know that we have done all that human means afforded to endeavor to get one."

"Now, then, in this difficulty a bright idea has flashed across my brain." Franz looked at Albert as though he

had not much confidence in the suggestions of his imagination. "I tell you what, Sir Franz," cried Albert,

"you deserve to be called out for such a misgiving and incredulous glance as that you were pleased to bestow

"And I promise to give you the satisfaction of a gentleman if your scheme turns out as ingenious as you

"Then you see, my good fellow, with a cart and a couple of oxen our business can be managed. The cart must

be tastefully ornamented; and if you and I dress ourselves as Neapolitan reapers, we may get up a striking

tableau, after the manner of that splendid picture by Leopold Robert. It would add greatly to the effect if the

countess would join us in the costume of a peasant from Puzzoli or Sorrento. Our group would then be quite

complete, more especially as the countess is quite beautiful enough to represent a madonna."

"Well," said Franz, "this time, Albert, I am bound to give you credit for having hit upon a most capital idea."

"And quite a national one, too," replied Albert with gratified pride. "A mere masque borrowed from our own

festivities. Ha, ha, ye Romans! you thought to make us, unhappy strangers, trot at the heels of your

processions, like so many lazzaroni, because no carriages or horses are to be had in your beggarly city. But

"Only to our host. Upon my return home I sent for him, and I then explained to him what I wished to procure.

He assured me that nothing would be easier than to furnish all I desired. One thing I was sorry for; when I

bade him have the horns of the oxen gilded, he told me there would not be time, as it would require three

"Oh, I expect him every minute." At this instant the door opened, and the head of Signor Pastrini appeared.

"Better than that!" replied Signor Pastrini, with the air of a man perfectly well satisfied with himself.

"Let your excellencies only leave the matter to me," returned Signor Pastrini in a tone indicative of

"Your excellencies are aware," responded the landlord, swelling with importance, "that the Count of Monte

"I should think we did know it," exclaimed Albert, "since it is owing to that circumstance that we are packed

"When, then, the Count of Monte Cristo, hearing of the dilemma in which you are placed, has sent to offer

you seats in his carriage and two places at his windows in the Palazzo Rospoli." The friends looked at each

"But do you think," asked Albert, "that we ought to accept such offers from a perfect stranger?"

"What sort of person is this Count of Monte Cristo?" asked Franz of his host. "A very great nobleman, but

whether Maltese or Sicilian I cannot exactly say; but this I know, that he is noble as a Borghese and rich as a

"It seems to me," said Franz, speaking in an undertone to Albert, "that if this person merited the high

panegyrics of our landlord, he would have conveyed his invitation through another channel, and not permitted

At this instant some one knocked at the door. "Come in," said Franz. A servant, wearing a livery of

considerable style and richness, appeared at the threshold, and, placing two cards in the landlord's hands, who

forthwith presented them to the two young men, he said, "Please to deliver these, from the Count of Monte

Cristo to Viscomte Albert de Morcerf and M. Franz d'Epinay. The Count of Monte Cristo," continued the

servant, "begs these gentlemen's permission to wait upon them as their neighbor, and he will be honored by

"Tell the count," replied Franz, "that we will do ourselves the pleasure of calling on him." The servant bowed

"That is what I call an elegant mode of attack," said Albert, "You were quite correct in what you said, Signor

Pastrini. The Count of Monte Cristo is unquestionably a man of firstrate breeding and knowledge of the

"Of course we do," replied Albert. "Still, I must own I am sorry to be obliged to give up the cart and the

group of reapers it would have produced such an effect! And were it not for the windows at the Palazzo

Rospoli, by way of recompense for the loss of our beautiful scheme, I don't know but what I should have held

"Oh, I agree with you; the windows in the Palazzo Rospoli alone decided me." The truth was, that the

mention of two places in the Palazzo Rospoli had recalled to Franz the conversation he had overheard the

preceding evening in the ruins of the Colosseum between the mysterious unknown and the Transteverin, in

which the stranger in the cloak had undertaken to obtain the freedom of a condemned criminal; and if this

muffledup individual proved (as Franz felt sure he would) the same as the person he had just seen in the

Teatro Argentino, then he should be able to establish his identity, and also to prosecute his researches

respecting him with perfect facility and freedom. Franz passed the night in confused dreams respecting the

two meetings he had already had with his mysterious tormentor, and in waking speculations as to what the

morrow would produce. The next day must clear up every doubt; and unless his near neighbor and wouldbe

friend, the Count of Monte Cristo, possessed the ring of Gyges, and by its power was able to render himself

invisible, it was very certain he could not escape this time. Eight o'clock found Franz up and dressed, while

Albert, who had not the same motives for early rising, was still soundly asleep. The first act of Franz was to

"Pray, Signor Pastrini," asked Franz, "is not some execution appointed to take place today?"

"Yes, your excellency; but if your reason for inquiry is that you may procure a window to view it from, you

"Oh, no," answered Franz, "I had no such intention; and even if I had felt a wish to witness the spectacle, I

"Ah!" exclaimed mine host, "I did not think it likely your excellency would have chosen to mingle with such

a rabble as are always collected on that hill, which, indeed, they consider as exclusively belonging to

"Very possibly I may not go," answered Franz; "but in case I feel disposed, give me some particulars of

"Why, the number of persons condemned to suffer, their names, and description of the death they are to die."

"That happens just lucky, your excellency! Only a few minutes ago they brought me the tavolettas."

"Sort of wooden tablets hung up at the corners of streets the evening before an execution, on which is pasted

up a paper containing the names of the condemned persons, their crimes, and mode of punishment. The

reason for so publicly announcing all this is, that all good and faithful Catholics may offer up their prayers for

the unfortunate culprits, and, above all, beseech of heaven to grant them a sincere repentance."

"And these tablets are brought to you that you may add your prayers to those of the faithful, are they?" asked

"Oh, dear, no, your excellency! I have not time for anybody's affairs but my own and those of my honorable

guests; but I make an agreement with the man who pastes up the papers, and he brings them to me as he

would the playbills, that in case any person staying at my hotel should like to witness an execution, he may

"Upon my word, that is a most delicate attention on your part, Signor Pastrini," cried Franz.

"Why, your excellency," returned the landlord, chuckling and rubbing his hands with infinite complacency, "I

think I may take upon myself to say I neglect nothing to deserve the support and patronage of the noble

"I see that plainly enough, my most excellent host, and you may rely upon me to proclaim so striking a proof

of your attention to your guests wherever I go. Meanwhile, oblige me by a sight of one of these tavolettas."

"Nothing can be easier than to comply with your excellency's wish," said the landlord, opening the door of

the chamber; "I have caused one to be placed on the landing, close by your apartment." Then, taking the

"`The public is informed that on Wednesday, February 23d, being the first day of the Carnival, executions

will take place in the Piazza del Popolo, by order of the Tribunal of the Rota, of two persons, named Andrea

Rondola, and Peppino, otherwise called Rocca Priori; the former found guilty of the murder of a venerable

and exemplary priest, named Don Cesare Torlini, canon of the church of St. John Lateran; and the latter

convicted of being an accomplice of the atrocious and sanguinary bandit, Luigi Vampa, and his band. The

firstnamed malefactor will be subjected to the mazzuola, the second culprit beheaded. The prayers of all

good Christians are entreated for these unfortunate men, that it may please God to awaken them to a sense of

their guilt, and to grant them a hearty and sincere repentance for their crimes.'"

This was precisely what Franz had heard the evening before in the ruins of the Colosseum. No part of the

programme differed, the names of the condemned persons, their crimes, and mode of punishment, all

agreed with his previous information. In all probability, therefore, the Transteverin was no other than the

bandit Luigi Vampa himself, and the man shrouded in the mantle the same he had known as "Sinbad the

Sailor," but who, no doubt, was still pursuing his philanthropic expedition in Rome, as he had already done at

PortoVecchio and Tunis. Time was getting on, however, and Franz deemed it advisable to awaken Albert;

but at the moment he prepared to proceed to his chamber, his friend entered the room in perfect costume for

the day. The anticipated delights of the Carnival had so run in his head as to make him leave his pillow long

before his usual hour. "Now, my excellent Signor Pastrini," said Franz, addressing his landlord, "since we are

both ready, do you think we may proceed at once to visit the Count of Monte Cristo?"

"Most assuredly," replied he. "The Count of Monte Cristo is always an early riser; and I can answer for his

"Then you really consider we shall not be intruding if we pay our respects to him directly?"

"Oh, I am quite sure. I will take all the blame on myself if you find I have led you into an error."

"Yes, let us do so." The landlord preceded the friends across the landing, which was all that separated them

from the apartments of the count, rang at the bell, and, upon the door being opened by a servant, said, "I

The domestic bowed respectfully, and invited them to enter. They passed through two rooms, furnished in a

luxurious manner they had not expected to see under the roof of Signor Pastrini, and were shown into an

elegantly fittedup drawingroom. The richest Turkey carpets covered the floor, and the softest and most

inviting couches, easychairs, and sofas, offered their highpiled and yielding cushions to such as desired

repose or refreshment. Splendid paintings by the first masters were ranged against the walls, intermingled

with magnificent trophies of war, while heavy curtains of costly tapestry were suspended before the different

doors of the room. "If your excellencies will please to be seated," said the man, "I will let the count know that

And with these words he disappeared behind one of the tapestried portieres. As the door opened, the sound of

a guzla reached the ears of the young men, but was almost immediately lost, for the rapid closing of the door

merely allowed one rich swell of harmony to enter. Franz and Albert looked inquiringly at each other, then at

the gorgeous furnishings of the apartment. Everything seemed more magnificent at a second view than it had

"Why, upon my soul, my dear fellow, it strikes me that our elegant and attentive neighbor must either be

some successful stockjobber who has speculated in the fall of the Spanish funds, or some prince travelling

"Hush, hush!" replied Franz; "we shall ascertain who and what he is he comes!" As Franz spoke, he heard

the sound of a door turning on its hinges, and almost immediately afterwards the tapestry was drawn aside,

and the owner of all these riches stood before the two young men. Albert instantly rose to meet him, but

Franz remained, in a manner, spellbound on his chair; for in the person of him who had just entered he

recognized not only the mysterious visitant to the Colosseum, and the occupant of the box at the Teatro

"Gentlemen," said the Count of Monte Cristo as he entered, "I pray you excuse me for suffering my visit to

be anticipated; but I feared to disturb you by presenting myself earlier at your apartments; besides, you sent

"Franz and I have to thank you a thousand times, count," returned Albert; "you extricated us from a great

dilemma, and we were on the point of inventing a very fantastic vehicle when your friendly invitation

"Indeed," returned the count, motioning the two young men to sit down. "It was the fault of that blockhead

Pastrini, that I did not sooner assist you in your distress. He did not mention a syllable of your embarrassment

to me, when he knows that, alone and isolated as I am, I seek every opportunity of making the acquaintance

of my neighbors. As soon as I learned I could in any way assist you, I most eagerly seized the opportunity of

offering my services." The two young men bowed. Franz had, as yet, found nothing to say; he had come to no

determination, and as nothing in the count's manner manifested the wish that he should recognize him, he did

not know whether to make any allusion to the past, or wait until he had more proof; besides, although sure it

was he who had been in the box the previous evening, he could not be equally positive that this was the man

he had seen at the Colosseum. He resolved, therefore, to let things take their course without making any

direct overture to the count. Moreover, he had this advantage, he was master of the count's secret, while the

count had no hold on Franz, who had nothing to conceal. However, he resolved to lead the conversation to a

"Count," said he, "you have offered us places in your carriage, and at your windows in the Rospoli Palace.

"Ah," said the count negligently, looking attentively at Morcerf, "is there not something like an execution

"Yes," returned Franz, finding that the count was coming to the point he wished.

"Stay, I think I told my steward yesterday to attend to this; perhaps I can render you this slight service also."

He extended his hand, and rang the bell thrice. "Did you ever occupy yourself," said he to Franz, "with the

employment of time and the means of simplifying the summoning your servants? I have. When I ring once, it

is for my valet; twice, for my majordomo; thrice, for my steward, thus I do not waste a minute or a word.

Here he is." A man of about fortyfive or fifty entered, exactly resembling the smuggler who had introduced

Franz into the cavern; but he did not appear to recognize him. It was evident he had his orders. "Monsieur

Bertuccio," said the count, "you have procured me windows looking on the Piazza del Popolo, as I ordered

"And your excellency has one, which was let to Prince Lobanieff; but I was obliged to pay a hundred"

"That will do that will do, Monsieur Bertuccio; spare these gentlemen all such domestic arrangements.

You have the window, that is sufficient. Give orders to the coachman; and be in readiness on the stairs to

conduct us to it." The steward bowed, and was about to quit the room. "Ah," continued the count, "be good

enough to ask Pastrini if he has received the tavoletta, and if he can send us an account of the execution."

"There is no need to do that," said Franz, taking out his tablets; "for I saw the account, and copied it down."

"Very well, you can retire, M. Bertuccio; but let us know when breakfast is ready. These gentlemen," added

he, turning to the two friends, "will, I trust, do me the honor to breakfast with me?"

"Not at all; on the contrary, you will give me great pleasure. You will, one or other of you, perhaps both,

return it to me at Paris. M. Bertuccio, lay covers for three." He then took Franz's tablets out of his hand. "`We

announce,' he read, in the same tone with which he would have read a newspaper, `that today, the 23d of

February, will be executed Andrea Rondolo, guilty of murder on the person of the respected and venerated

Don Cesare Torlini, canon of the church of St. John Lateran, and Peppino, called Rocca Priori, convicted of

complicity with the detestable bandit Luigi Vampa, and the men of his band.' Hum! `The first will be

mazzolato, the second decapitato.' Yes," continued the count, "it was at first arranged in this way; but I think

"Yes, I passed the evening at the Cardinal Rospigliosi's, and there mention was made of something like a

"No," replied the count, carelessly; "for the other (he glanced at the tablets as if to recall the name), for

Peppino, called Rocca Priori. You are thus deprived of seeing a man guillotined; but the mazzuola still

remains, which is a very curious punishment when seen for the first time, and even the second, while the

other, as you must know, is very simple. The mandaia* never fails, never trembles, never strikes thirty times

ineffectually, like the soldier who beheaded the Count of Chalais, and to whose tender mercy Richelieu had

doubtless recommended the sufferer. Ah," added the count, in a contemptuous tone, "do not tell me of

European punishments, they are in the infancy, or rather the old age, of cruelty."

"Really, count," replied Franz, "one would think that you had studied the different tortures of all the nations

"Why so? In life, our greatest preoccupation is death; is it not then, curious to study the different ways by

which the soul and body can part; and how, according to their different characters, temperaments, and even

the different customs of their countries, different persons bear the transition from life to death, from existence

to annihilation? As for myself, I can assure you of one thing, the more men you see die, the easier it

becomes to die yourself; and in my opinion, death may be a torture, but it is not an expiation."

"I do not quite understand you," replied Franz; "pray explain your meaning, for you excite my curiosity to the

"Listen," said the count, and deep hatred mounted to his face, as the blood would to the face of any other. "If

a man had by unheardof and excruciating tortures destroyed your father, your mother, your betrothed, a

being who, when torn from you, left a desolation, a wound that never closes, in your breast, do you think

the reparation that society gives you is sufficient when it interposes the knife of the guillotine between the

base of the occiput and the trapezal muscles of the murderer, and allows him who has caused us years of

"Yes, I know," said Franz, "that human justice is insufficient to console us; she can give blood in return for

blood, that is all; but you must demand from her only what it is in her power to grant."

"I will put another case to you," continued the count; "that where society, attacked by the death of a person,

avenges death by death. But are there not a thousand tortures by which a man may be made to suffer without

society taking the least cognizance of them, or offering him even the insufficient means of vengeance, of

which we have just spoken? Are there not crimes for which the impalement of the Turks, the augers of the

Persians, the stake and the brand of the Iroquois Indians, are inadequate tortures, and which are unpunished

"Ah, duelling," cried the count; "a pleasant manner, upon my soul, of arriving at your end when that end is

vengeance! A man has carried off your mistress, a man has seduced your wife, a man has dishonored your

daughter; he has rendered the whole life of one who had the right to expect from heaven that portion of

happiness God his promised to every one of his creatures, an existence of misery and infamy; and you think

you are avenged because you send a ball through the head, or pass a sword through the breast, of that man

who has planted madness in your brain, and despair in your heart. And remember, moreover, that it is often

he who comes off victorious from the strife, absolved of all crime in the eyes of the world. No, no," continued

"Then you disapprove of duelling? You would not fight a duel?" asked Albert in his turn, astonished at this

"Oh, yes," replied the count; "understand me, I would fight a duel for a trifle, for an insult, for a blow; and the

more so that, thanks to my skill in all bodily exercises, and the indifference to danger I have gradually

acquired, I should be almost certain to kill my man. Oh, I would fight for such a cause; but in return for a

slow, profound, eternal torture, I would give back the same, were it possible; an eye for an eye, a tooth for a

tooth, as the Orientalists say, our masters in everything, those favored creatures who have formed for

"But," said Franz to the count, "with this theory, which renders you at once judge and executioner of your

own cause, it would be difficult to adopt a course that would forever prevent your falling under the power of

the law. Hatred is blind, rage carries you away; and he who pours out vengeance runs the risk of tasting a

"Yes, if he be poor and inexperienced, not if he be rich and skilful; besides, the worst that could happen to

him would be the punishment of which we have already spoken, and which the philanthropic French

Revolution has substituted for being torn to pieces by horses or broken on the wheel. What matters this

punishment, as long as he is avenged? On my word, I almost regret that in all probability this miserable

Peppino will not be beheaded, as you might have had an opportunity then of seeing how short a time the

punishment lasts, and whether it is worth even mentioning; but, really this is a most singular conversation for

the Carnival, gentlemen; how did it arise? Ah, I recollect, you asked for a place at my window; you shall have

it; but let us first sit down to table, for here comes the servant to inform us that breakfast is ready." As he

spoke, a servant opened one of the four doors of the apartment, saying "Al suo commodo!" The two

During the meal, which was excellent, and admirably served, Franz looked repeatedly at Albert, in order to

observe the impressions which he doubted not had been made on him by the words of their entertainer; but

whether with his usual carelessness he had paid but little attention to him, whether the explanation of the

Count of Monte Cristo with regard to duelling had satisfied him, or whether the events which Franz knew of

had had their effect on him alone, he remarked that his companion did not pay the least regard to them, but on

the contrary ate like a man who for the last four or five months had been condemned to partake of Italian

cookery that is, the worst in the world. As for the count, he just touched the dishes; he seemed to fulfil the

duties of a host by sitting down with his guests, and awaited their departure to be served with some strange or

more delicate food. This brought back to Franz, in spite of himself, the recollection of the terror with which

the count had inspired the Countess G , and her firm conviction that the man in the opposite box was a

vampire. At the end of the breakfast Franz took out his watch. "Well," said the count, "what are you doing?"

"Do not concern yourself about that; we have, I think, a private room in the Piazza del Popolo; I will have

"Count, I have reflected on the matter," said Franz, "I thank you for your courtesy, but I shall content myself

with accepting a place in your carriage and at your window at the Rospoli Palace, and I leave you at liberty to

"You will describe it to me," replied Franz, "and the recital from your lips will make as great an impression

on me as if I had witnessed it. I have more than once intended witnessing an execution, but I have never been

"I," replied the viscount, "I saw Castaing executed, but I think I was rather intoxicated that day, for I had

quitted college the same morning, and we had passed the previous night at a tavern."

"Besides, it is no reason because you have not seen an execution at Paris, that you should not see one

anywhere else; when you travel, it is to see everything. Think what a figure you will make when you are

asked, `How do they execute at Rome?' and you reply, `I do not know'! And, besides, they say that the culprit

is an infamous scoundrel, who killed with a log of wood a worthy canon who had brought him up like his

own son. Diable, when a churchman is killed, it should be with a different weapon than a log, especially

when he has behaved like a father. If you went to Spain, would you not see the bullfight? Well, suppose it is

a bullfight you are going to see? Recollect the ancient Romans of the Circus, and the sports where they

killed three hundred lions and a hundred men. Think of the eighty thousand applauding spectators, the sage

matrons who took their daughters, and the charming Vestals who made with the thumb of their white hands

"Let us go, then," said Franz, "since you wish it; but on our way to the Piazza del Popolo, I wish to pass

"Well, we will go by the Corso. We will send the carriage to wait for us on the Piazza del Popolo, by the

Strada del Babuino, for I shall be glad to pass, myself, through the Corso, to see if some orders I have given

"Excellency," said a servant, opening the door, "a man in the dress of a penitent wishes to speak to you."

"Ah, yes" returned the count, "I know who he is, gentlemen; will you return to the salon? you will find good

cigars on the centre table. I will be with you directly." The young men rose and returned into the salon, while

the count, again apologizing, left by another door. Albert, who was a great smoker, and who had considered it

no small sacrifice to be deprived of the cigars of the Cafe de Paris, approached the table, and uttered a cry of

"What do I think?" said Albert, evidently surprised at such a question from his companion; "I think he is a

delightful fellow, who does the honors of his table admirably; who has travelled much, read much, is, like

Brutus, of the Stoic school, and moreover," added he, sending a volume of smoke up towards the ceiling,

"that he has excellent cigars." Such was Albert's opinion of the count, and as Franz well knew that Albert

professed never to form an opinion except upon long reflection, he made no attempt to change it. "But," said

"Yes." Albert reflected. "Ah," replied he, sighing, "that is not very surprising; I have been more than a

year absent from Paris, and my clothes are of a most antiquated cut; the count takes me for a provincial. The

first opportunity you have, undeceive him, I beg, and tell him I am nothing of the kind." Franz smiled; an

"I am now quite at your service, gentlemen," said he. "The carriage is going one way to the Piazza del

Popolo, and we will go another; and, if you please, by the Corso. Take some more of these cigars, M. de

"With all my heart," returned Albert; "Italian cigars are horrible. When you come to Paris, I will return all

"I will not refuse; I intend going there soon, and since you allow me, I will pay you a visit. Come, we have

not any time to lose, it is halfpast twelve let us set off." All three descended; the coachman received his

master's orders, and drove down the Via del Babuino. While the three gentlemen walked along the Piazza de

Spagni and the Via Frattina, which led directly between the Fiano and Rospoli palaces, Franz's attention was

directed towards the windows of that last palace, for he had not forgotten the signal agreed upon between the

man in the mantle and the Transtevere peasant. "Which are your windows?" asked he of the count, with as

much indifference as he could assume. "The three last," returned he, with a negligence evidently unaffected,

for he could not imagine with what intention the question was put. Franz glanced rapidly towards the three

windows. The side windows were hung with yellow damask, and the centre one with white damask and a red

cross. The man in the mantle had kept his promise to the Transteverin, and there could now be no doubt that

he was the count. The three windows were still untenanted. Preparations were making on every side; chairs

were placed, scaffolds were raised, and windows were hung with flags. The masks could not appear; the

carriages could not move about; but the masks were visible behind the windows, the carriages, and the doors.

Franz, Albert, and the count continued to descend the Corso. As they approached the Piazza del Popolo, the

crowd became more dense, and above the heads of the multitude two objects were visible: the obelisk,

surmounted by a cross, which marks the centre of the square, and in front of the obelisk, at the point where

the three streets, del Babuino, del Corso, and di Ripetta, meet, the two uprights of the scaffold, between

which glittered the curved knife of the mandaia. At the corner of the street they met the count's steward, who

was awaiting his master. The window, let at an exorbitant price, which the count had doubtless wished to

conceal from his guests, was on the second floor of the great palace, situated between the Via del Babuino

and the Monte Pincio. It consisted, as we have said, of a small dressingroom, opening into a bedroom, and,

when the door of communication was shut, the inmates were quite alone. On chairs were laid elegant

masquerade costumes of blue and white satin. "As you left the choice of your costumes to me," said the count

to the two friends, "I have had these brought, as they will be the most worn this year; and they are most

suitable, on account of the confetti (sweetmeats), as they do not show the flour."

Franz heard the words of the count but imperfectly, and he perhaps did not fully appreciate this new attention

to their wishes; for he was wholly absorbed by the spectacle that the Piazza del Popolo presented, and by the

terrible instrument that was in the centre. It was the first time Franz had ever seen a guillotine, we say

guillotine, because the Roman mandaia is formed on almost the same model as the French instrument.* The

knife, which is shaped like a crescent, that cuts with the convex side, falls from a less height, and that is all

the difference. Two men, seated on the movable plank on which the victim is laid, were eating their

breakfasts, while waiting for the criminal. Their repast consisted apparently of bread and sausages. One of

them lifted the plank, took out a flask of wine, drank some, and then passed it to his companion. These two

men were the executioner's assistants. At this sight Franz felt the perspiration start forth upon his brow. The

prisoners, transported the previous evening from the Carcere Nuovo to the little church of Santa Maria del

Popolo, had passed the night, each accompanied by two priests, in a chapel closed by a grating, before which

were two sentinels, who were relieved at intervals. A double line of carbineers, placed on each side of the

door of the church, reached to the scaffold, and formed a circle around it, leaving a path about ten feet wide,

and around the guillotine a space of nearly a hundred feet. All the rest of the square was paved with heads.

Many women held their infants on their shoulders, and thus the children had the best view. The Monte Pincio

seemed a vast amphitheatre filled with spectators; the balconies of the two churches at the corner of the Via

del Babuino and the Via di Ripetta were crammed; the steps even seemed a particolored sea, that was

impelled towards the portico; every niche in the wall held its living statue. What the count said was true

the most curious spectacle in life is that of death. And yet, instead of the silence and the solemnity demanded

by the occasion, laughter and jests arose from the crowd. It was evident that the execution was, in the eyes of

the people, only the commencement of the Carnival. Suddenly the tumult ceased, as if by magic, and the

doors of the church opened. A brotherhood of penitents, clothed from head to foot in robes of gray sackcloth,

with holes for the eyes, and holding in their hands lighted tapers, appeared first; the chief marched at the

head. Behind the penitents came a man of vast stature and proportions. He was naked, with the exception of

cloth drawers at the left side of which hung a large knife in a sheath, and he bore on his right shoulder a

heavy iron sledgehammer. This man was the executioner. He had, moreover, sandals bound on his feet by

cords. Behind the executioner came, in the order in which they were to die, first Peppino and then Andrea.

Each was accompanied by two priests. Neither had his eyes bandaged. Peppino walked with a firm step,

doubtless aware of what awaited him. Andrea was supported by two priests. Each of them, from time to time,

kissed the crucifix a confessor held out to them. At this sight alone Franz felt his legs tremble under him. He

looked at Albert he was as white as his shirt, and mechanically cast away his cigar, although he had not

half smoked it. The count alone seemed unmoved nay, more, a slight color seemed striving to rise in his

pale cheeks. His nostrils dilated like those of a wild beast that scents its prey, and his lips, half opened,

disclosed his white teeth, small and sharp like those of a jackal. And yet his features wore an expression of

smiling tenderness, such as Franz had never before witnessed in them; his black eyes especially were full of

kindness and pity. However, the two culprits advanced, and as they approached their faces became visible.

Peppino was a handsome young man of four or five and twenty, bronzed by the sun; he carried his head erect,

and seemed on the watch to see on which side his liberator would appear. Andrea was short and fat; his

visage, marked with brutal cruelty, did not indicate age; he might be thirty. In prison he had suffered his

beard to grow; his head fell on his shoulder, his legs bent beneath him, and his movements were apparently

* Dr. Guillotin got the idea of his famous machine from witnessing an execution in Italy.

"I thought," said Franz to the count, "that you told me there would be but one execution."

"Yes; but only one of these two is about to die; the other has many years to live."

"And see, here it is," said the count. At the moment when Peppino reached the foot of the mandaia, a priest

arrived in some haste, forced his way through the soldiers, and, advancing to the chief of the brotherhood,

gave him a folded paper. The piercing eye of Peppino had noticed all. The chief took the paper, unfolded it,

and, raising his hand, "Heaven be praised, and his holiness also," said he in a loud voice; "here is a pardon for

"A pardon!" cried the people with one voice "a pardon!" At this cry Andrea raised his head. "Pardon for

Peppino remained breathless. "A pardon for Peppino, called Rocca Priori," said the principal friar. And he

passed the paper to the officer commanding the carbineers, who read and returned it to him.

"For Peppino!" cried Andrea, who seemed roused from the torpor in which he had been plunged. "Why for

him and not for me? We ought to die together. I was promised he should die with me. You have no right to

put me to death alone. I will not die alone I will not!" And he broke from the priests struggling and raving

like a wild beast, and striving desperately to break the cords that bound his hands. The executioner made a

sign, and his two assistants leaped from the scaffold and seized him. "What is going on?" asked Franz of the

count; for, as all the talk was in the Roman dialect, he had not perfectly understood it. "Do you not see?"

returned the count, "that this human creature who is about to die is furious that his fellowsufferer does not

perish with him? and, were he able, he would rather tear him to pieces with his teeth and nails than let him

enjoy the life he himself is about to be deprived of. Oh, man, man race of crocodiles," cried the count,

extending his clinched hands towards the crowd, "how well do I recognize you there, and that at all times you

are worthy of yourselves!" Meanwhile Andrea and the two executioners were struggling on the ground, and

"Look, look," cried the count. seizing the young men's hands "look, for on my soul it is curious. Here is a

man who had resigned himself to his fate, who was going to the scaffold to die like a coward, it is true,

but he was about to die without resistance. Do you know what gave him strength? do you know what

consoled him? It was, that another partook of his punishment that another partook of his anguish that

another was to die before him. Lead two sheep to the butcher's, two oxen to the slaughterhouse, and make one

of them understand that his companion will not die; the sheep will bleat for pleasure, the ox will bellow with

joy. But man man, whom God created in his own image man, upon whom God has laid his first, his

sole commandment, to love his neighbor man, to whom God has given a voice to express his thoughts

what is his first cry when he hears his fellowman is saved? A blasphemy. Honor to man, this masterpiece of

nature, this king of the creation!" And the count burst into a laugh; a terrible laugh, that showed he must have

suffered horribly to be able thus to laugh. However, the struggle still continued, and it was dreadful to

witness. The people all took part against Andrea, and twenty thousand voices cried, "Put him to death! put

him to death!" Franz sprang back, but the count seized his arm, and held him before the window. "What are

you doing?" said he. "Do you pity him? If you heard the cry of `Mad dog!' you would take your gun you

would unhesitatingly shoot the poor beast, who, after all, was only guilty of having been bitten by another

dog. And yet you pity a man who, without being bitten by one of his race, has yet murdered his benefactor;

and who, now unable to kill any one, because his hands are bound, wishes to see his companion in captivity

The command was needless. Franz was fascinated by the horribly spectacle. The two assistants had borne

Andrea to the scaffold, and there, in spite of his struggles, his bites, and his cries, had forced him to his knees.

During this time the executioner had raised his mace, and signed to them to get out of the way; the criminal

strove to rise, but, ere he had time, the mace fell on his left temple. A dull and heavy sound was heard, and

the man dropped like an ox on his face, and then turned over on his back. The executioner let fall his mace,

drew his knife, and with one stroke opened his throat, and mounting on his stomach, stamped violently on it

This time Franz could contain himself no longer, but sank, half fainting, into a seat. Albert, with his eyes

closed, was standing grasping the windowcurtains. The count was erect and triumphant, like the Avenging

When Franz recovered his senses, he saw Albert drinking a glass of water, of which, to judge from his pallor,

he stood in great need; and the count, who was assuming his masquerade costume. He glanced mechanically

towards the square the scene was wholly changed; scaffold, executioners, victims, all had disappeared;

only the people remained, full of noise and excitement. The bell of Monte Citorio, which only sounds on the

pope's decease and the opening of the Carnival, was ringing a joyous peal. "Well," asked he of the count,

"Nothing," replied the count; "only, as you see, the Carnival his commenced. Make haste and dress yourself."

"That is a dream also; only he has remained asleep, while you have awakened; and who knows which of you

"Peppino is a lad of sense, who, unlike most men, who are happy in proportion as they are noticed, was

delighted to see that the general attention was directed towards his companion. He profited by this distraction

to slip away among the crowd, without even thanking the worthy priests who accompanied him. Decidedly

man is an ungrateful and egotistical animal. But dress yourself; see, M. de Morcerf sets you the example."

Albert was drawing on the satin pantaloon over his black trousers and varnished boots. "Well, Albert," said

"Ma foi, no," returned Albert. "But I am really glad to have seen such a sight; and I understand what the

count said that when you have once habituated yourself to a similar spectacle, it is the only one that

"Without reflecting that this is the only moment in which you can study character," said the count; "on the

steps of the scaffold death tears off the mask that has been worn through life, and the real visage is disclosed.

It must be allowed that Andrea was not very handsome, the hideous scoundrel! Come, dress yourselves,

gentlemen, dress yourselves." Franz felt it would be ridiculous not to follow his two companions' example.

He assumed his costume, and fastened on the mask that scarcely equalled the pallor of his own face. Their

toilet finished, they descended; the carriage awaited them at the door, filled with sweetmeats and bouquets.

They fell into the line of carriages. It is difficult to form an idea of the perfect change that had taken place.

Instead of the spectacle of gloomy and silent death, the Piazza del Popolo presented a spectacle of gay and

noisy mirth and revelry. A crowd of masks flowed in from all sides, emerging from the doors, descending

from the windows. From every street and every corner drove carriages filled with clowns, harlequins,

dominoes, mummers, pantomimists, Transteverins, knights, and peasants, screaming, fighting, gesticulating,

throwing eggs filled with flour, confetti, nosegays, attacking, with their sarcasms and their missiles, friends

and foes, companions and strangers, indiscriminately, and no one took offence, or did anything but laugh.

Franz and Albert were like men who, to drive away a violent sorrow, have recourse to wine, and who, as they

drink and become intoxicated, feel a thick veil drawn between the past and the present. They saw, or rather

continued to see, the image of what they had witnessed; but little by little the general vertigo seized them, and

they felt themselves obliged to take part in the noise and confusion. A handful of confetti that came from a

neighboring carriage, and which, while it covered Morcerf and his two companions with dust, pricked his

neck and that portion of his face uncovered by his mask like a hundred pins, incited him to join in the general

combat, in which all the masks around him were engaged. He rose in his turn, and seizing handfuls of confetti

and sweetmeats, with which the carriage was filled, cast them with all the force and skill he was master of.

The strife had fairly begun, and the recollection of what they had seen half an hour before was gradually

effaced from the young men's minds, so much were they occupied by the gay and glittering procession they

now beheld. As for the Count of Monte Cristo, he had never for an instant shown any appearance of having

been moved. Imagine the large and splendid Corso, bordered from one end to the other with lofty palaces,

with their balconies hung with carpets, and their windows with flags. At these balconies are three hundred

thousand spectators Romans, Italians, strangers from all parts of the world, the united aristocracy of birth,

wealth, and genius. Lovely women, yielding to the influence of the scene, bend over their balconies, or lean

from their windows, and shower down confetti, which are returned by bouquets; the air seems darkened with

the falling confetti and flying flowers. In the streets the lively crowd is dressed in the most fantastic costumes

gigantic cabbages walk gravely about, buffaloes' heads below from men's shoulders, dogs walk on their

hind legs; in the midst of all this a mask is lifted, and, as in Callot's Temptation of St. Anthony, a lovely face

is exhibited, which we would fain follow, but from which we are separated by troops of fiends. This will give

a faint idea of the Carnival at Rome. At the second turn the Count stopped the carriage, and requested

permission to withdraw, leaving the vehicle at their disposal. Franz looked up they were opposite the

Rospoli Palace. At the centre window, the one hung with white damask with a red cross, was a blue domino,

beneath which Franz's imagination easily pictured the beautiful Greek of the Argentina. "Gentlemen," said

the count, springing out, "when you are tired of being actors, and wish to become spectators of this scene,

you know you have places at my windows. In the meantime, dispose of my coachman, my carriage, and my

servants." We have forgotten to mention, that the count's coachman was attired in a bearskin, exactly

resembling Odry's in "The Bear and the Pasha;" and the two footmen behind were dressed up as green

monkeys, with spring masks, with which they made grimaces at every one who passed. Franz thanked the

count for his attention. As for Albert, he was busily occupied throwing bouquets at a carriage full of Roman

peasants that was passing near him. Unfortunately for him, the line of carriages moved on again, and while he

descended the Piazza del Popolo, the other ascended towards the Palazzo di Venezia. "Ah, my dear fellow,"

"How unfortunate that you were masked, Albert," said Franz; "here was an opportunity of making up for past

"Oh," replied he, half laughing, half serious; "I hope the Carnival will not pass without some amends in one

But, in spite of Albert's hope, the day passed unmarked by any incident, excepting two or three encounters

with the carriage full of Roman peasants. At one of these encounters, accidentally or purposely, Albert's mask

fell off. He instantly rose and cast the remainder of the bouquets into the carriage. Doubtless one of the

charming females Albert had detected beneath their coquettish disguise was touched by his gallantry; for, as

the carriage of the two friends passed her, she threw a bunch of violets. Albert seized it, and as Franz had no

reason to suppose it was meant for him, he suffered Albert to retain it. Albert placed it in his buttonhole, and

"Pardieu," returned Franz, laughing, "in token of your ingratitude." The jest, however, soon appeared to

become earnest; for when Albert and Franz again encountered the carriage with the contadini, the one who

had thrown the violets to Albert, clapped her hands when she beheld them in his buttonhole. "Bravo, bravo,"

said Franz; "things go wonderfully. Shall I leave you? Perhaps you would prefer being alone?"

"No," replied he; "I will not be caught like a fool at a first disclosure by a rendezvous under the clock, as they

say at the operaballs. If the fair peasant wishes to carry matters any further, we shall find her, or rather, she

will find us tomorrow; then she will give me some sign or other, and I shall know what I have to do."

"On my word," said Franz, "you are wise as Nestor and prudent as Ulysses, and your fair Circe must be very

skilful or very powerful if she succeed in changing you into a beast of any kind." Albert was right; the fair

unknown had resolved, doubtless, to carry the intrigue no farther; for although the young men made several

more turns, they did not again see the calash, which had turned up one of the neighboring streets. Then they

returned to the Rospoli Palace; but the count and the blue domino had also disappeared; the two windows,

hung with yellow damask, were still occupied by the persons whom the count had invited. At this moment the

same bell that had proclaimed the beginning of the mascherata sounded the retreat. The file on the Corso

broke the line, and in a second all the carriages had disappeared. Franz and Albert were opposite the Via delle

Maratte; the coachman, without saying a word, drove up it, passed along the Piazza di Spagni and the Rospoli

Palace and stopped at the door of the hotel. Signor Pastrini came to the door to receive his guests. Franz

hastened to inquire after the count, and to express regret that he had not returned in sufficient time; but

Pastrini reassured him by saying that the Count of Monte Cristo had ordered a second carriage for himself,

and that it had gone at four o'clock to fetch him from the Rospoli Palace. The count had, moreover, charged

him to offer the two friends the key of his box at the Argentina. Franz questioned Albert as to his intentions;

but Albert had great projects to put into execution before going to the theatre; and instead of making any

answer, he inquired if Signor Pastrini could procure him a tailor. "A tailor," said the host; "and for what?"

"To make us between now and tomorrow two Roman peasant costumes," returned Albert. The host shook

his head. "To make you two costumes between now and tomorrow? I ask your excellencies' pardon, but this

is quite a French demand; for the next week you will not find a single tailor who would consent to sew six

"No; we have them readymade. Leave all to me; and tomorrow, when you awake, you shall find a

"My dear Albert," said Franz, "leave all to our host; he has already proved himself full of resources; let us

"Agreed," returned Albert; "but remember, Signor Pastrini, that both my friend and myself attach the greatest

importance to having tomorrow the costumes we have asked for." The host again assured them they might

rely on him, and that their wishes should be attended to; upon which Franz and Albert mounted to their

apartments, and proceeded to disencumber themselves of their costumes. Albert, as he took off his dress,

carefully preserved the bunch of violets; it was his token reserved for the morrow. The two friends sat down

to table; but they could not refrain from remarking the difference between the Count of Monte Cristo's table

and that of Signor Pastrini. Truth compelled Franz, in spite of the dislike he seemed to have taken to the

count, to confess that the advantage was not on Pastrini's side. During dessert, the servant inquired at what

time they wished for the carriage. Albert and Franz looked at each other, fearing really to abuse the count's

kindness. The servant understood them. "His excellency the Count of Monte Cristo had," he said, "given

positive orders that the carriage was to remain at their lordships' orders all day, and they could therefore

They resolved to profit by the count's courtesy, and ordered the horses to be harnessed, while they substituted

evening dress for that which they had on, and which was somewhat the worse for the numerous combats they

had sustained. This precaution taken, they went to the theatre, and installed themselves in the count's box.

During the first act, the Countess G entered. Her first look was at the box where she had seen the count

the previous evening, so that she perceived Franz and Albert in the place of the very person concerning whom

she had expressed so strange an opinion to Franz. Her operaglass was so fixedly directed towards them, that

Franz saw it would be cruel not to satisfy her curiosity; and, availing himself of one of the privileges of the

spectators of the Italian theatres, who use their boxes to hold receptions, the two friends went to pay their

respects to the countess. Scarcely had they entered, when she motioned to Franz to assume the seat of honor.

"Well," said she, hardly giving Franz time to sit down, "it seems you have nothing better to do than to make

the acquaintance of this new Lord Ruthven, and you are already the best friends in the world."

"Without being so far advanced as that, my dear countess," returned Franz, "I cannot deny that we have

"Yes; this morning we breakfasted with him; we rode in his carriage all day, and now we have taken

"Very well; I prefer complete histories; but tell me how you made his acquaintance? Did any one introduce

"Well, we must put up with that," said the countess, who was herself from one of the oldest Venetian

"We should be very hard to please, madam," returned Albert, "did we not think him delightful. A friend of

ten years' standing could not have done more for us, or with a more perfect courtesy."

"Come," observed the countess, smiling, "I see my vampire is only some millionaire, who has taken the

appearance of Lara in order to avoid being confounded with M. de Rothschild; and you have seen her?"

"No; we heard, I think, the sound of her guzla, but she remained perfectly invisible."

"When you say invisible," interrupted Albert, "it is only to keep up the mystery; for whom do you take the

"Well, did you notice two windows hung with yellow damask, and one with white damask with a red cross?

"In reality," observed Albert, "he seemed to me somewhat eccentric; were he at Paris, and a frequenter of the

theatres, I should say he was a poor devil literally mad. This morning he made two or three exits worthy of

Didier or Anthony." At this moment a fresh visitor entered, and, according to custom, Franz gave up his seat

to him. This circumstance had, moreover, the effect of changing the conversation; an hour afterwards the two

friends returned to their hotel. Signor Pastrini had already set about procuring their disguises for the morrow;

and he assured them that they would be perfectly satisfied. The next morning, at nine o'clock, he entered

Franz's room, followed by a tailor, who had eight or ten Roman peasant costumes on his arm; they selected

two exactly alike, and charged the tailor to sew on each of their hats about twenty yards of ribbon, and to

procure them two of the long silk sashes of different colors with which the lower orders decorate themselves

on fetedays. Albert was impatient to see how he looked in his new dress a jacket and breeches of blue

velvet, silk stockings with clocks, shoes with buckles, and a silk waistcoat. This picturesque attire set him off

to great advantage; and when he had bound the scarf around his waist, and when his hat, placed coquettishly

on one side, let fall on his shoulder a stream of ribbons, Franz was forced to confess that costume has much to

do with the physical superiority we accord to certain nations. The Turks used to be so picturesque with their

long and flowing robes, but are they not now hideous with their blue frocks buttoned up to the chin, and their

red caps, which make them look like a bottle of wine with a red seal? Franz complimented Albert, who

looked at himself in the glass with an unequivocal smile of satisfaction. They were thus engaged when the

"Gentlemen," said he, "although a companion is agreeable, perfect freedom is sometimes still more agreeable.

I come to say that today, and for the remainder of the Carnival, I leave the carriage entirely at your disposal.

The host will tell you I have three or four more, so that you will not inconvenience me in any way. Make use

The young men wished to decline, but they could find no good reason for refusing an offer which was so

agreeable to them. The Count of Monte Cristo remained a quarter of an hour with them, conversing on all

subjects with the greatest ease. He was, as we have already said, perfectly well acquainted with the literature

of all countries. A glance at the walls of his salon proved to Franz and Albert that he was a connoisseur of

pictures. A few words he let fall showed them that he was no stranger to the sciences, and he seemed much

occupied with chemistry. The two friends did not venture to return the count the breakfast he had given them;

it would have been too absurd to offer him in exchange for his excellent table the very inferior one of Signor

Pastrini. They told him so frankly, and he received their excuses with the air of a man who appreciated their

delicacy. Albert was charmed with the count's manners, and he was only prevented from recognizing him for

a perfect gentleman by reason of his varied knowledge. The permission to do what he liked with the carriage

pleased him above all, for the fair peasants had appeared in a most elegant carriage the preceding evening,

and Albert was not sorry to be upon an equal footing with them. At halfpast one they descended, the

coachman and footman had put on their livery over their disguises, which gave them a more ridiculous

appearance than ever, and which gained them the applause of Franz and Albert. Albert had fastened the faded

bunch of violets to his buttonhole. At the first sound of the bell they hastened into the Corso by the Via

Vittoria. At the second turn, a bunch of fresh violets, thrown from a carriage filled with harlequins, indicated

to Albert that, like himself and his friend, the peasants had changed their costume, also; and whether it was

the result of chance, or whether a similar feeling had possessed them both, while he had changed his costume

Albert placed the fresh bouquet in his buttonhole, but he kept the faded one in his hand; and when he again

met the calash, he raised it to his lips, an action which seemed greatly to amuse not only the fair lady who had

thrown it, but her joyous companions also. The day was as gay as the preceding one, perhaps even more

animated and noisy; the count appeared for an instant at his window. but when they again passed he had

disappeared. It is almost needless to say that the flirtation between Albert and the fair peasant continued all

day. In the evening, on his return, Franz found a letter from the embassy, informing him that he would have

the honor of being received by his holiness the next day. At each previous visit he had made to Rome, he had

solicited and obtained the same favor; and incited as much by a religious feeling as by gratitude, he was

unwilling to quit the capital of the Christian world without laying his respectful homage at the feet of one of

St. Peter's successors who has set the rare example of all the virtues. He did not then think of the Carnival, for

in spite of his condescension and touching kindness, one cannot incline one's self without awe before the

venerable and noble old man called Gregory XVI. On his return from the Vatican, Franz carefully avoided

the Corso; he brought away with him a treasure of pious thoughts, to which the mad gayety of the maskers

would have been profanation. At ten minutes past five Albert entered overjoyed. The harlequin had

reassumed her peasant's costume, and as she passed she raised her mask. She was charming. Franz

congratulated Albert, who received his congratulations with the air of a man conscious that they are merited.

He had recognized by certain unmistakable signs, that his fair incognita belonged to the aristocracy. He had

made up his mind to write to her the next day. Franz remarked, while he gave these details, that Albert

seemed to have something to ask of him, but that he was unwilling to ask it. He insisted upon it, declaring

beforehand that he was willing to make any sacrifice the other wished. Albert let himself be pressed just as

long as friendship required, and then avowed to Franz that he would do him a great favor by allowing him to

occupy the carriage alone the next day. Albert attributed to Franz's absence the extreme kindness of the fair

peasant in raising her mask. Franz was not sufficiently egotistical to stop Albert in the middle of an adventure

that promised to prove so agreeable to his curiosity and so flattering to his vanity. He felt assured that the

perfect indiscretion of his friend would duly inform him of all that happened; and as, during three years that

he had travelled all over Italy, a similar piece of good fortune had never fallen to his share, Franz was by no

means sorry to learn how to act on such an occasion. He therefore promised Albert that he would content

himself the morrow with witnessing the Carnival from the windows of the Rospoli Palace.

The next morning he saw Albert pass and repass, holding an enormous bouquet, which he doubtless meant to

make the bearer of his amorous epistle. This belief was changed into certainty when Franz saw the bouquet

(conspicuous by a circle of white camellias) in the hand of a charming harlequin dressed in rosecolored

satin. The evening was no longer joy, but delirium. Albert nothing doubted but that the fair unknown would

reply in the same manner. Franz anticipated his wishes by saying that the noise fatigued him, and that he

should pass the next day in writing and looking over his journal. Albert was not deceived, for the next

evening Franz saw him enter triumphantly shaking a folded paper which he held by one corner. "Well," said

"Read." This word was pronounced in a manner impossible to describe. Franz took the letter, and read:

Tuesday evening, at seven o'clock, descend from your carriage opposite the Via dei Pontefici, and follow the

Roman peasant who snatches your torch from you. When you arrive at the first step of the church of San

Giacomo, be sure to fasten a knot of rosecolored ribbons to the shoulder of your harlequin costume, in order

"I think so, also," replied Albert; "and I very much fear you will go alone to the Duke of Bracciano's ball."

Franz and Albert had received that morning an invitation from the celebrated Roman banker. "Take care,

Albert," said Franz. "All the nobility of Rome will be present, and if your fair incognita belong to the higher

"Whether she goes there or not, my opinion is still the same," returned Albert. "You have read the letter?"

"You know how imperfectly the women of the mezzo cito are educated in Italy?" (This is the name of the

"Well, read the letter again. Look at the writing, and find if you can, any blemish in the language or

orthography." (The writing was, in reality, charming, and the orthography irreproachable.) "You are born to

"You alarm me," cried Franz. "I see that I shall not only go alone to the Duke of Bracciano's, but also return

"If my unknown be as amiable as she is beautiful," said Albert, "I shall fix myself at Rome for six weeks, at

"Come, two or three more such adventures, and I do not despair of seeing you a member of the Academy."

Doubtless Albert was about to discuss seriously his right to the academic chair when they were informed that

dinner was ready. Albert's love had not taken away his appetite. He hastened with Franz to seat himself, free

to recommence the discussion after dinner. After dinner, the Count of Monte Cristo was announced. They had

not seen him for two days. Signor Pastrini informed them that business had called him to Civita Vecchia. He

had started the previous evening, and had only returned an hour since. He was charming. Whether he kept a

watch over himself, or whether by accident he did not sound the acrimonious chords that in other

circumstances had been touched, he was tonight like everybody else. The man was an enigma to Franz. The

count must feel sure that Franz recognized him; and yet he had not let fall a single word indicating any

previous acquaintance between them. On his side, however great Franz's desire was to allude to their former

interview, the fear of being disagreeable to the man who had loaded him and his friend with kindness

prevented him from mentioning it. The count had learned that the two friends had sent to secure a box at the

Argentina Theatre, and were told they were all let. In consequence, he brought them the key of his own at

least such was the apparent motive of his visit. Franz and Albert made some difficulty, alleging their fear of

depriving him of it; but the count replied that, as he was going to the Palli Theatre, the box at the Argentina

Theatre would he lost if they did not profit by it. This assurance determined the two friends to accept it.

Franz had by degrees become accustomed to the count's pallor, which had so forcibly struck him at their first

meeting. He could not refrain from admiring the severe beauty of his features, the only defect, or rather the

principal quality of which was the pallor. Truly, a Byronic hero! Franz could not, we will not say see him, but

even think of him without imagining his stern head upon Manfred's shoulders, or beneath Lara's helmet. His

forehead was marked with the line that indicates the constant presence of bitter thoughts; he had the fiery

eyes that seem to penetrate to the very soul, and the haughty and disdainful upper lip that gives to the words it

utters a peculiar character that impresses them on the minds of those to whom they are addressed. The count

was no longer young. He was at least forty; and yet it was easy to understand that he was formed to rule the

young men with whom he associated at present. And, to complete his resemblance with the fantastic heroes

of the English poet, the count seemed to have the power of fascination. Albert was constantly expatiating on

their good fortune in meeting such a man. Franz was less enthusiastic; but the count exercised over him also

the ascendency a strong mind always acquires over a mind less domineering. He thought several times of the

project the count had of visiting Paris; and he had no doubt but that, with his eccentric character, his

characteristic face, and his colossal fortune, he would produce a great effect there. And yet he did not wish to

be at Paris when the count was there. The evening passed as evenings mostly pass at Italian theatres; that is,

not in listening to the music, but in paying visits and conversing. The Countess G wished to revive the

subject of the count, but Franz announced he had something far newer to tell her, and, in spite of Albert's

demonstrations of false modesty, he informed the countess of the great event which had preoccupied them for

the last three days. As similar intrigues are not uncommon in Italy, if we may credit travellers, the comtess

did not manifest the least incredulity, but congratulated Albert on his success. They promised, upon

separating, to meet at the Duke of Bracciano's ball, to which all Rome was invited. The heroine of the

bouquet kept her word; she gave Albert no sign of her existence the morrow or the day after.

At length Tuesday came, the last and most tumultuous day of the Carnival. On Tuesday, the theatres open at

ten o'clock in the morning, as Lent begins after eight at night. On Tuesday, all those who through want of

money, time, or enthusiasm, have not been to see the Carnival before, mingle in the gayety, and contribute to

the noise and excitement. From two o'clock till five Franz and Albert followed in the fete, exchanging

handfuls of confetti with the other carriages and the pedestrians, who crowded amongst the horses' feet and

the carriage wheels without a single accident, a single dispute, or a single fight. The fetes are veritable

pleasure days to the Italians. The author of this history, who has resided five or six years in Italy, does not

recollect to have ever seen a ceremony interrupted by one of those events so common in other countries.

Albert was triumphant in his harlequin costume. A knot of rosecolored ribbons fell from his shoulder almost

to the ground. In order that there might be no confusion, Franz wore his peasant's costume.

As the day advanced, the tumult became greater. There was not on the pavement, in the carriages, at the

windows, a single tongue that was silent, a single arm that did not move. It was a human storm, made up of a

thunder of cries, and a hail of sweetmeats, flowers, eggs, oranges, and nosegays. At three o'clock the sound of

fireworks, let off on the Piazza del Popolo and the Piazza di Venezia (heard with difficulty amid the din and

confusion) announced that the races were about to begin. The races, like the moccoli, are one of the episodes

peculiar to the last days of the Carnival. At the sound of the fireworks the carriages instantly broke ranks, and

retired by the adjacent streets. All these evolutions are executed with an inconceivable address and

marvellous rapidity, without the police interfering in the matter. The pedestrians ranged themselves against

the walls; then the trampling of horses and the clashing of steel were heard. A detachment of carbineers,

fifteen abreast, galloped up the Corso in order to clear it for the barberi. When the detachment arrived at the

Piazza di Venezia, a second volley of fireworks was discharged, to announce that the street was clear. Almost

instantly, in the midst of a tremendous and general outcry, seven or eight horses, excited by the shouts of

three hundred thousand spectators, passed by like lightning. Then the Castle of Saint Angelo fired three

cannon to indicate that number three had won. Immediately, without any other signal, the carriages moved

on, flowing on towards the Corso, down all the streets, like torrents pent up for a while, which again flow into

the parent river; and the immense stream again continued its course between its two granite banks.

A new source of noise and movement was added to the crowd. The sellers of moccoletti entered on the scene.

The moccoli, or moccoletti, are candles which vary in size from the pascal taper to the rushlight, and which

give to each actor in the great final scene of the Carnival two very serious problems to grapple with, first,

how to keep his own moccoletto alight; and secondly, how to extinguish the moccoletti of others. The

moccoletto is like life: man has found but one means of transmitting it, and that one comes from God. But he

has discovered a thousand means of taking it away, and the devil has somewhat aided him. The moccoletto is

kindled by approaching it to a light. But who can describe the thousand means of extinguishing the

moccoletto? the gigantic bellows, the monstrous extinguishers, the superhuman fans. Every one hastened

The night was rapidly approaching; and already, at the cry of "Moccoletti!" repeated by the shrill voices of a

thousand vendors, two or three stars began to burn among the crowd. It was a signal. At the end of ten

minutes fifty thousand lights glittered, descending from the Palazzo di Venezia to the Piazza del Popolo, and

mounting from the Piazzo del Popolo to the Palazzo di Venezia. It seemed like the fete of jacko'lanterns. It

is impossible to form any idea of it without having seen it. Suppose that all the stars had descended from the

sky and mingled in a wild dance on the face of the earth; the whole accompanied by cries that were never

heard in any other part of the world. The facchino follows the prince, the Transteverin the citizen, every one

blowing, extinguishing, relighting. Had old AEolus appeared at this moment, he would have been proclaimed

king of the moccoli, and Aquilo the heirpresumptive to the throne. This battle of folly and flame continued

for two hours; the Corso was light as day; the features of the spectators on the third and fourth stories were

visible. Every five minutes Albert took out his watch; at length it pointed to seven. The two friends were in

the Via dei Pontefici. Albert sprang out, bearing his moccoletto in his hand. Two or three masks strove to

knock his moccoletto out of his hand; but Albert, a firstrate pugilist, sent them rolling in the street, one after

the other, and continued his course towards the church of San Giacomo. The steps were crowded with masks,

who strove to snatch each other's torches. Franz followed Albert with his eyes, and saw him mount the first

step. Instantly a mask, wearing the wellknown costume of a peasant woman, snatched his moccoletto from

him without his offering any resistance. Franz was too far off to hear what they said; but, without doubt,

nothing hostile passed, for he saw Albert disappear arminarm with the peasant girl. He watched them pass

through the crowd for some time, but at length he lost sight of them in the Via Macello. Suddenly the bell

that gives the signal for the end of the carnival sounded, and at the same instant all the moccoletti were

extinguished as if by enchantment. It seemed as though one immense blast of the wind had extinguished

every one. Franz found himself in utter darkness. No sound was audible save that of the carriages that were

carrying the maskers home; nothing was visible save a few lights that burnt behind the windows. The

In his whole life, perhaps, Franz had never before experienced so sudden an impression, so rapid a transition

from gayety to sadness, as in this moment. It seemed as though Rome, under the magic breath of some demon

of the night, had suddenly changed into a vast tomb. By a chance, which added yet more to the intensity of

the darkness, the moon, which was on the wane, did not rise until eleven o'clock, and the streets which the

young man traversed were plunged in the deepest obscurity. The distance was short, and at the end of ten

minutes his carriage, or rather the count's, stopped before the Hotel de Londres. Dinner was waiting, but as

Albert had told him that he should not return so soon, Franz sat down without him. Signor Pastrini, who had

been accustomed to see them dine together, inquired into the cause of his absence, but Franz merely replied

that Albert had received on the previous evening an invitation which he had accepted. The sudden extinction

of the moccoletti, the darkness which had replaced the light, and the silence which had succeeded the turmoil,

had left in Franz's mind a certain depression which was not free from uneasiness. He therefore dined very

silently, in spite of the officious attention of his host, who presented himself two or three times to inquire if

Franz resolved to wait for Albert as late as possible. He ordered the carriage, therefore, for eleven o'clock,

desiring Signor Pastrini to inform him the moment that Albert returned to the hotel. At eleven o'clock Albert

had not come back. Franz dressed himself, and went out, telling his host that he was going to pass the night at

the Duke of Bracciano's. The house of the Duke of Bracciano is one of the most delightful in Rome, the

duchess, one of the last heiresses of the Colonnas, does its honors with the most consummate grace, and thus

their fetes have a European celebrity. Franz and Albert had brought to Rome letters of introduction to them,

and their first question on his arrival was to inquire the whereabouts of his travelling companion. Franz

replied that he had left him at the moment they were about to extinguish the moccoli, and that he had lost

"Diavolo!" said the duke, "this is a bad day, or rather a bad night, to be out late; is it not, countess!" These

words were addressed to the Countess G , who had just arrived, and was leaning on the arm of Signor

"I think, on the contrary, that it is a charming night," replied the countess, "and those who are here will

"I am not speaking," said the duke with a smile, "of the persons who are here; the men run no other danger

than that of falling in love with you, and the women of falling ill of jealousy at seeing you so lovely; I meant

"Ah," asked the countess, "who is out in the streets of Rome at this hour, unless it be to go to a ball?"

"Our friend, Albert de Morcerf, countess, whom I left in pursuit of his unknown about seven o'clock this

"You should not have allowed him to go," said the duke to Franz; "you, who know Rome better than he

"You might as well have tried to stop number three of the barberi, who gained the prize in the race today,"

"Who can tell? The night is gloomy, and the Tiber is very near the Via Macello." Franz felt a shudder run

through his veins at observing that the feeling of the duke and the countess was so much in unison with his

own personal disquietude. "I informed them at the hotel that I had the honor of passing the night here, duke,"

"Ah," replied the duke, "here I think, is one of my servants who is seeking you."

The duke was not mistaken; when he saw Franz, the servant came up to him. "Your excellency," he said, "the

master of the Hotel de Londres has sent to let you know that a man is waiting for you with a letter from the

"Oh," said the countess to Franz, "go with all speed poor young man! Perhaps some accident has

"Yes, if it is not any serious affair, otherwise I cannot answer as to what I may do myself."

"Oh, pray be assured of that." Franz took his hat and went away in haste. He had sent away his carriage with

orders for it to fetch him at two o'clock; fortunately the Palazzo Bracciano, which is on one side in the Corso,

and on the other in the Square of the Holy Apostles, is hardly ten minutes' walk from the Hotel de Londres.

As he came near the hotel, Franz saw a man in the middle of the street. He had no doubt that it was the

messenger from Albert. The man was wrapped up in a large cloak. He went up to him, but, to his extreme

astonishment, the stranger first addressed him. "What wants your excellency of me?" inquired the man,

"Are not you the person who brought me a letter," inquired Franz, "from the Viscount of Morcerf?"

Franz entered the hotel. On the staircase he met Signor Pastrini. "Well?" said the landlord.

"You have seen the man who desired to speak with you from your friend?" he asked of Franz.

"Yes, I have seen him," he replied, "and he has handed this letter to me. Light the candles in my apartment, if

you please." The innkeeper gave orders to a servant to go before Franz with a light. The young man had

found Signor Pastrini looking very much alarmed, and this had only made him the more anxious to read

Albert's letter; and so he went instantly towards the waxlight, and unfolded it. It was written and signed by

Albert. Franz read it twice before he could comprehend what it contained. It was thus worded:

My Dear Fellow, The moment you have received this, have the kindness to take the letter of credit from

my pocketbook, which you will find in the square drawer of the secretary; add your own to it, if it be not

sufficient. Run to Torlonia, draw from him instantly four thousand piastres, and give them to the bearer. It is

urgent that I should have this money without delay. I do not say more, relying on you as you may rely on me.

Se alle sei della mattina le quattro mile piastre non sono nelle mie mani, alla sette il conte Alberto avra

"If by six in the morning the four thousand piastres are not in my hands, by seven o'clock the Count Albert

This second signature explained everything to Franz, who now understood the objection of the messenger to

coming up into the apartment; the street was safer for him. Albert, then, had fallen into the hands of the

famous bandit chief, in whose existence he had for so long a time refused to believe. There was no time to

lose. He hastened to open the secretary, and found the pocketbook in the drawer, and in it the letter of credit.

There were in all six thousand piastres, but of these six thousand Albert had already expended three thousand.

As to Franz, he had no letter of credit, as he lived at Florence, and had only come to Rome to pass seven or

eight days; he had brought but a hundred louis, and of these he had not more than fifty left. Thus seven or

eight hundred piastres were wanting to them both to make up the sum that Albert required. True, he might in

such a case rely on the kindness of Signor Torlonia. He was, therefore, about to return to the Palazzo

Bracciano without loss of time, when suddenly a luminous idea crossed his mind. He remembered the Count

of Monte Cristo. Franz was about to ring for Signor Pastrini, when that worthy presented himself. "My dear

"Then ring at his door, if you please, and request him to be so kind as to give me an audience." Signor

Pastrini did as he was desired, and returning five minutes after, he said, "The count awaits your

excellency." Franz went along the corridor, and a servant introduced him to the count. He was in a small

room which Franz had not yet seen, and which was surrounded with divans. The count came towards him.

"Well, what good wind blows you hither at this hour?" said he; "have you come to sup with me? It would be

"A serious matter," said the count, looking at Franz with the earnestness usual to him; "and what may it be?"

"Yes," replied the count, going to the door, and returning. Franz gave him Albert's letter. "Read that," he said.

"`Se alle sei della mattina le quattro mile piastre non sono nelle mie mani, alla sette il conte Alberto avra

"Yes, all but eight hundred piastres." The count went to his secretary, opened it, and pulling out a drawer

filled with gold, said to Franz, "I hope you will not offend me by applying to any one but myself."

"And I thank you; have what you will; "and he made a sign to Franz to take what he pleased.

"Is it absolutely necessary, then, to send the money to Luigi Vampa?" asked the young man, looking fixedly

"I think that if you would take the trouble of reflecting, you could find a way of simplifying the negotiation,"

"If we were to go together to Luigi Vampa, I am sure he would not refuse you Albert's freedom."

"No matter; I know it." The count knit his brows, and remained silent an instant. "And if I went to seek

"To your apartments, perhaps; but he will not make any difficulty at entering mine." The count went to the

window of the apartment that looked on to the street, and whistled in a peculiar manner. The man in the

mantle quitted the wall, and advanced into the middle of the street. "Salite!" said the count, in the same tone

in which he would have given an order to his servant. The messenger obeyed without the least hesitation, but

rather with alacrity, and, mounting the steps at a bound, entered the hotel; five seconds afterwards he was at

the door of the room. "Ah, it is you, Peppino," said the count. But Peppino, instead of answering, threw

himself on his knees, seized the count's hand, and covered it with kisses. "Ah," said the count, "you have,

then, not forgotten that I saved your life; that is strange, for it is a week ago."

"No, excellency; and never shall I forget it," returned Peppino, with an accent of profound gratitude.

"Never? That is a long time; but it is something that you believe so. Rise and answer." Peppino glanced

anxiously at Franz. "Oh, you may speak before his excellency," said he; "he is one of my friends. You allow

me to give you this title?" continued the count in French, "it is necessary to excite this man's confidence."

"Good!" returned Peppino. "I am ready to answer any questions your excellency may address to me."

"Excellency, the Frenchman's carriage passed several times the one in which was Teresa."

"Yes. The Frenchman threw her a bouquet; Teresa returned it all this with the consent of the chief, who

"Well, then, the Frenchman took off his mask; Teresa, with the chief's consent, did the same. The Frenchman

asked for a rendezvous; Teresa gave him one only, instead of Teresa, it was Beppo who was on the steps

"Was a lad of fifteen," replied Peppino. "But it was no disgrace to your friend to have been deceived; Beppo

"Exactly so; a carriage was waiting at the end of the Via Macello. Beppo got in, inviting the Frenchman to

follow him, and he did not wait to be asked twice. He gallantly offered the righthand seat to Beppo, and sat

by him. Beppo told him he was going to take him to a villa a league from Rome; the Frenchman assured him

he would follow him to the end of the world. The coachman went up the Via di Ripetta and the Porta San

Paola; and when they were two hundred yards outside, as the Frenchman became somewhat too forward,

Beppo put a brace of pistols to his head, the coachman pulled up and did the same. At the same time, four of

the band, who were concealed on the banks of the Almo, surrounded the carriage. The Frenchman made some

resistance, and nearly strangled Beppo; but he could not resist five armed men. and was forced to yield. They

made him get out, walk along the banks of the river, and then brought him to Teresa and Luigi, who were

"Well," said the count, turning towards Franz, "it seems to me that this is a very likely story. What do you say

"Why, that I should think it very amusing," replied Franz, "if it had happened to any one but poor Albert."

"And, in truth, if you had not found me here," said the count, "it might have proved a gallant adventure which

would have cost your friend dear; but now, be assured, his alarm will be the only serious consequence."

"Oh, decidedly, sir. He is in a very picturesque place do you know the catacombs of St. Sebastian?"

"Well, here is an opportunity made to your hand, and it would be difficult to contrive a better. Have you a

"Yes. I am a very capricious being, and I should tell you that sometimes when I rise, or after my dinner, or in

the middle of the night, I resolve on starting for some particular point, and away I go." The count rang, and a

footman appeared. "Order out the carriage," he said, "and remove the pistols which are in the holsters. You

need not awaken the coachman; Ali will drive." In a very short time the noise of wheels was heard, and the

carriage stopped at the door. The count took out his watch. "Halfpast twelve," he said. "We might start at

five o'clock and be in time, but the delay may cause your friend to pass an uneasy night, and therefore we had

better go with all speed to extricate him from the hands of the infidels. Are you still resolved to accompany

Franz and the count went downstairs, accompanied by Peppino. At the door they found the carriage. Ali was

on the box, in whom Franz recognized the dumb slave of the grotto of Monte Cristo. Franz and the count got

into the carriage. Peppino placed himself beside Ali, and they set off at a rapid pace. Ali had received his

instructions, and went down the Corso, crossed the Campo Vaccino, went up the Strada San Gregorio, and

reached the gates of St. Sebastian. Then the porter raised some difficulties, but the Count of Monte Cristo

produced a permit from the governor of Rome, allowing him to leave or enter the city at any hour of the day

or night; the portcullis was therefore raised, the porter had a louis for his trouble, and they went on their way.

The road which the carriage now traversed was the ancient Appian Way, and bordered with tombs. From time

to time, by the light of the moon, which began to rise, Franz imagined that he saw something like a sentinel

appear at various points among the ruins, and suddenly retreat into the darkness on a signal from Peppino. A

short time before they reached the Baths of Caracalla the carriage stopped, Peppino opened the door, and the

He then took Peppino aside, gave him an order in a low voice, and Peppino went away, taking with him a

torch, brought with them in the carriage. Five minutes elapsed, during which Franz saw the shepherd going

along a narrow path that led over the irregular and broken surface of the Campagna; and finally he

disappeared in the midst of the tall red herbage, which seemed like the bristling mane of an enormous lion.

"Now," said the count, "let us follow him." Franz and the count in their turn then advanced along the same

path, which, at the distance of a hundred paces, led them over a declivity to the bottom of a small valley.

They then perceived two men conversing in the obscurity. "Ought we to go on?" asked Franz of the count;

"Let us go on; Peppino will have warned the sentry of our coming." One of the two men was Peppino, and the

other a bandit on the lookout. Franz and the count advanced, and the bandit saluted them. "Your excellency,"

said Peppino, addressing the count, "if you will follow me, the opening of the catacombs is close at hand."

"Go on, then," replied the count. They came to an opening behind a clump of bushes and in the midst of a pile

of rocks, by which a man could scarcely pass. Peppino glided first into this crevice; after they got along a few

paces the passage widened. Peppino passed, lighted his torch, and turned to see if they came after him. The

count first reached an open space and Franz followed him closely. The passageway sloped in a gentle

descent, enlarging as they proceeded; still Franz and the count were compelled to advance in a stooping

posture, and were scarcely able to proceed abreast of one another. They went on a hundred and fifty paces in

this way, and then were stopped by, "Who comes there?" At the same time they saw the reflection of a torch

"A friend!" responded Peppino; and, advancing alone towards the sentry, he said a few words to him in a low

tone; and then he, like the first, saluted the nocturnal visitors, making a sign that they might proceed.

Behind the sentinel was a staircase with twenty steps. Franz and the count descended these, and found

themselves in a mortuary chamber. Five corridors diverged like the rays of a star, and the walls, dug into

niches, which were arranged one above the other in the shape of coffins, showed that they were at last in the

catacombs. Down one of the corridors, whose extent it was impossible to determine, rays of light were

visible. The count laid his hand on Franz's shoulder. "Would you like to see a camp of bandits in repose?" he

"Come with me, then. Peppino, put out the torch." Peppino obeyed, and Franz and the count were in utter

darkness, except that fifty paces in advance of them a reddish glare, more evident since Peppino had put out

his torch, was visible along the wall. They advanced silently, the count guiding Franz as if he had the singular

faculty of seeing in the dark. Franz himself, however, saw his way more plainly in proportion as he went on

towards the light, which served in some manner as a guide. Three arcades were before them, and the middle

one was used as a door. These arcades opened on one side into the corridor where the count and Franz were,

and on the other into a large square chamber, entirely surrounded by niches similar to those of which we have

spoken. In the midst of this chamber were four stones, which had formerly served as an altar, as was evident

from the cross which still surmounted them. A lamp, placed at the base of a pillar, lighted up with its pale and

flickering flame the singular scene which presented itself to the eyes of the two visitors concealed in the

shadow. A man was seated with his elbow leaning on the column, and was reading with his back turned to the

arcades, through the openings of which the newcomers contemplated him. This was the chief of the band,

Luigi Vampa. Around him, and in groups, according to their fancy, lying in their mantles, or with their backs

against a sort of stone bench, which went all round the columbarium, were to be seen twenty brigands or

more, each having his carbine within reach. At the other end, silent, scarcely visible, and like a shadow, was a

sentinel, who was walking up and down before a grotto, which was only distinguishable because in that spot

the darkness seemed more dense than elsewhere. When the count thought Franz had gazed sufficiently on this

picturesque tableau, he raised his finger to his lips, to warn him to be silent, and, ascending the three steps

which led to the corridor of the columbarium, entered the chamber by the middle arcade, and advanced

towards Vampa, who was so intent on the book before him that he did not hear the noise of his footsteps.

"Who comes there?" cried the sentinel, who was less abstracted, and who saw by the lamplight a shadow

approaching his chief. At this challenge, Vampa rose quickly, drawing at the same moment a pistol from his

girdle. In a moment all the bandits were on their feet, and twenty carbines were levelled at the count. "Well,"

said he in a voice perfectly calm, and no muscle of his countenance disturbed, "well, my dear Vampa, it

"Ground arms," exclaimed the chief, with an imperative sign of the hand, while with the other he took off his

hat respectfully; then, turning to the singular personage who had caused this scene, he said, "Your pardon,

your excellency, but I was so far from expecting the honor of a visit, that I did not really recognize you."

"It seems that your memory is equally short in everything, Vampa," said the count, "and that not only do you

"What conditions have I forgotten, your excellency?" inquired the bandit, with the air of a man who, having

"Was it not agreed," asked the count, "that not only my person, but also that of my friends, should be

"You have this evening carried off and conveyed hither the Vicomte Albert de Morcerf. Well," continued the

count, in a tone that made Franz shudder, "this young gentleman is one of my friends this young

gentleman lodges in the same hotel as myself this young gentleman has been up and down the Corso for

eight hours in my private carriage, and yet, I repeat to you, you have carried him off, and conveyed him

hither, and," added the count, taking the letter from his pocket, "you have set a ransom on him, as if he were

"Why did you not tell me all this you?" inquired the brigand chief, turning towards his men, who all

retreated before his look. "Why have you caused me thus to fail in my word towards a gentleman like the

count, who has all our lives in his hands? By heavens, if I thought one of you knew that the young gentleman

was the friend of his excellency, I would blow his brains out with my own hand!"

"Well," said the count, turning towards Franz, "I told you there was some mistake in this."

"I am with the person to whom this letter was addressed, and to whom I desired to prove that Luigi Vampa

was a man of his word. Come, your excellency," the count added, turning to Franz, "here is Luigi Vampa,

who will himself express to you his deep regret at the mistake he has committed." Franz approached, the

chief advancing several steps to meet him. "Welcome among us, your excellency," he said to him; "you heard

what the count just said, and also my reply; let me add that I would not for the four thousand piastres at

"But," said Franz, looking round him uneasily, "where is the Viscount? I do not see him."

"The prisoner is there," replied Vampa, pointing to the hollow space in front of which the bandit was on

guard, "and I will go myself and tell him he is free." The chief went towards the place he had pointed out as

Albert's prison, and Franz and the count followed him. "What is the prisoner doing?" inquired Vampa of the

"Ma foi, captain," replied the sentry, "I do not know; for the last hour I have not heard him stir."

"Come in, your excellency," said Vampa. The count and Franz ascended seven or eight steps after the chief,

who drew back a bolt and opened a door. Then, by the gleam of a lamp, similar to that which lighted the

columbarium, Albert was to be seen wrapped up in a cloak which one of the bandits had lent him, lying in a

corner in profound slumber. "Come," said the count, smiling with his own peculiar smile, "not so bad for a

man who is to be shot at seven o'clock tomorrow morning." Vampa looked at Albert with a kind of

"You are right, your excellency," he said; "this must be one of your friends." Then going to Albert, he

touched him on the shoulder, saying, "Will your excellency please to awaken?" Albert stretched out his arms,

rubbed his eyelids, and opened his eyes. "Oh," said he, "is it you, captain? You should have allowed me to

sleep. I had such a delightful dream. I was dancing the galop at Torlonia's with the Countess G ." Then

"My dear fellow," replied Albert, with perfect ease of mind, "remember, for the future, Napoleon's maxim,

`Never awaken me but for bad news;' if you had let me sleep on, I should have finished my galop, and have

"Really? Then that person is a most amiable person." Albert looked around and perceived Franz. "What," said

he, "is it you, my dear Franz, whose devotion and friendship are thus displayed?"

"Oh. my dear count." said Albert gayly, arranging his cravat and wristbands, "you are really most kind, and I

hope you will consider me as under eternal obligations to you, in the first place for the carriage, and in the

next for this visit," and he put out his hand to the Count, who shuddered as he gave his own, but who

nevertheless did give it. The bandit gazed on this scene with amazement; he was evidently accustomed to see

his prisoners tremble before him, and yet here was one whose gay temperament was not for a moment

altered; as for Franz, he was enchanted at the way in which Albert had sustained the national honor in the

presence of the bandit. "My dear Albert," he said, "if you will make haste, we shall yet have time to finish the

night at Torlonia's. You may conclude your interrupted galop, so that you will owe no illwill to Signor

"You are decidedly right, and we may reach the Palazzo by two o'clock. Signor Luigi," continued Albert, "is

And Albert, followed by Franz and the count, descended the staircase, crossed the square chamber, where

stood all the bandits, hat in hand. "Peppino," said the brigand chief, "give me the torch."

"l will show you the way back myself," said the captain; "that is the least honor that I can render to your

excellency." And taking the lighted torch from the hands of the herdsman, he preceded his guests, not as a

servant who performs an act of civility, but like a king who precedes ambassadors. On reaching the door, he

bowed. "And now, your excellency," added he, "allow me to repeat my apologies, and I hope you will not

"No, my dear Vampa," replied the count; "besides, you compensate for your mistakes in so gentlemanly a

"Gentlemen," added the chief, turning towards the young men, "perhaps the offer may not appear very

tempting to you; but if you should ever feel inclined to pay me a second visit, wherever I may be, you shall

be welcome." Franz and Albert bowed. The count went out first, then Albert. Franz paused for a moment.

"Yes, I have," replied Franz; "I am curious to know what work you were perusing with so much attention as

"Yes," replied Franz, "here I am," and he, in his turn, left the caves. They advanced to the plain. "Ah, your

pardon," said Albert, turning round; "will you allow me, captain?" And he lighted his cigar at Vampa's torch.

"Now, my dear count," he said, "let us on with all the speed we may. I am enormously anxious to finish my

night at the Duke of Bracciano's." They found the carriage where they had left it. The count said a word in

Arabic to Ali, and the horses went on at great speed. It was just two o'clock by Albert's watch when the two

friends entered into the dancingroom. Their return was quite an event, but as they entered together, all

uneasiness on Albert's account ceased instantly. "Madame," said the Viscount of Morcerf, advancing towards

the countess, "yesterday you were so condescending as to promise me a galop; I am rather late in claiming

this gracious promise, but here is my friend, whose character for veracity you well know, and he will assure

you the delay arose from no fault of mine." And as at this moment the orchestra gave the signal for the waltz,

Albert put his arm round the waist of the countess, and disappeared with her in the whirl of dancers. In the

meanwhile Franz was considering the singular shudder that had passed over the Count of Monte Cristo at the

The first words that Albert uttered to his friend, on the following morning, contained a request that Franz

would accompany him on a visit to the count; true, the young man had warmly and energetically thanked the

count on the previous evening; but services such as he had rendered could never be too often acknowledged.

Franz, who seemed attracted by some invisible influence towards the count, in which terror was strangely

mingled, felt an extreme reluctance to permit his friend to be exposed alone to the singular fascination that

this mysterious personage seemed to exercise over him, and therefore made no objection to Albert's request,

but at once accompanied him to the desired spot, and, after a short delay, the count joined them in the salon.

"My dear count," said Albert, advancing to meet him, "permit me to repeat the poor thanks I offered last

night, and to assure you that the remembrance of all I owe to you will never be effaced from my memory;

believe me, as long as I live, I shall never cease to dwell with grateful recollection on the prompt and

important service you rendered me; and also to remember that to you I am indebted even for my life."

"My very good friend and excellent neighbor," replied the count, with a smile, "you really exaggerate my

trifling exertions. You owe me nothing but some trifle of 20,000 francs, which you have been saved out of

your travelling expenses, so that there is not much of a score between us; but you must really permit me to

congratulate you on the ease and unconcern with which you resigned yourself to your fate, and the perfect

"Upon my word," said Albert, "I deserve no credit for what I could not help, namely, a determination to take

everything as I found it, and to let those bandits see, that although men get into troublesome scrapes all over

the world, there is no nation but the French that can smile even in the face of grim Death himself. All that,

however, has nothing to do with my obligations to you, and I now come to ask you whether, in my own

person, my family, or connections, I can in any way serve you? My father, the Comte de Morcerf, although of

Spanish origin, possesses considerable influence, both at the court of France and Madrid, and I unhesitatingly

place the best services of myself, and all to whom my life is dear, at your disposal."

"Monsieur de Morcerf," replied the count, "your offer, far from surprising me, is precisely what I expected

from you, and I accept it in the same spirit of hearty sincerity with which it is made; nay, I will go still

further, and say that I had previously made up my mind to ask a great favor at your hands."

"Is it possible," exclaimed Albert, "that you have reached your present age without visiting the finest capital

"Nevertheless, it is quite true; still, I agree with you in thinking that my present ignorance of the first city in

Europe is a reproach to me in every way, and calls for immediate correction; but, in all probability, I should

have performed so important, so necessary a duty, as that of making myself acquainted with the wonders and

beauties of your justly celebrated capital, had I known any person who would have introduced me into the

fashionable world, but unfortunately I possessed no acquaintance there, and, of necessity, was compelled to

"So distinguished an individual as yourself," cried Albert, "could scarcely have required an introduction."

"You are most kind; but as regards myself, I can find no merit I possess, save that, as a millionaire, I might

have become a partner in the speculations of M. Aguado and M. Rothschild; but as my motive in travelling to

your capital would not have been for the pleasure of dabbling in stocks, I stayed away till some favorable

chance should present itself of carrying my wish into execution. Your offer, however, smooths all difficulties,

and I have only to ask you, my dear M. de Morcerf" (these words were accompanied by a most peculiar

smile), "whether you undertake, upon my arrival in France, to open to me the doors of that fashionable world

"Oh, that I do, and with infinite pleasure," answered Albert; "and so much the more readily as a letter

received this morning from my father summons me to Paris, in consequence of a treaty of marriage (my dear

Franz, do not smile, I beg of you) with a family of high standing, and connected with the very cream of

"Well, never mind how it is," answered Albert, "it comes to the same thing in the end. Perhaps by the time

you return to Paris, I shall be quite a sober, staid father of a family! A most edifying representative I shall

make of all the domestic virtues don't you think so? But as regards your wish to visit our fine city, my

dear count, I can only say that you may command me and mine to any extent you please."

"Then it is settled," said the count, "and I give you my solemn assurance that I only waited an opportunity

like the present to realize plans that I have long meditated." Franz did not doubt that these plans were the

same concerning which the count had dropped a few words in the grotto of Monte Cristo, and while the

Count was speaking the young man watched him closely, hoping to read something of his purpose in his face,

but his countenance was inscrutable especially when, as in the present case, it was veiled in a sphinxlike

smile. "But tell me now, count," exclaimed Albert, delighted at the idea of having to chaperon so

distinguished a person as Monte Cristo; "tell me truly whether you are in earnest, or if this project of visiting

Paris is merely one of the chimerical and uncertain air castles of which we make so many in the course of our

lives, but which, like a house built on the sand, is liable to be blown over by the first puff of wind?"

"I pledge you my honor," returned the count, "that I mean to do as I have said; both inclination and positive

"Certainly I have; in a fortnight or three weeks' time, that is to say, as fast as I can get there!"

"Nay," said the Count; "I will give you three months ere I join you; you see I make an ample allowance for

"Shall we make a positive appointment for a particular day and hour?" inquired the count; "only let me warn

you that I am proverbial for my punctilious exactitude in keeping my engagements."

"So be it, then," replied the count, and extending his hand towards a calendar, suspended near the

chimneypiece, he said, "today is the 21st of February;" and drawing out his watch, added, "it is exactly

halfpast ten o'clock. Now promise me to remember this, and expect me the 21st of May at the same hour in

"Have you bachelor's apartments there? I hope my coming will not put you to any inconvenience."

"I reside in my father's house, but occupy a pavilion at the farther side of the courtyard, entirely separated

"Quite sufficient," replied the count, as, taking out his tablets, he wrote down "No. 27, Rue du Helder, 21st

"Now then," said the count, returning his tablets to his pocket, "make yourself perfectly easy; the hand of

"In that case I must say adieu to you, as I am compelled to go to Naples, and shall not return hither before

Saturday evening or Sunday morning. And you, baron," pursued the count, addressing Franz, "do you also

"Well, since we must part," said the count, holding out a hand to each of the young men, "allow me to wish

you both a safe and pleasant journey." It was the first time the hand of Franz had come in contact with that of

the mysterious individual before him, and unconsciously he shuddered at its touch, for it felt cold and icy as

that of a corpse. "Let us understand each other," said Albert; "it is agreed is it not? that you are to be at

No. 27, in the Rue du Helder, on the 21st of May, at halfpast ten in the morning, and your word of honor

"The 21st of May, at halfpast ten in the morning, Rue du Helder, No. 27," replied the Count. The young

men then rose, and bowing to the count, quitted the room. "What is the matter?" asked Albert of Franz, when

they had returned to their own apartments; "you seem more than commonly thoughtful."

"I will confess to you, Albert," replied Franz, "the count is a very singular person, and the appointment you

"My dear fellow," exclaimed Albert, "what can there possibly be in that to excite uneasiness? Why, you must

"Listen to me, Franz," said Albert; "I am glad that the occasion has presented itself for saying this to you, for

I have noticed how cold you are in your bearing towards the count, while he, on the other hand, has always

"Will you promise me not to repeat a single word of what I am about to tell you?"

"Then listen to me." Franz then related to his friend the history of his excursion to the Island of Monte Cristo

and of his finding a party of smugglers there, and the two Corsican bandits with them. He dwelt with

considerable force and energy on the almost magical hospitality he had received from the count, and the

magnificence of his entertainment in the grotto of the "Thousand and One Nights." He recounted, with

circumstantial exactitude, all the particulars of the supper, the hashish, the statues, the dream, and how, at his

awakening, there remained no proof or trace of all these events, save the small yacht, seen in the distant

horizon driving under full sail toward PortoVecchio. Then he detailed the conversation overheard by him at

the Colosseum, between the count and Vampa, in which the count had promised to obtain the release of the

bandit Peppino, an engagement which, as our readers are aware, he most faithfully fulfilled. At last he

arrived at the adventure of the preceding night, and the embarrassment in which he found himself placed by

not having sufficient cash by six or seven hundred piastres to make up the sum required, and finally of his

application to the count and the picturesque and satisfactory result that followed. Albert listened with the

most profound attention. "Well," said he, when Franz had concluded, "what do you find to object to in all you

have related? The count is fond of travelling, and, being rich, possesses a vessel of his own. Go but to

Portsmouth or Southampton, and you will find the harbors crowded with the yachts belonging to such of the

English as can afford the expense, and have the same liking for this amusement. Now, by way of having a

restingplace during his excursions, avoiding the wretched cookery which has been trying its best to

poison me during the last four months, while you have manfully resisted its effects for as many years, and

obtaining a bed on which it is possible to slumber, Monte Cristo has furnished for himself a temporary abode

where you first found him; but, to prevent the possibility of the Tuscan government taking a fancy to his

enchanted palace, and thereby depriving him of the advantages naturally expected from so large an outlay of

capital, he has wisely enough purchased the island, and taken its name. Just ask yourself, my good fellow,

whether there are not many persons of our acquaintance who assume the names of lands and properties they

"But," said Franz, "the Corsican bandits that were among the crew of his vessel?"

"Why, really the thing seems to me simple enough. Nobody knows better than yourself that the bandits of

Corsica are not rogues or thieves, but purely and simply fugitives, driven by some sinister motive from their

native town or village, and that their fellowship involves no disgrace or stigma; for my own part, I protest

that, should I ever go to Corsica, my first visit, ere even I presented myself to the mayor or prefect, should be

to the bandits of Colomba, if I could only manage to find them; for, on my conscience, they are a race of men

"Still," persisted Franz, "I suppose you will allow that such men as Vampa and his band are regular villains,

who have no other motive than plunder when they seize your person. How do you explain the influence the

"My good friend, as in all probability I own my present safety to that influence, it would ill become me to

search too closely into its source; therefore, instead of condemning him for his intimacy with outlaws, you

must give me leave to excuse any little irregularity there may be in such a connection; not altogether for

preserving my life, for my own idea was that it never was in much danger, but certainly for saving me 4,000

piastres, which, being translated, means neither more nor less than 24,000 livres of our money a sum at

which, most assuredly, I should never have been estimated in France, proving most indisputably," added

"Talking of countries," replied Franz, "of what country is the count, what is his native tongue, whence does

he derive his immense fortune, and what were those events of his early life a life as marvellous as

unknown that have tinctured his succeeding years with so dark and gloomy a misanthropy? Certainly

"My dear Franz," replied Albert, "when, upon receipt of my letter, you found the necessity of asking the

count's assistance, you promptly went to him, saying, `My friend Albert de Morcerf is in danger; help me to

"Well, then, did he ask you, `Who is M. Albert de Morcerf? how does he come by his name his fortune?

what are his means of existence? what is his birthplace! of what country is he a native?' Tell me, did he put

"No; he merely came and freed me from the hands of Signor Vampa, where, I can assure you, in spite of all

my outward appearance of ease and unconcern, I did not very particularly care to remain. Now, then, Franz,

when, for services so promptly and unhesitatingly rendered, he but asks me in return to do for him what is

done daily for any Russian prince or Italian nobleman who may pass through Paris merely to introduce

him into society would you have me refuse? My good fellow, you must have lost your senses to think it

possible I could act with such coldblooded policy." And this time it must be confessed that, contrary to the

usual state of affairs in discussions between the young men, the effective arguments were all on Albert's side.

"Well," said Franz with a sigh, "do as you please my dear viscount, for your arguments are beyond my

powers of refutation. Still, in spite of all, you must admit that this Count of Monte Cristo is a most singular

"He is a philanthropist," answered the other; "and no doubt his motive in visiting Paris is to compete for the

Monthyon prize, given, as you are aware, to whoever shall be proved to have most materially advanced the

interests of virtue and humanity. If my vote and interest can obtain it for him, I will readily give him the one

and promise the other. And now, my dear Franz, let us talk of something else. Come, shall we take our

luncheon, and then pay a last visit to St. Peter's?" Franz silently assented; and the following afternoon, at

halfpast five o'clock, the young men parted. Albert de Morcerf to return to Paris, and Franz d'Epinay to pass

a fortnight at Venice. But, ere he entered his travelling carriage, Albert, fearing that his expected guest might

forget the engagement he had entered into, placed in the care of a waiter at the hotel a card to be delivered to

the Count of Monte Cristo, on which, beneath the name of Vicomte Albert de Morcerf, he had written in

In the house in the Rue du Helder, where Albert had invited the Count of Monte Cristo, everything was being

prepared on the morning of the 21st of May to do honor to the occasion. Albert de Morcerf inhabited a

pavilion situated at the corner of a large court, and directly opposite another building, in which were the

servants' apartments. Two windows only of the pavilion faced the street; three other windows looked into the

court, and two at the back into the garden. Between the court and the garden, built in the heavy style of the

imperial architecture, was the large and fashionable dwelling of the Count and Countess of Morcerf. A high

wall surrounded the whole of the hotel, surmounted at intervals by vases filled with flowers, and broken in

the centre by a large gate of gilded iron, which served as the carriage entrance. A small door, close to the

lodge of the concierge, gave ingress and egress to the servants and masters when they were on foot.

It was easy to discover that the delicate care of a mother, unwilling to part from her son, and yet aware that a

young man of the viscount's age required the full exercise of his liberty, had chosen this habitation for Albert.

There were not lacking, however, evidences of what we may call the intelligent egoism of a youth who is

charmed with the indolent, careless life of an only son, and who lives as it were in a gilded cage. By means of

the two windows looking into the street, Albert could see all that passed; the sight of what is going on is

necessary to young men, who always want to see the world traverse their horizon, even if that horizon is only

a public thoroughfare. Then, should anything appear to merit a more minute examination, Albert de Morcerf

could follow up his researches by means of a small gate, similar to that close to the concierge's door, and

which merits a particular description. It was a little entrance that seemed never to have been opened since the

house was built, so entirely was it covered with dust and dirt; but the welloiled hinges and locks told quite

another story. This door was a mockery to the concierge, from whose vigilance and jurisdiction it was free,

and, like that famous portal in the "Arabian Nights," opening at the "Sesame" of Ali Baba, it was wont to

swing backward at a cabalistic word or a concerted tap from without from the sweetest voices or whitest

fingers in the world. At the end of a long corridor, with which the door communicated, and which formed the

antechamber, was, on the right, Albert's breakfastroom, looking into the court, and on the left the salon,

looking into the garden. Shrubs and creeping plants covered the windows, and hid from the garden and court

these two apartments, the only rooms into which, as they were on the groundfloor, the prying eyes of the

curious could penetrate. On the floor above were similar rooms, with the addition of a third, formed out of the

antechamber; these three rooms were a salon, a boudoir, and a bedroom. The salon downstairs was only an

Algerian divan, for the use of smokers. The boudoir upstairs communicated with the bedchamber by an

invisible door on the staircase; it was evident that every precaution had been taken. Above this floor was a

large atelier, which had been increased in size by pulling down the partitions a pandemonium, in which

the artist and the dandy strove for preeminence. There were collected and piled up all Albert's successive

caprices, huntinghorns, bassviols, flutes a whole orchestra, for Albert had had not a taste but a fancy

for music; easels, palettes, brushes, pencils for music had been succeeded by painting; foils,

boxinggloves, broadswords, and singlesticks for, following the example of the fashionable young men

of the time, Albert de Morcerf cultivated, with far more perseverance than music and drawing, the three arts

that complete a dandy's education, i.e., fencing, boxing, and singlestick; and it was here that he received

Grisier, Cook, and Charles Leboucher. The rest of the furniture of this privileged apartment consisted of old

cabinets, filled with Chinese porcelain and Japanese vases, Lucca della Robbia faience, and Palissy platters;

of old armchairs, in which perhaps had sat Henry IV. or Sully, Louis XIII. or Richelieu for two of these

armchairs, adorned with a carved shield, on which were engraved the fleurdelis of France on an azure

field evidently came from the Louvre, or, at least, some royal residence. Over these dark and sombre chairs

were thrown splendid stuffs, dyed beneath Persia's sun, or woven by the fingers of the women of Calcutta or

of Chandernagor. What these stuffs did there, it was impossible to say; they awaited, while gratifying the

eyes, a destination unknown to their owner himself; in the meantime they filled the place with their golden

and silky reflections. In the centre of the room was a Roller and Blanchet "baby grand" piano in rosewood,

but holding the potentialities of an orchestra in its narrow and sonorous cavity, and groaning beneath the

weight of the chefsd'oeuvre of Beethoven, Weber, Mozart, Haydn, Gretry, and Porpora. On the walls, over

the doors, on the ceiling, were swords, daggers, Malay creeses, maces, battleaxes; gilded, damasked, and

inlaid suits of armor; dried plants, minerals, and stuffed birds, their flamecolored wings outspread in

motionless flight, and their beaks forever open. This was Albert's favorite lounging place.

However, the morning of the appointment, the young man had established himself in the small salon

downstairs. There, on a table, surrounded at some distance by a large and luxurious divan, every species of

tobacco known, from the yellow tobacco of Petersburg to the black of Sinai, and so on along the scale

from Maryland and PortoRico, to Latakia, was exposed in pots of crackled earthenware of which the

Dutch are so fond; beside them, in boxes of fragrant wood, were ranged, according to their size and quality,

pueros, regalias, havanas, and manillas; and, in an open cabinet, a collection of German pipes, of chibouques,

with their amber mouthpieces ornamented with coral, and of narghiles, with their long tubes of morocco,

awaiting the caprice or the sympathy of the smokers. Albert had himself presided at the arrangement, or,

rather, the symmetrical derangement, which, after coffee, the guests at a breakfast of modern days love to

contemplate through the vapor that escapes from their mouths, and ascends in long and fanciful wreaths to

the ceiling. At a quarter to ten, a valet entered; he composed, with a little groom named John, and who only

spoke English, all Albert's establishment, although the cook of the hotel was always at his service, and on

great occasions the count's chasseur also. This valet, whose name was Germain, and who enjoyed the entire

confidence of his young master, held in one hand a number of papers, and in the other a packet of letters,

which he gave to Albert. Albert glanced carelessly at the different missives, selected two written in a small

and delicate hand, and enclosed in scented envelopes, opened them and perused their contents with some

"Let Madame Danglars know that I accept the place she offers me in her box. Wait; then, during the day, tell

Rosa that when I leave the Opera I will sup with her as she wishes. Take her six bottles of different wine

Cyprus, sherry, and Malaga, and a barrel of Ostend oysters; get them at Borel's, and be sure you say they are

"Very well, at half past ten. Debray will, perhaps, be obliged to go to the minister and besides" (Albert

looked at his tablets), "it is the hour I told the count, 21st May, at half past ten; and though I do not much rely

"Yes, ask her for one of her liqueur cellarets, mine is incomplete; and tell her I shall have the honor of seeing

her about three o'clock, and that I request permission to introduce some one to her." The valet left the room.

Albert threw himself on the divan, tore off the cover of two or three of the papers, looked at the theatre

announcements, made a face seeing they gave an opera, and not a ballet; hunted vainly amongst the

advertisements for a new toothpowder of which he had heard, and threw down, one after the other, the three

leading papers of Paris, muttering, "These papers become more and more stupid every day." A moment after,

a carriage stopped before the door, and the servant announced M. Lucien Debray. A tall young man, with

light hair, clear gray eyes, and thin and compressed lips, dressed in a blue coat with beautifully carved gold

buttons, a white neckcloth, and a tortoiseshell eyeglass suspended by a silken thread, and which, by an

effort of the superciliary and zygomatic muscles, he fixed in his eye, entered, with a halfofficial air, without

smiling or speaking. "Goodmorning, Lucien, goodmorning," said Albert; "your punctuality really alarms

me. What do I say? punctuality! You, whom I expected last, you arrive at five minutes to ten, when the time

"No, my dear fellow," returned the young man, seating himself on the divan; "reassure yourself; we are

tottering always, but we never fall, and I begin to believe that we shall pass into a state of immobility, and

"No, no, my dear fellow, do not confound our plans. We take him to the other side of the French frontier, and

"Yes, he has not much to complain of; Bourges is the capital of Charles VII. Do you not know that all Paris

knew it yesterday, and the day before it had already transpired on the Bourse, and M. Danglars (I do not

know by what means that man contrives to obtain intelligence as soon as we do) made a million!"

"Oh, it is very well as a finish to the toilet. It looks very neat on a black coat buttoned up."

"Because you have the order of Charles III., and you wish to announce the good news to me?"

"No, because I passed the night writing letters, five and twenty despatches. I returned home at daybreak,

and strove to sleep; but my head ached and I got up to have a ride for an hour. At the Bois de Boulogne,

ennui and hunger attacked me at once, two enemies who rarely accompany each other, and who are yet

leagued against me, a sort of Carlorepublican alliance. I then recollected you gave a breakfast this morning,

"It is my duty as your host," returned Albert, ringing the bell, while Lucien turned over, with his

goldmounted cane, the papers that lay on the table. "Germain, a glass of sherry and a biscuit. In the

meantime. my dear Lucien, here are cigars contraband, of course try them, and persuade the minister

"Peste, I will do nothing of the kind; the moment they come from government you would find them

execrable. Besides, that does not concern the home but the financial department. Address yourself to M.

"On my word," said Albert, "you astonish me by the extent of your knowledge. Take a cigar."

"Really, my dear Albert," replied Lucien, lighting a manilla at a rosecolored taper that burnt in a be

beautifully enamelled stand "how happy you are to have nothing to do. You do not know your own good

"And what would you do, my dear diplomatist," replied Morcerf, with a slight degree of irony in his voice, "if

you did nothing? What? private secretary to a minister, plunged at once into European cabals and Parisian

intrigues; having kings, and, better still, queens, to protect, parties to unite, elections to direct; making more

use of your cabinet with your pen and your telegraph than Napoleon did of his battlefields with his sword

and his victories; possessing five and twenty thousand francs a year, besides your place; a horse, for which

ChateauRenaud offered you four hundred louis, and which you would not part with; a tailor who never

disappoints you; with the opera, the jockeyclub, and other diversions, can you not amuse yourself? Well, I

"Humiliating as such a confession is, I am. But I dined at M. de Villefort's, and lawyers always give you very

"Yes; but we do not invite people of fashion. If we were not forced to entertain a parcel of country boobies

because they think and vote with us, we should never dream of dining at home, I assure you."

"Willingly. Your Spanish wine is excellent. You see we were quite right to pacify that country."

"Well, Don Carlos will drink Bordeaux, and in ten years we will marry his son to the little queen."

"I think, Albert, you have adopted the system of feeding me on smoke this morning."

"Well, you must allow it is the best thing for the stomach; but I hear Beauchamp in the next room; you can

"My dear friend," said Lucien with an air of sovereign contempt, "do I ever read the papers?"

"M. Beauchamp," announced the servant. "Come in, come in," said Albert, rising and advancing to meet the

"He is quite right," returned Beauchamp; "for I criticise him without knowing what he does. Goodday,

"Ah, you know that already," said the private secretary, smiling and shaking hands with him.

"They say that it is quite fair, and that sowing so much red, you ought to reap a little blue."

"Come, come, that is not bad!" said Lucien. "Why do you not join our party, my dear Beauchamp? With your

"I only await one thing before following your advice; that is, a minister who will hold office for six months.

My dear Albert, one word, for I must give poor Lucien a respite. Do we breakfast or dine? I must go to the

"You only breakfast; I await two persons, and the instant they arrive we shall sit down to table."

"Then we shall have to wait two hours for the gentleman, and three for the diplomatist. I shall come back to

dessert; keep me some strawberries, coffee, and cigars. I shall take a cutlet on my way to the Chamber."

"Do not do anything of the sort; for were the gentleman a Montmorency, and the diplomatist a Metternich, we

will breakfast at eleven; in the meantime, follow Debray's example, and take a glass of sherry and a biscuit."

"You are like Debray, and yet it seems to me that when the minister is out of spirits, the opposition ought to

"Ah, you do not know with what I am threatened. I shall hear this morning that M. Danglars make a speech at

the Chamber of Deputies, and at his wife's this evening I shall hear the tragedy of a peer of France. The devil

take the constitutional government, and since we had our choice, as they say, at least, how could we choose

"Do not run down M. Danglars' speeches," said Debray; "he votes for you, for he belongs to the opposition."

"Pardieu, that is exactly the worst of all. I am waiting until you send him to speak at the Luxembourg, to

"My dear friend," said Albert to Beauchamp, "it is plain that the affairs of Spain are settled, for you are most

desperately out of humor this morning. Recollect that Parisian gossip has spoken of a marriage between

myself and Mlle. Eugenie Danglars; I cannot in conscience, therefore, let you run down the speeches of a

man who will one day say to me, `Vicomte, you know I give my daughter two millions.'"

"Ah, this marriage will never take place," said Beauchamp. "The king has made him a baron, and can make

him a peer, but he cannot make him a gentleman, and the Count of Morcerf is too aristocratic to consent, for

the paltry sum of two million francs, to a mesalliance. The Viscount of Morcerf can only wed a

"It is the social capital of a theatre on the boulevard, or a railroad from the Jardin des Plantes to La Rapee."

"Never mind what he says, Morcerf," said Debray, "do you marry her. You marry a moneybag label, it is

true; well, but what does that matter? It is better to have a blazon less and a figure more on it. You have seven

martlets on your arms; give three to your wife, and you will still have four; that is one more than M. de Guise

had, who so nearly became King of France, and whose cousin was Emperor of Germany."

"To be sure; besides, every millionaire is as noble as a bastard that is, he can be."

"Do not say that, Debray," returned Beauchamp, laughing, "for here is ChateauRenaud, who, to cure you of

your mania for paradoxes, will pass the sword of Renaud de Montauban, his ancestor, through your body."

"Oh, heavens," cried Beauchamp, "the minister quotes Beranger, what shall we come to next?"

"M. de ChateauRenaud M. Maximilian Morrel," said the servant, announcing two fresh guests.

"Now, then, to breakfast," said Beauchamp; "for, if I remember, you told me you only expected two persons,

"Morrel," muttered Albert "Morrel who is he?" But before he had finished, M. de ChateauRenaud, a

handsome young man of thirty, gentleman all over, that is, with the figure of a Guiche and the wit of a

Mortemart, took Albert's hand. "My dear Albert," said he, "let me introduce to you M. Maximilian

Morrel, captain of Spahis, my friend; and what is more however the man speaks for himself my

preserver. Salute my hero, viscount." And he stepped on one side to give place to a young man of refined and

dignified bearing, with large and open brow, piercing eyes, and black mustache, whom our readers have

already seen at Marseilles, under circumstances sufficiently dramatic not to be forgotten. A rich uniform, half

French, half Oriental, set off his graceful and stalwart figure, and his broad chest was decorated with the

order of the Legion of Honor. The young officer bowed with easy and elegant politeness. "Monsieur," said

Albert with affectionate courtesy, "the count of ChateauRenaud knew how much pleasure this introduction

"Well said," interrupted ChateauRenaud; "and pray that, if you should ever be in a similar predicament, he

"Oh, nothing worth speaking of," said Morrel; "M. de ChateauRenaud exaggerates."

"Not worth speaking of?" cried ChateauRenaud; "life is not worth speaking of! that is rather too

philosophical, on my word, Morrel. It is very well for you, who risk your life every day, but for me, who only

"Beauchamp, my good fellow, you know I am starving," said Debray: "do not set him off on some long

"Well, I do not prevent your sitting down to table," replied Beauchamp, "ChateauRenaud can tell us while

"Gentlemen," said Morcerf, "it is only a quarter past ten, and I expect some one else."

"Diplomat or not, I don't know; I only know that he charged himself on my account with a mission, which he

terminated so entirely to my satisfaction, that had I been king, I should have instantly created him knight of

all my orders, even had I been able to offer him the Golden Fleece and the Garter."

"Well, since we are not to sit down to table," said Debray, "take a glass of sherry, and tell us all about it."

"Yes? but I doubt that your object was like theirs to rescue the Holy Sepulchre."

"You are quite right, Beauchamp," observed the young aristocrat. "It was only to fight as an amateur. I cannot

bear duelling since two seconds, whom I had chosen to arrange an affair, forced me to break the arm of one

"The devil take me, if I remember," returned ChateauRenaud. "But I recollect perfectly one thing, that,

being unwilling to let such talents as mine sleep, I wished to try upon the Arabs the new pistols that had been

given to me. In consequence I embarked for Oran, and went from thence to Constantine, where I arrived just

in time to witness the raising of the siege. I retreated with the rest, for eight and forty hours. I endured the rain

during the day, and the cold during the night tolerably well, but the third morning my horse died of cold. Poor

brute accustomed to be covered up and to have a stove in the stable, the Arabian finds himself unable to

"That's why you want to purchase my English horse," said Debray, "you think he will bear the cold better."

"Well, yes, and I had good reason to be so," replied ChateauRenaud. "I was retreating on foot, for my horse

was dead. Six Arabs came up, full gallop, to cut off my head. I shot two with my doublebarrelled gun, and

two more with my pistols, but I was then disarmed, and two were still left; one seized me by the hair (that is

why I now wear it so short, for no one knows what may happen), the other swung a yataghan, and I already

felt the cold steel on my neck, when this gentleman whom you see here charged them, shot the one who held

me by the hair, and cleft the skull of the other with his sabre. He had assigned himself the task of saving a

man's life that day; chance caused that man to be myself. When I am rich I will order a statue of Chance from

"Yes," said Morrel, smiling, "it was the 5th of September, the anniversary of the day on which my father was

miraculously preserved; therefore, as far as it lies in my power, I endeavor to celebrate it by some"

"Heroic action," interrupted ChateauRenaud. "I was chosen. But that is not all after rescuing me from the

sword, he rescued me from the cold, not by sharing his cloak with me, like St. Martin, but by giving me the

"No, his horse; of which we each of us ate a slice with a hearty appetite. It was very hard."

"No, the sacrifice," returned ChateauRenaud; "ask Debray if he would sacrifice his English steed for a

"I divined that you would become mine, count," replied Morrel; "besides, as I had the honor to tell you,

heroism or not, sacrifice or not, that day I owed an offering to bad fortune in recompense for the favors good

"The history to which M. Morrel alludes," continued ChateauRenaud, "is an admirable one, which he will

tell you some day when you are better acquainted with him; today let us fill our stomachs, and not our

"Oh, you will give me five minutes' grace," replied Morcerf, "for I also expect a preserver."

"Of myself," cried Morcerf; "parbleu, do you think I cannot be saved as well as any one else, and that there

are only Arabs who cut off heads? Our breakfast is a philanthropic one, and we shall have at table at least,

"Well, it will be given to some one who has done nothing to deserve it," said Beauchamp; "that is the way the

"And where does he come from?" asked Debray. "You have already answered the question once, but so

"Really," said Albert, "I do not know; when I invited him three months ago, he was then at Rome, but since

"I beg pardon," interrupted Beauchamp; "are there any materials for an article in what you are going to tell

"Go on, then, for I see I shall not get to the Chamber this morning, and I must make up for it."

"Yes there are, and most hideous, or rather most admirable ones, for I found them ugly enough to frighten

"Come, my dear Albert," said Debray, "confess that your cook is behindhand, that the oysters have not

arrived from Ostend or Marennes, and that, like Madame de Maintenon, you are going to replace the dish by

a story. Say so at once; we are sufficiently wellbred to excuse you, and to listen to your history, fabulous as

"And I say to you, fabulous as it may seem, I tell it as a true one from beginning to end. The brigands had

carried me off, and conducted me to a gloomy spot, called the Catacombs of Saint Sebastian."

"And I did more than that," replied Morcerf, "for I caught one. I was informed that I was prisoner until I paid

the sum of 4,000 Roman crowns about 24,000 francs. Unfortunately, I had not above 1,500. I was at the

end of my journey and of my credit. I wrote to Franz and were he here he would confirm every word I

wrote then to Franz that if he did not come with the four thousand crowns before six, at ten minutes past I

should have gone to join the blessed saints and glorious martyrs in whose company I had the honor of being;

and Signor Luigi Vampa, such was the name of the chief of these bandits, would have scrupulously kept his

"But Franz did come with the four thousand crowns," said ChateauRenaud. "A man whose name is Franz

"I do not think so," added ChateauRenaud, with the air of a man who knows the whole of the European

"He comes possibly from the Holy Land, and one of his ancestors possessed Calvary, as the Mortemarts did

"I think I can assist your researches," said Maximilian. "Monte Cristo is a little island I have often heard

spoken of by the old sailors my father employed a grain of sand in the centre of the Mediterranean, an

"Precisely!" cried Albert. "Well, he of whom I speak is the lord and master of this grain of sand, of this atom;

"Well, do you know if the persons you see there are rich or poor, if their sacks of wheat are not rubies or

diamonds? They seem like poor fishermen, and suddenly they open some mysterious cavern filled with the

"Which means that my Count of Monte Cristo is one of those fishermen. He has even a name taken from the

book, since he calls himself Sinbad the Sailor, and has a cave filled with gold."

"No, but Franz has; for heaven's sake, not a word of this before him. Franz went in with his eyes blindfolded,

and was waited on by mutes and by women to whom Cleopatra was a painted strumpet. Only he is not quite

sure about the women, for they did not come in until after he had taken hashish, so that what he took for

The two young men looked at Morcerf as if to say, "Are you mad, or are you laughing at us?"

"And I also," said Morrel thoughtfully, "have heard something like this from an old sailor named Penelon."

"Ah," cried Albert, "it is very lucky that M. Morrel comes to aid me; you are vexed, are you not, that he thus

"Ah, because your ambassadors and your consuls do not tell you of them they have no time. They are too

"Now you get angry, and attack our poor agents. How will you have them protect you? The Chamber cuts

down their salaries every day, so that now they have scarcely any. Will you be ambassador, Albert? I will

"No, lest on the first demonstration I make in favor of Mehemet Ali, the Sultan send me the bowstring, and

"Yes," said Albert, "but this has nothing to do with the existence of the Count of Monte Cristo."

"Doubtless, but not in the same way; every one has not black slaves, a princely retinue, an arsenal of weapons

that would do credit to an Arabian fortress, horses that cost six thousand francs apiece, and Greek

"I have both seen and heard her. I saw her at the theatre, and heard her one morning when I breakfasted with

"Laugh, if you will; the Countess G , who knew Lord Ruthven, declared that the count was a vampire."

"Ah, capital," said Beauchamp. "For a man not connected with newspapers, here is the pendant to the famous

"Wild eyes, the iris of which contracts or dilates at pleasure," said Debray; "facial angle strongly developed,

magnificent forehead, livid complexion, black beard, sharp and white teeth, politeness unexceptionable."

"Just so, Lucien," returned Morcerf; "you have described him feature for feature. Yes, keen and cutting

politeness. This man has often made me shudder; and one day that we were viewing an execution, I thought I

should faint, more from hearing the cold and calm manner in which he spoke of every description of torture,

"Did he not conduct you to the ruins of the Colosseum and suck your blood?" asked Beauchamp.

"Or, having delivered you, make you sign a flaming parchment, surrendering your soul to him as Esau did his

"Rail on, rail on at your ease, gentlemen," said Morcerf, somewhat piqued. "When I look at you Parisians,

idlers on the Boulevard de Gand or the Bois de Boulogne, and think of this man, it seems to me we are not of

"I am highly flattered," returned Beauchamp. "At the same time," added ChateauRenaud, "your Count of

Monte Cristo is a very fine fellow, always excepting his little arrangements with the Italian banditti."

"No vampire," cried Beauchamp. "No Count of Monte Cristo" added Debray. "There is halfpast ten striking,

"Confess you have dreamed this, and let us sit down to breakfast," continued Beauchamp. But the sound of

the clock had not died away when Germain announced, "His excellency the Count of Monte Cristo." The

involuntary start every one gave proved how much Morcerf's narrative had impressed them, and Albert

himself could not wholly refrain from manifesting sudden emotion. He had not heard a carriage stop in the

street, or steps in the antechamber; the door had itself opened noiselessly. The count appeared, dressed with

the greatest simplicity, but the most fastidious dandy could have found nothing to cavil at in his toilet. Every

article of dress hat, coat, gloves, and boots was from the first makers. He seemed scarcely five and

thirty. But what struck everybody was his extreme resemblance to the portrait Debray had drawn. The count

advanced, smiling, into the centre of the room, and approached Albert, who hastened towards him holding

out his hand in a ceremonial manner. "Punctuality," said Monte Cristo, "is the politeness of kings, according

to one of your sovereigns, I think; but it is not the same with travellers. However, I hope you will excuse the

two or three seconds I am behindhand; five hundred leagues are not to be accomplished without some

trouble, and especially in France, where, it seems, it is forbidden to beat the postilions."

"My dear count," replied Albert, "I was announcing your visit to some of my friends, whom I had invited in

consequence of the promise you did me the honor to make, and whom I now present to you. They are the

Count of ChateauRenaud, whose nobility goes back to the twelve peers, and whose ancestors had a place at

the Round Table; M. Lucien Debray, private secretary to the minister of the interior; M. Beauchamp, an

editor of a paper, and the terror of the French government, but of whom, in spite of his national celebrity, you

perhaps have not heard in Italy, since his paper is prohibited there; and M. Maximilian Morrel, captain of

At this name the count, who had hitherto saluted every one with courtesy, but at the same time with coldness

and formality, stepped a pace forward, and a slight tinge of red colored his pale cheeks. "You wear the

uniform of the new French conquerors, monsieur," said he; "it is a handsome uniform." No one could have

said what caused the count's voice to vibrate so deeply, and what made his eye flash, which was in general so

clear, lustrous, and limpid when he pleased. "You have never seen our Africans, count?" said Albert.

"Never," replied the count, who was by this time perfectly master of himself again.

"Well, beneath this uniform beats one of the bravest and noblest hearts in the whole army."

"Let me go on, captain. And we have just heard," continued Albert, "of a new deed of his, and so heroic a

one, that, although I have seen him today for the first time, I request you to allow me to introduce him as my

friend." At these words it was still possible to observe in Monte Cristo the concentrated look, changing color,

and slight trembling of the eyelid that show emotion. "Ah, you have a noble heart," said the count; "so much

the better." This exclamation, which corresponded to the count's own thought rather than to what Albert was

saying, surprised everybody, and especially Morrel, who looked at Monte Cristo with wonder. But, at the

same time, the intonation was so soft that, however strange the speech might seem, it was impossible to be

"In reality," replied the latter, who, with his aristocratic glance and his knowledge of the world, had

penetrated at once all that was penetrable in Monte Cristo, "Albert has not deceived us, for the count is a most

"Ma foi, he has an open look about him that pleases me, in spite of the singular remark he has made about

"Gentlemen," said Albert, "Germain informs me that breakfast is ready. My dear count, allow me to show

you the way." They passed silently into the breakfastroom, and every one took his place. "Gentleman," said

the count, seating himself, "permit me to make a confession which must form my excuse for any

improprieties I may commit. I am a stranger, and a stranger to such a degree, that this is the first time I have

ever been at Paris. The French way of living is utterly unknown to me, and up to the present time I have

followed the Eastern customs, which are entirely in contrast to the Parisian. I beg you, therefore, to excuse if

you find anything in me too Turkish, too Italian, or too Arabian. Now, then, let us breakfast."

"With what an air he says all this," muttered Beauchamp; "decidedly he is a great man."

"A great man in every country, M. Debray," said ChateauRenaud. The count was, it may be remembered, a

most temperate guest. Albert remarked this, expressing his fears lest, at the outset, the Parisian mode of life

should displease the traveller in the most essential point. "My dear count," said he, "I fear one thing, and that

is, that the fare of the Rue du Helder is not so much to your taste as that of the Piazza di Spagni. I ought to

"Did you know me better," returned the count, smiling, "you would not give one thought of such a thing for a

traveller like myself, who has successively lived on maccaroni at Naples, polenta at Milan, olla podrida at

Valencia, pilau at Constantinople, karrick in India, and swallows' nests in China. I eat everywhere, and of

everything, only I eat but little; and today, that you reproach me with my want of appetite, is my day of

"No," replied the count; "I was forced to go out of my road to obtain some information near Nimes, so that I

"No, I slept, as I generally do when I am weary without having the courage to amuse myself, or when I am

"That would be invaluable to us in Africa, who have not always any food to eat, and rarely anything to

"Yes," said Monte Cristo; "but, unfortunately, a recipe excellent for a man like myself would be very

"Oh, yes," returned Monte Cristo; "I make no secret of it. It is a mixture of excellent opium, which I fetched

myself from Canton in order to have it pure, and the best hashish which grows in the East that is, between

the Tigris and the Euphrates. These two ingredients are mixed in equal proportions, and formed into pills.

Ten minutes after one is taken, the effect is produced. Ask Baron Franz d'Epinay; I think he tasted them one

"But," said Beauchamp, who, as became a journalist, was very incredulous, "you always carry this drug about

"Would it be an indiscretion to ask to see those precious pills?" continued Beauchamp, hoping to take him at

"No, monsieur," returned the count; and he drew from his pocket a marvellous casket, formed out of a single

emerald and closed by a golden lid which unscrewed and gave passage to a small greenish colored pellet

about the size of a pea. This ball had an acrid and penetrating odor. There were four or five more in the

emerald, which would contain about a dozen. The casket passed around the table, but it was more to examine

the admirable emerald than to see the pills that it passed from hand to hand. "And is it your cook who

"Oh, no, monsieur," replied Monte Cristo; "I do not thus betray my enjoyments to the vulgar. I am a tolerable

"This is a magnificent emerald, and the largest I have ever seen," said ChateauRenaud, "although my

"I had three similar ones," returned Monte Cristo. "I gave one to the Sultan, who mounted it in his sabre;

another to our holy father the Pope, who had it set in his tiara, opposite to one nearly as large, though not so

fine, given by the Emperor Napoleon to his predecessor, Pius VII. I kept the third for myself, and I had it

hollowed out, which reduced its value, but rendered it more commodious for the purpose I intended." Every

one looked at Monte Cristo with astonishment; he spoke with so much simplicity that it was evident he spoke

the truth, or that he was mad. However, the sight of the emerald made them naturally incline to the former

belief. "And what did these two sovereigns give you in exchange for these magnificent presents?" asked

"The Sultan, the liberty of a woman," replied the Count; "the Pope, the life of a man; so that once in my life I

have been as powerful as if heaven had brought me into the world on the steps of a throne."

"And it was Peppino you saved, was it not?" cried Morcerf; "it was for him that you obtained pardon?"

"My dear count, you have no idea what pleasure it gives me to hear you speak thus," said Morcerf. "I had

announced you beforehand to my friends as an enchanter of the `Arabian Nights,' a wizard of the Middle

Ages; but the Parisians are so subtle in paradoxes that they mistake for caprices of the imagination the most

incontestable truths, when these truths do not form a part of their daily existence. For example, here is Debray

who reads, and Beauchamp who prints, every day, `A member of the Jockey Club has been stopped and

robbed on the Boulevard;' `four persons have been assassinated in the Rue St. Denis' or `the Faubourg St.

Germain;' `ten, fifteen, or twenty thieves, have been arrested in a cafe on the Boulevard du Temple, or in the

Thermes de Julien,' and yet these same men deny the existence of the bandits in the Maremma, the

Campagna di Romana, or the Pontine Marshes. Tell them yourself that I was taken by bandits, and that

without your generous intercession I should now have been sleeping in the Catacombs of St. Sebastian,

"It was not I who made that promise," cried Morcerf; "it must have been some one else whom you have

rescued in the same manner, and whom you have forgotten. Pray speak of it, for I shall not only, I trust, relate

"It seems to me," returned the count, smiling, "that you played a sufficiently important part to know as well

"Well, you promise me, if I tell all I know, to relate, in your turn, all that I do not know?"

"Well," said Morcerf, "for three days I believed myself the object of the attentions of a masque, whom I took

for a descendant of Tullia or Poppoea, while I was simply the object of the attentions of a contadina, and I say

contadina to avoid saying peasant girl. What I know is, that, like a fool, a greater fool than he of whom I

spoke just now, I mistook for this peasant girl a young bandit of fifteen or sixteen, with a beardless chin and

slim waist, and who, just as I was about to imprint a chaste salute on his lips, placed a pistol to my head, and,

aided by seven or eight others, led, or rather dragged me, to the Catacombs of St. Sebastian, where I found a

highly educated brigand chief perusing Caesar's `Commentaries,' and who deigned to leave off reading to

inform me, that unless the next morning, before six o'clock, four thousand piastres were paid into his account

at his banker's, at a quarter past six I should have ceased to exist. The letter is still to be seen, for it is in Franz

d'Epinay's possession, signed by me, and with a postscript of M. Luigi Vampa. This is all I know, but I know

not, count, how you contrived to inspire so much respect in the bandits of Rome who ordinarily have so little

"Nothing more simple," returned the count. "I had known the famous Vampa for more than ten years. When

he was quite a child, and only a shepherd, I gave him a few gold pieces for showing me my way, and he, in

order to repay me, gave me a poniard, the hilt of which he had carved with his own hand, and which you may

have seen in my collection of arms. In after years, whether he had forgotten this interchange of presents,

which ought to have cemented our friendship, or whether he did not recollect me, he sought to take me, but,

on the contrary, it was I who captured him and a dozen of his band. I might have handed him over to Roman

justice, which is somewhat expeditious, and which would have been particularly so with him; but I did

"With the condition that they should sin no more," said Beauchamp, laughing. "I see they kept their promise."

"No, monsieur," returned Monte Cristo "upon the simple condition that they should respect myself and my

friends. Perhaps what I am about to say may seem strange to you, who are socialists, and vaunt humanity and

your duty to your neighbor, but I never seek to protect a society which does not protect me, and which I will

even say, generally occupies itself about me only to injure me; and thus by giving them a low place in my

esteem, and preserving a neutrality towards them, it is society and my neighbor who are indebted to me."

"Bravo," cried ChateauRenaud; "you are the first man I ever met sufficiently courageous to preach egotism.

"It is frank, at least," said Morrel. "But I am sure that the count does not regret having once deviated from the

"How have I deviated from those principles, monsieur?" asked Monte Cristo, who could not help looking at

Morrel with so much intensity, that two or three times the young man had been unable to sustain that clear

"Why, it seems to me," replied Morrel, "that in delivering M. de Morcerf, whom you did not know, you did

"Of which he is the brightest ornament," said Beauchamp, drinking off a glass of champagne.

"My dear count," cried Morcerf, "you are at fault you, one of the most formidable logicians I know

and you must see it clearly proved that instead of being an egotist, you are a philanthropist. Ah, you call

yourself Oriental, a Levantine, Maltese, Indian, Chinese; your family name is Monte Cristo; Sinbad the Sailor

is your baptismal appellation, and yet the first day you set foot in Paris you instinctively display the greatest

virtue, or rather the chief defect, of us eccentric Parisians, that is, you assume the vices you have not, and

"My dear vicomte," returned Monte Cristo, "I do not see, in all I have done, anything that merits, either from

you or these gentlemen, the pretended eulogies I have received. You were no stranger to me, for I knew you

from the time I gave up two rooms to you, invited you to breakfast with me, lent you one of my carriages,

witnessed the Carnival in your company, and saw with you from a window in the Piazza del Popolo the

execution that affected you so much that you nearly fainted. I will appeal to any of these gentlemen, could I

leave my guest in the hands of a hideous bandit, as you term him? Besides, you know, I had the idea that you

could introduce me into some of the Paris salons when I came to France. You might some time ago have

looked upon this resolution as a vague project, but today you see it was a reality, and you must submit to it

"I will keep it," returned Morcerf; "but I fear that you will be much disappointed, accustomed as you are to

picturesque events and fantastic horizons. Amongst us you will not meet with any of those episodes with

which your adventurous existence has so familiarized you; our Chimborazo is Mortmartre, our Himalaya is

Mount Valerien, our Great Desert is the plain of Grenelle, where they are now boring an artesian well to

water the caravans. We have plenty of thieves, though not so many as is said; but these thieves stand in far

more dread of a policeman than a lord. France is so prosaic, and Paris so civilized a city, that you will not

find in its eightyfive departments I say eightyfive, because I do not include Corsica you will not

find, then, in these eightyfive departments a single hill on which there is not a telegraph, or a grotto in

which the commissary of police has not put up a gaslamp. There is but one service I can render you, and for

that I place myself entirely at your orders, that is, to present, or make my friends present, you everywhere;

besides, you have no need of any one to introduce you with your name, and your fortune, and your talent"

(Monte Cristo bowed with a somewhat ironical smile) "you can present yourself everywhere, and be well

received. I can be useful in one way only if knowledge of Parisian habits, of the means of rendering

yourself comfortable, or of the bazaars, can assist, you may depend upon me to find you a fitting dwelling

here. I do not dare offer to share my apartments with you, as I shared yours at Rome I, who do not profess

egotism, but am yet egotist par excellence; for, except myself, these rooms would not hold a shadow more,

"Ah," said the count, "that is a most conjugal reservation; I recollect that at Rome you said something of a

"No," replied Morcerf, "my father is most anxious about it; and I hope, ere long, to introduce you, if not to

"Eugenie Danglars," said Monte Cristo; "tell me, is not her father Baron Danglars?"

"What matter," said Monte Cristo "if he has rendered the State services which merit this distinction?"

"Enormous ones," answered Beauchamp. "Although in reality a Liberal, he negotiated a loan of six millions

for Charles X., in 1829, who made him a baron and chevalier of the Legion of Honor; so that he wears the

ribbon, not, as you would think, in his waistcoatpocket, but at his buttonhole."

"Ah," interrupted Morcerf, laughing, "Beauchamp, Beauchamp, keep that for the Corsaire or the Charivari,

but spare my future fatherinlaw before me." Then, turning to Monte Cristo, "You just now spoke his name

"I do not know him," returned Monte Cristo; "but I shall probably soon make his acquaintance, for I have a

credit opened with him by the house of Richard Blount, of London, Arstein Eskeles of Vienna, and Thomson

French at Rome." As he pronounced the two last names, the count glanced at Maximilian Morrel. If the

stranger expected to produce an effect on Morrel, he was not mistaken Maximilian started as if he had

been electrified. "Thomson French," said he; "do you know this house, monsieur?"

"They are my bankers in the capital of the Christian world," returned the count quietly. "Can my influence

"Oh, count, you could assist me perhaps in researches which have been, up to the present, fruitless. This

house, in past years, did ours a great service, and has, I know not for what reason, always denied having

"But," continued Morcerf, "a propos of Danglars, we have strangely wandered from the subject. We were

speaking of a suitable habitation for the Count of Monte Cristo. Come, gentlemen, let us all propose some

"Faubourg SaintGermain," said ChateauRenaud. "The count will find there a charming hotel, with a court

"Bah, ChateauRenaud," returned Debray, "you only know your dull and gloomy Faubourg SaintGermain;

do not pay any attention to him, count live in the Chaussee d'Antin, that's the real centre of Paris."

"Boulevard de l'Opera," said Beauchamp; "the second floor a house with a balcony. The count will have

his cushions of silver cloth brought there, and as he smokes his chibouque, see all Paris pass before him."

"You have no idea, then, Morrel?" asked ChateauRenaud; "you do not propose anything."

"Oh, yes," returned the young man, smiling; "on the contrary, I have one, but I expected the count would be

tempted by one of the brilliant proposals made him, yet as he has not replied to any of them, I will venture to

offer him a suite of apartments in a charming hotel, in the Pompadour style, that my sister has inhabited for a

"As happy as it is permitted to a human creature to be," replied Maximilian. "She married the man she loved,

who remained faithful to us in our fallen fortunes Emmanuel Herbaut." Monte Cristo smiled

imperceptibly. "I live there during my leave of absence," continued Maximilian; "and I shall be, together with

my brotherinlaw Emmanuel, at the disposition of the Count, whenever he thinks fit to honor us."

"One minute," cried Albert, without giving Monte Cristo the time to reply. "Take care, you are going to

immure a traveller, Sinbad the Sailor, a man who comes to see Paris; you are going to make a patriarch of

"Oh, no," said Morrel; "my sister is five and twenty, my brotherinlaw is thirty, they are gay, young, and

happy. Besides, the count will be in his own house, and only see them when he thinks fit to do so."

"Thanks, monsieur," said Monte Cristo; "I shall content myself with being presented to your sister and her

husband, if you will do me the honor to introduce me; but I cannot accept the offer of any one of these

"What," cried Morcerf; "you are, then, going to an hotel that will be very dull for you."

"Parbleu, at Rome you spent fifty thousand piastres in furnishing your apartments, but I presume that you are

"It is not that which deterred me," replied Monte Cristo; "but as I determined to have a house to myself, I sent

on my valet de chambre, and he ought by this time to have bought the house and furnished it."

"It is the first time he has ever been in Paris. He is black, and cannot speak," returned Monte Cristo.

"Certainly," said Morcerf; "I recollect him perfectly. But how could you charge a Nubian to purchase a

"Undeceive yourself, monsieur," replied Monte Cristo; "I am quite sure, that, on the contrary, he will choose

everything as I wish. He knows my tastes, my caprices, my wants. He has been here a week, with the instinct

of a hound, hunting by himself. He will arrange everything for me. He knew, that I should arrive today at

ten o'clock; he was waiting for me at nine at the Barriere de Fontainebleau. He gave me this paper; it contains

the number of my new abode; read it yourself," and Monte Cristo passed a paper to Albert. "Ah, that is really

"No," said Monte Cristo; "I told you I did not wish to be behind my time; I dressed myself in the carriage,

and descended at the viscount's door." The young men looked at each other; they did not know if it was a

comedy Monte Cristo was playing, but every word he uttered had such an air of simplicity, that it was

impossible to suppose what he said was false besides, why should he tell a falsehood? "We must content

ourselves, then," said Beauchamp, "with rendering the count all the little services in our power. I, in my

"Thanks, monsieur," returned Monte Cristo, "my steward has orders to take a box at each theatre."

"No, he is a countryman of yours, if a Corsican is a countryman of any one's. But you know him, M. de

"Yes, you saw him the day I had the honor of receiving you; he has been a soldier, a smuggler in fact,

everything. I would not be quite sure that he has not been mixed up with the police for some trifle a stab

"And you have chosen this honest citizen for your steward," said Debray. "Of how much does he rob you

"On my word," replied the count, "not more than another. I am sure he answers my purpose, knows no

"Then," continued ChateauRenaud, "since you have an establishment, a steward, and a hotel in the Champs

Elysees, you only want a mistress." Albert smiled. He thought of the fair Greek he had seen in the count's box

at the Argentina and Valle theatres. "I have something better than that," said Monte Cristo; "I have a slave.

You procure your mistresses from the opera, the Vaudeville, or the Varietes; I purchased mine at

"But you forget," replied Debray, laughing, "that we are Franks by name and franks by nature, as King

Charles said, and that the moment she puts her foot in France your slave becomes free."

"But at least we shall see her," said Beauchamp, "or do you keep eunuchs as well as mutes?"

"Oh, no," replied Monte Cristo; "I do not carry brutalism so far. Every one who surrounds me is free to quit

me, and when they leave me will no longer have any need of me or any one else; it is for that reason, perhaps,

"My dear Albert," said Debray, rising, "it is halfpast two. Your guest is charming, but you leave the best

company to go into the worst sometimes. I must return to the minister's. I will tell him of the count, and we

"Oh, we have three millions for our police; it is true they are almost always spent beforehand, but, no matter,

"Bravo," said Beauchamp to Albert; "I shall not go to the Chamber, but I have something better to offer my

"For heaven's sake, Beauchamp," returned Morcerf, "do not deprive me of the merit of introducing him

"He is more than that," replied ChateauRenaud; "he is one of the most extraordinary men I ever saw in my

"Directly I have given my card to the count, who has promised to pay us a visit at Rue Meslay, No. 14."

"Be sure I shall not fail to do so," returned the count, bowing. And Maximilian Morrel left the room with the

When Albert found himself alone with Monte Cristo, "My dear count," said he, "allow me to commence my

services as cicerone by showing you a specimen of a bachelor's apartment. You, who are accustomed to the

palaces of Italy, can amuse yourself by calculating in how many square feet a young man who is not the

worst lodged in Paris can live. As we pass from one room to another, I will open the windows to let you

breathe." Monte Cristo had already seen the breakfastroom and the salon on the groundfloor. Albert led

him first to his atelier, which was, as we have said, his favorite apartment. Monte Cristo quickly appreciated

all that Albert had collected here old cabinets, Japanese porcelain, Oriental stuffs, Venetian glass, arms

from all parts of the world everything was familiar to him; and at the first glance he recognized their date,

their country, and their origin. Morcerf had expected he should be the guide; on the contrary, it was he who,

under the count's guidance, followed a course of archaeology, mineralogy, and natural history. They

descended to the first floor; Albert led his guest into the salon. The salon was filled with the works of modern

artists; there were landscapes by Dupre, with their long reeds and tall trees, their lowing oxen and marvellous

skies; Delacroix's Arabian cavaliers, with their long white burnouses, their shining belts, their damasked

arms, their horses, who tore each other with their teeth while their riders contended fiercely with their maces;

aquarelles of Boulanger, representing Notre Dame de Paris with that vigor that makes the artist the rival of

the poet; there were paintings by Diaz, who makes his flowers more beautiful than flowers, his suns more

brilliant than the sun; designs by Decamp, as vividly colored as those of Salvator Rosa, but more poetic;

pastels by Giraud and Muller, representing children like angels and women with the features of a virgin;

sketches torn from the album of Dauzats' "Travels in the East," that had been made in a few seconds on the

saddle of a camel, or beneath the dome of a mosque in a word, all that modern art can give in exchange

Albert expected to have something new this time to show to the traveller, but, to his great surprise, the latter,

without seeking for the signatures, many of which, indeed, were only initials, named instantly the author of

every picture in such a manner that it was easy to see that each name was not only known to him, but that

each style associated with it had been appreciated and studied by him. From the salon they passed into the

bedchamber; it was a model of taste and simple elegance. A single portrait, signed by Leopold Robert,

shone in its carved and gilded frame. This portrait attracted the Count of Monte Cristo's attention, for he

made three rapid steps in the chamber, and stopped suddenly before it. It was the portrait of a young woman

of five or six and twenty, with a dark complexion, and light and lustrous eyes, veiled beneath long lashes. She

wore the picturesque costume of the Catalan fisherwomen, a red and black bodice, and golden pins in her

hair. She was looking at the sea, and her form was outlined on the blue ocean and sky. The light was so faint

in the room that Albert did not perceive the pallor that spread itself over the count's visage, or the nervous

heaving of his chest and shoulders. Silence prevailed for an instant, during which Monte Cristo gazed intently

"You have there a most charming mistress, viscount," said the count in a perfectly calm tone; "and this

"Ah, monsieur," returned Albert, "I would never forgive you this mistake if you had seen another picture

beside this. You do not know my mother; she it is whom you see here. She had her portrait painted thus six or

eight years ago. This costume is a fancy one, it appears, and the resemblance is so great that I think I still see

my mother the same as she was in 1830. The countess had this portrait painted during the count's absence.

She doubtless intended giving him an agreeable surprise; but, strange to say, this portrait seemed to displease

my father, and the value of the picture, which is, as you see, one of the best works of Leopold Robert, could

not overcome his dislike to it. It is true, between ourselves, that M. de Morcerf is one of the most assiduous

peers at the Luxembourg, a general renowned for theory, but a most mediocre amateur of art. It is different

with my mother, who paints exceedingly well, and who, unwilling to part with so valuable a picture, gave it

to me to put here, where it would be less likely to displease M. de Morcerf, whose portrait, by Gros, I will

also show you. Excuse my talking of family matters, but as I shall have the honor of introducing you to the

count, I tell you this to prevent you making any allusions to this picture. The picture seems to have a malign

influence, for my mother rarely comes here without looking at it, and still more rarely does she look at it

without weeping. This disagreement is the only one that has ever taken place between the count and countess,

who are still as much united, although married more than twenty years, as on the first day of their wedding."

Monte Cristo glanced rapidly at Albert, as if to seek a hidden meaning in his words, but it was evident the

young man uttered them in the simplicity of his heart. "Now," said Albert, "that you have seen all my

treasures, allow me to offer them to you, unworthy as they are. Consider yourself as in your own house, and

to put yourself still more at your ease, pray accompany me to the apartments of M. de Morcerf, he whom I

wrote from Rome an account of the services you rendered me, and to whom I announced your promised visit,

and I may say that both the count and countess anxiously desire to thank you in person. You are somewhat

blase I know, and family scenes have not much effect on Sinbad the Sailor, who has seen so many others.

However, accept what I propose to you as an initiation into Parisian life a life of politeness, visiting, and

introductions." Monte Cristo bowed without making any answer; he accepted the offer without enthusiasm

and without regret, as one of those conventions of society which every gentleman looks upon as a duty.

Albert summoned his servant, and ordered him to acquaint M. and Madame de Morcerf of the arrival of the

Count of Monte Cristo. Albert followed him with the count. When they arrived at the antechamber, above

the door was visible a shield, which, by its rich ornaments and its harmony with the rest of the furniture,

indicated the importance the owner attached to this blazon. Monte Cristo stopped and examined it attentively.

"Azure seven merlets, or, placed bender," said he. "These are, doubtless, your family arms? Except the

knowledge of blazons, that enables me to decipher them, I am very ignorant of heraldry I, a count of a

fresh creation, fabricated in Tuscany by the aid of a commandery of St. Stephen, and who would not have

taken the trouble had I not been told that when you travel much it is necessary. Besides, you must have

something on the panels of your carriage, to escape being searched by the customhouse officers. Excuse my

"It is not indiscreet," returned Morcerf, with the simplicity of conviction. "You have guessed rightly. These

are our arms, that is, those of my father, but they are, as you see, joined to another shield, which has gules, a

silver tower, which are my mother's. By her side I am Spanish, but the family of Morcerf is French, and, I

"Yes," replied Monte Cristo "these blazons prove that. Almost all the armed pilgrims that went to the Holy

Land took for their arms either a cross, in honor of their mission, or birds of passage, in sign of the long

voyage they were about to undertake, and which they hoped to accomplish on the wings of faith. One of your

ancestors had joined the Crusades, and supposing it to be only that of St. Louis, that makes you mount to the

"It is possible," said Morcerf; "my father has in his study a genealogical tree which will tell you all that, and

on which I made commentaries that would have greatly edified Hozier and Jaucourt. At present I no longer

think of it, and yet I must tell you that we are beginning to occupy ourselves greatly with these things under

"Well, then, your government would do well to choose from the past something better than the things that I

have noticed on your monuments, and which have no heraldic meaning whatever. As for you, viscount,"

continued Monte Cristo to Morcerf, "you are more fortunate than the government, for your arms are really

beautiful, and speak to the imagination. Yes, you are at once from Provence and Spain; that explains, if the

portrait you showed me be like, the dark hue I so much admired on the visage of the noble Catalan." It would

have required the penetration of Oedipus or the Sphinx to have divined the irony the count concealed beneath

these words, apparently uttered with the greatest politeness. Morcerf thanked him with a smile, and pushed

open the door above which were his arms, and which, as we have said, opened into the salon. In the most

conspicuous part of the salon was another portrait. It was that of a man, from five to eight and thirty, in the

uniform of a general officer, wearing the double epaulet of heavy bullion, that indicates superior rank, the

ribbon of the Legion of Honor around his neck, which showed he was a commander, and on the right breast,

the star of a grand officer of the order of the Saviour, and on the left that of the grand cross of Charles III.,

which proved that the person represented by the picture had served in the wars of Greece and Spain, or, what

was just the same thing as regarded decorations, had fulfilled some diplomatic mission in the two countries.

Monte Cristo was engaged in examining this portrait with no less care than he had bestowed upon the other,

when another door opened, and he found himself opposite to the Count of Morcerf in person. He was a man

of forty to fortyfive years, but he seemed at least fifty, and his black mustache and eyebrows contrasted

strangely with his almost white hair, which was cut short, in the military fashion. He was dressed in plain

clothes, and wore at his buttonhole the ribbons of the different orders to which he belonged. He entered with

a tolerably dignified step, and some little haste. Monte Cristo saw him advance towards him without making

a single step. It seemed as if his feet were rooted to the ground, and his eyes on the Count of Morcerf.

"Father," said the young man, "I have the honor of presenting to you the Count of Monte Cristo, the generous

friend whom I had the good fortune to meet in the critical situation of which I have told you."

"You are most welcome, monsieur," said the Count of Morcerf, saluting Monte Cristo with a smile, "and

monsieur has rendered our house, in preserving its only heir, a service which insures him our eternal

gratitude." As he said these words, the count of Morcerf pointed to a chair, while he seated himself in another

Monte Cristo, in taking the seat Morcerf offered him, placed himself in such a manner as to remain concealed

in the shadow of the large velvet curtains, and read on the careworn and livid features of the count a whole

history of secret griefs written in each wrinkle time had planted there. "The countess," said Morcerf, "was at

her toilet when she was informed of the visit she was about to receive. She will, however, be in the salon in

"It is a great honor to me," returned Monte Cristo, "to be thus, on the first day of my arrival in Paris, brought

in contact with a man whose merit equals his reputation, and to whom fortune has for once been equitable,

but has she not still on the plains of Metidja, or in the mountains of Atlas, a marshal's staff to offer you?"

"Oh," replied Morcerf, reddening slightly, "I have left the service, monsieur. Made a peer at the Restoration, I

served through the first campaign under the orders of Marshal Bourmont. I could, therefore, expect a higher

rank, and who knows what might have happened had the elder branch remained on the throne? But the

Revolution of July was, it seems, sufficiently glorious to allow itself to be ungrateful, and it was so for all

services that did not date from the imperial period. I tendered my resignation, for when you have gained your

epaulets on the battlefield, you do not know how to manoeuvre on the slippery grounds of the salons. I have

hung up my sword, and cast myself into politics. I have devoted myself to industry; I study the useful arts.

During the twenty years I served, I often wished to do so, but I had not the time."

"These are the ideas that render your nation superior to any other," returned Monte Cristo. "A gentleman of

high birth, possessor of an ample fortune, you have consented to gain your promotion as an obscure soldier,

step by step this is uncommon; then become general, peer of France, commander of the Legion of Honor,

you consent to again commence a second apprenticeship, without any other hope or any other desire than that

of one day becoming useful to your fellowcreatures; this, indeed, is praiseworthy, nay, more, it is

sublime." Albert looked on and listened with astonishment; he was not used to see Monte Cristo give vent to

such bursts of enthusiasm. "Alas," continued the stranger, doubtless to dispel the slight cloud that covered

Morcerf's brow, "we do not act thus in Italy; we grow according to our race and our species, and we pursue

"But, monsieur," said the Count of Morcerf, "for a man of your merit, Italy is not a country, and France opens

her arms to receive you; respond to her call. France will not, perhaps, be always ungrateful. She treats her

"Ah, father," said Albert with a smile, "it is evident you do not know the Count of Monte Cristo; he despises

"That is the most just remark," replied the stranger, "I ever heard made concerning myself."

"You have been free to choose your career," observed the Count of Morcerf, with a sigh; "and you have

"Precisely, monsieur," replied Monte Cristo with one of those smiles that a painter could never represent or a

"If I did not fear to fatigue you," said the general, evidently charmed with the count's manners, "I would have

taken you to the Chamber; there is a debate very curious to those who are strangers to our modern senators."

"I shall be most grateful, monsieur, if you will, at some future time, renew your offer, but I have been

flattered with the hope of being introduced to the countess, and I will therefore wait."

"Ah, here is my mother," cried the viscount. Monte Cristo, turned round hastily, and saw Madame de Morcerf

at the entrance of the salon, at the door opposite to that by which her husband had entered, pale and

motionless; when Monte Cristo turned round, she let fall her arm, which for some unknown reason had been

resting on the gilded doorpost. She had been there some moments, and had heard the last words of the

visitor. The latter rose and bowed to the countess, who inclined herself without speaking. "Ah, good heavens,

madame," said the count, "are you ill, or is it the heat of the room that affects you?"

She thanked them both with a smile. "No," returned she, "but I feel some emotion on seeing, for the first

time, the man without whose intervention we should have been in tears and desolation. Monsieur," continued

the countess, advancing with the majesty of a queen, "I owe to you the life of my son, and for this I bless you.

Now, I thank you for the pleasure you give me in thus affording me the opportunity of thanking you as I have

blessed you, from the bottom of my heart." The count bowed again, but lower than before; He was even paler

than Mercedes. "Madame," said he, "the count and yourself recompense too generously a simple action. To

save a man, to spare a father's feelings, or a mother's sensibility, is not to do a good action, but a simple deed

of humanity." At these words, uttered with the most exquisite sweetness and politeness, Madame de Morcerf

replied. "It is very fortunate for my son, monsieur, that he found such a friend, and I thank God that things are

thus." And Mercedes raised her fine eyes to heaven with so fervent an expression of gratitude, that the count

fancied he saw tears in them. M. de Morcerf approached her. "Madame," said he. "I have already made my

excuses to the count for quitting him, and I pray you to do so also. The sitting commences at two; it is now

"Go, then, and monsieur and I will strive our best to forget your absence," replied the countess, with the same

tone of deep feeling. "Monsieur," continued she, turning to Monte Cristo, "will you do us the honor of

"Believe me, madame, I feel most grateful for your kindness, but I got out of my travelling carriage at your

door this morning, and I am ignorant how I am installed in Paris, which I scarcely know; this is but a trifling

"We shall have the pleasure another time," said the countess; "you promise that?" Monte Cristo inclined

himself without answering, but the gesture might pass for assent. "I will not detain you, monsieur," continued

the countess; "I would not have our gratitude become indiscreet or importunate."

"My dear Count," said Albert, "I will endeavor to return your politeness at Rome, and place my coupe at your

"A thousand thanks for your kindness, viscount," returned the Count of Monte Cristo "but I suppose that M.

Bertuccio has suitably employed the four hours and a half I have given him, and that I shall find a carriage of

some sort ready at the door." Albert was used to the count's manner of proceeding; he knew that, like Nero,

he was in search of the impossible, and nothing astonished him, but wishing to judge with his own eyes how

far the count's orders had been executed, he accompanied him to the door of the house. Monte Cristo was not

deceived. As soon as he appeared in the Count of Morcerf's antechamber, a footman, the same who at Rome

had brought the count's card to the two young men, and announced his visit, sprang into the vestibule, and

when he arrived at the door the illustrious traveller found his carriage awaiting him. It was a coupe of Koller's

building, and with horses and harness for which Drake had, to the knowledge of all the lions of Paris, refused

on the previous day seven hundred guineas. "Monsieur," said the count to Albert, "I do not ask you to

accompany me to my house, as I can only show you a habitation fitted up in a hurry, and I have, as you know,

a reputation to keep up as regards not being taken by surprise. Give me, therefore, one more day before I

"If you ask me for a day, count, I know what to anticipate; it will not be a house I shall see, but a palace. You

"Ma foi, spread that idea," replied the Count of Monte Cristo, putting his foot on the velvetlined steps of his

splendid carriage, "and that will be worth something to me among the ladies." As he spoke, he sprang into the

vehicle, the door was closed, but not so rapidly that Monte Cristo failed to perceive the almost imperceptible

movement which stirred the curtains of the apartment in which he had left Madame de Morcerf. When Albert

returned to his mother, he found her in the boudoir reclining in a large velvet armchair, the whole room so

obscure that only the shining spangle, fastened here and there to the drapery, and the angles of the gilded

frames of the pictures, showed with some degree of brightness in the gloom. Albert could not see the face of

the countess, as it was covered with a thin veil she had put on her head, and which fell over her features in

misty folds, but it seemed to him as though her voice had altered. He could distinguish amid the perfumes of

the roses and heliotropes in the flowerstands, the sharp and fragrant odor of volatile salts, and he noticed in

one of the chased cups on the mantlepiece the countess's smellingbottle, taken from its shagreen case, and

exclaimed in a tone of uneasiness, as he entered, "My dear mother, have you been ill during my absence?"

"No, no, Albert, but you know these roses, tuberoses, and orangeflowers throw out at first, before one is

"Then, my dear mother," said Albert, putting his hand to the bell, "they must be taken into the antechamber.

"Yes; a pallor that suits you admirably, mother, but which did not the less alarm my father and myself."

"Yes, I do remember," replied the countess. A servant entered, summoned by Albert's ring of the bell. "Take

these flowers into the anteroom or dressingroom," said the viscount; "they make the countess ill." The

footman obeyed his orders. A long pause ensued, which lasted until all the flowers were removed. "What is

this name of Monte Cristo?" inquired the countess, when the servant had taken away the last vase of flowers,

"I believe, mother, it is merely a title. The count purchased an island in the Tuscan archipelago, and, as he

told you today, has founded a commandery. You know the same thing was done for Saint Stephen of

Florence, Saint George, Constantinian of Parma, and even for the Order of Malta. Except this, he has no

pretension to nobility, and calls himself a chance count, although the general opinion at Rome is that the

"His manners are admirable," said the countess, "at least, as far as I could judge in the few minutes he

"They are perfect mother, so perfect, that they surpass by far all I have known in the leading aristocracy of

the three proudest nobilities of Europe the English, the Spanish, and the German." The countess paused a

moment; then, after a slight hesitation, she resumed, "You have seen, my dear Albert I ask the question

as a mother you have seen M. de Monte Cristo in his house, you are quicksighted, have much knowledge

of the world, more tact than is usual at your age, do you think the count is really what he appears to be?"

"I must tell you that I have not come to any decided opinion respecting him, but I think him a Maltese."

"Ah, what he is; that is quite another thing. I have seen so many remarkable things in him, that if you would

have me really say what I think, I shall reply that I really do look upon him as one of Byron's heroes, whom

misery has marked with a fatal brand; some Manfred, some Lara, some Werner, one of those wrecks, as it

were, of some ancient family, who, disinherited of their patrimony, have achieved one by the force of their

"I say that Monte Cristo is an island in the midst of the Mediterranean, without inhabitants or garrison, the

resort of smugglers of all nations, and pirates of every flag. Who knows whether or not these industrious

"Never mind," continued the young man, "smuggler or not, you must agree, mother dear, as you have seen

him, that the Count of Monte Cristo is a remarkable man, who will have the greatest success in the salons of

Paris. Why, this very morning, in my rooms, he made his entree amongst us by striking every man of us with

"And what do you suppose is the count's age?" inquired Mercedes, evidently attaching great importance to

"So young, it is impossible," said Mercedes, replying at the same time to what Albert said as well as to her

"It is the truth, however. Three or four times he has said to me, and certainly without the slightest

premeditation, `at such a period I was five years old, at another ten years old, at another twelve,' and I,

induced by curiosity, which kept me alive to these details, have compared the dates, and never found him

inaccurate. The age of this singular man, who is of no age, is then, I am certain, thirtyfive. Besides, mother,

remark how vivid his eye, how ravenblack his hair, and his brow, though so pale, is free from wrinkles,

he is not only vigorous, but also young." The countess bent her head, as if beneath a heavy wave of bitter

thoughts. "And has this man displayed a friendship for you, Albert?" she asked with a nervous shudder.

"Why, he pleases me in spite of Franz d'Epinay, who tries to convince me that he is a being returned from the

other world." The countess shuddered. "Albert," she said, in a voice which was altered by emotion, "I have

always put you on your guard against new acquaintances. Now you are a man, and are able to give me

"Why, my dear mother, it is necessary, in order to make your advice turn to account, that I should know

beforehand what I have to distrust. The count never plays, he only drinks pure water tinged with a little

sherry, and is so rich that he cannot, without intending to laugh at me, try to borrow money. What, then, have

"You are right," said the countess, "and my fears are weakness, especially when directed against a man who

has saved your life. How did your father receive him, Albert? It is necessary that we should be more than

complaisant to the count. M. de Morcerf is sometimes occupied, his business makes him reflective, and he

"Nothing could be in better taste than my father's demeanor, madame," said Albert; "nay, more, he seemed

greatly flattered at two or three compliments which the count very skilfully and agreeably paid him with as

much ease as if he had known him these thirty years. Each of these little tickling arrows must have pleased

my father," added Albert with a laugh. "And thus they parted the best possible friends, and M. de Morcerf

even wished to take him to the Chamber to hear the speakers." The countess made no reply. She fell into so

deep a revery that her eyes gradually closed. The young man, standing up before her, gazed upon her with

that filial affection which is so tender and endearing with children whose mothers are still young and

handsome. Then, after seeing her eyes closed, and hearing her breathe gently, he believed she had dropped

asleep, and left the apartment on tiptoe, closing the door after him with the utmost precaution. "This devil of a

fellow," he muttered, shaking his head; "I said at the time he would create a sensation here, and I measure his

effect by an infallible thermometer. My mother has noticed him, and he must therefore, perforce, be

remarkable." He went down to the stables, not without some slight annoyance, when he remembered that the

Count of Monte Cristo had laid his hands on a "turnout" which sent his bays down to second place in the

opinion of connoisseurs. "Most decidedly," said he, "men are not equal, and I must beg my father to develop

Meanwhile the count had arrived at his house; it had taken him six minutes to perform the distance, but these

six minutes were sufficient to induce twenty young men who knew the price of the equipage they had been

unable to purchase themselves, to put their horses in a gallop in order to see the rich foreigner who could

afford to give 20,000 francs apiece for his horses. The house Ali had chosen, and which was to serve as a

town residence to Monte Cristo, was situated on the right hand as you ascend the Champs Elysees. A thick

clump of trees and shrubs rose in the centre, and masked a portion of the front; around this shrubbery two

alleys, like two arms, extended right and left, and formed a carriagedrive from the iron gates to a double

portico, on every step of which stood a porcelain vase. filled with flowers. This house, isolated from the rest,

had, besides the main entrance, another in the Rue Ponthieu. Even before the coachman had hailed the

concierge, the massy gates rolled on their hinges they had seen the Count coming, and at Paris, as

everywhere else, he was served with the rapidity of lightning. The coachman entered and traversed the

halfcircle without slackening his speed, and the gates were closed ere the wheels had ceased to sound on the

gravel. The carriage stopped at the left side of the portico, two men presented themselves at the

carriagewindow; the one was Ali, who, smiling with an expression of the most sincere joy, seemed amply

repaid by a mere look from Monte Cristo. The other bowed respectfully, and offered his arm to assist the

count in descending. "Thanks, M. Bertuccio," said the count, springing lightly up the three steps of the

"And the cards I ordered to be engraved as soon as you knew the number of the house?"

"Your excellency, it is done already. I have been myself to the best engraver of the Palais Royal, who did the

plate in my presence. The first card struck off was taken, according to your orders, to the Baron Danglars,

Rue de la Chaussee d'Antin, No. 7; the others are on the mantlepiece of your excellency's bedroom."

"Four o'clock." Monte Cristo gave his hat, cane, and gloves to the same French footman who had called his

carriage at the Count of Morcerf's, and then he passed into the small salon, preceded by Bertuccio, who

showed him the way. "These are but indifferent marbles in this antechamber," said Monte Cristo. "I trust all

this will soon be taken away." Bertuccio bowed. As the steward had said, the notary awaited him in the small

salon. He was a simplelooking lawyer's clerk, elevated to the extraordinary dignity of a provincial scrivener.

"You are the notary empowered to sell the country house that I wish to purchase, monsieur?" asked Monte

"Very well; and where is this house that I purchase?" asked the count carelessly, addressing himself half to

Bertuccio, half to the notary. The steward made a gesture that signified, "I do not know." The notary looked

at the count with astonishment. "What!" said he, "does not the count know where the house he purchases is

"How should I know? I have arrived from Cadiz this morning. I have never before been at Paris, and it is the

"Ah, that is different; the house you purchase is at Auteuil." At these words Bertuccio turned pale. "And

"Close by here, monsieur," replied the notary "a little beyond Passy; a charming situation, in the heart of

"So near as that?" said the Count; "but that is not in the country. What made you choose a house at the gates

"I," cried the steward with a strange expression. "His excellency did not charge me to purchase this house. If

"Ah, true," observed Monte Cristo; "I recollect now. I read the advertisement in one of the papers, and was

"It is not yet too late," cried Bertuccio, eagerly; "and if your excellency will intrust me with the commission, I

"Oh, no," returned Monte Cristo negligently; "since I have this, I will keep it."

"And you are quite right," said the notary, who feared to lose his fee. "It is a charming place, well supplied

with springwater and fine trees; a comfortable habitation, although abandoned for a long time, without

reckoning the furniture, which, although old, is yet valuable, now that old things are so much sought after. I

"Peste, let us not lose such an opportunity," returned Monte Cristo. "The deed, if you please, Mr. Notary."

And he signed it rapidly, after having first run his eye over that part of the deed in which were specified the

situation of the house and the names of the proprietors. "Bertuccio," said he, "give fiftyfive thousand francs

to monsieur." The steward left the room with a faltering step, and returned with a bundle of banknotes,

which the notary counted like a man who never gives a receipt for money until after he is sure it is all there.

"They are in the hands of the concierge, who takes care of the house, but here is the order I have given him to

"Very well;" and Monte Cristo made a sign with his hand to the notary, which said, "I have no further need of

"But," observed the honest notary, "the count is, I think, mistaken; it is only fifty thousand francs, everything

"Well, then, it is but fair that you should be paid for your loss of time and trouble," said the count; and he

made a gesture of polite dismissal. The notary left the room backwards, and bowing down to the ground; it

was the first time he had ever met a similar client. "See this gentleman out," said the count to Bertuccio. And

the steward followed the notary out of the room. Scarcely was the count alone, when he drew from his pocket

a book closed with a lock, and opened it with a key which he wore round his neck, and which never left him.

After having sought for a few minutes, he stopped at a leaf which had several notes, and compared them with

the deed of sale, which lay on the table. "`Auteuil, Rue de la Fontaine, No. 28;' it is indeed the same," said he;

"and now, am I to rely upon an avowal extorted by religious or physical terror? However, in an hour I shall

know all. Bertuccio!" cried he, striking a light hammer with a pliant handle on a small gong. "Bertuccio!"

The steward appeared at the door. "Monsieur Bertuccio," said the count, "did you never tell me that you had

"No, excellency, no," returned the steward, with a sort of nervous trembling, which Monte Cristo, a

"It is unfortunate," returned he, "that you have never visited the environs, for I wish to see my new property

this evening, and had you gone with me, you could have given me some useful information."

"To Auteuil!" cried Bertuccio, whose copper complexion became livid "I go to Auteuil?"

"Well, what is there surprising in that? When I live at Auteuil, you must come there, as you belong to my

service." Bertuccio hung down his head before the imperious look of his master, and remained motionless,

without making any answer. "Why, what has happened to you? are you going to make me ring a second

time for the carriage?" asked Monte Cristo, in the same tone that Louis XIV. pronounced the famous, "I have

been almost obliged to wait." Bertuccio made but one bound to the antechamber, and cried in a hoarse voice

"His excellency's horses!" Monte Cristo wrote two or three notes, and, as he sealed the last, the steward

"Certainly, you must give the orders, for I intend residing at the house." It was unexampled for a servant of

the count's to dare to dispute an order of his, so the steward, without saying a word, followed his master, who

got into the carriage, and signed to him to follow, which he did, taking his place respectfully on the front seat.

Monte Cristo noticed, as they descended the staircase, that Bertuccio signed himself in the Corsican manner;

that is, had formed the sign of the cross in the air with his thumb, and as he seated himself in the carriage,

muttered a short prayer. Any one but a man of exhaustless thirst for knowledge would have had pity on

seeing the steward's extraordinary repugnance for the count's projected drive without the walls; but the Count

was too curious to let Bertuccio off from this little journey. In twenty minutes they were at Auteuil; the

steward's emotion had continued to augment as they entered the village. Bertuccio, crouched in the corner of

the carriage, began to examine with a feverish anxiety every house they passed. "Tell them to stop at Rue de

la Fontaine, No. 28," said the count, fixing his eyes on the steward, to whom he gave this order. Bertuccio's

forehead was covered with perspiration; however, he obeyed, and, leaning out of the window, he cried to the

coachman, "Rue de la Fontaine, No. 28." No. 28 was situated at the extremity of the village; during the

drive night had set in, and darkness gave the surroundings the artificial appearance of a scene on the stage.

The carriage stopped, the footman sprang off the box, and opened the door. "Well," said the count, "you do

not get out, M. Bertuccio you are going to stay in the carriage, then? What are you thinking of this

evening?" Bertuccio sprang out, and offered his shoulder to the count, who, this time, leaned upon it as he

descended the three steps of the carriage. "Knock," said the count, "and announce me." Bertuccio knocked,

"It is your new master, my good fellow," said the footman. And he held out to the concierge the notary's

"The house is sold, then?" demanded the concierge; "and this gentleman is coming to live here?"

"Yes, my friend," returned the count; "and I will endeavor to give you no cause to regret your old master."

"Oh, monsieur," said the concierge, "I shall not have much cause to regret him, for he came here but seldom;

it is five years since he was here last, and he did well to sell the house, for it did not bring him in anything at

"The Marquis of SaintMeran. Ah, I am sure he has not sold the house for what he gave for it."

"The Marquis of SaintMeran!" returned the count. "The name is not unknown to me; the Marquis of

"An old gentleman," continued the concierge, "a stanch follower of the Bourbons; he had an only daughter,

who married M. de Villefort, who had been the king's attorney at Nimes, and afterwards at Versailles." Monte

Cristo glanced at Bertuccio, who became whiter than the wall against which he leaned to prevent himself

from falling. "And is not this daughter dead?" demanded Monte Cristo; "I fancy I have heard so."

"Yes, monsieur, one and twenty years ago; and since then we have not seen the poor marquis three times."

"Thanks, thanks," said Monte Cristo, judging from the steward's utter prostration that he could not stretch the

"No, it is unnecessary; Bertuccio will show me a light." And Monte Cristo accompanied these words by the

gift of two gold pieces, which produced a torrent of thanks and blessings from the concierge. "Ah, monsieur,"

said he, after having vainly searched on the mantlepiece and the shelves, "I have not got any candles."

"Take one of the carriagelamps, Bertuccio," said the count, "and show me the apartments." The steward

obeyed in silence, but it was easy to see, from the manner in which the hand that held the light trembled, how

much it cost him to obey. They went over a tolerably large groundfloor; a second floor consisted of a salon,

a bathroom, and two bedrooms; near one of the bedrooms they came to a winding staircase that led down to

"Ah, here is a private staircase," said the count; "that is convenient. Light me, M. Bertuccio, and go first; we

"Well, let us be sure of that." Bertuccio sighed, and went on first; the stairs did, indeed, lead to the garden. At

the outer door the steward paused. "Go on, Monsieur Bertuccio," said the count. But he who was addressed

stood there, stupefied, bewildered, stunned; his haggard eyes glanced around, as if in search of the traces of

some terrible event, and with his clinched hands he seemed striving to shut out horrible recollections. "Well,"

insisted the Count. "No, no," cried Bertuccio, setting down the lantern at the angle of the interior wall. "No,

"Why, you must see, your excellency," cried the steward, "that this is not natural; that, having a house to

purchase, you purchase it exactly at Auteuil, and that, purchasing it at Auteuil, this house should be No. 28,

Rue de la Fontaine. Oh, why did I not tell you all? I am sure you would not have forced me to come. I hoped

your house would have been some other one than this; as if there was not another house at Auteuil than that

"What, what!" cried Monte Cristo, stopping suddenly, "what words do you utter? Devil of a man, Corsican

that you are always mysteries or superstitions. Come, take the lantern, and let us visit the garden; you are

not afraid of ghosts with me, I hope?" Bertuccio raised the lantern, and obeyed. The door, as it opened,

disclosed a gloomy sky, in which the moon strove vainly to struggle through a sea of clouds that covered her

with billows of vapor which she illumined for an instant, only to sink into obscurity. The steward wished to

turn to the left. "No, no, monsieur," said Monte Cristo. "What is the use of following the alleys? Here is a

Bertuccio wiped the perspiration from his brow, but obeyed; however, he continued to take the left hand.

Monte Cristo, on the contrary, took the right hand; arrived near a clump of trees, he stopped. The steward

could not restrain himself. "Move, monsieur move away, I entreat you; you are exactly in the spot!"

"My dear Monsieur Bertuccio," said Monte Cristo, laughing, "control yourself; we are not at Sartena or at

Corte. This is not a Corsican arbor, but an English garden; badly kept, I own, but still you must not

"I think you are going mad, Bertuccio," said the count coldly. "If that is the case, I warn you, I shall have you

"Alas, excellency," returned Bertuccio, joining his hands, and shaking his head in a manner that would have

excited the count's laughter, had not thoughts of a superior interest occupied him, and rendered him attentive

to the least revelation of this timorous conscience. "Alas, excellency, the evil has arrived!"

"M. Bertuccio," said the count, "I am very glad to tell you, that while you gesticulate, you wring your hands

and roll your eyes like a man possessed by a devil who will not leave him; and I have always observed, that

the devil most obstinate to be expelled is a secret. I knew you were a Corsican. I knew you were gloomy, and

always brooding over some old history of the vendetta; and I overlooked that in Italy, because in Italy those

things are thought nothing of. But in France they are considered in very bad taste; there are gendarmes who

occupy themselves with such affairs, judges who condemn, and scaffolds which avenge." Bertuccio clasped

his hands, and as, in all these evolutions, he did not let fall the lantern, the light showed his pale and altered

countenance. Monte Cristo examined him with the same look that, at Rome, he had bent upon the execution

of Andrea, and then, in a tone that made a shudder pass through the veins of the poor steward, "The Abbe

Busoni, then told me an untruth," said he, "when, after his journey in France, in 1829, he sent you to me, with

a letter of recommendation, in which he enumerated all your valuable qualities. Well, I shall write to the

abbe; I shall hold him responsible for his protege's misconduct, and I shall soon know all about this

assassination. Only I warn you, that when I reside in a country, I conform to all its code, and I have no wish

"Oh, do not do that, excellency; I have always served you faithfully," cried Bertuccio, in despair. "I have

"I do not deny it," returned the count; "but why are you thus agitated. It is a bad sign; a quiet conscience does

not occasion such paleness in the cheeks, and such fever in the hands of a man."

"But, your excellency," replied Bertuccio hesitatingly, "did not the Abbe Busoni, who heard my confession in

"Yes; but as he said you would make an excellent steward, I concluded you had stolen that was all."

"Or, as you are a Corsican, that you had been unable to resist the desire of making a `stiff,' as you call it."

"Yes, my good master," cried Bertuccio, casting himself at the count's feet, "it was simply vengeance

"I understand that, but I do not understand what it is that galvanizes you in this manner."

"But, monsieur, it is very natural," returned Bertuccio, "since it was in this house that my vengeance was

"Whose, then? The Marquis de SaintMeran, I think, the concierge said. What had you to revenge on the

"This is strange," returned Monte Cristo, seeming to yield to his reflections, "that you should find yourself

without any preparation in a house where the event happened that causes you so much remorse."

"Monsieur," said the steward, "it is fatality, I am sure. First, you purchase a house at Auteuil this house is

the one where I have committed an assassination; you descend to the garden by the same staircase by which

he descended; you stop at the spot where he received the blow; and two paces farther is the grave in which he

had just buried his child. This is not chance, for chance, in this case, is too much like providence."

"Well, amiable Corsican, let us suppose it is providence. I always suppose anything people please, and,

besides, you must concede something to diseased minds. Come, collect yourself, and tell me all."

"I have related it but once, and that was to the Abbe Busoni. Such things," continued Bertuccio, shaking his

"Then," said the count, "I refer you to your confessor. Turn Chartreux or Trappist, and relate your secrets,

but, as for me, I do not like any one who is alarmed by such phantasms, and I do not choose that my servants

should be afraid to walk in the garden of an evening. I confess I am not very desirous of a visit from the

commissary of police, for, in Italy, justice is only paid when silent in France she is paid only when she

speaks. Peste, I thought you somewhat Corsican, a great deal smuggler, and an excellent steward; but I see

you have other strings to your bow. You are no longer in my service, Monsieur Bertuccio."

"Oh, your excellency, your excellency!" cried the steward, struck with terror at this threat, "if that is the only

reason I cannot remain in your service, I will tell all, for if I quit you, it will only be to go to the scaffold."

"That is different," replied Monte Cristo; "but if you intend to tell an untruth, reflect it were better not to

"No, monsieur, I swear to you, by my hopes of salvation, I will tell you all, for the Abbe Busoni himself only

knew a part of my secret; but, I pray you, go away from that planetree. The moon is just bursting through

the clouds, and there, standing where you do, and wrapped in that cloak that conceals your figure, you remind

"Who enjoyed the reputation of being the most severe, the most upright, the most rigid magistrate on the

"Really," returned the count, "relate it to me, for it begins to interest me." And the count, humming an air

from "Lucia," went to sit down on a bench, while Bertuccio followed him, collecting his thoughts. Bertuccio

"Some particulars, doubtless, but that is seven or eight years ago, and I have forgotten them."

"No, monsieur, and yet I recollect all things as clearly as if they had happened but then. I had a brother, an

elder brother, who was in the service of the emperor; he had become lieutenant in a regiment composed

entirely of Corsicans. This brother was my only friend; we became orphans I at five, he at eighteen. He

brought me up as if I had been his son, and in 1814 he married. When the emperor returned from the Island of

Elba, my brother instantly joined the army, was slightly wounded at Waterloo, and retired with the army

"But that is the history of the Hundred Days, M. Bertuccio," said the count; "unless I am mistaken, it has been

"Excuse me, excellency, but these details are necessary, and you promised to be patient."

"One day we received a letter. I should tell you that we lived in the little village of Rogliano, at the extremity

of Cape Corso. This letter was from my brother. He told us that the army was disbanded, and that he should

return by Chateauroux, ClermontFerrand, Le Puy, and Nimes; and, if I had any money, he prayed me to

"I loved my brother tenderly, as I told your excellency, and I resolved not to send the money, but to take it to

him myself. I possessed a thousand francs. I left five hundred with Assunta, my sisterinlaw, and with the

other five hundred I set off for Nimes. It was easy to do so, and as I had my boat and a lading to take in at

sea, everything favored my project. But, after we had taken in our cargo, the wind became contrary, so that

we were four or five days without being able to enter the Rhone. At last, however, we succeeded, and worked

up to Arles. I left the boat between Bellegarde and Beaucaire, and took the road to Nimes."

"Yes, your excellency; excuse me, but, as you will see, I only tell you what is absolutely necessary. Just at

this time the famous massacres took place in the south of France. Three brigands, called Trestaillon,

Truphemy, and Graffan, publicly assassinated everybody whom they suspected of Bonapartism. You have

"As I entered Nimes, I literally waded in blood; at every step you encountered dead bodies and bands of

murderers, who killed, plundered, and burned. At the sight of this slaughter and devastation I became

terrified, not for myself for I, a simple Corsican fisherman, had nothing to fear; on the contrary, that time

was most favorable for us smugglers but for my brother, a soldier of the empire, returning from the army

of the Loire, with his uniform and his epaulets, there was everything to apprehend. I hastened to the

innkeeper. My misgivings had been but too true. My brother had arrived the previous evening at Nimes,

and, at the very door of the house where he was about to demand hospitality, he had been assassinated. I did

all in my power to discover the murderers, but no one durst tell me their names, so much were they dreaded. I

then thought of that French justice of which I had heard so much, and which feared nothing, and I went to the

"Yes, your excellency; he came from Marseilles, where he had been deputyprocureur. His zeal had procured

him advancement, and he was said to be one of the first who had informed the government of the departure

"`Monsieur,' I said, `my brother was assassinated yesterday in the streets of Nimes, I know not by whom, but

it is your duty to find out. You are the representative of justice here, and it is for justice to avenge those she

has been unable to protect.' `Who was your brother?' asked he. `A lieutenant in the Corsican battalion.'

`A soldier of the usurper, then?' `A soldier of the French army.' `Well,' replied he, `he has smitten

with the sword, and he has perished by the sword.' `You are mistaken, monsieur,' I replied; `he has

perished by the poniard.' `What do you want me to do?' asked the magistrate. `I have already told you

avenge him.' `On whom?' `On his murderers.' `How should I know who they are?' `Order

them to be sought for.' `Why, your brother has been involved in a quarrel, and killed in a duel. All these

old soldiers commit excesses which were tolerated in the time of the emperor, but which are not suffered

now, for the people here do not like soldiers of such disorderly conduct.' `Monsieur,' I replied, `it is not

for myself that I entreat your interference I should grieve for him or avenge him, but my poor brother had

a wife, and were anything to happen to me, the poor creature would perish from want, for my brother's pay

"`Every revolution has its catastrophes,' returned M. de Villefort; `your brother has been the victim of this. It

is a misfortune, and government owes nothing to his family. If we are to judge by all the vengeance that the

followers of the usurper exercised on the partisans of the king, when, in their turn, they were in power, your

brother would be today, in all probability, condemned to death. What has happened is quite natural, and in

conformity with the law of reprisals.' `What,' cried I, `do you, a magistrate, speak thus to me?' `All

these Corsicans are mad, on my honor,' replied M. de Villefort; `they fancy that their countryman is still

emperor. You have mistaken the time, you should have told me this two months ago, it is too late now. Go

"I looked at him an instant to see if there was anything to hope from further entreaty. But he was a man of

stone. I approached him, and said in a low voice, `Well, since you know the Corsicans so well, you know that

they always keep their word. You think that it was a good deed to kill my brother, who was a Bonapartist,

because you are a royalist. Well, I, who am a Bonapartist also, declare one thing to you, which is, that I will

kill you. From this moment I declare the vendetta against you, so protect yourself as well as you can, for the

next time we meet your last hour has come.' And before he had recovered from his surprise, I opened the door

"Well, well," said Monte Cristo, "such an innocent looking person as you are to do those things, M.

Bertuccio, and to a king's attorney at that! But did he know what was meant by the terrible word `vendetta'?"

"He knew so well, that from that moment he shut himself in his house, and never went out unattended,

seeking me high and low. Fortunately, I was so well concealed that he could not find me. Then he became

alarmed, and dared not stay any longer at Nimes, so he solicited a change of residence, and, as he was in

reality very influential, he was nominated to Versailles. But, as you know, a Corsican who has sworn to

avenge himself cares not for distance, so his carriage, fast as it went, was never above half a day's journey

before me, who followed him on foot. The most important thing was, not to kill him only for I had an

opportunity of doing so a hundred times but to kill him without being discovered at least, without

being arrested. I no longer belonged to myself, for I had my sisterinlaw to protect and provide for. For

three months I watched M. de Villefort, for three months he took not a step outofdoors without my

following him. At length I discovered that he went mysteriously to Auteuil. I followed him thither, and I saw

him enter the house where we now are, only, instead of entering by the great door that looks into the street, he

came on horseback, or in his carriage, left the one or the other at the little inn, and entered by the gate you see

there." Monte Cristo made a sign with his head to show that he could discern in the darkness the door to

which Bertuccio alluded. "As I had nothing more to do at Versailles, I went to Auteuil, and gained all the

information I could. If I wished to surprise him, it was evident this was the spot to lie in wait for him. The

house belonged, as the concierge informed your excellency, to M. de SaintMeran, Villefort's fatherinlaw.

M. de SaintMeran lived at Marseilles, so that this country house was useless to him, and it was reported to

"One evening, as I was looking over the wall, I saw a young and handsome woman who was walking alone in

that garden, which was not overlooked by any windows, and I guessed that she was awaiting M. de Villefort.

When she was sufficiently near for me to distinguish her features, I saw she was from eighteen to nineteen,

tall and very fair. As she had a loose muslin dress on and as nothing concealed her figure, I saw she would

ere long become a mother. A few moments after, the little door was opened and a man entered. The young

woman hastened to meet him. They threw themselves into each other's arms, embraced tenderly, and returned

together to the house. The man was M. de Villefort; I fully believed that when he went out in the night he

"No, excellency," returned Bertuccio; "you will see that I had no time to learn it."

"That evening," continued Bertuccio, "I could have killed the procureur, but as I was not sufficiently

acquainted with the neighborhood, I was fearful of not killing him on the spot, and that if his cries were

overheard I might be taken; so I put it off until the next occasion, and in order that nothing should escape me,

I took a chamber looking into the street bordered by the wall of the garden. Three days after, about seven

o'clock in the evening, I saw a servant on horseback leave the house at full gallop, and take the road to

Sevres. I concluded that he was going to Versailles, and I was not deceived. Three hours later, the man

returned covered with dust, his errand was performed, and two minutes after, another man on foot, muffled in

a mantle, opened the little door of the garden, which he closed after him. I descended rapidly; although I had

not seen Villefort's face, I recognized him by the beating of my heart. I crossed the street, and stopped at a

post placed at the angle of the wall, and by means of which I had once before looked into the garden. This

time I did not content myself with looking, but I took my knife out of my pocket, felt that the point was

sharp, and sprang over the wall. My first care was to run to the door; he had left the key in it, taking the

simple precaution of turning it twice in the lock. Nothing, then, preventing my escape by this means, I

examined the grounds. The garden was long and narrow; a stretch of smooth turf extended down the middle,

and at the corners were clumps of trees with thick and massy foliage, that made a background for the shrubs

and flowers. In order to go from the door to the house, or from the house to the door, M. de Villefort would

"It was the end of September; the wind blew violently. The faint glimpses of the pale moon, hidden

momentarily by masses of dark clouds that were sweeping across the sky, whitened the gravel walks that led

to the house, but were unable to pierce the obscurity of the thick shrubberies, in which a man could conceal

himself without any fear of discovery. I hid myself in the one nearest to the path Villefort must take, and

scarcely was I there when, amidst the gusts of wind, I fancied I heard groans; but you know, or rather you do

not know, your excellency, that he who is about to commit an assassination fancies that he hears low cries

perpetually ringing in his ears. Two hours passed thus, during which I imagined I heard moans repeatedly.

Midnight struck. As the last stroke died away, I saw a faint light shine through the windows of the private

staircase by which we have just descended. The door opened, and the man in the mantle reappeared. The

terrible moment had come, but I had so long been prepared for it that my heart did not fail in the least. I drew

my knife from my pocket again, opened it, and made ready to strike. The man in the mantle advanced

towards me, but as he drew near I saw that he had a weapon in his hand. I was afraid, not of a struggle, but of

a failure. When he was only a few paces from me, I saw that what I had taken for a weapon was only a spade.

I was still unable to divine for what reason M. de Villefort had this spade in his hands, when he stopped close

to the thicket where I was, glanced round, and began to dig a hole in the earth. I then perceived that he was

hiding something under his mantle, which he laid on the grass in order to dig more freely. Then, I confess,

curiosity mingled with hatred; I wished to see what Villefort was going to do there, and I remained

motionless, holding my breath. Then an idea crossed my mind, which was confirmed when I saw the

procureur lift from under his mantle a box, two feet long, and six or eight inches deep. I let him place the box

in the hole he had made, then, while he stamped with his feet to remove all traces of his occupation, I rushed

on him and plunged my knife into his breast, exclaiming, `I am Giovanni Bertuccio; thy death for my

brother's; thy treasure for his widow; thou seest that my vengeance is more complete than I had hoped.' I

know not if he heard these words; I think he did not, for he fell without a cry. I felt his blood gush over my

face, but I was intoxicated, I was delirious, and the blood refreshed, instead of burning me. In a second I had

disinterred the box; then, that it might not be known I had done so, I filled up the hole, threw the spade over

the wall, and rushed through the door, which I doublelocked, carrying off the key."

"Ah," said Monte Cristo "it seems to me this was nothing but murder and robbery."

"No, your excellency," returned Bertuccio; "it was a vendetta followed by restitution."

"Yes, excellency; I hastened to the river, sat down on the bank, and with my knife forced open the lock of the

box. In a fine linen cloth was wrapped a newborn child. Its purple visage, and its violetcolored hands

showed that it had perished from suffocation, but as it was not yet cold, I hesitated to throw it into the water

that ran at my feet. After a moment I fancied that I felt a slight pulsation of the heart, and as I had been

assistant at the hospital at Bastia, I did what a doctor would have done I inflated the lungs by blowing air

into them, and at the expiration of a quarter of an hour, it began to breathe, and cried feebly. In my turn I

uttered a cry, but a cry of joy. `God has not cursed me then,' I cried, `since he permits me to save the life of a

"And what did you do with the child?" asked Monte Cristo. "It was an embarrassing load for a man seeking

"I had not for a moment the idea of keeping it, but I knew that at Paris there was an asylum where they

receive such creatures. As I passed the city gates I declared that I had found the child on the road, and I

inquired where the asylum was; the box confirmed my statement, the linen proved that the infant belonged to

wealthy parents, the blood with which I was covered might have proceeded from the child as well as from

any one else. No objection was raised, but they pointed out the asylum, which was situated at the upper end

of the Rue d'Enfer, and after having taken the precaution of cutting the linen in two pieces, so that one of the

two letters which marked it was on the piece wrapped around the child, while the other remained in my

possession, I rang the bell, and fled with all speed. A fortnight after I was at Rogliano, and I said to Assunta,

`Console thyself, sister; Israel is dead, but he is avenged.' She demanded what I meant, and when I had

told her all, `Giovanni,' said she, `you should have brought this child with you; we would have replaced

the parents it has lost, have called it Benedetto, and then, in consequence of this good action, God would have

blessed us.' In reply I gave her the half of the linen I had kept in order to reclaim him if we became rich."

"By heaven, M. Bertuccio, you make use of heraldic terms; where did you study heraldry?"

"What became of this little boy? for I think you told me it was a boy, M. Bertuccio."

"No, you were not, for it was in reality a little boy. But your excellency wished to know two things; what was

"The second was the crime of which you were accused when you asked for a confessor, and the Abbe Busoni

"What matter? you know I take but little sleep, and I do not suppose you are very much inclined for it either."

"Partly to drown the recollections of the past that haunted me, partly to supply the wants of the poor widow, I

eagerly returned to my trade of smuggler, which had become more easy since that relaxation of the laws

which always follows a revolution. The southern districts were illwatched in particular, in consequence of

the disturbances that were perpetually breaking out in Avignon, Nimes, or Uzes. We profited by this respite

on the part of the government to make friends everywhere. Since my brother's assassination in the streets of

Nimes, I had never entered the town; the result was that the innkeeper with whom we were connected,

seeing that we would no longer come to him, was forced to come to us, and had established a branch to his

inn, on the road from Bellegarde to Beaucaire, at the sign of the Pont du Gard. We had thus, at

AiguesMortes, Martigues, or Bouc, a dozen places where we left our goods, and where, in case of necessity,

we concealed ourselves from the gendarmes and customhouse officers. Smuggling is a profitable trade,

when a certain degree of vigor and intelligence is employed; as for myself, brought up in the mountains, I had

a double motive for fearing the gendarmes and customhouse officers, as my appearance before the judges

would cause an inquiry, and an inquiry always looks back into the past. And in my past life they might find

something far more grave than the selling of smuggled cigars, or barrels of brandy without a permit. So,

preferring death to capture, I accomplished the most astonishing deeds, and which, more than once, showed

me that the too great care we take of our bodies is the only obstacle to the success of those projects which

require rapid decision, and vigorous and determined execution. In reality, when you have once devoted your

life to your enterprises, you are no longer the equal of other men, or, rather, other men are no longer your

equals, and whosoever has taken this resolution, feels his strength and resources doubled."

"Philosophy, M. Bertuccio," interrupted the Count; "you have done a little of everything in your life."

"No, no; but philosophy at halfpast ten at night is somewhat late; yet I have no other observation to make,

for what you say is correct, which is more than can be said for all philosophy."

"My journeys became more and more extensive and more productive. Assunta took care of all, and our little

fortune increased. One day as I was setting off on an expedition, `Go,' said she; `at your return I will give you

a surprise.' I questioned her, but in vain; she would tell me nothing, and I departed. Our expedition lasted

nearly six weeks; we had been to Lucca to take in oil, to Leghorn for English cottons, and we ran our cargo

without opposition, and returned home full of joy. When I entered the house, the first thing I beheld in the

middle of Assunta's chamber was a cradle that might be called sumptuous compared with the rest of the

furniture, and in it a baby seven or eight months old. I uttered a cry of joy; the only moments of sadness I had

known since the assassination of the procureur were caused by the recollection that I had abandoned this

child. For the assassination itself I had never felt any remorse. Poor Assunta had guessed all. She had profited

by my absence, and furnished with the half of the linen, and having written down the day and hour at which I

had deposited the child at the asylum, had set off for Paris, and had reclaimed it. No objection was raised, and

the infant was given up to her. Ah, I confess, your excellency, when I saw this poor creature sleeping

peacefully in its cradle, I felt my eyes filled with tears. `Ah, Assunta,' cried I, `you are an excellent woman,

"This," said Monte Cristo, "is less correct than your philosophy, it is only faith."

"Alas, your excellency is right," replied Bertuccio, "and God made this infant the instrument of our

punishment. Never did a perverse nature declare itself more prematurely, and yet it was not owing to any

fault in his bringing up. He was a most lovely child, with large blue eyes, of that deep color that harmonizes

so well with the blond complexion; only his hair, which was too light, gave his face a most singular

expression, and added to the vivacity of his look, and the malice of his smile. Unfortunately, there is a

proverb which says that `red is either altogether good or altogether bad.' The proverb was but too correct as

regarded Benedetto, and even in his infancy he manifested the worst disposition. It is true that the indulgence

of his fostermother encouraged him. This child, for whom my poor sister would go to the town, five or six

leagues off, to purchase the earliest fruits and the most tempting sweetmeats, preferred to Palma grapes or

Genoese preserves, the chestnuts stolen from a neighbor's orchard, or the dried apples in his loft, when he

could eat as well of the nuts and apples that grew in my garden. One day, when Benedetto was about five or

six, our neighbor Vasilio, who, according to the custom of the country, never locked up his purse or his

valuables for, as your excellency knows, there are no thieves in Corsica complained that he had lost a

louis out of his purse; we thought he must have made a mistake in counting his money, but he persisted in the

accuracy of his statement. One day, Benedetto, who had been gone from the house since morning, to our

great anxiety, did not return until late in the evening, dragging a monkey after him, which he said he had

found chained to the foot of a tree. For more than a month past, the mischievous child, who knew not what to

wish for, had taken it into his head to have a monkey. A boatman, who had passed by Rogliano, and who had

several of these animals, whose tricks had greatly diverted him, had, doubtless, suggested this idea to him.

`Monkeys are not found in our woods chained to trees,' said I; `confess how you obtained this animal.'

Benedetto maintained the truth of what he had said, and accompanied it with details that did more honor to

his imagination than to his veracity. I became angry; he began to laugh, I threatened to strike him, and he

made two steps backwards. `You cannot beat me,' said he; `you have no right, for you are not my father.'

"We never knew who had revealed this fatal secret, which we had so carefully concealed from him; however,

it was this answer, in which the child's whole character revealed itself, that almost terrified me, and my arm

fell without touching him. The boy triumphed, and this victory rendered him so audacious, that all the money

of Assunta, whose affection for him seemed to increase as he became more unworthy of it, was spent in

caprices she knew not how to contend against, and follies she had not the courage to prevent. When I was at

Rogliano everything went on properly, but no sooner was my back turned than Benedetto became master, and

everything went ill. When he was only eleven, he chose his companions from among the young men of

eighteen or twenty, the worst characters in Bastia, or, indeed, in Corsica, and they had already, for some

mischievous pranks, been several times threatened with a prosecution. I became alarmed, as any prosecution

might be attended with serious consequences. I was compelled, at this period, to leave Corsica on an

important expedition; I reflected for a long time, and with the hope of averting some impending misfortune, I

resolved that Benedetto should accompany me. I hoped that the active and laborious life of a smuggler, with

the severe discipline on board, would have a salutary effect on his character, which was now wellnigh, if not

quite, corrupt. I spoke to Benedetto alone, and proposed to him to accompany me, endeavoring to tempt him

by all the promises most likely to dazzle the imagination of a child of twelve. He heard me patiently, and

"`Are you mad, uncle?' (he called me by this name when he was in good humor); `do you think I am going to

change the life I lead for your mode of existence my agreeable indolence for the hard and precarious toil

you impose on yourself, exposed to the bitter frost at night, and the scorching heat by day, compelled to

conceal yourself, and when you are perceived, receive a volley of bullets, all to earn a paltry sum? Why, I

have as much money as I want; mother Assunta always furnishes me when I ask for it! You see that I should

be a fool to accept your offer.' The arguments, and his audacity, perfectly stupefied me. Benedetto rejoined

"Oh, had he been my own son," replied Bertuccio, "or even my nephew, I would have brought him back to

the right road, for the knowledge that you are doing your duty gives you strength, but the idea that I was

striking a child whose father I had killed, made it impossible for me to punish him. I gave my sister, who

constantly defended the unfortunate boy, good advice, and as she confessed that she had several times missed

money to a considerable amount, I showed her a safe place in which to conceal our little treasure for the

future. My mind was already made up. Benedetto could read, write, and cipher perfectly, for when the fit

seized him, he learned more in a day than others in a week. My intention was to enter him as a clerk in some

ship, and without letting him know anything of my plan, to convey him some morning on board; by this

means his future treatment would depend upon his own conduct. I set off for France, after having fixed upon

the plan. Our cargo was to be landed in the Gulf of Lyons, and this was a difficult thing to do because it was

then the year 1829. The most perfect tranquillity was restored, and the vigilance of the customhouse officers

was redoubled, and their strictness was increased at this time, in consequence of the fair at Beaucaire.

"Our expedition made a favorable beginning. We anchored our vessel which had a double hold, where our

goods were concealed amidst a number of other vessels that bordered the banks of the Rhone from

Beaucaire to Arles. On our arrival we began to discharge our cargo in the night, and to convey it into the

town, by the help of the innkeeper with whom we were connected. Whether success rendered us imprudent,

or whether we were betrayed, I know not; but one evening, about five o'clock, our little cabinboy came

breathlessly, to inform us that he had seen a detachment of customhouse officers advancing in our direction.

It was not their proximity that alarmed us, for detachments were constantly patrolling along the banks of the

Rhone, but the care, according to the boy's account, that they took to avoid being seen. In an instant we were

on the alert, but it was too late; our vessel was surrounded, and amongst the customhouse officers I

observed several gendarmes, and, as terrified at the sight of their uniforms as I was brave at the sight of any

other, I sprang into the hold, opened a port, and dropped into the river, dived, and only rose at intervals to

breathe, until I reached a ditch that had recently been made from the Rhone to the canal that runs from

Beaucaire to AiguesMortes. I was now safe, for I could swim along the ditch without being seen, and I

reached the canal in safety. I had designedly taken this direction. I have already told your excellency of an

innkeeper from Nimes who had set up a little tavern on the road from Bellegarde to Beaucaire."

"Yes," said Monte Cristo "I perfectly recollect him; I think he was your colleague."

"Precisely," answered Bertuccio; "but he had, seven or eight years before this period, sold his establishment

to a tailor at Marseilles, who, having almost ruined himself in his old trade, wished to make his fortune in

another. Of course, we made the same arrangements with the new landlord that we had with the old; and it

"What was his name?" inquired the count, who seemed to become somewhat interested in Bertuccio's story.

"Gaspard Caderousse; he had married a woman from the village of Carconte, and whom we did not know by

any other name than that of her village. She was suffering from malarial fever, and seemed dying by inches.

As for her husband, he was a strapping fellow of forty, or five and forty, who had more than once, in time of

"It was from Caderousse that I intended demanding shelter, and, as we never entered by the door that opened

onto the road, I resolved not to break through the rule, so climbing over the gardenhedge, I crept amongst

the olive and wild fig trees, and fearing that Caderousse might have some guest, I entered a kind of shed in

which I had often passed the night, and which was only separated from the inn by a partition, in which holes

had been made in order to enable us to watch an opportunity of announcing our presence. My intention was,

if Caderousse was alone, to acquaint him with my presence, finish the meal the customhouse officers had

interrupted, and profit by the threatened storm to return to the Rhone, and ascertain the state of our vessel and

its crew. I stepped into the shed, and it was fortunate I did so, for at that moment Caderousse entered with a

"I waited patiently, not to overhear what they said, but because I could do nothing else; besides, the same

thing had occurred often before. The man who was with Caderousse was evidently a stranger to the South of

France; he was one of those merchants who come to sell jewellery at the Beaucaire fair, and who during the

month the fair lasts, and during which there is so great an influx of merchants and customers from all parts of

Europe, often have dealings to the amount of 100,000 to 150,000 francs. Caderousse entered hastily. Then,

seeing that the room was, as usual, empty, and only guarded by the dog, he called to his wife, `Hello,

Carconte,' said he, `the worthy priest has not deceived us; the diamond is real.' An exclamation of joy was

heard, and the staircase creaked beneath a feeble step. `What do you say?' asked his wife, pale as death.

"`I say that the diamond is real, and that this gentleman, one of the first jewellers of Paris, will give us 50,000

francs for it. Only, in order to satisfy himself that it really belongs to us, he wishes you to relate to him, as I

have done already, the miraculous manner in which the diamond came into our possession. In the meantime

please to sit down, monsieur, and I will fetch you some refreshment.' The jeweller examined attentively the

interior of the inn and the apparent poverty of the persons who were about to sell him a diamond that seemed

to have come from the casket of a prince. `Relate your story, madame,' said he, wishing, no doubt, to profit

by the absence of the husband, so that the latter could not influence the wife's story, to see if the two recitals

"`Oh,' returned she, `it was a gift of heaven. My husband was a great friend, in 1814 or 1815, of a sailor

named Edmond Dantes. This poor fellow, whom Caderousse had forgotten, had not forgotten him, and at his

death he bequeathed this diamond to him.' `But how did he obtain it?' asked the jeweller; `had he it before

he was imprisoned?' `No, monsieur; but it appears that in prison he made the acquaintance of a rich

Englishman, and as in prison he fell sick, and Dantes took the same care of him as if he had been his brother,

the Englishman, when he was set free, gave this stone to Dantes, who, less fortunate, died, and, in his turn,

left it to us, and charged the excellent abbe, who was here this morning, to deliver it.' `The same story,'

muttered the jeweller; `and improbable as it seemed at first, it may be true. There's only the price we are not

agreed about.' `How not agreed about?' said Caderousse. `I thought we agreed for the price I asked.'

`That is,' replied the jeweller, `I offered 40,000 francs.' `Forty thousand,' cried La Carconte; `we will not

part with it for that sum. The abbe told us it was worth 50,000 without the setting.'

"`What was the abbe's name?' asked the indefatigable questioner. `The Abbe Busoni,' said La Carconte.

`He was a foreigner?' `An Italian, from the neighborhood of Mantua, I believe.' `Let me see this

diamond again,' replied the jeweller; `the first time you are often mistaken as to the value of a stone.'

Caderousse took from his pocket a small case of black shagreen, opened, and gave it to the jeweller. At the

sight of the diamond, which was as large as a hazelnut, La Carconte's eyes sparkled with cupidity."

"And what did you think of this fine story, eavesdropper?" said Monte Cristo; "did you credit it?"

"Yes, your excellency. I did not look on Caderousse as a bad man, and I thought him incapable of committing

"That did more honor to your heart than to your experience, M. Bertuccio. Had you known this Edmond

"No, your excellency, I had never heard of him before, and never but once afterwards, and that was from the

"The jeweller took the ring, and drawing from his pocket a pair of steel pliers and a small set of copper

scales, he took the stone out of its setting, and weighed it carefully. `I will give you 45,000,' said he, `but not

a sou more; besides, as that is the exact value of the stone, I brought just that sum with me.' `Oh, that's no

matter,' replied Caderousse, `I will go back with you to fetch the other 5,000 francs.' `No,' returned the

jeweller, giving back the diamond and the ring to Caderousse `no, it is worth no more, and I am sorry I

offered so much, for the stone has a flaw in it, which I had not seen. However, I will not go back on my word,

and I will give 45,000.' `At least, replace the diamond in the ring,' said La Carconte sharply. `Ah, true,'

replied the jeweller, and he reset the stone. `No matter,' observed Caderousse, replacing the box in his

pocket, `some one else will purchase it.' `Yes,' continued the jeweller; `but some one else will not be so

easy as I am, or content himself with the same story. It is not natural that a man like you should possess such

a diamond. He will inform against you. You will have to find the Abbe Busoni; and abbes who give

diamonds worth two thousand louis are rare. The law would seize it, and put you in prison; if at the end of

three or four months you are set at liberty, the ring will be lost, or a false stone, worth three francs, will be

given you, instead of a diamond worth 50,000 or perhaps 55,000 francs; from which you must allow that one

runs considerable risk in purchasing.' Caderousse and his wife looked eagerly at each other. `No,' said

Caderousse, `we are not rich enough to lose 5,000 francs.' `As you please, my dear sir,' said the, jeweller;

`I had, however, as you see, brought you the money in bright coin.' And he drew from his pocket a handful of

gold, and held it sparkling before the dazzled eyes of the innkeeper, and in the other hand he held a packet of

"There was evidently a severe struggle in the mind of Caderousse; it was plain that the small shagreen case,

which he turned over and over in his hand, did not seem to him commensurate in value to the enormous sum

which fascinated his gaze. He turned towards his wife. `What do you think of this?' he asked in a low voice.

`Let him have it let him have it,' she said. `If he returns to Beaucaire without the diamond, he will

inform against us, and, as he says, who knows if we shall ever again see the Abbe Busoni? in all

probability we shall never see him.' `Well, then, so I will!' said Caderousse; `so you may have the

diamond for 45,000 francs. But my wife wants a gold chain, and I want a pair of silver buckles.' The jeweller

drew from his pocket a long flat box, which contained several samples of the articles demanded. `Here,' he

said, `I am very straightforward in my dealings take your choice.' The woman selected a gold chain worth

about five louis, and the husband a pair of buckles. worth perhaps fifteen francs. `I hope you will not

"`The abbe told me it was worth 50,000 francs,' muttered Caderousse. `Come, come give it to me! What a

strange fellow you are,' said the jeweller, taking the diamond from his hand. `I give you 45,000 francs that

is, 2,500 livres of income, a fortune such as I wish I had myself, and you are not satisfied!' `And the

five and forty thousand francs,' inquired Caderousse in a hoarse voice, `where are they? Come let us see

them.' `Here they are,' replied the jeweller, and he counted out upon the table 15,000 francs in gold, and

"`Wait while I light the lamp,' said La Carconte; `it is growing dark, and there may be some mistake.' In fact,

night had come on during this conversation, and with night the storm which had been threatening for the last

halfhour. The thunder growled in the distance; but it was apparently not heard by the jeweller, Caderousse,

or La Carconte, absorbed as they were all three with the demon of gain. I myself felt; a strange kind of

fascination at the sight of all this gold and all these banknotes; it seemed to me that I was in a dream, and, as

it always happens in a dream, I felt myself riveted to the spot. Caderousse counted and again counted the gold

and the notes, then handed them to his wife, who counted and counted them again in her turn. During this

time, the jeweller made the diamond play and sparkle in the lamplight, and the gem threw out jets of light

which made him unmindful of those which precursors of the storm began to play in at the windows.

"`Yes,' said Caderousse. `Give me the pocketbook, La Carconte, and find a bag somewhere.'

"La Carconte went to a cupboard, and returned with an old leathern pocketbook and a bag. From the former

she took some greasy letters, and put in their place the banknotes, and from the bag took two or three

crowns of six livres each, which, in all probability, formed the entire fortune of the miserable couple. `There,'

said Caderousse; `and now, although you have wronged us of perhaps 10,000 francs, will you have your

supper with us? I invite you with goodwill.' `Thank you,' replied the jeweller, `it must be getting late,

and I must return to Beaucaire my wife will be getting uneasy.' He drew out his watch, and exclaimed,

`Morbleu, nearly nine o'clock why, I shall not get back to Beaucaire before midnight! Goodnight, my

friends. If the Abbe Busoni should by any accident return, think of me.' `In another week you will have

left Beaucaire.' remarked Caderousse, `for the fair ends in a few days.' `True, but that makes no

difference. Write to me at Paris, to M. Joannes, in the Palais Royal, arcade Pierre, No. 45. I will make the

journey on purpose to see him, if it is worth while.' At this moment there was a tremendous clap of thunder,

accompanied by a flash of lightning so vivid, that it quite eclipsed the light of the lamp.

"`See here,' exclaimed Caderousse. `You cannot think of going out in such weather as this.' `Oh, I am not

afraid of thunder,' said the jeweller. `And then there are robbers,' said La Carconte. `The road is never

very safe during fair time.' `Oh, as to the robbers,' said Joannes, `here is something for them,' and he drew

from his pocket a pair of small pistols, loaded to the muzzle. `Here,' said he, `are dogs who bark and bite at

the same time, they are for the two first who shall have a longing for your diamond, Friend Caderousse.'

"Caderousse and his wife again interchanged a meaning look. It seemed as though they were both inspired at

the same time with some horrible thought. `Well, then, a good journey to you,' said Caderousse. `Thanks,'

replied the jeweller. He then took his cane, which he had placed against an old cupboard, and went out. At the

moment when he opened the door, such a gust of wind came in that the lamp was nearly extinguished. `Oh,'

said he, `this is very nice weather, and two leagues to go in such a storm.' `Remain,' said Caderousse.

`You can sleep here.' `Yes; do stay,' added La Carconte in a tremulous voice; `we will take every care of

you.' `No; I must sleep at Beaucaire. So, once more, goodnight.' Caderousse followed him slowly to the

threshold. `I can see neither heaven nor earth,' said the jeweller, who was outside the door. `Do I turn to the

right, or to the left hand?' `To the right,' said Caderousse. `You cannot go wrong the road is bordered

by trees on both sides.' `Good all right,' said a voice almost lost in the distance. `Close the door,' said

La Carconte; `I do not like open doors when it thunders.' `Particularly when there is money in the house,

"He came into the room, went to the cupboard, took out the bag and pocketbook, and both began, for the

third time, to count their gold and banknotes. I never saw such an expression of cupidity as the flickering

lamp revealed in those two countenances. The woman, especially, was hideous; her usual feverish

tremulousness was intensified, her countenance had become livid, and her eyes resembled burning coals.

`Why,' she inquired in a hoarse voice, `did you invite him to sleep here tonight?' `Why?' said Caderousse

with a shudder; `why, that he might not have the trouble of returning to Beaucaire.' `Ah,' responded the

woman, with an expression impossible to describe; `I thought it was for something else.' `Woman, woman

why do you have such ideas?' cried Caderousse; `or, if you have them, why don't you keep them to

yourself?' `Well,' said La Carconte, after a moment's pause, `you are not a man.' `What do you mean?'

added Caderousse. `If you had been a man, you would not have let him go from here.' `Woman!'

`Or else he should not have reached Beaucaire.' `Woman!' `The road takes a turn he is obliged to

follow it while alongside of the canal there is a shorter road.' `Woman! you offend the good God.

There listen!' And at this moment there was a tremendous peal of thunder, while the livid lightning

illumined the room, and the thunder, rolling away in the distance, seemed to withdraw unwillingly from the

"At the same moment, and in the midst of the terrifying silence which usually follows a clap of thunder, they

heard a knocking at the door. Caderousse and his wife started and looked aghast at each other. `Who's there?'

cried Caderousse, rising, and drawing up in a heap the gold and notes scattered over the table, and which he

covered with his two hands. `It is I,' shouted a voice. `And who are you?' `Eh, pardieu, Joannes, the

jeweller.' `Well, and you said I offended the good God,' said La Carconte with a horrid smile. `Why, the

good God sends him back again.' Caderousse sank pale and breathless into his chair. La Carconte, on the

contrary, rose, and going with a firm step towards the door, opened it, saying, as she did so `Come in, dear

M. Joannes.' `Ma foi,' said the jeweller, drenched with rain, `I am not destined to return to Beaucaire

tonight. The shortest follies are best, my dear Caderousse. You offered me hospitality, and I accept it, and

have returned to sleep beneath your friendly roof.' Caderousse stammered out something, while he wiped

away the sweat that started to his brow. La Carconte doubledlocked the door behind the jeweller.

"As the jeweller returned to the apartment, he cast around him a scrutinizing glance but there was nothing

to excite suspicion, if it did not exist, or to confirm it, if it were already awakened. Caderousse's hands still

grasped the gold and banknotes, and La Carconte called up her sweetest smiles while welcoming the

reappearance of their guest. `Well, well,' said the jeweller, `you seem, my good friends, to have had some

fears respecting the accuracy of your money, by counting it over so carefully directly I was gone.' `Oh,

no,' answered Caderousse, `that was not my reason, I can assure you; but the circumstances by which we

have become possessed of this wealth are so unexpected, as to make us scarcely credit our good fortune, and

it is only by placing the actual proof of our riches before our eyes that we can persuade ourselves that the

whole affair is not a dream.' The jeweller smiled. `Have you any other guests in your house?' inquired he.

`Nobody but ourselves,' replied Caderousse; `the fact is, we do not lodge travellers indeed, our tavern

is so near the town, that nobody would think of stopping here. `Then I am afraid I shall very much

inconvenience you.' `Inconvenience us? Not at all, my dear sir,' said La Carconte in her most gracious

manner. `Not at all, I assure you.' `But where will you manage to stow me?' `In the chamber overhead.'

`Surely that is where you yourselves sleep?' `Never mind that; we have a second bed in the adjoining

"The jeweller, meanwhile, was humming a song as he stood warming his back at the fire La Carconte had

kindled to dry the wet garments of her guest; and this done, she next occupied herself in arranging his supper,

by spreading a napkin at the end of the table, and placing on it the slender remains of their dinner, to which

she added three or four freshlaid eggs. Caderousse had once more parted with his treasure the banknotes

were replaced in the pocketbook, the gold put back into the bag, and the whole carefully locked in the

cupboard. He then began pacing the room with a pensive and gloomy air, glancing from time to time at the

jeweller, who stood reeking with the steam from his wet clothes, and merely changing his place on the warm

"`There,' said La Carconte, as she placed a bottle of wine on the table, `supper is ready whenever you are.'

`And you?' asked Joannes. `I don't want any supper,' said Caderousse. `We dined so very late,' hastily

interposed La Carconte. `Then it seems I am to eat alone,' remarked the jeweller. `Oh, we shall have

the pleasure of waiting upon you,' answered La Carconte, with an eager attention she was not accustomed to

"From time to time Caderousse darted on his wife keen, searching glances, but rapid as the lightning flash.

The storm still continued. `There, there,' said La Carconte; `do you hear that? upon my word, you did well to

come back.' `Nevertheless,' replied the jeweller, `if by the time I have finished my supper the tempest has

at all abated, I shall make another start.' `It's the mistral,' said Caderousse, `and it will be sure to last till

tomorrow morning.' He sighed heavily. `Well,' said the jeweller, as he placed himself at table, `all I can

say is, so much the worse for those who are abroad.' `Yes,' chimed in La Carconte, `they will have a

"The jeweller began eating his supper, and the woman, who was ordinarily so querulous and indifferent to all

who approached her, was suddenly transformed into the most smiling and attentive hostess. Had the unhappy

man on whom she lavished her assiduities been previously acquainted with her, so sudden an alteration might

well have excited suspicion in his mind, or at least have greatly astonished him. Caderousse, meanwhile,

continued to pace the room in gloomy silence, sedulously avoiding the sight of his guest; but as soon as the

stranger had completed his repast, the agitated innkeeper went eagerly to the door and opened it. `I believe

the storm is over,' said he. But as if to contradict his statement, at that instant a violent clap of thunder seemed

to shake the house to its very foundation, while a sudden gust of wind, mingled with rain, extinguished the

lamp he held in his hand. Trembling and awestruck, Caderousse hastily shut the door and returned to his

guest, while La Carconte lighted a candle by the smouldering ashes that glimmered on the hearth. `You must

be tired,' said she to the jeweller; `I have spread a pair of white sheets on your bed; go up when you are ready,

"Joannes stayed for a while to see whether the storm seemed to abate in its fury, but a brief space of time

sufficed to assure him that, instead of diminishing, the violence of the rain and thunder momentarily

increased; resigning himself, therefore, to what seemed inevitable, he bade his host goodnight, and mounted

the stairs. He passed over my head and I heard the flooring creak beneath his footsteps. The quick, eager

glance of La Carconte followed him as he ascended, while Caderousse, on the contrary, turned his back, and

"All these circumstances did not strike me as painfully at the time as they have since done; in fact, all that had

happened (with the exception of the story of the diamond, which certainly did wear an air of improbability),

appeared natural enough, and called for neither apprehension nor mistrust; but, worn out as I was with

fatigue, and fully purposing to proceed onwards directly the tempest abated, I determined to obtain a few

hours' sleep. Overhead I could accurately distinguish every movement of the jeweller, who, after making the

best arrangements in his power for passing a comfortable night, threw himself on his bed, and I could hear it

creak and groan beneath his weight. Insensibly my eyelids grew heavy, deep sleep stole over me, and having

no suspicion of anything wrong, I sought not to shake it off. I looked into the kitchen once more and saw

Caderousse sitting by the side of a long table upon one of the low wooden stools which in country places are

frequently used instead of chairs; his back was turned towards me, so that I could not see the expression of

his countenance neither should I have been able to do so had he been placed differently, as his head was

buried between his two hands. La Carconte continued to gaze on him for some time, then shrugging her

shoulders, she took her seat immediately opposite to him. At this moment the expiring embers threw up a

fresh flame from the kindling of a piece of wood that lay near, and a bright light flashed over the room. La

Carconte still kept her eyes fixed on her husband, but as he made no sign of changing his position, she

"Caderousse shuddered. The woman's lips seemed to move, as though she were talking; but because she

merely spoke in an undertone, or my senses were dulled by sleep, I did not catch a word she uttered.

Confused sights and sounds seemed to float before me, and gradually I fell into a deep, heavy slumber. How

long I had been in this unconscious state I know not, when I was suddenly aroused by the report of a pistol,

followed by a fearful cry. Weak and tottering footsteps resounded across the chamber above me, and the next

instant a dull, heavy weight seemed to fall powerless on the staircase. I had not yet fully recovered

consciousness, when again I heard groans, mingled with halfstifled cries, as if from persons engaged in a

deadly struggle. A cry more prolonged than the others and ending in a series of groans effectually roused me

from my drowsy lethargy. Hastily raising myself on one arm, I looked around, but all was dark; and it seemed

to me as if the rain must have penetrated through the flooring of the room above, for some kind of moisture

appeared to fall, drop by drop, upon my forehead, and when I passed my hand across my brow, I felt that it

"To the fearful noises that had awakened me had succeeded the most perfect silence unbroken, save by the

footsteps of a man walking about in the chamber above. The staircase creaked, he descended into the room

below, approached the fire and lit a candle. The man was Caderousse he was pale and his shirt was all

blood. Having obtained the light, he hurried upstairs again, and once more I heard his rapid and uneasy

footsteps. A moment later he came down again, holding in his hand the small shagreen case, which he

opened, to assure himself it contained the diamond, seemed to hesitate as to which pocket he should put it

in, then, as if dissatisfied with the security of either pocket, he deposited it in his red handkerchief, which he

carefully rolled round his head. After this he took from his cupboard the banknotes and gold he had put

there, thrust the one into the pocket of his trousers, and the other into that of his waistcoat, hastily tied up a

small bundle of linen, and rushing towards the door, disappeared in the darkness of the night.

"Then all became clear and manifest to me, and I reproached myself with what had happened, as though I

myself had done the guilty deed. I fancied that I still heard faint moans, and imagining that the unfortunate

jeweller might not be quite dead, I determined to go to his relief, by way of atoning in some slight degree, not

for the crime I had committed, but for that which I had not endeavored to prevent. For this purpose I applied

all the strength I possessed to force an entrance from the cramped spot in which I lay to the adjoining room.

The poorly fastened boards which alone divided me from it yielded to my efforts, and I found myself in the

house. Hastily snatching up the lighted candle, I hurried to the staircase; about midway a body was lying

quite across the stairs. It was that of La Carconte. The pistol I had heard had doubtless been fired at her. The

shot had frightfully lacerated her throat, leaving two gaping wounds from which, as well as the mouth, the

blood was pouring in floods. She was stone dead. I strode past her, and ascended to the sleeping chamber,

which presented an appearance of the wildest disorder. The furniture had been knocked over in the deadly

struggle that had taken place there, and the sheets, to which the unfortunate jeweller had doubtless clung,

were dragged across the room. The murdered man lay on the floor, his head leaning against the wall, and

about him was a pool of blood which poured forth from three large wounds in his breast; there was a fourth

"I stumbled over some object; I stooped to examine it was the second pistol, which had not gone off,

probably from the powder being wet. I approached the jeweller, who was not quite dead, and at the sound of

my footsteps and the creaking of the floor, he opened his eyes, fixed them on me with an anxious and

inquiring gaze, moved his lips as though trying to speak, then, overcome by the effort, fell back and expired.

This appalling sight almost bereft me of my senses, and finding that I could no longer be of service to any

one in the house, my only desire was to fly. I rushed towards the staircase, clutching my hair, and uttering a

groan of horror. Upon reaching the room below, I found five or six customhouse officers, and two or three

gendarmes all heavily armed. They threw themselves upon me. I made no resistance; I was no longer

master of my senses. When I strove to speak, a few inarticulate sounds alone escaped my lips.

"As I noticed the significant manner in which the whole party pointed to my bloodstained garments, I

involuntarily surveyed myself, and then I discovered that the thick warm drops that had so bedewed me as I

lay beneath the staircase must have been the blood of La Carconte. I pointed to the spot where I had

concealed myself. `What does he mean?' asked a gendarme. One of the officers went to the place I directed.

`He means,' replied the man upon his return, `that he got in that way;' and he showed the hole I had made

"Then I saw that they took me for the assassin. I recovered force and energy enough to free myself from the

hands of those who held me, while I managed to stammer forth `I did not do it! Indeed, indeed I did not!'

A couple of gendarmes held the muzzles of their carbines against my breast. `Stir but a step,' said they,

`and you are a dead man.' `Why should you threaten me with death,' cried I, `when I have already declared

my innocence?' `Tush, tush,' cried the men; `keep your innocent stories to tell to the judge at Nimes.

Meanwhile, come along with us; and the best advice we can give you is to do so unresistingly.' Alas,

resistance was far from my thoughts. I was utterly overpowered by surprise and terror; and without a word I

suffered myself to be handcuffed and tied to a horse's tail, and thus they took me to Nimes.

"I had been tracked by a customsofficer, who had lost sight of me near the tavern; feeling certain that I

intended to pass the night there, he had returned to summon his comrades, who just arrived in time to hear the

report of the pistol, and to take me in the midst of such circumstantial proofs of my guilt as rendered all hopes

of proving my innocence utterly futile. One only chance was left me, that of beseeching the magistrate before

whom I was taken to cause every inquiry to be made for the Abbe Busoni, who had stopped at the inn of the

Pont du Gard on that morning. If Caderousse had invented the story relative to the diamond, and there existed

no such person as the Abbe Busoni, then, indeed, I was lost past redemption, or, at least, my life hung upon

the feeble chance of Caderousse himself being apprehended and confessing the whole truth. Two months

passed away in hopeless expectation on my part, while I must do the magistrate the justice to say that he used

every means to obtain information of the person I declared could exculpate me if he would. Caderousse still

evaded all pursuit, and I had resigned myself to what seemed my inevitable fate. My trial was to come on at

the approaching assizes; when, on the 8th of September that is to say, precisely three months and five

days after the events which had perilled my life the Abbe Busoni, whom I never ventured to believe I

should see, presented himself at the prison doors, saying he understood one of the prisoners wished to speak

to him; he added, that having learned at Marseilles the particulars of my imprisonment, he hastened to

comply with my desire. You may easily imagine with what eagerness I welcomed him, and how minutely I

related the whole of what I had seen and heard. I felt some degree of nervousness as I entered upon the

history of the diamond, but, to my inexpressible astonishment, he confirmed it in every particular, and to my

equal surprise, he seemed to place entire belief in all I said. And then it was that, won by his mild charity,

seeing that he was acquainted with all the habits and customs of my own country, and considering also that

pardon for the only crime of which I was really guilty might come with a double power from lips so

benevolent and kind, I besought him to receive my confession, under the seal of which I recounted the

Auteuil affair in all its details, as well as every other transaction of my life. That which I had done by the

impulse of my best feelings produced the same effect as though it had been the result of calculation. My

voluntary confession of the assassination at Auteuil proved to him that I had not committed that of which I

stood accused. When he quitted me, he bade me be of good courage, and to rely upon his doing all in his

"I had speedy proofs that the excellent abbe was engaged in my behalf, for the rigors of my imprisonment

were alleviated by many trifling though acceptable indulgences, and I was told that my trial was to be

postponed to the assizes following those now being held. In the interim it pleased providence to cause the

apprehension of Caderousse, who was discovered in some distant country, and brought back to France, where

he made a full confession, refusing to make the fact of his wife's having suggested and arranged the murder

any excuse for his own guilt. The wretched man was sentenced to the galleys for life, and I was immediately

"And then it was, I presume," said Monte Cristo "that you came to me as the bearer of a letter from the Abbe

"It was, your excellency; the benevolent abbe took an evident interest in all that concerned me.

"`Your mode of life as a smuggler,' said he to me one day, `will be the ruin of you; if you get out, don't take it

"`A person, whose confessor I am,' replied he, `and who entertains a high regard for me, applied to me a short

time since to procure him a confidential servant. Would you like such a post? If so, I will give you a letter of

"`But you must swear solemnly that I shall never have reason to repent my recommendation.' I extended my

hand, and was about to pledge myself by any promise he would dictate, but he stopped me. `It is unnecessary

for you to bind yourself by any vow,' said he; `I know and admire the Corsican nature too well to fear you.

Here, take this,' continued he, after rapidly writing the few lines I brought to your excellency, and upon

receipt of which you deigned to receive me into your service, and proudly I ask whether your excellency has

"No," replied the count; "I take pleasure in saying that you have served me faithfully, Bertuccio; but you

"Yes; you. How comes it, that having both a sister and an adopted son, you have never spoken to me of

"Alas, I have still to recount the most distressing period of my life. Anxious as you may suppose I was to

behold and comfort my dear sister, I lost no time in hastening to Corsica, but when I arrived at Rogliano I

found a house of mourning, the consequences of a scene so horrible that the neighbors remember and speak

of it to this day. Acting by my advice, my poor sister had refused to comply with the unreasonable demands

of Benedetto, who was continually tormenting her for money, as long as he believed there was a sou left in

her possession. One morning that he had demanded money, threatening her with the severest consequences if

she did not supply him with what he desired, he disappeared and remained away all day, leaving the

kindhearted Assunta, who loved him as if he were her own child, to weep over his conduct and bewail his

absence. Evening came, and still, with all the patient solicitude of a mother, she watched for his return.

"As the eleventh hour struck, he entered with a swaggering air, attended by two of the most dissolute and

reckless of his boon companions. She stretched out her arms to him, but they seized hold of her, and one of

the three none other than the accursed Benedetto exclaimed, `Put her to torture and she'll soon tell us

"It unfortunately happened that our neighbor, Vasilio, was at Bastia, leaving no person in his house but his

wife; no human creature beside could hear or see anything that took place within our dwelling. Two held poor

Assunta, who, unable to conceive that any harm was intended to her, smiled in the face of those who were

soon to become her executioners. The third proceeded to barricade the doors and windows, then returned, and

the three united in stifling the cries of terror incited by the sight of these preparations, and then dragged

Assunta feet foremost towards the brazier, expecting to wring from her an avowal of where her supposed

treasure was secreted. In the struggle her clothes caught fire, and they were obliged to let go their hold in

order to preserve themselves from sharing the same fate. Covered with flames, Assunta rushed wildly to the

door, but it was fastened; she flew to the windows, but they were also secured; then the neighbors heard

frightful shrieks; it was Assunta calling for help. The cries died away in groans, and next morning, as soon as

Vasilio's wife could muster up courage to venture abroad, she caused the door of our dwelling to be opened

by the public authorities, when Assunta, although dreadfully burnt, was found still breathing; every drawer

and closet in the house had been forced open, and the money stolen. Benedetto never again appeared at

Rogliano, neither have I since that day either seen or heard anything concerning him.

"It was subsequently to these dreadful events that I waited on your excellency, to whom it would have been

folly to have mentioned Benedetto, since all trace of him seemed entirely lost; or of my sister, since she was

"As a punishment for the crime I had committed," answered Bertuccio. "Oh, those Villeforts are an accursed

"And now," resumed Bertuccio, "your excellency may, perhaps, be able to comprehend that this place, which

I revisit for the first time this garden, the actual scene of my crime must have given rise to reflections

of no very agreeable nature, and produced that gloom and depression of spirits which excited the notice of

your excellency, who was pleased to express a desire to know the cause. At this instant a shudder passes over

me as I reflect that possibly I am now standing on the very grave in which lies M. de Villefort, by whose

"Everything is possible," said Monte Cristo, rising from the bench on which he had been sitting; "even," he

added in an inaudible voice, "even that the procureur be not dead. The Abbe Busoni did right to send you to

me," he went on in his ordinary tone, "and you have done well in relating to me the whole of your history, as

it will prevent my forming any erroneous opinions concerning you in future. As for that Benedetto, who so

grossly belied his name, have you never made any effort to trace out whither he has gone, or what has

"No; far from wishing to learn whither he has betaken himself, I should shun the possibility of meeting him

as I would a wild beast. Thank God, I have never heard his name mentioned by any person, and I hope and

"Do not think so, Bertuccio," replied the count; "for the wicked are not so easily disposed of, for God seems

to have them under his special watchcare to make of them instruments of his vengeance."

"So be it," responded Bertuccio, "all I ask of heaven is that I may never see him again. And now, your

excellency," he added, bowing his head, "you know everything you are my judge on earth, as the

"My good friend, I can only repeat the words addressed to you by the Abbe Busoni. Villefort merited

punishment for what he had done to you, and, perhaps, to others. Benedetto, if still living, will become the

instrument of divine retribution in some way or other, and then be duly punished in his turn. As far as you

yourself are concerned, I see but one point in which you are really guilty. Ask yourself, wherefore, after

rescuing the infant from its living grave, you did not restore it to its mother? There was the crime, Bertuccio

"True, excellency, that was the crime, the real crime, for in that I acted like a coward. My first duty, directly I

had succeeded in recalling the babe to life, was to restore it to its mother; but, in order to do so, I must have

made close and careful inquiry, which would, in all probability, have led to my own apprehension; and I

clung to life, partly on my sister's account, and partly from that feeling of pride inborn in our hearts of

desiring to come off untouched and victorious in the execution of our vengeance. Perhaps, too, the natural

and instinctive love of life made me wish to avoid endangering my own. And then, again, I am not as brave

and courageous as was my poor brother." Bertuccio hid his face in his hands as he uttered these words, while

Monte Cristo fixed on him a look of inscrutable meaning. After a brief silence, rendered still more solemn by

the time and place, the count said, in a tone of melancholy wholly unlike his usual manner, "In order to bring

this conversation to a fitting termination (the last we shall ever hold upon this subject), I will repeat to you

some words I have heard from the lips of the Abbe Busoni. For all evils there are two remedies time and

silence. And now leave me, Monsieur Bertuccio, to walk alone here in the garden. The very circumstances

which inflict on you, as a principal in the tragic scene enacted here, such painful emotions, are to me, on the

contrary, a source of something like contentment, and serve but to enhance the value of this dwelling in my

estimation. The chief beauty of trees consists in the deep shadow of their umbrageous boughs, while fancy

pictures a moving multitude of shapes and forms flitting and passing beneath that shade. Here I have a garden

laid out in such a way as to afford the fullest scope for the imagination, and furnished with thickly grown

trees, beneath whose leafy screen a visionary like myself may conjure up phantoms at will. This to me, who

expected but to find a blank enclosure surrounded by a straight wall, is, I assure you, a most agreeable

surprise. I have no fear of ghosts, and I have never heard it said that so much harm had been done by the dead

during six thousand years as is wrought by the living in a single day. Retire within, Bertuccio, and

tranquillize your mind. Should your confessor be less indulgent to you in your dying moments than you

found the Abbe Busoni, send for me, if I am still on earth, and I will soothe your ears with words that shall

effectually calm and soothe your parting soul ere it goes forth to traverse the ocean called eternity."

Bertuccio bowed respectfully, and turned away, sighing heavily. Monte Cristo, left alone, took three or four

steps onwards, and murmured, "Here, beneath this planetree, must have been where the infant's grave was

dug. There is the little door opening into the garden. At this corner is the private staircase communicating

with the sleeping apartment. There will be no necessity for me to make a note of these particulars, for there,

before my eyes, beneath my feet, all around me, I have the plan sketched with all the living reality of truth."

After making the tour of the garden a second time, the count reentered his carriage, while Bertuccio, who

perceived the thoughtful expression of his master's features, took his seat beside the driver without uttering a

That same evening, upon reaching his abode in the Champs Elysees, the Count of Monte Cristo went over the

whole building with the air of one long acquainted with each nook or corner. Nor, although preceding the

party, did he once mistake one door for another, or commit the smallest error when choosing any particular

corridor or staircase to conduct him to a place or suite of rooms he desired to visit. Ali was his principal

attendant during this nocturnal survey. Having given various orders to Bertuccio relative to the improvements

and alterations he desired to make in the house, the Count, drawing out his watch, said to the attentive

Nubian, "It is halfpast eleven o'clock; Haidee will soon he here. Have the French attendants been summoned

to await her coming?" Ali extended his hands towards the apartments destined for the fair Greek, which were

so effectually concealed by means of a tapestried entrance, that it would have puzzled the most curious to

have divined their existence. Ali, having pointed to the apartments, held up three fingers of his right hand,

and then, placing it beneath his head, shut his eyes, and feigned to sleep. "I understand," said Monte Cristo,

well acquainted with Ali's pantomime; "you mean to tell me that three female attendants await their new

mistress in her sleepingchamber." Ali, with considerable animation, made a sign in the affirmative.

"Madame will be tired tonight," continued Monte Cristo, "and will, no doubt, wish to rest. Desire the French

attendants not to weary her with questions, but merely to pay their respectful duty and retire. You will also

see that the Greek servants hold no communication with those of this country." He bowed. Just at that

moment voices were heard hailing the concierge. The gate opened, a carriage rolled down the avenue, and

stopped at the steps. The count hastily descended, presented himself at the already opened carriage door, and

held out his hand to a young woman, completely enveloped in a green silk mantle heavily embroidered with

gold. She raised the hand extended towards her to her lips, and kissed it with a mixture of love and respect.

Some few words passed between them in that sonorous language in which Homer makes his gods converse.

The young woman spoke with an expression of deep tenderness, while the count replied with an air of gentle

gravity. Preceded by Ali, who carried a rosecolored flambeau in his hand, the newcomer, who was no

other than the lovely Greek who had been Monte Cristo's companion in Italy, was conducted to her

apartments, while the count retired to the pavilion reserved for himself. In another hour every light in the

house was extinguished, and it might have been thought that all its inmates slept.

About two o'clock the following day a calash, drawn by a pair of magnificent English horses, stopped at the

door of Monte Cristo and a person, dressed in a blue coat, with buttons of a similar color, a white waistcoat,

over which was displayed a massive gold chain, brown trousers, and a quantity of black hair descending so

low over his eyebrows as to leave it doubtful whether it were not artificial so little did its jetty glossiness

assimilate with the deep wrinkles stamped on his features a person, in a word, who, although evidently

past fifty, desired to be taken for not more than forty, bent forwards from the carriage door, on the panels of

which were emblazoned the armorial bearings of a baron, and directed his groom to inquire at the porter's

lodge whether the Count of Monte Cristo resided there, and if he were within. While waiting, the occupant of

the carriage surveyed the house, the garden as far as he could distinguish it, and the livery of servants who

passed to and fro, with an attention so close as to be somewhat impertinent. His glance was keen but showed

cunning rather than intelligence; his lips were straight, and so thin that, as they closed, they were drawn in

over the teeth; his cheekbones were broad and projecting, a neverfailing proof of audacity and craftiness;

while the flatness of his forehead, and the enlargement of the back of his skull, which rose much higher than

his large and coarsely shaped ears, combined to form a physiognomy anything but prepossessing, save in the

eyes of such as considered that the owner of so splendid an equipage must needs be all that was admirable

and enviable, more especially when they gazed on the enormous diamond that glittered in his shirt, and the

The groom, in obedience to his orders, tapped at the window of the porter's lodge, saying, "Pray, does not the

"His excellency does reside here," replied the concierge; "but" added he, glancing an inquiring look at Ali.

"Then here is my master's card, the Baron Danglars. You will take it to the count, and say that, although in

haste to attend the Chamber, my master came out of his way to have the honor of calling upon him."

"I never speak to his excellency," replied the concierge; "the valet de chambre will carry your message." The

groom returned to the carriage. "Well?" asked Danglars. The man, somewhat crestfallen by the rebuke he

had received, repeated what the concierge had said. "Bless me," murmured Baron Danglars, "this must surely

be a prince instead of a count by their styling him `excellency,' and only venturing to address him by the

medium of his valet de chambre. However, it does not signify; he has a letter of credit on me, so I must see

Then, throwing himself back in his carriage, Danglars called out to his coachman, in a voice that might be

Apprised in time of the visit paid him, Monte Cristo had, from behind the blinds of his pavilion, as minutely

observed the baron, by means of an excellent lorgnette, as Danglars himself had scrutinized the house,

garden, and servants. "That fellow has a decidedly bad countenance," said the count in a tone of disgust, as he

shut up his glass into its ivory case. "How comes it that all do not retreat in aversion at sight of that flat,

receding, serpentlike forehead, round, vultureshaped head, and sharphooked nose, like the beak of a

buzzard? Ali," cried he, striking at the same time on the brazen gong. Ali appeared. "Summon Bertuccio,"

said the count. Almost immediately Bertuccio entered the apartment. "Did your excellency desire to see me?"

inquired he. "I did," replied the count. "You no doubt observed the horses standing a few minutes since at the

"Then how comes it," said Monte Cristo with a frown, "that, when I desired you to purchase for me the finest

pair of horses to be found in Paris, there is another pair, fully as fine as mine, not in my stables?" At the look

of displeasure, added to the angry tone in which the count spoke, Ali turned pale and held down his head. "It

is not your fault, my good Ali," said the count in the Arabic language, and with a gentleness none would have

thought him capable of showing, either in voice or face "it is not your fault. You do not understand the

points of English horses." The countenance of poor Ali recovered its serenity. "Permit me to assure your

excellency," said Bertuccio, "that the horses you speak of were not to be sold when I purchased yours."

Monte Cristo shrugged his shoulders. "It seems, sir steward," said he, "that you have yet to learn that all

"His excellency is not, perhaps, aware that M. Danglars gave 16,000 francs for his horses?"

"Very well. Then offer him double that sum; a banker never loses an opportunity of doubling his capital."

"Is your excellency really in earnest?" inquired the steward. Monte Cristo regarded the person who durst

presume to doubt his words with the look of one equally surprised and displeased. "I have to pay a visit this

evening," replied he. "I desire that these horses, with completely new harness, may be at the door with my

carriage." Bertuccio bowed, and was about to retire; but when he reached the door, he paused, and then said,

"At what o'clock does your excellency wish the carriage and horses to be ready?"

"I beg your excellency's pardon," interposed the steward in a deprecating manner, "for venturing to observe

"I am perfectly aware of that fact," answered Monte Cristo calmly. Then, turning towards Ali, he said, "Let

all the horses in my stables be led before the windows of your young lady, that she may select those she

prefers for her carriage. Request her also to oblige me by saying whether it is her pleasure to dine with me; if

so, let dinner be served in her apartments. Now, leave me, and desire my valet de chambre to come hither."

Scarcely had Ali disappeared when the valet entered the chamber. "Monsieur Baptistin," said the count, "you

have been in my service one year, the time I generally give myself to judge of the merits or demerits of those

about me. You suit me very well." Baptistin bowed low. "It only remains for me to know whether I also suit

"Listen, if you please, till I have finished speaking," replied Monte Cristo. "You receive 1,500 francs per

annum for your services here more than many a brave subaltern, who continually risks his life for his

country, obtains. You live in a manner far superior to many clerks who work ten times harder than you do for

their money. Then, though yourself a servant, you have other servants to wait upon you, take care of your

clothes, and see that your linen is duly prepared for you. Again, you make a profit upon each article you

purchase for my toilet, amounting in the course of a year to a sum equalling your wages."

"I am not condemning you for this, Monsieur Baptistin; but let your profits end here. It would be long indeed

ere you would find so lucrative a post as that you have how the good fortune to fill. I neither illuse nor

illtreat my servants by word or action. An error I readily forgive, but wilful negligence or forgetfulness,

never. My commands are ordinarily short, clear, and precise; and I would rather be obliged to repeat my

words twice, or even three times, than they should be misunderstood. I am rich enough to know whatever I

desire to know, and I can promise you I am not wanting in curiosity. If, then, I should learn that you had

taken upon yourself to speak of me to any one favorably or unfavorably, to comment on my actions, or watch

my conduct, that very instant you would quit my service. You may now retire. I never caution my servants a

second time remember that." Baptistin bowed, and was proceeding towards the door. "I forgot to mention

to you," said the count, "that I lay yearly aside a certain sum for each servant in my establishment; those

whom I am compelled to dismiss lose (as a matter of course) all participation in this money, while their

portion goes to the fund accumulating for those domestics who remain with me, and among whom it will be

divided at my death. You have been in my service a year, your fund has already begun to accumulate let it

This address, delivered in the presence of Ali, who, not understanding one word of the language in which it

was spoken, stood wholly unmoved, produced an effect on M. Baptistin only to be conceived by such as have

occasion to study the character and disposition of French domestics. "I assure your excellency," said he, "that

at least it shall be my study to merit your approbation in all things, and I will take M. Ali as my model."

"By no means," replied the count in the most frigid tones; "Ali has many faults mixed with most excellent

qualities. He cannot possibly serve you as a pattern for your conduct, not being, as you are, a paid servant, but

a mere slave a dog, who, should he fail in his duty towards me, I should not discharge from my service,

"You seen incredulous," said Monte Cristo who repeated to Ali in the Arabic language what he had just been

saying to Baptistin in French. The Nubian smiled assentingly to his master's words, then, kneeling on one

knee, respectfully kissed the hand of the count. This corroboration of the lesson he had just received put the

finishing stroke to the wonder and stupefaction of M. Baptistin. The count then motioned the valet de

chambre to retire, and to Ali to follow to his study, where they conversed long and earnestly together. As the

hand of the clock pointed to five the count struck thrice upon his gong. When Ali was wanted one stroke was

given, two summoned Baptistin, and three Bertuccio. The steward entered. "My horses," said Monte Cristo.

"They are at the door harnessed to the carriage as your excellency desired. Does your excellency wish me to

"No, the coachman, Ali, and Baptistin will go." The count descended to the door of his mansion, and beheld

his carriage drawn by the very pair of horses he had so much admired in the morning as the property of

Danglars. As he passed them he said "They are extremely handsome certainly, and you have done well to

purchase them, although you were somewhat remiss not to have procured them sooner."

"Indeed, your excellency, I had very considerable difficulty in obtaining them, and, as it is, they have cost an

"Does the sum you gave for them make the animals less beautiful," inquired the count, shrugging his

"Nay, if your excellency is satisfied, it is all that I could wish. Whither does your excellency desire to be

"To the residence of Baron Danglars, Rue de la Chaussee d'Antin." This conversation had passed as they

stood upon the terrace, from which a flight of stone steps led to the carriagedrive. As Bertuccio, with a

respectful bow, was moving away, the count called him back. "I have another commission for you, M.

Bertuccio," said he; "I am desirous of having an estate by the seaside in Normandy for instance, between

Havre and Boulogne. You see I give you a wide range. It will be absolutely necessary that the place you may

select have a small harbor, creek, or bay, into which my corvette can enter and remain at anchor. She draws

only fifteen feet. She must be kept in constant readiness to sail immediately I think proper to give the signal.

Make the requisite inquiries for a place of this description, and when you have met with an eligible spot, visit

it, and if it possess the advantages desired, purchase it at once in your own name. The corvette must now, I

"Certainly, your excellency; I saw her put to sea the same evening we quitted Marseilles."

"'Tis well. I wish you to write from time to time to the captains in charge of the two vessels so as to keep

"When you have purchased the estate I desire, I want constant relays of horses at ten leagues apart along the

"Your excellency may depend upon me." The Count made a gesture of satisfaction, descended the terrace

steps, and sprang into his carriage, which was whirled along swiftly to the banker's house. Danglars was

engaged at that moment, presiding over a railroad committee. But the meeting was nearly concluded when

the name of his visitor was announced. As the count's title sounded on his ear he rose, and addressing his

colleagues, who were members of one or the other Chamber, he said, "Gentlemen, pardon me for leaving

you so abruptly; but a most ridiculous circumstance has occurred, which is this, Thomson French, the

Roman bankers, have sent to me a certain person calling himself the Count of Monte Cristo, and have given

him an unlimited credit with me. I confess this is the drollest thing I have ever met with in the course of my

extensive foreign transactions, and you may readily suppose it has greatly roused my curiosity. I took the

trouble this morning to call on the pretended count if he were a real count he wouldn't be so rich. But,

would you believe it, `He was not receiving.' So the master of Monte Cristo gives himself airs befitting a

great millionaire or a capricious beauty. I made inquiries, and found that the house in the Champs Elysees is

his own property, and certainly it was very decently kept up. But," pursued Danglars with one of his sinister

smiles, "an order for unlimited credit calls for something like caution on the part of the banker to whom that

order is given. I am very anxious to see this man. I suspect a hoax is intended, but the instigators of it little

Having delivered himself of this pompous address, uttered with a degree of energy that left the baron almost

out of breath, he bowed to the assembled party and withdrew to his drawingroom, whose sumptuous

furnishings of white and gold had caused a great sensation in the Chaussee d'Antin. It was to this apartment

he had desired his guest to be shown, with the purpose of overwhelming him at the sight of so much luxury.

He found the count standing before some copies of Albano and Fattore that had been passed off to the banker

as originals; but which, mere copies as they were, seemed to feel their degradation in being brought into

juxtaposition with the gaudy colors that covered the ceiling. The count turned round as he heard the entrance

of Danglars into the room. With a slight inclination of the head, Danglars signed to the count to be seated,

pointing significantly to a gilded armchair, covered with white satin embroidered with gold. The count sat

The count bowed. "And I of speaking to Baron Danglars, chevalier of the Legion of Honor, and member of

Danglars felt the irony and compressed his lips. "You will, I trust, excuse me, monsieur, for not calling you

by your title when I first addressed you," he said, "but you are aware that we are living under a popular form

of government, and that I am myself a representative of the liberties of the people."

"So much so," replied Monte Cristo, "that while you call yourself baron you are not willing to call anybody

"Upon my word, monsieur," said Danglars with affected carelessness, "I attach no sort of value to such empty

distinctions; but the fact is, I was made baron, and also chevalier of the Legion of Honor, in return for

"But you have discarded your titles after the example set you by Messrs. de Montmorency and Lafayette?

"I see; to your domestics you are `my lord,' the journalists style you `monsieur,' while your constituents call

you `citizen.' These are distinctions very suitable under a constitutional government. I understand perfectly."

Again Danglars bit his lips; he saw that he was no match for Monte Cristo in an argument of this sort, and he

"Permit me to inform you, Count," said he, bowing, "that I have received a letter of advice from Thomson

"I am glad to hear it, baron, for I must claim the privilege of addressing you after the manner of your

servants. I have acquired the bad habit of calling persons by their titles from living in a country where barons

are still barons by right of birth. But as regards the letter of advice, I am charmed to find that it has reached

you; that will spare me the troublesome and disagreeable task of coming to you for money myself. You have

"And for that reason I did myself the honor of calling upon you, in order to beg for an explanation."

"Why," said Danglers, "in the letter I believe I have it about me" here he felt in his breastpocket

"yes, here it is. Well, this letter gives the Count of Monte Cristo unlimited credit on our house."

"Is not that word known in France? The people who wrote are AngloGermans, you know."

"Oh, as for the composition of the letter, there is nothing to be said; but as regards the competency of the

"Is it possible?" asked the count, assuming all air and tone of the utmost simplicity and candor. "Is it possible

that Thomson French are not looked upon as safe and solvent bankers? Pray tell me what you think, baron,

for I feel uneasy, I can assure you, having some considerable property in their hands."

"Thomson French are perfectly solvent," replied Danglars, with an almost mocking smile: "but the word

"Precisely what I was about to say," cried Danglars. "Now what is vague is doubtful; and it was a wise man

"Meaning to say," rejoined Monte Cristo, "that however Thomson French may be inclined to commit acts of

imprudence and folly, the Baron Danglars is not disposed to follow their example."

"Plainly enough. Messrs. Thomson French set no bounds to their engagements while those of M. Danglars

"Monsieur," replied the banker, drawing himself up with a haughty air, "the extent of my resources has never

"It seems, then, reserved for me," said Monte Cristo coldly, "to be the first to do so."

"By right of the objections you have raised, and the explanations you have demanded, which certainly must

Once more Danglars bit his lips. It was the second time he had been worsted, and this time on his own

ground. His forced politeness sat awkwardly upon him, and approached almost to impertinence. Monte Cristo

on the contrary, preserved a graceful suavity of demeanor, aided by a certain degree of simplicity he could

"Well, sir," resumed Danglars, after a brief silence, "I will endeavor to make myself understood, by

"Why, truly," replied Monte Cristo, determined not to lose an inch of the ground he had gained, "my reason

for desiring an `unlimited' credit was precisely because I did not know how much money I might need."

The banker thought the time had come for him to take the upper hand. So throwing himself back in his

armchair, he said, with an arrogant and purseproud air, "Let me beg of you not to hesitate in naming

your wishes; you will then be convinced that the resources of the house of Danglars, however limited, are still

"But could I do with a million?" retorted the count. "My dear sir, if a trifle like that could suffice me, I should

never have given myself the trouble of opening an account. A million? Excuse my smiling when you speak of

a sum I am in the habit of carrying in my pocketbook or dressingcase." And with these words Monte

Cristo took from his pocket a small case containing his visitingcards, and drew forth two orders on the

treasury for 500,000 francs each, payable at sight to the bearer. A man like Danglars was wholly inaccessible

to any gentler method of correction. The effect of the present revelation was stunning; he trembled and was

on the verge of apoplexy. The pupils of his eyes, as he gazed at Monte Cristo dilated horribly.

"Come, come," said Monte Cristo, "confess honestly that you have not perfect confidence in Thomson

French. I understand, and foreseeing that such might be the case, I took, in spite of my ignorance of affairs,

certain precautions. See, here are two similar letters to that you have yourself received; one from the house of

Arstein Eskeles of Vienna, to Baron Rothschild, the other drawn by Baring of London, upon M. Laffitte.

Now, sir, you have but to say the word, and I will spare you all uneasiness by presenting my letter of credit to

one or other of these two firms." The blow had struck home, and Danglars was entirely vanquished; with a

trembling hand he took the two letters from the count, who held them carelessly between finger and thumb,

and proceeded to scrutinize the signatures, with a minuteness that the count might have regarded as insulting,

had it not suited his present purpose to mislead the banker. "Oh, sir," said Danglars, after he had convinced

himself of the authenticity of the documents he held, and rising as if to salute the power of gold personified in

the man before him, "three letters of unlimited credit! I can be no longer mistrustful, but you must pardon

"Nay," answered Monte Cristo, with the most gentlemanly air, "'tis not for such trifling sums as these that

your banking house is to be incommoded. Then, you can let me have some money, can you not?"

"Why," replied Monte Cristo, "since we mutually understand each other for such I presume is the case?"

Danglars bowed assentingly. "You are quite sure that not a lurking doubt or suspicion lingers in your mind?"

"Oh, my dear count," exclaimed Danglars, "I never for an instant entertained such a feeling towards you."

"No, you merely wished to be convinced, nothing more; but now that we have come to so clear an

understanding, and that all distrust and suspicion are laid at rest, we may as well fix a sum as the probable

"Then, if I should require more," continued Monte Cristo in a careless manner, "why, of course, I should

draw upon you; but my present intention is not to remain in France more than a year, and during that period I

scarcely think I shall exceed the sum I mentioned. However, we shall see. Be kind enough, then, to send me

500,000 francs tomorrow. I shall be at home till midday, or if not, I will leave a receipt with my steward."

"The money you desire shall be at your house by ten o'clock tomorrow morning, my dear count," replied

"Half in gold, and the other half in banknotes, if you please," said the count, rising from his seat.

"I must confess to you, count," said Danglars, "that I have hitherto imagined myself acquainted with the

degree of all the great fortunes of Europe, and still wealth such as yours has been wholly unknown to me.

"It has been in the family a very long while," returned Monte Cristo, "a sort of treasure expressly forbidden to

be touched for a certain period of years, during which the accumulated interest has doubled the capital. The

period appointed by the testator for the disposal of these riches occurred only a short time ago, and they have

only been employed by me within the last few years. Your ignorance on the subject, therefore, is easily

accounted for. However, you will be better informed as to me and my possessions ere long." And the count,

while pronouncing these latter words, accompanied them with one of those ghastly smiles that used to strike

"With your tastes, and means of gratifying them," continued Danglars, "you will exhibit a splendor that must

effectually put us poor miserable millionaires quite in the shade. If I mistake not you are an admirer of

paintings, at least I judged so from the attention you appeared to be bestowing on mine when I entered the

room. If you will permit me, I shall be happy to show you my picture gallery, composed entirely of works by

the ancient masters warranted as such. Not a modern picture among them. I cannot endure the modern

"You are perfectly right in objecting to them, for this one great fault that they have not yet had time to

"Or will you allow me to show you several fine statues by Thorwaldsen, Bartoloni, and Canova? all

foreign artists, for, as you may perceive, I think but very indifferently of our French sculptors."

"But all this may come later, when we shall be better known to each other. For the present, I will confine

myself (if perfectly agreeable to you) to introducing you to the Baroness Danglars excuse my impatience,

my dear count, but a client like you is almost like a member of the family." Monte Cristo bowed, in sign that

he accepted the proffered honor; Danglars rang and was answered by a servant in a showy livery. "Is the

"Have you any objection to meet any persons who may be with madame, or do you desire to preserve a strict

"No, indeed," replied Monte Cristo with a smile, "I do not arrogate to myself the right of so doing."

"And who is with madame? M. Debray?" inquired Danglars, with an air of indulgence and goodnature

that made Monte Cristo smile, acquainted as he was with the secrets of the banker's domestic life.

"Yes, my lord," replied the servant, "M. Debray is with madame." Danglars nodded his head; then, turning to

Monte Cristo, said, "M. Lucien Debray is an old friend of ours, and private secretary to the Minister of the

Interior. As for my wife, I must tell you, she lowered herself by marrying me, for she belongs to one of the

most ancient families in France. Her maiden name was De Servieres, and her first husband was Colonel the

"I have not the honor of knowing Madame Danglars; but I have already met M. Lucien Debray."

"True, true," cried Danglars. "Let me see; have I not heard talk of some strange adventure with bandits or

thieves hid in ruins, and of his having had a miraculous escape? I forget how, but I know he used to amuse

"Her ladyship is waiting to receive you, gentlemen," said the servant, who had gone to inquire the pleasure of

his mistress. "With your permission," said Danglars, bowing, "I will precede you, to show you the way."

The baron, followed by the count, traversed a long series of apartments, in which the prevailing

characteristics were heavy magnificence and the gaudiness of ostentatious wealth, until he reached the

boudoir of Madame Danglars a small octagonalshaped room, hung with pink satin, covered with white

Indian muslin. The chairs were of ancient workmanship and materials; over the doors were painted sketches

of shepherds and shepherdesses, after the style and manner of Boucher; and at each side pretty medallions in

crayons, harmonizing well with the furnishings of this charming apartment, the only one throughout the great

mansion in which any distinctive taste prevailed. The truth was, it had been entirely overlooked in the plan

arranged and followed out by M. Danglars and his architect, who had been selected to aid the baron in the

great work of improvement solely because he was the most fashionable and celebrated decorator of the day.

The decorations of the boudoir had then been left entirely to Madame Danglars and Lucien Debray. M.

Danglars, however, while possessing a great admiration for the antique, as it was understood during the time

of the Directory, entertained the most sovereign contempt for the simple elegance of his wife's favorite

sittingroom, where, by the way, he was never permitted to intrude, unless, indeed, he excused his own

appearance by ushering in some more agreeable visitor than himself; and even then he had rather the air and

manner of a person who was himself introduced, than that of being the presenter of another, his reception

being cordial or frigid, in proportion as the person who accompanied him chanced to please or displease the

Madame Danglars (who, although past the first bloom of youth, was still strikingly handsome) was now

seated at the piano, a most elaborate piece of cabinet and inlaid work, while Lucien Debray, standing before a

small worktable, was turning over the pages of an album. Lucien had found time, preparatory to the count's

arrival, to relate many particulars respecting him to Madame Danglars. It will be remembered that Monte

Cristo had made a lively impression on the minds of all the party assembled at the breakfast given by Albert

de Morcerf; and although Debray was not in the habit of yielding to such feelings, he had never been able to

shake off the powerful influence excited in his mind by the impressive look and manner of the count,

consequently the description given by Lucien to the baroness bore the highlycolored tinge of his own heated

imagination. Already excited by the wonderful stories related of the count by De Morcerf, it is no wonder that

Madame Danglars eagerly listened to, and fully credited, all the additional circumstances detailed by Debray.

This posing at the piano and over the album was only a little ruse adopted by way of precaution. A most

gracious welcome and unusual smile were bestowed on M. Danglars; the count, in return for his gentlemanly

bow, received a formal though graceful courtesy, while Lucien exchanged with the count a sort of distant

"Baroness," said Danglars, "give me leave to present to you the Count of Monte Cristo, who has been most

warmly recommended to me by my correspondents at Rome. I need but mention one fact to make all the

ladies in Paris court his notice, and that is, that he has come to take up his abode in Paris for a year, during

which brief period he proposes to spend six millions of money. That means balls, dinners, and lawn parties

without end, in all of which I trust the count will remember us, as he may depend upon it we shall him, in our

own humble entertainments." In spite of the gross flattery and coarseness of this address, Madame Danglars

could not forbear gazing with considerable interest on a man capable of expending six millions in twelve

months, and who had selected Paris for the scene of his princely extravagance. "And when did you arrive

"Coming, as usual, I presume, from the extreme end of the globe? Pardon me at least, such I have heard is

"You have selected a most unfavorable moment for your first visit. Paris is a horrible place in summer. Balls,

parties, and fetes are over; the Italian opera is in London; the French opera everywhere except in Paris. As for

the Theatre Francais, you know, of course, that it is nowhere. The only amusements left us are the indifferent

races at the Champ de Mars and Satory. Do you propose entering any horses at either of these races, count?"

"I shall do whatever they do at Paris, madame, if I have the good fortune to find some one who will initiate

"I have passed a considerable part of my life in the East, madame, and you are doubtless aware that the

Orientals value only two things the fine breeding of their horses and the beauty of their women."

"Nay, count," said the baroness, "it would have been somewhat more gallant to have placed the ladies first."

"You see, madame, how rightly I spoke when I said I required a preceptor to guide me in all my sayings and

doings here." At this instant the favorite attendant of Madame Danglars entered the boudoir; approaching her

mistress, she spoke some words in an undertone. Madame Danglars turned very pale, then exclaimed, "I

"I assure you, madame," replied the woman, "it is as I have said." Turning impatiently towards her husband,

"That when my coachman was about to harness the horses to my carriage, he discovered that they had been

removed from the stables without his knowledge. I desire to know what is the meaning of this?"

"Oh, yes; I will listen, monsieur, for I am most curious to hear what explanation you will give. These two

gentlemen shall decide between us; but, first, I will state the case to them. Gentlemen," continued the

baroness, "among the ten horses in the stables of Baron Danglars, are two that belong exclusively to me a

pair of the handsomest and most spirited creatures to be found in Paris. But to you, at least, M. Debray, I need

not give a further description, because to you my beautiful pair of dappled grays were well known. Well, I

had promised Madame de Villefort the loan of my carriage to drive tomorrow to the Bois; but when my

coachman goes to fetch the grays from the stables they are gone positively gone. No doubt M. Danglars

has sacrificed them to the selfish consideration of gaining some thousands of paltry francs. Oh, what a

"Madame," replied Danglars, "the horses were not sufficiently quiet for you; they were scarcely four years

"Nonsense," retorted the baroness; "you could not have entertained any alarm on the subject, because you are

perfectly well aware that I have had for a month in my service the very best coachman in Paris. But, perhaps,

"My dear love, pray do not say any more about them, and I promise you another pair exactly like them in

appearance, only more quiet and steady." The baroness shrugged her shoulders with an air of ineffable

contempt, while her husband, affecting not to observe this unconjugal gesture, turned towards Monte Cristo

and said, "Upon my word, count, I am quite sorry not to have met you sooner. You are setting up an

"I should have liked to have made you the offer of these horses. I have almost given them away, as it is; but,

as I before said, I was anxious to get rid of them upon any terms. They were only fit for a young man."

"I am much obliged by your kind intentions towards me," said Monte Cristo; "but this morning I purchased a

very excellent pair of carriagehorses, and I do not think they were dear. There they are. Come, M. Debray,

you are a connoisseur, I believe, let me have your opinion upon them." As Debray walked towards the

window, Danglars approached his wife. "I could not tell you before others," said he in a low tone, "the reason

of my parting with the horses; but a most enormous price was offered me this morning for them. Some

madman or fool, bent upon ruining himself as fast as he can, actually sent his steward to me to purchase them

at any cost; and the fact is, I have gained 16,000 francs by the sale of them. Come, don't look so angry, and

you shall have 4,000 francs of the money to do what you like with, and Eugenie shall have 2,000. There, what

do you think now of the affair? Wasn't I right to part with the horses?" Madame Danglars surveyed her

"I cannot be mistaken; there are your horses! The very animals we were speaking of, harnessed to the count's

"My dappled grays?" demanded the baroness, springing to the window. "'Tis indeed they!" said she. Danglars

looked absolutely stupefied. "How very singular," cried Monte Cristo with wellfeigned astonishment.

"I cannot believe it," murmured the banker. Madame Danglars whispered a few words in the ear of Debray,

who approached Monte Cristo, saying, "The baroness wishes to know what you paid her husband for the

"I scarcely know," replied the count; "it was a little surprise prepared for me by my steward, and cost me

well, somewhere about 30,000 francs." Debray conveyed the count's reply to the baroness. Poor Danglars

looked so crestfallen and discomfited that Monte Cristo assumed a pitying air towards him. "See," said the

count, "how very ungrateful women are. Your kind attention, in providing for the safety of the baroness by

disposing of the horses, does not seem to have made the least impression on her. But so it is; a woman will

often, from mere wilfulness, prefer that which is dangerous to that which is safe. Therefore, in my opinion,

my dear baron, the best and easiest way is to leave them to their fancies, and allow them to act as they please,

and then, if any mischief follows, why, at least, they have no one to blame but themselves." Danglars made

no reply; he was occupied in anticipations of the coming scene between himself and the baroness, whose

frowning brow, like that of Olympic Jove, predicted a storm. Debray, who perceived the gathering clouds,

and felt no desire to witness the explosion of Madame Danglars' rage, suddenly recollected an appointment,

which compelled him to take his leave; while Monte Cristo, unwilling by prolonging his stay to destroy the

advantages he hoped to obtain, made a farewell bow and departed, leaving Danglars to endure the angry

"Excellent," murmured Monte Cristo to himself, as he came away. "All his gone according to my wishes. The

domestic peace of this family is henceforth in my hands. Now, then, to play another masterstroke, by which

I shall gain the heart of both husband and wife delightful! Still," added he, "amid all this, I have not yet

been presented to Mademoiselle Eugenie Danglars, whose acquaintance I should have been glad to make.

But," he went on with his peculiar smile, "I am here in Paris, and have plenty of time before me by and by

will do for that." With these reflections he entered his carriage and returned home. Two hours afterwards,

Madame Danglars received a most flattering epistle from the count, in which he entreated her to receive back

her favorite "dappled grays," protesting that he could not endure the idea of making his entry into the Parisian

world of fashion with the knowledge that his splendid equipage had been obtained at the price of a lovely

woman's regrets. The horses were sent back wearing the same harness she had seen on them in the morning;

only, by the count's orders, in the centre of each rosette that adorned either side of their heads, had been

To Danglars Monte Cristo also wrote, requesting him to excuse the whimsical gift of a capricious millionaire,

and to beg the baroness to pardon the Eastern fashion adopted in the return of the horses.

During the evening, Monte Cristo quitted Paris for Auteuil, accompanied by Ali. The following day, about

three o'clock, a single blow struck on the gong summoned Ali to the presence of the count. "Ali," observed

his master, as the Nubian entered the chamber, "you have frequently explained to me how more than

commonly skilful you are in throwing the lasso, have you not?" Ali drew himself up proudly, and then

returned a sign in the affirmative. "I thought I did not mistake. With your lasso you could stop an ox?" Again

Ali repeated his affirmative gesture. "Or a tiger?" Ali bowed his head in token of assent. "A lion even?" Ali

sprung forwards, imitating the action of one throwing the lasso, then of a strangled lion.

"I understand," said Monte Cristo; "you wish to tell me you have hunted the lion?" Ali smiled with

triumphant pride as he signified that he had indeed both chased and captured many lions. "But do you believe

you could arrest the progress of two horses rushing forwards with ungovernable fury?" The Nubian smiled.

"It is well," said Monte Cristo. "Then listen to me. Ere long a carriage will dash past here, drawn by the pair

of dappled gray horses you saw me with yesterday; now, at the risk of your own life, you must manage to

Ali descended to the street, and marked a straight line on the pavement immediately at the entrance of the

house, and then pointed out the line he had traced to the count, who was watching him. The count patted him

gently on the shoulder, his usual mode of praising Ali, who, pleased and gratified with the commission

assigned him, walked calmly towards a projecting stone forming the angle of the street and house, and,

seating himself thereon, began to smoke his chibouque, while Monte Cristo reentered his dwelling, perfectly

assured of the success of his plan. Still, as five o'clock approached, and the carriage was momentarily

expected by the count, the indication of more than common impatience and uneasiness might be observed in

his manner. He stationed himself in a room commanding a view of the street, pacing the chamber with

restless steps, stopping merely to listen from time to time for the sound of approaching wheels, then to cast an

anxious glance on Ali; but the regularity with which the Nubian puffed forth the smoke of his chibouque

proved that he at least was wholly absorbed in the enjoyment of his favorite occupation. Suddenly a distant

sound of rapidly advancing wheels was heard, and almost immediately a carriage appeared, drawn by a pair

of wild, ungovernable horses, while the terrified coachman strove in vain to restrain their furious speed.

In the vehicle was a young woman and a child of about seven or eight clasped in each other's arms. Terror

seemed to have deprived them even of the power of uttering a cry. The carriage creaked and rattled as it flew

over the rough stones, and the slightest obstacle under the wheels would have caused disaster; but it kept on

Ali suddenly cast aside his chibouque, drew the lasso from his pocket, threw it so skilfully as to catch the

forelegs of the near horse in its triple fold, and suffered himself to be dragged on for a few steps by the

violence of the shock, then the animal fell over on the pole, which snapped, and therefore prevented the other

horse from pursuing its way. Gladly availing himself of this opportunity, the coachman leaped from his box;

but Ali had promptly seized the nostrils of the second horse, and held them in his iron grasp, till the beast,

snorting with pain, sunk beside his companion. All this was achieved in much less time than is occupied in

the recital. The brief space had, however, been sufficient for a man, followed by a number of servants, to rush

from the house before which the accident had occurred, and, as the coachman opened the door of the carriage,

to take from it a lady who was convulsively grasping the cushions with one hand, while with the other she

Monte Cristo carried them both to the salon, and deposited them on a sofa. "Compose yourself, madame,"

said he; "all danger is over." The woman looked up at these words, and, with a glance far more expressive

than any entreaties could have been, pointed to her child, who still continued insensible. "I understand the

nature of your alarms, madame," said the count, carefully examining the child, "but I assure you there is not

the slightest occasion for uneasiness; your little charge has not received the least injury; his insensibility is

"Are you quite sure you do not say so to tranquillize my fears? See how deadly pale he is! My child, my

darling Edward; speak to your mother open your dear eyes and look on me once again! Oh, sir, in pity

send for a physician; my whole fortune shall not be thought too much for the recovery of my boy."

With a calm smile and a gentle wave of the hand, Monte Cristo signed to the distracted mother to lay aside

her apprehensions; then, opening a casket that stood near, he drew forth a phial of Bohemian glass incrusted

with gold, containing a liquid of the color of blood, of which he let fall a single drop on the child's lips.

Scarcely had it reached them, ere the boy, though still pale as marble, opened his eyes, and eagerly gazed

around him. At this, the delight of the mother was almost frantic. "Where am I?" exclaimed she; "and to

"Madame," answered the count, "you are under the roof of one who esteems himself most fortunate in having

"My wretched curiosity has brought all this about," pursued the lady. "All Paris rung with the praises of

Madame Danglars' beautiful horses, and I had the folly to desire to know whether they really merited the high

"Is it possible," exclaimed the count with wellfeigned astonishment, "that these horses belong to the

"I have that honor; and my happiness at your escape from the danger that threatened you is redoubled by the

consciousness that I have been the unwilling and the unintentional cause of all the peril you have incurred. I

yesterday purchased these horses of the baron; but as the baroness evidently regretted parting with them, I

ventured to send them back to her, with a request that she would gratify me by accepting them from my

"You are, then, doubtless, the Count of Monte Cristo, of whom Hermine has talked to me so much?"

"And I am Madame Heloise de Villefort." The count bowed with the air of a person who hears a name for the

first time. "How grateful will M. de Villefort be for all your goodness; how thankfully will he acknowledge

that to you alone he owes the existence of his wife and child! Most certainly, but for the prompt assistance of

"I beseech you, madame," replied Monte Cristo "not to spoil Ali, either by too great praise or rewards. I

cannot allow him to acquire the habit of expecting to be recompensed for every trifling service he may

render. Ali is my slave, and in saving your life he was but discharging his duty to me."

"Nay," interposed Madame de Villefort, on whom the authoritative style adopted by the count made a deep

"His life, madame, belongs not to him; it is mine, in return for my having myself saved him from death."

Madame de Villefort made no further reply; her mind was utterly absorbed in the contemplation of the person

who, from the first instant she saw him, had made so powerful an impression on her. During the evident

preoccupation of Madame de Villefort, Monte Cristo scrutinized the features and appearance of the boy she

kept folded in her arms, lavishing on him the most tender endearments. The child was small for his age, and

unnaturally pale. A mass of straight black hair, defying all attempts to train or curl it, fell over his projecting

forehead, and hung down to his shoulders, giving increased vivacity to eyes already sparkling with a youthful

love of mischief and fondness for every forbidden enjoyment. His mouth was large, and the lips, which had

not yet regained their color, were particularly thin; in fact, the deep and crafty look, giving a predominant

expression to the child's face, belonged rather to a boy of twelve or fourteen than to one so young. His first

movement was to free himself by a violent push from the encircling arms of his mother, and to rush forward

to the casket from whence the count had taken the phial of elixir; then, without asking permission of any one,

he proceeded, in all the wilfulness of a spoiled child unaccustomed to restrain either whims or caprices, to

"Touch nothing, my little friend," cried the count eagerly; "some of those liquids are not only dangerous to

Madame de Villefort became very pale, and, seizing her son's arm, drew him anxiously toward her; but, once

satisfied of his safety, she also cast a brief but expressive glance on the casket, which was not lost upon the

count. At this moment Ali entered. At sight of him Madame de Villefort uttered an expression of pleasure,

and, holding the child still closer towards her, she said, "Edward, dearest, do you see that good man? He has

shown very great courage and resolution, for he exposed his own life to stop the horses that were running

away with us, and would certainly have dashed the carriage to pieces. Thank him, then, my child, in your

very best manner; for, had he not come to our aid, neither you nor I would have been alive to speak our

thanks." The child stuck out his lips and turned away his head in a disdainful manner, saying, "He's too ugly."

The count smiled as if the child bade fair to realize his hopes, while Madame de Villefort reprimanded her

son with a gentleness and moderation very far from conveying the least idea of a fault having been

committed. "This lady," said the Count, speaking to Ali in the Arabic language, "is desirous that her son

should thank you for saving both their lives; but the boy refuses, saying you are too ugly." Ali turned his

intelligent countenance towards the boy, on whom he gazed without any apparent emotion; but the spasmodic

working of the nostrils showed to the practiced eye of Monte Cristo that the Arab had been wounded to the

"Will you permit me to inquire," said Madame de Villefort, as she arose to take her leave, "whether you

"No, I do not," replied Monte Cristo; "it is a small place I have purchased quite lately. My place of abode is

No. 30, Avenue des Champs Elysees; but I see you have quite recovered from your fright, and are, no doubt,

desirous of returning home. Anticipating your wishes, I have desired the same horses you came with to be put

to one of my carriages, and Ali, he whom you think so very ugly," continued he, addressing the boy with a

smiling air, "will have the honor of driving you home, while your coachman remains here to attend to the

necessary repairs of your calash. As soon as that important business is concluded, I will have a pair of my

"You will see," replied Monte Cristo, "that they will be as different as possible in the hands of Ali. With him

they will be gentle and docile as lambs." Ali had, indeed, given proof of this; for, approaching the animals,

who had been got upon their legs with considerable difficulty, he rubbed their foreheads and nostrils with a

sponge soaked in aromatic vinegar, and wiped off the sweat and foam that covered their mouths. Then,

commencing a loud whistling noise, he rubbed them well all over their bodies for several minutes; then,

undisturbed by the noisy crowd collected round the broken carriage, Ali quietly harnessed the pacified

animals to the count's chariot, took the reins in his hands, and mounted the box, when to the utter

astonishment of those who had witnessed the ungovernable spirit and maddened speed of the same horses, he

was actually compelled to apply his whip in no very gentle manner before he could induce them to start; and

even then all that could be obtained from the celebrated "dappled grays," now changed into a couple of dull,

sluggish, stupid brutes, was a slow, pottering pace, kept up with so much difficulty that Madame de Villefort

Scarcely had the first congratulations upon her marvellous escape been gone through when she wrote the

Dear Hermine, I have just had a wonderful escape from the most imminent danger, and I owe my safety to

the very Count of Monte Cristo we were talking about yesterday, but whom I little expected to see today. I

remember how unmercifully I laughed at what I considered your eulogistic and exaggerated praises of him;

but I have now ample cause to admit that your enthusiastic description of this wonderful man fell far short of

his merits. Your horses got as far as Ranelagh, when they darted forward like mad things, and galloped away

at so fearful a rate, that there seemed no other prospect for myself and my poor Edward but that of being

dashed to pieces against the first object that impeded their progress, when a strangelooking man, an

Arab, a negro, or a Nubian, at least a black of some nation or other at a signal from the count, whose

domestic he is, suddenly seized and stopped the infuriated animals, even at the risk of being trampled to death

himself; and certainly he must have had a most wonderful escape. The count then hastened to us, and took us

into his house, where he speedily recalled my poor Edward to life. He sent us home in his own carriage.

Yours will be returned to you tomorrow. You will find your horses in bad condition, from the results of this

accident; they seem thoroughly stupefied, as if sulky and vexed at having been conquered by man. The count,

however, his commissioned me to assure you that two or three days' rest, with plenty of barley for their sole

food during that time, will bring them back to as fine, that is as terrifying, a condition as they were in

yesterday. Adieu! I cannot return you many thanks for the drive of yesterday; but, after all, I ought not to

blame you for the misconduct of your horses, more especially as it procured me the pleasure of an

introduction to the Count of Monte Cristo, and certainly that illustrious personage, apart from the millions

he is said to be so very anxious to dispose of, seemed to me one of those curiously interesting problems I, for

one, delight in solving at any risk, even if it were to necessitate another drive to the Bois behind your horses.

Edward endured the accident with miraculous courage he did not utter a single cry, but fell lifeless into

my arms; nor did a tear fall from his eyes after it was over. I doubt not you will consider these praises the

result of blind maternal affection, but there is a soul of iron in that delicate, fragile body. Valentine sends

many affectionate remembrances to your dear Eugenie. I embrace you with all my heart.

P.S. Do pray contrive some means for me to meet the Count of Monte Cristo at your house. I must and

will see him again. I have just made M. de Villefort promise to call on him, and I hope the visit will be

That night the adventure at Auteuil was talked of everywhere. Albert related it to his mother;

ChateauRenaud recounted it at the Jockey Club, and Debray detailed it at length in the salons of the

minister; even Beauchamp accorded twenty lines in his journal to the relation of the count's courage and

gallantry, thereby celebrating him as the greatest hero of the day in the eyes of all the feminine members of

the aristocracy. Vast was the crowd of visitors and inquiring friends who left their names at the residence of

Madame de Villefort, with the design of renewing their visit at the right moment, of hearing from her lips all

the interesting circumstances of this most romantic adventure. As for M. de Villefort, he fulfilled the

predictions of Heloise to the letter, donned his dress suit, drew on a pair of white gloves, ordered the

servants to attend the carriage dressed in their full livery, and drove that same night to No. 30 in the Avenue

If the Count of Monte Cristo had been for a long time familiar with the ways of Parisian society, he would

have appreciated better the significance of the step which M. de Villefort had taken. Standing well at court,

whether the king regnant was of the older or younger branch, whether the government was doctrinaire liberal,

or conservative; looked upon by all as a man of talent, since those who have never experienced a political

check are generally so regarded; hated by many, but warmly supported by others, without being really liked

by anybody, M. de Villefort held a high position in the magistracy, and maintained his eminence like a

Harlay or a Mole. His drawingroom, under the regenerating influence of a young wife and a daughter by his

first marriage, scarcely eighteen, was still one of the wellregulated Paris salons where the worship of

traditional customs and the observance of rigid etiquette were carefully maintained. A freezing politeness, a

strict fidelity to government principles, a profound contempt for theories and theorists, a deepseated hatred

of ideality, these were the elements of private and public life displayed by M. de Villefort.

He was not only a magistrate, he was almost a diplomatist. His relations with the former court, of which he

always spoke with dignity and respect, made him respected by the new one, and he knew so many things, that

not only was he always carefully considered, but sometimes consulted. Perhaps this would not have been so

had it been possible to get rid of M. de Villefort; but, like the feudal barons who rebelled against their

sovereign, he dwelt in an impregnable fortress. This fortress was his post as king's attorney, all the

advantages of which he exploited with marvellous skill, and which he would not have resigned but to be

made deputy, and thus to replace neutrality by opposition. Ordinarily M. de Villefort made and returned very

few visits. His wife visited for him, and this was the received thing in the world, where the weighty and

multifarious occupations of the magistrate were accepted as an excuse for what was really only calculated

pride, a manifestation of professed superiority in fact, the application of the axiom, "Pretend to think well

of yourself, and the world will think well of you," an axiom a hundred times more useful in society nowadays

than that of the Greeks, "Know thyself," a knowledge for which, in our days, we have substituted the less

To his friends M. de Villefort was a powerful protector; to his enemies, he was a silent, but bitter opponent;

for those who were neither the one nor the other, he was a statue of the lawmade man. He had a haughty

bearing, a look either steady and impenetrable or insolently piercing and inquisitorial. Four successive

revolutions had built and cemented the pedestal upon which his fortune was based. M. de Villefort had the

reputation of being the least curious and the least wearisome man in France. He gave a ball every year, at

which he appeared for a quarter of an hour only, that is to say, five and forty minutes less than the king is

visible at his balls. He was never seen at the theatres, at concerts, or in any place of public resort.

Occasionally, but seldom, he played at whist, and then care was taken to select partners worthy of him

sometimes they were ambassadors, sometimes archbishops, or sometimes a prince, or a president, or some

dowager duchess. Such was the man whose carriage had just now stopped before the Count of Monte Cristo's

door. The valet de chambre announced M. de Villefort at the moment when the count, leaning over a large

The procureur entered with the same grave and measured step he would have employed in entering a court of

justice. He was the same man, or rather the development of the same man, whom we have heretofore seen as

assistant attorney at Marseilles. Nature, according to her way, had made no deviation in the path he had

marked out for himself. From being slender he had now become meagre; once pale, he was now yellow; his

deepset eyes were hollow, and the gold spectacles shielding his eyes seemed to be an integral portion of his

face. He dressed entirely in black, with the exception of his white tie, and his funeral appearance was only

mitigated by the slight line of red ribbon which passed almost imperceptibly through his buttonhole, and

appeared like a streak of blood traced with a delicate brush. Although master of himself, Monte Cristo,

scrutinized with irrepressible curiosity the magistrate whose salute he returned, and who, distrustful by habit,

and especially incredulous as to social prodigies, was much more despised to look upon "the noble stranger,"

as Monte Cristo was already called, as an adventurer in search of new fields, or an escaped criminal, rather

"Sir," said Villefort, in the squeaky tone assumed by magistrates in their oratorical periods, and of which they

cannot, or will not, divest themselves in society, "sir, the signal service which you yesterday rendered to my

wife and son has made it a duty for me to offer you my thanks. I have come, therefore, to discharge this duty,

and to express to you my overwhelming gratitude." And as he said this, the "eye severe" of the magistrate had

lost nothing of its habitual arrogance. He spoke in a voice of the procureurgeneral, with the rigid

inflexibility of neck and shoulders which caused his flatterers to say (as we have before observed) that he was

"Monsieur," replied the count, with a chilling air, "I am very happy to have been the means of preserving a

son to his mother, for they say that the sentiment of maternity is the most holy of all; and the good fortune

which occurred to me, monsieur, might have enabled you to dispense with a duty which, in its discharge,

confers an undoubtedly great honor; for I am aware that M. de Villefort is not usually lavish of the favor

which he now bestows on me, a favor which, however estimable, is unequal to the satisfaction which I

have in my own consciousness." Villefort, astonished at this reply, which he by no means expected, started

like a soldier who feels the blow levelled at him over the armor he wears, and a curl of his disdainful lip

indicated that from that moment he noted in the tablets of his brain that the Count of Monte Cristo was by no

means a highly bred gentleman. He glanced around. in order to seize on something on which the conversation

might turn, and seemed to fall easily on a topic. He saw the map which Monte Cristo had been examining

when he entered, and said, "You seem geographically engaged, sir? It is a rich study for you, who, as I learn,

"Yes, sir," replied the count; "l have sought to make of the human race, taken in the mass, what you practice

every day on individuals a physiological study. I have believed it was much easier to descend from the

whole to a part than to ascend from a part to the whole. It is an algebraic axiom, which makes us proceed

from a known to an unknown quantity, and not from an unknown to a known; but sit down, sir, I beg of you."

Monte Cristo pointed to a chair, which the procureur was obliged to take the trouble to move forwards

himself, while the count merely fell back into his own, on which he had been kneeling when M. Villefort

entered. Thus the count was halfway turned towards his visitor, having his back towards the window, his

elbow resting on the geographical chart which furnished the theme of conversation for the moment, a

conversation which assumed, as in the case of the interviews with Danglars and Morcerf, a turn analogous to

the persons, if not to the situation. "Ah, you philosophize," replied Villefort, after a moment's silence, during

which, like a wrestler who encounters a powerful opponent, he took breath; "well, sir, really, if, like you, I

"Why, in truth, sir," was Monte Cristo's reply, "man is but an ugly caterpillar for him who studies him

through a solar microscope; but you said, I think, that I had nothing else to do. Now, really, let me ask, sir,

have you? do you believe you have anything to do? or to speak in plain terms, do you really think that

Villefort's astonishment redoubled at this second thrust so forcibly made by his strange adversary. It was a

long time since the magistrate had heard a paradox so strong, or rather, to say the truth more exactly, it was

the first time he had ever heard of it. The procureur exerted himself to reply. "Sir," he responded, "you are a

stranger, and I believe you say yourself that a portion of your life has been spent in Oriental countries, so you

are not aware how human justice, so expeditions in barbarous countries, takes with us a prudent and

"Oh, yes yes, I do, sir; it is the pede claudo of the ancients. I know all that, for it is with the justice of all

countries especially that I have occupied myself it is with the criminal procedure of all nations that I have

compared natural justice, and I must say, sir, that it is the law of primitive nations, that is, the law of

retaliation, that I have most frequently found to be according to the law of God."

"If this law were adopted, sir," said the procureur, "it would greatly simplify our legal codes, and in that case

"It may, perhaps, come to this in time," observed Monte Cristo; "you know that human inventions march

"In the meanwhile," continued the magistrate, "our codes are in full force, with all their contradictory

enactments derived from Gallic customs, Roman laws, and Frank usages; the knowledge of all which, you

will agree, is not to be acquired without extended labor; it needs tedious study to acquire this knowledge, and,

"I agree with you entirely, sir; but all that even you know with respect to the French code, I know, not only in

reference to that code, but as regards the codes of all nations. The English, Turkish, Japanese, Hindu laws, are

as familiar to me as the French laws, and thus I was right, when I said to you, that relatively (you know that

everything is relative, sir) that relatively to what I have done, you have very little to do; but that relatively

"But with what motive have you learned all this?" inquired Villefort, in astonishment. Monte Cristo smiled.

"Really, sir," he observed, "I see that in spite of the reputation which you have acquired as a superior man,

you look at everything from the material and vulgar view of society, beginning with man, and ending with

man that is to say, in the most restricted, most narrow view which it is possible for human understanding

"Pray, sir, explain yourself," said Villefort, more and more astonished, "I really do not understand you

"I say, sir, that with the eyes fixed on the social organization of nations, you see only the springs of the

machine, and lose sight of the sublime workman who makes them act; I say that you do not recognize before

you and around you any but those officeholders whose commissions have been signed by a minister or king;

and that the men whom God has put above those officeholders, ministers, and kings, by giving them a

mission to follow out, instead of a post to fill I say that they escape your narrow, limited field of

observation. It is thus that human weakness fails, from its debilitated and imperfect organs. Tobias took the

angel who restored him to light for an ordinary young man. The nations took Attila, who was doomed to

destroy them, for a conqueror similar to other conquerors, and it was necessary for both to reveal their

missions, that they might be known and acknowledged; one was compelled to say, `I am the angel of the

Lord'; and the other, `I am the hammer of God,' in order that the divine essence in both might be revealed."

"Then," said Villefort, more and more amazed, and really supposing he was speaking to a mystic or a

madman, "you consider yourself as one of those extraordinary beings whom you have mentioned?"

"Your pardon, sir," replied Villefort, quite astounded, "but you will excuse me if, when I presented myself to

you, I was unaware that I should meet with a person whose knowledge and understanding so far surpass the

usual knowledge and understanding of men. It is not usual with us corrupted wretches of civilization to find

gentlemen like yourself, possessors, as you are, of immense fortune at least, so it is said and I beg you

to observe that I do not inquire, I merely repeat; it is not usual, I say, for such privileged and wealthy

beings to waste their time in speculations on the state of society, in philosophical reveries, intended at best to

"Really, sir," retorted the count, "have you attained the eminent situation in which you are, without having

admitted, or even without having met with exceptions? and do you never use your eyes, which must have

acquired so much finesse and certainty, to divine, at a glance, the kind of man by whom you are confronted?

Should not a magistrate be not merely the best administrator of the law, but the most crafty expounder of the

chicanery of his profession, a steel probe to search hearts, a touchstone to try the gold which in each soul is

"Sir," said Villefort, "upon my word, you overcome me. I really never heard a person speak as you do."

"Because you remain eternally encircled in a round of general conditions, and have never dared to raise your

wings into those upper spheres which God has peopled with invisible or exceptional beings."

"And you allow then, sir, that spheres exist, and that these marked and invisible beings mingle amongst us?"

"Why should they not? Can you see the air you breathe, and yet without which you could not for a moment

"Yes, we do; you see them whenever God pleases to allow them to assume a material form. You touch them,

"Ah," said Villefort, smiling, "I confess I should like to be warned when one of these beings is in contact with

"You have been served as you desire, monsieur, for you were warned just now, and I now again warn you."

"Yes, monsieur, I believe so; for until now, no man has found himself in a position similar to mine. The

dominions of kings are limited either by mountains or rivers, or a change of manners, or an alteration of

language. My kingdom is bounded only by the world, for I am not an Italian, or a Frenchman, or a Hindu, or

an American, or a Spaniard I am a cosmopolite. No country can say it saw my birth. God alone knows

what country will see me die. I adopt all customs, speak all languages. You believe me to be a Frenchman,

for I speak French with the same facility and purity as yourself. Well, Ali, my Nubian, believes me to be an

Arab; Bertuccio, my steward, takes me for a Roman; Haidee, my slave, thinks me a Greek. You may,

therefore, comprehend, that being of no country, asking no protection from any government, acknowledging

no man as my brother, not one of the scruples that arrest the powerful, or the obstacles which paralyze the

weak, paralyzes or arrests me. I have only two adversaries I will not say two conquerors, for with

perseverance I subdue even them, they are time and distance. There is a third, and the most terrible

that is my condition as a mortal being. This alone can stop me in my onward career, before I have attained the

goal at which I aim, for all the rest I have reduced to mathematical terms. What men call the chances of fate

namely, ruin, change, circumstances I have fully anticipated, and if any of these should overtake me,

yet it will not overwhelm me. Unless I die, I shall always be what I am, and therefore it is that I utter the

things you have never heard, even from the mouths of kings for kings have need, and other persons have

fear of you. For who is there who does not say to himself, in a society as incongruously organized as ours,

"But can you not say that, sir? The moment you become an inhabitant of France, you are naturally subjected

"I know it sir," replied Monte Cristo; "but when I visit a country I begin to study, by all the means which are

available, the men from whom I may have anything to hope or to fear, till I know them as well as, perhaps

better than, they know themselves. It follows from this, that the king's attorney, be he who he may, with

"That is to say," replied Villefort with hesitation, "that human nature being weak, every man, according to

"And that you alone, amongst the men whom you do not recognize as your brothers for you have said so,"

"No, not perfect," was the count's reply; "only impenetrable, that's all. But let us leave off this strain, sir, if

the tone of it is displeasing to you; I am no more disturbed by your justice than are you by my secondsight."

"No, no, by no means," said Villefort, who was afraid of seeming to abandon his ground. "No; by your

brilliant and almost sublime conversation you have elevated me above the ordinary level; we no longer talk,

we rise to dissertation. But you know how the theologians in their collegiate chairs, and philosophers in their

controversies, occasionally say cruel truths; let us suppose for the moment that we are theologizing in a social

way, or even philosophically, and I will say to you, rude as it may seem, `My brother, you sacrifice greatly to

"Above us all, sir," was Monte Cristo's response, in a tone and with an emphasis so deep that Villefort

involuntarily shuddered. "I have my pride for men serpents always ready to threaten every one who would

pass without crushing them under foot. But I lay aside that pride before God, who has taken me from nothing

"Then, count, I admire you," said Villefort, who, for the first time in this strange conversation, used the

aristocratic form to the unknown personage, whom, until now, he had only called monsieur. "Yes, and I say

to you, if you are really strong, really superior, really pious, or impenetrable, which you were right in saying

amounts to the same thing then be proud, sir, for that is the characteristic of predominance. Yet you have

"I too, as happens to every man once in his life, have been taken by Satan into the highest mountain in the

earth, and when there he showed me all the kingdoms of the world, and as he said before, so said he to me,

`Child of earth, what wouldst thou have to make thee adore me?' I reflected long, for a gnawing ambition had

long preyed upon me, and then I replied, `Listen, I have always heard of providence, and yet I have never

seen him, or anything that resembles him, or which can make me believe that he exists. I wish to be

providence myself, for I feel that the most beautiful, noblest, most sublime thing in the world, is to

recompense and punish.' Satan bowed his head, and groaned. `You mistake,' he said, `providence does exist,

only you have never seen him, because the child of God is as invisible as the parent. You have seen nothing

that resembles him, because he works by secret springs, and moves by hidden ways. All I can do for you is to

make you one of the agents of that providence.' The bargain was concluded. I may sacrifice my soul, but what

matters it?" added Monte Cristo. "If the thing were to do again, I would again do it." Villefort looked at

Monte Cristo with extreme amazement. "Count," he inquired, "have you any relations?"

"Because then you might witness a spectacle calculated to break down your pride. You say you fear nothing

"I did not say that I feared it; I only said that death alone could check the execution of my plans."

"I have been nearly mad; and you know the axiom, non bis in idem. It is an axiom of criminal law, and,

"Sir," continued Villefort, "there is something to fear besides death, old age, and madness. For instance, there

is apoplexy that lightningstroke which strikes but does not destroy you, and yet which brings everything

to an end. You are still yourself as now, and yet you are yourself no longer; you who, like Ariel, verge on the

angelic, are but an inert mass, which, like Caliban, verges on the brutal; and this is called in human tongues,

as I tell you, neither more nor less than apoplexy. Come, if so you will, count, and continue this conversation

at my house, any day you may be willing to see an adversary capable of understanding and anxious to refute

you, and I will show you my father, M. Noirtier de Villefort, one of the most fiery Jacobins of the French

Revolution; that is to say, he had the most remarkable audacity, seconded by a most powerful organization

a man who has not, perhaps, like yourself seen all the kingdoms of the earth, but who has helped to

overturn one of the greatest; in fact, a man who believed himself, like you, one of the envoys, not of God, but

of a supreme being; not of providence, but of fate. Well, sir, the rupture of a bloodvessel on the lobe of the

brain has destroyed all this, not in a day, not in an hour, but in a second. M. Noirtier, who, on the previous

night, was the old Jacobin, the old senator, the old Carbonaro, laughing at the guillotine, the cannon, and the

dagger M. Noirtier, playing with revolutions M. Noirtier, for whom France was a vast chessboard,

from which pawns, rooks, knights, and queens were to disappear, so that the king was checkmated M.

Noirtier, the redoubtable, was the next morning `poor M. Noirtier,' the helpless old man, at the tender mercies

of the weakest creature in the household, that is, his grandchild, Valentine; a dumb and frozen carcass, in fact,

living painlessly on, that time may be given for his frame to decompose without his consciousness of its

"Alas, sir," said Monte Cristo "this spectacle is neither strange to my eye nor my thought. I am something of

a physician, and have, like my fellows, sought more than once for the soul in living and in dead matter; yet,

like providence, it has remained invisible to my eyes, although present to my heart. A hundred writers since

Socrates, Seneca, St. Augustine, and Gall, have made, in verse and prose, the comparison you have made, and

yet I can well understand that a father's sufferings may effect great changes in the mind of a son. I will call on

you, sir, since you bid me contemplate, for the advantage of my pride, this terrible spectacle, which must

"It would have been so unquestionably, had not God given me so large a compensation. In contrast with the

old man, who is dragging his way to the tomb, are two children just entering into life Valentine, the

daughter by my first wife Mademoiselle Renee de SaintMeran and Edward, the boy whose life you

"And what is your deduction from this compensation, sir?" inquired Monte Cristo.

"My deduction is," replied Villefort, "that my father, led away by his passions, has committed some fault

unknown to human justice, but marked by the justice of God. That God, desirous in his mercy to punish but

one person, has visited this justice on him alone." Monte Cristo with a smile on his lips, uttered in the depths

of his soul a groan which would have made Villefort fly had he but heard it. "Adieu, sir," said the magistrate,

who had risen from his seat; "I leave you, bearing a remembrance of you a remembrance of esteem, which

I hope will not be disagreeable to you when you know me better; for I am not a man to bore my friends, as

you will learn. Besides, you have made an eternal friend of Madame de Villefort." The count bowed, and

contented himself with seeing Villefort to the door of his cabinet, the procureur being escorted to his carriage

by two footmen, who, on a signal from their master, followed him with every mark of attention. When he had

gone, Monte Cristo breathed a profound sigh, and said, "Enough of this poison, let me now seek the

antidote." Then sounding his bell, he said to Ali, who entered, "I am going to madam's chamber have the

It will be recollected that the new, or rather old, acquaintances of the Count of Monte Cristo, residing in the

Rue Meslay, were no other than Maximilian, Julie, and Emmanuel. The very anticipations of delight to be

enjoyed in his forthcoming visits the bright, pure gleam of heavenly happiness it diffused over the almost

deadly warfare in which he had voluntarily engaged, illumined his whole countenance with a look of

ineffable joy and calmness, as, immediately after Villefort's departure, his thoughts flew back to the cheering

prospect before him, of tasting, at least, a brief respite from the fierce and stormy passions of his mind. Even

Ali, who had hastened to obey the Count's summons, went forth from his master's presence in charmed

amazement at the unusual animation and pleasure depicted on features ordinarily so stern and cold; while, as

though dreading to put to flight the agreeable ideas hovering over his patron's meditations, whatever they

were, the faithful Nubian walked on tiptoe towards the door, holding his breath, lest its faintest sound should

It was noon, and Monte Cristo had set apart one hour to be passed in the apartments of Haidee, as though his

oppressed spirit could not all at once admit the feeling of pure and unmixed joy, but required a gradual

succession of calm and gentle emotions to prepare his mind to receive full and perfect happiness, in the same

manner as ordinary natures demand to be inured by degrees to the reception of strong or violent sensations.

The young Greek, as we have already said, occupied apartments wholly unconnected with those of the count.

The rooms had been fitted up in strict accordance with Oriental ideas; the floors were covered with the richest

carpets Turkey could produce; the walls hung with brocaded silk of the most magnificent designs and texture;

while around each chamber luxurious divans were placed, with piles of soft and yielding cushions, that

needed only to be arranged at the pleasure or convenience of such as sought repose. Haidee and three French

maids, and one who was a Greek. The first three remained constantly in a small waitingroom, ready to obey

the summons of a small golden bell, or to receive the orders of the Romaic slave, who knew just enough

French to be able to transmit her mistress's wishes to the three other waitingwomen; the latter had received

most peremptory instructions from Monte Cristo to treat Haidee with all the deference they would observe to

The young girl herself generally passed her time in the chamber at the farther end of her apartments. This was

a sort of boudoir, circular, and lighted only from the roof, which consisted of rosecolored glass. Haidee was

reclining upon soft downy cushions, covered with blue satin spotted with silver; her head, supported by one

of her exquisitely moulded arms, rested on the divan immediately behind her, while the other was employed

in adjusting to her lips the coral tube of a rich narghile, through whose flexible pipe she drew the smoke

fragrant by its passage through perfumed water. Her attitude, though perfectly natural for an Eastern woman

would, in a European, have been deemed too full of coquettish straining after effect. Her dress, which was

that of the women of Epirus, consisted of a pair of white satin trousers, embroidered with pink roses,

displaying feet so exquisitely formed and so delicately fair, that they might well have been taken for Parian

marble, had not the eye been undeceived by their movements as they constantly shifted in and out of a pair of

little slippers with upturned toes, beautifully ornamented with gold and pearls. She wore a blue and

whitestriped vest, with long open sleeves, trimmed with silver loops and buttons of pearls, and a sort of

bodice, which, closing only from the centre to the waist, exhibited the whole of the ivory throat and upper

part of the bosom; it was fastened with three magnificent diamond clasps. The junction of the bodice and

drawers was entirely concealed by one of the manycolored scarfs, whose brilliant hues and rich silken fringe

have rendered them so precious in the eyes of Parisian belles. Tilted on one side of her head she had a small

cap of goldcolored silk, embroidered with pearls; while on the other a purple rose mingled its glowing

colors with the luxuriant masses of her hair, of which the blackness was so intense that it was tinged with

blue. The extreme beauty of the countenance, that shone forth in loveliness that mocked the vain attempts of

dress to augment it, was peculiarly and purely Grecian; there were the large, dark, melting eyes, the finely

formed nose, the coral lips, and pearly teeth, that belonged to her race and country. And, to complete the

whole, Haidee was in the very springtide and fulness of youthful charms she had not yet numbered more

Monte Cristo summoned the Greek attendant, and bade her inquire whether it would be agreeable to her

mistress to receive his visit. Haidee's only reply was to direct her servant by a sign to withdraw the tapestried

curtain that hung before the door of her boudoir, the framework of the opening thus made serving as a sort of

border to the graceful tableau presented by the young girl's picturesque attitude and appearance. As Monte

Cristo approached, she leaned upon the elbow of the arm that held the narghile, and extending to him her

other hand, said, with a smile of captivating sweetness, in the sonorous language spoken by the women of

Athens and Sparta, "Why demand permission ere you enter? Are you no longer my master, or have I ceased

to be your slave?" Monte Cristo returned her smile. "Haidee," said he, "you well know."

"Why do you address me so coldly so distantly?" asked the young Greek. "Have I by any means

displeased you? Oh, if so, punish me as you will; but do not do not speak to me in tones and manner so

"Haidee," replied the count, "you know that you are now in France, and are free."

"That is not for me to say; but we are now about to mix in society to visit and be visited."

"I have never seen any one I preferred to you, and I have never loved any one but you and my father."

"My poor child," replied Monte Cristo, "that is merely because your father and myself are the only men who

"I don't want anybody else to talk to me. My father said I was his `joy' you style me your `love,' and

"Do you remember your father, Haidee?" The young Greek smiled. "He is here, and here," said she, touching

"You?" cried she, with tones of thrilling tenderness, "you are everywhere!" Monte Cristo took the delicate

hand of the young girl in his, and was about to raise it to his lips, when the simple child of nature hastily

withdrew it, and presented her cheek. "You now understand, Haidee," said the count, "that from this moment

you are absolutely free; that here you exercise unlimited sway, and are at liberty to lay aside or continue the

costume of your country, as it may suit your inclination. Within this mansion you are absolute mistress of

your actions, and may go abroad or remain in your apartments as may seem most agreeable to you. A carriage

waits your orders, and Ali and Myrtho will accompany you whithersoever you desire to go. There is but one

"Guard carefully the secret of your birth. Make no allusion to the past; nor upon any occasion be induced to

"It is possible, Haidee, that so perfect a seclusion, though conformable with the habits and customs of the

East, may not be practicable in Paris. Endeavor, then, to accustom yourself to our manner of living in these

northern climes as you did to those of Rome, Florence, Milan, and Madrid; it may be useful to you one of

these days, whether you remain here or return to the East." The young girl raised her tearful eyes towards

Monte Cristo as she said with touching earnestness, "Whether we return to the East, you mean to say, my

"My child," returned Monte Cristo "you know full well that whenever we part, it will be no fault or wish of

"My lord," replied Haidee, "I never will leave you, for I am sure I could not exist without you."

"My father had a long white beard, but I loved him; he was sixty years old, but to me he was handsomer than

"Then tell me, Haidee, do you believe you shall be able to accustom yourself to our present mode of life?"

"No, my lord. In the morning, I shall rejoice in the prospect of your coming, and in the evening dwell with

delight on the happiness I have enjoyed in your presence; then too, when alone, I can call forth mighty

pictures of the past, see vast horizons bounded only by the towering mountains of Pindus and Olympus. Oh,

believe me, that when three great passions, such as sorrow, love, and gratitude fill the heart, ennui can find no

"You are a worthy daughter of Epirus, Haidee, and your charming and poetical ideas prove well your descent

from that race of goddesses who claim your country as their birthplace. Depend on my care to see that your

youth is not blighted, or suffered to pass away in ungenial solitude; and of this be well assured, that if you

"You are wrong, my lord. The love I have for you is very different from the love I had for my father. My

father died, but I did not die. If you were to die, I should die too." The Count, with a smile of profound

tenderness, extended his hand, and she carried it to her lips. Monte Cristo, thus attuned to the interview he

proposed to hold with Morrel and his family, departed, murmuring as he went these lines of Pindar, "Youth is

a flower of which love is the fruit; happy is he who, after having watched its silent growth, is permitted to

gather and call it his own." The carriage was prepared according to orders, and stepping lightly into it, the

In a very few minutes the count reached No. 7 in the Rue Meslay. The house was of white stone, and in a

small court before it were two small beds full of beautiful flowers. In the concierge that opened the gate the

count recognized Cocles; but as he had but one eye, and that eye had become somewhat dim in the course of

nine years, Cocles did not recognize the count. The carriages that drove up to the door were compelled to

turn, to avoid a fountain that played in a basin of rockwork, an ornament that had excited the jealousy of

the whole quarter, and had gained for the place the appellation of "The Little Versailles." It is needless to add

that there were gold and silver fish in the basin. The house, with kitchens and cellars below, had above the

groundfloor, two stories and attics. The whole of the property, consisting of an immense workshop, two

pavilions at the bottom of the garden, and the garden itself, had been purchased by Emmanuel, who had seen

at a glance that he could make of it a profitable speculation. He had reserved the house and half the garden,

and building a wall between the garden and the workshops, had let them upon lease with the pavilions at the

bottom of the garden. So that for a trifling sum he was as well lodged, and as perfectly shut out from

observation, as the inhabitants of the finest mansion in the Faubourg St. Germain. The breakfastroom was

finished in oak; the salon in mahogany, and the furnishings were of blue velvet; the bedroom was in

citronwood and green damask. There was a study for Emmanuel, who never studied, and a musicroom for

Julie, who never played. The whole of the second story was set apart for Maximilian; it was precisely similar

to his sister's apartments, except that for the breakfastparlor he had a billiardroom, where he received his

friends. He was superintending the grooming of his horse, and smoking his cigar at the entrance of the

Cocles opened the gate, and Baptistin, springing from the box, inquired whether Monsieur and Madame

Herbault and Monsieur Maximilian Morrel would see his excellency the Count of Monte Cristo. "The Count

of Monte Cristo?" cried Morrel, throwing away his cigar and hastening to the carriage; "I should think we

would see him. Ah, a thousand thanks, count, for not having forgotten your promise." And the young officer

shook the count's hand so warmly, that Monte Cristo could not be mistaken as to the sincerity of his joy, and

he saw that he had been expected with impatience, and was received with pleasure. "Come, come," said

Maximilian, "I will serve as your guide; such a man as you are ought not to be introduced by a servant. My

sister is in the garden plucking the dead roses; my brother is reading his two papers, the Presse and the

Debats, within six steps of her; for wherever you see Madame Herbault, you have only to look within a circle

of four yards and you will find M. Emmanuel, and `reciprocally,' as they say at the Polytechnic School." At

the sound of their steps a young woman of twenty to five and twenty, dressed in a silk morning gown, and

busily engaged in plucking the dead leaves off a noisette rosetree, raised her head. This was Julie, who had

become, as the clerk of the house of Thomson French had predicted, Madame Emmanuel Herbault. She

uttered a cry of surprise at the sight of a stranger, and Maximilian began to laugh. "Don't disturb yourself,

Julie," said he. "The count has only been two or three days in Paris, but he already knows what a fashionable

"Ah, monsieur," returned Julie, "it is treason in my brother to bring you thus, but he never has any regard for

his poor sister. Penelon, Penelon!" An old man, who was digging busily at one of the beds, stuck his spade in

the earth, and approached, cap in hand, striving to conceal a quid of tobacco he had just thrust into his cheek.

A few locks of gray mingled with his hair, which was still thick and matted, while his bronzed features and

determined glance well suited an old sailor who had braved the heat of the equator and the storms of the

tropics. "I think you hailed me, Mademoiselle Julie?" said he. Penelon had still preserved the habit of calling

his master's daughter "Mademoiselle Julie," and had never been able to change the name to Madame

Herbault. "Penelon," replied Julie, "go and inform M. Emmanuel of this gentleman's visit, and Maximilian

will conduct him to the salon." Then, turning to Monte Cristo, "I hope you will permit me to leave you for

a few minutes," continued she; and without awaiting any reply, disappeared behind a clump of trees, and

"I am sorry to see," observed Monte Cristo to Morrel, "that I cause no small disturbance in your house."

"Look there," said Maximilian, laughing; "there is her husband changing his jacket for a coat. I assure you,

"Your family appears to be a very happy one," said the count, as if speaking to himself.

"Oh, yes, I assure you, count, they want nothing that can render them happy; they are young and cheerful,

they are tenderly attached to each other, and with twentyfive thousand francs a year they fancy themselves

"Five and twenty thousand francs is not a large sum, however," replied Monte Cristo, with a tone so sweet

and gentle, that it went to Maximilian's heart like the voice of a father; "but they will not be content with that.

"He was a merchant, monsieur, and had succeeded to the business of my poor father. M. Morrel, at his death,

left 500,000 francs, which were divided between my sister and myself, for we were his only children. Her

husband, who, when he married her, had no other patrimony than his noble probity, his firstrate ability, and

his spotless reputation, wished to possess as much as his wife. He labored and toiled until he had amassed

250,000 francs; six years sufficed to achieve this object. Oh, I assure you, sir, it was a touching spectacle to

see these young creatures, destined by their talents for higher stations, toiling together, and through their

unwillingness to change any of the customs of their paternal house, taking six years to accomplish what less

scrupulous people would have effected in two or three. Marseilles resounded with their wellearned praises.

At last, one day, Emmanuel came to his wife, who had just finished making up the accounts. `Julie,' said he to

her, `Cocles has just given me the last rouleau of a hundred francs; that completes the 250,000 francs we had

fixed as the limits of our gains. Can you content yourself with the small fortune which we shall possess for

the future? Listen to me. Our house transacts business to the amount of a million a year, from which we

derive an income of 40,000 francs. We can dispose of the business, if we please, in an hour, for I have

received a letter from M. Delaunay, in which he offers to purchase the goodwill of the house, to unite with

his own, for 300,000 francs. Advise me what I had better do.' `Emmanuel,' returned my sister, `the house

of Morrel can only be carried on by a Morrel. Is it not worth 300,000 francs to save our father's name from

the chances of evil fortune and failure?' `I thought so,' replied Emmanuel; `but I wished to have your

advice.' `This is my counsel: Our accounts are made up and our bills paid; all we have to do is to stop

the issue of any more, and close our office.' This was done instantly. It was three o'clock; at a quarter past, a

merchant presented himself to insure two ships; it was a clear profit of 15,000 francs. `Monsieur,' said

Emmanuel, `have the goodness to address yourself to M. Delaunay. We have quitted business.' `How

long?' inquired the astonished merchant. `A quarter of an hour,' was the reply. And this is the reason,

monsieur," continued Maximilian, "of my sister and brotherinlaw having only 25,000 francs a year."

Maximilian had scarcely finished his story, during which the count's heart had swelled within him, when

Emmanuel entered wearing a hat and coat. He saluted the count with the air of a man who is aware of the

rank of his guest; then, after having led Monte Cristo around the little garden, he returned to the house. A

large vase of Japan porcelain, filled with flowers that loaded the air with their perfume, stood in the salon.

Julie, suitably dressed, and her hair arranged (she had accomplished this feat in less than ten minutes),

received the count on his entrance. The songs of the birds were heard in an aviary hard by, and the branches

of laburnums and rose acacias formed an exquisite framework to the blue velvet curtains. Everything in this

charming retreat, from the warble of the birds to the smile of the mistress, breathed tranquillity and repose.

The count had felt the influence of this happiness from the moment he entered the house, and he remained

silent and pensive, forgetting that he was expected to renew the conversation, which had ceased after the first

salutations had been exchanged. The silence became almost painful when, by a violent effort, tearing himself

from his pleasing reverie "Madame," said he at length, "I pray you to excuse my emotion, which must

astonish you who are only accustomed to the happiness I meet here; but contentment is so new a sight to me,

"We are very happy, monsieur," replied Julie; "but we have also known unhappiness, and few have ever

undergone more bitter sufferings than ourselves." The Count's features displayed an expression of the most

"Oh, all this is a family history, as ChateauRenaud told you the other day," observed Maximilian. "This

humble picture would have but little interest for you, accustomed as you are to behold the pleasures and the

misfortunes of the wealthy and industrious; but such as we are, we have experienced bitter sorrows."

"And God has poured balm into your wounds, as he does into those of all who are in affliction?" said Monte

"Yes, count," returned Julie, "we may indeed say he has, for he has done for us what he grants only to his

chosen; he sent us one of his angels." The count's cheeks became scarlet, and he coughed, in order to have an

excuse for putting his handkerchief to his mouth. "Those born to wealth, and who have the means of

gratifying every wish," said Emmanuel, "know not what is the real happiness of life, just as those who have

been tossed on the stormy waters of the ocean on a few frail planks can alone realize the blessings of fair

Monte Cristo rose, and without making any answer (for the tremulousness of his voice would have betrayed

"Our magnificence makes you smile, count," said Maximilian, who had followed him with his eyes. "No, no,"

returned Monte Cristo, pale as death, pressing one hand on his heart to still its throbbings, while with the

other he pointed to a crystal cover, beneath which a silken purse lay on a black velvet cushion. "I was

wondering what could be the significance of this purse, with the paper at one end and the large diamond at

"Count," replied Maximilian, with an air of gravity, "those are our most precious family treasures."

"Oh, my brother does not allude to its value, although it has been estimated at 100,000 francs; he means, that

the articles contained in this purse are the relics of the angel I spoke of just now."

"This I do not comprehend; and yet I may not ask for an explanation, madame," replied Monte Cristo bowing.

"Indiscretion, oh, you make us happy by giving us an excuse for expatiating on this subject. If we wanted

to conceal the noble action this purse commemorates, we should not expose it thus to view. Oh, would we

could relate it everywhere, and to every one, so that the emotion of our unknown benefactor might reveal his

"Monsieur," returned Maximilian, raising the glass cover, and respectfully kissing the silken purse, "this has

touched the hand of a man who saved my father from suicide, us from ruin, and our name from shame and

disgrace, a man by whose matchless benevolence we poor children, doomed to want and wretchedness,

can at present hear every one envying our happy lot. This letter" (as he spoke, Maximilian drew a letter from

the purse and gave it to the count) "this letter was written by him the day that my father had taken a

desperate resolution, and this diamond was given by the generous unknown to my sister as her dowry."

Monte Cristo opened the letter, and read it with an indescribable feeling of delight. It was the letter written

(as our readers know) to Julie, and signed "Sinbad the Sailor." "Unknown you say, is the man who rendered

"Yes; we have never had the happiness of pressing his hand," continued Maximilian. "We have supplicated

heaven in vain to grant us this favor, but the whole affair has had a mysterious meaning that we cannot

comprehend we have been guided by an invisible hand, a hand as powerful as that of an enchanter."

"Oh," cried Julie, "I have not lost all hope of some day kissing that hand, as I now kiss the purse which he has

touched. Four years ago, Penelon was at Trieste Penelon, count, is the old sailor you saw in the garden,

and who, from quartermaster, has become gardener Penelon, when he was at Trieste, saw on the quay an

Englishman, who was on the point of embarking on board a yacht, and he recognized him as the person who

called on my father the fifth of June, 1829, and who wrote me this letter on the fifth of September. He felt

"An Englishman," said Monte Cristo, who grew uneasy at the attention with which Julie looked at him. "An

"Yes," replied Maximilian, "an Englishman, who represented himself as the confidential clerk of the house of

Thomson French, at Rome. It was this that made me start when you said the other day, at M. de Morcerf's,

that Messrs. Thomson French were your bankers. That happened, as I told you, in 1829. For God's sake, tell

"But you tell me, also, that the house of Thomson French have constantly denied having rendered you this

"Then is it not probable that this Englishman may be some one who, grateful for a kindness your father had

shown him, and which he himself had forgotten, has taken this method of requiting the obligation?"

"He gave no other name," answered Julie, looking earnestly at the count, "than that at the end of his letter

"Tell me," continued he, "was he not about my height, perhaps a little taller, with his chin imprisoned, as it

were, in a high cravat; his coat closely buttoned up, and constantly taking out his pencil?"

"No," returned Monte Cristo "I only guessed. I knew a Lord Wilmore, who was constantly doing actions of

"Oh, heaven," exclaimed Julie, clasping her hands, "in what did he believe, then?"

"He did not credit it at the period which I knew him," said Monte Cristo, touched to the heart by the accents

of Julie's voice; "but, perhaps, since then he has had proofs that gratitude does exist."

"Oh, if you do know him," cried Julie, "can you tell us where he is where we can find him? Maximilian

Emmanuel if we do but discover him, he must believe in the gratitude of the heart!" Monte Cristo felt

"In the name of heaven," said Maximilian, "if you know anything of him, tell us what it is."

"Alas," cried Monte Cristo, striving to repress his emotion, "if Lord Wilmore was your unknown benefactor, I

fear you will never see him again. I parted from him two years ago at Palermo, and he was then on the point

of setting out for the most remote regions; so that I fear he will never return."

"Oh, monsieur, this is cruel of you," said Julie, much affected; and the young lady's eyes swam with tears.

"Madame," replied Monte Cristo gravely, and gazing earnestly on the two liquid pearls that trickled down

Julie's cheeks, "had Lord Wilmore seen what I now see, he would become attached to life, for the tears you

shed would reconcile him to mankind;" and he held out his hand to Julie, who gave him hers, carried away by

the look and accent of the count. "But," continued she, "Lord Wilmore had a family or friends, he must have

"Oh, it is useless to inquire," returned the count; "perhaps, after all, he was not the man you seek for. He was

my friend: he had no secrets from me, and if this had been so he would have confided in me."

"Sister, sister," said Maximilian, coming to the count's aid, "monsieur is quite right. Recollect what our

excellent father so often told us, `It was no Englishman that thus saved us.'" Monte Cristo started. "What did

"My father thought that this action had been miraculously performed he believed that a benefactor had

arisen from the grave to save us. Oh, it was a touching superstition, monsieur, and although I did not myself

believe it, I would not for the world have destroyed my father's faith. How often did he muse over it and

pronounce the name of a dear friend a friend lost to him forever; and on his deathbed, when the near

approach of eternity seemed to have illumined his mind with supernatural light, this thought, which had until

then been but a doubt, became a conviction, and his last words were, `Maximilian, it was Edmond Dantes!'"

At these words the count's paleness, which had for some time been increasing, became alarming; he could not

speak; he looked at his watch like a man who has forgotten the hour, said a few hurried words to Madame

Herbault, and pressing the hands of Emmanuel and Maximilian, "Madame," said he, "I trust you will

allow me to visit you occasionally; I value your friendship, and feel grateful to you for your welcome, for this

is the first time for many years that I have thus yielded to my feelings;" and he hastily quitted the apartment.

"Yes," answered Maximilian, "but I feel sure he has an excellent heart, and that he likes us."

"His voice went to my heart," observed Julie; "and two or three times I fancied that I had heard it before."

About twothirds of the way along the Faubourg SaintHonore, and in the rear of one of the most imposing

mansions in this rich neighborhood, where the various houses vie with each other for elegance of design and

magnificence of construction, extended a large garden, where the widespreading chestnuttrees raised their

heads high above the walls in a solid rampart, and with the coming of every spring scattered a shower of

delicate pink and white blossoms into the large stone vases that stood upon the two square pilasters of a

curiously wrought iron gate, that dated from the time of Louis XII. This noble entrance, however, in spite of

its striking appearance and the graceful effect of the geraniums planted in the two vases, as they waved their

variegated leaves in the wind and charmed the eye with their scarlet bloom, had fallen into utter disuse. The

proprietors of the mansion had many years before thought it best to confine themselves to the possession of

the house itself, with its thickly planted courtyard, opening into the Faubourg SaintHonore, and to the

garden shut in by this gate, which formerly communicated with a fine kitchengarden of about an acre. For

the demon of speculation drew a line, or in other words projected a street, at the farther side of the

kitchengarden. The street was laid out, a name was chosen and posted up on an iron plate, but before

construction was begun, it occurred to the possessor of the property that a handsome sum might be obtained

for the ground then devoted to fruits and vegetables, by building along the line of the proposed street, and so

making it a branch of communication with the Faubourg SaintHonore itself, one of the most important

In matters of speculation, however, though "man proposes," "money disposes." From some such difficulty the

newly named street died almost in birth, and the purchaser of the kitchengarden, having paid a high price for

it, and being quite unable to find any one willing to take his bargain off his hands without a considerable loss,

yet still clinging to the belief that at some future day he should obtain a sum for it that would repay him, not

only for his past outlay, but also the interest upon the capital locked up in his new acquisition, contented

himself with letting the ground temporarily to some marketgardeners, at a yearly rental of 500 francs. And

so, as we have said, the iron gate leading into the kitchengarden had been closed up and left to the rust,

which bade fair before long to eat off its hinges, while to prevent the ignoble glances of the diggers and

delvers of the ground from presuming to sully the aristocratic enclosure belonging to the mansion, the gate

had been boarded up to a height of six feet. True, the planks were not so closely adjusted but that a hasty peep

might be obtained through their interstices; but the strict decorum and rigid propriety of the inhabitants of the

house left no grounds for apprehending that advantage would be taken of that circumstance.

Horticulture seemed, however, to have been abandoned in the deserted kitchengarden; and where cabbages,

carrots, radishes, pease, and melons had once flourished, a scanty crop of lucerne alone bore evidence of its

being deemed worthy of cultivation. A small, low door gave egress from the walled space we have been

describing into the projected street, the ground having been abandoned as unproductive by its various renters,

and had now fallen so completely in general estimation as to return not even the onehalf per cent it had

originally paid. Towards the house the chestnuttrees we have before mentioned rose high above the wall,

without in any way affecting the growth of other luxuriant shrubs and flowers that eagerly dressed forward to

fill up the vacant spaces, as though asserting their right to enjoy the boon of light and air. At one corner,

where the foliage became so thick as almost to shut out day, a large stone bench and sundry rustic seats

indicated that this sheltered spot was either in general favor or particular use by some inhabitant of the house,

which was faintly discernible through the dense mass of verdure that partially concealed it, though situated

Whoever had selected this retired portion of the grounds as the boundary of a walk, or as a place for

meditation, was abundantly justified in the choice by the absence of all glare, the cool, refreshing shade, the

screen it afforded from the scorching rays of the sun, that found no entrance there even during the burning

days of hottest summer, the incessant and melodious warbling of birds, and the entire removal from either the

noise of the street or the bustle of the mansion. On the evening of one of the warmest days spring had yet

bestowed on the inhabitants of Paris, might be seen negligently thrown upon the stone bench, a book, a

parasol, and a workbasket, from which hung a partly embroidered cambric handkerchief, while at a little

distance from these articles was a young woman, standing close to the iron gate, endeavoring to discern

something on the other side by means of the openings in the planks, the earnestness of her attitude and the

fixed gaze with which she seemed to seek the object of her wishes, proving how much her feelings were

interested in the matter. At that instant the little sidegate leading from the waste ground to the street was

noiselessly opened, and a tall, powerful young man appeared. He was dressed in a common gray blouse and

velvet cap, but his carefully arranged hair, beard and mustache, all of the richest and glossiest black, ill

accorded with his plebeian attire. After casting a rapid glance around him, in order to assure himself that he

was unobserved, he entered by the small gate, and, carefully closing and securing it after him, proceeded with

At the sight of him she expected, though probably not in such a costume, the young woman started in terror,

and was about to make a hasty retreat. But the eye of love had already seen, even through the narrow chinks

of the wooden palisades, the movement of the white robe, and observed the fluttering of the blue sash.

Pressing his lips close to the planks, he exclaimed, "Don't be alarmed, Valentine it is I!" Again the timid

girl found courage to return to the gate, saying, as she did so, "And why do you come so late today? It is

almost dinnertime, and I had to use no little diplomacy to get rid of my watchful motherinlaw, my

toodevoted maid, and my troublesome brother, who is always teasing me about coming to work at my

embroidery, which I am in a fair way never to get done. So pray excuse yourself as well as you can for

having made me wait, and, after that, tell me why I see you in a dress so singular that at first I did not

"Dearest Valentine," said the young man, "the difference between our respective stations makes me fear to

offend you by speaking of my love, but yet I cannot find myself in your presence without longing to pour

forth my soul, and tell you how fondly I adore you. If it be but to carry away with me the recollection of such

sweet moments, I could even thank you for chiding me, for it leaves me a gleam of hope, that if you did not

expect me (and that indeed would be worse than vanity to suppose), at least I was in your thoughts. You

asked me the cause of my being late, and why I come disguised. I will candidly explain the reason of both,

"A trade? Oh, Maximilian, how can you jest at a time when we have such deep cause for uneasiness?"

"Heaven keep me from jesting with that which is far dearer to me than life itself! But listen to me, Valentine,

and I will tell you all about it. I became weary of ranging fields and scaling walls, and seriously alarmed at

the idea suggested by you, that if caught hovering about here your father would very likely have me sent to

prison as a thief. That would compromise the honor of the French army, to say nothing of the fact that the

continual presence of a captain of Spahis in a place where no warlike projects could be supposed to account

for it might well create surprise; so I have become a gardener, and, consequently, adopted the costume of my

"Nonsense? Pray do not call what I consider the wisest action of my life by such a name. Consider, by

becoming a gardener I effectually screen our meetings from all suspicion or danger."

"I beseech of you, Maximilian, to cease trifling, and tell me what you really mean."

"Simply, that having ascertained that the piece of ground on which I stand was to let, I made application for

it, was readily accepted by the proprietor, and am now master of this fine crop of lucerne. Think of that,

Valentine! There is nothing now to prevent my building myself a little hut on my plantation, and residing not

twenty yards from you. Only imagine what happiness that would afford me. I can scarcely contain myself at

the bare idea. Such felicity seems above all price as a thing impossible and unattainable. But would you

believe that I purchase all this delight, joy, and happiness, for which I would cheerfully have surrendered ten

years of my life, at the small cost of 500 francs per annum, paid quarterly? Henceforth we have nothing to

fear. I am on my own ground, and have an undoubted right to place a ladder against the wall, and to look over

when I please, without having any apprehensions of being taken off by the police as a suspicious character. I

may also enjoy the precious privilege of assuring you of my fond, faithful, and unalterable affection,

whenever you visit your favorite bower, unless, indeed, it offends your pride to listen to professions of love

from the lips of a poor workingman, clad in a blouse and cap." A faint cry of mingled pleasure and surprise

escaped from the lips of Valentine, who almost instantly said, in a saddened tone, as though some envious

cloud darkened the joy which illumined her heart, "Alas, no, Maximilian, this must not be, for many reasons.

We should presume too much on our own strength, and, like others, perhaps, be led astray by our blind

"How can you for an instant entertain so unworthy a thought, dear Valentine? Have I not, from the first

blessed hour of our acquaintance, schooled all my words and actions to your sentiments and ideas? And you

have, I am sure, the fullest confidence in my honor. When you spoke to me of experiencing a vague and

indefinite sense of coming danger, I placed myself blindly and devotedly at your service, asking no other

reward than the pleasure of being useful to you; and have I ever since, by word or look, given you cause of

regret for having selected me from the numbers that would willingly have sacrificed their lives for you? You

told me, my dear Valentine, that you were engaged to M. d'Epinay, and that your father was resolved upon

completing the match, and that from his will there was no appeal, as M. de Villefort was never known to

change a determination once formed. I kept in the background, as you wished, and waited, not for the

decision of your heart or my own, but hoping that providence would graciously interpose in our behalf, and

order events in our favor. But what cared I for delays or difficulties, Valentine, as long as you confessed that

you loved me, and took pity on me? If you will only repeat that avowal now and then, I can endure anything."

"Ah, Maximilian, that is the very thing that makes you so bold, and which renders me at once so happy and

unhappy, that I frequently ask myself whether it is better for me to endure the harshness of my

motherinlaw, and her blind preference for her own child, or to be, as I now am, insensible to any pleasure

"I will not admit that word," returned the young man; "it is at once cruel and unjust. Is it possible to find a

more submissive slave than myself? You have permitted me to converse with you from time to time,

Valentine, but forbidden my ever following you in your walks or elsewhere have I not obeyed? And since

I found means to enter this enclosure to exchange a few words with you through this gate to be close to

you without really seeing you have I ever asked so much as to touch the hem of your gown or tried to pass

this barrier which is but a trifle to one of my youth and strength? Never has a complaint or a murmur escaped

me. I have been bound by my promises as rigidly as any knight of olden times. Come, come, dearest

Valentine, confess that what I say is true, lest I be tempted to call you unjust."

"It is true," said Valentine, as she passed the end of her slender fingers through a small opening in the planks,

and permitted Maximilian to press his lips to them, "and you are a true and faithful friend; but still you acted

from motives of selfinterest, my dear Maximilian, for you well knew that from the moment in which you

had manifested an opposite spirit all would have been ended between us. You promised to bestow on me the

friendly affection of a brother. For I have no friend but yourself upon earth, who am neglected and forgotten

by my father, harassed and persecuted by my motherinlaw, and left to the sole companionship of a

paralyzed and speechless old man, whose withered hand can no longer press mine, and who can speak to me

with the eye alone, although there still lingers in his heart the warmest tenderness for his poor grandchild. Oh,

how bitter a fate is mine, to serve either as a victim or an enemy to all who are stronger than myself, while

my only friend and supporter is a living corpse! Indeed, indeed, Maximilian, I am very miserable, and if you

"Valentine," replied the young man, deeply affected, "I will not say you are all I love in the world, for I

dearly prize my sister and brotherinlaw; but my affection for them is calm and tranquil, in no manner

resembling what I feel for you. When I think of you my heart beats fast, the blood burns in my veins, and I

can hardly breathe; but I solemnly promise you to restrain all this ardor, this fervor and intensity of feeling,

until you yourself shall require me to render them available in serving or assisting you. M. Franz is not

expected to return home for a year to come, I am told; in that time many favorable and unforeseen chances

may befriend us. Let us, then, hope for the best; hope is so sweet a comforter. Meanwhile, Valentine, while

reproaching me with selfishness, think a little what you have been to me the beautiful but cold

resemblance of a marble Venus. What promise of future reward have you made me for all the submission and

obedience I have evinced? none whatever. What granted me? scarcely more. You tell me of M. Franz

d'Epinay, your betrothed lover, and you shrink from the idea of being his wife; but tell me, Valentine, is there

no other sorrow in your heart? You see me devoted to you, body and soul, my life and each warm drop that

circles round my heart are consecrated to your service; you know full well that my existence is bound up in

yours that were I to lose you I would not outlive the hour of such crushing misery; yet you speak with

calmness of the prospect of your being the wife of another! Oh, Valentine, were I in your place, and did I feel

conscious, as you do, of being worshipped, adored, with such a love as mine, a hundred times at least should I

have passed my hand between these iron bars, and said, `Take this hand, dearest Maximilian, and believe

that, living or dead, I am yours yours only, and forever!'" The poor girl made no reply, but her lover could

plainly hear her sobs and tears. A rapid change took place in the young man's feelings. "Dearest, dearest

Valentine," exclaimed he, "forgive me if I have offended you, and forget the words I spoke if they have

"No, Maximilian, I am not offended," answered she, "but do you not see what a poor, helpless being I am,

almost a stranger and an outcast in my father's house, where even he is seldom seen; whose will has been

thwarted, and spirits broken, from the age of ten years, beneath the iron rod so sternly held over me;

oppressed, mortified, and persecuted, day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute, no person has cared for,

even observed my sufferings, nor have I ever breathed one word on the subject save to yourself. Outwardly

and in the eyes of the world, I am surrounded by kindness and affection; but the reverse is the case. The

general remark is, `Oh, it cannot be expected that one of so stern a character as M. Villefort could lavish the

tenderness some fathers do on their daughters. What though she has lost her own mother at a tender age, she

has had the happiness to find a second mother in Madame de Villefort.' The world, however, is mistaken; my

father abandons me from utter indifference, while my motherinlaw detests me with a hatred so much the

"Hate you, sweet Valentine," exclaimed the young man; "how is it possible for any one to do that?"

"Alas," replied the weeping girl, "I am obliged to own that my motherinlaw's aversion to me arises from a

"I do not know; but, though unwilling to introduce money matters into our present conversation, I will just

say this much that her extreme dislike to me has its origin there; and I much fear she envies me the fortune

I enjoy in right of my mother, and which will be more than doubled at the death of M. and Mme. de

SaintMeran, whose sole heiress I am. Madame de Villefort has nothing of her own, and hates me for being

so richly endowed. Alas, how gladly would I exchange the half of this wealth for the happiness of at least

sharing my father's love. God knows, I would prefer sacrificing the whole, so that it would obtain me a happy

"I seem to myself as though living a life of bondage, yet at the same time am so conscious of my own

weakness that I fear to break the restraint in which I am held, lest I fall utterly helpless. Then, too, my father

is not a person whose orders may be infringed with impunity; protected as he is by his high position and

firmly established reputation for talent and unswerving integrity, no one could oppose him; he is allpowerful

even with the king; he would crush you at a word. Dear Maximilian, believe me when I assure you that if I do

not attempt to resist my father's commands it is more on your account than my own."

"But why, Valentine, do you persist in anticipating the worst, why picture so gloomy a future?"

"Still, consider that although I may not be, strictly speaking, what is termed an illustrious match for you, I

am, for many reasons, not altogether so much beneath your alliance. The days when such distinctions were so

nicely weighed and considered no longer exist in France, and the first families of the monarchy have

intermarried with those of the empire. The aristocracy of the lance has allied itself with the nobility of the

cannon. Now I belong to this lastnamed class; and certainly my prospects of military preferment are most

encouraging as well as certain. My fortune, though small, is free and unfettered, and the memory of my late

father is respected in our country, Valentine, as that of the most upright and honorable merchant of the city; I

"Don't speak of Marseilles, I beg of you, Maximilian; that one word brings back my mother to my

recollection my angel mother, who died too soon for myself and all who knew her; but who, after

watching over her child during the brief period allotted to her in this world, now, I fondly hope, watches from

her home in heaven. Oh, if my mother were still living, there would be nothing to fear, Maximilian, for I

"I fear, Valentine," replied the lover, "that were she living I should never have had the happiness of knowing

you; you would then have been too happy to have stooped from your grandeur to bestow a thought on me."

"Now it is you who are unjust, Maximilian," cried Valentine; "but there is one thing I wish to know."

"And what is that?" inquired the young man, perceiving that Valentine hesitated.

"Tell me truly, Maximilian, whether in former days, when our fathers dwelt at Marseilles, there was ever any

"Not that I am aware of," replied the young man, "unless, indeed, any illfeeling might have arisen from their

being of opposite parties your father was, as you know, a zealous partisan of the Bourbons, while mine

was wholly devoted to the emperor; there could not possibly be any other difference between them. But why

"I will tell you," replied the young girl, "for it is but right you should know. Well, on the day when your

appointment as an officer of the Legion of honor was announced in the papers, we were all sitting with my

grandfather, M. Noirtier; M. Danglars was there also you recollect M. Danglars, do you not, Maximilian,

the banker, whose horses ran away with my motherinlaw and little brother, and very nearly killed them?

While the rest of the company were discussing the approaching marriage of Mademoiselle Danglars, I was

reading the paper to my grandfather; but when I came to the paragraph about you, although I had done

nothing else but read it over to myself all the morning (you know you had told me all about it the previous

evening), I felt so happy, and yet so nervous, at the idea of speaking your name aloud, and before so many

people, that I really think I should have passed it over, but for the fear that my doing so might create

suspicions as to the cause of my silence; so I summoned up all my courage, and read it as firmly and as

"Well, would you believe it? directly my father caught the sound of your name he turned round quite hastily,

and, like a poor silly thing, I was so persuaded that every one must be as much affected as myself by the

utterance of your name, that I was not surprised to see my father start, and almost tremble; but I even thought

"`Morrel, Morrel,' cried my father, `stop a bit;' then knitting his brows into a deep frown, he added, `surely

this cannot be one of the Morrel family who lived at Marseilles, and gave us so much trouble from their

violent Bonapartism I mean about the year 1815.' `Yes,' replied M. Danglars, `I believe he is the son of

"`Ah,' continued my father, still frowning, `their idolized emperor treated these madmen as they deserved; he

called them `food for powder,' which was precisely all they were good for; and I am delighted to see that the

present government have adopted this salutary principle with all its pristine vigor; if Algiers were good for

nothing but to furnish the means of carrying so admirable an idea into practice, it would be an acquisition

well worthy of struggling to obtain. Though it certainly does cost France somewhat dear to assert her rights in

"Brutal politics, I must confess." said Maximilian; "but don't attach any serious importance, dear, to what

your father said. My father was not a bit behind yours in that sort of talk. `Why,' said he, `does not the

emperor, who has devised so many clever and efficient modes of improving the art of war, organize a

regiment of lawyers, judges and legal practitioners, sending them in the hottest fire the enemy could maintain,

and using them to save better men?' You see, my dear, that for picturesque expression and generosity of spirit

there is not much to choose between the language of either party. But what did M. Danglars say to this

"Oh, he laughed, and in that singular manner so peculiar to himself halfmalicious, halfferocious; he

almost immediately got up and took his leave; then, for the first time, I observed the agitation of my

grandfather, and I must tell you, Maximilian, that I am the only person capable of discerning emotion in his

paralyzed frame. And I suspected that the conversation that had been carried on in his presence (for they

always say and do what they like before the dear old man, without the smallest regard for his feelings) had

made a strong impression on his mind; for, naturally enough, it must have pained him to hear the emperor he

"The name of M. Noirtier," interposed Maximilian, "is celebrated throughout Europe; he was a statesman of

high standing, and you may or may not know, Valentine, that he took a leading part in every Bonapartist

"Oh, I have often heard whispers of things that seem to me most strange the father a Bonapartist, the son a

Royalist; what can have been the reason of so singular a difference in parties and politics? But to resume my

story; I turned towards my grandfather, as though to question him as to the cause of his emotion; he looked

expressively at the newspaper I had been reading. `What is the matter, dear grandfather?' said I, `are you

pleased?' He gave me a sign in the affirmative. `With what my father said just now?' He returned a sign in the

negative. `Perhaps you liked what M. Danglars said?' Another sign in the negative. `Oh, then, you were glad

to hear that M. Morrel (I didn't dare to say Maximilian) had been made an officer of the Legion of Honor?'

He signified assent; only think of the poor old man's being so pleased to think that you, who were a perfect

stranger to him, had been made an officer of the Legion of Honor! Perhaps it was a mere whim on his part,

for he is falling, they say, into second childhood, but I love him for showing so much interest in you."

"How singular," murmured Maximilian; "your father hates me, while your grandfather, on the contrary

"Hush," cried Valentine, suddenly; "some one is coming!" Maximilian leaped at one bound into his crop of

lucerne, which he began to pull up in the most ruthless way, under the pretext of being occupied in weeding

"Mademoiselle, mademoiselle!" exclaimed a voice from behind the trees. "Madame is searching for you

"I will come directly," cried Valentine aloud. The name of Monte Cristo sent an electric shock through the

young man on the other side of the iron gate, to whom Valentine's "I am coming" was the customary signal of

farewell. "Now, then," said Maximilian, leaning on the handle of his spade, "I would give a good deal to

know how it comes about that the Count of Monte Cristo is acquainted with M. de Villefort."

It was really the Count of Monte Cristo who had just arrived at Madame de Villefort's for the purpose of

returning the procureur's visit, and at his name, as may be easily imagined, the whole house was in confusion.

Madame de Villefort, who was alone in her drawingroom when the count was announced, desired that her

son might be brought thither instantly to renew his thanks to the count; and Edward, who heard this great

personage talked of for two whole days, made all possible haste to come to him, not from obedience to his

mother, or out of any feeling of gratitude to the count, but from sheer curiosity, and that some chance remark

might give him the opportunity for making one of the impertinent speeches which made his mother say,

"Oh, that naughty child! But I can't be severe with him, he is really so bright."

After the usual civilities, the count inquired after M. de Villefort. "My husband dines with the chancellor,"

replied the young lady; "he has just gone, and I am sure he'll be exceedingly sorry not to have had the

pleasure of seeing you before he went." Two visitors who were there when the count arrived, having gazed at

him with all their eyes, retired after that reasonable delay which politeness admits and curiosity requires.

"What is your sister Valentine doing?" inquired Madame de Villefort of Edward; "tell some one to bid her

"You have a daughter, then, madame?" inquired the count; "very young, I presume?"

"The daughter of M. de Villefort by his first marriage," replied the young wife, "a fine wellgrown girl."

"But melancholy," interrupted Master Edward, snatching the feathers out of the tail of a splendid parroquet

that was screaming on its gilded perch, in order to make a plume for his hat. Madame de Villefort merely

cried, "Be still, Edward!" She then added, "This young madcap is, however, very nearly right, and

merely reechoes what he has heard me say with pain a hundred times; for Mademoiselle de Villefort is, in

spite of all we can do to rouse her, of a melancholy disposition and taciturn habit, which frequently injure the

"She is under the big chestnuttree," replied the spoiled brat, as he gave, in spite of his mother's commands,

live flies to the parrot, which seemed keenly to relish such fare. Madame de Villefort stretched out her hand

to ring, intending to direct her waitingmaid to the spot where she would find Valentine, when the young

lady herself entered the apartment. She appeared much dejected; and any person who considered her

Valentine, whom we have in the rapid march of our narrative presented to our readers without formally

introducing her, was a tall and graceful girl of nineteen, with bright chestnut hair, deep blue eyes, and that

reposeful air of quiet distinction which characterized her mother. Her white and slender fingers, her pearly

neck, her cheeks tinted with varying hues reminded one of the lovely Englishwomen who have been so

poetically compared in their manner to the gracefulness of a swan. She entered the apartment, and seeing near

her stepmother the stranger of whom she had already heard so much, saluted him without any girlish

awkwardness, or even lowering her eyes, and with an elegance that redoubled the count's attention. He rose to

return the salutation. "Mademoiselle de Villefort, my daughterinlaw," said Madame de Villefort to Monte

Cristo, leaning back on her sofa and motioning towards Valentine with her hand. "And M. de Monte Cristo,

King of China, Emperor of CochinChina," said the young imp, looking slyly towards his sister.

Madame de Villefort at this really did turn pale, and was very nearly angry with this household plague, who

answered to the name of Edward; but the count, on the contrary, smiled, and appeared to look at the boy

complacently, which caused the maternal heart to bound again with joy and enthusiasm.

"But, madame," replied the count, continuing the conversation, and looking by turns at Madame de Villefort

and Valentine, "have I not already had the honor of meeting yourself and mademoiselle before? I could not

help thinking so just now; the idea came over my mind, and as mademoiselle entered the sight of her was an

"I do not think it likely, sir; Mademoiselle de Villefort is not very fond of society, and we very seldom go

"Then it was not in society that I met with mademoiselle or yourself, madame, or this charming little merry

boy. Besides, the Parisian world is entirely unknown to me, for, as I believe I told you, I have been in Paris

but very few days. No, but, perhaps, you will permit me to call to mind stay!" The Count placed his

hand on his brow as if to collect his thoughts. "No it was somewhere away from here it was I do

not know but it appears that this recollection is connected with a lovely sky and some religious fete;

mademoiselle was holding flowers in her hand, the interesting boy was chasing a beautiful peacock in a

garden, and you, madame, were under the trellis of some arbor. Pray come to my aid, madame; do not these

"No, indeed," replied Madame de Villefort; "and yet it appears to me, sir, that if I had met you anywhere, the

"Yes, in Italy; it was in Italy most probably," replied Monte Cristo; "you have travelled then in Italy,

"Yes; madame and I were there two years ago. The doctors, anxious for my lungs, had prescribed the air of

"Ah, yes true, mademoiselle," exclaimed Monte Cristo as if this simple explanation was sufficient to

revive the recollection he sought. "It was at Perugia on Corpus Christi Day, in the garden of the Hotel des

Postes, when chance brought us together; you, Madame de Villefort, and her son; I now remember having

"I perfectly well remember Perugia, sir, and the Hotel des Postes, and the festival of which you speak," said

Madame de Villefort, "but in vain do I tax my memory, of whose treachery I am ashamed, for I really do not

"It is strange, but neither do I recollect meeting with you," observed Valentine, raising her beautiful eyes to

"I will assist your memory, madame," continued the count; "the day had been burning hot; you were waiting

for horses, which were delayed in consequence of the festival. Mademoiselle was walking in the shade of the

"And I caught it, mamma, don't you remember?" interposed Edward, "and I pulled three such beautiful

"You, madame, remained under the arbor; do you not remember, that while you were seated on a stone

bench, and while, as I told you, Mademoiselle de Villefort and your young son were absent, you conversed

"Yes, in truth, yes," answered the young lady, turning very red, "I do remember conversing with a person

"Precisely so, madame; this man was myself; for a fortnight I had been at that hotel, during which period I

had cured my valet de chambre of a fever, and my landlord of the jaundice, so that I really acquired a

reputation as a skilful physician. We discoursed a long time, madame, on different subjects; of Perugino, of

Raffaelle, of manners, customs, of the famous aquatofana, of which they had told you, I think you said, that

"I do not recollect now all the various subjects of which we discoursed, madame," continued the count with

perfect calmness; "but I perfectly remember that, falling into the error which others had entertained

"Yes, really, sir, you were in fact a medical man," said Madame de Villefort, "since you had cured the sick."

"Moliere or Beaumarchais would reply to you, madame, that it was precisely because I was not, that I had

cured my patients; for myself, I am content to say to you that I have studied chemistry and the natural

sciences somewhat deeply, but still only as an amateur, you understand." At this moment the clock struck

six. "It is six o'clock," said Madame de Villefort, evidently agitated. "Valentine, will you not go and see if

your grandpapa will have his dinner?" Valentine rose, and saluting the count, left the apartment without

"Oh, madame," said the count, when Valentine had left the room, "was it on my account that you sent

"By no means," replied the young lady quickly; "but this is the hour when we usually give M. Noirtier the

unwelcome meal that sustains his pitiful existence. You are aware, sir, of the deplorable condition of my

"Alas, yes; the poor old gentleman is entirely helpless; the mind alone is still active in this human machine,

and that is faint and flickering, like the light of a lamp about to expire. But excuse me, sir, for talking of our

domestic misfortunes; I interrupted you at the moment when you were telling me that you were a skilful

"No, madame, I did not say as much as that," replied the count with a smile; "quite the contrary. I have

studied chemistry because, having determined to live in eastern climates I have been desirous of following

"Mithridates rex Ponticus," said the young scamp, as he tore some beautiful portraits out of a splendid album,

"the individual who took cream in his cup of poison every morning at breakfast."

"Edward, you naughty boy," exclaimed Madame de Villefort, snatching the mutilated book from the urchin's

grasp, "you are positively past bearing; you really disturb the conversation; go, leave us, and join your sister

"I won't go unless you give me the album," said the boy, seating himself doggedly in an armchair, according

"Take it, then, and pray disturb us no longer," said Madame de Villefort, giving the album to Edward, who

then went towards the door, led by his mother. The count followed her with his eyes.

"Let us see if she shuts the door after him," he muttered. Madame de Villefort closed the door carefully after

the child, the count appearing not to notice her; then casting a scrutinizing glance around the chamber, the

young wife returned to her chair, in which she seated herself. "Allow me to observe, madame," said the

count, with that kind tone he could assume so well, "you are really very severe with that dear clever child."

"Oh, sometimes severity is quite necessary," replied Madame de Villefort, with all a mother's real firmness.

"It was his Cornelius Nepos that Master Edward was repeating when he referred to King Mithridates,"

continued the count, "and you interrupted him in a quotation which proves that his tutor has by no means

"The fact is, count," answered the mother, agreeably flattered, "he has great aptitude, and learns all that is set

before him. He has but one fault, he is somewhat wilful; but really, on referring for the moment to what he

said, do you truly believe that Mithridates used these precautions, and that these precautions were

"I think so, madame, because I myself have made use of them, that I might not be poisoned at Naples, at

Palermo, and at Smyrna that is to say, on three several occasions when, but for these precautions, I must

"Indeed?" said the count with an air of surprise, remarkably well counterfeited; "I really did not remember."

"I inquired of you if poisons acted equally, and with the same effect, on men of the North as on men of the

South; and you answered me that the cold and sluggish habits of the North did not present the same aptitude

"And that is the case," observed Monte Cristo. "I have seen Russians devour, without being visibly

inconvenienced, vegetable substances which would infallibly have killed a Neapolitan or an Arab."

"And you really believe the result would be still more sure with us than in the East, and in the midst of our

fogs and rains a man would habituate himself more easily than in a warm latitude to this progressive

"Certainly; it being at the same time perfectly understood that he should have been duly fortified against the

"Yes, I understand that; and how would you habituate yourself, for instance, or rather, how did you habituate

"Oh, very easily. Suppose you knew beforehand the poison that would be made use of against you; suppose

"Brucine is extracted from the false angostura* is it not?" inquired Madame de Villefort.

"Precisely, madame," replied Monte Cristo; "but I perceive I have not much to teach you. Allow me to

"Oh, I am aware of that," said Madame de Villefort; "but I have a passion for the occult sciences, which

speak to the imagination like poetry, and are reducible to figures, like an algebraic equation; but go on, I beg

"Well," replied Monte Cristo "suppose, then, that this poison was brucine, and you were to take a

milligramme the first day, two milligrammes the second day, and so on. Well, at the end of ten days you

would have taken a centigramme, at the end of twenty days, increasing another milligramme, you would have

taken three hundred centigrammes; that is to say, a dose which you would support without inconvenience,

and which would be very dangerous for any other person who had not taken the same precautions as yourself.

Well, then, at the end of a month, when drinking water from the same carafe, you would kill the person who

drank with you, without your perceiving, otherwise than from slight inconvenience, that there was any

"I have often read, and read again, the history of Mithridates," said Madame de Villefort in a tone of

"No, madame, contrary to most history, it is true; but what you tell me, madame, what you inquire of me, is

not the result of a chance query, for two years ago you asked me the same questions, and said then, that for a

"True, sir. The two favorite studies of my youth were botany and mineralogy, and subsequently, when I

learned that the use of simples frequently explained the whole history of a people, and the entire life of

individuals in the East, as flowers betoken and symbolize a love affair, I have regretted that I was not a man,

"And the more, madame," said Monte Cristo, "as the Orientals do not confine themselves, as did Mithridates,

to make a cuirass of his poisons, but they also made them a dagger. Science becomes, in their hands, not only

a defensive weapon, but still more frequently an offensive one; the one serves against all their physical

sufferings, the other against all their enemies. With opium, belladonna, brucaea, snakewood, and the

cherrylaurel, they put to sleep all who stand in their way. There is not one of those women, Egyptian,

Turkish, or Greek, whom here you call `good women,' who do not know how, by means of chemistry, to

"Really," said Madame de Villefort, whose eyes sparkled with strange fire at this conversation.

"Oh, yes, indeed, madame," continued Monte Cristo, "the secret dramas of the East begin with a love philtre

and end with a death potion begin with paradise and end with hell. There are as many elixirs of every

kind as there are caprices and peculiarities in the physical and moral nature of humanity; and I will say

further the art of these chemists is capable with the utmost precision to accommodate and proportion the

"But, sir," remarked the young woman, "these Eastern societies, in the midst of which you have passed a

portion of your existence, are as fantastic as the tales that come from their strange land. A man can easily be

put out of the way there, then; it is, indeed, the Bagdad and Bassora of the `Thousand and One Nights.' The

sultans and viziers who rule over society there, and who constitute what in France we call the government,

are really HarounalRaschids and Giaffars, who not only pardon a poisoner, but even make him a prime

minister, if his crime has been an ingenious one, and who, under such circumstances, have the whole story

"By no means, madame; the fanciful exists no longer in the East. There, disguised under other names, and

concealed under other costumes, are police agents, magistrates, attorneysgeneral, and bailiffs. They hang,

behead, and impale their criminals in the most agreeable possible manner; but some of these, like clever

rogues, have contrived to escape human justice, and succeed in their fraudulent enterprises by cunning

stratagems. Amongst us a simpleton, possessed by the demon of hate or cupidity, who has an enemy to

destroy, or some near relation to dispose of, goes straight to the grocer's or druggist's, gives a false name,

which leads more easily to his detection than his real one, and under the pretext that the rats prevent him from

sleeping, purchases five or six grammes of arsenic if he is really a cunning fellow, he goes to five or six

different druggists or grocers, and thereby becomes only five or six times more easily traced; then, when

he has acquired his specific, he administers duly to his enemy, or near kinsman, a dose of arsenic which

would make a mammoth or mastodon burst, and which, without rhyme or reason, makes his victim utter

groans which alarm the entire neighborhood. Then arrive a crowd of policemen and constables. They fetch a

doctor, who opens the dead body, and collects from the entrails and stomach a quantity of arsenic in a spoon.

Next day a hundred newspapers relate the fact, with the names of the victim and the murderer. The same

evening the grocer or grocers, druggist or druggists, come and say, `It was I who sold the arsenic to the

gentleman;' and rather than not recognize the guilty purchaser, they will recognize twenty. Then the foolish

criminal is taken, imprisoned, interrogated, confronted, confounded, condemned, and cut off by hemp or

steel; or if she be a woman of any consideration, they lock her up for life. This is the way in which you

Northerns understand chemistry, madame. Desrues was, however, I must confess, more skilful."

"What would you have, sir?" said the lady, laughing; "we do what we can. All the world has not the secret of

"Now," replied the count, shrugging his shoulders, "shall I tell you the cause of all these stupidities? It is

because, at your theatres, by what at least I could judge by reading the pieces they play, they see persons

swallow the contents of a phial, or suck the button of a ring, and fall dead instantly. Five minutes afterwards

the curtain falls, and the spectators depart. They are ignorant of the consequences of the murder; they see

neither the police commissary with his badge of office, nor the corporal with his four men; and so the poor

fools believe that the whole thing is as easy as lying. But go a little way from France go either to Aleppo

or Cairo, or only to Naples or Rome, and you will see people passing by you in the streets people erect,

smiling, and freshcolored, of whom Asmodeus, if you were holding on by the skirt of his mantle, would say,

"Then," remarked Madame de Villefort, "they have again discovered the secret of the famous aquatofana that

"Ah, but madame, does mankind ever lose anything? The arts change about and make a tour of the world;

things take a different name, and the vulgar do not follow them that is all; but there is always the same

result. Poisons act particularly on some organ or another one on the stomach, another on the brain, another

on the intestines. Well, the poison brings on a cough, the cough an inflammation of the lungs, or some other

complaint catalogued in the book of science, which, however, by no means precludes it from being decidedly

mortal; and if it were not, would be sure to become so, thanks to the remedies applied by foolish doctors, who

are generally bad chemists, and which will act in favor of or against the malady, as you please; and then there

is a human being killed according to all the rules of art and skill, and of whom justice learns nothing, as was

said by a terrible chemist of my acquaintance, the worthy Abbe Adelmonte of Taormina, in Sicily, who has

"It is quite frightful, but deeply interesting," said the young lady, motionless with attention. "I thought, I must

"Yes, no doubt, but improved upon by ours. What is the use of time, rewards of merit, medals, crosses,

Monthyon prizes, if they do not lead society towards more complete perfection? Yet man will never be

perfect until he learns to create and destroy; he does know how to destroy, and that is half the battle."

"So," added Madame de Villefort, constantly returning to her object, "the poisons of the Borgias, the Medicis,

the Renes, the Ruggieris, and later, probably, that of Baron de Trenck, whose story has been so misused by

"Were objects of art, madame, and nothing more," replied the count. "Do you suppose that the real savant

addresses himself stupidly to the mere individual? By no means. Science loves eccentricities, leaps and

bounds, trials of strength, fancies, if I may be allowed so to term them. Thus, for instance, the excellent Abbe

Adelmonte, of whom I spoke just now, made in this way some marvellous experiments."

"Yes; I will mention one to you. He had a remarkably fine garden, full of vegetables, flowers, and fruit. From

amongst these vegetables he selected the most simple a cabbage, for instance. For three days he watered

this cabbage with a distillation of arsenic; on the third, the cabbage began to droop and turn yellow. At that

moment he cut it. In the eyes of everybody it seemed fit for table, and preserved its wholesome appearance. It

was only poisoned to the Abbe Adelmonte. He then took the cabbage to the room where he had rabbits for

the Abbe Adelmonte had a collection of rabbits, cats, and guineapigs, fully as fine as his collection of

vegetables, flowers, and fruit. Well, the Abbe Adelmonte took a rabbit, and made it eat a leaf of the cabbage.

The rabbit died. What magistrate would find, or even venture to insinuate, anything against this? What

procureur has ever ventured to draw up an accusation against M. Magendie or M. Flourens, in consequence

of the rabbits, cats, and guineapigs they have killed? not one. So, then, the rabbit dies, and justice takes

no notice. This rabbit dead, the Abbe Adelmonte has its entrails taken out by his cook and thrown on the

dunghill; on this dunghill is a hen, who, pecking these intestines, is in her turn taken ill, and dies next day. At

the moment when she is struggling in the convulsions of death, a vulture is flying by (there are a good many

vultures in Adelmonte's country); this bird darts on the dead fowl, and carries it away to a rock, where it dines

off its prey. Three days afterwards, this poor vulture, which has been very much indisposed since that dinner,

suddenly feels very giddy while flying aloft in the clouds, and falls heavily into a fishpond. The pike, eels,

and carp eat greedily always, as everybody knows well, they feast on the vulture. Now suppose that next

day, one of these eels, or pike, or carp, poisoned at the fourth remove, is served up at your table. Well, then,

your guest will be poisoned at the fifth remove, and die, at the end of eight or ten days, of pains in the

intestines, sickness, or abscess of the pylorus. The doctors open the body and say with an air of profound

"But," remarked Madame de Villefort, "all these circumstances which you link thus to one another may be

broken by the least accident; the vulture may not see the fowl, or may fall a hundred yards from the

"Ah, that is where the art comes in. To be a great chemist in the East, one must direct chance; and this is to be

achieved." Madame de Villefort was in deep thought, yet listened attentively. "But," she exclaimed,

suddenly, "arsenic is indelible, indestructible; in whatsoever way it is absorbed, it will be found again in the

body of the victim from the moment when it has been taken in sufficient quantity to cause death."

"Precisely so," cried Monte Cristo "precisely so; and this is what I said to my worthy Adelmonte. He

reflected, smiled, and replied to me by a Sicilian proverb, which I believe is also a French proverb, `My son,

the world was not made in a day but in seven. Return on Sunday.' On the Sunday following I did return to

him. Instead of having watered his cabbage with arsenic, he had watered it this time with a solution of salts,

having their basis in strychnine, strychnos colubrina, as the learned term it. Now, the cabbage had not the

slightest appearance of disease in the world, and the rabbit had not the smallest distrust; yet, five minutes

afterwards, the rabbit was dead. The fowl pecked at the rabbit, and the next day was a dead hen. This time we

were the vultures; so we opened the bird, and this time all special symptoms had disappeared, there were only

general symptoms. There was no peculiar indication in any organ an excitement of the nervous system

that was it; a case of cerebral congestion nothing more. The fowl had not been poisoned she had died

of apoplexy. Apoplexy is a rare disease among fowls, I believe, but very common among men." Madame de

"It is very fortunate," she observed, "that such substances could only be prepared by chemists; otherwise, all

"By chemists and persons who have a taste for chemistry," said Monte Cristo carelessly.

"And then," said Madame de Villefort, endeavoring by a struggle, and with effort, to get away from her

thoughts, "however skilfully it is prepared, crime is always crime, and if it avoid human scrutiny, it does not

escape the eye of God. The Orientals are stronger than we are in cases of conscience, and, very prudently,

"Really, madame, this is a scruple which naturally must occur to a pure mind like yours, but which would

easily yield before sound reasoning. The bad side of human thought will always be defined by the paradox of

Jean Jacques Rousseau, you remember, the mandarin who is killed five hundred leagues off by raising

the tip of the finger. Man's whole life passes in doing these things, and his intellect is exhausted by reflecting

on them. You will find very few persons who will go and brutally thrust a knife in the heart of a

fellowcreature, or will administer to him, in order to remove him from the surface of the globe on which we

move with life and animation, that quantity of arsenic of which we just now talked. Such a thing is really out

of rule eccentric or stupid. To attain such a point, the blood must be heated to thirtysix degrees, the pulse

be, at least, at ninety, and the feelings excited beyond the ordinary limit. But suppose one pass, as is

permissible in philology, from the word itself to its softened synonym, then, instead of committing an ignoble

assassination you make an `elimination;' you merely and simply remove from your path the individual who is

in your way, and that without shock or violence, without the display of the sufferings which, in the case of

becoming a punishment, make a martyr of the victim, and a butcher, in every sense of the word, of him who

inflicts them. Then there will be no blood, no groans, no convulsions, and above all, no consciousness of that

horrid and compromising moment of accomplishing the act, then one escapes the clutch of the human law,

which says, `Do not disturb society!' This is the mode in which they manage these things, and succeed in

Eastern climes, where there are grave and phlegmatic persons who care very little for the questions of time in

"Yet conscience remains," remarked Madame de Villefort in an agitated voice, and with a stifled sigh.

"Yes," answered Monte Cristo "happily, yes, conscience does remain; and if it did not, how wretched we

should be! After every action requiring exertion, it is conscience that saves us, for it supplies us with a

thousand good excuses, of which we alone are judges; and these reasons, howsoever excellent in producing

sleep, would avail us but very little before a tribunal, when we were tried for our lives. Thus Richard III., for

instance, was marvellously served by his conscience after the putting away of the two children of Edward

IV.; in fact, he could say, `These two children of a cruel and persecuting king, who have inherited the vices of

their father, which I alone could perceive in their juvenile propensities these two children are impediments

in my way of promoting the happiness of the English people, whose unhappiness they (the children) would

infallibly have caused.' Thus was Lady Macbeth served by her conscience, when she sought to give her son,

and not her husband (whatever Shakespeare may say), a throne. Ah, maternal love is a great virtue, a

powerful motive so powerful that it excuses a multitude of things, even if, after Duncan's death, Lady

Madame de Villefort listened with avidity to these appalling maxims and horrible paradoxes, delivered by the

count with that ironical simplicity which was peculiar to him. After a moment's silence, the lady inquired,

"Do you know, my dear count," she said, "that you are a very terrible reasoner, and that you look at the world

through a somewhat distempered medium? Have you really measured the world by scrutinies, or through

alembics and crucibles? For you must indeed be a great chemist, and the elixir you administered to my son,

"Oh, do not place any reliance on that, madame; one drop of that elixir sufficed to recall life to a dying child,

but three drops would have impelled the blood into his lungs in such a way as to have produced most violent

palpitations; six would have suspended his respiration, and caused syncope more serious than that in which

he was; ten would have destroyed him. You know, madame, how suddenly I snatched him from those phials

"Oh, no. In the first place, let us agree that the word poison does not exist, because in medicine use is made of

the most violent poisons, which become, according as they are employed, most salutary remedies."

"A skilful preparation of my friend's the worthy Abbe Adelmonte, who taught me the use of it."

"Perfect, madame, as you have seen," replied the count; "and I frequently make use of it with all possible

"Most assuredly," responded Madame de Villefort in the same tone. "As for me, so nervous, and so subject to

fainting fits, I should require a Doctor Adelmonte to invent for me some means of breathing freely and

tranquillizing my mind, in the fear I have of dying some fine day of suffocation. In the meanwhile, as the

thing is difficult to find in France, and your abbe is not probably disposed to make a journey to Paris on my

account, I must continue to use Monsieur Planche's antispasmodics; and mint and Hoffman's drops are

among my favorite remedies. Here are some lozenges which I have made up on purpose; they are

compounded doubly strong." Monte Cristo opened the tortoiseshell box, which the lady presented to him,

and inhaled the odor of the lozenges with the air of an amateur who thoroughly appreciated their

composition. "They are indeed exquisite," he said; "but as they are necessarily submitted to the process of

deglutition a function which it is frequently impossible for a fainting person to accomplish I prefer my

"Undoubtedly, and so should I prefer it, after the effects I have seen produced; but of course it is a secret, and

"But I," said Monte Cristo, rising as he spoke "I am gallant enough to offer it you."

"Only remember one thing a small dose is a remedy, a large one is poison. One drop will restore life, as

you have seen; five or six will inevitably kill, and in a way the more terrible inasmuch as, poured into a glass

of wine, it would not in the slightest degree affect its flavor. But I say no more, madame; it is really as if I

were prescribing for you." The clock struck halfpast six, and a lady was announced, a friend of Madame de

"If I had had the honor of seeing you for the third or fourth time, count, instead of only for the second," said

Madame de Villefort; "if I had had the honor of being your friend, instead of only having the happiness of

being under an obligation to you, I should insist on detaining you to dinner, and not allow myself to be

"A thousand thanks, madame," replied Monte Cristo "but I have an engagement which I cannot break. I have

promised to escort to the Academie a Greek princess of my acquaintance who has never seen your grand

"Ah, in truth, madame, to do that I must forget the hour's conversation I have had with you, which is indeed

impossible." Monte Cristo bowed, and left the house. Madame de Villefort remained immersed in thought.

"He is a very strange man," she said, "and in my opinion is himself the Adelmonte he talks about." As to

Monte Cristo the result had surpassed his utmost expectations. "Good," said he, as he went away; "this is a

fruitful soil, and I feel certain that the seed sown will not be cast on barren ground." Next morning, faithful to

The pretext of an opera engagement was so much the more feasible, as there chanced to be on that very night

a more than ordinary attraction at the Academie Royale. Levasseur, who had been suffering under severe

illness, made his reappearance in the character of Bertrand, and, as usual, the announcement of the most

admired production of the favorite composer of the day had attracted a brilliant and fashionable audience.

Morcerf, like most other young men of rank and fortune, had his orchestra stall, with the certainty of always

finding a seat in at least a dozen of the principal boxes occupied by persons of his acquaintance; he had,

moreover, his right of entry into the omnibus box. ChateauRenaud rented a stall beside his own, while

Beauchamp, as a journalist, had unlimited range all over the theatre. It happened that on this particular night

the minister's box was placed at the disposal of Lucien Debray, who offered it to the Comte de Morcerf, who

again, upon his mother's rejection of it, sent it to Danglars, with an intimation that he should probably do

himself the honor of joining the baroness and her daughter during the evening, in the event of their accepting

the box in question. The ladies received the offer with too much pleasure to dream of a refusal. To no class of

persons is the presentation of a gratuitous operabox more acceptable than to the wealthy millionaire, who

still hugs economy while boasting of carrying a king's ransom in his waistcoat pocket.

Danglars had, however, protested against showing himself in a ministerial box, declaring that his political

principles, and his parliamentary position as member of the opposition party would not permit him so to

commit himself; the baroness had, therefore, despatched a note to Lucien Debray, bidding him call for them,

it being wholly impossible for her to go alone with Eugenie to the opera. There is no gainsaying the fact that

a very unfavorable construction would have been put upon the circumstance if the two women had gone

without escort, while the addition of a third, in the person of her mother's admitted lover, enabled

Mademoiselle Danglars to defy malice and illnature. One must take the world as one finds it.

The curtain rose, as usual, to an almost empty house, it being one of the absurdities of Parisian fashion never

to appear at the opera until after the beginning of the performance, so that the first act is generally played

without the slightest attention being paid to it, that part of the audience already assembled being too much

occupied in observing the fresh arrivals, while nothing is heard but the noise of opening and shutting doors,

and the buzz of conversation. "Surely," said Albert, as the door of a box on the first circle opened, "that must

"What a question! Now, do you know, baron, I have a great mind to pick a quarrel with you for asking it; as if

"Herself." At this moment the countess perceived Albert, and returned his salutation with a smile. "You know

There was a cry of "Shut up!" from the audience. This manifestation on the part of the spectators of their wish

to be allowed to hear the music, produced not the slightest effect on the two young men, who continued their

conversation. "The countess was present at the races in the ChampdeMars," said ChateauRenaud.

"Yes; there was the prize given by the Jockey Club a gold cup, you know and a very singular

"True as day. The fact was, nobody had observed a horse entered by the name of Vampa, or that of a jockey

styled Job, when, at the last moment, a splendid roan, mounted by a jockey about as big as your fist,

presented themselves at the startingpost. They were obliged to stuff at least twenty pounds weight of shot in

the small rider's pockets, to make him weight; but with all that he outstripped Ariel and Barbare, against

"Then," answered Albert, "I am better informed than you are, and know who the owner of that horse was."

"Shut up, there!" cried the pit in chorus. And this time the tone and manner in which the command was given,

betokened such growing hostility that the two young men perceived, for the first time, that the mandate was

addressed to them. Leisurely turning round, they calmly scrutinized the various countenances around them, as

though demanding some one person who would take upon himself the responsibility of what they deemed

excessive impertinence; but as no one responded to the challenge, the friends turned again to the front of the

theatre, and affected to busy themselves with the stage. At this moment the door of the minister's box opened,

and Madame Danglars, accompanied by her daughter, entered, escorted by Lucien Debray, who assiduously

"Ha, ha," said ChateauRenaud, "here comes some friends of yours, viscount! What are you looking at there?

don't you see they are trying to catch your eye?" Albert turned round, just in time to receive a gracious wave

of the fan from the baroness; as for Mademoiselle Eugenie, she scarcely vouchsafed to waste the glances of

her large black eyes even upon the business of the stage. "I tell you what, my dear fellow," said

ChateauRenaud, "I cannot imagine what objection you can possibly have to Mademoiselle Danglars that

is, setting aside her want of ancestry and somewhat inferior rank, which by the way I don't think you care

very much about. Now, barring all that, I mean to say she is a deuced fine girl!"

"Handsome, certainly," replied Albert, "but not to my taste, which I confess, inclines to something softer,

"Ah, well," exclaimed ChateauRenaud, who because he had seen his thirtieth summer fancied himself duly

warranted in assuming a sort of paternal air with his more youthful friend, "you young people are never

satisfied; why, what would you have more? your parents have chosen you a bride built on the model of

"No, for that very resemblance affrights me; I should have liked something more in the manner of the Venus

of Milo or Capua; but this chaseloving Diana continually surrounded by her nymphs gives me a sort of

And, indeed, it required but one glance at Mademoiselle Danglars to comprehend the justness of Morcerf's

remark she was beautiful, but her beauty was of too marked and decided a character to please a fastidious

taste; her hair was raven black, but its natural waves seemed somewhat rebellious; her eyes, of the same color

as her hair, were surmounted by wellarched brows, whose great defect, however, consisted in an almost

habitual frown, while her whole physiognomy wore that expression of firmness and decision so little in

accordance with the gentler attributes of her sex her nose was precisely what a sculptor would have

chosen for a chiselled Juno. Her mouth, which might have been found fault with as too large, displayed teeth

of pearly whiteness, rendered still more conspicuous by the brilliant carmine of her lips, contrasting vividly

with her naturally pale complexion. But that which completed the almost masculine look Morcerf found so

little to his taste, was a dark mole, of much larger dimensions than these freaks of nature generally are, placed

just at the corner of her mouth; and the effect tended to increase the expression of selfdependence that

characterized her countenance. The rest of Mademoiselle Eugenie's person was in perfect keeping with the

head just described; she, indeed, reminded one of Diana, as ChateauRenaud observed, but her bearing was

more haughty and resolute. As regarded her attainments, the only fault to be found with them was the same

that a fastidious connoisseur might have found with her beauty, that they were somewhat too erudite and

masculine for so young a person. She was a perfect linguist, a firstrate artist, wrote poetry, and composed

music; to the study of the latter she professed to be entirely devoted, following it with an indefatigable

perseverance, assisted by a schoolfellow, a young woman without fortune whose talent promised to

develop into remarkable powers as a singer. It was rumored that she was an object of almost paternal interest

to one of the principal composers of the day, who excited her to spare no pains in the cultivation of her voice,

which might hereafter prove a source of wealth and independence. But this counsel effectually decided

Mademoiselle Danglars never to commit herself by being seen in public with one destined for a theatrical

life; and acting upon this principle, the banker's daughter, though perfectly willing to allow Mademoiselle

Louise d'Armilly (that was the name of the young virtuosa) to practice with her through the day, took especial

care not to be seen in her company. Still, though not actually received at the Hotel Danglars in the light of an

acknowledged friend, Louise was treated with far more kindness and consideration than is usually bestowed

The curtain fell almost immediately after the entrance of Madame Danglars into her box, the band quitted the

orchestra for the accustomed halfhour's interval allowed between the acts, and the audience were left at

liberty to promenade the salon or lobbies, or to pay and receive visits in their respective boxes. Morcerf and

ChateauRenaud were amongst the first to avail themselves of this permission. For an instant the idea struck

Madame Danglars that this eagerness on the part of the young viscount arose from his impatience to join her

party, and she whispered her expectations to her daughter, that Albert was hurrying to pay his respects to

them. Mademoiselle Eugenie, however, merely returned a dissenting movement of the head, while, with a

cold smile, she directed the attention of her mother to an opposite box on the first circle, in which sat the

Countess G , and where Morcerf had just made his appearance. "So we meet again, my travelling friend,

do we?" cried the countess, extending her hand to him with all the warmth and cordiality of an old

acquaintance; "it was really very good of you to recognize me so quickly, and still more so to bestow your

"Be assured," replied Albert, "that if I had been aware of your arrival in Paris, and had known your address, I

should have paid my respects to you before this. Allow me to introduce my friend, Baron de

ChateauRenaud, one of the few true gentlemen now to be found in France, and from whom I have just

learned that you were a spectator of the races in the ChampdeMars, yesterday." ChateauRenaud bowed to

"Well, then," pursued Madame G with considerable animation, "you can probably tell me who won the

"I am sorry to say I cannot," replied the baron; "and I was just asking the same question of Albert."

"Excessively; only imagine but do tell me, viscount, whether you really are acquainted with it or no?"

"I beg your pardon, madame, but you were about to relate some story, were you not? You said, `only

"Well, then, listen. You must know I felt so interested in the splendid roan horse, with his elegant little rider,

so tastefully dressed in a pink satin jacket and cap, that I could not help praying for their success with as

much earnestness as though the half of my fortune were at stake; and when I saw them outstrip all the others,

and come to the winningpost in such gallant style, I actually clapped my hands with joy. Imagine my

surprise, when, upon returning home, the first object I met on the staircase was the identical jockey in the

pink jacket! I concluded that, by some singular chance, the owner of the winning horse must live in the same

hotel as myself; but, as I entered my apartments, I beheld the very gold cup awarded as a prize to the

unknown horse and rider. Inside the cup was a small piece of paper, on which were written these words

"I assure you he is my most intimate friend, and M. de ChateauRenaud has also the honor of his

"Why, do you not recollect the name of the celebrated bandit by whom I was made prisoner?"

"In the first place, because I had spoken much of you to him, as you may believe; and in the second, because

"I trust and hope you never repeated to the count all the foolish remarks we used to make about him?"

"I should not like to affirm upon oath that I have not. Besides, his presenting you the cup under the name of

"Why," said Albert, "he was talked about for a week; then the coronation of the queen of England took place,

followed by the theft of Mademoiselle Mars's diamonds; and so people talked of something else."

"My good fellow," said ChateauRenaud, "the count is your friend and you treat him accordingly. Do not

believe what Albert is telling you, countess; so far from the sensation excited in the Parisian circles by the

appearance of the Count of Monte Cristo having abated, I take upon myself to declare that it is as strong as

ever. His first astounding act upon coming amongst us was to present a pair of horses, worth 32,000 francs, to

Madame Danglars; his second, the almost miraculous preservation of Madame de Villefort's life; now it

seems that he has carried off the prize awarded by the Jockey Club. I therefore maintain, in spite of Morcerf,

that not only is the count the object of interest at this present moment, but also that he will continue to be so

for a month longer if he pleases to exhibit an eccentricity of conduct which, after all, may be his ordinary

"Perhaps you are right," said Morcerf; "meanwhile, who is in the Russian ambassador's box?"

"The one between the pillars on the first tier it seems to have been fitted up entirely afresh."

"No," replied the countess, "it was certainly empty during the first act;" then, resuming the subject of their

previous conversation, she said, "And so you really believe it was your mysterious Count of Monte Cristo

"Do no such thing, I beg of you; he would only send you another, formed of a magnificent sapphire, or

hollowed out of a gigantic ruby. It is his way, and you must take him as you find him." At this moment the

bell rang to announce the drawing up of the curtain for the second act. Albert rose to return to his place.

"Shall I see you again?" asked the countess. "At the end of the next act, with your permission, I will come

"Pray take notice," said the countess, "that my present residence is 22 Rue de Rivoli, and that I am at home to

my friends every Saturday evening. So now, you are both forewarned." The young men bowed, and quitted

the box. Upon reaching their stalls, they found the whole of the audience in the parterre standing up and

directing their gaze towards the box formerly possessed by the Russian ambassador. A man of from

thirtyfive to forty years of age, dressed in deep black, had just entered, accompanied by a young woman

dressed after the Eastern style. The lady was surpassingly beautiful, while the rich magnificence of her attire

drew all eyes upon her. "Hullo," said Albert; "it is Monte Cristo and his Greek!"

The strangers were, indeed, no other than the count and Haidee. In a few moments the young girl had

attracted the attention of the whole house, and even the occupants of the boxes leaned forward to scrutinize

her magnificent diamonds. The second act passed away during one continued buzz of voices one deep

whisper intimating that some great and universally interesting event had occurred; all eyes, all thoughts,

were occupied with the young and beautiful woman, whose gorgeous apparel and splendid jewels made a

most extraordinary spectacle. Upon this occasion an unmistakable sign from Madame Danglars intimated her

desire to see Albert in her box directly the curtain fell on the second act, and neither the politeness nor good

taste of Morcerf would permit his neglecting an invitation so unequivocally given. At the close of the act he

therefore went to the baroness. Having bowed to the two ladies, he extended his hand to Debray. By the

baroness he was most graciously welcomed, while Eugenie received him with her accustomed coldness.

"My dear fellow," said Debray, "you have come in the nick of time. There is madame overwhelming me with

questions respecting the count; she insists upon it that I can tell her his birth, education, and parentage, where

he came from, and whither he is going. Being no disciple of Cagliostro, I was wholly unable to do this; so, by

way of getting out of the scrape, I said, `Ask Morcerf; he has got the whole history of his beloved Monte

Cristo at his fingers' ends;' whereupon the baroness signified her desire to see you."

"Is it not almost incredible," said Madame Danglars, "that a person having at least half a million of

"Let me assure you, madame," said Lucien, "that had I really the sum you mention at my disposal, I would

employ it more profitably than in troubling myself to obtain particulars respecting the Count of Monte Cristo,

whose only merit in my eyes consists in his being twice as rich as a nabob. However, I have turned the

business over to Morcerf, so pray settle it with him as may be most agreeable to you; for my own part, I care

"I am very sure no nabob would have sent me a pair of horses worth 32,000 francs, wearing on their heads

"He seems to have a mania for diamonds," said Morcerf, smiling, "and I verily believe that, like Potemkin, he

keeps his pockets filled, for the sake of strewing them along the road, as Tom Thumb did his flint stones."

"Perhaps he has discovered some mine," said Madame Danglars. "I suppose you know he has an order for

"And, further, that he stated to M. Danglars his intention of only staying a year in Paris, during which time he

"Have you noticed the remarkable beauty of the young woman, M. Lucien?" inquired Eugenie.

"I really never met with one woman so ready to do justice to the charms of another as yourself," responded

Lucien, raising his lorgnette to his eye. "A most lovely creature, upon my soul!" was his verdict.

"Who is this young person, M. de Morcerf?" inquired Eugenie; "does anybody know?"

"Mademoiselle," said Albert, replying to this direct appeal, "I can give you very exact information on that

subject, as well as on most points relative to the mysterious person of whom we are now conversing the

"So I should suppose by her dress; if you know no more than that, every one here is as wellinformed as

"I am extremely sorry you find me so ignorant a cicerone," replied Morcerf, "but I am reluctantly obliged to

confess, I have nothing further to communicate yes, stay, I do know one thing more, namely, that she is a

musician, for one day when I chanced to be breakfasting with the count, I heard the sound of a guzla it is

"I must try and persuade M. Danglars to invite him to a ball or dinner, or something of the sort, that he may

"You have ample proof to the contrary, if you look opposite," said the baroness, as she laughingly pointed to

"No, no!" exclaimed Debray; "that girl is not his wife: he told us himself she was his slave. Do you not

"Well, then," said the baroness, "if slave she be, she has all the air and manner of a princess."

"If you like; but tell me, my dear Lucien, what it is that constitutes a princess. Why, diamonds and she is

"To me she seems overloaded," observed Eugenie; "she would look far better if she wore fewer, and we

"See how the artist peeps out!" exclaimed Madame Danglars. "My poor Eugenie, you must conceal your

"What do you think of the count?" inquired Debray; "he is not much amiss, according to my ideas of good

"The count," repeated Eugenie, as though it had not occurred to her to observe him sooner; "the count? oh,

"I quite agree with you," said Morcerf; "and the secret of that very pallor is what we want to find out. The

"Is that she, mamma?" asked Eugenie; "almost opposite to us, with that profusion of beautiful light hair?"

"Yes," said Madame Danglars, "that is she. Shall I tell you what you ought to do, Morcerf?"

"What for? Why, to converse with him, of course. Have you really no desire to meet him?"

"He will very probably come of his own accord," said Morcerf. "There; do you see, madame, he recognizes

you, and bows." The baroness returned the salute in the most smiling and graceful manner.

"Well," said Morcerf, "I may as well be magnanimous, and tear myself away to forward your wishes. Adieu;

"While you assert that she is a queen, or at least a princess. No; I hope that when he sees me leave you, he

"I am going," said Albert, as he made his parting bow. Just as he was passing the count's box, the door

opened, and Monte Cristo came forth. After giving some directions to Ali, who stood in the lobby, the count

took Albert's arm. Carefully closing the box door, Ali placed himself before it, while a crowd of spectators

"Upon my word," said Monte Cristo, "Paris is a strange city, and the Parisians a very singular people. See

that cluster of persons collected around poor Ali, who is as much astonished as themselves; really one might

suppose he was the only Nubian they had ever beheld. Now I can promise you, that a Frenchman might show

himself in public, either in Tunis, Constantinople, Bagdad, or Cairo, without being treated in that way."

"That shows that the Eastern nations have too much good sense to waste their time and attention on objects

undeserving of either. However, as far as Ali is concerned, I can assure you, the interest he excites is merely

from the circumstance of his being your attendant you, who are at this moment the most celebrated and

"What? why, yourself, to be sure! You give away horses worth a thousand louis; you save the lives of ladies

of high rank and beauty; under the name of Major Brack you run thoroughbreds ridden by tiny urchins not

larger than marmots; then, when you have carried off the golden trophy of victory, instead of setting any

"Why, in the first place, I heard it from Madame Danglars, who, by the by, is dying to see you in her box, or

to have you seen there by others; secondly, I learned it from Beauchamp's journal; and thirdly, from my own

"That was an oversight, certainly," replied the count; "but tell me, does the Count of Morcerf never visit the

"I congratulate you." Morcerf smiled. "We will discuss that subject at length some future time," said he. "But

"Oh, it is well enough as the production of a human composer, sung by featherless bipeds, to quote the late

"From which it would seem, my dear count, that you can at pleasure enjoy the seraphic strains that proceed

"You are right, in some degree; when I wish to listen to sounds more exquisitely attuned to melody than

"Then sleep here, my dear count. The conditions are favorable; what else was opera invented for?"

"No, thank you. Your orchestra is too noisy. To sleep after the manner I speak of, absolute calm and silence

"Precisely. So, my dear viscount, whenever you wish to be regaled with music come and sup with me."

"Ah, then, I suppose you heard Haidee's guzla; the poor exile frequently beguiles a weary hour in playing

over to me the airs of her native land." Morcerf did not pursue the subject, and Monte Cristo himself fell into

a silent reverie. The bell rang at this moment for the rising of the curtain. "You will excuse my leaving you,"

"Pray, say everything that is kind to Countess G on the part of her friend the Vampire."

"That, with her permission, I shall do myself the honor of paying my respects in the course of the evening."

The third act had begun; and during its progress the Count of Morcerf, according to his promise, made his

appearance in the box of Madame Danglars. The Count of Morcerf was not a person to excite either interest

or curiosity in a place of public amusement; his presence, therefore, was wholly unnoticed, save by the

occupants of the box in which he had just seated himself. The quick eye of Monte Cristo however, marked his

coming; and a slight though meaning smile passed over his lips. Haidee, whose soul seemed centred in the

business of the stage, like all unsophisticated natures, delighted in whatever addressed itself to the eye or ear.

The third act passed off as usual. Mesdemoiselles Noblet, Julie, and Leroux executed the customary

pirouettes; Robert duly challenged the Prince of Granada; and the royal father of the princess Isabella, taking

his daughter by the hand, swept round the stage with majestic strides, the better to display the rich folds of his

velvet robe and mantle. After which the curtain again fell, and the spectators poured forth from the theatre

into the lobbies and salon. The count left his box, and a moment later was saluting the Baronne Danglars,

who could not restrain a cry of mingled pleasure and surprise. "You are welcome, count!" she exclaimed, as

he entered. "I have been most anxious to see you, that I might repeat orally the thanks writing can so ill

"Surely so trifling a circumstance cannot deserve a place in your remembrance. Believe me, madame, I had

"But it is not so easy to forget, monsieur, that the very next day after your princely gift you saved the life of

my dear friend, Madame de Villefort, which was endangered by the very animals your generosity restored to

"This time, at least, I do not deserve your thanks. It was Ali, my Nubian slave, who rendered this service to

"Was it Ali," asked the Count of Morcerf, "who rescued my son from the hands of bandits?"

"No, count," replied Monte Cristo taking the hand held out to him by the general; "in this instance I may

fairly and freely accept your thanks; but you have already tendered them, and fully discharged your debt if

indeed there existed one and I feel almost mortified to find you still reverting to the subject. May I beg of

"Oh, you are no stranger at least not by name," replied Madame Danglars, "and the last two or three days

we have really talked of nothing but you. Eugenie," continued the baroness, turning towards her daughter,

"this is the Count of Monte Cristo." The Count bowed, while Mademoiselle Danglars bent her head slightly.

"You have a charming young person with you tonight, count," said Eugenie. "Is she your daughter?"

"No, mademoiselle," said Monte Cristo, astonished at the coolness and freedom of the question. "She is a

"Yes, indeed, count," said Madame Danglars; "and tell me, did you ever see at the court of Ali Tepelini,

whom you so gloriously and valiantly served, a more exquisite beauty or richer costume?"

"I was inspectorgeneral of the pasha's troops," replied Morcerf; "and it is no secret that I owe my fortune,

"There," said Monte Cristo placing his arms around the count, and leaning with him over the front of the box,

just as Haidee, whose eyes were occupied in examining the theatre in search of her guardian, perceived his

pale features close to Morcerf's face. It was as if the young girl beheld the head of Medusa. She bent forwards

as though to assure herself of the reality of what she saw, then, uttering a faint cry, threw herself back in her

seat. The sound was heard by the people about Ali, who instantly opened the boxdoor. "Why, count,"

exclaimed Eugenie, "what has happened to your ward? she seems to have been taken suddenly ill."

"Very probably," answered the count. "But do not be alarmed on her account. Haidee's nervous system is

delicately organized, and she is peculiarly susceptible to the odors even of flowers nay, there are some

which cause her to faint if brought into her presence. However," continued Monte Cristo, drawing a small

phial from his pocket, "I have an infallible remedy." So saying, he bowed to the baroness and her daughter,

exchanged a parting shake of the hand with Debray and the count, and left Madame Danglars' box. Upon his

return to Haidee he found her still very pale. As soon as she saw him she seized his hand; her own hands were

"With the Count of Morcerf," answered Monte Cristo. "He tells me he served your illustrious father, and that

"Wretch!" exclaimed Haidee, her eyes flashing with rage; "he sold my father to the Turks, and the fortune he

"Something of this I heard in Epirus," said Monte Cristo; "but the particulars are still unknown to me. You

shall relate them to me, my child. They are, no doubt, both curious and interesting."

"Yes, yes; but let us go. I feel as though it would kill me to remain long near that dreadful man." So saying,

Haidee arose, and wrapping herself in her burnoose of white cashmire embroidered with pearls and coral, she

hastily quitted the box at the moment when the curtain was rising upon the fourth act.

"Do you observe," said the Countess G to Albert, who had returned to her side, "that man does nothing

like other people; he listens most devoutly to the third act of `Robert le Diable,' and when the fourth begins,

Some days after this meeting, Albert de Morcerf visited the Count of Monte Cristo at his house in the

Champs Elysees, which had already assumed that palacelike appearance which the count's princely fortune

enabled him to give even to his most temporary residences. He came to renew the thanks of Madame

Danglars which had been already conveyed to the count through the medium of a letter, signed "Baronne

Danglars, nee Hermine de Servieux." Albert was accompanied by Lucien Debray, who, joining in his friend's

conversation, added some passing compliments, the source of which the count's talent for finesse easily

enabled him to guess. He was convinced that Lucien's visit was due to a double feeling of curiosity, the larger

half of which sentiment emanated from the Rue de la Chaussee d'Antin. In short, Madame Danglars, not

being able personally to examine in detail the domestic economy and household arrangements of a man who

gave away horses worth 30,000 francs and who went to the opera with a Greek slave wearing diamonds to the

amount of a million of money, had deputed those eyes, by which she was accustomed to see, to give her a

faithful account of the mode of life of this incomprehensible person. But the count did not appear to suspect

that there could be the slightest connection between Lucien's visit and the curiosity of the baroness.

"You are in constant communication with the Baron Danglars?" the count inquired of Albert de Morcerf.

"It is more than ever a settled thing," said Lucien, and, considering that this remark was all that he was at

that time called upon to make, he adjusted the glass to his eye, and biting the top of his gold headed cane,

"Ah," said Monte Cristo "I did not expect that the affair would be so promptly concluded."

"Oh, things take their course without our assistance. While we are forgetting them, they are falling into their

appointed order; and when, again, our attention is directed to them, we are surprised at the progress they have

made towards the proposed end. My father and M. Danglars served together in Spain, my father in the army

and M. Danglars in the commissariat department. It was there that my father, ruined by the revolution, and M.

Danglars, who never had possessed any patrimony, both laid the foundations of their different fortunes."

"Yes," said Monte Cristo "I think M. Danglars mentioned that in a visit which I paid him; and," continued he,

casting a sideglance at Lucien, who was turning over the leaves of an album, "Mademoiselle Eugenie is

"Very pretty, or rather, very beautiful," replied Albert, "but of that style of beauty which I do not appreciate; I

"Really," said Monte Cristo, lowering his voice, "you do not appear to me to be very enthusiastic on the

"Mademoiselle Danglars is too rich for me," replied Morcerf, "and that frightens me."

"Bah," exclaimed Monte Cristo, "that's a fine reason to give. Are you not rich yourself?"

"My father's income is about 50,000 francs per annum; and he will give me, perhaps, ten or twelve thousand

"That, perhaps, might not be considered a large sum, in Paris especially," said the count; "but everything does

not depend on wealth, and it is a fine thing to have a good name, and to occupy a high station in society. Your

name is celebrated, your position magnificent; and then the Comte de Morcerf is a soldier, and it is pleasing

to see the integrity of a Bayard united to the poverty of a Duguesclin; disinterestedness is the brightest ray in

which a noble sword can shine. As for me, I consider the union with Mademoiselle Danglars a most suitable

one; she will enrich you, and you will ennoble her." Albert shook his head, and looked thoughtful. "There is

"I confess," observed Monte Cristo, "that I have some difficulty in comprehending your objection to a young

"Oh," said Morcerf, "this repugnance, if repugnance it may be called, is not all on my side."

"It is my mother who dissents; she has a clear and penetrating judgment, and does not smile on the proposed

union. I cannot account for it, but she seems to entertain some prejudice against the Danglars."

"Ah," said the count, in a somewhat forced tone, "that may be easily explained; the Comtesse de Morcerf,

who is aristocracy and refinement itself, does not relish the idea of being allied by your marriage with one of

"I do not know if that is her reason," said Albert, "but one thing I do know, that if this marriage be

consummated, it will render her quite miserable. There was to have been a meeting six weeks ago in order to

talk over and settle the affair; but I had such a sudden attack of indisposition"

"Oh, real enough, from anxiety doubtless, at any rate they postponed the matter for two months. There is

no hurry, you know. I am not yet twentyone, and Eugenie is only seventeen; but the two months expire next

week. It must be done. My dear count, you cannot imagine now my mind is harassed. How happy you are in

"Oh, it will be too great a disappointment to my father if I do not marry Mademoiselle Danglars."

"Well, I shall see. I will try and think over what is the best thing to be done; you will give me your advice,

will you not, and if possible extricate me from my unpleasant position? I think, rather than give pain to my

dear mother, I would run the risk of offending the count." Monte Cristo turned away; he seemed moved by

this last remark. "Ah," said he to Debray, who had thrown himself into an easychair at the farthest extremity

of the salon, and who held a pencil in his right hand and an account book in his left, "what are you doing

"Oh, no," was the tranquil response; "I am too fond of art to attempt anything of that sort. I am doing a little

"Yes; I am calculating by the way, Morcerf, that indirectly concerns you I am calculating what the

house of Danglars must have gained by the last rise in Haiti bonds; from 206 they have risen to 409 in three

days, and the prudent banker had purchased at 206; therefore he must have made 300,000 livres."

"That is not his biggest scoop," said Morcerf; "did he not make a million in Spaniards this last year?"

"My dear fellow," said Lucien, "here is the Count of Monte Cristo, who will say to you, as the Italians do,

"Ah, Haitians, that is quite another thing! Haitians are the ecarte of French stockjobbing. We may like

bouillotte, delight in whist, be enraptured with boston, and yet grow tired of them all; but we always come

back to ecarte it is not only a game, it is a horsd'oeuvre! M. Danglars sold yesterday at 405, and pockets

300,000 francs. Had he but waited till today, the price would have fallen to 205, and instead of gaining

"And what has caused the sudden fall from 409 to 206?" asked Monte Cristo. "I am profoundly ignorant of all

"Because," said Albert, laughing, "one piece of news follows another, and there is often great dissimilarity

"Ah," said the count, "I see that M. Danglars is accustomed to play at gaining or losing 300,000 francs in a

"It is not he who plays!" exclaimed Lucien; "it is Madame Danglars: she is indeed daring."

"But you who are a reasonable being, Lucien, and who know how little dependence is to be placed on the

news, since you are at the fountainhead, surely you ought to prevent it," said Morcerf, with a smile.

"How can I, if her husband fails in controlling her?" asked Lucien; "you know the character of the baroness

"Yes. Your position as secretary to the minister renders your authority great on the subject of political news;

you never open your mouth but the stockbrokers immediately stenograph your words. Cause her to lose a

"It is very clear, notwithstanding," replied the young man, with an artlessness wholly free from affectation;

"tell her some fine morning an unheardof piece of intelligence some telegraphic despatch, of which you

alone are in possession; for instance, that Henri IV. was seen yesterday at Gabrielle's. That would boom the

market; she will buy heavily, and she will certainly lose when Beauchamp announces the following day, in

his gazette, `The report circulated by some usually wellinformed persons that the king was seen yesterday at

Gabrielle's house, is totally without foundation. We can positively assert that his majesty did not quit the

PontNeuf.'" Lucien half smiled. Monte Cristo, although apparently indifferent, had not lost one word of this

conversation, and his penetrating eye had even read a hidden secret in the embarrassed manner of the

secretary. This embarrassment had completely escaped Albert, but it caused Lucien to shorten his visit; he

was evidently ill at ease. The count, in taking leave of him, said something in a low voice, to which he

"Do you not think, on reflection," said he to him, "that you have done wrong in thus speaking of your

"My dear count," said Morcerf, "I beg of you not to apply that title so prematurely."

"Now, speaking without any exaggeration, is your mother really so very much averse to this marriage?"

"So much so that the baroness very rarely comes to the house, and my mother, has not, I think, visited

"Then," said the count, "I am emboldened to speak openly to you. M. Danglars is my banker; M. de Villefort

has overwhelmed me with politeness in return for a service which a casual piece of good fortune enabled me

to render him. I predict from all this an avalanche of dinners and routs. Now, in order not to presume on this,

and also to be beforehand with them, I have, if agreeable to you, thought of inviting M. and Madame

Danglars, and M. and Madame de Villefort, to my countryhouse at Auteuil. If I were to invite you and the

Count and Countess of Morcerf to this dinner, I should give it the appearance of being a matrimonial

meeting, or at least Madame de Morcerf would look upon the affair in that light, especially if Baron Danglars

did me the honor to bring his daughter. In that case your mother would hold me in aversion, and I do not at

"Indeed, count," said Morcerf, "I thank you sincerely for having used so much candor towards me, and I

gratefully accept the exclusion which you propose. You say you desire my mother's good opinion; I assure

"Oh, I am sure of it; we talked of you an hour after you left us the other day. But to return to what we were

saying. If my mother could know of this attention on your part and I will venture to tell her I am sure

that she will be most grateful to you; it is true that my father will be equally angry." The count laughed.

"Well," said he to Morcerf, "but I think your father will not be the only angry one; M. and Madame Danglars

will think me a very illmannered person. They know that I am intimate with you that you are, in fact;

one of the oldest of my Parisian acquaintances and they will not find you at my house; they will certainly

ask me why I did not invite you. Be sure to provide yourself with some previous engagement which shall

have a semblance of probability, and communicate the fact to me by a line in writing. You know that with

"I will do better than that," said Albert; "my mother is wishing to go to the seaside what day is fixed for

"This is Tuesday well, tomorrow evening we leave, and the day after we shall be at Treport. Really,

"Indeed, you give me more credit than I deserve; I only wish to do what will be agreeable to you, that is all."

"Well, I will immediately call on M. Danglars, and tell him that my mother and myself must leave Paris

"How foolish you are! Have you forgotten that M. Debray has just seen you at my house?"

"Fix it this way. I have seen you, and invited you without any ceremony, when you instantly answered that it

"Well, then, that is settled; but you will come and call on my mother before tomorrow?"

"Before tomorrow? that will be a difficult matter to arrange, besides, I shall just be in the way of all the

"Well, you can do better. You were only a charming man before, but, if you accede to my proposal, you will

"You are today free as air come and dine with me; we shall be a small party only yourself, my

mother, and I. You have scarcely seen my mother; you shall have an opportunity of observing her more

closely. She is a remarkable woman, and I only regret that there does not exist another like her, about twenty

years younger; in that case, I assure you, there would very soon be a Countess and Viscountess of Morcerf.

As to my father, you will not see him; he is officially engaged, and dines with the chief referendary. We will

talk over our travels; and you, who have seen the whole world, will relate your adventures you shall tell us

the history of the beautiful Greek who was with you the other night at the Opera, and whom you call your

slave, and yet treat like a princess. We will talk Italian and Spanish. Come, accept my invitation, and my

"A thousand thanks," said the count, "your invitation is most gracious, and I regret exceedingly that it is not

in my power to accept it. I am not so much at liberty as you suppose; on the contrary, I have a most important

"Ah, take care, you were teaching me just now how, in case of an invitation to dinner, one might creditably

make an excuse. I require the proof of a preengagement. I am not a banker, like M. Danglars, but I am quite

"Humph," said Morcerf, "this is the second time you have refused to dine with my mother; it is evident that

you wish to avoid her." Monte Cristo started. "Oh, you do not mean that," said he; "besides, here comes the

confirmation of my assertion." Baptistin entered, and remained standing at the door. "I had no previous

"Well, listen, Baptistin, what did I tell you this morning when I called you into my laboratory?"

"To close the door against visitors as soon as the clock struck five," replied the valet.

"No, no, I wish to do away with that mysterious reputation that you have given me, my dear viscount; it is

tiresome to be always acting Manfred. I wish my life to be free and open. Go on, Baptistin."

"You hear Major Bartolomeo Cavalcanti a man who ranks amongst the most ancient nobility of Italy,

whose name Dante has celebrated in the tenth canto of `The Inferno,' you remember it, do you not? Then

there is his son, Andrea, a charming young man, about your own age, viscount, bearing the same title as

yourself, and who is making his entry into the Parisian world, aided by his father's millions. The major will

bring his son with him this evening, the contino, as we say in Italy; he confides him to my care. If he proves

himself worthy of it, I will do what I can to advance his interests. You will assist me in the work, will you

"By no means. He is a perfect nobleman, very polite, modest, and agreeable, such as may be found constantly

in Italy, descendants of very ancient families. I have met him several times at Florence, Bologna and Lucca,

and he has now communicated to me the fact of his arrival in Paris. The acquaintances one makes in

travelling have a sort of claim on one; they everywhere expect to receive the same attention which you once

paid them by chance, as though the civilities of a passing hour were likely to awaken any lasting interest in

favor of the man in whose society you may happen to be thrown in the course of your journey. This good

Major Cavalcanti is come to take a second view of Paris, which he only saw in passing through in the time of

the Empire, when he was on his way to Moscow. I shall give him a good dinner, he will confide his son to my

care, I will promise to watch over him, I shall let him follow in whatever path his folly may lead him, and

"Certainly; I see you are a model Mentor," said Albert "Goodby, we shall return on Sunday. By the way, I

"I believe so; however, he regrets your absence extremely . He says you were the sun of Rome, and that

without you all appears dark and cloudy; I do not know if he does not even go so far as to say that it rains."

"No, he still persists in looking upon you as the most incomprehensible and mysterious of beings."

"He is a charming young man," said Monte Cristo "and I felt a lively interest in him the very first evening of

my introduction, when I met him in search of a supper, and prevailed upon him to accept a portion of mine.

"Yes. Really I like him extremely; is there not also a matrimonial engagement contemplated for him?"

"I smile because there appears to me to be about as much inclination for the consummation of the

engagement in question as there is for my own. But really, my dear count, we are talking as much of women

"Really, that is a good idea! two hours have I been boring you to death with my company, and then you,

with the greatest politeness, ask me if I am going. Indeed, count, you are the most polished man in the world.

And your servants, too, how very well behaved they are; there is quite a style about them. Monsieur Baptistin

especially; I could never get such a man as that. My servants seem to imitate those you sometimes see in a

play, who, because they have only a word or two to say, aquit themselves in the most awkward manner

possible. Therefore, if you part with M. Baptistin, give me the refusal of him."

"That is not all; give my compliments to your illustrious Luccanese, Cavalcante of the Cavalcanti; and if by

any chance he should be wishing to establish his son, find him a wife very rich, very noble on her mother's

side at least, and a baroness in right of her father, I will help you in the search."

"Oh, count, what a service you might render me! I should like you a hundred times better if, by your

intervention, I could manage to remain a bachelor, even were it only for ten years."

"Nothing is impossible," gravely replied Monte Cristo; and taking leave of Albert, he returned into the house,

and struck the gong three times. Bertuccio appeared. "Monsieur Bertuccio, you understand that I intend

entertaining company on Saturday at Auteuil." Bertuccio slightly started. "I shall require your services to see

that all be properly arranged. It is a beautiful house, or at all events may be made so."

"There must be a good deal done before it can deserve that title, your excellency, for the tapestried hangings

"Let them all be taken away and changed, then, with the exception of the sleepingchamber which is hung

with red damask; you will leave that exactly as it is." Bertuccio bowed. "You will not touch the garden either;

as to the yard, you may do what you please with it; I should prefer that being altered beyond all recognition."

"I will do everything in my power to carry out your wishes, your excellency. I should be glad, however, to

"Really, my dear M. Bertuccio," said the count, "since you have been in Paris, you have become quite

nervous, and apparently out of your element; you no longer seem to understand me."

"But surely your excellency will be so good as to inform me whom you are expecting to receive?"

"I do not yet know myself, neither is it necessary that you should do so. `Lucullus dines with Lucullus,' that is

Both the count and Baptistin had told the truth when they announced to Morcerf the proposed visit of the

major, which had served Monte Cristo as a pretext for declining Albert's invitation. Seven o'clock had just

struck, and M. Bertuccio, according to the command which had been given him, had two hours before left for

Auteuil, when a cab stopped at the door, and after depositing its occupant at the gate, immediately hurried

away, as if ashamed of its employment. The visitor was about fiftytwo years of age, dressed in one of the

green surtouts, ornamented with black frogs, which have so long maintained their popularity all over Europe.

He wore trousers of blue cloth, boots tolerably clean, but not of the brightest polish, and a little too thick in

the soles, buckskin gloves, a hat somewhat resembling in shape those usually worn by the gendarmes, and a

black cravat striped with white, which, if the proprietor had not worn it of his own free will, might have

passed for a halter, so much did it resemble one. Such was the picturesque costume of the person who rang at

the gate, and demanded if it was not at No. 30 in the Avenue des ChampsElysees that the Count of Monte

Cristo lived, and who, being answered by the porter in the affirmative, entered, closed the gate after him, and

The small and angular head of this man, his white hair and thick gray mustaches, caused him to be easily

recognized by Baptistin, who had received an exact description of the expected visitor, and who was awaiting

him in the hall. Therefore, scarcely had the stranger time to pronounce his name before the count was

apprised of his arrival. He was ushered into a simple and elegant drawingroom, and the count rose to meet

him with a smiling air. "Ah, my dear sir, you are most welcome; I was expecting you."

"Ah, so much the better, I feared this little precaution might have been forgotten."

"Yes, yes," said Monte Cristo. His visitor appeared slightly uneasy. "Let me see," said the count; "are you not

"Yes," said Monte Cristo "you were a major; that is the title the French give to the post which you filled in

"Your visit here today is not of your own suggestion, is it?" said Monte Cristo.

"Give it me, then;" and Monte Cristo took the letter, which he opened and read. The major looked at the

count with his large staring eyes, and then took a survey of the apartment, but his gaze almost immediately

reverted to the proprietor of the room. "Yes, yes, I see. `Major Cavalcanti, a worthy patrician of Lucca, a

descendant of the Cavalcanti of Florence,'" continued Monte Cristo, reading aloud, "`possessing an income of

half a million.'" Monte Cristo raised his eyes from the paper, and bowed. "Half a million," said he,

"Yes, in so many words; and it must be so, for the abbe knows correctly the amount of all the largest fortunes

"Be it half a million. then; but on my word of honor, I had no idea that it was so much."

"Because you are robbed by your steward. You must make some reformation in that quarter."

"You have opened my eyes," said the Italian gravely; "I will show the gentlemen the door." Monte Cristo

"`Stolen away in his infancy, either by an enemy of his noble family or by the gypsies.'"

"At the age of five years!" said the major with a deep sigh, and raising his eye to heaven.

"`I have given him renewed life and hope, in the assurance that you have the power of restoring the son

whom he has vainly sought for fifteen years.'" The major looked at the count with an indescribable

expression of anxiety. "I have the power of so doing," said Monte Cristo. The major recovered his

"No, indeed; certainly not; a good man, a man holding religious office, as does the Abbe Busoni, could not

condescend to deceive or play off a joke; but your excellency has not read all."

"`In order to save Major Cavalcanti the trouble of drawing on his banker, I send him a draft for 2,000 francs

to defray his travelling expenses, and credit on you for the further sum of 48,000 francs, which you still owe

me.'" The major awaited the conclusion of the postscript, apparently with great anxiety. "Very good," said the

"Then the postscript is as favorably received by you as the rest of the letter?"

"Certainly; the Abbe Busoni and myself have a small account open between us. I do not remember if it is

exactly 48,000 francs, which I am still owing him, but I dare say we shall not dispute the difference. You

attached great importance, then, to this postscript, my dear Monsieur Cavalcanti?"

"I must explain to you," said the major, "that, fully confiding in the signature of the Abbe Busoni, I had not

provided myself with any other funds; so that if this resource had failed me, I should have found myself very

"Is it possible that a man of your standing should be embarrassed anywhere?" said Monte Cristo.

"Certainly, at your first request." The major's eyes dilated with pleasing astonishment. "But sit down," said

Monte Cristo; "really I do not know what I have been thinking of I have positively kept you standing for

"Don't mention it." The major drew an armchair towards him, and proceeded to seat himself.

"Now," said the count, "what will you take a glass of port, sherry, or Alicante?"

Monte Cristo rang; Baptistin appeared. The count advanced to meet him. "Well?" said he in a low voice.

Baptistin left the room. "Really," said the major, "I am quite ashamed of the trouble I am giving you."

"Pray don't mention such a thing," said the count. Baptistin reentered with glasses, wine, and biscuits. The

count filled one glass, but in the other he only poured a few drops of the rubycolored liquid. The bottle was

covered with spiders' webs, and all the other signs which indicate the age of wine more truly than do wrinkles

on a man's face. The major made a wise choice; he took the full glass and a biscuit. The count told Baptistin

to leave the plate within reach of his guest, who began by sipping the Alicante with an expression of great

"So, sir, you lived at Lucca, did you? You were rich, noble, held in great esteem had all that could render

"Ah," said the major, taking a second biscuit, "that consummation of my happiness was indeed wanting." The

"Let me hear, then," said the count, "who this deeply regretted son was; for I always understood you were a

"Yes," replied the count, "and you confirmed the report. A youthful indiscretion, I suppose, which you were

anxious to conceal from the world at large?" The major recovered himself, and resumed his usual calm

manner, at the same time casting his eyes down, either to give himself time to compose his countenance, or to

assist his imagination, all the while giving an underlook at the count, the protracted smile on whose lips still

announced the same polite curiosity. "Yes," said the major, "I did wish this fault to be hidden from every

"Not on your own account, surely," replied Monte Cristo; "for a man is above that sort of thing?"

"Oh, no, certainly not on my own account," said the major with a smile and a shake of the head.

"Yes, for the mother's sake his poor mother!" cried the major, taking a third biscuit.

"Take some more wine, my dear Cavalcanti," said the count, pouring out for him a second glass of Alicante;

"His poor mother," murmured the major, trying to get the lachrymal gland in operation, so as to moisten the

"Oh," said Monte Cristo "it would be quite superfluous for you to tell me, for I already know it."

"The certificate of your marriage with Oliva Corsinari, and the register of your child's birth."

"The register of the birth of Andrea Cavalcanti of your son; is not his name Andrea?"

"Your excellency, I regret to say that, not knowing it was necessary to come provided with these papers, I

The major passed his hand across his brow. "Ah, per Bacco, indispensable, were they?"

"Certainly they were; supposing there were to be doubts raised as to the validity of your marriage or the

"You must know that in France they are very particular on these points; it is not sufficient, as in Italy, to go to

the priest and say, `We love each other, and want you to marry us.' Marriage is a civil affair in France, and in

order to marry in an orthodox manner you must have papers which undeniably establish your identity."

"Ah, indeed?" said the major, who, seeing the object of his journey frustrated by the absence of the papers,

feared also that his forgetfulness might give rise to some difficulty concerning the 48,000 francs "ah,

indeed, that is a fortunate circumstance; yes, that really is lucky, for it never occurred to me to bring them."

"I do not at all wonder at it one cannot think of everything; but, happily, the Abbe Busoni thought for

The major clasped his hands in token of admiration. "You married Oliva Corsinari in the church of San Paolo

"Yes indeed, there it is truly," said the Italian, looking on with astonishment.

"And here is Andrea Cavalcanti's baptismal register, given by the curate of Saravezza."

"Take these documents, then; they do not concern me. You will give them to your son, who will, of course,

"In that case," replied the major, "it would be necessary to write to the curate for duplicates, and it would be

"Really," said the major, "difficulties seem to thicken upon us; will she be wanted in any way?"

"And I am still mourning her loss," exclaimed the major, drawing from his pocket a checked handkerchief,

"What would you have?" said Monte Cristo; "we are all mortal. Now, you understand, my dear Monsieur

Cavalcanti, that it is useless for you to tell people in France that you have been separated from your son for

fifteen years. Stories of gypsies, who steal children, are not at all in vogue in this part of the world, and would

not be believed. You sent him for his education to a college in one of the provinces, and now you wish him to

complete his education in the Parisian world. That is the reason which has induced you to leave Via Reggio,

"Precisely. Had stolen away this child, in order that your name might become extinct."

"Well, now that all is arranged, do not let these newly awakened remembrances be forgotten. You have,

"I did guess it," replied the major with the greatest possible coolness. "Then he is here?"

"He is," said Monte Cristo; "when the valet de chambre came in just now, he told me of his arrival."

"Ah, very well, very well," said the major, clutching the buttons of his coat at each exclamation.

"My dear sir," said Monte Cristo, "I understand your emotion; you must have time to recover yourself. I will,

in the meantime, go and prepare the young man for this muchdesired interview, for I presume that he is not

"You will bring him, then? You carry your goodness so far as even to present him to me yourself?"

"No; I do not wish to come between a father and son. Your interview will be private. But do not be uneasy;

even if the powerful voice of nature should be silent, you cannot well mistake him; he will enter by this door.

He is a fine young man, of fair complexion a little too fair, perhaps pleasing in manners; but you will

"By the way," said the major, "you know I have only the 2,000 francs which the Abbe Busoni sent me; this

"And you want money; that is a matter of course, my dear M. Cavalcanti. Well, here are 8,000 francs on

"Does your excellency wish for a receipt?" said the major, at the same time slipping the money into the inner

"Well, when you receive the remaining 40,000, you shall give me a receipt in full. Between honest men such

"Indeed," said the major, regarding himself with an air of complete satisfaction.

"Yes. It may be worn at Via Reggio; but that costume, however elegant in itself, has long been out of fashion

"Oh, if you really are attached to your old mode of dress; you can easily resume it when you leave Paris."

"I dare say you have nothing else with you. What is the use of boring one's self with so many things? Besides

"But you are a man of foresight and prudence, therefore you sent your luggage on before you. It has arrived at

the Hotel des Princes, Rue de Richelieu. It is there you are to take up your quarters."

"I presume you have given orders to your valet de chambre to put in all you are likely to need, your plain

clothes and your uniform. On grand occasions you must wear your uniform; that will look very well. Do not

forget your crosses. They still laugh at them in France, and yet always wear them, for all that."

"Very well, very well," said the major, who was in ecstasy at the attention paid him by the count.

"Now," said Monte Cristo, "that you have fortified yourself against all painful excitement, prepare yourself,

my dear M. Cavalcanti, to meet your lost Andrea." Saying which Monte Cristo bowed, and disappeared

behind the tapestry, leaving the major fascinated beyond expression with the delightful reception which he

The Count of Monte Cristo entered the adjoining room, which Baptistin had designated as the drawingroom,

and found there a young man, of graceful demeanor and elegant appearance, who had arrived in a cab about

half an hour previously. Baptistin had not found any difficulty in recognizing the person who presented

himself at the door for admittance. He was certainly the tall young man with light hair, red heard, black eyes,

and brilliant complexion, whom his master had so particularly described to him. When the count entered the

room the young man was carelessly stretched on a sofa, tapping his boot with the goldheaded cane which he

held in his hand. On perceiving the count he rose quickly. "The Count of Monte Cristo, I believe?" said he.

"Count Andrea Cavalcanti," repeated the young man, accompanying his words with a bow.

"You are charged with a letter of introduction addressed to me, are you not?" said the count.

"Exactly so. Now, as I have never known any Sinbad, with the exception of the one celebrated in the

"Well, it is one of his descendants, and a great friend of mine; he is a very rich Englishman, eccentric almost

"Ah, indeed? Then that explains everything that is extraordinary," said Andrea. "He is, then, the same

"If what you say be true," replied the count, smiling, "perhaps you will be kind enough to give me some

"Certainly, I will do so," said the young man, with a quickness which gave proof of his ready invention. "I am

(as you have said) the Count Andrea Cavalcanti, son of Major Bartolomeo Cavalcanti, a descendant of the

Cavalcanti whose names are inscribed in the golden book at Florence. Our family, although still rich (for my

father's income amounts to half a million), has experienced many misfortunes, and I myself was, at the age of

five years, taken away by the treachery of my tutor, so that for fifteen years I have not seen the author of my

existence. Since I have arrived at years of discretion and become my own master, I have been constantly

seeking him, but all in vain. At length I received this letter from your friend, which states that my father is in

Paris, and authorizes me to address myself to you for information respecting him."

"Really, all you have related to me is exceedingly interesting," said Monte Cristo, observing the young man

with a gloomy satisfaction; "and you have done well to conform in everything to the wishes of my friend

The count from the moment of first entering the drawingroom, had not once lost sight of the expression of

the young man's countenance; he had admired the assurance of his look and the firmness of his voice; but at

these words, so natural in themselves, "Your father is indeed here, and is seeking you," young Andrea started,

"Most undoubtedly," replied Monte Cristo; "your father, Major Bartolomeo Cavalcanti." The expression of

terror which, for the moment, had overspread the features of the young man, had now disappeared. "Ah, yes,

that is the name, certainly. Major Bartolomeo Cavalcanti. And you really mean to say; monsieur, that my dear

"Yes, sir; and I can even add that I have only just left his company. The history which he related to me of his

lost son touched me to the quick; indeed, his griefs, hopes, and fears on that subject might furnish material for

a most touching and pathetic poem. At length, he one day received a letter, stating that the abductors of his

son now offered to restore him, or at least to give notice where he might be found, on condition of receiving a

large sum of money, by way of ransom. Your father did not hesitate an instant, and the sum was sent to the

frontier of Piedmont, with a passport signed for Italy. You were in the south of France, I think?"

"Precisely so; and it conveyed me from Nice to Genoa, from Genoa to Turin, from Turin to Chambery, from

"Indeed? Then your father ought to have met with you on the road, for it is exactly the same route which he

himself took, and that is how we have been able to trace your journey to this place."

"But," said Andrea, "if my father had met me, I doubt if he would have recognized me; I must be somewhat

"Now," replied Monte Cristo "there is only one source of uneasiness left in your father's mind, which is this

he is anxious to know how you have been employed during your long absence from him, how you have

been treated by your persecutors, and if they have conducted themselves towards you with all the deference

due to your rank. Finally, he is anxious to see if you have been fortunate enough to escape the bad moral

influence to which you have been exposed, and which is infinitely more to be dreaded than any physical

suffering; he wishes to discover if the fine abilities with which nature had endowed you have been weakened

by want of culture; and, in short, whether you consider yourself capable of resuming and retaining in the

"As for myself, I first heard you spoken of by my friend Wilmore, the philanthropist. I believe he found you

in some unpleasant position, but do not know of what nature, for I did not ask, not being inquisitive. Your

misfortunes engaged his sympathies, so you see you must have been interesting. He told me that he was

anxious to restore you to the position which you had lost, and that he would seek your father until he found

him. He did seek, and has found him, apparently, since he is here now; and, finally, my friend apprised me of

your coming, and gave me a few other instructions relative to your future fortune. I am quite aware that my

friend Wilmore is peculiar, but he is sincere, and as rich as a goldmine, consequently, he may indulge his

eccentricities without any fear of their ruining him, and I have promised to adhere to his instructions. Now,

sir, pray do not be offended at the question I am about to put to you, as it comes in the way of my duty as

your patron. I would wish to know if the misfortunes which have happened to you misfortunes entirely

beyond your control, and which in no degree diminish my regard for you I would wish to know if they

have not, in some measure, contributed to render you a stranger to the world in which your fortune and your

"Sir," returned the young man, with a reassurance of manner, "make your mind easy on this score. Those who

took me from my father, and who always intended, sooner or later, to sell me again to my original proprietor,

as they have now done, calculated that, in order to make the most of their bargain, it would be politic to leave

me in possession of all my personal and hereditary worth, and even to increase the value, if possible. I have,

therefore, received a very good education, and have been treated by these kidnappers very much as the slaves

were treated in Asia Minor, whose masters made them grammarians, doctors, and philosophers, in order that

they might fetch a higher price in the Roman market." Monte Cristo smiled with satisfaction; it appeared as if

he had not expected so much from M. Andrea Cavalcanti. "Besides," continued the young man, "if there did

appear some defect in education, or offence against the established forms of etiquette, I suppose it would be

excused, in consideration of the misfortunes which accompanied my birth, and followed me through my

"Well," said Monte Cristo in an indifferent tone, "you will do as you please, count, for you are the master of

your own actions, and are the person most concerned in the matter, but if I were you, I would not divulge a

word of these adventures. Your history is quite a romance, and the world, which delights in romances in

yellow covers, strangely mistrusts those which are bound in living parchment, even though they be gilded

like yourself. This is the kind of difficulty which I wished to represent to you, my dear count. You would

hardly have recited your touching history before it would go forth to the world, and be deemed unlikely and

unnatural. You would be no longer a lost child found, but you would be looked upon as an upstart, who had

sprung up like a mushroom in the night. You might excite a little curiosity, but it is not every one who likes

"I agree with you, monsieur," said the young man, turning pale, and, in spite of himself, trembling beneath

the scrutinizing look of his companion, "such consequences would be extremely unpleasant."

"Nevertheless, you must not exaggerate the evil," said Monte Cristo, "for by endeavoring to avoid one fault

you will fall into another. You must resolve upon one simple and single line of conduct, and for a man of

your intelligence, this plan is as easy as it is necessary; you must form honorable friendships, and by that

means counteract the prejudice which may attach to the obscurity of your former life." Andrea visibly

changed countenance. "I would offer myself as your surety and friendly adviser," said Monte Cristo, "did I

not possess a moral distrust of my best friends, and a sort of inclination to lead others to doubt them too;

therefore, in departing from this rule, I should (as the actors say) be playing a part quite out of my line, and

should, therefore, run the risk of being hissed, which would be an act of folly."

"However, your excellency," said Andrea, "in consideration of Lord Wilmore, by whom I was recommended

"Yes, certainly," interrupted Monte Cristo; "but Lord Wilmore did not omit to inform me, my dear M.

Andrea, that the season of your youth was rather a stormy one. Ah," said the count, watching Andrea's

countenance, "I do not demand any confession from you; it is precisely to avoid that necessity that your

father was sent for from Lucca. You shall soon see him. He is a little stiff and pompous in his manner, and he

is disfigured by his uniform; but when it becomes known that he has been for eighteen years in the Austrian

service, all that will be pardoned. We are not generally very severe with the Austrians. In short, you will find

"Ah, sir, you have given me confidence; it is so long since we were separated, that I have not the least

remembrance of him, and, besides, you know that in the eyes of the world a large fortune covers all defects."

"Then," said the young man, with anxiety, "I shall be sure to be placed in an agreeable position."

"One of the most agreeable possible, my dear sir; he will allow you an income of 50,000 livres per annum

"You cannot control circumstances, my dear sir; `man proposes, and God disposes.'" Andrea sighed. "But,"

said he, "so long as I do remain in Paris, and nothing forces me to quit it, do you mean to tell me that I may

"Yes, you will receive it from your father personally, but Lord Wilmore will be the security for the money.

He has, at the request of your father, opened an account of 6,000 francs a month at M. Danglars', which is one

"Only a few days," replied Monte Cristo. "His service does not allow him to absent himself more than two or

"Ah, my dear father!" exclaimed Andrea, evidently charmed with the idea of his speedy departure.

"Therefore," said Monte Cristo feigning to mistake his meaning "therefore I will not, for another instant,

retard the pleasure of your meeting. Are you prepared to embrace your worthy father?"

"Go, then, into the drawingroom, my young friend, where you will find your father awaiting you." Andrea

made a low bow to the count, and entered the adjoining room. Monte Cristo watched him till he disappeared,

and then touched a spring in a panel made to look like a picture, which, in sliding partly from the frame,

discovered to view a small opening, so cleverly contrived that it revealed all that was passing in the

drawingroom now occupied by Cavalcanti and Andrea. The young man closed the door behind him, and

advanced towards the major, who had risen when he heard steps approaching him. "Ah, my dear father!" said

Andrea in a loud voice, in order that the count might hear him in the next room, "is it really you?"

"After so many years of painful separation," said Andrea, in the same tone of voice, and glancing towards the

"If you wish it, my son," said the major; and the two men embraced each other after the fashion of actors on

"Why, as to that I think, my dear son, you must be by this time so accustomed to France as to look upon it

"The fact is," said the young man, "that I should be exceedingly grieved to leave it."

"As for me, you must know I cannot possibly live out of Lucca; therefore I shall return to Italy as soon as I

"But before you leave France, my dear father, I hope you will put me in possession of the documents which

"Certainly; I am come expressly on that account; it has cost me much trouble to find you, but I had resolved

on giving them into your hands, and if I had to recommence my search, it would occupy all the few

Andrea seized the certificate of his father's marriage and his own baptismal register, and after having opened

them with all the eagerness which might be expected under the circumstances, he read them with a facility

which proved that he was accustomed to similar documents, and with an expression which plainly denoted an

unusual interest in the contents. When he had perused the documents, an indefinable expression of pleasure

lighted up his countenance, and looking at the major with a most peculiar smile, he said, in very excellent

Tuscan, "Then there is no longer any such thing, in Italy as being condemned to the galleys?" The major

"I mean that if there were, it would be impossible to draw up with impunity two such deeds as these. In

France, my dear sir, half such a piece of effrontery as that would cause you to be quickly despatched to

"Will you be good enough to explain your meaning?" said the major, endeavoring as much as possible to

"My dear M. Cavalcanti," said Andrea, taking the major by the arm in a confidential manner, "how much are

you paid for being my father?" The major was about to speak, when Andrea continued, in a low voice.

"Nonsense, I am going to set you an example of confidence, they give me 50,000 francs a year to be your

son; consequently, you can understand that it is not at all likely I shall ever deny my parent." The major

looked anxiously around him. "Make yourself easy, we are quite alone," said Andrea; "besides, we are

"I used not to do so, but I really feel now almost obliged to have faith in them."

"You have, then, been induced to alter your opinion; you have had some proofs of their truth?" The major

drew from his pocket a handful of gold. "Most palpable proofs," said he, "as you may perceive."

"To the letter, but at the same time, remember, we must continue to play our respective parts. I, as a tender

"Ma foi, I can hardly tell, but I was alluding to those who wrote the letter; you received one, did you not?"

"Then read for yourself;" and the major gave a letter into the young man's hand. Andrea read in a low voice

"You are poor; a miserable old age awaits you. Would you like to become rich, or at least independent? Set

out immediately for Paris, and demand of the Count of Monte Cristo, Avenue des Champs Elysees, No. 30,

the son whom you had by the Marchesa Corsinari, and who was taken from you at five years of age. This son

is named Andrea Cavalcanti. In order that you may not doubt the kind intention of the writer of this letter,

you will find enclosed an order for 2,400 francs, payable in Florence, at Signor Gozzi's; also a letter of

introduction to the Count of Monte Cristo, on whom I give you a draft of 48,000 francs. Remember to go to

"From an Englishman, called Lord Wilmore, who takes the name of Sinbad the Sailor."

"Ah, that is just what I cannot tell you; if I did, I should make you as wise as myself, which it is not my

"`You are poor, and your future prospects are dark and gloomy. Do you wish for a name? should you like to

"Ma foi," said the young man; "was it possible there could be two answers to such a question?"

"Take the postchaise which you will find waiting at the Porte de Genes, as you enter Nice; pass through

Turin, Chambery, and PontdeBeauvoisin. Go to the Count of Monte Cristo, Avenue des Champs Elysees,

on the 26th of May, at seven o'clock in the evening, and demand of him your father. You are the son of the

Marchese Cavalcanti and the Marchesa Oliva Corsinari. The marquis will give you some papers which will

certify this fact, and authorize you to appear under that name in the Parisian world. As to your rank, an annual

income of 50,000 livres will enable you to support it admirably. I enclose a draft for 5,000 livres, payable on

M. Ferrea, banker at Nice, and also a letter of introduction to the Count of Monte Cristo, whom I have

"No; I agree with you there. We must play the game to the end, and consent to be blindfold."

"I never once doubted your doing so." Monte Cristo chose this moment for reentering the drawingroom.

On hearing the sound of his footsteps, the two men threw themselves in each other's arms, and while they

were in the midst of this embrace, the count entered. "Well, marquis," said Monte Cristo, "you appear to be in

"There is only one thing which grieves me," observed the major, "and that is the necessity for my leaving

"Ah, my dear M. Cavalcanti, I trust you will not leave before I have had the honor of presenting you to some

"Yes, you," said the count, at the same time advancing towards Andrea, and slipping a packet of banknotes

"Yes; did you not tell him just now that you wanted money? Well, then, he deputes me to give you this."

"Silence," said Monte Cristo; "he does not wish you to know that it comes from him."

"I fully appreciate his delicacy," said Andrea, cramming the notes hastily into his pocket.

"And when shall we have the honor of seeing you again, your excellency?" asked Cavalcanti.

"On Saturday, if you will Yes. Let me see Saturday I am to dine at my country house, at

Auteuil, on that day, Rue de la Fontaine, No. 28. Several persons are invited, and among others, M. Danglars,

your banker. I will introduce you to him, for it will be necessary he should know you, as he is to pay your

"Oh, very simply; black trousers, patent leather boots, white waistcoat, either a black or blue coat, and a long

cravat. Go to Blin or Veronique for your clothes. Baptistin will tell you where, if you do not know their

address. The less pretension there is in your attire, the better will be the effect, as you are a rich man. If you

mean to buy any horses, get them of Devedeux, and if you purchase a phaeton, go to Baptiste for it."

"We will be with you at that time," said the major. The two Cavalcanti bowed to the count, and left the house.

Monte Cristo went to the window, and saw them crossing the street, arm in arm. "There go two miscreants;"

said he, "it is a pity they are not really related!" then, after an instant of gloomy reflection, "Come, I will

go to see the Morrels," said he; "I think that disgust is even more sickening than hatred."

Our readers must now allow us to transport them again to the enclosure surrounding M. de Villefort's house,

and, behind the gate, half screened from view by the large chestnuttrees, which on all sides spread their

luxuriant branches, we shall find some people of our acquaintance. This time Maximilian was the first to

arrive. He was intently watching for a shadow to appear among the trees, and awaiting with anxiety the sound

of a light step on the gravel walk. At length, the longdesired sound was heard, and instead of one figure, as

he had expected, he perceived that two were approaching him. The delay had been occasioned by a visit from

Madame Danglars and Eugenie, which had been prolonged beyond the time at which Valentine was expected.

That she might not appear to fail in her promise to Maximilian, she proposed to Mademoiselle Danglars that

they should take a walk in the garden, being anxious to show that the delay, which was doubtless a cause of

vexation to him, was not occasioned by any neglect on her part. The young man, with the intuitive perception

of a lover, quickly understood the circumstances in which she was involuntarily placed, and he was

comforted. Besides, although she avoided coming within speaking distance, Valentine arranged so that

Maximilian could see her pass and repass, and each time she went by, she managed, unperceived by her

companion, to cast an expressive look at the young man, which seemed to say, "Have patience! You see it is

not my fault." And Maximilian was patient, and employed himself in mentally contrasting the two girls,

one fair, with soft languishing eyes, a figure gracefully bending like a weeping willow; the other a brunette,

with a fierce and haughty expression, and as straight as a poplar. It is unnecessary to state that, in the eyes of

the young man, Valentine did not suffer by the contrast. In about half an hour the girls went away, and

Maximilian understood that Mademoiselle Danglars' visit had at last come to an end. In a few minutes

Valentine reentered the garden alone. For fear that any one should be observing her return, she walked

slowly; and instead of immediately directing her steps towards the gate, she seated herself on a bench, and,

carefully casting her eyes around, to convince herself that she was not watched, she presently arose, and

"Goodevening, Maximilian; I know I have kept you waiting, but you saw the cause of my delay."

"Yes, I recognized Mademoiselle Danglars. I was not aware that you were so intimate with her."

"No one, but you appeared to be so. From the manner in which you walked and talked together, one would

"We were having a confidential conversation," returned Valentine; "she was owning to me her repugnance to

the marriage with M. de Morcerf; and I, on the other hand, was confessing to her how wretched it made me to

"That will account to you for the unreserved manner which you observed between me and Eugenie, as in

speaking of the man whom I could not love, my thoughts involuntarily reverted to him on whom my

"Ah, how good you are to say so, Valentine! You possess a quality which can never belong to Mademoiselle

Danglars. It is that indefinable charm which is to a woman what perfume is to the flower and flavor to the

"No, Valentine, I assure you such is not the case. I was observing you both when you were walking in the

garden, and, on my honor, without at all wishing to depreciate the beauty of Mademoiselle Danglars, I cannot

"The fact is, Maximilian, that I was there, and my presence had the effect of rendering you unjust in your

"No; but tell me it is a question of simple curiosity, and which was suggested by certain ideas passing in

"I dare say it is something disparaging which you are going to say. It only proves how little indulgence we

"If we are so, it is because we generally judge under the influence of excitement. But return to your

"Does Mademoiselle Danglars object to this marriage with M. de Morcerf on account of loving another?"

"Yes, but girls tell each other secrets without being particularly intimate; own, now, that you did question her

"If you are already aware of the conversation that passed, the wooden partition which interposed between us

"She told me that she loved no one," said Valentine; "that she disliked the idea of being married; that she

would infinitely prefer leading an independent and unfettered life; and that she almost wished her father

might lose his fortune, that she might become an artist, like her friend, Mademoiselle Louise d'Armilly."

"Ah, no, no. But do not let us lose time; you are the subject on which I wish to speak."

"True, we must be quick, for we have scarcely ten minutes more to pass together."

"Yes, you are right; I am but a poor friend to you. What a life I cause you to lead, poor Maximilian, you who

"Well, what does it signify, Valentine, so long as I am satisfied, and feel that even this long and painful

suspense is amply repaid by five minutes of your society, or two words from your lips? And I have also a

deep conviction that heaven would not have created two hearts, harmonizing as ours do, and almost

"Those are kind and cheering words. You must hope for us both, Maximilian; that will make me at least

"I do not know particulars. I can only tell you that Madame de Villefort sent to request my presence, as she

had a communication to make on which a part of my fortune depended. Let them take my fortune, I am

already too rich; and, perhaps, when they have taken it, they will leave me in peace and quietness. You would

"Oh, I shall always love you. What should I care for either riches or poverty, if my Valentine was near me,

and I felt certain that no one could deprive me of her? But do you not fear that this communication may relate

"However it may be, Valentine, you must not be alarmed. I assure you that, as long as I live, I shall never

"Pardon me, you are right. I am a brute. But I was going to tell you that I met M. de Morcerf the other day."

"Monsieur de Morcerf has received a letter from Franz, announcing his immediate return." Valentine turned

pale, and leaned her hand against the gate. "Ah heavens, if it were that! But no, the communication would not

"Because I scarcely know why but it has appeared as if Madame de Villefort secretly objected to the

"If she objects to your marrying M. d'Epinay, she would be all the more likely to listen to any other

"No, Maximilian, it is not suitors to which Madame de Villefort objects, it is marriage itself."

"You do not understand me, Maximilian. About a year ago, I talked of retiring to a convent. Madame de

Villefort, in spite of all the remarks which she considered it her duty to make, secretly approved of the

proposition, my father consented to it at her instigation, and it was only on account of my poor grandfather

that I finally abandoned the project. You can form no idea of the expression of that old man's eye when he

looks at me, the only person in the world whom he loves, and, I had almost said, by whom he is beloved in

return. When he learned my resolution, I shall never forget the reproachful look which he cast on me, and the

tears of utter despair which chased each other down his lifeless cheeks. Ah, Maximilian, I experienced, at that

moment, such remorse for my intention, that, throwing myself at his feet, I exclaimed, `Forgive me, pray

forgive me, my dear grandfather; they may do what they will with me, I will never leave you.' When I had

ceased speaking, he thankfully raised his eyes to heaven, but without uttering a word. Ah, Maximilian, I may

have much to suffer, but I feel as if my grandfather's look at that moment would more than compensate for

"Dear Valentine, you are a perfect angel, and I am sure I do not know what I sabring right and left among

the Bedouins can have done to merit your being revealed to me, unless, indeed, heaven took into

consideration the fact that the victims of my sword were infidels. But tell me what interest Madame de

"Did I not tell you just now that I was rich, Maximilian too rich? I possess nearly 50,000 livres in right of

my mother; my grandfather and my grandmother, the Marquis and Marquise de SaintMeran, will leave me

as much, and M. Noirtier evidently intends making me his heir. My brother Edward, who inherits nothing

from his mother, will, therefore, be poor in comparison with me. Now, if I had taken the veil, all this fortune

"Ah, how strange it seems that such a young and beautiful woman should be so avaricious."

"It is not for herself that she is so, but for her son, and what you regard as a vice becomes almost a virtue

"But could you not compromise matters, and give up a portion of your fortune to her son?"

"How could I make such a proposition, especially to a woman who always professes to be so entirely

"Valentine, I have always regarded our love in the light of something sacred; consequently, I have covered it

with the veil of respect, and hid it in the innermost recesses of my soul. No human being, not even my sister,

is aware of its existence. Valentine, will you permit me to make a confidant of a friend and reveal to him the

Valentine started. "A friend, Maximilian; and who is this friend? I tremble to give my permission."

"Listen, Valentine. Have you never experienced for any one that sudden and irresistible sympathy which

made you feel as if the object of it had been your old and familiar friend, though, in reality, it was the first

time you had ever met? Nay, further, have you never endeavored to recall the time, place, and circumstances

of your former intercourse, and failing in this attempt, have almost believed that your spirits must have held

converse with each other in some state of being anterior to the present, and that you are only now occupied in

"Well, that is precisely the feeling which I experienced when I first saw that extraordinary man."

"And do you call a man your friend whom you have only known for eight or ten days? Ah, Maximilian, I had

"Your logic is most powerful, Valentine, but say what you will, I can never renounce the sentiment which has

instinctively taken possession of my mind. I feel as if it were ordained that this man should be associated with

all the good which the future may have in store for me, and sometimes it really seems as if his eye was able to

see what was to come, and his hand endowed with the power of directing events according to his own will."

"Indeed," said Maximilian, "I have often been almost tempted to attribute to him the gift of prophecy; at all

"Ah," said Valentine in a mournful tone, "do let me see this man, Maximilian; he may tell me whether I shall

"Ah," cried Valentine, "he is too much the friend of Madame de Villefort ever to be mine."

"The friend of Madame de Villefort! It cannot be; surely, Valentine, you are mistaken?"

"No, indeed, I am not; for I assure you, his power over our household is almost unlimited. Courted by my

stepmother, who regards him as the epitome of human wisdom; admired by my father, who says he has

never before heard such sublime ideas so eloquently expressed; idolized by Edward, who, notwithstanding

his fear of the count's large black eyes, runs to meet him the moment he arrives, and opens his hand, in which

he is sure to find some delightful present, M. de Monte Cristo appears to exert a mysterious and almost

"If such be the case, my dear Valentine, you must yourself have felt, or at all events will soon feel, the effects

of his presence. He meets Albert de Morcerf in Italy it is to rescue him from the hands of the banditti; he

introduces himself to Madame Danglars it is that he may give her a royal present; your stepmother and

her son pass before his door it is that his Nubian may save them from destruction. This man evidently

possesses the power of influencing events, both as regards men and things. I never saw more simple tastes

united to greater magnificence. His smile is so sweet when he addresses me, that I forget it ever can be bitter

to others. Ah, Valentine, tell me, if he ever looked on you with one of those sweet smiles? if so, depend on it,

"Me?" said the young girl, "he never even glances at me; on the contrary, if I accidentally cross his path, he

appears rather to avoid me. Ah, he is not generous, neither does he possess that supernatural penetration

which you attribute to him, for if he did, he would have perceived that I was unhappy; and if he had been

generous, seeing me sad and solitary, he would have used his influence to my advantage, and since, as you

say, he resembles the sun, he would have warmed my heart with one of his lifegiving rays. You say he loves

you, Maximilian; how do you know that he does? All would pay deference to an officer like you, with a

fierce mustache and a long sabre, but they think they may crush a poor weeping girl with impunity."

"If it were otherwise if he treated me diplomatically that is to say, like a man who wishes, by some

means or other, to obtain a footing in the house, so that he may ultimately gain the power of dictating to its

occupants he would, if it had been but once, have honored me with the smile which you extol so loudly;

but no, he saw that I was unhappy, he understood that I could be of no use to him, and therefore paid no

attention to me whatever. Who knows but that, in order to please Madame de Villefort and my father, he may

not persecute me by every means in his power? It is not just that he should despise me so, without any reason.

Ah, forgive me," said Valentine, perceiving the effect which her words were producing on Maximilian: "I

have done wrong, for I have given utterance to thoughts concerning that man which I did not even know

existed in my heart. I do not deny the influence of which you speak, or that I have not myself experienced it,

"Well, Valentine," said Morrel with a sigh, "we will not discuss the matter further. I will not make a

"Alas," said Valentine, "I see that I have given you pain. I can only say how sincerely I ask pardon for having

griefed you. But, indeed, I am not prejudiced beyond the power of conviction. Tell me what this Count of

"I own that your question embarrasses me, Valentine, for I cannot say that the count has rendered me any

ostensible service. Still, as I have already told you I have an instinctive affection for him, the source of which

I cannot explain to you. Has the sun done anything for me? No; he warms me with his rays, and it is by his

light that I see you nothing more. Has such and such a perfume done anything for me? No; its odor

charms one of my senses that is all I can say when I am asked why I praise it. My friendship for him is as

strange and unaccountable as his for me. A secret voice seems to whisper to me that there must be something

more than chance in this unexpected reciprocity of friendship. In his most simple actions, as well as in his

most secret thoughts, I find a relation to my own. You will perhaps smile at me when I tell you that, ever

since I have known this man, I have involuntarily entertained the idea that all the good fortune which his

befallen me originated from him. However, I have managed to live thirty years without this protection, you

will say; but I will endeavor a little to illustrate my meaning. He invited me to dine with him on Saturday,

which was a very natural thing for him to do. Well, what have I learned since? That your mother and M. de

Villefort are both coming to this dinner. I shall meet them there, and who knows what future advantages may

result from the interview? This may appear to you to be no unusual combination of circumstances;

nevertheless, I perceive some hidden plot in the arrangement something, in fact, more than is apparent on

a casual view of the subject. I believe that this singular man, who appears to fathom the motives of every one,

has purposely arranged for me to meet M. and Madame de Villefort, and sometimes, I confess, I have gone so

far as to try to read in his eyes whether he was in possession of the secret of our love."

"My good friend," said Valentine, "I should take you for a visionary, and should tremble for your reason, if I

were always to hear you talk in a strain similar to this. Is it possible that you can see anything more than the

merest chance in this meeting? Pray reflect a little. My father, who never goes out, has several times been on

the point of refusing this invitation; Madame de Villefort, on the contrary, is burning with the desire of seeing

this extraordinary nabob in his own house, therefore, she has with great difficulty prevailed on my father to

accompany her. No, no; it is as I have said, Maximilian, there is no one in the world of whom I can ask

"I see that you are right, logically speaking," said Maximilian; "but the gentle voice which usually has such

"I feel the same as regards yourself." said Valentine; "and I own that, if you have no stronger proof to give

"I have another," replied Maximilian; "but I fear you will deem it even more absurd than the first."

"It is, nevertheless, conclusive to my mind. My ten years of service have also confirmed my ideas on the

subject of sudden inspirations, for I have several times owed my life to a mysterious impulse which directed

me to move at once either to the right or to the left, in order to escape the ball which killed the comrade

"Dear Maximilian, why not attribute your escape to my constant prayers for your safety? When you are away,

"Yes, since you have known me," said Morrel, smiling; "but that cannot apply to the time previous to our

"You are very provoking, and will not give me credit for anything; but let me hear this second proof, which

"Well, look through this opening, and you will see the beautiful new horse which I rode here."

"Ah, what a beautiful creature!" cried Valentine; "why did you not bring him close to the gate, so that I could

"He is, as you see, a very valuable animal," said Maximilian. "You know that my means are limited, and that

I am what would be designated a man of moderate pretensions. Well, I went to a horse dealer's, where I saw

this magnificent horse, which I have named Medeah. I asked the price; they told me it was 4,500 francs. I

was, therefore, obliged to give it up, as you may imagine, but I own I went away with rather a heavy heart,

for the horse had looked at me affectionately, had rubbed his head against me and, when I mounted him, had

pranced in the most delightful way imaginable, so that I was altogether fascinated with him. The same

evening some friends of mine visited me, M. de ChateauRenaud, M. Debray, and five or six other choice

spirits, whom you do not know, even by name. They proposed a game of bouillotte. I never play, for I am not

rich enough to afford to lose, or sufficiently poor to desire to gain. But I was at my own house, you

understand, so there was nothing to be done but to send for the cards, which I did.

"Just as they were sitting down to table, M. de Monte Cristo arrived. He took his seat amongst them; they

played, and I won. I am almost ashamed to say that my gains amounted to 5,000 francs. We separated at

midnight. I could not defer my pleasure, so I took a cabriolet and drove to the horse dealer's. Feverish and

excited, I rang at the door. The person who opened it must have taken me for a madman, for I rushed at once

to the stable. Medeah was standing at the rack, eating his hay. I immediately put on the saddle and bridle, to

which operation he lent himself with the best grace possible; then, putting the 4,500 francs into the hands of

the astonished dealer, I proceeded to fulfil my intention of passing the night in riding in the Champs Elysees.

As I rode by the count's house I perceived a light in one of the windows, and fancied I saw the shadow of his

figure moving behind the curtain. Now, Valentine, I firmly believe that he knew of my wish to possess this

"My dear Maximilian, you are really too fanciful; you will not love even me long. A man who accustoms

himself to live in such a world of poetry and imagination must find far too little excitement in a common,

everyday sort of attachment such as ours. But they are calling me. Do you hear?"

"Ah, Valentine," said Maximilian, "give me but one finger through this opening in the grating, one finger, the

"Oh, yes!" Valentine mounted on a bench, and passed not only her finger but her whole hand through the

opening. Maximilian uttered a cry of delight, and, springing forwards, seized the hand extended towards him,

and imprinted on it a fervent and impassioned kiss. The little hand was then immediately withdrawn, and the

young man saw Valentine hurrying towards the house, as though she were almost terrified at her own

We will now relate what was passing in the house of the king's attorney after the departure of Madame

Danglars and her daughter, and during the time of the conversation between Maximilian and Valentine,

which we have just detailed. M. de Villefort entered his father's room, followed by Madame de Villefort.

Both of the visitors, after saluting the old man and speaking to Barrois, a faithful servant, who had been

twentyfive years in his service, took their places on either side of the paralytic.

M. Noirtier was sitting in an armchair, which moved upon casters, in which he was wheeled into the room

in the morning, and in the same way drawn out again at night. He was placed before a large glass, which

reflected the whole apartment, and so, without any attempt to move, which would have been impossible, he

could see all who entered the room and everything which was going on around him. M. Noirtier, although

almost as immovable as a corpse, looked at the newcomers with a quick and intelligent expression,

perceiving at once, by their ceremonious courtesy, that they were come on business of an unexpected and

official character. Sight and hearing were the only senses remaining, and they, like two solitary sparks,

remained to animate the miserable body which seemed fit for nothing but the grave; it was only, however, by

means of one of these senses that he could reveal the thoughts and feelings that still occupied his mind, and

the look by which he gave expression to his inner life was like the distant gleam of a candle which a traveller

sees by night across some desert place, and knows that a living being dwells beyond the silence and

obscurity. Noirtier's hair was long and white, and flowed over his shoulders; while in his eyes, shaded by

thick black lashes, was concentrated, as it often happens with an organ which is used to the exclusion of the

others, all the activity, address, force, and intelligence which were formerly diffused over his whole body;

and so although the movement of the arm, the sound of the voice, and the agility of the body, were wanting,

the speaking eye sufficed for all. He commanded with it; it was the medium through which his thanks were

conveyed. In short, his whole appearance produced on the mind the impression of a corpse with living eyes,

and nothing could be more startling than to observe the expression of anger or joy suddenly lighting up these

organs, while the rest of the rigid and marblelike features were utterly deprived of the power of

participation. Three persons only could understand this language of the poor paralytic; these were Villefort,

Valentine, and the old servant of whom we have already spoken. But as Villefort saw his father but seldom,

and then only when absolutely obliged, and as he never took any pains to please or gratify him when he was

there, all the old man's happiness was centred in his granddaughter. Valentine, by means of her love, her

patience, and her devotion, had learned to read in Noirtier's look all the varied feelings which were passing in

his mind. To this dumb language, which was so unintelligible to others, she answered by throwing her whole

soul into the expression of her countenance, and in this manner were the conversations sustained between the

blooming girl and the helpless invalid, whose body could scarcely be called a living one, but who,

nevertheless, possessed a fund of knowledge and penetration, united with a will as powerful as ever although

clogged by a body rendered utterly incapable of obeying its impulses. Valentine had solved the problem, and

was able easily to understand his thoughts, and to convey her own in return, and, through her untiring and

devoted assiduity, it was seldom that, in the ordinary transactions of everyday life, she failed to anticipate

the wishes of the living, thinking mind, or the wants of the almost inanimate body. As to the servant, he had,

as we have said, been with his master for five and twenty years, therefore he knew all his habits, and it was

seldom that Noirtier found it necessary to ask for anything, so prompt was he in administering to all the

necessities of the invalid. Villefort did not need the help of either Valentine or the domestic in order to carry

on with his father the strange conversation which he was about to begin. As we have said, he perfectly

understood the old man's vocabulary, and if he did not use it more often, it was only indifference and ennui

which prevented him from so doing. He therefore allowed Valentine to go into the garden, sent away Barrois,

and after having seated himself at his father's right hand, while Madame de Villefort placed herself on the

"I trust you will not be displeased, sir, that Valentine has not come with us, or that I dismissed Barrois, for

our conference will be one which could not with propriety be carried on in the presence of either. Madame de

Noirtier's face remained perfectly passive during this long preamble, while, on the contrary, Villefort's eye

"This communication," continued the procureur, in that cold and decisive tone which seemed at once to

preclude all discussion, "will, we are sure, meet with your approbation." The eye of the invalid still retained

that vacancy of expression which prevented his son from obtaining any knowledge of the feelings which were

passing in his mind; he listened, nothing more. "Sir," resumed Villefort, "we are thinking of marrying

Valentine." Had the old man's face been moulded in wax it could not have shown less emotion at this news

than was now to be traced there. "The marriage will take place in less than three months," said Villefort.

Madame de Villefort now took her part in the conversation and added, "We thought this news would

possess an interest for you, sir, who have always entertained a great affection for Valentine; it therefore only

now remains for us to tell you the name of the young man for whom she is destined. It is one of the most

desirable connections which could possibly be formed; he possesses fortune, a high rank in society, and every

personal qualification likely to render Valentine supremely happy, his name, moreover, cannot be wholly

While his wife was speaking, Villefort had narrowly watched the old man's countenance. When Madame de

Villefort pronounced the name of Franz, the pupil of M. Noirtier's eye began to dilate, and his eyelids

trembled with the same movement that may be perceived on the lips of an individual about to speak, and he

darted a lightning glance at Madame de Villefort and his son. The procureur, who knew the political hatred

which had formerly existed between M. Noirtier and the elder d'Epinay, well understood the agitation and

anger which the announcement had produced; but, feigning not to perceive either, he immediately resumed

the narrative begun by his wife. "Sir," said he, "you are aware that Valentine is about to enter her nineteenth

year, which renders it important that she should lose no time in forming a suitable alliance. Nevertheless, you

have not been forgotten in our plans, and we have fully ascertained beforehand that Valentine's future

husband will consent, not to live in this house, for that might not be pleasant for the young people, but that

you should live with them; so that you and Valentine, who are so attached to each other, would not be

separated, and you would be able to pursue exactly the same course of life which you have hitherto done, and

thus, instead of losing, you will be a gainer by the change, as it will secure to you two children instead of one,

Noirtier's look was furious; it was very evident that something desperate was passing in the old man's mind,

for a cry of anger and grief rose in his throat, and not being able to find vent in utterance, appeared almost to

choke him, for his face and lips turned quite purple with the struggle. Villefort quietly opened a window,

saying, "It is very warm, and the heat affects M. Noirtier." He then returned to his place, but did not sit down.

"This marriage," added Madame de Villefort, "is quite agreeable to the wishes of M. d'Epinay and his family;

besides, he had no relations nearer than an uncle and aunt, his mother having died at his birth, and his father

having been assassinated in 1815, that is to say, when he was but two years old; it naturally followed that the

child was permitted to choose his own pursuits, and he has, therefore, seldom acknowledged any other

"That assassination was a mysterious affair," said Villefort, "and the perpetrators have hitherto escaped

detection, although suspicion has fallen on the head of more than one person." Noirtier made such an effort

"Now," continued Villefort, "those to whom the guilt really belongs, by whom the crime was committed, on

whose heads the justice of man may probably descend here, and the certain judgment of God hereafter, would

rejoice in the opportunity thus afforded of bestowing such a peaceoffering as Valentine on the son of him

whose life they so ruthlessly destroyed." Noirtier had succeeded in mastering his emotion more than could

have been deemed possible with such an enfeebled and shattered frame. "Yes, I understand," was the reply

contained in his look; and this look expressed a feeling of strong indignation, mixed with profound contempt.

Villefort fully understood his father's meaning, and answered by a slight shrug of his shoulders. He then

motioned to his wife to take leave. "Now sir," said Madame de Villefort, "I must bid you farewell. Would

It had been agreed that the old man should express his approbation by closing his eyes, his refusal by winking

them several times, and if he had some desire or feeling to express, he raised them to heaven. If he wanted

Valentine, he closed his right eye only, and if Barrois, the left. At Madame de Villefort's proposition he

instantly winked his eyes. Provoked by a complete refusal, she bit her lip and said, "Then shall I send

Valentine to you?" The old man closed his eyes eagerly, thereby intimating that such was his wish. M. and

Madame de Villefort bowed and left the room, giving orders that Valentine should be summoned to her

grandfather's presence, and feeling sure that she would have much to do to restore calmness to the perturbed

spirit of the invalid. Valentine, with a color still heightened by emotion, entered the room just after her

parents had quitted it. One look was sufficient to tell her that her grandfather was suffering, and that there

was much on his mind which he was wishing to communicate to her. "Dear grandpapa," cried she, "what has

happened? They have vexed you, and you are angry?" The paralytic closed his eyes in token of assent. "Who

"Me?" The former sign was repeated. "Are you displeased with me?" cried Valentine in astonishment. M.

Noirtier again closed his eyes. "And what have I done, dear grandpapa, that you should be angry with me?"

There was no answer, and she continued. "I have not seen you all day. Has any one been speaking to you

"Let me think a moment. I do assure you, grandpapa Ah M. and Madame de Villefort have just left

"And it was they who told you something which made you angry? What was it then? May I go and ask them,

"Ah, you frighten me. What can they have said?" and she again tried to think what it could be.

"Ah, I know," said she, lowering her voice and going close to the old man. "They have been speaking of my

"I understand; you are displeased at the silence I have preserved on the subject. The reason of it was, that they

had insisted on my keeping the matter a secret, and begged me not to tell you anything of it. They did not

even acquaint me with their intentions, and I only discovered them by chance, that is why I have been so

reserved with you, dear grandpapa. Pray forgive me." But there was no look calculated to reassure her; all it

"What is it, then?" asked the young girl. "Perhaps you think I shall abandon you, dear grandpapa, and that I

"Then why are you still vexed and grieved?" The old man's eyes beamed with an expression of gentle

affection. "Yes, I understand," said Valentine; "it is because you love me." The old man assented. "And you

"Well, listen," said Valentine, throwing herself on her knees, and putting her arm round her grandfather's

neck, "I am vexed, too, for I do not love M. Franz d'Epinay." An expression of intense joy illumined the old

man's eyes. "When I wished to retire into a convent, you remember how angry you were with me?" A tear

trembled in the eye of the invalid. "Well," continued Valentine, "the reason of my proposing it was that I

might escape this hateful marriage, which drives me to despair." Noirtier's breathing came thick and short.

"Then the idea of this marriage really grieves you too? Ah, if you could but help me if we could both

together defeat their plan! But you are unable to oppose them, you, whose mind is so quick, and whose

will is so firm are nevertheless, as weak and unequal to the contest as I am myself. Alas, you, who would

have been such a powerful protector to me in the days of your health and strength, can now only sympathize

in my joys and sorrows, without being able to take any active part in them. However, this is much, and calls

for gratitude and heaven has not taken away all my blessings when it leaves me your sympathy and

At these words there appeared in Noirtier's eye an expression of such deep meaning that the young girl

thought she could read these words there: "You are mistaken; I can still do much for you."

"Yes." Noirtier raised his eyes, it was the sign agreed on between him and Valentine when he wanted

"What is it you want, dear grandpapa?" said Valentine, and she endeavored to recall to mind all the things

which he would be likely to need; and as the ideas presented themselves to her mind, she repeated them

aloud, then, finding that all her efforts elicited nothing but a constant "No," she said, "Come, since this

plan does not answer, I will have recourse to another." She then recited all the letters of the alphabet from A

down to N. When she arrived at that letter the paralytic made her understand that she had spoken the initial

letter of the thing he wanted. "Ah," said Valentine, "the thing you desire begins with the letter N; it is with N

that we have to do, then. Well, let me see, what can you want that begins with N? Na Ne Ni No"

"Yes." Valentine fetched a dictionary, which she placed on a desk before Noirtier; she opened it, and, seeing

that the odd man's eye was thoroughly fixed on its pages, she ran her finger quickly up and down the

columns. During the six years which had passed since Noirtier first fell into this sad state, Valentine's powers

of invention had been too often put to the test not to render her expert in devising expedients for gaining a

knowledge of his wishes, and the constant practice had so perfected her in the art that she guessed the old

man's meaning as quickly as if he himself had been able to seek for what he wanted. At the word "Notary,"

Noirtier made a sign to her to stop. "Notary," said she, "do you want a notary, dear grandpapa?" The old man

"Yes." Valentine rang the bell, and ordered the servant to tell Monsieur or Madame de Villefort that they

were requested to come to M. Noirtier's room. "Are you satisfied now?" inquired Valentine.

"I am sure you are; it is not very difficult to discover that," and the young girl smiled on her grandfather,

as if he had been a child. M. de Villefort entered, followed by Barrois. "What do you want me for, sir?"

"Sir," said Valentine, "my grandfather wishes for a notary." At this strange and unexpected demand M. de

Villefort and his father exchanged looks. "Yes," motioned the latter, with a firmness which seemed to declare

that with the help of Valentine and his old servant, who both knew what his wishes were, he was quite

Noirtier made no answer. "What do you want with a notary?" again repeated Villefort. The invalid's eye

remained fixed, by which expression he intended to intimate that his resolution was unalterable. "Is it to do us

"Still," said Barrois, with the freedom and fidelity of an old servant, "if M. Noirtier asks for a notary, I

suppose he really wishes for a notary; therefore I shall go at once and fetch one." Barrois acknowledged no

master but Noirtier, and never allowed his desires in any way to be contradicted.

"Yes, I do want a notary," motioned the old man, shutting his eyes with a look of defiance, which seemed to

"You shall have a notary, as you absolutely wish for one, sir," said Villefort; "but I shall explain to him your

state of health, and make excuses for you, for the scene cannot fail of being a most ridiculous one."

"Never mind that," said Barrois; "I shall go and fetch a notary, nevertheless," and the old servant departed

As soon as Barrois had left the room, Noirtier looked at Valentine with a malicious expression that said many

things. The young girl perfectly understood the look, and so did Villefort, for his countenance became

clouded, and he knitted his eyebrows angrily. He took a seat, and quietly awaited the arrival of the notary.

Noirtier saw him seat himself with an appearance of perfect indifference, at the same time giving a side look

at Valentine, which made her understand that she also was to remain in the room. Threequarters of an hour

after, Barrois returned, bringing the notary with him. "Sir," said Villefort, after the first salutations were over,

"you were sent for by M. Noirtier, whom you see here. All his limbs have become completely paralysed, he

has lost his voice also, and we ourselves find much trouble in endeavoring to catch some fragments of his

meaning." Noirtier cast an appealing look on Valentine, which look was at once so earnest and imperative,

that she answered immediately. "Sir," said she, "I perfectly understand my grandfather's meaning at all

"That is quite true," said Barrois; "and that is what I told the gentleman as we walked along."

"Permit me," said the notary, turning first to Villefort and then to Valentine "permit me to state that the

case in question is just one of those in which a public officer like myself cannot proceed to act without

thereby incurring a dangerous responsibility. The first thing necessary to render an act valid is, that the notary

should be thoroughly convinced that he has faithfully interpreted the will and wishes of the person dictating

the act. Now I cannot be sure of the approbation or disapprobation of a client who cannot speak, and as the

object of his desire or his repugnance cannot be clearly proved to me, on account of his want of speech, my

services here would be quite useless, and cannot be legally exercised." The notary then prepared to retire. An

imperceptible smile of triumph was expressed on the lips of the procureur. Noirtier looked at Valentine with

an expression so full of grief, that she arrested the departure of the notary. "Sir," said she, "the language

which I speak with my grandfather may be easily learnt, and I can teach you in a few minutes, to understand

it almost as well as I can myself. Will you tell me what you require, in order to set your conscience quite at

"In order to render an act valid, I must be certain of the approbation or disapprobation of my client. Illness of

body would not affect the validity of the deed, but sanity of mind is absolutely requisite."

"Well, sir, by the help of two signs, with which I will acquaint you presently, you may ascertain with perfect

certainty that my grandfather is still in the full possession of all his mental faculties. M. Noirtier, being

deprived of voice and motion, is accustomed to convey his meaning by closing his eyes when he wishes to

signify `yes,' and to wink when he means `no.' You now know quite enough to enable you to converse with

M. Noirtier; try." Noirtier gave Valentine such a look of tenderness and gratitude that it was

comprehended even by the notary himself. "You have heard and understood what your granddaughter has

been saying, sir, have you?" asked the notary. Noirtier closed his eyes. "And you approve of what she said

that is to say, you declare that the signs which she mentioned are really those by means of which you are

"And you do not wish me to go away without fulfilling your original intentions?" The old man winked

violently. "Well, sir," said the young girl, "do you understand now, and is your conscience perfectly at rest on

the subject?" But before the notary could answer, Villefort had drawn him aside. "Sir," said he, "do you

suppose for a moment that a man can sustain a physical shock, such as M. Noirtier has received, without any

"It is not exactly that, sir," said the notary, "which makes me uneasy, but the difficulty will be in wording his

"You must see that to be an utter impossibility," said Villefort. Valentine and the old man heard this

conversation, and Noirtier fixed his eye so earnestly on Valentine that she felt bound to answer to the look.

"Sir," said she, "that need not make you uneasy, however difficult it may at first sight appear to be. I can

discover and explain to you my grandfather's thoughts, so as to put an end to all your doubts and fears on the

subject. I have now been six years with M. Noirtier, and let him tell you if ever once, during that time, he has

"Let us try what we can do, then," said the notary. "You accept this young lady as your interpreter, M.

"Well, sir, what do you require of me, and what document is it that you wish to be drawn up?" Valentine

named all the letters of the alphabet until she came to W. At this letter the eloquent eye of Noirtier gave her

notice that she was to stop. "It is very evident that it is the letter W which M. Noirtier wants," said the notary.

"Wait," said Valentine; and, turning to her grandfather, she repeated, "Wa We Wi" The old man

stopped her at the last syllable. Valentine then took the dictionary, and the notary watched her while she

turned over the pages. She passed her finger slowly down the columns, and when she came to the word

"Will," M. Noirtier's eye bade her stop. "Will," said the notary; "it is very evident that M. Noirtier is desirous

"Really, sir, you must allow that this is most extraordinary," said the astonished notary, turning to M. de

Villefort. "Yes," said the procureur, "and I think the will promises to be yet more extraordinary, for I cannot

see how it is to be drawn up without the intervention of Valentine, and she may, perhaps, be considered as too

much interested in its contents to allow of her being a suitable interpreter of the obscure and illdefined

"What?" said Villefort, "do you mean to say that Valentine is not interested in your will?"

"Sir," said the notary, whose interest had been greatly excited, and who had resolved on publishing far and

wide the account of this extraordinary and picturesque scene, "what appeared so impossible to me an hour

ago, has now become quite easy and practicable, and this may be a perfectly valid will, provided it be read in

the presence of seven witnesses, approved by the testator, and sealed by the notary in the presence of the

witnesses. As to the time, it will not require very much more than the generality of wills. There are certain

forms necessary to be gone through, and which are always the same. As to the details, the greater part will be

furnished afterwards by the state in which we find the affairs of the testator, and by yourself, who, having had

the management of them, can doubtless give full information on the subject. But besides all this, in order that

the instrument may not be contested, I am anxious to give it the greatest possible authenticity, therefore, one

of my colleagues will help me, and, contrary to custom, will assist in the dictation of the testament. Are you

"Yes," looked the invalid, his eye beaming with delight at the ready interpretation of his meaning.

"What is he going to do?" thought Villefort, whose position demanded much reserve, but who was longing to

know what his father's intentions were. He left the room to give orders for another notary to be sent, but

Barrois, who had heard all that passed, had guessed his master's wishes, and had already gone to fetch one.

The procureur then told his wife to come up. In the course of a quarter of an hour every one had assembled in

the chamber of the paralytic; the second notary had also arrived. A few words sufficed for a mutual

understanding between the two officers of the law. They read to Noirtier the formal copy of a will, in order to

give him an idea of the terms in which such documents are generally couched; then, in order to test the

capacity of the testator, the first notary said, turning towards him, "When an individual makes his will, it

"I will name to you several sums which will increase by gradation; you will stop me when I reach the one

"Yes." There was a kind of solemnity in this interrogation. Never had the struggle between mind and matter

been more apparent than now, and if it was not a sublime, it was, at least, a curious spectacle. They had

formed a circle round the invalid; the second notary was sitting at a table, prepared for writing, and his

colleague was standing before the testator in the act of interrogating him on the subject to which we have

alluded. "Your fortune exceeds 300,000 francs, does it not?" asked he. Noirtier made a sign that it did. "Do

you possess 400,000 francs?" inquired the notary. Noirtier's eye remained immovable. "Five hundred

thousand?" The same expression continued. "Six hundred thousand 700,000 800,000 900,000?"

Noirtier stopped him at the lastnamed sum. "You are then in possession of 900,000 francs?" asked the

"The stock is in your own hands?" The look which M. Noirtier cast on Barrois showed that there was

something wanting which he knew where to find. The old servant left the room, and presently returned,

bringing with him a small casket. "Do you permit us to open this casket?" asked the notary. Noirtier gave his

assent. They opened it, and found 900,000 francs in bank scrip. The first notary handed over each note, as he

The total amount was found to be as M. Noirtier had stated. "It is all as he has said; it is very evident that the

mind still retains its full force and vigor." Then, turning towards the paralytic, he said, "You possess, then,

900,000 francs of capital, which, according to the manner in which you have invested it, ought to bring in an

"Oh," said Madame de Villefort, "there is not much doubt on that subject. M. Noirtier tenderly loves his

granddaughter, Mademoiselle de Villefort; it is she who has nursed and tended him for six years, and has, by

her devoted attention, fully secured the affection, I had almost said the gratitude, of her grandfather, and it is

but just that she should reap the fruit of her devotion." The eye of Noirtier clearly showed by its expression

that he was not deceived by the false assent given by Madame de Villefort's words and manner to the motives

which she supposed him to entertain. "Is it, then, to Mademoiselle Valentine de Villefort that you leave these

900,000 francs?" demanded the notary, thinking he had only to insert this clause, but waiting first for the

assent of Noirtier, which it was necessary should be given before all the witnesses of this singular scene.

Valentine, when her name was made the subject of discussion, had stepped back, to escape unpleasant

observation; her eyes were cast down, and she was crying. The old man looked at her for an instant with an

expression of the deepest tenderness, then, turning towards the notary, he significantly winked his eye in

"What," said the notary, "do you not intend making Mademoiselle Valentine de Villefort your residuary

"You are not making any mistake, are you?" said the notary; "you really mean to declare that such is not your

"No," repeated Noirtier; "No." Valentine raised her head, struck dumb with astonishment. It was not so much

the conviction that she was disinherited that caused her grief, but her total inability to account for the feelings

which had provoked her grandfather to such an act. But Noirtier looked at her with so much affectionate

tenderness that she exclaimed, "Oh, grandpapa, I see now that it is only your fortune of which you deprive

"Ah, yes, most assuredly," said the eyes of the paralytic, for he closed them with an expression which

Valentine could not mistake. "Thank you, thank you," murmured she. The old man's declaration that

Valentine was not the destined inheritor of his fortune had excited the hopes of Madame de Villefort; she

gradually approached the invalid, and said: "Then, doubtless, dear M. Noirtier, you intend leaving your

fortune to your grandson, Edward de Villefort?" The winking of the eyes which answered this speech was

"No." The two notaries looked at each other in mute astonishment and inquiry as to what were the real

intentions of the testator. Villefort and his wife both grew red, one from shame, the other from anger.

"What have we all done, then, dear grandpapa?" said Valentine; "you no longer seem to love any of us?" The

old man's eyes passed rapidly from Villefort and his wife, and rested on Valentine with a look of unutterable

fondness. "Well," said she; "if you love me, grandpapa, try and bring that love to bear upon your actions at

this present moment. You know me well enough to be quite sure that I have never thought of your fortune;

besides, they say I am already rich in right of my mother too rich, even. Explain yourself, then." Noirtier

"Oh, gentlemen, you see it is all useless, and that my father's mind is really impaired," said Villefort.

"Ah," cried Valentine suddenly, "I understand. It is my marriage you mean, is it not, dear grandpapa?"

"Yes, yes, yes," signed the paralytic, casting on Valentine a look of joyful gratitude for having guessed his

"Excuse me, sir," replied the notary; "on the contrary, the meaning of M. Noirtier is quite evident to me, and I

"I do not wish it," said the eye of her grandfather. "And you disinherit your granddaughter," continued the

"Yes." There was a profound silence. The two notaries were holding a consultation as to the best means of

proceeding with the affair. Valentine was looking at her grandfather with a smile of intense gratitude, and

Villefort was biting his lips with vexation, while Madame de Villefort could not succeed in repressing an

inward feeling of joy, which, in spite of herself, appeared in her whole countenance. "But," said Villefort,

who was the first to break the silence, "I consider that I am the best judge of the propriety of the marriage in

question. I am the only person possessing the right to dispose of my daughter's hand. It is my wish that she

should marry M. Franz d'Epinay and she shall marry him." Valentine sank weeping into a chair.

"Sir," said the notary, "how do you intend disposing of your fortune in case Mademoiselle de Villefort still

determines on marrying M. Franz?" The old man gave no answer. "You will, of course, dispose of it in some

"But," said the notary, "you are aware that the law does not allow a son to be entirely deprived of his

"You only intend, then, to dispose of that part of your fortune which the law allows you to subtract from the

inheritance of your son?" Noirtier made no answer. "Do you still wish to dispose of all?"

"My father knows me," replied Villefort; "he is quite sure that his wishes will be held sacred by me; besides,

he understands that in my position I cannot plead against the poor." The eye of Noirtier beamed with triumph.

"Nothing, sir; it is a resolution which my father has taken and I know he never alters his mind. I am quite

resigned. These 900,000 francs will go out of the family in order to enrich some hospital; but it is ridiculous

thus to yield to the caprices of an old man, and I shall, therefore, act according to my conscience." Having

said this, Villefort quitted the room with his wife, leaving his father at liberty to do as he pleased. The same

day the will was made, the witnesses were brought, it was approved by the old man, sealed in the presence of

M. and Madame de Villefort found on their return that the Count of Monte Cristo, who had come to visit

them in their absence, had been ushered into the drawingroom, and was still awaiting them there. Madame

de Villefort, who had not yet sufficiently recovered from her late emotion to allow of her entertaining visitors

so immediately, retired to her bedroom, while the procureur, who could better depend upon himself,

proceeded at once to the salon. Although M. de Villefort flattered himself that, to all outward view, he had

completely masked the feelings which were passing in his mind, he did not know that the cloud was still

lowering on his brow, so much so that the count, whose smile was radiant, immediately noticed his sombre

and thoughtful air. "Ma foi," said Monte Cristo, after the first compliments were over, "what is the matter

with you, M. de Villefort? Have I arrived at the moment when you were drawing up an indictment for a

capital crime?" Villefort tried to smile. "No, count," he replied, "I am the only victim in this case. It is I who

lose my cause, and it is illluck, obstinacy, and folly which have caused it to be decided against me."

"To what do you refer?" said Monte Cristo with wellfeigned interest. "Have you really met with some great

"Oh, no, monsieur," said Villefort with a bitter smile; "it is only a loss of money which I have sustained

"True," said Monte Cristo, "the loss of a sum of money becomes almost immaterial with a fortune such as

"It is not so much the loss of the money that vexes me," said Villefort, "though, after all, 900,000 francs are

worth regretting; but I am the more annoyed with this fate, chance, or whatever you please to call the power

which has destroyed my hopes and my fortune, and may blast the prospects of my child also, as it is all

"What do you say?" said the count; "900,000 francs? It is indeed a sum which might be regretted even by a

"M. Noirtier? But I thought you told me he had become entirely paralyzed, and that all his faculties were

"Yes, his bodily faculties, for he can neither move nor speak, nevertheless he thinks, acts, and wills in the

manner I have described. I left him about five minutes ago, and he is now occupied in dictating his will to

"By the help of his eyes, which are still full of life, and, as you perceive, possess the power of inflicting

"My dear," said Madame de Villefort, who had just entered the room, "perhaps you exaggerate the evil."

"Goodmorning, madame," said the count, bowing. Madame de Villefort acknowledged the salutation with

one of her most gracious smiles. "What is this that M. de Villefort has been telling me?" demanded Monte

"Incomprehensible is not the word," interrupted the procureur, shrugging his shoulders. "It is an old man's

"Yes," said Madame de Villefort; "and it is still entirely in the power of my husband to cause the will, which

is now in prejudice of Valentine, to be altered in her favor." The count, who perceived that M. and Madame

de Villefort were beginning to speak in parables, appeared to pay no attention to the conversation, and

feigned to be busily engaged in watching Edward, who was mischievously pouring some ink into the bird's

waterglass. "My dear," said Villefort, in answer to his wife, "you know I have never been accustomed to

play the patriarch in my family, nor have I ever considered that the fate of a universe was to be decided by

my nod. Nevertheless, it is necessary that my will should be respected in my family, and that the folly of an

old man and the caprice of a child should not be allowed to overturn a project which I have entertained for so

many years. The Baron d'Epinay was my friend, as you know, and an alliance with his son is the most

"Do you think," said Madame de Villefort, "that Valentine is in league with him? She has always been

opposed to this marriage, and I should not be at all surprised if what we have just seen and heard is nothing

"Madame," said Villefort, "believe me, a fortune of 900,000 francs is not so easily renounced."

"She could, nevertheless, make up her mind to renounce the world, sir, since it is only about a year ago that

"Never mind," replied Villefort; "I say that this marriage shall be consummated."

"Notwithstanding your father's wishes to the contrary?" said Madame de Villefort, selecting a new point of

attack. "That is a serious thing." Monte Cristo, who pretended not to be listening, heard however, every word

that was said. "Madame," replied Villefort "I can truly say that I have always entertained a high respect for

my father, because, to the natural feeling of relationship was added the consciousness of his moral

superiority. The name of father is sacred in two senses; he should be reverenced as the author of our being

and as a master whom we ought to obey. But, under the present circumstances, I am justified in doubting the

wisdom of an old man who, because he hated the father, vents his anger on the son. It would be ridiculous in

me to regulate my conduct by such caprices. I shall still continue to preserve the same respect toward M.

Noirtier; I will suffer, without complaint, the pecuniary deprivation to which he has subjected me; but I shall

remain firm in my determination, and the world shall see which party has reason on his side. Consequently I

shall marry my daughter to the Baron Franz d'Epinay, because I consider it would be a proper and eligible

match for her to make, and, in short, because I choose to bestow my daughter's hand on whomever I please."

"What?" said the count, the approbation of whose eye Villefort had frequently solicited during this speech.

"What? Do you say that M. Noirtier disinherits Mademoiselle de Villefort because she is going to marry M.

"But I want to know in what way M. d'Epinay can have displeased your father more than any other person?"

"I believe I know M. Franz d'Epinay," said the count; "is he not the son of General de Quesnel, who was

"He is, which makes me believe that it is only an excuse of M. Noirtier to prevent his granddaughter

marrying; old men are always so selfish in their affection," said Madame de Villefort.

"My father and the Baron d'Epinay lived in the stormy times of which I only saw the ending," said Villefort.

"Was not your father a Bonapartist?" asked Monte Cristo; "I think I remember that you told me something of

"My father has been a Jacobin more than anything else," said Villefort, carried by his emotion beyond the

bounds of prudence; "and the senator's robe, which Napoleon cast on his shoulders, only served to disguise

the old man without in any degree changing him. When my father conspired, it was not for the emperor, it

was against the Bourbons; for M. Noirtier possessed this peculiarity, he never projected any Utopian schemes

which could never be realized, but strove for possibilities, and he applied to the realization of these

possibilities the terrible theories of The Mountain, theories that never shrank from any means that were

"Well," said Monte Cristo, "it is just as I thought; it was politics which brought Noirtier and M. d'Epinay into

personal contact. Although General d'Epinay served under Napoleon, did he not still retain royalist

sentiments? And was he not the person who was assassinated one evening on leaving a Bonapartist meeting

to which he had been invited on the supposition that he favored the cause of the emperor?" Villefort looked at

"No, sir, the facts were precisely what you have stated," said Madame de Villefort; "and it was to prevent the

renewal of old feuds that M. de Villefort formed the idea of uniting in the bonds of affection the two children

"It was a sublime and charitable thought," said Monte Cristo, "and the whole world should applaud it. It

would be noble to see Mademoiselle Noirtier de Villefort assuming the title of Madame Franz d'Epinay."

Villefort shuddered and looked at Monte Cristo as if he wished to read in his countenance the real feelings

which had dictated the words he had just uttered. But the count completely baffled the procureur, and

prevented him from discovering anything beneath the nevervarying smile he was so constantly in the habit

of assuming. "Although," said Villefort, "it will be a serious thing for Valentine to lose her grandfather's

fortune, I do not think that M. d'Epinay will be frightened at this pecuniary loss. He will, perhaps, hold me in

greater esteem than the money itself, seeing that I sacrifice everything in order to keep my word with him.

Besides, he knows that Valentine is rich in right of her mother, and that she will, in all probability, inherit the

fortune of M. and Madame de SaintMeran, her mother's parents, who both love her tenderly."

"And who are fully as well worth loving and tending as M. Noirtier," said Madame de Villefort; "besides,

they are to come to Paris in about a month, and Valentine, after the affront she has received, need not

consider it necessary to continue to bury herself alive by being shut up with M. Noirtier." The count listened

with satisfaction to this tale of wounded selflove and defeated ambition. "But it seems to me," said Monte

Cristo, "and I must begin by asking your pardon for what I am about to say, that if M. Noirtier disinherits

Mademoiselle de Villefort because she is going to marry a man whose father he detested, he cannot have the

"True," said Madame de Villefort, with an intonation of voice which it is impossible to describe; "is it not

unjust shamefully unjust? Poor Edward is as much M. Noirtier's grandchild as Valentine, and yet, if she

had not been going to marry M. Franz, M. Noirtier would have left her all his money; and supposing

Valentine to be disinherited by her grandfather, she will still be three times richer than he." The count listened

and said no more. "Count," said Villefort, "we will not entertain you any longer with our family misfortunes.

It is true that my patrimony will go to endow charitable institutions, and my father will have deprived me of

my lawful inheritance without any reason for doing so, but I shall have the satisfaction of knowing that I have

acted like a man of sense and feeling. M. d'Epinay, to whom I had promised the interest of this sum, shall

"However," said Madame de Villefort, returning to the one idea which incessantly occupied her mind,

"perhaps it would be better to explain this unlucky affair to M. d'Epinay, in order to give him the opportunity

"Undoubtedly," said Villefort, moderating the tones of his voice, "a marriage once concerted and then broken

off, throws a sort of discredit on a young lady; then again, the old reports, which I was so anxious to put an

end to, will instantly gain ground. No, it will all go well; M. d'Epinay, if he is an honorable man, will

consider himself more than ever pledged to Mademoiselle de Villefort, unless he were actuated by a decided

"I agree with M. de Villefort," said Monte Cristo, fixing his eyes on Madame de Villefort; "and if I were

sufficiently intimate with him to allow of giving my advice, I would persuade him, since I have been told M.

d'Epinay is coming back, to settle this affair at once beyond all possibility of revocation. I will answer for the

success of a project which will reflect so much honor on M. de Villefort." The procureur arose, delighted

with the proposition, but his wife slightly changed color. "Well, that is all that I wanted, and I will be guided

by a counsellor such as you are," said he, extending his hand to Monte Cristo. "Therefore let every one here

look upon what has passed today as if it had not happened, and as though we had never thought of such a

"Sir," said the count, "the world, unjust as it is, will be pleased with your resolution; your friends will be

proud of you, and M. d'Epinay, even if he took Mademoiselle de Villefort without any dowry, which he will

not do, would be delighted with the idea of entering a family which could make such sacrifices in order to

keep a promise and fulfil a duty." At the conclusion of these words, the count rose to depart. "Are you going

"I am sorry to say I must do so, madame, I only came to remind you of your promise for Saturday."

"You are very good, madame, but M. de Villefort has so many important and urgent occupations."

"My husband has given me his word, sir," said Madame de Villefort; "you have just seen him resolve to keep

it when he has everything to lose, and surely there is more reason for his doing so where he has everything to

"And," said Villefort, "is it at your house in the ChampsElysees that you receive your visitors?"

"No," said Monte Cristo, "which is precisely the reason which renders your kindness more meritorious, it

"At Auteuil?" said Villefort; "true, Madame de Villefort told me you lived at Auteuil, since it was to your

"Rue de la Fontaine!" exclaimed Villefort in an agitated tone; "at what number?"

"Indeed?" returned Monte Cristo, "that is a prejudice on your part, M. de Villefort, for which I am quite at a

"I do not like Auteuil, sir," said the procureur, making an evident effort to appear calm.

"But I hope you will not carry your antipathy so far as to deprive me of the pleasure of your company, sir,"

"Oh," said Monte Cristo, "I allow of no excuse. On Saturday, at six o'clock. I shall be expecting you, and if

you fail to come, I shall think for how do I know to the contrary? that this house, which his remained

uninhabited for twenty years, must have some gloomy tradition or dreadful legend connected with it."

"Thank you," said Monte Cristo; "now you must permit me to take my leave of you."

"You said before that you were obliged to leave us, monsieur," said Madame de Villefort, "and you were

"Indeed madame," said Monte Cristo: "I scarcely know if I dare tell you where I am going."

"Well, then, it is to see a thing on which I have sometimes mused for hours together."

"Yes, a telegraph. I had often seen one placed at the end of a road on a hillock, and in the light of the sun its

black arms, bending in every direction, always reminded me of the claws of an immense beetle, and I assure

you it was never without emotion that I gazed on it, for I could not help thinking how wonderful it was that

these various signs should be made to cleave the air with such precision as to convey to the distance of three

hundred leagues the ideas and wishes of a man sitting at a table at one end of the line to another man

similarly placed at the opposite extremity, and all this effected by a simple act of volition on the part of the

sender of the message. I began to think of genii, sylphs, gnomes, in short, of all the ministers of the occult

sciences, until I laughed aloud at the freaks of my own imagination. Now, it never occurred to me to wish for

a nearer inspection of these large insects, with their long black claws, for I always feared to find under their

stone wings some little human genius fagged to death with cabals, factions, and government intrigues. But

one fine day I learned that the mover of this telegraph was only a poor wretch, hired for twelve hundred

francs a year, and employed all day, not in studying the heavens like an astronomer, or in gazing on the water

like an angler, or even in enjoying the privilege of observing the country around him, but all his monotonous

life was passed in watching his whitebellied, blackclawed fellow insect, four or five leagues distant from

him. At length I felt a desire to study this living chrysalis more closely, and to endeavor to understand the

secret part played by these insectactors when they occupy themselves simply with pulling different pieces of

"What telegraph do you intend visiting? that of the home department, or of the observatory?"

"Oh, no; I should find there people who would force me to understand things of which I would prefer to

remain ignorant, and who would try to explain to me, in spite of myself, a mystery which even they do not

understand. Ma foi, I should wish to keep my illusions concerning insects unimpaired; it is quite enough to

have those dissipated which I had formed of my fellowcreatures. I shall, therefore, not visit either of these

telegraphs, but one in the open country where I shall find a goodnatured simpleton, who knows no more

"No," said Monte Cristo; "since, as I told you before, I do not wish to comprehend it. The moment I

understand it there will no longer exist a telegraph for me; it will he nothing more than a sign from M.

Duchatel, or from M. Montalivet, transmitted to the prefect of Bayonne, mystified by two Greek words, tele,

graphein. It is the insect with black claws, and the awful word which I wish to retain in my imagination in all

"Go then; for in the course of two hours it will be dark, and you will not be able to see anything."

"Thank you. Goodby. On Saturday I will tell you my impressions concerning the telegraph." At the door the

count was met by the two notaries, who had just completed the act which was to disinherit Valentine, and

who were leaving under the conviction of having done a thing which could not fail of redounding

Not on the same night, as he had intended, but the next morning, the Count of Monte Cristo went out by the

Barrier d'Enfer, taking the road to Orleans. Leaving the village of Linas, without stopping at the telegraph,

which flourished its great bony arms as he passed, the count reached the tower of Montlhery, situated, as

every one knows, upon the highest point of the plain of that name. At the foot of the hill the count

dismounted and began to ascend by a little winding path, about eighteen inches wide; when he reached the

summit he found himself stopped by a hedge, upon which green fruit had succeeded to red and white flowers.

Monte Cristo looked for the entrance to the enclosure, and was not long in finding a little wooden gate,

working on willow hinges, and fastened with a nail and string. The count soon mastered the mechanism, the

gate opened, and he then found himself in a little garden, about twenty feet long by twelve wide, bounded on

one side by part of the hedge, which contained the ingenious contrivance we have called a gate, and on the

other by the old tower, covered with ivy and studded with wallflowers. No one would have thought in

looking at this old, weatherbeaten, floraldecked tower (which might be likened to an elderly dame dressed

up to receive her grandchildren at a birthday feast) that it would have been capable of telling strange things,

if, in addition to the menacing ears which the proverb says all walls are provided with, it had also a

voice. The garden was crossed by a path of red gravel, edged by a border of thick box, of many years' growth,

and of a tone and color that would have delighted the heart of Delacroix, our modern Rubens. This path was

formed in the shape of the figure of 8, thus, in its windings, making a walk of sixty feet in a garden of only

Never had Flora, the fresh and smiling goddess of gardeners, been honored with a purer or more scrupulous

worship than that which was paid to her in this little enclosure. In fact, of the twenty rosetrees which formed

the parterre, not one bore the mark of the slug, nor were there evidences anywhere of the clustering aphis

which is so destructive to plants growing in a damp soil. And yet it was not because the damp had been

excluded from the garden; the earth, black as soot, the thick foliage of the trees betrayed its presence; besides,

had natural humidity been wanting, it could have been immediately supplied by artificial means, thanks to a

tank of water, sunk in one of the corners of the garden, and upon which were stationed a frog and a toad,

who, from antipathy, no doubt, always remained on the two opposite sides of the basin. There was not a blade

of grass to be seen in the paths, or a weed in the flowerbeds; no fine lady ever trained and watered her

geraniums, her cacti, and her rhododendrons, with more pains than this hitherto unseen gardener bestowed

upon his little enclosure. Monte Cristo stopped after having closed the gate and fastened the string to the nail,

"The man at the telegraph," said he, "must either engage a gardener or devote himself passionately to

agriculture." Suddenly he struck against something crouching behind a wheelbarrow filled with leaves; the

something rose, uttering an exclamation of astonishment, and Monte Cristo found himself facing a man about

fifty years old, who was plucking strawberries, which he was placing upon grape leaves. He had twelve

leaves and about as many strawberries, which, on rising suddenly, he let fall from his hand. "You are

"Excuse me, sir," replied the man, raising his hand to his cap; "I am not up there, I know, but I have only just

"Do not let me interfere with you in anything, my friend," said the count; "gather your strawberries, if,

"I have ten left," said the man, "for here are eleven, and I had twentyone, five more than last year. But I am

not surprised; the spring has been warm this year, and strawberries require heat, sir. This is the reason that,

instead of the sixteen I had last year, I have this year, you see, eleven, already plucked twelve, thirteen,

fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen. Ah, I miss three, they were here last night, sir I am sure

they were here I counted them. It must be the Mere Simon's son who has stolen them; I saw him strolling

about here this morning. Ah, the young rascal stealing in a garden he does not know where that may

"Certainly, it is wrong," said Monte Cristo, "but you should take into consideration the youth and greediness

"Of course," said the gardener, "but that does not make it the less unpleasant. But, sir, once more I beg

pardon; perhaps you are an officer that I am detaining here." And he glanced timidly at the count's blue coat.

"Calm yourself, my friend," said the count, with the smile which he made at will either terrible or benevolent,

and which now expressed only the kindliest feeling; "I am not an inspector, but a traveller, brought here by a

"Ah, my time is not valuable," replied the man with a melancholy smile. "Still it belongs to government, and

I ought not to waste it; but, having received the signal that I might rest for an hour" (here he glanced at the

sundial, for there was everything in the enclosure of Montlhery, even a sundial), "and having ten minutes

before me, and my strawberries being ripe, when a day longer bytheby, sir, do you think dormice eat

"Indeed, I should think not," replied Monte Cristo; "dormice are bad neighbors for us who do not eat them

"Really? They can't be nice, though they do say `as fat as a dormouse.' It is not a wonder they are fat, sleeping

all day, and only waking to eat all night. Listen. Last year I had four apricots they stole one, I had one

nectarine, only one well, sir, they ate half of it on the wall; a splendid nectarine I never ate a better."

"That is to say, the half that was left you understand; it was exquisite, sir. Ah, those gentlemen never

choose the worst morsels; like Mere Simon's son, who has not chosen the worst strawberries. But this year,"

continued the horticulturist, "I'll take care it shall not happen, even if I should be forced to sit by the whole

night to watch when the strawberries are ripe." Monte Cristo had seen enough. Every man has a devouring

passion in his heart, as every fruit has its worm; that of the telegraph man was horticulture. He began

gathering the grapeleaves which screened the sun from the grapes, and won the heart of the gardener. "Did

"Oh, no," said the gardener; "not in the least, since there is no danger that anyone can possibly understand

"I have been told," said the count, "that you do not always yourselves understand the signals you repeat."

"Because then I have no responsibility. I am a machine then, and nothing else, and so long as I work, nothing

"Is it possible," said Monte Cristo to himself, "that I can have met with a man that has no ambition? That

"Sir," said the gardener, glancing at the sundial, "the ten minutes are almost up; I must return to my post.

"I follow you." Monte Cristo entered the tower, which was divided into three stories. The tower contained

implements, such as spades, rakes, wateringpots, hung against the wall; this was all the furniture. The

second was the man's conventional abode, or rather sleepingplace; it contained a few poor articles of

household furniture a bed, a table, two chairs, a stone pitcher and some dry herbs, hung up to the

ceiling, which the count recognized as sweet pease, and of which the good man was preserving the seeds; he

had labelled them with as much care as if he had been master botanist in the Jardin des Plantes.

"Does it require much study to learn the art of telegraphing?" asked Monte Cristo.

"The study does not take long; it was acting as a supernumerary that was so tedious."

Monte Cristo looked at the room. They passed to the third story; it was the telegraph room. Monte Cristo

looked in turn at the two iron handles by which the machine was worked. "It is very interesting," he said, "but

"Yes. At first my neck was cramped with looking at it, but at the end of a year I became used to it; and then

"Those are indeed holidays to me; I go into the garden, I plant, I prune, I trim, I kill the insects all day long."

"This is simple enough," said the count; "but look, is not your correspondent putting itself in motion?"

"By the same sign, which, at the same time, tells my righthand correspondent that I am ready, while it gives

"I have, then, five minutes," said Monte Cristo to himself; "it is more time than I require. My dear sir, will

"And you would be pleased to have, instead of this terrace of twenty feet, an enclosure of two acres?"

"Tell me, should you have the misfortune to turn your head while your righthand correspondent was

"A hundred crowns, yes, sir; so you see that I am not likely to do any of these things."

"That will cost you a hundred francs; you see it is your interest to take my banknotes."

"Never mind take these;" and the count placed the packet in the man's hands. "Now this is not all," he

"No, you will lose it, for you are going to alter your correspondent's message."

"I think I can effectually force you;" and Monte Cristo drew another packet from his pocket. "Here are ten

thousand more francs," he said, "with the fifteen thousand already in your pocket, they will make twentyfive

thousand. With five thousand you can buy a pretty little house with two acres of land; the remaining twenty

"To repeat these signs." Monte Cristo took a paper from his pocket, upon which were drawn three signs, with

"Do this, and you will have nectarines and all the rest." The shot told; red with fever, while the large drops

fell from his brow, the man executed, one after the other, the three signs given by the count, in spite of the

frightful contortions of the righthand correspondent, who, not understanding the change, began to think the

gardener had gone mad. As to the lefthand one, he conscientiously repeated the same signals, which were

finally transmitted to the Minister of the Interior. "Now you are rich," said Monte Cristo.

"Listen, friend," said Monte Cristo. "I do not wish to cause you any remorse; believe me, then, when I swear

to you that you have wronged no man, but on the contrary have benefited mankind." The man looked at the

banknotes, felt them, counted them, turned pale, then red, then rushed into his room to drink a glass of

water, but he had no time to reach the waterjug, and fainted in the midst of his dried herbs. Five minutes

after the new telegram reached the minister, Debray had the horses put to his carriage, and drove to Danglars'

"How do you know?" Debray shrugged his shoulders. "The idea of asking how I hear the news," he said. The

baroness did not wait for a repetition; she ran to her husband, who immediately hastened to his agent, and

ordered him to sell at any price. When it was seen that Danglars sold, the Spanish funds fell directly.

Danglars lost five hundred thousand francs; but he rid himself of all his Spanish shares. The same evening the

"[By telegraph.] The king, Don Carlos, has escaped the vigilance of his guardians at Bourges, and has

returned to Spain by the Catalonian frontier. Barcelona has risen in his favor."

All that evening nothing was spoken of but the foresight of Danglars, who had sold his shares, and of the luck

of the stockjobber, who only lost five hundred thousand francs by such a blow. Those who had kept their

shares, or bought those of Danglars, looked upon themselves as ruined, and passed a very bad night. Next

"It was without any foundation that Le Messager yesterday announced the flight of Don Carlos and the revolt

of Barcelona. The king (Don Carlos) has not left Bourges, and the peninsula is in the enjoyment of profound

peace. A telegraphic signal, improperly interpreted, owing to the fog, was the cause of this error."

The funds rose one per cent higher than before they had fallen. This, reckoning his loss, and what he had

missed gaining, made the difference of a million to Danglars. "Good," said Monte Cristo to Morrel, who was

at his house when the news arrived of the strange reverse of fortune of which Danglars's had been the victim,

"I have just made a discovery for twentyfive thousand francs, for which I would have paid a hundred

"I have just discovered how a gardener may get rid of the dormice that eat his peaches."

At first sight the exterior of the house at Auteuil gave no indications of splendor, nothing one would expect

from the destined residence of the magnificent Count of Monte Cristo; but this simplicity was according to

the will of its master, who positively ordered nothing to be altered outside. The splendor was within. Indeed,

almost before the door opened, the scene changed. M. Bertuccio had outdone himself in the taste displayed in

furnishing, and in the rapidity with which it was executed. It is told that the Duc d'Antin removed in a single

night a whole avenue of trees that annoyed Louis XIV.; in three days M. Bertuccio planted an entirely bare

court with poplars, large spreading sycamores to shade the different parts of the house, and in the foreground,

instead of the usual pavingstones, half hidden by the grass, there extended a lawn but that morning laid

down, and upon which the water was yet glistening. For the rest, the orders had been issued by the count; he

himself had given a plan to Bertuccio, marking the spot where each tree was to be planted, and the shape and

extent of the lawn which was to take the place of the pavingstones. Thus the house had become

unrecognizable, and Bertuccio himself declared that he scarcely knew it, encircled as it was by a framework

of trees. The overseer would not have objected, while he was about it, to have made some improvements in

the garden, but the count had positively forbidden it to be touched. Bertuccio made amends, however, by

What, above all, manifested the shrewdness of the steward, and the profound science of the master, the one in

carrying out the ideas of the other, was that this house which appeared only the night before so sad and

gloomy, impregnated with that sickly smell one can almost fancy to be the smell of time, had in a single day

acquired the aspect of life, was scented with its master's favorite perfumes, and had the very light regulated

according to his wish. When the count arrived, he had under his touch his books and arms, his eyes rested

upon his favorite pictures; his dogs, whose caresses he loved, welcomed him in the antechamber; the birds,

whose songs delighted him, cheered him with their music; and the house, awakened from it's long sleep, like

the sleeping beauty in the wood, lived, sang, and bloomed like the houses we have long cherished, and in

which, when we are forced to leave them, we leave a part of our souls. The servants passed gayly along the

fine courtyard; some, belonging to the kitchens, gliding down the stairs, restored but the previous day, as if

they had always inhabited the house; others filling the coachhouses, where the equipages, encased and

numbered, appeared to have been installed for the last fifty years; and in the stables the horses replied with

neighs to the grooms, who spoke to them with much more respect than many servants pay their masters.

The library was divided into two parts on either side of the wall, and contained upwards of two thousand

volumes; one division was entirely devoted to novels, and even the volume which had been published but the

day before was to be seen in its place in all the dignity of its red and gold binding. On the other side of the

house, to match with the library, was the conservatory, ornamented with rare flowers, that bloomed in china

jars; and in the midst of the greenhouse, marvellous alike to sight and smell, was a billiardtable which

looked as if it had been abandoned during the past hour by players who had left the balls on the cloth. One

chamber alone had been respected by the magnificent Bertuccio. Before this room, to which you could

ascend by the grand, and go out by the back staircase, the servants passed with curiosity, and Bertuccio with

terror. At five o'clock precisely, the count arrived before the house at Auteuil, followed by Ali. Bertuccio was

awaiting this arrival with impatience, mingled with uneasiness; he hoped for some compliments, while, at the

same time, he feared to have frowns. Monte Cristo descended into the courtyard, walked all over the house,

without giving any sign of approbation or pleasure, until he entered his bedroom, situated on the opposite

side to the closed room; then he approached a little piece of furniture, made of rosewood, which he had

"Will your excellency deign to open it?" said the delighted Bertuccio, "and you will find gloves in it."

Elsewhere the count found everything he required smellingbottles, cigars, knickknacks.

"Good," he said; and M. Bertuccio left enraptured, so great, so powerful, and real was the influence exercised

by this man over all who surrounded him. At precisely six o'clock the clatter of horses' hoofs was heard at the

entrance door; it was our captain of Spahis, who had arrived on Medeah. "I am sure I am the first," cried

Morrel; "I did it on purpose to have you a minute to myself, before every one came. Julie and Emmanuel

have a thousand things to tell you. Ah, really this is magnificent! But tell me, count, will your people take

"I mean, because he wants petting. If you had seen at what a pace he came like the wind!"

"I should think so, a horse that cost 5,000 francs!" said Monte Cristo, in the tone which a father would use

"I? Certainly not," replied the count. "No; I should only regret if the horse had not proved good."

"It is so good, that I have distanced M. de ChateauRenaud, one of the best riders in France, and M. Debray,

who both mount the minister's Arabians; and close on their heels are the horses of Madame Danglars, who

"See, they are here." And at the same minute a carriage with smoking horses, accompanied by two mounted

gentlemen, arrived at the gate, which opened before them. The carriage drove round, and stopped at the steps,

followed by the horsemen. The instant Debray had touched the ground, he was at the carriagedoor. He

offered his hand to the baroness, who, descending, took it with a peculiarity of manner imperceptible to every

one but Monte Cristo. But nothing escaped the count's notice, and he observed a little note, passed with the

facility that indicates frequent practice, from the hand of Madame Danglars to that of the minister's secretary.

After his wife the banker descended, as pale as though he had issued from his tomb instead of his carriage.

Madame Danglars threw a rapid and inquiring glance which could only be interpreted by Monte Cristo,

around the courtyard, over the peristyle, and across the front of the house, then, repressing a slight emotion,

which must have been seen on her countenance if she had not kept her color, she ascended the steps, saying

to Morrel, "Sir, if you were a friend of mine, I should ask you if you would sell your horse."

Morrel smiled with an expression very like a grimace, and then turned round to Monte Cristo, as if to ask him

to extricate him from his embarrassment. The count understood him. "Ah, madame," he said, "why did you

"With you, sir," replied the baroness, "one can wish for nothing, one is so sure to obtain it. If it were so with

"Unfortunately," replied the count, "I am witness that M. Morrel cannot give up his horse, his honor being

"He laid a wager he would tame Medeah in the space of six months. You understand now that if he were to

get rid of the animal before the time named, he would not only lose his bet, but people would say he was

afraid; and a brave captain of Spahis cannot risk this, even to gratify a pretty woman, which is, in my opinion,

"You see my position, madame," said Morrel, bestowing a grateful smile on Monte Cristo.

"It seems to me," said Danglars, in his coarse tone, illconcealed by a forced smile, "that you have already

got horses enough." Madame Danglars seldom allowed remarks of this kind to pass unnoticed, but, to the

surprise of the young people, she pretended not to hear it, and said nothing. Monte Cristo smiled at her

unusual humility, and showed her two immense porcelain jars, over which wound marine plants, of a size and

delicacy that nature alone could produce. The baroness was astonished. "Why," said she, "you could plant

one of the chestnuttrees in the Tuileries inside! How can such enormous jars have been manufactured?"

"Ah, madame," replied Monte Cristo, "you must not ask of us, the manufacturers of fine porcelain, such a

question. It is the work of another age, constructed by the genii of earth and water."

"I do not know; I have only heard that an emperor of China had an oven built expressly, and that in this oven

twelve jars like this were successively baked. Two broke, from the heat of the fire; the other ten were sunk

three hundred fathoms deep into the sea. The sea, knowing what was required of her, threw over them her

weeds, encircled them with coral, and encrusted them with shells; the whole was cemented by two hundred

years beneath these almost impervious depths, for a revolution carried away the emperor who wished to make

the trial, and only left the documents proving the manufacture of the jars and their descent into the sea. At the

end of two hundred years the documents were found, and they thought of bringing up the jars. Divers

descended in machines, made expressly on the discovery, into the bay where they were thrown; but of ten

three only remained, the rest having been broken by the waves. I am fond of these jars, upon which, perhaps,

misshapen, frightful monsters have fixed their cold, dull eyes, and in which myriads of small fish have slept,

seeking a refuge from the pursuit of their enemies." Meanwhile, Danglars, who had cared little for curiosities,

was mechanically tearing off the blossoms of a splendid orangetree, one after another. When he had finished

with the orangetree, he began at the cactus; but this, not being so easily plucked as the orangetree, pricked

him dreadfully. He shuddered, and rubbed his eyes as though awaking from a dream.

"Sir," said Monte Cristo to him, "I do not recommend my pictures to you, who possess such splendid

paintings; but, nevertheless, here are two by Hobbema, a Paul Potter, a Mieris, two by Gerard Douw, a

"Ah, pardon me," said ChateauRenaud; "I have heard of these things every day during the last eight years,

"Major Bartolomeo Cavalcanti and Count Andrea Cavalcanti," announced Baptistin. A black satin stock,

fresh from the maker's hands, gray moustaches, a bold eye, a major's uniform, ornamented with three medals

and five crosses in fact, the thorough bearing of an old soldier such was the appearance of Major

Bartolomeo Cavalcanti, that tender father with whom we are already acquainted. Close to him, dressed in

entirely new clothes, advanced smilingly Count Andrea Cavalcanti, the dutiful son, whom we also know. The

three young people were talking together. On the entrance of the new comers, their eyes glanced from father

to son, and then, naturally enough, rested on the latter, whom they began criticising. "Cavalcanti!" said

"You are fastidious, ChateauRenaud," replied Debray; "those clothes are well cut and quite new."

"That is just what I find fault with. That gentleman appears to be well dressed for the first time in his life."

"Ah, true. You do not know the Italian nobility; the Cavalcanti are all descended from princes."

"Try to spend it all. They have some business with you, I think, from what they told me the day before

yesterday. I, indeed, invited them here today on your account. I will introduce you to them."

"The son has been educated in a college in the south; I believe near Marseilles. You will find him quite

"A fine idea that of his," said Danglars, shrugging his shoulders. Madame Danglars looked at her husband

with an expression which, at any other time, would have indicated a storm, but for the second time she

controlled herself. "The baron appears thoughtful today," said Monte Cristo to her; "are they going to put

"Not yet, I think. More likely he has been speculating on the Bourse, and has lost money."

"M. and Madame de Villefort," cried Baptistin. They entered. M. de Villefort, notwithstanding his

selfcontrol, was visibly affected, and when Monte Cristo touched his hand, he felt it tremble. "Certainly,

women alone know how to dissimulate," said Monte Cristo to himself, glancing at Madame Danglars, who

was smiling on the procureur, and embracing his wife. After a short time, the count saw Bertuccio, who, until

then, had been occupied on the other side of the house, glide into an adjoining room. He went to him. "What

Bertuccio glanced through the door, which was ajar. The count watched him. "Good heavens!" he exclaimed.

"The woman of the garden! she that was enciente she who was walking while she waited for"

"Waiting for whom?" Bertuccio, without answering, pointed to Villefort with something of the gesture

Macbeth uses to point out Banquo. "Oh, oh," he at length muttered, "do you see?"

"No; you see plainly he is not dead. Instead of striking between the sixth and seventh left ribs, as your

countrymen do, you must have struck higher or lower, and life is very tenacious in these lawyers, or rather

there is no truth in anything you have told me it was a fright of the imagination, a dream of your fancy.

You went to sleep full of thoughts of vengeance; they weighed heavily upon your stomach; you had the

nightmare that's all. Come, calm yourself, and reckon them up M. and Madame de Villefort, two; M.

and Madame Danglars, four; M. de ChateauRenaud, M. Debray, M. Morrel, seven; Major Bartolomeo

"Stop! You are in a shocking hurry to be off you forget one of my guests. Lean a little to the left. Stay!

look at M. Andrea Cavalcanti, the young man in a black coat, looking at Murillo's Madonna; now he is

turning." This time Bertuccio would have uttered an exclamation, had not a look from Monte Cristo silenced

"Halfpast six o'clock has just struck, M. Bertuccio," said the count severely; "I ordered dinner at that hour,

and I do not like to wait;" and he returned to his guests, while Bertuccio, leaning against the wall, succeeded

in reaching the diningroom. Five minutes afterwards the doors of the drawingroom were thrown open, and

The Count of Monte Cristo offered his arm to Madame de Villefort. "M. de Villefort," he said, "will you

It was evident that one sentiment affected all the guests on entering the diningroom. Each one asked what

strange influence had brought them to this house, and yet astonished, even uneasy though they were, they still

felt that they would not like to be absent. The recent events, the solitary and eccentric position of the count,

his enormous, nay, almost incredible fortune, should have made men cautious, and have altogether prevented

ladies visiting a house where there was no one of their own sex to receive them; and yet curiosity had been

enough to lead them to overleap the bounds of prudence and decorum. And all present, even including

Cavalcanti and his son, notwithstanding the stiffness of the one and the carelessness of the other, were

thoughtful, on finding themselves assembled at the house of this incomprehensible man. Madame Danglars

had started when Villefort, on the count's invitation, offered his arm; and Villefort felt that his glance was

uneasy beneath his gold spectacles, when he felt the arm of the baroness press upon his own. None of this had

escaped the count, and even by this mere contact of individuals the scene had already acquired considerable

interest for an observer. M. de Villefort had on the right hand Madame Danglars, on his left Morrel. The

count was seated between Madame de Villefort and Danglars; the other seats were filled by Debray, who was

placed between the two Cavalcanti, and by ChateauRenaud, seated between Madame de Villefort and

The repast was magnificent; Monte Cristo had endeavored completely to overturn the Parisian ideas, and to

feed the curiosity as much as the appetite of his guests. It was an Oriental feast that he offered to them, but of

such a kind as the Arabian fairies might be supposed to prepare. Every delicious fruit that the four quarters of

the globe could provide was heaped in vases from China and jars from Japan. Rare birds, retaining their most

brilliant plumage, enormous fish, spread upon massive silver dishes, together with every wine produced in

the Archipelago, Asia Minor, or the Cape, sparkling in bottles, whose grotesque shape seemed to give an

additional flavor to the draught, all these, like one of the displays with which Apicius of old gratified his

guests, passed in review before the eyes of the astonished Parisians, who understood that it was possible to

expend a thousand louis upon a dinner for ten persons, but only on the condition of eating pearls, like

Monte Cristo noticed the general astonishment, and began laughing and joking about it. "Gentlemen," he

said, "you will admit that, when arrived at a certain degree of fortune, the superfluities of life are all that can

be desired; and the ladies will allow that, after having risen to a certain eminence of position, the ideal alone

can be more exalted. Now, to follow out this reasoning, what is the marvellous? that which we do not

understand. What is it that we really desire? that which we cannot obtain. Now, to see things which I

cannot understand, to procure impossibilities, these are the study of my life. I gratify my wishes by two

means my will and my money. I take as much interest in the pursuit of some whim as you do, M.

Danglars, in promoting a new railway line; you, M. de Villefort, in condemning a culprit to death; you, M.

Debray, in pacifying a kingdom; you, M. de ChateauRenaud, in pleasing a woman; and you, Morrel, in

breaking a horse that no one can ride. For example, you see these two fish; one brought fifty leagues beyond

St. Petersburg, the other five leagues from Naples. Is it not amusing to see them both on the same table?"

"M. ChateauRenaud, who has lived in Russia, will tell you the name of one, and Major Cavalcanti, who is

"And," said Cavalcanti, "I know that Lake Fusaro alone supplies lampreys of that size."

"Well, this is just what amuses me," said Monte Cristo. "I am like Nero cupitor impossibilium; and that is

what is amusing you at this moment. This fish, which seems so exquisite to you, is very likely no better than

"Oh, nothing more easy. Each fish was brought over in a cask one filled with river herbs and weeds, the

other with rushes and lake plants; they were placed in a wagon built on purpose, and thus the sterlet lived

twelve days, the lamprey eight, and both were alive when my cook seized them, killing one with milk and the

"Baptistin," said the count, "have the other fish brought in the sterlet and the lamprey which came in the

other casks, and which are yet alive." Danglars opened his bewildered eyes; the company clapped their hands.

Four servants carried in two casks covered with aquatic plants, and in each of which was breathing a fish

"You are certainly an extraordinary man," said Danglars; "and philosophers may well say it is a fine thing to

"Oh, do not give me credit for this, madame; it was done by the Romans, who much esteemed them, and

Pliny relates that they sent slaves from Ostia to Rome, who carried on their heads fish which he calls the

mulus, and which, from the description, must probably be the goldfish. It was also considered a luxury to

have them alive, it being an amusing sight to see them die, for, when dying, they change color three or four

times, and like the rainbow when it disappears, pass through all the prismatic shades, after which they were

sent to the kitchen. Their agony formed part of their merit if they were not seen alive, they were despised

"True," said Monte Cristo; "but what would be the use of living eighteen hundred years after Lucullus. if we

can do no better than he could?" The two Cavalcanti opened their enormous eyes, but had the good sense not

to say anything. "All this is very extraordinary," said ChateauRenaud; "still, what I admire the most, I

confess, is the marvellous promptitude with which your orders are executed. Is it not true that you only

"Well, I am sure it is quite transformed since last week. If I remember rightly, it had another entrance, and the

courtyard was paved and empty; while today we have a splendid lawn, bordered by trees which appear to

"Yes," said Madame de Villefort, "the door was towards the road before, and on the day of my miraculous

"Yes, madame," said Monte Cristo; "but I preferred having an entrance which would allow me to see the Bois

"Indeed," said ChateauRenaud, "it seems quite miraculous to make a new house out of an old one; for it was

very old, and dull too. I recollect coming for my mother to look at it when M. de SaintMeran advertised it

"M. de SaintMeran?" said Madame de Villefort; "then this house belonged to M. de SaintMeran before

"It is certainly ten years since the house had been occupied," said ChateauRenaud, "and it was quite

melancholy to look at it, with the blinds closed, the doors locked, and the weeds in the court. Really, if the

house had not belonged to the fatherinlaw of the procureur, one might have thought it some accursed place

where a horrible crime had been committed." Villefort, who had hitherto not tasted the three or four glasses

of rare wine which were placed before him, here took one, and drank it off. Monte Cristo allowed a short time

to elapse, and then said, "It is singular, baron, but the same idea came across me the first time I came here; it

looked so gloomy I should never have bought it if my steward had not taken the matter into his own hands.

"It is probable," stammered out Villefort, trying to smile; "but I can assure you that I had nothing to do with

any such proceeding. This house is part of Valentine's marriageportion, and M. de SaintMeran wished to

sell it; for if it had remained another year or two uninhabited it would have fallen to ruin." It was Morrel's

"There was, above all, one room," continued Monte Cristo, "very plain in appearance, hung with red damask,

"Can we account for instinct?" said Monte Cristo. "Are there not some places where we seem to breathe

sadness? why, we cannot tell. It is a chain of recollections an idea which carries you back to other

times, to other places which, very likely, have no connection with the present time and place. And there is

something in this room which reminds me forcibly of the chamber of the Marquise de Ganges* or

Desdemona. Stay, since we have finished dinner, I will show it to you, and then we will take coffee in the

garden. After dinner, the play." Monte Cristo looked inquiringly at his guests. Madame de Villefort rose,

Monte Cristo did the same, and the rest followed their example. Villefort and Madame Danglars remained for

a moment, as if rooted to their seats; they questioned each other with vague and stupid glances. "Did you

* Elisabeth de Rossan, Marquise de Ganges, was one of the famous women of the court of Louis XIV. where

she was known as "La Belle Provencale." She was the widow of the Marquise de Castellane when she

married de Ganges, and having the misfortune to excite the enmity of her new brothersinlaw, was forced

"We must go," replied Villefort, offering his arm. The others, attracted by curiosity, were already scattered in

different parts of the house; for they thought the visit would not be limited to the one room, and that, at the

same time, they would obtain a view of the rest of the building, of which Monte Cristo had created a palace.

Each one went out by the open doors. Monte Cristo waited for the two who remained; then, when they had

passed, he brought up the rear, and on his face was a smile, which, if they could have understood it, would

have alarmed them much more than a visit to the room they were about to enter. They began by walking

through the apartments, many of which were fitted up in the Eastern style, with cushions and divans instead

of beds, and pipes instead of furniture. The drawingrooms were decorated with the rarest pictures by the old

masters, the boudoirs hung with draperies from China, of fanciful colors, fantastic design, and wonderful

texture. At length they arrived at the famous room. There was nothing particular about it, excepting that,

although daylight had disappeared, it was not lighted, and everything in it was oldfashioned, while the rest

of the rooms had been redecorated. These two causes were enough to give it a gloomy aspect. "Oh." cried

Madame de Villefort, "it is really frightful." Madame Danglars tried to utter a few words, but was not heard.

Many observations were made, the import of which was a unanimous opinion that there was something

sinister about the room. "Is it not so?" asked Monte Cristo. "Look at that large clumsy bed, hung with such

gloomy, bloodcolored drapery! And those two crayon portraits, that have faded from the dampness; do they

not seem to say, with their pale lips and staring eyes, `We have seen'?" Villefort became livid; Madame

Danglars fell into a long seat placed near the chimney. "Oh," said Madame de Villefort, smiling, "are you

courageous enough to sit down upon the very seat perhaps upon which the crime was committed?" Madame

"What is there more?" said Debray, who had not failed to notice the agitation of Madame Danglars.

"Ah, what else is there?" said Danglars; "for, at present, I cannot say that I have seen anything extraordinary.

"Ah," said he, "we have at Pisa, Ugolino's tower; at Ferrara, Tasso's prison; at Rimini, the room of Francesca

"Yes, but you have not this little staircase," said Monte Cristo, opening a door concealed by the drapery.

"I do not know whether the wine of Chios produces melancholy, but certainly everything appears to me black

Ever since Valentine's dowry had been mentioned, Morrel had been silent and sad. "Can you imagine," said

Monte Cristo, "some Othello or Abbe de Ganges, one stormy, dark night, descending these stairs step by step,

carrying a load, which he wishes to hide from the sight of man, if not from God?" Madame Danglars half

fainted on the arm of Villefort, who was obliged to support himself against the wall. "Ah, madame," cried

"It is very evident what is the matter with her," said Madame de Villefort; "M. de Monte Cristo is relating

"Will you come into the garden?" said Debray, advancing towards the back staircase.

"Oh, no, sir," said Madame Danglars; "but you suppose scenes in a manner which gives them the appearance

"Ah, yes," said Monte Cristo smiling; "it is all a matter of imagination. Why should we not imagine this the

apartment of an honest mother? And this bed with red hangings, a bed visited by the goddess Lucina? And

that mysterious staircase, the passage through which, not to disturb their sleep, the doctor and nurse pass, or

even the father carrying the sleeping child?" Here Madame Danglars, instead of being calmed by the soft

picture, uttered a groan and fainted. "Madame Danglars is ill," said Villefort; "it would be better to take her to

"I have mine," said Madame de Villefort; and she passed over to Monte Cristo a bottle full of the same kind

Madame Danglars was carried into the adjoining room; Monte Cristo dropped a very small portion of the red

liquid upon her lips; she returned to consciousness. "Ah," she cried, "what a frightful dream!"

Villefort pressed her hand to let her know it was not a dream. They looked for M. Danglars, but, as he was

not especially interested in poetical ideas, he had gone into the garden, and was talking with Major Cavalcanti

on the projected railway from Leghorn to Florence. Monte Cristo seemed in despair. He took the arm of

Madame Danglars, and conducted her into the garden, where they found Danglars taking coffee between the

"Oh, no, sir," she answered; "but you know, things impress us differently, according to the mood of our

minds." Villefort forced a laugh. "And then, you know," he said, "an idea, a supposition, is sufficient."

"Well," said Monte Cristo, "you may believe me if you like, but it is my opinion that a crime has been

"Ah," replied Monte Cristo, "since that is the case, I will take advantage of his presence to make my

"Oh, this is very interesting," said Debray; "if there really has been a crime, we will investigate it."

"There has been a crime," said Monte Cristo. "Come this way, gentlemen; come, M. Villefort, for a

declaration to be available, should be made before the competent authorities." He then took Villefort's arm,

and, at the same time, holding that of Madame Danglars under his own, he dragged the procureur to the

plantaintree, where the shade was thickest. All the other guests followed. "Stay," said Monte Cristo, "here,

in this very spot" (and he stamped upon the ground), "I had the earth dug up and fresh mould put in, to

refresh these old trees; well, my man, digging, found a box, or rather, the ironwork of a box, in the midst of

which was the skeleton of a newly born infant." Monte Cristo felt the arm of Madame Danglars stiffen, while

that of Villefort trembled. "A newly born infant," repeated Debray; "this affair becomes serious!"

"Well," said ChateauRenaud, "I was not wrong just now then, when I said that houses had souls and faces

like men, and that their exteriors carried the impress of their characters. This house was gloomy because it

"How? is it not a crime to bury a living child in a garden?" cried Monte Cristo. "And pray what do you call

"What is done to infanticides in this country?" asked Major Cavalcanti innocently.

Monte Cristo, seeing that the two persons for whom he had prepared this scene could scarcely endure it, and

not wishing to carry it too far, said, "Come, gentlemen, some coffee, we seem to have forgotten it," and he

"Indeed, count," said Madame Danglars, "I am ashamed to own it, but all your frightful stories have so upset

me, that I must beg you to let me sit down;" and she fell into a chair. Monte Cristo bowed, and went to

Madame de Villefort. "I think Madame Danglars again requires your bottle," he said. But before Madame de

Villefort could reach her friend the procureur had found time to whisper to Madame Danglars, "I must speak

"I will be there." At this moment Madame de Villefort approached. "Thanks, my dear friend," said

The evening passed on; Madame de Villefort expressed a desire to return to Paris, which Madame Danglars

had not dared to do, notwithstanding the uneasiness she experienced. On his wife's request, M. de Villefort

was the first to give the signal of departure. He offered a seat in his landau to Madame Danglars, that she

might be under the care of his wife. As for M. Danglars, absorbed in an interesting conversation with M.

Cavalcanti, he paid no attention to anything that was passing. While Monte Cristo had begged the

smellingbottle of Madame de Villefort, he had noticed the approach of Villefort to Madame Danglars, and

he soon guessed all that had passed between them, though the words had been uttered in so low a voice as

hardly to be heard by Madame Danglars. Without opposing their arrangements, he allowed Morrel,

ChateauRenaud, and Debray to leave on horseback, and the ladies in M. de Villefort's carriage. Danglars,

more and more delighted with Major Cavalcanti, had offered him a seat in his carriage. Andrea Cavalcanti

found his tilbury waiting at the door; the groom, in every respect a caricature of the English fashion, was

Andrea had spoken very little during dinner; he was an intelligent lad, and he feared to utter some absurdity

before so many grand people, amongst whom, with dilating eyes, he saw the king's attorney. Then he had

been seized upon by Danglars, who, with a rapid glance at the stiffnecked old major and his modest son, and

taking into consideration the hospitality of the count, made up his mind that he was in the society of some

nabob come to Paris to finish the worldly education of his heir. He contemplated with unspeakable delight the

large diamond which shone on the major's little finger; for the major, like a prudent man, in case of any

accident happening to his banknotes, had immediately converted them into an available asset. Then, after

dinner, on the pretext of business, he questioned the father and son upon their mode of living; and the father

and son, previously informed that it was through Danglars the one was to receive his 48,000 francs and the

other 50,000 livres annually, were so full of affability that they would have shaken hands even with the

banker's servants, so much did their gratitude need an object to expend itself upon. One thing above all the

rest heightened the respect, nay almost the veneration, of Danglars for Cavalcanti. The latter, faithful to the

principle of Horace, nil admirari, had contented himself with showing his knowledge by declaring in what

lake the best lampreys were caught. Then he had eaten some without saying a word more; Danglars,

therefore, concluded that such luxuries were common at the table of the illustrious descendant of the

Cavalcanti, who most likely in Lucca fed upon trout brought from Switzerland, and lobsters sent from

England, by the same means used by the count to bring the lampreys from Lake Fusaro, and the sterlet from

the Volga. Thus it was with much politeness of manner that he heard Cavalcanti pronounce these words,

"And I, sir," said Danglars, "shall be most happy to receive you." Upon which he offered to take Cavalcanti

in his carriage to the Hotel des Princes, if it would not be depriving him of the company of his son. To this

Cavalcanti replied by saying that for some time past his son had lived independently of him, that he had his

own horses and carriages, and that not having come together, it would not be difficult for them to leave

separately. The major seated himself, therefore, by the side of Danglars, who was more and more charmed

with the ideas of order and economy which ruled this man, and yet who, being able to allow his son 60,000

francs a year, might be supposed to possess a fortune of 500,000 or 600,000 livres.

As for Andrea, he began, by way of showing off, to scold his groom, who, instead of bringing the tilbury to

the steps of the house, had taken it to the outer door, thus giving him the trouble of walking thirty steps to

reach it. The groom heard him with humility, took the bit of the impatient animal with his left hand, and with

the right held out the reins to Andrea, who, taking them from him, rested his polished boot lightly on the step.

At that moment a hand touched his shoulder. The young man turned round, thinking that Danglars or Monte

Cristo had forgotten something they wished to tell him, and had returned just as they were starting. But

instead of either of these, he saw nothing but a strange face, sunburnt, and encircled by a beard, with eyes

brilliant as carbuncles, and a smile upon the mouth which displayed a perfect set of white teeth, pointed and

sharp as the wolf's or jackal's. A red handkerchief encircled his gray head; torn and filthy garments covered

his large bony limbs, which seemed as though, like those of a skeleton, they would rattle as he walked; and

the hand with which he leaned upon the young man's shoulder, and which was the first thing Andrea saw,

seemed of gigantic size. Did the young man recognize that face by the light of the lantern in his tilbury, or

was he merely struck with the horrible appearance of his interrogator? We cannot say; but only relate the fact

that he shuddered and stepped back suddenly. "What do you want of me?" he asked.

"Pardon me, my friend, if I disturb you," said the man with the red handkerchief, "but I want to speak to you."

"You have no right to beg at night," said the groom, endeavoring to rid his master of the troublesome

"I am not begging, my fine fellow," said the unknown to the servant, with so ironical an expression of the

eye, and so frightful a smile, that he withdrew; "I only wish to say two or three words to your master, who

"Come," said Andrea, with sufficient nerve for his servant not to perceive his agitation, "what do you want?

The man said, in a low voice: "I wish I wish you to spare me the walk back to Paris. I am very tired, and

as I have not eaten so good a dinner as you, I can scarcely stand." The young man shuddered at this strange

"Well, then, I want you to take me up in your fine carriage, and carry me back." Andrea turned pale, but said

"Yes," said the man, thrusting his hands into his pockets, and looking impudently at the youth; "I have taken

At this name, no doubt, the young man reflected a little, for he went towards his groom, saying, "This man is

right; I did indeed charge him with a commission, the result of which he must tell me; walk to the barrier,

there take a cab, that you may not be too late." The surprised groom retired. "Let me at least reach a shady

"Oh, as for that, I'll take you to a splendid place," said the man with the handkerchief; and taking the horse's

bit he led the tilbury where it was certainly impossible for any one to witness the honor that Andrea conferred

"Don't think I want the glory of riding in your fine carriage," said he; "oh, no, it's only because I am tired, and

"Come, step in," said the young man. It was a pity this scene had not occurred in daylight, for it was curious

to see this rascal throwing himself heavily down on the cushion beside the young and elegant driver of the

tilbury. Andrea drove past the last house in the village without saying a word to his companion, who smiled

complacently, as though wellpleased to find himself travelling in so comfortable a vehicle. Once out of

Auteuil, Andrea looked around, in order to assure himself that he could neither be seen nor heard, and then,

stopping the horse and crossing his arms before the man, he asked, "Now, tell me why you come to

"`How,' do you ask? When we parted at the Pont du Var, you told me you were going to travel through

"Well, well, don't be angry, my boy; you know well enough what it is to be unfortunate; and misfortunes

make us jealous. I thought you were earning a living in Tuscany or Piedmont by acting as facchino or

cicerone, and I pitied you sincerely, as I would a child of my own. You know I always did call you my child."

"All at once I see you pass through the barrier with a groom, a tilbury, and fine new clothes. You must have

"No, I am pleased so pleased that I wished to congratulate you; but as I am not quite properly dressed, I

"Yes, and a fine opportunity you have chosen!" exclaimed Andrea; "you speak to me before my servant."

"How can I help that, my boy? I speak to you when I can catch you. You have a quick horse, a light tilbury,

you are naturally as slippery as an eel; if I had missed you tonight, I might not have had another chance."

"You are lucky; I wish I could say as much, for I do conceal myself; and then I was afraid you would not

recognize me, but you did," added Caderousse with his unpleasant smile. "It was very polite of you."

"You do not speak affectionately to me, Benedetto, my old friend, that is not right take care, or I may

become troublesome." This menace smothered the young man's passion. He urged the horse again into a trot.

"You should not speak so to an old friend like me, Caderousse, as you said just now; you are a native of

"No, but I was brought up in Corsica; you are old and obstinate, I am young and wilful. Between people like

us threats are out of place, everything should be amicably arranged. Is it my fault if fortune, which has

"Fortune has been kind to you, then? Your tilbury, your groom, your clothes, are not then hired? Good, so

"Oh, you knew that well enough before speaking to me," said Andrea, becoming more and more excited. "If I

had been wearing a handkerchief like yours on my head, rags on my back, and wornout shoes on my feet,

"You wrong me, my boy; now I have found you, nothing prevents my being as welldressed as any one,

knowing, as I do, the goodness of your heart. If you have two coats you will give me one of them. I used to

"How did you come to be dining with that prince whose house you have just left?"

"Yes; but you had better not have anything to say to him, for he is not a very goodtempered gentleman."

"Oh, be easy! I have no design upon your count, and you shall have him all to yourself. But," said

Caderousse, again smiling with the disagreeable expression he had before assumed, "you must pay for it

"Here are two hundred," said Andrea; and he placed ten gold louis in the hand of Caderousse.

"Apply to the steward on the first day of every mouth, and you will receive the same sum."

"By making me apply to the servants, when I want to transact business with you alone."

"Well, be it so, then. Take it from me then, and so long at least as I receive my income, you shall be paid

"Come, come; I always said you were a fine fellow, and it is a blessing when good fortune happens to such as

"I wish you would try and find me a situation with him as grandfather, since he holds the moneychest!"

"Since you interest yourself in my affairs, I think it is now my turn to ask you some questions."

"Ah, true. Well; I shall rent a room in some respectable house, wear a decent coat, shave every day, and go

and read the papers in a cafe. Then, in the evening, I shall go to the theatre; I shall look like some retired

"Come, if you will only put this scheme into execution, and be steady, nothing could be better."

"Major Cavalcanti is already one, perhaps; but then, hereditary rank is abolished."

"No politics, Caderousse. And now that you have all you want, and that we understand each other, jump

"Why, just think for a moment; with this red handkerchief on my head, with scarcely any shoes, no papers,

and ten gold napoleons in my pocket, without reckoning what was there before making in all about two

hundred francs, why, I should certainly be arrested at the barriers. Then, to justify myself, I should say

that you gave me the money; this would cause inquiries, it would be found that I left Toulon without giving

due notice, and I should then be escorted back to the shores of the Mediterranean. Then I should become

simply No. 106, and goodby to my dream of resembling the retired baker! No, no, my boy; I prefer

remaining honorably in the capital." Andrea scowled. Certainly, as he had himself owned, the reputed son of

Major Cavalcanti was a wilful fellow. He drew up for a minute, threw a rapid glance around him, and then his

hand fell instantly into his pocket, where it began playing with a pistol. But, meanwhile, Caderousse, who

had never taken his eyes off his companion, passed his hand behind his back, and opened a long Spanish

knife, which he always carried with him, to be ready in case of need. The two friends, as we see, were worthy

of and understood one another. Andrea's hand left his pocket inoffensively, and was carried up to the red

mustache, which it played with for some time. "Good Caderousse," he said, "how happy you will be."

"I will do my best," said the innkeeper of the Pont du Gard, shutting up his knife.

"Well, then, we will go into Paris. But how will you pass through the barrier without exciting suspicion? It

"Wait," said Caderousse, "we shall see." He then took the greatcoat with the large collar, which the groom

had left behind in the tilbury, and put it on his back; then he took off Cavalcanti's hat, which he placed upon

his own head, and finally he assumed the careless attitude of a servant whose master drives himself.

"Pooh," said Caderousse; "it is so windy that your hat can easily appear to have blown off."

"Hush," said Andrea. They passed the barrier without accident. At the first cross street Andrea stopped his

"You? Oh, you are young while I am beginning to get old. Au revoir, Benedetto;" and running into a court, he

disappeared. "Alas," said Andrea, sighing, "one cannot be completely happy in this world!"

At the Place Louis XV. the three young people separated that is to say, Morrel went to the Boulevards,

ChateauRenaud to the Pont de la Revolution, and Debray to the Quai. Most probably Morrel and

ChateauRenaud returned to their "domestic hearths," as they say in the gallery of the Chamber in

wellturned speeches, and in the theatre of the Rue Richelieu in wellwritten pieces; but it was not the case

with Debray. When he reached the wicket of the Louvre, he turned to the left, galloped across the Carrousel,

passed through the Rue SaintRoch, and, issuing from the Rue de la Michodiere, he arrived at M. Danglars'

door just at the same time that Villefort's landau, after having deposited him and his wife at the Faubourg St.

Honore, stopped to leave the baroness at her own house. Debray, with the air of a man familiar with the

house, entered first into the court, threw his bridle into the hands of a footman, and returned to the door to

receive Madame Danglars, to whom he offered his arm, to conduct her to her apartments. The gate once

closed, and Debray and the baroness alone in the court, he asked, "What was the matter with you,

Hermine? and why were you so affected at that story, or rather fable, which the count related?"

"Because I have been in such shocking spirits all the evening, my friend," said the baroness.

"No, Hermine," replied Debray; "you cannot make me believe that; on the contrary, you were in excellent

spirits when you arrived at the count's. M. Danglars was disagreeable, certainly, but I know how much you

care for his illhumor. Some one has vexed you; I will allow no one to annoy you."

"You are deceived, Lucien, I assure you," replied Madame Danglars; "and what I have told you is really the

case, added to the illhumor you remarked, but which I did not think it worth while to allude to." It was

evident that Madame Danglars was suffering from that nervous irritability which women frequently cannot

account for even to themselves; or that, as Debray had guessed, she had experienced some secret agitation

that she would not acknowledge to any one. Being a man who knew that the former of these symptoms was

one of the inherent penalties of womanhood, he did not then press his inquiries, but waited for a more

appropriate opportunity when he should again interrogate her, or receive an avowal proprio motu. At the door

of her apartment the baroness met Mademoiselle Cornelie, her confidential maid. "What is my daughter

"She practiced all the evening, and then went to bed," replied Mademoiselle Cornelie.

"It is Mademoiselle Louise d'Armilly, who is playing while Mademoiselle Danglars is in bed."

"Well," said Madame Danglars, "come and undress me." They entered the bedroom. Debray stretched himself

upon a large couch, and Madame Danglars passed into her dressingroom with Mademoiselle Cornelie. "My

dear M. Lucien," said Madame Danglars through the door, "you are always complaining that Eugenie will not

"Madame," said Lucien, playing with a little dog, who, recognizing him as a friend of the house, expected to

be caressed, "I am not the only one who makes similar complaints, I think I heard Morcerf say that he could

"True," said Madame Danglars; "yet I think this will all pass off, and that you will one day see her enter your

"To ask for an engagement at the Opera. Really, I never saw such an infatuation for music; it is quite

ridiculous for a young lady of fashion." Debray smiled. "Well," said he, "let her come, with your consent and

that of the baron, and we will try and give her an engagement, though we are very poor to pay such talent as

Cornelie obeyed, and the next minute Madame Danglars left her room in a charming loose dress, and came

and sat down close to Debray. Then she began thoughtfully to caress the little spaniel. Lucien looked at her

for a moment in silence. "Come, Hermine," he said, after a short time, "answer candidly, something vexes

And yet, as she could scarcely breathe, she rose and went towards a lookingglass. "I am frightful tonight,"

she said. Debray rose, smiling, and was about to contradict the baroness upon this latter point, when the door

opened suddenly. M. Danglars appeared; Debray reseated himself. At the noise of the door Madame Danglars

turned round, and looked upon her husband with an astonishment she took no trouble to conceal.

Probably the baroness thought this unexpected visit signified a desire to make up for the sharp words he had

uttered during the day. Assuming a dignified air, she turned round to Debray, without answering her husband.

"Read me something, M. Debray," she said. Debray, who was slightly disturbed at this visit, recovered

himself when he saw the calmness of the baroness, and took up a book marked by a motherofpearl knife

inlaid with gold. "Excuse me," said the banker, "but you will tire yourself, baroness, by such late hours, and

Debray was petrified, not only to hear Danglars speak so calmly and politely, but because it was apparent that

beneath outward politeness there really lurked a determined spirit of opposition to anything his wife might

wish to do. The baroness was also surprised, and showed her astonishment by a look which would doubtless

have had some effect upon her husband if he had not been intently occupied with the paper, where he was

looking to see the closing stock quotations. The result was, that the proud look entirely failed of its purpose.

"M. Lucien," said the baroness, "I assure you I have no desire to sleep, and that I have a thousand things to

tell you this evening, which you must listen to, even though you slept while hearing me."

"My dear M. Debray," said the banker, "do not kill yourself tonight listening to the follies of Madame

Danglars, for you can hear them as well tomorrow; but I claim tonight and will devote it, if you will allow

me, to talk over some serious matters with my wife." This time the blow was so well aimed, and hit so

directly, that Lucien and the baroness were staggered, and they interrogated each other with their eyes, as if to

seek help against this aggression, but the irresistible will of the master of the house prevailed, and the

"Do not think I wish to turn you out, my dear Debray," continued Danglars; "oh, no, not at all. An unexpected

occurrence forces me to ask my wife to have a little conversation with me; it is so rarely I make such a

request, I am sure you cannot grudge it to me." Debray muttered something, bowed and went out, knocking

"It is extraordinary," he said, when the door was closed behind him, "how easily these husbands, whom we

Lucien having left, Danglars took his place on the sofa, closed the open book, and placing himself in a

dreadfully dictatorial attitude, he began playing with the dog; but the animal, not liking him as well as

Debray, and attempting to bite him, Danglars seized him by the skin of his neck and threw him upon a couch

on the other side of the room. The animal uttered a cry during the transit, but, arrived at its destination, it

crouched behind the cushions, and stupefied at such unusual treatment remained silent and motionless. "Do

you know, sir," asked the baroness, "that you are improving? Generally you are only rude, but tonight you

"It is because I am in a worse humor than usual," replied Danglars. Hermine looked at the banker with

supreme disdain. These glances frequently exasperated the pride of Danglars, but this evening he took no

"And what have I to do with your illhumor?" said the baroness, irritated at the impassibility of her husband;

"do these things concern me? Keep your illhumor at home in your money boxes, or, since you have clerks

"Not so," replied Danglars; "your advice is wrong, so I shall not follow it. My money boxes are my Pactolus,

as, I think, M. Demoustier says, and I will not retard its course, or disturb its calm. My clerks are honest men,

who earn my fortune, whom I pay much below their deserts, if I may value them according to what they bring

in; therefore I shall not get into a passion with them; those with whom I will be in a passion are those who eat

"And pray who are the persons who exhaust your fortune? Explain yourself more clearly, I beg, sir."

"Oh, make yourself easy! I am not speaking riddles, and you will soon know what I mean. The people

who exhaust my fortune are those who draw out 700,000 francs in the course of an hour."

"I do not understand you, sir," said the baroness, trying to disguise the agitation of her voice and the flush of

her face. "You understand me perfectly, on the contrary," said Danglars: "but, if you will persist, I will tell

"Once for all, sir," replied the baroness sharply, "I tell you I will not hear cash named; it is a style of language

"The better reason for my not being conversant with the slang of the bank, which is here dinning in my ears

from morning to night; that noise of jingling crowns, which are constantly being counted and recounted, is

odious to me. I only know one thing I dislike more, which is the sound of your voice."

"Really?" said Danglars. "Well, this surprises me, for I thought you took the liveliest interest in all my

"Oh, mon Dieu, that is very easily done. Last February you were the first who told me of the Haitian funds.

You had dreamed that a ship had entered the harbor at Havre, that this ship brought news that a payment we

had looked upon as lost was going to be made. I know how clearsighted your dreams are; I therefore

purchased immediately as many shares as I could of the Haitian debt, and I gained 400,000 francs by it, of

which 100,000 have been honestly paid to you. You spent it as you pleased; that was your business. In March

there was a question about a grant to a railway. Three companies presented themselves, each offering equal

securities. You told me that your instinct, and although you pretend to know nothing about speculations, I

think on the contrary, that your comprehension is very clear upon certain affairs, well, you told me that

your instinct led you to believe the grant would be given to the company called the Southern. I bought two

thirds of the shares of that company; as you had foreseen, the shares trebled in value, and I picked up a

million, from which 250,000 francs were paid to you for pinmoney. How have you spent this 250,000

"When are you coming to the point?" cried the baroness, shivering with anger and impatience.

"In April you went to dine at the minister's. You heard a private conversation respecting Spanish affairs

on the expulsion of Don Carlos. I bought some Spanish shares. The expulsion took place and I pocketed

600,000 francs the day Charles V. repassed the Bidassoa. Of these 600,000 francs you took 50,000 crowns.

They were yours, you disposed of them according to your fancy, and I asked no questions; but it is not the

"It expresses my meaning, and that is all I want. Well, three days after that you talked politics with M.

Debray, and you fancied from his words that Don Carlos had returned to Spain. Well, I sold my shares, the

news got out, and I no longer sold I gave them away, next day I find the news was false, and by this false

"Well, since I gave you a fourth of my gains, I think you owe me a fourth of my losses; the fourth of 700,000

"What you say is absurd, and I cannot see why M. Debray's name is mixed up in this affair."

"Because if you do not possess the 175,000 francs I reclaim, you must have lent them to your friends, and M.

"Oh, let us have no gestures, no screams, no modern drama, or you will oblige me to tell you that I see

Debray leave here, pocketing the whole of the 500,000 livres you have handed over to him this year, while he

smiles to himself, saying that he has found what the most skilful players have never discovered that is, a

roulette where he wins without playing, and is no loser when he loses." The baroness became enraged.

"Wretch!" she cried, "will you dare to tell me you did not know what you now reproach me with?"

"I do not say that I did know it, and I do not say that I did not know it. I merely tell you to look into my

conduct during the last four years that we have ceased to be husband and wife, and see whether it has not

always been consistent. Some time after our rupture, you wished to study music, under the celebrated

baritone who made such a successful appearance at the Theatre Italien; at the same time I felt inclined to

learn dancing of the danseuse who acquired such a reputation in London. This cost me, on your account and

mine, 100,000 francs. I said nothing, for we must have peace in the house; and 100,000 francs for a lady and

gentleman to be properly instructed in music and dancing are not too much. Well, you soon become tired of

singing, and you take a fancy to study diplomacy with the minister's secretary. You understand, it signifies

nothing to me so long as you pay for your lessons out of your own cashbox. But today I find you are

drawing on mine, and that your apprenticeship may cost me 700,000 francs per month. Stop there, madame,

for this cannot last. Either the diplomatist must give his lessons gratis, and I will tolerate him, or he must

"Oh, this is too much," cried Hermine, choking, "you are worse than despicable."

"You are right; let us leave these facts alone, and reason coolly. I have never interfered in your affairs

excepting for your good; treat me in the same way. You say you have nothing to do with my cashbox. Be it

so. Do as you like with your own, but do not fill or empty mine. Besides, how do I know that this was not a

political trick, that the minister enraged at seeing me in the opposition, and jealous of the popular sympathy I

"Why not? Who ever heard of such an occurrence as this? a false telegraphic despatch it is almost

impossible for wrong signals to be made as they were in the last two telegrams. It was done on purpose for

"Sir," said the baroness humbly, "are you not aware that the man employed there was dismissed, that they

talked of going to law with him, that orders were issued to arrest him and that this order would have been put

into execution if he had not escaped by flight, which proves that he was either mad or guilty? It was a

"Yes, which made fools laugh, which caused the minister to have a sleepless night, which has caused the

minister's secretaries to blacken several sheets of paper, but which has cost me 700,000 francs."

"But, sir," said Hermine suddenly, "if all this is, as you say, caused by M. Debray, why, instead of going

direct to him, do you come and tell me of it? Why, to accuse the man, do you address the woman?"

"Do I know M. Debray? do I wish to know him? do I wish to know that he gives advice? do I wish

Danglars shrugged his shoulders. "Foolish creature," he exclaimed. "Women fancy they have talent because

they have managed two or three intrigues without being the talk of Paris! But know that if you had even

hidden your irregularities from your husband, who has but the commencement of the art for generally

husbands will not see you would then have been but a faint imitation of most of your friends among the

women of the world. But it has not been so with me, I see, and always have seen, during the last sixteen

years. You may, perhaps, have hidden a thought; but not a step, not an action, not a fault, has escaped me,

while you flattered yourself upon your address, and firmly believed you had deceived me. What has been the

result? that, thanks to my pretended ignorance, there is none of your friends, from M. de Villefort to M.

Debray, who has not trembled before me. There is not one who has not treated me as the master of the house,

the only title I desire with respect to you; there is not one, in fact, who would have dared to speak of me as

I have spoken of them this day. I will allow you to make me hateful, but I will prevent your rendering me

The baroness had been tolerably composed until the name of Villefort had been pronounced; but then she

became pale, and, rising, as if touched by a spring, she stretched out her hands as though conjuring an

apparition; she then took two or three steps towards her husband, as though to tear the secret from him, of

which he was ignorant, or which he withheld from some odious calculation, odious, as all his calculations

"I mean that M. de Nargonne, your first husband, being neither a philosopher nor a banker, or perhaps being

both, and seeing there was nothing to be got out of a king's attorney, died of grief or anger at finding, after an

absence of nine months, that you had been enceinte six. I am brutal, I not only allow it, but boast of it; it is

one of the reasons of my success in commercial business. Why did he kill himself instead of you? Because he

had no cash to save. My life belongs to my cash. M. Debray has made me lose 700,000 francs; let him bear

his share of the loss, and we will go on as before; if not, let him become bankrupt for the 250,000 livres, and

do as all bankrupts do disappear. He is a charming fellow, I allow, when his news is correct; but when it is

Madame Danglars was rooted to the spot; she made a violent effort to reply to this last attack, but she fell

upon a chair thinking of Villefort, of the dinner scene, of the strange series of misfortunes which had taken

place in her house during the last few days, and changed the usual calm of her establishment to a scene of

scandalous debate. Danglars did not even look at her, though she did her best to faint. He shut the bedroom

door after him, without adding another word, and returned to his apartments; and when Madame Danglars

recovered from her halffainting condition, she could almost believe that she had had a disagreeable dream.

The day following this scene, at the hour the banker usually chose to pay a visit to Madame Danglars on his

way to his office, his coupe did not appear. At this time, that is, about halfpast twelve, Madame Danglars

ordered her carriage, and went out. Danglars, hidden behind a curtain, watched the departure he had been

waiting for. He gave orders that he should be informed as soon as Madame Danglars appeared; but at two

o'clock she had not returned. He then called for his horses, drove to the Chamber, and inscribed his name to

speak against the budget. From twelve to two o'clock Danglars had remained in his study, unsealing his

dispatches, and becoming more and more sad every minute, heaping figure upon figure, and receiving, among

other visits, one from Major Cavalcanti, who, as stiff and exact as ever, presented himself precisely at the

hour named the night before, to terminate his business with the banker. On leaving the Chamber, Danglars,

who had shown violent marks of agitation during the sitting, and been more bitter than ever against the

ministry, reentered his carriage, and told the coachman to drive to the Avenue des ChampsElysees, No. 30.

Monte Cristo was at home; only he was engaged with some one and begged Danglars to wait for a moment in

the drawingroom. While the banker was waiting in the anteroom, the door opened, and a man dressed as an

abbe and doubtless more familiar with the house than he was, came in and instead of waiting, merely bowed,

passed on to the farther apartments, and disappeared. A minute after the door by which the priest had entered

reopened, and Monte Cristo appeared. "Pardon me," said he, "my dear baron, but one of my friends, the Abbe

Busoni, whom you perhaps saw pass by, has just arrived in Paris; not having seen him for a long time, I could

not make up my mind to leave him sooner, so I hope this will be sufficient reason for my having made you

"Nay," said Danglars, "it is my fault; I have chosen my visit at a wrong time, and will retire."

"Not at all; on the contrary, be seated; but what is the matter with you? You look careworn; really, you alarm

me. Melancholy in a capitalist, like the appearance of a comet, presages some misfortune to the world."

"I have been in illluck for several days," said Danglars, "and I have heard nothing but bad news."

"No; I am safe for a few days at least. I am only annoyed about a bankrupt of Trieste."

"Exactly so. Imagine a man who has transacted business with me for I don't know how long, to the amount of

800,000 or 900,000 francs during the year. Never a mistake or delay a fellow who paid like a prince.

Well, I was a million in advance with him, and now my fine Jacopo Manfredi suspends payment!"

"It is an unheardof fatality. I draw upon him for 600,000 francs, my bills are returned unpaid, and, more

than that, I hold bills of exchange signed by him to the value of 400,000 francs, payable at his correspondent's

in Paris at the end of this month. Today is the 30th. I present them; but my correspondent has disappeared.

"Oh, it is all my wife's fault. She dreamed Don Carlos had returned to Spain; she believes in dreams. It is

magnetism, she says, and when she dreams a thing it is sure to happen, she assures me. On this conviction I

allow her to speculate, she having her bank and her stockbroker; she speculated and lost. It is true she

speculates with her own money, not mine; nevertheless, you can understand that when 700,000 francs leave

the wife's pocket, the husband always finds it out. But do you mean to say you have not heard of this? Why,

"Yes, I heard it spoken of, but I did not know the details, and then no one can be more ignorant than I am of

"I? How could I speculate when I already have so much trouble in regulating my income? I should be

obliged, besides my steward, to keep a clerk and a boy. But touching these Spanish affairs, I think that the

baroness did not dream the whole of the Don Carlos matter. The papers said something about it, did they

"I? not the least in the world; only I fancied that the honest Messager was an exception to the rule, and

"Well, that's what puzzles me," replied Danglars; "the news of the return of Don Carlos was brought by

"So that," said Monte Cristo, "you have lost nearly 1,700,000 francs this month."

"Diable," said Monte Cristo compassionately, "it is a hard blow for a thirdrate fortune."

"Certainly," continued Monte Cristo, "I make three assortments in fortune firstrate, secondrate, and

thirdrate fortunes. I call those firstrate which are composed of treasures one possesses under one's hand,

such as mines, lands, and funded property, in such states as France, Austria, and England, provided these

treasures and property form a total of about a hundred millions; I call those secondrate fortunes, that are

gained by manufacturing enterprises, jointstock companies, viceroyalties, and principalities, not drawing

more than 1,500,000 francs, the whole forming a capital of about fifty millions; finally, I call those thirdrate

fortunes, which are composed of a fluctuating capital, dependent upon the will of others, or upon chances

which a bankruptcy involves or a false telegram shakes, such as banks, speculations of the day in fact, all

operations under the influence of greater or less mischances, the whole bringing in a real or fictitious capital

"The result, then, of six more such months as this would be to reduce the thirdrate house to despair."

"Let us imagine seven such months," continued Monte Cristo, in the same tone. "Tell me, have you ever

thought that seven times 1,700,000 francs make nearly twelve millions? No, you have not; well, you are

right, for if you indulged in such reflections, you would never risk your principal, which is to the speculator

what the skin is to civilized man. We have our clothes, some more splendid than others, this is our credit;

but when a man dies he has only his skin; in the same way, on retiring from business, you have nothing but

your real principal of about five or six millions, at the most; for thirdrate fortunes are never more than a

fourth of what they appear to be, like the locomotive on a railway, the size of which is magnified by the

smoke and steam surrounding it. Well, out of the five or six millions which form your real capital, you have

just lost nearly two millions, which must, of course, in the same degree diminish your credit and fictitious

fortune; to follow out my simile, your skin has been opened by bleeding, and this if repeated three or four

times will cause death so pay attention to it, my dear Monsieur Danglars. Do you want money? Do you

"What a bad calculator you are!" exclaimed Danglars, calling to his assistance all his philosophy and

dissimulation. "I have made money at the same time by speculations which have succeeded. I have made up

the loss of blood by nutrition. I lost a battle in Spain, I have been defeated in Trieste, but my naval army in

India will have taken some galleons, and my Mexican pioneers will have discovered some mine."

"Very good, very good! But the wound remains and will reopen at the first loss."

"No, for I am only embarked in certainties," replied Danglars, with the air of a mountebank sounding his own

"Or, that the sea should become dry, as in the days of Pharaoh, and even then my vessels would become

"So much the better. I congratulate you, my dear M. Danglars," said Monte Cristo; "I see I was deceived, and

"I think I may aspire to that honor," said Danglars with a smile, which reminded Monte Cristo of the sickly

moons which bad artists are so fond of daubing into their pictures of ruins. "But, while we are speaking of

business," Danglars added, pleased to find an opportunity of changing the subject, "tell me what I am to do

"Give him money, if he is recommended to you, and the recommendation seems good."

"Excellent; he presented himself this morning with a bond of 40,000 francs, payable at sight, on you, signed

by Busoni, and returned by you to me, with your indorsement of course, I immediately counted him over

Monte Cristo nodded his head in token of assent. "But that is not all," continued Danglars; "he has opened an

"Sixty thousand francs per year. I thought I was right in believing that Cavalcanti to be a stingy fellow. How

"Do not advance it; the father will never repay it. You do not know these ultramontane millionaires; they are

"I do not mean to say you will lose, but, nevertheless, mind you hold to the terms of the agreement."

"I? oh, I would advance six millions on his signature. I was only speaking in reference to the secondrate

"And with all this, how unassuming he is! I should never have taken him for anything more than a mere

"And you would have flattered him, for certainly, as you say, he has no manner. The first time I saw him he

appeared to me like an old lieutenant who had grown mouldy under his epaulets. But all the Italians are the

same; they are like old Jews when they are not glittering in Oriental splendor."

"Yes; a little nervous, perhaps, but, upon the whole, he appeared tolerable. I was uneasy about him."

"Because you met him at my house, just after his introduction into the world, as they told me. He has been

"Ah, I believe noblemen marry amongst themselves, do they not?" asked Danglars carelessly; they like to

"It is usual, certainly; but Cavalcanti is an original who does nothing like other people. I cannot help thinking

"Nothing else was talked of; only some said he was worth millions, and others that he did not possess a

"My opinion is, that all these old podestas, these ancient condottieri, for the Cavalcanti have commanded

armies and governed provinces, my opinion, I say, is, that they have buried their millions in corners, the

secret of which they have transmitted only to their eldest sons, who have done the same from generation to

generation; and the proof of this is seen in their yellow and dry appearance, like the florins of the republic,

"Certainly," said Danglars, "and this is further supported by the fact of their not possessing an inch of land."

"Very little, at least; I know of none which Cavalcanti possesses, excepting his palace in Lucca."

"Yes; and more than that, he lets it to the Minister of Finance while he lives in a simple house. Oh, as I told

"I scarcely know him; I think I have seen him three times in my life; all I know relating to him is through

Busoni and himself. He was telling me this morning that, tired of letting his property lie dormant in Italy,

which is a dead nation, he wished to find a method, either in France or England, of multiplying his millions,

but remember, that though I place great confidence in Busoni, I am not responsible for this."

"Never mind; accept my thanks for the client you have sent me. It is a fine name to inscribe on my ledgers,

and my cashier was quite proud of it when I explained to him who the Cavalcanti were. By the way, this is

merely a simple question, when this sort of people marry their sons, do they give them any fortune?"

"Oh, that depends upon circumstances. I know an Italian prince, rich as a gold mine, one of the noblest

families in Tuscany, who, when his sons married according to his wish, gave them millions; and when they

married against his consent, merely allowed them thirty crowns a month. Should Andrea marry according to

his father's views, he will, perhaps, give him one, two, or three millions. For example, supposing it were the

daughter of a banker, he might take an interest in the house of the fatherinlaw of his son; then again, if he

disliked his choice, the major takes the key, doublelocks his coffer, and Master Andrea would be obliged to

live like the sons of a Parisian family, by shuffling cards or rattling the dice."

"Ah, that boy will find out some Bavarian or Peruvian princess; he will want a crown and an immense

"No; these grand lords on the other side of the Alps frequently marry into plain families; like Jupiter, they

like to cross the race. But do you wish to marry Andrea, my dear M. Danglars, that you are asking so many

"Ma foi," said Danglars, "it would not be a bad speculation, I fancy, and you know I am a speculator."

"You are not thinking of Mademoiselle Danglars, I hope; you would not like poor Andrea to have his throat

"Albert," repeated Danglars, shrugging his shoulders; "ah, well; he would care very little about it, I think."

"Well, M. de Morcerf and I have talked about this marriage, but Madame de Morcerf and Albert"

"Mademoiselle Danglars' fortune will be great, no doubt, especially if the telegraph should not make any

"I did so, but he excused himself on account of Madame de Morcerf being obliged to go to Dieppe for the

"Because it is the air she always breathed in her youth." Monte Cristo took no notice of this illnatured

"But still, if Albert be not so rich as Mademoiselle Danglars," said the count, "you must allow that he has a

"Certainly; your name is popular, and does honor to the title they have adorned it with; but you are too

intelligent not to know that according to a prejudice, too firmly rooted to be exterminated, a nobility which

dates back five centuries is worth more than one that can only reckon twenty years."

"And for this very reason," said Danglars with a smile, which he tried to make sardonic, "I prefer M. Andrea

"The Morcerfs! Stay, my dear count," said Danglars; "you are a man of the world, are you not?"

"Because, though I am not a baron by birth, my real name is, at least, Danglars."

"I have been made a baron, so that I actually am one; he made himself a count, so that he is not one at all."

"Listen my dear count; M. de Morcerf has been my friend, or rather my acquaintance, during the last thirty

years. You know I have made the most of my arms, though I never forgot my origin."

"Because Fernand and Danglars, being both parvenus, both having become noble, both rich, are about equal

in worth, excepting that there have been certain things mentioned of him that were never said of me."

"Ah, yes; what you tell me recalls to mind something about the name of Fernand Mondego. I have heard that

"This is the mystery," said Danglars. "I acknowledge I would have given anything to find it out."

"Well, write to your correspondent in Yanina, and ask him what part was played by a Frenchman named

"You will oblige me." Danglars rushed out of the room, and made but one leap into his coupe.

Let us leave the banker driving his horses at their fullest speed, and follow Madame Danglars in her morning

excursion. We have said that at halfpast twelve o'clock Madame Danglars had ordered her horses, and had

left home in the carriage. She directed her course towards the Faubourg Saint Germain, went down the Rue

Mazarine, and stopped at the Passage du PontNeuf. She descended, and went through the passage. She was

very plainly dressed, as would be the case with a woman of taste walking in the morning. At the Rue

Guenegaud she called a cab, and directed the driver to go to the Rue de Harlay. As soon as she was seated in

the vehicle, she drew from her pocket a very thick black veil, which she tied on to her straw bonnet. She then

replaced the bonnet, and saw with pleasure, in a little pocketmirror, that her white complexion and brilliant

eyes were alone visible. The cab crossed the PontNeuf and entered the Rue de Harlay by the Place

Dauphine; the driver was paid as the door opened, and stepping lightly up the stairs Madame Danglars soon

There was a great deal going on that morning, and many businesslike persons at the Palais; businesslike

persons pay very little attention to women, and Madame Danglars crossed the hall without exciting any more

attention than any other woman calling upon her lawyer. There was a great press of people in M. de

Villefort's antechamber, but Madame Danglars had no occasion even to pronounce her name. The instant

she appeared the doorkeeper rose, came to her, and asked her whether she was not the person with whom

the procureur had made an appointment; and on her affirmative answer being given, he conducted her by a

private passage to M. de Villefort's office. The magistrate was seated in an armchair, writing, with his back

towards the door; he did not move as he heard it open, and the doorkeeper pronounce the words, "Walk in,

madame," and then reclose it; but no sooner had the man's footsteps ceased, than he started up, drew the

bolts, closed the curtains, and examined every corner of the room. Then, when he had assured himself that he

could neither be seen nor heard, and was consequently relieved of doubts, he said, "Thanks, madame,

thanks for your punctuality; "and he offered a chair to Madame Danglars, which she accepted, for her heart

"It is a long time, madame," said the procureur, describing a halfcircle with his chair, so as to place himself

exactly opposite to Madame Danglars, "it is a long time since I had the pleasure of speaking alone with

you, and I regret that we have only now met to enter upon a painful conversation."

"Nevertheless, sir, you see I have answered your first appeal, although certainly the conversation must be

"It is true, then," he said, rather uttering his thoughts aloud than addressing his companion, "it is true,

then, that all our actions leave their traces some sad, others bright on our paths; it is true that every

step in our lives is like the course of an insect on the sands; it leaves its track! Alas, to many the path is

"Sir," said Madame Danglars, "you can feel for my emotion, can you not? Spare me, then, I beseech you.

When I look at this room, whence so many guilty creatures have departed, trembling and ashamed, when I

look at that chair before which I now sit trembling and ashamed, oh, it requires all my reason to convince

me that I am not a very guilty woman and you a menacing judge." Villefort dropped his head and sighed.

"And I," he said, "I feel that my place is not in the judge's seat, but on the prisoner's stool."

"I think, sir, you exaggerate your situation," said Madame Danglars, whose beautiful eyes sparkled for a

moment. "The paths of which you were just speaking have been traced by all young men of ardent

imaginations. Besides the pleasure, there is always remorse from the indulgence of our passions, and, after

all, what have you men to fear from all this? the world excuses, and notoriety ennobles you."

"Madame," replied Villefort, "you know that I am no hypocrite, or, at least, that I never deceive without a

reason. If my brow be severe, it is because many misfortunes have clouded it; if my heart be petrified, it is

that it might sustain the blows it has received. I was not so in my youth, I was not so on the night of the

betrothal, when we were all seated around a table in the Rue du Cours at Marseilles. But since then

everything has changed in and about me; I am accustomed to brave difficulties, and, in the conflict to crush

those who, by their own free will, or by chance, voluntarily or involuntarily, interfere with me in my career. It

is generally the case that what we most ardently desire is as ardently withheld from us by those who wish to

obtain it, or from whom we attempt to snatch it. Thus, the greater number of a man's errors come before him

disguised under the specious form of necessity; then, after error has been committed in a moment of

excitement, of delirium, or of fear, we see that we might have avoided and escaped it. The means we might

have used, which we in our blindness could not see, then seem simple and easy, and we say, `Why did I not

do this, instead of that?' Women, on the contrary, are rarely tormented with remorse; for the decision does not

come from you, your misfortunes are generally imposed upon you, and your faults the results of others'

"In any case, sir, you will allow," replied Madame Danglars, "that, even if the fault were alone mine, I last

"Poor thing," said Villefort, pressing her hand, "it was too severe for your strength, for you were twice

"Well, I must tell you. Collect all your courage, for you have not yet heard all."

"You only look back to the past, and it is, indeed, bad enough. Well, picture to yourself a future more gloomy

still certainly frightful, perhaps sanguinary." The baroness knew how calm Villefort naturally was, and his

present excitement frightened her so much that she opened her mouth to scream, but the sound died in her

throat. "How has this terrible past been recalled?" cried Villefort; "how is it that it has escaped from the

depths of the tomb and the recesses of our hearts, where it was buried, to visit us now, like a phantom,

"Chance?" replied Villefort; "No, no, madame, there is no such thing as chance."

"Oh, yes; has not a fatal chance revealed all this? Was it not by chance the Count of Monte Cristo bought that

house? Was it not by chance he caused the earth to be dug up? Is it not by chance that the unfortunate child

was disinterred under the trees? that poor innocent offspring of mine, which I never even kissed, but for

whom I wept many, many tears. Ah, my heart clung to the count when he mentioned the dear spoil found

"Well, no, madame, this is the terrible news I have to tell you," said Villefort in a hollow voice "no,

nothing was found beneath the flowers; there was no child disinterred no. You must not weep, no, you

"I mean that M. de Monte Cristo, digging underneath these trees, found neither skeleton nor chest, because

"Neither of them there?" repeated Madame Danglars, her staring, wideopen eyes expressing her alarm.

"Neither of them there!" she again said, as though striving to impress herself with the meaning of the words

"Then you did not bury the poor child there, sir? Why did you deceive me? Where did you place it? tell me

"There! But listen to me listen and you will pity me who has for twenty years alone borne the heavy

burden of grief I am about to reveal, without casting the least portion upon you."

"You recollect that sad night, when you were halfexpiring on that bed in the red damask room, while I,

scarcely less agitated than you, awaited your delivery. The child was born, was given to me motionless,

breathless, voiceless; we thought it dead." Madame Danglars moved rapidly, as though she would spring

from her chair, but Villefort stopped, and clasped his hands as if to implore her attention. "We thought it

dead," he repeated; "I placed it in the chest, which was to take the place of a coffin; I descended to the

garden, I dug a hole, and then flung it down in haste. Scarcely had I covered it with earth, when the arm of

the Corsican was stretched towards me; I saw a shadow rise, and, at the same time, a flash of light. I felt pain;

I wished to cry out, but an icy shiver ran through my veins and stifled my voice; I fell lifeless, and fancied

myself killed. Never shall I forget your sublime courage, when, having returned to consciousness, I dragged

myself to the foot of the stairs, and you, almost dying yourself, came to meet me. We were obliged to keep

silent upon the dreadful catastrophe. You had the fortitude to regain the house, assisted by your nurse. A duel

was the pretext for my wound. Though we scarcely expected it, our secret remained in our own keeping

alone. I was taken to Versailles; for three months I struggled with death; at last, as I seemed to cling to life, I

was ordered to the South. Four men carried me from Paris to Chalons, walking six leagues a day; Madame de

Villefort followed the litter in her carriage. At Chalons I was put upon the Saone, thence I passed on to he

Rhone, whence I descended, merely with the current, to Arles; at Arles I was again placed on my litter, and

continued my journey to Marseilles. My recovery lasted six months. I never heard you mentioned, and I did

not dare inquire for you. When I returned to Paris, I learned that you, the widow of M. de Nargonne, had

"What was the subject of my thoughts from the time consciousness returned to me? Always the same

always the child's corpse, coming every night in my dreams, rising from the earth, and hovering over the

grave with menacing look and gesture. I inquired immediately on my return to Paris; the house had not been

inhabited since we left it, but it had just been let for nine years. I found the tenant. I pretended that I disliked

the idea that a house belonging to my wife's father and mother should pass into the hands of strangers. I

offered to pay them for cancelling the lease; they demanded 6,000 francs. I would have given 10,000 I

would have given 20,000. I had the money with me; I made the tenant sign the deed of resilition, and when I

"No one had entered the house since I had left it. It was five o'clock in the afternoon; I ascended into the red

room, and waited for night. There all the thoughts which had disturbed me during my year of constant agony

came back with double force. The Corsican, who had declared the vendetta against me, who had followed me

from Nimes to Paris, who had hid himself in the garden, who had struck me, had seen me dig the grave, had

seen me inter the child, he might become acquainted with your person, nay, he might even then have

known it. Would he not one day make you pay for keeping this terrible secret? Would it not be a sweet

revenge for him when he found that I had not died from the blow of his dagger? It was therefore necessary,

before everything else, and at all risks, that I should cause all traces of the past to disappear that I should

destroy every material vestige; too much reality would always remain in my recollection. It was for this I had

annulled the lease it was for this I had come it was for this I was waiting. Night arrived; I allowed it to

become quite dark. I was without a light in that room; when the wind shook all the doors, behind which I

continually expected to see some spy concealed, I trembled. I seemed everywhere to hear your moans behind

me in the bed, and I dared not turn around. My heart beat so violently that I feared my wound would open. At

length, one by one, all the noises in the neighborhood ceased. I understood that I had nothing to fear, that I

"Listen, Hermine; I consider myself as brave as most men, but when I drew from my breast the little key of

the staircase, which I had found in my coat that little key we both used to cherish so much, which you

wished to have fastened to a golden ring when I opened the door, and saw the pale moon shedding a long

stream of white light on the spiral staircase like a spectre, I leaned against the wall, and nearly shrieked. I

seemed to be going mad. At last I mastered my agitation. I descended the staircase step by step; the only

thing I could not conquer was a strange trembling in my knees. I grasped the railings; if I had relaxed my

hold for a moment, I should have fallen. I reached the lower door. Outside this door a spade was placed

against the wall; I took it, and advanced towards the thicket. I had provided myself with a dark lantern. In the

"It was the end of November, all the verdure of the garden had disappeared, the trees were nothing more than

skeletons with their long bony arms, and the dead leaves sounded on the gravel under my feet. My terror

overcame me to such a degree as I approached the thicket, that I took a pistol from my pocket and armed

myself. I fancied continually that I saw the figure of the Corsican between the branches. I examined the

thicket with my dark lantern; it was empty. I looked carefully around; I was indeed alone, no noise

disturbed the silence but the owl, whose piercing cry seemed to be calling up the phantoms of the night. I tied

my lantern to a forked branch I had noticed a year before at the precise spot where I stopped to dig the hole.

"The grass had grown very thickly there during the summer, and when autumn arrived no one had been there

to mow it. Still one place where the grass was thin attracted my attention; it evidently was there I had turned

up the ground. I went to work. The hour, then, for which I had been waiting during the last year had at length

arrived. How I worked, how I hoped, how I struck every piece of turf, thinking to find some resistance to my

spade! But no, I found nothing, though I had made a hole twice as large as the first. I thought I had been

deceived had mistaken the spot. I turned around, I looked at the trees, I tried to recall the details which

had struck me at the time. A cold, sharp wind whistled through the leafless branches, and yet the drops fell

from my forehead. I recollected that I was stabbed just as I was trampling the ground to fill up the hole; while

doing so I had leaned against a laburnum; behind me was an artificial rockery, intended to serve as a

restingplace for persons walking in the garden; in falling, my hand, relaxing its hold of the laburnum, felt

the coldness of the stone. On my right I saw the tree, behind me the rock. I stood in the same attitude, and

threw myself down. I rose, and again began digging and enlarging the hole; still I found nothing, nothing

Think not I contented myself with this one effort," continued Villefort. "No; I searched the whole thicket. I

thought the assassin, having discovered the chest, and supposing it to be a treasure, had intended carrying it

off, but, perceiving his error, had dug another hole, and deposited it there; but I could find nothing. Then the

idea struck me that he had not taken these precautions, and had simply thrown it in a corner. In the last case I

When daylight dawned I went down again. My first visit was to the thicket. I hoped to find some traces which

had escaped me in the darkness. I had turned up the earth over a surface of more than twenty feet square, and

a depth of two feet. A laborer would not have done in a day what occupied me an hour. But I could find

nothing absolutely nothing. Then I renewed the search. Supposing it had been thrown aside, it would

probably be on the path which led to the little gate; but this examination was as useless as the first, and with a

"I hoped for a moment that it might," said Villefort; "but that happiness was denied me. However, recovering

my strength and my ideas, `Why,' said I, `should that man have carried away the corpse?'"

"Ah, no, madame, that could not be. Dead bodies are not kept a year; they are shown to a magistrate, and the

"Something more terrible, more fatal, more alarming for us the child was, perhaps, alive, and the assassin

Madame Danglars uttered a piercing cry, and, seizing Villefort's hands, exclaimed, "My child was alive?"

said she; "you buried my child alive? You were not certain my child was dead, and you buried it? Ah"

Madame Danglars had risen, and stood before the procureur, whose hands she wrung in her feeble grasp. "I

know not; I merely suppose so, as I might suppose anything else," replied Villefort with a look so fixed, it

indicated that his powerful mind was on the verge of despair and madness. "Ah, my child, my poor child!"

cried the baroness, falling on her chair, and stifling her sobs in her handkerchief. Villefort, becoming

somewhat reassured, perceived that to avert the maternal storm gathering over his head, he must inspire

Madame Danglars with the terror he felt. "You understand, then, that if it were so," said he, rising in his turn,

and approaching the baroness, to speak to her in a lower tone, "we are lost. This child lives, and some one

knows it lives some one is in possession of our secret; and since Monte Cristo speaks before us of a child

disinterred, when that child could not be found, it is he who is in possession of our secret."

"How I have searched for him," replied Villefort, wringing his hands; "how I have called him in my long

sleepless nights; how I have longed for royal wealth to purchase a million of secrets from a million of men,

and to find mine among them! At last, one day, when for the hundredth time I took up my spade, I asked

myself again and again what the Corsican could have done with the child. A child encumbers a fugitive;

"Impossible!" cried Madame Danglars: "a man may murder another out of revenge, but he would not

"I ran to the hospital, and learned that the same night the night of the 20th of September a child had

been brought there, wrapped in part of a fine linen napkin, purposely torn in half. This portion of the napkin

"Truly, truly," said Madame Danglars, "all my linen is marked thus; Monsieur de Nargonne was a baronet,

"And you can tell me so without fearing to make me die of joy? Where is the child?" Villefort shrugged his

shoulders. "Do I know?" said he; "and do you believe that if I knew I would relate to you all its trials and all

its adventures as would a dramatist or a novel writer? Alas, no, I know not. A woman, about six months after,

came to claim it with the other half of the napkin. This woman gave all the requisite particulars, and it was

"And what do you think I did? I feigned a criminal process, and employed all the most acute bloodhounds

and skilful agents in search of her. They traced her to Chalons, and there they lost her."

"Yes, forever." Madame Danglars had listened to this recital with a sigh, a tear, or a shriek for every detail.

"Oh, no," said Villefort; "I never ceased to search and to inquire. However, the last two or three years I had

allowed myself some respite. But now I will begin with more perseverance and fury than ever, since fear

"But," replied Madame Danglars, "the Count of Monte Cristo can know nothing, or he would not seek our

"Oh, the wickedness of man is very great," said Villefort, "since it surpasses the goodness of God. Did you

"Doubtless he is capricious, but that is all; one thing alone struck me, of all the exquisite things he placed

"But believe me, that man has other projects. For that reason I wished to see you, to speak to you, to warn

you against every one, but especially against him. Tell me," cried Villefort, fixing his eyes more steadfastly

on her than he had ever done before, "did you ever reveal to any one our connection?"

"You understand me," replied Villefort, affectionately; "when I say any one, pardon my urgency, to

"Yes, yes, I understand very well," ejaculated the baroness; "never, I swear to you."

"Were you ever in the habit of writing in the evening what had transpired in the morning? Do you keep a

"I sleep soundly, like a child; do you not remember?" The color mounted to the baroness's face, and Villefort

"Well, I understand what I now have to do," replied Villefort. "In less than one week from this time I will

ascertain who this M. de Monte Cristo is, whence he comes, where he goes, and why he speaks in our

presence of children that have been disinterred in a garden." Villefort pronounced these words with an accent

which would have made the count shudder had he heard him. Then he pressed the hand the baroness

reluctantly gave him, and led her respectfully back to the door. Madame Danglars returned in another cab to

the passage, on the other side of which she found her carriage, and her coachman sleeping peacefully on his

The same day during the interview between Madame Danglars and the procureur, a travellingcarriage

entered the Rue du Helder, passed through the gateway of No. 27, and stopped in the yard. In a moment the

door was opened, and Madame de Morcerf alighted, leaning on her son's arm. Albert soon left her, ordered

his horses, and having arranged his toilet, drove to the Champs Elysees, to the house of Monte Cristo. The

count received him with his habitual smile. It was a strange thing that no one ever appeared to advance a step

in that man's favor. Those who would, as it were, force a passage to his heart, found an impassable barrier.

Morcerf, who ran towards him with open arms, was chilled as he drew near, in spite of the friendly smile, and

simply held out his hand. Monte Cristo shook it coldly, according to his invariable practice. "Here I am, dear

"That is extremely kind of you," said Monte Cristo with a tone of perfect indifference.

"Come, come," said Albert, "do not assume so much indifference. It is said, sympathy travels rapidly, and

when at Treport, I felt the electric shock; you have either been working for me or thinking of me."

"Possibly," said Monte Cristo, "I have indeed thought of you, but the magnetic wire I was guiding acted,

"What can I know of him? He calls himself so. I, of course, give him the same title, and every one else does

"Yes, with Count Cavalcanti, the marquis his father, Madame Danglars, M. and Madame de Villefort,

"If they did not speak of me, I am sure they thought about me, and I am in despair."

"How will that affect you, since Mademoiselle Danglars was not among the number here who thought of

"I have no fear of that; or, if she did, it was only in the same way in which I think of her."

"Listen," said Morcerf "if Mademoiselle Danglars were disposed to take pity on my supposed martyrdom

on her account, and would dispense with all matrimonial formalities between our two families, I am ready to

agree to the arrangement. In a word, Mademoiselle Danglars would make a charming mistress but a wife

"Yes; it is rather unkind, I acknowledge, but it is true. But as this dream cannot be realized, since

Mademoiselle Danglars must become my lawful wife, live perpetually with me, sing to me, compose verses

and music within ten paces of me, and that for my whole life, it frightens me. One may forsake a mistress, but

a wife, good heavens! There she must always be; and to marry Mademoiselle Danglars would be awful."

"To find such a wife as my father found." Monte Cristo turned pale, and looked at Albert, while playing with

"You know my opinion of my mother, count; look at her, still beautiful, witty, more charming than ever.

For any other son to have stayed with his mother for four days at Treport, it would have been a condescension

or a martyrdom, while I return, more contented, more peaceful shall I say more poetic! than if I had

"That is an overwhelming demonstration, and you would make every one vow to live a single life."

"Such are my reasons for not liking to marry Mademoiselle Danglars. Have you ever noticed how much a

thing is heightened in value when we obtain possession of it? The diamond which glittered in the window at

Marle's or Fossin's shines with more splendor when it is our own; but if we are compelled to acknowledge the

superiority of another, and still must retain the one that is inferior, do you not know what we have to endure?"

"Thus I shall rejoice when Mademoiselle Eugenie perceives I am but a pitiful atom, with scarcely as many

hundred thousand francs as she has millions." Monte Cristo smiled. "One plan occurred to me," continued

Albert; "Franz likes all that is eccentric; I tried to make him fall in love with Mademoiselle Danglars; but in

spite of four letters, written in the most alluring style, he invariably answered: `My eccentricity may be great,

"That is what I call devoted friendship, to recommend to another one whom you would not marry yourself."

Albert smiled. "Apropos," continued he, "Franz is coming soon, but it will not interest you; you dislike

"I?" said Monte Cristo; "my dear Viscount, how have you discovered that I did not like M. Franz! I like every

"Let us not mistake," said Monte Cristo; "I love every one as God commands us to love our neighbor, as

Christians; but I thoroughly hate but a few. Let us return to M. Franz d'Epinay. Did you say he was coming?"

"Yes; summoned by M. de Villefort, who is apparently as anxious to get Mademoiselle Valentine married as

M. Danglars is to see Mademoiselle Eugenie settled. It must be a very irksome office to be the father of a

grownup daughter; it seems to make one feverish, and to raise one's pulse to ninety beats a minute until the

"Still more, he talks seriously about the matter, puts on a white tie, and speaks of his family. He entertains a

"I believe they do. M. de Villefort has always passed for a severe but a just man."

"There is, then, one," said Monte Cristo, "whom you do not condemn like poor Danglars?"

"Because I am not compelled to marry his daughter perhaps," replied Albert, laughing.

"Yes; pray take a cigar, and cease to defend yourself, and to struggle to escape marrying Mademoiselle

"Doubtless, my dear viscount, you will not be taken by force; and seriously, do you wish to break off your

"Then make yourself quite easy. M. Danglars would give double that sum to attain the same end."

"Am I, indeed, so happy?" said Albert, who still could not prevent an almost imperceptible cloud passing

"Ah, there is your proud and selfish nature. You would expose the selflove of another with a hatchet, but

"Delighted with you, was he not? Well, he is a man of bad taste, and is still more enchanted with another. I

"Thank you, I understand. But my mother no, not my mother; I mistake my father intends giving a

"You are right; You know they are select affairs; those who remain in Paris in July must be true Parisians.

"That is another thing: he was recommended to me by a good abbe, who may be deceived. Give him a direct

invitation, but do not ask me to present him. If he were afterwards to marry Mademoiselle Danglars, you

would accuse me of intrigue, and would be challenging me, besides, I may not be there myself."

"If I tell you one thing, you will be so amiable as to set aside all impediments."

"Ah, count," said Albert, "I assure you Madame de Morcerf speaks freely to me, and if you have not felt

those sympathetic fibres of which I spoke just now thrill within you, you must be entirely devoid of them, for

"Then I am also a puzzle to your mother? I should have thought her too reasonable to be led by imagination."

"A problem, my dear count, for every one for my mother as well as others; much studied, but not solved,

you still remain an enigma, do not fear. My mother is only astonished that you remain so long unsolved. I

believe, while the Countess G takes you for Lord Ruthven, my mother imagines you to be Cagliostro or

the Count SaintGermain. The first opportunity you have, confirm her in her opinion; it will be easy for you,

"I thank you for the warning," said the count; "I shall endeavor to be prepared for all suppositions."

"He has already been invited by my father. We shall try to persuade the great d'Aguesseau,* M. de Villefort,

"That is very well before one is over forty. No, I do not dance, but I like to see others do so. Does Madame de

"Yes, truly; and I assure you. You are the only man of whom I have heard her speak with interest." Albert

rose and took his hat; the count conducted him to the door. "I have one thing to reproach myself with," said

"I am glad to be reassured on that point. Apropos, when do you aspect M. d'Epinay?"

"Bring him to see me. Although you say I do not like him, I assure you I shall be happy to see him."

"Yes, I promised you." The Count watched Albert, waving his hand to him. When he had mounted his

phaeton, Monte Cristo turned, and seeing Bertuccio, "What news?" said he. "She went to the Palais," replied

"Well, my dear Bertuccio," said the count, "I now advise you to go in quest of the little estate I spoke to you

of in Normandy." Bertuccio bowed, and as his wishes were in perfect harmony with the order he had

M. de Villefort kept the promise he had made to Madame Danglars, to endeavor to find out how the Count of

Monte Cristo had discovered the history of the house at Auteuil. He wrote the same day for the required

information to M. de Boville, who, from having been an inspector of prisons, was promoted to a high office

in the police; and the latter begged for two days time to ascertain exactly who would be most likely to give

him full particulars. At the end of the second day M. de Villefort received the following note:

"The person called the Count of Monte Cristo is an intimate acquaintance of Lord Wilmore, a rich foreigner,

who is sometimes seen in Paris and who is there at this moment; he is also known to the Abbe Busoni, a

M. de Villefort replied by ordering the strictest inquiries to be made respecting these two persons; his orders

"The abbe, who was in Paris only for a month, inhabited a small twostoried house behind SaintSulpice;

there were two rooms on each floor and he was the only tenant. The two lower rooms consisted of a

diningroom, with a table, chairs, and sideboard of walnut, and a wainscoted parlor, without ornaments,

carpet, or timepiece. It was evident that the abbe limited himself to objects of strict necessity. He preferred to

use the sittingroom upstairs, which was more library than parlor, and was furnished with theological books

and parchments, in which he delighted to bury himself for months at a time, according to his valet de

chambre. His valet looked at the visitors through a sort of wicket; and if their faces were unknown to him or

displeased him, he replied that the abbe was not in Paris, an answer which satisfied most persons, because the

abbe was known to be a great traveller. Besides, whether at home or not, whether in Paris or Cairo, the abbe

always left something to give away, which the valet distributed through this wicket in his master's name. The

other room near the library was a bedroom. A bed without curtains, four armchairs, and a couch, covered

with yellow Utrecht velvet, composed, with a prieDieu, all its furniture. Lord Wilmore resided in Rue

FontaineSaintGeorge. He was one of those English tourists who consume a large fortune in travelling. He

hired the apartment in which he lived furnished, passed only a few hours in the day there, and rarely slept

there. One of his peculiarities was never to speak a word of French, which he however wrote with great

The day after this important information had been given to the king's attorney, a man alighted from a carriage

at the corner of the Rue Ferou, and rapping at an olivegreen door, asked if the Abbe Busoni were within.

"I might not always be content with that answer," replied the visitor, "for I come from one to whom everyone

"I told you he was not at home," repeated the valet. "Then on his return give him that card and this sealed

At the appointed hour the same man returned in the same carriage, which, instead of stopping this time at the

end of the Rue Ferou, drove up to the green door. He knocked, and it opened immediately to admit him. From

the signs of respect the valet paid him, he saw that his note had produced a good effect. "Is the abbe at

"Yes; he is at work in his library, but he expects you, sir," replied the valet. The stranger ascended a rough

staircase, and before a table, illumined by a lamp whose light was concentrated by a large shade while the rest

of the apartment was in partial darkness, he perceived the abbe in a monk's dress, with a cowl on his head

such as was used by learned men of the Middle Ages. "Have I the honor of addressing the Abbe Busoni?"

"Yes, sir," replied the abbe; "and you are the person whom M. de Boville, formerly an inspector of prisons,

The abbe replaced the large spectacles, which covered not only his eyes but his temples, and sitting down

motioned to his visitor to do the same. "I am at your service, sir," said the abbe, with a marked Italian accent.

"The mission with which I am charged, sir," replied the visitor, speaking with hesitation, "is a confidential

one on the part of him who fulfils it, and him by whom he is employed." The abbe bowed. "Your probity,"

replied the stranger, "is so well known to the prefect that he wishes as a magistrate to ascertain from you

some particulars connected with the public safety, to ascertain which I am deputed to see you. It is hoped that

no ties of friendship or humane consideration will induce you to conceal the truth."

"Provided, sir, the particulars you wish for do not interfere with my scruples or my conscience. I am a priest,

sir, and the secrets of confession, for instance, must remain between me and God, and not between me and

At this moment the abbe pressed down his side of the shade and so raised it on the other, throwing a bright

light on the stranger's face, while his own remained obscured. "Excuse me, abbe," said the envoy of the

prefect of the police, "but the light tries my eyes very much." The abbe lowered the shade. "Now, sir, I am

"Monte Cristo is the name of an estate, or, rather, of a rock, and not a family name."

"Well, be it so let us not dispute about words; and since M. de Monte Cristo and M. Zaccone are the

"I know that is the report; but, as you are aware, the police does not content itself with vague reports."

"However," replied the abbe, with an affable smile, "when that report is in accordance with the truth,

"Understand, sir, I do not in the least suspect your veracity; I ask if you are certain of it?"

"That is reasonable," said the visitor; "I have heard he had three or four millions."

"Certainly, every one who has come from Palermo, Naples, or Rome to France by sea must know it, since he

"For the sake of being a count. In Italy one must have territorial possessions to be a count."

"I know nothing certain; at that period of his life, I lost sight of my young comrade."

"I say, I believe such is the case, I do not affirm it; besides, liberty of conscience is established in France."

"Doubtless, and we are not now inquiring into his creed, but his actions; in the name of the prefect of police, I

"He passes for a very charitable man. Our holy father, the pope, has made him a knight of Jesus Christ for the

services he rendered to the Christians in the East; he has five or six rings as testimonials from Eastern

"No, but he is proud of them; he is better pleased with rewards given to the benefactors of man than to his

"It's somewhere in the Chaussee d'Antin; but I know neither the street nor the number."

"Do you think the Count of Monte Cristo had ever been in France before he made this visit to Paris?"

"To that question I can answer positively; no, sir, he had not, because he applied to me six months ago for the

particulars he required, and as I did not know when I might again come to Paris, I recommended M.

"Now, sir, I have but one question more to ask, and I charge you, in the name of honor, of humanity, and of

"To make a lunatic asylum of it, similar to that founded by the Count of Pisani at Palermo. Do you know

"It is a magnificent charity." Having said this, the abbe bowed to imply he wished to pursue his studies. The

visitor either understood the abbe's meaning, or had no more questions to ask; he arose, and the abbe

accompanied him to the door. "You are a great almsgiver," said the visitor, "and although you are said to be

rich, I will venture to offer you something for your poor people; will you accept my offering?"

"I thank you, sir; I am only jealous in one thing, and that is that the relief I give should be entirely from my

"My resolution, sir, is unchangeable, but you have only to search for yourself and you will find, alas, but too

many objects upon whom to exercise your benevolence." The abbe once more bowed as he opened the door,

the stranger bowed and took his leave, and the carriage conveyed him straight to the house of M. de Villefort.

An hour afterwards the carriage was again ordered, and this time it went to the Rue FontaineSaintGeorge,

and stopped at No. 5, where Lord Wilmore lived. The stranger had written to Lord Wilmore, requesting an

interview, which the latter had fixed for ten o'clock. As the envoy of the prefect of police arrived ten minutes

before ten, he was told that Lord Wilmore, who was precision and punctuality personified, was not yet come

The visitor was introduced into the drawingroom, which was like all other furnished drawingrooms. A

mantlepiece, with two modern Sevres vases, a timepiece representing Cupid with his bent bow, a mirror

with an engraving on each side one representing Homer carrying his guide, the other, Belisarius begging

a grayish paper; red and black tapestry such was the appearance of Lord Wilmore's drawingroom. It

was illuminated by lamps with groundglass shades which gave only a feeble light, as if out of consideration

for the envoy's weak sight. After ten minutes' expectation the clock struck ten; at the fifth stroke the door

opened and Lord Wilmore appeared. He was rather above the middle height, with thin reddish whiskers, light

complexion and light hair, turning rather gray. He was dressed with all the English peculiarity, namely, in a

blue coat, with gilt buttons and high collar, in the fashion of 1811, a white kerseymere waistcoat, and

nankeen pantaloons, three inches too short, but which were prevented by straps from slipping up to the knee.

"I know you do not like to converse in our language," replied the envoy. "But you may use it," replied Lord

"And I," replied the visitor, changing his idiom, "know enough of English to keep up the conversation. Do

"Aw?" said Lord Wilmore, with that tone which is only known to natives of Great Britain.

The envoy presented his letter of introduction, which the latter read with English coolness, and having

Then began the questions, which were similar to those which had been addressed to the Abbe Busoni. But as

Lord Wilmore, in the character of the count's enemy, was less restrained in his answers, they were more

numerous; he described the youth of Monte Cristo, who he said, at ten years of age, entered the service of one

of the petty sovereigns of India who make war on the English. It was there Wilmore had first met him and

fought against him; and in that war Zaccone had been taken prisoner, sent to England, and consigned to the

hulks, whence he had escaped by swimming. Then began his travels, his duels, his caprices; then the

insurrection in Greece broke out, and he had served in the Grecian ranks. While in that service he had

discovered a silver mine in the mountains of Thessaly, but he had been careful to conceal it from every one.

After the battle of Navarino, when the Greek government was consolidated, he asked of King Otho a mining

grant for that district, which was given him. Hence that immense fortune, which, in Lord Wilmore's opinion,

possibly amounted to one or two millions per annum, a precarious fortune, which might be momentarily

"He is speculating in railways," said Lord Wilmore, "and as he is an expert chemist and physicist, he has

invented a new system of telegraphy, which he is seeking to bring to perfection."

"Not more than five or six hundred thousand francs," said Lord Wilmore; "he is a miser." Hatred evidently

inspired the Englishman, who, knowing no other reproach to bring on the count, accused him of avarice. "Do

"The count is a speculator, who will certainly ruin himself in experiments. He supposes there is in the

neighborhood of the house he has bought a mineral spring equal to those at Bagneres, Luchon, and Cauterets.

He is going to turn his house into a Badhaus, as the Germans term it. He has already dug up all the garden

two or three times to find the famous spring, and, being unsuccessful, he will soon purchase all the

contiguous houses. Now, as I dislike him, and hope his railway, his electric telegraph, or his search for baths,

"I have already fought three duels with him," said the Englishman, "the first with the pistol, the second with

"The first time, he broke my arm; the second, he wounded me in the breast; and the third time, made this

large wound." The Englishman turned down his shirtcollar, and showed a scar, whose redness proved it to

"But," said the envoy, "you do not go about it in the right way to kill him, if I understand you correctly."

"Aw?" said the Englishman, "I practice shooting every day, and every other day Grisier comes to my house."

This was all the visitor wished to ascertain, or, rather, all the Englishman appeared to know. The agent arose,

and having bowed to Lord Wilmore, who returned his salutation with the stiff politeness of the English, he

retired. Lord Wilmore, having heard the door close after him, returned to his bedroom, where with one hand

he pulled off his light hair, his red whiskers, his false jaw, and his wound, to resume the black hair, dark

complexion, and pearly teeth of the Count of Monte Cristo. It was M. de Villefort, and not the prefect, who

returned to the house of M. de Villefort. The procureur felt more at ease, although he had learned nothing

really satisfactory, and, for the first time since the dinnerparty at Auteuil, he slept soundly.

It was in the warmest days of July, when in due course of time the Saturday arrived upon which the ball was

to take place at M. de Morcerf's. It was ten o'clock at night; the branches of the great trees in the garden of the

count's house stood out boldly against the azure canopy of heaven, which was studded with golden stars, but

where the last fleeting clouds of a vanishing storm yet lingered. From the apartments on the groundfloor

might be heard the sound of music, with the whirl of the waltz and galop, while brilliant streams of light

shone through the openings of the Venetian blinds. At this moment the garden was only occupied by about

ten servants, who had just received orders from their mistress to prepare the supper, the serenity of the

weather continuing to increase. Until now, it had been undecided whether the supper should take place in the

diningroom, or under a long tent erected on the lawn, but the beautiful blue sky, studded with stars, had

settled the question in favor of the lawn. The gardens were illuminated with colored lanterns, according to the

Italian custom, and, as is usual in countries where the luxuries of the table the rarest of all luxuries in their

complete form are well understood, the suppertable was loaded with waxlights and flowers.

At the time the Countess of Morcerf returned to the rooms, after giving her orders, many guests were

arriving, more attracted by the charming hospitality of the countess than by the distinguished position of the

count; for, owing to the good taste of Mercedes, one was sure of finding some devices at her entertainment

worthy of describing, or even copying in case of need. Madame Danglars, in whom the events we have

related had caused deep anxiety, had hesitated about going to Madame de Morcerf's, when during the

morning her carriage happened to meet that of Villefort. The latter made a sign, and when the carriages had

drawn close together, said, "You are going to Madame de Morcerf's, are you not?"

"You are wrong," replied Villefort, significantly; "it is important that you should be seen there."

"In that case I will go." And the two carriages passed on towards their different destinations. Madame

Danglars therefore came, not only beautiful in person, but radiant with splendor; she entered by one door at

the time when Mercedes appeared at the door. The countess took Albert to meet Madame Danglars. He

approached, paid her some well merited compliments on her toilet, and offered his arm to conduct her to a

seat. Albert looked around him. "You are looking for my daughter?" said the baroness, smiling.

"I confess it," replied Albert. "Could you have been so cruel as not to bring her?"

"Calm yourself. She has met Mademoiselle de Villefort, and has taken her arm; see, they are following us,

both in white dresses, one with a bouquet of camellias, the other with one of myosotis. But tell me"

"I only mean that the count seems the rage," replied the viscount, smiling, "and that you are the seventeenth

person that has asked me the same question. The count is in fashion; I congratulate him upon it."

"Ah, to be sure, I have not answered you; be satisfied, we shall have this `lion;' we are among the privileged

"Can he be seen without doing so? Elssler was dancing in the `Diable Boiteux;' the Greek princess was in

ecstasies. After the cachucha he placed a magnificent ring on the stem of a bouquet, and threw it to the

charming danseuse, who, in the third act, to do honor to the gift, reappeared with it on her finger. And the

"No, you will be deprived of that pleasure; her position in the count's establishment is not sufficiently

"Wait; leave me here, and go and speak to Madame de Villefort, who is trying to attract your attention."

Albert bowed to Madame Danglars, and advanced towards Madame de Villefort, whose lips opened as he

approached. "I wager anything," said Albert, interrupting her, "that I know what you were about to say."

"You were going to ask me if the Count of Monte Cristo had arrived, or was expected."

"Not at all. It is not of him that I am now thinking. I was going to ask you if you had received any news of

"Really, you should relate all this aloud, you would have the greatest success."

"He served in India, discovered a mine in Thessaly, and comes to Paris to establish a mineral watercure at

"Well, I'm sure," said Morcerf, "this is indeed news! Am I allowed to repeat it?"

"At the prefect's last night. Paris, you can understand, is astonished at the sight of such unusual splendor, and

"Well, well! Nothing more is wanting than to arrest the count as a vagabond, on the pretext of his being too

"Indeed, that doubtless would have happened if his credentials had not been so favorable."

"Then it will be but charitable to inform him. When he arrives, I will not fail to do so."

Just then, a handsome young man, with bright eyes, black hair, and glossy mustache, respectfully bowed to

Madame de Villefort. Albert extended his hand. "Madame," said Albert, "allow me to present to you M.

Maximilian Morrel, captain of Spahis, one of our best, and, above all, of our bravest officers."

"I have already had the pleasure of meeting this gentleman at Auteuil, at the house of the Count of Monte

Cristo," replied Madame de Villefort, turning away with marked coldness of manner. This answer, and

especially the tone in which it was uttered, chilled the heart of poor Morrel. But a recompense was in store

for him; turning around, he saw near the door a beautiful fair face, whose large blue eyes were, without any

marked expression, fixed upon him, while the bouquet of myosotis was gently raised to her lips.

The salutation was so well understood that Morrel, with the same expression in his eyes, placed his

handkerchief to his mouth; and these two living statues, whose hearts beat so violently under their marble

aspect, separated from each other by the whole length of the room, forgot themselves for a moment, or rather

forgot the world in their mutual contemplation. They might have remained much longer lost in one another,

without any one noticing their abstraction. The Count of Monte Cristo had just entered.

We have already said that there was something in the count which attracted universal attention wherever he

appeared. It was not the coat, unexceptional in its cut, though simple and unornamented; it was not the plain

white waistcoat; it was not the trousers, that displayed the foot so perfectly formed it was none of these

things that attracted the attention, it was his pale complexion, his waving black hair, his calm and serene

expression, his dark and melancholy eye, his mouth, chiselled with such marvellous delicacy, which so easily

expressed such high disdain, these were what fixed the attention of all upon him. Many men might have

been handsomer, but certainly there could be none whose appearance was more significant, if the expression

may be used. Everything about the count seemed to have its meaning, for the constant habit of thought which

he had acquired had given an ease and vigor to the expression of his face, and even to the most trifling

gesture, scarcely to be understood. Yet the Parisian world is so strange, that even all this might not have won

attention had there not been connected with it a mysterious story gilded by an immense fortune.

Meanwhile he advanced through the assemblage of guests under a battery of curious glances towards

Madame de Morcerf, who, standing before a mantlepiece ornamented with flowers, had seen his entrance in

a lookingglass placed opposite the door, and was prepared to receive him. She turned towards him with a

serene smile just at the moment he was bowing to her. No doubt she fancied the count would speak to her,

while on his side the count thought she was about to address him; but both remained silent, and after a mere

bow, Monte Cristo directed his steps to Albert, who received him cordially. "Have you seen my mother?"

"I have just had the pleasure," replied the count; "but I have not seen your father."

"See, he is down there, talking politics with that little group of great geniuses."

"Indeed?" said Monte Cristo; "and so those gentlemen down there are men of great talent. I should not have

guessed it. And for what kind of talent are they celebrated? You know there are different sorts."

"That tall, harshlooking man is very learned, he discovered, in the neighborhood of Rome, a kind of lizard

with a vertebra more than lizards usually have, and he immediately laid his discovery before the Institute. The

thing was discussed for a long time, but finally decided in his favor. I can assure you the vertebra made a

great noise in the learned world, and the gentleman, who was only a knight of the Legion of Honor, was made

"Come," said Monte Cristo, "this cross seems to me to be wisely awarded. I suppose, had he found another

"And who can that person be who has taken it into his head to wrap himself up in a blue coat embroidered

"Oh, that coat is not his own idea; it is the Republic's, which deputed David* to devise a uniform for the

"His talent? I believe he thrusts pins through the heads of rabbits, he makes fowls eat madder, and punches

"That his experiments have very considerably advanced the cause of science, doubtless?"

"This must be very flattering to the feelings of the rabbits into whose heads he has thrust pins, to the fowls

whose bones he has dyed red, and to the dogs whose spinal marrow he has punched out?"

"He is a colleague of the count, and one of the most active opponents to the idea of providing the Chamber of

Peers with a uniform. He was very successful upon that question. He stood badly with the Liberal papers, but

his noble opposition to the wishes of the court is now getting him into favor with the journalists. They talk of

"He has composed two or three comic operas, written four or five articles in the Siecle, and voted five or six

"Bravo, Viscount," said Monte Cristo, smiling; "you are a delightful cicerone. And now you will do me a

"Do not introduce me to any of these gentlemen; and should they wish it, you will warn me." Just then the

"Why do you call me baron?" said Danglars; "you know that I care nothing for my title. I am not like you,

"Certainly," replied Albert, "seeing that without my title I should be nothing; while you, sacrificing the baron,

"Which seems to me the finest title under the royalty of July," replied Danglars.

"Unfortunately," said Monte Cristo, "one's title to a millionaire does not last for life, like that of baron, peer

of France, or Academician; for example, the millionaires Franck Poulmann, of Frankfort, who have just

"Yes; I received the news this evening by a courier. I had about a million in their hands, but, warned in time, I

"Hush, do not mention these things," said Danglars; then, approaching Monte Cristo, he added, "especially

before young M. Cavalcanti;" after which he smiled, and turned towards the young man in question. Albert

had left the count to speak to his mother, Danglars to converse with young Cavalcanti; Monte Cristo was for

an instant alone. Meanwhile the heat became excessive. The footmen were hastening through the rooms with

waiters loaded with ices. Monte Cristo wiped the perspiration from his forehead, but drew back when the

waiter was presented to him; he took no refreshment. Madame de Morcerf did not lose sight of Monte Cristo;

"That the count has never been willing to partake of food under the roof of M. de Morcerf."

"Yes; but then he breakfasted with me indeed, he made his first appearance in the world on that occasion."

"But your house is not M. de Morcerf's," murmured Mercedes; "and since he has been here I have watched

"The count is very temperate." Mercedes smiled sadly. "Approach him," said she, "and when the next waiter

"Just to please me, Albert," said Mercedes. Albert kissed his mother's hand, and drew near the count. Another

salver passed, loaded like the preceding ones; she saw Albert attempt to persuade the count, but he

"You know, Albert, women are singular creatures. I should like to have seen the count take something in my

house, if only an ice. Perhaps he cannot reconcile himself to the French style of living, and might prefer

"Oh, no; I have seen him eat of everything in Italy; no doubt he does not feel inclined this evening."

"And besides," said the countess, "accustomed as he is to burning climates, possibly he does not feel the heat

"I do not think that, for he has complained of feeling almost suffocated, and asked why the Venetian blinds

"In a word," said Mercedes, "it was a way of assuring me that his abstinence was intended." And she left the

room. A minute afterwards the blinds were thrown open, and through the jessamine and clematis that

overhung the window one could see the garden ornamented with lanterns, and the supper laid under the tent.

Dancers, players, talkers, all uttered an exclamation of joy every one inhaled with delight the breeze that

floated in. At the same time Mercedes reappeared, paler than before, but with that imperturbable expression

of countenance which she sometimes wore. She went straight to the group of which her husband formed the

centre. "Do not detain those gentlemen here, count," she said; "they would prefer, I should think, to breathe in

"Ah," said a gallant old general, who, in 1809, had sung "Partant pour la Syrie," "we will not go alone to

"Then," said Mercedes, "I will lead the way." Turning towards Monte Cristo, she added, "count, will you

oblige me with your arm?" The count almost staggered at these simple words; then he fixed his eyes on

Mercedes. It was only a momentary glance, but it seemed to the countess to have lasted for a century, so

much was expressed in that one look. He offered his arm to the countess; she took it, or rather just touched it

with her little hand, and they together descended the steps, lined with rhododendrons and camellias. Behind

them, by another outlet, a group of about twenty persons rushed into the garden with loud exclamations of

Madame de Morcerf entered an archway of trees with her companion. It led through a grove of lindens to a

"Yes, madame; and it was an excellent idea of yours to open the doors and the blinds." As he ceased

speaking, the count felt the hand of Mercedes tremble. "But you," he said, "with that light dress, and without

"Do you know where I am leading you?" said the countess, without replying to the question.

The count looked at Mercedes as if to interrogate her, but she continued to walk on in silence, and he

refrained from speaking. They reached the building, ornamented with magnificent fruits, which ripen at the

beginning of July in the artificial temperature which takes the place of the sun, so frequently absent in our

climate. The countess left the arm of Monte Cristo, and gathered a bunch of Muscatel grapes. "See, count,"

she said, with a smile so sad in its expression that one could almost detect the tears on her eyelids "see,

our French grapes are not to be compared, I know, with yours of Sicily and Cyprus, but you will make

allowance for our northern sun." The count bowed, but stepped back. "Do you refuse?" said Mercedes, in a

tremulous voice. "Pray excuse me, madame," replied Monte Cristo, "but I never eat Muscatel grapes."

Mercedes let them fall, and sighed. A magnificent peach was hanging against an adjoining wall, ripened by

the same artificial heat. Mercedes drew near, and plucked the fruit. "Take this peach, then," she said. The

count again refused. "What, again?" she exclaimed, in so plaintive an accent that it seemed to stifle a sob;

A long silence followed; the peach, like the grapes, fell to the ground. "Count," added Mercedes with a

supplicating glance, "there is a beautiful Arabian custom, which makes eternal friends of those who have

"I know it, madame," replied the count; "but we are in France, and not in Arabia, and in France eternal

friendships are as rare as the custom of dividing bread and salt with one another."

"But," said the countess, breathlessly, with her eyes fixed on Monte Cristo, whose arm she convulsively

The count became pale as death, the blood rushed to his heart, and then again rising, dyed his cheeks with

crimson; his eyes swam like those of a man suddenly dazzled. "Certainly, we are friends," he replied; "why

should we not be?" The answer was so little like the one Mercedes desired, that she turned away to give vent

to a sigh, which sounded more like a groan. "Thank you," she said. And they walked on again. They went the

whole length of the garden without uttering a word. "Sir," suddenly exclaimed the countess, after their walk

had continued ten minutes in silence, "is it true that you have seen so much, travelled so far, and suffered so

"Are you not married?" asked the countess. "I married?" exclaimed Monte Cristo, shuddering; "who could

"No one told me you were, but you have frequently been seen at the opera with a young and lovely woman."

"She is a slave whom I bought at Constantinople, madame, the daughter of a prince. I have adopted her as my

"It is not my fault, madame. At Malta, I loved a young girl, was on the point of marrying her, when war came

and carried me away. I thought she loved me well enough to wait for me, and even to remain faithful to my

memory. When I returned she was married. This is the history of most men who have passed twenty years of

age. Perhaps my heart was weaker than the hearts of most men, and I suffered more than they would have

done in my place; that is all." The countess stopped for a moment, as if gasping for breath. "Yes," she said,

"and you have still preserved this love in your heart one can only love once and did you ever see her

"I hate them? Not at all; why should I?" The countess placed herself before Monte Cristo, still holding in her

hand a portion of the perfumed grapes. "Take some," she said. "Madame, I never eat Muscatel grapes,"

replied Monte Cristo, as if the subject had not been mentioned before. The countess dashed the grapes into

the nearest thicket, with a gesture of despair. "Inflexible man!" she murmured. Monte Cristo remained as

unmoved as if the reproach had not been addressed to him. Albert at this moment ran in. "Oh, mother," he

"What? What has happened?" asked the countess, as though awakening from a sleep to the realities of life;

"Because Madame de SaintMeran is just arrived in Paris, bringing the news of M. de SaintMeran's death,

which took place on the first stage after he left Marseilles. Madame de Villefort, who was in very good

spirits, would neither believe nor think of the misfortune, but Mademoiselle Valentine, at the first words,

guessed the whole truth, notwithstanding all the precautions of her father; the blow struck her like a

"And how was M. de SaintMeran related to Mademoiselle de Villefort?" said the count.

"He was her grandfather on the mother's side. He was coming here to hasten her marriage with Franz."

"So Franz must wait. Why was not M. de SaintMeran also grandfather to Mademoiselle Danglars?"

"Albert, Albert," said Madame de Morcerf, in a tone of mild reproof, "what are you saying? Ah, count, he

esteems you so highly, tell him that he has spoken amiss." And she took two or three steps forward. Monte

Cristo watched her with an air so thoughtful, and so full of affectionate admiration, that she turned back and

grasped his hand; at the same time she seized that of her son, and joined them together.

"Oh, madame, I do not presume to call myself your friend, but at all times I am your most respectful servant."

The countess left with an indescribable pang in her heart, and before she had taken ten steps the count saw

her raise her handkerchief to her eyes. "Do not my mother and you agree?" asked Albert, astonished.

"On the contrary," replied the count, "did you not hear her declare that we were friends?" They reentered the

drawingroom, which Valentine and Madame de Villefort had just quitted. It is perhaps needless to add that

A gloomy scene had indeed just passed at the house of M. de Villefort. After the ladies had departed for the

ball, whither all the entreaties of Madame de Villefort had failed in persuading him to accompany them, the

procureur had shut himself up in his study, according to his custom. with a heap of papers calculated to alarm

any one else, but which generally scarcely satisfied his inordinate desires. But this time the papers were a

mere matter of form. Villefort had secluded himself, not to study, but to reflect; and with the door locked and

orders given that he should not be disturbed excepting for important business, he sat down in his armchair

and began to ponder over the events, the remembrance of which had during the last eight days filled his mind

with so many gloomy thoughts and bitter recollections. Then, instead of plunging into the mass of documents

piled before him, he opened the drawer of his desk. touched a spring, and drew out a parcel of cherished

memoranda, amongst which he had carefully arranged, in characters only known to himself, the names of all

those who, either in his political career, in money matters, at the bar, or in his mysterious love affairs, had

Their number was formidable, now that he had begun to fear, and yet these names, powerful though they

were, had often caused him to smile with the same kind of satisfaction experienced by a traveller who from

the summit of a mountain beholds at his feet the craggy eminences, the almost impassable paths, and the

fearful chasms, through which he has so perilously climbed. When he had run over all these names in his

memory, again read and studied them, commenting meanwhile upon his lists, he shook his head.

"No," he murmured, "none of my enemies would have waited so patiently and laboriously for so long a space

of time, that they might now come and crush me with this secret. Sometimes, as Hamlet says

but, like a phosphoric light, they rise but to mislead. The story has been told by the Corsican to some priest,

who in his turn has repeated it. M. de Monte Cristo may have heard it, and to enlighten himself but why

should he wish to enlighten himself upon the subject?" asked Villefort, after a moment's reflection, "what

interest can this M. de Monte Cristo or M. Zaccone, son of a shipowner of Malta, discoverer of a mine in

Thessaly, now visiting Paris for the first time, what interest, I say, can he take in discovering a gloomy,

mysterious, and useless fact like this? However, among all the incoherent details given to me by the Abbe

Busoni and by Lord Wilmore, by that friend and that enemy, one thing appears certain and clear in my

opinion that in no period, in no case, in no circumstance, could there have been any contact between him

But Villefort uttered words which even he himself did not believe. He dreaded not so much the revelation, for

he could reply to or deny its truth; he cared little for that mene, tekel, upharsin, which appeared suddenly

in letters of blood upon the wall; but what he was really anxious for was to discover whose hand had

traced them. While he was endeavoring to calm his fears, and instead of dwelling upon the political future

that had so often been the subject of his ambitious dreams, was imagining a future limited to the enjoyments

of home, in fear of awakening the enemy that had so long slept, the noise of a carriage sounded in the

yard, then he heard the steps of an aged person ascending the stairs, followed by tears and lamentations, such

as servants always give vent to when they wish to appear interested in their master's grief. He drew back the

bolt of his door, and almost directly an old lady entered, unannounced, carrying her shawl on her arm, and her

bonnet in her hand. The white hair was thrown back from her yellow forehead, and her eyes, already sunken

by the furrows of age, now almost disappeared beneath the eyelids swollen with grief. "Oh, sir," she said;

"oh, sir, what a misfortune! I shall die of it; oh, yes, I shall certainly die of it!"

And then, falling upon the chair nearest the door, she burst into a paroxysm of sobs. The servants, standing in

the doorway, not daring to approach nearer, were looking at Noirtier's old servant, who had heard the noise

from his master's room, and run there also, remaining behind the others. Villefort rose, and ran towards his

"Why, what can have happened?" he exclaimed, "what has thus disturbed you? Is M. de SaintMeran with

"M. de SaintMeran is dead," answered the old marchioness, without preface and without expression; she

appeared to be stupefied. Villefort drew back, and clasping his hands together, exclaimed "Dead! so

"A week ago," continued Madame de SaintMeran, "we went out together in the carriage after dinner. M. de

SaintMeran had been unwell for some days; still, the idea of seeing our dear Valentine again inspired him

with courage, and notwithstanding his illness he would leave. At six leagues from Marseilles, after having

eaten some of the lozenges he is accustomed to take, he fell into such a deep sleep, that it appeared to me

unnatural; still I hesitated to wake him, although I fancied that his face was flushed, and that the veins of his

temples throbbed more violently than usual. However, as it became dark, and I could no longer see, I fell

asleep; I was soon aroused by a piercing shriek, as from a person suffering in his dreams, and he suddenly

threw his head back violently. I called the valet, I stopped the postilion, I spoke to M. de SaintMeran, I

applied my smellingsalts; but all was over, and I arrived at Aix by the side of a corpse." Villefort stood with

"M. de SaintMeran had always expressed a desire, in case his death happened during his absence from Paris,

that his body might be brought to the family vault. I had him put into a leaden coffin, and I am preceding him

"Oh, my poor mother," said Villefort, "to have such duties to perform at your age after such a blow!"

"God has supported me through all; and then, my dear marquis, he would certainly have done everything for

me that I performed for him. It is true that since I left him, I seem to have lost my senses. I cannot cry; at my

age they say that we have no more tears, still I think that when one is in trouble one should have the

power of weeping. Where is Valentine. sir? It is on her account I am here; I wish to see Valentine." Villefort

thought it would be terrible to reply that Valentine was at a ball; so he only said that she had gone out with

her stepmother, and that she should be fetched. "This instant, sir this instant, I beseech you!" said the old

lady. Villefort placed the arm of Madame de SaintMeran within his own, and conducted her to his

The marchioness raised her head at this word, and beholding the man who so forcibly reminded her of her

deeplyregretted child, who still lived for her in Valentine, she felt touched at the name of mother, and

bursting into tears, she fell on her knees before an armchair, where she buried her venerable head. Villefort

left her to the care of the women, while old Barrois ran, halfscared, to his master; for nothing frightens old

people so much as when death relaxes its vigilance over them for a moment in order to strike some other old

person. Then, while Madame de SaintMeran remained on her knees, praying fervently, Villefort sent for a

cab, and went himself to fetch his wife and daughter from Madame de Morcerf's. He was so pale when he

"And grandpapa?" inquired the young girl, trembling with apprehension. M. de Villefort only replied by

offering his arm to his daughter. It was just in time, for Valentine's head swam, and she staggered; Madame

de Villefort instantly hastened to her assistance, and aided her husband in dragging her to the carriage, saying

"What a singular event! Who could have thought it? Ah, yes, it is indeed strange!" And the wretched

family departed, leaving a cloud of sadness hanging over the rest of the evening. At the foot of the stairs,

"Tell him I will come when I leave my dear grandmamma," she replied, feeling, with true delicacy, that the

person to whom she could be of the most service just then was Madame de SaintMeran. Valentine found her

grandmother in bed; silent caresses, heartwrung sobs, broken sighs, burning tears, were all that passed in this

sad interview, while Madame de Villefort, leaning on her husband's arm, maintained all outward forms of

respect, at least towards the poor widow. She soon whispered to her husband, "I think it would be better for

me to retire, with your permission, for the sight of me appears still to afflict your motherinlaw." Madame

de SaintMeran heard her. "Yes, yes," she said softly to Valentine, "let her leave; but do you stay." Madame

de Villefort left, and Valentine remained alone beside the bed, for the procureur, overcome with astonishment

at the unexpected death, had followed his wife. Meanwhile, Barrois had returned for the first time to old

Noirtier, who having heard the noise in the house, had, as we have said, sent his old servant to inquire the

cause; on his return, his quick intelligent eye interrogated the messenger. "Alas, sir," exclaimed Barrois, "a

great misfortune has happened. Madame de SaintMeran has arrived, and her husband is dead!"

M. de SaintMeran and Noirtier had never been on strict terms of friendship; still, the death of one old man

always considerably affects another. Noirtier let his head fall upon his chest, apparently overwhelmed and

thoughtful; then he closed one eye, in token of inquiry. "Mademoiselle Valentine?" Noirtier nodded his head.

"She is at the ball, as you know, since she came to say goodby to you in full dress." Noirtier again closed his

left eye. "Do you wish to see her?" Noirtier again made an affirmative sign. "Well, they have gone to fetch

her, no doubt, from Madame de Morcerf's; I will await her return, and beg her to come up here. Is that what

Barrois, therefore, as we have seen, watched for Valentine, and informed her of her grandfather's wish.

Consequently, Valentine came up to Noirtier, on leaving Madame de SaintMeran, who in the midst of her

grief had at last yielded to fatigue and fallen into a feverish sleep. Within reach of her hand they placed a

small table upon which stood a bottle of orangeade, her usual beverage, and a glass. Then, as we have said,

the young girl left the bedside to see M. Noirtier. Valentine kissed the old man, who looked at her with such

tenderness that her eyes again filled with tears, whose sources he thought must be exhausted. The old

gentleman continued to dwell upon her with the same expression. "Yes, yes," said Valentine, "you mean that

I have yet a kind grandfather left, do you not." The old man intimated that such was his meaning. "Ah, yes,

It was one o'clock in the morning. Barrois, who wished to go to bed himself, observed that after such sad

events every one stood in need of rest. Noirtier would not say that the only rest he needed was to see his

child, but wished her goodnight, for grief and fatigue had made her appear quite ill. The next morning she

found her grandmother in bed; the fever had not abated, on the contrary her eyes glistened and she appeared

to be suffering from violent nervous irritability. "Oh, dear grandmamma, are you worse?" exclaimed

"No, my child, no," said Madame de SaintMeran; "but I was impatiently waiting for your arrival, that I

"Yes, I wish to speak to him." Valentine durst not oppose her grandmother's wish, the cause of which she did

not know, and an instant afterwards Villefort entered. "Sir," said Madame de SaintMeran, without using any

circumlocution, and as if fearing she had no time to lose, "you wrote to me concerning the marriage of this

"Is he not the son of General d'Epinay who was on our side, and who was assassinated some days before the

"Our civil dissensions are now happily extinguished, mother," said Villefort; "M. d'Epinay was quite a child

when his father died, he knows very little of M. Noirtier, and will meet him, if not with pleasure, at least with

"He is one of the most wellbred young men I know." During the whole of this conversation Valentine had

remained silent. "Well, sir," said Madame de SaintMeran, after a few minutes' reflection, "I must hasten the

"You, madame?" "You, dear mamma?" exclaimed M. de Villefort and Valentine at the same time.

"I know what I am saying," continued the marchioness; "I must hurry you, so that, as she has no mother, she

may at least have a grandmother to bless her marriage. I am all that is left to her belonging to my poor Renee,

"Ah, madame," said Villefort, "you forget that I was obliged to give a mother to my child."

"A stepmother is never a mother, sir. But this is not to the purpose, our business concerns Valentine, let us

All this was said with such exceeding rapidity, that there was something in the conversation that seemed like

"It shall be as you wish, madame," said Villefort; "more especially since your wishes coincide with mine, and

"My dear grandmother," interrupted Valentine, "consider decorum the recent death. You would not have

"My child," exclaimed the old lady sharply, "let us hear none of the conventional objections that deter weak

minds from preparing for the future. I also was married at the deathbed of my mother, and certainly I have

"Still? Always! I tell you I am going to die do you understand? Well, before dying, I wish to see my

soninlaw. I wish to tell him to make my child happy; I wish to read in his eyes whether he intends to obey

me; in fact, I will know him I will!" continued the old lady, with a fearful expression, "that I may rise

"Madame," said Villefort, "you must lay aside these exalted ideas, which almost assume the appearance of

"And I tell you, sir, that you are mistaken. This night I have had a fearful sleep. It seemed as though my soul

were already hovering over my body, my eyes, which I tried to open, closed against my will, and what will

appear impossible above all to you, sir, I saw, with my eyes shut, in the spot where you are now standing,

issuing from that corner where there is a door leading into Madame Villefort's dressingroom I saw, I tell

you, silently enter, a white figure." Valentine screamed. "It was the fever that disturbed you, madame," said

"Doubt, if you please, but I am sure of what I say. I saw a white figure, and as if to prevent my discrediting

the testimony of only one of my senses, I heard my glass removed the same which is there now on the

"So little was it a dream, that I stretched my hand towards the bell; but when I did so, the shade disappeared;

"Phantoms are visible to those only who ought to see them. It was the soul of my husband! Well, if my

husband's soul can come to me, why should not my soul reappear to guard my granddaughter? the tie is even

"Oh, madame," said Villefort, deeply affected, in spite of himself, "do not yield to those gloomy thoughts;

you will long live with us, happy, loved, and honored, and we will make you forget"

"It is well. As soon as he arrives inform me. We must be expeditious. And then I also wish to see a notary,

"Ah, grandmamma," murmured Valentine, pressing her lips on the burning brow, "do you wish to kill me?

"A doctor?" said she, shrugging her shoulders, "I am not ill; I am thirsty that is all."

"The same as usual, my dear, my glass is there on the table give it to me, Valentine." Valentine poured the

orangeade into a glass and gave it to her grandmother with a certain degree of dread, for it was the same glass

she fancied that had been touched by the spectre. The marchioness drained the glass at a single draught, and

M. de Villefort left the room, and Valentine seated herself at the bedside of her grandmother. The poor child

appeared herself to require the doctor she had recommended to her aged relative. A bright spot burned in

either cheek, her respiration was short and difficult, and her pulse beat with feverish excitement. She was

thinking of the despair of Maximilian, when he should be informed that Madame de SaintMeran, instead of

being an ally, was unconsciously acting as his enemy. More than once she thought of revealing all to her

grandmother, and she would not have hesitated a moment, if Maximilian Morrel had been named Albert de

Morcerf or Raoul de ChateauRenaud; but Morrel was of plebeian extraction, and Valentine knew how the

haughty Marquise de SaintMeran despised all who were not noble. Her secret had each time been repressed

when she was about to reveal it, by the sad conviction that it would be useless to do so; for, were it once

discovered by her father and mother, all would be lost. Two hours passed thus; Madame de SaintMeran was

in a feverish sleep, and the notary had arrived. Though his coming was announced in a very low tone,

Madame de SaintMeran arose from her pillow. "The notary!" she exclaimed, "let him come in."

The notary, who was at the door, immediately entered. "Go, Valentine," said Madame de SaintMeran, "and

"Leave me go!" The young girl kissed her grandmother, and left with her handkerchief to her eyes; at the

door she found the valet de chambre, who told her that the doctor was waiting in the diningroom. Valentine

instantly ran down. The doctor was a friend of the family, and at the same time one of the cleverest men of

the day, and very fond of Valentine, whose birth he had witnessed. He had himself a daughter about her age,

but whose life was one continued source of anxiety and fear to him from her mother having been

"Oh," said Valentine, "we have been waiting for you with such impatience, dear M. d'Avrigny. But, first of

all, how are Madeleine and Antoinette?" Madeleine was the daughter of M. d'Avrigny, and Antoinette his

niece. M. d'Avrigny smiled sadly. "Antoinette is very well," he said, "and Madeleine tolerably so. But you

sent for me, my dear child. It is not your father or Madame de Villefort who is ill. As for you, although we

doctors cannot divest our patients of nerves, I fancy you have no further need of me than to recommend you

not to allow your imagination to take too wide a field." Valentine colored. M. d'Avrigny carried the science

of divination almost to a miraculous extent, for he was one of the physicians who always work upon the body

through the mind. "No," she replied, "it is for my poor grandmother. You know the calamity that has

"Yes, and my poor grandmother fancies that her husband, whom she never left, has called her, and that she

"Just as he was, his mind perfectly clear, but the same incapability of moving or speaking."

"Who does not love you?" Valentine smiled sadly. "What are your grandmother's symptoms?"

"An extreme nervous excitement and a strangely agitated sleep; she fancied this morning in her sleep that her

soul was hovering above her body, which she at the same time watched. It must have been delirium; she

fancies, too, that she saw a phantom enter her chamber and even heard the noise it made on touching her

"It is singular," said the doctor; "I was not aware that Madame de SaintMeran was subject to such

"It is the first time I ever saw her in this condition," said Valentine; "and this morning she frightened me so

that I thought her mad; and my father, who you know is a strongminded man, himself appeared deeply

"We will go and see," said the doctor; "what you tell me seems very strange." The notary here descended, and

Valentine was informed that her grandmother was alone. "Go upstairs," she said to the doctor.

"Oh, I dare not she forbade my sending for you; and, as you say, I am myself agitated, feverish and out of

sorts. I will go and take a turn in the garden to recover myself." The doctor pressed Valentine's hand, and

while he visited her grandmother, she descended the steps. We need not say which portion of the garden was

her favorite walk. After remaining for a short time in the parterre surrounding the house, and gathering a rose

to place in her waist or hair, she turned into the dark avenue which led to the bench; then from the bench she

went to the gate. As usual, Valentine strolled for a short time among her flowers, but without gathering them.

The mourning in her heart forbade her assuming this simple ornament, though she had not yet had time to put

on the outward semblance of woe. She then turned towards the avenue. As she advanced she fancied she

heard a voice speaking her name. She stopped astonished, then the voice reached her ear more distinctly, and

It was, indeed, Maximilian Morrel, who had passed a wretched existence since the previous day. With the

instinct peculiar to lovers he had anticipated after the return of Madame de SaintMeran and the death of the

marquis, that something would occur at M. de Villefort's in connection with his attachment for Valentine. His

presentiments were realized, as we shall see, and his uneasy forebodings had goaded him pale and trembling

to the gate under the chestnuttrees. Valentine was ignorant of the cause of this sorrow and anxiety, and as it

was not his accustomed hour for visiting her, she had gone to the spot simply by accident or perhaps through

sympathy. Morrel called her, and she ran to the gate. "You here at this hour?" said she. "Yes, my poor girl,"

"This is, indeed, a house of mourning," said Valentine; "speak, Maximilian, although the cup of sorrow

"Dear Valentine," said Morrel, endeavoring to conceal his own emotion, "listen, I entreat you; what I am

"I will tell you all," said Valentine; "from you I have nothing to conceal. This morning the subject was

introduced, and my dear grandmother, on whom I depended as my only support, not only declared herself

favorable to it, but is so anxious for it, that they only await the arrival of M. d'Epinay, and the following day

the contract will be signed." A deep sigh escaped the young man, who gazed long and mournfully at her he

loved. "Alas," replied he, "it is dreadful thus to hear my condemnation from your own lips. The sentence is

passed, and, in a few hours, will be executed; it must be so, and I will not endeavor to prevent it. But, since

you say nothing remains but for M. d'Epinay to arrive that the contract may be signed, and the following day

you will be his, tomorrow you will be engaged to M. d'Epinay, for he came this morning to Paris."

"I was at the house of Monte Cristo an hour since," said Morrel; "we were speaking, he of the sorrow your

family had experienced, and I of your grief, when a carriage rolled into the courtyard. Never, till then, had I

placed any confidence in presentiments, but now I cannot help believing them, Valentine. At the sound of

that carriage I shuddered; soon I heard steps on the staircase, which terrified me as much as the footsteps of

the commander did Don Juan. The door at last opened; Albert de Morcerf entered first, and I began to hope

my fears were vain, when, after him, another young man advanced, and the count exclaimed `Ah, here is

the Baron Franz d'Epinay!' I summoned all my strength and courage to my support. Perhaps I turned pale and

trembled, but certainly I smiled; and five minutes after I left, without having heard one word that had

"Valentine, the time has arrived when you must answer me. And remember my life depends on your answer.

"Listen," said Morrel; "it is not the first time you have contemplated our present position, which is a serious

and urgent one; I do not think it is a moment to give way to useless sorrow; leave that for those who like to

suffer at their leisure and indulge their grief in secret. There are such in the world, and God will doubtless

reward them in heaven for their resignation on earth, but those who mean to contend must not lose one

precious moment, but must return immediately the blow which fortune strikes. Do you intend to struggle

Valentine trembled, and looked at him with amazement. The idea of resisting her father, her grandmother,

and all the family, had never occurred to her. "What do you say, Maximilian?" asked Valentine. "What do

you mean by a struggle? Oh, it would be a sacrilege. What? I resist my father's order, and my dying

grandmother's wish? Impossible!" Morrel started. "You are too noble not to understand me, and you

understand me so well that you already yield, dear Maximilian. No, no; I shall need all my strength to

struggle with myself and support my grief in secret, as you say. But to grieve my father to disturb my

"Mademoiselle," cried Valentine; "mademoiselle! Oh, selfish man, he sees me in despair, and pretends he

"You mistake I understand you perfectly. You will not oppose M. Villefort, you will not displease the

marchioness, and tomorrow you will sign the contract which will bind you to your husband."

"Do not appeal to me, mademoiselle; I shall be a bad judge in such a case; my selfishness will blind me,"

replied Morrel, whose low voice and clinched hands announced his growing desperation.

"Certainly, dear Maximilian, for if it is good, I will follow it; you know my devotion to you."

"Valentine," said Morrel pushing aside a loose plank, "give me your hand in token of forgiveness of my

anger; my senses are confused, and during the last hour the most extravagant thoughts have passed through

"What do you advise?" said Valentine, raising her eyes to heaven and sighing. "I am free," replied

Maximilian, "and rich enough to support you. I swear to make you my lawful wife before my lips even shall

"Follow me," said Morrel; "I will take you to my sister, who is worthy also to be yours. We will embark for

Algiers, for England, for America, or, if your prefer it, retire to the country and only return to Paris when our

friends have reconciled your family." Valentine shook her head. "I feared it, Maximilian," said she; "it is the

counsel of a madman, and I should be more mad than you, did I not stop you at once with the word

"You will then submit to what fate decrees for you without even attempting to contend with it?" said Morrel

"Well, Valentine," resumed Maximilian, "I can only say again that you are right. Truly, it is I who am mad,

and you prove to me that passion blinds the most wellmeaning. I appreciate your calm reasoning. It is then

understood that tomorrow you will be irrevocably promised to M. Franz d'Epinay, not only by that theatrical

formality invented to heighten the effect of a comedy called the signature of the contract, but your own will?"

"Again you drive me to despair, Maximilian," said Valentine, "again you plunge the dagger into the wound!

"Mademoiselle," replied Morrel with a bitter smile, "I am selfish you have already said so and as a

selfish man I think not of what others would do in my situation, but of what I intend doing myself. I think

only that I have known you not a whole year. From the day I first saw you, all my hopes of happiness have

been in securing your affection. One day you acknowledged that you loved me, and since that day my hope of

future happiness has rested on obtaining you, for to gain you would be life to me. Now, I think no more; I say

only that fortune has turned against me I had thought to gain heaven, and now I have lost it. It is an

everyday occurrence for a gambler to lose not only what he possesses but also what he has not." Morrel

pronounced these words with perfect calmness; Valentine looked at him a moment with her large,

scrutinizing eyes, endeavoring not to let Morrel discover the grief which struggled in her heart. "But, in a

"I am going to have the honor of taking my leave of you, mademoiselle, solemnly assuring you that I wish

your life may be so calm, so happy, and so fully occupied, that there may be no place for me even in your

"Where are you going?" cried the young girl, extending her hand through the opening, and seizing

Maximilian by his coat, for she understood from her own agitated feelings that her lover's calmness could not

"I am going, that I may not bring fresh trouble into your family: and to set an example which every honest

"Before you leave me, tell me what you are going to do, Maximilian." The young man smiled sorrowfully.

"It cannot change, unhappy man; you know it must not!" cried the young girl. "Then adieu, Valentine!"

Valentine shook the gate with a strength of which she could not have been supposed to be possessed, as

Morrel was going away, and passing both her hands through the opening, she clasped and wrung them. "I

"Oh, fear not," said Maximilian, stopping at a short distance, "I do not intend to render another man

responsible for the rigorous fate reserved for me. Another might threaten to seek M. Franz, to provoke him,

and to fight with him; all that would be folly. What has M. Franz to do with it? He saw me this morning for

the first time, and has already forgotten he has seen me. He did not even know I existed when it was arranged

by your two families that you should be united. I have no enmity against M. Franz, and promise you the

"On you? Valentine! Oh, heaven forbid! Woman is sacred; the woman one loves is holy."

"Maximilian!" said Valentine, "Maximilian, come back, I entreat you!" He drew near with his sweet smile,

and but for his paleness one might have thought him in his usual happy mood. "Listen, my dear, my adored

Valentine," said he in his melodious and grave tone; "those who, like us, have never had a thought for which

we need blush before the world, such may read each other's hearts. I never was romantic, and am no

melancholy hero. I imitate neither Manfred nor Anthony; but without words, protestations, or vows, my life

has entwined itself with yours; you leave me, and you are right in doing so, I repeat it, you are right; but in

"The moment you leave me, Valentine, I am alone in the world. My sister is happily married; her husband is

only my brotherinlaw, that is, a man whom the ties of social life alone attach to me; no one then longer

needs my useless life. This is what I shall do; I will wait until the very moment you are married, for I will not

lose the shadow of one of those unexpected chances which are sometimes reserved for us, since M. Franz

may, after all, die before that time, a thunderbolt may fall even on the altar as you approach it, nothing

appears impossible to one condemned to die, and miracles appear quite reasonable when his escape from

death is concerned. I will, then, wait until the last moment, and when my misery is certain, irremediable,

hopeless, I will write a confidential letter to my brotherinlaw, another to the prefect of police, to acquaint

them with my intention, and at the corner of some wood, on the brink of some abyss, on the bank of some

river, I will put an end to my existence, as certainly as I am the son of the most honest man who ever lived in

Valentine trembled convulsively; she loosened her hold of the gate, her arms fell by her side, and two large

tears rolled down her cheeks. The young man stood before her, sorrowful and resolute. "Oh, for pity's sake,"

"No, on my honor," said Maximilian; "but that will not affect you. You have done your duty, and your

conscience will be at rest." Valentine fell on her knees, and pressed her almost bursting heart. "Maximilian,"

said she, "Maximilian, my friend, my brother on earth, my true husband in heaven, I entreat you, do as I do,

"My God," said Valentine, raising both her hands to heaven with a sublime expression, "I have done my

utmost to remain a submissive daughter; I have begged, entreated, implored; he has regarded neither my

prayers, my entreaties, nor my tears. It is done," cried she, willing away her tears, and resuming her firmness,

"I am resolved not to die of remorse, but rather of shame. Live, Maximilian, and I will be yours. Say when

shall it be? Speak, command, I will obey." Morrel, who had already gone some few steps away, again

returned, and pale with joy extended both hands towards Valentine through the opening. "Valentine," said he,

"dear Valentine, you must not speak thus rather let me die. Why should I obtain you by violence, if our

love is mutual? Is it from mere humanity you bid me live? I would then rather die."

"Truly," murmured Valentine, "who on this earth cares for me, if he does not? Who has consoled me in my

sorrow but he? On whom do my hopes rest? On whom does my bleeding heart repose? On him, on him,

always on him! Yes, you are right, Maximilian, I will follow you. I will leave the paternal home, I will give

up all. Oh, ungrateful girl that I am," cried Valentine, sobbing, "I will give up all, even my dear old

"No," said Maximilian, "you shall not leave him. M. Noirtier has evinced, you say, a kind feeling towards

me. Well, before you leave, tell him all; his consent would be your justification in God's sight. As soon as we

are married, he shall come and live with us, instead of one child, he shall have two. You have told me how

you talk to him and how he answers you; I shall very soon learn that language by signs, Valentine, and I

"Oh, see, Maximilian, see the power you have over me, you almost make me believe you; and yet, what you

tell me is madness, for my father will curse me he is inflexible he will never pardon me. Now listen to

me, Maximilian; if by artifice, by entreaty, by accident in short, if by any means I can delay this marriage,

"Yes, I promise you, as faithfully as you have promised me that this horrible marriage shall not take place,

"I promise you by all that is most sacred to me in the world, namely, by my mother."

"Yes, we will wait," replied Valentine, who revived at these words; "there are so many things which may

"I rely on you, Valentine," said Morrel; "all you do will be well done; only if they disregard your prayers, if

your father and Madame de SaintMeran insist that M. d'Epinay should be called tomorrow to sign the

"I will go to you, and we will fly; but from this moment until then, let us not tempt providence, let us not see

each other. It is a miracle, it is a providence that we have not been discovered. If we were surprised, if it were

"And for myself I will write to you, depend on me. I dread this marriage, Maximilian, as much as you."

"Thank you, my adored Valentine, thank you; that is enough. When once I know the hour, I will hasten to this

spot, you can easily get over this fence with my assistance, a carriage will await us at the gate, in which you

will accompany me to my sister's; there living, retired or mingling in society, as you wish, we shall be

enabled to use our power to resist oppression, and not suffer ourselves to be put to death like sheep, which

"Yes," said Valentine, "I will now acknowledge you are right, Maximilian; and now are you satisfied with

"My adored Valentine, words cannot express one half of my satisfaction." Valentine had approached, or

rather, had placed her lips so near the fence, that they nearly touched those of Morrel, which were pressed

against the other side of the cold and inexorable barrier. "Adieu, then, till we meet again," said Valentine,

"Thanks, thanks, dear love, adieu!" The sound of a kiss was heard, and Valentine fled through the avenue.

Morrel listened to catch the last sound of her dress brushing the branches, and of her footstep on the gravel,

then raised his eyes with an ineffable smile of thankfulness to heaven for being permitted to be thus loved,

and then also disappeared. The young man returned home and waited all the evening and all the next day

without getting any message. It was only on the following day, at about ten o'clock in the morning, as he was

starting to call on M. Deschamps, the notary, that he received from the postman a small billet, which he knew

to be from Valentine, although he had not before seen her writing. It was to this effect:

Tears, entreaties, prayers, have availed me nothing. Yesterday, for two hours, I was at the church of

SaintPhillippe du Roule, and for two hours I prayed most fervently. Heaven is as inflexible as man, and the

signature of the contract is fixed for this evening at nine o'clock. I have but one promise and but one heart to

give; that promise is pledged to you, that heart is also yours. This evening, then, at a quarter to nine at the

P.S. My poor grandmother gets worse and worse; yesterday her fever amounted to delirium; today her

delirium is almost madness. You will be very kind to me, will you not, Morrel, to make me forget my sorrow

in leaving her thus? I think it is kept a secret from grandpapa Noirtier, that the contract is to be signed this

Morrel went also to the notary, who confirmed the news that the contract was to be signed that evening. Then

he went to call on Monte Cristo and heard still more. Franz had been to announce the ceremony, and Madame

de Villefort had also written to beg the count to excuse her not inviting him; the death of M. de SaintMeran

and the dangerous illness of his widow would cast a gloom over the meeting which she would regret should

be shared by the count whom she wished every happiness. The day before Franz had been presented to

Madame de SaintMeran, who had left her bed to receive him, but had been obliged to return to it

immediately after. It is easy to suppose that Morrel's agitation would not escape the count's penetrating eye.

Monte Cristo was more affectionate than ever, indeed, his manner was so kind that several times Morrel

was on the point of telling him all. But he recalled the promise he had made to Valentine, and kept his secret.

The young man read Valentine's letter twenty times in the course of the day. It was her first, and on what an

occasion! Each time he read it he renewed his vow to make her happy. How great is the power of a woman

who has made so courageous a resolution! What devotion does she deserve from him for whom she has

sacrificed everything! How ought she really to be supremely loved! She becomes at once a queen and a wife,

and it is impossible to thank and love her sufficiently. Morrel longed intensely for the moment when he

should hear Valentine say, "Here I am, Maximilian; come and help me." He had arranged everything for her

escape; two ladders were hidden in the cloverfield; a cabriolet was ordered for Maximilian alone, without a

servant, without lights; at the turning of the first street they would light the lamps, as it would be foolish to

attract the notice of the police by too many precautions. Occasionally he shuddered; he thought of the

moment when, from the top of that wall, he should protect the descent of his dear Valentine, pressing in his

When the afternoon arrived and he felt that the hour was drawing near, he wished for solitude, his agitation

was extreme; a simple question from a friend would have irritated him. He shut himself in his room, and tried

to read, but his eye glanced over the page without understanding a word, and he threw away the book, and for

the second time sat down to sketch his plan, the ladders and the fence. At length the hour drew near. Never

did a man deeply in love allow the clocks to go on peacefully. Morrel tormented his so effectually that they

struck eight at halfpast six. He then said, "It is time to start; the signature was indeed fixed to take place at

nine o'clock, but perhaps Valentine will not wait for that. Consequently, Morrel, having left the Rue Meslay

at halfpast eight by his timepiece, entered the cloverfield while the clock of SaintPhillippe du Roule was

striking eight. The horse and cabriolet were concealed behind a small ruin, where Morrel had often waited.

The night gradually drew on, and the foliage in the garden assumed a deeper hue. Then Morrel came out from

his hidingplace with a beating heart, and looked through the small opening in the gate; there was yet no one

to be seen. The clock struck halfpast eight, and still another halfhour was passed in waiting, while Morrel

walked to and fro, and gazed more and more frequently through the opening. The garden became darker still,

but in the darkness he looked in vain for the white dress, and in the silence he vainly listened for the sound of

footsteps. The house, which was discernible through the trees, remained in darkness, and gave no indication

that so important an event as the signature of a marriagecontract was going on. Morrel looked at his watch,

which wanted a quarter to ten; but soon the same clock he had already heard strike two or three times

This was already half an hour past the time Valentine had fixed. It was a terrible moment for the young man.

The slightest rustling of the foliage, the least whistling of the wind, attracted his attention, and drew the

perspiration to his brow; then he tremblingly fixed his ladder, and, not to lose a moment, placed his foot on

the first step. Amidst all these alternations of hope and fear, the clock struck ten. "It is impossible," said

Maximilian, "that the signing of a contract should occupy so long a time without unexpected interruptions. I

have weighed all the chances, calculated the time required for all the forms; something must have happened."

And then he walked rapidly to and fro, and pressed his burning forehead against the fence. Had Valentine

fainted? or had she been discovered and stopped in her flight? These were the only obstacles which appeared

The idea that her strength had failed her in attempting to escape, and that she had fainted in one of the paths,

was the one that most impressed itself upon his mind. "In that case," said he, "I should lose her, and by my

own fault." He dwelt on this idea for a moment, then it appeared reality. He even thought he could perceive

something on the ground at a distance; he ventured to call, and it seemed to him that the wind wafted back an

almost inarticulate sigh. At last the halfhour struck. It was impossible to wait longer, his temples throbbed

violently, his eyes were growing dim; he passed one leg over the wall, and in a moment leaped down on the

other side. He was on Villefort's premises had arrived there by scaling the wall. What might be the

consequences? However, he had not ventured thus far to draw back. He followed a short distance close under

the wall, then crossed a path, hid entered a clump of trees. In a moment he had passed through them, and

could see the house distinctly. Then Morrel saw that he had been right in believing that the house was not

illuminated. Instead of lights at every window, as is customary on days of ceremony, he saw only a gray

mass, which was veiled also by a cloud, which at that moment obscured the moon's feeble light. A light

moved rapidly from time to time past three windows of the second floor. These three windows were in

Madame de SaintMeran's room. Another remained motionless behind some red curtains which were in

Madame de Villefort's bedroom. Morrel guessed all this. So many times, in order to follow Valentine in

thought at every hour in the day, had he made her describe the whole house, that without having seen it he

This darkness and silence alarmed Morrel still more than Valentine's absence had done. Almost mad with

grief, and determined to venture everything in order to see Valentine once more, and be certain of the

misfortune he feared, Morrel gained the edge of the clump of trees, and was going to pass as quickly as

possible through the flowergarden, when the sound of a voice, still at some distance, but which was borne

At this sound, as he was already partially exposed to view, he stepped back and concealed himself

completely, remaining perfectly motionless. He had formed his resolution. If it was Valentine alone, he

would speak as she passed; if she was accompanied, and he could not speak, still he should see her, and know

that she was safe; if they were strangers, he would listen to their conversation, and might understand

something of this hitherto incomprehensible mystery. The moon had just then escaped from behind the cloud

which had concealed it, and Morrel saw Villefort come out upon the steps, followed by a gentleman in black.

They descended, and advanced towards the clump of trees, and Morrel soon recognized the other gentleman

The young man, seeing them approach, drew back mechanically, until he found himself stopped by a

sycamoretree in the centre of the clump; there he was compelled to remain. Soon the two gentlemen stopped

"Ah, my dear doctor," said the procureur, "heaven declares itself against my house! What a dreadful death

what a blow! Seek not to console me; alas, nothing can alleviate so great a sorrow the wound is too deep

and too fresh! Dead, dead!" The cold sweat sprang to the young man's brow, and his teeth chattered. Who

could be dead in that house, which Villefort himself had called accursed? "My dear M. de Villefort," replied

the doctor, with a tone which redoubled the terror of the young man, "I have not led you here to console you;

"I mean that behind the misfortune which has just happened to you, there is another, perhaps, still greater."

"Can it be possible?" murmured Villefort, clasping his hands. "What are you going to tell me?"

"Because I have a terrible secret to communicate to you," said the doctor. "Let us sit down."

Villefort fell, rather than seated himself The doctor stood before him, with one hand placed on his shoulder.

Morrel, horrified, supported his head with one hand, and with the other pressed his heart, lest its beatings

should be heard. "Dead, dead!" repeated he within himself; and he felt as if he were also dying.

"Speak, doctor I am listening," said Villefort; "strike I am prepared for everything!"

"Madame de SaintMeran was, doubtless, advancing in years, but she enjoyed excellent health." Morrel

began again to breathe freely, which he had not done during the last ten minutes.

"Grief has consumed her," said Villefort "yes, grief, doctor! After living forty years with the marquis"

"It is not grief, my dear Villefort," said the doctor; "grief may kill, although it rarely does, and never in a day,

never in an hour, never in ten minutes." Villefort answered nothing, he simply raised his head, which had

"Did you notice the symptoms of the disease to which Madame de SaintMeran has fallen a victim?"

"I did. Madame de SaintMeran had three successive attacks, at intervals of some minutes, each one more

serious than the former. When you arrived, Madame de SaintMeran had already been panting for breath

some minutes; she then had a fit, which I took to be simply a nervous attack, and it was only when I saw her

raise herself in the bed, and her limbs and neck appear stiffened, that I became really alarmed. Then I

understood from your countenance there was more to fear than I had thought. This crisis past, I endeavored to

catch your eye, but could not. You held her hand you were feeling her pulse and the second fit came

on before you had turned towards me. This was more terrible than the first; the same nervous movements

"At the end of the first attack I discovered symptoms of tetanus; you confirmed my opinion."

"That the symptoms of tetanus and poisoning by vegetable substances are the same." M. de Villefort started

from his seat, then in a moment fell down again, silent and motionless. Morrel knew not if he were dreaming

or awake. "Listen," said the doctor; "I know the full importance of the statement I have just made, and the

"As a friend, and only as a friend, at this moment. The similarity in the symptoms of tetanus and poisoning by

vegetable substances is so great, that were I obliged to affirm by oath what I have now stated, I should

hesitate; I therefore repeat to you, I speak not to a magistrate, but to a friend. And to that friend I say. `During

the threequarters of an hour that the struggle continued, I watched the convulsions and the death of Madame

de SaintMeran, and am thoroughly convinced that not only did her death proceed from poison, but I could

"The symptoms are marked, do you see? sleep broken by nervous spasms, excitation of the brain, torpor

of the nerve centres. Madame de SaintMeran succumbed to a powerful dose of brucine or of strychnine,

which by some mistake, perhaps, has been given to her." Villefort seized the doctor's hand. "Oh, it is

impossible," said he, "I must be dreaming! It is frightful to hear such things from such a man as you! Tell me,

"Have pity on me doctor! So many dreadful things have happened to me lately that I am on the verge of

"It could not indeed, my daughter is her only heiress Valentine alone. Oh, if such a thought could present

itself, I would stab myself to punish my heart for having for one instant harbored it."

"Indeed, my dear friend," said M. d'Avrigny, "I would not accuse any one; I speak only of an accident, you

understand, of a mistake, but whether accident or mistake, the fact is there; it is on my conscience and

"May not Barrois, the old servant, have made a mistake, and have given Madame de SaintMeran a dose

"Nothing is more simple. You know poisons become remedies in certain diseases, of which paralysis is one.

For instance, having tried every other remedy to restore movement and speech to M. Noirtier, I resolved to

try one last means, and for three months I have been giving him brucine; so that in the last dose I ordered for

him there were six grains. This quantity, which is perfectly safe to administer to the paralyzed frame of M.

Noirtier, which has become gradually accustomed to it, would be sufficient to kill another person."

"My dear doctor, there is no communication between M. Noirtier's apartment and that of Madame de

SaintMeran, and Barrois never entered my motherinlaw's room. In short, doctor although I know you to

be the most conscientious man in the world, and although I place the utmost reliance in you, I want,

"Send for him; I will tell him what I have seen, and we will consult together, and examine the body."

"No, I did not say of poison, but we can prove what was the state of the body; we shall discover the cause of

her sudden death, and we shall say, `Dear Villefort, if this thing has been caused by negligence, watch over

"What do you propose to me, d'Avrigny?" said Villefort in despair; "so soon as another is admitted into our

secret, an inquest will become necessary; and an inquest in my house impossible! Still," continued the

procureur, looking at the doctor with uneasiness, "if you wish it if you demand it, why then it shall be

done. But, doctor, you see me already so grieved how can I introduce into my house so much scandal,

after so much sorrow? My wife and my daughter would die of it! And I, doctor you know a man does not

arrive at the post I occupy one has not been king's attorney twentyfive years without having amassed a

tolerable number of enemies; mine are numerous. Let this affair be talked of, it will be a triumph for them,

which will make them rejoice, and cover me with shame. Pardon me, doctor, these worldly ideas; were you a

priest I should not dare tell you that, but you are a man, and you know mankind. Doctor, pray recall your

"My dear M. de Villefort," replied the doctor, "my first duty is to humanity. I would have saved Madame de

SaintMeran, if science could have done it; but she is dead and my duty regards the living. Let us bury this

terrible secret in the deepest recesses of our hearts; I am willing, if any one should suspect this, that my

silence on the subject should be imputed to my ignorance. Meanwhile, sir, watch always watch carefully,

for perhaps the evil may not stop here. And when you have found the culprit, if you find him, I will say to

"I thank you, doctor," said Villefort with indescribable joy; "I never had a better friend than you." And, as if

he feared Doctor d'Avrigny would recall his promise, he hurried him towards the house.

When they were gone, Morrel ventured out from under the trees, and the moon shone upon his face, which

was so pale it might have been taken for that of a ghost. "I am manifestly protected in a most wonderful, but

most terrible manner," said he; "but Valentine, poor girl, how will she bear so much sorrow?"

As he thought thus, he looked alternately at the window with red curtains and the three windows with white

curtains. The light had almost disappeared from the former; doubtless Madame de Villefort had just put out

her lamp, and the nightlamp alone reflected its dull light on the window. At the extremity of the building, on

the contrary, he saw one of the three windows open. A waxlight placed on the mantlepiece threw some of

its pale rays without, and a shadow was seen for one moment on the balcony. Morrel shuddered; he thought

It cannot be wondered at that his mind, generally so courageous, but now disturbed by the two strongest

human passions, love and fear, was weakened even to the indulgence of superstitious thoughts. Although it

was impossible that Valentine should see him, hidden as he was, he thought he heard the shadow at the

window call him; his disturbed mind told him so. This double error became an irresistible reality, and by one

of the incomprehensible transports of youth, he bounded from his hidingplace, and with two strides, at the

risk of being seen, at the risk of alarming Valentine, at the risk of being discovered by some exclamation

which might escape the young girl, he crossed the flowergarden, which by the light of the moon resembled a

large white lake, and having passed the rows of orangetrees which extended in front of the house, he

reached the step, ran quickly up and pushed the door, which opened without offering any resistance.

Valentine had not seen him. Her eyes, raised towards heaven, were watching a silvery cloud gliding over the

azure, its form that of a shadow mounting towards heaven. Her poetic and excited mind pictured it as the soul

Meanwhile, Morrel had traversed the anteroom and found the staircase, which, being carpeted, prevented his

approach being heard, and he had regained that degree of confidence that the presence of M. de Villefort even

would not have alarmed him. He was quite prepared for any such encounter. He would at once approach

Valentine's father and acknowledge all, begging Villefort to pardon and sanction the love which united two

fond and loving hearts. Morrel was mad. Happily he did not meet any one. Now, especially, did he find the

description Valentine had given of the interior of the house useful to him; he arrived safely at the top of the

staircase, and while he was feeling his way, a sob indicated the direction he was to take. He turned back, a

door partly open enabled him to see his road, and to hear the voice of one in sorrow. He pushed the door open

and entered. At the other end of the room, under a white sheet which covered it, lay the corpse, still more

alarming to Morrel since the account he had so unexpectedly overheard. By its side, on her knees, and with

her head buried in the cushion of an easychair, was Valentine, trembling and sobbing, her hands extended

above her head, clasped and stiff. She had turned from the window, which remained open, and was praying in

accents that would have affected the most unfeeling; her words were rapid, incoherent, unintelligible, for the

burning weight of grief almost stopped her utterance. The moon shining through the open blinds made the

lamp appear to burn paler, and cast a sepulchral hue over the whole scene. Morrel could not resist this; he

was not exemplary for piety, he was not easily impressed, but Valentine suffering, weeping, wringing her

hands before him, was more than he could bear in silence. He sighed, and whispered a name, and the head

bathed in tears and pressed on the velvet cushion of the chair a head like that of a Magdalen by Correggio

was raised and turned towards him. Valentine perceived him without betraying the least surprise. A heart

overwhelmed with one great grief is insensible to minor emotions. Morrel held out his hand to her. Valentine,

as her only apology for not having met him, pointed to the corpse under the sheet, and began to sob again.

Neither dared for some time to speak in that room. They hesitated to break the silence which death seemed to

"My friend," said she, "how came you here? Alas, I would say you are welcome, had not death opened the

"Valentine," said Morrel with a trembling voice, "I had waited since halfpast eight, and did not see you

come; I became uneasy, leaped the wall, found my way through the garden, when voices conversing about

"What voices ?" asked Valentine. Morrel shuddered as he thought of the conversation of the doctor and M. de

Villefort, and he thought he could see through the sheet the extended hands, the stiff neck, and the purple lips.

"Your servants," said he, "who were repeating the whole of the sorrowful story; from them I learned it all."

The young girl shook her head. "No one will come," said she; "do not fear, there is our safeguard," pointing

"Alas," said Morrel with a feeling of selfish joy; for he thought this death would cause the wedding to be

postponed indefinitely. "But what redoubles my sorrow," continued the young girl, as if this feeling was to

receive its immediate punishment, "is that the poor old lady, on her deathbed, requested that the marriage

might take place as soon as possible; she also, thinking to protect me, was acting against me."

"Hark!" said Morrel. They both listened; steps were distinctly heard in the corridor and on the stairs.

"I imagined it must be," said Morrel. Valentine looked at the young man; they heard the street door close,

then M. de Villefort locked the garden door, and returned upstairs. He stopped a moment in the anteroom, as

if hesitating whether to turn to his own apartment or into Madame de SaintMeran's; Morrel concealed

himself behind a door; Valentine remained motionless, grief seeming to deprive her of all fear. M. de

Villefort passed on to his own room. "Now," said Valentine, "you can neither go out by the front door nor by

the garden." Morrel looked at her with astonishment. "There is but one way left you that is safe," said she; "it

is through my grandfather's room." She rose, "Come," she added. "Where?" asked Maximilian.

"I have long wished it; he is my only remaining friend and we both need his help, come."

"Be careful, Valentine," said Morrel, hesitating to comply with the young girl's wishes; "I now see my error

"Yes," said Valentine; "and I have but one scruple, that of leaving my dear grandmother's remains, which

"Yes," said Valentine; "besides, it will not be for long." She then crossed the corridor, and led the way down

a narrow staircase to M. Noirtier's room; Morrel followed her on tiptoe; at the door they found the old

servant. "Barrois," said Valentine, "shut the door, and let no one come in." She passed first. Noirtier, seated in

his chair, and listening to every sound, was watching the door; he saw Valentine, and his eye brightened.

There was something grave and solemn in the approach of the young girl which struck the old man, and

immediately his bright eye began to interrogate. "Dear grandfather." said she hurriedly, "you know poor

grandmamma died an hour since, and now I have no friend in the world but you." His expressive eyes

evinced the greatest tenderness. "To you alone, then, may I confide my sorrows and my hopes?" The

paralytic motioned "Yes." Valentine took Maximilian's hand. "Look attentively, then, at this gentleman." The

old man fixed his scrutinizing gaze with slight astonishment on Morrel. "It is M. Maximilian Morrel," said

she; "the son of that good merchant of Marseilles, whom you doubtless recollect."

"Yes," said the old man. "He brings an irreproachable name, which Maximilian is likely to render glorious,

since at thirty years of age he is a captain, an officer of the Legion of Honor." The old man signified that he

recollected him. "Well, grandpapa," said Valentine, kneeling before him, and pointing to Maximilian, "I love

him, and will be only his; were I compelled to marry another, I would destroy myself."

The eyes of the paralytic expressed a multitude of tumultuous thoughts. "You like M. Maximilian Morrel, do

"And you will protect us, who are your children, against the will of my father?" Noirtier cast an intelligent

"Mademoiselle," said he, "you have a sacred duty to fulfil in your deceased grandmother's room, will you

"Oh, we have so often spoken of you, that he knows exactly how I talk to you." Then turning to Maximilian,

with an adorable smile; although shaded by sorrow, "He knows everything I know," said she.

Valentine arose, placed a chair for Morrel, requested Barrois not to admit any one, and having tenderly

embraced her grandfather, and sorrowfully taken leave of Morrel, she went away. To prove to Noirtier that he

was in Valentine's confidence and knew all their secrets, Morrel took the dictionary, a pen, and some paper,

"But first," said Morrel, "allow me, sir, to tell you who I am, how much I love Mademoiselle Valentine, and

It was an imposing sight to witness this old man, apparently a mere useless burden, becoming the sole

protector, support, and adviser of the lovers who were both young, beautiful, and strong. His remarkably

noble and austere expression struck Morrel, who began his story with trembling. He related the manner in

which he had become acquainted with Valentine, and how he had loved her, and that Valentine, in her

solitude and her misfortune, had accepted the offer of his devotion. He told him his birth, his position, his

fortune, and more than once, when he consulted the look of the paralytic, that look answered, "That is good,

"And now," said Morrel, when he had finished the first part of his recital, "now I have told you of my love

"This was our resolution; a cabriolet was in waiting at the gate, in which I intended to carry off Valentine to

my sister's house, to marry her, and to wait respectfully M. de Villefort's pardon."

"There is another way," said Morrel. The old man's interrogative eye said, "What?"

"I will go," continued Maximilian, "I will seek M. Franz d'Epinay I am happy to be able to mention this in

Mademoiselle de Villefort's absence and will conduct myself toward him so as to compel him to challenge

me." Noirtier's look continued to interrogate. "You wish to know what I will do?"

"I will find him, as I told you. I will tell him the ties which bind me to Mademoiselle Valentine; if he be a

sensible man, he will prove it by renouncing of his own accord the hand of his betrothed, and will secure my

friendship, and love until death; if he refuse, either through interest or ridiculous pride, after I have proved to

him that he would be forcing my wife from me, that Valentine loves me, and will have no other, I will fight

with him, give him every advantage, and I shall kill him, or he will kill me; if I am victorious, he will not

marry Valentine, and if I die, I am very sure Valentine will not marry him." Noirtier watched, with

indescribable pleasure, this noble and sincere countenance, on which every sentiment his tongue uttered was

depicted, adding by the expression of his fine features all that coloring adds to a sound and faithful drawing.

Still, when Morrel had finished, he shut his eyes several times, which was his manner of saying "No."

"No?" said Morrel; "you disapprove of this second project, as you did of the first?"

"But what then must be done?" asked Morrel. "Madame de SaintMeran's last request was, that the marriage

might not be delayed; must I let things take their course?" Noirtier did not move. "I understand," said Morrel;

"But delay may ruin our plan, sir," replied the young man. "Alone, Valentine has no power; she will be

compelled to submit. I am here almost miraculously, and can scarcely hope for so good an opportunity to

occur again. Believe me, there are only the two plans I have proposed to you; forgive my vanity, and tell me

which you prefer. Do you authorize Mademoiselle Valentine to intrust herself to my honor?"

"You thoroughly understand me, sir? Pardon my eagerness, for my life depends on your answer. Will our

"Yes." There was so much firmness in the look which gave this answer, no one could, at any rate, doubt his

will, if they did his power. "Oh, thank you a thousand times! But how, unless a miracle should restore your

speech, your gesture, your movement, how can you, chained to that armchair, dumb and motionless, oppose

this marriage?" A smile lit up the old man's face, a strange smile of the eyes in a paralyzed face. "Then I must

"But the contract?" The same smile returned. "Will you assure me it shall not be signed?"

"The contract shall not be signed!" cried Morrel. "Oh, pardon me, sir; I can scarcely realize so great a

"No," said the paralytic. Notwithstanding that assurance, Morrel still hesitated. This promise of an impotent

old man was so strange that, instead of being the result of the power of his will, it might emanate from

enfeebled organs. Is it not natural that the madman, ignorant of his folly, should attempt things beyond his

power? The weak man talks of burdens he can raise, the timid of giants he can confront, the poor of treasures

he spends, the most humble peasant, in the height of his pride, calls himself Jupiter. Whether Noirtier

understood the young man's indecision, or whether he had not full confidence in his docility, he looked

uneasily at him. "What do you wish, sir?" asked Morrel; "that I should renew my promise of remaining

tranquil?" Noirtier's eye remained fixed and firm, as if to imply that a promise did not suffice; then it passed

"Yes?" said the paralytic with the same solemnity. Morrel understood that the old man attached great

"I swear to you, on my honor," said he, "to await your decision respecting the course I am to pursue with M.

Morrel made a sign that he was ready to obey. "But," said he, "first allow me to embrace you as your

daughter did just now." Noirtier's expression could not be understood. The young man pressed his lips on the

same spot, on the old man's forehead, where Valentine's had been. Then he bowed a second time and retired.

He found outside the door the old servant, to whom Valentine had given directions. Morrel was conducted

along a dark passage, which led to a little door opening on the garden, soon found the spot where he had

entered, with the assistance of the shrubs gained the top of the wall, and by his ladder was in an instant in the

cloverfield where his cabriolet was still waiting for him. He got in it, and thoroughly wearied by so many

emotions, arrived about midnight in the Rue Meslay, threw himself on his bed and slept soundly.

Two days after, a considerable crowd was assembled, towards ten o'clock in the morning, around the door of

M. de Villefort's house, and a long file of mourningcoaches and private carriages extended along the

Faubourg SaintHonore and the Rue de la Pepiniere. Among them was one of a very singular form, which

appeared to have come from a distance. It was a kind of covered wagon, painted black, and was one of the

first to arrive. Inquiry was made, and it was ascertained that, by a strange coincidence, this carriage contained

the corpse of the Marquis de SaintMeran, and that those who had come thinking to attend one funeral would

follow two. Their number was great. The Marquis de SaintMeran, one of the most zealous and faithful

dignitaries of Louis XVIII. and King Charles X., had preserved a great number of friends, and these, added to

the personages whom the usages of society gave Villefort a claim on, formed a considerable body.

Due information was given to the authorities, and permission obtained that the two funerals should take place

at the same time. A second hearse, decked with the same funereal pomp, was brought to M. de Villefort's

door, and the coffin removed into it from the postwagon. The two bodies were to be interred in the cemetery

of PerelaChaise, where M. de Villefort had long since had a tomb prepared for the reception of his family.

The remains of poor Renee were already deposited there, and now, after ten years of separation, her father

and mother were to be reunited with her. The Parisians, always curious, always affected by funereal display,

looked on with religious silence while the splendid procession accompanied to their last abode two of the

number of the old aristocracy the greatest protectors of commerce and sincere devotees to their principles.

In one of the mourningcoaches Beauchamp, Debray, and ChateauRenaud were talking of the very sudden

death of the marchioness. "I saw Madame de SaintMeran only last year at Marseilles, when I was coming

back from Algiers," said ChateauRenaud; "she looked like a woman destined to live to be a hundred years

old, from her apparent sound health and great activity of mind and body. How old was she?"

"Franz assured me," replied Albert, "that she was sixtysix years old. But she has not died of old age, but of

grief; it appears that since the death of the marquis, which affected her very deeply, she has not completely

"It is said to have been a congestion of the brain, or apoplexy, which is the same thing, is it not?"

"It is difficult to believe that it was apoplexy," said Beauchamp. "Madame de SaintMeran, whom I once

saw, was short, of slender form, and of a much more nervous than sanguine temperament; grief could hardly

"At any rate," said Albert, "whatever disease or doctor may have killed her, M. de Villefort, or rather,

Mademoiselle Valentine, or, still rather, our friend Franz, inherits a magnificent fortune, amounting, I

"That is a tenacious old grandfather," said Beauchamp. "Tenacem propositi virum. I think he must have made

an agreement with death to outlive all his heirs, and he appears likely to succeed. He resembles the old

Conventionalist of '93, who said to Napoleon, in 1814, `You bend because your empire is a young stem,

weakened by rapid growth. Take the Republic for a tutor; let us return with renewed strength to the

battlefield, and I promise you 500,000 soldiers, another Marengo, and a second Austerlitz. Ideas do not

become extinct, sire; they slumber sometimes, but only revive the stronger before they sleep entirely.' Ideas

and men appeared the same to him. One thing only puzzles me, namely, how Franz d'Epinay will like a

"In the first carriage, with M. de Villefort, who considers him already as one of the family."

Such was the conversation in almost all the carriages; these two sudden deaths, so quickly following each

other, astonished every one, but no one suspected the terrible secret which M. d'Avrigny had communicated,

in his nocturnal walk to M. de Villefort. They arrived in about an hour at the cemetery; the weather was mild,

but dull, and in harmony with the funeral ceremony. Among the groups which flocked towards the family

vault, ChateauRenaud recognized Morrel, who had come alone in a cabriolet, and walked silently along the

path bordered with yewtrees. "You here?" said ChateauRenaud, passing his arms through the young

captain's; "are you a friend of Villefort's? How is it that I have never met you at his house?"

"I am no acquaintance of M. de Villefort's." answered Morrel, "but I was of Madame de SaintMeran."

"The time and place are but illsuited for an introduction." said Albert; "but we are not superstitious. M.

Morrel, allow me to present to you M. Franz d'Epinay, a delightful travelling companion, with whom I made

the tour of Italy. My dear Franz, M. Maximilian Morrel, an excellent friend I have acquired in your absence,

and whose name you will hear me mention every time I make any allusion to affection, wit, or amiability."

Morrel hesitated for a moment; he feared it would be hypocritical to accost in a friendly manner the man

whom he was tacitly opposing, but his oath and the gravity of the circumstances recurred to his memory; he

struggled to conceal his emotion and bowed to Franz. "Mademoiselle de Villefort is in deep sorrow, is she

"Extremely," replied he; "she looked so pale this morning, I scarcely knew her." These apparently simple

words pierced Morrel to the heart. This man had seen Valentine, and spoken to her! The young and

highspirited officer required all his strength of mind to resist breaking his oath. He took the arm of

ChateauRenaud, and turned towards the vault, where the attendants had already placed the two coffins.

"This is a magnificent habitation," said Beauchamp, looking towards the mausoleum; "a summer and winter

palace. You will, in turn, enter it, my dear d'Epinay, for you will soon be numbered as one of the family. I, as

a philosopher, should like a little countryhouse, a cottage down there under the trees, without so many

freestones over my poor body. In dying, I will say to those around me what Voltaire wrote to Piron: `Eo rus,

"Indeed, Beauchamp, you are unbearable. Politics has made you laugh at everything, and political men have

made you disbelieve everything. But when you have the honor of associating with ordinary men, and the

pleasure of leaving politics for a moment, try to find your affectionate heart, which you leave with your stick

"But tell me," said Beauchamp, "what is life? Is it not a hall in Death's anteroom?"

"I am prejudiced against Beauchamp," said Albert, drawing Franz away, and leaving the former to finish his

philosophical dissertation with Debray. The Villefort vault formed a square of white stones, about twenty feet

high; an interior partition separated the two families, and each apartment had its entrance door. Here were

not, as in other tombs, ignoble drawers, one above another, where thrift bestows its dead and labels them like

specimens in a museum; all that was visible within the bronze gates was a gloomylooking room, separated

by a wall from the vault itself. The two doors before mentioned were in the middle of this wall, and enclosed

the Villefort and SaintMeran coffins. There grief might freely expend itself without being disturbed by the

trifling loungers who came from a picnic party to visit PerelaChaise, or by lovers who make it their

The two coffins were placed on trestles previously prepared for their reception in the righthand crypt

belonging to the SaintMeran family. Villefort, Franz, and a few near relatives alone entered the sanctuary.

As the religious ceremonies had all been performed at the door, and there was no address given, the party all

separated; ChateauRenaud, Albert, and Morrel, went one way, and Debray and Beauchamp the other. Franz

remained with M. de Villefort; at the gate of the cemetery Morrel made an excuse to wait; he saw Franz and

M. de Villefort get into the same mourning coach, and thought this meeting forboded evil. He then returned

to Paris, and although in the same carriage with ChateauRenaud and Albert, he did not hear one word of

their conversation. As Franz was about to take leave of M. de Villefort, "When shall I see you again?" said

"On the contrary, I shall feel much pleasure." Thus, the future father and soninlaw stepped into the same

carriage, and Morrel, seeing them pass, became uneasy. Villefort and Franz returned to the Faubourg

SaintHonore. The procureur, without going to see either his wife or his daughter, went at once to his study,

and, offering the young man a chair, "M. d'Epinay," said he, "allow me to remind you at this moment,

which is perhaps not so illchosen as at first sight may appear, for obedience to the wishes of the departed is

the first offering which should be made at their tomb, allow me then to remind you of the wish expressed

by Madame de SaintMeran on her deathbed, that Valentine's wedding might not be deferred. You know

the affairs of the deceased are in perfect order, and her will bequeaths to Valentine the entire property of the

SaintMeran family; the notary showed me the documents yesterday, which will enable us to draw up the

contract immediately. You may call on the notary, M. Deschamps, Place Beauveau, Faubourg SaintHonore,

"Sir," replied M. d'Epinay, "it is not, perhaps, the moment for Mademoiselle Valentine, who is in deep

"Valentine will have no greater pleasure than that of fulfilling her grandmother's last injunctions; there will

"In that case," replied Franz, "as I shall raise none, you may make arrangements when you please; I have

"Then," said Villefort, "nothing further is required. The contract was to have been signed three days since; we

"Don't be uneasy on that score," replied Villefort; "no ceremony will be neglected in my house.

Mademoiselle de Villefort may retire during the prescribed three months to her estate of SaintMeran; I say

hers, for she inherits it today. There, after a few days, if you like, the civil marriage shall be celebrated

without pomp or ceremony. Madame de SaintMeran wished her daughter should be married there. When

that is over, you, sir, can return to Paris, while your wife passes the time of her mourning with her

"Then," replied M. de Villefort, "have the kindness to wait half an hour; Valentine shall come down into the

drawingroom. I will send for M. Deschamps; we will read and sign the contract before we separate, and this

evening Madame de Villefort; shall accompany Valentine to her estate, where we will rejoin them in a week."

"I wish Albert de Morcerf and Raoul de ChateauRenaud to be present at this signature; you know they are

"Half an hour will suffice to apprise them; will you go for them yourself, or shall you send?"

"I shall expect you, then, in half an hour, baron, and Valentine will be ready." Franz bowed and left the room.

Scarcely had the door closed, when M. de Villefort sent to tell Valentine to be ready in the drawingroom in

half an hour, as he expected the notary and M. d'Epinay and his witnesses. The news caused a great sensation

throughout the house; Madame de Villefort would not believe it, and Valentine was thunderstruck. She

looked around for help, and would have gone down to her grandfather's room, but on the stairs she met M. de

Villefort, who took her arm and led her into the drawingroom. In the anteroom, Valentine met Barrois, and

looked despairingly at the old servant. A moment later, Madame de Villefort entered the drawingroom with

her little Edward. It was evident that she had shared the grief of the family, for she was pale and looked

fatigued. She sat down, took Edward on her knees, and from time to time pressed this child, on whom her

affections appeared centred, almost convulsively to her bosom. Two carriages were soon heard to enter the

court yard. One was the notary's; the other, that of Franz and his friends. In a moment the whole party was

assembled. Valentine was so pale one might trace the blue veins from her temples, round her eyes and down

her cheeks. Franz was deeply affected. ChateauRenaud and Albert looked at each other with amazement;

the ceremony which was just concluded had not appeared more sorrowful than did that which was about to

begin. Madame de Villefort had placed herself in the shadow behind a velvet curtain, and as she constantly

bent over her child, it was difficult to read the expression of her face. M. de Villefort was, as usual, unmoved.

The notary, after having according to the customary method arranged the papers on the table, taken his place

"Are you M. Franz de Quesnel, baron d'Epinay?" asked he, although he knew it perfectly.

"Yes, sir," replied Franz. The notary bowed. "I have, then, to inform you, sir, at the request of M. de Villefort,

that your projected marriage with Mademoiselle de Villefort has changed the feeling of M. Noirtier towards

his grandchild, and that he disinherits her entirely of the fortune he would have left her. Let me hasten to

add," continued he, "that the testator, having only the right to alienate a part of his fortune, and having

alienated it all, the will will not bear scrutiny, and is declared null and void."

"Yes." said Villefort; "but I warn M. d'Epinay, that during my lifetime my father's will shall never be

"Sir," said Franz, "I regret much that such a question has been raised in the presence of Mademoiselle

Valentine; I have never inquired the amount of her fortune, which, however limited it may be, exceeds mine.

My family has sought consideration in this alliance with M. de Villefort; all I seek is happiness." Valentine

imperceptibly thanked him, while two silent tears rolled down her cheeks. "Besides, sir," said Villefort,

addressing himself to his future soninlaw, "excepting the loss of a portion of your hopes, this unexpected

will need not personally wound you; M. Noirtier's weakness of mind sufficiently explains it. It is not because

Mademoiselle Valentine is going to marry you that he is angry, but because she will marry, a union with any

other would have caused him the same sorrow. Old age is selfish, sir, and Mademoiselle de Villefort has been

a faithful companion to M. Noirtier, which she cannot be when she becomes the Baroness d'Epinay. My

father's melancholy state prevents our speaking to him on any subjects, which the weakness of his mind

would incapacitate him from understanding, and I am perfectly convinced that at the present time, although,

he knows that his granddaughter is going to be married, M. Noirtier has even forgotten the name of his

intended grandson." M. de Villefort had scarcely said this, when the door opened, and Barrois appeared.

"Gentlemen," said he, in a tone strangely firm for a servant speaking to his masters under such solemn

circumstances, "gentlemen, M. Noirtier de Villefort wishes to speak immediately to M. Franz de Quesnel,

baron d'Epinay;" he, as well as the notary, that there might be no mistake in the person, gave all his titles to

Villefort started, Madame de Villefort let her son slip from her knees, Valentine rose, pale and dumb as a

statue. Albert and ChateauRenaud exchanged a second look, more full of amazement than the first. The

notary looked at Villefort. "It is impossible," said the procureur. "M. d'Epinay cannot leave the

"It is at this moment," replied Barrois with the same firmness, "that M. Noirtier, my master, wishes to speak

"Grandpapa Noirtier can speak now, then," said Edward, with his habitual quickness. However, his remark

did not make Madame de Villefort even smile, so much was every mind engaged, and so solemn was the

situation. Astonishment was at its height. Something like a smile was perceptible on Madame de Villefort's

"Pray go, Valentine," said; M. de Villefort, "and see what this new fancy of your grandfather's is." Valentine

rose quickly, and was hastening joyfully towards the door, when M. de Villefort altered his intention.

"Excuse me, sir," said Franz, "since M. Noirtier sent for me, I am ready to attend to his wish; besides, I shall

"Forgive me, sir," said Franz in a resolute tone. "I would not lose this opportunity of proving to M. Noirtier

how wrong it would be of him to encourage feelings of dislike to me, which I am determined to conquer,

whatever they may be, by my devotion." And without listening to Villefort he arose, and followed Valentine,

who was running downstairs with the joy of a shipwrecked mariner who finds a rock to cling to. M. de

Villefort followed them. ChateauRenaud and Morcerf exchanged a third look of still increasing wonder.

Noirtier was prepared to receive them, dressed in black, and installed in his armchair. When the three

persons he expected had entered, he looked at the door, which his valet immediately closed.

"Listen," whispered Villefort to Valentine, who could not conceal her joy; "if M. Noirtier wishes to

communicate anything which would delay your marriage, I forbid you to understand him." Valentine

blushed, but did not answer. Villefort, approaching Noirtier "Here is M. Franz d'Epinay," said he; "you

requested to see him. We have all wished for this interview, and I trust it will convince you how illformed

Noirtier answered only by a look which made Villefort's blood run cold. He motioned to Valentine to

approach. In a moment, thanks to her habit of conversing with her grandfather, she understood that he asked

for a key. Then his eye was fixed on the drawer of a small chest between the windows. She opened the

drawer, and found a key; and, understanding that was what he wanted, again watched his eyes, which turned

toward an old secretary which had been neglected for many years and was supposed to contain nothing but

"Yes." Valentine opened it and drew out a bundle of papers. "Is that what you wish for?" asked she.

She took successively all the other papers out till the drawer was empty. "But there are no more," said she.

Noirtier's eye was fixed on the dictionary. "Yes, I understand, grandfather," said the young girl.

"He pointed to each letter of the alphabet. At the letter S the old man stopped her. She opened, and found the

"And who knows it?" Noirtier looked at the door where the servant had gone out. "Barrois?" said she.

Valentine went to the door, and called Barrois. Villefort's impatience during this scene made the perspiration

roll from his forehead, and Franz was stupefied. The old servant came. "Barrois," said Valentine, "my

grandfather has told me to open that drawer in the secretary, but there is a secret spring in it, which you know

Barrois looked at the old man. "Obey," said Noirtier's intelligent eye. Barrois touched a spring, the false

"`To be given, after my death, to General Durand, who shall bequeath the packet to his son, with an

"Yes," replied the old man. "You understand, baron, my grandfather wishes you to read this paper," said

"Then let us sit down," said Villefort impatiently, "for it will take some time."

"Sit down," said the old man. Villefort took a chair, but Valentine remained standing by her father's side, and

Franz before him, holding the mysterious paper in his hand. "Read," said the old man. Franz untied it, and in

"`Extract from the Report of a meeting of the Bonapartist Club in the Rue SaintJacques, held February 5th,

Franz stopped. "February 5th, 1815!" said he; "it is the day my father was murdered." Valentine and Villefort

"But it was on leaving this club," said he, "my father disappeared." Noirtier's eye continued to say, "Read."

"`The undersigned Louis Jacques Beaurepaire, lieutenantcolonel of artillery, Etienne Duchampy, general of

brigade, and Claude Lecharpal, keeper of woods and forests, Declare, that on the 4th of February, a letter

arrived from the Island of Elba, recommending to the kindness and the confidence of the Bonapartist Club,

General Flavien de Quesnel, who having served the emperor from 1804 to 1814 was supposed to be devoted

to the interests of the Napoleon dynasty, notwithstanding the title of baron which Louis XVIII. had just

"`A note was in consequence addressed to General de Quesnel, begging him to be present at the meeting next

day, the 5th. The note indicated neither the street nor the number of the house where the meeting was to be

held; it bore no signature, but it announced to the general that some one would call for him if he would be

ready at nine o'clock. The meetings were always held from that time till midnight. At nine o'clock the

president of the club presented himself; the general was ready, the president informed him that one of the

conditions of his introduction was that he should be eternally ignorant of the place of meeting, and that he

would allow his eyes to be bandaged, swearing that he would not endeavor to take off the bandage. General

de Quesnel accepted the condition, and promised on his honor not to seek to discover the road they took. The

general's carriage was ready, but the president told him it was impossible for him to use it, since it was

useless to blindfold the master if the coachman knew through what streets he went. "What must be done

"`"Have you, then, so much confidence in your servant that you can intrust him with a secret you will not

"`"Our coachman is a member of the club," said the president; "we shall be driven by a StateCouncillor."

"`"Then we run another risk," said the general, laughing, "that of being upset." We insert this joke to prove

that the general was not in the least compelled to attend the meeting, but that he came willingly. When they

were seated in the carriage the president reminded the general of his promise to allow his eyes to be

bandaged, to which he made no opposition. On the road the president thought he saw the general make an

attempt to remove the handkerchief, and reminded him of his oath. "Sure enough," said the general. The

carriage stopped at an alley leading out of the Rue SaintJacques. The general alighted, leaning on the arm of

the president, of whose dignity he was not aware, considering him simply as a member of the club; they went

"`"The deliberations had already begun. The members, apprised of the sort of presentation which was to be

made that evening, were all in attendance. When in the middle of the room the general was invited to remove

his bandage, he did so immediately, and was surprised to see so many wellknown faces in a society of

whose existence he had till then been ignorant. They questioned him as to his sentiments, but he contented

himself with answering, that the letters from the Island of Elba ought to have informed them'"

Franz interrupted himself by saying, "My father was a royalist; they need not have asked his sentiments,

"And hence," said Villefort, "arose my affection for your father, my dear M. Franz. Opinions held in common

"`The president then sought to make him speak more explicitly, but M. de Quesnel replied that he wished first

to know what they wanted with him. He was then informed of the contents of the letter from the Island of

Elba, in which he was recommended to the club as a man who would be likely to advance the interests of

their party. One paragraph spoke of the return of Bonaparte and promised another letter and further details, on

the arrival of the Pharaon belonging to the shipbuilder Morrel, of Marseilles, whose captain was entirely

devoted to the emperor. During all this time, the general, on whom they thought to have relied as on a

brother, manifested evidently signs of discontent and repugnance. When the reading was finished, he

"`"I say that it is too soon after declaring myself for Louis XVIII. to break my vow in behalf of the

exemperor." This answer was too clear to permit of any mistake as to his sentiments. "General," said the

president, "we acknowledge no King Louis XVIII., or an exemperor, but his majesty the emperor and king,

"`"Excuse me, gentlemen," said the general; "you may not acknowledge Louis XVIII., but I do, as he has

made me a baron and a fieldmarshal, and I shall never forget that for these two titles I am indebted to his

"`"Sir," said the president, rising with gravity, "be careful what you say; your words clearly show us that they

are deceived concerning you in the Island of Elba, and have deceived us! The communication has been made

to you in consequence of the confidence placed in you, and which does you honor. Now we discover our

error; a title and promotion attach you to the government we wish to overturn. We will not constrain you to

help us; we enroll no one against his conscience, but we will compel you to act generously, even if you are

"`"You would call acting generously, knowing your conspiracy and not informing against you, that is what I

"Ah, my father!" said Franz, interrupting himself. "I understand now why they murdered him." Valentine

could not help casting one glance towards the young man, whose filial enthusiasm it was delightful to behold.

Villefort walked to and fro behind them. Noirtier watched the expression of each one, and preserved his

dignified and commanding attitude. Franz returned to the manuscript, and continued:

"`"Sir," said the president, "you have been invited to join this assembly you were not forced here; it was

proposed to you to come blindfolded you accepted. When you complied with this twofold request you

well knew we did not wish to secure the throne of Louis XVIII., or we should not take so much care to avoid

the vigilance of the police. It would be conceding too much to allow you to put on a mask to aid you in the

discovery of our secret, and then to remove it that you may ruin those who have confided in you. No, no, you

must first say if you declare yourself for the king of a day who now reigns, or for his majesty the emperor."

"`"I am a royalist," replied the general; "I have taken the oath of allegiance to Louis XVIII., and I will adhere

to it." These words were followed by a general murmur, and it was evident that several of the members were

"`The president again arose, and having imposed silence, said, "Sir, you are too serious and too sensible a

man not to understand the consequences of our present situation, and your candor has already dictated to us

the conditions which remain for us to offer you." The general, putting his hand on his sword, exclaimed,

"If you talk of honor, do not begin by disavowing its laws, and impose nothing by violence."

"`"And you, sir," continued the president, with a calmness still more terrible than the general's anger, "I

advise you not to touch your sword." The general looked around him with slight uneasiness; however he did

"`"Then you must die," replied the president calmly. M. d'Epinay became very pale; he looked round him a

second time, several members of the club were whispering, and getting their arms from under their cloaks.

"General," said the president, "do not alarm yourself; you are among men of honor who will use every means

to convince you before resorting to the last extremity, but as you have said, you are among conspirators, you

are in possession of our secret, and you must restore it to us." A significant silence followed these words, and

as the general did not reply, "Close the doors," said the president to the doorkeeper.

"`The same deadly silence succeeded these words. Then the general advanced, and making a violent effort to

control his feelings, "I have a son," said he, "and I ought to think of him, finding myself among assassins."

"`"General," said the chief of the assembly, "one man may insult fifty it is the privilege of weakness. But

he does wrong to use his privilege. Follow my advice, swear, and do not insult." The general, again daunted

by the superiority of the chief, hesitated a moment; then advancing to the president's desk, "What is the

"`"It is this: `I swear by my honor not to reveal to any one what I have seen and heard on the 5th of

February, 1815, between nine and ten o'clock in the evening; and I plead guilty of death should I ever violate

this oath.'" The general appeared to be affected by a nervous tremor, which prevented his answering for some

moments; then, overcoming his manifest repugnance, he pronounced the required oath, but in so low a tone

as to be scarcely audible to the majority of the members, who insisted on his repeating it clearly and

"`"Now am I at liberty to retire?" said the general. The president rose, appointed three members to

accompany him, and got into the carriage with the general after bandaging his eyes. One of those three

members was the coachman who had driven them there. The other members silently dispersed. "Where do

you wish to be taken?" asked the president. "Anywhere out of your presence," replied M. d'Epinay.

"Beware, sir," replied the president, "you are no longer in the assembly, and have only to do with individuals;

do not insult them unless you wish to be held responsible." But instead of listening, M. d'Epinay went on,

"You are still as brave in your carriage as in your assembly because you are still four against one." The

president stopped the coach. They were at that part of the Quai des Ormes where the steps lead down to the

"`"Because, sir," said the president, "you have insulted a man, and that man will not go one step farther

"`"Make no noise, sir, unless you wish me to consider you as one of the men of whom you spoke just now as

cowards, who take their weakness for a shield. You are alone, one alone shall answer you; you have a sword

by your side, I have one in my cane; you have no witness, one of these gentlemen will serve you. Now, if you

please, remove your bandage." The general tore the handkerchief from his eyes. "At last," said he, "I shall

Franz again interrupted himself, and wiped the cold drops from his brow; there was something awful in

hearing the son read aloud in trembling pallor these details of his father's death, which had hitherto been a

mystery. Valentine clasped her hands as if in prayer. Noirtier looked at Villefort with an almost sublime

"`It was, as we said, the fifth of February. For three days the mercury had been five or six degrees below

freezing and the steps were covered with ice. The general was stout and tall, the president offered him the

side of the railing to assist him in getting down. The two witnesses followed. It was a dark night. The ground

from the steps to the river was covered with snow and hoarfrost, the water of the river looked black and deep.

One of the seconds went for a lantern in a coalbarge near, and by its light they examined the weapons. The

president's sword, which was simply, as he had said, one he carried in his cane, was five inches shorter than

the general's, and had no guard. The general proposed to cast lots for the swords, but the president said it was

he who had given the provocation, and when he had given it he had supposed each would use his own arms.

The witnesses endeavored to insist, but the president bade them be silent. The lantern was placed on the

ground, the two adversaries took their stations, and the duel began. The light made the two swords appear like

flashes of lightning; as for the men, they were scarcely perceptible, the darkness was so great.

"`General d'Epinay passed for one of the best swordsmen in the army, but he was pressed so closely in the

onset that he missed his aim and fell. The witnesses thought he was dead, but his adversary, who knew he had

not struck him, offered him the assistance of his hand to rise. The circumstance irritated instead of calming

the general, and he rushed on his adversary. But his opponent did not allow his guard to be broken. He

received him on his sword and three times the general drew back on finding himself too closely engaged, and

then returned to the charge. At the third he fell again. They thought he slipped, as at first, and the witnesses,

seeing he did not move, approached and endeavored to raise him, but the one who passed his arm around the

body found it was moistened with blood. The general, who had almost fainted, revived. "Ah," said he, "they

have sent some fencingmaster to fight with me." The president, without answering, approached the witness

who held the lantern, and raising his sleeve, showed him two wounds he had received in his arm; then

opening his coat, and unbuttoning his waistcoat, displayed his side, pierced with a third wound. Still he had

Franz read these last words in a voice so choked that they were hardly audible, and then stopped, passing his

hand over his eyes as if to dispel a cloud; but after a moment's silence, he continued:

"`The president went up the steps, after pushing his sword into his cane; a track of blood on the snow marked

his course. He had scarcely arrived at the top when he heard a heavy splash in the water it was the

general's body, which the witnesses had just thrown into the river after ascertaining that he was dead. The

general fell, then, in a loyal duel, and not in ambush as it might have been reported. In proof of this we have

signed this paper to establish the truth of the facts, lest the moment should arrive when either of the actors in

this terrible scene should be accused of premeditated murder or of infringement of the laws of honor.

When Franz had finished reading this account, so dreadful for a son; when Valentine, pale with emotion, had

wiped away a tear; when Villefort, trembling, and crouched in a corner, had endeavored to lessen the storm

by supplicating glances at the implacable old man, "Sir," said d'Epinay to Noirtier, "since you are well

acquainted with all these details, which are attested by honorable signatures, since you appear to take

some interest in me, although you have only manifested it hitherto by causing me sorrow, refuse me not one

final satisfaction tell me the name of the president of the club, that I may at least know who killed my

father." Villefort mechanically felt for the handle of the door; Valentine, who understood sooner than anyone

her grandfather's answer, and who had often seen two scars upon his right arm, drew back a few steps.

"Mademoiselle," said Franz, turning towards Valentine, "unite your efforts with mine to find out the name of

the man who made me an orphan at two years of age." Valentine remained dumb and motionless.

"Hold, sir," said Villefort, "do not prolong this dreadful scene. The names have been purposely concealed;

my father himself does not know who this president was, and if he knows, he cannot tell you; proper names

"Oh, misery," cried Franz: "the only hope which sustained me and enabled me to read to the end was that of

knowing, at least, the name of him who killed my father! Sir, sir," cried he, turning to Noirtier, "do what you

"Oh, mademoiselle, mademoiselle!" cried Franz, "your grandfather says he can indicate the person. Help

me, lend me your assistance!" Noirtier looked at the dictionary. Franz took it with a nervous trembling,

and repeated the letters of the alphabet successively, until he came to M. At that letter the old man signified

"M," repeated Franz. The young man's finger, glided over the words, but at each one Noirtier answered by a

negative sign. Valentine hid her head between her hands. At length, Franz arrived at the word MYSELF.

"You?" cried Franz, whose hair stood on end; "you, M. Noirtier you killed my father?"

"Yes!" replied Noirtier, fixing a majestic look on the young man. Franz fell powerless on a chair; Villefort

opened the door and escaped, for the idea had entered his mind to stifle the little remaining life in the heart of

Meanwhile M. Cavalcanti the elder had returned to his service, not in the army of his majesty the Emperor of

Austria, but at the gamingtable of the baths of Lucca, of which he was one of the most assiduous courtiers.

He had spent every farthing that had been allowed for his journey as a reward for the majestic and solemn

manner in which he had maintained his assumed character of father. M. Andrea at his departure inherited all

the papers which proved that he had indeed the honor of being the son of the Marquis Bartolomeo and the

Marchioness Oliva Corsinari. He was now fairly launched in that Parisian society which gives such ready

access to foreigners, and treats them, not as they really are, but as they wish to be considered. Besides, what

is required of a young man in Paris? To speak its language tolerably, to make a good appearance, to be a good

gamester, and to pay in cash. They are certainly less particular with a foreigner than with a Frenchman.

Andrea had, then, in a fortnight, attained a very fair position. He was called count, he was said to possess

50,000 livres per annum; and his father's immense riches, buried in the quarries of Saravezza, were a constant

theme. A learned man, before whom the last circumstance was mentioned as a fact, declared he had seen the

quarries in question, which gave great weight to assertions hitherto somewhat doubtful, but which now

Such was the state of society in Paris at the period we bring before our readers, when Monte Cristo went one

evening to pay M. Danglars a visit. M. Danglars was out, but the count was asked to go and see the baroness,

and he accepted the invitation. It was never without a nervous shudder, since the dinner at Auteuil, and the

events which followed it, that Madame Danglars heard Monte Cristo's name announced. If he did not come,

the painful sensation became most intense; if, on the contrary, he appeared, his noble countenance, his

brilliant eyes, his amiability, his polite attention even towards Madame Danglars, soon dispelled every

impression of fear. It appeared impossible to the baroness that a man of such delightfully pleasing manners

should entertain evil designs against her; besides, the most corrupt minds only suspect evil when it would

answer some interested end useless injury is repugnant to every mind. When Monte Cristo entered the

boudoir, to which we have already once introduced our readers, and where the baroness was examining

some drawings, which her daughter passed to her after having looked at them with M. Cavalcanti, his

presence soon produced its usual effect, and it was with smiles that the baroness received the count, although

she had been a little disconcerted at the announcement of his name. The latter took in the whole scene at a

The baroness was partially reclining on a sofa, Eugenie sat near her, and Cavalcanti was standing. Cavalcanti,

dressed in black, like one of Goethe's heroes, with varnished shoes and white silk openworked stockings,

passed a white and tolerably nicelooking hand through his light hair, and so displayed a sparkling diamond,

that in spite of Monte Cristo's advice the vain young man had been unable to resist putting on his little finger.

This movement was accompanied by killing glances at Mademoiselle Danglars, and by sighs launched in the

same direction. Mademoiselle Danglars was still the same cold, beautiful, and satirical. Not one of these

glances, nor one sigh, was lost on her; they might have been said to fall on the shield of Minerva, which some

philosophers assert protected sometimes the breast of Sappho. Eugenie bowed coldly to the count, and

availed herself of the first moment when the conversation became earnest to escape to her study, whence very

soon two cheerful and noisy voices being heard in connection with occasional notes of the piano assured

Monte Cristo that Mademoiselle Danglars preferred to his society and to that of M. Cavalcanti the company

It was then, especially while conversing with Madame Danglars, and apparently absorbed by the charm of the

conversation, that the count noticed M. Andrea Cavalcanti's solicitude, his manner of listening to the music at

the door he dared not pass, and of manifesting his admiration. The banker soon returned. His first look was

certainly directed towards Monte Cristo, but the second was for Andrea. As for his wife, he bowed to her, as

some husbands do to their wives, but in a way that bachelors will never comprehend, until a very extensive

"Have not the ladies invited you to join them at the piano?" said Danglars to Andrea. "Alas, no, sir," replied

Andrea with a sigh, still more remarkable than the former ones. Danglars immediately advanced towards the

The two young ladies were seen seated on the same chair, at the piano, accompanying themselves, each with

one hand, a fancy to which they had accustomed themselves, and performed admirably. Mademoiselle

d'Armilly, whom they then perceived through the open doorway, formed with Eugenie one of the tableaux

vivants of which the Germans are so fond. She was somewhat beautiful, and exquisitely formed a little

fairylike figure, with large curls falling on her neck, which was rather too long, as Perugino sometimes

makes his Virgins, and her eyes dull from fatigue. She was said to have a weak chest, and like Antonia in the

"Cremona Violin," she would die one day while singing. Monte Cristo cast one rapid and curious glance

round this sanctum; it was the first time he had ever seen Mademoiselle d'Armilly, of whom he had heard

much. "Well," said the banker to his daughter, "are we then all to be excluded?" He then led the young man

into the study, and either by chance or manoeuvre the door was partially closed after Andrea, so that from the

place where they sat neither the Count nor the baroness could see anything; but as the banker had

The count soon heard Andrea's voice, singing a Corsican song, accompanied by the piano. While the count

smiled at hearing this song, which made him lose sight of Andrea in the recollection of Benedetto, Madame

Danglars was boasting to Monte Cristo of her husband's strength of mind, who that very morning had lost

three or four hundred thousand francs by a failure at Milan. The praise was well deserved, for had not the

count heard it from the baroness, or by one of those means by which he knew everything, the baron's

countenance would not have led him to suspect it. "Hem," thought Monte Cristo, "he begins to conceal his

losses; a month since he boasted of them." Then aloud, "Oh, madame, M. Danglars is so skilful, he will

"I see that you participate in a prevalent error," said Madame Danglars. "What is it?" said Monte Cristo.

"Truly, madame, I recollect M. Debray told me apropos, what is become of him? I have seen nothing of

"Nor I," said Madame Danglars; "but you began a sentence, sir, and did not finish."

"Then you are wrong, madame. Fortune is precarious; and if I were a woman and fate had made me a

banker's wife, whatever might be my confidence in my husband's good fortune, still in speculation you know

there is great risk. Well, I would secure for myself a fortune independent of him, even if I acquired it by

placing my interests in hands unknown to him." Madame Danglars blushed, in spite of all her efforts. "Stay,"

said Monte Cristo, as though he had not observed her confusion, "I have heard of a lucky hit that was made

"I have none nor have I ever possessed any; but really we have talked long enough of money, count, we

are like two stockbrokers; have you heard how fate is persecuting the poor Villeforts?"

"You know the Marquis of SaintMeran died a few days after he had set out on his journey to Paris, and the

"Yes," said Monte Cristo, "I have heard that; but, as Claudius said to Hamlet, `it is a law of nature; their

fathers died before them, and they mourned their loss; they will die before their children, who will, in their

"As usual. Like a philosopher." Danglars returned at this moment alone. "Well," said the baroness, "do you

"And Mademoiselle d'Armilly," said the banker; "do you consider her no one?" Then, turning to Monte

Cristo, he said, "Prince Cavalcanti is a charming young man, is he not? But is he really a prince?"

"I will not answer for it," said Monte Cristo. "His father was introduced to me as a marquis, so he ought to be

"Why?" said the banker. "If he is a prince, he is wrong not to maintain his rank; I do not like any one to deny

"But do you see to what you are exposing yourself?" said the baroness. "If, perchance, M. de Morcerf came,

he would find M. Cavalcanti in that room, where he, the betrothed of Eugenie, has never been admitted."

"You may well say, perchance," replied the banker; "for he comes so seldom, it would seem only chance that

"But should he come and find that young man with your daughter, he might be displeased."

"He? You are mistaken. M. Albert would not do us the honor to be jealous; he does not like Eugenie

"Yes, do you know how we are situated? At his mother's ball he danced once with Eugenie, and M.

Cavalcanti three times, and he took no notice of it." The valet announced the Vicomte Albert de Morcerf. The

baroness rose hastily, and was going into the study, when Danglars stopped her. "Let her alone," said he. She

looked at him in amazement. Monte Cristo appeared to be unconscious of what passed. Albert entered,

looking very handsome and in high spirits. He bowed politely to the baroness, familiarly to Danglars, and

affectionately to Monte Cristo. Then turning to the baroness: "May I ask how Mademoiselle Danglars is?"

"She is quite well," replied Danglars quickly; "she is at the piano with M. Cavalcanti." Albert retained his

calm and indifferent manner; he might feel perhaps annoyed, but he knew Monte Cristo's eye was on him.

"M. Cavalcanti has a fine tenor voice," said he, "and Mademoiselle Eugenie a splendid soprano, and then she

"They suit each other remarkably well," said Danglars. Albert appeared not to notice this remark, which was,

"I, too," said the young man, "am a musician at least, my masters used to tell me so; but it is strange that

my voice never would suit any other, and a soprano less than any." Danglars smiled, and seemed to say, "It is

of no consequence." Then, hoping doubtless to effect his purpose, he said, "The prince and my daughter

"What prince?" asked Albert. "Prince Cavalcanti," said Danglars, who persisted in giving the young man that

"Pardon me," said Albert, "I was not aware that he was a prince. And Prince Cavalcanti sang with

Mademoiselle Eugenie yesterday? It must have been charming, indeed. I regret not having heard them. But I

was unable to accept your invitation, having promised to accompany my mother to a German concert given

by the Baroness of ChateauRenaud." This was followed by rather an awkward silence. "May I also be

allowed," said Morcerf, "to pay my respects to Mademoiselle Danglars?" "Wait a moment," said the banker,

stopping the young man; "do you hear that delightful cavatina? Ta, ta, ta, ti, ta, ti, ta, ta; it is charming, let

them finish one moment. Bravo, bravi, brava!" The banker was enthusiastic in his applause.

"Indeed," said Albert, "it is exquisite; it is impossible to understand the music of his country better than

Prince Cavalcanti does. You said prince, did you not? But he can easily become one, if he is not already; it is

no uncommon thing in Italy. But to return to the charming musicians you should give us a treat, Danglars,

without telling them there is a stranger. Ask them to sing one more song; it is so delightful to hear music in

Danglars was quite annoyed by the young man's indifference. He took Monte Cristo aside. "What do you

"Yes, doubtless I have promised to give my daughter to a man who loves her, but not to one who does not.

See him there, cold as marble and proud like his father. If he were rich, if he had Cavalcanti's fortune, that

might be pardoned. Ma foi, I haven't consulted my daughter; but if she has good taste"

"Oh," said Monte Cristo, "my fondness may blind me, but I assure you I consider Morcerf a charming young

man who will render your daughter happy and will sooner or later attain a certain amount of distinction, and

"Now, I beg of you, don't go off your head. It's a month now that you have been thinking of this marriage,

and you must see that it throws some responsibility on me, for it was at my house you met this young

"Is there any need of that! Does not his appearance speak for him? And he is very rich."

"Well, I acknowledge it annoys me, knowing your connection with the Morcerf family, to see him throw

himself in the way." Danglars burst out laughing. "What a Puritan you are!" said he; "that happens every

"But you cannot break it off in this way; the Morcerfs are depending on this union."

"Then let them explain themselves; you should give the father a hint, you are so intimate with the family."

"At their ball; it was apparent enough. Why, did not the countess, the proud Mercedes, the disdainful

Catalane, who will scarcely open her lips to her oldest acquaintances, take your arm, lead you into the garden,

"Ah, baron, baron," said Albert, "you are not listening what barbarism in a megalomaniac like you!"

"Oh, don't worry about me, Sir Mocker," said Danglars; then turning to the count he said, "but will you

"But let it be done explicitly and positively. If he demands my daughter let him fix the day declare his

conditions; in short, let us either understand each other, or quarrel. You understand no more delay."

"I do not say that I await with pleasure his decision, but I do await it. A banker must, you know, be a slave to

his promise." And Danglars sighed as M. Cavalcanti had done half an hour before. "Bravi, bravo, brava!"

cried Morcerf, parodying the banker, as the selection came to an end. Danglars began to look suspiciously at

Morcerf, when some one came and whispered a few words to him. "I shall soon return," said the banker to

Monte Cristo; "wait for me. I shall, perhaps, have something to say to you." And he went out.

The baroness took advantage of her husband's absence to push open the door of her daughter's study, and M.

Andrea, who was sitting before the piano with Mademoiselle Eugenie, started up like a jackinthebox.

Albert bowed with a smile to Mademoiselle Danglars, who did not appear in the least disturbed, and returned

his bow with her usual coolness. Cavalcanti was evidently embarrassed; he bowed to Morcerf, who replied

with the most impertinent look possible. Then Albert launched out in praise of Mademoiselle Danglars' voice,

and on his regret, after what he had just heard, that he had been unable to be present the previous evening.

"Come," said Madame Danglars, "leave music and compliments, and let us go and take tea."

"Come, Louise," said Mademoiselle Danglars to her friend. They passed into the next drawingroom, where

tea was prepared. Just as they were beginning, in the English fashion, to leave the spoons in their cups, the

door again opened and Danglars entered, visibly agitated. Monte Cristo observed it particularly, and by a look

asked the banker for an explanation. "I have just received my courier from Greece," said Danglars.

"How is King Otho getting on?" asked Albert in the most sprightly tone. Danglars cast another suspicious

look towards him without answering, and Monte Cristo turned away to conceal the expression of pity which

passed over his features, but which was gone in a moment. "We shall go together, shall we not?" said Albert

"If you like," replied the latter. Albert could not understand the banker's look, and turning to Monte Cristo,

"Yes," said the count; "but did you think there was anything particular in his look?"

"Because I imagine you have correspondents in that country." Monte Cristo smiled significantly.

"Stop," said Albert, "here he comes. I shall compliment Mademoiselle Danglars on her cameo, while the

"If you compliment her at all, let it be on her voice, at least," said Monte Cristo.

"My dear viscount, you are dreadfully impertinent." Albert advanced towards Eugenie, smiling. Meanwhile,

Danglars, stooping to Monte Cristo's ear, "Your advice was excellent," said he; "there is a whole history

"Yes, I will tell you all; but take away the young man; I cannot endure his presence."

"Very well." The count made a sign to Albert and they bowed to the ladies, and took their leave, Albert

perfectly indifferent to Mademoiselle Danglars' contempt, Monte Cristo reiterating his advice to Madame

Danglars on the prudence a banker's wife should exercise in providing for the future. M. Cavalcanti remained

Scarcely had the count's horses cleared the angle of the boulevard, than Albert, turning towards the count,

burst into a loud fit of laughter much too loud in fact not to give the idea of its being rather forced and

unnatural. "Well," said he, "I will ask you the same question which Charles IX. put to Catherine de Medicis,

"Ah, no joking, viscount, if you please; I do not patronize M. Andrea at least, not as concerns M.

"And you would be to blame for not assisting him, if the young man really needed your help in that quarter,

"I am certain of it; his languishing looks and modulated tones when addressing Mademoiselle Danglars fully

"But it is not the case, my dear count: on the contrary. I am repulsed on all sides."

"It is so indeed; Mademoiselle Eugenie scarcely answers me, and Mademoiselle d'Armilly, her confidant,

"He? Oh, no, he has plunged a thousand daggers into my heart, tragedyweapons, I own, which instead of

wounding sheathe their points in their own handles, but daggers which he nevertheless believed to be real and

"Of me? I will engage to say that before a week is past the door will be closed against me."

"Well, I am charged with the commission of endeavoring to induce the Comte de Morcerf to make some

"Oh," said Albert with all the cajolery of which he was capable. "You surely will not do that, my dear count?"

"I am determined to try and be on good terms with everybody, at all events," said Monte Cristo. "But apropos

"Oh, my dear count, husbands are pretty much the same everywhere; an individual husband of any country is

"But then, what can have led to the quarrel between Danglars and Debray? They seemed to understand each

"Ah, now you are trying to penetrate into the mysteries of Isis, in which I am not initiated. When M. Andrea

Cavalcanti has become one of the family, you can ask him that question." The carriage stopped. "Here we

"There it is, then," said Monte Cristo, as he stepped out of the carriage. They both went into the house; the

drawingroom was lighted up they went in there. "You will make tea for us, Baptistin," said the count.

Baptistin left the room without waiting to answer, and in two seconds reappeared, bringing on a waiter all

that his master had ordered, ready prepared, and appearing to have sprung from the ground, like the repasts

which we read of in fairy tales. "Really, my dear count," said Morcerf. "what I admire in you is, not so much

your riches, for perhaps there are people even wealthier than yourself, nor is it only your wit, for

Beaumarchais might have possessed as much, but it is your manner of being served, without any

questions, in a moment, in a second; it is as if they guessed what you wanted by your manner of ringing, and

made a point of keeping everything you can possibly desire in constant readiness."

"What you say is perhaps true; they know my habits. For instance, you shall see; how do you wish to occupy

Monte Cristo took the gong and struck it once. In about the space of a second a private door opened, and Ali

appeared, bringing two chibouques filled with excellent latakia. "It is quite wonderful," said Albert.

"Oh no, it is as simple as possible," replied Monte Cristo. "Ali knows I generally smoke while I am taking my

tea or coffee; he has heard that I ordered tea, and he also knows that I brought you home with me; when I

summoned him he naturally guessed the reason of my doing so, and as he comes from a country where

hospitality is especially manifested through the medium of smoking, he naturally concludes that we shall

smoke in company, and therefore brings two chibouques instead of one and now the mystery is solved."

"Certainly you give a most commonplace air to your explanation, but it is not the less true that you Ah,

but what do I hear?" and Morcerf inclined his head towards the door, through which sounds seemed to issue

"Ma foi, my dear viscount, you are fated to hear music this evening; you have only escaped from

"Haidee what an adorable name! Are there, then, really women who bear the name of Haidee anywhere

"Certainly there are. Haidee is a very uncommon name in France, but is common enough in Albania and

Epirus; it is as it you said, for example, Chastity, Modesty, Innocence, it is a kind of baptismal name, as

"Oh, that is charming," said Albert, "how I should like to hear my countrywomen called Mademoiselle

Goodness, Mademoiselle Silence, Mademoiselle Christian Charity! Only think, then, if Mademoiselle

Danglars, instead of being called ClaireMarieEugenie, had been named Mademoiselle

ChastityModestyInnocence Danglars; what a fine effect that would have produced on the announcement of

"Hush," said the count, "do not joke in so loud a tone; Haidee may hear you, perhaps."

"It is not to be called amiability, it is her duty; a slave does not dictate to a master."

"Come; you are joking yourself now. Are there any more slaves to be had who bear this beautiful name?"

"Really, count, you do nothing, and have nothing like other people. The slave of the Count of Monte Cristo!

Why, it is a rank of itself in France, and from the way in which you lavish money, it is a place that must be

"A hundred thousand francs! The poor girl originally possessed much more than that; she was born to

treasures in comparison with which those recorded in the `Thousand and One Nights' would seem but

"I thought so. But how did it happen that such a great princess became a slave?"

"How was it that Dionysius the Tyrant became a schoolmaster? The fortune of war, my dear viscount, the

caprice of fortune; that is the way in which these things are to be accounted for."

"As regards the generality of mankind it is; but not for you, my dear viscount, who are one of my most

intimate friends, and on whose silence I feel I may rely, if I consider it necessary to enjoin it may I not do

"Of Ali Tepelini?* Oh, yes; it was in his service that my father made his fortune."

* Ali Pasha, "The Lion," was born at Tepelini, an Albanian village at the foot of the Klissoura Mountains, in

1741. By diplomacy and success in arms he became almost supreme ruler of Albania, Epirus, and adjacent

territory. Having aroused the enmity of the Sultan, he was proscribed and put to death by treachery in 1822,

"Why, simply from the circumstance of my having bought her one day, as I was passing through the market

"Wonderful! Really, my dear count, you seem to throw a sort of magic influence over all in which you are

concerned; when I listen to you, existence no longer seems reality, but a waking dream. Now, I am perhaps

"The first is, that you will never tell any one that I have granted the interview."

"Enough, viscount; you will remember those two vows, will you not? But I know you to be a man of honor."

The count again struck the gong. Ali reappeared. "Tell Haidee," said he, "that I will take coffee with her, and

give her to understand that I desire permission to present one of my friends to her." Ali bowed and left the

room. "Now, understand me," said the count, "no direct questions, my dear Morcerf; if you wish to know

"Agreed." Ali reappeared for the third time, and drew back the tapestried hanging which concealed the door,

to signify to his master and Albert that they were at liberty to pass on. "Let us go in," said Monte Cristo.

Albert passed his hand through his hair, and curled his mustache, then, having satisfied himself as to his

personal appearance, followed the count into the room, the latter having previously resumed his hat and

gloves. Ali was stationed as a kind of advanced guard, and the door was kept by the three French attendants,

commanded by Myrtho. Haidee was awaiting her visitors in the first room of her apartments, which was the

drawingroom. Her large eyes were dilated with surprise and expectation, for it was the first time that any

man, except Monte Cristo, had been accorded an entrance into her presence. She was sitting on a sofa placed

in an angle of the room, with her legs crossed under her in the Eastern fashion, and seemed to have made for

herself, as it were, a kind of nest in the rich Indian silks which enveloped her. Near her was the instrument on

which she had just been playing; it was elegantly fashioned, and worthy of its mistress. On perceiving Monte

Cristo, she arose and welcomed him with a smile peculiar to herself, expressive at once of the most implicit

obedience and also of the deepest love. Monte Cristo advanced towards her and extended his hand, which she

Albert had proceeded no farther than the door, where he remained rooted to the spot, being completely

fascinated by the sight of such surpassing beauty, beheld as it was for the first time, and of which an

"Whom do you bring?" asked the young girl in Romaic, of Monte Cristo; "is it a friend, a brother, a simple

"Count Albert; it is the same man whom I rescued from the hands of the banditti at Rome."

"Alas, no," said Albert; "nor even ancient Greek, my dear count; never had Homer or Plato a more unworthy

"Then," said Haidee, proving by her remark that she had quite understood Monte Cristo's question and

Albert's answer, "then I will speak either in French or Italian, if my lord so wills it."

Monte Cristo reflected one instant. "You will speak in Italian," said he. Then, turning towards Albert, "It

is a pity you do not understand either ancient or modern Greek, both of which Haidee speaks so fluently; the

poor child will be obliged to talk to you in Italian, which will give you but a very false idea of her powers of

conversation." The count made a sign to Haidee to address his visitor. "Sir," she said to Morcerf, "you are

most welcome as the friend of my lord and master." This was said in excellent Tuscan, and with that soft

Roman accent which makes the language of Dante as sonorous as that of Homer. Then, turning to Ali, she

directed him to bring coffee and pipes, and when he had left the room to execute the orders of his young

mistress she beckoned Albert to approach nearer to her. Monte Cristo and Morcerf drew their seats towards a

small table, on which were arranged music, drawings, and vases of flowers. Ali then entered bringing coffee

and chibouques; as to M. Baptistin, this portion of the building was interdicted to him. Albert refused the pipe

which the Nubian offered him. "Oh, take it take it," said the count; "Haidee is almost as civilized as a

Parisian; the smell of an Havana is disagreeable to her, but the tobacco of the East is a most delicious

Ali left the room. The cups of coffee were all prepared, with the addition of sugar, which had been brought

for Albert. Monte Cristo and Haidee took the beverage in the original Arabian manner, that is to say, without

sugar. Haidee took the porcelain cup in her little slender fingers and conveyed it to her mouth with all the

innocent artlessness of a child when eating or drinking something which it likes. At this moment two women

entered, bringing salvers filled with ices and sherbet, which they placed on two small tables appropriated to

that purpose. "My dear host, and you, signora," said Albert, in Italian, "excuse my apparent stupidity. I am

quite bewildered, and it is natural that it should be so. Here I am in the heart of Paris; but a moment ago I

heard the rumbling of the omnibuses and the tinkling of the bells of the lemonadesellers, and now I feel as if

I were suddenly transported to the East; not such as I have seen it, but such as my dreams have painted it. Oh,

signora, if I could but speak Greek, your conversation, added to the fairyscene which surrounds me, would

furnish an evening of such delight as it would be impossible for me ever to forget."

"I speak sufficient Italian to enable me to converse with you, sir," said Haidee quietly; "and if you like what

is Eastern, I will do my best to secure the gratification of your tastes while you are here."

"On what subject shall I converse with her?" said Albert, in a low tone to Monte Cristo.

"Just what you please; you may speak of her country and of her youthful reminiscences, or if you like it better

"Oh," said Albert, "it is of no use to be in the company of a Greek if one converses just in the same style as

"Do so then, for of all themes which you could choose that will be the most agreeable to her taste." Albert

"When I shut my eyes and think, I seem to see it all again. The mind can see as well as the body. The body

"I could scarcely walk when my mother, who was called Vasiliki, which means royal," said the young girl,

tossing her head proudly, "took me by the hand, and after putting in our purse all the money we possessed,

we went out, both covered with veils, to solicit alms for the prisoners, saying, `He who giveth to the poor

lendeth to the Lord.' Then when our purse was full we returned to the palace, and without saying a word to

my father, we sent it to the convent, where it was divided amongst the prisoners."

"Then you remember everything that went on about you from the time when you were three years old?" said

"Count," said Albert, in a low tone to Monte Cristo, "do allow the signora to tell me something of her history.

You prohibited my mentioning my father's name to her, but perhaps she will allude to him of her own accord

in the course of the recital, and you have no idea how delighted I should be to hear our name pronounced by

such beautiful lips." Monte Cristo turned to Haidee, and with an expression of countenance which

commanded her to pay the most implicit attention to his words, he said in Greek, "Tell us the fate of your

father; but neither the name of the traitor nor the treason." Haidee sighed deeply, and a shade of sadness

"I again reminded her that you were a friend, and that she need not conceal anything from you."

"Then," said Albert, "this pious pilgrimage in behalf of the prisoners was your first remembrance; what is the

"Oh, then I remember as if it were but yesterday sitting under the shade of some sycamoretrees, on the

borders of a lake, in the waters of which the trembling foliage was reflected as in a mirror. Under the oldest

and thickest of these trees, reclining on cushions, sat my father; my mother was at his feet, and I, childlike,

amused myself by playing with his long white beard which descended to his girdle, or with the diamondhilt

of the scimitar attached to his girdle. Then from time to time there came to him an Albanian who said

something to which I paid no attention, but which he always answered in the same tone of voice, either `Kill,'

"It is very strange," said Albert, "to hear such words proceed from the mouth of any one but an actress on the

stage, and one needs constantly to be saying to one's self, `This is no fiction, it is all reality,' in order to

believe it. And how does France appear in your eyes, accustomed as they have been to gaze on such

"I think it is a fine country," said Haidee, "but I see France as it really is, because I look on it with the eyes of

a woman; whereas my own country, which I can only judge of from the impression produced on my childish

mind, always seems enveloped in a vague atmosphere, which is luminous or otherwise, according as my

"So young," said Albert, forgetting at the moment the Count's command that he should ask no questions of

the slave herself, "is it possible that you can have known what suffering is except by name?"

Haidee turned her eyes towards Monte Cristo, who, making at the same time some imperceptible sign,

"Nothing is ever so firmly impressed on the mind as the memory of our early childhood, and with the

exception of the two scenes I have just described to you, all my earliest reminiscences are fraught with

"Speak, speak, signora," said Albert, "I am listening with the most intense delight and interest to all you say."

Haidee answered his remark with a melancholy smile. "You wish me, then, to relate the history of my past

"Well, I was but four years old when one night I was suddenly awakened by my mother. We were in the

palace of Yanina; she snatched me from the cushions on which I was sleeping, and on opening my eyes I saw

hers filled with tears. She took me away without speaking. When I saw her weeping I began to cry too.

`Hush, child!' said she. At other times in spite of maternal endearments or threats, I had with a child's caprice

been accustomed to indulge my feelings of sorrow or anger by crying as much as I felt inclined; but on this

occasion there was an intonation of such extreme terror in my mother's voice when she enjoined me to

silence, that I ceased crying as soon as her command was given. She bore me rapidly away.

"I saw then that we were descending a large staircase; around us were all my mother's servants carrying

trunks, bags, ornaments, jewels, purses of gold, with which they were hurrying away in the greatest

"Behind the women came a guard of twenty men armed with long guns and pistols, and dressed in the

costume which the Greeks have assumed since they have again become a nation. You may imagine there was

something startling and ominous," said Haidee, shaking her head and turning pale at the mere remembrance

of the scene, "in this long file of slaves and women only halfaroused from sleep, or at least so they appeared

to me, who was myself scarcely awake. Here and there on the walls of the staircase, were reflected gigantic

shadows, which trembled in the flickering light of the pinetorches till they seemed to reach to the vaulted

"`Quick!' said a voice at the end of the gallery. This voice made every one bow before it, resembling in its

effect the wind passing over a field of wheat, by its superior strength forcing every ear to yield obeisance. As

for me, it made me tremble. This voice was that of my father. He came last, clothed in his splendid robes and

holding in his hand the carbine which your emperor presented him. He was leaning on the shoulder of his

favorite Selim, and he drove us all before him, as a shepherd would his straggling flock. My father," said

Haidee, raising her head, "was that illustrious man known in Europe under the name of Ali Tepelini, pasha of

Albert, without knowing why, started on hearing these words pronounced with such a haughty and dignified

accent; it appeared to him as if there was something supernaturally gloomy and terrible in the expression

which gleamed from the brilliant eyes of Haidee at this moment; she appeared like a Pythoness evoking a

spectre, as she recalled to his mind the remembrance of the fearful death of this man, to the news of which all

Europe had listened with horror. "Soon," said Haidee, "we halted on our march, and found ourselves on the

borders of a lake. My mother pressed me to her throbbing heart, and at the distance of a few paces I saw my

father, who was glancing anxiously around. Four marble steps led down to the water's edge, and below them

"From where we stood I could see in the middle of the lake a large blank mass; it was the kiosk to which we

were going. This kiosk appeared to me to be at a considerable distance, perhaps on account of the darkness of

the night, which prevented any object from being more than partially discerned. We stepped into the boat. I

remember well that the oars made no noise whatever in striking the water, and when I leaned over to

ascertain the cause I saw that they were muffled with the sashes of our Palikares.* Besides the rowers, the

boat contained only the women, my father, mother, Selim, and myself. The Palikares had remained on the

shore of the lake, ready to cover our retreat; they were kneeling on the lowest of the marble steps, and in that

manner intended making a rampart of the three others, in case of pursuit. Our bark flew before the wind.

"`Silence, child! Hush, we are flying!' I did not understand. Why should my father fly? he, the

allpowerful he, before whom others were accustomed to fly he, who had taken for his device, `They

hate me; then they fear me!' It was, indeed, a flight which my father was trying to effect. I have been told

Here Haidee cast a significant glance at Monte Cristo, whose eyes had been riveted on her countenance

during the whole course of her narrative. The young girl then continued, speaking slowly, like a person who

is either inventing or suppressing some feature of the history which he is relating. "You were saying,

signora," said Albert, who was paying the most implicit attention to the recital, "that the garrison of Yanina,

"Had treated with the Serasker* Koorshid, who had been sent by the sultan to gain possession of the person

of my father; it was then that Ali Tepelini after having sent to the sultan a French officer in whom he

reposed great confidence resolved to retire to the asylum which he had long before prepared for himself,

"And this officer," asked Albert, "do you remember his name, signora?" Monte Cristo exchanged a rapid

glance with the young girl, which was quite unperceived by Albert. "No," said she, "I do not remember it just

at this moment; but if it should occur to me presently, I will tell you." Albert was on the point of pronouncing

his father's name, when Monte Cristo gently held up his finger in token of reproach; the young man

"It was towards this kiosk that we were rowing. A groundfloor, ornamented with arabesques, bathing its

terraces in the water, and another floor, looking on the lake, was all which was visible to the eye. But beneath

the groundfloor, stretching out into the island, was a large subterranean cavern, to which my mother,

myself, and the women were conducted. In this place were together 60,000 pouches and 200 barrels; the

pouches contained 25,000,000 of money in gold, and the barrels were filled with 30,000 pounds of

"Near the barrels stood Selim, my father's favorite, whom I mentioned to you just now. He stood watch day

and night with a lance provided with a lighted slowmatch in his hand, and he had orders to blow up

everything kiosk, guards, women, gold, and Ali Tepelini himself at the first signal given by my father.

I remember well that the slaves, convinced of the precarious tenure on which they held their lives, passed

whole days and nights in praying, crying, and groaning. As for me, I can never forget the pale complexion

and black eyes of the young soldier, and whenever the angel of death summons me to another world, I am

quite sure I shall recognize Selim. I cannot tell you how long we remained in this state; at that period I did

not even know what time meant. Sometimes, but very rarely, my father summoned me and my mother to the

terrace of the palace; these were hours of recreation for me, as I never saw anything in the dismal cavern but

the gloomy countenances of the slaves and Selim's fiery lance. My father was endeavoring to pierce with his

eager looks the remotest verge of the horizon, examining attentively every black speck which appeared on the

lake, while my mother, reclining by his side, rested her head on his shoulder, and I played at his feet,

admiring everything I saw with that unsophisticated innocence of childhood which throws a charm round

objects insignificant in themselves, but which in its eyes are invested with the greatest importance. The

heights of Pindus towered above us; the castle of Yanina rose white and angular from the blue waters of the

lake, and the immense masses of black vegetation which, viewed in the distance, gave the idea of lichens

"One morning my father sent for us; my mother had been crying all the night, and was very wretched; we

found the pasha calm, but paler than usual. `Take courage, Vasiliki,' said he; `today arrives the firman of the

master, and my fate will be decided. If my pardon be complete, we shall return triumphant to Yanina; if the

news be inauspicious, we must fly this night.' `But supposing our enemy should not allow us to do so?'

said my mother. `Oh, make yourself easy on that head,' said Ali, smiling; `Selim and his flaming lance will

settle that matter. They would be glad to see me dead, but they would not like themselves to die with me.'

"My mother only answered by sighs to consolations which she knew did not come from my father's heart.

She prepared the iced water which he was in the habit of constantly drinking, for since his sojourn at the

kiosk he had been parched by the most violent fever, after which she anointed his white beard with

perfumed oil, and lighted his chibouque, which he sometimes smoked for hours together, quietly watching

the wreaths of vapor that ascended in spiral clouds and gradually melted away in the surrounding atmosphere.

Presently he made such a sudden movement that I was paralyzed with fear. Then, without taking his eyes

from the object which had first attracted his attention, he asked for his telescope. My mother gave it him. and

as she did so, looked whiter than the marble against which she leaned. I saw my father's hand tremble. `A

boat! two! three!' murmured my, father; `four!' He then arose, seizing his arms and priming his

pistols. `Vasiliki,' said he to my mother, trembling perceptibly, `the instant approaches which will decide

everything. In the space of half an hour we shall know the emperor's answer. Go into the cavern with Haidee.'

`I will not quit you,' said Vasiliki; `if you die, my lord, I will die with you.' `Go to Selim!' cried my

father. `Adieu, my lord,' murmured my mother, determining quietly to await the approach of death. `Take

"As for me, I had been forgotten in the general confusion; I ran toward Ali Tepelini; he saw me hold out my

arms to him, and he stooped down and pressed my forehead with his lips. Oh, how distinctly I remember that

kiss! it was the last he ever gave me, and I feel as if it were still warm on my forehead. On descending, we

saw through the latticework several boats which were gradually becoming more distinct to our view. At first

they appeared like black specks, and now they looked like birds skimming the surface of the waves. During

this time, in the kiosk at my father's feet, were seated twenty Palikares, concealed from view by an angle of

the wall and watching with eager eyes the arrival of the boats. They were armed with their long guns inlaid

with motherofpearl and silver, and cartridges in great numbers were lying scattered on the floor. My father

looked at his watch, and paced up and down with a countenance expressive of the greatest anguish. This was

the scene which presented itself to my view as I quitted my father after that last kiss. My mother and I

traversed the gloomy passage leading to the cavern. Selim was still at his post, and smiled sadly on us as we

entered. We fetched our cushions from the other end of the cavern, and sat down by Selim. In great dangers

the devoted ones cling to each other; and, young as I was, I quite understood that some imminent danger was

Albert had often heard not from his father, for he never spoke on the subject, but from strangers the

description of the last moments of the vizier of Yanina; he had read different accounts of his death, but the

story seemed to acquire fresh meaning from the voice and expression of the young girl, and her sympathetic

accent and the melancholy expression of her countenance at once charmed and horrified him. As to Haidee,

these terrible reminiscences seemed to have overpowered her for a moment, for she ceased speaking, her

head leaning on her hand like a beautiful flower bowing beneath the violence of the storm; and her eyes

gazing on vacancy indicated that she was mentally contemplating the green summit of the Pindus and the

blue waters of the lake of Yanina, which, like a magic mirror, seemed to reflect the sombre picture which she

sketched. Monte Cristo looked at her with an indescribable expression of interest and pity.

Haidee looked up abruptly, as if the sonorous tones of Monte Cristo's voice had awakened her from a dream;

and she resumed her narrative. "It was about four o'clock in the afternoon, and although the day was brilliant

outofdoors, we were enveloped in the gloomy darkness of the cavern. One single, solitary light was

burning there, and it appeared like a star set in a heaven of blackness; it was Selim's flaming lance. My

mother was a Christian, and she prayed. Selim repeated from time to time the sacred words: `God is great!'

However, my mother had still some hope. As she was coming down, she thought she recognized the French

officer who had been sent to Constantinople, and in whom my father placed so much confidence; for he knew

that all the soldiers of the French emperor were naturally noble and generous. She advanced some steps

towards the staircase, and listened. `They are approaching,' said she; `perhaps they bring us peace and

liberty!' `What do you fear, Vasiliki?' said Selim, in a voice at once so gentle and yet so proud. `If they do

not bring us peace, we will give them war; if they do not bring life, we will give them death.' And he renewed

the flame of his lance with a gesture which made one think of Dionysus of Crete.* But I, being only a little

child, was terrified by this undaunted courage, which appeared to me both ferocious and senseless, and I

recoiled with horror from the idea of the frightful death amidst fire and flames which probably awaited us.

* The god of fruitfulness in Grecian mythology. In Crete he was supposed to be slain in winter with the decay

of vegetation and to revive in the spring. Haidee's learned reference is to the behavior of an actor in the

"My mother experienced the same sensations, for I felt her tremble. `Mamma, mamma,' said I, `are we really

to be killed?' And at the sound of my voice the slaves redoubled their cries and prayers and lamentations. `My

child,' said Vasiliki, `may God preserve you from ever wishing for that death which today you so much

dread!' Then, whispering to Selim, she asked what were her master's orders. `If he send me his poniard, it will

signify that the emperor's intentions are not favorable, and I am to set fire to the powder; if, on the contrary,

he send me his ring, it will be a sign that the emperor pardons him, and I am to extinguish the match and

leave the magazine untouched.' `My friend,' said my mother, `when your master's orders arrive, if it is the

poniard which he sends, instead of despatching us by that horrible death which we both so much dread, you

will mercifully kill us with this same poniard, will you not?' `Yes, Vasiliki,' replied Selim tranquilly.

"Suddenly we heard loud cries; and, listening, discerned that they were cries of joy. The name of the French

officer who had been sent to Constantinople resounded on all sides amongst our Palikares; it was evident that

"And do you not remember the Frenchman's name?" said Morcerf, quite ready to aid the memory of the

"The noise increased; steps were heard approaching nearer and nearer: they were descending the steps

leading to the cavern. Selim made ready his lance. Soon a figure appeared in the gray twilight at the entrance

of the cave, formed by the reflection of the few rays of daylight which had found their way into this gloomy

retreat. `Who are you?' cried Selim. `But whoever you may be, I charge you not to advance another step.'

`Long live the emperor!' said the figure. `He grants a full pardon to the Vizier Ali, and not only gives him his

life, but restores to him his fortune and his possessions.' My mother uttered a cry of joy, and clasped me to

her bosom. `Stop,' said Selim, seeing that she was about to go out; `you see I have not yet received the ring,'

`True,' said my mother. And she fell on her knees, at the same time holding me up towards heaven, as if

she desired, while praying to God in my behalf, to raise me actually to his presence."

And for the second time Haidee stopped, overcome by such violent emotion that the perspiration stood upon

her pale brow, and her stifled voice seemed hardly able to find utterance, so parched and dry were her throat

and lips. Monte Cristo poured a little iced water into a glass, and presented it to her, saying with a mildness in

Haidee dried her eyes, and continued: "By this time our eyes, habituated to the darkness, had recognized the

messenger of the pasha, it was a friend. Selim had also recognized him, but the brave young man only

acknowledged one duty, which was to obey. `In whose name do you come?' said he to him. `I come in the

name of our master, Ali Tepelini.' `If you come from Ali himself,' said Selim, `you know what you were

charged to remit to me?' `Yes,' said the messenger, `and I bring you his ring.' At these words he raised his

hand above his head, to show the token; but it was too far off, and there was not light enough to enable Selim,

where he was standing, to distinguish and recognize the object presented to his view. `I do not see what you

have in your hand,' said Selim. `Approach then,' said the messenger, `or I will come nearer to you, if you

prefer it.' `I will agree to neither one nor the other,' replied the young soldier; `place the object which I

desire to see in the ray of light which shines there, and retire while I examine it.' `Be it so,' said the envoy;

and he retired, after having first deposited the token agreed on in the place pointed out to him by Selim.

"Oh, how our hearts palpitated; for it did, indeed, seem to be a ring which was placed there. But was it my

father's ring? that was the question. Selim, still holding in his hand the lighted match, walked towards the

opening in the cavern, and, aided by the faint light which streamed in through the mouth of the cave, picked

"`It is well,' said he, kissing it; `it is my master's ring!' And throwing the match on the ground, he trampled on

it and extinguished it. The messenger uttered a cry of joy and clapped his hands. At this signal four soldiers

of the Serasker Koorshid suddenly appeared, and Selim fell, pierced by five blows. Each man had stabbed

him separately, and, intoxicated by their crime, though still pale with fear, they sought all over the cavern to

discover if there was any fear of fire, after which they amused themselves by rolling on the bags of gold. At

this moment my mother seized me in her arms, and hurrying noiselessly along numerous turnings and

windings known only to ourselves, she arrived at a private staircase of the kiosk, where was a scene of

frightful tumult and confusion. The lower rooms were entirely filled with Koorshid's troops; that is to say,

with our enemies. Just as my mother was on the point of pushing open a small door, we heard the voice of the

pasha sounding in a loud and threatening tone. My mother applied her eye to the crack between the boards; I

luckily found a small opening which afforded me a view of the apartment and what was passing within.

`What do you want?' said my father to some people who were holding a paper inscribed with characters of

gold. `What we want,' replied one, `is to communicate to you the will of his highness. Do you see this

"My father answered with a loud laugh, which was more frightful than even threats would have been, and he

had not ceased when two reports of a pistol were heard; he had fired them himself, and had killed two men.

The Palikares, who were prostrated at my father's feet, now sprang up and fired, and the room was filled with

fire and smoke. At the same instant the firing began on the other side, and the balls penetrated the boards all

round us. Oh, how noble did the grand vizier my father look at that moment, in the midst of the flying bullets,

his scimitar in his hand, and his face blackened with the powder of his enemies! and how he terrified them,

even then, and made them fly before him! `Selim, Selim!' cried he, `guardian of the fire, do your duty!'

`Selim is dead,' replied a voice which seemed to come from the depths of the earth, `and you are lost, Ali!' At

the same moment an explosion was heard, and the flooring of the room in which my father was sitting was

suddenly torn up and shivered to atoms the troops were firing from underneath. Three or four Palikares

"My father howled aloud, plunged his fingers into the holes which the balls had made, and tore up one of the

planks entire. But immediately through this opening twenty more shots were fired, and the flame, rushing up

like fire from the crater of a volcano, soon reached the tapestry, which it quickly devoured. In the midst of all

this frightful tumult and these terrific cries, two reports, fearfully distinct, followed by two shrieks more

heartrending than all, froze me with terror. These two shots had mortally wounded my father, and it was he

who had given utterance to these frightful cries. However, he remained standing, clinging to a window. My

mother tried to force the door, that she might go and die with him, but it was fastened on the inside. All

around him were lying the Palikares, writhing in convulsive agonies, while two or three who were only

slightly wounded were trying to escape by springing from the windows. At this crisis the whole flooring

suddenly gave way. my father fell on one knee, and at the same moment twenty hands were thrust forth,

armed with sabres, pistols, and poniards twenty blows were instantaneously directed against one man, and

my father disappeared in a whirlwind of fire and smoke kindled by these demons, and which seemed like hell

itself opening beneath his feet. I felt myself fall to the ground, my mother had fainted."

Haidee's arms fell by her side, and she uttered a deep groan, at the same time looking towards the count as if

to ask if he were satisfied with her obedience to his commands. Monte Cristo arose and approached her, took

her hand, and said to her in Romaic, "Calm yourself, my dear child, and take courage in remembering that

"It is a frightful story, count," said Albert, terrified at the paleness of Haidee's countenance, "and I reproach

"Oh, it is nothing," said Monte Cristo. Then, patting the young girl on the head, he continued, "Haidee is very

courageous, and she sometimes even finds consolation in the recital of her misfortunes."

"Because, my lord." said Haidee eagerly, "my miseries recall to me the remembrance of your goodness."

Albert looked at her with curiosity, for she had not yet related what he most desired to know, how she had

become the slave of the count. Haidee saw at a glance the same expression pervading the countenances of her

two auditors; she exclaimed, `When my mother recovered her senses we were before the serasker. `Kill,' said

she, `but spare the honor of the widow of Ali.' `It is not to me to whom you must address yourself,' said

"And Koorshid pointed out one who had more than any contributed to the death of my father," said Haidee, in

a tone of chastened anger. "Then," said Albert, "you became the property of this man?"

"No," replied Haidee, "he did not dare to keep us, so we were sold to some slavemerchants who were going

to Constantinople. We traversed Greece, and arrived half dead at the imperial gates. They were surrounded by

a crowd of people, who opened a way for us to pass, when suddenly my mother, having looked closely at an

object which was attracting their attention, uttered a piercing cry and fell to the ground, pointing as she did so

to a head which was placed over the gates, and beneath which were inscribed these words:

"`This is the head of Ali Tepelini Pasha of Yanina.' I cried bitterly, and tried to raise my mother from the

earth, but she was dead! I was taken to the slavemarket, and was purchased by a rich Armenian. He caused

me to be instructed, gave me masters, and when I was thirteen years of age he sold me to the Sultan

"Of whom I bought her," said Monte Cristo, "as I told you, Albert, with the emerald which formed a match to

"Oh, you are good, you are great, my lord!" said Haidee, kissing the count's hand, "and I am very fortunate in

belonging to such a master!" Albert remained quite bewildered with all that he had seen and heard. "Come,

If Valentine could have seen the trembling step and agitated countenance of Franz when he quitted the

chamber of M. Noirtier, even she would have been constrained to pity him. Villefort had only just given

utterance to a few incoherent sentences, and then retired to his study, where he received about two hours

"After all the disclosures which were made this morning, M. Noirtier de Villefort must see the utter

impossibility of any alliance being formed between his family and that of M. Franz d'Epinay. M. d'Epinay

must say that he is shocked and astonished that M. de Villefort, who appeared to be aware of all the

circumstances detailed this morning, should not have anticipated him in this announcement."

No one who had seen the magistrate at this moment, so thoroughly unnerved by the recent inauspicious

combination of circumstances, would have supposed for an instant that he had anticipated the annoyance;

although it certainly never had occurred to him that his father would carry candor, or rather rudeness, so far

as to relate such a history. And in justice to Villefort, it must be understood that M. Noirtier, who never cared

for the opinion of his son on any subject, had always omitted to explain the affair to Villefort, so that he had

all his life entertained the belief that General de Quesnel, or the Baron d'Epinay, as he was alternately styled,

according as the speaker wished to identify him by his own family name, or by the title which had been

conferred on him, fell the victim of assassination, and not that he was killed fairly in a duel. This harsh letter,

coming as it did from a man generally so polite and respectful, struck a mortal blow at the pride of Villefort.

Hardly had he read the letter, when his wife entered. The sudden departure of Franz, after being summoned

by M. Noirtier, had so much astonished every one, that the position of Madame de Villefort, left alone with

the notary and the witnesses, became every moment more embarrassing. Determined to bear it no longer, she

arose and left the room; saying she would go and make some inquiries into the cause of his sudden

M. de Villefort's communications on the subject were very limited and concise; he told her, in fact, that an

explanation had taken place between M. Noirtier, M. d'Epinay, and himself, and that the marriage of

Valentine and Franz would consequently be broken off. This was an awkward and unpleasant thing to have to

report to those who were awaiting her return in the chamber of her fatherinlaw. She therefore contented

herself with saying that M. Noirtier having at the commencement of the discussion been attacked by a sort of

apoplectic fit, the affair would necessarily be deferred for some days longer. This news, false as it was

following so singularly in the train of the two similar misfortunes which had so recently occurred, evidently

astonished the auditors, and they retired without a word. During this time Valentine, at once terrified and

happy, after having embraced and thanked the feeble old man for thus breaking with a single blow the chain

which she had been accustomed to consider as irrefragable, asked leave to retire to her own room, in order to

recover her composure. Noirtier looked the permission which she solicited. But instead of going to her own

room, Valentine, having once gained her liberty, entered the gallery, and, opening a small door at the end of

In the midst of all the strange events which had crowded one on the other, an indefinable sentiment of dread

had taken possession of Valentine's mind. She expected every moment that she should see Morrel appear,

pale and trembling, to forbid the signing of the contract, like the Laird of Ravenswood in "The Bride of

Lammermoor." It was high time for her to make her appearance at the gate, for Maximilian had long awaited

her coming. He had half guessed what was going on when he saw Franz quit the cemetery with M. de

Villefort. He followed M. d'Epinay, saw him enter, afterwards go out, and then reenter with Albert and

ChateauRenaud. He had no longer any doubts as to the nature of the conference; he therefore quickly went

to the gate in the cloverpatch, prepared to hear the result of the proceedings, and very certain that Valentine

would hasten to him the first moment she should be set at liberty. He was not mistaken; peering through the

crevices of the wooden partition, he soon discovered the young girl, who cast aside all her usual precautions

and walked at once to the barrier. The first glance which Maximilian directed towards her entirely reassured

"We are saved!" said Valentine. "Saved?" repeated Morrel, not being able to conceive such intense

"By my grandfather. Oh, Morrel, pray love him for all his goodness to us!" Morrel swore to love him with all

his soul; and at that moment he could safely promise to do so, for he felt as though it were not enough to love

him merely as a friend or even as a father. "But tell me, Valentine, how has it all been effected? What strange

Valentine was on the point of relating all that had passed, but she suddenly remembered that in doing so she

must reveal a terrible secret which concerned others as well as her grandfather, and she said, "At some future

The conversation had now turned upon a topic so pleasing to Morrel, that he was ready to accede to anything

that Valentine thought fit to propose, and he likewise felt that a piece of intelligence such as he just heard

ought to be more than sufficient to content him for one day. However, he would not leave without the

promise of seeing Valentine again the next night. Valentine promised all that Morrel required of her, and

certainly it was less difficult now for her to believe that she should marry Maximilian than it was an hour ago

to assure herself that she should not marry Franz. During the time occupied by the interview we have just

detailed, Madame de Villefort had gone to visit M. Noirtier. The old man looked at her with that stern and

"Sir," said she, "it is superfluous for me to tell you that Valentine's marriage is broken off, since it was here

that the affair was concluded." Noirtier's countenance remained immovable. "But one thing I can tell you, of

which I do not think you are aware; that is, that I have always been opposed to this marriage, and that the

contract was entered into entirely without my consent or approbation." Noirtier regarded his daughterinlaw

with the look of a man desiring an explanation. "Now that this marriage, which I know you so much disliked,

is done away with, I come to you on an errand which neither M. de Villefort nor Valentine could consistently

undertake." Noirtier's eyes demanded the nature of her mission. "I come to entreat you, sir," continued

Madame de Villefort, "as the only one who has the right of doing so, inasmuch as I am the only one who will

receive no personal benefit from the transaction, I come to entreat you to restore, not your love, for that

There was a doubtful expression in Noirtier's eyes; he was evidently trying to discover the motive of this

proceeding, and he could not succeed in doing so. "May I hope, sir," said Madame de Villefort, "that your

intentions accord with my request?" Noirtier made a sign that they did. "In that case, sir," rejoined Madame

de Villefort, "I will leave you overwhelmed with gratitude and happiness at your prompt acquiescence to my

The next day M. Noirtier sent for the notary; the first will was torn up and a second made, in which he left the

whole of his fortune to Valentine, on condition that she should never be separated from him. It was then

generally reported that Mademoiselle de Villefort, the heiress of the marquis and marchioness of

SaintMeran, had regained the good graces of her grandfather, and that she would ultimately be in possession

While all the proceedings relative to the dissolution of the marriagecontract were being carried on at the

house of M. de Villefort, Monte Cristo had paid his visit to the Count of Morcerf, who, in order to lose no

time in responding to M. Danglars' wishes, and at the same time to pay all due deference to his position in

society, donned his uniform of lieutenantgeneral, which he ornamented with all his crosses, and thus attired,

Danglars was balancing his monthly accounts, and it was perhaps not the most favorable moment for finding

him in his best humor. At the first sight of his old friend, Danglars assumed his majestic air, and settled

himself in his easychair. Morcerf, usually so stiff and formal, accosted the banker in an affable and smiling

manner, and, feeling sure that the overture he was about make would be well received, he did not consider it

necessary to adopt any manoeuvres in order to gain his end, but went at once straight to the point.

"Well, baron," said he, "here I am at last; some time has elapsed since our plans were formed, and they are

not yet executed." Morcerf paused at these words, quietly waiting till the cloud should have dispersed which

had gathered on the brow of Danglars, and which he attributed to his silence; but, on the contrary, to his great

surprise, it grew darker and darker. "To what do you allude, monsieur?" said Danglars; as if he were trying in

"Ah," said Morcerf, "I see you are a stickler for forms, my dear sir, and you would remind me that the

ceremonial rites should not be omitted. Ma foi, I beg your pardon, but as I have but one son, and it is the first

time I have ever thought of marrying him, I am still serving my apprenticeship, you know; come, I will

reform." And Morcerf with a forced smile arose, and, making a low bow to M. Danglars, said: "Baron, I have

the honor of asking of you the hand of Mademoiselle Eugenie Danglars for my son, the Vicomte Albert de

But Danglars, instead of receiving this address in the favorable manner which Morcerf had expected, knit his

brow, and without inviting the count, who was still standing, to take a seat. he said: "Monsieur, it will be

"To reflect?" said Morcerf, more and more astonished; "have you not had enough time for reflection during

the eight years which have elapsed since this marriage was first discussed between us?"

"Count," said the banker, "things are constantly occurring in the world to induce us to lay aside our most

established opinions, or at all events to cause us to remodel them according to the change of circumstances,

which may have placed affairs in a totally different light to that in which we at first viewed them."

"What I mean to say is this, sir, that during the last fortnight unforeseen circumstances have occurred"

"Yes, for it is like one; pray let us come more to the point, and endeavor thoroughly to understand each

"I see him very often," said Danglars, drawing himself up; "he is a particular friend of mine."

"Well, in one of your late conversations with him, you said that I appeared to be forgetful and irresolute

"Well, here I am, proving at once that I am really neither the one nor the other, by entreating you to keep your

Danglars did not answer. "Have you so soon changed your mind," added Morcerf, "or have you only

provoked my request that you may have the pleasure of seeing me humbled?" Danglars, seeing that if he

continued the conversation in the same tone in which he had begun it, the whole thing might turn out to his

own disadvantage, turned to Morcerf, and said: "Count, you must doubtless be surprised at my reserve, and I

assure you it costs me much to act in such a manner towards you; but, believe me when I say that imperative

"These are all so many empty words, my dear sir," said Morcerf: "they might satisfy a new acquaintance, but

the Comte de Morcerf does not rank in that list; and when a man like him comes to another, recalls to him his

plighted word, and this man fails to redeem the pledge, he has at least a right to exact from him a good reason

for so doing." Danglars was a coward, but did not wish to appear so; he was piqued at the tone which Morcerf

had just assumed. "I am not without a good reason for my conduct," replied the banker.

"You must be aware, at all events, that it is impossible for me to understand motives before they are

explained to me; but one thing at least is clear, which is, that you decline allying yourself with my family."

"And do you really flatter yourself that I shall yield to all your caprices, and quietly and humbly await the

"Then, count, if you will not wait, we must look upon these projects as if they had never been entertained."

The count bit his lips till the blood almost started, to prevent the ebullition of anger which his proud and

irritable temper scarcely allowed him to restrain; understanding, however, that in the present state of things

the laugh would decidedly be against him, he turned from the door, towards which he had been directing his

steps, and again confronted the banker. A cloud settled on his brow, evincing decided anxiety and uneasiness,

instead of the expression of offended pride which had lately reigned there. "My dear Danglars," said Morcerf,

"we have been acquainted for many years, and consequently we ought to make some allowance for each

other's failings. You owe me an explanation, and really it is but fair that I should know what circumstance has

"It is from no personal illfeeling towards the viscount, that is all I can say, sir," replied Danglars, who

resumed his insolent manner as soon as he perceived that Morcerf was a little softened and calmed down.

"And towards whom do you bear this personal illfeeling, then?" said Morcerf, turning pale with anger. The

expression of the count's face had not remained unperceived by the banker; he fixed on him a look of greater

assurance than before, and said: "You may, perhaps, be better satisfied that I should not go farther into

A tremor of suppressed rage shook the whole frame of the count, and making a violent effort over himself, he

said: "I have a right to insist on your giving me an explanation. Is it Madame de Morcerf who has displeased

you? Is it my fortune which you find insufficient? Is it because my opinions differ from yours?"

"Nothing of the kind, sir," replied Danglars: "if such had been the case, I only should have been to blame,

inasmuch as I was aware of all these things when I made the engagement. No, do not seek any longer to

discover the reason. I really am quite ashamed to have been the cause of your undergoing such severe

selfexamination; let us drop the subject, and adopt the middle course of delay, which implies neither a

rupture nor an engagement. Ma foi, there is no hurry. My daughter is only seventeen years old, and your son

twentyone. While we wait, time will be progressing, events will succeed each other; things which in the

evening look dark and obscure, appear but too clearly in the light of morning, and sometimes the utterance of

"Calumnies, did you say, sir?" cried Morcerf, turning livid with rage. "Does any one dare to slander me?"

"Yes, sir, although I assure you the refusal is as painful for me to give as it is for you to receive, for I had

reckoned on the honor of your alliance, and the breaking off of a marriage contract always injures the lady

"Enough, sir," said Morcerf, "we will speak no more on the subject." And clutching his gloves in anger, he

left the apartment. Danglars observed that during the whole conversation Morcerf had never once dared to

ask if it was on his own account that Danglars recalled his word. That evening he had a long conference with

several friends; and M. Cavalcanti, who had remained in the drawingroom with the ladies, was the last to

The next morning, as soon as he awoke, Danglars asked for the newspapers; they were brought to him; he

laid aside three or four, and at last fixed on the Impartial, the paper of which Beauchamp was the chief editor.

He hastily tore off the cover, opened the journal with nervous precipitation, passed contemptuously over the

Paris jottings, and arriving at the miscellaneous intelligence, stopped with a malicious smile, at a paragraph

headed "We hear from Yanina." "Very good," observed Danglars, after having read the paragraph; "here is a

little article on Colonel Fernand, which, if I am not mistaken, would render the explanation which the Comte

At the same moment, that is, at nine o'clock in the morning, Albert de Morcerf, dressed in a black coat

buttoned up to his chin, might have been seen walking with a quick and agitated step in the direction of

Monte Cristo's house in the Champs Elysees. When he presented himself at the gate the porter informed him

that the Count had gone out about half an hour previously. "Did he take Baptistin with him?"

"Call him, then; I wish to speak to him." The concierge went to seek the valet de chambre, and returned with

"My good friend," said Albert, "I beg pardon for my intrusion, but I was anxious to know from your own

"I know how happy my master always is to receive the vicomte," said Baptistin; "and I should therefore never

"You are right; and now I wish to see him on an affair of great importance. Do you think it will be long

"Well, I will go and take a turn in the Champs Elysees, and at ten o'clock I will return here; meanwhile, if the

Albert left the cab in which he had come at the count's door, intending to take a turn on foot. As he was

passing the Allee des Veuves, he thought he saw the count's horses standing at Gosset's shootinggallery; he

approached, and soon recognized the coachman. "Is the count shooting in the gallery?" said Morcerf.

"Yes, sir," replied the coachman. While he was speaking, Albert had heard the report of two or three

pistolshots. He entered, and on his way met the waiter. "Excuse me, my lord," said the lad; "but will you

"What for, Philip?" asked Albert, who, being a constant visitor there, did not understand this opposition to his

"Because the person who is now in the gallery prefers being alone, and never practices in the presence of any

"Oh, that is quite another thing, then. I will go immediately and inform him of your arrival." And Philip,

urged by his own curiosity, entered the gallery; a second afterwards, Monte Cristo appeared on the threshold.

"I ask your pardon, my dear count," said Albert, "for following you here, and I must first tell you that it was

not the fault of your servants that I did so; I alone am to blame for the indiscretion. I went to your house, and

they told me you were out, but that they expected you home at ten o'clock to breakfast. I was walking about

in order to pass away the time till ten o'clock, when I caught sight of your carriage and horses."

"What you have just said induces me to hope that you intend breakfasting with me."

"No, thank you, I am thinking of other things besides breakfast just now; perhaps we may take that meal at a

"Yes, I understand that, but what is the quarrel? People fight for all sorts of reasons, you know."

"That is a serious matter, and we will not discuss it here; let us speak of nothing till we get home. Ali, bring

me some water." The count turned up his sleeves, and passed into the little vestibule where the gentlemen

were accustomed to wash their hands after shooting. "Come in, my lord," said Philip in a low tone, "and I will

show you something droll." Morcerf entered, and in place of the usual target, he saw some playingcards

fixed against the wall. At a distance Albert thought it was a complete suit, for he counted from the ace to the

"Those are really aces and twos which you see, but my shots have turned them into threes, fives, sevens,

eights, nines, and tens." Albert approached. In fact, the bullets had actually pierced the cards in the exact

places which the painted signs would otherwise have occupied, the lines and distances being as regularly kept

"What would you have, my dear viscount?" said Monte Cristo, wiping his hands on the towel which Ali had

brought him; "I must occupy my leisure moments in some way or other. But come, I am waiting for you."

Both men entered Monte Cristo's carriage, which in the course of a few minutes deposited them safely at No.

30. Monte Cristo took Albert into his study, and pointing to a seat, placed another for himself. "Now let us

"There appeared in his journal last night but wait, and read for yourself." And Albert handed over the

"A correspondent at Yanina informs us of a fact of which until now we had remained in ignorance. The castle

which formed the protection of the town was given up to the Turks by a French officer named Fernand, in

"Yes; what does it signify to you if the castle of Yanina was given up by a French officer?"

"It signifies to my father, the Count of Morcerf, whose Christian name is Fernand!"

"Yes; that is to say, he fought for the independence of the Greeks, and hence arises the calumny."

"Now, just tell me who the devil should know in France that the officer Fernand and the Count of Morcerf are

one and the same person? and who cares now about Yanina, which was taken as long ago as the year 1822 or

"That just shows the meanness of this slander. They have allowed all this time to elapse, and then all of a

sudden rake up events which have been forgotten to furnish materials for scandal, in order to tarnish the lustre

of our high position. I inherit my father's name, and I do not choose that the shadow of disgrace should

darken it. I am going to Beauchamp, in whose journal this paragraph appears, and I shall insist on his

"No he will not, for he will tell you, what is very true, that perhaps there were fifty officers in the Greek army

"We will fight, nevertheless. I will efface that blot on my father's character. My father, who was such a brave

"Oh, well, he will add, `We are warranted in believing that this Fernand is not the illustrious Count of

"I am determined not to be content with anything short of an entire retractation."

"You know my theory regarding duels; I told you my opinion on that subject, if you remember, when we

"Nevertheless, my dear count, I found you this morning engaged in an occupation but little consistent with

"Because, my dear fellow, you understand one must never be eccentric. If one's lot is cast among fools, it is

necessary to study folly. I shall perhaps find myself one day called out by some harebrained scamp, who has

no more real cause of quarrel with me than you have with Beauchamp; he may take me to task for some

foolish trifle or other, he will bring his witnesses, or will insult me in some public place, and I am expected to

"You admit that you would fight, then? Well, if so, why do you object to my doing so?"

"I do not say that you ought not to fight, I only say that a duel is a serious thing, and ought not to be

"And you are far too exacting. Supposing, for instance, and do not be angry at what I am going to say"

"Well, then, before going to Beauchamp with your witnesses, seek further information on the subject."

"Why, what can be the use of mixing a woman up in the affair? what can she do in it?"

"She can declare to you, for example, that your father had no hand whatever in the defeat and death of the

"I have told you, my dear count, that I would not for one moment admit of such a proposition."

"I will do so. If Beauchamp be disposed to retract, you ought at least to give him the opportunity of doing it

of his own free will, the satisfaction to you will be the same. If, on the contrary, he refuses to do so, it will

"Ah, but the friends of today are the enemies of tomorrow; Beauchamp, for instance."

"I do, and I will tell you why. When you wish to obtain some concession from a man's selflove, you must

"But if, in spite of all my precautions, I am at last obliged to fight, will you not be my second?"

"My dear viscount," said Monte Cristo gravely, "you must have seen before today that at all times and in all

places I have been at your disposal, but the service which you have just demanded of me is one which it is out

"Perhaps you may know at some future period, and in the mean time I request you to excuse my declining to

"But if I do fight, you will surely not object to giving me a lesson or two in shooting and fencing?"

"We will say no more about it, then. Goodby, count." Morcerf took his hat, and left the room. He found his

carriage at the door, and doing his utmost to restrain his anger he went at once to find Beauchamp, who was

in his office. It was a gloomy, dustylooking apartment, such as journalists' offices have always been from

time immemorial. The servant announced M. Albert de Morcerf. Beauchamp repeated the name to himself, as

though he could scarcely believe that he had heard aright, and then gave orders for him to be admitted. Albert

entered. Beauchamp uttered an exclamation of surprise on seeing his friend leap over and trample under foot

all the newspapers which were strewed about the room. "This way, this way, my dear Albert!" said he,

holding out his hand to the young man. "Are you out of your senses, or do you come peaceably to take

breakfast with me? Try and find a seat there is one by that geranium, which is the only thing in the room

"Will you now have the kindness to explain the nature of the statement which has displeased you?"

"An announcement has been made which implicates the honor of a member of my family."

"Yes; really you appear to be totally ignorant of the cause which brings me here."

"Such is really the case, I assure you, upon my honor! Baptiste, give me yesterday's paper," cried

Beauchamp took the paper, and read the article to which Albert pointed in an undertone. "You see it is a

serious annoyance," said Morcerf, when Beauchamp had finished the perusal of the paragraph. "Is the officer

"My dear Beauchamp, I wish you to contradict this statement." Beauchamp looked at Albert with a

"Come," said he, "this matter will want a good deal of talking over; a retractation is always a serious thing,

you know. Sit down, and I will read it again." Albert resumed his seat, and Beauchamp read, with more

attention than at first, the lines denounced by his friend. "Well," said Albert in a determined tone, "you see

that your paper his insulted a member of my family, and I insist on a retractation being made."

"Nor do I wish to be there," replied the young man, rising. "I repeat that I am determined to have the

announcement of yesterday contradicted. You have known me long enough," continued Albert, biting his lips

convulsively, for he saw that Beauchamp's anger was beginning to rise, "you have been my friend, and

therefore sufficiently intimate with me to be aware that I am likely to maintain my resolution on this point."

"If I have been your friend, Morcerf, your present manner of speaking would almost lead me to forget that I

ever bore that title. But wait a moment, do not let us get angry, or at least not yet. You are irritated and vexed

"He is merely my father," said Albert "M. Fernand Mondego, Count of Morcerf, an old soldier who has

fought in twenty battles and whose honorable scars they would denounce as badges of disgrace."

"Is it your father?" said Beauchamp; "that is quite another thing. Then can well understand your indignation,

my dear Albert. I will look at it again;" and he read the paragraph for the third time, laying a stress on each

word as he proceeded. "But the paper nowhere identifies this Fernand with your father."

"No; but the connection will be seen by others, and therefore I will have the article contradicted." At the

words "I will," Beauchamp steadily raised his eyes to Albert's countenance, and then as gradually lowering

them, he remained thoughtful for a few moments. "You will retract this assertion, will you not, Beauchamp?"

"The thing is worth looking into, and I will take pains to investigate the matter thoroughly."

"But what is there to investigate, sir?" said Albert, enraged beyond measure at Beauchamp's last remark. "If

you do not believe that it is my father, say so immediately; and if, on the contrary, you believe it to be him,

state your reasons for doing so." Beauchamp looked at Albert with the smile which was so peculiar to him,

and which in its numerous modifications served to express every varied emotion of his mind. "Sir," replied

he, "if you came to me with the idea of demanding satisfaction, you should have gone at once to the point,

and not have entertained me with the idle conversation to which I have been patiently listening for the last

"Wait a moment no threats, if you please, M. Fernand Mondego, Vicomte de Morcerf; I never allow them

from my enemies, and therefore shall not put up with them from my friends. You insist on my contradicting

the article relating to General Fernand, an article with which, I assure you on my word of honor, I had

"Yes, I insist on it," said Albert, whose mind was beginning to get bewildered with the excitement of his

"And if I refuse to retract, you wish to fight, do you?" said Beauchamp in a calm tone.

"Well," said Beauchamp, "here is my answer, my dear sir. The article was not inserted by me I was not

even aware of it; but you have, by the step you have taken, called my attention to the paragraph in question,

and it will remain until it shall be either contradicted or confirmed by some one who has a right to do so."

"Sir," said Albert, rising, "I will do myself the honor of sending my seconds to you, and you will be kind

"No, no, I will be on the ground at the proper time; but in my opinion (and I have a right to dictate the

preliminaries, as it is I who have received the provocation) in my opinion the time ought not to be yet. I

know you to be well skilled in the management of the sword, while I am only moderately so; I know, too, that

you are a good marksman there we are about equal. I know that a duel between us two would be a serious

affair, because you are brave, and I am brave also. I do not therefore wish either to kill you, or to be killed

myself without a cause. Now, I am going to put a question to you, and one very much to the purpose too. Do

you insist on this retractation so far as to kill me if I do not make it, although I have repeated more than once,

and affirmed on my honor, that I was ignorant of the thing with which you charge me, and although I still

declare that it is impossible for any one but you to recognize the Count of Morcerf under the name of

"Very well, my dear sir; then I consent to cut throats with you. But I require three weeks' preparation; at the

end of that time I shall come and say to you, `The assertion is false, and I retract it,' or `The assertion is true,'

when I shall immediately draw the sword from its sheath, or the pistols from the case, whichever you please."

"Three weeks!" cried Albert; "they will pass as slowly as three centuries when I am all the time suffering

"Had you continued to remain on amicable terms with me, I should have said, `Patience, my friend;' but you

have constituted yourself my enemy, therefore I say, `What does that signify to me, sir?'"

"Well, let it be three weeks then," said Morcerf; "but remember, at the expiration of that time no delay or

"M. Albert de Morcerf," said Beauchamp, rising in his turn, "I cannot throw you out of window for three

weeks that is to say, for twentyfour days to come nor have you any right to split my skull open till

that time has elapsed. Today is the 29th of August; the 21st of September will, therefore, be the conclusion

of the term agreed on, and till that time arrives and it is the advice of a gentleman which I am about to

give you till then we will refrain from growling and barking like two dogs chained within sight of each

other." When he had concluded his speech, Beauchamp bowed coldly to Albert, turned his back upon him,

Albert vented his anger on a pile of newspapers, which he sent flying all over the office by switching them

violently with his stick; after which ebullition he departed not, however, without walking several times to

the door of the pressroom, as if he had half a mind to enter. While Albert was lashing the front of his

carriage in the same manner that he had the newspapers which were the innocent agents of his discomfiture,

as he was crossing the barrier he perceived Morrel, who was walking with a quick step and a bright eye. He

was passing the Chinese Baths, and appeared to have come from the direction of the Porte SaintMartin, and

to be going towards the Madeleine. "Ah," said Morcerf, "there goes a happy man!" And it so happened Albert

Morrel was, in fact, very happy. M. Noirtier had just sent for him, and he was in such haste to know the

reason of his doing so that he had not stopped to take a cab, placing infinitely more dependence on his own

two legs than on the four legs of a cabhorse. He had therefore set off at a furious rate from the Rue Meslay,

and was hastening with rapid strides in the direction of the Faubourg SaintHonore. Morrel advanced with a

firm, manly tread, and poor Barrois followed him as he best might. Morrel was only thirtyone, Barrois was

sixty years of age; Morrel was deeply in love, and Barrois was dying with heat and exertion. These two men,

thus opposed in age and interests, resembled two parts of a triangle, presenting the extremes of separation, yet

nevertheless possessing their point of union. This point of union was Noirtier, and it was he who had just sent

for Morrel, with the request that the latter would lose no time in coming to him a command which Morrel

obeyed to the letter, to the great discomfiture of Barrois. On arriving at the house, Morrel was not even out of

breath, for love lends wings to our desires; but Barrois, who had long forgotten what it was to love, was

The old servant introduced Morrel by a private entrance, closed the door of the study, and soon the rustling of

a dress announced the arrival of Valentine. She looked marvellously beautiful in her deep mourning dress,

and Morrel experienced such intense delight in gazing upon her that he felt as if he could almost have

dispensed with the conversation of her grandfather. But the easychair of the old man was heard rolling along

the floor, and he soon made his appearance in the room. Noirtier acknowledged by a look of extreme

kindness and benevolence the thanks which Morrel lavished on him for his timely intervention on behalf of

Valentine and himself an intervention which had saved them from despair. Morrel then cast on the invalid

an interrogative look as to the new favor which he designed to bestow on him. Valentine was sitting at a little

distance from them, timidly awaiting the moment when she should be obliged to speak. Noirtier fixed his

eyes on her. "Am I to say what you told me?" asked Valentine. Noirtier made a sign that she was to do so.

"Monsieur Morrel," said Valentine to the young man, who was regarding her with the most intense interest,

"my grandfather, M. Noirtier, had a thousand things to say, which he told me three days ago; and now, he has

sent for you, that I may repeat them to you. I will repeat them, then; and since he has chosen me as his

interpreter, I will be faithful to the trust, and will not alter a word of his intentions."

"Oh, I am listening with the greatest impatience," replied the young man; "speak, I beg of you." Valentine

cast down her eyes; this was a good omen for Morrel, for he knew that nothing but happiness could have the

power of thus overcoming Valentine. "My grandfather intends leaving this house," said she, "and Barrois is

"But you, Mademoiselle de Villefort, you, who are necessary to M. Noirtier's happiness"

"I?" interrupted Valentine; "I shall not leave my grandfather, that is an understood thing between us. My

apartment will be close to his. Now, M. de Villefort must either give his consent to this plan or his refusal; in

the first case, I shall leave directly, and in the second, I shall wait till I am of age, which will be in about ten

"And with my grandfather's consent I shall fulfil the promise which I have made you." Valentine pronounced

these last few words in such a low tone, that nothing but Morrel's intense interest in what she was saying

could have enabled him to hear them. "Have I not explained your wishes, grandpapa?" said Valentine,

addressing Noirtier. "Yes," looked the old man. "Once under my grandfather's roof, M. Morrel can visit

me in the presence of my good and worthy protector, if we still feel that the union we contemplated will be

likely to insure our future comfort and happiness; in that case I shall expect M. Morrel to come and claim me

at my own hands. But, alas, I have heard it said that hearts inflamed by obstacles to their desire grew cold in

"Oh," cried Morrel, almost tempted to throw himself on his knees before Noirtier and Valentine, and to adore

them as two superior beings, "what have I ever done in my life to merit such unbounded happiness?"

"Until that time," continued the young girl in a calm and selfpossessed tone of voice, "we will conform to

circumstances, and be guided by the wishes of our friends, so long as those wishes do not tend finally to

separate us; in a word, and I repeat it, because it expresses all I wish to convey, we will wait."

"And I swear to make all the sacrifices which this word imposes, sir," said Morrel, "not only with resignation,

"Therefore," continued Valentine, looking playfully at Maximilian, "no more inconsiderate actions no

more rash projects; for you surely would not wish to compromise one who from this day regards herself as

Morrel looked obedience to her commands. Noirtier regarded the lovers with a look of ineffable tenderness,

while Barrois, who had remained in the room in the character of a man privileged to know everything that

passed, smiled on the youthful couple as he wiped the perspiration from his bald forehead. "How hot you

"Ah, I have been running very fast, mademoiselle, but I must do M. Morrel the justice to say that he ran still

faster." Noirtier directed their attention to a waiter, on which was placed a decanter containing lemonade and

a glass. The decanter was nearly full, with the exception of a little, which had been already drunk by M.

"Come, Barrois," said the young girl, "take some of this lemonade; I see you are coveting a good draught of

"The fact is, mademoiselle," said Barrois, "I am dying with thirst, and since you are so kind as to offer it me,

"Take some, then, and come back immediately." Barrois took away the waiter, and hardly was he outside the

door, which in his haste he forgot to shut, than they saw him throw back his head and empty to the very dregs

the glass which Valentine had filled. Valentine and Morrel were exchanging their adieux in the presence of

Noirtier when a ring was heard at the doorbell. It was the signal of a visit. Valentine looked at her watch.

"It is past noon," said she, "and today is Saturday; I dare say it is the doctor, grandpapa." Noirtier looked his

conviction that she was right in her supposition. "He will come in here, and M. Morrel had better go, do

"I am coming, mademoiselle," replied he. "Barrois will open the door for you," said Valentine, addressing

Morrel. "And now remember one thing, Monsieur Officer, that my grandfather commands you not to take

"What is the matter, Barrois?" said Valentine. The old man did not answer, but looked at his master with wild

staring eyes, while with his cramped hand he grasped a piece of furniture to enable him to stand upright. "He

is going to fall!" cried Morrel. The rigors which had attacked Barrois gradually increased, the features of the

face became quite altered, and the convulsive movement of the muscles appeared to indicate the approach of

a most serious nervous disorder. Noirtier, seeing Barrois in this pitiable condition, showed by his looks all the

various emotions of sorrow and sympathy which can animate the heart of man. Barrois made some steps

"Ah, sir," said he, "tell me what is the matter with me. I am suffering I cannot see. A thousand fiery darts

are piercing my brain. Ah, don't touch me, pray don't." By this time his haggard eyes had the appearance of

being ready to start from their sockets; his head fell back, and the lower extremities of the body began to

stiffen. Valentine uttered a cry of horror; Morrel took her in his arms, as if to defend her from some unknown

danger. "M. d'Avrigny, M. d'Avrigny," cried she, in a stifled voice. "Help, help!" Barrois turned round and

with a great effort stumbled a few steps, then fell at the feet of Noirtier, and resting his hand on the knee of

the invalid, exclaimed, "My master, my good master!" At this moment M. de Villefort, attracted by the noise,

appeared on the threshold. Morrel relaxed his hold of Valentine, and retreating to a distant corner of the room

remained half hidden behind a curtain. Pale as if he had been gazing on a serpent, he fixed his terrified eye on

Noirtier, burning with impatience and terror, was in despair at his utter inability to help his old domestic,

whom he regarded more in the light of a friend than a servant. One might by the fearful swelling of the veins

of his forehead and the contraction of the muscles round the eye, trace the terrible conflict which was going

on between the living energetic mind and the inanimate and helpless body. Barrois, his features convulsed,

his eyes suffused with blood, and his head thrown back, was lying at full length, beating the floor with his

hands, while his legs had become so stiff, that they looked as if they would break rather than bend. A slight

appearance of foam was visible around the mouth, and he breathed painfully, and with extreme difficulty.

Villefort seemed stupefied with astonishment, and remained gazing intently on the scene before him without

uttering a word. He had not seen Morrel. After a moment of dumb contemplation, during which his face

became pale and his hair seemed to stand on end, he sprang towards the door, crying out, "Doctor, doctor!

"Madame, madame!" cried Valentine, calling her stepmother, and running upstairs to meet her; "come

"But where is the doctor?" exclaimed Villefort; "where is he?" Madame de Villefort now deliberately

descended the staircase. In one hand she held her handkerchief, with which she appeared to be wiping her

face, and in the other a bottle of English smellingsalts. Her first look on entering the room was at Noirtier,

whose face, independent of the emotion which such a scene could not fail of producing, proclaimed him to be

in possession of his usual health; her second glance was at the dying man. She turned pale, and her eye

"In the name of heaven, madame," said Villefort, "where is the doctor? He was with you just now. You see

"Has he eaten anything lately?" asked Madame de Villefort, eluding her husband's question. "Madame,"

replied Valentine, "he has not even breakfasted. He has been running very fast on an errand with which my

grandfather charged him, and when he returned, took nothing but a glass of lemonade."

"Ah," said Madame de Villefort, "why did he not take wine? Lemonade was a very bad thing for him."

"Grandpapa's bottle of lemonade was standing just by his side; poor Barrois was very thirsty, and was

thankful to drink anything he could find." Madame de Villefort started. Noirtier looked at her with a glance of

the most profound scrutiny. "He has such a short neck," said she. "Madame," said Villefort, "I ask where is

"He is with Edward, who is not quite well," replied Madame de Villefort, no longer being able to avoid

Villefort rushed upstairs to fetch him. "Take this," said Madame de Villefort, giving her smellingbottle to

Valentine. "They will, no doubt, bleed him; therefore I will retire, for I cannot endure the sight of blood;" and

she followed her husband upstairs. Morrel now emerged from his hidingplace, where he had remained

quite unperceived, so great had been the general confusion. "Go away as quick as you can, Maximilian," said

Morrel looked towards Noirtier for permission to retire. The old man, who had preserved all his usual

coolness, made a sign to him to do so. The young man pressed Valentine's hand to his lips, and then left the

house by a back staircase. At the same moment that he quitted the room, Villefort and the doctor entered by

an opposite door. Barrois was now showing signs of returning consciousness. The crisis seemed past, a low

moaning was heard, and he raised himself on one knee. D'Avrigny and Villefort laid him on a couch. "What

do you prescribe, doctor?" demanded Villefort. "Give me some water and ether. You have some in the house,

Valentine looked at M. d'Avrigny with astonishment, kissed her grandfather on the forehead, and left the

room. The doctor closed the door after her with a gloomy air. "Look, look, doctor," said Villefort, "he is quite

coming round again; I really do not think, after all, it is anything of consequence." M. d'Avrigny answered by

a melancholy smile. "How do you feel, Barrois?" asked he. "A little better, sir."

"Because I feel that if you were only to touch me with the tip of your finger the fit would return."

Barrois took the glass, and, raising it to his purple lips, took about half of the liquid offered him. "Where do

"I have eaten nothing; I only drank a glass of my master's lemonade that's all;" and Barrois turned towards

Noirtier, who, immovably fixed in his armchair, was contemplating this terrible scene without allowing a

"No, stay here and try to make Barrois drink the rest of this glass of ether and water. I will go myself and

fetch the lemonade." D'Avrigny bounded towards the door, flew down the back staircase, and almost knocked

down Madame de Villefort, in his haste, who was herself going down to the kitchen. She cried out, but

d'Avrigny paid no attention to her; possessed with but one idea, he cleared the last four steps with a bound,

and rushed into the kitchen, where he saw the decanter about three parts empty still standing on the waiter,

where it had been left. He darted upon it as an eagle would seize upon its prey. Panting with loss of breath, he

returned to the room he had just left. Madame de Villefort was slowly ascending the steps which led to her

The doctor poured some drops of the lemonade into the palm of his hand, put his lips to it, and after having

rinsed his mouth as a man does when he is tasting wine, he spat the liquor into the fireplace.

"Oh, doctor," cried Barrois, "the fit is coming on again. Oh, do something for me." The doctor flew to his

patient. "That emetic, Villefort see if it is coming." Villefort sprang into the passage, exclaiming, "The

emetic! the emetic! is it come yet?" No one answered. The most profound terror reigned throughout the

house. "If I had anything by means of which I could inflate the lungs," said d'Avrigny, looking around him,

"perhaps I might prevent suffocation. But there is nothing which would do nothing!" "Oh, sir," cried

Barrois, "are you going to let me die without help? Oh, I am dying! Oh, save me!"

"A pen, a pen!" said the doctor. There was one lying on the table; he endeavored to introduce it into the

mouth of the patient, who, in the midst of his convulsions, was making vain attempts to vomit; but the jaws

were so clinched that the pen could not pass them. This second attack was much more violent than the first,

and he had slipped from the couch to the ground, where he was writhing in agony. The doctor left him in this

paroxysm, knowing that he could do nothing to alleviate it, and, going up to Noirtier, said abruptly, "How do

"Have you any weight on the chest; or does your stomach feel light and comfortable eh?"

"Then you feel pretty much as you generally do after you have had the dose which I am accustomed to give

"Yes." A groan from Barrois, accompanied by a yawn which seemed to crack the very jawbones, attracted the

attention of M. d'Avrigny; he left M. Noirtier, and returned to the sick man. "Barrois," said the doctor, "can

you speak?" Barrois muttered a few unintelligible words. "Try and make an effort to do so, my good man."

"Mademoiselle Valentine." D'Avrigny struck his forehead with his hand. "Gracious heaven," exclaimed he.

"Drink it," said the doctor to Barrois. "Impossible, doctor; it is too late; my throat is closing up. I am choking!

"Ah, I understand you," said the unhappy man. "My God, have mercy upon me!" and, uttering a fearful cry,

Barrois fell back as if he had been struck by lightning. D'Avrigny put his hand to his heart, and placed a glass

"Well?" said Villefort. "Go to the kitchen and get me some syrup of violets." Villefort went immediately. "Do

not be alarmed, M. Noirtier," said d'Avrigny; "I am going to take my patient into the next room to bleed him;

And taking Barrois under the arms, he dragged him into an adjoining room; but almost immediately he

returned to fetch the lemonade. Noirtier closed lids right eye. "You want Valentine, do you not? I will tell

them to send her to you." Villefort returned, and d'Avrigny met him in the passage. "Well, how is he now?"

asked he. "Come in here," said d'Avrigny, and he took him into the chamber where the sick man lay. "Is he

Villefort drew back a few steps, and, clasping his hands, exclaimed, with real amazement and sympathy,

"Yes, it is very soon," said the doctor, looking at the corpse before him; "but that ought not to astonish you;

Monsieur and Madame de SaintMeran died as soon. People die very suddenly in your house, M. de

"What?" cried the magistrate, with an accent of horror and consternation, "are you still harping on that

"Still, sir; and I shall always do so," replied d'Avrigny, "for it has never for one instant ceased to retain

possession of my mind; and that you may be quite sure I am not mistaken this time, listen well to what I am

going to say, M. de Villefort." The magistrate trembled convulsively. "There is a poison which destroys life

almost without leaving any perceptible traces. I know it well; I have studied it in all its forms and in the

effects which it produces. I recognized the presence of this poison in the case of poor Barrois as well as in

that of Madame de SaintMeran. There is a way of detecting its presence. It restores the blue color of

litmuspaper reddened by an acid, and it turns syrup of violets green. We have no litmuspaper, but, see,

The doctor was right; steps were heard in the passage. M. d'Avrigny opened the door, and took from the

hands of the chambermaid a cup which contained two or three spoonfuls of the syrup, he then carefully

closed the door. "Look," said he to the procureur, whose heart beat so loudly that it might almost be heard,

"here is in this cup some syrup of violets, and this decanter contains the remainder of the lemonade of which

M. Noirtier and Barrois partook. If the lemonade be pure and inoffensive, the syrup will retain its color; if, on

the contrary, the lemonade be drugged with poison, the syrup will become green. Look closely!"

The doctor then slowly poured some drops of the lemonade from the decanter into the cup, and in an instant a

light cloudy sediment began to form at the bottom of the cup; this sediment first took a blue shade, then from

the color of sapphire it passed to that of opal, and from opal to emerald. Arrived at this last hue, it changed no

"The unfortunate Barrois has been poisoned," said d'Avrigny, "and I will maintain this assertion before God

and man." Villefort said nothing, but he clasped his hands, opened his haggard eyes, and, overcome with his

M. D'Avrigny soon restored the magistrate to consciousness, who had looked like a second corpse in that

"M. d'Avrigny," cried Villefort, "I cannot tell you all I feel at this moment, terror, grief, madness."

"Yes," said M. d'Avrigny, with an imposing calmness, "but I think it is now time to act. I think it is time to

stop this torrent of mortality. I can no longer bear to be in possession of these secrets without the hope of

seeing the victims and society generally revenged." Villefort cast a gloomy look around him. "In my house,"

"Come, magistrate," said M. d'Avrigny, "show yourself a man; as an interpreter of the law, do honor to your

"I suspect no one; death raps at your door it enters it goes, not blindfolded, but circumspectly, from

room to room. Well, I follow its course, I track its passage; I adopt the wisdom of the ancients, and feel my

way, for my friendship for your family and my respect for you are as a twofold bandage over my eyes; well"

"Well, sir, you have in your establishment, or in your family, perhaps, one of the frightful monstrosities of

which each century produces only one. Locusta and Agrippina, living at the same time, were an exception,

and proved the determination of providence to effect the entire ruin of the Roman empire, sullied by so many

crimes. Brunehilde and Fredegonde were the results of the painful struggle of civilization in its infancy, when

man was learning to control mind, were it even by an emissary from the realms of darkness. All these women

had been, or were, beautiful. The same flower of innocence had flourished, or was still flourishing, on their

brow, that is seen on the brow of the culprit in your house." Villefort shrieked, clasped his hands, and looked

"Doctor," cried Villefort, "alas, doctor, how often has man's justice been deceived by those fatal words. I

"Yes, I see too plainly that it does exist. But it seems that it is intended to affect me personally. I fear an

"Oh, man," murmured d'Avrigny, "the most selfish of all animals, the most personal of all creatures, who

believes the earth turns, the sun shines, and death strikes for him alone, an ant cursing God from the top of

a blade of grass! And have those who have lost their lives lost nothing? M. de SaintMeran, Madame de

"Yes; think you it was the poor servant's life was coveted? No, no; like Shakespeare's `Polonius,' he died for

another. It was Noirtier the lemonade was intended for it is Noirtier, logically speaking, who drank it. The

other drank it only by accident, and, although Barrois is dead, it was Noirtier whose death was wished for."

"I told you one evening in the garden after Madame de SaintMeran's death because his system is

accustomed to that very poison, and the dose was trifling to him, which would be fatal to another; because no

one knows, not even the assassin, that, for the last twelve months, I have given M. Noirtier brucine for his

paralytic affection, while the assassin is not ignorant, for he has proved that brucine is a violent poison."

"I would swear to it; what I heard of his symptoms agrees too well with what I have seen in the other cases."

Villefort ceased to contend; he only groaned. "He first kills M. de SaintMeran," repeated the doctor, "then

Madame de SaintMeran, a double fortune to inherit." Villefort wiped the perspiration from his forehead.

"M. Noirtier," resumed M. d'Avrigny in the same pitiless tone, "M. Noirtier had once made a will against

you against your family in favor of the poor, in fact; M. Noirtier is spared, because nothing is expected

from him. But he has no sooner destroyed his first will and made a second, than, for fear he should make a

third, he is struck down. The will was made the day before yesterday, I believe; you see there has been no

"No mercy, sir! The physician has a sacred mission on earth; and to fulfil it he begins at the source of life,

and goes down to the mysterious darkness of the tomb. When crime has been committed, and God, doubtless

in anger, turns away his face, it is for the physician to bring the culprit to justice."

"Have pity on Valentine! Listen it is impossible! I would as willingly accuse myself! Valentine, whose

"No pity, procureur; the crime is fragrant. Mademoiselle herself packed all the medicines which were sent to

M. de SaintMeran; and M. de SaintMeran is dead. Mademoiselle de Villefort prepared all the cooling

draughts which Madame de SaintMeran took, and Madame de SaintMeran is dead. Mademoiselle de

Villefort took from the hands of Barrois, who was sent out, the lemonade which M. Noirtier had every

morning, and he has escaped by a miracle. Mademoiselle de Villefort is the culprit she is the poisoner! To

you, as the king's attorney, I denounce Mademoiselle de Villefort, do your duty."

"Doctor, I resist no longer I can no longer defend myself I believe you; but, for pity's sake, spare my

"M. de Villefort," replied the doctor, with increased vehemence, "there are occasions when I dispense with all

foolish human circumspection. If your daughter had committed only one crime, and I saw her meditating

another, I would say `Warn her, punish her, let her pass the remainder of her life in a convent, weeping and

praying.' If she had committed two crimes, I would say, `Here, M. de Villefort, is a poison that the prisoner is

not acquainted with, one that has no known antidote, quick as thought, rapid as lightning, mortal as the

thunderbolt; give her that poison, recommending her soul to God, and save your honor and your life, for it is

yours she aims at; and I can picture her approaching your pillow with her hypocritical smiles and her sweet

exhortations. Woe to you, M. de Villefort, if you do not strike first!' This is what I would say had she only

killed two persons but she has seen three deaths, has contemplated three murdered persons, has knelt

by three corpses! To the scaffold with the poisoner to the scaffold! Do you talk of your honor? Do what I

Villefort fell on his knees. "Listen," said he; "I have not the strength of mind you have, or rather that which

you would not have, if instead of my daughter Valentine your daughter Madeleine were concerned." The

doctor turned pale. "Doctor, every son of woman is born to suffer and to die; I am content to suffer and to

"Beware," said M. d'Avrigny, "it may come slowly; you will see it approach after having struck your father,

Villefort, suffocating, pressed the doctor's arm. "Listen," cried he; "pity me help me! No, my daughter is

not guilty. If you drag us both before a tribunal I will still say, `No, my daughter is not guilty; there is no

crime in my house. I will not acknowledge a crime in my house; for when crime enters a dwelling, it is like

death it does not come alone.' Listen. What does it signify to you if I am murdered? Are you my friend?

Are you a man? Have you a heart? No, you are a physician! Well, I tell you I will not drag my daughter

before a tribunal, and give her up to the executioner! The bare idea would kill me would drive me like a

madman to dig my heart out with my fingernails! And if you were mistaken, doctor if it were not my

daughter if I should come one day, pale as a spectre, and say to you, `Assassin, you have killed my child!'

hold if that should happen, although I am a Christian, M. d'Avrigny, I should kill myself."

"Well," said the doctor, after a moment's silence, "I will wait." Villefort looked at him as if he had doubted

his words. "Only," continued M. d'Avrigny, with a slow and solemn tone, "if any one falls ill in your house, if

you feel yourself attacked, do not send for me, for I will come no more. I will consent to share this dreadful

secret with you, but I will not allow shame and remorse to grow and increase in my conscience, as crime and

"Yes, for I can follow you no farther, and I only stop at the foot of the scaffold. Some further discovery will

"All the horrors that disturb my thoughts make your house odious and fatal. Adieu, sir."

"One word one single word more, doctor! You go, leaving me in all the horror of my situation, after

increasing it by what you have revealed to me. But what will be reported of the sudden death of the poor old

"True," said M. d'Avrigny; "we will return." The doctor went out first, followed by M. de Villefort. The

terrified servants were on the stairs and in the passage where the doctor would pass. "Sir," said d'Avrigny to

Villefort, so loud that all might hear, "poor Barrois has led too sedentary a life of late; accustomed formerly

to ride on horseback, or in the carriage, to the four corners of Europe, the monotonous walk around that

armchair has killed him his blood has thickened. He was stout, had a short, thick neck; he was attacked

with apoplexy, and I was called in too late. By the way," added he in a low tone, "take care to throw away

The doctor, without shaking hands with Villefort, without adding a word to what he had said, went out, amid

the tears and lamentations of the whole household. The same evening all Villefort's servants, who had

assembled in the kitchen, and had a long consultation, came to tell Madame de Villefort that they wished to

leave. No entreaty, no proposition of increased wages, could induce them to remain; to every argument they

replied, "We must go, for death is in this house." They all left, in spite of prayers and entreaties, testifying

their regret at leaving so good a master and mistress, and especially Mademoiselle Valentine, so good, so

kind, and so gentle. Villefort looked at Valentine as they said this. She was in tears, and, strange as it was, in

spite of the emotions he felt at the sight of these tears, he looked also at Madame de Villefort, and it appeared

to him as if a slight gloomy smile had passed over her thin lips, like a meteor seen passing inauspiciously

The evening of the day on which the Count of Morcerf had left Danglars' house with feelings of shame and

anger at the rejection of the projected alliance, M. Andrea Cavalcanti, with curled hair, mustaches in perfect

order, and white gloves which fitted admirably, had entered the courtyard of the banker's house in La

Chaussee d'Antin. He had not been more than ten minutes in the drawingroom before he drew Danglars

aside into the recess of a bowwindow, and, after an ingenious preamble, related to him all his anxieties and

cares since his noble father's departure. He acknowledged the extreme kindness which had been shown him

by the banker's family, in which he had been received as a son, and where, besides, his warmest affections

had found an object on which to centre in Mademoiselle Danglars. Danglars listened with the most profound

attention; he had expected this declaration for the last two or three days, and when at last it came his eyes

glistened as much as they had lowered on listening to Morcerf. He would not, however, yield immediately to

the young man's request, but made a few conscientious objections. "Are you not rather young, M. Andrea, to

"I think not, sir," replied M. Cavalcanti; "in Italy the nobility generally marry young. Life is so uncertain, that

"Well, sir," said Danglars, "in case your proposals, which do me honor, are accepted by my wife and

daughter, by whom shall the preliminary arrangements be settled? So important a negotiation should, I think,

"Sir, my father is a man of great foresight and prudence. Thinking that I might wish to settle in France, he left

me at his departure, together with the papers establishing my identity, a letter promising, if he approved of

my choice, 150,000 livres per annum from the day I was married. So far as I can judge, I suppose this to be a

"I," said Danglars, "have always intended giving my daughter 500,000 francs as her dowry; she is, besides,

"All would then be easily arranged if the baroness and her daughter are willing. We should command an

annuity of 175,000 livres. Supposing, also, I should persuade the marquis to give me my capital, which is not

likely, but still is possible, we would place these two or three millions in your hands, whose talent might

"I never give more than four per cent, and generally only three and a half; but to my soninlaw I would give

"Very good, fatherinlaw," said Cavalcanti, yielding to his lowborn nature, which would escape

sometimes through the aristocratic gloss with which he sought to conceal it. Correcting himself immediately,

he said, "Excuse me, sir; hope alone makes me almost mad, what will not reality do?"

"But," said Danglars, who, on his part, did not perceive how soon the conversation, which was at first

disinterested, was turning to a business transaction, "there is, doubtless, a part of your fortune your father

"Indeed, sir," said Andrea, "I assure you I have never given the subject a thought, but I suppose it must have

been at least two millions." Danglars felt as much overcome with joy as the miser who finds a lost treasure, or

as the shipwrecked mariner who feels himself on solid ground instead of in the abyss which he expected

"You may not only hope," said Danglars, "but consider it a settled thing, if no obstacle arises on your part."

"But," said Danglars thoughtfully, "how is it that your patron, M. de Monte Cristo, did not make his proposal

for you?" Andrea blushed imperceptibly. "I have just left the count, sir," said he; "he is, doubtless, a

delightful man but inconceivably peculiar in his ideas. He esteems me highly. He even told me he had not the

slightest doubt that my father would give me the capital instead of the interest of my property. He has

promised to use his influence to obtain it for me; but he also declared that he never had taken on himself the

responsibility of making proposals for another, and he never would. I must, however, do him the justice to

add that he assured me if ever he had regretted the repugnance he felt to such a step it was on this occasion,

because he thought the projected union would be a happy and suitable one. Besides, if he will do nothing

officially, he will answer any questions you propose to him. And now," continued he, with one of his most

charming smiles, "having finished talking to the fatherinlaw, I must address myself to the banker."

"That the day after tomorrow I shall have to draw upon you for about four thousand francs; but the count,

expecting my bachelor's revenue could not suffice for the coming month's outlay, has offered me a draft for

twenty thousand francs. It bears his signature, as you see, which is allsufficient."

"Bring me a million such as that," said Danglars, "I shall be well pleased," putting the draft in his pocket.

"Fix your own hour for tomorrow, and my cashier shall call on you with a check for eighty thousand

"At ten o'clock then, if you please; I should like it early, as I am going into the country tomorrow."

The following morning, with the banker's usual punctuality, the eighty thousand francs were placed in the

young man's hands as he was on the point of starting, after having left two hundred francs for Caderousse. He

went out chiefly to avoid this dangerous enemy, and returned as late as possible in the evening. But scarcely

had be stepped out of his carriage when the porter met him with a parcel in his hand. "Sir," said he, "that man

"What man?" said Andrea carelessly, apparently forgetting him whom he but too well recollected.

"Oh," said Andrea, "my father's old servant. Well, you gave him the two hundred francs I had left for him?"

"Yes, your excellency." Andrea had expressed a wish to be thus addressed. "But," continued the porter, "he

would not take them." Andrea turned pale, but as it was dark his pallor was not perceptible. "What? he would

"No, he wished to speak to your excellency; I told him you were gone out, and after some dispute he believed

"Give it me," said Andrea, and he read by the light of his carriagelamp, "You know where I live; I expect

Andrea examined it carefully, to ascertain if the letter had been opened, or if any indiscreet eyes had seen its

contents; but it was so carefully folded, that no one could have read it, and the seal was perfect. "Very well,"

said he. "Poor man, he is a worthy creature." He left the porter to ponder on these words, not knowing which

most to admire, the master or the servant. "Take out the horses quickly, and come up to me," said Andrea to

his groom. In two seconds the young man had reached his room and burnt Caderousse's letter. The servant

"I have an engagement with a pretty little girl for this evening, and do not wish to be known; lend me your

livery till tomorrow. I may sleep, perhaps, at an inn." Pierre obeyed. Five minutes after, Andrea left the

hotel, completely disguised, took a cabriolet, and ordered the driver to take him to the Cheval Rouge, at

Picpus. The next morning he left that inn as he had left the Hotel des Princes, without being noticed, walked

down the Faubourg St. Antoine, along the boulevard to Rue Menilmontant, and stopping at the door of the

third house on the left looked for some one of whom to make inquiry in the porter's absence. "For whom are

"He lives at the end of the yard, on the left, on the third story." Andrea went as she directed him, and on the

third floor he found a hare's paw, which, by the hasty ringing of the bell, it was evident he pulled with

considerable illtemper. A moment after Caderousse's face appeared at the grating in the door. "Ah, you are

"Confound you and your punctuality!" said Andrea, throwing himself into a chair in a manner which implied

"Come, come, my little fellow, don't be angry. See, I have thought about you look at the good breakfast

we are going to have; nothing but what you are fond of." Andrea, indeed, inhaled the scent of something

cooking which was not unwelcome to him, hungry as he was; it was that mixture of fat and garlic peculiar to

provincial kitchens of an inferior order, added to that of dried fish, and above all, the pungent smell of musk

and cloves. These odors escaped from two deep dishes which were covered and placed on a stove, and from a

copper pan placed in an old iron pot. In an adjoining room Andrea saw also a tolerably clean table prepared

for two, two bottles of wine sealed, the one with green, the other with yellow, a supply of brandy in a

decanter, and a measure of fruit in a cabbageleaf, cleverly arranged on an earthenware plate.

"What do you think of it, my little fellow?" said Caderousse. "Ay, that smells good! You know I used to be a

famous cook; do you recollect how you used to lick your fingers? You were among the first who tasted any

of my dishes, and I think you relished them tolerably." While speaking, Caderousse went on peeling a fresh

"But," said Andrea, illtemperedly, "by my faith, if it was only to breakfast with you, that you disturbed me, I

"My boy," said Caderousse sententiously, "one can talk while eating. And then, you ungrateful being, you are

not pleased to see an old friend? I am weeping with joy." He was truly crying, but it would have been

difficult to say whether joy or the onions produced the greatest effect on the lachrymal glands of the old

innkeeper of the PontduGard. "Hold your tongue, hypocrite," said Andrea; "you love me!"

"Yes, I do, or may the devil take me. I know it is a weakness," said Caderousse, "but it overpowers me."

"Come," said Caderousse, wiping his large knife on his apron, "if I did not like you, do you think I should

endure the wretched life you lead me? Think for a moment. You have your servant's clothes on you

therefore keep a servant; I have none, and am obliged to prepare my own meals. You abuse my cookery

because you dine at the table d'hote of the Hotel des Princes, or the Cafe de Paris. Well, I too could keep a

servant; I too could have a tilbury; I too could dine where I like; but why do I not? Because I would not

annoy my little Benedetto. Come, just acknowledge that I could, eh?" This address was accompanied by a

look which was by no means difficult to understand. "Well," said Andrea, "admitting your love, why do you

"Eh, dear friend," said Caderousse, "are wills ever made without codicils? But you first came to breakfast, did

you not? Well, sit down, and let us begin with these pilchards, and this fresh butter; which I have put on some

vineleaves to please you, wicked one. Ah, yes; you look at my room, my four straw chairs, my images, three

"Come, you are growing discontented, you are no longer happy; you, who only wish to live like a retired

baker." Caderousse sighed. "Well, what have you to say? you have seen your dream realized."

"I can still say it is a dream; a retired baker, my poor Benedetto, is rich he has an annuity."

"Yes, since I bring you your two hundred francs." Caderousse shrugged his shoulders. "It is humiliating," said

he, "thus to receive money given grudgingly, an uncertain supply which may soon fail. You see I am

obliged to economize, in case your prosperity should cease. Well, my friend, fortune is inconstant, as the

chaplain of the regiment said. I know your prosperity is great, you rascal; you are to marry the daughter of

"Yes, to be sure; must I say Baron Danglars? I might as well say Count Benedetto. He was an old friend of

mine and if he had not so bad a memory he ought to invite me to your wedding, seeing he came to mine. Yes,

yes, to mine; gad, he was not so proud then, he was an underclerk to the good M. Morrel. I have dined

many times with him and the Count of Morcerf, so you see I have some high connections and were I to

"That is all very fine, Benedetto mio, but I know what I am saying. Perhaps I may one day put on my best

coat, and presenting myself at the great gate, introduce myself. Meanwhile let us sit down and eat."

Caderousse set the example and attacked the breakfast with good appetite, praising each dish he set before his

visitor. The latter seemed to have resigned himself; he drew the corks, and partook largely of the fish with the

garlic and fat. "Ah, mate," said Caderousse, "you are getting on better terms with your old landlord!"

"So much that I wonder how a man who can cook thus can complain of hard living."

"That I am dependent on another, I who have always gained my own livelihood honestly."

"No, truly; you may believe me if you will; at the end of every month I am tormented by remorse."

"True remorse; and, besides, an idea had struck me." Andrea shuddered; he always did so at Caderousse's

ideas. "It is miserable do you see? always to wait till the end of the month. "Oh," said Andrea

philosophically, determined to watch his companion narrowly, "does not life pass in waiting? Do I, for

"Yes; because instead of expecting two hundred wretched francs, you expect five or six thousand, perhaps

ten, perhaps even twelve, for you take care not to let any one know the utmost. Down there, you always had

little presents and Christmasboxes which you tried to hide from your poor friend Caderousse. Fortunately he

"There you are beginning again to ramble, to talk again and again of the past! But what is the use of teasing

"Ah, you are only one and twenty, and can forget the past; I am fifty, and am obliged to recollect it. But let us

"I would ask for six months' in advance, under pretence of being able to purchase a farm, then with my six

"My dear friend," said Caderousse, "eat of my bread, and take my advice; you will be none the worse off,

"But," said Andrea, "why do you not act on the advice you gave me? Why do you not realize a six months', a

year's advance even, and retire to Brussels? Instead of living the retired baker, you might live as a bankrupt,

"Ah, Caderousse," said Andrea, "how covetous you are! Two months ago you were dying with hunger."

"The appetite grows by what it feeds on," said Caderousse, grinning and showing his teeth, like a monkey

laughing or a tiger growling. "And," added he, biting off with his large white teeth an enormous mouthful of

bread, "I have formed a plan." Caderousse's plans alarmed Andrea still more than his ideas; ideas were but

the germ, the plan was reality. "Let me see your plan; I dare say it is a pretty one."

"Why not? Who formed the plan by which we left the establishment of M ! eh? was it not I? and it was

"I do not say," replied Andrea, "that you never make a good one; but let us see your plan."

"Well," pursued Caderousse, "can you without expending one sou, put me in the way of getting fifteen

thousand francs? No, fifteen thousand are not enough, I cannot again become an honest man with less

"I do not think you understand me," replied Caderousse, calmly; "I said without your laying out a sou."

"Do you want me to commit a robbery, to spoil all my good fortune and yours with mine and both of

"It would make very little difference to me," said Caderousse, "if I were retaken, I am a poor creature to live

alone, and sometimes pine for my old comrades; not like you, heartless creature, who would be glad never to

"Don't alarm yourself, my little Benedetto, but just point out to me some means of gaining those thirty

"Meanwhile you will raise my monthly allowance to five hundred francs, my little fellow? I have a fancy, and

"Well, you shall have your five hundred francs," said Andrea; "but it is very hard for me, my poor

"Bah," said Caderousse, "when you have access to countless stores." One would have said Andrea anticipated

his companion's words, so did his eye flash like lightning, but it was but for a moment. "True," he replied,

"That dear protector," said Caderousse; "and how much does he give you monthly?"

"As many thousands as you give me hundreds! Truly, it is only bastards who are thus fortunate. Five

"Yes, you understand, that explains all. He cannot acknowledge me openly, it appears, but he does it through

"Fifty thousand francs for being your father? I would have done it for half that, for twenty thousand, for

"Oh, the good father, the brave father, the very honest father!" said Caderousse, twirling a plate in the air

"No, and your confidence makes you honorable in my opinion; and your princely father, is he rich, very

"It is evident enough to me, who am always at his house. The other day a banker's clerk brought him fifty

thousand francs in a portfolio about the size of your plate; yesterday his banker brought him a hundred

thousand francs in gold." Caderousse was filled with wonder; the young man's words sounded to him like

metal, and he thought he could hear the rushing of cascades of louis. "And you go into that house?" cried he

Caderousse was thoughtful for a moment. It was easy to perceive he was revolving some unfortunate idea in

his mind. Then suddenly, "How I should like to see all that," cried he; "how beautiful it must be!"

"Yes, a fine house standing alone, between a courtyard and a garden, you must know it."

"Possibly; but it is not the exterior I care for, it is the interior. What beautiful furniture there must be in it!"

"It must be worth one's while to stoop, Andrea, when that good M. Monte Cristo lets fall his purse."

"It is not worth while to wait for that," said Andrea; "money is as plentiful in that house as fruit in an

"You are right; but you have made my mouth water. I must absolutely see it; I shall find a way."

"They are all here," said Caderousse, briskly. He fetched from an old secretary a sheet of white paper and pen

and ink. "Here," said Caderousse, "draw me all that on the paper, my boy." Andrea took the pen with an

imperceptible smile and began. "The house, as I said, is between the court and the garden; in this way, do you

"Are on either side of the gate, which you see there." And Andrea continued his plan.

"On the groundfloor, diningroom, two drawingrooms, billiardroom, staircase in the hall, and a little

"Magnificent windows, so beautiful, so large, that I believe a man of your size should pass through each

"Yes, but they are never used. That Count of Monte Cristo is an original, who loves to look at the sky even at

"Oh, they have a house to themselves. Picture to yourself a pretty coachhouse at the righthand side where

the ladders are kept. Well, over that coachhouse are the servants' rooms, with bells corresponding with the

"Oh. nothing! I only say they cost a load of money to hang, and what is the use of them, I should like to

"There used to be a dog let loose in the yard at night, but it has been taken to the house at Auteuil, to that you

"I was saying to him only yesterday, `You are imprudent, Monsieur Count; for when you go to Auteuil and

take your servants the house is left unprotected.' Well,' said he, `what next?' `Well, next, some day you will

"Yes, which catches the thief in a trap and plays a tune. I was told there were such at the last exhibition."

"Sketch me the plan of that floor, as you have done of the ground floor, my boy."

"That is very simple." Andrea took the pen. "On the first story, do you see, there is the anteroom and the

drawingroom; to the right of the drawingroom, a library and a study; to the left, a bedroom and a

"Two, one here and one there." Andrea sketched two windows in the room, which formed an angle on the

plan, and appeared as a small square added to the rectangle of the bedroom. Caderousse became thoughtful.

"Two or three times a week. Tomorrow, for instance, he is going to spend the day and night there."

"If I like; I am at home there." Caderousse looked at the young man, as if to get at the truth from the bottom

of his heart. But Andrea drew a cigarcase from his pocket, took a havana, quietly lit it, and began smoking.

"Exactly; and he who changes them will follow friend Caderousse, lay hands on him, and demand what

farmers pay him their rent in gold. No nonsense, my good fellow; silver simply, round coins with the head of

"But do you suppose I carry five hundred francs about with me? I should want a porter."

"Never." Caderousse had become so gloomy that Andrea feared he should be obliged to notice the change.

He redoubled his gayety and carelessness. "How sprightly you are," said Caderousse; "One would say you

"To leave behind you the diamond you have on your finger. We shall both get into trouble. You will ruin both

"How? You put on a livery, you disguise yourself as a servant, and yet keep a diamond on your finger worth

"You do well to boast of it," said Andrea, who, without becoming angry, as Caderousse feared, at this new

extortion, quietly resigned the ring. Caderousse looked so closely at it that Andrea well knew that he was

"Do not be angry, we can try it." Caderousse went to the window, touched the glass with it, and found it

"Confiteor," said Caderousse, putting the diamond on his little finger; "I was mistaken; but those thieves of

jewellers imitate so well that it is no longer worth while to rob a jeweller's shop it is another branch of

"Have you finished?" said Andrea, "do you want anything more? will you have my waistcoat or my

"No; you are, after all, a good companion; I will not detain you, and will try to cure myself of my ambition."

"But take care the same thing does not happen to you in selling the diamond you feared with the gold."

"Happy rogue," said Caderousse; "you are going to find your servants, your horses, your carriage, and your

"Well, I hope you will make a handsome weddingpresent the day you marry Mademoiselle Danglars."

"Let it be a million," said Caderousse; "you can never have so much as I wish you."

"Oh, I wish it you with all my heart!" added Caderousse with his hoarse laugh. "Stop, let me show you the

"Because there is a little secret, a precaution I thought it desirable to take, one of Huret Fitchet's locks,

revised and improved by Gaspard Caderousse; I will manufacture you a similar one when you are a

"Thank you," said Andrea; "I will let you know a week beforehand." They parted. Caderousse remained on

the landing until he had not only seen Andrea go down the three stories, but also cross the court. Then he

returned hastily, shut his door carefully, and began to study, like a clever architect, the plan Andrea had left

"Dear Benedetto," said he, "I think he will not be sorry to inherit his fortune, and he who hastens the day

The day following that on which the conversation we have related took place, the Count of Monte Cristo set

out for Auteuil, accompanied by Ali and several attendants, and also taking with him some horses whose

qualities he was desirous of ascertaining. He was induced to undertake this journey, of which the day before

he had not even thought and which had not occurred to Andrea either, by the arrival of Bertuccio from

Normandy with intelligence respecting the house and sloop. The house was ready, and the sloop which had

arrived a week before lay at anchor in a small creek with her crew of six men, who had observed all the

The count praised Bertuccio's zeal, and ordered him to prepare for a speedy departure, as his stay in France

would not be prolonged more than a mouth. "Now," said he, "I may require to go in one night from Paris to

Treport; let eight fresh horses be in readiness on the road, which will enable me to go fifty leagues in ten

"Your highness had already expressed that wish," said Bertuccio, "and the horses are ready. I have bought

them, and stationed them myself at the most desirable posts, that is, in villages, where no one generally

"That's well," said Monte Cristo; "I remain here a day or two arrange accordingly." As Bertuccio was

leaving the room to give the requisite orders, Baptistin opened the door: he held a letter on a silver waiter.

"What are you doing here?" asked the count, seeing him covered with dust; "I did not send for you, I think?"

Baptistin, without answering, approached the count, and presented the letter. "Important and urgent," said he.

"M. de Monte Cristo is apprised that this night a man will enter his house in the ChampsElysees with the

intention of carrying off some papers supposed to be in the secretary in the dressingroom. The count's

wellknown courage will render unnecessary the aid of the police, whose interference might seriously affect

him who sends this advice. The count, by any opening from the bedroom, or by concealing himself in the

dressingroom, would be able to defend his property himself. Many attendants or apparent precautions would

prevent the villain from the attempt, and M. de Monte Cristo would lose the opportunity of discovering an

enemy whom chance has revealed to him who now sends this warning to the count, a warning he might

not be able to send another time, if this first attempt should fail and another be made."

The count's first idea was that this was an artifice a gross deception, to draw his attention from a minor

danger in order to expose him to a greater. He was on the point of sending the letter to the commissary of

police, notwithstanding the advice of his anonymous friend, or perhaps because of that advice, when

suddenly the idea occurred to him that it might be some personal enemy, whom he alone should recognize

and over whom, if such were the case, he alone would gain any advantage, as Fiesco* had done over the

Moor who would have killed him. We know the Count's vigorous and daring mind, denying anything to be

impossible, with that energy which marks the great man. From his past life, from his resolution to shrink

from nothing, the count had acquired an inconceivable relish for the contests in which he had engaged,

sometimes against nature, that is to say, against God, and sometimes against the world, that is, against the

"They do not want my papers," said Monte Cristo, "they want to kill me; they are no robbers, but assassins. I

will not allow the prefect of police to interfere with my private affairs. I am rich enough, forsooth, to

distribute his authority on this occasion." The count recalled Baptistin, who had left the room after delivering

the letter. "Return to Paris," said he; "assemble the servants who remain there. I want all my household at

"You are a fool, M. Baptistin. Thieves might strip the house it would annoy me less than to be disobeyed."

"You understand me?" said the count. "Bring your comrades here, one and all; but let everything remain as

The count signified his intention of dining alone, and that no one but Ali should attend him. Having dined

with his usual tranquillity and moderation, the count, making a signal to Ali to follow him, went out by the

sidegate and on reaching the Bois de Boulogne turned, apparently without design towards Paris and at

twilight; found himself opposite his house in the ChampsElysees. All was dark; one solitary, feeble light

was burning in the porter's lodge, about forty paces distant from the house, as Baptistin had said. Monte

Cristo leaned against a tree, and with that scrutinizing glance which was so rarely deceived, looked up and

down the avenue, examined the passersby, and carefully looked down the neighboring streets, to see that no

one was concealed. Ten minutes passed thus, and he was convinced that no one was watching him. He

hastened to the sidedoor with Ali, entered hurriedly, and by the servants' staircase, of which he had the key,

gained his bedroom without opening or disarranging a single curtain, without even the porter having the

slightest suspicion that the house, which he supposed empty, contained its chief occupant.

Arrived in his bedroom, the count motioned to Ali to stop; then he passed into the dressingroom, which he

examined. Everything appeared as usual the precious secretary in its place, and the key in the secretary.

He double locked it, took the key, returned to the bedroom door, removed the double staple of the bolt, and

went in. Meanwhile Ali had procured the arms the count required namely, a short carbine and a pair of

doublebarrelled pistols, with which as sure an aim might be taken as with a singlebarrelled one. Thus

armed, the count held the lives of five men in his hands. It was about halfpast nine. The count and Ali ate in

haste a crust of bread and drank a glass of Spanish wine; then Monte Cristo slipped aside one of the movable

panels, which enabled him to see into the adjoining room. He had within his reach his pistols and carbine, and

Ali, standing near him, held one of the small Arabian hatchets, whose form has not varied since the Crusades.

Through one of the windows of the bedroom, on a line with that in the dressingroom, the count could see

Two hours passed thus. It was intensely dark; still Ali, thanks to his wild nature, and the count, thanks

doubtless to his long confinement, could distinguish in the darkness the slightest movement of the trees. The

little light in the lodge had long been extinct. It might be expected that the attack, if indeed an attack was

projected, would be made from the staircase of the ground floor, and not from a window; in Monte Cristo's

opinion, the villains sought his life, not his money. It would be his bedroom they would attack, and they must

reach it by the back staircase, or by the window in the dressingroom. The clock of the Invalides struck a

quarter to twelve; the west wind bore on its moistened gusts the doleful vibration of the three strokes.

As the last stroke died away, the count thought he heard a slight noise in the dressingroom; this first sound,

or rather this first grinding, was followed by a second, then a third; at the fourth, the count knew what to

expect. A firm and wellpractised hand was engaged in cutting the four sides of a pane of glass with a

diamond. The count felt his heart beat more rapidly. Inured as men may be to danger, forewarned as they may

be of peril, they understand, by the fluttering of the heart and the shuddering of the frame, the enormous

difference between a dream and a reality, between the project and the execution. However, Monte Cristo only

made a sign to apprise Ali, who, understanding that danger was approaching from the other side, drew nearer

to his master. Monte Cristo was eager to ascertain the strength and number of his enemies.

The window whence the noise proceeded was opposite the opening by which the count could see into the

dressingroom. He fixed his eyes on that window he distinguished a shadow in the darkness; then one of

the panes became quite opaque, as if a sheet of paper were stuck on the outside, then the square cracked

without falling. Through the opening an arm was passed to find the fastening, then a second; the window

At that moment Ali touched him slightly on the shoulder. He turned; Ali pointed to the window of the room

in which they were, facing the street. "I see!" said he, "there are two of them; one does the work while the

other stands guard." He made a sign to Ali not to lose sight of the man in the street, and turned to the one in

The glasscutter had entered, and was feeling his way, his arms stretched out before him. At last he appeared

to have made himself familiar with his surroundings. There were two doors; he bolted them both.

When he drew near to the bedroom door, Monte Cristo expected that he was coming in, and raised one of his

pistols; but he simply heard the sound of the bolts sliding in their copper rings. It was only a precaution. The

nocturnal visitor, ignorant of the fact that the count had removed the staples, might now think himself at

home, and pursue his purpose with full security. Alone and free to act as he wished, the man then drew from

his pocket something which the count could not discern, placed it on a stand, then went straight to the

secretary, felt the lock, and contrary to his expectation found that the key was missing. But the glasscutter

was a prudent man who had provided for all emergencies. The count soon heard the rattling of a bunch of

skeleton keys, such as the locksmith brings when called to force a lock, and which thieves call nightingales,

doubtless from the music of their nightly song when they grind against the bolt. "Ah, ha," whispered Monte

But the man in the dark could not find the right key. He reached the instrument he had placed on the stand,

touched a spring, and immediately a pale light, just bright enough to render objects distinct, was reflected on

his hands and countenance. "By heavens," exclaimed Monte Cristo, starting back, "it is"

Ali raised his hatchet. "Don't stir," whispered Monte Cristo, "and put down your hatchet; we shall require no

arms." Then he added some words in a low tone, for the exclamation which surprise had drawn from the

count, faint as it had been, had startled the man who remained in the pose of the old knifegrinder. It was an

order the count had just given, for immediately Ali went noiselessly, and returned, bearing a black dress and a

threecornered hat. Meanwhile Monte Cristo had rapidly taken off his greatcoat, waistcoat, and shirt, and

one might distinguish by the glimmering through the open panel that he wore a pliant tunic of steel mail, of

which the last in France, where daggers are no longer dreaded, was worn by King Louis XVI., who feared the

dagger at his breast, and whose head was cleft with a hatchet. The tunic soon disappeared under a long

cassock, as did his hair under a priest's wig; the threecornered hat over this effectually transformed the count

The man, hearing nothing more, stood erect, and while Monte Cristo was completing his disguise had

advanced straight to the secretary, whose lock was beginning to crack under his nightingale.

"Try again," whispered the count, who depended on the secret spring, which was unknown to the picklock,

clever as he might be "try again, you have a few minutes' work there." And he advanced to the window.

The man whom he had seen seated on a fence had got down, and was still pacing the street; but, strange as it

appeared, he cared not for those who might pass from the avenue of the ChampsElysees or by the Faubourg

St. Honore; his attention was engrossed with what was passing at the count's, and his only aim appeared to be

Monte Cristo suddenly struck his finger on his forehead and a smile passed over his lips; then drawing near to

"Remain here, concealed in the dark, and whatever noise you hear, whatever passes, only come in or show

yourself if I call you." Ali bowed in token of strict obedience. Monte Cristo then drew a lighted taper from a

closet, and when the thief was deeply engaged with his lock, silently opened the door, taking care that the

light should shine directly on his face. The door opened so quietly that the thief heard no sound; but, to his

"Ah, goodevening, my dear M. Caderousse," said Monte Cristo; "what are you doing here, at such an hour?"

"The Abbe Busoni!" exclaimed Caderousse; and, not knowing how this strange apparition could have entered

when he had bolted the doors, he let fall his bunch of keys, and remained motionless and stupefied. The count

placed himself between Caderousse and the window, thus cutting off from the thief his only chance of retreat.

"Yes, undoubtedly, the Abbe Busoni himself," replied Monte Cristo. "And I am very glad you recognize me,

dear M. Caderousse; it proves you have a good memory, for it must be about ten years since we last met."

This calmness of Busoni, combined with his irony and boldness, staggered Caderousse.

"The abbe, the abbe!" murmured he, clinching his fists, and his teeth chattering.

"Reverend sir," murmured Caderousse, seeking to regain the window, which the count pitilessly blocked

"A pane of glass out," continued the count, "a dark lantern, a bunch of false keys, a secretary half forced it

Caderousse was choking; he looked around for some corner to hide in, some way of escape.

"Reverend sir, since you know everything, you know it was not I it was La Carconte; that was proved at

"A bad relapse, that will lead you, if I mistake not, to the Place de Greve. So much the worse, so much the

"Pshaw!" said Busoni disdainfully; "poverty may make a man beg, steal a loaf of bread at a baker's door, but

not cause him to open a secretary in a house supposed to be inhabited. And when the jeweller Johannes had

just paid you 40,000 francs for the diamond I had given you, and you killed him to get the diamond and the

"Pardon, reverend sir," said Caderousse; "you have saved my life once, save me again!"

"I am alone," said the abbe, "and I will again have pity on you, and will let you escape, at the risk of the fresh

"Ah, reverend sir," cried Caderousse, clasping his hands, and drawing nearer to Monte Cristo, "I may indeed

"Galleyslaves having a nap after dinner! We may well pity the poor fellows!" said the abbe.

"While the rest slept, then, we went away a short distance; we severed our fetters with a file the Englishman

"No, in truth; we parted at Hyeres." And, to give more weight to his protestation, Caderousse advanced

another step towards the abbe, who remained motionless in his place, as calm as ever, and pursuing his

interrogation. "You lie," said the Abbe Busoni, with a tone of irresistible authority.

"You lie! This man is still your friend, and you, perhaps, make use of him as your accomplice."

"You lie," repeated the abbe a third time, with a still more imperative tone. Caderousse, terrified, looked at

"Well, I should think so, since the count has found him a false father since the count gives him four

"Ah, yes," said the factitious abbe, who began to understand; "and what name does the young man bear

"Is it, then, that young man whom my friend the Count of Monte Cristo has received into his house, and who

"And you think that to save such villains as you I will become an abettor of their plot, an accomplice in their

"By heaven!" cried Caderousse, drawing from his waistcoat an open knife, and striking the count in the

breast, "you shall disclose nothing, reverend sir!" To Caderousse's great astonishment, the knife, instead of

piercing the count's breast, flew back blunted. At the same moment the count seized with his left hand the

assassin's wrist, and wrung it with such strength that the knife fell from his stiffened fingers, and Caderousse

uttered a cry of pain. But the count, disregarding his cry, continued to wring the bandit's wrist, until, his arm

being dislocated, he fell first on his knees, then flat on the floor. The count then placed his foot on his head,

"Ah, mercy mercy!" cried Caderousse. The count withdrew his foot. "Rise!" said he. Caderousse rose.

"What a wrist you have, reverend sir!" said Caderousse. stroking his arm, all bruised by the fleshy pincers

"Silence! God gives me strength to overcome a wild beast like you; in the name of that God I act,

"You lie! Take this pen, and write!" Caderousse, awed by the superior power of the abbe, sat down and

Sir, The man whom you are receiving at your house, and to whom you intend to marry your daughter, is a

felon who escaped with me from confinement at Toulon. He was No. 59, and I No. 58. He was called

"If I sought your ruin, fool, I should drag you to the first guardhouse; besides, when that note is delivered, in

Caderousse signed it. "The address, `To monsieur the Baron Danglars, banker, Rue de la Chaussee d'Antin.'"

Caderousse wrote the address. The abbe took the note. "Now," said he, "that suffices begone!"

"I ask you what can I do? I have tried to make you a happy man, and you have turned out a murderer."

"If you reach your home safely, leave Paris, leave France, and wherever you may be, so long as you conduct

yourself well, I will send you a small annuity; for, if you return home safely, then"

"As true as I am a Christian," stammered Caderousse, "you will make me die of fright!"

Caderousse, scarcely yet relying on this promise, put his legs out of the window and stood on the ladder.

"Now go down," said the abbe, folding his arms. Understanding he had nothing more to fear from him,

Caderousse began to go down. Then the count brought the taper to the window, that it might be seen in the

ChampsElysees that a man was getting out of the window while another held a light.

"What are you doing, reverend sir? Suppose a watchman should pass?" And he blew out the light. He then

descended, but it was only when he felt his foot touch the ground that he was satisfied of his safety.

Monte Cristo returned to his bedroom, and, glancing rapidly from the garden to the street, he saw first

Caderousse, who after walking to the end of the garden, fixed his ladder against the wall at a different part

from where he came in. The count then looking over into the street, saw the man who appeared to be waiting

run in the same direction, and place himself against the angle of the wall where Caderousse would come over.

Caderousse climbed the ladder slowly, and looked over the coping to see if the street was quiet. No one could

be seen or heard. The clock of the Invalides struck one. Then Caderousse sat astride the coping, and drawing

up his ladder passed it over the wall; then he began to descend, or rather to slide down by the two stanchions,

which he did with an ease which proved how accustomed he was to the exercise. But, once started, he could

not stop. In vain did he see a man start from the shadow when he was halfway down in vain did he see an

arm raised as he touched the ground. Before he could defend himself that arm struck him so violently in the

back that he let go the ladder, crying, "Help!" A second blow struck him almost immediately in the side, and

he fell, calling, "Help, murder!" Then, as he rolled on the ground, his adversary seized him by the hair, and

struck him a third blow in the chest. This time Caderousse endeavored to call again, but he could only utter a

groan, and he shuddered as the blood flowed from his three wounds. The assassin, finding that he no longer

cried out, lifted his head up by the hair; his eyes were closed, and the mouth was distorted. The murderer,

supposing him dead, let fall his head and disappeared. Then Caderousse, feeling that he was leaving him,

raised himself on his elbow, and with a dying voice cried with great effort, "Murder! I am dying! Help,

This mournful appeal pierced the darkness. The door of the backstaircase opened, then the sidegate of the

"Ah, it's all over! You are come too late you are come to see me die. What blows, what blood!" He

fainted. Ali and his master conveyed the wounded man into a room. Monte Cristo motioned to Ali to undress

him, and he then examined his dreadful wounds. "My God!" he exclaimed, "thy vengeance is sometimes

delayed, but only that it may fall the more effectually." Ali looked at his master for further instructions.

"Bring here immediately the king's attorney, M. de Villefort, who lives in the Faubourg St. Honore. As you

pass the lodge, wake the porter, and send him for a surgeon." Ali obeyed, leaving the abbe alone with

When the wretched man again opened his eyes, the count looked at him with a mournful expression of pity,

and his lips moved as if in prayer. "A surgeon, reverend sir a surgeon!" said Caderousse.

"Yes. After giving me the plan of this house, doubtless hoping I should kill the count and he thus become his

heir, or that the count would kill me and I should be out of his way, he waylaid me, and has murdered me."

"Wait a moment," said Monte Cristo. He left the room, and returned in five minutes with a phial. The dying

man's eyes were all the time riveted on the door, through which he hoped succor would arrive. "Hasten,

reverend sir, hasten! I shall faint again!" Monte Cristo approached, and dropped on his purple lips three or

four drops of the contents of the phial. Caderousse drew a deep breath. "Oh," said he, "that is life to me;

"Yes yes," said Caderousse; and his eyes glistened at the thought of this posthumous revenge. Monte Cristo

"I die, murdered by the Corsican Benedetto, my comrade in the galleys at Toulouse, No. 59."

Monte Cristo gave the pen to Caderousse, who collected all his strength, signed it, and fell back on his bed,

saying: "You will relate all the rest, reverend sir; you will say he calls himself Andrea Cavalcanti. He lodges

at the Hotel des Princes. Oh, I am dying!" He again fainted. The abbe made him smell the contents of the

phial, and he again opened his eyes. His desire for revenge had not forsaken him.

"I will say he had doubtless given you the plan of this house, in the hope the count would kill you. I will say,

likewise, he had apprised the count, by a note, of your intention, and, the count being absent, I read the note

"And he will be guillotined, will be not?" said Caderousse. "Promise me that, and I will die with that hope."

"I will say," continued the count, "that he followed and watched you the whole time, and when he saw you

"Remember my words: `If you return home safely, I shall believe God has forgiven you, and I will forgive

"And you did not warn me!" cried Caderousse, raising himself on his elbows. "You knew I should be killed

"No; for I saw God's justice placed in the hands of Benedetto, and should have thought it sacrilege to oppose

"God's justice! Speak not of it, reverend sir. If God were just, you know how many would be punished who

"Patience," said the abbe, in a tone which made the dying man shudder; "have patience!" Caderousse looked

at him with amazement. "Besides," said the abbe, "God is merciful to all, as he has been to you; he is first a

"Had I been so unhappy as not to believe in him until now," said Monte Cristo, "I must believe on seeing

"Listen," said the abbe, extending his hand over the wounded man, as if to command him to believe; "this is

what the God in whom, on your deathbed, you refuse to believe, has done for you he gave you health,

strength, regular employment, even friends a life, in fact, which a man might enjoy with a calm

conscience. Instead of improving these gifts, rarely granted so abundantly, this has been your course you

have given yourself up to sloth and drunkenness, and in a fit of intoxication have ruined your best friend."

"Help!" cried Caderousse; "I require a surgeon, not a priest; perhaps I am not mortally wounded I may not

"Your wounds are so far mortal that, without the three drops I gave you, you would now be dead. Listen,

"Ah," murmured Caderousse, "what a strange priest you are; you drive the dying to despair, instead of

"Listen," continued the abbe. "When you had betrayed your friend God began not to strike, but to warn you.

Poverty overtook you. You had already passed half your life in coveting that which you might have

honorably acquired; and already you contemplated crime under the excuse of want, when God worked a

miracle in your behalf, sending you, by my hands, a fortune brilliant, indeed, for you, who had never

possessed any. But this unexpected, unhopedfor, unheardof fortune sufficed you no longer when you once

possessed it; you wished to double it, and how? by a murder! You succeeded, and then God snatched it

"It was not I who wished to kill the Jew," said Caderousse; "it was La Carconte."

"Yes," said Monte Cristo, "and God, I cannot say in justice, for his justice would have slain you, but

"You thought it a mercy then, miserable wretch! The coward who feared death rejoiced at perpetual disgrace;

for like all galleyslaves, you said, `I may escape from prison, I cannot from the grave.' And you said truly;

the way was opened for you unexpectedly. An Englishman visited Toulon, who had vowed to rescue two men

from infamy, and his choice fell on you and your companion. You received a second fortune, money and

tranquillity were restored to you, and you, who had been condemned to a felon's life, might live as other men.

Then, wretched creature, then you tempted God a third time. `I have not enough,' you said, when you had

more than you before possessed, and you committed a third crime, without reason, without excuse. God is

wearied; he has punished you." Caderousse was fast sinking. "Give me drink," said he: "I thirst I burn!"

Monte Cristo gave him a glass of water. "And yet that villain, Benedetto, will escape!"

"Then, you, too, will be punished, for you did not do your duty as a priest you should have prevented

"I?" said the count, with a smile which petrified the dying man, "when you had just broken your knife against

the coat of mail which protected my breast! Yet perhaps if I had found you humble and penitent, I might have

prevented Benedetto from killing you; but I found you proud and bloodthirsty, and I left you in the hands of

"I do not believe there is a God," howled Caderousse; "you do not believe it; you lie you lie!"

"Silence," said the abbe; "you will force the last drop of blood from your veins. What! you do not believe in

God when he is striking you dead? you will not believe in him, who requires but a prayer, a word, a tear, and

he will forgive? God, who might have directed the assassin's dagger so as to end your career in a moment, has

given you this quarter of an hour for repentance. Reflect, then, wretched man, and repent."

"No," said Caderousse, "no; I will not repent. There is no God; there is no providence all comes by

"There is a providence; there is a God," said Monte Cristo, "of whom you are a striking proof, as you lie in

utter despair, denying him, while I stand before you, rich, happy, safe and entreating that God in whom you

"But who are you, then?" asked Caderousse, fixing his dying eyes on the count. "Look well at me!" said

Monte Cristo, putting the light near his face. "Well, the abbe the Abbe Busoni." Monte Cristo took off the

wig which disfigured him, and let fall his black hair, which added so much to the beauty of his pallid features.

"Oh?" said Caderousse, thunderstruck, "but for that black hair, I should say you were the Englishman, Lord

"I am neither the Abbe Busoni nor Lord Wilmore," said Monte Cristo; "think again, do you not recollect

me?" Those was a magic effect in the count's words, which once more revived the exhausted powers of the

miserable man. "Yes, indeed," said he; "I think I have seen you and known you formerly."

"Because nothing can save you; your wounds are mortal. Had it been possible to save you, I should have

considered it another proof of God's mercy, and I would again have endeavored to restore you, I swear by my

"By your father's tomb!" said Caderousse, supported by a supernatural power, and halfraising himself to see

more distinctly the man who had just taken the oath which all men hold sacred; "who, then, are you?" The

count had watched the approach of death. He knew this was the last struggle. He approached the dying man,

and, leaning over him with a calm and melancholy look, he whispered, "I am I am" And his almost

closed lips uttered a name so low that the count himself appeared afraid to hear it. Caderousse, who had

raised himself on his knees, and stretched out his arm, tried to draw back, then clasping his hands, and raising

them with a desperate effort, "O my God, my God!" said he, "pardon me for having denied thee; thou dost

exist, thou art indeed man's father in heaven, and his judge on earth. My God, my Lord, I have long despised

thee! Pardon me, my God; receive me, O my Lord!" Caderousse sighed deeply, and fell back with a groan.

"One!" said the count mysteriously, his eyes fixed on the corpse, disfigured by so awful a death. Ten minutes

afterwards the surgeon and the procureur arrived, the one accompanied by the porter, the other by Ali, and

The daring attempt to rob the count was the topic of conversation throughout Paris for the next fortnight. The

dying man had signed a deposition declaring Benedetto to be the assassin. The police had orders to make the

strictest search for the murderer. Caderousse's knife, dark lantern, bunch of keys, and clothing, excepting the

waistcoat, which could not be found, were deposited at the registry; the corpse was conveyed to the morgue.

The count told every one that this adventure had happened during his absence at Auteuil, and that he only

knew what was related by the Abbe Busoni, who that evening, by mere chance, had requested to pass the

night in his house, to examine some valuable books in his library. Bertuccio alone turned pale whenever

Benedetto's name was mentioned in his presence, but there was no reason why any one should notice his

doing so. Villefort, being called on to prove the crime, was preparing his brief with the same ardor that he

But three weeks had already passed, and the most diligent search had been unsuccessful; the attempted

robbery and the murder of the robber by his comrade were almost forgotten in anticipation of the approaching

marriage of Mademoiselle Danglars to the Count Andrea Cavalcanti. It was expected that this wedding would

shortly take place, as the young man was received at the banker's as the betrothed. Letters had been

despatched to M. Cavalcanti, as the count's father, who highly approved of the union, regretted his inability to

leave Parma at that time, and promised a wedding gift of a hundred and fifty thousand livres. It was agreed

that the three millions should be intrusted to Danglars to invest; some persons had warned the young man of

the circumstances of his future fatherinlaw, who had of late sustained repeated losses; but with sublime

disinterestedness and confidence the young man refused to listen, or to express a single doubt to the baron.

The baron adored Count Andrea Cavalcanti: not so Mademoiselle Eugenie Danglars. With an instinctive

hatred of matrimony, she suffered Andrea's attentions in order to get rid of Morcerf; but when Andrea urged

his suit, she betrayed an entire dislike to him. The baron might possibly have perceived it, but, attributing it to

The delay demanded by Beauchamp had nearly expired. Morcerf appreciated the advice of Monte Cristo to

let things die away of their own accord. No one had taken up the remark about the general, and no one had

recognized in the officer who betrayed the castle of Yanina the noble count in the House of Peers. Albert,

however felt no less insulted; the few lines which had irritated him were certainly intended as an insult.

Besides, the manner in which Beauchamp had closed the conference left a bitter recollection in his heart. He

cherished the thought of the duel, hoping to conceal its true cause even from his seconds. Beauchamp had not

been seen since the day he visited Albert, and those of whom the latter inquired always told him he was out

One morning Albert was awakened by his valet de chambre, who announced Beauchamp. Albert rubbed his

eyes, ordered his servant to introduce him into the small smokingroom on the groundfloor, dressed himself

quickly, and went down. He found Beauchamp pacing the room; on perceiving him Beauchamp stopped.

"Your arrival here, without waiting my visit at your house today, looks well, sir," said Albert. "Tell me, may

I shake hands with you, saying, `Beauchamp, acknowledge you have injured me, and retain my friendship,' or

"Albert," said Beauchamp, with a look of sorrow which stupefied the young man, "let us first sit down and

"Albert," said the journalist, "these are questions which it is difficult to answer."

"I will facilitate it by repeating the question, `Will you, or will you not, retract?'"

"Morcerf, it is not enough to answer `yes' or `no' to questions which concern the honor, the social interest,

and the life of such a man as Lieutenantgeneral the Count of Morcerf, peer of France."

"What I have done, Albert. I reasoned thus money, time, and fatigue are nothing compared with the

reputation and interests of a whole family; probabilities will not suffice, only facts will justify a deadly

combat with a friend. If I strike with the sword, or discharge the contents of a pistol at man with whom, for

three years, I have been on terms of intimacy, I must, at least, know why I do so; I must meet him with a

heart at ease, and that quiet conscience which a man needs when his own arm must save his life."

"Here is my passport; examine the visa Geneva, Milan, Venice, Trieste, Delvino, Yanina. Will you

believe the government of a republic, a kingdom, and an empire?" Albert cast his eyes on the passport, then

"Albert, had you been a stranger, a foreigner, a simple lord, like that Englishman who came to demand

satisfaction three or four months since, and whom I killed to get rid of, I should not have taken this trouble;

but I thought this mark of consideration due to you. I took a week to go, another to return, four days of

quarantine, and fortyeight hours to stay there; that makes three weeks. I returned last night, and here I am."

"What circumlocution! How long you are before you tell me what I most wish to know?"

"You fear to acknowledge that your correspondent his deceived you? Oh, no selflove, Beauchamp.

Albert turned frightfully pale; he endeavored to speak, but the words died on his lips. "My friend," said

Beauchamp, in the most affectionate tone, "I should gladly make an apology; but, alas,"

"Pardon me, my friend, that man was your father!" Albert advanced furiously towards Beauchamp, but the

Albert opened the paper, it was an attestation of four notable inhabitants of Yanina, proving that Colonel

Fernand Mondego, in the service of Ali Tepelini, had surrendered the castle for two million crowns. The

signatures were perfectly legal. Albert tottered and fell overpowered in a chair. It could no longer be doubted;

the family name was fully given. After a moment's mournful silence, his heart overflowed, and he gave way

to a flood of tears. Beauchamp, who had watched with sincere pity the young man's paroxysm of grief,

approached him. "Now, Albert," said he, "you understand me do you not? I wished to see all, and to judge

of everything for myself, hoping the explanation would be in your father's favor, and that I might do him

justice. But, on the contrary, the particulars which are given prove that Fernand Mondego, raised by Ali

Pasha to the rank of governorgeneral, is no other than Count Fernand of Morcerf; then, recollecting the

Albert, still extended on the chair, covered his face with both hands, as if to prevent the light from reaching

him. "I hastened to you," continued Beauchamp, "to tell you, Albert, that in this changing age, the faults of a

father cannot revert upon his children. Few have passed through this revolutionary period, in the midst of

which we were born, without some stain of infamy or blood to soil the uniform of the soldier, or the gown of

the magistrate. Now I have these proofs, Albert, and I am in your confidence, no human power can force me

to a duel which your own conscience would reproach you with as criminal, but I come to offer you what you

can no longer demand of me. Do you wish these proofs, these attestations, which I alone possess, to be

destroyed? Do you wish this frightful secret to remain with us? Confided to me, it shall never escape my lips;

Albert seized them with a convulsive hand, tore them in pieces, and trembling lest the least vestige should

escape and one day appear to confront him, he approached the waxlight, always kept burning for cigars, and

burned every fragment. "Dear, excellent friend," murmured Albert, still burning the papers.

"Let all be forgotten as a sorrowful dream," said Beauchamp; "let it vanish as the last sparks from the

"Yes, yes," said Albert, "and may there remain only the eternal friendship which I promised to my deliverer,

which shall be transmitted to our children's children, and shall always remind me that I owe my life and the

honor of my name to you, for had this been known, oh, Beauchamp, I should have destroyed myself; or,

no, my poor mother! I could not have killed her by the same blow, I should have fled from my

"Dear Albert," said Beauchamp. But this sudden and factitious joy soon forsook the young man, and was

"I am brokenhearted," said Albert. "Listen, Beauchamp! I cannot thus, in a moment relinquish the respect,

the confidence, and pride with which a father's untarnished name inspires a son. Oh, Beauchamp,

Beauchamp, how shall I now approach mine? Shall I draw back my forehead from his embrace, or withhold

my hand from his? I am the most wretched of men. Ah, my mother, my poor mother!" said Albert, gazing

through his tears at his mother's portrait; "if you know this, how much must you suffer!"

"But how came that first note to be inserted in your journal? Some unknown enemy an invisible foe

"The more must you fortify yourself, Albert. Let no trace of emotion be visible on your countenance, bear

your grief as the cloud bears within it ruin and death a fatal secret, known only when the storm bursts. Go,

"Because the rupture or fulfilment of this engagement is connected with the person of whom we were

"I ask you only how your engagement stands? Pray put no construction on my words I do not mean they

"Well," said Beauchamp. Then, seeing the young man was about to relapse into melancholy, "Let us go out,

Albert," said he; "a ride in the wood in the phaeton, or on horseback, will refresh you; we will then return to

"Willingly," said Albert; "but let us walk. I think a little exertion would do me good." The two friends walked

out on the fortress. When arrived at the Madeleine, "Since we are out," said Beauchamp, "let us call on M.

de Monte Cristo; he is admirably adapted to revive one's spirits, because he never interrogates, and in my

Monte Cristo uttered a joyful exclamation on seeing the young men together. "Ah, ha!" said he, "I hope all is

"Yes," said Beauchamp; "the absurd reports have died away, and should they be renewed, I would be the first

"Albert will tell you," replied the count "that I gave him the same advice. Look," added he. "I am finishing

"My papers, thank God, no, my papers are all in capital order, because I have none; but M. Cavalcanti's."

"Yes; do you not know that this is a young man whom the count is introducing?" said Morcerf.

"Let us not misunderstand each other," replied Monte Cristo; "I introduce no one, and certainly not M.

"And who," said Albert with a forced smile, "is to marry Mademoiselle Danglars instead of me, which

"Certainly; do you come from the end of the world?" said Monte Cristo; "you, a journalist, the husband of

"I? Silence, purveyor of gossip, do not spread that report. I make a match? No, you do not know me; I have

"On my account?" said the young man; "oh, no, indeed, the count will do me the justice to assert that I have,

on the contrary, always entreated him to break off my engagement, and happily it is ended. The count

"Listen," said Monte Cristo; "I have had little to do with it, for I am at variance both with the fatherinlaw

and the young man; there is only Mademoiselle Eugenie, who appears but little charmed with the thoughts of

matrimony, and who, seeing how little I was disposed to persuade her to renounce her dear liberty, retains

"Oh, yes, in spite of all I could say. I do not know the young man; he is said to be of good family and rich,

but I never trust to vague assertions. I have warned M. Danglars of it till I am tired, but he is fascinated with

his Luccanese. I have even informed him of a circumstance I consider very serious; the young man was either

charmed by his nurse, stolen by gypsies, or lost by his tutor, I scarcely know which. But I do know his father

lost sight of him for more than ten years; what he did during these ten years, God only knows. Well, all that

was useless. They have commissioned me to write to the major to demand papers, and here they are. I send

"Oh, well, I don't know; but I understand that she is going to Italy. Madame Danglars asked me for letters of

recommendation for the impresari; I gave her a few lines for the director of the Valle Theatre, who is under

some obligation to me. But what is the matter, Albert? you look dull; are you, after all, unconsciously in love

"I am not aware of it," said Albert, smiling sorrowfully. Beauchamp turned to look at some paintings. "But,"

"Well, my dear viscount," said Monte Cristo, "I have an infallible remedy to propose to you."

"Yes; and as I am just now excessively annoyed, I shall go from home. Shall we go together?"

"Ah, you think very lightly of it; I should like to see you with a brief preparing in your house."

"The one M. de Villefort is preparing against my amiable assassin some brigand escaped from the gallows

"Some provincial, it appears. M. de Villefort heard of him at Marseilles, and M. Danglars recollects having

seen him. Consequently, the procureur is very active in the affair, and the prefect of police very much

interested; and, thanks to that interest, for which I am very grateful, they send me all the robbers of Paris and

the neighborhood, under pretence of their being Caderousse's murderers, so that in three months, if this

continue, every robber and assassin in France will have the plan of my house at his fingers' end. I am resolved

to desert them and go to some remote corner of the earth, and shall be happy if you will accompany me,

"I have told you, where the air is pure, where every sound soothes, where one is sure to be humbled, however

proud may be his nature. I love that humiliation, I, who am master of the universe, as was Augustus."

"To sea, viscount; you know I am a sailor. I was rocked when an infant in the arms of old ocean, and on the

bosom of the beautiful Amphitrite; I have sported with the green mantle of the one and the azure robe of the

"Well, Viscount, there will be in my courtyard this evening a good travelling britzka, with four posthorses,

in which one may rest as in a bed. M. Beauchamp, it holds four very well, will you accompany us?"

"No, dear Morcerf; you know I only refuse when the thing is impossible. Besides, it is important," added he

"Ah, you are a good and an excellent friend," said Albert; "yes, you are right; watch, watch, Beauchamp, and

try to discover the enemy who made this disclosure." Albert and Beauchamp parted, the last pressure of their

"Beauchamp is a worthy fellow," said Monte Cristo, when the journalist was gone; "is he not, Albert?"

"Yes, and a sincere friend; I love him devotedly. But now we are alone, although it is immaterial to me,

"Exactly what I wish for; I will apprise my mother of my intention, and return to you."

"Yes, I am aware you may go alone, since I once met you in Italy but to accompany the mysterious Monte

"You forget, count, that I have often told you of the deep interest my mother takes in you."

"`Woman is fickle.' said Francis I.; `woman is like a wave of the sea,' said Shakespeare; both the great king

"As I am only a humble foreigner, you must pardon me if I do not understand all the subtle refinements of

"What I mean to say is, that my mother is not quick to give her confidence, but when she does she never

"Ah, yes, indeed," said Monte Cristo with a sigh; "and do you think she is in the least interested in me?"

"I repeat it, you must really be a very strange and superior man, for my mother is so absorbed by the interest

"On the contrary, she often says, `Morcerf, I believe the count has a noble nature; try to gain his esteem.'"

"You see, then," said Albert, "that instead of opposing, she will encourage me."

"Adieu, then, until five o'clock; be punctual, and we shall arrive at twelve or one."

"You are certainly a prodigy; you will soon not only surpass the railway, which would not be very difficult in

"But, viscount, since we cannot perform the journey in less than seven or eight hours, do not keep me

"Do not fear, I have little to prepare." Monte Cristo smiled as he nodded to Albert, then remained a moment

absorbed in deep meditation. But passing his hand across his forehead as if to dispel his revery, he rang the

bell twice and Bertuccio entered. "Bertuccio," said he, "I intend going this evening to Normandy, instead of

tomorrow or the next day. You will have sufficient time before five o'clock; despatch a messenger to apprise

the grooms at the first station. M. de Morcerf will accompany me." Bertuccio obeyed and despatched a

courier to Pontoise to say the travellingcarriage would arrive at six o'clock. From Pontoise another express

was sent to the next stage, and in six hours all the horses stationed on the road were ready. Before his

departure, the count went to Haidee's apartments, told her his intention, and resigned everything to her care.

Albert was punctual. The journey soon became interesting from its rapidity, of which Morcerf had formed no

previous idea. "Truly," said Monte Cristo, "with your posthorses going at the rate of two leagues an hour, and

that absurd law that one traveller shall not pass another without permission, so that an invalid or illtempered

traveller may detain those who are well and active, it is impossible to move; I escape this annoyance by

The count put his head out of the window and whistled, and the horses appeared to fly. The carriage rolled

with a thundering noise over the pavement, and every one turned to notice the dazzling meteor. Ali, smiling,

repeated the sound, grasped the reins with a firm hand, and spurred his horses, whose beautiful manes floated

in the breeze. This child of the desert was in his element, and with his black face and sparkling eyes appeared,

in the cloud of dust he raised, like the genius of the simoom and the god of the hurricane. "I never knew till

now the delight of speed," said Morcerf, and the last cloud disappeared from his brow; "but where the devil

"Precisely," said the count; "six years since I bought a horse in Hungary remarkable for its swiftness. The

thirtytwo that we shall use tonight are its progeny; they are all entirely black, with the exception of a star

"That is perfectly admirable; but what do you do, count, with all these horses?"

"When I no longer require them, Bertuccio will sell them, and he expects to realize thirty or forty thousand

"Then he will sell them to some Eastern vizier, who will empty his coffers to purchase them, and refill them

"Then he must be a wonder. My dear count, if you tell me many more marvellous things, I warn you I shall

"I countenance nothing that is marvellous, M. Albert. Tell me, why does a steward rob his master?"

"You are mistaken; it is because he has a wife and family, and ambitious desires for himself and them. Also

because he is not sure of always retaining his situation, and wishes to provide for the future. Now, M.

Bertuccio is alone in the world; he uses my property without accounting for the use he makes of it; he is sure

"But I deal in certainties; he is the best servant over whom one has the power of life and death."

There are words which close a conversation with an iron door; such was the count's "yes." The whole journey

was performed with equal rapidity; the thirtytwo horses, dispersed over seven stages, brought them to their

destination in eight hours. At midnight they arrived at the gate of a beautiful park. The porter was in

attendance; he had been apprised by the groom of the last stage of the count's approach. At half past two in

the morning Morcerf was conducted to his apartments, where a bath and supper were prepared. The servant

who had travelled at the back of the carriage waited on him; Baptistin, who rode in front, attended the count.

Albert bathed, took his supper, and went to bed. All night he was lulled by the melancholy noise of the surf.

On rising, he went to his window, which opened on a terrace, having the sea in front, and at the back a pretty

park bounded by a small forest. In a creek lay a little sloop, with a narrow keel and high masts, bearing on its

flag the Monte Cristo arms which were a mountain on a sea azure, with a cross gules on the shield. Around

the schooner lay a number of small fishingboats belonging to the fishermen of the neighboring village, like

humble subjects awaiting orders from their queen. There, as in every spot where Monte Cristo stopped, if but

Albert found in his anteroom two guns, with all the accoutrements for hunting; a lofty room on the

groundfloor containing all the ingenious instruments the English eminent in piscatory pursuits, since

they are patient and sluggish have invented for fishing. The day passed in pursuing those exercises in

which Monte Cristo excelled. They killed a dozen pheasants in the park, as many trout in the stream, dined in

Towards the evening of the third day. Albert, completely exhausted with the exercise which invigorated

Monte Cristo, was sleeping in an armchair near the window, while the count was designing with his

architect the plan of a conservatory in his house, when the sound of a horse at full speed on the high road

made Albert look up. He was disagreeably surprised to see his own valet de chambre, whom he had not

"Florentin here!" cried he, starting up; "is my mother ill?" And he hastened to the door. Monte Cristo watched

and saw him approach the valet, who drew a small sealed parcel from his pocket, containing a newspaper and

a letter. "From whom is this?" said he eagerly. "From M. Beauchamp," replied Florentin.

"Yes, sir; he sent for me to his house, gave me money for my journey, procured a horse, and made me

Albert opened the letter with fear, uttered a shriek on reading the first line, and seized the paper. His sight

was dimmed, his legs sank under him, and he would have fallen had not Florentin supported him.

"Poor young man," said Monte Cristo in a low voice; "it is then true that the sin of the father shall fall on the

children to the third and fourth generation." Meanwhile Albert had revived, and, continuing to read, he threw

"All was quiet, but on returning from M. Beauchamp's, I found madame in tears: she had sent for me to know

when you would return. I told her my orders from M. Beauchamp; she first extended her arms to prevent me,

but after a moment's reflection, `Yes, go, Florentin,' said she, `and may he come quickly.'"

"Yes, my mother," said Albert, "I will return, and woe to the infamous wretch! But first of all I must get

He went back to the room where he had left Monte Cristo. Five minutes had sufficed to make a complete

transformation in his appearance. His voice had become rough and hoarse; his face was furrowed with

wrinkles; his eyes burned under the blueveined lids, and he tottered like a drunken man. "Count," said he, "I

thank you for your hospitality, which I would gladly have enjoyed longer; but I must return to Paris."

"A great misfortune, more important to me than life. Don't question me, I beg of you, but lend me a horse."

"My stables are at your command, viscount; but you will kill yourself by riding on horseback. Take a

"No, it would delay me, and I need the fatigue you warn me of; it will do me good." Albert reeled as if he had

been shot, and fell on a chair near the door. Monte Cristo did not see this second manifestation of physical

exhaustion; he was at the window, calling, "Ali, a horse for M. de Morcerf quick! he is in a hurry!" These

words restored Albert; he darted from the room, followed by the count. "Thank you!" cried he, throwing

himself on his horse. "Return as soon as you can, Florentin. Must I use any password to procure a horse?"

"Only dismount; another will be immediately saddled." Albert hesitated a moment. "You may think my

departure strange and foolish," said the young man; "you do not know how a paragraph in a newspaper may

exasperate one. Read that," said he, "when I am gone, that you may not be witness of my anger."

While the count picked up the paper he put spurs to his horse, which leaped in astonishment at such an

unusual stimulus, and shot away with the rapidity of an arrow. The count watched him with a feeling of

"The French officer in the service of Ali Pasha of Yanina alluded to three weeks since in the Impartial, who

not only surrendered the castle of Yanina, but sold his benefactor to the Turks, styled himself truly at that

time Fernand, as our esteemed contemporary states; but he has since added to his Christian name a title of

nobility and a family name. He now calls himself the Count of Morcerf, and ranks among the peers."

Thus the terrible secret, which Beauchamp had so generously destroyed, appeared again like an armed

phantom; and another paper, deriving its information from some malicious source, had published two days

after Albert's departure for Normandy the few lines which had rendered the unfortunate young man almost

At eight o'clock in the morning Albert had arrived at Beauchamp's door. The valet de chambre had received

orders to usher him in at once. Beauchamp was in his bath. "Here I am," said Albert.

"I need not say I think you are too faithful and too kind to have spoken of that painful circumstance. Your

having sent for me is another proof of your affection. So, without losing time, tell me, have you the slightest

"But first tell me all the particulars of this shameful plot." Beauchamp proceeded to relate to the young man,

who was overwhelmed with shame and grief, the following facts. Two days previously, the article had

appeared in another paper besides the Impartial, and, what was more serious, one that was well known as a

government paper. Beauchamp was breakfasting when he read the paragraph. He sent immediately for a

cabriolet, and hastened to the publisher's office. Although professing diametrically opposite principles from

those of the editor of the other paper, Beauchamp as it sometimes, we may say often, happens was his

intimate friend. The editor was reading, with apparent delight, a leading article in the same paper on

"Ah, pardieu," said Beauchamp, "with the paper in your hand, my friend, I need not tell you the cause of my

"Are you interested in the sugar question?" asked the editor of the ministerial paper.

"No," replied Beauchamp, "I have not considered the question; a totally different subject interests me."

"So curious, that I think you are running a great risk of a prosecution for defamation of character."

"Not at all; we have received with the information all the requisite proofs, and we are quite sure M. de

Morcerf will not raise his voice against us; besides, it is rendering a service to one's country to denounce

these wretched criminals who are unworthy of the honor bestowed on them." Beauchamp was thunderstruck.

"Who, then, has so correctly informed you?" asked he; "for my paper, which gave the first information on the

subject, has been obliged to stop for want of proof; and yet we are more interested than you in exposing M.

"Oh, that is very simple; we have not sought to scandalize. This news was brought to us. A man arrived

yesterday from Yanina, bringing a formidable array of documents; and when we hesitated to publish the

Beauchamp understood that nothing remained but to submit, and left the office to despatch a courier to

Morcerf. But he had been unable to send to Albert the following particulars, as the events had transpired after

the messenger's departure; namely, that the same day a great agitation was manifest in the House of Peers

among the usually calm members of that dignified assembly. Every one had arrived almost before the usual

hour, and was conversing on the melancholy event which was to attract the attention of the public towards

one of their most illustrious colleagues. Some were perusing the article, others making comments and

recalling circumstances which substantiated the charges still more. The Count of Morcerf was no favorite

with his colleagues. Like all upstarts, he had had recourse to a great deal of haughtiness to maintain his

position. The true nobility laughed at him, the talented repelled him, and the honorable instinctively despised

him. He was, in fact, in the unhappy position of the victim marked for sacrifice; the finger of God once

The Count of Morcerf alone was ignorant of the news. He did not take in the paper containing the defamatory

article, and had passed the morning in writing letters and in trying a horse. He arrived at his usual hour, with

a proud look and insolent demeanor; he alighted, passed through the corridors, and entered the house without

observing the hesitation of the doorkeepers or the coolness of his colleagues. Business had already been

going on for half an hour when he entered. Every one held the accusing paper, but, as usual, no one liked to

take upon himself the responsibility of the attack. At length an honorable peer, Morcerf's acknowledged

enemy, ascended the tribune with that solemnity which announced that the expected moment had arrived.

There was an impressive silence; Morcerf alone knew not why such profound attention was given to an orator

who was not always listened to with so much complacency. The count did not notice the introduction, in

which the speaker announced that his communication would be of that vital importance that it demanded the

undivided attention of the House; but at the mention of Yanina and Colonel Fernand, he turned so frightfully

pale that every member shuddered and fixed his eyes upon him. Moral wounds have this peculiarity, they

may be hidden, but they never close; always painful, always ready to bleed when touched, they remain fresh

The article having been read during the painful hush that followed, a universal shudder pervaded the

assembly. and immediately the closest attention was given to the orator as he resumed his remarks. He stated

his scruples and the difficulties of the case; it was the honor of M. de Morcerf, and that of the whole House,

he proposed to defend, by provoking a debate on personal questions, which are always such painful themes of

discussion. He concluded by calling for an investigation, which might dispose of the calumnious report

before it had time to spread, and restore M. de Morcerf to the position he had long held in public opinion.

Morcerf was so completely overwhelmed by this great and unexpected calamity that he could scarcely

stammer a few words as he looked around on the assembly. This timidity, which might proceed from the

astonishment of innocence as well as the shame of guilt, conciliated some in his favor; for men who are truly

generous are always ready to compassionate when the misfortune of their enemy surpasses the limits of their

The president put it to the vote, and it was decided that the investigation should take place. The count was

asked what time he required to prepare his defence. Morcerf's courage had revived when he found himself

alive after this horrible blow. "My lords," answered he, "it is not by time I could repel the attack made on me

by enemies unknown to me, and, doubtless, hidden in obscurity; it is immediately, and by a thunderbolt, that

I must repel the flash of lightning which, for a moment, startled me. Oh, that I could, instead of taking up this

defence, shed my last drop of blood to prove to my noble colleagues that I am their equal in worth." These

words made a favorable impression on behalf of the accused. "I demand, then, that the examination shall take

place as soon as possible, and I will furnish the house with all necessary information."

"Today I am at your service," replied the count. The president rang the bell. "Does the House approve that

A committee of twelve members was chosen to examine the proofs brought forward by Morcerf. The

investigation would begin at eight o'clock that evening in the committeeroom, and if postponement were

necessary, the proceedings would be resumed each evening at the same hour. Morcerf asked leave to retire;

he had to collect the documents he had long been preparing against this storm, which his sagacity had

Albert listened, trembling now with hope, then with anger, and then again with shame, for from Beauchamp's

confidence he knew his father was guilty, and he asked himself how, since he was guilty, he could prove his

innocence. Beauchamp hesitated to continue his narrative. "What next?" asked Albert.

"Muster up all your courage, then, for never have you required it more." Albert passed his hand over his

forehead, as if to try his strength, as a man who is preparing to defend his life proves his shield and bends his

sword. He thought himself strong enough, for he mistook fever for energy. "Go on," said he.

"The evening arrived; all Paris was in expectation. Many said your father had only to show himself to crush

the charge against him; many others said he would not appear; while some asserted that they had seen him

start for Brussels; and others went to the policeoffice to inquire if he had taken out a passport. I used all my

influence with one of the committee, a young peer of my acquaintance, to get admission to one of the

galleries. He called for me at seven o'clock, and, before any one had arrived, asked one of the doorkeepers

to place me in a box. I was concealed by a column, and might witness the whole of the terrible scene which

was about to take place. At eight o'clock all were in their places, and M. de Morcerf entered at the last stroke.

He held some papers in his hand; his countenance was calm, and his step firm, and he was dressed with great

care in his military uniform, which was buttoned completely up to the chin. His presence produced a good

effect. The committee was made up of Liberals, several of whom came forward to shake hands with him."

Albert felt his heart bursting at these particulars, but gratitude mingled with his sorrow: he would gladly have

embraced those who had given his father this proof of esteem at a moment when his honor was so powerfully

attacked. "At this moment one of the doorkeepers brought in a letter for the president. `You are at liberty to

speak, M. de Morcerf,' said the president, as he unsealed the letter; and the count began his defence, I assure

you, Albert, in a most eloquent and skilful manner. He produced documents proving that the Vizier of Yanina

had up to the last moment honored him with his entire confidence, since he had interested him with a

negotiation of life and death with the emperor. He produced the ring, his mark of authority, with which Ali

Pasha generally sealed his letters, and which the latter had given him, that he might, on his return at any hour

of the day or night, gain access to the presence, even in the harem. Unfortunately, the negotiation failed, and

when he returned to defend his benefactor, he was dead. `But,' said the count, `so great was Ali Pasha's

confidence, that on his deathbed he resigned his favorite mistress and her daughter to my care.'" Albert

started on hearing these words; the history of Haidee recurred to him, and he remembered what she had said

of that message and the ring, and the manner in which she had been sold and made a slave. "And what effect

did this discourse produce?" anxiously inquired Albert. "I acknowledge it affected me, and, indeed, all the

"Meanwhile, the president carelessly opened the letter which had been brought to him; but the first lines

aroused his attention; he read them again and again, and fixing his eyes on M. de Morcerf, `Count,' said he,

`you have said that the Vizier of Yanina confided his wife and daughter to your care?' `Yes, sir,' replied

Morcerf; `but in that, like all the rest, misfortune pursued me. On my return, Vasiliki and her daughter Haidee

had disappeared.' `Did you know them?' `My intimacy with the pasha and his unlimited confidence

"`Have you any idea what became of them?' `Yes, sir; I heard they had fallen victims to their sorrow, and,

perhaps, to their poverty. I was not rich; my life was in constant danger; I could not seek them, to my great

regret.' The president frowned imperceptibly. `Gentlemen,' said he, `you have heard the Comte de Morcerf's

defence. Can you, sir, produce any witnesses to the truth of what you have asserted?' `Alas, no, monsieur,'

replied the count; `all those who surrounded the vizier, or who knew me at his court, are either dead or gone

away, I know not where. I believe that I alone, of all my countrymen, survived that dreadful war. I have only

the letters of Ali Tepelini, which I have placed before you; the ring, a token of his goodwill, which is here;

and, lastly, the most convincing proof I can offer, after an anonymous attack, and that is the absence of any

witness against my veracity and the purity of my military life.' A murmur of approbation ran through the

assembly; and at this moment, Albert, had nothing more transpired, your father's cause had been gained. It

only remained to put it to the vote, when the president resumed: `Gentlemen and you, monsieur, you will

not be displeased, I presume, to listen to one who calls himself a very important witness, and who has just

presented himself. He is, doubtless, come to prove the perfect innocence of our colleague. Here is a letter I

have just received on the subject; shall it be read, or shall it be passed over? and shall we take no notice of

this incident?' M. de Morcerf turned pale, and clinched his hands on the papers he held. The committee

decided to hear the letter; the count was thoughtful and silent. The president read:

"`Mr. President, I can furnish the committee of inquiry into the conduct of the LieutenantGeneral the

"The president paused, and the count turned pale. The president looked at his auditors. `Proceed,' was heard

"`I was on the spot at the death of Ali Pasha. I was present during his last moments. I know what is become

of Vasiliki and Haidee. I am at the command of the committee, and even claim the honor of being heard. I

"`And who is this witness, or rather this enemy?' asked the count, in a tone in which there was a visible

alteration. `We shall know, sir,' replied the president. `Is the committee willing to hear this witness?' `Yes,

yes,' they all said at once. The doorkeeper was called. `Is there any one in the lobby?' said the president.

"`Yes, sir.' `Who is it?' `A woman, accompanied by a servant.' Every one looked at his neighbor.

`Bring her in,' said the president. Five minutes after the doorkeeper again appeared; all eyes were fixed on

the door, and I," said Beauchamp, "shared the general expectation and anxiety. Behind the doorkeeper

walked a woman enveloped in a large veil, which completely concealed her. It was evident, from her figure

and the perfumes she had about her, that she was young and fastidious in her tastes, but that was all. The

president requested her to throw aside her veil, and it was then seen that she was dressed in the Grecian

"Alas, I guess it. But go on, Beauchamp. You see I am calm and strong. And yet we must be drawing near the

"M. de Morcerf," continued Beauchamp, "looked at this woman with surprise and terror. Her lips were about

to pass his sentence of life or death. To the committee the adventure was so extraordinary and curious, that

the interest they had felt for the count's safety became now quite a secondary matter. The president himself

advanced to place a seat for the young lady; but she declined availing herself of it. As for the count, he had

"`Madame,' said the president, `you have engaged to furnish the committee with some important particulars

respecting the affair at Yanina, and you have stated that you were an eyewitness of the event.' `I was,

indeed,' said the stranger, with a tone of sweet melancholy, and with the sonorous voice peculiar to the East.

"`But allow me to say that you must have been very young then.' `I was four years old; but as those events

deeply concerned me, not a single detail has escaped my memory.' `In what manner could these events

concern you? and who are you, that they should have made so deep an impression on you?' `On them

depended my father's life,' replied she. `I am Haidee, the daughter of Ali Tepelini, pasha of Yanina, and of

"The blush of mingled pride and modesty which suddenly suffused the cheeks of the young woman, the

brilliancy of her eye, and her highly important communication, produced an indescribable effect on the

assembly. As for the count, he could not have been more overwhelmed if a thunderbolt had fallen at his feet

and opened an immense gulf before him. `Madame,' replied the president, bowing with profound respect,

`allow me to ask one question; it shall be the last: Can you prove the authenticity of what you have now

stated?' `I can, sir,' said Haidee, drawing from under her veil a satin satchel highly perfumed; `for here is

the register of my birth, signed by my father and his principal officers, and that of my baptism, my father

having consented to my being brought up in my mother's faith, this latter has been sealed by the grand

primate of Macedonia and Epirus; and lastly (and perhaps the most important), the record of the sale of my

person and that of my mother to the Armenian merchant ElKobbir, by the French officer, who, in his

infamous bargain with the Porte, had reserved as his part of the booty the wife and daughter of his benefactor,

whom he sold for the sum of four hundred thousand francs.' A greenish pallor spread over the count's cheeks,

and his eyes became bloodshot at these terrible imputations, which were listened to by the assembly with

"Haidee, still calm, but with a calmness more dreadful than the anger of another would have been, handed to

the president the record of her sale, written in Arabic. It had been supposed some of the papers might be in

the Arabian, Romaic, or Turkish language, and the interpreter of the House was in attendance. One of the

noble peers, who was familiar with the Arabic language, having studied it during the famous Egyptian

"`I, ElKobbir, a slavemerchant, and purveyor of the harem of his highness, acknowledge having received

for transmission to the sublime emperor, from the French lord, the Count of Monte Cristo, an emerald valued

at eight hundred thousand francs; as the ransom of a young Christian slave of eleven years of age, named

Haidee, the acknowledged daughter of the late lord Ali Tepelini, pasha of Yanina, and of Vasiliki, his

favorite; she having been sold to me seven years previously, with her mother, who had died on arriving at

Constantinople, by a French colonel in the service of the Vizier Ali Tepelini, named Fernand Mondego. The

abovementioned purchase was made on his highness's account, whose mandate I had, for the sum of four

"`Given at Constantinople, by authority of his highness, in the year 1247 of the Hegira.

"`That this record should have all due authority, it shall bear the imperial seal, which the vendor is bound to

"Near the merchant's signature there was, indeed, the seal of the sublime emperor. A dreadful silence

followed the reading of this document; the count could only stare, and his gaze, fixed as if unconsciously on

Haidee, seemed one of fire and blood. `Madame,' said the president, `may reference be made to the Count of

Monte Cristo, who is now, I believe, in Paris?' `Sir,' replied Haidee, `the Count of Monte Cristo, my

"`Who, then, has counselled you to take this step, one for which the court is deeply indebted to you, and

which is perfectly natural, considering your birth and your misfortunes?' `Sir,' replied Haidee, `I have

been led to take this step from a feeling of respect and grief. Although a Christian, may God forgive me, I

have always sought to revenge my illustrious father. Since I set my foot in France, and knew the traitor lived

in Paris, I have watched carefully. I live retired in the house of my noble protector, but I do it from choice. I

love retirement and silence, because I can live with my thoughts and recollections of past days. But the Count

of Monte Cristo surrounds me with every paternal care, and I am ignorant of nothing which passes in the

world. I learn all in the silence of my apartments, for instance, I see all the newspapers, every periodical,

as well as every new piece of music; and by thus watching the course of the life of others, I learned what had

transpired this morning in the House of Peers, and what was to take place this evening; then I wrote.'

"`Then,' remarked the president, `the Count of Monte Cristo knows nothing of your present proceedings?'

`He is quite unaware of them, and I have but one fear, which is that he should disapprove of what I have

done. But it is a glorious day for me,' continued the young girl, raising her ardent gaze to heaven, `that on

"The count had not uttered one word the whole of this time. His colleagues looked at him, and doubtless

pitied his prospects, blighted under the perfumed breath of a woman. His misery was depicted in sinister lines

on his countenance. `M. de Morcerf,' said the president, `do you recognize this lady as the daughter of Ali

Tepelini, pasha of Yanina?' `No,' said Morcerf, attempting to rise, `it is a base plot, contrived by my

enemies.' Haidee, whose eyes had been fixed on the door, as if expecting some one, turned hastily, and,

seeing the count standing, shrieked, `You do not know me?' said she. `Well, I fortunately recognize you! You

are Fernand Mondego, the French officer who led the troops of my noble father! It is you who surrendered

the castle of Yanina! It is you who, sent by him to Constantinople, to treat with the emperor for the life or

death of your benefactor, brought back a false mandate granting full pardon! It is you who, with that mandate,

obtained the pasha's ring, which gave you authority over Selim, the firekeeper! It is you who stabbed Selim.

It is you who sold us, my mother and me, to the merchant, ElKobbir! Assassin, assassin, assassin, you have

"These words had been pronounced with such enthusiasm and evident truth, that every eye was fixed on the

count's forehead, and he himself passed his hand across it, as if he felt Ali's blood still lingering there. `You

positively recognize M. de Morcerf as the officer, Fernand Mondego?' `Indeed I do!' cried Haidee. `Oh,

my mother, it was you who said, "You were free, you had a beloved father, you were destined to be almost a

queen. Look well at that man; it is he who raised your father's head on the point of a spear; it is he who sold

us; it is he who forsook us! Look well at his right hand, on which he has a large wound; if you forgot his

features, you would know him by that hand, into which fell, one by one, the gold pieces of the merchant

ElKobbir!" I know him! Ah, let him say now if he does not recognize me!' Each word fell like a dagger on

Morcerf, and deprived him of a portion of his energy; as she uttered the last, he hid his mutilated hand hastily

in his bosom, and fell back on his seat, overwhelmed by wretchedness and despair. This scene completely

"`Count of Morcerf,' said the president, `do not allow yourself to be cast down; answer. The justice of the

court is supreme and impartial as that of God; it will not suffer you to be trampled on by your enemies

without giving you an opportunity of defending yourself. Shall further inquiries be made? Shall two members

of the House be sent to Yanina? Speak!' Morcerf did not reply. Then all the members looked at each other

with terror. They knew the count's energetic and violent temper; it must be, indeed, a dreadful blow which

would deprive him of courage to defend himself. They expected that his stupefied silence would be followed

"`Has the daughter of Ali Tepelini spoken the truth?' said the president. `Is she, then, the terrible witness to

whose charge you dare not plead "Not guilty"? Have you really committed the crimes of which you are

accused?' The count looked around him with an expression which might have softened tigers, but which

could not disarm his judges. Then he raised his eyes towards the ceiling, but withdrew then, immediately, as

if he feared the roof would open and reveal to his distressed view that second tribunal called heaven, and that

other judge named God. Then, with a hasty movement, he tore open his coat, which seemed to stifle him, and

flew from the room like a madman; his footstep was heard one moment in the corridor, then the rattling of his

carriagewheels as he was driven rapidly away. `Gentlemen,' said the president, when silence was restored,

`is the Count of Morcerf convicted of felony, treason, and conduct unbecoming a member of this House?'

`Yes,' replied all the members of the committee of inquiry with a unanimous voice.

"Haidee had remained until the close of the meeting. She heard the count's sentence pronounced without

betraying an expression of joy or pity; then drawing her veil over her face she bowed majestically to the

councillors, and left with that dignified step which Virgil attributes to his goddesses."

"Then," continued Beauchamp, "I took advantage of the silence and the darkness to leave the house without

being seen. The usher who had introduced me was waiting for me at the door, and he conducted me through

the corridors to a private entrance opening into the Rue de Vaugirard. I left with mingled feelings of sorrow

and delight. Excuse me, Albert, sorrow on your account, and delight with that noble girl, thus pursuing

paternal vengeance. Yes, Albert, from whatever source the blow may have proceeded it may be from an

enemy, but that enemy is only the agent of providence." Albert held his head between his hands; he raised his

face, red with shame and bathed in tears, and seizing Beauchamp's arm, "My friend," said he, "my life is

ended. I cannot calmly say with you, `Providence has struck the blow;' but I must discover who pursues me

with this hatred, and when I have found him I shall kill him, or he will kill me. I rely on your friendship to

"Contempt, my friend? How does this misfortune affect you? No, happily that unjust prejudice is forgotten

which made the son responsible for the father's actions. Review your life, Albert; although it is only just

beginning, did a lovely summer's day ever dawn with greater purity than has marked the commencement of

your career? No, Albert, take my advice. You are young and rich leave Paris all is soon forgotten in

this great Babylon of excitement and changing tastes. You will return after three or four years with a Russian

princess for a bride, and no one will think more of what occurred yesterday than if it had happened sixteen

"Thank you, my dear Beauchamp, thank you for the excellent feeling which prompts your advice; but it

cannot be. I have told you my wish, or rather my determination. You understand that, interested as I am in

this affair, I cannot see it in the same light as you do. What appears to you to emanate from a celestial source,

seems to me to proceed from one far less pure. Providence appears to me to have no share in this affair; and

happily so, for instead of the invisible, impalpable agent of celestial rewards and punishments, I shall find

one both palpable and visible, on whom I shall revenge myself, I assure you, for all I have suffered during the

last month. Now, I repeat, Beauchamp, I wish to return to human and material existence, and if you are still

the friend you profess to be, help me to discover the hand that struck the blow."

"Be it so," said Beauchamp; "if you must have me descend to earth, I submit; and if you will seek your

enemy, I will assist you, and I will engage to find him, my honor being almost as deeply interested as yours."

"Well, then, you understand, Beauchamp, that we begin our search immediately. Each moment's delay is an

eternity for me. The calumniator is not yet punished, and he may hope that he will not be; but, on my honor,

"I do not say there is any truth in what I am going to tell you, but it is, at least, a ray of light in a dark night;

"Well, I will tell you what I did not like to mention on my return from Yanina."

"I went, of course, to the chief banker of the town to make inquiries. At the first word, before I had even

"He!" cried Albert; "yes, it is indeed he who has so long pursued my father with jealous hatred. He, the man

who would be popular, cannot forgive the Count of Morcerf for being created a peer; and this marriage

"Make inquiries, Albert, but do not be angry without reason; make inquiries, and if it be true"

"Oh, yes, if it be true," cried the young man, "he shall pay me all I have suffered."

"I will respect his age as he has respected the honor of my family; if my father had offended him, why did he

not attack him personally? Oh, no, he was afraid to encounter him face to face."

"Oh, do not fear; besides, you will accompany me. Beauchamp, solemn transactions should be sanctioned by

a witness. Before this day closes, if M. Danglars is guilty, he shall cease to live, or I shall die. Pardieu,

"When such resolutions are made, Albert, they should be promptly executed. Do you wish to go to M.

Danglars? Let us go immediately." They sent for a cabriolet. On entering the banker's mansion, they

perceived the phaeton and servant of M. Andrea Cavalcanti. "Ah, parbleu, that's good," said Albert, with a

gloomy tone. "If M. Danglars will not fight with me, I will kill his soninlaw; Cavalcanti will certainly

fight." The servant announced the young man; but the banker, recollecting what had transpired the day

before, did not wish him admitted. It was, however, too late; Albert had followed the footman, and, hearing

the order given, forced the door open, and followed by Beauchamp found himself in the banker's study. "Sir,"

cried the latter, "am I no longer at liberty to receive whom I choose in my house? You appear to forget

"No, sir," said Albert, coldly; "there are circumstances in which one cannot, except through cowardice, I

"I mean," said Albert, drawing near, and without apparently noticing Cavalcanti, who stood with his back

towards the fireplace "I mean to propose a meeting in some retired corner where no one will interrupt us

for ten minutes; that will be sufficient where two men having met, one of them will remain on the

ground." Danglars turned pale; Cavalcanti moved a step forward, and Albert turned towards him. "And you,

too," said he, "come, if you like, monsieur; you have a claim, being almost one of the family, and I will give

as many rendezvous of that kind as I can find persons willing to accept them." Cavalcanti looked at Danglars

with a stupefied air, and the latter, making an effort, arose and stepped between the two young men. Albert's

attack on Andrea had placed him on a different footing, and he hoped this visit had another cause than that he

"Indeed, sir," said he to Albert, "if you are come to quarrel with this gentleman because I have preferred him

"You mistake, sir," said Morcerf with a gloomy smile; "I am not referring in the least to matrimony, and I

only addressed myself to M. Cavalcanti because he appeared disposed to interfere between us. In one respect

you are right, for I am ready to quarrel with every one today; but you have the first claim, M. Danglars."

"Sir," replied Danglars, pale with anger and fear, "I warn you, when I have the misfortune to meet with a mad

dog, I kill it; and far from thinking myself guilty of a crime, I believe I do society a kindness. Now, if you are

mad and try to bite me, I will kill you without pity. Is it my fault that your father has dishonored himself?"

"Yes, miserable wretch!" cried Morcerf, "it is your fault." Danglars retreated a few steps. "My fault?" said he;

"you must be mad! What do I know of the Grecian affair? Have I travelled in that country? Did I advise your

"Silence!" said Albert, with a thundering voice. "No; it is not you who have directly made this exposure and

"I, doubtless, wrote. It appears to me that when about to marry your daughter to a young man, it is right to

"I, indeed? I assure you," cried Danglars, with a confidence and security proceeding less from fear than from

the interest he really felt for the young man, "I solemnly declare to you, that I should never have thought of

"Pardieu, it was the most simple thing in the world. I was speaking of your father's past history. I said the

origin of his fortune remained obscure. The person to whom I addressed my scruples asked me where your

father had acquired his property? I answered, `In Greece.' `Then,' said he, `write to Yanina.'"

"Yes; and I wrote, and will show you my correspondence, if you like." Albert and Beauchamp looked at each

other. "Sir," said Beauchamp, who had not yet spoken, "you appear to accuse the count, who is absent from

"I accuse no one, sir," said Danglars; "I relate, and I will repeat before the count what I have said to you."

"Did he know my father's Christian name was Fernand, and his family name Mondego?"

"Yes, I had told him that long since, and I did only what any other would have done in my circumstances, and

perhaps less. When, the day after the arrival of this answer, your father came by the advice of Monte Cristo to

ask my daughter's hand for you, I decidedly refused him, but without any explanation or exposure. In short,

why should I have any more to do with the affair? How did the honor or disgrace of M. de Morcerf affect

Albert felt the blood mounting to his brow; there was no doubt upon the subject. Danglars defended himself

with the baseness, but at the same time with the assurance, of a man who speaks the truth, at least in part, if

not wholly not for conscience' sake, but through fear. Besides, what was Morcerf seeking? It was not

whether Danglars or Monte Cristo was more or less guilty; it was a man who would answer for the offence,

whether trifling or serious; it was a man who would fight, and it was evident Danglars's would not fight. And,

in addition to this, everything forgotten or unperceived before presented itself now to his recollection. Monte

Cristo knew everything, as he had bought the daughter of Ali Pasha; and, knowing everything, he had advised

Danglars to write to Yanina. The answer known, he had yielded to Albert's wish to be introduced to Haidee,

and allowed the conversation to turn on the death of Ali, and had not opposed Haidee's recital (but having,

doubtless, warned the young girl, in the few Romaic words he spoke to her, not to implicate Morcerf's father).

Besides, had he not begged of Morcerf not to mention his father's name before Haidee? Lastly, he had taken

Albert to Normandy when he knew the final blow was near. There could be no doubt that all had been

calculated and previously arranged; Monte Cristo then was in league with his father's enemies. Albert took

"You are right," said the latter; "M. Danglars has only been a secondary agent in this sad affair, and it is of M.

de Monte Cristo that you must demand an explanation." Albert turned. "Sir," said he to Danglars, "understand

that I do not take a final leave of you; I must ascertain if your insinuations are just, and am going now to

inquire of the Count of Monte Cristo." He bowed to the banker, and went out with Beauchamp, without

appearing to notice Cavalcanti. Danglars accompanied him to the door, where he again assured Albert that no

At the banker's door Beauchamp stopped Morcerf. "Listen," said he; "just now I told you it was of M. de

"Yes; M. Danglars is a moneylover, and those who love money, you know, think too much of what they risk

to be easily induced to fight a duel. The other is, on the contrary, to all appearance a true nobleman; but do

"Do not be alarmed," said Beauchamp; "he will meet you. My only fear is that he will be too strong for you."

"My friend," said Morcerf, with a sweet smile, "that is what I wish. The happiest thing that could occur to

"My poor mother!" said Albert, passing his hand across his eyes, "I know she would; but better so than die of

"He intended returning some hours after me, and doubtless he is now at home." They ordered the driver to

take them to No. 30 ChampsElysees. Beauchamp wished to go in alone, but Albert observed that as this was

an unusual circumstance he might be allowed to deviate from the usual etiquette in affairs of honor. The

cause which the young man espoused was one so sacred that Beauchamp had only to comply with all his

wishes; he yielded and contented himself with following Morcerf. Albert sprang from the porter's lodge to the

steps. He was received by Baptistin. The count had, indeed, just arrived, but he was in his bath, and had

"Very good," replied Albert; "that is all I wished to know." Then, turning towards Beauchamp, "If you have

anything to attend to, Beauchamp, do it directly; if you have any appointment for this evening, defer it till

tomorrow. I depend on you to accompany me to the opera; and if you can, bring ChateauRenaud with you."

Beauchamp availed himself of Albert's permission, and left him, promising to call for him at a quarter before

eight. On his return home, Albert expressed his wish to Franz Debray, and Morrel, to see them at the opera

that evening. Then he went to see his mother, who since the events of the day before had refused to see any

one, and had kept her room. He found her in bed, overwhelmed with grief at this public humiliation. The

sight of Albert produced the effect which might naturally be expected on Mercedes; she pressed her son's

hand and sobbed aloud, but her tears relieved her. Albert stood one moment speechless by the side of his

mother's bed. It was evident from his pale face and knit brows that his resolution to revenge himself was

growing weaker. "My dear mother," said he, "do you know if M. de Morcerf has any enemy?" Mercedes

started; she noticed that the young man did not say "my father." "My son," she said, "persons in the count's

situation have many secret enemies. Those who are known are not the most dangerous."

"I know it, and appeal to your penetration. You are of so superior a mind, nothing escapes you."

"Because, for instance, you noticed on the evening of the ball we gave, that M. de Monte Cristo would eat

nothing in our house." Mercedes raised herself on her feverish arm. "M. de Monte Cristo!" she exclaimed;

"You know, mother, M. de Monte Cristo is almost an Oriental, and it is customary with the Orientals to

secure full liberty for revenge by not eating or drinking in the houses of their enemies."

"Do you say M. de Monte Cristo is our enemy?" replied Mercedes, becoming paler than the sheet which

covered her. "Who told you so? Why, you are mad, Albert! M. de Monte Cristo has only shown us kindness.

M. de Monte Cristo saved your life; you yourself presented him to us. Oh, I entreat you, my son, if you had

entertained such an idea, dispel it; and my counsel to you nay, my prayer is to retain his friendship."

"Mother," replied the young man, "you have especial reasons for telling me to conciliate that man."

"I?" said Mercedes, blushing as rapidly as she had turned pale, and again becoming paler than ever.

"Yes, doubtless; and is it not that he may never do us any harm?" Mercedes shuddered, and, fixing on her son

a scrutinizing gaze, "You speak strangely," said she to Albert, "and you appear to have some singular

prejudices. What has the count done? Three days since you were with him in Normandy; only three days

An ironical smile passed over Albert's lips. Mercedes saw it and with the double instinct of woman and

mother guessed all; but as she was prudent and strongminded she concealed both her sorrows and her fears.

Albert was silent; an instant after, the countess resumed: "You came to inquire after my health; I will

candidly acknowledge that I am not well. You should install yourself here, and cheer my solitude. I do not

"Mother," said the young man, "you know how gladly I would obey your wish, but an urgent and important

"Well," replied Mercedes, sighing, "go, Albert; I will not make you a slave to your filial piety." Albert

pretended he did not hear, bowed to his mother, and quitted her. Scarcely had he shut her door, when

Mercedes called a confidential servant, and ordered him to follow Albert wherever he should go that evening,

and to come and tell her immediately what he observed. Then she rang for her lady's maid, and, weak as she

was, she dressed, in order to be ready for whatever might happen. The footman's mission was an easy one.

Albert went to his room, and dressed with unusual care. At ten minutes to eight Beauchamp arrived; he had

seen ChateauRenaud, who had promised to be in the orchestra before the curtain was raised. Both got into

Albert's coupe; and, as the young man had no reason to conceal where he was going, he called aloud, "To the

ChateauRenaud was at his post; apprised by Beauchamp of the circumstances, he required no explanation

from Albert. The conduct of the son in seeking to avenge his father was so natural that ChateauRenaud did

not seek to dissuade him, and was content with renewing his assurances of devotion. Debray was not yet

come, but Albert knew that he seldom lost a scene at the opera. Albert wandered about the theatre until the

curtain was drawn up. He hoped to meet with M. de Monte Cristo either in the lobby or on the stairs. The bell

summoned him to his seat, and he entered the orchestra with ChateauRenaud and Beauchamp. But his eyes

scarcely quitted the box between the columns, which remained obstinately closed during the whole of the first

act. At last, as Albert was looking at his watch for about the hundredth time, at the beginning of the second

act the door opened, and Monte Cristo entered, dressed in black, and, leaning over the front of the box,

looked around the pit. Morrel followed him, and looked also for his sister and brother inlaw; he soon

The count, in his survey of the pit, encountered a pale face and threatening eyes, which evidently sought to

gain his attention. He recognized Albert, but thought it better not to notice him, as he looked so angry and

discomposed. Without communicating his thoughts to his companion, he sat down, drew out his operaglass,

and looked another way. Although apparently not noticing Albert, he did not, however, lose sight of him, and

when the curtain fell at the end of the second act, he saw him leave the orchestra with his two friends. Then

his head was seen passing at the back of the boxes, and the count knew that the approaching storm was

intended to fall on him. He was at the moment conversing cheerfully with Morrel, but he was well prepared

for what might happen. The door opened, and Monte Cristo, turning round, saw Albert, pale and trembling,

"Well," cried he, with that benevolent politeness which distinguished his salutation from the common

civilities of the world, "my cavalier has attained his object. Goodevening, M. de Morcerf." The countenance

of this man, who possessed such extraordinary control over his feelings, expressed the most perfect

cordiality. Morrel only then recollected the letter he had received from the viscount, in which, without

assigning any reason, he begged him to go to the opera, but he understood that something terrible was

"We are not come here, sir, to exchange hypocritical expressions of politeness, or false professions of

friendship," said Albert, "but to demand an explanation." The young man's trembling voice was scarcely

audible. "An explanation at the opera?" said the count, with that calm tone and penetrating eye which

characterize the man who knows his cause is good. "Little acquainted as I am with the habits of Parisians, I

"Still, if people will shut themselves up," said Albert, "and cannot be seen because they are bathing, dining,

or asleep, we must avail ourselves of the opportunity whenever they are to be seen."

"I am not difficult of access, sir; for yesterday, if my memory does not deceive me, you were at my house."

"Yesterday I was at your house, sir," said the young man; "because then I knew not who you were." In

pronouncing these words Albert had raised his voice so as to be heard by those in the adjoining boxes and in

the lobby. Thus the attention of many was attracted by this altercation. "Where are you come from, sir? You

"Provided I understand your perfidy, sir, and succeed in making you understand that I will be revenged, I

"I do not understand you, sir," replied Monte Cristo; "and if I did, your tone is too high. I am at home here,

and I alone have a right to raise my voice above another's. Leave the box, sir!" Monte Cristo pointed towards

the door with the most commanding dignity. "Ah, I shall know how to make you leave your home!" replied

Albert, clasping in his convulsed grasp the glove, which Monte Cristo did not lose sight of.

"Well, well," said Monte Cristo quietly, "I see you wish to quarrel with me; but I would give you one piece of

advice, which you will do well to keep in mind. It is in poor taste to make a display of a challenge. Display is

At this name a murmur of astonishment passed around the group of spectators of this scene. They had talked

of no one but Morcerf the whole day. Albert understood the allusion in a moment, and was about to throw his

glove at the count, when Morrel seized his hand, while Beauchamp and ChateauRenaud, fearing the scene

would surpass the limits of a challenge, held him back. But Monte Cristo, without rising, and leaning forward

in his chair, merely stretched out his arm and, taking the damp, crushed glove from the clinched hand of the

young man, "Sir," said he in a solemn tone, "I consider your glove thrown, and will return it to you wrapped

around a bullet. Now leave me or I will summon my servants to throw you out at the door."

Wild, almost unconscious, and with eyes inflamed, Albert stepped back, and Morrel closed the door. Monte

Cristo took up his glass again as if nothing had happened; his face was like marble, and his heart was like

"Indeed?" said Morrel. "I had been told, but would not credit it, that the Grecian slave I have seen with you

"Yes. Albert wrote to request me to come to the opera, doubtless that I might be a witness to the insult he

"What shall I do with Albert? As certainly, Maximilian, as I now press your hand, I shall kill him before ten

o'clock tomorrow morning." Morrel, in his turn, took Monte Cristo's hand in both of his, and he shuddered

"Do not speak to me of that," said Monte Cristo, with the first movement of anger he had betrayed; "I will

make him suffer." Morrel, amazed, let fall Monte Cristo's hand. "Count, count!" said he.

"Dear Maximilian," interrupted the count, "listen how adorably Duprez is singing that line,

"I was the first to discover Duprez at Naples, and the first to applaud him. Bravo, bravo!" Morrel saw it was

useless to say more, and refrained. The curtain, which had risen at the close of the scene with Albert, again

"Come in," said Monte Cristo with a voice that betrayed not the least emotion; and immediately Beauchamp

appeared. "Goodevening, M. Beauchamp," said Monte Cristo, as if this was the first time he had seen the

Beauchamp bowed, and, sitting down, "Sir," said he, "I just now accompanied M. de Morcerf, as you saw."

"And that means," replied Monte Cristo, laughing, "that you had, probably, just dined together. I am happy to

"Sir," said M. Beauchamp, "Albert was wrong, I acknowledge, to betray so much anger, and I come, on my

own account, to apologize for him. And having done so, entirely on my own account, be it understood, I

would add that I believe you too gentlemanly to refuse giving him some explanation concerning your

connection with Yanina. Then I will add two words about the young Greek girl." Monte Cristo motioned him

to be silent. "Come," said he, laughing, "there are all my hopes about to be destroyed."

"Doubtless you wish to make me appear a very eccentric character. I am, in your opinion, a Lara, a Manfred,

a Lord Ruthven; then, just as I am arriving at the climax, you defeat your own end, and seek to make an

ordinary man of me. You bring me down to your own level, and demand explanations! Indeed, M.

"M. Beauchamp," interposed this strange man, "the Count of Monte Cristo bows to none but the Count of

Monte Cristo himself. Say no more, I entreat you. I do what I please, M. Beauchamp, and it is always well

"Sir," replied the young man, "honest men are not to be paid with such coin. I require honorable guaranties."

"I am, sir, a living guaranty," replied Monte Cristo, motionless, but with a threatening look; "we have both

blood in our veins which we wish to shed that is our mutual guaranty. Tell the viscount so, and that

"It is quite immaterial to me," said Monte Cristo, "and it was very unnecessary to disturb me at the opera for

such a trifle. In France people fight with the sword or pistol, in the colonies with the carbine, in Arabia with

the dagger. Tell your client that, although I am the insulted party, in order to carry out my eccentricity, I leave

him the choice of arms, and will accept without discussion, without dispute, anything, even combat by

drawing lots, which is always stupid, but with me different from other people, as I am sure to gain."

"Certainly," said Monte Cristo, slightly shrugging his shoulders; "otherwise I would not fight with M. de

Morcerf. I shall kill him I cannot help it. Only by a single line this evening at my house let me know the

"Pistols, then, at eight o'clock, in the Bois de Vincennes," said Beauchamp, quite disconcerted, not knowing

"Very well, sir," said Monte Cristo. "Now all that is settled, do let me see the performance, and tell your

friend Albert not to come any more this evening; he will hurt himself with all his illchosen barbarisms: let

him go home and go to sleep." Beauchamp left the box, perfectly amazed. "Now," said Monte Cristo, turning

"The young man himself is acting blindfolded, and knows not the true cause, which is known only to God

and to me; but I give you my word, Morrel, that God, who does know it, will be on our side."

"I know no one in Paris, Morrel, on whom I could confer that honor besides you and your brother Emmanuel.

"Well? that is all I require. Tomorrow morning, at seven o'clock, you will be with me, will you not?"

"Hush, the curtain is rising. Listen! I never lose a note of this opera if I can avoid it; the music of William

Monte Cristo waited, according to his usual custom, until Duprez had sung his famous "Suivezmoi;" then he

rose and went out. Morrel took leave of him at the door, renewing his promise to be with him the next

morning at seven o'clock, and to bring Emmanuel. Then he stepped into his coupe, calm and smiling, and was

at home in five minutes. No one who knew the count could mistake his expression when, on entering, he said,

Ali brought the box to his master, who examined the weapons with a solicitude very natural to a man who is

about to intrust his life to a little powder and shot. These were pistols of an especial pattern, which Monte

Cristo had had made for target practice in his own room. A cap was sufficient to drive out the bullet, and

from the adjoining room no one would have suspected that the count was, as sportsmen would say, keeping

his hand in. He was just taking one up and looking for the point to aim at on a little iron plate which served

him as a target, when his study door opened, and Baptistin entered. Before he had spoken a word, the count

saw in the next room a veiled woman, who had followed closely after Baptistin, and now, seeing the count

with a pistol in his hand and swords on the table, rushed in. Baptistin looked at his master, who made a sign

to him, and he went out, closing the door after him. "Who are you, madame?" said the count to the veiled

The stranger cast one look around her, to be certain that they were quite alone; then bending as if she would

have knelt, and joining her hands, she said with an accent of despair, "Edmond, you will not kill my son?"

The count retreated a step, uttered a slight exclamation, and let fall the pistol he held. "What name did you

pronounce then, Madame de Morcerf?" said he. "Yours!" cried she, throwing back her veil, "yours, which

I alone, perhaps, have not forgotten. Edmond, it is not Madame de Morcerf who is come to you, it is

"Mercedes is dead, madame," said Monte Cristo; "I know no one now of that name."

"Mercedes lives, sir, and she remembers, for she alone recognized you when she saw you, and even before

she saw you, by your voice, Edmond, by the simple sound of your voice; and from that moment she has

followed your steps, watched you, feared you, and she needs not to inquire what hand has dealt the blow

"Fernand, do you mean?" replied Monte Cristo, with bitter irony; "since we are recalling names, let us

remember them all." Monte Cristo had pronounced the name of Fernand with such an expression of hatred

that Mercedes felt a thrill of horror run through every vein. "You see, Edmond, I am not mistaken, and have

"And who told you, madame, that I have any hostile intentions against your son?"

"No one, in truth; but a mother has twofold sight. I guessed all; I followed him this evening to the opera, and,

"If you have seen all, madame, you know that the son of Fernand has publicly insulted me," said Monte

"You have seen that he would have thrown his glove in my face if Morrel, one of my friends, had not stopped

"Listen to me, my son has also guessed who you are, he attributes his father's misfortunes to you."

"Madame, you are mistaken, they are not misfortunes, it is a punishment. It is not I who strike M. de

"And why do you represent providence?" cried Mercedes. "Why do you remember when it forgets? What are

Yanina and its vizier to you, Edmond? What injury his Fernand Mondego done you in betraying Ali

"Ah, madame," replied Monte Cristo, "all this is an affair between the French captain and the daughter of

Vasiliki. It does not concern me, you are right; and if I have sworn to revenge myself, it is not on the French

captain, or the Count of Morcerf, but on the fisherman Fernand, the husband of Mercedes the Catalane."

"Ah, sir!" cried the countess, "how terrible a vengeance for a fault which fatality made me commit! for I

am the only culprit, Edmond, and if you owe revenge to any one, it is to me, who had not fortitude to bear

"I do not know," said Mercedes. "You do not, madame; at least, I hope not. But I will tell you. I was arrested

and became a prisoner because, under the arbor of La Reserve, the day before I was to marry you, a man

named Danglars wrote this letter, which the fisherman Fernand himself posted." Monte Cristo went to a

secretary, opened a drawer by a spring, from which he took a paper which had lost its original color, and the

ink of which had become of a rusty hue this he placed in the hands of Mercedes. It was Danglars' letter to

the king's attorney, which the Count of Monte Cristo, disguised as a clerk from the house of Thomson

French, had taken from the file against Edmond Dantes, on the day he had paid the two hundred thousand

"The king's attorney is informed by a friend to the throne and religion that one Edmond Dantes, second in

command on board the Pharaon, this day arrived from Smyrna, after having touched at Naples and

PortoFerrajo, is the bearer of a letter from Murat to the usurper, and of another letter from the usurper to the

Bonapartist club in Paris. Ample corroboration of this statement may be obtained by arresting the

abovementioned Edmond Dantes, who either carries the letter for Paris about with him, or has it at his

father's abode. Should it not be found in possession of either father or son, then it will assuredly be

"How dreadful!" said Mercedes, passing her hand across her brow, moist with perspiration; "and that letter"

"I bought it for two hundred thousand francs, madame," said Monte Cristo; "but that is a trifle, since it

"You well know, madame, was my arrest; but you do not know how long that arrest lasted. You do not know

that I remained for fourteen years within a quarter of a league of you, in a dungeon in the Chateau d'If. You

do not know that every day of those fourteen years I renewed the vow of vengeance which I had made the

first day; and yet I was not aware that you had married Fernand, my calumniator, and that my father had died

"That is what I heard on leaving my prison fourteen years after I had entered it; and that is why, on account of

the living Mercedes and my deceased father, I have sworn to revenge myself on Fernand, and I have

"I am satisfied, madame, that he did what I have told you; besides, that is not much more odious than that a

Frenchman by adoption should pass over to the English; that a Spaniard by birth should have fought against

the Spaniards; that a stipendiary of Ali should have betrayed and murdered Ali. Compared with such things,

what is the letter you have just read? a lover's deception, which the woman who has married that man

ought certainly to forgive; but not so the lover who was to have married her. Well, the French did not avenge

themselves on the traitor, the Spaniards did not shoot the traitor, Ali in his tomb left the traitor unpunished;

but I, betrayed, sacrificed, buried, have risen from my tomb, by the grace of God, to punish that man. He

sends me for that purpose, and here I am." The poor woman's head and arms fell; her legs bent under her, and

she fell on her knees. "Forgive, Edmond, forgive for my sake, who love you still!"

The dignity of the wife checked the fervor of the lover and the mother. Her forehead almost touched the

carpet, when the count sprang forward and raised her. Then seated on a chair, she looked at the manly

countenance of Monte Cristo, on which grief and hatred still impressed a threatening expression. "Not crush

that accursed race?" murmured he; "abandon my purpose at the moment of its accomplishment? Impossible,

"Edmond," said the poor mother, who tried every means, "when I call you Edmond, why do you not call me

"Mercedes!" repeated Monte Cristo; "Mercedes! Well yes, you are right; that name has still its charms, and

this is the first time for a long period that I have pronounced it so distinctly. Oh, Mercedes, I have uttered

your name with the sigh of melancholy, with the groan of sorrow, with the last effort of despair; I have

uttered it when frozen with cold, crouched on the straw in my dungeon; I have uttered it, consumed with heat,

rolling on the stone floor of my prison. Mercedes, I must revenge myself, for I suffered fourteen years,

fourteen years I wept, I cursed; now I tell you, Mercedes, I must revenge myself."

The count, fearing to yield to the entreaties of her he had so ardently loved, called his sufferings to the

assistance of his hatred. "Revenge yourself, then, Edmond," cried the poor mother; "but let your vengeance

"It is written in the good book," said Monte Cristo, "that the sins of the fathers shall fall upon their children to

the third and fourth generation. Since God himself dictated those words to his prophet, why should I seek to

"Edmond," continued Mercedes, with her arms extended towards the count, "since I first knew you, I have

adored your name, have respected your memory. Edmond, my friend, do not compel me to tarnish that noble

and pure image reflected incessantly on the mirror of my heart. Edmond, if you knew all the prayers I have

addressed to God for you while I thought you were living and since I have thought you must be dead! Yes,

dead, alas! I imagined your dead body buried at the foot of some gloomy tower, or cast to the bottom of a pit

by hateful jailers, and I wept! What could I do for you, Edmond, besides pray and weep? Listen; for ten years

I dreamed each night the same dream. I had been told that you had endeavored to escape; that you had taken

the place of another prisoner; that you had slipped into the winding sheet of a dead body; that you had been

thrown alive from the top of the Chateau d'If, and that the cry you uttered as you dashed upon the rocks first

revealed to your jailers that they were your murderers. Well, Edmond, I swear to you, by the head of that son

for whom I entreat your pity, Edmond, for ten years I saw every night every detail of that frightful

tragedy, and for ten years I heard every night the cry which awoke me, shuddering and cold. And I, too,

"Have you known what it is to have your father starve to death in your absence?" cried Monte Cristo,

thrusting his hands into his hair; "have you seen the woman you loved giving her hand to your rival, while

"No," interrupted Mercedes, "but I have seen him whom I loved on the point of murdering my son."

Mercedes uttered these words with such deep anguish, with an accent of such intense despair, that Monte

Cristo could not restrain a sob. The lion was daunted; the avenger was conquered. "What do you ask of me?"

said he, "your son's life? Well, he shall live!" Mercedes uttered a cry which made the tears start from

Monte Cristo's eyes; but these tears disappeared almost instantaneously, for, doubtless, God had sent some

angel to collect them far more precious were they in his eyes than the richest pearls of Guzerat and Ophir.

"Oh," said she, seizing the count's hand and raising it to her lips; "oh, thank you, thank you, Edmond! Now

you are exactly what I dreamt you were, the man I always loved. Oh, now I may say so!"

"So much the better," replied Monte Cristo; "as that poor Edmond will not have long to be loved by you.

"You do not suppose that, publicly outraged in the face of a whole theatre, in the presence of your friends and

those of your son challenged by a boy who will glory in my forgiveness as if it were a victory you do

not suppose that I can for one moment wish to live. What I most loved after you, Mercedes, was myself, my

dignity, and that strength which rendered me superior to other men; that strength was my life. With one word

"It will take place," said Monte Cristo, in a most solemn tone; "but instead of your son's blood to stain the

ground, mine will flow." Mercedes shrieked, and sprang towards Monte Cristo, but, suddenly stopping,

"Edmond," said she, "there is a God above us, since you live and since I have seen you again; I trust to him

from my heart. While waiting his assistance I trust to your word; you have said that my son should live, have

"Yes, madame, he shall live," said Monte Cristo, surprised that without more emotion Mercedes had accepted

"Edmond," said she, and her eyes were wet with tears while looking at him to whom she spoke, "how noble it

is of you, how great the action you have just performed, how sublime to have taken pity on a poor woman

who appealed to you with every chance against her, Alas, I am grown old with grief more than with years,

and cannot now remind my Edmond by a smile, or by a look, of that Mercedes whom he once spent so many

hours in contemplating. Ah, believe me, Edmond, as I told you, I too have suffered much; I repeat, it is

melancholy to pass one's life without having one joy to recall, without preserving a single hope; but that

proves that all is not yet over. No, it is not finished; I feel it by what remains in my heart. Oh, I repeat it,

"Do you say so now, Mercedes? then what would you say if you knew the extent of the sacrifice I make to

you? Suppose that the Supreme Being, after having created the world and fertilized chaos, had paused in the

work to spare an angel the tears that might one day flow for mortal sins from her immortal eyes; suppose that

when everything was in readiness and the moment had come for God to look upon his work and see that it

was good suppose he had snuffed out the sun and tossed the world back into eternal night then even

then, Mercedes, you could not imagine what I lose in sacrificing my life at this moment." Mercedes looked at

the count in a way which expressed at the same time her astonishment, her admiration, and her gratitude.

Monte Cristo pressed his forehead on his burning hands, as if his brain could no longer bear alone the weight

of its thoughts. "Edmond," said Mercedes, "I have but one word more to say to you." The count smiled

bitterly. "Edmond," continued she, "you will see that if my face is pale, if my eyes are dull, if my beauty is

gone; if Mercedes, in short, no longer resembles her former self in her features, you will see that her heart is

still the same. Adieu, then, Edmond; I have nothing more to ask of heaven I have seen you again, and

have found you as noble and as great as formerly you were. Adieu, Edmond, adieu, and thank you."

But the count did not answer. Mercedes opened the door of the study and had disappeared before he had

recovered from the painful and profound revery into which his thwarted vengeance had plunged him. The

clock of the Invalides struck one when the carriage which conveyed Madame de Morcerf away rolled on the

pavement of the ChampsElysees, and made Monte Cristo raise his head. "What a fool I was," said he, "not

After Mercedes had left Monte Cristo, he fell into profound gloom. Around him and within him the flight of

thought seemed to have stopped; his energetic mind slumbered, as the body does after extreme fatigue.

"What?" said he to himself, while the lamp and the wax lights were nearly burnt out, and the servants were

waiting impatiently in the anteroom; "what? this edifice which I have been so long preparing, which I have

reared with so much care and toil, is to be crushed by a single touch, a word, a breath! Yes, this self, of whom

I thought so much, of whom I was so proud, who had appeared so worthless in the dungeons of the Chateau

d'If, and whom I had succeeded in making so great, will be but a lump of clay tomorrow. Alas, it is not the

death of the body I regret; for is not the destruction of the vital principle, the repose to which everything is

tending, to which every unhappy being aspires, is not this the repose of matter after which I so long

sighed, and which I was seeking to attain by the painful process of starvation when Faria appeared in my

dungeon? What is death for me? One step farther into rest, two, perhaps, into silence.

"No, it is not existence, then, that I regret, but the ruin of projects so slowly carried out, so laboriously

framed. Providence is now opposed to them, when I most thought it would be propitious. It is not God's will

that they should be accomplished. This burden, almost as heavy as a world, which I had raised, and I had

thought to bear to the end, was too great for my strength, and I was compelled to lay it down in the middle of

my career. Oh, shall I then, again become a fatalist, whom fourteen years of despair and ten of hope had

rendered a believer in providence? And all this all this, because my heart, which I thought dead, was only

sleeping; because it has awakened and has begun to beat again, because I have yielded to the pain of the

emotion excited in my breast by a woman's voice. Yet," continued the count, becoming each moment more

absorbed in the anticipation of the dreadful sacrifice for the morrow, which Mercedes had accepted, "yet, it is

impossible that so nobleminded a woman should thus through selfishness consent to my death when I am in

the prime of life and strength; it is impossible that she can carry to such a point maternal love, or rather

delirium. There are virtues which become crimes by exaggeration. No, she must have conceived some

pathetic scene; she will come and throw herself between us; and what would be sublime here will there

appear ridiculous." The blush of pride mounted to the count's forehead as this thought passed through his

mind. "Ridiculous?" repeated he; "and the ridicule will fall on me. I ridiculous? No, I would rather die."

By thus exaggerating to his own mind the anticipated illfortune of the next day, to which he had condemned

himself by promising Mercedes to spare her son, the count at last exclaimed, "Folly, folly, folly! to carry

generosity so far as to put myself up as a mark for that young man to aim at. He will never believe that my

death was suicide; and yet it is important for the honor of my memory, and this surely is not vanity, but a

justifiable pride, it is important the world should know that I have consented, by my free will, to stop my

arm, already raised to strike, and that with the arm which has been so powerful against others I have struck

Seizing a pen, he drew a paper from a secret drawer in his desk, and wrote at the bottom of the document

(which was no other than his will, made since his arrival in Paris) a sort of codicil, clearly explaining the

nature of his death. "I do this, O my God," said he, with his eyes raised to heaven, "as much for thy honor as

for mine. I have during ten years considered myself the agent of thy vengeance, and other wretches, like

Morcerf, Danglars, Villefort, even Morcerf himself, must not imagine that chance has freed them from their

enemy. Let them know, on the contrary, that their punishment, which had been decreed by providence, is

only delayed by my present determination, and although they escape it in this world, it awaits them in

While he was thus agitated by gloomy uncertainties, wretched waking dreams of grief, the first rays of

morning pierced his windows, and shone upon the pale blue paper on which he had just inscribed his

justification of providence. It was just five o'clock in the morning when a slight noise like a stifled sigh

reached his ear. He turned his head, looked around him, and saw no one; but the sound was repeated

He arose, and quietly opening the door of the drawingroom, saw Haidee, who had fallen on a chair, with her

arms hanging down and her beautiful head thrown back. She had been standing at the door, to prevent his

going out without seeing her, until sleep, which the young cannot resist, had overpowered her frame, wearied

as she was with watching. The noise of the door did not awaken her, and Monte Cristo gazed at her with

affectionate regret. "She remembered that she had a son," said he; "and I forgot I had a daughter." Then,

shaking his head sorrowfully, "Poor Haidee," said he; "she wished to see me, to speak to me; she has feared

or guessed something. Oh, I cannot go without taking leave of her; I cannot die without confiding her to some

"I bequeath to Maximilian Morrel, captain of Spahis, and son of my former patron, Pierre Morrel,

shipowner at Marseilles, the sum of twenty millions, a part of which may be offered to his sister Julia and

brotherinlaw Emmanuel, if he does not fear this increase of fortune may mar their happiness. These twenty

millions are concealed in my grotto at Monte Cristo, of which Bertuccio knows the secret. If his heart is free,

and he will marry Haidee, the daughter of Ali Pasha of Yanina, whom I have brought up with the love of a

father, and who has shown the love and tenderness of a daughter for me, he will thus accomplish my last

wish. This will has already constituted Haidee heiress of the rest of my fortune, consisting of lands, funds in

England, Austria, and Holland, furniture in my different palaces and houses, and which without the twenty

He was finishing the last line when a cry behind him made him start, and the pen fell from his hand.

"Oh, my lord," said she, "why are you writing thus at such an hour? Why are you bequeathing all your

"I am going on a journey, dear child," said Monte Cristo, with an expression of infinite tenderness and

The count stopped. "Well?" asked the young girl, with an authoritative tone the count had never observed

before, and which startled him. "Well, if any misfortune happen to me," replied Monte Cristo, "I wish my

daughter to be happy." Haidee smiled sorrowfully, and shook her head. "Do you think of dying, my lord?"

"Well, if you die," said she, "bequeath your fortune to others, for if you die I shall require nothing;" and,

taking the paper, she tore it in four pieces, and threw it into the middle of the room. Then, the effort having

exhausted her strength, she fell not asleep this time, but fainting on the floor. The count leaned over her and

raised her in his arms; and seeing that sweet pale face, those lovely eyes closed, that beautiful form

motionless and to all appearance lifeless, the idea occurred to him for the first time, that perhaps she loved

"Alas," murmured he, with intense suffering, "I might, then, have been happy yet." Then he carried Haidee to

her room, resigned her to the care of her attendants, and returning to his study, which he shut quickly this

time, he again copied the destroyed will. As he was finishing, the sound of a cabriolet entering the yard was

heard. Monte Cristo approached the window, and saw Maximilian and Emmanuel alight. "Good," said he; "it

was time," and he sealed his will with three seals. A moment afterwards he heard a noise in the

drawingroom, and went to open the door himself. Morrel was there; he had come twenty minutes before the

time appointed. "I am perhaps come too soon, count," said he, "but I frankly acknowledge that I have not

closed my eyes all night, nor has any one in my house. I need to see you strong in your courageous assurance,

to recover myself." Monte Cristo could not resist this proof of affection; he not only extended his hand to the

young man, but flew to him with open arms. "Morrel," said he, "it is a happy day for me, to feel that I am

beloved by such a man as you. Goodmorning, Emmanuel; you will come with me then, Maximilian?"

"I watched you during the whole scene of that challenge yesterday; I have been thinking of your firmness all

night, and I said to myself that justice must be on your side, or man's countenance is no longer to be relied

"Yes, that is true; but I should not have recollected it if you had not reminded me."

"Thank you, Morrel." Then ringing the bell once, "Look." said he to Ali, who came immediately, "take that to

my solicitor. It is my will, Morrel. When I am dead, you will go and examine it."

"Yes; must I not be prepared for everything, dear friend? But what did you do yesterday after you left me?"

"I went to Tortoni's, where, as I expected, I found Beauchamp and ChateauRenaud. I own I was seeking

"Well, I hoped to get an exchange of arms, to substitute the sword for the pistol; the pistol is blind."

"Have you succeeded?" asked Monte Cristo quickly, with an imperceptible gleam of hope.

"Well, we have time; look." Monte Cristo took the pistols he held in his hand when Mercedes entered, and

fixing an ace of clubs against the iron plate, with four shots he successively shot off the four sides of the club.

At each shot Morrel turned pale. He examined the bullets with which Monte Cristo performed this dexterous

feat, and saw that they were no larger than buckshot. "It is astonishing," said he. "Look, Emmanuel." Then

turning towards Monte Cristo, "Count," said he, "in the name of all that is dear to you, I entreat you not to kill

"You are right," said Monte Cristo; "and I have none." These words were uttered in a tone which made

"Oh, I obtained, or rather claimed that; we had conceded enough for them to yield us that."

"Twenty paces." A smile of terrible import passed over the count's lips. "Morrel," said he, "do not forget what

"Or from your generosity, my friend; to so good a marksman as you are, I may say what would appear absurd

"I will tell you, Morrel," said the count, "that I do not need entreating to spare the life of M. de Morcerf; he

shall be so well spared, that he will return quietly with his two friends, while I"

"As I told you, my dear Morrel, M. de Morcerf will kill me." Morrel looked at him in utter amazement. "But

"The same thing that happened to Brutus the night before the battle of Philippi; I have seen a ghost."

"Told me, Morrel, that I had lived long enough." Maximilian and Emmanuel looked at each other. Monte

Cristo drew out his watch. "Let us go," said he; "it is five minutes past seven, and the appointment was for

eight o'clock." A carriage was in readiness at the door. Monte Cristo stepped into it with his two friends. He

had stopped a moment in the passage to listen at a door, and Maximilian and Emmanuel, who had

considerately passed forward a few steps, thought they heard him answer by a sigh to a sob from within. As

the clock struck eight they drove up to the place of meeting. "We are first," said Morrel, looking out of the

window. "Excuse me, sir," said Baptistin, who had followed his master with indescribable terror, "but I think

Monte Cristo sprang lightly from the carriage, and offered his hand to assist Emmanuel and Maximilian. The

latter retained the count's hand between his. "I like," said he, "to feel a hand like this, when its owner relies on

"It seems to me," said Emmanuel, "that I see two young men down there, who are evidently, waiting." Monte

Cristo drew Morrel a step or two behind his brotherinlaw. "Maximilian," said he, "are your affections

disengaged?" Morrel looked at Monte Cristo with astonishment. "I do not seek your confidence, my dear

"Another hope defeated!" said the count. Then, with a sigh, "Poor Haidee!" murmured he.

"To tell the truth, count, if I knew less of you, I should think that you were less brave than you are."

"Because I sigh when thinking of some one I am leaving? Come, Morrel, it is not like a soldier to be so bad a

judge of courage. Do I regret life? What is it to me, who have passed twenty years between life and death?

Moreover, do not alarm yourself, Morrel; this weakness, if it is such, is betrayed to you alone. I know the

world is a drawingroom, from which we must retire politely and honestly; that is, with a bow, and our debts

"You need not fear." Morrel advanced towards Beauchamp and ChateauRenaud, who, seeing his intention,

came to meet him. The three young men bowed to each other courteously, if not affably.

"He sent us word this morning," replied ChateauRenaud, "that he would meet us on the ground."

"Ah," said Morrel. Beauchamp pulled out his watch. "It is only five minutes past eight," said he to Morrel;

"There is a carriage coming," said ChateauRenaud. It advanced rapidly along one of the avenues leading

towards the open space where they were assembled. "You are doubtless provided with pistols, gentlemen? M.

"We had anticipated this kindness on the part of the count," said Beauchamp, "and I have brought some

weapons which I bought eight or ten days since, thinking to want them on a similar occasion. They are quite

"Oh, M. Beauchamp, if you assure me that M. de Morcerf does not know these pistols, you may readily

"Gentlemen," said ChateauRenaud, "it is not Morcerf coming in that carriage; faith, it is Franz and

Debray!" The two young men he announced were indeed approaching. "What chance brings you here,

gentlemen?" said ChateauRenaud, shaking hands with each of them. "Because," said Debray, "Albert sent

this morning to request us to come." Beauchamp and ChateauRenaud exchanged looks of astonishment. "I

"Yesterday afternoon I received a letter from M. de Morcerf, begging me to attend the opera."

"Having wished you all to witness the challenge, he now wishes you to be present at the combat."

"But, after all these arrangements, he does not come himself," said ChateauRenaud. "Albert is ten minutes

"There he comes," said Beauchamp, "on horseback, at full gallop, followed by a servant."

"How imprudent," said ChateauRenaud, "to come on horseback to fight a duel with pistols, after all the

"And besides," said Beauchamp, "with a collar above his cravat, an open coat and white waistcoat! Why has

he not painted a spot upon his heart? it would have been more simple." Meanwhile Albert had arrived

within ten paces of the group formed by the five young men. He jumped from his horse, threw the bridle on

his servant's arms, and joined them. He was pale, and his eyes were red and swollen; it was evident that he

had not slept. A shade of melancholy gravity overspread his countenance, which was not natural to him. "I

thank you, gentlemen," said he, "for having complied with my request; I feel extremely grateful for this mark

of friendship." Morrel had stepped back as Morcerf approached, and remained at a short distance. "And to

"Sir," said Maximilian, "you are not perhaps aware that I am M. de Monte Cristo's friend?"

"I was not sure, but I thought it might be so. So much the better; the more honorable men there are here the

"M. Morrel," said ChateauRenaud, "will you apprise the Count of Monte Cristo that M. de Morcerf is

arrived, and we are at his disposal?" Morrel was preparing to fulfil his commission. Beauchamp had

meanwhile drawn the box of pistols from the carriage. "Stop, gentlemen," said Albert; "I have two words to

Albert's witnesses looked at each other. Franz and Debray exchanged some words in a whisper, and Morrel,

rejoiced at this unexpected incident, went to fetch the count, who was walking in a retired path with

"Ah?" said Monte Cristo, "I trust he is not going to tempt me by some fresh insult!"

The count advanced, accompanied by Maximilian and Emmanuel. His calm and serene look formed a

singular contrast to Albert's griefstricken face, who approached also, followed by the other four young men.

"Approach, gentlemen," said Albert; "I wish you not to lose one word of what I am about to have the honor

of saying to the Count of Monte Cristo, for it must be repeated by you to all who will listen to it, strange as it

"Sir," said Albert, at first with a tremulous voice, but which gradually because firmer, "I reproached you with

exposing the conduct of M. de Morcerf in Epirus, for guilty as I knew he was, I thought you had no right to

punish him; but I have since learned that you had that right. It is not Fernand Mondego's treachery towards

Ali Pasha which induces me so readily to excuse you, but the treachery of the fisherman Fernand towards

you, and the almost unheardof miseries which were its consequences; and I say, and proclaim it publicly,

that you were justified in revenging yourself on my father, and I, his son, thank you for not using greater

Had a thunderbolt fallen in the midst of the spectators of this unexpected scene, it would not have surprised

them more than did Albert's declaration. As for Monte Cristo, his eyes slowly rose towards heaven with an

expression of infinite gratitude. He could not understand how Albert's fiery nature, of which he had seen so

much among the Roman bandits, had suddenly stooped to this humiliation. He recognized the influence of

Mercedes, and saw why her noble heart had not opposed the sacrifice she knew beforehand would be useless.

"Now, sir," said Albert, "if you think my apology sufficient, pray give me your hand. Next to the merit of

infallibility which you appear to possess, I rank that of candidly acknowledging a fault. But this confession

concerns me only. I acted well as a man, but you have acted better than man. An angel alone could have

saved one of us from death that angel came from heaven, if not to make us friends (which, alas, fatality

Monte Cristo, with moistened eye, heaving breast, and lips half open, extended to Albert a hand which the

latter pressed with a sentiment resembling respectful fear. "Gentlemen," said he, "M. de Monte Cristo

receives my apology. I had acted hastily towards him. Hasty actions are generally bad ones. Now my fault is

repaired. I hope the world will not call me cowardly for acting as my conscience dictated. But if any one

should entertain a false opinion of me," added he, drawing himself up as if he would challenge both friends

"What happened during the night?" asked Beauchamp of ChateauRenaud; "we appear to make a very sorry

"In truth, what Albert has just done is either very despicable or very noble," replied the baron.

"What can it mean?" said Debray to Franz. "The Count of Monte Cristo acts dishonorably to M. de Morcerf,

and is justified by his son! Had I ten Yaninas in my family, I should only consider myself the more bound to

fight ten times." As for Monte Cristo, his head was bent down, his arms were powerless. Bowing under the

weight of twentyfour years' reminiscences, he thought not of Albert, of Beauchamp, of ChateauRenaud, or

of any of that group; but he thought of that courageous woman who had come to plead for her son's life, to

whom he had offered his, and who had now saved it by the revelation of a dreadful family secret, capable of

"Providence still," murmured he; "now only am I fully convinced of being the emissary of God!"

The Count of Monte Cristo bowed to the five young men with a melancholy and dignified smile, and got into

his carriage with Maximilian and Emmanuel. Albert, Beauchamp, and ChateauRenaud remained alone.

Albert looked at his two friends, not timidly, but in a way that appeared to ask their opinion of what he had

"Indeed, my dear friend," said Beauchamp first, who had either the most feeling or the least dissimulation,

"allow me to congratulate you; this is a very unhopedfor conclusion of a very disagreeable affair."

Albert remained silent and wrapped in thought. ChateauRenaud contented himself with tapping his boot

with his flexible cane. "Are we not going?" said he, after this embarrassing silence. "When you please,"

replied Beauchamp; "allow me only to compliment M. de Morcerf, who has given proof today of rare

"It is magnificent," continued Beauchamp, "to be able to exercise so much selfcontrol!"

"Assuredly; as for me, I should have been incapable of it," said ChateauRenaud, with most significant

"Gentlemen," interrupted Albert, "I think you did not understand that something very serious had passed

"Possibly, possibly," said Beauchamp immediately; "but every simpleton would not be able to understand

your heroism, and sooner or later you will find yourself compelled to explain it to them more energetically

than would be convenient to your bodily health and the duration of your life. May I give you a friendly

counsel? Set out for Naples, the Hague, or St. Petersburg calm countries, where the point of honor is

better understood than among our hotheaded Parisians. Seek quietude and oblivion, so that you may return

"That is quite my opinion," said the gentleman; "nothing induces serious duels so much as a duel forsworn."

"Thank you, gentlemen," replied Albert, with a smile of indifference; "I shall follow your advice not

because you give it, but because I had before intended to quit France. I thank you equally for the service you

have rendered me in being my seconds. It is deeply engraved on my heart, and, after what you have just said,

I remember that only." ChateauRenaud and Beauchamp looked at each other; the impression was the same

on both of them, and the tone in which Morcerf had just expressed his thanks was so determined that the

position would have become embarrassing for all if the conversation had continued.

"Goodby, Albert," said Beauchamp suddenly, carelessly extending his hand to the young man. The latter did

not appear to arouse from his lethargy; in fact, he did not notice the offered hand. "Goodby," said

ChateauRenaud in his turn, keeping his little cane in his left hand, and saluting with his right. Albert's lips

scarcely whispered "Goodby," but his look was more explicit; it expressed a whole poem of restrained

anger, proud disdain, and generous indignation. He preserved his melancholy and motionless position for

some time after his two friends had regained their carriage; then suddenly unfastening his horse from the little

tree to which his servant had tied it, he mounted and galloped off in the direction of Paris.

In a quarter of an hour he was entering the house in the Rue du Helder. As he alighted, he thought he saw his

father's pale face behind the curtain of the count's bedroom. Albert turned away his head with a sigh, and

went to his own apartments. He cast one lingering look on all the luxuries which had rendered life so easy

and so happy since his infancy; he looked at the pictures, whose faces seemed to smile, and the landscapes,

which appeared painted in brighter colors. Then he took away his mother's portrait, with its oaken frame,

leaving the gilt frame from which he took it black and empty. Then he arranged all his beautiful Turkish

arms, his fine English guns, his Japanese china, his cups mounted in silver, his artistic bronzes by Feucheres

and Barye; examined the cupboards, and placed the key in each; threw into a drawer of his secretary, which

he left open, all the pocketmoney he had about him, and with it the thousand fancy jewels from his vases

and his jewelboxes; then he made an exact inventory of everything, and placed it in the most conspicuous

part of the table, after putting aside the books and papers which had collected there.

At the beginning of this work, his servant, notwithstanding orders to the contrary, came to his room. "What

do you want?" asked he, with a more sorrowful than angry tone. "Pardon me, sir," replied the valet; "you had

"Because the count is doubtless aware that I accompanied you to the meeting this morning."

"And since he has sent for me, it is doubtless to question me on what happened there. What must I answer?"

The valet bowed and retired, and Albert returned to his inventory. As he was finishing this work, the sound of

horses prancing in the yard, and the wheels of a carriage shaking his window, attracted his attention. He

approached the window, and saw his father get into it, and drive away. The door was scarcely closed when

Albert bent his steps to his mother's room; and, no one being there to announce him, he advanced to her

bedchamber, and distressed by what he saw and guessed, stopped for one moment at the door. As if the

same idea had animated these two beings, Mercedes was doing the same in her apartments that he had just

done in his. Everything was in order, laces, dresses, jewels, linen, money, all were arranged in the

drawers, and the countess was carefully collecting the keys. Albert saw all these preparations and understood

The artist who could have depicted the expression of these two countenances would certainly have made of

them a beautiful picture. All these proofs of an energetic resolution, which Albert did not fear on his own

"Oh, my mother!" exclaimed Albert, so overcome he could scarcely speak; "it is not the same with you and

me you cannot have made the same resolution I have, for I have come to warn you that I bid adieu to your

"I also," replied Mercedes, "am going, and I acknowledge I had depended on your accompanying me; have I

"Mother," said Albert with firmness. "I cannot make you share the fate I have planned for myself. I must live

henceforth without rank and fortune, and to begin this hard apprenticeship I must borrow from a friend the

loaf I shall eat until I have earned one. So, my dear mother, I am going at once to ask Franz to lend me the

"You, my poor child, suffer poverty and hunger? Oh, do not say so; it will break my resolutions."

"But not mine, mother," replied Albert. "I am young and strong; I believe I am courageous, and since

yesterday I have learned the power of will. Alas, my dear mother, some have suffered so much, and yet live,

and have raised a new fortune on the ruin of all the promises of happiness which heaven had made them

on the fragments of all the hope which God had given them! I have seen that, mother; I know that from the

gulf in which their enemies have plunged them they have risen with so much vigor and glory that in their turn

they have ruled their former conquerors, and have punished them. No. mother; from this moment I have done

with the past, and accept nothing from it not even a name, because you can understand that your son

"Albert, my child," said Mercedes, "if I had a stronger heart that is the counsel I would have given you; your

conscience has spoken when my voice became too weak; listen to its dictates. You had friends, Albert; break

off their acquaintance. But do not despair; you have life before you, my dear Albert, for you are yet scarcely

twentytwo years old; and as a pure heart like yours wants a spotless name, take my father's it was

Herrera. I am sure, my dear Albert, whatever may be your career, you will soon render that name illustrious.

Then, my son, return to the world still more brilliant because of your former sorrows; and if I am wrong, still

let me cherish these hopes, for I have no future to look forward to. For me the grave opens when I pass the

"I will fulfil all your wishes, my dear mother," said the young man. "Yes, I share your hopes; the anger of

heaven will not pursue us, since you are pure and I am innocent. But, since our resolution is formed, let us act

promptly. M. de Morcerf went out about half an hour ago; the opportunity in favorable to avoid an

"I am ready, my son," said Mercedes. Albert ran to fetch a carriage. He recollected that there was a small

furnished house to let in the Rue de Saints Peres, where his mother would find a humble but decent lodging,

and thither he intended conducting the countess. As the carriage stopped at the door, and Albert was

alighting, a man approached and gave him a letter. Albert recognized the bearer. "From the count," said

Bertuccio. Albert took the letter, opened, and read it, then looked round for Bertuccio, but he was gone. He

returned to Mercedes with tears in his eyes and heaving breast, and without uttering a word he gave her the

Albert, While showing you that I have discovered your plans, I hope also to convince you of my delicacy.

You are free, you leave the count's house, and you take your mother to your home; but reflect, Albert, you

owe her more than your poor noble heart can pay her. Keep the struggle for yourself, bear all the suffering,

but spare her the trial of poverty which must accompany your first efforts; for she deserves not even the

shadow of the misfortune which has this day fallen on her, and providence is not willing that the innocent

should suffer for the guilty. I know you are going to leave the Rue du Helder without taking anything with

Now, listen, Albert. Twentyfour years ago I returned, proud and joyful, to my country. I had a betrothed,

Albert, a lovely girl whom I adored, and I was bringing to my betrothed a hundred and fifty louis, painfully

amassed by ceaseless toil. This money was for her; I destined it for her, and, knowing the treachery of the sea

I buried our treasure in the little garden of the house my father lived in at Marseilles, on the Allees de

Meillan. Your mother, Albert, knows that poor house well. A short time since I passed through Marseilles,

and went to see the old place, which revived so many painful recollections; and in the evening I took a spade

and dug in the corner of the garden where I had concealed my treasure. The iron box was there no one had

touched it under a beautiful figtree my father had planted the day I was born, which overshadowed the

spot. Well, Albert, this money, which was formerly designed to promote the comfort and tranquillity of the

woman I adored, may now, through strange and painful circumstances, be devoted to the same purpose. Oh,

feel for me, who could offer millions to that poor woman, but who return her only the piece of black bread

forgotten under my poor roof since the day I was torn from her I loved. You are a generous man, Albert, but

perhaps you may be blinded by pride or resentment; if you refuse me, if you ask another for what I have a

right to offer you, I will say it is ungenerous of you to refuse the life of your mother at the hands of a man

whose father was allowed by your father to die in all the horrors of poverty and despair.

Albert stood pale and motionless to hear what his mother would decide after she had finished reading this

letter. Mercedes turned her eyes with an ineffable look towards heaven. "I accept it," said she; "he has a right

to pay the dowry, which I shall take with me to some convent!" Putting the letter in her bosom, she took her

son's arm, and with a firmer step than she even herself expected she went downstairs.

Meanwhile Monte Cristo had also returned to town with Emmanuel and Maximilian. Their return was

cheerful. Emmanuel did not conceal his joy at the peaceful termination of the affair, and was loud in his

expressions of delight. Morrel, in a corner of the carriage, allowed his brotherinlaw's gayety to expend

itself in words, while he felt equal inward joy, which, however, betrayed itself only in his countenance. At the

Barriere du Trone they met Bertuccio, who was waiting there, motionless as a sentinel at his post. Monte

Cristo put his head out of the window, exchanged a few words with him in a low tone, and the steward

disappeared. "Count," said Emmanuel, when they were at the end of the Place Royale, "put me down at my

door, that my wife may not have a single moment of needless anxiety on my account or yours."

"If it were not ridiculous to make a display of our triumph, I would invite the count to our house; besides that,

he doubtless has some trembling heart to comfort. So we will take leave of our friend, and let him hasten

"Stop a moment," said Monte Cristo; "do not let me lose both my companions. Return, Emmanuel, to your

charming wife, and present my best compliments to her; and do you, Morrel, accompany me to the Champs

"Willingly," said Maximilian; "particularly as I have business in that quarter."

"No," replied the young man. The door was closed, and the carriage proceeded. "See what good fortune I

brought you!" said Morrel, when he was alone with the count. "Have you not thought so?"

"Very brave," said Monte Cristo; "I have seen him sleep with a sword suspended over his head."

"And I know he has fought two duels," said Morrel. "How can you reconcile that with his conduct this

"Come," said the count mildly, "do not entertain the prejudices of ordinary men, Morrel! Acknowledge, that

if Albert is brave, he cannot be a coward; he must then have had some reason for acting as he did this

"Doubtless, doubtless," said Morrel; "but I shall say, like the Spaniard, `He has not been so brave today as

"You will breakfast with me, will you not, Morrel?" said the count, to turn the conversation.

"Oh," said the count, "I only know two things which destroy the appetite, grief and as I am happy to

see you very cheerful, it is not that and love. Now after what you told me this morning of your heart, I

"But you will not make me your confidant, Maximilian?" said the count, in a tone which showed how gladly

"I showed you this morning that I had a heart, did I not, count?" Monte Cristo only answered by extending

his hand to the young man. "Well," continued the latter, "since that heart is no longer with you in the Bois de

"Go," said the count deliberately; "go, dear friend, but promise me if you meet with any obstacle to remember

that I have some power in this world, that I am happy to use that power in the behalf of those I love, and that I

"I will remember it," said the young man, "as selfish children recollect their parents when they want their aid.

When I need your assistance, and the moment arrives, I will come to you, count."

"Goodby, till we meet again." They had arrived in the Champs Elysees. Monte Cristo opened the

carriagedoor, Morrel sprang out on the pavement, Bertuccio was waiting on the steps. Morrel disappeared

"Come this way." Monte Cristo took Bertuccio into his study, wrote the letter we have seen, and gave it to the

steward. "Go," said he quickly. "But first, let Haidee be informed that I have returned."

"Here I am," said the young girl, who at the sound of the carriage had run downstairs and whose face was

radiant with joy at seeing the count return safely. Bertuccio left. Every transport of a daughter finding a

father, all the delight of a mistress seeing an adored lover, were felt by Haidee during the first moments of

this meeting, which she had so eagerly expected. Doubtless, although less evident, Monte Cristo's joy was not

less intense. Joy to hearts which have suffered long is like the dew on the ground after a long drought; both

the heart and the ground absorb that beneficent moisture falling on them, and nothing is outwardly apparent.

Monte Cristo was beginning to think, what he had not for a long time dared to believe, that there were two

Mercedes in the world, and he might yet be happy. His eye, elate with happiness, was reading eagerly the

tearful gaze of Haidee, when suddenly the door opened. The count knit his brow. "M. de Morcerf!" said

Baptistin, as if that name sufficed for his excuse. In fact, the count's face brightened.

"I know not if it is finished, my beloved child," said Monte Cristo, taking the young girl's hands; "but I do

"That man cannot injure me, Haidee," said Monte Cristo; "it was his son alone that there was cause to fear."

"And what I have suffered," said the young girl, "you shall never know, my lord." Monte Cristo smiled. "By

my father's tomb," said he, extending his hand over the head of the young girl, "I swear to you, Haidee, that if

"I believe you, my lord, as implicitly as if God had spoken to me," said the young girl, presenting her

forehead to him. Monte Cristo pressed on that pure beautiful forehead a kiss which made two hearts throb at

once, the one violently, the other heavily. "Oh," murmured the count, "shall I then be permitted to love again?

Ask M. de Morcerf into the drawingroom," said he to Baptistin, while he led the beautiful Greek girl to a

We must explain this visit, which although expected by Monte Cristo, is unexpected to our readers. While

Mercedes, as we have said, was making a similar inventory of her property to Albert's, while she was

arranging her jewels, shutting her drawers, collecting her keys, to leave everything in perfect order, she did

not perceive a pale and sinister face at a glass door which threw light into the passage, from which everything

could be both seen and heard. He who was thus looking, without being heard or seen, probably heard and saw

all that passed in Madame de Morcerf's apartments. From that glass door the palefaced man went to the

count's bedroom and raised with a constricted hand the curtain of a window overlooking the courtyard. He

remained there ten minutes, motionless and dumb, listening to the beating of his own heart. For him those ten

minutes were very long. It was then Albert, returning from his meeting with the count, perceived his father

watching for his arrival behind a curtain, and turned aside. The count's eye expanded; he knew Albert had

insulted the count dreadfully, and that in every country in the world such an insult would lead to a deadly

An indescribable ray of joy illumined that wretched countenance like the last ray of the sun before it

disappears behind the clouds which bear the aspect, not of a downy couch, but of a tomb. But as we have

said, he waited in vain for his son to come to his apartment with the account of his triumph. He easily

understood why his son did not come to see him before he went to avenge his father's honor; but when that

It was then, when the count could not see Albert, that he sent for his servant, who he knew was authorized not

to conceal anything from him. Ten minutes afterwards, General Morcerf was seen on the steps in a black coat

with a military collar, black pantaloons, and black gloves. He had apparently given previous orders, for as he

reached the bottom step his carriage came from the coachhouse ready for him. The valet threw into the

carriage his military cloak, in which two swords were wrapped, and, shutting the door, he took his seat by the

"To the Champs Elysees," said the general; "the Count of Monte Cristo's. Hurry!" The horses bounded

beneath the whip; and in five minutes they stopped before the count's door. M. de Morcerf opened the door

himself, and as the carriage rolled away he passed up the walk, rang, and entered the open door with his

A moment afterwards, Baptistin announced the Count of Morcerf to Monte Cristo, and the latter, leading

Haidee aside, ordered that Morcerf be asked into the drawingroom. The general was pacing the room the

third time when, in turning, he perceived Monte Cristo at the door. "Ah, it is M. de Morcerf," said Monte

"Yes, it is I," said the count, whom a frightful contraction of the lips prevented from articulating freely.

"May I know the cause which procures me the pleasure of seeing M. de Morcerf so early?"

"And I know my son had good reasons to wish to fight with you, and to endeavor to kill you."

"Yes, sir, he had very good ones; but you see that in spite of them he has not killed me, and did not even

"Yet he considered you the cause of his father's dishonor, the cause of the fearful ruin which has fallen on my

"It is true, sir," said Monte Cristo with his dreadful calmness; "a secondary cause, but not the principal."

"That may be," said the count, turning pale; "but you know the guilty do not like to find themselves

"A man who holds a sword in his hand, and sees a mortal enemy within reach of that sword, and does not

"Sir." replied Monte Cristo coldly, "I did not expect that you had come here to relate to me your little family

"Oh, no, no," said the general, smiling faintly, "I did not come for that purpose; you are right. I came to tell

you that I also look upon you as my enemy. I came to tell you that I hate you instinctively; that it seems as if I

had always known you, and always hated you; and, in short, since the young people of the present day will

"Certainly. And when I told you I had foreseen the result, it is the honor of your visit I alluded to."

"You know that we shall fight till one of us is dead," said the general, whose teeth were clinched with rage.

"Until one of us dies," repeated Monte Cristo, moving his head slightly up and down.

"Very true," said Monte Cristo; "it is unnecessary, we know each other so well!"

"Indeed?" said Monte Cristo, with the same indomitable coolness; "let us see. Are you not the soldier

Fernand who deserted on the eve of the battle of Waterloo? Are you not the Lieutenant Fernand who served

as guide and spy to the French army in Spain? Are you not the Captain Fernand who betrayed, sold, and

murdered his benefactor, Ali? And have not all these Fernands, united, made LieutenantGeneral, the Count

"Oh," cried the general, as it branded with a hot iron, "wretch, to reproach me with my shame when about,

perhaps, to kill me! No, I did not say I was a stranger to you. I know well, demon, that you have penetrated

into the darkness of the past, and that you have read, by the light of what torch I know not, every page of my

life; but perhaps I may be more honorable in my shame than you under your pompous coverings. No no, I

am aware you know me; but I know you only as an adventurer sewn up in gold and jewellery. You call

yourself in Paris the Count of Monte Cristo; in Italy, Sinbad the Sailor; in Malta, I forget what. But it is your

real name I want to know, in the midst of your hundred names, that I may pronounce it when we meet to

The Count of Monte Cristo turned dreadfully pale; his eye seemed to burn with a devouring fire. He leaped

towards a dressingroom near his bedroom, and in less than a moment, tearing off his cravat, his coat and

waistcoat, he put on a sailor's jacket and hat, from beneath which rolled his long black hair. He returned thus,

formidable and implacable, advancing with his arms crossed on his breast, towards the general, who could

not understand why he had disappeared, but who on seeing him again, and feeling his teeth chatter and his

legs sink under him, drew back, and only stopped when he found a table to support his clinched hand.

"Fernand," cried he, "of my hundred names I need only tell you one, to overwhelm you! But you guess it

now, do you not? or, rather, you remember it? For, notwithstanding all my sorrows and my tortures, I

show you today a face which the happiness of revenge makes young again a face you must often have

The general, with his head thrown back, hands extended, gaze fixed, looked silently at this dreadful

apparition; then seeking the wall to support him, he glided along close to it until he reached the door, through

which he went out backwards, uttering this single mournful, lamentable, distressing cry, "Edmond

Dantes!" Then, with sighs which were unlike any human sound, he dragged himself to the door, reeled across

the courtyard, and falling into the arms of his valet, he said in a voice scarcely intelligible, "Home,

home." The fresh air and the shame he felt at having exposed himself before his servants, partly recalled his

senses, but the ride was short, and as he drew near his house all his wretchedness revived. He stopped at a

The door was wide open, a hackneycoach was standing in the middle of the yard a strange sight before

so noble a mansion; the count looked at it with terror, but without daring to inquire its meaning, he rushed

towards his apartment. Two persons were coming down the stairs; he had only time to creep into an alcove to

avoid them. It was Mercedes leaning on her son's arm and leaving the house. They passed close by the

unhappy being, who, concealed behind the damask curtain, almost felt Mercedes dress brush past him, and

his son's warm breath, pronouncing these words, "Courage, mother! Come, this is no longer our home!"

The words died away, the steps were lost in the distance. The general drew himself up, clinging to the

curtain; he uttered the most dreadful sob which ever escaped from the bosom of a father abandoned at the

same time by his wife and son. He soon heard the clatter of the iron step of the hackneycoach, then the

coachman's voice, and then the rolling of the heavy vehicle shook the windows. He darted to his bedroom to

see once more all he had loved in the world; but the hackneycoach drove on and the head of neither

Mercedes nor her son appeared at the window to take a last look at the house or the deserted father and

husband. And at the very moment when the wheels of that coach crossed the gateway a report was heard, and

a thick smoke escaped through one of the panes of the window, which was broken by the explosion.

We may easily conceive where Morrel's appointment was. On leaving Monte Cristo he walked slowly

towards Villefort's; we say slowly, for Morrel had more than half an hour to spare to go five hundred steps,

but he had hastened to take leave of Monte Cristo because he wished to be alone with his thoughts. He knew

his time well the hour when Valentine was giving Noirtier his breakfast, and was sure not to be disturbed

in the performance of this pious duty. Noirtier and Valentine had given him leave to go twice a week, and he

was now availing himself of that permission. He had arrived; Valentine was expecting him. Uneasy and

almost crazed, she seized his hand and led him to her grandfather. This uneasiness, amounting almost to

frenzy, arose from the report Morcerf's adventure had made in the world, for the affair at the opera was

generally known. No one at Villefort's doubted that a duel would ensue from it. Valentine, with her woman's

instinct, guessed that Morrel would be Monte Cristo's second, and from the young man's wellknown

courage and his great affection for the count, she feared that he would not content himself with the passive

part assigned to him. We may easily understand how eagerly the particulars were asked for, given, and

received; and Morrel could read an indescribable joy in the eyes of his beloved, when she knew that the

"Now," said Valentine, motioning to Morrel to sit down near her grandfather, while she took her seat on his

footstool, "now let us talk about our own affairs. You know, Maximilian, grandpapa once thought of

"Well," said Valentine, "you may approve again, for grandpapa is again thinking of it."

"And do you know," said Valentine, "what reason grandpapa gives for leaving this house." Noirtier looked at

Valentine to impose silence, but she did not notice him; her looks, her eyes, her smile, were all for Morrel.

"Oh, whatever may be M. Noirtier's reason," answered Morrel, "I can readily believe it to be a good one."

"An excellent one," said Valentine. "He pretends the air of the Faubourg St. Honore is not good for me."

"Indeed?" said Morrel; "in that M. Noirtier may be right; you have not seemed to be well for the last

"Not very," said Valentine. "And grandpapa has become my physician, and I have the greatest confidence in

"Oh, it must not be called suffering; I feel a general uneasiness, that is all. I have lost my appetite, and my

stomach feels as if it were struggling to get accustomed to something." Noirtier did not lose a word of what

"A very simple one," said Valentine. "I swallow every morning a spoonful of the mixture prepared for my

grandfather. When I say one spoonful, I began by one now I take four. Grandpapa says it is a panacea."

Maximilian, in his devotedness, gazed silently at her. She was very beautiful, but her usual pallor had

increased; her eyes were more brilliant than ever, and her hands, which were generally white like

motherofpearl, now more resembled wax, to which time was adding a yellowish hue. From Valentine the

young man looked towards Noirtier. The latter watched with strange and deep interest the young girl,

absorbed by her affection, and he also, like Morrel, followed those traces of inward suffering which was so

little perceptible to a common observer that they escaped the notice of every one but the grandfather and the

"But," said Morrel, "I thought this mixture, of which you now take four spoonfuls, was prepared for M.

"I know it is very bitter," said Valentine; "so bitter, that all I drink afterwards appears to have the same taste."

Noirtier looked inquiringly at his granddaughter. "Yes, grandpapa," said Valentine; "it is so. Just now, before

I came down to you, I drank a glass of sugared water; I left half, because it seemed so bitter." Noirtier turned

pale, and made a sign that he wished to speak. Valentine rose to fetch the dictionary. Noirtier watched her

with evident anguish. In fact, the blood was rushing to the young girl's head already, her cheeks were

becoming red. "Oh," cried she, without losing any of her cheerfulness, "this is singular! I can't see! Did the

"The sun is not shining," said Morrel, more alarmed by Noirtier's expression than by Valentine's

indisposition. He ran towards her. The young girl smiled. "Cheer up," said she to Noirtier. "Do not be

alarmed, Maximilian; it is nothing, and has already passed away. But listen! Do I not hear a carriage in the

courtyard?" She opened Noirtier's door, ran to a window in the passage, and returned hastily. "Yes," said

she, "it is Madame Danglars and her daughter, who have come to call on us. Goodby; I must run away,

for they would send here for me, or, rather, farewell till I see you again. Stay with grandpapa, Maximilian; I

Morrel watched her as she left the room; he heard her ascend the little staircase which led both to Madame de

Villefort's apartments and to hers. As soon as she was gone, Noirtier made a sign to Morrel to take the

dictionary. Morrel obeyed; guided by Valentine, he had learned how to understand the old man quickly.

Accustomed, however, as he was to the work, he had to repeat most of the letters of the alphabet and to find

every word in the dictionary, so that it was ten minutes before the thought of the old man was translated by

Morrel rang immediately for the servant who had taken Barrois's situation, and in Noirtier's name gave that

order. The servant soon returned. The decanter and the glass were completely empty. Noirtier made a sign

that he wished to speak. "Why are the glass and decanter empty?" asked he; "Valentine said she only drank

half the glassful." The translation of this new question occupied another five minutes. "I do not know," said

the servant, "but the housemaid is in Mademoiselle Valentine's room: perhaps she has emptied them."

"Ask her," said Morrel, translating Noirtier's thought this time by his look. The servant went out, but returned

almost immediately. "Mademoiselle Valentine passed through the room to go to Madame de Villefort's," said

he; "and in passing, as she was thirsty, she drank what remained in the glass; as for the decanter, Master

Edward had emptied that to make a pond for his ducks." Noirtier raised his eyes to heaven, as a gambler does

who stakes his all on one stroke. From that moment the old man's eyes were fixed on the door, and did not

It was indeed Madame Danglars and her daughter whom Valentine had seen; they had been ushered into

Madame de Villefort's room, who had said she would receive them there. That is why Valentine passed

through her room, which was on a level with Valentine's, and only separated from it by Edward's. The two

ladies entered the drawingroom with that sort of official stiffness which preludes a formal communication.

Among worldly people manner is contagious. Madame de Villefort received them with equal solemnity.

Valentine entered at this moment, and the formalities were resumed. "My dear friend," said the baroness,

while the two young people were shaking hands, "I and Eugenie are come to be the first to announce to you

the approaching marriage of my daughter with Prince Cavalcanti." Danglars kept up the title of prince. The

popular banker found that it answered better than count. "Allow me to present you my sincere

congratulations," replied Madame de Villefort. "Prince Cavalcanti appears to be a young man of rare

"Listen," said the baroness, smiling; "speaking to you as a friend I can say that the prince does not yet appear

all he will be. He has about him a little of that foreign manner by which French persons recognize, at first

sight, the Italian or German nobleman. Besides, he gives evidence of great kindness of disposition, much

keenness of wit, and as to suitability, M. Danglars assures me that his fortune is majestic that is his word."

"And then," said Eugenie, while turning over the leaves of Madame de Villefort's album, "add that you have

"I?" replied Eugenie with her usual candor. "Oh, not the least in the world, madame! My wish was not to

confine myself to domestic cares, or the caprices of any man, but to be an artist, and consequently free in

heart, in person, and in thought." Eugenie pronounced these words with so firm a tone that the color mounted

to Valentine's cheeks. The timid girl could not understand that vigorous nature which appeared to have none

"At any rate," said she, "since I am to be married whether I will or not, I ought to be thankful to providence

for having released me from my engagement with M. Albert de Morcerf, or I should this day have been the

"It is true," said the baroness, with that strange simplicity sometimes met with among fashionable ladies, and

of which plebeian intercourse can never entirely deprive them, "it is very true that had not the Morcerfs

hesitated, my daughter would have married Monsieur Albert. The general depended much on it; he even

"But," said Valentine, timidly, "does all the father's shame revert upon the son? Monsieur Albert appears to

"Excuse me," said the implacable young girl, "Monsieur Albert claims and well deserves his share. It appears

that after having challenged M. de Monte Cristo at the Opera yesterday, he apologized on the ground

"Ah, my dear friend," said Madame Danglars, with the same simplicity we before noticed, "it is a fact. I heard

it from M. Debray, who was present at the explanation." Valentine also knew the truth, but she did not

answer. A single word had reminded her that Morrel was expecting her in M. Noirtier's room. Deeply

engaged with a sort of inward contemplation, Valentine had ceased for a moment to join in the conversation.

She would, indeed, have found it impossible to repeat what had been said the last few minutes, when

suddenly Madame Danglars' hand, pressed on her arm, aroused her from her lethargy.

"What is it?" said she, starting at Madame Danglars, touch as she would have done from an electric shock. "It

is, my dear Valentine," said the baroness, "that you are, doubtless, suffering."

"Yes, look at yourself in that glass; you have turned pale and then red successively, three or four times in one

"Oh, do not be alarmed; I have been so for many days." Artless as she was, the young girl knew that this was

an opportunity to leave, and besides, Madame de Villefort came to her assistance. "Retire, Valentine," said

she; "you are really suffering, and these ladies will excuse you; drink a glass of pure water, it will restore

you." Valentine kissed Eugenie, bowed to Madame Danglars, who had already risen to take her leave, and

went out. "That poor child," said Madame de Villefort when Valentine was gone, "she makes me very

Meanwhile, Valentine, in a sort of excitement which she could not quite understand, had crossed Edward's

room without noticing some trick of the child, and through her own had reached the little staircase. She was

within three steps of the bottom; she already heard Morrel's voice, when suddenly a cloud passed over her

eyes, her stiffened foot missed the step, her hands had no power to hold the baluster, and falling against the

wall she lost her balance wholly and toppled to the floor. Morrel bounded to the door, opened it, and found

Valentine stretched out at the bottom of the stairs. Quick as a flash, he raised her in his arms and placed her in

"Oh, what a clumsy thing I am," said she with feverish volubility; "I don't know my way. I forgot there were

"You have hurt yourself, perhaps," said Morrel. "What can I do for you, Valentine?" Valentine looked around

her; she saw the deepest terror depicted in Noirtier's eyes. "Don't worry, dear grandpapa," said she,

"Another attack of giddiness," said Morrel, clasping his hands. "Oh, attend to it, Valentine, I entreat you."

"But no," said Valentine, "no, I tell you it is all past, and it was nothing. Now, let me tell you some news;

Eugenie is to be married in a week, and in three days there is to be a grand feast, a betrothal festival. We are

all invited, my father, Madame de Villefort, and I at least, I understood it so."

"When will it be our turn to think of these things? Oh, Valentine, you who have so much influence over your

"And do you," said Valentine, "depend on me to stimulate the tardiness and arouse the memory of

"Yes," cried Morrel, "make haste. So long as you are not mine, Valentine, I shall always think I may lose

"Oh," replied Valentine with a convulsive movement, "oh, indeed, Maximilian, you are too timid for an

officer, for a soldier who, they say, never knows fear. Ah, ha, ha!" she burst into a forced and melancholy

laugh, her arms stiffened and twisted, her head fell back on her chair, and she remained motionless. The cry

of terror which was stopped on Noirtier's lips, seemed to start from his eyes. Morrel understood it; he knew

he must call assistance. The young man rang the bell violently; the housemaid who had been in Mademoiselle

Valentine's room, and the servant who had replaced Barrois, ran in at the same moment. Valentine was so

pale, so cold, so inanimate that without listening to what was said to them they were seized with the fear

which pervaded that house, and they flew into the passage crying for help. Madame Danglars and Eugenie

were going out at that moment; they heard the cause of the disturbance. "I told you so!" exclaimed Madame

At the same moment M. de Villefort's voice was heard calling from his study, "What is the matter?" Morrel

looked at Noirtier who had recovered his selfcommand, and with a glance indicated the closet where once

before under somewhat similar circumstances, he had taken refuge. He had only time to get his hat and throw

himself breathless into the closet when the procureur's footstep was heard in the passage. Villefort sprang into

the room, ran to Valentine, and took her in his arms. "A physician, a physician, M. d'Avrigny!" cried

Villefort; "or rather I will go for him myself." He flew from the apartment, and Morrel at the same moment

darted out at the other door. He had been struck to the heart by a frightful recollection the conversation he

had heard between the doctor and Villefort the night of Madame de SaintMeran's death, recurred to him;

these symptoms, to a less alarming extent, were the same which had preceded the death of Barrois. At the

same time Monte Cristo's voice seemed to resound in his ear with the words he had heard only two hours

before, "Whatever you want, Morrel, come to me; I have great power." More rapidly than thought, he darted

Meanwhile M. de Villefort arrived in a hired cabriolet at M. d'Avrigny's door. He rang so violently that the

porter was alarmed. Villefort ran upstairs without saying a word. The porter knew him, and let him pass,

only calling to him, "In his study, Monsieur Procureur in his study!" Villefort pushed, or rather forced, the

"Yes," said Villefort, closing the door after him, "it is I, who am come in my turn to ask you if we are quite

"What?" said the latter with apparent coolness, but with deep emotion, "have you another invalid?"

D'Avrigny's look implied, "I told you it would be so." Then he slowly uttered these words, "Who is now

dying in your house? What new victim is going to accuse you of weakness before God?" A mournful sob

burst from Villefort's heart; he approached the doctor, and seizing his arm, "Valentine," said he, "it is

"You see you were deceived," murmured the magistrate; "come and see her, and on her bed of agony entreat

"Each time you have applied to me," said the doctor, "it has been too late; still I will go. But let us make

"Oh, this time, doctor, you shall not have to reproach me with weakness. This time I will know the assassin,

"Let us try first to save the victim before we think of revenging her," said d'Avrigny. "Come." The same

cabriolet which had brought Villefort took them back at full speed, and at this moment Morrel rapped at

Monte Cristo's door. The count was in his study and was reading with an angry look something which

Bertuccio had brought in haste. Hearing the name of Morrel, who had left him only two hours before, the

count raised his head, arose, and sprang to meet him. "What is the matter, Maximilian?" asked he; "you are

pale, and the perspiration rolls from your forehead." Morrel fell into a chair. "Yes," said he, "I came quickly;

"Are all your family well?" asked the count, with an affectionate benevolence, whose sincerity no one could

"Thank you, count thank you," said the young man, evidently embarrassed how to begin the conversation;

"So much the better; yet you have something to tell me?" replied the count with increased anxiety.

"Yes," said Morrel, "it is true; I have but now left a house where death has just entered, to run to you."

"The general has just blown his brains out," replied Monte Cristo with great coolness.

"Not for the countess, or for Albert," said Monte Cristo; "a dead father or husband is better than a dishonored

"Poor countess," said Maximilian, "I pity her very much; she is so noble a woman!"

"Pity Albert also, Maximilian; for believe me he is the worthy son of the countess. But let us return to

yourself. You have hastened to me can I have the happiness of being useful to you?"

"Yes, I need your help: that is I thought like a madman that you could lend me your assistance in a case

"Oh," said Morrel, "I know not, indeed, if I may reveal this secret to mortal ears, but fatality impels me,

necessity constrains me, count" Morrel hesitated. "Do you think I love you?" said Monte Cristo, taking the

"Oh, you encourage me, and something tells me there," placing his hand on his heart, "that I ought to have no

"You are right, Morrel; God is speaking to your heart, and your heart speaks to you. Tell me what it says."

"Count, will you allow me to send Baptistin to inquire after some one you know?"

"No, I will go and speak to him myself." Morrel went out, called Baptistin, and whispered a few words to

him. The valet ran directly. "Well, have you sent?" asked Monte Cristo, seeing Morrel return.

"Yes, and I will tell you. One evening I was in a garden; a clump of trees concealed me; no one suspected I

was there. Two persons passed near me allow me to conceal their names for the present; they were

speaking in an undertone, and yet I was so interested in what they said that I did not lose a single word."

"This is a gloomy introduction, if I may judge from your pallor and shuddering, Morrel."

"Oh, yes, very gloomy, my friend. Some one had just died in the house to which that garden belonged. One of

the persons whose conversation I overheard was the master of the house; the other, the physician. The former

was confiding to the latter his grief and fear, for it was the second time within a month that death had

suddenly and unexpectedly entered that house which was apparently destined to destruction by some

"Ah, indeed?" said Monte Cristo, looking earnestly at the young man, and by an imperceptible movement

turning his chair, so that he remained in the shade while the light fell full on Maximilian's face. "Yes,"

"He replied he replied, that the death was not a natural one, and must be attributed"

"Indeed?" said Monte Cristo with a slight cough which in moments of extreme emotion helped him to

disguise a blush, or his pallor, or the intense interest with which he listened; "indeed, Maximilian, did you

"Yes, my dear count, I heard it; and the doctor added that if another death occurred in a similar way he must

appeal to justice." Monte Cristo listened, or appeared to do so, with the greatest calmness. "Well," said

Maximilian, "death came a third time, and neither the master of the house nor the doctor said a word. Death is

now, perhaps, striking a fourth blow. Count, what am I bound to do, being in possession of this secret?"

"My dear friend," said Monte Cristo, "you appear to be relating an adventure which we all know by heart. I

know the house where you heard it, or one very similar to it; a house with a garden, a master, a physician, and

where there have been three unexpected and sudden deaths. Well, I have not intercepted your confidence, and

yet I know all that as well as you, and I have no conscientious scruples. No, it does not concern me. You say

an exterminating angel appears to have devoted that house to God's anger well, who says your supposition

is not reality? Do not notice things which those whose interest it is to see them pass over. If it is God's justice,

instead of his anger, which is walking through that house, Maximilian, turn away your face and let his justice

accomplish its purpose." Morrel shuddered. There was something mournful, solemn, and terrible in the

count's manner. "Besides," continued he, in so changed a tone that no one would have supposed it was the

"Well, what do you wish me to do? Do you wish me, for instance, to give information to the procureur?"

Monte Cristo uttered the last words with so much meaning that Morrel, starting up, cried out, "You know of

"Perfectly well, my good friend; and I will prove it to you by putting the dots to the `i,' or rather by naming

the persons. You were walking one evening in M. de Villefort's garden; from what you relate, I suppose it to

have been the evening of Madame de SaintMeran's death. You heard M. de Villefort talking to M.

d'Avrigny about the death of M. de SaintMeran, and that no less surprising, of the countess. M. d'Avrigny

said he believed they both proceeded from poison; and you, honest man, have ever since been asking your

heart and sounding your conscience to know if you ought to expose or conceal this secret. Why do you

torment them? `Conscience, what hast thou to do with me?' as Sterne said. My dear fellow, let them sleep on,

if they are asleep; let them grow pale in their drowsiness, if they are disposed to do so, and pray do you

remain in peace, who have no remorse to disturb you." Deep grief was depicted on Morrel's features; he

"Well," said the Count, astonished at his perseverance, which he could not understand, and looking still more

earnestly at Maximilian, "let it begin again, it is like the house of the Atreidae;* God has condemned

them, and they must submit to their punishment. They will all disappear, like the fabrics children build with

cards, and which fall, one by one, under the breath of their builder, even if there are two hundred of them.

Three months since it was M. de SaintMeran; Madame de SaintMeran two months since; the other day it

* In the old Greek legend the Atreidae, or children of Atreus, were doomed to punishment because of the

abominable crime of their father. The Agamemnon of Aeschylus is based on this legend.

"You knew it?" cried Morrel, in such a paroxysm of terror that Monte Cristo started, he whom the falling

"And what is it to me?" replied Monte Cristo, shrugging his shoulders; "do I know those people? and must I

lose the one to save the other? Faith, no, for between the culprit and the victim I have no choice."

"You love? whom?" cried Monte Cristo, starting to his feet, and seizing the two hands which Morrel was

"I love most fondly I love madly I love as a man who would give his lifeblood to spare her a tear I

love Valentine de Villefort, who is being murdered at this moment! Do you understand me? I love her; and I

ask God and you how I can save her?" Monte Cristo uttered a cry which those only can conceive who have

heard the roar of a wounded lion. "Unhappy man," cried he, wringing his hands in his turn; "you love

Valentine, that daughter of an accursed race!" Never had Morrel witnessed such an expression never

had so terrible an eye flashed before his face never had the genius of terror he had so often seen, either on

the battlefield or in the murderous nights of Algeria, shaken around him more dreadful fire. He drew back

As for Monte Cristo, after this ebullition he closed his eyes as if dazzled by internal light. In a moment he

restrained himself so powerfully that the tempestuous heaving of his breast subsided, as turbulent and

foaming waves yield to the sun's genial influence when the cloud has passed. This silence, selfcontrol, and

struggle lasted about twenty seconds, then the count raised his pallid face. "See," said he, "my dear friend,

how God punishes the most thoughtless and unfeeling men for their indifference, by presenting dreadful

scenes to their view. I, who was looking on, an eager and curious spectator, I, who was watching the

working of this mournful tragedy, I, who like a wicked angel was laughing at the evil men committed

protected by secrecy (a secret is easily kept by the rich and powerful), I am in my turn bitten by the serpent

Morrel groaned. "Come, come," continued the count, "complaints are unavailing, be a man, be strong, be full

of hope, for I am here and will watch over you." Morrel shook his head sorrowfully. "I tell you to hope. Do

you understand me?" cried Monte Cristo. "Remember that I never uttered a falsehood and am never deceived.

It is twelve o'clock, Maximilian; thank heaven that you came at noon rather than in the evening, or

tomorrow morning. Listen, Morrel it is noon; if Valentine is not now dead, she will not die."

"How so?" cried Morrel, "when I left her dying?" Monte Cristo pressed his hands to his forehead. What was

passing in that brain, so loaded with dreadful secrets? What does the angel of light or the angel of darkness

Monte Cristo raised his head once more, and this time he was calm as a child awaking from its sleep.

"Maximilian," said he, "return home. I command you not to stir attempt nothing, not to let your

"Oh, count, you overwhelm me with that coolness. Have you, then, power against death? Are you

superhuman? Are you an angel?" And the young man, who had never shrunk from danger, shrank before

Monte Cristo with indescribable terror. But Monte Cristo looked at him with so melancholy and sweet a

smile, that Maximilian felt the tears filling his eyes. "I can do much for you, my friend," replied the count.

"Go; I must be alone." Morrel, subdued by the extraordinary ascendancy Monte Cristo exercised over

everything around him, did not endeavor to resist it. He pressed the count's hand and left. He stopped one

moment at the door for Baptistin, whom he saw in the Rue Matignon, and who was running.

Meanwhile, Villefort and d'Avrigny had made all possible haste, Valentine had not revived from her fainting

fit on their arrival, and the doctor examined the invalid with all the care the circumstances demanded, and

with an interest which the knowledge of the secret intensified twofold. Villefort, closely watching his

countenance and his lips, awaited the result of the examination. Noirtier, paler than even the young girl, more

eager than Villefort for the decision, was watching also intently and affectionately. At last d'Avrigny slowly

"Yes," said the physician, "I repeat it; she is still alive, and I am astonished at it."

"Yes, since she lives." At that moment d'Avrigny's glance met Noirtier's eye. It glistened with such

extraordinary joy, so rich and full of thought, that the physician was struck. He placed the young girl again on

the chair, her lips were scarcely discernible, they were so pale and white, as well as her whole face,

and remained motionless, looking at Noirtier, who appeared to anticipate and commend all he did. "Sir," said

d'Avrigny to Villefort, "call Mademoiselle Valentine's maid, if you please." Villefort went himself to find

her; and d'Avrigny approached Noirtier. "Have you something to tell me?" asked he. The old man winked his

eyes expressively, which we may remember was his only way of expressing his approval.

"Well, I will remain with you." At this moment Villefort returned, followed by the lady's maid; and after her

"What is the matter, then, with this dear child? she has just left me, and she complained of being indisposed,

but I did not think seriously of it." The young woman with tears in her eyes and every mark of affection of a

true mother, approached Valentine and took her hand. D'Avrigny continued to look at Noirtier; he saw the

eyes of the old man dilate and become round, his cheeks turn pale and tremble; the perspiration stood in

drops upon his forehead. "Ah," said he, involuntarily following Noirtier's eyes, which were fixed on Madame

de Villefort, who repeated, "This poor child would be better in bed. Come, Fanny, we will put her to bed."

M. d'Avrigny, who saw that would be a means of his remaining alone with Noirtier, expressed his opinion

that it was the best thing that could be done; but he forbade that anything should be given to her except what

They carried Valentine away; she had revived, but could scarcely move or speak, so shaken was her frame by

the attack. She had, however, just power to give one parting look to her grandfather, who in losing her

seemed to be resigning his very soul. D'Avrigny followed the invalid, wrote a prescription, ordered Villefort

to take a cabriolet, go in person to a chemist's to get the prescribed medicine, bring it himself, and wait for

him in his daughter's room. Then, having renewed his injunction not to give Valentine anything, he went

down again to Noirtier, shut the doors carefully, and after convincing himself that no one was listening,

"We have no time to lose; I will question, and do you answer me." Noirtier made a sign that he was ready to

answer. "Did you anticipate the accident which has happened to your granddaughter?"

"Yes." D'Avrigny reflected a moment; then approaching Noirtier, "Pardon what I am going to say," added

he, "but no indication should be neglected in this terrible situation. Did you see poor Barrois die?" Noirtier

raised his eyes to heaven. "Do you know of what he died!" asked d'Avrigny, placing his hand on Noirtier's

"Do you think he died a natural death?" A sort of smile was discernible on the motionless lips of Noirtier.

"Do you think the same hand which unintentionally struck Barrois has now attacked Valentine?"

"Then will she die too?" asked d'Avrigny, fixing his penetrating gaze on Noirtier. He watched the effect of

this question on the old man. "No," replied he with an air of triumph which would have puzzled the most

"What do you hope?" The old man made him understand with his eyes that he could not answer. "Ah, yes, it

is true," murmured d'Avrigny. Then, turning to Noirtier, "Do you hope the assassin will be tried?"

"It is no news to you," added d'Avrigny, "to tell you that an attempt has been made to poison her?" The old

man made a sign that he entertained no doubt upon the subject. "Then how do you hope Valentine will

escape?" Noirtier kept his eyes steadfastly fixed on the same spot. D'Avrigny followed the direction and saw

that they were fixed on a bottle containing the mixture which he took every morning. "Ah, indeed?" said

d'Avrigny, struck with a sudden thought, "has it occurred to you" Noirtier did not let him finish. "Yes,"

"And by accustoming her to that poison, you have endeavored to neutralize the effect of a similar poison?"

Noirtier's joy continued. "And you have succeeded," exclaimed d'Avrigny. "Without that precaution

Valentine would have died before assistance could have been procured. The dose has been excessive, but she

has only been shaken by it; and this time, at any rate, Valentine will not die." A superhuman joy expanded the

old man's eyes, which were raised towards heaven with an expression of infinite gratitude. At this moment

"No." D'Avrigny took the bottle, poured some drops of the mixture it contained in the hollow of his hand, and

swallowed them. "Well," said he, "let us go to Valentine; I will give instructions to every one, and you, M. de

At the moment when d'Avrigny was returning to Valentine's room, accompanied by Villefort, an Italian

priest, of serious demeanor and calm and firm tone, hired for his use the house adjoining the hotel of M. de

Villefort. No one knew how the three former tenants of that house left it. About two hours afterwards its

foundation was reported to be unsafe; but the report did not prevent the new occupant establishing himself

there with his modest furniture the same day at five o'clock. The lease was drawn up for three, six, or nine

years by the new tenant, who, according to the rule of the proprietor, paid six months in advance. This new

tenant, who, as we have said, was an Italian, was called Il Signor Giacomo Busoni. Workmen were

immediately called in, and that same night the passengers at the end of the faubourg saw with surprise that

carpenters and masons were occupied in repairing the lower part of the tottering house.

We saw in a preceding chapter how Madame Danglars went formally to announce to Madame de Villefort the

approaching marriage of Eugenie Danglars and M. Andrea Cavalcanti. This announcement, which implied or

appeared to imply, the approval of all the persons concerned in this momentous affair, had been preceded by

a scene to which our readers must be admitted. We beg them to take one step backward, and to transport

themselves, the morning of that day of great catastrophes, into the showy, gilded salon we have before shown

them, and which was the pride of its owner, Baron Danglars. In this room, at about ten o'clock in the

morning, the banker himself had been walking to and fro for some minutes thoughtfully and in evident

uneasiness, watching both doors, and listening to every sound. When his patience was exhausted, he called

his valet. "Etienne," said he, "see why Mademoiselle Eugenie has asked me to meet her in the drawingroom,

Having given this vent to his illhumor, the baron became more calm; Mademoiselle Danglars had that

morning requested an interview with her father, and had fixed on the gilded drawingroom as the spot. The

singularity of this step, and above all its formality, had not a little surprised the banker, who had immediately

obeyed his daughter by repairing first to the drawingroom. Etienne soon returned from his errand.

"Mademoiselle's lady's maid says, sir, that mademoiselle is finishing her toilette, and will be here shortly."

Danglars nodded, to signify that he was satisfied. To the world and to his servants Danglars assumed the

character of the goodnatured man and the indulgent father. This was one of his parts in the popular comedy

he was performing, a makeup he had adopted and which suited him about as well as the masks worn on

the classic stage by paternal actors, who seen from one side, were the image of geniality, and from the other

showed lips drawn down in chronic illtemper. Let us hasten to say that in private the genial side descended

to the level of the other, so that generally the indulgent man disappeared to give place to the brutal husband

and domineering father. "Why the devil does that foolish girl, who pretends to wish to speak to me, not come

He was turning this thought over in his brain for the twentieth time, when the door opened and Eugenie

appeared, attired in a figured black satin dress, her hair dressed and gloves on, as if she were going to the

Italian Opera. "Well, Eugenie, what is it you want with me? and why in this solemn drawingroom when the

"I quite understand why you ask, sir," said Eugenie, making a sign that her father might be seated, "and in

fact your two questions suggest fully the theme of our conversation. I will answer them both, and contrary to

the usual method, the last first, because it is the least difficult. I have chosen the drawingroom, sir, as our

place of meeting, in order to avoid the disagreeable impressions and influences of a banker's study. Those

gilded cashbooks, drawers locked like gates of fortresses, heaps of bankbills, come from I know not where,

and the quantities of letters from England, Holland, Spain, India, China, and Peru, have generally a strange

influence on a father's mind, and make him forget that there is in the world an interest greater and more

sacred than the good opinion of his correspondents. I have, therefore, chosen this drawingroom, where you

see, smiling and happy in their magnificent frames, your portrait, mine, my mother's, and all sorts of rural

landscapes and touching pastorals. I rely much on external impressions; perhaps, with regard to you, they are

"Very well," replied M. Danglars, who had listened to all this preamble with imperturbable coolness, but

without understanding a word, since like every man burdened with thoughts of the past, he was occupied with

"There is, then, the second point cleared up, or nearly so," said Eugenie, without the least confusion, and with

that masculine pointedness which distinguished her gesture and her language; "and you appear satisfied with

the explanation. Now, let us return to the first. You ask me why I have requested this interview; I will tell you

"Yes, indeed, sir," continued Eugenie, still quite calm; "you are astonished, I see; for since this little affair

began, I have not manifested the slightest opposition, and yet I am always sure, when the opportunity arrives,

to oppose a determined and absolute will to people who have not consulted me, and things which displease

me. However, this time, my tranquillity, or passiveness as philosophers say, proceeded from another source;

it proceeded from a wish, like a submissive and devoted daughter" (a slight smile was observable on the

"Well, sir," replied Eugenie, "I have tried to the very last and now that the moment has come, I feel in spite of

"But," said Danglars, whose weak mind was at first quite overwhelmed with the weight of this pitiless logic,

marking evident premeditation and force of will, "what is your reason for this refusal, Eugenie? what reason

"My reason?" replied the young girl. "Well, it is not that the man is more ugly, more foolish, or more

disagreeable than any other; no, M. Andrea Cavalcanti may appear to those who look at men's faces and

figures as a very good specimen of his kind. It is not, either, that my heart is less touched by him than any

other; that would be a schoolgirl's reason, which I consider quite beneath me. I actually love no one, sir; you

know it, do you not? I do not then see why, without real necessity, I should encumber my life with a

perpetual companion. Has not some sage said, `Nothing too much'? and another, `I carry all my effects with

me'? I have been taught these two aphorisms in Latin and in Greek; one is, I believe, from Phaedrus, and the

other from Bias. Well, my dear father, in the shipwreck of life for life is an eternal shipwreck of our hopes

I cast into the sea my useless encumbrance, that is all, and I remain with my own will, disposed to live

"Unhappy girl, unhappy girl!" murmured Danglars, turning pale, for he knew from long experience the

"Unhappy girl," replied Eugenie, "unhappy girl, do you say, sir? No, indeed; the exclamation appears quite

theatrical and affected. Happy, on the contrary, for what am I in want of! The world calls me beautiful. It is

something to be well received. I like a favorable reception; it expands the countenance, and those around me

do not then appear so ugly. I possess a share of wit, and a certain relative sensibility, which enables me to

draw from life in general, for the support of mine, all I meet with that is good, like the monkey who cracks

the nut to get at its contents. I am rich, for you have one of the first fortunes in France. I am your only

daughter, and you are not so exacting as the fathers of the Porte SaintMartin and Gaiete, who disinherit their

daughters for not giving them grandchildren. Besides, the provident law has deprived you of the power to

disinherit me, at least entirely, as it has also of the power to compel me to marry Monsieur This or Monsieur

That. And so being, beautiful, witty, somewhat talented, as the comic operas say, and rich and that is

Danglars, seeing his daughter smiling, and proud even to insolence, could not entirely repress his brutal

feelings, but they betrayed themselves only by an exclamation. Under the fixed and inquiring gaze levelled at

him from under those beautiful black eyebrows, he prudently turned away, and calmed himself immediately,

daunted by the power of a resolute mind. "Truly, my daughter," replied he with a smile, "you are all you

boast of being, excepting one thing; I will not too hastily tell you which, but would rather leave you to guess

it." Eugenie looked at Danglars, much surprised that one flower of her crown of pride, with which she had so

superbly decked herself, should be disputed. "My daughter," continued the banker, "you have perfectly

explained to me the sentiments which influence a girl like you, who is determined she will not marry; now it

remains for me to tell you the motives of a father like me, who has decided that his daughter shall marry."

Eugenie bowed, not as a submissive daughter, but as an adversary prepared for a discussion.

"My daughter," continued Danglars, "when a father asks his daughter to choose a husband, he has always

some reason for wishing her to marry. Some are affected with the mania of which you spoke just now, that of

living again in their grandchildren. This is not my weakness, I tell you at once; family joys have no charm for

me. I may acknowledge this to a daughter whom I know to be philosophical enough to understand my

"This is not to the purpose," said Eugenie; "let us speak candidly, sir; I admire candor."

"Oh," said Danglars, "I can, when circumstances render it desirable, adopt your system, although it may not

be my general practice. I will therefore proceed. I have proposed to you to marry, not for your sake, for

indeed I did not think of you in the least at the moment (you admire candor, and will now be satisfied, I

hope); but because it suited me to marry you as soon as possible, on account of certain commercial

"It is just as I tell you, I assure you, and you must not be angry with me, for you have sought this disclosure. I

do not willingly enter into arithmetical explanations with an artist like you, who fears to enter my study lest

she should imbibe disagreeable or antipoetic impressions and sensations. But in that same banker's study,

where you very willingly presented yourself yesterday to ask for the thousand francs I give you monthly for

pocketmoney, you must know, my dear young lady, that many things may be learned, useful even to a girl

who will not marry. There one may learn, for instance, what, out of regard to your nervous susceptibility, I

will inform you of in the drawingroom, namely, that the credit of a banker is his physical and moral life;

that credit sustains him as breath animates the body; and M. de Monte Cristo once gave me a lecture on that

subject, which I have never forgotten. There we may learn that as credit sinks, the body becomes a corpse,

and this is what must happen very soon to the banker who is proud to own so good a logician as you for his

daughter." But Eugenie, instead of stooping, drew herself up under the blow. "Ruined?" said she.

"Exactly, my daughter; that is precisely what I mean," said Danglars, almost digging his nails into his breast,

while he preserved on his harsh features the smile of the heartless though clever man; "ruined yes, that is

"Yes, ruined! Now it is revealed, this secret so full of horror, as the tragic poet says. Now, my daughter, learn

from my lips how you may alleviate this misfortune, so far as it will affect you."

"Oh," cried Eugenie, "you are a bad physiognomist, if you imagine I deplore on my own account the

catastrophe of which you warn me. I ruined? and what will that signify to me? Have I not my talent left? Can

I not, like Pasta, Malibran, Grisi, acquire for myself what you would never have given me, whatever might

have been your fortune, a hundred or a hundred and fifty thousand livres per annum, for which I shall be

indebted to no one but myself; and which, instead of being given as you gave me those poor twelve thousand

francs, with sour looks and reproaches for my prodigality, will be accompanied with acclamations, with

bravos, and with flowers? And if I do not possess that talent, which your smiles prove to me you doubt,

should I not still have that ardent love of independence, which will be a substitute for wealth, and which in

my mind supersedes even the instinct of selfpreservation? No, I grieve not on my own account, I shall

always find a resource; my books, my pencils, my piano, all the things which cost but little, and which I shall

"Do you think that I sorrow for Madame Danglars? Undeceive yourself again; either I am greatly mistaken,

or she has provided against the catastrophe which threatens you, and, which will pass over without affecting

her. She has taken care for herself, at least I hope so, for her attention has not been diverted from her

projects by watching over me. She has fostered my independence by professedly indulging my love for

liberty. Oh, no, sir; from my childhood I have seen too much, and understood too much, of what has passed

around me, for misfortune to have an undue power over me. From my earliest recollections, I have been

beloved by no one so much the worse; that has naturally led me to love no one so much the better

"Then," said Danglars, pale with anger, which was not at all due to offended paternal love, "then,

"I am all attention," said Eugenie, looking so earnestly at her father that it was an effort for the latter to

"M. Cavalcanti," continued Danglars, "is about to marry you, and will place in my hands his fortune,

"That is admirable!" said Eugenie with sovereign contempt, smoothing her gloves out one upon the other.

"You think I shall deprive you of those three millions," said Danglars; "but do not fear it. They are destined to

produce at least ten. I and a brother banker have obtained a grant of a railway, the only industrial enterprise

which in these days promises to make good the fabulous prospects that Law once held out to the eternally

deluded Parisians, in the fantastic Mississippi scheme. As I look at it, a millionth part of a railway is worth

fully as much as an acre of waste land on the banks of the Ohio. We make in our case a deposit, on a

mortgage, which is an advance, as you see, since we gain at least ten, fifteen, twenty, or a hundred livres'

worth of iron in exchange for our money. Well, within a week I am to deposit four millions for my share; the

"But during my visit to you the day before yesterday, sir, which you appear to recollect so well," replied

Eugenie, "I saw you arranging a deposit is not that the term? of five millions and a half; you even

pointed it out to me in two drafts on the treasury, and you were astonished that so valuable a paper did not

"Yes, but those five millions and a half are not mine, and are only a proof of the great confidence placed in

me; my title of popular banker has gained me the confidence of charitable institutions, and the five millions

and a half belong to them; at any other time I should not have hesitated to make use of them, but the great

losses I have recently sustained are well known, and, as I told you, my credit is rather shaken. That deposit

may be at any moment withdrawn, and if I had employed it for another purpose, I should bring on me a

disgraceful bankruptcy. I do not despise bankruptcies, believe me, but they must be those which enrich, not

those which ruin. Now, if you marry M. Cavalcanti, and I get the three millions, or even if it is thought I am

going to get them, my credit will be restored, and my fortune, which for the last month or two has been

swallowed up in gulfs which have been opened in my path by an inconceivable fatality, will revive. Do you

"The greater the amount, the more flattering it is to you; it gives you an idea of your value."

"Thank you. One word more, sir; do you promise me to make what use you can of the report of the fortune

M. Cavalcanti will bring without touching the money? This is no act of selfishness, but of delicacy. I am

willing to help rebuild your fortune, but I will not be an accomplice in the ruin of others."

"Do you expect to recover your position, sir, without touching those three million?"

"Shall you be able to pay M. Cavalcanti the five hundred thousand francs you promise for my dowry?"

"I wish to know if, in demanding my signature, you leave me entirely free in my person?"

"Ah, that is my affair. What advantage should I have over you, if knowing your secret I were to tell you

mine?" Danglars bit his lips. "Then," said he, "you are ready to pay the official visits, which are absolutely

"Then, in my turn, I also say, very well!" Danglars pressed his daughter's hand in his. But, extraordinary to

relate, the father did not say, "Thank you, my child," nor did the daughter smile at her father. "Is the

conference ended?" asked Eugenie, rising. Danglars motioned that he had nothing more to say. Five minutes

afterwards the piano resounded to the touch of Mademoiselle d'Armilly's fingers, and Mademoiselle Danglars

was singing Brabantio's malediction on Desdemona. At the end of the piece Etienne entered, and announced

to Eugenie that the horses were in the carriage, and that the baroness was waiting for her to pay her visits. We

Three days after the scene we have just described, namely towards five o'clock in the afternoon of the day

fixed for the signature of the contract between Mademoiselle Eugenie Danglars and Andrea Cavalcanti,

whom the banker persisted in calling prince, a fresh breeze was stirring the leaves in the little garden in

front of the Count of Monte Cristo's house, and the count was preparing to go out. While his horses were

impatiently pawing the ground, held in by the coachman, who had been seated a quarter of an hour on his

box, the elegant phaeton with which we are familiar rapidly turned the angle of the entrancegate, and

cast out on the doorsteps M. Andrea Cavalcanti, as decked up and gay as if he were going to marry a

princess. He inquired after the count with his usual familiarity, and ascending lightly to the second story met

him at the top of the stairs. The count stopped on seeing the young man. As for Andrea, he was launched, and

when he was once launched nothing stopped him. "Ah, good morning, my dear count," said he. "Ah, M.

"Charmingly, as you see. I am come to talk to you about a thousand things; but, first tell me, were you going

"Then, in order not to hinder you, I will get up with you if you please in your carriage, and Tom shall follow

"No," said the count, with an imperceptible smile of contempt, for he had no wish to be seen in the young

man's society, "no; I prefer listening to you here, my dear M. Andrea; we can chat better indoors, and

there is no coachman to overhear our conversation." The count returned to a small drawingroom on the first

floor, sat down, and crossing his legs motioned to the young man to take a seat also. Andrea assumed his

gayest manner. "You know, my dear count," said he, "the ceremony is to take place this evening. At nine

"Oh, yes," said the count; "I received a letter from him yesterday, but I do not think the hour was mentioned."

"Well," said Monte Cristo, "you are fortunate, M. Cavalcanti; it is a most suitable alliance you are

"And he acknowledges fifteen or twenty millions," said Andrea with a look sparkling with joy.

"Without reckoning," added Monte Cristo, "that he is on the eve of entering into a sort of speculation already

"Yes, yes, I know what you mean, the railway, of which he has obtained the grant, is it not?"

"Ten millions! Do you think so? It is magnificent!" said Cavalcanti, who was quite confounded at the

metallic sound of these golden words. "Without reckoning," replied Monte Cristo, "that all his fortune will

come to you, and justly too, since Mademoiselle Danglars is an only daughter. Besides, your own fortune, as

your father assured me, is almost equal to that of your betrothed. But enough of money matters. Do you

"Well, you must become a diplomatist; diplomacy, you know, is something that is not to be acquired; it is

"Indeed, I fear it," replied Andrea, in the tone in which he had heard Dorante or Valere reply to Alceste* at

"I suppose so," said Andrea with a triumphant smile, "since I am accepted. But I must not forget one grand

"By me? Not at all, prince," said Monte Cristo laying a marked stress on the title, "what have I done for you?

"No," said Andrea, "no; it is useless for you to say so, count. I maintain that the position of a man like you

"You are completely mistaken, sir," said Monte Cristo coldly, who felt the perfidious manoeuvre of the

young man, and understood the bearing of his words; "you only acquired my protection after the influence

and fortune of your father had been ascertained; for, after all, who procured for me, who had never seen

either you or your illustrious father, the pleasure of your acquaintance? two of my good friends, Lord

Wilmore and the Abbe Busoni. What encouraged me not to become your surety, but to patronize you?

your father's name, so well known in Italy and so highly honored. Personally, I do not know you." This calm

tone and perfect ease made Andrea feel that he was, for the moment, restrained by a more muscular hand than

"Oh, well," said the count, "I do not think you have yet known the want of money." Andrea was so surprised

that he pondered the matter for a moment. Then, arousing from his revery, "Now, sir, I have one request

to make to you, which you will understand, even if it should be disagreeable to you."

"I have formed an acquaintance, thanks to my good fortune, with many noted persons, and have, at least for

the moment, a crowd of friends. But marrying, as I am about to do, before all Paris, I ought to be supported

by an illustrious name, and in the absence of the paternal hand some powerful one ought to lead me to the

altar; now, my father is not coming to Paris, is he? He is old, covered with wounds, and suffers dreadfully, he

"Ah, my dear sir! What? after the varied relations I have had the happiness to sustain towards you, can it

be that you know me so little as to ask such a thing? Ask me to lend you half a million and, although such a

loan is somewhat rare, on my honor, you would annoy me less! Know, then, what I thought I had already told

you, that in participation in this world's affairs, more especially in their moral aspects, the Count of Monte

Cristo has never ceased to entertain the scruples and even the superstitions of the East. I, who have a seraglio

at Cairo, one at Smyrna, and one at Constantinople, preside at a wedding? never!"

"Decidedly; and were you my son or my brother I would refuse you in the same way."

"Not at all! Let us recall the exact facts. You met him at a dinner party at my house, and you introduced

"I? not in the least, I beg you to believe. Recollect what I told you when you asked me to propose you.

`Oh, I never make matches, my dear prince, it is my settled principle.'" Andrea bit his lips.

"Well, since you will grant me no more, I must be content with what you give me. But one word more,

"This is the way such affairs are generally arranged when it is wished to do them stylishly: Your two

solicitors appoint a meeting, when the contract is signed, for the next or the following day; then they

exchange the two portions, for which they each give a receipt; then, when the marriage is celebrated, they

"Because," said Andrea, with a certain illconcealed uneasiness, "I thought I heard my fatherinlaw say that

he intended embarking our property in that famous railway affair of which you spoke just now."

"Well," replied Monte Cristo, "it will be the way, everybody says, of trebling your fortune in twelve months.

"In that case," said Andrea, "everything is all right, excepting your refusal, which quite grieves me."

"Well," said Andrea, "let it be as you wish. This evening, then, at nine o'clock."

"Adieu till then." Notwithstanding a slight resistance on the part of Monte Cristo, whose lips turned pale, but

who preserved his ceremonious smile, Andrea seized the count's hand, pressed it, jumped into his phaeton,

The four or five remaining hours before nine o'clock arrived, Andrea employed in riding, paying visits,

designed to induce those of whom he had spoken to appear at the banker's in their gayest equipages,

dazzling them by promises of shares in schemes which have since turned every brain, and in which Danglars

was just taking the initiative. In fact, at halfpast eight in the evening the grand salon, the gallery adjoining,

and the three other drawingrooms on the same floor, were filled with a perfumed crowd, who sympathized

but little in the event, but who all participated in that love of being present wherever there is anything fresh to

be seen. An Academician would say that the entertainments of the fashionable world are collections of

flowers which attract inconstant butterflies, famished bees, and buzzing drones.

No one could deny that the rooms were splendidly illuminated; the light streamed forth on the gilt mouldings

and the silk hangings; and all the bad taste of decorations, which had only their richness to boast of, shone in

its splendor. Mademoiselle Eugenie was dressed with elegant simplicity in a figured white silk dress, and a

white rose half concealed in her jet black hair was her only ornament, unaccompanied by a single jewel. Her

eyes, however, betrayed that perfect confidence which contradicted the girlish simplicity of this modest attire.

Madame Danglars was chatting at a short distance with Debray, Beauchamp, and ChateauRenaud.

Debray was admitted to the house for this grand ceremony, but on the same plane with every one else, and

without any particular privilege. M. Danglars, surrounded by deputies and men connected with the revenue,

was explaining a new theory of taxation which he intended to adopt when the course of events had compelled

the government to call him into the ministry. Andrea, on whose arm hung one of the most consummate

dandies of the opera, was explaining to him rather cleverly, since he was obliged to be bold to appear at ease,

his future projects, and the new luxuries he meant to introduce to Parisian fashions with his hundred and

The crowd moved to and fro in the rooms like an ebb and flow of turquoises, rubies, emeralds, opals, and

diamonds. As usual, the oldest women were the most decorated, and the ugliest the most conspicuous. If there

was a beautiful lily, or a sweet rose, you had to search for it, concealed in some corner behind a mother with a

At each moment, in the midst of the crowd, the buzzing, and the laughter, the doorkeeper's voice was heard

announcing some name well known in the financial department, respected in the army, or illustrious in the

literary world, and which was acknowledged by a slight movement in the different groups. But for one whose

privilege it was to agitate that ocean of human waves, how many were received with a look of indifference or

a sneer of disdain! At the moment when the hand of the massive timepiece, representing Endymion asleep,

pointed to nine on its golden face, and the hammer, the faithful type of mechanical thought, struck nine times,

the name of the Count of Monte Cristo resounded in its turn, and as if by an electric shock all the assembly

The count was dressed in black and with his habitual simplicity; his white waistcoat displayed his expansive

noble chest and his black stock was singularly noticeable because of its contrast with the deadly paleness of

his face. His only jewellery was a chain, so fine that the slender gold thread was scarcely perceptible on his

white waistcoat. A circle was immediately formed around the door. The count perceived at one glance

Madame Danglars at one end of the drawingroom, M. Danglars at the other, and Eugenie in front of him. He

first advanced towards the baroness, who was chatting with Madame de Villefort, who had come alone,

Valentine being still an invalid; and without turning aside, so clear was the road left for him, he passed from

the baroness to Eugenie, whom he complimented in such rapid and measured terms, that the proud artist was

quite struck. Near her was Mademoiselle Louise d'Armilly, who thanked the count for the letters of

introduction he had so kindly given her for Italy, which she intended immediately to make use of. On leaving

Having accomplished these three social duties, Monte Cristo stopped, looking around him with that

expression peculiar to a certain class, which seems to say, "I have done my duty, now let others do theirs."

Andrea, who was in an adjoining room, had shared in the sensation caused by the arrival of Monte Cristo, and

now came forward to pay his respects to the count. He found him completely surrounded; all were eager to

speak to him, as is always the case with those whose words are few and weighty. The solicitors arrived at this

moment and arranged their scrawled papers on the velvet cloth embroidered with gold which covered the

table prepared for the signature; it was a gilt table supported on lions' claws. One of the notaries sat down, the

other remained standing. They were about to proceed to the reading of the contract, which half Paris

assembled was to sign. All took their places, or rather the ladies formed a circle, while the gentlemen (more

indifferent to the restraints of what Boileau calls the "energetic style") commented on the feverish agitation of

Andrea, on M. Danglars' riveted attention, Eugenie's composure, and the light and sprightly manner in which

The contract was read during a profound silence. But as soon as it was finished, the buzz was redoubled

through all the drawingrooms; the brilliant sums, the rolling millions which were to be at the command of

the two young people, and which crowned the display of the wedding presents and the young lady's

diamonds, which had been made in a room entirely appropriated for that purpose, had exercised to the full

their delusions over the envious assembly. Mademoiselle Danglars' charms were heightened in the opinion of

the young men, and for the moment seemed to outvie the sun in splendor. As for the ladies, it is needless to

say that while they coveted the millions, they thought they did not need them for themselves, as they were

beautiful enough without them. Andrea, surrounded by his friends, complimented, flattered, beginning to

believe in the reality of his dream, was almost bewildered. The notary solemnly took the pen, flourished it

The baron was to sign first, then the representative of M. Cavalcanti, senior, then the baroness, afterwards the

"future couple," as they are styled in the abominable phraseology of legal documents. The baron took the pen

and signed, then the representative. The baroness approached, leaning on Madame de Villefort's arm. "My

dear," said she, as she took the pen, "is it not vexatious? An unexpected incident, in the affair of murder and

theft at the Count of Monte Cristo's, in which he nearly fell a victim, deprives us of the pleasure of seeing M.

"Indeed?" said M. Danglars, in the same tone in which he would have said, "Oh, well, what do I care?"

"As a matter of fact," said Monte Cristo, approaching, "I am much afraid that I am the involuntary cause of

"What, you, count?" said Madame Danglars, signing; "if you are, take care, for I shall never forgive you."

"But it is not my fault, as I shall endeavor to prove." Every one listened eagerly; Monte Cristo who so rarely

opened his lips, was about to speak. "You remember," said the count, during the most profound silence, "that

the unhappy wretch who came to rob me died at my house; the supposition is that he was stabbed by his

"In order that his wounds might be examined he was undressed, and his clothes were thrown into a corner,

where the police picked them up, with the exception of the waistcoat, which they overlooked." Andrea turned

pale, and drew towards the door; he saw a cloud rising in the horizon, which appeared to forebode a coming

"Well, this waistcoat was discovered today, covered with blood, and with a hole over the heart." The ladies

screamed, and two or three prepared to faint. "It was brought to me. No one could guess what the dirty rag

could be; I alone suspected that it was the waistcoat of the murdered man. My valet, in examining this

mournful relic, felt a paper in the pocket and drew it out; it was a letter addressed to you, baron."

"Yes, indeed, to you; I succeeded in deciphering your name under the blood with which the letter was

"But," asked Madame Danglars, looking at her husband with uneasiness, "how could that prevent M. de

"In this simple way, madame," replied Monte Cristo; "the waistcoat and the letter were both what is termed

circumstantial evidence; I therefore sent them to the king's attorney. You understand, my dear baron, that

legal methods are the safest in criminal cases; it was, perhaps, some plot against you." Andrea looked steadily

"Yes," replied the count; "a felon named Caderousse." Danglars turned slightly pale; Andrea reached the

"But go on signing," said Monte Cristo; "I perceive that my story has caused a general emotion, and I beg to

apologize to you, baroness, and to Mademoiselle Danglars." The baroness, who had signed, returned the pen

to the notary. "Prince Cavalcanti," said the latter; "Prince Cavalcanti, where are you?"

"Andrea, Andrea," repeated several young people, who were already on sufficiently intimate terms with him

"Call the prince; inform him that it is his turn to sign," cried Danglars to one of the floorkeepers.

But at the same instant the crowd of guests rushed in alarm into the principal salon as if some frightful

monster had entered the apartments, quaerens quem devoret. There was, indeed, reason to retreat, to be

alarmed, and to scream. An officer was placing two soldiers at the door of each drawingroom, and was

advancing towards Danglars, preceded by a commissary of police, girded with his scarf. Madame Danglars

uttered a scream and fainted. Danglars, who thought himself threatened (certain consciences are never calm),

"What is the matter, sir?" asked Monte Cristo, advancing to meet the commissioner.

"Which of you gentlemen," asked the magistrate, without replying to the count, "answers to the name of

Andrea Cavalcanti?" A cry of astonishment was heard from all parts of the room. They searched; they

"He is accused," said the commissary with his inflexible voice, "of having assassinated the man named

Caderousse, his former companion in prison, at the moment he was making his escape from the house of the

Count of Monte Cristo." Monte Cristo cast a rapid glance around him. Andrea was gone.

A few minutes after the scene of confusion produced in the salons of M. Danglars by the unexpected

appearance of the brigade of soldiers, and by the disclosure which had followed, the mansion was deserted

with as much rapidity as if a case of plague or of cholera morbus had broken out among the guests. In a few

minutes, through all the doors, down all the staircases, by every exit, every one hastened to retire, or rather to

fly; for it was a situation where the ordinary condolences, which even the best friends are so eager to offer

in great catastrophes, were seen to be utterly futile. There remained in the banker's house only Danglars,

closeted in his study, and making his statement to the officer of gendarmes; Madame Danglars, terrified, in

the boudoir with which we are acquainted; and Eugenie, who with haughty air and disdainful lip had retired

to her room with her inseparable companion, Mademoiselle Louise d'Armilly. As for the numerous servants

(more numerous that evening than usual, for their number was augmented by cooks and butlers from the Cafe

de Paris), venting on their employers their anger at what they termed the insult to which they had been

subjected, they collected in groups in the hall, in the kitchens, or in their rooms, thinking very little of their

duty, which was thus naturally interrupted. Of all this household, only two persons deserve our notice; these

The betrothed had retired, as we said, with haughty air, disdainful lip, and the demeanor of an outraged

queen, followed by her companion, who was paler and more disturbed than herself. On reaching her room

Eugenie locked her door, while Louise fell on a chair. "Ah, what a dreadful thing," said the young musician;

"who would have suspected it? M. Andrea Cavalcanti a murderer a galleyslave escaped a convict!"

An ironical smile curled the lip of Eugenie. "In truth I was fated," said she. "I escaped the Morcerf only to fall

"Hold your tongue! The men are all infamous, and I am happy to be able now to do more than detest them

"Listen, Louise. I hate this life of the fashionable world, always ordered, measured, ruled, like our

musicpaper. What I have always wished for, desired, and coveted, is the life of an artist, free and

independent, relying only on my own resources, and accountable only to myself. Remain here? What for?

that they may try, a month hence, to marry me again; and to whom? M. Debray, perhaps, as it was once

proposed. No, Louise, no! This evening's adventure will serve for my excuse. I did not seek one, I did not ask

"How strong and courageous you are!" said the fair, frail girl to her brunette companion.

"Did you not yet know me? Come, Louise, let us talk of our affairs. The postchaise"

"M. Leon d'Armilly, twenty years of age; profession, artist; hair black, eyes black; travelling with his sister."

"When I went to ask M. de Monte Cristo for letters to the directors of the theatres at Rome and Naples, I

expressed my fears of travelling as a woman; he perfectly understood them, and undertook to procure for me

a man's passport, and two days after I received this, to which I have added with my own hand, `travelling

"Well," said Eugenie cheerfully, "we have then only to pack up our trunks; we shall start the evening of the

"Oh, I am done with considering! I am tired of hearing only of market reports, of the end of the month, of the

rise and fall of Spanish funds, of Haitian bonds. Instead of that, Louise do you understand? air, liberty,

melody of birds, plains of Lombardy, Venetian canals, Roman palaces, the Bay of Naples. How much have

we, Louise?" The young girl to whom this question was addressed drew from an inlaid secretary a small

"And as much, at least, in pearls, diamonds, and jewels," said Eugenie. "We are rich. With fortyfive

thousand francs we can live like princesses for two years, and comfortably for four; but before six months

you with your music, and I with my voice we shall double our capital. Come, you shall take charge of the

money, I of the jewelbox; so that if one of us had the misfortune to lose her treasure, the other would still

"You are a perfect Amazon, Eugenie!" And the two young girls began to heap into a trunk all the things they

thought they should require. "There now," said Eugenie, "while I change my costume do you lock the

portmanteau." Louise pressed with all the strength of her little hands on the top of the portmanteau. "But I

"Ah, you do well to ask," said Eugenie, laughing; "I forgot that I was Hercules, and you only the pale

Omphale!" And the young girl, kneeling on the top, pressed the two parts of the portmanteau together, and

Mademoiselle d'Armilly passed the bolt of the padlock through. When this was done, Eugenie opened a

drawer, of which she kept the key, and took from it a wadded violet silk travelling cloak. "Here," said she,

"Do not be uneasy, you little coward! All our servants are busy, discussing the grand affair. Besides, what is

there astonishing, when you think of the grief I ought to be in, that I shut myself up? tell me!"

From the same drawer she took a man's complete costume, from the boots to the coat, and a provision of

linen, where there was nothing superfluous, but every requisite. Then, with a promptitude which indicated

that this was not the first time she had amused herself by adopting the garb of the opposite sex, Eugenie drew

on the boots and pantaloons, tied her cravat, buttoned her waistcoat up to the throat, and put on a coat which

admirably fitted her beautiful figure. "Oh, that is very good indeed, it is very good!" said Louise, looking

at her with admiration; "but that beautiful black hair, those magnificent braids, which made all the ladies sigh

"You shall see," said Eugenie. And with her left hand seizing the thick mass, which her long fingers could

scarcely grasp, she took in her right hand a pair of long scissors, and soon the steel met through the rich and

splendid hair, which fell in a cluster at her feet as she leaned back to keep it from her coat. Then she grasped

the front hair, which she also cut off, without expressing the least regret; on the contrary, her eyes sparkled

with greater pleasure than usual under her ebony eyebrows. "Oh, the magnificent hair!" said Louise, with

"And am I not a hundred times better thus?" cried Eugenie, smoothing the scattered curls of her hair, which

"Oh, you are beautiful always beautiful!" cried Louise. "Now, where are you going?"

"To Brussels, if you like; it is the nearest frontier. We can go to Brussels, Liege, AixlaChapelle; then up

the Rhine to Strasburg. We will cross Switzerland, and go down into Italy by the SaintGothard. Will that

"I am looking at you; indeed you are adorable like that! One would say you were carrying me off."

"Oh, I think you swore, Eugenie." And the two young girls, whom every one might have thought plunged in

grief, the one on her own account, the other from interest in her friend, burst out laughing, as they cleared

away every visible trace of the disorder which had naturally accompanied the preparations for their escape.

Then, having blown out the lights, the two fugitives, looking and listening eagerly, with outstretched necks,

opened the door of a dressingroom which led by a side staircase down to the yard, Eugenie going first,

and holding with one arm the portmanteau, which by the opposite handle Mademoiselle d'Armilly scarcely

raised with both hands. The yard was empty; the clock was striking twelve. The porter was not yet gone to

bed. Eugenie approached softly, and saw the old man sleeping soundly in an armchair in his lodge. She

returned to Louise, took up the portmanteau, which she had placed for a moment on the ground, and they

Eugenie concealed Louise in an angle of the gateway, so that if the porter chanced to awake he might see but

one person. Then placing herself in the full light of the lamp which lit the yard, "Gate!" cried she, with her

The porter got up as Eugenie expected, and even advanced some steps to recognize the person who was going

out, but seeing a young man striking his boot impatiently with his ridingwhip, he opened it immediately.

Louise slid through the halfopen gate like a snake, and bounded lightly forward. Eugenie, apparently calm,

although in all probability her heart beat somewhat faster than usual, went out in her turn. A porter was

passing and they gave him the portmanteau; then the two young girls, having told him to take it to No. 36,

Rue de la Victoire, walked behind this man, whose presence comforted Louise. As for Eugenie, she was as

strong as a Judith or a Delilah. They arrived at the appointed spot. Eugenie ordered the porter to put down the

portmanteau, gave him some pieces of money, and having rapped at the shutter sent him away. The shutter

where Eugenie had rapped was that of a little laundress, who had been previously warned, and was not yet

"Mademoiselle," said Eugenie, "let the porter get the postchaise from the coachhouse, and fetch some

"Indeed," said Louise, "I admire you, and I could almost say respect you." The laundress looked on in

In a quarter of an hour the porter returned with a postboy and horses, which were harnessed, and put in the

postchaise in a minute, while the porter fastened the portmanteau on with the assistance of a cord and strap.

"Here is the passport," said the postilion, "which way are we going, young gentleman?"

"I am giving them the slip," said Eugenie; "this woman to whom we have given twenty louis may betray us

for forty; we will soon alter our direction." And the young girl jumped into the britzska, which was admirably

arranged for sleeping in, without scarcely touching the step. "You are always right," said the music teacher,

A quarter of an hour afterwards the postilion, having been put in the right road, passed with a crack of his

whip through the gateway of the Barriere SaintMartin. "Ah," said Louise, breathing freely, "here we are out

"Yes, my dear, the abduction is an accomplished fact," replied Eugenie. "Yes, and without violence," said

"I shall bring that forward as an extenuating circumstance," replied Eugenie. These words were lost in the

noise which the carriage made in rolling over the pavement of La Villette. M. Danglars no longer had a

And now let us leave Mademoiselle Danglars and her friend pursuing their way to Brussels, and return to

poor Andrea Cavalcanti, so inopportunely interrupted in his rise to fortune. Notwithstanding his youth,

Master Andrea was a very skilful and intelligent boy. We have seen that on the first rumor which reached the

salon he had gradually approached the door, and crossing two or three rooms at last disappeared. But we have

forgotten to mention one circumstance, which nevertheless ought not to be omitted; in one of the rooms he

crossed, the trousseau of the brideelect was on exhibition. There were caskets of diamonds, cashmere

shawls, Valenciennes lace, English veilings, and in fact all the tempting things, the bare mention of which

makes the hearts of young girls bound with joy, and which is called the "corbeille."* Now, in passing through

this room, Andrea proved himself not only to be clever and intelligent, but also provident, for he helped

* Literally, "the basket," because wedding gifts were originally brought in such a receptacle.

Furnished with this plunder, Andrea leaped with a lighter heart from the window, intending to slip through

the hands of the gendarmes. Tall and well proportioned as an ancient gladiator, and muscular as a Spartan, he

walked for a quarter of an hour without knowing where to direct his steps, actuated by the sole idea of getting

away from the spot where if he lingered he knew that he would surely be taken. Having passed through the

Rue Mont Blanc, guided by the instinct which leads thieves always to take the safest path, he found himself

at the end of the Rue Lafayette. There he stopped, breathless and panting. He was quite alone; on one side

was the vast wilderness of the SaintLazare, on the other, Paris enshrouded in darkness. "Am I to be

captured?" he cried; "no, not if I can use more activity than my enemies. My safety is now a mere question of

speed." At this moment he saw a cab at the top of the Faubourg Poissonniere. The dull driver, smoking his

pipe, was plodding along toward the limits of the Faubourg SaintDenis, where no doubt he ordinarily had

"Tired? oh, yes, tired enough he has done nothing the whole of this blessed day! Four wretched fares, and

twenty sous over, making in all seven francs, are all that I have earned, and I ought to take ten to the owner."

"With pleasure, sir; twenty francs are not to be despised. Tell me what I am to do for this."

"Exactly so; I merely wish to overtake one of my friends, with whom I am going to hunt tomorrow at

ChapelleenServal. He should have waited for me here with a cabriolet till halfpast eleven; it is twelve,

"If you do not overtake him before we reach Bourget you shall have twenty francs; if not before Louvres,

"Forty," said Andrea, after a moment's hesitation, at the end of which he remembered that he might safely

Andrea got into the cab, which passed rapidly through the Faubourg SaintDenis, along the Faubourg

SaintMartin, crossed the barrier, and threaded its way through the interminable Villette. They never

overtook the chimerical friend, yet Andrea frequently inquired of people on foot whom he passed and at the

inns which were not yet closed, for a green cabriolet and bay horse; and as there are a great many cabriolets

to be seen on the road to the Low Countries, and as ninetenths of them are green, the inquiries increased at

every step. Every one had just seen it pass; it was only five hundred, two hundred, one hundred steps in

advance; at length they reached it, but it was not the friend. Once the cab was also passed by a calash rapidly

whirled along by two posthorses. "Ah," said Cavalcanti to himself, "if I only had that britzska, those two

good posthorses, and above all the passport that carries them on!" And he sighed deeply. The calash

contained Mademoiselle Danglars and Mademoiselle d'Armilly. "Hurry, hurry!" said Andrea, "we must

overtake him soon." And the poor horse resumed the desperate gallop it had kept up since leaving the barrier,

"Certainly," said Andrea, "I shall not overtake my friend, but I shall kill your horse, therefore I had better

stop. Here are thirty francs; I will sleep at the Red Horse, and will secure a place in the first coach.

Goodnight, friend." And Andrea, after placing six pieces of five francs each in the man's hand, leaped

lightly on to the pathway. The cabman joyfully pocketed the sum, and turned back on his road to Paris.

Andrea pretended to go towards the Red Horse inn, but after leaning an instant against the door, and hearing

the last sound of the cab, which was disappearing from view, he went on his road, and with a lusty stride soon

traversed the space of two leagues. Then he rested; he must be near ChapelleenServal, where he pretended

to be going. It was not fatigue that stayed Andrea here; it was that he might form some resolution, adopt some

plan. It would be impossible to make use of a diligence, equally so to engage posthorses; to travel either

way a passport was necessary. It was still more impossible to remain in the department of the Oise, one of the

most open and strictly guarded in France; this was quite out of the question, especially to a man like Andrea,

He sat down by the side of the moat, buried his face in his hands and reflected. Ten minutes after he raised

his head; his resolution was made. He threw some dust over the topcoat, which he had found time to unhook

from the antechamber and button over his ball costume, and going to ChapelleenServal he knocked

loudly at the door of the only inn in the place. The host opened. "My friend," said Andrea, "I was coming

from Montefontaine to Senlis, when my horse, which is a troublesome creature, stumbled and threw me. I

must reach Compiegne tonight, or I shall cause deep anxiety to my family. Could you let me hire a horse of

An innkeeper has always a horse to let, whether it be good or bad. The host called the stableboy, and

ordered him to saddle "Whitey," then he awoke his son, a child of seven years, whom he ordered to ride

before the gentleman and bring back the horse. Andrea gave the innkeeper twenty francs, and in taking them

from his pocket dropped a visiting card. This belonged to one of his friends at the Cafe de Paris, so that the

innkeeper, picking it up after Andrea had left, was convinced that he had let his horse to the Count of

Mauleon, 25 Rue SaintDominique, that being the name and address on the card. "Whitey" was not a fast

animal, but he kept up an easy, steady pace; in three hours and a half Andrea had traversed the nine leagues

which separated him from Compiegne, and four o'clock struck as he reached the place where the coaches

stop. There is an excellent tavern at Compiegne, well remembered by those who have ever been there.

Andrea, who had often stayed there in his rides about Paris, recollected the Bell and Bottle inn; he turned

around, saw the sign by the light of a reflected lamp, and having dismissed the child, giving him all the small

coin he had about him, he began knocking at the door, very reasonably concluding that having now three or

four hours before him he had best fortify himself against the fatigues of the morrow by a sound sleep and a

"My friend," said Andrea, "I have been dining at SaintJeanauBois, and expected to catch the coach which

passes by at midnight, but like a fool I have lost my way, and have been walking for the last four hours in the

forest. Show me into one of those pretty little rooms which overlook the court, and bring me a cold fowl and

a bottle of Bordeaux." The waiter had no suspicions; Andrea spoke with perfect composure, he had a cigar in

his mouth, and his hands in the pocket of his top coat; his clothes were fashionably made, his chin smooth,

his boots irreproachable; he looked merely as if he had stayed out very late, that was all. While the waiter was

preparing his room, the hostess arose; Andrea assumed his most charming smile, and asked if he could have

No. 3, which he had occupied on his last stay at Compiegne. Unfortunately, No. 3 was engaged by a young

man who was travelling with his sister. Andrea appeared in despair, but consoled himself when the hostess

assured him that No. 7, prepared for him, was situated precisely the same as No. 3, and while warming his

feet and chatting about the last races at Chantilly, he waited until they announced his room to be ready.

Andrea had not spoken without cause of the pretty rooms looking out upon the court of the Bell Tavern,

which with its triple galleries like those of a theatre, with the jessamine and clematis twining round the light

columns, forms one of the prettiest entrances to an inn that you can imagine. The fowl was tender, the wine

old, the fire clear and sparkling, and Andrea was surprised to find himself eating with as good an appetite as

though nothing had happened. Then he went to bed and almost immediately fell into that deep sleep which is

sure to visit men of twenty years of age, even when they are torn with remorse. Now, here we are obliged to

own that Andrea ought to have felt remorse, but that he did not. This was the plan which had appealed to him

to afford the best chance of his security. Before daybreak he would awake, leave the inn after rigorously

paying his bill, and reaching the forest, he would, under presence of making studies in painting, test the

hospitality of some peasants, procure himself the dress of a woodcutter and a hatchet, casting off the lion's

skin to assume that of the woodman; then, with his hands covered with dirt, his hair darkened by means of a

leaden comb, his complexion embrowned with a preparation for which one of his old comrades had given

him the recipe, he intended, by following the wooded districts, to reach the nearest frontier, walking by night

and sleeping in the day in the forests and quarries, and only entering inhabited regions to buy a loaf from time

Once past the frontier, Andrea proposed making money of his diamonds; and by uniting the proceeds to ten

banknotes he always carried about with him in case of accident, he would then find himself possessor of

about 50,000 livres, which he philosophically considered as no very deplorable condition after all. Moreover,

he reckoned much on the interest of the Danglars to hush up the rumor of their own misadventures. These

were the reasons which, added to the fatigue, caused Andrea to sleep so soundly. In order that he might

awaken early he did not close the shutters, but contented himself with bolting the door and placing on the

table an unclasped and longpointed knife, whose temper he well knew, and which was never absent from

him. About seven in the morning Andrea was awakened by a ray of sunlight, which played, warm and

brilliant, upon his face. In all wellorganized brains, the predominating idea and there always is one is

sure to be the last thought before sleeping, and the first upon waking in the morning. Andrea had scarcely

opened his eyes when his predominating idea presented itself, and whispered in his ear that he had slept too

long. He jumped out of bed and ran to the window. A gendarme was crossing the court. A gendarme is one of

the most striking objects in the world, even to a man void of uneasiness; but for one who has a timid

conscience, and with good cause too, the yellow, blue, and white uniform is really very alarming.

"Why is that gendarme there?" asked Andrea of himself. Then, all at once, he replied, with that logic which

the reader has, doubtless, remarked in him, "There is nothing astonishing in seeing a gendarme at an inn;

instead of being astonished, let me dress myself." And the youth dressed himself with a facility his valet de

chambre had failed to rob him of during the two months of fashionable life he had led in Paris. "Now then,"

said Andrea, while dressing himself, "I'll wait till he leaves, and then I'll slip away." And, saying this,

Andrea, who had now put on his boots and cravat, stole gently to the window, and a second time lifted up the

muslin curtain. Not only was the first gendarme still there, but the young man now perceived a second

yellow, blue, and white uniform at the foot of the staircase, the only one by which he could descend, while a

third, on horseback, holding a musket in his fist, was posted as a sentinel at the great street door which alone

The appearance of the third gendarme settled the matter, for a crowd of curious loungers was extended before

him, effectually blocking the entrance to the hotel. "They're after me!" was Andrea's first thought. "The

devil!" A pallor overspread the young man's forehead, and he looked around him with anxiety. His room, like

all those on the same floor, had but one outlet to the gallery in the sight of everybody. "I am lost!" was his

second thought; and, indeed, for a man in Andrea's situation, an arrest meant the assizes, trial, and death,

death without mercy or delay. For a moment he convulsively pressed his head within his hands, and during

that brief period he became nearly mad with terror; but soon a ray of hope glimmered in the multitude of

thoughts which bewildered his mind, and a faint smile played upon his white lips and pallid cheeks. He

looked around and saw the objects of his search upon the chimneypiece; they were a pen, ink, and paper.

With forced composure he dipped the pen in the ink, and wrote the following lines upon a sheet of paper:

"I have no money to pay my bill, but I am not a dishonest man; I leave behind me as a pledge this pin, worth

ten times the amount. I shall be excused for leaving at daybreak, for I was ashamed."

He then drew the pin from his cravat and placed it on the paper. This done, instead of leaving the door

fastened, he drew back the bolts and even placed the door ajar, as though he had left the room, forgetting to

close it, and slipping into the chimney like a man accustomed to that kind of gymnastic exercise, having

effaced the marks of his feet upon the floor, he commenced climbing the only opening which afforded him

the means of escape. At this precise time, the first gendarme Andrea had noticed walked upstairs, preceded

by the commissary of police, and supported by the second gendarme who guarded the staircase and was

Andrea was indebted for this visit to the following circumstances. At daybreak, the telegraphs were set at

work in all directions, and almost immediately the authorities in every district had exerted their utmost

endeavors to arrest the murderer of Caderousse. Compiegne, that royal residence and fortified town, is well

furnished with authorities, gendarmes, and commissaries of police; they therefore began operations as soon as

the telegraphic despatch arrived, and the Bell and Bottle being the bestknown hotel in the town, they had

Now, besides the reports of the sentinels guarding the Hotel de Ville, which is next door to the Bell and

Bottle, it had been stated by others that a number of travellers had arrived during the night. The sentinel who

was relieved at six o'clock in the morning, remembered perfectly that just as he was taking his post a few

minutes past four a young man arrived on horseback, with a little boy before him. The young man, having

dismissed the boy and horse, knocked at the door of the hotel, which was opened, and again closed after his

entrance. This late arrival had attracted much suspicion, and the young man being no other than Andrea, the

commissary and gendarme, who was a brigadier, directed their steps towards his room.

They found the door ajar. "Oh, ho," said the brigadier, who thoroughly understood the trick; "a bad sign to

find the door open! I would rather find it triply bolted." And, indeed, the little note and pin upon the table

confirmed, or rather corroborated, the sad truth. Andrea had fled. We say corroborated, because the brigadier

was too experienced to be convinced by a single proof. He glanced around, looked in the bed, shook the

curtains, opened the closets, and finally stopped at the chimney. Andrea had taken the precaution to leave no

traces of his feet in the ashes, but still it was an outlet, and in this light was not to be passed over without

The brigadier sent for some sticks and straw, and having filled the chimney with them, set a light to it. The

fire crackled, and the smoke ascended like the dull vapor from a volcano; but still no prisoner fell down, as

they expected. The fact was, that Andrea, at war with society ever since his youth, was quite as deep as a

gendarme, even though he were advanced to the rank of brigadier, and quite prepared for the fire, he had

climbed out on the roof and was crouching down against the chimneypots. At one time he thought he was

saved, for he heard the brigadier exclaim in a loud voice, to the two gendarmes, "He is not here!" But

venturing to peep, he perceived that the latter, instead of retiring, as might have been reasonably expected

It was now his turn to look about him; the Hotel de Ville, a massive sixteenth century building, was on his

right; any one could descend from the openings in the tower, and examine every corner of the roof below, and

Andrea expected momentarily to see the head of a gendarme appear at one of these openings. If once

discovered, he knew he would be lost, for the roof afforded no chance of escape; he therefore resolved to

descend, not through the same chimney by which he had come up, but by a similar one conducting to another

room. He looked around for a chimney from which no smoke issued, and having reached it, he disappeared

through the orifice without being seen by any one. At the same minute, one of the little windows of the Hotel

de Ville was thrown open, and the head of a gendarme appeared. For an instant it remained motionless as one

of the stone decorations of the building, then after a long sigh of disappointment the head disappeared. The

brigadier, calm and dignified as the law he represented, passed through the crowd, without answering the

"Well, my boys," said the brigadier, "the brigand must really have escaped early this morning; but we will

send to the VillersCoterets and Noyon roads, and search the forest, when we shall catch him, no doubt." The

honorable functionary had scarcely expressed himself thus, in that intonation which is peculiar to brigadiers

of the gendarmerie, when a loud scream, accompanied by the violent ringing of a bell, resounded through the

"Some traveller seems impatient," said the host. "What number was it that rang?"

"Run, waiter!" At this moment the screams and ringing were redoubled. "Ah," said the brigadier, stopping the

servant, "the person who is ringing appears to want something more than a waiter; we will attend upon him

"The little fellow who arrived last night in a postchaise with his sister, and who asked for an apartment with

two beds." The bell here rang for the third time, with another shriek of anguish.

"Wait an instant," said the host; "Number 3 has two staircases, inside and outside."

"Good," said the brigadier. "I will take charge of the inside one. Are the carbines loaded?"

"Well, you guard the exterior, and if he attempts to fly, fire upon him; he must be a great criminal, from what

The brigadier, followed by the commissary, disappeared by the inside staircase, accompanied by the noise

which his assertions respecting Andrea had excited in the crowd. This is what had happened. Andrea had very

cleverly managed to descend twothirds of the chimney, but then his foot slipped, and notwithstanding his

endeavors, he came into the room with more speed and noise than he intended. It would have signified little

had the room been empty, but unfortunately it was occupied. Two ladies, sleeping in one bed, were awakened

by the noise, and fixing their eyes upon the spot whence the sound proceeded, they saw a man. One of these

ladies, the fair one, uttered those terrible shrieks which resounded through the house, while the other, rushing

to the bellrope, rang with all her strength. Andrea, as we can see, was surrounded by misfortune.

"For pity's sake," he cried, pale and bewildered, without seeing whom he was addressing, "for pity's sake

"Help, help!" cried Mademoiselle d'Armilly, taking the bell from her companion's hand, and ringing it yet

more violently. "Save me, I am pursued!" said Andrea, clasping his hands. "For pity, for mercy's sake do not

"Well, conceal me somewhere; you can say you were needlessly alarmed; you can turn their suspicions and

The two ladies, pressing closely to one another, and drawing the bedclothes tightly around them, remained

silent to this supplicating voice, repugnance and fear taking possession of their minds.

"Well, be it so," at length said Eugenie; "return by the same road you came, and we will say nothing about

"Here he is, here he is!" cried a voice from the landing; "here he is! I see him!" The brigadier had put his eye

to the keyhole, and had discovered Andrea in a posture of entreaty. A violent blow from the butt end of the

musket burst open the lock, two more forced out the bolts, and the broken door fell in. Andrea ran to the other

door, leading to the gallery, ready to rush out; but he was stopped short, and he stood with his body a little

"Fly, then!" cried Mademoiselle d'Armilly, whose pity returned as her fears diminished; "fly!"

"Or kill yourself!" said Eugenie (in a tone which a Vestal in the amphitheatre would have used, when urging

the victorious gladiator to finish his vanquished adversary). Andrea shuddered, and looked on the young girl

with an expression which proved how little he understood such ferocious honor. "Kill myself?" he cried,

"Why, you said," answered Mademoiselle Danglars, "that you would be condemned to die like the worst

The brigadier advanced to him, sword in hand. "Come, come," said Andrea, "sheathe your sword, my fine

fellow; there is no occasion to make such a fuss, since I give myself up;" and he held out his hands to be

manacled. The girls looked with horror upon this shameful metamorphosis, the man of the world shaking off

his covering and appearing as a galleyslave. Andrea turned towards them, and with an impertinent smile

asked, "Have you any message for your father, Mademoiselle Danglars, for in all probability I shall return

Eugenie covered her face with her hands. "Oh, ho!" said Andrea, "you need not be ashamed, even though you

And with this raillery Andrea went out, leaving the two girls a prey to their own feelings of shame, and to the

comments of the crowd. An hour after they stepped into their calash, both dressed in feminine attire. The gate

of the hotel had been closed to screen them from sight, but they were forced, when the door was open, to pass

through a throng of curious glances and whispering voices. Eugenie closed her eyes; but though she could not

see, she could hear, and the sneers of the crowd reached her in the carriage. "Oh, why is not the world a

wilderness?" she exclaimed, throwing herself into the arms of Mademoiselle d'Armilly, her eyes sparkling

with the same kind of rage which made Nero wish that the Roman world had but one neck, that he might

sever it at a single blow. The next day they stopped at the Hotel de Flandre, at Brussels. The same evening

We have seen how quietly Mademoiselle Danglars and Mademoiselle d'Armilly accomplished their

transformation and flight; the fact being that every one was too much occupied in his or her own affairs to

think of theirs. We will leave the banker contemplating the enormous magnitude of his debt before the

phantom of bankruptcy, and follow the baroness, who after being momentarily crushed under the weight of

the blow which had struck her, had gone to seek her usual adviser, Lucien Debray. The baroness had looked

forward to this marriage as a means of ridding her of a guardianship which, over a girl of Eugenie's character,

could not fail to be rather a troublesome undertaking; for in the tacit relations which maintain the bond of

family union, the mother, to maintain her ascendancy over her daughter, must never fail to be a model of

Now, Madame Danglars feared Eugenie's sagacity and the influence of Mademoiselle d'Armilly; she had

frequently observed the contemptuous expression with which her daughter looked upon Debray, an

expression which seemed to imply that she understood all her mother's amorous and pecuniary relationships

with the intimate secretary; moreover, she saw that Eugenie detested Debray, not only because he was a

source of dissension and scandal under the paternal roof, but because she had at once classed him in that

catalogue of bipeds whom Plato endeavors to withdraw from the appellation of men, and whom Diogenes

Unfortunately, in this world of ours, each person views things through a certain medium, and so is prevented

from seeing in the same light as others, and Madame Danglars, therefore, very much regretted that the

marriage of Eugenie had not taken place, not only because the match was good, and likely to insure the

happiness of her child, but because it would also set her at liberty. She ran therefore to Debray, who, after

having like the rest of Paris witnessed the contract scene and the scandal attending it, had retired in haste to

his club, where he was chatting with some friends upon the events which served as a subject of conversation

At the precise time when Madame Danglars, dressed in black and concealed in a long veil, was ascending the

stairs leading to Debray's apartments, notwithstanding the assurances of the concierge that the young man

was not at home, Debray was occupied in repelling the insinuations of a friend, who tried to persuade him

that after the terrible scene which had just taken place he ought, as a friend of the family, to marry

Mademoiselle Danglars and her two millions. Debray did not defend himself very warmly, for the idea had

sometimes crossed his mind; still, when he recollected the independent, proud spirit of Eugenie, he positively

rejected it as utterly impossible, though the same thought again continually recurred and found a

restingplace in his heart. Tea, play, and the conversation, which had become interesting during the

Meanwhile Madame Danglars, veiled and uneasy, awaited the return of Debray in the little green room,

seated between two baskets of flowers, which she had that morning sent, and which, it must be confessed,

Debray had himself arranged and watered with so much care that his absence was half excused in the eyes of

At twenty minutes of twelve, Madame Danglars, tired of waiting, returned home. Women of a certain grade

are like prosperous grisettes in one respect, they seldom return home after twelve o'clock. The baroness

returned to the hotel with as much caution as Eugenie used in leaving it; she ran lightly upstairs, and with an

aching heart entered her apartment, contiguous, as we know, to that of Eugenie. She was fearful of exciting

any remark, and believed firmly in her daughter's innocence and fidelity to the paternal roof. She listened at

Eugenie's door, and hearing no sound tried to enter, but the bolts were in place. Madame Danglars then

concluded that the young girl had been overcome with the terrible excitement of the evening, and had gone to

"Mademoiselle Eugenie," said the maid, "retired to her apartment with Mademoiselle d'Armilly; they then

took tea together, after which they desired me to leave, saying that they needed me no longer." Since then the

maid had been below, and like every one else she thought the young ladies were in their own room; Madame

Danglars, therefore, went to bed without a shadow of suspicion, and began to muse over the recent events. In

proportion as her memory became clearer, the occurrences of the evening were revealed in their true light;

what she had taken for confusion was a tumult; what she had regarded as something distressing, was in reality

a disgrace. And then the baroness remembered that she had felt no pity for poor Mercedes, who had been

"Eugenie," she said to herself, "is lost, and so are we. The affair, as it will be reported, will cover us with

shame; for in a society such as ours satire inflicts a painful and incurable wound. How fortunate that Eugenie

is possessed of that strange character which has so often made me tremble!" And her glance was turned

towards heaven, where a mysterious providence disposes all things, and out of a fault, nay, even a vice,

sometimes produces a blessing. And then her thoughts, cleaving through space like a bird in the air, rested on

Cavalcanti. This Andrea was a wretch, a robber, an assassin, and yet his manners showed the effects of a sort

of education, if not a complete one; he had been presented to the world with the appearance of an immense

fortune, supported by an honorable name. How could she extricate herself from this labyrinth? To whom

would she apply to help her out of this painful situation? Debray, to whom she had run, with the first instinct

of a woman towards the man she loves, and who yet betrays her, Debray could but give her advice, she

The baroness then thought of M. de Villefort. It was M. de Villefort who had remorselessly brought

misfortune into her family, as though they had been strangers. But, no; on reflection, the procureur was not a

merciless man; and it was not the magistrate, slave to his duties, but the friend, the loyal friend, who roughly

but firmly cut into the very core of the corruption; it was not the executioner, but the surgeon, who wished to

withdraw the honor of Danglars from ignominious association with the disgraced young man they had

presented to the world as their soninlaw. And since Villefort, the friend of Danglars, had acted in this way,

no one could suppose that he had been previously acquainted with, or had lent himself to, any of Andrea's

intrigues. Villefort's conduct, therefore, upon reflection, appeared to the baroness as if shaped for their mutual

advantage. But the inflexibility of the procureur should stop there; she would see him the next day, and if she

could not make him fail in his duties as a magistrate, she would, at least, obtain all the indulgence he could

allow. She would invoke the past, recall old recollections; she would supplicate him by the remembrance of

guilty, yet happy days. M. de Villefort would stifle the affair; he had only to turn his eyes on one side, and

allow Andrea to fly, and follow up the crime under that shadow of guilt called contempt of court. And after

At nine o'clock next morning she arose, and without ringing for her maid or giving the least sign of her

activity, she dressed herself in the same simple style as on the previous night; then running downstairs, she

left the hotel. walked to the Rue de Provence, called a cab, and drove to M. de Villefort's house. For the last

month this wretched house had presented the gloomy appearance of a lazaretto infected with the plague.

Some of the apartments were closed within and without; the shutters were only opened to admit a minute's

air, showing the scared face of a footman, and immediately afterwards the window would be closed, like a

gravestone falling on a sepulchre, and the neighbors would say to each other in a low voice, "Will there be

another funeral today at the procureur's house?" Madame Danglars involuntarily shuddered at the desolate

aspect of the mansion; descending from the cab, she approached the door with trembling knees, and rang the

bell. Three times did the bell ring with a dull, heavy sound, seeming to participate, in the general sadness,

before the concierge appeared and peeped through the door, which he opened just wide enough to allow his

words to be heard. He saw a lady, a fashionable, elegantly dressed lady, and yet the door remained almost

"Oh, how extraordinary! I shall complain to M. de Villefort of the impertinence of his servants."

"Madame, this is precaution, not impertinence; no one enters here without an order from M. d'Avrigny, or

"You can imagine so, since I have not even brought my carriage out yet. But enough of this here is my

"Yes; go." The concierge closed the door, leaving Madame Danglars in the street. She had not long to wait;

directly afterwards the door was opened wide enough to admit her, and when she had passed through, it was

again shut. Without losing sight of her for an instant, the concierge took a whistle from his pocket as soon as

they entered the court, and blew it. The valet de chambre appeared on the doorsteps. "You will excuse this

poor fellow, madame," he said, as he preceded the baroness, "but his orders are precise, and M. de Villefort

In the court showing his merchandise, was a tradesman who had been admitted with the same precautions.

The baroness ascended the steps; she felt herself strongly infected with the sadness which seemed to magnify

her own, and still guided by the valet de chambre, who never lost sight of her for an instant, she was

introduced to the magistrate's study. Preoccupied as Madame Danglars had been with the object of her visit,

the treatment she had received from these underlings appeared to her so insulting, that she began by

complaining of it. But Villefort, raising his head, bowed down by grief, looked up at her with so sad a smile

that her complaints died upon her lips. "Forgive my servants," he said, "for a terror I cannot blame them for;

Madame Danglars had often heard of the terror to which the magistrate alluded, but without the evidence of

her own eyesight she could never have believed that the sentiment had been carried so far. "You too, then, are

"Alas, madame," said the procureur with his imperturbable calmness of manner, "I consider those alone

"Everything will be forgotten, madame," said Villefort. "Your daughter will be married tomorrow, if not

today in a week, if not tomorrow; and I do not think you can regret the intended husband of your

Madame Danglars gazed on Villefort, stupefied to find him so almost insultingly calm. "Am I come to a

friend?" she asked in a tone full of mournful dignity. "You know that you are, madame," said Villefort,

whose pale cheeks became slightly flushed as he gave her the assurance. And truly this assurance carried him

back to different events from those now occupying the baroness and him. "Well, then, be more affectionate,

my dear Villefort," said the baroness. "Speak to me not as a magistrate, but as a friend; and when I am in

bitter anguish of spirit, do not tell me that I ought to be gay." Villefort bowed. "When I hear misfortunes

named, madame," he said, "I have within the last few mouths contracted the bad habit of thinking of my own,

and then I cannot help drawing up an egotistical parallel in my mind. That is the reason that by the side of my

misfortunes yours appear to me mere mischances; that is why my dreadful position makes yours appear

enviable. But this annoys you; let us change the subject. You were saying, madame"

"I came to ask you, my friend," said the baroness, "what will be done with this impostor?"

"Impostor," repeated Villefort; "certainly, madame, you appear to extenuate some cases, and exaggerate

others. Impostor, indeed! M. Andrea Cavalcanti, or rather M. Benedetto, is nothing more nor less than an

"Sir, I do not deny the justice of your correction, but the more severely you arm yourself against that

unfortunate man, the more deeply will you strike our family. Come, forget him for a moment, and instead of

"If they should arrest him (I know that sometimes prisoners afford means of escape), will you leave him in

prison?" The procureur shook his head. "At least keep him there till my daughter be married."

"What, even for me?" said the baroness, half jesting, half in earnest. "For all, even for myself among the

"Ah," exclaimed the baroness, without expressing the ideas which the exclamation betrayed. Villefort looked

at her with that piercing glance which reads the secrets of the heart. "Yes, I know what you mean," he said;

"you refer to the terrible rumors spread abroad in the world, that the deaths which have kept me in mourning

for the last three months, and from which Valentine has only escaped by a miracle, have not happened by

"I was not thinking of that," replied Madame Danglars quickly. "Yes, you were thinking of it, and with

justice. You could not help thinking of it, and saying to yourself, `you, who pursue crime so vindictively,

answer now, why are there unpunished crimes in your dwelling?'" The baroness became pale. "You were

Villefort drew his armchair nearer to Madame Danglars; then resting both hands upon his desk he said in a

voice more hollow than usual: "There are crimes which remain unpunished because the criminals are

unknown, and we might strike the innocent instead of the guilty; but when the culprits are discovered"

(Villefort here extended his hand toward a large crucifix placed opposite to his desk) "when they are

discovered, I swear to you, by all I hold most sacred, that whoever they may be they shall die. Now, after the

oath I have just taken, and which I will keep, madame, dare you ask for mercy for that wretch!"

"Listen; this is his description: `Benedetto, condemned, at the age of sixteen, for five years to the galleys for

"Another rascal like himself, perhaps his accomplice." The baroness clasped her hands. "Villefort," she

"For heaven's sake, madame," said Villefort, with a firmness of expression not altogether free from harshness

"for heaven's sake, do not ask pardon of me for a guilty wretch! What am I? the law. Has the law any

eyes to witness your grief? Has the law ears to be melted by your sweet voice? Has the law a memory for all

those soft recollections you endeavor to recall? No, madame; the law has commanded, and when it

commands it strikes. You will tell me that I am a living being, and not a code a man, and not a volume.

Look at me, madame look around me. Have mankind treated me as a brother? Have they loved me? Have

they spared me? Has any one shown the mercy towards me that you now ask at my hands? No, madame, they

"Woman, siren that you are, do you persist in fixing on me that fascinating eye, which reminds me that I

ought to blush? Well, be it so; let me blush for the faults you know, and perhaps perhaps for even more

than those! But having sinned myself, it may be more deeply than others, I never rest till I have torn

the disguises from my fellowcreatures, and found out their weaknesses. I have always found them; and

more, I repeat it with joy, with triumph, I have always found some proof of human perversity or error.

Every criminal I condemn seems to me living evidence that I am not a hideous exception to the rest. Alas,

Villefort pronounced these last words with a feverish rage, which gave a ferocious eloquence to his words.

"But"' said Madame Danglars, resolving to make a last effort, "this young man, though a murderer, is an

"So much the worse, or rather, so much the better; it has been so ordained that he may have none to weep his

"Oh, sir," exclaimed the baroness, "you are without pity for others, well, then, I tell you they will have no

"At least, delay the trial till the next assizes; we shall then have six months before us."

"No, madame," said Villefort; "instructions have been given. There are yet five days left; five days are more

than I require. Do you not think that I also long for forgetfulness? While working night and day, I sometimes

lose all recollection of the past, and then I experience the same sort of happiness I can imagine the dead feel;

"I tell you it is too late; early this morning the telegraph was employed, and at this very minute"

"Sir," said the valet de chambre, entering the room, "a dragoon has brought this despatch from the minister of

the interior." Villefort seized the letter, and hastily broke the seal. Madame Danglars trembled with fear;

Villefort started with joy. "Arrested!" he exclaimed; "he was taken at Compiegne, and all is over." Madame

Danglars rose from her seat, pale and cold. "Adieu, sir," she said. "Adieu, madame," replied the king's

attorney, as in an almost joyful manner he conducted her to the door. Then, turning to his desk, he said,

striking the letter with the back of his right hand, "Come, I had a forgery, three robberies, and two cases of

As the procureur had told Madame Danglars, Valentine was not yet recovered. Bowed down with fatigue, she

was indeed confined to her bed; and it was in her own room, and from the lips of Madame de Villefort, that

she heard all the strange events we have related, we mean the flight of Eugenie and the arrest of Andrea

Cavalcanti, or rather Benedetto, together with the accusation of murder pronounced against him. But

Valentine was so weak that this recital scarcely produced the same effect it would have done had she been in

her usual state of health. Indeed, her brain was only the seat of vague ideas, and confused forms, mingled

During the daytime Valentine's perceptions remained tolerably clear, owing to the constant presence of M.

Noirtier, who caused himself to be carried to his granddaughter's room, and watched her with his paternal

tenderness; Villefort also, on his return from the law courts, frequently passed an hour or two with his father

and child. At six o'clock Villefort retired to his study, at eight M. d'Avrigny himself arrived, bringing the

night draught prepared for the young girl, and then M. Noirtier was carried away. A nurse of the doctor's

choice succeeded them, and never left till about ten or eleven o'clock, when Valentine was asleep. As she

went downstairs she gave the keys of Valentine's room to M. de Villefort, so that no one could reach the

Every morning Morrel called on Noirtier to receive news of Valentine, and, extraordinary as it seemed, each

day found him less uneasy. Certainly, though Valentine still labored under dreadful nervous excitement, she

was better; and moreover, Monte Cristo had told him when, half distracted, he had rushed to the count's

house, that if she were not dead in two hours she would be saved. Now four days had elapsed, and Valentine

The nervous excitement of which we speak pursued Valentine even in her sleep, or rather in that state of

somnolence which succeeded her waking hours; it was then, in the silence of night, in the dim light shed from

the alabaster lamp on the chimneypiece, that she saw the shadows pass and repass which hover over the bed

of sickness, and fan the fever with their trembling wings. First she fancied she saw her stepmother threatening

her, then Morrel stretched his arms towards her; sometimes mere strangers, like the Count of Monte Cristo

came to visit her; even the very furniture, in these moments of delirium, seemed to move, and this state lasted

till about three o'clock in the morning, when a deep, heavy slumber overcame the young girl, from which she

did not awake till daylight. On the evening of the day on which Valentine had learned of the flight of Eugenie

and the arrest of Benedetto, Villefort having retired as well as Noirtier and d'Avrigny, her thoughts

wandered in a confused maze, alternately reviewing her own situation and the events she had just heard.

Eleven o'clock had struck. The nurse, having placed the beverage prepared by the doctor within reach of the

patient, and locked the door, was listening with terror to the comments of the servants in the kitchen, and

storing her memory with all the horrible stories which had for some months past amused the occupants of the

antechambers in the house of the king's attorney. Meanwhile an unexpected scene was passing in the room

which had been so carefully locked. Ten minutes had elapsed since the nurse had left; Valentine, who for the

last hour had been suffering from the fever which returned nightly, incapable of controlling her ideas, was

forced to yield to the excitement which exhausted itself in producing and reproducing a succession and

recurrence of the same fancies and images. The nightlamp threw out countless rays, each resolving itself

into some strange form to her disordered imagination, when suddenly by its flickering light Valentine thought

she saw the door of her library, which was in the recess by the chimneypiece, open slowly, though she in

At any other time Valentine would have seized the silken bellpull and summoned assistance, but nothing

astonished her in her present situation. Her reason told her that all the visions she beheld were but the

children of her imagination, and the conviction was strengthened by the fact that in the morning no traces

remained of the nocturnal phantoms, who disappeared with the coming of daylight. From behind the door a

human figure appeared, but the girl was too familiar with such apparitions to be alarmed, and therefore only

stared, hoping to recognize Morrel. The figure advanced towards the bed and appeared to listen with

profound attention. At this moment a ray of light glanced across the face of the midnight visitor.

"It is not he," she murmured, and waited, in the assurance that this was but a dream, for the man to disappear

or assume some other form. Still, she felt her pulse, and finding it throb violently she remembered that the

best method of dispelling such illusions was to drink, for a draught of the beverage prepared by the doctor to

allay her fever seemed to cause a reaction of the brain, and for a short time she suffered less. Valentine

therefore reached her hand towards the glass, but as soon as her trembling arm left the bed the apparition

advanced more quickly towards her, and approached the young girl so closely that she fancied she heard his

This time the illusion, or rather the reality, surpassed anything Valentine had before experienced; she began

to believe herself really alive and awake, and the belief that her reason was this time not deceived made her

shudder. The pressure she felt was evidently intended to arrest her arm, and she slowly withdrew it. Then the

figure, from whom she could not detach her eyes, and who appeared more protecting than menacing, took the

glass, and walking towards the nightlight held it up, as if to test its transparency. This did not seem

sufficient; the man, or rather the ghost for he trod so softly that no sound was heard then poured out

about a spoonful into the glass, and drank it. Valentine witnessed this scene with a sentiment of stupefaction.

Every minute she had expected that it would vanish and give place to another vision; but the man, instead of

dissolving like a shadow, again approached her, and said in an agitated voice, "Now you may drink."

Valentine shuddered. It was the first time one of these visions had ever addressed her in a living voice, and

she was about to utter an exclamation. The man placed his finger on her lips. "The Count of Monte Cristo!"

It was easy to see that no doubt now remained in the young girl's mind as to the reality of the scene; her eyes

started with terror, her hands trembled, and she rapidly drew the bedclothes closer to her. Still, the presence

of Monte Cristo at such an hour, his mysterious, fanciful, and extraordinary entrance into her room through

the wall, might well seem impossibilities to her shattered reason. "Do not call any one do not be alarmed,"

said the Count; "do not let a shade of suspicion or uneasiness remain in your breast; the man standing before

you, Valentine (for this time it is no ghost), is nothing more than the tenderest father and the most respectful

Valentine could not reply; the voice which indicated the real presence of a being in the room, alarmed her so

much that she feared to utter a syllable; still the expression of her eyes seemed to inquire, "If your intentions

are pure, why are you here?" The count's marvellous sagacity understood all that was passing in the young

"Listen to me," he said, "or, rather, look upon me; look at my face, paler even than usual, and my eyes, red

with weariness for four days I have not closed them, for I have been constantly watching you, to protect

and preserve you for Maximilian." The blood mounted rapidly to the cheeks of Valentine, for the name just

announced by the count dispelled all the fear with which his presence had inspired her. "Maximilian!" she

exclaimed, and so sweet did the sound appear to her, that she repeated it "Maximilian! has he then

"Everything. He told me your life was his, and I have promised him that you shall live."

"But you say you have watched?" said Valentine uneasily; "where have you been? I have not seen you."

The count extended his hand towards the library. "I was hidden behind that door," he said, "which leads into

the next house, which I have rented." Valentine turned her eyes away, and, with an indignant expression of

pride and modest fear, exclaimed: "Sir, I think you have been guilty of an unparalleled intrusion, and that

"Valentine," he answered, "during my long watch over you, all I have observed has been what people visited

you, what nourishment was prepared, and what beverage was served; then, when the latter appeared

dangerous to me, I entered, as I have now done, and substituted, in the place of the poison, a healthful

draught; which, instead of producing the death intended, caused life to circulate in your veins."

"Poison death!" exclaimed Valentine, half believing herself under the influence of some feverish

"Hush, my child," said Monte Cristo, again placing his finger upon her lips, "I did say poison and death. But

drink some of this;" and the count took a bottle from his pocket, containing a red liquid, of which he poured a

few drops into the glass. "Drink this, and then take nothing more tonight." Valentine stretched out her hand,

but scarcely had she touched the glass when she drew back in fear. Monte Cristo took the glass, drank half its

contents, and then presented it to Valentine, who smiled and swallowed the rest. "Oh, yes," she exclaimed, "I

recognize the flavor of my nocturnal beverage which refreshed me so much, and seemed to ease my aching

"This is how you have lived during the last four nights, Valentine," said the count. "But, oh, how I passed that

time! Oh, the wretched hours I have endured the torture to which I have submitted when I saw the deadly

poison poured into your glass, and how I trembled lest you should drink it before I could find time to throw it

"Sir," said Valentine, at the height of her terror, "you say you endured tortures when you saw the deadly

poison poured into my glass; but if you saw this, you must also have seen the person who poured it?"

"Yes." Valentine raised herself in bed, and drew over her chest, which appeared whiter than snow, the

embroidered cambric, still moist with the cold dews of delirium, to which were now added those of terror.

"What you tell me is horrible, sir. You wish to make me believe something too dreadful. What? attempt to

murder me in my father's house, in my room, on my bed of sickness? Oh, leave me, sir; you are tempting me

"Are you the first that this hand has stricken? Have you not seen M. de SaintMeran, Madame de

SaintMeran, Barrois, all fall? would not M. Noirtier also have fallen a victim, had not the treatment he has

"Oh, heaven," said Valentine; "is this the reason why grandpapa has made me share all his beverages during

"And have they all tasted of a slightly bitter flavor, like that of dried orangepeel?"

"Then that explains all," said Monte Cristo. "Your grandfather knows, then, that a poisoner lives here;

perhaps he even suspects the person. He has been fortifying you, his beloved child, against the fatal effects of

the poison, which has failed because your system was already impregnated with it. But even this would have

availed little against a more deadly medium of death employed four days ago, which is generally but too

"Let me also ask you a question. Have you never seen any one enter your room at night?"

"Oh, yes; I have frequently seen shadows pass close to me, approach, and disappear; but I took them for

visions raised by my feverish imagination, and indeed when you entered I thought I was under the influence

"Because you are not feverish or delirious tonight, but thoroughly awake; midnight is striking, which is the

"Oh, heavens," exclaimed Valentine, wiping off the drops which ran down her forehead. Midnight struck

slowly and sadly; every hour seemed to strike with leaden weight upon the heart of the poor girl. "Valentine,"

said the count, "summon up all your courage; still the beatings of your heart; do not let a sound escape you,

and feign to be asleep; then you will see." Valentine seized the count's hand. "I think I hear a noise," she said;

"Goodby, for the present," replied the count, walking upon tiptoe towards the library door, and smiling with

an expression so sad and paternal that the young girl's heart was filled with gratitude. Before closing the door

he turned around once more, and said, "Not a movement not a word; let them think you asleep, or perhaps

you may be killed before I have the power of helping you." And with this fearful injunction the count

Valentine was alone; two other clocks, slower than that of SaintPhilippe du Roule, struck the hour of

midnight from different directions, and excepting the rumbling of a few carriages all was silent. Then

Valentine's attention was engrossed by the clock in her room, which marked the seconds. She began counting

them, remarking that they were much slower than the beatings of her heart; and still she doubted, the

inoffensive Valentine could not imagine that any one should desire her death. Why should they? To what

end? What had she done to excite the malice of an enemy? There was no fear of her falling asleep. One

terrible idea pressed upon her mind, that some one existed in the world who had attempted to assassinate

her, and who was about to endeavor to do so again. Supposing this person, wearied at the inefficacy of the

poison, should, as Monte Cristo intimated, have recourse to steel! What if the count should have no time

to run to her rescue! What if her last moments were approaching, and she should never again see Morrel!

When this terrible chain of ideas presented itself, Valentine was nearly persuaded to ring the bell, and call for

help. But through the door she fancied she saw the luminous eye of the count that eye which lived in her

memory, and the recollection overwhelmed her with so much shame that she asked herself whether any

Twenty minutes, twenty tedious minutes, passed thus, then ten more, and at last the clock struck the

halfflour. Just then the sound of fingernails slightly grating against the door of the library informed

Valentine that the count was still watching, and recommended her to do the same; at the same time, on the

opposite side, that is towards Edward's room, Valentine fancied that she heard the creaking of the floor; she

listened attentively, holding her breath till she was nearly suffocated; the lock turned, and the door slowly

opened. Valentine had raised herself upon her elbow, and had scarcely time to throw herself down on the bed

and shade her eyes with her arm; then, trembling, agitated, and her heart beating with indescribable terror, she

Some one approached the bed and drew back the curtains. Valentine summoned every effort, and breathed

with that regular respiration which announces tranquil sleep. "Valentine!" said a low voice. Still silent:

Valentine had promised not to awake. Then everything was still, excepting that Valentine heard the almost

noiseless sound of some liquid being poured into the glass she had just emptied. Then she ventured to open

her eyelids, and glance over her extended arm. She saw a woman in a white dressinggown pouring a liquor

from a phial into her glass. During this short time Valentine must have held her breath, or moved in some

slight degree, for the woman, disturbed, stopped and leaned over the bed, in order the better to ascertain

On recognizing her stepmother, Valentine could not repress a shudder, which caused a vibration in the bed.

Madame de Villefort instantly stepped back close to the wall, and there, shaded by the bedcurtains, she

silently and attentively watched the slightest movement of Valentine. The latter recollected the terrible

caution of Monte Cristo; she fancied that the hand not holding the phial clasped a long sharp knife. Then

collecting all her remaining strength, she forced herself to close her eyes; but this simple operation upon the

most delicate organs of our frame, generally so easy to accomplish, became almost impossible at this

moment, so much did curiosity struggle to retain the eyelid open and learn the truth. Madame de Villefort,

however, reassured by the silence, which was alone disturbed by the regular breathing of Valentine, again

extended her hand, and half hidden by the curtains succeeded in emptying the contents of the phial into the

glass. Then she retired so gently that Valentine did not know she had left the room. She only witnessed the

withdrawal of the arm the fair round arm of a woman but twentyfive years old, and who yet spread death

It is impossible to describe the sensations experienced by Valentine during the minute and a half Madame de

Villefort remained in the room. The grating against the librarydoor aroused the young girl from the stupor in

which she was plunged, and which almost amounted to insensibility. She raised her head with an effort. The

noiseless door again turned on its hinges, and the Count of Monte Cristo reappeared. "Well," said he, "do you

"Did you recognize?" Valentine groaned. "Oh, yes;" she said, "I saw, but I cannot believe!"

"Oh," repeated the young girl, almost bewildered, "can I not leave the house? can I not escape?"

"Valentine, the hand which now threatens you will pursue you everywhere; your servants will be seduced

with gold, and death will be offered to you disguised in every shape. You will find it in the water you drink

"But did you not say that my kind grandfather's precaution had neutralized the poison?"

"Yes, but not against a strong dose; the poison will be changed, and the quantity increased." He took the glass

and raised it to his lips. "It is already done," he said; "brucine is no longer employed, but a simple narcotic! I

can recognize the flavor of the alcohol in which it has been dissolved. If you had taken what Madame de

Villefort has poured into your glass, Valentine Valentine you would have been doomed!"

"Why? are you so kind so good so unsuspicious of ill, that you cannot understand, Valentine?"

"But you are rich, Valentine; you have 200,000 livres a year, and you prevent her son from enjoying these

"Certainly; and that is why M. and Madame de SaintMeran have died; that is why M. Noirtier was

sentenced the day he made you his heir; that is why you, in your turn, are to die it is because your father

"It was considered, that you dead, the fortune would naturally revert to your brother, unless he were

disinherited; and besides, the crime appearing useless, it would be folly to commit it."

"And is it possible that this frightful combination of crimes has been invented by a woman?"

"Do you recollect in the arbor of the Hotel des Postes, at Perugia, seeing a man in a brown cloak, whom your

stepmother was questioning upon aqua tofana? Well, ever since then, the infernal project has been ripening in

"Ah, then, indeed, sir," said the sweet girl, bathed in tears, "I see that I am condemned to die!"

"No, Valentine, for I have foreseen all their plots; no, your enemy is conquered since we know her, and you

will live, Valentine live to be happy yourself, and to confer happiness upon a noble heart; but to insure

"My father is not engaged in this fearful plot, is he, sir?" asked Valentine, clasping her hands.

"No; and yet your father, a man accustomed to judicial accusations, ought to have known that all these deaths

have not happened naturally; it is he who should have watched over you he should have occupied my

place he should have emptied that glass he should have risen against the assassin. Spectre against

"Sir," said Valentine, "I will do all I can to live. for there are two beings whose existence depends upon mine

"Well, sir, do as you will with me;" and then she added, in a low voice, "oh, heavens, what will befall me?"

"Whatever may happen, Valentine, do not be alarmed; though you suffer; though you lose sight, hearing,

consciousness, fear nothing; though you should awake and be ignorant where you are, still do not fear; even

though you should find yourself in a sepulchral vault or coffin. Reassure yourself, then, and say to yourself:

`At this moment, a friend, a father, who lives for my happiness and that of Maximilian, watches over me!'"

"No, you will not die; but will you promise me, whatever happens, that you will not complain, but hope?"

"You are my own darling child, Valentine! I alone can save you, and I will." Valentine in the extremity of her

terror joined her hands, for she felt that the moment had arrived to ask for courage, and began to pray,

and while uttering little more than incoherent words, she forgot that her white shoulders had no other

covering than her long hair, and that the pulsations of her heart could he seen through the lace of her

nightdress. Monte Cristo gently laid his hand on the young girl's arm, drew the velvet coverlet close to her

throat, and said with a paternal smile, "My child, believe in my devotion to you as you believe in the

Then he drew from his waistcoatpocket the little emerald box, raised the golden lid, and took from it a

pastille about the size of a pea, which he placed in her hand. She took it, and looked attentively on the count;

there was an expression on the face of her intrepid protector which commanded her veneration. She evidently

interrogated him by her look. "Yes," said he. Valentine carried the pastille to her mouth, and swallowed it.

"And now, my dear child, adieu for the present. I will try and gain a little sleep, for you are saved."

Monte Cristo for some time kept his eyes fixed on the young girl, who gradually fell asleep, yielding to the

effects of the narcotic the count had given her. Then he took the glass, emptied three parts of the contents in

the fireplace, that it might be supposed Valentine had taken it, and replaced it on the table; then he

disappeared, after throwing a farewell glance on Valentine, who slept with the confidence and innocence of

The nightlight continued to burn on the chimneypiece, exhausting the last drops of oil which floated on the

surface of the water. The globe of the lamp appeared of a reddish hue, and the flame, brightening before it

expired, threw out the last flickerings which in an inanimate object have been so often compared with the

convulsions of a human creature in its final agonies. A dull and dismal light was shed over the bedclothes and

curtains surrounding the young girl. All noise in the streets had ceased, and the silence was frightful. It was

then that the door of Edward's room opened, and a head we have before noticed appeared in the glass

opposite; it was Madame de Villefort, who came to witness the effects of the drink she had prepared. She

stopped in the doorway, listened for a moment to the flickering of the lamp, the only sound in that deserted

room, and then advanced to the table to see if Valentine's glass were empty. It was still about a quarter full, as

we before stated. Madame de Villefort emptied the contents into the ashes, which she disturbed that they

might the more readily absorb the liquid; then she carefully rinsed the glass, and wiping it with her

If any one could have looked into the room just then he would have noticed the hesitation with which

Madame de Villefort approached the bed and looked fixedly on Valentine. The dim light, the profound

silence, and the gloomy thoughts inspired by the hour, and still more by her own conscience, all combined to

produce a sensation of fear; the poisoner was terrified at the contemplation of her own work. At length she

rallied, drew aside the curtain, and leaning over the pillow gazed intently on Valentine. The young girl no

longer breathed, no breath issued through the halfclosed teeth; the white lips no longer quivered the eyes

were suffused with a bluish vapor, and the long black lashes rested on a cheek white as wax. Madame de

Villefort gazed upon the face so expressive even in its stillness; then she ventured to raise the coverlet and

press her hand upon the young girl's heart. It was cold and motionless. She only felt the pulsation in her own

fingers, and withdrew her hand with a shudder. One arm was hanging out of the bed; from shoulder to elbow

it was moulded after the arms of Germain Pillon's "Graces,"* but the forearm seemed to be slightly distorted

by convulsion, and the hand, so delicately formed, was resting with stiff outstretched fingers on the

* Germain Pillon was a famous French sculptor (15351598). His best known work is "The Three Graces,"

Madame de Villefort had no longer any doubt; all was over she had consummated the last terrible work

she had to accomplish. There was no more to do in the room, so the poisoner retired stealthily, as though

fearing to hear the sound of her own footsteps; but as she withdrew she still held aside the curtain, absorbed

in the irresistible attraction always exerted by the picture of death, so long as it is merely mysterious and does

not excite disgust. Just then the lamp again flickered; the noise startled Madame de Villefort, who shuddered

and dropped the curtain. Immediately afterwards the light expired, and the room was plunged in frightful

obscurity, while the clock at that minute struck halfpast four. Overpowered with agitation, the poisoner

succeeded in groping her way to the door, and reached her room in an agony of fear.

The darkness lasted two hours longer; then by degrees a cold light crept through the Venetian blinds, until at

length it revealed the objects in the room. About this time the nurse's cough was heard on the stairs and the

woman entered the room with a cup in her hand. To the tender eye of a father or a lover, the first glance

would have sufficed to reveal Valentine's condition; but to this hireling, Valentine only appeared to sleep.

"Good," she exclaimed, approaching the table, "she has taken part of her draught; the glass is threequarters

Then she went to the fireplace and lit the fire, and although she had just left her bed, she could not resist the

temptation offered by Valentine's sleep, so she threw herself into an armchair to snatch a little more rest.

The clock striking eight awoke her. Astonished at the prolonged slumber of the patient, and frightened to see

that the arm was still hanging out of the bed, she advanced towards Valentine, and for the first time noticed

the white lips. She tried to replace the arm, but it moved with a frightful rigidity which could not deceive a

sicknurse. She screamed aloud; then running to the door exclaimed, "Help, help!"

"What is the matter?" asked M. d'Avrigny, at the foot of the stairs, it being the hour he usually visited her.

"What is it?" asked Villefort, rushing from his room. "Doctor, do you hear them call for help?"

"Yes, yes; let us hasten up; it was in Valentine's room." But before the doctor and the father could reach the

room, the servants who were on the same floor had entered, and seeing Valentine pale and motionless on her

bed, they lifted up their hands towards heaven and stood transfixed, as though struck by lightening. "Call

Madame de Villefort! wake Madame de Villefort!" cried the procureur from the door of his chamber,

which apparently he scarcely dared to leave. But instead of obeying him, the servants stood watching M.

d'Avrigny, who ran to Valentine, and raised her in his arms. "What? this one, too?" he exclaimed. "Oh,

where will be the end?" Villefort rushed into the room. "What are you saying, doctor?" he exclaimed, raising

"I say that Valentine is dead!" replied d'Avrigny, in a voice terrible in its solemn calm.

M. de Villefort staggered and buried his head in the bed. On the exclamation of the doctor and the cry of the

father, the servants all fled with muttered imprecations; they were heard running down the stairs and through

the long passages, then there was a rush in the court, afterwards all was still; they had, one and all, deserted

the accursed house. Just then, Madame de Villefort, in the act of slipping on her dressinggown, threw aside

the drapery and for a moment stood motionless, as though interrogating the occupants of the room, while she

endeavored to call up some rebellious tears. On a sudden she stepped, or rather bounded, with outstretched

arms, towards the table. She saw d'Avrigny curiously examining the glass, which she felt certain of having

emptied during the night. It was now a third full, just as it was when she threw the contents into the ashes.

The spectre of Valentine rising before the poisoner would have alarmed her less. It was, indeed, the same

color as the draught she had poured into the glass, and which Valentine had drank; it was indeed the poison,

which could not deceive M. d'Avrigny, which he now examined so closely; it was doubtless a miracle from

heaven, that, notwithstanding her precautions, there should be some trace, some proof remaining to reveal the

crime. While Madame de Villefort remained rooted to the spot like a statue of terror, and Villefort, with his

head hidden in the bedclothes, saw nothing around him, d'Avrigny approached the window, that he might the

better examine the contents of the glass, and dipping the tip of his finger in, tasted it. "Ah," he exclaimed, "it

Then he ran to one of the cupboards in Valentine's room, which had been transformed into a medicine closet,

and taking from its silver case a small bottle of nitric acid, dropped a little of it into the liquor, which

immediately changed to a bloodred color. "Ah," exclaimed d'Avrigny, in a voice in which the horror of a

judge unveiling the truth was mingled with the delight of a student making a discovery. Madame de Villefort

was overpowered, her eyes first flashed and then swam, she staggered towards the door and disappeared.

Directly afterwards the distant sound of a heavy weight falling on the ground was heard, but no one paid any

attention to it; the nurse was engaged in watching the chemical analysis, and Villefort was still absorbed in

grief. M. d'Avrigny alone had followed Madame de Villefort with his eyes, and watched her hurried retreat.

He lifted up the drapery over the entrance to Edward's room, and his eye reaching as far as Madame de

Villefort's apartment, he beheld her extended lifeless on the floor. "Go to the assistance of Madame de

"Mademoiselle de Villefort no longer requires help," said d'Avrigny, "since she is dead."

"Dead, dead!" groaned forth Villefort, in a paroxysm of grief, which was the more terrible from the

The two men turned round, and saw Morrel standing at the door, pale and terrorstricken. This is what had

happened. At the usual time, Morrel had presented himself at the little door leading to Noirtier's room.

Contrary to custom, the door was open, and having no occasion to ring he entered. He waited for a moment in

the hall and called for a servant to conduct him to M. Noirtier; but no one answered, the servants having, as

we know, deserted the house. Morrel had no particular reason for uneasiness; Monte Cristo had promised him

that Valentine should live, and so far he had always fulfilled his word. Every night the count had given him

news, which was the next morning confirmed by Noirtier. Still this extraordinary silence appeared strange to

him, and he called a second and third time; still no answer. Then he determined to go up. Noirtier's room was

opened, like all the rest. The first thing he saw was the old man sitting in his armchair in his usual place, but

his eyes expressed alarm, which was confirmed by the pallor which overspread his features.

"Well," answered the old man, by closing his eyes; but his appearance manifested increasing uneasiness.

"You are thoughtful, sir," continued Morrel; "you want something; shall I call one of the servants?"

Morrel pulled the bell, but though he nearly broke the cord no one answered. He turned towards Noirtier; the

"Oh," exclaimed Morrel, "why do they not come? Is any one ill in the house?" The eyes of Noirtier seemed as

though they would start from their sockets. "What is the matter? You alarm me. Valentine? Valentine?"

"Yes, yes," signed Noirtier. Maximilian tried to speak, but he could articulate nothing; he staggered, and

"Yes, yes, yes!" continued the old man. Maximilian rushed up the little staircase, while Noirtier's eyes

In a minute the young man darted through several rooms, till at length he reached Valentine's. There was no

occasion to push the door, it was wide open. A sob was the only sound he heard. He saw as though in a mist,

a black figure kneeling and buried in a confused mass of white drapery. A terrible fear transfixed him. It was

then he heard a voice exclaim "Valentine is dead!" and another voice which, like an echo repeated, "Dead,

Villefort rose, half ashamed of being surprised in such a paroxysm of grief. The terrible office he had held for

twentyfive years had succeeded in making him more or less than man. His glance, at first wandering, fixed

itself upon Morrel. "Who are you, sir," he asked, "that forget that this is not the manner to enter a house

stricken with death? Go, sir, go!" But Morrel remained motionless; he could not detach his eyes from that

disordered bed, and the pale corpse of the young girl who was lying on it. "Go! do you hear?" said

Villefort, while d'Avrigny advanced to lead Morrel out. Maximilian stared for a moment at the corpse, gazed

all around the room, then upon the two men; he opened his mouth to speak, but finding it impossible to give

utterance to the innumerable ideas that occupied his brain, he went out, thrusting his hands through his hair in

such a manner that Villefort and d'Avrigny, for a moment diverted from the engrossing topic, exchanged

But in less than five minutes the staircase groaned beneath an extraordinary weight. Morrel was seen

carrying, with superhuman strength, the armchair containing Noirtier upstairs. When he reached the

landing he placed the armchair on the floor and rapidly rolled it into Valentine's room. This could only have

been accomplished by means of unnatural strength supplied by powerful excitement. But the most fearful

spectacle was Noirtier being pushed towards the bed, his face expressing all his meaning, and his eyes

supplying the want of every other faculty. That pale face and flaming glance appeared to Villefort like a

frightful apparition. Each time he had been brought into contact with his father, something terrible had

happened. "See what they have done!" cried Morrel, with one hand leaning on the back of the chair, and the

Villefort drew back and looked with astonishment on the young man, who, almost a stranger to him, called

Noirtier his father. At this moment the whole soul of the old man seemed centred in his eyes which became

bloodshot; the veins of the throat swelled; his cheeks and temples became purple, as though he was struck

with epilepsy; nothing was wanting to complete this but the utterance of a cry. And the cry issued from his

pores, if we may thus speak a cry frightful in its silence. D'Avrigny rushed towards the old man and made

"Sir," cried Morrel, seizing the moist hand of the paralytic, "they ask me who I am, and what right I have to

be here. Oh, you know it, tell them, tell them!" And the young man's voice was choked by sobs. As for the

old man, his chest heaved with his panting respiration. One could have thought that he was undergoing the

agonies preceding death. At length, happier than the young man, who sobbed without weeping, tears

glistened in the eyes of Noirtier. "Tell them," said Morrel in a hoarse voice, "tell them that I am her betrothed.

Tell them she was my beloved, my noble girl, my only blessing in the world. Tell them oh, tell them, that

The young man overwhelmed by the weight of his anguish, fell heavily on his knees before the bed, which

his fingers grasped with convulsive energy. D'Avrigny, unable to bear the sight of this touching emotion,

turned away; and Villefort, without seeking any further explanation, and attracted towards him by the

irresistible magnetism which draws us towards those who have loved the people for whom we mourn,

extended his hand towards the young man. But Morrel saw nothing; he had grasped the hand of Valentine,

and unable to weep vented his agony in groans as he bit the sheets. For some time nothing was heard in that

chamber but sobs, exclamations, and prayers. At length Villefort, the most composed of all, spoke: "Sir," said

he to Maximilian, "you say you loved Valentine, that you were betrothed to her. I knew nothing of this

engagement, of this love, yet I, her father, forgive you, for I see that your grief is real and deep; and besides

my own sorrow is too great for anger to find a place in my heart. But you see that the angel whom you hoped

for has left this earth she has nothing more to do with the adoration of men. Take a last farewell, sir, of her

sad remains; take the hand you expected to possess once more within your own, and then separate yourself

"You are mistaken, sir," exclaimed Morrel, raising himself on one knee, his heart pierced by a more acute

pang than any he had yet felt "you are mistaken; Valentine, dying as she has, not only requires a priest,

but an avenger. You, M. de Villefort, send for the priest; I will be the avenger."

"What do you mean, sir?" asked Villefort, trembling at the new idea inspired by the delirium of Morrel.

"I tell you, sir, that two persons exist in you; the father has mourned sufficiently, now let the procureur fulfil

"Gentlemen," said Morrel, reading all that passed through the minds of the witnesses to the scene, "I know

what I am saying, and you know as well as I do what I am about to say Valentine has been assassinated!"

Villefort hung his head, d'Avrigny approached nearer, and Noirtier said "Yes" with his eyes. "Now, sir,"

continued Morrel, "in these days no one can disappear by violent means without some inquiries being made

as to the cause of her disappearance, even were she not a young, beautiful, and adorable creature like

Valentine. Mr. Procureur," said Morrel with increasing vehemence, "no mercy is allowed; I denounce the

crime; it is your place to seek the assassin." The young man's implacable eyes interrogated Villefort, who, on

his side, glanced from Noirtier to d'Avrigny. But instead of finding sympathy in the eyes of the doctor and his

father, he only saw an expression as inflexible as that of Maximilian. "Yes," indicated the old man.

"Sir," said Villefort, striving to struggle against this triple force and his own emotion, "sir, you are

deceived; no one commits crimes here. I am stricken by fate. It is horrible, indeed, but no one assassinates."

The eyes of Noirtier lighted up with rage, and d'Avrigny prepared to speak. Morrel, however, extended his

arm, and commanded silence. "And I say that murders are committed here," said Morrel, whose voice, though

lower in tone, lost none of its terrible distinctness: "I tell you that this is the fourth victim within the last four

months. I tell you, Valentine's life was attempted by poison four days ago, though she escaped, owing to the

precautions of M. Noirtier. I tell you that the dose has been double, the poison changed, and that this time it

has succeeded. I tell you that you know these things as well as I do, since this gentleman has forewarned you,

"Oh, you rave, sir," exclaimed Villefort, in vain endeavoring to escape the net in which he was taken.

"I rave?" said Morrel; "well, then, I appeal to M. d'Avrigny himself. Ask him, sir, if he recollects the words

he uttered in the garden of this house on the night of Madame de SaintMeran's death. You thought

yourselves alone, and talked about that tragical death, and the fatality you mentioned then is the same which

has caused the murder of Valentine." Villefort and d'Avrigny exchanged looks. "Yes, yes," continued Morrel;

"recall the scene, for the words you thought were only given to silence and solitude fell into my ears.

Certainly, after witnessing the culpable indolence manifested by M. de Villefort towards his own relations, I

ought to have denounced him to the authorities; then I should not have been an accomplice to thy death, as I

now am, sweet, beloved Valentine; but the accomplice shall become the avenger. This fourth murder is

apparent to all, and if thy father abandon thee, Valentine, it is I, and I swear it, that shall pursue the assassin."

And this time, as though nature had at least taken compassion on the vigorous frame, nearly bursting with its

own strength, the words of Morrel were stifled in his throat; his breast heaved; the tears, so long rebellious,

gushed from his eyes; and he threw himself weeping on his knees by the side of the bed.

Then d'Avrigny spoke. "And I, too," he exclaimed in a low voice, "I unite with M. Morrel in demanding

justice for crime; my blood boils at the idea of having encouraged a murderer by my cowardly concession."

"Oh, merciful heavens!" murmured Villefort. Morrel raised his head, and reading the eyes of the old man,

which gleamed with unnatural lustre, "Stay," he said, "M. Noirtier wishes to speak."

"Yes," indicated Noirtier, with an expression the more terrible, from all his faculties being centred in his

"And will you direct us?" exclaimed the young man. "Listen, M. d'Avrigny, listen!" Noirtier looked upon

Morrel with one of those melancholy smiles which had so often made Valentine happy, and thus fixed his

attention. Then, having riveted the eyes of his interlocutor on his own, he glanced towards the door.

"Oh," said Villefort, inexpressibly delighted to think that the inquiries were to be made by him alone, "oh,

be satisfied, I can understand my father." D'Avrigny took the young man's arm, and led him out of the room.

A more than deathlike silence then reigned in the house. At the end of a quarter of an hour a faltering footstep

was heard, and Villefort appeared at the door of the apartment where d'Avrigny and Morrel had been staying,

one absorbed in meditation, the other in grief. "You can come," he said, and led them back to Noirtier. Morrel

looked attentively on Villefort. His face was livid, large drops rolled down his face, and in his fingers he held

"Gentlemen," he said in a hoarse voice, "give me your word of honor that this horrible secret shall forever

"Do not alarm yourself, sir; justice will be done," said Villefort. "My father has revealed the culprit's name;

my father thirsts for revenge as much as you do, yet even he conjures you as I do to keep this secret. Do you

"Yes," resolutely replied Noirtier. Morrel suffered an exclamation of horror and surprise to escape him. "Oh,

sir," said Villefort, arresting Maximilian by the arm, "if my father, the inflexible man, makes this request, it is

because he knows, be assured, that Valentine will be terribly revenged. Is it not so, father?" The old man

made a sign in the affirmative. Villefort continued: "He knows me, and I have pledged my word to him. Rest

assured, gentlemen, that within three days, in a less time than justice would demand, the revenge I shall have

taken for the murder of my child will be such as to make the boldest heart tremble;" and as he spoke these

"Will this promise be fulfilled, M. Noirtier?" asked Morrel, while d'Avrigny looked inquiringly.

"Swear, then," said Villefort, joining the hands of Morrel and d'Avrigny, "swear that you will spare the honor

of my house, and leave me to avenge my child." D'Avrigny turned round and uttered a very feeble "Yes," but

Morrel, disengaging his hand, rushed to the bed, and after having pressed the cold lips of Valentine with his

own, hurriedly left, uttering a long, deep groan of despair and anguish. We have before stated that all the

servants had fled. M. de Villefort was therefore obliged to request M. d'Avrigny to superintend all the

arrangements consequent upon a death in a large city, more especially a death under such suspicious

It was something terrible to witness the silent agony, the mute despair of Noirtier, whose tears silently rolled

down his cheeks. Villefort retired to his study, and d'Avrigny left to summon the doctor of the mayoralty,

whose office it is to examine bodies after decease, and who is expressly named "the doctor of the dead." M.

Noirtier could not be persuaded to quit his grandchild. At the end of a quarter of an hour M. d'Avrigny

returned with his associate; they found the outer gate closed, and not a servant remaining in the house;

Villefort himself was obliged to open to them. But he stopped on the landing; he had not the courage to again

visit the death chamber. The two doctors, therefore, entered the room alone. Noirtier was near the bed, pale,

motionless, and silent as the corpse. The district doctor approached with the indifference of a man

accustomed to spend half his time amongst the dead; he then lifted the sheet which was placed over the face,

"Yes," answered the doctor laconically, dropping the sheet he had raised. Noirtier uttered a kind of hoarse,

rattling sound; the old man's eyes sparkled, and the good doctor understood that he wished to behold his

child. He therefore approached the bed, and while his companion was dipping the fingers with which he had

touched the lips of the corpse in chloride of lime, he uncovered the calm and pale face, which looked like that

of a sleeping angel. A tear, which appeared in the old man's eye, expressed his thanks to the doctor. The

doctor of the dead then laid his permit on the corner of the table, and having fulfilled his duty, was conducted

out by d'Avrigny. Villefort met them at the door of his study; having in a few words thanked the district

"Is there any particular priest you wish to pray with Valentine?" asked d'Avrigny.

"The nearest," said the district doctor, "is a good Italian abbe, who lives next door to you. Shall I call on him

"D'Avrigny," said Villefort, "be so kind, I beseech you, as to accompany this gentleman. Here is the key of

the door, so that you can go in and out as you please; you will bring the priest with you, and will oblige me

"I only wish to be alone. You will excuse me, will you not? A priest can understand a father's grief." And M.

de Villefort, giving the key to d'Avrigny, again bade farewell to the strange doctor, and retired to his study,

where he began to work. For some temperaments work is a remedy for all afflictions. As the doctors entered

the street, they saw a man in a cassock standing on the threshold of the next door. "This is the abbe of whom I

spoke," said the doctor to d'Avrigny. D'Avrigny accosted the priest. "Sir," he said, "are you disposed to

confer a great obligation on an unhappy father who has just lost his daughter? I mean M. de Villefort, the

"Ah," said the priest, in a marked Italian accent; "yes, I have heard that death is in that house."

"I was about to offer myself, sir," said the priest; "it is our mission to forestall our duties."

"I know it, sir; the servants who fled from the house informed me. I also know that her name is Valentine,

"Thank you, sir," said d'Avrigny; "since you have commenced your sacred office, deign to continue it. Come

"I am going, sir; and I do not hesitate to say that no prayers will be more fervent than mine." D'Avrigny took

the priest's hand, and without meeting Villefort, who was engaged in his study, they reached Valentine's

room, which on the following night was to be occupied by the undertakers. On entering the room, Noirtier's

eyes met those of the abbe, and no doubt he read some particular expression in them, for he remained in the

room. D'Avrigny recommended the attention of the priest to the living as well as to the dead, and the abbe

promised to devote his prayers to Valentine and his attentions to Noirtier. In order, doubtless, that he might

not be disturbed while fulfilling his sacred mission, the priest rose as soon as d'Avrigny departed, and not

only bolted the door through which the doctor had just left, but also that leading to Madame de Villefort's

The next morning dawned dull and cloudy. During the night the undertakers had executed their melancholy

office, and wrapped the corpse in the windingsheet, which, whatever may be said about the equality of

death, is at least a last proof of the luxury so pleasing in life. This windingsheet was nothing more than a

beautiful piece of cambric, which the young girl had bought a fortnight before. During the evening two men,

engaged for the purpose, had carried Noirtier from Valentine's room into his own, and contrary to all

expectation there was no difficulty in withdrawing him from his child. The Abbe Busoni had watched till

daylight, and then left without calling any one. D'Avrigny returned about eight o'clock in the morning; he met

Villefort on his way to Noirtier's room, and accompanied him to see how the old man had slept. They found

him in the large armchair, which served him for a bed, enjoying a calm, nay, almost a smiling sleep. They

"See," said d'Avrigny to Villefort, "nature knows how to alleviate the deepest sorrow. No one can say that M.

"Yes, you are right," replied Villefort, surprised; "he sleeps, indeed! And this is the more strange, since the

"Grief has stunned him," replied d'Avrigny; and they both returned thoughtfully to the procureur's study.

"See, I have not slept," said Villefort, showing his undisturbed bed; "grief does not stun me. I have not been

in bed for two nights; but then look at my desk; see what I have written during these two days and nights. I

have filled those papers, and have made out the accusation against the assassin Benedetto. Oh, work, work,

my passion, my joy, my delight, it is for thee to alleviate my sorrows!" and he convulsively grasped

"No," said Villefort; "only return again at eleven o'clock; at twelve the the oh, heavens, my poor, poor

"No; I have a cousin who has undertaken this sad office. I shall work, doctor when I work I forget

everything." And, indeed, no sooner had the doctor left the room, than he was again absorbed in study. On the

doorsteps d'Avrigny met the cousin whom Villefort had mentioned, a personage as insignificant in our story

as in the world he occupied one of those beings designed from their birth to make themselves useful to

others. He was punctual, dressed in black, with crape around his hat, and presented himself at his cousin's

with a face made up for the occasion, and which he could alter as might be required. At twelve o'clock the

mourningcoaches rolled into the paved court, and the Rue du Faubourg SaintHonore was filled with a

crowd of idlers, equally pleased to witness the festivities or the mourning of the rich, and who rush with the

Gradually the receptionroom filled, and some of our old friends made their appearance we mean Debray,

ChateauRenaud, and Beauchamp, accompanied by all the leading men of the day at the bar, in literature, or

the army, for M. de Villefort moved in the first Parisian circles, less owing to his social position than to his

personal merit. The cousin standing at the door ushered in the guests, and it was rather a relief to the

indifferent to see a person as unmoved as themselves, and who did not exact a mournful face or force tears, as

would have been the case with a father, a brother, or a lover. Those who were acquainted soon formed into

"Poor girl," said Debray, like the rest, paying an involuntary tribute to the sad event, "poor girl, so young,

so rich, so beautiful! Could you have imagined this scene, ChateauRenaud, when we saw her, at the most

"I spoke to her once or twice at Madame de Morcerf's, among the rest; she appeared to me charming, though

"She is spending the day with the wife of the worthy gentleman who is receiving us."

"Oh, no. I am condemned to witness those gentlemen every day," said Beauchamp; "but he is perfectly

"It has been mentioned, but the article is not mine; indeed, I doubt if it will please M. Villefort, for it says that

if four successive deaths had happened anywhere else than in the house of the king's attorney, he would have

"Still," said ChateauRenaud, "Dr. d'Avrigny, who attends my mother, declares he is in despair about it. But

"I met him on the boulevard, on my way here," said Beauchamp. "I think he is about to leave Paris; he was

"I believe so," replied the secretary with slight uneasiness. "But Monte Cristo is not the only one I miss here;

"Morrel? Do they know him?" asked ChateauRenaud. "I think he has only been introduced to Madame de

"Still, he ought to have been here," said Debray; "I wonder what will be talked about tonight; this funeral is

the news of the day. But hush, here comes our minister of justice; he will feel obliged to make some little

speech to the cousin," and the three young men drew near to listen. Beauchamp told the truth when he said

that on his way to the funeral he had met Monte Cristo, who was directing his steps towards the Rue de la

The banker saw the carriage of the count enter the court yard, and advanced to meet him with a sad, though

affable smile. "Well," said he, extending his hand to Monte Cristo, "I suppose you have come to sympathize

with me, for indeed misfortune has taken possession of my house. When I perceived you, I was just asking

myself whether I had not wished harm towards those poor Morcerfs, which would have justified the proverb

of `He who wishes misfortunes to happen to others experiences them himself.' Well, on my word of honor, I

answered, `No!' I wished no ill to Morcerf; he was a little proud, perhaps, for a man who like myself has risen

from nothing; but we all have our faults. Do you know, count, that persons of our time of life not that you

belong to the class, you are still a young man, but as I was saying, persons of our time of life have been

very unfortunate this year. For example, look at the puritanical procureur, who has just lost his daughter, and

in fact nearly all his family, in so singular a manner; Morcerf dishonored and dead; and then myself covered

"The truth, my dear count. Oh, how happy you must be in not having either wife or children!"

"She could not endure the insult offered to us by that wretch, so she asked permission to travel."

"No, with a relation. But still, we have quite lost our dear Eugenie; for I doubt whether her pride will ever

"Still, baron," said Monte Cristo, "family griefs, or indeed any other affliction which would crush a man

whose child was his only treasure, are endurable to a millionaire. Philosophers may well say, and practical

men will always support the opinion, that money mitigates many trials; and if you admit the efficacy of this

sovereign balm, you ought to be very easily consoled you, the king of finance, the focus of immeasurable

Danglars looked at him askance, as though to ascertain whether he spoke seriously. "Yes," he answered, "if a

"So rich, dear sir, that your fortune resembles the pyramids; if you wished to demolish them you could not,

and if it were possible, you would not dare!" Danglars smiled at the goodnatured pleasantry of the count.

"That reminds me," he said, "that when you entered I was on the point of signing five little bonds; I have

There was a moment's silence, during which the noise of the banker's pen was alone heard, while Monte

Cristo examined the gilt mouldings on the ceiling. "Are they Spanish, Haitian, or Neapolitan bonds?" said

Monte Cristo. "No," said Danglars, smiling, "they are bonds on the bank of France, payable to bearer. Stay,

count," he added, "you, who may be called the emperor, if I claim the title of king of finance, have you many

pieces of paper of this size, each worth a million?" The count took into his hands the papers, which Danglars

"To the Governor of the Bank. Please pay to my order, from the fund deposited by me, the sum of a million,

"One, two, three, four, five," said Monte Cristo; "five millions why what a Croesus you are!"

"It is really wonderful," said the count; "above all, if, as I suppose, it is payable at sight."

"It is a fine thing to have such credit; really, it is only in France these things are done. Five millions on five

"You say so with an accent stay, you shall be convinced; take my clerk to the bank, and you will see him

"No," said Monte Cristo folding the five notes, "most decidedly not; the thing is so curious, I will make the

experiment myself. I am credited on you for six millions. I have drawn nine hundred thousand francs, you

therefore still owe me five millions and a hundred thousand francs. I will take the five scraps of paper that I

now hold as bonds, with your signature alone, and here is a receipt in full for the six millions between us. I

had prepared it beforehand, for I am much in want of money today." And Monte Cristo placed the bonds in

his pocket with one hand, while with the other he held out the receipt to Danglars. If a thunderbolt had fallen

"What," he stammered, "do you mean to keep that money? Excuse me, excuse me, but I owe this money to

"Oh, well, then," said Monte Cristo, "I am not particular about these five notes, pay me in a different form; I

wished, from curiosity, to take these, that I might be able to say that without any advice or preparation the

house of Danglars had paid me five millions without a minute's delay; it would have been remarkable. But

here are your bonds; pay me differently;" and he held the bonds towards Danglars, who seized them like a

vulture extending its claws to withhold the food that is being wrested from its grasp. Suddenly he rallied,

made a violent effort to restrain himself, and then a smile gradually widened the features of his disturbed

"Oh dear, yes; and if you were at Rome, the house of Thomson French would make no more difficulty about

"Yes," said Danglars, while the perspiration started from the roots of his hair. "Yes, keep it keep it."

Monte Cristo replaced the notes in his pocket with that indescribable expression which seemed to say,

"No," said Danglars, "no, decidedly no; keep my signatures. But you know none are so formal as bankers in

transacting business; I intended this money for the charity fund, and I seemed to be robbing them if I did not

pay them with these precise bonds. How absurd as if one crown were not as good as another. Excuse me;"

"Certainly, I excuse you," said Monte Cristo graciously, "and pocket them." And he placed the bonds in his

"Oh, a mere nothing," said Monte Cristo. "The balance would come to about that sum; but keep it, and we

"I never joke with bankers," said Monte Cristo in a freezing manner, which repelled impertinence; and he

turned to the door, just as the valet de chambre announced, "M. de Boville, receivergeneral of the

"Ma foi," said Monte Cristo; "I think I arrived just in time to obtain your signatures, or they would have been

Danglars again became pale, and hastened to conduct the count out. Monte Cristo exchanged a ceremonious

bow with M. de Boville, who was standing in the waitingroom, and who was introduced into Danglars'

room as soon as the count had left. The count's sad face was illumined by a faint smile, as he noticed the

portfolio which the receivergeneral held in his hand. At the door he found his carriage, and was immediately

driven to the bank. Meanwhile Danglars, repressing all emotion, advanced to meet the receivergeneral. We

need not say that a smile of condescension was stamped upon his lips. "Goodmorning, creditor," said he;

"You are right, baron," answered M. de Boville; "the charities present themselves to you through me: the

widows and orphans depute me to receive alms to the amount of five millions from you."

"And yet they say orphans are to be pitied," said Danglars, wishing to prolong the jest. "Poor things!"

"Here I am in their name," said M. de Boville; "but did you receive my letter yesterday?"

"My dear M. de Boville, your widows and orphans must oblige me by waiting twentyfour hours, since M.

"The count has an unlimited credit upon me; a credit opened by Thomson French, of Rome; he came to

demand five millions at once, which I paid him with checks on the bank. My funds are deposited there, and

you can understand that if I draw out ten millions on the same day it will appear rather strange to the

"Come," said Boville, with a tone of entire incredulity, "five millions to that gentleman who just left, and who

"Perhaps he knows you, though you do not know him; M. de Monte Cristo knows everybody."

"Here is his receipt. Believe your own eyes." M. de Boville took the paper Danglars presented him, and read:

"Received of Baron Danglars the sum of five million one hundred thousand francs, to be repaid on demand

"Yes, I once had business to transact with it to the amount of 200,000 francs; but since then I have not heard

"It is one of the best houses in Europe," said Danglars, carelessly throwing down the receipt on his desk.

"And he had five millions in your hands alone! Why, this Count of Monte Cristo must be a nabob?"

"Indeed I do not know what he is; he has three unlimited credits one on me, one on Rothschild, one on

Lafitte; and, you see," he added carelessly, "he has given me the preference, by leaving a balance of 100,000

francs." M. de Boville manifested signs of extraordinary admiration. "I must visit him," he said, "and obtain

"Oh, you may make sure of him; his charities alone amount to 20,000 francs a month."

"It is magnificent! I will set before him the example of Madame de Morcerf and her son."

"Oh, not much from twelve to thirteen hundred thousand francs. But to return to our millions."

"Certainly," said Danglars, in the most natural tone in the world. "Are you then pressed for this money?"

"Tomorrow? Why did you not tell me so before? Why, it is as good as a century! At what hour does the

"Send at twelve," said Danglars, smiling. M. de Boville said nothing, but nodded his head, and took up the

"The receipt of M. de Monte Cristo is as good as money; take it to Rothschild's or Lafitte's, and they will take

"Certainly; it will only cost you a discount of 5,000 or 6,000 francs." The receiver started back. "Ma foi," he

"I thought, perhaps," said Danglars with supreme impertinence, "that you had a deficiency to make up?"

"Ah, you are laughing at me; send tomorrow at twelve, and the bank shall be notified."

"Better still, since it will afford me the pleasure of seeing you." They shook hands. "By the way," said M. de

Boville, "are you not going to the funeral of poor Mademoiselle de Villefort, which I met on my road here?"

"No," said the banker; "I have appeared rather ridiculous since that affair of Benedetto, so I remain in the

"Listen when one bears an irreproachable name, as I do, one is rather sensitive."

"Poor Eugenie!" said Danglars; "do you know she is going to embrace a religious life?"

"Alas, it is unhappily but too true. The day after the event, she decided on leaving Paris with a nun of her

"Oh, it is terrible!" and M. de Boville retired with this exclamation, after expressing acute sympathy with the

father. But he had scarcely left before Danglars, with an energy of action those can alone understand who

have seen Robert Macaire represented by Frederic,* exclaimed, "Fool!" Then enclosing Monte Cristo's

receipt in a little pocketbook, he added: "Yes, come at twelve o'clock; I shall then be far away." Then he

doublelocked his door, emptied all his drawers, collected about fifty thousand francs in banknotes, burned

several papers, left others exposed to view, and then commenced writing a letter which he addressed:

* Frederic Lemaitre French actor (18001876). Robert Macaire is the hero of two favorite melodramas

"Chien de Montargis" and "Chien d'Aubry" and the name is applied to bold criminals as a term of

"I will place it on her table myself tonight," he murmured. Then taking a passport from his drawer he said,

M. de Boville had indeed met the funeral procession which was taking Valentine to her last home on earth.

The weather was dull and stormy, a cold wind shook the few remaining yellow leaves from the boughs of the

trees, and scattered them among the crowd which filled the boulevards. M. de Villefort, a true Parisian,

considered the cemetery of PerelaChaise alone worthy of receiving the mortal remains of a Parisian

family; there alone the corpses belonging to him would be surrounded by worthy associates. He had therefore

purchased a vault, which was quickly occupied by members of his family. On the front of the monument was

inscribed: "The families of SaintMeran and Villefort," for such had been the last wish expressed by poor

Renee, Valentine's mother. The pompous procession therefore wended its way towards PerelaChaise from

the Faubourg SaintHonore. Having crossed Paris, it passed through the Faubourg du Temple, then leaving

the exterior boulevards, it reached the cemetery. More than fifty private carriages followed the twenty

mourningcoaches, and behind them more than five hundred persons joined in the procession on foot.

These last consisted of all the young people whom Valentine's death had struck like a thunderbolt, and who,

notwithstanding the raw chilliness of the season, could not refrain from paying a last tribute to the memory of

the beautiful, chaste, and adorable girl, thus cut off in the flower of her youth. As they left Paris, an equipage

with four horses, at full speed, was seen to draw up suddenly; it contained Monte Cristo. The count left the

carriage and mingled in the crowd who followed on foot. ChateauRenaud perceived him and immediately

The count looked attentively through every opening in the crowd; he was evidently watching for some one,

but his search ended in disappointment. "Where is Morrel?" he asked; "do either of these gentlemen know

"We have already asked that question," said ChateauRenaud, "for none of us has seen him." The count was

silent, but continued to gaze around him. At length they arrived at the cemetery. The piercing eye of Monte

Cristo glanced through clusters of bushes and trees, and was soon relieved from all anxiety, for seeing a

shadow glide between the yewtrees, Monte Cristo recognized him whom he sought. One funeral is generally

very much like another in this magnificent metropolis. Black figures are seen scattered over the long white

avenues; the silence of earth and heaven is alone broken by the noise made by the crackling branches of

hedges planted around the monuments; then follows the melancholy chant of the priests, mingled now and

then with a sob of anguish, escaping from some woman concealed behind a mass of flowers.

The shadow Monte Cristo had noticed passed rapidly behind the tomb of Abelard and Heloise, placed itself

close to the heads of the horses belonging to the hearse, and following the undertaker's men, arrived with

them at the spot appointed for the burial. Each person's attention was occupied. Monte Cristo saw nothing but

the shadow, which no one else observed. Twice the count left the ranks to see whether the object of his

interest had any concealed weapon beneath his clothes. When the procession stopped, this shadow was

recognized as Morrel, who, with his coat buttoned up to his throat, his face livid, and convulsively crushing

his hat between his fingers, leaned against a tree, situated on an elevation commanding the mausoleum, so

that none of the funeral details could escape his observation. Everything was conducted in the usual manner.

A few men, the least impressed of all by the scene, pronounced a discourse, some deploring this premature

death, others expatiating on the grief of the father, and one very ingenious person quoting the fact that

Valentine had solicited pardon of her father for criminals on whom the arm of justice was ready to fall

Monte Cristo heard and saw nothing, or rather he only saw Morrel, whose calmness had a frightful effect on

those who knew what was passing in his heart. "See," said Beauchamp, pointing out Morrel to Debray. "What

"Not at all," said ChateauRenaud, slowly; "I think he is violently agitated. He is very susceptible."

"Bah," said Debray; "he scarcely knew Mademoiselle de Villefort; you said so yourself."

"True. Still I remember he danced three times with her at Madame de Morcerf's. Do you recollect that ball,

"No, I do not," replied Monte Cristo, without even knowing of what or to whom he was speaking, so much

was he occupied in watching Morrel, who was holding his breath with emotion. "The discourse is over;

farewell, gentlemen," said the count. And he disappeared without anyone seeing whither he went. The funeral

being over, the guests returned to Paris. ChateauRenaud looked for a moment for Morrel; but while they

were watching the departure of the count, Morrel had quitted his post, and ChateauRenaud, failing in his

Monte Cristo concealed himself behind a large tomb and awaited the arrival of Morrel, who by degrees

approached the tomb now abandoned by spectators and workmen. Morrel threw a glance around, but before it

reached the spot occupied by Monte Cristo the latter had advanced yet nearer, still unperceived. The young

man knelt down. The count, with outstretched neck and glaring eyes, stood in an attitude ready to pounce

upon Morrel upon the first occasion. Morrel bent his head till it touched the stone, then clutching the grating

with both hands, he murmured, "Oh, Valentine!" The count's heart was pierced by the utterance of these

two words; he stepped forward, and touching the young man's shoulder, said, "I was looking for you, my

friend." Monte Cristo expected a burst of passion, but he was deceived, for Morrel turning round, said calmly,

"You see I was praying." The scrutinizing glance of the count searched the young man from head to foot. He

"Leave me to pray." The count withdrew without opposition, but it was only to place himself in a situation

where he could watch every movement of Morrel, who at length arose, brushed the dust from his knees, and

turned towards Paris, without once looking back. He walked slowly down the Rue de la Roquette. The count,

dismissing his carriage, followed him about a hundred paces behind. Maximilian crossed the canal and

entered the Rue Meslay by the boulevards. Five minutes after the door had been closed on Morrel's entrance,

it was again opened for the count. Julie was at the entrance of the garden, where she was attentively watching

Penelon, who, entering with zeal into his profession of gardener, was very busy grafting some Bengal roses.

"Ah, count," she exclaimed, with the delight manifested by every member of the family whenever he visited

"Excuse me, madame, but I must go up to Maximilian's room this instant," replied Monte Cristo, "I have

"Go, then," she said with a charming smile, which accompanied him until he had disappeared. Monte Cristo

soon ran up the staircase conducting from the groundfloor to Maximilian's room; when he reached the

landing he listened attentively, but all was still. Like many old houses occupied by a single family, the room

door was panelled with glass; but it was locked, Maximilian was shut in, and it was impossible to see what

was passing in the room, because a red curtain was drawn before the glass. The count's anxiety was

manifested by a bright color which seldom appeared on the face of that imperturbable man.

"What shall I do!" he uttered, and reflected for a moment; "shall I ring? No, the sound of a bell, announcing a

visitor, will but accelerate the resolution of one in Maximilian's situation, and then the bell would be followed

by a louder noise." Monte Cristo trembled from head to foot and as if his determination had been taken with

the rapidity of lightning, he struck one of the panes of glass with his elbow; the glass was shivered to atoms,

then withdrawing the curtain he saw Morrel, who had been writing at his desk, bound from his seat at the

"I beg a thousand pardons," said the count, "there is nothing the matter, but I slipped down and broke one of

your panes of glass with my elbow. Since it is opened, I will take advantage of it to enter your room; do not

disturb yourself do not disturb yourself!" And passing his hand through the broken glass, the count

opened the door. Morrel, evidently discomposed, came to meet Monte Cristo less with the intention of

receiving him than to exclude his entry. "Ma foi," said Monte Cristo, rubbing his elbow, "it's all your

Monte Cristo advanced into the room; Maximilian was obliged to let him pass, but he followed him. "You

The count looked around him. "Your pistols are beside your desk," said Monte Cristo, pointing with his

"I make a hasty resolution?" said Morrel, shrugging his shoulders; "is there anything extraordinary in a

"Maximilian," said the count, "let us both lay aside the mask we have assumed. You no more deceive me

with that false calmness than I impose upon you with my frivolous solicitude. You can understand, can you

not, that to have acted as I have done, to have broken that glass, to have intruded on the solitude of a friend

you can understand that, to have done all this, I must have been actuated by real uneasiness, or rather by a

"I tell you that you are about to destroy yourself," continued the count, "and here is proof of what I say;" and,

approaching the desk, he removed the sheet of paper which Morrel had placed over the letter he had begun,

Morrel rushed forward to tear it from him, but Monte Cristo perceiving his intention, seized his wrist with his

iron grasp. "You wish to destroy yourself," said the count; "you have written it."

"Well," said Morrel, changing his expression of calmness for one of violence "well, and if I do intend to

turn this pistol against myself, who shall prevent me who will dare prevent me? All my hopes are

blighted, my heart is broken, my life a burden, everything around me is sad and mournful; earth has become

distasteful to me, and human voices distract me. It is a mercy to let me die, for if I live I shall lose my reason

and become mad. When, sir, I tell you all this with tears of heartfelt anguish, can you reply that I am wrong,

can you prevent my putting an end to my miserable existence? Tell me, sir, could you have the courage to do

"Yes, Morrel," said Monte Cristo, with a calmness which contrasted strangely with the young man's

"You?" exclaimed Morrel, with increasing anger and reproach "you, who have deceived me with false

hopes, who have cheered and soothed me with vain promises, when I might, if not have saved her, at least

have seen her die in my arms! You, who pretend to understand everything, even the hidden sources of

knowledge, and who enact the part of a guardian angel upon earth, and could not even find an antidote to

a poison administered to a young girl! Ah, sir, indeed you would inspire me with pity, were you not hateful in

"Yes; you tell me to lay aside the mask, and I will do so, be satisfied! When you spoke to me at the cemetery,

I answered you my heart was softened; when you arrived here, I allowed you to enter. But since you abuse

my confidence, since you have devised a new torture after I thought I had exhausted them all, then, Count of

Monte Cristo my pretended benefactor then, Count of Monte Cristo, the universal guardian, be satisfied,

you shall witness the death of your friend;" and Morrel, with a maniacal laugh, again rushed towards the

"Prevent me, then!" replied Morrel, with another struggle, which, like the first, failed in releasing him from

"And who are you, then, that arrogate to yourself this tyrannical right over free and rational beings?"

"Who am I?" repeated Monte Cristo. "Listen; I am the only man in the world having the right to say to you,

`Morrel, your father's son shall not die today;'" and Monte Cristo, with an expression of majesty and

sublimity, advanced with arms folded toward the young man, who, involuntarily overcome by the

"Why do you mention my father?" stammered he; "why do you mingle a recollection of him with the affairs

"Because I am he who saved your father's life when he wished to destroy himself, as you do today

because I am the man who sent the purse to your young sister, and the Pharaon to old Morrel because I am

the Edmond Dantes who nursed you, a child, on my knees." Morrel made another step back, staggering,

breathless, crushed; then all his strength give way, and he fell prostrate at the feet of Monte Cristo. Then his

admirable nature underwent a complete and sudden revulsion; he arose, rushed out of the room and to the

Monte Cristo endeavored also to leave, but Maximilian would have died rather than relax his hold of the

handle of the door, which he closed upon the count. Julie, Emmanuel, and some of the servants, ran up in

alarm on hearing the cries of Maximilian. Morrel seized their hands, and opening the door exclaimed in a

voice choked with sobs, "On your knees on your knees he is our benefactor the saviour of our

He would have added "Edmond Dantes," but the count seized his arm and prevented him. Julie threw herself

into the arms of the count; Emmanuel embraced him as a guardian angel; Morrel again fell on his knees, and

struck the ground with his forehead. Then the ironhearted man felt his heart swell in his breast; a flame

seemed to rush from his throat to his eyes, he bent his head and wept. For a while nothing was heard in the

room but a succession of sobs, while the incense from their grateful hearts mounted to heaven. Julie had

scarcely recovered from her deep emotion when she rushed out of the room, descended to the next floor, ran

into the drawingroom with childlike joy and raised the crystal globe which covered the purse given by the

unknown of the Allees de Meillan. Meanwhile, Emmanuel in a broken voice said to the count, "Oh, count,

how could you, hearing us so often speak of our unknown benefactor, seeing us pay such homage of gratitude

and adoration to his memory, how could you continue so long without discovering yourself to us? Oh, it

"Listen, my friends," said the count "I may call you so since we have really been friends for the last

eleven years the discovery of this secret has been occasioned by a great event which you must never

know. I wish to bury it during my whole life in my own bosom, but your brother Maximilian wrested it from

me by a violence he repents of now, I am sure." Then turning around, and seeing that Morrel, still on his

knees, had thrown himself into an armchair, be added in a low voice, pressing Emmanuel's hand

"I cannot explain myself; but watch over him." Emmanuel looked around the room and caught sight of the

pistols; his eyes rested on the weapons, and he pointed to them. Monte Cristo bent his head. Emmanuel went

towards the pistols. "Leave them," said Monte Cristo. Then walking towards Morrel, he took his hand; the

tumultuous agitation of the young man was succeeded by a profound stupor. Julie returned, holding the silken

purse in her hands, while tears of joy rolled down her cheeks, like dewdrops on the rose.

"Here is the relic," she said; "do not think it will be less dear to us now we are acquainted with our

"My child," said Monte Cristo, coloring, "allow me to take back that purse? Since you now know my face, I

"Oh," said Julie, pressing the purse to her heart, "no, no, I beseech you do not take it, for some unhappy day

"You have guessed rightly, madame," replied Monte Cristo, smiling; "in a week I shall have left this country,

where so many persons who merit the vengeance of heaven lived happily, while my father perished of hunger

and grief." While announcing his departure, the count fixed his eyes on Morrel, and remarked that the words,

"I shall have left this country," had failed to rouse him from his lethargy. He then saw that he must make

another struggle against the grief of his friend, and taking the hands of Emmanuel and Julie, which he pressed

within his own, he said with the mild authority of a father, "My kind friends, leave me alone with

Maximilian." Julie saw the means offered of carrying off her precious relic, which Monte Cristo had

forgotten. She drew her husband to the door. "Let us leave them," she said. The count was alone with Morrel,

"Come," said MonteCristo, touching his shoulder with his finger, "are you a man again, Maximilian?"

"Maximilian, Maximilian," he said, "the ideas you yield to are unworthy of a Christian."

"Oh, do not fear, my friend," said Morrel, raising his head, and smiling with a sweet expression on the count;

"No; I have found a better remedy for my grief than either a bullet or a knife."

"My friend," said Monte Cristo, with an expression of melancholy equal to his own, "listen to me. One day,

in a moment of despair like yours, since it led to a similar resolution, I also wished to kill myself; one day

your father, equally desperate, wished to kill himself too. If any one had said to your father, at the moment he

raised the pistol to his head if any one had told me, when in my prison I pushed back the food I had not

tasted for three days if anyone had said to either of us then, `Live the day will come when you will be

happy, and will bless life!' no matter whose voice had spoken, we should have heard him with the smile of

doubt, or the anguish of incredulity, and yet how many times has your father blessed life while embracing

"Ah," exclaimed Morrel, interrupting the count, "you had only lost your liberty, my father had only lost his

"Look at me," said Monte Cristo, with that expression which sometimes made him so eloquent and

persuasive "look at me. There are no tears in my eyes, nor is there fever in my veins, yet I see you suffer

you, Maximilian, whom I love as my own son. Well, does not this tell you that in grief, as in life, there is

always something to look forward to beyond? Now, if I entreat, if I order you to live, Morrel, it is in the

"Oh, heavens," said the young man, "oh, heavens what are you saying, count? Take care. But perhaps you

"I mean, as I love. You see, I have been a soldier ever since I attained manhood. I reached the age of

twentynine without loving, for none of the feelings I before then experienced merit the appellation of love.

Well, at twentynine I saw Valentine; for two years I have loved her, for two years I have seen written in her

heart, as in a book, all the virtues of a daughter and wife. Count, to possess Valentine would have been a

happiness too infinite, too ecstatic, too complete, too divine for this world, since it has been denied me; but

"Then have a care, I repeat, for you seek to persuade me, and if you succeed I should lose my reason, for I

should hope that I could again behold Valentine." The count smiled. "My friend, my father," said Morrel with

excitement, "have a care, I again repeat, for the power you wield over me alarms me. Weigh your words

before you speak, for my eyes have already become brighter, and my heart beats strongly; be cautious, or you

will make me believe in supernatural agencies. I must obey you, though you bade me call forth the dead or

"Ah," said Morrel, falling from the height of excitement to the abyss of despair "ah, you are playing with

me, like those good, or rather selfish mothers who soothe their children with honeyed words, because their

screams annoy them. No, my friend, I was wrong to caution you; do not fear, I will bury my grief so deep in

my heart, I will disguise it so, that you shall not even care to sympathize with me. Adieu, my friend, adieu!"

"On the contrary," said the count, "after this time you must live with me you must not leave me, and in a

"Count, you render me sadder than before, if it be possible. You think the result of this blow has been to

produce an ordinary grief, and you would cure it by an ordinary remedy change of scene." And Morrel

dropped his head with disdainful incredulity. "What can I say more?" asked Monte Cristo. "I have confidence

in the remedy I propose, and only ask you to permit me to assure you of its efficacy."

"Then," said the count, "your feeble spirit will not even grant me the trial I request? Come do you know of

what the Count of Monte Cristo is capable? do you know that he holds terrestrial beings under his control?

nay, that he can almost work a miracle? Well, wait for the miracle I hope to accomplish, or"

"I feel so much pity towards you, Maximilian, that listen to me attentively if I do not cure you in a

month, to the day, to the very hour, mark my words, Morrel, I will place loaded pistols before you, and a cup

of the deadliest Italian poison a poison more sure and prompt than that which has killed Valentine."

"Yes; for I am a man, and have suffered like yourself, and also contemplated suicide; indeed, often since

"But you are sure you will promise me this?" said Morrel, intoxicated. "I not only promise, but swear it!" said

"In a month, then, on your honor, if I am not consoled, you will let me take my life into my own hands, and

"In a month, to the day, the very hour and the date are sacred, Maximilian. I do not know whether you

remember that this is the 5th of September; it is ten years today since I saved your father's life, who wished

to die." Morrel seized the count's hand and kissed it; the count allowed him to pay the homage he felt due to

him. "In a month you will find on the table, at which we shall be then sitting, good pistols and a delicious

draught; but, on the other hand, you must promise me not to attempt your life before that time."

"Oh, I also swear it!" Monte Cristo drew the young man towards him, and pressed him for some time to his

heart. "And now," he said, "after today, you will come and live with me; you can occupy Haidee's

"To wait for me. Hold yourself ready then to join me at the Champs Elysees, and lead me out of this house

without any one seeing my departure." Maximilian hung his head, and obeyed with childlike reverence.

The apartment on the second floor of the house in the Rue SaintGermaindesPres, where Albert de

Morcerf had selected a home for his mother, was let to a very mysterious person. This was a man whose face

the concierge himself had never seen, for in the winter his chin was buried in one of the large red

handkerchiefs worn by gentlemen's coachmen on a cold night, and in the summer he made a point of always

blowing his nose just as he approached the door. Contrary to custom, this gentleman had not been watched,

for as the report ran that he was a person of high rank, and one who would allow no impertinent interference,

His visits were tolerably regular, though occasionally he appeared a little before or after his time, but

generally, both in summer and winter, he took possession of his apartment about four o'clock, though he

never spent the night there. At halfpast three in the winter the fire was lighted by the discreet servant, who

had the superintendence of the little apartment, and in the summer ices were placed on the table at the same

hour. At four o'clock, as we have already stated, the mysterious personage arrived. Twenty minutes

afterwards a carriage stopped at the house, a lady alighted in a black or dark blue dress, and always thickly

veiled; she passed like a shadow through the lodge, and ran upstairs without a sound escaping under the

touch of her light foot. No one ever asked her where she was going. Her face, therefore, like that of the

gentleman, was perfectly unknown to the two concierges, who were perhaps unequalled throughout the

capital for discretion. We need not say she stopped at the second floor. Then she tapped in a peculiar manner

at a door, which after being opened to admit her was again fastened, and curiosity penetrated no farther. They

used the same precautions in leaving as in entering the house. The lady always left first, and as soon as she

had stepped into her carriage, it drove away, sometimes towards the right hand, sometimes to the left; then

about twenty minutes afterwards the gentleman would also leave, buried in his cravat or concealed by his

The day after Monte Cristo had called upon Danglars, the mysterious lodger entered at ten o'clock in the

morning instead of four in the afternoon. Almost directly afterwards, without the usual interval of time, a cab

arrived, and the veiled lady ran hastily upstairs. The door opened, but before it could be closed, the lady

exclaimed: "Oh, Lucien oh, my friend!" The concierge therefore heard for the first time that the lodger's

name was Lucien; still, as he was the very perfection of a doorkeeper, he made up his mind not to tell his

wife. "Well, what is the matter, my dear?" asked the gentleman whose name the lady's agitation revealed;

"Of course, you know you can do so. But what can be the matter? Your note of this morning has completely

bewildered me. This precipitation this unusual appointment. Come, ease me of my anxiety, or else

"Lucien, a great event has happened!" said the lady, glancing inquiringly at Lucien, "M. Danglars left last

"Undoubtedly; at ten o'clock at night his horses took him to the barrier of Charenton; there a postchaise

was waiting for him he entered it with his valet de chambre, saying that he was going to Fontainebleau."

"Yes; read it." And the baroness took from her pocket a letter which she gave to Debray. Debray paused a

moment before reading, as if trying to guess its contents, or perhaps while making up his mind how to act,

whatever it might contain. No doubt his ideas were arranged in a few minutes, for he began reading the letter

which caused so much uneasiness in the heart of the baroness, and which ran as follows:

Debray mechanically stopped and looked at the baroness, whose face became covered with blushes. "Read,"

"When you receive this, you will no longer have a husband. Oh, you need not be alarmed, you will only have

lost him as you have lost your daughter; I mean that I shall be travelling on one of the thirty or forty roads

leading out of France. I owe you some explanations for my conduct, and as you are a woman that can

perfectly understand me, I will give them. Listen, then. I received this morning five millions which I paid

away; almost directly afterwards another demand for the same sum was presented to me; I put this creditor

off till tomorrow and I intend leaving today, to escape that tomorrow, which would be rather too

unpleasant for me to endure. You understand this, do you not, my most precious wife? I say you understand

this, because you are as conversant with my affairs as I am; indeed, I think you understand them better, since

I am ignorant of what has become of a considerable portion of my fortune, once very tolerable, while I am

sure, madame, that you know perfectly well. For women have infallible instincts; they can even explain the

marvellous by an algebraic calculation they have invented; but I, who only understand my own figures, know

nothing more than that one day these figures deceived me. Have you admired the rapidity of my fall? Have

you been slightly dazzled at the sudden fusion of my ingots? I confess I have seen nothing but the fire; let us

hope you have found some gold among the ashes. With this consoling idea, I leave you, madame, and most

prudent wife, without any conscientious reproach for abandoning you; you have friends left, and the ashes I

have already mentioned, and above all the liberty I hasten to restore to you. And here, madame, I must add

another word of explanation. So long as I hoped you were working for the good of our house and for the

fortune of our daughter, I philosophically closed my eyes; but as you have transformed that house into a vast

ruin I will not be the foundation of another man's fortune. You were rich when I married you, but little

respected. Excuse me for speaking so very candidly, but as this is intended only for ourselves, I do not see

why I should weigh my words. I have augmented our fortune, and it has continued to increase during the last

fifteen years, till extraordinary and unexpected catastrophes have suddenly overturned it, without any fault

of mine, I can honestly declare. You, madame, have only sought to increase your own, and I am convinced

that you have succeeded. I leave you, therefore, as I took you, rich, but little respected. Adieu! I also

intend from this time to work on my own account. Accept my acknowledgments for the example you have set

The baroness had watched Debray while he read this long and painful letter, and saw him, notwithstanding

his selfcontrol, change color once or twice. When he had ended the perusal, he folded the letter and resumed

his pensive attitude. "Well?" asked Madame Danglars, with an anxiety easy to be understood.

"Oh, it is simple enough, madame; it inspires me with the idea that M. Danglars has left suspiciously."

"I tell you he will never return. I know his character; he is inflexible in any resolutions formed for his own

interests. If he could have made any use of me, he would have taken me with him; he leaves me in Paris, as

our separation will conduce to his benefit; therefore he has gone, and I am free forever," added Madame

Danglars, in the same supplicating tone. Debray, instead of answering, allowed her to remain in an attitude of

"Yes; I do wish to ask your advice," said Madame Danglars with anxious expectation.

"Then if you wish to take my advice," said the young man coldly, "I would recommend you to travel."

"Certainly; as M. Danglars says, you are rich, and perfectly free. In my opinion, a withdrawal from Paris is

absolutely necessary after the double catastrophe of Mademoiselle Danglars' broken contract and M.

Danglars' disappearance. The world will think you abandoned and poor, for the wife of a bankrupt would

never be forgiven, were she to keep up an appearance of opulence. You have only to remain in Paris for about

a fortnight, telling the world you are abandoned, and relating the details of this desertion to your best friends,

who will soon spread the report. Then you can quit your house, leaving your jewels and giving up your

jointure, and every one's mouth will be filled with praises of your disinterestedness. They will know you are

deserted, and think you also poor, for I alone know your real financial position, and am quite ready to give up

my accounts as an honest partner." The dread with which the pale and motionless baroness listened to this,

was equalled by the calm indifference with which Debray had spoken. "Deserted?" she repeated; "ah, yes, I

am, indeed, deserted! You are right, sir, and no one can doubt my position." These were the only words that

"But then you are rich, very rich, indeed," continued Debray, taking out some papers from his

pocketbook, which he spread upon the table. Madame Danglars did not see them; she was engaged in

stilling the beatings of her heart, and restraining the tears which were ready to gush forth. At length a sense of

dignity prevailed, and if she did not entirely master her agitation, she at least succeeded in preventing the fall

of a single tear. "Madame," said Debray, "it is nearly six months since we have been associated. You

furnished a principal of 100,000 francs. Our partnership began in the month of April. In May we commenced

operations, and in the course of the month gained 450,000 francs. In June the profit amounted to 900,000. In

July we added 1,700,000 francs, it was, you know, the month of the Spanish bonds. In August we lost

300,000 francs at the beginning of the month, but on the 13th we made up for it, and we now find that our

accounts, reckoning from the first day of partnership up to yesterday, when I closed them, showed a capital of

2,400,000 francs, that is, 1,200,000 for each of us. Now, madame," said Debray, delivering up his accounts in

the methodical manner of a stockbroker, "there are still 80,000 francs, the interest of this money, in my

"Excuse me, madame," said Debray coldly, "I had your permission to do so, and I have made use of it. There

are, then, 40,000 francs for your share, besides the 100,000 you furnished me to begin with, making in all

1,340,000 francs for your portion. Now, madame, I took the precaution of drawing out your money the day

before yesterday; it is not long ago, you see, and I was in continual expectation of being called on to deliver

up my accounts. There is your money, half in banknotes, the other half in checks payable to bearer. I say

there, for as I did not consider my house safe enough, or lawyers sufficiently discreet, and as landed property

carries evidence with it, and moreover since you have no right to possess anything independent of your

husband, I have kept this sum, now your whole fortune, in a chest concealed under that closet, and for greater

"Now, madame," continued Debray, first opening the closet, then the chest; "now, madame, here are 800

notes of 1,000 francs each, resembling, as you see, a large book bound in iron; to this I add a certificate in the

funds of 25,000 francs; then, for the odd cash, making I think about 110,000 francs, here is a check upon my

banker, who, not being M. Danglars, will pay you the amount, you may rest assured." Madame Danglars

mechanically took the check, the bond, and the heap of banknotes. This enormous fortune made no great

appearance on the table. Madame Danglars, with tearless eyes, but with her breast heaving with concealed

emotion, placed the banknotes in her bag, put the certificate and check into her pocketbook, and then,

standing pale and mute, awaited one kind word of consolation. But she waited in vain.

"Now, madame," said Debray, "you have a splendid fortune, an income of about 60,000 livres a year, which

is enormous for a woman who cannot keep an establishment here for a year, at least. You will be able to

indulge all your fancies; besides, should you find your income insufficient, you can, for the sake of the past,

"Thank you, sir thank you," replied the baroness; "you forget that what you have just paid me is much

more than a poor woman requires, who intends for some time, at least, to retire from the world."

Debray was, for a moment, surprised, but immediately recovering himself, he bowed with an air which

Madame Danglars had until then, perhaps, hoped for something; but when she saw the careless bow of

Debray, and the glance by which it was accompanied, together with his significant silence, she raised her

head, and without passion or violence or even hesitation, ran downstairs, disdaining to address a last

farewell to one who could thus part from her. "Bah," said Debray, when she had left, "these are fine projects!

She will remain at home, read novels, and speculate at cards, since she can no longer do so on the Bourse."

Then taking up his account book, he cancelled with the greatest care all the entries of the amounts he had just

paid away. "I have 1,060,000 francs remaining," he said. "What a pity Mademoiselle de Villefort is dead! She

suited me in every respect, and I would have married her." And he calmly waited until the twenty minutes

had elapsed after Madame Danglars' departure before he left the house. During this time he occupied himself

Asmodeus that diabolical personage, who would have been created by every fertile imagination if Le Sage

had not acquired the priority in his great masterpiece would have enjoyed a singular spectacle, if he had

lifted up the roof of the little house in the Rue SaintGermaindesPres, while Debray was casting up his

figures. Above the room in which Debray had been dividing two millions and a half with Madame Danglars

was another, inhabited by persons who have played too prominent a part in the incidents we have related for

their appearance not to create some interest. Mercedes and Albert were in that room. Mercedes was much

changed within the last few days; not that even in her days of fortune she had ever dressed with the

magnificent display which makes us no longer able to recognize a woman when she appears in a plain and

simple attire; nor indeed, had she fallen into that state of depression where it is impossible to conceal the garb

of misery; no, the change in Mercedes was that her eye no longer sparkled, her lips no longer smiled, and

there was now a hesitation in uttering the words which formerly sprang so fluently from her ready wit.

It was not poverty which had broken her spirit; it was not a want of courage which rendered her poverty

burdensome. Mercedes, although deposed from the exalted position she had occupied, lost in the sphere she

had now chosen, like a person passing from a room splendidly lighted into utter darkness, appeared like a

queen, fallen from her palace to a hovel, and who, reduced to strict necessity, could neither become

reconciled to the earthen vessels she was herself forced to place upon the table, nor to the humble pallet

which had become her bed. The beautiful Catalane and noble countess had lost both her proud glance and

charming smile, because she saw nothing but misery around her; the walls were hung with one of the gray

papers which economical landlords choose as not likely to show the dirt; the floor was uncarpeted; the

furniture attracted the attention to the poor attempt at luxury; indeed, everything offended eyes accustomed to

Madame de Morcerf had lived there since leaving her house; the continual silence of the spot oppressed her;

still, seeing that Albert continually watched her countenance to judge the state of her feelings, she constrained

herself to assume a monotonous smile of the lips alone, which, contrasted with the sweet and beaming

expression that usually shone from her eyes, seemed like "moonlight on a statue," yielding light without

warmth. Albert, too, was ill at ease; the remains of luxury prevented him from sinking into his actual

position. If he wished to go out without gloves, his hands appeared too white; if he wished to walk through

the town, his boots seemed too highly polished. Yet these two noble and intelligent creatures, united by the

indissoluble ties of maternal and filial love, had succeeded in tacitly understanding one another, and

economizing their stores, and Albert had been able to tell his mother without extorting a change of

Mercedes had never known misery; she had often, in her youth, spoken of poverty, but between want and

necessity, those synonymous words, there is a wide difference. Amongst the Catalans, Mercedes wished for a

thousand things, but still she never really wanted any. So long as the nets were good, they caught fish; and so

long as they sold their fish, they were able to buy twine for new nets. And then, shut out from friendship,

having but one affection, which could not be mixed up with her ordinary pursuits, she thought of herself

of no one but herself. Upon the little she earned she lived as well as she could; now there were two to be

Winter approached. Mercedes had no fire in that cold and naked room she, who was accustomed to stoves

which heated the house from the hall to the boudoir; she had not even one little flower she whose

apartment had been a conservatory of costly exotics. But she had her son. Hitherto the excitement of fulfilling

a duty had sustained them. Excitement, like enthusiasm, sometimes renders us unconscious to the things of

earth. But the excitement had calmed down, and they felt themselves obliged to descend from dreams to

reality; after having exhausted the ideal, they found they must talk of the actual.

"Mother," exclaimed Albert, just as Madame Danglars was descending the stairs, "let us reckon our riches, if

"No, mother, capital 3,000 francs. And I have an idea of our leading a delightful life upon this 3,000

"Alas, dear mother," said the young man, "I have unhappily spent too much of your money not to know the

value of it. These 3,000 francs are enormous, and I intend building upon this foundation a miraculous

"You say this, my dear boy; but do you think we ought to accept these 3,000 francs?" said Mercedes,

"I think so," answered Albert in a firm tone. "We will accept them the more readily, since we have them not

here; you know they are buried in the garden of the little house in the Allees de Meillan, at Marseilles. With

"Oh, as for that, I have made inquiries respecting the diligences and steamboats, and my calculations are

made. You will take your place in the coupe to Chalons. You see, mother, I treat you handsomely for

Frs. Coupe, thirtyfive francs ............................ 35 From Chalons to Lyons you will go on by the steamboat

six francs ......................................... 6 From Lyons to Avignon (still by steamboat), sixteen francs

....................................... 16 From Avignon to Marseilles, seven franc................ 7 Expenses on the road, about

fifty francs ............. 50 Total................................................ 114 frs.

"Let us put down 120," added Albert, smiling. "You see I am generous, am I not, mother?"

"I? do you not see that I reserve eighty francs for myself? A young man does not require luxuries; besides, I

"Here they are, and 200 more besides. See, I have sold my watch for 100 francs, and the guard and seals for

300. How fortunate that the ornaments were worth more than the watch. Still the same story of superfluities!

Now I think we are rich, since instead of the 114 francs we require for the journey we find ourselves in

"Thirty francs; but I pay that out of my 150 francs, that is understood, and as I require only eighty

francs for my journey, you see I am overwhelmed with luxury. But that is not all. What do you say to this,

And Albert took out of a little pocketbook with golden clasps, a remnant of his old fancies, or perhaps a

tender souvenir from one of the mysterious and veiled ladies who used to knock at his little door, Albert

"Listen to me, mother, and do not yield too much to agitation." And Albert, rising, kissed his mother on both

cheeks, then stood looking at her. "You cannot imagine, mother, how beautiful I think you!" said the young

man, impressed with a profound feeling of filial love. "You are, indeed, the most beautiful and most noble

"Dear child!" said Mercedes, endeavoring in vain to restrain a tear which glistened in the corner of her eye.

"Indeed, you only wanted misfortune to change my love for you to admiration. I am not unhappy while I

"Ah, just so," said Albert; "here begins the trial. Do you know the decision we have come to, mother?"

"Yes; it is decided that you are to live at Marseilles, and that I am to leave for Africa, where I will earn for

myself the right to use the name I now bear, instead of the one I have thrown aside." Mercedes sighed. "Well,

mother, I yesterday engaged myself as substitute in the Spahis,"* added the young man, lowering his eyes

with a certain feeling of shame, for even he was unconscious of the sublimity of his selfabasement. "I

thought my body was my own, and that I might sell it. I yesterday took the place of another. I sold myself for

more than I thought I was worth," he added, attempting to smile; "I fetched 2,000 francs."

Mercedes raised her eyes to heaven with an expression it would be impossible to describe, and tears, which

had hitherto been restrained, now yielded to her emotion, and ran down her cheeks.

"Yes, if I am killed," said Albert, laughing. "But I assure you, mother, I have a strong intention of defending

"Besides, mother, why should you make up your mind that I am to be killed? Has Lamoriciere, that Ney of

the South, been killed? Has Changarnier been killed? Has Bedeau been killed? Has Morrel, whom we know,

been killed? Think of your joy, mother, when you see me return with an embroidered uniform! I declare, I

expect to look magnificent in it, and chose that regiment only from vanity." Mercedes sighed while

endeavoring to smile; the devoted mother felt that she ought not to allow the whole weight of the sacrifice to

fall upon her son. "Well, now you understand, mother!" continued Albert; "here are more than 4,000 francs

"Do you think so?" said Mercedes. These words were uttered in so mournful a tone that their real meaning

did not escape Albert; he felt his heart beat, and taking his mother's hand within his own he said, tenderly,

"Mother, I must go," said Albert in a firm, calm voice; "you love me too well to wish me to remain useless

"Not my own wish, mother, but reason necessity. Are we not two despairing creatures? What is life to

you? Nothing. What is life to me? Very little without you, mother; for believe me, but for you I should

have ceased to live on the day I doubted my father and renounced his name. Well, I will live, if you promise

me still to hope; and if you grant me the care of your future prospects, you will redouble my strength. Then I

will go to the governor of Algeria; he has a royal heart, and is essentially a soldier; I will tell him my gloomy

story. I will beg him to turn his eyes now and then towards me, and if he keep his word and interest himself

for me, in six months I shall be an officer, or dead. If I am an officer, your fortune is certain, for I shall have

money enough for both, and, moreover, a name we shall both be proud of, since it will be our own. If I am

killed well then mother, you can also die, and there will be an end of our misfortunes."

"It is well," replied Mercedes, with her eloquent glance; "you are right, my love; let us prove to those who are

"But let us not yield to gloomy apprehensions," said the young man; "I assure you we are, or rather we shall

be, very happy. You are a woman at once full of spirit and resignation; I have become simple in my tastes,

and am without passion, I hope. Once in service, I shall be rich once in M. Dantes' house, you will be at

"And so our division is made, mother," said the young man, affecting ease of mind. "We can now part; come,

"I shall stay here for a few days longer; we must accustom ourselves to parting. I want recommendations and

"Well, be it so let us part," said Mercedes, folding around her shoulders the only shawl she had taken

away, and which accidentally happened to be a valuable black cashmere. Albert gathered up his papers

hastily, rang the bell to pay the thirty francs he owed to the landlord, and offering his arm to his mother, they

descended the stairs. Some one was walking down before them, and this person, hearing the rustling of a silk

"You, Morcerf?" replied the secretary, resting on the stairs. Curiosity had vanquished the desire of preserving

his incognito, and he was recognized. It was, indeed, strange in this unknown spot to find the young man

"Morcerf!" repeated Debray. Then noticing in the dim light the still youthful and veiled figure of Madame de

Morcerf: "Pardon me," he added with a smile, "I leave you, Albert." Albert understood his thoughts.

"Mother," he said, turning towards Mercedes, "this is M. Debray, secretary of the minister for the interior,

"I say so, M. Debray, because I have no friends now, and I ought not to have any. I thank you for having

recognized me, sir." Debray stepped forward, and cordially pressed the hand of his interlocutor. "Believe me,

dear Albert," he said, with all the emotion he was capable of feeling, "believe me, I feel deeply for your

"Thank you, sir," said Albert, smiling. "In the midst of our misfortunes, we are still rich enough not to require

assistance from any one. We are leaving Paris, and when our journey is paid, we shall have 5,000 francs left."

The blood mounted to the temples of Debray, who held a million in his pocketbook, and unimaginative as

he was he could not help reflecting that the same house had contained two women, one of whom, justly

dishonored, had left it poor with 1,500,000 francs under her cloak, while the other, unjustly stricken, but

sublime in her misfortune, was yet rich with a few deniers. This parallel disturbed his usual politeness, the

philosophy he witnessed appalled him, he muttered a few words of general civility and ran downstairs.

That day the minister's clerks and the subordinates had a great deal to put up with from his illhumor. But

that same night, he found himself the possessor of a fine house, situated on the Boulevard de la Madeleine,

and an income of 50,000 livres. The next day, just as Debray was signing the deed, that is about five o'clock

in the afternoon, Madame de Morcerf, after having affectionately embraced her son, entered the coupe of the

diligence, which closed upon her. A man was hidden in Lafitte's bankinghouse, behind one of the little

arched windows which are placed above each desk; he saw Mercedes enter the diligence, and he also saw

Albert withdraw. Then he passed his hand across his forehead, which was clouded with doubt. "Alas," he

exclaimed, "how can I restore the happiness I have taken away from these poor innocent creatures? God help

One division of La Force, in which the most dangerous and desperate prisoners are confined, is called the

court of SaintBernard. The prisoners, in their expressive language, have named it the "Lions' Den," probably

because the captives possess teeth which frequently gnaw the bars, and sometimes the keepers also. It is a

prison within a prison; the walls are double the thickness of the rest. The gratings are every day carefully

examined by jailers, whose herculean proportions and cold pitiless expression prove them to have been

chosen to reign over their subjects for their superior activity and intelligence. The courtyard of this quarter

is enclosed by enormous walls, over which the sun glances obliquely, when it deigns to penetrate into this

gulf of moral and physical deformity. On this paved yard are to be seen, pacing to and fro from morning

till night, pale, careworn, and haggard, like so many shadows, the men whom justice holds beneath the

steel she is sharpening. There, crouched against the side of the wall which attracts and retains the most heat,

they may be seen sometimes talking to one another, but more frequently alone, watching the door, which

sometimes opens to call forth one from the gloomy assemblage, or to throw in another outcast from society.

The court of SaintBernard has its own particular apartment for the reception of guests; it is a long rectangle,

divided by two upright gratings placed at a distance of three feet from one another to prevent a visitor from

shaking hands with or passing anything to the prisoners. It is a wretched, damp, nay, even horrible spot, more

especially when we consider the agonizing conferences which have taken place between those iron bars. And

yet, frightful though this spot may be, it is looked upon as a kind of paradise by the men whose days are

numbered; it is so rare for them to leave the Lions' Den for any other place than the barrier SaintJacques or

In the court which we have attempted to describe, and from which a damp vapor was rising, a young man

with his hands in his pockets, who had excited much curiosity among the inhabitants of the "Den," might be

seen walking. The cut of his clothes would have made him pass for an elegant man, if those clothes had not

been torn to shreds; still they did not show signs of wear, and the fine cloth, beneath the careful hands of the

prisoner, soon recovered its gloss in the parts which were still perfect, for the wearer tried his best to make it

assume the appearance of a new coat. He bestowed the same attention upon the cambric front of a shirt,

which had considerably changed in color since his entrance into the prison, and he polished his varnished

boots with the corner of a handkerchief embroidered with initials surmounted by a coronet. Some of the

inmates of the "Lions' Den" were watching the operations of the prisoner's toilet with considerable interest.

"See, the prince is pluming himself," said one of the thieves. "He's a fine looking fellow," said another; "if he

had only a comb and hairgrease, he'd take the shine off the gentlemen in white kids."

"His coat looks almost new, and his boots shine like a nigger's face. It's pleasant to have such welldressed

comrades; but didn't those gendarmes behave shameful? must 'a been jealous, to tear such clothes!"

"He looks like a bigbug," said another; "dresses in fine style. And, then, to be here so young! Oh, what

larks!" Meanwhile the object of this hideous admiration approached the wicket, against which one of the

keepers was leaning. "Come, sir," he said, "lend me twenty francs; you will soon be paid; you run no risks

with me. Remember, I have relations who possess more millions than you have deniers. Come, I beseech you,

lend me twenty francs, so that I may buy a dressinggown; it is intolerable always to be in a coat and boots!

And what a coat, sir, for a prince of the Cavalcanti!" The keeper turned his back, and shrugged his shoulders;

he did not even laugh at what would have caused any one else to do so; he had heard so many utter the same

"Come," said Andrea, "you are a man void of compassion; I'll have you turned out." This made the keeper

turn around, and he burst into a loud laugh. The prisoners then approached and formed a circle. "I tell you

that with that wretched sum," continued Andrea, "I could obtain a coat, and a room in which to receive the

"Well, then, lend him the twenty francs," said the keeper, leaning on the other shoulder; "surely you will not

"I am no comrade of these people," said the young man, proudly, "you have no right to insult me thus."

The thieves looked at one another with low murmurs, and a storm gathered over the head of the aristocratic

prisoner, raised less by his own words than by the manner of the keeper. The latter, sure of quelling the

tempest when the waves became too violent, allowed them to rise to a certain pitch that he might be revenged

on the importunate Andrea, and besides it would afford him some recreation during the long day. The thieves

had already approached Andrea, some screaming, "La savate La savate!"* a cruel operation, which

consists in cuffing a comrade who may have fallen into disgrace, not with an old shoe, but with an

ironheeled one. Others proposed the "anguille," another kind of recreation, in which a handkerchief is filled

with sand, pebbles, and twosous pieces, when they have them, which the wretches beat like a flail over the

head and shoulders of the unhappy sufferer. "Let us horsewhip the fine gentleman!" said others.

But Andrea, turning towards them, winked his eyes, rolled his tongue around his cheeks, and smacked his

lips in a manner equivalent to a hundred words among the bandits when forced to be silent. It was a Masonic

sign Caderousse had taught him. He was immediately recognized as one of them; the handkerchief was

thrown down, and the ironheeled shoe replaced on the foot of the wretch to whom it belonged. Some voices

were heard to say that the gentleman was right; that he intended to be civil, in his way, and that they would

set the example of liberty of conscience, and the mob retired. The keeper was so stupefied at this scene

that he took Andrea by the hands and began examining his person, attributing the sudden submission of the

inmates of the Lions' Den to something more substantial than mere fascination. Andrea made no resistance,

although he protested against it. Suddenly a voice was heard at the wicket. "Benedetto!" exclaimed an

inspector. The keeper relaxed his hold. "I am called," said Andrea. "To the visitors' room!" said the same

"You see some one pays me a visit. Ah, my dear sir, you will see whether a Cavalcanti is to be treated like a

common person!" And Andrea, gliding through the court like a black shadow, rushed out through the wicket,

leaving his comrades, and even the keeper, lost in wonder. Certainly a call to the visitors' room had scarcely

astonished Andrea less than themselves, for the wily youth, instead of making use of his privilege of waiting

to be claimed on his entry into La Force, had maintained a rigid silence. "Everything," he said, "proves me to

be under the protection of some powerful person, this sudden fortune, the facility with which I have

overcome all obstacles, an unexpected family and an illustrious name awarded to me, gold showered down

upon me, and the most splendid alliances about to be entered into. An unhappy lapse of fortune and the

absence of my protector have cast me down, certainly, but not forever. The hand which has retreated for a

while will be again stretched forth to save me at the very moment when I shall think myself sinking into the

abyss. Why should I risk an imprudent step? It might alienate my protector. He has two means of extricating

me from this dilemma, the one by a mysterious escape, managed through bribery; the other by buying off

my judges with gold. I will say and do nothing until I am convinced that he has quite abandoned me, and

Andrea had formed a plan which was tolerably clever. The unfortunate youth was intrepid in the attack, and

rude in the defence. He had borne with the public prison, and with privations of all sorts; still, by degrees

nature, or rather custom, had prevailed, and he suffered from being naked, dirty, and hungry. It was at this

moment of discomfort that the inspector's voice called him to the visitingroom. Andrea felt his heart leap

with joy. It was too soon for a visit from the examining magistrate, and too late for one from the director of

the prison, or the doctor; it must, then, be the visitor he hoped for. Behind the grating of the room into which

Andrea had been led, he saw, while his eyes dilated with surprise, the dark and intelligent face of M.

Bertuccio, who was also gazing with sad astonishment upon the iron bars, the bolted doors, and the shadow

"Silence, be silent!" said Andrea, who knew the delicate sense of hearing possessed by the walls; "for

"That is well." And Bertuccio, feeling in his pocket, signed to a keeper whom he saw through the window of

"Oh," cried Andrea, leaping with joy. Then he mentally added, "Still my unknown protector! I am not

forgotten. They wish for secrecy, since we are to converse in a private room. I understand, Bertuccio has been

The keeper spoke for a moment with an official, then opened the iron gates and conducted Andrea to a room

on the first floor. The room was whitewashed, as is the custom in prisons, but it looked quite brilliant to a

prisoner, though a stove, a bed, a chair, and a table formed the whole of its sumptuous furniture. Bertuccio sat

"Well, be it so. You have continued your course of villany; you have robbed you have assassinated."

"Well, I should say! If you had me taken to a private room only to tell me this, you might have saved yourself

the trouble. I know all these things. But there are some with which, on the contrary, I am not acquainted. Let

"I recognized you, some time since, as the insolent dandy who so gracefully mounted his horse in the Champs

"Oh, the Champs Elysees? Ah, yes; we burn, as they say at the game of pincette. The Champs Elysees?

"You, sir? you are my adopted father. But it was not you, I presume, who placed at my disposal 100,000

francs, which I spent in four or five months; it was not you who manufactured an Italian gentleman for my

father; it was not you who introduced me into the world, and had me invited to a certain dinner at Auteuil,

which I fancy I am eating at this moment, in company with the most distinguished people in Paris

amongst the rest with a certain procureur, whose acquaintance I did very wrong not to cultivate, for he would

have been very useful to me just now; it was not you, in fact, who bailed me for one or two millions, when

the fatal discovery of my little secret took place. Come, speak, my worthy Corsican, speak!"

"I will help you. You were speaking of the Champs Elysees just now, worthy fosterfather."

"'Tis you who have named him, as M. Racine says. Well, am I to rush into his arms, and strain him to my

"Do not let us jest," gravely replied Bertuccio, "and dare not to utter that name again as you have pronounced

"Bah," said Andrea, a little overcome, by the solemnity of Bertuccio's manner, "why not?"

"Because the person who bears it is too highly favored by heaven to be the father of such a wretch as you."

"Do you think you are engaged with a pygmy like yourself?" said Bertuccio, in so calm a tone, and with so

steadfast a look, that Andrea was moved to the very soul. "Do you think you have to do with galleyslaves,

or novices in the world? Benedetto, you are fallen into terrible hands; they are ready to open for you make

use of them. Do not play with the thunderbolt they have laid aside for a moment, but which they can take up

"My father I will know who my father is," said the obstinate youth; "I will perish if I must, but I will

know it. What does scandal signify to me? What possessions, what reputation, what `pull,' as Beauchamp

says, have I? You great people always lose something by scandal, notwithstanding your millions. Come,

"Ah," cried Benedetto, his eyes sparkling with joy. Just then the door opened, and the jailer, addressing

himself to Bertuccio, said, "Excuse me, sir, but the examining magistrate is waiting for the prisoner."

"And so closes our interview," said Andrea to the worthy steward; "I wish the troublesome fellow were at the

"Good! Gendarmes, I am at your service. Ah, sir, do leave a few crowns for me at the gate that I may have

"It shall be done," replied Bertuccio. Andrea extended his hand; Bertuccio kept his own in his pocket, and

merely jingled a few pieces of money. "That's what I mean," said Andrea, endeavoring to smile, quite

overcome by the strange tranquillity of Bertuccio. "Can I be deceived?" he murmured, as he stepped into the

oblong and grated vehicle which they call "the salad basket." "Never mind, we shall see! Tomorrow, then!"

We remember that the Abbe Busoni remained alone with Noirtier in the chamber of death, and that the old

man and the priest were the sole guardians of the young girl's body. Perhaps it was the Christian exhortations

of the abbe, perhaps his kind charity, perhaps his persuasive words, which had restored the courage of

Noirtier, for ever since he had conversed with the priest his violent despair had yielded to a calm resignation

which surprised all who knew his excessive affection for Valentine. M. de Villefort had not seen his father

since the morning of the death. The whole establishment had been changed; another valet was engaged for

himself, a new servant for Noirtier, two women had entered Madame de Villefort's service, in fact,

everywhere, to the concierge and coachmen, new faces were presented to the different masters of the house,

thus widening the division which had always existed between the members of the same family.

The assizes, also, were about to begin, and Villefort, shut up in his room, exerted himself with feverish

anxiety in drawing up the case against the murderer of Caderousse. This affair, like all those in which the

Count of Monte Cristo had interfered, caused a great sensation in Paris. The proofs were certainly not

convincing, since they rested upon a few words written by an escaped galleyslave on his deathbed, and

who might have been actuated by hatred or revenge in accusing his companion. But the mind of the procureur

was made up; he felt assured that Benedetto was guilty, and he hoped by his skill in conducting this

aggravated case to flatter his selflove, which was about the only vulnerable point left in his frozen heart.

The case was therefore prepared owing to the incessant labor of Villefort, who wished it to be the first on the

list in the coming assizes. He had been obliged to seclude himself more than ever, to evade the enormous

number of applications presented to him for the purpose of obtaining tickets of admission to the court on the

day of trial. And then so short a time had elapsed since the death of poor Valentine, and the gloom which

overshadowed the house was so recent, that no one wondered to see the father so absorbed in his professional

Once only had Villefort seen his father; it was the day after that upon which Bertuccio had paid his second

visit to Benedetto, when the latter was to learn his father's name. The magistrate, harassed and fatigued, had

descended to the garden of his house, and in a gloomy mood, similar to that in which Tarquin lopped off the

tallest poppies, he began knocking off with his cane the long and dying branches of the rosetrees, which,

placed along the avenue, seemed like the spectres of the brilliant flowers which had bloomed in the past

season. More than once he had reached that part of the garden where the famous boarded gate stood

overlooking the deserted enclosure, always returning by the same path, to begin his walk again, at the same

pace and with the same gesture, when he accidentally turned his eyes towards the house, whence he heard the

noisy play of his son, who had returned from school to spend the Sunday and Monday with his mother. While

doing so, he observed M. Noirtier at one of the open windows, where the old man had been placed that he

might enjoy the last rays of the sun which yet yielded some heat, and was now shining upon the dying

The eye of the old man was riveted upon a spot which Villefort could scarcely distinguish. His glance was so

full of hate, of ferocity, and savage impatience, that Villefort turned out of the path he had been pursuing, to

see upon what person this dark look was directed. Then he saw beneath a thick clump of lindentrees, which

were nearly divested of foliage, Madame de Villefort sitting with a book in her hand, the perusal of which she

frequently interrupted to smile upon her son, or to throw back his elastic ball, which he obstinately threw

from the drawingroom into the garden. Villefort became pale; he understood the old man's meaning.

Noirtier continued to look at the same object, but suddenly his glance was transferred from the wife to the

husband, and Villefort himself had to submit to the searching investigation of eyes, which, while changing

their direction and even their language, had lost none of their menacing expression. Madame de Villefort,

unconscious of the passions that exhausted their fire over her head, at that moment held her son's ball, and

was making signs to him to reclaim it with a kiss. Edward begged for a long while, the maternal kiss probably

not offering sufficient recompense for the trouble he must take to obtain it; however at length he decided,

leaped out of the window into a cluster of heliotropes and daisies, and ran to his mother, his forehead

streaming with perspiration. Madame de Villefort wiped his forehead, pressed her lips upon it, and sent him

Villefort, drawn by an irresistible attraction, like that of the bird to the serpent, walked towards the house. As

he approached it, Noirtier's gaze followed him, and his eyes appeared of such a fiery brightness that Villefort

felt them pierce to the depths of his heart. In that earnest look might be read a deep reproach, as well as a

terrible menace. Then Noirtier raised his eyes to heaven, as though to remind his son of a forgotten oath. "It is

well, sir," replied Villefort from below, "it is well; have patience but one day longer; what I have said I

will do." Noirtier seemed to be calmed by these words, and turned his eyes with indifference to the other side.

Villefort violently unbuttoned his greatcoat, which seemed to strangle him, and passing his livid hand across

The night was cold and still; the family had all retired to rest but Villefort, who alone remained up, and

worked till five o'clock in the morning, reviewing the last interrogatories made the night before by the

examining magistrates, compiling the depositions of the witnesses, and putting the finishing stroke to the

deed of accusation, which was one of the most energetic and best conceived of any he had yet delivered.

The next day, Monday, was the first sitting of the assizes. The morning dawned dull and gloomy, and

Villefort saw the dim gray light shine upon the lines he had traced in red ink. The magistrate had slept for a

short time while the lamp sent forth its final struggles; its flickerings awoke him, and he found his fingers as

damp and purple as though they had been dipped in blood. He opened the window; a bright yellow streak

crossed the sky, and seemed to divide in half the poplars, which stood out in black relief on the horizon. In

the cloverfields beyond the chestnuttrees, a lark was mounting up to heaven, while pouring out her clear

morning song. The damps of the dew bathed the head of Villefort, and refreshed his memory. "Today," he

said with an effort, "today the man who holds the blade of justice must strike wherever there is guilt."

Involuntarily his eyes wandered towards the window of Noirtier's room, where he had seen him the preceding

night. The curtain was drawn, and yet the image of his father was so vivid to his mind that he addressed the

closed window as though it had been open, and as if through the opening he had beheld the menacing old

His head dropped upon his chest, and in this position he paced his study; then he threw himself, dressed as he

was, upon a sofa, less to sleep than to rest his limbs, cramped with cold and study. By degrees every one

awoke. Villefort, from his study, heard the successive noises which accompany the life of a house, the

opening and shutting of doors, the ringing of Madame de Villefort's bell, to summon the waitingmaid,

mingled with the first shouts of the child, who rose full of the enjoyment of his age. Villefort also rang; his

"My mistress, sir. She said you would have to speak a great deal in the murder case, and that you should take

something to keep up your strength;" and the valet placed the cup on the table nearest to the sofa, which was,

like all the rest, covered with papers. The valet then left the room. Villefort looked for an instant with a

gloomy expression, then, suddenly, taking it up with a nervous motion, he swallowed its contents at one

draught. It might have been thought that he hoped the beverage would be mortal, and that he sought for death

to deliver him from a duty which he would rather die than fulfil. He then rose, and paced his room with a

smile it would have been terrible to witness. The chocolate was inoffensive, for M. de Villefort felt no

effects. The breakfasthour arrived, but M. de Villefort was not at table. The valet reentered.

"Madame de Villefort wishes to remind you, sir," he said, "that eleven o'clock has just struck, and that the

"Madame de Villefort is dressed; she is quite ready, and wishes to know if she is to accompany you, sir?"

"Ah," said Villefort, with a startling accent; "does she wish that?" The man drew back and said, "If you

wish to go alone, sir, I will go and tell my mistress." Villefort remained silent for a moment, and dented his

pale cheeks with his nails. "Tell your mistress," he at length answered, "that I wish to speak to her, and I beg

"Directly, sir." The valet reappeared almost instantly, and, having shaved his master, assisted him to dress

"My mistress said she should expect you, sir, as soon as you had finished dressing."

"I am going to her." And Villefort, with his papers under his arm and hat in hand, directed his steps toward

the apartment of his wife. At the door he paused for a moment to wipe his damp, pale brow. He then entered

the room. Madame de Villefort was sitting on an ottoman and impatiently turning over the leaves of some

newspapers and pamphlets which young Edward, by way of amusing himself, was tearing to pieces before his

mother could finish reading them. She was dressed to go out, her bonnet was placed beside her on a chair,

"Ah, here you are, monsieur," she said in her naturally calm voice; "but how pale you are! Have you been

working all night? Why did you not come down to breakfast? Well, will you take me, or shall I take

Edward?" Madame de Villefort had multiplied her questions in order to gain one answer, but to all her

inquiries M. de Villefort remained mute and cold as a statue. "Edward," said Villefort, fixing an imperious

glance on the child, "go and play in the drawingroom, my dear; I wish to speak to your mamma." Madame

de Villefort shuddered at the sight of that cold countenance, that resolute tone, and the awfully strange

preliminaries. Edward raised his head, looked at his mother, and then, finding that she did not confirm the

"Edward," cried M. de Villefort, so harshly that the child started up from the floor, "do you hear me? Go!"

The child, unaccustomed to such treatment, arose, pale and trembling; it would be difficult to say whether his

emotion were caused by fear or passion. His father went up to him, took him in his arms, and kissed his

forehead. "Go," he said: "go, my child." Edward ran out. M. de Villefort went to the door, which he closed

behind the child, and bolted. "Dear me!" said the young woman, endeavoring to read her husband's inmost

thoughts, while a smile passed over her countenance which froze the impassibility of Villefort; "what is the

"Madame, where do you keep the poison you generally use?" said the magistrate, without any introduction,

Madame de Villefort must have experienced something of the sensation of a bird which, looking up, sees the

murderous trap closing over its head. A hoarse, broken tone, which was neither a cry nor a sigh, escaped from

her, while she became deadly pale. "Monsieur," she said, "I I do not understand you." And, in her first

paroxysm of terror, she had raised herself from the sofa, in the next, stronger very likely than the other, she

fell down again on the cushions. "I asked you," continued Villefort, in a perfectly calm tone, "where you

conceal the poison by the aid of which you have killed my fatherinlaw, M. de SaintMeran, my

"Ah, sir," exclaimed Madame de Villefort, clasping her hands, "what do you say?"

"Is it to the judge or to the husband?" stammered Madame de Villefort. "To the judge to the judge,

madame!" It was terrible to behold the frightful pallor of that woman, the anguish of her look, the trembling

"You do not answer, madame!" exclaimed the terrible interrogator. Then he added, with a smile yet more

terrible than his anger, "It is true, then; you do not deny it!" She moved forward. "And you cannot deny it!"

added Villefort, extending his hand toward her, as though to seize her in the name of justice. "You have

accomplished these different crimes with impudent address, but which could only deceive those whose

affections for you blinded them. Since the death of Madame de SaintMeran, I have known that a poisoner

lived in my house. M. d'Avrigny warned me of it. After the death of Barrois my suspicions were directed

towards an angel, those suspicions which, even when there is no crime, are always alive in my heart; but

after the death of Valentine, there has been no doubt in my mind, madame, and not only in mine, but in those

of others; thus your crime, known by two persons, suspected by many, will soon become public, and, as I told

The young woman hid her face in her hands. "Oh, sir," she stammered, "I beseech you, do not believe

"Are you, then, a coward?" cried Villefort, in a contemptuous voice. "But I have always observed that

poisoners were cowards. Can you be a coward, you who have had the courage to witness the death of two

"Can you be a coward?" continued Villefort, with increasing excitement, "you, who could count, one by one,

the minutes of four death agonies? You, who have arranged your infernal plans, and removed the beverages

with a talent and precision almost miraculous? Have you, then, who have calculated everything with such

nicety, have you forgotten to calculate one thing I mean where the revelation of your crimes will lead you

to? Oh, it is impossible you must have saved some surer, more subtle and deadly poison than any other,

that you might escape the punishment that you deserve. You have done this I hope so, at least." Madame

"I understand," he said, "you confess; but a confession made to the judges, a confession made at the last

moment, extorted when the crime cannot be denied, diminishes not the punishment inflicted on the guilty!"

"The punishment?" exclaimed Madame de Villefort, "the punishment, monsieur? Twice you have

"Certainly. Did you hope to escape it because you were four times guilty? Did you think the punishment

would be withheld because you are the wife of him who pronounces it? No, madame, no; the scaffold

awaits the poisoner, whoever she may be, unless, as I just said, the poisoner has taken the precaution of

keeping for herself a few drops of her deadliest potion." Madame de Villefort uttered a wild cry, and a

hideous and uncontrollable terror spread over her distorted features. "Oh, do not fear the scaffold, madame,"

said the magistrate; "I will not dishonor you, since that would be dishonor to myself; no, if you have heard

"No, I do not understand; what do you mean?" stammered the unhappy woman, completely overwhelmed. "I

mean that the wife of the first magistrate in the capital shall not, by her infamy, soil an unblemished name;

"Well, madame, it will be a laudable action on your part, and I will thank you for it!"

"What did I say? Oh, my brain whirls; I no longer understand anything. Oh, my God, my God!" And she rose,

"Have you answered the question I put to you on entering the room? where do you keep the poison you

generally use, madame?" Madame de Villefort raised her arms to heaven, and convulsively struck one hand

"What I do not wish, madame, is that you should perish on the scaffold. Do you understand?" asked Villefort.

"What I require is, that justice be done. I am on the earth to punish, madame," he added, with a flaming

glance; "any other woman, were it the queen herself, I would send to the executioner; but to you I shall be

merciful. To you I will say, `Have you not, madame, put aside some of the surest, deadliest, most speedy

"No, no, no, I tell you; one day, if I allow you to live, you will perhaps kill him, as you have the others!"

"I? I kill my boy?" cried the distracted mother, rushing toward Villefort; "I kill my son? Ha, ha, ha!" and a

frightful, demoniac laugh finished the sentence, which was lost in a hoarse rattle. Madame de Villefort fell at

her husband's feet. He approached her. "Think of it, madame," he said; "if, on my return, justice his not been

satisfied, I will denounce you with my own mouth, and arrest you with my own hands!" She listened, panting,

overwhelmed, crushed; her eye alone lived, and glared horribly. "Do you understand me?" he said. "I am

going down there to pronounce the sentence of death against a murderer. If I find you alive on my return, you

shall sleep tonight in the conciergerie." Madame de Villefort sighed; her nerves gave way, and she sunk on

the carpet. The king's attorney seemed to experience a sensation of pity; he looked upon her less severely,

and, bowing to her, said slowly, "Farewell, madame, farewell!" That farewell struck Madame de Villefort

like the executioner's knife. She fainted. The procureur went out, after having doublelocked the door.

The Benedetto affair, as it was called at the Palais, and by people in general, had produced a tremendous

sensation. Frequenting the Cafe de Paris, the Boulevard de Gand, and the Bois de Boulogne, during his brief

career of splendor, the false Cavalcanti had formed a host of acquaintances. The papers had related his

various adventures, both as the man of fashion and the galleyslave; and as every one who had been

personally acquainted with Prince Andrea Cavalcanti experienced a lively curiosity in his fate, they all

determined to spare no trouble in endeavoring to witness the trial of M. Benedetto for the murder of his

comrade in chains. In the eyes of many, Benedetto appeared, if not a victim to, at least an instance of, the

fallibility of the law. M. Cavalcanti, his father, had been seen in Paris, and it was expected that he would

reappear to claim the illustrious outcast. Many, also, who were not aware of the circumstances attending his

withdrawal from Paris, were struck with the worthy appearance, the gentlemanly bearing, and the knowledge

of the world displayed by the old patrician, who certainly played the nobleman very well, so long as he said

nothing, and made no arithmetical calculations. As for the accused himself, many remembered him as being

so amiable, so handsome, and so liberal, that they chose to think him the victim of some conspiracy, since in

this world large fortunes frequently excite the malevolence and jealousy of some unknown enemy. Every one,

therefore, ran to the court; some to witness the sight, others to comment upon it. From seven o'clock in the

morning a crowd was stationed at the iron gates, and an hour before the trial commenced the hall was full of

the privileged. Before the entrance of the magistrates, and indeed frequently afterwards, a court of justice, on

days when some especial trial is to take place, resembles a drawingroom where many persons recognize

each other and converse if they can do so without losing their seats; or, if they are separated by too great a

It was one of the magnificent autumn days which make amends for a short summer; the clouds which M. de

Villefort had perceived at sunrise had all disappeared as if by magic, and one of the softest and most brilliant

Beauchamp, one of the kings of the press, and therefore claiming the right of a throne everywhere, was eying

everybody through his monocle. He perceived ChateauRenaud and Debray, who had just gained the good

graces of a sergeantatarms, and who had persuaded the latter to let them stand before, instead of behind

him, as they ought to have done. The worthy sergeant had recognized the minister's secretary and the

millionnaire, and, by way of paying extra attention to his noble neighbors, promised to keep their places

"Yes, indeed!" replied Debray. "That worthy prince. Deuce take those Italian princes!"

"A man, too, who could boast of Dante for a genealogist, and could reckon back to the `Divine Comedy.'"

"My dear fellow, I think we should ask you that question; you know such news much better than we do. Did

"Well, he told me that Benedetto, who is considered a serpent of subtlety and a giant of cunning, is really but

a very commonplace, silly rascal, and altogether unworthy of the experiments that will be made on his

"Yes, for you who detest those unhappy princes, Beauchamp, and are always delighted to find fault with

them; but not for me, who discover a gentleman by instinct, and who scent out an aristocratic family like a

"Not so bad," said Beauchamp; "still, I assure you, he passed very well with many people; I saw him at the

"Ah, yes," said ChateauRenaud. "The idea of thinking ministers understand anything about princes!"

"But," said Debray to Beauchamp, "if I spoke to the president, you must have been with the procureur."

"It was an impossibility; for the last week M. de Villefort has secluded himself. It is natural enough; this

strange chain of domestic afflictions, followed by the no less strange death of his daughter"

"Oh, yes; do you pretend that all this has been unobserved at the minister's?" said Beauchamp, placing his

"My dear sir," said ChateauRenaud, "allow me to tell you that you do not understand that manoeuvre with

"Madame Danglars? Nonsense! Impossible!" said ChateauRenaud; "only ten days after the flight of her

Debray colored slightly, and followed with his eyes the direction of Beauchamp's glance. "Come," he said, "it

is only a veiled lady, some foreign princess, perhaps the mother of Cavalcanti. But you were just speaking on

"Poor, dear woman," said Debray, "she is no doubt occupied in distilling balm for the hospitals, or in making

cosmetics for herself or friends. Do you know she spends two or three thousand crowns a year in this

amusement? But I wonder she is not here. I should have been pleased to see her, for I like her very much."

"But the thing itself is at M. de Villefort's; but let's get back to the subject."

"Talking of that," said Debray, "Madame was making inquiries about that house, which for the last three

"Really, You were only before sparkling, but now you are brilliant; take compassion on us, or, like Jupiter,

"I will not speak again," said ChateauRenaud; "pray have compassion upon me, and do not take up every

"Come, let us endeavor to get to the end of our story, Beauchamp; I told you that yesterday Madame made

inquiries of me upon the subject; enlighten me, and I will then communicate my information to her."

"Well, gentlemen, the reason people die so multitudinously (I like the word) at M. de Villefort's is that there

is an assassin in the house!" The two young men shuddered, for the same idea had more than once occurred

"Young Edward!" A burst of laughter from the auditors did not in the least disconcert the speaker, who

continued, "Yes, gentlemen; Edward, the infant phenomenon, who is quite an adept in the art of killing."

"Not at all. I yesterday engaged a servant, who had just left M. de Villefort I intend sending him away

tomorrow, for he eats so enormously, to make up for the fast imposed upon him by his terror in that house.

"It appears the dear child has obtained possession of a bottle containing some drug, which he every now and

then uses against those who have displeased him. First, M. and Madame de SaintMeran incurred his

displeasure, so he poured out three drops of his elixir three drops were sufficient; then followed Barrois,

the old servant of M. Noirtier, who sometimes rebuffed this little wretch he therefore received the same

quantity of the elixir; the same happened to Valentine, of whom he was jealous; he gave her the same dose as

"Ah," said Beauchamp, "you doubt me? Well, you can ask my servant, or rather him who will no longer be

"How can I tell? You are questioning me like a king's attorney. I only repeat what I have been told, and like

"No, my dear fellow, it is not at all incredible. You saw the child pass through the Rue Richelieu last year,

who amused himself with killing his brothers and sisters by sticking pins in their ears while they slept. The

"Come, Beauchamp," said ChateauRenaud, "I will bet anything you do not believe a word of all you have

"He is worn out," said Debray; "besides, he could not well appear in public, since he has been the dupe of the

Cavalcanti, who, it appears, presented themselves to him with false letters of credit, and cheated him out of

"Ma foi, I have called three times without once seeing him. Still, his sister did not seem uneasy, and told me

that though she had not seen him for two or three days, she was sure he was well."

"Ah, now I think of it, the Count of Monte Cristo cannot appear in the hall," said Beauchamp.

"No, on the contrary, they wished to assassinate him. You know that it was in leaving his house that M. de

Caderousse was murdered by his friend Benedetto. You know that the famous waistcoat was found in his

house, containing the letter which stopped the signature of the marriagecontract. Do you see the waistcoat?

"Hush, gentlemen, here is the court; let us go back to our places." A noise was heard in the hall; the sergeant

called his two patrons with an energetic "hem!" and the doorkeeper appearing, called out with that shrill

voice peculiar to his order, ever since the days of Beaumarchais, "The court, gentlemen!"

The judges took their places in the midst of the most profound silence; the jury took their seats; M. de

Villefort, the object of unusual attention, and we had almost said of general admiration, sat in the armchair

and cast a tranquil glance around him. Every one looked with astonishment on that grave and severe face,

whose calm expression personal griefs had been unable to disturb, and the aspect of a man who was a

At these words the public attention became more intense, and all eyes were turned towards the door through

which Benedetto was to enter. The door soon opened and the accused appeared. The same impression was

experienced by all present, and no one was deceived by the expression of his countenance. His features bore

no sign of that deep emotion which stops the beating of the heart and blanches the cheek. His hands,

gracefully placed, one upon his hat, the other in the opening of his white waistcoat, were not at all tremulous;

his eye was calm and even brilliant. Scarcely had he entered the hall when he glanced at the whole body of

magistrates and assistants; his eye rested longer on the president, and still more so on the king's attorney. By

the side of Andrea was stationed the lawyer who was to conduct his defence, and who had been appointed by

the court, for Andrea disdained to pay any attention to those details, to which he appeared to attach no

importance. The lawyer was a young man with light hair whose face expressed a hundred times more

The president called for the indictment, revised as we know, by the clever and implacable pen of Villefort.

During the reading of this, which was long, the public attention was continually drawn towards Andrea, who

bore the inspection with Spartan unconcern. Villefort had never been so concise and eloquent. The crime was

depicted in the most vivid colors; the former life of the prisoner, his transformation, a review of his life from

the earliest period, were set forth with all the talent that a knowledge of human life could furnish to a mind

like that of the procureur. Benedetto was thus forever condemned in public opinion before the sentence of the

law could be pronounced. Andrea paid no attention to the successive charges which were brought against

him. M. de Villefort, who examined him attentively, and who no doubt practiced upon him all the

psychological studies he was accustomed to use, in vain endeavored to make him lower his eyes,

notwithstanding the depth and profundity of his gaze. At length the reading of the indictment was ended.

"Accused," said the president, "your name and surname?" Andrea arose. "Excuse me, Mr. President," he said,

in a clear voice, "but I see you are going to adopt a course of questions through which I cannot follow you. I

have an idea, which I will explain by and by, of making an exception to the usual form of accusation. Allow

me, then, if you please, to answer in different order, or I will not do so at all." The astonished president

looked at the jury, who in turn looked at Villefort. The whole assembly manifested great surprise, but Andrea

appeared quite unmoved. "Your age?" said the president; "will you answer that question?"

"I will answer that question, as well as the rest, Mr. President, but in its turn."

"I am twentyone years old, or rather I shall be in a few days, as I was born the night of the 27th of

September, 1817." M. de Villefort, who was busy taking down some notes, raised his head at the mention of

"At Auteuil, near Paris." M. de Villefort a second time raised his head, looked at Benedetto as if he had been

gazing at the head of Medusa, and became livid. As for Benedetto, he gracefully wiped his lips with a fine

"First I was a forger," answered Andrea, as calmly as possible; "then I became a thief, and lately have

become an assassin." A murmur, or rather storm, of indignation burst from all parts of the assembly. The

judges themselves appeared to be stupefied, and the jury manifested tokens of disgust for cynicism so

unexpected in a man of fashion. M. de Villefort pressed his hand upon his brow, which, at first pale, had

become red and burning; then he suddenly arose and looked around as though he had lost his senses he

"Are you looking for anything, Mr. Procureur?" asked Benedetto, with his most ingratiating smile. M. de

Villefort answered nothing, but sat, or rather threw himself down again upon his chair. "And now, prisoner,

will you consent to tell your name?" said the president. "The brutal affectation with which you have

enumerated and classified your crimes calls for a severe reprimand on the part of the court, both in the name

of morality, and for the respect due to humanity. You appear to consider this a point of honor, and it may be

for this reason, that you have delayed acknowledging your name. You wished it to be preceded by all these

"It is quite wonderful, Mr. President, how entirely you have read my thoughts," said Benedetto, in his softest

voice and most polite manner. "This is, indeed, the reason why I begged you to alter the order of the

questions." The public astonishment had reached its height. There was no longer any deceit or bravado in the

manner of the accused. The audience felt that a startling revelation was to follow this ominous prelude.

"I cannot tell you my name, since I do not know it; but I know my father's, and can tell it to you."

A painful giddiness overwhelmed Villefort; great drops of acrid sweat fell from his face upon the papers

"Repeat your father's name," said the president. Not a whisper, not a breath, was heard in that vast assembly;

"King's attorney?" said the president, stupefied, and without noticing the agitation which spread over the face

"Yes; and if you wish to know his name, I will tell it, he is named Villefort." The explosion, which had

been so long restrained from a feeling of respect to the court of justice, now burst forth like thunder from the

breasts of all present; the court itself did not seek to restrain the feelings of the audience. The exclamations,

the insults addressed to Benedetto, who remained perfectly unconcerned, the energetic gestures, the

movement of the gendarmes, the sneers of the scum of the crowd always sure to rise to the surface in case of

any disturbance all this lasted five minutes, before the doorkeepers and magistrates were able to restore

silence. In the midst of this tumult the voice of the president was heard to exclaim, "Are you playing with

justice, accused, and do you dare set your fellowcitizens an example of disorder which even in these times

Several persons hurried up to M. de Villefort, who sat half bowed over in his chair, offering him consolation,

encouragement, and protestations of zeal and sympathy. Order was reestablished in the hall, except that a

few people still moved about and whispered to one another. A lady, it was said, had just fainted; they had

supplied her with a smellingbottle, and she had recovered. During the scene of tumult, Andrea had turned

his smiling face towards the assembly; then, leaning with one hand on the oaken rail of the dock, in the most

graceful attitude possible, he said: "Gentlemen, I assure you I had no idea of insulting the court, or of making

a useless disturbance in the presence of this honorable assembly. They ask my age; I tell it. They ask where I

was born; I answer. They ask my name, I cannot give it, since my parents abandoned me. But though I cannot

give my own name, not possessing one, I can tell them my father's. Now I repeat, my father is named M. de

There was an energy, a conviction, and a sincerity in the manner of the young man, which silenced the

tumult. All eyes were turned for a moment towards the procureur, who sat as motionless as though a

thunderbolt had changed him into a corpse. "Gentlemen," said Andrea, commanding silence by his voice and

"But," said the irritated president, "you called yourself Benedetto, declared yourself an orphan, and claimed

"I said anything I pleased, in order that the solemn declaration I have just made should not be withheld,

which otherwise would certainly have been the case. I now repeat that I was born at Auteuil on the night of

the 27th of September, 1817, and that I am the son of the procureur, M. de Villefort. Do you wish for any

further details? I will give them. I was born in No. 28, Rue de la Fontaine, in a room hung with red damask;

my father took me in his arms, telling my mother I was dead, wrapped me in a napkin marked with an H and

A shudder ran through the assembly when they saw that the confidence of the prisoner increased in

proportion to the terror of M. de Villefort. "But how have you become acquainted with all these details?"

"I will tell you, Mr. President. A man who had sworn vengeance against my father, and had long watched his

opportunity to kill him, had introduced himself that night into the garden in which my father buried me. He

was concealed in a thicket; he saw my father bury something in the ground, and stabbed him; then thinking

the deposit might contain some treasure he turned up the ground, and found me still living. The man carried

me to the foundling asylum, where I was registered under the number 37. Three months afterwards, a woman

travelled from Rogliano to Paris to fetch me, and having claimed me as her son, carried me away. Thus, you

There was a moment's silence, during which one could have fancied the hall empty, so profound was the

"Certainly, I might have lived happily amongst those good people, who adored me, but my perverse

disposition prevailed over the virtues which my adopted mother endeavored to instil into my heart. I

increased in wickedness till I committed crime. One day when I cursed providence for making me so wicked,

and ordaining me to such a fate, my adopted father said to me, `Do not blaspheme, unhappy child, the crime

is that of your father, not yours, of your father, who consigned you to hell if you died, and to misery if a

miracle preserved you alive.' After that I ceased to blaspheme, but I cursed my father. That is why I have

uttered the words for which you blame me; that is why I have filled this whole assembly with horror. If I have

committed an additional crime, punish me, but if you will allow that ever since the day of my birth my fate

"My mother thought me dead; she is not guilty. I did not even wish to know her name, nor do I know it." Just

then a piercing cry, ending in a sob, burst from the centre of the crowd, who encircled the lady who had

before fainted, and who now fell into a violent fit of hysterics. She was carried out of the hall, the thick veil

which concealed her face dropped off, and Madame Danglars was recognized. Notwithstanding his shattered

nerves, the ringing sensation in his ears, and the madness which turned his brain, Villefort rose as he

perceived her. "The proofs, the proofs!" said the president; "remember this tissue of horrors must be

Every one turned towards the procureur, who, unable to bear the universal gaze now riveted on him alone,

advanced staggering into the midst of the tribunal, with his hair dishevelled and his face indented with the

mark of his nails. The whole assembly uttered a long murmur of astonishment. "Father," said Benedetto, "I

"No, no, it is useless," stammered M. de Villefort in a hoarse voice; "no, it is useless!"

"I mean that I feel it impossible to struggle against this deadly weight which crushes me. Gentlemen, I know I

am in the hands of an avenging God! We need no proofs; everything relating to this young man is true." A

dull, gloomy silence, like that which precedes some awful phenomenon of nature, pervaded the assembly,

who shuddered in dismay. "What, M. de Villefort," cried the president, "do you yield to an hallucination?

What, are you no longer in possession of your senses? This strange, unexpected, terrible accusation has

The procureur dropped his head; his teeth chattered like those of a man under a violent attack of fever, and

"I am in possession of all my senses, sir," he said; "my body alone suffers, as you may suppose. I

acknowledge myself guilty of all the young man has brought against me, and from this hour hold myself

And as he spoke these words with a hoarse, choking voice, he staggered towards the door, which was

mechanically opened by a doorkeeper. The whole assembly were dumb with astonishment at the revelation

and confession which had produced a catastrophe so different from that which had been expected during the

"Ma foi!" said ChateauRenaud, "I would rather end my career like M. de Morcerf; a pistolshot seems quite

"And to think that I had an idea of marrying his daughter," said Debray. "She did well to die, poor girl!"

"The sitting is adjourned, gentlemen," said the president; "fresh inquiries will be made, and the case will be

tried next session by another magistrate." As for Andrea, who was calm and more interesting than ever, he

left the hall, escorted by gendarmes, who involuntarily paid him some attention. "Well, what do you think of

this, my fine fellow?" asked Debray of the sergeantatarms, slipping a louis into his hand. "There will be

Notwithstanding the density of the crowd, M. de Villefort saw it open before him. There is something so

aweinspiring in great afflictions that even in the worst times the first emotion of a crowd has generally been

to sympathize with the sufferer in a great catastrophe. Many people have been assassinated in a tumult, but

even criminals have rarely been insulted during trial. Thus Villefort passed through the mass of spectators

and officers of the Palais, and withdrew. Though he had acknowledged his guilt, he was protected by his

grief. There are some situations which men understand by instinct, but which reason is powerless to explain;

in such cases the greatest poet is he who gives utterance to the most natural and vehement outburst of sorrow.

Those who hear the bitter cry are as much impressed as if they listened to an entire poem, and when the

It would be difficult to describe the state of stupor in which Villefort left the Palais. Every pulse beat with

feverish excitement, every nerve was strained, every vein swollen, and every part of his body seemed to

suffer distinctly from the rest, thus multiplying his agony a thousandfold. He made his way along the

corridors through force of habit; he threw aside his magisterial robe, not out of deference to etiquette, but

because it was an unbearable burden, a veritable garb of Nessus, insatiate in torture. Having staggered as far

as the Rue Dauphine, he perceived his carriage, awoke his sleeping coachman by opening the door himself,

threw himself on the cushions, and pointed towards the Faubourg SaintHonore; the carriage drove on. The

weight of his fallen fortunes seemed suddenly to crush him; he could not foresee the consequences; he could

not contemplate the future with the indifference of the hardened criminal who merely faces a contingency

already familiar. God was still in his heart. "God," he murmured, not knowing what he said, "God

God!" Behind the event that had overwhelmed him he saw the hand of God. The carriage rolled rapidly

onward. Villefort, while turning restlessly on the cushions, felt something press against him. He put out his

hand to remove the object; it was a fan which Madame de Villefort had left in the carriage; this fan awakened

a recollection which darted through his mind like lightning. He thought of his wife.

"Oh!" he exclaimed, as though a redhot iron were piercing his heart. During the last hour his own crime had

alone been presented to his mind; now another object, not less terrible, suddenly presented itself. His wife!

He had just acted the inexorable judge with her, he had condemned her to death, and she, crushed by remorse,

struck with terror, covered with the shame inspired by the eloquence of his irreproachable virtue, she, a

poor, weak woman, without help or the power of defending herself against his absolute and supreme will,

she might at that very moment, perhaps, be preparing to die! An hour had elapsed since her condemnation; at

that moment, doubtless, she was recalling all her crimes to her memory; she was asking pardon for her sins;

perhaps she was even writing a letter imploring forgiveness from her virtuous husband a forgiveness she

was purchasing with her death! Villefort again groaned with anguish and despair. "Ah," he exclaimed, "that

woman became criminal only from associating with me! I carried the infection of crime with me, and she has

caught it as she would the typhus fever, the cholera, the plague! And yet I have punished her I have dared

to tell her I have `Repent and die!' But no, she must not die; she shall live, and with me. We will flee

from Paris and go as far as the earth reaches. I told her of the scaffold; oh, heavens, I forgot that it awaits me

also! How could I pronounce that word? Yes, we will fly; I will confess all to her, I will tell her daily that

I also have committed a crime! Oh, what an alliance the tiger and the serpent; worthy wife of such as I

am! She must live that my infamy may diminish hers." And Villefort dashed open the window in front of the

"Faster, faster!" he cried, in a tone which electrified the coachman. The horses, impelled by fear, flew

"Yes, yes," repeated Villefort, as he approached his home "yes, that woman must live; she must repent,

and educate my son, the sole survivor, with the exception of the indestructible old man, of the wreck of my

house. She loves him; it was for his sake she has committed these crimes. We ought never to despair of

softening the heart of a mother who loves her child. She will repent, and no one will know that she has been

guilty. The events which have taken place in my house, though they now occupy the public mind, will be

forgotten in time, or if, indeed, a few enemies should persist in remembering them, why then I will add them

to my list of crimes. What will it signify if one, two, or three more are added? My wife and child shall escape

from this gulf, carrying treasures with them; she will live and may yet be happy, since her child, in whom all

her love is centred, will be with her. I shall have performed a good action, and my heart will be lighter." And

The carriage stopped at the door of the house. Villefort leaped out of the carriage, and saw that his servants

were surprised at his early return; he could read no other expression on their features. Neither of them spoke

to him; they merely stood aside to let him pass by, as usual, nothing more. As he passed by M. Noirtier's

room, he perceived two figures through the halfopen door; but he experienced no curiosity to know who

"Come," he said, as he ascended the stairs leading to his wife's room, "nothing is changed here." He then

closed the door of the landing. "No one must disturb us," he said; "I must speak freely to her, accuse myself,

and say" he approached the door, touched the crystal handle, which yielded to his hand. "Not locked," he

cried; "that is well." And he entered the little room in which Edward slept; for though the child went to school

during the day, his mother could not allow him to be separated from her at night. With a single glance

Villefort's eye ran through the room. "Not here," he said; "doubtless she is in her bedroom." He rushed

towards the door, found it bolted, and stopped, shuddering. "Heloise!" he cried. He fancied he heard the

"Who is there?" answered the voice of her he sought. He thought that voice more feeble than usual.

"Open the door!" cried Villefort. "Open; it is I." But notwithstanding this request, notwithstanding the tone of

anguish in which it was uttered, the door remained closed. Villefort burst it open with a violent blow. At the

entrance of the room which led to her boudoir, Madame de Villefort was standing erect, pale, her features

contracted, and her eyes glaring horribly. "Heloise, Heloise!" he said, "what is the matter? Speak!" The young

woman extended her stiff white hands towards him. "It is done, monsieur," she said with a rattling noise

which seemed to tear her throat. "What more do you want?" and she fell full length on the floor. Villefort ran

to her and seized her hand, which convulsively clasped a crystal bottle with a golden stopper. Madame de

Villefort was dead. Villefort, maddened with horror, stepped back to the threshhold of the door, fixing his

eyes on the corpse: "My son!" he exclaimed suddenly, "where is my son? Edward, Edward!" and he

rushed out of the room, still crying, "Edward, Edward!" The name was pronounced in such a tone of anguish

"Where is my son?" asked Villefort; "let him be removed from the house, that he may not see"

"No, sir; Madame de Villefort sent for him half an hour ago; he went into her room, and has not been

downstairs since." A cold perspiration burst out on Villefort's brow; his legs trembled, and his thoughts flew

about madly in his brain like the wheels of a disordered watch. "In Madame de Villefort's room?" he

murmured and slowly returned, with one hand wiping his forehead, and with the other supporting himself

against the wall. To enter the room he must again see the body of his unfortunate wife. To call Edward he

must reawaken the echo of that room which now appeared like a sepulchre; to speak seemed like violating the

"Edward!" he stammered "Edward!" The child did not answer. Where, then, could he be, if he had entered

his mother's room and not since returned? He stepped forward. The corpse of Madame de Villefort was

stretched across the doorway leading to the room in which Edward must be; those glaring eyes seemed to

watch over the threshold, and the lips bore the stamp of a terrible and mysterious irony. Through the open

door was visible a portion of the boudoir, containing an upright piano and a blue satin couch. Villefort

stepped forward two or three paces, and beheld his child lying no doubt asleep on the sofa. The

unhappy man uttered an exclamation of joy; a ray of light seemed to penetrate the abyss of despair and

darkness. He had only to step over the corpse, enter the boudoir, take the child in his arms, and flee far, far

Villefort was no longer the civilized man; he was a tiger hurt unto death, gnashing his teeth in his wound. He

no longer feared realities, but phantoms. He leaped over the corpse as if it had been a burning brazier. He

took the child in his arms, embraced him, shook him, called him, but the child made no response. He pressed

his burning lips to the cheeks, but they were icy cold and pale; he felt the stiffened limbs; he pressed his hand

upon the heart, but it no longer beat, the child was dead. A folded paper fell from Edward's breast.

Villefort, thunderstruck, fell upon his knees; the child dropped from his arms, and rolled on the floor by the

side of its mother. He picked up the paper, and, recognizing his wife's writing, ran his eyes rapidly over its

"You know that I was a good mother, since it was for my son's sake I became criminal. A good mother

Villefort could not believe his eyes, he could not believe his reason; he dragged himself towards the

child's body, and examined it as a lioness contemplates its dead cub. Then a piercing cry escaped from his

breast, and he cried, "Still the hand of God." The presence of the two victims alarmed him; he could not bear

solitude shared only by two corpses. Until then he had been sustained by rage, by his strength of mind, by

despair, by the supreme agony which led the Titans to scale the heavens, and Ajax to defy the gods. He now

arose, his head bowed beneath the weight of grief, and, shaking his damp, dishevelled hair, he who had never

felt compassion for any one determined to seek his father, that he might have some one to whom he could

relate his misfortunes, some one by whose side he might weep. He descended the little staircase with

which we are acquainted, and entered Noirtier's room. The old man appeared to be listening attentively and as

affectionately as his infirmities would allow to the Abbe Busoni, who looked cold and calm, as usual.

Villefort, perceiving the abbe, passed his hand across his brow. He recollected the call he had made upon him

after the dinner at Auteuil, and then the visit the abbe had himself paid to his house on the day of Valentine's

death. "You here, sir!" he exclaimed; "do you, then, never appear but to act as an escort to death?"

Busoni turned around, and, perceiving the excitement depicted on the magistrate's face, the savage lustre of

his eyes, he understood that the revelation had been made at the assizes; but beyond this he was ignorant. "I

"I come to tell you that you have sufficiently repaid your debt, and that from this moment I will pray to God

"Good heavens!" exclaimed Villefort, stepping back fearfully, "surely that is not the voice of the Abbe

"No!" The abbe threw off his wig, shook his head, and his hair, no longer confined, fell in black masses

"It is the face of the Count of Monte Cristo!" exclaimed the procureur, with a haggard expression.

"You heard it for the first time at Marseilles, twentythree years ago, the day of your marriage with

"You are not Busoni? you are not Monte Cristo? Oh, heavens you are, then, some secret, implacable,

and mortal enemy! I must have wronged you in some way at Marseilles. Oh, woe to me!"

"Yes; you are now on the right path," said the count, crossing his arms over his broad chest; "search

"But what have I done to you?" exclaimed Villefort, whose mind was balancing between reason and insanity,

in that cloud which is neither a dream nor reality; "what have I done to you? Tell me, then! Speak!"

"You condemned me to a horrible, tedious death; you killed my father; you deprived me of liberty, of love,

"I am the spectre of a wretch you buried in the dungeons of the Chateau d'If. God gave that spectre the form

of the Count of Monte Cristo when he at length issued from his tomb, enriched him with gold and diamonds,

"You are Edmond Dantes," cried Villefort, seizing the count by the wrist; "then come here!" And up the stairs

he dragged Monte Cristo; who, ignorant of what had happened, followed him in astonishment, foreseeing

some new catastrophe. "There, Edmond Dantes!" he said, pointing to the bodies of his wife and child, "see,

are you well avenged?" Monte Cristo became pale at this horrible sight; he felt that he had passed beyond the

bounds of vengeance, and that he could no longer say, "God is for and with me." With an expression of

indescribable anguish he threw himself upon the body of the child, reopened its eyes, felt its pulse, and then

rushed with him into Valentine's room, of which he doublelocked the door. "My child," cried Villefort, "he

carries away the body of my child! Oh, curses, woe, death to you!" and he tried to follow Monte Cristo; but

as though in a dream he was transfixed to the spot, his eyes glared as though they were starting through

the sockets; he griped the flesh on his chest until his nails were stained with blood; the veins of his temples

swelled and boiled as though they would burst their narrow boundary, and deluge his brain with living fire.

This lasted several minutes, until the frightful overturn of reason was accomplished; then uttering a loud cry

A quarter of an hour afterwards the door of Valentine's room opened, and Monte Cristo reappeared. Pale,

with a dull eye and heavy heart, all the noble features of that face, usually so calm and serene, were overcast

by grief. In his arms he held the child, whom no skill had been able to recall to life. Bending on one knee, he

placed it reverently by the side of its mother, with its head upon her breast. Then, rising, he went out, and

The servant, instead of answering, pointed to the garden. Monte Cristo ran down the steps, and advancing

towards the spot designated beheld Villefort, encircled by his servants, with a spade in his hand, and digging

the earth with fury. "It is not here!" he cried. "It is not here!" And then he moved farther on, and began again

Monte Cristo approached him, and said in a low voice, with an expression almost humble, "Sir, you have

Villefort interrupted him; he had neither listened nor heard. "Oh, I will find it," he cried; "you may pretend he

is not here, but I will find him, though I dig forever!" Monte Cristo drew back in horror. "Oh," he said, "he is

mad!" And as though he feared that the walls of the accursed house would crumble around him, he rushed

into the street, for the first time doubting whether he had the right to do as he had done. "Oh, enough of this,

enough of this," he cried; "let me save the last." On entering his house, he met Morrel, who wandered

about like a ghost awaiting the heavenly mandate for return to the tomb. "Prepare yourself, Maximilian," he

The next day they indeed left, accompanied only by Baptistin. Haidee had taken away Ali, and Bertuccio

The recent event formed the theme of conversation throughout all Paris. Emmanuel and his wife conversed

with natural astonishment in their little apartment in the Rue Meslay upon the three successive, sudden, and

most unexpected catastrophes of Morcerf, Danglars, and Villefort. Maximilian, who was paying them a visit,

listened to their conversation, or rather was present at it, plunged in his accustomed state of apathy. "Indeed,"

said Julie, "might we not almost fancy, Emmanuel, that those people, so rich, so happy but yesterday, had

forgotten in their prosperity that an evil genius like the wicked fairies in Perrault's stories who present

themselves unbidden at a wedding or baptism hovered over them, and appeared all at once to revenge

"What dreadful sufferings!" said Julie, remembering Valentine, but whom, with a delicacy natural to women,

"If the Supreme Being has directed the fatal blow," said Emmanuel, "it must be that he in his great goodness

has perceived nothing in the past lives of these people to merit mitigation of their awful punishment."

"Do you not form a very rash judgment, Emmanuel?" said Julie. "When my father, with a pistol in his hand,

was once on the point of committing suicide, had any one then said, `This man deserves his misery,' would

"Yes; but your father was not allowed to fall. A being was commissioned to arrest the fatal hand of death

Emmanuel had scarcely uttered these words when the sound of the bell was heard, the wellknown signal

given by the porter that a visitor had arrived. Nearly at the same instant the door was opened and the Count of

Monte Cristo appeared on the threshold. The young people uttered a cry of joy, while Maximilian raised his

head, but let it fall again immediately. "Maximilian," said the count, without appearing to notice the different

impressions which his presence produced on the little circle, "I come to seek you."

"Yes," said Monte Cristo; "has it not been agreed that I should take you with me, and did I not tell you

"Oh, count." said Julie, "will you restore him to us cured of his melancholy?" Morrel turned away to

"You perceive, then, that he is not happy?" said the count. "Yes," replied the young woman; "and fear much

"I am ready to accompany you, sir," said Maximilian. "Adieu, my kind friends! Emmanuel Julie

"How farewell?" exclaimed Julie; "do you leave us thus, so suddenly, without any preparations for your

"Needless delays but increase the grief of parting," said Monte Cristo, "and Maximilian has doubtless

"I have a passport, and my clothes are ready packed," said Morrel in his tranquil but mournful manner.

"Good," said Monte Cristo, smiling; "in these prompt arrangements we recognize the order of a

"And you leave us," said Julie, "at a moment's warning? you do not give us a day no, not even an hour

"I am going wherever it may please the count to take me," said Morrel, with a smile full of grief; "I am under

"Maximilian goes with me," said the count, in his kindest and most persuasive manner; "therefore do not

"His carelessness and indifference touch me to the heart," said Julie. "Oh, Maximilian, Maximilian, you are

"Pshaw!" said Monte Cristo, "you will see him return to you gay, smiling, and joyful."

"Before you quit us, count," said Julie, "will you permit us to express to you all that the other day"

"Madame," interrupted the count, taking her two hands in his, "all that you could say in words would never

express what I read in your eyes; the thoughts of your heart are fully understood by mine. Like benefactors in

romances, I should have left you without seeing you again, but that would have been a virtue beyond my

strength, because I am a weak and vain man, fond of the tender, kind, and thankful glances of my

fellowcreatures. On the eve of departure I carry my egotism so far as to say, `Do not forget me, my kind

"Never see you again?" exclaimed Emmanuel, while two large tears rolled down Julie's cheeks, "never

behold you again? It is not a man, then, but some angel that leaves us, and this angel is on the point of

"Say not so," quickly returned Monte Cristo "say not so, my friends; angels never err, celestial beings

remain where they wish to be. Fate is not more powerful than they; it is they who, on the contrary, overcome

fate. No, Emmanuel, I am but a man, and your admiration is as unmerited as your words are sacrilegious."

And pressing his lips on the hand of Julie, who rushed into his arms, he extended his other hand to

Emmanuel; then tearing himself from this abode of peace and happiness, he made a sign to Maximilian, who

followed him passively, with the indifference which had been perceptible in him ever since the death of

Valentine had so stunned him. "Restore my brother to peace and happiness," whispered Julie to Monte Cristo.

And the count pressed her hand in reply, as he had done eleven years before on the staircase leading to

"Well, then, sleep in peace, and put your trust in heaven." As we have before said, the postchaise was

waiting; four powerful horses were already pawing the ground with impatience, while Ali, apparently just

arrived from a long walk, was standing at the foot of the steps, his face bathed in perspiration. "Well," asked

the count in Arabic, "have you been to see the old man?" Ali made a sign in the affirmative.

The slave respectfully signalized that he had. "And what did he say, or rather do?" Ali placed himself in the

light, so that his master might see him distinctly, and then imitating in his intelligent manner the countenance

of the old man, he closed his eyes, as Noirtier was in the custom of doing when saying "Yes."

These words had scarcely escaped him, when the carriage was on its way, and the feet of the horses struck a

shower of sparks from the pavement. Maximilian settled himself in his corner without uttering a word. Half

an hour had passed when the carriage stopped suddenly; the count had just pulled the silken checkstring,

which was fastened to Ali's finger. The Nubian immediately descended and opened the carriage door. It was a

lovely starlight night they had just reached the top of the hill Villejuif, from whence Paris appears like a

sombre sea tossing its millions of phosphoric waves into light waves indeed more noisy, more passionate,

more changeable, more furious, more greedy, than those of the tempestuous ocean, waves which never

rest as those of the sea sometimes do, waves ever dashing, ever foaming, ever ingulfing what falls within

their grasp. The count stood alone, and at a sign from his hand, the carriage went on for a short distance. With

folded arms, he gazed for some time upon the great city. When he had fixed his piercing look on this modern

Babylon, which equally engages the contemplation of the religious enthusiast, the materialist, and the scoffer,

"Great city," murmured he, inclining his head, and joining his hands as if in prayer, "less than six months

have elapsed since first I entered thy gates. I believe that the Spirit of God led my steps to thee and that he

also enables me to quit thee in triumph; the secret cause of my presence within thy walls I have confided

alone to him who only has had the power to read my heart. God only knows that I retire from thee without

pride or hatred, but not without many regrets; he only knows that the power confided to me has never been

made subservient to my personal good or to any useless cause. Oh, great city, it is in thy palpitating bosom

that I have found that which I sought; like a patient miner, I have dug deep into thy very entrails to root out

evil thence. Now my work is accomplished, my mission is terminated, now thou canst neither afford me pain

His look wandered over the vast plain like that of some genius of the night; he passed his hand over his brow,

got into the carriage, the door was closed on him, and the vehicle quickly disappeared down the other side of

"If I thought happiness might await you in Paris, Morrel, I would have left you there."

"Valentine reposes within the walls of Paris, and to leave Paris is like losing her a second time."

"Maximilian," said the count, "the friends that we have lost do not repose in the bosom of the earth, but are

buried deep in our hearts, and it has been thus ordained that we may always be accompanied by them. I have

two friends, who in this way never depart from me; the one who gave me being, and the other who conferred

knowledge and intelligence on me. Their spirits live in me. I consult them when doubtful, and if I ever do any

good, it is due to their beneficent counsels. Listen to the voice of your heart, Morrel, and ask it whether you

"My friend," said Maximilian, "the voice of my heart is very sorrowful, and promises me nothing but

"It is the way of weakened minds to see everything through a black cloud. The soul forms its own horizons;

your soul is darkened, and consequently the sky of the future appears stormy and unpromising."

"That may possibly be true," said Maximilian, and he again subsided into his thoughtful mood.

The journey was performed with that marvellous rapidity which the unlimited power of the count ever

commanded. Towns fled from them like shadows on their path, and trees shaken by the first winds of autumn

seemed like giants madly rushing on to meet them, and retreating as rapidly when once reached. The

following morning they arrived at Chalons, where the count's steamboat waited for them. Without the loss of

an instant, the carriage was placed on board and the two travellers embarked without delay. The boat was

built for speed; her two paddlewheels were like two wings with which she skimmed the water like a bird.

Morrel was not insensible to that sensation of delight which is generally experienced in passing rapidly

through the air, and the wind which occasionally raised the hair from his forehead seemed on the point of

As the distance increased between the travellers and Paris, almost superhuman serenity appeared to surround

the count; he might have been taken for an exile about to revisit his native land. Ere long Marseilles presented

herself to view, Marseilles, white, fervid, full of life and energy, Marseilles, the younger sister of Tyre

and Carthage, the successor to them in the empire of the Mediterranean, Marseilles, old, yet always

young. Powerful memories were stirred within them by the sight of the round tower, Fort SaintNicolas, the

City Hall designed by Puget,* the port with its brick quays, where they had both played in childhood, and it

was with one accord that they stopped on the Cannebiere. A vessel was setting sail for Algiers, on board of

which the bustle usually attending departure prevailed. The passengers and their relations crowded on the

deck, friends taking a tender but sorrowful leave of each other, some weeping, others noisy in their grief, the

whole forming a spectacle that might be exciting even to those who witnessed similar sights daily, but which

had no power to disturb the current of thought that had taken possession of the mind of Maximilian from the

"Here," said he, leaning heavily on the arm of Monte Cristo, "here is the spot where my father stopped,

when the Pharaon entered the port; it was here that the good old man, whom you saved from death and

dishonor, threw himself into my arms. I yet feel his warm tears on my face, and his were not the only tears

shed, for many who witnessed our meeting wept also." Monte Cristo gently smiled and said, "I was

there;" at the same time pointing to the corner of a street. As he spoke, and in the very direction he indicated,

a groan, expressive of bitter grief, was heard, and a woman was seen waving her hand to a passenger on

board the vessel about to sail. Monte Cristo looked at her with an emotion that must have been remarked by

"Oh, heavens!" exclaimed Morrel, "I do not deceive myself that young man who is waving his hat, that

"How so? you were looking the other way." the count smiled, as he was in the habit of doing when he did

not want to make any reply, and he again turned towards the veiled woman, who soon disappeared at the

corner of the street. Turning to his friend, "Dear Maximilian," said the count, "have you nothing to do in

Morrel allowed his hand to fall into that which the count extended to him; then with an inexpressibly

sorrowful inclination of the head he quitted the count and bent his steps to the east of the city. Monte Cristo

remained on the same spot until Maximilian was out of sight; he then walked slowly towards the Allees de

Meillan to seek out a small house with which our readers were made familiar at the beginning of this story. It

yet stood, under the shade of the fine avenue of limetrees, which forms one of the most frequent walks of

the idlers of Marseilles, covered by an immense vine, which spreads its aged and blackened branches over the

stone front, burnt yellow by the ardent sun of the south. Two stone steps worn away by the friction of many

feet led to the door, which was made of three planks; the door had never been painted or varnished, so great

cracks yawned in it during the dry season to close again when the rains came on. The house, with all its

crumbling antiquity and apparent misery, was yet cheerful and picturesque, and was the same that old Dantes

formerly inhabited the only difference being that the old man occupied merely the garret, while the whole

The woman whom the count had seen leave the ship with so much regret entered this house; she had scarcely

closed the door after her when Monte Cristo appeared at the corner of a street, so that he found and lost her

again almost at the same instant. The worn out steps were old acquaintances of his; he knew better than any

one else how to open that weatherbeaten door with the large headed nail which served to raise the latch

within. He entered without knocking, or giving any other intimation of his presence, as if he had been a friend

or the master of the place. At the end of a passage paved with bricks, was a little garden, bathed in sunshine,

and rich in warmth and light. In this garden Mercedes had found, at the place indicated by the count, the sum

of money which he, through a sense of delicacy, had described as having been placed there twentyfour years

previously. The trees of the garden were easily seen from the steps of the streetdoor. Monte Cristo, on

stepping into the house, heard a sigh that was almost a deep sob; he looked in the direction whence it came,

and there under an arbor of Virginia jessamine,* with its thick foliage and beautiful long purple flowers, he

saw Mercedes seated, with her head bowed, and weeping bitterly. She had raised her veil, and with her face

hidden by her hands was giving free scope to the sighs and tears which had been so long restrained by the

presence of her son. Monte Cristo advanced a few steps, which were heard on the gravel. Mercedes raised her

* The Carolina not Virginia jessamine, gelsemium sempervirens (properly speaking not a jessamine at

all) has yellow blossoms. The reference is no doubt to the Wistaria frutescens. Ed.

"Madame," said the count, "it is no longer in my power to restore you to happiness, but I offer you

"I am, indeed, most wretched," replied Mercedes. "Alone in the world, I had but my son, and he has left me!"

"He possesses a noble heart, madame," replied the count, "and he has acted rightly. He feels that every man

owes a tribute to his country; some contribute their talents, others their industry; these devote their blood,

those their nightly labors, to the same cause. Had he remained with you, his life must have become a hateful

burden, nor would he have participated in your griefs. He will increase in strength and honor by struggling

with adversity, which he will convert into prosperity. Leave him to build up the future for you, and I venture

"Oh," replied the wretched woman, mournfully shaking her head, "the prosperity of which you speak, and

which, from the bottom of my heart, I pray God in his mercy to grant him, I can never enjoy. The bitter cup

of adversity has been drained by me to the very dregs, and I feel that the grave is not far distant. You have

acted kindly, count, in bringing me back to the place where I have enjoyed so much bliss. I ought to meet

"Alas," said Monte Cristo, "your words sear and embitter my heart, the more so as you have every reason to

hate me. I have been the cause of all your misfortunes; but why do you pity, instead of blaming me? You

"Hate you, blame you you, Edmond! Hate, reproach, the man that has spared my son's life! For was it not

your fatal and sanguinary intention to destroy that son of whom M. de Morcerf was so proud? Oh, look at me

closely, and discover if you can even the semblance of a reproach in me." The count looked up and fixed his

eyes on Mercedes, who arose partly from her seat and extended both her hands towards him. "Oh, look at

me," continued she, with a feeling of profound melancholy, "my eyes no longer dazzle by their brilliancy, for

the time has long fled since I used to smile on Edmond Dantes, who anxiously looked out for me from the

window of yonder garret, then inhabited by his old father. Years of grief have created an abyss between those

days and the present. I neither reproach you nor hate you, my friend. Oh, no, Edmond, it is myself that I

blame, myself that I hate! Oh, miserable creature that I am!" cried she, clasping her hands, and raising her

eyes to heaven. "I once possessed piety, innocence, and love, the three ingredients of the happiness of angels,

and now what am I?" Monte Cristo approached her, and silently took her hand. "No," said she, withdrawing it

gently "no, my friend, touch me not. You have spared me, yet of all those who have fallen under your

vengeance I was the most guilty. They were influenced by hatred, by avarice, and by selflove; but I was

base, and for want of courage acted against my judgment. Nay, do not press my hand, Edmond; you are

thinking, I am sure, of some kind speech to console me, but do not utter it to me, reserve it for others more

worthy of your kindness. See" (and she exposed her face completely to view) "see, misfortune has

silvered my hair, my eyes have shed so many tears that they are encircled by a rim of purple, and my brow is

wrinkled. You, Edmond, on the contrary, you are still young, handsome, dignified; it is because you have

had faith; because you have had strength, because you have had trust in God, and God has sustained you. But

Mercedes burst into tears; her woman's heart was breaking under its load of memories. Monte Cristo took her

hand and imprinted a kiss on it; but she herself felt that it was a kiss of no greater warmth than he would have

bestowed on the hand of some marble statue of a saint. "It often happens," continued she, "that a first fault

destroys the prospects of a whole life. I believed you dead; why did I survive you? What good has it done me

to mourn for you eternally in the secret recesses of my heart? only to make a woman of thirtynine look

like a woman of fifty. Why, having recognized you, and I the only one to do so why was I able to save my

son alone? Ought I not also to have rescued the man that I had accepted for a husband, guilty though he

were? Yet I let him die! What do I say? Oh, merciful heavens, was I not accessory to his death by my supine

insensibility, by my contempt for him, not remembering, or not willing to remember, that it was for my sake

he had become a traitor and a perjurer? In what am I benefited by accompanying my son so far, since I now

abandon him, and allow him to depart alone to the baneful climate of Africa? Oh, I have been base, cowardly,

I tell you; I have abjured my affections, and like all renegades I am of evil omen to those who surround me!"

"No, Mercedes," said Monte Cristo, "no; you judge yourself with too much severity. You are a nobleminded

woman, and it was your grief that disarmed me. Still I was but an agent, led on by an invisible and offended

Deity, who chose not to withhold the fatal blow that I was destined to hurl. I take that God to witness, at

whose feet I have prostrated myself daily for the last ten years, that I would have sacrificed my life to you,

and with my life the projects that were indissolubly linked with it. But and I say it with some pride,

Mercedes God needed me, and I lived. Examine the past and the present, and endeavor to dive into

futurity, and then say whether I am not a divine instrument. The most dreadful misfortunes, the most frightful

sufferings, the abandonment of all those who loved me, the persecution of those who did not know me,

formed the trials of my youth; when suddenly, from captivity, solitude, misery, I was restored to light and

liberty, and became the possessor of a fortune so brilliant, so unbounded, so unheardof, that I must have

been blind not to be conscious that God had endowed me with it to work out his own great designs. From that

time I looked upon this fortune as something confided to me for an especial purpose. Not a thought was given

to a life which you once, Mercedes, had the power to render blissful; not one hour of peaceful calm was

mine; but I felt myself driven on like an exterminating angel. Like adventurous captains about to embark on

some enterprise full of danger, I laid in my provisions, I loaded my weapons, I collected every means of

attack and defence; I inured my body to the most violent exercises, my soul to the bitterest trials; I taught my

arm to slay, my eyes to behold excruciating sufferings, and my mouth to smile at the most horrid spectacles.

Goodnatured, confiding, and forgiving as I had been, I became revengeful, cunning, and wicked, or rather,

immovable as fate. Then I launched out into the path that was opened to me. I overcame every obstacle, and

"Enough," said Mercedes; "enough, Edmond! Believe me, that she who alone recognized you has been the

only one to comprehend you; and had she crossed your path, and you had crushed her like glass, still,

Edmond, still she must have admired you! Like the gulf between me and the past, there is an abyss between

you, Edmond, and the rest of mankind; and I tell you freely that the comparison I draw between you and

other men will ever be one of my greatest tortures. No, there is nothing in the world to resemble you in worth

"Pray to the Almighty to spare his life, and I will take upon myself to promote his happiness."

"For myself I want nothing. I live, as it were, between two graves. One is that of Edmond Dantes, lost to me

long, long since. He had my love! That word ill becomes my faded lip now, but it is a memory dear to my

heart, and one that I would not lose for all that the world contains. The other grave is that of the man who met

his death from the hand of Edmond Dantes. I approve of the deed, but I must pray for the dead."

"To say that I shall live here, like the Mercedes of other times, gaining my bread by labor, would not be true,

nor would you believe me. I have no longer the strength to do anything but to spend my days in prayer.

However, I shall have no occasion to work, for the little sum of money buried by you, and which I found in

the place you mentioned, will be sufficient to maintain me. Rumor will probably be busy respecting me, my

"Mercedes," said the count, "I do not say it to blame you, but you made an unnecessary sacrifice in

relinquishing the whole of the fortune amassed by M. de Morcerf; half of it at least by right belonged to you,

"I perceive what you are intending to propose to me; but I cannot accept it, Edmond my son would not

"Nothing shall be done without the full approbation of Albert de Morcerf. I will make myself acquainted with

his intentions and will submit to them. But if he be willing to accept my offers, will you oppose them?"

"You well know, Edmond, that I am no longer a reasoning creature; I have no will, unless it be the will never

to decide. I have been so overwhelmed by the many storms that have broken over my head, that I am become

passive in the hands of the Almighty, like a sparrow in the talons of an eagle. I live, because it is not ordained

"Ah, madame," said Monte Cristo, "you should not talk thus! It is not so we should evince our resignation to

"Alas!" exclaimed Mercedes, "if it were so, if I possessed freewill, but without the power to render that will

efficacious, it would drive me to despair." Monte Cristo dropped his head and shrank from the vehemence of

"On the contrary, we shall meet again," said Mercedes, pointing to heaven with solemnity. "I tell you so to

prove to you that I still hope." And after pressing her own trembling hand upon that of the count, Mercedes

rushed up the stairs and disappeared. Monte Cristo slowly left the house and turned towards the quay. But

Mercedes did not witness his departure, although she was seated at the little window of the room which had

been occupied by old Dantes. Her eyes were straining to see the ship which was carrying her son over the

vast sea; but still her voice involuntarily murmured softly, "Edmond, Edmond, Edmond!"

The count departed with a sad heart from the house in which he had left Mercedes, probably never to behold

her again. Since the death of little Edward a great change had taken place in Monte Cristo. Having reached

the summit of his vengeance by a long and tortuous path, he saw an abyss of doubt yawning before him.

More than this, the conversation which had just taken place between Mercedes and himself had awakened so

many recollections in his heart that he felt it necessary to combat with them. A man of the count's

temperament could not long indulge in that melancholy which can exist in common minds, but which

destroys superior ones. He thought he must have made an error in his calculations if he now found cause to

"I cannot have deceived myself," he said; "I must look upon the past in a false light. What!" he continued,

"can I have been following a false path? can the end which I proposed be a mistaken end? can one

hour have sufficed to prove to an architect that the work upon which he founded all his hopes was an

impossible, if not a sacrilegious, undertaking? I cannot reconcile myself to this idea it would madden me.

The reason why I am now dissatisfied is that I have not a clear appreciation of the past. The past, like the

country through which we walk, becomes indistinct as we advance. My position is like that of a person

wounded in a dream; he feels the wound, though he cannot recollect when he received it. Come, then, thou

regenerate man, thou extravagant prodigal, thou awakened sleeper, thou allpowerful visionary, thou

invincible millionaire, once again review thy past life of starvation and wretchedness, revisit the scenes

where fate and misfortune conducted, and where despair received thee. Too many diamonds, too much gold

and splendor, are now reflected by the mirror in which Monte Cristo seeks to behold Dantes. Hide thy

diamonds, bury thy gold, shroud thy splendor, exchange riches for poverty, liberty for a prison, a living body

for a corpse!" As he thus reasoned, Monte Cristo walked down the Rue de la Caisserie. It was the same

through which, twentyfour years ago, he had been conducted by a silent and nocturnal guard; the houses,

today so smiling and animated, were on that night dark, mute, and closed. "And yet they were the same,"

murmured Monte Cristo, "only now it is broad daylight instead of night; it is the sun which brightens the

He proceeded towards the quay by the Rue SaintLaurent, and advanced to the Consigne; it was the point

where he had embarked. A pleasureboat with striped awning was going by. Monte Cristo called the owner,

who immediately rowed up to him with the eagerness of a boatman hoping for a good fare. The weather was

The sun, red and flaming, was sinking into the embrace of the welcoming ocean. The sea, smooth as crystal,

was now and then disturbed by the leaping of fish, which were pursued by some unseen enemy and sought

for safety in another element; while on the extreme verge of the horizon might be seen the fishermen's boats,

white and graceful as the seagull, or the merchant vessels bound for Corsica or Spain.

But notwithstanding the serene sky, the gracefully formed boats, and the golden light in which the whole

scene was bathed, the Count of Monte Cristo, wrapped in his cloak, could think only of this terrible voyage,

the details of which were one by one recalled to his memory. The solitary light burning at the Catalans; that

first sight of the Chateau d'If, which told him whither they were leading him; the struggle with the gendarmes

when he wished to throw himself overboard; his despair when he found himself vanquished, and the

sensation when the muzzle of the carbine touched his forehead all these were brought before him in vivid

and frightful reality. Like the streams which the heat of the summer has dried up, and which after the

autumnal storms gradually begin oozing drop by drop, so did the count feel his heart gradually fill with the

bitterness which formerly nearly overwhelmed Edmond Dantes. Clear sky, swiftflitting boats, and brilliant

sunshine disappeared; the heavens were hung with black, and the gigantic structure of the Chateau d'If

seemed like the phantom of a mortal enemy. As they reached the shore, the count instinctively shrunk to the

extreme end of the boat, and the owner was obliged to call out, in his sweetest tone of voice, "Sir, we are at

Monte Cristo remembered that on that very spot, on the same rock, he had been violently dragged by the

guards, who forced him to ascend the slope at the points of their bayonets. The journey had seemed very long

to Dantes, but Monte Cristo found it equally short. Each stroke of the oar seemed to awaken a new throng of

There had been no prisoners confined in the Chateau d'If since the revolution of July; it was only inhabited by

a guard, kept there for the prevention of smuggling. A concierge waited at the door to exhibit to visitors this

monument of curiosity, once a scene of terror. The count inquired whether any of the ancient jailers were still

there; but they had all been pensioned, or had passed on to some other employment. The concierge who

attended him had only been there since 1830. He visited his own dungeon. He again beheld the dull light

vainly endeavoring to penetrate the narrow opening. His eyes rested upon the spot where had stood his bed,

since then removed, and behind the bed the new stones indicated where the breach made by the Abbe Faria

had been. Monte Cristo felt his limbs tremble; he seated himself upon a log of wood.

"Are there any stories connected with this prison besides the one relating to the poisoning of Mirabeau?"

asked the count; "are there any traditions respecting these dismal abodes, in which it is difficult to believe

"Yes, sir; indeed, the jailer Antoine told me one connected with this very dungeon."

Monte Cristo shuddered; Antoine had been his jailer. He had almost forgotten his name and face, but at the

mention of the name he recalled his person as he used to see it, the face encircled by a beard, wearing the

brown jacket, the bunch of keys, the jingling of which he still seemed to hear. The count turned around, and

fancied he saw him in the corridor, rendered still darker by the torch carried by the concierge. "Would you

"Yes; relate it," said Monte Cristo, pressing his hand to his heart to still its violent beatings; he felt afraid of

"This dungeon," said the concierge, "was, it appears, some time ago occupied by a very dangerous prisoner,

the more so since he was full of industry. Another person was confined in the Chateau at the same time, but

Monte Cristo raised his eyes, but he could not see the heavens; there was a stone veil between him and the

firmament. He thought that there had been no less thick a veil before the eyes of those to whom Faria offered

"Oh, no, sir, it was expressly forbidden; but they eluded the vigilance of the guards, and made a passage from

"Oh, it must have been the young man, certainly, for he was strong and industrious, while the abbe was aged

and weak; besides, his mind was too vacillating to allow him to carry out an idea."

"However, be that as it may, the young man made a tunnel, how or by what means no one knows; but he

made it, and there is the evidence yet remaining of his work. Do you see it?" and the man held the torch to the

"The result was that the two men communicated with one another; how long they did so, nobody knows. One

"He carried off the corpse, which he placed in his own bed with its face to the wall; then he entered the empty

dungeon, closed the entrance, and slipped into the sack which had contained the dead body. Did you ever

hear of such an idea?" Monte Cristo closed his eyes, and seemed again to experience all the sensations he had

felt when the coarse canvas, yet moist with the cold dews of death, had touched his face. The jailer continued:

"Now this was his project. He fancied that they buried the dead at the Chateau d'If, and imagining they would

not expend much labor on the grave of a prisoner, he calculated on raising the earth with his shoulders, but

unfortunately their arrangements at the Chateau frustrated his projects. They never buried the dead; they

merely attached a heavy cannonball to the feet, and then threw them into the sea. This is what was done.

The young man was thrown from the top of the rock; the corpse was found on the bed next day, and the

whole truth was guessed, for the men who performed the office then mentioned what they had not dared to

speak of before, that at the moment the corpse was thrown into the deep, they heard a shriek, which was

almost immediately stifled by the water in which it disappeared." The count breathed with difficulty; the cold

"No," he muttered, "the doubt I felt was but the commencement of forgetfulness; but here the wound reopens,

and the heart again thirsts for vengeance. And the prisoner," he continued aloud, "was he ever heard of

"Oh, no; of course not. You can understand that one of two things must have happened; he must either have

fallen flat, in which case the blow, from a height of ninety feet, must have killed him instantly, or he must

have fallen upright, and then the weight would have dragged him to the bottom, where he remained poor

"The report was that he had been a naval officer, who had been confined for plotting with the Bonapartists."

"Great is truth," muttered the count, "fire cannot burn, nor water drown it! Thus the poor sailor lives in the

recollection of those who narrate his history; his terrible story is recited in the chimneycorner, and a shudder

is felt at the description of his transit through the air to be swallowed by the deep." Then, the count added

"Oh, Villefort, Villefort," murmured the count, "this scene must often have haunted thy sleepless hours!"

"Yes; No. 27." repeated the count, who seemed to hear the voice of the abbe answering him in those very

"Why, you are like No. 34. They said he was so accustomed to darkness that he could see a pin in the darkest

The guide carried away the torch. The count had spoken correctly. Scarcely had a few seconds elapsed, ere he

saw everything as distinctly as by daylight. Then he looked around him, and really recognized his dungeon.

"Yes," he said, "there is the stone upon which I used to sit; there is the impression made by my shoulders on

the wall; there is the mark of my blood made when one day I dashed my head against the wall. Oh, those

figures, how well I remember them! I made them one day to calculate the age of my father, that I might know

whether I should find him still living, and that of Mercedes, to know if I should find her still free. After

finishing that calculation, I had a minute's hope. I did not reckon upon hunger and infidelity!" and a bitter

laugh escaped the count. He saw in fancy the burial of his father, and the marriage of Mercedes. On the other

side of the dungeon he perceived an inscription, the white letters of which were still visible on the green wall.

"`O God,'" he read, "`preserve my memory!' Oh, yes," he cried, "that was my only prayer at last; I no longer

begged for liberty, but memory; I dreaded to become mad and forgetful. O God, thou hast preserved my

memory; I thank thee, I thank thee!" At this moment the light of the torch was reflected on the wall; the guide

"Follow me, sir;" and without ascending the stairs the guide conducted him by a subterraneous passage to

another entrance. There, again, Monte Cristo was assailed by a multitude of thoughts. The first thing that met

his eye was the meridian, drawn by the abbe on the wall, by which he calculated the time; then he saw the

remains of the bed on which the poor prisoner had died. The sight of this, instead of exciting the anguish

experienced by the count in the dungeon, filled his heart with a soft and grateful sentiment, and tears fell from

"This is where the mad abbe was kept, sir, and that is where the young man entered; "and the guide pointed to

the opening, which had remained unclosed. "From the appearance of the stone," he continued, "a learned

gentleman discovered that the prisoners might have communicated together for ten years. Poor things! Those

Dantes took some louis from his pocket, and gave them to the man who had twice unconsciously pitied him.

The guide took them, thinking them merely a few pieces of little value; but the light of the torch revealed

their true worth. "Sir," he said, "you have made a mistake; you have given me gold."

"I know it." The concierge looked upon the count with surprise. "Sir," he cried, scarcely able to believe his

"Oh, it is very simple, my good fellow; I have been a sailor, and your story touched me more than it would

"Listen," said the guide; "I said to myself, `Something is always left in a cell inhabited by one prisoner for

"After some search, I found that the floor gave a hollow sound near the head of the bed, and at the hearth."

"I do not know I only guess it, because that sort of thing is generally found in prisoners' cells."

"No, sir; I sold them to visitors, who considered them great curiosities; but I have still something left."

"I will run for it, sir;" and the guide went out. Then the count knelt down by the side of the bed, which death

had converted into an altar. "Oh, second father," he exclaimed, "thou who hast given me liberty, knowledge,

riches; thou who, like beings of a superior order to ourselves, couldst understand the science of good and evil;

if in the depths of the tomb there still remain something within us which can respond to the voice of those

who are left on earth; if after death the soul ever revisit the places where we have lived and suffered, then,

noble heart, sublime soul, then I conjure thee by the paternal love thou didst bear me, by the filial obedience I

vowed to thee, grant me some sign, some revelation! Remove from me the remains of doubt, which, if it

change not to conviction, must become remorse!" The count bowed his head, and clasped his hands together.

Monte Cristo shuddered, and arose. The concierge held out the strips of cloth upon which the Abbe Faria had

spread the riches of his mind. The manuscript was the great work by the Abbe Faria upon the kingdoms of

Italy. The count seized it hastily, his eyes immediately fell upon the epigraph, and he read, "`Thou shalt tear

out the dragons' teeth, and shall trample the lions under foot, saith the Lord.'"

"Ah," he exclaimed, "here is my answer. Thanks, father, thanks." And feeling in his pocket, he took thence a

"Yes; but only on condition that you will not open it till I am gone;" and placing in his breast the treasure he

had just found, which was more valuable to him than the richest jewel, he rushed out of the corridor, and

reaching his boat, cried, "To Marseilles!" Then, as he departed, he fixed his eyes upon the gloomy prison.

"Woe," he cried, "to those who confined me in that wretched prison; and woe to those who forgot that I was

there!" As he repassed the Catalans, the count turned around and burying his head in his cloak murmured the

name of a woman. The victory was complete; twice he had overcome his doubts. The name he pronounced, in

On landing, the count turned towards the cemetery, where he felt sure of finding Morrel. He, too, ten years

ago, had piously sought out a tomb, and sought it vainly. He, who returned to France with millions, had been

unable to find the grave of his father, who had perished from hunger. Morrel had indeed placed a cross over

the spot, but it had fallen down and the gravedigger had burnt it, as he did all the old wood in the

churchyard. The worthy merchant had been more fortunate. Dying in the arms of his children, he had been by

them laid by the side of his wife, who had preceded him in eternity by two years. Two large slabs of marble,

on which were inscribed their names, were placed on either side of a little enclosure, railed in, and shaded by

four cypresstrees. Morrel was leaning against one of these, mechanically fixing his eyes on the graves. His

grief was so profound that he was nearly unconscious. "Maximilian," said the count, "you should not look on

"The dead are everywhere," said Morrel; "did you not yourself tell me so as we left Paris?"

"Maximilian," said the count, "you asked me during the journey to allow you to remain some days at

"I have no wishes, count; only I fancy I could pass the time less painfully here than anywhere else."

"So much the better, for I must leave you; but I carry your word with me, do I not?"

"No, you will not forget it, because you are a man of honor, Morrel, because you have taken an oath, and are

"Alas," said Monte Cristo, "it is the infirmity of our nature always to believe ourselves much more unhappy

"What can be more wretched than the man who has lost all he loved and desired in the world?"

"Listen, Morrel, and pay attention to what I am about to tell you. I knew a man who like you had fixed all his

hopes of happiness upon a woman. He was young, he had an old father whom he loved, a betrothed bride

whom he adored. He was about to marry her, when one of the caprices of fate, which would almost make

us doubt the goodness of providence, if that providence did not afterwards reveal itself by proving that all is

but a means of conducting to an end, one of those caprices deprived him of his mistress, of the future of

which he had dreamed (for in his blindness he forgot he could only read the present), and cast him into a

"He remained there fourteen years, Morrel," said the count, placing his hand on the young man's shoulder.

"Fourteen years!" he muttered "Fourteen years!" repeated the count. "During that time he had many

moments of despair. He also, Morrel, like you, considered himself the unhappiest of men."

"Well, at the height of his despair God assisted him through human means. At first, perhaps, he did not

recognize the infinite mercy of the Lord, but at last he took patience and waited. One day he miraculously left

the prison, transformed, rich, powerful. His first cry was for his father; but that father was dead."

"Yes; but your father died in your arms, happy, respected, rich, and full of years; his father died poor,

despairing, almost doubtful of providence; and when his son sought his grave ten years afterwards, his tomb

had disappeared, and no one could say, `There sleeps the father you so well loved.'"

"He was, then, a more unhappy son than you, Morrel, for he could not even find his father's grave."

"Worse than that, she was faithless, and had married one of the persecutors of her betrothed. You see, then,

"You have my promise," he said, after a minute's pause, extending his hand to Monte Cristo. "Only

"On the 5th of October, Morrel, I shall expect you at the Island of Monte Cristo. On the 4th a yacht will wait

for you in the port of Bastia, it will be called the Eurus. You will give your name to the captain, who will

"Child," replied the count, "not to know the value of a man's word! I have told you twenty times that if you

"Yes; I have business in Italy. I leave you alone with your misfortunes, and with hope, Maximilian."

"Immediately; the steamer waits, and in an hour I shall be far from you. Will you accompany me to the

"I am entirely yours, count." Morrel accompanied the count to the harbor. The white steam was ascending

like a plume of feathers from the black chimney. The steamer soon disappeared, and in an hour afterwards, as

the count had said, was scarcely distinguishable in the horizon amidst the fogs of the night.

At the same time that the steamer disappeared behind Cape Morgion, a man travelling post on the road from

Florence to Rome had just passed the little town of Aquapendente. He was travelling fast enough to cover a

great deal of ground without exciting suspicion. This man was dressed in a greatcoat, or rather a surtout, a

little worse for the journey, but which exhibited the ribbon of the Legion of Honor still fresh and brilliant, a

decoration which also ornamented the under coat. He might be recognized, not only by these signs, but also

from the accent with which he spoke to the postilion, as a Frenchman. Another proof that he was a native of

the universal country was apparent in the fact of his knowing no other Italian words than the terms used in

music, and which like the "goddam" of Figaro, served all possible linguistic requirements. "Allegro!" he

called out to the postilions at every ascent. "Moderato!" he cried as they descended. And heaven knows there

are hills enough between Rome and Florence by the way of Aquapendente! These two words greatly amused

the men to whom they were addressed. On reaching La Storta, the point from whence Rome is first visible,

the traveller evinced none of the enthusiastic curiosity which usually leads strangers to stand up and endeavor

to catch sight of the dome of St. Peter's, which may be seen long before any other object is distinguishable.

No, he merely drew a pocketbook from his pocket, and took from it a paper folded in four, and after having

The carriage entered by the Porto del Popolo, turned to the left, and stopped at the Hotel d'Espagne. Old

Pastrini, our former acquaintance, received the traveller at the door, hat in hand. The traveller alighted,

ordered a good dinner, and inquired the address of the house of Thomson French, which was immediately

given to him, as it was one of the most celebrated in Rome. It was situated in the Via dei Banchi, near St.

Peter's. In Rome, as everywhere else, the arrival of a postchaise is an event. Ten young descendants of

Marius and the Gracchi, barefooted and out at elbows, with one hand resting on the hip and the other

gracefully curved above the head, stared at the traveller, the postchaise, and the horses; to these were added

about fifty little vagabonds from the Papal States, who earned a pittance by diving into the Tiber at high

water from the bridge of St. Angelo. Now, as these street Arabs of Rome, more fortunate than those of Paris,

understand every language, more especially the French, they heard the traveller order an apartment, a dinner,

and finally inquire the way to the house of Thomson French. The result was that when the newcomer left the

hotel with the cicerone, a man detached himself from the rest of the idlers, and without having been seen by

the traveller, and appearing to excite no attention from the guide, followed the stranger with as much skill as

The Frenchman had been so impatient to reach the house of Thomson French that he would not wait for the

horses to be harnessed, but left word for the carriage to overtake him on the road, or to wait for him at the

bankers' door. He reached it before the carriage arrived. The Frenchman entered, leaving in the anteroom his

guide, who immediately entered into conversation with two or three of the industrious idlers who are always

to be found in Rome at the doors of bankinghouses, churches, museums, or theatres. With the Frenchman,

the man who had followed him entered too; the Frenchman knocked at the inner door, and entered the first

An attendant arose at a sign from a confidential clerk at the first desk. "Whom shall I announce?" said the

"Follow me," said the man. A door opened, through which the attendant and the baron disappeared. The man

who had followed Danglars sat down on a bench. The clerk continued to write for the next five minutes; the

man preserved profound silence, and remained perfectly motionless. Then the pen of the clerk ceased to

move over the paper; he raised his head, and appearing to be perfectly sure of privacy, "Ah, ha," he said,

"Yes," was the laconic reply. "You have found out that there is something worth having about this large

"What do you mean? of whom do you speak? Was it the Englishman who carried off 3,000 crowns from

"No; he really had 3,000 crowns, and we found them. I mean the Russian prince, who you said had 30,000

"Indeed? But you must let me make my observations, or the Frenchman will transact his business without my

knowing the sum." Peppino nodded, and taking a rosary from his pocket began to mutter a few prayers while

the clerk disappeared through the same door by which Danglars and the attendant had gone out. At the

expiration of ten minutes the clerk returned with a beaming countenance. "Well?" asked Peppino of his

"Hush here is our man!" The clerk seized his pen, and Peppino his beads; one was writing and the other

praying when the door opened. Danglars looked radiant with joy; the banker accompanied him to the door.

According to the arrangements, the carriage was waiting at the door. The guide held the door open. Guides

are useful people, who will turn their hands to anything. Danglars leaped into the carriage like a young man

of twenty. The cicerone reclosed the door, and sprang up by the side of the coachman. Peppino mounted the

"I did not come to Rome to see," said Danglars aloud; then he added softly, with an avaricious smile, "I came

"Casa Pastrini!" said the cicerone to the coachman, and the carriage drove rapidly on. Ten minutes afterwards

the baron entered his apartment, and Peppino stationed himself on the bench outside the door of the hotel,

after having whispered something in the ear of one of the descendants of Marius and the Gracchi whom we

noticed at the beginning of the chapter, who immediately ran down the road leading to the Capitol at his

fullest speed. Danglars was tired and sleepy; he therefore went to bed, placing his pocketbook under his

pillow. Peppino had a little spare time, so he had a game of mora with the facchini, lost three crowns, and

The next morning Danglars awoke late, though he went to bed so early; he had not slept well for five or six

nights, even if he had slept at all. He breakfasted heartily, and caring little, as he said, for the beauties of the

Eternal City, ordered posthorses at noon. But Danglars had not reckoned upon the formalities of the police

and the idleness of the postingmaster. The horses only arrived at two o'clock, and the cicerone did not bring

the passport till three. All these preparations had collected a number of idlers round the door of Signor

Pastrini's; the descendants of Marius and the Gracchi were also not wanting. The baron walked triumphantly

through the crowd, who for the sake of gain styled him "your excellency." As Danglars had hitherto

contented himself with being called a baron, he felt rather flattered at the title of excellency, and distributed a

dozen silver coins among the beggars, who were ready, for twelve more, to call him "your highness."

"Which road?" asked the postilion in Italian. "The Ancona road," replied the baron. Signor Pastrini

interpreted the question and answer, and the horses galloped off. Danglars intended travelling to Venice,

where he would receive one part of his fortune, and then proceeding to Vienna, where he would find the rest,

he meant to take up his residence in the latter town, which he had been told was a city of pleasure.

He had scarcely advanced three leagues out of Rome when daylight began to disappear. Danglars had not

intended starting so late, or he would have remained; he put his head out and asked the postilion how long it

would be before they reached the next town. "Non capisco" (do not understand), was the reply. Danglars bent

his head, which he meant to imply, "Very well." The carriage again moved on. "I will stop at the first

He still felt the same selfsatisfaction which he had experienced the previous evening, and which had

procured him so good a night's rest. He was luxuriously stretched in a good English calash, with double

springs; he was drawn by four good horses, at full gallop; he knew the relay to be at a distance of seven

leagues. What subject of meditation could present itself to the banker, so fortunately become bankrupt?

Danglars thought for ten minutes about his wife in Paris; another ten minutes about his daughter travelling

with Mademoiselle d'Armilly; the same period was given to his creditors, and the manner in which he

intended spending their money; and then, having no subject left for contemplation, he shut his eyes, and fell

asleep. Now and then a jolt more violent than the rest caused him to open his eyes; then he felt that he was

still being carried with great rapidity over the same country, thickly strewn with broken aqueducts, which

looked like granite giants petrified while running a race. But the night was cold, dull, and rainy, and it was

much more pleasant for a traveller to remain in the warm carriage than to put his head out of the window to

Danglars therefore continued to sleep, saying to himself that he would be sure to awake at the postinghouse.

The carriage stopped. Danglars fancied that they had reached the longdesired point; he opened his eyes and

looked through the window, expecting to find himself in the midst of some town, or at least village; but he

saw nothing except what seemed like a ruin, where three or four men went and came like shadows. Danglars

waited a moment, expecting the postilion to come and demand payment with the termination of his stage. He

intended taking advantage of the opportunity to make fresh inquiries of the new conductor; but the horses

were unharnessed, and others put in their places, without any one claiming money from the traveller.

Danglars, astonished, opened the door; but a strong hand pushed him back, and the carriage rolled on. The

This was another little piece of Italian the baron had learned from hearing his daughter sing Italian duets with

"Come, my friend," he said, thrusting his hand through the opening, "where are we going?"

"Dentro la testa!" answered a solemn and imperious voice, accompanied by a menacing gesture. Danglars

thought dentro la testa meant, "Put in your head!" He was making rapid progress in Italian. He obeyed, not

without some uneasiness, which, momentarily increasing, caused his mind, instead of being as unoccupied as

it was when he began his journey, to fill with ideas which were very likely to keep a traveller awake, more

especially one in such a situation as Danglars. His eyes acquired that quality which in the first moment of

strong emotion enables them to see distinctly, and which afterwards fails from being too much taxed. Before

we are alarmed, we see correctly; when we are alarmed, we see double; and when we have been alarmed, we

see nothing but trouble. Danglars observed a man in a cloak galloping at the right hand of the carriage.

"Some gendarme!" he exclaimed. "Can I have been intercepted by French telegrams to the pontifical

authorities?" He resolved to end his anxiety. "Where are you taking me?" he asked. "Dentro la testa," replied

Danglars turned to the left; another man on horseback was galloping on that side. "Decidedly," said Danglars,

with the perspiration on his forehead, "I must be under arrest." And he threw himself back in the calash, not

this time to sleep, but to think. Directly afterwards the moon rose. He then saw the great aqueducts, those

stone phantoms which he had before remarked, only then they were on the right hand, now they were on the

left. He understood that they had described a circle, and were bringing him back to Rome. "Oh, unfortunate!"

he cried, "they must have obtained my arrest." The carriage continued to roll on with frightful speed. An hour

of terror elapsed, for every spot they passed showed that they were on the road back. At length he saw a dark

mass, against which it seemed as if the carriage was about to dash; but the vehicle turned to one side, leaving

the barrier behind and Danglars saw that it was one of the ramparts encircling Rome.

"Mon dieu!" cried Danglars, "we are not returning to Rome; then it is not justice which is pursuing me!

His hair stood on end. He remembered those interesting stories, so little believed in Paris, respecting Roman

bandits; he remembered the adventures that Albert de Morcerf had related when it was intended that he

should marry Mademoiselle Eugenie. "They are robbers, perhaps," he muttered. Just then the carriage rolled

on something harder than gravel road. Danglars hazarded a look on both sides of the road, and perceived

monuments of a singular form, and his mind now recalled all the details Morcerf had related, and comparing

them with his own situation, he felt sure that he must be on the Appian Way. On the left, in a sort of valley,

he perceived a circular excavation. It was Caracalla's circus. On a word from the man who rode at the side of

the carriage, it stopped. At the same time the door was opened. "Scendi!" exclaimed a commanding voice.

Danglars instantly descended; although he did not yet speak Italian, he understood it very well. More dead

than alive, he looked around him. Four men surrounded him, besides the postilion.

"Di qua," said one of the men, descending a little path leading out of the Appian Way. Danglars followed his

guide without opposition, and had no occasion to turn around to see whether the three others were following

him. Still it appeared as though they were stationed at equal distances from one another, like sentinels. After

walking for about ten minutes, during which Danglars did not exchange a single word with his guide, he

found himself between a hillock and a clump of high weeds; three men, standing silent, formed a triangle, of

which he was the centre. He wished to speak, but his tongue refused to move. "Avanti!" said the same sharp

This time Danglars had double reason to understand, for if the word and gesture had not explained the

speaker's meaning, it was clearly expressed by the man walking behind him, who pushed him so rudely that

he struck against the guide. This guide was our friend Peppino, who dashed into the thicket of high weeds,

through a path which none but lizards or polecats could have imagined to be an open road. Peppino stopped

before a pit overhung by thick hedges; the pit, half open, afforded a passage to the young man, who

disappeared like the evil spirits in the fairy tales. The voice and gesture of the man who followed Danglars

ordered him to do the same. There was no longer any doubt, the bankrupt was in the hands of Roman banditti.

Danglars acquitted himself like a man placed between two dangerous positions, and who is rendered brave by

fear. Notwithstanding his large stomach, certainly not intended to penetrate the fissures of the Campagna, he

slid down like Peppino, and closing his eyes fell upon his feet. As he touched the ground, he opened his eyes.

The path was wide, but dark. Peppino, who cared little for being recognized now that he was in his own

territories, struck a light and lit a torch. Two other men descended after Danglars forming the rearguard, and

pushing Danglars whenever he happened to stop, they came by a gentle declivity to the intersection of two

corridors. The walls were hollowed out in sepulchres, one above the other, and which seemed in contrast with

the white stones to open their large dark eyes, like those which we see on the faces of the dead. A sentinel

struck the rings of his carbine against his left hand. "Who comes there?" he cried.

"There," said the sentinel, pointing over his shoulder to a spacious crypt, hollowed out of the rock, the lights

from which shone into the passage through the large arched openings. "Fine spoil, captain, fine spoil!" said

Peppino in Italian, and taking Danglars by the collar of his coat he dragged him to an opening resembling a

door, through which they entered the apartment which the captain appeared to have made his dwellingplace.

"Is this the man?" asked the captain, who was attentively reading Plutarch's "Life of Alexander."

"Very well, show him to me." At this rather impertinent order, Peppino raised his torch to the face of

Danglars, who hastily withdrew that he might not have his eyelashes burnt. His agitated features presented

the appearance of pale and hideous terror. "The man is tired," said the captain, "conduct him to his bed."

"Oh," murmured Danglars," that bed is probably one of the coffins hollowed in the wall, and the sleep I shall

From their beds of dried leaves or wolfskins at the back of the chamber now arose the companions of the

man who had been found by Albert de Morcerf reading "Caesar's Commentaries," and by Danglars studying

the "Life of Alexander." The banker uttered a groan and followed his guide; he neither supplicated nor

exclaimed. He no longer possessed strength, will, power, or feeling; he followed where they led him. At

length he found himself at the foot of a staircase, and he mechanically lifted his foot five or six times. Then a

low door was opened before him, and bending his head to avoid striking his forehead he entered a small room

cut out of the rock. The cell was clean, though empty, and dry, though situated at an immeasurable distance

under the earth. A bed of dried grass covered with goatskins was placed in one corner. Danglars brightened

up on beholding it, fancying that it gave some promise of safety. "Oh, God be praised," he said; "it is a real

"Ecco!" said the guide, and pushing Danglars into the cell, he closed the door upon him. A bolt grated and

Danglars was a prisoner. If there had been no bolt, it would have been impossible for him to pass through the

midst of the garrison who held the catacombs of St. Sebastian, encamped round a master whom our readers

must have recognized as the famous Luigi Vampa. Danglars, too, had recognized the bandit, whose existence

he would not believe when Albert de Morcerf mentioned him in Paris; and not only did he recognize him, but

the cell in which Albert had been confined, and which was probably kept for the accommodation of strangers.

These recollections were dwelt upon with some pleasure by Danglars, and restored him to some degree of

tranquillity. Since the bandits had not despatched him at once, he felt that they would not kill him at all. They

had arrested him for the purpose of robbery, and as he had only a few louis about him, he doubted not he

would be ransomed. He remembered that Morcerf had been taxed at 4,000 crowns, and as he considered

himself of much greater importance than Morcerf he fixed his own price at 8,000 crowns. Eight thousand

crowns amounted to 48,000 livres; he would then have about 5,050,000 francs left. With this sum he could

manage to keep out of difficulties. Therefore, tolerably secure in being able to extricate himself from his

position, provided he were not rated at the unreasonable sum of 5,050,000 francs, he stretched himself on his

bed, and after turning over two or three times, fell asleep with the tranquillity of the hero whose life Luigi

We awake from every sleep except the one dreaded by Danglars. He awoke. To a Parisian accustomed to

silken curtains, walls hung with velvet drapery, and the soft perfume of burning wood, the white smoke of

which diffuses itself in graceful curves around the room, the appearance of the whitewashed cell which

greeted his eyes on awakening seemed like the continuation of some disagreeable dream. But in such a

situation a single moment suffices to change the strongest doubt into certainty. "Yes, yes," he murmured, "I

am in the hands of the brigands of whom Albert de Morcerf spoke." His first idea was to breathe, that he

might know whether he was wounded. He borrowed this from "Don Quixote," the only book he had ever

"No," he cried, "they have not wounded, but perhaps they have robbed me!" and he thrust his hands into his

pockets. They were untouched; the hundred louis he had reserved for his journey from Rome to Venice were

in his trousers pocket, and in that of his greatcoat he found the little notecase containing his letter of credit

for 5,050,000 francs. "Singular bandits!" he exclaimed; "they have left me my purse and pocketbook. As I

was saying last night, they intend me to be ransomed. Hallo, here is my watch! Let me see what time it is."

Danglars' watch, one of Breguet's repeaters, which he had carefully wound up on the previous night, struck

half past five. Without this, Danglars would have been quite ignorant of the time, for daylight did not reach

his cell. Should he demand an explanation from the bandits, or should he wait patiently for them to propose

it? The last alternative seemed the most prudent, so he waited until twelve o'clock. During all this time a

sentinel, who had been relieved at eight o'clock, had been watching his door. Danglars suddenly felt a strong

inclination to see the person who kept watch over him. He had noticed that a few rays, not of daylight, but

from a lamp, penetrated through the illjoined planks of the door; he approached just as the brigand was

refreshing himself with a mouthful of brandy, which, owing to the leathern bottle containing it, sent forth an

odor which was extremely unpleasant to Danglars. "Faugh!" he exclaimed, retreating to the farther corner of

At twelve this man was replaced by another functionary, and Danglars, wishing to catch sight of his new

guardian, approached the door again. He was an athletic, gigantic bandit, with large eyes, thick lips, and a flat

nose; his red hair fell in dishevelled masses like snakes around his shoulders. "Ah, ha," cried Danglars, "this

fellow is more like an ogre than anything else; however, I am rather too old and tough to be very good

eating!" We see that Danglars was collected enough to jest; at the same time, as though to disprove the

ogreish propensities, the man took some black bread, cheese, and onions from his wallet, which he began

devouring voraciously. "May I be hanged," said Danglars, glancing at the bandit's dinner through the crevices

of the door, "may I be hanged if I can understand how people can eat such filth!" and he withdrew to seat

But the mysteries of nature are incomprehensible, and there are certain invitations contained in even the

coarsest food which appeal very irresistibly to a fasting stomach. Danglars felt his own not to be very well

supplied just then, and gradually the man appeared less ugly, the bread less black, and the cheese more fresh,

while those dreadful vulgar onions recalled to his mind certain sauces and sidedishes, which his cook

prepared in a very superior manner whenever he said, "Monsieur Deniseau, let me have a nice little fricassee

today." He got up and knocked on the door; the bandit raised his head. Danglars knew that he was heard, so

he redoubled his blows. "Che cosa?" asked the bandit. "Come, come," said Danglars, tapping his fingers

against the door, "I think it is quite time to think of giving me something to eat!" But whether he did not

understand him, or whether he had received no orders respecting the nourishment of Danglars, the giant,

without answering, went on with his dinner. Danglars' feelings were hurt, and not wishing to put himself

under obligations to the brute, the banker threw himself down again on his goatskin and did not breathe

Four hours passed by and the giant was replaced by another bandit. Danglars, who really began to experience

sundry gnawings at the stomach, arose softly, again applied his eye to the crack of the door, and recognized

the intelligent countenance of his guide. It was, indeed, Peppino who was preparing to mount guard as

comfortably as possible by seating himself opposite to the door, and placing between his legs an earthen pan,

containing chickpease stewed with bacon. Near the pan he also placed a pretty little basket of Villetri grapes

and a flask of Orvieto. Peppino was decidedly an epicure. Danglars watched these preparations and his mouth

watered. "Come," he said to himself, "let me try if he will be more tractable than the other;" and he tapped

gently at the door. "On y va," (coming) exclaimed Peppino, who from frequenting the house of Signor

Danglars immediately recognized him as the man who had called out in such a furious manner, "Put in your

head!" But this was not the time for recrimination, so he assumed his most agreeable manner and said with a

"Happen to be hungry, that's pretty good, when I haven't eaten for twentyfour hours!" muttered

"What would your excellency like?" and Peppino placed his pan on the ground, so that the steam rose directly

"Yes, a fowl." Peppino, turning around, shouted, "A fowl for his excellency!" His voice yet echoed in the

archway when a handsome, graceful, and halfnaked young man appeared, bearing a fowl in a silver dish on

his head, without the assistance of his hands. "I could almost believe myself at the Cafe de Paris," murmured

"Here, your excellency," said Peppino, taking the fowl from the young bandit and placing it on the

wormeaten table, which with the stool and the goatskin bed formed the entire furniture of the cell.

Danglars asked for a knife and fork. "Here, excellency," said Peppino, offering him a little blunt knife and a

boxwood fork. Danglars took the knife in one hand and the fork in the other, and was about to cut up the

fowl. "Pardon me, excellency," said Peppino, placing his hand on the banker's shoulder; "people pay here

"Ah, ha," thought Danglars, "this is not so much like Paris, except that I shall probably be skinned! Never

mind, I'll fix that all right. I have always heard how cheap poultry is in Italy; I should think a fowl is worth

about twelve sous at Rome. There," he said, throwing a louis down. Peppino picked up the louis, and

Danglars again prepared to carve the fowl. "Stay a moment, your excellency," said Peppino, rising; "you still

"I said they would skin me," thought Danglars; but resolving to resist the extortion, he said, "Come, how

"Certainly; and your excellency now owes me 4,999 louis." Danglars opened his enormous eyes on hearing

this gigantic joke. "Come, come, this is very droll very amusing I allow; but, as I am very hungry, pray

"Then that will make only 4,998 louis more," said Peppino with the same indifference. "I shall get them all in

"Oh, as for that," said Danglars, angry at this prolongation of the jest, "as for that you won't get them at

all. Go to the devil! You do not know with whom you have to deal!" Peppino made a sign, and the youth

hastily removed the fowl. Danglars threw himself upon his goatskin, and Peppino, reclosing the door, again

began eating his pease and bacon. Though Danglars could not see Peppino, the noise of his teeth allowed no

doubt as to his occupation. He was certainly eating, and noisily too, like an illbred man. "Brute!" said

Danglars. Peppino pretended not to hear him, and without even turning his head continued to eat slowly.

Danglars' stomach felt so empty, that it seemed as if it would be impossible ever to fill it again; still he had

patience for another halfhour, which appeared to him like a century. He again arose and went to the door.

"Come, sir, do not keep me starving here any longer, but tell me what they want."

"Nay, your excellency, it is you who should tell us what you want. Give your orders, and we will execute

"Then open the door directly." Peppino obeyed. "Now look here, I want something to eat! To eat do you

"A piece of dry bread, since the fowls are beyond all price in this accursed place."

"Bread? Very well. Hallo, there, some bread!" he called. The youth brought a small loaf. "How much?" asked

"Four thousand nine hundred and ninetyeight louis," said Peppino; "You have paid two louis in advance."

"We have a fixed price for all our provisions. It signifies nothing whether you eat much or little whether

"What, still keeping up this silly jest? My dear fellow, it is perfectly ridiculous stupid! You had better tell

"Oh, dear, no, your excellency, unless you intend to commit suicide. Pay and eat."

"And what am I to pay with, brute?" said Danglars, enraged. "Do you suppose I carry 100,000 francs in my

"Your excellency has 5,050,000 francs in your pocket; that will be fifty fowls at 100,000 francs apiece, and

Danglars shuddered. The bandage fell from his eyes, and he understood the joke, which he did not think quite

so stupid as he had done just before. "Come," he said, "if I pay you the 100,000 francs, will you be satisfied,

"Oh, nothing easier; you have an account open with Messrs. Thomson French, Via dei Banchi, Rome; give

me a draft for 4,998 louis on these gentlemen, and our banker shall take it." Danglars thought it as well to

comply with a good grace, so he took the pen, ink, and paper Peppino offered him, wrote the draft, and signed

"And here is your fowl." Danglars sighed while he carved the fowl; it appeared very thin for the price it had

cost. As for Peppino, he examined the paper attentively, put it into his pocket, and continued eating his pease.

The next day Danglars was again hungry; certainly the air of that dungeon was very provocative of appetite.

The prisoner expected that he would be at no expense that day, for like an economical man he had concealed

half of his fowl and a piece of the bread in the corner of his cell. But he had no sooner eaten than he felt

thirsty; he had forgotten that. He struggled against his thirst till his tongue clave to the roof of his mouth;

then, no longer able to resist, he called out. The sentinel opened the door; it was a new face. He thought it

would be better to transact business with his old acquaintance, so he sent for Peppino. "Here I am, your

excellency," said Peppino, with an eagerness which Danglars thought favorable to him. "What do you want?"

"Oh, water is even more scarce than wine, your excellency, there has been such a drought."

"Come," thought Danglars, "it is the same old story." And while he smiled as he attempted to regard the affair

"Come, my friend," said Danglars, seeing that he made no impression on Peppino, "you will not refuse me a

"Tell me," cried Danglars, in a tone whose bitterness Harpagon* alone has been capable of revealing "tell

the that you wish to despoil me of all; it will be sooner over than devouring me piecemeal."

"Merely the 5,000,000 you have about you." Danglars felt a dreadful spasm dart through his heart. "But this

is all I have left in the world," he said, "out of an immense fortune. If you deprive me of that, take away my

"Two millions? three? four? Come, four? I will give them to you on condition that you let me go."

"Why do you offer me 4,000,000 for what is worth 5,000,000? This is a kind of usury, banker, that I do not

"Come, come, calm yourself. You will excite your blood, and that would produce an appetite it would require

"Well, then, wretches," cried Danglars, "I will defy your infamous calculations I would rather die at once!

"As your excellency pleases," said Vampa, as he left the cell. Danglars, raving, threw himself on the

goatskin. Who could these men be? Who was the invisible chief? What could be his intentions towards him?

And why, when every one else was allowed to be ransomed, might he not also be? Oh, yes; certainly a

speedy, violent death would be a fine means of deceiving these remorseless enemies, who appeared to pursue

him with such incomprehensible vengeance. But to die? For the first time in his life, Danglars contemplated

death with a mixture of dread and desire; the time had come when the implacable spectre, which exists in the

mind of every human creature, arrested his attention and called out with every pulsation of his heart, "Thou

Danglars resembled a timid animal excited in the chase; first it flies, then despairs, and at last, by the very

force of desperation, sometimes succeeds in eluding its pursuers. Danglars meditated an escape; but the walls

were solid rock, a man was sitting reading at the only outlet to the cell, and behind that man shapes armed

with guns continually passed. His resolution not to sign lasted two days, after which he offered a million for

From this time the prisoner resolved to suffer no longer, but to have everything he wanted. At the end of

twelve days, after having made a splendid dinner, he reckoned his accounts, and found that he had only

50,000 francs left. Then a strange reaction took place; he who had just abandoned 5,000,000 endeavored to

save the 50,000 francs he had left, and sooner than give them up he resolved to enter again upon a life of

privation he was deluded by the hopefulness that is a premonition of madness. He who for so long a time

had forgotten God, began to think that miracles were possible that the accursed cavern might be

discovered by the officers of the Papal States, who would release him; that then he would have 50,000

remaining, which would be sufficient to save him from starvation; and finally he prayed that this sum might

be preserved to him, and as he prayed he wept. Three days passed thus, during which his prayers were

frequent, if not heartfelt. Sometimes he was delirious, and fancied he saw an old man stretched on a pallet;

On the fourth, he was no longer a man, but a living corpse. He had picked up every crumb that had been left

from his former meals, and was beginning to eat the matting which covered the floor of his cell. Then he

entreated Peppino, as he would a guardian angel, to give him food; he offered him 1,000 francs for a

mouthful of bread. But Peppino did not answer. On the fifth day he dragged himself to the door of the cell.

"Are you not a Christian?" he said, falling on his knees. "Do you wish to assassinate a man who, in the eyes

of heaven, is a brother? Oh, my former friends, my former friends!" he murmured, and fell with his face to

"Take my last gold," muttered Danglars, holding out his pocketbook, "and let me live here; I ask no more

Danglars thought of the old man whom, in his hours of delirium, he had seen groaning on his bed. He struck

his forehead on the ground and groaned. "Yes," he said, "there have been some who have suffered more than

"Do you repent?" asked a deep, solemn voice, which caused Danglars' hair to stand on end. His feeble eyes

endeavored to distinguish objects, and behind the bandit he saw a man enveloped in a cloak, half lost in the

"Oh, yes; oh, yes, I do indeed repent." And he struck his breast with his emaciated fist.

"Then I forgive you," said the man, dropping his cloak, and advancing to the light.

"The Count of Monte Cristo!" said Danglars, more pale from terror than he had been just before from hunger

"I am he whom you sold and dishonored I am he whose betrothed you prostituted I am he upon whom

you trampled that you might raise yourself to fortune I am he whose father you condemned to die of

hunger I am he whom you also condemned to starvation, and who yet forgives you, because he hopes to

be forgiven I am Edmond Dantes!" Danglars uttered a cry, and fell prostrate. "Rise," said the count, "your

life is safe; the same good fortune has not happened to your accomplices one is mad, the other dead. Keep

the 50,000 francs you have left I give them to you. The 5,000,000 you stole from the hospitals has been

restored to them by an unknown hand. And now eat and drink; I will entertain you tonight. Vampa, when

this man is satisfied, let him be free." Danglars remained prostrate while the count withdrew; when he raised

his head he saw disappearing down the passage nothing but a shadow, before which the bandits bowed.

According to the count's directions, Danglars was waited on by Vampa, who brought him the best wine and

fruits of Italy; then, having conducted him to the road, and pointed to the postchaise, left him leaning

against a tree. He remained there all night, not knowing where he was. When daylight dawned he saw that he

was near a stream; he was thirsty, and dragged himself towards it. As he stooped down to drink, he saw that

It was about six o'clock in the evening; an opalcolored light, through which an autumnal sun shed its golden

rays, descended on the blue ocean. The heat of the day had gradually decreased, and a light breeze arose,

seeming like the respiration of nature on awakening from the burning siesta of the south. A delicious zephyr

played along the coasts of the Mediterranean, and wafted from shore to shore the sweet perfume of plants,

A light yacht, chaste and elegant in its form, was gliding amidst the first dews of night over the immense

lake, extending from Gibraltar to the Dardanelles, and from Tunis to Venice. The vessel resembled a swan

with its wings opened towards the wind, gliding on the water. It advanced swiftly and gracefully, leaving

behind it a glittering stretch of foam. By degrees the sun disappeared behind the western horizon; but as

though to prove the truth of the fanciful ideas in heathen mythology, its indiscreet rays reappeared on the

summit of every wave, as if the god of fire had just sunk upon the bosom of Amphitrite, who in vain

endeavored to hide her lover beneath her azure mantle. The yacht moved rapidly on, though there did not

appear to be sufficient wind to ruffle the curls on the head of a young girl. Standing on the prow was a tall

man, of a dark complexion, who saw with dilating eyes that they were approaching a dark mass of land in the

shape of a cone, which rose from the midst of the waves like the hat of a Catalan. "Is that Monte Cristo?"

asked the traveller, to whose orders the yacht was for the time submitted, in a melancholy voice.

"We have reached it!" repeated the traveller in an accent of indescribable sadness. Then he added, in a low

tone, "Yes; that is the haven." And then he again plunged into a train of thought, the character of which was

better revealed by a sad smile, than it would have been by tears. A few minutes afterwards a flash of light,

which was extinguished instantly, was seen on the land, and the sound of firearms reached the yacht.

"Your excellency," said the captain, "that was the land signal, will you answer yourself?"

"What signal?" The captain pointed towards the island, up the side of which ascended a volume of smoke,

increasing as it rose. "Ah, yes," he said, as if awaking from a dream. "Give it to me."

The captain gave him a loaded carbine; the traveller slowly raised it, and fired in the air. Ten minutes

afterwards, the sails were furled, and they cast anchor about a hundred fathoms from the little harbor. The gig

was already lowered, and in it were four oarsmen and a coxswain. The traveller descended, and instead of

sitting down at the stern of the boat, which had been decorated with a blue carpet for his accommodation,

stood up with his arms crossed. The rowers waited, their oars half lifted out of the water, like birds drying

"Give way," said the traveller. The eight oars fell into the sea simultaneously without splashing a drop of

water, and the boat, yielding to the impulsion, glided forward. In an instant they found themselves in a little

"Will your excellency be so good as to mount the shoulders of two of our men, they will carry you ashore?"

The young man answered this invitation with a gesture of indifference, and stepped out of the boat; the sea

immediately rose to his waist. "Ah, your excellency," murmured the pilot, "you should not have done so; our

master will scold us for it." The young man continued to advance, following the sailors, who chose a firm

footing. Thirty strides brought them to dry land; the young man stamped on the ground to shake off the wet,

and looked around for some one to show him his road, for it was quite dark. Just as he turned, a hand rested

on his shoulder, and a voice which made him shudder exclaimed, "Goodevening, Maximilian; you are

"Ah, is it you, count?" said the young man, in an almost joyful accent, pressing Monte Cristo's hand with both

"Yes; you see I am as exact as you are. But you are dripping, my dear fellow; you must change your clothes,

as Calypso said to Telemachus. Come, I have a habitation prepared for you in which you will soon forget

fatigue and cold." Monte Cristo perceived that the young man had turned around; indeed, Morrel saw with

surprise that the men who had brought him had left without being paid, or uttering a word. Already the sound

"Never mind that, Maximilian," said Monte Cristo, smiling. "I have made an agreement with the navy, that

the access to my island shall be free of all charge. I have made a bargain." Morrel looked at the count with

"Here you laugh." The count's brow became clouded. "You are right to recall me to myself, Maximilian," he

said; "I was delighted to see you again, and forgot for the moment that all happiness is fleeting."

"Oh, no, no, count," cried Maximilian, seizing the count's hands, "pray laugh; be happy, and prove to me, by

your indifference, that life is endurable to sufferers. Oh, how charitable, kind, and good you are; you affect

"Yes; for as the gladiator said to the emperor, when he entered the arena, `He who is about to die salutes

"Oh," exclaimed Morrel, with a glance full of bitter reproach, "do you think it possible that I could be?"

"Listen," said the count. "Do you understand the meaning of my words? You cannot take me for a

commonplace man, a mere rattle, emitting a vague and senseless noise. When I ask you if you are consoled, I

speak to you as a man for whom the human heart has no secrets. Well, Morrel, let us both examine the depths

of your heart. Do you still feel the same feverish impatience of grief which made you start like a wounded

lion? Have you still that devouring thirst which can only be appeased in the grave? Are you still actuated by

the regret which drags the living to the pursuit of death; or are you only suffering from the prostration of

fatigue and the weariness of hope deferred? Has the loss of memory rendered it impossible for you to weep?

Oh, my dear friend, if this be the case, if you can no longer weep, if your frozen heart be dead, if you put

"Count," said Morrel, in a firm and at the same time soft voice, "listen to me, as to a man whose thoughts are

raised to heaven, though he remains on earth; I come to die in the arms of a friend. Certainly, there are people

whom I love. I love my sister Julie, I love her husband Emmanuel; but I require a strong mind to smile on

my last moments. My sister would be bathed in tears and fainting; I could not bear to see her suffer.

Emmanuel would tear the weapon from my hand, and alarm the house with his cries. You, count, who are

more than mortal, will, I am sure, lead me to death by a pleasant path, will you not?"

"My friend," said the count, "I have still one doubt, are you weak enough to pride yourself upon your

"No, indeed, I am calm," said Morrel, giving his hand to the count; "my pulse does not beat slower or

faster than usual. No, I feel that I have reached the goal, and I will go no farther. You told me to wait and

hope; do you know what you did, unfortunate adviser? I waited a month, or rather I suffered for a month! I

did hope (man is a poor wretched creature), I did hope. What I cannot tell, something wonderful, an

absurdity, a miracle, of what nature he alone can tell who has mingled with our reason that folly we call

hope. Yes, I did wait yes, I did hope, count, and during this quarter of an hour we have been talking

together, you have unconsciously wounded, tortured my heart, for every word you have uttered proved that

there was no hope for me. Oh, count, I shall sleep calmly, deliciously in the arms of death." Morrel uttered

these words with an energy which made the count shudder. "My friend," continued Morrel, "you named the

fifth of October as the end of the period of waiting, today is the fifth of October," he took out his watch,

"Be it so," said the count, "come." Morrel mechanically followed the count, and they had entered the grotto

before he perceived it. He felt a carpet under his feet, a door opened, perfumes surrounded him, and a brilliant

light dazzled his eyes. Morrel hesitated to advance; he dreaded the enervating effect of all that he saw. Monte

Cristo drew him in gently. "Why should we not spend the last three hours remaining to us of life, like those

ancient Romans, who when condemned by Nero, their emperor and heir, sat down at a table covered with

flowers, and gently glided into death, amid the perfume of heliotropes and roses?" Morrel smiled. "As you

please," he said; "death is always death, that is forgetfulness, repose, exclusion from life, and therefore

from grief." He sat down, and Monte Cristo placed himself opposite to him. They were in the marvellous

diningroom before described, where the statues had baskets on their heads always filled with fruits and

"Count," said Morrel, "you are the epitome of all human knowledge, and you seem like a being descended

"There is something true in what you say," said the count, with that smile which made him so handsome; "I

"I believe all you tell me without questioning its meaning; for instance, you told me to live, and I did live;

you told me to hope, and I almost did so. I am almost inclined to ask you, as though you had experienced

Monte Cristo looked upon Morrel with indescribable tenderness. "Yes," he said, "yes, doubtless it is painful,

if you violently break the outer covering which obstinately begs for life. If you plunge a dagger into your

flesh, if you insinuate a bullet into your brain, which the least shock disorders, then certainly, you will

suffer pain, and you will repent quitting a life for a repose you have bought at so dear a price."

"Yes; I know that there is a secret of luxury and pain in death, as well as in life; the only thing is to

"You have spoken truly, Maximilian; according to the care we bestow upon it, death is either a friend who

rocks us gently as a nurse, or an enemy who violently drags the soul from the body. Some day, when the

world is much older, and when mankind will be masters of all the destructive powers in nature, to serve for

the general good of humanity; when mankind, as you were just saying, have discovered the secrets of death,

then that death will become as sweet and voluptuous as a slumber in the arms of your beloved."

Morrel extended his hand. "Now I understand," he said, "why you had me brought here to this desolate spot,

in the midst of the ocean, to this subterranean palace; it was because you loved me, was it not, count? It was

because you loved me well enough to give me one of those sweet means of death of which we were speaking;

a death without agony, a death which allows me to fade away while pronouncing Valentine's name and

"Yes, you have guessed rightly, Morrel," said the count, "that is what I intended."

"Thanks; the idea that tomorrow I shall no longer suffer, is sweet to my heart."

"Not even me?" asked the count with deep emotion. Morrel's clear eye was for the moment clouded, then it

"What," said the count, "do you still regret anything in the world, and yet die?"

"Oh, I entreat you," exclaimed Morrel in a low voice, "do not speak another word, count; do not prolong my

punishment." The count fancied that he was yielding, and this belief revived the horrible doubt that had

overwhelmed him at the Chateau d'If. "I am endeavoring," he thought, "to make this man happy; I look upon

this restitution as a weight thrown into the scale to balance the evil I have wrought. Now, supposing I am

deceived, supposing this man has not been unhappy enough to merit happiness. Alas, what would become of

me who can only atone for evil by doing good?" Then he said aloud: "Listen, Morrel, I see your grief is great,

but still you do not like to risk your soul." Morrel smiled sadly. "Count," he said, "I swear to you my soul is

"Maximilian, you know I have no relation in the world. I have accustomed myself to regard you as my son:

"I mean, that you wish to quit life because you do not understand all the enjoyments which are the fruits of a

large fortune. Morrel, I possess nearly a hundred millions and I give them to you; with such a fortune you can

attain every wish. Are you ambitions? Every career is open to you. Overturn the world, change its character,

"Count, I have your word," said Morrel coldly; then taking out his watch, he added, "It is halfpast eleven."

"Then let me go," said Maximilian, "or I shall think you did not love me for my own sake, but for yours; "and

"It is well," said Monte Cristo whose countenance brightened at these words; "you wish you are

inflexible. Yes, as you said, you are indeed wretched and a miracle alone can cure you. Sit down, Morrel, and

Morrel obeyed; the count arose, and unlocking a closet with a key suspended from his gold chain, took from

it a little silver casket, beautifully carved and chased, the corners of which represented four bending figures,

similar to the Caryatides, the forms of women, symbols of the angels aspiring to heaven. He placed the casket

on the table; then opening it took out a little golden box, the top of which flew open when touched by a secret

spring. This box contained an unctuous substance partly solid, of which it was impossible to discover the

color, owing to the reflection of the polished gold, sapphires, rubies, emeralds, which ornamented the box. It

was a mixed mass of blue, red, and gold. The count took out a small quantity of this with a gilt spoon, and

offered it to Morrel, fixing a long steadfast glance upon him. It was then observable that the substance was

"I thank you from the depths of my heart," said the young man, taking the spoon from the hands of Monte

Cristo. The count took another spoon, and again dipped it into the golden box. "What are you going to do, my

"Well, the fact is, Morrel, I was thinking that I too am weary of life, and since an opportunity presents itself"

"Stay!" said the young man. "You who love, and are beloved; you, who have faith and hope, oh, do not

follow my example. In your case it would be a crime. Adieu, my noble and generous friend, adieu; I will go

and tell Valentine what you have done for me." And slowly, though without any hesitation, only waiting to

press the count's hand fervently, he swallowed the mysterious substance offered by Monte Cristo. Then they

were both silent. Ali, mute and attentive, brought the pipes and coffee, and disappeared. By degrees, the light

of the lamps gradually faded in the hands of the marble statues which held them, and the perfumes appeared

less powerful to Morrel. Seated opposite to him, Monte Cristo watched him in the shadow, and Morrel saw

nothing but the bright eyes of the count. An overpowering sadness took possession of the young man, his

hands relaxed their hold, the objects in the room gradually lost their form and color, and his disturbed vision

"Friend," he cried, "I feel that I am dying; thanks!" He made a last effort to extend his hand, but it fell

powerless beside him. Then it appeared to him that Monte Cristo smiled, not with the strange and fearful

expression which had sometimes revealed to him the secrets of his heart, but with the benevolent kindness of

a father for a child. At the same time the count appeared to increase in stature, his form, nearly double its

usual height, stood out in relief against the red tapestry, his black hair was thrown back, and he stood in the

attitude of an avenging angel. Morrel, overpowered, turned around in the armchair; a delicious torpor

permeated every vein. A change of ideas presented themselves to his brain, like a new design on the

kaleidoscope. Enervated, prostrate, and breathless, he became unconscious of outward objects; he seemed to

be entering that vague delirium preceding death. He wished once again to press the count's hand, but his own

was immovable. He wished to articulate a last farewell, but his tongue lay motionless and heavy in his throat,

like a stone at the mouth of a sepulchre. Involuntarily his languid eyes closed, and still through his eyelashes

a wellknown form seemed to move amid the obscurity with which he thought himself enveloped.

The count had just opened a door. Immediately a brilliant light from the next room, or rather from the palace

adjoining, shone upon the room in which he was gently gliding into his last sleep. Then he saw a woman of

marvellous beauty appear on the threshold of the door separating the two rooms. Pale, and sweetly smiling,

she looked like an angel of mercy conjuring the angel of vengeance. "Is it heaven that opens before me?"

thought the dying man; "that angel resembles the one I have lost." Monte Cristo pointed out Morrel to the

young woman, who advanced towards him with clasped hands and a smile upon her lips.

"Valentine, Valentine!" he mentally ejaculated; but his lips uttered no sound, and as though all his strength

were centred in that internal emotion, he sighed and closed his eyes. Valentine rushed towards him; his lips

"He is calling you," said the count; "he to whom you have confided your destiny he from whom death

would have separated you, calls you to him. Happily, I vanquished death. Henceforth, Valentine, you will

never again be separated on earth, since he has rushed into death to find you. Without me, you would both

have died. May God accept my atonement in the preservation of these two existences!"

Valentine seized the count's hand, and in her irresistible impulse of joy carried it to her lips.

"Oh, thank me again!" said the count; "tell me till you are weary, that I have restored you to happiness; you

"Oh, yes, yes, I thank you with all my heart," said Valentine; "and if you doubt the sincerity of my gratitude,

oh, then, ask Haidee! ask my beloved sister Haidee, who ever since our departure from France, has caused me

"You then love Haidee?" asked Monte Cristo with an emotion he in vain endeavored to dissimulate.

"Well, then, listen, Valentine," said the count; "I have a favor to ask of you."

"Yes; you have called Haidee your sister, let her become so indeed, Valentine; render her all the gratitude

you fancy that you owe to me; protect her, for" (the count's voice was thick with emotion) "henceforth she

Monte Cristo turned around; Haidee was standing pale, motionless, looking at the count with an expression of

"Because tomorrow, Haidee, you will be free; you will then assume your proper position in society, for I

will not allow my destiny to overshadow yours. Daughter of a prince, I restore to you the riches and name of

Haidee became pale, and lifting her transparent hands to heaven, exclaimed in a voice stifled with tears,

"Haidee, Haidee, you are young and beautiful; forget even my name, and be happy."

"It is well," said Haidee; "your order shall be executed, my lord; I will forget even your name, and be happy."

"Oh, heavens," exclaimed Valentine, who was supporting the head of Morrel on her shoulder, "do you not see

Haidee answered with a heartrending expression, "Why should he understand this, my sister? He is my

The count shuddered at the tones of a voice which penetrated the inmost recesses of his heart; his eyes met

those of the young girl and he could not bear their brilliancy. "Oh, heavens," exclaimed Monte Cristo, "can

"I am young," gently replied Haidee; "I love the life you have made so sweet to me, and I should be sorry to

"Oh, Valentine, he asks if I love him. Valentine, tell him if you love Maximilian." The count felt his heart

dilate and throb; he opened his arms, and Haidee, uttering a cry, sprang into them. "Oh, yes," she cried, "I do

love you! I love you as one loves a father, brother, husband! I love you as my life, for you are the best, the

"Let it be, then, as you wish, sweet angel; God has sustained me in my struggle with my enemies, and has

given me this reward; he will not let me end my triumph in suffering; I wished to punish myself, but he has

pardoned me. Love me then, Haidee! Who knows? perhaps your love will make me forget all that I do not

"I mean that one word from you has enlightened me more than twenty years of slow experience; I have but

you in the world, Haidee; through you I again take hold on life, through you I shall suffer, through you

"Do you hear him, Valentine?" exclaimed Haidee; "he says that through me he will suffer through me,

who would yield my life for his." The count withdrew for a moment. "Have I discovered the truth?" he said;

"but whether it be for recompense or punishment, I accept my fate. Come, Haidee, come!" and throwing his

arm around the young girl's waist, he pressed the hand of Valentine, and disappeared.

An hour had nearly passed, during which Valentine, breathless and motionless, watched steadfastly over

Morrel. At length she felt his heart beat, a faint breath played upon his lips, a slight shudder, announcing the

return of life, passed through the young man's frame. At length his eyes opened, but they were at first fixed

and expressionless; then sight returned, and with it feeling and grief. "Oh," he cried, in an accent of despair,

"the count has deceived me; I am yet living; "and extending his hand towards the table, he seized a knife.

"Dearest," exclaimed Valentine, with her adorable smile, "awake, and look at me!" Morrel uttered a loud

exclamation, and frantic, doubtful, dazzled, as though by a celestial vision, he fell upon his knees.

The next morning at daybreak, Valentine and Morrel were walking arminarm on the seashore, Valentine

relating how Monte Cristo had appeared in her room, explained everything, revealed the crime, and, finally,

how he had saved her life by enabling her to simulate death. They had found the door of the grotto opened,

and gone forth; on the azure dome of heaven still glittered a few remaining stars. Morrel soon perceived a

man standing among the rocks, apparently awaiting a sign from them to advance, and pointed him out to

Valentine. "Ah, it is Jacopo," she said, "the captain of the yacht; "and she beckoned him towards them.

"There is a felucca for you at anchor. Jacopo will carry you to Leghorn, where Monsieur Noirtier awaits his

granddaughter, whom he wishes to bless before you lead her to the altar. All that is in this grotto, my friend,

my house in the Champs Elysees, and my chateau at Treport, are the marriage gifts bestowed by Edmond

Dantes upon the son of his old master, Morrel. Mademoiselle de Villefort will share them with you; for I

entreat her to give to the poor the immense fortune reverting to her from her father, now a madman, and her

brother who died last September with his mother. Tell the angel who will watch over your future destiny,

Morrel, to pray sometimes for a man, who like Satan thought himself for an instant equal to God, but who

now acknowledges with Christian humility that God alone possesses supreme power and infinite wisdom.

Perhaps those prayers may soften the remorse he feels in his heart. As for you, Morrel, this is the secret of my

conduct towards you. There is neither happiness nor misery in the world; there is only the comparison of one

state with another, nothing more. He who has felt the deepest grief is best able to experience supreme

happiness. We must have felt what it is to die, Morrel, that we may appreciate the enjoyments of living.

"Live, then, and be happy, beloved children of my heart, and never forget that until the day when God shall

deign to reveal the future to man, all human wisdom is summed up in these two words, `Wait and hope.'

During the perusal of this letter, which informed Valentine for the first time of the madness of her father and

the death of her brother, she became pale, a heavy sigh escaped from her bosom, and tears, not the less

painful because they were silent, ran down her cheeks; her happiness cost her very dear. Morrel looked

around uneasily. "But," he said, "the count's generosity is too overwhelming; Valentine will be satisfied with

my humble fortune. Where is the count, friend? Lead me to him." Jacopo pointed towards the horizon. "What

The eyes of both were fixed upon the spot indicated by the sailor, and on the blue line separating the sky from

the Mediterranean Sea, they perceived a large white sail. "Gone," said Morrel; "gone! adieu, my friend

"Who can say whether we shall ever see them again?" said Morrel with tearful eyes.

"Darling," replied Valentine, "has not the count just told us that all human wisdom is summed up in two