The Count of Monte Cristo, Illustrated by Alexandre Dumas (electronic reader txt) đ
- Author: Alexandre Dumas
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âBut, father, take care; when our turn comes, our revenge will be sweeping.â
âI do not understand you.â
âYou rely on the usurperâs return?â
âWe do.â
âYou are mistaken; he will not advance two leagues into the interior of France without being followed, tracked, and caught like a wild beast.â
âMy dear fellow, the emperor is at this moment on the way to Grenoble; on the 10th or 12th he will be at Lyons, and on the 20th or 25th at Paris.â
âThe people will rise.â
âYes, to go and meet him.â
âHe has but a handful of men with him, and armies will be despatched against him.â
âYes, to escort him into the capital. Really, my dear GĂ©rard, you are but a child; you think yourself well informed because the telegraph has told you, three days after the landing, âThe usurper has landed at Cannes with several men. He is pursued.â But where is he? what is he doing? You do not know at all, and in this way they will chase him to Paris, without drawing a trigger.â
âGrenoble and Lyons are faithful cities, and will oppose to him an impassable barrier.â
âGrenoble will open her gates to him with enthusiasmâall 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, and we will dine together.â
âIndeed!â replied Villefort, looking at his father with astonishment, âyou really do seem very well informed.â
âEh? the thing is simple enough. You who are in power have only the means that money producesâwe who are in expectation, have those which devotion prompts.â
âDevotion!â said Villefort, with a sneer.
âYes, devotion; for that is, I believe, the phrase for hopeful ambition.â
And Villefortâs father extended his hand to the bell-rope, to summon the servant whom his son had not called. Villefort caught his arm.
âWait, my dear father,â said the young man, âone word more.â
âSay on.â
âHowever stupid the royalist police may be, they do know one terrible thing.â
âWhat is that?â
âThe description of the man who, on the morning of the day when General Quesnel disappeared, presented himself at his house.â
âOh, the admirable police have found that out, have they? And what may be that description?â
âDark complexion; hair, eyebrows, and whiskers black; blue frock-coat, buttoned up to the chin; rosette of an officer of the Legion of Honor in his button-hole; a hat with wide brim, and a cane.â
âAh, ha, thatâs it, is it?â said Noirtier; âand why, then, have they not laid hands on him?â
âBecause yesterday, or the day before, they lost sight of him at the corner of the Rue Coq-HĂ©ron.â
âDidnât I say that your police were good for nothing?â
âYes; but they may catch him yet.â
âTrue,â said Noirtier, looking carelessly around him, âtrue, if this person were not on his guard, as he is;â and he added with a smile, âHe will consequently make a few changes in his personal appearance.â At these words he rose, and put off his frock-coat and cravat, went towards a table on which lay his sonâs toilet articles, lathered his face, took a razor, and, with a firm hand, cut off the compromising whiskers. Villefort watched him with alarm not devoid of admiration.
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 high-buttoned frock-coat, a coat of Villefortâs of dark brown, and cut away in front; tried on before the glass a narrow-brimmed hat of his sonâs, 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 about with that easy swagger which was one of his principal characteristics.
âWell,â he said, turning towards his wondering son, when this disguise was completed, âwell, do you think your police will recognize me now.â
âNo, father,â stammered Villefort; âat least, I hope not.â
âAnd now, my dear boy,â continued Noirtier, âI rely on your prudence to remove all the things which I leave in your care.â
âOh, rely on me,â said Villefort.
âYes, yes; and now I believe you are right, and that you have really saved my life; be assured I will return the favor hereafter.â
Villefort shook his head.
âYou are not convinced yet?â
âI hope at least, that you may be mistaken.â
âShall you see the king again?â
âPerhaps.â
âWould you pass in his eyes for a prophet?â
âProphets of evil are not in favor at the court, father.â
âTrue, but some day they do them justice; and supposing a second restoration, you would then pass for a great man.â
âWell, what should I say to the king?â
âSay this to him: âSire, 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.â Tell him this, GĂ©rard; 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 back-door, 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 sonâgo, my dear GĂ©rard, 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,â added Noirtier, with a smile, âone 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 GĂ©rard, and at your next journey alight at my door.â
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 ill-looking men at the corner of the street, who were there, perhaps, to arrest a man with black whiskers, and a blue frock-coat, and hat with broad brim.
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 frock-coat 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 travelling-cap, 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. Everyone knows the history of the famous return from Elba, a return which was unprecedented in the past, and will probably remain without a counterpart in the future.
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 kingâs 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 â93 and the Senator of 1806 protected him who so lately had been his protector. All Villefortâs influence barely enabled him to stifle the secret DantĂšs had so nearly divulged. The kingâs procureur alone was deprived of his office, being suspected of royalism.
However, scarcely was the imperial power establishedâthat is, scarcely had the emperor re-entered the Tuileries and begun to issue orders from the closet into which we have introduced our readers,âhe found on the table there Louis XVIII.âs half-filled snuff-box,âscarcely 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 assailed the royalists whenever they ventured abroad.
Owing to this change, the worthy shipowner became at that momentâwe 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 âmoderationââbut sufficiently influential to make a demand in favor of DantĂšs.
Villefort retained his place, but his marriage was put off until a more favorable opportunity. If the emperor remained on the throne, GĂ©rard required a different alliance to aid his career; if Louis XVIII. returned, the influence of M. de Saint-MĂ©ran, like his own, could be vastly increased, and the marriage be still more suitable. The deputy procureur was, therefore, the first magistrate of Marseilles, when one morning his door opened, and M. Morrel was announced.
Anyone 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 kingâs procureur always makes everyone wait, and after passing a quarter of an hour in reading the papers, he ordered M. Morrel to be admitted.
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 well-bred from the vulgar man.
He had entered Villefortâs 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,
âM. Morrel, I believe?â said Villefort.
âYes, sir.â
âCome nearer,â said the magistrate, with a patronizing wave of the hand, âand tell me
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