The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (books to read to improve english txt) đ
- Author: Alexandre Dumas
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âAh, yes,â said Faria; âthe penknife. Thatâs my masterpiece. I made it, as well as this larger knife, out of an old iron candlestick.â The penknife was sharp and keen as a razor; as for the other knife, it would serve a double purpose, and with it one could cut and thrust.
DantĂšs 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 from whence they had been brought by the different trading vessels.
âAs for the ink,â said Faria, âI told you how I managed to obtain thatâand I only just make it from time to time, as I require it.â
âOne thing still puzzles me,â observed DantĂšs, âand that is how you managed to do all this by daylight?â
âI worked at night also,â replied Faria.
âNight!âwhy, for Heavenâs sake, are your eyes like catsâ, that you can see to work in the dark?â
âIndeed they are not; but God has supplied man with the intelligence that enables him to overcome the limitations of natural conditions. I furnished myself with a light.â
âYou did? Pray tell me how.â
âI separated the fat from the meat served to me, melted it, and so made oilâhere is my lamp.â So saying, the abbĂ© exhibited a sort of torch very similar to those used in public illuminations.
âBut how do you procure a light?â
âOh, here are two flints and a piece of burnt linen.â
âAnd matches?â
âI pretended that I had a disorder of the skin, and asked for a little sulphur, which was readily supplied.â
DantĂšs laid the different things he had been looking at on the table, and stood with his head drooping on his breast, as though overwhelmed by the perseverance and strength of Fariaâs mind.
âYou have not seen all yet,â continued Faria, âfor I did not think it wise to trust all my treasures in the same hiding-place. Let us shut this one up.â They put the stone back in its place; the abbĂ© 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 twenty-five and thirty feet in length. DantĂšs closely and eagerly examined it; he found it firm, solid, and compact enough to bear any weight.
âWho supplied you with the materials for making this wonderful work?â
âI tore up several of my shirts, and ripped out the seams in the sheets of my bed, during my three yearsâ imprisonment at Fenestrelle; and when I was removed to the ChĂąteau dâIf, I managed to bring the ravellings with me, so that I have been able to finish my work here.â
âAnd was it not discovered that your sheets were unhemmed?â
âOh, no, for when I had taken out the thread I required, I hemmed the edges over again.â
âWith what?â
âWith this needle,â said the abbĂ©, as, opening his ragged vestments, he showed DantĂšs a long, sharp fish-bone, with a small perforated eye for the thread, a small portion of which still remained in it.
âI once thought,â continued Faria, âof 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.â
While affecting to be deeply engaged in examining the ladder, the mind of DantÚs was, in fact, busily occupied by the idea that a person so intelligent, ingenious, and clear-sighted as the abbé might probably be able to solve the dark mystery of his own misfortunes, where he himself could see nothing.
âWhat are you thinking of?â asked the abbĂ© smilingly, imputing the deep abstraction in which his visitor was plunged to the excess of his awe and wonder.
âI was reflecting, in the first place,â replied DantĂšs, âupon 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 accomplished if you had been free?â
âPossibly 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 producedâfrom electricity, lightning, from lightning, illumination.â
âNo,â replied DantĂšs. âI know nothing. Some of your words are to me quite empty of meaning. You must be blessed indeed to possess the knowledge you have.â
The abbĂ© smiled. âWell,â said he, âbut you had another subject for your thoughts; did you not say so just now?â
âI did!â
âYou have told me as yet but one of themâlet me hear the other.â
âIt was this,âthat while you had related to me all the particulars of your past life, you were perfectly unacquainted with mine.â
âYour life, my young friend, has not been of sufficient length to admit of your having passed through any very important events.â
âIt has been long enough to inflict on me a great and undeserved misfortune. I would fain fix the source of it on man that I may no longer vent reproaches upon Heaven.â
âThen you profess ignorance of the crime with which you are charged?â
âI do, indeed; and this I swear by the two beings most dear to me upon earth,âmy father and MercĂ©dĂšs.â
âCome,â said the abbĂ©, closing his hiding-place, and pushing the bed back to its original situation, âlet me hear your story.â
DantĂšs 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 Noirtierâhis arrival at Marseilles, and interview with his fatherâhis affection for MercĂ©dĂšs, and their nuptual feastâhis arrest and subsequent examination, his temporary detention at the Palais de Justice, and his final imprisonment in the ChĂąteau dâIf. From this point everything was a blank to DantĂšsâhe knew nothing more, not even the length of time he had been imprisoned. His recital finished, the abbĂ© reflected long and earnestly.
âThere is,â said he, at the end of his meditations, âa 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,âto whom could your disappearance have been serviceable?â
âTo no one, by Heaven! I was a very insignificant person.â
âDo 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 kingâs death, his successor inherits a crown,âwhen 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. Everyone, 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 Descartesâ 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?â
âYes.â
âAnd about to become the husband of a young and lovely girl?â
âYes.â
âNow, could anyone 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 anyone to hinder you from being captain of the Pharaon. What say you?â
âI 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 ill-will towards me. I had quarelled with him some time previously, and had even challenged him to fight me; but he refused.â
âNow we are getting on. And what was this manâs name?â
âDanglars.â
âWhat rank did he hold on board?â
âHe was supercargo.â
âAnd had you been captain, should you have retained him in his employment?â
âNot if the choice had remained with me, for I had frequently observed inaccuracies in his accounts.â
âGood again! Now then, tell me, was any person present during your last conversation with Captain Leclere?â
âNo; we were quite alone.â
âCould your conversation have been overheard by anyone?â
âIt might, for the cabin door was openâandâstay; now I recollect,âDanglars himself passed by just as Captain Leclere was giving me the packet for the grand marshal.â
âThatâs better,â cried the abbĂ©; ânow we are on the right scent. Did you take anybody with you when you put into the port of Elba?â
âNobody.â
âSomebody there received your packet, and gave you a letter in place of it, I think?â
âYes; the grand marshal did.â
âAnd what did you do with that letter?â
âPut it into my portfolio.â
âYou had your portfolio with you, then? Now, how could a sailor find room in his pocket for a portfolio large enough to contain an official letter?â
âYou are right; it was left on board.â
âThen it was not till your return to the ship that you put the letter in the portfolio?â
âNo.â
âAnd what did you do with this same letter while returning from Porto-Ferrajo to the vessel?â
âI carried it in my hand.â
âSo that when you went on board the Pharaon, everybody could see that you held a letter in your hand?â
âYes.â
âDanglars, as well as the rest?â
âDanglars, as well as others.â
âNow, listen to me, and try to recall every circumstance attending your arrest. Do you recollect the words in which the information against you was formulated?â
âOh yes, I read it over three times, and the words sank deeply into my memory.â
âRepeat it to me.â
DantĂšs paused a moment, then said, âThis is it, word for word: âThe kingâs attorney is informed by a friend to the
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