The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (books to read to improve english txt) đ
- Author: Alexandre Dumas
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âTwo men jealous of him, sir; one from love, and the other from ambition,âFernand and Danglars.â
âHow was this jealousy manifested? Speak on.â
âThey denounced Edmond as a Bonapartist agent.â
âWhich of the two denounced him? Which was the real delinquent?â
âBoth, sir; one with a letter, and the other put it in the post.â
âAnd where was this letter written?â
âAt La RĂ©serve, the day before the betrothal feast.â
ââTwas so, thenââtwas so, then,â murmured the abbĂ©. âOh, Faria, Faria, how well did you judge men and things!â
âWhat did you please to say, sir?â asked Caderousse.
âNothing, nothing,â replied the priest; âgo on.â
âIt was Danglars who wrote the denunciation with his left hand, that his writing might not be recognized, and Fernand who put it in the post.â
âBut,â exclaimed the abbĂ© suddenly, âyou were there yourself.â
âI!â said Caderousse, astonished; âwho told you I was there?â
The abbĂ© saw he had overshot the mark, and he added quickly,ââNo one; but in order to have known everything so well, you must have been an eye-witness.â
âTrue, true!â said Caderousse in a choking voice, âI was there.â
âAnd did you not remonstrate against such infamy?â asked the abbĂ©; âif not, you were an accomplice.â
âSir,â replied Caderousse, âthey 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.â
âNext dayânext day, sir, you must have seen plain enough what they had been doing, yet you said nothing, though you were present when DantĂšs was arrested.â
âYes, sir, I was there, and very anxious to speak; but Danglars restrained me. âIf he should really be guilty,â said he, âand 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.â I confess I had my fears, in the state in which politics then were, and I held my tongue. It was cowardly, I confess, but it was not criminal.â
âI understandâyou allowed matters to take their course, that was all.â
âYes, sir,â answered Caderousse; âand 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, âHold your tongue, woman; it is the will of God.ââ And Caderousse bowed his head with every sign of real repentance.
âWell, sir,â said the abbĂ©, âyou have spoken unreservedly; and thus to accuse yourself is to deserve pardon.â
âUnfortunately, Edmond is dead, and has not pardoned me.â
âHe did not know,â said the abbĂ©.
âBut he knows it all now,â interrupted Caderousse; âthey say the dead know everything.â
There was a brief silence; the abbé rose and paced up and down pensively, and then resumed his seat.
âYou have two or three times mentioned a M. Morrel,â he said; âwho was he?â
âThe owner of the Pharaon and patron of DantĂšs.â
âAnd what part did he play in this sad drama?â inquired the abbĂ©.
âThe 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 DantĂšsâ 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 manâs debts, and buried him decently; and so Edmondâs father died, as he had lived, without doing harm to anyone. I have the purse still by meâa large one, made of red silk.â
âAnd,â asked the abbĂ©, âis M. Morrel still alive?â
âYes,â replied Caderousse.
âIn that case,â replied the abbĂ©, âhe should be a man blessed of God, rich, happy.â
Caderousse smiled bitterly. âYes, happy as myself,â said he.
âWhat! M. Morrel unhappy?â exclaimed the abbĂ©.
âHe is reduced almost to the last extremityânay, he is almost at the point of dishonor.â
âHow?â
âYes,â continued Caderousse, âso 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 DantĂšs commanded, and which is expected from the Indies with a cargo of cochineal and indigo. If this ship founders, like the others, he is a ruined man.â
âAnd has the unfortunate man wife or children?â inquired the abbĂ©.
âYes, 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 end.â
âHorrible!â ejaculated the priest.
âAnd it is thus heaven recompenses virtue, sir,â added Caderousse. âYou see, I, who never did a bad action but that I have told you ofâam 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 DantĂšs did, while Fernand and Danglars are rolling in wealth.â
âHow is that?â
âBecause their deeds have brought them good fortune, while honest men have been reduced to misery.â
âWhat has become of Danglars, the instigator, and therefore the most guilty?â
âWhat 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 bankerâs daughter, who left him a widower, he has married a second time, a widow, a Madame de Nargonne, daughter of M. de Servieux, the kingâs 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 du Mont-Blanc, with ten horses in his stables, six footmen in his antechamber, and I know not how many millions in his strongbox.â
âAh!â said the abbĂ©, in a peculiar tone, âhe is happy.â
âHappy? Who can answer for that? Happiness or unhappiness is the secret known but to oneâs self and the wallsâwalls have ears but no tongue; but if a large fortune produces happiness, Danglars is happy.â
âAnd Fernand?â
âFernand? Why, much the same story.â
âBut how could a poor Catalan fisher-boy, without education or resources, make a fortune? I confess this staggers me.â
âAnd it has staggered everybody. There must have been in his life some strange secret that no one knows.â
âBut, then, by what visible steps has he attained this high fortune or high position?â
âBoth, sirâhe has both fortune and positionâboth.â
âThis must be impossible!â
âIt 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 army, 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.
âFernand would have been court-martialed if Napoleon had remained on the throne, but his action was rewarded by the Bourbons. He returned to France with the epaulet of sub-lieutenant, 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 warâthat 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 fellow-countrymen, 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 the cross of an officer of the Legion of Honor.â
âDestiny! destiny!â murmured the abbĂ©.
âYes, but listen: this was not all. The war with Spain being ended, Fernandâs 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 Athensâit 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 instructor-general. 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 returned to France, when he was gazetted lieutenant-general.â
âSo that nowââ?â inquired the abbĂ©.
âSo that now,â continued Caderousse, âhe owns a magnificent houseâNo. 27, Rue du Helder, Paris.â
The abbĂ© opened his mouth, hesitated for a moment, then, making an effort at self-control, he said, âAnd MercĂ©dĂšsâthey tell me that she has disappeared?â
âDisappeared,â said Caderousse, âyes, as the sun disappears, to rise the next day with still more splendor.â
âHas she made a fortune also?â inquired the abbĂ©, with an ironical smile.
âMercĂ©dĂšs is at this moment one of the greatest ladies in Paris,â replied Caderousse.
âGo on,â said the abbĂ©; âit 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.â
âMercĂ©dĂšs 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 DantĂšs. In the midst of her despair, a new affliction overtook her. This was the departure of Fernandâof Fernand, whose crime she did not know, and whom she regarded as her brother. Fernand went, and MercĂ©dĂšs remained alone.
âThree months passed and still she weptâno news of Edmond, no news of Fernand, no companionship
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