The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (books to read to improve english txt) đ
- Author: Alexandre Dumas
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âWe must excuse our worthy neighbor, Caderousse,â said Dantès, âhe is so easily mistaken.â
âSo, then, the wedding is to take place immediately, M. Dantès,â said Danglars, bowing to the young couple.
âAs soon as possible, M. Danglars; today all preliminaries will be arranged at my fatherâs, and tomorrow, or next day at latest, the wedding festival here at La RĂŠserve. My friends will be there, I hope; that is to say, you are invited, M. Danglars, and you, Caderousse.â
âAnd Fernand,â said Caderousse with a chuckle; âFernand, too, is invited!â
âMy wifeâs brother is my brother,â said Edmond; âand we, MercĂŠdès and I, should be very sorry if he were absent at such a time.â
Fernand opened his mouth to reply, but his voice died on his lips, and he could not utter a word.
âToday the preliminaries, tomorrow or next day the ceremony! You are in a hurry, captain!â
âDanglars,â said Edmond, smiling, âI will say to you as MercĂŠdès said just now to Caderousse, âDo not give me a title which does not belong to meâ; that may bring me bad luck.â
âYour pardon,â replied Danglars, âI merely said you seemed in a hurry, and we have lots of time; the Pharaon cannot be under weigh again in less than three months.â
âWe 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 Paris.â
âAh, really?âto Paris! and will it be the first time you have ever been there, Dantès?â
âYes.â
âHave you business there?â
âNot of my own; the last commission of poor Captain Leclere; you know to what I allude, Danglarsâit is sacred. Besides, I shall only take the time to go and return.â
âYes, yes, I understand,â said Danglars, and then in a low tone, he added, âTo Paris, no doubt to deliver the letter which the grand marshal gave him. Ah, this letter gives me an ideaâa capital idea! Ah; Dantès, my friend, you are not yet registered number one on board the good ship Pharaon;â then turning towards Edmond, who was walking away, âA pleasant journey,â he cried.
âThank you,â said Edmond with a friendly nod, and the two lovers continued on their way, as calm and joyous as if they were the very elect of heaven.
Chapter 4. Conspiracy
Danglars followed Edmond and MercÊdès 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, into his chair, while Caderousse stammered out the words of a drinking-song.
âWell, my dear sir,â said Danglars to Fernand, âhere is a marriage which does not appear to make everybody happy.â
âIt drives me to despair,â said Fernand.
âDo you, then, love MercĂŠdès?â
âI adore her!â
âFor long?â
âAs long as I have known herâalways.â
âAnd you sit there, tearing your hair, instead of seeking to remedy your condition; I did not think that was the way of your people.â
âWhat would you have me do?â said Fernand.
âHow do I know? Is it my affair? I am not in love with Mademoiselle MercĂŠdès; but for youâin the words of the gospel, seek, and you shall find.â
âI have found already.â
âWhat?â
âI would stab the man, but the woman told me that if any misfortune happened to her betrothed, she would kill herself.â
âPooh! Women say those things, but never do them.â
âYou do not know MercĂŠdès; what she threatens she will do.â
âIdiot!â muttered Danglars; âwhether she kill herself or not, what matter, provided Dantès is not captain?â
âBefore MercĂŠdès should die,â replied Fernand, with the accents of unshaken resolution, âI would die myself!â
âThatâs what I call love!â said Caderousse with a voice more tipsy than ever. âThatâs love, or I donât know what love is.â
âCome,â said Danglars, âyou appear to me a good sort of fellow, and hang me, I should like to help you, butâââ
âYes,â said Caderousse, âbut how?â
âMy dear fellow,â replied Danglars, âyou 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 oneâs wit and cool judgment.â
âIâdrunk!â said Caderousse; âwell thatâs a good one! I could drink four more such bottles; they are no bigger than cologne flasks. Père Pamphile, more wine!â
And Caderousse rattled his glass upon the table.
âYou were saying, sirâââ said Fernand, awaiting with great anxiety the end of this interrupted remark.
âWhat was I saying? I forget. This drunken Caderousse has made me lose the thread of my sentence.â
âDrunk, 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;â and Caderousse began to sing the two last lines of a song very popular at the time:
Câest bien prouvĂŠ par le dĂŠluge.â1
âYou said, sir, you would like to help me, butâââ
âYes; but I added, to help you it would be sufficient that Dantès did not marry her you love; and the marriage may easily be thwarted, methinks, and yet Dantès need not die.â
âDeath alone can separate them,â remarked Fernand.
âYou talk like a noodle, my friend,â said Caderousse; âand here is Danglars, who is a wide-awake, 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 Dantès should die; it would, indeed, be a pity he should. Dantès is a good fellow; I like Dantès. Dantès, your health.â
Fernand rose impatiently. âLet him run on,â said Danglars, restraining the young man; âdrunk 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 MercĂŠdès they would be as effectually separated as if he lay under a tombstone.â
âYes; but one gets out of prison,â said Caderousse, who, with what sense was left him, listened eagerly to the conversation, âand when one gets out and oneâs name is Edmond Dantès, one seeks revengeâââ
âWhat matters that?â muttered Fernand.
âAnd why, I should like to know,â persisted Caderousse, âshould they put Dantès in prison? he has neither robbed, nor killed, nor murdered.â
âHold your tongue!â said Danglars.
âI wonât hold my tongue!â replied Caderousse; âI say I want to know why they should put Dantès in prison; I like Dantès; Dantès, your health!â and he swallowed another glass of wine.
Danglars saw in the muddled look of the tailor the progress of his intoxication, and turning towards Fernand, said, âWell, you understand there is no need to kill him.â
âCertainly not, if, as you said just now, you have the means of having Dantès arrested. Have you that means?â
âIt is to be found for the searching. But why should I meddle in the matter? it is no affair of mine.â
âI know not why you meddle,â said Fernand, seizing his arm; âbut this I know, you have some motive of personal hatred against Dantès, for he who himself hates is never mistaken in the sentiments of others.â
âI! motives of hatred against Dantès? None, on my word! I saw you were unhappy, and your unhappiness interested me; thatâs all; but since you believe I act for my own account, adieu, my dear friend, get out of the affair as best you may;â and Danglars rose as if he meant to depart.
âNo, no,â said Fernand, restraining him, âstay! It is of very little consequence to me at the end of the matter whether you have any angry feeling or not against Dantès. 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 MercĂŠdès has declared she will kill herself if Dantès is killed.â
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, âKill Dantès! who talks of killing Dantès? I wonât have him killedâI wonât! Heâs my friend, and this morning offered to share his money with me, as I shared mine with him. I wonât have Dantès killedâI wonât!â
âAnd who has said a word about killing him, muddlehead?â replied Danglars. âWe were merely joking; drink to his health,â he added, filling Caderousseâs glass, âand do not interfere with us.â
âYes, yes, Dantèsâ good health!â said Caderousse, emptying his glass, âhereâs to his health! his healthâhurrah!â
âBut the meansâthe means?â said Fernand.
âHave you not hit upon any?â asked Danglars.
âNo!âyou undertook to do so.â
âTrue,â replied Danglars; âthe French have the superiority over the Spaniards, that the Spaniards ruminate, while the French invent.â
âDo you invent, then,â said Fernand impatiently.
âWaiter,â said Danglars, âpen, ink, and paper.â
âPen, ink, and paper,â muttered Fernand.
âYes; I am a supercargo; pen, ink, and paper are my tools, and without my tools I am fit for nothing.â
âPen, ink, and paper, then,â called Fernand loudly.
âThereâs what you want on that table,â said the waiter.
âBring them here.â The waiter did as he was desired.
âWhen one thinks,â said Caderousse, letting his hand drop on the paper, âthere 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 a pen, a bottle of ink, and a sheet of paper, than of a sword or pistol.â
âThe fellow is not so drunk as he appears to be,â said Danglars. âGive him some more wine, Fernand.â Fernand filled Caderousseâs glass, who, like the confirmed toper he was, lifted his hand from the paper and seized the glass.
The Catalan watched him until Caderousse, almost overcome by this fresh assault on his senses, rested, or rather dropped, his glass upon the table.
âWell!â resumed the Catalan, as he saw the final glimmer of Caderousseâs reason vanishing before the last glass of wine.
âWell, then, I should say, for instance,â resumed Danglars, âthat if after a voyage such as Dantès has just made, in which he touched at the Island of Elba, someone were to denounce him to the kingâs procureur as a Bonapartist agentâââ
âI will denounce him!â exclaimed the young man hastily.
âYes, 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 Dantès cannot remain forever in prison, and one day or other he will leave it, and the day when he comes out, woe betide him who was the cause of his incarceration!â
âOh, I should wish nothing better than that he would come and seek a quarrel with me.â
âYes, and MercĂŠdès! MercĂŠdès, who will detest you if you have only the misfortune to scratch the skin of her dearly beloved Edmond!â
âTrue!â said Fernand.
âNo, no,â continued Danglars; âif 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.â 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 Fernand read in an undertone:
âThe honorable, the kingâs attorney, is informed by a friend of the throne and religion, that one Edmond Dantès, mate of the ship Pharaon, arrived this morning from Smyrna, after having touched at Naples and Porto-Ferrajo, 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
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