The Count of Monte Cristo, Illustrated by Alexandre Dumas (electronic reader txt) đ
- Author: Alexandre Dumas
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Villefortâs 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.
âSir,â he responded, âyou 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 expeditious in barbarous countries, takes with us a prudent and well-studied course.â
âOh, yesâyes, 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 myselfâit 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.â
âIf this law were adopted, sir,â said the procureur, âit would greatly simplify our legal codes, and in that case the magistrates would not (as you just observed) have much to do.â
âIt may, perhaps, come to this in time,â observed Monte Cristo; âyou know that human inventions march from the complex to the simple, and simplicity is always perfection.â
âIn the meanwhile,â continued the magistrate, âour 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, when acquired, a strong power of brain to retain it.â
âI 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)âthat relatively to what I have done, you have very little to do; but that relatively to all I have learned, you have yet a great deal to learn.â
âBut with what motive have you learned all this?â inquired Villefort, in astonishment.
Monte Cristo smiled.
âReally, sir,â he observed, âI 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 manâthat is to say, in the most restricted, most narrow view which it is possible for human understanding to embrace.â
âPray, sir, explain yourself,â said Villefort, more and more astonished, âI really doânotâunderstand youâperfectly.â
âI 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 office-holders whose commissions have been signed by a minister or king; and that the men whom God has put above those office-holders, ministers, and kings, by giving them a mission to follow out, instead of a post to fillâI 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, âI am the angel of the Lordâ; and the other, âI am the hammer of God,â in order that the divine essence in both might be revealed.â
âThen,â said Villefort, more and more amazed, and really supposing he was speaking to a mystic or a madman, âyou consider yourself as one of those extraordinary beings whom you have mentioned?â
âAnd why not?â said Monte Cristo coldly.
âYour pardon, sir,â replied Villefort, quite astounded, âbut 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 fortuneâat least, so it is saidâand I beg you to observe that I do not inquire, I merely repeat;âit 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 console those whom fate has disinherited from the goods of this world.â
âReally, sir,â retorted the count, âhave 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 mingled with more or less of alloy?â
âSir,â said Villefort, âupon my word, you overcome me. I really never heard a person speak as you do.â
âBecause 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.â
âAnd you allow then, sir, that spheres exist, and that these marked and invisible beings mingle amongst us?â
âWhy should they not? Can you see the air you breathe, and yet without which you could not for a moment exist?â
âThen we do not see those beings to whom you allude?â
âYes, we do; you see them whenever God pleases to allow them to assume a material form. You touch them, come in contact with them, speak to them, and they reply to you.â
âAh,â said Villefort, smiling, âI confess I should like to be warned when one of these beings is in contact with me.â
âYou have been served as you desire, monsieur, for you were warned just now, and I now again warn you.â
âThen you yourself are one of these marked beings?â
âYes, 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 SpaniardâI 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; HaydĂ©e, 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 adversariesâI will not say two conquerors, for with perseverance I subdue even them,âthey are time and distance. There is a third, and the most terribleâthat 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 fateânamely, ruin, change, circumstancesâI 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 kingsâfor 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, âPerhaps some day I shall have to do with the kingâs attorneyâ?â
âBut can you not say that, sir? The moment you become an inhabitant of France, you are naturally subjected to the French law.â
âI know it sir,â replied Monte Cristo; âbut 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 kingâs attorney, be he who he may, with whom I should have to deal, would assuredly be more embarrassed than I should.â
âThat is to say,â replied Villefort with hesitation, âthat human nature being weak, every man, according to your creed, has committed faults.â
âFaults or crimes,â responded Monte Cristo with a negligent air.
âAnd that you alone, amongst the men whom you do not recognize as your brothersâfor you have said so,â observed Villefort in a tone that faltered somewhatââyou alone are perfect.â
âNo, not perfect,â was the countâs reply; âonly impenetrable, thatâs 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 second-sight.â
âNo, no,âby no means,â said Villefort, who was afraid of seeming to abandon his ground. âNo; 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, âMy brother, you sacrifice greatly to pride; you may be above others, but above you there is God.ââ
âAbove us all, sir,â was Monte Cristoâs response, in a tone and with an emphasis so deep that Villefort involuntarily shuddered. âI have my pride for menâserpents always ready to threaten everyone who would pass without crushing them under foot. But I lay aside that pride before God, who has taken me from nothing to make me what I am.â
âThen, count, I admire you,â 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. âYes, 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 thingâthen be proud, sir, for that is the characteristic of predominance. Yet you have unquestionably some ambition.â
âI have, sir.â
âAnd what may it be?â
âI 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, âChild of earth, what wouldst thou have to make thee adore me?â I reflected long, for a gnawing ambition had long preyed upon me, and then I replied, âListen,âI 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.â Satan bowed his head, and groaned. âYou mistake,â he said, âProvidence 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.â The bargain was concluded. I may sacrifice my soul, but what matters it?â added Monte Cristo. âIf the thing were to do again, I would again do it.â
Villefort looked at Monte Cristo with extreme amazement.
âCount,â he inquired, âhave you any relations?â
âNo, sir, I am alone in the world.â
âSo much the worse.â
âWhy?â
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