the conduct of the Lieutenant-General the Count of Morcerf in
Epirus and in Macedonia with important particulars.'
"The president paused, and the count turned pale. The president
looked at his auditors. `Proceed,' was heard on all sides. The
president resumed: —
"`I was on the spot at the death of Ali Pasha. I was present
during his last moments. I know what is become of Vasiliki and
Haidee. I am at the command of the committee, and even claim the
honor of being heard. I shall be in the lobby when this note is
delivered to you.'
"`And who is this witness, or rather this enemy?' asked the
count, in a tone in which there was a visible alteration. `We shall
know, sir,' replied the president. `Is the committee willing to
hear this witness?' — `Yes, yes,' they all said at once. The
door-keeper was called. `Is there any one in the lobby?' said the
president.
"`Yes, sir.' — `Who is it?' — `A woman, accompanied by a
servant.' Every one looked at his neighbor. `Bring her in,' said
the president. Five minutes after the door-keeper again appeared;
all eyes were fixed on the door, and I," said Beauchamp, "shared
the general expectation and anxiety. Behind the door-keeper walked
a woman enveloped in a large veil, which completely concealed her.
It was evident, from her figure and the perfumes she had about her,
that she was young and fastidious in her tastes, but that was all.
The president requested her to throw aside her veil, and it was
then seen that she was dressed in the Grecian costume, and was
remarkably beautiful."
"Ah," said Albert, "it was she."
"Who?"
"Haidee."
"Who told you that?"
"Alas, I guess it. But go on, Beauchamp. You see I am calm and
strong. And yet we must be drawing near the disclosure."
"M. de Morcerf," continued Beauchamp, "looked at this woman with
surprise and terror. Her lips were about to pass his sentence of
life or death. To the committee the adventure was so extraordinary
and curious, that the interest they had felt for the count's safetyand curious, that the interest they had felt for the count's safety
became now quite a secondary matter. The president himself advanced
to place a seat for the young lady; but she declined availing
herself of it. As for the count, he had fallen on his chair; it was
evident that his legs refused to support him.
"`Madame,' said the president, `you have engaged to furnish the
committee with some important particulars respecting the affair at
Yanina, and you have stated that you were an eyewitness of the
event.' — `I was, indeed,' said the stranger, with a tone of sweet
melancholy, and with the sonorous voice peculiar to the East.
"`But allow me to say that you must have been very young then.'
— `I was four years old; but as those events deeply concerned me,
not a single detail has escaped my memory.' — `In what manner could
these events concern you? and who are you, that they should have
made so deep an impression on you?' — `On them depended my father's
life,' replied she. `I am Haidee, the daughter of Ali Tepelini,
pasha of Yanina, and of Vasiliki, his beloved wife.'
"The blush of mingled pride and modesty which suddenly suffused
the cheeks of the young woman, the brilliancy of her eye, and her
highly important communication, produced an indescribable effect on
the assembly. As for the count, he could not have been more
overwhelmed if a thunderbolt had fallen at his feet and opened an
immense gulf before him. `Madame,' replied the president, bowing
with profound respect, `allow me to ask one question; it shall be
the last: Can you prove the authenticity of what you have now
stated?' — `I can, sir,' said Haidee, drawing from under her veil a
satin satchel highly perfumed; `for here is the register of my
birth, signed by my father and his principal officers, and that of
my baptism, my father having consented to my being brought up in my
mother's faith, — this latter has been sealed by the grand primate
of Macedonia and Epirus; and lastly (and perhaps the mostof Macedonia and Epirus; and lastly (and perhaps the most
important), the record of the sale of my person and that of my
mother to the Armenian merchant El-Kobbir, by the French officer,
who, in his infamous bargain with the Porte, had reserved as his
part of the booty the wife and daughter of his benefactor, whom he
sold for the sum of four hundred thousand francs.' A greenish
pallor spread over the count's cheeks, and his eyes became
bloodshot at these terrible imputations, which were listened to by
the assembly with ominous silence.
"Haidee, still calm, but with a calmness more dreadful than the
anger of another would have been, handed to the president the
record of her sale, written in Arabic. It had been supposed some of
the papers might be in the Arabian, Romaic, or Turkish language,
and the interpreter of the House was in attendance. One of the
noble peers, who was familiar with the Arabic language, having
studied it during the famous Egyptian campaign, followed with his
eye as the translator read aloud: —
"`I, El-Kobbir, a slave-merchant, and purveyor of the harem of
his highness, acknowledge having received for transmission to the
sublime emperor, from the French lord, the Count of Monte Cristo,
an emerald valued at eight hundred thousand francs; as the ransom
of a young Christian slave of eleven years of age, named Haidee,
the acknowledged daughter of the late lord Ali Tepelini, pasha of
Yanina, and of Vasiliki, his favorite; she having been sold to me
seven years previously, with her mother, who had died on arriving
at Constantinople, by a French colonel in the service of the Vizier
Ali Tepelini, named Fernand Mondego. The above-mentioned purchase
was made on his highness's account, whose mandate I had, for the
sum of four hundred thousand francs.
"`Given at Constantinople, by authority of his highness, in the
year 1247 of the Hegira.
"`Signed El-Kobbir.'
"`That this record should have all due authority, it shall bear
the imperial seal, which the vendor is bound to have affixed to
it.'