Monte Cristo. Then he would be free to make his researches, not
perhaps entirely at liberty, for he would be doubtless watched by
those who accompanied him. But in this world we must risk
something. Prison had made Edmond prudent, and he was desirous of
running no risk whatever. But in vain did he rack his imagination;
fertile as it was, he could not devise any plan for reaching the
island without companionship.
Dantes was tossed about on these doubts and wishes, when the
patron, who had great confidence in him, and was very desirous of
retaining him in his service, took him by the arm one evening and
led him to a tavern on the Via del' Oglio, where the leading
smugglers of Leghorn used to congregate and discuss affairs
connected with their trade. Already Dantes had visited this
maritime Bourse two or three times, and seeing all these hardy
free-traders, who supplied the whole coast for nearly two hundred
leagues in extent, he had asked himself what power might not that
man attain who should give the impulse of his will to all these
contrary and diverging minds. This time it was a great matter that
was under discussion, connected with a vessel laden with Turkey
carpets, stuffs of the Levant, and cashmeres. It was necessary to
find some neutral ground on which an exchange could be made, and
then to try and land these goods on the coast of France. If the
venture was successful the profit would be enormous, there would be
a gain of fifty or sixty piastres each for the crew.
The patron of The Young Amelia proposed as a place of landing
the Island of Monte Cristo, which being completely deserted, and
having neither soldiers nor revenue officers, seemed to have been
placed in the midst of the ocean since the time of the heathen
Olympus by Mercury, the god of merchants and robbers, classes of
mankind which we in modern times have separated if not made
distinct, but which antiquity appears to have included in the same
category. At the mention of Monte Cristo Dantes started with joy;category. At the mention of Monte Cristo Dantes started with joy;
he rose to conceal his emotion, and took a turn around the smoky
tavern, where all the languages of the known world were jumbled in
a lingua franca. When he again joined the two persons who had been
discussing the matter, it had been decided that they should touch
at Monte Cristo and set out on the following night. Edmond, being
consulted, was of opinion that the island afforded every possible
security, and that great enterprises to be well done should be done
quickly. Nothing then was altered in the plan, and orders were
given to get under weigh next night, and, wind and weather
permitting, to make the neutral island by the following day.Thus, at length, by one of the unexpected strokes of fortune
which sometimes befall those who have for a long time been the
victims of an evil destiny, Dantes was about to secure the
opportunity he wished for, by simple and natural means, and land on
the island without incurring any suspicion. One night more and he
would be on his way.
The night was one of feverish distraction, and in its progress
visions good and evil passed through Dantes' mind. If he closed his
eyes, he saw Cardinal Spada's letter written on the wall in
characters of flame — if he slept for a moment the wildest dreams
haunted his brain. He ascended into grottos paved with emeralds,
with panels of rubies, and the roof glowing with diamond
stalactites. Pearls fell drop by drop, as subterranean waters
filter in their caves. Edmond, amazed, wonderstruck, filled his
pockets with the radiant gems and then returned to daylight, when
be discovered that his prizes had all changed into common pebbles.
He then endeavored to re-enter the marvellous grottos, but they had
suddenly receded, and now the path became a labyrinth, and then the
entrance vanished, and in vain did he tax his memory for the magic
and mysterious word which opened the splendid caverns of Ali Baba
to the Arabian fisherman. All was useless, the treasure
disappeared, and had again reverted to the genii from whom for a
moment he had hoped to carry it off. The day came at length, and
was almost as feverish as the night had been, but it brought reason
to the aid of imagination, and Dantes was then enabled to arrange a
plan which had hitherto been vague and unsettled in his brain.
Night came, and with it the preparation for departure, and these
preparations served to conceal Dantes' agitation. He had by degrees
assumed such authority over his companions that he was almost like
a commander on board; and as his orders were always clear,
distinct, and easy of execution, his comrades obeyed him with
celerity and pleasure.
The old patron did not interfere, for he too had recognized thecelerity and pleasure.
The old patron did not interfere, for he too had recognized the
superiority of Dantes over the crew and himself. He saw in the
young man his natural successor, and regretted that he had not a
daughter, that he might have bound Edmond to him by a more secure
alliance. At seven o'clock in the evening all was ready, and at ten
minutes past seven they doubled the lighthouse just as the beacon
was kindled. The sea was calm, and, with a fresh breeze from the
south-east, they sailed beneath a bright blue sky, in which God
also lighted up in turn his beacon lights, each of which is a
world. Dantes told them that all hands might turn in, and he would
take the helm. When the Maltese (for so they called Dantes) had
said this, it was sufficient, and all went to their bunks
contentedly. This frequently happened. Dantes, cast from solitude
into the world, frequently experienced an imperious desire for
solitude; and what solitude is more complete, or more poetical,
than that of a ship floating in isolation on the sea during the
obscurity of the night, in the silence of immensity, and under the
eye of heaven?
Now this solitude was peopled with his thoughts, the night
lighted up by his illusions, and the silence animated by his
anticipations. When the patron awoke, the vessel was hurrying on
with every sail set, and every sail full with the breeze. They were
making nearly ten knots an hour. The Island of Monte Cristo loomed
large in the horizon. Edmond resigned the lugger to the master's
care, and went and lay down in his hammock; but, in spite of a
sleepless night, he could not close his eyes for a moment. Two
hours afterwards he came on deck, as the boat was about to double
the Island of Elba. They were just abreast of Mareciana, and beyond
the flat but verdant Island of La Pianosa. The peak of Monte Cristo
reddened by the burning sun, was seen against the azure sky. Dantes
ordered the helmsman to put down his helm, in order to leave La
Pianosa to starboard, as he knew that he should shorten his course