lightning-stroke which strikes but does not destroy you, and yet
which brings everything to an end. You are still yourself as now,
and yet you are yourself no longer; you who, like Ariel, verge on
the angelic, are but an inert mass, which, like Caliban, verges on
the brutal; and this is called in human tongues, as I tell you,
neither more nor less than apoplexy. Come, if so you will, count,
and continue this conversation at my house, any day you may be
willing to see an adversary capable of understanding and anxious to
refute you, and I will show you my father, M. Noirtier de
Villefort, one of the most fiery Jacobins of the French Revolution;
that is to say, he had the most remarkable audacity, seconded by a
most powerful organization — a man who has not, perhaps, like
yourself seen all the kingdoms of the earth, but who has helped to
overturn one of the greatest; in fact, a man who believed himself,
like you, one of the envoys, not of God, but of a supreme being;
not of providence, but of fate. Well, sir, the rupture of a
blood-vessel on the lobe of the brain has destroyed all this, not
in a day, not in an hour, but in a second. M. Noirtier, who, on the
previous night, was the old Jacobin, the old senator, the old
Carbonaro, laughing at the guillotine, the cannon, and the dagger —
M. Noirtier, playing with revolutions — M. Noirtier, for whom
France was a vast chess-board, from which pawns, rooks, knights,
and queens were to disappear, so that the king was checkmated — M.
Noirtier, the redoubtable, was the next morning `poor M. Noirtier,'
the helpless old man, at the tender mercies of the weakest creature
in the household, that is, his grandchild, Valentine; a dumb and
frozen carcass, in fact, living painlessly on, that time may be
given for his frame to decompose without his consciousness of its
decay."
"Alas, sir," said Monte Cristo "this spectacle is neither
strange to my eye nor my thought. I am something of a physician,
and have, like my fellows, sought more than once for the soul inand have, like my fellows, sought more than once for the soul in
living and in dead matter; yet, like providence, it has remained
invisible to my eyes, although present to my heart. A hundred
writers since Socrates, Seneca, St. Augustine, and Gall, have made,
in verse and prose, the comparison you have made, and yet I can
well understand that a father's sufferings may effect great changes
in the mind of a son. I will call on you, sir, since you bid me
contemplate, for the advantage of my pride, this terrible
spectacle, which must have been so great a source of sorrow to your
family."
"It would have been so unquestionably, had not God given me so
large a compensation. In contrast with the old man, who is dragging
his way to the tomb, are two children just entering into life —
Valentine, the daughter by my first wife — Mademoiselle Renee de
Saint-Meran — and Edward, the boy whose life you have this day
saved."
"And what is your deduction from this compensation, sir?"
inquired Monte Cristo.
"My deduction is," replied Villefort, "that my father, led away
by his passions, has committed some fault unknown to human justice,
but marked by the justice of God. That God, desirous in his mercy
to punish but one person, has visited this justice on him alone."
Monte Cristo with a smile on his lips, uttered in the depths of his
soul a groan which would have made Villefort fly had he but heard
it. "Adieu, sir," said the magistrate, who had risen from his seat;
"I leave you, bearing a remembrance of you — a remembrance of
esteem, which I hope will not be disagreeable to you when you know
me better; for I am not a man to bore my friends, as you will
learn. Besides, you have made an eternal friend of Madame de
Villefort." The count bowed, and contented himself with seeing
Villefort to the door of his cabinet, the procureur being escorted
to his carriage by two footmen, who, on a signal from their master,
followed him with every mark of attention. When he had gone, Monte
Cristo breathed a profound sigh, and said, — "Enough of thisCristo breathed a profound sigh, and said, — "Enough of this
poison, let me now seek the antidote." Then sounding his bell, he
said to Ali, who entered, "I am going to madam's chamber — have the
carriage ready at one o'clock."It will be recollected that the new, or rather old,
acquaintances of the Count of Monte Cristo, residing in the Rue
Meslay, were no other than Maximilian, Julie, and Emmanuel. The
very anticipations of delight to be enjoyed in his forthcoming
visits — the bright, pure gleam of heavenly happiness it diffused
over the almost deadly warfare in which he had voluntarily engaged,
illumined his whole countenance with a look of ineffable joy and
calmness, as, immediately after Villefort's departure, his thoughts
flew back to the cheering prospect before him, of tasting, at
least, a brief respite from the fierce and stormy passions of his
mind. Even Ali, who had hastened to obey the Count's summons, went
forth from his master's presence in charmed amazement at the
unusual animation and pleasure depicted on features ordinarily so
stern and cold; while, as though dreading to put to flight the
agreeable ideas hovering over his patron's meditations, whatever
they were, the faithful Nubian walked on tiptoe towards the door,
holding his breath, lest its faintest sound should dissipate his
master's happy reverie.
It was noon, and Monte Cristo had set apart one hour to be
passed in the apartments of Haidee, as though his oppressed spirit
could not all at once admit the feeling of pure and unmixed joy,
but required a gradual succession of calm and gentle emotions to
prepare his mind to receive full and perfect happiness, in the same
manner as ordinary natures demand to be inured by degrees to the
reception of strong or violent sensations. The young Greek, as we
have already said, occupied apartments wholly unconnected with
those of the count. The rooms had been fitted up in strict
accordance with Oriental ideas; the floors were covered with the
richest carpets Turkey could produce; the walls hung with brocaded
silk of the most magnificent designs and texture; while around each
chamber luxurious divans were placed, with piles of soft and
yielding cushions, that needed only to be arranged at the pleasure