Monte-Cristo's Daughter
he had started out to prosecute his search destined to be fraught with
so much excitement and to be crowned with such a glorious, dazzling
result. The golden sunlight fell full upon this peak and the surrounding
masses of stone, making them glitter as if encrusted with sparkling
diamonds of great price. Here and there grew olive trees and stunted
shrubs that stood out distinctly against the blue, cloudless sky; as the
yacht drew nearer their green tints formed a striking contrast with the
prevailing hue of the rocks, adding vastly to the picturesqueness of the
wild and romantic scene presented.
"How beautiful the island looks!" exclaimed Zuleika, enthusiastically,
as she leaned against the bulwarks of the vessel and gazed out over the
sea.
"Yes," replied Monte-Cristo, who was standing beside her, "it does,
indeed, look beautiful from here, but a closer view will dispel the
charm for the island is nothing but a barren waste."
"What! Is it a desert?" asked Zuleika, in surprise.
"A perfect desert, my child," answered the Count, "uncultivated and
uninhabited."
"Uninhabited!" cried Zuleika, gazing intently at the shore. "I
certainly see life there! Look! What was that?"
"A wild goat leaping from one rock to another," returned Monte-Cristo,
smiling. "The island is full of them. When I said it was uninhabited I
meant by human beings."
The Haydee by this time had approached as near the island as possible;
she was therefore anchored. The Count then ordered a boat lowered, into
which he descended with Zuleika and Ali. A stout sailor took the rudder,
two others grasped the oars, and, in a few minutes, a little cove was
gained and the disembarkation effected.
"Men," said the Count, addressing the sailors, "you can now row back to
the yacht. When you see me come upon the beach and wave my handkerchief
thrice, return for us."
"Aye, aye, Signor Count," answered the coxswain for the boat's crew. His
words were accompanied by the fall of the oars and the boat shot off
towards the Haydee.
"You are now on the Isle of Monte-Cristo," said the Count to Zuleika as
he took her hand to lead her forward. "Prepare to see what you have
termed its wonders!"
"They will, no doubt, prove wonders to me, at any rate," returned the
girl, smiling.
The Nubian stood before his master with uncovered head, respectfully
waiting for orders.
"Go in advance, Ali," said the Count, "and see that all is right."
The Nubian made a profound salaam in oriental fashion and hastened
away.
The Count and his daughter leisurely followed. As they walked they
disturbed hosts of grasshoppers, that leaped with a whirring flutter of
wings from the bushes and fled before them. This amused Zuleika, but she
could not repress a cry of affright as now and then a green, repulsive
looking lizard emerged from under the loose stones beneath her very feet
and shot hastily away in search of a more secure hiding-place.
Occasionally, too, they saw wild goats that pricked up their ears and
stared at them with wide open eyes, then gathering themselves for a
spring bounded off up the rocks and vanished.
At last Monte-Cristo and Zuleika came upon the Nubian, who had stopped
beside a huge bowlder that seemed to have lain for ages where it had
fallen from the cliffs above. A thick, bushy growth of wild myrtle and
flowering thorn had sprung up around it, and its surface was covered
with emerald hued moss. The Count and his daughter also stopped, the
former glancing around him and at the vast stone with evident
satisfaction.
"Nothing has been touched since I was here last," said he, as if to
himself; then, turning to Ali, he added: "Unmask the entrance to the
grottoes!"
The Nubian produced a rusty crowbar from some nook where he had
evidently concealed it in the past, thrusting the point beneath the
bowlder; then he exerted a strong, steady pressure upon the crowbar and
the great rock slowly moved aside, disclosing a circular opening in the
midst of which was a square flagstone bearing in its centre an iron
ring. Into this ring Ali inserted his crowbar and with a mighty effort
raised the flagstone from its place. A stairway descending apparently to
the bowels of the earth was disclosed, and from the sombre depths
escaped a flow of damp, mephitic air.
Zuleika drew back in affright. All that had passed since they came to
the bowlder was strange, bewildering and terrifying to her. Had the days
of enchantment returned? Was Ali some potent wizard like Aladdin's
pretended uncle in the old Arabian tale or was she simply under the
dominion of some disordered dream? Her knees trembled beneath her and
she moved as if to flee, but her father caught her by the arm and his
smiling countenance reassured her.
"Fear nothing, Zuleika," he said, soothingly. "We are about to visit my
subterranean palace. That is all."
By this time the atmosphere of the stairway had become purified and
Monte-Cristo said to Ali:
"Descend and light up the grottoes. When all is ready give the usual
signal."
The faithful servant entered the opening and vanished down the stairway.
Soon a delicious oriental perfume ascended. This was followed by a vivid
illumination of the gaping chasm and then came a long, reverberating
whistle.
"Ali notifies us that all is prepared for our reception," said
Monte-Cristo to Zuleika. "Come, my daughter!"
He descended the stairway first, Zuleika following him in a state of
mind difficult to describe. She was not afraid now, but her sensations
were of an exceedingly peculiar nature. The novelty and singularity of
the adventure rather attracted her, though, at the same time, she felt a
sort of reluctance to attempt it. However the opening was now as light
as day, and as they descended the intoxicating perfume increased in
intensity until it was almost as if acres of tube-roses had suddenly
bloomed and filled the caverns with their heavy fragrance.
At the bottom of the stairway Ali received them, conducting them into a
vast chamber that had evidently once possessed great splendor, but was
at present dingy and dust-covered as if it had been long deserted. It
was the apartment in which Monte-Cristo as Sinbad the Sailor had
welcomed the Baron Franz d' Epinay years before, but the crimson
brocade, worked with flowers of gold, though it still lined the chamber
as it did then, was now faded and moth-eaten, while the Turkey carpet in
which the Baron's feet had sunk to the instep, as well as the tapestry
hanging in front of the doors, was in the same condition. The divan in
the recess had been riddled by worms and the silver scabbards of the
stand of Arabian swords that surmounted it were tarnished, the gems in
the handles of the weapons alone retaining their brilliancy. The once
beautiful lamp of Venice glass hanging from the ceiling, which Ali had
filled and lighted, was also tarnished and its delicately shaped globe
was cracked from top to bottom. Monte-Cristo sadly contemplated this
scene of ruin and decay, but he contemplated it only for a moment. Then
he turned to Zuleika and said:
"My child, this was once my salon and its beauty riveted the eyes of all
who saw it, but I deserted it and time has done its work, aided by
neglect--its beauty is no more! Shall I raise another ghost of the past
and show you its former occupant?"
"Surely, I see him before me, do I not?" said Zuleika, gazing tenderly
at her father.
"Not as he was, my child, not as he was. Wait here a few moments, with
my faithful Ali as your guard and protector, and I will invoke the
fantastic apparition!"
As he spoke he raised the faded tapestry, revealing the door leading to
the inner apartment; opening this door and closing it behind him he was
lost to sight; the tapestry fell back to its place, masking the point of
entrance.
After a brief absence he reappeared dressed in his famous Tunisian
costume, but that, alas! had also lost its pristine glory like
everything else in this abandoned subterranean abode. Still the wrecks
were there--the red cap with the long blue silk tassel; the vest of
black cloth embroidered with gold; the pantaloons of deep red; the
large, full gaiters of the same color, embroidered with gold like the
vest; the yellow slippers; the cachemire around his waist, and the
small, crooked cangiar passed through his girdle.
Zuleika gazed at him in amazement. In his faded, tarnished, moth-eaten
finery he, indeed, looked like a fantastic apparition, a picturesque
ghost of the past.
"Come, Zuleika," said he, "as I am in my festal attire let us visit the
salle-a-manger!"
He moved aside the tapestry once more and again opened the door leading
to the other apartment. Zuleika entered and the Count followed her, Ali
remaining in the outer chamber to guard against surprise or intrusion.
The marvellous salle-a-manger was precisely the same as the Baron d'
Epinay had seen it. Here time seemed to have been defied. The marble of
which the magnificent apartment was built was as bright and beautiful as
ever, the antique bas-reliefs of priceless value were well preserved,
and the four superb statues with baskets on their heads were yet in
their places in the corners of the oblong room and yet perfect, though
no pyramids of splendid fruit now filled the baskets. In the centre of
the salle-a-manger the dining-table still stood with its dishes of
silver and plates of Japanese china. It was at this table that both the
Baron d' Epinay and Maximilian Morrel had taken that wonderful green
preparation, that key to the gate of divine dreams, the hatchis of
Alexandria, the hatchis of Abou-Gor. It was at this table that
Maximilian, when falling under the influence of the potent drug, had
caught his first glimpse of his beloved Valentine after her supposed
death; it was at this table that he had been reunited to her on awaking
from his hatchis dream. It was in this room that Haydee had confessed
her love for Monte-Cristo and had been taken to his heart.
All these recollections came thronging upon the Count as he stood gazing
about him. The thought of Haydee almost melted him to tears, but he
forced back the briny drops, and, taking Zuleika tenderly in his arms,
cried out, in a voice full of emotion:
"Oh! Haydee, Haydee, I have lost you, but you live for me again in this
blessed treasure you have bequeathed to me--our darling daughter!"
Zuleika flung her arms about her father's neck and kissed him fervently.
"I know not," she said, effusively, "what memories, what associations,
this room recalls, but it has made you think of my mother and I bless
it!"
When they both had grown calmer, Monte-Cristo said to his daughter:
"There is yet another apartment for us to see. Let us go to it."
They entered the adjoining chamber. It was a strangely furnished
apartment. Circular in shape it was surrounded by a large divan, which,
as well as the walls, ceiling and floor, was covered with what had been
magnificent skins of the large-maned lions of Atlas, striped Bengal
tigers, spotted panthers of the Cape, bears of Siberia and foxes of
Norway, but all these elegant furs that were strewn in profusion, one
over another, had been eaten by moths and worms and rotted by the
dampness until they scarcely held together. The divan was that upon
which the Baron d' Epinay had reclined, and the chibougues, with jasmine
tubes and amber mouthpieces, that he had seen, prepared so that there
was no need to smoke the same pipe twice, were still in their places and
were the only things in the whole room that had escaped from the clutch
of years unscathed. This chamber was brilliantly illuminated by the
blaze of several large lamps of tarnished silver and gold suspended from
the ceiling and protruding from the walls, and the salle-a-manger was
lighted in the same fashion.