The Count of Monte Cristo
length his eyes opened, but they were at first fixed and
expressionless; then sight returned, and with it feeling and grief.
“Oh,” he cried, in an accent of despair, “the count has deceived me; I
am yet living;” and extending his hand towards the table, he seized a
knife.
“Dearest,” exclaimed Valentine, with her adorable smile, “awake, and
look at me!” Morrel uttered a loud exclamation, and frantic, doubtful,
dazzled, as though by a celestial vision, he fell upon his knees.
The next morning at daybreak, Valentine and Morrel were walking
arm-in-arm on the seashore, Valentine relating how Monte Cristo had
appeared in her room, explained everything, revealed the crime, and,
finally, how he had saved her life by enabling her to simulate death.
They had found the door of the grotto opened, and gone forth; on the
azure dome of heaven still glittered a few remaining stars.
Morrel soon perceived a man standing among the rocks, apparently
awaiting a sign from them to advance, and pointed him out to Valentine.
“Ah, it is Jacopo,” she said, “the captain of the yacht;” and she
beckoned him towards them.
“Do you wish to speak to us?” asked Morrel.
“I have a letter to give you from the count.”
“From the count!” murmured the two young people.
“Yes; read it.”
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Morrel opened the letter, and read:
“My Dear Maximilian,
“There is a felucca for you at anchor. Jacopo will carry you to
Leghorn, where Monsieur Noirtier awaits his granddaughter, whom he
wishes to bless before you lead her to the altar. All that is in this
grotto, my friend, my house in the Champs-Élysées, and my château at
Tréport, are the marriage gifts bestowed by Edmond Dantès upon the son
of his old master, Morrel. Mademoiselle de Villefort will share them
with you; for I entreat her to give to the poor the immense fortune
reverting to her from her father, now a madman, and her brother who
died last September with his mother. Tell the angel who will watch over
your future destiny, Morrel, to pray sometimes for a man, who, like
Satan, thought himself for an instant equal to God, but who now
acknowledges with Christian humility that God alone possesses supreme
power and infinite wisdom. Perhaps those prayers may soften the remorse
he feels in his heart. As for you, Morrel, this is the secret of my
conduct towards you. There is neither happiness nor misery in the
world; there is only the comparison of one state with another, nothing
more. He who has felt the deepest grief is best able to experience
supreme happiness. We must have felt what it is to die, Morrel, that we
may appreciate the enjoyments of living.
“Live, then, and be happy, beloved children of my heart, and never
forget that until the day when God shall deign to reveal the future to
man, all human wisdom is summed up in these two words,—‘_Wait and
hope_.’—Your friend,
“Edmond Dantès, _Count of Monte Cristo_.”
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During the perusal of this letter, which informed Valentine for the
first time of the madness of her father and the death of her brother,
she became pale, a heavy sigh escaped from her bosom, and tears, not
the less painful because they were silent, ran down her cheeks; her
happiness cost her very dear.
Morrel looked around uneasily.
“But,” he said, “the count’s generosity is too overwhelming; Valentine
will be satisfied with my humble fortune. Where is the count, friend?
Lead me to him.”
Jacopo pointed towards the horizon.
“What do you mean?” asked Valentine. “Where is the count?—where is
Haydée?”
“Look!” said Jacopo.
The eyes of both were fixed upon the spot indicated by the sailor, and
on the blue line separating the sky from the Mediterranean Sea, they
perceived a large white sail.
“Gone,” said Morrel; “gone!—adieu, my friend—adieu, my father!”
“Gone,” murmured Valentine; “adieu, my sweet Haydée—adieu, my sister!”
“Who can say whether we shall ever see them again?” said Morrel with
tearful eyes.
“Darling,” replied Valentine, “has not the count just told us that all
human wisdom is summed up in two words:
“‘_Wait and hope_ (Fac et spera)!’”
FOOTNOTES:
[1] “The wicked are great drinkers of water; As the flood proved once
for all.”
[2] $2,600,000 in 1894.
[3] Knocked on the head.
[4] Beheaded.
[5] Scott, of course: “The son of an ill-fated sire, and the father of
a yet more unfortunate family, bore in his looks that cast of
inauspicious melancholy by which the physiognomists of that time
pretended to distinguish those who were predestined to a violent and
unhappy death.”—The Abbot, ch. xxii.
[6] Guillotine.
[7] Dr. Guillotin got the idea of his famous machine from witnessing an
execution in Italy.
[8] Brucea ferruginea.
[9] ‘Money and sanctity, Each in a moiety.’
[10] Elisabeth de Rossan, Marquise de Ganges, was one of the famous
women of the court of Louis XIV. where she was known as “La Belle
Provençale.” She was the widow of the Marquis de Castellane when she
married de Ganges, and having the misfortune to excite the enmity of
her new brothers-in-law, was forced by them to take poison; and they
finished her off with pistol and dagger.—Ed.
[11] Magistrate and orator of great eloquence—chancellor of France
under Louis XV.
[12] Jacques-Louis David, a famous French painter (1748-1825).
[13] Ali Pasha, “The Lion,” was born at Tepelini, an Albanian village
at the foot of the Klissoura Mountains, in 1741. By diplomacy and
success in arms he became almost supreme ruler of Albania, Epirus, and
adjacent territory. Having aroused the enmity of the Sultan, he was
proscribed and put to death by treachery in 1822, at the age of
eighty.—Ed.
[14] Greek militiamen in the war for independence.—Ed.
[15] A Turkish pasha in command of the troops of a province.—Ed.
[16] The god of fruitfulness in Grecian mythology. In Crete he was
supposed to be slain in winter with the decay of vegetation and to
revive in the spring. Haydée’s learned reference is to the behavior of
an actor in the Dionysian festivals.—Ed.
[17] The Genoese conspirator.
[18] Lake Maggiore.
[19] In the old Greek legend the Atreidae, or children of Atreus, were
doomed to punishment because of the abominable crime of their father.
The _Agamemnon_ of Aeschylus is based on this legend.
[20] The performance of the civil marriage.
[21] In Molière’s comedy, _Le Misanthrope_.
[22] Literally, “the basket,” because wedding gifts were originally
brought in such a receptacle.
[23] Germain Pillon was a famous French sculptor (1535-1598). His best
known work is “The Three Graces,” now in the Louvre.
[24] Frédérick Lemaître—French actor (1800-1876). Robert Macaire is the
hero of two favorite melodramas—“Chien de Montargis” and “Chien
d’Aubry”—and the name is applied to bold criminals as a term of
derision.
[25] The Spahis are French cavalry reserved for service in Africa.
[26] _Savate_: an old shoe.
[27] Guilbert de Pixérécourt, French dramatist (1773-1844).
[28] Gaspard Puget, the sculptor-architect, was born at Marseilles in
1615.
[29] The Carolina—not Virginia—jessamine, _gelsemium sempervirens_
(properly speaking not a jessamine at all) has yellow blossoms. The
reference is no doubt to the _Wistaria frutescens_.—Ed.
[30] The miser in Molière’s comedy of _L’Avare_.—Ed.