Part 9 (1/2)
”You have a broker, have you not?”
”Yes”
”Then give me a letter to him, and tell him to sell out without an instant's delay, perhaps even now I shall arrive too late”
”The deuce you say!” replied thedown, he wrote a letter to his broker, ordering him to sell out at thethe letter in his pocketbook, ”I ”
”To the king?”
”Yes”
”I dare not write to his majesty”
”I do not ask you to write to his majesty, but ask M de Salvieux to do so I want a letter that will enable 's presence without all the for an audience; that would occasion a loss of precious time”
”But address yourself to the keeper of the seals; he has the right of entry at the Tuileries, and can procure you audience at any hour of the day or night”
”Doubtless; but there is no occasion to divide the honors of round, and take all the glory to himself I tell you, marquis, my fortune iswill not forget the service I do hiet ready I will call Salvieux and make him write the letter”
”Be as quick as possible, I must be on the road in a quarter of an hour”
”Tell your coachman to stop at the door”
”You will present my excuses to the marquise and Maderet”
”You will find them both here, and can make your farewells in person”
”A thousand thanks--and now for the letter”
The , a servant entered
”Say to the Comte de Salvieux that I would like to see hio,” said the one only a few moments”
Villefort hastily quitted the apartht of the deputy procureur running through the streets would be enough to throw the whole city into confusion, he resuure in the shadow that see no news of her lover, had come unobserved to inquire after him
As Villefort drew near, she advanced and stood before him Dantes had spoken of Mercedes, and Villefort instantly recognized her Her beauty and high bearing surprised him, and when she inquired what had becoe, and he the accused
”The young reat cri for him, mademoiselle” Mercedes burst into tears, and, as Villefort strove to pass her, again addressed him
”But, at least, tell me where he is, that I may knohether he is alive or dead,” said she
”I do not know; he is no longer inan end to the interview, he pushed by her, and closed the door, as if to exclude the pain he felt But reil's wounded hero, he carried the arrow in his wound, and, arrived at the salon, Villefort uttered a sigh that was als of an unending torture seized upon his heart The man he sacrificed to his ambition, that innocent victim immolated on the altar of his father's faults, appeared to hi his affianced bride by the hand, and bringing with hiured, furious and terrible, but that slow and consus are intensified from hour to hour up to the very moment of death Then he had a moment's hesitation He had frequently called for capital punish to his irresistible eloquence they had been condehtest shadow of reuilty; at least, he believed so; but here was an innocent man whose happiness he had destroyed: in this case he was not the judge, but the executioner
As he thus reflected, he felt the sensation we have described, and which had hitherto been unknown to hiue apprehensions It is thus that a wounded er to his wound until it be healed, but Villefort's was one of those that never close, or if they do, only close to reopenthan ever If at this mo for mercy, or the fair Mercedes had entered and said, ”In the name of God, I conjure you to restorehands would have signed his release; but no voice broke the stillness of the chamber, and the door was opened only by Villefort's valet, who cae was in readiness
Villefort rose, or rather sprang, from his chair, hastily opened one of the drawers of his desk, eold it contained into his pocket, stood motionless an instant, his hand pressed to his head,that his servant had placed his cloak on his shoulders, he sprang into the carriage, ordering the postilions to drive to M de Saint-Meran's The hapless Dantes was doomed
As the marquis had pro He started when he saw Renee, for he fancied she was again about to plead for Dantes Alas, her e only of Villefort's departure
She loved Villefort, and he left her at the moment he was about to become her husband Villefort knew not when he should return, and Renee, far fro for Dantes, hated the man whose crime separated her from her lover
Meanwhile what of Mercedes? She had e; she had returned to the Catalans, and had despairingly cast herself on her couch Fernand, kneeling by her side, took her hand, and covered it with kisses that Mercedes did not even feel She passed the night thus The lamp went out for want of oil, but she paid no heed to the darkness, and dawn came, but she knew not that it was day Grief had made her blind to all but one object--that was Ed towards Fernand
”I have not quitted you since yesterday,” returned Fernand sorrowfully
M Morrel had not readily given up the fight He had learned that Dantes had been taken to prison, and he had gone to all his friends, and the influential persons of the city; but the report was already in circulation that Dantes was arrested as a Bonapartist agent; and as the uine looked upon any attempt of Napoleon to re but refusal, and had returned ho that themore could be done
Caderousse was equally restless and uneasy, but instead of seeking, like M Morrel, to aid Dantes, he had shut himself up with two bottles of black currant brandy, in the hope of drowning reflection But he did not succeed, and became too intoxicated to fetch any et what had happened With his elbows on the table he sat between the two eht of the unsnuffed candle--spectres such as Hoffes, like black, fantastic dust
Danglars alone was content and joyous--he had got rid of an enelars was one of those men born with a pen behind the ear, and an inkstand in place of a heart Everything with him was multiplication or subtraction The life of a man was to hi it away, he could increase the sum total of his own desires He went to bed at his usual hour, and slept in peace
Villefort, after having received M de Salvieux' letter, embraced Renee, kissed the marquise's hand, and shaken that of thethe Aix road
Old Dantes was dying with anxiety to knohat had become of Edmond But we know very hat had beco's Closet at the Tuileries
We will leave Villefort on the road to Paris, travelling--thanks to trebled fees--with all speed, and passing through two or three apartments, enter at the Tuileries the little roo been the favorite closet of Napoleon and Louis XVIII, and now of Louis Philippe
There, seated before a walnut table he had brought with him from Hartwell, and to which, froreat people, he was particularly attached, the king, Louis XVIII, was carelessly listening to a ray hair, aristocratic bearing, and exceedingly gentleinal note in a voluht-after, edition of Horace--a hich was acious observations of the philosophical
”That I aly disquieted, sire”
”Really, have you had a vision of the seven fat kine and the seven lean kine?”