Page:The Count of Monte-Cristo (1887 Volume 1).djvu/21

 

N the 24th of February, 1815, the watch-tower of Notre-Dame de la Garde signaled the three-master, the Pharaon, from Smyrna, Trieste, and Naples.

As usual, a pilot put off immediately, and, rounding the Château d'If, got on board the vessel between Cape Morgion and the Isle of Rion. Immediately, and as usual, the platform of Fort Saint Jean was covered with lookers-on; it is always a great event at Marseilles for a ship to come into port, especially when this ship, like the Pharaon, had been built, rigged, and laden on the stocks of the old Phocœa, and belonged to an owner of the city.

The ship drew on; she had safely passed the strait which some volcanic shock has made between the Isle of Calasareigne and the Isle of Jaros; had doubled Pomègue, and approached the harbor under topsails, jib, and foresail, but so slowly, and in so cheerless a manner, that the idlers, with that instinct which foresees misfortune, asked one another what accident could have happened on board. However, those experienced in navigation saw plainly that if any accident had occurred, it was not to the vessel herself, for she bore down with all the evidence of being skillfully handled, the anchor ready to be dropped, the bowsprit-shrouds loose, and beside the pilot who was steering the Pharaon through the