Page:The Count of Monte-Cristo (1887 Volume 1).djvu/210

190 Dubuquoi from For l'Evêque, and Latude's from the Bastile; chance, too, frequently affords opportunities we should never ourselves have thought of. Let us, therefore, wait patiently for some favorable moment, and take advantage of it."

"Ah!" said Dantès, "you might well endure the tedious delay; you were constantly employed in the task you set yourself, and when weary with toil, you had your hopes to refresh and encourage you."

"I assure you," replied the old man, "I did not turn to that source for recreation or support."

"What did you do then?"

"I wrote or studied."

"Were you then permitted the use of pens, ink, and paper"

"Oh, no!" answered the abbé; "I had none but what I made for myself."

"Do you mean to tell me," exclaimed Dantès, "that you could make all those things?"

"I do, indeed, truly say so."

Dantès gazed with admiration on the abbé; some doubt, however, still lingered in his mind, which was quickly perceived by Faria.

"When you pay me a visit in my cell, my young friend," said he, I will show you an entire work, the fruits of the thoughts and reflections of my whole life; many of them meditated over in the ruins of the Coliseum of Rome, at the foot of St. Mark's column at Venice, and on the borders of the Arno at Florence, little imagining at the time that they would be arranged in order within the walls of the Château d'If. The work I speak of is called A Treatise on the Practicability of forming Italy into one General Monarchy, and will make one large quarto volume."

"And on what have you written this?"

"On two of my shirts. I invented a preparation that makes linen as smooth and as easy to write on as parchment."

"You are, then, a chemist?"

"Somewhat; I knew Lavoisier, and was the intimate friend of Cabanis."

"But for such a work you must have needed books—had you any?"

"I possessed nearly five thousand volumes in my library at Rome; but, after reading them over many times, I found out that with one hundred and fifty well-chosen books a man possesses a complete analysis of all human knowledge, or at least all that is either useful or desirable to be acquainted with. I devoted three years of my life to reading and studying these one hundred and fifty volumes, till I knew them nearly by heart; so that since I have been in prison a very slight effort of memory has enabled me to recall their contents as readily as though the pages were open before me. I could recite