Page:The Count of Monte-Cristo (1887 Volume 1).djvu/301

Rh and the one that supported it, a mine similar to those formed by pioneers when they wish to spare human labor, filled it with powder, then made a fuse, by pulling threads from his handkerchief and rolling them in the powder. He lighted it and retired.

The explosion was instantaneous: the upper rock was lifted from its base by the terrific force of the powder; the lower one flew into pieces; thousands of insects escaped from the aperture Dantès had previously formed, and a huge snake, like the guardian demon of the