Page:The Count of Monte-Cristo (1887 Volume 2).djvu/164

146 "Yes."

Albert reflected. "Ah!" replied he, sighing, "that is not very surprising; I have been more than a year absent from Paris, and my clothes are of a most antiquated cut; the count takes me for a provincial. The first opportunity you have, undeceive him, I beg, and tell him I am nothing of the kind."

Franz smiled; an instant after, the count entered. "I am now quite at your service, gentlemen," said he. "The carriage is going one way to the Piazza del Popolo, and we will go another; and, if you please, by the Corso. Take some more of these cigars, M. de Morcerf."

"With all my heart," returned Albert; "these Italian cigars are hor rible. When you come to Paris I will return all this."

"I will not refuse; I intend going there soon, and since you allow me, I will pay you a visit. Come! we have not any time to lose, it is half-past twelve—let us set off!"

All three descended: the coachman received his master's orders, and drove down the Via del Babuino, while the three gentlemen walked toward the Piazza d'Espagna and the Via Frattina, which led directly between the Fiano and Rospoli Palaces.

All Franz's attention was directed toward the windows of that last palace, for he had not forgotten the signal agreed upon between the man in the mantle and the Transteverino.

"Which are your windows?" asked he of the count, with as much indifference as he could assume.

"The three last," returned he, with a negligence evidently unaffected, for he could not imagine with what intention the question was put.

Franz glanced rapidly toward the three windows. The side windows were hung with yeUow damask, and the centre one with white damask and a red cross. The man in the mantle had kept his promise to the Transteverino, and there could now be no doubt that he was the count.

The three windows were still untenanted. Preparations were making on. every side; chairs were placed, scaffolds were raised, and windows were hung with flags. The masks could not appear; the carriages could not move about till the clock struck; but the masks were visible behind the windows, the carriages, and behind the doors.

Franz, Albert, and the count continued to descend the Corso; as they approached the Piazza del Popolo, the crowd became more dense, and above the heads of the multitude two objects were visible; the obelisk, surmounted by a cross, which marks the center of the place, and before the obelisk, at the point where the three streets, del Babuino, del Corso,