Page:The Count of Monte-Cristo (1887 Volume 2).djvu/332

314 "Was ordered to remain at Martigues."

"'Tis well! I wish you to write from time to time to the captains in charge of the two vessels so as to keep them on the alert."

"And the steamboat! Has your excellency any orders to give respecting her?"

"She is at Chalons, is she not?"

"She is, my lord."

"The directions I gave you for the other two vessels may suffice for the steamboat also."

"I understand, my lord, and will punctually fulfill your commands."

"When you have purchased the estate I desire, I mean to establish constant relays of horses at ten leagues' distance one from the other along the northern and southern road."

"Your excellency may fully depend upon my zeal and fidelity in all things."

The count gave an approving smile, descended the terrace steps, and sprang into his carriage, which, drawn by the beautiful animals at a brisk trot, stopped only before the hotel of the banker.

Danglars was engaged at that moment, presiding over a railroad committee. But the meeting was nearly concluded when the name of his visitor was announced. As the count's title sounded on his ear he rose, and addressing his colleagues, many of whom were members of either Chamber, he said:

"Gentlemen, I must pray you to excuse my quitting you thus; but a most ridiculous circumstance has occurred, which is this,—Thomson and French, the bankers at Rome, have sent to me a certain Count of Monte-Cristo, and have opened for him an unlimited credit. I confess this is the drollest thing I have ever met with in the course of my foreign transactions, and you may suppose it has roused my curiosity; I took the trouble this morning to call on the pretended count; real counts nowadays are not famous for their riches. But, my fine gentle man 'did not receive visitors!' He gives himself the airs of a prince or a beauty. The house in the Champs Elysees is his own property, and certainly it was very decently kept up. But," pursued Danglars, with one of his sinister smiles, "an unlimited credit calls for something like caution on the part of the banker to whom that order is given. I am very anxious to see the man. I suspect a hoax, but the good folks knew but little whom they had to deal with. 'They laugh best who laugh last!'"

Having delivered himself of this address, uttered with an energy that left him almost out of breath, the baron bowed to the party and withdrew to his drawing-room, whose fittings-up of white and gold had