Page:The Count of Monte-Cristo (1887 Volume 3).djvu/258

238 "Because, though I am not a baron by birth, niy real name is, at least, Danglars."

"Well, what then?"

"While his name is not Morcerf."

"How! not Morcerf?

"Not the least in the world."

"Go on!"

"I have been made a baron, so that I actually am one; he made him self a count, so that he is not one at all."

"Impossible!"

"Listen, my dear count; M. de Morcerf has been my friend, or rather my acquaintance, during the last thirty years. You know I have made the most of my arms, though I never forgot my origin."

"A proof of great humility or great pride," said Monte-Cristo.

"Well, when I was a clerk, Morcerf was a mere fisherman."

"And then he was called"

"Fernand."

"Only Fernand?"

"Fernand Mondego."

"You are sure?"

"Pardieu! I have bought enough fish of him to know his name."

"Then, why did you think of giving your daughter to him?"

"Because Fernand and Danglars, being both parvenus, both having become noble, both rich, are about equal in worth, excepting that there have been certain things mentioned of him that were never said of me."

"What?"

"Oh, nothing!"

"Ah, yes! what you tell me recalls to mind something about the name of Fernand Mondego. I have heard that name in Greece."

"In conjunction with the affairs of Ali Pacha?"

"Exactly so."

"This is the mystery," said Danglars; "I acknowledge I would have given anything to find it out."

"It would be very easy if you much wished it?"

"How so?"

"Probably you have some correspondent in Greece?"

"I should think so."

"At Janina?"

"Everywhere."

"Well, write to your correspondent in Janina, and ask him what part was played by a Frenchman named Fernand Mondego in the catastrophe of Ali Tebelin."