Page:The Count of Monte-Cristo (1887 Volume 3).djvu/285

 

ILLEFORT kept the promise he had made to Madame Danglars to endeavor to find out how the Count of Monte-Cristo had discovered the history of the house of Auteuil. He wrote the same day to M. de Boville, who, from his having been an inspector of prisons, was promoted to a high office in the police, for the information he acquired; and the latter begged two days to ascertain exactly who would be most likely to give him full particulars. At the end of the second day, Villefort received the following note:

"The person called M. le Comte de Monte-Cristo is an intimate acquaintance of Lord Wilmore, a rich foreigner, who is sometimes seen in Paris, and who is there at this moment; he is also known to the Abbé Busoni, a Sicilian priest, of high repute in the East, where he has done much good."

Villefort replied by ordering the strictest inquiries to be made respecting these two persons; his orders were executed, and the following evening he received these details:

"The abbé, who was in Paris for a month, inhabited a small house behind St. Sulpice, composed of one single story over the ground-floor: two rooms were on each floor, and he was the only tenant. The two lower rooms consisted of a dining-room, with a table, chairs, and side-board of walnut-tree, and a wainscoted parlor, painted white, without ornaments, carpet, or time-piece. It was evident the abbé limited himself to objects of strict necessity. It was true the abbé preferred the sitting-room upstairs, which, being furnished with theological books and parchments, in which he delighted to bury himself during whole months, as his valet said, was more a library than a parlor. His valet looked at the visitors through a sort of wicket, and if their countenance was unknown to him or displeased him, he replied that M. Abbé was not in Paris, an answer which satisfied most persons, because the abbé was known to be a great traveler, and absent for long periods. Besides, whether at home or not, whether in Paris or Cairo, the abbé always left something to give away, which the valet distributed through this wicket in his master's name. The other room near the library was a bedroom. A bed without curtains, four arm-chairs, and a couch, covered with yellow Utrecht velvet, composed, with a prie-Dieu, all its furniture.