Page:The Count of Monte-Cristo (1887 Volume 4).djvu/180

 "You annoyed, count?" said Beauchamp; "and by what?"

"Pardieu! you think very lightly of it; I should like to see you with an indictment preparing in your house."

"What indictment?"

"The one M. de Villefort is preparing against my amiable assassin—some brigand escaped from the galleys apparently."

"True," said Beauchamp; "I saw it in the paper. Who is this Caderousse?"

"Some provincial, it appears. M. de Villefort heard of him at Marseilles, and M. Danglars recollects having seen him. Consequently, M. le Procureur is very active in the affair, and the prefect of police very much interested; and, thanks to that interest, for which I am very grateful, they send me all the robbers of Paris and the neighborhood, under pretense of their being Caderousse's murderers; so that in three months, if this continue, every robber and assassin in France will have the plan of my house at his fingers' ends. Therefore, I am resolved to desert them and to go to some remote corner of the earth, and shall be happy if you will accompany me, viscount."

"Willingly."

"Then it is settled?"

"Yes; but where?"

"I have told you, where the air is pure, where every sound soothes, where one is sure to be humbled, however proud may be his nature. I love that humiliation, I, who am master of the universe, as was Augustus."

"But where are you really going?"

"To sea, viscount; to the sea—I am a sailor. I was rocked when an infant in the arms of old Ocean, and on the bosom of the beautiful Amphitrite; I have sported with the green mantle of the one and the azure robe of the other; I love the sea as a mistress, and pine if I do not often see her."

"Let us go, count."

"To the sea?"

"Yes."

"You accept my proposal?"

"I do."

"Well, viscount, there will be in my court-yard this evening a good traveling britska, with four post-horses, in which one may rest as in a bed. M. Beauchamp, it holds four very well; will you accompany us?"

"Thank you, I have just returned from the sea."

"What! you have been to the sea?"

"Yes; I have just made a little excursion to the Borromées Islands."

"What of that? come with us," said Albert.