Page:The Count of Monte-Cristo (1887 Volume 5).djvu/228

208 "I raised the stones, and found"

"A rope-ladder and some tools?"

"How do you know that?" asked the guide, in astonishment.

"I do not know I only guess it, because these sort of things are generally found in prisoners' cells."

"Yes, sir, a rope-ladder and tools."

"And have you them yet?"

"No, sir; I sold them to visitors, who considered them great curiosities; but I have still something left."

"What is it?" asked the count, impatiently.

"A sort of book, written upon strips of cloth."

"Go and fetch it, my good fellow; and if it be what I hope, rest satisfied."

"I will run for it, sir."

The guide went out; the count knelt down by the side of the bed, which death had converted into an altar.

"Oh, second father!" he exclaimed, "thou who hast given me liberty, knowledge, riches; thou who, like beings of a superior order to ourselves, couldst understand the science of good and evil; if, in the depths of the tomb, there still remain something within us which can respond to the voice of those who are left on earth; if, in the transformation undergone by the body, the soul ever revisit the places where we have lived much and suffered much, then, noble heart!—sublime soul! then I conjure thee, by the paternal love thou didst bear me, by the filial obedience I vowed to thee, grant me some sign, some revelation! Remove from me the remains of a doubt, which, if it changed not to conviction must become remorse!" The count bowed his head, and clasped his hands together.

"Here, sir," said a voice behind him.

Monte-Cristo shuddered, and rose. The concierge held out the strips of cloth upon which the Abbé Faria had spread the stores of his mind. The manuscript was the great work by the Abbé Faria upon the kingdom of Italy. The count seized it hastily, and his eyes immediately fell upon the epigraph, and he read:

"Thou shalt tear out the dragons' teeth, and shalt trample the lions under foot, saith the Lord."

"Ah!" he exclaimed, "here is my answer. Thanks, father, thanks."

And feeling in his pocket, he took thence a small pocket-book, which contained ten bank-notes, each of one thousand francs.

"Here," he said, "take this pocket-book."

"Do you give it to me?"

"Yes; but only on condition that you will not open it till I am gone"; and placing the treasure he had just found in his breast, which was more