the sentiment of maternity is the most holy of all; and the good fortune
which occurred to me, monsieur, might have enabled you to dispense with
a duty which, in its discharge, confers an undoubtedly great honor; for
I am aware that M. de Villefort is not usually lavish of the favor which
he now bestows on me,--a favor which, however estimable, is unequal
to the satisfaction which I have in my own consciousness." Villefort,
astonished at this reply, which he by no means expected, started like a
soldier who feels the blow levelled at him over the armor he wears, and
a curl of his disdainful lip indicated that from that moment he noted in
the tablets of his brain that the Count of Monte Cristo was by no
means a highly bred gentleman. He glanced around, in order to seize
on something on which the conversation might turn, and seemed to fall
easily on a topic. He saw the map which Monte Cristo had been examining
when he entered, and said, "You seem geographically engaged, sir? It is
a rich study for you, who, as I learn, have seen as many lands as are
delineated on this map."
"Yes, sir," replied the count; "I have sought to make of the human
race, taken in the mass, what you practice every day on individuals--a
physiological study. I have believed it was much easier to descend from
the whole to a part than to ascend from a part to the whole. It is
an algebraic axiom, which makes us proceed from a known to an unknown
quantity, and not from an unknown to a known; but sit down, sir, I beg
of you."
Monte Cristo pointed to a chair, which the procureur was obliged to take
the trouble to move forwards himself, while the count merely fell back
into his own, on which he had been kneeling when M. Villefort entered.
Thus the count was halfway turned towards his visitor, having his back
towards the window, his elbow resting on the geographical chart which
furnished the theme of conversation for the moment,--a conversation
which assumed, as in the case of the interviews with Danglars and
Morcerf, a turn analogous to the persons, if not to the situation. "Ah,
you philosophize," replied Villefort, after a moment's silence, during
which, like a wrestler who encounters a powerful opponent, he took
breath; "well, sir, really, if, like you, I had nothing else to do, I
should seek a more amusing occupation."
"Why, in truth, sir," was Monte Cristo's reply, "man is but an ugly
caterpillar for him who studies him through a solar microscope; but you
said, I think, that I had nothing else to do. Now, really, let me ask,
sir, have you?--do you believe you have anything to do? or to speak in
plain terms, do you really think that what you do deserves being called
anything?"
Villefort's astonishment redoubled at this second thrust so forcibly
made by his strange adversary. It was a long time since the magistrate
had heard a paradox so strong, or rather, to say the truth more exactly,
it was the first time he had ever heard of it. The procureur exerted
himself to reply. "Sir," he responded, "you are a stranger, and I
believe you say yourself that a portion of your life has been spent
in Oriental countries, so you are not aware how human justice, so
expeditious in barbarous countries, takes with us a prudent and
well-studied course."
"Oh, yes--yes, I do, sir; it is the pede claudo of the ancients. I know
all that, for it is with the justice of all countries especially that I
have occupied myself--it is with the criminal procedure of all nations
that I have compared natural justice, and I must say, sir, that it is
the law of primitive nations, that is, the law of retaliation, that I
have most frequently found to be according to the law of God."
"If this law were adopted, sir," said the procureur, "it would greatly
simplify our legal codes, and in that case the magistrates would not (as
you just observed) have much to do."
"It may, perhaps, come to this in time," observed Monte Cristo; "you
know that human inventions march from the complex to the simple, and
simplicity is always perfection."
"In the meanwhile," continued the magistrate, "our codes are in full
force, with all their contradictory enactments derived from Gallic
customs, Roman laws, and Frank usages; the knowledge of all which,
you will agree, is not to be acquired without extended labor; it needs
tedious study to acquire this knowledge, and, when acquired, a strong
power of brain to retain it."
"I agree with you entirely, sir; but all that even you know with respect
to the French code, I know, not only in reference to that code, but as
regards the codes of all nations. The English, Turkish, Japanese, Hindu
laws, are as familiar to me as the French laws, and thus I was right,
when I said to you, that relatively (you know that everything is
relative, sir)--that relatively to what I have done, you have very
little to do; but that relatively to all I have learned, you have yet a
great deal to learn."
"But with what motive have you learned all this?" inquired Villefort,
in astonishment. Monte Cristo smiled. "Really, sir," he observed, "I see
that in spite of the reputation which you have acquired as a superior
man, you look at everything from the material and vulgar view of
society, beginning with man, and ending with man--that is to say, in
the most restricted, most narrow view which it is possible for human
understanding to embrace."
"Pray, sir, explain yourself," said Villefort, more and more astonished,
"I really do--not--understand you--perfectly."
"I say, sir, that with the eyes fixed on the social organization of
nations, you see only the springs of the machine, and lose sight of
the sublime workman who makes them act; I say that you do not recognize
before you and around you any but those office-holders whose commissions
have been signed by a minister or king; and that the men whom God has
put above those office-holders, ministers, and kings, by giving them a
mission to follow out, instead of a post to fill--I say that they
escape your narrow, limited field of observation. It is thus that human
weakness fails, from its debilitated and imperfect organs. Tobias took
the angel who restored him to light for an ordinary young man. The
nations took Attila, who was doomed to destroy them, for a conqueror
similar to other conquerors, and it was necessary for both to reveal
their missions, that they might be known and acknowledged; one was
compelled to say, 'I am the angel of the Lord'; and the other, 'I am
the hammer of God,' in order that the divine essence in both might be
revealed."
"Then," said Villefort, more and more amazed, and really supposing he
was speaking to a mystic or a madman, "you consider yourself as one of
those extraordinary beings whom you have mentioned?"
"And why not?" said Monte Cristo coldly.
"Your pardon, sir," replied Villefort, quite astounded, "but you will
excuse me if, when I presented myself to you, I was unaware that I
should meet with a person whose knowledge and understanding so far
surpass the usual knowledge and understanding of men. It is not usual
with us corrupted wretches of civilization to find gentlemen like
yourself, possessors, as you are, of immense fortune--at least, so it
is said--and I beg you to observe that I do not inquire, I merely
repeat;--it is not usual, I say, for such privileged and wealthy
beings to waste their time in speculations on the state of society, in
philosophical reveries, intended at best to console those whom fate has
disinherited from the goods of this world."
"Really, sir," retorted the count, "have you attained the eminent
situation in which you are, without having admitted, or even without
having met with exceptions? and do you never use your eyes, which must
have acquired so much finesse and certainty, to divine, at a glance, the
kind of man by whom you are confronted? Should not a magistrate be not
merely the best administrator of the law, but the most crafty expounder
of the chicanery of his profession, a steel probe to search hearts, a
touchstone to try the gold which in each soul is mingled with more or
less of alloy?"
"Sir," said Villefort, "upon my word, you overcome me. I really never
heard a person speak as you do."
"Because you remain eternally encircled in a round of general
conditions, and have never dared to raise your wings into those upper
spheres which God has peopled with invisible or exceptional beings."
"And you allow then, sir, that spheres exist, and that these marked and
invisible beings mingle amongst us?"
"Why should they not? Can you see the air you breathe, and yet without
which you could not for a moment exist?"
"Then we do not see those beings to whom you allude?"
"Yes, we do; you see them whenever God pleases to allow them to assume a
material form. You touch them, come in contact with them, speak to them,
and they reply to you."
"Ah," said Villefort, smiling, "I confess I should like to be warned
when one of these beings is in contact with me."
"You have been served as you desire, monsieur, for you were warned just
now, and I now again warn you."
"Then you yourself are one of these marked beings?"
"Yes, monsieur, I believe so; for until now, no man has found himself in
a position similar to mine. The dominions of kings are limited either
by mountains or rivers, or a change of manners, or an alteration of
language. My kingdom is bounded only by the world, for I am not an
Italian, or a Frenchman, or a Hindu, or an American, or a Spaniard--I am
a cosmopolite. No country can say it saw my birth. God alone knows what
country will see me die. I adopt all customs, speak all languages. You
believe me to be a Frenchman, for I speak French with the same facility
and purity as yourself. Well, Ali, my Nubian, believes me to be an Arab;
Bertuccio, my steward, takes me for a Roman; Haidee, my slave, thinks
me a Greek. You may, therefore, comprehend, that being of no country,
asking no protection from any government, acknowledging no man as
my brother, not one of the scruples that arrest the powerful, or the
obstacles which paralyze the weak, paralyzes or arrests me. I have only
two adversaries--I will not say two conquerors, for with perseverance I
subdue even them,--they are time and distance. There is a third, and the
most terrible--that is my condition as a mortal being. This alone can
stop me in my onward career, before I have attained the goal at which
I aim, for all the rest I have reduced to mathematical terms. What men
call the chances of fate--namely, ruin, change, circumstances--I have
fully anticipated, and if any of these should overtake me, yet it
will not overwhelm me. Unless I die, I shall always be what I am, and
therefore it is that I utter the things you have never heard, even from
the mouths of kings--for kings have need, and other persons have fear
of you. For who is there who does not say to himself, in a society as
incongruously organized as ours, 'Perhaps some day I shall have to do
with the king's attorney'?"
"But can you not say that, sir? The moment you become an inhabitant of
France, you are naturally subjected to the French law."
"I know it sir," replied Monte Cristo; "but when I visit a country I
begin to study, by all the means which are available, the men from whom
I may have anything to hope or to fear, till I know them as well as,
perhaps better than, they know themselves. It follows from this, that
the king's attorney, be he who he may, with whom I should have to deal,
would assuredly be more embarrassed than I should."
"That is to say," replied Villefort with hesitation, "that human nature
being weak, every man, according to your creed, has committed faults."
"Faults or crimes," responded Monte Cristo with a negligent air.
"And that you alone, amongst the men whom you do not recognize as your
brothers--for you have said so," observed Villefort in a tone that
faltered somewhat--"you alone are perfect."
"No, not perfect," was the count's reply; "only impenetrable, that's
all. But let us leave off this strain, sir, if the tone of it is
displeasing to you; I am no more disturbed by your justice than are you
by my second-sight."
"No, no,--by no means," said Villefort, who was afraid of seeming
to abandon his ground. "No; by your brilliant and almost sublime
conversation you have elevated me above the ordinary level; we no longer
talk, we rise to dissertation. But you know how the theologians in their
collegiate chairs, and philosophers in their controversies, occasionally
say cruel truths; let us suppose for the moment that we are theologizing
in a social way, or even philosophically, and I will say to you, rude
as it may seem, 'My brother, you sacrifice greatly to pride; you may be
above others, but above you there is God.'"
"Above us all, sir," was Monte Cristo's response, in a tone and with
an emphasis so deep that Villefort involuntarily shuddered. "I have my
pride for men--serpents always ready to threaten every one who would
pass without crushing them under foot. But I lay aside that pride before
God, who has taken me from nothing to make me what I am."
"Then, count, I admire you," said Villefort, who, for the first time
in this strange conversation, used the aristocratic form to the unknown
personage, whom, until now, he had only called monsieur. "Yes, and I
say to you, if you are really strong, really superior, really pious,
or impenetrable, which you were right in saying amounts to the
same thing--then be proud, sir, for that is the characteristic of
