They deposited the supposed corpse on the bier. Edmond stiffened himself in order to play his part of a dead man, and then the party, lighted by the man with the torch, who went first, ascended the stairs. Suddenly he felt the fresh and sharp night air, and Dantès recognized the Mistral. It was a sudden sensation, at the same time replete with delight and agony.
The bearers advanced twenty paces, then stopped, putting their bier down on the ground. One of them went away, and Dantès heard his shoes on the pavement.
"Where am I then?" he asked himself.
"Really, he is by no means a light load!" said the other bearer, sitting on the edge of the hand-barrow.
Dantès' first impulse was to escape, but fortunately he did not attempt it.
"Light me, you sir," said the other bearer, "or I shall not find what I am looking for."
The man with the torch complied, although not asked in the most polite terms.
"What can he be looking for?" thought Edmond. "The spade, perhaps."
An exclamation of satisfaction indicated that the grave-digger had found the object of his search. "Here it is at last," he said, "not without some trouble, though."
"Yes," was the answer, "but it has lost nothing by waiting."
As he said this, the man came toward Edmond, who heard a heavy and sounding substance laid down beside him, and at the same moment a cord was fastened round his feet with sudden and painful violence.
"Well, have you tied the knot?" inquired the grave-digger, who was looking on.
"Yes, and pretty tight too, I can tell you," was the answer.
"Move on, then." And the bier was lifted once more, and they proceeded.
They advanced fifty paces farther, and then stopped to open a door, then went forward again. The noise of the waves dashing against the rocks on which the chateau is built reached Dantès' ear distinctly as they progressed.
"Bad weather!" observed one of the bearers; "not a pleasant night for a dip in the sea."
"Why, yes, the abbé runs a chance of being wet," said the other; and then there was a burst of brutal laughter.
Dantès did not comprehend the jest, but his hair stood erect on his head.
