Mercédès and the old man rushed to meet him at the door. He was deadly pale.
"What news?" exclaimed a general burst of voices.
"Alas! my friends," replied M. Morrel, with a shake of his head, "the thing has assumed a more serious aspect than I expected."
"Oh! indeed — — ndeed, sir, he is innocent!" sobbed forth Mercédès.
"That I believe!" answered M. Morrel; "but still he is charged———"
"With what?" inquired the elder Dantès.
"With being a Bonapartist agent!" Many of my readers may be able to recollect how formidable such an accusation became in the period at which our story is dated.
A cry escaped the lips of Mercédès, while the old father fell into a chair.
"Ah, Danglars!" whispered Caderousse, "you have deceived me — the trick has been played; but I cannot suffer a poor old man or an innocent girl to die of grief. I will tell them all."
"Be silent, you simpleton!" cried Danglars, grasping him by the arm, "or I will not answer even for your own safety. Who can tell whether Dantès be innocent or guilty? The vessel did touch at Elba, where he quitted it, and passed a whole day at Porto-Ferrajo. Now, should any letters of a compromising character be found upon him, will it not be taken for granted that all who uphold him are his accomplices?"
With the rapid instinct of selfishness, Caderousse readily perceived the solidity of this mode of reasoning; he gazed with eyes of grief and terror on Danglars, and then for every step forward he had taken, he took two back.
"Let us, then, wait!" said he.
"To be sure!" answered Danglars. "Let us wait, by all means. If he be innocent, of course he will be set at liberty; if guilty, why, it is no use involving ourselves in his conspiracy."
"Then let us go hence. I cannot stay longer here."
"With all my heart!" replied Danglars, but too pleased to find a partner in his retreat. "Come, let us leave them to get out of it as they best can."
After their departure, Fernand, who had now again become the support of Mercedes, led the girl back to the Catalans, while some friends of Dantes conducted his father, nearly lifeless, to the Allées de Meilhan.
The rumor of Edmond's arrest as a Bonapartist agent was not slow in circulating throughout the city.
"Could you ever have credited such a thing, my dear Danglars?" asked M. Morrel, as he overtook his supercargo and Caderousse, on his
