Page:The Count of Monte-Cristo (1887 Volume 2).djvu/299

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THE COUNT OF MONTE-CRISTO.
281

safe place in which to conceal our little treasure for the future. My mind was already made up; Benedetto could read, write, and cipher perfectly; for when the fit seized him, he learned more in a day than others in a week. My intention was to enter him as a clerk in some sea-going

Young Benedetto.

ship, and without letting him know anything of my plan, to convey him some morning on board; by this means his future treatment would depend upon his own conduct. I set off for France, after having fixed upon the plan. All our cargo was to be landed in the Gulf of Lyons; and this plan was the more difficult, since we were in 1829. The most perfect tranquillity was restored, and the vigilance of the custom-house