The Count of Monte-Cristo/Volume 1/Chapter 16
CHAPTER XVI
A LEARNED ITALIAN
USHING toward the friend so long and ardently desired, Dantès almost carried him toward the window, in order to obtain a better view of his features by the aid of the imperfect light that struggled through the grating of the prison.
He was a man of small stature, with hair blanched rather by suffering and sorrow than years. A deep-set, penetrating eye, almost buried beneath the thick gray eyebrow, and a long (and still black) beard reaching down to his breast. The meagerness of his features, furrowed with deep wrinkles, joined to the bold outline of his strongly marked features announced a man more accustomed to exercise his moral faculties than his physical strength. Large drops of perspiration were now standing on his brow, while his garments hung about him in such rags as to render it useless to form a guess as to their primitive description.
The stranger might have numbered sixty or sixty-five years; but a certain vigor in his movements made it probable that he was aged more from captivity than the course of time. He received the enthusiastic greeting of his young acquaintance with evident pleasure, as though his chilled affections seemed rekindled and invigorated by his contact with one so ardent. He thanked him with grateful cordiality for his kindly welcome, although he must at that moment have been suffering bitterly to find another dungeon where he had fondly reckoned on finding liberty.
"Let us first see," said he, "whether it is possible to remove the traces of my entrance here — our future comforts depend upon our jailers being entirely ignorant of it."
Advancing to the opening, he stooped and raised the stone easily in spite of its weight; then, fitting it into its place, he said:
"You removed this stone very carelessly; but I suppose you had no tools to aid you."
"Why," exclaimed Dantés, with astonishment, "do you possess any?"
"I made myself some; and, with the exception of a file, I have all that are necessary—a chisel, pincers, and lever."
"Oh, how I should like to see these products of your industry and patience."
"Well, in the first place, here is my chisel."
So saying, he displayed a sharp, strong blade, with a handle made of beechwood.
"And with what did you contrive to make that?" inquired Dantès.
"With one of the clamps of my bedstead; and this very tool has sufficed me to hollow out the road by which I came hither, a distance of at least fifty feet."
"Fifty feet!" reëchoed Dantès, with a species of terror.
"Do not speak so loud, young man — don't speak so loud. It frequently occurs in a state prison like this that persons are stationed outside the doors of the cells purposely to overhear the conversation of the prisoners."
"But they believe I am shut up alone here."
"That makes no difference."
"And you say that you penetrated a length of fifty feet to arrive here?"
"I do; that is about the distance that separates your chamber from mine; only, unfortunately, I did not curve aright; for want of the necessary geometrical instruments to calculate my scale of proportion, instead of taking an ellipsis of forty feet, I have made fifty. I expected, as I told you, to reach the outer wall, pierce through it, and throw myself into the sea; I have, however, kept along the corridor on which your chamber opens, instead of going beneath it. My labor is all in vain, for I find that the corridor looks into a court-yard filled with soldiers."
"That's true," said Dantès; "but the corridor you speak of only bounds one side of my cell; there are three others — do you know anything of their situation?"
"This one is built against the solid rock, and it would take ten experienced miners, duly furnished with the requisite tools, as many years to perforate it. This adjoins the lower part of the governor's apartments, and were we to work our way through, we should only get into some lock-up cellars, where we must necessarily be recaptured. The fourth and last side of your cell looks out — looks out — stop a minute; now, where does it open to?"
The side which thus excited curiosity was the one in which was fixed the loop-hole by which the light was admitted into the chamber. This loop-hole, which gradually diminished as it approached the outside, until only an opening through which a child could not have passed, was, for better security, furnished with three iron bars, so as to quiet all apprehensions even in the mind of the most suspicious jailer as to the possibility of a prisoner's escape. As the stranger finished his self-put question, he dragged the table beneath the window.
"Climb up," said he to Dantès.
The young man obeyed, mounted on the table, and, divining the intentions of his companion, placed his back securely against the wall, and held out both hands. The stranger, whom as yet Dantès knew only by his assumed title of the number of his cell, sprang up with an agility by no means to be expected in a person of his years, and, light and steady as the bound of a cat or a lizard, climbed from the table to the outstretched hands of Dantès, and from them to his shoulders; then, almost doubling himself in two, for the ceiling of the dungeon prevented his holding himself erect, he managed to slip his head through the top bar of the window, so as to be able to command a perfect view from top to bottom.
An instant afterward he hastily drew back his head, saying, "I thought so!" and, sliding from the shoulders of Dantès as dexterously as he had ascended, he nimbly leaped from the table to the ground.
"What made you say those words?" asked the young man, in an anxious tone, in his turn descending from the table.
The elder prisoner appeared to meditate. "Yes," said he at length, "it is so. This side of your chamber looks out upon a kind of open gallery, where patrols are continually passing, and sentries keep watch day and night."
"Are you sure of that?"
"Certain. I saw the soldier's shako and the top of his musket; that made me draw in my head so quickly, for I was fearful he might also see me."
"Well?" inquired Dantès.
"You perceive then the utter impossibility of escaping through your dungeon?"
"Then———" pursued the young man, eagerly.
"Then," answered the elder prisoner, "the will of God be done!" And as the old man slowly pronounced those words, an air of profound resignation spread itself over his care-worn countenance.
Dantès gazed on the individual who could thus philosophically resign hopes so long and ardently nourished, with an astonishment mingled with admiration.
"Tell me, I entreat of you, who and what you are?" said he at length.
"Willingly," answered the stranger; "if, indeed, you feel any curiosity now that I am powerless to aid you."
"Say not so; you can console and support me by the strength of your own powerful mind."
The stranger smiled a melancholy smile.
"Then listen," said he. "I am the Abbé Faria, and have been imprisoned in this Château d'If since the year 1811; previously to which I had been confined for three years in the fortress of Fenestrelle. In the year 1811 I was transferred from Piedmont to France. It was at this period I learned that the destiny which seemed subservient to every wish formed by Napoleon had bestowed on him a son, named king of Borne even in his cradle. I was very far then from expecting the change you have just informed me of; namely, that four years afterward, this colossus of power would be overthrown. Then, who reigns in France at this moment — Napoleon II.?"
"No, Louis XVIII.!"
"The brother of Louis XVI.! How inscrutable are the ways of Providence — for what great and mysterious purpose has it pleased Heaven to abase the man once so elevated, and raise up the individual so cast down?"
Dantès' whole attention was riveted on the man who could thus forget his own misfortunes while occupying himself with the destinies of others.
"But so it was," continued he, "in England. After Charles I, came Cromwell; to Cromwell succeeded Charles II., and then James II., who was succeeded by some son-in-law or relation, who became king; then new concessions to the people, a constitution, and liberty! Ah, my friend!" said the abbé, turning toward Dantès, and surveying him with the kindling gaze of a prophet, "mark what I say! You are young, and may see my words come to pass, that such will be the case with France — you will see it, I say."
"Probably, if ever I get out of prison!"
"True," replied Faria, "we are prisoners; but I forget this sometimes, and there are even moments when my mental vision transports me beyond these walls, and I fancy myself at liberty."
"But wherefore are you here?"
"Because in 1807 I meditated the very scheme Napoleon wished to realize in 1811; because, like Machiavel, I desired to alter the political face of Italy, and instead of allowing it to be split up into a quantity of petty principalities, each held by some weak or tyrannical ruler, I sought to form one large, compact, and powerful empire; and, lastly, because I fancied I had found my Cæsar Borgia in a crowned simpleton, who feigned to enter into my views only to betray me. It was projected equally by Alexander VI, and Clement VII., but it will never succeed now, for they attempted it fruitlessly, and Napoleon was unable to complete his work. Italy seems fated to be unlucky."
The old man uttered these last words in a tone of deep dejection, and his head fell listlessly on his breast.
To Dantès all this was perfectly incomprehensible. In the first place, he could not understand a man risking his life and liberty for such unimportant matters as the division of a kingdom; then, again, the persons referred to were wholly unknown to him. Napoleon certainly he knew something of, inasmuch as he had seen and spoken with him; but the other individuals alluded to were strangers to him even by name.
"Pray excuse my questions," said Dantès, beginning to partake of the jailer's opinion touching the state of the abbé's brain, "but are you not the priest who is considered throughout the Château d'If — to — be — ill?"
"Mad, you mean, don't you?"
"I did not like to say so," answered Dantès, smiling.
"Well, then," resumed Faria, with a bitter smile, "let me answer your question in full, by acknowledging that I am the poor, mad prisoner of the Château d'If, for many years permitted to amuse the different visitants to the prison with what is said to be my insanity; and, in all probability, I should be promoted to the honor of making sport for the children, if such innocent beings could be found in an abode devoted like this to suffering and despair."
Dantès remained for a short time mute and motionless; at length he said:
"Then you abandon all hope of flight?"
"I perceive its utter impossibility; and I consider it impious to attempt that which the Almighty evidently does not approve."
"Nay, be not discouraged. Would it not be expecting too much to hope to succeed at your first attempt? Why not try to find an opening in another direction to that which had so unfortunately failed?"
"Alas! it shows how little notion you can have of all I have done, if you talk of beginning over again. In the first place, I was four years making the tools I possess, and have been two years scraping and digging out earth, hard as granite itself; then, what toil and fatigue has it not been to remove huge stones I should once have deemed impossible to loosen! Whole days have I passed in these Titanic efforts, considering my labor well repaid if by night-time I had contrived to carry away a square inch of this old cement, as hard as the stones themselves; then, to conceal the mass of earth and rubbish I dug up, I was compelled to break through a staircase and throw the fruits of my labor into the hollow part of it; but the well is now so completely choked up that I scarcely think it would be possible to add another handful of dust without leading to a discovery. Consider also that I fully believed I had accomplished the end and aim of my undertaking, for which I had so exactly husbanded my strength as to make it just hold out to the termination of my enterprise; and, just at the moment when I reckoned upon success, my hopes are forever dashed from me. No, I repeat again, that nothing shall induce me to renew attempts to regain my liberty which the will of God has decreed I shall lose forever."
Dantès held down his head, that his companion might not perceive that the prospect of having a companion prevented him from sympathizing as he ought with the disappointment of the prisoner.
The abbé sunk upon Edmond's bed, while Edmond himself remained standing, lost in a train of deep meditation.
Flight had never once occurred to him. There are, indeed, some things which appear so impossible that the mind does not dwell on them. To undermine the ground for fifty feet — to devote three years to a labor which, if successful, would conduct you to a precipice over hanging the sea — to plunge into the waves at a height of fifty or sixty feet — a hundred feet, perhaps — at the risk of being dashed to pieces against the rocks, should you have been fortunate enough to have escaped the balls from the sentinel's musket; and even, supposing all these perils past, then to have to swim for your life a distance of at least three miles ere you could reach the shore — were difficulties so startling and formidable that Dantès had never even dreamed of such a scheme, but resigned himself to his fate.
But the sight of an old man clinging to life with so desperate a courage gave a fresh turn to his ideas, and inspired him with new courage and energy. An instance was before him of one less adroit, as well as weaker and older, having devised a plan which nothing but an unfortunate mistake in geometrical calculation could have rendered abortive, and of having, with almost incredible patience and perseverance, contrived to provide himself with tools requisite for so unparalleled an attempt. If, then, one man had already conquered the seeming impossibility, why should not he, Dantès, also try to regain his liberty? Faria had made his way through fifty feet of the prison; Dantes resolved to penetrate through double that distance. Faria, at the age of fifty, had devoted three years to the task; he, who was but half as old, would sacrifice six. Faria, a churchman and philosopher, had not shrunk from risking his life by trying to swim a distance of three miles to reach the isles of Daume, Ratonneau, or Lemaire; should a hardy sailor, an experienced diver, like himself, shrink from a similar task; should he, who had so often for mere amusement's sake plunged to the bottom of the sea to fetch up the bright coral-branch, hesitate to swim a distance of three miles? He could do it in an hour, and how many times had he for pure pastime continued in the water for more than twice as long! At once Dantès resolved to follow the example of his companion, and to remember that what has once been done may be done again.
After continuing some time in profound meditation, the young man suddenly exclaimed, "I have found what you were in search of!"
Faria started. "Have you, indeed?" cried he, raising his head with quick anxiety; pray, let me know what it is you have discovered?"
"The corridor through which you have bored your way from the cell you occupy here, extends in the same direction as the outer gallery, does it not?"
"It does!"
"And is not above fifteen steps from it?"
"About that!"
"Well, then, I will tell you what we must do. We must pierce a side opening about the middle of the corridor, as it were the top part of a cross. This time you will lay your plans more accurately; we shall get out into the gallery you have described, kill the sentinel who guards it, and make our escape. All we require to insure success is courage, and that you possess, and strength, which I am not deficient in; as for patience, you have abundantly proved yours — you shall now see me prove mine."
"One instant, my dear friend," replied the abbe; "it is clear you do not understand the nature of the courage with which I am endowed, and what use I intend making of my strength. As for patience, I consider I have abundantly exercised that on recommencing every morning the task of the overnight, and every night beginning again the task of the day. But, then, young man (and I pray of you to give me your full attention), then I thought I could not be doing anything displeasing to the Almighty in trying to set an innocent being at liberty, — one who had committed no offense and merited not condemnation."
"And have your notions changed?" asked Dantès with much surprise; "do you think yourself more guilty in making the attempt since you have encountered me?"
"No; neither do I wish to incur guilt. Hitherto I have fancied myself merely waging war against circumstances, not men. I have thought it no sin to bore through a wall or destroy a staircase; but I cannot so easily persuade myself to pierce a heart or take away a life."
A slight movement of surprise escaped Dantès.
Is it possible," said he, "that where your liberty is at stake you can allow any such scruple to deter you from obtaining it?"
"Tell me," replied Faria, "what has hindered you from knocking down your jailer with a piece of wood torn from your bedstead, dressing yourself in his clothes, and endeavoring to escape?"
"Simply that I never thought of such a scheme," answered Dantès.
"Because," said the old man, "the natural repugnance to the commission of such a crime prevented its bare idea from occurring to you; and so it ever is with all simple and allowable things. Our natural instincts keep us from deviating from the strict line of duty. The tiger, whose nature teaches him to delight in shedding blood, needs but the organ of smelling to know when his prey is within his reach; and by following this instinct he is enabled, to measure the leap necessary to enable him to spring on his victim; but man, on the contrary, loathes the idea of blood; — not only the laws of social life, but the laws of his nature, recoil from murder."
Dantès remained confused and silent by this explanation of the thoughts which had unconsciously been working in his mind, or, rather,
soul; for there are two distinct sorts of ideas, — those that proceed from the head and those that emanate from the heart.
"Since my imprisonment," said Faria, "I have thought over all the most celebrated cases of escape recorded. Among the many that have failed, I consider there has been precipitation and haste. Those escapes that have been crowned with full success have been long meditated upon, and carefully arranged; such, for instance, as the escape of the Duke de Beaufort from the Château de Vincennes, that of the Abbé Dubuquoi from For l'Evêque, and Latude's from the Bastile; chance, too, frequently affords opportunities we should never ourselves have thought of. Let us, therefore, wait patiently for some favorable moment, and take advantage of it."
"Ah!" said Dantès, "you might well endure the tedious delay; you were constantly employed in the task you set yourself, and when weary with toil, you had your hopes to refresh and encourage you."
"I assure you," replied the old man, "I did not turn to that source for recreation or support."
"What did you do then?"
"I wrote or studied."
"Were you then permitted the use of pens, ink, and paper"
"Oh, no!" answered the abbé; "I had none but what I made for myself."
"Do you mean to tell me," exclaimed Dantès, "that you could make all those things?"
"I do, indeed, truly say so."
Dantès gazed with admiration on the abbé; some doubt, however, still lingered in his mind, which was quickly perceived by Faria.
"When you pay me a visit in my cell, my young friend," said he, I will show you an entire work, the fruits of the thoughts and reflections of my whole life; many of them meditated over in the ruins of the Coliseum of Rome, at the foot of St. Mark's column at Venice, and on the borders of the Arno at Florence, little imagining at the time that they would be arranged in order within the walls of the Château d'If. The work I speak of is called A Treatise on the Practicability of forming Italy into one General Monarchy, and will make one large quarto volume."
"And on what have you written this?"
"On two of my shirts. I invented a preparation that makes linen as smooth and as easy to write on as parchment."
"You are, then, a chemist?"
"Somewhat; I knew Lavoisier, and was the intimate friend of Cabanis."
"But for such a work you must have needed books — had you any?"
"I possessed nearly five thousand volumes in my library at Rome; but, after reading them over many times, I found out that with one hundred and fifty well-chosen books a man possesses a complete analysis of all human knowledge, or at least all that is either useful or desirable to be acquainted with. I devoted three years of my life to reading and studying these one hundred and fifty volumes, till I knew them nearly by heart; so that since I have been in prison a very slight effort of memory has enabled me to recall their contents as readily as though the pages were open before me. I could recite you the whole of Thucydides, Xenophon, Plutarch, Livy, Tacitus, Strada, Jornandes, Dante, Montaigne, Shakspere, Spinosa, Machiavel, and Bossuet. Observe, I merely quote the most important names and writers."
"You are acquainted with a variety of languages?"
"Yes, I speak five of the modern tongues, — that is to say, German, French, Italian, English, and Spanish. By the aid of ancient Greek I learned modern Greek; I don't speak it well, but I am studying it now."
"Studying!" repeated Dantès.
"Why, I made a vocabulary of the words I knew; turned, re-turned and arranged them, so as to enable me to express my thoughts through their medium. I know nearly one thousand words, which is all that is absolutely necessary, although I believe there are nearly one hundred thousand in the dictionaries. I cannot hope to be very fluent, but I certainly shall be understood; and that is all that is needed."
Stronger grew the wonder of Dantès, who almost fancied he had to do with one gifted with supernatural powers. Still hoping to find some imperfection, he added, "Then, if you were not furnished with pens, how did you manage to write the work you speak of?"
"I made myself some excellent ones, which would be universally preferred to all others if once known. You are aware what huge whitings are served to us on maigre days. Well, I selected the cartilages of the heads of these fishes, and you can scarcely imagine the delight with which I welcomed the arrival of each Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, as affording me the means of increasing my stock of pens; for I will freely confess that my historical labors have been my greatest solace and relief. While retracing the past, I forget the present; and while following the free and independent course of historical record, I cease to remember that I am a prisoner."
"But the ink," said Dantès; "how have you procured that?"
"I will tell you," replied Faria. "There was formerly a fire-place in my dungeon, but closed up long ere I became an occupant of this prison. Still, it must have been many years in use, for it was thickly covered with a coating of soot; this soot I dissolved in a portion of the wine brought to me every Sunday, and I assure you a better ink cannot be desired. For very important notes, for which closer attention is required, I have pricked one of my fingers, and written the facts claiming notice in blood."
"And when," asked Dantes, "will you show me all this?"
"Whenever you please," replied the abbé.
"Oh, then, let it be directly!" exclaimed the young man.
"Follow me, then," said the abbé, as he reentered the subterraneous passage, in which he soon disappeared, followed by Dantès.