World Literature Classics Library: The Count of Monte Cristo

Chapter 116 Dinner Party (2)
"Who can know what the instinctive feeling is?" said Monte Cristo. "Aren't there places where people can't help but breathe a gloomy cool air? Why? No one can say. Maybe it's because of various things. Reminiscences ensue, perhaps at the whim of the imagination, and we are tempted to find ourselves in some other time, some other place, which in fact may have nothing to do with our real time and place. Thoughts abound , Turning back and forth, I can't help but think of the Marquise of Ganges, a lady known for her beauty in French history (1635-1667), who was murdered by her husband's brother when I saw this room. Or Destimo The heroine of Shakespeare's "Othello", whose husband Othello strangled her to death because of her credulous slander. Oh, where did this go? Now that dinner is over, I might as well show you Well, then we'll go down to the garden and have a cup of coffee, and we'll have to enjoy the view after dinner." Having finished speaking, Monte Cristo glanced at his guests to see what they meant.At this moment, Madame de Villefort stood up, and Monte Cristo also stood up, and the guests rose one after another.For a moment, Villefort and Madame Tangra remained seated as if they were nailed to their seats.The two were speechless, they just looked at each other with indifferent and desolate eyes, and asked each other.

"Did you hear that?" Madam Tanglar asked.

"I must go," replied Villefort, extending his arm.

Driven by curiosity, the guests have dispersed in the building one after another, and they feel that the visit will not be limited to the room mentioned.The old house was dilapidated, but Monte Cristo restored it into a magnificent palace.You can also take the opportunity to visit the rest of the small building.Seeing the open door, everyone stepped across it.Monte Cristo was waiting for the two late guests, and then the two men passed by, and Monte Cristo followed everyone, with a smile on his lips, but if the guests could see the smile The meaning of Monte Cristo's smile at this moment must be as creepy as the room the guests are about to visit.

Sure enough, everyone came to the suites one by one at the beginning, and saw that all the rooms were furnished in an oriental style. There were no beds in the rooms, but there were large sofas without backrests and armrests, and various kinds of sofas were placed. Cushions, and no furniture in the room, but various pipes and weapons.The large and small living rooms are hung with paintings by famous classical masters, and the walls of the ladies' lounge are all covered with Chinese silk and satin, which are not only colorful and colorful, but also extremely precious in texture.Finally, the guests arrived in the room that was already well known.

There was nothing special about this room, except that it was getting late, and there was not a ray of light in the dark room.Other houses have been renovated, but here is still dilapidated.The room was dark and shabby, which was enough to make it feel gloomy and forlorn.

"Oh!" exclaimed Madame de Villefort, "it is truly dreadful."

Mrs. Tangla muttered, as if she wanted to say something, but no one heard her clearly.The guests chattered a few words, but they all felt that there was indeed an ominous omen in this room.

"Aren't you mistaken?" said Monte Cristo. "Look, gentlemen, how queerly this bed is arranged, and how dark and bloody the hangings are. These two pastel portraits, though damp and faded, have pale lips and flustered eyes." Godless, but it's not like saying: 'I've seen it all!'”

Villefort was pale, and Madame Tangra collapsed on a bench by the fireplace.

"Oh!" said Madame de Villefort with a smile, "you are so brave to sit on this chair. Maybe the murder happened on this chair!"

Mrs. Tangla hurriedly stood up.

"And there is more," said Monte Cristo, "that is not all that is worth seeing."

"Anything else?" Debray asked, and he also saw that Mrs. Tanglar was very restless.

"Ah, yes, what else?" Tangra asked. "To tell you the truth, I don't see any big names up to now. What about you, Mr. Cavallecanti?"

"Ah!" said the major, "we have the Tower of Ucilino in Pisa, where the Italian tyrant of Pisa was imprisoned in 1288 or 1289 and died of starvation. In Ferrara we have the prison where Tasso was imprisoned (the Italian poet ( 1544-1599), imprisoned due to insanity.), in Rimini, there is a room where Francesca and Paolo both died. She had an affair with her husband's brother Paolo, both of whom were killed by Francesca's husband."

"Yes, but you have no little staircase like this," said Monte Cristo, opening a door behind the curtain. "Look at this staircase, gentlemen, and tell me what you think of it."

"The stairs are so winding and unforgiving!" said Binet, little Renaud, laughing.

"Really," said Debray, "I don't know if it's from drinking Chios, a Greek island in the Aegean Sea, rich in fruit and wine. The wine is so sad, but I do think the house is so depressing."

As for Morrel, he had been so unhappy since the mention of Valentine's dowry, and said nothing more.

"Everyone can imagine," said Monte Cristo, "that some Othello or Elder Conge, the mastermind behind the murder of the Marchioness of Conge, came down the stairs step by step on a stormy night. Holding a corpse wrapped in a cloth in both hands, trying to get rid of it quickly, if not from the eyes of God, at least to deceive the eyes of the world."

Madame Donglas fell into the arms of Villefort, almost fainting, and Villefort could barely support herself by leaning against the wall.

"Oh, my God!" cried Debray, "what is the matter with you, Madame? How pale you are!"

"What's the matter with her!" said Madame de Villefort, "for the simple reason that M. Monte Cristo tells us these horror stories, as if to frighten us to death."

"True," said Villefort, "really, count, you have frightened these two ladies."

"What's the matter with you?" Debray asked Mrs. Tanglar again in a low voice.

"It's nothing, it's nothing," said Mrs. Tangla, pulling herself together. I need some fresh air, nothing else. "

"Would you like to go downstairs to the garden to rest for a while?" Debray asked, extending his arms to Mrs. Tanglar and walking towards the secret staircase.

"No," said Mrs. Tangera, "no, I think it's better to stay here."

"Really, Madame," said Monte Cristo, "is it all right to frighten you so much?"

"It's all right, sir," said Mrs. Tangla, "but you can really speak, and you can tell the truth of the false."

"Ah, my God, yes," said Monte Cristo, with a slight smile on his face, "that was all a fancy. Why can't we imagine this room as a clean, well-regulated room?" A good wife and mother lived in a well-behaved room? This bed with crimson curtains may be the goddess Lucana, the goddess of fertility in Roman mythology. The bed I visited before. And this mysterious The stairs are just a passage for going up and down. The doctor and the nursing mother walk through here lightly, so that the mother can sleep and recuperate without being disturbed. Maybe the father came here to hold the sleeping baby..."

Although the scene depicted by Monte Cristo is warm and peaceful, Mrs. Tanglar could not calm down, but passed out completely after a groan.

"Madame Donglas is not well," stammered Villefort, "and I may have to take her back to her carriage."

"Oh, my God!" said Monte Cristo, "I forgot my bottle."

"I have it," said Madame de Villefort.She handed Monte Cristo a vial containing a red liquid, exactly like that very potent liquid which the count had made Edward smell.

"Ah!" said Monte Cristo, accepting the vial from Madame de Villefort.

"Yes," murmured Madame de Villefort, "I have tried it, as you say."

"Did you make it?"

"I suppose so."

Madame Tangra was carried into an adjoining room, and Monte Cristo dropped a drop of the red liquid on her lips, and she instantly regained consciousness. "Oh!" said Madame Tanglars, "this dream is terrible!" Villefort squeezed her wrist hard to remind her that it was not a dream.At this time everyone turned to Mr. Tangra, but he didn't like this kind of poetic reverie very much. He had already gone downstairs to the garden to talk with old Mr. Cavalle Conti about the construction of the railway plan from Livorno to Florence.Monte Cristo seemed very sorry. He took Mrs. Tangra's arm and accompanied her to the garden. He saw Mr. Tangra drinking coffee between the Cavalleconti and his son.

"To be honest, Madame," said Monte Cristo, "have I frightened you?"

"No, sir, but you know we are in different moods, and things have different impressions on us."

Villefort smiled reluctantly. "So, you know," he said, "it is enough to make a hypothesis, to speak of a hallucination..."

"Well!" said Monte Cristo, "believe it or not, I have no doubts of my own accord that a murder took place in this building."

"Please note," said Madame de Villefort, "that the prosecutor is with us."

"Well," said Monte Cristo, "since everyone is here, I shall take this opportunity to make a report."

"You reported it?" said Villefort.

"Yes, and there is evidence."

"It's just so much fun," said Debray, "and it's the perfect after-dinner diversion for us, if there's been a murder."

"There has been a murder," said Monte Cristo. "Come here, gentlemen, please come too, M. de Villefort. If it is a report, it must be reported to the relevant authorities, so that it counts." Monte Cristo seized Villefort's body with one hand. Arms, one on Mrs. Tanglar's, and pulled the prosecutor to the bottom of the plane tree deep in the shadows.The rest of the guests followed suit one after another. "Look," said Monte Cristo, "here, right here," he tapped the ground with his foot, "in order to replace these old trees with new branches and new leaves, I ordered my men to dig up the soil here and fill it up. On loamy soil. Ah, they dug up the earth, and found a little box, or rather, a heap of iron ornaments for the box, with the skeleton of a newborn baby in the middle. I don't think that's the case. Is it a phantom?" Monte Cristo noticed that Madame Donglas' arm had become stiff and immobile, while Villefort's wrist was trembling.

"A newborn baby?" Debray repeated. "My boy, I see a serious problem."

"That's right!" Chateau-Renoir said, "What I said just now is not wrong. I said that houses are the same as people, they have souls and faces, and what the internal organs are like, what will be on the face The reason why this house is so depressed is because of the eternal hatred, and the reason for the eternal hatred is because there is a murder case hidden in the house."

"Oh! who said it was a murder?" said Villefort, summoning up the last of his courage.

"What? A baby buried alive in a garden is not murder?" cried Monte Cristo. "Then what is it, Monsieur Prosecutor?"

"But who said babies were buried alive?"

"If it's a dead baby, why is it buried here? This garden has never been a cemetery."

"What's the penalty for infanticide in France?" Major Cavalle-Conti asked ignorantly.

"Oh, my God! It's head-off."

"Ah, he's going to be beheaded," Kaval-Conti said.

"I suppose so, don't you, M. de Villefort?" asked Monte Cristo.

"Yes, Monsieur Comte," answered Villefort, in a voice that was hardly human.

Monte Cristo saw that the scene he had carefully planned was as far as the two could now endure, and he felt that enough was enough to end it. "Oh, gentlemen, coffee, please," he said, "I think you all forgot your coffee." He led his guests to a table in the middle of the lawn.

"To tell you the truth, Mr. Earl," said Mrs. Donglas, "I am ashamed to admit that I am so weak, but these terrible stories have made my heart shudder, and I must ask you to take care of me. I will sit and drink." When she was done, she plopped down on a chair.

Monte Cristo bowed to her, and came to Madame de Villefort. "I think Mrs. Tangla needs to use your smelling bottle." He said.

Before Madame de Villefort came to her friend, the prosecutor approached Madame Tangra and said, "I must have a talk with you."

"When?"

"tomorrow."

"Where?"

"Go to my study... If you want, it's the procuratorate. That place is the safest."

"I will go." At this moment, Madame de Villefort came over. "Thank you, my dear friend," said Mrs. Tangla with a forced smile. "There is nothing wrong. I feel much better now."

(End of this chapter)